About The Mind's I

How did you choose the name of your journal?

I've always kept a journal, ever since I was very young (like, 6 or 7). I wasn't particularly devoted to keeping it until I saw Henry and June when I was in high school. I loved that movie! It made me read Anais Nin (who inspired me further). It was a revelation of sorts for me and I started to keep a journal devotedly. I became more interested in keeping it during major points in my life (becoming a senior in high school, graduating from high school, entering college, that sort of thing). 23 is my favorite number and I decided that when I turn 23, I would try to record that year as best as I possibly could. So, with that impetus, I started to *really* keep a journal. When I got my own domain (I've been keeping a website off and on since late 93/early 94), I decided to put my journal online too.

I acquired several nicknames when I was growing up. When I was living in the Philippines, my nickname was "Ai-ai", shortened from my name, Eileene (pronounced I-lean). I told my friends in high school of the origin of my nickname and they started calling me "Ai" (I discovered that after I graduated, that Ai meant "short" in chinese, which I was the shortest of all my friends!). My exbf from high school was a fan of a Japanese animation show called "Video Girl Ai". She was this spunky, energetic "fantasy girl" that came out of a video tape to help this guy who was lovesick for one of his classmates. Ai means love in Japanese. It also has the meaning of "carp" or fish, from what I understand. In any case, Mark (my exbf) told me that I was a lot like Video Girl Ai. Bold. Loud. Sexually uninhibited, yet, girlish and cute (I'm not beautiful or gorgeous or elegant or vivacious.. I have the *evil curse of cute*!). So, that nickname stuck with me... until I got to college.

Before I started college, I dumped Mark, thinking that I was going to not have a bf, concentrate on my studies, etc. The second week of college, I met my current partner, Mike. When Mike and I met (at the Japanese Animation Club), we watched the show "Project A-ko" where the main characters are A-ko, B-ko and C-ko (literally translated as Child A, Child B, Child C). At the first club meeting, we exchanged names, addresses, and (geekily enough) email addresses. My email address at the time was ecoscoll@uiuc.edu. Mike looked at it and saw "eco". Eco! Pronounced like "eco" in "eco-tourism" or "ecology". He started calling me "I-ko" (japanese pronounciation of "eco"). My best friend when I started college was this guy named Nucha. We met because we were both in PLGBC (People for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Concerns which eventually became SPECTRUM). His grandmother had problems remembering the names of her grandchildren, so she just named them 1, 2, 3 and a, b, and c. Nucha was "c". =) He also saw Project A-ko when he was in high school and his favorite character was (you guessed it!) C-ko. So, that was his nickname. When he found out Mike called me "Iko", it just stuck. Nucha and I were C-ko and I-ko. I liked the nickname and kept it. Nucha would occassionally call me "Iko-chan". Chan is a term of endearment that young (teenage) girls would call their fellow female friends. I started calling myself that "Iko-chan" and I was >< this close to chosing that as a domain (www.ikochan.com) but decided against it because I didn't want to seem vain and I was also using the site to support other things too, not just myself.

Ok. That's the background of all this. Now, here I was with an online journal but it needed a name. I quickly found diarist.net and I thought all the names were just SO clever! Argh! What should I call mine? One day, I was looking through my videotapes and spotted "The Mind's Eye", a video that I purchased (a long time ago) featuring computer animation accompanied with music. I loved that! "The Mind's Eye". So, I looked on diarist.net to see if I could find a similarly titled journal. Nope! But then I did a search on Yahoo and found tons of references to it. People had websites called "The Mind's Eye" about themselves and I didn't like that. I wanted to be unique. So I thought about it more. The "Mind's" part kept leaping out at me. The 's means possession, right? But it can also mean *contraction*. "The Mind is". Oo. I like that. It was only a small step to get "The Mind is I". Yes! The mind is I. The mind that is reflected in the journal is me. Who wrote that journal? That mind is Eileene. Images of my old nickname comes up. Ai. The mind is Ai. Wow. This was *very cool*. Who is that mind? The mind is I. Me. Iko. Ai. I-lean. Eileene. I loved it. And thus, the name was born. And it was Good(tm).

Does it inspire what you write in any way?

Yes, it does. I like reading my old entries and reliving my memorable experiences... so that compels me to write. I have two friends that I know read my journal and now that I have a digital camera, check it out for the photographs. That definitely inspires me to write. ;)

Did it inspire your site's design in any way?

Not really. This is the second design since July.. and I'm sure I'll change it sometime in the spring of next year. I'm a web developer/designer... I enjoy doing stuff like this. =)

There ya go! Thanks for listening to my long rant. I might even post it somewhere on my site as well. Thanks for some great questions. <grin> I've found that great questions often lead to good journal entries.