My Magical Monday

I feel tingly all over. It makes sense, too. I am magical after all. I was just told so by the Magical Quill!

After pumping myself full of caffeine (I did this with the help of Mocha Almond Fudge Ice Cream before dinner and some dark chocolate squares about an hour ago... that would be 4am!) I waited patiently by my computer through a lightning and thunder storm, the calm after, and as the sun rose behind me. I kept myself occupied with blog reading and then, ultimately, chatting it up with Pottermore tweeps from all over the US, Britain, France, Brazil, Australia and even the Philippines. Then, as one twitter friend asked me what the time was in New York, USA, I noticed it was exactly 5am.

One thing I didn't let pass all night (starting at 12am London time) was refreshing the Pottermore page on the hour. *POW!* There it was the second Magical Quill clue:

I called frantically for my husband, so he could call my friend to wake her and tell her (this was at her request!) while I tried to read, absorb and think about the clue. 

*DISASTER* My brain was absolute mush! I feared this. I started multiplying everything by 42. When I was one number off, I had made it into a foreign site! This was no good. Suddenly answers were everywhere - being texted to me, on my twitter feed, I was so grateful! I was a complete mess!!

Once I had typed in the appropriate web address for the English version of the Chamber of Secrets, and, in turn, the English version of the Pottermore site, I was taken to something that looked like an advertisement for Deathly Hallows Part 2:

Due to my fried brain, I once again had difficulty knowing what to do next. I probed at the menu when my husband and I almost both knocked the monitor off the desk by pointing out the QUILL on the page (do you see it there? It kind of STANDS OUT!).

Then, rather than try to pry the quill out the screen with our bare hands, I decided to actually click it:

Then, the journey could begin...

The five questions asked were:

• Birth date
• Where you live?
• Name and e-mail address (if a minor, then I believe it is name of parent and parent's e-mail)
• Password
• Which Harry potter books you've read and which Harry Potter movies you've seen

It is after these questions were answered, when I completed this "journey,' that something, well, magical happened:

I am in the book! I am "magical." There's no denying it! The Magical Quill says so!

However, the fun wasn't over yet. I needed a magical name. There were choices given:

I really was thinking only about the first two (although "StarCloak" is pretty cool, too), but the pumpkin and the tree won me over. My parents always used to call me "Pumpkin" and I love trees (I should probably write a post about that sometime soon), so...

The e-mail did not come right away. No big deal. One of the benefits of being a Day 2 person is that you witness all of the freak outs of Day 1 and learn that there is nothing really to freak out about. However, by the time I started writing this post, my e-mail had arrived!

There was a link at the bottom that had to be clicked within 48 hours (I think I did it within 48 seconds!) in order to register, otherwise it was all for nothing. I clicked it and found out

I am "one of the lucky ones."

Yay! Joy and splendor!! I am in the Pottermore BETA group! Sometime before October 2011 I will receive an e-mail with my formal invitation to begin my journey through Pottermore and, what I'm looking forward to most, be sorted into a Hogwarts House!

I guess I'll just have to keep checking my e-mail, keeping an eye out for my owl! 

A Huge Thank You To:

•  My fellow #pottermore tweeps that kept me company on twitter. Especially those that worked toward us getting #pottermoreWORLD to trend while we learned about each other!
• My husband and friend, Cristyn, who both were calming influences on my obviously sleep-deprived brain.
• To all the Rivera Runs Through It readers and FaceBook fans that crossed their fingers that I would only be a muggle until Monday.

and, of course

• Ms. Rowling and her crew that came together to make such an exciting, global and happy experience for all of the fans of a very special book series!

Muggle 'Til Monday (at least...)

It's July 31st. In the world of all things Potter, this is the holiest of days. It is JK Rowling's birthday, Harry Potter's birthday, and, in 2011, it is the date the first Magical Quill clue was released on Pottermore.com.

I was ready.

I was counting down.

I was armed with a laptop by 11pm on July 30th.

It wasn't enough...

What I hadn't guarded against was my exhaustion and global time zones!

You see, the only information I had was that a clue would be revealed ON July 31st that would enable participants to register early (before October 2011) for Pottermore. There was no discussion of what time that would happen!

I stayed with my laptop until about 3:45am EST, then I decided to sleep until 6am EST/11am BST (I had read in several places about a leak that the clue would be released then). When I woke up, I found the following message on Pottermore.com:

Screen capture from Pottermore.com

I had missed it. The registration was closed! After some investigation, it seems I had missed it by an hour!

Alas, all is not lost!

Getting Into the Pottermore BETA Group

From the Pottermore Insider blog.

There are SEVEN days of Quills, not one, so I still have SIX more to go. As the banner says above:

Those of you who would like the chance to gain early access to Pottermore must find The Magical Quill and then submit their registration details. Each day, from 31 July to 6 August, a clue will be revealed here. Solve the clue and you will be taken to The Magical Quill. Be quick, The Magical Quill won’t be there for long and registration will only be open while spaces are still available each day. [from pottermore.com]

So I'll be trying again Monday. Here's some stuff that I know that will help me (and you too, if you are interested) out:

• The clues will NOT be revealed at the same time each day.
• The clues correspond to the books. So day one's clue was from book one, day two's clue should be from book two, and so on.
• On days 1-3 the clues will be more difficult than on days 4-7.
• The website for early registration is http://quill.pottermore.com/TheAnswerToTheClueOfTheDay For example day one's clue was : How many breeds of owls mentioned in Eeylops Owl sign x 49! Which worked out to be 245. So the registration, while it was open could be found at http://quill.pottermore.com/245
• They are not kidding about the clue not being there for long. According to what I've gathered, the first clue lasted about 20 minutes.

Places To Go For Help/Information

from Pottermore Insider blog.

 Last night, as I was getting ready to sign up (before I fell asleep on the job!), I found a number of resources that were willing to help and share whatever information they had about the process. Here is a short list of the "go to" sources, if you are still a muggle like me:

• Harry Potter For Writers Did a great job last night covering the whole process. I am not sure the blog will continue through the week since they got their quill and their e-mail accepting them into Pottermore, but it's not a bad place to check out to catch up on any clues you may have missed until now.
• Pottermore Insider is the official Pottermore blog. It was started on July 14th and has already had a hidden link to help out faithful fans and kept everyone up to date on this Quill Quest. Note: They will not announce when registration starts, only when it is closed for the day.
• Pottermore on Twitter is helpful to follow the blog above, but they have stated a number of times that no additional clues will be given through this account, as they do not want to give an unfair advantage to proplr on Twitter.
• The Pottermore Help Page This is really probably where you should go first, just to acclimate yourself with the nuts and bolts of the entire operation! 

Worst Case Scenario...

After waking up an hour late and realizing what I had done, I ventured over to my #pottermore twitter stream to see how the twitterverse fared in the Quill Quest. It was such a mixed bag of emotions. There were the celebratory magical ones, the trash-talking "I got in B!tch" types, there were those who would brag about how many different accounts they signed up at once, there were the depressed, the dejected and the truly down-trodden.

I'll admit, when I first wiped the sleep from my eyes and realized how close I was to getting in and I missed it, I was disappointed in myself. It really wasn't until I saw others experiencing the same feelings that I realized how silly we were being. I remembered the power of one little word: yet. I used to tell my students this one all of the time when they would say, "I don't get math." I would correct them and say, "You mean you don't get math YET... it's coming, don't give up!"

Well. I give the same advice to my fellow Muggles 'Til Monday! We are not in Pottermore, that is true, but what we need to say is:

I am not in Pottermore... YET!

Because this project was so beautifully designed that even in your wildest nightmares of not finding a quill or answering all of the clues, we are ALL still welcomed to join Pottermore.com in October 2011!

Until then, I've had my wardrobe stocked with appropriate attire from Hot Topic for years now, no need to fret about my Muggle status!

My first-ever Muggle t-shirt. (There are more now, of course. Thanks Hot Topic!)

Did you attempt the Pottermore Quill Quest on Day 1?

Did you receive your e-mail/find the quill?

Would you rather wait until October 2011 for Pottermore?

 

One Tiny Tower Takes Over My Day!

In the eighth grade, when graduating from junior high school, I won the award for "Most Diligent." At the time, I didn't know what the heck it meant until the teacher explained it while presenting it - I'm a hard worker. This is pretty much true.

They don't, however, hand out the awards on that day pointing out your greatest weaknesses. That honor was left to my college professor who taught me Spanish for three years - she had me pegged. She called me "La Princesa de Procrastinacíon." I may work hard, but there are times, in between, when I am hardly working.

Today was one such day.

Diligence 
 
I woke up bustling with all types of energy - I packed up three bags worth of stuff to get picked up by a donation truck tomorrow (you should definitely check out www.vvapickup.org if you are in the US and have stuff to donate!). Then I took off all of the blankets and sheets from the guest best for washing (I actually needed help with this one - sheet and blankets make me dizzy, thank you IIH). Finally, I shredded a ridiculous amount of paper using our shredding machine, it took about 45 minutes (that's a lot of paper!).

Crash 

Of course, after 45 minutes of shredding machine noises, my head was out for the count. I needed to lie down... This is not in any way a method of procrastination, mind you, this part is a medical necessity. If you know anyone with Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension, then this sudden, overwhelming, "I can do no more..." springing up out of no where is not foreign to you. It is what I chose to do next, when the world stopped spinning, my head stopped pounding but my energy level was screaming, "You better NOT try to get vertical yet!" that lead to the procrastination of the day that I am so famous for.

Burn

I grabbed my iPad, with every intention to continue reading my book Kafka on the Shore when something else entirely caught my eye: Tiny Tower. I don't know if it was last week or the week before, but as my husband was watching Attack of The Show I overheard Kevin Pereira review a FREE iPad APP that was reminiscent of Sim Tower. My husband paused the show, looked at me and said, "Did you hear that?"

"Yes, and I don't know if I should listen any more!"

But I did. Then I downloaded it. I have been strong enough not to touch it, not to try it, not even to peek. That was, of course, until today. You may be wondering why. Well, it is quite simple, you see: Sim Tower came out in 1994, the same year I started college. I'm not claiming it is the only reason I won the title "La princesa de procrastinacíon," but it is definitely one of them. In my first year of teaching, I forced myself to DELETE and UNINSTALL the game from my computer and LOSE THE DISC.

This is the top of my Tiny Tower.

Needless to say, I did continue to listen and got lost in my tower world for hours. I was on a mission - to build more floors, create great apartments, work so that all my bitizens could have as close to their dream job as possible! As I was working toward upgrading the elevator systems and building a better restaurant so the bitizens could have some variety in their meal choices, I heard a voice, "Ummm... it's already 7:30. When are we going to have dinner?" Oops. It was the husband - you know, from real life!

Here's a snapshot of my "BitBook". It's the FaceBook of the Tiny Tower world. This gives me a perspective on who likes their job, who might need to be evicted and how I'm doing in the eyes of bitizens!

 I had to stop. I had to cook. Then I realized I didn't even write today either! So I am here now, but you can tell what I am thinking about can't you? I'm worried about my bitizens! I need to build my tower. I need a better elevator system before I go to bed tonight!

Therefore, I am off! My Tiny Tower awaits and my bitizens might be hungry - I have to make sure everyone is stocked up! I am hoping this is some passing fad that will burn out quickly with me, without the need of any intervention services, but I will keep you apprised of my progress either way.

My virtual playground - for FREE!

Is there some game, or activity, that has the power to sweep you away from the time/space continuum and simply play your day away?

How do you deal with it and continue to lead a normal life?