Tesh

Hiiiiiiiiiiiii it's my Shardiversary!

It's been seven years now, I think.

Gonna keep this short cause I'm really not active on here much anymore, but I'm just going to thank a few people.

@The Awakened Salad HEY NERD. I love you. Just. Yeah. You're really really cool. You know how I feel about you. I can talk to you about anything, and you're just one of my absolute favorite people ever.

@AonEne HEY NERD. I love you. You're also super duper cool, and it's always fun to pull the "I know a mod and his dog attempted to initiate relations with me" card. (I don't do anything with it, I just show it to people I guess. I think I mention you more than I mention my aunt knowing Emily really well? Anyways.) I'm really going to miss being close to you next year, but we made it work before then and it will continue to work. Thanks for just. Always being there.

So grateful for the FAB squad as a whole, you two really are just two of my closest friends and I hope it stays that way for eternity. (My ghost will haunt your ghosts.) (I feel like that's a reference to something but I'm not sure what.) (Might be a Skyward quote actually?)

@Knight of Iron Koiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. Thanks for being awesome. I'm always so thrilled when you DM me. I love talking to you so much. Thanks for being my Hollow Knight buddy.

@Ed Venture HEY NERD. (I could great every single one of you like that.) Okay so here's an example of how Vennie is the best human being ever. She lived down the road from me this last school year. When I was moving out to come back home for the summer, I invited her over so we could hang out one last time before I left. I was expecting her to just kinda hang out while I cleaned and we'd talk or maybe watch something, but she just showed up and asked how she could help. And she then proceeded to clean the majority of the kitchen. (My two roommates who left early didn't do much cleaning.) AND when I left the next day, I had mentioned that morning on Discord in a random channel having gotten a cut on my finger and thinking it was infected but having all my first aid stuff packed, and she ran by to say bye and just. Brought me a bandaid and some antibiotic stuff from her job. I have nothing for praise but this wonderful lady, I'm going to miss her so much next year. (I'm going to a different college.)

@DramaQueen HEY NERD. Thanks for being such a great roommate! You're crazy and I'm worried about your quantity of free time, but I have so much respect for you for just. Doing it. You're really cool, and I'm going to miss having you around next year. (I have to live with people I don't know????)

@King Oreo Hello my child. Thank you so much for all the memes, and all the pictures of your critters, and of course for sharing all of your art! I love you so much, and I'm so grateful to have you in my life. Talking to you always brightens my day.

@Mist @Condensation @Vapor Hi nerds!!! Sorry for grouping you all together, but I wanted to mention all of you and I'm going to bed very soon. But you all are so cool??? Just you're all genuinely so thoughtful and kind, and so fun to be around. I'm also going to miss being close to you all, but I'm so grateful we got to hang out so much this last year (even though it wasn't anywhere near enough). (Tell the cats I love them.)

And of course a shout out to everyone who has touched my life, especially the Knights of the Cosmere roleplayers back in 2017 and the original TUBA group. Thanks for letting me know what it's like to belong. I'm eternally grateful.

Until next year! (Unless I just totally leave by then, I really don't know what will happen.)

Bought and started reading my first Sanderson book (tWoK) seven years ago on the 16th.

Which is. Wild. I was in sixth grade at the time so it's been a part of my life while I've been growing up and just. Worked towards becoming me. Still got a ways to go but I'm going to assume you guys know what I mean.

I don't think the Cosmere will ever have as big a role in my life as it has in the past. This site is where I connected with so many of my current friends, it got me into reading adult fantasy and not just YA and middle grade, it helped me pursue writing. Those things were instrumental in who I am now. I'll be honest, I don't like a lot of Brandon's newer stuff as much as the older things like Elantris and The Way of Kings and era one. I still consider The Way of Kings one of my top three favorite books.

I was at Dragonsteel in November and that was incredible, but mostly for the people. I love the stories and the characters but there are stories and characters I love more.

I wish I could've told lil twelve year old Tesh that Dragonsteel was a thing that would one day exist and that you'd be able to go and hang out with some of your favorite people in the world.

It's nearly 1am and my brain isn't overly coherent.

But these books have played an incredibly important role in who I am now, and that means that they'll always be a part of me. And part of that is broadening my horizons in terms of what I enjoy reading, and like I've moved beyond things like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, I'm moving onto new things now. I still regularly reread Percy Jackson, and I still own more Brandon books than books by any other author, so they're far from left behind. But I'm still moving forward.

Like I never considered myself a fan of horror, but Neil Gaiman is my top author this year by a lot and I've fallen absolutely head over heels for Sandman. I also never thought I'd read this many comics!

I guess another thing is that I've found books that showcase the experiences of more people than Brandon's. I use Storygraph to track what I read (BECAUSE I LIKE GRAPHS) and last year my second to top genre (behind fantasy) was LGBTQ+. None of Brandon's books would fall into that category (yet!). But as Brandon does get better at inclusivity, I'm finding myself liking his writing (and honestly just hard, epic fantasy in general) less.

It's kinda hard acknowledging that even to myself because of that huge impact they've had on me, but that's the truth of the matter. And it's okay. Just unfortunate that I moved to Utah after the peak of my obsession.

TL;DR Brandon's books have fundamentally changed me as a person, and introduced me to fandom and therefore to my best friends in the world. I'm never going to discount that, but I've also changed a lot as a reader and a person and I've found a lot of other things that I enjoy more than a lot of his more recent work.

I did not mean for that to be so long and my brain isn't working anywhere near well enough to reread that for coherency, so ENJOY!

And my Shardiversary is next month, and I'm not really active enough on here anymore to totally justify doing those. So the one next month may be my last one, who knows.

Oh I can't forget to do the mental health awareness month post though.

If I sent this on Discord it would reach a more relevant audience but it's going here for old times sake.

Anyways, see ya! I'll be back on the 1st (probably) and the 17th!

Bought and started reading my first Sanderson book (tWoK) seven years ago on the 16th.

Which is. Wild. I was in sixth grade at the time so it's been a part of my life while I've been growing up and just. Worked towards becoming me. Still got a ways to go but I'm going to assume you guys know what I mean.

I don't think the Cosmere will ever have as big a role in my life as it has in the past. This site is where I connected with so many of my current friends, it got me into reading adult fantasy and not just YA and middle grade, it helped me pursue writing. Those things were instrumental in who I am now. I'll be honest, I don't like a lot of Brandon's newer stuff as much as the older things like Elantris and The Way of Kings and era one. I still consider The Way of Kings one of my top three favorite books.

I was at Dragonsteel in November and that was incredible, but mostly for the people. I love the stories and the characters but there are stories and characters I love more.

I wish I could've told lil twelve year old Tesh that Dragonsteel was a thing that would one day exist and that you'd be able to go and hang out with some of your favorite people in the world.

It's nearly 1am and my brain isn't overly coherent.

But these books have played an incredibly important role in who I am now, and that means that they'll always be a part of me. And part of that is broadening my horizons in terms of what I enjoy reading, and like I've moved beyond things like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, I'm moving onto new things now. I still regularly reread Percy Jackson, and I still own more Brandon books than books by any other author, so they're far from left behind. But I'm still moving forward.

Like I never considered myself a fan of horror, but Neil Gaiman is my top author this year by a lot and I've fallen absolutely head over heels for Sandman. I also never thought I'd read this many comics!

I guess another thing is that I've found books that showcase the experiences of more people than Brandon's. I use Storygraph to track what I read (BECAUSE I LIKE GRAPHS) and last year my second to top genre (behind fantasy) was LGBTQ+. None of Brandon's books would fall into that category (yet!). But as Brandon does get better at inclusivity, I'm finding myself liking his writing (and honestly just hard, epic fantasy in general) less.

It's kinda hard acknowledging that even to myself because of that huge impact they've had on me, but that's the truth of the matter. And it's okay. Just unfortunate that I moved to Utah after the peak of my obsession.

TL;DR Brandon's books have fundamentally changed me as a person, and introduced me to fandom and therefore to my best friends in the world. I'm never going to discount that, but I've also changed a lot as a reader and a person and I've found a lot of other things that I enjoy more than a lot of his more recent work.

I did not mean for that to be so long and my brain isn't working anywhere near well enough to reread that for coherency, so ENJOY!

And my Shardiversary is next month, and I'm not really active enough on here anymore to totally justify doing those. So the one next month may be my last one, who knows.

Oh I can't forget to do the mental health awareness month post though.

If I sent this on Discord it would reach a more relevant audience but it's going here for old times sake.

Anyways, see ya! I'll be back on the 1st (probably) and the 17th!

Happy birthday Tesh! 

Happy birthday, Tesh! Many happy returns

*pokes*

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*pokes you over here so we don't start spamming the thread* 

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*pokes you over here so we don't start spamming the thread* 

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*pokes you over here so we don't start spamming the thread* 

YOU ARE A KIWI BIRD 

YOU ARE A KIWI BIRD 

For this Shardversary I wanted to do something different. So, I decided to post a status update during my Hebrew calendar Shardversary instead of the Gregorian one! I had to check it, since I didn't bother noting the day back then, but it's not that hard to keep track of. I would say, though, that it surprised me a little.

You see, this is my third year here - the amount of time @Tesh was here when I've joined, meaning she just doubled it about a month ago. Anyway, it's not hard to realize this was during the pandemic. But, unlike what you may have thought, it was after quarantine basically ended for me - a month or so after I've returned to my Yeshivah, to studying in capsules. This leads me to a short digression about my Sanderson history, which I probably mentioned in the past.

My older brother recommended Sanderson to me when I was somewhere in the middle of high school. I honestly don't remember the exact time. I can tell that I've first read Elantris a tad over four years ago, and it led to me reading both Mistborn and Stormlight (I think), but I was done with that quickly. And it actually wasn't my first Sanderson book - but I'm digressing from my digression.

Anyway, through the year between reading the entire published Cosmere and me signing up to the Shard, I had precisely one person to talk about the Cosmere to. And it became clear pretty quickly that he did not share my enthusiasm. This is nothing all that new; as a matter of fact, my family having trouble dealing with my rambles and rants was an issue for years, and I've been lamenting over the fact no one I know has read exactly the books I have for a long time. The funny part is, during quarantine my sisters bought and read the entire Mistborn trilogy... But they probably didn't have the patience to listen to me either. Now my sister made a presentation about Allomancy for a college assignment and needed my expertise, so ha to that! Anyway, to return to the topic (again), my brother suggested that if I wanted to discuss the Cosmere with people - I should just sign up to the Shard. So I've lurked around for some time, and after some time I decided I want to sign up.

I'm still not sure if it had the desired effect.

Anyway, things have changed since; I'm not sure I can say that I integrated into the community or found people who enjoy my rambles and rants (you guys do seem to enjoy at least some of them, but probably not all), but it did drag me to join Discord, and gave me the idea of my reading group, and taught me a few things about the world and people. Like how people can be kind and polite in the Internet, for example.

That's the point where I list all the people I interacted with and befriended, right? Supposedly. Well...

I can try. But honestly, after trying to write things about people... Maybe I'll try it during my Gregorian Shardversary, maybe not. I'm not sure I can do it very well right now.

Some of the people I'd have mentioned if I had the mind for it: @Knight of Iron, @Ixthos, @AonEne, @Ed Venture, @The Bald Brandon, @Amira, @Lego Mistborn, @ash's_eyes, @theTruthshaper and possibly a couple of others.

Anyway, those previous three years were fun, and I hope for more good times here!

... Even if I'm not really active except for random posts about Judaism. I'll get around to writing my next installment in the History of Judaism essays, I just need some more resources!

Thank you for reading, and have a good day.

Favorite musical, go

Hey there everyone! It's almost May, and that means it's almost Mental Health Awareness Month. To newcomers - it's a bit of a tradition on the Shard to make your profile picture green for that month. @Tesh explains it better (and more eloquently) than I can here. (link to this year's post in her status update)

https://www.17thshard.com/forum/profile/21213-tesh/?status=25033&type=status

Obviously it's not mandatory or anything like that but it's a nice thing to do, helps spead awareness. I know a lot of people on the Shard (me included) have struggled with their mental health, and if you wanna talk about your journey/offer reassurance/get a nice new green profile picture, Tesh's post is a good place to do that.

On another note - I've been away for four days (our internet broke) and I have 102 notifications. Going through them now...

Happy birthday Tesh!

Update: still obsessed with The Owl House.

That is all.

Wow.

Nostalgia.

June 30, 2017

It's been a while.

I'm still really really grateful for all of the connections and friends I made through tKotC. Everyone was just absolutely delightful to interact with, and I honestly miss it. But I definitely don't have the time to revive it right now.

But yeah.

Considering the game that your PFP is from, as well as your current rank...

Are you a Hollow Knight Radiant?

*runs away and hides in bush*

Well, well, well, it’s that time of year again. It’s officially been three years since I’ve joined the Shard. I don’t think I ever quite expected that choice to have had such a profoundly positive impact on my life.

 I wasn’t very active my first year, so most of you reading this (with the possible exception of @The Awakened Salad) will only have known me for two years. It doesn’t feel like two years and it certainly doesn’t feel like three.

I’d like to thank @Tesh for becoming a really good friend of mine. From RPs and writing, to Hollow Knight and Owl House, to long, long chats on Discord, it’s been a blast getting to know you. Kaladin too! Thanks for the octopi!

I give another thanks to @Chasmgoat for being so great to have discussions with, to generate AI things, and to share Silksong news with. I’m legitimately excited for it to release in just twenty more years, and we‘ll have so much there to share. Cuz even once we’ve 100%-ed it, the end is never the end.

And a thanks to @DramaQueen. Friendship is an astonishingly wonderful thing. It both confuses me and makes sense to me how we ended up becoming friends, and regardless I’m glad it happened. It’s been delightful to learn about the things you’re passionate about, including music, musicals, and theatre.

 I’d like to thank @The Awakened Salad for graciously granting me a position within their company as the Prime Spinal Fluid Source, @Vapor for rekindling my Dream SMP obsession, @Scarletfox for her support and for countless Minecraft fun times,@Ed Venture for their friendship with a touch of D&D advice, and so many more of you that I don’t have time to type out due to my financial obligation to keep myself alive (aka “gotta get ready for work”).

Unfortunately, I can’t thank everyone in a single post, and I certainly can’t thank any one person enough. All of y’all have changed my life for the better, and I think I’m the luckiest knight in the world to have ended up with you all as my friends.

So I saw Hadestown last night.

I think it might be my new favorite broadway musical (and I'm no theatre slouch)

It was beautiful yet tragic, sensitive yet rugged, joyful yet melancholy.

It struck some deep chords in me- I teared up several times during the show. I still feel the raw emotion that stirred in my soul. Feelings like this are what make life worth living, I think.

Themes of doubt and human failure were threaded throughout the show, but I loved the way it closed- hopeful, thoughtful, and reflective, with a focus on redemption and learning from the past.

Here're some lyrics from one of the ending numbers

Quote

It's a sad tale
It's a tragedy
It's a sad song
But we sing it anyway

'Cause here’s the thing
To know how it ends
And still begin to sing it again
As if it might turn out this time
I learned that from a friend of mine

 

Funnily enough, the whole show, my grandma kept talking about how Hades (Patrick Page) looked familiar, and then after the show, she realized that she was remembering him from a Shakespeare production she saw over forty years ago (my grandma's memory is incredible). Apparently his spectacular performance left a mark on her.