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...

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!

Happy 8th Birthday, edwardlifegem.com!

Hi there!

I am proud to announce that today is this website's 8th Birthday. I made this website 8 years ago today to make blog posts about Wizard101. Since then, I've attended events such as the Diary of a Wizard events, had interviews, made posts about online safety, became a Pirate101 Fansite owner, and even started hosting events. Since 2010, I've made it a priority to bring more people in the community together using this website. These past 8 years have been a great experience!

As a backstory, I created this website on May 10th, 2010 with a good friend, Mary Dreamshade. We created our websites because we were inspired by many of the great Fansite owners - one of them being The Friendly Necromancer aka our community manager, Tom Purdue! The Friendly Necromancer, Ravenwood Radio, Diary of a Wizard & many other great fansites were fine examples of community leaders at that time. I was inspired by them to be a friend to those who needed a friend. 

Back in 2008, two years before the creation of my website, I had personal issues such as anxiety and depression due to a loss of close family members. I had these issues and didn't really care much about keeping friends, making new friends, or really much at all. This was until I joined Wizard101 after watching viewing an advertisement on television on July 4th, 2009. This was the date I decided to join Wizard101. 

Since joining Wizard101, my anxiety and depression have virtually disappeared, made a lot of great friends, chose a career path, and more. Now, not everything is perfect, but I am so glad I decided to move forward. I've been asked many times why I still play Wizard101 & make blog posts about it. The reason is to pass it forward just as the old community leaders have done for me when I joined during a tough time in my life. I want to help others who may be going through the same thing. This website has been used for 8 years to do just that. 

The Future Of This Website

The future is looking bright! I have a lot of plans for this website. One of these plans is to starting making blog posts again. I've been behind on my blog posts for a few years now. I miss making blog posts like I did during my first few years of blogging. I hope to make that type of return soon! I think it would be great to have more interviews, questing posts, and of course event posts. Speak of events.

We started streaming events last year to improve the quality of the events that we have. So far, it's been a success! We are always working hard to improve these events - and we do improve upon each event as we go. Compared to our first event, I'd say we've improved our events so much that even I don't mind boasting about the events - that's saying a lot because I don't like boasting! They have been great and I look forward to improving them. The purpose of these events will always be about bringing people together, but they'll never be about how many attend. I look forward to making many more event posts over the next who knows how many years.

I have a lot more planned and I hope you stick by to see these goals. I will continue making blog posts for years to come! A lot of you have stuck by me during tough times since the beginning and I am grateful for that. Thank you for all of your support. I look forward to making a difference in this community. Although I'm not a conventional fansite owner, I do care a lot about this community. I've stayed with y'all for over eight years (even before my website). I will continue staying here to try to make a positive difference in this community. Thank you for allowing me to do that! 

Thank You For Your Support

Your support over these past eight years has meant a lot to me. I thank you for your support whether you just now started supporting me or supported me for eight years. I also want to thank Kingsisle for giving me a chance to share news about this website and our events. I am also grateful for their support! Here's to many more years of Wizard101, Pirate101, Kingsisle, this community and to edwardlifegem.com! Let's continue making a positive difference together!

Read Previous May 10th (Bloggerversary) Posts

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

Until next time, I'll see you around the spiral!

Happy 7th Birthday edwardlifegem.com!

Hi there!

Today is Around the Spiral with Edward Lifegem's 7th Birthday. Seven years ago, today, I made my very first blog post about Wizard101. From there, I started attending community events, making new great friends, and making as many new posts as I could. I feel my messages of Online Safety, Anti-Bullying, and Acceptance has reached a lot of people here in the community.

As many of you now already know, I created this website on May 10th, 2010. That was the first few years of when the community really started growing. I was already in the community months before, but with the creation of this website I was able to interact more with the community than I ever dreamed of. At the time, I was very shy and didn't talk much with anyone. The community changed that part of me, which was a good change because I wanted to make new friends. 

I have seen a lot of people come and go in the blogging community. I am glad blogging is starting to grow again as it did back in the day. My website is actually one of few still making posts even after all of these years. I don't find it bad that I'm bringing such an old theme back into the community, I really enjoy doing that. I think now I'm able to interact more than I ever have before with everyone and that's good! 

Future Plans

This year is going to be a great year! I am going to make a few changes, but those changes will never change who I am. I will still be the same person I've always been. I want to interact with everyone in the community, accept everyone for who they are, and remind everyone that no matter what, I am always here for you! If any of you ever want to talk to me, just ask me to follow you or friend you and we'll talk. I'm glad you're here in the community! What does that have to do with future plans? Well..

I'm planning on hosting a lot of great events this year as I have last year. There is now a change in these events. I want to bring all of the community together as a reminder that no matter what, we're all in this together (I'm pretty sure some of you are singing HSM right now :P). We're going to make this a great year for everyone in the community, not ever a select few.

With blog posts, I am going to catch up on the game and everything that I've missed over the past few years. I've been behind on everything, but now I have a chance to catch up and if any of you have any questions, I'll be able to answer them. With catching up, that means I will also have more blog posts about what I'm up to in the game (such as which character I'm questing, something old I just found out but I wanted to share my thoughts about it, etc). I can't wait to make these new posts for you! 

A Blast From The Past

I've made a blog post every May 10th since 2011. I decided to post a few links here for you to read if you would like to! You can scroll over and then click on the links below to read those posts. Thank you all for all of your support over the past 7 years. It is great to be in this community and I'll always support everyone here. I can't thank you enough for the support you've shown me! Here's to many more years of blogging. 

May 2010: My First Blog Post

May 2011: 1st Bloggerversary

May 2012: 2nd Bloggerversary

May 2013: 3rd Bloggerversary

May 2014: 4th Bloggerversary

May 2015: 5th Bloggerversary

May 2016: 6th Bloggerversary

MAY 2017: 7th Bloggerversary!

Until next time, I'll see you around the spiral!

Wizard101: Mirage Confirmed!

Hello Wizards!

Tom and Leah announced a new world for Wizard101 on Kingsisle Live today!  They gave a concept art teaser on this episode! I was able to take a few screenshots so I thought I'd share them with you. :D

The talk is that Mirage is expected to be released sometime next month in the Test Realm and hopefully we'll have the new world by Christmas! This is going to be a lot of fun. I can't wait to see if we get new spells OR new pets. If we get new pets, I want my Frost Giant pet on my ice wizard and Storm Lord pet on my storm wizard! :P Well... Here's the concept art teaser. Thank you for the amazing episode of KI Live, Tom and Leah!