Secre

Have you tried using the Jellyneo or Dress to Impress wardrobe to see what it looks like with various outfits?

Thank you! I’ve been after the Merridel background in particular for quite a while, but every time I’ve spotted it on a trade list it either gets grabbed by someone quicker than me or they aren’t going for custom and my trade list doesn’t interest them. Thank you again!!

I ought to have linked you to my trading lists; http://impress.openneo.net/user/44099-Secre/closet If there's anything on there that you'd prefer to trade for from there rather than for current buyables, I'm more than happy to oblige.

I'd love the Twilight in Meridell Background and Dark Desert Ruins Background. I'm more than happy to offer a trade for GBC's or JJ caps though rather than taking them as a freebie!! EDIT - or RR caps, or whatever else you would prefer. I'm not fussy in terms of what I buy to trade!

After giving me several 1000-2000np prizes, the Space Faerie has decided she wants to kill me instead...

I think a lot of people do that - I only have the map on my side as I don't want to zap my main pets. I had to double check the rules to ensure I was ok to use a lab cookie there, but TNT confirmed in an editorial that if your only map is on a side, you can use a cookie. Otherwise, it has to be on your main. For safeties sake, I would probably only use the one regular zap on your side.

Haha! First time I've ever actually tried for a games avatar and I get it! I suspect it's one of the easier ones, but I am still far too chuffed with myself to care!!

Now that is very nice I love how the Sky Full of Stars works with it!! I really like that cloud one as well!! I have no plans whatsoever for an Alien Aisha but that is a very nice combo!

Absolutely nothing at all happened today. Although, it occurred to me to be pleased as I've been zapping my Kiko, but if I wait a month, transfer him to my main I can get the grey avatar and then transfer back to continue the quest for the Garlic Kiko. In the meanwhile, I'll continue zapping my adoptee to see if I can get her a decent colour to rehome now she has a nice Petpet!!

Finally, he can get his forever petpet the Hegie!! And I realised I'd missed another clickable!! I've attached a Harris to my one pet without a long time petpet to get that avatar whilst I wait to try and trade my Snow Yooyu!

I mean, it could be Hannah. After all that getting lost in caves, she probably deserves a nice safe fishing break somewhere where giant squids or the like aren't trying to eat her!

I think the Draik works so well though because they haven't overcomplicated the colours at all; it's all dark/dull green or beige with slight accent being given to the brain and the eyes. The Vandy however... is this strange combination of bright green, bright purple. pink with additional yellow and red accents for the eyes and beak. It just screams over-complex and clashes! I would say that though. The draik was one of my dreamies for years! I think I actually prefer the black and white Vandy!! That's definitely got my vote!!

Both the colour and the outfit work really well, although not tempting me to get a Skeith. I second the comment about cross painting to get that tail though! I think others may cross paint the other way to get the dark base colour which would work well with other clothes as well!!

Nope, you're fine to paint. But if you remove the petpet and attach it to another pet, you will lose the petpetpet entirely.

They said they were going to refund the difference... but I know a few people on the boards were complaining that they got a minimal refund if anything - so one person bought five stamps at the higher price and was only refunded the difference for one of them!!

Wow, that's a crazy amount of points!! And I am so glad that I didn't use my far more minimal points on the mystery capsules!!

If you only have the lab map on your side, you are ok using lab cookies on it. If you have the lab map on your main, you can only use cookies on the main. I suppose because they don't want to give the advantage of having multiple lab rays all having multiple zaps. I'd strongly suggest not using any further zaps on your side if you also have the map on your main.

Good luck! This is my forth I believe and I won for the first time last round so I'm still high off that!

Nothing intersting on the pet front, but I've now got a Gold Doglefox and a Chocolate Slorg from my weekend zaps! I'm torn on the Doglefox. It is very cute, but I really want a food related petpet to go with that pet (my hopefully soon to be Garlic Kiko)... I'd love the Hoagie Kadoatie, Deviled Egg Goldie or Salad Slorg, but I'd likely rest on a cute chocolate or possibly jelly. I've started zapping a different petpet whilst I consider things!

Duolingo also has sets of short stories to read through, so I think once I'm confident with those - which may take a while! - and will in turn give me far more time to get further up the Duo tree, I'll give the Potter books a shot... or at least the first three which are far more children's books than the later series! The idea of having the English version next to me is a great one though! Thanks! I keep meaning to bring my German dictionary home from my parents and keep forgetting. I mean, it's been there since my GCSE years some fifteen years ago! I never got the full book by heart...only those first few pages. I could probably still paraphrase the rest though!! I'm currently slowly writing a fanfic I started years ago - and I'm only in second year! I'm an absolute whizz at the Quizup Harry Potter questions though! I had a language brain, but only for English!! My science brain was ok... but really for biology and chemistry rather than the hard science in physics! Creative writing and reading was always where I excelled. I get the not wanting to confuse the brain with two languages. I'd love to learn Russian at some point in the future - the country has always fascinated me and again, I'd love to be able to read materials in their native language rather than having to rely on translators! Excellent reasons for learning Japanese though!!

I didn't know that! You learn something new every day! One of my biggest motivators though is being able to read in the language I am trying to learn - once I'm more confident, I'm going to start with Harry Potter in German as I know that book inside and out already!! My party trick as a teenager was to be able to recite the first three pages from memory. I could get to five pages just about, but nobody ever stood still to listen for that long!!

And I am definitely one of the slow ones! Every new lesson I have a moment of panic when I have no clue what is going on because of random new words that have been introduced. I end up having to practice well past the level 5 to actually master a lesson! I think that makes much more sense in teaching children young - I started in yr 7 so at about 11 years old and never got the hang of it. Whereas my foster father who is Dutch speaks four languages fluently and another three with varying degrees of aptitude, but they start them young over in Holland!! The only problem with having both of us trying to converse in our languages is that I don't speak a whit of French and my husband doesn't speak a whit of German!! Duo recently re-mastered the German board and I very nearly gave up as all my initial levels had been lost and I had to 'relearn' Brot, Wasser, Mutter and Vater ten million times before I could get onto anything even resembling my actual level. Which isn't great, as I said... but has thankfully progressed beyond that point at least!! I think if we can get to the point where my husband can do all the talking in France and I can do all the talking in Germany, we'll be on a winner! If I ever get reasonably decent in German, I might have a look at trying another language... I love the idea of speaking Russian... but the whole learning a new alphabet thing puts me clean off!! Japanese would be really cool to speak... but again, the whole, learning a new alphabet thing would really put me off!!! I like Duo because it's free - you can pay to remove the hearts and the ads, but you don't have to pay anything to get full usage out of it!

Thanks! I'll have to look into LanguagePod101. I've been looking for additional resources to supplement my Duo lessons! I've been using verbformen to help better understand conjugations and such like. I had to do both German and French at school, but I was always slightly better at German as it's so much more logical in many ways than French seemed to be. I say slightly better - that is very much conditional - I was pretty poor at both of them! My husband is using Duo for French and it baffles and annoys him in equal measure that he's so much more competant and yet I have so much more 'experience'. He doesn't quite get that the reason I have so much more experience is because everything takes me twice as long to learn!!

So as an end of lockdown goal, I have set myself the task of going back to my much hated foreign language classes as a teenager and am using Duolingo to try to teach myself German. I admit, it is slow, slow going. Foreign languages really don't come easily to me at all, but I am slowly but surely becoming more confident in the basics of the language and have even got the hang of present day tenses which always completely baffled me at school! I've found Duolingo a really useful tool - I suspect it doesn't have the more complex lessons for when you are more fluent, but as a beginner it sets things out well and allows you to learn in bite sized chunks which is always helpful when you have the attention span of a demented cockroach to contend with! My end goal for the moment is to be able to read the Harry Potter books in German... which is a stretch right now, but you never know, I might get there!

It's been a while since I've poked this thread - I've been largely reading indie fantasy for the Indie Fantasy Addict Summer Challenge these last few months and I've found a few absolute gems: The Lightning Conjurer by Rachel Reneer caught me from beginning to end and I just couldn't stop reading. From a mysterious beginning, this novel picks up the pace quickly as Aspen begins to get to grips with her new powers and forms a relationship with Aiden. Through him she learns of a shadowy organisation, the Asterian Order, that would take great interest in her abilities, but that knowledge may have come too late. I flew through this book in two sittings, unable to take my eyes off the page. I loved Aspen and her relationship with her elderly neighbour Evelyn. She's a strong yet flawed lead character and she really resonated with me. The romance between her and Aiden was less of a draw, but whilst important to the character development, it doesn't interfere overly with the narrative. I was fascinated by how the use of elemental magic has been incorporated into the real world and the use of pseudo-science made it believable and interesting. I loved how magic and reality intertwine throughout the story and how the elements are used in interesting and innovative ways. And Darkmage by M. L. Spencer is a far darker novel than the more YA approach of The Lightning Conjurer, but no less brilliant for that fact. M.L. Spencer wastes almost no time at all in bringing the world crashing down around both of her main characters, Darien and Kyel. Darien is the only mage to survive the destruction of his home town and whilst he starts as an innocent, the loss of everything he holds dear and the threat of a gateway to Hell being open soon propel him down a far darker and more tortured path. Kyel is merely in the wrong place at the wrong time, and events that he had no control over lead him to being conscripted to the war at the front line. As the two stories converge, both characters are forced to examine exactly what they are willing to do or to become in order to prevent a tragedy. That's one of the strongest aspects of this novel; M.L. Spencer has a knack for writing heroes who aren't really heroes, they are just in the right place at the right time to make a difference. Darien is a deeply conflicted soul, his grief for his lover and his anger at his brother's betrayal lead him to decisions that are considered an abomination. He has no hope of redemption or even of forgiveness, with even those who previously admired him now reviling him for the power he wields and the choices he has made. It is difficult to know exactly where the line between his personal quest for revenge and the wider context of saving the world from the forces of evil begin and end. As with all things human, the lines blur and twist, making him a complex, multi-faceted character who is willing to destroy in order to save. If you're looking for white knights on noble steeds, then you might want to look elsewhere. But if you're looking for a complex tapestry of conflicted characters thrust into war then this is a fantastic offering. Now to get a handle on my myriad collection of NetGalley titles awaiting my attention!