• Did you know cabbages in anime were once used to measure the quality of the art? (But when creators caught on, they just made the cabbages ten times more elaborate than even the character design!)

• I loved Nelson’s meta-post on the top 10 things otaku love to make top 10 lists about. Are you guilty of any of these?

• A slightly NSFW Tumblr points out Fake Nerd Guys in a direct parody of “Fake Geek Girl” shaming. Do you think flipping bad behavior in the other direction raises awareness or makes the phenomenon worse?

• I really liked this post Patches sent me about teen girls. I wasn’t sure why he sent it to me until I reached this line about fandom:

You know those girls everyone loves to shit all over? The ones who really fucking love something? Those girls, man. They take all that energy, all that circulating fire in their veins, and instead of letting it destroy them, they choose to love, ferociously. Be it a band, or a book, or a series of films. They do it to keep themselves sane, and yet we mock them for it.

• Susannah Breslin has been killing it with transparency lately. Her series on getting paid is a great benchmark for beginning journalists worrying about making what they’re worth. And her series on getting rejected shows that even the pros face setbacks.

• Meet Kabosu, better known as the face of Doge. Must be crazy to wake up and discover your pet is beloved all over the world!

(Screenshot from Sakurasou.)