Sunday, December 30, 2012

911 is for emergencies = rocket science

Here's a good (or bad, depending on your point of view) one to end the year on. The police department of Chatham-Kent, Ontario published a countdown of the top 12 silliest calls this year. Holy crap, taking these calls would be one job I wouldn't do. Now here's the scary part: this happened in one year, in one city where the population is barely over 100000 - and going downwards. Can we hope this means these people aren't breeding?

Here's the 2011 countdown as an added bonus. Enjoy!

Bulbagarden suspect-tested... for malware?

If you've tried accessing Bulbagarden's website for the last few hours, you will have noticed that there's a malware alert message coming from Google. Just telling you guys it's a false positive, or something to that effect. Bulbagarden's internal review suggests the alert was caused by a malicious report. Really? What kind of person would have so little of a life that they would file a false malware report on a Pokémon fansite? This is stupid. Either way, you shouldn't be afraid of using their site as you usually do.

Update: Turns out there really is something wrong. Some rogue ad thing or something that's affecting a bunch of sites, including Bulbagarden. As you can tell, I'm not very knowledgeable about that stuff, but what I do know is ADS ARE THE DEVIL.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Poll: What is the big January 8 reveal?

(Yeah, let's try the poll functionality again. Hopefully it works better now...)

So we're being promised a big announcement on January 8. And quite frankly, it could be a lot of things... it's gotta be something major if they're teasing us like that. Even if it's just a crappy spin-off. I can't imagine it being an event or something like that. My gut tells me it's related to gen 6... we're just about getting into the timeframe where our first gen 6 info should appear. It would be a bit earlier in the calendar year than it was in gen 5, but then again, with BW2's early release and the notion that eight months might be a little long for the Plasma anime arc, a summer release might not be out of the question. Besides, remember how Diamond and Pearl were announced TWO YEARS before they were released? Of course this isn't happening again, but still. Point is, this wouldn't be outrageous timing for something related to gen 6.

So, what do you think it is? Of course you get nothing but bragging rights if you call it, but hey, bragging rights are awesome in their own way.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Interested in Conquest? Only a few days left!

Just a heads-up to anyone who hasn't bought Pokémon Conquest and is considering it - the downloadable events are only available until the end of the year, meaning you're going to pass up on some interesting stuff if you don't hurry up!

The clincher is arguably the mighty Reshiram, definitely the easiest legendary to obtain as long as you downloaded it. Access to Motonari and Motochika in the main story is also compelling, since they are the only warlords of their respective types among those obtainable in the main story (sure, you can also use generic warriors, but warlords have much better stats, and getting a head start on evolving their Pokémon and potentially themselves will be very helpful for the special episodes). There's also the three downloadable episodes, where your interest in them entirely depends on your completionist tendencies - there are six episodes that are the same as Okuni's, six others are the same as Ranmaru's, and three others are the same as Keiji's. Although the last one may have a certain appeal, since Keiji doesn't appear in a lot of episodes, whereas Okuni and Ranmaru are obtainable in a vast majority.

Something to keep in mind, so make yours up quickly!

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Obvious gen 6 hint from Junichi Masuda

Straight from Serebii:

Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream has posted a greetings card sent out by GameFreak. This greetings card doesn't reveal much news but does state that Junichi Masuda has said that during 2013, they intend to further evolve the world of Pokémon. It's currently unclear as to what exactly this means for Pokémon games but we'll bring the announcements as they come.

Well if he was trying to be subtle, he failed miserably. Just watch though, people that are completely out of the loop are still going to either have no clue what he's talking about or take this as a confirmation of RSE remakes this year.

True story: a blonde moment

So my family got together for Christmas, we had a good time, exchanged stories... here's one from my mother, which I hadn't heard beforehand since I moved away several months ago.

Remember Felix Baumgartner? The guy who broke the sound barrier while freefalling? Well, my mother's boss was watching the whole thing at a restaurant near where they work, and one particularly dumb blonde asked, "wait, what if he misses the Earth?"

You know, I never, ever met anyone as stupid as the filth you find on the internet in person, but having seen them in action I can totally believe someone would be this dumb. Isaac Newton mustn't have just rolled in his grave, he must have sleepwalked all over the graveyard.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Are you spending big this holiday season?

I know I'm not. My family pretty much decided to slash into the holiday spending this year, and of course I'm happy to follow suit. Not just because it means a bit more money in my pockets, but also because I hate shopping, and I hate it even more when every shop is chock full of people and it takes half an hour to find a parking spot. Then there's the fact that I made some donations, chiefly to my alma mater as well as TSG and the Make-a-Wish Foundation, so my contribution to the Christmas tree's underside is quite limited this year.

What about you? Are you dropping by every store in a 300-kilometre radius in order to give something to every relative you have, even third cousins twice removed? Or do you just give a little something to your parents and siblings and are done with it? Or possibly you're too young and have no income to buy presents with, so all you do is GET presents?

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Troll of the day + bad life choices on YouTube

Remember NicoCW? He's a long-time regular of mine, and also a very skilled music remixer. I even used some of his stuff for a recent Wind Waker video. Well, his latest work is Lava Powerhouse from Sonic Spinball, which was apparently obscure enough to prompt a question that got a response that I found to be simply priceless. I know lemonparty.org (DON'T GO THERE!) gets most of its hits from stuff like that, but the fact that this is a Sonic variant is very amusing to me. Probably because while some fanbases are known for their obnoxiousness and bad manners, Sonic's is without question the most perverted one. I don't even want to think about Googling that.

On that note, here's something that I noticed, having a YouTube channel that has a decent amount of traffic. Remember how YouTube asked us if we wanted to use our real names there a while back? Since then, I've noticed that the enormous majority of stupid comments I get are from people who use their real names. The opposite holds as well: most of the people who go by their real names now are dumber than a hockey puck. It couldn't be because going by your real name on a site like YouTube is asking for lots of trouble, could it? With the kind of material you're giving out, don't be surprised if your employment chances melt down faster than your extra lives in Lava Powerhouse.

Friday, December 14, 2012

A friendly reminder

If you're going to play SMB1 in public, make sure you're either super-skilled, or adequately prepared. Otherwise it WILL end in tears. Modern gaming has made us into wusses, hasn't it?

Monday, December 10, 2012

A useless event... but not for Pikachu!

Japan woke up this morning to the announcement of a new event, namely a Deoxys with Dark Pulse and Nasty Plot. So for a change, instead of giving moves it doesn't need to a Pokémon that direly needs some moves, they give moves to a Pokémon that has so many to begin with that they're useless already!

Of course, Nasty Plot may sound appealing on something with the offense of Deoxys-FR, but how exactly are you going to set it up? Dying from a Caterpie's Tackle isn't a good sign. Deoxys-E hardly has the best defenses ever, either, and since it's uber it hurts even more. It could allow Deoxys-LG to attack in OU, but the key to its success is spreading entry hazards like nobody's business. Even with +2 SA, it won't scare too many people, especially when its best offensive move (which is still found on less than 10% of Deoxys-LGs) lowers SA by two levels. Now watch as I'm completely wrong and it becomes bog standard on one form or the other.

As for Dark Pulse... well, it already has Shadow Ball, and these moves are as redundant as it gets. So I'm pretty sure this is not going to change a thing to how Deoxys is played.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Douchenozzle cons ProtonJon, no anger ensues.

For those of you who missed it, here's what happened: Some attention whoring failure of civilization tried a cheap publicity stunt for his Super Mario World ROM hack, Notte Luminosa, by faking having cancer and saying his dying wish was that someone would LP the hack. ProtonJon and Raocow both obliged, which is impressive considered the former quit LPing SMW hacks a long time ago. And then it turned out Yanama was a cheating lying scumbag, something Jon himself eerily foreshadowed right off the bat.

But the most amazing thing is how Jon reacted to the whole fiasco. Of course he wasn't very happy about it, but at the same time his reaction was more balanced than the way most people, including myself, would've reacted. You just know I would've gone on a rampage of verbal diarrhea, spewing out every cuss and insult in the dictionary and inventing new ones. The day Smogon axed Sand Veil would have been NOTHING compared to that. That feeling when you realize you've been played for a fool is, in my book, one of the most aggravating things ever. But since Jon has a brain, he used it to downplay the importance of what happened. And you know what? As much as I hate to say it, he's 100% right. It didn't physically harm anyone, the worst thing that happened was two people taking some time out of their lives to play a game. Heck, Jon suggested that people donate to cancer charities at the beginning of the project, which if I understood correctly, people actually did. So this stupid stunt, in an odd twist of fate, may end up saving someone's life.

Now, as much as it pains me to give any press to this Yanama asshat, I guess the point of this post is to praise ProtonJon for his attitude towards what happened. Not everyone would react in such a positive, constructive way, least of all myself.

So as far as I'm concerned, I'm just hoping Skelux doesn't pull off something similar! Not that he really needs to, his work is actually quite popular, and his magnum opus was LPed by multiple people, including a popular internet personality. Speaking of Star Road, maybe I should get around to doing that practice run soon. (Yes, I need a practice run. It's that hard.)

Thursday, December 6, 2012

OMGWTF YOUTUBE SUCKS RAGE RAGE RAGE

Nah, since I have a brain and actually noticed that all they changed was a bunch of font sizes, I'm not about to rip them a new one. Of course it would help if they started improving stuff, but the fact (yes, it IS a fact) that they stopped going downwards for at least one change, as minor as it is, is a start. Hopefully.

Of course, there's no hivemind quite like the internet, so I'm not expecting everyone to catch on to the painfully obvious, but hey, maybe after another three and a half billion years evolution will finally give us a worthy payoff. (Provided we don't die from our own stupidity in the meantime.)

Monday, December 3, 2012

Great trick for defending borders in Conquest

Not enough warriors to defend all your borders? Or are they too weak after the Gabite Officer did a number on your chances? Well, here's something that could be useful (in fact I'm abusing it like you wouldn't believe in the ninja competition episodes).

First, make sure Avia is among your bordering kingdoms. Defend the rest of them with the best forces you have, then put your weakest floater in Avia, alone. The AI will naturally be drawn to that kingdom, and will send one solitary warrior there. If their Pokémon isn't a floater, you've already won. If it is... to be honest, I've never tried playing ring-around-the-rosie all over the map to avoid coming close to the opponent, but if I have to attempt it I'll let you know how it goes.

The idea, in the event that you're not facing a floater, is to send yours straight to the top left island of the map. It's completely impossible for anything that doesn't float to actually STOP on that island, since whichever spring pads send you there immediately put you on another spring pad. Just stall out the 20 turns, watching the AI desperately try to get to you and failing miserably, and you've won.

Now, I'm not sure how reliable that method is when you share borders with several AI armies. Can you get invaded more than once per turn? It's never happened to me at all, so I'm not sure. Nonetheless, the point of this post was to give you a basic idea of the trick. Deeper intricacies are something you may have to find out for yourselves.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Tornado-eating vacuums!

From the same company that brought you ghost-eating vacuums! Next time you're threatened by a tornado, don't run away like a pussy, just start up that vacuum and you're guaranteed to win the battle of suckage! (Warning: might end in Darwin Award depending on which kind of suckage you win at.)