Community Day Mix Tape

I've only done one Community Day.  I listened to podcasts the whole 3 hours I was out walking, catching and spinning stops.  This time around I was thinking that it would be nice to have a playlist of songs.  So I threw together a playlist on YouTube. 

Click here for the playlist.

Here's the thought behind the song selections.

Ralts, the Feeling Pokémon. Ralts is the pre-evolved form of Kirlia. It can use the horns on its head to read human emotions. Ralts rarely shows itself to humans, but may occasionally approach when it senses positive or happy feelings

1. Chandelier by Sia (let's just get the obvious out of the way)
2. Emotions in Motion by Billy Squier
3. So Emotional by Whitney Houston  
4. Emotions (Cover) by Ariana Grande
5. Emotion by The Bee Gees 
6. Feelings (Cover) by The Offspring
7. I Second That Emotion (Cover) by The Grateful Dead
8. Sweet Emotion by Aerosmith
9. Lost in Emotion by Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam
10. How Much I Feel by Ambrosia

Then we move up to Kirlia who appears to be wearing a tutu. It enjoys dancing on sunny mornings, and grows beautiful when exposed to a Trainer with positive emotions.  Kirlia is able to sense the feelings of its Trainer, and when it becomes happy, it will start to dance.

1. Hooked on a Feeling by Blue Suede
2. You Make Me Feel Like Dancing by Leo Sayer
3. Happy by Pharrell Willliams
4. Tiny Dancer by Elton John
5. Canned Heat by Jamiroquai
6. Fancy Dancer by The Commodores
7. Blame it on the Boogie by The Jacksons
8. Why Don’t We Just Dance by Josh Turner
9. No Parking on the Dance Floor by Midnight Star
10. Dance With Me by Orleans
11. Dance, Dance, Dance by The Steve Miller Band
12. Dance Little Sister by Terence Trent D’Arby
13. Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It by Big Willie
14. And The Beat Goes On by The Whispers
15. Born to Boogie by Hank Williams Jr
16. Jump Shout Boogie by Barry Manilow
17. Boogie Down by Al Jarreau
18. Can you Feel the Beat by Lisa Lisa

Now we evolve up to Gardevoir – The Embrace Pokémon. If Gardevoir's Trainer needs protecting, Gardevoir creates a small black hole by using all of its psychic power.  Gardevoir is able to see the future using its psychic powers. Additionally, it is able to create small black holes, distort dimensions, and support itself without feeling the pull of gravity.

1. Neutron Dance by The Pointer Sisters
2. The Glamorous Life by Sheila E
3. Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden
4. Supermodel by Jill Sobule
5. I’m Just a Girl by No Doubt
6. Run the World (Girls) by Beyonce
7. Beautiful Girl by INXS
8. She Came To Give It To You by Usher feat Nikki Minaj
9. She’s a Bad Mama Jama by Carl Carlton

Finally, you might evolve a few Gallade -  It will use its arms like swords in order to protect someone. Its head resembles a gladiator's helmet with a white face and a teal head crest. It has spikes on the sides of its face. It is a master of courtesy and swordsmanship that is capable of predicting its foe's moves.  It fights fiercely.  (This one was difficult to find songs for.)

1. Cuts Like a Knife by Bryan Adams
2. Battle Sirens by Knife Party & Tom Morello
3. Mack the Knife (Cover) by Kimble Rendall & The Slice

The last bonus song is from my favorite band and is a nod to their ability to see the future.

• Here Comes the Future by World Party 

Lunch Update

Level: 34

XP: 5,033,677

Distance walked this week: 12.6 km

Pokedex: 345 > 1 added from Hoenn

I popped a lucky egg and upgraded two friendships to Ultra status.  Then my buddy, who we will call Ninja (because that's what I actually call him IRL), threw up a glacial lure.  Three of us evolved some Eevees to Glaceons.  I traded with another buddy, who we will call Domicile, to give him a better Whismur.  Not an interesting trade but he's much lower level than I am and I wanted to give him something he had enough candy to evolve already.  (Though he didn't evolve it.)

I caught a pair of Snorunt which were new entries to my dex.   Yesterday I added my first Cranidos to my dex.





With those 2 new Glaceon, this will be my team for Rayquaza.

The Donut Dilemma

Level: 34
XP: 4,822,917
Pokedex: 344 > 1 new from Sinnoh

I have been trading legacy pokemon with guys who do PvP.  The other day, I met one on the way home from work.  He wanted to meet near this busy complex that's a live/work area with a metro rail station.  No problem, that's kinda on my way home from work and I have met others in this area recently.  But it's one of those places that has a lot of foot traffic but not a lot of parking options. 

Oh! Hey.  There's a Dunkin' over there.  I mean, a donut shop shouldn't be very busy in the evening, right?  It's a small parking lot but we won't be there very long and I'll park at the end furthest away from the drive-thru.  That shouldn't be a problem. 

I get there first because he messages me that he's gonna knock out a couple of Team Rocket stops along the way.  No big deal, those take 2 minutes a piece.  Meanwhile I see a TR stop juuuuuuuust around the corner from where I'm waiting on him.  But he rolls up and I am more interested in completing the trade than in trying to grab the TR stop. 

He parks next to me.  We chat basically just long enough to be like, "Hi, my name is..."  "Whut? My name is..." "Slim Shady" "wicka wicka wicka wee"  and complete the trade.  So, like 5 minutes?  I notice that the stop juuuuuuuuuuust around the corner is still a Team Rocket takeover.  So I walk away from my car to go get it. 

On the way to the stop, there's a little voice in the back of my brain.  This is the conversation I had with it:

Little Voice: "Uh, you just left your purse sitting out on the front seat of your car."
Me: "So what? I'm only gonna be gone for like 10 minutes, maybe less."
Little Voice: "This is an area with a high volume of foot traffic.  It only takes 2 minutes."
Me: "Yeah but all the foot traffic is actually a deterrent.  Someone would see a guy busting out my window to snatch my purse.  It'll be fine."
Little Voice: "Probably.  But you're gonna feel awfully stupid if you have to deal with identity fraud because you were busy playing a mobile video game."
Me: "Shut up, we're here.  There's Team Rocket."
Little Voice: "Ooh, let's get 'em."

So, Team Rocket was vanquished and another pokemon was saved from their clutches.  Ash and the gang headed back to their car.  I mean, I walked back to my car.

As I was crossing the street back to the Dunkin', there was a guy about to kneel down TO BOOT MY CAR!!!!! 

Look! Look at how close I'd been to my car.  I know I'd only been gone from it for 10 minutes.  It was ONE BLOCK from the car to the pokestop.

As I was crossing the street, I yelled, "STOP!  I'M HERE!"  He looked up and saw me coming.  Thankfully, he stood up straight and turned to the car next to mine (which I don't even remember being parked there when I walked away).  I was like, "I was only gone for 10 minutes."  His response?  "It only takes 2 minutes." 

PokeContext

No new stats to report.

A little while ago I went to see Detective Pikachu at the dollar theater. I thought it was charming and it was fun to see pokemon walking around with humans. So I decided to start watching the TV shows. I'd always wanted to watch an anime show but I couldn't decide on one. Well, this should cover both.

My internet research led me to understand that the first season is called Indigo League. I have no idea why because there's no indigo and no league, but I'll chalk it up to a bad English translation. And how convenient! It's on Netflix.

I probably shouldn't admit this, but I burned through 52 episodes really quickly. And here's my breakdown of this show...

A young boy named Ash Ketcham (sp?) dreams of being a "pokemon master." At the oh so mature age of 10, he is allowed to begin his training to become a pokemon master. The root of this training involves going out and capturing wild pokemon (special animals), making them your own and using them in battles. As the trainer uses them in battles, they (and the trainer) gain experience and become more powerful. Professor Oak is the guy who sets all this training in motion.

Yes, that's right. The core of this show is about enslaving wild animals and forcing them to fight each other. Michael Vick would love it. But wait, it gets better! Once you've captured the pokemon, you keep them ... inside a ball. You read that right. Animals live inside balls and pretty much only come out when their master trainer needs them.

So how does Ash go about this training?  He leaves home and wanders through the forest, seaside, desert, mountains, basically everywhere.  Do you remember the part where I said Ash is TEN years old?  It's totally normal for these kids to wander around fighting wild animals.  Professor Oak gives them one pokemon to start their journey.  This pokemon is supposed to help them tire out the wild ones they come across to make them easier to catch.  Ash gets to the Professor's place late so he misses all the "good" starting pokemon and receives Pikachu.

Pikachu is an electric yellow mouse and he is the real star of the show.  It is crazy how cute they make this little mouse pokemon!  He has a ton of personality.  Like, he refuses to live inside his ball so he is always seen walking alongside or on the shoulder of Ash.

Right from the first episode we meet the inept villains of the show - Jessie and James, representatives of an organization called Team Rocket.  They report to "the boss" through phone calls (imagine a criminal, anime version of Charlie's Angels).  The third member of Team Rocket is a talking cat pokemon (Meowth) who technically belongs to the boss but is often the brains behind this field team.  The entire point of their mission is to "steal valuable pokemon."  For some reason they've decided that Ash's Pikachu is super valuable (because he won't live in his ball?) so they follow our hero gang around for the entire series.  Buuuuuuuuuuuuut... if they're looking for valuable pokemon, um... they have a TALKING Meowth!  That's the most valuable pokemon they come across in the whole show, in my opinion.

The rest of Ash's gang are people he meets along the way. The first person Ash picks up is a girl named Misty.  She looks to be about the same age as Ash. He steals her bike to chase some pokemon, he wrecks it and she pursues him. Ash wants to compete in the Pokemon League.  To do that he needs to battle and win badges from at least 8 gyms.  The first gym he comes to is lead by a guy named Brock (who will henceforth be called HornDog).  Shenanigans happen and Ash is able to get the better of HornDog.  So HornDog decides to join Misty and Ash (cause at this point Misty is following Ash around trying to get him to replace her bike) because his heart really isn't in battling.  He wants to be a pokemon breeder.  I have no idea how he's gonna be a breeder by wandering the countryside with a couple of ten year olds who bicker like siblings.

Ash's trainer nemesis is Gary Oak, son of the professor.  He is also training to become a master and, frankly, is better than Ash.

As the gang wanders from city to city, every nurse and policewoman are basically clones of each other.  The nurses are named Joy. The policewomen are named Officer Jenny.

Anyway, I thought the end of the first season would lead us to the Pokemon League.  But that didn't happen.  I've started the second season and we're still not there yet.  Ash has enough gym badges and the league is still a couple of months away.  What's still to be determined is if competing in the Pokemon League will make Ash a Pokemon Master.  Because if it does, it really doesn't seem that hard if a ten year old boy can become a Master by primarily fighting with a Pikachu.

Oh, there's also little facts like they sleep in the forest, never shower, don't have a way to earn money yet they have no trouble getting around and their clothes always look clean. 

Lunch Update

Level: 34
Friends: uh, more ultra and more great now
Bag inventory: Full (1 fewer lucky eggs)

I popped a lucky egg at lunch and upgraded 1 friend to ultra and 5 to great status. Add it all up and that's 200,000 XP to push me over to level 34. Yay!

  

Team R...uh-roh

Stats all the same...

Team Rocket was in effect on Sunday. I went down to an area of my neighboring city where there are a ton of stops. I parked my car and started around the corner. After hitting 5 stops, I was on a street corner and heard someone say my IRL name, like, out loud! I look at the street and it's a lady I work with. A very professional and adult lady, riding in her new convertible. She's like, "Hey, what are you doing?"

Sigh. I made eye contact with her 16 year old daughter who was driving and could tell that she knew my secret. That's when this 46 year old woman had to admit that she was playing Pokemon Go, a video game based on a children's anime cartoon.

Sometimes I wish we could play this indoors.

Rayquaza is coming!

Stats all the same as before...

Who? Yeah, so I was pretty active in this game during the original launch. But I stopped playing before any other generations of pokemon came out. [Note to self, still gotta figure out that slash over the e thing.]

 Well, I started playing on a regular basis again in May 2019 (this year, two months ago) and was overwhelmed with all the new stuff to learn, including the new pokemon. But if I'm reading the internets correctly, ICE, ICE, Baby is what you want to take down a Rayquaza.

 Thanks to some good trading, I have two Mamoswine which are supposed to be the champs for this legendary. Then I've got a Glaceon. I'm hoping to get at least one more. Let's see if I can show you the team I have assembled for these raids.

     

Those are my "best" Ice types with Ice moves.

Here are my other ice types that I have not TM'd.

But I don't think the last two are gonna cut it, so I have the following Eevees I can evolve into Glaceon if I can find a glacial lure.  (Obviously, I don't have enough candy to evolve them all...)

 

Meanwhile, my walking buddy is a Swinub so that I can try to power up that second Mamoswine. 

Word to your mother...