balloon hunt | summer 2007

My real name is Yeuk Nei Huynh … people always repeat it after I introduce myself to make sure they say my name right … so I went with Sandra Huynh (pronouced “win”).

I was asked to write a post about myself since I am new to Fast Horse, as a design intern.

In case you don’t know what newfangled means, it means new but not as good or nice as the old ones.

I like new ideas, friends and things. But sometimes the old ones are just slightly better.

Old memories like this one: I was standing on top of a staircase and I had a feeling that I could jump across 15 steps at once. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and I leaped … next thing I remember I was on the bottom of the stair. It was magical. I flew. After that experience, I could never fly again, my magic was gone … my mother called me crazy.

Old idea: my favorite toy was not something any other kids would have. I collected bubble gum wrappers, cigarette boxes, stamps and bottle caps, especially the old Coca Cola metal caps. I flattened the cap with a hammer and punched a hole in the middle of the flattened cap, put a fish string through the hole. The most important part is to sharpen the edge of the cap. You would need a friend to play with. The idea is to spin the string and pull it with both hands so the flat sharp-edged cap would spin really really fast, while your friend would do the same. So to win this game one has to cut the other person’s string so that they can’t spin the cap anymore … I needed quite a lot of bandages after this game.

Old friend: Nik Kosmas. After I typed his name and the period, the typing line is blinking on my screen … I guess we had too much naughty good times, I don’t even know where to start. I guess I will just leave it as is.

Old thing: That old thing might just have to be the city I grew up in. I have not been back to Hong Kong for almost 9 years. So the other day I decided to buy a plane ticket for my November “back to the thing” trip. I started to feel like I am lost in translation — even though I understand the language, I guess the whole idea of living in the U.S is still unclear to me … I forgot how to write most of the characters in Chinese ( ashamed!!). I believe that once I go back and visit, everything will make a little bit more sense of who I am.

I suppose the new is what we are chasing after every day, but I never forget the old that makes the new.

Newfangled.