Me
Tomorrow, if I have time, we will have our first PokeBeach Strategist card article up!
Battle Road Promo – Thanks to kirbypopstar, we now have a scan of the Victory Medal promo card you receive at Battle Road tournaments if you come in first place. Click the thumbnail to the right for a larger image.
College and Pokemon – This is a personal update. I warn you, over the next week, PokeBeach may become bloggy as I experience college life for the first time (I’ll look forward to reading my entries in four years when college is over). Feel free to skip this update – it’s very informal and is all about me, which may be boring / stupid to many visitors of this site. :D
So far, UCI (University of California, Irvine) is awesome, even though classes have not started yet. I put a Mysterious Treasures Magmortar poster on my dorm room door (Chrisbo gave me at our last prerelease :D), and now everyone in my hall is telling me things like, “Oh, I used to watch / play that” and “I used to be addicted to Pokemon.” (None of them play or watch it currently, though – or at least no one has said they do.) I came to my room early today because my sandals cut the side of my foot, and one of the hall students popped his head in and said “Pokemon’s on, Pokemon Jon.” I could hear it on the television from his room too, so I think he must have been watching it for old time sakes or something (Here, the cable is set four hours ahead, so I get to watch everything before anyone in the United States). There are a TON of animé lovers at this school, so I am sure a good chunk of them at least play the Pokemon games, but are probably afraid to admit it due to the reputation Pokemon has garnished as being “kiddy.” I’m not afraid to say I like Pokemon – I let EVERYONE know who asks about what I like. :D
When we had a large dorm meeting last night, everyone was forced to talk about themselves in front of everyone for two minutes each, so for one of the “something interesting about yourself” parts, I told everyone I am a Pokemon freak. The person in charge of our dorm building put his head down when I made that comment about myself, and people who knew him started to laugh, announcing to the room that he also loves and plays the Pokemon games and “he must be my perfect resident assistant (RA)”. Once I lock myself out of my room over the “three times” limit, he’ll open it for me for free, since we are now “Pokemon buddies.” See what Pokemon does for you when you shout to the world that you love it? It gives you “connections.” :D
Surprisingly, UCI’s “animé” and “Speech and Debate” clubs are both dead, so tomorrow, I am going to look into starting them up again. I started the animé club in high school and was president of Speech and Debate, and in both clubs, I found a way to promote Pokemon in some way (in animé, we watched Mewtwo, Lugia, and Lucario, and in S/D, I did a speech on Pokemon for “Expository Speaking” that took me all the way to the California Speech and Debate State Championships.) Good times – enjoy high school while you can.
Unless you know people are going to beat you up, which is probably rarely ever the case (although… some of those middle school kids are sometimes MONSTERS from that hot place), never hide who you are or what you really like just because people might not find it “cool (even though Pokemon really is cool).” Be yourself and never compromise your values for less-than-admirable people, and maybe you will find people who have the same interests / values as you… and possibly get perks in the process.