Gooood morning! I have a lot to be happy about this Saturday — I’ve been playing Spyro the Dragon all morning, the weather’s looking up, and I’m seeing some real improvements in my foot injury! So I’m going to share the love with some great shout-outs to some cool people. This is not even close to a comprehensive list of cool people I know, but it’s definitely the ones who’ve sent me links most recently:

1) That gorgeous Peach illustration is by Megan Lara. Read Fan to Pro‘s interview with her here, or buy her Zelda Nouveau shirt here.

2) Speaking of Fan to Pro, I discovered it a month ago and it has become my go-to spot for geeky career advice, so much so that I asked author Steven Savage if I could write a few columns there! My second guest post about finding a job the geeky way is up. You can read the first one, too.

3) Check it out – Charles of Beneath the Tangles put up his Anime and Religion Survey results, illustrated with infographics by me! It was a really fun project, and I’m looking for more people with anime related data to collaborate with.

4) Another Charles, the Anime Anthropologist, has been seriously getting me back into Gundam Wing with his post on Duo as an ideological shinigami and his GW live-tweets. Follow him on Twitter to join in the fun.

5) I am reviewing Disgaea for Japanator, and — spoiler alert — it is the worst anime I have ever seen. However, Patches tells me that he’s reviewed worse — Itsudatte my Santa! If you’ve seen both, which is worse? Or do you have a new challenger to suggest?

6) I forgot to link to the third episode of O-talk, the podcast I do with Otaku Dan. Or I should say I did do, but I’ve been swamped with my job lately. He ended up doing episode 4 by himself, so give him some love!

7) And last — have you ever thought the product placement in anime is a little fishy? Check out It’s a SOMY! (via the_patches)

P.S. I started updating my Tumblr again, so if you’re interested in posts about my personal life and want to be Tumblr friends, come visit. Have a good weekend!

Can’t… not… post…!

1. I was interviewed on Fan to Pro, a great site for geeks who want to make something more of their hobbies! Watch for my column starting there next week.

2. The Xenogears orchestral CD will be out in February. What great videogame music!

3. You’ll be glad you took out 13 minutes of your day to watch this amazing short film: Lazy Teenage Superheroes.

4. Thing a Day 2011. What a good way to get back into drawing, making, or finally tackling that 28 page doujinshi!

5. I really enjoy fellow weeaboo Catherine’s blog, See Creatures. Except in her case, “weeaboo” means something more like “girl who dresses really well.”

6. Why the Internet chose cats. I’m a poodle person myself.

‘people who are dog people are probably doing things like throwing a Frisbee outside, painting a fence in suburbia, driving to a relevant chain restaurant or giving birth to children in a hospital setting , not going online creating Tumblrs.’

7. And last: stories like this one about 5-year-old Noah are why the Internet will never lose its magic.

P.S. Don’t forget to enter my anime giveaway!

I was a lazy blogger last Friday and didn’t post my regularly scheduled links. So that means you get a double helping today. Here’s everything I loved about the Internet these past two weeks.

1. The Chrono Trigger fan-made sequel has arrived. Will you play it?

2. I wrote about Katawa Shoujo again over at Japanator. It’d mean a lot to me if you took a look at it.

3. I wish I knew the top 55 geek movies to look forward to in 2011… oh wait. Here they are.

4. Meeting your favorite web-comic artist at a convention and not sure how to act? Zach Weiner is here to help. His list of “don’t”s are especially unfortunate!

5. All about eki-ben, the bento boxes available at Japanese train stations. I was researching this after seeing the delicious-looking train bentos in Summer Wars.

6. Startlingly beautiful post-apocalyptic dioramas. I especially like the one of the abandoned library.

7. A geek’s 1976 journal posted as a blog. Fantastic idea, and very brave for Steven to put himself out there like that!

Only watched the first few episodes, but I would wear this in a heartbeat.

8. The dumber something is, the funnier I find it. Lately I’ve really cracked up at Troll Foods and The Monkeys you Ordered.

9. Do gamers have the most vivid dreams? Signs point to yes.

10. Kotaku calls this video “The Secret Lives of Cosplayers,” but I would call it, “The Wacky Personalities of Cosplayers.” This guy must be a great interviewer!

11. How your website looks… under the influence. According to this, Otaku Journalist looks best when you are sufficiently drunk.

I know I’ve linked before, but this tumblr is so good!

12. I think I would have really enjoyed Boring Con 2010 in London. After all, one person’s boring is another person’s awesome.

13. I was very moved by this short story from The New Yorker called The Dungeon Master. I found it on The Essayist, which is a great Tumblr to go to for long reads.

14. Might I convert you to my new religion? I have joined the Gropagas and become a disciple of Lord Inglip. If you’ve ever believed that Captchas were sending you holy messages and/or have a good sense of humor, you may want to consider this way of life.

15. Are you guys on Anime Planet? I just joined and it is pretty neat. Check out my profile.

Sometimes I want to do a themed Otaku Links (like last week when I posted all How-Tos and the week before when I posted only anime items) and as a result, I leave out a lot of great links because they don’t fit. Here’s a bunch of those links. Happy Friday!

1. Eight great ways to spend 2011. I always say I’ll do something like take a photo a day, write every day, or draw a picture a day, but I never can keep up with it. Maybe once a week?

2. The 60 best new Tumblr blogs. Total timesink.

3. Japanese treadmill game show. And you thought you’d seen everything.

4. Geekosystem weighs in on the possible extinction of geekdom. I sort of touched on this earlier in the week.

Geeks will never have to worry about the mainstream taking us over. We would never trade being interesting and unique for being boring like everyone else. And now all those boring people want our stuff, which wasn’t cool enough for them before, and that’s really annoying.

5. The politics of enthusiasm. I would love my blog to be “a cabinet of wonder.” It’s already full of everything I like.

6. If Mario was a first person shooter.

7. And last, the Photoshop tutorial rap. I actually learned something!