Ah, so it's a mystery, but a mystery that has several clues? At least that's something... I hope you get answers when you go in.
Two days to get through first.... well, we can distract you with conversation, maybe! Although put on the spot like that, I've nothing terribly compelling to speak of. Er. Hm. I can talk books... ?

help, I don't know what to get my sister for Christmas

Thank you guyyssss~ I passed them all with slightly muted colors

@Serra - pain with no apparent cause is no good o.o
Have they found the reason yet?
Hit me up on messenger if you need someone to talk to when everyone else is asleep. I'll probably be awake by then, with me being on the other side of the world

@Akili - Yesss, talk books~
I haven't been reading any novels recently

redk5 wrote:Yes but I want to know the evolution if you remember

Okay, not to be rude or anything, but I don't really understand why I have to look for the evolution for you? @_@
But, here it is: (Taken from the Wild Knuffel Registry)
Name: Shiro Neko
Created by: AgataBr22
Created: 2012-03-18 19:57:19
Expires: 2012-04-17 19:57:19
Stages: (Only three stages have been documented on the list)

redk5 wrote:help, I don't know what to get my sister for Christmas

Maybe start with "What does she like? What is she fond of? A favorite color? Plushies? Cute containers? A skateboard?"

What does she spend most of her time doing?

edit: Whoops, big post came by and ninja'd!

(Yay, you're back, and YAY!!! you passed your exams!)


Okay talk books...

I've been lately enjoying the gentle pacing and intriguingly well designed worldbuilding of the urban fantasy author Nina Kiriki Hoffman. She's the one who wrote "a stir of bones", "A Red Heart of Memories", "Past the Size of Dreaming", "A Fistful of Sky", "Fall of LIght", "The Silent Strength of Stones", etc.

Anyhow it turns out she has a bunch of short stories that I hadn't come across before, and I just recently FINALLY got my hands on "The Thread That Binds The Bones" which is explaining a lot about why some of her minor characters in other books act the way they do.

Anyhow, what I was thinking while reading these books is how well she follows through on developing the implications of magic.

A lot of urban fantasy works, they posit the existence of magic (hidden, somehow, usually) and put it in our world, but somehow it really is almost exactly our world, there's no big impact on our history or culture or societal development because of the magic. Which, okay, if it's actually hidden well, yes I can see that... but then the hidden society is somehow a mirror of our own magicless society. They are mysteriously free of being indelibly stamped by the need for silence. Or they talk a fair bit about the need for silence, and make it a big dramatic thing -but it's a thin veneer and under it, with that one exception, they're just a western-civilization-with-somehow-magic-but-essentially-unchanged.

And it always seems so incredibly unlikely.

Why aren't the children who are raised with this massively oppressive secret not more shaped by this experience? How do they blend so seamlessly and avoid the feeling of complete and utter alienation that would normally develop quickly? And why is there no cumulative effect of this after generation upon generation of a hidden clan/family/culture?

If we look at our own history, minority cultures that are attempting to hang on to an identity, surrounded by another (potentially hostile) one? They are CHANGED by this. And persecuted minority cultures, when the outward expression of their differences are driven underground? They are very, very changed.

So I really loved how Hoffman handles that. She really does explore the implications, the suffocating, nigh-incestuous feel of a family under constant pressure, the struggle for identity when almost all of your identity is hidden...

and I really truly adore how it is not the entirety of her stories. How even as these internal struggles shape her characters, the world does not stop, and life continues, and the everyday realities must be faced and overcome.

Which all doesn't even touch yet on the way she explores how characters would handle that intrinsic power imbalance which would naturally result when you have a group with magic among a group without, and the struggle to find the right path through those pitfalls.

Eruvandir wrote:

redk5 wrote:Yes but I want to know the evolution if you remember

Okay, not to be rude or anything, but I don't really understand why I have to look for the evolution for you? @_@
Don't get me wrong, I adore you to bits. You're like the little sister who's not my little sister since I already have a little sister. You might be older than me but I get the feels that you're like a little sister to me.
Edit: Okay, you're older than me. But I still feel like you're a little sister that I have to look out for
But, here it is: (Taken from the Wild Knuffel Registry)
Name: Shiro Neko
Created by: AgataBr22
Created: 2012-03-18 19:57:19
Expires: 2012-04-17 19:57:19
Stages: (Only three stages have been documented on the list)

Spoiler

redk5 wrote:help, I don't know what to get my sister for Christmas

Maybe start with "What does she like? What is she fond of? A favorite color? Plushies? Cute containers? A skateboard?"

I didn't meant for you to go out of you way to look for it. I'm sorry. I only meant if you remembered.

She likes the color blue. What do you mean by cute containers? like food containers?

Akili Li wrote:What does she spend most of her time doing?

working. She's the manager at apartments. Watching TV. Her kids were easy to shop for. I haven't got her oldest gift yet but since my mom got him a PS4. I've been getting him credits. Got his sister an owl necklace (she likes owls)

If she spends a lot of time working, then maybe look for something which will make her working environment nicer, or her work easier.
Like if she has to spend a lot of time driving to and from the apartments she manages, then maybe get her some nice audiobooks to listen to while she drives, and/or a gift certificate to a place which will clean out her car, or a fun (scented?) decoration for her car. Maybe a new set of nice driving gloves.
Or if she spends a lot of time in an office, then something cheerful for her office (a really cute pot with a nice potted plant? I've seen these darling little dryad pots lately, hang on... link here like that)
or one of those decorations for computers (things that perch on the corner of a screen, cheerful and fun stickers that apply to the sides of the computer, etc.)

I don't know much about tv, but I bet they have decorations for televisions too. Probably you could even use the same ones as they sell for computers.

Or maybe go the other direction, and give her something that will give her a break from what she spends most of her time doing.
Like a gift certificate for a massage or a pedicure or something like that?

Akili Li wrote:If she spends a lot of time working, then maybe look for something which will make her working environment nicer, or her work easier.
Like if she has to spend a lot of time driving to and from the apartments she manages, then maybe get her some nice audiobooks to listen to while she drives, and/or a gift certificate to a place which will clean out her car, or a fun (scented?) decoration for her car. Maybe a new set of nice driving gloves.
Or if she spends a lot of time in an office, then something cheerful for her office (a really cute pot with a nice potted plant? I've seen these darling little dryad pots lately, hang on... link here like that)
or one of those decorations for computers (things that perch on the corner of a screen, cheerful and fun stickers that apply to the sides of the computer, etc.)

I don't know much about tv, but I bet they have decorations for televisions too. Probably you could even use the same ones as they sell for computers.

Or maybe go the other direction, and give her something that will give her a break from what she spends most of her time doing.
Like a gift certificate for a massage or a pedicure or something like that?

GROOT!!! actually my brother would probably apricate the Groot plant more then my sister. she's not really big on superheros. He's the oldest but I have more in common with him. I never seen a store sell gift certificates for a massage or a pedicure. Where do I get it?

I would call up the places that actually do massages or pedicures (a spa, or a clinic with massage therapists), and ask them directly. Most of them will offer such things, but they'll have different rates so by calling directly you can find out how much it would be. (Or I guess some of them might have something listed online. I'm not very tech-savvy)

Akili Li wrote:I would call up the places that actually do massages or pedicures (a spa, or a clinic with massage therapists), and ask them directly. Most of them will offer such things, but they'll have different rates so by calling directly you can find out how much it would be. (Or I guess some of them might have something listed online. I'm not very tech-savvy)

prices are alot

Congrats for passing your exams Eru!!! :)

Akili, those books sound fantastic! How can you keep adding books to my wishlist all the time? :D