Click

The Truth About

Lolita

pg 7

My Little Pony:

Friendship is

Magic

The equine sensation sweeping the World Wide Web pg 14

What you

need to know about

Facebook

pg 5

MEMEBASE.COM

y u no got to meme base?!

First!

Come for the Memes Stay for the LAWLS I Am 12 and what is this??

Letter from the Editors

Salutations, all. The Internet is a complex matrix of social networking, forums, memes, ponies, Youtube, and other confusing things. That’s why we exist, to report all the ins and outs of the Internet to you, our reader.

We hope you find us entertaining and informative. Welcome to the World Wide Web. Click.

-Lucy, Sergio, GG

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Author Bios

LUCY Liu Isn’t sure if Internet, or just a bunch of memes. Lucy is a species of High Schooler currently residing at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy. Something of a nerd, she enjoys computers, potato chips, and video gamery. She fights the vile monster known as the Homeworking almost every day of the week, questing after the forgotten element known as Sleep. She is invincible in all places except for the back of her left tonsil, and writes bad fanfiction for fun and sport. Lucy reads a various assortment of webcomics and loves to procrastinate. She wears an orange jacket which she uses to fight crime. Thinks Homestuck is kind of the best thing ever.

SERGIO Jimenez Sergio is a sleepy guy who likes to play soccer and hang out with friends. He can speak fluent Spanish and can make the swift work of his enemies in video games. Sergio enjoys brief sessions of Black Ops, but then sits back and complains about how badly made the game is. He plays it anyways. Sergio spends some of his time looking at internet memes. Although these memes often distract Sergio from doing his work, he reads them anyways. These include rage comics, various macro images such as “WHY U NO” guy, and the old series of mildly humorous Lolcats. He likes to complain about the low-quality of MS Paint, but uses it anyways because he doesn’t bother buying and learning Photoshop. Sergio hates Facebook but uses it anyways because everyone uses it. The only thing Sergio seemingly likes and and uses anyways is his love for metalcore. /rant

GG Trimble-Quiz GG is an aspiring Lolita, with interests in art and a low tolerance to extreme amounts of sugar. She enjoys wasting massive amounts of time on the Internet watching LPs and reading her dashboard on tumblr as well as sewing and writing letters to her friend Marissa. She wants to call herself a Zelda fan, but feels unworthy of doing so as she has only played two titles of the series. GG often finds herself doodling little Links or random people from her imagination, and struggles with hands and legs, although she loves both. Her art idols are missusruin, bbbreakfast and leppu on tumblr. Ms. Richey has said, “GG is my limit tester.” her left pinky is incapable of reaching the “P” key as well as the orange button on Guitar Hero. Has really, really trippy dreams and a deep love for potatoes. GG “enjoys” snipping off her split ends in her spare time.

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Table of Contents 2

Letter from the Editors

3

Author Bios

5

Facebook + Your Mind = Mush

7

Not Nabokov’s Lolita

pg 10

10 Super Ninja Turtle Pirates Ate the Constitution? No: The accuracy of Wikipedia 12 Getting Nothing Done 14 The Pony Phenomenon 17 32 Bit Horror 20 Horoscopes pg 17

21 Art Credits 22 Games

pg 7

pg 5 pg 14

DO YUO LIK SWEET BRO AND HELLA JEFF? ONLY $21!!

THEN U SHUD BYU THIER SHORTS!

www.topatoco.com/mspa

Facebook + Our Minds =MUSH

I

Imagine a world where people become too computerbased and safely cut off from the outside world that they are too afraid to socialize in the real world.The average teen might say that that type of world isn’t possible. Judging by what these teens do online you might just think that we are doing just the opposite. But I am here to say that this might not be the case. People, especially teens, are utilizing social networking sites more than ever before in an effort to “connect” with more people, but they are causing social problems among us. Social networks are changing the way we have conversation.

The obvious objection to this idea would be that social networking websites were made to do just that, to connect with known friends and to find new friends who you might have met before, but have not talked to before. For the most part, I think that social networks connect us well enough in that sort of fashion..

What people don’t seem to realize is that they spend more and more time online and less time doing other activities. This is what many researchers believe to be [Insert website name here] addiction, i.e.: Facebook addiction, YouTube addiction, Twitter addiction.

According to Baroness Susan Greenfield, a leading Neuroscientist at Oxford university, the average time teens spent online per week in 2005 was about 7.1 hours. By 2007 it had doubled to 13.1 hours.

This additional time meant less time for school work, sports, other hobbies and meeting with friends in person. It is a known fact that when you become addicted to something, you make time for that addiction by putting off some things (date, meeting, school, family), and interfering with your life.

Another cause for this Internet addiction type problem could be that people rely on social networking to communicate an idea that would not be communicated in public by the person.

Twitter does a good job at making us express our innermost feelings with an “audience” (followers) and we don’t give it a second thought. For example, we could “tweet” something really personal to our followers (or something really perverted) just to get attention from them and feel special. This causes us to not have a sense of privacy over what we say. A false sense of security could appear

Sergio Jimenez

from this type of behavior. Users trust too much of their personal thoughts on certain subjects that normally would be frowned upon by earlier generations.

The effects might not be too evident in the current generation of net users, but this is simply to the fact that the Internet hasn’t been around long enough. Users today may have started just a couple of years ago, which means that they were able to make the change from a paper-based offline type of world to a world that is now almost run by the Internet. They still know what it is like to not have the web in your home, or YouTube in your pocket. The next generation, however, will be bound to their computers, unaware of the world around them and will be unable to make a conversation anywhere outside of their computer.

My personal experiences with social networks have

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Continued... led me to believe that a socially awkward world could become a possible future. The public is aware of addiction to this particular website because it is so popular with teens. Many of my friends on the website have said that they might be addicted to Facebook and acknowledge that it is a bad thing. Some people spend hours in front of their computers or T.V.s browsing sites or playing video games. I have heard of students who have other friends to change their passwords so they can focus on schoolwork. This problem may become a reality if we don’t do anything to stop our world from becoming a social mess.

Many users of these social networks argue against this because they say that social networks help them in their social life. To a point, they are correct; this is the original purpose of social networks. They argue that if they are talking to friends, they don’t become anti-social. Their argument is also true. I came across a blog post from an obscure blog named alittleclass.blogspot.com. The author argued that her oldest

friend on Facebook, her 90 year old grandmother, checks her profile regularly. She says that her grandmother scoffed at the idea of social networks ruining our life. She said it reminded her of “ like when everyone used to write letters.” This is a good argument. However, they don’t take into account that this will isolate you from the real world. Social networking sites have us think about our actions in a different way. If we post, we expect someone to acknowledge the post by commenting on it. In the real world we don’t have posts. We don’t know what someone thinks about our post. If you spend enough time on a social networking site it causes you to think a certain way for a while.

If you switch from technological stimuli to natural stimuli, it can offset the brain if the person is not developed enough. Most people today can make that switch, but if our next generation spends their entire life behind a screen, they will not be able to make that transition, much like how older people have a hard time transitioning into technology.

If we want to stop our world from becoming the social mess that it may slowly become, then we must cut down our Internet use and spend more time with real people. Of course,

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at the current moment it may not seem that we are becoming that type of society, but if we continue, we might eventually come to the point where people become too scared to even start a conversation face to face.

Not Nabokov’s Lolita

I

If you walk around Harajuku in Japan on Sunday, you’ll see many youths stroll in bizarre fashion (to the western eye) such as Lolita fashion–plentiful ruffles and frills, high cut dresses and knee length skirts with bell shaped silhouettes, bountiful bows, childish Mary Janes, and voluminous petticoats–but no one judges these different choices of appearance.

You’ll find people who photograph and admire these young adults on the street, but on the Internet, you’ll find anonymous people who wrongly believe that Lolita fashion is purely sexual. Lolita fashion does not revolve around the sexual connotation some people think it has because of the association with Vladimir Nabokov’s pedophilic novel Lolita.

Didn’t the term Lolita come from Nabokov’s Lolita? No one is entirely sure, but many speculate that the book did have an influence on the fashion because of the line in Lolita, “...check weaves, bright cottons, frills, puffed out short sleeves, soft pleats, snug-fitting bodices and generously full skirts!” which describes the basic characteristics for Lolita fashion, although the sexual connotation of the name “Lolita” from the book was not intended to transfer over as well. In fact, to use the name Lolita to mean a sexually promiscuous young girl is technically incorrect, as Humbert in Lolita described them as “nymphettes”. Mike Campbell’s website Behind the Name states that Lolita originally derives from Dorothea, meaning “gift of God” from Greek δωρον (doron) “gift” and θεος (theos) “god”. It is also known that the Japanese use English words differently than Americans do, (called waseieigo) such as the word “viking” (バ イキング) defined in Japanese as “buffet”.

Don’t “Lolitas” dress in this fashion to have sexual encounters with older men? Many people seem to believe so, especially on CNN’s recent blog post “Lolita fashion finds a niche in the U.S.” For example,

GG Trimble

“I get the impression that their target market isn’t really females at all.”

“But I do question the psychological stability of women who want to look like dolls! Or better yet, the men who like girls that look like dolls (pedos maybe?). Anyway, I would never let my daughter dress this way as it might entice creepy pedos to like her.”

“[...] the people who want to dress up to look like dolls have serious mental issues.

These ‘women’ are just screaming for the attention that they didn’t get as children, and so as they age they must act out their inner child in order to feel complete. I don’t see the problem with letting these poor people act out their issues, (at least the costume is a dead giveaway that the wearer is unstable) but they shouldn’t be surprised or offended when I LMAO at them and point and stare rudely at them in public because they look like retards.”

“If you need to wear absurd, outlandish and totally impractical as well as unfunctional clothes to ‘feel good’ you got bigger issues to worry about than getting picked on in this little chat room honey.”

“Nobody will ever need to wonder where the insecure women are – they will stand out for all the world to see.”

“Ladies why are you trying so hard to look like children? No self respecting woman would be seen in this gear.”

“This is creepy–why are adult women wanting to look like pedophile bait?”

“The article doesn’t mention the fact that these women are trying to look like children. They are bound to attract disgusting men””

“It will attract freaks and geeks.”

If you do read the article, I’d like to point out that an inaccurate part of the article is when

7

Continued... they say that Lolitas want to look like dolls. This is untrue, as many dolls wear Rococo or Victorian style fashion, two of Lolita fashion’s major influences. Also, the article is misrepresenting Lolita fashion as the tags are “Fandom” and “Otaku”, because, as stated by Lolita blogger Carolyn on her post “10 Misconceptions about Lolita” on her blog F Yeah Lolita, “Lolita is not an anime invention, quite the opposite actually, Lolitas are in anime because it was a real-world fashion first.”

What about “Lolita Complex”, or Lolicon? Isn’t that related to Lolita fashion? (For those that do not know, Lolicon is the Japanese fetish of middle-aged men who are attracted to young girls, who often seek out pornographic manga.) No, although once again, even though Lolicon is a namesake with the fashion, they are two different things. According to Nessa Neko’s article “Lolita and Japanese Society” on lolitafashion. org, the women that choose to wear Lolita do not cater to those middle-aged men’s sexual desires, but only wish to be cute and non-sexual. Lolita fashion is an escape from reality, which allows

wear it only for themselves, as shown by these comments on the same CNN article:

“[...] the idea that you can get pissed at me if I mock you or point and laugh is pretty stupid. What right do you have to tell me that I cannot express myself when I see you trying to get attention. If you want to dress like a clown, people are going

.”

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women to dress for themselves in a world where fashion has been perverted to attire that shows off womens’ legs and breasts.

The aesthetics of Lolita are affiliated with the idea of a little girl; (albeit that little girls nowadays dress like adults) thus people believe Lolitas dress up in the fashion to become pedobait, which is false. Lolitas didn’t experience some sort of trauma from their childhood, or bear a secret fetish, they simply like the way it looks. Lolita blogger Carolyn includes this fact in a post on her blog F Yeah Lolita, “10 Misconceptions about Lolita”, that people assume that when someone wears this strange non-

to point and laugh. Why not? You are doing it for attention. So, you get attention.”

“Translation: pay attention to me! pay attention to me!”

“LOOK AT ME EVERYONE. I AM DRESSED FUNNY. I HAVE A RIGHT TO DRESS FUNNY. LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME.”

“Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep...or Little Miss Muffet sat on her Tuffet [...] eating her curds of whey. These people look demented in their crazy frocks.”

mainstream fashion or sub-culture, there is an equally strange reason behind it.

Doesn’t Lolita fashion scream for the attention of men? As stated by Lolita blogger Carolyn in blog post “10 Misconceptions About Lolita” and “Ask Miss Caro-Chan: Wearing Lolita in Public” on her blog F Yeah Lolita, you might as well argue that any fashion screams for the attention of anyone.

People think that only when someone wears something strange that they want attention, but you can see “normal” people who wear shirts that project what they think of themselves, what type of romantic companion they look for, or “witty” sayings meant to provoke a response from others. A comment on the CNN article explains this well, “[...] like there are a lot of Barbie/Bratz/etc. dolls wearing “normal” clothes, but just because a girl is wearing “normal” clothes doesn’t mean she’s dressing up with the intent of looking like a Barbie/Bratz/etc. doll.” Furthermore, when someone wears something out of the ordinary, the attention they eceive is suddenly bad attention. They think that Lolitas wear the fashion for either positive or negative attention, while really they

Because of reactions like these, one can find several guides on wearing Lolita in public, to name a few, Lolita blogger Alice’s post “On Being Lolita: Navigating Public Transportation” on her blog Pink Milk Tea, Lolita blogger Jessica-Nyappy’s post “Lolita street survival guide...for western Lolis” on mookychick. co.uk, Lolita blogger Tally’s post “5 Easy Steps for Going Out Alone While Dressed in Lolita” on her blog Lost in Lace, Lolita Blogger Victoria Suzanne’s post “Why Must My Public Be So Tiresome” on blog Parfaitdoll, and Lolita blogger Carolyn’s post “Ask Miss Caro-Chan: Wearing Lolita in Public” on her blog F Yeah Lolita. Surprisingly enough, Lolitas don’t love the nasty comments or looks from others, so that many shy away from wearing it in public for fear of these responses, preventing Lolitas to don in what they love.

Although Google’s strictest setting of safe search filters out the word “Lolita”, it doesn’t mean that everything called or labeled Lolita is a allusion to Nabokov’s corrupt little girl. Please, while you browse the web, if you come across something labeled as Lolita fashion, I ask you to be nonjudgmental, open minded, and respectful.

646 IT’S INTENSE.

POKÉMON BLACK VERSION

POKÉMON WHITE VERSION

Super Ninja Pirate Turtles Ate the Constitution?

NO

WIKIPEDIA The Accuracy of

Lucy Liu

10

T

The beauty of Wikipedia lies in its ability for anyone, anywhere to edit it, allowing for a vast database of information no one else can match. Yet instantly, everyone assumes this means a chaotic, confusing calamity where vandalism and false information prevails.

Really, guys?

Wikipedia is not nearly as terrible and inaccurate as its critics make it out to be. Wikipedia should not be the source of all the distrust it has today. In fact, Wikipedia is a reliable source of information that should be trusted just as much as any other scholarly site on the World Wide Web, whether your purposes are academic or otherwise.

A study done by the scientific journal Nature in December of 2005 discovered Wikipedia to be almost as accurate as the website for the Encyclopedia Britannica. Field experts were sent articles from both sites without being told which article came from which site, reviewing the articles for errors, inaccuracies, and the like. According to the CNET news article on the study, the experts found only eight “major” errors - like “general misunderstandings of vital concepts” - four coming from each site.

Overall, Wikipedia averaged 3.86 mistakes per article, whereas Britannica had a mean total of 2.92. That’s a less-than-one mistake difference! And even Britannica doesn’t have a perfect streak either; the experts found 123 minor slip-ups overall on the site.

Wikipedia allows all users to edit and add information in a common forum. But don’t think that this means it’s an unregulated wilderness. In January of 2007, Todd Holloway, Miran Božievic and Katy Börner published an article on Wikipedia’s structure and coverage. As they say, the Wikipedia community -- a closely knit network of social interaction -- looks after one another, as well as one another’s edits and content. Users discuss edits on the talk page of an article, reaching agreements through democracy and consensus. Administrators restore and moderate page revisions, cutting down on vandalism and false information. Citations and references are required to verify material; we’ve all seen those small, blue numbers floating after every couple of sentences or so. And even when vandalism does occur, users usually clean it up quite quickly, with very few exceptions.

(Sadly, these exceptions are the ones that get all the news, leading others to think Wikipedia is less reliable than it really is.)

Finally, readers aren’t stupid. Are you stupid? That’s right, I didn’t think you were. In fact, most readers can use this magical thing called common sense to determine the trustworthiness of an article. Neat, right?

Excuse my sarcasm. But Wikipedia is great in that it contains references and citations to all of its sources, so you can doublecheck information if it smells a little fishy. Personally, I like to trip over to the discussion page whenever I’m reading an article in order to check the page rating, which assesses the general quality of the page. For example, an article rated “featured” or “good article” is more likely to be accurate than an article rated “C”. The talk page also contains discussions between users over various edits, revisions and information, making it a good place to go to if you want to check any factual controversy.

Wikipedia is not a perfect site. But what site is? It has its own share of flaws and errors, just like any other. It also provides the

largest database of free, easily accessible information you’ll ever find. Wikipedia can be trusted.

Just ask Britannica.

Getting Nothing Done: Sergio Jimenez

Frustration of Concentration by the Generation has a Publication on PROCRASTINATION

O

“OK, so I get on the computer.

When I get on the I automatically open at least four tabs, Gmail Facebook, manga and comics. Check for any updates on all of them. Go around on the Internet.

Go around on reddit. Go to YouTube to see if any new videos are on. Go around Gmail. Screw with people.” If this is what your average day after-school sounds like to you, you might be a little familiar with a little thing known as Procrastination.

And for Kevin Chau, it certainly is.

Kevin Chau is your typical LASA student who likes to procrastinate. He spends his extra time scouring the crevices of the meme-filled Internet in search for a laugh or two before venturing into his piles of what teachers call homework.

Scouring through books to quickly finish his assignment so he can get back to his usual activities on the Internetz, Kevin spent most of his afternoon wondering what he is going to do after finishing his daily amount of homework. He is a good

12

example of a successful procrastinator. He is able to balance what his free time

with what work he needs to do.

As a LASA student, you might feel familiar with procrastination as a bad habit, something that gets in your way of being a successful student. While being able to procrastinate, Kevin is still able to to his homework, turn it in on time, and not hurt his grade.. To be simple, he successfully procrastinates.

Kevin sometimes does his daily amount of homework after he procrastinates for a couple of hours. This strategy is common throughout teens because it gives the sense that you will feel like doing the work later, when really you won’t. You end up late at night wishing to be asleep rather than doing homework that you could have done earlier. This is what an

unsuccessful procrastinator does.

According to a study by the Ohio state University, extensive amounts of procrastination have shown to have huge impacts on students’ grades. It showed that supposed “High” procrastinators have a tendency to use rationalizations when they work such as, “I work best under pressure”, or “I’m just waiting for the best time to do it.” Kevin was asked if this procrastination affected his grades in a negative manner. He replied, “Not if I know how to manage how much time I can spend and how much work I need to do.”

Time management is key in order to be a successful procrastinator. Sometimes there are simply not enough hours in the day to get everything you need to get done. ”Near the end of the six

weeks grading period when there’s homework, projects, tests, and labs all due. It’s annoying that the teachers cram all of the grading towards the end but I should manage my time better on normal days to prepare for this,” Kevin said.

Heavy procrastinators are the ones who spend hour after hour procrastinating with work still needed to be done and are sometimes the ones lagging behind in their work. Kevin was asked how much procrastination

“Screw with people.”

he does per day. “It depends. If we have a day off that’s going to have different times than if I get home later after school If I have something after school. So, I don’t know. If we have day off on Friday, Then I’ll have a day filled with procrastination. Maybe like 3-4 hours,” Kevin explained.

Students aren’t the only ones shown to procrastinate.

Studies show that even the most productive people in life do this regularly. It is human nature and it is something we, as humans, cannot avoid. Admit it, how often do your parents put certain things off such as doing their taxes and washing dishes(unless they make you do them).

Procrastination can be described as something that is negative, but Kevin thinks otherwise. “I mean uh I feel like it allows you to be more social.I mean if you know about Star craft and your friend knows about Star craft like you can talk about the game. What you think about it. ”I mean uh I feel like it allows you to be more social.I mean if you know about Star craft and your friend knows about Star craft like you you can talk about the game. What you think about it.”

Frustration

Concentration

Geneneration

13 45 45

O

One day, on October 10, 2010, the pilot of a cartoon that would soon rock the world premiered with the debut of The Hub, a television channel replacing Discovery Kids.

Two weeks later, the Internet exploded.

Ever since that fateful day, the animated television show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has both captured hearts and spawned hate all across the nation. With ponies taking over forums, websites, image boards, and more, there’s almost nowhere you can turn without facing the rapidly growing fandom.

The premise of the show is that the main protagonist, Twilight Sparkle, is a unicorn studying magic under the wing of Princess Celestia, the ruler of Equestria. However, her antisocial attitude leads Celestia to send her to Ponyville so that she can finally make some friends. There, with the help of the honest Applejack, kind Fluttershy, fun-loving Pinkie Pie, generous Rarity, and loyal Rainbow Dash, Twilight manages to use the Elements of Harmony to defeat the evil Nightmare Moon. Happy with Twilight’s newfound friends, Celestia allows Twilight and her assistant baby dragon, Spike, to stay in Ponyville and study the magic of friendship.

Sounds like a regular show directed towards kids aged 6 to 12, right?

Enter 4chan. On October 19, a user named Amid published an article titled “The End of the Creator-Driven Era in TV Animation” on the website Cartoon Brew, addressing what he thought was a tragic decline of original content in today’s cartoons. He also happened to cite Friendship is Magic as one of his main examples. After the article managed to find its way onto 4chan’s comic and cartoon board, /co/, it stirred interest in some of the users, who decided to

14

Lucy Liu go and watch the first episode of the show. However, despite their original intent to make fun of the show, they ended up generating a fanbase around it, praising its animation and art.

This reaction soon traveled over to /b/, or the random board, of 4chan -- the board notorious for spawning many an Internet meme. Even through /b/’s reputation for violent and sexual content, the users embraced the characters and plot; the ponies gained a large following, becoming the center of many inside jokes and image macros. It was here that the term “bronies” first emerged.

But not everyone was so accepting of the fad. Pony haters began spamming pony threads with porn and gory imagery, in hopes of beating them into submission. On February 26, 2011, /b/ and /co/ moderators began to ban users posting in pony threads, claiming them to be “endless pony threads with no actual content other than reaction images” and telling the bronies to “Go start your own pony imageboard.” Surprisingly, the bronies, in the spirit of the show, responded with love and tolerance, never striking back negatively.

As the tension between the two sides rose, bronies fleeing from 4chan began forming their own sites, such as Ponychan and Equestria Daily. Finally, the pony ban on /b/ was lifted on March 1.

Today, ponies are present almost everywhere.

References and memes abound. Baylee, a high school student at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy, has been watching the series since the beginning of this summer, and fully admits to being a brony...er, pegasister?

“I think most of the appeal comes from the fact that the show has quite a bit of real life truths and upstanding morals,” she said. “I think adults enjoy this show because it makes them remember their childhood.” Plus, “it’s hilariously funny.”

But not all fans of Friendship is Magic are so open about their position. One brony -- we’ll call him “Jon” -- said that “basically everyone” who finds out about his affinity to the show have treated him oddly or thought it weird. “Most average highschool guys react very negatively when they find out I’m a brony.

They [think] I’m automatically gay because I watch MLP.”

“The majority of [the trolls] have never even bothered to watch the show,” said Baylee. “Plus, all of their ideas come from the fact that the [original] My Little Pony from the seventies was a little girl’s show -- which, in fact, it was. It’s lacking qualities that make Friendship is Magic what is really is.”

A comparison of screenshots from My Little Pony: The Movie (1986, above) and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (2010, below)

Continued...

High school student Gerrick disagrees. “I feel there should be no bronies whatsoever,” he said. He believes that because the show was primarily targeting young females, “it should not be made for women and men above age of, like, ten.”

“I think it’s just a little creepy that a bunch of grown men are watching cartoons intended for 5 year olds and embracing it, not just watching it,” says Sergio, who is online friends with an avid brony. And yet, even though he thinks that his friend’s hobby is weird, he still respects the fandom and his friend. “He’s still a human being. Going to LASA has made me see people for who they really are. And besides, there are weirder people than bronies.”

While the show has been booed and beaten down by much of the Internet community, it also receives much praise and critical acclaim, such as in the areas of plot and the ponies’ character development. “It’s their flaws that make them so realistic,” says Baylee, whose favorite character is Rainbow Dash. “[Rainbow Dash] seems like she’s got everything figured out... she’s something to look up to.”

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The show’s creator, Lauren Faust, has been very accepting of the show’s unusual following. In an interview with the Friendship is Magic fansite Equestria Daily, she says “I think the surprising fanbase invigorated the crew and kept us going when we were getting exhausted. There’s no better morale booster than making an actual impact.”

And at the end of the day, after you’ve hunted for diamonds and won a talent show and stared down a cockatrice and discovered the true meaning of friendship, after Princess Celestia lowers the sun and Princess Luna raises the moon, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic may seem like just another cartoon. But this cartoon has managed to start an Internet revolution, pitting bronies against trolls, love against hate, and forging some true friendships in the fight for the fandom. After all, as Baylee says, “You can hate anything if you never give yourself a chance to love it.”

T GG Trimble-Quiz

The singsong quality of the title screen of the game might create jovial emotions, but Tvface, former player and creator of in-process fangame wreCk, was able to detect sad undertones of the three second loop that plays infinitely until an option is selected.

“It felt like the theme of someone who experienced terrible things, but instead of trying to make things right, they accepted their sadness and just trudged on,” Tvface said.

Yume Nikki (ゆめにっき, meaning “Dream Diary”), a seemingly uncomplicated role playing game, is not RPG at all. It’s a vast sandbox game lacking dialogue, a typical RPG goal or explicit plot, with what most consider unnerving areas and images woven within, even with its measly 64 bit graphics.

One cannot contact the creator of Yume Nikki, Kikyama, and because he hasn’t explained anything, fans are left leaves players to speculation.

In Yume Nikki, you play as Madotsuki, a brunette lass of an unknown age, though it is believed that she is young from older childhood to late teen. She shakes her head when prompted to go through the door in her room, leaving you to explore the dream world. Although the game is from Japan, fans do not know if she is Japanese, although it is usually accepted as canon.

Her name, Madotsuki (窓付き), means window in Japanese, but is not used as a name in Japan.

“[Madotsuki] may not be the character’s true name,” the Yume Nikki wiki speculates, “It could be thought of as being more a description of the character as the player’s window into the dream world rather than a literal name. It could also be a way to preserve the game’s theme of loneliness by giving the character a functional, dehumanizing name rather than a personal name.”

“I heard a rumor that Kikiyama actually based Madotsuki on a woman he knew who would tell him about her dreams and who also wound up dying the same way Madotsuki did.” Tvface said.

“Kikiyama has been interviewed, although it has been lost or deleted since the last time I read it, but I do remember how he said that Uboa was created around a girl he knew that seemed nice, but would suddenly do an emotional 180,” Friday said. “I also recall him saying that he created Madotsuki around a girl he once dated who was also a hikikomori (people who prefer to withdraw from social life) and rarely left her apartment. A year after they broke up, he heard that she committed suicide.”

A basic speculation is that Madotsuki’s dreams drove her to KyuuKyuu-kun

insanity, and thus the ending, but others believe that she used her dreams to escape her reality and she went to the point of wanting to be united with her dreams forever.

Madotsuki’s Apartment

“I know some people hate number world because it is scary to them, but I love that kind of creepiness,” Tvface said.

The “Number World”, as the area is dubbed, is sprinkled with bright red numbers, wall tiles that resemble zippers. There is a certain tile whose mouth, when open, can be stabbed with the knife effect allowing entry into a sub-area named “Staircase” where one will encounter a smiling, multicolored, pole-rubbing NPC named KyuuKyuu-Kun behind the railing. At the end of the

hall is one of the five full-screen events dubbed “FACE” where an image flashes for ten seconds until Madotsuki is forced to wake up. As Tvface said, many players are frightened by the Number World.

“[The thing I found the most disturbing was] FACE, since it, and the area leading up to it, has a lot of theories about it implying rape (the zipper-like figures on the walls in the Number World and the phallic shape of Kyuukyuu-kun),” Ruin-HCI said.

“Since Madotsuki wakes up abruptly after seeing

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Continued... the event, I always correlated that with some kind of trauma and something she’s so afraid of, she’d force herself to wake up. There are lots of other very disturbing events/imagery, but this is the only one that causes her to wake up.”

A very common speculation is that Madotsuki was raped, supported by the instance of meeting KyuuKyuu-Kun

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a smiling, railing-rubbing, multicolored NPC. KyuuKyuu-Kun is described by many as being blatantly phallic due to its cylindrical appearance. Not to mention the way KyuuKyuu-Kun strokes the railing, and the fact that if you equip the cat effect, he rubs slower, and the opposite happens when you equip the knife effect. Speculators connect this with how some rapists are excited by struggle and put off by compliance. Hands and eyes are common in the dream world, possibly representing unwanted touching and constantly being watched.

“The stare of KyuuKyuu-kun is that of a monster that doesn’t know what’s going on, the kind of monster that might hug you, and might hug you too hard, and not know when to stop.” Anonymous, on Uboachan (image board for Yume Nikki).

Other speculations are that Madotsuki has gender issues, is a foreigner living in Japan, was in a car accident in the past, was sleeping all along and the real world is actually a dream world, shutting herself inside her apartment because something worse than her dreams is occurring outside, depressed, mentally ill, or has a cocktail of mental illnesses, inflicting her dreams.

“I agree with the theory that Madotsuki is living in some kind of post-apocalyptic world, whether that be the actual state of the world, or just how she sees the world around her,” former player Ruin-HCI said. Although I think that her reclusive tendencies largely stem from her own paranoia and fear, I think some of that might be because of something horrible happening to the ‘outside world’.”

If Madotsuki willingly interacts with her dreams, but refuses go outside, something

excruciatingly horrible must ensue.

“The Toriningen (bird women NPCs) scared me the most out of everything in the game. It wasn’t so much their appearance that made me afraid of them, but the way that they chased you around the game.” former player Friday said. “However hard you tried to get away from them, there were always more.

There was a constant fear of when they would show up throughout the game, because they were really the only enemies in a dream world that was filled with terrors.”

The Jellyfish are thought to be significant, as their appearance is in the dense woods, near Shitai-san, who is dead, foreshadowing the end of the game. They also cannot be killed like Uboa (Uboa is a random event within a deeper realm of the dream world. He changes the background from music to the faint sound of screaming. Once he appears, you cannot leave or kill him, and he takes you to an inescapable area) and the Toriningen. Because of this, one can say that the Jellyfish represent a very powerful force in Madotsuki’s psyche as Uboa and the Toriningen are speculated to be. At the end of the game, are Jellyfish NPC beside Madotsuki’s implied bloodstain, possibly symbolizing that even in death, Madotsuki is not free from her dreams.

“It always interested me though, how touching Uboa contorted his face to one of pain.”

Tvface said.

“The monsters [that] have one eye and a large belly where a mouth opens up and bleeds. In another part of the game, there is the head of a woman in pain that floats around.

These two graphics fit perfectly together, now giving the

engorged monster and female head the look of a dying pregnant women,” Tvface said. “It was very shocking to realize this.”

“I found the ‘pregnant cyclops’ (pregnant bodies with no head, an eye in the middle of their chest, and a fanged mouth on the belly) the most disturbing,” Friday said.

“They were very shocking to look at and they were just generally

The Uboa event

horrific and eerie. It really made you think of what horrible thing could have possibly happened for these creatures to appear in a little girl’s dream.”

One of the soundest theories is that Madotsuki has post-abortion trauma as posted by Coralio, a former player, on Uboachan. There is plenty of pregnancy related imagery, such as the ovary-shaped monsters in the dense woods, decapitated pregnant cyclopes as mentioned by both Friday and Tvface, disfigured and sad little creatures (drawings in the sewers, Mars alien), KyuuKyuu-kun, “It’s all squeaky-squeaky and fun until one gets pregnant [...]”, and the effects turn into eggs when dropped in the Nexus.

Lumberjack, another fan, replied to this on Uboachan with, “Poniko is Madotsuki’s projection or fantasy of her daughter, if she wasn’t aborted. Uboa is symbolically Madotsuki’s abortion. [...] Everything is pink, and really girly. It’s the colour you would most associate with a newborn girl. [...] You enter through a hole in an igloo, which could represent a womb and vagina [...] Madotsuki and Poniko both look similar. Their colours are different, but green becomes pink when you invert it. [...] here is a very distinct window in Poniko’s room, unlike Madotsuki’s room. There is a picture of a window on Madotsuki’s shirt. This can’t be coincidence.”

Not to mention that in Japanese NASU, the SNES game in Madotsuki’s apartment, which means “eggplant” (茄), and that “nasu” has another meaning (為す) which means “to achieve”, “to build up” or “to change into”. However, there’s also an archaic meaning of that word—”to have a child”.

To some, the ending of the game is a letdown, and even though it implies her suicide, it still leaves many without closure.

“I thought that Madotsuki would be able to open the door and go outside at the end, or that some of the background story and symbolism of things in the game would be explained in some way. However, that fact that nothing is explained, and it ends, in a way, abruptly, adds to the appeal of the game,” Friday

said. “[I think] that the game was designed so that people could put their own meaning to the things in it. I think that it was made for the player to see what they wanted to see as far as the unexplained aspects of the game. This way, it would appeal to a larger audience and more people would be affected by the game.”

“You spend a lot of time in the game, searching and interpreting things, trying to get inside of [Madotsuki’s] head in order to understand her better and figure out what her backstory is,” Ruin-HCI said. “So to see her just commit suicide at the end, with no definite answers, just gave me this feeling of deep dread, and almost like I had let her down by not doing something to get a happier ending.”

“[Madotsuki’s death] was a slight build up of horror as I realized what was about to happen. In a way I expected that someone like Madotsuki would end up that way though,” Tvface said. “At the end it seems like Madotsuki either has nothing more to live for, or she realizes her life and herself is composed of negative emotions and pain, so she ends it in the only way she can think of doing.”

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Horoscopes

♐ (December 17 - January 20) Your strength as a person is both a gift and an obstacle to you.

Despite your strength, you feel self conscious often. You get nervous easily, therefore your friends like to tease you.

You like to create and have a knack for robotics. Be gentle with the things you love, as you’re prone to embracing things too enthusiastically. You may have unclouded and strong feelings for an Aries, and cooperate well with a Leo. Your favorite color is blue. ♈ (April 18 - May 13) You feel dead to the world sometimes.

It seems as if there is a hollowness in your life that you have yet to fill. Sometimes you feel detached from others. You will soon experience a reawakening. You may be happy with a Sagittarius or Gemini, and try not to be too harsh when taking revenge on a Scorpio. Your favorite color is dark red. ♉ (May 13 - June 21) It usually seems like the entire world is against you. Try to have more confidence in yourself. You can't bring yourself to hold a grudge, though you're often bullied by many people. You feel like you have a special connection to animals. Break a leg – a severe tragedy may befall you soon.

Stay as far away as possible from Scorpios. Your favorite color is brown. ♊ (June 21 - July 20) You love computers and programming computers, partially because you are very good at it. You have periodic mood swings sometimes. You may experience an accident in the near future, though it will not be as bad as you think. You will be happy with an Aries or Pisces, though you may end up accidentally hurting them later. Your favorite colors are red and blue, though you also like yellow. ♋ (July 20 - August. 10) Some people may consider you a freak, but others see you as a leader. You get annoyed with yourself a lot.

Even though you are something of a troll, deep down you care a lot about your friends’ well being. You may be worried or even scared of one of your friends right now, but don't fret – you'll make up with them in due time. Be friends with a Capricorn, but your feelings for the Libra or Scorpio may not carry out. Your favorite color is gray, and you detest the color red.

♎ (October 30 - November 23) Others find you to be flirty and clever, though sometimes a tad manipulative. You have a strong sense of justice. You feel the need to experience your world with senses other than sight. Despite any disabilities you might have, you are strongly independent and can draw conclusions on your own. You will have to make a hard decision soon, but know that whatever you choose, it will be for the best. A nearby Cancer may have feelings for you. Your favorite color is red because it is delicious, but teal is fine. ♏ (November. 23 - November 29) You tend to be rather meddlesome, and some consider you a big jerk most of the time.

You need to get over your relationship with a Taurus before it drives you to violent measures. Listen to your friend’s advice on major decisions before it hurts others and yourself. You don’t really get along with anyone, but a Virgo is tolerant of your behavior. Your favorite color is cerulean. ☤ (November 29 - December 17) You’re an all around enigma.

You hide in the shadows, therefore many are unaware of your existence as there is little known about you. . However, it is doubtless your niche will be very important later. Your favorite color is grey. ♑ (January 20 - February 16) You’re a pretty chill and low key person. Although you are mainly a low energy person, people fear your potential power because your emotions are like a light switch. When you’re on, you’re on-- and your best friend is the only one who can calm you down. You have peculiar taste in food. You get along well with a Cancer, and may develop feelings for a Taurus. Your favorite color is violet.

♌ (August 10 - September 16) Others have called you cute, and face it: you’re adorable. Despite this, you’re not afraid to be a little violent when the occasion calls. You have an energetic attitude and greet others enthusiastically. You’re a really artsy and creative person. Try getting yourself into the light more instead of being cooped up in a cave all the time. You may have strong feelings for a Cancer; however, it is doubtful he feels the same. Your favorite color is green.

♒ (February 16 - March 11) Others see you as desperate for a relationship of any type, but your behavior leads them to form a distaste towards you. You have feelings for a lot of people and are open to experimentation.You may have a strong distaste for a Scorpio, a likening to a Pisces (play your cards right or they’ll see you only as a friend!), a secret feelings for a Leo, an off and on friendship/hatred with a Gemini, and an odd friendship with a Virgo. Your favorite color is purple.

♍ (September 16 - October 30) You love fashion and interior design. However, in spite of your sunny disposition, you’re willing to perform grim acts to help others. You are truly unique, carrying certain traits that few others have. Side with a Scorpio, though you may find yourself settling disputes between them and a Taurus. Your favorite color is jade.

♓ (March 11- April 18) You’re a peppy person and everyone who you’ve met like you. Despite your elite status, you treat everyone equally, and because of it people respect you. You’re fearless, and this is the source of your power. Things other people find scary don’t frighten you. However, your old friendship with a Aquarius may be getting in the way of a mutual likening between you and a Gemini. Your favorite color is Tyrian purple.

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COVER: HASBRO/LUCY BIO: LUCY/GG BIO: ANONYMOUS/SERGIO BIO: SERGIO/TABLE OF CONTENTS FACEBOOK LOGO: FACEBOOK/TABLE OF CONTENTS LOLITA: TUMBLR/TABLE OF CONTENTS UBOA: LUCY AND GG/TABLE OF CONTENTS RAINBOW DASH: HASBRO/NINJA TURTLE: LUCY/PIRATE TURTLE: LUCY/WIKIPEDIA GLOBE: LUCY/LOLITA GIRL: GG/BIG DEAL SHIRT: EBAY/MEMES: CREATIVE COMMONS/ THUMBS DOWN: FACEBOOK/ POKEMON: KEN SUGIMORI/ FLUTTERSHY TWILIGHT RAINBOWDASH PINKIE: PEACHSPICES@DEVIANTART/RARITY: METALBEERSOLID@DEVIANTART/ DERPYHOOVES: TIMON1771@DEVIANTART/MLPSCREENSHOTS: HASBRO/ YUME NIKKI SCREEN SHOTS: KIKIYAMA/ MONOKO VECTOR: SAIOUL/THE END ART: UNKNOWN/NYANCAT: PRGUITARMAN/SWEET BRO AND HELLA JEFF: ANDREW HUSSIE/NAME FLOWCHART: GG/

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2. I KNOW HOW TO GET OUT OF MY NEIGHBORHOOD 7. *~~FREE SHIPPING~~* 10. You have watched 72 minutes of video today 11. Sucky Google 12. $300 fraudulent tickets!

14. Tabs, tabs everywhere 15. Llamas and furries and anime 16. You learn Braille from Pokemon and HTML from here...

17. How is babby formed?

22. We’re not eight years old anymore 24. Taking over everything 25. Your bandwidth has been exceeded.

27. Reblog, reblog, rebolg 28. 140 characters isn’t enough!

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Down

2. That one search engine and email 2. What does “lol” mean?

4. *Everyone* has one!

5. I’ve always wanted an electronic spin the bottle game!

6. WOO ANIME!!!111!1 8. Does this angle make my chest look big?

9. Please Read: A Personal Appeal from 13. You are not chatting with a Stranger. Say Hi! 18. Birthplace of memes 20. MW2 DOESN’T DESERVE A NINE AND A HALF! 21. Hipster Mentality 23. What? It’s not on Instant?!

26. Please choose your commerical experience.