So as 2012 began, I started my final year of school in Epping. Year 12, damn, that took a lot out of me. The days at school felt longer. The only classes that whizzed by were my History ones, and that's because half the time, my teacher would often reminisce about funny things that had happened in his other classes, memories with other students and other junk. Half the time we'd be doing work, someone would mention something, then he'd bring up some related topic and he'd go from there. He was quite eccentric, always over the top. He was one of my more preferred teachers throughout school. Not only were the classes more laid back, he definitely helped you with things like essay writing and stuff like that.

One funny thing, though. My English teacher (who was also my Media teacher), gee, everyone hated him. No idea why, him and I got on like two peas in a pod. Since most of Year 12 English involves reading and essay writing (so many practice essays come exam time), most of the time we'd just come into class and some of the less interested students would just sit there and pretend like there wasn't work to do. Except there was. You were supposed to come into class and write essays. That's not all we'd do, but if he hadn't deliberately told us to do anything within two or three minutes, you knew you were meant to start writing essays. They were exhausting classes, though. They took so much out of you, mentally.

I never really did homework in Year 12, not at home anyway. I'd do them at lunch times (or during those breaks, I'd be checking my Supercoach team, much to the chagrin of my mate Gavin). He'd see me in the main classroom at the computers and sometimes I'd be looking at sample essays, and he'd pull up a seat next to me, but once he caught a glimpse of my Supercoach team, he'd basically turn around and walk away. I remember constantly trying to tell him how good my team was doing, particularly my secret weapon, Dayne Zorko. I'm always telling him he's "rolling in the Benjamin's" for me. That annoyed the hell out of him. Good times. I think he was secretly laughing inside every time I said it, although maybe I couldn't hear it over the sound of me secretly laughing.

Doing all (or, really, most) of my homework at school allowed me to have more time to game at home. Most of the time it was something like Guitar Hero, or Gran Turismo, something that killed a bit of time, was fun, but something that I'm not going to take one eye off the clock and suddenly six hours have gone by. Also, last year was a bit of a sucky year for gaming. I didn't really have too many memorable moments, either. Just, you know, casual gaming. I didn't really have too much time to play my RPG's like Final Fantasy or Mass Effect, although I did play games like that on weekends.

One thing I started doing in about June, July some time, was start taking my Nintendo DS to school and playing that during my breaks. I got kind of tired of writing essays and I was content with doing about a dozen essays a month. I thought, if I do that as a bare minimum, my teachers can't really complain over that, can they? Anyway, so I've got my DS and Pokémon Diamond with me, but no one seemed to care. Sometimes I'd be with my friends and stuff, walking around the school, and I'd play while walking, but sometimes, when they were away or were playing basketball or something else, I'd find a seat and play. Some guys would come up to me and ask what I was playing, then upon hearing Pokémon, they'd just leave. Not sure why, it's a great series.

We had this excursion one time for History, and we went to the Immigration Museum in the city. Holy crap, that was one of the worst things I'd ever experienced. We had this tour guide who was just old and cranky as hell. It was almost like she didn't want to be there as much as I did, although really, nothing could come close to how little I wanted to be there. When we were walking back, we came back down Swanston Street, since we went past Chinatown towards the end. Anyway, on Swanston Street, we walked past a poster inside EB Games about a Pokémon Trading Card Game tournament every second Saturday. So while everyone else is grabbing lunch, I head in there and learn that the next one is the weekend coming.

So I pulled out my cards and got them ready. It was the first time I had used them since my friend Peter stopped playing with them sometime in late 2011. But it had been a while since I'd used them. I had virtually forgotten how to play. So the first time I went there, turns out my HeartGold/SoulSilver cards were no good anymore. They didn't say anything because I was a first-timer, but next time, I was advised to get some newer Black/White cards. They said something about the HG/SS cards being out of rotation or something like that. I still have them, but I no longer use them. They're in my special Pokémon drawer in my bedroom, just sitting there, pretty much, next to all my Pokémon DVD's.

I've really got to try to get my mates to come there with me, at least one of them. Hopefully Peter would want to do it sometime, since he's already got cards, although he's only got HeartGold/SoulSilver cards, so he'll need to upgrade if he wants to take part. The one thing I love about going there is they've recently implemented a badge system. You play against the Gym Leader (aka Ramsey, the guy who works there) and if you can beat him (which, so far, I haven't in four attempts), you'll earn a gym badge, just like in the Pokémon games (or the anime, or any other medium I'm missing). There are eight badges in total and they all have different rulesets (the fourth one, from memory, is no EX cards are permitted, but I don't have a single one, so I often joke that I'm halfway there).

The good thing about going there is that most people who go there just go to have fun. Some of the guys with the better cards, when I go up against them, I normally lose. But I've got a deck that's pretty good at dragging the game out, so even when going up against stronger cards, a match against me can take as long as half an hour, which it did the last time I went there. I kept using this ability which switched my current Pokémon with one on my bench, and used my Serperior to heal all of my grass Pokémon in between turns. My Serperior and Lilligant are such wonderful cards. Along with my Virizion, they're my key to victory (or to delaying yours). I see you loading your deck with fire cards over there. I forgot to mention my other awesome Pokémon. How can I have a deck without including my favourite Pokémon, Samurott? Your move...

All kidding aside, that's one thing I love about the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Just like in the regular games, no one card can win it all for you, although I've heard some people who I play against tell me stories about people who use four Snorlaxes, and the remainder of the deck is all Trainer cards. That's ridiculous. Probably just a way to have Snorlax take as much damage as possible without knocking out too many Pokémon. I wonder what kinds of Trainer cards would be in a deck like that. All I know is what's in my deck is what counts. I've tried other types, a fire deck, a grass/electric, a water/electric, but I'm most competitive with grass/water. I'm getting better and better every time I play. That first badge can't be too far away from being mine.

Do you have a place where you can hang out with fellow gamers? Let me know in the comments section below.

Contents:
Part 01 | Part 02 | Part 03 | Part 04 | Part 05 | Part 06 | Part 07 | Part 08 
Part 09 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15