Moving On...

And I'm over here now: jaceyangorg.blogspot.com (or jaceyang.org).

Just a little swap over to something easier to read on mobile. I didn't want to spend time revamping this site and it was time to move on to a new place anyway. This one comes with a new name and a new domain! The content stays (mostly) the same though. Apologies in advance...

Backwards, Forwards

So there's a new jonyang.org. Or rather, there's a new site that jonyang.org forwards to. Before it used to come here to this very Blogspot, but now it goes to a Tumblr. The basic motivation is that I’m trying to streamline my online presences and I wanted a forward facing site that wasn’t directly my blogger. So yeah, jonyang.org now redirects to jonyangorg.tumblr.com. Note my super cute Chanrio avatar!

Also, no new posts are going up there, but there is a new newsletter available for infrequent updates: jonyangorg Tiny Letter.

I had been hoping to revamp everything and do away with “jayang” altogether, replacing public usernames with the more available and visually appealing “jonyangorg.” But that could require a little too much work since I’ve committed to “jayang(21)” for too many things already. In the past, “jonyangorg” was personal and “jayang” was public but now I’m hoping for “jonyangorg” to be public and “jonwow” to be personal. If all this stuff sounds meaningless to you, you’re probably right, but I’ve seriously devoted lots of thought to this topic recently.

There’s nothing I like better than busy work that results in nothing productive so I may still redo everything to fall along the org and wow naming conventions anyway. Godspeed.

Along with that, I’ve been mildly seriously contemplating a name change. When George went in for her married name change, she was told that her first name actually wasn’t “Georgette.” Shock! Instead our legal names are still our Chinese names and she would have to file to change her first name along with her last. Well, that means I’m not even a “Jonathan” on anything official.

With the association of “George and Jon” likely to be further and further removed from my life, I feel like I have this golden opportunity to rename myself. The power of a memorable can’t be estimated. There is no mistaking “Wait, which Choncy is that?” There’s only one Choncy. That’s I want, unmistakeable identification.

If I’m to make my way in this world, I’ll need a more unique name. Something that will stick with people. Everyone has like five Jons in their life. (Not to mention there’s a L.A. based grocery chain named “JONS.”) In addition, I’m sick of fending off the more Google-able actors, ophthalmologists, kinetic companies, and infrastructure managers that push me down on Internet searches. There are too many “Jon Yangs” in the world and maybe it’ll be easier for me to achieve localized fame if I can just become a different person.

It would still be nice to have some consistency though, so I wanted something that would still start with J and would be unisex. Unhelpful polls of my peers have produced this list: Jorge (haha, um, no), Jamie, Jinx, Justice, or my camp name Juicebox. You should see the eye rolls when I suggest “Jessie.” So far my only preferred option is “Jamie."

A list of famous and relevant Jamies: Lannister, Chung, Foxx, Lee Curtis, King, Lynn Spears.

The bad news is “Jamie Yang” doesn't really get much further up on the uniqname scale. Nor does “Jami Young” or its alternatives. Back to the drawing board I guess. For now I’ll just remain as the same regular person you’ve come to know and love. Name change pending.

So Sick of Love Songs

I've been meaning to highlight a few things from around the web that are related to Exclusively Chloe or me but I kept putting it off. So now I guess I'll just throw them all together into one post with lots of links. Bear with me as I wax unpoetically about myself.

Jordyn of Ten Cent Notes recently did a Debs '09 Playlist giveaway. When she asked me for a song to represent Exclusively Chloe, I immediately thought of "Glamorous" by Fergie. I know, I know, the book is about getting away from all that glamour and celebrity life. But when Fergie Ferg starts showing off her spelling skills ("G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S...") you can't help but get excited and dance along. I have a list of "songs that are inherently girl songs but are impossible to resist dancing to as a guy." Glamorous is a top three track on this list. Sandwiching it at number one and three is Britney's "I'm A Slave 4 U" and the Pussycat Dolls "Don't Cha." I mean, seriously, these songs have such great beats but as a guy what are you supposed to do with your hips when you're trying to dance along? And singing along seems wrong too -- even though you have to. The songs on this list force you to the dance floor and then it's just fantastic awkwardness.

Check out the rest of the Debs '09 Playlist track list for everyone's selections and thanks to Jordyn for putting such an awesome project together!

After a rankings reset and some obvious mathematics error, my profile somehow popped up in the top ten over at Rice Bowl Journals. During the course of the next week, I rose all the way up to number one and stayed there. Well, until this week, when I crashed and burned. So yes, all is well with the universe again. Your conception of good and evil can remain unchanged. Things are back to normal. But it was a thrilling few days as I've been around Rice Bowl Journals for awhile, back in the days when my favorite blog ever, Technicolor.org, was regularly top of the charts. To have stood where she stood, computational error and all, made me giddy with delight.

And just as exciting was realizing that Cindy Pon (Silver Phoenix), a fellow author and Deb, was the very first Rice Bowl Journalist, as you can see by her cool ID number. Being number one at anything is never bad is it?

And while we're here, a scan of another Chinese interview I did, this time with We Chinese magazine. I sat down with publisher and editor Ping Ma back in July and hopefully said some cogent things in my lackluster Chinglish. Much like my earlier interview with a Chinese newspaper, I have no idea what the text says. Oh those many years of Chinese school, all for naught apparently. Sorry Mom!

Also in a nice surprise, I got a review of The Rough Guide to Blogging from Down Under Views. Maybe this means the book has now made its way to Australia! Either way, thanks a lot Jamie for nice quotes like these, "Yang introduces you to the world of blogging in a way that won't overwhelm the beginner but also won't bore the experienced blogger. Blogging jargon is explained in a way that doesn't make the reader feel dumb or talked down to."

If you've made it all the way to the bottom of this post, maybe you should consider following my blog. I mean, for a limited time I've placed the box so conveniently on the top of the sidebar for you. Here, I'll even show you how. I have a dozen fans now but it would make me feel better to have more. Having more is always good. Having more of being number one is doubly good. And who doesn't like to feel good?

Thanks for visiting. Do come again.