Welcome to my personal webspace. This is not only the first entry for youngjyoon.com, but also a short introduction to who I am, what I do, and how pretentious I must sound when I blog. On the left is a self-portrait type of thing I did years ago (when I still had “the mane”) with a bunch of markers while staying for a week in San Diego, CA. There were a couple of my best friends also present in this piece, but this is my website.

I was born in Masan, a small city on the Southeastern coast of Korea, famous for its textile industry and steamed monkfish. My memories there are hazy, for my family moved to the neighboring town of Changwon when I was 2 or 3, and stayed there until 1999. The capital of Kyungsangnam-do Province, Changwon was just starting to develop when I moved there. The first city in Korea to be planned before built, it boasts wide and open roads that cannot be found anywhere else in the country, a giant traffic circle in its center, as well as beautiful parks and reservoirs for leisurely post-dinner walks. Honestly, it was a great town to live in, and even greater now that they have built a few malls and theaters. Of course, they waited to develop it into the semi-metropolis it is today until I left the country.

My family relocated to Albany, NY area in 1999 with my father’s job transfer. Having had only a month’s notice before getting on the plane, I hit the language barrier head-on and hard. There would be days when I wouldn’t get to say a word while at school. It took me good six months to start expressing myself and, in the loose sense of the word, communicating. This is also when I picked up the guitar to deal with loneliness. Fortunately, by the time I graduated high school, I had overcome my linguistic challenges.

I liked my chemistry teachers a little too much in high school, and ended up getting a B.S. in chemistry at Boston College. I did not feel like pursuing a career in science, however, and I went through a few teaching and marketing jobs before finding out how much I love web design. I have been freelancing as a web designer for about 9 years now, creating websites for bands and local businesses. Feel free to look through my portfolio and related resume if you are interested in my services.

I am now located in Chicago, IL in the lovely Lincoln Park area. I enjoy playing my guitar, listening to music, running down the beach, cooking at home, classy movies and occasional glasses of scotch. I speak Korean, English, and enough Japanese to get by. So, as boring as this entry has been, this is my story so far.

Find out more about me on Twitter and MySpace!