The end in sight, American Idol results, trying to catch Mesprit, will I miss Darkrai?

Well, today is my final, and tomorrow's graduation. I guess they are really having graduation out in front of the Administration Building; I saw a stage set up there when I went by it after matting my last print.

Richards-sensei helped me mat my last print (well, ok, he did it for me is more like it), and he double-matted it which looked pretty nice. It also didn't take as long to do. I put my matted prints and my bag of prints in my art locker and took out everything else. I had to wrap some paper towel around my asphaltum jar cause otherwise you stain your hands every time your hand brushes against it.

Graduation is in the evening, so I will probably go shopping for work clothes in the morning, since I get paid tomorrow. (I got four overdraft notices the other day, so I need to be careful with money).

Well the final results show for American Idol was last night, and unfortunately, our DVR cut off the show right before they announced the winner. But I found out who it was before the show ended cause I accidentially spoiled myself. This is how it happened: the Jonas Brothers were performing, and I went online (I had my laptop with me while we were watching the show) to see what song they were doing. I went on Wikipedia to find the info quickly, and ended up on the article for season 7 of American Idol. When scrolling down, I accidentially went by the finalists list and saw who was at the top of it, and by that found out who won. Oops.

Well anyway DAVID COOK WON. Yes!!!!! I was so afraid (and I think my mom was too) that David Archuleta would win, not only cause he was the predicted winner in many peoples' minds for practically the whole season, but because the bulk of the people voting would probably be junior high school-aged female "Archies" (as Archuleta's fans are called). But the judges predicted (more than once) on the show that David Cook could win, and strangely enough he actually did. Who knew? I figure people were confused cause, in my opinion, the audience tends to actually listen to Simon and often doesn't vote as much for people he doesn't like. But for the top 2 he was of two minds, it seems. After David Cook did his first song, he said David Cook won the round. But after David Archuleta sang his first song, he said "Round One goes to Archuleta." He then proceeded to give the next two rounds to Archuleta as well, though he continued to also say David Cook was good. This is further proven by his comment on the results show right before the winner was revealed: "At this point, I don't care who wins." It's like, make up your mind, Cowell!

As expected, the results show -- like the "Idol Gives Back" show -- featured performances from contestants from So You Think You Can Dance, another Fox show which is basically American Idol for dancers. Conveniently, they also scheduled things so the new season of So You Think You Can Dance premieres tonight, right after the end of American Idol (which was last night). I really wonder whether this intense cross-promotion is really necessary.

I have been playing Pokémon Pearl pretty heavily, chasing Mesprit all over the place. I have actually encountered it a few times, and I even made my lead Pokémon have Mean Look like my player's guide suggested, but even if I get to pick my attack first, it always flees before I can attack. I even gave my Gastly (now a Haunter cause it evolved) the Quick Claw which my Staraptor had been holding for a while, to increase the chances of it going first. This does not even help. I also tried the idea suggested by a Trainer Tip on WTPT (which I finally got around to listening to again) which suggested flying to Floaroma Town and then going to the spot where Route 205 turns into Valley Windworks, and walking back and forth between them to get Mesprit to come to you. While this trick does work for encountering Mesprit, it doesn't give any clues on how to get it to stay in battle once you encounter it. I guess it might be cause my Haunter is pretty low level, and thus its speed stat might not be too high. But it is my only Pokémon that knows Mean Look, I think (I'm not sure my Misdreavus still knows it). I do not know if you must catch Mesprit before the League; I don't think so cause I saw some site that said how to catch Mesprit and it appeared you could have Mesprit and Cresselia's little icons on the Marking Map at the same time, and Cresselia you do not meet till after the League. Besides you get credit for having seen Mesprit when you first encounter it at Lake Verity, so you would still have a "seen" credit for it for the Sinnoh Dex.

I am trying to fill up the Sinnoh Dex too; I went through the Sinnoh Dex listing in my player's guide and marked the ones I did not yet have. Most of them you encounter in either Victory Road or when fighting the Elite Four, both of which I haven't done yet. One you can only get on Fridays so I have to wait till tomorrow to find it.

One last thing. Jesse (Amy's husband) told me the other day on IM (he IM'd me on AIM to give me Amy's mailing address at basic training) that they would be GIVING OUT DARKRAI IN THE U.S. Yes, I am not kidding; it's this weekend at participating Toys 'R Us stores across the nation. For four-hour intervals on May 31st and June 1st, you will be able to get Darkrai.

But....*sigh* I may not be able to. Because I will probably be working. :( And the bus. *big sigh* The closest Toys 'R Us I know of is not very close to my work. Not to mention the giveaways are on Saturday and Sunday, not good days for me to make side trips after work. (Sundays I can't take the bus, and the bus home doesn't run as late on Saturdays).

So my only options probably are:

1. Get Amy or Jesse to trade with me. The only problem with this is that, like Manaphy, you are probably only able to get one Darkrai at this event, and so if you trade it, you don't have it anymore.
2. Trade for the English Darkrai via the GTS or Union Room after its release. This is actually more possible, but again it has the single Darkrai problem, and who knows what they will want for it (On my first foray into the GTS, I saw people wanting level 100 Palkias for far less legendary Pokémon).
3. Trade for the Japanese Darkrai via the GTS. I thought of this recently. Since you can trade with anyone on the globe using the GTS, I figured, why can't you trade with people in Japan for Darkrai? I actually went on the GTS this morning to see if this would work, but Darkrai wasn't on the list of searchable Pokémon.

The GTS is an interesting place. I put up a level 20 Shellos I had caught in order to get a Finneon (before I realized that you can fish for Finneon in Canalave City). And today, when I went on there after being absent from the GTS for some time, my Finneon arrived. Or rather my Keikouo, since based on the fact that the Pokémon that arrived had its name written in Japanese, it is Japanese in origin. It is in a Quick Ball (just checked a picture online to confirm this), was caught at Valley Windworks, was "apparently met at Lv. 24" (whatever that means) and -- get this -- has Pokérus (of all things). Also, its name is written in katakana, the Japanese lettering system used for foreign words and names. I don't know why this is, seeing as all the sounds in "Keikouo" are also available in hiragana.

Okay it's already after 12. I better go get some lunch before my final. Bye.