Getting back on that unicorn

After about 6 hours of editing audio, finding/recording/editing video, and wishing I was a lot faster at doing these things, I finally have a product that I think will satisfy (and yet leave viewers wanting more).

Hang onto your hats. The wait has shortened but intensified.

#That'sLife!

Halloween

Oooh, it's the spoooky day before Halloween! I won't be online tomorrow so I have decided to post a Wiz101 poem I wrote for the occasion early :)

It's Halloween night in Wizard City! 

The sky is dark and the stars are pretty.
A heckhound howls at the light of the moon; 

the monster hour is arriving soon!
"Take care, young wizard!" Ambrose warns. 

"For in Dark Cave the Scarlet Screamer mourns."
All around the are ghoulish creatures, 

and a Ravenwood school full of trick-or-treaters.
On every street the feet pitter-patter. 

Wandering spirits moan and skeletons clatter.
Wizards dressed as ninja pigs are running past, 

gathering up candy fast, fast, FAST!
And I, avoiding Dark Cave, have fun with the rest, 

looking around to see whose costume is best.
The spiral is alive with laughter and fright. 

Oh, Halloween... such a wonderful night!

Have a great Halloween everybody!

Filming closed, no more cast recruits.

Well today's filming was kind of fail. Only a couple people showed up and I was about to cancel but they brought a few friends so we managed to have a decent small group. Normally I wouldn't be very bothered by this but I had a very very bad night last night (think of your worst nightmare and then imagine how you'd feel if it almost happened to you), and even though I really, really wanted to cancel, I didn't because I didn't want to disappoint a bunch of people. Turns out a bunch of people disappointed me.

So I've decided I will not be taking extras in my videos anymore, I will only be using a couple friends as extras from now on. For those who actually care, I'm very sorry, I would really love to let more people be in my videos but it's just too hard working with other people on a "serious" project. Maybe someday I'll start a series that I don't care about the filming quality of but for now I'm just gonna focus on finishing this one on my own. I'd like to thank everyone who helped me today and everyone who's been in any of the episodes as well, you guys have really helped to make the series great and I hope you can understand my decision.

Anyhoodle, I actually did this filming before finishing the script for the episode (I tend to put the cart before the horse like that sometimes), so it will be quite a while before Ep. 4 is out, especially since I start school Monday so I won't have decent internet till the weekends. I will try to work on finishing the script in the meantime though, so there is some progress in that.

Um um um... what else... Oh, I'm going to see Scott Pilgrim today :D Should be a good distraction from what happened last night. And... hmm, well I think that's pretty much it.

Safe journeys, everyone!

Filming info for ep. 4 of That's Life!

Yup, it's that time again... filming time!

[x-posted from W101C]

Here's the info you need to know to be in the next episode of That's Life!:

DATE: Saturday, August 14th.
TIME: 1pm pacific time (look on google to convert it to your time zone)
PLACE: Life tower (NOT the life classroom this time. Life tower)
SERVER: Wu (subject to change during filming)

• Anyone of any school is welcome to come (but preferably only people with text chat)
• This time we will be allowed to wear our regular clothes (however pets and wands will still be unequipped)
• Please listen to me and follow my rules when filming, so we can get it done quickly, hopefully in half an hour or less.
• We start at least 5 minutes after the meeting time, try to get there on time if you wanna be in the episode!
• If I make any changes to the date, I will make the updates on here or my blog so try to keep track of this post.

That's pretty much it! Everything else you need to know, I will tell you on the filming day. Hope to see you guys there!

 Safe journeys, everyone!

Shame on me!

I've been away from the Spiral for a while now, and I apologize for lack of updates. I've been busy trying to register for Fall semester at my college (hopefully my final one!) and so I'm a bit stressed out. However, I'm still keeping up to date about all things Wizard 101, so yes I know about the increased server capacities and all that. Good for you KI! I'm so glad they're doing this prior to the release of Celestia. If the real release will be anything like the pre-world questline (and I know it will be), then we're gonna need all the server superpower that we can get!

Anyhoodle, in other news I'm still working on writing episode 4 of That's Life! (I use the word "working" loosely, since I kind of haven't written anything at all for it in days). It will be quite some time before filming for the next episode, probably a couple/few weeks, so I will tide you guys over with a short teaser of the script. Enjoy!

ZACHARY: Okay, so what's all this about?

AKITAME: As you most likely already know, your teacher Moolinda Wu is in quite a lot of trouble.

AUTUMN: Yeah, we gathered that.

AKITAME: But what you don't know, is why.

ZACHARY: No, we already know that too.

AKITAME: Oh? But how--

AUTUMN: Best not to ask reasons.

ZACHARY: We gave up doing that a long time ago.

AKITAME: I see. Well, then, you already know that we've exhausted our resources trying to find her.

AUTUMN: That we did not know.

ZACHARY: How is that possible? Mooshu is a world full of samoorais and martial artists! There's got to be someone who can look for her.

AKITAME: Ah, one would think so. And considering that we sent all our greatest masters, we thought so too. But there is nobody in Mooshu that is fit to rescue Moolinda Wu.

AUTUMN: Rescue? Hold on, you didn't tell us she was in grave danger! That puts a whole different spin on our mission.

AKITAME: What part of the word "Yakuza" does not suggest she could be in grave danger?

AUTUMN: Aren't you Mooddhists supposed to be peaceful? I figured what's the worst they could do?

AKITAME: We are Mooddhists, that much is true. But the Yakuza do not answer to him. And they go to great lengths for revenge.

ZACHARY: If you knew who we're talking about here then you'd be more worried for the people who have her...

AKITAME: Oh, I know Wu, alright. I know her well...

DUN DUN DUNNNN! Lol jk. But seriously, folks, this one's gonna be pretty epic. It's gonna be hard to keep topping the newest episodes with even better ones, but I'll certainly try! Lemme know what you think so far.

Safe journeys, everyone!

At last - It is done!...ish

[x-posted from W101C]

Thank you so much to everyone who showed up for the updated filming, I really appreciate it. I was so glad to see a lot of people returning and even a few new people, it makes me happy to know that the word is getting out about That's Life! and that people want to be a part of it :)

I do realize that some who were there last time could not be there this time, and I'm sorry for that. There will still be more chances for you to be in it so no worries! I will announce the next filming session a few weeks from now, so keep an eye out.

Anyways, thanks again to all the extras, I'm very grateful for your help :)

 Now for the hard part: everything else.

*facedesk*

OK, this time... seriously.

 [once again x-posted from W101C]

Here's the new filming info for That's Life!: Episode 3.

DATE: Monday, July 19th.

TIME: 1pm pacific time (if you don't know what time that is in your zone, google "time zone converter")

LOCATION: Life school classroom.

AREA: Wu server (subject to change during filming)

• Same thing as last time: noob clothes, wands and pets unequipped.
• Filming should take around half an hour.
• Please no complaining or rushing. It will take however long it takes, I don't like being nagged when I'm trying to get the filming just right.

That's about it. I'm hoping for the same turn-out as last time but completely understand if there isn't. I know people's schedules are busy so thank you to everyone who makes time to do this. Note: I can't make any special changes or arrangements to the date for anyone, so don't ask. Sorry.

This and that - A bit of news for ya.

So, I haven't logged into the game for a couple weeks, even though I'm so close... SO CLOSE... to getting my necromancer to lvl 48. This is for a few reasons, the main being that I'm burnt out on the grind of sidequesting. I know this is not so much of a problem because of the newest updates but still... just need to let this boredom run its course before getting back into the swing of things. Maybe I'll just wait till Celesita comes out so I'll have something to motivate me to finish DS lol.

The other main reason is I had an encounter with yet another "friend" who just used me to level up. Oh it just never gets old. They always find the strangest excuses to not return the favor of helping you out on quests, and then suddenly they just never log on again. Lol I'm so glad necromancy is great for soloing because I am never gonna fall for the whole "quest buddy" thing again. Seriously, I'm so over that.

But anyway, in spite of my whole misanthropy, I have indeed scheduled a filming session for my next episode of That's Life! (which you can read HERE) and I've been expediting my hashing out of the 4th script as well. Must satisfy the masses, ya know (all 3 of the people who care, I mean). We're about halfway through the series now! Thanks to the approaching addition of Celestia, it will be extended out for another episode though. Yay, I think. Episode 3 is gonna be a mystery/comedy, episode 4 is gonna be... well, I'm not quite sure. My plots become more and more convoluted as they go on :P Episode 5 will be pretty epic, I have it planned out a bit in my mind (though I really should write some of my ideas for it down so I'll remember). Episode 6 was going to be for GH but since Celestia may be out before I get to that point, I will be waiting to finish that world so I can make it the 6th episode. The last episode will be for GH, and it's not really going to have a plot (I hope)!

Anyhoodle, that's pretty much all I've been up to. What have you all been doing lately?

Safe journeys!

Back - In green. And blue. And purple.

It's been too long since my last post! And I must admit I don't have a good excuse as to why other than pure laziness and mysanthropy. But the holidays have flown by, the new fps I've been playing has lost its shiny newness, and I am ready to get back into the Wizard 101 swing of things.

Couple updates, peeps. I'm filling up my family of wizards with my new additions of Calamity Stormcloud (diviner) and Sophia Frostblossom (thaumaturge). No idea why, I haven't even gotten my death mage to GM status, or even my fire mage. And Scarlet's been waiting so long. So long.... My guilty secret is I want to earn at least 100k gold on all of them to get the class houses. *evil grin* Yes, I know I'm cheap and lame, but it's a means to an end. So sue me.

I also finished a few quests on Autumn. She's pretty much almost done, though I'm not sure how much of GH there is left (still just barely into Ravenscar) and I feel very uninspired to find out. Waiting for the new GH houses to come out too, I want to take a tour :D

It's nice to take a break from the blood and gore of Combat Arms and just take it easy on Wizard 101. And kill bosses for their loot. Muahahahahaha.

Safe journeys everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A bit delayed, I know, but Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Today I celebrated by having a delicious and perfect dinner with my family and then clobbering Malistaire for the fifth time ;)

Hope everyone has a great, relaxing weekend. Safe journeys!

Peer Pressure - Haha! I win.

      I had been moping about quite a bit on my death character since I had pretty much no friends for that character and the game was getting a little lonely. Well, I have this friend in real life, and one thing let to another and... he plays Wizard 101 now! Why? Because I convinced him of how awesome it is :D

      I'd been having trouble lately with convincing IRL friends to join Wiz101, first with my (now ex-)boyfriend, then my other friend who is actually very much into gaming of any kind (although I think he didn't want to because the program wouldn't be compatible with linux), and my sister, who thinks MMOs of any kind are evil incarnate. It's not necessarily that I have anything against making friends in the game with people I don't know. It's just that I've been burned too many times by really inconsiderate people (if you need a refresher, CLICK HERE). It kind of sucks the pleasure in meeting new people.

So, at last I successfully lured one of my friends over to the dark side! MUAHAHAHAHA! Except he chose life school, so I suppose it's not really dark, per se. But still, wizardry is witchcraft, so.... *Insert more evil laughter*

I think I was going somewhere with this post, but I'm not sure anymore. Hmmm... Oh yeah! So, has anyone else managed to get their friends to play Wizard 101? And if so, how did you convince them to? Did they like it? My friend said it's "Like WoW, but cuter and easier." I wouldn't know because I never bothered playing WoW. I was way too busy becoming a Grandmaster Theurgist on the bestest game ever :)

Anyhoo, safe journeys, everyone!

AWESOME - Wiz 101 TCG, courtesy of TFN

Dude, look at what The Friendly Necromancer made for me!

      If you haven't heard of the Wizard 101 trading card game he invented, CLICK HERE. It is made of win. Thanks again, Friendly!

Teamwork - Meet-ups, friend lists, and quest buddies

      Well, I know this isn't new when it comes to Wizard 101 (or gaming in general), but I've been seeing this trend for a while now where players will meet other people in the game, do a few quests together, and decide that hey... it would be cool to be partners. Like, permanent quest buddies. There are certain schools (I'm lookin' at you, storm and life) that are geared toward group play since there are major weaknesses in offense or defense, and having a buddy who's got your back for every tedious quest is really beneficial and makes things go a lot faster. This ranges anywhere from two to four people (since that's the most that can fit in a dungeon at one time).

      Anyway, I've looked around on the internet and I've seen lots of threads suggesting to KI that they add a guild feature to the game. I think that would be brilliant, since sometimes having a friend list just doesn't cut it. I mean, some people don't want to be added just to be asked over and over again if they could help someone. But if there were guilds, requests for help be guilt- and debt-free since it comes with the territory. I know groups are supposed to be kind of like that, but you would have to invite people to be in it over and over, whereas with a guild it would just be a one-time invite. Also, guilds could be named, wheras groups cannot. It would also be cool if said guilds could have special club-houses to live in, but I know that's out of the question since you could just port to your friend's house and hang out there :P Wishful thinking, I know.

      On a side note, I wish there was a way to transfer a buddy list from one character on an account to a different character on the same account. I mean, there might be a simple way to do it that I don't know about, but as far as I can tell you would have to do it the hard way. You know, logging out of your one wizard, logging into the other, finding the person in a specific place, and then adding them manually. The easy-add would be so useful because I have a lot of grandmaster friends who are starting new characters and we want to be friends on our new wizards. Just thought that would be a cool new feature, if KI ever considers it.

      I was throwing around the idea of starting a guild on Diary of a Wizard, but I'm not sure if many people would join it because there isn't a convenient feature for it. But we'll see if it's added in the future. The KI team seems really efficient when it comes to addressing player's ideas and concerns. :D

      Aaaanddddd.... that's it. I'm meeting someone from DoaW in the game today at 8!

OMG - Yay!

      Autumn is now a Grandmaster Theurgist!

      Yay me!

Kandy - The gamer. The blogger. The geek.

As I'm sure my friends had predicted, I've decided to jump on the bandwagon and keep a blog about my Wizard 101 gaming adventures. Why, you might ask? I fail to see the reason for it myself, as everyone who plays the game goes through the same journey. Unlike most of the other players, however, I tend to go it alone (unless I absolutely need someone to help me with a dungeon or something). This is not common for Life wizards to do since we get very few attack spells in our class. But, having observed and adopted special secret techniques, I do pretty well on my own with just the help of my pet, Sir Rex. (I am so alone.) What is my technique? It's a secret, so I can't tell you. (A boatload of blades, traps, and healing spells.)

I actually have three wizards: Autumn, a level 48 Theurgist; Scarlet Lifeblood, a level 32 Pyromancer; and Jasmine Blossom, a level 8 Sorcerer. I started playing Wizard 101 in June of this year with Scarlet, and I got halfway to being a Grandmaster before realizing I hated being a Fire wizard. (See, I had this problem where I constantly died.) So I tried again with Autumn, figuring that it would be way harder to die if I had the ability to heal over and over. So far so good, just kind of sucks not having very many attacks. Autumn's secondary school is death, which stinks as a secondary school because life enemies are hard to kill. Bad choice on my part. I chose storm as a tertiary school for Autumn because it hits big even without traps and blades. After I manage to get her to Grandmaster status I will consider finishing with Scarlet. And Jasmine, oh my, Jasmine. Not sure what to do with that one. I know balance is a good school but I basically made that character as a service to my little brother and sister. I don't want to start out as a noob again after getting to such a high level :P I guess we'll have to see, after I finish with Scarlet.

Either way I may start the game over with another life wizard after I'm finished with Autumn, so that I can blog about the journey better. For now, I will simply leave you with a word of wisdom: Dragonspyre is really, really hard.