Secre

Krisalea lost four defence points, but the boring petpet on the other hand...

I forgot to screenshot the actual page, but I got a colour change finally!

So my side now has a Ruki. I have no idea what I'm going to do with him. That will be a question for when I have completed my already incredibly long customisation list for my existing pets. Need to stop creating more pets... The markings on the Marachite Ruki are very cool and I adore that outfit. It would go wonderfully with the Woodland Ruki I think... although I haven't checked this on DTI... I'm trying to preserve my bank balance not blow it all!

I like both the colour and the new outfit, although it doesn't really go with the base red colouring very well! As per usual I'm not keen on the wig, but I never am in general! I really like the sharp edges on the ice colouring though; it's like it's been chiselled out of ice properly! @Angeló I suspect the icy Peophins would have to stay in very cold water perhaps!!

I just took the extra plunge and got the petpet lab map for my side - after a 2 million np investment, 9000np was hardly going to sting! Nothing looks different about Boo but you can sense something happened. It becomes evident later when it tries to climb a tree but breaks off the branch instead. The ray has increased its level to: 2

I've heard good things about Haruki Murakami so he's been on my radar for a while. I just need to get round to actually reading his work! My problem is I buy way more books than I could ever possibly read so I have close to 2000 unread books on my kindle alone!! I might at some point give The Dark Tower another shot. I had a glance at my old review of it to double check, but yes, my remembered impressions were correct: I really just didn’t get this. I tried so very hard and it still just came across as the fevered rantings of a delirious man who is probably high on something. The whole thing is so abstract that it loses any semblance of narrative, structure or a focus. I was baffled and bored in equal measure by this book and that isn’t something I’d have thought I’d hear myself saying about a Stephen King novel. But this really does just seem to be random thoughts and impressions with some hallucinogenic sparkles thrown in for the fun and giggles, all depicting one mans trip across the desert in over 200 pages. I thought this was a short Stephen King novel, after all King can be very verbose indeed, however the issue is that he says virtually nothing but takes a whole lot of words to not say anything.

So I'm just starting to try and restock as a form of additional income. Nothing fancy or major and my aim is to just keep my shop fully stocked and hopefully make a bit of additional cash. I'm currently keeping an eye on the main book store which is where I pick up most of my items, Mystical Surroundings, the collectible coin shop and the Magical Potions shop where I have had no luck whatsoever. I saw a Halloween Eyrie Potion once but was not quick enough!! For most of the items I'm making at most a 400np profit and my current cut off is 350np profit at point of purchase. But I am new to this game so I was wondering what more experienced restockers do or where they tend to hang their hats. Any tips, advice etc?

There were a couple of people on Reddit saying the same thing had happened to them so I suspect there was a glitch in the system. You can try submitting a ticket but I'm not sure how helpful they will be.

Oooh, some really interesting recommendations here and I haven't come across any of them before which is even better! Thank you, I will have to check these out!! I never got the Dark Tower series. I read the first one, hated it and haven't gone on any further!! I'm particularly interesed at the moment in books set or written by authors from different cultures so I'll be looking at Kamikaze Girls! I'm currently reading through the Hugo nominations for this year. I was meant to be voting on them but am rather behind. I just finished The City in the Middle of the Night, The Light Brigade and A Memory Called Empire. I think out of the three The Light Brigade was my favourite, which is a military science fiction where new technology allows soldiers to be moved from place to place by turning them into light. It has rather odd side effects for a few grunts though and Dietz finds himself experiencing the war out of order to the rest of his squad. Is Dietz really experiencing the war differently, or is it combat madness? Trying to untangle memory from mission brief and survive with sanity intact, Dietz is ready to become a hero—or maybe a villain; in war it’s hard to tell the difference. This book is raw and gritty and oh so dark at points, full of the pointless brutality of war and all the politics that exist in the background. It is also an absolute mind melt, forcing you to re-imagine the world in sharp angles and refractory reflections. It's confusing and fascinating at the same time and whilst it is undeniably weird and will mess with your head in so many ways, it is also accessible and ultimately readable. A Memory Called Empire is a wonderfully complex and immersive novel that demonstrates some of the most intricate world building I’ve seen in a work of science fiction without becoming overly bogged down in details. When Mahit arrives as the Lsel Ambassador to Teixcalaan, she knows nothing of the fate of the previous Ambassador or what she is walking into. Teixcalaan culture is very different from that of Lsel station and Mahit finds herself thrown in at the deep end, with only the imago technology that is fifteen years out of date to help her find her footing. And she has to find her footing fast, as what starts as a very personal mystery quickly spirals out with consequences that could engulf her entire home world. This is a slow moving novel with a strong focus on political intrigue and with a murder mystery at its heart. The pacing stutters at points, where there is simply so much to unpack in terms of culture, technology and politics that it becomes a bit of a chore to slog through. It picks back up though, and the pacing of the latter half was less problematic, and it becomes far smoother reading. What I found impressive was just how much world building Martine manages to pack into the novel, and how much introspective discussion was built into the characterisations and portrayals. There is a wealth of detail here. Whereas The City In The Middle of the Night is a more confused novel that has some excellent parts but just didn't quite meet my expectations. I think my biggest issue with this novel is that whilst it starts out brilliantly, it becomes rather more confused by the second half and it doesn’t seem to have a full conclusion, instead it just stops abruptly. Even split between two narrative voices, I fell into the opening chapters and felt the world unfolding around me. The juxtaposition of Mouth’s cynical and violent worldview to Sophie’s relative innocence and nativity really caught me and Andrea builds up the dysfunctional totalitarian city around them beautifully. The shock of Sophie’s arrest and her first meeting with the strange and utterly alien crocodiles, or the Garet as she comes to call them, is strikingly written. I have to say though that the narrative loses some focus when you leave Xiosphant, the City of Timefulness and move to Argelo, a chaotic and noisy city, The City That Never Sleeps. Somehow the Gelet are all but forgotten for much of the novel as Bianca falls headfirst into high end society and Sophie mopes after her. Whilst they come back in force for the concluding chapters, they would have made a far more interesting focus than the petty night life and failure to recognise a toxic relationship when it’s right in front of you. The Gelert anthropology - or perhaps that should be xenopology, if that word even exists - is fascinating and could have been far been incorporated to a far greater extent.

I've got a 10th Birthday Usuki Birthday Lunch Bag up for sale. Currently being sold for just shy of 598,900 odd but I can go down to 550,000 if anyone on here wants it.

Well, that's helpful as hell!! First RE I've had in a while and it's an illness!

I was thinking it would go well with the Maraquan Kacheek or Shoyru in particular, although the Kacheek is perhaps a little too big!! But yes, the Flotsam and the Koi mutants work nicely in there as well! The Jetsam works surprisingly well in mutant form as well.

You'll need to allow flash on both Firefox and Edge as well if you're using those browsers.

I love the Houdini inspired one! What's the tank called?

I hadn't twigged that there were other items, but it does look as though they normally try to prevent two NP items having the same name at least. I can kind of see the lack of concern with NC items - they can't show up in user shops after all. Actually, that would be quite a nifty additon - NC user shops. Although I suppose the potential for absolute fleecing of unsuspecting members would come into play making it unworkable. It would save the hassle of trading caps and items via gift boxes though. I'm currently trying to nag them into fixing a graphics issue on the NC mutant draik wearables via editorial, but if that ever gets addressed I might have a go at seeing if they can change the name!

I am not having much joy with my new lab ray access:

So I was going through my shop checking prices and found my Yooyuball Cake Pops were vastly overpriced. But then when I checked again, they weren't. The reason? There are two different items! Same name!! What happened there!?

Yeah, I think it was sold for a limited period of time and there are really very few being traded on either JN or DTI so regardless of whether I overpaid I'm quite happy with that!! I have now completed my draik customisation with the exception of a collar - I may wait to see if another collar is sold at some point rather than trying to trade for the Spiked Mutant Collar which is valuable as hell by the looks of it!

I suspect I've also just been part of friendly highway robbery but I really really wanted that dress! I got it in the end by trading for some Krawley Contacts and throwing in my existing Twigs and Flowers Foreground. According to Waka it was worth significantly less, but I think the owner had a huge point when he said that there were very few being traded so he personally felt it was worth signifcantly more. And none of the other owners with it on their list had even replied to my trade offer so I'll take what I can get!

I'm more conscious of names now than I was as a child - hence tdub1002 - although I'm less concerned if I know I'm going to be keeping them as a permie as then the name just needs to mean something to me. Looking for a pet to grab from the pound for re-adoption, I was more concerned with the potential for re-adoption and pets have more of a chance if they are one word, properly capitalised and pronounceable. I think with those two names in particular they are long winded with too many compound parts.

Hah! I thought they were horrendous! But hey, even my worst named pet - tdub1002 - wasn't named through the auto name generator. Nope, I made up that monstrosity all by myself!

Thanks! My only regret with putting the map on my side is that I won't get the avatar. But I have two unaged sides and am otherwise full pet space wise... and I've rarely actively hunted avatars. Most of them I've just come across over the last decade and a half! I used http://www.neopets.com/~Kylinth for my pet grabbing as they only list WN and VWN pets. I figure if I get a second map for another side in the future, I might pick up less well named pets and see if I can give those a second chance as well! Thanks! I've been rather jealous of those of you with the lab ray for a while!! My main issue was that I have very specific plans for all my current pets and they don't tend to involve changing species for example! But the idea of having the lab ray on a side for the sole purpose of zapping pets to help them find their forever homes really worked for me.... even if it cost a small fortune!

That's my current plan, although with only one lab ray access I'm starting with well named pets that are stuck in the pound. I'll eventually pick up a second lab ray for another side and I'll likely pick up less well named pets on that one and see if I can't get them adopted as well. I get the struggle to create names, but some of these are clearly one person creating variations on one name and then pounding the lot which just seems ridiculous!!

I was Pound surfing for a well named pet to start zapping - before I found a page of well named pets stuck in the pound (http://www.neopets.com/~Kylinth if anyone is interested) - and I can't help but be baffled at the number of abandoned pets with appalling names. Why bother creating a pet with an utterly poor name only to abandon it?? I have pets with poor names, but they have sentimental value to me so I wouldn't be trying to trade them anyway. Some examples currently sitting in the Pound: 43wrtgfhdsg JoseCarlosdaFonseca Jose_Lupe_Cuervos kiki_12345679__bia _fire1_fire1_67 asasd_asasd_2_2 AS123jjjjj chelsea97541486