Pokemon Project Update: 3/19/2012

Hello everyone!  I have made great progress in my quest to replay and rank all five generations of Pokemon video games.  I have beaten Gold and Sapphire, and I will soon start Platinum.

Gold was pretty easy, as usual.  I'm always surprised by how easy the Generation 2 games' (Gold, Silver, and Crystal) main storyline is to progress through.  The highest level Pokemon you face in the Elite Four is Lance's level 50 Dragonite, which can be easily defeated with a well-placed Ice Punch.  The Kanto gym leaders may be a notch above the Johto gym leaders, but the Johto gym leaders weren't much to begin with.  The last Kanto gym leader, Blue, has some Pokemon in the mid-to-high 50's, but they're nothing to be afraid of.  Of course, one realizes how misleading the whole game is when you reach the end of Mount Silver and face the high 70's team of Red.

Sapphire was as usual.  The main storyline is somewhat compelling, with the environmental well-being of the Pokemon world at stake.  But none of the battles were particularly challenging, and the Elite Four is fairly mediocre.  There's not even the promise of some premium endgame content to keep you going, the way that you could gain access to Kanto after defeating the Elite Four of Johto in Generation 2.

Oh well.  I'm pretty pumped to play Platinum again.  I know a lot of people hate on the newer Pokemon games, but I've always really enjoyed them.  Platinum especially, because the main storyline is long and epic, with the very concepts of time and space at stake of being unraveled completely, and the battles are interesting.  But we'll see.

Sex Abuse Stadium

I just saw on ESPN's website that 70% of people in a poll said Penn State University should rename the football stadium Joe Paterno Stadium.  Are you kidding me?  

The Contraception Debate: It's Not About Women or Religion

The two sides of the debate on whether or not the federal government should mandate free birth control coverage for women, even if the employer is associated with a religious organaization who may find birth control morally objectionable, represents a really sad truth about the divide in American politics.

The Pokemon Project

My obsession with the Pokemon video games didn't stop when I got out of elementary school, or when I hit puberty, or when I turned 18.  I still play those games every so often, and I enjoy even more in my old(?) age.  When I was cleaning out my room a couple months ago, I came across a bunch of copies of the older games in the series (Blue, Gold, Sapphire, etc.) and I was thrilled beyond belief.  I thought these games had been lost forever!

More recently, I got into a debate with a friend about which generation of games was the best.  For the non-Pokemon masters out there, the term "generation" in this context refers to a certain set of games.  Red, Blue, and Yellow versions belong to Generation 1.  Gold, Silver, and Crystal belong to Generation 2.  Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, and LeafGreen belong to Generation 3.  Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, and SoulSilver belong to Generation 4.  And Black and White, the latest releases, belong to Generation 5.  (It should be noted that FireRed and LeafGreen are remakes of Red, Blue, and Yellow, while HeartGold and SoulSilver are remakes of Gold, Silver, and Crystal.)  My friend seemed rather adamant about sticking to the classic Generation 1 games, while I made a passionate case for the superiority of Generations 2 and 5.  We both seemed to agree that Generation 3 falls rather flat, and that Generation 4 has its highs and lows.

It was then that I decided to replay the old games.  Why not?  It's been over 5 years since I had played a Generation 1 game, and I don't replay the Generation 3 games nearly as much as the others.  Maybe I'm forgetting something, or maybe I'm missing something about the games.  I embarked on a quest:  replay one game from each generation (excluding the remakes), and record my final thoughts so that I can more definitively decide which generation is the best.  I conquered Blue version over the weekend and am currently progressing through Gold at a rapid rate.  Next on the list is Sapphire version, followed by Platinum and White.  I'll keep you updated!

The Washington Nationals: An Optimistic Future

I'm an unabashed fan of the Washington Nationals.  Go ahead and laugh, I get it.  They sucked as the Montreal Expos and they continued sucking when they moved to our nation's capital before the 2005 MLB season.  But I was living in the suburb of Chevy Chase, Maryland (literally two blocks from the D.C. border) at the time, and I couldn't help but get swept up in the excitement.

Gillespie and Friends: An Introduction

Hello everyone!  I've been contemplating starting a blog like this for a while, and I've finally gotten around to it.  I'm going to try to cover everything from the presidential race to Jeremy Lin to movie and music reviews to video games.  Posts are categorized into different subject areas, which you can view on the right of the home page.  I'll share links to videos and articles that I find noteworthy and/or interesting.  I'll still be working out the kinks, as this is pretty new to me, but I hope you find the blog interesting/informative, and I welcome comments and feedback. 

I have a couple introductory posts up already.  I promise there is more to come!

Why I Don't Support Kony 2012

I'm getting tired of hearing about Joseph Kony.

Seriously.  I'm all for the demonization of war criminals where it's deserved (and by all accounts, Kony deserves it:  the abduction and forced military training of over 30,000 children and the displacement of over 2 million people is nothing to scoff at), but the more I find out about the "Kony 2012" video and the company behind it, the San Diego-based nonprofit Invisible Children, Inc, the less I see the sudden explosion of interest and support for the movement as a positive thing.