On Being a Wizard and Other Small Matters

Lookit! Lookit!

A new post!

A real, honest-to-goodness post from yours truly. Can you believe it?

The last nearly two months have been interesting, to say the least. I have learned a lot about myself, namely that I have the tendency to become obsessed with new things. Ok, well, I already knew that. However.

My obsessions seldom last longer than about three months. In the space of roughly twelve weeks, I typically burn out on the latest obsession and move on to something new, mainly because I get bored with the topic at hand.

Which makes it all the more amazing that I am still playing Wizard 101 daily. I checked my account yesterday (to add a new character, of course!) and noted with interest that I began my Spiral adventure on Christmas Day. Tomorrow will be four months, and this particular obsession shows no sign of becoming a thing of the past any time soon.

Interestingly enough, I actually FINISHED the game, not once but TWICE, and am closing in on the third and fourth times through. Each character I create has its own set of traits that makes it just different enough from the previous one to enable me to follow through on all the quests. But the fact that I actually completed two rounds is amazing in itself.

Now, I know those of you who don't play the game couldn't care less about the details, so I won't bore you with them. Just suffice it to say that I look forward each evening to helping one of my seven wizards progress through the game.

In case you are wondering, yes, I tried some of the other online role play games (RPGs,) but I found that none of them held my attention longer than about an hour.

For those of you who give a hoot, here are a few stats about my characters. For those of you who don't, you may skip this entire section, because I promise you, there will be actual news following.

These are my wizards:
Victoria Moonthistle - Life Grandmaster, second school Storm
Scarlet Dragonrider - Fire Grandmaster, second school Ice
Cheyenne Wildflower - Balance Master, second school Death
Destiny - Death Master - second school Life
Olivia Spiritwalker - Myth Journeyman, second school Life
Sophia Dreamcatcher - Storm Journeyman, second school undetermined at present
Kiley Ravensong - Ice Apprentice

My kids also have multiple characters, and we quest together every day. The upside to this, if you look past all the obsessive tendencies we display, is that I have actually found some educational merit to this game.

There is filtered text chat in the game. Since filtered chat does not allow words that are misspelled, the kids are learning spelling as well as typing. They found out quickly that their online friends will not wait around for them to say what they want to say, so their typing speed has increased dramatically.

Each battle fought is different, and requires math skills to win. Quick calculations of health remaining, spell strength, boosts and weaknesses must be made in the space of thirty seconds, or you miss your turn, and stand a chance of being defeated. No one likes to be defeated.

There is a logical progression to the game, but side quests can be taken, giving the player a chance to make each character's adventure a little different.

Since it is an online role play game, the kids interact with other players, and since the chat is filtered, it's safe for them.

And now that I am Goddess of the Spiral, even if it's just in my own mind, I have discovered a common ground that connects me to my kids' friends, something I have always struggled to find.

Okay, enough rationalizing my obsession! We now continue with our regular post.

The family is fine, healthy and happy. Spring is officially in bloom in our back yard, and our homeschool continues to be the highlight of our days. We continue our chronological history studies, and are fully ensconced in Ancient Greece, reading The Age of Fable, Tanglewood Tales, Greek Myths and The Children's Homer. Our latest classical books have included The Swiss Family Robinson and Little Women, and yesterday we began Treasure Island.

I have to admit that my personal reading time has been greatly impacted by my new online interest, but I am currently reading Stranger in a Strange Land for book club. I think I can finish before the next meeting.

Yesterday, our neighbor brought over her new kitten for us to see, and that started a whole "Can we get a kitten?" frenzy. While I am the softest softie about baby kitties, I am not exactly up for starting over with a fresh feline in the house. Maybe later.

Our cats are well, the inside fish is still swimming, the outside fish fared well through the winter, and the guinea pig is still adorable.

With the warm weather, my sweet honey and I will be making regular weekend trips to the north Georgia mountains, and I can assure you, that takes precedence over any other obsession I may have. Wizard 101 doesn't even cross my mind on those trips. Ok, well, that's a stretch, but still, I will take a jaunt around the mountain curves over spiral-romping ANY day. See, my priorities aren't TOO askew.

And with that, I bid you farewell until I guilt myself into another entry.