I stopped into the hotel bar for a beer. There were no convention people there. They're not big on drinking.

I sat next to a man who noticed my FLCL eyebrows and asked if I was with the convention. I told him I was. He thought it was good to have a hobby. I asked his story.

He explained that he was 30 years old and had been with the Navy for 10 years. He had been a pharmacist's mate and had just returned home to Austin.

He wanted to study to be an emergency pharmacist as he liked pharmacy, but found it a little boring. An emergency pharmacist works behind the staff in the Emergency Room, dispensing lifesaving pharmaceuticals. In the meantime, he was living with his parents and adjusting to civilian life.

His 13 year old brother had wanted to attend A-Kon 15 but it was far away in Dallas and he was too young to go all that way for a weekend on his own.

So his brother volunteered to drive him up to Dallas, get them a hotel room, and keep an eye on him.

He would go on a little road trip, get to know his little brother (quite an age difference!), and Dad was picking up the bill.

LittleBro (costumed as Naruto) could go off and do whatever (he liked games) while BigBro could mellow out, have a few brews, and call LittleBro on his cell every couple of hours to check up on him.

I assured him that this was a pretty good bunch of kids and that I thought it unlikely that his brother would get into any trouble.

He was ideally situated in the bar with a great view of the elevator lineup. There was some problem with the hotel elevators so that conventioneers with rooms in that tower had to line up and wait for an elevator. This allowed my new friend to sit back and see all the interesting characters parade past him without him having to leave the bar.

I thought that this was a nice man. It was really nice for him to help out his little brother so distant in years and to try to get to know him after being away so long.