🥳 Happy 14th Birthday, Around The Spiral 🥳

Hi there!

Today marks 14 years since I created this website. A lot sure has happened over the past 14 years - from it taking me 8 years to become an official Wizard101 Fansite & Pirate101 Fansite, to no longer being one, to hosting dozens of in-game events, making YouTube videos, creating another website, and so on! The question is... what do I have planned for the future?

It's not a secret that the future certainly holds new in-game events. I'd like to promote them more and to a new audience. Our real world is very chaotic and divisive. Despite this, I want to offer the community a place to come to escape all of that.  There is a community within the Wizard101 community where everyone is welcome at our events regardless of their sexuality, political affiliation, religion, etc. 

I joined Wizard101 in 2009 to escape the real world for a bit each day. I'd like to provide that same escape to everyone here. If you want to hang out with a truly diverse and lovely group of people, I welcome you to attend our in-game events. I want to work with Kingsisle to bring our events to a much larger audience - not to promote my name, but to promote a truly diverse community.

One other thing I hope to do is to make new YouTube videos - specifically Spiral News Season 3. I've wanted to do that for quite some time and will look into it. Regardless, I'd like to share my opinions on the game. I promise I'm not a Kingsisle hater - per my nearly 15 years of playing their game and being involved in their community for nearly as long. I want to share my thoughts on how they can improve their game.

As of late, I've been very proud of Kingsisle - with their creation of Ravenwood Academy (releasing later this year), listening to players on PvE, and the generous gifts to the community through the Fansite Festival which celebrated its 10th year. There is much to appreciate. I've defended and criticized Kingsisle - that's what true fans do. A fake fan would only share hate or only share love about the game. 

Other than that, I'm happy to finally be back and provide more to the community than I have these past few years. It's been very tough. I've lost family and friends. My dad passed away from Covid this past September, but I thank Jesus, family, and friends for helping me get through this tough time. I've had my ups and downs, and sometimes so far down where I am where the Helephant appears from. 

My support system has helped me get through one of the toughest times in my life to do things I haven't done before. Kingsisle, Wizard101, Pirate101, and the community have been in a special place in my heart for nearly half of my life. Blogging certainly is of the past, but I'm using Around The Spiral to transcend blogging. 

I'd like to thank you all for 14 wonderful years of Around The Spiral. I hope we can have another 14 - but I'll be almost 45. Lol. I'm not going to rush time. Thank you all so much for your support. I hope to see you Around the Spiral. I also hope y'all will join us at this year's Pride Run event to meet our community within the community. 

🏳️‍🌈 The Wizard101 Pride Run - Saturday, June 29th 🏳️‍🌈

Hello Wizards!

I'm happy to announce that I'll be hosting an in-game Wizard101 Pride event. Like Pride Parades, we'll have our own parade around Wizard City. You do not need a membership or mounts to participate in this event. All you need to do is wear a pride color (or colors) that best represent you. If you're an ally, wear all of the colors you can! Here's more information about this event:

When: Saturday, June 29 @ 3pm Central / 4pm Eastern

Where: The Commons, Wu Realm

Livestream: www.twitch.tv/AroundTheSpiral

Please share the link to this post with your friends - I hope to promote this event so everyone knows there is a community of love and support. I'm hosting this to let everyone in the community know they are loved and accepted no matter their sexuality, political ideology, religion, race, etc. As a fellow gay man, I'm thankful I got to come out to such a large accepting part of the community. I'm paying the love back by hosting in-game events such as this. I hope you can attend - the picture below is from 2023!

The Halloween Run Event - Sunday, October 29th

 Hello Wizards!

It's that time of year. Dressing up in your favorite Halloween costumes for one shell of an in-game event. I'm excited to announce that Around The Spiral will begin hosting an annual Halloween Run event starting this October. We'll have two primary contests at this event - a Screenshot Contest and a television-themed Song Contest. Before we talk about that, let's get the important details out of the way - the event's day, time, and area.

When
 Sunday, October 29 @ 3pm Central / 4pm Eastern

Where
Nightside, Vampire Realm (All Areas)

Stream

www.twitch.tv/AroundTheSpiral

 Rental Mounts Provided + Contests Announced on Twitch Stream

As I mentioned, we'll be hosting two contests. In order to participate in these contests, you must be in attendance at the event - and watching our live stream on our Twitch Channel above. Below, you'll see the rules of each contest. I hope you'll participate in these awesome contests! We'll also have more fun giveaways and contests throughout the event.

The Screenshot Contest                                    2 Winners: $20 W101 GS Card

1. Attend the Halloween Run Event

2. Take 1 Screenshot when the run begins using the keys CTRL+G & PRTSRC 

3. Email the Screenshot to edwardfrostgem@gmail.com with the subject "Screenshot Contest" and your wizard's name.

The two winners will be drawn using a random.org list randomizer. Since this is random, everyone will have an equal chance to win. 

The Television Theme Contest                     2 Winners: $20 W101 GS Card

1. Watch the Halloween Run Livestream - www.twitch.tv/AroundTheSpiral

2. Write a List of the 7 Television Theme Songs in Order played (Type them in the live stream chat as each song plays throughout the event to help others.)

3. Send the List to edwardfrostgem@gmail.com with the subject "Television Contest" and your wizard's name.

The two winners of this contest will also be drawn using a random.org list randomizer. Since this is random, everyone will have an equal chance to win.

Share this blog post with all of your friends so they know to attend the Halloween Run. Also, mark those calendars. Thank you all for your support. I hope to see you at the event. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me in the comments below OR on social media. Until next time, I'll see you around the Spiral. 

Pride Run Recap

 Hello Wizards!

I hope all of you have had a wonderful weekend. I had a great weekend especially since I was able to host the Pride Run without any technical difficulties - thanks to my new computer. It was amazing to hang out with everyone once again for an event that brought the community together.

Pride Run 2023 Stream Video

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1848810782

This event wasn't about me but about the community in general. This event was one of many examples around the community that shows that in the Wizard101 community - you are loved and supported. I'd like to thank everyone that supported this event whether you were able or unable to attend. Your support for the events this month is a sign for those that may be uncomfortable with their identity/sexuality that they are supported here.

I came out a few years ago to this wonderful community because of the support and love I've received for years - whether it was when my grandfather passed away or when I was going through a severe depression. I'm very thankful to have an online place to call my home away from home. Continuing to show this support, not just one month but year-round, will inspire many to be themselves.

Life can be hectic offline, but we can make our time in this community the best it can be. It can be an additional reminder that life is worth living. I'm very thankful that I can have moments like yesterday that truly renew my faith in humanity. Thank you all again for attending this year's Pride Run and reading this new blog post. Until next time, I'll see you around the spiral.

As a confirmation, we will host another Pride Run in 2024. 💙

Happy 13th Birthday, Around The Spiral!

 Hello Wizards!

You've read the title correctly.. Around the Spiral is officially a teenager! Now, don't worry I won't be going through the "teenage years" with a bad attitude. We all know that occurred several years ago! 🤣 Instead, I want to bring Around the Spiral to new heights and reach a wider audience than just here through my blog. Let's talk!

For years, I've made blog posts or created guides (my past project). I became burned out with blogging back in 2020. I took nearly a three year hiatus to focus on my mental health - which became a major problem from 2015 through the early 2020s. I've improved a lot, but still have work to do. One part of improving my mental health is doing things I enjoy - which is playing Wizard101 and Pirate101. 

These are hobbies. I don't look to be paid for it because I already have a career path that I'm enjoying. I'm happy for those that are able to work while playing these games or any games for that matter. That's a pretty cool job. What I'm hoping to do is build up Around the Spiral to get as many people to know that they are loved and respected in this community.

A true judgmental zone and safe space involves not judging people based on their sexuality, their race, their religion, who they vote for, etc. I'm not capable of changing the community on my own - it takes everyone to do that. I do hope this platform can be part of the change that shows everyone that no matter what they believe, they are welcome in this community. There are people that will agree to disagree. I'm not perfect, I've certainly had my moments - in the past. What I've always wanted, even during those imperfect moments was to make new friends that didn't judge me for who I am. I did judge others for judging me which was a major mistake on my end. 

We all know our world is crazy and a whole lot of bad is occurring. We don't have to ignore the bad, but we can share kindness because I'm a firm believer one kind action can go a long way. One thing I'm very excited about is a new program that I (and anyone) was able to join - Wizard101 Extra Credits. This program doesn't restrict us to only praise the game/team. I believe its purpose is to unite us to also share our love for the game. We can still share our thoughts on what we want changed. That's awesome!

In addition to posting about various topics each month for Extra Credits, I am also going to expand Around the Spiral to new platforms. I know about the leadership talks, but... for now, I'm excited to announce that Around the Spiral is officially on TikTok! It took me years to finally decide to start sharing content there. Anywhere from 0 to 1 million people may watch whatever videos I post on there. LOL. I'm acting silly ab out it, but I think it'll be fun to make different types of videos there. I've had many ideas in the past but never got to share them since I didn't have a TikTok. Now that I do, I hope you'll join me on there for a lot of fun stuff. It'll be slow postings at first, but as we progress through Summer - there will be many new uploads. I've embedded my first video at the bottom of this post if you'd like to check it out.

Overall, I want to try my best to make fun videos, posts, events, and more to help guide a focus on more fun stuff. Life is short. We should always make the best of it - which I hope to do during the teenage years of Around the Spiral. We WILL make it to 20. Imagine that... 20 years old... Goodness. 2033 better not rush here too fast. Anyway, I want to thank each and everyone of you from the bottom of my heart for all of the support you've shown me and this website over the past 13 years. I'm so thankful to call each and everyone of you my friends. Thank you for reading and here's to 13 more years of Around the Spiral. 

@aroundthespiral101 My FAVORITE Wizard101 Pet! #Wizard101ExtraCredits #Wizard101 #W101 ♬ original sound - aroundthespiral101

Updating The Events

 Hello Wizards,

I would like to thank all of you that were able to attend this year's Bunny Run event! I had a lot of fun hanging out with y'all. I was also able to test out streaming for the first time in well over a year. With that, I've decided from popular demand to change things up with our events.

For nearly seven years, we've had activities first and the final Run Event towards the end. Well, I've decided that we'll host the Run First and then activities afterwards so everyone has a chance to do what they want to do. Activities have always been a part of the Run events so I hope you'll enjoy those each time we host in-game events.

Our next event will take place in June. Starting there, we'll host the Run within 10 minutes after we start the stream and then we'll do activities such as Hide & Seek after the run. I'd like to thank all that provided constructive criticism today because I do love listening to the community and will change what needs to be changed. If you have any other suggestions for the future, I'd appreciate them. You are always welcome to comment here on my blog, message me on social media, or even message me in game with your suggestions.

The future is looking bright! I look forward to hosting new events throughout the year for the community. Whether you're new or old to the events - thank you so much for your support. I'm always thankful for everyone that takes time out of their day to attend these events. I hope you'll join us for the Pride Run in June! There's plenty of time for me to work on implementing your suggestions for these events. Without you, there are no events - you make these occur. Anyway, thank you for reading and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your weekend. Don't forget to enjoy the rest of the Fansite Festival events! Until next time, I'll see you around the spiral.

The Wizard101 Pride Run - Saturday, June 17th

Hello Wizards!

I am so excited to announce that we will be hosting a Pride Run event in Wizard101 for Pride Month! Everyone, no matter their sexuality, is welcome to attend this in-game event. As we do in the majority of our events - rental mounts will be provided and you don't need a membership to participate! This will mark our first event where we Run First, Participate in Activities Secondly! 

When: June 17 @ 2pm Central / 3pm Eastern

Where: The Commons, Wu Realm

Stream: www.twitch.tv/AroundTheSpiral

We will have contests and giveaways - which will be announced during the stream! On top of that, we'll have fun activities after the Pride Run. You may also watch the Run Path by clicking the play button on the video above. If you haven't attended our events before and want more information about them, visit the Events page on the tab just below our "Around The Spiral" graphic. If you have any questions about this event, please leave a comment down below. Mark your calendars with the date & time and do invite your friends. We hope to see you there! Happy Pride!

Pride Run Event - Saturday, June 20th

Hello Wizards!

I hope you're having a wonderful start of your weekend. I asked wizards on Twitter what they thought about an Pride Run and many replied with great support. So, today (and yesterday - hehe), I'm officially announcing the next event, the Pride Run.

When

Saturday, June 20th @ 3pm Central / 4pm Eastern

www.twitch.tv/spiralvision

Where

The Commons, Greyrose Realm

Wear

Pride Colors & Your Favorite Colorful Mount

Pathway (Same Path As The Wizard Run)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugQ0VrAeW

Everyone is more than welcome to attend this in-game event. I will be streaming this event, but will not hot activities as we usually do - just consider this an old-fashioned event. The Run will begin exactly at 3pm Central / 4pm Eastern so be sure to line up on the bridge before that time. Share the link of this blog post with everyone so they know when/where to meetup + where to run. Thank you all so much for your support. We'll see you at the event. :D 

Community

Hi there!

Today, I am celebrating 10 years of Around The Spiral. When I created this website, I thought that maybe it would last a couple of years, several years at most. I would've never dreamed that this website would still be here 10 years after my first blog post! I never really mention what I'm proud of, but I'm certainly proud that my website has become the 3rd oldest still-active website in this community. And, I'm not even done yet.

Over the years, Around the Spiral has had its ups and downs since its creation in 2010. Sure, there may have been many chaotic moments here and there, but we've overcome those very strange moments and made it to a point I never thought we'd make it - a decade. Around The Spiral would've never made it this far without the support of my true friends here in this community. It's because of you that anything that this site provides continues to thrive whether it's my online safety tips or any in-game event that we host. I am so very thankful for each and every one of you! 

So, now let's travel back in time to 2010. On May 8th & May 9th of 2010, I was deciding on whether or not to create a website with an old friend, Mary Dreamshade of The Pie Loving Necromancer. The following day, May 10th, 2010, I decided to create the website. I called this website... wait for it... Wizard101! I know, I know. It's silly, but I had no idea what to call it. I've never been good at coming up with names for anything. Creating this site provided me a way to share all of my memories at the time from attending Diary of a Wizard's Ravenwood Ball to questing adventures. When I look back on the nearly 2,000 blog posts I've made since that time, there are some adventures that I don't even remember. While I don't remember these adventures, I am thankful I wrote them down at the time so I could still look back on them in the future. One day, I'll even look back on this blog post and be like... wow, that was so long ago, even though 2020 seems futuristic at the time. ;) 

Looking back, I am thankful for all of the support both you and Kingsisle has provided me to make this website the best it can be. Through thick and thin, y'all have continued to support this site and even make it the most popular it's been in 7 years even though I'm not making as many blog posts. I guess if you consider it, it really is the most popular year so far especially if I made as many blog posts as I did back in the day. I would literally wake up and make a blog post about something random in the game. But these were such fun times and while I might not make as many blog posts as I have in the past, I still have many special blog posts, events, and more planned for the future. There will certainly be a future here at Around The Spiral and I hope you stick around to see what I have planned. 

Everyone should go to www.wizard101.com right now and have one of the best times of your life! If you follow my advice, you will make many new friends and will never get tired of playing the game. Log into Wizard101 now and create a new wizard to have a lot of fun with the rest of the Wizard101 Community. This is somewhat poetic. My first blog post was labeled Wizard101. My 10-year blog post is labeled Community. The true community members that make this place such a fun place to be will always thrive now and forever. Thank you for helping this website make it to 10 years.  Feel free to read ALL of my Bloggerversary posts by clicking on the hyperlinks below. 

May 10th, 2010

May 10th, 2011

May 10th, 2012

May 10th, 2013

May 10th, 2014

May 10th, 2015

May 10th, 2016

May 10th, 2017

May 10th, 2018

May 10th, 2019

May 10th, 2020

I still can't thank you all enough for what you've done for me over the years. My main goal has been and always will be to bring this community together since the very beginning. I hope to continue to do that through this website and more as time progresses. You're great friends, a great family, and overall, a great community. One community. Now, let's see what the next 10 years will bring us! I have avoided making a throwback video because I'm saving that for the future. If Future Edward doesn't make a throwback video for his final blog post, you better cast one of the level 58 spells (or higher) on him! Thank you all for reading. Until next time, I'll see you AROUND THE SPIRAL. 10 MORE YEARS of...

Wizard Run 2020: Saturday, May 30th

Hello Wizards!

Today, I'm happy to announce a new in-game event called The Wizard Run! This event will take place on Saturday, May 30th in The Commons, Greyrose Realm with tons of fun in-game activities & awesome surprises beginning at 12pm Central / 1pm Eastern on www.twitch.tv/spiralvision! Everyone is welcome to attend this event. Memberships aren't required to participate. Now, let's get to more information about this event, including an official schedule.

12pm Central / 1pm Eastern - Twitch Stream Begins / Pet Dance Party

www.twitch.tv/spiralvision

12:10pm Central / 1:10pm Eastern
Pet Derby (Your Favorite Teen Plus Pet)

12:30pm Central / 1:30pm Eastern

Hide & Seek

1:00pm Central / 2:00pm Eastern
Wizard Caroling Raid

1:30pm Central / 2:30pm Eastern

A Wizard Story

2:15pm Central / 3:15pm Eastern

A Very Special Surprise
(Watch Twitch Stream For Announcement)

2:45pm Central / 3:45pm Eastern

Line Up For Wizard Run

(1-Day Mounts Provided - Watch Video Guide Below For Run Path)

3:00pm Central / 4:00pm Eastern

The Wizard Run Begins - The Commons, Greyrose Realm

3:30pm Central / 4:30pm Eastern

Afterparties Begin

(Port Wizards Announced On Stream)

Not all Activities above (such as the Wizard Caroling Raid or Hide and Seek) will be in the Greyrose Realm. Remember to watch our Twitch Stream for directions on how to win any giveaway and realm changes. Keep in mind that the run will begin after the activities at 3pm Central / 4pm Eastern in the Greyrose Realm. And please be a good sport if you don't win a contest or giveaway - don't beg for prizes. Help us spread the word about this event by sharing this blog post with your friends and on your social media pages. Below you can get a reminder of this event by following the Event Page on Facebook or giving us a follow on Twitter. There's also a link to a page explaining more about our events. We hope to see you at this year's Wizard Run. Thank you all so much for your support. Let's continue this tradition together.

A Facebook Reminder - Event Page

https://www.facebook.com/events/227534265354740/

A Twitter Reminder - SpiralVision Twitter

https://twitter.com/thespiralvision

Learn More About Our Events

http://www.edwardlifegem.com/p/events.html

Santa Run 2019 - Recap Post

Hello Wizards!

Merry Christmas! I hope all of you are having an amazing week before Christmas. Over at SpiralVision, we celebrated Christmas by hosting our 5th Annual Santa Run. I have to say that this event may have been my favorite event out of all of the previous events we've hosted. So before I start recapping everything, I want to thank all of you for making it such a great time. This community means so much to me and I truly appreciate any support you show whether you were able to attend or not. Thank you. Now, let's get to recapping!

As you see above, Mr. WhiteTiger93 on YouTube had his own great Santa Run 2019 recap video. I truly do appreciate that he makes these videos for everyone! He does such a great job making these videos, and of course, making many other videos involving the game. So I ask all of you today to give his video a like and subscribe to his channel. We definitely need more family-friendly content creators like him in this community. Thank you WhiteTiger93! 

One thing that really uplifted my spirits was all of the new wizards that attend this year's Santa Run. There were points this year where I didn't think family-friendly events were as appreciated as previous years. This event proved me wrong. I am so thankful for that. I hope all of you check out each family-friendly event, not just ours, that takes place in this community. Hosting an event is tough work, especially around the Holidays. There are a few upcoming events in the community such as DuelCircle's 5th Clash Tournament on December 21st & 22nd and Radiance Reborn's event on December 22nd. I hope that y'all are also able to check them out.

This year was certainly something else! But at the end of the day, I'm still so thankful for all of you. What I see in the photo above is a community of people of many different races, religions, orientations, etc. This is what the community has always been to me. It shows that the world can come together. It seems corny, but I love it. It's not just our events. I appreciate it when you celebrate other family-friendly events in the community as well. Anyway, this is more of a thank you post than anything. I just wanted all of you to know how much I appreciate your support. 

I'd like to thank our awesome Moderators (WhiteTiger93 & Sarah Skystrider) for hosting fun code giveaways in the Twitch Chat during the entirety of our event and Iridian Willowglen for hosting such an epic afterparty at her Briny Deep Retreat. Also a major thank you to Autumn Dreamwalker for streaming with this weird wizard named Edward Lifegem. And I'd like to thank Kingsisle for supporting this event through codes and helping us promote the event! I truly do appreciate their support, not just for our events, but events throughout the community. Thank you, Kingsisle. And last, but certainly not least, I'd like to thank all of you reading for your support - whether you were able to attend or not. You truly made my Christmas season a lot brighter. Thank you all again for supporting us and I hope you have a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year. We'll see you in 2020!

Learn More About Our Events

http://www.edwardlifegem.com/p/events.html

Santa Run 2019: Saturday, December 14th

Hello Wizards!

I'm proud to announce that we will host another Santa Run event this year! Our 5th Annual Santa Run will take place on Saturday, December 14th @ 2pm Central / 3pm Eastern in The Commons, Greyrose Realm. We'll need your help promoting this year's event by sharing this post with all of your friends / the community. Now, let's talk about the schedule of activities that we have planned for this year's Santa Run!

12pm Central / 1pm Eastern

Twitch Stream Begins

https://www.twitch.tv/spiralvision

12:10pm Central / 1:10pm Eastern

Krampus Farming

12:30pm Central / 1:30pm Eastern

Christmas Pet Derby (Teen Pet)

12:50pm Central / 1:50pm Eastern

Christmas Hide & Seek

1:10pm Central / 2:10pm Eastern

Santa's Elves Return

1:30pm Central / 2:30pm Eastern

Christmas Caroling / Line Up For Santa Run

(1-Day Mounts Will Be Provided - Announced On Twitch Stream)

2pm Central / 3pm Eastern

Santa Run Begins (Watch Video Above For Run Path)

2:20pm Central / 3:20pm Eastern

Afterparty Begins (Port Wizards Announced On Twitch Stream)

We will have various giveaways throughout the event, but remember not to beg or complain if you don't win/get something. The main purpose of this event is to bring the community together - as we have tried doing since our first Santa Run back in December of 2012. I hope that you're able to attend this year's event. If not, please help us by sharing this post with your friends & the community. Thank you all so much for your support over the years. We hope to see you at this year's Santa Run.

Learn More About Our Events

http://www.edwardlifegem.com/p/events.html

Community Apprecation Day: Thank You!

Hi there!

Happy Community Apprecation Day to all of you! Today, many of the fansite owners/community leaders have made posts and/or videos sharing their appreciation for this wonderful community. Today, I'm doing the same thing. Let me start off with saying that I appreciate each & every one of you for everything that you do to make this community a great place to be! Whether you're a content creator or just someone that plays the game that we all love, you do make a positive difference in this community. So thank you for being here with us! Now, I'm going to go into detail about what I appreciate about this community.

For years, I've come across many great people that did so much for the community. The community fansite owners - both Wizard101 and Pirate101 - have been a few of these great people. All of the Fansite Owners, official or not, put so much time and energy into their sites! With that, they all provide great information to their readers and bring all of the community together. Many of these sites have been here for years and still provide important information that helps improve our gameplay experience. There are also new sites that have joined that have also made a very positive difference in this awesome community. I would like to send a major thank you to all of the fansite owners in this community! Continue keeping up the great work & bringing this community together. If you're reading and would like to check out the official fansites (some of which have links to other great blogs in the community), feel free to click on the hyperlinks below!

Wizard101 Fansites

Pirate101 Fansites

One thing that is somewhat, but also not so much, new, are streamers! Twitch has been a great way to bring the community together. I'm sure many of you can agree with me that the streamers of the community (not including myself here) have made a positive impact on the community. How so? Well, they are able to get many in the community together for various events - whether its PvP or even questing together. I would like to thank ALL of the streamers in this community for doing what you can to bring this community together through your channels. I can say right now that I've had many great memories - such as the one above when we were at one of Heather&Val's streams from 2017. This last-minute event made it to one of my all-time favorite memories in this community. Heather, Tara, AwesomeTheSauce, and many other streamers have also supported just-starting content creators throughout the community. That is greatly appreciated. I hope the streaming community continues to grow and all streamers continue to join together to make a larger positive difference in this community than has already been made. It's definitely possible! 

Wizard101 Twitch Streams

Pirate101 Twitch Streams

One last thing I'd like to say is that I lost track of this appreciation for this community over the years. That's something I never thought would happen. It wasn't until recently that I was able to see that I do appreciate the things that everyone does for this community. I've had my fair share of regretful moments in this community. I've said many regretful things, especially over the past few years. But despite that, I still appreciate what all of you do - content creator or not. My hope is that one day we can all join together to make this community the best place it can be. We can still have our disagreements, except you better not ever say that you hate vanilla ice cream. Then, we might have an issue. 😂 Overall, I want to say that every single last person has a place in this community. Thank you all so much for reading. And Happy 11th Birthday to Wizard101. 💗

Aladdin Returns!

Hello Wizards!

I have some breaking news from the Spiral. The Hero that saved everyone from a total monster takeover during Halloween of 2017 has finally returned to the Spiral. Aladdin is back! He has many plans to make the Spiral the best place it can be for everyone.

He looks forward to sharing his new adventures with y'all over the next month or so! And if you see him in the Spiral, be sure to welcome him back & thank him for saving Wizard City. Hopefully, a takeover like that never happens again.... right? It's not going to happen again...? Anyway, let's celebrate this spooky season with Prince ALaddIn's Return to the Spiral! 

A Long-Needed Break

Hello Wizards!

It's actually been nearly a month since I've made a new blog post. Today, I wanted to talk about our events, and a bit of what we have planned for the future. We recently celebrated our recent Holiday Mashup event (the recap post will be published later this week) which was a lot of fun even though we had to improvise unlike ever before. But we recently decided it was time to take a break from hosting events.

I started the first Run event back in December of 2012 - known as The Santa Run. In December of 2015, I decided it was time to bring it back and we started hosting events nearly every Holiday since that time. With each event, we would further improve how we hosted the event & even started hosting activities that would take place before the main run event. Back in the day, we would wait in the commons until it was time to run & then after the run, we'd teleport everyone to the after-party. Today, we host many activities, run, and then have an afterparty. With that, came a lot more work. 

We started working with Kingsisle to get codes to giveaway to you all during our events, further improved our activities so most were able to participate and started streaming our events on Twitch. All of that also came with a lot more work. In 2015, it would take an hour to prepare for an event. Our 2016 events? I'd say around 3 or 4 hours. Today's events take countless hours to prepare for. So it does take a lot of time & energy to come up with everything. It is fun hosting them, but after nearly four years (30 major events) of doing this, we thought it would be good to take a long-needed break from the events.

We were thinking that a perfect time to come back with the events would be the Bunny Run of 2020 - which will either take place in March or April of 2020. This will give us time to improve SpiralVision when it comes to our normal streams & try to think up a new direction for the events going forward. Again, we are in no way leaving. We're just taking a temporary break from the events. The purpose of these events has always been to bring the community together. So let's create a SpiralVision community. Our vision of the spiral has always been the same as the old community leaders. I look forward to bringing that to life next year. So get ready for major surprises going forward. In the meantime, feel free to join us on our new upcoming streams on SpiralVision! Also, feel free to give us a follow!

https://www.twitch.tv/spiralvision

Holiday Mashup 2019: Guide Contest

Hello Wizards!

The Holiday Mashup 2019 is quickly approaching! This year's Holiday Mashup will take place on Sunday, August 11th (http://www.edwardlifegem.com/2019/07/holiday-mashup-2019-sunday-august-11th.html). If you didn't know, each one of our events, we not only have activities, but we also run around Wizard City in a group - keep in mind this will be a multi-area event. If you watch the video below, you'll see where we'll run during this event. The Run officially begins after all of our activities. Now let's talk about the contest!

We'll be giving away 30,000 crowns to one lucky winner that watches the Holiday Mashup Video (above) and correctly writes down all of the areas that we visit. All correct entries sent to us through email will be entered into a Random.Org drawing. If you would like more information about this contest, keep reading:

Watch The Run Video

You will need to watch the video above to know where we'll be running during the "Run Portion" of our event. Again, The Run will take place after we have activities during our event.

Write Down The Areas

 As you watch the video, you will need to write down (in order) all of the areas that we visit in the video. We will visit an area more than once, so make sure to write down every single area. Example: We will start in The Commons and end in The Commons. You will have to write down both.

Send An Email

Once you write down all of the areas, please send an email to thespiralvision@gmail.com. Please include your Wizard's Name and Your List Of Areas with the Subject "Holiday Mashup Guide Contest". This Contest STARTS TODAY and ENDS Sunday, August 11th. Good luck to everyone!

Holiday Mashup 2019: Sunday, August 11th

Hello Wizards!

We hope you're ready for one epic Summer Event! Our 2nd Annual Holiday Mashup will take place on Sunday, August 11th with our Official Stream beginning at 12pm Central / 1pm Eastern on Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/spiralvision). Please keep reading this page for more information about this epic Summer event and a special giveaway!

12:00 pm Central                                   Twitch Stream Begins

12:10 pm Central                                   The Nightshade Battle
12:30 pm Central                         Pet Derby (Holiday Teen Pet)

12:50 pm Central                                    We Are Santa's Elves

1:20 pm Central                                      Holiday Hide & Seek

1:50 pm Central                      Holiday Mashup Raid Caroling 

2:10 pm Central                                            Trick Or Treating

2:30 pm Central                                Line Up For Mashup Run

(Watch Video Below To See Where We'll Be Running)

3:00 pm Central                         Holiday Mashup Run Begins

3:30 pm Central                                          Afterparties Begin

Holiday Mashup Raffle (One Winner)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I hope you're ready for this epic event! Spread the word to your friends by sharing a link to this post with them. Let's get the word out about this special event & contest. This will be a family-friendly event, so please keep it family-friendly if you're planning on attending. Thank you all so much. Let's make this event one of our best events ever! If you would like event reminders, feel free to follow SpiralVision on Twitter or click on "Interested" on our Facebook Event Page (link below). We hope to see you at the event!

Follow SpiralVision on Twitter

https://twitter.com/thespiralvision

Facebook Event Reminder

https://www.facebook.com/events/2238708012864948/

More Information About Our Events
http://www.edwardlifegem.com/p/events.html

Happy 9th Birthday, edwardlifegem.com!

Hi there!

Today's a very special day for this website because we're celebrating its 9th Birthday! Nine Years Ago, May 10th, 2010, I decided to create this website with Mary Dreamshade from "The Pie Loving Necromancer" to start blogging about a game that I love, Wizard101. Since then, we've made so many memories!

I created my website using the domain edwardwintergem.blogspot.com. My original purpose was to share my ice wizard, Edward Wintergem, adventures with everyone. This included farming for specific pets, attending events, and of course, questing! One specific topic that I would often blog about starting out in 2010 was the upcoming world of Celestia! Let's just say I couldn't wait to see this new world released to the public. Kingsisle would often hint at this world by releasing concept art & such, but waited awhile to officially release the world. I made a handful of blog posts about Celestia, but as soon as it was released, I started questing instead of blogging. Oops!

After leveling all six of my wizards at the time, I started paying more attention to reading blogs such as "The Friendly Necromancer" and attending events from another Official Fansite, "Diary of a Wizard". I was not as active in the community at the time and everyone who knew me knew that I was shy. As time progressed, I became less shy & more open. With that, I made many new friends! I also decided to start blogging again during the following year, 2011. I continued making many new Wizard101 blog posts throughout that year and through 2012. 

In early 2012, Kingsisle announced a new game called Pirate101. I knew that I wanted to blog about this game because I loved pirates and really, the first online game that I tried playing was Pirates of the Carribean Online. Although, I must say that it lagged quite a bit since my computer was blah! :P Anyway, Pirate looked amazing and I started making many posts about events & my questing adventures (Edward Cringle to be specific). At the current time of this blog post being published, I believe more than half of the posts made (currently standing at 1,807) are Pirate-related. GO Pirate!

It's 2019, nine years to the day after I created this website. I must say that it's been such a great adventure! As we head into my blog's decaversary, I hope to continue bringing the community together through new blog posts, events, and more. Thank you all for supporting this website whether you just started reading today or have been reading since day one! Let's continue this adventure together.  Feel free to read all of my current May 10th posts by clicking on the dates/links below. 

May 10th, 2010

May 10th, 2011

May 10th, 2012

May 10th, 2013

May 10th, 2014

May 10th, 2015

May 10th, 2016

May 10th, 2017

May 10th, 2018

May 10th, 2019

To end this post, I made a short montage of most of the headers that I've used over the years! Some of you may think that I've used the current header (at the top of the blog) the entire time I've been here, but I've used various headers for this website over the past nine years. Anyway, I'll leave you all to watching the video below. Thank you all so much for reading this post & supporting this website.  Until next time, I'll see you around the spiral. Onwards to 10 years!

Bunny Run 2019: Recap!

Hello Wizards!

We recently (about two weeks ago) had our 4th Annual Bunny Run! I still can't believe we've had four of these type of events.  So before we go into detail about exactly what we did, let's take a look at a Recap Video from WhiteTiger93 - please subscribe to him if you haven't already!

As you can tell from the video above, everyone had the option to have a Bunny Mount. I'd like to thank our awesome community manager, Mathew Anderson, for giving us rental bunny mount codes for those who did not have a Bunny Mount. We gave this multi-use code on our stream just before we started running. 

We started this year's event by having a little dance party while also describing the activities that we were going to have. We then made our way to the Haunted Cave to battle Nightshade in the Stormdrain Tower. I'm still wondering at the time I'm making this post if Nightshade actually had Easter-themed items. I am going to guess that he did since Eggbert was still in the Spiral at the time of this event. :D If not, we still showed Nightshade that Wizard City will never be taken over by monsters... Unless Evil Edward is still here... I guess we'll see about that...

After farming, we went to the Pet Pavilion to show off my Pet Derby Skills using my Pet Egg. Many of you might be shocked, but I actually made it to 2nd Place during one of my matches. I am kinda shocked because I haven't had any chance to practice. Then again, maybe live streaming these matches inspire me to try my best? Who knows! Shortly after Pet Derby, we had Hide & Seek where we gave away Permanent Wild Hare Mounts. And after Hide & Seek, we went Christmas Caroling, because why not?! 

After our various activities, we gave away Rental Bunny Mount Codes from Kingsisle to all who did not have a Bunny Mount. We then lined up on Rainbow Bridge in The Commons to get ready to Run! We always have a Run Guide Video (to show where we'll be running in Wizard City) so we reminded everyone to watch that video before we made our way through Wizard City. I was actually able to take the screenshot above as we made our way from Rainbow Bridge into Ravenwood! Such a great picture of all of the cute bunnies! :D 

After the Run, we made our way to Iridian Willowglen's awesome Botanical Gardens House where she had every Garden Seed in the game. She also had a maze (which I made it through as we were streaming) and an awesome underground scene (see image below) where you could see everyone running around in the house. I had so much fun pointing out the names of everyone running above us! Our other amazing host Sarah Skystrider gave away stuff during this afterparty & in the Twitch Chat. :D 

This event was a lot of fun and I said above, it was nice hanging out with all of y'all. I would like to thank everyone (Autumn Dreamwalker, Iridian Willowglen, Sarah Skystrider,  & Victoria) for helping to make this event the best that it could be. Now that this event is over, we'll be preparing for our next event, the Holiday Mashup! Get ready because this event will be our best event yet! You will not want to miss out. Keep an eye out next month for an official announcement of this year's event. Thank you to everyone that attended this year's Bunny Run & we hope to see you in August at our 2nd Annual Holiday Mashup!

Watch Our 4th Annual Bunny Run Stream:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/417807426