As part of my efforts to make sure I have a life while in grad school, I started looking for JET Programme alum contacts in Pittsburgh around the time I moved here last year. After some online correspondences where we started talking about reinstating the long-dormant JET Alumni Association sub-chapter in Pittsburgh (“sub-chapter,” not “chapter,” because it falls under the NYC chapter, which spans New York and Pennsylvania), several of us finally met at an information session for the JET Programme hosted by the University of Pittsburgh. It was there that we started talking about finally making this thing official.

So four of us appointed ourselves officers (I’m vice president and eventual webmaster, but these titles are really formalities), and met over dinner late last year to start discussing possible plans for stuff…and then we got really, really busy.

But finally we threw together a basic icebreaker event at a local cafe and notified the ~20 JET alums we’d tracked down around Pittsburgh. In total, including 3 officers, 7 alums and a few spouses/fiances (representing Hokkaido, Honshu [Tohoku, Kanto, Chugoku, and Kansai], and Shikoku) came out tonight. It was a huge success – I think everyone had a pretty good time, and we’re now looking forward to enjoying the beautiful nature under the sakura trees with a hanami (a cherry-blossom-time picnic) and potluck in a couple of weeks. ;)

JETAA Pittsburgh is officially off the ground, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.

Spring break is here! It’s not super-relaxing, but it’s nice to not have stressful deliverables hanging over my head, for once. I still haven’t gotten to actually see any of the “touristy” stuff around Pittsburgh, but getting out and enjoying the warm(er) weather and wandering a bit around Oakland and Shadyside has been really nice. I’ve walked around 7 miles in the last 2 days–not a ton, but it’s more than I’ve done in a long time (though I probably balanced it out with that chai from Caribou and that amazing ice cream from Oh Yeah!…). If not for a meeting I have with my new thesis advisor this afternoon, I would definitely make it out to the Mattress Factory or the Carnegie Museum of Natural History or something.

What actually prompted me to post something in here, though, was the Gchat status message of my friend Shuby:

Yelp took my review away! Weirdos.

I’d heard a fair amount about the controversy surrounding Yelp already, both the original East Bay Express story and the more recent allegations of extortion. I used to be a really big fan of theirs–the idea of an online review feature with vetting and such a generally positive vibe really appealed to me–but after this recent news, I scaled back heavily and just sort of “hovered,” but didn’t use them so actively anymore.

But talking to Shuby revealed that a negative review of hers had been pulled; it was still visible on her profile, but no longer visible publicly. That was the final straw for me, and I e-mailed Yelp to have them delete my account, with an explanation of why. It’s one thing when there are these faraway allegations with some random website you aren’t extremely invested in that occur with people you have no relation to, and it’s easy (or easier) to brush them off. When it happens to a friend, though, that’s something else.

Anyway, in other news, let’s see…

Like I mentioned, I do have a thesis advisor for next year–yay! He’s the professor who taught our Design Studio last semester, and we’ve struck up this great rapport and had some good conversations about our similar international experiences (he grew up in the Philippines and is very well-traveled, and like me, he doesn’t identify with being completely American or completely from the country of his birth). I also have a secondary advisor–my fantastic Global Communication professor (who’s from Romania), and I’m considering assembling a “committee”-of-sorts, involving relevant HCI and Psychology faculty. Most importantly, though, I do have a tentative thesis topic in mind: developing a resource to assist JET Programme participants upon the completion of their time in Japan, and particularly addressing reverse culture shock, as well as other more administrative things (like pension refunds and the like).

I like the topic, but I feel guilty for going back to “the Japan thing” yet again. I’m sure I’ve driven my housemates and all my classmates–not to mention all my friends back home–crazy with how often I still bring it up, over two years after the fact, but I guess it’s a real case of “you can take the ALT out of Japan, but…” with me. I was fortunate enough to have a great experience that has impacted and changed me…however, the return process was rough, and very difficult at times. Reverse culture shock did really impact me for a solid year after coming back, in small and big ways–and I’m far from the only one. I’m also not the only one who felt unprepared for what Life After Japan would be like.

Anyway, I’m meeting my advisor this afternoon to just touch base and see where to go from here. I may also broach the subject of focusing on something similar but not Japan-related–I was thinking of doing something to help international Indian students when they arrive in the US, but my Global Comm professor advised me against it because she said I, as an Indian, would be “too close” to the subject matter and may not be able to be purely objective. (She only found out 5 minutes later, though, that I’ve only been back to India twice, my first time being when I was 18.)

I’ve also been doing some web work, but not the “for fun” kind…though I find the challenge of constructing a site in standards-compliant XHTML and CSS to always be fun, so it’s rarely “not fun.” I’m redesigning the blog/website of my studio group, and as part of my assistantship, I’m helping to architect and build a site with information about some of the technical resources the School of Design has, and I’m also helping to develop a guide with information for incoming grad students that can be a reference for current students. That should be pretty cool–hopefully it’ll come to fruition by the end of this term, but if not, I volunteered to help out over the summer (wherever I’ll be…). Maybe eventually I’ll find the time to finish implementing the redesign of my website, too (and moving it over to the new web space I purchased last week for much cheaper than my current host)…

Anyway, time to get my day going–meetings, wandering around, and packing! I’m off to Atlanta tomorrow for just a couple of days, to run errands, see family and friends, and pick up my car. Hope you all enjoy the rest of your week!

A preview…

A resized version of the original, to give you an idea:

The story behind the process is behind the jump.

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Brand New recently covered the newly redesigned logo for the Sendai Astronomical Observatory in Sendai, the capitol of Miyagi Prefecture and one of the major cities of northeastern, Japan. It’s rare that a brand campaign makes me sit up in my seat and blurt, “Gorgeous!” but this one did, in its simplicity and the brilliance of its execution, in how gracefully it handled the bilingual depiction of the name (nice, sleek typeface for the kanji, too!), and in drawing out “hidden” astronomical imagery from everyday items. The rendition of a gas giant and its rings in the curve of a cup and saucer is deliciously wonderful.