jafira

I was testing the newsletter feature of my dragonkin forum in order to determine if it had a plain text editor or if I had to create a text in html coding.

In order to test my newsletter I made a corny propaganda flyer.

Considering that my forum is presently dead and that it has been three years or so since I really advertised. I figured that I would crosspost what I wrote on to my LJ. It couldn't hurt to remind people that the site still exists.
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This is just random propaganda and some links that I have written in order to test the newsletter. Dragons Valley has been in existence as of 2007, it has had a long history as the webs premier ghost town ^,=,^ Feel free to visit and take in it's unique features etc, check back and see how things have changed, we miss you!

DV's features presently include:

Forums, (obviously)
A Livechat, (New)
A web directory, (updated)
A FAQ system, (Draconity)
A wiki system, (Whatever you guys want)
an Event Calendar, (Post whatever is going on)
A gallery system available to any member who wants one (Post your dragons)
A journal system, (Blog, whatever)
A member map, (For all your stalking needs)
and a Shoutbox. (For the heck of it)
Couple that useless clutter with fourteen new themes, a large new selection of crazy dragon emotes, and this dangerously untested newsletter system, the possibilities are endless! (Go nuts woo!)

Recent Updates over the past two years include: Livechat, Flashchat, Shoutbox, Member Galleries, Dragon Icons.

Recent Works:

Jafira's Draconity Guide : http://www.dragons-valley.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=16

Jafira's Dracopedia Project : http://www.dragons-valley.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=14

Spike is best pony!

Flammie is best dragon.

Random Youtube Link: http://www.youtube.com/user/LoveDragonsForever

I hope this sent properly, thank you for your patience. Yes, Dragons Valley still exists, come back and visit sometime! ^,=,^

Yo LJ, it's been three years since I have posted anything here! ^,=,^

Not much has happened worth reporting, so meh, no harm done I guess. Still, figure I would post.

What You may have missed:

Jafira's Draconity Guide: http://jafiradragon.com/Otherkin.htm

Jafira's Dragonkin Advice Space : http://jafiradragon.com/Amenu.htm

Jafira's Dracopedia: http://jafiradragon.com/Dracopedia.htm

My Updated Draconity Bio: http://jafiradragon.com/Dragon.htm

Everything that I have ever done (EVER) : http://jafiradragon.com/Jafira_Collective.zip

Updated Pictures of my personal Dragon Shrine: http://jafiradragon.com/Dshrine.htm


That should about cover all that has happened over the past three years that I have been absent. I will probably post excerpts from that guide here in the future, or tell stories of past experiences. I would like to ultilize this journal a bit as I have supposedly matured since the last I used it.

Tags: draconity, dracopedia, dragon, dragon faq, dragonkin, dragons, jafira, otherkin

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Yo, since Dragons Valley originally went down back in September and into October, I somewhat went back into my reclusive ways, and I apologize for that.

Allow me first to explain what caused Dragons Valley to go down, in case anybody may wish for an explaination. Dragons Valley runs off of a database, when using a database alongside advanced web code, there are these things called "Global Registers", they are a bad thing, and most servers and database providers do not even allow them to run.

However, Dragons Valley unbeknowest to me, had several features which were running off this bad "Global Registers" code. Specifically these features were the "Calendar", "Chatroom", and "Member Galleries", as well, two themes "Draconyse" and "Mystery" also had similar weaknesses.

With all of these unrealized vulnerabilities, a hacker was easily able to compromise them, and thus, they took us down. It took me about a month to realize all the problems and remove those components, and I apoligize that it took me that long to do so.

In any case I was obviously forced to remove those features and replace them with better and more secure versions of the same. So there will be some cosmetic differences as a result, but I do hope that the heightened security and more advanced features will serve as a good reward for the patience and loss of that down time. Again, my apoligies I am a novice and am still learning as I go.

Outside of that, as I have strived to rebuild this site, I have grown shy again and have been a bit fearful to show my face, choosing rather to work in the background, in as such, I thank my mods, Jkarrah, Ethelshai, Golder, and Mojo_Lahojo for running the show in my stead, thank you all, you are all a good team and I am glad to have you on my side.

I have recently been active on messengers, speaking with Rossenod and K_duskwing, and I thank you two for your time in such, I am always glad to share my experiences with others and have enjoyed our discussions thus far, I think it is a great process in aiding me to overcome my timidness online and I appreciate it a lot.

Lastly, as always I have been working to remove a great deal of fluff from my homepage, and will continue to do so as I continue my spiritual growth. As a result it has been updated recently, and I am glad to say that I moved some of the more unsubstantiated or fluffy claims to the fiction sections, well striving to better clarify my experiences in the more serious sections.

So yeah, for those who thought that my "Tycosian Language", or "Tycosian Dragons" sections were Fluff, I agree, and they have been moved. As for the claim that I once had three spiritual dragons within me, it has been clarified and explained to the best of my abilities, as well, overall I have strived to take a more serious approach to my spirituality on that site, and I feel that it has, and will continue, to improve immensely compared to the foolishness of years past. Live and learn.

Overall the purpose of this journal update has been to explain what caused the temporary disappearence and resulting improvements of Dragons Valley, to plug my website(s), to thank those who have helped me recently, and to show that I am still alive, just lurking in the shadows.

Thank you for Reading,

~Jafira Dragon

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It seems that it has been three or four months since my last update of this journal and that it is likely time for another entry. For those who may have been interested in my activities over the summer, you did not miss much. As usual, during the summer months my work schedule flipped upside down which meant that instead of working evenings, I worked in the early morning, my insomia did not allow for much sleep, so I often slept during the evenings after work.

At the times when I was not at work or asleep, I spent the majority of my lesiure time researching assorted aspects of paganism and alternative spiritualities. Although I have my own beliefs, I found I knew very little of others, so I sought to learn more of the physical and metaphysical world in which I live in. So yeah, I did a lot of research, listened to podcasts, read books, checked out meetup groups and the like.

Aside from research I mostly just strived to stay cool, as in the deserts of Arizona, the average tempature often reaches about 110 farenheit or above during the summer, and the humidity does not help much at all. Long story short, my sleep and work schedules were terrible and I was hot, but I atleast got some good self education in, during such, as a result the summer was not a total waste.

However in regard to online activity it, (as is tradition for my summer months) was sporadic at best, I accessed the web when I could, but accomplished very little other then ensuring that my sites remained online and free of trolls. So little was done on the Internet. I am proud however to state that I am now back to working nights and have returned to my usuel routine!

As a result I feel much better! I can stay up at night and sleep during the day again! (Squee!! ^,=,^) honestly I just cannot sleep at night, it just does not happen, so I cannot tell you how very little sleep I had the past few months. Thank the heavens that toture has ended.

In anycase, now that I have my nights back and have the alertness and ability to get online for a few hours a night, I should be around on my messengers and assorted dragon communities a bit more, however, due to my well known shyness I would not expect any miracles, but I will atleast be around and available a few hours a night. (or day depending)

My goals for the next few weeks, are to purchase a new vechicle, having lost mine in an accident, get my mate Skyla a good paying job, re-write the fictional biography of my percieved dragon life as the black dragon Korageth, remove my prior writtings from my homepage, add a few short stories of higher quality then those which were removed, and of course I wish to continue to study alternative spiritualities, cultures and beliefs, reconnect with old friends and overall strive to take a more active part online within dragon communities when conditions and time allow.

Other then those goals, not much else remains, I hope to visit Toronto Cananda in order to visit my friend Mojo Lahojo before the years end, however prospects for the trip are alternating, so the best I can do at this point is save money, continue my personal growth and see what happens. I cannot think of much else to mention, this entry was somewhat all over the place, but hey, I only post once or twice every couple of months so I felt it necessary to cover as much as possible.

There is not much else to mention at this point, I just keep living life as it comes, I'll be around more often now that my routine is back. So I'll see ya around, and remember, anyone who ever wish's to chat can feel free to contact me whenever I'm available. Adios.

~ Jafira Dragon

Ever since the brief accounting mishaps that interrupted Dragons Valley the prior week, some online may have noticed that I have been relatively absent from the net, (more so then usual) So I felt that it would be nice to check in and show any who may be concerned that I am well and still alive.

Last week, to be honest I took the brief down time of Dragons Valley very seriously and unnecessarily worked myself into a stressful state, as a result, after DV returned, Skyla and my friends encouraged me to take the weekend off regarding the net and try to relax.

On another note, on Sunday night (the 20th) for an unknown reason, I.E froze on my computer, after pressing Ctrl-alt-del and closing the program, an external harddrive connected to my PC ceased to function. As a consequence I lost six months worth of non-backed up data, which I have been striving to recover, that process has slowed my return slightly.

Lastly, on Wednesday the 22nd a final and devastating catastrophe befell me. It is a little known fact that I love snakes, and presently own a nine foot boa. This Wednesday was an exceptionally hot day which I was unprepared for. My snake (although having sufficient water and methods of cooling itself) deceased while I was at work. Having only had her for a brief period, her sudden and tragic demise hurt me quite a lot.

Many years ago in the past I had "cooked" another snake due to Arizona''''s summer heat and an inadequate cage environment, but that prior snake died from my inexperience and poor planning, this present snake however was in a very well prepared environment which I had felt could compensate for both hot or cold temperatures. So its death came as a terrible shock to me.

The snakes cage was prepared for the desert heat, but tragically not all my cooling mechanisms were active at the time of its death, I had underestimated how hot it would be that particular morning, because just a couple days prior it had been cooler, the death may have been avoidable if I had covered a window or unplugged a light, but terrible mistakes were made and hindsight cannot change history.

Needless to say I failed to protect a companion in my care, and It hurt me to have to bury another friend murdered by my own incompetence, even more so that this was the second time, and having learned from the first I had firmly believed that I had done all things right and was prepared this time. Having learned now from this and the past pain that my ownership has wrought, I see now that Arizona is no place to own a tropical snake, I will not be an accessory in the death of another, nor will I try again in the future. I love snakes to much to have them suffer and die in my care.

In any case, the past week or so has been quite harsh on me, first my personal overreaction to the downtime of Dragons Valley. then to the loss of my harddrive and data, culminating finally in the avoidable loss of a beloved pet and friend. As I have obviously been working through these minor set backs and making corrections where necessary, I have been a bit reclusive so as to maintain my focus, mourn, reflect, and recover. With that said, I should return shortly and trust all will understand.

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To anyone who may frequent the community Dragons Valley, I apologize for any inconvenience, the community has been temporarily deactivated due to an accounting error. According to my records I renewed the site two weeks ago prior to its expiration, however my providers accounting office claims that the money was never recieved, and therefore they have suspended the site. I was not made aware of this action until long into the night, so I am presently unable to act.

Upon waking up in the morning I will immediately check my records to confirm or deny that payment was recieved, make some phone calls and act accodingly, the domain will hopefully be reactivated tomorrow prior to my going to work. However if I am found to be at fault, there may be a slight possiblity that it will remain suspended until Friday, however I intend to avoid such at all cost. Once again, I apologize for any inconvience and assure any and all members or visitors that Dragons Valley will return online shortly.

Other then that, I could go on a long endless rant, but it won't change anything, I won't discuss my personal life as it is presently mundane, highlights being that I am over worked and need more sleep. On a lighter note I can mention that my homepage is nearing completion concerning its reformating, perhaps you can check it out if your bored.

Meh, In anycase, Dragons Valley is very important to me as it shows others that they are not alone, it may have some bugs, but failure is not an option, Dragons Valley Will Return, I won't tolerate anything less, so be patient and rest assured that it's not dead and niether am I.

~Jafira Dragon

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Blargh, I suck at at being an administrator, it is impossible to describe how conflicted Dragons Valley makes me feel at times, on one hand, I strongly desire to help other dragon lovers and dragonkin on the Internet! In a sense, it is my purpose, I need to do my part, to show others they are not alone, and provide all the services that I can to reinforce that truth. On the other hand, I am intensely shy, terrified even, to post or to communicate on the environment of my own design. The pain and anguish that the conflicting desires and weakness's create is at times unbearable. Still, I know there is no excuse for my absence, and I can do little to undo my past failures.

I understand fully that without continued action on my part this community will only stagnate and will not grow, there have been times that I have considered transitioning leadership to others who could administrate more successfully in my stead, but I know so few others online, and many are just as busy with their lives and problems as I am. Know this though! I will not let this community die or fail, I will keep it online active or not, so long as it is a resource for others, it shall remain, I am dedicated to that, the future of this site, as far as I am concerned rests on the overcoming of my own weakness's, so far the past year I have failed, but the war is not yet over, idealistic as always I still have high hopes for this community.

My absence these past weeks have not been entirely due to my weakness's, I have also had family, friends, employment, self education and other hobbies distracting my time, I do have a life surprisingly, but there is only so little time in a day, it can be so frustrating at times. I would like to mention that during the month of November, I spent about four weeks or so, doing some serious self reflection. I thought long and hard about my past, present and future, my flaws and abilities, my spirituality and perceptions, my life and actions, and so on.

I started first with my draconity, working out my beliefs and past perceptions and fact checking it with what I perceived to be true against what I “assumed” to be true, and determined that I had still had some misconceptions in my beliefs that had to be sorted out. I then moved on to ponder and determine the philosophy of my beliefs and came to some reasonable conclusions. The end result of the spiritual musings were a heightened affirmation of my perceived spiritual truth and a heightened sense of confidence that I was no longer lying to myself.

In the process of this phase of self reflection, I took a long look at my homepage, http://www.jafiradragon.com/ and realized how terrible it was. My homepage, originally started in 2002 to tell the story of my draconity, but quickly became a web of lies, I purposely falsified or implied my draconity for fear of what others would think, I lied about my beliefs and hid behind a veil of fantasy and childish content so that no-one would ever know it's true purpose. Creating this community, Dragons Valley exposed my beliefs regardless, but the original self censorship should have never occurred in the first place.

It was not until I sat down about a month ago and actually read my own wittings on my own website that I truly realized how ridiculous my wittings and censorship were. I was literally disgusted at the abomination that I had created, its lies and content were pathetic and I was honestly ashamed. My homepage told nothing of who I am, or what I believe I once was, it was simply a web of increasingly nonsensical lies and stupidity. It literally hurt to read the filth that I had written and endorsed for so many years.

As a result, over the past three weeks, I have rewritten, edited, removed, or fact checked almost every individual page on Jafira's Lair replacing most of the original content with spiritual truth or actual relevance, the site was once meant to be my bible and I failed to use it for it's original purpose, I had to fix the mess that I wrote myself into. As a result my homepage, though still appearing relatively unchanged, has literally been completely reborn when compared to the disgusting abomination that it once was, and I am very proud of it now, I only hope that the six years of self censorship and increasingly generic content has not done too much damage to my creditability.

Some of my more relevant changes on the site would be a complete recreation of my personal Bio, and the addition of my recent writings and history of my perceived draconity, a new explanation of the perceived workings of Tycosian Dragons, an enhanced description of my perceived homeland, improved navigation, removal of some sections, a philosophical essay on my partner Skyla's spirituality, a controversial journal of my past metaphysical experiments, a dracopedia added to the dragon information section, web links cleaned out, art galleries organized, site FAQ edited, and a general improvement of the sites content.

I hope that the site will be a good combination with Dragons Valley, in that Jafira's Lair will now be able to better introduce who I am and my beliefs, and Dragons Valley will continue to allow others to share their own views and perceptions in a peaceful environment. I feel that the two sites will compliment each other well now that I have removed most of the foolishness from my homepage.

Other then the spiritual and philosophical improvements that I made in the past month, I also did self analysis, and have found that it is time for me to confess that I simply cannot commit myself to maintaining this journal, and should not stress over it. Instead, I have vowed that starting in 2009, I will likely update this once to twice a year with important events or improvements, and otherwise will rely on my public journal at Dragons Valley instead. This allows me to forgo the stress of feeling that I am neglecting my Lj, under the grounds that I will now perceive myself to have less obligation to update it.

In any case, consider this affirmation that I am still alive for the time being, I'll add more progress later if all goes well, thank you for your time. That concludes my entry for the time being, more or less wanted to give a public Internet apology for past failings, as well as a public pronouncement of my present quest for improvements.

Hope my Ramblings didn't waste to much of your life!

~Jafira Dragon

I am some steps closer to the completion of my master plan, however it is still at risk of being stopped in it's early stages. I speak of course, of my dragon community Dragons Valley. DV was designed to have features that would be of benefit to a large member populace, future goals including member generated quizzes, newsletters, art and lit. contests, ect, as well as it's true purpose to support those with draconic interest. The site is functioning and is at roughly 85% it's full capablity.

However there were some factors which I forgot to consider in it's construction, the most important being DV's opening and start. I had envisioned that the existing communities would welcome DV as a sister site, and that the advertising would generate a good flow of members, armed with this member base, I would rely on the features and friendly environment to generate further support and growth.

The problem with this however, was that I was being foolish and over idealistic. I being nervous and shy outside of the comfort zone of my own "internet territory" or webspace, have only lurked on other communities and dispite my seven year presence, am completly unknown. It was entirely ignorant of me to imagine that any well established community would be eager to team up with a variable unknown such as I, it puts their reputation at risk, and as well, someone who does not contribute is not worthy of sponsership. As a result of this obvious, yet some how unrecognized fact, DV only gained partnership from a slight few of the existing communities.

I am a smart dragon, I am firm and well adjusted to my draconity, I am open minded, logical, sincere, and consider myself to be well educated. However, dispite years of encouraging proof and evidence for the acceptance and support within other communities, I cannot bring myself to communicate on other sites.

This fear goes back to my upbringing, in which, while attending school as a child I was often criticized for many of my beliefs, views, or actions. Years later I have become a strong individual, however the damage done those many years ago is still psychologically engrained within my mind. If I cannot see the face of those whom I am communicating to, or if I am not in control, I fear that all I say and do is being judged, an irrational fear takes over and I cannot continue.

Communicating is fine on DV because it is my territory, I am in conrol. Right now is a critical time for DV's success, both online and off, I have family members who would like it to fail, and I wish not for them to have justification, that however is irrelevant. Moreso, now is critical because if I fail to overcome it's current stagnation and create conversation and attendance, it will die and all my work will be in vain. By my calculations my welcoming period will be ending very soon, I must spark interest now before it is to late.

This means facing my greatest and admittingly rather pitiful phobia of communicating with others in other dragon communities. Only by introducing myself, participating, providing my viewpoint, and contributing to our society as a whole, will I gain the support and interest necessary to allow for DV's success. My greatest hurtle in this matter is that I am unkown, nobody knows me, I don't know what is expected, how to present myself, who to turn to should I speak in error. I am very nervous simply by the fact that I do not know what to do. I understand of course that I must be myself, but there are many aspects to me, and I fear being judged by one negative aspect over other positives.

In short, I believe it can best be summarized, that I, Jafira Dragon, The same Jafira who seeks the unknown and is believed by his friends to be fearless of death itsself, is simply terrorfied of saying hello on a forum. In order to achieve my goal, I must confront this phobia head on in the coming days, I must be strong and remind myself that it is for the betterment of myself, and for the achievement of my goals.

I can contribute so much, if only I can overcome my cowardice. I ask any one who finds this entry, to wish me luck in this endeavor.

Thank you,
Your Social-phobic friend,
~Jafira Dragon

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Wow, I actually have a viable accomplishment to post in this thing, and it's not angst or whining! It's a miracle! I propose a toast in celebration!

After a long period of sitting around doing nothing, I finally decided that it was time to get off my lazy arse and do something dragony. So I did just that! This time in my life is much less hectic then last year, my college is complete, (for now) my employment is steady and all is well! That means this is the perfect time to attempt the return of Dragons Valley.

I purchased the domain for Dragons Valley around the anniversary of it's demise, and spent the end of the month of March uploading the latest software and patches. For the past week or so I have ran tests on the site to insure that everything is functioning properly and have confirmed that all appears to work well. In addition I added some useful features that were not possible in the past attempt, including new themes, a quiz option, an event calendar, and some other goodies still being prepared.

So, with all that said, I am reopening my dragon based community at http://www.dragons-valley.com

Just in time too it seems, sheesh, I leave the Internet for six months and a lot of good dragon communities vanish. I know dragons-empire was hacked around the time that DV collapsed, and I know that the Dragon Lair was closing, but what happened to Sommerland, and Draconomicon, Did I miss something? In any case, yeah, Dragons Valley is back online and fully functioning.

Offhandedly though I must state that I am still a little bit shell shocked from last year, I really don't need to just get off the ground again and have it die. That scenario is unlikely this time around but still I understandably have that fear. I am hoping it will pass after DV has been active a bit longer. I think this time it will be a successful and viable tool for dragons and dragon enthusiasts to unite behind.

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Hi, I disappeared for a very very long time, until tonight, in which I ate a bunch of sugar, got wired and chose to come back! Therefore tonights inane ramblings are brought to you by: Coca Cola, and Co Sponsored by Twinkies.

Nah, I'll try to keep this short, little to no drama, etc. Just updates on situations journal stuff, etc. First off, what the heck happened to me after the fall of Dragons Valley? Wasn't it supposed to return in Mid June? and for that matter, what the heck happened to me? Well, heh funny story that. For the month of May I took a break from the net as work on websites and my net rounds in general had ruined my sleep pattern and made me ill physically and emotionally. In early June I reappeared but was a bit distracted helping my mate Skyla with her artwork and photoshop, it was a welcome change of pace from her loss of creativity phase as I'm hopelessly in love with her art. (primitive as it may be.) After successfully teaching Skyla to use photoshop I had planned to work on other online projects until...

One cloudy evening I, on the way to visit friends, accidentally sat my laptop on top of my car while I unlocked the door, I then carelessly entered the vehicle and drove off, going down the street I noticed a black blur fall from my ceiling. Heh, it wasn't pretty. The laptop survived more or less but needed a new monitor. I shipped it back to Best Buy for repairs, and was given a two week estimate for repairs. (June 18th) Fast forward to July 27th.. two weeks my arse. That alone should explain some delays and absence. One month and $400 later I learned my lesson not to trust Best Buy, they lost my laptop in transit twice, as well as the accompanying documents. That period taught me the meaning of patience.

My laptop was quite advanced last spring when I purchased it, and my home computers were years out of date, so many were foolishly sold. During the period my laptop was missing, much happened online without my attention, my main site Jafira's Lair expired, I renewed the domain name but my balance was poor due to an unforeseen circumstance, as a result and unbeknownst to me my domain was suspended for a week or so before I learned of the error. Thus explaining any noted disappearance of my site.

July 31st was my hatchday so I threw myself a party as well as made a list of goals for this year. I then immediately got side tracked. I was forced to switch positions at my job from a day shift to a night shift and the transition was difficult at first. Now that I'm a bit more stable I intend to continue to pursue my goals.

Those Goals include: Rebuilding DV as Dragons-valley.org with stable coding, finishing/writing two stories for my site, creating some form of art with my limited abilities, interacting with friends online and off, adventuring more, and lastly taking an active part in the world I live in.

Though I have a hard time with commitment issues I believe those goals are reachable and I should have the will power to dedicate myself to them so long as I can avoid negative external influences such as media, as well I tend to have an art addiction which slows me down dramatically.

Lastly, if I can create enough stability in my life I am considering starting a local dragon meet up, if I can organize a location and the resources to do such. It should be an interesting experience if I can pull it off. Time will tell.

Anyway that concludes the news in the the world of Jafira Dragon. Tune in later for more boring events that have nor baring on your life what so ever.

~Jafira Dragon
Over Caffeinated Again..