In the World

To get away for a couple days, my wife and I sent Munchkinhead to Grandma and Pap-Pap’s (which is even better, apparently, than playing with Daddy), and we went up to State College to Setsucon.

We weren’t planning to go, but we needed a couple days away from “life”.

In fact, I had completely forgotten about it. I remembered seeing an ad for it at Tekkoshocon in 2008 (I went with my youngest brother). But I hadn’t planned on going. State College is not really somewhere I want to be in January. But my wife and I needed to get away, and I was reminded about this convention when I saw on Applegeeks that Ananth was going to be there.

Ananth Panagariya and Yuko Ota are really nice people! If you ever meet them tell them how awesome they are! (They did a panel at Setsucon and sold me a t-shirt and a bookmark.) I love meeting artsy-type people…I envy people who can draw like that–rather than what I do–which is just help them tweak their work. Maybe I’ll add a “Favorite DeviantArt Accounts” link category on the left.

Overall, Setsucon was kinda small. If you plan on going in the future, make sure you plan on bringing some friends.

Not that we were there for the convention anyway.

And yes, we’re doing okay. It’s amazing what a couple of good night’s sleep can do. Not great, but okay.

It’s true.

But at least I’m comforted in that it can’t be too uncommon. I mean, there is a song about it.

I think my daughter may be shedding her anglo-saxon-german-african-gypsy-mediterranean heritage in favor of the Japanese.

She is 3 and a half, and she is already showing the signs of becoming a full-fledged otaku (not that her parents have anything to do with that, of course not! My DBZ and Tenchi Muyo collections, and my wife’s Sailor Moon obsession play no part in these events).

Anyway, back to the subject: Here is a partial list of my daughter’s favorite things. See if you notice a trend.

Chocolate snack of choice: Pocky.

Favorite movie: The Cat Returns (pseudo-sequel to the incredibly cute Whisper of the Heart).

Headgear she cannot be parted from: She has two (yes, TWO) neko hats (caps with cat ears), in addition to a matching set of tiger ears and tail.

Backpack she likes to take nearly everywhere: Fuku-Ohki Plush Backpack (she also has a Ryo-Ohki plushie, but they are harder to get nowadays and I don’t really want a link to J-List in my blog).

And she still thinks manga are little coloring books.

I think it will be a while, however, before I let her watch End of Evangelion. I watched it as an adult and it messed with my head.

My daughter is so cute.