🥳 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!

Throwback Thursday (Ravenwood Ball)!

Hello Wizards!

Did you know that I have been on the game, Wizard101, nearly six years?! Yes... I have and I have plenty of memories I'd love to share with you! I decided to make a post each Thursday telling you quite a few favorite Wizard101 memories of mine. :D Today I'm going to make an old story, even though it doesn't seem like it happened that long ago, about a website called Diary of a Wizard and what they did on their Birthday. The first event started in 2010 and lasted through 2012!

I'm sure many of you that have been playing Wizard101 and have been in the community for a few years know about Diary of a Wizard's amazing Ravenwood Ball & Birthday Bash! Diary of a Wizard was an amazing Fansite and the owners of the fansite were the best people you could get to know! Fallon Shadowblade was one of the owners and she would always be so supportive of everyone in the community. :D I remember joining the first party and let me say this... the Ravenwood Ball & Birthday Bash was and is the biggest party that could ever be hosted on Wizard101. I'm sure many of you have already been to parties on the game and all of them are amazing, but Diary of a Wizard's Ravenwood Ball had so many people that there would be 15-30 different areas in a single realm! Other Fansite owners would  help Diary of a Wizard host the events and have a ton of amazing contests and there were many houses full of wizards and the main realm in Ravenwood. We would usually meet up in the Vampire Realm in Ravenwood and I would log on 12 hours before the party and stay on most of the day chatting with my friends. :D 

Everyone knew a ton of wizards would soon show up and there would be plenty of lag and a sea of blue and purple names! This event was amazing and sometimes my computer didn't work as well as I wanted it to, but I still attended this amazing event. I've already made many posts about this event on this website, but I could make one million posts and would never get tired of it. :D I really would like to thank the owners of Diary of a Wizard, staff and even the old fansite owners that made this event possible! :D I will always remember this awesome memory, and I'm sure many of you that attended the event will too! I'm thankful I have this website to make memorable blog posts like this one because I wouldn't even have the screenshots I have because I've already replaced many computers. :P Thank you again Diary of a Wizard for all of your fun times on the game and all of the work you did for the community. :) I'll have another Throwback next Thursday. Until then, I'll see you around the Spiral!