Dowlphin

http://dowlphin.tumblr.com/post/155063008517/equestria-girls-4-caption-commentary-spoilers-my

I am relieved about his stance on the matter. BTW it's called global warming. Climate change is a diversion tactic to not be nailed down on the apocalyptic claims that founded the whole thing. This idea has been born out of the same mindset of reality-immune progressive popculture that we see now having a nervous breakdown over the Trump win. The sky is not falling. It might be tough to accept, because it's boring and people can't be a hero by doing nothing, but I'll stick with people paying attention to WikiLeaks revelations about who in politics is a lying scumbag and not those gripped by emotional fearmongering tactics. While many people were still absorbing what the evidently very corrupt media were telling them, I was doing critical study on who is lying and why and evaluating credibility of claims. I'm not gonna let that effort be devalued by people who allow themselves an opinion without the inconvenience of looking at fact. Naturally Al Gore would talk about an "inconvenient truth" because the dumbest and thus most successful trick is to project own reality outwards and away. Like when John Oliver expressed a fear about a Donald Trump holding the nuclear launch codes, in total ignorance of the obvious and loudly stated reality of what Clinton intends to do on the world political stage. The political area often labeled as "liberal" has suffered a massive credibility loss due to their own actions in a crisis. I consider myself kind of a liberal, so I don't like that.

You gotta move step-by-step, and it's definitely a step vaguely in the right direction, unlike the alternative would have been, which has brought the country to where it is now. The last president the people elected was Obama. Twice. He had eight years. So how comes that now they elected Trump and not more of the same? Because the Obama administration laid the foundation with their policies. First black president promised change. Rich old white guy president brings it. Refreshing irony. ^^ I.e. if you go by superficialities and cheap tricks, you're gonna be fooled. If all the Democrats have in their repertoire is the race and gender card (and that laughable attempt based on naming - John F. Kerry - LOL), then it is easy to do better. First people laughed about the idea of a Trump presidency. Then they fought it. ... Sounds familiar? The next president could be better, but to maximize the chances of that we gotta support this one's good ideas first and not create vicious drama over some that sound bad. If we sabotage this presidency, we will set the bar low for the next.

@Minccino And then there's the fact that puts things in a grander perspective that Egypt had equal rights for women thousands of years ago. The so-called modern world likes to sell things as absolute novelties because people have a short historical memory, so it works.

I've never had any strong conviction in either direction. Spirituality eventually became a natural next step in my curious inquiry about the world. I began leaning towards Daoism. After some psychedelic experiences where I was confronted with some mindblowing and hard-to-deny things, I now consider myself somewhat of a pantheist. Has my life quality improved? Wouldn't say that, but you cannot know what would have happened if you had made different choices, so all you can do is make your peace with your choices. As for my interaction with people: I tend to sum up all my experiences like this: The worst of theists show an appalling degree of naivete. The worst of atheists show an appalling degree of arrogance. Not without some surprise, in talking with people on the internet, I eventually found myself getting along quite well with theists and getting really pissed when talking to various atheists. Because the naivete is so non-offensive, but the arrogance is vicious. Atheism can turn into a hubris practice; a glorification of the egoic mind as the highest thing there is, and such followers very open to ego-boosting and thus being controlled by people-manipulators. A reason not to consider the egoic mind as the highest power is a reality that stares us in the face 24/7 and that we only managed to shove aside out of habit: The incomprehensible nature of infinity. When your mind is running circles and getting nowhere, you eventually have to give up and open yourself to the mystical magic of that endlessness, acknowledge that there might be things we are by design unable to comprehend. And that is a humbling experience, and humility is needed to counter the hubris of the egoic mind, which is a profoundly fear-based tool designed to protect our physical bodies from outside harm. The opposite of fear - love - cannot be "created" by the mind and that can infuriate it. Love is created when that fear-based process allows itself to take a step back, to give way to it. In that way you could say love is yin in nature. You cannot "make" it, only allow it to happen, be open to it. It is an experience that drives action, not an action that creates experience. Basically (as I said - pantheist) my personal insight was that everything is God and thus everything is happening exactly as intended. And if that frustrates you, that, too, is part of it. God has limitless power, including the power to deny its own existence. But God is the consciousness that's observing all the time. A person might search for God their whole life and the cosmic joke is that God is that which has gone on that journey and witnessed every moment of it. Introspection would have helped, haha. The realization only comes once the point of total exhaustion has been reached and the mind surrenders. Because this can be like death to the mind by weakening its own grasp on reality, I like to quote a line from the movie "The Fountain": "Death is the road to awe." (BTW check it out, it's an awesome and touching spiritual movie that gave me some unsettling flashbacks.) I was once offered to wield the infinite powers of the universe. But I was told for that I had to die first. What a downer, haha. There's always a catch, isn't there? Infinite power without dying first - is that really too much to ask?! xD I once expressed these things in more creative-poetical form, so if you'd enjoy digging into this perspective, give these a try: http://dowlphin.deviantart.com/art/Unconditional-Love-589500034 http://dowlphin.deviantart.com/art/The-Everything-You-Need-To-Know-530740773 http://dowlphin.deviantart.com/art/The-Dao-Is-Not-Like-A-Black-Hole-572566625 http://dowlphin.deviantart.com/art/Surprise-Owns-You-591626559

Of (realistically) two relatively bad options I consider him definitely the better one. Whether he will make it great (which it never really was, but I know what he means) is what's making this interesting. I think when someone is trying to stonewall some good ideas, he will be able to rely on the support of the People more than previous presidents, because those that voted for him will tendentially be more willing to live the pioneer/DIY spirit and not be slave-minds giving all power to a champion. If he comes under severe fire with really popular ideas, this could be an awesome opportunity to motivate people to get off their couch and actually participate and be interested in politics. The mere fact of him talking no-bullshit, openly mentioning some things that all the establishment crooks we've seen before would never have, in itself has a lot of power. While he is on one hand "only" the president, he is also on the other hand the frickin' president who is telling the press when they're talking BS. I mean, how awesome is that? This is the same sincerity I like a lot about Putin, the stark contrast to usual politics. This is a very necessary change. Actual change, not the continuation of past policies with a nice superficial paint coat we have seen so far. Also, Trump has shown over many years a track record of consistently actually being worried about / bothered by the direction his country is taking. The only reasons many people still favored Clinton, in my view, is one or both of this: 1) Supporting the corruption by having a corrupt, convenient egotistical mind. Basically preferring convenient slavery over inconvenient freedom. I.e. immaturity. Popular support for the problem. Involving political correctness used as a weapon to suffocate any open and sincere discourse. 2) Making decisions based on false information; that false information being one symptom of the very reason not to support Clinton, because she is part of an establishment that is lying to the people all the time and is still doing now, albeit while being called out for it by Trump. It is based in open facts when I say Clinton is unfit for the job due to being a warmongering, career-fanatic, terrorism-supporting, lying criminal. Normally a president acquires such a record DURING their time in office, not BEFORE, so the choice is really easy. One should also let the people speak and not listen to the paid liars trying to speak (lies) for them. A striking number of racial minority groups support Trump. The whole racism thing is just another attempt at slander. Of course anybody could imagine a better president than a Donald Trump, but the People didn't do a better job as responsible and mature citizens, so they cannot expect better options. Then again, things can be deceiving and people need to understand what's important: Sanders has some appalling flaws just like Trump. While I consider myself a socialist at heart, I have more trust in e.g. Ron Paul than in Sanders, despite Paul being more capitalism-oriented. Ron Paul would have been terrific as foreign or financial minister, and while it doesn't look like he'd be part of Trump's team, I'd be wondering why not. He's in the same party even and trustworthy. But I guess Trump has his own little establishment with personal trust connections and loyalties and people he knows from experience he can work with and get stuff done. (Still hoping for Paul to be on the team though. Would be gigantic bonus points for Trump and surely motivate Paul to give 110%, it being like a late reward for all his efforts.) I.e. if you're still believing the lying scumbag media, now you have no excuse anymore. (Actually, it was pretty well-known a long time ago that they're mere government propaganda organs.)

Three little things caught my attention in the beginning: First I was surprised that pony hooves can sense the coolness of spit evaporating on a hoof. Second I was wondering how AJ could kick an apple so hard that it smashes through a wooden target without smashing the apple with her hoof. Third I grieved over the missed very first latin lesson for young watchers when AJ used "pegasus" as a plural instead of "pegasi". The general message of the episode I can relate to a lot. Like Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, I don't thrive on pressure, but excellence comes out when enjoying something. In our world that needs a lot of cultivation, because so often results are believed to come from pressure, force. It's no surprise considering what kind of people have great influence over society and the means for success. It seems easier to be troubled than to be healthy. Snails gave a good contrast metaphor for how not overthinking stuff can remove obstacles. This was even hinted at with his floating-buckets meditation-like pose in one scene.

This episode reminded me again of how much of a metaphor the Changelings are. They are weaking a mask in order to receive love that they don't carry inside. Everything is energy, so it was only a matter of time and interaction that among teh troubled Changeling culture there would be born one affected by the best of Equestrian magic that is flourishing. I can empathize with Thorax. Being born with that difference can make it difficult to sustain oneself in an environment of takers. It was a bold step by Thorax to leave that, but he had witnessed the better alternative, so that is a powerful driving force. He is very lucky. Especailly the song lyrics raise awareness of the crucial difference between changing and adapting. He shouldn't be too optimistic about winning over the rest of his race though. They have a queen who is pretty much supreme commander and in such a power structure the efforts of the queen to perpetuate her relevance would stand against such change. In that way the queen is leeching from her subjects as her subjects are leeching from other races. It would need careful baby steps to break that up.

In general maybe, yes. But Quibble Pants she introduced herself to with her real name, right? He didn't seem to find that odd.

It's weird how that Daring Do fan seems to have never heard of Rainbow Dash and her and her friends' deeds. The stuff they have done that should be common knowledge, and the guy still argues about details, like there aren't worldsaving heroes in Equestria and he's not talking to one of them. And his name is Quibble Pants. Well, his parents surely recognized his tendencies early and didn't hold back, hah. ;-D

"Pinkie Pie first no-reference sketch" (http://dowlphin.deviantart.com/art/Pinkie-Pie-first-no-reference-sketch-623045577) First traditional drawing in a long time. Without any reference - purely from memory. I wanted to see how good my visual imagination is. "Traditional Pinkie" (http://dowlphin.deviantart.com/art/Traditional-Pinkie-623043418) My first colored traditional MLP drawing ever and traditional drawing in general in a very long time. Made with a printed-out reference vector on the side. She turned out a big chubby, but hey, you can imagine, haha. The eyes are a little too circular for my taste. Otherwise I'm quite satisfied with this. Took quite a while, too, and involved experimenting with various line drawing and coloring means. Pencil sketching first, then black lines with a marker, coloring at the borders and small areas with pencil, the hair with regular chalk and the rest with oil chalk or what it's called, where you apply water to make it cover properly. (The brighter spot on the torso was an improvement attempt that I shouldn't have made and then I just wanted to finish it and I couldn't fix it.) I left some chalk smudges on the paper, so I thought I'll make this a minimalist background coloring, took a yellow chalk and smudged some more. You know ... Pinkie Pie style. ^^ The whole procedure made me appreciate digital art means. So clean, so much control, so many easy color choices, haha. If you like this... I appreciate support greatly. I'm struggling with general motivation and it took me quite a bit to even make these.

https://mlpforums.com/topic/154700-my-first-traditional-pinkie-art/

I am interested in raising awareness as well as encouraging lively discussion of this ... observation I made. This is commentary motivated by reading about the recent legal action against Valve in regards to CS:GO skins gambling. Thank you for your interest and input. Caring makes a better world. The invisible elephant in the CS:GO gambling room (Youtube video)

Ooooh, imagine the front of the ship being a unicorn head with the speartip there (don't know the proper name) exactly matching the horn.

Now I imagine Princess Luna as a ship captain. Title: Sailor Moon ^^

What, you're a landlubber?!

Heyyy, you are a pirarite. ... And that might sound like it's about shipping, but it's not. ... Wait, no, actually, it is. Kinda.