Hogwarts Live Blog

Being tomorrow/today's date(4/20, depending on your time zone) is significant to certain groups, I'd like to remind everyone ALL DRUG TALK IS AGAINST THE SITE RULES. Reference to what this date stands for that breaks that rule, talking about drugs and getting high, will result in a instant mute.

One of my favorite fantasy novels has been adapted to an HBO series: check out Game of Thrones tomorrow, April 17th at 9 PM on HBO. Click here for international air dates.

Click here to watch the Game of Thrones trailer.

If you haven't read A Game of Thrones, which is the first book in A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin you're seriously missing out.

If you like HBO's True Blood adaptation of The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris give this a shot!

Check out the cast on IMDB.

WARNING: All the shows and books mentioned in this post are not meant to be consumed by children.

Calling all fans of the Harry Potter movies!

You can now pre-order buy the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 DVD and Blu-ray from Amazon.

If you use one of the links below to purchase the new Harry Potter movie a percentage of your order will go towards the upkeep of Hogwarts Live:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (DVD)
http://tinyurl.com/hpdhp1dvd

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (Blu-ray)
http://tinyurl.com/hpdhp1br

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (Blu-ray, DVD, + Digital Copy)
http://tinyurl.com/hpdhp1td

You can use the TinyURLs below each product link to share the product with friends or family via email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

For information on all the awesome extras that come with these new Harry Potter DVD and Blu-ray editions read Spinal's post, Deathly Hallows DVD Release Date & Deleted Scenes.

ACCORDING TO THE SERVER, the time is 12:00am April 1- ApRiL fOoL's DaY!

NO. TEH CHAT IZ NOT BROKD.
NO. NO WAN HACKD UR AKOWNT.
YEZ. U RLY DID TYPE DAT.

For our amusement (but mostly fun annoyance XD), we have a special text module enabled. In order for this to work properly with the live chat, the option to turn holiday talk off is not available. Please just enjoy it for what it is and know that it will only last for 24 hours (at the most).

DO NOT PETITION IT WILL NOT BE TURNED OFF. Contrary to popular belief YOU WILL SURVIVE, if you don't like it, I guarantee you, you will not die from not being here.
You can also buy the special LOLCat in Diagon Alley!

THANK U!!!!

ADDED: Umm...April Fool's Day on HL should be over now but for some reason the LOLcat-speak is not going away. We've even deactivated and uninstalled the module. We are trying to fix it so the chat goes back to normal so please bear with us.

Thanks!

ApRiL fOoL's!!

I'm sure many of you have seen and read about what happened in Japan today, our thoughts here at HL go out to anyone living in Japan and anyone who has family living there. The following is the alert from the Red Cross:

Disaster Alert: Earthquake in Japan, Tsunami Warnings

Update 9:30 AM - At this time the Red Cross in unable to accept inquiries to contact or locate family and friends in Japan. However, there are several resources available as follows.

Inquiries concerning U.S. citizens living or traveling in Japan should be referred to the U.S. Department of State, Office of Overseas Citizens Services at 1-888-407-4747 or 202 647-5225.

For inquiries about relatives living in Japan who are not US citizens, encourage the members of your community to keep calling or to try contacting other family members who live in the region. Even though communication networks overloaded right now, the situation may change and access to mobile networks and the internet may improve.

The Google Person Finder site is available at: http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/

Japan - A series of major earthquakes struck off the coast of Japan at around 2:46 pm JST on March 11. One of the earthquakes measured 8.9 in magnitude. Tsunami warnings, watches, and advisories are in effect in multiple locations.

The Hawaii Red Cross is supporting tsunami warning and potential evacuation efforts. Follow their latest messages on Twitter.

More news will be posted as it is made available.

Link to Article that includes all the links.

There is no official donation link at this time on Japan's Red Cross website, so the donate button on the Red Cross' website is the best way to go right now. If they add one I will update.

UPDATE - WAY TO DONATE FROM LADY GAGA:
Little Monsters, show your support for Japan with this "We Pray For Japan" wristband! Choose your price to add an additional donation with your wristband. All proceeds go directly to Japan relief efforts.

Wristband Link

UPDATE - YOU CAN DONATE TO UNICEF:

For 60 years, the people of Japan have given generously to UNICEF, so that less fortunate children around the world could have a brighter future. Today, the children of Japan need your help. It is a privilege to show them the same generosity and empathy they have shown the rest of the world.

Help children in Japan: Donate to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF's emergency appeal for the children affected by the quake and tsunami.

OR

DONATE VIA GOOGLE:

http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html

A 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit the Canterbury area at 12.51 PM today - February 22. The quake, approximately 5 km underground and located 10 km south east of the city has caused wide spread damage, bursting sewage lines, damaging buildings and homes, cutting power and telephone lines to many areas of the city. The mayor of Christchurch, Bob Parker, has declared a state of emergency.

Red Cross Christchurch and Timaru teams are on the ground working now, with Nelson and Blenheim teams on their way. Dunedin, Queenstown, Invercargill and West Coast teams are all due to arrive tomorrow morning to assist. They are working with Civil Defence, New Zealand Police, the local councils and agencies and are assisting with First Aid to the injured and provision of welfare. Standardised Red Cross relief supplies being distributed and deployed from around the country.

Source

In the past and present we have had many players from NZ here on HL, so if you have any money to spare you can donate to the New Zealand Red Cross.

To all of our players who live there and/or have family there, we hope you're all safe.

Hey everyone!

I know some of you have requested the ability to change your character name (which I'll refer to as your display name for the continuation of this post).

For those of you who have accumulated more than 10,000 donator points you may now change your display name in the Prefect's Lounge by clicking on the Change Display Name link! You can change your display name once after the initial 10,000 points are earned. Every subsequent change will require an additional 5,000 points.

Some cool perks of changing your display name are that you can:

• use colors in your name
• use bold and italic characters in your name
• use special characters (i.e. symbols) in your name
• use foul language in your name (just kidding)

The BBFC has released the titles of deleted scenes, featurettes and focus points we can expect on the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 DVD. They have also revealed the DVD's release date - April 11.

The additional material will total 56 minutes and 30 seconds. See below for what the additional disc will contain:

Deleted Scenes

- The Burrow's Shed: Ron Discusses Radios with Mr. Weasley
- The Dursley House: Harry and Aunt Petunia As They Leave House
- The Dursley House: Harry and Dudley Shake Hands
- The Granger House: Death Eaters Search Deserted Home
- Ministry of Magic Lifts: Harry Tells Arthur He's Being Tracked
- Tent: Trio Discusses Destroying The Locket
- Rabbit Chase in the Forest
- Montage: Ron and Hermione Skimming Stones

The main featurette is entitled "On The Green with Rupert, Tom, Oliver and James." Focus points include The Last Days of Privet Drive, Hagrid's Motorbike, Magical Tents, Death Eaters Attack Cafe, Creating Dobby and Kreacher, Godric's Hollow, The Frozen Lake and The Return of Griphook.

Source: MuggleNet

As you may know it's my birthday on January 12th (that's today for many of you). If you want to do something special for your Headmaster please consider contributing to UNICEF. It's my favorite charitable organization. 90.5% of your donations actually go to the children in need unlike other charities, which waste their contributions on things such as frivolous lawsuits.

22,000 children die every day from completely preventable causes. Please help those who can't help themselves; let's turn that number into 0! No other organization can mobilize and coordinate lifesaving efforts faster and more effectively than UNICEF, which saves more than 6 million children each year. These children are living proof that we can make a difference.

If you'd like to make a donation to this cause I will give you donator points in exchange for doing so. Make a donation on UNICEF's secure online form by clicking here. Please note you will need to provide me with a receipt of your donation to receive donator points.

Alternatively, you may owl or email me, , your PayPal transaction number after making a donation via the "PayPal Contribute" button and I'll add your funds to my next donation to UNICEF at the end of the month. Keep in mind that this method is not tax deductible as is the case when you use UNICEF's official donation form.

There are also other ways to support UNICEF aside from donating, please visit: UNICEF's Other Ways to Give Page.

We apologize for the delay, but the raffle winners have been chosen and posted!

The 3 winners of the 3-month VIP pass are:

God Spartacus (Ticket 102)
Mistress RainaFormensul (Ticket 1633)
Supreme God JakeSkellington (Ticket 1374)

Our winner of the 6-month VIP pass is:

Ich Will Haji (Ticket 400)

And our 1 YEAR VIP pass winner is:

NaughtyByNature irishprincess (Ticket 897)

Congratulations to all of you!!

If you weren't one of the lucky winners this time, don't be discouraged. We will be having more raffles soon and remember, it only takes one ticket to win!