Night Sky

Welcome to the Forums! Nice pic of Trixie and Starlight Glimmer!

Seeing Garrett lose an eye to the Trickster and Viktoria in Thief: The Dark Project REALLY SUCKED, the first time. Enough so that it sorta always sucks when you reach that cutscene. You can clearly see the betrayal coming. You wish Garrett had seen it coming but he didn't. Anyways, it would not have mattered. Garrett couldn't go toe to toe with the Trickster. It took the Trickster's arrogant over confidence and the Keepers' interference to save Garrett. That's the only reason he survived. You play through the whole game up to that point being the hunter in control. But the level following that cutscene is Escape! and you are very much the hunted. Playing it is always an ordeal.

I favor classic 4711 and now some of there floral derivatives. Old, old old skool scents.

On my Father's side I only know my history back to my Great, Great Grandfather and we only know so much about what the family was up to at that point. On my mother's side, I am still not very clear about a lot of my maternal Grandfather's life, and I know next to nothing about them before his time. I have some sense of where my families have lived, and I did Ancestry.com, their results would tend to confirm my families' narratives about themselves, although the report has been revised several times over the years. We did okay, I don't think we were particularly notable or exciting folks though.

Recently I've been seeing memes circulating on Tumblr that have really upset me. I don't see the merit of linking to any of these, or calling any pony out. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was a meme which stated that it would be necessary to assassinate Twilight Sparkle because she's a noble, a great deal of regret notwithstanding. I don't think it's funny. I have also seen other memes which seem to take a sadistic glee in showing a FIM character who is now traumatized, because they botched an interaction with a pony of one or another LGBTQIA+/- identity. These memes and artwork are being made by ponies who represent that they themselves identify as LGBTQIA+/- I think those are even less funny. It seems that nowadays we have some ponies who advocate for tolerance and democracy, who are also advocating for violence and murder. We also have ponies who claim to have been mistreated, and claim that they are only asking for inclusion, who seem to be weaponizing their status as vulnerable ponies to make others feel bad about themselves. I don't presume to psychoanalyze anyone's motives, I have no interest in doing so and I shouldn't be burdened with having to do that. I am merely examining the apparent messaging of what is being placed in front of me, according to my own values and perspective. I have that right as much as anyone else does. Both of these genres of memes are being made by profiles decorated by statements espousing progressive values. I find the tone of these so-called jokes to be dissonant and disturbing. Really, it's necessary to assassinate Twilight Sparkle, because she's a Princess? Really, you expect to be treated a certain way, but you feel entitled to torture people when their good faith efforts don't match your expectations? This has been a valuable opportunity for me to check in with myself. What have I learned from MLP FIM? How might that inform a different way of responding to content like this? I can only speak my own truth, and the best way I can do that is through my own art. The Piece attached to this post is titled: Our Legacy The Tetrarchy of Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadence and Princess Twilight Sparkle was based upon real relationships. Yes, those relationships were severely tested, but ultimately every pony emerged the better for it. The Four Alicorn Princesses ruled well and defended Equestria, they did their duty. And they accomplished this with far less violence, artifice and politicking than any regime in the entire history of our species ever has. Maybe it's not even about whether or not democratic forms of government are superior to any form of monarchy. Maybe, regardless of which system of governance they espouse, our leaders here in this world leave far more to be desired than any of the Alicorn Princesses. Because regardless of who's fault it is, our world is a wreck. Equestria has endured its share of trials and tribulations and setbacks. Equestria is not a wreck. Must we wreck it, must we make it more like how we are and less like how we know we could be? What is the legacy of the democracies of the 20th century? What flowers have blossomed from the seeds they planted? A second Peloponnesian war, this time on a truly global scale? I will pause here and direct your attention to the number of question marks in this post. Sure, I've made a few statements, but I'm mainly asking questions. We're told that we're supposed to be having a "new conversation". But how can we have that conversation when every single question ends up being a landmine, sooner or later? What is the legacy of the Equestrian Tetrarchy? Simple answer, Flurry Heart. She is an Angel who caps a pyramid of good leadership. The foundation that the four princesses established, the fertile ground that they nurtured, and the goodness they fostered gave rise to a pure Avatara. And we weren't ready for her. We aren't ready for her. It is no accident that the show did not continue on to detail Flurry Heart's reign of at least the Crystal Empire. Perhaps Flurry Heart went on to rule all of Equestria after Princess Twilight Sparkle retired or otherwise met her fate. Maybe some pony else took those reins. Thanks to Generation 5, in typical human fashion, we've imagined that it all fell apart. That says more about us and less about ponydom. I say it figures, but that's just me. It's not about what we do and don't deserve. I am so sick of hearing everyone talk about what every other kind of person does or does not deserve. We were not ready for Flurry Heart, and we are still not ready for her. It seems to me that a great many people have seemingly forgotten about her. I can never allow myself to do so. I have said elsewhere that MLP FIM parallels every great epic tale of good versus evil that we've ever dreamed of, in a manner which has never been seen before. Flurry Heart is the living embodiment of Equestria's triumph. To ignore Flurry Heart is to miss the point of Equestria entirely. If it had not been for the Four Alicorn Princesses and Prince Shining Armor, Flurry Heart would never have appeared. And we would never have had to behold a character who represents what we could look like, if we stopped trying to change Equestria to be more like us, and instead tried to change ourselves to be more like ponies.

Some ponies will see it, fewer will comment on it, fewer of us still are trying to breathe new life into this section of the forum. Keep going, don't give up. I like it a lot. Your creation has a lot of personality and it is finished with a satisfyingly obsessive love of detail.

Happens too frequently when I walk nowadays. I'm trying to work on that.

Holidays are tricky for me. I am almost never off for them anymore. Some of the ones I celebrate are not mainstream. I used to have a large family that put on big celebrations, now most of our elders are dead and the younger generations, we're too messed up to keep things going. So do I like the holidays? Yes. I still do, but it's complicated. I am almost always alone on them. There is still that magical sense in the air, and I hope to never have to walk on this planet without that on those dates. But they do make me feel like a ghost or a disembodied spirit. Like I'm invisible. But there's magic in that. So, as long as the holidays remain magical, I can say I am content.

Go ahead and buy it, give yourself a REASON with an all caps to commit to making the habit of riding a permanent thing. If you don't get hit by a car, it's some of the best exercise you can get.

I have Bro Hooved every post in this thread, they all deserved it. Happy Birthday, Ice Princess Silky <3 Sorry I'm late to the party, but I hope it was a good one.

Decaf coffee, just now, still getting my caffeine placebo.

I have a friend who really likes Subnautica.

Well said!

Okay, how's this? Took me awhile to get back to this project, but I've retcon-ed her right in!

Aw, even the food you Kool Kiddos eat is from beyond Left Field.

I remember watching this episode of The Simpsons on TV! This was possibly my favorite moment in the entirety of The Simpsons. Okay you don't want a brownie before you go to bed so, DO YOU WANNA SEE MY NEW CHAINSAW AND HOCKEY MASK!?!

Sounds like a Grand Old Time!

2011 was an interesting year for me. I had graduated from Grad school in May of 2010. But I wouldn't really start my professional career in earnest until October of 2012. So I was kind of adrift. I also had a wife and kiddo at that time. I did everything from work at Michael's Cra(p)ft Store to operate a Spectometer in a Geochemical laboratory, even got co author on a scientific paper, not bad for a pony with two degrees in fine art...but the instability was not good. Bills don't wait while one dally's around.

Me. If you don't share any of my interests or perspectives, I'm likely to be a total bore. I'm long winded, verbose, sometimes intentionally tautological, vague, obscure, nebulous, and downright Byzantine.

When we seek to define intelligence, we limit it. So then we have to devise other categories of intelligence, and compare and contrast them against each other. . ..even though they all share the quality of intelligence, regardless of the differences the various types give rise to. The trick, I think, might lie in the fact that trying to define intelligence is not much different from trying to define consciousness. The definition of consciousness is. Yes. Exactly. You already know it when you see it, if you're reading this. But something about putting it into words never seems to compute entirely. Therefore, if we cannot decisively define consciousness, we're only going to do marginally better with decisively defining intelligence. And if that is so, how can we really separate the various types of intelligence that we've come up with into a neat and tidy hierarchy? Being visually oriented and having a sense for the subtleties of aesthetics is not less profound than being good with math. Human society may prize an intelligence relating to people, math, engineering or science, but that's pretty arbitrary, even if it is efficient. What kinds of faculties and talents we possess, and the training we get to hone those abilities doesn't fundamentally change or prove anything about how the world is. They just all do something unique to help us survive and to make survival worth bothering with. I'd say all intelligence is preferable to ignorance. Intelligence, properly marshalled, can at least potentially help us to accomplish things that might be worth doing. Ignorance can only shield us from things we don't want to see. Find out what you're best at and develop it to the fullest. Don't bother over whether your painting stacks up against the moon landing. Someone else will see to whatever you can't. That's the magic of diversity, if we don't crush it whenever it starts to emerge.