Equus

Finally figuring out how to use Spotify, assuming I ever do. Spent a while searching artists to add to the library. Could be fun, I guess.

Melodic death is a huge guilty pleasure of mine if it doesn't count scattered amidst a steady diet of the heavier acts; lately have been on a big Insomnium and Gates of Ishtar/Duskfall binge. I don't usually consider my favorite band (God Dethroned) melodic death but some consider a couple of their albums to be somewhat close.

While I enjoy some things along the line of indie, folk, neofolk, ambient (especially dark ambient), classical/orchestral, and post-rock, even some very specific bluegrass acts, my main focus is on metal, and primarily the extreme side. Black, death, doom, thrash, and combinations thereof. Melodic death, folk, progressive, and some power metal as well. Most true metal with fast tempos and harsh vocals will appeal to me.

Yes, yes, yes and yes. Absolutely. Any variety or hybrid of true black or death metal is very relevant to my interests. It's sad, there used to be an awesome and very active (dozens of active members) pony metalhead group on Last.fm from 2011 to 2014, but while the group is still active on Discord to various extents (same people, different topics) I'm the only one still also in the fandom as far as I know. I know very few others from anywhere else. I kinda wanted to start a new pony+metal group somewhere, probably Discord, but I have no idea how many people would join. I would love to one day learn to play something or further develop vocal skills and join a band one day (making my own would be overly ambitious, I guess) but for now all I can do is write lyrics and lyric ideas until I can write music.

Sad thing is... despite the decline in fansites, con attendance, and interest of many in general, I'm still pretty hardcore into the show and fandom nearly seven years going, and at conventions (favorite thing to do) and whatnot, am super social and love talking with everyone. But crippling and extreme social anxiety anywhere else, having been off anxiety meds for a long time, fear of making an idiot of myself, the fear that anything I want to say has been said better by another, and legendary levels of procrastination has kept me off this awesome place to discuss things very important to me for years. I've only made a couple posts here in the last couple of years... and I'd like that to change. I'm in two dozen pony related Discord groups, even, but am too timid to post even there! Help fight my social anxiety by bombarding my inbox and reminding me to check in! Once I get into a habit of posting, I'm good, hah.

Does anyone need a room at the con hotel for Thursday thru Sunday nights? We have three in our room and are looking for a fourth to cut costs even further. Short notice, I know, but if there is interest let me know by Thursday evening if possible. Thanks!

Thank you! I shall tell her! And yus Added to the queue~

MEEP. Popping in to remind people I'm still in the process of doing 'em. In fact I've got the actual sketch done for nearly all of them, I just have to color them. That might take a while. XD More requests are fine! Likely won't get them done anytime soon but definitely keep addin' em on~

Forgive me!! It has taken ages to reply here and I feel terrible about it. October was a weird, wild, and highly stressful month, but now that it's slowed down a little I can prove the requests are still being worked on. DJ NEON, request complete, but still need to scan it in higher def. TWISTED CYCLONE, almost done, still some to go, including background and more color blending, but here is the wip More to come as I have time to finish things. ALSO!!! While I'm in the thread, the girlfriend has asked what a good price would be for her commissions would so she can price them effectively, and since I'm really not sure where one would find the typical going rate for such things, I thought I would ask here. She does digital art (including lineart and bases), colored pencil art, and acrylics. Some examples- Digital http://orig09.deviantart.net/dd0a/f/2015/261/d/c/fluttershy_by_gleamydreams-d9a1sx6.png http://img04.deviantart.net/9d92/i/2015/200/f/3/cute_sitting_thingy_by_gleamydreams-d9212z8.png http://pre06.deviantart.net/5d56/th/pre/i/2015/319/f/8/pony___ota_by_gleamydreams-d9gtn1j.png Traditional (also, yes, a traditional collab would be awesome!)

Thank you so much! Yes and yes :3 Working more or less in order of comment, and have the first one done... will upload later today once I get a good scan of it whilst working on the second and others.

Yes and yes! Thank you! I shall spend today working on these :3

Yes, yes, and yes! I shall begin forthwith!

I think this is the right place but really I haven't a clue. I need to start exploring the forums here. So after wanting to draw, and buying drawers and drawers full of art supplies, I have come to realize that my creativity has been minimal at best when it comes to art, and I can never think of anything to draw. Not being able to think of anything to draw means no drawing, and no drawing means no improvement; no improvement means no self-esteem or motivation. SOOOO I'm going to take some requests here and there... even, generally via deviantart, commissions, though I'm not comfortable taking actual money unless an art piece is especially detailed/difficult/massive or the original piece is to be sent out by mail or handed off at a con. I say sent out or handed off because I do traditional work exclusively, as I don't own a tablet or a mouse stable enough to really make working with digital programs worth the fight yet. I'm actually in the market for a used tablet if I can get one in my budget (which is limited right now) BUT I shall continue to do traditional art regardless. I haven't uploaded anything in a long time due to being focused on improving before showing off anything else I've drawn, but some examples of the stuff I do, making apologies for terrible scan qualities... In the past I have unfortunately failed to finish a few requests because frankly I'm not confident in my artistic abilities and got badly stuck in drawing said requests, but I am ready now to pull through and really work on things in my effort to improve and become an actual respectable artist. I do ponies pretty much exclusively (might work on people or other critters later) and can do a variety of nature-inspired backgrounds, though a really detailed background would probably be something I would charge a little for. Prismacolor pencils and bristol board or mixed media pads. Or like index cards or sketchbooks or whatever one may request. Keep things SFW and please provide a color reference for any non-canon characters and a reference in general for anything you might want included in the picture that isn't something I can easily find a reference for. And of course please help me out by describing what sort of pose or action you want, since I'm really struggling to find creative posings for my art without outside input. Huzzah! Ice cream for everyone.

I struggled long and hard for many years with this question, after being raised in a strict super-fundamentalist Christian household - so strict that I was homeschooled with religion-based curriculum so I wouldn't be corrupted by the evil influence of public schools. Or something of that sort. I just kind of accepted that for many years because I had no other outlet, no friends outside of church due to the homeschooling, and no Internet to learn the other side of the story, so to speak. I had many books, and took up reading and art, but had nothing that would conflict too much with religious teaching. We were even missing the 'E' encyclopedia so I couldn't even look up evolution had I wanted to at the time. My parents weren't as strict as some others I've seen, but to say my brother and I grew up sheltered would be a vast understatement. We definitely were happy and cared for, but religion was hammered pretty hard into our impressionable noggins from an extremely early age. I was even in a Christmas play at the age of one month old. Church was something that was done at least three times a week, and unless you were so sick you couldn't get out of bed, you didn't question that. You just went. Again, I shrugged and went along with it, my attention bouncing between the lessons and drawing materials I always smuggled in. I found myself doing more of the latter as the years went on. To make an already long story a bit shorter, I finally began to question things and realize that maybe I could decide to not follow exactly in the footsteps of my family sometime around 2005 or 2006. In 2007, we finally got home Internet access, and the whole world opened up for me. I was dumbfounded by just how big and diverse the world was, and finally, slowly but surely, caught up on all that I had missed out on in my sheltered corner of the world. Naturally, I spent a lot of time on the Internet. It was probably two years later that I really began considering other options, and beginning to doubt the strict beliefs I was raised in. By 2010 and 2011, I considered myself teetering on the verge of agnosticism, but the lingering shadows of childhood kept whispering in the back of my head, preventing me from peering over the edge. In the time since then, I've become a lot more aware of issues I once stood on the other side of, being raised to be anti-homosexual, anti-abortion, pro-Christianity in government, anti-other religions, etc. I rapidly realized the things I stood against, I only stood against because I had a religious belief that compelled me to be so, not a personal conviction or any logical reason. So I quickly stopped being closed minded and began accepting others and the world as it was, ashamed to have been held down by religious teachings trying to make me judge others for no other reason than 'it says so in the Bible'. Today, I'm still not entirely certain. Agnostic leaning towards atheist, really hoping for some clarity to make that step towards complete atheism. But I'm not sure if I can, despite being viciously against many of the tenets of Christianity when it comes to laws in the modern society. I'm not sure how I can still cling to a bit of it when I'm totally against most of what it stands for (when it comes to personal freedoms and church vs. state, at least) but this extremely religious part of the country with literally zero relatives that I know of who aren't also extremely religious is a pretty tough place to foster unbelief. No one in real life knows about my decision to abandon Christianity for the most part, and I fear I would probably be largely excommunicated and shunned if they find out. Luckily, I have a few friends I can talk to about this should I feel the need to, and my girlfriend is also highly agnostic, so I'm not totally alone, but things are still tough. I think about it a lot and wrestle with the potential consequences, but I can never go back to being a judgmental fundamentalist. If there is a heaven and hell, all I'm going to say is that I think I'd not enjoy being stuck amidst sneering closed-minded fundies for all eternity. In summary, for the most part, I highly dislike religion in general, and while I strongly believe everyone has the right to their own belief, I am strongly against said beliefs influencing politics or the rights of others in any way, and I am immensely angered when someone tries to preach to me or attempt to 'bring me back into the flock'. To each their own, but not unto others.

Dreary, overcast, chilly rainy days. I love them. But I guess I'm allowed to as a reward for surviving our miserably hot and humid summers. One more reason I need to move to Seattle, ahaha. Then again, I'm sure a lot of people love that kind of weather, so it's more of a minority thing than something everyone hates. I also freaking love sushi, which a lot of people do, but not so much around here.

I look older than I am (I'm 24) so much that I'm pretty much never carded when buying alcohol. Ironically my voice is rather muddy-sounding and makes me sound younger than I am. It's a bit awkward, but I'll probably find it amusing one day.

I plan to be up and watching this event - for one, it's a perfect way to kick off an amazing con Saturday, and two, I'm from two time zones to the east so I'd probably be getting up about then anyway. It is going to be SO awesome.

Amtrak's Coast Starlight goes from LA to Seattle and makes a stop in San Francisco (technically Emeryville, which is a 45-minute bus trip from the convention center) and shouldn't be that expensive, compared to flying. I take the Amtrak Crescent from Birmingham to Baltimore for Bronycon every year and it's a ton of fun. I also considered taking the train from here to San Francisco (via Memphis and Chicago) for Babscon... but that would take almost three days altogether. X3

'Tis quite good news. WIth that and the Drummonds also showing up, I'll then only have to meet Ashleigh Ball to have met all of the mane six, CMC, and princess VA's. X3