Heirs of the Magi News Flash!

***Heirs of the Magi News Flash!*** Winter has, for the most part, been mild so far - or awesome for the month that Cassie and Michael spent in summertime-Australia! They are home now and will be working from home for most of the time until Easter. The hometown work will include getting ready for their next trip, but there will be a lot of fun to get in on and share with their favorite people - including their March Break trip to Florida adventure. All of your favorite Magi Masters will continue to work and play while their future plans unfold; so... ...Visit Witch Falls often to keep up with all of their latest stories; and Happy Reading!

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Cassie's Journal - November 12, 2013



Winter has stopped in to Witch Falls for a visit, but won’t be staying long – this time.

The cold was attention-grabbing this morning; and we barely crawled up above freezing before it got colder again after dark.  Getting this little reminder that the cold and snow isn’t far away is probably good for us; but it was a pain doing the extra running around the house this morning to get winter coats and gear out of the storage room.  I’m going to need to get a new one again this year too, but only because the sleeves on the coat we bought last year are too short on me now.  More shopping is always a good thing, but I’ll be glad when those trips don’t have to be because I’ve outgrown my old clothes – especially since I really don’t like having to stop wearing clothes that I really love.

Moving along, my first blast of cold came while welcoming Michael when he came over for Tai Chi; but then we had fun for a minute while I helped him to warm up again before we went upstairs to the exercise room.  Other than the winter gear hunt, the rest of the morning was fairly uneventful; and there wasn’t much going on at school worth reporting either.  The guys were talking football as usual, and worrying about whether the cold would affect the game on Friday or not.  It’s going to be warmer again by then, but I honestly have no idea why anyone would be worried about the weather with our team this year.  Rain, snow, or cold would just help Kyle force the opposing offense into making even more mistakes than usual.  Sure, our offense would be affected too, but even though that’s the weaker half of our team; they also rarely make huge mistakes.  The bottom line is that the other team ought to be hoping for great weather to have any shot against us at all.

That’s enough football talk.  Though there wasn’t much going on at school today, we had fun; and band practice was especially entertaining for Michael and me because we had some missing saxophone players, so we got to play the first and second parts instead of our usual music.  I’m not going to comment on how we did compared to our older, more experienced band mates; other than to say that Mrs. Robinson seemed to be very happy about the potential for her saxophone section in the future.

The Christmas music combined with the cold weather led to a side-trip chat during band practice about playing outdoors in cold weather.  I hadn’t really thought about that before now, but Michael, Rowen, and I did do some internet window shopping while doing our homework at the computer store; and we’re going to order pairs of the gloves and other gear that Mrs. Robinson and some of the senior students suggested to everyone.  There were some special, cold-weather instrument care tips too; but we don’t need to order in anything special for that.

Tim was glad that he didn’t have to worry about any of that, but he was off his game today – to the point where he didn’t even have a full football practice report for us like he normally did on band practice afternoons.  I wonder why he might have been distracted today?  Not! ;^)

I’m really glad that he so obviously has something important on his mind, but he hasn’t talked about it with Michael yet; so I have no idea where his thoughts about what we talked about – and Rowen – are going.  Hopefully he’s coming around now, but if I don’t hear anything positive before Rowen’s birthday, I may have to seriously think about sticking Tim into a very slow time-phase and leaving him there until he comes to his senses.

He isn’t the only guy in town with issues, and while I get it that experimental gourmet meals aren’t for everyone; Jason isn’t just missing out on Jacob’s amazing dinners.  When we got to his house, Michael and I found out that we were having dinner for four with his parents while Rebecca was out for the evening with Jason, Jenny, and Garth.  Jason might think that hanging out with Rebecca’s younger brother and me is boring too, and he certainly isn’t the only teen in town trying to spend minimal time with parental units, but that just seems strange to me; because I wish that I had more free hours in the week to spend with my family – and Michael’s.  I really wouldn’t want to miss out on the few times we can spend a few hours together – especially when Jacob and Miranda work such long days at the Inn; and don’t have very much free time.

It was really great to have that time with them tonight, and the food was as amazing as always; but I still missed spending some of that time with Rebecca.  That wasn’t only because Michael and I were a clean-up crew of two tonight, though Rebecca was missed there too.  There is never enough alone time with Michael either, but we managed a few entertaining moments between my guitar lesson and the cuddle, chat, and television time with Miranda and Jacob in the living room.

We had a fun evening together, but I was home in time for the bedtime story and snack with Ethan and Ehlana; followed that up with my Magi lesson with Mom; and a little visit with her and Dad in the office before coming up to my room for the night.  I’m doing a stay-at-home night tomorrow, and plan on doing extra family business work; so I stuck to the language and archive studies after climbing into bed with Mandy and put a one-thirty time limit on that before moving on to the rest of my usual nightly computing.  My language studies are now getting easier, and ahead of schedule; so I’ll be able to wrap up this batch of dialects well-ahead of the Christmas break and move on to the next language in January.  My archives assignment tonight was on the dry and dusty side of boring, but I managed to stay awake through fourteen hundred pages or so of rambling theory.

While I’m thinking about that, let’s take a minute to discuss some of the odder things about Magi training.  Yes, we really need to learn all about our gifts and abilities, but sometimes, as with my archive studies tonight, the practical application of those abilities is really useless.  As a simple example, a Magi could use many methods to heat water, but most of those techniques are inconvenient and useless in real life.  There are nearly-endless examples in the archives of admittedly brilliant research that still falls into the category of ‘interesting but useless’.  I’m all for the Magi here in Witch Falls getting into doing research into what they can do with their abilities, but if that does start happening in a big way; I also hope that the pursuit of practical goals is a priority for that research too – like what Mom’s learned to do with computers.

That thought just led to a mental picture of a Magi-powered internet – kind of like telepathy for data; but then I seriously doubt that any Magi would want the job of being the ‘server’ for that kind of network.  Since even Dad and Aunt Leanne haven’t really caught on to Magi computing at the levels Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana, and I can work; it might not even be possible – and the four of us can already do full-sensory telepathy anyway.

The idea of a built-in, mental world wide web is still cool, though!  Think Google Glass to the nth degree – without the need for the glasses, WiFi hotspots, or some cellular link to the internet; and you’re getting close to what I’m imagining.

I wandered a bit off-topic there, but you get the idea of what I mean; and it’s time to wrap this up so I can put my computer away and get some sleep.  There wasn’t anything newsworthy in my email tonight; and I won’t bore you with the daily news, entertainment, or sports events.  There may not be a Magi-powered internet in whenever your ‘now’ is; but I am sure that you’ll have some way to look up that kind of historical information without reading about it in my journals.

Then again, if you’re reading this and thinking that my journals are boring and pointless; take a research side-trip and look up this classic internet expression.  :^P

Yeah, I know; but try to remember that I’m twelve in my current now.  Then again, Aunt Leanne has been known to stick out her tongue at people now and then too; so that’s not just a kid thing.

Anyway, I really am ready for some down time, so that’s it, that’s all, and I’m out of here.

Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!