On "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" in Latin

Since it came up today in a conversation with The Great and Powerful Pixelkitties, I thought it might be fun (and perhaps enlightening) to explain how you can translate the title My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic into Latin. Because I'm a geek, this is actually one of the first things I did when trying to find ways to bring these two interests of mine together. As a disclaimer, I'd note that my Latin is middling at best, so if anyone spots any errors, please do bring them to my attention.

On the "Equestria Girls" Furore

I awoke today to find that the official announcement and the trailer for Equestria Girls were released during the early hours of the UK morning. For those who aren't aware, Equestria Girls is Hasbro's movie-length spinoff of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and over the last few months it's generated a great deal of rumour and speculation in the latter's fan community. Unsurprisingly, today's announcement sparked a fresh round of debate. Taking my Twitter timeline as a sample, the reactions ranged from gleefully positive to cynically negative; most people fell somewhere in the middle, but there's a clear sense of concern in the air. I usually consciously avoid weighing in when these sorts of tensions arise, as I worry about a sort of observer effect, in which any comment – even an appeal for calm – only ends up adding fuel to the flames. This time, though, I would like to offer my thoughts on the matter. Please take them for whatever they may be worth to you.

On Influences and Beginnings

While I'm still finding my feet in this blogging experiment, I feel it's important for me to recognise some of the influences that led me to begin it in the first place. I've already listed a handful of blogs over in the sidebar under "Links", but I think it's valuable to briefly highlight the reason why I've included them, and to consider the role they've played in guiding me to this stage of my academic life. It's a story
that begins, as so many good stories do, with Doctor Who.