Spring break, a confession, catching Giratina

Yay! Spring break is finally here, with it officially starting tomorrow [30th - I started writing this on the 29th]. It won't be all play and no work, I'm afraid - I have my author paper to work on, as well as a lesson plan for my other Lit class. Plus I have to finish reading Uncle Tom's Cabin, which is a whopping 400+ pages. Fortunately, since I started reading it early (right after finishing our Emerson and Hawthorne readings), I'm already about halfway through.

A week or so ago, I made a big move. I wrote an e-mail to my parents confessing to them how years ago I had done something very wrong which they never knew about. (I'd rather not say what that thing is here). However, I typed in my mom's e-mail address wrong so she didn't get it, but I didn't re-send the e-mail because it looked like it still went to my dad, and I knew he would share it with my mom. But, my dad hasn't said anything to me about the e-mail either, which makes me wonder if he has even received it. Hmmm...

I made some progress this morning on Sprite Fire, my personal and writing website-in-progress. I realized today it might be tough for people to read my stories and stuff as a long block of text in the iframe. I thought of a few solutions: have it open in a new window, provide it as a Word document download, or have it open as a PDF file. The new window option is probably the most viable and would just require some basic HTML changes. I'll have to sleep on it.

I finally got more hours this week, thanks to having an opportunity to tell Augie (the store manager) that I wasn't getting enough hours for my insurance. I still get three days off this week, though, and with there being no school they'll be full days off, which is great. I haven't made plans yet. I will probably try to go to Balboa Park one of those days cause there's some good exhibitions going on.

Speaking of exhibitions, the Asperger's activity group is going to Comic-Con again this year, and I've already bought my ticket (since tickets sell fast). Since when you're at the Con, you can already get tickets for the following year's con, I will probably do so, since I am thinking that gives you the best chance of getting the 4-day ticket, which lets you in all 4 days of the Con plus the Preview Night the night before the Con starts. I've never gone all 4 days, even though I totally could if it were possible, since I actually live in the San Diego area.

I am playing Pokémon Pearl again, having put it in my DS recently to get Regigigas from the recent ToysRUs event. (I was playing Princess Debut, which I beat recently). I want to get farther in it before I buy Platinum (the "third game" in the Diamond & Pearl generation, which was released recently in the US). I didn't get Pearl until almost a year after its release, so I guess I'm behind most of the people on say, the Pallet Tribune forum. I have seen 215 Pokémon in my National Dex, and obtained 108. That's out of 490 (not including Darkrai, Shaymin, and Arceus). In my Sinnoh Dex, I've seen all 150 but only caught 85. Of the 65 Sinnoh Dex Pokémon I do not have, I'm pretty sure I can catch most of them. Some of them I can't catch cause they're exclusive to Diamond version. Some are evolutions of Pokémon that I have. So it's doable.

With the National Dex, though, we're talking 278 more Pokémon to see and 385 more to catch, if you count Darkrai, Shaymin, and Arceus (I have Shaymin from a recent ToysRUs event and can get Darkrai through a wi-fi mission for Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia once I beat it; Arceus has yet to be released). That's a lot!

One of the Pokémon you can't catch till after the National Dex is Giratina, and I caught it today during my lunch break. (I was asked to stay later than scheduled, which is why I had a lunch; I was only supposed to work for four hours). It's level 70 and has a nasty type combo of Ghost and Dragon. It has Earth Power, Heal Block, Safeguard, and Shadow Force (its signature move) as its attacks. Heal Block (which prevents you from healing for several turns) is the most annoying of these, especially since Shadow Force in particular does a LOT of damage. However, Shadow Force is a 2-turn move (like Fly or Dig) so you can use the free turn you gain there to use a protective move like Protect, Safeguard, Light Screen, or Reflect so that you will hopefully not get hit quite as hard (Giratina's attacks can break through Protect though - fortunately for me when that happened I had a Light Screen set up too so that helped) or maybe a healing move (I think I used Roost once on one of those turns), if you're not Heal Blocked.

I went against it initially with my GameStop-event Deoxys, which has the powerful Psychic move Psycho Boost. It did damage Giratina somewhat. That attack sharply lowers your Special Attack, though, after you use it. Deoxys was KO'd by Giratina sadly (maybe cause my Deoxys was only level 50 and Giratina is level 70). I sent out my ToysRUs Shaymin next and whittled down Giratina's HP a bit using Energy Ball. I think Shaymin was knocked out too. Then I used my level 65 Luxray, which used both Thunder and Crunch to damage Giratina, and later my Staraptor, which whittled down the HP even more using Steel Wing.

Long story short, I caught Giratina with a Dusk Ball and a sliver of HP. It took quite a few Poké Balls though - I was afraid I would run out of them. I used up all my few Ultra Balls and then tried Heal Balls, Dusk Balls, a Great Ball, and a Timer Ball. Finally, a Dusk Ball and a sliver of HP did the trick.

That's pretty much it. Good night!