Japanese stuff and HSR stickers

[got_quiet]

Started watching Mob Psycho, which has been on my to-watch for a while. The English sub on Netflix kind of sucks, but it gives me the gist, gives me the supernatural vocab, and I can fill the rest in with the Japanese audio. I did not osmose this show correctly at all. Mob is a middle school student?! I'm only one or two episodes in but I'm intrigued.

I also started reading Momo No Kanzume, which is a collection of short essays by Momoko Sakura. She did a manga too, but it's actually through her essays that I know her, because another one of her books, Momoko no Ikimono Zukan, was a book that I read in college. The essays are a lot of fun, and have a good sense of humor, so even though the vocabulary is pretty high I suggest them for Intermediate Japanese learners. Especially now when there's a lot of technology to help it doesn't take too much time to pull out the vocab, do a little bit of drilling, and then read the chapter a couple times as study. Back when I was studying as a college student there were almost no tools and I was still doing fun stuff like looking up all the vocabulary in my physical kanji dictionary lol. And god help me if the compound wasn't in there. Nowadays it's so easy to prep reading almost anything. I love it.

There is a convention this weekend near me. I wasn't planning on going but my friends wanted me to distribute flyers for a con that /they/ are running, and I said yes, so I ended up paying more money than I wanted to for the opportunity to leave some paper around and then do some shopping in the vendor's market, which is the only place I really enjoy all that much in conventions, which is also why I don't tend to go. There were special guests and everything in this one, but I always feel a little weird in guest lines. The only time I ever earnestly sought out meeting a celeb was during the Last Unicorn Tour to get my book signed by Peter Beagle, who was a very sweet guy, but it turned out the dude running that tour was a piece of shit and committing elder abuse so yeah. When I heard that I wasn't that surprised because the dude was very offputting at the event, but you know, hindsight sharpens the vision.

Aaanyway, There were panels and stuff and some game rooms, but I honestly felt too much like I was courting another bout of COVID just by existing there, and so I couldn't really enjoy myself. Plus I had shit to do. However, I found some good Christmas presents in the artist's alley. I might go back tomorrow since I did pay so much damn money but that's only if I have the time for it. My friends are lucky that I love them and they are generous with me all the time so I don't mind doing them a solid once in a while.

While I was walking around the artist's alley it occurred to me that I was just out of the loop with most stuff. As a patient gamer and someone who watches anime a decade after it comes out, I just did not recognize a good majority of what was on offer. I also don't like acrylics or pins which removes like 80% of all merch from contention. So annoying. I wish people had more postcard sized prints, but I understand why people go for bigger stuff. They can charge more and make their table worth it, for one.

But I did find someone selling Honkai Star Rail Stickers! I couldn't decide on who to grab so I just ended up grabbing all of my favorites, which is like 7 guys lol. The vendor even had Jiaoqiu and Moze already lol. I'm enjoying Jiaoqiu, especially since he's increasing Sampo's playtime for me, so I got them both too. This is what the stickers looked like. For being variations on a template I think the artist did a pretty good job!

One of the con party rooms also was HSR themed. They had a bunch of "cocktails" from the Penacony event, which was really just stuff like strawberry milk with grenadine and a little whipped cream. But it was a cute idea, and they even put a little image on your cup for you.

Comments

[shadowbliss]

Glad to hear you had a good time at the convention

[tinkaton]

I'm pretty much the same way about cons, I went to one this year for work and spent my free time entirely in the vendor area/artist alley lmao. Not good for my wallet but I enjoy looking at all the artist booths! Those HSR stickers are cute, I'm glad you were able to find something you liked.