Narrator: little did he know that one month later…My mental health has taken a nose dive in the last year, and playing Pokemon games is my personal escape from the other issues.
The big issue though has been Gaza, a humanitarian issue where I have physically taken on local government and councils and am doing so as part of a wider group of like minded citizens, to the extent where I’ve been asked by my MP on several occasions now to provide evidence towards her participation in select committees and urgent questions.
But the truth of the matter is that the more I see of what is happening in Gaza, and the West Bank, the more I know that I failed all our future children, collectively, and myself, and the innocent people of Palestine. Because it’s never “enough”.
Back to Colosseum it is, and a few hours of mindlessness exchanged for thoughtfulness.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-of-history_illusionHello, everyone. I want to talk about something that means a lot to me, and I’m looking to see if this really means as much as I think it does or if I’ve been spending the majority of my time trying to force something to happen when it doesn’t need to.
So, context. I grew up as the youngest of three siblings, and while I would like to call myself generally pretty successful up to this point in my life, I’ve always associated my success with the overwhelming amount of help, support, and effort I’ve gotten from other people who want me to be able to succeed in life, whatever that means, and I recognize a lot of people in my career field haven’t had those kinds of opportunities I’ve had. This isn’t quite what this post is about, though.
You see, during this time, I started realizing I was becoming very dependent on other people, quickly starting to think I’ll never be independent, responsible, and mature without something or someone being there for me all the time. This led to two things: a long period of self-hatred that’s still ongoing to this day and fluctuates in intensity, and more importantly for this post, wanting to have something to call my own.
I’ve posted about my love for the Pokémon Ranger games countless times here and in the YouTube comment section(s), which at this time are the only two places I feel comfortable posting stuff. But really, all my love for Guardian Signs and the first two games was is a “special interest”, as they may call it in the autistic community.The game’s all about drawing and spinning the Styler in circles, it’s perfect!As the story goes, my attachment for these games would only grow as time went on and I slowly became more dissatisfied with the core series and lack of new real spin-offs (that is to say, none of that mobile garbage), especially during the Switch era. At first glance it would seem that’s it, then. Even though there’s a lot of stuff I missed out on from the DS/Wii era, those games are what I was looking for all along. Something I can love and come back to on my own. Except… not really…
Here’s my problem and why I wanted to post about this, right. I’ve always been pretty uncomfortable with a lot of the stuff our generation is known for. Phone culture, long distance relationships, lots of newer media, things like that. When I first started really using the Internet in 2014-15 or whenever the heck it was, one of the first things that caught my eye was when people would tell stories about the times and the things they were nostalgic for. That’s great and all, but these kinds of “trips down memory lane” always felt like they were taking place between groups of people with similar interests and, eventually, it hit me. I never really felt like, and arguably still feel like I don’t belong as a member of this community here on Smogon or as a Pokémon fan in general. Can I even call myself either of those things? Not only did I miss out on most of the hype trains and 95 percent of limited time events for what I would call my favorite games-yes, even the Ranger events, I’ve only played two of them plus the untimed Manaphy one from the first game- but the specific things I like and the people I would like to share them with always felt limited in some way, whether that be personal shyness online or because not very many people here talk about these topics, and because of that I still never feel like I can call anything in this franchise or in my personal life “my own”.
That’s just it, though. Does it really matter? I could have a first edition Japanese sealed in-box copy of my favorite video game ever made. I could have played through the game and its predecessors seven times each. I could frame my entire public profile around this and show up to some kind of cosplay event for good measure. And all for what? What exactly would this accomplish? “Oh, cool, I can call myself the biggest fan of an obscure spin-off game that I’ve ever met before”. Becoming borderline addicted to these things- and these kinds of thoughts I’ve been having- isn’t particularly useful or helpful to me, and it’s not like this would be any better if it were the core series games, either- in fact, that might actually make it worse. I just feel stuck- on one hand, I basically have nothing I can call my own that I can also enjoy with a larger group of people, but on the other hand I’m just attached enough to what I grew up on and the people I’ve met that I’m afraid to take new risks, make new friends, and take some of those next steps in a young man’s life.
It’s taken me this long to actually start working in my field, so that’s good that I’m finally here, but, like… now what? I don’t ever see myself being in a relationship or getting married. I have no idea where I’m going to live or who I’m going to live with. I’ve tried basing my online identity around works of fiction that don’t even interest me that much anymore. And even if I was still interested in what all I liked as a kid, none of that would strictly make me a nicer, more responsible and independent young adult that I need to be right now. So, I’ll ask all of you. What in the world, if anything, am I supposed to do all about this? Does it really matter at all if I choose to keep being a video game fan and by extension a Pokémon fan? Does it really matter what games I do play and what consoles I play on? How does any of this affect what should be the main focus of my life as a young adult in his early 20s right now? My career might be heading in the right direction, sure, but everything else either feels like it’s stuck in place or actively going backwards.
There is no authoritative criteria. You sound like you have what is called impostor syndrome. The truth is that you don't need to do anything to justify who you are or what you love. The way you are and the way you love what you love is valid already. There is nothing for you to prove.Hello, everyone. I want to talk about something that means a lot to me, and I’m looking to see if this really means as much as I think it does or if I’ve been spending the majority of my time trying to force something to happen when it doesn’t need to.
So, context. I grew up as the youngest of three siblings, and while I would like to call myself generally pretty successful up to this point in my life, I’ve always associated my success with the overwhelming amount of help, support, and effort I’ve gotten from other people who want me to be able to succeed in life, whatever that means, and I recognize a lot of people in my career field haven’t had those kinds of opportunities I’ve had. This isn’t quite what this post is about, though.
You see, during this time, I started realizing I was becoming very dependent on other people, quickly starting to think I’ll never be independent, responsible, and mature without something or someone being there for me all the time. This led to two things: a long period of self-hatred that’s still ongoing to this day and fluctuates in intensity, and more importantly for this post, wanting to have something to call my own.
I’ve posted about my love for the Pokémon Ranger games countless times here and in the YouTube comment section(s), which at this time are the only two places I feel comfortable posting stuff. But really, all my love for Guardian Signs and the first two games was is a “special interest”, as they may call it in the autistic community.The game’s all about drawing and spinning the Styler in circles, it’s perfect!As the story goes, my attachment for these games would only grow as time went on and I slowly became more dissatisfied with the core series and lack of new real spin-offs (that is to say, none of that mobile garbage), especially during the Switch era. At first glance it would seem that’s it, then. Even though there’s a lot of stuff I missed out on from the DS/Wii era, those games are what I was looking for all along. Something I can love and come back to on my own. Except… not really…
Here’s my problem and why I wanted to post about this, right. I’ve always been pretty uncomfortable with a lot of the stuff our generation is known for. Phone culture, long distance relationships, lots of newer media, things like that. When I first started really using the Internet in 2014-15 or whenever the heck it was, one of the first things that caught my eye was when people would tell stories about the times and the things they were nostalgic for. That’s great and all, but these kinds of “trips down memory lane” always felt like they were taking place between groups of people with similar interests and, eventually, it hit me. I never really felt like, and arguably still feel like I don’t belong as a member of this community here on Smogon or as a Pokémon fan in general. Can I even call myself either of those things? Not only did I miss out on most of the hype trains and 95 percent of limited time events for what I would call my favorite games-yes, even the Ranger events, I’ve only played two of them plus the untimed Manaphy one from the first game- but the specific things I like and the people I would like to share them with always felt limited in some way, whether that be personal shyness online or because not very many people here talk about these topics, and because of that I still never feel like I can call anything in this franchise or in my personal life “my own”.
That’s just it, though. Does it really matter? I could have a first edition Japanese sealed in-box copy of my favorite video game ever made. I could have played through the game and its predecessors seven times each. I could frame my entire public profile around this and show up to some kind of cosplay event for good measure. And all for what? What exactly would this accomplish? “Oh, cool, I can call myself the biggest fan of an obscure spin-off game that I’ve ever met before”. Becoming borderline addicted to these things- and these kinds of thoughts I’ve been having- isn’t particularly useful or helpful to me, and it’s not like this would be any better if it were the core series games, either- in fact, that might actually make it worse. I just feel stuck- on one hand, I basically have nothing I can call my own that I can also enjoy with a larger group of people, but on the other hand I’m just attached enough to what I grew up on and the people I’ve met that I’m afraid to take new risks, make new friends, and take some of those next steps in a young man’s life.
It’s taken me this long to actually start working in my field, so that’s good that I’m finally here, but, like… now what? I don’t ever see myself being in a relationship or getting married. I have no idea where I’m going to live or who I’m going to live with. I’ve tried basing my online identity around works of fiction that don’t even interest me that much anymore. And even if I was still interested in what all I liked as a kid, none of that would strictly make me a nicer, more responsible and independent young adult that I need to be right now. So, I’ll ask all of you. What in the world, if anything, am I supposed to do all about this? Does it really matter at all if I choose to keep being a video game fan and by extension a Pokémon fan? Does it really matter what games I do play and what consoles I play on? How does any of this affect what should be the main focus of my life as a young adult in his early 20s right now? My career might be heading in the right direction, sure, but everything else either feels like it’s stuck in place or actively going backwards.
You can't reset, but you can change. Arguably, that's better than a reset because you have the knowledge and wisdom to avoid your previous circumstances. As long as you can make choices, you can change.I've come back.
I couldn't help it. I loved this series since I was young, and there's only so many times you can play through the games again before you want a real challenge. I started small with RBY, got to about the top 200s on ladder and feel pretty confident about tours in there. GSC is iffy, just because it's so hard to get good games, and DPP as much as I hate that format despite it being my favorite gen, I'm at the cusp of about top 500 in there, too, but have no interest in participating in tours there. I feel good.
I made some RBY buds on discord I think. We talk. It's all cool.
I got back into ADV, and I don't know why, but even though that's the first of the OUs I start to have problems with, I have an urge to be dominant there. I want to succeed. I want to prove to myself I can do it, and prove all the people who used to pick on me wrong.
So, getting a tutor recently, I got back on the grind, and I started to play more, and eventually the time came where I was invited to a server to do some scouting for opponents on tours, and it really gave me anxiety going back in there; the people that don't like me are still there, still very active, and I just want to stay my distance. However, curiousity got the better of me, and I looked to see through the past messages on the server if I had been talked about.
And, unsuprisingly, people haven't forgotten about me. They still talk about me.
I'll be completely honest; I've done and said a lot of stupid shit in places like Mushi League or wherever I've been wherever I'm talked about. I've gotten a reputation for being a dumbass, and it's my fault. I don't think the other side is completely innocent either, in fact I feel people really fueled the fire over there.
Some of the stuff I don't even remember because I was too angry at the moment and might have blocked it out or pushed it all aside and bundled it together with all the other bad experiences I've had here, and never really reflected. I've done stuff like demand ELO from PS staff because my internet was shit one night and I lost too many games from disconnections, I've been hostile at people giving me advice, and probably other things I can't even remember. I'm no saint.
I wish I could reset. I don't know if it's even possible given how much I've tried to move past it, but it brings back bad memories and a lot of tears because I feel like a shitty person and maybe I don't deserve to be in this community still. I had a really, really rough last 4 months of 2024. Probably the worst of my life. Got fired from my job and my dog drowned in October, girlfriend cheated on me twice and my best friends backstabbed and blackmailed me in November, and I attempted suicide in December. I remember around that time I had been getting a lot of shit and spitting a lot of venom. It wasn't great.
No excuses for my behavior, but, I wish I could start over. I wish I could also find an ADV community, any other community besides the ones I have that I don't need to be afraid of, or feel any kind of anger towards people for what they had done to me before.
Even still, the damage is done and I'm always going to be hearing about it. It hurts me.You can't reset, but you can change. Arguably, that's better than a reset because you have the knowledge and wisdom to avoid your previous circumstances. As long as you can make choices, you can change.
I'm glad you decided to keep living.
It will hurt. But I hope that pain can be used as a guard rail to prevent you from becoming the person you don't want to be. Over time, the person people know you today will be way more important than the degrading memories and stories of a past. Especially if the person you become, the person you are is very different than the person they vaguely remember.Even still, the damage is done and I'm always going to be hearing about it. It hurts me.
I recently started with Warhammer and it genuinely has such a positive effect on my mental
Building the minis is very calming, kitbashing and painting allows for quite a lot of expression and is also very calming, just being in the store and talking and playing with people is wonderful
I'd recommend it to people if they just want something that's peaceful and social. It's pricey obviously, but getting the minis used and starting with killteam is actually quite affordable.
I love the trains. As someone who has a special place in his heart for Rev. W. Awdry's Railway Series and Thomas the Tank Engine, these are awesome to see.Building things generally is a really good use of one’s time. I build model trains/boats/sci fi starships, after a childhood in which Warhammer, Airfix, Meccano, K’nex, Lego and other building toys and kits featured heavily. When it’s all going right, it can be really fulfilling and almost always gets me out of the “funk”.
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Oh I must show you this one then…I love the trains. As someone who has a special place in his heart for Rev. W. Awdry's Railway Series and Thomas the Tank Engine, these are awesome to see.
Who's ikap?It's lkap's birthday today, I'm really struggling to come to terms with the fact lkap is feeling some level of happiness, even if it's just for one day
Oooo! Gordon and Big City Engine! :D
Currently just display but I have plans for a future layout (which is built but is dismantled at the moment).Oooo! Gordon and Big City Engine! :D
Beautiful stuff, man. Do you use them on tracks at all or are they for display only?