Who Is This Girl?!

My office mate Marye and I have a big dilemma in our hands. This has been bugging us for weeks! Whenever we think about it, we stop on our tracks, get our phones/computers ready for a screenshot, then think about how to solve this mystery. Hence, this blog entry.

Does anyone know who this girl is?!

She first entered my consciousness when I saw her for the Amway Fun Run poster.

The next time I saw her photo was on the wall of a fast food place in our office building.
I mentioned this to Marye, and I think she remembered it because next thing you know, we were seeing her everywhere!

I saw her on Yahoo:

Marye saw her on Air Asia's in flight magazine:

 I saw her on Sea Air's website:

 Marye saw her on a tarpaulin for Magnolia Flavor House:

 And today on Ensogo's website:

We even saw her on the app 4 Pics 1 Word!

It became a thing for us haha, we need to know who she is and why she is so popular as the poster girl for ads. It seems that she has a lot of stock photos. But it's just weird/funny to see her all the time. Is it because of her infectious smile? I think so.

PLEASE, if you know who she is, do tell!!! It's really important for our peace of mind. :p

P.S. I'm not kidding. I really need to know who she is because it's driving me nuts seeing her everywhere. It's like a puzzle that I need to solve. My mind won't shut up until I know who she is!

UPDATE! Marye and another friend found a link of her stock photo profile. She has the username Maridav.

Here's a screen shot of her profile on 123F:

I googled Maridav, and her profile on Shutterstock came up. It says she is a Photographer/Illustrator/Vector Artist/Videographer. So does she photograph herself in all these situationals?

UPDATE II: My former office mate Jerome, who's now part of Esquire magazine, says they did a feature on her in their April issue. Am I willing to spend 195 pesos to know who she is? Let's see! Hopefully I can find the closure I need. Hahaha!

UPDATE III: A comment on this entry informed me of a Facebook page dedicated to her, and that her name is Ariane. I found a copy of the Esquire issue at my brother's house, and while they had an email interview with her, she still didn't provide her surname. She says she values her privacy. Apparently, she works together with a guy named Martin and do all these shoots. Her father's French-Canadian and her mother is Chinese. So I guess that's that! Ariane, with no surname.

It's Definitely Summer!

This heat is something else, huh? I'm a person who gets cold easily, and I still use a kumot (flat sheet) even when there's no air conditioning. But lately, I often wake up in the middle of the night with my neck and nape sweating, even when my fan is right next to my face. I have to turn on the aircon so I can fall back to sleep! And don't even get me started on going outside. I'm lucky I stay in the office most of the day. The five-minute walk from the MRT station to the office is horrible.Make sure to hydrate often! I just saw a headline that a councilor re-electionist died of heat stroke in Camarines Sur.

Summer goodies! Juicy strawberries & my ultimate comfort food: Good Shepherd Ube Jam.

Speaking of hydration, my mom just came from Baguio and she brought home strawberries for me. And that only calls for one thing: Strawberry Smoothies! :) It is so refreshing and what I like most about my homemade smoothie is it doesn't contain the syrup (read: liquid sugar) that most commercial fruit shake stalls use. Here are the four simple ingredients for my strawberry smoothie: fresh strawberries, ice, milk, and honey! Easy peasy.

Make your fruit smoothies at home! It's cheaper and healthier.

Now on to the real point of this entry. When I'm feeling down, I usually turn to this quote from Rita Mae Brown's Hiss of Death:

photo from Pinterest

And right now, I have two of the three things: someone to love (my boyfriend) and something to look forward to (an upcoming trip abroad). I just need something to do! No, my work doesn't count. We need to learn something new every day.

It's perfect because this summer, so many classes and workshops are happening that you just need to choose what interests you and voila! You add something to your noggin' and you make productive use of your time.

I am so excited because I've signed up for two classes happening this month and next month. I won't tell you what they are just yet, but I am happy because I know it's something I can further hone and who knows, maybe even earn from.

What are your summer plans? :)

Book Bits: Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

This year, I realized I've been reading a lot of Young Adult books and Why We Broke Up is one of the few I've read. This is the book I chose to do my first review on, because it's the first book on my 2013 Reading List (I am now on my 10th book) that generated a strong reaction from me.

And that reaction is that I didn't like it. I know, it's straightforward. But it's true.

Why We Broke Up is about Min Green, who writes an extremely long letter to her ex-boyfriend Ed, detailing the reasons why they broke up and revealing to the readers their love story in the process. The letter goes inside a box full of mementos collected throughout their relationship.

It's a good book. It has a good and relatable story, but what I didn't like was how it was written. Daniel Handler wrote it in the main character's stream of consciousness, and that's what made it problematic. The sentences were too long, the thoughts too crowded, the words losing their meaning. I had to skip several pages because I couldn't stand getting stuck inside Min's head. The characters also talk weird for some reason, like they were Yoda. Wrong, is what you did. Sorry, is what she said. Also, I'm not an expert on literature and writing styles, but it stressed me out whenever I saw the author use double adjectives.

Another thing that annoyed me was how Min kept referencing scenes from old movies. It was established from the get-go that she was a film buff, and not just an ordinary one, but an art film buff. You know, the kind who likes movies no one's ever heard of, let alone watched. Later on after finishing the novel, I find out it's because the movies and the stars were all made up. So, it wasn't me.

When I got to the end of the book, I learned that Daniel Handler is more popularly known as Lemony Snicket, best known for the A Series of Unfortunate Events books. I haven't read those books, or any other book he's written, so I don't know if this is really his writing style.

But here are the reasons why I gave the novel a chance and actually finished it: I could relate to Min. I am a sentimental person, and found it normal how she saved all those trinkets (bottle caps from when they first met, a container of sugar they stole, a basketball game pennant). I wouldn't have gone as far as giving them back to my ex, but that's the whole point of the novel so I will let that slide. Ed was her first love, and when you were in high school, didn't you save those little trinkets too, thinking it would make a conversation piece in the future? Hey, I save them until now!

I also understood how Min felt around Ed's jock friends, and how she wanted her friends to like Ed. I even related to her relationship with her guy best friend Al, who Ed thinks is gay.

Handler also created a strong character in Ed, the jock who was good in Math. Ed the romantic and ready to defy his friends, didn't care about their opinions, and was also weird in his own way. But also, the guy you wanted to hate because of what he did to Min.

Maira Kalman's animated illustrations appear at the start or the end of every chapter.

But if I will be honest, the reason you need to buy the book is because of Maira Kalman's wonderful illustrations.