KChan

That was awesome, Joe. XD Upvoted!

Hey there, and welcome! It's always cool to see more international fans joining. Also, have a cookie:

Good for you! And yes, there's definitely a contest going on. You should check it out on our home page. You could win a free signed ARC of Alloy of Law! Not to mention loads of other goodies. Also, I'm glad you like the cookie. It is, indeed, rather welcoming. Or at least, I intended it to be.

That's pretty much what the staffers do too, so you're in good company. Welcome to the site!

It was pretty alarming, mostly because my building's fire alarm is this horrific doom-siren that blares at me from a loudspeaker right behind my head, followed by an automated voice telling me there's an emergency in the building and to proceed to the nearest stairway, all while strobe lights attempt to blind everyone exiting. I could hardly even smell any smoke as I exited, and I had to go down from the top of the building, so you'd think it would have had time to build up by the time I reached the stairwell on that floor. Apparently the smoke ended up going up to the 3rd floor, though. Most of that hour we spent outside was actually the fire department clearing the building of all the smoke, I think; from what the Housing department is telling us, the fire itself seems to have been put out pretty quickly.

Sorry, school and all that. And, you know, keeping track of 400+ contest entries with the other admins. Also, welcome back, Meesha! XD

Kierra led their group into the hot Tolveran sun, thankful for the comparative cool of her Versilk cloak. It was hard enough for Vhaskari - who were practically bred to live in cold temperatures - to tolerate the warm southern climate; she couldn't imagine having to wear, say, a woolen cloak in this horrid, humid heat. And going without was simply not an option. "I am Kierra," she told Krh'rhl. "It is an honor to meet you." She was already trying to work out in her head how to pronounce the name. No doubt she would add unnecessary vowels by mistake, but she supposed that couldn't be helped. She had read extensively of the Earthshells before leaving home, and was acutely aware of how they hated loud noises. How uncomfortable must this one be in the middle of a city? As a gesture of goodwill, she channeled, creating sort of a bubble of muted sound in a small area closely surrounding their group. They could still hear inside it, but any sounds, any voices but their own, would be drastically reduced in volume. She couldn't do much about the crowds without channeling people out of the way, but she hoped that at least the sound would be more bearable now. Perhaps this would make their new companion more comfortable.

I would also like to announce that my building caught fire Friday night. No one was hurt, but it was kind of crazy watching all those firefighters and cops show up.

I shall head off to give it said push, since it's my post. XD

Welcome, Em! I'm glad you like our site! We try really hard to make this a fun and welcoming place for everybody, so I'm glad you put aside the lurking for now. I hope you'll make yourself at home here and make some new friends while you're at it. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions or concerns! Also, have a cookie:

Hi there, and welcome to 17S! Wow, another math/science person? Y'all are joining in droves lately! I need to add more cosplayers to my army; I'm growing vastly outnumbered. Also, yay for fellow Potter fans! Oh, and have a cookie:

Hey there, and welcome! I was hoping the ARC giveaway would also bring some new friends to the site, and here you are! I'm glad you decided to join and post; you seem like a really nice and interesting person. You'll also be happy to know, I think, that there are lots of math and science types around here, and of course, more Brandon fans than you can shake a Shardblade at. I would caution you to steer clear of General Theories until you've read all of the Cosmere books; I wouldn't want a misclick to spoil any of the books for you. However, other sections - the general book forums for what you have read, the General Brandon forum, and any of our community or RP areas - will be much less spoileriffic, and they're loads of fun. Also, have a cookie! It's nice to meet you!

Hey there, LightReader! Welcome to 17th Shard! I, like you, found out about Brandon through Robert Jordan, as did roughly 50% of our members, if the poll is to be believed. I hope you enjoy it here! Also, have a cookie:

I see what you did there, Kuri. Welcome, Tangletalon! I'm not much of a math person myself, but I've been known to ask Eric math questions or let him randomly teach me calculus over skype. That's really about it. I'm a wordsmith, not a number-cruncher. I am, however, "completely yet figuratively insane," as you so eloquently put it, and as was said above, we're no strangers to insanity around here. Don't worry, you're in good company.

That "stuff" is almost everything on the site, in some way, shape, or form. For more info, check out the About page. Anyways, welcome! I come from a reptile-loving family myself: my Stepfather is actually a reptile breeder, so I'm no stranger to our scaly friends. I hope you enjoy yourself here at 17S!

Yes, I'm the cosplayer, but I'm also the broke cosplayer. =P I'll get a Mistcloak done, though. One of these days. I calculated the amount of fabric I'll need for the number of strips I want, and it's kind of obscene. >_> Anyways, welcome, KS? Can I call you that? We already have another Kaladin, so it's hard to think of a good nickname without getting the two of you confused. I'm glad you found your way over here, and I hope you enjoy it! I'm looking forward to seeing what you share with us, too - don't forget, you can use our awesome gallery feature to submit your pics! Oh, and have a cookie:

This is actually quite normal for multilinguals. It's called code-switching and is done completely spontaneously. It can be a marked choice, but more often than not it's completely subconscious. In some studies, interview subjects didn't even know they had been code-switching until they read the interview transcripts themselves. I've done this as well too: I once thought a sentence with English and Spanish vocabulary in Japanese sentence structure, including particles. Or I'll open my mouth to say something in Japanese class and it will come out in Spanish instead. It's pretty awesome, though. Cognitive flexibility - that ability you're talking about to process and think in more than one language - is a really, really good thing. Even if it has some pretty hilarious results.

That has to do with regulations that the dubbing studios have no control over, unfortunately. There's not much they'll be able to do about some of it.

Lizard. Bearded dragons are awesome. Hot or cold?

That is sort of what J. K. Rowling did with Slytherin... Of course, I think the Black Ajah is a liiiittle more seriously evil than that.

Because the Black Ajah doesn't exist, silly! At least if you ask any self-respecting Aes Sedai before a certain point in time. I was actually wondering when someone was going to bring that up. XD Also, even Blacks had to choose one of the main seven, so

This. I'm actually furthering my knowledge of CSS by skinning this site, and it's a lot more fun and stress-free - especially since only other admins can see when I make a mistake on the test skins - than having to deal with the pressures of doing it for a grade or working on something I'm not even interested in.