siniri

I'm currently dog-sitting and have limited access to a computer. I will start giving things away later this week. Many of the retired items (such as the utility fish) were a gift from a NF who found them really hard to part with -- her account is from 1999, and she tried to have one of everything at the beginning. After a few years, she would give me a few for Christmas/birthday for my gallery so they could be seen and appreciated vs. rotting in her SDB, but I know how hard a gift that was for her, so I'll be returning those items to her. I'm waiting for her to let me know exactly which items those are, before I start giving things away. Sorry for the delay!

****** the Faerie Gnorbu is up for adoption with her (zapped) purple gikerot.

Lvl : 112
Str : 118
Def : 28
Mov : 58
Hp : 479 / 441

 

If there is no interest, I will be pounding her tomorrow evening to make room to transfer one of my side pets before their birthday.

 

Edit: Anala has been adopted!

Please ask for specific items found in my gallery. With over 2000 items in my gallery, I expect dozens of requests and do not have the time to search separate lists for what you would like. Sorry I didn't make that clear.

 

(They're mostly in order within each category, and they are all categorized.)

I'm closing down my gallery, and I'm going to give away all the items in it. My theme is "beach," but that was very broad -- really, it was anything that reminded me of the beach and my family's annual beach vacations, or summer, or sand, or water... It had several categories:

·Apparel

·Beverages (mostly milkshakes, slushies, smoothies)

·Books

·Desserts (mostly frozen treats)

·Fishing

·Fruit (beach/tropical/summer/sand fruits)

·Furniture (umbrellas, bamboo, island, etc.)

·Gardening (water, beach, etc. plants)

·Island and Aquatic Petpets (from all the beach/water related worlds)

·Kites

·Meals (fish, anything tropical/beach)

·Seashells

·Snacks

·Souvenirs (MI, gift shop, etc.)

·Stamps

·Toiletries

·Towels

·Toys

·Weapons

 

For those who've been around a while, you probably know my username or can figure out where to find it on this site (please do NOT post it in this thread). It's going to take me a while to give all the things away. Please ONLY reply to this post, do not NM or PM me here (unless I have messaged you). Just reply stating what you'd like (please do look at my gallery and ask for specific items currently there - with over 2000 items to give away, I do not have time to search dozens of wishlists for the items each person wants); no need to include your Neo account name, since I'll contact you by PM here with a trade link.

 

Priority goes to those who would like items for their own galleries (or album pages), and to those whom I know and interact with here. It will take me a while to give all the things away; please do not ask me when I'm going to get around to it. Let me know if you'll be out of town/unavailable to trade for more than 24 hours. You can ask for as much or as little as you'd like. NC items are available, but will be dealt with last. I may ask you to provide your own gift box for transfer (I have a few, but not enough). I'm also offering items to friends on other sites. If more than one person asks for an item, I'll decide to whom it goes based on what else they requested, how long I know them, etc.

 

As the gallery empties, I'll add things from my SDB that didn't fit. I'll let you know here what I added, so check back.

I enter these contests because 1) I don't even know what's out there, and it's a good way to learn. 2) It's a fun, creative exercise -- and no one has to see your "flubs," which are easy to just remove and try again. 3) It's a way for me to have fun customizing since I'm cheap with both my real and NP money and won't spend it on clothes. (And occasionally I'll find a really versatile item that is worth spending money on, and can improve my poor pets' wardrobe...)

 

So don't judge yourself too harshly. Just try playing around with DTI, and if you end up making something you like, enter it!

 

I thought the new contest was supposed to go up yesterday? Or did I read that wrong?

Anyone else had issues with Kiko Pop's sound, visual and message not lining up? Three times now, I've had the sound of a pop but gotten the error message that I shouldn't hit the kikos in the lake. The first two times, the dart bounced off a balloon, but today it actually showed the balloon pop (showing the balloon-shaped prize), but I didn't get the "claim your prize" message, so I glanced over and saw that I'd actually hit the kikos again, instead. Checked my inventory; no prize.

 

I haven't won in a few weeks now, and I have had several days in between where I get the bouncing sound... And I've restarted my computer, cleared my cache, etc. in between these 3 events.

Recently I've listened to As You Like It, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara, and The Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie. All quite enjoyable.

 

Next up: Farewell Summer by Ray Bradbury and The Plague by Albert Camus (I read the latter for French class, en français, but I didn't have time to read it properly).

Woah, has it really been since February that I posted in here? I finished both Farewell Summer (bizarre and utterly creepy at the end...) and The Plague (apparently I didn't miss much by skimming in high school). I finished re-reading Code Name Verity (I got chills in a few places... seriously, read this book!). And I read Faster, Better, Stronger, which supposedly reveals the best scientific knowledge about improving various aspects of fitness, with suggestions on how to balance programming. The book is seven years old, so some of the science is already outdated, and the website that's supposed to have updates with the latest science is gone -- and the domain was bought by someone else. Also, the programming info didn't really explain how to balance everything, and there was some conflicting advice. I've found better tools on-line. Still a decent read if you're just beginning a fitness journey, or are confused by all the myths and want to sort fact from fiction. And they do have some easy self-assessment tools. I recommend borrowing it from a library if you're interested.

 

I've listened to Othello (my favorite Shakespeare so far, by far -- Iago makes most villains look incompetent), Beloved by Toni Morrison, Unbroken (a bit longer and dryer than it could have been... and I know it's important to remember and make sure that kind of abuse doesn't happen again, but sometimes describing it in so much detail... I don't know, it almost seems like an invasion of privacy or a secondary dehumanization... like rubbernecking, where people are just looking out of curiosity, and not really thinking about the victim... there was just something about the writing that made me feel uncomfortable), Crispin: At the Edge of the World by Avi (which ended in the most annoying cliffhanger; the open ending worked for the first book and it could have stood alone with no sequel, but now I'm left waiting for the third...), and Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl.

 

I'm currently listening to Execution: the discipline of getting things done, which is actually more for businesses than individuals, though there are a few suggestions for individuals (things like 5 things a person needs to execute: authenticity, self-awareness, self-mastery, self-confidence, and humility... not really rocket science). Next on audiobooks: Shakespeare's King John, The "essential" John Milton, and Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou.

 

I'm currently reading The Genius of Flexibility, which is pretty difficult to read (it's a bit disorganized), but I'm hoping the stretching routines will make slogging through his background info worth it. The author has worked with a number of talented athletes, including Olympic swimmer Dara Torres. I've also got Rose Under Fire (the companion book to Code Name Verity) and Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl (we learned about him in an online class I took for church, and I was intrigued enough to request the book); I'm really looking forward to diving into both.

It also depends on whether the name is trademarked. If the name is trademarked, and they get a cease-and-desist order from the company that owns the name, they'll delete your account so they don't get sued. As long as they don't get such a letter, your account is safe. So the question becomes, how likely is the company to find your little neopets account, and how much do they actually care about things like that? Disney might care... South Park? I would guess not, but I don't really know. I also don't even know if the name is even trademarked.

 

Just something to think about...

It's 3am for me, so I got the avvie while I was on the West Coast for a week (I think on the first or second night...), and I've never wanted to gain or lose a level desperately enough to want to lose the avvie and have to try for it again (I tried every Halloween and never succeeded, so it'd be a long slog to get it again). I have a friend (in a different time zone) who uses it as a daily, on his battle pet. He has the timing down so he wins more than he loses. I wish CVR appeared twice a day, so that people around the world had the same opportunity to visit him...

 

Congrats on the avvie and levels!

I won 646:290 in Food Club for April (that's a 123% net return, more than doubling my money). It might have been my best month so far; I haven't really kept track before, but my overall win percentage is only 82%. (In terms of NP, it was ~3.2M.)

I bought two capsules on my main yesterday, bringing my total to 4 or 5, I think. I should go through my closet and SDB and figure out if there's anything I have worth trading... and then actually start trading for some things I'd like that are retired!

I've heard that you only get them once you've reached 50 stars (so not quite 3-stars on every level), and then beat the level again (if you don't get them as soon as you get 50 stars).

I made it on the trophy table of Food Club again -- but only a bronze trophy because scores haven't reset since January (it would have surely been gold had we had a reset or two in between...). I guess now I'm hoping reset day doesn't happen on the first of May, so I can make up for the lost interest...

 

It's a significant personal high score, at least.

Woohoo, I've been waiting for these to go on sale so I could afford to send over the items I bought on my side (with some of my free NC that was about to expire) over to my main. I've got one box and 50 NC left on my side now...

 

Thanks for the info!

Lenny Conundrum is officially retired apparently. Also, its a bad move to remove or neglect these types of things from the site. Its kinda what made it unique to the site and enjoyable for many people.

Where was this made official?

 

I've given up hope of a plot anytime in the next year or so, realistically speaking, but it was the puzzles and plots that drew me in, and a large part of that was the LC. It's what I've missed the most.

I can understand. I realize now that I must sound like a petulant child that hasn't gotten their way. I made this thread in the heat of the moment. A little peeved at being blocked and what-not. I didn't really think it through before I posted.

 

But I do understand what you are telling me, I've gotten a few random requests myself. And I realize that I was rude in send a request without stating my intentions first.

No, you don't sound like a petulant child. There was an interesting thread a while back on Neopets etiquette (need to leave for work or I'd try to link it), and the consensus I got from that thread is that there is no single standard for Neopets etiquette. There are some established norms, but they vary wildly across subcultures on the site, and that can make for some misunderstandings. Add into that the many real-life cultures Neopians come from, and people will have different expectations and view interactions differently. I was just trying to offer you a counter-perspective to explain one part of one of the subcultures. Not trying to call you out or anything. Thanks for bringing up an interesting topic for discussion.

I have a note on my look-up that I'll block people who try to NF me without contacting me first, but I'm usually too lazy to follow through. If they send more than one NF request, then I'd block them. But I usually reserve blocking for people who make unfair offers on trades (or in the past, if they obviously quit on me in KQ just because I was going to win, or otherwise cheated by skipping turns, etc. -- if the game had been glitchy, I'd give them the benefit of the doubt).

 

I had a problem for a while with too many NF requests, after I won certain contests, or had a NF-only auction up. That's why I left the note on my user look-up, because these people wouldn't send me any messages, just NF requests, and when I checked out their accounts, they were often relatively new. That was when account stealing was a pretty big issue, so it was a matter of account security for me. I try to keep my NF list to actual friends -- people I interact with regularly, removing randoms that I auction with after the deal, etc. The note serves more as a deterrent, and it did cut back on the requests, though that might have been due to the amount of time since the big contest win...

 

From the user's perspective, they had no idea you wanted to offer on their trade; you were just a random person who randomly asked to be their friend. Now, if they had messages blocked to NF-only, then I don't quite understand their logic. But if possible, I recommend sending someone a message before sending a NF request, just so they know you're not a random scammer trying to hone in on their NF-only auctions or something.

I just want the broken stuff fixed: lag, trophy resets, Lenny Conundrum, Caption Contest, Keyquest (including all the broken stuff in-game that made it unplayable for the last few years before they took it down), gallery sorting/removal, etc. And the interactive content restored (e.g., NT). And a new plot (or even just a puzzle-type mini-event). Something to get us interacting with one another.

It's best to train strength, defense, and endurance (and level as much as you have to in order to be allowed to train the others). The strength and defense boosts are often significantly cheaper than a comparable weapons upgrade, though it does take time. But you can pay for much of your training with the dubloons and codestones you'll eventually win from the BD (and the boons you can sometimes win with the Obelisk skirmishes).

 

If you have the lab ray, I highly recommend supplementing your training with zapping (after you're past level 50 or so...). The key is to train as often as you can, focus on defense and strength, and make sure no stat is running away from you. If you have a stat that's threatening to push you into the next most expensive training level, just take a break from zapping until you catch up. Yes, the lab can take stats away, but in the long run, you'll gain a lot more than you lose, on average. This can save you millions of NP on your way to a top-boost pet -- but more importantly, it can save you a lot of time. I've seen several lab logs, and every single one shows a significant net increase in overall stats. Sure, you'll have to train defense a little more often than you would have to otherwise, but you can go months between endurance trainings -- and as long as you're not overpaying for stats, you're saving NP (since all stats cost the same).

 

If you have specific questions or want specific examples for what people have mentioned, just ask -- maybe share the specific stats and current weapons for your planned battle pet. Just start small and work your way up. I started with a pair of scarab rings. (You can start with a much better set for much cheaper now.)

I want the Lenny Conundrum and Better Than You contests back. And the other contests that have been suspended...

 

I agree that ten new items a week seems a bit much. To me, items are less important than the interactive elements of the site (contests, KQ, etc.).

 

I think we really need a good event -- one that gets people talking, not ranting in anger (well, they're always going to do that, but I mean something with puzzles or a mystery rather than just forcing people to spend NP on stuff). Or a new game.

 

They also need to update the community page (the one with the daily puzzle); they've been advertising the same old NT issue for ages...

Wow, I never knew that, either! That would have saved me a lot of NP when battling Apathy during the Obelisk War! It'll be handy if I'm ever zapped to zero by a daily and want to battle, and the healing springs is uncooperative...

The cupcakes were new to celebrate Neopets' 15th birthday this past November. I'm pretty sure you can put the cupcakes in your SDB and save them. If training is cheap for you now, you might want to do that, and save it for later when training is more expensive (or when you're in one of the slower training cycles). I do know that you can feed it to any pet, as I've already gotten 2 of them, and fed both to my battle pet.

I'm a natural saver, but even if I weren't, I would recommend saving, saving, saving, because the interest alone will give you more to spend. 12.5% per year of 10M is 1.25M NP! I also second the recommendation to invest in the stock market, if you're not already, even if you have to take from the bank account to do it. Buy at 15, sell at 60.

 

Then set mini-goals. My personal comfort level is to only spend ~10% of my bank account max (and then wait until I reearn it before spending more), unless I have a big goal I'm saving for. My first big savings goal was for a 12M NP paintbrush. I started around 10M, and my goal was to save the full 12M (so my bank account wouldn't go below 10M after the purchase). I set a goal date and used Excel to figure out how much NP I'd need to earn each day -- and also to continuously record my actual earnings per day, and how early I'd hit my goal based on my actual earnings. It was motivating to see my goal draw nearer, and I reached it in about half the time I'd planned. During that time, I still trained and bought my 1k shares of stocks every day (and the stock market was one of the key reasons I hit my goal early, because I made several big sales).

 

Once I reached my goal, I allowed myself to cut back on my activity on the site to just my dailies and what I enjoy for a while. But reaching for the goal helped me explore new ways to earn NP.

 

Some current big, quick NP-earners I'd recommend: Food Club (but read a guide -- most long-term FCers earn 50-100% of their investment, on average, but you can have long losing streaks, and if you don't know what you're doing, you can lose in the long run), stock market, and Ghoul Catchers (replay the easy levels to earn the max per day as quick as possible). Oh, and I guess BD for the prizes, if you have a decent battlepet, and of course the free dailies.

Your vote has been cast for _Lidith_

 

Good luck in the contest!

When I first joined, galleries didn't exist, and shops doubled as galleries. You could separate your shop from your gallery by placing gallery items over the limit.

 

I'd like to see better sorting/searching features in the SDB and especially the closet, and a way to remove paint clothes from the closet. Seriously, it's got to be filling up over half my closet by now, for species I will never ever own...