Huh. Well, this is late. Sort of. But congrats to y'all, looks like the competition was FIERCE. 

Still shocked that I got the white banner, considering I was essentially K.O.ed for most of the month. *joys of pneumonia making me not want to do ANYTHING*

BUT ANYWAY. Congrats to the winners, y'all did some MAJOR work there. 

And me getting sick knocked me out of any sort of running.  
Ah well. It was a good bit. I'm satisfied. Still too weary to even try now. So g'luck to everyone else, have a good rest of the TdV.

... Jigglypuff.  Seriously. Jigglypuff. 

Well, besides the fact that it is terrifyingly creepy in some weirdly cute way that makes it just that much more of a NIGHTMARE, it's ridiculously difficult to get a good move set and IV spread for one to make it effective. Sure it has some nice status moves, but it DIES SO EASILY that there's not much POINT in keeping it when you can have something stronger, like... oh... say... SYLVEON.

And every time you see it in the anime it turns into a running gag that isn't funny and never has been.

Next pokemon to hate on:
Marowak

I... have actually been a victim of both physical bullying and cyber bullying, and I can tell you that from my experience, the only difference between the two is how much your body hurts afterward. Cyber bullying doesn't leave bruises, but it has just as much upset mentally as physical, real-life bullying, and it can be just as damaging, if not more so, at times, because over the internet it takes a LOT more to get the bullying STOPPED. 

People say 'it's not that difficult' to stop it, just report them or close your computer' (using your comment, greenluigi: as the example, just for instances' sake)  but no, it's REALLY more difficult than that. You get someone bullying you online, it pretty much drives you from the site they're on. If they're determined, they'll follow you to other sites and start the cycle all over again, until you have to avoid EVERYTHING until site staff decide to take action, if they EVER do. Been there, done that, had death threats and was terrified for WEEKS.  

So no, it's not less than physical bullying, it's not that kids today can't take insults, it's that over the internet, bullies think that they can hide behind their anonymity and thus the bullying gets WORSE and more dangerous mentally than it typically does in real life. Yeah, they can't punch you or pick you up and slam your head against the wall over the internet, but they can threaten your life, threaten the lives of those you love, and give you evidence that you are being STALKED over the internet, and that is just as damaging. 

zanderlex: Congratulations! Good to know that after all that trouble you're getting things situated a bit better. Believe me, I know about the financial aid and book-buying woes.  I did that song and dance routine every single semester except my last one (and then didn't have to do it ONLY because every bookstore employee knew me and knew that my voucher would be good WHEN IT FINALLY WENT THROUGH). It can be a pill, but keeping at it is the only way to get things straightened out, regardless of how frustrating it is. I was on the TAA program in my state, so it was really a mess. But hey, I managed to graduate, and I've no doubts that you'll get there too.

*groan* Thanks for the warning. I've not been on greenlight in a while, but one of my friends is on there constantly. I'll wait on him to wake up (yay being on the OTHER END OF THE COUNTRY) and get on Skype, then he's getting warned. ALL he needs is his beast of a computer getting infected. I doubt it would happen, because he has good anti virus software, but still. On the off chance that it did get through his stuff. Don't want that happening. 

Also don't want him mistakenly thinking the actual developer had that sort of issue with their greenlight game, so yeeeah, he's getting warned. 

Though now watch him already know and 'gripe' at me for telling him what he already knew. Never know, though, I may actually surprise him for once. Thanks for putting this up.

Since I can't get summons to work again, I'm just going to hope people see this.

Thanks, everyone, for the kind comments and the encouragement. This mess got me down, but you guys helped perk me back up. Really, thank you, and thanks for the bits of insight.

I will say that I don't think I could have just walked up and confronted them, even though I still wish I had. The thought is scary beyond words, but thanks for backing me up, guys.  I'll try not to let stuff like this make me upset again, and keep your words in my mind so that I won't. I hear things like that all too often and I have yet to grow a thick enough skin to not let it bother me. But I'll keep trying.

I actually always thought that Ash's father was Red, to be perfectly honest.  So I agree with greenluigi, here. They look similar, go down similar paths, and seem to have some of the same mannerisms? Plus it would make sense for the first trainer in the pokemon series to be Ash's father, from a logical point of view.

And just from an outside point of view -- outside because I have never owned an Xbox system (of any generation) and never will -- it may be because programmers just don't think it's worth the time or effort. Many of the Xbox games were ported to Windows, weren't they? So the general view may be 'why bother?' especially if the coding is that difficult to work with and emulate.

I went to the store with my mom today. Normal thing, went so I could help her carry bags. The grocery store had gotten in some of those little transparent click-fan things; you know, the little personal fans that run off of batteries and that you hold a button down to use? These lit up, though, and they did different blinky lights that leave trails behind them when you wave them a bit. So, while Mom was debating over different meat cuts, I was playing with them and having fun leaving light trails and 'drawing' in the air. I didn't think anything of it, I do stuff like that all the time because it's fun and I'm not hurting anyone or anything, right? 

Some ladies walked behind me while I was doing this and laughing (quietly, mind you, I know better than to be loud in a public place and if I'm not panicking it's easy to not be loud),  and one of them went  "Oh that poor dear, to be so simple-minded. Her poor family, it must be so hard for them to keep her." REALLY loudly.  The other lady agreed and said something about how sad it must be for me to exist, if I'm that child-like when I'm not a child. 

I was the only one in the aisle besides  those two, so I know they were talking about me. They were acting like there was no way I could hear them, either, despite the GLARINGLY LARGE hearing aids sitting on my ears over top of the arms of my glasses.  I wish I'd confronted them now, said something about how I could hear them just fine, and wasn't it rude to talk about people like that...but at the time it shocked me enough that I just stood there until they'd gone on.

It hurts when people say things like that. It really does. I know I'm not the smartest person out there, but I'm not 'simple-minded', and I don't think it's too hard for my family to help me take care of myself? I don't think. No one has ever said anything to me about it, anyway. It's not sad for me to exist, either. I like existing most of the time. But hearing things like that REALLY hurt me.

Is it bad that I enjoy things kids like? Is it so awful that I like having fun, and sometimes having fun means something as simple as playing with stuff like that in the grocery store for a few minutes? My parents have never said I shouldn't do it, all I've ever been told is to not bother others, and that's held true since I was a kid. Why is it so different now that I'm over the age of 12? I don't understand why things like that make adults look at me like I'm either stupid or something to be pitied. I'm just having fun. No kids have ever treated me like that, so why do the adults?

Either a ribbon, because common sense... or if that actually wasn't available, I guess my second pick would be the Judgement Staff. It's high level, boosts magic power, and depending on the game, can cast Flare, a chance of Stop, or Dispel when you use it as a melee weapon. And seriously, there is nothing bad about beating enemies over the head with this thing. Have you ever LOOKED at it? It's a murder weapon if I ever saw one, whether used as a physical thing or as a channeling weapon. 

And anything that can cast Flare without sucking my mana dry is a must-have in my book. OP spell is OP. Stop and Dispel are pretty dang useful, too, and could make me a pretty valuable party member. As a mage, you want to be valuable, so the rest of the party will protect you when you are super-squishy. Not so much an issue when you get on up there in levels, but DEFINITELY at first. Been there.

At the risk of bringing back memes... HOENN INTENSIFIES. XD

My favourite has to be the redone opening theme for ORAS. Not only because of the massive nostalgia factor (though yes, that's one reason), but because IT IS JUST SIMPLY GORGEOUS. They did so well with the orchestration. You get hit by nostalgia feels while at the same time it is brand new. I've been guilty of opening the game and just letting it sit on the start screen so it plays over and over, not gonna lie.

I prefer to play racing (outside of Mario Kart, at least) or other "simulation" style games in 1st person, because that's honestly the intended view, I think. It's supposed to be a simulation, ergo it needs to be first person. I don't know about you, but I've never met anyone who saw by having a pair of eyeballs floating about 8 feet behind and above their head.  If it's a sim, it's supposed to mimic real life to an extent, and using third person point of view damages your ability to react properly.

HOWEVER, for games like Fallout or pretty much any RPG I can think of, I do not like first person POV. The games are designed to function best in third person, and you need the extra range of view, usually, especially in open world scenarios. At least, you do if you don't want to die constantly by something sneaking up silently behind you. It's not designed to be a sim, it's designed for you to try to simply stay alive, and that is best done by using third person. Plus generally the controls are mapped more accurately for third person POV and trying to use first person nets you more misses than hits in combat, for example.

Games like Half Life 2 and other shooters can go either way, depending on the person's preferences. I personally think I would do a lot better in Half Life 2 if there was the option for a third person POV, because my 'aim the gun, then SHOOT the gun' ability SUCKS in first person, despite all the years I've played.

Personally, I think it's a classic case of supply and demand.

There aren't that many Pokemon games being re-sold, because once people bought them new, they keep them, unlike many other types of games. So there aren't that many on the market, but the demand for them has not gone down; if anything, it has increased with each new release. That's easy to understand, because with each new release, more people are playing Pokemon for the first time, and they want to go back and try the older games that they missed. But, because there are more people wanting it than there is product available, prices skyrocket. 

It happened with the GBA games too, believe me. I played Emerald first, and then when I wanted to go back and find the older games to play, since I'd missed out, I found they were higher than the brand new Emerald cartridge I'd just bought and beaten. So it's not a new phenomenon. Most just don't really pay attention to it, and of those of us that do? We haunt ebay for deals.  I mean, ebay is where I got my Yellow and Red carts, and they came free with a Game Boy Colour that I bought, since the guy who had it just wanted RID of them for some reason, he sent them along with the Colour system and a note saying I could just have them. They still work, have new batteries...so y'know, it's possible to find them for cheap, you just have to be lucky. XD;

janus : I am aware, but they came to VHS in the 1990's, so for many people, that was the first exposure they had to them unless they were alive in the 1950's/1960s. So it's relevant. 

ANd besides, not all of them were from that era. There were QUITE a few musical Disney movies actually made in the '90s, not just released on VHS. Beauty and the Beast, the Lion King, The Rescuers Down Under, Hercules, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tarzan, etc. 

oldschoolboyz:  *and in hoping summon does NOT fail again* I just now saw your reply. Been gone all day long and exhaustion hit. But thank you for saying asexuals are welcome. Most often, I've found that we are not. 

I was told I was 'not queer enough' for my college's LGBTQA club, despite being a staunchly sex-repulsed asexual. Was also told that asexuality is a myth, so y'know those stories you hear about things like that? Yeah, those aren't exaggerations. So to find a place, even online, where we are welcomed is something of a relief.

And thank you about the luck with my parents. They're in the 'don't believe it exists' camp, along the lines of most 'older parents' -- "You just haven't found the right one yet". It makes things difficult. So for now I'm just... silent on the matter. Don't really have anything else to be.

Over leveling my characters until things are too easy. I have a seriously bad habit of grinding too much because I like grinding, so I generally wind up too strong for wherever I'm at. Occasionally it doesn't happen, but more often than not I am That One Guy who is too powerful and doesn't realize it until too late. It can make some things a pain. *like catching pokemon in certain areas*  But other times...YAY EASY BOSS BATTLES I DON'T HAVE TO RELOAD 500 TIMES!

Game, even as much as I love manga in general and certain video game manga a LOT. *looooooking at you, Kingdom Hearts and .hack manga series, yep* 

I prefer the interactivity, mostly, and the fact that there is more to the game than the manga. I adore the Kingdom Hearts manga art style, though, and sort of lends credibility to my head canon that he's WAY younger than 14 at the start o the games. I mean, look at the kid, he has baby face and baby voice and baby EVERYTHING, no way he's a 14 year old boy. 10, maybe, 12 if I squint, but 14? Nuh-uh. No 14 year old boy I have EVER seen is that much of a little tyke in looks. 

I turn and let it hit my back. Yay, kind of painful back massage... for all of two seconds! Hey, better than nothing, I suppose, and a bag full of hollow (and thus even more interesting) rocks for me to pick through!

I throw a Stitch plushie at the user below me.