Pokemon Go!

Some thoughts on Pokemon Go! Shortly after the initial announcement of the game my brother, Tyler, told me about it. Let me go back. When Pokemon Red and Blue was first released in 1996 it didn't impact me at all. I was ten and worried more about Pogs and Slammers. Anyway, my interest in Pokemon stemmed from my brother. He grew up watching the show. He also played with the cards for a long time. I spent a lot of time in High School babysitting my brother so I saw a lot of the show. It wasn't bad. The movies were better, but better still was when I bought him a used copy of Pokemon Red, it had Chaizard on the cover! We kind of played it together. He liked the battles, so I would give him the game for the battles, but that was about it. So I got to do all the walking and was able to follow the story. The story was amazing and the game play was like nothing I had ever seen up to that point. So I loved the games. After a while my brother and I didn't play the games like that. We would just play on our own. It was because of that original way that we played the game that had the most impact. So, I think that's why he told me about Pokemon Go after the announcement

I wasn't sure about it at first, but the various announcements and ads had me interested. It was almost embarrassing how many times I refreshed the play store the night it was released. I was pleased that it starts like the original game. I accidentally picked Squirtle as a starter. While I was learning to throw the pokeballs I figure that if I caught the Squirtle it would be my starter pokemon. There was an option to run. So it was at that point that I decided that Squirtle could be my starter. In the original game Tyler made me pick Charmander. Later when I played the game solo, I also picked Charmander since picking Charmander makes the game more difficult. I couldn't think of a reason why picking Squirtle would make Pokemon Go more or less difficult. 

So I picked Squirtle. It took me forever to catch him, but he was standing on my couch! So cool! So for people that have not played. The game will use the camera on your phone to capture your surroundings and make it the background for the pokemon as you catch them. That is one of the best things about the game. It's called Augmented Reality. You can turn this feature off, sometimes I do and the background is just a grass meadow. I turn it off sometimes because the area is too dark so then I cannot see the background or the pokemon. Also, sometimes I turn it off because if the pokemon is to the side of me or behind me, then I have to turn my phone towards the pokemon to catch it. But if I turn off the augmented reality then the pokemon is just on the screen. So sometimes it is necessary to turn off. But it is much cooler to play with it on!

By the time I downloaded the game and caught Squirtle, I went to bed. But there was one thing I knew above all else and that was: join team Mystic. Tyler said it was important that I do, otherwise, we probably couldn't sit down to dinner together. He didn't say it in that many words, but I understood.

Three Dogs...or is there?

The next fun thing about the game is that it uses maps from google...I believe it's from google, that's what the game says. So it uses real maps. There are points, PokeStops on the map that are really cool Stops. So, I guess the points are based off a different game from the same company. I'm not sure how the points were decided or how they found them, who took pictures of them, but some of them surprise me. Some of them are things I know. Like the picture I put on the photo lab of the bug art, some of them are things I noticed before, but I never thought of. Like there is one called the Shaking Hands. It's a wall of different hands shaking. Which I have seen before, but I never really thought about them. When I saw it as a spot, I thought about them. I thought what a weird wall! Apparently, there are two Stops at the Shaking Hands, or maybe that is a mistake the one is right in front of the wall, the other is not. So maybe it was accidentally added twice? There are also things I walked by and I never noticed before. Well perhaps I noticed them, because I recognized them, but I didn't know I noticed them. There is one noodle street art stop. I have seen it a bunch of times, but never noticed. People walk under it, all the time, and I think they don't notice it either. I really like that about the game, seeing things I didn't notice. I only really play it when I am walking around the city to work or the gym or my car. But, I think it would be fun to play in a city that I'm not as familiar with. Then I can find all these little things about a city that a tourist wouldn't notice. A local might not even notice some of them! 

Poke Stop. The eye is cool

After the first night, I was able to play the game a little the next day. I visited my first Stops and caught a few pokemon. I was so geek about every little bit of it. At first everything was new. I learned to throw the ball with my finger instead of my thumb, now I'm trying to learn to throw better curveballs since they give you more points, but I had to learn the strike ball first! So, I don't know when I started to do this, but it wasn't that long after I started playing. On the old games when you catch a pokemon you have better odds at catching them if you hold the A button down as the ball shakes. You have to hold the A button down through 3 shakes. I don't have that button on my phone, so I just started to hold my finger over the ball as it shakes on Pokemon Go! I think it makes it easier to catch. I have had a few pokemon break free and flee, but it seems like a lot more pokemon are fleeing from other people, or they have to give them berries. I didn't start giving pokemon berries until today, and that's mostly because I started getting tired of the PokeStops saying that my bag is too full. You still get points at the PokeStop even if your bag is too full. So I still visit them, but I like them better when I collect things.

Another thing that I like about the game is that it makes people walk. In the games there a Pokemon eggs. In order to hatch them you must put them in an incubator and then walk a certain amount either 2 km, 5 km or 10 km. There are ways around walking I guess, but I think it is easier just to walk! Plus if you walk, then you might run into pokemon to catch!

Things that I do not like about the game are that sometimes the servers are down. The servers are much better these a few weeks later than when the game first came out, but there are still some nights where it's very glitchy. I don't mind having to restart the game once and a while. I have seen increasing improvement over the weekend, so I think perhaps the worse is behind us.

I haven't really spent much of the game at the Gyms. So like Poke Stops the Gyms are based off portals from a different game. The Gyms are the most popular portals I guess. While Poke Stops and catching pokemon is like a big scavenger hunt. The gyms are like capture the flag/king of the castle. The gyms are also where the teams come in. There are three teams, Red, Blue and Yellow. I think red is Valor and yellow is Instinct, but maybe I mixed them up. The Blue team is Mystic and that's the team I'm on. The gyms start out a neutral grey color, but when a trainer goes to the gym they capture it for their team and they assign one of their pokemon to defend the gym. Now other people on your team can also assign their pokemon to defend, and people on other teams can try to battle your pokemon and take the gym from your team! I have only gone to a few gyms. So I am a bit confused still, but I think I have the overall picture down. I really want to explore it more, but I think I need stronger pokemon. I know that people assign weak fodder pokemon at gyms too, but I think I need to visit them a little more before I do so. When you use a pokemon to defend you get a defender bonus at the shop. This is a way to earn coins in the game for free. You get a defend bonus every day, but if your defender pokemon gets knocked out of the gym then you don't get the bonus.

Speaking of bonuses. One of the best ways to get points in the game is to catch a lot of Pidgeys and evolve them. Then trade them to the Professor. Pidgeys only need 12 candies to evolve. So you can quickly get points and level up. Rattata and some of the other pokemon are helpful with this too, but you need more candies for the Rattatas. So it's not as quick. However, I heard that sometimes people use the Raticates at the Gyms as "fodder" so that has it's own advantages. I will have to see for myself how this works.

Okay, I think that is all I should say about Pokemon Go! For now, I will probably update later. Probably when I catch a Snorlax.

Two Tucson Trips

As I mentioned in the 2nd HOSA post I was able to take two side trips to Tucson in the last two weeks. So I decided to combine them into one post. The first trip was June 26th and we went down to visit because my cousin moved to Michigan and we were sending her off. The second trip was July 3rd and 4th. I went down because Mary and David were hosting for the 4th of July celebrations. I went down on the 3rd to visit my Grandma (G'ma Mary Lou).

Sunday, June 26th, 2016

Megan, Carson, Mary Lou, Bernadette, Karen

The morning was quite a juggle. We had to situated the dogs, stop by the store for beverages, chips and dip, and meet up with Caitlin so that we could all arrive together. At the store, my mom got the drinks I brought the chips and dip. I picked out Cape Cod Chips which are so good. I heard they are a favorite of people in New Hampshire, where my Dad is from, so perhaps that is how I knew about them. The best part is that everyone can eat them since the ingredients are only potatoes and salt! It's not easy to find food that is delicious that everyone can eat. I also got Mission strips tortilla chips and salsa. I picked Missions because they were the only chips that I could find that were strip. I prefer these shaped chips because it keeps people from double dipping!

When I found my mom she had a 12 pack of Summer Shandy. Shandy in my opinion is just average, and if I can drink something else I probably will. So I got a 6 pack of Mr. Pineapple for me and anyone who wanted one. Also, we tried to find Cider by Ultra, but the store didn't carry any so we ended up with Angry Orchard's. Caitlin prefers Ultra's Cider over Angry Orchard's because Ultra's isn't too sweet.

Bernadette, Bre, Caitlin, Megan

After our adventures in shopping we went to meet up with Caitlin. She volunteered to be the DRIVER mostly because she has recently bought a car, which I have name Great White because it is white and my Mom has a BMW, also white, which I named Beluga! It may seem strange to name cars, but it is fun.

We arrived at the meet up place just a little bit before Caitlin and we were off pretty quickly. We drove all the way to Oro Valley without stopping.

Mary Lou, Bernadette, Karen, Bre, Caitlin

We arrived first, but everyone was there within a few minutes of each other. We all selected beverages and chatted for a while first inside and then outside. It was very hot that day, but the week before in Phoenix the highs were in the 120s so by comparison it was nice weather. Tucson tends to be about 10 degrees colder than Phoenix, it is a higher elevation which is the main reason. Also the weekend wasn't as hot as the week. So we moved outside. Then we were forced into the pool. By both Karen and Melissa, but Melissa didn't even get in the water for a while. All the other girls did go in including Grandma. Bernie also got in the water. Jim cooked and Carson soaked his feet. Melissa got a few pictures in the pool. We are so cute!

When Jim was finished smoking the meat with his new smoker we helped got out of the pool and sat around the deck table for lunch. The deck table is made for four people, but we made it work just great. They made some delicious corn that was white. I have never had white corn before, at least not on the cobb. It was so good and sweet! I used to refuse to eat corn because it is so messy! I still think it's messy, but it is worth the mess. We chatted more mostly about Bre's impending drive to Michigan. She had to travel with her dog, Odin, and her cat, Booger. At least she had Jim to go with her. What a dad! Better them than me.

After lunch we went back into the pool for more swimming, and the spa was put on as well. Eventually Jim, Megan, Bernie, Carson and I were in the spa talking and chatting, while everyone else was inside doing the same thing. We slowly made are way inside too and I think the deciding factor was that Carson was using his hand to squirt water at Megan! It was hilarious, but I had to leave when she did because I didn't want to be next!

We sat with Bre in the family room for a bit longer to say well wishes and will-miss-yous, which was fine until Grandma decided that she should be going home, and then everyone was in tears. At first cute little tears, but then there was some snot and stuff. I am lucky because I only cried when I was changing out of my bathing suit and I saw a picture of Bre at her high school graduation. So I waited in there until I wasn't crying. Then I was able to not cry while everyone else was crying. I had wanted to take nicer pictures than the ones in the pool and when I realized I had forgotten, I was so upset! It was a silly thing to cry about, but I guess since I know I won't be able to see her soon to correct the lack of picture taking, it made me sad!

That is a bit embarrassing to tell, but all in all the day was fun and nice so a few tears is okay.

Sunday, July 3rd, 2016

So, on July 3rd I went back to Tucson. I wanted to try to get an early start. I would rather get to places as early as possible and stay as late as possible if I can help it. However, I was granted permission to stay with my Grandma, Mary Lou, who is a young Eighty-Five years of age. She is awesome! And I like to see her as much as possible, but I also don't want to over burden her. So the plan was to get to Grandma's at around lunch time. I left a little earlier than I intended, I was antsy to get going, but I wasted some time picking up beer. The plan was after a few hours at Grandma's I would drive us to Carson and Megan's new house! They just moved in this summer, they would make dinner and we would play Ticket to Ride, a board game. I wanted to get beer for that. The problem is that Megan cannot drink most beers, so I had to find one that she could drink. I KNOW she can drink Beck's. So I decided to go with that to be safe, but I also wanted to spice it up and picked up Sapphire Beck's. Unfortunately we couldn't determine if this beer was made with corn or not so she could not drink it. The beer was very good and light. A good summer beer. 

After purchasing the beer, and filling up my tank, I drove down to Tucson. I used to drive down often because I attempted to go to school there, except then I needed to take a gap year! Gap years are probably better BEFORE you start school, but I made some great friends there and memories, so I guess I'll say that was sunk costs. The drive this time was much faster. The 10 used to only have 2 lanes, but now the majority of the trip is 3 lanes. The 3 lanes really speeds things up. Also, the radio stations all had themes because it was a holiday weekend, and one station had a 90s theme! Said it was music that we listened to in High School. I am not sure how that makes me feel, but I did enjoy the throwback. 

So, I arrived at Grandma's just around 1 PM. I put up my stuff in the spare room, which used to be my mom's old room. I'm not sure how I feel about that either. Then, Grandma made lunch. I know what you are thinking, but the lunch was a Sonora Hot Dog. Grandma found this pre-cook bacon wrapped it around the hot dog and popped it in the microwave. Yum! And she had one as well. She also showed me her iced tea maker. Which is really pretty cool. I want to be a person that drinks more tea, but I'm not sure that I am. If I was I think I would have to get one.

Helping Grandma with her Phone, Selfie!

After lunch I helped Grandma with her cellphone. She had an android powered cellphone, just like I do. So she tries to save questions for me. Almost all of the rest of the family has iPhones. I know that a few of them could help her even if they usually use iPhones, but I am glad she saves them for me. I love to help her with it. This time she was asking me questions about Instragram. Like how come I don't post pictures on Instragram...she accidentally added an account that I had a LONG time ago. I originally got instragram super early and I didn't have to use a truncated form of my name since no had taken it yet. So I took that one, but since then I really like my normal username. So I ended up starting a new account...oh and I may have completely forgot that I had that first account! That could have been the problem too. So I added my real account, but of course that doesn't have very many pictures either. As you can tell my challenge on taking pictures every day is NOT working out. So you can imagine how I am with instragram. I also added a few other family members, and Reggie haha! Reggie is my family's dog. A friend(s) of my brother decided that Reggie needed his own Instragram account. He only has 3 pictures, so who ever set it up may have forgot. After the cellphone help, we rested for a little bit before the dinner.

The Table

The ride to their house only took about 30 minutes. The house is kind of like my house, except their house is newer. Also, when I brought my house it was built originally for someone else, but they backed out! So there are a lot of things in my house which I would have done differently if I had picked. Anyway, their house was so cute I loved their floors and kitchen. I also loved their snake's room. The snake home is huge! I liked their tables too, both built by the Scott's one by Jim and one by Carson and Jim. I wish I knew how to make a table! The table that Jim built is a coffee table that was in my parents house for the first ten years of my life. That was crazy! But pretty awesome.

Jim and Megan

Jim and Karen arrived after we did, I wasn't sure if they were coming, but I am glad they did, because I got to beat even more people at Ticket to Ride. Woo! Woo! (Train sounds are cool). So I would like to say that I won the game because I have skills and I had a plan, but I didn't really know what I was doing at first. I just picked the longest routes I was dealt; from LA to Miami and then Miami to Boston. I thought I could make a really long route that way. So I built towards Miami mostly, but if I found a good spot near Miami I took that route. I ended up connecting them the two routes to a route that went to Miami. I tried to collect more cards to finish the route to Miami and to get the longest route that way, in the mean time I added to the other end of my routes, and I blocked Carson's route! But after I did that I realized I needed 6 train cars and I only had 5 to get the initial route I wanted. So I ended up not getting the longest route, but I still won!

I admit the main reason why I won was because Carson and Megan who were on a joint team were also taking turns making dinner. So, they were moving back and forth between cooking and playing, I think perhaps they weren't able to play as well. Megan even burned her hand when she tried to pick up a hot pot with just her hands! Ouch! I think we will have to have a second game in the future to really decide who won.

After the game we ate dinner which was so delicious! Lots of veggies, meat and ice cream! It was so good. I don't have a grill at my house so I usually just use a crockpot. It was nice to have something well cooked.

After that Grandma and I went back to her house made some martinis and watched The Match game which was a little risque, but Grandma matched more than I did. After that we headed to bed for the night.

Monday, July 4th, 2016

On Monday, I was able to sleep in a bit because I didn't have my dog with me. He doesn't wake me up too early anymore, but he does wake me up about thirty minutes after my normal wake up time for work. Getting up at the same time every morning is good for healthy sleeping habits, so I don't mind too much. However, I also was glad to sleep in a bit. After I woke up I went out into the living room. I was surprised that G'Ma was wake, not because it was early, but I didn't hear her moving around before that. So she must have tried to be quiet. What a great host. After getting a cup of coffee, she made breakfast for us. I tried to help, but she made a fried eggs and put it on top of a waffle. She also used some of that pre-cooked bacon. She heated it a little on the stove, so breakfast was very simple. It was also really delicious. I haven't had a waffle with an egg on it, but I recently have had burgers and pasta with eggs on them. I liked that so I figured I would like the egg on the waffle. I did of course! Yum!

After breakfast G'Ma showed me some family heirlooms, some is very nice and none of it is rotten, but I think I lot of it she keeps because they used to belong to someone else like her Grandma, Mom, sister or cousin. So she doesn't feel like she should give it away. She has everything put away nicely, but she has been going through it trying to give it to family members. I already have a set of dishes at my house. I know she said that she has other sets that she plans to give to other people, so I didn't want to take another set. I also have a lot of little genealogy related things, like the Journals and photos. So I thought maybe I shouldn't be taking things that my Mom, Aunt or Uncles will want. Some of the stem wear was so so nice. I just didn't feel right about accepting anything.

We did that for almost the entire morning, and by the time we looked up we needed to leave to get to the 4th of July lunch held at David and Mary's! We would be playing games, eating steak and potatoes, and drinking. I asked Grandma if I could drive her Prius, because I might consider a Prius in the future. She brought hers so long ago, but it was still running great. I will really have to consider it more, but I'm not really in the market just this minute to get one. My car, Big Red is still running, so I will keep that until it doesn't run anymore.

So, I drove west to David and Mary's. It is not far from Grandma's house and we arrived first. Grandma volunteered to bring prizes for the games. Which were some of the very nice things like a hand of fertility, a candle holder, and a vase. The only problem was that we kept playing games in teams. Like Pictionary and darts. An thing about pictionary I'm pretty sure as a kid the adults would play pictionary, charades or cards after dinner. The kids would play other things, mainly whatever I could get Carson to agree to do. Which was a lot, then Caitlin had to agree because she was out voted. Anyway, I think they just wrote down things on a piece of paper and picked them from a hat. Then they would draw or act out while their team guessed the answer. Now pictionary is fancy and has a board with pieces and mainly whoever goes first spends the entire time drawing pictures while the other team waits for their turn. I think the first way is more fun, but I guess with a board there is a true winner. I also am not sure if a dice is necessary in the game, but it's there.

Before we started pictionary, Karen, Mary and I played Jenga. I think I played pretty well, but I tried to make the Jenga tower easy to topple on the other two. Which meant that it was easy to topple on me, and topple it did. They tried to say that I got a prize, but I had lost the game not won it!

When Jenga was over we and Carson, Megan, Jim, David and Grandma spent some time catching up, and also playing with the cats! Trying to make them jump for a toy, or get into a paper bag. I neither like or dislike cats so it was entertaining, but it didn't make me want a cat. When the cats wouldn't jump for a toy, we started our pictionary game. I think my team lost, but I blame it on the fact that our team didn't get to draw for a long time. We only ended up getting a chance to draw after winning an all play, but it wasn't long before we lost an all play either. Oh well.

We ate lunch after pictionary, but before darts. The dinner was steak and potatoes, with onions. There was salad and asparagus. Delicious! We chatted for a while. Then told stories about what troublemakers we were as children. Except Carson because he was very well behaved, everyone else however, had stories to tell. I think even Grandma, but no one asked her.

Darts was fun! I am not very good at playing darts, but I still liked it. I was watching other people play most of them put the same foot forward as the hand that they used to throw the dart. I didn't do this. I put my right foot forward and threw with my left hand. I also used to do a similar thing in bowling, but I always bowl with my right hand, but I would put my left foot forward! Bowling is not a fine motor skill so using my right hand for bowling isn't a big deal, but I'm not sure why I would do the goofy footed thing. I think I understand in darts because I haven't really played darts too many times. So I don't really know what the best way to stand is. Standing like that is the most comfortable so that's what I do. I played baseball a bit as a little kid, so I think that's probably why I stand with my right foot in front. I am not sure if this is a bad thing or not, and I don't play darts enough to know. Anyway, our team really did lose at darts. We play 301 which is where you start with 301 points and work to zero, but at the end of the game you have to get the exact number to win. The other team got down faster that our team, but were stuck for a while trying to get exact numbers. We got down to 6 which was lower than the number they needed, but they ended up winning! I think it might have been better if my team didn't include me! Because I wasn't very good at aiming. So I kept getting higher than a 6!

We then had to figure out the prizes. I ended up with two even though I lost every game I played. So I think what happened was that winning Ticket to Ride still earned me a prize. I took the fertility hand. It is kind of cool, also, I have another hand that I think is supposed to be for rings, but I use it to hold a wand that I bought at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. So I put the hands together. They are friends now. I also won the candle holder.

It wasn't long after the prize distribution that people were ready to get going. I had to get back to Phoenix, pick up my dog and my parent's dog, I was dog sitting for them, before getting to my house. I left a little earlier that I probably would have, but I noticed some monsoon clouds swirling in the south. So I decided to leave before they reached Tucson. The storm never reached Phoenix, which is disappointing. I love storms!

Oh one last thing that isn't really trip related. When I arrived home it was just about the time when the fireworks were starting. I love seeing fireworks from the highway/freeway because you can see a bunch of different displays. It's funny to see them from a distance as the fireworks don't go as high as you think they do! Anyway, I noticed that on the mountain a jeep was parked up on one part. I have never seen a car in this place, so I'm not sure there is a road there, but I am pretty sure this jeep was sitting there because they could see most of Phoenix from there, and from that position they could see every fireworks display going on for miles! I am pretty impressed! I'm sure the view was amazing.