Draxon

I was always very quiet and reserved, and while other people were concerned about it, I never even took a moment to think about it until ninth grade.  I wasn't aware of any problem, but I suppose others thought there was.  In fact, at one point during elementary school, my mom forced me to call one of two people twice a week to hang out with them in order to solve the problem.  That didn't prove to be effective at all, and just lowered my opinion of my mom.

My younger sister, who's studying clinical psychology, suspects that I fall somewhere on the mild end of the autistic spectrum, but I don't think I'm autistic or have Asperger's.  More to the point, if I found out I do, it wouldn't change how I live my life.

I started to decrease the amount of swear words I used a year ago because it was really beginning to bother me.  I think I started to use them more often when I joined a steel company and had to coordinate my work with all of the guys in the shop - pretty much anything goes out there.

I've been much better lately, and I like it a lot better this way.  Partly because when I finally do use a swear, it has more of an effect.

On a related note, I no longer flip off bad drivers when I'm driving.  The last time I did that the guy chased me and I had to lose him on side streets.  Luckily, I drive a white Toyota Camry, so it's not like he'll ever recognize my car if he sees me again.

- Star Trek: The Motion Picture is the best Star Trek movie

I think you just crossed the line with that one.

That is wonderful and I must have it.

I would have to go with Big Macintosh.  He does a ton of work while maintaining a positive disposition, prefers giving very short, concise answers, generally keeps to himself, and likes to hide the stuffed animals he loves.

The last one I read was "Star Wars" Dark Force Rising," which is book two of the Thrawn trilogy. Currently in the middle of the third book.

 

God, I love this villain.

This.  He's easily my favorite villain in the Star Wars universe.  When I heard that Disney was going to make new Star Wars films, I was hoping that this would be the story arc they would use.  Maybe they will???

I love the film Nacho Libre and the video game Alpha Protocol.  Five Guys is overrated.  Candy corn and black licorice are delicious.  The Dark Knight Rises is not a good film.

I will say, in support of attending college, that there are non-economic benefits of enrolling.  I'm finding all of the courses I'm taking to be very interesting and most of them have relevance to current social issues.  Granted, dedicated, independent study may yield the same results for one not enrolled in college, but having the opportunity to engage with professors who have real world experience and to interact with other students is surely a boon for understanding a subject.

My suggestion for anyone who is considering a college education is to take as much time as needed to review how prepared you are for the costs and responsibilities associated with it; if you aren't, it may be best to spend some time working in the real world until you are.  If you do feel ready, be very thorough in your investigation of prospective institutions, and make sure your priorities are in the right order.  My choice of college right out of high school was made primarily so I could go to the same college as one of my friends (I strongly advise against adopting this as your deciding factor).  And if you do go, make friends with your professors.  Many of them turn out to be pretty cool, they can be very useful resources in your search for a job, and it probably wouldn't hurt your grades, either.

I had gone straight to a four-year institute after high school, and in retrospect, I think it was personally a terrible idea.  I wasn't prepared for the amount of work involved in keeping up with my classes, and dropped out after three years of struggling.  I did go to a community college afterwards and altered my study habits, and was successful, but after all of that I decided I needed a break and entered the working world.  After being there for four years, I've come back to college, and I'm definitely prepared to do a lot of hard work, now.  Working for a living can be quite motivational...

But I do agree with everyone's statements about the amount of debt students need to incur now in order to continue their education.  In a couple of months, I'll be broke, and I had saved up as much as I could before coming back.  And then I have to worry about finding another job...

I prefer buying DVDs for movies and television shows, although all of the seasons of My Little Pony and the first Equestria Girls movie I bought through iTunes.  There's also the rare case when what I want is exclusively available online.

I have bought CDs recently, notably when I go to a concert and I love the opening group.  It can be difficult in some cases to find those groups in a digital medium, and physical copies are nice to hold in your hands and peruse.  But, most of my music is bought from one of two categories: digital or vinyl.  There's nothing like going to a record store or a Goodwill and picking out a bunch of really good (albeit old) records for $1 each, and it's cool to listen to them on a turntable.  I also have a device which lets me plug the turntable into my computer and rip the tracks from the record (and it was really cheap).  There's some audio editing involved, but it effectively lets me avoid buying the same album again online.  Also, many newly produced vinyl records, while more expensive than their CD or digital counterparts, often include a free download of the digital album.  In fact, I got my brother a record he wanted for Christmas last year, and he let me download the digital version while he kept the record.

One thing you have to look out for when buying old records, though, is that sometimes people put the wrong record in the album sleeve.  I bought a copy of John Denver's "Farewell Andromeda" only to get home and discover that "Rocky Mountain High", which I already had, was inside.  It did only cost $1, though, so I didn't make a big deal out of it.

        Friendship is when we give of ourselves to be there for somebody else, and when they do the same in return.  It's not just sharing the same interests, or being together frequently - I would call that being acquaintances.  Rather, a friend is someone who gives up their time to listen, or to help you with a task, or to keep pace with you when everyone else would speed past, or to buy you a drink at the end of a bad day, or who spends a great deal of energy just to see you.  Staying friends with others becomes more difficult as we get older, move to new places, and adopt more responsibilities, but it's when you grow up that you discover who your true friends are.

        Unfortunately for me, that meant giving up one of my best friends, whom I had known for nineteen years, but for all the energy I had given him, the return was causing considerably more harm than good.  In the past, I had thought that having a lot of friends was ideal, but now I think that it isn't important to have so many friends, but to just have a few really good ones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onKhceL303M

Saw her in concert earlier this year with Don McLean.  She's still amazing at 75 years old, and so is Don.  In fact, he sang a song he came up with the day before the concert.

1.  Cutting myself while chopping ingredients.

2.  Getting hit by splattering hot oil (one reason I haven't cooked bacon at my place, yet).

3.  Getting diabetes.

4.  Having my teeth knocked out.

5.  Being robbed.

  And probably my silliest fear is finding a snake in my bed.  I actually woke up in the middle of the night, once, convinced myself that there was a snake in bed with me, and in the next instant I was across the room.  I don't really remember how I got there, it was almost as though I teleported.

        People tend to accept behavior which is usual as that which is normal.  In this case, the usual, and therefore, normal demographic for the audience of a cartoon show such as this would be very young girls.  Even the creators of the show did not expect it to be so popular amongst people of such a wide age range, and especially not amongst the male population.  Since this deviates from what was expected, it's identified as weird.

        One thing to take away from this, though, is that the longer the brony community exists, the more usual and less weird it becomes, and the less negative the responses to the community become.  There are plenty of examples in history of behavior which was widely considered weird (or even unacceptable) which gradually gained acceptance.  Also, my personal opinion is that people who are more exposed to unusual behavior are more able to accept it for what it is, although the role a person plays in a particular social structure also influences how they'll react.

        I really ought to be more trusting of people, as I'd love to wear my Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy shirts in public.  I'm making progress as far as being more open about myself is concerned, but I'm not quite there, yet.  That said, I'm waiting for the day when I show someone something on Youtube and they notice that everything in "Recommended for you" and "Watch it again" is all My Little Pony.  Or, the day when I go to my iTunes library to put on Metalocalypse and they notice that the only other TV show in my collection is My Little Pony (does anyone think that's kind of bizarre?).  I also have a Twilight Sparkle plush, which would be a dead give away.

        Based on other people's responses, I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to display something in public which only fans of the show would recognize, thus enabling me to discreetly meet other bronies.  A Twilight Sparkle cutie mark pin on my laptop bag, for instance.

My Favourite Mane 6 Pony: Twilight Sparkle

How did you find MLP Forums?: I used the Google.

How you became a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: I actually resisted watching the show at first because I knew that if I did, I would become engrossed by it. But, one day, when I found some free time, I decided to just do it, and many episodes later, I was hooked, as predicted. No regrets.

A little bit about myself: I'm 27 years old, and have just returned to school after being in the work force for the past four years.  I've done a lot of growing up in that time, although I did just start watching a show targeting children ages two through eleven, but to that I say that if the positivity and moral values espoused by the show were adopted by more adults, the world would be a much sunnier place.  And personally, I've found Twilight's love of study to be quite contagious, which is proving to be very helpful in my current situation.

Only a couple of my friends know that I'm a brony, and I don't personally know anybody from my everyday life who is involved in the fandom, which is a shame, since I really want to share my appreciation of the show.  Therefore, I'm looking forward to conversing with all of you and being a part of the community here.