Upon seeing me gloating over one of my new Christmas presents and fretting that I might not be able to get it out of the box without ripping said box in two, my father informed me that I was "sad." I'll show you what I got, and you be the judge.

Okay, you guys can stop laughing at me now. I blame my littlest brother for this - he's the one who got me interested in the Nickelodeon cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender. This angry-looking young man is Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation. He has been exiled by his father, Fire Lord Ozai, and the only way Zuko can return to his country and restore his honor is to capture the Avatar alive and bring him to his father. Since the Avatar is also the only one who can save the world from the Fire Nation, this makes Zuko the bad guy. An angsty, inner-conflict-wracked, might-turn-good-next-season-maybe-please-God bad guy, but a bad guy nonetheless.

And when you push the button on his belt, he rants and raves about how he's going to capture the Avatar or else. As a bonus, the detachable plastic "flame" at the end of his hand lights up and makes exploding sounds.

Zuko has found a happy home (well, as close as he'll probably ever get to one) on the shelf next to Kenshin, another animated character who is also well acquainted with pain and suffering - as in, they play golf together once a month and he's on their Christmas card list - and who also bears an aesthetically-positioned facial scar. (For anyone reading this who is on similar wavelengths of dorkdom, this is Kenshin from the beginning of the first set of OVAs, so he only has the one scar, as opposed to the cross-shaped scar we've all come to know and love in the series and the rest of the OVAs). Anyway, my unofficial collection of emotionally unstable characters who are *this close* to having a meltdown grows.

Might I mention, this gift was from my father, who has always been far too willing to fuel his daughter's dorky habits. This is also the man who brought the stuffed bear down from the attic (not stuffed as in cuddly, but stuffed as in taxidermy) and allowed us to put a Santa hat on "Deddy" (dead + teddy = deddy. Don't think I'm too clever - Voltaire did it first, although he spelled it differently), so I tend to take his opinion with a grain of salt.

He and Mom also gave me a T-shirt that says "Careful, or you'll end up in my novel." It would've been more appropriate if it had said "blog" or "column" (I also write The Week in Preview, for those of you who might not have made that connection), as they've made several appearances in those already. They haven't shown up in the novel much yet, at least not in obvious ways.

And guess what else I got?

Okay, not this exactly, which is probably for the best. The song is "Like A Cowboy" by my favorite struggling musician. After watching this clip, I can understand why cowboys are a dying breed. I also wonder how many Fraggles had to die to make that fringe. I love you anyway, though, Kinya. Ride the wind you sing so passionately of.

I did, however, end up getting his new CD from my software-engineer-in-the-making brother. Excellent pop/rock with the addictive (though not as synthesizer-driven) hooks I fell in love with all those years ago. I would recommend it, as long as you don't mind spending about $30 on a CD. Darn Japanese prices. And in case anyone's curious, I can read all the track titles except #5, which I might be able to piece together with a dictionary. See? Being a dork has educational value.

So, um, what did you guys get for Christmas?