Tag: me

You have answered in the past what your favorite Pokémon of each generation and type is, as well as your least favorites of the same. You now have a new generation and type. Please finish these lists.

Hang on, let me find the old ones; I just want to stick in some links for reference… and also remember what the hell I said the first time…

Least favourite of each generation, favourite of each generation, least favourite of each type, favourite of each type.

All right, let’s see… 

Least favourite of this generation is Dedenne, hands down.  I generally felt that X and Y had better designs than Black and White did, overall; they had fewer that seemed derivative of earlier ones, and some really cool and weird stuff.  Even the ones that I don’t like are generally pretty interesting.  Except Dedenne, who is dumb.

Favourite of this generation is much harder, but Trevenant is definitely up there, and so is Malamar.  One of those two, probably.

Now, do any of the 6th-generation Pokémon manage to usurp spots on the two type lists?

Amaura and Aurorus, from an analytical perspective, are not terribly clever or interesting designs, I think, but I love them anyway for reasons of dinosaurs, and I think I can give them Rampardos’ old spot as my favourite Rock-types.

As I said in the original list, I’m not a huge fan of most Flying-types, but I am really fond of both Hawlucha and Noivern.  Either of them could claim that spot.  Hawlucha might also beat out Mienshao as my favourite Fighting-type.

That’s about it, I think.

And, finally, I guess I need to pick Fairy-types.  Hmm.  Least favourite is probably Dedenne again, followed by Snubbull and Granbull, whom you may recall popping up as my least favourite second-generation Pokémon.  Favourite Fairy Pokémon… mmm… might be Clefable, because I’m fond of the weird moon-worship thing they have going on, and the question of whether they’re aliens or not is kind of interesting.

“Ancient Aliens” is a thing. On a scale from one to ten, how much does it offend you?

Okay, well, we’re gonna have to set some points of reference here first, like on our scale of 1 to 10, 1 would be something like someone farts at an inappropriate moment and 10 is a dude doing the Nazi salute in a KKK robe and waving a ‘god hates fags’ sign as he hurls incendiary bombs at a school for disabled children run by blind elderly nuns… so, I don’t know, I guess like a 4?  Honestly, I don’t really take my discipline seriously enough to be all that bent out of shape by people spouting that kind of drivel about it, nor do I take Ancient Aliens seriously enough to regard it as actually threatening.  Having said that, though, the thinking that goes into conspiracy theories of that stripe is certainly rather distressing.  Somehow, incredibly, it manages to both over-glorify the ancient past and belittle it at the same time.  On the one hand, it’s like the Pyramids are too grand and wonderful for us to possibly accept the idea that maybe they were built by people dealing with the same questions we’re still asking today – how to think about death, how to preserve our memories of great people, how to build bigger and better than ever before – no; anything so superlative must have been accomplished with a great, world-spanning agenda in mind that we can barely grasp in hindsight. But on the other hand, it’s like there’s no way those primitive, barbaric ancient Egyptians could possibly have done anything so amazing on their own; people are just too stupid to make such great leaps in engineering without someone incredibly brilliant to teach them.  Someone with spaceships.  I mean, seriously.

What type of music you like? I can imagine you as a totally closeted sugar-pop fan. C’mon. Admit it. You love a bit of Katy Perry don’t you.

Honestly, I’ve never really been interested in music as a ‘thing’.  For reasons I don’t really understand, I don’t quite get it on some level.  When I listen to a song I’m always straining to make out the lyrics, because it’s only the words that are meaningful to me, and in the case of a lot of pop songs the lyrics are total nonsense.  A piece of music only means something to me once it’s connected to a story or an experience.  In isolation it’s just noise.

How do you cite your academic papers? MLA format? APA? (Just a curious random question about your academic profession)

Well, I haven’t actually had a paper published yet (I’m still a student), and when I do I’ll probably have to think harder about that than I’ve bothered to in the past.  Most academic journals have a preferred format, so it’s sort of up to them and not the individual researcher.  Honestly, thinking about different referencing styles just annoys me.  As long as an author gives all the details necessary for readers to track down the source of the information themselves (including page numbers, which some irritating reference styles don’t give), anything else is just being snooty, as far as I’m concerned.

Ever thought of giving Kid Icarus: Uprising a try? It may only be loosely based on Greek Myth, but it’s got enough references, along with an engaging plot with interesting characters and hilariously witty dialogue, to make anyone smile. Though some of the jokes that refer to the old NES title may fly over your head (no pun intended), and it takes a bit of time to get used to the control style, I’m still sure you’d be in for a fun time.

Not really a good time for me to be picking up new games at the moment, sorry.

Are you a fan of the sci fi genre? Heinlein, Haldeman, Adams, Bear etc.? Or do you prefer fantasy, i.e. Tolkien?

Well, I always know where my towel is, though none of the other names on that list have ever been big ones for me.  To be honest, I haven’t had much time for reading fiction lately.  I have so much work-related reading to do (which is interesting, don’t get me wrong, but tiring), much of it in Latin or French, that picking up another book at the end of the day just makes me feel “oh, god, why?” which is a shame, because there are a lot of books out there I want to read (in particular I’ve always meant to read more Terry Pratchett, because the two or three of his that I have read were great).  I did find time a couple of weeks ago, however, for The Princess Bride, which is a very different experience in book form to the subsequent movie adaptation, and which I wholeheartedly recommend.  I have a kind of cold, standoffish relationship with Tolkien because I read The Hobbit as a child, loved it, and then attempted to read The Fellowship of the Ring, which I think was just too old for me at the time, because I got about a hundred pages in, realised that nothing had actually happened yet, put it down, and never returned to it (this was all before the movies, of course).

EDIT: Oh, and I also count myself among the legions of people desperately hoping that George D-Bag Martin doesn’t die before he finishes murdering every character in A Song of Ice and Fire.