My Feline Siblings

I'm an only child. I don't remember ever asking for a baby sister or a baby brother when I was a kid. Now that I'm a grown-up, I sometimes wish that I have someone to either spoil me or for me to bully around. Well, I got friends and a girlfriend for that. Hehehe! Seriously though, I grew up having our "pet cats" as part of the family. For me, they are my cute, cuddly siblings and I love each and every one of them. Over the years, many have come and passed away. But at this point, here are the ones who are making my days extra happy and filled with love.

ATE JULES

Birthday: July 1, 1997
Ate Jules is sweet, gentle and has natural maternal instincts. She's the caregiver among the clowder but can get very jealous. She's my Dad's favorite and he used to spoil her a lot

KUYA TABA

Birthday: March 2, 1998
Kuya Taba is my baby. Originally named Fridge, he has a penchant for running to the fridge everytime someone opens the fridge door. He's VERY VERY big. A lot of people are scared of him because he almost looks like a dog. But really, he's a gentle giant. In fact, he doesn't fight back even if the girls are pretty rough on him. He loves being cuddled like a baby and even sucks his thumb like a baby. He's also very smart and knows how to utilize his big paws.

DJ

Birthday: May 12, 1998
DJ is my princess. She's stubborn, bitchy BUT loves attention a lot. She loves being touched and cuddled and she reciprocates your affection by giving you a massage. She has a cute, sexy voice that fits her svelte figure.

OJ

Birthday: January 23, 1999
OJ is the primadonna. She's always grooming herself and doesn't like getting dirty. She's well-behaved and meows in a very soft voice. She's also picky when it comes to food -- and my Mom spoils her a lot on that area. She's shy though and gets scared when there are people she doesn't know.

CHUBBY

Birthday: August 13, 1999
Chubby has always been the "crowd favorite." People like her because she's bansot... she's so cute and cuddly. Ironically, she doesn't like being cuddled. She's pretty much a loner and can even be bitchy at times. But she definitely loves having her picture taken!

SHAMMY

Birthday: August 13, 1999
Believed to be Chubby's twin, Shammy is equally anti-social. There was a time when she only hangs out with Chubby and OJ. She's generally a loner and doesn't like being cuddled. Just the same, she enjoys the ocassional attention and massages. And by the way, she's a messy eater.

NASTY

Birthday: September 23, 2004
Nasty, just like DJ has a slender built, making her look very majestic like the royal cats of Ancient Egypt. She's very playful and likes being cuddled. She's also very friendly... befriending other kittens in the neighborhood (they chit-chat a lot!) and even invites her over!

HAMSTER

Birthday: June 24, 2005
Hamster is the latest addition to the family. He was only a few days old when we got him and he has grown a lot since then! He's very sweet and cuddly. He doesn't like being left alone or he suffers from separation anxiety. The entire family, including my friends are oh-so spoiling him.

|BadGirl`JeL|'s Playhaus Photography

Playhaus Photography is a technique I use to take pictures of regular-sized objects (and later on, people) and making them look small. All pictures were taken using my handy-dandy Nokia 6600 camera-phone. Please note that they weren't done in Photoshop. At most, I just made some brightness/contrast adjustments, but the entire concept is manually done and thus take a lot of trial-and-error for a picture to be perfectly produced. Even so, I'm sure you'd still see some flaws in my work. ENJOY!

The Fan: The picture that started it all

The Calendar: Timing is everything -- plus a little wind power.

|BadGirl`JeL| Recommends: Fun Stuff for the Bored and Crazy

I must be the geekiest person you know... Imagine, I spend a lot of time -- and I really mean A LOT of time surfing the net then I spend some more time telling about the fun stuff I discovered through Friendster, the #Tibok Message Board, and via emails.

Oh well, my intentions are good. I just want people to have as much fun as I did when I discovered these crazy stuff online, whether by chance or through other friends. So, enough talk... Let the fun begin!

Soapbox

A short film about making short films by ELLEN DEGENERES

Gender Bending Male Celebrities using Adobe Photoshop

Are you sure your significant other loves you? Hope this doesn't happen to you... (Audio only)

Presenting... Einstein the Bird!

My Blog

I spent the whole day today virtually editing my blog template. By the time I was done, I feel this sense of pride for having created something -- as if I just started my blog. Then I realized how geeky I am! Like, can I do anything else? What the heck! It's my day, my blog. Hehehe!

Seriously, this new look is way better than the original template. It's not boring yet not too busy in spite of the occasional images and signautes here and there.

But of course, this new look wouldn't be possible without the help of my good friend, Jayce who inspired me to do all these without even knowing it, and for teaching me some tips and tricks on protecting my content. Thanks so much, Jayce!

Oh well, my day is done... time for me to get back to work!

Because I Love Jayce...

I rarely answer this type of "test." But since it came from Jayce and it does look like fun, I'm posting it here as requested.

1) Three names you go by:
-Jel
-Jelainey
-Lainy

2) Three Screen Names you’ve had:
-|BadGirl`JeL| -- my handle/IRC nick sine circa 2000
-coffee_addict -- my handle/IRC nick when I first became a DalNet chatter circa 1999
-PJ Alcantara -- Pen name I used in Palanca. Since na-lost s'ya, ibig sabihin siguro sya'y jinx

3) Three physical things you like about yourself
-My eyes -- Malandi kasi
-My teeth -- Mejo maganda naman sila. At higit sa lahat, TUNAY
-My lips -- Very expressive

4) Three physical things you don’t like about yourself
-My skin -- The ultimate curse
-My hips -- Can they get any wider?!
-My hair -- High maintenance

5) Three parts of your heritage
Huh?! NEXT!!!

6) Three things that scare you
-Snakes
-Scary movies -- I'm starting to imagine... Shit!
-Death of a loved-one -- the thought of it

7) Three of your everyday essentials
-The TV specifically cable
-My gadgets -- as in mobile phones and my beloved PDA-Keyboard combo
-Coffee or tea

8) Three of your favorite musical artists
-Bo Bice
-Beyonce Knowles
-Madonna

9) Three of your favorite songs
-For my wife -- "No Ordinary Love" by Jennifer Love Hewitt
-"Count on You" -- Theme song with my Dad. We used to sing that together when I was a little girl while my Dad plays the guitar
-"Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin" or "The Moon Represents My Heart" -- A Mandarin song my wife and I learned from a movie. It's not really my favorite but I love learning and memorizing it, most especially singing it to my wife before she sleeps.

10) Three things you want in a relationship
-Being so certain she's the one forever
-Being each other's partner, sister, mother, teacher, best friend, worst enemy, biggest fan and greatest critic all rolled into one
-Loving one's soul instead of loving bits of the person

11) Three lies and truths in no particular order

Lies:
-The best things in life are free.
-First love never dies.
-There is such a thing as clean and honest politics.

Truths:
-Honesty is the best policy.
-You can have more than one best friend.
-There is such a thing as karma.

12) Three things in the opposite sex that appeal to you:
Not really applicable but I'll answer anyway...
-Bad boyish look but neat
-Smells fresh and clean (parang toilet)
-Smart conversationalist with a fantastic sense of humor

13) Three of your favorite hobbies
-Watching TV -- I'm a certified couch potato!
-Surfing the net -- I love learning new things -- useful or otherwise
-Spending time with the people I care about

14) Three things you want to do now really badly
-Study MA or simply get Educ units
-Study an IT course
-Establish my own business, preferably ous mushroom specialty restaurant

15) Three careers you are considering/considered getting into
-Writing essays for my book or at least for magazines
-Being a chef
-Teaching

16) Three places you want to go to for a vacation
-Singapore
-Hongkong Disneyland
-US -- California to see Ellen de Generes and dine at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant in Beverly Hills or Chicago to see Oprah Winfrey

17) Three kids’ names you like
My wife and I came up these baby names around 2001 or 2002:
-Mijel Anthony
-Purple Joan (as in, Jown not Jo-an)
-Jelliebean Leigh

18) Three things you want to do before you die
-Write a book
-Travel
-See Ellen de Generes -- I don't mind dying in laughter while watching her show, Oprah Winfrey, William Petersen, and Wolfgang Puck... does this mean, I'd live forever???

19) Three ways you are stereotypically a boy
-I hate fickle-minded ladies.
-I eat realllllllllyyyyyy fast and in huge servings.
-I love women -- well, that makes me obviously lesbian.

20) Three ways you are stereotypically a girl
-I love talking things out -- even if entails fighting and almost killing each other -- to settle any problem, rather than keeping mum about it in the hopes that the problem will go ***poof**!
-I cry a lot when watching movies.
-I love girly stuff a lot!

21)Three people you’d want to see take this quiz
My bestfriend, Gem
My Wife, Millie
My Ate May

Independence Day

Manila, Philippines. Independence Day 2005. I spent the day with my girlfriend (no, not my female friend, but a woman who happens to be my significant other) and my older sister (with whom I'm not related with, but consider to be a big sister nonetheless) in Starbucks. Nothing unusual. In fact, we enjoy having such days – just hanging around talking about anything and everything under sun. Then suddenly, I just blurted it out – "I love being fat." From there, my motor mouth went on non-stop. I explained how I can't let go of the "fat lifestyle." I am not being a hypocrite of any sort. Seriously though, aside from the fact that I miss wearing the slutty clothes I'm used to wearing way back God-knows-how-long ago, there's barely anything else that I miss now that I've grown a lot bigger. I've been fat ever since I was a kid. But back then, I was just chubby – now, oh my gawd! I AM FAT.

Then my big sister started telling me that maybe I don't really need a total lifestyle overhaul. Maybe we just need to tweak into certain aspects of it – like less food intake and moving more. But to follow a certain diet, she explained I even eat healthier than she does. I also explained that I don't want to be unhealthy forever -- it's just that I'm not ready to let go of the lifestyle that goes with it just yet. Maybe I'll start when I'm 30. Then I decided, maybe I'll start when I'm 25. I'll be 25 in exactly 2 months.

From there, we started talking about me getting a new job that would go with my work-from-home job as a freelance web content writer. I finally admitted to my wife that ever since I resigned from my 3-year job as a Quality Assurance Analyst in a call center, I've been wondering what else I can do and even suspect that I've started to have lower self-esteem! Thank God for my wife, she encouraged me to look for other jobs that's entirely different from quality, not in a call center, may not involve writing just so I'll figure out what else I can do and where else I'm good at. If it doesn't work out, resign and find something else again. My big sister then remembered about our plan from a couple of years back about setting up a food business that's all about mushrooms. She told me that she has a friend who incidentally grows mushrooms and could thus be our supplier. She drafted a short, very informal marketing plan and reminded me that most important thing of all is for me to set a deadline for myself – to at least have mini, short-term goals. That way, I wouldn't be wasting any time and would slowly but surely move forward.

When it was time to go home, I realized that it has been some sort of a personal independence day for me. I figured, sometimes, we need to free ourselves from ourselves. I didn't want to tell others that I'm okay with all my adipose glory for fear that I might be judged as someone who make lousy choices, or that my fear of getting into a new career might be mistaken for being a slacker and that I'm just not trying hard enough. I then realized that I needed help resolving these issues but the problem was, I have been censoring myself non-stop. I try to resolve them on my own, not knowing that the mere fact that I don't want to talk about them is tantamount to not facing it at all.

Independence Day 2005 – the day I started to free myself. But as in all forms of freedom, I know I'm not yet there. I still have to put everything into action and when I've reached my goals, only then will I feel totally free…

June 13, 2005; Holiday Monday
Starbucks Araneta

In fairness...

In fairness, my life ain't that bad. I may be broke but I always have something to be thankful for. I've been spending a lot of time with my best friends, especially my Ate May. Even the love of my life is always free!!! We've been watching a whole lot of Mandarin movies and Six Feet Under DVDs together. I'm so happy!

Today, I also received an email from my former officemate. Things are not going well there (as usual) but just the same, hearing something so familiar is oh-so comforting especially when you're in a rut and in the verge of wallowing in self-doubt.

Oh well, I guess I should learn to pay attention more... to simply look around me instead of beyond.

Life is good. My life is good. Thank God for my friends, my family and my wife. =)