dirty words

Per a press release, the humanized figures [of Equestria Girls] are supposed to represent My Little Pony characters as teenage girls in high school.

The release goes on to describe these characters with words like "glamour," "stylish," "ultra-chic."



WHY.

“We are responding to the desire by our fans to experience the brand in more ways.”

Oh. They got this idea from Brony fap drawings, didn't they. :(

The retrospective pics of the childhood you've just lost over at ontd are worth a look.

I'm tired, so for my feelings on this, I'll direct you down memory lane to the feminist internet's collective ragefest about the time Dora the Explorer became a stylish, ultra-chic teenage girl in high school.

Edit: No wait, I'm not done. I don't care if they're teenage otherkin fantasies in high school, there's no way Rainbow Dash or Applejack would let their muscles waste away into toothpicks, Applejack and Fluttershy have completely impractical outfits for their interests (you can't farm in a miniskirt and a sleeveless corset, Applejack! and come on, Fluttershy would totally be the one going to school in the oversized t-shirts with screen-printed kitten pics on them), Twilight Sparkle would wear SENSIBLE SHOES, and... well, Rarity and Pinkie Pie are probably fine, though Pinkie Pie's duds are a little subdued. UGH, HASBRO, YOU CAN'T EVEN OBJECTIFY THEM PROPERLY.

There are still a few open days if you are willing and able to fast for 1 day to support fellow internet traveler irony_rocks, who is too ill this year to keep her Ramadan fast.

Please go here to grav_ity's journal for more information, to volunteer for a day, or just to leave good wishes. <3 I'm told that more ways to support will be coming soon, so if you'd like to participate in the virtual love fest but your health and/or life circumstances won't allow, there'll be something for us too!

I tried writing a new thing for Camp Nano with no plan and realized after 1,500 words or so that a story was emerging (slowly), but it was the type of story I probably wouldn't read. I don't think I want to spend a month writing something that will annoy me.

And idk. I have feels. I'm carefully avoiding an existential what-is-my-life sort of crisis here. (I imagine this sort of crisis is pretty common when one is surrounded by people who think they're dying.)

Then I said fuck it, I'm going back to Mars, even if I still suck at science and it's bad Red Mars ripoff fic and there's a major plot decision I can't resolve and two characters that are far too similar. I re-read most of my Nano 2009 demi-novel (from the last time my mom had cancer) and it feels like being reacquainted with old friends. This is soooo not destined to be A Real Novel. My dad asked me if there was, at some point, a way I could make a living with writing. I said maybe? I mean, the question surprised me, and it's not impossible, but let's accept that I am going to waste some time with something that is definitely Not That Thing. But you know, life is hard and I don't want to think about the future and I want to go to space with a bunch of misfits who would never actually pass the psych screenings. And I want to write again like I'm learning to write, practicing, because I found a new font or like the pen or the paper is crisp or I'm bored, instead of being so aware of what I'm good at and what is the best use of my writing time and who will get joy from it and whether or not I'm crazy or dull or wrong. I want to write stories that love me again, so that if I'm ever the only one left in my family, I won't be alone.

I'm sure all that's still in me, somewhere, under years of me smothering it as a backwards way of trying to prove it's really there, but I'm not really asking that much for this project. I just hope I'm lucky enough that something will come out that's absorbing enough to let me get pulled away for a little while.

I would also accept a nice envelope in the mail with a neatly pressed letter inside telling me what I should be with my life to not waste it, and what the next three steps are.

I wrote things here and was going to write more, but it was all complaining and excuses. Things are what they are, and I need to reframe the things I can control and work on a new attitude.

There. I feel better posting that than the other thing. :)

I have survived 31 years on this planet! (And it's the most dangerous planet I've ever been to!)

I also survived moving an upright piano by myself because I'm painting my parents' basement today. :) (I invoked the birthday card to negotiate a paint colour other than white. I'm pretty sure there's been nothing but boring white primer on top of drywall in this room for the 16 years since we finished the basement, and my dad is okay with that sort of thing, but dammit, this room will be sea foam with parsnip accents before I'm done with it and he will love it.)

Can we have Junetober always because having Sparktober on my birthday is THE BEST! Everybody should write me Sparky fic, yes. They don't have to be painting. I don't think there's much need for that in Atlantis, where the walls look perfectly sparkly after 10,000 years in what I presume is the fairly humid environment of under the ocean.

I love birthdays! If I recall correctly, it's also bluebanrigh's birthday on today, the greatest of days for primary-colored people to be born!

This evening's devotional service at the Holy Church of Star Trek / laundry-folding episode was "Where No One Has Gone Before." I've seen it a hundred times before, I'm sure, but I always seem to notice new things whenever I watch Trek episodes. (Usually, I notice something like B'Elanna's impractically long manicure; tonight it was actually relevant.)

Anyway, I was hit by the magnitude of what the Traveler tells Picard about Wesley. Wesley is like Mozart for space and time and thought (specifically using the technology of the Enterprise), and the Traveler puts Picard in charge of encouraging him and guiding his education so this kid can TRANSCEND HUMANITY. And the Traveler tells Picard this while the Enterprise's cruising altitude is the end of the universe, where thought and reality are the same, so his words make an impact.

No wonder Picard immediately promotes Wes, puts him on the bridge, gives him every opportunity to save the day – and no wonder Wesley SAVES the day by picking magical solutions out of thin air that elude trained Starfleet officers. Because he's Mozart of space and time. I bet this stays in Picard's mind for all his future interactions with Wesley, and I'm going to make a point to keep it in mine.

Until now, I thought Picard's special attachment to Wesley was because of Jack Crusher and a debt Picard feels he owes to Beverly... but this makes much more sense with Picard's character. Helping Wesley reach his potential is really part of his Starfleet mission.

(I also noticed that this is the episode where Data *gasp* uses a contraction without it being a plot point. I'll assume it's because they were at the end of the universe. You are not less perfect than Lore, Data!)

Is anyone doing camp nanowrimo in July?

Let's be cabin buddies! I always stash candy.

(Oh, youth. When stashing candy - health-food store candy at that - at hippie camp was the height of rebellion. We code-named it "mint tea" and thought we were sooooo clever.)

I don't actually have any idea how camp nanowrimo works, but I assume it's more or less like hippie camp but with more electricity and junk food and fewer naked sweat lodges. I should probably smudge my computer.

(I used to write at those camps, too. We'd be turned out to the woods alone with our meditation journals to become One With Nature, and I 'channeled' a lot of Babylon 5 fanfic.)

Before I can go into SPARKTOBER IN JUNE ALLA TIME mode (eee!), I've got to finish and post an X-Files fic that kicked my butt across 12 states. I've got to do a once-over on it myself, but then is anyone willing to be a second pair of eyes?

It's Doggett/Reyes, post "The Truth," kind of angstventure (or is "stress" a genre?), 5600 words.

I hate sharing anything that tells me to "share with your friends!" but in caaaaase you're looking for some meditation in your life, I've been doing this with my mom and enjoying it a lot, so it feels kinda mean not to share with my friends:

15 Days, 15 Meditations - Relax, Revitalize, all that good stuff.

It's Deepak Chopra & company, and basically each meditation (one is getting posted per day for 15 days) has a 5-10 minute relaxing lecture portion with some info from a big name in the meditation/spiritual development/woo-woo field and then a 5-minute-or-so meditation with really nice music.

I imagine it would be enjoyable for beginners too (let me answer the question you will have: when they say "find a comfortable position" they mean it - lie down, sit on a chair, sit cross-legged on top of a post, it all works I promise), but I'm loving it as a refresher and a way of getting back into the habit. It was extra fun today (day 4) because the woo-woo guest speaker was Stephen Cope, whom I knew growing up. (Uh, bonus plug while I'm spamming things: If you ever want to get a sense of the kind of yoga and the ashram I grew up in, you can read his book Yoga and the Quest for the True Self.)

*You have to register and they probably try to get you to buy it at the end of the 15 days and send you emails about future free programs or whatever. No actual sham-wow included.

Dear Enterprise fic writers, 10 years too late: Please refrain from excessive use of "cap'n" in Trip's dialogue, especially if that's the only word you're spelling in dialect. I cannot take the story seriously if I'm imagining the Enterprise crew serving under Cap'n Crunch.