Day 9 - One in Five Hundred

The odds were against him, but ever since battling a trainer with a Horsea and hearing about its elusive Dragon evolution Hans had to try. After his inspiring journey yesterday, Hans had the motivation to try to catch one. He headed to the Whirl Islands with the intent of catching a Horsea holding a Dragon Scale, only 1 of every 500 Horsea hold them. On average he would need to encounter 50 Horsea before encountering one holding a Dargon Scale. Imagine his surprise when the 9th Horsea he encountered was a beautiful female holding a Dragon Scale. The odds of encountering one within the first 9 Horsea a trainer finds is approximately 17%. To cap things off Hans caught Karen (as he nicknamed her) with his first thrown Great Ball. With luck that good Hans was considering returning to the Game Corner in Goldenrod.

Probability is everything, but when it comes to things that are important to us we should never let the odds get in the way of giving it our best shot. Things may not work out, but they could also work out better than you had expected. The important thing is to have reasonable expectations and to enjoy the journey as you work towards your goal, whatever it might be.

Day 8 - Religion

Poor lost Hans. It was not long after leaving home that he began to regret his decision and began to be filled with incredible doubt. Just as he was about to turn back he saw a tower rise in the distance. His curiosity got the best of him and he pressed on, if for no other reason than to discover what this tower was. Hans was greeted by a monk upon entering the looming building, inside he saw monks and ever day people alike conversing and meditating. It was the monks however that captured Han's attention, they seemed so calm and at peace. He asked one the secret to their serenity, and the monk sent Hans to the top of the tower to converse with the Tower's Elder. The Elder invited Hans to study with them and explained they achieved peace by studying nature and the Pokémon Bellsprout. Hans readily accepted hoping this would be what he was seeking.

Studying with the Sprout Monks was going well and Hans was appreciating much of what he was learning, but it was not fulfilling him quite like he had hoped. Silver, the thief Hans had earlier encountered arrived at the tower and began to mock Hans and the Sprout Monks, "You worship one of the weakest of Pokémon! The best Bellsprout grow strong and evolve, yet you all stand here stagnant" As Silver left the tower Hans meditated on his words and saw they were somewhat true. He decided he would not be stagnant but would continue his journey and find a way to evolve.

Shortly after leaving Sprout Tower Hans stumbled upon Azelea Town a town with Slowpoke everywhere. He asked a resident how the town became overrun with the Pokémon. Although perturbed by his ignorance the townswoman explained that Slowpoke once saved the town by bringing rain and was now sacred there. Hans could hardly believe his ears, how could an unintelligent Pokémon be considered sacred or special in any way? But had learned from the lowly Bellsprout so he sat by the town's Slowpoke Well to observe, and while he observed he fell asleep. When Hans awoke he felt light as a feather, much of the stress he had been feeling was gone, but he still felt he had wasted his time in Azalea Town. He passed right through Ilex Forest, not even stopping at the shrine within, he was feeling too carefree after his nap.

Upon arriving in Goldenrod he made a beeline for the Game Corner to try his hand at gambling. He was normally too risk adverse to participate in such an activity, but today he felt rested and nihilistic! If religion wasn't going to help him find himself perhaps cards could. Although he had moderate success and was able to exchange his winnings for a new Pokémon, an Ekans he named Ida, he could not have been more wrong. Hans felt wasteful and empty inside, the stress had returned in full force! He regretted ignoring the Ilex Forest shrine earlier.

He continued on in his journey and in Ecruteak City attempted to go to Bell Tower to pray but was turned away by the tower's guardian sages. Instead he went to the nearby Burned Tower. There he ran into Silver again who ridiculed him mercilessly. Hans was feeling more lost then he had when he had left New Bark Town. He decided he would head home, but would go sightseeing at the Lake of Rage on his way.

Just his luck as he neared the lake he got lost. While feeling particularly dejected and thinking all hope was lost he stumbled upon a cabin. Inside was a man meditating who simply gave him a gift and told him that we each have a power hidden inside of us. The man had a map of the Lake of Rage area on his wall and as Hans made his way back to civilization he realized that he had been so focused on finding his purpose he had forgotten the lessons he had learned from the religions he'd encountered on his journey.

Hans decided than that he would incorporate those lessons into his life as he continued to try to uncover for himself his true purpose. He would be flexible like the Sprout Monks, he would remember to relax from time to time like the Slowpoke, he would pay attention and stop frequently to learn so he could live without regret, he would avoid wastefulness such as gambling, and he would cherish what he has because it could burn away at any moment.

Religion is neither good nor is it bad, but it is instead a tool. The tool is intended to bring us closer to the divine by inspiring peace, growth, and community within our lives. Sometimes one religion tool makes our hand ache as we use it and another may seem dull or ineffective. When this happens and we see others using the same tool to great success we begin to wonder if it is not the tool that is faulty but ourselves. Although we should never use a bad tool as an excuse to stop striving to better ourselves, sometimes a religion does not fit us or our life. In these cases the onus is on us to find the tool that makes us feel comfortable and at home. While we search it is important we recognize what we liked about using each of the tools or philosophies, so that we can construct our own value system. For some of us the perfect tool to bring us spirituality is the one we build ourselves.

Day 7 - Pokémon Gold Begin

Hans never really felt at home in New Bark Town. If he was honest with himself he always felt out of place generally. Growing up he frequently asked himself "What is my place in the world?". Today his neighbor Professor Elm asked him to run an errand and gave him a Pokémon, a Cyndaquil whom Hans named Tallow. While running the errand Hans met a nice old man named Sam. Sam gave him a Pokédex and told him he had great potential. Hans scoffed at such an idea... Him? Great potential? How could that be?! As he returned home Hans and Tallow defeated a crook in a Pokémon battle and Hans began to wonder if maybe he did have potential and could do great things. It was then that he decided he would set off on an adventure to find himself! With Tallow by his side he was beginning to believe it was possible!

I am 5 days ahead of schedule going in to Pokémon Gold! Which is making me confident in my ability to beat this challenge. I will update the schedule soon with adjustments according to my beating my initial projections for Pokémon Blue. I did not only open Gold today, but I also beat a few gyms you can see that detail on the Pokémon Gold progress and summary page.

Day 6 - Chuck

This just in! This just in! We have Breaking News directly from the Indigo Plateau! Not one, but two boys from Pallet Town have defeated the Elite Four of the Indigo League! After their near parallel rise to the top Blue and Chuck engaged in battle to decide once and for all who would be named the Indigo League's new Champion! First, Chuck's Jolteon defeated Blue's Pidgeot, then his Parasect defeated both Blue's Alakazam and Rhyhorn. Blue's Arcanine was able to exact revenge on Parasect for his fallen comrades and knocked out Chuck's Persian before being defeated by Nidoqueen. Blue embarrassed Chuck's Nidoqueen with his Exeggutor before burning out against Charizard's flames! Chucks Charizard's flame didn't burn long as Blue's ace Blastoise dosed it. Chuck's Jolteon returned to the fray to finish the job zapping Blue's final Pokémon out of the battle and claiming victory for his trainer, Chuck the new entrant to the Hall of Fame and Indigo League Champion! We have footage from their battle:


Who is Chuck? From Pallet town the 11 year old is an aspiring scientist with goals of making the world safer for Human Pokémon interaction. On his Pokémon journey he assisted the authorities in dealing with the notorious Rocket Gang, confirmed the existence of the legendary elemental bird trio, and assisted scientists with fossil research at Cinnabar Labs. Since being named Champion he even captured the Monstrosity Mewtwo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmcE-HyxGXs

The real Chuck (or Charles as was his given name) was born in Utah in 1908 and lived there his whole life working as a farmer until he passed away at 51. He is my Great Grandfather and one day soon I will ask my Grandma to tell me a story or two about him that I can share! I know he was a good man, and I am grateful to be his descendant.

Day 5 - Corporate Espionage

Charles woke up this morning with an ambitious goal. To get all three remaining badges he needed for admittance to challenge the Indigo League Elite Four. He was not going to let anything get in the way. I am sure you can imagine his dismay when he arrived at his first gym of the day in Saffron City and was turned away. Something about no gym challenges until the Silph Co. crisis gets resolved. Chuck was livid so he made a beeline to the Silph building to give them a piece of his mind. Upon realizing it was a hostile takeover he mellowed out a bit, only to have his outrage return as he began to talk to talk with the hostages and Silph employees turned terrorists. It turned out the president of Silph Co. had some terrible employee benefit policies and about half the company had assisted in the corporate take over. Chuck began taking notes of all the grievances he was hearing as he made his way to the President's secret office. He even ran into his childhood friend and rival Blue, who apparently had been funding his Pokémon journey by working as a part-time bodyguard for the President of the Silph Co. Blue had just let the Rocket Gang take over without fighting back despite it being his job, according to him the employees all rightfully called their boss the President of Stinko. After ridding the building of the Rocket Gang Chuck gave the Silph Co. Executive a piece of his mind; he gave him the list of grievances and insisted changes be made. The President was not used to being talked to this way by 11 year olds because he burst into tears and promised to make changes immediately. Satisfied Chuck went on his way, got three badges, resurrected a new friend, and prepared to take on the Indigo League.

Day 4 - Lost

Chuck woke up today with a single goal in mind: Get to the Cinnabar Island Labs to assist in some fossil research. He set off from the Fuchsia City coastline and after battling off a few pesky swimmers washed up on North Seafoam Island. Given the sharp rocks surrounding and dividing the twin islands he needed to go through their connecting tunnels to reach his final destination. The Seafoam caves were much more complicated to traverse than Charles had suspected, and he quickly found himself lost. It seemed it was more difficult to cross between the islands than it was to explore them to their deepest depths, so Chuck did just that. He decided he'd help scientific discovery today in a different way then he had planned. He found an Ultra Ball and then stumbled upon the legendary bird Articuno and caught it with that one ball, the only one he had. It was practically a miracle, and all because he got lost. After such miraculous events he decided he would assist Cinnabar Labs another day and he returned to the mainland to check out the Zapdos rumors he'd heard about the Power Plant back by Lavender Town. He caught that legend too, but that one took 7 Ultra Balls to secure. Chuck may have gotten lost to start his day, but it still ended up going pretty well.

{Click the Image to Enlarge}

I did not get lost today, but I do find value in sometimes letting go of our initial goals and letting life take us where it will. If I never did that I wouldn't have fallen in love with Statistics in a Poli-Sci class and who knows where my life would be. Oh also, I got drive by car puddle splash soaked on my way to the bus stop this morning. With that after yesterday's crash, I nearly turned around and went home for the day.

Day 3 - Crash

Today was a breeze for Chuck, but that doesn't mean he wanted to keep going. Every which way he turned he was crashing into those annoying Rockets. They are easy to deal with but they are everywhere and they are messing with Charles' chance to take a break. He tried to play games at the game corner and there they were. He tried to take a spiritual stroll through a cemetery and there they were. Sometimes our lives are just like Chuck's and no matter how hard we try we can't get away from our challenges... sometimes we need to deal with them head on so we can eventually enjoy a nice day at the Zoo.

I streamed a little of what happened after Charles went through all of that this evening.

Today while biking home from work I crashed. I was distracted trying to see what was on my back wheel making a noise and when I looked up there was the curb. I protected my bike but went over the handle bars. All the layers of skin were tore off the corner of my left palm, my phone corner got a little smashed, and my face got a nasty scrape. Oops... worst part of it all was the 2 miles I still needed to bike home and the embarrassment I felt as my oh so sweet wife cleaned me up. Oh well some days you crash and although it makes you wish life could just pause you get to keep going.