Alterega

Last night, I was watching a Taiwanese soap opera with my sis and mum when all of a sudden I started reminiscing about my gameboy consoles. I had lost two of them, but I remembered (or thought) I still had my Gameboy Advance SP still laying around.

I felt sad about losing my limited edition silver Pikachu Game Boy Color. I don't know what happened to it. I really don't remember, but it was my first Game Boy EVER and it had Pokemon Crystal (which I argue is the best Pokemon game EVER) in it. 

Then I lost my Crimson-Black Nintendo DS Lite on a Japan Airlines flight to Tokyo. I didn't feel as sad about losing my DS because I felt like the Japanese would take good care of it. I can imagine a seven-year old Japanese boy having bundles of fun with my Mystery Dungeon: Red Team/Diamond Version 2-in-1 DS. I hope he's having fun with it.

But alas, when I scoured the house for my advance... I couldn't find it. It was a mystery - I found all the chips associated with it (even my Pikachu Yellow Version!)... but no gameboy. No console! 

And do you know what I did? I started crying. Seriously. Not bawling, but some melancholy tears of vain. Why did I cry? Well, maybe it's because while I was growing up the gameboy was always associated with me in my family. Random chips lying around? Then you know little Angie's been around. And through gameboys was how I met my best friend back in middle school. We'd make pokemon comics and compare our stats on various games. And most importantly, I got that GBA through my sister's best friend - who, entrusting it to me for only 20 dollars, told me to take good care of it. I felt like I had broken a sacred promise of videogamedom, and that I had lost the last true piece of my childhood at that time. 

I don't believe it's gone/stolen from my house, and I swear it's around somewhere - but I guess it's not the time to find it. 

But all's not lost - along the search process, I found all my Pokemon cards. All 500 of them. And that made the pain ease an eency weency bit.

*Sigh* I'm now sending mass texts and facebook notifcations asking people if they want to sell their gameboys. But it's not the same.

Call me emotional, but... I REALLY LOVE GAMEBOYS!!! </333

This morning I dragged myself into my kitchen to eat some Honey Bunches of Oats when I saw this hot mama near the sink:

"AHHUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" I screamed at my mother. "WHAT IS THAT?"

I don't know about you guys, but it looked like a dried up, hairy human leg. It looks smaller in this picture than in real life, but I literally thought it was a human body part.

Apparently, it's a "Nagaimo", which is a Japanese herb that is apparently very expensive. 

"I'm going to cook it for dinner for us! It's very good for you!" 

...guess who skipped dinner tonight.

Okay, I've been a diehard Pokemon fan. The only other handheld videogames I've ever played was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on GBC (amazingly good, if you haven't played it, play it HERE: http://www.playr.org..._stone/988#play) and Powerpuff Girls: Bubbles (not so good. I kept dying... which makes me unhappy and makes me give the game an automatic boo!)

But I realized, THERE ARE SO MANY GAMES TO PLAY USING AN EMULATOR THAT I'VE NEVER TRIED.   Legend of Zelda?? Kingdom Hearts??? Final Fantasy???? I don't live in a hole. I've heard of these games. I've seen them before! But I never got them. My pokemon wouldn't let me. But this was my time to break away!

So I started playing Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on Desmume and I got hooked. It was gorgeous! Link was adorable! I actually laughed at the story plot! Then I got greedy... ish. I got to the Temple of Fire, and I couldn't get past these pools of lava! It really annoyed me that I couldn't jump and the fact that I could die so easily irked me, so I got a mega-jump cheat and an infinite health cheat (I spoiled the fun, right?). Sure enough, when I got blocked inside a room full of ghosts that wouldn't die, I just jumped out. Too impatient to fight a bunch of zapping slug thingies to get a key? I just jumped over them.

Soon, I jumped so much that I skipped way too much stuff and my game totally started messing up. So I got irked and I decided to call Zelda for quits because I was so frustrated! (lame me, right?) Then I started playing Kingdom Hearts: 358-2 Days. I was so intrigued by the story plot (mind you, I didn't know anything about Kingdom Hearts before playing this except the time I read the first book in the series of anime... but I couldn't go further because my library didn't have any continuing copies!) that I decided to learn what had happened before this game.

Mistake.

I was SO confused. I went on a Kingdom Hearts wiki and I was absolutely lost by the end of 3 paragraphs. What on earth was going on? Kingdom Hearts is owned by Disney? HOW? It was so DARK!   

Then I escaped back to Pokemon. I couldn't take change any longer! I needed to get back to some familiar non-human faces. Well guess what? I downloaded Pokemon Black, and before I had played black the most recent Pokemon game I'd played was Emerald. So when I saw the new pokemon I had to choose from for a starter pet... the old pokemon elitist in me protested. 

My brain: "They're sooooo ugly!!! EW!!!!"

Thus is my experience with emulators so far. Call me shallow. Call me lame. But I'm going to get back into emulators. Or maybe I shouldn't play DS-emulator games. Time to get back to playing GBC/GBA games....   

Hey everyone! My user's Alterega, but my real name is Angela. I chose the username Alterega because if you meet me in reality, I'm an outgoing individual who wants to work as a business management consultant and listens to classy jazz music on a regular basis. But I feel like my comic book loving, videogamer, nerdophile me who wants to double major in graphic design and computer science and would rather ditch the lofty office for a game studio is my total alter ego! Mix in that I'm a girl and you get me, Alterega. *epic music plays!*

Let me introduce myself through a semi-picture guide through some of my stuff.

Let's enter through my bathroom (BECAUSE IT HAS AWESOME PAINTED DOORS)

Door 1: ...Planets are so pretty. I love the idea of being a science genius (you know, those kids that wipe out all of those awards at science fairs ALL the time?? Those kids that program their own programs to do their homework??? OR PEOPLE THAT MAKE MARBLE CONTRAPTIONS!!), but sadly, that's not the case for me. Got my first B's in school because of Physics, and sciences (as much as I love them) just don't click in my head for me. I can dream like I'm a genius right? And pretend that F on Light diagrams was simply because of the incompetence of my physics teacher, right? Sigh.

Door 2: This describes where I want to be post-college time. I want to live in most (probably not all) of the major US cities and experience the essence of America through their culture. I've knocked 1 city down - sweet home Atlanta! I love the city life. Apartments all the way!

Door 3: And this is my idea retirement. You can't really tell where this is, but let me tell you - I'm gonna retire in Florida like a smart grandma would. What's not to like about Florida? DID YOU KNOW that Florida residents that live near cruise ports get super-discounts on AMAZING rooms? If I'm seasick, I'd hop to Disney World and live in a fantasy with my annual pass. Creeped by Goofy? Then I'll just drift off to sea. There's a reason why so many old people retire in Florida...

I have a mediocre sock collection... (working on it)

...But I am a collector of stickers and am proud of my collection! (Consists of 2000+ stickers)

It's guarded by a green pig you all may be familiar with (even though I suck at the game) and is kept safe in a plastic red briefcase. (classy, eh?)

I LOVE to read. (Especially travelogues and mysteries. My favorite author is clearly depicted here.) Also pictured is my trusty red Kipling bag, passed down from my mother. It's 25 years old! 

And lastly, this is my pencil case. I draw a lot (mainly cartoons, comics, people.. no fancy landscapes or nature), and as you can see this guy (you all may know where he's from ;D) has suffered a major yellow highlighter attack, as exemplified by his giant stain. 

Wow. This was a lot longer than I expected, but I guess... hi everyone! I hope you all know as much as you wanted to know about me.   Pleased to meet you all, and I hope to make some new friends! (if you trudged this far to read ALL of this, you're GOLDEN.) 

*humble bow*