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About this blog

These blogs carry various editorials, articles, and essays.

Entries in this blog

"Daring Don't" Review/Analysis

As I'm in the middle of juggling between writing a review for Series 17 of Thomas & Friends and developing notes for a Railway Series/Thomas & Friends fanfic adaptation of FIM, my review won't be so long.   Current strengths and various likes: The nerdy moment Twilight and Dash had as they explained various moments and scenes of the Daring Do canon cracked me up (and Pinkie following it clearly was a clever touch). As an out nerd, I've been on both ends of the spectrum (in in graphic
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A Possible Temporary Solution to Temporarily Stop the Forum's Lagging

This may work on your mobile devices or not, and it may not work on all browsers. I use Firefox on an iMac, but others use programs like Safari, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera, and more operate differently.   One of the very annoying glitches lately is the lagging on the forum. After loading the page, the forum will load for minutes at a time, sometimes not stopping until five minutes later. As it loads, people can't comment, check their own settings, report, add blog entries/replies thereof
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"Castle Mane-ia" Impressions

I wrote this back when it was leaked, and my impressions remain the same. Check 'em out below.   ———   What I liked: Fantastic animation. The lighting and shadowing were great, giving the characters depth and atmosphere mood. Excellent AppleDash chemistry. Not shipping, but their friendship and friendly rivalry played off each other. Chemistry at its finest. AJ, your story's actually SCARY. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Good use of continuity. No true results, but at least the box wasn't lef
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"Princess Twilight Sparkle" First Impressions

I liked it, but it's hyperbole to call it the best two-part opener in quality. Instead of dissecting good and bad only, I'll only list and partially dissect what I liked and not, although the two will overlap.   What I liked: The humor with Twilight not being able to fly. As annoying as the retcon is, it gave the spots nice humor. And at least her difficulty was solved at the end. Discord played a role in the story. He was his chaotic self and hilarious to boot. (The Aladdin reference with
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MLP:FIM fanfic AU idea: Adaptation of Thomas & Friends/The Railway Series (Two New Ideas.)

For most of my twenty-six-year life, I've been an extremely big fan of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. Initially debuted in the U.K. in 1984, it was introduced alongside the popular PBS series, Shining Time Station, in 1989. Like most American viewers during my time, Shining Time Station was the gateway to TTTE&F. For nearly thirty years, Thomas & Friends has grown from generation to generation, from the old-school, die-hard classic and newcomer fans alike.   However, the United
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Final Thoughts on the 2013 Boston Red Sox's Improbable Run to the World Series Championship

*photoshopped image courtesy of the Bleacher Report*   Ten years ago, the Boston Red Sox were five outs away from reaching their fifth Fall Classic since last winning it all in 1918. But Pedro Martinez being gassed, combined with Grady Little leaving him too longer, allowed the Yankees to come back and tie it. Three innings later, the Cowboy Up Red Sox watched Aaron *bleeping* Boone launch a walk-off home run to clinch the ALCS, marking 2003 their eighty-fifth consecutive year without a World
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From: How would you like to see the mane 6 improved in season 4?

Applejack: Involve her in episodes that aren't exclusively related to the Apple family nor have the writers fall into the trap of her being stubborn only to realize her actions at the end. Three episodes — Applebuck Season, Look Before You Sleep, The Last Roundup — are enough; any more will be overkill and a sign that DHX doesn't know how to handle her. She's a character with a mound of potential, but she hasn't been taken advantage of so much due to where she lives and how complete she already
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Pony.FM Critique: The "Hall of Fame"

A feature that will be published in the future (not in Beta 2) will be the Pony.FM "Hall of Fame," a showcase of the most high-quality music in this fandom, from people who are well-known to the unknowns. It's based off the panel system from OverClocked Remix, which uses a selections of judges who receive a song for review. Those songs that qualify are elected to the Hall of Fame, but those that don't don't get voted in.   While the intent for good quality is there, this is an idea that can li
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Friendship Is Magic Episode Re-Imagining: "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well"

An episode re-imagine of mine: The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well The "Mare-Do-Well"/superhero idea would be scrapped entirely in favor of another approach. Also, expand the moral into not just being humble in what you do, but also to not let fame get into your head. Scootaloo decide to take some time off Cutie Mark Crusading and create the Rainbow Dash Fanclub. Scootaloo would begin throwing around mail throughout Ponyville. Dash flies on by, greeting Scootaloo and asking what's up. Scootaloo han
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"Owl's Well that Ends Well" Review/Analysis (Revised)

Author's Note: This review has been revised and republished for the morning of October 11, 2013.   ———   As season one wound down, Cindy Morrow wrote her last episode until Sisterhooves Social: Owl's Well that Ends Well. For the first time, Spike was the central character in an episode, and this one details Spike's jealousy of a newcomer in the series, Owlowiscious. Altogether, the first Spike-centric episode is one gigantic clunker, ranking it one of the worst season one episodes and easily
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Twilicorn Being Included in IDW's FIM Comics: A Response

Author's Note: This is in response to IDW Comics confirming to have the Twilicorn, starting with the pirate comic arc.   ———   Conceptually, I was fine with Twilight being an alicorn if given more than enough time for her to develop into one. However, her becoming an alicorn in season three was and will always be a factually bad idea for the reasons I outlined a while back here. In order for the Twilicorn to genuinely work, Magical Mystery Cure had to be written very well enough at the least
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From: Toys Я Us scrapping 'Boys' and 'Girls' labeling for toys

In response to this:   This is fantastic news. Although I live across the pond, it doesn't alter the huge impact this change in policy is. If given and sent to the right media, then this message of gender-neutrality may force other main toy store conglomerates like FAO Schwartz and Toys R Us in other countries to pay attention, research, and possibly follow suit.   The fact of the matter is that while categorizing toys by gender market makes it more "convenient" for shoppers and brand names,
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Pony.FM Logo Concepts

In lieu of my Poniverse Logo Review, I'm laying out my concepts for the Pony.FM logo.     In keeping the theme of Poniverse, Josefin Sans Light is retained with the entire wordmark lowercase, but having pony.fm being a boring wordmark, it needs more musical personality. Something well-associated with music and musical compositions may be included.   My idea is to incorporate common anatomy from musical notes into the typography, a list that you can find here. A common example here is styl
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Poniverse Logo Review

After seeing Feld0 at BronyCon, he wondered when I was going to post my review for the Poniverse logo (both the original and revision) that I promised to publish. The following is my review.   Overview This logo's intended purpose is to integrate multiple networks into one supercommunity. "Poniverse" is a portmanteau of "pony" and "universe," so a theme of "universe" follows in the signature (the term to describe the trademark-wordmark combination). The trademark is a stylized "P" in the abst
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My BronyCon 2013 Experience

I was at BronyCon myself (my second convention ever, both BronyCons). Unlike last year, my mom came over, too. (This was her very first.) I had such a marvelous time there. The entire convention was absolutely loose. Eight thousand bronies coming into BronyCon in Baltimore, dedicated to their ponies, and having so much fun.   Some of my highlights are: How much fun everypony was having. This con had plenty of lines. In non-BronyCon lines I was on, everyone was impatient and wanted the securit
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My Thoughts on MLP:FIM's Season Four Writers

The new writers will give season four some new blood. However, I don't know their work and haven't researched them, so I have no real opinion of them.   As for the writers coming back: Meghan McCarthy: She has a very well-done, extensive résumé in the form of several popular episodes like Dragonshy, Party of One (my favorite season one episode for being so well-written and well-characterized), Lesson Zero, Sweet & Elite, A Canterlot Wedding, and so on. She's done well as a writer, but ha
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"Children of the Night" Short Review

Unlike my other reviews for the longer fan-animations and official episodes/movie, this will be short for the newest fan-animation, Children of the Night.   This is amazing work. With Snowdrop and Double Rainboom, two works that demonstrate the creativity and passion bronies have in their craft, published, Children of the Night was another highly anticipated short musical clip, and it was really worth the wait.   For one, it's very well-sung. Luna's singing voice is a bit different compared
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"My Little Pony: Equestria Girls" Review/Analysis (Revised)

Author's Note: This review has been edited and published in the main thread. If you wish to see the old review (now locked for commenting), click here. ——— My Little Pony: Equestria Girls is the semi-blockbuster for the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic franchise. The fourth generation has garnered hype and popularity since its inception on October 10, 2010, with the help of the target audience (families), market audience (families and families of little girls), and periphery demogra
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Clearing Up Friendship Is Magic's & Equestria Girls's Target Audiences

This is a mistake something so many people (myself including) make, and it's something needed to clear up. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has two market audiences: little girls for the toys, families for the animation. A market audience is an audience to attract to, and Hasbro wants to attract families and children to Friendship Is Magic.   Little girls are not Friendship Is Magic's target audience. Kids are never a target audience.   Why?   How will they get the money to buy the product o
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"My Little Pony: Equestria Girls" Review/Analysis

Warning: This review contains massive spoilers for the movie. If you don't desire to be spoiled, click the back button.   ———   My Little Pony: Equestria Girls is the semi-blockbuster for the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic franchise. The fourth generation has garnered hype and popularity since its inception on October 10, 2012, with the help of the target audience (families), market audience (families and families of little girls), and periphery demographic (everyone else — the teenager
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"MLP: Equestria Girls" Is a Developmental Nightmare

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls has been the center of controversy over the last few months off and on, starting in February and boiling over with the trailer and again with the prototype dolls. If you've followed it, I don't think I need to remind you of the drama, so I won't write it again.   For a while, I actually kept myself rather mum about it. If you wanted me to give my viewpoint for Equestria Girls, I probably would've said nothing, because I didn't have much out there except the pret
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If Equestria Girls's Trailer…

…was like this high-quality, mouth-watering, "I-wanna-buy-it!" teaser…     …instead of that lame, "I-have-no-faith-in-it" info-dump featured in the NY Times, I'd be really curious in seeing it.
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How to Design an Effective Logo (Revised)

Author's Note: Because the Poniverse Logo Contest is running until May 14, I revised my blog entry. If you want to read my old entry from last year, click here.   Logos are the little symbols, names, and/or combination of the two. They tell us what the company is, what the company stands for, and what it does. The way the logo is arranged, designed, and colorized communicates a message to the consumer; its design can actually convince someone to buy the product or (if it all goes wrong) stay a
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