Hello Mike,
As you are a web-designer and you want ot put your blog and portfolio over it,
i will suggest you to choose a domain which is related to your profession.
IMO mikecicc.com ( your personal identity ) will not much help you in SEO as it don't reflect any info related to your profession.
I will suggest you to grab some thing like " getdesigner / designerworld / greatdesigns / webart " or anything like this which is available.
Domain tld is also important to look for, if you are targeting regional traffic try to get regional domain extension. I mean if you are targeting UK traffic try to get UK tld and UK host, which will help you toget better ranking and hence traffic
Your domain should reflect your personality/profession.
Along with good domain try to get reliable hosting where your domain will run smoothly without any downtime.
All the best.......