Labor Day round-up

*Saturday afternoon (and it slopped over some into Sunday afternoon) I got the house cleaned up. I hadn't done that for a while, especially doing a for-real scrubbing (instead of using one of those Swiffer wet cloths and calling it "good" while pretending not to see the dirt that gets shoved up into the corners with those things) of the kitchen and bathroom floors. (Scrubbing - I mean, with a bucket of soapy water and a well-wrung-out cloth - really isn't that hard or doesn't take that long but it is a little physically taxing, especially if you border on having arthritic wrists).

I do feel much better in a fully cleaned house, and I don't think it's just the "what if someone stops by, yee gads, they'll see what a SLOB I really am" fear. (Actually, because "how you do anything is how you do everything," I am probably more of a perfectionist - and more prone to see the tiny bit of dirt still lurking in a corner - than I need be about cleaning)

*I think someone in the Solid Waste department let his 11 year old daughter write the e-mail announcing there would be no pick up today; the subject line had about 14 exclamation points, ("LABOR DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!")

*I got a call from "Andy" (and I doubt his mother actually named him that, and if she knew what he was doing, she'd probably be embarrassed) asking me about my computer, he was from "Service Center" he said. When I was silent for several seconds (trying to decide whether to just hang up, or whether to tell him I knew it was a scam), he said, "You DO have a computer?"  And I said, "No, actually I don't" and hung up the phone. Hey, he lied to me first.

* I started sewing on the newest quilt but it's at the point right now that involves sewing a lot of long strips together, which is both fiddly and tedious, because you have to be very careful  not to stretch them and not to mess up the seam allowance or else you get misshapen blocks that don't go together well. I'm using a strip-packet from a line of fabrics called "Architextures" - in some cases, it's symbols from architectural drawings rendered on to the fabrics. (In others, it's crosshatching patterns, or landscaping designs, or text....) It's going to be one of those modern-style quilts; the pattern I am using is called "Traffic."

* I also handquilted more on the quilt in the frame. I am very close to the point of moving on to the borders - which will be the last bit. The borders will take a while; they are "picture quilting" in that they are a chain of cartoonish simple mice (just teardrop shapes with ears and tails). But it's cute and I couldn't resist using it on this quilt.

* I'm also almost done with the Fishtail armwarmers; another hour or two should complete those. I got a lot of knitting done on those because....

* I decided to watch "Equestria Girls" (This is the much-ballyhooed and much-maligned - depending on the type of fan you are - "Ponies go to the Human World" movie). Spoilers will be here, but I fully expect anyone who wants to see it already has...

 - I didn't HATE it. (I was expecting to). I also didn't love it. I think I would have liked it better if I were actually in the target demographic (5 to 10 year old, or so, girls). Then again, I might not have - as a child, I reacted even more strongly to something being changed in a way I didn't think it should be than I do as an adult.

- I like the ponies a lot better as ponies. I like the characters being in a world without cell phones and computers and all that stuff. I like the idea of a largely Pony-powered world, where maybe electricity is a possibility (Ponyville seems to have a hydroelectric dam), but it doesn't dominate life the way it does here.

- I did spot Derpy. (Very, very brief cameo in the cafeteria scene where they are putting on the Spirit Pony ears and tails and singing).

- I will say the idea of the "Wondercolts" (instead of "Wonderbolts") was a clever bit. (And my university is due to get a "new" mascot. If somehow they re-introduce the "Spirit Pony" they used to use, I will forever think of it as the Wondercolt, as our colors are blue and gold, just like Canterlot High's)

- I didn't think the songs were as good as the typical songs from the regular episodes. But maybe that's just me.

- The pacing felt a little off to me. The first part, with Twilight trying to adapt to the human world, seemed to drag, and then the climax and denoument went really fast. I think maybe the writers are better with half-hour (well, really, 22 minute) oriented stories; some of the two-parters in the series have had odd timing. 

- I will say the idea of high school friendships dissolving easily over misunderstandings (or actually, in this case, the intervention of the antagonist in a particularly nasty and passive-aggressive way) felt somewhat true to life. I don't remember friendships and especially trust as being so easily repaired, though.

- I do have to say I liked the idea that Twilight put forth of "Why do all the people with different interests segregate from each other so much? It's not like that where I came from" and her efforts (with the rest of the - well, they're not the Mane Six, because they're in human form, but you know what I mean) to bring everyone together and to remind everyone that we're not really all that different underneath it all.

- The cynical side of me cackled when Princess Celestia mentioned that Sunset Shimmer turned selfish and mean and then went to the human world. (Makes me wonder how many other "exiled" ponies there might be). That said: almost every antagonist we've seen in the series has wound up being either actually or allegedly rehabilitated (actually: Princess Luna; allegedly: Discord, and I'm hoping they do more with him later on. Questionable:: Trixie...she just seems to be exiled to elsewhere in Equestria. And Sunset Shimmer, presumably she will be rehabbed but possibly left in the human world (Then again: the portal didn't get smashed up, so....)

- The multihued (as in: skin colors not found in nature) aspect of the schoolkids was less weird and offputting than I thought it would be. The anime-style tiny-skinny-legs-with-mega-boots-or-legwarmers effect was more offputting visually to me.

- I would have loved to see Twilight try to manage in a human high school class, but I guess there wasn't time for that.

- I really hope that this Flash Sentry thing isn't the start of a story line that will involved Twilight having a boyfriend and eventually husband, because (a) getting married is sure to get her and Flash shipped off to rule some kingdom and (b) it would really screw up the dynamics of the show, to the point where I can't see it still working.