"To the Unknown...Pokemon?"

Well hello there culture-lovers.  Today, I am writing to you on perhaps one of the most nerdy topics I have surmounted yet: Twitch Plays Pokemon.

I can't tell you how many have asked me over the last month or so, "What the heck are you watching?  Thousands of people attempting to play one video game at the same time?  Why on earth do you like that?  What makes it entertaining?"  And for the longest time, I'll admit that I had trouble answering that question.  (For those of you who don't know what Pokemon is, but are interested, check this out.)

At first, my standard response to the incredulous looks was merely, "Nostalgia.  We all played as kids, and this is helping relieve some of the mid-term stress we're under."  But by the time Twitch got the attention of some magazines, school newspapers, etc., and was up to 52.7 million views, I began to wonder if the attraction was something bigger.

As you can imagine with several hundred thousand people telling one server what to do all at the same time, the Pokemon characters are (and I say "are" because Twitch is actually still going right now...) erratic, to say the least.  A better word is absolute anarchy, to use one of the popular phrases of Twitch.  Every command was inputted at the exact same time, but the game was eventually beaten (with a little help from Democracy mode, in which the most popular command in a 20 second time period was implemented instead).  The lore that has grown from the struggle against Fate in the Twitch world has been extremely entertaining to keep up with.

"Lore?"  You ask?  Why yes indeed.  And this is where Twitch begins to Dig(TM28) a little deeper.

In Pokemon Red, certain Pokemon were looked upon as gods due to the miraculous ways they survived battles, training, and were randomly referred to.  It was the classic story:

Good VS. Evil

Pokemon Red saw the rise of Lord Helix, a fossil that was constantly being referred to as the Savior (due mainly to the fact that it was merely a rock that, due to the thousands of commands being inputted at once, was looked at uselessly more times than any of us care to mention).  It gave rise to memes such as the one on the right, and websites like this. Obviously, if there is an all-powerful Poke-god in the lore, there must be a "son."  Enter Bird-Jesus, seen in the meme upper left.  And of course, if there are two such good beings, there must be an evil, seen in the Pokemon upper right (the Helix's opposite character in the grand scheme of things).  With the Helix's guidance, the thousands of voices finally overcame the Elite Four and became the greatest Pokemon trainers in all the land, and went on to rule the land, overshadowed by the Helix.

Believe it or not, thousands of people overcame insurmountable odds, and beat a video-game together.  But the social experiment was far from over.  Shortly after Pokemon Red was defeated, Pokemon Crystal was undertaken, and the popularity of Twitch was at an all time high (with about 121,000 players at one time).  But everything was happy-go-lucky no more.  Horrid things happened to AJ, the avatar of Crystal; Pokemon were forever released, and true anarchy and chaos prevailed.  People began to doubt whether or not Crystal could actually be beaten, and it seemed as if the goodness wrought by the Helix was just a fairy tale; the only true power in the world was found to be a human construct.  And so began the outcry: no gods, no kings, only 'Mon.

Backed by Brian the Bird and Eevee, LazrGator joined AJ's side and set out to take down the Pokemon killer god and his puppet Red.  And, after much pain and doubt, LazrGator did indeed overtake the previous generation to prove once and for all the only true power in the world of Pokemon was not a god, but Pokemon themselves.

Have you had enough?  See where I'm going?  Well hang on just a second.  After the 16 day battle of Crystal, the stream was delayed for 2 weeks to make way for Pokemon Emerald.  After some technical difficulties starting, Emerald is now underway, as you've probably seen, lead by May (the "M" is silent...yeah, it's just "A").  But now, having momentarily celebrated the end-all reign of Pokemon, the voices begin to ask: what is the point?  If there is no god to govern the Pokemon...is there a reason to play by the rules?  Is the game just pointless chaos?  (After having played 94 hours up to now, and having made *no* progress, I tend to ask the same question.)  The following of Twitch has rapidly declined (although about 4 of my friends and I still religiously...hahah...follow it), and we are no closer to progressing than we were two days ago.

Now.  *Heaves a huge preparatory breath*  Let me just give you some things to think about.

During the Middle Ages (let's say about 12-13 century AD), people were completely dependent on the Church.  Everyday life hinged on it, and any progress that was made was generally tinted by the Church in some way, for better or worse.

When the Renaissance hit around the 15th-ish century AD, there was a radical shift away from the Church in favor of human intuition and capability.  No longer was the Church needed as a societal prop - Man was seen as supreme.

Now here we are in Modern/Post-modern era.  After years of humans celebrating our humanity and our dominance and independence, we search in vain for a purpose in ourselves.  People pursue possessions, a better job, a better car...for what?  We're not sure.

...Interesting, isn't it?

So yes, I still sit nervously at my computer watching the chaos unfold.  Yes, I do occasionally yell at the screen in frustration.  Yes, I nostalgically remember smaller parts of my childhood.  But I suppose, in the end, the important thing to remember is that, despite the anarchy and the chaos that pervades life, there is a greater Purpose out there for all of us.  We just have to find Him.  Maybe that is the true reason so many people have latched on to Twitch Plays Pokemon - because like the avatars of the games, we are all searching for a purpose in the midst of chaos.  Maybe Twitch hints at something Deeper.  And we want to know what it is.

P.S. If you're interested in following the Lore, this is the best way right here.

Combating Reality in Grinder and Grains

Dear Reader,

I can't tell you how much I've missed writing you.  So much has been on my mind of late, and I haven't found the words or the poetry to express what this vortext is doing to my upper grey matter (yes, I did invent a new word; do you like it?  Yes, "grey" is better spelled that way.  "Gray" just looks too harsh.).  However, let the record show that, talks with fathers (mine), wonderful authors (specifically F. Scott Fitzgerald), and a surprisingly pleasant change of atmosphere do me wonders.

I had the good fortune to realize through someone (my mother, I think), that the location that my favorite coffee-shop in my hometown used to occupy was again filled, and it was taken by a mom-and-pop cafe.  I was deeply saddened when the coffee-shop had left its previous home (a 100 year old house), in exchange for a larger, warehousey building (there he goes again with the weird words...).  The coffee's quality suffered, and the atmosphere there took a change for the worse, in my opinion.  However, I am currently sitting in the very corner of Grinder and Grains Cafe (where, if I ignore the windows looking outdoors to my TN home, I feel as if I'm in a lodge in the Swiss mountains), and I am one of two patrons currently frequenting the quaint establishment.  The coffee here is satisfactory, and the chicken tortilla soup is exquisite.  I feel quite safe here, much as I do at Harmony House back on the Hill; for, as far as I know, this little cafe has yet to be found out by a large amount of people. I think I have found a treasure, and I revel in that fact.  A painting of a couple embracing under an umbrella adorns the wooden wall near me, typical coffee-shop music floats softly through the age-old house, and here I write.  Alone, but with my books, words, and thoughts to keep me company.

Lately, I have been feeling extremely...lost.  I know this sounds like the same words over a different tune (I suppose that would be an inverted form of strophicity?  For those of you wondering, I did just modify the word "strophic" to fit my needs), but I guess being at home, countless engagements of people younger than me (some of those old friends, an ex, or just people I used to consider much less mature than myself), my drawing near to the completion of my time on the Hill, and just a general lack of preparedness (or so I feel) for the future has amplified those feelings even more than normal.  For those of you who understood that previous sentence on the first try, I commend you.

At any rate, I have been wondering recently whether or not I am a child of the millennial generation, and how that will affect me in the near future.  I attribute much of the faults of that generation to a complete immersion in technology for most of their life (specifically feelings of entitlement and narcissism), and while this may not be completely accurate, from my experience it has had a large role in their upbringing.  While I generally do not think that I have been immersed in technology my entire life (I barely knew what the internet was until I was 15, and never had any type of phone or gaming system until at least my 16th year), I do feel as if I am an extremely immature person surrounded by people of a maturity unknown by most people in my generation.

I have friends in college about two years younger than me who are married and awaiting their first child.  And here I am watching/playing Pokemon (I even ordered Ash's hat), playing Legos, dressing like I'm still in my early teens, and relying on my parents for a lot of my livelihood while I'm in college.  And I can't help but ask myself if I'm somehow behind...if I've done something wrong.  Is it wrong to have the kind of fun I'm having at my age?  Should I grow up and move on to more serious things?  I have sworn most of life that I'll be wearing Converse from now on out, and I'll be a goof even when I'm old and white...but...why am I here and they are up there ahead?

I read The Great Gatsby (a MUST read...I don't care if you've seen the movie) and I read things in it like, “The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself…he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end.” and I wonder (because that is exactly how I am...constantly Romanticizing everything, just as Gatsby did) if it is indeed possible to form a Platonic version of me: to forget my past on such a level that I can become the man I've always dreamed I could be.  That vision is nothing like Gatsby's in physical grandeur.  I don't want the house, the wealth, or the people...but to be a man that is worth remembering.  I want to do that as a Christian, and I know I should be constantly tempering what I think and desire by God's Word.  And I do.  I guess I don't feel the comfort a lot of people say they have in it.  I think God requires of us the blood, sweat, and tears that worldly people shed on their own personal ambition.  I think service for Him is the end goal, but we are still required Gatsby's ambition if we want to be truly successful for Him.  I feel like I have shed quite a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, but lest you think I'm feeling entitled, I do not say I deserve anything; rather, I query to the void what those wounds, labors, and tears have accomplished.  Who am I because of my past?  Or should I shed my past and become my own man?  ...some questions that are probably best left to hindsight.  Yes, it is 20/20...but it sure takes a long time getting here.  I guess growing up takes a lifetime.

Pokemon and pranks,

But to be frank,

Immature and irresponsible?

Is growing up logical?

Combating Reality.

Here I sit, comfortably musing in a new favorite place of mine.  I am listening to Pavarotti's rendition of "Nessun Dorma" from "Turandot" for the 12th time since I've been here, and I refuse to look up the lyrics.  

Why?

"I have no idea to this day what [he is] singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think [he is] singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, [his] voice soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free."

I may feel like I'm institutionalized in Shawshank right now.  But regardless of the circumstances I'm in, and no matter that I feel as if I'm in a pond but pining to be in the ocean, I'll keep doing my best to be who I want to be, and who He wants me to be.  Join me?  I really could use the company.