The chef NPC's dialogue here is supposed to tip you off to check the trash bins because there are some items hidden there.

But in the Pokémon universe, you have to exercise caution when dealing with Poké Ball-shaped things. They're not always Poké Balls. As the Power Plant makes abundantly clear later in the game. (Which makes me wonder if Voltorb and Electrode were created specifically so they could be used as traps in the Power Plant.)

On an almost completely unrelated note, I'm still playing through Legends: Z-A and still have mixed feelings about it. Unless the climax pulls off something completely amazing in terms of story, expect an unnecessarily long writeup featuring my thoughts on the game's story presentation and character development. I know, I know. Some game reviews put a lot of emphasis on stuff like technical specs or the multiplayer experience. When a writer plays an RPG, this is what happens. The gameplay is still great though. Also I caught a shiny Magikarp yesterday, so that was pretty amazing.

 I just keep getting ideas for these. Props to ISRO (the Indian space agency) for being the first ever national space agency to successfully reach Mars on its first attempt using its own technology! (ESA was technically the first agency to reach Mars on its first attempt, but it got Mars Express there using a Russian rocket.)

I love the idea of Indian food, but both spicy food and onions don't agree with me, which makes Indian cuisine a bit of a challenge. I usually end up just cooking my own at home. I figured out a delicious recipe for shortcut chicken tikka masala that is not at all spicy, and uses storebought rotisserie chicken because I hate working with raw meat.

But that has nothing at all to do with space.

 No offense, Youngster, but if that's your only basis for wanting to be friends with me, that's a pretty superficial friendship. 

I pretty much gave Youngster the characterization of every elementary-school-age boy I knew back when Pokémon first came out. Including my cousin

On the other hand, now that I've got an awesome niece who plays Pokémon, I just give away my rare Pokémon to her like I'm passing out candy on Halloween. But that's a privilege reserved for nieces.

 I can't stop drawing these--the ideas just keep coming! Not that I'm mad. I've loved space for as long as I've loved paleontology (so like forever), but I've just never really had the predilection for the usual sort of space art. Now I kind of feel like I've found my niche and I'm enjoying it.

Hopefully nobody minds the attempts at quirky hand-lettering through this series. I wanted to add the mission name to the cartoons so people will be able to identify the craft (for example, not sure anybody who's not a total space nerd knows what the Venera landers looked like), but I didn't just want to scrawl the name--I thought it would be more fun to come up with a little logo for each one.

Again, huge thanks to Chris Lintott for encouraging me with these. Always nice to spend my time creating things people enjoy.

 It must be tough being a silent video game player character.

 MaggieJo Widdicombe wanted to see a Pachyrhinosaurus with porcupine quills, because she and Ashley Hall were talking about how bristles have been found preserved with ceratopsians like Psittacosaurus, so clearly this was the next logical step.

Ceratopsians with quills is a terrifying thought. Business in the front, business in the back. I'd rather run into a T. rex, frankly.

In all honesty, I've met a porcupine and they're actually quite friendly creatures. You can hand-feed them and it's really adorable to watch their little noses wiggle in excitement as they nibble on cucumber sticks. Just don't make them feel threatened (just like any other animal).

Also, this pachy is P. canadensis, and at this point I've now drawn each of the three species of Pachycephalosaurus. Do I get a medal or something for that?

 What, you thought he meant challenged to a Pokemon battle?

... Nah, clearly they want a Yu-Gi-Oh! duel.

I tried so hard to get into Yu-Gi-Oh! when it first came out in the US. But the card game was overcomplicated, the anime was boring, and the only other person I had to talk to about it was the 13-year-old boy down the street. I'll just stick with Pokémon and Digimon.