Explain Yourself (NOT for new folks).

Hey everyone. This is where you should post a description of yourself so everyone else at Smogon can get to know you better. This isn't just a drop in and say "hey what's up, I'm new..." To be quite honest, I'm not sure that new posters will benefit from posting here, because if you haven't established yourself in the community, people are just by nature less likely to read any lengthy diatribe you write in here.

Here's the OP from the previous thread, started by Bugsy. This sums up what this thread is all about:

Just to give two more examples of what you should be posting in here, here are the first two replies in that thread:

So, go ahead. Who are you... really?

I'm 20 currently; I go to Bard College in New York (Hudson Valley area). I've lived in the northeast basically all my life (Pennsylvania and New York), and have never lived in a city, or even been to one for a very long period. Yep, I'm a country boy.

As far as my personality goes I'm pushy, loud, opinionated, and often pretty assholish. I became this way at the start of my senior year in high school after I became pretty fed up with being the somewhat stereotypical geek. I started to enjoy my life quite a bit more after I made that change, and I mark it as one of the best things I've ever done.

I'm a junior now in school. For the past two years I've been a mathematics major, now I've hit a crisis. This summer showed me how much I hate the kind of work that you'd do as a mathematics major, so I'm considering switching to physics or something. What could I do with a physics degree? Well, probaby a lot. My dad wants me to join him in business, but I'm not so confident that what he has in mind is actually going to, well, work. And what I wanted to do after graduation anyway my dad is adamant against, and no one I know here or in real life would believe me anyway if I brought it up, so, yeah. I'm at something of a hard point in my life.

I'm a pretty expert programmer, and have designed most of the Competitor engine's subsystems. I see programming as more of a hobby than anything else though; I can't really see myself doing this as a job. I mean, I could definitely do it, and I'm surely one of the best...I just don't know how much I could stand doing it all day every day. But hey, I guess it's a marketable skill.

One thing that no one here knows about me is that I'm a pilot. I learned the basics on a nicely-powered single engine Piper (can't remember the model) before the guy who owned it moved away and now I'm far too poor to finish my training. Should all go well, I'll finish my license training on some helicopters this winter.

Oh, most people in real life that I know, know I play pokemon. It's never been a problem: see "pushy, loud" etc. And as far as pokemon goes...been playing since 1999, brought to competitive pokemon and the old RPGamer board by Uiru. I wrote some shitty guides for pokemon daily back then, and now I write some awesome guides for Smogon.

Alrighty, I'll give this a try.

I'm a 16-year old brown guy from Brampton, Ontario, Canada...(AKA the brownest town in Canada). My real name is Navin. My background is 50% Trini, and 50% Indian. Brampton's a nice place, but kind of boring. I'm pretty sure that there's some smogoners that live in this area, it's quite peaceful at least.

Ok, so I'm about 5 foot 5 1/2 inches. Not very tall for a guy my age, but I suppose I might still be growing being only 16 years old, so it doesn't matter.

I'm not usually much of a talker, but I am a great listener and I'm very wise about life. I'm also a determined guy when it comes to school, although, like most teens, I am very lazy most of the time, but when there's something that's absolutely got to be done, 99.6% of the time, it will be done.

In my spare time, I like going on the computer (like I'm doing now...) and I also enjoy playing video games, going for long walks, etc.

Now, about the long walks, I find them to be an awesome way for me to think. I don't know what makes it like that, but it just is, and I find that to be very peaceful and cool.

Now, my interests are things like math and problem solving. I also quite enjoy cross-country running as it is an awesome test of endurance and great exercise. I do like drawing on occasion, but most of the time, my biggest interest is lazing around.

Now see, I may not talk that much, but a lot of the time when I do talk, it's a saracastic comment, heh, oh well. I usually don't make it sound overly mean, and when it does, I really don't mean it to be that way and I'll usually apologize if it does.

About my personality, I used to be horrendously shy and soft-spoken, but as I said, I enjoy challenges, and I have started to overcome that, and it feels great! I'm normally a pretty nice guy if I say so myself. I'm pretty helpful as well, but I honestly don't care about helping people that don't care about getting it. No point in wasting my time if they aren't going to budge.

Now, as for any girls in my life, that can wait. I've got lots of firend that happen to be girls, but I'm too young to seriously care about that stuff like dating right now, just gotta seize the day and live it up one day at a time!

My religion...I'm a 100% Christian, and I love it.

Unlike most people, I am left-handed, and I feel cool!

Now, I normally hate sports, but I do happen to like soccer. The world cup was awesome for me to watch because it was the first time I actually sat down and bothered to watch the black and white ball go around the field on my TV.

Ok, so the reason I love pokemon is because they all just look so cool! Ken Sugimori is awesome.

Yeah, if there's anything more to add, I'll add it later.

DM, was that good?

I'm 21 and in my second last year of studying civil engineering at a university in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. I have pretty good marks and am passing everything in a fairly difficult course, mainly because I love mathematics. I currently work at MacDonalds and am pretty much broke. I am lucky to live in the best country in the world. I have been playing pokemon since RBY came out, but only competitively since I have joined this forum, really.

I am a pretty laid back type of guy in real life. I like to laugh and to love. I absolutely love music and have about 85gb on this computer. I have a very wide range of music from psytrance to death metal to 70s prog rock to gangsta rap to classical, and everything in between. I desperately want to live a sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle, but the rock and roll is lacking mainly because of a lack of talent, so I just listen to a lot of it! I love to go to parties and raves and dance like a madman. I also sometimes take chemicals to enhance my experiences and loosen me up at said raves. I have experiences with many psychoactives that have granted me many life-changing insights into my personality and the world, and many awe-inspiring experiences. I also take some drugs recreationally outside of parties. I am currently walking the tightrope between studying and building towards a promising career and going crazy on drugs every weekend, and am doing pretty well if I do say so myself!!

I love my friends and family more than anything, and am lucky to have some of the most tolerant, and downright fun friends in the world. I do not know how I have been so blessed. As for women, I have not had a serious girlfriend this year but a few flings. I am not really interested in having a serious girlfriend since my girl of a year and a half broke my heart in december. Aww, no sympathy for the devil though!

I believe the point of life is to have fun and to make the people you love have as much fun as they can. Life is short, and I'll be fucked if anyone is going to shorten my experiences. I am pretty anti-nerd, as tolerant as I am of other peoples freedom to do what they want to do. This may sounds ironic from a person with over 500 posts on a pokemon board, but whatever. I just know what I have experienced, and although other people have different opinions of what is 'fun', EVERYBODY should fuck on mdma! Even the nerdiest of nerds. It's just so goddam fun! 1000 times more intense! Ok I'll stop! the end!

Hi I'm Cooltrainer20, now CT20 thanks to Arti, who changed it for me. I've been playing around with Smogon with a couple months now, spent a great summer on IRC, and now patiently awaiting the start of school which is tommorow.

I'm at a modest 5'7 at 15, which I think is pretty good for a half-Asian person, although I am more asian than white. I can speak Tagalog decently, and if you aren't severly retarded English as well. I also dabble in Spanish, I am taking the class at school.

I'm currently at a junior at a Catholic school in San Francisco Bay Area called Moreau Catholic High School, and its run by the Holy Cross. I am sort of laid back, considering my defiency in time management, but still manage to receive excellent grades in school. I am horrible at math, not grade-wise but proficiency wise, but I do very well in English and Science. I can do math in science, I typically do well in things that I am interested in.

Speaking of religion, I like to call myself a devout Catholic, but thats not without my doubts about the whole deal. I go to church everyday, pray before I go to sleep, carry a Rosary in my backpack, and make the sign of the cross when I feel uneasy. It is silly, but I don't really care, I guess praying sort of comforts me.

I also play boys volleyball(Although, in Roy's words, "Boys and volleyball is an oxymoron). And I'm running cross country in the fall, and spend a lot of my time on the computer. I'm not a very athletic person, but I really do try my best.

Personality-wise, I would guess I'm outgoing. Sometimes I can be a bit too positive, but then again I can be very pessimistic as well.

Regarding my plans for the future, I probably will have Smogon in my life for a long time, and I'm happy about that. I'm not too particular about my college, although the a University of California would do fine. I want to travel the world someday, and teach something to someone.

Pokemon is great, period.

Also, if you want to know a fun fact, my name is Roy Karlo, two names that are occupied by two smogon members, Roy and Carl.

I'm a sixteen-year-old guy from a part of Russia called Tatarstan. My parents and I moved to the United States nine years ago, so I am fluent in both Russian and English (and Spanish soon, hopefully). This September, I'll be a senior in high school, but what I'm really looking forward to is going off to college. I've always wanted to study physics and math, even though most people seem to think that those two subjects are very boring :-( oh well, I have a high aptitude for them and they are the two areas of academics I'm genuinely interested in.

My online and real-life personalities do not really differ. I'm always pretty opinionated, stubborn and elitist. In school, I can describe myself as one of those guys who never puts his full effort into anything, but always performs well. I think that's one major quality that either makes you respect or envy me. Oh well, I think it's going to bite me in the ass one of these days in the future, but I'm too apathetic to care about that sometimes, haha.

My two main interests are music and Tae Kwon Do. I've been practicing martial arts in general since I was five (although it was a lot less serious then as you can imagine), and Tae Kwon Do since I was ten. Right now, I am a first dan black belt, looking to test for my second dan before I go off to college. Music-wise, I'm pretty much into a bunch of different bands, mostly metal. Dream Theater, Symphony X, Scar Symmetry, Dark Tranquility, Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Sonata Arctica, X Japan, Ensiferum, Wintersun, Pain of Salvation, Rush etc all come to mind. I enjoy discussing music a lot, and you'll tend to see me in music conversations on #smogon.

About Pokemon... I got into it in 1999 by watching the show. I didn't get my first game - Gold until fall of 2001, and then Red in spring of 2002. I immediately got Ruby when it came out, but stopped playing it a few months later, only to pick it up again a bit randomly in early 2004 when I found GameFAQs after searching for a walkthrough. My username is pretty much garbage, but who cares I was thirteen at the time.

ok, that's about it, I think.

I'm 15 years old, Portuguese, living in Matosinhos, Porto, I believe it is unnecessary for me to explain my nick. >:)

Physically, I'm a bit overweight, not too much, I'm quite tall for my age, I have light blue eyes, apparently girls really like my eyes, they can stare at them for ages, this has happened a couple of times in class, I currently have like 2 inches of hair, with a ponytail on the back, a curly ponytail, not too long, like 8 inches or something around that.

I'm not too tanned, because I don't go to the beach that often.

Socially, I'm well-accepted, I'm sometimes the source of many mockery, but who hasn't ever been, right? I have this complex, I'm a hypocrite when it comes to insults, and stuff. I like mocking women on their social status for fun purposes only, to see their reaction, note that I'm 100% in favor on the women's rights, I think women and men are equals. I just like seeing their hilarious angry expressions. ;)

Psychologically I'm healthy, no great history of psychological issues on my family.

My tastes on music vary from time to time, there was once I time where I enjoyed Limp Bizkit, now I don't even keep it on my hard drive. Check my signature for my last.fm profile. It'll save me some time. Online, I may very well be witty one second, and be incredibly retarded the other, it's just how I am I suppose, though, when I'm around Smogon, I tend to control these desires.

Medically I don't have any real issues, except for Pyrosis, what you may know as Heartburn, it's acute, so it comes and goes. I'm not on acid reflux medication, it just doesn't seem necessary.

I've started playing Pokemon since I was a little kid, I guess it's how it started.

I'm religious, Christian specifically. I've been taught this ever since I was a kid, I was an acolyte for a while on a church, but then I just stopped going to church. Sometimes I still go there, and visit some of my friends.

I'm a huge soccer fan, I've used to play on our local team, and stuff, but it never got too serious.

Guess that's all I have for now.

I'm a 20 year old girl (no gimmicks, despite everyone's initial reaction to my apparently gimmicky user name) born and raised in Miami, Florida, who now goes to college at the University of Florida in Gainesville. I'm a Floridian through and through: hot weather doesn't bother me at all, there's no place I'd rather be than the beach, theme parks are pretty boring, I'll always hate baseball even if the Marlins are doing well, and people who make a big deal out of hurricanes are morons.

I've been sort of an outcast since I was little, not really getting along with others because I was kinda too friendly and was probably really annoying - eager to talk to and be friends with everyone, and why didnt they want to hang out with me?, etc. That kind of behavior was tamed as I got older... girls will be girls, and the friends I had properly backstabbed and turned on me as the school years passed. My trusting and naive nature made it that much easier. By the time I entered middle school I was a very hurt and bitter person, and my personality had done a U-turn, I didnt want to talk to anyone suspecting they secretly hated me or were just going to end up hating me. I went from being a extrovert to a complete introvert.

That was when I started drawing and playing a lot of video games - one-person activities that I really enjoyed. I remember playing Pokemon on my red Game Boy pocket in 6th grade. I beat the Elite 4 for the first time under my desk in science class. I managed to make a couple friends during this time and it helped me come out of my shell just a little, but not much. I was still considered a quiet person.

Well, Miami, it's not known for its good and safe school system. My parents wanted to move us out for high school, so after 8th grade we packed up and went to Naples, Florida. The people who actually live in Naples all kinda have the same mindset, and I found that I liked the people there more than the people from Miami. I was also maturing mentally too, and since I was going into a new school not knowing anybody there, I balanced out and made a lot of friends, and now I'm the person I am today. I'm happy that's how it went, because I can't know if it would've gone the same way had I stayed in Miami.

Like I said, I'm going to UF now, and I love it here. I'll be entering my 3rd year as a Japanese language major when school starts in a couple weeks. I picked Japanese because I like foreign languages and I'm a nerd like that, and after I graduate I'll probably be off to law school. But inside I'm kinda a big softie, very sensitive and sentimental, and what I really wanna do is get married and have a family, not work in an office somewhere. Yep, pretty domestic of me, lol XD

On the internet I'm a different person than I am in real life, more rude and less concerned with what people think of me, maybe simply because I can. But I've been on Smogon for a long time now and still dont have too many friends, so don't be scared to say hello :D

lol holy crap that was long. maybe I should edit it down.

I'm 17, residing in Auburn, Alabama. I have no accent whatsoever. My name comes from something my Mentor, and Arch-nemesis said to me once. I'm a Junior as of a couple of days ago, and looking forward to my new year.

I play the Bass guitar, and have done so coupled with vocals for many a local band, the most recent and successful of which is "RockSteadyMachete".

To describe my physical appearance, i look like this--http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpost.php?p=508822&postcount=1946

I'm an aspiring actor, having played in Oklahoma!(Judd Fry), A Midsummer Night's Dream(Bottom), Beauty and the Beast(Beast), and The Crucible(John Proctor). I'm also currently Head Anchor of our high school's Mass Media news program, airing every morning overriding the daily announcements.

To say i'm laid back would be a sin. I am outrageous in every way. I won my Junior Presidency with the speech--"Ladies and Gentlemen: Squirtle. Squirtle-Squirt, Squirt Squirt Squirtle. Thank you for your time." I've been in the talent show twice, Once performing Seu Jorge's version of 'Starman', the second, rapping the Beastie Boys' 'Intergalactic'.

I am audacious, obnoxious, and i look after my own. I'm taking higher level german this year, attending a college exchange student program this summer to take part in a german theatre camp, earning me 6 semester credits.

I hope to become a recognizable figure on Smogon--I'm already a regular as of late, and i plan on staying around, contributing more, and winning some tournaments! (i'm looking at you, synre.) Smogon's taught me not just the upper-crust of Competitive Battling, but how to be a better person, and how to interact with people i've never met quite well.

I take an 'off-the-beaten-path' approach with everything i do, to make it a memorable experience for myself, and a helpful/learning one for people around me. I fly by the seat of my pants, and enjoy my youth with every ounce of my body.

All for now.

Well...I'm not the next Steelicks or Surgo or anything. I've posted two movie reviews, posted my opinion on a lot of subjects, and have a popular thread. My post count is really low considering I was inactive for almost a year...

Anyway I am 19 and I am not black (in case anyone was really wondering from my handle). I'm 100% Indian born in Silver Spring, MD. I have lived in MD all my life, but have moved about 5 times. I have two younger siblings who I love very much. My relationship with my parents is rocky but in the end, I wish for the very best for them and so do they. I attend the University of Maryland, College Park, majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Astronomy (Astronomy is such a cool subject...seriously)

Physically I'm quite overweight, but I'm pretty strong. I use to be tall but some posture problems have reduced that. It's not that I am active (I love to swim), it's just I'm a food lover. If you picture me as a freak I don't really care, lol.

Personality wise people often see me as something who is always optimistic and enjoys a good laugh. Frankly I laugh at anything remotely funny. Sometimes random people will mistake me to be high or something. I can be real friendly but if you catch me in a bad mood watch out!

There's two kinds of funny: witty and goofy. I'm goofy for that matter (hence the lack of comedic posts). I'll often unintentionally do something comical (like running into a door, etc.). When you first meet me I'm very quiet but after a day or two I'm in full mode. People also acknowledge me as someone who doesn't care what other people think of him, though my friends accept me for who I am.

I love the friends I have, they always make my days brighter and also allow me to talk to if I have problems (and I provide the same).

Hobby-wise I am an avid gamer (I have a handful of posts/threads about video games). I also enjoy comedy movies. I like programming but I am not hardcore or anything...yet. I enjoy football and basketball. I love eating, and like to try anything not made out of beef. Seafood is my favorite food. I'm not much of a drinker, save the occasional rum and coke (Captain Morgans/Dr. Pepper).

I am a fan of VG Music, especially remixes. I also listen to rock and other genres. Fav. Bands include Alien Ant Farm, Gorillaz, 311, System of a Down etc.

I like reading from time to time. My favorites include The Stranger and Catcher In The Rye. I also read plays from time to time, like Othello or Macbeth.

I'm someone who's made a lot of mistakes in the past, but has gotten second chances to prove himself.

I also am someone who sometimes goes out of his way to help others, much to the dissatisfaction of my friends ("Your too nice...").

I really want to meet many Smogoners in person (I really enjoy this forum, I've learned a lot).

Um...that's it I guess. I also have a blog on my college life (I only update it when I am in college, but unfortunately, I only started posting in March/April).

http://portraitofageek.blogspot.com/

ok! my turn. no one probably knows me by name, and my post count is horribly low for being a member for almost two years, but nevertheless my contributions include 2 articles in the "entertainment review". whatever. on to me; so people can finally know who i am, (it'll be useful when i start contributing more and being more active in the future).

er hem. my name is nathan, and i currently reside in sydney, australia. i'm 16 years of age, born 18/03/91, in china, being ethnically chinese. the subjects im currently taking include physics chemistry and economics, yet i plan to do journalism or some other career in the media. currently, im writing a script with one of my friends about a bohemian with mismatched socks, so thats something i'm working on for fun.
also, ive recently started ballroom, latin dancing lessons and since im relatively tall, 6'something (~186cm) the ballroom teacher is giving me extra cha cha tuition so i can perform for the school o.O

to talk about me, i'll talk about my friends - now you've all heard that birds of a feather flock together... yeah. well. thats NOT true. of our group of four, we have a cynic, a sporty, me, the flamboyant, and the other one =.= the three of my friends all want to do law, and i want to do anything but. the three of them all hate newtown (the bohemian suburb of sydney) but i love it. the three of them have no performance spirit. i sing and dance (badly) just because there's good music on. the three of them play dawn of war, and warhammer 40k, i dont, but on the plus side, (or minus side) i beat them in dota, which will attest to how geeky i can be, that i beat three geeks in dota. the three of them... yeah you get it, im different

without sounding pretentious, i think of amateur philosophy - realistically. "the other one" of my friend, (dont worry, he wont read this, he doesnt pokemon) is somewhat delusional - "why don't rich people give their money to help poor people" - "selfish bitch. why must they make up for your shortfalls". and also, in the most racist manner "lets kill all the asians, africans and indians to solve the population crisis" just because you're aryan =.= damn. this isnt about him.

favourites: daria, south park, inspector rex.
dislikes: family guy
oh yeah, more about my tv/film/book-ness
like i said, im different to my friends in that im the only one of them with some kind of literary appreciation - having said that;
my top 8 movies would, in no real order, be; fight club, devil wears prada, trainspotting, snatch., amelie, finding neverland, city of god, and talk to her
books, well, i dont really read many books, but one drama i can recommend is "educating rita", that would be one of the best ones i read. i could go on and on about my favourite films, but that would, like, double this post size.

to end, i'll say that im an interesting personality, i'm a nice person - truly, i am, but once, i was really nice to my history teacher because everyone hates how strict she is, and then she goes off at me for writing "fuck" in an answer about the causes of ww1, so now, shes a bitch. and i'll bitch about her because she totally turned on me >.<

p.s
i dont captitalise very often, in the manner of k.d. lang, and that has gotten me in strife with my history teacher ("absolutely UNACCEPTABLE! GERMANY HAS A CAPITAL G").bitch. "would you like a corkstopper? it'll help the stem bloodflow". uh. thats not the point. back on to me.

anyway. will edit later if have to.

My name is Chris, I am 21 (very close to 22, like a week away) and I live in Westminster, CO. I am one of few Smogon members that has a child of my own, a 2 year old daughter. I have lived in the Denver area my whole life, and have no desire to live anywhere else. No, I dont Ski. I never will.

My physical description is best as "tall and skinny". I am 6'2", and weigh all of 160 pounds.

I graduated from Ralston Valley High School (late, I might add). Near the end of High School, my mother died from cancer, which sent me into a drinking binge. In July of 2003 I was in a nasty car accident. I died in the ER, but was successfully brought back to life. I spent 59 days in the Hospital (22 in ICU), and another 40 days in a nursing home recovering. To this day my hip and leg hurt like hell, and I pop pain pills like there is no tomorrow.

After the accident, I picked up the sport of bowling. In a bowling alley in March of 2004, I met my now fiance. We had a baby in June of 2005, but back to bowling. I now bowl regularly, and on a competitive level. I average 215+, and plan to participate in a Professional Bowling Association (PBA) tournament this fall. I (99% sure) wont win, but it will be a good experience.

I currently work full time as the Manager of an Auto Collision Repair Facility, which I have worked at since before I graduated from high school. Its not a bad job, but the hours are a little long.

I have a 2 Year Old Daughter, and she means the word to me. There is nothing I would not do for her. If you dont have kids, you dont understand the feelings they put in you. If you have children one day, you will understand then, but until you do, you cant.

Personality wise, Im told that I remind people of House (show on Fox). I see it, but not as much as other people tell me. I am very sarcastic, and usually grumpy. I live in pain, or maybe not, maybe im too stoned to tell?
I like anything funny, and usually listen to rock music. My favorite movie is the Bourne series (bad ass, books too), and my favorite band is the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Enough about me, how about you?

Well, I'm 18, leaving in Houston, Texas, where it's hot year round. The weather in part has a big affect of what I do, well out of school of course. This fall I'll be entering my freshman year at University of Houston, unsure of what to do atm, as most people are. Pretty much my strongest subjects happen to be the lamest ones imo, which are English and History and anything related to those sorts, however contrary to belief.

In my spare time, by myself, I'll probably be on the computer rating whoever's reading this team in the RMT forums. Sitting around and listening to music also seems to be a big hit to me. But otherwise, if I'm out, I enjoy phsyical activity. I'm always down to play basketball or street football with anyone in the neighborhood or at any park. I'm kind of competitive in this aspect, as I'll probably try to do anything short of running people over with my car to win.

As for Pokemon, I ventured into the community back in around 2001, and jumped a little bit around until finally ending up here at Smogon as it was starting as 'smogon'. I've also been around Pojo and Gamefaqs as well as a very short stint on IGN that I unfortunately had to experience, but it's good all the same, as experience is everything.

Not only that, I like to randomly do things on the fly. I kind of wing it in real life. If me and my friends have nothing to do, we'll probably hop in the car and make it up as we go along. I can of also do this for Pokemon, but that's besides the point. Despite winging it out on many things, I do like to believe I have a general agenda of what to do, as I also believe everyone has their own plan and agenda in everything they do.

Contrary to what DoomMullet said, this is my first post and I chose to make it here (ZomG, not listening to mods on Post 1? What a jerk I am!).

My name's Jason, I'm 16 and starting my Junior year of High School next Monday. I live as far south as it gets for the US; South Florida. After High School, I plan on going to college at USF for Engineering, as math is really all I'm good at. (Pues, he aprobado el Espanol AP. Es necesario donde vivo.) And no, I'm not Spanish. I'm about as white as it gets.

Anyways, I don't really remember how or when I got into Pokémon. I assume it was right when R/B came out, because I have no memory of anything before those games (which was when I was 6). Quit after the G/S age, and returned when I heard D/P was coming out. That huge leap in PokéTime caused loss in knowledge, but I'm slowly coming back up.

I'm a gamer at heart, so obviously in my spare time I like to do just that: GAME! I am not, however, a pompous, overweight asshole like many gamers can be. I try to act mature online, because I enjoy being respected (so yeah, treat others how you want to be treated; respect me, because I respect you). I still hang with friends whenever possible though, and I never mind the occasional movie or 12-person game of Man Hunt at midnight. :D Really just like to have fun!

16-year-old caucasian male from Toronto, Ontario. I grew up in what's commonly thought of as one of the most ghetto areas of Toronto (smack dab between Malvern and LP). As a young child, my life was not very pleasant. I attended a private Baptist school until Grade 4, when my parents transferred me to my home school. I had excellent marks, but my social life was not so great due largely to my disdain for the majority of the kids at my school. I was frequently involved in fights, and was sent to the hospital on more than one occasion during the two years I spent at my home school.

In Grade 6, I entered the gifted program, and headed off to yet another school. I thoroughly enjoyed the following three years. My school marks slipped, but I made good friends and have many good memories from there. It was in this time that I fell in love with hip-hop music and culture (which I had always been surrounded by, but never taken much interest in). It was also at this time that I joined Smogon.

As years progressed, I like to think that I've matured, at least slightly. My high school life is pretty standard, and I really don't know what to say about it. I guess it's not easy to see the forest from the trees.

My rather unique upbringing of living in a "ghetto" area, and going to school with a bunch of extremely intelligent, but criminally-minded bastards has lead to an extremely diverse kind of lifestyle for me, both in terms of my friends, and hobbies. My main interests are hip-hop, gaming and philosophy. I enjoy blazing, writing, reading, poetry, competitive gaming, emceeing... well, I like a lot of stuff. Like I said, extremely diverse interests. Right now, I'm attempting to focus on specific things. I've realized one of my biggest problems is that I rely too much no natural ability, ingenuity and general intelligence far too much in basically everything I do. I've never really worked hard at much in my life, and it shows. I'm above-average at a lot of things, but not particularly amazing at much. I've started taking my dancing (poppin') much more seriously.

I'm also a very social and charismatic person. This has proved to be my most valuable asset basically throughout my life; I've made countless friends just striking up conversations with strangers, and also helps with the ladies.

I started playing PKMN like 3 years ago, joined Smogon around the same time, and well, the rest is (post) history.

Well, Im 17 going on 18 in january. My life is based around friends skating and art.

When I was a freshman I met the group of friends I have now through skateboarding and I hope to keep them for a while.

I fucked up in highschool, so ill be going to community college.

Dont know what i want to do, mainly because what I enjoy most is art but, my style isnt exactly marketable and an art school could possibly help but, im not sure.

My lifes been kinda crazy, had a bad car accident when i was 11 [have abig scar on my forehead] same time my paents got divorced and I switched schools. That all really fucked with me.

Girls arent really a problem, its finding a smart girl I want to be with thats the problem.

Im a pretty decent cook.

I dont do drugs and I try not to drink all that much.

I love rap music.

I like shoes.

And my name is James Sean Bostick.

=]

Names Adam, 17, live in Derbyshire in the UK.

Well I went to a pretty small village school, about 30ish pupils, so we were terribley sheltered, and everyone knew everyone. It was also a Christian school, and I think the cheesy way they pulled it off (As a reward for good work, we had a few minutes free time to talk about god) heavily influenced my beliefs now, Im an aethiest through and through, and believe that religion causes much more damage then good in the long run.

My parents split in my final year of primary school, which really fucked up a lot, and both of them re-married within a year, which caused a lot of bad behavious on my part, though I guess its understandable.

Had a few good friends, but was in a different form then my best friend Sam when we moved to secondary school, we still remained friends, but it made me feel pretty lonely, since I didnt know anyone else. As always, I made a few good friends, but also realised how there are a lot of idiots in life, and a lot of people I didnt want to mix with.

Then when I turned 11, I got acne. I fucking hated it, it was pretty bad, were talking no clear skin and really 'angry' spots for years and years. Eventually I took medication, but nothing works really. Its calmed down a lot now though, as I am taking the strongest stuff available. It actually can cause suicidal tendancies in people, as well as arthiritis!

Anyway, this really caused me to get self-concious. I hated drama, I hated speaking to people I didnt know, and generally felt like a freak. I wasnt bullied or anything (im pretty big, not fat, but not weedy), but I always felt like people were looking at it. Its also the reason I never really got into the party or going out scene, I felt to self-concious and different. Thats when I got a laptop and started browsing the net, I got back into pokemon (rby, gsc, a gap until FR got released) when I bought firered because there were no good ds games out (early launch). This led to serebii, then smogon as I got into competitive battling.

Besides that, school wasnt that bad, I left with some great results and went to college. Its loads better, and people are generally better there, but as mentioned in a previous thread, then monotony of years of education with no instant rewards began to grind.

Currently Im working as an assistant site manager for a construction company, which I love, but it isnt going anywhere. Im also waiting for my a-level results so I can enrol next year. Im coming up to taking my driving test soon as well, im confident I'll pass, I love it.

Yeah, thats me in a nutshell. A fucking big nutshell at that.

I am a 16-year-old (5/23/91) "white" guy who lives in South Florida. I am entering my junior year of high school, and I will be taking a bunch of AP/honors classes. I don't talk about this at Smogon very much (at all), but I am on my school's debate team.

I was born in Broward County in FL and I still live there. I have moved, but it was still inside the county. There really is not much to say about where live and my social life since there really isn't much to it. I have a number of friends and what not, but I tend to be a bit of a loner, too.

Most of my extended family lives in New York (mainly in Brooklyn) and I am there right now. (Fun place, right?)

I am interested in learning programming and I am planning on starting to teach myself soon (what would be a good language to start with? I have a C++ book so I might do that).

I have been a member of Smogon for over a year now and have been playing Netbattle since April of 2005. I have been playing Pokemon since 1999.

There really is not much else to say... But if you do debate and you compete on the national circuit, let me know since it would be nice to meet some other Smogoners.

Okay everyone, let's try this again.

I went through and deleted a bunch of posts that didn't fit what this thread is for. This isn't about how you got into pokemon or how you found Smogon, there are other threads for that. This also isn't a place to just scratch the surface of your personality. This is where you tell us about YOU. Where you grew up, and how it affected you. What you do in your spare time, and why it means a lot to you. What drives you mentally. Where do you see yourself going in life.

This is nothing personal to the posters whose posts I deleted; I'm just keeping this thread devoid of posts that I don't feel fit the requirements.

Sorry DM.

My name is Albert. I am 16 years of age and I enjoy many things. I am going to be a year 11, or Junior, in high school in about a week.

My personality is that of a rather reserved person, in real life. I've been raised by my parents to be respectful in all situations, so if I apologize a bit to much or something of the like, wel l (ironically) sorry for that. Online, I feel as if I can act a bit more goofy and open, just becaus of the basic anonymity that comes along with it.

My online career has followed a few very weird paths. I started out in the communtiy of Warcraft3.com. I stayed at WCOM from the age of 12-15, getting to know everyone there until the site was taken down for general inactivity and lack of upkeep for the costs. A year went by before I really got together with my friends from the site again, but eventually we did it at www.blizzardfanboy.com. In my absence from WCOM, I migrated over to a place called Newsarama, a forum about comic books and whatnot. The general discussion area was fun, and I was there for almost a year. What got me into my next comunity was my friend Bobby, telling me to join a game called CyberNations. I created a nation and got involved in the politics, quickly becoming an important part of the community. From there I branched out to Lunarwars and NationStates, all with the same general community.

Smogon is not a very active place for me. I don't think my personality meshes with the folk ehre very much, and some people don't like to be corrected on things so I suppose if I were to fit in I'd have to hold my tounge a lot more than I do now. I've never been terribly good at competitive pokemon, anyway.

My main drive in life is the want to start a drama. In all honesty, I could care less about the destination of my travels (metaphorically) but rather I enjoy the journey itself. If I could be one thing in this world, it would be President of the US. However, i have a knack for writing (long form prose, mostly), and I've always wanted to create a masterpiece of literature along the lines of Crime and Punishment, or Gravity's Rainbow, so I am working towards that as well.

I won't reveal my real name, because I'm such a man of mystery, but I'll tell you almost everything else about me.

Firstly, the basic stuff needs to be told. I'm currently 16 years old, I'll be 17 on the 13th of September though. I live in Finland (and I speak Finnish), in the South-East part of it. The town of Imatra is my current hometown, but I wasn't born here and neither have I lived my whole life here. I'll be moving away from here in like 2 years anyways. I live with my family, which consists of both parents and two little sisters. Our house is remotely big; 4-storeys (basement, 1st floor, 2nd floor and the attic + my room) with a huge yard and three outside buildings. Call me a rich bastard if you will, but my personal economical situation is not that good.

I suppose I should tell something about my appearance as well as I've never posted a pic on the forums. I'm 187cm tall (screw feet/inches) and weigh around 70 kilos (screw pounds), so you could say that I'm a quite slim guy. I've been going to the gym for quite a while to get the slimness out of me, but the results haven't pleased me that much. I have blonde hair, styled upwards with gel along the center line of my head and combed forward from the sides. I put a lot of effort to my looks and I usually dress quite well. Not too fruity, but you should know what I mean.

Currently I'm in the second grade of high school and doing quite well. I study mainly economy, psychology, long term mathematics and languages. I speak fluent Finnish and English as well as being able to communicate in French and Swedish to an extent. I'm aiming for a place in an university in Jyväskylä to study economics. As a job, I deliver advertisements. The payment is shit, but enough to satisfy my monthly needs. I usually do other jobs in the summer to get more money.

I'm a huge music listener and my taste in music is quite vast. Recently I've been getting into indie bands and post-hardcore, as well as post-rock. Any electronic artists tend to have at least one good song as I enjoy electronica alot. In music with actual vocals, I tend to crave for lyrical complexity and bands such as Bad Religion feed my hunger. Current favorites include Shpongle, Sparta, Bad Religion, Mogwai, Nirvana, Minus The Bear, Bear vs Shark, the Offspring, !!!, Porcupine Tree, A Perfect Circle, Boards Of Canada and Infected Mushroom, along with a bundle of other artists.

Other hobbies than music include the previously mentioned gym, tennis and downhill-skiing. I've been playing tennis for three years now, but I've been slacking off too much and seems like I can't get back into it. Downhill-skiing is also a big one for me as Finland is damn snowy in the winter, so it's probably the best sport in the wintertime. There are also some quite large skiing resorts in the Northern parts of Finland where I've been to quite a few times.

I also like to party/drink quite a lot. Beer is something I like to consume a lot and favorite stronger drinks would be JD, Koskenkorva Vodka and salted liquorice liquor. I also smoke. Unhealthy, stupid, useless and a waste of money and time. Yet I do it, because letting out your stress in a smoke is easier than letting our your stress in words, for me at least. Cigars are something I enjoy and weed is something I've smoked for a couple times. I consider on smoking again sometime, but can't in a month, because of blood tests for a medicine.

As for my social life, I have a close group of friends, which is breaking apart at the moment. So many little feelings of hatred and jealousy are seriously tearing the group and I hate to see how everyone is talking shit about each other. The reason for this is the addition of some new guys who seem to create most of the conflicts. I still have three awesome friends and we don't have any problems with each other. As for girls, most of the girls I know are pretty, but consider me only as a friend, which sort of sucks as I like to start relationships from a friendship. I don't exactly have a problem with getting girls, but getting intellectual girls whom I've known for longer that for just a drunken evening is already another story.

I'm also a Christian, which on my terms means that I believe in God. I'm not some random fundamentalist who thinks the Bible is to be taken literally. It should be interpreted to modern days, which is more than possible in my opinion. I also work in the local Christian youth group and in summertime I'm a tutor on some camps directed for children and younger teenagers. Yes, I drink and smoke, call my a hypocrite or something. Christianity plays a huge role in my life and to be honest, in some manner, it turned my life into a better direction a few years ago.

That's me in a nutshell, I guess.

My name is James. I'm a fourth-year Computer Science student, going to graduate in the spring.

My life is... boring, to be honest. Boring to the point where I'm not sure why I'm posting this, but I guess I'm "obligated" because I'm an admin. I grew up with few friends and currently have absolutely none as far as real life - I'm a major loner, an aspect I got from my parents, but I think I have it much worse than they do. I'm not very open, even online I have a lot of acquaintances, there are not many people I feel comfortable telling stuff to and it takes an extraordinary amount of effort. Fortunately there isn't much to talk about, but sometimes life just sucks and it can be really hard on me.

On the other side, I'm incredibly gifted and an effective learner. I absolutely love school, though I have a special enjoyment of any philosophy and (obviously) computer-related stuff. I like to think about things and solve problems. According to my mother, an IQ test I took a while back places my IQ somewhere around 170 - I know that makes me look like a braggart (hi lords!!) but most people who have viewed my school exploits would probably agree. Then again, I'm also really lazy... I'm sure I could have more than the 3.5 GPA I currently do, but why bother? lol

While growing up, I did the normal school thing and ended up in the vice principal's office more often than not (I even had my own desk there :D)... I was just bored of the whole thing and disliked the kids around me, so around 4th grade my mom home-schooled me... after a while I went back to school for math and sciences that my mom couldn't teach me. At one point I was taking AP classes at high school, two courses at the local community college, and still doing home-schooling... the following year I just went to the community college full-time.

My interests include most anything computer-related, including programming. My music interests encompass mostly metal and video game music, though really genre is kind of meaningless to me - it's very hard to tell what I'm going to like, lol. I don't drink or smoke and I don't ever plan to, an opinion I blame on the family television I grew up on more than anything else. I have very aggressive ambitions, despite the fact that I am extremely frugal and dislike fame ?_?

Oh, and I'm male. Yes, I know. Misty is awesome, so die in a fire if you don't like it.

This doesn't seem at all dangerous. /sarcasm


But anyway, I'm Bradley, though I prefer to be called Brad, and i'm 15. My mom says that she almost named me Gage, i'm glad that didn't happen. I'm around 5'11 and have brown hair and eyes.

I live in New Berlin, Wisconsin, a rather large town with a population of around 40,000 people. It's quite a nice place to live. It has a large amount of businesses in it, from Outback to Pick'n Save.

I go to Eisenhower Middle and High School. The school won a blue ribbon in academic achievement last year, because our test scores and stuff are so high. The Eisenhower Lions are probably the best football team within 100 miles of New Berlin. Although our rival school, New Berlin West, just got a recent update, new library, new classrooms, etc, Eisenhower is basically falling apart. There's mold EVERYWHERE, you'd think that would be a health code violation, but it's not. The classrooms are old, and the teachers are even older as well as mean. It's a pretty good school overall, though most of the kids their are extremely idiotic, and mean.

I like going on my computer, and i'm on it for long periods of time, in fact I only need to go to the bathroom twice a day now! I enjoy reading immensely. I've read so many books that it's hard to pick a favorite, but i'd have to say Lord of The Rings: Return of The King. My least favorite book is definently To Kill a Mockingbird, I just didn't like it, it was very boring and mundane in my opinion. I only watch a little TV anymore, as I can watch any show I want on the Internet. My favorite genre of television: Anime. I love anime more than crackheads love crack. The series I like most right now is Elfen Lied, if you like anime I recommend you watch it. I take Kendo, a form of martial arts that focuses around swords, primarily the katana. I've been taking Kendo for 4 years now, it's awesome. I also take fencing(I like weapons.....a lot). I also own quite a few weapons. I like video games quite a lot. My favorite genre are RPGs, I.E. Final Fantasy. I enjoy exercising and working out, but i'm not that ripped/buff/whatever. I also like movies and go see many of them, although there haven't been any good ones recently. My favorite subjects in school are Science and History. I play no sports apart from Chess, which is actually a sport, go look it up. I play the Piano, and i'm quite good at it.

I lead a pretty fucked up life, and I don't feel like wasting three or four pages explaining why.

I took a professionally administered I.Q. test when I was in fourth grade, and scored 150 on it, meaning i'm extremely smart. I am however very, very lazy, and get C's and B's in school. If I actually put fourth any effort, i'd probably be getting high A's. Teachers are always saying that I have a bad attitude toward school. Of course I do, i'm surrounded by idiots, mentally handicapped people, and extremely narcissistic and egomaniacal teachers. It also doesn't help that I know everything the teachers teach. I have no friends, and no one at my school likes me. That doesn't mean i'm emo or depressed, I just really, really hate everyone at my school.

People describe me as narcissistic, an elitist, a pompous bastard, a perfectionist, and other pleasent things.

I'm an Atheist, meaning I don't believe in a God. I'm pretty close to being a Nihilist.

That's basically the gist of me.

Whatever, half of you know most of this stuff anyways.

My name is Luke, and I'm 15 years old, going to be a sophmore in high school next week. I live in a pretty large (~50,000 pop.) suburb of Saint Paul, the capital of Minnesota. To be honest, my life is pretty boring. I have way too much time to do nothing, especially in the summer. I spend my time on the Internet and playing video games, altough I'm horrible about not finishing video games.

School comes easy to me, but because of this I never give it my all and therefore don't get as high grades as I could. I don't have a ton of friends, but the friends I do have are really close. My friends find me pretty funny, but I don't think I'm that witty or anything. At school, I'm pretty reserved nowadays, altough that wasn't true in the past.

I like to think that I come off as a nice person, but apparently some people find me annoying. I usually don't try to stir up trouble, but I do have a rather short fuse and am not afraid to defend myself. I try to give everyone a chance, but if they do something that pisses me off, I tend to hold grudges.

As for sports, I love american Football and watch it a lot. I don't have a favorite team, mostly because the Vikings suck in recent times. I love fantasy football and am in several leagues, including a Smogon one. I don't care much for Soccer or Basketball, and Baseball isn't all that interesting to me either.

As far as music goes, I consider myself pretty "open-minded" and will give most stuff a try. I hate popular music (not just pop, but like, garbage such as My Chemical Romance) with a passion, though. I listen to various forms of Metal, mostly. I also have a taste for Fusion/Funk/Jazz, partially due to my brother's influence.

About Pokemon, I started playing back when Red/Blue first came out. I first got into internet pokemon through the GameFAQs (which I found through looking for stuff about SSBM) Ruby/Sapphire boards. I played RSBot back in it's glory days, so me and Synre have some history there. I remember distinctly I beat Synre one time out of pure luck and then made a thread in all caps on the GameFAQs forum bragging about it. After a while, I fell out of internet pokemon and returned in the summer of '05 and found a small, cool community through GameFAQs. I was your standard internet idiot at this time and had a really high warn level (lol invisionfree). Anyway, I got obsessed with Fire Emblem and fell out of pokemon again, only to return again in late May 2006. Then I found Smogon through some internet friends, and started hanging out here ever since.