thedriveintheatre

The following was posted on Pixar Planet, Christmas Day Singapore time:

Hello again, my fellow Planeteers! Been a long time since I’ve been here, but just wanna drop by and wish y’all a very Merry Christmas, Hannukah, Saturnalia, and New Year! :) If there’s one thing great about this day (besides the birth of a very significant historical figure), it’s the one time of the year where we spend time with our friends and family, and count our blessings.

I’m grateful that I’ve started my first job out of uni barely two months after my graduation in this difficult job market. I’m glad my brother is back from his exchange in Paris and Manchester to spend the holidays with us. I’m relieved my dad made it through another operation and his back’s better (though he’s still grumpy as ever). I’m thankful to have met not one, but two Brony communities (New South Wales and Singapore) IRL and lived to tell the tale! I’m excited my siblings and I are gonna jump on the bandwagon and get iPads for Christmas, and this after I’ve already got a new iPhone 4S (Thanks, dad).

But most of all, I’m just happy to have known all of you for so many years, even though I’ve only met one in real-life and only a handful have ‘found me on Facebook. I really treasure the amazing times we had together, and I truly hope they last for many more years to come. Thank you everyone, for being my friend and fellow Planeteer, and may the Omniescent Deity Upstairs bless you all.

Season’s greetings,
Andre

:D

Guess who’s TDIT?

So I crashed at one of my best friend’s place yesterday after a night out in the town (we had a steamboat dinner and sang karaoke to celebrate the Mooncake Festival). Another good pal of mine stayed over, and I thought it would be a nice occassion to introduce them to the fandom. The first friend, who I’ll call J, had already seen the first part of the pilot, but not the second, while my second friend, W, is a newbie and has a strong prejudice against it despite not seeing a single episode (He’s the typical macho-man who thinks the show’s for “little girls”).

So while J was cleaning his room, I forced them against their will to watch ‘Fall Weather Friends’, since this guide said it would be a good introductory episode for reluctant newcomers. They watched for awhile and ask rhetorical questions (“Can the orange one fly?”, “Why is the blue one’s wings tied up?”, “How can the purple one beat the other two?”).

After the first episode finished, W was still unconvinced. J suggested we start from the beginning, so we played the first part of the pilot ‘Friendship is Magic’. They chuckled at some parts and made more comments (“So many Apples in the family!”, “Who’s the dragon?”). We went on the second part since the first ended on a cliffhanger. Tough-guy W was actually rooting for Nightmare Moon (since he usually loves the villains) but was disappointed that the ponies defeated her and her challenges pretty easily.

Finally, I played ‘Dragonshy’, but by that time they were getting bored and distracted, only occasionally glancing at the screen and asking the odd question (“Why is the yellow one afraid of the dragon when she likes the baby one?”). At the end of the exercise, they declared themselves still-skeptical and promptly high-fived each other. I dejectedly played the ‘Know Your Meme’ episode to explain the phenomenon and they humoured me by watching most of it.

While I was disappointed I didn’t manage to win two of my best friends over to ‘joining the herd’, I consoled myself that I at least gave it a shot. I have no qualms about ‘coming out of the colt-set’ regarding my viewing of this series - I’ve been posting links on my Facebook and telling as many people I know how great the show is without coming off as too obsessed. A few of my RL friends have ‘Liked’ the official FB page, but otherwise, I haven’t really found anyone to discuss the show with in RL.

Tis’ a pity, but I know in my heart that there’s no shame in being a Brony, and that I can take comfort and solace that there are many like me who feel the same way.