Mini-Reviews Round 165

My holiday continues apace!  Today, even as you read this, perhaps, I've got a friend's bachelor party to go to.  It's sure to be an exciting, scandalous affair; our big plans involve learning a new tactical battle boardgame that one of the other guys is bringing.  We're a bunch of wild and crazy guys, I tell you.  And right on the heels of that will be New Years, which I typically celebrate with... more games with friends.  Sometimes we don't even make it to midnight, anymore.

Man, I'm getting old.

Whatevs (see?  Youth-speak!  Still got it).  Mini-reviews, below the break.

Fandom Classics Part 194: It's Not Like I'm Deaf

 To read the story, click the image or follow this link.

I hope you all enjoyed the holiday weekend.  Well, the first one, anyway; I suppose New Year's is also a "holiday weekend" this year.  Enjoy it, too!  But first, enjoy my review of Arreis of Avalon's It's Not Like I'm Deaf, below the break.

There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays

OMPR will resume its normal mix of reviews, commentary, and Carrot Top on Wednesday the 28th.  Until then, I'll be spending Christmas with my family.

I urge you all to take the time to visit or call the people who matter most in your life--whoever they are--and make sure they know just how important they are to you.  A sincere, genuine "I love you" is more powerful than most people believe, and it's not said nearly often enough.  Tell those you love that you love them.  I promise, no matter how awkward the words can be (and I know, they can be awkward; I was a teenage boy too cool for sincere emotions once, too), they're not ones you'll look back upon with regret.

Merry Christmas, to you and yours.

Mini-Reviews Round 164

There's just enough time for some more holiday-themed fics before the actual holidays are upon us!  But first, take a moment to appreciate this: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer rewritten as an Anglo-Saxon alliterative poem, plus an English translation!  The best thing I've seen in a while, it is.

Now, to stick with the theme ("internet fiction about hooved animals at Christmas Hearth's Warming"), here are some holiday fics!  In fact, let's do romance-tagged holiday fics while we're at it, because why the heck not?  Check out my thoughts, below the break.

Fandom Classics Part 193: Post Negative Comments Only

The author didn't give any cover art, so I get to pick for him!  Let's be honest, there was only ever one choice of subject material, relevance to the story itself be damned.  Oh, also: to read the story, click the image or follow this link.

Because of Christmas and New Year's both falling on a Sunday this year, "winter break" for our district is only going to include six days off, instead of the usual seven or, most often, eight.  I know it shouldn't matter to me--winter break is still the same number of days in absolute terms, and the school year involves a set number of school days regardless--but it still feels like I'm being cheated, somehow.  Oh well; my review is Estee's Post Negative Comments Only, below the break.

Mini-Reviews Round 163

By now you've probably already seen someone else blog about it, but Bad Horse is doing a survey, and he's looking to get 1000 responses.  It's maddeningly vague in places and only mentions me by name once (I mean, come on), but you should still be a sport and take it for him.  Details here.

Now, let's get on to the mini-reviews!  More Hearth's Warming stuff today, because the windchill is -30 and It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas.  Get it below the break.

First Sentences In (Fan)Fiction the 17th

GUESS WHO GOT HOME TODAY TO FIND A RAPIDLY GROWING POOL OF STANDING WATER IN THE BASEMENT?

Spoiler alert: it was me.  Frozen pipes suck, especially when they freeze while you're at work.  Luckily, it takes more than a plumbing emergency to stop the OMPR-ing!  Head down below the break to see my thoughts on some first sentences.

Fandom Classics Part 192: Evil Belle

To read the story, click the image or follow this link.

Thanks to those of you who checked out A White Heart's Warming over the past week.  It seems to have gotten a very positive reception so far (I'll go ahead and jinx it by saying that it currently has no downvotes--a first for me!), and apparently even made the feature box at some point.  Also, any of you who have it on your RiL list can drop by and pick up your thanks once you've read it.

But now, let me take a moment to drop the author hat and put on the reviewer one.  My thoughts on Akumokagetsu's Evil Belle, below.

Fandom Classics Part 191: Fire Spores

To read the story, click the image or follow this link.

This weekend is the final regular-season bout for our fantasy football league before the playoffs begin.  I'm 9-4 on the season, but I'll need to either win my last game to take my division's crown (and its automatic playoff berth), or if I lose, have two other games go right in order to take the wildcard spot.

...Meanwhile, another division is preparing to send a team that will quite possibly finish the season 6-7-1 to the postseason.  If I don't make the playoffs and a team with a losing record does, I will bitch about it all week.

But for now, let's put aside talk of fantasy football, and instead talk about that other thing we do around here that involves assigning semi-arbitrary numbers to something with only a tenuous real-world basis: fanfiction reviews!  My thoughts on applecinnamonspice's Fire Spores, below the break.

Fandom Classics Part 190: Fun With Changelings

To read the story, click the image or follow this link.

In case you don't read Oglaf--whether because you've never heard of it, you don't like it, or because it has way too many uncensored penises--I want to point you to this week's strip.  If I lived in a high-magic fantasy world, I would totally worship a god whose spheres included "proofreading," and whose priesthood counted among their duties "critiquing other deities' mythologies."  Especially if those scroll-hats came standard; they look cozy and warm, two things I highly approve of in hats.

(Just don't go on to the second page of that comic unless you want to see way too many uncensored penises.  How many is "way too many," you ask?  WELL APPARENTLY IT'S FOUR or, well, two, but twice each)

But now, let's move on from penises entirely, and instead talk about lesbians!  That's right, it's Scratchtavia time; head down below the break for my review of of Shukumei's Fun With Changelings.

Another New Fic By Me

A White Hearth's Warming

A young Sunset Shimmer, spending her first Hearth’s Warming in Canterlot as Princess Celestia’s personal student, comes to the terrible realization that there’s not going to be any snow for the holiday.

She decides to do something about it.

*****

That's right, the seasonal story I promised I'd clean up and post (you do read the above-the-review blurby bits of my posts, don't you?) is here!  I'm very happy with the way it came out, thanks in no small part to the excellent editing and advice offered by Pascoite.  Muchos kudos!

If you're interested in a short story about Sunset and Celestia's first Hearth's Warming as student and mentor, give it a look!  And please, let me know what you think, either here or in the story comments.  And, if you want to know a bit more about how this story came to be, check out my "how it got made" post on FiMFiction.  I hope you enjoy!

Mini-Reviews Round 162

It's December, and you all know what that means, right?

It's time for some Hearth's Warming stories!  Christmas is great, and Christmas-analogues are great by association, I reckon.  So go get a few seasonal reviews, below the break.