Blog: Essays, Thoughts, + More
Originally the blog was its own separate part of the site. Today, the blog engine powers the entire site, providing a unified theme for not only essays and text based content, but also music, videos, and entire sub-websites!
List of Attended My Little Pony Conventions27 August 2024
BronyCon 2016 BronyCon 2017 BronyCon 2018 BronyCon 2019 Ponyville Ciderfest 2019 Everfree Northwest 2021 Ponyville Ciderfest 2021 TrotCon 2021 BABSCon 2022 Whinny City PonyCon 2022 TrotCon 2022 Everfree Northwest 2022 Ponyville Ciderfest 2022 HarmonyCon 2023 Whinny City PonyCon 2023 TrotCon 2023 Everfree Northwest 2023 Ponyville Ciderfest 2023 HarmonyCon 2024 Everfree Northwest 2024 Ponyville Ciderfest 2024 ...
Solar Eclipse 20249 April 2024
When I was growing up, a fair number of books or movies featured some kind of solar eclipse—an epic, transformative moment—as an essential plot line to their story. I'm not sure if that's what made me interested, but it's been something I've wanted to see for a while. I know back on April 4, 2015, I was super excited to see my first lunar eclipse from our home, and I woke up before 5 AM to freeze my butt in a chair outside for several hours. I missed my opportunity to see one in 2017;...
22 February 2024
Do you know which musicians have been featured the most on top brony music or Ponies at Dawn? We sure do! Join us as we take a deep dive into Brony Music history with an emphasis on numbers, analytics, and statistics. 0:00 - Intro 4:56 - Popular Music 30:22 - Compilation Albums 40:58 - Communities 47:37 - Promoters 52:01 - Conventions and Interviews Panel put together by Brass Scribe and brambleshadow4. Recorded at HarmonyCon 2024. Slides available at: https://docs.goo...
30 July 2023
Happy 2nd year anniversary to the legendary album, Cutiemarks (and the things that bind us). An extra thanks to Vylet pony for having the vocal/instrumental be available on her patreon! Fun stats: - The source material is split into 168 vocal chops - Performing it involves around pressing 650 pads - Around 100,000 MIDI signals are sent to the Launchpad during the cover - It took 71 takes to get the above shot over a period of 8 hours. My phone died twice filming it. This cover...
27 November 2022
Made for ACID UNICORNS: THE ULTIMATE MUSIC NIGHT! I spent around 12 hours creating a custom piece of software to make it easier to control the Launchpad's lights, then around 20 hours actually programming the lights for the song. The source code is available at https://github.com/brambleshadow4/lightpad. If anyone would like an .exe build and/or the project file, lmk A Beautiful Heart by SoGreatandPowerful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXlPvyl6qEs...
10 September 2022
Premiered live at Acid Unicorns: Do it Online! All of the music featured in here is original except for the Sweet Home Alabama mashup. 0:00 - The End (Acid Unicorns Edit) 2:07 - Smol Alabama Horses 5:51 - Tempest 9:50 - Further Together
5 December 2019
This started out as just a parody song, but then it turned into an entire parody animation. "Still Alive" from Portal Instrumental version courteous of JustInstrumentals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCkzRk9CxZ0 MIDI transposition courteous of TheHalfLife123: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9lo_aNnFqo ASCII text art built with https://www.kammerl.de/ascii/AsciiSignature.php...
10 November 2019
A YTPMV to the tune of 'Get Ready' by 2 unlimited Started working on this a few years ago, but forgot about it. Glad I finally came back to it. Clips used from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Song: "Get Ready" by 2 Unlimited https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qH-9AsXr74
What is a programming language20 January 2019
I get into debates with people every so often about what a programming language is, so I thought I'd explain it in writing for maximum clarity. A programming language is a language that is designed to write programs in. There's three important ideas embedded in this definition. A programming language is a language A programming language can write (specify) programs A programming language is designed to do so. Of these three criteria, the one I find the most confusion ...
Why I don't use Facebook15 December 2018
I don't think it's too difficult to understand why I don't like Facebook as a company and don't want to use their products. They're simply the worst in many ways. Below you'll find various sources which all document various pitfalls of Facebook. Every time I stumble upon one of these, I'm reminded as to why I never got one in the first place. August 2020: Buying Occulus and forcing user to integrate w/ Facebook May 2020: Facebook internally studied how it polarizes users, t...
Songs to play at my funeral/memorial service15 December 2018
I'll probably add more to this list as time goes on. "Chorus Angelorum" by Samuel R. Hazo "Together" by Foozogz "Shine Like Rainbows" from My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks by Daniel Ingram "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance
Non-Sec Speech6 December 2018
Delivered to the Big Red Marching Band on 6 December 2018 When I went off to college freshman year, I didn't have any desire to consume alcohol, and I naively thought everyone else at Cornell would be the same. So, I was a bit shocked when many of the non-official evening social activities were centered around its consumption. I want to be 100% clear I was never hazed, and no one ever pushed me to drink when I didn't want to. Still, I felt very isolated and alone because of my choice,...
The Swear Words14 September 2018
Arse Ass Bastard Bitch Cunt Damn Dick Fuck Hell Nigger Pussy Shit
Levels of the Underworld14 September 2018
Most never go beneath the surface, but for those who do, they will find an infinite number of dark and desolate worlds, each so vast that it would take generations to explore, that is, if anyone could actually survive such environments. The Surface The Underground The Caverns The Deep Mines The Ancient Foundations The Labyrinth The Undertow The Silvertree Forest The Roots of Evil The Soil above the Ceiling Hell's Air The Tallest Spire The Fortress of Hades Hell The Lava Floor The way un...
MLP Rankings1 August 2018
This is mostly approximate and is subject to change whenever I want to. Last updated on 1 August 2018 The Return of Harmony Magical Mystery Cure A Canterlot Wedding Twilight's Kingdom The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 Crusaders of the Lost Mark Suited for Success Sonic Rainboom Filli Vanilli The Best Night Ever The Cutie Mark Chronicles Fall Weather Friends Rarity Investigates! Where the Apple Lies One Bad Apple Flight to the Finish Stranger than Fanfiction Winter Wrap Up A Roy...
21 July 2018
An analysis of MLP pornography and how such works treat the subject of consent. There's always a few image credits that slip (my apologies), but here's the list of most of the works mentioned/featured in this video: CSS important image by Arkmont: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOP6hN1MUZk Image of congress by Frank Sellers: http://theduran.com/profits-law-congress-introduces-new-set-bills-limit-right-seek-justice-major-corporations/ Rainbow Dash Vector by OcarinaOfTim...
Why Pigtails?9 June 2018
A picture of me before I had long hair When I grew up, I always felt like I was different than the other guys I hung around, certainly not as different as someone who's gay or trans might feel, but enough so that I've often questioned whether I am gay or trans. The way I'd describe myself is male, but with a tendency to value that which is considered feminine over that which is considered masculine. The media I like also seems to reflect this: my favorite TV show is My L...
Friends7 May 2018
Friends are people who spend time together mutually want to spend time together support each other Often times, it's difficult to pin down exactly what makes a person a friend or what doesn't. However, I've found that these three criteria are remarkably useful for differentiating between different types of relationships. For example, (2) highlights the ways in which a classmate or a coworker is different from a friend. In a work/class environment, you're going to spend a lo...
bramble’s 6 point scale for rating creative works18 January 2018
6: Great. Absolutely freaking amazing! Something to treasure for a lifetime. 5: Good. The work was 100% satisfying and worthy of rewatching 4: Okay. Nothing really wrong with it, but nothing good either. 3: Mediocre. Contains minor flaws which cause the work to not be enjoyable 2: Bad. Contains major flaws which cause the work to be very unenjoyable 1: Awful. The concept should be abandoned altogether. It’s that bad CC:BY-NC-SA
A list grammar v 1.218 January 2018
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What's New?31 December 2017
18 April 2020 The index has been reworked to allow for different blog sections! Pages in a section share a top index page which is automatically appended to each page in a seciton. The arrow controls only let you navigate to other pages within each section. As a result of these chagnes, the blog has been reorganized into 4 sections: top, meta blog, essay, and QuickThoughts. 20 January 2018 Worked on fixing bugs with the browser history not working as it should. 29 June 2018...
1 October 2017
We take a look at what's changed over the years in ponydom, and see if there's any truth to the rumor that the show is dying. Also memes. Tell me in the comments how many of them you got. See post in comments for a list of all clips, audio, and images used.
Rule 34 and the Consent of Its Characters27 August 2017
Introduction Before I begin, a few words of clarification: I’m not arguing that rule 34 is “evil” or that it should not be created; I am merely explaining why it’s not consensual. For some, it may not matter if porn depicts consent or not, and for others, it may not matter at all what happens to fictional characters. Regardless, this argument may help explain why some (like myself) have such a strong reaction against it. The equivalence of reality and fictional reality In this argumen...
Copyright is Copynot:30 December 2016
Why the online distribution of entertainment media is entirely broken On a four hour plane flight home, I was excited by the airplane’s entertainment system built into my seat. On the touch screen in front of me lied music, movies, games, TV shows, really anything one could possibly want on a plane flight. The best part? It was entirely free! Naturally, I browsed through the selection of animated shows, and when I could not find any of my favorites, I decided to watch the most glorious show ...
I’ve never despised Trump supporters. Throughout this election, I have sought to listen to his supporters, to listen to the conservative argument, and to actually form an informed opinion, because as a liberally raised person, I don’t hear this often. But in some sense, my decision has been so stupidly obvious it’s not funny. Every classmate, every friend, every youTuber, every newspaper, every person who I respect and every mind that I admire has shown either support for Hillary or a...
21 January 2016
Just something that popped into my head the other day.
12 December 2015
The new season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is finally out! But what is it really, and how does it compare to previous seasons? In this video, I take a look at each episode briefly, as well as point out some trends and connections among the season as a whole. Link to Discord poll: http://www.equestriadaily.com/2015/11/poll-results-what-episode-was-discord.html
26 May 2015
How girly is MLP? How girly should MLP be? In this video, I discuss these questions with reference to the tone of every season of MLP:FiM as well as propose my own explanation for why some episodes are better than others. Don't agree? Leave a comment! Just make sure you state your reasons, and hopefully I can get back to you.
Underground by brambleshadow419 January 2015
In an Equestria devastated by an apocalyptic war, the few that remain try their best to survive or rebuild--however they can. That day began like any other day with Princess Celestia raising the sun, and it ended like any other day with Princess Luna raising the moon. The only thing unique about this day was that it was the last day anypony saw Princess Celestia. When Princess Luna looked for her sister to raise the sun once more, she found out that Celestia had gone missing. Leaping into ac...