Five things I’m thankful for today

It’s a little early for Thanksgiving, but having finished my workweek after only two days, I can’t help but feel a bit thankful for some of the people and things around me. I’ll leave major items for later in the week, but for the moment, I’d like to link to a few things that have made me feel happy (and thankful) today:

1. Azumanga Diaoh, episode 7. This episode features a cultural festival at school, and our girls’ class has decided to have a room full of stuffed animals on display (and a few for sale), including a life-sized mascot. At the end of a successful festival, several of the girls go on a “victory march” with the mascot in the lead. Now, I spend pretty much every episode of Azumanga Diaoh helplessly grinning from beginning to end, but I seriously teared up during the “victory march.” I can’t really tell you why. It was just unbelievably moving for some reason. *snif*

2. Danielle Leigh’s True Anime & Manga Confessions. Reading these today filled me with delight. Not only do I agree with many of them (thank you, Danielle, for admitting that you don’t find Nana and Ren’s relationship romantic at all, and if Kyo over Yuki makes you boring, then so am I) but they are just delightfully written in general. Kind of made me want to write my own, but I suspect it would be redundant.

3. Tom McRae’s blog entry, musing on the potential of ubiquitous guitar teacher Dan Smith as a serial killer. This may be the funniest thing I’ve read, uh, ever. Or at least the funniest thing I’ve read this week.

4. Lucky Star at Comiket. I began a sentence earlier that went something like “I was thinking about Comiket…” but the real truth is that I was thinking about the episode of Lucky Star that takes place at Comiket, and once you’ve admitted that, really, it is difficult to maintain any kind of credible argument. So, okay, everything (or most everything) I know about Comiket comes from that episode of Lucky Star. But it made me think about dōjinshi, and how I wish that fanfiction in this country could ever attain the level of legitimacy that dōjinshi seems to have in Japan. Then I realized that I really have no idea of how legitimate dōjinshi is considered in Japan, and that perhaps using Konata as the standard is somewhat flawed. I really loved that episode, though. :D

5. Neil Gaiman. I wouldn’t have thought I could love Neil Gaiman more, but his efforts on behalf of Christopher Handley (who most of you know well as the guy who is being prosecuted for owning manga that a postal worker considered obscene) have significantly increased my already-substantial admiration. I’ve often wondered if a famous guy as kind and graceful as Neil Gaiman could actually be real. Today I don’t even care. I’m just thankful he’s out there lending his kindness, gracefulness, and irrefutable good sense to a cause like this.

Now I have a sweet, warm doggie curled up on my legs, a tummy full of popcorn, and the blissful knowledge that I am not expected back in my office until Monday. Yep. Feels like Thanksgiving to me. :)