Happy New Year

Marty caught a Gastly, now a Gengar. We return home tomorrow so I'll get back to regular posting soon.

Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu Began Yesterday

I started Let's Go Pikachu yesterday.  Marty it's my character and so far other than Doc (the starter) he has a Raticate named Biff and a Growlithe named Johnny. I go home Wednesday and then my posts can be full again.

Day 90 - Pokémon Sun Done

I finished Pokémon Sun today.  I am visiting family in Virginia with limited internet access so I'll write more about Nina and her story when I have better access. I am changing my play order slightly because if this trip as well. I will begin one of the Let's Hop games tomorrow.

Christmas!

Day Off! Merry Christmas!

Day 86 - Malie Garden

Hot off completing her first Ula'Ula Island Trial, Nina went to Malie Garden to relax. She was laying in the grass contemplating the little information Olivia had been able to share with Nina about her mother when someone saw and recognized her. The man ran up and exclaimed to Nina how familiar she looked, "I'm Guzma, you look just like an old friend of mine! Is there any chance you know or are related to Lenora?"
Nina had no clue who he was talking about and explained to Guzma that she was adopted and did not resemble anyone in her family. Her response seemed to deflate Guzma a bit. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you more..." Nina apologized.
"You're one messed up kid! Toying with my emotions... I'm gonna destroy you!" He raged as he challenged Nina to a Pokémon battle!
After she has defeated him Guzma cried, "Yeah, yeah. I gotta admit, that was great! More than great the way you battle is familiar too! Why are you torturing me? You keep reminding me so much of Toni!"
Nina's ears perked up! Olivia had called her mom Toni while they were talking. Guzma was already walking away when Nina called after him, "Where can I find you!?"
"Come find me in Po Town and I'll be happy to beat down anytime!" Guzma replied as he mounted the Dragonite ride Pokémon before flying away.
Nina was estatic! this was a new lead to discovering the mystery of who her mother was before when she was in Alola and why she is nervous to be back!

Day 84 - Lush

Nina could hardly believe she had let this happen to herself! She had gotten herself lost in Lush Jungle. After completing the Island Trial in the Jungle she thought it would be innocent enough to explore the jungle deeper, but then she was lost. She sent Topher to fly above the trees to help find her a way out, but even with that inkling of an idea where to go the jungle was too thick and Nina was still very lost. That is she had been lost until Passimian had found her. She had found Nina and led her out of Lush Jungle. Nina was so grateful she caught the Pokémon to take with her on her adventure!

Sometime the hardest things open up opportunities for us to make new friends and to improve the friendships we already have. That has somewhat been the case recently for Alissa and I!

Day 82 - A Visit with Olivia

After completing the Melemele portion of her island challenge Nina headed with Hau, Lilly, and Professor Kukui to Akala island. To everyone's surprise, they had a welcome party. Trial Captain Mallow and Island Kahuna Olivia were there waiting for them. Professor Kukui introduced everyone, but immediately after that Olivia and him ran off with something they needed to take care of. This upset Nina, she had wanted desperately to talk to Olivia. Nina remembered her mom mentioning she knew Olivia, and Nina was curious if Olivia might know anything about what her mother was hiding.

This year Alissa and I have found Christmas shopping very stressful and tedious. So tonight we went out together to a mall and bought our Christmas gifts to each other with each other and it was wonderful. We agreed to stop worrying about the surprise and just relaxed about the entire ordeal and enjoyed and evening out of the house together.

Day 80 - Pokémon Sun Begin

Nina's mom had a secret. Nina was not sure what it was but she knew her mom was hiding the real reason they had moved to Alola. Why else would her mom be so eager to have Nina leave on a Pokémon journey. It must be that Nina was onto something and her mom needed to get her out of the way. Although she was excited to travel around Alola, she also knew she needed to uncover her mother's secret.

Ooo a mystery... how will Nina figure it out?

Bonus - Edward

Edward was the name of my protagonist back in game 3, Pokémon Ruby. Due to being sick at the time of finishing that game I did not write a proper piece memorializing that character's namesake. I now have time to correct my error.

The real Edward, my great great grandmother and father of Mark, was born in 1868 or the early days of the Utah Territory. He was delivered by his grandmother. He was a sickly child for the better part of the first two years of his life. His mother once told him that a mysterious angelic messenger had visited her and told her the secret actions that would heal him and that only after she had met with him and obeyed his counsel did Edward begin to grow. He believed this messenger to be one of the 3 Nephites of Mormon folklore.

Edward was a very curious and entrepreneurial child. When he was young he was often seeking to trade or work for something new and exciting to play with. When Edward was only 4 his father, George, passed away. George's dying words to his son were: "My Boy, I want you to lead a clean life and always honor God." Edward never forgot those words and modeled his entire life after that admonition.

During his young years Edward worked his first job herding sheep. This was his first experience living away from home and it took him quite a while to get over his feelings of homesickness. He later worked herding cattle, which seems to me to be a reasonable progression from shepherd to cowboy. He also worked other jobs. He worked for a shopkeeper. He was also a mail deliveryman (his least liked job).

Edward served a mission for the Brighamite branch of the Mormon church. He traveled throughout the South of the United States preaching the message of Jesus Christ and about the church as restored and established by Joseph Smith.

Edward's primary trade in life as an adult was working as a farmer and spent most of his time working hard in the fields. When he could be away from the fields he spent nearly all of his time with his family as they were truly the light of his life. His autobiography is littered with tales and anecdotes from the time he spent with his family and children. He had 8 children, though only 6 grew to adulthood. His eldest son Golden died of the flu at 19 years old when he was in Salt Lake city seeking to enlist in the Great War. And his daughter Della had a weak heart.She was sick and weak her whole life and died young at only 9 years old. The premature deaths of his children truly broke Edward's heart.

In his older years Edward went to work volunteering in the Utah temples. He loved his time there helping others be close to God as he worked to bring himself closer too.

Edward lived to 81 years old. The Mormon Apostle Gordon B. Hinkley spoke at his funeral and the words he spoke of my great great grandfather proved he absolutely lived his life according to his father's dying instruction.

Linked here is his autobiography as anotated by his son (My Great Uncle) Spencer.

Day 79 - Larsen

Children and adults alike across the Hoenn Region knew Larsen's name. He had done what he set out to do and was the Hoenn League champion! He had completed his goal and found the fame he had chased! It had been a thrilling journey, nothing like he had expected when he moved to the Hoenn region and first met Jeremy! Now he wanted to take a break from the thrills of traveling and return to Littleroot with his mother. While taking a break he could write a book about his rise to the top, besides a book would help keep his name in lights a little longer!

There is no one real world Larsen. Instead it is one of my ancestral surnames, and my grandpa's middle name. Which means it is the name of past protagonist's Hans, Lucy, and Whit! Since there is no one person to write about today instead I will begin the post detailing my great great grandfather Edward, given I neglected to do a detailed post when he was my name for Pokémon Ruby. Fitting that I correct that error on the game's counterpart remake.

Day 77 - Gracing the Small Screen

Larsen's run at challenging the Hoenn gyms was going quite well. The real good news was that he was beginning to be noticed. Ever since the Hoenn news team recorded him battling he had been gaining a small following. His battle was popular enough the team had found two additional times to both get updates on his progress and to record additional battle footage for the airwaves. Now that Larsen was gracing the small screen across Hoenn, he had a taste of the fame and glory he was seeking. That taste just made him hungry for more.

Sometimes you go places because others do not want you to be there and because they feed your needs. Tonight I attended my church congregation's Christmas Party despite receiving messages and information that I was not wanted or welcome there by some. I attended because there are people there that care about me and that I love, and I find fulfillment when I commune with them. I did not want to attend because of the messages I had been receiving, but I am very glad I did.

Day 75 - One Hit Wonder

While in Slateport Larsen met Lisia, the famous Pokémon Contest Star. She randomly chose him from the crowd to sponsor as a new Coordinator in an upcoming Pokémon Contest Spectacular. Larsen was so excited! This was his big chance to finally make it big and fulfill his dreams of becoming famous. He enthusiastically entered a Cool contest with Jeremy as his Pokémon partner. It did not go well. Despite how hard Jeremy had worked for Larsen, they had lost. Larsen was disappointed. He had thought this was his chance to make it big, but it had proven much more difficult than he had anticipated. Larsen was a one hit wonder in the contest world, just not the successful kind of hit. Larsen decided to go back to challenging the Gym challenge instead.

Alissa's reaction to Lisia (to the right) was "Who is that? She looks like bubblegum!" I thought it was funny!

Day 73 - Pokémon AlphaSapphire Begin

Larsen wanted fame. He wanted glory! And now that he had Pokémon of his own he could turn those dreams into goals! He was going to work his way out from his gym leader father's shadow. With Jeremy, his Torchic, by his side he would collect the Gym Badges and become the first rookie trainer to defeat the Hoenn Pokémon League!

While on his way to Rustboro to challenge his first gym he encountered a man searching for a Shroomish to catch. While Larsen helped him search the two were ambushed by a member of Team Aqua. Larsen jumped into action with Jeremy and easily protected his newfound friend. The man was so grateful he gave Larsen a small gift and as the pair walked out of Petalburg Woods together he could not stop singing praises of Larsen and Jeremy. Larsen smirked to himself, he had his first fan and it felt good.

I need to take a break from personal blog posts for a short stint. I am feeling fairly wounded and do not want to turn this into only a place that I vent my frustrations. I also do not want to passive aggressively write posts about those I feel have wounded me, I have already done that too much and this is me trying to be better. Thank you for understanding.

Day 72 - Christine

Christine wasn't really disappointed when AZ crashed her league champion parade, she was just confused. Why was he here and why did security let him in. Why did he get to challenge her, the champion, despite not having a gym badge to his name. It was strange, but no less unusual than her friends joining her in the parade. Regardless, Christine was the champion and finally felt at home in Kalos!

The real Christine is my Grandpa Whit's mother and the daughter of Hans. She went by Lucy and was born in Utah in 1890 and lived to the healthy age of 88. She grew up on and worked on a fruit farm throughout her life. She was married in her mid-twenties and had 5 children. Her third child died from an appendicitis infection at the age of 7. From everything I have heard this tragedy had a significant impact on Lucy and she was never quite the same afterwards. It was after this terrible tragedy that she bonded with my grandpa Whit, who was only 4 or 5 at the time. Even after he grew to adulthood he could do no wrong in his mother's eyes. My grandpa and entire family always spoke quite highly of my great grandmother. She seemed to be an overall happy woman.

Day 71 - Never Alone

Christine felt like she was never alone on her journey through the Kalos region, which had both its negatives and its positives. It felt like everywhere she went one or more of her friends was there waiting for her or coming to find her. She was never lonely, but sometimes crowded. Overall Christine had gotten used to it and had decided it was better to be crowded than lonely.

I was feeling very sad and hurt last night because of some things that happened to my family in the last week. I expressed my brokenness with a Facebook post last night and wore my black sheep tie as a little outward expression of my hurt loneliness today at church. To my surprise my hurt was seen and heard in the right ways. many people shared their love and care towards me and Alissa today and it was a day that that extra attention and care was sorely needed. If any of you are reading this, thank you for your loving words and actions. In a way you saved me today. Thank you!

Day 70 - Not a Good Plan

Lysandre may be threatening the entire Kalos Region, but Christine knew he was hardly a threat. He was an idiot, who was using the legendary Xerneas (the Life Pokémon) in his quest to eliminate humanity across the world. But Xerneas is a life bringer, not a life taker. All using Xerneas to power the Ultimate Weapon would do is bring further life and potentially immortality to Kalos. For an evil genius, his plan is not a good plan.

I have no motivation to blog further tonight. I must be overwhelmed contemplating my impending immortality.

Day 68 - True Colors

Early on her adventure Christine had met Dexio and Sina. They had been very kind to her and not overbearing like some of her other new friends. Christine really liked them and had spent a decent amount of time with them and had helped them when they needed it. Recently though, Christine had really needed some help dealing with Team Flare at the Power Plant and had asked them to for that help. They told her they would help but they did not show up until the problem was dealt with, at which point they acted like they had been helpful and talked about how much Christine owed them for helping her. At first Christine gave them the benefit of the doubt that they were joking, but she knew they weren't they just did not value her the way she had valued them.  They had shown her their true colors. Christine was hurt and she kind of wished she had not asked for their help, so she could have continued believing they were her friends.

I am lucky right now to have a lot of really good and real friends that I can go to with and about anything. It is probably my favorite part about my current life situation. I love you friends!

Day 67 - All Talk

Callum was really beginning to get on Christine's nerves. He was always talking. He would talk about the Mega Evolution research. He would talk about how good his parents were at training Pokémon. He would talk about how much he loved Kalos. He would talk about their friends. He would even talk about how great he was. Talking about those things is not an issue in itself, but all Callum does it talk and Christine was getting exhausted.

Sometimes I worry my friends feel this way about me. I know my family does on occasion. Anyways I am struggling to stay on schedule with this game, despite initially thinking I could use this game to be ahead of schedule. Oh well!

Day 66 - Welcome

Christine's new friends were doing everything they could to make her feel welcome in Kalos. But they were perhaps being a little too welcoming... Everywhere she went one of her friends was there telling her something or asking her to do something. It was very kind but Christine was beginning to feel claustrophobic and kind of wanted to spend some time by herself. The thing is she did not know how to ask for space without upsetting her new friends.

I never feel this way. I usually want more time with my friends and am probably the one they want space from. What can I say, I am a textbook extrovert. People give me energy.

Day 64 - Pokémon X Begin

Christine had been both excited and nervous about moving to the Kalos region. Excited because she had only heard wonderful things about Kalos and how beautiful it was, and nervous becuase she was worried she would have difficulty making friends there. When she arrived she was pleasantly surprised to be welcomed by 4 kids around her age and to be gifted a Pokémon, Froakie, by her mothers old friend and the region's professor, Professor Sycamore. Christine and her new friends immediately made plans to tour the region so Christine could experience its majesty personally.

These games are when Pokémon made the leap into 3D for the first time. Although I loved the ctyle and character of the generation 5 art, it is a captivating transition. At this point I am just over 2 months into this project and I have already completed 8 games, so about a game a week. I completed the first 4 games ahead of schedule and the back 4 I completed roughly on time. Which means I am still ahead of schedule overall which bodes well for the entirety of the project. Here's to another 10 months and 26 games of smooth playing!