W00t w00t level 21!!

Ok... Still at this pokemon go stuff... Been doing better with my pokedex you could say and now I'm up to level 21. I have a bunch of pokemon ready to evolved and a lucky egg ready to help me. I think I'll probably do that later today and see how far along that gets me. I have at least 10 to 12 pidgey's ready to go no to mention a few others that are actually going to be new pokemon for me. They will give even more XP when I evolve them. Finally was able to catch a Scyther. That shit was elusive as all hell. Even with berries and ultraballs he was bailing every time I tried to catch him.

Level 19!

Finally hit 19 after a couple days of light hunting. Ran into a few people at random that okay on the train today. Pretty cool having something in common with absolute strangers. 

OMG Fuck these Zubats!

All I see it feels like all over is Zubats! Whether I'm at work or on the way home. I saw an article about how there's a guy who has caught 142 types of Pokemon and I'm not even half that. True as it may be he also apparently put in two full 50 hour weeks and traced over 95 miles. That's crazy but the fact he cracked open 300+ eggs is also insane. 

Read the article here:

http://m.ign.com/articles/2016/07/21/someone-has-completed-the-us-version-of-pokemon-go

Poke Radar?

So I've been cruising the subreddit for Pokemon go and someone posted about a Pokemon radar. Currently only available for iOS but coming soon for droid.

Personally I've only had it for a few hours but it has a lot of promise. If you consider that the "3-steps away" issue is currently plaguing GO players and no immediate relief in sight this is a legit tool to find what you want. Now wandering around can be fun too and a lot of people enjoy that. But the completionists are going to use this to find exactly what they need to fill their pokedex. 

I'd recommend taking a peek at it but just be aware it's extremely slow sometimes in loading and that was even while on good wifi.

Lol skipped a level

So I used one of my eggs and skipped an entire level. 16 is just a memory and I'm half way through 17 already. 

Pokémon Go

Ok, so it's officially a phenomenon. This is the game that everyone has been waiting for since they teased it with a CGI trailer late last year.

[Wikipedia Link]

The premise... To be able to catch pokemon in the real world, so to speak. The trailer and the actual game aren't as close as we'd like but the out come is still pretty awesome. Using your phone's or mobile device's camera and some Augmented reality overlay you get to see the pokemon as if they've appeared in our world. Then, using your items, pokeballs and such, you'd capture them and add them to your collection.

The whole process is pretty slick and works really well. The only problem is that its become the biggest mobile game launch of all time and the Niantic servers (developer of the game) were slammed and continue to be slammed at almost all times. This leads to the game freezing and dropping out and other bugs. Hell, nothing is perfect but for a game thats barely 2 weeks old its pretty good. Not all the info has come out about how many are available or how to get any of the legendary pokemons but I'm sure we'll hear more in the coming months.

At level 5 you become high enough to attend Gym Battles and also you need to pick a team!

The 3 teams are Valor (Red), Instinct (Yellow) and Mystic (Blue). The act of attacking or defending a gym is pretty straight forward. If the gym is owned by an opposing faction then you take a team of 6 to assault the gym. Each win lowers the Prestige points the gym has and if you defeat the leader then the gym becomes vacant. You can occupy a vacant gym by placing one of your pokemon in the gym to hold a place. Gym level determines how many people can actually place pokemon in the gym to defend it. The Pokemon with the highest CP would be the "Boss" as it were and the last one to fight in a defense. To raise the gyms level you need to train and win battles at your own color gym.

As for me, I joined Team Instinct along with the rest of my family. I mentioned it was a phenomenon right? My wife and 2 daughters all play and we're all on the same team. Figured it would make things be more of a team sport. We go out looking for pokemon together and help eachother out. Occupy the same gyms when we take them over. It's pretty fun.

I know I have a long way to go and I'm just going to continue at the pace that I've been moving. When I find a game I like I typically don't like to rush things. I'm currently a Level 15 trainer and I'm about to hit 16 really soon. I've been saving my Lucky Eggs for a quick XP burst from evolving and catching and hopefully I can blow through 16 as if it was never there. Apparently the higher your level the more rarer pokemon they will send at you. I can only hope this is true. The meme's that have been popping up involving GO have been pretty funny and the news stories seem never ending. A lot of people are hailing the game as one that will get us off our butts and out of the house... Others are reporting about the negatives, like people finding dead bodies while hunting for pokemon or that someone lost their life in a car accident when they were playing instead of watching the road. Those stories are heartbreaking but its ultimately the end user's fault. The loading screen implores you to pay attention to the world around you and not the game.

Happy hunting all and I hope to see you in the game...

ReLife Anime Review

This 13 episode anime was not even on my radar at all. I literally read the synopsis on MAL and decided to pick it up and see what it was about. To my surprise it was a nice coming of age story mixed with some reflection of ones past and willingness to change yourself for the better.

-(plot outline)
Arata, our main character, is a 27 year old protagonist who seems to be failing at life. After a trauma at his old job and quitting just 3 months after starting he finds himself working at a convenience store part time and lying to his friends about his job when they go out. Hes single and more or less a NEET or shut-in. Ryo has scouted him to take part in a 1 year experiment called ReLife... where he takes a drug that makes his appearance 10 years younger and he will attend 3rd year in high school as part of the experiment. How he enjoys and interacts with the world around him is up to him. If he completes it successfully... There is a job at a real company waiting for him after the year is over. Faced with his other bleak options... he agrees to the experiment and is off to his ReLife.

-Animation was fine... No over the top animations, no ridiculous transitions. Everything was pretty smooth and the quality was the same throughout the series.
-Character Development was good. I think they gave enough to make you invest in the well being of the surrounding cast. Some weren't as fleshed out as they could be like the 2 childhood friends of Honoka the Volleyball team ace. They were merely introduced as her childhood friends with no real story of where they came from but they were minor so it didn't affect the story.
-Story was good although I think this type of story has definitely been done before kind of like 'Erased'. They had similar plots about changing the past but went about it in different ways. Even 'My Teenage Romantic Comedy SNAFU' had similar principles in trying to change oneself. Both of those related works were very good IMO and well worth the watch. Also, there was small bits of comedy sprinkled in for a change of pace. In offsetting the drama it did its job well and this show is very well rounded... just don't expect a lot of high action sequences because there are none.

(Arata and Chizuru)

I rarely use the number scale for rating things but if I had to do it... I'd have to give this anime probably 7 out of 10.

Please have a look, if you enjoy drama and some coming of age awkwardness then you'll love this show.

Rocket League

PLAY IT NOW!!!

Although its a little repetitive its super fun. Just picked this up for xbox to play with my friends and we've been having a blast.