Grand Master Report

2005/03/11, 12:56 AM, Grand Master - The Council

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_The Eleventh of March in the Year of Darkness,

Two-Thousand and Five  

**Report Thirteen**_

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[- Knock, Knock, Knockin on Jac's Door -](#1)  

[- Situational Commentary -](#2)  

[-  Dark Voice Submission Deadline -](#3)  

[- Covenant Update -](#4)  

[- Internal Reports -](#5)  

[- Republic Commando - A Jac Review -](#8)  

[- Episode III Trailer -](#9)  

[- Rebirth Update -](#10)  

[- KRoS Seals -](#11)  

[- Jac's Royal Guard -](#12)  

[- Big Props -](#Props)  




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"If God brings you to it, God will bring you through it." </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" bgcolor="#333333" align="center" style="border-left-width: 1; border-right-width: 1; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1; border-bottom-width: 1" bordercolor="#333333" colspan="2" height="20"> <>- Knock, Knock, Knockin on Jac's Door -</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" align="center" style="border-left-width: 1; border-right-width: 1; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1; border-bottom-width: 1" bordercolor="#333333" colspan="2" height="5"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" align="center" style="border-left-width: 1; border-right-width: 1; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1; border-bottom-width: 1" bordercolor="#333333" colspan="2" height="340">

I don't even know where to start this time in talking about RL. These last 
two weeks have been pretty fucking rough. Pardon the English, but there's no 
other way to say it.  



I wanted to take a quick moment to say thanks to everyone on condolences 
sent about my Grandpa passing. It was a hard weekend and it helped to know 
that I have friends looking out for me.  



It feels like every other week I am in this same spot -- RL gets terrible, I 
have to go away for the weekend, and then I spend the next 3 days catching 
up. I'm very tired of it. I would kill for a month or two of consistency in 
my life. In that sense, I am almost relieved that the funeral is over. I was 
to the point where I didn't want to answer my parent's phone calls because 
of oncoming bad news.  



But it's hard after you lose someone not to think of your own life and how 
you should change the way you are living. I think that the greatest thing 
about my Grandpa, and we said it at the service, was that in life he did 
everything that he wanted to. The man had no unfinished business. He married 
a great woman, had a family, educated his children, got his own doctorate, 
wrote a few books, worked on important projects (lunar module, F16 -- stuff 
I can hardly fathom) -- the man did it all. I look at that, and rehash the 
advice he's given me over the years and wonder if I can ever hold a candle 
to the things he did.  



I mean, hell, I can't even do my homework on a consistent and thorough 
basis. I'm supposed to be working on a research outline for an upcoming 
paper right now...instead I am writing a report for the DB. Interesting my 
priorities are.  



I think I'm just depressed these past weeks and in need of some RL 
motivation. Spring Break can't come fast enough.

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When I graduated High School, I was given a chance to speak at my class 
Baccalaureate ceremony. I wrote this awesome speech that I based of none 
other than a chain-email I got. It was a poem about life. In it, a man was 
at the funeral of a friend and the pastor said that the man lived in the 
years 1912 dash 1999. The pastor said that the most important part of that 
was the dash. The dash represented everything from birth until death. The 
pastor said the man had a good dash, and had used his time on earth for 
things that would be remembered. It didn't matter what kind of car he drove 
or how much money he had -- but the things that he did with that dash are 
what truly made a difference.  



I think too often we think about &quot;I&quot; and &quot;Me&quot; around here. We seek reward 
and recognition, to further our characters. But in the end -- most of it 
doesn't matter. What should matter is our dash. The impact we have on the 
club and on others. The projects we complete -- the structures we change -- 
they impact a future generation. The competitions and who won them matter 
less than the interaction between people.  



I personally take reward in the things that we change around here for the 
better. As we work, I feel that we are contributing to the life of the club. 
The better we do, the longer we will last. I am not interested in Jac 
Cotelin. I am interested in what I do during my time here that makes a 
lasting contribution.  



When you get to the levels of leadership in this club, it is your duty and 
responsibility to start thinking about your dash. No one is going to care 
that you received a certain medal in two years, but they will remember when 
you lead a house back from the dead, reform a defunct system or put in place 
a widely-used practice. Most importantly, we should all aspire to someday 
have people look back on old times and miss us with a remark of &quot;that was a 
damn fine member, and a good person.&quot;  



Here's the last few lines of that poem:  



So think about this long and hard...  

Are there things you'd like to change?   

For you never know how much time is left,   

That can still be rearranged.  

If we could just slow down enough  

To consider what's true and real,  

And always try to understand  

The way other people feel.  



And be less quick to anger,  

And show appreciation more  

And love the people in our lives  

Like we've never loved before.  

If we treat each other with respect,  

And more often wear a smile...  

Remembering that this special dash   

Might only last a little while.  



So when your eulogy's being read  

With your life's actions to rehash...  

Would you be proud of the things they say   

About how you spent your dash?

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<>- Dark Voice Submission Deadline -</td>

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Because of my weekend gone I was not able to alert everyone again to the DV 
submission deadline. It was supposed to be on the 9th. I'm going to extend 
it to Saturday at 3:00 PM EST, one hour after the meeting is over.  



Please send all submissions to dvstaff [at] darkjedibrotherhood dotcom

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<>- Covenant Update -</td>

I have put in a lot of hours on the Covenant, going through a lot of 
suggestions and making a ton of changes. I have decided to make a big 
paradigm shift in things by weaving the decree system into the Covenant. In 
this, the HTML version of the Cov will have its pertinent sections link 
directly to the relative policies and decrees that deal with that section. I 
think it will be a good way to organize things and force the Covenant to be 
a good starting point for looking up policy.  



I am going to be having my staff help me with compiling the policies we need 
to fill in the blanks and setting up the initial release version. Only a 
couple more weeks, hopefully.<korras><jasru><korras><jasru>  

</jasru></korras></jasru></korras>

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<>- Internal Reports -</td>

I announced to the Dark Council members and Consuls that I will be 
collecting internal reports from them more frequently. I have always liked 
getting those reports from the offices with a regular dose of personal info. 
It helps me keep in touch with the peeps that I don't catch on IRC (or, more 
likely, vise versa).  



I was originally going to get them every two weeks, but I think three weeks 
would be better. I am going to be using the info I go from the IRs to make a 
new project list and a calendar. Should be quite helpful.

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<>- Republic Commando - A Jac Review -</td>

So I bought RC. Forked out the fifty bucks that I do every time LA comes out 
with a new game. They have me roped in too easily these days.  



I must say that the Single Player is a blast. I would change a few things in 
hindsight, but I have found it to be fun. The scripted action areas are just 
awesome. You actually have to plan your attack so you don't get raped by the 
enemy. Some of the heavy droids are really rough to kill, so if you don't 
use your team the right way, it's over for you fast.  



The game itself is really dark -- thee are dead bodies of good guys all over 
the place, junk everywhere, bad guys come out from the weirdest spots. my 
favorite part of the game so far **Spoiler: Highlight the line to read:
<font color="#000000">was when the team is on the ghost shit, following the 
beacon to the republic forces. You repel down into the area where the beacon 
is coming from -- it's all dark. You turn on your lights and are surrounded 
by dead clone soldiers. </font>** It was awesome. My only complaint is that 
the game is a little repetitive, and the AI isn't too smart (aka, the guys 
jump from the same spot right into my waiting write-blade)  



The MP side was a disappointment at first, but as I played it more, I really 
started to like it. The pace of it is very fast, and it's hard sometimes to 
get good kills, but once you learn the maps and find the right weapons it 
can be very fun. I joined this one server and within 5 minutes had 20 kills 
while the other guys all had no more than 10. So -- I like team deathmatch. 
I haven't played assault yet...ctf is ok. If you work as a team, you can 
dominate. REALLY need the Teamspeak server though.  



All in all, I think it's a good game. I don't know how popular it will be or 
for how long, but I am a fan. Much better than BF.

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<>- Episode III Trailer -</td>

I watched the entire episode of The OC tonight just to see the trailer. It 
was worth sitting through the damn show just to see it. From what I could 
tell, Lucas is going to deliver on the darker film promise. It looks f'in 
awesome.  



I think Kaine is going to post about it, and maybe get a link up tomorrow.  



My favorite notes (SPOILER KINDA -- Highlight to read):  



<font color="#000000">- Yoda fights the emperor in the senate chambers -- 
the scene shown in the trailer has the emperor using the force to throw the 
floating seat things (huge round disks) at Yoda.  



- Mace Windu tells Palpatine that he's under arrest. Palpatine: &quot;Are you 
threatening me, Master Jedi?&quot; /whip out lightsaber, kill (maybe?) 4 Jedi 
Master.  



- The image of Obi Wan telling Anakin &quot;You were the chosen one!&quot; has not 
left my head  



- Those were some nice twi-lek titties.</font>

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<>- Rebirth Update -</td>

We've made a ton of progress on the website in the past two weeks...well, 
last week we made enough progress to last for two weeks. hehe.  



I finished the template design and formatting. I rebuilt the flash and the 
background images. The whole site looks pretty damn good, I have to say. 
It's not a tremendous improvement, visually, but I think that it's a lot 
more usable and a lot more conducive to expansion. I have to do some more 
work on the side areas of the site and the tabs, but the layout is 
graphically done.  



Jam3z has been working on the messaging system for the site. I'm not sure 
how far he is now, but last I heard he was making good strides toward a 
working version.  



CG has been working on the roster maintenance system. His latest was the 
tool that Consuls can use to move people around within the house/clan and to 
appoint/remove leaders. It will be a nice addition to the site.  



I'll have more next week.

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<>- KRoS Seals -</td>

Sorry for the delay in this. I told Alanna to send me the list of seals 
because I could get them into the database fast. Then my life blew up. :)  



I'll have them in the site tomorrow.

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<>- Jac's Royal Guard -</td>

After going through the guard applications and talking with Jasru about how 
many members we want, I have decided to keep my Guard at 3 people. The three 
that I have are Jasru, Pyralis, and Duga.  



I really appreciate all of the interest in serving with me. I will one day 
open it up for a fourth, but for now I am happy here. Remember, there are 
plenty more DC members to get with!

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<>- Big Props -</td>

- Thanks for the kind words, all -  

- YAAAAAY Kir! You got DA! -   

- Congrats to Zekk on the GC! -   

- W00t Goat got a GC! -  

- Yay for Korras and his GC! -  

- OMG another GC! Gooo Muz! -  

- Yay on the GC, Nekura! -  

- Woohoo! Gryff got Exarch -  

- Big Props to Tarax on getting a lightsaber! -

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