Pokémon of the Week

POKEDEX name: NINETALES number: 38 type: Fox elements: Fire height: 3'7"/1.09 m weight: 44 lb./19.8 kg evolutions: vulpix -fire stone-> ninetales Gold: Some legends claim that each of its nine tails has its own unique type of special mystical power. Silver: Its nine beautiful tails are filled with wondrous energy that could keep it alive for 1,000 years.

base stats: HP:73 AT:76 DE:75 SA:81 SD:100 SP:100

oooh, foxy. ninetales is hot. can i say that? i think it's the tails. or maybe because it's a fire type. ha. ha. haaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

ninetales is a special attacker, as you can see in it's stats. like all stone evolutions, ninetales learns nothing, so it'd be wise to train it as vulpix for the moves. unfortunately, fire types don't get too much support from other moves, and are weak to common moves like Surf and Earthquake and Ancientpower. as it were, ninetales is not built for stamina, but speed and to wreak a bit of havoc on any setups (i.e. scizor baton pass). for all its beauty, ninetales is a bit of a kamikaze. it is best used as a starter, or perhaps after you take out the earthquaker and surfer and rock slider and generally anything that uses physical attacks.

so we'll look at a few possible movesets. annoyance/stall and starter. the moveset section will now look a bit different. actually, it's looked different each time so, meh.

Annoyance/Stall:
Ninetales @ brightpowder: Confuse Ray, Attract, Flamethrower, Dig
confraction will give the opponent a 75% chance of being incapacitated. dig will dodge attacks and do a bit of damage if you're stuck against a golem or something. flamethrower for a nice and heavy attack. brightpowder for that little extra help in avoiding attacks.

Starter
Ninetales @ Focus Band: Fire Blast, Roar, Confuse Ray, Sunny Day
a nice way to ruin early baton passing chains. starter scizor? roar or toast him! starter alakazam? confuse ray and switch out! sunny day will boost fire blast and will halve any pesky water attacks. focus band for luck, so you can actually pull off that roar or one final fire blast before you kick the bucket.

Gravitational Distortions Slow Learning

Intriguing new evidence a new cause for worry over obese children

By now it is obvious that fat children are just as susceptible to all the woes of the adult obese. Heart failure, high blood pressure, diabetes, and chronic lower back ailments from supporting girth are just a few of the numerous afflictions the obese must deal with other than soaring fast food prices and the massive influx of new, healthy menus that are so unfilling that one must order in double digits to satiate the hunger pangs.

Now new research has shown, in a recent study of elementary school students in Gallup, New Mexico, that fat kids slow the learning curves of students in their vicinity.

Fat kids are no longer merely dangers to themselves (and the hands that feed them), but to their friends and colleagues around them.

"We can't consider these results to be completely conclusive until we've studied a wider sample group," comments Dr. Fatima Azibarjan, lead researcher in the study and expert on lipidous physiology, "but the initial research is disconcerting."

fat kids slow the learning curves of students
Research began as an attempt to quantitize the variables that lead some students to become potential spelling bee winners. Once they began to look into grade 1 students' learning environments, they quickly noticed that spellers were generally at least one or two desks away from a fat child.

"Basically, we figure it works like this: the brain, at this age, is constantly making new neural connections, learning. But the gravitational exertions of a nearby fat kid throws the whole process for a loop. The result is an extremely inefficient use of brain space," says Dr. Azibarjan.

In laymen's terms, fat kids make skinnier kids stupider.

[report card] comments such as "needs improvement" and "unsatisfactory"...
"I sat behind Wilbert," Karmel Poulk chimes, "and it seemed to take longer for me to grasp complicated concepts in class, such as cursive writing. Perhaps it was because I cannot see the board so well."

A petite, bright-eyed young girl, Karmel consistently finds disappointment in her report cards. Comments such as "needs improvement" and "unsatisfactory" really push her self-esteem down and she must find her consolation in buying mushrooms.

Fortunately for Karmel, there is still hope.

"Parallel to this study, we're experimenting with new desk positions to try to take advantage of this phenomenon," says astronomer, Pitor Selenovski. "Just as we can slingshot around planets, using gravitational energy to our advantage, the theory is that we can also 'slingshot' neural connections by arranging the desks in strategic locations. A sort of gravitational lensing, to focus the mind and speed the learning curve."

The results are promising so far.

"In my new seat, I can now see the board."

Hottie of the Month

time for a new gimmick blog post. hottie of the month! w00t! this is where we (i) sift through a copious amount of applicants and after rigourous interviewing, one is selected to be the hottie of the month.

Name: Delfina Cabrera (not real, of course)

H:describe the perfect guy for you.
D:LOL alright... starting from head to toe =P
"cool" hair (black with highlights and weird, yet cool stuff), glasses!!!!! =P, biggggggggg smile, not a giraffe neck, broad shoulders, muscles..harhar.., abs baby, boxers, low-riser (but not too low), doesn't wear short shorts, or pants that are too small for him and wears FAT shoes

H:what do you think of shoelaces?
D:hmmm, well...they're quite useless.

H:how about ice cream?
D:hummm, they're delicious. especially mint chocolate ice cream with bananas. *droooooools* however, FATTENING!!!

H:mm... fat. which body part on everyone is generally too fat?
D:the errr...stomach? or whatever that part is called.

H:if you could give that part a name, what would you call it instead?
D:ummmm... blubber? lol

H:cool. thanks for the interview.
D:anytime.

Pokémon of the Week

POKEDEX name: HERACROSS number: 214 type: singlehorn elements: Bug/Fighting height: 4'11"/1.50 m weight: 119 lb./53.55 kg evolutions: none Gold: This powerful pokémon thrusts its prized horn under the enemies' bellies then lifts and throws them. Silver: Usually docile, but if disturbed while sipping honey, it chases off the intruder with its horn.

base stats: HP:80 AT:125 DE:75 SA:40 SD:95 SP:85

now "Pokémon of the Week" since "Pokémon of the Month" takes too long.

heracross is nifty sumo-bug with decent stats and an interesting type mixture. the first thing you'll note is how easily this guy gets slaughtered by any fliers. but that's not too big a deal, what with all the ice beams, thunderbolts and rock slides floating around.

depending on the moveset, heracross can be a tank, or a kamikaze cannon. given the right circumstances, heracross can push just about anything over. and it learns the strongest bug attack in the existence of pokémon.

Moveset 1: @ scope lens earthquake megahorn hidden power (rock) return/hyper beam

smash stuff and smash them lots. megahorn is the beefy bug attack, great for polishing off disabled psychics and grass types and mad STAB. earthquake is a staple attack for any smasher and helps get rid of some fire types. hidden power (rock) to surprise those fliers on the swtich in. return (or frustration) is a nice strong attack for regular beating. or you could go with hyper beam for more oomph. attached scope lens for higher chance of critical hits.

Moveset 2: @ focus band counter endure reversal take down

this is a more specialized moveset, with counter and take down to help lower hp to add power to reversal. endure to eat up drill pecks and fire blasts also to power up reversal. let's hope you're faster than the other. focus band in case you mis-time an attack and hope you get lucky. not to be deployed until the psychic or flier or other fast pokémon are gone.

vote breloom

June 28 = federal election day! whoopee! also enrollment day for 1st and 4th years at UTSC. guess which one will take precedence? my bet is on frosh utsc enrollment. froshies are notoriously anal. even in backwater educational communities like utsc.

was herman an anal frosh? is herman ever anal about anything? how the heck can he be so laid back?

well, my friends, that's because my utmost concern at almost every hour is this: which pokemon should i substitute into my battle tower team to crack 300 wins? the record is at 250-something and that's with a one-smash-two-stall team (level 50). not too amusing. i managed to string 91 wins with breloom (spore, focus punch, leech seed, sludge bomb), wailord (water spout, fissure, double team, rest) and latios (psychic, thunderbolt, ice beam, dragonclaw) in level 100. stupid lucky heracross. maybe something with flamethrower. or a flier. latios no likey salac berry + megahorn. salamence can learn flamethrower AND aerial ace. hm... ice beam death.

but i digress.

right. elections. voting. federal voting! wha. i spelled feceral voting by mistake, seeing as how the [c] and the [d] keys are so close. an apt interpretation of the governing system if you ask me. heh. feces. i'll vote for the deep, chocolate-brown, right-wing, ex-steak turd who promises sweeping changes to national sewage systems and looks to have a bit of a hitler-stache. hm.

here's an overview of our political landscape...
the Liberal Party (or as they've been dubbed in ontario, the fiberals - nothing to do with extra wheat grain in their diet):
ah, 11 years of majority government at the federal level. it gets to your head after awhile, seeing as how i do not really recall any other party in power in all my years. granted i was about 7 during Kim Campbell's brief tenure as prime minister. (avril phaedra campbell?! i wonder if she had a sk8r b0i too.)

and indeed, during all these years i have yet to figure out what the Liberals actually stand for, what their policies are, and why they're so obsessive about quebec.

so i did some digging (click name link!!) and found their fancy domain name and website. i scanned their policy page and came to my conclusion. the name of the liberal game is to be VAGUE. and red. most of what they want to do is great, but they just never get around to doing it. who can blame them? they're people too.

the Conservative Party, formerly known as the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance (formerly known as the Canadian Reform-Alliance (formerly known as the Alliance and Reform parties) Party) Parties : i keep waiting for Stephen Harpur to announce to the country that it has all been a big joke, a reality-tv stunt and that the real slim shady has always been and forever will be Preston Manning.

what started out as one of the first political parties in Canada has evolved and generally degenerated (not entirely out of age) into a motley crew of west central politians.

i was really hoping that Belinda Stronach would win the leadership.

but alas, another dream dashed
on the battlefield of Canadian politics.

the New Democratic Party: Alexa McDonough > Jack Layton.

Le Bloq Quebequois: where did Lucien Bouchard go?