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Thanks! I've pursued a number of women in the past, but I'm not trying to do so presently.

Currently, none. The first girl is already out of the question, and right now I don't really want to pursue this other girl again unless I find clear evidence that she's actually interested this time, though I will happily spend time with her as friends.

I totally agree. If I wasn't clear, the fact that being in the presence of girls I'm interested in turns me into a nervous wreck is NOT what I want in my relationships. This unfortunate tendency is completely involuntary, and I hate it. I wish I could be more normal towards people I want to pursue. I wish I could show them how much we have in common rather than showing them how awkward I can be when I'm with them and turning them off. I know that the only way to rid myself of this problem is through experience. The thing is, it's not like I don't have any close female platonic friends. I do, and I act perfectly normal when I'm around them. It's only when I've started liking someone in a non-platonic way that it becomes difficult to talk to her. So, obviously, the lowered brain function is not the reason for my attraction. Rather I become attracted first, then my brain decides to go dormant. It sucks.

As Cognizantastic puts it, it does not go at all. While I still go to the office every now and then for events, I now work primarily in my condo and have not communicated with the girl, who thankfully has been deployed in her client's office since last week. I must confess that during the few times I've seen her recently, I still feel attraction towards her (she is a very pretty lady), but I don't let such feelings get in the way of my goal of keeping my distance. It has been suggested here that I look for other dating opportunities. Frankly, I've been too busy these days to even think of dating, but the other day a friend messaged me online saying that she'll be moving somewhere near my place next week, and that we should hang out. Obviously my first thought was "Score!", but after a bit of thinking I'm starting to get confused. You see, I already tried pursuing this other girl before, back when we were coworkers. She's not really the sexy type and she doesn't affect me as strongly as the first girl does, but she's a cute Chinese gamer chick and I found her quite interesting. I gave her a Rubik's Cube once after she mentioned how she's interested in solving it, and she seemed pleased with the gift. Unfortunately, that was probably the last good move I did. As with other girls I'm attracted to, I quickly found that I just couldn't talk intelligently when I'm with her. It's like my brain just stops working, and I keep on saying stupid, inane, cliched things. Eventually, as can be expected, she told me we should just be friends. She said she didn't want want to be in a relationship with a non-Chinese guy because her parents might object. That may or may not have been just an excuse, but I was sure another reason was that she found me to be beneath her intellectually. Anyway, that was three years ago. She left the company a year later. The last time we saw each other was last year, in a mall near my place. We randomly bumped into each other and she asked me to help her with her shopping, then we ended up having lunch together. Since she clearly and unambiguously rejected me in the past, I of course did not think much of that event. She just needed a friend to help her with stuff, and having lunch in a mall was a perfectly normal thing for friends to do. I'm confused by her recent message because I'm not exactly part of her inner circle of friends, and we rarely interact, so why would she want to "hang out" with me now all of the sudden unless she is now interested in me as well? On the other hand, I don't really see how things could have changed since she rejected me three years ago. If anything, I'm even more beneath her now that she already has a startup and is flying all over the world on business trips, and I'm still a lowly software engineer. I certainly haven't gotten more Chinese since then. Right now I'm assuming that she just thinks I'm enough of a friend to randomly hang out with when I'm nearby. I find that flattering, though inexplicable since I've never had any friend invite me to hang out in a platonic manner before unless we were close friends. Anyway, I reckon I probably shouldn't consider this as a date, and I should probably try to keep any romantic thoughts to myself during the "hang out". What do you guys think?

I just discovered that the new site no longer uses HTML anchors with name attributes to mark each post in a thread. So, for example, this URL... http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/6062-theory-each-shardworld-has-an-essence/?page=2#entry410544 ... that once pointed to a post I made in one of my theory threads no longer points to that particular post. Instead, it just displays the top of that thread's page 2. The new way of linking to the post is to use this URL instead: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/6062-theory-each-shardworld-has-an-essence/?do=findComment&comment=410544 That will work. Unfortunately, this change means that a lot of existing links to posts no longer work. I'll probably be editing some of my favorite posts to update their links, but before I do that I just wanted to know if there's anything the admins can tweak to make the old links work again.

Thanks again to everyone who gave me advice. Last week's party happened without much incident. I did not attempt to communicate with or approach the girl. I would have preferred sitting at a different table, but my closest office friends sat with her and they invited me over, so felt I had little choice. Thankfully we never had to interact with each other. There was one time during the party when I was about to enter the men's room just as she exited the ladies' room. If I hadn't read your advice (particularly Delightful's) I would have been sorely tempted to talk to her then, particularly since she just stood there looking at me. But through your guidance, I realized that she must have been rooted to the spot due to fear of me, so I quickly went inside without a second thought. Anyway, my telecommuting experiment starts tomorrow. I will also start looking for dating opportunities. Wish me luck! Edit: @Cognizantastic, if I may contribute, I think two mutually attracted people do not necessarily have to start a relationship immediately. The two of you can happily remain "just friends" while you are not yet ready. Just tell her about your situation and see if she understands. Are you by any chance trying to avoid relationships because of your academic goals?

That's why I plan to work from home whenever I can from now on. This might mean I'll need to get a decent broadband connection so that I'm not limited to mobile tethering, but I guess it's worth it.

These are all very helpful guys, thanks. The girl's safety (both emotional and physical) is of course the important thing here, and I completely understand Delightful's concern for her fellow female. Rest assured, this girl in question can easily kick my butt if she wanted to (she knows boxing). Not that I ever plan on testing that... I would have skipped tonight's party just to avoid any awkwardness, but unfortunately I already agreed to take part in some stupid game the HR thought up. Nonetheless I will stay as far away from her as possible. Also, as of this morning (Philippine time), I have blocked her from Facebook. This is because even though I already unfriended her previously, I still see her comments on other people's posts, and I no longer want to see her any more than is absolutely necessary.

Well, it makes sense now, thanks. I will continue avoiding her. I also plan to work from home as much as possible from now on, just to make things easier. Edit: I guess so. I had just rediscovered hexaflexagons at the time and was trying to actually make one, when the idea popped in my head. I guess I didn't think that through. If I'm not mistaken, blocking me would mean I wouldn't have been able to see her Facebook profile. I was in fact expecting her to block me or at least unfriend me (I checked daily; yes, I'm a creep), but she never did. I'm pretty sure she just muted our Facebook conversation. I guess it's a good thing I saved her the hassle of unfriending me in all the social networks we shared. Edit2: She's 23. I don't think the seven-year age difference really matters, at least according to XKCD (okay, just kidding). I think she just doesn't like me, probably for similar reasons as those other girls who rejected me in the past. I might try that at some point. Right now I think I'll just keep myself occupied with work and hobbies. For example, I'm currently optimizing my Rubik's cube algorithm. I might also go back to learning Japanese. Who needs girls when you have a few thousand kanji characters to befriend, amirite? Also, man, I can't wait for The Dark Talent and Arcanum Unbounded to be released.

Hello fellow Sharders. It's been a while since I've been here. I'm currently in need of advice. I already talked to my real life friends about it, but I'm hoping you guys could chime in as well. First, let me describe my history with relationships so far: Nada, zilch, zip. I have never had a girlfriend. Not for the lack of trying, though. Starting from high school, I've been rejected a total of nine times already. (I'm thirty years old now.) I have dated several times, but all of those led basically nowhere. Anyway, I've had a crush on a coworker for five years now, but I never made any move until recently because I've always seen her as way over my league. We were friends, but not very close friends, and she never showed any clear signs of being interested in me. A couple of months ago, I saw her sitting alone on a couch in the office lobby. We chatted for a while, then I suddenly made a terrible mistake: I asked her out for coffee. She declined, not too surprisingly, and I awkwardly excused myself and left. I really should have accepted defeat and moved on, but I didn't. Somehow, five years' worth of repressed desire surged through my soul like the Dor through a previously incomplete Elantrian, and I began to sort of obsess about the girl. No, I did NOT start touching her inappropriately or anything rapey like that, but I admit I did become a bit of a creep, stalking her on social networking sites and ogling at her every chance I get. It was pathetic. One day she caught me staring at her legs while we and a group of coworkers were relaxing after work. She never said anything, but by the way she immediately covered herself and left soon afterwards, I was pretty sure I was in trouble. That night I sent her a Facebook message asking for forgiveness. Facebook Messenger indicated she read it, but she never replied. After that she started avoiding me in the office. For a while I played her game of not acknowledging each other's existence, but I desperately wanted her to not be mad at me any longer, so I attempted several things: I tried talking to her in person about what happened. She held out her hand in the universal gesture for "Talk to the hand" and walked away. I sent her a couple more apologetic messages on Facebook. She apparently never even read them (according to the indicator icon on Messenger). I spent a week creating a hexahexaflexagon containing pictures of her, and gave it as a peace offering. She did not accept it. I gave her a hand-written note asking if we could be friends again. I got a note in return asking me to please stop. At that point, I asked my closest real life friends for advice. Most of them said I should just wait for her anger to die down. One even convinced me to unfriend the girl on social networking sites so that I could move on. I kind of regret following that advice (yes, I unfriended/unfollowed her on Facebook, Instagram, Google+, and Swarm), but it's too late now. I get that what I did was wrong, that it was technically sexual harassment, but I don't understand why she would not accept my apology, and why she won't even hear me out. We've known each other for five years, and aside from the recent and very temporary spike in my outward perversion level, I have always treated her with the utmost respect. You would think that this slight aberration in my behavior was something that could be resolved via civil discussion (you know, the old "Let's just be friends" talk), but it seems that, to her, it was not. I can't believe I am actually hoping for a "Let's just be friends" talk with a girl I like. I mean, how crazy is that? We're going to have a company party tomorrow. Would it be a terrible idea for me to approach her there and try to apologize again? Or should I just continue my current policy of pretending I don't notice when she's in the immediate vicinity (when in fact I always acutely notice it)?

I nearly laughed out loud when I saw Khriss for the first time. Her tinted glasses coupled with the runway pose made that scene way too flamboyant to take seriously. Khriss: "I should never have come to Dayside, Cynder. I'm not a leader of men. I'm a supermodel." *hairflip* I like how they cut out the Khriss parts before she and Kenton met. It makes the Darksiders a little bit more mysterious to the reader. But like many others here, I was not at all a fan of the drawing style and the pacing. I almost wish they divided the novel into even more volumes instead of just three (say, eight, which is a significant number on Taldain) just so things would not have felt so rushed. For example, they could have ended Volume 1 at the advancement ceremonies scene right after Kenton is declared mastrell (Praxton getting shot would have been a great cliffhanger); that way, they could have spent more time showing the mechanics and beauty of sand mastery, as well as elaborating on how Kenton found each sphere in the Path (to showcase his problem-solving ability). Also, it would have been cool if they started the graphic novel with a shot of Taldain from outer space, briefly showing the various astronomical anomalies involving the planet and its star system, instead of that lengthy preface they decided to place there that looked out of place in a graphic novel. Oh well. I guess I'll just wait for Brandon to write the Darkside story one of these days.

I would live on one of the Reshi isles, specifically the one where Geranid and Ashir do their spren research. I'd volunteer as Geranid's assistant and Ashir's guinea pig. Ah, that would be quite the life... at least, until the Voidbringers arrive and spoil everything.

This was one of the questions I asked Brandon last year during his Reddit AMA. He didn't answer it, though. Here are my own thoughts about it.

I don't remember claiming that she didn't. I don't quite see what your point is. Care to elaborate?

Yeah, I noticed several problems with the Essence-Surge connections a few years ago, and posted a sort-of half-baked solution shortly afterwards. Not sure what you'll think of that bit of strangeness. As for the OP, good work, C. James-Mayer! These patterns have been discovered before, but it's great to see people rediscovering them.

Nice work. Reminds me of an old post of mine about the Essence of Blood and the Lightweavers' ability to change the hearts of men. The Order of Lightweavers does seem to have a reputation for this, as can be seen by this WoR epigraph: As for Shallan, note that she doesn't even need to use her Memory ability to change people. She was able to convince Gaz and the other deserters to fight bandits without the need to draw them first.

To be fair, there are lots of spren with limited cognitive ability in the Physical Realm. But yeah, it's possible that Aethers in Aether of Night are more like the non-sentient god metals than actual Splinters. Aethers in Liar of Partinel, on the other hand, seem much more Splinter-like.

Assuming that is still the case,

Yeah, the possibility of Darkside aurorae have been mentioned before in the PM thread (look in page 5). I still like the idea. May I ask where you got that info? You seem to imply that there's only a single star that can be seen on Darkside, which doesn't make sense considering that they're part of a star cluster. In a scene where Khriss described Dayside sky, she implied that multiple stars can be seen on Darkside: Wait, so I did a quick search and found this. I read the preview, and

Party pooper. Assuming that certain ideas about how Shards work were already in Brandon's mind when he wrote Aether of Night, I believe Slaughter and Despair are Splinters of Former, not Slivers. They're basically two really powerful "spren" of Former. Makkal/Slaughter and Agaris/Despair were split from Former's two aspects: Chaos and Despair, respectively. Preservation cannot create/form things on his own. He can only keep things from changing. Former's Intent, I believe, is Creation. When Brandon decided to write Mistborn, I think he took the concepts of Chaos (which is an aspect of Former) and Decay, combining them into Ruin. Then he took what's left (Order) and renamed it Preservation.

Thanks for referencing my old theory. I wrote that before WoR came out (though at that point the teasers were already being shown), and I've changed my mind about most of it since then. I still believe that the key to understanding fabrials is to understand how each Polestone is related to the Ten Surges, and that these relationships are more complex than just one Surge per Polestone, but other than that I no longer subscribe to most of what I wrote in that thread. I am currently still in the process of organizing my many half-baked thoughts on fabrials (which depend heavily on my highly speculative Essence-Surge theory), but I'll probably wait until after Stormlight 3 before I post a new fabrial theory in the forums. About heliodor, remember that its Essence is sinew, not flesh. The word sinew has more meanings than just flesh/muscle. Among other things, sinew can also refer to tendons, which are connective tissue that connect muscles and bone. "Connection" is basically the theme of the Adhesion Surge (one of the Surges of Sinew), which I now believe affects many sorts of bonds/connections/relationships in all three Realms (not just the Physical Realm). Let's apply this to heliodor fabrials. I believe Alerters simply perform the same information-gathering-via-Spiritual-connection that happens in other information-gathering manifestations of Investiture. Each type of alerter fabrial searches for a particular thing (emotion, sensation, presence, phenomena, etc.) by looking in the proper spiritual connections. Adhesion Surgebinding isn't the only use of heliodor, though. Regrowth fabrials use heliodor for healing-type Progression Surgebinding. Soulcaster fabrials use heliodor for meat-type Transformation Surgebinding. This means that heliodor interacts with, at the very least, three of the ten Surges: Adhesion, Progression, and Transformation. As I said, Polestone-Surge relationships are complex. I'll try reading your theory more closely later on, but I'm glad Sharders are still interested in this unsolved problem. Perhaps we'll be lucky enough to figure this stuff out completely before Brandon decides to explain it.

By all means, go read more of the old theory threads. It's a great way of seeing the evolution of fan speculations, and introduces you to the legendary Cosmere theorists who are sadly no longer active (e.g. Isomere and Tempus, among others). Just try to keep in mind that people may not have the same level of Cosmere knowledge in the past as they do now, especially those here who are crazily obsessed with being updated on all things Sanderson.