Thoughts on Mistborn after a 4th Readthrough

Can I express how much I love Mistborn?

This book consistently blows me away even after all this time. I love it dearly. What a wonderful wonderful book.

The series as a whole is, as is probably common knowledge, definitely my favorite series I've ever read. And the first book kicks it off with a beautiful start.

Here are some of my main takeaways from my fourth readthrough:

SPOILERS ahead for Mistborn (but only for the first book. I won't reference anything from the next two). Please please do not read on if you haven't read Mistborn. It's too good to spoil for yourself. Just go out and read it; it'll be worth it.

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1. I think the biggest thing that was different for me this time reading through the book was the fact that I felt differently about Vin drawing upon the Mists to receive power.

In the past I always felt like the moment was too deus ex machina, and maybe it still is. But for some reason reading through the book this time, the amount of references to how the mists give mistborn power and such stood out to me more. So when the event took place, it didn't surprise me as much, I suppose you could say. It seemed more realistic/believable. 

Which is a big plus. I've always been bugged by how much it felt like a simple deus ex machina, so it was refreshing to not feel that way so much this readthrough.

2. I didn't realize until this readthrough just how much foreshadowing there is in regards to Kelsier setting himself up as a religious figure and having to get himself killed in order to accomplish that. It was amazing to see.

3. Part 1 of the book wasn't my favorite for it being my fourth read through.

Part 1 does a lot of world building, magic system explaining, and introducing of characters. For someone who knows the world quite a bit, the magic system practically inside and out, the characters, and the future of all of those said things, it was a little bit slow, haha.

Of course, I recognize how good it is for a first time reader. The intrigue regarding the magic system, and the thought-out explanation of it. The amazing character introductions where you instantly feel like you know the characters well even though you've barely spent any time with them. It's good stuff.

I also particularly love the character development of seeing who Vin is before meeting the crew and after.

I guess why it's not as good in the fourth readthrough is that it is introducing all of the things that a re-reader needs the least refresher on. A lot of the other events that take place, there are various details that may have been forgotten and such -- and the plot itself is always riveting to read. But the exposition/basics of allomancy/basic character traits are harder to forget, I think.

4. For me at least, I love how natural and sweet Vin and Elend's romance in this book was. It just felt right. Not forced in any way. They're pretty adorable.

5. I am surprised at how well this stands as a stand-alone novel, while simultaneously being a beautiful introduction to a fascinating world with so many secrets yet to explore and learn about. It can definitely be read as a stand-alone novel if one really wanted to; I think this is my first time really seeing that. 

Of course, that reader is missing out on sooooooooooo much and it would make me terribly sad if they chose to not read the sequels. But I can now comprehend how that choice is made.

But, seriously. Everyone should read the sequels.

6. I love this book. Even though I knew that, I kind of forgot to what extent I love this book. I love it so very much. And I am so excited to get to reread the next two here shortly :)

Can't Work On It Forever (TØP Fav Songs List)

Welp, this has been brewing for the past 6 months. And, frankly, it could brew for another 6 months. A list of this size is constantly shifting around, especially when compared to my other favorite lists. I listen to Twenty One Pilots almost on a daily basis. 

I (sadly) don't play board games every day, let alone several. I don't finish a book a day, let along several. But I do listen to many-a-Twenty One Pilots songs a day. And so my opinions are constantly being revised about the exact order of where they place.

But, I decided, I needed to just post the list and then make revisions in the future. But the first step is just posting it. So here it is.

Couple notable things:
-Lovely has the Regional at Best cover art, but I'm actually referring to the Vessel version of the song.

-The songs in the D tier are the only songs I would say that I dislike. And even then, I do like to occasionally listen to them.

-I split S tier into three different tiers because I just love so many of their songs that much, haha.

Rhythm of War (and what's next on the reading chopping block)

Welp, I finally finished Rhythm of War.

And boy o boy did I love it.

2nd favorite in the series, I think? I think I preferred Words of Radiance, but it's been so so long now since I've read that that I could be embezzling just how good it was in my mind. I can say pretty confidently that I preferred Rhythm of War over The Way of Kings and Oathbringer, though.

Current order:

1. Words of Radiance

2. Rhythm of War

3. The Way of Kings

4. Oathbringer

I am itching for more Stormlight Archive right now, but it'll be a little while yet until book 5.

So in the meantime, I have a few other things I intend to read.

I do need to prepare for Wax and Wayne Book 4, which I am so pumped for. Already preordered it. Only 6 more months! 

I'm planning on rereading the Mistborn trilogy and then the Wax and Wayne books to prepare, but I'm not sure when. I might read some of Brandon Sanderson's short stories first (such as Dreamer and Snapshot) that I haven't read yet in order to spice in some quicker reads amongst the heavier reads. Sometimes need a break between reading Stormlight and the entirety of Mistborn stuff. But maybe I will just dive straight into Mistborn. Currently undecided. Will probably end up making a decision tomorrow.

Also currently reading The Zookeeper's Secret for my Career and Self Discovery class, which has been a really good read so far. Definitely has some solid insights and has been proving useful.

My First Month of Wordle

Welp, first month of playing Wordle has been a blast.

Stats and link to google drive that has all my wordles thus far are at the bottom of this post.

My general strategy and what I go for when creating words:

Obviously it was different the first week or so, but now I've kind of gotten into a groove. Credit goes to a random youtube comment on this general strategy, although I do mix it up, which I will talk about.

I always start with the word STOMP. If only one of the letters is used in the correct word, I follow up with the word ADIEU. This two words in conjunction get some major common letters and all the vowels used. 

From there, I use all the correct letters I've been giving and try to mix in the letters R, C, H, K, or L. Those five tend to be my priority. I try to avoid all double letters until I would reasonably feel confident that the correct word has a double letter.

However, I divert from that base if two or more of my letters from STOMP are correct. I then use my correct letters and mix in the letters E, A, and R as my top priority. 

That's the general idea of what I do each time. But obviously in every Wordle my thought processes and methods change depending on what letters show up as green/yellow and such.

Anyway, I'm excited for my continued Wordle adventures :)

Google Drive of all my Wordles thus far: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1P-5NqezY1_TMhU6S30H-kA7Qd3GqrUtr?usp=sharing

SSBU Tourney Results (Updated List Explanation)

Just look at the stuff in bold. That's all that really matters.

Newest Change: Adding in my seed going into the tournament.

Explanation of the new list currently entitled "SSBU Tourney Results". (SSBU stands for Super Smash Brothers Ultimate)

Format of each item in list:

The first item: A link to this post.

The second item: A link to a recap of my previous season including all of my placements and such.

The third item: The kind of but not really Official PGR. This is a website our region has been using to keep track of players' rankings within the region. It auto-ranks people based off how well they did in tournaments they have attended and such.

There are debates on how well it does its job. It seems to weigh certain things more than many people in our region would weigh it. I'm under the tag "Theo".

All other items:

Placement (out of number of people), Seed #, Abbreviation of Tournament Name, Money Won.

If clicked upon, they are linked to the tournament's bracket found on smash.gg.

Newest tournaments will now be at the bottom of the list instead of the top.

My seed should help you (and me) see how well I should do vs how well I did. I think it'll help put a lot of things in prospective.

The tournaments taking place, their names, whether they're a weekly/bi-weekly/monthly etc. vary, especially compared to last semester, so I'm not going to try to list all the tournaments and describe them like I did for last semester.