Grand Master Report

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Grand Master Report

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September 20, 2006: Report Thirty-Two </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" colspan="2" height="5"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="50%" valign="top"> <center>

- The Jim Report -

- The Word -

- The Final Amalgamation -

- The GJW Rewards and Epilogue -

- The Death of Most Blogs - </center></td> <td valign="top"> <center>

- The New Dossier Coding Progress -

- The Alacrity Progress -

- The Codex Re-write -

- The JRDC Results -

- The Props -

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--> <tr> <td width="100%" colspan="2" height="20"> <><li>The Jim Report</li></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1;" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" height="5">

Well well well. It's been a while. I've been delinquent on my reporting, which is too bad, cause I generally like doing these things....well, after they are done. :)

What can I say? Life is life. I'm back in school now. I have been for four weeks. It's a bit more difficult this semester trying to juggle school as well as about 20 hours of work, but I'm managing. Just less sleep for the Jac. I get most of my free time during the week really. I've taken to reading on the weekends and then doing DB stuff after class when the wife's not home. Works out well.

Buckeyes and Bengals rock. National Championship and Super Bowl this year for my teams. You better be rooting.

Not much else is going on. I am tired as a mofo; I stayed up until 5 am last night finishing a paper. I, of course, procrastinated last night by doing some DB stuff...but, whatever. I got it turned in and it was good. Aiming for a 3.7 this semester. If I do that for my last two semesters I will graduate Cum Laude. Sweet.

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--> <tr> <td width="100%" colspan="2" height="20"> <><li>The Word</li></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1;" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" height="5">

Speaking of graduation, that brings us to today's word:

Cultivation.

I've stressed for a very long time the importance of training and passing on what we know to the people below us (assuming they can learn). It's a solution to one of the deepest problems in the Brotherhood right now: lost knowledge and training (sweet skills). Over time, the DB gains a lot of new members. In fact, we're averaging about four new members per day (sweet members). Eventually, the club needs for these new members to become knowledgeable in how to run our houses and clans; they will eventually take our place (sweet replacements). The cultivation of new members is what keeps the club alive (sweet sweet life).

Over the past couple years we've tried very hard to increase the amount of training that goes into new members (do this or die!). If you go back to a snapshot of the Shadow Academy at the split, for instance, it would pale in comparison to what we have today (yay HMs!). The Envoys, the coursework, the easy layout, and the constant work for improvement make the Shadow Academy a tool that is actually useful to members (gasp). It's a great help in cultivating our future.

There are some areas where we still are lacking though. One area that I've personally been working on for a long time is the Alacrity (leadership manuals for the anti-pyralisizers out there). The documents in that system are meant to fully describe the things that us experienced folk (old foggies) have learned over time through trial and error. As discussed below, I've put a renewed effort into getting those done. I put together a staff and now we have another four almost ready to go (Yaaaaaay! Jac's Getting stuff off the to-do list!).

But that's not enough. (damnit, I knew there was a catch). We all need to be mindful of cultivating leaders for the future. It really needs to be a top priority for clans as they plan for the future (you mean we need leaders?) From GM on down, it's imperative that we take the time necessary to help those below us learn from our experience. I need to take time to help the DC members and Consuls with their jobs, Consuls need to impart wisdom onto their junior leaders, junior leaders need to help prop up the new members, and all members alike need to think back to what it felt like when you were new (oh so long ago). Recall that when you were new, it didn't quite help so much when people just told you what to do, but rather, you learned the most when they told you how to do it and why do it. Just like I take for granted sometimes that my leaders have not all been here for 10 years, everyone needs to be conscious that the uncultivated members don't even know the things that you take for granted (like Goat).

What's my point? Well, it's a challenge really: if you are an older member and haven't done so yet, it's time for you to take someone under your wing. Always look for ways to help the new members, green leaders and even the experienced leaders. No more of this "Hey you're appointed, no figure out what you need to do on you r own" crap. We all need to work to make sure the people in the right places have the right information to do their jobs.

Eventually, cultivation of our members will pay dividends.

And that's the word.

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--> <tr> <td width="100%" colspan="2" height="20"> <><li>The Final Amalgamation</li></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1;" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" height="5">

If you think back to about nine months ago, you'll remember a little project called Amalgamation. The whole premise of the project was to refine the Dark Council to make it more efficient and manageable. Well, today I end the project officially.

If you recall, one of the main things that we did with Amalgamation is we got rid of the "project/person DC positions." Those are the positions that are specifically made for one person, or one project. We have had lots of them over time, from LM to OCL to LA to LH...they were good positions, but they weren't what you would consider to necessarily be full-time, voting DC members. The Tribune posts have taken the place of these roles.

LH was the only position that was left after Amalgamation that fit this classification; a position solely made for working on the RPG. We said in the Amalgamation document that LH would probably go eventually. In truth, the reason that it didn't go then was because I was too much of a pussy to kill off the position while Kaiann was still in it. Well now Kaiann's gone, and likewise, so is the Lord Hegemon position. Sorry Pikachu.

I've already addressed with a lot of you what will happen with the RPG, since that was a prevalent question when Kaiann left the DC. As of right now, we are putting production of the RPG on hold until we get a few more priorities completed. The RPG will then undergo an evaluation of its current progress and we will move from there. I imagine that we will eventually have an RPG Tribune, or someone attached to the fiction staff to handle it. That is down the road though. For now, we need a break from it.

So with that, the Dark Council has gone from 20 members (including consuls) to 12 members. It's a much more manageable group that is streamlined to their particular offices. All in all, I think Amalgamation has worked per our DC goals. So...yay!

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--> <tr> <td width="100%" colspan="2" height="20"> <><li>The GJW Rewards and Epilogue</li></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1;" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" height="5">

All else fails, the GJW awards will be released approximately this time next week. We are currently having a DC debate (which you should all know about through your Consuls) about where we move from here on with the DB fleet. I am pleased with the discussion so far -- it will be a good starting point for developing DB military standards for the future.

Once the fleets are awarded, I will be releasing the final epilogue of the GJW. I already have most of it done -- it's basically a narration of what happened at the end of the war and where the DB moves immediately after. With that, GJW6 will finally be finished.

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--> <tr> <td width="100%" colspan="2" height="20"> <><li>The Death of Most Blogs</li></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1;" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" height="5">

Quick note on the blogs: I've removed about half of them. They were a good experiment, but for some people, they were just too hard to keep up with. The ones that remain are the ones that have been active for a while and have stayed active.

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--> <tr> <td width="100%" colspan="2" height="20"> <><li>The New Dossier Coding Progress</li></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1;" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" height="5">

I'm not sure how much this has found its way down the grapevine, but I'm working on a re-code of the dossiers. Really, it's a recode of a lot of different functions on the site, but the dossier is the actual facelift. I plan on this being the first of the new site improvements to actually go live in a full version. I'm about 85% finished right now after spending probably 150 hours on it all (7 scripts total). I have some time to devote to it today and Saturday, and then next week. I'm really hoping to get this out the door soon so I can move on to other things.

I think you'll be impressed. They are a little slower to load due to the vast amount of information on one page, but I'm tweaking that. I'm also making a dossier summary script that will be a fast version of the main one. All in all, I like the changes and I hope you will to.

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--> <tr> <td width="100%" colspan="2" height="20"> <><li>The Alacrity Progress</li></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1;" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" height="5">

Lots and lots of progress on the Alacrity this month. I have four people on staff working on them currently: Troutrooper, Erinyes, Duga and Halc. Always looking for more if you think you can put up with writing an extremely detailed training manual.

Up and coming we have Unit Evaluations, Self Evaluations, Competitions, Report Writing, Email habits, and a few more just making it into the start stages. Much more progress than when it was just Pyr and I working on the, I'm still impressed with the quality too -- the staff is doing well.

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--> <tr> <td width="100%" colspan="2" height="20"> <><li>The Codex Re-write</li></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1;" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" height="5">

Goat, Troutrooper and I have been working for the last 2 months on a complete re-write of the Codex. I just sent Goat my final comments yesterday and now all we need to do is get a nice layout for it. Then we can replace the old DSC rip-off.

This new Codex will take the form that the Codex was intended to take: DB for Dummies. It's a pretty simple breakdown of the club that a new member can understand. We're going to need to rely on other sources, like the DSC and Wiki, for more in-depth analysis. Look for this soon.

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--> <tr> <td width="100%" colspan="2" height="20"> <><li>The JRDC Results</li></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%" style="border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1;" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" height="5">

Yaaaay! JRDC!!! Dee Dee DEEEEE!

The correct answer was: after I GREEN LASER poop, I drag my butt on the ground to wipe. Grats out to the people who guess the right option:

  • freshjive taldrya

  • Malik Sadow

  • Welshman Corsair Tarentae

  • Saitou

  • Bane

Also, wiii to the following correct answers:

  • Most Fastest Answer: Ricco Vao - "wies his green laser poop on Vardar"

  • Most Dumbdested Answer: Chaosrain - "He deegs f0r teh Biily! Because eberybody no's Billiyss can't breeth poop, or laser and is illergick 2 grean. But he reberries teh Billy because he has 6 fingers! Teh Jac hates freaks that can't laser greans. Laser greans BLOW UP placeseses win vinigir is poot on dim. SPLOSION!And din da laser greans eat billy because billyss are da laser greans favoristst fewds!"

  • Most Bestest Answer: 3308: Xu Long - "Well, it depends on the true nature of the Green Laser poop. We cannot determine the nature of the Green Laser poop merely from observing it. Instead, we must seek out it's essence by becoming one with it. We must feel the full power of the Green Laser poop flowing through us - like when my essence flows through Halc. Only once we have truly ascertained the ideal of the Green Laser poop can we understand the Jac's thinking. Consider the greenness of the poop. It is a wholesome Green; not too yellowy and not too blueish. It is somewhere between that nice neon Green that announces its presence and that commanding naval blue that asserts power. The Green color tells us that the poop is of an aristocratic nature - and we can confirm that by the fact that it came from the Jac. But what of the laserness? Truly, the laserness of the poop of from where it derives its greatness. The individual photons of the laser manifest the power, while the color merely represents it. Thus, the perfect marriage of the greenness and the laserness meshes into the ultimate expression of Jac's utter domination of Green Laser poop. We must meditate on the meaning of this ownage. After careful consideration of the Green Laser poop's ownage, we can assert that Jac would do only one thing after Green Laser pooing on people: he would promote Kaek. You may doubt the veracity of that statement now: but then you must carefully meditate on the Green Laser poop first. Only then will you see the true light. Either that or you can just take my word for it :P"

  • Most WTFest Answer: Betja Jun - "Jac scream at the top of his voice "this is my green lazy poopy and that is because I am king of laser poopy and if you dont like it I shall breed your mother with a dog and then when yo momma has little man puppies I shall spray them deglow green and then feed them worms and chicken (cos chicken is nice) and then they will have diarrhoea all over your house and you'll be like I complained about JAc's green laser poopy but its nothing compared to the green man puppies laser poopy from the depths of my mother's own womb so like JAc's laser poopy must be good, thank you lord for the green laser poopy, thanks thank you lord thankyou and you will return to JAc and beg to bathe in a bath or goats milk and green laser poop from JAc! and just for doubting JAc I will eat you."

Congrats to the winners! New JRDC will be out in a day or two...or maybe earlier, who knows. Yaaaay!

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BIG PROPS

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<center>- Props to Spears for always being right. -

  • Wiiiii to everyone who played the JRDC! -

  • Mad Props to TT and Erinyes for taking the Alacrity down like it's their job -

  • Big thanks to BF for his constant ideas and useful comments -

  • Yay for Strat who finally made it to Consul! -

  • Props to all the clans on the GJW -

  • Woohoo to all the people using the Wiki! -

  • Congrats to Xen'Mordin Vismorsus on the GC -

  • Props to Kaek for MAA reform progress -

  • Yay to Shin for taking initiative on he-knows-what -

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Spears sucks :P

.>

wow... Those were some dumb answers

Yes I am always right.

Second it is really more of a licking then a sucking.

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