Welcome to the homepage of Konrad Mitchell Lawson. See my weblog at Muninn.net for more frequent updates and pictures.

June 2nd, 2005 - I recently completed my first year in the PhD and am now in Seoul for Korean language until mid-August after which I'll be back in Stavanger for a few weeks before my second year of the PhD begins in September.

September 10th, 2004 - I have completed my two years in Japan on the Ministry of Education research scholarship and have moved to the United States to begin a PhD program in history. My contact information has been updated. I keep a more detailed record of my adventures on my blog.

February 10th, 2003 - I think I will be making fewer updates to this page and later this year will begin gradually shifting the pictures and pages to Muninn.net. Konrad.lawson.net is an expensive arrangement with very little space (5 MB). While I will keep the page for another five years, when everything is moved, this web address will merely forward people to Muninn.

January 19th, 2003 - The new year is here and I am continuing my research in Japan as well as some of my other projects. I am continuing work on the OWLS software project working with instructors in language departments at Columbia University and a server I manage for them so that they will be able to use the software in their classes. My hope that this open source software will spread to other schools and perhaps attract the interest of other developers who wish to improve on what I have started. I am going to be eventually shifting focus to a new project called Open Introductions.

I have moved to a new home in Kichijoji. It is a small cottage in the garden of my landlady. You can read more about this unusual place and see pictures here.

Finally, I have set up my own Blog site (web log) using PostNuke over at my site Muninn.net. There is a possibility that over the next few years I will be transferring all the content of this site (which is expensive and very limited in size) over there. In the meantime, Muninn.net will be where I record things in my blog and test various technologies. Please feel free to post comments, news, stories, and otherwise participate in the site.

October 13th, 2002 - A week has passed since I arrived in Japan but I still lack either normal internet access or a phone in my room. Until the beginning of next month, my connection to the world is through internet shops and my new cellphone. I have begun auditing some classes at Waseda and University of Tokyo, and settling into a year and a half of reading and research here in Japan. I have updated my contact page.

July 29th, 2002 - I graduated in May with my Masters of International Affairs from Columbia University and have been spending a quiet but very hot summer in New York working at my old part time job at the university as well as doing a few web related projects. I have been developing web sites for the non-profit consultancy DJM & Associates, a large Sutaitai.com, and added a Pinyin to Unicode convertor over at the Fool's Workshop. My girlfriend Sayaka, also a SIPA student, has been learning web pages and Chinese language during the summer. Check out her new site at SecurityGirl.net.

February 16th, 2002 - I have been selected for a Japanese Ministry of Education research scholarship beginning in October of this year. I'll be at Waseda University, Tokyo doing several projects on Sino-Japanese relations until spring of 2004. I am now finishing my final semester at Columbia, and plan to graduate in May. Christmas break was wonderful, spending both time with my family and hiking in the mountains of southern Chile. I have posted lots of pictures from our trip.

July 1st, 2001 - The hot and sticky New York summer is here and I will attempt to stick it out with nothing more than a fan to cool me. I have moved into a new apartment (contact page is updated) in Barnard College housing just across the street from the entrance of the university. Starting in the fall, I will be working at Barnard part time as a GA. During the summer break I am working at two internships. I do some political asylum work at a small law firm in Chinatown on Tuesdays and spend the rest of the week at DMIND, where I do various work, usually with their Japanese projects and their Japanese partners.

April 17th, 2001 - It is nearing the end of my first year at graduate school. I'll be in New York in the summer. This week I released a new software program, Fool's Lexicon, a little Chinese and Japanese dictionary client for Macintosh and is, along with all my programming projects now, free of charge. It will also apparently be included on an upcoming software CDROM with the magazine MacAddict.

December 23rd, 2000 - My first semester of graduate school wrapped up yesterday. Overall it was a wonderful experience and I look forward to a number of interesting courses I want to take in the spring. Tomorrow I shall leave New York to visit my parents but I will be back in mid-January. I look forward to a few relaxing weeks of reading, movies, programming, and family fun. I wish all my friends a fantastic holiday season and a Happy New Year.

November 2nd, 2000 - I survived most of my mid-terms and now the last stretch of the semester begins as preparing research papers becomes the focus. I recently took over maintaining the web pages for Joshua Fogel's Sino-Japanese Studies journal, and have made a little progress on my ChinaJapan.org project. I'm now hunting madly for an internship for the summer, I really want to go back to Japan if I can.

October 14th, 2000 - School is keeping me very busy but I'm enjoying my life at graduate school so far. In addition to my five classes, I also now work 20 hours a week together with one other colleague for Columbia's new Faculty Desktop Support. I have also recently founded an inter-disciplinary student group called the Science & Technology Network which is just starting up. Finally, you can see some pictures of where I live and study.

August 28th, 2000 - I have moved to New York and just began orientation today for the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. I have decided on dual concentrations in Science and Technology Policy and East Asian Studies. I'm very excited to be here and have already met a great many interesting people. Contact information has been updated. I have also released a new version of my flaschard software, and redone my foolsworkshop.com site.

July 14th, 2000 - Added the skeleton of the People page, no pictures yet. I have also made The Concessions home page to mark the travels of a group of friends through Ireland and later Norway in the summer of 1996. Pictures to come later, for now, quotes and a general description of our adventures.

April 10th, 2000 - Added the Links and Interests pages. I got into Columbia University's SIPA (School of International and Public Affairs) for their MIA program (Masters of International Affairs). I will be moving to New York at the end of the summer to attend the two year program. I was not accepted to Columbia's law program but will consider applying again while at or after SIPA.

April 5th, 2000 - Added the Project and History pages.

April 3th, 2000 - Added the Resumé and Contact pages.

March 29th, 2000 - Only the index page is up and running, see the olddefault.htm file to view the old pages.