I am a viking.

For Valentine’s Day, my lovely Laura gave me something I’ve always wanted - a Nohohon Zoku. Nohohon Zoku (which literally means “carefree clan”) are adorable little round-headed things with contagious smiles and heads that nod gently back and forth, completely void of any worry or stress. My Nohohon Zoku is a pale orange “Carrot Type” from the “Vegetable Seven” line; he sits on my desk at work and I find him pleasantly hypnotic and irresistibly cheerful. He brightens even the gloomiest and most boring of wintry workdays. He’s like a bouncy little rocksteady beat in paperweight form.

In fact, my Nohohon Zoku has been such a positive influence on my daily life that it has inspired a new cartoon. The words in the following strip were copied almost verbatim from text messages I sent to Laura last week, and I rendered the art in the style of America’s most beloved and neurotic cartoonist (besides me.)

He has tiny little New Balances!