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.

Day 14 - 24/11/11

Productive day.

More precisely, productive afternoon and night. I woke up at 1pm. I must have been really tired. I went to school quickly, knowing that I was late for a meeting with the others' lists leaders. Some bronies had gone there for me, but they didn't have the informations I had and I spent some time trying to fix things as best I could. I think I might have annoyed a few of them.

Then I went to get the camera, and we started the recordings. We could make the one for Luna and the one for Scootaloo. I wish we could have done something for Applejack and Applebloom, but they weren't there, so we'll do without videos for them. A shame.

I went back home with Pinkie and Fluttershy, and we started the video editing. Luna and Rainbow Dash joined us for dinner, and stayed after. I sent a few mails while Luna worked on the website.

Our two next projects will have to be prepared Friday : during the week-end, we'll be delivering sweets all across town (at any time or day or night), and Monday will be the first of our two parties. Both events will need stocks.

I can't wait to see the students' reactions to our videos.

Celestia, out.

Day 13 – 23/11/11

Believe it or not, nothing unexpected today.

Waking up early when you're used to go to bed at 3am isn't easy. But when you have a duty to your group, things are always easier. That's with that thought that I went to school this morning, not falling asleep only because the bags' handles were making my hands hurt.

The breakfast went fine. We could have used more food, but with small rations, everyone was given something. We even had two apples and a toast left at the end. A bit short on drinks.

After that, I left Pinkie and a few members to take care of cleaning up while I went to my exam. Things weren't bad, but I don't expect a good grade either. It's not like I took the time to study these past weeks.

This afternoon, I made up some text I'll have to use tomorrow for our school's newspaper, then the lack of sleep and the stress hit came back. Hard. I went home and crashed into my bed, waking up at about 9pm. Everyone was scattered, so I called it a day and let everyone rest. We'll have to make recordings, so it's better if everyone is in good condition.

As far as I know, the members of the list are satisfied with how I lead them. That's reassuring.

Celestia, out.

Day 12 – 22/11/11

Dear myself, today I learned that I'm an horrible planner.

So, where should I start. Everything was fine until a certain phone call from Pinkie Pie, around 3pm. « Hey Celestia, I haven't read anything about tomorrow's event on the google group. Are the preparations going fine ? »

Oh, so, that's what I was forgetting ? Nothing important, really. Except that I will have to feed hundreds of students the next day at 8am !

I'm getting the hang of those things, actually. I lied to Pinkie saying things were going smooth and I had things planned. Not sure if it was out of pride or to avoid panic and confusion. Not much time to reflect on it either, I'm afraid. Later maybe.

We're going to need 3 things to make it happen. Tables, food to put on the tables, and people to serve the food. I asked Pinkie to gather the willing members of the list, I would take care of the food and for the tables, we'll see tomorrow.

I went to the nearest store and searched for ideas and things I could use. I got a few ideas, but without time, nothing we could do (baking a cake might take 1 hour, but it only feeds 10 students, so if you want to feed 200, prepare for 20 hours of hell).

I settled for classic and easy things, like bread and jam, nutella, orange juice.

Total cost : about 35 euros. Money left : I... should ask Rarity about that. The event we are supposed to make on the 28th evening might not be cheap either.

Back at home, I tried to contact Pinkie, but no luck here. I have no idea at all who will be up there with me in the morning. I hope I won't be alone. That would make things hard.

I still have to finish those video recordings for Luna, Applejack, Sweety Belle and Scootaloo. I have a feeling we're going to skip some of those eventually. A shame.

I have a feeling something, anything really, can happen and will happen in the afternoon to come.

Celestia, out.

Day 11 – 20/11/11

Here we go again, oh here we go again.

I'll skip the morning classes, boring and without interest. Today was supposed to be important for us. The lists' presentation, in front of the students, is an important venue to show the members and speak about the program.

I had a few guidelines and ideas about how to keep it interesting, a few jokes along the way. The first critical moment happened at 2pm, right before my afternoon classes. Our Luna informed me that we were expected to present something more than a speech. Something involving several members, showcasing our motivation and creativity.

The presentation was in 4 hours. Challenge accepted. Afternoon classes would have to do without me, today.

I grabbed the first idea that came to my mind : write a small song that we could sing to the others. Fitting the mlp theme, but how could we learn it that fast ?

To simplify things, I chose to use a base I knew everyone would know : winter wrap-up, rewriting the lyrics into a different language and using an election campaign tone. (I'll post the lyrics if someone ask, but I doubt a lot of people understand French around here).

That took about 2 hours. At the mid-afternoon pause, I started to gather the members, and I had to ask them a difficult thing : skip their classes just like me in order to prepare the song. It wasn't difficult for them to accept, but very hard for me to ask.

Our list is meant for fun. It is not important for their future, while their classes might be.

Just before the class ended, the second critical moment. Luna (again), that had been attending his classes, explained that is was a very important class upon which a significant part of our grades would be based.

Funnily enough, it was for the management course. I went to the classroom and met with the teacher. I explained my case and managed to negotiate that I would do the class as homework during the week. Not a solution I liked, because I already have little time left for myself because of (or thanks to) ponIIE, but I didn't really have another choice.

I gathered the list members willing to try their hand at singing and went to an isolated classroom. 2 hours left, and 4 singers for a script needing at least 5. Scootaloo, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and myself. No choice but to work with that.

I won't speak much about the quality of the repetitions. It was better than what I expected, and worse than what I was wishing for. Rarity joined us around past 5pm, and quickly learned a few lines toward the Rarity and Fluttershy duet.

6pm. We aren't ready, but we're out of time. At this point, the only thing I can do is remind everyone that if they laugh, either with or to us, we win. But we have to do it through their reactions, no matter what. That's what they will remember.

I have no idea if it was a failure or a success, in the end. The other lists had Weak things to show, and our song was the most interesting thing to see (seriously, most of the lists had barely more than a mascott or a drawing on the blackboard).

We started singing, and it was horrible. We messed up really bad, having awkward stops, missing lines and everything. During the full thing, everyone in the public was singing other songs as loud as possible, shouting or simply boo-ing us.

And when everything was finished, they all applauded.

I not sure what to think of it. It was an epic afternoon, and I regret little of the choices I made then. I believe the students saw we made something and went through it, and respect that. The conditions were such that no-one was able to hear the lyrics I made, but we agreed to re-record it and broadcast it with our school student-only email system.

Tomorrow, I'll have much less to do for the list, but homework is catching up with me, so that should keep me busy.

For now, rest !

Celestia, out.

Day 10 – 20/11/11

Another day, another night.

You remember yesterday's log ? Well, it's kind of similar. Woke up late, made some recordings and some computer gaming, and voilà. Long version ? Long version.

Things didn't start as I hoped. I was supposed to get called at around 2pm by Sweety Belle who was lending his apartment for the recordings. My phone wasn't working, and gmail had a bug. I couldn't be reached before 3:30 pm, and they didn't want to start without me.

A bit late, we started the record of mine and Pinkie's part. Basically a fake speech of Celestia with Pinkie keeping interrupting her and being herself.

The play included a part where I drank some tea. After several takes, I was already full and believe me, the last few were horrible :S.

Rarity's and Belle's parts were recorded just after, but both of them were lacking motivation. We got a few takes, but I'm not sure if we will be able to use them. Expressive genuine pony faces aren't on demand, and our list works better with them. I couldn't get their spirits up, not sure if that was a failure for me or just impossible/not my place to do.

We gathered a few more ideas for short films for the 28th video projection. We are thinking of small records where a normal student cross the path of a pony/brony and abnormal things happen, with an ending in 'pony-ed' (a pun between pony and pwned).

Not much more pony-related things to report for today. Tomorrow will be another story, though. There will be the 'lists debate'. An hour (usually more) where every list leader is put in front of all the students and asked questions about the list, the program, what they intend to do during the year...

I'll probably have a few tricky or stupid questions asked to me. But I believe as long as I stay true to what I defined for the list, seriousness, hope and ponies, I will present what I wish to show the students.

The choice of friendship is then theirs.

Celestia, out.

Day 9 - 19/11/11

Slow days are best days.

Woke up midday, gathered with my friends. Everyone was waiting for today's new mlp episode. It turned out that daylight savings messed up our schedule and we had an extra hour to wait.

After the show, we started the recordings. Things went slowly but steadily. We've been able to record Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle and Spike. Then it was night and we decided to record the others (Rarity, Sweety Belle, Pinkie Pie and myself, Celestia) when it would be day again.

Evening was spent talking between us about mlp and other subjects, catching up with homework and playing together.

Pinkie Pie edited a bit of video to see what we could do with the recordings. Things look... acceptable. Not as great I would have wished, but good enough.

I'll mention it again when it'll be ready.

Celestia, out.

Day 8 - 18/11/11

I'm feeling fine, but that isn't be the case of everyone here.
Not much to mention today. Tired faces everywhere, and I don't think anyone will be able to come up with a stroke of genius. I decided to let everyone have some time for themselves, since I'm going to require their presence tomorrow.

It will be a pony-filled day, between the recording and the new episode. Seeing episodes in groups is different. I can't just skip the parts I dislike, which I often do when alone. Not sure if it is a good or a bad thing.

Still no news from the toy store. Maybe I should return there ? Prepare a sample ? I should wait a full week before making a move, but time is running out. The vote is on the 8th of December. I can't let things drag on too long.

I should try to get a pic of that pony figurine we got. Couldn't identify it. Looks like nothing G1 to G3.5, and I think I would have identified a G4 pony. Any experts out there who saw that before ?
It looks more like a horse than a pony, to be honest. In addition to the white coat and mane, there is a collection of.. pink spots where the cutie mark should be, and another smaller collection on the upper arm zone. One of the two hind legs is articulated, and I think moving it used to make the wings flap, but the wings are broken now. The mane is brushable (thought in a horrible state). A small molded printing reads : 2006-2011 HCS 2005-2011 CC / Made for McDonald's 2011 / Made in China TRC. Searches on the net were to no avail, but I haven't looked deep into it.

(Click to enlarge)

Luna won't be here this weekend. We will have a little time to record on Sunday evening, I hope we'll be able to come up with something funny before that. The point is to present each member of the list through short funny scenes. I'll explain a bit on the next log. Yesterday's events finally caught up with me and I'm going to go to bed.

That week seemed so short, yet so long. It feels we are only at the beginning, and already a quarter of the time is gone.
Relativity, why do you love me so ?

Celestia, out.

Day 7 - 17/11/11

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.