This Month is Over

...but will it mean anything?

It Is

Thursday. It's now.

Things I Knew

It's Wednesday. And that means it's the middle of the week!

Obviously

And it's Tuesday now.

Sickening

Monday is here... and so is the nausea. Yay.

And We're Back In

Sunday's now over, and it's time to go back...

Three to Confuse

And now it's day three. I'm not sure what's going on now.

Two and Woo

End of day two. Woo.

One of Three

Day one well-spent. Yay.

Here We Go

Three days off in a row await me now. I'm going to enjoy 'em.

Ill Tuesday

I'm not prepared this Tuesday....

A Note to Future Me

I need to post something tomorrow. Can Future Josh take care of that?

Soon Again Now

Sunday gives way to Monday, and something else.

Yesterday

So much for that.

Today

And tomorrow is now today...

Tomorrow

Tomorrow.

Cards Draining

I'm playing card games, and it's all fun. It's exhausting, but fun.

Happy Building

So I've been occupied on Minecraft and working on a new aesthetic project. It's interesting and seriously has the potential to be quite silly. It's not done yet, but I'm sure I'll post pictures when I do finish.

OUT

I am DEAD TIRED.

It's Lazy

I don't feel like working today, which means that me making a lazy day out of today was a good idea.

Results

Last week I posted a long entry (for once) that showcased my desire to help make Pokémon X and Y's Wonder Trade a better feature. (For those of you unwilling to read through last Sunday's entry again, here's the TL;DR: I'm only Wonder Trading good Pokémon from here on out.)

To recant, I had three full boxes of Pokémon (that's 90 in total) with a mix of excellent stats and hidden abilities that I traded away to strangers across the world. I did the bulk of my trades on Sunday and Tuesday, and now that I'm not distracted by life and Cards Against Humanity (which I should talk about on a later day), I'm posting the results to you.

Before I continue, I have to stress one important fact. I knew going in that I wasn't going to get many quality Pokémon back. While a good portion of the people across the globe could also be improving Wonder Trade in their own way, there's still going to be that jerk who gives nothing of value. Still, I was pretty hopeful that I'd get something that I would find valuable.

I Told You So

But I need to post even better...

On It

I'm posting tomorrow.

Back To Old Things

My old Minecraft server is up after a few months of inactivity. I'm going back in to build things.

Not So Well, Isn't It

Well... I finally got the results of this past weekend's experiments. I'm not so sure what to make of them, so once I get the data sorted, I'll let you see it. Until then, I'm just gonna relax.

Possible Regression

I forgot how much I hate Mondays...

Cleansing Wonders and Purged Trades

In a rare form, today's "lesson" shows up before the page break - mostly because it needs to be known (before you keep reading). The message in question: change (for the better) starts with us.

Remember those lectures and assemblies about drugs, recycling, and the like back in elementary school? We'd be reading some (required reading) book or completing the day's worksheets when without warning, the entire X^th grade or school population were called to the cafetorium/auditorium/gymnasium for at least an hour. The topics varied - it could've been one of those D.A.R.E. lectures, a lesson on recycling and protecting the environment, or some superficial "student of the month" presentation.

Over the years, most of us didn't take that lesson to heart. We instead looked forward to assemblies because they were a way out doing worthless busywork. They served as an excuse for us to talk with our friends or to check out whatever girl(s)/guy(s) caught our fancy. We listened less on whatever lesson was being served and focused more on other things - the female presenter's casually-provocative attire; a chance to finish up sixth period's written report that was due that day; catching up on our local gossip about so-and-so being a slut, and other things like that.

Because of this, we as Americans a species have become shallow and uncaring while simultaneously looking out for what benefits us the most. (Maybe this is why the human racial ability in World of Warcraft is called "Every Man For Himself"...?) We enjoy what makes us content and comfortable and expunge anything undesired or even remotely "questionable." Needless gluttony is worshipped while living without anything but the best is abhorred. While it can be argued that this kind of mindset looks akin to misguided ambition, it's clear that this kind of behavior is more of a curse than a boon. It was up to us to make sure we didn't let it hex us.

Wait, why am I blathering when I should be focused on a fun topic today? Whoops...

"But Josh," I hear some of you cry. "What does all this have to do with Pokémon?"

"Wonder Trade," I reply. Read on to see what I mean.

Trading Saturday Away

I've spent the entire day rigorously trading online in Pokémon Y. I"m sure that there's a lesson to come from this, but for now, I need to dedicate what time I have to get the perfect Pokémon with as few chain trades as possible.

It's arduous, but in the end, it'll be worth it if I'm able to breed at least two more 5+ IV Pokémon that I want to use.

A Different Kind of Effort

January 3, 2014.

It's a rather cold Friday morning today (about time - the weather seemed rather odd thus far this winter season) and I'm out and about running errands.

Or, at least I was. Now I'm cooped up and relaxing in a little nook inside the local library, typing away some spiel that maybe two people will read by tomorrow. (Not a lot of high hopes there, huh? It's okay.) Hey - it's what happens when you type up part of an entry at the laundromat while you're waiting for your clothes to get washed/dry.

So, what am I talking about today? Well, apart from whatever tags I slapped on this entry, I'm not quite sure - I just told myself to write something. Why don't we find out together?

Two and the Splitz

You ever have one of those days where a mind-splitting headache comes out of nowhere to mess with the rest of your night? Well, that's today for me. It's quite unfortunate - I had some writing ideas planned out, but the pain is so... agh, I can't stand it! I'm gonna lie down.

Forested Zero

You ever hear the story of that boy who got lost in the woods and never returned? It was all over the news recently. He ventured in this forested area near where he lived and didn't tell anyone about it. By the time his friends were able to retrace his steps and locate his destination, it was too late to do anything about it - he was long gone, never to be heard from again.

Depending on your personal fandom preference, one of several things could've happened afterwards:

1. 1.) Time passed and the boy became a grotesque, twisted version of his already-malicious self. He found his way to a distant land, where his plan of causing the moon to crash into said land was thwarted (less than) three days later by a green-clad boy with a fairy.
2. 2.) The boy died deep inside the forest, and his spirit possessed a nearby tree stump. Years later, another person found said stump and gave it to another person they knew. For some reason, the stump grew into a ghastly-looking tree that showed benevolence.
3. 3.) Nothing. Nothing happened to the boy, because he never existed to begin with. While there are a few stories like this out there that are true, this particular tale isn't one of them.

Metaphorically speaking, the above fake story does hold some truth to it. For the past few months I've been lost in my own personal forest of illusions. Many "exits" presented themselves, but they all led back to where I had originally started when I got lost. I didn't type up any decent posts on my blog; I (mostly) dropped out of contact with people; I became a craven unwilling to drag myself out of the gutter I started to call "home."

With 2014 now in full swing, I felt as though it was time to venture out of this World 5 of mine. (Yes, that was a Super Mario World reference. Rather than suffer the fate of Skull Kids or wild Phantump and Trevenant, I instead began searching for a secret exit out of this dump.

I could go on with the forest metaphor, but the truth is that there is no secret exit. Rather, there was, but I wasn't exerting any actual effort to get off my ass and search for it. To be even more honest: I was never lost to begin with (although another party may say differently) - I only thought I had lost my way.

Either way, time will tell if I find my way out or not...