I am a changed woman.

So, I've just got back from a day trip to London with work, and let me tell you, I am a changed woman. This afternoon I ended up make-up shopping in Selfridges with some girls at a place called IllaMasqua. If you have never heard of this place (I hadn't) look at the website. Seriously, this place does make-up in shades that shouldn't be allowed, much less that a helpless tour guide should be forced to try on. The blue lipstick really was an experience that I never, ever want to repeat.

As a result of all this horrific girlyness my inner nerd was rocking backwards and forwards in a foetal position in the corner of my mind. It's ok though, because I remembered a gif that is the perfect way to get my nerd to emerge from the dark dark place she is currently in:

The only man in the world with hot collar bones.

Anyway, my infatuation with the glorious yummyness that is Benedict Cumberbatch aside (I can't take my eyes off it), I have succeeded in coaxing my inner nerd into helping me write another blog entry. On the way back from London, I fell asleep on the coach, and was awkwardly awoken by my colleagues in a scene that somewhat resembles this:

It required a pokéflute. It was really awkward.

Ok, maybe I didn't transform into 460kg monster, but I was completely out for the count. This is my excuse as to why I haven't done a new drawing for today - I'm afraid you are going to have to put up with one that's already up on my deviantart:

Oddish, Gloom and Vileplume

I have to say, Vileplume was one of my favourite pokémon when I was younger but I had serious moral issues with the whole stone forced evolution. I mean, it's like saying your pokémon isn't good enough for you. Ash never did it and part of me kind of agrees....oh the moral questions raised by pokémon!

Adios Pokéfans!

What I'm listening to: Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, particularly this. Watch it. And then watch it again. Continue ad infinitum.

I found my Pokéwalker!

Today, I had the early shift at work. While I was rummaging around in a drawer looking for a hair tie, I discovered my Pokéwalker! I have neglected my SoulSilver game, and my progress is sadly lacking. Therefore, despite the fact that there was no time to dry my hair properly, there definitely was time to transfer my dragonair to said Pokéwalker. Goddammit, if I was going to spend all day on my feet, it was definitely going to be beneficial for my team!

And so, I thought now would be a good a time as any to upload my drawing of Dratini, Dragonair and Dragonite (complete with wings an' all):

I feel the need at this point to have a whine about Lance and his goddamn underleveled Dragonites. I was so looking forward to my Dragonair evolving at level 47 or whatever level they are. 6 year old me was crushed to realise that Nintendo was breaking its own rules. I can only conclude that Lance was feeding his Dragonites steroids. They should really start doing drug testing on the gym circuit.

Looking at the Pokédex entries for Dragonite I feel the need to pull up one fact that is repeated over and over again.

Dragonite is capable of circling the globe in just sixteen hours.

Bearing in mind, ladies and gentlemen, that it takes nearly 24 hours to fly from the UK to Australia we are going to do a little maths....

Take the circumference of the Earth (assuming we are talking about the Earth) to be 40,000km.

40,000/16 =  2,500 km/h

This thing can fly at 2,500km/h. Concorde flew at approximately 2,200 km/h.  What *the hell* are they feeding this thing?! Look at the stubby wings. I can only conclude black magic is involved.

In other news:

I am super excited for this:

Pokémon Conquest!!! Eeeeeeee!

You get to play as a "young Warlord" who  "encounters a variety of Pokémon, as well as Warriors and Warlords inspired by the Japanese feudal era." It sounds AWESOME! And it comes out on the 27th July. *And* it's only £23 to preorder on Amazon. I reckon it won't get as much attention as it deserves because of the impending release of Black & White 2, but I really hope it turns out to be as awesome as it sounds!

I always keep my promises...

And so here is my drawing, exactly as promised previously.

Staryu & Starmie. Hermaphroditic Pokémon apparently.

So, the red and blue Pokédex description of Staryu is:

"An enigmatic Pokémon that can effortlessly regenerate any appendage lost in battle."

Aha. I see what you did there Nintendo. It's like a starfish. Clever. Starmie's is pretty similar:

"Its central core glows with the seven colours of the rainbow. Some people value the core as a gem."

Ok, well that's all well and good. But if we look at the Pokédex entry from Black and White we get:

"At the centre of its body is a red core, which sends mysterious radio signals into the night sky."

Wait, WHAT? Is this Pokémon trying to communicate with something in outer space? The Pokémon stadium dex entry gives us the answer:

"This Pokémon may have come from outer space"

Ohmigosh. Starmie is clearly a fallen shooting star. How did I not see this before? It's so obvious. But the question is, if Starmie came from outer space, where did Staryu come from? Perhaps, this is the first case of Pokémon devolution. Maybe it's like Magnemite and Magneton, and Starmie is made from two Staryu stuck together which can then seperate out again. That would explain how the second star can move almost independently of the front body.

I think I might be getting a little too into this...

Post 12 Hour Shift Blogging

So, yesterday evening I went to the pool instead of the gym in the hope of avoided Craig The Terrifying PT as I had learnt, much like when your Charmander gets crushed by Brock's Onix for the first time, that I needed to level up before I took on that particular gym leader again. Unfortunately, fate was not on my side as Craig The Terrifying PT was on pool duty this evening.

How it was meant to be...

What actually happened...

What was planned to be a half hour for relaxing body and soul turned into the first swimming lesson since I was about 10. I was just like:

GOOOOO AWAY!!!!!

Unfortunately, I do not know hyper beam so I just had to put up with the man until he picked up on my eff off vibes and buggered off. I was trying my best to be all pissed off Misty at him, but I don't think I've got it just right yet.

Channeling the spirit of the world's favourite gym leader made me want to draw her Pokémon which I *have done* honest. Unfortunately, my family are all asleep and they aren't going to appreciate me using the scanner at midnight, just to please the Internets, so you are going to have to wait til tomorrow to see it. Why not just wait to publish till tomorrow?

Because then it wouldn't be a Pokémon a day. Duh.

Being completely unprepared...

So yesterday I went to the gym. No, not the cool kind. The kind where you walk in and immediately feel like you should have got out more as a child. Anyway, thanks to Craig, the absolutely terrifying PT, I woke up this morning feeling pain in places I didn't even know there were muscles. Seriously, I now know exactly how Loki feels in The Avengers after Hulk has smashed him into the floor several times.

Seriously. It's like my spine is full of cement.

Anyways, this got me thinking about this little place, which is another case of me being totally unprepared for what was coming.

Yup. It's Viridian Forest.

Ok, so this may seem like an odd thing to say, but you have to bear in mind that collectively we all now know exactly what to expect when we step into a forested area in Pokémon.

Excessive amounts of goddamn bug Pokémon.

But the first time around, I literally no idea what I was expecting. This was the time when I had just realised that stepping in front of a random person on a path was bound to result in a battle, and I had only just figured out that you couldn't run from said battles. I also still thought that you had to go all the way back to your Mom's house every time you wanted to heal, but that's a story for another time.

I just remember being absolutely terrified of this guy:

He is clearly standing there waiting to pounce.

But when he offered me handy advice, rather than trying to beat the ever loving crap out of my beloved pets, I completely ignored him and continued on my merry way through the considerably less terrifying forest.

Unfortunately, of course, I ran into the goddamn Bugcatchers, who I was unaware were to become a staple of Pokémon games for the next ten years. Anyway, you wouldn't think this would be much of an issue, but turns out I was completely unprepared for any poison of any description, having ignored the helpful advice of guy #1 to go and buy some antidotes. So, although it pains me to admit it, after his Weedle succeeded in poisoning all of my Pokémon, six year old me continued on her merry way, unaware of the impending doom. And sure enough I soon found myself back at the Pokémon centre, realising that maybe antidotes were the way forward.

Upon my second trip through the forest I'm happy to report I was more successful. Decking Caterpies left, right and centre, I finally got out of the goddamn forest and moved on with my Pokémon journey, cursing Bugcatchers for their wily ways.

Moral of the story: Take some antidotes to the gym.


*Edit*

I finished the drawing I was going to publish with this just now after work. I'm beginning to think I should maybe do these in colour; I did some in acrylic aaaaages ago, but that takes time, skill and good paints, none of which I have very much of at the moment. So here we have #010 #011 #012

I have to admit, in my current replay of Yellow, I have both a Beedrill and a Butterfree on my team at the moment. I find that early on in the game they are pretty useful for gym battles and whatnot, even taking account of the fact that sleep powder only ever works for one turn on opponents Pokémon but ten when used on mine (or at least it seems).

Amusing parental anecdote: My mum walked in on me when I was drawing Metapod and asked what I was drawing so I informed her of the name of the Pokémon to which her response was "It's a green shrimp thing". Made my day!

Explanation and Eeveelutions

So, it seems that blogging is the new cool thing to do. And, as some of you may know, a while back I was issued an unintentional challenge that has resulted in me trying to draw all of the original 151 Pokémon. I have therefore decided to combine the two, and thus A Pokémon A Day was born. I will be posting my drawings and reminiscing about six year old mes experience of playing Pokémon.

I thought I would start with the Gen I Eeveelutions because this is the drawing I've done that I'm most proud of so far.

Apart from choosing a starter (which was a problem the first time around, but not at all after I realised that the only option was Charmander), I think this was the most difficult decision of the entire game for six year old me. What with there being only one in the entire game, and this being before the Internet and before I had any friends, choosing the final form of my Eevee was like choosing my favourite carboxylic acid derivative (that is to say, nigh on impossible). I will admit that it took me a ridiculous amount of time to realise that this Pokémon was not going to evolve of its own accord (as you will learn, six year old me was a bit of an idiot).

However, most of you will I'm sure be thrilled to know that I chose Vaporeon.

Because it was blue.

And blue was my favourite colour.

Told you I wasn't an intelligent six year old.