Lucas: 12 - 2025 GLC Season Results

    I may not have covered it in a blog for over two months, but the 2025 season of GLC just closed out (Pokemon TCG Gym Leader Challenge-- referenced in blogs Lucas: 4 and Lucas: 5). For a quick TL;DR:

• Your Pokemon must all be the same type (Water, Grass, etc.)
• You are only allowed to play one of each card (rather than the standard limit of 4)
• No Pokemon EX allowed

    Another unique aspect of GLC is that winning tournaments earn you a Badge for that type. This pushes most players to stop using a type after they win and earn that Badge.

Me with my Dragon badge (Lucas: 4)

    Up until recently, I thought Badge accumulation was just a fun little side quest I could chase while terrorizing the local Melbourne Pokemon community. There was a greater purpose this entire time..

    That's right, chat. I am tied for 2nd place in this season's standings despite only playing in 4/11 of the GLC tournaments. Even more important, I am only one win away from tying the lead with one GLC left to play. So far, I have won with Dragon and Colorless. These are my favorite available GLC decks by far due to their heavy reliance on Basic Pokemon (guys that don't evolve). My most recent GLC experience was playing an Electric deck that was a total flop, so I'm going to have to make a new deck for this final tournament.

2025 GLC Season Results

    Ever since using my Electric deck for the first time, I had been trying to figure out what Colorless's successor would be.. fruitless. My primary focus for that month was just the Standard format. I had partial Psychic and Water lists built, Lightning and Fighting aren't positioned very well after Colorless was weakened with the card bans mentioned in Lucas: 5. Dark heavily relied on the aforementioned banned cards and caught a crazy stray, so I couldn't figure out anything there. Grass was reasonable, but relied on Evolution Pokemon. Steel, Fire, and Fairy are all just not very good right now for one reason or another. That only leaves me with Water or Psychic. I have a lot of Water Pokemon and trainers, so I decide to focus my efforts there. 

Final Water Deck List

    With this list, I try to limit Water's reliance on Evolution Pokemon as much as humanly possible. Despite my efforts, my primary attacker is a hefty Wailord. This behemoth has 240 HP, unbelievable for a Pokemon that isn't an EX or even a Stage 2. Why is this balanced? Look at that attack. The 4-energy cost is expensive, forcing this deck to run a Stage 1 support Pokemon -- Frosmoth -- to accelerate energies. Most Water decks also run a Baxcalibur for redundancy, but that's too many Evolution Pokemon for me to handle. Oh, Lucas, why are you running Octillery and Intelleon then?? Click those links and find out. These guys are wicked useful for helping me set up consistently. The Drizzile's broken ability is just sweetener on top. The rest of the deck is built with Basic attackers with Wishiwashi and Veluza. For my active readers, why don't you go ahead and read Wishiwashi's ability and think of how it could be very very bad for me. We'll see if you get it right. 

06-18-25 GLC

    Over the month of June, there are no Pokemon sanctioned Challenges or Cups in anticipation of the 2025 World Championships. Instead, Pokemon incentivizes stores hold casual tournaments. My main store decided to double-book GLC Wednesdays with Standard tournaments. This move sapped a good amount of GLC players, but I didn't anticipate how many until GLC started. Standard tournament? 15 players. Pretty good. GLC tournament? 2 players. Myself and the current badge leader. Due to the low turnout, we agree to play a Best-of-3 for the Badge. 

Game 1

    Game 1 starts and my opponent flips over... Hisuian Basculin. Ah. Water mirror. Even more interesting, most water decks use Alolan Vulpix as a Pokemon as a Pokemon set-up attacker. I personally don't like how the Vulpix is easily punished by hand disruption cards. I am going first and start Wishiwashi. I have no cards to search out extra Pokemon, attach an energy and pass. Now's an interesting time to return to Wishiwashi's ability, Scatter. I relinked the picture for those of you at home. Thankfully, my opponent does not try to attack my Wishiwashi and instead uses Gather the Crew to search for two Basic Pokemon. Phew. Donk averted.

    I draw my top deck. Attach an energy to Wishiwashi. And pass. At this point. my opponent has caught on and uses Basculin's Tackle attack to deal 10 damage to Wishiwashi. I am forced to flip a coin for the game (if Wishiwashi shuffles himself back into the deck as my lone Pokemon, I lose on the spot for having no Pokemon in play). Heads. I reread the ability.. okay. I don't shuffle in. I draw for turn, attach another Energy to Wishiwashi, and use Hydro Splash to KO the Basculin. I still find no more Pokemon. My opponent spends the turn setting up further and passes it over to me. Wishiwashi still has 10 damage on him, so I flip again and get Tails. Dang. Series is 0-1.

Game 2

    I hate this deck already. Any sports knowers understand how bad it is to be behind in a series. And to start behind so quickly is frustrating. The second game, I choose to go second and am able to start much better. On my second turn, Frosmoth and Octillery are both set up. I quickly set up a Raid Boss Wailord with the help of Luxurious Cape (340 HP total) and KO my opponent's Frosmoth. The prizes are 5-6. He is able to remove my Cape and KO my Wailord with his own Wailord. Prizes are tied at 5-5 and I slowly chip away at his Wailord's HP as he takes a flurry of KOs. By the time I am able to KO his Wailord, the Prize cards are at 4-3. My support Pokemon are in much better shape and I'm able to set up my next few attackers as I even the prizes at 3-3. The rest of the game is a bit fuzzy, but I close it out to stay alive. Series is 1-1.

Game 3

    This game was fairly unremarkable. In Game 1, there was a funny (not to me) turn 4 donk. Game 2 was a well matched battle where we both jockeyed for the best board state. Game 3.. he just draws poorly. Not as bad as I did in Game 1, but I set up a full board of support Pokemon and he gets nothing. I knock out his Remoraid, preventing Octillery from coming online, and he isn't able to recover. I win the series 2-1 and earn my Water Badge.

Conclusion?

    I win the day and collect my Water Badge along with a Gold GLC-relevant trainer card, Rescue Stretcher. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but you get to pick out a blingy GLC card after winning. So far I've accumulated the Rescue Stretcher, Field Blower, and Counter Catcher. Just more fun stuff for a cheap $5 buy-in.

    I've tied for first in this season's GLC Badges, but we aren't that kind of community. No ties. We decide to meet on the following Wednesday to play another Best-of-3 for the crown of 2025 GLC Champion. We can use any of the types that we earned a badge with.

2025 GLC Championship

    I already know what needs to be done. Time to dust off the Dragon deck I've yet to lose a game with. Colorless was the dominant deck when this deck was originally constructed, so I decide it needs some updates to match the current meta game. I'll throw these changes here, but they generally boil down to trading Special Energy removal cards for some consistency cards. This makes sense if you recall that two Special Energy bans are what reduced Colorless's strength.

Deck Adjustments

    I construct my updated deck on Friday and spend most of my free time playing Solitaire with the deck. In other words, I just go through the motions of playing a game alone and assume that the worst case scenario happens to me every turn. This lets me get a good feel for how to play a close game and string together attackers. It also helps me plan through my Pokemon recovery cards and get a feel for how much I can discard important cards before throwing away too much.

Final Dragon Deck List

    The first time I wrote about GLC in Lucas: 4 I didn't bother with explaining any aspects of the deck, but I was trying to keep readers back then. IDGAF now. The deck contains only 6 Basic Pokemon. Depending on which one you start the game with, your game plan can change drastically. Starting with Druddigon or Drampa are your worst options, with Druddigon being the absolute worst starter. That said, they are both crazy powerful. Druddigon's Revenge attack allows you to deal huge damage and can often be set up on the same turn this Pokemon is played to the bench with the help of any of the following:

• Double Dragon Energy -- Gives you both energies you need to attack
• Guzma and Hala -- Finds Double Dragon Energy
• Tag Call -- Finds Guzma and Hala
• Colress's Tenacity -- Finds Double Dragon Energy
• Crispin -- Accelerates two energies
• Mela + Water Energy -- Mela accelerates a Fire Energy from your discard, then draws to help you find a Water Energy to attach for turn
• Raihan -- A much stronger Mela, you can just search out what you need to attack
• Max Elixir -- Just hit the energy you need, 4Head
• Reshiram -- Good ability

    There are even more options to help you find cards to set up a Druddigon in one turn. Cycling Druddigon's is vital to this deck working. Drampa is just a solid card. He is a good attacker because we have a bunch of different basic energy types. Wishful Baton pairs best to either conserve energies on a Drampa being KOd, or to immediately power up a Drampa after a different attacker is KOd.

    Now let's move onto the next pure attacker, Raging Bolt. What makes this guy so special is his Thunderburst Storm attack is able to bench snipe your opponent's Evolution Pokemon before they have time to get going. This card combined with Crispin singlehandedly forced the entire GLC metagame to switch all of their Basic Evolution Pokemon to variants with 70 HP, so they can survive that combo.

    Next up, we'll talk about Reshiram. I gave him a short shout in the "Druddigon Powerup List", and that's his job in the deck. Power up Pokemon with your ability. That's it. If you use his Bright Wing attack, you're getting desperate.

    This next card is probably the most important to this deck. None other than the Dragon King himself, Regidrago. His Dragon's Hoard ability saves this deck from the fate suffered by many types like Fighting, Fire, and Steel in GLC: a bunch of good attackers and no way to find them. Being able to have a Pokemon in play that can draw you cards is critical in every stage of the game. His Giant Fangs attack is also the hardest hitting move on our roster. A 3-Energy cost with two specific types is pretty pricey, so we don't use it too often.

    Last but not least, we have Tatsugiri. I love this card. He is only in here to help you find supporters, but I love the actual physical card. The Pokemon is fine. He can be clutch at times. Like I said before, on-board draw support is really good.

    The last card that I will mention is Technical Machine: Turbo Energize. Our absolute dream with this deck is to use this attack on our first turn going second and setting up an impenetrable wall of potential attacking options to carry us through the rest of the game. Now let's get into the games.

Game 1

    I win the coin flip and choose to go second, chasing that TM: Turbo Energize jump-start. My opponent flips over his starting Pokemon and I see an Iron Boulder. Dang. This man is by no means a meta deck spammer, but Psychic is the chalk best GLC deck right now. I've got a GLC-specific content creator's tier list to prove it:

    Oh, Lucas, why didn't YOU play Psychic then? I already told you, I didn't make a list. I don't own any of the cards. It happens. That said, I think I still have the advantage here. I have a really good idea what my opponent's entire 60 are because I was just looking at Psychic deck lists the night before and Iron Boulder is a rare inclusion. Even rarer yet is the Battle Compressor he uses right after to discard some useless tech cards in his deck along with a Giratina. I'm pretty sure I know his exact list.

At least 58 cards of my Opponent's list

    I end my first turn with a TM: Turbo Energize from my active Regidrago to power up a Drampa on the bench. I was able to get there with an Arven from hand, finding me a Nest Ball for Drampa and the TM: Turbo Energize. While checking for what cards are prized during this deck search, I make a critical error. I didn't think enough about what I should have gotten from Arven. Battle VIP Pass should have been taken instead of Nest Ball to allow me to bench an extra Pokemon from the deck.

    My opponent's next turn is spent setting up support Pokemon, and on my next turn I take the first KO with Regidrago after attaching my Double Dragon Energy from my hand. Prizes are 5-6. I put a Luxurious Cape on Regidrago to try to protect him and force my opponent to play his tool removal card, Field Blower. My deck loves to extract value from tools, so getting that card out the game early would be awesome. And if he doesn't use it? Regidrago lives. Even better. He sets up an attacker, uses Field Blower, and KOs my Regidrago. 5-5. I promote my Drampa, attach a Wishful Baton to it (can no longer be removed with Field Blower used), and bench a Raging Bolt. I take a KO. 4-5. My opponent is able to return KO, and Wishful Baton immediately energizes my Raging Bolt on the bench. 4-4. 

    I use Hex Maniac to prevent my opponent's abilities on his next turn, because that's the only reason he is able to chain attackers so easily. I recover Drampa from the discard pile, attach an Energy to him on the bench, and take a KO with Raging Bolt. 3-4. My opponent is unable to set up an attacker without abilities and passes. I attach energy to Drampa again and take another KO. 2-4. 

    He is able to take a KO on my Raging Bolt. 2-3. Having drawn into no supporters that can draw me cards or accelerate energies, this is where I start to worry. I have a Drampa ready to attack in the active spot, but if he KOs it, I'll only be left with a lone Raging Bolt I just recovered from the discard pile. I take a KO and go down to one prize card remaining. 1-3. He is able to take the KO and I promote my Raging Bolt. 1-2. I am unable to attack or bench any extra Pokemon this turn. I Guzma up a Pokemon on the bench with 2-retreat cost and no energies attached, hoping he won't be able to move it. 

    He is able to move it and KOs my Raging Bolt. Prizes are tied at 1-1, but I have no more Pokemon on my side of the field. This is where I could have used that Battle VIP Pass on my first turn. Like last week, I fall behind at 0-1 in the series.

Game 2

    I lost Game 1, so I'm able to choose to go second again in Game 2. I haven't lost hope. I have already forgotten my misplays last game. We move on.

    I draw my starting hand and instantly start moving like Neo from The Matrix. I'll put the hand after I drew for turn here to illustrate how much I'm able to get done in one short turn. I'd ask anyone to solve it like a puzzle, but nobody would have a dang clue.

    I use Quick Ball and Mysterious Treasure to discard both Luxurious Cape and VS Seeker. With them, I search for Raging Bolt and Regidrago. I use Turboblaze to accelerate the Fire Energy to Regidrago, and use Volkner to search for Adventure Bag and a Lightning Energy. I use Adventure Bag to search out TM: Turbo Energize and Air Balloon. I attach Air Balloon to Reshiram, retreat to Regidrago, attach Lightning Energy to Raging Bolt, attach TM: Turbo Energize to Regidrago, draw 3 with Regidrago's  Dragon Hoard, and use TM: Turbo Energize to accelerate 2 more energies to Raging Bolt. All of this while holding onto the Float Stone I need to retreat Regidrago next turn. I'm firing on all cylinders and here's what my board looks like leaving my first turn. I've never set up this well in my life.

The Unbreakable Board

    Or so I thought. My opponent is able to set up his Giratina to attack and uses Guzma to gust my Raging Bolt to the active, switch his Giratina to the active, and KO Raging Bolt, taking the first KO. 

6-5. This feels like Aces Full getting busted in Poker. You hit the absolute nuts and the other guy just hit it nuttier. We go on. I attach Double Dragon Energy to Regidrago, play Hex Maniac to prevent him from using abilities next turn, and return KO his Giratina. 5-5. Thankfully, his empty board with no abilities isn't able to get a return KO. I use Escape Rope to move his active Mew to KO a more useful support Pokemon. He can choose to promote either Gallade or Malamar. One lets him search for a supporter while the other lets him accelerate energies every turn for free. Both are broken. He promotes the Gallade, which is the Wrong choice. I KO Gallade. 4-5. 

    As soon as I take this KO, my opponent is tilting. He knows he promoted the wrong Pokemon. I've played against this guy a lot, I've played next to this guy a lot, I've never seen him tilt before. And folks, he's on death tilt. He's more pissed than I've seen someone at this game in a Long time. His next turn he isn't able to set up any attackers, but tries to get his board going again. My next turn, I bench a Druddigon, attach energies, and KO Mew. 3-5.

    He is able to KO my Regidrago-- 3-4--  but I already have a Druddigon set up with two energies. I recover Regidrago, attach an energy to him, and return the KO. 2-4. He recovers Guzma and chases my Regidrago for another KO. 2-3. I attach a Wishful Baton to my Druddigon, use Mela to attach an energy to my benched Drampa, attach to Drampa for turn (two total energies on Drampa now), and return the KO. 1-3. My opponent flips around his cards for a second and concedes, as I have game on board.

    The series is 1-1.

Game 3

    For every good game, there is a bad game. Maybe not 1:1, but these games of luck eb and flow. My opponent chooses to go second, forcing me to go first. My turn is dangerously weak, as I start with Druddigon active (recall, he's the worst possible guy there), attach an energy, and pass. My opponent benches a Munkidori from hand and passes. Cool. I play Guzma and Hala from my hand to search out Double Dragon Energy and Luxurious Cape. I attach Luxurious Cape to Druddigon to make my little man Big. He now has 220 HP. I attach Double Dragon Energy and use Druddigon's second attack, Dragon Claw to KO. 5-6. 

    He promotes Munkidori, attaches to him, and attacks with Mind Bend. For those of you who don't know what Confusion does in the TCG, it is very annoying and doesn't matter here. I search for a switch cart, clear the confusion, retreat back to Druddigon, and Dragon Claw for Game, Set, Match. 

All I Do Is Win Win Win

Obligatory Deck List Pic

Nathan: 11

Hello fellow companions. Today I will be delving into the world of Switch Sports Golf. I’ve been hittin the links at Spocco Square for a few weeks & today I’m gonna be playing a random seed of 9 holes and go over my preparation for each random hole I get. Let’s pray for an easy seed so I can impress my friends. ( I tried to get an individual pic of each hole but it won’t work on my phone so I’m sorry you’ll just have to refer to the photo of all 21 holes above) (also sorry this one is sloppier than I like bc I’m doing it on my phone but I love you all very much and promise my next work will be better)

Special Hole 19- this hole fuckin suuuuucks. Pretty much you wanna hit a clean 3 iron down the right side of the fairway. The reason you want to “lay up” off the tee is so that you can get enough power on your second shot to clear the tree that guards the green. I absolutely skied it over the fairway and didn’t read the wind very well so my first shot goes straight into the water OB. (+1 stroke) Once I take my drop on the fairway I hit a nice 7 iron straight into the aforementioned tree that guards the green. I’ve got a 40 yard chip for par and left myself with a 15 foot putt for bogey. I sunk that one and we start +1. 

Hole 9- This par 5 has a massive cedar tree in the middle of the fairway so hugging the left side of the fairway is recommended. My tee shot left me with 341 yards to the pin but on this hole you have to lay up on your second shot. My second shot left me at the end of the fairway and a nice chip onto the putting surface. Unfortunately I botched my chip and ended up in the green side bunker. We’ve got a 30 yard chip for birdie with some pretty strong cross wind. I’m hittin 2 dots of power on the wedge and praying I got the wind right. Not a bad chip I just didn’t get the wind right, and I’ve got a 12 foot putt for par. Sunk that bitch and we’re +1 thru 2.

Hole 2- This is a pretty tricky par 3 because the fairway slopes down into the green. This means you’re gonna need much less club than you think. I’m clubbing down to a 7 iron and slammin 3 dots of power. Wowwww nice ass chip I got a 5 foot tap in birdie. Even thru 3.

Hole 4- Another par 3 but this one isn’t as tricky as hole 2. There is some water trouble if you favor the left side of the green but I’m gonna play it safe and try not to get OB again. Well I left it pretty short and I’m chipping from 14 yards for birdie. I only need to adjust about 5 clicks to the left and rip a single dot of power on the wedge. BANGGGGG CHIP IN BIRDIE!!! -1 thru 4.

Hole 3 is another tricky par 5. There are two massive trees that you don’t wanna get too close to off the tee shot. I’m gonna hit a nice almost full power driver down the right side of the fairway. Now I gotta thread the needle between those two trees to hit the end of the fairway and have a nice look at an eagle chip. I ended up smacking one of the trees and I’m in the rough for my eagle chip. I’m gonna hit a nice 7 iron and pray I get it close for birdie. Not a bad approach just left it 22 feet short. Not a gimme birdie putt here. Unfortunately didn’t give it enough pace and left it just short of the hole. -1 thru 5.

Hole 1- This is the most straightforward par 4 you could think of. Just bomb it down the fairway and pray you get lucky for an eagle chip. We’ve got very light wind and a back pin position here so an eagle if definitely on the table. I’m 101 yards out so I’m gonna hit a nice 9 iron with 3.5 dots of power. The relatively light wind actually pushed me a lot further right than I thought it would. Pin high, 12 feet away for birdie. Sunk that putt and we are -2 thru 6.

Special hole 21- FUCKKK Why am I getting this damn hole. This tee shot is actually very tricky because the tee box is on a damn mountain and the fairway is very far down. Gonna have to club down to a spoon here so I don’t launch the ball into the rough. We’ve got zero wind here but the green is shaped like a soup bowl. With the pin on the top of the green an eagle chip is out of the question. We must get it close here so we don’t have a rough putt for birdie. I aimed way left of the hole so the ball would trickle up towards the hole and it worked pretty nicely. I’ve got a 9.5 foot putt straight uphill with a lot of break for birdie. Unfortunately I misjudged the slope there and gave it too much power. Tough 5 foot side hill putt for par. Drops every time. Still -2 thru 7.

Hole 18 is a very unique par 5. With 5 islands and a bit of elevation change this hole can either make you or break you. I like to favor the left hand island off the tee because it makes your second shot much easier. Thankfully the wind is allowing me to get to the left island. Not good. Left a lot of power on the tee shot and duffed it into the water. Gonna try for that left island again just have to give it the juice. Oh boy. OB again. This is absolutely killing my run. Thankfully on my 5th stroke i made it to the left island. Now if I hole out from here it’s only a single bogey. Let’s get lucky. I did not get lucky and get off hole 18 with a triple bogey. Whoof I am now +1 thru 8. 

Hole 17- this fuckin suuuuuuux dude I was hoping for a nice bounce back hole to end the 9. Hole 17 sucks ass because it’s a par 3 that goes straight uphill and you have to hit full driver to make the green. Let’s get lucky. OHHH and I make an absolute dime approach to 17 feet out. Let’s get a birdie putt to end this random 9. BANGG!!! Sunk that birdie putt to end even thru 9. This was a rollercoaster and I’m happy that my hard collapse on 18 didn’t ruin my run. 

Thanks for joining me thru this random 9 hole seed in Switch Sports Golf. I can’t wait for Kedrick to get to Minnesota so I can cook his ass on the links. I’m gonna get back to practicing. See you next time!

Quentin: 11

        I am currently sitting in a hammock stationed sturdily between two trees in Alexandria, Minnesota. I’m listening to the song “Further Down the Road” by Sylvie and Marina Allen. I’d say, partly due to vacation brain, and partly due to general writers block, I’m feeling unsure of what to write about in this post. I’m on lake time right now, and boy does it feel good. I’ll probably just describe a morsel of my day, and then go back to my life of lounging. Also I’ve been watching an assload of Owen Wilson movies recently, that guy is a superstar. I love him. 

         Actually I’m not going to describe my day, I’m just going to write things I hope to do on this trip.

-Finish the New Yorker Puzzle I brought with me. 

-Wear summer fits that make everybody go “woah so stylish” 

-take pics with my canon 

-jot down one moment from each day so I can create a Minnesota blog for Blog 12 

-play choochie baseball 

-swim a lot , maybe even to the other side of the lake who knows it can’t be that far 

-light fireworks 

-eat 10,000 calories worth of blazin buffalo and ranch Doritos 

-nap in the hammock

-start and finish my book I brought 

-swim with Hercules 

-walk herc really far 

-figure out what the best coffee is at caribou coffee 

-eat Chet’s chicken 

-call the dentist and change my appointment from June 26th to some time in July 

-watch F1 in theaters once Ked gets here 

-go on multiple runs with Lizzie 

-listen from the other room as Nathan and Lucas play pokemon 

-play Mario kart world

-grieve our grandmother 

-talk to Marc and Nancy a lot , ask Marc who his favorite grandkid is 

-go to the downtown diner while wearing my downtown diner shirt 

-see Big Ole 

-thank my mom everytime she makes us breakfast 

-avoid doing dishes or being productive (should be easy no one expects anything)

-play Switch Golf with Nathan 

-watch Bottle Rocket and Drillbit Taylor (I love you Owen Wilson) 

-sleep on the porch with the windows open 

-enjoy the copper smell of the shower 

-go on the boat

-get drunk on the boat 

-jump off the boat (while it’s stationary) 

-write a letter or postcard or something 

This is a stream of consciousness really , so if anything else comes to me I’ll make sure to just add it to the post. Thanks.

Guest Surprise Update

    Hello, guest here posting a guest post. This is my life update and plans because I don't know what else to talk about (except the whole we just bombed Iran thing, wtf? for engagement, let me know your thoughts on this because I agree with both sides on it).

    For starters, I recently moved (with my mom and sister), to a house in Safety Harbor. It is a nice change from an apartment with so much more space and even a pool. It is strange living in a new "town" even though I'm still so close to where I was. Being relatively close to everything I'm familiar with but still having different things like a new Publix, new gas station, new Walmart, etc. is something I'm trying to get used to. I'm excited to start fishing the bay here rather than the gulf as we live very close to Phillipe park and main street. This will allow me to explore different methods, different fish (so different flies as well), different times and methods, etc. The one thing I'm sad about here is I no longer have access to the sunset on the water as easily, since this side sees the sunrise, which I'm sure I can grow to appreciate more.

    My EMT class officially ends tomorrow, June 22nd. It was relatively short at 4 months but was an insane amount of information to remember in a short time along with a lot of homework, lab days, clinicals, 3 exams (pass or get kicked out), and finally the patient scenario test out. In the patient scenario test outs or "practical's", you are placed in a room with a mannequin, your equipment, and a partner. You are then given dispatch information and you must ask questions/perform interventions/procedures to treat your patient. You have to do a trauma patient, a medical, and a cardiac arrest (one of which will randomly be pediatric). For an example of this, my trauma patient was a pediatric car vs bike. I had to secure the airway with use of an LMA (an airway), bag the patient, control bleeding with appropriate methods, recognize a sign of intercranial pressure/brain bleed through a series of "symptoms" called Cushing triad, etc. Obviously these are not real patients but it was very stressful trying to remember everything to do and treat each thing accordingly. Anyways, I passed the practical's and take my final exam for the school tomorrow. From there I take the national test called the NREMT, if I pass that I can work as an EMT.

    Now those are my 2 big updates, I guess ill share my plan of what I hope to do. I hope to pass the NREMT and work for Sunstar. I would like to work here for 4-6 months and gain some experience before going to paramedic school (there is a huge difference between EMT and medic contrary to popular belief). After paramedic school (9 months), I hope to go to a fire academy (3 months) to get my Fire 1 and 2 certifications. Then, following the natural progression here, be a fire medic on an engine (Unsure if id like to do Pinellas, Pasco, or Hillsborough yet, Palm Harbor fire has one of the best retirements in state though so maybe them if I can get in). With my medic, I can also get additional certifications to have a side job like many firefighters. I hope to get my critical care medic, flight medic, and wilderness medic certs. There are about 50 different additional certifications for paramedic that I can explore. The hiccup here is my current ability to lift heavy items. I need to start working out immediately, which gives me about one year of preparation for fire academy. To get in you must pass a test called CPAT, I wont explain this, you can look it up if you really want to know about it. But yeah, I'm very very excited to work on an ambulance and work towards fire.

    I was going to share an interesting story from my clinicals about a call I got to go on (without identifying details of course), but then I got scared because people can google this and so I deleted all of it and wrote this instead here.

    Sooo yeah those are my updates, if anyone wants to go to EMT or medic school for some reason let me know because I love talking about it. Easily the most interesting and exciting thing I've ever done/pursued (even though it resulted in me having no life for 4 months and I'm so scared of the 9-10 months for medic).

    P.s. I found this "game" on steam called desktop fishing. A frog sits in the bottom corner of your screen and just fishes all day. He catches all kinds of fantasy fish with a chance they're normal, giant, shiny, holo, or a combination. You collect them in a log and use the coins from the fish you catch to buy your frog outfits, new rods, etc. Its very nice to have while you do work/homework. Also, Quentin, the shop for items resets everyday... The "game" is only like $3.

There was a BOOM BOX/RADIO yesterday that I FORGOT TO BUY......

JP 9: Hours Wasted or Gained? You Decide.

 Hey All,

Long time no write. Life has actually only gotten more hectic and crazy but that's okay, it will make for a good story later. I could not decide what to write about today so I think it will be fun to just basically go over what games I have the least to most hours on, specifically on steam. You will get a little insight into my brain with this one so lets get right into it. 

I am not going to add pictures like I originally planned because there will be 106 entries (thats what I have in my library currently). So instead it will be 1  to 106 with 1 being the least. I will add the hours and minutes next to it. Lets do it.

**this took me such a ridiculous amount of time. I just want to say that**

1. Eraser – 0.0 hours (0 minutes)

2. Piratopia – 0.0 hours (0 minutes)

3. Spectre Divide – 0.02 hours (1 minutes)

4. Desert Bus VR – 0.03 hours (2 minutes)

5. The Backrooms Game – 0.12 hours (7 minutes)

6. Slappyball – 0.12 hours (7 minutes)

7. Angry Angry Shark – 0.13 hours (8 minutes)

8. Cry of Fear – 0.13 hours (8 minutes)

9. Unturned – 0.15 hours (9 minutes)

10. Battle Ball – 0.2 hours (12 minutes)

11. Content Warning – 0.2 hours (12 minutes)

12. Burg – 0.23 hours (14 minutes)

13. GRANDMA – 0.23 hours (14 minutes)

14. Marvel Rivals – 0.27 hours (16 minutes)

15. Brawlhalla – 0.27 hours (16 minutes)

16. Aimlabs – 0.28 hours (17 minutes)

17. Three Finger Battle Arena – 0.28 hours (17 minutes)

18. HBDIE: 2 – 0.3 hours (18 minutes)

19. Prop and Seek – 0.3 hours (18 minutes)

20. Castle Crashers – 0.32 hours (19 minutes)

21. One-Armed Cook – 0.35 hours (21 minutes)

22. Flesh Water – 0.37 hours (22 minutes)

23. Hand Simulator – 0.4 hours (24 minutes)

24. Left 4 Dead 2 – 0.4 hours (24 minutes)

25. Stumble Guys – 0.55 hours (33 minutes)

26. Getting Over It – 0.57 hours (34 minutes)

27. Banana Shooter – 0.58 hours (35 minutes)

28. Dead Island Riptide – 0.62 hours (37 minutes)

29. One armed robber – 0.62 hours (37 minutes)

30. Worms W.M.D – 0.62 hours (37 minutes)

31. Dark Hours Demo – 0.72 hours (43 minutes)

32. Unfortunate Spacemen – 0.72 hours (43 minutes)

33. Deceit – 0.73 hours (44 minutes)

34. SpyParty – 0.73 hours (44 minutes)

35. STAR WARS Knights of the Old Republic – 0.75 hours (45 minutes)

36. Destiny 2 – 0.78 hours (47 minutes)

37. Slapshot: Rebound – 0.82 hours (49 minutes)

38. Move or Die – 0.83 hours (50 minutes)

39. Storm Chasers – 0.95 hours (57 minutes)

40. Super Auto Pets – 0.98 hours (59 minutes)

41. Pacify – 1.08 hours (65 minutes)

42. DEVOUR – 1.15 hours (69 minutes)

43. Spellbreak – 1.2 hours (72 minutes)

44. Chupacabras Night Hunt – 1.28 hours (77 minutes)

45. Dark Roll Free Kick Challenge – 1.32 hours (79 minutes)

46. Goblin Summer Camp – 1.32 hours (79 minutes)

47. Boo Men – 1.4 hours (84 minutes)

48. Halo Infinite – 1.58 hours (95 minutes)

49. We Were Here – 1.58 hours (95 minutes)

50. Property – 1.73 hours (104 minutes)

51. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege – 1.73 hours (104 minutes)

52. Battle Bit Remastered – 1.75 hours (105 minutes)

53. Liars Bar – 1.8 hours (108 minutes)

54. The Long Drive – 1.8 hours (108 minutes)

55. Ready or Not – 1.93 hours (116 minutes)

56. Crab Game – 2.0 hours (120 minutes)

57. Escape the Backrooms – 2.0 hours (120 minutes)

58. Heavenly Bodies – 2.1 hours (126 minutes)

59. Scram – 2.2 hours (132 minutes)

60. Occult – 3.1 hours (186 minutes)

61. PAYDAY 2 – 3.1 hours (186 minutes)

62. Midnight Ghost Hunt – 3.2 hours (192 minutes)

63. In Silence – 3.4 hours (204 minutes)

64. Battlefield 1 – 4.4 hours (264 minutes)

65. Generation Zero – 4.7 hours (282 minutes)

66. PICO PARK – 4.8 hours (288 minutes)

67. Handy Harrys Haunted House Services – 5.0 hours (300 minutes)

68. Stick Fight: The Game – 5.3 hours (318 minutes)

69. Duke Nukem Forever – 5.7 hours (342 minutes)

70. Bioshock 2 – 6.6 hours (396 minutes)

71. R.E.P.O – 7.6 hours (456 minutes)

72. Scribble It! – 7.6 hours (456 minutes)

73. Kletka – 8.5 hours (510 minutes)

74. Crab Champions – 8.8 hours (528 minutes)

75. Labyrinthine – 8.9 hours (534 minutes)

76. Arma 3 – 9.3 hours (558 minutes)

77. Back 4 Blood – 9.5 hours (570 minutes)

78. It Takes Two – 10.2 hours (612 minutes)

79. Bioshock Infinite – 10.7 hours (642 minutes)

80. Stray – 11.1 hours (666 minutes)

81. Paper, Please – 11.2 hours (672 minutes)

82. Voidtrain – 11.2 hours (672 minutes)

83. Little Nightmares – 11.3 hours (678 minutes)

84. Splitgate – 12.2 hours (732 minutes)

85. PlateUp! – 12.3 hours (738 minutes)

86. Wallpaper Engine – 12.5 hours (750 minutes)

87. The Forest – 12.6 hours (756 minutes)

88. Astroneer – 12.8 hours (768 minutes)

89. Bean Battles – 15.1 hours (906 minutes)

90. Bioshock – 17.2 hours (1032 minutes)

91. Hunt Showdown 1896 – 22.4 hours (1344 minutes)

92. Golf with your friends – 22.5 hours (1350 minutes)

93. Far Cry 4 – 22.7 hours (1362 minutes)

94. Lethal Company – 22.9 hours (1374 minutes)

95. Pummel Part – 24.5 hours (1470 minutes)

96. APB Reloaded – 24.8 hours (1488 minutes)

97. POLYGON – 24.9 hours (1494 minutes)

98. Phasmophobia – 25.1 hours (1506 minutes)

99. Far Cry 5 – 28.6 hours (1716 minutes)

100. THE FINALS – 35.8 hours (2148 minutes)

101. Among Us – 36.3 hours (2178 minutes)

102. Counter Strike 2 – 52.0 hours (3120 minutes)

103. Borderlands 2 – 60.4 hours (3624 minutes)

104. Rust – 89.6 hours (5376 minutes)

105. Apex Legends – 236.6 hours (14196 minutes)

106. Team Fortress 2 – 4020.6 hours (241236 minutes)

Thanks everyone. Like and comment your favorite game. ily. 

JP

Papa's Gamerias Ranked

 

Sorry for the late post, I really wanted this list to be done right, and each game be thoroughly researched. If you’ve never played any of these games on coolmath.com, what were you doing in your middle school computer class? Now that I have finally finished college (my last exam was Sunday!), I have all the time to focus on the real adult world. That is why I have spent my spare hours after work researching everyone’s beloved cooking games, Papa’s Gamerias. For this list to be as fair as possible, I tried to ignore the features that are not included in the early games (character customization, holidays, specials, minigames, and exc.) and focused solely on gameplay. Now be warned, this might be controversial. Let me know where you stand!

17 17. Papa’s Burgeria (2^nd game in the franchise)

Papa’s Burgeria rates as my lowest ranked game in the Papa’s franchise. To be fair, this was the 2^nd game that came out after Pizzeria, but unfortunately, it just isn’t that good when it is up against modern S tiers. There are only 3 stations in the game: order, grill, and build. No fries, no drinks, just burger stacking. I really don’t like the cooking mechanics on this game, and it was honestly just too easy and sequential.

16. Papa’s Wingeria (6^th game in the franchise)

               This game is the 6^th out of the franchise, and the first game to have character customization! Solely looking at the gameplay though, this is just too easy. Making the wings is just repetitive, and it’s not hard to put in the correct amounts of wings and sauce it up just the way the customers like it. I was able to get full 100% orders the most on this game, and frankly, that’s just boring.

15. Papa’s Sushiria (13^th game in the franchise)

               “Sushiria, that’s my favorite Papa’s game!” Said no one EVER. Sorry, this game is just not good. There is way too much building, it’s one of the hardest to score well in, and the boba tea station only does one at a time. It’s too sequential for me, and though it has some multitasking, I’m just not a fan of the games that are build station heavy.

14. Papa’s Pizzeria (1^st game in the franchise)

               This game is good, and I feel bad ranking it so low. Papa’s Pizzeria is the daddy of the franchise. The beginning of the many amazing free flash games. This game has a LOT of multi-tasking and is one of the hardest games because the customers come immediately after each other and the pizza times can all be cooked differently. The second customer can order a pizza and be out of the door before the first one, which does not happen often in the newer games. Despite this, it just gets repetitive. I know I said I was not going to factor in upgrades and specials, but with this being the first game, there’s not much you’re building up to. They did update this in the mobile version, but unfortunately it just did not feel the same way and it still felt boring.

13. Papa’s Taco Mia (3^rd game in the franchise)

               I’ve spent a decent amount of time on this one, but really it gets outshine by later games. The salsa is a fun feature and having to chop/stir the meat while cooking makes it a bit more challenging, but overall, it is minimally complex and has low replay value. It also really bothers me that the toppings can fall so easily off the taco.

12. Papa’s Pasteria (9^th game in the franchise)

               Papa’s Pasteria is ok, but not memorable. Draining the pasta when it’s done is a fun feature, but baking the bread is clunky and annoying. You’ll notice that the games that require a lot of placements and take more time will be clumped together and lower on this list.

11. Papa’s Bakeria (12^th game in the franchise)

               Well well well, what did I say? This game is full placement-focused, the cooking times take FOREVER, and it’s just one of the games that you just have to be more patient in. The reason why I placed this higher than Pasteria is simply because this game makes me hungry for pie. I love pie.

10. Papa’s Cupcakeria (8^th game in the franchise)

               Papa’s Cupcakeria is a good game, and it would be higher if the frosting didn’t piss me off. It is so hard to make the cupcake frosting look like an actual cupcake. I beg you to look up this game and you will find dozens of awful looking cupcakes. That’s what all of mine looked like. Besides that, I just found that this game wasn’t that challenging, but it gets brownie points for having lots of fun colors and holiday themes.

9. Papa’s Hotdoggeria (7^th game in the franchise)

               Papa’s Hotdoggeria is a great game, and it honestly has great variety and multi-tasking. Well-rounded and a lot of fun. It stands to a lot more modern games. Unfortunately, this game just isn’t as hard as I would like it to be. The soda and popcorn machine are too easy to use.

8. Papa’s Pancakeria (5^th game in the franchise)

               This was the game that introduced minigames! Aside from that, this is genuinely a good game, my main problem with it is how slow progression is. It takes forever to unlock the drinks, and the gameplay is very slow and sequential. All the different breakfast foods are fun to make, but again, I just really don’t like the placement building. The mobile version is much better than the online version, but this is true for majority of the games.

7. Papa’s Cheeseria (11^th game in the franchise)

               Papa’s Cheeseria is surprisingly the game I have the most hours in. I like the cooking mechanics and the fry station, and it feels more like the multi-tasking I yearn for. After a while it does get repetitive because it’s all just sandwiches.

6. Papa’s Scooperia (14^th game in the franchise)

               I get so hungry playing this game. Cookies, ice cream, toppings, yum. Maybe this is so high because I used to work at Crumbl, or I just really love ice cream sandwiches. Featured new game mechanics and diverse building which made it fun and fresh.

5. Papa’s Donuteria (10^th game in the franchise)

               This game has easy mechanics, it’s repetitive and not very challenging. It is very similar to the cheeseria, but the designs are so cute! Lots of fun holiday designs and quirky flavors, and I love donuts.

4. Papa’s Mocharia (15^th game in the franchise)

               Yummy hot coffee! Good game, with a good amount of multi-tasking with the coffee, I just wish the cannoli making was harder. This is also a game with a lot of accurate checks and I’m not the best at that, but it is very similar to Freezeria.

3. Papa’s Paleteria (17^th game in the franchise)

               Wow… I want to eat this every time. It’s so yummy, so good. It makes me want to take a drive to whole foods and buy bulk. The game mechanics are repetitive and I’m not the biggest fan of how sequential it is, but it makes my mouth water, and it had fun new systems that weren’t in prior games.

2. Papa’s Freezeria (4^th game in the franchise)

               So… this one is going to be controversial. I am just not a fan of the topping section and accuracy hit points. It’s too sequential and not enough multi-tasking for me as some of the other games have. I do enjoy the variety of timed mixes, and it is one of the more complex games, so I have to rank it higher.

1.Papa’s Cluckeria (16^th game in the franchise)

This game is only on mobile as one of the newest papa games. It is so fun. It has everything I usually want. There is so much multi-tasking in cooking, and it includes slushies. Breading the chicken before, building the sandwich, and making slushies two at a time. It provides the best challenge, and I love that it combines multiple features.

Kedrick: 10 - Blogaroo 2025

Hey everyone!!! Long time no see. I had a good post planned today detailing by experience and the music I saw at Bonnaroo 2025. For those of you who have not yet heard, the festival was cancelled yesterday (Friday, June 13th) at 7:36 PM central time due to weather, primarily flooding. This post is therefore dedicated to the frontline Bonnaroovians who are either still there or are trying to make their way home, however far that is.

Ready for Roo!

I’ll start with the original plan. My buddy Danny and I bought Friday single day passes and were going to see Foster the People, Goose, Tyler the Creator, Glass Animals, Tipper, and likely other assorted artists. Insanely stacked lineup for one day! Since we’re only about 3 hour drive away from the festival, we planned on driving over Friday afternoon, enjoying the festivities, and then sleeping in my car either in the day parking lot or finding a truck stop to park at. We’d sleep a couple hours and then be on our way back home. The setup was actually pretty cool.

Thanks for the idea Lizzie :)

Now here’s what actually happened. As I mentioned, the drive from Atlanta to Roo is just about 3 hours, so we left around 1:30 Eastern. After two quick stops, one at Walmart to pick up an impulse idea (two disposable cameras), and one at Chick-fil-A for a delicious lunch, we were off to the festival. For some reason, even though I’ve been to the festival twice before, neither Danny or I considered the fact that it’s in the central time zone. Free hour though, nice. Since we’re both males in our late 20s, we obviously just drove straight through without stopping. Throughout the drive to Tennessee, we got a couple text updates from Bonnaroo that the music was delayed and gates would be closed for a few hours. Not a big deal! It would blow over and be open by the time we got there (or shortly afterwards). 

We arrived at the box office at 4:30 central, which is at a local high school. I thought it was a cool setup. I picked up our day parking pass and we drove towards the festival gates. Bonnaroo social media hadn’t provided an update in over an hour, so we were hopeful that the gates had opened up. As we neared the road that leads to the gate, traffic started to build up. As a religious believer in the “zipper” method, I hopped in the lane that was moving with the intent to merge later. We got to the road and were informed by a cop that the gates were closed. Danny thought he was doing a bit at first, like a “haha I hate my job turn around we're closed” type deal, but I suspected he was serious. We got to the road we need to turn onto and BAM, traffic cones! Darn. We kept going and passed the Circle K that serves as the last stop before the festival. Absolute f****** madhouse. Cars were for some reason bumper to bumper in the parking lot, I’m talking maybe 40 cars in there. No getting in or out. Why??? We kept driving a couple hundred yards further and parked on the shoulder of the road as many other people were doing. I did a U-turn as well which gave us a great view of the disastrous situation that was happening. Vibes at this point were still pretty darn high.

I'm on the edge of life, and the view is gorgeous

Bonnaroo provided an update at around 5PM central. Not a good one - they said the gates and centeroo (where the music is) would be closed for another few hours. OK. Not optimal but not terrible. Bonnaroo starts pretty late since it’s extremely hot during the day (as you can imagine), so the sets we really wanted to see didn’t start until 9:30. Pretty good amount of time to work with!! 

At about 5:30, it wasn’t raining so we got out of the car, cracked a couple beers, and walked ahead to a gas station (across from the Circle K, nowhere near as busy) to talk to people and kill time. We were over there for around 45 minutes until it started raining again. We headed back to the car and Danny started FaceTiming some of his friends to fill them in on the situation. This was an excellent way to pass time! 

Patiently waiting

By 6:45, vibes were still reasonably high. It stopped raining and the sun was even peaking through the clouds so we got out of the car again. I went to pee and took the last photo I have before the Big News. 

Good spot to pee

While walking back, I saw the truck in front of us left and was replaced with an SUV full of people that immediately got out. It looked like they were getting ready to go into the festival, so we asked them what was up. They informed us that they had friends in a car that made it pretty close to the gate, so they were going to walk over there. One of the guys (maybe the driver) was a little concerned they might get towed so he gave me his number in case anything started happening, then they all went towards the gate. We would not see them again.

Around 7, it started raining again. This was the famed “last band” before it would be dry the remainder of the night. We got back in the car. I started another session of refreshing new posts on r/Bonnaroo. The last official update was at 5, so we were due for an update very soon. Still enough time to get in and see the acts we really care about. Tyler didn’t go on until 11!

By 7:30, it really set in that this cancellation of Friday’s acts was possible if not probable. I’m sure the day parking lot was completely underwater and with the length of this delay, cars were very built up around the area and the line to get into day parking was sure to be an absolute mess. Still a shred of hope though!

7:36 PM central time. Danny gets a twitter post notification from Bonnaroo. He clicks and pauses for a split second before uttering one word:

“Drive.”

I refreshed instagram and read the first 3 words of the post before throwing the car into drive and peeling out of our spot. “Read the whole post to me but we gotta get out of here”, I said. We had to take a left through gridlocked traffic to get onto I-24 the correct way, so I elected to not do that and just hop on the interstate the wrong way and turn around at a different exit. Amazing call. We turned around and drove past the two festival exits. The shoulder of the interstate was lined with people waiting to get in. Some very dystopian stuff.

We got out extremely easily and then were able to really understand and take in the weight of what just happened. They didn’t cancel just Friday, they cancelled the entire remainder of the festival. It was about to be an absolute nightmare for people to get out even if their cars weren’t stuck in mud. Danny immediately called his fiancee and let her know what happened, then we called my beautiful wife Lizzie and let her know as well. Pretty much everybody, us very much included, was in disbelief. The first half of our 3 hour drive home was filled with calling people and telling them what happened, which was a very good way to pass time. We talked to a couple of Danny’s friends and then we talked to a fellow companion, Quentin. The drive went by extremely fast since we had just lived through a historic event and got out basically unscathed.

We arrived back in Atlanta at 11:30 eastern. I dropped Danny off and then got a Taco Bell cravings box. Overall, I had a great time at Bonnaroo. Can't wait to go back.

TB!