stay curious

+ What does jayemsey mean?

Say it out loud, slowly—it’s my initials! The reason I chose this name for the blog was pretty simple: my parents gave me one of the most generic names possible*. This has resulted in a ridiculous amount of time and energy spent trying to find a combination of letters and numbers that isn’t unavailable. Sometimes my mom refers to me and my sisters by our initials: JMC, MMC, KMC. So to keep all my usernames simple, consistent, and easy to remember, I chose the phonetic spelling.

*I was named for two of my grandmothers, which is rad. Just not ideal for personal branding. Sorry Mom and Dad.

+ What's your ethnicity?

A lot of people try to get creative with this one, for some reason. And I’ve heard almost everything—Hawaiian, Filipino, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and oddly, Mongolian. But I am proudly third-generation Chinese-American. No, my sisters and I don’t look alike. No, we’re not adopted. Or so I’m told.

+ What do you use for pictures?

I use a Sony Alpha a5100 DSLM with the standard kit lens (16-50 mm) for pictures, the GoPro HERO Session for (most) video, and Adobe Lightroom for editing!

+ How do you write blog posts?

I actually wrote a post on that here!

+ What kind of cat is Mia?

She’s a Bombay, which is why she looks like a miniature panther. Mango is a little orange tabby.

+ What happened to Friday Five?

I loved Friday Five, but I didn’t like the pressure of keeping up such a strict schedule. You can still find them here and a reincarnated version of them here.

+ What do you like to read?

I’m usually in the middle of a book, but my favorite (and most consistent) daily morning ritual is reading email newsletters—some of my favorites are Big Spaceship's Internet Brunch, Girls' Night In, The New York Times’ The Interpreter, Quartz Obsession, The Goods by Vox, Why Is This Interesting?, Just Good Shit, Apartment Therapy, Scrap Facts, The Markup, Maybe Baby, and Griefbacon.

+ Can I write a guest post for you?

I only allow original content on my blog at the moment. But I’d be happy to write something for you (examples of collaborations posts here, here, and here). And I’m always looking for new projects, so email me, and we’ll see if we can work something out :)

+ What do you do for work?

By day, I’m a strategist in advertising. You can find some of my work here, some of my independent research here, or you can connect with me here if LinkedIn is more your jam.