Saturday, August 24, 2002
Thursday, August 22, 2002
This is the PowerMateIt looks really great. I hope there's a place in Manila that sells this.
Maybe you can give to me for free? Find out more here.
Monday, August 19, 2002
So is being jologs good or bad? You be the judge:
The Origin of the Jologs
The writer is a Palanca winner for poetry.
Being the True, the Good, the Beautiful and the Definitive Meaning of 'Jolog' (or When is the Squattah Not the Othah)
So many jolog definitions on the Net and yet most are inaccurate.
I asked my students the origins of the word and they gave me all these palusot (weak reasons)--that it's the baduy, bakya crowd of the 90's, that like cockroaches, their number is legion, and they are here to stay. Seems that to most of them, it's even cool to be jolog, better than being coņo. And though the pa-coņo kids (junior social climbers) are frowned upon, the worst type of poseur, according to them is someone who's feeling jolog.
But they can't quite define it. A few things we agreed upon, though:
1) It seems that anyone who's past a certain age can't be jolog, so there's no such thing as an old jolog. All of them are young. Jolog isn't actually baduy, but if you're old and baduy, you're just that: matanda (old) na kasi.
2) Someone can be jolog and not be aware of it, in the same way that someone can be coņo and not be aware of it.
3) People can be in denial of their ka-jologan or ka-coņohan.
4) "Jolog" and "coņo" are not antonyms (though the student that everyone hates in my last class insists that the two terms are synonymous).
5) The term "jologz" is not the plural of "jolog" (and that same student insists that the former is an adjective and the
latter is a noun. A bit of trivia though: this is the same student who declared in class that "a gay [sic] is a bad and sad person", to which his seatmate replied: "Yes, but a closeted one is even sadder."
6) The term "jolog" is different from "squatter," "squating" and "squattah." Though it might follow the tradition of "bakya" and "baduy", there's more to being a jolog than the two terms.
Then we came to the etymology of the word. Where the hell did it come from?
The True: Jolog came from Jolina
It's what a fan of hers is called. "Jol" from Jolina + "og" like the suffix -ite or -ian. "But we've never heard of a suffix -og to mean 'follower,' complained one of my more inquisitive students. Besides, the word was in existence before Jolina became a star. "Besides," my student added, "Jolina's not jolog. At most, she's baduy."
The Good: The word originally referred to the Pinoy hiphop, or hiffhaffers, especially those seen walking as a group in malls.
Hiphop fashion includes those very loose and wide pants that were huhulog-hulog (kept falling). "Hulog" later was spelled "Julog" until it was pronounced "ju-log", then its final form: "jo-log". Many students were shaking their heads. "That sounds too easy, too obvious."
The Beautiful: The etymology I'm familiar with (and that makes the most sense to me) is geographically specific. The term was coined by high school students in Quezon City, specifically those familiar with Quezon Avenue in the 80's. Back then, across National Bookstore, Quezon Avenue, was a disco that was rumored to be owned or co-owned by Edu Manzano. This disco was cheap compared to the popular discos of the time that were in Makati. In fact, the place was called "the squatter of discos". This establishment had a pretentious name: Jaloux. The disco played really baduy disco music, and people who
frequented the place were young fashion victims who were quite feeling and baduy themselves.
High school students from private schools would tease each other: "Hey pare, I saw you at Jaloux last night." This was such an insult.
Eventually other schools picked this up. "Si John, pumupuntang Jaloux." "Wow, John, Jaloux ka pala." Eventually it became an adjective too. "Kadiri, Melanie's Jaloux." How it jumped from "jaloux" to "jolog", I'm not quite sure. But some of my students say, maybe the patrons couldn't pronounce the pretentious name of the disco properly, they said it "Ja-Lou-kh", "Ja-Look", until it eventually became "Jaloog" then "Jolog."
Jaloux disco is gone, but the jolog remains. They lost their dancing shoes and disco outfits and went to the malls as hiphoppers.
Eventually they got tired of that and decided to wear all black and hang out at Club Dredd when it moved to Cubao. This was parodied in the "Circus" album of the Eraserheads.
The Definitive: "Sorry, sir," said one of my students,
"but I think you're mistaken. We discussed this in our philosophy class by accident and it seems that the "jolog" word's origin comes from food."
"What?"
"You don't recognize it now because the spelling's changed, but it was actually originally spelled as 'diyolog' which stands for dilis (anchovies), tuyo (dried fish) and itlog (egg)--the food of the poor.
And it was used like this: 'Oh, look she eats diyolog.' Later it
became 'Look, diyolog, o.' Until the 'diy' got changed to 'j', hence 'jolog.'"
A brief pause. Then one obnoxious student raised his hand: "I like her definition more than yours. Yours is too complicated, naman."
What could I say? "I like mine."
Then one student: "We like hers." And another: "Oo nga, sir." Soon most everyone in class agreed that the food explanation was better than the disco explanation. One student even had the gall to lecture me: "Sir, the saying is, 'You are what you eat,' not 'You are what you dance.'"
"Oo nga," said the class echo. "Si sir talaga."
At least almost everyone had a strong opinion about it, everyone except that student who everyone in class doesn't like, who everyone suspects to be a closet case. He was miles away, looking out the window.
"And what does he prefer?" I pointed to him.
"Men," whispered the mousey girl in the front row, loud
enough for the whole class to hear.
Wife kills hubby by piercing his eyes and slashing off his penis
By Joy de la Peņa and Jhunnex Napallacan
August 17, 2002
A BATTERED wife's suffering of years of abuse finally turned into blind fury. In a gruesome crime of passion, a wife killed her husband of 45 years, piercing his eyes with a knife, slashed off his penis and stuffed this into his mouth.
Before his death, Aurelio Alcover, 64, was still able to ask
forgiveness from his wife Eutiquia, 63, for his philandering and often abusive behavior. But the wife said it was too late.
Eutiquia did not seem remorseful. Interviewed by reporters at the Carcar town police detention cell, Eutiquia said she had no regrets.
She narrated, quite casually, how she and her husband had a heated argument last Wednesday at about 2 p.m. in their house in sitio Anislagan, barangay Guadalupe in Carcar town.
She said her husband was angry when some embers stuck to the kettle of boiling water she was going to use for his coffee.
"Nagkape ko unya pag-alsa nako sa baterol, naay nadala nga kayo. Nagpaligas dayon siya nga ako ba kuno siyang butaan (When I lifted the kettle, there were some embers that stuck. He immediately asked if I was angry at him)," Eutiquia narrated.
Aurelio then allegedly got a bolo, prompting Eutiqua to leave to prevent more trouble. But Aurelio allegedly followed her, brandishing his bolo and accusing her of having an illicit affair.
This was what triggered her rage.
She picked up a piece of wood and hit his knees. When he fell, she got a pair of scissors and pierced her husband's eyes, blinding him. She later pulled down his pants, got a knife, slashed off his penis and stuffed it to his mouth.
"Akong gipaum-um sa iyang baba arun di mawagtang ba kay pangitaon man gyud na (I stuffed his penis in his mouth so it would not get lost, because they would certainly look for it)," she said as a matter of fact.
"Ako gyud siyang giingnan nga putlon ni nako kay mao ni ang nakaingon sa tanan (I told him I would cut off his penis because it is the cause of all the trouble)," she added.
Eutiquia said she and Aurelio were married in 1957. But in 1980, they separated and got back together only early this year. They have nine children. She said Aurelio often beat her up. He also had several extramarital affairs.
"Ako siyang giingnan nga bahala siyang mamabaye, dili lang unta siya mamun-og (I told him I would tolerate his mistresses so long as he would not beat me up)," she said.
Eutiquia said she had no intention of killing her husband. What happened was blind rage that she could not control, she said. She said she had forgiven her husband, who asked forgiveness before he died.
"Pero ako sab siyang giingnan, nganong karon ra man nimo giangkon (But I asked him why he was admitting his sins only now)," she said over dyLA.
Eutiquia claimed her husband had a mistress who lived in barangay Bolinawan.
Her daughter, Rosario Baraquia, 35, said her mother had long been suffering in the hands of her father.
"Kada lihok, hinagiban, hunting unya mamun-og dayon (he would always get a knife, then would beat up my mother)," Baraquia said.
Eutiquia is now detained at the Carcar police detention cell. Her son Eden Berto said he did not want his mother in jail, knowing her suffering.
"Pero bisan unsa ka salbahis sa among amahan, amahan gihapon na namo, napuno na lang sad gyud akong Mama (No matter how wicked my father may be, he is still our father. My mother just reached the end of her
rope)," he said.
SPO2 Jonas Pananganan of the Carcar police said they had already filed parricide charges against Eutiquia yesterday morning.
They did not find the penis and suspect that a dog took it away.
But they recovered the two bladed weapons and the pair of scissors that Eutiquia allegedly used on her husband.
Aurelio will be buried on Sunday. The funeral wake is held at his son's house in Bolinawan, Carcar.
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