Valkyrie's Page of Wonder

May 24, 2006

Fallen Angel - Fated Meetings

Alone in a crowded room, a student sits at his desk in one of the classrooms of the Temple to the Goddess Bast. Despite the fact that this was only his first week at this school, he felt as if no one knew him, nor cared to know him. Dressed in the uniform of a student, which consisted of dark slacks and a white collared shirt, he listens to the teacher’s instruction. Most of what he was hearing he had heard before today, either from his parents, who were a priest and priestess at another Temple of Bast or from the teacher earlier this week. It was almost as if she taught the same thing all week long.
“Repetition must be her way of teaching,” the student thinks to himself.
He looks around the room from his vantage point near the back of the room and notices several other students are also bored of the same old lessons. His mind wanders back to his childhood and the tricks he played on his friends when he learned to use magic for the first time. When his parents caught him they immediately entered him into a school for the magically gifted. School then was easy. It was simply learning when and when not to use magic. There were many more times to not use it than there were to use it.
After the teacher finishes and class is dismissed, he stands to go back to his dorm to study until his next class starts. As he gathers his things from his desk, however, a young woman walks over and extends her hand.
“Hello, my name is Sarah,” she says, smiling. “I noticed you earlier this week, but I was too shy to say anything.”
“That’s ok, I wasn’t expecting anyone to talk to me anyway,” the man replies. “My name is Xannon.”
“That’s a very cool name, Xannon. It’s one I don’t think I’ve heard before.”
“Me either,” Xannon replies, “but honestly, I’d rather have a normal name. It draws less attention.”
“Like my name?” Sarah asks, looking ruffled.
“I didn’t mean it like that. I like your name. It’s still different. But there are times when I’d rather be called Jason, Chris, or even Matthew.”
By this time, the rest of the students had filed out of the classroom leaving Sarah and Xannon the only students left. The teacher had erased the chalkboard and was gathering her things. She looks up and notices the two still there.
“Another class will be starting here shortly. Don’t stay too long,” the teacher says.
“We know, Mrs. White,” Sarah replies. “We’ll be out of here soon.”
Sarah turns back to Xannon and watches him for a second, deciding whether to ask him something or not. Xannon notices this and points to the door.
“Would you like to go outside? It’s a nice day and we could talk about school or something.”
“Or something sounds nice,” Sarah replies.

The late morning sun shines brightly as Xannon and Sarah walk across the field behind the temple. The field is where the students practice their physical skills by training with weapons or by playing sports. The field is mostly vacant save for a few sparring students who attack each other with wooden practice swords. The banging sound caused by the wood colliding is lost on Xannon and Sarah. They simply stroll past them toward the far edge of the field where the thick forest begins.
The Goddess Bast, being the Goddess of Creation, likes her temples to be full of living things from nature. Especially cats, several felines can be seen waltzing around the temple grounds wherever students go.
“What made you decide to join the temple of Bast?” Xannon asks after several moments of silence.
Sarah pauses in her walk and looks toward the sky. Xannon stops as well and turns to look at her. There was something about her that he liked. He couldn’t place it now, nor did he ever think he could, but he was willing to stay with her until he found out what it was. As she slowly brings her head back down to look at him he feels lost in her eyes.
“I felt a calling to come here,” she finally answers. “And, when I arrived, I felt a need to find someone.”
“How will you know when you’ve found him?” Xannon asks. “And, what will you do after that?”
“I suppose I’d just know. After that, I don’t know.”
“Perhaps I can help you with that.”
“How do you propose to do that?”
Xannon shrugs. He didn’t know how he was going to do that. The only reason he had come to this temple was because of his parents. Even though he enjoyed everything they had taught him when he was younger, there was something about the Temple of Bast that never sat quite right with him. After he arrived at the school, the feeling faded. Despite the wealth of knowledge he could learn here at the school, he had once considered leaving and trying to learn on his own, but he didn’t know enough yet to try and teach himself and he didn’t know of any other priests or priestesses that would teach someone who wasn’t a student of a temple.
“I think I’ll start by being a friend,” Xannon finally replies.
He takes a step back and bows.
“Good morning, young lady,” Xannon says, acting as if meeting her for the first time. “I am Xannon Okunen, I am a student here at this temple. Would you care to join me for lunch in the cafeteria?”
Sarah smiles and joins the charade.
“And good morning to you, Xannon. I am Sarah Redding. I too am a student here and would love to join you for lunch.”
She offers her hand and Xannon carefully takes it. Turning back to the temple, they head for the cafeteria.

May 22, 2006

Talk about Yesterday's News

From 'tribute' to disgrace 040906 - The Augusta Chronicle

This was quite the interesting article and only shows me how stupid government officals can be. How can you rationalize demanding someone to play for free at a concert that is in their honor? This article reeks of all the stupid crap that Charles Walker Jr. has done to screw up the Memorial Day Weekend tribute to Augusta Legend, James Brown. I just can't believe he was allowed in office....

The funny part about this article and about why i'm so late in learning about this(article is dated April, 9, 2006) is that I saw it when I was about to clean up the ferrets' litter box. The title caught my attention so I went ahead and read the article while the ferrets sniffed and climbed over my arms and legs. And yes, I did have to throw away the article afterwards cause one of the ferrets had pooped and peed on it, missing the litter box.

And for those who don't understand the pun, Yesterday's News is a Cat/Small Animal litter that is made out of recycled newspaper. Get it? Ha ha....anyway...

May 20, 2006

Finally fixed that bar....

Since I decided to start posting things to my blog again, I decided I should actually fix the issue on the individual entry pages where the nav bar is messed up where you cant see the nav or really the date either.
After much poking and prodding and asking my brother, John, for help, I manage to make it readable. I'll work on making it look better and more like what I want on some other day. I would prefer it to look more like the main page, like John has, but that requires work and work is something I currently have plenty of.
Speaking of work, it seems to be going pretty well. I have lots of things to do, which usually translates into money. Another county has decided that they want a spiffy website from us. And they want several of the optional features that are currently, non-existant. Which of course means I will have to create them. I havent seen the list of the ones they want, but hopefully they will be relatively simple and I can knock them out pretty quick. But we'll see...

May 19, 2006

Music I like

Ugress

This musical group is very different in their style from stuff I normally listen to (rock and alternative) but they do have a sound that i like. They seem to be mostly resamplings of old sound clips combined with techno type/electronica music. Very interesting stuff. The best part is that most of their music is free in some form or fasion. If not in high quality, full length, then at least decent quality, full length.
They even started a record lable and got another group off the ground called Shadow of the Beat. They are somewhat similar but have a different feel to them. Either way I like them both. The two I like the most from Shadow of the Beat is "My When Clones I Am Out Many" (I think its funny sounding because of the grammar of scandanvia, which is where these two bands are based out of) and "Sahara 7". Running a close 3rd is "Another Sin" which is a remix of "It's a Sin" by the Pet Shop Boys.
All these songs you can download free from their website(at least the last time i checked). You should check them out. Maybe they have something you'll like.

May 18, 2006

New House!!

Haager.net Photo Gallery :: New House

We've Moved!!

Granted we actually moved in several weeks ago, but i'm only just now posting about it. I've linked to the photo gallery so that you can check out the pictures of the new house.
It was quite the ordeal trying to get the seller to do all the stuff he was supposed to do. We didnt get the new stove until after closing. Didnt get all the painting done till after closing. Didnt get the new ceiling fan repaired until after closing. But eventually it all got done and we now moved in and planning a House Warming party, Luau style.
The three plant things (two trees and a juniper-type bush) are gone. Well the bush is gone, the tree things have been cut down to bush size and are currently not growing. If they die, oh well.

Newest Website Work

Sports Medicine Associates of Augusta - Home

This is the newest website i've been working on. It hasnt even been approved but we are moving forward with complete confidence that we will get the contract to redo their website.

Not too much new stuff ColdFusion-wise with this site but it does make some changes to the Staff Management module. It now allows for upload of a picture and another file such as, in this case, a resume, called the Curriculum Vitae.

This wite will also make use of on an Online Payment module and Pre-Registraion Module. The contact form will be beefed up and turned into a customer satisfaction survey. The left nav on this site uses CFIF tags to make the appropriate section always be open as long as the person is in that section.

Even if Sports Medicine decides not to choose us, all we have to do is change the name and sell it to someone else. But thats Jimmy's field. I just do the coding.