My Personal Branding Part II: Leftium

"The Element of Creativity!"
Inspired by Adobe's CS3 icons, I designed my logo to resemble a cell from the periodic table of elements. The Leftium logo features an over-sized "Le" that pops out and forms a leftward arrow.

lef·ti·um n. Symbol Le

1. The element of creativity!
2. John-Kim Murphy's online identity/username.

Yes, in a moment of sheer brilliance I combined the word "left" with "-ium", a suffix commonly used to form the names of chemical elements (think "Titanium", "Einsteinium", or "Adamantium".) The result is a personal online ID that I am very proud of because "Leftium" is:

• Short—only seven letters long. Yet the domain leftium.com was still available (obviously!)
• Relatively easy to convey over the phone. Most people know how to spell "left" and can guess the rest from the sound. Much easier to explain than "wonsungi", anyways!
• Unique. Before I started using "Leftium", there were only about 300 Google search results for "Leftium". Now there are about 62,600 results, and they are all related to me.
• Memorable and has a significant personal connection to me (explained below after the "jump")

My Personal Branding Part I: Wonsungi

A few of the monkeys I started drawing and collecting to go with my username.

I initiated my quest for a personal online ID over sixteen years ago. While teaching myself computer programming, I discovered the demoscene. Mesmerizing pieces of audio-visual digital art, demos were often signed by their authors with "handles", or pseudonyms. As an aspiring programmer, I desired a cool handle like "Abyss" or "Psi".

My real name, "John", was too common. In fact, once there were four John’s in my grade school class of twenty-four students. Even "John Murphy" was fairly common. There were at least six other students named John Murphy enrolled at my university. Later, while employed at both Lockheed Martin and Microsoft, I got numerous e-mails and some phone calls that were intended for some other John Murphy. Also at airport security I was inevitably always delayed due to some naughty John Murphy from Ireland.

Happy Easter (egg)

Bunnies. Pencil on construction paper. 1999. Pulled from my high school Drawing III sketchbook. Based on a figurine from my house.

A quick post to celebrate Easter and the fresh spring weather. I wouldn't have realized it was Easter if my Mom hadn't mentioned it in an email. In Korea, Easter is not marked on most calendars (although Christmas is). Instead, Koreans recognize other holidays like the upcoming Buddha's birthday.

Can you find the Easter egg hidden in this post?

October Update: What's Good in Korea

Mad Pumpkin. Marker on construction paper. 1996. I drew this freshman year of high school (Drawing I).
Perhaps if this pumpkin focused on the positive aspects of life he wouldn't be so angry!

October's been a busy month! I've been juggling four business partners and just as many different projects. I've also been making minor contributions to various open source projects.

It's far too easy to pick out the bad things in our lives and complain about them. For instance, I have many more ideas for the UX Hall of Shame than the UX Hall of Fame. We usually take the good stuff for granted until it's gone, then complain about its disappearance. It's much easier to highlight bad experiences, especially in Korea. So, bucking this trend, here's a run-down of good things that happened to me in October:

How to eat Korean food

Han eagerly anticipating some of the best meat in Korea. It comes to the table raw.

I tried to avoid Korean food on my visit to Minnesota because it's so much tastier and less expensive in Korea. However, my mom wanted to get Korean food, so I broke down and took her to Dong Yang Oriental Food. This is the only place in Minnesota that serves Korean dishes on par with Korea herself.

While very delicious and healthful, Korean food is very user-unfriendly. It is no wonder "Have you tried eating X?" is literally translated from Korean as "Do you know how to eat X?" (X를 먹을줄 알아요?) Many Korean dishes should be served with an instruction manual. For example, the first time I ordered Bibimbab I proceeded to eat it incorrectly. Bibimbab is a bowl of rice topped with various seasoned vegetables. There is a special sauce that goes with it, often served on the side. The correct way to eat Bibimbab, or literally "mixed rice," is to add the sauce, and mix everything together before eating.

What do BBQ sauce, coffee, and CPU's have in common?

Delicious pizza, fresh from the wood-burning oven. Did the sausage really cost $1.50?

The other day, my friend Eddy introduced me to a really tasty family-owned barbecue joint. While enjoying our delicious beef brisket he commented how expensive barbecue cuisine is, considering this style of cooking uses cheaper cuts of meat. He conjectured the price was raised by the lengthy preparation time needed to get the meat so tender. I actually blame Eddy (and all the other regular customers) for the bloated price of my barbecue dinner. Prices are set by what consumers are willing to pay, not the cost of materials/production.

Dragon Flies and Praying Mantises

Can you spot the dragonfly?

Recently I went for a hike up Mount Bukhan, just north of Seoul. While pausing for a rest, I noticed this dragon fly hiding in plain sight. This stirred some memories of a few notable insects from my childhood: