Mini-Reviews Round 216

It's been brought to my attention that this blog's subheader ("Updating M-W-F, whether Chris has anything interesting to say or not") has not been, strictly speaking, all that accurate for the last couple of months.  That notwithstanding, I'm going to keep it for now; I've been rolling with that line for over six years, and even if it's currently more aspirational than factual, it's still traditional, y'know?  Hopefully, I'll be able to make it more consistently true statement in the future.

But for today, at least, it's theoretically, historically, and literally true!  Click down below the break for some reviews.

Mini-Reviews Round 215

If you don't follow politics closely, then maybe you've missed some of the kerfluffle about Trump, various porn stars, and hush money.  I'm not going to rehash it here, because I have no interest in making this blog political.  So why bring it up at all?  Because one of the porn stars in question goes by the screenname "Jenna Talia."  I'd like to move that this is the best porn star name (female category), and add that it has made me giggle at least four times since I first learned this fact.

On the subject of mild cleverness, let's do some fanfic reviews!  Check mine out, below.

Mini-Reviews Round 214

Happy New Year!  In what is surely an auspicious start to the year, I'm kicking it off with... a missed post and another mini-review set.  Hey, at least I got some reading/reviewing done.  Under the circumstances, I'm feeling pretty good about that.  And hey: it's tradition to immediately faceplant on your resolutions, no?  So if anything, I'm overachieving.

Mini-reviews, below.

Mini-Reviews: Christmas Edition, Round Five of Five!

And so, the runup to the holiday ends.  As usual, I'll be taking the 25th off to be with my family, and I urge you all to do the same--whatever "your family" means to you, spend some time with those people who make your life a little better, and who are there for you when you're at your worst.  They won't be around forever, and can be gone without warning; let them know you love them, in as many words.  Letting the people you love hear that simple truth is never a mistake.

And now, one last seasonal fanfic before we adjurn for holiday.  Merry Christmas, and I'll see you all on the 29th!

Mini-Reviews: Christmas Edition, Part Four of Five!

So, how about that new FiMFic update, eh?  We're one step closer to GenFic, now.

Though I have to say, I'm a little disappointed; the site post made it sound like we'd be able to tag any/all franchises contained in our stories, but when I went to update my fics, I found nothing for the Choose Your Own Adventure™ series, or for The Screwtape Letters (or even just a C.S. Lewis hub), or even for the collected legends of Taliesin!  So I guess all my stuff will be rocking the solo MLP:FIM tag until knighty gets his act together.

Now, on to some seasonal fiction.  Get your reviewage, below the break.

Mini-Reviews: Christmas Edition, Part Three of Five!

In defiance of my predictions of "maybe this will get better, but at least it probably won't get worse," things have gotten much, much worse.  I'm still on track for getting out this week's reviews, though, so that's something.  Small successes?

We have to find the good bits where we can.  Holiday-themed fic review, below.

Mini-Reviews: Christmas Edition, Part Two of Five!

The holiday ficcing continues!  By the way, you'll notice I haven't said anything about the leaked stuff; I glanced through some of the highlights, and it's pretty much all stuff that makes me sad.  Even the stuff in there that makes me happy also makes me sad--like, I had a good laugh at [I'm putting it below the break, but rest assured it's 100% spoiler-free], but it was a sad laugh, you know?  Like, it makes me sad that these are the people in charge of wrapping up the show, and the "they didn't know" defense just makes it worse.  Ridiculous pettiness would be one thing; ignorance and apathy are sadder to me.

Oh man, that got grumpy fast.  Okay, done talking about that.  Here's a funny screencap and another mini-review!

Mini-Reviews: Christmas Edition, Part One of Five!

So, thing that destroys my productivity is still a thing.  But I've managed to get a little reading done.

And as you know, I do enjoy the holiday season.  So to make up for the missing posts, here's your Christmas present: one full week of holiday-themed posts!  That's right, every (week)day until Christmas, I'll be posting a short review of a seasonal fic.  Sure, you might say "that's only five mini-reviews, it's not really 'five days worth of content,'"  but you know what?  I'm doing it over five days, so that makes it five days' worth.  So head on down below, and see what fic got the Chris treatment today... and make sure you come back tomorrow, because we're going M-T-W-T-F in the leadup the holidays!

Mini-Reviews Round 213

It's santa-hat time in FiMFicland!  If you've got an account, consider bedecking it for the holidays.  Go from this:

To this:

And enjoy your month of stylish accoutrementery!  And once you've done that, you'll no doubt be in the mood for some seasonal fics, but you needn't fret on that count either; head down below the break for a couple of reviews of Christmas-ish fics.

Mini-Reviews Round 212

The best part of Thanksgiving is the leftovers.  I don't get people who complain about 'em; it means not having to cook or eat out for, like, a week solid.  How is that not great?  On an unrelated note, have some mini-reviews, below the break.

Mini-Reviews Round 211

True quotes overheard in the lunchroom from the fifth-grader's table:

"I'm so savage, my first word was 'Harambe!'"

I weep for our future (also, wasn't Harambe last year?  Does it just take a year for memes to filter down to the elementary-schoolers? Or at least, to the elementary schoolers in flyover country?).  Anyway, mini-reviews below the break.

(Also: no reviews Friday.  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!)

Mini-Reviews Round 210

I dunno.  I'm just tired, man.  Here, have some mini-reviews, below the break.

Mini-Reviews Round 209

Here are some stories by authors whose writing I know I like, because sometimes it's nice to read stories that you're pretty sure you'll enjoy.

...What, that's not a good enough reason to read some fics?  Too bad, here's a few fic reviews!  Get them below the break.

Mini-Reviews Round 208

After I was nice to Skywriter in my last review (I called him "an author I've had a lot of good luck with!"), I was reminded that he writes plenty of things other than ponyfic, and that a lot of his drabbles are on his Scrivnarium blog.  So I pop over there, and sure enough, there's some nice stuff (I particularly like this poem about the intersection of modern and mythological security)... but there's also a LotR fanfic.  And I swear, Skywriter must have written it specifically to trigger me, because it is the most deliberately-rage-inducing thing I've read in a while.  It is genuinely impressive how much he managed to do wrong, in just the right way.  Go check it out--you'll probably get a laugh out of it if you don't take your Tolkien too seriously, and you'll probably end up twitching with pent-up aggression if you do.  Either way!

And after that, go check out some short reviews, below the break.  Only two this week, but they're both long'ns, so there ya go.

Mini-Reviews Round 207

Since I didn't say it last time: sorry for the lack of postage on Monday!  I got home late on Sunday, forgot to set my next set of reviews to post in the midst of getting everything ready for work the next day/falling asleep before I actually got everything ready, and by the time I noticed, I figured it'd be better to just put it off until Wednesday.  And then Wednesday was pre-empted to talk about the Alicorn Amulet Collaboration.  So here we are: the post you should've gotten days ago, today!  It's like reverse time-travel, kinda!

So, yeah, mini-reviews below the break.

Mini-Reviews Round 206

Hey, I won last week's fantasy football game!  Bringing my record on the year to... 2-4.  Uuuuugh.  Somehow, I'm still only a game back in the wild-card, but this is not the start I wanted to the year.  Damn you, David Johnson and Andrew Luck!  Damn you for tricking me into thinking you'd be my bellcow and that you'd be back by week six, respectively!

Well, at least Leonard Fournette has rewarded my begrudging drafting of him.  And speaking of rewarding, what's more so than fanfic reviews?  Get a few, below the break.

Mini-Reviews Round 205

There was a quote in the leaked show bible that made me sad.  Since it's not really a spoiler for anything, I'll go ahead and quote it:

[...]every aspect of their lives has something “pony-esque” about it. Their houses are homes with elements of a stable thrown in. Their yards are lawns, but are also reminiscent of a corral. There are elements of their towns and villages that are like equestrian centers, or ranches. Even their food markets seem a little like feed stores. Their clothing (when they choose to wear it, for their colorful pony coats keeps them plenty warm and covered) are half fashion wear, half tack. Though they live and act like people, everything they have and everything they do has some sort of pony “theme” to it.

 Remember back when the show had a consistently horse-y theme?  I mean, it was never perfect, but I miss how the show moved away from that, to the point where the fact that the ponies aren't actually people is a total afterthought in many episodes.  That quote up there highlighted one of the things that really caught my eye about FiM, but let's be honest, it's been a while since that's been more than occasionally true.

Ah, well.  Things change, I guess.  But one thing that doesn't change is that Friday brings with it a new OMPR post, and today it's a set of mini-reviews!  Click down below the break for my thoughts on some stories I've recently read.

Mini-Reviews Round 204

Terrible news: my favorite barbeque joint is closing in a few weeks.  Do you know how hard it is to get decent barbeque in the upper midwest?  Man, I'm super bummed about this.  They have great onion rings, too, and now I'm going to have to... eat less barbeque and onion rings, I guess.  Which is probably a good thing in the long run, but it's still a major bummer.  Oh well, fanfic stuff below.

Mini-Reviews Round 203

So, who's excited for the movie?  Apparently it's already leaked; I don't know when I'm going to get to go see it (I'm still well behind on episodes, for that matter...), but it's somewhere on my to-do list.  Not gonna lie, though; I haven't felt nearly the excitement for this from the fandom at large as for an previous season premier, or for the first couple of Equestria Girls movies.  It makes me wonder if the show ennui is wider-spread than we'd all like to admit.

Or maybe it's just a quieter sort of excitement.  We'll find out over the next week or three, I'm sure.  Until then, here's some fanfic reviews to tide your pony-needing self over!  Get 'em below the break.

Mini-Reviews Round 202

As you may have heard, Equestria Daily just recently passed 800 million views.  Not coincidentally (almost certainly entirely coincidentally), One Man's Pony Ramblings just this week hit the one million views mark!  Honestly, "1/800th as popular as EqD" is a lot more attention than I ever thought analyzing people's ponyfics would ever get me.  Of course, it took me a little longer to get there than it took EqD... six years for me, three months for them... whatever, a million hits is still pretty darn cool.  Thanks for visiting, everyone!

Now, on to some reviews.  Head below the break for my world-famous reviews!  Remember: one guy clicking "refresh" a million times in a row can't be wrong.