pullquotes are amazing!

...this is a pullquote. im in a testing phase, i wonder if i can insert a link to my work blog...



i was going to use this post as a test run for my pullquotes, but i was so overcome with giddy happiness with being able to accomplish these little tweaks in my blog that i decided to make an official post anyway. so this is me, all happy and giddy every time i click on publish post and a wonderful new tweak has been added to my humble blog.

^_^

i must say i have gone a long way ever since my first ever tweak (or hack? whats the difference?) (i don't really know) (they are all tweaks to me) -my first tweak was a marquee thingy several months and several blogs ago. and you can see that i fell in love with it (see sidebar) -->

i moved on to posting links, posting pictures, posting pictures and links that open to another tab or window, (i have to say this is one of my favorites as i don't like losing pages im reading just because i got mouse-happy and decided to click links like crazy), getting a whole new template from outside blogger (again, very important as it personalized my blog completely), putting a signature in my posts, adding a favicon (woohoo!!), making links to pages at the top of my blog, adding widgets and more widgets and even more widgets (at one point, i got so addicted to widgets that i had to delete a previous blog because there was nothing BUT widgets), adding a site counter ---and these are just the simple stuff.

i eventually mustered enough courage to make changes to my template (ooohhhh!) i added tag cloud hacks and archive hacks with a calender (both from here, thank you so much), adding pullquotes and tool tips (thank you dean annie), and a recent posts widget (that i will be adding in a little while - thank you hans). and can you believe it, just by reading their instructions i am learning indirectly on how to make my own codes and stuff (can you tell i don't know what to call them. hehehe) with the help of cheats of course.

^_^

and so, what was intended to be a "test post" for my pullquote has become a long list of raves and thank you's to the wonderful world of blogger-instructors and html enthusiasts that makes it easy for me (a humble html-idiot-blogger - who doesn't even know what html, css, xml, feeds, and such means) .

^_^

CREDITS:
dean annie
hans
peter chen
ramani
phydeaux3
more to come. ;>

^_^

...like i said before, it doesn't feel like real blogging if i don't change things around every now and then. change is part of blogging. what fun it all is. ;>

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unfinished unedited

*a blog post i started a few weeks ago. now my train of thought has completely been broken. i don't even remember why.

@--,--'--

Just a little senti tonight...

I wish I knew, I wish somebody told me.

For the longest time, as far back as I can remember, I have always wanted to be on my own, living in my own home, financially independent, travelling for leisure… I wanted to be free. I wanted to be away from it all. At the time, “it” meant my life, the people around me, problems, pressure, even depression. I want to say the typical angst that a teener goes through, although I don’t know if it is indeed typical. I now realize that that has always been my means of coping – I run away. I escape...

XXX

that's it.


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i'm not a blogger

i have to admit it. shit. im not, im just not.

although crazily enough, when im not blogging there are so many things i want to write about. it could be an opinion or a thought or a picture or a significant event, i even phrase it in my mind already.

oh shit.

@--,--'--

then i realize. the whole point is to break out of my shell. look at myself from out of the box and think and act from there. change. change is the key. its not blogging im not good at,

its the sharing part.

its the rules.

and who says i have to follow them every time. and people who follow them every time, they are not too bad too, its their stroke.

i have mine.

@--,--;--


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maybe the old songs

tonight's play list:

  • we built this city - starship
  • jessie's girl - rick springfield
  • cherish - kool & the gang
  • dirty diana - michael jackson
  • telefone - sheena easton
  • new year's day - U2
  • she's out of my life - michael jackson
  • la bamba - just another band from east LA
  • on my own - patti labelle and michael mcdonald
  • the look - roxette
  • born in the USA - bruce springsteen
  • i want to know what love is - foreigner
  • keep on loving you - reo speedwagon
@--,--'--

i've been away for too long.

the past few days have been busy. work got crazy, as it always does, but this time it got aggravating. my supervisor told me that one of my clients asked for a faster turn-around-time with their files. this is not new, they have been asking for this for so long i can't recall when it actually started. but this time, we are receiving heat from them already, calling the other bosses and asking, no - demanding that their files be sent stat. this in itself is not impossible, if what they want is just that, their files sent back to them half-baked. but if they wanted quality files, they just have to realize that that takes time, given the fact that they are a difficult client, (the most difficult one i have) plus their format is not easy.

anyway, they threated to leave several times already and i say let them. it is not worth the aggravation. i say a healthy working relationship has to have open communication - they have been demanding and demanding and demanding, but they are just not listening - fact is, working their files takes time. plain and simple.

but that's just half the aggravation. as a safety measure, my supervisor is now asking me to share the account with a groupmate, which is fine, except... except now this other person is copying my work, practically just changing my name on the report and passing it off as hers. now that's just plain nasty.

i could elaborate but that would mean naming names and i cant do that right now (maybe later).

@--,--'--

it's a monday night sound trip. and based on my song list up there ^ its the 1980's top 40. yey for old songs.

@--,--'--

i have an itch that has been bugging me since about august. i need to get my hands working again on some craft stuff. i've already put away my beads because according to the plan, it's review time already - but honestly, its the last thing on my mind. right now, all i can think of are papers and cards and crafts and ribbons and deconstructed and reconstructed calendars and journals

(hey, she's out of my life, i love this song. reminds me of elementary, this particular day i was in a friend's house and we were listening to michael jackson's album. as early as then, i already had an affinity with this song. its so sad its beautiful.)

anyway reconstructed journals, homemade cards, homemade stamps, inks, cutting tools, rubber pads, you get the point.

@--,--'--

link finds of the week:

http://www.finetune.com - the source of my 1980's top 40 music right now.

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com - the source of my crafting fix - this site is getting me fired up about just doing it already.

@--,--'--

just once - quincy jones

let's all take a moment of silence as one of my ultimate favorite songs is playing in the background.

this used to be my song. happily it is not anymore. it reminds me of a more bitchy me, an insecure girlfriend who gets riled up at the smallest things. oh yes, i have to admit that about me. at one point, not only did i feel like the the world revolved around me, i wanted somebody else to make me the center of his world. and how did that turn out? disastrous. a happy disaster though. changed my life.

now its just a really cool song.

ok, moment over.

@--,--'--

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comfort foods

one can of light tuna, drained - add one packet of crackers, crushed - mix well.

scrambled eggs cooked with Parmesan cheese, a little garlic salt to taste.

pringles - the old one, before they changed their packaging and flavour

kare-kare the way nanay makes it, sans artificial flavours, but with real thick peanut sauce

hotdogs with day-old sinigang broth

champorado topped with white sugar, powdered milk, with dilis side dish

matalos with boiled eggplant and kalamansi sauce (a kind of small fish found in our province)

palengke-bought palabok - red ribbon's version comes second and jollibee's comes third

adobong puti - the way tatay makes it - thick with fat and salty and sour at the same time

daddy will's sinangag very early in the morning

jesse's sinigang - extremely sour

tortang talong - stuffed grilled eggplant

goldilock's chocolate cake

selecta's double dutch ice cream

longganisang lucban with eggs done sunny side up and fried rice

garlic fried rice

sbarro's baked half ziti with focacia bread

white pizza with lots of garlic and lots and lots of cheese

yummmmmmmmm!

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the about post

about this blog:

this is a personal journal of my life. my day, my loves, my dreams, my ups and downs, my rants and raves and everything and anything i can dream up in between.

...including my crazy and chaotic thoughts.

most especially my crazy and chaotic thoughts.

@--,--'--

about me:

another daunting task.

i never could describe myself, even in job interviews and first time introductions, i find that my descriptions are always lacking. maybe because i still don't know myself well yet... nah. it's because i'm a pretty complicated person in the first place.

anyway, its a personal blog, not meant to be widely read, but for those of you who stayed long enough to click on the about post, i'm gonna at least try.

i'm rochelle marie, rochelle to the outside world, may to family, roche to a very few (extremely few friends, i can count only three or four, in fact, who call me roche), baby and chell to my husband, and chelle to friends.

i find that my age is a significant part of who i am, so i'm just gonna mention it here and get it over with - i'm 30. although i don't feel old, i feel like there are so many things i still haven't done, that is why my age is significant, i'm in my second half of my life already - my second chance and i know that this thought is sweet and morbid at the same time.

...sweet because, well... i love second chances. from experience, second chances are sweeter than the first time. i've always been a fan of "two old friends meeting again, wearing older faces, talking about the places they've been" and second-try success stories. it simply signifies that if you screw up the first time - hey, you can always try again, and this time - don't screw it up.

so, again, 30. i'm listing up things i want to do and places i want to see, and decisions that should have been made when i was 19 going on 20. but like i said - here's my second chance.

...and morbid because its as though im gonna die at 60, and thats waaay too young. my kids would only be 30 then, the same age as i am now, and i just know this age is too young for their mom (or grandma perhaps?) to die.


ok, going back, about me. i'm a big fan of run-on sentences, commas, hyphens, and ellipsis.

(from wiki: ellipsis -Not to be confused with ellipse.)

Ellipsis (plural ellipses; from Greek ἔλλειψις 'omission') in printing and writing refers to the row of three full stops (... or . . . ) or asterisks (***) indicating an intentional omission. This punctuation mark is also called a suspension point, points of ellipsis, periods of ellipsis, or colloquially, dot-dot-dot. An ellipsis is sometimes used to indicate a pause in speech, an unfinished thought or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence (aposiopesis).

teheee! - i just love the sound of that - "dot-dot-dot."


in connection, i also have a habit of ranting and going off topic.

i grew up around sesame street and english cartoons and english sitcoms and movies. needless to say, i can speak and write the language fairly well, heck my everyday job even calls for me to be grammatically correct 98% of the time - but as this is MY blog. i really dont care (much) (sometimes) (OK so i CARE!) (but i dont want to) (and thats really the point) (of what) (i forgot) anyway.

did i mention that i talk to myself. and that there are two me's. yes. uh-huh. okay. so i'm crazy. i'm also a gemini - so that explains it. it explains everything for me actually. because im bipolar (well, not really. i use the term loosely - it just means i can go both ends of extremes in a range of emotions and opinions).

in connection with being bipolar (again, using the term very loosely) im also an obsessive compulsive (and again, loosely) which means, im gonna preview this post after every paragraph to check for errors, im gonna change a sentence if it doesn't feel right (even if it did when i was writing it) even those that i've already posted a few days back. it also means, i check and double check and triple check if doors are closed, if i plugged in my charger after i already checked it the first two times, if i remember to remember the things im supposed to remember - which further means, i write things down a lot (i have close to 10 notebooks at this point- all active) and about 4 "active ballpens" and a drawerful of other pens i bought years and years ago, which i dont use, but i might, but i dont, but i still keep them "just in case" - all for writing to-do lists.

oddly though, im bad with names and numbers. and when i say bad. i mean really bad. i've had so many times when i meet someone and i just cant remember their names at all. and these are significant people from my past. nope, i haven't forgotten them, i can remember everything about them - just not their names. i know, terrible right? same goes for song title and singers, movie titles and actors, books and authors.

but, i can remember how i felt with the person, how a particular someone or something touched my life, the feelings surrounding a song and my opinions of a movie or a book. i can remember the events surrounding my life when i was with the person, or the first time i heard a song... and it stays with me forever.

which is why i love old songs and old movies, and books that i read and watch and listen to over and over again. i'm not much for the "now" music, im more into really really really old songs.

oh and im a crafter. i love doing things with my hands, jewelry, papercrafts, sewing, crochet, etc. but lets reserve this is for another post.

@--,--'--

here's another take in describing myself.

i'm a... good listener || frustrated thespian|| do-it-yourselfer || emotional wreck || obsessive-compulsive || solitary player || on a diet forever || pa-cute || chronic daydreamer || addicted to old songs || glass half full || hopeless romantic || gemini through and through || neat freak || curious cat || idealist || needle-phobic || unusually punctual || extremely shy || to-do-list fanatic || sensual (wink! wink!) || passionate chinita.

@--,--'--

and finally, here's something i always use to describe myself in interviews. this was actually taken from an online psych test that fit me to a tee.

Your Emotions: dynamic and active, strong-willed and decisive, unemotional (yup, i can be or rather, i'm good at pretending to be when the situation calls for it), independent, compulsive need for change.

You at Work: Born leader, not easily discouraged, goal-oriented, organizes well, often sees the whole picture and seeks practical solutions, spontaneous (im having second thoughts on this though), insists on production, stimulates activity and thrives on opposition (huh?), is usually right (hehe this is funny), often excels during emergencies, has little need for friends (oh my gosh) but will work for group activity, optimistic.

@--,--'--

i know this is a very self-serving post. and as always i feel like its still lacking but at the same time, i feel like i've said too much.

anyway, i know i wanted to share something about myself and at least i've accomplished that and writing all this is indeed a very daunting task, especially coming from someone who is a very private person.

you see, i keep my mind and heart guarded all the time... but i now find that i'm having a change of heart, it's time for a change... maybe i don't have to be so obsessive, maybe im fighting some of the bad things about me, maybe i can still be some of the things i want to be, yep. and this is my goal.

... so there, this is me, breaking out of my chelle.

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"im a very passionate person. in everything i do, i put my all. when i work, i work to perfection, when i love i love with all my heart, and when i put my mind on something, i get it done, or i will die trying" @--,--'--

starting anew

and the best way i can think of right now is to go to sleep.

after eight hours of graveyard shift, i'd like to start my wednesday with an undisturbed rainy day deep slumber.

and i'm starting a new blog (ah-gain), hopefully for the last time. but all i can think of right now is going back to sleep. so, my first groundbreaking post will have to wait.

thoughts of a racing mind:
have to sleep, but my mind is racing, so i will have to force it || hope i don't get hungry in the middle of my sleep as i ran out of my bedside cookies || and i hope i don't have to pee every few hours because of my grape juice and sunquick orange binge this afternoon || oooh sunquick yummy, brings back memories || oh and i do feel oh so gorgeous right now, my hair is so bouncy and shiny || darn i have to start my crafting already || i promise myself tomorrow i will || hmmm, not tomorrow really, but later || i want some juice, but i just know it will make me pee like crazy || will i or will i not take toefl-ibt, have to make up my mind soon || cake, yummy || i miss my cookies already.

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