|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. =)

My Stuff

My wife and I recently moved out our apartment, where we lived for 3 years. Now, we're living in my family's house (more of my house, if you'd ask me! Hehehe! I'm such a bitch!) where we relatively have more organized storage. But for some reason, we never have enough storage space for my stuff! I have a lot! And I really mean A LOT!!!

My big sister, Ate May keeps on telling me I'm such a pack rat. I have way too much stuff that can actually be disposed of, but I never do. Well, I guess I'm too sentimental. As I always say, I'm Ms. Long-term Everything. I'm into long-term relationships, my friends now are my friends since forever, and the stuff I actually use i.e. clothes, shoes, bags gets really old before I replace them. Worse, I pretty much keep everything my friends give me -- even a simple note written in tissue!

Honestly, I wish I can change that about myself. I wish I could be a little less sentimal -- just like my dad and my wife. Makes spring cleaning and moving in/out a lot easier.

But just the same, I have a number of stuff I call My Most Priced Possessions. These are stuff that are not really expensive nor important in terms of function, but I just can't let go of for whatever reason. Here's a really quick list of those stuff:

* My POG collection. During the late 90's, Coca-Cola had a promo for POG caps. They had 24 designs, all of which I was able to collect. I want to have them framed. For me, it was an achievement.
* Speaking of achievement, I love my Starbucks rocket tumbler -- imagine, 58 fraps in 62 days. Apart from being well, expensive, it reminds me of all the friends I was able to hang-out with because of that promo.
* VCD collection of Mandarin movies + DVD collection of Seasons 1 and 2 of Six Feet under. These are among our recent acquisitions. My wifey bought them from HK when she went there this month for a business trip. We were so thrilled to actually own original VCDs of movies done by our favorite HK superstars -- the likes of Karen Mok, the late Anita Mui, Stephen Chow, Sammi Cheng and Cecilia Cheung.
* School projects. I have a thing for collecting my school projects. They remind me of my younger self, groupworks remind me of old friends, papers remind me of how hardworking I was -- having to use our ancient manual typewriter. Even if my grades aren't always impressive, I'm always proud of my works even as a child.
* Letters from friends. As I've said, I'm very sentimental. I love reminiscing the good ol' days. Makes me even happier to know most of them are still very involved in my present life.
* Cat Collection. No, I don't collect cats -- I collect cat stuff. I'm crazy about cats!!! I love my feline siblings soooooo much!!!

Well, that's it for now! Have nothing else to say! Heehee!

Nininuninu... What to do, What to do...

I've been wondering... I've been thinking of writing a short story... I already have at last three plots in mind but I'm having a hard time deciding which language to use. I think I'm comfortable enough to write in English. But I feel that I'm able to express more emotions in Tagalog. Writing in English might make all my characters sound alike. With Tagalog, I can be kikay, bading, perhaps even astig. However, I'm a lot more sarcastic and bitchy when I write in English... Haaayyyy... what to do, what to do...