It's Official: I'm Still a Pokémon Geek

I recently acquired one of the "new" Pokémon games (in quotes because it's a remake and they're all basically the same game), and it has subsequently dawned on me that I am still a Pokémon geek.

This fact crystallized for me earlier today when I was looking up the moves for Mareep, an electric sheep Pokémon. Looking that up is in and of itself a bad sign, but what really emphasized the point was when I actually got excited about discovering that my mighty sheep could learn a decent bug-type move at level 32. That is simply not something a normal, decent human being cares about.

As for the game itself, I haven't played much of it yet. I have one badge by virtue of that electric sheep I mentioned zapping the gym leader's birds to oblivion, but given that I've only been playing it while waiting to fall asleep, it will likely be a slow journey. I am, however, confident saying that if you've liked previous Pokémon games that you'll like this one, assuming you're not sick of them. As I've said, every non-spin off Pokémon game is essentially variations and upgrades of the same thing.

These latest versions do come with something new: a "Pokéwalker" dealie that you can transfer Pokémon to and carry around with you for various benefits and mini-games. I've yet to try it, but it functions as a pedometer, so I might take it with me when I venture out later today in my ongoing efforts to fend off cabin fever. I only hope I don't get hit by a truck or something, as it would add insult to mortal injury for the medics to find that thing in my pockets.

My Real Life Ad

This is a custom ad I made for advertising at Real Life, a comic by Greg Dean (click for full size). It is worth noting that this Greg mentioned in this ad is THAT comic's Greg, and not the Greg from my comic.

I intend to make more custom ads to be used with specific sites, as those seem to perform better than my generic ads. It's difficult to sum up EGS in a 160x600 pixel ad, but I can sure as heck get people's curiosity going.

I will be posting additional ads made here, and might also make a new section on the site for them. I would just post them as Sketchbooks, but as with the whole "not this Greg, that Greg" thing, there's a LOT of room for confusion when referencing other people's comics.

Incidentally, this is probably the closest I'm likely to get to doing crossover comics...

Objective Dismissal Of Subjective Views

A while back, I watched the movie A Series Of Unfortunate Events with some friends of mine. I didn't particularly enjoy watching it. The cinematography was nice, but the general concept of "kids point out the obvious, adults don't listen" grated on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard. It's simply something I find more frustrating then fun to watch. When I expressed this feeling after watching the film, one of my friends had this to say:

"What you have to keep in mind is that this is a children's movie."

I will post here essentially what I said then, and that is "no, I don't." Were I asserting that the movie shouldn't have been done that way, or that it was a foolish choice on the part of the writers, then yes, pointing out that it's a children's movie as a counterpoint would make sense. Children easily find themselves in scenarios where adults are dismissive of what they have to say, and having such a plot in a film geared towards children makes objective sense.

There's A Zombie On Your Lawn!

I recently shared a screen shot of an end game of mine from Plants vs Zombies on Twitter. This is that screen shot:

If you are not familiar with the game, you will have no idea what's odd about this. ...Okay, what's odd from a GAMEPLAY standpoint. For those of you in the know, what's odd is that there are no sunflowers present, which provide power to add plants, and the lawn is filled with powerful, expensive plants.