I am a 40 year old, balding man who is overweight and knows how I look. But, you know what, I'm going to own it.
The second pic is a screenshot I snagged from Animal Crossing last night. I gave Agnes, a black pig, a yellow / brown samurai hakama. Her reaction? "Do I look good, or do I look awesome?"
I need that kind of confidence in my life.
So, here we go - how do I look? Do I look good or do I look awesome today in my shark polo?
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.
Volume 8 continued where Volume 7 left off, finishing up the story of the Dead Moon.
It continues with Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask being very sick while the other Sailor Scouts are fighting against the Dead Moon Kingdom. Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask try to come out anyway, and they discover some new powers within Mamoru himself! Also, our Pegasus friend is freed.
A lot happens as we conclude this chapter filled with nightmares consuming the planet. See the third pic for one of Sailor Moon's personal nightmares, and one that will haunt me forever.
The last handful of chapters of this volume are more Sailor Moon side stories telling tales about individual Sailor Scouts, their background, and a quick hit self contained story. They were cute, but I am looking forward to the next volume as we proceed the plot forward overall.
Personally, I have really been enjoying the mainline plot a lot more than the seemingly filler side stories. There have been a few good ones, but overall the mainline plot following all of the Sailor Scouts has been my absolute favorite part of reading this. Can't wait for more when Volume 9 of this edition drops.
My youngest two are 9 and this week they had a Scholastic Book Fair. One thing that they've found is that, from time to time, there is Disney manga at the book fair from TokyoPop. Which, by the way, there were no comic books at Scholastic Book Fairs when I was a kid, but I digress.
As my youngest like Lilo and Stitch, they picked up this volume called "Stitch: Best Friends Forever!" Short version: It's cute.
The story has Stitch's ship crash landing in an island in Okinawa. While there, Stitch becomes friends with a local girl named Yuna and goofiness ensues. This single volume has self-contained stories in each individual chapter of Stitch getting into silly / funny situations with an elementary aged girl and her friends.
This is, however, a compilation volume. There is a full, two volume Stitch manga that was previously released. "Best Friends Forever" picks some fan favorite chapters and mashes them together in what, at times, feels like no particular order. It's not bad, but it does give you kind of whiplash from time to time
Long story short, it's a taste of the Stitch manga. If you enjoy it (which we did), then it's worth checking out the full series (which I probably will with my kids).
It's a cute, all ages manga about Stitch and a different friend in Japan. If you like cute kid's manga, check it out.
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.
My initial thoughts trying out Rowdy Energy's "Strawberry Lemonade" - Meh, no thank.
My more detailed thoughts, plus story time - So, I was at the grocery store when I saw this sitting on the shelf on-sale for 60¢. I thought to myself, "Sure, I'll try it, why not. I like Strawberry lemonade flavoring." Put it in the fridge and tried it the next day as my early morning energy drink. The result? Meh.
The flavor was just...well, off. I didn't taste any strawberry lemonade, mostly a very subtle flavor with a green tea-esque aftertaste. It felt more like a lightly strawberry flavored bubbly green tea with such minimal flavor to feel borderline like a seltzer. But the aftertaste was strong, for me at least.
Long story short, yea, I didn't like it. I finished it because I wanted the caffeine (~130 mg) and I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it.
New Read - My Lovesick Life as a '90s Otaku, Volume 3
Volume 3 has been read and it was a journey.
Masamune is trying to set up something nice for his sister's birthday. Megumi gets involved, trying to encourage him to do a party and maybe ask his Mom to come. Also, she finally meets Yui in person and finds out that Yui is a boy! And he tries hard to not reveal that he has a huge crush on Megumi.
It's just adorable.
But, Megumi ends up pulled in two directions and her crush / trying to help Masamune pulling her another way and it all comes crashing down as a bag full of her precious manga falls out onto the ground during Masamune's sister's birthday, which had already become a mess because of Masamune's Mom.
The ending of this volume. Ugh!
I don't know how I'm going to wait for the conclusion in Volume 4 which doesn't drop until August. Ugh!
Let me know your thoughts in the comments if you've read this.
In 2023, McDonald's in China released a special Tetris LCD handheld that is shaped like a chicken nugget. For some reason, this was the tie-in for the 40th anniversary of the Chicken McNugget.
I wanted it immediately.
But, as I did not live in China and knew no one who could import such things for me at the time, I could not. So, I waited.
At Magfest, earlier this year, I saw this prize sitting on a shelf, mocking me. At nearly 50 bucks, I was tempted, but unwilling to buy it.
I forgot about it for a while when 7-Eleven announced their own new Tetris tie-in handheld, this time on a Slurpee cup. It reminded me of my long wanted chicken nugget handheld.
I went to eBay and found someone with a relatively high rating, selling them for less than 15 USD including shipping. So, I bought one. That was early April.
It arrived this week.
It's as beautiful as I expected.
No, but seriously, it's a functional LCD handheld that you can play Tetris on. It's adorable. It is literally easier to play Tetris on this, than on my phone.
Also, it's classic mode so if there is not space for the Tetromino block to do spin - it won't spin.
Anyway - short version: I imported for myself the Chicken McNugget Tetris game and it's silly fun.
Welcome back to another round of organic chemistry with MDMRN.
Once again, I've taken my molecular model kit to craft a new molecule. This one, frankly, I was able to craft using the pieces of the previous ones I presented before. While I didn't say it last time, the green represents a halogen, in this case specifically chlorine.
A hint is that the production of these types of compounds has been banned in numerous countries, including the United States. It was, historically, found in electrical transformers.
Can you guess what type of compound this is? Let me know in the comments!
New Manga Read - Fist of the North Star, Volume 12
Welcome to the apocalypse!
Volume 11 is about this man on the cover, Falco.
Falco is the inheritor of Gento Kōken (roughly translated as Original Dipper Imperial Fist). The followers of Genko Kōken were sworn to protect the Celestial Emperor (Tentei) from harm.
In this volume, Kenshiro is returning to help the Hokuto Army which is led by Lin and Bat to free those under the thumb of Jaco. Falco, who appears to be nothing but good and compassionate, is somehow the evil Jaco's second in command. Why? Jaco has kidnapped the Tentei and kept them hostage.
This volume is filled to the brim with reveals. Some about Lin. A lot of backstory about Falco, which makes him such a fascinating character. Also, the reveal about the Tentei and who they are was HUGE. Doing minimal spoilers despite this manga being as old as I am.
Falco has a prosthetic leg due to Raoh destroying his leg in the past. Raoh told him that he needed to kill Jaco or, one day, Jaco would manipulate and dominate him. Raoh was right.
While we get a brutal match between Falco and Kenshiro, the ending of the volume is well done with a cliffhanger for the next volume.
ALSO (which I say a lot), Fist of the North Star constantly reminds you that toxic masculinity is bad and that you can be masculine and have feelings / cry. Kenshiro feels, always. Kenshiro allows himself to cry over loss, cry over the suffering of others. He allows himself to feel. There is nothing un-masculine about having emotions. Kenshiro constantly reminds the reader of that...amongst all the brutal violence.