I knew it would be a very long day. But it was worth the energy.
The day started early. Boring class about group management. Funny how different things are between the nice and clean theory on that board and the reality of my daily group-related problems.
Grabbed a meal and met with members of the list.
Apparently, there will not be another occasion to present videos before the 30th. Since we have an event on the 21st, and another one on the 28th, we have to rush a second video because the first one only dealt with the first event.
Our Fluttershy, always on the edge, had something prepared, but that needed a few tweaks. Good thing I had no classes that afternoon.
Left school at about 6pm. Went to town to buy stuff for the evening. The video broadcasting should begin at about 9pm, and the lists activities at about 10pm. It's all right.
I gave to call to Luna to remind him to takie the gloves with him while I was bringing the sweets to school. Both of our videos have been sent to the students preparing the broadcast. Money left : 78€.
In the second video, we mention that our website that is almost finished, but yet unavailable. I had to rush it with Luna and Rarity. 8pm, http://poniie.iiens.net/ is now online ! It's really not much but for something made in two days between classes and video editing...
The broadcasting is a bit late. It's 9:30pm, and they are far from being ready. They are always late, but it's making me stressed.
11:30pm. The broadcasting started very late, in the end. Our videos were not boo-ed, which is a small victory in itself. Most of the students are still up there. I should have about 30 minutes to prepare the stand before the rush. Moment of truth, second edition.
4:30am. I'm at home. I dare say this was a major success. I was afraid most of the students would shun our lack of alcohol and silly game (opening a sweet using boxing gloves), but it was one of the most popular ones. The sweets were a good idea, and some students went for our grenadine to help their sore throats instead of stronger drinks.
Three happenings to note :
Someone anonymously dropped a pony figurine on our stand while no one was watching. Looks like a .. silver tiara-wearing, white-colored, wings-sporting equine, with star-bursts all over the mane. White hair as well. Not sure if it is old generation pony or unrelated. The wings are broken, but I'm sure we can do something with it. Besides, just the thought of the gift is a huge boost to the morale of everyone after what happened yesterday.
Speaking of yesterday, the second interesting point : some of the people who messed up our stand yesterday came back today. Not sure if it was the mood or the alcohol, but they were quite friendly today. Nobody said anything about what happened, and everything went fine.
Last but not least, a student I had never heard of came to our stand and asked to become a member of our group ! He can't become an 'official' member since we had to send the complete lists a week ago, but we'll use all the help we can find ^^.
That will be all for today, but it is a lot already. Tomorrow, we will get back the camera for the whole weekend. Maybe it won't be as useless this time.
I hope.
Celestia, out.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Day 6 - 16/11/11
Feeling disheartened. If that's a real word. Day went by quite well. Managing between the list, school and other activities is tiring. I get some rest whenever I can. I was planning on playing some skyrim, you know ? Maybe next year... Luna almost finished the actual site, Fluttershy got us a few other posters. No news from the store. Not really surprising.
The big moment of the day was tonight, the hour with the camera, obviously. It went bad. Nothing we could record is of much use, not even speaking of visually aesthetics. Besides, we were only 7, when our group is supposed to include 15 persons. That would just be problematic, but the real problem is that while we were away recording stuff, some.. people from another list messed up our stand. Nothing too serious (though I doubt the knife marks on the tables can be washed away), but it's been done in front of a room full of students. About 80 of them, I'd say. I don't think any of them even tried to stop what was going on.
I'm going to gather what everyone thinks of that asap. I am resilient when it comes to such events, but I can understand people not wanting to let others step on their toes. As far as I'm concerned, I'm leaving the school in a few months. I do notcare for my reputation then. But for the few first and second year students... I have to think about them. I'm not sure it's up to me to choose to ask them to keep silent and show smiles and friendliness in the midst of adversity.
I .. don't think I'll be able to work for the list tonight. Not feeling like it. Maybe some League of Legends or SPAZ will get my mind off all this.
Tomorrow, we'll air our first video, and make our first public event. We got our hands on a pair of boxing gloves, and we're going to give candy to anyone who will be able to open the wrappings with the gloves on. Not easy having hooves on, is it ? The animation will last for the evening. I hope we'll have enough candy for everyone. And that it'll be consistent with our budget.
Tomorrow is another long day ahead of us.
Celestia, out.
The big moment of the day was tonight, the hour with the camera, obviously. It went bad. Nothing we could record is of much use, not even speaking of visually aesthetics. Besides, we were only 7, when our group is supposed to include 15 persons. That would just be problematic, but the real problem is that while we were away recording stuff, some.. people from another list messed up our stand. Nothing too serious (though I doubt the knife marks on the tables can be washed away), but it's been done in front of a room full of students. About 80 of them, I'd say. I don't think any of them even tried to stop what was going on.
I'm going to gather what everyone thinks of that asap. I am resilient when it comes to such events, but I can understand people not wanting to let others step on their toes. As far as I'm concerned, I'm leaving the school in a few months. I do notcare for my reputation then. But for the few first and second year students... I have to think about them. I'm not sure it's up to me to choose to ask them to keep silent and show smiles and friendliness in the midst of adversity.
I .. don't think I'll be able to work for the list tonight. Not feeling like it. Maybe some League of Legends or SPAZ will get my mind off all this.
Tomorrow, we'll air our first video, and make our first public event. We got our hands on a pair of boxing gloves, and we're going to give candy to anyone who will be able to open the wrappings with the gloves on. Not easy having hooves on, is it ? The animation will last for the evening. I hope we'll have enough candy for everyone. And that it'll be consistent with our budget.
Tomorrow is another long day ahead of us.
Celestia, out.
Day 5 - 15/11/11
Slept all morning. Luna was at school tending the stand. In the end, I ended up working for a long time last night. Me, Luna, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. We achieved a lot of stuff : We have a void but existent website (Luna), a fake electoral program (myself), and an almost completed 50-seconds-video for Thursday (Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie).
Which is why I hopefully won't have too much to do today, except organising people. As I said before, our Luna has some trouble with html and css, after a few years of learning other programming languages. It's.. not very efficient, but I'm confident he'll manage it. Rarity offered his help (of course, out of generosity) for some crash course learning tonight. We now need to print those flyers, complete that video, ah, and make an image with every pony in it.
A few hours later. Met with the boss of another list. We agreed on sharing an evening during the week before the election. That was strange. I was afraid he wouldn't agree, because of some past events between us. During the days just before starting the actual list, we were both looking for members. We have to include 8 members of first and second year students, or the list isn't agreed upon by the association regulating the campaigns. And on the last day, one of his members defected to our side. Because of ponies. When that happened, he was short of one member and his list couldn't make it. He had to urge a merging with another fake list lacking members as well, and compromise on his projects. I thought he would think bad of our list because of that.
It would have been bad, because he is part of the students that manage the tv screen, cameras and other media equipments of the school. He really could have broken our communication methods to pieces.
Actually, he was quite friendly. We went outside to some restaurant and ate together, and managed to find common grounds. With that out of my mind, I can invest some time reaching out to toy stores in the town. Going to try tonight, right after classes.
The frowns of my non-bronies friends that are looking at me being silly are still bearable.
Going to bed. Met with the toy store manager. Things looked favourable for us. Gave him our mail address, maybe it will be of some use in the end. Tomorrow will be a gathering of many of us, and we'll have a camera. I wonder what will happen.
Silly business, serious ponies.
Celestia, out.
Which is why I hopefully won't have too much to do today, except organising people. As I said before, our Luna has some trouble with html and css, after a few years of learning other programming languages. It's.. not very efficient, but I'm confident he'll manage it. Rarity offered his help (of course, out of generosity) for some crash course learning tonight. We now need to print those flyers, complete that video, ah, and make an image with every pony in it.
A few hours later. Met with the boss of another list. We agreed on sharing an evening during the week before the election. That was strange. I was afraid he wouldn't agree, because of some past events between us. During the days just before starting the actual list, we were both looking for members. We have to include 8 members of first and second year students, or the list isn't agreed upon by the association regulating the campaigns. And on the last day, one of his members defected to our side. Because of ponies. When that happened, he was short of one member and his list couldn't make it. He had to urge a merging with another fake list lacking members as well, and compromise on his projects. I thought he would think bad of our list because of that.
It would have been bad, because he is part of the students that manage the tv screen, cameras and other media equipments of the school. He really could have broken our communication methods to pieces.
Actually, he was quite friendly. We went outside to some restaurant and ate together, and managed to find common grounds. With that out of my mind, I can invest some time reaching out to toy stores in the town. Going to try tonight, right after classes.
The frowns of my non-bronies friends that are looking at me being silly are still bearable.
Going to bed. Met with the toy store manager. Things looked favourable for us. Gave him our mail address, maybe it will be of some use in the end. Tomorrow will be a gathering of many of us, and we'll have a camera. I wonder what will happen.
Silly business, serious ponies.
Celestia, out.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Day 4 - 14/11/11
Tch. I'm tired.
Only a few hours in the day and I already want to go back to bed. Oh, wait, that's normal for me :). Nobody's arrived in the main gathering room yet, so I had time to set up chairs and a table, and print a few posters. Maybe someone in the team can take some pictures ?
I expect most people to arrive at 10:45am, during the morning pause.
We'll see how that goes. I'm a bit stressed.
11:20am. You know what ? Everythingwentbetterthanexpected.jpg :)
People seem to be quite friendly, and see past the first impressions. I'm surprised at how many have seen the first episode, but didn't go any further. Reactions are 'yes.. just yes!' and 'no.. you didn't !'. Oh, and 'what is your list website ?' too. Err.. we're working on it, of course !
Seriously, we should make one asap. We're a computer engineering school, of course I should have thought of that before. We spend so much time on the internet, a website would be essential. I'll probably ask our rarity about that.
Today's unexpected news : Thursday night will be an event from one of our school clubs, and all lists are invited to make a few events to state their presence and motivation. I'll just have to think of something and..
wait. Thursday ? SO SOON ? IT HURTS. FUuuuu~
4:43pm. Ugh. Feeling like applejack in applebuck season. Can't really show a tired face to those persons, hm ? Afternoon was short; classes took most of my time (writing those lines during a lesson in economics). Apparently, we have to make a small video teaser for Thursday as well. We probably won't have time to record anything, so it'll be a mix of extracts from the actual show.
We're going to do that tonight. I won't be very productive, but our Pinkie Pie can handle that. For the website... erf. We really should do something. Twilight and Rarity are overwhelmed by overdue homework, Trixie is nowhere to be seen, and Luna doesn't have the skills. -_-"
9pm. Meeting with the other lists went.. well, it could have been worse. We got an evening to make a party, on a Monday, from 6 to 10pm. Not much, but I think I can negotiate a second one, later, up until 2am. I'll just have to share it with another list, but our list is all about sharing, isn't it ? Just.. the others aren't.
We'll have a camera in two days. Maybe we'll get something for Thursday. At any rate we'll start the recording for the 'big' video. Working on some fluff and fake electoral programs. I'll post today on ponychan and will probably go to bed before even midnight. That would be the first time for a long long time .
Confound those ponies. They'll drive me to sleep.
Celestia, out.
Only a few hours in the day and I already want to go back to bed. Oh, wait, that's normal for me :). Nobody's arrived in the main gathering room yet, so I had time to set up chairs and a table, and print a few posters. Maybe someone in the team can take some pictures ?
I expect most people to arrive at 10:45am, during the morning pause.
We'll see how that goes. I'm a bit stressed.
11:20am. You know what ? Everythingwentbetterthanexpected.jpg :)
People seem to be quite friendly, and see past the first impressions. I'm surprised at how many have seen the first episode, but didn't go any further. Reactions are 'yes.. just yes!' and 'no.. you didn't !'. Oh, and 'what is your list website ?' too. Err.. we're working on it, of course !
Seriously, we should make one asap. We're a computer engineering school, of course I should have thought of that before. We spend so much time on the internet, a website would be essential. I'll probably ask our rarity about that.
Today's unexpected news : Thursday night will be an event from one of our school clubs, and all lists are invited to make a few events to state their presence and motivation. I'll just have to think of something and..
wait. Thursday ? SO SOON ? IT HURTS. FUuuuu~
4:43pm. Ugh. Feeling like applejack in applebuck season. Can't really show a tired face to those persons, hm ? Afternoon was short; classes took most of my time (writing those lines during a lesson in economics). Apparently, we have to make a small video teaser for Thursday as well. We probably won't have time to record anything, so it'll be a mix of extracts from the actual show.
We're going to do that tonight. I won't be very productive, but our Pinkie Pie can handle that. For the website... erf. We really should do something. Twilight and Rarity are overwhelmed by overdue homework, Trixie is nowhere to be seen, and Luna doesn't have the skills. -_-"
9pm. Meeting with the other lists went.. well, it could have been worse. We got an evening to make a party, on a Monday, from 6 to 10pm. Not much, but I think I can negotiate a second one, later, up until 2am. I'll just have to share it with another list, but our list is all about sharing, isn't it ? Just.. the others aren't.
We'll have a camera in two days. Maybe we'll get something for Thursday. At any rate we'll start the recording for the 'big' video. Working on some fluff and fake electoral programs. I'll post today on ponychan and will probably go to bed before even midnight. That would be the first time for a long long time .
Confound those ponies. They'll drive me to sleep.
Celestia, out.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Day 3 - 13/11/11
Good day.
Got back from visiting my parents. Nothing to report there. Good progress has been made on the video by our pinkie pie. We are supposed to record Wednesday, but with only one camera for all lists, chances are that we'll have to find some other time. Big lists with their big budgets come first, I guess.
Speaking of that, we have 90~€. Not much, but it will be completed with selling cooked goods and things like that. Big lists have 180€. Ah.. public schools. At least, I haven't paid much to enter ^^.
Some of our group have spoken about doing some work on the side to bring money. I'm kind of lazy, and don't wish for them to do it if I don't participate. I'll have to think about that later.
What would Celestia do if she had to propose courses for a school ? Apparently, that question baffles our best thinkers, because they haven't been able to produce a decent answer. Tomorrow, we will have our first day in a stand speaking to students, and having a sheet of paper with funny guidelines would have been good. We'll do without it.
I was hoping someone would come up with the idea of a fun event/game/whatever we could do to draw people's attention, too. Err. Not much there either.
The good news : our fluttershy independently started making some posters and basic visual propaganda. I would post a pic, but he left a while ago and didn't post stuff on the google group.
Got back from visiting my parents. Nothing to report there. Good progress has been made on the video by our pinkie pie. We are supposed to record Wednesday, but with only one camera for all lists, chances are that we'll have to find some other time. Big lists with their big budgets come first, I guess.
Speaking of that, we have 90~€. Not much, but it will be completed with selling cooked goods and things like that. Big lists have 180€. Ah.. public schools. At least, I haven't paid much to enter ^^.
Some of our group have spoken about doing some work on the side to bring money. I'm kind of lazy, and don't wish for them to do it if I don't participate. I'll have to think about that later.
What would Celestia do if she had to propose courses for a school ? Apparently, that question baffles our best thinkers, because they haven't been able to produce a decent answer. Tomorrow, we will have our first day in a stand speaking to students, and having a sheet of paper with funny guidelines would have been good. We'll do without it.
I was hoping someone would come up with the idea of a fun event/game/whatever we could do to draw people's attention, too. Err. Not much there either.
The good news : our fluttershy independently started making some posters and basic visual propaganda. I would post a pic, but he left a while ago and didn't post stuff on the google group.
Tomorrow, meeting with the representatives from all the lists. We'll decide the planning of the 'reinforced week'. I'll be able to see how mad the others think we are, and hopefully grab an evening for the party.
I should get some rest.
Anon, out.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Day 2 - 12/11/11
Strange thing that my diary should begin at day 2 instead of 1. But yesterday has been quite a rush.
Recording all of that in a plain text editor, so brace for bad grammar and spelling.
So, err, hello. Let us call me Anon, at least for the moment. I'm recording my feelings and impressions for my current project : ponIIE. I'm a student in the last year of a French engineering school. Every year, the students elect our next student board and before that, there is a campaign. While some students have real ambitions, others, like me, create fake students lists in order to participate in the campaign for the fun, but without any desire to be elected.
For future reference, I'll call any group of people taking part in the campaign a 'list'.
Fake lists usually have strange or surprising themes, and it's only natural for me to create a list based on My Little Pony. The plan : to make a campaign as if we wanted to change the teachings of our school (a computer engineering school) in order to suit Celestia's teachings.
To be honest, I plan to give people muffins and make them smile and laugh. The rest, well, let us say I lack courage, but try to train whenever I have a chance. That wouldn't be the case of everyone, though. Believe it or not, but within a few days, I’ve been able to gather 15 students (in a school of about 350) ready to help me with my project. And with that amount of people, we have the same rights than 'not fake' lists. It means venues to speak to the students, an article in our school newspaper, and most importantly, a budget. Probably a hundred euros. Not sure what I'm going to spend it on for the moment. Many projects. We'll have to organise a party too. Mixing MLP with the usual 22-25 year old alcohol-filled nights will prove interesting. I'll go back to that later.
Wasn't long before we got our first bad reactions, too. Some people have started publicly disaproving of bronies. Nothing too serious, hopefully. But I'll have to draw the line between tolerance and self-respect soon, or it might hurt us in the long run. For the time being, I asked everyone to say nothing and keep dignified and respectable. We are supposed to be candidates for a student board, petty trolls wouldn't do it.
Besides, all fame is good fame, at least until everyone hears from us, at least once.
Yesterday was our first full meeting. Much of the staff was eager to pick up ponysonas (not sure how I’ll do with this and the 'serious' aspect of the list) and just say memes, but we're lacking a bit as soon as real work presents itself.
We have to do a video presentation of the list and the people in it for next Friday. Put some people I knew beforehand and trust on will hopefully have ideas to present on Sunday. A week to prepare and record them, then edit the video. Time will be short. And selling the idea of ponies to hormone-stacked students...
Probably should get those motivational posters and see if I can do something with them, too.
Err, I wonder if I could get a sponsorship from one of those toy sellers in the town.
Anon, out.
Recording all of that in a plain text editor, so brace for bad grammar and spelling.
So, err, hello. Let us call me Anon, at least for the moment. I'm recording my feelings and impressions for my current project : ponIIE. I'm a student in the last year of a French engineering school. Every year, the students elect our next student board and before that, there is a campaign. While some students have real ambitions, others, like me, create fake students lists in order to participate in the campaign for the fun, but without any desire to be elected.
For future reference, I'll call any group of people taking part in the campaign a 'list'.
Fake lists usually have strange or surprising themes, and it's only natural for me to create a list based on My Little Pony. The plan : to make a campaign as if we wanted to change the teachings of our school (a computer engineering school) in order to suit Celestia's teachings.
To be honest, I plan to give people muffins and make them smile and laugh. The rest, well, let us say I lack courage, but try to train whenever I have a chance. That wouldn't be the case of everyone, though. Believe it or not, but within a few days, I’ve been able to gather 15 students (in a school of about 350) ready to help me with my project. And with that amount of people, we have the same rights than 'not fake' lists. It means venues to speak to the students, an article in our school newspaper, and most importantly, a budget. Probably a hundred euros. Not sure what I'm going to spend it on for the moment. Many projects. We'll have to organise a party too. Mixing MLP with the usual 22-25 year old alcohol-filled nights will prove interesting. I'll go back to that later.
Wasn't long before we got our first bad reactions, too. Some people have started publicly disaproving of bronies. Nothing too serious, hopefully. But I'll have to draw the line between tolerance and self-respect soon, or it might hurt us in the long run. For the time being, I asked everyone to say nothing and keep dignified and respectable. We are supposed to be candidates for a student board, petty trolls wouldn't do it.
Besides, all fame is good fame, at least until everyone hears from us, at least once.
Yesterday was our first full meeting. Much of the staff was eager to pick up ponysonas (not sure how I’ll do with this and the 'serious' aspect of the list) and just say memes, but we're lacking a bit as soon as real work presents itself.
We have to do a video presentation of the list and the people in it for next Friday. Put some people I knew beforehand and trust on will hopefully have ideas to present on Sunday. A week to prepare and record them, then edit the video. Time will be short. And selling the idea of ponies to hormone-stacked students...
Probably should get those motivational posters and see if I can do something with them, too.
Err, I wonder if I could get a sponsorship from one of those toy sellers in the town.
Anon, out.
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