The Manifesto

By the time I got done doing everything else I needed to do today, I only had time to do one interview. Also, way too much caffeine! I started interviews in Athens, Ohio. Interviewed a nice kid at The Pigskin, very great answers from him, couldn’t have asked for more. I can already tell how big of an issue this is for college students. Since I finally have everything I need, I can continue interviews tomorrow.

Picking up my business cards tomorrow, can’t wait! They are going to look so good! I decided to have 500 printed, in case I make this a larger scale project than I first imagined. Some interviewees will not be receiving a business card, such as College Staff and Police Officers, for example. I’m willing to put several months or a whole year into this. This isn’t a small project to me, it’s so much more. I want to see some big results come out of this, results that are certainly needed.

After all of the trouble getting this site to work, I am ready to go! My web hosting account was on an old inactive server on Dreamhost. They had to move everything, so it is fine now. The only other things I need to work on tonight are the business cards and getting my netbook ready to go. It’s already pretty late, and I have somewhere to be tomorrow before I start doing interviews. Going to try getting everything done as soon as I can tonight. I don’t want to be too tired to start interviews tomorrow!

Going to do some relaxing stuff for a little bit then get more work finished. I’ve worked on the site over four hours today, so I need a little break!

Aggravation!  Having some problems with my web host (Dreamhost) over the last couple of days.  I originally started with them in 2005, but eventually had to stop due to not having any money.  But now that I have some money, and am really getting back into writing, I just re-opened my account with them.

Had a problem adding the domain I am using for The Manifesto last night.  Then tonight, I can’t get WordPress to install (with their One-click installer)!  I’m going to wait a bit to see if they can resolve this issue within the next few hours.  If not, I will attempt to install WordPress by hand.  That is something that I haven’t done in the last several years, so I’d have to get the hang of that again.  I may not be able to even do it that way if there is some bigger issue!  I am on the same hosting server as I had in 2005, so I mentioned to them that perhaps that is the problem.  I’m not sure if they still much use that server or if it just has issues.

As I said in my last post, I already added the nameservers to the domain I bought through NameCheap dot com.  That dns should be propagated by the end of tonight, if it isn’t already.  After I am able to install WordPress, I just need to put The Manifesto on there, or perhaps a few more little things along with it.  I haven’t put too much thought into the website yet, but I am good at flying by the seat of my pants on most things.

Other than the website, I need to work on my business cards.  I’ve been either writing or taking a break, so I haven’t had time to find anywhere to get my business cards made.  Since my town is a piece of shit, I would have to go at least 20 miles one direction to find somewhere to do it.  I bought some white poster board with a grid on it the last time I went to Walmart.  I am going to use that to make the business cards for now.  It’s handy that it has a grid on it since I can’t cut straight worth a damn.

I would also like to buy a new briefcase, since my old one is a little fucked up and is full of junk.  The local Walmart didn’t have any, since it is also a piece of shit, so I have to go to one of the Walmarts that are 20 miles from here.  I don’t feel like trying to pack a whole bunch of shit into my netbook case, so the new briefcase would be very convenient for me.

Also, I need to get all of the files prepped and ready to be used on my netbook.  My computer is running Windows 7 Ultimate and my netbook is running Linux Mint.  I have Dropbox on both of them though, so it is easy to keep the files synced between them.  I should be able to just open my txt files in Linux Mint with the text editor.  I’ll check on that in a bit to make sure since I’m still somewhat of a Linux noob.  Yes, I do everything with txt files, from writing stuff to html for a site!  I don’t like fancy programs that do such things, I like to keep it basic.

Other than that, the basic stuff I need to do in order to start interviews is done.  I have all interview questions documents done except for the ones for government reps about the Americans with Disabilities Act and reps from the ACLU.  Those people will be a little more hard to find anyway.  I had to get all of the “walking around” interview questions documents done though.  Those are interviews I can do just by walking and driving around.  People who aren’t terribly hard to find.

I still need to do an outline, condensed version, final polished version, public friendly compilation, and other things like that.  I want to have other versions other than the original as it was written, since I will be showing it to various groups of people, depending on what I am wanting to have done.

I still have a lot of work to do, but getting these interviews done is the most important thing right now.  I’m still not sure how many people of each group I want to interview.  One of the Police Officers to interview could be one I know from Athens, known him for several years casually.  The only Politician I have ever really known died several years ago (rest in peace Jeff).  I did casually talk to the Mayor of Athens at a Geocaching even though, so I may go talk to him.  There are many different types of people I want to talk to.  Some that you probably wouldn’t even think about, but I have!

As I was trying to explain in the last paragraph before I got off track, I’m not sure how many people in each group to interview.  I have all of the time in the world to do these interviews, so I can do a very large amount if I want to.  It’s going to take me a while to get the other things done, so while I am working on those at home, I can still be out and about getting interviews.  I want more than a few, for sure.  I want it to be a pretty large sample size, since that will be helpful in what I eventually want to do with this.  The more the better, I guess.  I will have a hard time nailing down an exact number.

I almost want to say 100 of each category, except for the government rep about the ADA and rep from the ACLU.  I only need one of each of those people, as I feel that anyone in those positions will tell me roughly the exact same answers to my questions.  100 of each other category seems a little extreme to me at first, but I really don’t think that it would be overkill.  Hell, for what I want to achieve with this, maybe even a lot more would be helpful!

I want this to be in the national news.  I want to submit this to the courts.  I want this to be a big deal, and with enough work, I know that it will be!  And when it comes to something like that, I don’t believe there can possibly be any kind of overkill when it comes to research.

In addition to getting data through the interviews, it is very important to get the word out on this.  None of the interviewees are really going to be told what this is exactly about.  Well, they will know exactly what this is about, but they won’t know what I am planning to do with their feedback.  I want these people to remember talking to me, so when they see this and myself on the news, they will say “Oh, yeah!  I talked to her!  My interview helped to make this happen!”.  And I always make a lasting impression on everyone, I just need to make sure in this case that it is a good one!

I’m still debating on what to wear for the interviews.  I have the basic shirt and pants picked out for it, but I would prefer to buy a long sleeved jacket to look more business-like.  I do have a multitude of tattoos, and while I am very proud of them, I don’t want the interviewees to be distracted by that or to get the wrong impression.  A lot of people still think that people with tattoos are rough or bad, even in this day and age!  I have a pinstripe jacket, but it wouldn’t go well with the pants I picked out.  I have the original pants to the pinstripe jacket somewhere, but there is no way I would be able to get my ass to fit in it, since the suit is very old.

I will have to deal with that when I go to Gallipolis to buy a few things tomorrow.  I think that I may even have a black jacket somewhere, but I remember it being very loose.  I want it to be form fitted, like my old pinstripe suit was.  Hell, I’ll get another pin stripe suit if I can find one!  I have always loved those for some reason.  They look really good on men and also very nice on women.

An important part of dealing with the public, in this situation, is looking professional and confident.  I’m still going to wear the usual high amount of makeup I usually wear, since it makes me feel a lot more confident about myself.  However, I have already bought neutral tones of eye shadow and lipstick for this project.  Copper colored eye shadow and a neutral brownish color lipstick, to be exact.  Even the little details are important to me in this project, as you can see.

Rawr, still no answer from the website hosting company about the problem I am having, even though this has taken me forever to write.  I guess that I will take a short break and then try to find a way of getting that to work.  I really need that site to be done when I start interviews!  It is very important for the interviewees to see that site, if they decide to look it up, since it will be on my business cards.

Still working on getting The Manifesto stuff done.  I have most of the interview questions documents done.  Working on getting the website set up tonight as well.  It isn’t showing up in the web hosting panel yet.  I believe it said that it would within an hour or so from the time I set up that domain to be hosted with them.  If not, I will have to talk to their live chat and get that figured out.  I also went to the site I have my domain registered with and put the name servers from the hosting company into the information there.

I really need to get that site up by the time I start interviews, which will be tomorrow if possible.  I will use a default WordPress theme on the site, since it isn’t that important what the website looks like.  The message it conveys is the important thing, so it doesn’t need to be all fancy in order to do that.

My sleep schedule is still very fucked up.  I guess that I am just going to have to deal with that since I have stuff that needs to be done during the day.  I have awoken up in the evening before, staying up all night, and then spent most of the next day getting stuff done.  Quite exhausting, but at least I got things done and was able to sleep at a reasonable time when that day was done.

Trying to keep the interview questions for certain types of people down to a minimum, such as Police Officers, Judges, Politicians, and so forth.  Those people do not need to be told the whole story.  Small facets of information they can give me that also relates to The Manifesto is good enough.  One of my other interviews documents, for people on the street, is quite long.  There are several questions, but the longest things in the document are when I explain something and ask their opinion on it.  Was considering shortening those, but decided it was better to keep it the way it is.

Took a break for several days, so I need to get back into getting things done.  Been working on it for around five and a half hours so far tonight.  I’m going to keep working on it, though I may need to do something else for a short bit in order to relax.  It strains me to write in such an intense way, especially since my concentration is always a bit off in the first place.

I will make more updates as I get things done on this.  It really is an interesting process.

I have still been working on The Manifesto and writing documents related to it.  I am almost ready to go out and start the interview phase.  I have written full interview questions for 4 groups out of 10.  I have been working on the most common groups of people to interview first, so I can get out there and start interviewing.  

I will still try to finish the interview question documents for people such as Government reps concerning the Americans with Disabilities Act and Reps from the ACLU.  But if I don’t get those done right away, it is still fine, since those people are going to take more effort to find.  Basically, I am getting the interview documents done that I will be able to just walk around and do interviews for. (Such as College Staff, Students, Students with Disabilities, and Employers so far)

The thing that I have learned so far, is something obvious, but I hadn’t thought about it.  It seems like 70% of getting anything done is comprised of paperwork!  Here is a picture of my documents so far, including the folder in which I will be placing everything once it is done.  Still many documents to go!  I have decided to use my netbook to do interviews, rather than making copies of the different interviews and filling them out by hand.

The special interview for College Staff is pretty innocent sounding for the first several questions, then gets a bit more interesting, and eventually is a full out assault on them if they admit to the atrocities they have committed.  I want them to think that I am simply writing a paper on Adult Education, so they won’t be defensive with me until the end.  Getting as much information as possible, before they get defensive, is the goal.  I am even going to wear clothes that seem more student like when I interview them.

As for the other interviews, I am going to dress in a more professional way, and have a more professional demeanor.  For some groups of people, such as Employers, I am going to make it sound as I am doing personal research.  I don’t want anyone in certain groups to think that I am a journalist doing a story, which is probably what it would sound like if I am not careful.  If they thought that, it would be quite possible for them to shut down on me and refer me to their lawyer, or someone else in their hierarchy that would be a lot harder to contact.

The only group of people I want to sound professional with is Students.  Showing them that I am being their advocate in an important thing to me.  Perhaps the same with my People on the Street interviews.  It is hard to say how those people will react to me, so I will probably have to adjust myself based on the attitudes in which they present to me.

My sleep rotation has been incredibly messed up due to all of the work I have put into this.  Over 31.5 hours so far, starting on 8/11/11 until today.  I took a break on 8/13/11 and 8/14/11, so that means I have worked on this an average of over 10 hours per day.  I hope that I am able to start interviews tomorrow.  I should be able to have the “walking around” interview question documents done by then.  The hard part is going to be switching my sleep schedule back to being normal, which will allow me to do interviews during the daytime.

I have continued my work on The Manifesto today.  In addition to being up all night writing it, and making a list of things that I need to do now, I have spent all day today working on it as well.  My “Manifesto to-do list” is full of people I need to talk to and questions that I need to ask them.  I need to write questionnaires for people who don’t have a lot of time to talk, and full interview topics for those who have plenty of time.  I have so many notepad files that are waiting to be filled.

I will need to type out and make copies of the questionnaire for people to fill out, and either get prepared to take notes by hand, or take my netbook with me.  I really want to start the interviews on Monday, so I have a lot to do this weekend.  Finding the right thing to wear, depending on who I am talking to.  An introduction of myself, depending on who I am talking to.  The only people who need to be kept in the dark about this is the colleges.  I want them to think I am writing a paper on adult education and the education of disabled people.

Here is the list of the type of people I want to interview, taken directly from the “Manifesto to-do list”: College Officials, Government Reps that have extensive knowledge of the “Americans with Disabilities Act”, Reps from the ACLU (even with as much as I normally hate those people), Employers, all different types of Students (including the working and disabled), Minorities, and random people on the streets.  Optional interviews with Police Officers, Prosecuting Attorneys, Judges, Economists, Politicians, and Historians.

Believe it or not, I can actually actually tie all of the above mentioned people into The Manifesto.  Their opinions, and the information they give me, is very vital to what I am trying to accomplish.  Every detail and thought will be chronicled, lending even more validity to The Manifesto.  It really is amazing that a thought or conversation can make people so passionate about a topic.  Making them so driven that they do something they didn’t think they were capable of doing.

I am going to continue my work tomorrow, as I have fully exhausted myself by writing for many continuous hours over the last couple of days.