Shamcey Supsup leads Telemundo's online poll

The top 3 Miss Universe bets according to Telemundo's online fan voting site. Screen grab from msnlatino.telemundo.com

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines' representative to the 2011 Miss Universe pageant, Shamcey Supsup, continues to lead the online fan voting site of the second-largest Spanish language television network in the US, Telemundo.

As of press time, Supsup already garnered a total of 1,944,769 votes in Telemundo’s website, which landed her the number one spot in the poll for the top bets in the pageant.

Venezuela's representative ranked a close second with a total of 1,879,177 votes, while Mexico's bet fell to number three with 1,398,749.

Joining the top three candidates in the unofficial top 15 rankings were Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, United States, Thailand, Colombia, Haiti, Peru, Panama, Brazil and Korea.

Meanwhile, an official voting site has been dedicated to identify who among the Miss Universe candidates is the people’s choice.

The overall winner from this online poll will be securing a spot in the pageant’s semi-finals round.

The 2011 Miss Universe people’s choice online poll will be open until September 11, and anyone can cast a vote, 10 times a day per e-mail address.

COURTESY OF ABS-CBN NEWS

COURTESY OF: OPMBTV

The Miss Universe 2011 preliminaries are over. The Top 15 have already been chosen by the judges. Between now and September 12 stands an agonizing wait on who will come out successful in all three rounds of judging.

As for Miss Philippines Shamcey Supsup, I believe that she firmly held her own against the 88 other ladies. Her Evening Gown performance was both fluid and elegant. The Barraza original fitted her body like a glove as she worked it with shimmering delight. In the Swimsuit category, she owned the stage of Credicard Hall with a strut both fierce and playful. Confidence is overflowing so to speak.

Through it all, her face registered with a telegenic (and photogenic) appeal that is at first charming, then tastefully seductive.

By now, we all have our solid favorites. Shamcey is definitely in my Top 5 along with the delegates from Greece, Kosovo, Malaysia and Panama.

THE DEFINITION OF LOVE

Love is so hard to define sometimes because it means so many different things to everyone. The type of love you feel for your mom is definitely different than the love you have for your significant other and so on and so on. There’s also a huge difference between a new love that comes with a pounding heart and sweaty palms and a longer love that is comfortable and kind.

So how do you define love? For me it’s a combination of things. It means being selfless and putting the other person before my own needs. It means wanting to make them happy, not because of personal gain but because seeing them smile is the ultimate goal. Love means that just being in their presence makes my day better, that quiet moments speak volumes of love and understanding. It means that I try to look from their perspective, no matter how much I might disagree with them. It means being kind and compassionate. It means loving them because I don’t know how else to live my life without doing so.

THINGS YOU REALIZE WHEN YOU LOSE SOMEONE

GOOD RELATIONSHIPS = HARD WORK

It can sometimes be difficult to maintain a long-term loving relationship. There are days they will drive you nuts, and there are days where they will pull away from you. You can’t physically keep someone from leaving your relationship, but you can improve it and try to reconnect to your partner in little ways.

You may think that throwing a lot of money or romance at the situation is the best medicine, but sometimes that can greatly backfire. The best way to make sure your relationship continues to grow and blossom is by actively making the effort every day. When you wake up in the morning, instead of letting your mind drift to frustrations or stress, think of one reason why you love your significant other. It doesn’t have to be major—something small will equally suffice. You don’t even have to tell them (although it wouldn’t hurt to do so occasionally). But just thinking about reasons why you love your partner will open you up each and every day to them.

You also must be patient and understanding. Try to see their qualms from their point of view. Instead of having a monocular view, try to have binocular one. This means being able to understand to understand why they’re feeling what they are. Once you shift your focus from just thinking of yourself, you can focus on thinking about your partner and your relationship as a whole.

Be affectionate. Touch your partner in non-sexual ways. Snuggle on the couch when watching TV, hold their hands, or simply hug them. You can really soothe many issues with really comforting and safe body contact.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that love takes work. It’s like a precious flower that must live in the right soil and get the right amount of sun in order to grow and flourish. Make sure you take the time to enable your love and relationship to continue to grow.

FIRST LOVE

They always say that you never forget your first love. Sure, that person may or not be your greatest love, but you will never forget the person one who made your heart go pitter-patter in your chest. Maybe it happened on the playground or in the cafeteria. Or maybe you felt fireworks when meeting a stranger for the first time. No matter how you met, what your courtship was like, or how it ended, your first love will stick with you forever.

And if you don’t end up with your first love, you can still think of that relationship fondly because it was the first one where you opened yourself up to loving someone, and that’s a beautiful thing. So whether you’re still with your first love, have found the love of your life, or are still looking, take a moment to think back to when you first gave a piece of your heart away and cherish that time.

FEEL (A LITTLE BIT) BETTER ABOUT A RECENT BREAKUP

So your boyfriend or girlfriend just dumped you? Stings, doesn’t it? While it can take you months (and sometimes years) to get over them completely, there are small things you can do TODAY to help you cope just a little bit easier.

Identify your triggers for missing your ex. Typically you’ll start obsessing over them in specific instances, such as listening to “your” song or eating at your favorite restaurant. Other times it’s something as seeming harmless as Facebook. Now is the time to remove them completely from your social networks because anytime you see their name pop up, it will sting. It will hurt to know that they are going out and having a great time while you’re at home crying into a pint of ice cream. So, your first step when your breakup is fresh is to remove these triggers from your day.

Secondly, invoke the 30-minute rule. When you feel like calling, emailing, or texting your ex, do something to occupy your time for 30 minutes. Chances are you will be less inclined to call or text them once you’ve thought about something else for a bit. Go for a run, read a book, cook yourself dinner—whatever you can do to think about something else instead of obsessing over your ex will make you feel better.

Make a list of why you’re better off without them. Yeah, this might be hard at first, but truly think of reasons why it was never going to work out anyway.

Create distractions. Call up your chattiest friend or make plans. Don’t turn down any invitations. Your instinct is to just sit at home and wallow, but if you get out into the world, you can feel better NOW even if it’s just a little bit.

JUST THE WAY YOU ARE

Love isn’t about finding the “perfect” person. No one is perfect in this world, but there are people who are perfect for you, and it’s all about trying to find someone who can love you with all of your imperfections.

But sometimes it’s not enough just to tolerate someone’s weird quirks. You really, truly have to embrace them and accept the whole package. My boyfriend knows that I will get irrationally angry when I’m super hungry. Instead of letting it bother him when I rage at him for no reason other than because I’m starving, he merely pops open his backpack and casually slides me a granola bar. It is the little things like this that make me more patient and understanding when he’s running late for the umpteenth time, which threatens my hyper punctual nature.

So, remember there is no such thing as a perfect man or woman. Everyone comes with their own little oddities that will drive you nuts sometimes, but it’s all about learning to accept them and loving the person as a complete picture. Because no beautiful work of art is completely flawless—and neither is love.