Always 21 - Memories of 21

On the top of the world
I don't wanna be alone -
No, no, no, not me...
-- "C'est la Vie (Always 21)", Ace of Base

While it's still my birthday month, I want to flash back to a time that is inspired by this song. That time is, of course, when I was 21, which was quite a few years ago. I've dug up my notes from that time, and I can say that it has some pleasant moments. Back then, Pokémon was still on my mind, though there were other things that carried some of my attention away.

At that time, I was really starting to make use of my Nintendo DS Lite, which I had only gotten about a year prior. When I first got it, I only used it to play my GBA games that I already had; it was only at this point that I started to get ahold of the Nintendo DS games, including the Pokémon games, and made intermittent yet steady progress. Of particular note was getting back to the main series with the fourth-generation Diamond version, which I also finished in the same year. For the other Pokémon games, I played them to take a break from the main series, including the Ranger series new to the NDS and the continuance of the Mystery Dungeon series on the NDS.

Meanwhile on TV, the Indonesian dub showed the episodes near the middle of the Hoenn saga, which I had already seen years prior in English. It was nice that this was happening as it provided a fresh perspective on the episodes as I viewed them for yet another time, mostly for the second time. Not only did the dub show episodes, it also showed the movies - the sixth and seventh ones, to be exact. However, the movies were shown in pieces, which meant that it took a few weekends to show the entire movies. While this was convenient on one level, it also made the movies feel episodic on another, an impression I don't find necessary.

In regard to the above quote from the song, I really wasn't alone in these times, as I did still have Pokémon with me, as much as Ash had his with him. These too could be considered happy times amidst other things I had on my plate at the time. In short, another line from the song says it best:

Life is good for you, oh when you're 21 - remember you're Always 21.