Sorry about the extra wait.

Yeah. I'm finally back. Sorry about the wait, my computer had internet problems for a few days after I got back. But now I'm here. :) And I want to talk about something that has really bothered me lately: popularity. The dictionary definition of the word is: The state or condition of being liked, admired, or supported by many people. While away at summer camp, this resurfaced in my mind. There are a few girls with a whole crowd of friends, and are always surrounded by people. In contrast, I'm not exactly popular and I often sat in silence with one or two people. I find this somewhat interesting. What makes somebody popular? To me, it seems like the popular person is maybe funny, or talkative, or fashionable; none of which describe me in real life. This is not the problem. I am not upset that certain people have lots of friends. My problem is that often, so many people join the "popular" crowd that the more unpopular people are left behind. Not only is this seen in real life, I have noticed it in-game and also on Wizard101 Central. There are certain "archmage posters" (people who post over 7,500 times). I find this annoying. Many people view the most chatty people as the best people. Often the most HELPFUL people have lower post counts because they spend their time writing longer posts that benefit the community. Jesse Strong, one of these "archmage posters" is one of the most popular central users. In the past month or two, someone even posted a thread with pictures of him saying "OMG wow it's Jesse Strong!" These people are being treated like wizard celebrities, and it gets very tiring. However, he is an exceptional PvPer and I admire him for that, NOT for high post counts. Why can't people just get along?




- Sophia E

I've finally done the pagoda!

I went to a party yesterday, and the owner of the house had a Pagoda Gauntlet. Here's a picture I took while at the party:

Everyone was dancing while the owner took a picture, so I decided to take a picture, too! :)

The pagoda was very easy since our friend brought in a level 4 to make the monsters rank 2. I know, it's sort of cheating, but we mostly wanted to get the badge and stuff. The hardest part of the pagoda was getting us all in together. There's something wrong with the sigils that makes me always go in with the level 4 and Elizabeth always go in with our other friend. Here's a picture of me with my new badge:

For other news, I'm about to go to summer camp for a week, but I'm pretty sure this is the LAST TIME I'm going away for an extended trip this summer. I will see you next Saturday, possibly Sunday. 

- Sophia E

Abracadabra!

I have tragic news to tell you. Luke SkyWalker has passed away. (Okay, I actually deleted him. But the name joke isn't funny anymore and it's REALLY old.) And in his place I have a new storm wizard, since storm is awesome and all that. Meet Grace StormRider!

Life will be easy for her. She'll get an early start with Sparky and his tempest card, and all of Luke's stuff is in the shared bank, which has pretty good stats for level 10. All his other stuff for other schools will be sold, so she'll have a fair amount of gold as well. I can already tell she's going to be one of my favorite wizards, because storm rocks! Storm totally rocks, and once she hits level 10 she's going to quest with Elizabeth GoldenThistle's life wizard, Brianna RainbowSong. That'll be great.

It's also my little sister Isabella StarSong's birthday! She's a level 14 balance wizard who chose balance because of an obsession with ancient Egypt (even I don't know why she's obsessed) and is turning __ today!
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to Isabella,
Happy birthday to you!

That's all for now! And frankly, I'm not sorry to say goodbye to Luke!
- Sophia E

I think I've got the hang of GIMP.

Well, I finally know how to use enough of the controls of GIMP to make decent graphics! Elizabeth says they're really good, but I still have a lot of learning to do. Anyway, I made myself an avatar and am going to make Elizabeth a matching one soon. Should I use this for my new blogger image? Comment and let me know! Thanks! :)

- Sophia E

I'm going away...again.

So, the title says it all. Well, not quite all. I have some other things I want to say, too. But yes, anyway, I'm going away, from tomorrow (July 2) to July 5. Except I might not post until the 6th. *static* We interrupt this program with a severe weather alert. Extremely high temperatures reported to last for an indefinite amount of days. *static* Oh, wow, are these people accurate! At the moment, I'm just boiling. *leaves off topic segment of post* So, I finally stopped procrastinating and downloaded GIMP. I was dreaming of making incredible graphics with it, and maybe opening a graphics shop...my dreams were shattered when I opened it. It's deadly confusing. Layers, lots of different windows and tools, tons of menus...um, help? When I looked at tutorials, they were all from outdated versions with different controls. So...I'm putting GIMP away until I have more time. See you later, and I hope the weather reporters were wrong about the "indefinite amount of days" part. I can't stand much more! Agh!

- Sophia E

It's Elizabeth GoldenThistle's birthday!

Today is my best friend Elizabeth GoldenThistle's birthday! Comment on this post if you want to wish her a happy birthday, and I'm having a party for her at 8:30 PM Central Time tonight if you want to drop in. Pick-up is in the top floor of the WC library in Lincoln realm. Look for Tasha IceCoin, level 1 thaumaturge (on a free account). Here is a picture of Elizabeth:

Happy birthday!

- Sophia E

I went to a party!

Hi, everyone! Today I went to a great party. Here are some pictures I took of it! I also found some bloggers.

Swordroll

Paige MoonShade

The majority of the crowd

We played Tag and Scavenger Hunt. Scavenger Hunt was near impossible because there were tons of people there and the items kept getting snatched up! However, Wildfire Tag was great fun, and even though I didn't win I disguised myself once I got tagged and chased after unsuspecting players. >:) Elizabeth GoldenThistle won twice, though, so she requested I get one of her winnings, which was really nice of her. After we played a final game of Scavenger Hunt to conclude the party, we experience a really weird glitch. The stars and Zeke friends stuck around once the game was over:

I did not get anything worth mentioning in the hoard pack, but it was still a great party, and I got to meet some people I'd wanted to meet. Anyway, that's all for today! 

- Sophia E

Behold, my grand return!

I return from a long vacation! And when I logged in to Blogger I saw that this blog has over 1,000 views! Thanks, everybody! Now, I ought to do something special about that, but I don't know what. I'll think on that. Well, just saying that I'm happy to be back and will be ready to blog some more very soon. Later!

- Sophia E

Announcements, announcements...

Oh WOW do I have lots of announcements to make! First off, I'm going away. *collective gasps are heard around the room* "But...but...away? You can't do that!" Oh yes I can. Don't worry. I'm not quitting. I'm just going on vacation for a week! I promise I'll post as soon as I can once I make my grand return that is, come back.
Second, please stare at this picture of my storm wizard.

Yes, his name's Luke Skywalker. It was pretty funny when I found my first few Luke Skywalkers in the spiral. It was not funny when I found my 50th. But here's the big thing...he got a new hat!
.........................................
Just kidding. Actually, I'd like you to pay close attention to his pet! Do you know what that is? No? It doesn't surprise me if you don't. That right there is the all-new Mulberry Hound! *more gasps* That's right! It's one of the new special pets released with Pet-a-Palooza! He's just started training it, slow and steady. I even made a W101 Central Wiki page for it! (Psst...that's here.) If you're reading this and you happen to have a Central account AND a Mulberry Hound, please contribute! If you don't have a Central account, I suggest you create one. It's a lot of fun.

Anyway...the third announcement is not really an announcement. It's more of an apology. I'd like to apologize for not posting much.  I'll continue posting with updates for the fanfiction (gotta get moving on that), the movie, and now with Sparky updates! (That's the name of Luke's hound.)

Fourth announcement: New poll! I want to know if you want me to change my profile picture. I'm capable of much more now than I was then, but I've sort of gotten attached to this one. If you're not convinced I've gotten better, check the Graphics page. Note: I am no longer using Lunapic for my graphics. I'm using Powerpoint and Paint. I know, I know. These are not high end, but are capable of producing surprising results.

Later!
- Sophia E

The Shadow of Night Part 2!

Well...sorry I haven't posted. It's just that without my membership, there's not much to post about. Now, I have two things. First: what the title was about.

There you go. And, the second thing:

I'm starting a new story series! It's called The Spiral Sleuths. There's a wizard from each world, and I write a mystery about each of them. First is Hannah's story. They all take place about eight-ish years after the main plot of Wizard101. I'm probably going to make a new blog to hold them all. Stay tuned!

- Sophia E