Mason Wheeler

Several years back, I got a new job in Utah and moved out here to my current residence. I did a bit of looking around and found a nice place to stay, and when Sunday came around I headed off to church at the local ward. Imagine my shock when I saw famous webcomic author (and Brandon's Writing Excuses co-host) Howard Tayler walk in and sit down a few pews away! So... yeah. I'm in the same ward as him.

Yeah, that's how I read it too.

Yeah! I always love me a good whatnot!

Because Kaladin's entire story has been one of progression and recovery. Bad things happened to him in his past, but he's slowly getting better, little by little. Having him die soon after reaching the fifth oath would be just a variant on the old "retirony" cliché. Also, beating up the most powerful character around to "establish stakes" and show just how seriously we should take this new threat is also a bad cliché. It's known as "Worfing," due to how commonly the writers of Star Trek: The Next Generation did it to Lieutenant Worf. (Reportedly, one of Michael Dorn's conditions for coming back to play Worf on Deep Space Nine was that they stop doing this to his character.) And again, I think Brandon's a good enough writer to know better than to Worf Kaladin.

I don't think that will happen, simply because it's far too obvious a twist and Brandon's a better writer than that.

The best advice I can give here is, when you're faced with a potentially significant situation, slow down. (Note: this is also a good idea when driving!) Remember how many times in the Scriptures we're told to be at peace, to be still, and to ponder things. When something loud and urgent is thrown at you, the natural impulse is to try to react quickly, and just as Mosiah 3:19 would suggest, doing so is where a lot of the worst screwups originate. Slow down, think things over, and you'll get it right a lot more often. It may not make people think you're smart, (often, people base that more on the ability to think quickly rather than the ability to get things right,) but it will make people think you're wise, which is even better in the long run.

Yes. Unfortunately you're in a world where, as a young man, the deck is stacked against you. In schools today, girls are treated as ideal and boys as a type of defective girls. That's not your fault, but unfortunately it is your problem to deal with. Just hang in there and know that it does get better once you get free. Hold to the rod; that's what it's there for. The world keeps changing all around you, but we have a safe, strong, immovable anchor in the Gospel. Hang on tight to it and you'll find security amidst all the turmoil. Remember John 16:33. "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." No, you're not disposable. That's a lie that you've been told, and it originates with our adversary. You are a child of God, a son of the King of all creation, and princes are not disposable! Keep your head down, hold tight to your testimony, and you'll come out all the stronger for it.

Not sure if they're still there, but when I was in the MTC, in the dorms they had ironing boards bolted to the walls, rather than on legs like normal ironing boards. Not sure why they were even there — who brings an iron, of all things, to the MTC?!? — but they were all over. And one of the standard pieces of equipment they asked all of us to bring was a long trench coat for dealing with heavy, rainy weather. Well, someone figured out that if you lie down on one of these ironing boards with your trench coat hanging just right, it covers up the board and it looks like you're in midair. So everyone thought it would be really funny to do all sorts of The Matrix-style fighting poses based around this concept and take pictures of them. Eventually it got to the point where MTC leadership told everyone to stop doing Matrix photos. Well, not sure about the youth but the stake dances are definitely getting dumber! When I went to those, electronic music and moshing were both things that were simply not allowed in the first place.

Several years ago, I was living in Pennsylvania. It was winter, and I was on my way to work. There was a highway interchange that kind of looks like there was a big, inconvenient rock wall right where they wanted to put the highway, so they just dug a hole through it and left big towering walls of stone to either side. It had snowed the night before, but I wasn't worried, the snowplows had been out and the road was basically clean. ...right up until I got into the shadow of the rock wall, that is. Where the sun hadn't been yet, I suddenly found myself sliding on a patch of black ice, completely unable to control the car. It was very slowly turning, so I was gradually approaching a side-impact collision with a bunch of stone at over 40 MPH. My car didn't have side airbags, so I kind of figured, "OK, this is it. Hope I'm ready for the next life." All of a sudden, just as I reached the edge of the road, I felt something impact the side of the car. There was a distinct thump about a foot or two behind me, and suddenly I was pointed straight down the road and had traction again. I wasn't sure what I had hit, but I wasn't about to stop the car and check, just in case whatever it was had damaged something and I might have had trouble getting it started again. There was a repair shop close to work so I figured I'd take care of it there. When I got to work, though, I got out of the car and looked it over, and there was no damage. Anywhere. At all. And I know enough about physics to understand just how much sense that does not make. The force required to redirect such a heavy piece of metal moving that quickly, in such a short amount of time, should have left some very serious marks behind! Instead, something I could not see, but definitely did feel, saved my life and put me back exactly on track to where I needed to go. I know there are angels watching over us. I know this because I hit one with my car.

And yet somehow every Scout wishes he could go to girl's camp...

Reposting this because it was in a different thread and not the Cosmere Musical one. If we're gonna revive this, how about a bit of bragging from one of the most sinister figures in the Cosmere? It's been... One year since you looked at me, figured out that I'm not so trustworthy. Two weeks since I turned on you. I swear that I was just doing what I had to. One day since you think I died. Boy won't you be shocked at what I now hold inside! And now I have so much to do. It's gonna be nine days till the truth is made known to you. Go ahead and train your powers, train for days and hours, you'll never get to five oaths in time. Talk to Ishar but he won't help you, he thinks you're on my side, it will be delicious when you lose and then you will be mine. I have power to save everyone, in the whole Cosmere, because I'm full of plots and schemes. You think honor should bind men, you try to match wits, you try to hold me but I bust through. I see that loophole Rayse overlooked, now I will win by hook or crook, I want to show you my philosophy is stronger! Gotta see the show, 'cause then you'll know the Bondsmith has to let me go, then when you are my Fused, you'll live on so much longer! Can I help it if I think that you are too naive? trying hard not to smile when I see you grieve. I'm the kind of guy who engineers a funeral for a few to save the rest, and now I shall for the greater whole! I have a history of scheming with my Diagram, I have the power now to take it so much further! t's been one week since you looked at me, asked me why I would turn on you so flagrantly. Three days since Szeth came to me. I gave him a message but he never passed it on for me. One day since Hoid talked to me. He never thought that I could mess with his stored memories. Just now it occurred to me, it's gonna be four years till the fans learn what that means!

Yeah, we call it a mission. If you say your coworker is "going on a mission" or "on his/her mission" that sounds completely normal to us. Yes. And that means that your friend is most likely a girl in her late teens. This is not a hard-and-fast rule so much as a cultural norm in the church, but it's expected that every young man soon after graduating high school will serve a mission for two years. For young women, the typical service period is 18 months, and the expectation for all of them to serve is not there, but many young women do choose to. And yeah, the idea of "putting your life on hold" for that long, right when you're "supposed to" be going to college and preparing for a career and all sorts of Very Important Things like that, and not even getting paid for it, does feel kind of weird from an outsider's perspective. But the idea that missionary work is an important duty derives from the revelations that our church is founded on. The Lord calls it an act of warning here, and that puts it in perspective. If you saw someone out on foot, on a cold, snowy highway at nighttime, frantically waving and trying to flag down the passing cars, you'd probably think they were being weird too. Maybe there's something wrong with them? That's definitely not what normal people do! But if you actually stop and listen to them and find out that they're trying to tell you the bridge up ahead is out, suddenly your feelings on the subject change radically! You might even feel inclined to join him in trying to warn other people. That's how members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints view missionary work. Our message is that important.

Contrast the pop-culture view of mainstream Christian heaven: "I just spend all eternity sitting around on a cloud playing a harp? How boring would that be? No thanks!" This is, admittedly, a massive oversimplification, but there is a valid point there! I've long believed that the doctrine of exaltation is the only thing that makes any of Christian doctrine actually make sense.

Funny how that happens. A number of times in my life, I've had exactly what I needed fall into my lap for no good reason other than that it was exactly what I needed in that specific moment. You just got an extra week that you didn't know you had. All I can say is, tell Heavenly Father how grateful you are for it, and don't waste it. Remember what John Taylor said, that it's contrary to the economy of heaven for God to do anything for us that we could have done for ourselves. Do your part now, get that talk prepared and make sure it's worthy of the time you were given to prepare it.

So how did the talk go?

One time at a signing, I asked Brandon how to deal with writer's block. He said, "have ninjas suddenly attack. Write something ridiculous just to get something out there, get the ball rolling, and then once words are flowing again you can come back and fix it." While I don't recommend putting a ninja attack into a talk for church, the basic principle remains sound.

Ask your Bishop what the duties associated with your calling are. This is best done in an email, so you can get a written response that's easy to save and refer back to later. Once you have that, talk with your YW President and say something along the lines of, "the Bishop says this is what I'm supposed to be doing as secretary. What are the things I should focus on, that you need the most help with?" Once you know what you're supposed to be doing, get to work. Keep the basic Gospel principles of action in mind: come up with a plan, then pray for confirmation (D&C 9:8-9) liken the scriptures unto yourself for guidance in relevant situations (1 Nephi 19:23) love is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:10)

Careful. This is what put my sister off Stormlight, seeing Kaladin get beaten down too much. To convince her to keep reading I told her the exact opposite: that his situation does improve over time, that his story is ultimately a hopeful one rather than a bleak, ugly one, and that the point of all the darkness he has to slog through is for contrast, to give his light something to shine in.

Preservation? It's closer to Ruin than you'd expect...

1:04:24: "Even if [Moonbreaker] is the best possible game [of the type] that it is, I probably wouldn't be interested." This. 100% this. Watching the video where Brandon introduced it, I just kept thinking over and over "how is this a Brandon Sanderson project?" Maybe it's just my biases or perceptions showing, but I'd kind of imagined that the story would be central (not just some tacked-on audio script) to any video game bearing Brandon's name.

16:02: "Brandon's spoken about, the front five are more focused on the Radiants, and the back five ... on the Heralds." This is true. It's also true that Brandon has been known to troll the fanbase in his answers from time to time. And if there's any truth to the conversation we got in the book 5 prologue, an important part of the Stormfather's plan is to establish new Heralds and not just new Radiants. So I can't help but wonder, will the Heralds that it focuses on in the back 5 necessarily be the old Heralds?

Instincts are something very different from intelligence. Take the smartest person in the world, put them in a high-adrenaline situation where base instincts take over, and they won't behave particularly different from anyone else unless they also have training on how to handle such situations, which is also a completely different thing from intelligence.

Given his long history of magical experimentation, all the way back to his origin as "guy trying to figure out how the local magic system works," I'd say he's at least somewhat of an engineer.

It's what Hoid mentions in his narration towards the end about Riina: even if there's only a low probability that she could beat him, you don't live to an old age by taking a lot of low-probability risks that you might die.