My first Pokemon game was Sapphire.
Well, to be completely technically honest, my first Pokemon game was the Pokemon trading card game for GameBoy a friend gave to me, but never having watched an episode of Pokemon or played the actual thing, I had no idea what was going on and eventually threw it away (I believe).
So, Sapphire.
It was the newest game in the series and I exploded in happiness on its arrival (3 weeks before my birthday thanks to a wonderful half-sister) and not barred by usual protocols of waiting, I went downstairs and played it for about 2 weeks straight. I lived and breathed Pokemon; here was my chance to be like other kids and see what all the fuss was about! Someone had generously donated a used Pokemon 'Red' walk-through manual, but never having played the game, it read more like a story than something you followed to unlock the secrets of your game.
So I knew next to nothing about Pokemon. I remember my friend bringing it to school one day and watching over her shoulder (along with 5 other kids because I happened to be friends with the most popular girl on the playground) and not understanding what was going on since you could only play those kinds of games before the bell rang, obviously limited to 15 minutes outside the playground on a chilly February morning, and the sunlight glare from the screen straight into myopic eyes...
I finally watched a few of the episodes at her house, and (this just goes to show my inferior knowledge of Pokemon) tried to play it with the next-door neighbors who knew all about it and had binders full of cards to prove it. I thought Jigglypuff was a girl, always, and Pikachu was a boy, always, and they had to get together because the only episode of Pokemon I watched involved a Pikachu and a Jigglypuff and I was at the age where everything had to be married so... yes. I wasn't sure what Pikachu did because I identified with Jigglypuff (being a female) and gave her this entire backstory where she would puff up and pound things into mats and decorate her house with them. When they started to reinflate (most of the drama of our games came from reinflating super-villains) she would pound them back into mats and continue sewing or whatever Jigglypuffs did.
So Sapphire was my wake-up call! No longer did I skulk in the shadows of nerd, I was a member of the club! And I owned it!
Being poor does weird things to your self-esteem; you can poke fun at how little money your family has and even act a bit apologetic about it, but when someone else glosses over it, the person is 20% more offensive and a duel of wits is demanded for your honor... which you more than likely lose because you don't have access to cable television where people spend their time swapping witty retorts.
Being poor, I claimed odd things about Pokemon while simultaneously blaming my upbringing for my lack of knowledge. Needless to say, nobody bought it and eventually I stopped talking. Even now, I'm a huge Pokemon nerd and I blame it on my late start into the game. In a world where being into childish things is cool, I was always into childish things because I didn't have enough money to appreciate them when they first came out. Consequently, my first purchases over the Internet (of any note) consisted of an old GameBoy and the original Red and Blue games. I didn't realize how hard it was to get around without Running Shoes! Hats off to the original gamers who gamed, not knowing if Running Shoes would ever come!
On the points of generations... since I started so late, I'm inclined to love everybody but most of my knowledge consists of the 3rd generation (my stomping ground) although I can name, at the drop of a hat (give me 10 minutes or so) 149 of the 151 Pokemon. I accept the 4th because it was the next logical step, and I haven't had a lot of interaction with the 5th generation, but I think designing a Pokemon after an ice cream cone is pushing luck a bit. Then again, Pikachu and Marill are elemental cousins.
And comedy! I've been told I should do stand-up though any attempt of mine to standardize my jokes turns to dust. I wouldn't be funny on stage; I'm more funny in a small group of people where I can throw in a sarcastic comment every now and then. I suppose if you gathered all my sarcastic comments... you'd still have a mess of a show since they'd be out of context and any attempts of mine to justify them would fall flat on their faces.
But I love watching comedy! I love comedians like Eddy Izzard, Jim Gaffigan, Brian Regan, Fluffy... used to like Jeff Dunham a little, but my roommates in college watched a little too much Peanut. Oh well. My loss, I suppose. Less Internet traffic for the rest of you, right?
I appreciate clean comedy, which seems to be less and less nowadays. I like comedy you can laugh at without covering your kid's ears and it depends on the comedy special, but I have to do that a few times with all of my favorites. They have 10-15 minute stretches at least, most of them can go for 30-40 minutes, but the lure of an easy laugh comes and they make a dirty joke. It's ok, I understand you're stressed on stage and fear is logical in any person, so I get why you made that joke; it's a long laugh and you can rethink the rest of your material. But just because I understand where it's coming from doesn't make it ok. I feel the same way about a lot of things in politics and people who get wronged. Just because I understand your need to kill 50 people to work through the death of your girlfriend in a freak train accident doesn't mean it's ok.
But that's where we're headed! 'Oh, he watched something horrible, he's mentally scarred so he's not fit to go to prison.' There are logical and reasonable consequences for breaking the law that everybody should understand as it's well-publicized. If they're in prison, it's obvious they're not mentally equipped to function in normal society. And don't get your knickers in a twist over the word 'normal'.
'Everybody's special and nobody's the same'... but lobby for individual race rights and religion rights and political rights! Let's separate everyone into as small a group as possible to keep them from socializing and overcoming differences. Let's keep bringing up differences and forcing them to go head to head!
Honestly, you can love someone and not approve of their choices; every parent knows this. Every sibling should have been taught this on the playground. Just because your brother is playing tag with your worst enemy doesn't mean you hate them; it just means you don't hang out with them when they're around that friend. You still hug, still stand next to them in the family picture and try to do bunny ears and occasionally steal their frosting when no one is looking, but you're family. We're all humans, part of a huge human family and we're each different because of our thoughts-
-Not our sexual orientation, color of our skin, place of birth, place of ancestors' births pr political motivations.
And I think that's why I love comedy so much: Comedy is the one place you can make fun of everyone for being idiotic and they'll laugh with you. Comedy is where you can tell gay rights people you don't approve of their trashing a Chick-Fil-A, or go after people from your preschool days, and everybody is fine with it. Sure, a few super-sensitive people looking to sue everything offensive (being offended is a mindset, not a predisposition) will be the ones frowning and criticizing your talent on every social media sphere... but if you can make them laugh, they're on your side. You can't be angry and amused as my Dad demonstrated many times growing up. He'd work his girl-magic on the drama-stricken teenager and everybody would be friends before Mom volun-told a few of us to wash the dishes... usually me because I was the oldest and therefore most talented with hand-eye coordination.
It's sad how most people's reactions nowadays are more along the lines of 8( rather than XD. When did we stop laughing? Probably when college tuition and books went up and we needed a quick way to smooth our way to financial success so we could smooth our kids into financial success... or something of that nature.
Well, to be completely technically honest, my first Pokemon game was the Pokemon trading card game for GameBoy a friend gave to me, but never having watched an episode of Pokemon or played the actual thing, I had no idea what was going on and eventually threw it away (I believe).
So, Sapphire.
It was the newest game in the series and I exploded in happiness on its arrival (3 weeks before my birthday thanks to a wonderful half-sister) and not barred by usual protocols of waiting, I went downstairs and played it for about 2 weeks straight. I lived and breathed Pokemon; here was my chance to be like other kids and see what all the fuss was about! Someone had generously donated a used Pokemon 'Red' walk-through manual, but never having played the game, it read more like a story than something you followed to unlock the secrets of your game.
So I knew next to nothing about Pokemon. I remember my friend bringing it to school one day and watching over her shoulder (along with 5 other kids because I happened to be friends with the most popular girl on the playground) and not understanding what was going on since you could only play those kinds of games before the bell rang, obviously limited to 15 minutes outside the playground on a chilly February morning, and the sunlight glare from the screen straight into myopic eyes...
I finally watched a few of the episodes at her house, and (this just goes to show my inferior knowledge of Pokemon) tried to play it with the next-door neighbors who knew all about it and had binders full of cards to prove it. I thought Jigglypuff was a girl, always, and Pikachu was a boy, always, and they had to get together because the only episode of Pokemon I watched involved a Pikachu and a Jigglypuff and I was at the age where everything had to be married so... yes. I wasn't sure what Pikachu did because I identified with Jigglypuff (being a female) and gave her this entire backstory where she would puff up and pound things into mats and decorate her house with them. When they started to reinflate (most of the drama of our games came from reinflating super-villains) she would pound them back into mats and continue sewing or whatever Jigglypuffs did.
So Sapphire was my wake-up call! No longer did I skulk in the shadows of nerd, I was a member of the club! And I owned it!
Being poor does weird things to your self-esteem; you can poke fun at how little money your family has and even act a bit apologetic about it, but when someone else glosses over it, the person is 20% more offensive and a duel of wits is demanded for your honor... which you more than likely lose because you don't have access to cable television where people spend their time swapping witty retorts.
Being poor, I claimed odd things about Pokemon while simultaneously blaming my upbringing for my lack of knowledge. Needless to say, nobody bought it and eventually I stopped talking. Even now, I'm a huge Pokemon nerd and I blame it on my late start into the game. In a world where being into childish things is cool, I was always into childish things because I didn't have enough money to appreciate them when they first came out. Consequently, my first purchases over the Internet (of any note) consisted of an old GameBoy and the original Red and Blue games. I didn't realize how hard it was to get around without Running Shoes! Hats off to the original gamers who gamed, not knowing if Running Shoes would ever come!
On the points of generations... since I started so late, I'm inclined to love everybody but most of my knowledge consists of the 3rd generation (my stomping ground) although I can name, at the drop of a hat (give me 10 minutes or so) 149 of the 151 Pokemon. I accept the 4th because it was the next logical step, and I haven't had a lot of interaction with the 5th generation, but I think designing a Pokemon after an ice cream cone is pushing luck a bit. Then again, Pikachu and Marill are elemental cousins.
And comedy! I've been told I should do stand-up though any attempt of mine to standardize my jokes turns to dust. I wouldn't be funny on stage; I'm more funny in a small group of people where I can throw in a sarcastic comment every now and then. I suppose if you gathered all my sarcastic comments... you'd still have a mess of a show since they'd be out of context and any attempts of mine to justify them would fall flat on their faces.
But I love watching comedy! I love comedians like Eddy Izzard, Jim Gaffigan, Brian Regan, Fluffy... used to like Jeff Dunham a little, but my roommates in college watched a little too much Peanut. Oh well. My loss, I suppose. Less Internet traffic for the rest of you, right?
I appreciate clean comedy, which seems to be less and less nowadays. I like comedy you can laugh at without covering your kid's ears and it depends on the comedy special, but I have to do that a few times with all of my favorites. They have 10-15 minute stretches at least, most of them can go for 30-40 minutes, but the lure of an easy laugh comes and they make a dirty joke. It's ok, I understand you're stressed on stage and fear is logical in any person, so I get why you made that joke; it's a long laugh and you can rethink the rest of your material. But just because I understand where it's coming from doesn't make it ok. I feel the same way about a lot of things in politics and people who get wronged. Just because I understand your need to kill 50 people to work through the death of your girlfriend in a freak train accident doesn't mean it's ok.
But that's where we're headed! 'Oh, he watched something horrible, he's mentally scarred so he's not fit to go to prison.' There are logical and reasonable consequences for breaking the law that everybody should understand as it's well-publicized. If they're in prison, it's obvious they're not mentally equipped to function in normal society. And don't get your knickers in a twist over the word 'normal'.
'Everybody's special and nobody's the same'... but lobby for individual race rights and religion rights and political rights! Let's separate everyone into as small a group as possible to keep them from socializing and overcoming differences. Let's keep bringing up differences and forcing them to go head to head!
Honestly, you can love someone and not approve of their choices; every parent knows this. Every sibling should have been taught this on the playground. Just because your brother is playing tag with your worst enemy doesn't mean you hate them; it just means you don't hang out with them when they're around that friend. You still hug, still stand next to them in the family picture and try to do bunny ears and occasionally steal their frosting when no one is looking, but you're family. We're all humans, part of a huge human family and we're each different because of our thoughts-
-Not our sexual orientation, color of our skin, place of birth, place of ancestors' births pr political motivations.
And I think that's why I love comedy so much: Comedy is the one place you can make fun of everyone for being idiotic and they'll laugh with you. Comedy is where you can tell gay rights people you don't approve of their trashing a Chick-Fil-A, or go after people from your preschool days, and everybody is fine with it. Sure, a few super-sensitive people looking to sue everything offensive (being offended is a mindset, not a predisposition) will be the ones frowning and criticizing your talent on every social media sphere... but if you can make them laugh, they're on your side. You can't be angry and amused as my Dad demonstrated many times growing up. He'd work his girl-magic on the drama-stricken teenager and everybody would be friends before Mom volun-told a few of us to wash the dishes... usually me because I was the oldest and therefore most talented with hand-eye coordination.
It's sad how most people's reactions nowadays are more along the lines of 8( rather than XD. When did we stop laughing? Probably when college tuition and books went up and we needed a quick way to smooth our way to financial success so we could smooth our kids into financial success... or something of that nature.
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