Pokémon

Pokémon.  I loved this phenomenon.  I was a huge part of this movement.  I am still an advocate.  It was right after I was introduced to AD&D (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, not Attention Deficit Disorder.  But suprisingly, those two went together more often than not) and was beginning to get into Magic: The Gathering.  Both of those games were a bit over my age range, being a 9 year old, so it was a blessing when Pokémon came out.  I had the Gameboy version, Pokémon: Red, and subsequently thought that everyone with Pokémon: Blue was a pussy.  Honestly, who likes Squirtle, Wartotle, or even Blastoise for that matter.  I would rather have a pokébelt full of Pidgeys and Weedles.  Charmander was the way to go.  He was red, his tail was on fire, and he evolved into a Red Dragon.

WARNING:  NERD SIDE NOTE:  If you're not into fantasy fiction than just skip over this next part and resume reading about what you came to read, Pokémon.  

The Red Dragon, out of all the dragons (red, black, blue, gold, white...) it is the most feared, powerful, magical, and clever.  If it gets pissed off, you die.  Depending on what you read (Paolini) they can be great wariors, or (Goodkind) ferocious guardians.  But one thing is constant, they are bad ass and I wanted one for my own.

BACK TO POKÉMON

When Pokémon the card game came out, I was elated.  The problem was that I literally thought that I had to catch 'em all.  I was the kid who had the collectors guide to Pokémon cards.  If you were anyone who was anyone in the Pokémon world, then you would know that a mint condish Charizard was worth up to $125 at one point, and yes, I had mine.  It was the rarest of the rare, and it was mine.  At one point, my Pokémon collection was up to around $600.  I was, in my mind, the Pokémon master.  I thought that if Ash Ketchum himself were to challenge me with his bitch-ass Pika, him and his delinquent posse would go down in flames, literally.  (or figurativly, it was just a card game.  And they were just fictional characters.  It JUST hit me how lame I was... am.)

Here is the sad part.  I still have all 500 cards, including the mint condish 'Zard.  And you know what they are worth now?  Around $7.35.  Now I have to wait until 2070 for them to appreciate in value so I can take them on the Roadshow and make... well, hopefully I'll at least make my money back, but I'm not banking on it.

I hope my girlfriend doesn't read this, and yes, she is real.  (jerks)