CHRISTMAS 2020 WAS GREAT! SO WAS NEW YEARS AND MY BIRTHDAY AND STUFF! (January 21, 2021)

Thirtieth post from the original blog.

"I got back to writing in my red Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Do-It-Yourself book, and I filled up the journal on Christmas Eve. It only took one journal entry to fill it up from where I had it because I had been writing in it since I started 4th grade (with the occasional journal entry in between 7th grade to now). In order to keep journaling, I got out my other Wimpy Kid DIY book (this one is orange) and picked up where I had left off at the end of 3rd grade (with a note after the last journal entry telling the reader to read the red Wimpy Kid DIY book before continuing). I don't know why I never finished the orange one, but if I had to guess, I think it would have had something to do with the fact that the drawings in the orange journal from when I was 7 and 8 weren't as good as the drawings I made when I was 9, and I didn't want there to be contrast. I think towards the end of 3rd grade I decided to give my drawings of myself lighter hair because my hair is a dirty-blonde color, and I didn't like how that contrasted with the older drawings that showed me with darker hair. Plus, there was the whole stick-figure thing that I was starting to outgrow as far as drawings that were more than mere doodles were concerned.

Frankly, the drawings I made in the orange journal were actually pretty bad (even for stick-figures), and my handwriting wasn't much better. The first few entries were just barely legible, but I still remember what I wrote, thankfully. I figured out my problem with drawing back then: proportion. Well, I figured that out when I was about 11 or 12, but better late than never.

I'm continuing where I left off in the orange journal with the rule to not change a single thing in it before where I left off. That way my life from when I was 7 and 8 will be preserved. At least certain bits of it, anyway.

Note that I planned to post this at around New Year's Eve, but for whatever reason, I forgot to post it, and it was just a draft. Therefore, this will be a longer post than usual, since the time covers almost two months instead of the usual one month.

As for what I got for Christmas, I got Pokémon Ruby, plush toys of Beedrill, Mewtwo, and Mudkip, and a few other things. I was going to get Pokémon Diamond for Christmas as well, but there was a big screw-up with the delivery time, and it almost got lost. It was supposed to come on December 1, but it got delayed to January 4, on my birthday. I'll talk about my birthday in a little while.

Pokémon Ruby - Considering the fact that the basic gameplay of each Pokémon game never really changes from game to game, that makes it really easy to get the hang of a (sort of) new Pokémon game (unless you're an idiot). I chose Treecko as my starter because I heard that he's the best starter in Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald for beginner players to use. I personally wish that I'd chosen Mudkip, though, because he does pretty well against the battles in the Rustboro Gym as well as Treecko, and I think he looks cooler. Anyway, after spending a lot of time grinding Treecko to Level 16 so he could evolve into Grovyle (and all of my other Pokémon to at least Levels 12-14), I managed to beat Roxanne and get the Stone Badge. I also was able to grind my other Pokémon up to about Level 15-17, which was enough for me to beat Brawly at the Dewford Gym and get the Knuckle Badge. I was pretty diligent in playing the game enough to get a huge stockpile of berries to use later (just in case that the 10 HP boost from an Oran Berry is enough to win a certain battle or something), but then I stopped when my birthday rolled around to play Pokémon Diamond. Note that I'm using a walkthrough to play the game (along with every other Pokémon game I have) because for whatever reason, I can't emotionally deal with getting a Game Over in any Pokémon game like I (kind of) can in Super Mario, Kirby, or Bug Fables. That's also the reason why I spend more time leveling up my Pokémon than necessary for more skilled players, because even if I think of a good strategy, there's always that chance of a move missing, the opponent having higher speed or move priority, the opponent using a move that is super effective against my Pokémon, and a bunch of other variables that could break a strategy if you're either unprepared or unlucky. It's either level up my Pokémon to the point where they're somewhat overpowered relative to the opponent trainers (therefore negating some aspects of strategy), or risk having a clever strategy backfire because RNG just so happens to roll an unlucky number or something.

Kirby's Epic Yarn - I was able to beat Grass Land's main levels and get all of the treasures, and I even unlocked Mole Hole and Weird Woods. I beat Mole Hole, but I missed a treasure.

I also played this game with my little sister, Sam. She did better than I expected, but she still has trouble using the Pendulum transformation effectively. The bad news is that you need to know that in order to get through the game, and while Kirby's Epic Yarn is one of the easiest Kirby games I can think of, it's probably not the simplest.

Mario Kart Wii - I played this with Sam as well, and for a first-timer, she did really well. She even beat me in VS Mode a few times, but that was mostly because I let her beat me. Unfortunately, Sam still has trouble staying on the track all of the time, she keeps falling off of the edges in Mushroom Gorge and Toad's Factory, and she doesn't effectively use her items when she runs through an Item Box. I'm still proud of her for what she can do, though.

My birthday was just as good as Christmas, if not better. Not only did I get Pokémon Diamond, I also got Pokémon Pearl and Platinum, Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn, plushies of Treecko, Torchic, and Crobat, some money, a bunch of cookies, and even a huge Pokémon puzzle (that my aunt Kristie, the one who gave me the puzzle, already solved and framed). I mostly just play Pokémon Diamond as my main Generation IV game, and I just play Pokémon Pearl and Platinum for the sake of trading. It works because I just put one Gen. IV game in my DSi XL, and another in my 3DS, and then trade with myself. It's a bit more complicated than I thought it would be, but now I have a legitimate chance of getting every Pokémon in the Sinnoh Pokédex except for Manaphy, Phione, Darkrai, Shaymin, and Arceus (which are Mythical Pokémon).

Pokémon Diamond - Just like Pokémon Ruby, I got the hang of this pretty quickly, even though I used a walkthrough. When I started, I wondered why the text was going so slow, but then I realized I had to go into the settings within the game to change it instead of just the menu settings, which didn't exist. Anyway, I chose Turtwig as my starter. Difficulty-wise, it was a toss-up between Turtwig and Chimchar, but I chose Turtwig over Chimchar because StrategyWiki's advice was that Turtwig would be the best for players who like team building (which is me) and competitive multiplayer battles (which is nice, but doesn't really apply to me because the only multiplayer battles I can do are ones with myself). Anyway, I beat Roark at the Oreburgh Gym and got the Coal Badge. Then I went to Floaroma Town and got through Valley Windworks, and I beat Commander Mars. She wasn't as hard as I thought she would be, mostly because I used my Geodude for defense purposes. I also got an extra Zubat and an extra Geodude so I could trade with myself through Pokémon Pearl. I'll talk about that next.

Pokémon Pearl - Because my goal for Pokémon Pearl and Platinum is just to trade Pokémon from those games to Pokémon Diamond, I won't talk about Pearl and Platinum as much as Diamond, unless it's something big. Anyway, I started this game with Chimchar, and once I got to Jubilife City, I set up a Union Room with myself for Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. I had one game in my DSi XL and another in my 3DS, and I traded the extra Zubat in Pokémon Diamond for my Chimchar in Pearl, so that way I had both Chimchar and Turtwig in Pokémon Diamond. Then I deleted my save file in Pearl and repeated the process with my Piplup. Now I have all three starters in Pokémon Diamond. I started a third time with Turtwig, and I'm keeping this file so I can just focus on trading Pokémon between versions.

Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling - I started over on two new files (along with the first one): one to play from the beginning, and another to play in Hard Mode. I managed to get to Chapter 6 in Normal Mode on the second file, and I completed almost all of the quests available except for "Lost Books," "Want to Relive Memories...," and "Huuuuuuuuuu...!!!" I have about 2,000 berries in the bank, which is awesome. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any Golden Seedlings, and the only Tangy Berry I could find for having Kut make a Tangy Carpaccio as part of a quest was a reward for completing 10 out of 50 waves in the Cave of Trials. Granted, I can always buy Tangy Berries from Skirby on Metal Island, but still. Anyway, the third file was when I did Hard Mode. I managed to beat Chapters 1 and 2 (with great difficulty, as it was Hard Mode). I also completed almost all of the quests unlocked for Chapter 2 and the beginning of Chapter 3, and I think I made it to the Lost Sands before I stopped playing on the third file."