Happy Birthday Sis!

I am quite delayed in posting this, but last August 13, it was my sister's birthday.. i was planning to bring my family to eat outside in a restaurant but they said they got tired. well, maybe next time. just want to say to my sister: HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY! i am so proud of your accomplisments, you made me really proud to be your bro. take care and enjoy your natal day! (i think you did..hehehe)

The New Me

Just yesterday, i was trying to look at my face in the mirror (which by the way, i always do!) i noticed that the patches in my head were already gone. I looked at my back using another mirror to focus on my patches at the back and I was surprised that it was already gone! REALLY!

fast rewind: I had alopecia areata few months back (extreme falling hair that would actually leave patches at my scalp) The culprit: stress due to the nursing board exam last November The victim: me! of course! hehehe.

anyway, going back. I was stroking my very very short hair and at the same time locating where are the patches in my head and suddenly I shouted at my sister " pat, tan-awa ba gud ning akong hair, ni tubo na xa! yipeee (translation for my friends located all over the world: pat, look at my hair it's starting to grow)"

It actually made my day!

the back of my head now. Look closely and you wont find any patches anymore.

this was the picture taken last February this year. I often get a lot of stares from people this actually made me very conscious. And in my blog previous blog. People always ask me what happened to my hair, and i always have a scripted answer. smile.

yes it was tough, really tough. i had a lot of adjustments when i had my hair bald. It was tough since i have to use a cap whenever i go out (downtown area) just to hide from the stares of the people, not to mention that while riding my motor bike i sometimes get stares from passengers sitting at the pedicap (the three-wheeled passenger vehicle here in dumaguete) whenever I overtake them and at that time I am not wearing a cap. hahayz!

after scalp injections, oral medications, bottles of PREGROW shampoo and conditioner, triamcinolone solution inflammatory medication and minoxidil hair regrower, i have finally come to a conclusion that i am healed. YEHEY!

One of the things i really miss most was when I sit in front near the altar whenever go to church on Sundays and I don't get to do this since i have to wear a cap when i go to church and i have to stand near the door just enough to hear the priest at the speaker near the church entrance. So Saaad.

But last Sunday was different, i get to sit in the church pews after 7 long months of being bald and being conscious about it in the public.. I didn't wear a cap this time when i went to the church and i was really proud I have hairs on my head. Thank You Lord. :-)

After church, i was ready to have my first haircut in months, this time, it was not shaving but trimming only just to get rid of unwanted extra length of hairs at the side of face. and it went perfect.

my first haircut.. sweet! hehehe. i love the trim afterwards.

I just felt alive this time around, that after that painful decision of shaving of my hair, now, its back. I am just pleased that my hair is back. I know that i have to take care of my self this time, like less stress and i have stop being vain with all the hair colors, hot oils and hair relax. I have learned to love my self more. Some people would usually ask me:

friend: "Jay, did you lose your self-esteem when you lost your hair?"

Jay: " actually no. i was pretty much confident about myself and i am very proud of myself because i fairly accomplished a number of things already in my lifetime, the only problem is that, i get uncomfortable whenever people give me a hard stare (like straight 5 minutes of staring), i would really melt. :-)

friend: " so from now on, your self-esteem is multiplied to 5 times more"

Jay: "actually yes (laughter) i am extremely loving my self now and I know now that my imperfections made more human and whenever i look back in my life, i could actually laugh at this situation and learn from it, and that there is more to life than having no hair. Cheers!

The Happy Me!

Going GaGa over Boys over Flowers

I admit, i am one of those fans that fell gaga over this new korean-hit telenovela (thank God for ABS-CBN for bringing to the Philippines). I am currently still playing the episodes and i am not even close to the last episode but as of right now, I am declaring myself a "fanatic" fan of BOYS OVER FLOWERS.

I don't get to see the episodes since it is placed in a late afternoon timeslot so I have to borrow a DVD copy from my officemates.

I am posting this article from www.dramabeans.com, i am so happy they are actually detailing the episodes and the cast in their site. so here it is guys, enjoy!!

Kim So-eun (Yuki), Lee Shi-young (Sakurako)

Yeah, I know I’m posting a lot about Boys Before Flowers, but nothing else is getting me all that excited these days. Plus, it goes to show just how anticipated this drama is when we get news reporting not just on the leading actors, but even the very peripheral members of the cast.

So, with the main characters all lined up (the boy-men of Flower Four, main character Makino, beautiful model Shizuka, and tough older sister Tsubaki), now it’s time to turn our attentions to the rest.

Gu Hye-sun’s (Makino) character’s best friend Ga-eul (meaning Autumn; Yuki in the manga) is 19-year-old new actress Kim So-eun — and yes, she will share a “fresh” and “dramatic” storyline with Kim Bum’s Soujiro (er, So Yi-jung).

Sakurako will be taken on by 24-year-old Lee Shi-young, who recently drew attention for her role as Yeon-hwa in the sageuk drama Kingdom of the Wind. I haven’t seen her act, but she definitely looks the part — fresh and innocent on the outside, but potentially “I will cut you” on the inside. Her character’s name is Oh Min-ji.

The Geum family

Of particular note are the members of main character Jan-di’s family. (By the way, it does appear that Gu’s character name has been changed from Yeon-woo to Jan-di, which means grass.)

First you have her father, played by actor Ahn Seok-hwan, now in his fourth drama collaboration with director Jeon Ki-sang. You probably recognize him as Jae Hee’s dad from Delightful Girl Chun-hyang and Witch Amusement, or from My Girl, or as the China-phile (is that a word?) minister in Hong Gil Dong. The dad operates a dry-cleaning store and the Geum family is staunchly middle-class (though closer to the lower end).

Mom is gonna get some Goong comparisons, since she’ll be played by Im Ye-jin, who played Yoon Eun-hye’s mom in that drama (which is funny since the Japanese Hanadan mom always reminded me of her).

Jan-di’s little bro is a precocious computer geek played by 13-year-old Park Ji-bin (My Man’s Woman, Yi San). (Sorry, that picture is probably a year or two old.)

The mean girls

Now that our big names have been doled out among the main cast, there are some new faces mixed in with the rest of the cast. These tertiary characters have been cast on the basis of their closeness to the original manga characters, as well as their ability to mesh well the principals.

The three mean girls at school who torment Jan-di (named Jin-hee, Seon-ja, Mi-sook) will be played by the trio above. From left to right, they are Kook Ji-yeon (who reminds me of Bin), Jang Ja-yeon, and Min Young-won (put on some clothes, woman).

Kook is a 24-year-old model, Jang is a 26-year-old model, and Min is an actress of indeterminate age who’s done an episode of Drama City and had a role in a 2003 drama Twenty Years Old.

Jan-di and Ga-eul work in a joohk (rice porridge) restaurant run by Kim Ki-bang (Lovers, Thank You, New Heart), at right. His role is a comic one, as his character believes he receives messages from aliens.

The drama began filming on November 5, and will travel abroad for its overseas shoots sometime mid-month. The 24-episode drama premieres at the end of December on KBS.

Here we have Jan-di (Gu Hye-sun) on her bike, and Jun-pyo (Lee Min-ho) sporting Tsukasa’s famous permed hair:

Boy, does he look the part! Kim Hyun-joong gives his Ji-hoo character Rui’s soft touch:

Kim Bum as So Yi-jung (Soujiro):

Kim Joon as Woo-bin (Akira):

Here is where I start to worry that the Korean version will mirror the Japanese one too closely… I hope they don’t take that path (and I have hope), because the comparisons are going to be inevitable anyway, and we don’t need to see an exact replica. Below, Ji-hoo parts with Han Chae-young’s glamorous character at the airport:

This time Ji-hoo talks with Jan-di while the rest of F4 wait nearby:

These may be hard to make out, but they are of Gu Hye-sun in her high school uniform. The Korean student who posted these on her blog today (Nov. 13) explains that she’d arrived at school in Daegu to find buses bearing the title “Boys Before Flowers” on the side. She texted her friends and took phone-cam photos while Gu Hye-sun shot her scene. Crew members joked that her uniform was obviously fake (re: the short length). The blogger said Gu was adorable and pretty, but her makeup was way too white.

Lee Min-ho wears the perm well, imo. The blogger who took the photos points out that the sunglassed and hatted man in the first pic is Director Jeon. Apparently Lee had come out to watch them shooting a scene he wasn’t in (allowing fans a closer look than expected), and the director eventually reminded him, “I told you not to come out before I called you.”

(Who’s excited now?)

New Face

I am currently overhauling my friendster, multiply and blogspot account.. it just happened by chance.. i am not supposed to do it now, but while i was browsing my friend's account, the profile page was AWESOME!!i cant help but envy her work. well, i am not that that techie, and i have to move my way to the different buttons in the lay-out sites but thankfully, i made it.. so there, i have a new image for my multiply, blogspot and friendster.

do dropby:

jaldecoa.multiply.com
www.friendster.com/jayaldecoa
www.jayaldecoa-mylifenow.blogspot.com

take care everyone!