look at this fake pokemon card i got (real one on the right for comparison)

I’m naming him Dongle and the cardstock he’s on feels barely thicker than printer paper i love him he’s going with all my genuine cards in a card sleeve in a binder <3

I’ve started keeping a list of questions, remnants of a past life that I now need a beat or two to remember, if I can remember at all: What time do parties end? How tall is my boss? What does a bar smell like? Are babies heavy? Does my dentist have a mustache? On what street was the good sandwich place near work, the one that toasted its bread? How much does a movie popcorn cost? What do people talk about when they don’t have a global disaster to talk about all the time? You have to wear high heels the whole night? It’s more baffling than distressing, most of the time.

Full text of the (excellent) article is under the cut. (The Atlantic, March 8th, 2021)

I first became aware that I was losing my mind in late December. It was a Friday night, the start of my 40-somethingth pandemic weekend: Hours and hours with no work to distract me, and outside temperatures prohibitive of anything other than staying in. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to fill the time. “What did I used to … do on weekends?” I asked my boyfriend, like a soap-opera amnesiac. He couldn’t really remember either.

Since then, I can’t stop noticing all the things I’m forgetting. Sometimes I grasp at a word or a name. Sometimes I walk into the kitchen and find myself bewildered as to why I am there. (At one point during the writing of this article, I absentmindedly cleaned my glasses with nail-polish remover.) Other times, the forgetting feels like someone is taking a chisel to the bedrock of my brain, prying everything loose. I’ve started keeping a list of questions, remnants of a past life that I now need a beat or two to remember, if I can remember at all: What time do parties end? How tall is my boss? What does a bar smell like? Are babies heavy? Does my dentist have a mustache? On what street was the good sandwich place near work, the one that toasted its bread? How much does a movie popcorn cost? What do people talk about when they don’t have a global disaster to talk about all the time? You have to wear high heels the whole night? It’s more baffling than distressing, most of the time.

RECOMMENDED READING

There’s No Real Reason to Eat 3 Meals a DayAMANDA MULL

The Pandemic’s Future Hangs in SuspenseTHE COVID TRACKING PROJECT

A Quite Possibly Wonderful SummerJAMES HAMBLIN

Everywhere I turn, the fog of forgetting has crept in. A friend of mine recently confessed that the morning routine he’d comfortably maintained for a decade—wake up before 7, shower, dress, get on the subway—now feels unimaginable on a literal level: He cannot put himself back there. Another has forgotten how to tie a tie. A co-worker isn’t sure her toddler remembers what it’s like to go shopping in a store. The comedian Kylie Brakeman made a joke video of herself attempting to recall pre-pandemic life, the mania flashing across her face: “You know what I miss, is, like, those night restaurants that served alcohol. What were those called?” she asks. “And there were those, like, big men outside who would check your credit card to make sure you were 41?”

Read: Sedentary pandemic life is bad for our happiness

Jen George, a community-college teacher from Cape Elizabeth, Maine, told me she is losing her train of thought in the middle of a sentence more and more often. Meanwhile, her third grader, who is attending in-person school, keeps leaving his books, papers, and lunch at home. Inny Ekeolu, a 19-year-old student from Ireland, says she has found herself forgetting how to do things she used to do on a regular basis: swiping her bus pass, paying for groceries. Recently she came across a photo of a close friend she hadn’t seen since lockdown and found that she couldn’t recognize her. “It wasn’t like I had forgotten her existence,” she told me. “But if I had bypassed her on the street, I wouldn’t have said hi.” Rachel Kowert, a research psychologist in Ottawa, used to have a standing Friday-night dinner with her neighbors—and went completely blank when one of them recently mentioned it. “It was really shocking,” Kowert told me. “This was something I really loved, and had done for a long time, and I had totally forgotten.”

This is the fog of late pandemic, and it is brutal. In the spring, we joked about the Before Times, but they were still within reach, easily accessible in our shorter-term memories. In the summer and fall, with restrictions loosening and temperatures rising, we were able to replicate some of what life used to be like, at least in an adulterated form: outdoor drinks, a day at the beach. But now, in the cold, dark, featureless middle of our pandemic winter, we can neither remember what life was like before nor imagine what it’ll be like after.

To some degree, this is a natural adaptation. The sunniest optimist would point out that all this forgetting is evidence of the resilience of our species. Humans forget a great deal of what happens to us, and we tend to do it pretty quickly—after the first 24 hours or so. “Our brains are very good at learning different things and forgetting the things that are not a priority,” Tina Franklin, a neuroscientist at Georgia Tech, told me. As the pandemic has taught us new habits and made old ones obsolete, our brains have essentially put actions like taking the bus and going to restaurants in deep storage, and placed social distancing and coughing into our elbows near the front of the closet. When our habits change back, presumably so will our recall.

That’s the good news. The pandemic is still too young to have yielded rigorous, peer-reviewed studies about its effects on cognitive function. But the brain scientists I spoke with told me they can extrapolate based on earlier work about trauma, boredom, stress, and inactivity, all of which do a host of very bad things to a mammal’s brain.

“We’re all walking around with some mild cognitive impairment,” said Mike Yassa, a neuroscientist at UC Irvine. “Based on everything we know about the brain, two of the things that are really good for it are physical activity and novelty. A thing that’s very bad for it is chronic and perpetual stress.” Living through a pandemic—even for those who are doing so in relative comfort—“is exposing people to microdoses of unpredictable stress all the time,” said Franklin, whose research has shown that stress changes the brain regions that control executive function, learning, and memory.

That stress doesn’t necessarily feel like a panic attack or a bender or a sleepless night, though of course it can. Sometimes it feels like nothing at all. “It’s like a heaviness, like you’re waking up to more of the same, and it’s never going to change,” George told me, when I asked what her pandemic anxiety felt like. “Like wading through something thicker than water. Maybe a tar pit.” She misses the sound of voices.

Prolonged boredom is, somewhat paradoxically, hugely stressful, Franklin said. Our brains hate it. “What’s very clear in the literature is that environmental enrichment—being outside of your home, bumping into people, commuting, all of these changes that we are collectively being deprived of—is very associated with synaptic plasticity,” the brain’s inherent ability to generate new connections and learn new things, she said. In the 1960s, the neuroscientist Marian Diamond conducted a series of experiments on rats in an attempt to understand how environment affects cognitive function. Time after time, the rats raised in “enriched” cages—ones with toys and playmates—performed better at mazes.

Ultimately, said Natasha Rajah, a psychology professor at McGill University, in Montreal, our winter of forgetting may be attributable to any number of overlapping factors. “There’s just so much going on: It could be the stress, it could be the grief, it could be the boredom, it could be depression,” she said. “It sounds pretty grim, doesn’t it?”

The share of Americans reporting symptoms of anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, or both roughly quadrupled from June 2019 to December 2020, according to a Census Bureau study released late last year. What’s more, we simply don’t know the long-term effects of collective, sustained grief. Longitudinal studies of survivors of Chernobyl, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina show elevated rates of mental-health problems, in some cases lasting for more than a decade.

I have a job that allows me to work from home, an immune system and a set of neurotransmitters that tend to function pretty well, a support network, a savings account, decent Wi-Fi, plenty of hand sanitizer. I have experienced the pandemic from a position of obscene privilege, and on any given day I’d rank my mental health somewhere north of “fine.” And yet I feel like I have spent the past year being pushed through a pasta extruder. I wake up groggy and spend every day moving from the couch to the dining-room table to the bed and back. At some point night falls, and at some point after that I close work-related browser windows and open leisure-related ones. I miss my little rat friends, but I am usually too tired to call them.

Read: The most likely timeline for life to return to normal

Sometimes I imagine myself as a Sim, a diamond-shaped cursor hovering above my head as I go about my day. Tasks appear, and I do them. Mealtimes come, and I eat. Needs arise, and I meet them. I have a finite suite of moods, a limited number of possible activities, a set of strings being pulled from far offscreen. Everything is two-dimensional, fake, uncanny. My world is as big as my apartment, which is not very big at all.

“We’re trapped in our dollhouses,” said Kowert, the psychologist from Ottawa, who studies video games. “It’s just about surviving, not thriving. No one is working at their highest capacity.” She has played The Sims on and off for years, but she always gives up after a while—it’s too repetitive.

Earlier versions of The Sims had an autonomous memory function, according to Marina DelGreco, a staff writer for Game Rant. But in The Sims 3, the system was buggy; it bloated file sizes and caused players’ saved progress to delete. So The Sims 4, released in 2014, does not automatically create memories. PC users can manually enter them, and Sims can temporarily feel feelings: happy, tense, flirty. But for the most part, a Sim is a hollow vessel, more like a machine than a living thing.

The game itself doesn’t have a term for this, but the internet does: “smooth brain,” or sometimes “head empty,” which I first started noticing sometime last summer. Today, the TikTok user @smoothbrainb1tch has nearly 100,000 followers, and stoners on Twitter are marveling at the fact that their “silky smooth brain” was once capable of calculus.

This is, to be clear, meant to be an aspirational state. It’s the step after galaxy brain, because the only thing better than being a genius in a pandemic is being intellectually unencumbered by mass grief. People are celebrating “smooth brain Saturday” and chasing the ideal summer vibe: “smooth skin, smooth brain.” One frequently reposted meme shows a photograph of a glossy, raw chicken breast, with the caption “Cant think=no sad .” This is juxtaposed against a biology-textbook picture of a healthy brain, which is wrinkled, oddly translucent, and the color of canned tuna. The choice seems obvious.

Some Saturday not too long from now, I will go to a party or a bar or even a wedding. Maybe I’ll hold a baby, and maybe it will be heavy. Inevitably, I will kick my shoes off at some point. I won’t have to wonder about what I do on weekends, because I’ll be doing it. I’ll kiss my friends and try their drinks and marvel at how everyone is still the same, but a little different, after the year we all had. My brain won’t be smooth anymore, but being wrinkly won’t feel so bad. My synapses will be made plastic by the complicated, strange, utterly novel experience of being alive again, human again. I can’t wait.

ELLEN CUSHING

is the special-projects editor at The Atlantic.

1) Ilove your meta about tvd and it would be perfect if the writers saw them too. I however don't think stelena can be endgame,'cause we don't have enough time. The time jump works for Stelena,they have history and the emotions are allready there for the audience. But we don't have enough time to prepare the audience for a break up for Steroline. They've spent too much time building up that relationship for end it and have the audience emotionally satisfied. I remember them starting to

(cont.) build Steroline really early on,when Elena turned vampire. I think that’s too much ground work to get rid of in one or two episodes. I guess Delena too but Damons death could clear that. Obviously Stelena would make sens,storywise and other but I don’t think the writers have as good vision about the show that you have. They don’t remember everything and don’t notice little details as you do. I’ve heard actors say fans pay more attention than writers. But thank you for giving me a little hope. 

Firstly, thank you! I’m glad you liked my meta. Secondly, I do understand your point completely, but at the same time I kinda have to disagree. 

You say there isn’t enough time to prepare the audience for a Steroline break-up, but since they’ve already broken up once because of Stefan becoming human, it would hardly be a surprise if they broke up again. Particularly since the reason they broke up still exits - Stefan being a vampire. 

Also, look back at the track record of break-ups on TVD. Do you think the writers prepared us for Stelena breaking up? Do you think there was enough time for the viewers and fans to get used to that? In 4x01 Elena told Stefan she chose him because she loved him and it was the best choice she ever made, in 4x02 they were waking up in the woods together, making out in the woods and celebrating Elena being alive, in 4x03 Stefan allowed Elena to find enjoyment and happiness in being a vampire by taking her on his motorcycle and they later got hot and steamy in the bedroom, in 4x04 Elena told Stefan he was the one getting her through her transition and then had an awful experience feeding with Damon and realised all she wanted was comfort from Stefan and in 4x05 when Elena saw Stefan walk into the room at Tyler’s house she literally ran into his arms and was overwhelmed with relief. There were signs that D*lena were developing with her hallucinating about him when she was under the influence of the werewolf venom and the two of them dancing together when Damon taught her to feed and probably some other moments that I’m forgetting, but ultimately the beginning of season 4 showed Stelena’s relationship to be pretty solid. They were clearly still in love and the only issues that they were really up against was Elena dealing with her transition. It doesn’t matter which way people try to spin it, the time between the Stelena break-up and Delena get together was shockingly fast. In 4x06 Elena was under the Hunter’s curse for the entirety of it, so she wasn’t even in her right mind and yet she came out of that and immediately knew she wanted to break up with Stefan, yet before that there was no real signs that she didn’t want to be with him. And in 4x07 Elena told Caroline she was trying to figure out her feelings, but she wasn’t at all. Elena showed absolutley no shame or hesitation in flirting with Damon the second she’d broken up with Stefan, making heart eyes at him and flirting with him, then going back home to jump his bones. I don’t understand how anyone can see that as being natural progression or as happening in a timely fashion. Any development of build-up D*lena had was essentially ruined by how much they rushed them actually getting together. 

But getting back to the point, the writers aren’t afraid to speed things along or rush a break-up if that’s what they want to do. I’m not by any means saying they will do this with Steroline by breaking them up, but I’m saying that to assume that it’d be impossible would be naive. Despite what people like to convince themselves, ultimately, the writers don’t care about what the audience wants. The Originals were some of the most loved characters on the show and they got rid of them, Katherine is one of the most loved characters and they didn’t just kill her but sent her to hell, Kai has been one of the most popular new characters to ever be introduced in the late seasons and they didn’t hesitate to kill him off, Elena was the main heroine upon which the show was centered and they continued the show without her. I regularly check the official TVD Facebook page just to see the kind of things people comment, because I feel like often the only opinions available on here are very biased by the fandoms I’m a part of (so Stelena, Bamon, Forwood) and it’s more objective to look at those comments. And do you know what is the most popular comment I see on practically every single video? “Bonnie Bennett deserves to be happy.” So many people love Bonnie and just want to see her have a great storyline involving her magic and to have some real development and happiness and that’s been a huge thing amongst fans for the last 4 seasons, if not more. Have the writers listened? Have they buggery. There are some scenes or ships that have most likely been written in because of a push from the fans, but generally the writers don’t care what we have to say and especially now. Like you said, the fans notice more of the details than the writers and we point it out to them all the time. If they actually listened so many things that have happened wouldn’t have happened. Even something silly, like I saw someone call Julie out on the fact that when Alaric became human his compulsion wasn’t reversed, but Stefan’s was and her response was, “Tell me who stayed compelled after Alaric became human?” or something along those lines. And it’s like, erm….Elena for a start. Is she really that ignorant to her own show? Elena stayed compelled right up until the end of season 6 when she took the cure and became human. And guess what? Elena didn’t suffer any complications from her compulsion being undone. It’s absolute bullshit and little things like this prove that the fans are definitely more observant and on the ball with what’s happened in the past. (I’m pretty convinced most of us could write the show better than they could to be honest haha). 

But going back to my actual point. This is the last ever season. Why do they care about listening to fans and making them happy? It’s not like they need to keep people tuning in for more episodes or to make money. They’ve already made all the money they’re going to make and actually by shocking or upsetting viewers by breaking Steroline up, they’d probably get more people talking about it and more media coverage. If anything, the finale is probably going to be one of the first episodes in seasons where we’re going to get exactly what the writers want. It’s the last ever episode and Julie and Kevin are so invested in the show. I wrote a book a few years ago, which I spent 2 years writing and although it’s terrible, it’s so special to me because it’s a piece of my heart and soul and I worked on it for such a long period of time. The writers have been working on TVD quadruple the time I spent writing my book, just imagine how invested they are. If they’ve got lost in particular plots or made mistakes in their storytelling, the finale is their chance to put all of that right and for them to end it however they want. Personally, I don’t think anything is off the cards, including a Steroline break-up. 

And you’re welcome! I’m glad I gave you some hope, even if it was only a small dose haha.

0326: Understanding Other Construction Company Costs And Opportunities To Increase Your Profit

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0326, And It Will Be About Understanding Other Construction Company Costs And Opportunities To Increase Your Profit

  Many contractors are having trouble adapting to the new economy. I have made more mistakes – than ten of the average contractors put together. I've learned a great deal of hard, hard lessons, and worked my way through several "Character Building Moments." What I am about to ask you to do is something I have done for many years during my contracting days, and it still works.

  Understanding Other Costs:

  Marketing Cost

  The cost your company spent to acquire and maintain the job. Depending on how you allocate marketing dollars as a percentage of sales or a fixed budget will have an impact on your marketing cost per job. Your cost-per-call, closing ratio, and other related information is all part of your operations, accounting, and bookkeeping reports.

  Mobilization Cost 

  Are the costs you incurred to get a crew to the job site in terms of travel time and vehicle operating costs; and then the labor costs to unload tools, equipment, and material and put everything in place for easy access and not in the way of the work to be done. These costs are generally high and fixed.

  Demobilization Cost

  Are the reverse and generally lower because it takes less time to load the truck or van since you know where everything goes, and you know the quickest route back to the shop or office. These costs are also generally high and fixed.

  Add these costs together and you will understand the value of staying on each job and solving all of your customers, or client's construction and maintenance issues are so much more profitable than windshield time.

  Some contractors prefer not to offer "add on" sales, change orders, additional work orders whatever you call them because they feel it is a disservice to their clients and if it makes you uncomfortable don't do it.

  Let's Run The Numbers Starting With The Cost To Acquire A Customer:

  Step #1 – Generate a Profit & Loss Report from the previous two years and isolate total income. (Note: All companies are only two years old regardless of how long they have been in business because what happened more than two years ago doesn't matter when developing a financial forecast).

  Step #2 – How much money did you invest In Marketing? Not investing money in marketing is like winking at a pretty girl or guy in the dark, you know you are doing it, but they don't. Relying on word of mouth means being in a race for the championship of low price leaders!

  Step #3 – How many new customers or clients did you acquire during the past two years?

  Step #4 – Divide Total Income from step #1 by the number of customers or clients in step #3, and you will have a rough idea of your sales per customer.

  Step #5 – Divide The Amount Of Money You Invested In Marketing by the number of customers or clients in step #3. Just know that 80% of the marketing is done to keep current customers, and only 20% is designed to attract new ones. I have studied marketing extensively and will offer this one hint. Why do you suppose the car manufacturers invest so much money advertising their products when most people continue to purchase similar makes and models over and over?

  Step #6 – Multiply The Net Profit Percentage shown on your Profit & Loss by the sales per customer in step #4 to generate a rough idea of the net worth of a customer to your Contracting Company. This is one of the numbers that become very important if you ever want to sell your Contracting Company.

  Step #7 – Customer Gross Profit in step #6 minus marketing cost in step #5 = Customer Net Profit.

  Step #8 – Where MR > MC,  when the Marginal Revenue is greater than the Marginal Cost and risk is manageable, do the deal. 

  Step #9 – Where is Break-Even or how far can I go before it is time to quit doing it?

  Step #10 – When you know how much a client is worth, you will know how much you can invest to acquire a new one and as many new ones as you want. 

      Profit Opportunities:

  Add-on Sales

  Your Customers And Clients - Are depending on you to give them good advice and help them protect their real estate investments.

  I cannot begin to tell you the number of times people have come up to me at social and networking events to relate stories about how they did everything but get on hands and knees and beg their contractor to do a little extra work while they were already there. When I asked if they expected it for free all of them said no, they planned and were willing to pay extra.

  You can choose  to provide add on sales and services for your customers and reap bountiful profits or wait until your customer calls one of my contractor clients who are learning how to grow a profitable and successful business and they will take your customers off your hands and turn them into high-profit clients.

  Service Agreement

  Service agreement holders are more likely to be clients that add more value to your construction company because they represent the most loyal segment of your customer base. Every service agreement client represents future work. In the meantime, service agreement clients are a source of cash flow and are predetermined to call you instead of your competition when repairs are necessary.

  Non-service agreement customers are more likely to be customers and fickle. They may call your contracting company for future work, or they may decide to shop the competition and use the information they find to negotiate for a lower price. In some cases, they may not even remember you or your construction company name.

  Also, your replacement sale close-ratio usually is higher with service agreement clients and your overall pricing and related service care level can be much higher, resulting in even more raving fans. Service agreement clients trust you, follow your recommendations, and do not frequently shop around. 

  Accept Credit Cards

  Unplanned Emergencies are stressful, now add "how am I going to pay for this" to the mix, and the anxiety increases exponentially! For most people short in cash supply, it leaves them using a credit card, getting a bank loan, or selling something to raise money as their best options.

  For Example: Homeowner with a leaking roof is going to get it fixed right away because rainwater is damaging the interior of their home including some irreplaceable sentimental treasures such as items passed down from parents and grandparents.

  Who will they call? - You, I hope! If you are their contractor and you are actively working and the contractor they like and trust.

  Accepting all credit cards makes you the hero because they get instant financing and your Electronic Armored Car takes your money to the bank.

  "Everybody wins, your client gets roof fixed, they earn airline miles and other perks, and you made a sale which you could have easily lost to a competitor that accepts credit cards."

  Conclusion:

  Two Easy Ways: to massively increase cash flow and profits is to cut costs or increase revenue. One is limited the other one is not. Money is not everything; it is merely a way for you and your family to enjoy the good things in life. By serving your client base effectively giving them what they want, your wealth will provide opportunities for other people who help you to do the same.

  About The Author:

Randal DeHart, PMP, QPA is the co-founder of Business Consulting And Accounting in Lynnwood Washington. He is the leading expert in outsourced construction bookkeeping and accounting services for small construction companies across the USA. He is experienced as a Contractor, Project Management Professional, Construction Accountant, Intuit ProAdvisor, and QuickBooks For Contractors Expert. This combination of experience and skill sets provides a unique perspective which allows him to see the world through the eyes of a contractor, Project Manager, Accountant and Construction Accountant. This quadruple understanding is what sets him apart from other Intuit ProAdvisors and accountants to the benefit of all of the construction contractors he serves across the USA. Visit http://www.fasteasyaccounting.com/randal-dehart/ to learn more.

Our Co-Founder Randal DeHart - Is a Certified PMP (Project Management Professional) with several years of construction project management experience. His expertise is construction accounting systems engineering and process development. His exhaustive study of several leading experts including the work of Dr. W. Edward Deming, Michael Gerber, Walter A. Shewhart, James Lewis and dozens of others was the foundation upon which our Construction Bookkeeping System is based and continues to evolve and improve. Check out our Contractor Success Map Podcast on iTunes. 

  OUTSOURCED ACCOUNTING FOR  THE BUSY CONTRACTOR IN A MOBILE ENVIRONMENT

                          Download the Contractors APP today from the App Store or Android Store

Access Code: FEAHEROS

Click here to download the App on Android:

Click here to download the App on iOS:

Simply scan the QR code or search for ‘MyAccountants’ in the App Store and enter the Access code: FEAHEROS to utilize the powerful App features and capabilities, and benefit from having our Construction Accounting App at your fingertips, 24/7."

PS: Even if you are not a Construction Contractor you will find a plenty of benefits in the app so we invite you to download it too! It's Free so why not?

  Check out this episode about Contractors Marketing - Accounting - Production (M.A.P.)!

November 17th and 18th, 2017

Extra long update here, comin' in real hot!

After some research, I established my plan going forward. The first step of that plan is to retrieve Arctid, my Venonat from Route 15, from the PC, and start ascending Silph Co. Psychic coverage is going to be very useful, and since my Jynx Plan A is foiled, Venonat will have to do until I can get something better.

Of course, once I'm in Silph Co. it becomes clear that that's where I was supposed to go first - the trainers are nothing to my Pokemon. Which... confuses the heck out of me, given that Koga is definitely meant to be Gym 5. Like, do you want me to be in Fuschia City or not?

Of course, once Arctid hits a level where I'm like "okay maybe now I can actually use him to fight this thing he has the type advantage against", he dies up good. Siiigh. Well, at least it means I won't have a big hole of "unable to catch anything but still not technically FAILING a capture" on my big list of captures by location. I head back to Route 14, where I quickly replace Arctid with another Venonat, this one dubbed Sciari. Back to Silph Co. I go!

Heh. TM for Selfdestruct. Good joke, video game.

I made the smart decision to actually look up Blue's team before heading in to fight him and... yeah, he's a bit too tough. Grinding time!

Oh, while I'm out, I might as well fish on Route 19. Goldeen is a dupe, but Staryu sure ain't! Boy, if I hadn't already spent my one and only ever Psychic TM on Lola, Staryu would be SO useful. Or if it like... learned Psychic STAB moves. Seriously, what is with movesets this gen? Every single Pokemon is such trash. Sandslash literally doesn't even get any ground type moves outside of TM. It might as well have been straight up Normal.

Grinding literally takes the entire rest of the 17th. That and losing at Pokemon Cards, but hey, this isn't a "let's nuzlocke Pokemon TCG" blog, is it? (Also how would you even do that? Burn every card that dies in battle? Only buy one booster pack at any given store you visit? Lmao)

While grinding, Moschops tries to learn Focus Energy, which... is another hilarious joke. Both because it's at such a high level, and because it's supposed to quadruple the crit rate... but it actually QUARTERS it, making you almost never get a crit after using Focus Energy.

Sciari, on the other hand, learns Psybeam, which means I can finally stop mashing B every time it tries to level up, and turn it into the beautiful moth it was always meant to be.

Psybeam in hand, my first move when I started playing the next day was to fight my way through the Fighting Dojo. I actually did this so soon after waking up that, when claiming my Pokemon, my errant finger erroneously hit "start" instead of "select" when naming the Hitmonlee I claimed. Its name is "B", but uh. Please pretend that it's "Bruce." Not that I'm using it. I HAVE my Fighting type.

I then checked out Koga's gym trainers, since I was on such a roll, and, funny enough... literally only the one dude with a Level 38 Hypno was even close to a challengingly high level. Everything else was a piece of cake. Koga included.

Oh, except for that Level 42 Weezing. That's pretty nuts, right? Well, actually... Maybe not.

Gen 1's AI tech is so primitive that NPCs, even gym leaders, will make real boneheaded moves in the interest of type superiority. Famously, confronting Lance with a Poison type makes you nigh untouchable, since most of his Pokemon will use Agility since Psychic is super effective, without even checking to see if Agility does damage.

His Weezing knows 2 poison moves, Smokescreen... and Selfdestruct. All I need to beat him, besides Cingu and Sciari, is something that resists poison, and can either for sure tank a Selfdestruct OR... that I don't mind losing.

Remember vlad?

My team for Koga is Cingu, Sciari, Lanius (my highest leveled team member at the time) and Vlad. His other Pokemon are easy peasy.

And as expected, when he switches in Weezing, I switch in Vlad... and he blows himself up. That's Koga's gym badge! Which also mens I can Surf outside of battle! Whoo-hoo!

First destination (floating from Pallet on Bernie's tummy, repels on), for easy flying, is Cinnabar Island. Now, I've mentioned my mysterious plans here... I'll discuss those later. I have not yet put them into effect.

Instead, I think it's high time we take down Dingus. I box Bernie back up, and for once my actual team is the same number of Pokemon as his team.

The one concern I had was with Gyarados, but I got it sleeping and lemme tell ya... it never woke back up. B)

Now I have a Lapras! Her name is Nessie. Of course since nothing in this game can be easy, I get it at Level 15. Sooooo grinding time!

While grinding, I started clearing out trainers on the surfing routes, and grabbing Pokemon. Oh, but first... Penthes learned Razor Leaf! And you know what that means...

Leaf Stone!!! Finally, my lovely pitcher plant is all overgrown up! (Get it? Overgrown, like, plants do? Do you get it? Do you see the humor in my joke?)

Okay so. Route 20, I fished! Horsea appears! Aaaand I killed it accidentally, cause Sing and Surf start with the same letter. Been a while since that's happened, huh? Feels like old times.

Seafoam Islands! I didn't actually go through here yet, although I plan on doing so - my intent is to battle all of the legendaries I can, treating them as additional boss fights. Still though, I stepped inside to catch a dude! After 5 consecutive Staryus, I finally found a Seel. Staryu isn't even that common I thought? Ah well. Seel's name is Harp.

Route 21, where I could catch a Tangela if I really wanted but look I have Penthes, I need no more grassy boys! After fishing up yet another Staryu, I caught a Shellder! Its name is Okeefe.

Since I still have grinding to do, I stepped into the Pokemon Mansion, hoping not to be completely owned, and... It's okay actually! I caught a Grimer, named it Ooze. I fought my way through, and Nessie actually started doing most of the work way earlier than I'd thought. Surf owns bones. Ice Beam is pretty solid too. I finished the mansion, grabbing the Secret Key, and... set out for the unfinished business in Saffron.

First, Giovanni. Nessie, Cingu, Penthes and Moschops join me for this fight, and, quite frankly... he's a little bitch and I could have made short work of him before doing the Pokemansion.

Next is Sabrina. She and her gym trainers are a touch tougher, but I manage fine with Lanius, Cingu, Nessie and Penthes.

Also now Nessie is finally at around the same level as the rest of my team! Hooray!

Now, here I am. Plotting and planning. Blaine shouldn't be too hard at all. Giovanni is just as much of a puss as always. I have three more dungeons to tackle - the Power Plant, Seafoam Islands, and Victory Road. The resting places of the three Legendary Birds. But most importantly...

The Elite 4.

Now, I'm planning here still. I know what I want to do, but I'm interested in getting any feedback there could be. Especially since the ask box which I didn't realize was closed this whole time, is now open! (That's "Option" on the menu!)

The first point: An Electric type would be super effective against almost all of Lorelei's Pokemon, against both Lance and Dingus' Gyarados, and against Agatha's Golbat and Lance's Aerodactyl. That's really really good. The Power Plant has electric types. In fact, it has options: Voltorb and Electrode would be duplicates, but that still leaves random encounter chances for Magnemite/Magneton, and Pikachu. Now, obviously one of those is way way better to have than the other. But is that a chance I'm willing to take, when the other option is repelling my way through until Zapdos, and hoping to high heck I capture it (or chucking my Master Ball at it, maybe?) Zapdos does have legendary tier stats, but it also is part flying type, which removes its ground weakness... but makes it weak to Ice, meaning its usefulness against Lorelei will be limited to its ability to OUTSPEED Lorelei. Zapdos is fast, but is it fast enough to body an elite four member without getting hit?

The second point: I really really need Psychic STAB. I love my big mothy boy, but he's just not cutting it. Now, stop me if you've heard this one: Cinnabar Island's coast acts very strangely. Since it doesn't expect to have an encounter rate but it can be GIVEN an encounter rate, basically any Pokemon can show up there as long as it can show up somewhere else. The question is one of gambling. You see, I could play it safe and get a Drowzee by going to Route 11 where I've already caught Sandshrew and Spearow and flying to Cinnabar... or take a bit more of a risk with a higher payout stats-wise by using Route 24 and trying to catch an Abra? Not only is there the slimmest margin of possibility for it to flee an Ultra Ball, it might also not show up, since that route also has Caterpies and Metapods that I don't yet have. I suppose doing the more traditional Safari Zone glitch is also possible, to try for an Exeggcute, but A: that'd supplant (ha!) my boy Penthes, and B: even less of a guarantee, and jeezy kableezy do I NOT want a dang Nidoran as my booby prize. So, what should I do? Play it safe or get dangerous?

The third point: If I'm adding these guys to my team, then it's going to exceed 6, and someone's gonna get boxed. Nessie is INTEGRAL to the Elite 4 gameplan, and also just kinda rules overall. Lanius is my flyer... but if I get a Zapdos, that replacement feels like a no-brainer. Sciari is right out as soon as I've got an actual real Psychic type, so really it's just a matter of who's losing out to my Electric type. Cingu's Slash will be incredibly helpful, and Dig should double down on effectiveness for the Onixes, Agatha's poison types, Rhydon and Arcanine. Moschops will make Lorelei that much easier. That really seems to leave it to Lanius, who feels more expendable but will probably be most useful in the Elite 4 fight (especially vs. Venusaur) and is also my flyer... and Penthes, who I've become so emotionally attached to as the first Victreebel I've used and a fantastic assripper who came from such a humble start (especially losing Vine Whip, lmao), who has, in lieu of my lost Minos, become practically like my starter. Can I really afford to leave one of them behind? Should I nix someone else instead?

Please, leave your thoughts.