ahhh it has been a little bit, but I wanted to make sure that this didn’t die towards the end of the semester since I’m working on the paper/presentation, ironing out details, adding things, refining ideas and topics, etc. basically the thesis is on my mind everyday but frankly I’m really excited about and I really want to make it big and wonderful. oh man a project I care about….this is scary.

ok…what was I going to write…

yes yes~! my thesis…I’ve gotten to the general core of my thesis. learning about Japanese culture through and by the interviewing and interaction with people who live the culture and those who subscribe to it. This will be done through interviews(paper, audio, video and photo) and an artifact collection (indexed, collected and analyzed, not just gathered). But to do this I’m going to need to push push push this project.

in terms of online content there will be three main sections of the website.

• >thesis core (what I like to call it) includes all documentation for interviews and artifact collection, along with FAQ, goals, progress(through blog link), funding(through donation link), and contact. Basically the intermediary between myself and the rest of the world. I do not think there will be member sign ups, but there will be some php interactivity.
• >Blog - the update/information center. while the thesis has the project parts, the blog will have the progress and collection statistics. along with photos of progress and data collection. a direct way for people to stay involved and updated and to correct me when I fall. Plus it serves as the blog portion for many of the social networking sites I will sign up for to promote the site.
• >”send me to japan” / donations page - this part is focused on getting funding for the project. starting as a separate project so that I can push this by itself to possibly gather a reader/fan base for helping to send me to Japan for a week to collect interviews and artifacts for many of the Japanese people that I will hopefully meet and have help me out, since this is their culture that I’m ‘invading.’

each of these need names mainly, I think the name has a big part in all of this and I want choose it carefully. while I’ve used words such as genuine, authentic and spirit often in my copy for the project, I don’t feel that they are representative enough of the goal of the work. Plus I will need to create the visual language of the sites/paperwork that continues with the documentation/interview feel. Something solid, a little scientific but friendly and well designed. Sans-serif types and small flourishes here and there.

as for self-promotion I’m going to list my sites on as many places as I think are related in some way to art/culture and Japan. As a short list if you will, of social networking sites and blogs that I plan to contact in my endeavor. And if I can get these people to post on their sites, as a favor to me, I need to find a way to thank them. I’ve decided that not only will there be recognition on the site and a hard copy inclusion in the exhibition but I think that if at ALL possible I will have some sort of thank you mailer, possibly from Japan if at all possible, but that will require money, around ~300 yen a piece and so I think that will be for people donating more than 10~15 dollars so i can afford it and it doesn’t drive me in the hole with 100 donations of 1 dollar for a post card. anyway…the list.

SOCIAL NETWORKING

• facebook profile/group
• myspace
• asoboo
• vimeo (maybe)
• mixi profile
• piqniq.jp (possibly)
• bebo
• del.icio.us (link farm to the thesis site and donations)
• experience project (maybe, this seems a little off base)
• friendster (worth it anymore?)
• gaia online (directs to a community of people I don’t really want to target, but they are a part)
• 43things.org
• rhizome.org
• twitter
• vox
• WAYN
• yippi.com

haha, I could link all of those…silly google SEO practices. But the thesis network would be good practice on SEO…haha this thesis is involved.

BLOGS

• jeansnow.net (i love this one)
• pink tentacle (it isn’t what you think O.o)
• tokyo mango
• notcot.org
• mauerpower.net
• tofugu.com
• daily J
• alljapaneseallthetime.com
• keepingpeaceinjapan.com
• stippy.com
• jp.blognation.com
• japanprobe.com
• dannychoo.com
• kirainet.com/english
• whatjapanthinks.com
• mboogiedown-japan.blogspot.com
• aichi-alex.blogspot.com
• tokyojosh.blogspot.com
• gaijinpot.com

and there they are. of course this list will expand like a balloon when I get started, but it was just what I could conjure up tonight in a couple of hours. I started getting into the blogspot personal sites, but if I can hit as many peopl as possible that adds the chance of participation in anyway they can.

Now is the time I need to work on my presentation, its mainly done, and more for adding images and diagrams so that I can give an idea of what I’m doing to the committee on this Thursday. Time to work some more!

my mac is getting slow…firefox seems to take some time processing keystrokes and mouse clicks, and ideas? I’m only using 1/3 of my vmemory at the moment. boo. time for a new one? maybe so.