News Again!

More exciting news broke yesterday on Diary of a Wizard.  The full details about the contests going on, etc, are included at that link.  I thought I'd do my part and make a nice little invitation for the Ravenwood Ball and Birthday Bash (version 2.0!).  Last year I was late to the party and only caught the tail end of it thanks to technical difficulties.  Hard to believe I've been blogging for a little over a year now and was present at the first one!  The part I was there for was super fun and really crazy, and this year should be even more spectacular.  As the community has grown, things have gotten more...interesting...and there's no better time to celebrate the community than celebrating with Fallon.  Did I mention the enormous loot bag?  Yeah...click that link.  I bet you all want the invitation now, eh?  Enjoy.

Yeah, dress to impress.  The lovely Maria Moonblossom and I have our own outfits ready and we can't wait to show them off!

The link at the beginning also outlines the new rewards program at DoaW and the new Beta Project that involves the Forums over at DoaW.  Get. Excited.  The forum project is going smoothly so far and I can't wait to have additional help in rolling it out in full!  So much excitement in the Spiral and the related portions of the interwebs!

Your Friend Always,
John Lifeglen

Badge Extravaganza

Welcome, Wizard fans.  Not much going on right now except for a couple brief announcements.  First off, Kestrel made a "Clean Tweeter" badge for those who tweet cleanly in the family friendly world of Wizard101.  Details available at the "Kestrel" link.

Secondly, I got bored after finishing the Wintertusk content and running the Waterworks a few billion times, so I opened my badge binder to see what I could do there.  I wound up going on a whirlwind adventure with one Maria Moonblossom on a quest to kill off the Ravens of the Coven once and for all, and then stomp a few bears, to boot.  I can now proudly say that I've earned all of the "Kill X Mob" badges once more.  Ravens start at Bird Watcher(50), continue to Bird Beguiler(100), and finally Bird is the Word(200). Bears follow the same numerical pattern but go from Bear Bouncer to Bear Blaster to Unbearable.  Bird Beguiler was earned by us both on Maintenance night and the following day we unlocked the rest.  Maria's still 20-odd bears from Unbearable, so we'll be getting that soon.  She was ready to quit by the time we got all of those pesky birds thwarted!

And that's about it in terms of game updates.  Except that we have our Ravenwood Ball costumes and can't wait to show them off.  And check Diary of a Wizard for more details on this year's Ball tomorrow!

Exciting News!

As acting leader of the Wizard101 Bloggers' Club (/\ see above /\)I am proud to announce that we are now affiliated with Diary of a Wizard!  Awesome, huh?  There's more.  

Awesome stuff is coming to Diary of a Wizard and that's all I can say.  GET EXCITED. It's going to be MASSIVE! Text effects now over.  

To celebrate this teaming-up of two community endorsing organizations I'm cracking down harder on the restrictions for remaining on "the good list" on the HQ page.  If you don't cut the mustard you'll be blacklisted as promised.  Sorry about that, but you knew what you were getting into before you started.  The guidelines are all written in black and white (brown and orange, technically...whatever) and presented to you on the page. 

Oh, and My costume for the Ravenwood Ball is done, is your's?  Announcement of date/time is coming on 5/29 and I'll be adding a countdown as soon as I get the chance.  I feel like I need a page just for countdowns these days...sheesh.  

Your Friend Always,

John Lifeglen

New Directions

Now, some of you *cough* Cassie Hexthorn *cough* might think this post is about Glee.  That, my friends, would be an inaccurate assumption.  New Directions, while the name of the Glee Club at McKinley High, is also the title of this post because of the wonderful new direction the Forums over at Diary of a Wizard ConnectX have taken!

We're looking for guide writers of any experience level to try their hand at enriching this marvelous community through the written word.  If you'd like to give it a stab, by all means head on over to the above link!  We're trying to build up the knowledge base for everyone to use and generally make the community a better place for it.

In related news, welcome Alric Ravensinger to the team of moderators at the forum.  Congratulations, Alric, and I can't wait to get to work.

And that's all of my news for now!

Your Friend Always,
John Lifeglen

Happy Wizaversary?

Today is the 2nd Anniversary of the day little John Lifeglen, level 1 wizard, tested into the School of Balance.  

First of all, I would like to apologize for any confusion my Wizard101 Facebook account has caused.  His birthday is set to today (for the above-mentioned reason) with a random year (because Facebook frowns on having 2 year olds, ya know).

Secondly, it has been a great Wizaversary thus far!  I got to sleep in super super late after running the Waterworks with Mrs. Bailey *FLAME ON!* Skystaff, the ever fashionable Maria Moonblossom, and the wonderful Sabrina Ghostwhisper from Twitter.  All four of us received robes (Bailey and Maria their first, Sabrina and I our 3rd).

As I finish this up I'm running it again, 3 man style, with Matthew Deathcaster and Maria Moonblossom.

In other news, I'm going to try and jumpstart Diary of a Wizard ConnectX.  I'm hoping to get it boosted in popularity and make the forums something amazing to enrich THE #1 stop for all things community related (and a huge Thank You to Fallon Shadowblade for allowing me to moderate!).

Your [2 Years Old!] Friend Always,
John Lifeglen

Everwinter Averted

WOOT!  School's out for the year (finally).  I don't know if you can expect more frequent posts or tweets on Twitter (Which Sabrina Ghostwhisper so kindly pointed out I'd been missing from).  Finals...well...we just won't think about those.  It's SUMMER!  So we'll move on with news.

I finished Wintertusk, stopped the Everwinter, and earned a few badges along the way.  I got Master Historian, Hero of Grizzleheim, Wintertusk Explorer, and Bird Watcher.  YAY!  Now it's time to finish cleaning out the quest journal and do the Waterworks and Crab Alley.  Then I need to get all of the new badges, too.  So much to do still!  Oh, and Judgement should hatch soonish.  I thought Autumn was getting me a desk :(.

And now mom's hollering at me to go do laundry.  Welcome to the summer...

Your Friend Always,
John Lifeglen

SOE is DOWN

Just a quick little note to anyone involved with Sony.  While I myself am not impacted directly with the current events, the gravity of the situation is impacting a LOT of people.  Play Station Network (PSN) went down last week due to an 'outside intruder' and now Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) is down, too.  SOE encompasses Free Realms (FR) and DC Universe Online (DCUO).  It is unknown when these systems will be restored to full functionality.

Because many Wizard101 fans play/ed FR, I thought it would be a good idea to let everyone know what was going on.  Because FR is down and Wizard101 Test Servers are still active, I am predicting (though take this with a grain of salt as I'm FAR from a professional, this is just a stab in the dark, really) that there will be an influx of some degree (not very precise I know) to the Test Realm and possibly the Live game, too.  I wish everyone the best of luck, and remember to keep your report fingers ready in case of emergency.

This news update has been brought to you courtesy of the Lifeglen News Reporting Network (who am I kidding, this will probably never happen again...).

Your Friend Always,
John Lifeglen