A round of applause for Sumi Go, the cosplayer in the limelight this week! She gives us a lowdown on her life, both in the cosplay world and out. “I'm widely known in the cosplay scene, or even in the blogging community, as Sumi which stands for Sumirehana, my username in the j-culture community,” she explained. “I’m 21 and a fresh Marketing Management graduate from DLSU.”

But what has she learned about cosplay and about the world at large? Read on and find out as Sumi spills the beans.

Tell us something unique about yourself, something only your friends and family usually know.
“I'm actually allergic to seafood, chicken, and eggs, but I'm stubborn so I still eat whatever I want. I'm also a self-proclaimed jack of all trades, but sadly, master of none.”

What do you like doing during your spare time?
“I love going on food trips, watching movies, taking photographs, blogging, singing, especially on Youtube – Warning: it's mostly covers of Japanese songs – and watching anime and South Park.”

Tell us about your cosplay career.
“I can't actually call it a “career” since I've been cosplaying for fun. It was an on and off thing though, but let me share how I got started and what I do now.

“I was an anime and gaming fan as early as I can remember, but it (cosplay) all began in 2004 when I discovered communities of anime fanatics like myself. I was an active member, attending conventions, and it was then that I saw cosplayers doing their thing onstage. I was really amazed and I told myself that I wanted to try cosplaying, too. In 2005, I finally got to save up the money I needed to make my first costume -- Ling Xiao Yu of Tekken 5. Although I didn't personally sew my costume, I was hands-on with making the accessories and shoe covers. Although my first costume looked simple, I was proud that I've somehow pulled it off. I still did some cosplay after that, but I became busy so I just opted to do cosplay photo shoots instead.

“I started cosplaying only by myself and later on gained friends in the community. However, in 2008, I got in touch with my musical side and decided to shift to singing in a band. We covered Japanese anime songs. I left the band when I was about to go to college, but it was then that I started being an active fandubber/ singer on YouTube. But since YouTube became so strict with copyright infringement, I later on got disheartened to sing there and finally restarted blogging.”

Find out what award she won; read on!

READ MORE »

Yes, you have a blogspot blog, but how do you use a custom domain for a Blogspot blog? This guide is solely for those who purchased their custom domains from Name.com and are now ready to use custom domains on Blogspot blogs (Blogger).

Use Custom Domain from Name.com on Blogspot Blog

Of course, it’s a given that you should have a Blogger (Blogspot) account and a Name.com account as well. In your Blogger account, open a Blogspot blog. In your Name account, purchased your own custom domain. Don’t forget to pay for WhoIs privacy as well. Oh, and there are promo coupons for Name.com that you can use – they can give you FREE Whois privacy and up to 50% discounts on your custom domain purchase, depending on the promos available.

Once you have both a Blogspot blog and a custom domain purchased from Name.com, you are ready to use a custom domain on your Blogspot blog!

How to Use Custom Domain from Name.com on Blogspot Blogs

• Sign in to your Blogger account. On the Dashboard, click on the “Settings” tab of the Blogspot blog where you want to use the custom domain that you purchased from Name.com. Then, click on the Publishing tab.
  
  Click on the “Custom Domain” option. On the new page, click on the link that says, “Switch to advanced settings” right beside “Already own a domain?”.
  
  
  Then, type in the custom domain that you purchased from Name.com in the field. Remember to type in “www” before the domain URL! Leave everything else as is. Type in the captcha code that tries to verify you are human (hehe), and click on the Save Settings button.
  
  We’re not done here. The page will then refresh. Now, check the box right beside the option that asks you to redirect your naked URL (without the “www”) to your complete URL (with the “www”).
• Log on to your Name.com account. Click on the custom domain that you want to use for your Blogspot blog. A new page will appear with the details of the domain you clicked on. On the right side is the control panel. Click on DNS Record Management.
• A new page will appear showing the DNS records of your custom domain on Name.com.

• On this page, click on the options under the Record Type, and choose CNAME. On the field right next to it (under Record Host), write “www” (without the quotes). On the field after that (under Record Answer), type the following:
  
  

  ghs.google.com

  and on the field next to it (under TTL), type
  
  

  3600

  then, click on the Add Record button.

• Next, click on the options under the Record Type, and choose A. On the field right next to it (under Record Host), write nothing. On the field after that (under Record Answer), type the following:
  
  

  216.239.32.21

  and on the field next to it (under TTL), type
  
  

  1800

  then, click on the Add Record Button.

• Repeat the step above and create three more A records. This time, use the information under the Record Answer field to create three other A records:
  
  

  216.239.34.21

  216.239.36.21

  216.239.38.21

  and always use “1800” for the TTL field.
  
  The steps above should help you set up your CNAME record and A records.
• Next, go back to the page where your custom domain information is shown by clicking on the link on the right upper side of your screen. Click on the URL Forwarding link.
• On the URL Forwarding page, you will see a notification telling you that your custom domain has not been enabled for URL forwarding. Simply click on the link that says “Enable URL Forwarding”. A new page will appear.
• On that page, type in the URL of your Blogspot blog corresponding to the “point to” field. Your URL should appear like this:
  
  

  http://NAMEOFYOURBLOGSPOTBLOG.blogspot.com

  Just make sure you type in the name of your Blogspot blog.
• Leave the second field as is. This field shows that you are “using” masked URL forwarding.

• On the third field which corresponds to the “Page Title”, type in the name of your custom domain WITH “www”, such as shown below:
  
  

  www.YOURCUSTOMDOMAIN.com

• You are done setting up at Name.com! You are DONE!

Now, you have successfully set up your blog. You are now using the custom domain that you bought from Name.com on your Blogspot blog. Congratulations! And if you know of a better way to use custom domain from Name.com on Blogspot blogs, let me know. Leave a comment if the above guide is not working for you and I will try my best to help you. But if these steps on using a custom domain from Name on a Blogspot blog has worked for you, let me know as well!

What does “duplicate meta description” mean for Blogspot or Blogger blogs? I have asked that question once myself and sadly, I did not bother to find out. Soon enough, my PageRank suffered and went down from 2 to 1. Ouch! But just recently, I learned about Google Webmaster Tools and found out what a duplicate meta description is, how duplicate meta descriptions can affect the PageRank of Blogspot blogs, and what can be done to amend this issue.

What are duplicate meta descriptions?

A meta description is a description of your blog or website that you will not see on your page, but it is the description that search engines, such as Google, will read and use in their search results. However, search engines are not perfect. For instance, in Blogspot or Blogger blogs, a meta description used for the homepage may just be used for all other pages. Although you have no intention of duplicating the meta description for all the pages of your Blogspot blog, Google will interpret it as such. And the result is a penalty: your PageRank will suffer and you may not appear as one of the top results in Google Search.

For Blogspot, the meta description and meta title are usually by default: what you enter as the description of your blog while you set up your blog is usually the meta description. Sometimes, the first few sentences of your blog post will become the meta description. And if Google thinks you have the exact same meta description for ALL your blog posts, then your Blogspot blog is in deep trouble.

How does Google Webmaster Tools detect duplicate meta descriptions?

Google Webmaster Tools helps troubleshoot problems in your blog’s HTML code. It also tells you a lot about how Google search engine “sees” your blog. It gives tips on what you should do to improve the search engine optimization (SEO) of your Blogspot blog. And one of the things it does is detect any duplicate meta descriptions.

Once you have logged on to Google Webmaster Tools, go to Diagnostics, then click on HTML suggestions. There, you will see if you have any duplicate meta descriptions. Mine showed these stats before I updated my blog:

WOW. How could there be so many duplicate meta descriptions? If your Blogspot or Blogger blog is suffering from this dilemma, read on to find out how to solve this problem in very easy steps.

Why do I get duplicate meta descriptions?

There are two reasons why you get duplicate meta descriptions on Blogger or Blogpost blogs:

1. Blogspot blog comments get their own permalink (URL). (To look at the permalink of your comments, simply go to any blog post that has a comment and with each comment, you can see that the timestamp has a link.) This means that there is a separate page on your blog for all the comments you get – and all these pages simply repeat the information that is originally found in your blog post. In other words, even the meta description is repeated.
2. Blogspot blogs have an archive system. These archives also repeat the information found in your blog posts, because they simply organize all your blog posts under the same month or week. That means you have several pages in your blog that Google thinks is the exact duplicate of your individual blog posts!

Do duplicate meta descriptions affect a Blogspot blog’s SEO?

Definitely. Google, no matter how trusted they are in terms of their search engine, is not perfect. It can’t tell the difference between archives and comments and individual blog posts; all it knows is that you have duplicate meta descriptions in all of these. As far as Google is concerned, two different pages in your Blogspot blog that have the exact same information are both considered to have duplicate meta descriptions and other duplicate content issues.

How do I solve duplicate meta descriptions in a Blogspot blog?

We already know what’s wrong with Blogspot blogs: they have comments with links and they have archives. Therefore, you need to somehow deal with both issues, enumerated in the simple steps below. The solutions below are not airtight, but they should decrease the number of duplicate meta descriptions in your Blogspot blog.

READ MORE »

Robots.txt optimization for Blogger blogs (that is, Blogspot blogs) is a little tricky. Unlike Wordpress (which is the god of SEO for free blog hosting), Blogger blogs are more likely to be marked by Google as having duplicate content. Why is this so, and how would you use or optimize the robots.txt for Blogger or Blogspot blogs?

If you look around the internet, there are not too many guides on how you can optimize your robots.txt file for Blogspot blogs, because of one main reason: Blogger does not allow you to upload any .txt file to its root domain. In other words, you can’t add just any file into your Blogspot blog, even if you have your own custom domain. However, you can use meta tags for robots.txt Blogspot optimization.

 

Optimizing Robots.txt for Blogspot or Blogger: Why this is important

It’s important to optimize your robots.txt file if you are hosting your blog on Blogspot because if Google sees that you have duplicate content, then you will get penalized. As a consequence, your PageRank may go down, you will not come up as part of the top search results, and Google just might think of your blog as a spam blog.

This happens because Blogger has an archive. Remember how Blogger archives your blog according to month or week? For instance, in this blog, my blog posts are archived according to month. For example, all my blog posts last January are archived under this page:

http://www.lifeandfever.com/2012_01_01_archive.html

The downside of this is that the content of ALL your blog posts for that month will be indexed TWICE: FIRST, under its own URL (for instance, my blog post on how blogging is more fun in the Philippines is under the URL http://www.lifeandfever.com/2012/01/blogging-more-fun-in-philippines.html), and AGAIN as part of the month’s archive (under the URL http://www.lifeandfever.com/2012_01_01_archive.html, since this URL shows all my posts for January).

How To Optimize Robots.txt for Blogspot or Blogger: Block Crawlers from Accessing Archive

Forget about customizing and generating your own robots.txt file IF you are hosting your blog on Blogspot. Instead, read the easy steps below on how to optimize robots.txt meta tags for Blogger blogs. That way, your content does not get marked as duplicate content by Google.

1. Log on to your Blogger account. Then go to Dashboard > Design > Edit HTML. Download your full template BEFORE you start messing around with your HTML to make sure you can revert to your original code IF something goes awfully wrong later.
2. Find this script on your Blogger blog’s HTML:
   
   <head>
   
   and below it, copy and paste this code:
   <b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "archive"'>
<meta content='noindex,follow' name='robots'/>
</b:if>

3. Click on the Preview button before saving your template to make sure your HTML has been properly parsed.

And you’re done! To block crawlers from accessing and indexing Blogspot archive, all you have to do is paste that small script into your HTML. Now, you have optimized your robots.txt so that crawlers will no longer index your Blogspot archives and you will no longer have duplicate content! Give it a couple of days or so and try searching Google for all the indexed pages of your blog by typing “site:www.yourdomainname.com”. (Just get rid of the quotes and replace “yourdomainname” with your own domain. For instance, I would type “site:www.lifeandfever.com” but without the quotes to find out which pages on my blog were indexed by Google.)

Hope this very simple walkthrough has helped you optimize your Blogspot blog and avoid duplicate content by optimizing robots.txt! If you are having any problems or if you think the script I provided is incorrect, please share your suggestions and comments below. If you know of a better way on how to block crawler access to Blogspot archive to prevent duplicate content, do share them below as well.

If you want to add a Google +1 button to your Blogger blog, the walkthrough below shall make it super easy for you! Get Google to notice your Blogspot blog by adding a Google+1 button to your blog, pronto.

There are two ways to add Google Plus One buttons to your Blogger blog: via the official sharing buttons (which includes a whole bunch of sharing buttons: +1 button, Twitter button, Facebook button, and email button), OR by adding just the Google button alone. The first option is usually found in a separate box right UNDER (or ABOVE) your blog post, while the second option can float anywhere INSIDE the body of your blog post. Actually, you can add BOTH.

Add Official Sharing Buttons
(First Option)

1. Do you want to use the official sharing buttons used by Blogger? Yes, you have that option on your Blogger dashboard. Log on to Blogger, then click on the Design tab. On the lower right side of the Blog Posts widget, click the Edit button. A pop-up window will appear (so pop-up windows should be enabled in your blog post). Click on the box right beside this option: Show Share Buttons.
2. No Google+1 button showing up yet? Don’t sweat it just yet. Maybe you’re using a template that didn’t come from blogger, or you’ve modified your old blogger template. To fix this, click on the Design tab, then click on the Edit HTML option. (Before proceeding, please Download Full Template first, just in case something goes wrong later.) Check the box right beside the Expand Widget Templates option. Then, look for this short code (you can use CTRL+F as a short cut for “finding” this code).
   
   

   <p class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'>
   
   If the above code is not in your HTML, try looking for this one:
   <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-3'>
   
   If that’s still not in your code, try looking for this instead:
   <data:post.body/>
   
   Then, right BELOW any of the above codes (whatever you found in your blog), paste this code
   <div class='post-share-buttons'>
<b:include data='post' name='shareButtons'/>
</div>
   
   Then, save your template.
   

3. Is the Google+1 button still not visible on your Blogger blog? No worries, proceed with the next steps. Find this code on your HTML (remember to use the shortcut CTRL+F).
   <b:includable id='shareButtons' var='post'>
   
   Delete the code above and everything below it until the FIRST occurrence of the code below.
   </b:includable>
   
   
   Delete the above code as well, okay? That means you have to delete an entire block which starts from <b:includable…> and ends at </b:includable>.
   
   
4. In the place of the code you just deleted, copy and paste the code below:
   

   <b:includable id='shareButtons' var='post'> <b:if cond='data:top.showEmailButton'><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-email' expr:href='data:post.sharePostUrl + &quot;&amp;target=email&quot;' expr:title='data:top.emailThisMsg' target='_blank'> <span class='share-button-link-text'><data:top.emailThisMsg/></span> </a></b:if><b:if cond='data:top.showBlogThisButton'><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-blog' expr:href='data:post.sharePostUrl + &quot;&amp;target=blog&quot;' expr:onclick='&quot;window.open(this.href, \&quot;_blank\&quot;, \&quot;height=270,width=475\&quot;); return false;&quot;' expr:title='data:top.blogThisMsg' target='_blank'> <span class='share-button-link-text'><data:top.blogThisMsg/></span> </a></b:if><b:if cond='data:top.showTwitterButton'><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-twitter' expr:href='data:post.sharePostUrl + &quot;&amp;target=twitter&quot;' expr:title='data:top.shareToTwitterMsg' target='_blank'> <span class='share-button-link-text'><data:top.shareToTwitterMsg/></span> </a></b:if><b:if cond='data:top.showFacebookButton'><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook' expr:href='data:post.sharePostUrl + &quot;&amp;target=facebook&quot;' expr:onclick='&quot;window.open(this.href, \&quot;_blank\&quot;, \&quot;height=430,width=640\&quot;); return false;&quot;' expr:title='data:top.shareToFacebookMsg' target='_blank'> <span class='share-button-link-text'><data:top.shareToFacebookMsg/></span> </a></b:if><b:if cond='data:top.showOrkutButton'><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-orkut' expr:href='data:post.sharePostUrl + &quot;&amp;target=orkut&quot;' expr:title='data:top.shareToOrkutMsg' target='_blank'> <span class='share-button-link-text'><data:top.shareToOrkutMsg/></span> </a></b:if><b:if cond='data:top.showBuzzButton'><a class='goog-inline-block share-button sb-buzz' expr:href='data:post.sharePostUrl + &quot;&amp;target=buzz&quot;' expr:onclick='&quot;window.open(this.href, \&quot;_blank\&quot;, \&quot;height=415,width=690\&quot;); return false;&quot;' expr:title='data:top.shareToBuzzMsg' target='_blank'> <span class='share-button-link-text'><data:top.shareToBuzzMsg/></span> </a></b:if> <b:if cond='data:top.showDummy'> <div class='goog-inline-block dummy-container'><data:post.dummyTag/></div> </b:if> </b:includable>

5. Now, let’s see if that fixes everything. Save your template. Now, check if you can see the Google +1 button on your blog. If it’s still not showing, follow the next few steps.
   
6. Find this code:
   </head>
   
   then, right above that code, copy and paste this code:
   <script src='https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'/>
   
   and don’t forget to save the changes to your blog template once again. Check the Plus One button on your Blogger blog. Is it there already? Success! But you can add ANOTHER Plus One button on your blog – and this button will make a big difference because it is more visible. Read more to view the guide.

READ MORE »

Yes, you got that right: Google is just like your spouse. It can get moody, it can throw a tantrum, and it can give you part of its earnings, just like a spouse would. This notion hit me after reviewing scripts for the Google +1 button. Read on to find out why using Google is just like getting married.

• Google has mood swings. Google may like you today, but tomorrow is a different story. Does Google love your website or blog right now? Maybe you’ve followed its guidelines to the letter. But tomorrow, it can change its standards altogether and penalize you for things it has awarded you for in the past. (Recall what happened to websites who “got ahead” by using black hat SEO years ago.)
• Google will break up with you if you are caught red-handed… or maybe not. If you do something that Google finds absolutely horrible, it might drop you from its index and search results altogether. Or, if you’re lucky, you just get a slap on the wrist – but you better make up for your mistakes or you get kicked out without a warning.
• Google will share its money with you if you stick to your share of errands. Sure, Google shares its money – until you do something wrong. Your AdSense account will get disabled if you do something really dirty with your ads (such as click on them, God forbid).
• Google likes to be spoiled – and you get rewarded if you give it what it wants. If you use Google+1 buttons on your blog, Google gives you a kiss. If you make sure your HTML code is clean and easy to crawl, it gives you a big, warm hug and increases your PageRank. It can be very selfish, but it gives back if you give in to its whims.
• After a certain point, Google will have you investigated. Just like a jealous girlfriend or a paranoid husband, it starts snooping around and finding out what nasty things you’ve been doing.

See? Using Google is just like being in a relationship! Do things right and you will live happily ever after. Do something wrong and Google breaks it off – and it will have no second thoughts running away with your AdSense earnings. (By the way, it’s Akira Oshizawa’s 101st birthday today, which is why the Google logo now looks like an origami! Check it out!)

My boyfriend told me that the more I try to help strangers by sharing what I have, the more hostility I'll receive. He said people would feel more deprived when they realize how many opportunities are knocking on my door, and that they would feel even angrier when they realize I'm actually nice enough to share these opportunities. He also said another thing just might happen: as a provider of opportunities, my intentions might be questioned, and the rates I offer might be criticized. Sadly, almost too often, he turned out to be right. Let me tell you why.

I was once assigned by an advertiser to give out $5 to every blogger who is willing to write a paid blog post, and I was more than happy to take on the task. My prize: I get to choose which blogs are to be given ads and paid posts weekly for an entire year! I asked my client why she wanted me to do the dirty work. She emailed back, saying, “It’s hard enough dealing with bloggers you already know, more so with those you don’t.” I did not understand what she meant, having interacted with very few other bloggers before.

I then proceeded to announce the offer. Many bloggers wanted to avail of the paid blog posts, which made me really happy. I felt like I was giving back and helping other people who shared my passion for blogging. Then, the hate remarks started to pour in. I was accused of underestimating the value of their blogs, of trying to keep the money to myself by offering them too little, of being “that kind of advertiser”. I was shocked. What on earth was going on?

READ MORE »

I received an email from PayPal that said, "Notification of Limited Account Access”. I actually believed it was a legit email from PayPal until I took a closer look! Below, I will tell you why I was (almost) duped by this phishing email.

Why this PayPal phishing email almost duped me

I checked the email address of the sender; the email came from service@paypal.com. It wasn’t just a cloaked email with a fake name; no, it seemed to have come from PayPal (or did it?). I then proceeded to review the rest of the email. Here is the email sent to me:

Hello {your name here}, As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the PayPal system. We recently contacted you after noticing an issue on your account. We requested information from you for the following reason: A recent review of your account determined that we require some additional information from you in order to provide you with secure service. Case ID Number: {a series of letters and numbers here} This is a second reminder to log in to PayPal as soon as possible. Once you log in, you will be provided with steps to restore your account access. Be sure to log in securely by using the following link: Click here to login and restore your account access Once you log in, you will be provided with steps to restore your account access. We appreciate your understanding as we work to ensure account safety. In accordance with PayPal's User Agreement, your account access will remain limited until the issue has been resolved. Unfortunately, if access to your account remains limited for an extended period of time, it may result in further limitations or eventual account closure. We encourage you to log in to your PayPal account as soon as possible to help avoid this. To review your account and some or all of the information that PayPal used to make its decision to limit your account access, please visit the Resolution Center. If, after reviewing your account information, you seek further clarification regarding your account access, please contact PayPal by visiting the Help Center and clicking "Contact Us". We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience. Thanks, PayPal Account Review Department Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and click the Help link in the top right corner of any PayPal page. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1999-2012 PayPal. All rights reserved. PayPal Email ID PP673-156-803

As you can see, the email had perfect grammar. Usually, phishing emails have such bad grammar that the attempt is very obvious. But in this case, it looks almost legit. So, what gave it away?

I took a look at the clickable links on the email. Even that looks almost legit as it starts with

http://www.paypal.com

But if you look at the rest of the URL, it actually says:

http://www.paypal.com.vuicir7c1mkhm.11macmvejqpq1vj16a843e2t4m6xg.com

Notice the final dotcom domain at the end of the link? The home page did NOT come from Paypal; it came from somewhere else!

You received a phishing email. What now?

The above Notification of Limited Account Access from PayPal seemed very legit. It is, to date, the best phishing attempt I have ever encountered. It even used my complete name to address me at the beginning of the email! But whenever you receive any email from websites that hold valuable information or your hard-earned money, here is what you should do:

1. ALWAYS log on by typing the complete URL of the website you want to visit. DO NOT CLICK on links in your email, unless that email came from a trusted source and you were expecting it (such as confirmation emails from trusted websites that prompt you to click for confirmation). If an email from PayPal is asking you to log on, then type “www.paypal.com” in your browser instead of clicking on the links in your email.
2. ALWAYS check that the URL of the website is legit. After the “dotcom” part of the PayPal URL, there should NOT be another dot, as is the case in the above phishing email. Instead, there should be a slash, indicating that you are indeed in the PayPal website, but that you are in one of their many pages. Besides, PayPal will ask you to log on via their main page, not through a URL that is so long that it should be a Guinness Record holder.
3. DO NOT CLICK on links that you do not trust. Better yet, refer to tip number one.
4. REPORT the phishing attempt and spread the word. As is the case in the phishing email I received, it looks like the brains behind the phishing attempt actually got a hold of my complete name. In other words, they might actually have gotten this information from a previous hacking attempt at PayPal or any other website that used your PayPal information. Let’s not take a backseat; when you receive a phishing email, do think of the millions of people who might have received that email, too. Do your part. If the phishing attempt is on PayPal, forward the phishing email to spoof@paypal.com.
5. DO NOT think you’re not stupid enough to fall victim to phishing. It happens to the best of us, and believe it or not, there are many gullible people out there who will believe whatever you tell them – and they are all unaware that they are being duped. Well, that’s why they are duped in the first place, right?

The next time you receive an email Notification of Limited Account Access from PayPal, don’t be too happy to click on the cloaked links. Phishing attempts are getting classier by the minute. It’s always better to err on the side of caution; do a little sleuthing and protect yourself from identity theft and hacking.

It’s official: I am now one of the contributors of Yahoo! Voices. Hurray! But it’s not that difficult to get your articles published there. Well, okay, maybe good English, research, and reading the guidelines just might help.

Yahoo! Voices is just like any community blog. You register, submit your article, and wait until it gets reviewed and published. I thought of expanding my writing portfolio by using Yahoo! Voices as another blogging and writing platform. Thank God, all three of my articles have been published! Here are my articles on Yahoo! Voices:

Is Stem Cell Therapy Considered Murder?

5 AIDS Facts You Don’t Know

A New Approach to Cancer in the Philippines?

I still have a few more articles I want to publish at Yahoo! Voices. But I want to move on to writing platforms that actually pay for the rent. But yes, getting published at Yahoo! actually gives me a little something to look forward to.

Do drop by and read my work, and feel free to comment here if you have any violent reactions. You can also visit my profile, Stef dela Cruz on Yahoo! Contributor Network. And if you are also a contributor on Yahoo! Voices, tell me because I’d love to read your work!

Have you heard of the name Catherine Ngo? If you are one of her male fans, you’re probably wondering to yourself, does she have a boyfriend? As it turns out, you are not alone!

She’s been gaining many fans in the cosplay industry. Catherine Ngo just turned 18 this February 2012 and, as a way of celebrating her induction to womanhood, she has agreed to an interview. Learn more behind the sweet smile and listen to her honest-to-goodness answers. And if you want to know if she has a boyfriend, read on and find out!

Learn about Catherine Ngo and you might just get a better chance of getting noticed. Here, she answers as frankly as she can to let her fans in on her life and who she is, in cosplay and in real life. She smiled, saying, “If this interview were a website, it would be called Share.com!”

Catherine Ngo

Tell us something unique about yourself, something only your friends and family usually know.
“I don't eat cakes. I don't eat a lot of chocolate because I get tummy aches when I eat sweets!”

What do you do during your spare time?
“I love texting (I’m addicted to texting, hahaha!) I also love dancing, but only in front of my family, and when I’m alone in front of the mirror.”

It looks like our young cosplayer loves goofing around!
(photo from Jumpshot Photography)

Tell us about your cosplay career.
“I started cosplaying last December 2010. At the time, others would have said I was trying too hard! Hahaha! I and my friends thought of the cosplay concept, and we did the shoot by ourselves as well. But after that, I learned and started doing better.”

What do your friends and classmates tell you about your cosplay career?
“They are proud of me. They can’t believe that I’m simple in person. They say that when they look at pictures of me in cosplay, I seem very different. Maybe it’s because I’m pretty much in character when I’m cosplaying!”

I actually have many photographer friends who tell me that in certain angles, I look like another cosplayer, Chienna Filomeno. I remember this specific incident. I was playing games in an arcade and someone approached me. He wanted to have his picture taken with me. I was just wearing plain clothes – I was not in cosplay. After that, his friends started saying, “Chienna is more beautiful in person.” Hahaha! I’m very flattered! Sometimes, people tell me I look like Cesz Garcia.

What is your dream cosplay?
“I’m hoping to cosplay Aion, specifically the Nashal set. In other words, I prefer cosplaying fully-armored online characters.”

What are your favorite cosplays?
“My favorite cosplay so far is the one I did of the Baroness. I like it so much because a lot of my friends tell me that I’ve really succeeded in copying Ms. Cobra’s character! And when I look at myself doing that particular cosplay, I just know that I did a good job!”

Catherine Ngo loves cosplaying as The Baroness – and she does it well.
(photo from RakenRawr Photography)

What in your opinion is "good cosplay"?
“Hmmm…” *Smiles mysteriously*

photo from Ross Lacbayan Photography

How do you deal with fans? Haters?
“To my fans , I love you all! Because of you, I know I’m becoming popular. Same goes for my haters. Hahaha!”

Being a cosplayer must be a lot of fun for young Catherine, what with the wonderful hairpieces, wigs, and clothes. I wonder, does she get her colored pantyhose from Alex Blake?

There you go! Now that you’ve had a dose of Catherine Ngo, maybe you’re still wondering if she’s actually available. Well, I know the answer, but… I think it’s best – and way more manly – if you ask her yourself!

And to those who are big fans of Catherine Ngo, answer this question:

“Would you give her roses or chocolates?”

The best answer gets a fan sign from none other than Catherine Ngo herself! So, good luck and hit the comments to post your answer!