StrikerEZ

When you spend a good 30 minutes catching up on all the posts you missed in this thread. When you spend a large portion of time away from the Shard and you realize you haven't thought about the Cosmere in awhile and are ashamed of yourself.

Dang it, this Joe game looks awesome. Anyone have any idea when it will be run? I really don't want to miss it, and I want to start planning how I'm gonna organize school and band so that I can get on a little every day for it.

Yeah, I know. I'm trying to work on that, but it's hard. But you know that, I guess. And the thing is, when it comes to band and music, I really, really do want to do it. But the pressure to be good, to play as well as I possibly can (which isn't just something others pressure me with, but something I pressure myself with), makes it hard. Even when I performed my solo a couple months ago, I felt it wasn't good, there were several things I could've done better, if only I'd practiced more. That aspect of it is probably just the musical artist/perfectionist in me speaking out. I know what my goals are right now. I want to be either a band director or an author. Two very different things, and it'd be really hard to be both. But I'd love to be either, but I'd be sad not to be the other one. My biggest problem is how others see me, and I hate not living up to the expectations. I'm definitely getting better at it, it's still just a problem though.

Well, that planet, like we see in SotD, isn't that technologically advanced, so they're probably not the most advanced planet ever.

@Pestis the Spider @Oversleep @Claincy I know I'm a bit late to the party, but I just wanted to comment and say that I have the same problem. I'm not even 16 yet and this has been a huge struggle for me, especially in the last couple years with middle and high school. I'm a huge procrastinator, sometimes going so far as to not even do whatever I've said/decided I'm going to do. It's got to the point that I accept the fact that I probably won't do homework, unless I see someone else doing it or my parents make me, and I know that's not okay. I always tell myself next time I'll do it, next time I'll complete it on time but I never do. This also happens to me a lot with practicing my clarinet or bass clarinet. I know I should practice, but I keep putting it off for one more song, one more topic on the 17th Shard, whatever. I have natural ability and memorization is really easy for me so I'm able to coast with pass offs (where you have to play the music memorized for a teacher), but for the harder music I almost never practice and expect to get better. And I always beat myself up about it whenever I don't practice. Then I go and "forget to" practice the next day. A lot of my problem stems from the fact I hate to disappoint people. All throughout my early school years, I was viewed as the smart kid, the kid who always got A's on everything, the kid who knew everything he needed to know. Not only by my classmates, but my parents too. When middle school started and I actually tried but didn't get the grades I wanted, I felt terrible even if the grades were B's. So, over time, I started slacking because I figured if I couldn't do it perfectly, what would be the point in doing it at all? I didn't want to disappoint anyone's expectations of me, so I lowered them so that I could do badly and still be meeting those expectations. I have the natural ability and I guess I'm pretty smart, but I just don't try. It's one of the things I hate the most about myself. What really helped me was joining band. Marching band forces you to keep up with everything, or else you'll lag behind and fail. It's a great motivator, but also makes the pressure even worse. I've managed to get into the top band (I'm first chair bass clarinet) and I got an outstanding solo award at the UIL State Solo Contest (which only about 2-3% of the thousands of kids that do this contest get), but all this pressure is on me to be good, to play well, and I don't know how to handle it. And in the marching music, which I have to play on the regular clarinet, is really high and I can't play it, and I'm expected to be able to play it well since I'm in the top band but I'm not good at high notes. It doesn't help that I feel so excluded from all the people in the band. There are all the different "cliques" so to speak in the band, and I feel like I don't belong in any of them and just drift between them. Ugh, I forgot where I was going with this. I'm stressed, and I have terrible motivation. I dunno, I'm just gonna stop here now.

First, I didn't realize you two were related, that's cool. Second, I accidentally downvoted you, sorry about that. But I upvoted you to make up for it. Also, I'm back! I disappeared for the past week or so because of summer band and I got in trouble so my parents took my iPad, but I have it again, so yay! But I'm really excited about both band camp and being back on this site again. Band camp is awesome, even though I live in Texas so it's hot and it's hard work, and I absolutely love our show music this year. Sadly, I probably won't be as active as I was before for another few months because of band/school. It's gonna be rough with all the AP classes I'm taking, a PSAT prep class, and marching season all at the same time.

@Cracatoa This is beautiful. I'm sad I'm out of upvotes though.

The Cosmere

Yeah, I know. It's actually one of my biggest fears. I know Brandon's not dying anytime soon, but it's something to worry about. Oh...that's a hard one. I love this site and I'd hate to never be able to get on it again. But I also like other parts of the internet, like SoundCloud which I use for music most of the time. I really don't know for this one. Sorry, but I'd rather have no access to the Shard. I've got connections to people on here, so I could always ask them to really information to/from me. Yeah, part of that was getting in trouble and having my iPad taken away and also partly because I've had band camp the past few days, so I wouldn't have been on much anyways.

Both of those would be terrible. I'd probably have to go with SA. Would you rather die before Brandon finishes the Cosmere or Brandon die before he finishes the Cosmere?

When you spend a week or so off the Shard and without thinking about the Cosmere so you go insane. (Sorry for disappearing, band camp started recently and I've had no time). Also, you know you're a Sanderfan when your autocorrect on an iOS device doesn't correct words like Cosmere, Sanderfan, etc. When you know how to properly spell words like Taravangian or Palanaeum without looking them up. EDIT: When you see the next unread topic is "New Info About Hoid" and you freak out for a second but then realize it's a joke topic about clickbait Cosmere titles.

Ah, sorry. That's true. I forgot he's never been explicitly stated to be a Fullborn. My bad. But it makes me wonder how he created the Bands otherwise.

Yeah, that's what I thought. Hmm...I don't remember either. To the Coppermind! Apparently it's from Elantris. Means a trickster or "wit killer."

They're still showing up as not in spoilers.

Ah, okay. I didn't remember that part about the feruchemists all being dead. I wasn't disagreeing with your original point though, I still think it's unlikely that Kel spiked innocent people. Which leaves me to wonder how he became a Fullborn.

Hmmm, I can predict the Highstorms now? I'm not sure if that's an upgrade from having skeleton minions....

Might wanna put that in spoilers

Yeah, I gotchu. I loved Mistborn, though I can see how you-know-who's death could really make the rest of the series boring.

Awww, okay then. I'd still recommend reading Era 2 though. They're pretty good books, and they have a different feel from the first trilogy.

Oh, I meant just non-Cosmere Sanderson books, but that works too.

Yeah, I figured. What do you recommend doing to start learning how to play the baritone? I won't be able to get an actual instrument or mouthpiece for a little bit, but I could start learning how to buzz without it, I think.

Hey, that's cool! Go bass clarinet! Is baritone hard to learn after playing clarinet and bass clarinet? I want to do drum corps, but I have no idea what instrument to march.

Heh, I may or may not be that entire welcoming committee, with help from @ccstat It's been fun welcoming everyone, but I've been running out of upvotes from doing it so much.

Yeah. I've already done it twice, but I'm still not ready for this year. I march clarinet, but I play bass clarinet during concert season. Yeah, I know. That was my main worry about missing on the reread.

Yeah, that makes sense. That reminds me, I need to get around to doing my Cosmere reread before Oathvember. But marching band is starting up soon. I probably won't have time to do it, though that shouldn't be too big of a deal considering I just recently read it all.