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I have an idea. My dear Sharders, My dear Radiants and Allomancers, and my dear socks and bookies, and writers, and cyborgs, and snake monsters, and hobbits, and Fremen, artists, rangers, writers, and nerds. *Eddie stands up "Not Nerds!"* and nerds. Today is my third shardiversary: I am three years on the Shard today! I hope you are all doing well as much, or perhaps more than, I am. I shall not see you long. I have written this post to bring you all together for a Purpose. Indeed, for Three Purposes! First of all, to tell you that I am immensely fond of you all, and that three years is too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable sharders. I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. Secondly, to celebrate my shardiversary. I should say: OUR shardiversary. For it is a group effort. My time here has been one of joy and fun thanks to all of you. Together we are a community of great people. It is also, if I may be allowed to refer to ancient history, the anniversary of my second Shardiversary post; though the fact that it was my second shardiversary post slipped my memory on that occasion. I was bad at math then, and keeping track of time did not seem so important. Then I said "My third shardiversary and to more to come!" I now repeat it more correctly: thank you very much for collaborating with me on three years of the Shard! I wish to make an ANNOUNCEMENT I regret to announce that - though, as I said, three years is far too short a time to spend among you - this is the END. I am going. I am leaving NOW. GOOD-BYE! Okay, I'm not actually leaving. I don't think it's the right thing right now. It is 100% not the time to leave the Shard. I just really wanted to make that joke. Come on, you gotta admit it: that was funny. I joined the shard 3 years ago. Three years! can you imagine it? I was so much younger then... I hadn't even started MC role-play, I was a smol child, fresh with the opinion that I knew a lot about fantasy when I was and still am clueless. Ahhh, yes, those were the days... I can still remember exactly when I started. I was sitting in my breakfast nook, having just received my mom's permission to get an account. It was bright outside. Ahhh, to go back to that house with the old furniture and sit there while going onto the Shard. My life changed that day. I'd like to think that it was for the better. This community provided me with different perspectives. This community has helped me to realize a fundamental fact. "People think different than I do and that is entirely okay." I thank all of you so much for helping me to realize that and other things about the world and the people who populate it. All of you are wonderful people and I can't name everyone who means a lot to me. I love all of you so much (yes, even you). My PMs are open to anyone who needs to talk! Just know that I may ask that we wait for a little bit before talking because I'm an idiot who has terrible priorities. (Ie, watching strongbad instead of soldiering through Inheritance so I can read more Terry Pratchett and Brandon Mull). *raises jar of Root and slice of pumpkin pie* I have no idea how long I will be on the Shard, nor how long any of you will be, but this I do know. I lost the game. *Eats pie and downs Root*

I'm almost certain this idea has been done before, but I couldn't find anything posted here. Please note that this is a rough chart and not in any way definitive; it is a personal interpretation of how I think Shard Combination would work. All shards within a white box are a combo I see as being plausible. All Shards within a black box are double combos: doesn't count Grey boxes indicate Shards that would have extreme difficulty mixing. Pink boxes indicate Shard combos we know are canon. Green boxes indicate Shard combos that are possibly canon or could become canon. Blue boxes are not real Shards. They are my guess as to the sixteenth Shard and its respective combinations. I am aware that there may be inconsistencies with my logic. This is highly opinionated. However, I thought it would be beneficial to share it. If you have any questions, ask! If you have corrections, also ask! I am here to serve.

HoA (original art)

Ok so I went to my cousin's graduation today, some highlights include: 1. I have this list of names to use in various writing, because I'm bad at coming up with names...and then I started writing down graduates' names that I thought sounded cool...so now my list is considerably longer and I love the names people have, they'll be appearing in stories for quite a while. 2. We went to Costco and my older brother and I ran around and found all the best samples, I felt like a five year old again (especially since I haven't been in a Costco for literally years) 3. We went to a park for a picnic after and some of my cousins were playing spikeball...they got the spikeball stuck in a pine tree. So they threw their second spikeball up, and it got stuck. So my cousin threw his shoe up, and it got stuck. Next was a volleyball, then a frisbee, then several water bottles and then finally stuff started falling...then my cousin got stuck in the tree. Then my other cousin stood on her dad's shoulders and tried to reach the spikeball. After about 15 minutes, they finally got it down. Anyway, I'm about to go to my school's Morp, hope y'all are doing well!!

So I'm thinking if Stormlight heals you based on your self image then there should be no upper limit to how muscular a Knight Radiant can get. I'm talking straight meat diesel. Here's my case in point: the pump. When your muscles are having a pump you experience a feeling of... euphoria. And your muscles look physically bigger because they're swollen and flooded with blood. With this in mind, we can assume that anyone with Stormlight Healing could get catastrophically storming huge. Here's how we do it. Kaladin and the boys suck down a load of stormlight and rock up to the gym. They then work out till they hit a pump and stare at themselves shirtless while the euphoric feeling of the pump brainwashes them into thinking they actually look like this. Stormlight healing reinforces their self image and it doesn't have to actually do all that much work because their muscles are already that big. Rinse and repeat. It goes without saying this would work best on The Lopen. Within the week we have to give Bridge Four new names. Kaladin Stormblessed - Kaladin Swoleblessed Rock - Block Teft - Chest The Lopen - The Yokeden Skar - Bar Sigzyl - Squatzyl Dabbid - Lattib Drehy - Wheyhy

Welcome back for this weeks update on my life!! (imagine it in a radio voice) ON TODAYS UPDATE! everything sucks but hey I got Cal

Here's some rapid fire life updates: Feeling somewhat agoraphobic as of late. I'm pretty sure that's the right word. Tired. I am also that. I'm learning piano! It's going pretty well, I'm not too bad at picking up on new pieces. And then the biggest one, which some of you know already: I have a girlfriend! So that's pretty great.

Guys! I went to dinner and wrote a poem this is how I write when I'm literally dying. my heart great was 106 bpm the ENTIRE time T-T I love restaurants guys-

I'm sure many of you have heard about the refiner's fire and how we are being refined in the refiner's fire and that we need to go through intense heat to become purified and all that awesome stuff. But today I learned something crazy! It has to do when silver is purified. It goes through all the heat and pounding and all that, but the way that they know that the silver has been purified is when they can see their own reflection in the silver. So literally He is refining us, and we will be completely purified once God looks at us and sees in us a reflection of himself, of course not literally, but in every other way. And man that just hit me. Like He is refining us so that we can become like Him. That's all.

ok guys stop wait this is crazy im actually in like genuine shock right now so basically lately i’ve been feeling like i’m in an art block and just not making any progress abd then i looked back to a piece i did a year ago and— and— and i literally was dying and i’m gonna publicly embarrass myself and post them here (even though most of y’all have already seen them) they’re actually of the same character this was april 1st 2023 this was april 8th 2024 the iMpRoVeMeNt like BRUH

song idea maybe????: bay blue baby blue sky blue eyes my girl, my love with eyes like stars, could never tell me lies

Storm it y'all made me cry...

chat what do i do if it’s all becoming Too Much? if im dissociating and the world just feels Off like why is everything just Agh like why do i want to go to sleep and never Wake Up Again like bro everything is just No right now

You guys. You guys. THERE'S ONLY 39 DAYS UNTIL SUMMER. THAT'S 29 SCHOOL DAYS. I'M SOOOOOOOO READYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Also, story time! My little sister told me earlier today that she's concerned for me, because apparently I say a lot of my intrusive thoughts out loud. And I get a lot of those. She also said that she doesn't want me around her while I'm holding potentially dangerous objects, which I guess is valid because I was chopping some branches earlier with a giant pruner and I told her that if there was ever an intruder in the house to grab it and go for the jugular. -- "Boom, dead. And if that doesn't work, you can always go for the other major arteries. Femoral, brachial... basically any of those will make them bleed to death." She looks at me with mild confusion, mixed with slight horror. "...Why do you know this??" "A girl's gotta be prepared, [name]. You never know when you might need to kill someone out of self defense, or at least mortally wound them. Also," I add hastily, noticing the expression on her face, "I write fantasy books. With sword fights. You know this." My sister pauses, studying me, then reaches for the pruners, which I immediately pull away. "Okay, true. But maybe I should..." "No! ...Hey, do you think if I threw these hard enough, I could shatter the window?" "Honey, that's called an intrusive thought. We don't say those. Just give me the--" "No, Dad gave me these! It's my job! Give me that branch." She begrudgingly obliges, and I cut the branch into a few different pieces so they fit in our black trash can, then I pack them down into the tangle of other branches using the long wood scraps my dad left for us. -- Random comments like these aren't rare from me, but I probably have extra today due to the fact that I got less than five hours of rest. I couldn't fall asleep until about 5:45 (am) and woke up around 10. It was rough. Terrible, actually, but whatever. Hakuna Matata, right? Lol. Anyways, I'm gonna go eat a snack and then do my homework that I totally neglected for the whole of spring break. Wish me luck

WHOS EXCITED FOR REN SEASON?? I AM!!! so, here’s some REN FAIRE FIT PICS!!!! piece-by-piece walkthrough with info on each part, in case you’re curious: the outfit :3 i’m literally so obsessed i can’t— is it possibly slightly overkill? yeah, maybe a little bit. do i care? absolutely not. *ob* *sessed.*

*SIGH* I'm back after almost an entire week when I wasn't caught up enough on schoolwork to be online. *cues sobbing noises* Anyway! I'm back! I'm alive! I'M GOING TO THE NATIONAL ZOO SOON!!! WITH VEILLL No idea what else to say... I'm failing school so that's fun... I have a bunch of quotes to dump so ima go do that. Love Y'all! ~ Stick

Help I just listened to a recording of me singing two years ago and I’m dead. Absolutely dead. ain’t no way I’m posting it but like you guys you can improve on anything SO MUCH in two years. Stick with it, because you’re amazing and you can do it!!!!!!

GUYS please read this I’m in love with it and I don’t know why. Between:

My creative process

guys the drawing skills the drawing skills are skilling

there is pain and there is sorrow but nothing compares to watching the light leave somebody’s eyes when they say, ”you know, i don’t think i ever loved you.” there is pain behind that. because not even a month ago you said to them, ”look into my eyes, see my pain. my sins. my horrors. look there, into my eyes, and love me.” and they said, ”i will.” and now they see you with contempt with hatred with regret and animosity and they just want you gone.

It also confirms to me, 90% sure, that Shallan will go to the Spiritual Realm and experience it. Infact theory time, since spiritual realm has both the past and the future, this will be how Brandon gives us info about shallan's past without dedicated flashbacks. She will have a set of quick visions of the past and the future , like Rey touching the lightsaber in the Force Awakens, and we will have a bunch of theory fodder for the next 5 years. Chana can be revealed as shallan's mom, while also teasing about future Shallan and ghostblood fights in the cosmere.

One of the things that bothered me about The Hero of Ages was Elend’s duralumin-atium burst. It’s iconic but it always annoyed me why Elend could do what Ruin couldn’t - foresee Preservation’s plan and Ruin’s death. However, now that Secret History has given insight into precognition I finally understand Elend’s sacrifice. Elend never knew for certain if his sacrifice would be guaranteed to drive Vin to murder-suicide Ruin. But he aimed to protect the world and trusted Vin, so he sacrificed himself to help her. This is something Ruin - an unaware Vessel filled with the contextless embodiment of decay - was unwilling to do. Before heading west to the Ire’s fortress, Preservation showed Kelsier a future vision that starts from him heading west. The future vision held Connections between Kelsier and his soul to Preservation, Kelsier to everything and everyone on Scadrial, Preservation to the ground and air and metals. And in the vision, it held a path of future possibilities - many, thousands upon thousands, infinite, tangled with each other. Kelsier could only glean vague, general impressions because his mind isn’t expanded to sort through or understand the sensation, the information, or the individual possibilities. Elend saw into the future the same way Kelsier did - through glimpsing Connections. But he could understand all the possibilities because Atium expands the mind. When burning duralumin+atium, Elend became temporarily Connected to Kelsier, Vin, Ruin’s essence, the future, the past, everything and everyone in the battlefield. Those Connections are the blue lines pointing from his chest in the Physical Realm and the white lines in the Cognitive Realm. Seeing the future possibilities within those Connections, but understanding them all because of Atium’s mind expansion. Judging from regular Atium and Kelsier’s vision, he probably saw the ”thousands upon thousands” of possibilities that could result from his current action - the fight against Marsh. “I see now” is when Elend liked the general implication of the future vision - that he could drive Vin to sacrifice her life if it meant defeating Ruin. So he let Marsh kill him and hoped it would come true. But even the Shards of Adonalsium - those who foresee infinite possibilities and infinite actions - can be wrong about the possibilities they see as unlikely, likely, or thread towards. All he could do was trust Vin and hope for the best outcome. But where does this fit into the futures seen by the Shards surrounding these events - Ruin and Preservation? Ruin, the essence which fuels Elend’s future vision and the God whom foresaw what Elend saw. Preservation, the God Sanderson implies incorporated Elend’s death into his plan. I believe for Ruin, his inability to acknowledge Elend’s future vision was not a matter of seeing the possibilities. But rather, it was a matter of seeing them as likely possibilities. Ati the Vessel basically didn’t exist anymore. Ati didn't even remember what planet he was working on, virtually a shell filled with Ruin's Investiture. Ruin the God foresaw the possibilities within Elend's future vision, but either saw them as unlikely or dismissed them entirely. You could even say he was a god that no longer understood or acknowledged the loving sacrifice that existed within his foreseen future possibilities. Ruin the God didn’t embrace life or acknowledge that life needs to persist. Ruin didn’t sacrifice. He said he was life, and yet Leras/Fuzz comforted life when Ruin did not. And for this, he dismissed Elend’s futures and paid the price. Preservation protects. Preservation listens to the hearts of men, for it hears all thoughts of all Scadrians. Leras understands sacrifice, for the divinity sacrificed his mind and equal pedestal to Ruin. This was for the sake of protecting in the long run. This is why he wanted Elend to have the lerasium bead. Leras chose a successor who could live a life highly Connected to Preservation’s attributes, and might sacrifice her life for the greater good. He foresaw someone might use one lerasium bead for the pieces of the plan to fall together. And when the time came, He saw Vin’s lover as someone who might sacrifice his life for the greater good. Someone who could use the bead. Leras bet those possibilities would come into play at the last moment, did whatever he could to thread towards them, and hoped it paid off.

so uh we got bored and decided to become an elven princess turned pirate type thing uh yeah i considered doing my bedazzled fishnets instead of the snake ones but those are more silvery than gold and also they’re like kinda dirty so

okay so i found out last night that my school's fall play for next year is Romeo and Juliet and if i don't make it i will cry (im shooting for tybalt) and now i shall go practice the audition material. EN GUARDE! *draws sword with a flourish but runs the opposite direction, papers flying out of leather satchel like leaves in the wind*

Another opn’n another show, everyone. We’re 20 minutes in. I love theatre.

just took the english map test got a 255 was curious so i looked up the average for my grade

They're ADORABLE, I love them. YKYASW you have spent hundreds of dollars on your Sanderson collection and it's theoretically worth thousands?? (Book collecting is wild, man.) When there has been a magnet of Shallan saying "I am plotting tax evasion" on your whiteboard for like a year. When you met some of the people most dear to you in the world on this website.

BEGIN LOG If love is so fragile, then why continue to repair it after it cracks? Once it has filled its surface with this many cracks, wouldn’t it be easier to leave it be and let it decay and shatter and fall apart over time? Yes. It would be easier. But that doesn’t mean it’s the correct thing to do. Love is so fragile because it needs to be constantly repaired. It is an essential part of love, that need for constant repair, for maintenance, for reassurance of devotion. Some may wonder why to keep that lamp on, to keep its ornate ceramic looking beautiful, despite the cracks. “Look at your lamp,” They say, “It is cracked and flawed. Shouldn’t you discard it and put a new flawless copy in its place?” And I say to them, “You know nothing of this. This lamp has seen much. Endured much. It’s stories are nestled in the cracks spreading across its ceramic. It’s journey is weaved into the stone it is made of as if a testament of all it has seen and heard. Is this not a sign of flawless and perfect existence? Perfection in imperfection?” This lamp, this love.. It will dim. It will brighten. Sometimes the power will blink out, leaving us in the dark. But the lights will come back on. And we will fight to love. We will choose to love, and to live, and we will nurture the cracks. Let them settle. And when someone asks about them, we will tell that story. I will engrave bluebirds into our lamp. I will stamp ravens to the surface, let crows flutter onto the stone. I will put roses, and chrysanthemums, and moonflowers and sunflowers, and I will sprinkle it in color so that when it is finished, it will be colorful in ways you only could have dreamed of. I have made mistakes. I have cracked our lamp. I will mend the crack. I will transform it into something beautiful. I will build on it, and build into a future with you. This is my vow to you.

nobody: literally nobody: every single worksheet/page of notes i own, for actually no reason:

guys help i'm so burnt out i can't even like write a poem about it i'm so done i just want school to go away and never come back LIKE WHY DO I HAVE TO MAKE 85 ANNOTATIONS ON THIS 8 PAGE PACKET?!?!?! i got it today it's due tomorrow and it's a *test grade* like WHUT ugh i'm so done but yeah i'm feeling burnt out and stuck and empty

I finally wrote a poem again! WARNING: It's probably the longest I've ever written. Why Can’t We Fix This?

Alright so today, I’m wearing the Harmony hat (check Sanderson’s store if you don’t know what I’m talking about), my denim jacket, a t-shirt, and sweatpants, and my mom says bye to me by telling me: “You look like you’re gonna go catch Pokémon.” I cannot tell y'all how great my mom is.

Two pieces of good news! 1: My father remembered something I said months and months ago, and surprised me with a denim jacket! I am now filled with an insatiable desire to fill it with Sanderson and other nerd patches. Pic below Secondly: my PhD is now paid for! I can go to grad school without worrying about tuition. So praise the Lord! That is all. Anyone else got good news?

Happy Eclipse Day, everyone! Remember that even if the sun is mostly covered, use eclipse glasses! Even at 90+% totality, it can and will damage your vision.

Hey yall it’s my 5000th post (I think). For this post, it’s time for a genuine life update. I… I’ve been thinking about my life lately. My life this far has been quite the ride. I’ve met amazing people, I like to think I’ve helped others best I can, I’ve learned, I’ve progressed, I’ve changed. the one thing… the one thing is that I don’t know if where I am going is where God wants to go. Before this point, I’ve had a weird look at priorities and what I do and how I do it. I’ve put certain things higher on my priorities than others when they certainly shouldn’t be that high up. The Shard and YouTube for example. the main thing is that I feel lost in some ways. I don’t know what I’m doing in a way. I could continue doing what I’ve been doing, approaching being a writer. I don’t know if being the best writer I can be, writing in ways that explore the world and different views and experiences in the ways I have before, is what I need to do. I don’t know if this is the right path for me. I don’t know if this is the path God wants for me i think I’ve known this for awhile now, but I’ve ignored it. (This next bit is a lot about me and my relationship with god. I ramble a lot lol.) i can’t anymore. I really, really, really can’t. I’m gonna be real with y’all here, I’m really, really, really am scared of the eventuality that I am asked by God to do what I don’t want to do. I really don’t want to be asked to sacrifice what I love, even if it is required to become what He wants me to become. I want to be what he wants me to be, but I also want to be who I want to be. And yet And yet what all this comes down to, what all this is about, is that I seriously am in need of reevaluating my life and my priorities. I need to discover what god wants me to do, where God wants me to go, who God wants me to be. I need to remove things out of my life that would stop me from getting closer to what God wants me to be. I’m terrified what those things might be. Sometimes I wish that I didn’t know as much that I do so I wouldn’t be required to do more. then I remember yall, conference was amazing. God is real, I promise that. You might not believe me, but I testify that he is real as you and me. There is something I said once in a discussion with a dear friend of mine. I said “What is religion if it does not require anything of you?” I said that to mean that God requires us to sacrifice, even things and ideas which we hold dear. Am I a hypocrite? yeah. But, our friend Dalinar said something once. A hypocrite is a man in the process of changing. I’ve resisted it, I’ve fought it, I’ve plead against it, but… but maybe it’s time to change for once. Maybe it is time to let my life be changed for the better, no matter how painful it is. i don’t know how long it will take, what I will sacrifice, what my new goals will be, but tonight and over this next week, I will be trying to figure my life out. I will be trying to let go of my own desires for once in my life. So why have I talked about all of that? Why did I drone on and on in agonizing detail? because I have an itch that the shard might be one of the things I have to sacrifice to change and be the better person than I have been before. If I have to leave, I will make a post, hopefully on my shardiversaey, explaining it all and what things will happen regarding a few things. I plan on staying sfrrr that post if this truly goes down for a week or so. Then I’ll be gone. I’m sorry if that was a confusing post, I don’t know anymore lol. Y’all are great folks and I love y’all. Please send me prayers. I rarely ask anyone for these kinds of things, but… it would be appreciated. God be with you. I love y’all. Y’all are wonderful people. Sorry if I bored yall with that long, rambley post. good night.

When all you can think when seeing this headline is "I am a stick"

we’re under a tornado watch again. in case you don’t know what that is, it’s basically like “oh my gosh, mom, we could have tacos tonight because we have all the ingredients” but you haven’t actually decided to have tacos. aka there’s all the right conditions for a tornado to appear, but nobody has spotted one. that’s when it becomes a tornado warning and you have to take shelter and the sirens go off. nothing too crazy’s going on right now, the sky’s just being a lil suspicious and it’s hella warm and humid with some cool breezes going the other way. prime tornado conditions, but we’ll see what happens

update: the elbow is not, in fact, broken. hooray! it still hurts, but i have a fair range of motion and was even able to wash my hair in the shower! also, my head injury is feeling better as well. it only hurts to the touch, and ive stopped getting headaches from it yay!

GUYS!!! THE DUCKS ARE DUCKING!!!!

I been writing a lot. Lot to process. Thx to those who read and care. ~ Stick

I'm legitimately thinking about going 30 days without internet, as the detox is much needed to help me kind of reset as I'm averaging 10-12 or even more hours online everyday. The only thing that is making me think twice really is that I won't be on hear at all during that time. Which...I know I can do it, but I really wanted to do the next hunger games and some SE and random interactions with y'all are always the best. I mean...it is only 30 days, then I'll be back...for a few weeks before I'm gone for two months...and then college. Sigh. Hard choices, but I think I need to do this... we'll see ig.

Blue and orange tiles? Perry the blue and orange tiles!

i'm going to prom with @Dead todayyyyyy we're gonna take pictures at a nearby lake before we go, so I'll try and post some pictures at some point today and i'm gonna be up until at least 3 am because of post-prom stuff! I'm really excited!! I really like my dress, and we figured out the hair, makeup, and shoes situation - I'm getting my hair done professionally still, my friend is gonna come over after that to help me with my makeup, and my sister did stop by with some shoes for me to pick from (and go out to eat with my brother and grandma while I went to the temple yesterday, but they did get me McDonalds so it's fine) and I chose black flats but yeaaaaa I'm really excited

That Was the coolest thing I have ever seen. Current Totality Count: 2. Let's see how many more I can fit in my time on this planet.

Eclipse day. I'm skipping school and am somewhere in the middle of Missouri. Let's hope this works.