And With This Wand

     I keep forgetting to post this little announcement, so I'm just going to start out with it. The newest chapters of The Patchwork Knight, the rough drafts, are now coming out each Saturday at 7 AM New York time. If you have interest in seeing them early and before you can read the polished product on Medium, that is when you can see them.

     Now time for the fun. This has been an eventful weekend. I of course went to Universal Studios yesterday. it was rainy most of the day, but I still had a great time with my friend. I bought my interactive wand, so I feel very much like a true wizard now. I ended up going with Professor Dumbledore's wand which is of course the Elder Wand from the Deathly Hallows. See I told you I was doing research, and I think I finally have the tattoo pictured in my head.

     There is the wand in all of it's glory. I didn't play around with it yesterday at the park, because I didn't want to have to take it in and out of the box, and deal with all that nonsense. I will take it with me when I go back though so I can get the full wizard experience. 

     We stayed late enough to get a somewhat shielded peak of the Lighting of Hogwart's Castle. My friend took this picture from our vantage point, on a bridge that was just outside of Hogsmead's Tavern.

     They have an entire light and fireworks show that goes on once the sun goes down. It happens, I think every ten minutes or so until the park closes. The light up images on the castle of the Sorting Hat, and other objects from the movies. That wasn't the best part of the day though.

     While I was in Ollivander's choosing my wand. I heard someone say," Another Hufflepuff. that's so cool." I turned around and it was a young man about 14 maybe. I represent my chosen house when I go to Universal. I have a ball cap that has the Hufflepuff crest on it. He had the same hat on, as well as a shirt, lanyard, socks, and maybe even a scarf. He was so excited, and he told me all about his visit to Diagon Alley thus far. He was from New York and he was on vacation to the one place he has been wanting to go every since he read the first book. He had his wand chosen and was ready to hit the streets to wave his wand and speak his spells. It was a little awe inspiring, to see up close what a book can do. I know what books and words do for me, but sometimes you need that very special reminder of what they mean to others. 

     The other best part, was on the Hogwart's Express going over to Hogsmead from King's Cross. The cabin that my friend and I ended up in, was with an Italian family that had  small girl with them. If you don't know what happens on the train. They close you in your cabin and the window to the outside shows a scene as if you are traveling from London through the countryside to Hogwart's. The doors show shadowy scenes as well as if you are seeing people and events happening right outside your cabin. To this small girl, all of it was real. She was in the movies, and experiencing  things as if they were happening to her. She waved at Hagrid as he waved to her. She looked in fear as the dementors boarded the train. It was such joyful entertainment to see the purity of childhood. I only hope that some day, the stories that I tell can reach someone like that. I can only imagine the feeling that JK Rowling gets when she interacts with her readers, and she does interact with them, I have seen it on Twitter. She speaks with them on there all the time.

     There are other things that happened this weekend other than living vicariously through children and teenagers. It was a very big weekend for TPR. Our latest post has been huge for us this weekend. If you look at the numbers compared to viral hits, it doesn't compete at all, but for us, it has been a very big weekend. I know that we can't expect that for every post that we do, but once again, this is all heading in the right direction. 

     This has been our biggest reception to one of our reviews so far. We smashed most of our records for overall views. We definitely smashed all records involving the first 72 hours something is up. That is kind of the golden hour for posts on the internet. You will get most of your traffic in the first 72 hours, and then it will tail off to next to nothing over the following 48 hours after. We are now in that 48 hour cool off period. The numbers will drop and go to our normal off week stats, which are next to nothing, but that is what I expected. I'll be complete honest with you. If I had to pick one post that would have done what this one is doing. I wouldn't have picked this one at all. I figured this would fall into our typical numbers, which are good for us, but it's nothing to write home about. This one has far exceeded anything I have expected, but 100 fold. 

     We picked up some new followers and subscribers, not a lot, but a few. I like that it's isn't a thousand followers all at once. Those are the followers that never really watch again. When you pick up a few here and there, those are the ones that stick around. They are known as the true followers. I know, using the term follower sounds a bit cultish, but I'm just using the term that is attributed to Instagram and Facebook, I would use subscriber when it comes to YouTube. This is the slow and sure way to build a fanbase, and that is what I hope is happening. It's going to take a lot of work to keep going, but we can't lose sight of the rewards that we are receiving from this, even now at such a small level. Each follower/subscriber is a reward. Each time some one unknown to us shares the video or the blog post, that is a reward. I really do think this is going to work, and you have gotten to see this from the very beginning and don't think I don't appreciate that. That is huge for me, that I get to share this with you. 

      I have one last thing to share with you tonight, and that is the video that went live this morning. It is another in the Remember When series. I hope you enjoy it. This is the second video in the series that is in the new format, of new thumbnail art and new song. This is how they are going to be from here on out. That reminds me, I think I found a theme song for the channel, I need to work on creating a title theme that will play before each video, so I'm not ready to share that yet, but it will be coming in the future. I'll let you know when I have that all put together and you can see it. Until then sit back and enjoy the latest video.

     That's all I have for you tonight. I hope to have more on Tuesday, but I will be working on that special project that I can't talk about yet, so I'm not at all sure of what I will have for you on Tuesday. I guess we will just have to find out when the time comes. Peace in and goodnight.