Who Is JamDecks

[jamdecks]

My Pokémon Story

I didn’t fall in love with Pokémon because of the games or the cards. It started with a poster my brother won at an arcade… and a Koffing silhouette that changed everything.

I was in fifth grade when I first heard about Pokémon. Back then, everyone at school had a Game Boy Pocket or Color, battling their way through Pokémon Red and Blue. My brother and I thought it was dumb — just another fad we weren’t interested in.

That changed on a random weekend when we were staying overnight at my Nanny’s house. The next morning, we were supposed to take the bus downtown to this arcade in Orlando. I was hyped because I couldn’t wait to play my favorite game, Star Wars Trilogy. My brother was more into winning tickets. He hit a jackpot, cashed in a bunch, and walked out with a Pokémon poster — the one with all 151 original Pokémon listed on it. I didn’t care much at the time, but he hung it up like it was treasure.

A few days later, we were both off from school and decided, “Why not? Let’s give the show a shot.” We waited for four o’clock, turned on WB Kids on channel eight, and watched our very first episode. Right before the commercial break, the screen flashed:

“WHO’S THAT POKÉMON?”

We had no idea. My brother grabbed his poster, and we scanned every silhouette until we found the match — Koffing. When the show came back and confirmed it, we lost our minds. That moment hooked us. After that, we watched every day after school and counted down to new episodes on Saturday mornings.

Back then, we only had two TVs in the house. On Saturdays, my parents watched their shows in the living room, so I’d take over their bedroom. I’d sit right on the floor in front of their TV — legs crossed, cereal bowl next to me — and watch the new Pokémon episode like it was the most important event of the week. That little routine became one of my favorite parts of being a kid.

That Christmas, everything changed. We both got Game Boy Colors — mine was purple, his was yellow — and a stack of games: Pokémon Red, Blue, Yellow, Pokémon Pinball, WrestleMania 2000, and Mickey’s Dangerous Chase. I dove into Red Version, slowly figuring out how to beat the game and searching for my favorite Pokémon. I played so much that I could get all eight badges in a single Sunday.

I always gave myself all three starters because I wanted it to feel like the show. I traded with friends constantly, not realizing my Haunter or Kadabra would evolve after trading — and then I’d beg them to trade back.

Then came the cards. My brother got his first booster pack — a Fighting pack — and pulled a holographic Machamp. I was amazed. That’s when I knew I had to start collecting too. I was jealous when he randomly pulled a Charizard, but my favorite pull ever was a Dragonite. That card felt magical.

As the years went on, the show introduced new Pokémon, new regions, new adventures. We got older. My brother drifted away from it first, and eventually I did too. But not completely.

Even now, on my break at work, I’ll catch myself playing Red Version on my phone. I try to find new ways to make it exciting again — like starting with a Koffing and using only Team Rocket Pokémon to see if I can still beat the game.

And honestly? I can’t wait for the day my son gets older. Maybe he’ll get into Pokémon too. Maybe we’ll do card runs together, play the games, and make our own memories — just like my brother and I did.

[jamdecks]

My Linkin Park Story!

So, my obsession with Linkin Park all started on this totally random night back in 2004. I woke up in the dead of night, flipped on the TV, and was just mindlessly surfing through channels. I ended up stopping on MTV—channel 73—and they were showing this behind-the-scenes making of a music video. The song was "Breaking the Habit," and honestly, it blew my mind. Seeing a live recording of a rock band get completely transformed into a Japanese anime style was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. Nowadays it’s so easy to do that with AI, but back then, it was all hand-drawn frame by frame. I ended up falling back asleep, and when I woke up, I completely forgot the name of the song and the band. It drove me crazy because I just wanted to hear it and see that video again so bad.

Like a week goes by, and I’m taking the bus home from school. While we're sitting there, one of the kids on the bus shares one of his earbuds with me. He was playing music on his blue iPod Mini, and the very first song that came on was the exact same track I heard on TV the week before! I was so hyped. I begged him to burn me a CD, and he actually did. For like two weeks straight, I put that one song on absolute repeat and just played Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 on my PS2 for hours. Down the road, I started learning more about them and just fell in love with Chester Bennington’s voice.

A few months later, Easter is right around the corner. By this time, my Nanny had already bought me the Meteora CD, and I was obsessed with "Breaking the Habit," "Numb," and a bunch of others. Well, my brother and I were at Walmart doing our usual thing—walking through the video games and CD aisles just to look, knowing full well we couldn't get anything. But right there in front of me, I see the Hybrid Theory CD. I immediately told my Nanny I wanted that for Easter, even though I didn't know much about their older stuff yet. When Easter Sunday finally got here, I ran into the kitchen to check my basket. And oh man, there it was, sitting right on top of all the chocolates and hard-boiled eggs. I shoved it into my three-disc changer stereo right away, listened to it all day, and fell in love with almost every single song.

Skip ahead a few years to 2009. At this point, I’m getting pretty good at editing HTML codes to make my MySpace page look awesome, and literally everyone is getting pumped for the second Transformers movie. I was on the MySpace homepage one day and saw they had an exclusive debut for Linkin Park’s new song, "New Divide." The second I heard that song and saw the music video—the motion graphics, the transitions, the lyrics—I just knew it was my favorite song ever. It still is my number one to this day. As soon as it finished, I immediately downloaded it to my Zune and listened to it non-stop.

Years and years pass, and we get to July 3, 2017—my birthday. My wife at the time surprises me with a gift, and when I open it, it’s two tickets to see Linkin Park live! I was freaking out because I was so excited and had never seen them in person before. But then, tragically, on July 20, 2017, I was driving to work. I pulled into the lot, shifted my Jeep into park, and right then the radio host says, “Chester Bennington has passed away today.” I was in complete shock. My mouth just dropped, and for whatever reason, the first thing I did was call my mom. I was just so incredibly sad. The main band I grew up loving lost their lead singer, and I was never going to get to see them live.

Years have gone by since then, and I still listen to them all the time. When they dropped that unreleased song "Lost" a while ago, it was such a beautiful treat for day-one fans to hear Chester’s voice on something brand new again. To this day, I still catch myself going down rabbit holes watching their old music videos. And honestly, looking up AI covers where people put their original songs into different genres is one of my favorite things to do. There’s also this perfect tribute band from Portugal right now that I follow online. If they ever come to the States, you can bet I’m gonna be there.