Back Into the Fold

Here I am sitting in my bedroom typing on my computer on a new desk belonging to my new wife, Carol. I have a bowl of potato chips beside me, with a pair of shiny silver chopsticks perched on the rim to aid in my snacking--the chopsticks preventing my keyboard from getting oily. My left leg is propped up--I just twisted my ankle not more than a few hours ago, and Carol says a little internet productivity will keep me from concentrating on my injury and feeling sorry for myself. We'll see about that...

It's been ages (almost 3 months) since the last installment of lainspotting, and 2 months since I've updated my website at all. As you may have figured out by now, I just got married, which is truly a great and happy thing. Unfortunately, getting married requires much planning and hard work, which cuts down on free internet time, resulting in the lack of TEL updates these last few months. My email backlog has also become nearly unbearable, but I'm working on it as best I can. Rest assured that I've read your email and appreciate all your encouraging words, comments, and criticism. I will respond as soon as I can. Please note that I am still busy, however, as I am starting a new year of school (and a new household). Nonetheless, I fully intend to keep my site up and running as smoothly as possible even if I don't update regularly. My job will be made much easier if you email me with any dead links that you encounter.

Lain Merchandise Update

In the last installment of lainspotting, I mentioned that the new Lain dolls by Toynami would be released at the end of June and end of July (for the schoolgirl Lain and bear pajama Lain dolls, respectively). It looks like the dolls have been delayed and the new release dates are 7/30/02 and 8/30/02. That means that the schoolgirl Lain doll is already on sale. They don't seem widely available yet, but keep your eyes open!

A brief appearance AX2002 and AXNY

Amidst the chaos that is preparing for a wedding, I was still able to attend Anime Expo this year with Carol and James (my best-man-to-be). It was a very average convention overall, but I very much enjoyed co-hosting the "Academic Study of Anime, Manga, and Fandom" panel with Sean Leonard on the first day of the con. I was recruited to be a panelist at the last minute when it was determined that the original intended host of the panel wouldn't be showing up. One reason I was asked to help out is the fact that I recently started up a new group for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a community of anime and manga scholars. You can visit the official Anime and Manga Research Circle page for more information.

I will be attending AXNY this year as well, and I just arranged to be on that con's "Academic Study of Anime, Manga and Fandom" panel with Mikhail Koulikov (the webmaster of The Anime/Manga Web Essays Archive) who organized it. Come and chat with us! As of now, we're scheduled to be in Live Programming 3 (Hudson & Empire, 7th Floor) from 11AM to noon. Check AXNY's live-programming schedule every once in awhile to make sure the time and place don't change.

Find me after the panel, and we can talk about lain, too. ^_^

...and my foot feels better already.