Apropos of Nothing

Is it acceptable to use ‘blog’ as a verb? I blog. He blogs. They blogged.  Naah … my MS Word’s spell-check does not accept it as a verb — or even as a noun — or paying more attention to the squiggly red line underneath it – it’s not even a word!!

A forecast — From the proliferation of blogs in the net, I foresee that a blog will eventually be an accepted word. It will eventually pass the verb test as well.

Blog will take the same route as FAX (send thru fax, fax it over, I faxed you – just be careful in enunciating the ‘x’).

More recently, I have dropped a pet peeve on the use of the word ‘TEXT’ to refer to SMS (noun – you got my text?) and the act of sending SMS (I will text you.). Not wanting to sound like a dictionary, I have deferred to popular culture.  I no longer hesitate to say  “text me when you can”.

Soon, we will use blog in the same ordinary manner.  It is exciting to invent new words – rather than search through volumes of text (used in traditional meaning). More importantly, making new words is an exercise of every generation’s power to “make ordinary” a new phenomenon (such as blog).

Working in a corporate and multinational jungle — which is mainly email dependent – had made me very conscious of what I write and how I write it. I am always under pressure to prove that Filipinos are very good in English communication. I delude myself in thinking that I contribute to our country’s competitiveness in the global labor market. Overload of government propaganda. Yet, the focus on English as a preferred medium of communication had resulted in the decay of my use of the local dialects –especially the written part. I find it surprisingly difficult to compose an email to my Bisaya friends in the local vernacular. This has led me to fear for the loss of my Bisdak (Bisayang Daku) identity. Come to think of it – I have never been taught to write in my dialect!

So, there I am – unable to write in Bisaya and struggling in my English proficiency. I struggle with my written English so much so that I even edit the grammar and spelling of my love letters! I jot on a birthday card — and I needed some moments to phrase my sincere thoughts into correct grammar and punctuation marks.

This is why I am liking blogs — no editing needed … just pure rambling thoughts which echoes the rumblings of my stomach as I defer my breakfast while writing down my thoughts on this transient internet space. Who reads it? Who cares? I am not editing this.