So. What are some of your favorite Halloween-type Pokémon? Ghosts are a given. Dark, sure, maybe some Psychics. What else? Bats, snakes, spiders, I'm sure there's some what can seem like monsters... oh sure, they're all techinically "pocket monsters," but you know what I mean...

The pokemaniacs in Johto sure do know how to dress stylin'. Kinda remind me a bit of a card duelist I once knew named Kou.... Still, no matter how cool they dress, they're rarely a challenge for my pokemon. Oh well. Experience points is experience points....

They'd be asking me "so why'd you choose this particular theme for your blog?" To which I would reply, because the night before I started it, I watched a "Lost" rerun that included a joke "what's black and white and red all over?" to which the answer was "a penguin with a sunburn." And so then the next day I'm creating my blog, and trying to choose a theme, and one of the choices was "black and white and red all over." So I thought it must be fate...

This entry has nothing to do with Pokemon. Sorry. Hmmm... maybe the monster in the jungle is a Tropius? No... I heard it's a Mapinguari... or maybe a Vigoroth! I don't know... I'm tired, I'm going to bed....

Greetings. I am the Pokemaniac. Yes, there are a great many people across the lands who call themselves pokemaniacs, and I don't want to dispute the validity of their claims as such. However, I assure you, I am the Pokemaniac. Not the first by a far stretch, but that hardly matters. And yes, I just decided to declare myself such. It doesn't really matter to me if anyone agrees or not. I shall continue to consider myself the Pokemaniac, the one, even if not the only. But who cares?

Why am I here? Hell, why is anyone here, man? I didn't ask to get born onto this crazy mudball we call Earth. I didn't ask to get born at all. There was no manual. No one knows why they're here, no one knows why anyone's here. We just are. And we try to find things to do with ourselves as long as we are. If you think you've got some kind of universal answers, it's all just the blind leading the blind, my friend. There are no certainties in life, all we can do is what seems to make the most sense to us. Which will invariably be at odds with what makes the most sense to everyone else.

So what shall constitute a major part of my own little random existence? Pokemon. Okay, I'm a human, whatever. Pokemon are people too. There'll be some good ones and some bad ones, just like people. But none of them deserve to be treated like animals. Nosir. They deserve to be treated like people. And that means, if they do wrong, they should be punished for it. Lock them up, I say! But no one's gonna put a pokemon in jail, are they? Some people come along all flower hippie like and say to treat pokemon like friends not pets or tools, but hey, can't we all just get along? No need for violence, man. Others demand that we treat pokemon as equals, and are not above using violence and terrorism to spread their message. Whatever, I don't care, that's not what I'm about. I suppose each type in their own way is helping achieve the same ultimate goal I share with them, but I'm over here in the middle, not willing to join either side, and I bet both sides would decry my POV, buddy.

So what? What do I do? I say... if the authorities are going to treat pokemon like wild animals, then people just gotta police them themselves. Vigilante justice, man! What what? Listen... you might think it's wrong that people can just go around battling pokemon and capturing them to do their bidding. But seriously... you think this happens so much to peaceful pokemon? Maybe some, but not hardly alot. The overwhelming majority of pokemon battles and captures come as a result of wild pokemon attacking humans. Sure, some of those humans may be hoping pokemon will attack, so they can capture them, or at least level up their own pokemon... but most trainers won't actually provoke a fight. Some might use sweet scent, but aside from that, they usually just wander around allowing themselves to look like targets, and let the pokemon do what comes naturally. Many pokemon just avoid such humans. Some of them come and hang out for awhile. But it's usually the ones that attack that get captured, man. They themselves are acting like wild animals, in a way, but considering they are sentient beings, what they're really acting like is criminals, possibly deranged criminals. So if a human and his pokemon partners fight back in self defense, or capture them in pokeballs, which may be viewed as little portable correctional facilities, hey, the pokemon were asking for it. They get what they deserve.

So yeah, I'll wander the countryside, and I'll battle and sometimes capture pokemon. I'm a vigilante. I don't want to say a superhero, like Gligarman or something, but you know... I'm doing what I can to stem the tide of crime in a world not gone mad, but rather a world that's always been and probably always will be mad, you feel me? Yeah. And do I battle trainers? Sure. Hey, my partners need their exercise, they need experience. Sometimes my opponents are part of the problem, and I want to give them a little taste of what for, and sometimes they're part of the solution, so it's just a friendly match, beneficial to both of us, really. But what I really wanna do is get to the point where I can take on the establishment. Not as part of some group like SNAP or the PLF, but just me and my pokemon partners, yo. Maybe someday we could even win a league tournament, that'd be an excellent platform to get our message out there. Meanwhile, I'm gonna have this blog to try to do that...