I remember the first time I played Pokemon Red and battled the Elite Four.  It was the toughest battle(s) in the game as it was supposed to be, but even then it wasn't too tough.  I was actually at church waiting for Sunday School to start when I beat the Elite Four and the Champion.  A proud moment for a 10/11 year old at the time...I guess. 

Today I played the Elite Four in Pokemon Diamond basically just to get a feel as to how high of level I would need to get through all the way.  However, I ended up going through the entire Four and the Champion without having to do any extra training.  It wasn't easy though, as my highest level Pokemon by the end of the run was at 55 and the highest level Pokemon I was battling where in the low to mid 60's.  A lot of revives and hyper potions were used to get through the final two battles and I was lucky to actually survive some close calls.  But I won and now get to do it all again in Pearl, after messing around a little bit in the aftergame in Diamond.  Below is the team I used to go through the Elite Four and Champion.

• Lvl.55 Dialga
• Lvl.53 Torterra
• Lvl.51 Mesprit
• Lvl.51 Azelf
• Lvl.51 Staraptor
• Lvl.51 Floatzel

On the otherside of the dork spectrum is the NFL Draft and the results/aftermath.  I was a shocked stage after looking at the end list of players that the Green Bay Packers drafted.  They had a lot of picks, but didn't really pick up any outstanding players.  The players that are good have had a history of injuries that could proof to be useless picks.  The real needs that the Packers needed, a good RB and WR, weren't even addressed as they picked up some no name RB's and WR in the later rounds.  Probably the best pick they got was a kicker and at least this time they didn't take a kicker in the first round...a dark day in the history of the Packers.  I guess the real good news is that Randy Moss went to the Patriots not the Packers, Moss is a leech to any team he goes on and the Packers got lucky.

However, the biggest shock was the news today that the Panthers released Keyshawn Johnson.  With the interview that he had with Dwayne Jarrett after he was drafted led me to believe, and I'm sure Keyshawn, that he was going to mentor him for a year or two because they were so similar.  But they were possibly too similar as Carolina found no use for Johnson with Jarrett on their team.  Possibly, Keyshawn will try and find another team...I think Green Bay would be a good fit ;)...or he'll stay as an analysis or announcer.  Either way I feel bad for him as it seems he was screwed.

And the final comment on the draft is that I'm glad JaMarcus Russell went number 1.  After last year when the best pick went number 2 in Reggie Bush, it is good to see that the best player in the draft actually went number 1.  It may be debated how good he is, and the Raiders may not be the best place for him to end up in to prove how good he is...but he will end up being a good player, once he's on a different team.

Monday was supposed to be one of those days that I was supposed to go to work and do the same thing as always...be a cashier.  Not fun, actually rather annoying, but it gets me money so I can't complain too much.  But yesterday was actually different for once.  I arrived seeing that one of the people training to become a store manager for another Menards was being trained on the registers.  Always something that is fun to see.  But this time something would be different.  The person who was training him before I arrived was just about to leave because her shift was over, and guess who took over?  Surprisingly me.  It's surprising, because there were other people at the store that had been a cashier a lot longer and yet I was the one picked to take over.  Now I've only been there for about 8 months and don't consider myself the best cashier, but I've been told some of the managers feel differently.  So for my entire shift I trained the guy, Matt.  The greatest thing about training is that besides making sure they do everything correctly and answering any questions they have, you do absolutely nothing.  It had to be the fastest a day has ever gone for me at work...and I hope I get to do it again, because it was a hell of a lot more fun then doing more normal job.

 

Also another little update on Pokemon Diamond.  I've got 3 badges and been playing for over 12 hours.  My current team is listed below.

• Lvl 35 Staraptor
• Lvl 32 Torterra
• Lvl 23 Ponyta
• Lvl 21 Shellos
• Lvl 19 Pikachu
• Lvl 16 Machop 

Yesterday, Pokemon Diamond and Pear (the Fourth Generation of Pokemon games) was released.  Since it's Pokemon obviously sales will be through the roof, but that doesn't really matter unless the games are still fun.  Good thing is that they are the same old Pokemon games, just with some extras thrown in for good measure.  The graphics still aren't the spectacular quality that they could possibly be, but for what they are they are still quite good and easy on the eyes. 

I'm only about 7 hours into Diamond, also have Pearl, and the game is basically the same...which isn't a bad thing.  The new touch screen functions really make battles more fun as you no longer have to go through menus to find what you want as it is just a couple of taps away.

And just as a status update I have two badges and just got down the bicylce road.  Below is my team.

• Lvl 24 Staravia
• Lvl 21 Grotle
• Lvl 16 Ponyta
• Lvl 16 Machop
• Lvl 16 Shellos
• Lvl 15 Pachirisu

So, I've been watching wrestling for over 10 years and I still enjoy it.  Yes, I know it's fake but it's still fun to watch people kick the crap out of each other from time to time.  My biggest problem is that things are getting too predicatable nowadays.  It may just be that I have been watching it for so long that I've seen everything that there is to see, but when I'm able to predict correctly 9 out of 10 times what is going to happen, things need to change.  There are some story lines that are still pretty cool, heck even bringing back DX was one of the best moves the WWE has done in awhile.  But besides some good story lines the WWE and even TNA Wrestling seem to just be in a constant repeat of story lines.  Some creativity is desperately needed, and soon.

I've played a lot of Nintendo games over my 15+ years of playing video games.  I played the original Super Mario Bros and enjoyed it, but wasn't as impressed with it as I was with Duck Hunt.  The only other Mario game that I have ever owned that was a full blown Mario game was Super Mario 64 DS, and I didn't even play it that much.  I've played a lot of different Mario games like Mario Kart 64, Mario Tennis, Mario Golf...etc.  But I've never really been that big fan of the Mario games.  However, that may change with Super Paper Mario.  I like platformers, but I've always hated getting hit once and dying but since the health is more RPG style as a lot of the game is I may be more willing to really want to play the game.  Hopefully if it gets good reviews I'll go and pick it up...and who knows I may actually be happy with a Mario game for once.

After what seemingly was a grand ole' craptacular month, there was a little good yesterday.  After some of the weirdest work shifts (nothing like working 3 hour shifts, after a 10 hour shift) I had my deposition this week.  For those that don't know what a deposition is it is when you answer a bunch of questions that a lawyer asks you in hopes of not incriminating yourself as much as possible.  It's usually not that bad when you are the person suing someone, but when your being sued it sucks major arse.  What makes it even worse is being asked questions about an accident that happened almost three years ago, try remembering crap that far back.  Oh it's even funner when the lawsuit wasn't brought up until two and a half years after the accident...lovely Wisconsin laws. :roll:

But yesterday was a decent day, mainly because things went right for once.  After going up to Appleton on Wednesday to sign up for a program for school and get the Godfather for the Wii and Scrubs Season 1, which only getting the Scrubs DVD happened, I decided to give it another shot.  Wednesday night before going to bed I decided that I was going to go back to the bank before going to Best Buy and get money to get the rest of the Scrubs DVD's (2-4).  After doing that I went up to the Appleton East Best Buy, less busy, in hopes that things would actaully go right.  After getting there and noticing that they only had the Scrubs Season 4 DVD and nothing else I was pretty much ready to just curse and leave.  But low and behold that there was a store employee that actually was helpful, something else that you get at the East store instead of the West.  And not only did she find me the Godfather for the Wii, but she also found Seasons 2 and 3 of Scrubs.  Finally something went right.  So I got home and continued to watch Season 1 and looked at the other seasons discs in hopes of not finding any obvious scratches, and hopefully the lines that I saw were just my imagination being mean.

And the greatest thing of all is that the Godfather on the Wii can really relieve some stress.  Nothing like punching someone to death with your barehands or even a baseball bat.  Or you can even do the fun thing and just strangle the poor sucker to death...oh the fun.  Only problem is that after you beat/strangle the guy you can no longer keep beating them up...although that's a good thing as I could just see myself constantly pounding the hell out of the same guy for a good ten minutes before realizing it.  Who said video games weren't good for anything?  There a good stress reliever. :) 

Growing up during the glory years of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it excites me and somewhat pains me to see the rebirth of TMNT (as they like to call it know).  There are a couple of things that are exciting about the revival.  First, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the Arcade game is coming to Xbox Live Arcade.  I loved that game when I was a kid playing it on the NES, but was never able to beat Shredder at the end.  With the infinite continues, I should finally be able to beat him...oh and there is online coop, which is awesome.

The other thing that excites me is the fact that the Turtles rocked and it's just cool to see that the franchise isn't dead.  They tried the revival early in 2000 and didn't succeed to well.  Hopefully this time they can get things right and get the franchise rolling again.

The main thing that pains me is the way that they did the movie.  CGI works and yes it is probably more practical...but for those who remember the old live action videos in the 90s, it just isn't the same.  Sure the movies weren't the greatest, but they still had that special charm that was so great for kids.  Also, I hope that this revival doesn't just spur a bunch of crappy cartoon shows that are trying to be "punk" or any kind of crap like that.  Stay true to the old style and it should be good.  Oh and the TMNT better be good.

Now I'm a cashier at my local Menards and whenever a customer has any coupons I pretty much go from a (fake) happy person to a (real) annoyed person.  Coupons just complicate things and some people ask the dumbest question.  Simple answer is "Yes, if the coupon is expired we do not except it."  There is no "Well, maybe" that is a definitive "No" answer.  But people love their coupons and will use them if they have them.

However, I will say that I do become a bit hypocritcal when there are coupons that can save me money on video games.  That's where I love one of the video game magazines that I get monthly.  They usually have a good assortment of coupons for Best Buy in their magazine.  Usually a lot of them I never use, in fact I don't think I have used any until this month and last month's issue, but recently the coupons have been good.  I got a LAN adapter for my Wii and a 1600 Microsoft Points card with two coupons.  Great thing is in this months issue they had the same coupons with a later expiration date.

So now the list of things that I plan on getting.

First set of coupons

• Tomb Raider Legends (360) - $29.99
• Sonic Rush (DS) - $19.99
• Galactic Civilization II: Gold Edition (PC) - $39.99

Second set of coupons

• Wario Ware or Rayman (Wii) - $49.99
• Nintendo Classic Controller (Wii) - $19.99
• Some DS game
• Battlefield 2142 (PC) - $39.99

Forgive me, whoever has to check me out and Best Buy.

With a coupon I got in one of my magazines that allowed me to get $5 off any 360 accessory I went out and bought a 1600 Microsoft Points card.  Now, I've never bought an arcade game so all the games that have been released are fare game for me to get.  Only problem is I don't know what games to get or even the prices for most of them.  One game I do know that I'm getting is Uno so whatever the cost of that is should be considered gone.  So for anyone that knows any good games on XBL Arcade I would love here your opinions.

*UPDATE*

After receiving the same coupon that starts on the 12th of this month I decided to just go out and spend the points on some games.  I picked up Uno, Geometry Wars, and Alien Hominid HD.  Overall, pretty good choices I think.  Although if Worms is any good when it is released I'm going to be impatient for the coupon to become valid.

With my return from my vacation and the ambition to make something about it, I went back to my old blogs from Google and found out that there were updates as their blogging site is now out of beta.  After getting my account all squared away, instead of just adding an entry to my previous blog(s) I decided to just make a new blog for vacations.  Thankfully with the update it is no longer necessary to add photos with Hello so I was able to post pictures in thumbnail form that when clicked on show the larger pictures.  Saved me a lot of hassle, which I wasn't really looking forward too.  So the site is up and instead of posting about my vacation here you can just visit my site here.

As for my other blogs, I had the fun time of figuring out how to convert them to the new format.  Thankfully it wasn't too hard, but I wished that they would have just automatically converted everything at the same time.  But oh well that would be too easy.  I'm just happy that Gamespot never goes crazy and overhauls the user section of their site.