Onto the Pony Planet--Chapter 17 notes · 9:38pm Sep 11th, 2014
A huge thanks to my pre-readers: Humanist, AnormalUnicornPony, metallusionsismagic, AShadowOfCygnus, Woonsocket Wrench, and my parents.
In spite of the oft-held view of the laziness of highway workers (and I don't mean to offend any of my readers who happen to work in that industry), when the road in front of the shop was repaved, they did it in about two hours, from start to finish. There were a dozen guys with paving tools around the paving machine, working furiously to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Mrs. Brown was my eighth grade science teacher. I have no recollection of who my Spanish teacher was in middle school, nor do I remember the names of my French teachers throughout the years, nor even my Latin professor. I do, however, remember that my Latin professor sometimes wore slug earrings, which is about the coolest thing ever.
The reason Mrs. Brown came so readily to mind is that—for those of you who are reading A Gift From Celestia—I had a flashback scene about a pony sex ed class. In middle school, it fell to Mrs. Brown to teach the sex ed class.
Many of the non-verbal guys I work with use an eating motion to express the desire for food; the staff also uses that motion to indicate that it is time to eat [with most of our clients, this isn't necessary, since as soon as one of the staff goes into the kitchen and starts preparing food, they're pacing the dining room waiting to eat]. I don't know for sure if that's the official American Sign Language symbol . . . but as Dale reasons, it's probably not a motion that a unicorn would immediately associate with eating.
The technique Dale used to tell if the egg was hard-boiled or raw was to put it on its side, spin it, and stop it quickly with a finger. He then took his finger off the egg; when it moved (because the yoke and stuff inside are still liquid), he knew it was raw. [If you ever see a partially-filled tank truck sitting at a traffic light, sometimes you’ll see the trailer moving slightly back and forth]
You can also, with experience, determine how quickly and easily the egg spins (slower if it’s liquid inside). You can put it in hot tap water (a stream of bubbles will come out if its raw), or you can shine a flashlight through it (if light doesn’t go through, it’s cooked). If it’s already in hot water and you want to see how cooked it is, you can take it out with a spoon and see how long it takes the shell to dry. 8-10 seconds, hard-boiled; 18-20 seconds, soft-boiled.
Bonus: refrigerated vs. unrefrigerated eggs. Due to the way they're processed, eggs in America need to be kept refrigerated. The process we use to treat the shells for salmonella removes the cuticle, which naturally protects the egg. Eggs which have not been subjected to this process should be kept on the counter instead.
I believe that most unicorns rarely learn enough TK to carry more than two objects at a time, since there generally isn't a need for it. That's not to say it's outside of an average unicorn's capability; all things being equal, I suspect that weight is a more significant factor (which is why most unicorns probably can't self-levitate, for instance).
We know in canon that Rarity can have a lot of things in the air at once. If I remember correctly, in her Art of the Dress song, she at one point had twenty objects in the air simultaneously; however, like Twilight, she's an exceptional unicorn [and it would benefit her in her chosen trade, so she has a very good reason to learn].*
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*It's also worth noting that in the Power Ponies episode, Rarity seemed most able to utilize her new powers.
Even now, in this modern age, many of us put dry goods in mouse- and insect-proof (we hope) storage containers, rather than keep them in the boxes or bags they came in. I can't imagine that the ponies go for mousetraps and mouse poison, so they'd be inclined to want to make sure that mice and such don't get into their food.
For those of you who are thoughtfully pulling at your moustaches right now, here's an idea: Fluttershy might be very good at convincing mice and possibly other pests to relocate from pony homes to somewhere else, and that could very plausibly be a source of income for her.
Every mechanic arranges his toolbox differently. In most cases, once they've grown beyond the first ten thousand dollars or so of sockets and wrenches, there is no longer a deliberate, well-thought-out arrangement, but more a manner of putting the tools they own into the box they have in a manner which makes them readily accessible when needed.
In my own case, my cart has all ratchets, a hammer, and flashlights in one drawer, pliers in another, 1/4" and 3/8" sockets and some extensions in the middle drawer, and 1/2" sockets and air tools in the bottom drawer. One end holds screwdrivers, and the back has wrenches on racks.
My toolbox pairs prybars and hammers (since they're kind of the same), all brake tools in one drawer, another that's full of electrical diagnostic tools except for the two Power Probes (they won't fit in that drawer). Drill bits and screwdrivers go together, since they're both pointy.
Of course, DJ's stuff is arranged in an entirely different manner. He keeps his drills with his taps and dies, and reserves the bottom deep drawer for things in blow-molded cases [mine has a collection of parts which might be useful for something someday].
The point is, no two mechanics use the same logic to arrange their tools.
We should assume that all of the Guards actually have names, and Sandy Tail is no exception. I'm not sure where I got the name from . . . it might have been from a pony name generator. It doesn't sound like the name of a paint.
Flopping is the practice in some sports (I believe it started in soccer) where a player reacts to the lightest touch as if he had just been gored by a bull or something, in order to draw a penalty against the other team.
Poll Evil, believe it or not, is an actual horse illness, just like Lavender Foal Syndrome. It describes an inflamed bursa on a horse’s neck. In the past, it was often caused by bacteria; these days it’s more often caused by a horse striking its head on a poorly-designed structure, or from being in ill-fitting tack.
Catalan is a dialect spoken in Northeastern Spain and the adjoining region of France. As mentioned before, I think of the Griffons as having a French background, and living in tight-knit tribes; thus, they have several languages and dialects. Plus, it’s a punny name, like Lyonnaise.
Primrose is a background unicorn who’s only been seen in Canterlot and Manehattan.
Kibitz is from the IDW comics.
The kindergarten primer Cheerilee chooses first is called Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten, and it's available on Amazon.com for $6.29. I picked it totally at random; I doubt it existed when I was in kindergarten. We had the Mr. Men books, and inflatable alphabet people. We also had yummy paste.
Your Home is the book which Lyra gave Dale on the beach.
For those of you who keep track of these things, Allie Way has been officially named Pinny Lane. As with Magnum, I’m not going to go back through the text and change it.
Let me know if OPP hits the feature box; I'm at rehearsal and can't obsessively check.
Another excellent chapter. And now you have me smiling about Ratcatcher Fluttershy, no need for a flute when all you need is some cheese and a kind word.
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It is presently 10th on the feature box, or third depending on how you look at it.
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Yay!
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Kibitz is best pony.
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Exactly!
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Poor guy just couldn't handle Luna. I bet after his day was over, he went right to the bar.
Dat feel when you actually have an obscure part in that drawer, that nobody has and you would be so royally fucked if you didn't have it.
Love dat feel.
I actually have a couple drawers for random shit. One for bolts (roughly organized by size), gaskets, radiator caps, radiator drain plugs, then one for everything else.
orly? That's useful! I used to make soft boiled eggs all the time. It's been a really long time since I've had one... but man they're good. Most people think it'd be nasty to eat a runny egg yolk, but it actually does cook somewhat, even though it's still liquidy. So it's sort of it's own thing. I'm hoping I still have my tiny little spoon, egg holder, and even that special scissor-like tool to cut open the top of the eggshell.
I also never knew you're supposed to stop the spinning egg. I always just spun them and uncooked ones spin all wobbly, the hard boiled ones spin smoothly.
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It so rarely happens, but when it does . . . man that's awesome. Works with weird tools, too . . . those ones that you buy, then they just sit in the drawer collecting dust for months or years, and then one day it happens to be the only tool in the whole shop that can get the job done....
For all that I grumble about my boss, we have a comprehensive selection of bolts and nuts. We've got 5-12mm, and 1/4"-7/16, all brand new, all arranged in neat racks. We've got slide-out drawers of cotter keys, sheet metal screws, Christmas tree fasteners, assortments of drain plugs, grease zerks, weatherpack terminals, and even brake line fittings in all sorts of sizes. We make our own brake lines and don't re-use the fittings. That's about the awesomest thing ever.
I got those numbers off the internet, so I'd use them with caution . . . but they're probably right, or close enough.
Me, too . . . I never liked hardboiled, but softboiled's damn good. I ought to make some.
I don't know if you have to; again, I just copied the list from the internet. My mom used to always label eggs in pencil, and when I cook, I usually scramble or fry them, so I never really had to know how to tell hard-boiled eggs from raw ones.
2448198 Not only is he a good author but he gives us valuable live hacks
Yeah, we got a big set of Dorman drawer boxes for nuts and bolts. Though they probably haven't been stocked by Dorman for well over a decade, we bought the boxes and whatever random shit they contained a couple years ago. But we have a nut n bolt guy who swings by once a week and stocks us with the usual shit, brake lines and fittings included. Though I usually cheap out and reuse the fittings when they're not the, you know, usual ones that come with the 5' lines. Those fittings are expensive. Come to think of it, I haven't seen Kurt in a good long while... I used up all the brake lines a week ago...
I'm just now observing the Bad Dragon ad right below this comment box, been getting a lot of those here... hey, don't look at me! I don't know why. But it just now occured to me exactly what's happening in this animated ad. It opens looking upon an open plain with mountains on either side, cartoony... in fact it's a disturbingly familiar cartoon style... anyway, then all of a sudden an anthro dragon and an... ffs, an anthro horse, just pop into existence as if having teleported. The horse rolls his eyes and the dragon smiles mischievously.
So yeah. Bad dragon anthro's invading Equestria, anyone? inb4 stupid fic about it.
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And that's different from your average HiE fic how?
2448692 More anthros.
I remember the Mr. Men books...
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Might as well share what I know!
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Me, too. I think I checked out every one the library had when I was a kid.
2449083 I think we all did.
Ah the simple days, back when kids actually read books.
I'll share my tool box secret, Cow magnets! They are very strong and cheap rectangular magnets that you feed to a cow encase they ingest metal (hardware disease). These are great for small things like setscrews and can be hand for holding wires etc.
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We use the heck out of those round magnets that go in transmission pans to catch metal shavings. Over time, we've gotten a pretty good collection of them, and that's what's actually holding the papers up on my side locker.
I also have three sets of magnetic alligator clips, which are really handy for soldering.
Excellent chapter, and interesting blog. (I already knew about the spinning egg trick, but it was cool to see it referenced. Also, the timing scale for hard/soft boiled eggs is neat.
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I found a minor misspelling in chapter 17: "The Princess with be with you just as soon as she can."
Nice chapter ^^ I'm happy whenever you release a new chapter and it's interesting notes
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Correction made, thank you.
I remember a scene from The Maretian where Mark Watney asks starlight glimmer how to say hungry or eat in her language and she made "a noise that sounded like a horse when it's begging for sugar cubes"