Anime!

Well today it was soooo nice out, very much like spring should be, and the boys were so kind to tennyson and I this morning, letting us sleep in (thank you very much to the new pokemon video!). So feeling rather well rested, I decided to bathe all the boys, put Tennyson in the stroller and take a walk down the road to great clips and get my boys hair cut (let THEM clean up the hair and deal with the wiggles this time).

Of course, others disagreed. Now Times Square has Disney and American Girl and Pokemon stores. But try to find a topless bar. It's like being in Anaheim.

The problem that many folks have with card-based games is that they’re too cutesy; it’s hard to look particularly manly shuffling a Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh deck, for example. To the rescue comes the Marvel Trading Card Game, which uses the superheroes from the Marvel universe instead of super-cute pocket monsters.

Pokemon Green (only old pokemon game I needed :P) for like £2.50!

When they were as young as 6 and 7, we were plunking change in their grubby little hands and pushing them toward check out counters at the drugstore so they could purchase their own bag of Gummi Bears. Did they want something to drink while we were out and about? We gave them money, stayed in the car, and watched as they went into the McDonald’s and bought it themselves. Did they want the latest Pokemon/Digimon/Hey,mon card? They had to call up the toy store themselves and ask if it was in. They were taking solo vacations with other family members before they were in Kindergarten; they flew by themselves to visit friends when they were still in Middle School.

Yes that’s right, we have just discovered Doris Pico (see above picture for upclose viewing). This is the newest species to have joined the Pokemon World. She has a number of attacks, Chocolate attack, Hidden Mean Attack, and the Cute to Death Attack. Many people are decieved by Doris Pico’s cute apperance at first, but DON’T BE! Doris is a dangerous pokemon on the prowl and will take a bite of you at given moment. Ok really, this post isn’t going to be devoted just to doris pico but it was a joke that I couldn’t pass up. **editor’s note: though I am trying to get a round suitcase and paint it white and red for her to fit in.**

Wenn man in dem Alter noch Pokemonsongs nachspielt würde ich langsam anfangen, mir Sorgen zu machen.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4104414698313466751&q=pokemon

In other news, we’re in the process of making a time capsule. I’m using an ammo box Simon gave me, although if there’s a better idea out there, please let me know! I definitely don’t want anything to get ruined, although a lot of the things going in there are replaceable. We intend to open it every year to add things. We’re filling it with a few things that are important to us at the moment, and were a few years ago. It’s got tat in it like photos of the Spice Girls, Pokemon cards (Bulbasaur!), Pogs, a Hogwarts Badge, etc, as well as having more recent stuff like a CD full of photos, and an MD full of our favourite songs. It has a few nostalgic things like our ID passes from Ercall Wood that we always hated because we’re unrecognisable in the photos taken 5 years ago on a day when we weren’t prepared, and a brochure from the town in France where a lot of the Scoobies met.

Also, my free three-month ’scription to Nintendo Power started coming. It’s… full of Pokemon references. That’s okay though. The blantant enjoyment of Nintendo drips from each page. I like NP better than the generic game magazine (let’s say Game Informer. can’t get more generic than that. XD), because of the extra stuff they’ll throw in, like strategies and character guides and maps. The extra features mean that you get more than the standard screenshots and review that everyone else does, whetting your appetite for a game just a little more. They did it to me on Trace Memory and Fire Emblem, the bastards. I approve of it as a piece of fanboy propaganda, because I need that every once in a while, despite not really being able to call myself a Nintendo fanboy. Gotta feed that side of myself every now and then.

Took my boys to the cinema today. They wanted to see Pokemon. So off we went (I can’t believe I had to pay full adult price for a kiddie movie) and it was violent, explosions, special powers and I have no idea what any of the Pokemon said, apart from the word, “Pikachu”. It was better than the horror movie, The Hazing.

I’ve got a six week holiday coming up at the end of next week, and I can only pray that the weather stays like this for atleast a little of the time I’m off school. Best summer I’ve had in eons was the year before last: Pokemon Ruby on my GBA, four Harry Potter books, a garden easy-chair, and lots of sunshine. Unbeatable.

The 12 attraction spots in the park include Pikachu Forest, Twister: Fury in the Sky and Pokemon Giant Ferris Wheel. However, I would choose to go to Excitement Safari first if there is a chance for me to travel to Japan anytime soon. Excitement Safari, which is not included in this map, is located between Bumper Car Battle and Twister. Anyway, you as a kid will get an RFID'd magic ball there and you can use it to catch Pokemons by placing it close to areas that are illuminated by flashing light. RFID readers are hidden behind the scene.

I got Pokemon Emerald today! Hazzah! And the cartrige matches my eyes! But I musn't play it!!! I'm saving it for the 38 hour drive to California. I must be kept occupied so I don't get bored and annoy my older sister and my mom and my dad who will be doing most of the driving and make him crash and kill us all. I don't wanna die! Not until I see every episode of Fullmetal Alchemist and the Fullmetal Alchemist movies atleast. And I have Fruits Basket vol. 9! But there's not much crossdressing in this one...

Please tell me this is a normal phase that 4 and a half year old boys go through! It is beginning to be a bit creepy. It's not like he is watching a bunch of shows where people die, he is watching Pokemon, Mucha Lucha, and a bunch of goofy, non-death type movies. When I tell him I don't like to hear him talking about dying he says, very practically, "But we all die Mom". True, but Geez.

I don’t have much else to say. It has an optional collecting subgame, just like so many games in the post-Pokemon era, but it’s not too tedious: I actually ended up collecting all the figurines. Lots of optional things to do if you’re in the mood to scour the countryside again after your first trek through; I enjoyed the game enough to do most of it. The shrinking gimmick in the game was pleasant enough. All in all, a well done incremental improvement over previous 2D Zelda games; there are a lot worse things for a game to be.

Well, what I’ve seen of the Revolution, the next Nintendo console, doesn’t really impress me much. All they showed off was a protoype, not a final design, and the games they announced were all stuff like “We’re going to be bold and break new ground, do things that have never been done before! So, the games that are coming out are Metroid, Mario, Mario Party, Pokemon, and Zelda!”

It’s official, Chris Darling is the reigning Pokemon champion of North America, besting 36000 other competing players and defeating the 12 other finalists in the final battle at the Pokemon Emerald Battle Tower (Seattle’s Space Needle). The 20 year old from Orlando Florida even had time to take his finals in History while competing in the tournament, a true sign of Pokemon greatness.

I am thrilled that I have finally found a few blogs that aren't boring and I actually don't mind reading all of. One of them was a Journal of a 13 year old that was completely nuts, I loved it, because that was totally me.. 7 years ago.. dear God! It made me miss the old times; going into the pokemon chats and talking nonsense to other people my age. It made me want to create a new handle and go into some random chat to talk about, nothing basically, just for a chance to be nutty again. And the other one surprisingly enough was about a guy who's...

At the local grocery store I saw a Pokemon game titled 'Ruby Edition'. Being the stupid geek that I am, I thoguht it might have something to do with Ruby the programming language.

Do u remember about eight years ago when POGS were the big craze? I know I definitely remember. I remember going to the flea market on the weekends with my mom and brother and searching all around for the coolest looking POGS. Now when I think back on it, it really doesn’t take much to entertain or excite a child. A lot of people believe that this craze was almost bigger than even pokemon. POGS was almost like a gambling game for kids, it was like an addiction. The game consisted of many large cardboard circles with designs on the front. To...

The investigators have named the gene POKEMON (for POK Erythroid Myeloid Ontogenic factor).

Pokemon works by controlling the pathways that are required to transform normal cells to cancerous ones. The researchers found that when they “knocked out” the Pokemon gene in mice, that transformation was blocked and cells do not become cancerous.

“Pokemon is a main switch in the molecular network that leads toward cancer,” Dr. Pandolfi added. “If we could turn Pokemon off, it may block this oncogenic circuitry and stall the malignant process.”

Games segment revenue was $99 million for the quarter, down from $127.6 million a year earlier. The unit was hurt by a drop in its trading-card business, which has a higher profit margin than board games. Trading card games include Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon and Duel Masters, and players are usually 10- to 12-year-old boys, who collect the cards, trade with friends and participate in tournaments.

For some reason I was the only person excited to see the Pokemon plane while in the Chitose Airport (Sapporo). I actually ran to the window and took a couple pictures of it, and I’m sure people were giving the strange (ahem, 26 year old) gaijin weird looks for being so excited to see what’s basically a giant advertisement on a plane. As a side note, Chitose Airport is actually called NEW Chitose Airport. So, um, what happens when it becomes old?!

The Pokemon plane beat us to Tokyo. Man. I was sooooo close to riding it. Bummer.

What if Opra invited Harry Potter and Pokemon on to her show to explain how to use a Macintosh, an iPod, Voice Over IP, Bluetooth, Skype, and Vonage? SURELY it would be a hit episode?

I spent the day yesterday home with a *cough* - no really, and all these materials magically showed up in the shop; drywall, backerboard, tile, mortar, lights, door knobs, etc. By evening I was feeling much *better* so I went out and danced the night away. Cheb i Sabbah was spinning some new jungle flavored tunes. Very nice - great energy in the house. Four times during the night complete strangers walked up and started chatting - that never happens to me - hmmm… must have been the magic Pokemon shirt.

The article says the patent is very vague and that it’s only a theory thus far thankfully. Do we really want to trust the home country of Pokemon and Japornimation with our brains? I’m sure I’m just being paranoid though. I’m sure the folks at Sony know what they’re doing, right? Right? Sleep tight, kids! The future’s in good hands! Hold me.

Pokemon Dash for Nintendo DS a Hit, Pikachu on the Run. Your have to get to pokeball-shaped checkpoints because in this game, “Touching is good!” You race through forests, swamps, deserts, all by touching the pen on the DS’s bottom screen. Keep moving the stylus back and forth in Pikachu’s path to make him run in the right direction. Play as long as you can. Who needs a card when you have the game?

The promotion has Subway excited to bring some of childrens' favorite characters to life. "So many kids know and love their favorite Pokemon characters, they're the ideal complement to a springtime Kids' Pak meal," says Michelle Cordial, Director of Implementation for the Subway Franchise Advertising Fund Trust.

Analysts said the company's best chance is to expand into new territory, and Topps has worked hard to keep up with the times. In the 1970s and '80s, the company started issuing Wacky Packs and Garbage Pail Kids cards, appealing to the gross-out sensibilities of adolescent males. More recently, the company enjoyed enormous success from Pokemon hysteria, with $180 million in sales from Pokemon products in 2001.

Davis, who said he was ecstatic to speak at his high school for Black History Month and the DHS Black Student Union, recently filmed a commercial for Nintendo's Game Boy in which he races the Pikachu character from Pokemon.

"It's a Pokemon thing," said Fran Morgen , facilities coordinator for St. Anthony's Church in Des Moines. "It's as if they were playing a game on the computer." The main interest for some children, she said, is to "see whom they beat down."

On a recent blustery southern Ohio morning, a smattering of bystanders gazed up as the Pokemon character Pikachu -- actually an enormous yellow balloon shaped rather like a gigantic cat -- floated ponderously along the parking lot in front of a department store.

The store had been a Lazarus, then a Lazarus-Macy's but this day it ceremonially joined the parade of Macy's stores rolling out across the country, the latest testament to the marketing savvy of some New Yorkers who see the future in the signature balloons of one of their flagship brands.

Cincinnatians might have predicted this. They have seen their hometown-based Federated Department Stores Inc. change its store names at least four times in the past 25 years, starting with the 1982 merger of the Queen City's historic Shillito's division with Rike's of Dayton, then on into the Lazarus era and now through to Macy's.

To celebrate the upcoming launch of the new Pokemon® Emerald video game for Game Boy® Advance SP, the Pokemon Emerald Frontier Battle Brain contest invites Pokemon experts in the United States and Canada to test their knowledge against their fellow Pokemon geniuses. The top 14 Pokemon competitors will travel to Seattle (the Emerald City) to engage in an all-out, winner-take-all competition to win the trip of a lifetime: a trip for two to the Pokemon Park in Nagoya, Japan. Visitors to the Pokemon Emerald Frontier Battle Brain contest site also can enter for a chance to win an all-expenses-paid trip to Seattle to watch the final battle at the famous Space Needle.

In addition to the pre-sell program, the Pok�mon Emerald Frontier Battle Brain Contest will test fans' knowledge of all things Pok�mon. The United States and Canada will be divided into seven competitive "Frontiers." Fans can find what regional Frontier they can compete in and enter online at www.pokemon-games.com starting today. The contest will run in the following four stages:

Licensing operations for T-shirts, caps and other items have also been a major source of revenue for animation companies. In Japan, several successful computer games have crossed over and have become animated series like Pokemon, Monster Farm, Power Stone and Detective Conan. More broadly speaking, animation is increasingly used in video games, and movies are also increasingly reliant on animation and computer graphic special effects.

Ewatchfactory.com introduces a line of pokemon watches. I wonder how popular pikachu still is amongst kids. The Pikachu Watch sells for $29.95.

So I've just finished week three of my Introduction to Basick Magick class, and it's going well. Mostly a history / anthropology class, but don't worry, Mom--we may still get around to summoning a few demons before the 16 weeks are up. :)

Nintendo just put out a press release about a survey that found that "Pokemon video games help kids learn important core values and skills."

Pepe: I felt like a Pokemon catcher-"Look! Artist!"

Pokemon Trading Card Game State Championship: 10 a.m. March 19 at Magic Dragon Games, 4610 W. State St. Players ages 6 and older. Free. http://op. pokemon-tcg.com/.

RF: We've announced that Wario Wario Twisted, that has a unique gyro system has been delayed for some technical reasons, but that's coming out right around E3. Then we've got Pokemon Emerald that launches here in North America on the first of May. So we've got a number of great games coming for GBA and there are more great games coming all through the third and fourth quarters as well. One of the things that excites me about Game Boy Advance, frankly, is all of the great third party product that's coming out. Revenge of the Sith is coming out on GBA, it's also coming out on DS. There are a number of truly great games that our licensees are bringing out to the market, I think those are games our fans need to check out.