Thursday, April 7, 2011

Friendship Friday: Super Happy Awesome Fun Time

This is the first post in a new series that I've decided to start writing. If you're a Twitter user, you may have seen the hash tag #FF floating around on Fridays, along with what seems like a tweetful of spam. The #FF stands for "Follow Friday" and is a trend that entails choosing a bunch of your friends and/or followers and tweeting their names in the hope that some of your other followers may start following them. I think it's a nice gesture but ultimately a little too spammy for me.

But in the spirit of #FF, I'd like to begin highlighting blogs or websites that I enjoy reading. They may or may not actually be friends to me or JADJ, but they are, in my opinion, deserving of some additional attention. Not all of these blogs will come from my blogroll, as that mysterious amalgamation of links doesn't 100% reflect my like or dislike of a site; there are other top secret criteria that are applied during the consideration process. 

Our inaugural FF features a relative newcomer to the Japanese blogosphere; one that I've been following for a little while now and have enjoyed reading: Supper Happy Awesome Fun Time.



What?

Supper Happy Awesome Fun Time is a blog run by former presidents of Otakorp Alice (who is a fellow JET) and Sean. Its stated goal is to "explore all the cool/crazy/awesome there is to see and do here in Japan!"

Why I like it

It's the only website I know that can be acronym-ized as "SHAFT." One of these days I have to ask if that was intentional.

SHAFT has a nice blend of tales from daily life, pictures, thoughts about interesting products, and tips about Japanese language and culture. The blog is still a little young (as of this posting SHAFT has been around for about 4 months and change) so it doesn't yet have an overabundance of content, but I've enjoyed reading Sean and Alice's content and can honestly say that I look forward to Super Happy updates. A good sense of humor goes a long way.

Additionally, though I haven't interacted with Sean much to my knowledge, Alice is very friendly both on Twitter and in comments, so I encourage you to engage her if you see a post or tweet that strikes you. 

So if you have a few minutes, I recommend clicking over and checking them out. 
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8 comments:

  1. Joe4theRecordApril 7, 2011 at 7:51 PM

    (I want to preface this comment by saying that even though I occasionally write articles for JADIJ I didn't know about this new Friendship Friday segment before seeing it here right now. Saying that...)

    I think this is an awesome idea, Paul. I'll definitely check out this blog and the other one's you recommend. I'm always looking for new J-blogs.

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  2. KaoriApril 7, 2011 at 8:41 PM

    Ooh, great idea. And I love Alice's blog! Her photos are gorgeous and she has a great sense of humor :-D

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  3. Caroline JosephineApril 7, 2011 at 8:43 PM

    I always feel like FF is a way to just show off your 'cool' followers or to try and get 'cool' twitter peeps to follow you back (if they don't but you follow them) at least that's how it looks from those who do it on mine~ but I do like it when ppl have a theme~ like Alice often does 'Japan bloggers' and I once did 'people not leaving Japan'.

    This is a good idea! And way less spammy. :D

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  4. Joe4theRecordApril 7, 2011 at 9:24 PM

    Caroline,

    I agree. I never check out those #FF tagged ones for that reason. Just listing 20 people doesn't really inspire me to check any of them out.

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  5. ChrisApril 7, 2011 at 9:42 PM

    I think the FF thing is ridiculous because instead of commenting on the sites they are promoting...they just click retweet or something. How many twitter followers do you have? How many regularly grace your site with their comment?

    I think highlighting sites you read and comment on is a great idea though.

    Good job!!

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  6. Blue ShoeApril 7, 2011 at 10:36 PM

    Thanks for the comments, guys.

    Joe - Yeah, I would have mentioned it to you, but it was kind of a spur of the moment idea. There are some good blogs on the sidebar, too - can look at those and see if you like any.

    Kaori - I agree!

    CJ - Like I said, I do appreciate the sentiment whenever I get tagged in one of those. But I myself rarely ever pay any attention to them, same as Joe. Some people do weekly roundups or similar on their blogs, which I like, but decided I'd do something a little different.

    Chris - Thanks! I think a lot of my followers are just spammers or people who I've followed and just auto follow back.

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  7. Caroline JosephineApril 8, 2011 at 8:47 AM

    Yeah if ppl FF me then I usually RT it just to show that I saw and as a 'thanks' and to pass it along a bit... but I rarely check the other people listed, nor do I make my own. Sometimes making a themed one is fun... but every week just because... no thanks.

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  8. Blue ShoeApril 10, 2011 at 9:46 AM

    That's true - if I see a themed #FF-type post I'll sometimes check out the names.

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