Conned to Blog

Author note:  This post is a writing exercise to get my blogging mojo back.  It is the story of how I got started blogging.  There is no useful practical make up knowledge here, though it is dang scandalous anyway. 
This post was prompted by two things:

1. A fellow blogger suggested that I get raging mad then start writing as a way to get my mojo back.  And I remembered that this was how i got started- mad!   So I am revisiting my stressor (as Criminal Minds would describe it), to help trigger back the fire in my loins.
2. I was reading Donald Trump who said - "When somebody hits you, hit them back harder"  because if you don't, you are one big schmuck who deserves to be taken advantaged of.  

And so, here goes the story of How Beauty and the Bullshit was born...

I had the idea of Beauty and the Bullshit while I was still in the beauty industry.  I was not allowed and didn't have the time to write it back then but I registered the domain name anyway.

When i quit the biz, in spite of all the material I had, I still did not have the inclination to start blogging.

Years later, while struggling with a new business that I launched in Belgium, I was introduced to a smooth-talking, gay Asian version of George Hamilton who I will not hide with the name Miguel Sarmiento.

http://www.facebook.com/miguel.sarmiento

I have been warned that Miguel has a shady past.  That he conned people to lending him millions in Manila and fled on a one way plane ticket to Singapore to avoid jail and/or death.  His then roommate just found himself locked out one day because Miguel didn't pay the rent and was gone.  Without a word.  

In Singapore, Miguel found work assembling cellphones and would swing by classy bars after work to find a man that will save him from his misery.  He found a rich gay Belgian national whom he married and had then settled comfortably in Belgium.

Miguel admitted to his past, and adds...

I have learned my lesson.  I have come clean to my husband who has paid off my debts.  I have changed and am a new person now and i hope you give me a second chance.

And so his ex-roommate forgave him.  And that was how I met him, introduced by his ex-roommate, our common friend who visited me in Brussels that time.

However, we found out later that Miguel never admitted his past to anyone else in Belgium.  In fact, he insinuates to be a relative of one of our country's ex-Presidents and that he left the country because he is pissed off by how stupid our people are*.

Anyway, Miguel has aspirations to be internationally known and to go back to our country with a vengeance.  His plan was to establish himself as the new version of Robert Leech of the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous series fame of the eighties and to do that, he will first start blogging.

Problem is, Miguel is grammatically challenged.  And that is where I come in.

He begged me to write for him while my business has not yet taken off.  I declined, but after a lot of prodding, begging, courting on his part, I agreed, on the condition that he pays on time.  So I wrote, he paid a partial sum and then kept me hanging week by week for two months promising the rest of the money.

Money never came.

In  the meantime, he was enjoying his blogger clout.   Think of all the dirty blogging practices in the book - he does it all- and more.

• He asks for airline ticket upgrades and if he doesn't get it, he trashes the airline
• He asks for free hotel accommodations, meals for him and his boyfriends
• He claims adamantly to have paid full fare for everything nonetheless
• He blogs about events that never happened, name drops people he has never met (Vuitton heir, Richard Branson) and holds contests that never had prizes nor winners
• He trashes fake products but buys just fakes himself

In spite of his changed situation,  his nature of living beyond his reality stayed intact.  Nothing has changed, and in fact he was worse.

I remember one incident -  he invited me to join him watch a polo match.  He claimed he was invited, yet he fumbled looking for his invitation when security asked for it.  We were sent to the public viewing deck instead where he still insisted to buy a champagne in a plastic glass from a kiosk.

Later that day he wrote in his FB something like "The polo match was ok, my argentinian polo instructor's team did well and won but the VIP food was so bad that me and Rowena left early to eat elsewhere."   

WTF?  I didn't even see the shadow of that VIP food!   

I can cite many other incidents like that- well in fact, all incidents in his life were fabulously distorted.

His blog bio boasts of a law degree when he didn't even graduate from college, having worked in CNN and the European Parliament- when in fact he didn't.  

*Our embassy has declared him persona non grata and the networking group ASmallWorld has ousted him from its roster of members.

Anyway, at the final day that he was supposed to pay, he again cancelled.

And that was when I went Jessica Rabid.

I had a couple of blog posts that i wasn't submitting yet till i was paid.  So I went into blogspot, registered a blog, drew the logo of Beauty and the Bullshit, then started blogging.

And so it was in July 26, 2010 after 6 hours of hammering blind and foaming at the mouth on my keyboard, that Beauty and the Bullshit was born.

And to this, I have a con artist to thank for.

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Epilogue

When Miguel learned of the new blog, and realizing that I can expose his sham to the rest of the world, he started a smear campaign and fabricated stories to discredit me.   Eventually, after a flurry of an email war, people caught on the real story or at least raised suspicions in his circles.  He has since decreased his presence in Belgium and has set his sights in the US and now the Arab world.

To this date, he refused to take out the unpaid blog posts that I have written, took all the credit of my past work and would trash me in his posts.  He also claims ownership of Beauty and the Bullshit and maintains that I should pay him for using it.

Till this day, he takes every chance he gets to do me bad.

I am not one to use my blog for revenge but I believe that if I can save another soul from being conned by this Satan's little helper, then this rant has served its purpose.

And so may the public be warned.

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P.S.  In my country, whistle blowers like me are sued for libel.   That is to protect offenders who are most often those that make the  law (or sleep with them).  This con-artist makes my life hell every chance he gets- so I say- bring it on, till death do us part!