Saturday, July 27, 2013

Nitpickery: My Little Pony

Hey y'all.  So I saw fit to write a blog on that whole Equestria Girls thing, and so why not talk about the show My Little Pony itself?  Like I said before, I'm not a brony.  I saw the show on Netflix because I was bored, and it was there.  I wish they would put Trading Spaces available for streaming, but what are you going to do?

So the show.  Yeah.  It's there.  Much of it is fairly standard kid's fare, what with learning a simplistic lesson at the end.  It's the story of Twilight Sparkle, a purple pony, and her candy colored friends, who together must operate the "elements of harmony" to stop bad guys and to learn lessons of friendship along the way, an obvious reference to the subtitle "friendship is magic".  This is the ultimate theme of the show.

While the ponies do have their adventures, most of the time they're just going through life normally, as normal a life as a magical pony can have.  They deal with things like bullies, sisterly conflict, worrying about careers, and making sure Ponyville has enough apples.  Okay.  Stuff.

The trouble with this concept is that people seem to have flocked to it rather insistently.  It's like the second coming of Star Trek, only cuter.  While I theorize that most franchises have some sort of loyal fanbase, until this point no fanbase has come to be known as so obsessive as Star Trek.  Even the rival Star Wars has fans that don't take their series as seriously as the Trekkers (though that may be George Lucas' fault).

The thing that made Star Trek unique was its philosophy: the idea that people in the future will overcome their petty bigotry and become super moral humans.  I personally feel that this is a silly, unrealistic goal, because morality does not evolve, as ancient child sacrifice and modern abortion prove.  Each person born knows nothing, and is only able to learn the lessons of morality from his sires.  Therefore, morality can't really progress all that well.  There are actually other problems with the Star Trek philosophy, but we'll get to that some other time.

What is both good and odd about My Little Pony is that it has a moral much more straightforward and harder to argue against: friendship is magical, and makes people better.  I would venture to say that the wrong friends are as harmful or worse than being alone, but y'know, whatever.  It is true that good friends make you a better person, so yeah, a good thematic basis there.  This, according to my estimation, is the source of the bronies' love.  They like all that love and tolerance schmuck.  There's only one problem with that.

This is a children's show!

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Me and Aldaris (p14): Down on Earth

The light shone in his face, its brightness stinging at even his eyes.  It had been some time since Aldaris had been in the light such a bright sun, and as he stood there with his eyes shut, he could imagine that the scenery around him was the ancestral home of his family.  He could feel himself standing in the open valley before the country cottage, surrounded on all sides by trees and the pathway to the seaside.  The cottage, one story like the most ancient of Protoss architecture, lay extended over a small hill like a blanket.  Aldaris almost expected that he would turn around and see its wooden eaves and tan plaster walls again.  

Monday, July 15, 2013

Nitpickery: Equestria Girls

Hey y'all.  That's right.  I'm going to do it.  I'm going to nitpick a movie where magical ponies turn into cliche teenagers.  Yup.  Why?  Because I can.  And I'm bored.  And it was on Youtube, not pulled down because probably it's a testimonial to how exactly Hasbro feels about its creation.

So how did it go?  Was the brony fan-rage well deserved, or did Hasbro convince them all that turning ponies into high school girls is super interesting?

The answer to that, is meh.  Truth be told, it wasn't bad enough to deserve hatred.  Neither was it good enough to be anything better than a cheap cash grab.  It was just there, with all of its errors and flaws.

Spoilers abound.

Before we get on, allow me to first say that I am not a brony.  I'm a girl, for one, and for two, the show isn't anything that special.  It's cute and all, but it's essentially standard fare for cartoons.  I fail to see why grown people consider it any better than things like Arthur the Aardvark or The Power Puff Girls.  The show has its ups and down, but doesn't seem to be anything deserving of the adoration of tons of fans.  I am left to ponder why it has become a comparable sensation to Star Trek.  This phenomenon is worth investigating.

Also, note that this isn't an attack on the My Little Pony show itself.  The show isn't horrible, and is in fact sometimes fun.  I'm just nitpicking because that's what I do.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Me and Aldaris (p13): Just a Chat

Nissa has entered the chatroom.

Nissa: Moo.  Where are you guys?
Moo.  Moooo.
I hate time zone differences.
....

Nissa: I'm bored
Ori Dori 
Kili fili
Oin Gloin
Balin Dwalin
Bifur Bofur Bombur
Uh....There's Thorin of course.
Um, that's only twelve. I'm missing one.
Crap.

Statkus has entered the chatroom.

Monday, July 8, 2013

Intelligence as the Counter Revolutionary -- Final

Certain people, calling themselves socialist, will claim that communism itself is a perversion of the principles created by Marx and that it has nothing to do with real socialism.  However, there is a problem.  What exactly is socialism?  Much like "liberalism" and "conservatism", the definition of this word seems to change depending on the place or person you label it (this being the primary reason that using "left" and "right" in a political sense is often intellectually dense).  However, unlike "liberalism" and "conservatism", which have base meanings (“lefty-loosey; righty-tighty”), socialism has no obvious definition.

The word “socialism” exists in two political names: United Soviet Socialist Republic and Nationalist Socialist (Nazi) Party.  What do these have in common, other than political oppression and murder?  If oppression and killing were the base meaning of socialism, then we would simply call it tyranny and not add a prettier label to it.

Dictionary.com provided an interesting definition: "A transitional stage after the proletarian revolution in the development of a society from capitalism to communism: characterized by the distribution of income according to work rather than need."  So, if this is correct, socialism is the pathway to communism, and has no individual permanence?  Is this then a statement affirming that anyone who desires socialism is someone who desires to go on the path to communism?  We are still no closer to the meaning of socialism, as dictionary.com prefers defining "socialism" according to Marxist theory.  This must be incorrect, as Hitler called his country socialist, and he was not a Marxist.  Therefore, the base definition of "socialist" must be broad enough to carry the full weight of those that label themselves that way.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Personality Environment Type -- Under the Sea

Hey y'all.  It's about time I added another environment type blog, yes?  So this time I'm going to go with the undersea type, the person who feels comfortable and accepted in an environment that is dark and beautiful.

I almost made this blog two different ones.  It almost is.  There's the under the sea type near the surface, where someone can see the light and all of the more colorful fishes that live there.  There is also the deep water section, where life is sort of inside out -- light comes from animals rather than the sun, squids shoot glowing ink instead of dark ink, and the sense of sight is both somewhat irrelevant and even misleading.

I'm going to put the both of these in one blog, because they are clearly related.  Let's start with the more surface dwelling.  Keep in mind that a lot of things I write for surface will be relevant for both, it's just that the deeper sea has extra connotations.