In Between

Did a little tiny skin update with color changes. I had a bit of difficulty with the Blogger tool and it lead to a possible collaboration project with my friend Yukiko. We'll see how it goes after the brainstorm!

Also, I am in serious need of redesigning this site entirely. My web design skills have gone down the drain. Is anyone interested in helping me?

Trying to get Cool Iris' oh-so-slick embedded wall to work on my page down there. My friend Peter told me about it this weekend and every person I've told so far has juiced themselves over it.

What is Cooliris? It is a downloadable application that transforms your browser into a powerful and wicked fast 3D discovery experience.

Friends' Cooliris Reviews:

"F*** it's kinda awesome."
"Love it. Love it. Two thumbs up."
"It's really pretty crazy."

It takes two minutes to download the plugin on Firefizzle. Prepare to be amazed.

I am having trouble pin-pointing my focus for what I want to blog about. I've been dwelling on the idea of starting a useful blog for quite some time now, and I keep finding myself stuck on this part -- What topic do I want to discuss with my readers? I have many interests that I feel merit being written about, but what are the chances that a reader will feel equally passionate about all those things, over one?

Relationships?
I really find the topic of relationships fascinating. I could write for days and days about symbiotic relationships of tangible and intangible things. I think about it all the time; making connections between people, evaluating and balancing events, occassionally from an observational P.O.V. mostly from experience. But who would want to subscribe to that? Not sure. I'm not about to tailor to teeny bopper romantics who tell stories that start with "Dear Abby --". Although that is also an interesting approach.

Design?
I am a designer, so of course I'll also want to share my insight on what is design and how it works. But I'm a young designer with relatively little experience, I don't always feel confident enough to dole out my so-called expert opinions. I could always collect cool designs that I find on the internets and upcycle them to my audience, but pleh, everything is that. I only want it to be a very small part - if anything.

Photography?
I like photography and can incorporate my own photography into the blog. I think that is a requisite for good original content and value.

Style
I also love to write. Easy nuff. I particularly like to freewrite, so it would make sense that the format of my writing would be a slightly edited and pared down version of my daily musings. So that leans more towards a personal blog rather than a professional blog. Dilemma; I want a professional blog. P.S. I'm currently writing this in Khoi Vinh's preview version of Writer's Block, a writing application that dims everything but the TextEdit-like text box, muffles all background sound/music, and prevents you from deleting ANYTHING or going back to add text anywhere. At first it's pretty frustrating to see so many striketrhu marks on the page, but then slowly you just kind of go with it and learn to appreciate that what comes out comes out and you can't do anything about it but keep moving forward. Thus, eliminating the writer's block. I digress.

I suppose the issue isn't that I need to focus my ideas to just one thing or style -- pigeonholing myself to one thing or style may not necessarily draw the strongest audience -- the issue is that I feel pressured that no one will want to read what I write, and I don't know how to manipulate my writing so that people will want to read it. I see my pageviews and unique visitors go up but I see no discussion forming in the comments, no feedback to give me direction.

Just Do It
It's my own mental block that's keeping me from starting, isn't it. I know I just need to do a bit more DOING and a bit less PLANNING, especially this early in stage, but I can't help but feel like I'm treading in really shallow water alongside a huge mass of other bloggers that are just trying to get known in this world wide net. For now, I'm going to keep writing whatever it is that comes to me through my day and hopefully my subject matter will develop naturally. Until then, any and all feedback is appreciated greatly.

www.milanphan.com

Web portfolio assignment for class - I think I'll redesign the skeleton and keep building from there. Much more improvements to make, but here it is for now!

This will be my online portfolio for the time being.
How shall I introduce myself..My mom is Japanese, my dad is Vietnamese. They wanted to give their children names that could be translated in both languages. Maichi, the first accident (joke), means plum blossom (branch). She's a gentle soul, you'd like her. Mica, my baby sister, is beautiful song/ singing bird. She's got musical talent, you should meet her. My name means beautiful orchid: i'm not sure what that makes me, but that's how my name came to be Milan.

I'm unbelievably finishing my third year as a Design student at UCDavis. Unbelievable because I graduate in less than a year, even more unbelievable because I don't feel prepared for the so-called real world at all what.so.ever. I feel as though my portfolio lacks necessary elements for employment which would lead to a successful career. So here I am, a walking work-in progress, creating a blogfolio open for criticism, feedback, general comments, general love, or anything of any nature.

A little bit more about me:
1. Good food is my best friend.
You know how the sun is clinically proven to improve health and states of being, or how studies show that autistic people tend to have a strong connection to The Beatles music, or how religiously people start their day with coffee? It's like that for me, except food is my sun, my Beatles, my coffee.

2. People say I'm introverted, but I live for good company.

I'm a firm believer in that a person will attract the kind of person that they themselves present. If i were an a-hole, I'll probably have a-hole friends. Of course each individual to his own, but on the wider spectrum, I'm no a-hole.

3. In any given conversation, I may or may not attempt to combine two words in one.

My mind does it by default, I don't know why. It's like i'm a word robot. A wobot. A rurd.... wobot.