Good morning!

Right here, it's before 9am, which seems insanely early for the summer holidays in my opinion. However, I have allowed myself to fall drastically behind with my word count on Camp NaNo, and so, because I have no idea how to rectify this without going slightly insane, I will talk to my fellow blogging friends about it. :)

The problem: my word count is less than a third of what it should be.

The reason: I can attribute this to four things:

• The Olympics. It's kind of addictive. I didn't know I'd feel this involved! And yet I find myself following the athletics like... like... I can't even think of a good enough simile.
• My old laptop got fixed, and now I can play Wizard101 whenever I want!
• Writing fanfiction with some fairly important characters during the middle of a novel is actually quite difficult. Having to make sure all the conversations with the main characters are agreeing with what's actually in the book and that the characters aren't out of character... it's tough, man!
• I've been quite lazy.

The solution: write more, and quickly.

SO, I have decided that this weekend is going to be what is known in the NaNo business as a '10k weekend' which means word sprints, no social life, little sleep, and lots of insanity. That won't even bring my word count up to what it needs to be, so I'll still be writing at a furious pace after that. I'm really not focusing on quality any more, because it's not particularly good, or even accuracy - I can edit it later if I think it's good enough to grace the Internet. (probably not)

I may be keeping you updated with my progress, or I may be being sensible and using that time to write more. (...who am I kidding? Me? Sensible?)

Wish me luck!

Diviner OUT!

P.S. The good news, however, is that what I have done so far, upon being pasted into the 'I write like' text analyser...

I write like
J. K. Rowling

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

This post is in three parts:

Decision = made


I'm staying, guys.

YAY FOR DEMOCRACY.

So, this blog will (hopefully) remain active, and as of yet I have no plans to move to tumblr. To the five people who voted: thank you - I wasn't sure about it and staying here seems like a smarter move now I think of it.

Some things you might want to know


If anyone reading teh blog doesn't know yet - or doesn't regularly check the Ravenwood news section of the website - or keeps being redirected to the UK version which, for the record, is really annoying - here are two things:

1) You can get a free Brave hound because of the good work on sharing the Forbes article, by either heading through the July Ravenwood news or going straight to wizard101.com/promo/brave (which is likely to expire at some point soon so go go go).

2) Some of the hoard packs are now reduced by 50%! Spend your crowns wisely, wizards, and know a good bargain when you see one! NOTE: I'm pretty sure this ends today, so get a wriggle on, folks!

Wait hold on that's probably not going to happen now


Hold up. I just said this blog will remain active, didn't I?

Ah.

Well.

I might have... possibly... maybe... managed to... consider...

Camp NaNoWriMo.

I'm sure you can all remember the craziness I went through in November as I somehow pulled through to write 50,000 words in under a month, while still somehow managing a merit in my sax exam and full marks in a maths module.

But now a month lies ahead of me. A month of free time, british summer weather, Olympic-mania (seriously - if you don't live in the UK you have no idea how worked up everyone's getting about it. Every town I've visited in the past few days - and I went to chemistry camp 200 miles away - has had banners up. Mental.) and, now I've decided to do this, near insanity.

I know, I know. "But Alex! What about that story you started writing three years ago and still haven't finished?!" Well... It will be finished. I will finish it at some point. However... maybe not this month. I have been bubbling over with ideas recently, and I have been sitting on a ridiculous HP fanfiction idea for a long while... (No, really. There are wads of paper fluttering through my copy of Order of the Phoenix as we speak...) so Camp NaNoWriMo it is, for me!

If anyone else is interested in going completely insane next month (unlikely), leave a comment or email or something then we can be writing buddies and help each other a) write and b) become even more insane. Sounds like fun, no?

Nevertheless, I will try to keep this blog updated pretty frequently. I mean, I'm sure you'll want to see what I'm doing with the opportunity of half-price packs in the Crown store in front of me, right?

For now,
Diviner OUT!

So I was questing with Autumn...

(Autumn Willowbreeze is my life alt, an initiate, and a fairly important character in TTOAS).

...and trying to do the Library Dues quest, you know, where you have to practically redo every boss in wizard city to get all the books. (It's annoying.)

And I was just about to collect my "History of the School of Myth" book after defeating Akilles again, when I saw this.

Seriously? I go all that way and then it doesn't even tick off on my quest task list because it's the WRONG SCHOOL?! Seriously. Just... why?!

But while I was browsing that I found some other pictures I thought would be nice to look at so have these while I calm myself down after that infuriating experience.

Aw, I remember my krok days...

This was what I saw the other day when I finally tried to log in again. Ugh.

This is one of the first screencaps I ever took, when I was still with my original character, the infamous Blaze Thundershard. Well, perhaps infamous was the wrong word. How about... unfamous. That works.

That's all for now. I'm out tomorrow with a friend (gonna go see Spiderman oh yeah) and I'm going on a chemistry course from Monday to Wednesday, so I probably won't see you for a couple days. But keep on wizarding, or blogging, or anything, and I'll see ya in the Spiral! :D

Diviner OUT!

Random anecdote: I just tried to persuade an Archmage to take me to Avalon. He refused. I am now in a strop. Hmph.

The Fansite Pack.

I recently downloaded the W101 fansite pack, and I noticed two things.

One: they update it. Last time I downloaded it, there were definitely no Celestia things, and I swear that half the images weren't there...

Two: speaking of the images, there are some beautiful pictures of dragon pets which I've never seen, either because of my ignorance, lack of crowns, or six-month hiatus.

Here are a few.

Okay, so here's your typical dragon. This one is blue. It has a neat little stripy tail.

This guy doesn't look like anything special, but he's a summer dragon. Nat has one of these, actually. There was a promotional code pretty widely available a while ago, when we first started playing.

 And this is where it starts getting seriously cool. While the file is called simply Yellow Dragon, this dude has all those awesome fiery stripy things down its back and is basically awesome.

As for this one? I have no words. The awesomeness makes me incoherent. hjksdfshl. This one is called a Fragmented Dragon, also known as "seriously freaking awesome."

And that pretty much wraps it up.  Dragons are awesome.

For now, Diviner OUT!

Newses. (contains important stuffs.)

I has some newses.

First
You can now email me (if you like)! My address is alexstormrider08@gmail.com. So if you ever want to chat...go for it! Let's all be friends! :D (seriously...I like having friends...)

Second
You may have noticed this, but my theme has changed. Ooh, shiny. :)

Third
I kind of... got... google+? Yeah, I don't really know, either, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.


So if
a) you have google plus and want to add me, or
b) don't have google plus and want to join and add to circles and things (?) (I still haven't figured it out yet)


then clicky on the button on the side which says something about it. See you there, dudes.


Fourth
My final point is that... things are a-changing around here.


Not in a bad way. But things will definitely be changing.

I was considering... maybe... moving?

I just think... maybe there are other sites where we can interact with each other more.

The wizblogger community is diminishing - that can't be denied. So, ask yourself: why? Why are so many people either leaving outright or neglecting to post? I doubt it's because of the community. Everyone loves the community.


I think that it isn't very... "sustainable" to blog only about W101. For example: personally, I love the game, and all of the people who participate in it...but I think the reason I have so many prolonged hiatuses on this blog - including the mega one I just returned from - is because I feel obligated to just post about the game. Perhaps that's the problem. Eventually, people get bored of it. They stop posting. They leave.

But I really really really don't want to lose contact with any of you wonderful wizards who I've made kinda-sorta-online-friends with. You guys are awesome! Honestly, if I hadn't had people reading and commenting on even the most mundane of posts, I would have left long before now. So I have no intention of leaving the W101 community for good.

The thing is, a blog seems a pretty one-sided way to keep things up. Yes, you can comment, but it's not as rewarding a level of interaction as other sites give nowadays. It's often one person saying something and the others can - in a way - respond. One of blogger's major flaws, in my opinion, is the severely limited scope for conversation and discussion.

In short, things are changing because a) I might be moving to a different type of site and b) I don't think I will exclusively be posting about Wizard101 any more. 

I was thinking of perhaps using Tumblr? I don't know much about it but it seems an interesting medium for interaction... and there are already a few W101 related "tumblogs" on there. There are features for conversation and messaging and something I really like is the ability to repost (or "reblog") other people's content.

But...I don't want to go if all my friends are staying here.

So, is anyone willing to join me?

I'd really like to hear everyone or anyone's thoughts on this. There's a poll on the side and I'd really appreciate it if you posted a comment with your opinions.

Diviner OUT!

The Return of the Diviner.

I don't know how else to put this.

I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAACK!

Yeah, don't all scream with delight at once.

Did you miss me?
"No, Alex. Where the heckhound have you been?"
Well, my house, my school, between those two, my friend's--
"Not literally."
Oh.

 So, we meet again, Wizard101 community. Last you heard from me, I was a several months younger, subscription-less, in possession of one less macbook pro, and significantly less enthusiastic. Since I've last seen you, I've been camping, walked up a volcano (ITALY), and had a rather rewarding birthday (see previously mentioned macbook pro). However, I have not played Wizard101, nor so much as made an attempt to reinstate my old subscription...

UNTIL NOW.

And now it's summer! I finished school just last week after an avalanche of exams and concerts and expeditions and I'm already bored. But, of course, there is too much to do to ever be bored. I mean, some of the things I have to do this holiday are:

• Read books. (My target's 40, and so far I've read three.)
• Watch movies. (I still haven't seen spiderman.)
• Go outside lol just kidding (what even is "outside"?)
• Build a TARDIS. (don't ask, I agreed to do it for maths)
• PLAY WIZARD101 WOO YEAH

This is going to be a good summer. Just bought a new month's subscription, and I am ready to return to the game. OH YES.

So what's happened in the game while I've been gone? Oh, a new world?

...AVALON? Does this mean what I think it means? Medieval! Knights! King Arthur! ADVENTURE! Swords! Mythical creatures! OH YES. I love arthurian legend. I like a lot of things, to be fair. BUT THIS IS AWESOME. Not gonna lie, I am mad excited for this. Well... when I complete Dragonspyre. And Celestia. And Zafaria. And probably Grizzleheim and Wintertusk too while I'm at it.

Pshh.

Now, I think there's one thing left I need to address, and probably the thing that most people who read/used to read this blog started/continued reading it for.

The Tale of Alexandra Stormrider.

Yeah. Haven't heard much of that for a while, have we?

HOWEVER. With eight weeks of time stretching ahead of me... the possibilities are endless... well. The story isn't endless. In fact, during this holiday...I might even end the story. Finish it. Write the last few parts. And voila! TTOAS will be done!

So. Wish me luck!

Diviner OUT! (for now!)

It’s not MY fault…

“… What do you mean, thirteenth day? Never heard of something so ridiculous. Nope. No. Did not promise to do that at all.”

… So. Hi guys!

If you’re wondering where I’ve been for the last month and a bit, you can blame any of the following:

• British TV for being ridiculously addictive (well, not all of it, but some is ridiculously good).
• School musicals (I wasn’t in it, exactly. I played saxophone in the orchestra accompanying thing… yep…)
• LOZ: Skyward Sword.
• Also its music. (So good.)
• Exams.
• The concept of procrastination when combined with all of the above.

See? Not my fault, is it?

…

Well, maybe a little bit.

So, updations!

1) I have played WizardBlox more than I have played Wizard101. *shakes head* I know. But my phone is much more portable. Also, did I tell you guys I got to 45? Because I got to 45! *mini party times*

2) It’s my birthday! Soon! Now, I already have a lot of crowns… buuuuuut… you know that not so long ago (just kidding, ages ago) I got really excited about a bundle being available anywhere? That includes here! This island thing! So that might be a thing in the future…

3) On the other hand, on my actual birthday, I have a D of E walk. (Duke of Edinburgh… It’s this award thing you can do here, and is quite fun because you get to go on expeditions and stuff.) Basically, I have to walk twelve miles on my birthday. I mean, last year I don’t think I even went outside on my birthday. Eesh, outside…

4) When I said I hadn’t been on W101 much, I meant it. I meant it to the extent that I didn’t even notice that I no longer had a subscription until today.

Yowch.

Well, I shan’t give up. Yearly subscription for teh birthday, perhaps? Either way, I’ll still be here, making annoying comments and writing elaborate stories. I have this idea for another Wizard101 fanfiction that’s just stewing in my brain, but I kind of wanted to finish TTOAS before I go do that. So it could be finished in just a few small parts.

Eh…

Anyway…

Diviner OUT!