Phin Magazine or PhinMag, a personal experimental online media project, is set to launch this coming April 2, 2006.
Watch out for it here.
About Phin Magazine (PhinMag)
Phin Magazine is a personal experimental online media project. In short, a creative side project from yours truly. It is a combination of two ideas: a personal blog published in a magazine format. I don’t dare to claim this as an innovative idea since in the world of the Internet, there’s bound to be some new idea popping up online somewhere.
I’ve been blogging since mid-1990s – pretty much around the time I discovered the Internet. I’ve blogged in so many blog or online diary sites under so many pseudonyms over the years. But since 2005, the appeal of blogging began to wane. I used to enjoy blogging a lot but it suddenly didn’t feel so fun anymore.
The reason I blogged was not only to keep a record of what’s going on in my life or as a form of stress relief therapy, but blogging became a training ground for me to practice and hopefully improve my writing. But when writing became less fun, it turned into a chore. And blogging did become a chore in the end. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me getting tired of it.
Blogging is nothing new these days. Everybody does it. It’s so easy to start. But me being me - and so not into the Lemming Mentality/Movement - I’ve decided to start something new on my own.
My “Eureka!” moment came in the wee hours of the morning on March 2, 2006. Insomniac me was up in bed reading two print magazines where one is most likely to be no longer in print today. My ears were plugged to my MP3 player, blasting Fall Out Boy’s From Under the Cork Tree album. It seems the combination of all these three things gave me the inspiration for this concept.
When the idea of this blogging concept came to me, I couldn’t sleep the entire night because I was busy thinking up plans to get it started. Yes, I was that excited!
The concept was originally meant for a print magazine because there are a number of things that won’t work effectively online. Since I have no funding to actually do a print magazine (nor have the expertise to seriously run a proper magazine business. Then again, the Kuching market may not be ready for my idea, which sucks big time), I had to adapt my idea, simplified it, for the online version here.
I’m using a blog template for this. It makes my life easier because I don’t have time to do fancy coding for fancy site effects and all. Besides, am kinda lazy to do all that too. Topic category follows something like what you may find in a magazine. It’s basically all the things I enjoy talking about and share it with everyone.
I write all the contents here. Maybe once in a while I’ll let other people contribute something as well (no payments though). Photographs are also from yours truly unless credited otherwise.
Hopefully, I can consistently produce Phin Magazine as a monthly online publication. I will try to keep it up anyway.
The inaugural issue was revealed online on April 2, 2006.
Each new issue will be published every first Sunday of the month.
Phin Magazine is hosted by Blogsome with images hosted in Photobucket and Slide.com.
Contact Phin Magazine at phinmag AT gmail DOT com.
Comments on each entries are welcome but will be moderated before publishing online.
So what’s in Phin Magazine?
These are the categories I came up with for each issue. Subject to availability of certain content, not all categories will be featured in every issue.
Here’s a quick summary about each category:
Start Here
This is the introduction page for each issue where I will write a short note and lay out the contents of the current issue. This is the page to go before you check out elsewhere.
Radio Brain
I have an inner ‘radio’ in my head, which tends to record songs I heard and in some cases, overplays them and annoys me to no end (if it’s the wrong song) because brain does not have a Stop Button to control it. I share what’s been playing – or overplaying – in my head here.
Talk Back
Though this site is kind of ‘interactive’ since readers are encouraged to comment of each posts, I also encourage reader’s emails as well. This category features reader’s mail, if any. Readers can email me at phinmag AT gmail DOT com.
Raves & Craves
A favourite things page on food, products, places, you-name-it that can’t be place in the other categories.
Phin Reads
Sharing what I’ve been reading recently. It can be books, magazines, graphic novels, periodicals, etc.
Phinologue
My personal commentary blog where I rant, vent and get philosophical. In short, all my personal textual crap here.
Screen Time
Reviews of what’s on the big and small screens. Films, TV shows, documentaries and such.
Music Addict
I can’t live without music and am constantly looking for new sounds to enjoy. I review songs, albums, bands or musicians, and music videos here.
Phin Phocus
A feature article section of the mag. Focus stories will be published here, if any.
Phin Interviews
Exclusive interviews and Q&As of celebrities and not-exactly celebrities.
SiteSeeing
Where I stuff all my favorite links of websites of the month.
Travel Bug
The travel page, of course.
Phin Style
Talking about fashion, beauty, trends, cool hunting and the art of retail therapy. Also a merchandise-for-sale section from yours truly.
PhotoSlide
A photo slide instead of a photo spread section.
Crapola
Warped short fiction written when bored or delirious. Or silly conversations or quotations from yours truly.
PhinFiles
The details about Phin Magazine are categorized here.
But seriously, who is Phin?
My name is Phin, the creator and author of this website. Yes, it’s my real name though it’s not a name I usually use (I’m mostly known as Andrea). It’s my Chinese name and should be pronounced as “ping”, which means “apple” in Chinese. But in the context of this online project, “Phin Magazine”, it should be pronounced as “fin” instead.
Clearly, having a Chinese name also means that I’m actually born of Chinese heritage. I was not bestowed a Chinese name because I was adopted or taken in by some Chinese kungfu master as his ‘child’. Besides, a kungfu prodigy by the name of Apple does not instill fear on anyone. Trust me. Apple will be bludgeoned into a pulp (pun intended) by every wimp in town.
Being 100% Chinese doesn’t mean I speak fluent Chinese. Though I do speak two Chinese dialects (but not very well, I’m afraid), I can’t speak or read or understand Mandarin. I generally speak English daily. My thoughts are in English as well. In a way, I am sort of multi-lingual. Well, it is only natural to be multi-lingual if one is born and raised in Malaysia. Everyone here speaks a minimum of two to three languages either including/excluding their respective mother tongue. My linguistic skills are kind of a mish-mash. I am not thoroughly fluent in all languages or dialect I speak. So forgive me if my eloquence in the England gets crushed under the London Bridge at times. Afterall, I learnt English through years of American television and books.
Being Chinese also doesn’t mean I’m a math whiz. I’m a numerical dyslexic. I have trouble reading numbers and it takes extra effort for my brain to register a number. I can’t count properly. I always failed math in school. Never ask me for my phone number. I can never remember it well. Besides, I never call myself so how would I know what’s my number. Duh.
