As you mentioned, I do agree that it's odd when someone only likes canon pairings. I just don't get it - there's something I find so appealing about possibility, that I can't imagine thinking about, and liking some of it. I mean, one doesn't have to "break up a canon pairing" if that is an issue; there are always unattached persons that could have some thought turned toward them and the possibility of relationships (be they romantic or otherwise). Except when it comes to ancient literature, sometimes, because there are so few options (only thing I pair from Gilgamesh is Gilgamesh/Enkidu... which is not canon but might as well be). I could probably make a list of my major pairs, at least for Hetalia, but the minor list keeps getting added to every day, and things go in cycles, and it's all scattered all over the place. And sometimes I like something only as a friends pair, but other times I want so-and-so to get fucked by anyone and everyone. I dunno, man.
"That sounds so mean!" Hah, well. At that time, I was feeling a bit snooty regarding my old fanfiction. Also, at that time, I still had people bothering me to continue fic, even though it was 2005 and I hadn't written anything in ages. So, I was frustrated. And you might not want me to say that time flies, but IT DOES, because in some ways it feels as though ninth grade was just last year (though other times it seems to long ago, especially when I hear young people talking about school now. Sigh.) To be honest, if I tried to read any of my old fic, I wouldn't be able to figure out what was going on either - except for the Weiss Kreuz stuff, because I re-watched that two years ago or so, and enjoyed it in all its wonderful horribleness.
Re: MLP fandom - Yeah, you pretty much have it. The stuff that I encountered was rather G for the most part, but that's because the forum that I frequented was very strict about the sort of things that were posted. But I've encountered things on DA that... well.. Anyway. Ordinarily, I would not consider collecting to be part of a fandom, but MLP is connected so closely with the cartoon (and comics, in the UK) that I feel that they can't be separated and, for this reason, I feel that the collecting is close enough to the media that it can be considered part of that fandom.
Anyway, by "restoring", I mean taking old ponies and making them look new again. Unless a pony is in the box or comes to you after being taken directly out of the box, then it is in played-with condition, and even ones that have been played with very gently tend to be a little bit dirty and have hair that needs to be treated in order to look nice again. Generally some washing will get rid of the dirt, and some conditioner will make the hair look good, but sometimes there are problems such as mould and rust that need to be taken care of. A while back I did a series of photoposts regarding a pony that I was restoring; here, here and here.
Sometimes restoration involves not just cleaning, but more detailed restoring. For example, if the hair is chopped, or so completely matted that it can not be detangled even with conditioner, then some people prefer to replace the hair. Or, if the hair has faded from pink to white (a common problem), the collector will dye it pink again. Occasionally people will touch up damage in symbols too, though this is not as common, and is in fact rather discouraged. The about hair restoration is, there's actually quite a bit of debate about it, because some people would argue that replacing the hair decreases the value, unless the condition is absolutely horrible. There's also argument that one should not sell a pony that has the hair replaced, or if one does, one should explicitly say in the description that it has been rehaired - again, because it is not the original condition, and rehairing decreases value. So, there we are.
Re: Your comment of 24661 characters exceeds the maximum character length of 4300.
"That sounds so mean!" Hah, well. At that time, I was feeling a bit snooty regarding my old fanfiction. Also, at that time, I still had people bothering me to continue fic, even though it was 2005 and I hadn't written anything in ages. So, I was frustrated. And you might not want me to say that time flies, but IT DOES, because in some ways it feels as though ninth grade was just last year (though other times it seems to long ago, especially when I hear young people talking about school now. Sigh.) To be honest, if I tried to read any of my old fic, I wouldn't be able to figure out what was going on either - except for the Weiss Kreuz stuff, because I re-watched that two years ago or so, and enjoyed it in all its wonderful horribleness.
Re: MLP fandom - Yeah, you pretty much have it. The stuff that I encountered was rather G for the most part, but that's because the forum that I frequented was very strict about the sort of things that were posted. But I've encountered things on DA that... well.. Anyway. Ordinarily, I would not consider collecting to be part of a fandom, but MLP is connected so closely with the cartoon (and comics, in the UK) that I feel that they can't be separated and, for this reason, I feel that the collecting is close enough to the media that it can be considered part of that fandom.
Anyway, by "restoring", I mean taking old ponies and making them look new again. Unless a pony is in the box or comes to you after being taken directly out of the box, then it is in played-with condition, and even ones that have been played with very gently tend to be a little bit dirty and have hair that needs to be treated in order to look nice again. Generally some washing will get rid of the dirt, and some conditioner will make the hair look good, but sometimes there are problems such as mould and rust that need to be taken care of. A while back I did a series of photoposts regarding a pony that I was restoring; here, here and here.
Sometimes restoration involves not just cleaning, but more detailed restoring. For example, if the hair is chopped, or so completely matted that it can not be detangled even with conditioner, then some people prefer to replace the hair. Or, if the hair has faded from pink to white (a common problem), the collector will dye it pink again. Occasionally people will touch up damage in symbols too, though this is not as common, and is in fact rather discouraged. The about hair restoration is, there's actually quite a bit of debate about it, because some people would argue that replacing the hair decreases the value, unless the condition is absolutely horrible. There's also argument that one should not sell a pony that has the hair replaced, or if one does, one should explicitly say in the description that it has been rehaired - again, because it is not the original condition, and rehairing decreases value. So, there we are.