ok. I first got into pokemon when I was in kindergarten when one of the older kids told me how awesome it was. Since then, I have been hooked and have loved playing.
Though more interesting is what I have done since then. When I was a sophomore, I joined a site called pokeglobal (previously known as pokenet and then renamed pokenet), which boasted a complete pokemon MMORPG. I joined the staff team and started to help out until nintendo ordered a cease and dessist and the whole game was effectively shut down http://www.joystiq.com/2010/04/02/nintendo-shuts-down-fan-made-pokemon-mmo/ (if you want more info on it).
I first got into competitive battling through this site and it was actually one of my fellow staff members who helped me make my signiture ninjask team.
After PN got shut down, I was on shoddy for a while until one of my friends brought me to PO and yeah (I guess if you want a full PO history, that is a different story) :3
In terms of coding, besides for the MMORPG, I have coded for PO servers before and have coded a text based version of the TCG