In Between

If you ever get me going in a conversation about infographics, I'll most likely refer to the work of Stefanie Posavec. Her "On the Map" project disintegrates and re-maps Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" into finite details of literary space: subject matter, sentence structures and length. And if you've ever read Kerouac, you'll know that to re-interpret his prose is quite the ambitious feat. On NOTCOT you can and must view the images in full to even remotely appreciate the depth and precision of Posavec's work.

That said, I aspire to have that much dedication to the world surrounding me.







And a couple more randoms:

They say if you look good, you feel good,
but I think if you feel good, you look better.

Better than good, better than bad, and anything better than bad is good.

He is my partner, my blanket, my sunshine and my rock. He has impeccable timing. He makes me laugh in thousands of ways. He tolerates my tantrums and even lets me use him as a punching bag. He's the only person who has seen all my faces, and I mean ALL of them. He is the most patient, kind, generous and trustworthy person I know. If ever I doubt that, please slap me and remind me how lucky I am to have him in my life.

I love this place. It's small but it's cute. Please ignore the clutter; these photos were taken midst-arranging because I had to take advantage of the momentary sunshine that afternoon. After the photoshoot I spent the day listening to the rain fall off the roof while putting things in their new places and moving them again. It was a therapeutic afternoon. Keep posted for before/after shots as I start decorating the new apartment!



Very special thanks to Jason, Mica, James and Japheth for taking time and strength out of their Saturday to help me out. It means a lot to me.

Last night at The Pad before relocating to Pad v.2. I am doing some first/last minute "packing" to make it easier for the kind people who are helping me move tomorrow, my beau, my little sister, my friend and my beau's bro. I quote "packing" because it's not really your typical wrap-in-newspaper-and-fit-nicely-in-a-cardboard-box, I really only have one box that's like that.



I've CRAMMED my ish into every single sturdy clothing bag I saved, every large oversized bag, every plastic bin and decorative basket I own. One box. It's really remarkable and I have to say I am impressed with myself how organized these little bundles are.


We've got scarves and belts and gloves in one Equinox gym drawstring bag from Equinox. Over here we've got an IKEA basket filled with my brave plants. Some bundles have welcomed random categories of objects, for example in the Brooklyn Industries diaper bag I've wedged in three other purses, and a box of my CDs. My favorite collection is the Zara paper bag full of giveaway merchandise for my little sister in honor of her first visit to my apartment of this past year, ON THE DAY I MOVE. Everything will be dismantled and empty but I guess she'll be able to see the kitchen appliances that came with the place?

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.

So, if all goes well, I will be signing the papers to an apartment in a cute little town called Berkeley.

From the Craigslist posting:
Clean, sunny upper one-bedroom in garden setting. The nicely landscaped courtyard is filled with greenery and has a deck with a comfortable seating area. Updated tile in kitchen, neutral Berber style carpet, gas stove/heater, large closet, tub/shower combo, coin laundry, off-street parking, bike racks, secure gate at entrance. Fixed cat or small pet OK, no dogs. Quiet, nice neighborhood.

I couldn't stop daydreaming about this place since Jason and I went to look at the place yesterday. The visit was a totally positive experience -- any fault I saw was compensated with a bonus. The landlords live up in West Marin but they seem very open, kind, and communicative. I look forward to making friends with the other tenants. Hopefully my neighbors are as equally nice as the landlords are. I want to borrow cups of sugar and drink wine and listen to music with thy neighbors and share vacuums & spare chairs.

I'm a bit scared about living alone, however. It's that anxiety you feel before doing something you've never done before and not sure at all if you'd like. I envision myself having my own space, my own things, my own privacy, and I feel good about it. But then I imagine having my own space IN THE DARK, my own things IN THE DARK, my own privacy IN THE DARK and then i start to freak out. Imagining is not reality, I know, so I have to resort to common knowledge for comfort. People do it all the time, blahblabhhahbaaa.

So, here's to trying new things in life. Stay tuned over the next month or so for decorating ideas and moving updates.