Another Friday in December, another amazing Ugly Christmas Sweater!
This week it's my fantastic Aldi sweater I found. It's from a few years back and, honestly, I found at an off-price Department Store (Gabe's) out of season. It was...a surprising find, but I love it.
So, I went to the post office around lunch today and a guy was giving me an odd look, but I shrugged it off. He then apologized a few moments later and said, "Sorry, man, I just have some real beard envy."
It's my last work day of the year, so I decided to don my iconic Ugly Christmas Sweater. This was the first one I ever got for myself that I debuted at work about 4 years ago to many snickers and giggles. It's such a silly sweater, so I just had to finish out strong with it.
I rolled out my new Sonic the Hedgehog shirt this weekend that I had gotten from Box Lunch. I love how the new very beachy shirt looks over my older Sonic shirt.
But yea, got home yesterday from a weekend out with the family. It was fun!
So, I was tagged on Intagram by facetious_manga to talk about my "Bookstagram Backstory." I don't know if a Pixelfed equivalent exists. Bookselfed? Pixelbook? I don't know, I'll use both hashtags and share.
Regardless. Let's go, I guess.
When did I start on Bookstagram?
This account is and remains a personal account. While I post (often), about manga, this isn't exclusively about books or manga. My first post was in April 2016. Wow...that's a long time ago. I started getting more active in posting about books / manga, participating in things like "25 Days of Manga" in 2020. But it was early 2023 when I started posting a lot more manga pics / reviews.
What inspired your username?
I started on Twitter and needed a small handle. MD - I'm from Maryland, MRN - My initials. 83 - I'm old.
What was your 1st review?
The first "review" I posted was saying that the Free Comic Book Day 2016 Firefly comic was good. It got more detailed in my reviews after that.
Favorite part of Bookstagram?
The community. So may good folks to talk, discuss, and share.
Booksta made me buy?
My Lovesick Life as a 90s Otaku. I couldn't NOT get it, the reviews were just too much and I was not disappointed.
Aesthetic?
Middle aged nerdy, bearded Dad-core? I really have no idea.
Recent reads?
A Silent Voice by Yoshitoki Ōima
Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku by Fujita
Re-Reading Your Lie in April by Naoshi Arakawa
Describe your aesthetic using emojis
🤷♂️🎵🤡🤭🐱👨🦲🧔
Tagging no one. Feel free to participate if you like!
A throwback Thursday post to 2008 when I was much younger and had a lot more hair.
My sister took this picture of us at a park not far from where I live. It used to be an old fort back in the 1800s, so had some old stone structures like this!
This weekend I went to a band trip with my 12 year old as a chaperone. It started with band performances, ended with them (and me) at an amusement park all day.
I met a bunch of Middle Schoolers who were friends / acquaintances with my daughter. They referred to me as "cool," "legendary," "icon," and one said I was "an icon on par with Madonna." But...but why?
I think about that day and all I can think is that I'm an adult, a parent who was willing to engage with these kids. I talked with them about music, their hobbies, anime, video games, whatever they wanted to talk about. I listened and interacted. Apparently, that's enough to make me an icon.
It feels very basic. But, the fact that just this level of interaction felt out of the norm for them from their friend's parents that it made them call me an icon, I feel that says more about the other adults in their lives than it does about my awesomeness.
Let's go back to fall of 2011 to maybe give us some of that cool weather vibes. Here's me at a park as a scarecrow standee where my kid (it was 2011, the youngest weren't born yet and my middle one was a newborn still) put on a lovely jacket and hat to just make me look amazing.