Japan: Days 2 and 3
Here’s my second set of photos from days 2 and 3 of my trip. During this time I visited Yoyogi Park, Meiji Jingu temple, Harajuku, Shibuya and Akihabara.
Japan: Day One
Here are some photos from day one of my Japan trip. There are captions under most of them with descriptions.
More photos and updates to come!
Video Distortion Art
While at work, I was testing a MacBook that took a liquid spill. As part of testing we sometimes warm up the machine by running the iTunes visualizer. These images are screen captures of what the visualizer looked like with some light distortion as a result of the failing logic board. Who knew? Computer + water = art.
Fruits of My Labor
Last night, I popped open a beer and posted a Facebook update reading: Jowy Romano is celebrating. I have been working on a project called “The Subway Art Blog” for several months now, during my free time. Up until yesterday, the only real traffic I got was from posting links to the site on Facebook for my friends to see. Over the past week the site has received an average of about 20-30 visitors a day. Yesterday though, the number of unique visitors jumped to 840! So, what happened that got the site so many hits? Reddit happened.
Reddit is a social news website which allows users to post links that other users can vote up or down to make the link appear higher on the site. I posted The Subway Art Blog on the “Pics” section of the site. It received several up votes and over the span of about 12 hours, the attention of 800+ people.
I can’t describe the excitement I felt after I looked at the statistics last night. I got the idea for the site about six months ago while snapping some random funny photos on the subway and I created the design shortly after. It was just recently though, that I started posting content consistently. I’ve put a lot of time into it and have been patiently waiting for my chance to gain a readership. The bump in traffic has reassured my belief that the site has enormous potential. Seeing my idea come to fruition has been amazing. I can’t wait to see the next step in my plan materialize.
Craigslist vs Facebook
On February 20th, I found out that one of the rooms in my apartment was going to become vacant at the end of the month. With little more than a week’s notice, I scrambled to post a listing on Craigslist and I also cross-posted the link to my Facebook profile (along with a status update on the matter).
About a week has passed and I’ve been shocked by the number of responses to the ad. I was surprised to discover that I did not receive a single response from Craigslist. On the other hand, the one response I did get was off of Facebook. The results have left me weighing the usefulness of the two sites.
If you asked me a week ago, I would have said Craigslist would be considerably more useful for filling my vacant room. Now, though, I realize the beauty of Facebook for the same task. Not only can I post a public classified ad, I can also post status updates and links to the 900+ family members, friends, acquaintances and colleagues on my friend list. So not only do I have a great number of people to read my ad, they are all people I know! By the way, the person who responded and who is now officially taking the room is a friend from college, George Agathos.
Some people have poo-pooed me in the past for having so many people on my Facebook friends list. What’s the point if I don’t keep in touch with all of them? I had a tough time responding to that question until now. This is exactly the reason. It’s not that every single person on my list is a close friend. I am essentially building a directory of hundreds of old friends and all the people I’ve met since I joined the site in 2003. With the ever-expanding boundaries of Facebook there will be more and more applications for my directory in the future.
Jowimation
I have put countless hours and much more money than I am likely to make back into my Pokémon news website, The Pallet Tribune and its corresponding podcast, WTPT. Yet I feel very strongly that it is worth the investment of my time and money. Whether it is a short e-mail from a listener expressing his or her gratitude, a small gift shipped overseas, or even the fact that someone would take an hour out of his or her week to listen to what I have to say, there are so many little quirks that make podcasting and blogging really rewarding.
Equally as astounding is the diverse mass of talent we have in our group of about 500 people who are active on the site and regularly listen to the podcast. We have programmers, musicians, videographers and even professional graphic artists who continuously lend their talents to make the site and its community greater.
This time around, though, I will discuss one such talented individual: animator Kyle Carrozza or “TVsKyle” on the Pallet Tribune forums. Kyle lives in Los Angeles, where he has created an animated short for Nickelodeon called MooBeard the Cowpirate and works as a story board artist for Danger Rangers. At the forums, Kyle posts Pokémon fan art and other fun stuff, such as this illustration of yours truly.
As long as someone appreciates what we are doing with this fan site, I will do my best to keep it alive. The internet—and, more importantly, the people on it—never cease to amaze me.
