An unexpected epilogue.

Hello!

You know, this blog used to mean everything to me. There was a thrilling excitement behind every post. Of course it was difficult to keep up with the blogging routine, but in a place like the Club Penguin community it was sentimental. I feel like, one way or another, you just get dragged back into it.

No, I’m not making a return to full-time blogging. It’s proven to be quite the chore for me…

You probably know I went on the create Club Penguin Summit, a website all about Club Penguin Island. I even tried to maintain a more personal blog, I Waddle On, but it didn’t work out. Over the years, I began to realise that blogging was becoming a chore instead of a hobby. I knew I had to put a stop to it for the sake of my wellbeing, and I’m glad I did. Now I can look back on this blog and think of only good stuff!

Out of all of the projects I have administrated, this one is the brightest gem, I think. Everything revolved around this one blog. It made my day whenever someone new commented on one of my posts or even when my regular viewers would give me a nod. It is a shame I wasn’t able to continue full steam ahead with this blog, but I think I quit at the right time.

So, why am I here? Well, if you’re in the Twitter community, you probably are aware that I’m still around, albeit quieter than I used to be. I know, however, that several of you don’t (or didn’t) have Twitter so I am making this post to let you know what I’m up to at the moment. I like to think that all of the people who subscribed by email to this blog will now get a little surprise notification in their inbox.

In case you didn’t know, I am now a full-time student at university studying Law. It’s been a couple of months since starting and I have been going through a lot of emotions, honestly, both good and bad. Weirdly enough, I am still clinging on to Club Penguin. For now, Club Penguin is a community. There is no island we can all call home but there are so many penguins doing really cool things to rectify this. You probably know of some private servers out there like CP Rewritten. I joined that server almost a year ago and I’m glad I did. I don’t get up to much on there but it recently helped me reunite with a friend I had not seen since the Club Penguin shutdown! I’m also on CPI Forever, which you can actually sign up to via Twitter. I’d say that’s where I am spending most of my time at the moment.

What’s been keeping me busy? A hobby project I call Marshmallow Studios. Basically, I am making a film on CPI Forever with my sister. There are a bunch of people helping me out with it and very soon it will be more of a community collaboration. Please check out the website if you want to know more and/or follow the official Twitter account. Marshmallow Studios actually has its own little blog but, as you guessed, it’s not always that active.

I don’t want to go too deep with this post, since it’s more like a ‘hey, I’m still around!’ rather than a ‘I am back!’. I really didn’t think I’d be posting on here again, but if it means luring my old viewers back for a couple of minutes, I’d say it was worth it.

If you’re reading this right now, thank you for checking in! Perhaps you got an email… Were you were feeling a little nostalgic? Or did you just accidentally come across this post with little intention of being hooked in like this? Would love to hear from you below!

Keep waddling on. 🙂

-Blue

Important Announcement

Hello, everyone!

Today, I have an important announcement to share with you all.

On May 17th, The Blue Blog reached its third year anniversary! I must admit that this last year has gone way too quick. Normally, I would make a post (or a video) to celebrate this milestone in my blogging career, however I have found it very difficult to do so. If you want to know why, I am in the middle of my GCSE exams (which have been going really well so far) and it takes a lot of time to prepare something – alongside vital revision! Also, Club Penguin has been gone for almost 2 months now; obviously I cannot create any party or record any videos using Club Penguin. I am still finding it very hard to realise that it is gone forever.

Anyway, I want to say thank you to everyone who has been reading my blog for 1, 2 or even 3 years, now! Ever since I entered the Club Penguin Twitter community in 2014, I have been able to meet so many lovely people and it has been an honour to make posts for you all, even though I make hardly any! Blogging has been tremendously fun, tiring – and sometimes even frustrating, but that is what makes it rewarding.

Now, I have decided that The Blue Blog has reached its third – and final year.

In the past year, I have always hinted that I am constantly unsure about the future of this blog. I was mainly worried about the closure of Club Penguin and how it would affect The Blue Blog. While that has been an issue, I have come to other conclusions. First of all, The Blue Blog was designed to be a unique reading experience for Club Penguin fans. A lot of the old community has departed with the game, so I think it is fair to say that there is no point in continuing any Club Penguin posts. You may be thinking “But, wait! There’s Club Penguin Island!”. I have decided that I am not going to be blogging about Club Penguin Island on The Blue Blog. Not only is it difficult for me to grasp onto the new ways of sharing mobile apps, but the end of the Club Penguin era makes sense for The Blue Blog to sunset. A new beginning would be kind of lack lustre, considering I don’t see much posts in the long run and I would want it to be something special – not pointless.

Also, things are changing in my life and I am still at that stage where I am on the verge of moving on from Club Penguin – completely. Just to think that I have college a couple of months down the line indicates that it’s time for me to embark on new adventures. However, what only matters now is the reality that The Blue Blog will not be continuing its journey as of today. Technically, the journey ended a while ago, when I stopped making posts, however this is my last post…

The amount of memories I have made through this blog. Blogtober. So Long CP. Island Discussions. Everything.

The Blue Blog was not only a blog where I discussed things related to a game about penguins. It has been a mental journey that has had its ups and downs. I hate to think of it ending on a down, so I want to try and shed some light on this depressing announcement.

The journey of Blue21102 (Mister Blue Sky) has not ended. I still have time left to make even more memories! The Blue Blog has been a way of communicating my journey, but there are new things on the horizon – and I am excited! There is no way I am deleting this blog – ever! I will always keep it up and running since it has been run, entirely, on a free plan; yeah, kind of sad!

If any of you are aware of Penguin Chat: a podcast hosted by Daisydoo14 and I, make sure you stay tuned for the Season 1 finale podcast, which will be a livestream towards the end of May/beginning of June. It was meant to happen a lot earlier, however time has been a difficult competition. During the podcast, we will talk about Club Penguin (Island), The Blue Blog and we will talk to all of you who will watch it through a Q & A! I am hoping it will be a lot of fun and it will be the last Penguin Chat episode for a while.

Thank you to everyone who has read my posts, shared my posts, liked my posts and been a part of my posts. The Blue Blog has improved me, as a person and I am thankful for its existence. This is goodbye from The Blue Blog.

Waddle On!

-Blue21102

Why I Took a Break

Hello, everyone.

Recently, I decided to take a break from Twitter.

There is actually more than one reason for this and I have decided to tell you what those are and how it could affect my future.

I have only told you one reason, publicly. Basically, I am quite an academic person. In a month, my GCSE exams officially begin and these are very important to me since they have some sort of impact on my future. They determine what kind of person I appear to be when I move on to college and university. I want to succeed in my GCSEs and, so far, I believe I have confidence and I really hope I can continue to aim high. So, that’s the main and evident reason.

The other reason is that I am exhausted. Ever since January, I have been increasingly more attached to Club Penguin because it was close to shutting down, at the time. I organised the So Long CP project and that was a lot of hard work. It was a project I was really proud of but it got too much for me. It was just so big!

I was overwhelmed by the responsibilities but I carried on and I think it was a successful project. However, the aftermath has been a bit different that what I expected it to be.

Although I treat this project as a success, I still think that there was no achievement. Normally, when you accomplish something, you get that sense of pride. Unfortunately, I haven’t felt that. So, when I look back on these past few months, I just sigh and bother myself about this issue.
Operation: Shadow, for example, took ages and ages to organise. It was so stressful and lots of sacrifices were made to push it forward. While I was happy with the result of the project, there was no “completion” feeling. I doubt that many of you have even heard of it. Let’s just say, the videos didn’t get a lot of views. Nor did the meet-ups get a lot of attention. It was quite a disappointing turnout for that particular project within So Long CP – and it happened to be the most time consuming out of all of them.

Therefore, I look back on Operation: Shadow and think “was it really worth it?”. I don’t think it was.

Then there’s Penguin Chat: the weekly podcast hosted by Daisydoo14 and I.

Penguin Chat is also something that is on the back of my mind a lot. We created this podcast to have fun and it has been fun recording with new guests every week, so far. Again, the process behind it is a little more complicated than you think. And – of course – there has not been a lot of interest in it. Even though a lot of people asked for it and agreed with it, the turnout has once again been undelivered.

I am now…exhausted.

Sometimes I feel that I work too hard for something that isn’t even worth it. Working on projects, like these, mean sacrifices! Now, I have realised that those sacrifices are too big of a risk to take. Which is underwhelming and very depressing to think.

I took a break because I have to recover from these falls. On the outside, I may be the positive Blue you like to think me as. However, on the inside, I am feeling blue and a bit depressed. I am just lucky that I have some really supportive friends who have helped me through this stressful time. I mainly want to give Daisydoo14 a shoutout for being considerate and understanding.

I apologise that this wasn’t a happy post, but I just wanted you all to know the truth. Now, I have decided to cut down on my ambitious attitude and be simple, especially in a community like this one. There’s just competition everywhere you go, whereas I don’t want that; I just want to find happiness in the community.

Hopefully, this break will help me. When I return this Summer, I did have something I wanted to work on, but now I am in doubt after So Long CP and Operation: Shadow. I will miss a lot of you. I will miss being on Twitter.

I just want to try and pursue my manner outside of Club Penguin so that I can be happier and find appreciation.

Thank you for reading.

Waddle On!

Blue21102

One Last Post for Club Penguin

Hello, everyone!

Club Penguin ends at 12:00am PST, on March 29th. At the time I am writing this post, we are several hours away from the server shutdown and a lot of emotions have been tossed around. In the past few weeks, I haven’t been able to truly express my thoughts on this situation and now I am able to dedicate some time to think about Club Penguin and what it has done for me.

On September 12th, 2008, I began my Club Penguin journey. Club Penguin was a decent trend at my junior school or a while, but the main reason I joined was because I was in search for an online virtual world to play on. My sister recommended Club Penguin to me as she heard it was fun to play from one of her closest friends. Dare I say, I had no idea what Club Penguin was back then, but I was very willing to give it a shot. 8 (and a bit) years later, it’s scary to think how life-changing that moment became and I was never aware of it until today.

A friend asked me recently what I would imagine life like without Club Penguin. So, I thought back to the very first day and imagined I continued and found another virtual world (like Moshi Monsters). Honestly, it is very difficult for me to think what my life would be right now because Club Penguin has actually been significantly impacted the way I have lived life since I was 7 years old. But I managed to come up with this…

“A life without Club Penguin (for me) would be like a half-baked cake. It’s obviously possible to live without this game, but no one likes a half-baked cake.”

I’m not a man of poetry, but I felt that this summed up my initial thoughts when I was asked this question. I cannot say that Club Penguin has kept me living because there are always alternatives in life. However, I do feel very relieved that I decided to stay with Club Penguin for a lot of my childhood. I know that my life has changed in a positive way and that is what matters.

I would like to dedicate this post to the Club Penguin team – every single person who has contributed to the game (former staff or current). If any of you are reading this, I would like to thank you individually. Club Penguin is not just something that comes from one person. It may have been created by 3 incredible people, but every baby needs to be nurtured and supported. The amount of success that has been generated from this game was born through teamwork, dedication, effort and hard work. Club Penguin has changed millions of lives and has brought fortune to the less fortunate. Club Penguin has been a wise teacher of many lessons as well. It has taught us to be respectful in society and that has had a positive impact on the way we live our lives.

Club Penguin isn’t just a game either, nor a team or a community. Club Penguin is something indescribable. I am just forever grateful that Club Penguin has existed for over 11 years. Therefore, I am quite devastated that it ends in several more hours. However, only the game dies tonight. This sad event is only necessary as it helps Club Penguin to live on through other mediums. I totally understand and respect this decision. Hopefully, Club Penguin Island will receive the support it deserves.

CP Around The Clock: Success

Hello, everyone!

CP Around The Clock kicked off at 12:00pm (PST), on server Marshmallow, and it ended 24 hours later. This 24 hour party was outstanding! That’s right; 24 hours – straight! Who knew this was possible?

In the Summer of 2016, Daisydoo14 created CP Around The Clock for the fun of it. Also, considering it was the Summer, she acknowledged that more people would be free to take part in this event. For its first debut, the event was successful! A lot of people found it fun, which is the main objective of this event. However, 24 hours of Club Penguin is as difficult as it sounds; not every hour was fully occupied.

To celebrate New Year’s of 2017, Daisy decided bring back CPATC. It was at this one, I became more interested. I managed to reserve and hour and everyone was pumped for it. Unfortunately, this particular event didn’t go far.

Bots. And a lot of them.

Someone wanted to ruin the fun, so they deployed several bot penguins across the party – and they were almost unstoppable. I never got to host my hour because of these bots. It was so cruel of them to do this because CPATC is not your ordinary event. It takes a lot of time to prepare it. It is such a shame that one penguin can just ruin that within a matter of seconds.

So, CPATC was officially cancelled during its run.

Daisy was devastated. So was I. I tried my best to keep it going but everyone was tired of the bots. We ended up giving in which made the bots the new worst enemy to our community.

A month later, I proposed an idea to Daisy. During January, I created the So Long CP project. I was determined to revive CPATC from its plunge and I wanted to make it successful again. Daisy and I negotiated and, before long, the event was placed into my flippers. At the time, I was very excited, but the fear of bots never escaped my mind. Daisy warned me about the stress this caused her; I started to feel a bit nervous. On the other hand, I was very determined and I believed that incorporating this event into the So Long CP project would make it even better!

Two months later, CP Around The Clock made its third debut. And it blew me away.

The stress of finding just as many people as last time was higher than I anticipated and there was a lot of drama involved before the event kicked off. I took on board that every host during this event had to be someone I could trust and rely on. For CPATC to be successful, it needs dedication from the community. It costed a few friendships of mine to find the dream team for this event, and it paid off -luckily!