Well then.

50% of the kids couldn't find the many of the answers, even though they only had one chapter to read. the other 45% didnt know how to rewrite the answers in their own words. only 5% finished the assignment properly. they asked me repeatedly if they could ask chatgbt. almost all of their handwriting was on 1-4th grade levels. i struggled to read most of it.

As a former music teacher, I can also say that "learn the fundamentals first" is the death knell for a vast percentage of beginners, especially adult learners.

I've run into this with drawing several times, where some well-meaning artist has lectured me on needing to study anatomy properly or not use shortcuts like CSP brushes. And oh, believe me, I know. I know exactly how to learn an artistic discipline in a structured way. I just...don't want to!

The thing is, I'm not aiming to be a professional artist. I want to draw my gay little anime guys. I would undoubtedly improve at art much faster if I approached every gay little anime guy drawing as a study exercise. But I would also have quit drawing a decade ago if I couldn't just let myself enjoy drawing imperfect fucked-up little guys with whatever shortcuts I needed to body myself across the finish line.

With my adult piano students, my approach was always "What's your goal?" If their goal was to learn exactly one Elton John songbook to play at parties, then...that's what we did. We'd put tape on the keys to label the notes, and just fuckin go for it. Learning exactly one Elton John songbook is a good and noble musical goal, full stop.

Some of my students needed and enjoyed a more structured approach to learning; if they wanted to be able to play classical music, then yes, scales were going to have to enter the equation at some point. And yet others would learn the Elton John songbook, catch their white whale, and realize they wanted to explore more of the ocean. The scales were still there for them to learn!

Often the choice isn't between "learn art well" and "learn art imperfectly" - the choice is between "learn art imperfectly" and "don't do art at all." To which I say, learn imperfectly! Or, what the hell, don't 'learn' art. Just do, and enjoy the doing of it.

There's something so Beautiful in how fucking Weird it is. We've spent over 2000 pages by now with present/adult Dalinar who has clearly had more than one good fucking think on who he used to be and who he Wants to be (which we also know is controversial because Sadeas et al. keeps mocking him for turning soft, but we can clearly tell from how Dalinar talks about his past self that he was less than proud of that shit in hindsight) and honestly, even If you know that Oathbringer is Dalinar's backstory book

Holy shit that first chapter is Perfection. It's so creepy. It's so Weird. It feels weird. It feels Wrong. And it's amazing.

Like this is without a doubt the most straight up bloodthirsty we've seen Anyone in the series act as far as I can remember, because a lot of Stormlight characters, even when they're doing A Fuckton of Murder are at best either regretting it but doing it anyways because they have to or justified by the ends to their means, but flashback Dalinar is just here to kill and have a good time, and having a good time for him Is killing

It's fucking Brutal. He's overly violent for the sake of it, he's making damn sure to kill Everyone even if they're fleeing or have given up or are literally begging him for mercy. He doesn't even care about the fucking politics. As he himself says, Gavilar points, he slaughters.

It's essentially a completely different character, and yet you can still 100% see all the modern Dalinar stuff, the fact that he clearly has a habit of recruiting enemy soldiers he thinks are good is actually SUCH a fantastic piece of information KNOWING that he takes a chance on Kaladin and co just because they're loyal and well-organised and Have Something Guiding them, and even if he's "worse" nowadays, it's not like Dalinar isn't still like. top 3 fighters on every battlefield at Worst.

So it's absolutely Dalinar. And that's why it's so creepy because it Shouldn't be Dalinar. But it is. We know all of this is supposedly true about him and yet when we finally see it is is 100% brutality no bars held from start to finish to the point where it almost feels charicaturized

But it isn't. And that's why it's fucking Great.

Absolutely amazing opening backstory chapter actually

This seems like a good, focused resource for letter-writing!

To all those who have posted a Cosmere fic recently, please be aware that the "I love your work, I'll draw you a comic, just pay me (never makes a comic)" scam bots have travelled from ao3 comments and are now in my DMs, and they might be in yours too.

Do NOT trust them! A legitimate comic artist who is looking for paying work from fans will offer commissions on their own page/site and wait for you to contact them. A legitimate comic artist who is looking for something fun to draw will ask permission to use your work as the base for their art, and won't ask you for money!

Looking up people who have posted on ao3 in the last couple weeks...sorry if I can't remember or couldn't find your tumblr on your ao3 profile. @channelingstormlight, @cuubism, @sonzorya, @arborplasm, @fairyplam, @rhythm-of-lesbianism, @akorah, @blindradiant, @chaos-monkeyy, @isdalinarhot, @natequarter, @calcifur96, @jennydolfen, @kelsierspedicure

I've gotten multiple comments at different times on recent fics lately that always include:

1. An AI-generated summary of "favourite parts" taken from the fic (and once, the comment was the actual generic prompt pasted in, not even the fake comment)

2. Something to the effect of "I'm an artist / I create comics and the way you have written [X] works well for me. I think your work would make a great comic / artwork."