Alex @ September 24, 2008 | | Personal, Politics and Society | Comments (1)
Have we really reached the tipping point? A lot of people have been killing themselves recently but the one that still sticks to my mind was the case of Janeth Ponce.
On Tuesday [September 9], Janeth Ponce, 32, forced three of her children to drink a bottle of liquid toilet bowl cleaner before drinking the same substance herself in Magdalena town in Laguna province. Television reports said Ponce’s husband worked as a construction worker in Manila and has not been able to send them money for over a month.
Former cabinet member Dinky Soliman labeled the case as a reflection of how Filipino society is reaching its ‘tipping point.’
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Tags: Money, Personal, Politics and Society, Poverty
Alex @ September 22, 2008 | | Politics and Society, Technology | Comments (8)
I hate the Filipino mobile phone culture. I hate how it became a status symbol. I hate how people let their phones govern their lives. I hate how companies developed this mobile lifestyle equating phone use to necessity. To some extent it has become one but isn’t it ironic how people have money to burn for credits and yet complain how their wages just won’t suffice.
For me phones are simply pang-text and pantawag. I own a year-old Nokia 6020. It has SMS and MMS capabilities and a crappy 1.3 MP camera. And even my scope of use doesn’t maximize its capabilities. The phone still works fine but it’s casing had seen better days.
I happened to be washing my car yesterday and spied our neighbor’s help fiddling with her phone. It was one of those fancier ones. I didn’t feel sorry for myself, I felt sorry for my phone. On the pecking order of cellphone elitism, even our neighbors’ help’s cellphone would put my trusty phone to shame.
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Tags: Gadgets, Mobile Phone, Politics and Society, Technology
Alex @ September 21, 2008 | | Personal | Comments (1)
Being a web worker, nurturing a social life beyond Plurk is a challenge. Some interpersonal interaction is surely welcome. Past week has been torture as always though it was a pleasant surprise that my week had some really bright spots too. A rarity in my case. Thursday, I spent the whole afternoon with the (future) missus and Friday night, I got to have dinner with a couple of college friends.
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Tags: Creative Zen Stone, Gadgets, Music, Personal
Alex @ September 21, 2008 | | Computers, Internet and Web, Politics and Society | Comments (18)
This post is an offshoot to a Plurk I posted to which only Jester was gracious enough to oblige with comments and I’m following it up with this post.
Today’s the day many Filipino bloggers have been waiting for - the 2008 Philippine Blog Awards night. I wish every nominee the best of luck. I do think that the PBA is a great effort in acknowledging the effort and talent that Filipino bloggers poured into their blogs.
Still, I’d like to bring up a key issue regarding this effort. The PBA has so much at stake for one not be critical about it. Every blog nominated and every winner will be elevated to an elite status that virtually raises the credibility and authority of the blog as far as the Pinoy blogosphere is concerned. Whenever we have an institution doing this, we are subscribing to the idea that these awardees, are indeed, the best of what the Philippine blogosphere has to offer.
The important question - How do we decide which blog is “the best”?
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Tags: Blogging, Critical, Critical-Discourse-Analysis, Philippines Blog Awards
Alex @ September 14, 2008 | | Education, Internet and Web, Language | Comments (1)
Who would have thought that a thesis on blogging would require so much theorizing. Since I have yet to encounter other critical discourse analysts’ application of methods and frameworks to blogging, I am in the process of shaping a framework and method that I can apply to my target data. However, in the process of settling with the basic concepts that I am to use, I meet a roadblock as to how I’d define ‘authority.’
As with words, one can go to the most general definitions of the word and consult a dictionary for denotations. Here’s a part of Merriam-Webster’s entry that I find readily applicable to this discussion:
Noun
1 a (1) : a citation (as from a book or file) used in defense or support (2) : the source from which the citation is drawn b (1) : a conclusive statement or set of statements (as an official decision of a court) (2) : a decision taken as a precedent (3) : TESTIMONY c : an individual cited or appealed to as an expert
2 a : power to influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior b : freedom granted by one in authority : RIGHT
synonyms see INFLUENCE, POWER
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Tags: Authority, Blogging, Critical-Discourse-Analysis, Discourse
