Friday morning random

Mostly cartoon oriented, as it turns out.

* This showed up on Equestria Daily. It made me laugh, so I repost it here:



It would not be NEARLY so funny to me with different music. That music is like every silly 1970s sitcom "Comic Shenanigans Are Happening Montage" music.

Yes, it's slightly less than 2 minutes and 30 seconds of Starlight Glimmer being a jerk, but I also notice something: of the Mane Six, it seems Fluttershy is the one most likely to escape comic injury, which is probably accurate given that she's the most risk-averse of all the ponies.

Also, even though a fellow pony fan opined that it was most likely a form of pneumonia brought on by all that high-altitude exposure that would carry off Pegasus ponies (and in fact, it formed the basis for a slightly sad but sweet story), I am now wondering if maybe Dashie won't actually succumb to the Pony version of organic brain disease caused by multiple concussions. (Someone get her a helmet, okay?)

There's also a point around 2:02 that holds the possibility for either an infinite time loop, or some kind of time-travel paradox.

* I guess Gravity Falls ended? I only got to see the last few minutes of one of the repeats of the finale. I will say my reaction was "Hm, seems to leave a door open" but I suspect this is The End end. Which is sad, but I think a lot of "modern" cartoon makers have realized you can't infinitely loop things.

Then again: reboots are a possibility. In the past 10 years Bugs Bunny and Co. have gone through two separate reboots: one, setting them in sort of a suburban world (Porky Pig in one of those soul-sucking middle-management jobs, which seems about right). The second is new and I guess it's more episodic, I haven't really seen it because the character design is ever-so-slightly uglified and it bothers me. Also, they've rebooted Scooby Doo so many times. (The newest one seems to show influence of either Rick & Morty or maybe one of the Seth McFarland shows on the character design. Again, it's slightly ugly and uncomfortable - though then again, that series never exactly had beautiful animation). And it looks like they're rebooting Powerpuff Girls, but the ads I've seen seem to suggest it's going to stick very closely to the original design. I suspect something like a superhero cartoon lends itself better to infinite seasons, because there's always evil in the world to fight (and Mojo Jojo will figure out ways to escape from prison)

I dunno. I always feel slightly sad when a series I like ends, partly because I fear "Nothing I like will come along to replace it" though that's not true. But it's worse when a series keeps going on the tv version of life-support, where some of the original talent has left and is replaced by not-as-good-talent, or Poochies are thrown in to try to make things "fresh," or the storylines get played out.

(As much as I hope for a Season 7 of Ponies - Season 6 starts in May - I don't know if they can come up with new storylines. Maybe a future reboot series, with the Mane Six being older* and maybe it focuses on young-adult versions of the school ponies? Or it explores the earlier history, sort of a prequel. Or it just goes with different characters altogether: I am learning to appreciate the earlier cartoons, even if some of them were VERY MUCH made for little kids)

(* My headcanon on this: Fluttershy and Big Mac (that is my OTP for Ponyville, and I'm stickin' to it) marry and have a couple of foals. Rarity moves to Manehattan and becomes kind of famous. Rainbow Dash gets into the Wonderbolts. Applejack kind of stays where she is, takes over much of the running of the farm, but with her new sister-in-law to help her, that makes it easier. Pinkie Pie marries Cheese Sandwich and they start up a traveling party business. Twilight perhaps ascends to taking on an even more serious role as a princess, maybe even is being groomed to replace Celestia and Luna, who are thinking about retiring. (We never know for sure just how immortal those two are. Apparently they are over 1000 years old, but then again, Granny Smith seems to be over 100, so maybe ponies live longer than humans or count time differently). And the three Cutie Mark Crusaders kind of grow up: Sweetie Belle becomes an entertainer, Apple Bloom takes over the marketing of her family's farm products, Scootaloo is sort of an all-purpose mechanic. And maybe Diamond Tiara, in her reformed form, becomes the Mayor some day, and actually does a really good job of it, especially with Silver Spoon as her adviser.)

* It's been very windy here these past couple of days, and I can feel it. The wind stirs up all kinds of dust and pollen and mold spores, and my eyes feel puffy and I feel tired. There have also been a lot of grass fires but they are all north of here, and with the wind out of the south, I doubt we'd be affected at all by the smoke, but smoke is another thing that bothers me.

Also, there seems to be a skunk living somewhere near my building on campus - two mornings this week I have come in and could faintly smell skunk spray. Though having a skunk around the building bothers me far less than some things we could have (nests of wasps in the drop ceilings, or feral dogs roaming the parking lot, or some kind of large bird nesting near a door that tries to attack people entering).

* Another unrelated thought - I was talking about the Big Famous Pop Star Guy the other day? Apparently he's massively in debt, which always makes me scratch my head because if I suddenly wound up in some kind of "star" position where I was making money hand over fist, the first thing I'd do would be to get a financial advisor to force me to put most of it away for such a time when I was no longer a "star." Then again, that was kind of how I was taught as a kid:

1. If you don't have the money for it (and it's not something like a house, that will increase in value), don't buy it, especially if it's not necessary. Avoid debt as much as humanly possible.
2. Make sure to - as much as possible - have at least a couple months' living expenses in an emergency fund somewhere, because you never know.
3. If times are good, save and/or invest because good times don't always last.

And, yeah, yeah, you can put that down to the "privilege" of having grown up in a family that emphasized those kinds of things. But I heard on the radio someone had set up a fund for this Big Famous Guy to help him pay his debts, and I was like "Whoa, I would so much rather fund a food bank if I had that kind of money to give away." (I don't have "that kind" of money, but I chuck a few dollars here and there from time to time, like to Mercy Corps or to Heifer Project. And when one of the local food banks puts out a call for some item they need, I add a few of it to my shopping cart when I'm out at the store...)

Also, I read somewhere that some guy teaching MOOCs is making upward of $6 million a year. But they never quite say HOW he does it, because my understanding is that MOOCs were free for people to enroll in....I am not sure how they "monetize" them, and so I'd be really suspicious of chucking my face-to-face career for that. (I would worry it was some kind of pyramid scheme, or something like the emu farms, where only the people who got in at the start made any money). But still: making $6 million in a year, teaching? Whoa. (And again, it makes me sad, because once again, the meme of "In the future, only the "superstars" will teach" and that means I will live out my life as sort of a grader-on-the-Uber-principle, where I have to hustle for gigs and only do the un-fun parts of teaching.)

Also, once again: I hate the word "monetize."

I also bought a bunch of boxes of band-aids yesterday: a student broke a beaker in class, cut his hand, and the first-aid kit in the room was all out. (I got one from another room). When I asked the person who would know "Who restocks these," was told "There's no money left for them to do that" so I figured, it's on us now, and it's embarrassing to have someone cut themselves and there be no bandages! So now the rooms that needed them have new boxes from me. No, I'm not telling anyone except you here. But I will balk if we're asked to supply toilet paper in the future. Though I could see that coming.

Maybe I start a kickstarter campaign for "buy consumables for my department." Or maybe the whole dang state needs a Kickstarter for "get us out of the fiscal hole we have somehow wound up in."


* Another way in which the world has changed: the campus newspaper had a little article on "decorating the top of your mortarboard" (presumably, to be distinctive, so you would be your own special person in the sea of black-clad graduates).

When I was going through the process of getting ready to graduate? We were told we would not be allowed in the stadium if we put any marking on our mortarboard. I suppose that was because they were afraid of protests, or foul language, or some such (and I suppose universities now would reserve the right to refuse someone to go in with an obscene or inflammatory thing on their mortarboard).

But to me, it just feels again about how Gen X was directed to, told, forced into things, and now, it's an anything-goes-let's-just-keep-them-happy-throw-out-any-rules thing. And also the whole idea of how everyone is always special! and unique!

Not that I WOULD have put glitter or whatever on my mortarboard; it's just, I'm approaching the point of telling people how I had to walk a mile uphill in the snow to get to class in the morning and NO ONE CARED ABOUT MY PROBLEMS.

(The "I don' wannas" are strong with me today. I have a mostly-free day - just one class for which I am already prepared - so I SHOULD be working on research but motivating myself to do so is nearly impossible)

Also, I wonder if this now becomes an 'expectation' - that if you don't have a decorated mortarboard, and what is more, a PRETTY decorated mortarboard, you are somehow Failing At Life. For goodness sake, these are people coming off of an exam week! I don't think I could have glittered neatly or glued little animals or whatever to my mortarboard after my graduation-year finals week.

(ooooooh. Just waiting to see someone show up with a pot leaf and a pro-legalization message. Interesting to see what TPTB would do, and boy, I'm glad I'm not one of them. Then again, if I were, I'd just go back to the old days and say NO DECORATING YOUR MORTARBOARD. SORRY NOT SORRY.)