Day 123 - Maybe a Bit Further

Upon arriving in Vermilion City James was ecstatic! He immediately asked for directions to Diglett's Cave and headed that way. The mouth of the cave that would take him home to the conclusion of his journey sat across from the Vermilion Port. James noticed the luxurious S.S. Anne sitting in the harbor and remembered the party invitation and ticket Bill had given him. James thought a party was perhaps the perfect way to celebrate the conclusion to his journey.

While aboard the cruise liner he met some of the partying guests from around the world. Many of them were Pokémon trainers and invited James to battle. His Ivysuar Vine Whipped, his Graveler Rock and Rolled'Out, and his Pidgeot Regusted onlookers. His Pokémon preformed magnificently and won him every battle on board the ship.

After his impressive feat, other guests crowded about him asking James about his travels with Pokémon. When he explained he had two badges and that his journey was at its close people were flabbergasted. They insisted he was too talented to conclude his journey and pointed out how engaged and energetic he had been during each and every battle! Even the captain of the ship complimented him. James was surprised by their praise; perhaps he wouldn't return quite yet. After all there was a gym in Vermilion City, he might as well challenge it while he was in town.

My new project shiftingexpectations.com is live now! The project is exploring essential movies or more specifically examining so called "must watch movies" and what we can learn from them about film, about life, and about society. You can find the project's podcast on the website and basically anywhere you find podcasts (I usually use player.fm so I can listen to shows at triple speed). I am so excited to share this project and invite everyone to watch the movies along with us and share your experiences with us as we go!

Day 121 - Running Shoes

James's mom had sent him running shoes. It was the type of passive aggressive thing that she often would do. James liked how the shoes looked, but he was not going to run in them. Or at least that is what he had told himself. Then again he already had one gym badge and running to get a second one would get him home to his games quicker. That was the logic he used to justify running at least.

James ran to Cerulean City and ran a beeline to the Gym. He ran across the Gym's pool decks up to Misty and handily defeated her water type Pokémon with his Ivysaur. He was done! he had completed his Mother's minimum requirement and could go home. Unfortunately, Mt. Moon's Cerulean entrance was unreachable without a surfing Pokémon, which James did not have. He asked around and learned that in Vermilion City there was a tunnel dug by Digletts to Pewter City that could get him home. So he took off south towards Vermilion, he took off running.

I have been very busy and stressed lately with work and that other new project. It was meant to launch in fullness today, but we hit some technically difficulties. The website is live, but the first episodes will launch sometime tomorrow... If you want to visit the mostly empty website it is: ShiftingExpectations.com

Day 119 - Pokémon FireRed Begin

James's mother had had enough of her son. Quite frankly she was fed up with him. He was very lazy and spent every day cooped up in his room playing games on his NES and his computer. His neighbor Blue used to invite him to do things, but the constant rejection had caused a rift between the two children and the invites had stopped... James had no motivation to do anything and his mother wanted to change that. She had heard that the local Professor Oak was employing his grandson to help create a Pokémon encyclopedia. She begged the spry old man to put her son to work as well. He had begrudgingly accepted the proposition, thinking he could use this as an opportunity to study the impact of spending time with Pokémon on an individual's personality and temperament.

With a plan in mind now they just needed to push James out of the nest. And push they did. Without telling him why his mother had sent him over to talk with the professor. By the time he was back home with a Bulbasaur in tow his mother had locked him out of the house. She left him a note on the door saying he could come back after filling 25 pages in his new Pokédex or obtaining at least 2 gym badges. James was not happy about it, but what could he do. He agreed to help the Professor, but he refused to be diligent or efficient about it.

Day one of my new schedule. Unlike James I am very excited about this new adjusted approach. My challenges right now are quite different from his. I am struggling to make the decisions I need to make about how I will continue to participate with my current church congregation. It is a stressful thing for me to think about, but my current participation is not working for me. My family has been told and shown that we are not fully welcome at church and that has been a quite painful thing for me to accept and adjust to. I am sitting here in my favorite church meeting writing this as I wrestle with the dissonance of the things I want and what is realistically available. I'm open to suggestions so long as you are willing to take the time to talk with me long enough to understand my current situation.

Day 118 - Forest

Forest had done what he set out to do, and he was satisfied. He had become Kanto's greatest Pokémon trainer. He had not let anything stop him since his initial standoff against his childhood friend Blue. Not the Rocket Gang, nor Professor Oak's Pokédex project.

The real Forest is a Great Great Grandfather on my father's side. Unlike so many of my protagonist namesake family members he was not born in Utah, but in Georgia. However, his life's concluding years were in Utah.

First was born at the beginning of the year in 1867. In his youth and young adulthood he worked hard to save money. By age 26 he had saved $500, a hefty sum in that day (about $14,000 in 2020). He used those savings to open a small storefront and that venture eventually led to him blacksmithing. Forest was always an entrepreneur at heart, although he consistently supported his family through farming.

In 1908 Forest lead his family in converting to Mormonism. That decision impacted the rest of Forest's life.  It sparked a curiosity in him about the west that had his family move between Georgia and the Rocky Mountain corridor multiple times before selling in Utah. Though originally enthusiastic about Mormondom, Forest was regularly disappointed in how unchristian his fellow saints treated him and others and at the end of his life he had stopped worshipping with his congregation.

His happiest times once he was old were when he was visiting his family back in Georgia. Late in life Forest took up bee keeping, which he thoroughly enjoyed. He was a good man and perhaps his greatest flaw was trusting others too much. He passed away in 1934, having worn his body out over the hard works of his life.

Day 116 - George

George had become a completely different person. He was no longer the scared neighbor of the Champion, but he was now the Brave Hero and Champion of Galar! He had stopped Eternatus and prevented a repeat Darkest Day, and he had defeated the formerly undefeated champion Leon. When George thought about all the self doubt he had been filled with when he left Postwick, he hardly recognized himself. He had made friends and grown so much over the course of his journey!

The real George is my father. He was born near Blacksburg, Virginia (breaking my ancestral Utah pattern) while his father, Whit, worked at Virginia Tech. He is in the middle of his 11 child household. He moved with his family to Michigan when 10 years old where he spent the remainder of his adolescence. As a young adult he learned Spanish while serving a Mormon mission in Southern California before attending Brigham Young University where he met and married my mother Amy. He got an Accounting Degree and then attended the Law School. He has worked in Tax Law Accounting ever since. Wow I sure made my father sound like the most boring person ever. I guess thus far I have only described what he has done, but not who he is. My father, George, goes by Wally. he loves babies and toddlers and they love him. His biggest hobby is gardening and given the option to work in his 9 acre yard or do just about anything else he will choose to work. He loves anything related to BYU sports. He is a deeply religious man and his faith comes to the forefront in nearly every conversation he has. He is very caring and loving and is good at listening wholly, to those he sees as in need, and after listening he acts in whatever small or big ways he can to help. He is a good man. He and I are different in most ways, I feel, but are the same in the most visible ways. I look a lot like my dad and I talk like him too. I can escape the comparison, so I try to emulate him in his best ways.

Day 114 - Detours

Forest had to take a detour from his beeline path to becoming champion and he was not happy about it. Team Rocket... or whatever they were called, just had to shut down a gym as a part of their takeover of Saffron City. If they hadn't, Forest would not have paid them any attention at all. Whatever, it was thier lose. Forest was the type to demolish anyone who got between gim and his goal.

My other project is launching soon, stay posted.

Day 112 - Shy

George had never been a very outgoing person. He had always felt the most comfortable on his own. However, this did sometimes mean he was lonely. He wished he had the courage to be less shy. In Hammerlocke he met a child who wanted to tell his girlfriend he loved her but was scared, so he asked George to lend him an Applin to act as a symbol of his love. With the Pokémon by his side he was able to awkwardly express his feelings to the girl he loved.  George was inspired by the kid's courage and wondered if with Pokémon by his side he could have that same courage?

It has been trickier than I anticipated juggling two games at once.