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Young Bard

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  1. Young Bard
    Well, technically mine is an Australian School, which is quite different. It makes headlines if there's a bombscare at an Australian School for one thing... Unfortunately, the overestimation of sports seems to apply the world over. EDIT: Regarding Mestiv's question, I'd say it's because of the similar kind of principle. The people participating in sports aren't a majority, they're a very vocal, but very small minority group. That's my theory, anyway.
  2. Young Bard
    I find the topic on sports to be extremely topical, to be honest. I just had my School Athletics Carnival. My school is one of the least sportingly inclined groups that have ever existed. (In no other school, has "Chess" ever been an option for sport, simply because they wanted to provide an alternative to skiving for us anti-sports fans.) Usually, the Athletics and Swimming Carnivals are carried through by a very small, but very vocal, group of students. This year was no exception. There were three different M:TG games going on at one point, in addition, to a homemade variation of Warhammer, and the vast majority of people just spread around the outskirts of the field chatting and completely ignoring what was going on. Most events (e.g. 14 years boys 100 metres) got only 3 or 4 people out of 150 who wanted to do it. And yet, this was all planned with no form of worry or concern of any kind. Because it's traditional. Because it represents and acknowledges talent in our school. This was never questioned, not even the concept of just using our own, perfectly good school oval, or just bringing along the kids who wanted to participate. And yet, two different Sausage Sizzles raising money for charity were delayed (one of them three times), even though it requires only a couple students out of an hour total of class to set up and take down afterwards, and yet it's "too difficult" (despite the admin not needing to do anything accept give us the key to the storeroom to set up the barbeque), "too short notice" (despite being told nearly a term in advance) or else just going over some quota for how many out of routine events the school wants to have. And, in the annual magazine that my school puts out, it will be lucky if the Amnesty Committee will get a footnote, while the Athletics and Swimming Carnivals will get a page each, and various other sporting groups will likely get a large chunk of the book as well.
  3. Young Bard
    Well, TWG is finally back, so thanks for that.
  4. Young Bard
    In the same vein, I once read an article. It was quite conservative, and I didn't agree with the point being made, but it was well written, and the arguments made were sensible and logical, and backed up with evidence. So, I scrolled down to the comments section, planning to write a few counter points, because I genuinely felt that there was a potential for discussion. I scroll down, and - YE MERRY GODS, WHAT ELDRITCH ABOMINATION LANDED IN THE COMMENTS SECTION! It seemed to be a combination of a digital food fight, World War III, and the Apocalypse all rolled into one. I'd genuinely thought that a polite, well written article would be more likely to result in polite, well written responses. Well, I was proved wrong that day.
  5. Young Bard
    I know. I was continuing the joke...
  6. Young Bard
    Should someone update the OP? In the meantime, I'll post the link to the updated Cosmere 102 here.
  7. Young Bard
    Actually, there's an Agatha Christie novel based around that poem. The publishers later changed it to "Ten little Soldiers" instead, and the novel itself was renamed "And then there were none." So, yes. My train of thought is Agatha Christie
  8. Young Bard
    Please don't post yet. I have a draft Sorting Hat song in the works, and I know there's plans for Gregory, Eleanor, Lorelei and Lizzy in the works. I'll see if I can get that second one done by Friday (Australia Time). If it's not done by then, I'll just post the Sorting Hat song and the train/boat scenes can be posted as a flashback.
  9. Young Bard
    For those of you that might not have seen it, I recently posted a page for a book review. Basically, members of the group alternately post a review of a book they liked to recommend it to Sharders. If you want to sign up to be a reviewer, you can sign up here. There's not too much work in it - if one member posts a review every week, even with the numbers we've got now, you only need to review once every couple months. If you want to suggest a catchy name for the group, suggestions are welcome. A slight technical note for the admins: Would you have a problem if we posted a thread every week for each new review? Are there any other problems you might have?
  10. Young Bard
    Arraenae, what are you going to do now that the Puppetmaster's taken all your powers? It must be a pretty bad blow for the Eliminator team.
  11. Young Bard
    Wait. What? Are you sure there's no error here? If Alias was lynched as well, that has to be scapegoat ability, and yet the writeup has vote manip'd DC's vote to himself. I'll have a look at the turn order when I have time.
  12. Young Bard
    Keanu Reeves
  13. Young Bard
    Post-singularity
  14. Young Bard
    You're right. I just automatically assumed that most Sharders would be interested in sf/f. If you have suggestions that aren't in that genre, but think that Sharders would be interested, then by all means they can be reviewed as well. I'll fix up the OP now.
  15. Young Bard
    You do get to choose your own books to review, yes. I see no problem with that.
  16. Young Bard
    OK, a while ago, I made a post about how Sharders making book reviews about various books they enjoyed for other Sharders would be interesting (it's in the Bands of Mourning Review news page, if you want to track it down). Anyway, Rubix said he'd considered doing something like that with the other Sharder staff, so that we learn their tastes in comparison with ours and are able to guess what we'd like, etc. I haven't really heard anything about it since. So, I've decided to take a proactive step. Building on Rubix's and my ideas, I'd like to organize a group to create reviews. My aim is to have a weekly review, published alternately between about a dozen Sharders, so that each of us only have to write a review once every 3 months or so, which shouldn't take up too much of our time. If you're interested in signing up, or have any questions, or just want to voice support, here's the place to do that. I have a tentative date to start posting reviews at the beginning of July, but that's subject to change. List of Interested Sharder Reviewers so far: 1. The Young Bard 2. Jondesu (maybe) 3. Sunbird 4. Chasmfiend 5. Master Elodin 6. Slowswift 7. Nashan'Elin 8. Delightful 9. Orlion
  17. Young Bard
    No-one has answered Kasimir/Alv's yet, so I'll give it a go: Would this be the poison Blackbane in the Stormlight Archive? My riddle: I have no hands, I have no feet, Yet I march ceaselessly on. Eventually, all will fall beneath me. What am I? Answer:
  18. Young Bard
    Because the theory is that Sharders trump Odium on the scale of dangerousness right now, simply because they're a lot closer to gaining their win condition than is comfortable.
  19. Young Bard
    Please note: I consider Sanderson to be one of my favourite authors. What I'm about to say here I consider a minor irk, in the same way that I've seen complaints about people 'raising an eyebrow' too often. I'll still be waiting eagerly for Brandon's next book. Also, please note that there are spoilers for Mistborn, the Stormlight Archives, the Reckoners, and most Sanderson novels in this post. One thing I've been thinking about recently is this: If there were one thing I disliked about Sanderson's writings, what would it be? In the end, I've settled on one slight theme that I politically disagree with. Some of you might actually disagree with me and my political views, which is perfectly OK. Some of you might have a different take on how I see things, which is also OK. But, if I were to point at one thing about Sanderson's writings, and say "I disagree with that.", I would talk about the theme of redemption. Throughout Sandersons novels, there are many examples of the theme of "Once a villain, always a villain." And, usually, the resolution of the story ends with murdering the 'bad guy'. The only exception to the rule that I can see is when you have an Unreliable Narrator, and we don't see the full picture, or else there are external influences in causing the character to be evil, while deep down, they're pure of heart after all. But, in real life, people can and do change. If you do something wrong, that doesn't automatically make you a horrible person, irredeemably, for the rest of your life. In fact, it is partly through are mistakes that we learn, develop and adapt to become better. This is one of the reasons I personally strongly oppose the death penalty. I genuinely believe that virtually anyone can change, to become better people than whoever they were before when they committed the crime. But, I don't see this in Sanderson's works. You almost never get a genuinely remorseful villain who wishes that they hadn't done something horrible. For example, the Lord Ruler and Sadeas, when confronted about the horrible things they'd done, respond in a similar way. "I did what I had to do", or else actually provoke the people confronting them. Shortly afterwards, both of them get murdered. Now, imagine how we, the readers, would have reacted differently if The Lord Ruler had been remorseful. If The Lord Ruler, quietly, had turned back to look out the window, silently thinking of all those he'd murdered, all those who were now dead because of him. Then, he looks back at Vin, with deep, haunted eyes, and talked of how he'd tried to do the best thing, the only thing, he thought possible. Would you, the reader, still have sympathized with Vin when she tore Alendi's bracers off and stabbed him through with a spear? But, Sanderson didn't do this. And, so, we cheer Vin on as she throws off the yolk of oppression that the Lord Ruler has kept the skaa under for the past 1000 years. The same story goes for most 'villain' deaths in Sanderson's canon. Whether or not it's intentional, this enforces the message that nobody who has done something for a purely selfish reason in the past can ever work past their flaw in their nature, or become a better person in the future. A few of you may ask me about the Reckoners, in which Prof, after briefly becoming and Epic, overcomes his evil side to join David and the Reckoners once again. However, in this case, his evil side never actually belonged to him, but instead was forced upon him by Larcener. If it hadn't been for that, he would never have become evil. So, if I were asked what issue I had with Sanderson's works, that is what I'd say. I, personally, believe that no matter what one's done in the past, one can move beyond that. Alfred Nobel created the Nobel Peace Prize because he was so horrified at the damage and carnage he'd created by inventing dynamite. Oppenheimer, too, helped to create the Atomic Bomb, and only later did he regret what he'd done after seeing the carnage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, quoting from a Hindu text: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." In this way, people learn from their mistakes and regrets, to become their better selves, something I feel is lacking in Sanderson's works.
  20. Young Bard
    Megan
  21. Young Bard
    Skulduggery Pleasant
  22. Young Bard
    Out of interest, what's the usefulness of showing everybody's vote history? I could understand looking at, say, Aman's vote history from a previous day, but everything he did today was just to play mind games with all of us, and therefore we can't really guess solidly based on any of it.
  23. Young Bard
    Vote Tally: DC (8)- Nyali, Conquestor, Lopen, Sheep, Araris, leift, Bard, Alv Lopen (2)- Rae, Aman Alv (1)- Maill
  24. Young Bard
    Burnt, you're off the hook for this turn at least, because I also trust Lopen, which means I need to vote off DeathClutch. Lopen, I really hope you're right about this.
  25. Young Bard
    The American here probably won't get this, but the Aussies (or very politically aware people) might get it: Basically, Clark and Dawe run a weekly show satirising Australian politics. And, in this one, the media. As well as politicians. It's hilarious. Is there an American equivalent? EDIT: I'm still watching them. This one is amazing. And the best yet.
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