i'd say that if you are going to use flash, use it for a top banner or something small that needs to be animated. main content should be text.

that second page you posted is much better than the one you created for yourself, but i mean just an outer glow with the title, two different fonts for the gallery and resume/contact and the black "curls/design" being pretty soft, hurts the page. it's not a bad layout and idea though.