25 Days Of Christmas - Favorite Time Of Year - Day 3

 Hello there!

I can't believe I almost forgot to post a Christmas song for the 3rd Day of December. Well, I just got home from work, and I'm very exhausted, but that doesn't mean I was going to skip out on posting a new favorite song. Here's "Favorite Time Of Year" by Carrie Underwood!

25 Days Of Christmas - The Christmas Sweater - Day 2

 Hello there!

Welcome to the Day 2 of 25 Days of Christmas. Each day throughout December I'll post some of my favorite Christmas songs right here on Around the Spiral. This year marks 10 years since I first started doing this - time certainly is flying. Today, I thought I'd share a new & cute Christmas song called "The Christmas Sweater" by Michael Buble!

Life Update - A Chaotic 2021

 Hello there!

It's been a while since I've made a normal blog post talking about what I've been up to, so I thought now was a perfect time since I'm not too busy. First of all, I hope all of you are having a wonderful Holiday Season and enjoying questing in the newly released world of Lemuria!

Over the past several months, I've been dealing with a lot of personal issues which prevented me from hosting new in-game events, working on the new website (currently inactive - it'll be back, bigger and better than ever), and of course, playing Wizard101 & Pirate101. It certainly has been a crazy ride, but I kept pushing through. Things are finally heading in the right direction - if anything, things are better than they have been since before I joined this community 12 years ago. 

I've had plenty of chaotic moments in my offline life, but also in my online life here in the community. I've gotten involved in the wrong crowds, went off on people for no reason, and lost plenty of great friends. It took me years but I finally realize why that sort of stuff surrounded me. I wanted structure. 

The way I found that sort of structure was by not dwelling on the past or worrying about changes in my life. I had to embrace the future and embrace change for the first time in forever. That's actually what helped me through such a chaotic year. The community certainly has changed. Many of my friends are no longer playing the game. While I will certainly miss my old friends, I look forward to making new friends here as time progresses. 

Anyway, I hope all of you enjoyed this random blog post/update. I wanted to type for some reason. It's almost as if this blog is now a diary of some sort. Hmmm! Maybe I'll keep the blog up and running for random posts like this. :D Thank you all for your time. Have a wonderful Holiday season. Until next time, I'll see you around the spiral.

25 Days Of Christmas - Last Christmas - Day 1

 Hello there!

I'm back on Around the Spiral with Edward Lifegem to celebrate the 10th year in a row of posting my favorite Christmas songs on this blog. :D I know it's been a while, but I want to reassure all of you I'm here and not going anywhere. For now, I'm going to share the first song of the month - Last Christmas by Wham! 

I hope all of you have a wonderful and safe Christmas season. It's certainly an amazing time of year and I look forward to posting Christmas songs through the 25th of December to try to make your Holiday season even merrier. 

Happy 11th Birthday, Around The Spiral!

 Hello Wizards!

It's official. Around the Spiral with Edward Lifegem is officially 11 years old. With time comes change. But, don't worry, I'll still be here on Around The Spiral when I want to make a random blog post. But for now, I want to thank all of you for your unwavering support over the past 11 years. It's nice to have such a great group of friends supporting me through thick & thin. It's really the reason I created Visions of the Spiral. It's more of a thank you to all of the community. I'm making this post short (like my first post 11 years ago). But, I'd like to formally invite all of you to Visions of the Spiral for a new beginning! Click anywhere on the image below to access the new website.

Life Update - It's Almost Time!

 Hello there!

I hope all of you are having a fantastic May. I've been quite busy as of late finishing up the work on Update 1 of Visions of the Spiral. There's so much to add, but so little time. But, as a new website, it's normal to not have everything all at once. Anyway, I'm gonna talk a bit about how things have been going as of late. 

As of late, I've been preparing for a vacation down in Florida. It's going to be so much fun, mostly because, it'll be the very first time I'll get to see a beach in person. On top of that, I'll get to stay there for an entire week. I mean... what?!?!? Lol. I am very excited. I've been a busy bee getting things ready by buying swim trunks, new clothes, and... a beach towel... I can't wait to use that. I'll be sure to do a life update over on Visions of the Spiral to share my experiences down in Florida. 

God knows that preparing for Florida hasn't been the only thing I've been doing. I've also been very busy trying to get the website together for release on May 10th - 4 days from now. I still have a little bit to do, but I believe I'll be able to get it done. I have so much information that I want to add to the website that there is no way I can do it alone. I'm sure I'll have help from the community. :) 

While it is exciting, it has been a little bit stressful, but I believe this website will help the community out a whole lot. It'll certainly help me out when I'm questing and forget what certain... I mean.. Yeah... You'll just have to wait to see the website on Monday Afternoon to know what I was going to say. Anyway, there really isn't much other than what I've said in this post.

The community inspired me to build this website in many different ways. I don't know if I mentioned this in one of my recent posts (or one of my new ones on Visions), but I want to thank you for all of the support you've shown me despite the craziness of the past. These games & the community helped me through so much and now I want to try to do the same for all of you. Thank you so much for reading this post. Until next time, I'll see you around the spiral.

Life Update - Mental Health + Fully Vaccinated + Website Progress

 Hello Wizards!

I hope all of you have been doing well. This week has been something else. I've been working on my new website and noticed a few things that we'll shortly talk about. But for now, let's talk about my mental health & my recent 2nd COVID vaccine.

My mental health as of late has been great. I've been balancing everything out where I don't get too stressed about something - such as building an entirely new website. As crazy as it sounds, I'm really not as stressed as I would've been if I decided to build it last year instead of this year. I did, however, have a slowdown due to my 2nd COVID vaccine. I had a few side effects that made me very tired yesterday & today - so I didn't get as much work as I wanted to get done. That's okay though. We still have a good month to go (I'm not counting the past few days - hehe). 

One thing I want to bring to the community is to bring in a new way of finding what you're looking for a lot easier. There is so much work to do and there's no way I'll be able to release all of it at once since it's a one-man type of project at the moment. With your help and inspiration, I'll be able to build Visions into something very special. This new site isn't about me - it will be about us. It's going to be fun to see your reaction to this crazy, but also, awesome, project! 

This is my step forward into bigger and better things. I've had most of these ideas for at least 10 years for Around The Spiral, but was never able to implement them due to lack of confidence and resources.. that is, until now. It sure is going to be fun helping as many wizards as possible, while also showing the beauty of each game. I hope you'll join me on that. 

To end, I want to let everyone know that my wizard, Edward Lifegem, will never attend an event unless it's thrown by a trusted, respectful, and overall, respected community member. You can see my wizard's style by clicking on the about me page (or viewing the new site when it's release). Anyway, thank you all for reading this blog post. I'll update you on my progress as we near the release of the new website. Thank you for your support, and until next time, I'll see you around the spiral.

Life Update: Vaccination, The Beach & A New Website

 Hello Wizards!

I know, two blog posts in a row aren't too common around these parts anymore, but today I wanted to make another life update post. Gosh, let me tell you I've never been so busy in my life! I've mostly been busy working on the new site, Visions of the Spiral. But before we get into that, let's talk about my life offline.

Over the past several months, I've been busy preparing for many offline activities. One thing I had to do in recent weeks was getting my Moderna COVID Vaccine. I had to wake up very early in the morning and drive out of town to get this vaccine. People from all over my state were there to get this same vaccine. It was awesome hearing where everyone was from. 

There were actually two reasons I got this vaccine. The first reason was to prevent me from spreading this horrific disease to anyone with underlying conditions, such as my parents. It's important that we all get it to help those who at a very high risk of getting it. Second, I am going to the beach for the first time in my life. That means traveling, so I want to be able to get to where I am going without any issue. I'll be on the beach for a good 5 days. This is a much-needed vacation - and will happen after the release of Visions of the Spiral. 

Outside of this news, I also came out to all of my friends and family. It was such a great feeling to finally be myself after all of these years of not being myself. All of my loved ones accepted me for who I am. It's just a small part of who I am, but I am happy that everyone finally knows every part of who I am. The community has also been quite accepting towards me and that truly means the world to me. Mentally, I am much better than I have been in at least a decade. :)

Being mentally stable has allowed me to do things I've wanted to do for a very long time. That includes building a new website for the community. I've been quite busy over these past several months researching, taking screenshots, and editing many videos. I could say I've already taken at least 500 screenshots & hundreds of different videos. There's no need to go into too much detail about it, but it sure is nice to work towards something I believe will benefit some in the community.

My main goal for this new website is to help new players. The first part of the release will have quite a bit of attention on the first & second arc worlds. As the community tests out the new website, if everyone truly likes it, we'll release a second, third, and fourth large update to the website. This website will be a 2021 themed site. That means screenshots & videos will be a massive part of what makes Visions, Visions. 

There is so much I'd like to share with you, but I want to keep most of it a surprise. This will be work to keep this website up-to-date, but it'll all make up if even one person is happy with the website. Speaking of which, I really should get back to working on it. Thank you all so much for your support and for reading this blog post. Until next time, I will see you around the spiral. 

Fansite Festival Bunny Run - Saturday, April 17th

 Hello Wizards!

Wait a minute, what in the world is going on here?! A new blog post on Around The Spiral for the first time in months... Today, I'm proud to announce that I'll be hosting an in-game event for this year's Fansite Festival. What type of event? Well... one with bunnies. One where we run.... Hmmm. 

That's right. Out of popular demand, and a change of mind, we will be hosting Bunny Run 2021. I am very thankful to all of the great people that put together the Fansite Festival together each year and especially thankful that I get to host an event with them. Here are some more important details about when our event will take place.

When

Saturday, April 17th @ 12pm Central / 1pm Eastern

Where

The Commons, Greyrose Realm - All Areas

(Run Path Announced On Stream)

Bring

Bunny Mounts + Spring-Themed Colored Gear / Items

Stream

www.twitch.tv/spiralvision

Everyone is welcome to attend this in-game event. If you do attend, please remember to keep it family-friendly. I'll be streaming this in-game event for more information. Thanks to the awesome Fansite Festival Staff & Kingsisle, we will also be having giveaways. Those will be announced on the stream. We hope to see you there! Spread the word to your friends. 

Thanks again to Fansite Festival and be sure to check out ALL of the other special in-game events for Wizard101 & Pirate101 by following Fansite Festival on Twitter - I've provided a direct link down below. Fansite Festival will take place on Saturday, April 17th & Sunday, April 18th, 2021. 

https://twitter.com/FansiteFest