NGANTOK: December 2007

A toast for 2008!

Here's to hoping 2008 will be full of great things, in all areas of your life- whether it's work, school, fashion or just pure fun! That it be be better and more fabulous than 2007! Live and make the most of it! Cheers!

And because I just found it, here's a little preview of the excitement which 2008 is sure to bring! I've got for you a trailer for a greatly anticipated Australian film opening March 8 2008! If you're aware of my endless fascination for a certain Australian model, then you'll probably guess which film I'm talking about. If not, well... let me tell you- directed by Elissa Down, starring Toni Collette, Rhys Wakefield and Gemma Ward: it's called The Black Balloon.

There! How could you possibly not be excited? It looks amazing!
Cred: youtube, wiki

happy new year!

Just a quick note to wish everyone a happy new year! I can't believe 2008 is here already!

Tonight Paul and I are having some of our neighbor friends over for drinks and a game of Balderdash. Paul also bought some sparklers and mini fireworks so it should be fun, fun, fun. And the best part is no one has to drive so we will all be safe!

I thought I would list some of my resolutions for all the world to see. When you write things down you are more likely to do them so here goes!

This is my "do better" list, I also have a dream list but I am still working on that one:

shred the junk mail every day and don't let it pile up into a mini mountain
take re-usable bags to the grocery store and when shopping in general
buy at least one new clothing item a month (my wardrobe is very lacking and I hate shopping)
read for pleasure every week and learn to not feel guilty or that I am wasting time.
start a wish jar and put my wishes in it!
treat our garden fountain with chlorine 3x a week so it doesn't turn into a swamp and spawn 1,000s of frogs like this year.
be better about setting boundaries between work and regular life to allow guilt free play time.
learn to part with and stop hoarding my original artwork. I need to be a good girl and start listing batches of work for sale on Etsy. It is piling up and unloved and needs homes.

What are your resolutions for this new year? Post to your blog and add your link to the comments in this post or just post your resolutions in my comments below. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Year Ender Review

This is my version of a year ender review. It summarizes my experiences and gains with this blog.

Well, this blog STENTORIZED was created and started last April of 2007. I have a lots of blogs before this blog was conceived. All of them are not designed to make money online. So, my sole purpose in creating this blog is to prove to myself and to the world that I could make money online with out spending a dime. Particularly, of course, from the Get Paid To post/blog companies.

Truly, I proved that it can be done. But before the money making venture was realized this blog undergoes a lot of patience and hard work. You can not do it over night. Specially, if you do not intend to invest a single cent to buy adverts, buy reviews or links for your blogs.

So,what I did was to utilized whatever are there to utilize in order to make this blog be recognized and be known. I listed this blog to almost all the free directories that I could find and participated to contest, love links, and others just for this very purpose. I even took time to make valuable comments to other sites specially to those with a "do-follow" site.

Finally, last September, the moment has arrived, this was recognized by Google and gave this blog a PageRank of 3 from PR of N/A. Yehey! I said to my self. This development signals my engagement to the get paid to post/blog companies. I immediately signed-up with Smorty and PayPerPost.

At first, I received offers and took several sponsored posts from Smorty which made me an easy money amounting to $120.00 all in all. And for PPP, I already make more than $50.00 as of this writing. However, this money making venture was a short-lived because this blog was hit by the Google PageRank purging. From PR of 3 this was penalized to PR of zero. It was an unfortunate development for this blog. It is like, that when you finally have it they decided to take it away from you. Smorty just stopped giving opportunities while the PPP seldom give opportunities and if ever there is one I could not grab it because a lot of bloggers got it first.

Nevertheless, this blog still earning from the adz coming from Adsense, Widgetbucks, Adbrite and others. Furthermore, I just learned how to get opportunities from SponsoredReviews. Now I have 5 paid assignments to accomplish and to be posted before January 06, 2008. I have yet to study and learn how to get offers from Blogsvertise.

So, the philosophy of Making MOney Online with NO MOney at all is still the sole purpose for this blog, STENTORIZED, comes 2008. Hope I could make more money in the new Year. Good Luck to me! :)

Also, because a few hours from now, year 2007 will be officially ended please allow me to greet you my valuable readers and subscribers alike - a Happy and Prosperous New Year to One and All! GodBless!

weekend warrior

This weekend I cleaned out the Master Bedroom closet while Paul and his buddies watched football. What a mess our closet was! I cleaned out 6 bags of clothes for charity and a ton of old shoes and now it's looking so neat I can hardly stand it.

I also changed the doors on all our medicine cabinets to much nicer ones I got from Lowes.

Then I went on a touch up paint mission. Most of our walls are all this odd taupe color that looks brown in some light and purple in others. I am not a big fan of the color but with lots of large artwork on the walls I have managed to "make it work" (as Tim Gunn would say). I have not gotten to repainting yet, maybe in 2008 December break I will repaint the inside of the house!

So anyway, I took some shelving down so I was in major need of touch up paint. Since the people who lived here before us didn't leave us any colors, I took a slice from the wall and headed to Home Depot to have them match it. I brought the paint home and tested it and it was WAY off. Like not even passable. ugh! So then I thought I'd try Lowes and see if they were any better at matching. I had them mix some up from the same sample and it's much closer. 99% there. Yay Lowes!

I did also manage to get a little studio time in there between all the house work, but Jan 1st it's back to work full time. I have enjoyed a little break from making art -- all this house cleaning has given me a chance to mull over some ideas and think about some projects I am working on with new perspective. yay!

PageRank Dilemma 2

In my previous post entitled, PageRank Dilemma, I stated that this PageRank penalties will create a battle for supremacy between the giant and other big online advertising companies, and that statement is now confirm. The battle has just begun.

I just inquisitively read this intriguing articles from IZEA Blogs posted by Ted Murphy of PayPerPost himself stating that Matt Cutts Confirms Double Standard. Ted is referring to Google implementation of PageRank penalties which according to him "there hasn't been a uniform application of PR penalties for sites/blogs with paid pagerank passing links". Ted even mention TechCrunch as one of the sites which violated that particular Google's policy.

Matt Cutts of Google , before going off line next week, did not let this statement left unanswered. He took time posting his rebuttal in the comment section of Ted's intriguing article. This is the first paragraph of his comments and I quote "Hi Ted, in our conversation I said that we detected the sort of banner ads and links the TechCrunch did quite well already. I do think that that what I sent by email is a fair statement; if we know that some links in a post are paid, that would naturally cause us to look closer at other links within the same post".

Guys, this is a good read and I recommend to visit that particular post to absorb and comprehend what was really transpired on the series of conversations between Ted Murphy of PPP and Matt Cutts of Google. Other big names in the blogosphere also posted there, their's as intriguing comments as the main article itself, such as Andy Beard and among others.

And my conclusion is just the same as before, braced yourselves guys, the PageRank Dilemma create a "battle of supremacy".

This new development on PageRank Dilemma is indeed one hell of a year ender to all of us. The new Year, 2008, will be marked as an exciting and breathtaking episode in the history of the entire Blogosphere. Good Luck and Happy New Year to every one!

Free Keywords

Keywords are very important tool if you are planning to attract traffics through the search engines. These are the words or phrases which typed many times by different people all over the world to look for informations they want in relations to that particular keywords or phrases.

For example, when I learned from Marghil Macuha that the keywords or the phrase Pinay Scandals is one of the hottest keywords that are being searched according to google, I immediately made a post about it. And truly, this particular keywords are sending visitors here in my blog and it is still generating traffics up to now.

Once again, Marghil Macuha shares to us his Precious Keywords which according to him are sending more than 2000 unique visitors from the search engines to his blog every day.
These are the following Free Keywords for your immediate reference 800106ba, answer peter, boybastos, christmas text messages, de la hoya vs mayweather video, deathly hallows pdf, download ds lite games, ds lite games, ds lite games download, erap plunder case, erap plunder case sandiganbayan, erap’s plunder case, eyes like an angel, eyes like an angel -notpron, eyes like an angel smile like a devil, eyes like an angel smiles like a devil, eyes like an angel smiles like a devil lyrics, eyes like an angel smiles like a devil -notpron, eyes like an angel smiles like the devil, filipina scandal, free ds lite games, free friendster skin, free myspace skins, free naruto porn videos, free nintendo ds lite games download, friendster layout, friendster layouts, friendster skin, friendster skins, gretchen barretto, gretchen barretto john estrada, gretchen barretto john estrada pictures, gretchen barretto pictures, gretchen barretto scandal, harry potter and the deathly hallows pdf, illegal system dll relocation, lgku250, macuha malou fernandez, malu fernandez, marimar, marimar episode 39, marimar episodes, mayweather vs de la hoya video, miss universe 2007 winner, myspace skins, naruto porn, naruto porn video, naruto porn videos, naruto porn vids, nds themes, nintendo ds games download, nintendo ds lite, nintendo ds lite games, oscar de la hoya vs floyd mayweather video, pacquiao barrera rematch, pacquiao vs barrera, pacquiao vs barrera 2, peter answer, peter answer me, peter answers, peter answers trick, peter answers.com, peter please answer, peteranswers, peteranswers.com, pinay, pinay scandal, pinay scandals, pinay sex scandal, pinayscandal, pinoy scandal, pinoy scandals, plunder case of erap, r4ds skin, r4ds skins, r4ds themes, rthdcpl illegal system dll relocation, rthdcpl.exe, rthdcpl.exe - illegal system dll relocation, rthdcpl.exe “illegal system dll relocation”, rthdcpl.exe dll relocation, rthdcpl.exe illegal, rthdcpl.exe illegal system, rthdcpl.exe illegal system dll, rthdcpl.exe illegal system dll relocation, rthdcpl.exe- illegal system dll relocation, rthdcpl.exe illegal system relocation, rthdcpl.exe-illegal system dll relocation, scandal, skin for friendster, skin friendster, smart bro, talumpati, tito ortiz vs rashad evans, vedio, winky wright vs bernard hopkins, www.peter answers.com, www.peteranswers.com and youtube marimar.

paper doll game

Just for fun I created this little virtual paper doll game. Check it out!

i'm on diy right now!

I was just searching the internet and discovered that an un-aired episode of DIY Craft Lab that we taped in 2006 is finally on. And it's on right now! Looks like they will re-air it Feb 6th if you missed it. Good thing I DVR that show every day or I would have missed it too. Now I'm off to see how that green jacket that the wardrobe lady lent to me looked. LOL!

call me ms housefrau

I feel like little Miss Housefrau lately with all this cleaning I have been doing. I am in an organizational + cleaning frenzy!

Did I even mention that I cleaned all the tiles in both our bathrooms AND you have to clean them one by one because they are those darn textured ceramic tiles that suck up lots of dirt. I am feeling so virtuous after 6 + hours of cleaning bathroom tiles. The grout has never looked so clean.

For continued tile cleanliness, I headed to Bed Bath and Beyond today to pick up more of these rugs to go in front of the bathroom sinks. I struck up a conversation with another woman buying the same rugs. We both mentioned at almost the same exact time that they are the perfect rugs because the cats won't pee on them. Anyone with cats who like to pee on bath mats will totally get this and why we chatted fervently in the checkout line about our plans to outwit our cats.

Then I shredded our mammoth pile of junk mail shredding and I am so in love with my new 18 sheet shredder. I can put an entire envelope in it without opening it. Bye-bye credit card applications. yay! Now if I can stick to my New Year's Resolution of shredding junk mail every day and not letting it pile up to a mini mountain, I will be so proud of myself.

Then if that wasn't virtuous enough I did my 4th Quarter taxes. yay me! Patting myself on the back! Nighty night!

The Right QOUTES

I remember our elementary school teacher who was so mad and furious because a lot of us could not spell right, all the words which has a letter " Q ".

So, what she did every time we started our lessons in Spelling for our English subject, she would let us recite first this simple qoutes three times.

Below is that simple yet famous qoutes she formulated, to wit:

"To spell every word which has a letter Q.
The Q always followed with a letter U." (repeat 3x)

Therefore, the Right QOUTES is QUOTES. However, it is sad to know that google recognized the word QOUTES as one of the most searched key words here in the Philippines. And take note, if you will try to googled this particular word, it has more than 1.8 million page results with this misspelled word, as of this writing.

I learned about this matter because Marghil Macuha discovered it and tried to conquer the number #1 spot for this particular word in search engine result page or the SERP. Thus, another mini-SEO challenge is on, using the keyword QOUTES. And this post is my attempt to take that challenge. How about you? Good Luck!

Below are the List of all Quotable Qoutes for your immediate reference:

the aftermath

Christmas is over and it was a good one. Yay! Yesterday we had about 15 people over, my mom and dad and then Paul's family too.

I had cleaned the entire house all day on Christmas Eve so everything was sparkling. Well for about 5 minutes. Once our nieces were unleashed it was as if I never cleaned. But it was fun! Mental note, next year don't worry about cleaning so much. Maybe clean *after* the party!!

Today I am doing various business things and getting paper work ready for 2008. I also have a big pile of shredding to do! One of my New Year's resolutions is to shred the junk mail everyday and not let it pile up. Then tonight we might go visit some friends of the family and then I promised I would take my sister in-law's doggie out while they are out of town tonight. That's about it!

Lydia de Vega

Lydia de Vega
AKA Lydia de Vega-Mercado

1st Filipina, 1st woman to win back-to-back gold medals in the 100-meter dash Asiad competition (1982, 1986)

QUOTE
"Sports has had a great impact in my life. It gave me the opportunity to bring prestige to my country and molded me into what I am today. I want my children to experience the same."

ALIAS
"Asia's sprint queen"
"Asia's fastest woman"
"Diay"

DATE OF BIRTH
December 26, 1964

USEFUL LINKS

Sprint Queen
IAAF Biography: Lydia de Vega-Mercado
19 newsmakers in the world of sport
Wikipedia Article on Lydia de Vega

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all have a grand extravagant time this Christmas!
Hugs and kisses all around!
xoxo

Photo cred: TFS

surprise skating party!

Martha and Larry invited Paul and I to ice skating last night. Dina also met us there and it was great to see her again. We had a blast! The best part was when Martha surprised me with a birthday cake (that she made from scratch!) complete with lit candles in the parking lot! They all sang happy birthday to me , so sweet! Then after we skated our feet off, we ate cake and hot chocolate in the snack area of the rink. I felt just like when I was 12 and I had a skating party for my 12th birthday! Too much fun! Thank you Martha!!!

me with my birthday cake!

Me, Martha and Paul! Paul is ready to start eating the cake!

I am off to clean the house to get ready for all the family to come over tomorrow, then it's present wrapping time and tonight we'll watch a Christmas Story. ho ho ho!

Wish Come True

More or less a few hours from now, the day of Christmas is here! The Christian World celebrates the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ on this day. JESUS is the symbol of our Faith, Hope and Love. HIS birthday is a Wish Come True. A wish that a Saviour will come and save us from all the bondage of our sins and sufferings.

May this day will be a peaceful day for all of us and let us not forget that the very essence of this celebrations is to thank GOD for giving HIS only begotten SON to us, in order to save mankind from eternal damnation. So, Don't forget to Pray before partying, okay?

Merry Christmas to one and all! May your Wish Come True! So as mine! lol! Below is my Wish:

The Entrecard Phenomenon

I join Entrecard last night through Marghil Macuha's site, where I first learned about it and the benefits of joining this newest free advertising phenomenon that hit the entire blogosphere. Truly, just this morning some of my traffics are coming in from fellow Entrecard members who are so willingly drop a card here in my blog.

These new experiences prompted me to also doing what an Entrecard member must be doing and that is to drop my card to each and every blog I visited. The very purpose of this is to gain EC credits so that I can buy an advertising spot to other blogs. The whole process becomes addictive and because it really works it is now considered as the Entrecard Phenomenon that hit the realm of blogosphere.

In so doing, I chance upon to the site of our fellow Pinoy Bloggers where The Big List of Pinoy Entrecard Members are listed, for easy reference in our card dropping activities and also for love linking purposes. So, below is that big list, courtesy of Pinoy Entrecards which will be updated from time to time as more and more Pinoy bloggers are coming in after joining the Entrecard network:

The Big List of Pinoy Entrecard Members

Note: This list will not be updated anymore. If you want your blog be included please let us have a link love otherwise go here. Thanks and good Luck!

Angelina Jolie Nude

Angelina Jolie is one of my favorite Hollywood actresses. Lately, she was cast as Grendel's mother in the movie film Beowulf. Surprisingly, as others are claiming she allowed herself to be shot nude without using any plaster or some sort of covering for this particular movie .

The picture below are now scattered all over in the internet. I posted it here so that others will have a chance to look and judge if Ms. Angelina Jolie is really naked in this picture.

You can zoom in/out the image. And using the mouse cursor, you can even scroll on it to have a closer look and scrutinize every inch of Angelina Jolie's Nude body. Try it now, it is fun!

Angelina Jolie Nude

Is she really naked or not?
What can you say?

i am bad at relaxing

I am *supposed* to be relaxing and reading and enjoying movies this week but today I had a really hard time.

I have things on my to-do list that I know can wait a couple days while I enjoy some much needed rest. But just knowing they are on my to-do list irks me and I can't rest with total enjoyment. It is very annoying! Shut up brain!

This is an issue I work on with my coach all the time. I will always have a to-do list. There will always be more things to to-do. I need to learn to rest now and then without feeling like a slacker. Never-the-less, my work brain got the best of me today. So I gave in and did some work on my new book and a few other things. Now I feel a little better and maybe I will be able to allow myself to enjoy Wonderfalls tonight guilt free! We'll see!

Make-A-Wish come true.

It's been out for a while now, since November 20 to be exact, but I've only just noticed these limited edition Myer tees which are super-cute and support the Australian charity Make-A-Wish as well! There are a range of designs from names such as Jennifer Hawkins and Wayne Cooper to my favorite print by Jayson Brunsdon.

They retail at $29.95 each- and $10 of every tee is donated to Make-A-Wish. Brunsdon's grand fashion illustration wins hands down, but Leona Edmiston's is also very sweet in a simplistic innocent kind of way. The words might be a bit hard to read but it's "Wishing upon a star" all jumbled up together (I think...). Apologies for the bad pictures, the lighting in the dressing room was quite low!
Photo cred: myself, news.com.au

not much to report!

It's been nice and slow here the last couple of days. I have been working just a tiny bit in the studio and then reading a lot and enjoying some rest time. Trying not to feel guilty about resting and reminding myself that I have been super busy since September. So I deserve a break.

I am reading a book about Vampires that I surprised myself by enjoying. I am a little embarrassed to post about it, but it's really pretty good in a Buffy/Angel kinda way (I was really into the Buffy/Angel unrequited romance thing back in the day). I haven't read any vampire books since I read all the Anne Rice books in 1995 and am enjoying some mindless "beach reading."

I also rented Wonderfalls from Netflix. It has the guy from Pushing Daisies in it and my friend Missy told me it was really good -- can't wait to watch!

On my agenda for today is to tidy up the studio and organize my supplies a little, pack up a last custom artwork order to go out and maybe update my web site and then rest some more!

What to Blog

I been in this situation for days now. It hit me. I want to blog but I do not know what to blog. As what the other probloggers says, this is just a natural phenomenon to all bloggers.

Bloggers, sometimes face a blank wall and a blank mind when it comes to what to blog. It seems that the urge to write is always there yet when it comes to what topic you will blog it becomes blank. Almost nothing. No topic, no post.

So, finally I decided to blog this predicament of mine. To share to you and to my feed subscribers that I am still here. And always thinking what topic should I offer you. I owed you all, at least, a post every 3 days. Hope you will keep up with me because I valued your subscriptions to this blog.

Pardon me, but I would like to take this opportunity also, to greet you all a Merry and Holy Christmas. God Bless to all of us! good luck!

thank you for the birthday wishes!

Thanks for all the wonderful happy birthday messages and emails! I had a great 33rd birthday yesterday. I got a massage and then Paul and I went out to dinner and afterwards we met up with the neighbors and enjoyed a nice fire in their fireplace. It's really chilly here so it was extra fun!

I was super lucky and I got the wonderful polka dotted plates and mugs from my parent's (thanks Mom and Dad!). Paul got me an ipod nano with the little TV in it! Perfect for when my travel schedule picks up!

Today I did all sorts of errands, went to the dentist, bought some Christmas gifts, went grocery shopping. Now I am exhausted. I am not a good errand runner. If I go to more than one store, I am wiped out for the day. I think I might treat myself to a little rest today and read a little bit. I don't have any pressing work which feels sooooo good!

hi santa!

We took Toby for his annual photo with Santa today. This year we went to the place where we buy all our pet food. Pookies Bow Wow Bakery. It was so much fun! They made such a fuss over Toby telling him how handsome he was. He had a great time!

Tonight we're off to my parent's house. Then we'll relax. I see there's an episode of Extras on tonight. Monday's my Birthday AND I am all done with holiday custom artwork orders so I can have a nice relaxing day! yay!

Sorry for neglecting you...

... it's just that I've been super busy! You know, what with:

extended trading hours at work because of Christmas- just a fyi for you Aussie babes: David Jones is open until 10pm this Monday to Wednesday, and til midnight on Thursday and Friday if you want to fit in some late night shopping,
Christmas shopping for family (I still have no idea what to get my Dad...),
sorting out my timetable for university next year- I'll hopefully be taking a fashion course next semester!
doing some research for places to go and shop in Hong Kong and Tokyo. I'll be in HK for about a month, with a little side trip to Tokyo thrown in there, starting early Feb. My grand shopping plan is to check out the warehouses in HK but anyone got suggestions for Japan? I'm particularly interested in designer outlets- Yohji, CDG, Tsumori Chisato, Junya and all those good Japanese designers!
compiling a mile long shopping list for said trips overseas,
and making another (not as long) shopping list for the boxing day sales. That's an equivalent of the Blk Friday sales in the US of A!

But enough excuses now, I've got the cutest little pair of shoes to show you!! They're Tony Bianco- red patent leather cone heels: the style is called "Ravel" and they're only around $100 mark. The design might not be new, but I just love that these are close toe (I'm feeling the oversaturation of peep toes!) and the cone heel won me over (just look at the runway).

Shame that these size 6s are too big for me!
Photo cred: myself

no tree this year

We decided against putting up the Christmas tree again this year. Stanley is just too naughty and I know I'll spend all day picking him out of the tree. We had some white twinkle lights on our porch this summer just for decoration and I caught him chewing on the glass bits! yipes! So right then I knew no more Christmas tree at least for a couple years. That's OK we really barely have room for one anyway! We'll put out our 1970's ceramic trees and call it a day. I did put up lights outside so that counts too!

Tonight we have Paul's office party to go to (those office parties are always hard work), then maybe we can watch our Netflix movie that came in (The Namesake). I just finished packing up my last custom order that needs to ship on Monday. Yay! I only have one more and that's local so they will come and pick it up. It feels so good to be almost done! The rest of today I'll get cracking on my Christmas postcards to send out. And that's about it around here!

Imelda B. Joson

Imelda Joson and her husband Edwin L. Aguirre were the 1st Filipinos to have an asteroid named after them. Asteroid 6282 was named asteroid Edwelda by the International Astronomical Union (IAU, 1995)
Imelda Joson and Edwin Aguirre were the 1st Filipina and 1st Filipino authors of an astronomy book, the 335-page reference book on Halley’s Comet published by the National Research Council of the Philippines (1985)

QUOTE
"In the study of astronomy, man realizes his insignificance and learns humility … In humility, he finds wisdom, and from wisdom he learns survival."

USEFUL LINKS

Imelda B. Joson - Outreach Leader, Author
Filipino couple find stardom in astronomy
ALP Special Meeting Report
ALP Special Meeting Activity Images

too tired.....

....for a proper post tonight. I've been working away in the studio on custom artwork orders. Almost done! Everything has to ship Monday so only 3 more days of working to go! yipes!

The Advantage Term Life

Are you planning to buy an insurance policy for yourself, for your car or for your love ones? However, you can not decide which insurance policies that are the best and suited to your financial capabilities? Then, you should be glad by now because there is a site which will help you make that important decision of yours. This site is the Advantage Term Life, a Quoting Insurance Services.

An Insurance Quotes service designed to help people from the confusion of deciding which insurance policies are well fitted for their insurance needs. Advantage Term Life, sells all types of life insurance including universal, term, employer group policies, whole life policies,all types of life insurance policies for that matter.

Get an Online Insurance Policy today for all of your insurance needs. Because, here at the Advantage Term Life you will be catered with a precise informations regarding what insurance and as well as what rate of each and every policies that you want to get. So, with this services, you will now have an educated decision on what insurance policies are best for you. Do it now! Good Luck!

project runway party

I'm working up a storm here getting lots of work done so I can enjoy the Project Runway party tonight at Lynn and John's house.

Here's a photo of my hat that I made from paper plates, duct tape, pipe cleaner, colored tissue and newspaper. Click here to see a few more photos on my Flickr.

Recap of the Project Runway Part Challenge: John put random items on a table: paper plates, colored tissue, duct tape, pipe cleaners, pens, newspaper. Then he told us we had to make a hat for ourselves and one for Smudge (their Labrador retriever). We had 45 minutes to work. John even made a "Tresmme Hair and makeup room" complete with wigs and funny glasses to add when we modeled our designs. Lynn and I were a team. Larry and Martha were a team. Matthew and Rachel Cornell were another team.

No challenge tonight, everyone is worn out. But next week we'll do one here at our house! Now to think of something good for the challenge! I'm thinking of garbage bag outfits. Any suggestions?

Sheila Coronel

1st Filipina recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts (2003)
Co-founder of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ, 1989)

QUOTE
"Carefully researched, high-impact investigative reports help build the media's credibility and support among the public."

USEFUL LINKS

The 2003 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts
The Daily PCIJ – Sheila Coronel
Speech: Enriching Democratic Discourse: Investigative Journalism For An Informed Citizenry
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism – Faculty Bio: Sheila Coronel
Filipina Sheila Coronel: Columbia U’s top journalist
Sheila S. Coronel: Outstanding journalist, remarkable woman
Wikipedia Article on Sheila Coronel

Marhgil Macuha

Marhgil Macuha is an SEO expert and soon to become a master of it. He is now running his first ever mini-SEO contest.

To win this contest, your post must be ranked the highest for the unique keyword on January 4, 2008. That unique keyword is Marhgil Macuha, of course, and the required link is http://www.macuha.com. Prizes at stake is $100 for google and $50 for yahoo.

Marhgil Macuha is a blogger and He is recently recognized as one of the 2007 Top Pinoy Probloggers here in the Philippines. I learned a lot from his blog. So,even if I win or not, this is my own little way of recognizing and honoring him for the knowledge I got from his posts. Good Luck!

tag! i'm it!

The wonderful illustrator, Angela Matteson tagged me to reveal 25 of my favorite movies. It's so hard to list only 25, I have so many favorites, so these are the first ones that came to my head!

Amelie
American Beauty
Basquiat
Big Fish
Bread and Tulips
Chocolat
Edward Scissorhands
Election
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Little Miss Sunshine
Lord of the Rings (all 3)
Memento
Muriel's Wedding
Nightmare Before Christmas
Notes on a Scandal
Office Space
The Piano
Pan's Labyrinth
Pecker
The Princess Bride
Pulp Fiction
Sideways
Thank You for Smoking
The Usual Suspects
Volver

Now I'll tag 5 people: Lesley, Kal, Donna, Carmi & Linda. What are your favorite movies? Post on your blog and put the link in the comments below!

Proven Secret to Really Make Money Online

You remember my post entitled Mp-3 Codes for Free Spells Money? Where I came out with a conclusion that maybe by giving "anything" for free to the millions of internet surfers will also spells money for us?

This conclusion of mine became stronger after I learned how sulit.com.ph performed, in terms of traffic or site's visitors, for the month of November 2007. It was reported that it generates 10.4 million pageviews and 1.7 visitors for that particular month alone. Could you imagine how much sulit.com.ph will be earning just for the google adsense impressions only? Remarkable! isn't it?

Sulit.com.ph by the way is the premiere Buy and Sell Philippines (Free Classified Ads) which I am also a proud member. Base on my surfing habit, I never missed visiting this site almost every day. I use this site for my affiliate marketing and recruiting purposes.

It is FREE! So, why should I pay for other advertising sites when there is sulit.com.ph? And aside from being free, your ads will be surely read by the right persons, because people who will visit this site are the ones who are looking for something to buy, to sell or to look for any classified ads that will interest them. Could you ask for more?

"Free is the proven secret to make money online. It is in coherent with a popular yet always forgotten adage that the more you give the more you receive." - Stentorized

So, I give you this informations for free. Hope you will learn from this. Good Luck!

12 crafty days of christmas

Kelly Powers from Creative Catalyst (the company who makes my DVDs and lots of other super cool DVD workshops) created this AMAZING and super creative little animated video. Check it out!

Best Leading Lenders

Hey, need some loans for any purpose? Just any purpose for that matter? May it be for auto, home, or Personal Loans? You can now access it and obtained them quick from Best Leading Lenders.

Different programs are offered nationwide and always available for good and bad credit. Yes, even bad credits, because Best Leading Lenders also specializes in sub prime financing or reffered as Bad Credit Loans.

Let say you want to avail a Car Loan to get that dream car of yours which you always wanted to own but your credit is not perfect, then do not be worry. A special financing program is designed just for that and most probably you will still be qualified for a competitive auto financing with Best Leading Lenders. Not only that, getting approval takes only a few minutes and most of all there are no charges nor commitments required on your part.

That is how Best Leading Lenders provides for your needed Car Loan. Try it and you will surely get that dream car of yours. Good Luck!

smARTist preview call now online - FREE!

Did you miss the smARTist’s™ Virtual Opening Reception Party, preview call on Dec 4th? 830 artists registered for this preview call. Wow! That's a lot of artists! But not to worry! You can listen to the recording online or download it to your computer.

Click here to listen NOW! To find the recording, click “Free Events” in the menu bar at the top of the homepage.

The next preview call will be Jan 8th @ 7pm EST. Mark your calendar!

What's the smARTIST Telesummit?
Ariane Goodwin, Ed.D. (artist career coach and author of “Writing The Artist Statement: Revealing the True Spirit of Your Work”) has pulled together a group of successful keynote speakers (including me!) to help you move your art career up to the next level. I'll be giving a talk about my favorite topic - artist web sites and blogging!

The smARTist™ Telesummit 2008 is the only national, and international, art career conference, online or off. Kick off your artist career in 2008 and register now!

Sheila Mae Perez

1st Filipina triple-gold medalist at the Southeast Asian Games (SEAG 2003, 2005)

QUOTE
"It's historic when you get the Olympic gold, especially if it's for your country. I want to have the honor of giving it to the Philippines."

DATE OF BIRTH
December 10, 1985

FATHER: Zenon Perez
MOTHER: Virginia

USEFUL LINKS

Sheila Mae Perez: Born of the Water
Diver becomes first Filipino triple gold winner
Sheila Mae shares life struggle in Maalaala Mo Kaya
Perez turns pool into own playground

sad santa...

This weekend was busy and a lot of fun! My neighbor and I took Christmas photos of our dogs dressed up in their holiday finery. Here's Toby as Sad Santa. He was not happy about wearing this outfit. But doesn't he look cute!

And a photo of Toby and Gizmo together.....

Saturday night Paul and I went to the McRae Art Studios holiday opening & party. It was super fun. I even saw a few of my blog readers there. Hi ladies!!

The rest of the time, I worked really hard on custom artwork orders to stay on track. I only have this week left to work and then everything needs to ship by Dec 17th (my birthday!) to arrive in time. I feel like one of Santa's elves working away in my workshop.

Lillian Gonzalez-Pardo

Dr. Lillian Gonzalez-Pardo

1st Filipina-American, 1st Asian-American woman to serve as president of the American Medical Woman's Association (AMWA, 1992)

QUOTE
"When the female half of the human race is adequately represented in making medical decisions, we will get a better picture of how women can change medicine for the better."

USEFUL LINKS

University of Kansas Medical Center Faculty: Lillian Pardo, M.D.
AMWA Circles of Honor
Women Await Chance To Improve Medicine
Asian Pacific American Firsts
Medical Missions Activity Among UPCM Alumni

illustration friday: little things

Here's my submission for Illustration Friday's theme of "little things"

(click image to enlarge)
This piece was created for a 2009 calendar by TeNeues Publishing but I thought it worked for the theme. This little lady is knitting up some little things for her kitties!

holiday pets!

Mable got all dressed up in a Santa outfit to remind you not to forget the critters this holiday season!

My good friend Bernie at A Place to Bark has lots of sweet furry babies that need your help! Even just $5 or $10 would go a long way to helping to support all the animals that she takes in and finds new homes. She was telling me yesterday that she spends $15,000 a year just on pet food not to even mention the vet bills! Wow! By networking with humane societies, she has rescued (and found homes for) over 500 animals this year all by herself! yay! go Bernie!!

I was also just at Petco and they have a fund raiser drive too and PetsMart does Santa photos with your pet with the money going to local Humane Societies. So whether you donate locally or to a charity far away, don't forget the pets this holiday season!

hey san francisican's!

I'm going to have a little illustration in the San Francisco Chronicle this Sunday December 9th in the Style section! If anyone can grab me a copy and mail it to me (just the page with my image on it) send me an email!

Sulit Sa Saya Raffle 3

Sulit Sa Saya Raffle 3 - Holiday Raffle has just started last December 03, 2007 and the deadline for the submission of entries is on January 04, 2008. During the Sulit Sa Saya Raffle 2, I won a nokia 5700 Xpressmusic Cellphone. This time you have a chance to win the following items below, which will be raffled on January 06, 2008:

1st Prize: (1) - Brand New Apple Ipod Touch (8GB)
2nd Prize: (1) - Brand New Nokia 5310 XpressMusic Cellphone
3rd Prize: (1) - Brand New Sony PSP-2000 (Slim Version)
4th Prize: (10) - 5000 Sulit Currencies (SC)

So,

Get a chance on winning a brand new
Apple Ipod Touch (8GB),
Nokia 5310 XpressMusic Cellphone or
Sony PSP-2000 (Slim Version)
this holiday season as a member of Sulit.com.ph.
Join now by clicking here.

This event is brought to you by:
Buy and Sell Philippines

The Bet365

What is bet365 all about? That is the question that most people wanted to ask. Well to those who do not know, Bet365 is an online betting facilities for online gambling. It is a provider of a wide range of online betting services through their online casino.

You name it there they have it, as what the saying goes, because here at bet365, you could even enjoy their Sportsbook betting facility, interactive games section and a dedicated online poker playing area. And furthermore, bet365 will provide a one wallet system where you will enjoy any of its services through one manageable account.

You will not be worried about your money because at bet365, it is considered as the highest priority when it comes to customer's security. A secured online environment will always be on top while serving your online betting needs.

So, for all your online gambling requirements bet365 is the site you can trust. Enjoy! Have fun! and good Luck!

project runway party!

I worked super crazy hard today to get everything done so now I can enjoy a Project Runway party. I missed the last few from being sick so I am really glad I am finally well enough to join in on the fun! Tonight I'll be going over to Lynn and John's house with Martha + Larry to watch the episode AND play along in a Project Runway challenge hosted by John. What can I make with duct tape and paper? We'll see!

See you tomorrow!

EDITED THURSDAY 7:30PM
The Project Runway Party was so much fun! I have not had that much fun in a long time! John put random items on a table: paper plates, colored tissue, duct tape, pipe cleaners, pens, newspaper. Then he told us we had to make a hat for ourselves and one for Smudge (their Labrador retriever). We had 45 minutes to work. John even made a "Tresmme Hair and makeup room" complete with wigs and funny glasses to add when we modeled our designs. Lynn and I were a team. Larry and Martha were a team. Matthew and Rachel Cornell were another team. Martha took photos so when I get them I will post a couple.

We all thought Victorya was being really passive aggressive , I think she's this season's Wendy Pepper. We had our money that Ricky would be the one out. I was sad to see Chris go. In my mind he was this season's Jay.

French Vogue December 2007/ January 2008

Sasha and the little lion cub! Just completely adorable- especially the one where he's between her legs... looks like he's getting ready to pounce! And then there's Sasha's absolutely major facial expressions: as Tyra would say, I love that "she's not afraid to make it ugly!" It doesn't happen often, but I have to say that the clothing fades in comparison to the two stars of the editorial Pyjama Parties! Photography by Mark Segal. Styled by Mélanie Huynh.

Photo cred: Diorette @ TFS

Vedio for Video

This vedio will show you the most beautiful and charm lady bearing herself for your enchantment while watching her.

Why vedio instead of video?

Vedio for video brings out more than 1.9 million results in the google search engine as of this writing. It is quite amusing how this mis spelled word are being used and posted in so many sites and blogs specially in youtube.

Sex vedio is also indexed and brings out more than 2 million results as of this writing. And the most amusing is the words - six vedio - being typed in the searched engine by most people in search for sex video sites.

Vedio is supposed to be video. However, lots of people really believe that the right spelling of this word is vedio. Well, anyway this information is just posted to let everybody know that this things happen. And, I do not have any intentions to malign those who committed mistakes in the spelling of this word.

Enjoy watching this six vedio and have fun!

busy busy

Super busy here working away on Christmas custom artwork orders. it's crunch time now with only two weeks to get everything done in time to ship. Here's a little sketch order that I finished up of this cute couple and their two doggies.

(click image to enlarge)
see you tomorrow!

A Well Planned Vacations

If you are planning to have a well planned vacation specially abroad and wanted to make a reliable, fast and easy Hotel Reservations online, then you came to the right place because I just happen to learn that HotelReservations.com is one of the best there is when it comes to your reservation needs.

Here you can have reliable informations regarding flights, cars, and vacation rentals. They even have vacation packages guaranteed with lower rates offered in worldwide destinations. Not only that, you can save up to 70% on hotels, motels, and resorts everytime you make a booking.

So, do not forget to book your next travel vacations with

Blogger: my call for help...

Just a quick question for my fellow bloggers out there regarding image placement- it's irritating me no end! For those who use IE to view my blog, you would probably have recognized my problem already: the strange gaps and formatting appearing in my posts between images every now and then because I myself use Firefox.

Take my latest post for example:

I guess my question is: What can I do to, in a sense, standardize the look of my posts between different browsers?
(I'm not even sure whether my call for help makes sense or whether it's just a jumble of words... but if you have just an inkling of what I'm on about, and know a possible solution, I would greatly appreciate any form of contribution!!)