Well, here we are at Anime St. Louis, which is in Collinsville, IL. There is an enthusiastic crowd of otakus who are demonstrating their mania in part by buying our shirts. The Twilight fad is on the wane...at least until the next movie...but the polarization that we help foment, the dyspepsia the non-Twilight fan feels at the mention of scintilla-laden creatures-of-the-night is helped along by our small efforts: our "Vampires don't sparkle" shirts are still a big hit, along with "Team Alucard".

We are doing well here, as are the other two teams we have out at Anime Detour in MN, and KamiCon in Tuscaloosa, AL. We are set for MTAC in Nashville next weekend.

It is important to Belong. Being the loner can be an unenviable situation, so providing a fellowship of point-of-view is an asset. "He believes like I do." offers a sense of place, and uncomprehending their own motivations, they purchase, or join, or convert.

I am not trying to be cynical. People are motivated to do all that they do by their programming. They can choose alternative programming (see conversion), but normally people do not recognize the why of what they do. They merely do. And I go to the bank!