I like to name my little projects in a similar fashion to military operations. Redesigning my website to make it more accessible was Project Infinite Access, revamping my wardrobe was Project Dashing Devil, and vying for a raise was Project Mo Money. It is with the same spirit of grim determination coupled with all-around jauntiness, that I embark upon Project Internet Famous.

The desire to be loved and respected is a step on everyone's Hierarchy of Needs and hardly unique to my own situation, but this particular manifestation began in earnest just this week. I suppose I should lay out the objectives of Project Internet Famous before I get caught up in the details: there is something amazing going down on the internet, I want to be a part of it and recognized as such. However, in the audacious spirit that the project name implies, I'm doing this (at least so far) exactly backwards. It wasn't until well into the week that I realized maybe I should make some contribution for which to be recognized, instead of cultivating recognition strictly by use of Kato Kaelin voodoo.

Monday, I decided to go to 111 Minna for the WWDC Webloggers Party. If you don't know much about San Francisco, 111 Minna is a hot little art gallery that is constantly hosting elite parties that combine great art, great music, geeks, and copious amounts of alcohol. Seem like the perfect situation to get in there, rub some elbows, and come out smelling like famous. Except I didn't know a goddamn person there. I have no probably meeting new people, but without even a single in, I was overwhelmed and left.

The major tragedy of the situation was that was all set to Dodgeball that I was at 111 Minna, scoring extra cool points. Instead, I walked over to the Sony Metreon and watched Little Miss Sunshine by myself, defeated.

Tuesday, I tried again. I found a cool little coffee shop in my neighborhood complete with free wireless, an indie rock soundtrack, a cute barista with a European accent, and really good vegetarian quiche. Clearly the internet luminaries I was so trying to emulate would totally love this place. I set up the laptop, checked-in with Dodgeball, and waited for the magic to happen. My last blog post, in fact, was written at that time. Mission accomplished. I was officially "blogging at a coffeeshop". I went home and slept the sleep of a winner.

Wednesday, it was time to get a little more ambitious. I had long read about these wonderful Creative Commons Salons. They had, a number of times, made it as far as being added to my calendar but never further. This time I was determined to go. I grabbed my friend Jenny, who had been pre-warned that the night was liable to be extra, extra dorky. Indeed, she didn't seem to get my joke about the address (1337 Mission St.) being Leet for "Leet". Many would consider this high praise for young Jennifer. Again, I knew no one, but started to recognize people from the last time I didn't know anyone. Progress!

It was at this time my cohort suggested we meet up with her friends. She had been a good sport up to this point, so I indulged her. Soon we discovered ourselves watching "40 Days and 40 Nights", drinking wine with Tantek Çelik. Big points to Jenny and her socialite friends! I won't share any specific details about Tantek's awesome apartment, but will mention that, as I was leaving there was much talk about how nice my hat is. Before you cloak yourself in ironic detachment about how little it matters if the creator of the Box Model Hack likes my hat or not, ask yourself this question: Does Tantek like your hat?

It was Thursday before I realized that perhaps I was going about this in the wrong way and that perhaps I should be spending my time trying to "change the game" or see "the big picture" or "move and shake" something. I think I read about how those things are happening a lot. I wrote up a quick schematic for a Web 2.0 website that would help you manage which damn Web 2.0 websites you were on and help you find friends that you had on one site on all of the other sites. It was brilliant! I was certainly cut from the same cloth as Steve Jobs, Jeffrey Zeldman, and whoever came up with Dogster.

I finished the day working on the flag I've been making for Consu-Camp. I'm going to Burning Man with a bunch of people from Consumating, all of whom are just the right combination of nerdy and genius to propel me to the next level of internet popularity. It's only a matter of time.

I'll keep you all updated on my progress "going forward". In the meantime, feel free to suggest ways I can reach this goal in the comments section. I have also added it to my profile on 43Things.