Today's blog is about a longtime favorite of mine, Pokemon. Well, the games have long stood as some of my favorites. When you're a little kid, who didn't enjoy leveling up your cute little stuffed animals into killing machines? From Typhlosion to Gyarados, I've always liked the pokemon who look more like monsters. Move over Pikachu...

I've been half playing Pokemon Sun Version for upwards of 3 months now. I say half playing because I have barely through the second island. Grinding my pokemons out has gotten fairly dull. It was fine when I was 10, but now it's meh. Oh well, at least the battling part this time around is actually pretty good. Or, at least it seems better than prior entries.

Today, I ran into Salandit. Here's a bunch of google pics of it. These things have been popping up at around levels 16-19, and much to my surprise actually know a good attack; Dragon Rage. The attack always dishes out 40 damage, which many pokemon around it's level don't...

This week has been its own flavor of sad. So, some backstory; for a good many years my Uncle was married and all. After a seperation, they divorced. This broke up the two families (our side and her side), as I imagine is commonly the case in a divorce. Well, I grew up with a fair number of my cousins, or second cousins I think they would've been. After around 4 or 5 years now, we hadn't heard from them.

This week we found out one of them passed away of their own volition. The poor guy had troubles all his life. While, he was older than me by enough, I still knew him enough. I hung out with his younger brother, who was my age. I hear that he was the one who found him.

I didn't go to the wake. I would have, but nobody could cover for me at work. There wasn't a second showing, as they turned him to ash. This doesn't affect my life too much, as that story is over.

Rest in peace, Josh.

So, I remember there's a blog. Lol. Let's play with this for a bit.

So, after putting 5 years at my old warehouse job I quit earlier this year (back in March) to go work at a chrome shop. It's a change of pace. New things to learn, and it isn't just mindless labor. Plus, I can walk to work now... not that I do, but at least it's an option.

I'm also redoing a lot of my customs, or at least reorganizing a fair number of them. It's become a nice project, and I've created perhaps more customs than I initially expected from it all. But that's ok! I've had quite a bit of fun playtesting them with my zebra girlfriend.

Speaking of the Zebra, she's learned quite a bit from our games. She's even bested me on more than one occasion now, which is a great joy for anyone who is trying to teach someone the game. I've had little luck teaching my other friends how to play, but Angie seems to be trying.

Now back to the customs, I've released Wave...

Heroscape is now deeply, and perhaps irreversably, entangled with the idea of Fanscape. Before, it seemed to merely be the vanguard of diehard fans and well aged children posting to the boards. Now we seem to be getting a (possibly smaller than I am thinking) influx of new users. But, before I completely bore you with the trends of the community, let's talk about playtesting. And perhaps this has been stated before by me but I guess it bears repeating.

How much work is there in testing?
Well, I guess that depends on how much you want to put into it. Yes, you most certainly can download the file to a BoV map (and print it out, if you want), assemble the board and have at it. The C3V's public playtesting likewise has a lot of the same suggestions from that standpoint. But, what if you only feel like playing (assembly, set up, playtime, cleanup) for an hour or 2? There isn't a problem with just slapping a board together, grabbing whatever figures or toys you have...

After 6 weeks of gruesome, bloody, dusty warehouse work, the time to reap the pay has come!!

Anyways, I've gotta get work done to my van and get a credit card. Maybe I'll get to buy a few cool toys, I know I've had my eye on some AT-43 figures. The Gorrillatroopers and the Valkrill Marros. We shall see!

Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays Everyone! To those who are travelling for the season, be careful