Day 22 – 02/12/11

And today, nothing happened.

To be honest, I didn't have any class today, so I even did not go to school.

Obviously, not many pony-related things have been achieved. A day out to take my breath, play some skyrim, and just getting up to date with my paperwork was needed.

New episode tomorrow. Maybe I can use the occasion to make a meeting with everyone and brainstorm a bit. A few events for next week could make the difference in 7 days. One week. It seems close now

I'll tell you if anything happens.

Vote by vote, day by day, and that's the art of politics.

Celestia, out.

Day 20 and 21 – 30/11/11 to 01/12/11

I kind of missed a day, didn't I ?

Both yesterday and today were big days.

Yesterday was the day we presented our videos to the school (you can see them on our website, http://poniie.iiens.net/accueil.html ).

A little technical problem aside (we had to re-encode everything at the last minute because they couldn't read mp4s), things went well, but the other lists made a pretty good job too, so we didn't stand out as much as we wanted to. Everyone enjoyed them, which is a good point.

We had two things planned for today. First a lunch, then an evening party.

The lunch was difficult. Our first 3 clients each paid with a big bill for a small quantity of food and it forced us to be out of change for a long time. We had trouble to serve people quickly, and that didn't help. The stress made us angry at each other, but we could sort it out quickly when the rush ended.

About the evening, it's a special case. It was a shared event between different lists. We were supposed to take care of a few animations and that's about it. But early afternoon, I had to go fetch the food for another list, and before I knew it, everyone at ponIIE was helping the others lists. We ended up serving the evening food, and a few others things too, but heh, showing us for free is always a good thing.

Besides, we could get a hold of the big tv screen a show a few more episodes during the evening. Ponies everywhere indeed.

Another thing : when there was only one serious list, a big fake one, and many small fake ones (including ponIIE), the big fake list announced they became serious about their intentions and wanted to be considered a real list. It makes us 'probably the best fake list around', which is very nice. My objective is secured with this, theoretically. We just have to keep up the pace.

Only one event remains for now. A lunch on Monday. After that, no event, only being social, agreeable, and hope for the best.

If only I knew how to be social...

Celestia, out.

Day 19 – 29/11/11

Boring day.

The only pony-related thing I did today was the lists' debate. I mentioned that last week, because i thought it would be much earlier, but it is only now that we were allowed to speak about our programs and answer the students' questions.

There isn't much to be said, the question being specific, like 'what have you planned about that specific problem in the school', or 'what do you think of that travel we made last year, should we do it again ?'. Things like that. I made a few jokes about ponies and kept smiling, but my heart wasn't really in it. The room was half empty, and it was clear from the beginning the real point was to ask the serious lists about their serious program, not the fake lists.

I'm not very interested in politics or the day-to-day operation of the school.

According to the few non-members I asked, poniie did a good enough job tonight. We'll keep the awesome in store for tomorrow. I should ask Pinkie or Dash to put the videos on youtube, but I'm not sure everyone in the list would agree on being on the internet.

Tomorrow will also mark the start of the last week of campaign. On that week, named the reinforced week, the school will be closing at midnight each day, and there will be an event every day and every night. Our next actions are in two days, with making a lunch and animating part of an evening with two other fake lists. This hasn't been planned much yet. We're probably going to go with what worked on Monday and make things like that.

Should I come to school with fake horn and wings for that last week ?

Celestia, out.

Day 18 – 28/11/11

For once, I wish I were a man of more words.

There is so much to say. Tonight was interesting. It was a great success, as far as the political and organisational sides are concerned. But let us start from the beginning.

My day started at 10am. Not enough sleep, and tired already. Met Rarity, Dash and Pinkie at school. They went to the mall to buy the food we were going to sell at the party, while I stayed in the school to meet the different students I had to meet.

I got an agreement about using the big tv screen in the main room, as well as confirmation our student-run bar would be selling the alcohol our budget couldn't afford. I asked around for a few more permissions, like being able to use to common food-making tools, but was less successful.

Afternoon classes from 2pm to 6pm. I really couldn't afford skipping those, as there would be an exam. I left Pinkie (who didn't attend the same courses) in charge, and hoped for the best. Those few hours were terrible, between the overheated room and the sleepiness.

At 6pm, preparations were mostly finished. I helped a little our Scootaloo with the decorations, then joined Rarity and Sweety Belle for the food. The common tools aren't very efficient and it would probably keep us busy for an hour. Pinkie, Fluttershy and Dash were taking care of the last main room's decorations, music and first videos.

The videos were a success, a few shorts based on our school's inside jokes, as seen by ponies. We then noticed everyone that the food was ready, and I lost track of time for a while.

At around 8pm, we stopped selling food. Everything had been bought, neting us a nice 25 euros profit ! Meanwhile, Scootaloo had the video game competition up and running, and Dash was putting mlp episodes on the big screen. Both were well received.

I took a moment, there, to look at what I had done. A hundred students. Partying to pony music, with mlp projection on the background. Pink lights. Pony-based games enjoyed by non-bronies. Free sweets everywhere. Balloons on the walls.

Did some people really want a school like that ? Not me, even if I understood their wish. As far as spreading the word of harmony went, I could barely do more with mlp.

Will my work be done here, after the campaign is ended ? I will do little more than what we have achieved tonight, and, might I boldly add, probably more than the average brony. Our scool must be 20% cooler now or something like that. I don't care that much, I'll be leaving soon. I am leaving a stranger place, if not better, behind me.

http://www.ponychan.net/chan/arch/res/2501115.html

Our track list was running short, though. About one hour and a half of pony music was enough to deplete our stocks of music, and I had to intervene quickly.

I took the wide screen and started the 'pony name or porn actor name ?' game. As predicted, it was a big hit with the student population. We awarded a small prize for that one person who did particularly well, and used that occasion to broadcast our own videos, for the ones who couldn't see them at the beginning of the party. It took some time for Fluttershy to scramble the playlist, to make the repetition less noticeable, and we gave it a second go.

Not much more to mention for the party, but that was a lot already. We started packing at 9:30pm, the school being closed after 10pm (I think I explained that some time ago).Everyone went home expect for me, who followed Pinkie. I went to his home to help with the last details on one of our presentations for Wednesday. Took us an hour, and I was home by midnight.

And here I am ! I am exhausted, badly, and it showed today. I kept being harsh and snapped a few times for no good reason. Furthermore, this campaign forced into a few actions and stances that my friends noticed as out of character for me, in an evil way. I guess innocence and politics don't mesh.

What a spirit of Friendship I make.

Celestia, out.

Day 17 – 27/11/11

5am already ? But it was 2pm a few seconds ago !

I woke up at 1pm actually. I had some chores to do at home so I've been able to attend list stuff only around 7pm. Many things to do.

Not many orders today, sadly. In the end, we're losing money when we should have earned some. This means tomorrow will be a hard day. To prepare for that, I gathered everyone and planned ahead. We're still going to have many activities during the evening, but most of those have been toned done or will be made without prizes. We're making the dinner (hopefully that will turn out a profit, but we're talking about much smaller quantities anyway), and the activities mentioned yesterday : dance game, pony video game competition, sweets give-away, name-based game, a balloon game, and a few extras if possible.

My work will be to buy the few things we haven't in stock yet (food mostly), then classes, making hot dogs and then the name game. The others have their own missions as well. All the important parts have back-up plans in case of problem.

It will be one of the highlights of all our work. I really hope everything will be okay.

Sands of time and clockwork plans.

Celestia, out.

Day 16 – 26/11/11

I feel mostly disappointed.

I had planned a lot of minor things to do today, and none of them was a major success, while I accumulated many failures. Woke up at 5:40am, tired as hell. Nudged our Rainbow Dash out of his sleep and went to the temporary HQ. I sent Luna and Sweety Belle to sleep, and waited for Rarity, who arrived around 6:30am.

And then, well. Nothing.

We had had a few orders in the 0-6am slot, but not a single one during 6-12 am. Worse, we barely had 2 orders in the next one. To make things even worse, I tried to call Hasbro as I mentioned yesterday, but to no avail, which means we'll be on our own on Monday. Between the tight budget we're going to have (as we are selling much less than we should) and no external support of any kind, we'll have to use motivation and raw energy to compensate. Right after an event that lasted a full week-end and wasn't very successful. Yeah.

The lack of money is also going to force us to ask for help from the school's bar, who shunned the list since its creation. But it's that or only soft drinks, and a party without hard drinks won't be appreciated at all by most of the students.

I had some random nosebleed during the 6-12am slot. I should take care of my health a bit more. There's just so much to do...

Also, I missed today's episode. I haven't seen it yet. I'll have to find the time later.

The good news of the day came from our Pinkie Pie. A list of the events for Monday was created, with several good ideas that were never mentioned before. I'm going to see what can and can't be done (in respect to both our budget and the fact we're dealing with adults). In short, we have a balloon fight (think of it as a pillow fight with balloons), some dance video game and selling dinners to make some money in the 'new ideas' section, plus what was said earlier.

I hope we'll have some orders tomorrow. It's going to determine a lot of things.

Celestia, out.

Day 15 – 25/11/11

Getting into gear.

Both projects have been prepared as well as we could. About 16 kilograms of sweets are stocked, with bags, and we have two cellphones and an irc chan to handle the orders. That should cover this weekend's endurance test. In the worst case, we can go buy a few extra on Saturday. If things go well, we might turn out a profit :D !

For the Monday night one, we started to plan a few activities : mlp projection in full wide screen (in one of those classrooms meant for 200 students), of course, but also a few others : A blind test based on that one : http://www.sporcle.com/games/sproutcm/my-little-pony-or-porn-star , give-away of the leftover sweets from this week-end, a maybe a few mlp-themed drinks, if we can afford it.

The prises for the blind test were supposed to be mlp toys, but we had some trouble with the toy store. Apparently, they don't 'own' the toys and can give them only if Hasbro agrees to it. The communication between them is going slow, and I'm afraid it won't work out in time. I plan to call Hasbro directly tomorrow to see if I can help to speed up things in some way.

Maybe going directly to their national hq ?

Luna and Sweety Belle just left. They are going to take the midnight-6am shift. I'll have the 6am-12am with Rarity, which should allow me to phone Hasbro during the morning. Which means I should have around 6 hours of sleep if I go to sleep now. Which I will be doing.

I'll be there to rise the sun, take care of the night for me, Luna, will you ?

Celestia, out.