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My nickname is derived from the fact that my family coat of arms contains a white gryphon on both the crest and shield. This leads me to wonder if my ancient medieval ancestors raised gryphons as a hobby. I got into Pokemon in 1998, when I was in high school. I first heard about it in a Sonic the Hedgehog chat room back when Beseen.com existed. My mom was going to college back then, and during Spring Break when I had no classes, I would go with her and hang out in the college's computer lab and either chat or work on websites. One day, someone entered the chat room with the handle (username) "Pikachu". Other people in the room were like, "Oh, Pikachu!", "How cute!" and "Peek-a-chu!" and I was left in the dark as to what a Pikachu was. A couple of days later, I entered the chat room while someone else was talking about something called a Squirtle. The chat room was divided up into three frames: one held the chat room dialogue, another one below it that had the form for submitting text, and another one that was situated to the left side of the screen that listed the avatars (images) that people in the room chose to represent them. The avatar of the person talking about a Squirtle had a picture of a cute little blue turtle-like creature, with the line "#007 Squirtle" under the picture. I learned that the creature in question was also known as a Pokemon. Then, the one talking about his Squirtle suddenly exclaimed, "Oh no! It's evolving into WARTORTLE!" and changed his avatar to show a meaner-looking, darker blue turtle-like creature with claws and a fluffy tail. I wondered to myself whether or not the person had wished for this to happen to his Squirtle, and if there was a different method of the Squirtle's transformation that the person would have preferred over a Wartortle. About a month later, I read a Newsweek article on Pokemon. It was just a couple of paragraphs listed near the front of the magazine, where they print new developments in the world of entertainment. It showed a tiny picture of one of the pokemon, a toad-like creature with a bulb on its back (which I now know is a Bulbasaur). I decided to look into this development further. One day I went to a Media Play store with my parents. They went off to look for a movie or something, and I went to the video games department. A television was set up, advertising the Pokemon video games. I learned that there were two different versions of the game, that there were different types of pokemon, that pokemon could battle each other, and that there was a cartoon featuring Pokemon (although now I know that the correct term for a Japanese-animated cartoon is an anime). At the time, I did not own a Game Boy. All I had were an NES and a Sega Genesis. I tuned in to our local WB channel (WGN) one Sunday morning and found that Pokemon was on. The first episode I watched was titled "The Song of Jigglypuff". I learned that people who played Pokemon could travel through a large environment to find and capture pokemon, and that they had to train them for the pokemon to obey them. I also learned that pokemon could speak (although they could only say what their names consisted of) and that there were a whole lot more pokemon that I didn't know about than what I had seen before. I tuned in the next Sunday to watch "Attack of the Prehistoric Pokemon" and began to wonder if they were making up these creatures as they went along. While chatting on mIRC, I met up with someone who had an emulator and a Pokemon Blue version ROM. I allowed her to send me the files over a direct link. This was the first time I had ever played an English Pokemon video game. I learned how to capture and raise pokemon by trial and error, and later I had to buy a strategy guide to learn how to beat the game. Then I turned my sights to the card game, which had recently been appearing in the news. I visited the local mall and learned about booster packs and decks from a guy who worked at a Babbage's. He advised me to get the 2-player Starter Set, so I came back with my mom and bought it when I had earned enough money for it. On the way back home, the sun was beginning to set. I tore off the protective plastic wrapping and opened up the small box containing everything I needed to learn how to play the Pokemon Trading Card Game. The scent of new cards is something I will never forget. I removed the package of glass damage counters and inspected them, admiring their deep color and shinyness. I later found the 1st edition holographic foil Machamp card inside my box. It was a sight to see; the colorful background and twinkling holographic stars in the card image deeply appealed to me. This was something I would enjoy for the rest of my life. As of right now, I own the Red, Blue, Yellow, Silver, Crystal, and Sapphire versions of the Pokemon video game, and have beaten them all as well as completed the pokedices on the Yellow and Silver versions. I'm not sure as to exactly how many cards I own, but I have at least 10 cards from each card set, except for Southern Islands, of which I own none. I am currently a Pokemon Professor in the mentoring program run by Wizards of the Coast, and am looking forward to what's in store for Pokemon TCG players all around the world, with Pokemon USA holding the license to the TCG.
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