#just picked either the final evo or my favorite from the line

[sugar-and-spite]

doing a trend hehe ( @haveyouusedthispokemon )

[adobe-outdesign]

OK to Jynx Review?

While I'm not the biggest Jynx fan, Smoochum is okay. Jynx was always kind of a weird pick for a pre-evo, as it doesn't really feel like Smoochum's presence really enhances the line in any way, but it is nice to at least have one design here that isn't quite so questionable.

Visually, the pink and yellow palette is nice and there's a fair amount of emphasis on the lips, which makes sense as kissing things is Smoochum's entire deal. The hair is cute and has a nice shape to it as well. It's nothing all that memorable, and I'm personally not a huge fan of human-like baby Pokemon like this, but it's harmless.

Also, side note: Smoochum looks 10x cuter in its original GS art. The slightly wider body shape, inquisitive expression, and little buck tooth really make all the difference.

I've gone on record saying that Jynx is my all-time least favorite Pokemon and yeah, sorry, not a fan of this one.

Obviously the biggest problem here is its face, which is undeniably pretty racist and generally just uncomfortable. This is not helped by it being extremely human-like and vaguely sexualized, with the kissing thing and the chest. They did try to fix it a bit by giving it purple skin as opposed to the original pitch black color, which is slightly better—but purple's not that much different and they didn't really do anything to fix the face, so it's kind of a band-aid solution at best.

Speaking of which, I've noticed that most people try to justify Jynx's design with baseless speculation, which is weird because we know exactly why it's Like That. Here's a design from the beta version of Red and Green (the following information is courtesy of Helix Chamber):

This is either beta Jynx or a Pokemon closely related to it. Its name is Buu, which makes it obvious that it's based on the Ultraman monster Woo, which is A) female (note that Jynx is 100% female), B) a yeti-ish creature (hence the parka here and Jynx's inexplicable ice-typing), and C) a creature with a dark face:

There's no evidence to suggest that GameFreak meant any harm here, but that doesn't make either the beta design or Jynx itself less racist. Just kind of an unfortunate design all around.

Also, even putting that aside, there are just some other odd things with Jynx. It's abnormally humanoid, with hair, five fingers, a dress, and even boobs for some reason. I love humanoid 'mons, but this is a bit too much, and it's hard to see Jynx as something that lives out in nature normally. I also wish something in the final design reflected its ice-typing.

Here's a particularly good redesign that fixes most of my issues with Jynx but still feels like it captures the spirit of the original to some degree:

However, and this is going to sound weird: I think Jynx should get a regional.

Here me out: I get that GameFreak probably doesn't want to acknowledge Jynx too much, but a regional would be the perfect opportunity to redesign it— the regional could even be featured in place of regular Jynx going forward in things like the anime. There are some interesting elements to the design that you could play with—give it tentacles or fins and make it a water-type siren, make it normal-type and give it a viking theme, theme it after different kinds of dancing like Oricorio, etc.

Though on the bright side, Jynx's existence did at least give us one very pretty TCG card, so there's that much, at least:

[crystalelemental]

@patchun did it, so now I'm doing it. Apparently it's just a big grid of your favorites, if anyone else wants to play along. I tried to be more honest with myself about pre-evolutions, but we all know how that can go.

GEN 1 There were no Dark types, and only one Steel type, so that's a little lame. Otherwise, Gen 1 has a lot of "my favorite is a pre-evo." Eevee, yes Vulpix over Ninetales in this moment, and most critically, Kadabra over Alakazam. Kadabra is, at least at present, my favorite Gen 1 mon again. Just like when I was a lad. I loved Kadabra. One that I think might stand out is Nidoran-Male. There are plenty of Poison types, but truth be told? I always just thought Nidoran-Male was super cute. I love its big ears. It's not the same when it starts evolving.

GEN 2 I feel like none of this should be surprising, and I'm sleepy, so moving on.

GEN 3 Gen 3 has excellent Pokemon, I love them. Illumise is a bit of an odd pick, but I had a really fun AlphaSapphire run one time that ran Illumise and it did pretty well, endearing it to me. Otherwise...yeah, actually, Mega Mawile is preferred over Gardevoir at this time. I miss it so bad...

GEN 4 Despite my love of Gen 4, I feel like a large draw is its legends. A lot of these feel like filling in a box. That said, Mesprit. There are so many good legends, but I'm tired of pretending Mesprit isn't my favorite.

GEN 5 Lilligant Sweep. Honestly, looking back at how much I love so many Gen 5 designs, it's nuts to think that people hated on it. Also we're back to having pre-evos as favorites. Frillish is better than Jellicent, with the pink one being my favorite, while I also just like Dewott better than Samurott, and think it's the best starter form of the generation.

GEN 6 Okay, so at this point, I should mention: I decided to put something different in each box, to avoid just spamming certain favorites. That was ill advised when you get to gens 6-8, given how few new additions there really were. So much of this feels like picking something. That said, special shoutouts to Gourgeist, who is legitimately one of my favorites ever, but cannot compete with Lilligant.

GEN 7 UB Sweep. Also, I love Pikipek. I love Trumbeak. I don't really love Toucannon. I loved woodpeckers, and was really excited by having one, but then it evolves and it's like sure, this makes sense. Morelull was the worse outcome, but the short is Gen 7 really did not endear itself to me with the evolution decisions. It did, however, endear itself via Moon Bat and the Ultra Beasts. Nihilego being the easy favorite. Like, come on.

GEN 8 Man, thank god for Legends Arceus, am I right? If it's from legends, safe to assume it's actually my favorite. If it's from Galar, it's like a 50/50 I was just filling a spot. That said, I am here to pick fights right now. Thievul is cute, y'all are just mean, and I fucking love Indeedee. Great shit.

GEN 9 I happen to like Paldea quite a lot. That said, wow do Ice and Bug not have much going on. Ice is especially painful, but I actually do like Frigibax. I saw it first in the evolution line and was like oh hey, that's a pretty cool dragon thing, and it's Ice type that's crazy! And then I saw its pre-evo form and was like oh, that's not so good. And then I saw its final form and was like "well that's not too bad" until I saw it move. It's not great. But the rest I legitimately love. Arboliva, Ceruledge, Espathra, Glimmora, Bellibolt, and yes all of the Meowscarada line. They're really good.

MISCELLANEOUS Not a ton to mention in the special section, but I'll comment on a bit. Spearow line is great, they're just vilified because of the anime. But if you think about it, Pidgey spams Sand Attack and is a little punk-ass bitch with Whirlwind when it evolves, while Spearow is an honorable warrior. Chingling is probably my favorite baby? I briefly debated Smoochum solely for being not-Jynx, before decided I didn't really like that one either. Flareon is my favorite Eeveelution but couldn't win over Vulpix, so it just...never got to appear. I'm sorry, I just love the Vulpix line so much.

OVERALL I assume none of these final decisions are surprising, so instead, here's the official ranking of each within the favorites (just the 18 types):

Lilligant - Absolute favorite, I adore Lilligant.

Nihilego - Very, very close second, I love this space jellyfish that deletes your personality.

Gardevoir - I can't help myself, I just love Gardevoir. It's such a good design.

Mawile - While Mega Mawile won out over Gardevoir overall, I think that's as much sadness over losing it as actually preferring it. They're pretty evenly matched, but without the mega, I think Gardevoir pulls ahead.

Mesprit - Emotion gremlin, I love you Mesprit, it's so cute and I am instantly drawn to emotion things.

Kingdra - I actually really love Kingdra. I think it's the Johto thing, and the strong association with Clair, who is a favorite. It's also just a cool dragon, like look at that thing.

Glaceon - Eeveelutions suck so bad, and I'm so mad about it, but I love you Glaceon, you and Flareon are hot garbage but you're my favorites.

Iron Valiant - Iron Valiant is so goddamn cool, what a good Paradox Pokemon. I just...wish I had more time with it, you know? Maybe over time it'll climb up, but I think it's just too...locked to one of the very last things you can do to attach.

Mismagius - Super cool ghost witch. Love this thing.

Milotic - It's very pretty, and it's one of the few Water types I stronly respect. I'm sorry, I don't love Water types.

Indeedee - Look, Indeedee's my girl. It's such a cute little design, I love that it got Psychic Terrain on entry, I'm dying for Pokemon Masters to give Caitlin or Darach one of these things. It's so good.

Braixen - Fennekin is the best starter ever designed, and Braixen is therefore the best by virtue of being the best iteration within that evolutionary line. REALLY wish it were Psychic type.

Krookodile - It's just a really cool thing. I wind up using Krookodile like every time I play Gen 5, it's just such a cool thing.

Diancie - You should be higher, but Pokemon is terrible with how mythic Pokemon are distributed so I just don't have enough direct engagement with it.

Vespiquen - This is the coolest bug. And it's also one of the shittiest. Life's not fair, is it?

Meowscarada - I actually do really like Meowscarada. I think it's a cool concept, and for a humanoid creature like we feared, it actually didn't turn out as bad as I expected.

Ampharos - Electric is one of my least favorites types, but Ampharos line is just so cute. Look at this thing. That is a friend.

Noctowl - I just think it's the coolest regional bird, and deserves more respect.

[enby-trainer]

Weirdest recent local news story?

I try to pay little attention to the news unless it's enormous or affects me personally. The last weirdest (and disturbing, so be warned) thing I remember being reported was when that one serial killer last year was finally caught. He did many horrible things, but what stuck out to me was that he had been using a deino to rip out victims' throats. That really freaked me out to learn. That evo-line gets an unfairly bad rep as it is; they don't need more like that.

If you had to pick a pokémon to represent you, what pokémon would you pick? 

A sewaddle maybe?

Favorite evolutionary stone?

Moonstones!

Do you prefer to hand decorate your pokéballs? Do you have a preference for any specialty pokéballs?

I wish I could've gotten handcrafted, high-quality apriballs by Kurt in Johto (if I could've afforded to splurge at the time). Unfortunately, I didn't know exactly when I'd be getting either of my meowth; they both kinda just happened, sweet serendipity. So, they're both kept in normal pokémart red-and-white pokéballs, which have cutesy custom stickers of their names on 'em. I want to decorate them further, but I just can't think how. And I call myself a creative type...remind me to look up and be inspired by how other people decorate their pokéballs soon.

Do you think Rock and Ground are distinctly different Pokémon types or largely the same and incorrectly categorized?

Do you think Grass and Bug are distinctly different Pokémon types or largely the same and incorrectly categorized? 

Do you think Water and Ice are distinctly different Pokémon types or largely the same and incorrectly categorized?  

They're distinctly different and should be separate types. Sorry, no discourse from me about that.

Do your pokémon wear any fun accessories?

Both Nox and Delphine have soft collars (pink for Delphine, silver for Nox) and metal tags with their names and my current phone number engraved on 'em (with a sun symbol on Delphine's and a crescent moon on Nox's); I ordered them from a small online shop. They were delivered all the way from Sinnoh!

Does your pokémon have a favorite item?

Nox is more playful than Delphine and will mess with anything that moves quickly enough, whether a toy or a small living 'mon. She has decimated cat scratchers and is on her way to doing the same thing with our current one. Delphine loves catnip toys and will lose her mind when she has one.

Do your pokémon battle? 

They do when I have the time to take them out and engage with another trainer. We haven't had to have a self-defense battle (or battle to defend someone else) with someone yet, and hopefully, we never will. I went out of my way for weeks to try and find certain TMs for them I wanted; the Internet is an invaluable resource for such things.

[crystal-moon-101]

I’m sorry, I’m not great at close up/slight dynamic poses! At least the shading looks nice...

Anywayyyy, here’s that ship picture I briefly mentioned before! This is suppose to be when Julie, Breach and Francis realized they were in love with their future partner. All of them had different circumstances when it hit them.

Also! I should probally mention that my redraws are also part of my own rewrite/reboot/remake or whatever you wanna call of it each show. I have a made up canon.

-Benlie-

It had been a while since Julie met Ben, went on a couple of dates, learned his secret, adopted an alien pet and watch Ben have fourteen baby chills. A strange life Julie got caught up in, but she is somewhat glad to be part of the galaxy world in someways. 

As for this relationship, is had been a quiet day where the two finally got a full date, without any chaos. It was also the time she got to see parts of Ben that he rarely displayed. His softer and cute goofball side, rather than overly confident hero pushed around. 

Yes, his bravery to go out and protect or save people is a big bonus to her, but seeing this calmer side made her realize just how complicated this boy was underneath, along with being comfortable enough to show her it. 

Her cute goof.

Notes:

A very up and down relationship for a while, but they finally  settled and become very much official sometime when they were seventeen. Somewhat thanks to Vilgax actually...

The pair have this cute little couple comfort thing where they’ll rest foreheads together. It always calms Ben, allowing him at least a moment to relax and think, thankful to have someone close as he does so.

While Ben has had plenty of other girls flirt with them, there once was a event where a prince alien was hitting on Julie. He was quick to put the prince in his place.

Ben likes to serenade her with his guitar skills~

Julie (With Ship as her battle suit) once beat the crap out of Vilgax when he was tormenting Ben.

It’ll take quite sometime before Julie’s dad will approve of Ben. He knows the kid’s not bad, he’s just protective of his little girl, especially with the kind of life he lives.

When his arm is replaced by the Omnitrix, she was one of the key people who helped him adjust to living with it, sometime using Ship to relieve the stress it put on him in the early days of having it.

She is one of the few people who can keep him in line.

When they get back together, Ben was absolutely nervous he would screw it up again, coming off a sweeter, yet more anxious at times. But she is patient, along with admitting she also caused problems in the past as well.

Many openly tell Ben they approve of her. His parents, grandparents, Gwen, Kevin, hell, even Azmuth.

They like having morning jogs together.

-Brex-

Breach had gotten herself caught up in...dangerous and dark matters. She was so scared, unsure how to process anything. So, she went to the only person she trusted at the time, Rex. 

The boy agreed to help, especially after seeing how distressed she was. Unfortunately, he ended up getting caught in the danger and the pair got stuck in a fight with some foes. Breach was wary, confused, hurting and panicked, her emotions uncontrollable. The fight, loud noises, people who hurt her, she couldn’t take it and snapped, her portals going crazy while she fled to the world of stillness. She had planned to stay there, away from all that scared and hurt her. But...Rex showed up, having chased after her.

Despite being battered, bruised and bleeding, this boy went to hell and back to reach out to her, telling her he wasn’t giving up on her, that he cares and wants to help, no matter what. 

She had never had someone so determined to help her. Most would cast her aside when they saw the ugly side of her. But in that moment, she realized something. Rex did care, he was her friend and he was real...and that she loved him for it.

Notes:

Their favorite movie to watch together is ‘Book Of Life’. The colours, characters and story always makes them happy. They even dressed up as La Muerte and Xibalba on Halloween.

When they first started dating, Breach was rather insecure. It was common knowledge that Rex was handsome with a charming personality, resulting in plenty of people flirting with him. It often made her wonder why he picked her out of all the other girls.

Rex loves their height difference, because he will often nuzzle the top of her head or hang his arms over her shoulders from behind.

They both support each other on the fact they both know they are powerful EVOs that can be destructive, promising that whenever either of them snaps, the other will do what they can to reach them.

When they’re older and live together, Breach actually uses her powers to move Rex’s old family home closer to Providence for them to live in.  

Rex has found a way to comfort her is by connecting their nanites. It keeps her grounded to reality and makes her feel closer to him.

When they start becoming friends, she likes to ask him all kinds of questions. Some serious, some not. He’s always happy to answer and explain how the world works to her.

You disrespect his girl, he won’t be afraid to disrespect you. (That or smack you.)

Her relationship towards Six and Holiday is somewhat iffy...but it gets there.

-Zancis-

It had been a a few month since Francis crashed with the Saturdays, hiding from his people. But over time, he started to feel...strange? He didn’t know what was wrong with him, so he began to invetiage.

Could he be sick? No, that wasn’t it, because it only happened whenever he was around Zak. They would still sass each other, but he knows it’s not old grudges jabbing away at him. Maybe his people put a code in his brain?...Nope, not that. 

He seems a good while trying to figure out what is wrong, when one day it finally hit him. Somehow, when walking into the kitchen one morning, seeing a dead tired Zak tying up his messing hair in the sunlight, was what made him realizes he had feeling for the fellow teen....it was also then he realized how screwed he was.

Notes:

It took a good while for Francis to gain the approval of each Saturday member. They were all so protective of their youngest member. Drew somewhat scared him the most.

His confession for Zak had...not been romantic in the slightess. Instead, he shouted out his feelings for him after a tense situation and argument. 

Zak is a very cuddly and snuggly guy, always wanting some kind of psychical contact with others. Poor Francis wasn’t use to kind of affection, along with how needy his boyfriend could get.

Zak is 100% the alpha of the relationship. He can be scary when he wants to be.

When they started dating, Francis did endly research on relationships (Both romantic and friendship), partner behavior and even about dragon, given Zak is partly one.

They still and always will love to tease and sass each other, making it somewhat a running joke to roast one another.

When Zak became aware of his feelings, he offer to start dating and see where it went. But it would take him a bit before he would start falling for his green boy.

As much as they tease each other, Zak is really the only person Francis can go to about his deep rooted issues. He had been learning a lot about family since joining the Saturdays.

Wadi is a hard core shipper of the two.

Francis swears he nearly had a heart attack after seeing what ‘The Hammerthrow’ was...

[inikavulpixelreviews]

Let’s Talk About Pokemon - The Charmander Family

004: Charmander

Charmander is simple enough as a little fire-lizard. It's cute enough in its own right. I hate to say that with all the praise I've sun about Bulbasaur that this is all I have to say about Charmander here. It's naturally wound up being a Pokemon everyone thinks of when asked for a Fire type. I just find all of Gen 1's other Fire types a little more exciting than it.

Personal Score: 5.5/10

A cute, inoffensive design that doesn’t try too hard to be cute. It just is, and I can respect that.

005: Charmeleon

Once again, standard fair for Starter middle-evos. I feel like Charmeleon is a little more effective than Ivysaur, but even so it's pretty much The Cooler Charmander (or, hotter, I guess?). It looks appropriately cocky and mean, which at least plenty mirrors its anime personality. It's an alright evolution that doesn't change it super-drastically.

Again though, like I said with the Bulby line. Charmeleon here is very clearly not a chameleon at all. Localization just named it that because Arceus-knows-why. Actually now I'm mad. I'm mad at Charmeleon because it's hogging such a badass name that could've gone to an actual fire-chameleon. Salandit’s a poser, this guy’s the real crook!

Personal Score: 6/10

It's an alright lizard. I find plenty of other lizard Pokemon more appealing though.

006: Charizard

Hoo boy.

Maybe it's the combination of overexposure and being bitter about the constant schoolkid teasing. Charizard's very clearly the most popular Gen 1 starter, let alone one of the most popular Pokemon of all time, right? Same was true for my school, and boy, because of that, Venusaur got dumpstered on regularly by the other kids. And in turn, I got harassed for picking the “worst” starter. That's not really Charizard's fault, and nor do I outright dislike it out of spite anymore. Just fyi, that might be painting my opinion negatively a bit.

Even all that aside, it's pretty plain-looking even as a big lizard monster. It's pretty much what you'd expect from a dragon without much of a twist on it. And I do get that simple appeal; I’d be lying if I denied that I’m easy to please in other areas of Pokemon design. And sure, the simple badass factor makes it kind of cool in its own right. Back in the Gen 1 days, we weren’t too spoiled for these big bad lizard types like Charizard. And it’s pretty clear Charizard holds a lot of nostalgic appeal. I got the same feeling, just for a different starter. Maybe in my case Charizard's biggest enemy was age. I like me some lizard monsters, and about all of the lizard Pokemon stick out better for me in one way or another.

I can understand not making Charizard Dragon type back then because then it would trounce both Venusaur AND Blastoise. I've questioned that decision, because surely by the time you'd be fighting Blue's Charizard, you'd have plenty of counters to a Fire/Dragon type. Or at the very least have access to them. I don't get why they didn't at least change it later in a type retcon. Instead, the type retcons got reserved for whenever they introduced new types. There's a lot more counters to Charizard these days, and heck, Rock and Ground types were fairly common in Gen 1. Oh well.

Personal Rating: 6.5/10

I feel like I’ve just dragged Charizard here, but I still kinda like it. But only kinda. I just never saw Charizard as some pinnacle of creature design like it's hyped up to be. But it's not a bad design either, don't get me wrong. There’s just cooler Pokemon out there.

Mega Charizard Y:

Charizard also gets a Mega introduced in X and Y. Y here is a more traditional fresh coat of paint for the old thing. It's slimmed down a bit and is given more horns and an extra set of arm-wings. It's a pretty simple Mega Evolution, arguably changing the least out of most of the Mega Evolutions, but it works for what it is. I think the most subtle improvement is the head shape. Just making it that tad bit sleeker goes miles for making it look cooler. The underbelly color stretching all the way up through its jaw felt like a thing that’s been missing from Charizard.

Personal Rating: 7/10

Mega Charizard Y does what it can to improve good ol' Charizard. I'm not sure how much I would've changed it, to be honest. Credit where credit is due, Charizard isn't a basis that grants a ton of creativity.

Mega Charizard X:

Boy, how many people indifferent to Charizard are sick of it at this point?

Of course, Gamefreak pays up in the Charizard fanservice, and it gets not one, but two Mega Evolutions. Gamefreak admitted one of the factors that helped decide which Pokemon got Mega Evolutions was that Pokemon's popularity. You know what that means? The bordeline mascot for Gen 1 itself comes in two flavors. And even then, Mega Charizard X itself looks like a big piece of fanservice. Let's take Charizard and hand it all the badass tropes. Make it black! Fire is constantly bursting out of its mouth! Wickeder horns! Not to mention it's Dragon type!! Finally!!! It's Pokemon Fanfiction in the form of a Charizard.

But I can commend it for running with it because the end result works so well. It looks like what a kid would make if they were asked to evolve Charizard to some extent, but I'll give credit where credit is due, it looks pretty badass. And me calling it fanservice isn't saying that's a bad thing. Fanservice isn't inherently bad. This is definitely “good” fanservice. At least, something must be doing it right if you're getting someone who's mostly indifferent to Charizard to like it. That over-the-top badassitude is just the thing Charizard needed for a more solid identity.

My one major gripe with it is that it's wings don't look right to me. They look too small and too improperly shaped to keep Charizard up in the air. I'd say maybe that's why it ditches the Flying type but ingame it flies nonetheless. More like Mega Charizard B am I right?

Also, Gamefreak's probably well aware Black Charizard is among the most fan-favorite shinies, so making Mega Charizard X black feels a little on the nose. But again, it's cool so I'll let it slide.

Personal Score: 8/10

Sometimes you just need a jet black blue-flamed devilish hell-dragon.

Overall:

It feels bad being a Debbie Downer on this one, especially after being so positive for Venusaur. Charizard's got plenty of fans on the internet though. And none of them are wrong for it. Charizard's just not my kind of Pokemon.

[Archive]

[uautoknow]

Budget Performance Mods

The biggest question I get asked, being the ultra automotive nerd that I am, is: What is the best performance vehicle my money can buy? And the answer is always the same: What is your budget, and what in your mind constitutes a good performance car? Mind bending speed? Sublime handling? 

That's up to personal preference, and lucky for you, you're spoiled for choice. In this article I take to the internet to find some modern, quick, street legal vehicles for less than $20,000.00.

What is the most cost effective way for you to get your license suspended, effective immediately?

For most performance nutters, the best course of action is to pick up a used car with a sweet handling chassis, and an engine that has some performance potential, and eek out as much performance as they can afford. This is of course the best course of action, and also the number 1 cause of headaches in males aged 16-65 (I made that up). As home tuners, our pleasure seems to come in the form of never ending suffering, and culminates to the eventual sale or death (whichever comes first) of our beloved, incomplete, and ultimately unreliable motor vehicle race car. I've decided to write this article to help save you some headaches. The vehicles I discuss either still have OEM support, or have a wealth of aftermarket suppliers. So, what is the most cost effective way for you to get your license suspended, effective immediately?

1. The Widow-Maker

This is a very common occurrence.

The first thing that comes to mind is the ridiculously bonkers '04 ZX-10R. No it's not a car, but it was the first ever production vehicle to be able to break every traffic law in America in 1st gear (174km.h)! It lead the liter bike category in terms of it's power to weight ratio, but has a notoriously light front end, making 3rd gear wheelies unavoidable. The bike was insanely fast, considering that it has been electronically limited to 300km/h. Good examples can be had for anywhere between $5-9000.00 CAD (less than half of our $20,000.00 budget), but also keep in mind that the fact that it's a hooligan by nature, and that vehicles like these have usually been driven the way they've been designed to - abusively. For the price-point, there isn't a whole lot else out there that can put up super car numbers AND boast Japanese reliability. Some things to consider about daily riding a motorcycle are outlined in this excellent article. Obviously the '04 ZX-10R is not in a league of its own, the liter sports-bike category is a competitive market, and newer more advanced iterations of all brands can be found in similar price ranges. All liter motorcycles boast licence revoking numbers, and if you're looking to have that happen, this is the most affordable and expedient way to do so!

For those of you who don't have the motorcycle buzz, never fear, there are some great cars out there, but if numbers like top speed, power to weight, and sub $10,000.00 pricing are your hot buttons, nothing will beat a sports-bike's performance for its dollar value.

2 Turbo Fun

Hyundai has become a staple name for bargain cars with great power figures.

Ok, so you're probably thinking I'd love a bike! The last time I went down down on one knee cost me a hell of a lot more than $10k! But, I've got a family, and my significant other makes me great tuna casseroles for lunch. How am I supposed to get my meals to work on the nicest of days, let alone the winter? And are my two rugrats just supposed to veg out at home, neglected?

The last time I went down down on one knee cost me a hell of a lot more than $10k!

No! What you need in your life is what we car folks call a "hot hatch!" There are of course numerous options, of varying price points, but in North America, we aren't as spoiled for choice as our European brethren. Check out this article for a comprehensive review of the budget sports cars in the Canadian market. Otherwise, you can take my word on the fact the Hyundai Veloster Turbo is a wicked little car for the money. It has bold styling, 200hp, and comes loaded with features like Sat-Nav, Sirus XM, leather, a sun roof. The list goes on an on. I found this 2014 model for $16,488, and it includes all of the above equipment. That leaves $4,500 in the budget for some excellent wheels and tires. They are fun, practical, cars and being front wheel drive they do make for excellent winter cars. Aftermarket support is high, as Hyundai have positioned themselves with several A-list brands, which is good to know as this greatly increases the likelihood of performance parts fitting properly (I for one, hate when bolts don't line up, and it has discouraged me from bolt on tuning). There is a community of support, you get turbo power, and Red Bull has opted to use the Veloster as its World Rallycross weapon.

In terms of options and power on a budget, this is a sporty car that goes largely overlooked. VW's GTI has reigned supreme in the hot hatch department for years, but the cost of maintenance begins to add up. The Veloster flies in the face of all the Hyundai naysayers that are found in any car community. The level of quality and attention to detail is comparable to that of Nissan, Honda, Mitsubishi, and Toyota. There are no ridiculously uneven panel gaps like you see on the Mustang, and the interior is stylish and quiet. Soft touch is in, and Hyundai obviously got the memo. It's more ergonomic and cleverly laid out than the Hyundai Genesis Coupe, the brands flagship sports car.

3. But 'Merican Muscle?

The 'Stang 4 Cylinder

That's right! It's time for the internet's favorite debate, import vs. domestic, tuner vs muscle. The American's have always had a way with cars. They're known for making sublime chassis and monstrous engines, but they have a very distinct persona when compared to their European and Japanese competitors. Going American is usually the most cost effective route to 320km/h, but typically this comes with a glaring downside... An inability to corner with speed and agility. Until 2015 the pony cars all lacked independent suspension, but Ford finally stepped forward and challenged the competition. The 2015 Mustang, in all engine configurations, is a blast of a machine; new ones can nearly be had on our $20,000 budget. The 4 cylinder eco-boost is comparable to the Toyota GT-86, and also the BMW 228i (surprised face). The Toyota may have an upper hand with a perfect 50/50 weight distribution, but the 'Stang makes up for it in power and a lively, loose rear end, so it's up to you to pick your poison. The BMW in comparison is soft and pedestrian to the snarling 'Stang, and the remarkably nimble GT-86. So the American's do have some car cred in the fun small cars (engine, in the Mustang's case) segment, but what about their bread and butter: the high displacement, roaring muscle car? The Corvette has been a staple Super-Car killer for some time, as has the Dodge Viper. Although their price-points are performance bargains, they are hardly affordable. And then we have the muscle cars like the Hellcat.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em!

Beautiful, luxurious, refined -- this describes the interior. Loud, brash, muscular, 707hp. This is the Hellcat we know and love. It's utter insanity. I'm told it can corner, although I've never seen one with enough traction to do it. If you'd like to see what it's like to own one, I was brought out to a Londonderry Dodgemeet, and captured this footage.

None of these are the standout American car for me, though. Yes there are some great bargains out there. In the used market a Boss 302 Mustang can be had for the price of a new 5.0, and Charger R/T's have come into the $5-7000.00 range, placing it right in the hunt with a 1000cc motorcycle in terms of price. Fantastic cars, great aftermarket support, and relatively practical, there is no doubt that high performance can be had without severely breaking the bank. The stand out for me is the one that smashed a world record, in Porsche's backyard no less, the N��rburgring. That's the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8. Early models can be had for less than $20K, and believe me, it does not drive like a lumbering SUV. It's much more precise than its fellow SRT8's, to the point that I would compare the all wheel drive system to the venerable Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X, and the almighty Nissan GTR. It certainly doesn't handle like an SUV, it is nimble, and light on it's feet. It's practical, can be had with DVD headrests, an amazing Alpine sound system, it has a belching V8 that puts out 470hp, and it's AWD.

4. Now I want AWD, but not an SUV.

Rally reigns supreme in the AWD world

Mitsubishi and Subaru are the industry leaders for budget all wheel drive cars, and the likes of the Lancer Evolution and Subaru STI are reserved for the hardcore enthusiasts. They are lacking much of the interior flash and comfort that the latter (with the exception of motorcycles) exhibit. Instead they opt for ultra stiff Recaro seats, and lightweight plastics. The electronic control units are highly advanced, allowing for torque vectoring and the ability to adapt to various weather and terrain. The Evo specifically has tarmac, gravel and snow modes that actually change the power distribution from rearward, to 50/50, to forward respectively. The suspension is stiff and rough, more so with the handling package, which includes Bilstein shock absorbers, Brembo brakes, and BBS wheels. All of this performance does come at a cost. These cars hold their value extremely well, a de-tuned version, in the form of a Lancer Ralliart, has a market value of around $23k (just breaking our budget) for a 2011 model. The Ralliart does feature the same AWD and engine as the Evo (only a single scroll turbo though), mated to the Evo MR's dual clutch transmission, but that price point is a far cry from the vast majority of pre-owned 2 wheel drive sports cars.

Ultimately, 4 wheel drive is a high demand feature in Canadian cars. It goes to show that as much as consumers demand luxury features, they are willing to pay more for the features that move them.

It comes down to your priorities, and ability to stick to budget.

When it comes to performance numbers on a budget, a motorcycle will always win. If we were to compare a $60,000.00 car (Alfa Romeo 4C for example) to a $60,000.00 motorcycle like the Kawasaki H2R, the car won't hold a candle to it, as we can see in this video, a 1,000+hp Bugatti Veyron struggles to compete with the Kawasaki in a straight line. Although motorcycles have a significant advantage on the straights, Guy Martin proves here that no matter how much top speed (and skill) you have on a motorcycle, the physics behind a car have a clear advantage.

IndyCar vs MotoGP

Whether it be a budget drag king, like the Dodge Charger that can double as a family car, or a sporty hatch like the Hyundai Veloster, performance practicality can be had for a similar cost to a 300km/h bullet bike. If you're in the market for something quick with AWD, the price tends to skyrocket (relative to the vehicles discussed here), but the practicality and year round fun that can be had in an all wheel drive performance vehicle is absolutely undeniable.

[nowandthenlifehappens-blog]

Michael. Part 4.

Finally, fed up with me, Jason said to call him. If I couldn’t be happy with him then he didn’t want to be with me because, clearly, not having Michael in my life was causing an ungodly amount of turmoil, sadness, and anger. Jason, despite not wanting to, was letting me go. And so I did, I messaged Michael.

I asked, “Can we talk?” He responded, “I thought we weren’t suppose to” I didn’t know how to respond to that and he picked up on that before continuing with, “But yes we can” He asked how I was. I replied that I had been better before asking about himself. He said, “I've been in a terrible mood the last 1.5 weeks.” Eventually I asked if I could call. He answered, “Yeah”

Much like all prior conversations, two hours came and went quickly as we talked mostly about how unhappy the both of us were in that week and a half. During our conversation, probably during something very everyday like what happened at work that past weekend, I realized that I was the happiest I had been for weeks sitting in the parking lot of Walmart slightly freezing my butt off (and I hate the cold). I asked if I could visit him the following week, something Jason and I had discussed prior. For some reason again, he agreed without hesitating. Apparently he has this terrible habit of never being able to turn me down.

Without going into details, our 48 hours together was everything I hoped it would be. Well, except Passengers being a pretty terrible movie; I should have known better than to trust a Jennifer Lawrence movie! We talked a lot. Talking was what we did more of than anything, and I loved it. I remember spending a good 10-15 minutes explaining how and why I had to manually fertilize the corn in my garden, and I still had his undivided attention. We ate pho. We drank coffee in the mornings. We visited Fort Worth, where I got to visit a friend and we ate at Rodeo Goat. We watched Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. We ate dim sum. We drove by his work. He made dinner! I probably had the biggest grin on my face just watching him navigate through the kitchen with ease as I sat drinking a glass of wine ...and dinner was delicious, despite what he thinks.

One of my favorite moments, because I have so many, was when we were laying in bed either late one night or early one morning, I don’t quite remember, and he made a comment about my heartbeat. I replied something about whether or not I was alive. He took me by the wrist then proceeded to take my pulse before giving me my heart rate and stating something along the lines of, “You’re good. You’re alive.”

I realize we can’t live in our own la-la land forever, that there’s a reality beyond us. From the start, I reiterated these things... I obviously will not and cannot move to Texas because I don’t want to be away from Erik and Katri; they are a priority in my life. I have a lot more ‘baggage’ than a typical person. It is very likely that Jason and me will remain friends. My family and friends may not accept him immediately, if ever. I don’t plan on having more children. He realizes all of this, but it isn’t enough to dismay him because the alternative of not having me around and the thought of losing me for a third time isn’t necessarily an option.

Some time ago we talked about how I didn’t know how to drive a stick shift. He said that I should learn just in case before offering lessons with his Evo. I commented, “You must love me if you’re willing to let me drive your Evo.” He replied, “I do. I really do. I trust you.”

We’re both still in disbelief that we’re together after all of these years, but neither of us are really surprised. I don’t think anyone who knows us is that surprised honestly, not even Jason (who admitted that we are probably a better fit together than he and I were). When I think about us, I don’t imagine a white picket fence or dream wedding or even exotic adventures. Instead, I think about how I feel that day, at that moment, and it's just good; I’m happy with just that.

In spite of everything, Michael just wants me to be happy.

(Part 4 of 4)

[adobe-outdesign]

Could you review the polywag line?🐸

Poliwag is pretty darn fun. It's pretty instantly recognizable with the black swirl on its underbelly, which is a nod to the swirl-shaped intestines of some real-life tadpoles.

The eyes are adorable, the little mouth adds some color, and the heavy black and white contrast of the underbelly really helps to draw attention right to the swirl. It's a pretty simple design, but it works very well.

Also, pointless fun fact: Poliwag here is Satoshi Tajiri's (the guy who created Pokemon) favorite Pokemon. He has good taste!

Poliwhirl... did not need to exist. It's got a few unique elements—namely the mitten-like hands, which ironically did have fingers in its earliest sprites—but overall, it doesn't feel like it brings anything to the table that Poliwrath doesn't. Poliwrath and Poliwag don't look overly dissimilar, so you could've just jumped straight from point A to B and not lost anything. Poliwrath's original design, discussed below, might've justified it's existence a little more, but only a little.

That said, it looks perfectly fine. The "gloves" help accent the white underbelly, and it loses the mouth entirely—a change I really love, as it really works to just imply a mouth around the underbelly area without literally showing it. I also like that the swirl changes direction as a subtle thing. All of these changes are also present on Poliwrath however, so nothing still would've been lost by just skipping this stage.

(Side note: I think it's neat that Poliwhirl uses its swirl for hypnosis, even though it doesn't go anywhere. Guess they figured they didn't need another hypnosis 'mon with Hypno already running around this gen.)

Poliwrath is a pretty neat evo. I like that it's more of a larger, more aggressive tadpole than a regular frog, and once again, the lack of mouth and gloves are welcome additions to Poliwag's design. I also like the overall body shape, which reflects its fighting-typing and is a bit distinct from either of its pre-evos.

My sole complaint is that I wish the swirl had the same bean-like shape that the underbelly now has; the circular shape leaves too much white space on the edges and a weird tension point at the top. Also, I do wonder if the feet could've also been white just for the sole purpose of differentiating it from Poliwhirl a bit more.

Speaking of which, Poliwrath originally looked more like a goofy king than anything even remotely menacing, sporting a crown and white feet (or maybe just the undersides are white? hard to tell). According to the creators, this design was scrapped for "looking too weak", which is understandable. Ultimately the design we got was the better of the two anyway, even if this has its own charm.

Oh, and Politoed also Exists. Not gonna lie, I consistently forget it's a part of this line, though I'm not sure why—maybe it's the sudden, jarring color change, maybe it's the lose of the black swirl, or maybe it's just that it's a much more generic frog than the weird semi-tadpoles we had previously. I don't dislike it or anything, but it does feel like it looses all of my favorite elements from the previous stages.

(Little blue edit, mostly to satisfy my own curiosity)

Also, it doesn't really add anything to the line. It does have a vague "king" theme, possibly as a nod to Poliwrath's beta, but it's only really made clear though its evo method and 'dex.

I will say that Politoed is pretty cute however, keeping the same eyes as Poliwag, and its definitely appealing to those who just want a more straightforward frog. It's also kind of neat how it now feels like the line either finally metamorphoses or doesn't depending on the final evo you pick. Also, the way the swirl on the stomach is integrated into the head hair is fun as well. Overall, it's pretty decent, but I do think it would've been better off as its own Pokemon.

Politoed also has a beta, and in all honesty, I kind of like this design better? The black swirl is retained more clearly, but it also has a more abstract body shape that's still plenty frog-like while more closely resembling the rest of its line. I also love the expression; what a smug little creature. Like i said, what we got wasn't bad, but this definitely has a certain charm to it as well.

So, to summarize: Poliwag is charming and Poliwrath is a pretty good evo, but Poliwhirl is mostly redundant. Politoed is a nice option for those who want something more frog-like, but ultimately feels fairly disconnected from the rest of the line and probably could've just been its own thing. Regardless, it's an enjoyable group of 'mons.