Haunted Back to School Bash 2 -- The Party Pictures!

Heya all!

I don't have a ton of time, but here are just a few quick pictures from the party the other night. Me with the hostess with the mostest:



Standing next to Dreamshade . . . who is in fact, awesome, and also Jeremey Dreamgem and Wolf Soulrider:



Snacking on Blaze Mistshard's brains with the skeleton crew:



Just a ton of awesome in this panorama . . . Jessica Fairyheart being a good part of that awesome with her pumpkinhead costume:



Leesha Darkheart . . . need I say more:



And finally a big group shot with some text from the party. Insanity! (You may want to click on that pic to get a big view)



Thanks again to Diary of a Wizard for hosting the party and inviting us all to go have some fun!

I'm off to work!

Happy Dueling!

Sigh . . . People faking to be me?

You know, I knew something wasn't right last night.

I got this message today:

"I tried to ask you a question but a lot of people were faking you. (I dont know why?) So it was hard to spot you."

Also last night, a guy on Bailey's friends list sends me a message that he's going to report me if I didn't stop messaging him, which I hadn't . . . at all. And in fact, last night at the party, I was reported, and I hadn't done anything but jump around in Nightside saying hello to people.

/shrug

There's nothing I can do about it. My apologies that there's someone (or some people) out there that want to discredit me or just mess with our heads. I may talk to KI about what can be done, but like I said . . . I'm pretty sure there's nothing I can do about it. I may have to come to parties incognito from now on or not come at all?

Let me know if you saw or talked to a Thomas Lionblood impersonator. Maybe it's not as bad as I'm thinking . . . maybe it's worse . . .

Happy Dueling!

Brick-Walled Pond -- Housing Item of the Day

Yesterday I was running around gathering reagents, taking it real low key, when Kestrel sends me a whisper saying that she had a new love in the world outside of her pet white rat, Mr. Whiskers. (I would type out her gigantically long nickname she gave him, but all I can remember right now is that there's a "the third" at the end of it and maybe a "plumpington" somewhere in there.)

WELL! If this is her new love in the ENTIRE GOSH DARN WORLD, then I had to go see it. It was indeed, most awesome, and we declared it housing item of the day on the spot. :-)




Hey! I know of this guy from Dragonspyre she's talking about! Why? Because that's the reason why I've been gathering reagents lately, silly. I left off Thomas' quest to get Master artisan a long time ago in a galaxy far away, but Uber Wife convinced me that, enough was enough; I needed to get that Master Artisan quest out of the way. HURRY UP!

So I did.


YAY ME! This isn't the first time I've gone down the road of Master Artisan-ship. You may or may not remember when I got Amber Deathsong her Master Artisan badge.

I digress.

Uber-wife liked the Brick-walled pond so much that SHE HAD TO HAVE ONE NOW!

Her wish was, um, her command (she's her own master artisan after all) . . .


Here's the recipe:



So, go forth, ye' master artisans of the spiral, and CRAFT THE ITEM OF THE DAY, the most awesome Brick-Walled Pond in the world.

Thanks for sharing, Kestrel!

Happy Dueling!

Party Tonight!

Tonight is the Diary of a Wizard "2nd Annual" Haunted Back-to-School Birthday Bash!

Here's the info:

Date: August 28, 2010
Time: 6PM Central/7PM Eastern
Where: Nightside, Vampire Realm, Area 1

Everyone is invited from what I can tell. Especially the Diary of a Wizard Site supporters. You can shoot an RSVP here if you'd like to. :-)

Expect Nightside to be absolutely besmashed with players tonight. :-)

I may end up being late (Wife is at work when the party starts), but I will try to make an appearance fo' sho'.

See you there!

Happy Dueling!

Celestia Wallpaper 11

Wow . . . who would have thought they'd get up to 11 on these things?

Check it out! Just came across the newswire! It's a new starfish and the little lantern fish buddy!

Professor Greyrose says one is a pet and one you face in battle, but they're both so tiny and cute that I don't know which is the pet!! I guess my money would be on the starfish being the pet. /wink

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What do you think, readers? Evil starfish? LAUGH!

Happy Dueling!

CHECK THIS OUT! (Episode 3)

Thanks to all the people who keep e-mailing me with positive vibes and cool stuff for me to check out! Here comes Episode 3 of CHECK THIS OUT!

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First up are a couple of awesome photos from Redbarron718 (Alex Deathshade) of his Lego Wraith:



HAHA! Those are AWESOME! In the words of Redbarron718, "GO DEATH SCHOOL!" word.

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Adam Thunderstaff sent me a rare photo of a tempest pet, oh, originally about a month ago, and I neglected to post it . . . so here it is!


And in case you might have forgotten . . . yes, I also own one of those (actually two of those, but who's counting ;-)).

Adam also had a picture of the Dean Darkflame glitch where you can float in his room.


Love this glitch. The first time I saw this was with Keven Battleblood in Big Ben. We tried to make it look like we were giants standing on the railing. ;-) I'd find that picture and post it if I felt like wading through my 1000's of screenshots.

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Thunderbird120 sent me this cool note:

"In case you haven't seen this yet here is a link to a video that shows actual footage of Celestia from a news section on wizard 101 from Kvue news check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPsFknWUgog

P.S.your blog is awesome"

Yes! I have seen that video, sir! Check out this dissection I did of the commercial back when it was released. Good to know that is on youtube now.

p.s. you're awesome for thinking my blog is awesome.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eric711 sent me a picture and this note:

"I found this on the back on the stone during the pre-celestia I don't know if anyone else has seen it but I think it might be different then what the message is from celestia. I just wanted to know what it said or if anyone else has figured it out yet."

Yup, that there is the code to break the celestia code. A Rosetta Stone of sorts. If you look at what it's saying there, it's just a made up sentence that attempts to use all the letters of the alphabet. It's kind of like, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," but just Kingsisle-style, yo.

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This message comes from Blaze Legendrider:

"Hi Friendly, it probably won't happen, or everyone thinks it sounds stupid, but y'know Gen Con? I was thinking that we could host our own version on Wizard101. Sort of like a Wizard-con, but there are booths set up in a large house, and every Wizard101 blogger can come, and sort of meet each other, trade ideas, that kind of stuff. We could have small contests with some minor prizes. I talked to Dakota Silverbane and he said if it happens he might host it. But if he does host it he will probably need your help. Also, you might want to give KI this idea in case they might want to make it in their version of it.(Even more less likey!!!)"

haha! Well, as much as I like the idea of a Wizcon101, I don't know if it'll ever happen. The Game Which Shall Not Be Named has their Blizzcon and Everquest has their Fan Faire, but . . . you know . . . those are both really kind of "adult" conferences . . . full of "adults" that paid a lot of "money" to go "meet" other "adults."

Considering how safety conscious Kingsisle is about kids' safety online, I don't know if providing a live venue for kids and adults to mingle would be even high on their priority list. In fact, let's call it a liability at this point. But, I like the way you're thinking! I just don't think this is the game for a "con."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jason Ashweaver sent me this note:

"I just made a wizard101 fansite and wanted you to direct some traffic. the URL is http://qandashweaver.blogspot.com/
Since wizard101 won't take it (hosted by blogspot) I need you to get people to look at it.

Thank you, and fell free to look at it."

Nice! Thanks, and yup, I got you on the big list over there on the right-hand side now. Best of luck to you and welcome to the Wizard101 Blogosphere!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AND, Last but not least is from me. You guys have to check this out! Some of you are probably already familiar with the Classic Game Room videos, but I just discovered this on Youtube a few weeks ago.

I absolutely love this channel. LOVE IT. It makes me wonder why I didn't think of doing this first. Not only is it funny, it's well done all around.

Here's my favorite I've found out of the hundred's of videos they have released (Warning, sometimes the host lets a swear word slip out as he does around 3:50 and 4:19 . . . just warning you in advance):



Simeon the Tentacle Droid wins . . .

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Thanks for checking it out, y'all, and thanks for thinking of me. :-)

Happy Dueling!

(Press Release) KingsIsle Entertainment and Gameforge Partner

Wow! Look at this! It looks like Wizard101 is going to get some
"parlez-vous francais" in their game thanks to a partnership with Gameforge!

Here's the press release:

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KingsIsle Entertainment and Gameforge Partner to Bring Wizard101 to Europe

PLANO, TEXAS (August 25, 2010) - KingsIsle Entertainment, Inc. today
announced a licensing agreement with German online games publisher Gameforge
to bring its award-winning massively multiplayer game Wizard101 to Europe.

"This partnership is an important first step in our strategy to expand
beyond the domestic US market and bring Wizard101 to an international
audience," said Elie Akilian, chairman and CEO of KingsIsle Entertainment.
"It's a very exciting time at KingsIsle and we are eager to share the
magical world of Wizard101 with an entirely new community of players."

"Wizard101 has proven to be a high-quality MMO that appeals to a large
audience of all ages. We are very excited to partner with KingsIsle in
bringing this great game to the European market and expand its audience
globally," said Carsten van Husen, CEO of Gameforge 4D.

Earlier this summer, KingsIsle announced that more than 10-million Wizards
have registered to play Wizard101 since the game launched in September 2008.
KingsIsle is currently working closely with Gameforge to localize Wizard101
for the European market. The first European launch is planned for late 2010.

In Wizard101, kids and families enter the magical world of Wizard City as
student Wizards setting out to hone their Wizard skills, cast spells and
summon powerful creatures to fight evil forces. The characters and worlds of
Wizard101 are influenced by literature, history and pop culture, giving the
game a depth and quality appreciated by families and players of all ages.

Wizard101 can be downloaded at www.Wizard101.com. Players seeking access to
premium areas and items may purchase pre-paid cards in participating stores
or purchase a subscription or Crowns online. New worlds, activities, pets
and Wizard clothing are periodically added to the game, creating an
ever-changing world with new things to see and do.

About KingsIsle Entertainment, Inc.

KingsIsle Entertainment is a developer and publisher that specializes in
creating high-quality massively multiplayer online games which provide
entertainment for the entire family. Wizard101, KingsIsle's flagship
property, has received the Parent Tested Parent Approved Media Seal of
Approval in 2009 and has been recognized by the National Parenting
Publications Awards. Wizard101 was named the #1 Best Family/All Age Game by
Beckett Massive Gamer Magazine, and the #1 Best Family Game by MMORPG.com
for 2009. The company's experienced and creative team is raising the bar in
online entertainment by offering products with rich storylines, friendly
navigation, top-quality art and fully-voiced characters. KingsIsle is
headquartered in Plano, Texas, and has a development studio in Austin,
Texas. For more information, please visit www.kingsisle.com.

KingsIsle and Wizard101 are trademarks or registered trademarks of KingsIsle
Entertainment Inc.

About Gameforge
Gameforge is the largest independent global provider of online games.
Located in Karlsruhe, Germany, the company specializes in developing and
publishing client- and browser-based online games and boasts more than 200
million registered users worldwide. Gameforge currently offers 21 games
localized into more than 50 languages. These games can be found at
MMOGAME.com, the company's comprehensive community network. Gameforge and
its products have won numerous awards including the "German Developer Award"
and the "Deloitte Technology Fast Forward 50 Award" for fast-growing
technology companies. Gameforge was titled one of Germany's 100 best
employers by the Great Place to WorkR Institute Germany.
For more information on Gameforge visit www.gameforge.com
For more information on the games visit www.mmogame.com

~~~~~~~~~~

Congrats Kingsisle! I hope this brings a lot more success to you and
hopefully some awesome bungled translations that will crack those Europeans
up. ;-)

Happy Dueling!

GDC . . . O, and Wizard101 For BEST Community Relations!

Last year you saw me yammering on a lot about the AGDC event. The AGDC event happens to play out in Kingsisle's neck of the woods, so it’s kind of a no-brainer for them to attend the event. Heads up, though, there seems to have been a bit of a name change for AGDC, and now they are GDC . . . O. As in Game Developers Conference “Online.” This is cool and all, but what the heck does it mean for Wizard101 players?

hmmmmm. Let me think.

I’m not sure . . . some are saying Celestia is right around the corner, but I’m not convinced. KI seems to keep saying how large the world is and how much patience we need to have, and well, I don’t think anyone really knows the exact date yet. If you read that MMOCrunch Interview from the previous post, you'll see they are already saying "late summer / early fall" instead of just "late summer." We haven’t seen the end of summer yet (as in the end of September . . . remember that summer extends through September, kids). So, maybe we’ll see more about Celestia pop up around GDCO time (early October). It seems like a great time to reveal a few things here or there to interested news outlets. Man, I wish some well-to-do person would just pay for me to go to GDCO and do some on-site reporting . . . *end dream sequence*

Well, if anything I know we’ll be seeing *something* come out of the conference from Kingsisle in one form or another, so keep your ear to the ground during October 5-8. You never know, you may end up with something cool like this rare picture of Jeff Toney (Abracadoodle artist) playing Guitar Hero . . . stuff like that.


(graciously lifted off of Damned Vulpine)

BUT, of interest to our wonderful community is this little nugget right here: CLICK ME!

Yeah, Wizard101 is up for AN AWARD for the HAVING THE BEST COMMUNITY RELATIONS. You heard me! THE BEST! They’re even pitting us up against the fire of “The Game Which Shall Not Be Named” and the monster game of all space games, Eve Online.

So, HEY, Kingsisle, from me and the readers of The Friendly Necromancer, best of luck! We’re proud to be a part of that community! :-)

Happy Dueling!

MMO Crunch Interview with Fred and Ben

Hey look everyone! It's Fred and Ben doing an interview with MMOCrunch!

*teleports readers to the interview*

CLICK ME

The wondertwin powers of Marketing and PR have saved the day!


Maybe the Wondertwins isn't the best analogy out there for Marketing and PR . . . I'd hate to make either Ben or Fred have to arm wrestle over who gets to be Jayna. (oh snap! Just kidding Fred and Ben!) Now, Gleek, GO! FETCH US THE MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION FROM THAT ARTICLE!

*snip* There will be new pet content. There will be new pets that are being released as a part of this, there will also be new talents we’re going to release as a part of this. Part of the pet system is the new talents that manifest and we have new talents that are being released as part of the expansion. *end of snip*

YES! There will be new pets and new talents to go along with those pets. That, my friends, is new information. Me likes!

*snip*What I can say is that with any level cap increase, there is always the challenge of ensuring that the balance of the game in PvP remains intact. I know that is a challenge, but I don’t know if its necessarily more of a challenge for us than any other game that has gone through a level cap increase. *end of snip*

The balance of PvP is being considered with the level cap. That should make a lot of people happy.

Thanks for the great interview Fred and Ben! And thanks MMOCrunch for the great questions!

Happy Dueling!

Celestia Reveal 10

Professor Greyrose has another Celestia Wallpaper Reveal for us!



Nice.

I also have some comments to share about it!

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Amber said: "It's the Vampire Ogre of the Sea!"

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Bailey said: "I think it looks like Dworgyn's Pirate Brother or Bootstrap Bill Turner because of the barnacles and the crab on his shoulder."

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Mythstone said: "It is some pirate ogre thingy. I think it is a mer-ugly!" He also added that he thinks he sees a walrus in there! (I'm still not sure I see it . . . do you guys?)

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Happy Dueling!

Taking a Break and No More Questions

Hey all,

I'm sorry to tell you all this, but I'm taking a short break from posting, and when I return I don't plan on answering anymore questions (in the immediate future at least) . . . nor will I be farming out questions to other bloggers to answer. My apologies.

In the meantime, if you're looking for your questions to be answered, I highly encourage you to visit the comments on this thread. There are a lot of fantastic bloggers who would love to take your questions. Most have included contact information and are more than happy to help. If you're a blogger on that thread and want your contact information removed, please let me know, and I'll remove it. If you're willing to help, post your contact information and get on the question answering list! (I'm not going anywhere . . . BELIEVE ME, I'm not going anywhere . . . I'm just taking a break)

To those who have recently sent me questions, I may try to answer them back channel over e-mail, but please feel free to use other bloggers as you see fit. I know they'll get you the answers you're thirsting for!

If an important news item from Professor Greyrose comes across the news wire, I will most definitely be posting it up. You can count on that. I will be sure to add newcomers to Friendly's blogroll as I see them come in as well.

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So, why the break? Well, I need some time to reflect and contemplate a few things on this end. I'd also like to finish up some lingering things, like my work of Wizard101 fan fiction that I've been neglecting. Maybe throw down a few new remixes of music. I'd be lying if I didn't say there are some personal things that I need to clear up in my head as well. No worries. Nothing too serious. I just need to reflect and gain some perspective, deal with a bit of depression.

Again, my apologies to those who have come to visit the Friendly Necromancer website on a daily basis for news, information, and fun without much interruption. Regular posting will resume some time in the future, but for now I'm in need of some introspection. Hopefully when I return you will be reading a more energized necromancer!

Thanks for your understanding and patience,

Happy Dueling!

Who's Who on the Friendly Family of Accounts?

Question from Thomas Goldshade:

Hi Friendly! I really love your blog to see what's going on in your world and to learn about stuff in the game! I just have 2 simple, one sentence needed questions that I would like to ask you.

1.)I've heard something about making treasure cards can be simply made by adding tough to a card and not using in battle. Is what I think I heard right?

2.) When I read your blogs that mention your other characters I usually get confused. Can you make a small list saying who has Molly, or Amber with just a couple of the more main characters in your and your families' accounts?

That would really help me when you talk about your characters and what's going on. Thanks!!!

That should be easy enough.

1) Yup! You heard right! I talk more about how to make treasure cards and use them on this older thread.

2) Sure let me try a quick who's who. I'm not going to list some of the unknown characters and really low level characters because they're subject to deletion.

Friendly's Characters:
- Thomas Lionblood (main)
- Thomas Lionblood (Evil Twin)
- Myrna Lionblood
- Molly Earthsong
- Isaiah Taleslinger

Uber Wife's Characters:
- Bailey Skystaff
- Iridian Legend
- Rowan Ravenshard

Amber's Characters:
- Amber Deathsong
- Alexandria Winterthistle

Kyle's Characters:
- Kyle Skystaff
- Sean Ogrehead

That said, you might find any of us playing any of these characters. Uber wife is known to fire up a character of mine and vice versa.

Thanks for your interest in our characters!

Happy Dueling!

Report your friend for chain stunning?

I received a story from Gabe that he wanted me to share:

Hey, Friendly!

Ok, I went to my friends arena battle, he has his own group, he is a Storm, named Angel, his other friend is a Myth, ALSO named Angel, and his other friend is a Life, ALSO named Angel, and there is an Ice, named Michelle ShadowCrafter. So, a few days ago, I heard them tell me that they might get banned because they were chain stunning, I didn't beleive them, few days after, (today) I ported to their arena battle, I wanted to check and see with my own eyes how they were chain stunning.

It's like they always come in a special order, for example: The Life would go first, then would come the Storm, then would come the Myth, then would come the Ice. This is how they would chain stun: They first would shield themselves, then the Life would cast Rebirth (guess for the absorbs), then the Storm would use Stormlord, then the Myth would use Earthquake, to take the stuns off, then the ice would randomly use colosus. The oposite side would just pass because they were chain stunned, then I saw that, the Storm would boost up for stormlord, the Myth would cast a stunning spell to all on the other side, then the Ice would use Blizzard, thats when I thought to my self " These guys are actually chain stunning. "

I then felt sorry about what I was going to do, but I had to report my friend. Then I noticed, they all went gone, looks like they knew what they did wrong once I reported. Then my friend Angel told me "Why dude" I told him " You chain stunned. " Then we got into a short argument, then he deleted me, and logged off. Hope I hear from him again, but I did what I had to do.

Please reply!

OK, first, you all should know that I'm not a big PVP player by now. I'll pet derby with the best of 'em, but PvP . . . meh, not so much. Plus, everybody wants a piece of Friendly out on the duel circle, and I'm just not that into it.

Second, chain stunning is not considered a reportable offense. I'm not lying. Go look at the FAQ on Wizard101.com, Item 12 paragraph 5. Here, I'll quote it for you:

“Chain Stunning” (admittedly, it’s not much fun for the receiving team, but it’s not a violation of the game rules).

I realize that it's a big problem. I do. PvP regulars realize it's a big problem. (think I've even seen a group somewhere to report names of known pvp stunners). Kingsisle realizes it's a big problem (as evidenced by the four stun shield per stun we're now receiving). Even the people doing it seem to realize it's a big problem (as evidenced by your friend's comments). But, also you have to realize that the report button is for reporting (again, I quote from the Wizard101 website): creative profanity (swearing around the filters), solicitation of usernames/passwords, predatory threats, racist comments and other such actions as outlined in the Terms of Use.

Now, that said, it's kind of cool that you "tattled" on your friend because you felt like it was the right thing to do. Hopefully it won't get you in trouble for false reporting, and it's unfortunate that you're not friends anymore, but you stood by your guns! Kudos to you for trying to do the right thing . . . even if it was like calling the police because your neighbor was wearing a thong while mowing the lawn. Everybody knows it's SO WRONG, but it's not necessarily against the law.

What do you think, readers?

*flings a thong at the readers*

Happy Dueling!

Do we need multiple wands?

Blaze Stormthief (formerly noob on the tube) has a question:

why do you need more than one wand? and why would somebody need a balance wand?

I've gotten through most of the Spiral (in the Drake hatchery now, thanks to your blog) with only one item in each equipment slot for my main, a Death/Myth, i even kept wearing my wizard city robe all through mooshu, and just handed it down to my storm (well, Jacket of Withstanding did have awesome health and a Tower Shield card, and i did get it while a free player on my first try on Nightshade). But i;ve just kept one wand in my bag, my death staff (haven't found that blade yet... Tomugawa, just give me the death blade. Or no cookies.) and done pretty well, somehow using pure luck and awesome friends to get to this point. But i'm just wondering, should i spend my hard earned gold on the different school staves or farm for blades, cuz in my whole run, i haven't see it Death boss cast a life shield.

So, i'm just wondering if that's normal, and all. Thanks for reading that really long paragraph.

The answer is . . . no, there's no reason to collect wands and staves, currently.

I keep a big collection myself though. Why? Well, I keep hoping Kingsisle will do something more with them. I mean, pet collecting seemed pretty lame at one time, but look at it now! It's become HUGE in this game. Not only are they awesome decorations, but they're also full of esoteric talents and unusual possibilities.

Who knows, perhaps in the future we will find a blacksmith in the game that could combine swords and staffs into new items all together. Maybe at some point they'll let us break these items down into more base components. Or perhaps they will become awesome wall decorations. I'd love to fill a wall with different looking weapons!

In PvE you'll usually want to wield a staff or wand that is opposite your school's magic (you know, unless you're a balance player . . . then you'll want to wield a wand that's opposite your secondary OR opposite your friend's primary). In PvP I hear it's good to wield a staff or wand that is the same as your school's magic (to take care of debuffs).

The only reason I could see to wield a balance wand is that it does unresistable damage, but it does so little damage that it's debatable whether it's worth it. And yes, death mobs seem to have forgotten how to cast life shields, but using any class wand in PvE besides death would be a good idea for death peeps. Maybe wield the same wand as your secondary to break shields. /shrug

The other thing to remember about wands, of course, is the +pip and +power pip factor behind them AND the number of cards they add to your deck.

The new Celestia sword is an interesting beast, isn't it?


Notice there's only one card on it. One of the big complaints I hear about swords and wands is that they throw off really short, specialized decks by giving too many cards, yet the extra power pip is so valuable that it's worth it.

Uber wife had an interesting suggestion as I was typing about wands here. Bailey's idea was, why can't KI offer customized sword/wand builds in the crown shop? Imagine this, the ability to choose a look of a sword, the type of damage it deals, the power pip percentage, and the number of cards it will give you. After you make your selection, it calculates a price, and boom . . . custom wand, just for you. I like the way she's thinkin'!

However you do it though, you really don't need a backpack full of wands. Some people just like collecting them for fun and . . . you know . . . that gigantic awesome blade might just go well with some particular shoes and robe . . . FASHION JUNKIES!

Happy Dueling!

What did Malistaire do with Bartleby's eye?

Here's an interesting question from Thomas Deathgem:

what did malistaire do with bartleby's eye of the past?

He stole it.

Yeah, that one is kind of a mystery isn't it? I'm not sure if that was ever fully clarified in any quest text out there. What the heck happened to Bartleby's eye of the past? Why did Malistaire steal it?

Let me go out on a limb and see if I can come up with a possible conspiracy theory. How about that? Let's get a little wacky crazy, kids. WOOT!

If you look deeper into Malistaire's chain of events leading up to the awakening of the Dragon Titan, you'll see some complex things happening. Malistaire was hunting for the Kroknomicon and found it eventually in Marleybone. The Kroknomicon was the most powerful source of information about Life and Death Magic. His intent was to use it and a few other artifacts to bring the power of the Dragon Titan back to the spiral since he was under the impression its power would help him bring his wife back to life.

Now, digging back into the lore of the game we find that it was Bartleby who not only created all the big bad original creatures in the spiral (aka the Tritons, Dragons, and Giants) but it was also him who sung them to sleep and created the spiral as we know it with the help of the Great Raven and some pretty long root systems of his own.

Stealing the Eye of the Past seems important because either it would help him discover the hidden location of the Kroknomicon OR it would cloud Bartleby's mind of the past. In fact, talking about the past with Bartleby seems to just make him extremely sleepy.



You see, Malistaire couldn't have Bartleby messing things up with his dragon titan that he was summoning, so he needed Bartleby to forget . . . to forget how to sing them back to sleep . . . OR, maybe to teach himself how to sing the dragon titan to sleep after it had been used for his purposes.

We never find this eye after defeating Malistaire. It's a hole in the story. Here's some possible theories:

1- Malistaire took it with him when he was killed . . . I mean "defeated" . . . by you. Now it's residing with Malistaire in ghost mode.

2- The book, the eye, and everything else was "used" in bringing the Dragon Titan back to life. Much like you "use" a crafting reagent to create something new, perhaps Malistaire was "crafting" a spell to bring Sylvia back to life and so . . . it's gone, consumed, goodbye eye of Bartleby.

3- He stashed it somewhere. Maybe in some later quest we'll find it because the eye is once again needed. So we'll have to follow the clues to get the missing eye of Bartleby back.

4- Bartleby is better off without it.

WHOA FRIENDLY, WHOA!

Ok, let me expound on that a little bit and see if you can follow this bit of philosophy I'm gonna drop here. So, Bartleby appears to be named after a character in Herman Melville's less popular work: Bartleby the Scriviner. Yeah, the Moby Dick guy wrote another book. In fact, some consider it a work of genius. They've tried to adapt it to film a couple of times.

I'm not going to restate what wikipedia says about the book or the countless other sites out there that dissect the book into all its myriad pieces and nuances. But I will tell you this. The metaphor of a tree is a perfect one for an unmovable character such as Bartleby, the Scrivener. By the end of the book, our anti-hero is completely nuts and does nothing much but refuse to do anything.

Now, take a look at our Bartleby. In a way, he is a very sad character. Imagine bringing life to a world and having that life do nothing but war and bust the land apart . . . and all the marvelous things you have created must be put to sleep at your own hands.

Bartleby, the Scrivener basically went insane from not only the horrible realities of lost hope from working the Dead Letter circuit, but perhaps because he could not let go of the past and find hope in the future.

For our Bartleby to be a more hopeful character, mabye it was best that he forget the past and only look to the future.

The power to make amends, forgive yourself, and forget your past mistakes is a huge boon to all of our mental health.

Maybe Malistaire did him a favor.

...

dot dot dot

SO, Thomas Deathgem, my answer is . . . he stole it. The rest is possibly deeper character development, a quest for the future, or something to remain shrouded in secrecy for the rest of your life. MUHAHAHA!

Or maybe my readers have conspiracy theories of their own (share please!).

Happy Dueling!

Deck Construction for Soloing Ivan Soulsinger?

Austin asked me a question about coming up with a deck construction for soloing Ivan Soulsinger and his minion in The Drake Hatchery. He's the one holding the cool death sword you see in my header graphic up there.


Yeah, that one! The Soulsinger's Blade.

I ran this fight a few times just to re-familiarize myself with it. For the basics, Ivan is a Rank 8 boss with 4,000 health and comes with a Wandering Soul minion, who is a rank 8 fire caster with 1,055 health. Ivan and his minion are extremely fond of casting weakness (yeah, like what boss is DS isn't, right?) It seems better to just cast through the weakness because there were seriously like 3 of them on me. Just deal. M'kay?

Here's the deck I was using:


This setup is all about a good offense (notice no shields . . . not really needed in this fight . . . especially for a death wizard with life draining spells).

What I liked about this deck is that it allows me options. If I want to take the minion and ivan out one at a time, I can. If I want to stack them up and take 'em down in one fell swoop, I can do that as well. Notice that I'm using a death trap necklace and I have two wraith cards from gear (one from the Malistaire robes and one from my wraith pet). I also have two scarecrows. I only need one, but hey . . . I'm a boyscout like that. Also notice that I'm using a sword/wand that isn't death. I've over-stacked prism because it's important to get that down on ivan, but also to just be prepared (one prism per attack spell there for the folks counting at home).

Scarecrow Method
If you're going to take him down in one spell, you'll want to stack up soulsinger with the following traps:
prism
death trap
death trap necklace
feint
spirit trap
curse

And the wandering soul with either the other necklace death trap or the feint (depending on how your hitpoints are doing)

spirit blade and death blade yourself and cast the crow. If you used the necklace death trap, you may have to tap the minion with a wand hit to push him over the edge. If you're lucky, you could do that in advance to take off a weakness, but seriously, they LOVE to keep weakness on you.

Wraith Method
If you're going to take the minion and Ivan down separately, may I suggest taking the minion down first. 1) he's got a lot of nasty spells like minotaur and a firezilla that can be painful. 2) low hitpoints.

1- A simple death blade + necklace trap + pet wraith combo will take him out, even with a weakness on you.

2- Deathblade and spiritblade yourself for Ivan, who then needs to be stacked up with a prism, feint, curse, and spirit trap to take him out, again, even with a weakness on you.

Hope that helps! Good luck on getting your sword.

Happy Dueling!

Crown Gear and Power Play Questions

About three weeks ago I got a really cool set of e-mails from a guy named Josh. Within his excellent e-mails to me he had three questions. Here's his first:

. . . am I missing out on good gear that I could buy? I have no idea where I can buy crown gear in each area? I'm only level 20, and I've found crown gear in Wizard City and a little bit in Krokotopia. But I'm mostly still rocking stuff I could wear at level 5 or 10. Can this be right? I have searched and searched and searched, on wikia, on central, everywhere. To me, finding and acquiring the best gear-- even if it's only purchased-- is fun. And it's frustrating that I can't figure out, fairly easily, where this stuff is in Wizard 101.

Am I missing something? Is there a list of gear anywhere?

Or, mainlly... is there a list of places to buy crown gear anywhere? And gold gear? I want the best stuff I can afford. Part of the reason to pay for gear is to save yourself time and frustration. But now I'm finding the process of searching for and finding gear almost as lame as grinding for it.

Yeah, this is a little interesting. Crown gear in Wizard101 has had an interesting history. A guest blogger, Sierra Starsong, helped me a long time ago with a question similiar to this. You can read this article here.

In that post you will discover there are things called generations of crown gear. Another thing you'll discover is that (as you noted) we all typically end up pointing our browsers to Wizard101 Central or Wikia. I totally hear your lament over polished, dedicated websites about really specific topics (like gear) like you might find for other games. Those mega-sites are the best we've got so far.

So, let me link you to a few threads:

List of Second Generation Crown Gear
List of Third Generation Crown Gear

and this one is good too . . .

List of All Crown Items with their Locations in Regular Shops

Unfortunately those threads mostly just list names of items, so that ends up requiring cross-research with Wikia. A really good targeted website would marry the two and make it easy to search in some kind of database engine. And yes, like you're saying, it'd be great to get a list of the best items I can purchase with gold at the same time. (The best/easiest we have now is to simply go to the Bazaar and sort by level and price.)

meh.

Josh's next question was this:

I just got to level 22 and received my Power Play spell (I'm balance). I tried searching Wikia and wizard101.com and Central to answer my questions about it, but the information is seemingly old or inconsistent. :/ Does Power play just affect your team, or your opponents too? It seems like a terrible spell, if it increases your opponent's pip chance by 35% as well as your teams'.

Also, are there any differences in the affects between PvE and PvP?

Yup, Power Play affects everybody in the battle circle. It's more effective in PvE than PvP for this reason since in PvE a good portion of the trash mobs have a really low or non-existent power pip percentage. This is also the reason why you get conflicting information. There's no difference when you use it in PvE or PvP.

It's not my favorite spell either.

And Josh's final question

Boy, I am sorry to spam you. Please forgive me. I just forgot to ask in the below re: Power Play, whether the effect lasts for the entirety of the round, or just a few turns?

Power Play lasts until combat is resolved; there's no timer to it.

Thanks for the questions, Josh! Sorry it took me so long to get to you.

Happy Dueling!

Wandcast 9!

David, Dustin, and Kestrel have invited me to jump on the mic and hangout with them *again* for another episode of Wandcast!

Unless David is late because he's running home from his friend's house, this thing is supposed to start at 8:30 pm Eastern, tomorrow, August 5th. Their Livestream location is here.

You can find out more information about Wandcast (and even back episodes for download) on the Wizard101 Information blog.

There is rumor of a contest and an after-party as well, so I hope to see you all there!

Happy Dueling!

Fwd: Party in the Test Realm!

This just came across the news wire! I'm off to the show! Bbl! Have fun partying in the test realm.

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

Party in the Test Realm!

To improve the performance of Wizard101 for all our players, we've been updating our login servers to speed up the time it takes to log in to the game. 

To test these updates, we need lots of people to log in to the Test Realm! 

Nothing has been added or changed in the game, and as always the characters you have on the Test Realm may not match the characters you have on the Live Realm - but remember nothing you do in Test carries back to the Live Realm, they're completely separate. 

So login, log out, log back in to the Test Realm and really stress out our new login servers to the fullest. With your help, we'll be able to make logging in faster for everyone! 

Only currently paid players can log in to the Test Realm - Please visit this page for information on how to log in: https://www.wizard101.com/game/testrealm

 

Happy dueling!

Me and Barack Giving You All Some B-day Cake!

It's my birthday today! Er wait, it's Obama's and my birthday today!


I've taken the day off to chill with the family. For my birthday we usually go hit an IMAX film and eat out somewhere awesome like the Spaghetti Factory. They have this mizithra cheese pasta that's really freaking good. My daughter wants to play "three hours of Wizard101" with me as a present. lol. That actually sounds a little exhausting when she puts it that way. :-)

On the other hand, Obama isn't taking his day off. Go figure.

Last year we didn't do much for my birthday because, well, we had a new baby on our hands, and that makes life a little more interesting when trying to go out on the town. It'll probably provide some challenges this year too, but it's not going to stop me from trying! RAWR!

Last year Obama was giving out birthday cake to other people who have August 4th as a birthday, like Helen Thomas (white house reporter).

I kind of want to do the same thing. From visiting Diary of a Wizard ConnectX site, I see that there are a number of Wizard101 players also having a birthday today:

Brandon Bux
Dakota Trollbane
Eric Stormcaster
Jeffery Flores
Joshua

It's not quite a cake from the White House, but hey! Happy Birthday awesome people!

Hope you all have a great day!

Happy Dueling!

August Newsletter from KI

Heya!

A few other bloggers have posted on this already, but I might as well through my 2 cents into the magical blogging well.

KI has released their August newsletter, and there's a scoop in there for all of us! Behold the shark mount/pet/bad guy. This looks to be a three in one picture:


If I'm looking at this correctly, the top model is a scary awesome shark mount, complete with jagged plate mail armor and a cushy red seat. vrroomm!

The bottom left version looks to be a "spike" version that we can have as a pet (love the spiked collar look).

The bottom right looks to be like a generic shark model that we might fight in the upcoming Celestia expansion.

This sneak peak comes along with a brand new producer's letter from the most recent producer at Kingsisle, Leah Ruben, aka Professor Falmea. She's awesome. Leah gives some really cool insight to what the job of a video game producer is like and explains a bit about the sheer amount of time it takes to produce a zone in the Wizard101 universe. It's a lot of work to lay down this much playable art, right? right!

Here's my favorite paragraph from the article however, since it talks about what we all are interested in lately, Celestia:

What *I* can tell you as an insider is that I am SO SO SO incredibly excited for this world. Unlike Falmea, real life me LOVES the water. There are some really cool surprises that go with Celestia. Ever wondered what it would be like to take a dip in the pool in the Commons if it were *just* a little deeper? Well, you will once you take the plunge in Celestia. Sick of your level 48 spells? Well, you won't be for long, as you'll have lots of new cool toys to add to your arsenal. That's not to mention the seriously awe-inspiring new areas to adventure in and lots of goodies I haven't even mentioned. Everyone here is so excited to show you what is definitely our most ambitious world and game update yet!

I WANT TO PLUNGE! I AM SICK OF MY LEVEL 48 SPELLS! I CAN'T WAIT FOR NEW TOYS! DID SOMEONE SAY GOODIES?!

Yeah, you should definitely go read that article if you haven't already.

The rest of the newsletter ain't half bad either. It tells all about what's on KI's mind these days: Gencon (wish I was going to gencon), Wizard101 Central's B-day (yay!), Training Points (must . . . have . . . more . . . training . . . points), Online Safety (be safe kids), and Dog books (Dog books ftw).

Thanks for the great newsletter, KI!

Happy Dueling!

A tempest of questions from Connor M . . .

Ok, Connor M has many many questions:

Hey Friendly,

I have a tempest of questions for you. Think you can answer them all?
Alright,here they are........KA-POW!

1-What is your ''perspective'' on Celestia?Do you think it will be hard?
Are you ''freaked out'' about it?
2-Do you know any other worlds coming?
3-How did you come to find out about wizard101?
4-(this relates to the 1st question)Do you think the monsters in Celestia have 1,500+ heath?
5-Where did you get a Death Cyclops?!I have a Ceberus,Orthus,Hydra,Helephant,Colossus and a Satyr.
6-Is the ''frog pet'' from Celestia?
7-Have any of your characters crafted the grizzleheim house?I'm almost done.
8-How long have you been playing wizard101?
9-Do you know a good strategy for getting gold for lvl 30-?
(I have some GM'S on one account,the lvl 30's on another.)
10-Have you beaten Orrick in the GM tower?Have any tips?

Usually I don't answer these multi-questions that I get, but Ok, here we go . . .

1- No, I don't think it'll be hard . . . unless they put in some kind of "hard mode." It seems like all the extremely hard stuff in the game so far has been optional: Briskbreeze and Warehouse. I'm a little freaked.

2- There's rumor of Candyland or Candy World, which would be a side-quest world that was first talked about here on my blog in the Professor Greyrose interview. Kingsisle doesn't seem to have any intentions of not stopping the new content. In the INFAMOUS Ravenwood Radio 19 Interview, KI was asked where they saw Wizard101 in 5 years. They really couldn't conceptualize it, but they did say they saw Wizard101 being around for that amount of time because of its popularity. More is to come!

3- A lot of bloggers were talking about Wizard101 when it was in Open Beta. One of the most prominent bloggers was Tipa at West Karana. Looking back, I think it was a post of hers that actually got me excited for my family to play this game.

4- I don't know. /shrug. It'd be nice if they had higher damage output and less hitpoints.

5- General Greystone in Plaza of Conquests drops the Death Cyclops. That's a nice pet collection. I attempted to list mine here, but it's grown since then. Most of them are just furniture in my Death House. LOL.

6- Nope. You probably know the answer to this already since this question is like a month old now. The Frog pet is from Timmy IcePick in Marleybone. (It's a really rare drop btw)

7- When you asked this question, no . . . but now? YES! Bailey did a fantastic job crafting the Grizzleheim house.

8- Since Beta . . . so almost two years.

9- Gold at level 30? hmm. I haven't really thought about this one. My alt is 25 in Marleybone right now, so I'm going to say . . . farm Timmy IcePick In Chelsea Court for that frog pet! ;-)

10- Yes. Tips on beating Orrick? Use the Quench spell. Tada! How's that for a tip? I'd probably bring a full group and a healer while I was at it. I'd try to kill him all at once, having the party attack him with their bladed spells in the same round (remember you can't use traps), so they can avoid dealing with the constant tower shields that he casts when he gets low health. Note that if you cast spirit trap or elemental trap, Orrick only removes the last of the three traps . . . so there is a possibility of one or two traps sticking on Orrick. My readers may have more tips.

Happy Dueling!

Fame at a Price 5 and 6

Posting about Alric in the last post made me realize that I hadn't cross-posted his comics on The Friendly Necromancer blog here . . . LOVE Alric's work. (You may want to click on these to make them bigger)





UBER WIFE TO THE RESCUE!

Happy Dueling!

Where does the Friendly Necromancer hang out?

Adam Thunderstaff has a question!

In wizard101 where do you hang out? I would like to meet you.

Dear people of the earth and spiral (and Adam Thunderstaff): I do think you all are the greatest, but most of my time when I'm hanging out on my wizards, I'm trying to avoid spam. I know that may sound mean, but when I log on Thomas, it's not really a quiet experience. I like being able to quietly play side by side with my wife or kids and not get spammed with invitations, offers, demands, and questions. It's the price of fame as my friend Alric puts it. It can be really overwhelming.

There are lots of people that want to meet me and be put on my friend's list. This means that I have to remove someone else to put you on, and it's getting harder and harder to do that.

The best time to catch me is when you see a planned event like the Ravenwood Radio after parties. I've never held a party on my own, but one of these days I may have to do that so I can meet you all. I have hopes that they will extend my friends list someday so that the spam can completely wash over Thomas Lionblood by all that play Wizard101, but until that day . . . my apologies if you find yourself on my friend's list one day and gone the next. Stuff like that happens when you're Thomas Lionblood.

BUT, to answer your question: I like to hang out in the Raven$$ farming money in Grizzleheim probably most of all. Sometimes I'll just randomly port around to friends, barging in on them like no one's business. word. *Z-snap. Or I'll be in the pet pavilion working up a pet. Other than that, I'll be working on my recent alt's quests, WHICH I am proud to announce are now in Marleybone! WOOT!

That's right, last night the Rowan and Isaiah myth team put Krokopatra to rest.


And by doing so earned the Hero of Krokotopia badge:


So, keep your eyes peeled. You may see Rowan and Isaiah wandering the Digmoore Station zones here soon.

Happy Dueling!

What cards and deck do I need to beat the Typhoon Kraken? (Guest Blogger Response)

Blaze Duskblade has (or had) a question:

hey friendly i got another question i am leveling my storm alt blaze stormblade what cards and deck did you use to beat the typhoon krakens for the storm minion if you remember

Well, I didn't remember, so I turned this one over to Taji at the Sorcerer's Corner to answer, and this was his response: click!

Unfortunately he didn't have a storm alt to remember by, but he answered anyway! That's awesome! He gives some solid advice about how to lay down traps and blades to win.

Hope that helps!

Happy Dueling!

CHECK THIS OUT! (Episode 2)

Ok, here goes another episode of CHECK THIS OUT! I've been getting tons of stuff from readers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First up is a REAL LIFE UNICORN picture from Evil Theurgist:


That's one freaky dear mutation . . . I WANT ONE! :-p

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next we have a glitch picture from Rose:

Updating you here on a glitch. Okay, in the Drake Hatchery...well just open all the pictures. They need to be cropped. Sorry about that. But apparently , the walls are glitchy! Thanks to Donna Spellthorn while I was using a silver chest.

GLITCHY! COME HERE GLITCHY! I haven't seen that one before, nice find!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next is a message from 122Ninjas:

The warehou$e is a much better farm if you have the right team since the wayfinder boots sell for an average of 500 gold but the real jackpot are the robes and hat. The robe sells for 10K or so and the hat sells for a whopping 17K! Farm the warehou$e to hatch your pets. ;) (The raven$ don't normally drop 17K and 10K items that fast)

Cool, yeah, I've yet to get a hat drop myself there, but I have gotten 2 or 3 robes and a pair of boots about everytime I've gone. Because of the length of time it takes to get to the top, I don't know if I would say it's a better farm than Ravens (Especially if you use a method to kill them in 5 rounds or less), BUT I will say that it definitely makes the experience much less painful when the reward is equal to the risk. For that, I have to give props to KI.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This one here is a joke I just had to share (I usually don't share these) from my co-worker since it's just THAT HARSH:

A woman was in town on a shopping trip. She began her day by finding the most perfect shoes in the first shop and a beautiful dress on sale slashed by 75 percent in the second. In the third, everything had just been reduced by 50 percent when her mobile phone rang.

It was a female doctor notifying her that her husband had just been in a terrible car accident and was in critical condition in the ICU. The woman told the doctor to inform her husband where she was and that she'd be there as soon as possible.

As she hung up she realized she was leaving what was shaping up to be her best day ever in the boutiques. She decided to get in a couple more shops before heading to the hospital. She ended up shopping the rest of the morning, finishing her trip with a cup of coffee and a beautiful chocolate cake slice, compliments of the last shop. She was jubilant.

Then she remembered her husband. Feeling guilty, she dashed to the hospital. She saw the woman doctor in the corridor and asked about her husband's condition. The doctor glared at her and shouted, "You went ahead and finished your shopping trip, didn't you!? I hope you're proud of yourself! While you were out for the past four hours enjoying yourself in town, your husband has been languishing in pain in the Intensive Care Unit! It's just as well you went ahead and finished, because it will more than likely be the last shopping trip you'll ever take! For the rest of his life he will require round-the-clock care. And he will now be your career!"

The woman, overcome with guilt, broke down and sobbed.

The woman doctor chuckled and said, "I'm just messing with you. He's dead. Show me what you bought."

OH SNAP!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This one here comes from Alexander Nightwraith:

Hey Friendly,

Just in case you haven't heard.... you rock.

Just thought I would mention that the Damp Demon is missing from your pet guide. It came from a gamestop giftcard, and has a dragon blade at baby and is a great storm pet. Look us up next time your in the spiral.

haha! Thanks Alexander! You know, I think I'm missing a lot of the giftcard pets (double checks) I'm missing ALL the giftcard pets now that I look at it. Hmmm. I should probably add those in! thanks! (p.s. don't forget to check out petnome if you haven't already!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This one comes from Julia Thorn:

Hello Friends,

I have started a new feature to the site called the FEATURED MEMBER!

I am going to need YOU to be our next Featured Member. Just get your pic on the site in your profile and send me a couple paragraphs on why you love Wizard 101.

Give some tips about your school, what you wish you would have done differently and what you are looking forward to.

This is about your character and not about other worlds.

Send me your notes and I will make YOU our next featured member soon!

Julia Thorn
http://spiralcast.webs.com/

Cool promotion. I don't know how many of my readers are familiar with spiralcast.webs.com. You should go "check that out"! It just might be your thing. :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Funny Thaumaturge sent me a note:

well i was looking on massively and found some neat pictures and even a possible new mount. go ahead and check it out!

Right! Those are the same pictures from the Ravenwood Radio 19 broadcast where Leesha and Beau (her hubby who writes for Massively) interviewed the biggies at Kingsisle. Thanks for the link!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next up is a video from elite videos:



It's basically the concept art from the Ravenwood Radio/Massively interview with some insights. Thanks for sharing!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's a picture of Blaze's new hybrid that he got while doing a hybrid combine with me.


I got the frostlord. "Check it out!"


But the real truth behind the combine comes from Blaze's note though:

Hey Thomas!
Thanks for mixing with me last night on Molly with your Wraith (Even though Bailey did it)!
The pictures of my Darkwalker are in the Attached Files if you ever want to do anything with em!
That's all I have to say! Bye!

Yeah, LOL, Bailey did the combine behind my back by shifting my wraith to the shared bank; getting it out of the bank with my life wizard, Molly (who had the cash); and did the combine with Blaze for me. I love uber wife. She's taking care of business. Everyday! Taking care of business! *insert the rest of the song here*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks all for thinking of me with this cool stuff!

Happy Dueling!