TNE Report Card for November 2003

Don’t forget:

The Advent Calendar starts December 1!

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Sometimes it's hard to keep up with the news on a day to day basis. Here are the highlight from the Neopets news page for this month...

Maybe this is the real reason why Happy Valley is so happy. For the whole month of December the Advent Calendar gives items and Neopoints away to all Neopets that visit. As you might have guessed, December is the busiest month for Happy Valley.

A quick word of warning, though…don’t abuse the free gifts. As is so often the case, some Neopians abused the freebies last year. Neopets posted the following warning: A lot of people have been using multiple accounts to visit the advent calendar, shrine, fruit machine etc... Please do not do this, you are limited to one account per person for the daily freebies. Anybody using multiple accounts will have all their accounts permanently frozen. We are really serious about this! (December 24, 2002)

Last May, Neopets mentioned that they were working on a PlayStation game called The Darkest Faerie, which was due out sometime this month. Here is an update from the News page: Basically we felt that it couldn't achieve everything we wanted it to on the PS1 and so we are going to re-make it as a PS2 game (so the graphics will be much better!) and it will be out in 2005. Don't worry, it's only 49,792,754 seconds away (roughly!) (November 2, 2003)

NEW LANGUAGE - Now you can play Neopets in simplified Chinese as well as English and Japanese. It's just a beta launch so there may be a couple of problems, but it's pretty much done. Traditional Chinese will launch in beta form in two weeks time. If you know anybody who speaks Chinese why not let them know? (November 3, 2003)

NEW RANDOM EVENT - If you don't keep your Neopets happy, they may just turn Blue.

Something has happened!
	PFurgle doesn't look very happy. In fact, he looks downright Blue. Maybe a toy would help.

Two new Neopedia entries were added: one featuring the Ghoul Catchers and one featuring some greedy Trick or Treaters. (November 3, 2003)

Neopets will be giving away a Chat Avatar when you complete each page of the stamp album. (November 4, 2003)

Neopets has updated the List of Stocks so that it doesn't show stocks that have gone bankrupt. (November 4, 2003)

The winner of the Staff TCG Tournament, Flash Gorton, has written an article about the deck that he used to win with. He has called it Tidal Wave (which sounds a lot better than Water Spout!). (November 4, 2003)

The Trading Post will now automatically delete lots that have been up for over 2 weeks. This should make it a lot easier to find what you are looking for. (November 5, 2003)

Now you can specify an offline or online message using your Site Preferences page. (November 6, 2003)

There is a new Neopedia article featuring the Neoschool art teacher Mr Lupid. (November 6, 2003)

Now your Shop tells you how many items you have stocked, and how much free space you have. Also, inflation has caught up with the shops, and now it costs 200 NP per shop size to upgrade. All things must change with time, and this has been the way since the site started, so since everything else is now more expensive Neopets decided to increase that too. (November 6, 2003)

New Random Event: If you are lucky you may just get a vist from the Golden Pteri. Of course, you only get anything if one of your pets is a pteri…(November 9, 2003)

Something has happened!
	The Golden Pteri flies overhead and suddenly its raining Neopoints! 5,709 NP to be exact! He must like you.

Neopets reminded everyone of their link on eBay. There is quite a lot of stuff there now. Please remember that only actual physical merchandise may be sold online. Selling accounts, neopoints, neopets, or virtual items is against the Terms and Conditions and may get your account frozen. (November 9, 2003)

Now in your Preferences page you can select to only receive items from your NeoFriends. (November 10, 2003)

A Water Faerie has been added to the How To Draw pages. (November 10, 2003)

Neopets has a Pageview Counter so you can see how many pageviews Neopets.com has ever got. (November 11, 2003)

A new contest has started which will be updated every Friday. It is a Neohome Spotlight award. Each week the best Neohome will be featured and the winner will be awarded a shiny trophy for his or her cabinet. To enter, email neohomes@neopets.com with your username, name of your Neohome and a little blurb about why your Neohome should win. (November 11, 2003)

There is a new Neoboard for all you budding young journalists out there - The Neopian Writers board. (November 12, 2003)

A new Neoboard for spotlights and galleries has just been added. The old “Adventure Game Creator” Neoboard has been combined with it. (November 13, 2003)

Neopets is going to cap the number of trades you can have in the Trading Post to 10. (November 13, 2003)

There has been a change to the NeoDeck. Now it is done in a style similar to the stamp album, where you can see the entire set and the ones you are missing. (November 13, 2003)

Now there is a link to somebody's auctions on their User Lookup. Also if you visit the Auction Genie you can type in a username to do pretty much the same thing. (November 14, 2003)

There is a new band that has taken to the stage in Tyrannia. Twisted Roses are loud, angsty and if that wasn't enough to make you go and see them, they are all girls. (November 14, 2003)

Neopets is now available in Traditional Chinese. Neopets promises more languages coming soon. (November 18, 2003)

Neopets added some new cheeses to the Cheese Roller game. (November 19, 2003)


Heavy Bark Cheese	Warty Blue Cheese	Fragrant Ummagcheese Cheese	Furry Chocomint Cheese

Something has happened!
	The incessant mewing of a Mutant Kadoatie drives you completely mad, and you give its owner 5,000 Neopoints to take it away!

Neopets has added a new NeoBoard for talking about games. (November 21, 2003)

v Tonus can now be painted with the Speckled paint brush. (November 3, 2003)

v Flotsams, Lennies and Kois can now be painted with the Invisible Paint Brush. (November 5, 2003)

v You could be the proud owner of a baby Pteri if you bump into Boochi or get your hands on a Baby Paint Brush. (November 10, 2003)

v Neopets added a lot of pet colors that they had totally forgotten about. These include: Plushie Moehog, Plushie Grarrl, Ghost Zafara, and White Kiko. (November 9, 2003)

v Now you can see all the different pets that can be painted Darigan at the Citadel. (November 13, 2003)

v Shoyrus can be painted Spotted and Skeiths can be painted Gold. (November 14, 2003)

v Most Neopets think cheese is yummy, but have you ever fed a Skeith cheese? It gets neezles. (November 19, 2003)

v Look at the latest thing to emerge from the Bubbling Pit in Maraqua…a Maraquan Draik. (November 19, 2003)

v The latest poogle addition to the Rainbow Pool is the Glowing Poogle. (November 21, 2003)

v Quiggle owners will be pleased to hear they can now paint their Neopet with the Split Paint Brush. (November 24, 2003)

v Usuls can now be painted Orange or Plushie at the Rainbow Pool. (November 26, 2003)

q Scamanders can now be painted Blue, Pink and White at the Petpet Puddle. (November 4, 2003)

q Angelpi, Babaas, Doglefoxes and Anubis can be painted Invisible at the Petpet Puddle. (November 5, 2003)

q Slugawoos can be painted Red, Blue and Yellow at the Petpet Puddle. (November 19, 2003)

As with all good help sites, the pages on the Neopian Educator are always under construction. Suggestions and constructive criticism are always welcome. Simply fill out the automatic comment form.

We now have a special background for our newsletter, beginning with this edition. So…what do you think?

The Cheese Roller guide has been updated to show the new cheeses and their prices.

Work continues on the upcoming museum. This project is rather large, but at least you can get a quick look at it here. Note that these pages are still very much under construction. If you have anything you’d like to contribute, please send it to: Naomi_Tran@baylor.edu Contributors will be given a place of honor on the Curators page.

The Haunted Woods portion of the Tour has been updated to show the new map. Deadly Dice has also been added to the Mini World portion.

Kau Korral has been returned to the Game Reviews page as one of the many "hidden" games on the site. You cannot get any neopoints for it, but for those who may want to play it... Some old games have been removed and a few links fixed, too. There were a few new games added, as well.

Work is also continuing on the FAQ's pages. The goal is to finish it by the end of the year in order to devote more time/energy to the museum area.

Games on Neopets are in a constant state of change and these changes are often not listed in the news. Here are the changes for this month:

a Legend has it that there was an ancient Geb named Sutek. He was stronger, fitter, and cleverer than the other Gebs, and was praised by all for his courage and wisdom. When he died, they built him a tomb that was the same shape as him (known as a Gebmid). It had four triangular sides, and a square base. There are now many Gebmids around the Lost Desert, but Sutek's was the first. Now YOU can discover the secret of Sutek's Tomb in the latest game from Neopets! (November 13, 2003)

a Yes, finally Neopets is proud to present Hannah and the Pirate Caves. You played the demo, now play the entire thing. 20 levels of devious trap-laden treasure-filled piratey caves await you! (November 25, 2003)

a There is a new quiz-based sponsor game called The Challenge, featuring Mary-Kate and Ashley. (November 26, 2003)

a Fancy yourself as an evil pirate cave-designing pirate genius? Now is your time to really test Hannah's pirate cave-negotiating skills! We have added a new thing to Hannah and the Pirate Caves called CaveMaker, you can download it to create your own maps! (November 27, 2003)

The Brain Tree has some new rewards to give to kind Neopets who do him a favor... (November 4, 2003)

Black Pawkeet Slots has been changed so the bonus game with the treasure chests is no longer a scatter bonus. (November 5, 2003) The scatter bonus on Black Pawkeet Slots was giving out a little too much NP, so they changed it to only work when the icons are on a win-line. (November 11, 2003)

A New Opponent...
If you have been terrorized by Boochi or know of someone who has you will be pleased to know the little prankster has just stepped into the Battledome and is daring any Neopet to challenge him. Does your Neopet have what it takes to beat him? (November 11, 2003)

The games on your Scores Page are now in alphabetical order. (November 12, 2003)

There was a bug with Ultimate Bullseye where people could get huge amounts of Neopoints. We have fixed it and cleared the high-score table. . (November 19, 2003)

It seems that Neopia is under attack, can you help protect her? A new Defenders has begun and it looks like an army of Sloth Clones have invaded... (November 21, 2003)

If you know of anything that was overlooked, or have suggestions or even constructive criticisms, use this form.

BVI Trivia

BVI Trivia is a quick little game of 10 questions randomly chosen from the list below. Each game is worth 300 np and you can play up to 3 times each day.

Denahi, Kenai’s brother, received a totem representing wisdom. Which animal is it? Wolf
How many brothers does Kenai have? 2
How many songs did Phil Collins compose for Disney’s Brother Bear? 6
In Brother Bear, who is Tanaha? The Shaman woman of the tribe
Sitka, Kenai’s brother, received a totem representing guidance. Which animal is it? Eagle
What does Kenai’s totem represent? Love
What is another name for the Aurora Borealis? The Northern Lights
What is Kenai searching for? The place where the lights touch the earth
What is the name of Rutt’s brother? Tuke
What is the name of the song that Tina Turner sang in Brother Bear? Great Spirits
What is the name of the young bear that befriends Kenai? Koda
What kind of animal is Kenai turned into? Bear
When does Disney’s Brother Bear open in Singapore cinemas? 4 December
Where is Koda trying to go? The Salmon Run
Which animal is Kenai’s totem? Bear
Which character says “I’m a raging ball of brown fur”? Koda
Which Disney animation prior to Brother Bear was Phil Collins involved in? Tarzan
Who is Koda hoping to meet up with? His mother
Who provides the voice of Kenai? Joaquin Phoenix
Who sings the theme song in Disney’s Brother Bear? Phil Collins
Why does Kenai attack the bear? Because a bear killed his brother

As the month of Storing draws to a close (also known as “November” in some unelightened areas), it’s good to pause and remember what we Neopians have to be thankful for. I spent a great deal of time pondering this over a plate of warm Sutek Muffins and steaming mug of freshly brewed Cocoa Juppie Mocha.

The War of Meridell that started this time last year (November 25, 2002) has ended and peace returned to Neopa on April 28, 2003. I’m thankful it’s finally over…even if I did back the losing side.

In January a new type of Random Event was added…the Point of View. This means that it may be a good event or a bad event depending on your point of view. (I’m thankful I haven’t been hit with it. It’s my greatest fear in Neopia.)

Something has happened!
	Oh no! Boochi fires his ray gun and turns Jenny945 into a Baby!!!

Some misguided souls insist that Jelly World was given its own “freebie” area: The Giant Jelly. They say you can pick up one jelly each day and it’s good for two meals. Of course, we all know there is no such place as a world made of Orange Jelly, right? I’m thankful I don’t suffer from such hallucinations…I just wish I knew where JC keeps getting her jelly from.

In March, we finally learned that the Snow Faerie’s name is Taelia. I’m thankful that she finally told us…having a name makes it so much easier to file a report with the Chia Police when we get a 300 np reward for finishing her 50,000 np quests.

The Rainbow Fountain returned in June…and this time you don’t sign up with sponsors to be able to use it. There is a special faerie who randomly gives quests to be able to use it…did I mention how much I fear Boochi? I’d be really thankful if she finds me before he does…

In August, the old Chat system was overhauled and new NeoBoards were introduced. I’m thankful that I now get plenty of eye exercise as I watch the boards jump around randomly. After all, where’s the fun in a chat room where the posts all stay in order?

I’m truly thankful that NeoSchools were delayed again…I’ve been much too busy to help JC study. I’d feel terrible if she didn’t do well on her exams.

And last but certainly not least, I’m thankful for all the merchandise…especially the ones limited to 10 per store. It’s so much fun to stalk the stockers. And what non-Neopian wouldn’t be curious about a site that reduces normally soft spoken, considerate, friendly people into maddened mobs of shoppers foaming at the mouth and stampeding the store in search of cute little trinkets and special codes they can type in for cute pixels?

Looking back on this little reverie, I’ve discovered something else I’m thankful for…the Neopets staff’s sense of humor. Otherwise, I’m likely to return from my Thanksgiving fun with a very chilled account…or a special visit from Boochi.

Name: Cranberry Sauce
Available: From the Advent Calendar for Year 4. Not available from main shops.
Neopet’s Description: A great big pot of cranberry sauce that will liven up any meal.
TNE’s Description: Perfect for that Thanksgiving feast.

Select good cranberries and wash well. Boil sugar and water together for about 10 minutes, and carefully add cranberries. Cover pan and cook until cranberries stop popping, about 10 minutes. Skim off top if necessary to remove foam, pour into dish and cool slightly before placing it in refrigerator. Chill in the refrigerator to allow it to “set” before serving.

TNE Teacher’s Pet Award
To see previously featured sites, click here.
Have a site you'd like to nominate? Send it to: Naomi_Tran@baylor.edu

This month's award doesn't go to a site but to a person instead. Karen_The_Faerie has helped countless users and guilds with layouts, gif, and blinkies. She was the one who made the blinkie on my profile. Drop by her showcase and take a look:

She also made the snowglobe that will be displayed on the top of our main page through December.

Contents

BVI Trivia