News-aplenty!

--Irubai 21 Doreji--

Life News
-January 8th was my first day of college! College is pretty fun--there, I'm taking two music classes, a class that deals with sound for animation, and psychology. Also, I have a job now--at the bookstore in that college! I'm basically a cashier there.
-Nothing much has really been going on lately in my life other than that. The rest of its has to do with my Pokemon situation as follows.

Website News
-Well, for some reason, the program I'm using to make the new version of my website (GoLive) has been very slow lately--I have no clue why. Maybe it's something about the computer, maybe I need to reinstall the program... But I would be making great progress on that if the program was working correctly.
-One thing I do know is that the new version of my website will be in the exact same location as the old version. (It will have the same address, that is until I get a domain name for it.) I just found out that Freewebs is compatible with FTP, and that GoLive has a FTP feature. So as soon as I'm near done with the new website version, I'll start transferring...

Pokemon News
-Yesterday, I sent letters to Nintendo and Game Freak regarding a possible job and ideas for Pokemon games and anime. Hopefully I'll hear from them soon about that--I just have to cross my fingers...
-On my website is a fire wizard Pokemon named Inflamore. Just recently, I changed the appearance of Inflamore, so don't be surprised if it looks different in the new website version...
-A lot of information on my site regarding new attacks and abilities will be out of date for a while, because I have to compare them to the new attacks and abilities in Pokemon Diamond/Pearl. And those games don't come out in the US until April 22nd, so I may have to wait until the beginning of May to update all that.

Pokemon Gameplay Status
-Leaf Green: About a week ago, I beat Blaine! The battle was easy--I brought a lot of Water, Rock, and Ground-type Pokemon, and they all KO'd Blaine's Pokemon in one or two hits. Only one of my Pokemon got hit--Aerodactyl lost 1/4 of his HP thanks to Arcanine's Fire Blast, and didn't get burned. So I didn't need all those Rawst Berries I attached to my Pokemon...
-After badge #7 was earned, I went to the Sevii Islands. That was pretty exciting--a new place to visit! Unfortunately, there isn't much to do there at this point except train and catch a few new and higher-level Pokemon...
-Then I caught the three legendary birds (Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres)! Out of the three, Moltres was the easiest to capture while Zapdos was the hardest. I caught Articuno on the third try with one Ultra Ball. I caught Zapdos on the seventh try with five Ultra Balls. I caught Moltres on my first try with three Ultra Balls. For all of them, the reason why I started over was because I ran out of Ultra Balls, not because I accidentally KO'd the bird. For all three of them, my Hypno was out while I captured them. But yay, that's three more additions to the team! I nicknamed all of them too: Articuno is Glaiket, Zapdos is Raivana, and Moltres is Hinou.
-I also made a fourth addition to my growing Pokemon team: Magmar. Magmar and Ponyta cannot be caught anywhere in Kanto, so I had to go to Mt. Ember on One Island to do that. (But I already had a Ponyta as a result of a trade, so I didn't need to catch another one.) Anyways, I heard Magmar was hard to catch, but it's easier than the legendary birds, and I had a Marowak with False Swipe battle him. The Magmar I caught was level 38, male, and had a Lonely nature. Not bad really... And I nicknamed him Duckfire, because his mouth looks like a duck's bill.

-Colosseum: A couple days ago I defeated Mirakle B, and took the elevator in Pyrite City to the Under. I didn't do much while there so far. Also, I got my Remoraid back from the daycare, and it's now level 32. That's a big improvement on level 21 which it was originally...

-Sapphire: I just did some work on my Contest Team. In that team, I have a cool Absol named Razukata, a beautiful Castform named Warutenki, a cute Delcatty named Kawaine, a smart Meditite named Asachiwa, and a tough Relicanth named Rokanth. Anyways, all five of them now have four ribbons, so they just won Master Rank contests. However, out of all of them, Asachiwa was the only one whose picture got into the gallery in Lilycove City...

-Emerald: Wait, Emerald?!? Yes, I got Emerald for Christmas. However, currently I still have only Treecko on there. The reason for that is because I want to trade this Treecko to some other game right away. But, I can't do that unless I get another GBA, as I just found out recently... Hey, I might end up doing that someday, especially if I just want to play my GBA games all the time. Nowadays I use my DS for that purpose, but my mom has a videogame she likes to play that is for the DS, so she has to borrow mine. And I don't particularly like my other GBA because it requires batteries and doesn't have a backlight. So maybe I'll get a GBA-SP soon, maybe a used one because I don't want to spend that much money for it. But I suppose because the GBA's been out for a few years, it'll be cheaper than the hundred dollars I spent for the one that I lost a few years back...

There shall be more news soon.

Post-Trip News!

--Baitabai 11 Reiji--

Well, I didn't bother to finish the cross-country trip diaries because that would take up too much space. But it was a wonderful trip overall, backed by wonderful sights and spiritual growth.

Song Status
I wrote four songs during the trip! First there's "9-1-1", which is a comic, upbeat song about emergency services. Then there's "Who Will Save Me?" which is in my opinion the best of the four--and could very well be the best song I ever wrote. It's a "character song", meaning it tells someone else's story. It's sad but wonderful, and you'll just have to see when I post the lyrics and hear when I publish the song. Anyways, the third song was "Walking", which is about walking along and not caring about the route. I have a hard time classifying it into a genre... it's that unique! And the final song was "Spirit Be With Me", a neat slow song about Mother Nature. So four songs... that definitely means the trip was inspirational!

New Pokemon
Yes, I created a few more Pokemon on the trip--and got rid of a few as well, and some I changed a bit.
-Pudgeon and Mongrouse are gone--I just didn't care for them.
-Delamour evolves from Chirpling instead of Togetic. And Chirpling is white instead of brown.
-Inflamore looks a bit different.
-The Friode family looks different too. Here's a picture of the new Friode--I have yet to draw Freesicle and Frosticlef...
-Probite has been renamed to Pentaclair, and it now is composed of a pyramid-ish creature surrounded by five mirrors. And, it now evolves from the new Sinnoh Pokemon Rotomu.
-Peppy looks a little different in order to resemble Pocchama less.
-Caditai is gone. Cadit now evolves from a little pink bunny named Hopsie.
-Falcry is back!! I deleted it before and incorporated into Pudgeon, but now that Pudgeon's gone, I can bring this Fearow evo back!
-Necteon is gone--turns out a Grass-type Eevolution is already introduced in Diamond/Pearl.
-Ravena and Spyrant now evolve from Donkarasu, the Sinnoh Pokemon that evolves from Murkrow. (They used to evolve directly from Murkrow.)
-Harmonique and Telegon now evolve from Muumaaji, the Sinnoh Pokemon that evolves from Misdreavus. (They used to evolve directly from Misdreavus.)
-I'm debating on whether to have Arunen and Dokugoru evolve from Ariados instead of Silkiss...
-Psiad now has antennae.
-Beeboh looks different.
-Pablue looks completely different.
-Cheepchi looks a little different.
-Ketze has been renamed Sylfae, and it now has a beak instead of Ferifly's mouth.
-Celesol now has different wings.
-I created Luciel! Luciel is another angel Pokemon, but with more of a Christmas theme.
-Then there's Fawna, a fawn Pokemon that evolves into Meadoe (another deer Pokemon) if female, or existing Pokemon Stantler if male. I created Fawna a long time ago and deleted them, so now I bring them back!
-There's also Mooder, a calf Pokemon that evolves into Miltank or Tauros.
-I finally created a pre-evo for Crystalice--its name is Snowbite.

Pokemon Nazumi News
This is my Pokemon fanfic, if you don't know already. I've made quite a few revisions to this during the trip. I made the most changes to what happens to Suneora, a character that hasn't come up yet in what's on my site. Suneora is a Pokemon trainer that just all of a sudden got transported to Earth from another planet she called home. She's really an interesting character, and I love the way she talks (she even slips a little bit of the language spoken on the other planet into her speech occasionally).
--Also, if you read what there is of my (fairly) outdated web fanfic, you probably heard of Carmen and Diego, two villains in the story. During the trip, I was able to dive into their character further--their appearance, personality, etc.
--I even wrote a couple of chapters of the story during the trip!

"Lupin's Holiday"
This was a period of time after the trip, occurring from November 30 to yesterday. This was while my grandparents were visiting, but more importantly, it was a time when I really focused on the development on one character in Pokemon Nazumi.
--The character is Lupin, who I added to the story sometime this August. When he was first created, he was a gym leader in Mire (a region in Nazumi, if you didn't know already), and he played a fairly minor role in the story. But that changed during this event which I like to call Lupin's Holiday.
--There is another character in the story who was introduced in chapter 8 or so of the fic on the website. This is Gabe, and in the fic, he's a member of Team Shockwave but not a very loyal one. And originally, he was the one who witnessed Kelsey's Kirlia being stolen (Carmen and Diego actually stole her), and the one who rescued the Kirlia later on. (That's a little sneak preview.)
--On the night of November 30, I saw the movie "Flushed Away". OK that's not too important... But just AFTER that, I got this idea that maybe Gabe and Lupin's roles in the story should be switched. After all, I think Gabe would make a better gym leader (and coordinator), and Lupin would fit better in Team Shockwave than good old lovey-dovey Gabe. So I did that.
--At the same time, I was involved in an RPG in which I played as Lupin. I actually joined that RPG sometime in September, and it really helped me develop his character (and his Pokemon's characters too). It was from there, especially my most recent posts there, that I got him in a close relationship with Kelsey.
--A couple of days later, I got lots of other ideas of what happens to Lupin in Pokemon Nazumi--now he has a MUCH bigger role in the story than he did before. Well, you can't blame me--I like him almost as much as Kelsey does. I think putting Lupin into the story was an even better idea than putting Suneora in there was.
--Okay, enough about Lupin. Some things about Gabe haven't changed. He's still as romantic as he is before, and protective of those he loves. (I once had a little thought of him getting into a fight with Lupin over Kelsey--tee hee!) And I think even he has a slightly bigger role in the story, because he still follows Kelsey around occasionally--now he even travels around with her for a while! And, he has a new interest in becoming a coordinator as well.

Well, that's all the news I have for now... more coming soon!

The Cross-Country Trip!

--Irubai 27 Soruji--

Starting September 12, I went with my mom on a trip all around the US! We don't have an exact plan for the trip--just a few things in mind. But, this trip will last quite a long time--all the way into November. But, I will tell you about my progress in the trip! So starting in Caifornia, it goes...

Tuesday September 12, Day 1--Up to the Red
We left on the trip at about 12:45 PM. Nothing really interesting happened today--we just went up the center of California (I did pretty much all the driving) and stopped in the town of Red Bluff. The only semi-interesting thing there was a dam that had a "fish ladder" where salmon and such could pass through. We saw a few fish swimming up that, but not many. Anyways, that was pretty much it...

Wednesday September 13, Day 2--Through Forest and Smoke
From Red Bluff we headed west--again I did almost all the driving. So we went, via the twisty highway 299. Parts of that road were interesting, and others were frustrating. There were five times when construction was taking place, so only people from one direction at a time could go on the road, making us wait up to fifteen minutes. And of course there's the usual slow trucks on curvy roads that are difficult to pass. There was one section of the road that was either foggy or smoky--but there was an orange glow about it, so maybe a fire was going on in the distance...

We ended up in the coastal town of Eureka. There we did a little shopping, a little driving around... But what was really neat was a zoo we went to there. It had a few interesting animals in it, like this cute little monkey with what looked like a lion's mane... There were a couple of animals walking freely throughout. One was a peacock, and the other was a cat! What is a house cat doing walking around in a zoo?!?

Thursday September 14, Day 3--On to Oregon
Today we drove up the coast! I don't think I need to say who did the driving for the next few days--it was all me... Anyways, we came to this one place where there were lots of redwood trees and some interesting rocks and beaches. After that, we finally left California and entered Oregon, and we stayed in a town in the southern part of the state--Grants Pass.

Friday September 15, Day 4--Mist and Snow
We went to Crater Lake today! We were so excited--we had been there before, and the lake was a beautiful blue colour... But don't get too excited. It was so foggy up there this time that we couldn't see the lake at all... Well actually, there was one time where the sky cleared up a little, so we got about a twenty-second interval when we could see the lake pretty well. It still looked pretty even then! Anyways, the only other interesting thing in the park was the fact that it was snowing there--hey wait, isn't it still summer? It looked very wintery and Christmas-ey to me...

After that we continued driving up until we hit the town of Albany--that's still in Oregon by the way.

Saturday September 16, Day 5--From Light to Dark
The first place we went to was a little amusement park called the Enchanted Forest, which we had been to on our trip to Crater Lake I may have mentioned yesterday. Everything in it was a fairy-tale theme, and the most interesting things in it were all these structures and other little places that really gave a feeling of being in those fantasy worlds. It also had a little water show that was pretty neat (and I mean the pretty as well). It was amazing overall--and not very time consuming at all.

After that, we went on to Portland. That was a most interesting city. First we went to the Saturday Market (how appropriate, it is Saturday), a sort of flea market where there were a lot of interesting shops. I even bought a new bag there--a pretty one at that! After that, we took a tour of the underground area of the city--a place which really was not a good place to be eighty or so years ago. That was a place where men were kind of kidnapped (well, they called it being "Shanghaied") and held until they were sent off to work on ships for the rest of their lives. There were even claims of ghosts and such in the underground as well--which is quite understandable in such a place. Overall though, it was a pretty neat tour, and after that--well, it was getting pretty late, so we called it a night.

I don't have time to post the rest now, so I'll hopefully do it tomorrow...

Sapphire Gems

--Sanabai 8 Soruji--

This post is all about Pokemon Sapphire, because many things happened there recently and especially today. They are:

1. Gracie (my Meditite), Failou (my Marshtomp), and Deatheater (my Shuppet) all evolved. So now I have Medicham, Swampert, and Banette! If I hadn't told you already, those are three of my best Pokemon there. The othr three are Apple (Raichu), Omar (Roselia), and Sora (Shelgon). And some of my Pokemon learned interesting attacks as well. Failou learned Muddy Water. Deatheater learned Faint Attack. Sora learned Dragonbreath.

2. I've been working on a Contest Team. I did this in Ruby: I had a team of five Pokemon, each specifically meant for a certain type of contest. Then I started to work their way through the different Contest Halls. My job wasn't finished there, and I lost the game... But now, in Sapphire, I'm beginning to do the same thing. In fact, this team I'm working on will probably be a BIG improvement on the Ruby one, because I did a little research beforehand. I looked at combos in contests and what Pokemon can learn the moves in that combo. Then I looked at other moves as well. Eventually I came up with a list of Pokemon to get for each contest type. Here's what I came up with:
-Cool Pokemon: Razukata the Absol
-Beauty Pokemon: Warutenki the Castform
-Cute Pokemon: Kawaine the Skitty
-Smart Pokemon: Asachiwa the Meditite
-Tough Pokemon: Rokanth the Relicanth
Getting each of the above Pokemon was frustrating as well as time-consuming, because I tried to look for Pokemon with a nature that would favour the contest type they're designated for. So the Absol had to be Lonely, Adamant, Naughty, or Brave. The Castform had to be Modest, Mild, Rash, or Quiet. The Skitty had to be Timid, Hasty, Jolly, or Naive. The Meditite had to be Calm, Gentle, Careful, or Sassy. The Relicanth had to be Bold, Impish, Lax, or Relaxed. Well, fortunately Meditite's a pretty common Pokemon, so all I had to do is search for one in Mt. Pyre and keep catching them, restarting the game if it's the wrong nature. Pretty soon I found a Calm Meditite.

But, the others were HARD. There's only one Castform in the game (the one you get from the Weather Institute), and Absol, Skitty, and Relicanth are really rare. But luckily, I already had those four Pokemon (though they were the wrong nature), and they were all female. So I had to breed them and hatch all the eggs they made. Also luckily, I had "husbands" for all of them, three of which are in my best Pokemon team. So the partners were Absol and a male Slakoth I had, Skitty and Apple (Raichu), Castform and Deatheater (Banette), and Relicanth and Failou (Swampert).

Skitty didn't take too long; I ended up making five eggs before hatching a Jolly Skitty, and fortunately Skitty eggs don't take that long to hatch. But Relicanth was a bit harder; Relicanth eggs take WAY longer to hatch; probably the longest of any Pokemon! But still I only had to make five eggs before I hatched a Lax Relicanth. And Absol was the hardest yet. Absol eggs take a mediocre time to hatch, but that wasn't the difficult part. The first six eggs I hatched were all the wrong nature, so I gave up for a while and moved on to Skitty. After Skitty was done, I tried Absol again, and I made another six eggs. None of these were the right nature either!! Finally, I waited a little longer for Absol and Slakoth to make a thirteenth egg, and that one turned out to yield a Brave Absol. Whew!!

The above breeding processes led to some interesting results: Kawaine (the new Skitty) knows Thunderbolt and Iron Tail as a result of having a Raichu as a father. Razukata (the new Absol) knows Faint Attack (that's one of its Egg moves) because my Slakoth knew Faint Attack. Warutenki (the new Castform) got Shadow Ball from his Banette father. Rokanth (the new Relicanth) knows Take Down because both his parents knew it, and Surf from his father Swampert. Also, now I have a bunch of Absol, Relicanth, Castform, and Skitty eggs to trade with people, and most likely they'll know all those moves mentioned above!

Also, the Slakoth mentioned above grew from level 20 to level 35, so in a couple of levels I could get him to become Vigoroth and Slaking. And the mother Absol (which is nicknamed Rakurusou) grew from level 27 to level 41, so now she kind of takes turns being one of my Best Pokemon. In fact, she was involved in the other big accomplishments I made here...

3. I got the Mind Badge! Yes, when all my best Pokemon reached level 40, I entered Tate and Liza's gym. The battle with them wasn't too bad. First I started with Omar (Roselia) and Failou (Swampert). In the first turn, Failou used Surf on Solrock and Lunatone. (I love Surf--it attacks both opponents at once!) Omar would have used Magical Leaf on Solrock, but Lunatone was too fast for him--it KO'd him with a Psychic attack before he could do anything... :( Then I sent out Deatheater (Banette). On the next turn, Liza and Tate used a Hyper Potion on Lunatone. Solrock used Psychic (I think) on Deatheater, and afterwards Deatheater used Curse on Solrock. (I had been planning to Curse one of them.) I wished Tate and Liza had healed Solrock instead, because Failou's Surf attack KO'd Solrock that turn, so that Curse was a waste of time. Anyways, on the next turn I switched Deatheater with Rakurusou (Absol). Failou was going to use Surf again, but Lunatone put him to sleep with Hypnosis before he could do that. Then, Rakurusou used Future Sight on Lunatone, and Lunatone used Psychic on Failou. Luckily Psychic didn't do that much damage to him--after two of those attacks he still had a little more than half HP left. Anyways, on the nest turn Failou woke up and used Surf, bringing Lunatone down to a little less than half HP. Then Lunatone used Hypnosis on Rakurusou! Anyways, this continued for a little while--Lunatone sometimes used Calm Mind, and there was even a point where both of my Pokemon were asleep. And Liza and Tate used a couple more Hyper Potions as well. Finally, one turn Lunatone was at full health, and both of my Pokemon were awake. Tate and Liza had just used Hyper Potion on Lunatone, so Lunatone didn't attack that turn. Rakurusou used Bite, and Failou used Surf, bringing Lunatone down to about 1/4 HP. After that, Future Sight hit, and it KO'd Lunatone!!

Thank you Failou and Rakurusou--you were a big help. I knew I made the right choice of adding Rakurusou to the team! Anyways, now my Gyarados can finally use Dive as a field move, and I got a Calm Mind TM. (But Gracie, my Medicham, already knows Calm Mind...) But my biggest acomplishment with this gym battle was being able to use Dive, and it really proved Rakurusou worthy of being on the Best Pokemon Team.

4. The Kyogre Quest

After the gym battle, I took advantage of using Dive. The first thing I did was catch Relicanth, who I bred as you will see in #2. But I also made my way into the Seafloor Cavern on Route 128. It wasn't too bad--I faced a bunch of people from Team Aqua, and even the administrator Archie in the end. I only had four of my best Pokemon with me then (Failou, Omar, Apple, and Sora), because I had to bring my Gyarados and Machop as well. You need Surf, Dive, Strength, and Rock Smash to get through this cave. Failou knows Surf, Gyarados knows Dive and Rock Smash, and Machop knows Strength. Anyways, Archie's Pokemon were Mightyena, Crobat, and Sharpedo. Sora (Shelgon) beat Mightyena with a couple of Dragonbreaths, though Mightyena's Crunches got her down to about 1/4 HP. Crobat was tricky because he used Confuse Ray on Apple (Raichu). Apple's first attack (Thunderbolt) succeeded, but after that he hurt himself in confusion for a couple of turns. Luckily, Crobat's Wing Attack was not very effective, though Apple ended up with pretty low HP. After that, Archie used a Super Potion on Crobat, but by that time Apple had snapped out of confusion and KO'd Crobat with abother Thunderbolt. Sorry Archie, your potion didn't help! Sharpedo was easy, anyways--my Roselia KO'd him with one Magical Leaf attack. (Wow, he has high Special Attack--well maybe because he has a Modest nature.)

Of course, after that, Archie's Red Orb glowed, making Kyogre cause a giant rainstorm and head to the Cave of Origin. I immediately went to Sootopolis City, where I bought three Net Balls and five Ultra Balls. I already had one Net Ball and one Timer Ball in my bag as well, so I was well-stocked! Anyways, then I took my best Pokemon (except Gracie, because I could only bring six) and went into the Cave of Origin. I didn't need to use Flash even though the cave was dark--the path through there is pretty straight-through; it's not a maze. At the end was Kyogre, so I saved the game beforehand...

On the first try, Rakurusou went first. Kyogre was faster and used Ice Beam, and Rakurusou used Future Sight. Then on the second turn Rakurusou was KO'd with another Ice Beam. After that I sent out Apple. Then he used Thunderbolt, and Kyogre used Body Slam. Apple used Sweet Kiss to confuse Kyogre. Kyogre hurt himself a few times, but he eventually KO'd Raichu with Hydro Pump. Then I sent out Omar. Omar used Grasswhistle to put Kyogre to sleep, then used Leech Seed after that. When Kyogre's HP was in the red, I used the Timer Ball--and it failed. Kyogre lost more HP from Leech Seed. I threw a Net Ball--and it failed. Kyogre then fainted, so I restarted the game...

On the second try, Omar went first. Kyogre was faster and used Hydro Pump. Even though it was not very effective, it KO'd the poor Roselia! After that I sent out Apple. Apple's first Sweet Kiss missed, but Kyogre just used Calm Mind. The second Sweet Kiss hit, and Kyogre hurt itself in confusion. The next turn, Apple used Thunderbolt, which only did 1/4 HP damage because of Calm Mind. Then a funny thing happened. Kyogre used Body Slam and paralyzed Apple. Then Kyogre got paralyzed from Apple's Static ability! Anyways, after that Apple was too paralyzed to move, but luckily Kyogre's Hydro Pump missed. After a few more Thunderbolts, Kyogre had a little less than 1/4 HP left, but soon after Apple was KO'd. Then I brought out Sora. Luckily for the first couple of turns Kyogre just used Calm Mind, so Sora was able to bring Kyogre's HP into the red by using Cut then Headbutt. Since Kyogre was still paralyzed, I threw an Ultra Ball. It failed. Kyogre used Calm Mind. I threw another Ultra Ball. It failed. Kyogre KO'd Sora with Body Slam. Then I sent out Failou. I threw another Ultra Ball. It failed. Kyogre KO'd Failou with Hydro Pump.

I sent out Rakurusou. I threw another Ultra Ball. It failed. Kyogre used Calm Mind. Then I threw my last Ultra Ball. It failed. Kyogre KO'd Rakurusou with Hydro Pump. After that, I sent out Deatheater, which was my last Pokemon. Figuring the battle had lasted a long time, I threw my Timer Ball. It failed. Kyogre used Calm Mind. (Whew, I guess it was out of PP for Hydro Pump.) Then I threw a Net Ball. It wobbled once, twice, three times... And it stopped!

I CAUGHT KYOGRE!!!

Kyogre was the first Legendary Pokemon I captured without a Master Ball. (The Snorlax in FR/LG doesn't count.) I nicknamed the Kyogre Orca, and I found that it had a Sassy nature. But that was a big accomplishment--now I have a level 45 Kyogre on my team.

More news coming soon.

New News of August 27

--Watibai 30 Driaji--

Life news
Ah yes, school--remember my June post when I said I would be taking a Japanese class over the summer? That started in early July and ended mid-August. It was fun, the teacher was good, and the class wasn't as hard as I had expected. In fact, I ended up with an A--not bad for a first college class! So...

Shibaraku desu nee. Dakara koko de kaku koto ga dekimasen deshita. Totemo isogashikatta n desu. Soshite, tokidoki wasuremashita... Dewa, sugu natsu ga owarimasu kara, kongetsu o tanoshimi ni shite imasu. Jitsu wa, kongetsu no juuninichi dekakeru hazu desu. Watashi to haha wa Ooi no Amerika no tokoro e ryokoo suru tsumori desu. Zehi sore o tanoshimi ni shite imasu kedo, juuichigatsu ni mada ryokoo ni imasu. Juugonichi juuichigatsu goro kaeru tsumori desu.

Translation:
Long time no see. I have been unable to post. I was very busy. And, sometimes I just forgot... Anyway, summer will end soon, so I look forward to this month. In fact, on the 12th I should be leaving. My mother and I are planning to travel all around America. I'm really looking forward to it, but by November I will still be on the trip. I'm planning on returning around the middle of November.

Song Quest
Ever since last July, I've been exploring the Internet for music and buying it off places like Rhapsody and iTunes. But it was the last three or so months when I've really done a lot of that. In fact, today I bought somewhere around 45 songs online! Some of those songs weren't even available a few months ago, so I was really surprised when one day (today) I just discovered a whole bunch of them on iTunes... And by the way, contrary to popular belief, you don't have to have an iPod to buy music off of iTunes. I don't have one, yet I was able to do so...

Nowadays, every month I do something called a song oracle. It's my own creative means of divination, and it's really easy in a way. I put my MP3 player on shuffle mode and concentrate on the first five songs it plays. In those five songs I look for messages and predictions about the designated time ahead. Sometimes these messages get rather interesting. Occasionally I get songs that remind me of earlier occurences, songs that appeared in past song oracles, and yet other songs that literally scare me with the warnings or messages they give... Anyways, I did one of these just a few hours ago, for the coming month. (I mean Galactic months--see one of my first posts here for info on that system.) Usually I do these at the end of the month anyway, and if you look at the tiny blue text at the top of this post you'll see that it's the 30th of Driaji--the last day in Driaji. Next month is called Soruji, which is often associated with the winds of change. And indeed, the first song that popped up in that month's song oracle talked a lot about change and preparing for what's ahead... How appropriate! And, one of the songs I just bought online today appeared in the oracle--that was a surprise! One of the songs in this month's oracle was one that also appeared in the very first oracle I did, back in last December. Another song in it was about money, and how it can be important but not something to be obsessed with...

My Own Songs
I wrote two and a half songs since my last post here. I shall describe them, since there is quite a bit to say about them...
Latria--This was written sometime in mid-June. It's the first song I wrote in a language other than English. It's in that elusive language I may have told you about--the one I sometimes tell people I made up but really comes from other planets I may have mentioned... Anyways, on one of those planets is a legend about this special musical instrument called the latria, which is what this song is about. The latria is composed of a shallow bowl or other dish shape with a short pole attached. This often has crystals on it, and in fact the instrument is made of materials best connected to magic. This is because the latria doesn't really make any sound, but it does produce music--that which is only created by magical inspiration. It's a sense of music, is all. So therefore it is more like a magical tool (in fact, it's played with a "wand") and its music is more like a spell than anything... but still immensely beautiful.
Kalena--The title comes from the above language, and a couple of verses are in that language (which is called Latori, for future reference), but the rest of the song is in English. This song is really neat though, as it's about a place. One of the planets I mentioned above has a moon called Kalena, which is shrouded in a thick blue fog. This fog pushes everything that enters it outward, but inside is land--and even life. The environment there is beautiful and pretty much perfect--so much that its few inhabitants are pretty much immortal. Of course this is all based off of legend, but it's still a beautiful song nevertheless in my opinion.
Celia--This song isn't quite complete--I still have a couple of verses left to write. I wrote a couple of its verses today, and started the song on August 10. There are two unique things about this song. First of all, it's in Japanese (Heh, it was first written the night before my last day of that class I was talking about). Second, it's written specifically for my Pokemon fanfic. Celia, who you may have heard of if you read the last few posts, is really the subject of this song. It's meant to be sung by Kelsey, and it's part of the beautiful ending I talked about earlier for the story. So it makes a lot of references to the curse Kelsey was under, and the hopes she has for the future. I sure look forward to finishing this song!

Pokemon Fanfic
Speaking of the fanfic, I recently put another character into the story: Suneora. What's really unique about this girl is that she comes from one of those planets I mentioned in the Song section, so her first language is Latori (see the song section) as well! She's so funny because of the way she interacts with her Pokemon (for example, one of them is always correcting her grammar errors, and another always speaks in riddles), yet she's really a touching character. On that planet she came from (which is called Orenya), magic is widely believed in and thus is everywhere, so many people who live there have a pretty good talent in that area. However, Suneora seemed to be the black sheep there, as she really didn't seem to have any of that talent. So she just mysteriously appeared on Earth one day and became a Pokemon trainer there.

FicPokemon Changes
I've made a few changes to some of the Pokemon I created...
-Falcry, Orcali, Tekkite, Bettagon, Mimequin, Yingon, Yangon, Cleorse, and Gallipee are gone... but not forgotten.
-Sludgebob and Chinchai have had appearance changes, and a few others are in need of one as well.
-Katanya, Teascoop, and Aquazura now have two elements--their second one is Energy.
-Kanasama's name was changed to Samakura, and its appearance was altered as well to have more of a cherry-blossom theme.
-Peridite's name was changed to Delamour and now looks more like a dove. If I'm criticized on giving a Pokemon a French name, I'll just point to Gardevoir.
-I created Diamos, a rock fairy Pokemon whose appearance is uncertain at the moment...

Leaf Green Progress
My next goal is to make all 60-something of my Pokemon gain at least five levels, or up to 10 if they learn any neat attacks by level 50. So some Pokemon like my Ninetales have had it easy--they just had to get from level 40 to level 45. In other cases, my Snorlax was initially at level 41, so I got him to level 46. My poor Raticate was initially at level 40, but since she learns Endeavor at level 50 I had to get her there to learn that attack. And I train my Pokemon in private training sessions, and I even planned out a random order for them to train. The first Pokemon on the list was my Dragonair, and last will be my Machamp. After he gets to his appropriate level (48 I believe), I can finally battle Blaine for the Volcano Badge! Anyways, so far I'm still less than halfway done, after two-and-a-half months at it... Now I have over 200 hours of playtime, and almost 20 Pokemon have done their training. I just finished Snorlax's training, and Arbok's after that, so now I'm on Pinsir. She has to get to level 49 to learn Swords Dance, and she started at level 40... She's now at level 43, so she just learned Submission.

I will have more news soon...

The Marshbadge!

--Tesubai 13 Kataji--

Yes, you got it, Pokemon fans, I beat Sabrina! Yes, the psychic gym leader has lost the battle... She's my absolute favorite Pokemon trainer, and in fact she even appears in my fanfic as the main character's friend... Yet anyways, here's how the battle went.

-I didn't know which Pokemon Sabrina would start out with, so I put my Hypno first in the party. Also in my party were Alakazam, Starmie (it knew Thunderbolt in case she had a Slowbro), Snorlax (my secret weapon against Hypno if she had one), Chansey, and Tauros. Hey, I had to be prepared for anything!

-To start, Sabrina sent out a level 38 Kadabra. Kadabra used Calm Mind first. My Hypno tried to use Hypnosis, but she failed the first turn. Kadabra Calm Minded again, and on the second try Hypno put Kadabra to sleep. Then she used Headbutt, which almost KO'd him. Sabrina used a Hyper Potion on Kadabra, but still Kadabra never woke up while Hypno kept on Headbutting till she KO'd him.

-Sabrina's second Pokemon was a level 38 Venomoth. That Venomoth was so easy to beat--I came prepared with my Alakazam, who KO'd Venomoth with one Psychic attack.

-Third was a level 38 Mr. Mime. My Tauros KO'd him easily with Thrash.

-Last but not least, I knew Sabrina had an Alakazam. I would have continued on with my Tauros, but my instincts told me otherwise. Instead, I used my Alakazam against hers. Both Pokemon had their advantages. Hers was level 43 and mine was level 41--an advantage to Sabrina. But my Alakazam knew Thief, which was super-effective against the other Alakazam. The battle was kind of difficult-there were a few points where my Alakazam almost fainted. Mine used Thief the first turn (mine was faster--wow!), and hers used Calm Mind. Then mine used Thief, and hers used Calm Mind again. Then before mine could use Thief to KO hers, Sabrina used a Hyper Potion on her Alakazam. Anyways, my Alakazam used Thief again that turn, getting hers to about 3/4 HP. On the next turn, mine used Thief, and hers used Psychic. This got mine down to almost half HP! Then, mine used Recover, and hers used Psychic. A tiny HP gain for mine that turn. Mine used Recover again, and hers used Future Sight. (Uh-oh, now my Alakazam is done for! Good thing I have other Pokemon to back him up!) Next turn, mine used Thief, and hers used Recover. Mine used Thief, and hers used Psychic. Then I thought Future Sight was going to KO my Alakazam, but it didn't--the attack failed! (Whew! LOL!) Then, mine used Recover, and hers used Future Sight. Now, by that time hers was at a little less than half HP. Next turn, mine used Thief--and it was a critical hit!! This KO'd Sabrina's Alakazam! I won the battle! Thank you again, Psycon! (Psycon is my Alakazam's nickname, and "again" means that he was also the one who beat Koga.)

-So I got a Marsh Badge. Now, Pokemon up to level 70 will obey me, and I got the TM for Calm Mind. But what really made my day was Sabrina's final words, which always touched my heart:

"Everyone has psychic power. People just don't realize it."

Well I realize it, and I certainly hope you all do as well. Ending on a wonderful inspirational note.

Misc. News

--Watibai 12 Kataji again--

Here is the non-Pokemon news I have for you.

--LIFE HAPPENINGS--
-I have a job! I have a food-service job at a water park called Raging Waters. I love the job! It's a really neat atmosphere, and the work is neither dirty nor boring. In fact, I worked there today and it was so hectic that I lost track of time! I was serving food to customers that day. So neat...
-Two days ago, I graduated from high school! Finally, my days of high school are over, so only college awaits me now... Speaking of college, I'm starting college in the summer, where I'm taking a Japanese class. I'm taking that class because I'm interested in it, plus I'm good at learning foreign languages, plus though I like art more, I would prefer to take art classes over the span of a year so I can think about it much more fully.
-Also recently I turned 18! I'm a legal adult now, but other than that it doesn't feel nearly as special as when I turned 16...

--SONG STATUS--
One important milestone happened on my birthday--Acid! I got that music program and it's so neat... plus the music I make with it sounds kind of professional. I already made three really neat songs with it, but only one of which I actually have lyrics to... That song is "Oh Wilting Lily", one I write in February 2005.
-Speaking of new songs, I wrote a couple of them since my last post. On February 7, I wrote a song called "Higher Power". This talks about feeling selfless, and finding ways to cure that feeling, or rather absence of feeling... It has a really neat tune though. The other song is called "Avalon", and, well... I'd rather not talk about it too much now, primarily because it has quite a few regilious references, some of which could be described by many as heretic... Oh, and I wrote than one on April 26, the day after my birthday.

--MARAPETS--
Not Neopets, Marapets! I just found out about that site (marapets.com) around February--it's really neat! It's not as huge a virtual pet site as Neopets, plus the games there are a lot less time-consuming. Also, on one account you can have up to twenty pets, and if you go away for a long while, you don't have to worry about your pets getting hungry as you do in Neopets. The only downside is that your Marapets can die if you neglect them while online. Anyways, I have an account there myself (I'm Suneora), and I have only one pet: an owl-like creature called a Walee.

That's basically it for now...

Pokemon News

--Watibai 12 Kataji--

Well, it's been so long! However, only a few types of recent news are hot now:

--NEW POKEMON GAME--
Just recently, I got a Nintendo DS, and I got the game Pokemon Trozei with it! That game is fun and easy to learn--and you don't even have to know that much about Pokemon to be able to play it! To "capture" Pokemon in this game, you have a whole screen full of Pokemon, and you have to move them around until you line up four of the same Pokemon in a row. Different Pokemon are found in different areas of the game. While you still gotta catch 'em all, you also have an Adventure Mode in which your job is to stop an evil organization called Phobos from stealing Pokemon. But it really is fun--you won't know till you try it yourself!

--WEBSITE NEWS--
I'm putting this in the Pokemon Section because the only part of my website I really worked on lately is the Pokemon section. I'm still working on the new version of the site in GoLive, and though I'm making progress I still have a ways to go. Anyway, here is some of the stuff I have done:
-I've been continuing Pokemon pictures, and nowadays I mostly do pictures of existing Pokemon because there are a lot of those left to do. However, I do have pictures for many new Pokemon, such as Orbicle and Kinter.
-Speaking of pictures, I am aware that the existing Pokemon pictures will take a long time to complete, so in the meantime before I get the rest of them up I will take pictures from other sources, such as trading cards or game screenshots. Of course I'll give credit to their owner!
-As for the Pokemon pages, I'm making significant progress. Each Pokemon has three kinds of pages so far. The first just shows general info such as a little description of its characteristics, its picture, basic stats like height and element, and even a history of how it was created. The second page contains in-depth info, such as its stats, abilities, location in the game, and how it fares against different types of attacks. The third page illustrates how it evolves, and it gives links to the other Pokemon in its evolution family. There is also a fourth page that lists all the attacks it can learn, but I haven't started working on those pages yet...
-The new site will be up when all three of all the new Pokemon's pages are done.
-There are about 200 new Pokemon on the site. Out of those, I've completed about 20 general and in-depth pages, and about 100 evolution pages. I have also done some evolution pages for the existing Pokemon as well, but only the ones that evolve to or from new Pokemon.

--FANFIC NEWS--
I finally know how my Pokemon fanfic (Pokemon Aqua) will end! It really is a beautiful ending, in my opinion... Kelsey really seems like the most wonderful character in the story, and just recently I made her (not David) the absolute main character just because there's a lot more I can say about her, and she's certainly more interesting to me than David. I still like David though... he's a really good supporting character. And just to let you know, something interesting will happen to Celia in the end, and it will probably make you cry happily. I know I did when I thought of it! But I'll shut up before I spoil the story any further.

--MY STATUS IN SAPPHIRE--
I haven't played Sapphire that much lately, but I did make a few important accomplishments:
-On April 8, I went to the Pokemon Journey Across America--that was a really interesting Pokemon event. How does this relate to Sapphire? Well, I got a few free Pokemon there. I got Blastoise and Bulbasaur (though they made a mistake and I was supposed to get Latios instead). Also, I got Entei, and also... *drum roll* Celebi!!! Yes, they were giving away Celebi at the event--I'm so happy! Anyways, all the Pokemon I got are level 70, so I promised myself not to use them in important battles until I get all 8 badges.
-Speaking of badges, while I was waiting in line to get some of those above Pokemon, I beat Winona! The battle was pretty easy--well, Altaria was the hard part. My Roselia (odd, isn't it?) and Marshtomp had to work together to beat it. But then, my Raichu beat everyone else pretty easily. But this is an important milestone: now I can use Fly outside of battle.
-Speaking of Fly, the only Pokemon I have that can use fly is a Xatu named Natsume. One day, I went to the Safari Zone, and so far I only went there once. But in that time, I caught almost every Pokemon that could possibly be caught in the Safari Zone (except for Heracross and Pinsir), and that included about 11 Pokemon in all! Some were duplicates--for example I caught two Oddish and two Girafarig. The only one I really trained so far was Natu, who I wanted to learn Fly.
-Right now, I'm stuck in Mossdeep City. I have just beaten Team Aqua at their secret hideout, and I want to get to the underwater cave south of Mossdeep... but I can't because I have to Dive to get there, and I can only use Dive outside of battle after beating Tate and Liza. So I have yet to train for that battle... Luckily, I've already developed strategies for that battle. My Shuppet knows Curse, so I'll have him use that on probably Lunatone, who I'll then have everyone gang up on. After Lunatone's out of the way it's an easy two-on-one battle.
-Recently in Sapphire, my Marshtomp evolved, so he's now a Swampert! Two of my other Pokemon are within two levels of evolving. That would be Meditite and Shuppet. I'm so excited--and Banette is something like my fifth favourite Pokemon!

--MY STATUS IN COLOSSEUM--
I've spent very little time in Colosseum, but I've made quite a bit of progress. A few months ago, I was stuck on this one trainer who had an Entei. I probably lost back then because I was trying to capture Entei. But I tried it again recently, and I won the battle (even though I didn't even try to snag Entei). Oh well... I already have an Entei in Sapphire, so that's no problem. Anyways, after the battle, I finally found Celebi's shrine in the Relic Forest, and I used it to purify all my shadow Pokemon! That was really exciting--after they were purified, those Pokemon learned new attacks, gained levels, and some even evolved! My Flaffy and Skiploom evolved for example, but the one that gained the most levels was Misdreavus, who I probably battled with the most.
-After that, the only thing I did was train my newly purified Pokemon for a while.

--MY STATUS IN LEAF GREEN--
The reason why I've made little progress in Sapphire is because I've spent most of my gameboy time on Leaf Green. Now, as you may or may not know, Leaf Green is the game where I'm catching every Pokemon possible in the game and raising them all to (sort of) equal levels. (I probably explained that further in my July 2005 post.) Anyways, some recent happenings there are:
-By about April I had gotten every one of my Pokemon to level 40. It was very difficult and time-consuming, but I did it nevertheless. The biggest place to Pokemon-train for me was the Pokemon Mansion, which can be a hard place to train because the Raticate in there can do a lot of damage. I trained most of my Psychic and Water-type Pokemon there, as well as my Snorlax for some odd reason. Since the Raticate were so deadly, I mostly had to stay on the first floor of the mansion. But some of my Pokemon did rather well in there, especially my Alakazam, who at level 37 could KO a level 36 Raticate with one Psychic attack. Others had a purely tough time, such as Poliwhirl, whose strongest attack was Water Gun. My Seadra was in the same situation, but she had worse defense than Poliwhirl, so I had to teach her Surf and then she did a lot better.
-Speaking of Surf, one day I spent many hours contemplating which moveset I would like for my Dragonair. I considered Outrage (which he won't know till level 56), Thunderbolt, Flamethrower, and Surf for positions, but I also saw Hyper Beam or Wing Attack as a must. (But if he learns Wing Attack, he can't learn Outrage till much later because he has to evolve in order to learn Wing Attack.) After much contemplation, I decided on a final moveset of Hyper Beam, Outrage, Flamethrower, and Surf. I don't care how lame people think Hyper Beam is--all I have to do is KO somebody then switch out when the opponent switches Pokemon.
-After getting everyone to level 40, there were some Pokemon that could learn certain attacks at level 41 or 42 (or for my Rhyhorn, he could evolve at level 42), so I called them the "Special Pokemon". Also, there were Pokemon that could learn important attacks at level 43, 44, or 45--these were my "Super-Special Pokemon". Surprisingly, it didn't take very long to level them all up to their appropriate levels, even though about half of my Pokemon were either Special or Super-Special. Anyways, during that process, three of my Pokemon evolved. At level 42, my Rhyhorn evolved. Also, I levelled up my Weepinbell and Jigglypuff till they learned Hyper Voice or Razor Leaf. Then I evolved them with stones. So now I have Rhyhorn, Victreebel, and Wigglytuff! (In fact, Rhyhorn and Weepinbell evolved last night, and Jigglypuf evolved about two hours ago!)
-Right now, all my Special Pokemon are at their appropriate levels. And, I'm almost done training my Super-Special Pokemon. There are only four left! My Nidoking has to get to level 43 to learn Megahorn. My Nidoqueen has to get to level 43 to learn Superpower. My Charizard has to get to level 44 to learn Slash. And my Arcanine--wait, my Arcanine?!? I only just realized, the next attack she'll learn is Extremespeed at level 49! Maybe I misread the level as 45... Sorry, Arcanine! You're not a Super-Special Pokemon! OK, scratch that. Only three more Super-Special Pokemon to go! I'm training these Pokemon in the Power Plant, making sure to bring plenty of Paralyze Heals of course. However, I think my Nidoking might be better off training somewhere else, so I'll quickly train him in the Pokemon Mansion. Nidoqueen and Charizard should be fine in the Power Plant though.
-After those three Pokemon are done, I will battle Sabrina to get my sixth badge! I can't believe I'm this close to doing that! Unfortunately, I won't get much out of the battle other than a badge (and perhaps a TM for Calm Mind would be neat as well), but it's still an important step. I've heard from others that Sabrina is hard to beat, but if I have a bunch of level 40-45 Pokemon, including a level 40 Alakazam that knows Thief, I think I'll do fine. The last five were easy, especially Koga if you read my July 2005 post, so Sabrina shouldn't be that hard either. I'm so excited!! Sabrina is my favourite gym leader ever! Psychic Pokemon rule!

More coming soon.