The Good, the Bad, and the Neurotypical

"Ignorance is bliss" wow I have never felt a adage more than I feel this one.
That which is not known is not worried about
What you don't know won't kill you
If you can't see it, it's not a problem.

All of these, they mean the same thing and this thing is probably one of the most important concepts to understand and learn in adolescence. We all had those moments in kids where we heard something that scared the shit out of us and we worried about it for days, weeks, in my case it was months.

When I was in second grade my older sister told me about Global Warming and how we're all going to die because of it, and my life took a downward spiral as a child. I couldn't sleep for probably 2 months after she told me that, just worrying. The majority of my thoughts were devoted to "Holy shit I'm going to die" and with this I had the first existential crisis of my life. I worried about death and the fact that I wasn't always going to be alive and my loved ones weren't always going to be alive either. It's a lot for an 8 year old to take on her shoulders, but I'm kinda glad that it happened early to me.

I by no means came to terms with death after that event (that wouldn't come until about a year ago, to be honest) but it really opened my eyes and ruined my mind.

I honestly believe that those defining and eye-opening moments when I was around 8 or 9 were the start of the slippery slope from the neurotically to the mentally unhealthy.

If you've ever taken a depression self-test you'll know that several of the questions deal with existential topics such as "Do you feel your life is worthless?" or "Do you believe life is meaningless?"

These questions, usually phrased a bit less accusatory and moody, are some of the focal points of existential crisis. If asking questions like that are a part of diagnosing depression and other mental illnesses, there must be a correlation from existential thought to mental disorders.

In fact, some of the most inspirational and oddly existential people in the world suffered from depression and fell victim to it as well.

David Foster Wallace who wrote "This is Water" committed suicide after suffering from depression for years only a few years after he delivered this speech.
Robin Williams, one of the most famous suffers and victims of depression, played several amazing and inspirational roles. (Dead Poet's Society changed my life)
Ernest Hemingway, famous and enlightening American author also took his own life.

So what does all of this mean? Is it just a part of the disease of depression to result in existential thought, or do the thoughts themselves lead the person to depression? Which came first, the chicken or the egg.

And how much knowing really hurt us in the end? Is it sometimes better to not know at all?

Perhaps it's better not to find out....

"But I was blessed with bad eyes

                        There's a lot that I miss but I don't mind, I'm not that old
                                   I'll find out what broke me soon enough"

-Radical Face: Glory

How to Ruin your Life in 3 Easy Steps

If you've ever played mario kart with me, you're probably not my friend anymore.
More times than not I ramble the excuse, "My parents never put me in competitive sports so I never learned how to take a defeat." But in reality, I am just a horribly, over competitive person.
From having the best animal crossing town to always getting the highest grades (and not-so subtlety bragging about all of these things), I have to have the best and be the best.
So whenever I play
Mariokart
Super Smash Bros

I get overly competitive, loud, and super duper angry. 

But why? Why am I so competitive and loud and angry when I get passionate about stuff?

1) Natural Selection

So yeah, let's just blame everything on genetics and evolution, but really it's pretty relevant right now! It isn't called survival of the fittest for nothing, only the fittest survive in the competition for resources. Yes, competition, it is ingrained into our souls. So there's no wonder that we're competitive people! It may not be life or death, but we gotta compete and we gotta want to win! 

2) Social Norms

Okay what fun would mario kart be if everyone just sat there and kinda just played? Forming social bonds is formed by trust, and more times than not, mutual enjoyment of an activity. If you're gonna be friends with someone you want to enjoy what they enjoy too. If someone's having a blast (although getting mad a bit too) while getting stars left and right in mario party, you're gonna want to have fun and be engaged, or at least seem like you are having fun, too if you want to befriend this person! Monkey see monkey has to do if they want bros.

3) BRO ITS JUST HARD NOT TO BE COMPETITIVE

If you like something, you're going to want to  be good at it. If feels good to win, and we crave that naturally. To be the best means to live, and to rub it in the faces of your friends. Even the most even tempered person has their field they just have to be the best, even if subconsciously. Don't be afraid to let this side out! It's hecka fun and gets the blood pumping.

Just remember, don't get too mad when you lose. 

Blood is Thicker than Water?

Blood is Thicker than Water, what the hell does that even mean?
Yeah, of course blood is thicker than water, you numbutt asswad, that's basic science stuff and I know that.
But what does that even MEAN for real?

To be honest, I love the saying, but not the well known one, the lesser known actual version of this common adage.

"The Blood of the covenant is thicker than the Water of the womb"

Yeah, now we're making some sense.
So what this is telling me that a bond of a promise is stronger than the bond between kin, yeah yeah I can see that.

But is is really true? I mean, I love my family and all but dayum, would I really value my "blood" brother over my BLOOD brother?

I guess it really depends on the relationship you have with your family. Some people really love their family, but other people don't really all that much.

I mean, look at popular literature for some perfect examples of this stuff. Think of Hunger Games, think of Divergent, (think of all those FANTASTICALLY AWFUL trash fanfictions you spent this weekend reading) think of almost any sort of pressure-inducing scenario where we are stripped to our raw desires and thoughts, we must decide not out of practicality but out of what our whims tell us in these times.

In some cases, it's always family first, in other cases it's the promise you made.

This thought in and of itself is a moral dilema, or as I like to call them "One way trip to argument and uncomfortable conversations that are oddly fun."

Gun to my head, I would choose my family over a promise made in a heartbeat.
But what if the promise is to my family? What if it's to another loved one who I may not be related to by blood? Is anything sure in this world?

Will I continue to scream into the empty void as I realize that I need to freaking study better because I am making to progress in my life?

What did I just type that, whoops that's embarrassing.

I can only hope that I will never come across a situation where I need to choose between a promise or family, but I know that if I do I would make the right choice.

Kill Fuck Marry

It's times like these that make me think about what the great American Author, Lebron James, always says.

"A path diverged in the yellow woods, and I chose to fuck it."

-Albert Einstein

I have the social habits of a 6th grader, my favorite pastimes with friends includes making really really bad dick jokes, talking trash about other people, and playing kill fuck marry; the epitome of immature games. Kill Fuck Marry possesses the perfect cocktail of making your friends uncomfortable and being able to make some really great jokes.

Let me just toss out some ideas to get the ball rolling.

Pillsbury Dough Boy, Mrs. Buttersworth, Mr.Clean

(aka- What's in my Pantry?)

your past self, your current self, your future self

(aka- I'd fuck me)

Good Morning America Anchor George Stephanopoulos, Fox News Anchor Gregg Jarrett, CNN student news anchor Carl Azuz

(aka- big news)

Yet as funny as my inhibitions and desires are, wow am I pretty lofty with them. I know that I'll never be able to fuck Zac Effron, marry the foam shark used in filming the original Jaws, or kill the egg farmer from Napoleon Dynamite; and no amount of wiki-instructed ambition is going to change this fact. 

Yet we still have these unreachable dreams. Why?

If we look at the dearest Freudian Stages of Development  and the theories it suggests, all adulthood issues tie into how our childhood was. What if our childhood guides how goal-orientated, lofty or not, we are in the future. If it's gonna happen that way, it's gonna be in the latent period. In this time we develop our self-esteem and other super-ego based concepts are gonna be developing, and this goes aallllll the way down into our deep, dank, dark, dirty subconscious. 

So say sweet dear little Rose was told in this phase that "You can't be the president you're a girl" or told "You can totally be the president!" How is Rose going to look at the life ahead of her?

What about you, what were you told in your Latent phase? Did your parents support all you did and your ambitions, or did they yuck your yum? 

Wether or not you're willing to work for these dreams is another topic entirely, but I ask you, dear reader, is there anything wrong with being too ambitious? There's always the let down of when you realize these things might be unrealistic, but I think that the hope and the faith that these dreams instill in you each and ever day far outweighs the weight of disappointment. To have hope alone is a powerful thing.

“He who robs us of our dreams robs us of our life.” 

― Virginia Woolf, Orlando

Morbid Beauty

Oh three-dimensional printing, how you are changing the world of technology and laws. 
Yet with all of your innovations I can't help but look at something like modifying a printer to make a self-portrait with blood replacing ink and have true second thoughts.

"Sick, dude"

Yet despite being slightly off put by this, almost appalled, I can't help but think how seriously cool it is too. How very punk rock of Ted Lawson to do this. It's one thing to paint a self portrait, but it's super fucking metal to do it with your own blood. Rock on, Ted Lawson.

Yet I can't help but feel uncomfortable with how much of his own life he's giving up to make this. It goes against the law of nature, yet that's almost what makes it so interesting. We live to preserve and expand our lives, and to freely give up what keeps you alive like this, it's very odd. It creates a contrast in the necessity of necessities themselves in today's modern life. (I find the same contrast in a different manner through those really cool gardens that uses skulls as planters. Death is my aesthetic, bruh.)  We live now not only to create and breath, but now we live to experience and transcend. 

Wow this sounds like something else that I like to reference a lot, MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS, BRO.

"Aka: Eat, Sleep, Transcend, repeat."

I could go on and on about how much this stuff ties in perfectly with advanced society,  but just look at it for yourself. Open your slimy eyeballs and rub them directly onto the computer screen. Yes, just like that. Perfect.

So it's very obvious that instinctually we value life as a more secure and sacred thing that death as it is our first instinctual thought; the base of our pyramid. But what happens when these things become a given? My theory is that we begin to value other concepts with equal prowess as we give to life. Take for example the modern love tale. People tend to value love a lot these days, and boy does it show in our media and expectations of, well everything.

So what happens when all of the needs are met up to the point of self-actualization? Will nirvana replace the modern love story? Will we have a need for all of these things at all? With true transcendence (depending on who you ask) comes a loss of the fear of death and acceptance of what it holds. This concept, although scary, could potentially be held in high esteem if we keep advancing and setting the bar higher for what needs are fulfilled on Maslow's Hierarchy. Maybe one day, death will be just as beautiful as life.

Puer Aeternus

I had another epiphany today. It was a simple and humble epiphany in which I finally figured out how to curl my hair. Most epiphanies I have are very provocative and motivating but usually end up taking me no where. Like revving up your car only to run into another brick wall and all of a sudden you need to get another shitty car to run into another wall. By now I'm very sure no insurance company is gonna give me coverage. But I don't need it.

The more I think about it the less I feel I need others to cover me when I'm down or to lift me up when I'm happy. I've drawn most of my energies from self-contemplation and meditation, which don't really involve others. Don't get me wrong, I'm no loner, I love spending time with others, but when it comes to spiritual fulfillment I feel the self is best.

Yet despite all of these ideas and revelations that I can find happiness in my own solitude, I feel as if my tires are still spinning and I'm getting no where. I don't work hard like I should. I suffer from Puer Aeternus.

My 2 years of Latin have taught me a few things, and I can tell you Puer Aeternus means eternal boy. Think of Peter Pan, think of Tuck Everlasting, think of yourself.

"As soon as I get out of high school, my life will start"

"I can't wait to get into the real world"

"Someday everything will fall into place"

If you're thinking these, you're thinking puer aeternus. The concept that life won't really begin, it hasn't really begun, is so dangerous. As high schoolers there might not be any greater plague than this because it creates a disconnect between our life and our dreams. Instead of "My good grades will get me into college" we should be thinking, "My life experiences are important". It's not about what we do today to make tomorrow better, it's about what we do now to make today better.

If everything we do and everything we think is a great fantasy of when we will become what we're meant to, we'll never become what we're meant to. We'll be stuck on Neverland our entire lives.

How can we escape?

Well, it depends. I plan to start doing more things for the now. Things that will not only help my future plans, but also improve myself today. I need to become the best I can and it can't wait until the day I graduate, the day I get a job, the day I get married. Today is the day I am the best I can be.

"Today we're younger than we ever gonna be"

"Oh Captain, my Captain"

“A disciplined mind leads to happiness, and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering.” 

An Analysis of the Flash Experience "I Think I'll Be Okay"

I Think I'll be Okay is a flash experience (I would use game but it's really not a game at all) that follows the author's expressions and emotions while dealing with depression, isolation, and a toxic familial setting. It plays in a similar fashion to a choose your own adventure type book and has more reader input than a simple novel or short story, yet it still follows a progression that cannot be changed.

The author uses beautiful imagery and diction to create a somber and deeply provoking setting. I would not suggest playing this if you are going through some depression or even an existential crisis at the moment as, coming from experience, these kinds of things can really be quite the trigger into worsening things, so precede with caution.

However, if you find yourself to be a pretty emotionally stable person, it's not really gonna have it's full effect on you. The nature of this type of narrative is most effective in portraying emotion to those who have some sort of depressive history, as this will allow the reader to better understand and relate to the situation.

All warnings aside, the rest of this post will contain spoilers, so I would suggest playing the story before continuing.

Coming from a very empathetic person, this story was very very touching for me. It really displays how a situation is all that you  make it. The narrator is trapped in a hostile situation and feels constantly isolated, and the blur of time yet mild comprehension of a timeline is a fantastic measure of creating the feeling of being stuck to the reader. Yet despite this, the narrator finds a happiness in their life through the jars of rain. Although overall the entire piece is a somber story, the final part is a tad more uplifting, and I even cried a little while reading it. This ending created a feeling a hope near the end, and is inspiring towards those who might be going through a similar situation. 

Although the story also partakes in the "my situation is tough but this person has it worse" guilt effect. Nothing feels worse than this guilt. Like, who the heck wants to think "Yeah I failed this test but this person fails every test". It brings up the topic of how belittling feelings is sometimes even worse than the feelings themselves. No one should ever have to be told "your feelings are irrelevant" as all we do as humans is seek relevance. The narrator in this story is struggling with this very same thing, relevance. They feel no companionship and it is isolating. There is no one to confirm that their feelings are justified, so they feel guilty for having them.

Within this lack of justification, we can see why it is so helpful for people who are going through personal struggles to get help from a third party. They can tell them that it's okay to feel this way and help them move on, while without this the person's emotions will only fester. This third party can be many many things. It can be a friend, a therapist, a family member, or a god. In my opinion, this is one of the only useful things about theology in modern society, personal comfort and security. This security is how people are so fervent in their faith, and it is totally understandable. It's uncomfortable to face difficult life questions, and sometimes faith lets us slide by with answers that aren't fully supported by anything other than "you just gotta believe". Yet if faith is what makes you happy, then that's alright.

The narrator in the story uses faith as a comfort as well, as they pray to the rain. "Pray to the rain?" The Abrahamic religions say, "That's paganism." Yes, yes it is, but is that so bad? Who's to say that the idea that everything is god versus god is everything is not the more modern theological idea.

However, this is a different discussion for a different day. 

Maybe..... next time?

A Dreamer and A Do-er

I have found myself more times than not recently drifting into the realm of the unproductive sink. I spend most of my time either playing Pokemon Fire Red hacks or looking up info and dreaming about someday making and owning a tiny house.

and this is the room where I'll do all my procrastinating

With this lack of productivity, nothing could possibly make me feel worse than the beauty that is my Psych book that currently is preaching to me about productivity and how motivated people are the most successful people.

So here I am moping about and wallowing in this fact, doing nothing productive but thinking


and dreaming


and doodling


and hoping.

Yet I realize that it is in these moments, the moments in which I am imagining and doodling that I am happiest. Oh how I wish and hope that one day I could have my tiny house and if it were possible for me to be a writer or an artist (but my calling is for science) and all of these things. That moment of pure bliss extends beyond for me that which I feel when I get a great grade on a test, and it is more provocative than the moments where I forget to do my damn psych sim for the 3rd time and I'm probably going to fail my psych class.

But what can come out of being a dreamer? Where can I find my motivations and ambitions?

The answer is not so simple, in fact I really don't know it for sure yet.

My best guess is that I just have to keep dreaming and apply my dreams to become what might potentially be reality. So I dream of a tiny house, what do I need to achieve that? I want to build it myself so maybe a building class of some sort might be good. Yeah I'll do that.

But I can't make a life off of tiny house so what else? I want to go into science, it's my calling, so what field?

It's this sort of self-inquiry that will bring the dreamers to be do-ers. We  have to search ourselves and find what it takes to make our dreams come true, and then go after it. If the motivation does not exist for something even after all of this, maybe it's just not meant to be.

In short, we just gotta find our dreams, find what we need to achieve them, and do it. 

I don't know where from my fascination for abandoned structures stems. I wonder and awe at the falling apart of old buildings and places no longer inhabited by humans. It seems to be such a oddity in the world we live in which we have taken and "own" almost all of the land in the world. Due to this we must set aside land just to preserve that in which we have taken over.

With this mentality there is no surprise that we'd feel no shame in just building and abandoning something useless to us as there is plenty more land to use elsewhere.

This results in a surplus of abandoned and intriguing locations. In Iowa there are lots of abandoned consolidated school buildings, which comes as no surprise due to the fact that, gosh we have so many freaking farms and areas of sparse population.

If only it were legal to explore abandoned places, gosh dang it.

But laws weren't made not to be broken, so let's do this.

There's an assumed abandoned location right by my house and I totally want to explore it with all of my heart, and so I shall.

I'll get back to ya'll on this in a few days. Until then, stay hella.

Spooky Capitalism

As the spookiest time of year draws nearer and nearer (no I'm not talking about finals) the effects of capitalism in the US are ever strong, as usual, with the massive quantities of Halloween themed goods.

Much like myself, most of us are slaves to Capitalism and it's ever-inciting new goods, fancy cars, and electronics that conveniently break just about the time of the newest version's release.
But despite the obvious flaws of the system, when most Americans hear "Capitalism" we think of freedom to choose and, by gosh, at least it's not Communism. Communism, the dreaded equal work and sharing of goods produced by the country, oh the horror.

Of course both systems have flaws, but we seem to have blinders on as a nation as to the obvious flaws of Capitalism.

Now tell me, doesn't this just sound wrong when I'd tell you that just a few weeks ago my neighbors rented a dumpster and took out Tupperwares full of old possessions and just threw them away, didn't even donate them to Goodwill or anything. Yet despite that, I still have the itching feeling that they're better than my family because they have more money. That, my friends, is Capitalism at work.

Yet it's not like we haven't been warned before about the problems of this system we so highly revere. Everything in our lives centers around this accumulation of wealth, and that's the way it's always been and probably always will be in our country. Sadly, there isn't a whole lot we can do to change or reform it because the power of change and reform is, unlike what our founding fathers wanted, very much out of our hands.

Take for example the 2nd Amendment, the right to bear arms. This was enacted not as a "we want our guns" sort of thing, but more so to allow the people to be at the same level as the government, so if a revolution was needed, it could happen. If this were the case, the people should have access to military-level weaponry. Yet this isn't really a feasible option or solution. It just really goes to show how fundamentally broken our system is.

But alas, we must put up with it none the less.

Elimination Destination Nation

Ah, the human reasoning power, what a marvelous thing it is. We have all been gifted with amazing mental power beyond what has been seen on earth (or at least we think ;) ) before. With our amazing  mental reasoning we can be faster than any cheetah, swim deeper than any blobfish, and possibly live longer than any tortoise.

But among all of the powers of the human mind, what of which is the crowned gem?

As per most things, the answer varies depending on who you're talking to, and there's nothing wrong with not having a definitive answer if it lets us explore more (versus amusing things just to have an answer).

So I'm going to make the assumption that in my point of view, the process of elimination is the most valuable reasoning tactic that humans have in our tool belts of intellectual thoughts.

The process of elimination probably became most relevant in our lives when we entered 3rd grade and were handed our very first, at least in the state of Iowa, notable standardized test. We were given the down low on how to succeed on these bubble sheets from hell, and the biggest thing was elimination. If you don't know the answer for sure, at least narrow down the answers and then guess. It was a great method and anyone who learned to use it correctly could easily hone their reasoning skills quickly and perform very well on standardized testing.

However, what about outside of the school area? What is the usefulness there?

One notable example of our amazing ability of the process of elimination is death.

By death I mean murder.

By murder I mean murder mystery.

I am very familiar with murder mystery, but not in a creepy way, I promise. From a young age I have been enveloped by shows like Dateline and CSI Miami as my mother is a huge mystery enthusiast (as a child she read every Nancy Drew mystery novel in the world, and all of them are in our basement).

It is amazing how these mysteries can be solved sometimes; it almost seems super-human in ability to solve these murders. Yet when we peel away the sensationalism, we can see that all of these murders or mysteries are solved via the process of elimination as well.

These detectives use clues to narrow down the options of suspects, they eliminate to one or two people and pursue them.

It's amazing because almost anyone could do this if they knew were to look, we all have this ability within us.

So the process of elimation, it's pretty cool.

Nomenclature of Society

There is a lot to be said about our given names. For something that we did not choose ourselves, it is rather astounding how we adopt this nomenclature as a representation of self.

Yet how we define our name and the names of others changes for each person.

As per the egocentrical manner of this blog, when evaluating my own name, Annabelle, we can observe the simple quantity of variety that a name can hold within the characteristics of the person who claims it.

The most famous examples of the name "Annabelle" range from the somber poem, "Annabelle Lee" by Edgar Allen Poe to the modern and rather creepy representation of the name through a possessed doll in movies such as "The Conjuring" and "Annabelle". 

Yet I do not view myself as the kind of person who is somber, creepy, or even possessed (or am I?). If I had to, I would describe myself as a dreamer and very fickle. 

The sheer inconsistency of the characteristics of names is best explained via a game.

Try playing the 20Q name game with your own name or the name of someone you know well. Did you get their name? Probably not. In fact, chances are the algorithm-based genie was as far from the truth as possible.  

But if names are so fickle, why not change the societal nomenclature to be more consistent and representative of the people who posses names.

We could create a system in which names are assigned to people by a common ruling of personality traits instead of the current system of whatever the parents want.

But the question arises, what age should we begin the assignment of names in order to get a good and accurate representation of the person? Perhaps the mark of the transition to adulthood, the start of puberty, would be the ideal time. Yet even with that we are all very familiar with the change that is subject between the start and end of puberty. So some might argue that physical maturity around age 20 would be ideal.

Maybe we need to simplify things a bit and take inspiration from an already existing and ingenious interpersonal nomenclature system, the traditional Native American nomenclature.

Native American (being a very broad term) cultures had a dynamic not present in common day naming. All names were subject and almost expected to change as a person evolved and achieved different things. The name was almost a manner of storytelling, kind of like the summary in the inside cover of almost every work of literature.

If only names were as easy as to change to our own liking, hopes, and ambitions as they once were in pre-colonization America. We could really know more about the people around us and feel like our personal id tags mean a little bit more than just a word given to us as our name. Names would almost become a form of poetry.

Personally, I would take a bit more ambitious approach to my self-assigned name.
You can go ahead and start calling me "Tumblr Famous".

The world is subject to change

and in similar fashion, as is our personal interests and desires.

In short, I'm changing my blog from being about Pokemon to being about the human condition.

I HAVE ACCOMPLISHED EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD AND NOW I CAN DIE IN PEACE

LET ME JUST GUSH FOR A FEW YEARS HERE.

THE CHANCES OF OBTAINING A SHINY POKEMON IN POKEMON X AND POKEMON Y VERSIONS ARE 1/4096

ONE IN FOUR THOUSAND NINETY SIX

WITH THE MASUDA METHOD THE CHANCES ARE REDUCED TO 1/1024

ONE IN ONE THOUSAND TWENTY FOUR

(For those of you who do not know what the Masuda Method is:
The Masuda Method is a breeding method introduced in generation IV where if two pokemon from different game origins breed their child has an increased chance of being shiny. The exact chances vary from generation to generation, become more common in newer generations.
This is probably the best method for getting a specific pokemon in shiny hunting as pokeradar or chain fishing do not let you choose what pokemon you want to get as much.)

AFTER THREE MONTHS OF TRYING TO GET MYSELF A SHINY ESPURR

THIS WEEKEND

OCTOBER 19TH, 10:34 PM, MY ROOM, I FINALLY OBTAINED HER.

MY VERY FIRST NON-EVENT HUNTED SHINY POKEMON AND I APTLY NAMED HER CUPCAKE.


LET'S DO A SIDE-BY-SIDE COMPARISON OF MY BABY AND NORMAL ESPURR

OKAY YEAH WHATEVER

CUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPPCCCCCCAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEE

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES

REBLOG MY SELFIE

a.k.a- my emotional experience with the kindness of people with whom I have known for a maximum of a month.

I am often asked what my motivation for transferring schools half way through high school was. More times than not I complain about how my previous school was not the right fit for me or how I rather disliked the lack of diversity among my peers, but the straw that broke the camel's back was a sense of societal isolation.

My mentality for my representation among my peers is, "If people think I'm a loser, they would be right." So I'm not hugely concerned about what others think of me, but it's always nice to know that I matter.

And to my great surprise, I have found that I have felt more connected to my classmates than ever, despite me knowing these people for a meager 2 months versus the 13 years my other classmates and I shared.

The situation is kind of like finding the right fit of dress. You've gotta try on a helluva lot of dresses  before you find that amazing one.

Of course what does any of this have to do with selfies? Well on my tumblr (FOLLOW MY TUMBLR IT IS QUALITY) today I posted a selfie because yes. To my great (and somewhat expected) surprise (as I went to many people and told them feverishly that reblogging my selfie is of utmost importance) I found several reblogs with super nice comments in the tag which just absolutely made my day.

Okay so what's the point with this diary-entry of a blog post that seems to really be most like an emotional gushing.

Well, I personally think that this drives the point home that you need to do a lot of searching before you're going to find what's right for you. I had always thought I would have graduated from Xavier with flying colors no big deal, but all of a sudden my life took a sudden turn and it turned out to be great for me.

Change is more times than not, super terrifying, but it can also lead to some pretty fantastic things too. It takes a lot of bravery to change something in your life, but if you feel like it's needed, take the risk! If all else fails, you've made it this far already, who's to say you can go even further?

Also, never underestimate the power of honest people. There is always going to be at least one person in your life who will leave nice tags on your selfie when they reblog it.

That's the end of my soap-box speech, back to your regularly-scheduled Pokemon.

Go to Hell Luvdisc

Luvdisc.
Freaking Luvdisc.

Luvdisc isn't even that bad of a Pokemon as it is. Just a sweet and adorable water-type fishy fish. Although its bad stats are something to cringe at, that's pretty much to be expected from a single-stage fishey babe.

But there in lies our problem. Single stage. No evolution. None. Zip. Zilcho.

It just doesn't make sense to me at all. I mean, all sorts of pokemon are single-stage with no evolutions, yes, so there's no reason why it's bad that Luvdisc is one of those pokemon, that is until you consider the fact that for one reason or another

THAT THIS


DOES NOT


EVOLVE


INTO 

THIS

Look at Alomomola, a water type no-evolution pokemon that is pink and cute with almost the same shape and color pallete as Luvdisc. It make NO SENSE that Luvdisc does not evolve into Alomomola. I get that each Generation has their own addition to the original series and it was Generation 4's thing to add evolutions and generation 5 was when Alomomola was added but COME ON.

Game Freak must have been having a freak when they decided, "You know what we have none of and need one of? A pure water type pink fish. What we have one of those already? Make an evolution instead? No. not at all."

However my qualms have almost no basis other than design, so I can sorta understand why this might be the case. Alomomola is heavy in HP stats and Luvdisc has great speed, but their move pools are very very similar. You can always make the argument that any pokemon of the same typing is going to have similar move pools, yes, but not all water type pokemon have an empthasis on healing and support moves.

So what the heck can we do to solve this cluster duck of a situation?

In a perfect would I would suggest in Generation 7 (Haha, oh my god) we do a few more of the non-mega evoley wolvey things. Maybe the addition of a middle evolution between Alomomola and Luvdisc with a stat boost to Alomomola might be the best solution. Or maybe we can just get rid of Alomomola and Luvdisc all together!

Yes perfect. Let's do that.

It's time for the un-baptism of Luvdisc and Alomomola, let's do this.

Go to hell, Luvdisc.

Dual Type Moves are the Downfall of Society

We live in a world of dual-typing. Mono typed pokemon are becoming rarer and rarer as dual-typing has many advantages in terms of type coverage and unique qualities they add to each pokemon. This can be viewed as a good thing or a bad thing, but in my opinion I think it's just fine.

Until Generation VI, that is.

What's that emerging over the horizon? Could it be.
Oh NOOOOOOO

FLYING PRESS

Gosh dang it Hawlucha, you  just had to ruin our fun with your stupid fighting-flying type move.

As a species, most people aren't too fond of change. I try to think that for someone who transfered schools on a whim, I'm not all that anti-change, but in certain occasions I just think things are starting to get out of hand. This is one of those cases.

Personally, I think that things are complicated enough with move and pokemon typing to consider when attacking or defending. What is gonna be super effective against Dewgong again? Who should I switch out? What the heck am I doing with my life?

Besides memorizing all of the defensive and offensive resistances for each dual-type pokemon on top of having to consistently consult one of 

THESE

battling is complicated enough as it is.

And I'm not just bringing these points up for selfish reasons, we must consider the original and intended demographic of pokemon, kids. What kind of kid is going to play a game that's so frustrating that it requires you to memorize stupid little things like type effectiveness for each individual dual-typed pokemon AND dual-typed move!?
We have to understand our limits when it comes to difficulty as a whole Pokemon community. There is never going to be a perfect Goldilocks quantity of difficulty, but I think the harder stuff should keep the heck out of the main gen games.

Younger audiences aren't going to play much beyond the main storyline, and if that's too hard to complete then their never even going to think about breaching into the forbidden realms of competitive battling.

So my idea is we try to keep the dual-type moves to a minimum, and if older fans really want a challenge, we can take up competitive battling or examine one of the many awesome and difficult pokemon ROMs out there.

Mega Rayquaza?!?!??!

Now presenting, the best thing since sliced bread.
MEGA RAYQUAZA.

We all suspected it was coming in one way or another, but now that it's here there's so much to be said about this huge mega baby.
There are already plenty of great fan theories out there about what the ability delta stream might do and what the dragon ascent move might be like, but I'm going to be focusing on Rayquaza's design.

As the almighty triomaster of the weather trio, Rayquaza has obvious influence from the realm of the sky. Although, one would expect a more bird-like appearance from a ruler of the skies, but instead this ozone-huffing  loser looks a heck of a lot like a dragon-kite hybrid. Especially with all of our new strings attached, literally, to mega rayquaza, the resemblance to a kite is hard to miss. We've got rudders and strings and what looks like a hella sharp beak and oh my gosh kite fighting.

I recently finished reading The Kite Runner (highly recommended) and it has a lot of elements of kite fighting incorporated in its theme.
So what do the kites used in traditional kite fighting look like? Are they squat and rectangular western-like kites or what?

Well wonder no more

As we can see here they are totally all fluid and lengthy and perfect. I love it and it's just like Rayquaza!

But kite fighting isn't all that comes to mind when we think about Rayquaza,

What about Japanese dragon kites? The resemblance is uncanny and totally makes sense that Rayquaza would be based off of this.

So with our new Rayquaza I'm gonna go out on a limb from design alone and say that our bae with the aerodynamic looks is going to get super speed and with the attacking special move is going to get increased attack.


But mechanics are only half the battle. What kind of awesome story telling will be incorporated with Mega Rayquaza?
As time goes on we've seen a constant trend of Pokemon games focusing a bit and bit more on plot in their games. X and Y were the first main series pokemon game to make me feel emotionally moved and tear up a bit at the end (but for spin off games, nothing can surmount the sobbing that partook after Pokemon Mystery Dungeon explorers of Time/Sky/Blue rescue team). With X and Y having such a great plot, we can only hope what ORAS might hold for us.
Will Rayquaza calm the battle with his super hella might and become a roaming pokemon?
Will Team Magma suck my ass?
Will Team Aqua <3 2 swim 4 eva?

Only time will tell, but we can be sure that whatever Game Freak has in hold for us will be something of true joy.

Roserade DIY

Dude, look at this Roserade.
The sweet flower hands, the fabulous hair, the amazing womanly figure; Roserade is the epitome of elegance and grace. There aren't many grass and poison type pokemon that can emulate this level of pure majesty.
Well, with the exception of Venasaur.

Doesn't get much better than this guy.

But despite the overflowing elegance of Roserade, what can one even do with a Roserade?
What is the purpose of a Roserade?

Well I've got a few ideas, so here's a few Roserade DIYs!

#1- Air Freshener

For this project you're going to need

- One Roserade

- A large plastic bag

- Industrial fan

- Duct tape

-Exo-knife

To start you're going to take your nice and fresh Roserade and put it into the plastic bag. Take the exoknife and cut a few circulat holes (about the size of a quarter) in the bag. This is gonna act as ventilation. After that you're going to measure the circumference of the industrial fan and cut a whole in the bag about that size. Go ahead and tape the industrial fan to the bag and turn it on. All of those sweet Roserade scents will be wafting straight into the air. Mmmmm, smells nice.

Okay okay that was really kinda morbid. Let's just go ahead onto the next idea,

#2- Living Garden

- A few Roserades

- One garden 

- Fertilizer

Start by preparing your garden however you want to. It's preferred to plant your garden with Roserade-friendly plants and set out a few bird-feeders. Next place your Roserade in your garden. There they will live and thrive. I would suggest watching out for your garden becoming overrun with Roserade, Rosallia, and Budew. It's really only a matter of time until your garden becomes overrun with them, actually. Have fun with that.

#3- Black Market Roserade Sales

-All the massive quantities of  Roserades from DIY #2

-A connection to the black market

If you need a few extra pokedollars in your pocket from binge purchasing all those new clothes from the Lumiose City beauty salon this DIY is perfect for you. Begin with a friendly phone call to your local neighborhood black market connection. See if they can set you up with a few costumers in a need for some Roserades. Make sure you cover your tracks so you don't get caught by the police, and if you do get caught by the police you did not get the idea from me. Also, I demand at least 10% of all profit due to my theoretical patent on the idea of selling pokemon on the black market.

Littleswablu does not condone any of the actions or ideas represented above. No fictional animal-plant-hybrid-creates were harmed in the making of this blog.

A Picture Says 1000 Words

If a picture says 1000 words, can 1000 words be said about a picture?
Well I'm never really in a mood to write that much so what about half a picture?

Well I think anyone with a right mind already knows that this could be. It's the cover art for pokemon Omega Ruby set to be released on November 21st 2014 in most regions (sucks to be Europe).
But for those not familiar with the majesty that is Primal Groudon, and to you I apologize, let me keep with the theme today and give you my artist's rendition of the other half of Groudon.

He is just so majestic it hurts for mortal eyes to view. 

But in all seriousness let me try one more time. 

Hahaha whooooops that's just Mega Altaria.

No big deal just the BEST MEGA ALTARIA I LOVE YOU COME TO ME MY BABY

Okay so primal Groudon. Let me get into the mentality to do a proper job this time.

I gotta think thoughts that are majestic

powerful

ground-based.

Let's just do some practice sketches to get started.

Yes it does not get much more earthly than that mud. So perfect. 

But yet it's still got the water factor and that's totally not at all what we want. Groudon hates water. It's a fact of nature.
Gotta send that Kyogre strait to hell, dude.

So let's give this another go. 

Okay so it seems this time I went with a Bob Ross painting of mountains.
Yes mountains perfect, it does not get more pure and earth than that.

I think I'm ready for this for real.
Let's go Groudon! 

Yes. 

Perfect.

Really I think this picture is worth a million words. 

Skeleton War Update

Skeleton War Update- October 6, 2014
Millions are dead. Millions have always been dead. Our legion is strong.

Let's get real kids, the skeleton war is real and we gotta get our teams ready for the battle. We must look spooky in the face with defiance and run with ambition into the brumous fields of war and battle.
The time is now.

And so the sons of Marowak prepare themselves for the battle, with their swords of bone in hand they surge the battlefield. 

The small but gentle Cubone will grow old with war and become a strong and mature Marowak. 

He will not only a thick club in hand, but he will have earned it too.

With a grand boost to special defense and defense this child of war is unstoppable, no one can break his defenses.

So he will harbor lightning rod and several moves to his resume that will give him the strength needed to support the front line.

Toxic

Fling

Retaliate

Bonemerange (for no reason other than the name is stupid)

His careful nature will let him surmount all others on the battlefield.

The lonely cubone grown into a marowak will become our strongest asset in the skeleton war!

However at the end of the day we must never forget the true joy that Cubone brings in the heart of the nostalgic. One of the spoopiest and most ominous pokemon tied with its lore from Lavender town, Cubone's unassuming exterior hides a darker past.

Anyone who doesn't know the history of Cubone and his mother in Lavender town I suggest you educate yourself asap. Many a creepy pasta have stemmed from this topic alone, but most of these creepy pasta are obviously forged and poorly done at that. Nothing as good as the Ben Drowned creepy pasta of Majora's Mask.

But alas, Cubone will always hold a place in the heart of those who exploit scary moments in video games at the expense of young and gullible kids. 

3 "Great" Ice Type Pokemon

In contrast to my most recent post, it would be expected to do the natural thing and cover the top 5 Ice Type Pokemon. However I think we should mix things up a bit and just touch base on a few awesome icy babes that don't get enough attention as they should.

In general, ice types tend to have rather well-rounded stats as a whole, with a slight lenience toward special attack and defense. Best know for their well-rouded attackers and crazy special walls, Ice type was the be-all end-all for dragon smashers before the introduction of fairy type in Gen 6. The youngin's will never understand the power that a well-trained vaporeon with ice bean could be.

And so let's start our adventures into some weird or fantastic pokemon of the Ice Typing.

DELIBIRD

Why oh God why does this pokemon exist? It is a mess of a pokemon with almost know use besides its comical presence in the world of pokemon.
I mean, Jack Frost pokemon, sounds awesome.
Easter bunny pokemon, lacking but still pretty alright.

Tooth fairy pokemon, okay no stop please.

BUT SANTA. WHY?
Delibird has to be the most useless of all the ice-type pokemon as it knows one attack that has a chance of healing your opponent.

Unless you're going for a gag gift, stay far far away from Delibirb.

REGICE

The master golem of ice and snow, Regice, probably one of the most powerful ice type pokemon, right?
Well in ways, yes. In other ways no no no no.

As a child regice always kinda scared me a lot. Especially with his mildly terrifying presence in the movie, "Lucario and the Mystery of Mew" on of my favorites as a child. So with this I tried to stay as far away from Regice as possible.

Didn't really work out as later, when my fear faded, I found out he's actually a pretty great Pokemon. He's got THE BEST special defense in the whole world and with that he has a whole lot to offer. When it comes down to it some of the best fire type type attackers are special but rock, steel, and fighting are all pretty physical types. So Regice is nice and all, but as nice as ice might slice the twice dice, it's the price of rice to splice our vice.

AVALUGG

I'm gonna give it to you straight, I personally believe there is no reason as to why Avalugg should exist, yet it does and by god I love it. This pokemon is not only horribly useless but it is just the stupidest design on all of earth and I love it to death. Avalugg is flat at a board and heavy as a feather. By heavy as a feather I mean this thing weighs over a thousand pounds. Avalugg lying on its belly would make a great compressor, but other than that this bae has almost no practical use. Yeah his defense stat is OUT OF THIS WORLD but his speed and special defense are CRIPPLING. Poor babe is just a hunk of ice with no real purpose.

Don't worry Avalugg, I'll love you. 

Top 5 Fire Type Pokemon

Fire type, one of the most iconic typings of all of pokemon. All the rough and tough kids would choose fire type starters because what's more bad ass than fire? The most valuable pokemon card of all time is of course a classic fire type- Charizard. You can't go wrong when it comes to this heavily offensive type. With a strong arsenal of attack and special attack, you just have to watch out for any rock, ground, or water type pokemon to stop your attacking machine.

With such great pokemon to choose from, how do you separate the creme from the crop? Who are the best of the best in the fire typing? That's what we set out to discover today; the top 5 fire type pokemon.

#5

CHANDELURE

And so the generation 5 fighting machine strikes again. With one of the most INSANE special attack stats of all time and a crazy cool typing to back it up, Chandelure is the prime special attacker on almost any persons gen 5 team. Also can we talk about how freaking awesome Chandelure looks? Coolest. Design. Ever.

#4

GROUDON

We can't even turn our backs for two seconds without Omega Ruby Alpha Saphire rearing it's head once again. With much awaited joys to come with Primal Groudon (let's hope for a return from Primal Dialga at some point) we can't quite say Groudon sits here for sure, as I'm sure primal life will give him an ever higher stat boost or something. However, what puts Groudon here today is his good defenses. Fire type pokemon don't really have the best defenses, so we gotta have someone to back us up. Thanks for Groudon. 

#3

TALONFLAME

One of the fastest members of the fire-type family, Talonflame has a secure location in almost any Kalos trainer's hall of fame repertoire. Probably one of the coolest generic bird pokemon of the recent generations, what Talonflame lacks in competitive power he gains in his egg-rearing abilities. Anyone who's every tried to breed pokemon for competitive without a doubt uses Talonflame as the surrogate mother. With flame body, which halves the amount of steps needed to hatch an egg, fly, and the center of Lumiose City, Talonflame is the one-stop egg master. He may not be a fighting machine, but he's got the dirty work of competitive battling down pat.

#2

BLAZIKEN

Seriously Hoenn can you leave us alone for 5 minutes please? What Blaziken? What about Blaziken? He's cool yeah I guess..... huh..... MEGA! Oh my gosh really? Hoenn you gotta get out of here. No seriously leave. No I was just kidding, sorry. You were saying? Uhuh.... yeah.....

REMAKES HOLY SHIT!!!!!

#1

CHARIZARD

I think almost everyone was anticipating this one. Charizard is one strong beast, he's got all sorts of competitive possibilities as well as amazing typing opportunities with Mega X. He's a classic and for a reason. No amount of nostalgia can stop the fact that Charizard has been and always will be a great pokemon. 

Pokemon Contests

From very humble beginnings, Pokemon Contests have come far in their time. From their conception in Hoenn all the way to the brand new 3D Contests coming in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, contests are always a very fun side-quest sort of task in the games.

My very first contest memories are from the anime. With coordinators like May (who just happened to have almost all my favorite Pokemon on her team at the time, probably not a coincidence) how could I not love contests? They were the perfect mix of girly and full of pokemon. I wanted almost nothing more in life than to show off my pokemon in a contest setting, or at least use them to make a lot of sparkles; sparkles are the best.

Hearthome City Contest Hall


So I was very surprised and VERY happy to find that once I found my way to Hearthome City in Pokemon Diamond, I could become a coordinator myself! So I set out to be the very best like no one ever was and never ever even leave Hearthome City. Of course my younger self was just horrible at making poffins and using strategic tactics to win the contests, so I never made it past the Master Rank.

Much to my young dismay, Contests were put on the backburner in pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver to make room for the pokeathelon. If anything the pokeathelon probably had more fun minigames, but I still craved for the Super Contests of my pokemon debut.

Cue OMEGA RUBY ALPHA SAPHIRE CONTESTS.

Now we have the promise of something new, something amazing, something so cute and so contest filled we can't say no! With the brand new revamped contests who knows what they'll add to the scene?! 

Will we still be able to dress up our pokemon like Super Contests?
Will the performance portion still contain strategic tendencies?
Will they take a hint and stay as FAR AWAY FROM ANYTHING RESEMBLING POKEMON SOIREE??

My predictions for the new contests are they'll keep the basic format of the acting competition and add a few preliminary rounds to add to the suspense. Hopefully they'll put some effort into these games as in the recent generations they haven't put as much focus or effort into the extra side-quest games. I long for the days of the Generation 4 side questing games. *Sigh*

Only time will tell, but gosh there is so much potential and promise to the new contests I can barley contain my excitement. Heaven knows I will spend almost all my time doing contests when ORAS comes around.

November 21st can't come sooner.

Source: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Contest
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Super_Contest

Spoopy.

It's a week until October, and you know what that means.

ITS SPOOPY TIME.

So what's the best way to celebrate this impending doom and seasonal joy? Why of course it is simply to give ode to the spoopiest, scariest, and most halloweenie pokemon in the world.

SPOOPY THE BELLSPROUT

Well, not a whole lot is to be said about Spoopy other than he has the BEST NAME EVER so instead I guess we'll just talk about Bellsprout.

Bellsprout is a pretty good beginning pokemon, usually available at the start of game. In particular Heart Gold and Soul Silver have a good quantity of bellsprout at the start of their games, too much bellsprout at the start of the game, so god damn much bellsprout at the start of the game. As long as you keep up with your evolution of your bellsprout he's not gonna be too much of a hindrance. Of course having a flying type gym at the start is kinda a pain, at the end of the day you've got a pretty nice attacker on your team. 

I personally think that Bellsprout and his line of evolution is often in the shadows. He doesn't get as much press as he deserves, in fact the only press Victreebell really gets is in the anime as James' special pokemen. As someone who favors quick and strong attackers, I wouldn't really ever use a Victreebell, but he could be used for breaking walls in competitive. Either special or attacking walls, you get to choose. This versatility can be helpful. However, there are plenty of better grass/poison pokemon for the choosing out there. All in all Bellsprout is a sub-par pokemon and not really worth the leaf stone use.

Poor guy, he's cute and precious, but not really all that special.

Maybe that could be changed with a MEGA VICTREEBELL?????

Mega Victreebell would be such a good idea. Boost his attack and speed, give him a brand new awesome ability and suddenly we might actually have a useful pokemon. Potentially we should give him a brand new specialty move, or at least add a move to its repertoire that recognizes his HUGE GAPING MOUTH.  Something along the lines of CONSUMPTION or so would just be amazing. It would have to be a normal or even ghost type move (how about spiritomb getting this too?). It would deal physical damage and maybe a chance of paralysis? Imagine the possibilities. 

Can't We All Just Love Happiny?

There is no greater love in this world than what I have for baby pokemon. From Bonsley to Whnaut I always ask myself "Why not" when it comes to raising these darling bubbie bloob babies. Although all baby pokemon are equal in the eyes of statistics, there is an obvious favoritism that any one fan may have. We all have a favorite baby pokemon, stated or not, but I think we can all agree.

It's totally not Mime Junior.

Woah no I am just kidding, but in reality I think most people tend to favor Togepi due to the relations to both the anime and the original few games. Togepi was the original baby pokemon, and the one who started the trend. With each generation there is usually a few opportunities to encounter and raise baby pokemon. From Wynaut in Gen 3 to a whole hoard of babies available in Gen 4, there's practically no chance that a pokemon fan can go without encountering one of these darling dames.

My very first encounter with a baby pokemon was in my first game itself, Pokemon Diamond and my Happiny. I distinctly remember the anticipation and excitement as to what my egg acquired from that one fat guy in Hearthome City could contain. I waited patiently for my egg to hatch, and BAM I GOT HAPPINY. At the time I had no idea what Happiny was, how to get it to evolve, but all I knew was that I was going to make this baby a CONTEST QUEEN. So I went to work, cooking up a poffin storm and getting this bae all of the cute and strong ribbons I could. Eventually my 3rd-grade skill cap was reached and I had to move on with my regular adventure as the difficulty of the contests outreached my abilities. As previously stated, I had no idea how to evolve Happiny so this baby was quickly replaced on my team with a Quagsire from the safari zone, but she'll always hold a special place in my heart.

It is almost impossible not to form an emotional bond with your first baby pokemon. Raised from an egg to a sufficient member of your team, or your heart, we all have a favorite. Baby pokemon are amazing, and even though not very strong, they have a purpose beyond battle, and that is a connection to the game.

Source- http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/

I am trash.

(This blog post is following the theme of scientific and psychological connotations in every day life. I'll get back to pokemon soon.)

I seem to have but the most odd luck when being seated in my classes. I am either in the front and formost location, or in the dark seedy underbelly of the classroom. Both locations have pros and cons, but I usually tend to prefer the dark seedy underbelly of the classroom as I can observe others while often not being observed myself. There is a great deal of comfort to be found in witnessing the humanity of others, and no greater class to do so than in advanced pre-calculus. Witnessing those who make their emotions very readable finally understand a difficult concept, or seeing as friends gossip under their breath during class, is a task that only someone of grand social isolation can understand. This isolation can be brought upon by simple mentality, or in my case, the worst, seediest, darkest, and underbelliest of all the seats in the room.

I have found myself assigned to the very corner seat, furthest from the chalkboard and closest to the door, and by extension, uncomfortably close to the trash can. As each and every day passes I slowly find myself beginning to grow an emotional attachment to my next door neighbor, the trash can, as any students near me are either several desks away or never see my face as I only can see their backs. With this void in social interaction I have no choice but to fill it with an over-personified trash can. My darling rubbish-receptacle seems to grow closer and closer to me as the days progress. I can only wonder if it is my desk growing closer to him, or him venturing closer to me. Our emotional bondage has grown so much the proximity seems to be a mutual endeavor. I wonder if one day, perhaps my friend will simply be sitting in my desk, or he and I will become one forever in a fusion of both space and identity. It is about time he achieved sentient existence, even if co-dependent. 

I imagine what life as a trash can would be like, and I can only look forward to the day in which me and my darling beloved fuse together in the holy ritual of too-close-for-comfort. I will become one with all of trash-kind and forever be able to realize that I am over-evaluating this situation in an extremely existential manner. But as most things are, there really wasn't a way to avoid it.