Bandcamp or 7Digital for music

My nostalgia goggles tinting things a bit here, but Gen 2 (GSC) felt like such a jump in quality compared to RBY; especially Crystal.

• Moved to full color
• Animated sprites
• Character selection
• RTC & the day-night cycle
• Both regions & 16 badges
• QOL mechanics (hold items, eggs/breeding, A to use HM, rematches, Mom bank, Move Deleter)
• Dark & Steel type additions

Johto gets a lot of flak for the level curve, but the game just felt so big at the time, seems like that should count for something. Also I just like its vibe.

I don't think any other gens have felt like such a complete step up compared to previous ones for me. B&W came closest, probably, was bummed they didn't keep seasons. Made the world feel more dynamic. The 3D stuff is fine, just feels more wooden. They lost a lot of the charm moving away from pixel art.

Already lots of LOTR & Tron: Legacy here. Not seeing much love for animated film scores, so on that note & in no particular order:

• How to Train Your Dragon trilogy, 1 is personal favorite
• Kung Fu Panda trilogy, 2 is so fucking good oh my god personal favorite
• The Lion King (1994)
• Spirited Away
• My Neighbor Totoro
• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
• The Super Mario Movie
• Finding Nemo
• Up

A couple of these have great soundtracks, too, but I do love a good score.

Perfect Crystal or Crystal 251 sound like what you're looking for- mostly vanilla with bugs fixed.

I'll go ahead and throw out a rec for Polished Crystal also, because it's my favorite gen 2 hack and I just think it's neat. The PokeCommunity files are out of date, but there's steady updates through the dev's discord & GitHub.

Could also build your own copy from pokecrystal I guess- they have documentation for fixing the bugs in the code. But that's definitely not low effort, lol.

Depends on what you want out of it. I use one (1) daily face lotion thing with a light sunblock in it. It helps prevent UV damage & keeps me from feeling itchy/flaky in the winter.

But I am pale as the damn grave, so someone with a different complexion might not care as much about that as a heavier duty moisturizer, for example.

It's easy to get sucked down the cosmetics rabbit hole- you just need to decide what you actually want out of it & find the product(s) that help you towards that. That said, look for things labeled as specifically for your face & possibly unscented or for sensitive skin to start- they'll be less likely to clog up your pores or cause an allergic reaction.

I really love the remixed themes in Pokemon Puzzle Challenge. The title opener is a bop also.

There are also fan run repositories of games hosted through Myrient and the Internet Archive if you just want some specific titles or need a particular version for patching.

For emulation, personally I like RetroArch over individual emulators for simplicity. Can recommend SameBoy & Gambatte for GB+GBC, mGBA for GBA, melonDS DS for NDS, & Snes9x for SNES. All are accurate (so not likely to make a game bug out) & run fine on my midrange phone.

The touch controls work fine for games where timing/precision matters less, and for the rest I just use a BT controller. Xbox & PS ones are compatible, I believe, & there are some great quality 3rd party ones (like 8bitDo) out there.

I have a green chili stew recipe I love; one of my favorite foods.

• 2-3 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 or 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp cumin
• ½ tsp black pepper
• ½ tsp oregano
• 2 to 3 lbs red or gold potatoes, cut into small chunks
• 3 large cans chopped green chilies
• 5 to 6 cups chicken broth
• 2 to 4 tsp canned chopped jalapeños
• 1 ½ to 2 lbs pork loin, cut into small chunks
• 1 to 1 ½ tsp salt, to taste
• Sour cream

Heat the oil in a 2 quart saucepan, add the onion and garlic, and cook, covered, over low heat for about 5 minutes so that the onion can wilt.

Uncover the pan, raise the heat to medium, and stir in the cumin and pepper.

Stir for 2 or 3 minutes, or until the onions start to show signs of browning, then add the chicken broth, oregano, salt, green chilies, jalapeños, & pork. Add potatoes until pot is full.

Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for at least 1 hour.

Remove from heat and let settle for 5 to 10 min.

Serve hot, add sour cream to servings per taste. Garnish with cilantro, avocado, tortilla chips, cracklins, etc.