Deb Aoki's Bento Box

It's summer concert season again, which reminds me of my years of going to shows and seeing only half the show...

For whatever reason, I'm just not all that into Thanksgiving this year. Don't get me wrong, I like turkey just as much as the next person. But sometimes, I just don't feel up to dealing with stuff like this...

Wow, do i suck at this blogging stuff or what! So, so sorry all for not updating this for like, oh, over two months? What can i say -- after burning man, and a few very distracting trips and trying madly to keep up w/ my manga site for about.com (manga.about.com),  I got totally out of the rhythm of posting regularly.

So now, for your reading pleasure, a whole mess of strips that I neglected to put up since then. First up, one from two weeks ago about those "decorator homes" you see in magazines.

I've had a life-long struggle with omiyage neurosis. Did I buy enough presents for everyone? Did I buy too little? Did I forget anyone? Is it going to fit in my luggage? I've made some progress over the years, but man... I kind of envy mainland people -- they can just go on a trip and just enjoy themselves without omiyage neurosis!

Here's part two of my San Diego Comic-Con adventures -- this time about my time in line at the Hot Wheels booth to buy a limited edition batmobile for my friend Goopy. And yes, it was just me and a whole lot of 40-something and 50-something year old men. Go figure!

Got back a week or so ago from Comic-Con 2007 in San Diego. Woo-hah! Mardi Gras for Geeks, y'all! Lots o' folks in costumes, huge crowds and people going kooky for freebies or limited edition stuff. If you haven't already checked it out, do visit my Comic-Con 2007 Photo Gallery on my manga site at About.com.

I was going to call it "Burning Man for Geeks" -- but I figured the folks back in Hawaii wouldn't get it. Burning Man is such a Bay Area cliche, oops, I mean institution, one tends to forget that the whole world doesn't revolve around the mayhem that happens in the Nevada desert on Labor Day weekend...

Ah, I got caught up in the Harry Potter hype and bought the latest and last book in the series when it came out a few weeks ago. Trouble is, I've been so crazy-ass busy with work, freelance projects and my manga site for About.com, I haven't had the time to even crack it open!

So whatever you do, if you've read the book, DON'T TELL ME HOW IT ENDS! PLEASE!

There are good days to go shopping, and then there are what I call "bad jeans days." Nothing like a pair of skinny jeans to make me feel like Jabba the Hut...

Ah, here's part two of my Chicago trip comics -- about my encounter with Chicago style pizza!


Being from Hawaii, the words "just for tourists" brings up images of tacky luaus, the Polynesian Cultural Center and buying an oyster with a pearl, so I almost didn't try it, but well, pizza and me, we go way back, so I hadda try it.

Giordano's stuffed pizza did not disappoint -- it was cheesy and tasty, even if it did take a while to get to me. But to show you how far I've come as a mainlander, I managed to squash my "Hawaii-omiyage" impulses to buy a pizza to take back with me to the Bay Area.