Must not let it be a full year since my last entry
The last several entries all started with "I haven't written in a while and wish I have," so I should probably stop saying that at some point. Today I just wanted to write some stuff down in case I forgot it later. It bugs me as a writer that the lack of entries will leave some of this stuff partially unexplained, but I'd rather write it down now than wait until I have the time to write down everything - which will probably be never.
Pokemon Stuff
Good lord, a lot changed in pokemon stuff this year. Well, most importantly, I want to say that Luke is seemingly doing better and is relatively unscathed from the experience, aside from memories and all that. Competition wise, the whole format changed such that it's more of a "series" than a "championship." What they intend to mean by that is that everyone who wants to accomplish something is expected to compete in every tournament of the year, because they all give out Championship Points for top places (usually the top 25%). How many points depends on the level of difficulty of the tournament typically, though I think there are other factors involved as well. At the end of the season (after Nationals), the top 12 spots will go to Worlds, though the points are still cool for bragging rights.
Right now, I'm sitting at 42 CP, with the top people in the country around 200ish. So barring a miraculous finish at Nationals, I'm most likely not going to make Worlds through CP. But that's okay, because the older I get the more I enjoy the tournaments to see people than for any other reason, and I still have that - I think the 2010 year, back when you still had to qualify for Nationals and I did, I proved all I needed to prove to myself in terms of applying myself and getting results in this game. Besides, I think my odds of qualifying through the Last Chance Qualifier are typically better than any other time of the year, and that gives me a nice incentive to keep spectating Worlds - which, despite having never competed in Worlds, is still a fun thing to watch.
One of the reasons I wanted to write this entry was to write down the teams I've been using, because a combination of Sam and Travis' influence has brought me back to my roots this season - namely, trying to get more creative and playing with my favorites rather than purely strong common-in-the-metagame pokemon. Granted, I haven't done this every time, but even doing it a few times has made me happy.
My teams this year so far have been:
Fall Regionals (November '12, Philly)
Politoed
Kingdra
Scizor
Cresselia
Dragonite
Thundurus-I (I have to clarify that now because there's such a thing as Thundurus-T)
Final place: 23rd out of 141, getting 20 CP
Winter Regionals (January '13, St. Charles, MO)
BLASTOISE
Tornadus
Exeggutor
Scizor
Bisharp
Kingdra
Final place: 17th out of 200ish, getting 20 CP
International Challenge (January '13, worldwide wifi tournament)
BLASTOISE
Tornadus
Scizor
Kingdra
Ferrothorn
Hitmontop
Result: 23rd in North America, 500ish overall, getting 2 CP
PAX EAST Pokemon League (March '13, only at PAX)
Dusclops
Hitmontop
Rhyperior
Ditto
Ninetales
Electrode
Result: played as a gym leader in this just for fun tournament, as a multi battle gym with Gabby (she ran Scrafty/Volcarona/Salamence/Gardevoir/Camerupt/Metagross). Won 33 times, lost 3 times.
International Challenge (March '13, worldwide wifi tournament)
Hydreigon
Cresselia
Hitmontop
Kingdra
Tornadus
Metagross
Result: 118th in North America, 1000ish overall, theoretically getting 1 CP but the numbers are subject to change before CP is given out. This number may not actually be correct, though since when counting by hand through the rankings I only looked for "USA," "CAN," and "MEX," discounting Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and the smaller areas that have historically not shown too many competitive players. It's also worth mentioning this was a tournament the same weekend as PAX, so I sort of half-assed the entire thing, playing for what I beleive to be about an hour total.
Like I said, I'm nowhere near the top 12, which is fine because I'm having fun and still making a good show. Right now, I'm 93rd in North America and 1st in Massachusetts, which is pretty cool. Gabby's something like 120ish in NA and 2nd in Massachusetts, making us a nice power couple.
Blastoise sticks out as one of my favorites that I haven't used as much as I would've liked - actually not since my 2005 Nats debut, and that was before I knew any game mechanics or metagame. I've also been happy with my time with pokemon like Electrode, Ditto, and Exeggutor, though regular staples to my team like Cresselia and Scizor are growing on me sentimental-wise.
Team Magma is thriving, and thanks to Gabby (and some me) the website is getting a slick view and plenty of new hits. We're no longer a forum, and we're also doing written articles and podcasts.
Work Stuff
Work has been going well. My two year anniversary will be in twenty one days, and in a homeless shelter like mine the turnover is crazy. Of the Case Managers and Stabilization workers of my branch, the only person who was on my original team of 15 coworkers is Kevin (though people in management or side branches like the Career Development Specialist and Program Liason haven't changed). That being said, I've gone from the newbie to someone people go to for advice, which has felt good.
The company's changing a lot, though. We've done some really solid work in the last two years, moving from the seventh to the fourth highest outputs of all shelters in Mass, though we've also made a handful of mistakes as well, and Admin is mostly looking to fix that problem by bringing in people who can. As such, most of the promotions in the last year have gone to outside hires, and even my boss is starting to realize that if he applied for his job today, he wouldn't get it. Everyone needs a Masters degree to move up, which for me is fine because I may be leaving soon anyway. Which brings me to my next note to catch up on...
Gabby Stuff
Gabby and I have been up and down all year, but we've been growing as a couple and despite breaking up twice we have worked out a lot of our problems. I'm trying to be more understanding of her mother and how much that woman utterly fucked with her head, and she's trying to calm down and realize things aren't as big of a deal as they seem in her head, cutting back on little stresses and bursts of perfectionism. She's also taking more time to understand underprivileged culture, while I'm trying to sympathize more with, er, privileged culture. (Inb4 tumblr tells me to check my privilege anyway)
I made a decision last December that still terrifies me: Gabby got a job at Amazon last fall, and in December I agreed to go with her to Seattle, leaving behind my friends and my job, and all my connections here. It's still scary to think that some of our relationship problems will never work out, but I'm starting to feel like most of my relationship problems are my fault anyway, and that I need to put more effort into things and grow up a little bit. In the past, moving to a place where I had no friends, job or connection has caused me to grow up, so it probably will now (See also: Wooster, Boston). I also trust her far more than most other people I've dated, which is strange considering I didn't realize I had trust issues until I actually acknowledged that I trust her a great deal.
For now, what comforts me is that although Gabby and I fight a good amount (often over what I find to be trivial matters on her end), we also make up, and I haven't felt the urge to "quit before I was fired" in a while with this relationship. I think, looking back, I broke up with a lot of girls because I thought a side of myself would eventually cause that person pain, and I wanted to avoid letting that side even get the chance to hurt that person - partially for the sake of sparing their feelings, but also partially because I didn't want to be seen that way by that person. And I think one of the reasons I'm so eager to either look past or work with Gabby on her flaws is because by now she's aware of some of the more horrible things I've done to others in my life, and she's never really gotten to that deal breaker moment with me. That acceptance is golden, and at least worth holding onto for now.
Moving to Seattle will mean a lot of dramatic changes - for one thing, all of Gabby's friends there are other Amazon people making betweeen 90k-100k a year, which is a culture I've never even been around growing up (at 34k, I currently make more than both my parents combined as it is, so the whole concept of why anyone would ever need that much is beyond me). I'm a little scared of being judged, and I'm also scared they're all secretly like Gabby's mom, who largely only defines success by money. I don't want to feel like me choosing the non-profit route will make me less of a person in Gabby's friend's eyes, though I met this one guy named Spencer already and he seems really cool.
Gabby's mom, though - that also worries me because the closer I get to Gabby the more her family problems become my family problems too (and, to a certain extent, sympathy for Gabby makes me want to make them my problem). Most recently, Gabby's mom told Gabby's little sister that she wouldn't pay for her tuition unless she majored in Computer Science like Gabby (She wants to be a country singer, I think). I can understand her mother's concern, but I can't understand or sympathize with just how far she's taking the decision to impose her opinion on her soon-to-be-18 daughter (Actually, that's a lie - my parents pulled something similar after the Bay City incident when I was trying to get that calendar for E1, but that was different because I was actually endangering my family in doing so, which I didn't really process at the time because I just wanted to do something nice for E1 and didn't care about much else). I told Gabby's sister to keep fighting for her dreams, even if they seem impossible, and to keep defending her decision to pursue happiness over money to her mom. I think the situation will get better in time, but at the time there was a lot of yelling and slamming cupboards. Not quite like my family fights, but this is the most aggressive I've seen Gabby's family.
I told Gabby's sister something like "If this is what you want to do, you'll have to accept more poverty and discomfort and struggle than you're normally accustomed to, but if that's still what you want knowing the risks you should do it anyway." I didn't pry much after that day since it wasn't as much my business, but I figured hearing the other side and some support might be good for her. Recently, she sounds like she's giving in to her mom and feeling like she just wants to make money and live comfortably, but I can't really blame her for it. And I guess not every musician has to start out a struggling artist. Anyway, I'm getting off topic.
Anyway, things are far from perfect, but I'm getting to the point where I feel like it's worth working on. I've always sort of been the kind of guy to work for a paycheck than hold out for winning the lottery anyway. As for what I'll do when I get to Seattle, I hope to get a job in a similar homeless shelter for a year (as of May 2012, Seattle's homeless advocacy has been dramatically on the rise, which is good), and then pursue a Masters degree to make myself more marketable to shelters like the one I'm currently working for. Ideally, I'll get into the University of Washington, which isn't far from where Gabby is contracted to be the next four years, but I'll move if I have to. We'll cross that bridge when it comes.
It's amazing how I planned on catching up with three paragraphs and then couldn't stop writing stuff down. I should come back here more often.
-Didroy
Pokemon Stuff
Good lord, a lot changed in pokemon stuff this year. Well, most importantly, I want to say that Luke is seemingly doing better and is relatively unscathed from the experience, aside from memories and all that. Competition wise, the whole format changed such that it's more of a "series" than a "championship." What they intend to mean by that is that everyone who wants to accomplish something is expected to compete in every tournament of the year, because they all give out Championship Points for top places (usually the top 25%). How many points depends on the level of difficulty of the tournament typically, though I think there are other factors involved as well. At the end of the season (after Nationals), the top 12 spots will go to Worlds, though the points are still cool for bragging rights.
Right now, I'm sitting at 42 CP, with the top people in the country around 200ish. So barring a miraculous finish at Nationals, I'm most likely not going to make Worlds through CP. But that's okay, because the older I get the more I enjoy the tournaments to see people than for any other reason, and I still have that - I think the 2010 year, back when you still had to qualify for Nationals and I did, I proved all I needed to prove to myself in terms of applying myself and getting results in this game. Besides, I think my odds of qualifying through the Last Chance Qualifier are typically better than any other time of the year, and that gives me a nice incentive to keep spectating Worlds - which, despite having never competed in Worlds, is still a fun thing to watch.
One of the reasons I wanted to write this entry was to write down the teams I've been using, because a combination of Sam and Travis' influence has brought me back to my roots this season - namely, trying to get more creative and playing with my favorites rather than purely strong common-in-the-metagame pokemon. Granted, I haven't done this every time, but even doing it a few times has made me happy.
My teams this year so far have been:
Fall Regionals (November '12, Philly)
Politoed
Kingdra
Scizor
Cresselia
Dragonite
Thundurus-I (I have to clarify that now because there's such a thing as Thundurus-T)
Final place: 23rd out of 141, getting 20 CP
Winter Regionals (January '13, St. Charles, MO)
BLASTOISE
Tornadus
Exeggutor
Scizor
Bisharp
Kingdra
Final place: 17th out of 200ish, getting 20 CP
International Challenge (January '13, worldwide wifi tournament)
BLASTOISE
Tornadus
Scizor
Kingdra
Ferrothorn
Hitmontop
Result: 23rd in North America, 500ish overall, getting 2 CP
PAX EAST Pokemon League (March '13, only at PAX)
Dusclops
Hitmontop
Rhyperior
Ditto
Ninetales
Electrode
Result: played as a gym leader in this just for fun tournament, as a multi battle gym with Gabby (she ran Scrafty/Volcarona/Salamence/Gardevoir/Camerupt/Metagross). Won 33 times, lost 3 times.
International Challenge (March '13, worldwide wifi tournament)
Hydreigon
Cresselia
Hitmontop
Kingdra
Tornadus
Metagross
Result: 118th in North America, 1000ish overall, theoretically getting 1 CP but the numbers are subject to change before CP is given out. This number may not actually be correct, though since when counting by hand through the rankings I only looked for "USA," "CAN," and "MEX," discounting Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and the smaller areas that have historically not shown too many competitive players. It's also worth mentioning this was a tournament the same weekend as PAX, so I sort of half-assed the entire thing, playing for what I beleive to be about an hour total.
Like I said, I'm nowhere near the top 12, which is fine because I'm having fun and still making a good show. Right now, I'm 93rd in North America and 1st in Massachusetts, which is pretty cool. Gabby's something like 120ish in NA and 2nd in Massachusetts, making us a nice power couple.
Blastoise sticks out as one of my favorites that I haven't used as much as I would've liked - actually not since my 2005 Nats debut, and that was before I knew any game mechanics or metagame. I've also been happy with my time with pokemon like Electrode, Ditto, and Exeggutor, though regular staples to my team like Cresselia and Scizor are growing on me sentimental-wise.
Team Magma is thriving, and thanks to Gabby (and some me) the website is getting a slick view and plenty of new hits. We're no longer a forum, and we're also doing written articles and podcasts.
Work Stuff
Work has been going well. My two year anniversary will be in twenty one days, and in a homeless shelter like mine the turnover is crazy. Of the Case Managers and Stabilization workers of my branch, the only person who was on my original team of 15 coworkers is Kevin (though people in management or side branches like the Career Development Specialist and Program Liason haven't changed). That being said, I've gone from the newbie to someone people go to for advice, which has felt good.
The company's changing a lot, though. We've done some really solid work in the last two years, moving from the seventh to the fourth highest outputs of all shelters in Mass, though we've also made a handful of mistakes as well, and Admin is mostly looking to fix that problem by bringing in people who can. As such, most of the promotions in the last year have gone to outside hires, and even my boss is starting to realize that if he applied for his job today, he wouldn't get it. Everyone needs a Masters degree to move up, which for me is fine because I may be leaving soon anyway. Which brings me to my next note to catch up on...
Gabby Stuff
Gabby and I have been up and down all year, but we've been growing as a couple and despite breaking up twice we have worked out a lot of our problems. I'm trying to be more understanding of her mother and how much that woman utterly fucked with her head, and she's trying to calm down and realize things aren't as big of a deal as they seem in her head, cutting back on little stresses and bursts of perfectionism. She's also taking more time to understand underprivileged culture, while I'm trying to sympathize more with, er, privileged culture. (Inb4 tumblr tells me to check my privilege anyway)
I made a decision last December that still terrifies me: Gabby got a job at Amazon last fall, and in December I agreed to go with her to Seattle, leaving behind my friends and my job, and all my connections here. It's still scary to think that some of our relationship problems will never work out, but I'm starting to feel like most of my relationship problems are my fault anyway, and that I need to put more effort into things and grow up a little bit. In the past, moving to a place where I had no friends, job or connection has caused me to grow up, so it probably will now (See also: Wooster, Boston). I also trust her far more than most other people I've dated, which is strange considering I didn't realize I had trust issues until I actually acknowledged that I trust her a great deal.
For now, what comforts me is that although Gabby and I fight a good amount (often over what I find to be trivial matters on her end), we also make up, and I haven't felt the urge to "quit before I was fired" in a while with this relationship. I think, looking back, I broke up with a lot of girls because I thought a side of myself would eventually cause that person pain, and I wanted to avoid letting that side even get the chance to hurt that person - partially for the sake of sparing their feelings, but also partially because I didn't want to be seen that way by that person. And I think one of the reasons I'm so eager to either look past or work with Gabby on her flaws is because by now she's aware of some of the more horrible things I've done to others in my life, and she's never really gotten to that deal breaker moment with me. That acceptance is golden, and at least worth holding onto for now.
Moving to Seattle will mean a lot of dramatic changes - for one thing, all of Gabby's friends there are other Amazon people making betweeen 90k-100k a year, which is a culture I've never even been around growing up (at 34k, I currently make more than both my parents combined as it is, so the whole concept of why anyone would ever need that much is beyond me). I'm a little scared of being judged, and I'm also scared they're all secretly like Gabby's mom, who largely only defines success by money. I don't want to feel like me choosing the non-profit route will make me less of a person in Gabby's friend's eyes, though I met this one guy named Spencer already and he seems really cool.
Gabby's mom, though - that also worries me because the closer I get to Gabby the more her family problems become my family problems too (and, to a certain extent, sympathy for Gabby makes me want to make them my problem). Most recently, Gabby's mom told Gabby's little sister that she wouldn't pay for her tuition unless she majored in Computer Science like Gabby (She wants to be a country singer, I think). I can understand her mother's concern, but I can't understand or sympathize with just how far she's taking the decision to impose her opinion on her soon-to-be-18 daughter (Actually, that's a lie - my parents pulled something similar after the Bay City incident when I was trying to get that calendar for E1, but that was different because I was actually endangering my family in doing so, which I didn't really process at the time because I just wanted to do something nice for E1 and didn't care about much else). I told Gabby's sister to keep fighting for her dreams, even if they seem impossible, and to keep defending her decision to pursue happiness over money to her mom. I think the situation will get better in time, but at the time there was a lot of yelling and slamming cupboards. Not quite like my family fights, but this is the most aggressive I've seen Gabby's family.
I told Gabby's sister something like "If this is what you want to do, you'll have to accept more poverty and discomfort and struggle than you're normally accustomed to, but if that's still what you want knowing the risks you should do it anyway." I didn't pry much after that day since it wasn't as much my business, but I figured hearing the other side and some support might be good for her. Recently, she sounds like she's giving in to her mom and feeling like she just wants to make money and live comfortably, but I can't really blame her for it. And I guess not every musician has to start out a struggling artist. Anyway, I'm getting off topic.
Anyway, things are far from perfect, but I'm getting to the point where I feel like it's worth working on. I've always sort of been the kind of guy to work for a paycheck than hold out for winning the lottery anyway. As for what I'll do when I get to Seattle, I hope to get a job in a similar homeless shelter for a year (as of May 2012, Seattle's homeless advocacy has been dramatically on the rise, which is good), and then pursue a Masters degree to make myself more marketable to shelters like the one I'm currently working for. Ideally, I'll get into the University of Washington, which isn't far from where Gabby is contracted to be the next four years, but I'll move if I have to. We'll cross that bridge when it comes.
It's amazing how I planned on catching up with three paragraphs and then couldn't stop writing stuff down. I should come back here more often.
-Didroy