If you have read all the pages of my blog (PAGES, mind you, not posts), then you probably already know why I named this blog “Kutitots.” If you’ve been visiting since 2004 (is there anybody other than my fiance who does? Cripe.), you would know that this blog had evolved from being a mere “show off your works but add a journal on the side to make it personal” kind of website to a weblog. Kutitots has gone through a lot of evolutions, design changes, and even topic directions for the past years (Kutitots will turn three years old on the 14th of February 2007), and now, it seems like even the blog name is having a new meaning (for me, at least).

I got the weirdest of inspirations for the domain name from my dogs and their fleas (my MANY dogs and their many fleas). And for some strange reason, my family seemed to like having our own lingo (it’s our weird way of bonding). “Mga kuto” (fleas) doesn’t sound too appealing, so we just had to invent our own: Kutitots. I did a bit of research on the Web, and found that “kutitot” (without the S) is actually a type of chili. Regardless of which, I could not bring myself to think that kutitot can actually be something edible (eww, who would want to eat FLEAS?!). So the name stuck. Besides, I already bought the domain name—like I had a choice.

It wasn’t until the first redesign of Kutitots did I thought of giving it a tagline: “A girl and a dog in the FLEA world.” So yeah, you can imagine that that version had stuff on me and my dogs equally. It then went through a lot of revisions (but the tagline remained the same), until I finally made it into a pure blog with a new slogan: “A Filipino web designer’s blog about life, dogs, and fleas.”

I used to believe that the new tagline was only partially true. I blogged mostly about life, and sometimes about my dogs (just in passing), but I have never blogged about fleas. Not once did I ever blog about them.

Well, that’s what I thought up until recently.

When you really think about it, I had (and have) been blogging about fleas. I don’t mean that in a literal way—figuratively. You’ll notice that if you look close enough (look through my Archives, the category name might even give you a hint).

Fleas are parasites, aren’t they?

Well, I ask you then. How many “parasites” have you met in your lifetime? Isn’t it part of life that there are some people who have parasitical tendencies?

Each one of us has “Kutitots” (or flea) tendencies—there are just those who shine above the rest and have earned the wrath of my keyboard. No use denying it now—I have been blogging about fleas.