Closing Down

This blog is now defunct; all future updates can be found at JedABlue.com. You should be automatically redirected; if not, the link preceding this should work.

All comments are now closed.

Quick Housekeeping Update

I fucked up, so Video Vednesday will be a few hours late. (It's the one post type I can't do during a break at work, because the place where I store the videos for Patreon backers is blocked by the office, and therefore I can't pull one down to upload to YouTube. I forgot to start the upload to YouTube before I left for work, so I have no video to embed now.)

Also, because of various things I need to get done during this blog hiatus, I've changed my mind about Fiction Fridays--I won't be doing them during the hiatus, because unlike the other regular features I'm keeping running, they take effort I'm not already doing. Sorry.

Why I'm Turning Off Anonymous Comments

Because they're worthless.

Now let's back up a second. I am not, I should be very clear, referring to the content of anonymous comments--I have had a number of very insightful comments which happened not to be made by someone who gave their name. These comments are valuable and I'm glad to have received them.

And I have not been inundated by anon hate the way some blogs I follow have been, so it's not really about that--although the possibility of that occurring is a factor in the decision, definitely.

No, the issue is twofold. First, anonymity is entirely unnecessary here. The only reason a person might need to be anonymous is if some kind of negative consequence were going to befall them either for what they say, or for being here at all. But I'm fairly confident that none of my commenters is living under an authoritarian regime likely to arrest, torture, or murder them for expressing an opinion on a blog, nor do I suspect that any of you are engaged in some kind of undercover operation or secret agents or otherwise subject to the sort of scrutiny that makes connecting to the Internet a risky endeavor--and if you are, what are you doing risking coming here? No, for anyone actually commenting here making a Google account on a fake name is surely protection enough, and if you're really paranoid you can even do it through an anonymizing proxy of some sort.

And since none of you need an anonymous posting option, I'm under no obligation to provide it--and anonymity works against what I'm trying to accomplish with this blog.

I want, ultimately, to do three things with this blog. The first is to get my ideas and words out into the world. Having or not having anonymous comments makes no difference to this purpose.

The second is to provoke and participate in discussion. Anonymity makes this difficult, because I have no way of telling if multiple anonymous comments in a thread are by the same person or not.

The third is to create community, and anonymity makes this impossible. Anonymous commenters are a faceless, amorphous mass. Because I do not know which comments are by different people and which are by the same people, it is impossible to build a sense of who anyone is. Identities become impossible to discern, and without individual identities there can be no relationships and therefore no community.

And, frankly, I am disgusted by the culture of the Internet, and much of that disgust is provoked by the rampant abuse of anonymity as a shield from behind which cowards can bully and harass, express bigotry without exposing themselves to the social consequences, or maliciously and sadistically hurt others to make themselves feel big. Even putting aside trolls, it encourages a dehumanizing and depersonalizing sense of power and distance, a hyper-rationalist form of discourse in which having an identity is an exploitable personal flaw and expressing emotions is a signifier of weakness and inferiority.

That is not what I want my blog to be. I don't want people to just make provocative statements, I want them to defend those statements with the passion that only comes when your reputation depends on it. I want continuity between discussions, so that something a person says in one thread can be brought up in a later one to ask them to explain an apparent contradiction or hypocrisy. I want people to own what they say, so that they put a little thought into it before they say it. And most of all, I want the opportunity to get to know the people I interact with here, which requires that they be people and not faceless ciphers.

Let's try this poll thing again...

So it turns out trying to hold a poll that's also open to suggestions is a terrible idea.

Also, I now have way more suggestions than voters.

So, I've gone through all the suggestions, picked the three I'm most interested in, and now I'll throw them open for voting ONLY, suggestions are closed.

Remember, anything that doesn't win, including things that didn't make it this far, is fair game for a couple months from now when we add the next show.

Anyway, the options are:

• Psycho-Pass (Season 1 only, same writer as Madoka)
• Legend of Escaflowne (classic 90s mecha-fantasy series)
• Mawaru Penguindrum (same director as Utena)

Suggestion Box Post

So, my traffic's been steadily declining since I ended The Very Soil. This month looks likely to come in slightly lower than what I had in late 2013, which is not a great thing if I'm, say, hoping to be able to switch my day job to part time within the next five years.

So... what would you like to see me do? Or, since you're already here, what do you think I could do that would get you to tell other people, "Hey, you should check out this blog?"/post links to it elsewhere/share it on Tumblr/whatever?

Throwing the suggestion box wide open here, though obviously I am not willing to change the core mission of the blog--I'm not about to start posting porn or pandering to the right wing or whatever.

Anyway, suggestions?

MLP News, Plus a Poll

So, apparently there's now an official broad date for MLP Season 5: Spring 2015. That means there is almost definitely time to liveblog an entire 26-episode season of something after Kill la Kill and before MLP resumes. The question therefore becomes, what shall we watch?

Some ground rules: maximum of 30x30 (that is, no more than 30 episodes and no more than 30 minutes per episode.) I'd also prefer to watch something animated over something live action, though that's not completely set in stone. I also prefer something I've not seen or not seen all of, though again, not set in stone.

Some options suggested in chat the other day:

• Ouran High School Host Club
• Psycho-Pass Season 1
• Escaflowne

Feel free to comment with your vote, or to add something else into the running!

Next My Little Po-Mo post will be late

Because with nine minutes until it has to go up, I have precisely jack shit to say about "Somepony to Watch Over Me."

Near-Apocalypse Plans and Patreon

Assorted bits of news:

• Barring delays due to my upcoming surgery, My Little Po-Mo blog entries will end with "Twilight's Kingdom" on January 4, 2015. I will then take a three-week hiatus (anyone who would like to submit a guest post for that period, please do so).
• If there ARE delays due to surgery, etc., I will shorten the hiatus.
• The Near-Apocalypse of '09 will begin on Sunday, February 1, 2015 with "Cold Open (Introduction)," which introduces the project and analyzes the famous opening sequence of Batman the Animated Series.
• Once the Kill la Kill watch ends, Sailor Moon Crystal chatlogs will move to Saturdays, and we will pick another series to watch on weeks SMC doesn't air. When MLP returns, we will watch that as well as SMC and whatever else we end up watching (I'll throw it open to a vote here on the site).
• This is to free up Wednesdays, which are going to be devoted to weekly videos as soon as SMC moves and the B5 posts end. These videos will include vlog-style reviews of animated shows and movies, recordings of panels I've presented at various cons, and more.
• The big one: I have just launched a Patreon to support Near-Apocalypse. Backer rewards include early access to articles and videos ("Cold Open (Introduction)" and a vlog review of The Legend of Korra season 4, episode 1 are available immediately, with more added every week), e-books, PDFs containing everything needed to run one of my notorious AUSA BESM campaigns, and more!

ETA: Added link to the Patreon, which I forgot to put in initially. Oops.

A revelation regarding Peter Capaldi's Doctor, plus books

Last night, I was attempting to explain to a friend why I love the Twelfth Doctor so much when, let's be fair, he's a colossal jerk who is utterly dismissive of everyone around him and just plain mean to Clara. And I was arguing that he's the cantankerous old man who slowly warms up, the wizardly grandpa or uncle sort, insert various other clichés regarding the First Doctor.

Except then I realized I wasn't talking about the First Doctor at all, because I honestly don't know the First Doctor very well--I've seen maybe four or five episodes, not even whole stories, unless you count "An Unearthly Child" as a standalone. No, the reason I irrationally love the Twelfth Doctor so much is because of a completely different character.

Because who is the Twelfth Doctor? He's a grumpy, callous, cold, Scottish man in a nice suit who has a long history of using his unparalleled resources to go on amazing adventures. He's Scrooge McDuck pre-nephews. My ENTIRE CHILDHOOD has programmed me to love him!

Anyway, some thoughts on books.

My Little Po-Mo 2 is chugging away. The content is 100% finalized and formatted for print, I'm just waiting on the final cover design to send it to the publisher. The cover designer says she should have it for this weekend. After that it's 2-3 weeks to get and check the proof. While I'm waiting on the proof copy, I'm going to do the formatting for the e-book version, so I can launch both the same day.

The Very Soil has been kind of my odd project out the last few weeks, but my plan is to knock out most of the content and reading for my new AUSA panels this weekend, and get back on track with The Very Soil in the coming week. Goal is to send it to the editor before AUSA. Still hoping for a Cyber Monday release, but that's foolishly optimistic.

Considering fleshing out and reorganizing my Utena and FMA comments, adding some cites, maybe tossing in some of the Madoka articles that aren't part of The Very Soil and calling it an essay collection on anime. Would there be any interest in that if I did it? I'd probably have to Kickstart it, is why I ask.

ETA: And by "AtLA" I mean "FMA." Oops...

I continue to be on a podcast: Lucifer vol. 2 w/ Uncle Yo

Yep, I'm once again on Uncle Yo's We Are the Geek, discussing Mike Carey's Lucifer, volume 2 this time.

http://wearethegeek.libsyn.com/145-lucifer-vol-2-with-jed-a-blue

In other news, I'm considering trying out a Patreon instead of Kickstarter going forward. The main issue is figuring out rewards. The obvious one, I think, is an e-book subscription--some small donation per month that gets you every e-book I release during your subscription period, which would be 2-3 a year. Some higher number to get print books, I guess?

Other than that, I dunno, I have some ideas on subscriber exclusives I could offer:

• Early access to posts. Normally I write posts anywhere from a week in advance to mere minutes before it's due, sometimes after, but for Near Apocalypse the realities of a true psychochronography mean that I'm going to have to be at least a couple of weeks ahead, and I'm going to try for months.
• Commentaries? I dunno if there'd be any interest in this, but I could record commentary tracks for shows the Patreon backers vote on, or something?
• Extra essays. This wouldn't be a reward for individual backers, but rather something I'd do for the backers collectively reaching particular monthly goals, namely that Near Apocalypse would go twice-weekly, or I'd add other features.

Any thoughts? Concerns? Ideas? Backer exclusives people would like to see?

Aperiodic State of the Blog

So, the general consensus I seem to be getting regarding doing solo Let's Plays is "don't." So scrap that idea.

I'm in a bit of a writing slump lately, and being ill hasn't helped. (I am basically mildly ill about 90% of my waking hours this past month, occasionally flaring into something more debilitating. I know what it is and what caused it, it's a chronic thing I've had for years. There's basically nothing I can do about it in the short term, and I'm already working on the medium term. Long term... well, in the long term everyone's got the same prognosis eventually, right?) My own stuff has been kind of lagging, particularly the Madoka book, but I've got some guest posts and collaborations coming up that I'm pushing my way through. As those go up I'll link them here, of course.

Anyway, I'm going to try to keep churning through the last couple dozen pony posts each weekend, and I'll try to keep up with quasi-interesting daily thoughts as well--and as I mentioned elsewhere, I have already written a six-part series to go up on alternate Wednesdays after I run out of Utena--but I make no promises regarding Fiction Friday ("oh no!" cried all zero fans of Fiction Friday) or anything else really.

Seeing as my office has decided this is a games site...

No, seriously, for the past two weeks the automatic content filter at my work has started blocking all of MLPomo, and informs me it's classified as "Games" when I try to visit. No idea why it's blocked while, for instance, Nintendo Project Reloaded is just fine.

Anyway, if this is a games site, let's talk games. The window to record anything with Viga is now basically over until the end of the year, and uncertain then. So if I do Let's Plays, it'll be just me for the time being.

I ran some experiments and it looks like I can more-or-less successfully record off my PC. I'm thinking of doing an FFV Let's Play--I haven't played it in a long time, I like it, and it's not something you see covered a lot.

My main question is: should I try to be funny? Or intelligent/analytical? Or both?

The most important meal of the day...

Is the one you didn't get.

This thought brought to you by my tendency to argue with the backs of cereal boxes.

Sorry for the large number of missed posts lately, particularly the "Daring Don't" post I still owe. It's been a nasty 10 days or so, but life has calmed down and I'm definitely on the mend health-wise, so expect the post some time this week, and then back to the normal schedule thereafter.

Sick

Sorry all, sick today and yesterday and the buffer's run dry, so I've got nothing for you today.

So, you may have noticed the lack of a pony post today...

Sorry about that. Between procrastination (because it's "Daring Don't," who WOULDN'T procrastinate on that one?), low energy, and a bunch of shit hitting the fan, I just haven't been able to do it.

At this point, I'm not even going to try to put it up during the week. Let's just call a Mulligan on this one, and the "Daring Don't" article will go up next Sunday.

Probably.

Fiction Friday will be up later today

As to exactly when, I have no idea. Could be 1, could be 11.

News Dump

Various bits of news and future planning today:

1. My Little Po-Mo, Book 2: Book 2 is running a bit late but proceeding apace. I will almost definitely miss the July deadline, but hopefully by no more than a couple of weeks. I will also be writing the commissioned essays during the next couple of months, so expect to see those soon.
2. My Little Po-Mo, Book 3: The next book will compile the Fanworks Month and Derivative Works Month articles, plus Season 3. I expect to run a Kickstarter for it in September, October at the latest. (Kickstarter fail rates skyrocket in November-December, so if I don't get it by then it's not happening this year.)
3. My Little Po-Mo, endgame: This past weekend's Equestria Girls post was the final Derivative Works Month article. Ever. Next week begins Season Four, which as I've said several times is the end of the project; I will do Season 5 liveblogs, but I am not planning on doing full articles for it. Season 4 coverage will begin, as I said, with the ending, then jump back to the beginning. I do not expect any lengthy breaks, just the occasional guest post here and there while I'm at a convention, so My Little Po-Mo should end in about 30 weeks, give or take.
4. Site redesign/move: So, I got an e-mail this morning that the domain name I registered last year expires in two months. Eh-heh-heh... oops. I really do want to get moving on this, but I am very much at sea with these things, so it's taking a long while. It WILL be happening at some point, though.
5. The Very Soil book: No Kickstarter for The Very Soil, as I said. I am hoping to have it off to the editor by the end of the month. It will of course contain all of the The Very Soil articles, with expansions and revisions, and right now I'm looking at adding three more, one each on Kazumi Magica and Oriko Magica, and one additional "Against _____."
6. Let's Plays: Recording begins tonight, if all goes according to plan. Our first two games will be Final Fantasy III (the U.S.-released Super Nintendo game, FF6 in Japan) and The Ur-Quan Masters HD. Not sure yet if we're going to go straight through one and then the other, or alternate. Our next game after that will probably be Terranigma, but that's pretty far off. Not sure yet about formats and release schedules; we'll play it by ear.

Let's Plays?

Sorry this is late. I forgot to actually queue it, so even though it was written in time, it didn't show.

My friend Viga and I have been talking about possibly recording some Let's Plays. Now that she's in town for a couple months, it's suddenly become actually feasible to do.

So, would there be any interest in seeing this? Current leading game candidates are leaning toward early-90s RPGs. 

Update on Future Plans

First off, in case you missed the announcement yesterday, The Very Soil is ending next week. As I mentioned before, there will not be a Kickstarter for the book version, but there will be a book version, including both revised versions of all the blog posts making up The Very Soil and new articles exclusive to the book. I am currently projecting release some time in the fall.

Now, a few months ago I talked about starting immediately on my next big blog project, The Near-Apocalypse of '09 as soon as The Very Soil was done. That's not happening for a couple of reasons. First of all, the DCAU is both enough older than Madoka or Friendship Is Magic, and distributed over a long enough period of time, that something like a true psychochronography is possible for it. I therefore wish to attempt one--and that requires a lot more advance research and planning than more traditional forms of analysis. I'm just not ready to start yet! Second, there is another project I want to do--the very nature of which requires that I not publicly discuss what it is until it's complete--and there's no way I can do it, My Little Po-Mo, and Near-Apocalypse at the same time.

So, the current plan is that Wednesdays will become normal "thought of the day" days. I'm building a backlog of Thoughts About Utena Episodes I posted at Mark Watches, so I'll probably use those for the first few Wednesdays. Maybe I'll dedicate them to variable-length musings on anime or something, but they won't have any "official" recurring feature. Fridays will continue to be Fiction Fridays, and I'm going to be sticking as much as I can to Felda and her adventures. Sundays will be My Little Po-Mo until I run out of episodes, at which point they will become The Near-Apocalypse of '09.

Finally, a bit of near-future planning: I'm busy Saturday and can't do the liveblog. Options are:

• Skip this week.
• The usual thing where you folks do it and post it in a comment, and then I come behind and do my own liveblog later.
• Move it two hours earlier.

I'm mildly against skipping it, but basically open to all three options. Sylocat, it's your chatroom, so I'll leave the decision up to you--please comment and let me know what it is.

I know I said no more flaking, but...

Given that today was a complete fucking disaster in every respect, that I stayed up all night cleaning, and that I'm currently crashing so hard I'm slipping into microsleeps mid-word, I'm pushing back the Sunday post to noon, so I have time to sleep before I have to finish it.