on Love and Tolerance: Part I - Ponies and Relationships

This is something I've been thinking about for a while, but was, again, really sparked by things that the kids in "Teens React to..." video, so I suppose I will address my concerns in chronological order. (EDIT NOTE: The links that referred to several RageComics are now broken, and I can't find the originals again, so they have been replaced with descriptions of what was there, and text has been should have been edited accordingly.)

First, in the case that a brony really does love ponies more than his significant other, well, he must either not love his significant other all that much, or the fandom might be a little... obsessive. Your significant other, depending on the seriousness of your relationship, really should be the first and foremost in your thoughts and hearts (perhaps outside of family). But that's not to say you can't have things and people that you like (fandoms and friends) that are outside of the relationship.

The fact that there are cases where a girl (or guy) makes her/his significant other choose between his/her fandom or the relationship makes me a sad panda. Granted, there are varying levels of dedication to relationship and to fandoms, but you really shouldn't have to choose between your hobbies or fandoms and someone that [supposedly] loves you.

Let's take a look at why this kind of "it's me or ponies" ultimatum is not okay. This is basically the equivalent of saying "you have to choose between watching the football, and dating me" or "if you keep watching reality shows, we have to break up." While the latter is quite understandable in my book, it still brings me to a point of what makes a good relationship, and if these ultimatums are coming up, well then you have a problem other than a difference of interests.

Relationships are about understanding and compromise - as long as you understand (or even if you don't) and can tolerate your significant other's values, thoughts, and behaviors, then you might just have an absolutely wonderful relationship. You don't have to have the same interests, hobbies, or styles to get along.

Take, for example, my relationship with my boyfriend. He doesn't really like cute and "girly" (by socially normative standards, but we'll get to that) things. But when he spots something that fits that description, he loves me enough that he knows I would probably like it, and proceed forward it to my attention. The same goes for all things MLP:FIM. He is in no way a fan of the show, and is far from considering himself a Brony, but he knows the plot of every episode because he can tolerate being in the room with me while I watch, and will even let me show him scenes I think are funny (he TOTALLY laughed at FlutterGuy). It's the idea that you don't always have to have the same interests, but being able to accept them is what really matters.
Another couple friends of mine who are engaged to be married also had this kind of view. I showed the first couple episodes to the both of them to which her reaction was a playful enjoyment of the cute and silly, while his reaction was more a baffled amusement compared to her enjoyment. After the first two episodes, which was what we agreed we'd all watch just to introduce it, he patted her on the head and said, "Okay, well you have YouTube and can watch while I'm not around." None of this "I can't believe you like this it's so childish and silly and dumb" nonsense. It's okay to have differing interests.

So there's Love and Tolerance: where even if you think that something they do doesn't really make sense, or you don't agree with it, you can still be with the person because they have enough other qualities that you like/love about them - the two really go hand in hand, and it's hard to define either of them without the other (in this circumstance).


With the notion of Love and Tolerance aside, I now get to the "Teens React..." video and the answers of the girls when they were asked, "Would you date a boy who was brony?" (at 4:45 in the video) There was a resounding "NO" from the girls. Analyzing this from a "scientific" point of view, we will have to take into account the fact that the video did not show responses from all the girls, only 4 of the 6. Rumor, one of the girls who was not shown, did voice her support for bronies near the end of the video, so lets assume she would have said yes. Of the ones whose reactions were shown, everyone said "no" with a considerable amount of disgust in their voices. Even Jade, who knew of Bronies before being shown the opening and asked about it said, "Hell NO!" And then Madison, who was asked, "What if you said 'hey, you know take me out to the movies' and they were like, 'no, I'm sorry - tonight, My Little Pony's on'?" and that would be the point of breaking up with them - what's the difference, as I pointed out before, between that, and saying, "No, can't go on a date tonight, the football game is on" or "I'm hanging out with the guys tonight?"
Lia put it in terms that basically sums up the entire problem that girls and society in general, have with the basic idea of the "Brony" - the acceptability of breaking gender and age norms. As Lia said, "No, I don't want some boy that's watching My Little Pony, I want a boy who's like, 'I'm tough.'" Congratulations, girl - I sure hope you aren't a feminist otherwise you'd be another one to chalk up to the hypocrite list. We will discuss this in more depth in the next post: how Bronydom really stretches the gender-norm line, and really shows society's backwards expectations and the reverse sexism that occurs in our modern western society.

For now, I have a chili recipe to try out.

(Disclaimer: All screenshots used are property and copyright of Hasbro)

on Love and Tolerance: Prologue - Reaction to Teens' Reactions

Yo dawg, I heard you like reactions, so I decided to post my reactions to the reactions of teens watching the MLP:FIM Opening. All overused Xzbit memes aside, this video, along with several other happenings and stories from the Brony community have really sparked my interest over the idea of "Love and Tolerance" which is supposedly one of the key aspects of the show and Bronydom (sorry, if that's not a legit fanword - I'm not terribly in tune with the movement, I just mostly like the show). So first, for those who haven't seen it, here's the video:

So, In addition to my reactions to several of the kids featured in the video, specifically, I have my own reactions to the questions in general, and so I'll break this series of words down into a number of posts:
0 - Specific Comments/Children
I - Ponies and Relationships
II - Bronies and Sexism/Gender Norms (& Sexuality)
III - Sharing, Caring, and Copyrights
IV - Tolerating Dislike of Ponies

So with these individual kids, there are a number of different reactions from disgust to an enthusiastic love for Ponies and Bronies. I'm not going to talk about each of the kids in here, just the ones that I had specific comments towards, and will do so in order of their appearance in the video.

The Adam-Person:
His general opinion (by the end of the video): "Bronies are all trolls. They don't actually like the show, they're just using that as a guise to stir up controversy, and for that I support them."
How do I feel about this? Uh, well, from what I've seen, that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm not saying that Bronies and Trolls are mutually exclusive - there are certainly Bronies that are trolls and trolls that are Bronies, but certainly not all Bronies are trolls and those who are Bronies are more than likely actual fans of the show, not just trolling. I mean, I know trolls will go out of their way to troll, indeed. But organizing conferences, creating new games, art, toy-mods, etc? This is definitely not a troll movement. The sheer amount of creativity involved in the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fan-base really shows that people care about and enjoy the show.

The Isaac-Person:
His general reaction: "The Brony phenomenon is weird, but I won't judge them."
This. This kid is awesome and I hope that attitude remains with him in all things. His words, "Do your thing - I'm not gonna judge you" is really what people need to think more about all things. Even if you do judge, just a little... as long as you can accept it, you can be the getalonginest pony person ever, and that's great.

The Jade-Person (well no, she's not actually a person made of Jade):
This particular person knew of Bronies before being told about the fan based, and said she had watched a bit, but the show was not really for her. This alone I think is a fine opinion. I might argue that you need to watch at least 3 episodes to really get a good sense of the show, but at least she tried, so, okay. I do have a small beef with what she and some of the other girls say, but I will address that in Part I.

The Jourdan-Person:
Okay, hold on - Fluttershy mode so I don't sound super hateful because I'm not hateful, just... irritated.

HOW DARE YOU?! Listen here, mister: Just because you think you're cool, doesn't mean you get to be a bully! You may have a silly emo haircut, and your hipster pink plaid-y shirt, but you do not, I repeat you do NOT have the right to judge ANYONE because they like a show with large amounts of rainbows, pink and purple. You got that?

And in fact, he can't even say anything like, "but the rainbowy ones kicked me" because nothing like that's ever happened. This was obviously his first exposure to My Little Pony and he's already hating on it. With statements like, "I'm a little concerned that you think that I should watch that... because you thought I'm on the other side of the road, and I'm not?" But, geeze, we'll address Bronies and sexuality/sexism later.

COME ON. You're wearing a shirt with pink in it, you ADMITTED IT (in the deleted scenes), and you're STILL raggin' on guys who like this BECAUSE THERE'S PINK IN IT. DON'T YOU, "BUT I-" me, mister. Now what do you have to say for yourself?

But really - in all seriousness, with the silly hairdo and pink shirt thing, he might argue that he's just trying to assert his individuality, and express himself. Well, so are Bronies - so how can he hate on them for just being who they are, just like he's doing? Imma slap this one with my HYPOCRITE stamp and move on.


The Devin-Person:
This is my favorite little person, not because he's an instant Brony convert (in fact, it scares me that just the opening is so appealing to him), but because his comments are right on the mark of Love and Tolerance and awesome. On being asked why guys would like this, he said, "Because there's, like, nothing wrong with it - it's just, like, fun" YES. EXAAAAAAACTLY. That's what people really need these days. I know from personal experience, and also from my studies (on friendship? lol) that in today's society, we all need a little bit of fun! While not everyone may find their enjoyment in Ponies, as long as people have their way of harmlessly finding joy, there should be no reason for anyone to deny them that, or to judge them for that. No one's going to say, "you shouldn't be rock climbing!" or "you're a disgrace to society for painting!" The only reason why these Bronies are so controversial is because they're breaking expected gender and age norms/expectations. And for that, I am thankful.

We'll talk more about those individual expectations momentarily, but really, I'm just happy that Bronies really bring to light how backwards, hypocritical, and just plain strange our gender norms really are.

(Disclaimer: All screenshots used are property and copyright of Hasbro)

on 3D Movies - Beauty and the Beast 3D Review

Meh.

I mean... well... Meh.

I went to go see Beauty and the Beast 3D on Friday with my mother and it's the first movie I've seen in 3D. So as a very graphics oriented person, I thought I'd share my opinion on this nowhere-near-new trend.

Ever since Avatar, (or even before?) almost all movies produced have been in 3D, or otherwise with the option of 3D. So why did I wait until now to see a 3D movie? Well... I thought the trend was over-hyped and I don't really do well with 3D things on big screens - I felt like throwing up when playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion on his home's basement wall-sized projector home studio. BUT there were a few reasons why I chose to see Beauty and the Beast 3D.

1. Having seen the original Beauty and the Beast before, I thought I would be able to focus less on the story (since I would know what was going on anyway) and really scrutinize the 3D effects and other graphics.
2. There really weren't any other movies that caught my eye that I want to see in theaters at this time
3. Tangled: Ever After short. Need I say more? Yes, I paid to see a full-length film mostly on account of wanting to watch this adorable, hilarious, epic little epilogue to one of my favorite movies of all time.

So, lets work backwards on this list.

The Tangled: Ever After short. Sooooo super cute - granted, despite being over the legal drinking age in the USA, I have the mind of a 5 year old. (Well, not exactly, otherwise I would've been scared by the Beast, as Mom told me I was the first time I saw Beauty and the Beast in theaters as a child.) As a huge fan of Pascal and Maximus, this little short's focus on their try-hard attempts to not make the royal wedding a complete disaster had me at the edge of my seat like, "NOOOOOOoooo! YAAAAAAAAAAY! C'MON PASCAL YOU CAN DO IT!" The 3D effects were nice, but not particularly eye-popping, nor immersing. As far as seeing my favorite little dudes be epically hilarious? I got what I wanted.

I was actually quite happy to see Beauty and the Beast 3D, even though I probably wouldn't have without the preface of the Tangled short (even though my mom asked: "Why did they show that? Did they put in the wrong movie?") I forgot how touching the story is and how much I really liked Beauty and the Beast. The story, basic animation, and songs are all the same as the original. But the picture quality was superb, the colors were clear, and the animation was smooth - kind of. I'll get to that in a sec, though.

So the 3D effects were pretty cool, and interesting. Because it looks the same (otherwise) as the original, cell-shaded animation as before, you get the effect of layers of 2D paper cutouts that have depth relative to each other, and not so much depth/shape as a whole. There are some times when they try to break out of this, I noticed, such as when Belle is standing behind a table, but with her hand on the edge closest to the viewer. They certainly didn't do a BAD job with it, but I noticed the effect there and it didn't seem quite right - I felt like her arm was particularly longer than it should've looked. Also, sometimes it felt like things that were spinning/dancing became blurred because of the 3D effect, but maybe it was just because I wasn't paying enough attention. One of the things that did make me feel immersed was the weather effects - the rain and snow that they made 3D was actually quite impressive. Also, the 3D parts that were particularly effective was when you would be looking into a window or mirror, and can still see the frame.
When the camera would zoom out, however, I felt like the 3D effects could be quite jarring, because all of a sudden, "OMG, TREE BRANCH!" Overall though, I was quite pleased with what they did, despite the limitation of looking like a set of cutouts.

The best 3D parts were: the castle scenery, Be Our Guest scene, and the dance scene (in which "OMG, TREE BRANCH" was replaced with "ZOMG, CHANDELIER").
But even still, I say "meh" to the idea of 3D movies as a whole, because it doesn't really add anything to the experience. In fact, I felt myself pushing those 3D glasses up to my face so often, it was felt less immersed because of this constant reminder I was in a theater. If, someday, they can do 3D movies without the glasses (like the 3DS - another thing I need to examine) then I might remove the "meh" opinion from it. But otherwise, I just feel like I'd rather watch a movie normally.

Overall, however, I had a good time, mostly a nostalgic experience with a quality movie. :D

on the Psychology of Star Wars: The Old Republic

So here's where look super geeky with a mix of my educational side and my gamer side. Small beginning disclaimer: this is in no way any sort of scholarly article, and is really just my ramblings about how some psychological theories along with the game play of Star Wars: The Old Republic may interact. As you read, please keep in mind that I am NOT saying in any way that SWTOR is bad, that games are bad, or any sort of that nonsense. This is me just throwing my ideas and how I string the elements that I encounter in life together. Also, please note that I am really quite insane and tend to take things I see in games and movies with me in real life and incorporate parts of them in to myself. I will explain further what I mean, but I wanted to throw out there that I realize not everyone is like this, and so my worries about the implications of SWTOR in real life may not apply to everyone.

Now that we have that out of the way...

The topic I am really curious about is the impact of decision making and the view of morality as we see in SWTOR and how it might influence individual feelings of morality in real life.

First, for those of you who are not familiar with the gaming realm, SWTOR is a very story-line based game, where you can pick different things to say or do in quests and conversations. Some of these decisions are trivial, with no impact whatsoever other than making the non-player character (NPC) you're talking to react in a different way initially, to other decisions that affect whether someone (again, an NPC, not anyone in your party) dies and/or determines what rewards you obtain. Some of these decisions will gain you Light or Dark side points, which may affect what gear you can wear, or lightsaber colors you can have. So when deciding what to say, you will be shown whether your decision is a Light or Dark sided option and yes, you can be a Jedi that has become aligned with the Dark side, or a Sith with Light side alignment (I don't think you can ever actually change factions though).

Secondly, for those of you who are not familiar with the psychology realm, I will explain one of the key theories in my thinking: Cognitive Dissonance theory. So while I've linked to the Wikipedia article on it for those of you interested, here's just a quick run-down. Basically, if we see ourselves behaving (speaking and/or doing something) in some way that is inconsistent with beliefs [we think] we hold, this causes cognitive dissonance, which is anxiety inducing, and we must make some sort of alteration in either the behavior or the beliefs in order to remove/reduce this anxiety. This is, of course, dependent on there being no other explanation for our belief-inconsistent-behavior, such as payment or other rewards. FOR EXAMPLE: one of the simplest studies of cognitive dissonance was to have subjects come in to a lab and perform some very meaningless, useless, and especially boring task. It was after this task that the real experiment began - upon finishing, the subject would be asked to tell the next person coming in (really just a person working for the experiment) that the task was fun and enjoyable. In one condition, the participant was offered some sum of money (like $20) for lying, and in the other, the participant was offered either no money or some piddling, negligible amount. Then, before leaving the lab, they filled out a survey which included questions about how fun the task was. For those who were offered the larger sum of money, the survey was overall rated as boring, and not fun, while those who were not offered that money rated the task as fun. Basically you have the people in the former condition thinking (probably outside their awareness), "Why did I say that was fun? Well of course I SAID it was fun because they gave me $20 to do so - but it really wasn't fun at all" while those in the latter condition would have been left with thoughts such as, "Why did I say it was fun? I guess it must've been pretty fun, but they gave me $1 to say it was fun... but that's not enough money to make me lie, so I guess it was fun." This is just one of the examples of this theory, but we see how inconsistency between behavior and beliefs can result in a change in one or the other, when there is no other explanation that adequately accounts for the inconsistency. And, because the behavior is usually hard to change (on account of it being in the past, and not necessarily going to be repeated), it is usually the thoughts that are altered.

So now that we know that SWTOR makes you choose between Dark and Light side behaviors, and that if we see ourselves doing something inconsistent with our beliefs, we might end up changing those beliefs. So how does this impact morality? Well if we consider the Light side as inherently good and moral, and the Dark side as bad and evil, then the game's labels of some decisions as Light and others as Dark then we are making decisions that are already labeled as "moral" or "immoral." This is where I start to have a problem and I, personally, start feeling a lot of cognitive dissonance.

Lets start with a concrete example: there's a Trooper (Light-side) quest where you're asked by a mother to find her missing son who had been kidnapped. When you find him, he says he would like to leave the planet so his kidnappers won't find him again. Your two options, at this point are to give him enough money so he can escape the planet on his own (Light-side) or have him go to his parents (Dark-side).

Here, in playing a Jedi, I feel as if I should take ALL the Light-side points (_o/ <-- Allie Brosh pose) and be the ideal Jedi, but goddamnit, I'm ASIAN. I'd HAVE to send a kid to his parents if they're so worried about him! So if I had picked the Light option to give him money, I would've been feeling quite a bit of anxiety over my decision - thankfully for me, this was actually my boyfriend playing and I was watching while my computer was going through a reset-to-manufacturer's-settings (a whole story in itself). But what about the alternate explanation - could there be some sort of reasoning behind a decision that would've been inconsistent with my beliefs? Well, as my thinking went, it was, "It's just a game, I should take the Light-side option to get all the Light-side POINTS....... but... it's just a GAME and the points don't do much, so I should do what I think is right." So on the one hand, the "just a game" argument could be used as justification for inconsistent behavior, but paradoxically could be seen as inadequate reasoning for the same thing - it all really depends on the individual person's point of view.

So, here's where I feel like it may have a broader impact. I wonder if it is possible that I'm not the only person that feels these moral dilemmas between picking decisions that are in line with their character's Light or Dark alignment, and their own personal beliefs, values, and morals. I mean, if the Dark/Light points and alignment had a greater impact on the story and on others' interactions with you in the game instead of just changing what gear you can wear and what colors you can use for your blaster or lightsaber, then perhaps there would be enough incentive to make a decision that goes against your personal beliefs without causing cognitive dissonance and the resulting anxiety. If there is such a greater impact, then I haven't played the game enough yet to find it. But I wonder if Jedi/Sith morals will begin to set itself into people's value sets because of the role of cognitive dissonance.

I do like how being able to play on either side kind of blurs the line between "Good" and "Evil" though, as some Dark-side options have some very good reasoning behind them, and could be very logically justified as being for the good of others.

on Other Blogs That are Awesome

Because blogging is not my life, and because reading THIS blog is not YOUR life, here are some other great places to waste your time while you procrastinate on doing your studies and/or paying your bills! I've made a new page for convenience, but I didn't want too lengthy of descriptions on every link, so I'll go through and qualify some of these where appropriate for their first introduction.

Friends
OnAHumanJourney
Blog: YouTube videos, how-to tutorials for crafts like 3D origami. Run by a super hilarious domesticated gamer brony. Because he probably won't plug this, I will: he's single, ladies, but don't jump all over that at once. ;D

Live Creatively Now
Blog: craft tutorials - simple, easy to understand and easy to do. It's good for both noobs like me and pros as well, I'm sure. Smart and funny, with occasional pictures of kitties and biscuts!

The Contribution Project
Blog: a more political blog about "Global health through the lens of business management" - very insightful and thought provoking. For those of you who like words and reading them, this is a place for you.


Inspiration
Hyperbole and a Half
I only wish I could say I were friends with the amazing, witty, brilliant Allie Brosh, but alas, I am just an avid fan of her hilarious blog. I will be a Hyperbole and a Half hipster and say that I was a fan before the "X ALL the Y" memes hit the internet. In fact, I was saying "X ALL the Y" before it was all over the internet. Can't get enough of her stuff? She also has posts on The Gloss. While I have heard people criticize the simplicity of her art, I think her art is really amazing, especially the way she can depict a hysterical dog and the point of view of said dog in said state of hysteria. Honestly, she's all sorts of awesome and win. If you only read one blog in your life - make it hers, not the silly trash that I have here.


I will probably definitely add more to the "Inspiration" half, as there are definitely more I can think of, and I will be growing my friends list as I stumble upon more of their blogs, or as I make more friends!

on IRL Crafting: Dress-Mod Project - Part II

So the first part of this project was based off a Sweetie Bell colored paisley patterned dress which was very simply made into a draw-string skirt. This second part involved changing this very adorably-patterned pink checkered dress into something that I could fit into. As you can see, compared to the previous dress, this one had a bit of form stitched into it, which made it a little harder to fit into than the last one.

At least the people who originally made the dress (Old Navy) made it easy for me, and the form of the dress was created just by taking in some parts, rather than cutting different pieces of cloth. So using my Salvaging Tool, I took apart the dress and, unlike the previous one, more than just the bottom part was used. We'll get to how the top part was used in a little bit, but first, the bottom. The problem here was that the waist was too thin, and would not go over my hips (hard to imagine that I might have actually developed some figure since the last 8 years... or maybe I'm just fat now). In any case, re-working this dress really required some out-of-the-box thinking, and especially some in-the-chimney thinking.

Because the waistline of the dress was originally made to be thinner and then flare out at the bottom, so I decided to turn the bottom part of the dress upside down! On the original dress, the zipper was placed on the side, so when we removed that, the simple solution was to just hem those two places and make it a slit in the narrower part so it wouldn't be hard to walk. I also opened up the other side and re-hemmed it in order to make it symmetrical, and then added some adorable lace as a trim at the bottom.

As for the waistline for this new skirt, as I said, we turned it upside down, so now the top area was a little too BIG for my waist, so we had to take it in at a few points, and then add in a zipper so I can get in and out of it, without it falling off. The original dress had a slight slit in the back, and this is where we put the new zipper - I really tried to make this as simple as possible, and really take advantage of the dress' original structure. This is especially evident in what I did with the top part of the dress - I made it into a pocket!

So the top part, at first, just looks like a weird bikini-top-thing, but it was double layered initially (for comfort and/or opacity), with a cute trim at the top that held the two layers together, and also led in to the spaghetti straps of the dress. Taking advantage of the double layering, I just undid a bit of the trim, where appropriate, and then cut the top part in half, as shown. Then I sewed cut part on one of the halves which formed the last wall of a stand-alone pocket.

Then I just added some of that lace we had on the trim (using up the last of this lace that has been in our home for as long as I can remember) and VOILA - a pocket. All that was left was to attach it to the skirt itself! Also, just because I couldn't think of a way to get rid of the strap, I actually left it on because cutting it off would cause it to fray, and it's also fun to play with.

Nothing exciting about the back, so just a front view. The pocket's a little ridiculous, but I hate having skirts/pants without them, so I like it. Showed it to my dad to which he responded, "Nice... is it an apron or a tablecloth?" Thanks, Trolldad. Either way, I like it and I think it turned out quite nicely.

on Making Shirts 20% Cooler

So this is also in line with the Dress-Mod Project in that the motivations for these projects is the fact that I know my wardrobe is super full and I just don't wear half of it because it either doesn't fit and I'm just keeping it like the hoarder that I am (anti-Rarity, lol) or that it just isn't exciting enough.

So recently I've WANTED to buy some My Little Pony themed shirts but with a surplus of unused clothes, I wasn't about to blow my Graduate School Tuition (YES, CAPITALIZED LIKE A TITLE BECAUSE IT TAKES OVER MY LIFE) on MLP:FIM gear at something like 25 bucks a piece. SO, I figured since I'm doing the crafty thing anyway I figured I'd take the poorman's way out and make it a DIY project.

I went to Walmart (Gasp) and bought a 6 pack of Tulip Bright Permanent Fabric Markers for about $10 (Amazon there is selling them for ~$13... just go to a Walmart, even if they are evil). So I have several plain-colored shirts that I wanted to use. The first of these was a bright yellow GAP shirt that I never wear (it blends in with my skin color, sadface) so even though it's a little brighter than her coat color, I thought I'd make it into a Fluttershy shirt. So our base materials are a plain shirt, these fabric markers, and a printed out cutie-mark stencil (just found some nice quality cutie mark art online and created an outline of each part in Photoshop).

The easiest way to cut out a stencil is with your handy-dandy emo-blade exact-o-knife. Of course, as always, make sure you're using a surface that won't get damaged or that you won't mind getting damaged. For this, because I don't have any fancy crafty cutting mats, I ripped apart an old shoebox and salvaged the cardboard for various uses in this project. And of course, for safety purposes, always make sure that a responsible adult is the one who will be doing the cutting for you. ... What are you talking about, of course I cut it out myself, why would you... HEeeeey. Sadface. Also, you may notice in the picture, I also cut out some wax paper (yeah, I know, what?) along with the normal paper just as a secondary stencil, just in case something went wrong with the paper stencil (good thing I did, because it turned out that the ink from the printer would bleed from the marker into to color, which created some icky color muddling on the edge but hardly noticeable, and I also managed to cover it, regardless I switched to mostly using the wax-paper as a stencil).

Here's where the cardboard was also really handy, I put in inside the shirt right under where I wanted to draw, so that I would have a hard surface, and just in case the markers bled, I didn't want ink going onto the back of the shirt. The latter wasn't so much of a problem, but with the fabric as soft and stretchy as it was, having the cardboard as a backing really helped.

The easiest way to use the stencil was just to trace the outline and then fill in from there. Which means, unfortunately, I had some problems with the butterfly antennae and messed those up in trying to free-hand them because I wasn't looking at the original *le dumb*. As for the markers in general, I really expected that they wouldn't color over the yellow fabric or that the colors would be muddled because of the cloth color, but after testing it on one of the hidden areas inside the shirt, I was surprised at how bright and clear the colors stayed even on a colored shirt, so there was no reason to bleach parts of the shirt, I just started drawing straight on the shirt. I like the brush tip, it makes it easy to add a fine line where you want it, but not hard to fill in solid areas.

So here are the three I was able to finish - Fluttershy, a Rainbow Dash Hood-tee, and a Rarity shirt.

But let's compare to the official merchandise:
Rarity - Okay, so I messed up on the detail-lines for the diamonds - if you look up close, you can tell, but from far away, it's barely noticeable. Any passing Brony or Pegasis will know what it's supposed to be. Also, the cloth in the shirt I used is a little higher quality and fancier. I was surprised that the marker actually worked on it, but it's definitely more Rarity than the other two.

Rainbow Dash - the cutie mark is a bit off center and a little too low. Also, Red wasn't included in the colors that I bought, so I had to fudge it a little, and there's also no white, so the cloud is just... transparent. And the rainbow-bolt isn't as exact and precise as I would've like, but oh well... It has a HOOD.

Fluttershy - Like I already mentioned, I messed up in trying to free-hand draw the antennae, and while the color is too BRIGHT, I think it looks much better than the pale-mud color that is being offered online.

Also, my Pegasus shirts both have a one-up on the official: I added wings to the back! AAAAaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwww, yeah.

Though as I mentioned, I do not have Red, so no Applejack shirts coming yet, I also do not have an appropriately Pinkie shirt to mod for that, and no White means no Twilight Sparkle, as of yet. But for now, I have shirts for half of the Mane 6 - I'm really needing to find myself something to Pinkie-ify. If not, I'll have to find out how to make a rainbow umbrella hat! But in general, the colors in the Bright pack are pretty great for Ponies, what with the Pink, Yellow, Purple, and Blue. I haven't really used the Orange or Green yet.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with these markers - I've made 3 shirts that would have otherwise cost me over $75, for just a little over $10, and I've saved some wardrobe space. My clothes are now 20% cooler.

on IRL Crafting: Dress-Mod Project - Part I

So I bought these dresses around 8 years ago... and unfortunately they no longer fit which is strange because there's no way I could've grown in this amount of time...

Anyway, not wanting to waste the beautiful/cute fabrics that they're made of I wanted to see if I could remake them into something new that could fit. I've finished one, so far, but I'm missing a fitting zipper for the second, so I will post the finished one.

So this first dress is originally a light purple and white ... bah, I forget what this pattern is called.  But anyway. PAISLEY. I really liked it, but it definitely doesn't fit anymore, and as you can tell by the picture, it doesn't really have any form to it... (not that there would be any form to show off in my case but[t]... [ohohoo 8D])

So first we have the tools of Crafting IRL.  We have the Creepy-Voodo-Doll-Pin-Cushion, a Level 1 Primitive Sewing Machine (50% chance of failing while crafting), pretty awesome shears, and the all-powerful-multi-purpose-doohickey that has many names.  I've heard it called something like a Seam Ripper, but then I'd want to name it Jack and put it in a horror movie, Seam Stripper sounds NSFW, Stitch Remover sounds too surgical, and either way, none of these really explain how awesome I think this tool is. I like to think of it as a Salvaging Kit, or more accurately a Reverse Engineering tool (a la SWTOR).  Not only does it let you take apart your gear and return the base materials to you (better than scissors can), but it also allows for you to really understand how it's made and (especially for a noob like me) to think of ideas on how to use the materials to make something better (I've really been crafting too much in SWTOR, I think...).
In any case, the Salvaging Tool is also my CTRL+Z, for when the sewing machine fails me or I just mess up.

So, of course the first step was to Reverse Engineer the dress into its component pieces. Unlike the other dress, I really only used the bottom part and not even all of it because the top was just too skinny (God forbid, I've somehow developed hips since I bought these). So the straps and the rest of the top of this dress haven't been used at all, but are being kept on hand in case I ever need them again. I just chopped off the excess cloth and re-hemmed it.

The process was, unfortunately, not without casualties. This is what I mean by "50% chance of fail" when using my mom's old sewing machine. At least I was lucky enough that my materials weren't consumed and replacing the needle was enough to allow me to continue crafting.

After hemming the part that had been cropped, there was still the question of how I could get this creation to stay on my body. I decided on a simple to use, simple to make, solution - a drawstringribbon.

Sewing in a simple fold in which to put the ribbon, I had to put the ribbon IN and did not have any fancy tools with which to do so. Mom directed me to a bobby pin. This simple solution worked very well and shortly after worming it through the skirt, I had a finished project.

It's hard to tell in the pictures, but there are pockets in the front (they were already on the original dress - no need to remove them), and the ribbon comes out in the back. This latter feature is just because there was a slit back there from where the zipper used to be, so instead of sewing it up and trying to make a new hole for the ribbon to come out, I chose the lazy way out.

Anyway, overall this skirt was much easier than the next one that will be finished as soon as I can obtain a zipper of the right size.

on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is undoubtedly a rather large and unexpected phenomenon and I am particularly late in writing about it... But IMMA DO IT ANYWAY CUZ I FEEL LIKE IT.

So.

I guess it starts as to why I started watching this AMAZING SHOW. Being an internet lurker, it was kind of impossible to avoid the memes and adorable pictures that flooded the internet and it was, of course, visually appealing, but I was still wary and didn't really think much of it. Not until season two started and references of the new (at the time) villain as Q really caught me. You have to understand - I was raised on Star Trek (and The Simpsons, but I digress). I had to watch Season Two... For Discord. Of course, starting on Season Two made no sense (yeah, I tried), so I went and watched the first two episodes to get the context... and then proceeded to watch the rest of Season One in the next two days... because Fluttershy.

I have to admit, even within the time I have been watching MLP:FIM, my opinions on the show has changed. Like, I used to hate Pinkie Pie and her songs, and now I've realized that I most like Pinkie Pie and love [most of] her songs. A less trivial change in my opinion, however, is my view of the show overall. I used to think it was a pretty awesome kids show. Now I feel like it's not-really-a-kid's-show disguised as a kid's show. For example this just about sums up my thoughts about the latest episode.

As for the social implications, if there are any, I might throw out my view on those later... For now, time to play SWTOR.

on The Rationale of This Blog

Well, here I am: writing a blog. And here you are reading my blog. Why any of these are happening, I really haven't the slightest idea. But, while you're here, I suppose I shall at least try to rationalize this interaction between my writings and your readings.

I've had for a while, in the back of my mind, the idea to just express the thoughts that go through my mind, regardless of whether or not anyone will read them. Well, you're here reading my thoughts right now, and for that, I suppose I should thank you. What kind of thoughts will appear here?; A variety of things, probably, since I am a particularly varied person. This could range from rants about political views, game reviews, craft projects, photos, or just random ramblings. This leads to several things I must disclose in order to convince you that you are crazy for continuing to read this.

• There is no planned schedule for updates/posts - they will be added as inspiration and time allow for.
• Everything written will be my opinion and not something I will be trying to pass off as fact.
• There will My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic references - perhaps not in every post, but they will happen.
• I might not reveal too much about who I am for a number of reasons. For simplicity's sake, let us just assume that I am a cynical, paranoid person who thinks that revealing the fact that I live on Earth will result in many terrible, horrible, no-good things.
• I am a hateful person. There will be much insulting of myself, others, and... anything

As for how this blog began, one day one of my dear ol' friends talked about her own blog and so by her inspiration (unfortunately for you) the next morning I rolled out of bed and began to hammer away at this project.

The Title: Please Remind Me to Poop
I feel the need to explain this, and I'm hoping that there is not another blog/page/space/site/etc. out there with such a crude title for several reasons. Particularly, I find this a fitting title because it is really quite telling of some of the things you will read in this blog. Another reason is that it is quite befitting of how I am - in fact, I started this right after waking up at 11am (shut up, I'm on Winter Break) and it is currently past 2 and I have yet to brush my teeth or eat breakfast.

... Actually, I'm kind of hungry, so let's save the rest of the explanation for another page. That "Why" tab up there... It seems you know how to read, so you should be able to find it.