Carefully sorted piles of paperwork lay spread out across the spacious office floor as the Quaestor attempted to find the surface of her overburdened desk which hadn’t been seen in months. Watching from the windowsill behind her desk, a small group of multicolored Voorpaks looked on; chirping and squeaking amongst themselves as they tried to make sense of their Human’s odd behavior.

Suddenly, as Rasilvenaira turned her back to the door of the office, it slid open with a swoosh and two figures sped into the room. The wild, running pace of the footsteps caused the Quaestor to spin around, but not in time to stop the speeding reptile or the child in pursuit of him. Demas tries to slide to a rapid stop as Rasilvenaira yells at him, only to send papers flying in every direction as his long body and tail whip around and many papers end up with claw marks in them. Lightly placing her foot on the lizard’s broad back, she pins him down and gets him to stop moving. Reaching down, Rasilvenaira grabs hold of the squirmy reptile and carries him off to one side, well away from her paperwork.

Turning her attention to the lizard’s accomplice, the Sith’s stern, disapproving gaze melts away at the nine year old’s innocent expression as bright green eyes met her own dark eyes. Looking down to the now scattered papers, the child stepped back, trying not to walk on any papers that weren’t already displaced.

“I’m sorry, Demas didn’t mean to, neither did I.” She looked back up at the Battlemaster, “You’re not mad, are you?”

Rasilvenaira sighs and takes the little girl’s hand, “No, Jasmin, I’m not mad; I can pick them all up again. It’s alright.”

Jasmin brightens and smiles, “You’re not busy are you? ‘Cause you said we could go to the island if you weren’t real busy. Can we go, please?”

Looking back over her shoulder at the enormous amount of paperwork that was now scattered all over her office floor, Rasilvenaira chuckled, and picked the child up. “No, I’m not busy, Jasmin, we can go.” Heading for the door, she glanced over at the reptile, “Come on Demas, you’re going too.”

Greetings all,

House News:

While not specifically House related, Braecen has left CSP to take up his new position as the Consul of Clan Plagueis, so if you see him, congratulate him on his new job, and wish him our best.

We have four fun House competitions going, so make sure you take part. Competition participation is a major source of personal activity, and that is counted towards awards or promos, so not only does participating make your Summit happy, you also have the chance to win shinies for the competitions themselves. So go do them!

In other House news, we have a house wide Runon Competition called Krath’s Tome going, this event is being organized and run by Xathia.

The runon can be found here: http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=4958

I strongly encourage all of you to read over the runon and post, runons are great opportunities to build your cooperative and creative writing skills. Also the top three best posters will be getting shinies.

House Direction:

As this year progresses, I want to see House Caliburnus move towards its true potential. Each day, we strive to improve and grow. However, as a House, that growth is directly tied to the growth and activity of our members. My job as Quaestor is multifaceted, but one key part of that job is providing guidance, direction, and ample opportunities for the members of the House to grow and develop within their roles in the Brotherhood, House, and Clan.

It has recently come to my attention that perhaps, I have been somewhat lacking in that. Admittedly my job also encompasses many other things, including projects and issues that the average member doesn’t see as I am the bridge between the House’s members and the Clan’s Summit. However, in order to begin to drive the House forward to face the challenges of the coming year, I will be reevaluating several things. This is your opportunity to truly make your voice heard. As a member of House Caliburnus, I am asking each and every one of you to take a moment and tell me what you want to see, what you think the House needs, things you think need improved, anything. I have always kept an open door policy, but this is even more so the Quaestor’s open office. If you have been thinking about something that may benefit the House and your fellow members in any way, send it to me. I’ll be reviewing everything I get from all of you, and then we’ll get to work on making Caliburnus the best House in the Clan, and the Brotherhood.

House Plans:

The major project in the works is our House Facilities project. This huge project involves the detailed description and mapping of our Planet, House Headquarters, and our other facilities such as Dynasty Station and the Alberigo Outpost. I am hoping to have at least a large portion of this project completed by the end of January. My gratitude to those dedicated members assisting me with this massive undertaking.

Once our Facilities document is complete and our Dominion Document is polished up, I will be adding them to our House website which will also receive a major overhaul and some serious and needed updating.

We will also be doing some major updating and editing of our House related wiki pages, adding some pages, rewriting some others, so that all of the wiki pages are as current and correct as possible.

Also keep an eye out for more competitions coming your way.

Featured Competitions:

Krath’s Tome:

http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=4958

HC Soul of the Warrior

http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/competitions.asp?ID=3220

HC Song Lyrics Challenge

http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/competitions.asp?ID=3219

http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5015

HC Star Wars Movie Quote Quiz 2:

http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/competitions.asp?ID=3218

http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5016

Closing Thoughts:

Every day we face many challenges, and how we meet those challenges often will affect on who we are and who we become. Remember that when obstacles arrive to block your path, meet them head on with everything you’ve got. Do that and you’ll over come them, but if you avoid them or sit and cry that they shouldn’t be there, you are robbing yourself of a valuable lesson and will not achieve your goals. No matter how carefully we plan, no matter how hard we try, something will always come up. Another challenge will always follow.

Seek out the challenges that affect you, and then focus on being able to work through them and before long the challenges that used to frighten you will vanish into nothing.

“Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.” ~ Pamela Vaull Starr

“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing” ~ Theodore Roosevelt