So, what's new?

Kain

Lightning

Long story short. Write on my wall by 7pm EST. 4PM Pacific, and get entered in a drawing to win my signed copy of Puzzle Quest 2 for the DS.
 (If you don't want it signed, that's cool too)
 
Due to Customs and stuff, have to restrict this to US only, sorry!
 
Go crazy. Bonus points if you comment on Professor Quagsire (points do not mean anything)

I guess I'll just do this on Monday, since I seem to be getting free time here.
 
So last week I ended at 202 Obtained, where am I right now? I am at a robust 263, passing the halfway point.
Feeling good right now, it all feels fresh to me, not having done this since the GBC Silver, and it's a good way to take my mind off things.
 
I intend to get all 493 obtained, and maybe later this winter I can pick up Platinum so I can get all of them for real. Having one of each in my box.
Long term goals, gotta start small. 
 
So, here we are, this week's update!
  

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, July 25-27. No activity.

Wednesday, July 28. Went around capturing things, getting set to knock out starters

Thursday, July 29. Knocking out all 12 starters and their evolved forms. Day 1.

Friday, July 30. Wrapping up starters, and Floatzel for some reason.

Saturday, July 31. I was dead tired from working 5am to 3pm. Spent the day hatching eggs.

Sunday, August 1. Went on a mad spree, checking wherever I could catch them, and doing so.

Stuff I need to keep track of, so I don't forget...
(just realized today was GCEA Update day, daaaaaaamn)
 
GCEA Update.
Coffee, Tea, and Godot.
Professor Quagsire.
RSRadio.
 
Note to myself in about 6 hours: The parisian blend sucks, mex organic was eh, tropical is win.

This was supposed to go up Sunday, but was too busy with dealing with family issues.
The number of Pokemon obtained hasn't changed since the 24th (Weekly records are from Sun to Sat)
Went from a meager 124 to 202, catching a lot of the Legendaries and other things.
I built up my numbers, and now have a lot of Pokemon that are ready to evolve.  
 
Today (I hope) I can get back into the swing of things, catching and evolving them. 
I finished my little side-project (Fuck the Battle Tower, seriously) so, now I can just focus on capturing.
 
So...what exactly did I catch this week? (All times are in EST)
 

Sunday, July 18. The first day of my organized record keeping (no more paper towel notes)

Monday, July 19. The day started and ended with a capture of a legendary fire bird.

Tuesday, July 20. Cleanup day, evolving happiness and hatching eggs, preparing to fight Red.

Wednesday, July 21. With Red defeated, I could now focus on capturing.

Thursday, July 22. Things die down for a bit as I train my Battle Tower team.

Friday, July 23. As I traveled back home, I leveled up my Battle Tower Team.

Saturday, July 24. Finished training my Battle Tower Team

As of this writing, I am about 3 days into this thing I'm doing. A little bit of a gaming challenge, something to test my skills.
Ah who the hell am I kidding, I'm trying to catch all 493 pokemon.
 
I mean, it's not that hard right? You just gotta make a few trades, level up a bit, search and search. Easy right?
 
I loved Blue, loved Silver, thought Ruby was okay, and was turned off by Diamond after the firsty gym.
This long summer vacation I am on got me hooked back onto this series.
I recieved SoulSilver from a friend for my birthday after me and her ended up talking nostalgic about these weird creatures.
 
To be honest, I never thought I would play through it. I mean, I started, beat the first gym. Then kinda got bored with it.
Had a ton of fun with the Pokewalker, that little pedometer that lets you carry a Pokemon around. But I never really thought that 
I'd get through the game. Then I go on this 2 month vacation, play the hell out of Peace Walker. And...start SoulSilver back up again.
 
It was weird, the same feeling I got from Blue and Silver came back to me, the thrill of winning with a team of YOUR choice.
Seeing the Pokemon you raise take out a foe that is way stronger than them. It's just...it's not like anything out there really.
 
So...beating the game is one thing (not there yet, still have to grind about 10 more levels to fight Red), catching all of them is a different beast in of itself.
(Here's a fun fact. Early versions of Ruby and Sapphire have the tagline "Gotta catch em all" on there, but after that, no Pokemon game has had it on there since) 
What made me want to catch them? Not sure, maybe it's some instinct from my childhood, maybe its due to the fact that I never finished the job in Silver for the GBC.
I stopped playing at 247, I was 4 away from completing the Pokedex, but I stopped, can't remember why.
 
So hey, I'm here, trying to have record of possession of all 493. I mean, it would be nice to actually HAVE all 493, but that is kinda impossible. 
There are too many legendaries out there, it was ridiculous. Having all of them would require some pretty uneven trades. So I'm gonna settle with
the old trade/trade back method, for proof of ownership.
 
The research was tough. The Ruby/Sapphire Pokemon were a blur in my head, and the Diamond/Pearl ones are COMPLETELY foreign.
Looking at some things, I was just amazed by how crazy  things got. I knew Electabuzz could have a kid form, but it also evolved!?
Magneton turns to a UFO? There are even MORE Eevee forms!?
 
Mind boggling stuff, enough to turn someone off of this stuff. I will venture on though, trying to catch them all.
Waiting at the mercy of the Global Trade Station (you offer a pokemon, and say what you want, and you wait for the community to take it)
Leveling up random folks, making them happy, giving them stones, trading them away.
 
I'll be updating my status every Sunday, but this is the first week, so the first update will be on Monday aka tomorrow.
Every day I'll be tweeting my numbers (Started at 93 obtained, now I am at 124). 
If you wanna follow along, I'm recspecreno on Twitter. So...here goes nothing. Wish me luck!

Today is Father's Day. If you didn't know that...SURPRISE!! That day of the year where you send dear old dad a card or a tie. 
Me, I'm kinda lucky, I can buy my dad a video game.
 
See, my first encounter with video games (Not counting a Street Fighter 2 machine my mother always wheeled me by at the grocery store) was when my dad bought a Sega Genesis with Altered Beast. That game scared the bejeezus out of me. But it was the first game I ever played. That was the first spark that sent me down this spiraling path of video game stuff I'm on.
 
As a kid, I didn't have any money, so I would have to rely on my mom or dad to buy my games. And seeing as my dad usually did all the birthday shopping while my mom was buying stuff for the house. I had to run all gift checks through him. He wouldn't let me buy any of the whimsical "fun" games out there. With your anime-like main characters and your cartoon mascots. "Buy something that's not for babies." Oh those days of torture. 
 
But either through sheer luck or just some kind of fatherly intuition. He has had some pretty good choices for games.
When I first got my PS1 he got me Tenchu: Stealth Assassins. That game is pretty damn good, and it was a worthy counterpart to MGS.
He also bought Resident Evil 2 and Oddworld Abe's Exoddus. All these games still rank pretty high up there on my list of games I liked.
When he actually let me pick games out for myself? I picked gems such as Gex 3, Twisted Metal 3, and the brilliant Tomorrow Never Dies.
 My first PS2 game was Tekken Tag Tournament, another great game, and my entry into 3d fighters.
 
Shopping for my dad is pretty easy, he likes games, but he doesn't buy a lot of them. I mean heck, this week he was replaying the Medal of Honor games for PS2.
This Father's Day I bought him NCAA Football 2009, yes 2009. I mean heck, he's been playing NCAA 2003 for the last few years. That's right, and 8 year old game.   
I mean, it's not much, but hey, it means a lot to him, and without him, I wouldn't be gaming today. I'd probably be some kind of businessman or something. Pshaw.
 
 So, here's to all the Dads that support our gaming hobby, and even play games sometimes. 
And yes, I am pretty sure that some of you reading this are video gaming fathers. So here's to you!
Happy Father's Day!

1. Way too much time spent on the Move imo. Not to mention the prices. 70 bucks for both pieces. Not as bad as I thought, but meh.
 
2. Kevin Butler taking the stage was great! Then they killed all that momentum with Marcus.
 
3. Twisted Metal, wow. I'm totally digging the new direction of the series.
 
4. PS Plus. I like it. I mean, I already buy Qore. 50 bucks a year (like with XBL) is no big deal. I mean, gaming isn't a cheap hobby. 
I just hope they actually deliver on it.
 
5. Portal 2 announcement. WOW. Gabe Newell's appearance is close to one of the LAST things I would have expected.
So do we finally get some love for Valve on the PS3 front?
 
Overall, I expected Sony's conference to pale in comparison to Nintendo's...and it did.
 But they managed to finish strong, despite a HORRID first half. "And now...more stuff on the PS Move..."