Summer's Over

Ok, for some reason I've really wanted to do a reflective summer post, but I just have no idea what to say O.o

Well, I know I definitely have to talk about the book I finished not ten minutes ago, called A Cast of Stones : The Staff and the Sword, first book in a series and I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS.

Strangely, I didn't read very much this summer. I just couldn't get into any books, no matter how good they were. Heckhounds, I could barely get into my own writing -_-

I saw this book sitting innocently on the shelf while I was waiting for my harp lesson to be over at our local library. It looked interesting, and I picked it up a couple times, but put it back because I thought it was more MA than YA (it's YA). But a "rate this book" slip was in the cover, and the four people who had read it rated it 5 out of 5 - so in the end I checked it out.

It took me two weeks to read, but let me tell you, the ending is SUPER CRAZY I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!! This world is beautifully crafted, and the characters are incredibly real; not to mention the culture, though original, stayed true to actually, medieval concepts.

You guys definitely need to check it out - it's a series worth reading! (And you should totally listen to me because of my explicable taste in literature XD).


I also thought over my series project a lot. Not only the editing of book one, but of the entire order of the books. I came up with a pretty good idea to send some people into thinking deeply over the history of my world, so I think I'll go through with this change.

(I know that probably sounded confusing, but bear with me :3)

So basically, one of the books in the series I hope to finish this school year (again). My goal is one chapter a month, and two chapters in months with week vacations. If I can crank out more, that'd be wonderful! I'll try to keep you guys posted on that.


I also feel closer with a lot of my online friends - you guys are super amazing, and I don't know how I would survive without you :D Just throwing that out there, since it's true.


I'm also going to prepare myself for NaNoWriMo during October, and this time I'm going to do so in a way to make sure I succeed. You guys know I've never ever ever accomplished that TT_TT This year I mean to make a difference!

*does majestic victory pose*


Anyhoo, I'm also glad I have a gaming schdule - that clears things up for me as well as for you! (Since I play multiple games, you never know where I am #feellikeaninja.)

Laterz!
~Emma

Schedule

If you haven't seen it yet, yes, I did spell World of Warcraft as 'World of Warfract.'  I spell things so wrong so often, places that have no spell check are my enemy -_- I'll find time to fix it, but for now you get the point.

















<<<<

See? It will be updated every month. For more info on WoW and other miscellaneous games, hop over to my second blog, just emma - GAMES.

As for P101, realms I'll be in are emptier ones on the back pages of the spell book (like page 4, etc). As for W101, since I don't have a subscription at the moment, I'll likely, either, create a new wizard and quest through the beginning of KT (which is as far as I have bought out with crowns), or be gardening with Emma (who would've seen that coming??).

Months with vacations (like Thanksgiving, Christmas) will have slightly different schedule's, so heads up for those months. I'll let you know which weeks those will be as well. I'll also make sure to inform you guys when a new schedule is put up.

I think I said this already, but in case I didn't, the podcast with Flint will hopefully have a new episode once a month. We're both students, and school start for me on wednesday, so we're both very busy IRL.

Laterz!
~Emma

TMI Movie

No, not 'too much information.' I mean 'The Mortal Instruments.'

MOVIE!!

Ok, for those of you who know and for those of you who don't, I'm a HUGE fan of Cassandra Clare. I've read all over her books, and some of them twice.

Recently, City of Bones, book 1 of TMI, was made into a movie that was released two days ago. And two days ago I saw it. And now today I'm seeing it again.

Yes, 130 minutes of awesomeness, fangirling, and tears was what happened in the nearly empty theatre (whhyy!!?). Out of the entire cast, I have to say that only Lily Collins (Clary) and Godfrey Gao (Magnus :3) were portrayed the closest to their book characters, and I applaud them for that.
Jace (Jamie Campbell-Bower) and Isebelle (Jamime West) weren't exactly how I pictured them. Valentine (Jonathan Meyers - antagonist) was pretty good.

If you haven't seen it yet (or haven't read the books), chop chop out of here and check it out!

Anyway, why am I talking about the CoB movie?? Well, 1) this is post 300.

*throws confetti*

2) I haven't been on W/P101 lately, so I need something to talk about. 3) School is starting relatively soon. 4) I love love love TMI. 5)...

I don't have a fifth reason.

Anyhoo, I'm still here - that's the main reason. Concerning P101, I have a goal to become level 30 by the end of the month, and I think I'll actually be able to do it.

Also, thanks for the feedback with the whole switching-the-sidebar-thing, that was nice and helpful :)

On another movie related note, here are some other movies I'm super excited for that are coming up:

If you haven't read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, and are a fan of fantasy-scifi, definitely check it out, you won't regret it.
And then of course The Hobbit part 2, super excited for that. And I'm sure you've all heard of Catching Fire, and if you haven't that's... odd.

Happy 300th!!
Laterz!
~Emma

"GAH! What happened!?"

"Emma! What is this!? What have you done? I don't understand! What did happen? The template... It's all... it'a all..."

Weirded up? Yes, yes it is.

I realized that the text against a somewhat busy background was kind of hard to read. So I did my own dabbling in photoshop, was reminded of how much of a failure I am in it, and then came up with an easier solution: switch the sidebar. I mean, that was where the text was... And the background is just so gorgeous I would never want to replace it.

"But it's... I don't... You've had that layout since you created the blog! Changing it is just..."

Weird?

"Yes!"

Well, I really am sorry. As I said, I couldn't change the background because it was so pretty.

"I guess it was pretty good."

Exactly. And the text was difficult to read.

"If you say so..."

So, this is the best solution where everyone wins. I get to keep the background, you can read the text. Voila!

"..."

Yes yes, I know it's different. I'll have to get used to it. I switched the layout over on just emma - GAMES as well, so it weird there too. However, I think I can get used to it different over there sooner than here.

Now stop looking at me like that. It works, ok?

"Fine fine fine."

Good. That's all!

Laterz!
~Emma

"Bye!"

Wrong blog, say goodbye on your own blog.

"Oh, okay."

Gortez

So basically I couldn't give any better hints because anything more would've been a dead giveaway if you did your research.

Basically if you can defeat Gortez 25 times, you get the badge Lord of the Apes - aka, my quest. By doing so, you also open up Gortez as a companion in the Crown Shop. Rumor has it that when fully promoted, he's one of the best companions to have.

Unfortunately, I was convinced to renew my WoW membership and, well, I haven't been on P101 lately.

*walks away shamefully*

...

*pops back a moment later*

So I've come up with an genius plan for the upcoming school year (starts in about a week and a half). Basically I'll time my gaming (for each game), and put it up here so you'll know where I am and when to expect a post.

It also means that the gaming podcast that Flint and I are doing is going to start soon as well. Presumably next month is when the first episode will come out. Yours truly also hopes to get up some random, short rants/videos of whatever I have at the moment (going to try to convince Flint to do the same mwuahaha).

Sorry for such a short post - again, haven't been in P101 since wednesday :p

I've also started on draft 3 of my novel (alskjdalkjsd) and am super excited to meet with my CW teacher in two weeks.

Laterz!
~Emma

Surprise Quest

So this is a teaser post ;)

I've taken a special quest under my belt in P101 that, when accomplished, I'll reveal. It should be done within the week, but I just thought I'd give a shout-out about it to get you guys thinking. In fact, it's going to be a little, mini-contest like thing (extremely straight forward, don't worry).

Using the hints given below, if you can guess what my quest is, EMAIL me the answer (emmadawnrider [at] yahoo [dot] com) (only one attempt, please) with a subject line of "Surprise Contest", and the first to guess correctly I'll help accomplish the quest too - the more the merrier :)

Hints:
+ Level 10 up only (worth it though)
+ Involves a boss (duh)
+ A lot of fighting
+ It's not farming

Hmm... You have until midnight Friday, August 16th, to submit an answer. Sounds reasonable, yeah? If no one does this that's fine, it was a very spur-of-the-moment decision. Good luck anyway!

Laterz!
~Emma

Level 23 and I forget to take screen shots...

Hey everyone!! Sorry I haven't been posting. It's just that all my P101 journeys have been late at night and going on for hours, and then I forget the next day XD Not the best habit, but hey, I've been leveling up very fast!

I kind of miss my eye patch... But I'm sure
I'll get another soon :)

Two days ago I went from level 18 to 22, and then yesterday I reached level 23. Cool Ranch is amazing, giving me the right amount of challenge but not making it impossible. I've met El Toro, and knew he was the "land owner" right away... er... I mean... No I never guessed :p

I'm also starting to love the Swashbuckler class even more :) However, by realizing that, I realized something else:

I know Swashbuckler abilities inside and out. The only other two classes I really understand are Witchdoctor and Musketeer. But only because my alt, Scarlet, is a WD, and I've been fighting way too many Musketeers lately - ranged shooting is a SB weakness. I don't really understand the classes of Buccaneer and Privateer, other than that they are the best opponents for a SB (with First Strike, Repel Borders, etc).

So, soon I hope to create another alt of one of those two classes. I'll probably start working with them once I run out of crowns to buy areas with.

On another note, I hate skysnakes. I went into a battle in Cooper's Roost Skyway: me, Sarah Steele, and Bonnie Anne vs. four snakes. Both Sarah and Bonnie were defeated :(

The same thing happened when I battled the Queen Scorpion while trying to find a map piece of El Dorado. It was six against four, and by the time my three companions were gone, it was just me against the Queen and one of her babies. I won, but barely. My health had dropped to 125 - two more rounds and I would've been done. Again, another reason I love SB's dodging and Cloak of Darkness ability. I've also come to love Backstab and Assassin's Mist - D.O.T!! Storm Wizards never got that XD

In other news, this is the one other screen shot I took:

Well speak of the devil, that's very interesting. This your retirement home now?? I like how the Pirating Spiral admits to the existence of the Wizarding one, however I have yet to see anyone in the Wizarding one do the same. The shared world of Aquila was not something I expected, either.

Should we expect a place to come where Pirates can meet Wizards? Perhaps a shared dungeon between the two games? Now wouldn't that be something...

Laterz!
~Emma

The Land of Storms [and chickens]

That would make a good book title... (You know, minus the chicken part.)

Hey everyone!! BOOM, made it to Valencia.

:D

 DRAGONSPYRE!!?? No, Avernus. Still...

 What is this déjà vu??

 Gorgeous Stormgate, as always.

 Is that...?

Marleybone!?

 Gorgeous!! I love this place already.

*and emma switches to fullscreen*

 I'm so cute! ^_^

 Just when I thought this place couldn't get any prettier. 

I tried going in here, and totally expected to get eaten alive by the Armada... Nope, I just got a dude telling me "turn back!"

And I took even more screen shots, FINISHED VALENCIA, and am now working on Cool Ranch.

Wait... what?

Yep! :D I finished Valencia in one day, though I suppose that's not too rare. Nonetheless, I thought CR was a super high level place, but nope!! I'm sure I'll be back to Valencia sooner or later. I decided not to pile on a whole bunch of the defeat-and-collect quests from Silvella, only taking on those that didn't require fighting. 

My thoughts of CR thus far??

I love the morning theme - very western (duh). I would say it's the second closest world to where I live (first being Grizzleheim - no joke, my home and that world are practically brothers). I know I'm probably not going to look forward to fighting bison over and over. 

The general culture of the Bison, and the name Elder Bluff (or was it 'buff'...?), reminded me all too much of the Tauren race and their capital, Thunderbluff, over in World of Warcraft. The Tauren are more bull like, but their cultures are eerily similar. 

I also really like how CR isn't all floating land that your ship flies through - the skyways go over land, which is a nice difference. 

Anyway, I was up till 3 am (hey, I need to start compensating for all the time I'll miss when school starts :p Or so I tell myself, lol) questing, and I bought some new gear. All that's left is it get new weapons. 

*and then emma remembers*

I REACHED LEVEL 18!

*little dance* I feel so accomplished. 

Anyways, I'm thinking of doing a podcast on purely P101, more to get the words out my system as well as making it a test. Flint won't join me on this (he doesn't play). 

So, think about expecting to see a second post later today.

Laterz!
~Emma

And I Return To The Living

Hey everybody!! So I'm back :D I had a fantastic week at camp, and made a couple new friends, and even reconnected with an old one; and then this thing, now tentatively titled, Theatrical Blog Thing has been born :)

Ok - so me and two IRL friends (one who I was friends with before camp, and one who I met there) are going to start a somewhat daily blog in which we write about our daily lives in a completely, over exaggerated, overly dramatized, set-in-a-medieval-era way.
*cue epic LOTR music*

Basically the point is to make you laugh.

The blog will appear as one of mine, but it is admin-ed by two others. That'll be up soon so check up on my profile page or whatever to see when it does. Or I'll give a huge shout out soon that you can't miss ;)


In other news, my cousin just got married and they are the cutest couple ever <33 a="" and="" boring="" br="" but="" ctually="" day.="" entire="" fan="" fun="" going="" huge="" i="" it="" kind="" little="" long="" m="" me="" nonetheless.="" not="" of="" on.="" pink.="" pink="" reception="" reminded="" s="" shrugs="" still="" the="" theme="" valentine="" very...="" was="">

Um... you stink blogger.

Basically my cousin got married, the theme was pink. Paragraph in a nutshell.


I was also graced with a new story idea. It's a little... how should I put it... It has a different theme to it than what I usually write. But let's just say that it has some MAJOR character development in it (more so than anything I've ever written). If you want to check it out, it'll be going up on my Figment page soon :)


Since I jut got back, I obviously don't have any  W/P101 updates to announce, but that'll change by Sunday or Monday. I'm not entirely home yet (aka, at the reception hotel being a Hobbit hermit in the room, don't judge).


[0394UIEHRGPOANEG9P[HAWG

I just realized there's a typo on the poll thing >_< Gah!! How did I not notice that?? It's going to drive me INSANE now D:

Laterz!
~Emma