coprime

So May 10th was my 1-year anniversary in Pokemon Go, and I wanted to look back at how far I've come, so I noted down all the stats I could about my PoGo journey so far.

( I expect this to be of no interest to anyone other than me. )

For a mostly casual player, I think I'm doing pretty good! (My personal litmus test for defining casual vs. serious is how involved someone is in the local Discord/FB/etc. PoGo scene.) I like what all the walking has done for my mental and physical health. Husband & I will frequently play together, so that makes for a fun, casual date. I have my own personal goals in the game, mostly that I want to fill in every circle in my Pokedex, so I still have goals to work towards. I try not to get too caught up in keeping a full living dex, although sometimes that is tough. I also struggle with evolving shinies because Shellder was one of the first shinies I caught and I was so excited to get a bright orange Cloyster, and instead I ended up with something almost identical to regular Cloyster. It was a letdown! What if other shinies are also letdowns!

Thing the First: I'm not planning to do snowflake_challenge this year, but I was pondering Day 1 and came up with something.

In your own space, talk about your Happy Place—the things that give you joy, calms you or keeps you sane. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

CrunchyRoll recently put up two Haikyuu!! two movies that it said I hadn't watched, so I did! And it turned out the movies are just the third season repackaged, which I had watched, but I watched them again because I was enjoying revisiting the Karasuno boys. And then I was thinking about this question, and the thing that brings me joy is fandoms, especially revisiting old ones. Rewatching Haikyuu!! was like, "Ahh, what sweet volleyball-obsesses idiots. Noya! ♥ ♥." Then I came across links to a couple new-to-me Bashir/Garak fics, and it was like, "Ahh, yes, Bashir/Garak, so good and banter-y ♥ ♥." And I was reminded how I'll sometimes get hit by nostalgia and go searching for old beloved pairings or fandoms I don't frequent much anymore and how delightful it is to find something new-to-me or even something old that I enjoy just as much this time around as the first.

(Thinking about this made me go see if Chrome & Gunmetal and File 40 were still around. Chrome & Gunmetal, yes; File 40, not so much! So then I had to do my best to update any links in my bookmarks or coprime_recs that linked to File 40, and "Ahh, Napolean and Illya ♥.")

So I think that's my happy place? I love adding new fandoms, but there's something so nice about revisiting an old one somehow, like snuggling down in a warm blanket with something relaxing playing while wearing your fuzziest jammies.

Thing the Second: A couple friends came over today, and we played Takenoko, which was a Christmas present for me from Husband. He thought I would like it because of cute pandas, and he was totally right. We played a couple times ourselves after the friends left too. You and the other players build a garden and grow bamboo in it while the panda goes around eating the bamboo you just grew, and along the way you are trying to complete different card objectives (like, have the panda eat two green bamboo or grow three pink bamboo that are three units high), and whoever has the most points at the end wins. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Playing a game does not feel like it takes as much time as it does, which is good, and there didn't seem to be a ton of time between turns even with four people, which is also good. And it's just fun going around growing bamboo and then having the panda eat it.

Thing the Third: I feel like there is a different thing the third I was intending to blather about, but I can't remember what it was, so instead I'll blather about something that I keep intending to blather about but haven't yet: Pokemon Go.

( Cut for talk of health/weight stuff )

I really enjoy Pokemon Go! It's gotten me walking nearly every day. (The past couple weeks have been rough with the holidays and then immediately getting sick after.) And I really enjoy getting the fresh air even when it's cold. I've rediscovered the bundling techniques to stay warm outside I used to use for my college job. I'm like a serious casual player? I try to put myself in situations where I can join people doing raids or maybe get an EX pass, but I don't raid every day or go out because someone posted on Discord. (Although I will say I'm in if I happen to be out and someone else says something.) But it's so much fun for me to go out and see what I'll find. Maybe it'll be something new, or maybe it'll be another Hoppip! I have found many Hoppips, but Hoppips are cute and fun to throw pokeballs at, so it's all good. I do not think I would enjoy this game so much if I did not like pokemon designs in general. Husband is like, "Oh, you hatched another Trapinch? I'm sorry," and I am like, "Trapinch, yay, Trapinch is so cute!" It probably helps that several of my friends also play it turns out, so I had people to answer questions when I first started. And the community where I live is pretty friendly. Or at least, if there is drama, I am far enough removed from it to not know it exists, haha.