Splashing Into Summer with Summer Knitting, Magikarp Jump and Despicable Me 3

Hey everybody! Enjoying your Memorial Day? With Memorial Day here we’re pretty much in the end tail of spring going into the heat of summer. Schools are out and kids are excited for their upcoming summer break.  Of course the weather says otherwise and it’s been a complete mess these past couple of days. Rain, lightning storms, you name it. I got a few things to talk about today, some knitting, some Pokemon as well as a new movie on the way out. After a big pirate week with Dead Men Tell No Tales releasing last Friday as well as the release of ZAK Knits Episode 4 I think I’ll keep this a small multi topic blog, which I’ve not done in a while. Sorry if it seems lackluster.

First off as I mentioned before last Friday was the release of ZAK Knits Episode 4! It’s been awhile since I’ve dropped a ZAK Knits Episode with the last one being based on my knitted cable beanie from winter. This ZAK Knits is more of an informative video where I discuss how you can knit cable using more then just a normal cable needle. You don’t need to have a dedicated cable needle and this video will prove that. Check it out below or follow this link: https://youtu.be/qVMDp8n39nI.

Speaking of Knitting and summer it’s come across my mind that Summer time knitting can be a hard time to decide what pattern to knit or even what knitted items to wear. I mean no one wants to wear thick beanies, socks and sweaters and this might be why I’ve been slowing down on the knitting. Then it hit me, Shawls and Wraps, unlike scarves a shawl won’t make you sweat and actually look quite stylish coupled with summer beach wear. Conveniently enough I actually have a shawl on the needles so I should get going on that again. Shawls, especially lace shawls are much lighter, knitted with much thinner yarn and if it is lace the shawl allows for more body breathing. I’ve discovered coming into the world of knitting that shawls can be in all matters of shapes and sizes so there’s a lot of variety involved. Another idea that came to me was beach wraps, now I have minimum fashion knowledge which probably makes me a mediocre knitter so I had no idea what this specific beach wrap I was thinking off was even called but apparently it’s called a Sarong. Which actually can be worn in quite a few ways, some in a more tradition sense by the people of south asia and a lot of pacific islands. More or less despite its variations it’s mostly worn as a wrap around the waist and legs. I actually found a free lace Sarong knitting pattern called “Summer’s Day Beach Sarong” by Rozetti Yarns that would make a great compliment to your beach going outfit that’ll make you look like you own the oceans.

I actually wasn’t sure if I was going to share this or not it’s not popular, actually it’s been completely looked over. But as one of the purposes of this blog is to get unknown patterns out there, why not? Regardless I read through the pattern and it seems like an long but awesome knit. It’s got some pretty lace work without being seemingly overdone with lace. (You can never have to much lace don’t get me wrong but for someone who is still new to lace, yeah I’m not sure if I can handle those crazy but beautiful lace shawls just yet.) You’ll need some DK weight yarn, actually wouldn’t that make this too thick to wear? Anyway you’ll need 5 (Or more depending on the size you’re making, this pattern has specs for increasing the size by quite a bit, which is convenient.) 100g/224 yd balls of yarn. Needles you’ll need are US Size 6 (4.0 mm) straight needles and US Size 5 (3.75 mm) 24” circular needles and a tapestry needle.

Aside from that if you have basic knowledge of lace and yarn overs you’ll be able to create the wonderful elm leaf designed patterns of this sarong with ease. You can check out this awesome pattern by visiting Ravelry or go directly to the pattern from UniversalYarn.com by following this link: http://www.universalyarn.com/patterns/479.pdf.

Happy Summertime Knitting Everyone!

What says summer better then some splashing water? In that regards what is the first thing to come to your mind when you think of “SPLASH”ing water. If you’re a nerd like me you’ll probably mention Magikarp. Remember the minigames in Pokemon Stadium for the N64? I touched on it a bit in my “My Life as a Pokemon Trainer: Generation 1” blog but if you do remember then you’ll probably remember the minigame “Magikarp’s Splash” where you rapidly press A to Splash as fast and high as you can with Magikarp and rack up a high score on the jump counter. I was pretty excited when they announced Magikarp Jump for iOS and Android as it seemed like this minigame would be making a return in the form of this app as well as being the weakest (Yet pretty cool) Pokemon Magikarp’s debut game.

Well after it’s release last week I can safely say this is far from what I thought it was but it may be a cool game for those interested in Virtual Pets with a side of Magikarp Splashing Tournaments. In Magikarp Jump you raise Magikarps like any virtual pet and train your magikarp to compete in splashing tournaments. There are eight leagues in total and many challenges to overcome as you try to become the Magikarp champion. You start you off as a fisherman/trainer as you meet the mayor of Hoppy town by no other name then Mayor Karp.

After a little introduction and a seductively nostalgic song to go along with your character fishes his/her first Magikarp. Sadly unlike the main series Pokemon games you don’t get to press any buttons to fish you just sit back and watch it happen. When your Magikarp is introduced into it’s tank however you’ll be able to tap away at the berries, signaling your magikarp to come over and eat, eating is a way for your Magikarp to increase it's Jump Power or JP for short which will allow you to win more competitions, because it's a jumping competition. (Magikarp doesn't actually learn Bounce.)

After eating and leveling up your Magikarp you can train it using multiple of items to increase it's JP even more, one of these items being a Jump Counter which looks identical to the one from the Pokemon Stadium Minigame. Sadly all you can do is sit and watch again as your Magikarp is trained. Repeating this progress you can level up your Magikarp and continue further with your Magikarp League challenge. I haven’t dived too far into the game but apparently as you beat more competitions your trainer increases in level allowing you to fish and capture higher level Magikarps as well as some sweet looking different patterned Magikarps which I really wish were catchable in the main series game. Hey maybe with the possibility of Pokemon Stars (Self promoted blog discussing said Pokemon Stars here: http://zakentertainment.blogspot.com/2017/05/speculation-anticipation-pokemon-stars.html ) being on the switch we could have more Pokemon variations. Apparently you can lose your Magikarp to a Pidgeotto as well, which sucks.

Overall it’s a fun minigame to pass the time, not exactly what I was hoping for as it could have had a lot more interaction in it as well as possible a splashing minigame where you tapped the screen, similar to Pokemon Stadium but it’s fun for those who enjoy Virtual Pet games because who wouldn’t want Magikarp as a virtual pet? No? Just me? Well I think Magikarp is cool anyway. Anyway this game can actually be a pretty fun wind down game, it's no Pokemon GO trend wise but it's fun in it's own merit and I actually enjoy it better then Pokemon GO. You can download this game from iTunes on iPhone or iPad as well as Android for your Android devices. Though a warning this game does contain microtransactions in the form of paying for Diamonds which allow you to buy decorations and items for your Magikarp's fish tank. I think you can get diamonds through normal play and leveling up your trainer so no fret.

Before I leave, we’ve already discussed the free pattern of the day earlier but I have a new movie trailer to show you guys and it’s pretty despicable. Yes late last year I talked about the upcoming Despicable Me 3 movie where it seemed like Gru was taking his super hero game to the next level by coming face to face with a very retro looking ultra supervillain Balthazar Bratt. Take a look below at the apparent final trailer. (Hopefully, getting tired of the countless trailers from movies lately.)

Well the recent trailers and this one specifically has shown that this movie will be diving into much deeper themes. Themes including the fact that Gru apparently has a twin brother named Dru with long flowing blonde hair that would make Max Beissart (Played by the late Alexander Godunov) from The Money Pit jealous. To make it even better we have Steve Carell playing both Gru and Dru, so basically Steve Carell was talking to himself when voicing these characters, which would he of voiced first? This is question that puzzles me. Also minions in jail? Oh boy. Anyone else notice the amount of adult jokes present in this? I have no problem with this but were the first two movies like this? Maybe I'm just finally noticing them.

Anyway Despicable Me 3 or Despicable M3 as they so cleverly named the movie will be releasing June the 30^th so get your minion merchandise revved up and ready. Actually I didn’t really enjoy the Minion movie that much truth be told I’m more partial to the Minions being just additional side characters.

That’s a wrap folks!