What is This Phenomenon They Call "Bronies"?

Looking for My Little Pony stuff on the web the other day, I came across something called "Bronies".

WTF?

Have you heard of this before?

Apparently, it's men (and women) who love the new My Little Pony cartoon.

And when I say love, it's like the kind of strangely fantastic love that inspires a legion of fan art, forums, videos and communities. The phenomenon is an apparently growing epidemic online and I can't believe I'm just stumbling onto it now.


I try to be open minded, I really do.

But, uh, Bronies? Just FYI, the BEST My Little Ponies are and always will be the FIRST GENERATION.

From the 80's baby, with realistic pony bodies and the best names, like Moondancer, Melody, Windwhistler and Firefly (yes there is a MLP named Firefly and she IS a Browncoat!).

Not that I can't get down with a name like Rainbow Dash, of course. Especially since according to Wikipedia, Rainbow Dash is based upon the original Firefly's personality, who was basically THE star of the original My Little Ponies.

Herds of Bronies online may disagree with the above statements. I'm not sure if they have watched the older cartoon since they were kids or if they would even want to, since the impetus of their devotion seems to be wrapped up in the show itself and is inexplicable, even to themselves.

However, after babysitting two little girls recently who think the best part of coming over is the gigantor bag of old school My Little Ponies they get to play with, I got the opportunity to watch one of the new episodes.

All too soon, the show was over.

At first, the animation style threw me off but gradually the surprising depth of plot for a children's show and the great voice acting sucked me in.

In a move that spoke to my fierce nostalgic heart while at the same time creating a bit of disappointment, the little girls said they wanted to watch my DVD of the original 80's TV show instead of another of the new My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episodes.

I have a feeling I won't be waiting for the excuse of babysitting little girls before I watch the other episodes. And if I grow restless for more MLP magic, there's plenty of fan content on the web to keep a geek like me happy.

As I FINALLY watched Firefly and became a Browncoat,

I thought this would be appropriate. 

Enjoy! And if you become a Brony, be sure to tell me. I'm fascinated!

Thankful for Good Deeds

It is here, the time of year when people are simultaneously at their most cheerful and most cranky.

The holidays can alternately inspire cheer, dread, anxiety, happiness, depression...and often all to the same person in the same day.

I love the gathering together of loved ones, the generousity the season inspires and all the good food.

I dread the crowds, the cranky people having to deal with those crowds & the worries of the season, and the inescapable financial concerns the holidays bring with them.

But I'm hopeful this year, because my first encounter with holiday crowds last night, albeit very brief, was a positive one.

If doing a good deed, even a minor one, makes you feel this good, why aren't we doing them all the time? Why do we do mean things at all, when doing the opposite has such great consequences? Why, oh why, is it easier to be naughty then nice in the spur of the moment? Why is it harder to reign in the negative things and harder to do positive stuff?

For me personally, I am a procrastinator, so I am queen at justifying why I won't be doing something good just yet. There's always the "I'll donate when I have more money" "I'll do that tomorrow when I'm not so busy with my life" etc etc ad nauseum.

But every once in awhile, I can trick my brain into doing something good before my evil half can rationalize my way out of it.

Last night I had to make a brief stop at the grocery store for pop (aka carbonated beverages for all you non-Minnesotans). God forbid the Big B should run out of Mountain Dew!

Okay, okay, or myself for that matter.

As I whip into a parking spot, I immediately notice the concern on the faces of the people surrounding the car parked opposite from me. It's apparent that something is wrong with their silver Grand Am. I see two ladies and some smaller heads in the backseat, indicating there are probably children in there somewhere.

Before my brain can get time to think about how much stuff I have to do at home and how I just want to run this errand & be done with it, my mouth opens as I open my car door and asks "Do you need a jump?"

They sure did. I open my hood and the trunk, take out the nice set of jumper cables my dad insisted I always keep in my car since I first began driving, and prepared to Do Good.

A young man, seeing a group of ladies around a pair of open engines, also offers to help, which I accept gratefully because I can never remember what order you're supposed to place the cables & whether the car should be running first or not.

In less than 5 minutes, their Pontiac is started and I'm on my way inside the store to complete my errand.

"Happy Thanksgiving!"
"Bless you, we didn't know how we were going to work this out if our friend's car couldn't get to us in the lot."
"Thank you!"

Their relief is palpable and the goodwill is almost visible. The surprise that a stranger, no, two strangers, would jump in & help without being asked has left their voices, and instead you can hear the warmth.

I can't keep the grin from my face the entire time I'm in the store, and when I run into the young man inside who helped out, I thank him for his help and we share a brief smile.

If all it takes is something this small, this simple, this easy, to feel so good, why aren't I doing this all the time?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. May you find yourself Doing Good when the opportunity presents itself, whether by fortune or because you seek it out.

Wicked Fun with My Little Ponies

I don't know why I never thought of getting a My Little Pony as a tattoo. Seeing it in the flesh, so to speak, makes me consider it more seriously.

If I wanted to be sweet, I'd get one like the seapony below.

If I wanted to be badass, I'd get one like this:

Thanks to Cal over at Calvin's Canadian Cave of Cool for this beauty.

And if I wanted to be naughty I'd get one provocative like this:

This image is thanks to my Game Whore friend who found it

somewhere & sent it to my phone, where it has stayed

as its wallpaper ever since. And that was MONTHS ago!

Technically, the one & only tiny tattoo I already have is in the spot where my picture would be if I were a pony. So in a way, I kinda do already have pony-themed ink.

Octo Mushroom Monday

These last two are especially evocative, aren't they?

This one's for you Cal. Go bonzo.

Too Naive for My Own Good

Despite all my wishes to the contrary, I am still naive.

To prove my point, witness my stupidity the other day whilst outside on my break.

I push open the doors, heading towards my usual spot by the air exchanger for the building where occasional warmth can be blown over me by the constant wind downtown.

"Nice shoes," says the man on the bus stop bench.

I have seen him before...he wears shorts even in 40 degree weather, has an Aussie-style cowboy hat with chin-strap, and a large salt and pepper beard. Almost infallibly he compliments me on my shoes, whenever I see him.

The past couple of times I've entertained the thought that maybe I know this man. He looks sorta like a fellow Minnesota blogger I follow and I've thought about asking him to confirm this.

Who knows? Maybe he IS that blogger and compliments my shoes because he knows I follow him? Although I do wear kick ass shoes...

For whatever reason, I decide that today is a good day to gain confirmation (or denial) of my supposition.

I approach him cautiously.

"Are you so-and-so? You look just like a blogger I follow..."

He shakes his head and says no.

"Oh okay, you look a lot like him!" and I start to walk away, which in hindsight was very smart, however dumb I was just a minute ago to approach him in the first place.

"Nope, but would you like a foot massage?" he says in return.

ACK!

When will I learn?

No matter how kickass my shoes are, the only men who are going to compliment me constantly on my footwear are gay men and people with a foot fetish.

And so I shut my mouth, shook my head vigorously, and proceeded to walk away in my kick-ass black zipper ankle booties as fast as the high heels would allow.

Look What My Son Caught for Me

He was so frakkin proud.

I knew something was up when I got out of the shower and instead of being in his customary spot on the rug just outside the tub, he was laying underneath the toilet.

Luckily, I am a habitual looker-down-before-I-step kind of person, so I managed to spot the "gift" before stepping on it (let me just say "eeeeeewwwww").

You guessed right.

My furry, four-legged "son" caught a mouse sometime between my alarm going off (where he was curled up in the nook of my bent legs) and me getting out of the shower last Friday morning.

And he's declawed!

This is the 2nd animal he's caught in the house. The first time he caught a little black shrew. We think it was him but really can't be sure since we do have two hunters in the house (Alabama Mae caught a shrew outside during a Father's Day BBQ and promptly brought it to my dad as a present).

This one I could be sure was his, just because of his odd behavior. When I stepped out of the shower, he looked at me, then at the mouse, and then back at me as if to say "Momma! Aren't you going to praise me?"

Of course I couldn't deal with the dead critter just then...I was still naked for cryin' out loud!

So I used some toilet paper to move it away from immediate danger of being stepped on in our 1' square bathroom and proceeded to get to the point where I was dressed enough to toss the carcass outside.

I considered flushing it, but thought it would be a bad idea. Gizmo is an extremely smart kitten, and he would try to "rescue" his prize if he saw me put it in the toilet.

But when it came time to dispose of the corpse, IT WAS GONE!!

OMIGOD. Not good.

Now I had to find this damn thing because there's no way I'm letting a potential mini-mouse zombie reanimate within the confines of my home.

I checked the usual spots...his food & water dish, his little hidey-hole cat castle, the spare bed...

Nada.

But then I remembered one truly important fact about my son....he's a HUGE daddy's boy, so I knew that he would have to show off his hunting skills to his father upstairs.

Nevermind that the Big B is sleeping away, Gizmo is a quiet understated kind of kitty but he would wait patiently until B acknowledged his feat.

And that's right where I found him and the mouse, hanging out on the carpet upstairs, waiting patiently for the accolades that are justly due him.

 Oh he looks so very proud, doesn't he?

Okay so you can barely see the thing...but it was definitely a live mouse at one point!

I guess all that practice with the fake mousies last night really gave Gizmo an edge this morning when it came time for the real thing.

My son, the mighty fluffy hunter.


*I tried to delay-post this 3 FRAKKIN times...Blogger hates me, because it's now a week later than I meant to post it. *sigh*

DIY Halloween 2011: Success!

This year, as a result of yet more procrastination (not all me! this time) my friends didn't get zombified up for the Minneapolis Zombie pub crawl like we wanted.

Granted, we decided to do it a week before the event, which is never a good idea. But one good thing did come out of not getting bit...we made a pact to have a party to make our own costumes for Halloween.

My friend the Game Whore (self proclaimed and well-earned; the man is currently in a dozen different tabletop RPG adventures as well as playing Magic & board games here and there, and somehow getting sleep & going to work) was very upset that he had "half assed Convergence & now the zombie crawl" and made us promise to have a costume-making party to get our asses in gear for Halloween.

I too wanted to bring a dream I had half assed thought about last year but again was too slow to undertake it in time for Halloween. So I harrassed with the emails and four of us got together to make costumes one night.

My friend who when first introduced to me promptly said "It's spelled with one T" who forever earned the moniker 1T decided to make his own Sith costume. I had some nice darker blue fabric left over from Demona that worked nicely with some materials he had already.

A new gamer-geek-girl to the group (yay!) went with Lady CawCaw, after already having the idea to go as a blackbird and Game Whore blurted out the perfect name for her costume.

Game Whore himself was told by his 9 year old daughter what he was to be for Halloween...because it made her costume! She wanted to be the killer bunny from Monty Python & the Holy Grail. How can you not love this geekling I ask you? So of course my friend went as King Arthur.

Moi? I was destined to be Wonder Woman, but I was determined to do it right.

Armed with our ideas, we hit up a fabric store, found the perfect materials, and set to work.

Iiiieeeyee! Labor intensive does not describe.

King Arthur could settle for no less than real, hand-made chainmail for his coif. I was fascinated by his technique...with the use of a wooden spoon, wire coiled tightly around it, he cut many dozens of rings from the wire and painstakingly put them all together. The end result was so incredibly nice! I hadn't expected it to feel so heavy or move so nicely when it was all done. I shouldn't have doubted!

Lady CawCaw had her work cut out for her too--sewing feathers onto nylon fairy wings she had cut down & re-worked to fit on her arms. I teased her the day following my party as I swept up dozens of "molted" feathers.

I did not find stretchy blue material with stars already on it, so I was regulated to sewing over 2 dozen hand-cut white stars onto my homemade shiny blue granny panties. For three weeks all I felt like I did was sit and sew white stars. Doing the entire thing by hand sewing certainly didn't help! But I knew my sewing machine skills weren't up to all those tiny finicky corners. Plus I was doubtful as to my abilities to create a supportive bustier, so I planned on sewing directly onto a strapless bustier I already owned.

 The crown, belt & cuffs were the easiest!

I was on a budget, but even with buying all the fabric and other supplies I kept it below $40, easily cheaper than buying a store costume and infinitely more satisfying because I could control getting every detail right.

Even better, it turned out pretty well so with a few modifications for Convergence I'll be able to wear it again for next year's theme of Wonder Women. The one thing I'll have to invest in will be a pair of boots however--the bootcovers I got from my future stepmom who snatched them up at her work and I painted red leave a little to be desired for a truly good cosplay outfit.

We all think they turned out great, but I'll let you be the judge as well!

 He had a shield as well but it intimidates potential conversationalists

 The beak is even better in profile!

 Okay I couldn't resist playing with King Arthur's real bastard sword

Darth 1T can't resist the lasso of truth!



 The hubby and I--appropriate costume for him since he's moving

like an old man from another recent back surgery.

 Lady CawCaw was not ready for this one

 Yay! My BFF + ∞

Some more fun costumes from the night...even if they were store bought, they were cool!

 He-Man would not approve

 You better believe She-Ra will be at Convergence this year!

Eastbound & Down is hilarious...and my friend's

Kenny Powers impersonation was eerily spot on

Ah, Jack & Sally--maybe we'll see them again at Christmastime!

Of course no party at my house would be complete without a bit of silliness...

 Don't ask what's going on here...it's my most random pic of the night

 Excalibur is no match for Wonder Woman's lasso!

Epic battle! Medieval against futuristic!

All in all we were happy with our results and the party was a success. Far from whetting my appetite for DIY costumes, I find that already I am dreaming of more cosplay and am already haranguing my friends to get thinking about what to do for our next adventure.











The Return of Mushroom Monday

Okay so they're either fanciful or not fungi per se but I liked these.

I Knew It Would Happen...

...and honestly, I'm only surprised at the length of time I made it before it did.

My apologies for my long absence.

When I took my vacation, with the best of intentions, I meant to take a mini-break from the blogger world just long enough to refresh, get some stuff done and prepare for classes to start again in the fall.

Of course, when you're a tremendous procrastinator and world-class justifier like I am, a little mini-break can become a rather large break.

A (large) part of me wants to whine & give forth all my excuses...

...but if I am to be honest, there really isn't any.

Sure, I've been busy. But I was busy the first nine months I blogged faithfully, so that holds no water here.

So I'll just leave it that I was gone, but now I'm back!

And I'll keep the excuse-giver locked inside where she belongs, the dirty creature, and just be glad instead that I'm starting again.

And for the fact that this made it much, much longer than any of my diaries or journaling attempts did in the past.

If it's any consolation, there's a large part of me freaking out over all I've missed while I was MIA.

And there she peeks her head up again, blinking in the daylight, that darkness-dwelling creature named Someday Tomorrow who says "Someday I'll catch up on all that I missed..."