This electronic diary is continued on tonyperezphilippinescyberspacebook36.blogspot.com.

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While Aubrey and her friends are celebrating Aubrey's birthday I am at my writing desk, reading.

Having a cup of Teow Li's lemon grass tea from Cambodia.

Aubrey's birthday party commences at M.'s cafe. Angelique and Aubrey engineered everything. I learned that Angelique is much better at these things than I am.

The cake was designed by my co-worker at the Embassy, Anthony Pangilinan, and his wife. It is chocolate embellished with red roses and 30 cupcakes.

Strands of white flowers and clean water for the shivalingam.

Learned today that Kichiro Mayuzumi is a guard dog too. When Aubrey's first friend arrived and went into Aubrey's bedroom to set up decor for her surprise party, Kichiro started barking and howling and wouldn't stop. I had to go upstairs to tell Kichiro that everything was all right. He then stopped making noise but lay down in front of Aubrey's bedroom door.

Happy Birthday, Mailes Angelina Kanapi!

Your birthday messages:

1) Save up for a rainy day.
2) Always look at the beauty within.
3) The man who loves you does not love your career.
4) Being in control is knowing that you are not in control.
5) When you are happy, you are too happy. When you are sad, you are too sad. Learn to achieve balance.

While Aubrey was out buying decor for her party, her friends arrived early to set up a separate, surprise party in her bedroom. I took some photos of the set-up, but not of Aubrey's arrival; it was a girl thing. At any rate they all seemed to be having a lot of fun, judging by the shrieking and laughter and singing I could hear from the ground floor.

An honest citizen has nothing to fear, for even the law trembles in his presence.

Never teach to impress. Otherwise your co-teachers and students will desire to take everything away from you.

I always admire people who work honestly and hard for something and then get it against all odds.

Two cups very black, Italian blend.

A person who lives alone must do everything by himself, but sometimes more efficiently and more thoroughly than he would with the help of others.

After the rain bathes the trees, the wind brushes their hair.

Do not be proud of poverty if it is something that everyone is trying to get out of.

Some of the heaviest materials I have ever lifted are earth, water, and paper.

Most in society are uncomfortable with reflective people, because reflective people are extremely difficult to penetrate.

Friendship and alliance are not identical relationships.

It is envy that always makes one an enemy, for the envious always believe that they, rather than you, should have what you have.

Inching forward is moving forward nonetheless.

I have never criticized a fellow creative writer for his or her works--and I never will. Writing is like painting. How one mixes colors and handles brushes are as unique as his/her fingerprints, and every audience has every right to decide what paintings they like well enough to hang on their walls.

It was a windy morning in Cubao, with a swirling drizzle as fine and as prickly as a mild sandstorm.

Your Messenger message:

"Tony, may i request for another dream interpretation?

"I dreamt that a friend picked me up from the hospital ( I wasnt sick in the dream) . I was surprised that instead of a car, she used a small plane. I asked her how much she spent for gasoline. 'Around P5,000' she replied, adding that it was better to spend that much on gas than be caught in traffic.

"During the flight, i asked myself why i trusted her to fly me, when i never knew in our entire friendship that she could also fly a plane.

"Having studied flying in real life, i thought in the dream to that it was alright to trust her as i myself have been trusted to fly a plane as a flying student.

"I suggested that we land on the roofdeck of my former condo, but she chose to land at the garage of a building in Ortigas Center."


My reply:

Hello _________!

A friend of yours will soon be hospitalized--not necessarily the person in your dream--and you will visit her. You will consider assisting her by paying for P5,000 of her bills, rationalizing to yourself that it is better to pay for another person's illness than for one's own.

That is why the plane landed not on your roof deck but somewhere else.

Never start collecting something, and then abandon, and then neglect it. It probably means that you have too many collections than you can handle.

There is nothing more complex than Asian magic--it is as complex as their visual art and their epic literature. One cannot merely dabble in it, one must devote several lifetimes studying it.

Magic is the art of looking backward in order to be able to look forward.

The sky is a father's comforting embrace.

Lunch with Angelique and Aubrey.

Angelique off to Saturday classes at her college.

Aubrey off to buy decor for her birthday party. Her friends are coming over to help her this afternoon.

Happy 18th Birthday to my third granddaughter, Aubrey Rose!

Good noon, Cubao!

Slept 12 hours last night.

Popular judgment is never valid and reliable, because it is always based on incomplete information.

Two cups Turkish dark.

Good morning, Cubao!

The clouds are glass pen trays.

12:06 AM. A steady drizzle has been descending in glass-bead curtains for an hour now. It sparkles in the mercury light of the street lamps. Perfect atmosphere for my viewing of an episode replay from The Curse of Oak Island on History.

Love that 17th-century coin!

Played a few games of mahjong with Angelique, Aubrey, and J.

Angelique and J. are only too glad that their classes tomorrow have been suspended.

Dinner with Angelique, Aubrey, and J.

Aubrey is now teaching Angelique and J. how to play mahjong. Very soon everyone here will know how to play it, and we can schedule regular game sessions.

Never demean yourself, no matter how little you think you have going for you.

Rain is a door that opens and shuts. It pours and it stops. When it pours, the door is open, and the sky asks you to step in and walk through its long, silver fingers. When it stops you are left all to yourself. No matter what key you try to use, the door to the sky will not open, until the rain comes and pours once again.

During my last workshop in Singapore the theatre provided me a mobile that I could use to get in touch with workshop personnel after hours, if I had to.

When Ezzat handed the mobile over to me he said, "It has money in it," and I had to think about that before understanding what he meant because, in the Philippines, what people typically say is, "It has load."

Chito passed by early this evening on his way to work and asked me for one of my umbrellas. He wanted a folding umbrella, and I gave him one. I gave my sister Alice an umbrella also, a violet, non-folding one.

I personally prefer non-folding umbrellas over folding umbrellas. They seem sturdier, although they make for very inconvenient hand baggage. They can actually double up as weapons or as long wands, or staves.

My favorite news program is On the Spot, hosted by Vic de Leon Lima and Toni Aquino. The news items come in swiftly, and the broadcasters do not have to resort to small talk and banter like other broadcasters do while waiting for news bits to come in--if and when they come in.

This news program is the epitome of news "as it happens, where it happens". It covers events that are happening at the same time in different parts of the country. It is straightforward, urgent, and immediate, and is a perfect utilization of air time.

I wish it would be broadcast everyday, including Saturday and Sunday, to keep everyone well-informed.

Sometime in mid-afternoon a woman walked into the compound and informed the guard on duty that she was visiting a friend, a tenant named N____. She walked up and down the two tenement buildings but was unable to find her friend's unit. She then knocked on every door, annoying tenants who felt that their privacy was being invaded. They sent her away. She threw a tantrum, kicked the stair steps, and proceeded to the driveway, where she screamed, cursed, ranted, and raved for more than a quarter of an hour. Everyone came out to watch the spectacle. None of the tenants, not even the guard and the building administrator, could calm her down. When she finally got exhausted, she left the compound in a huff.

I scanned the woman from our kitchen, where I was having tea, and saw that she was on the verge of a mental breakdown. She had a very serious financial problem--I note that it is always the lack of money that pushes a person with a weak ego over the edge and drives him to envy, frustration, hopelessness, anger, and, finally, despair.

I immediately recalled the time I was a child in our ancestral house in San Fernando, Pampanga. Beyond the expanded-steel fence of the back yard of the house, there was a community of informal settlers. We had friendly relations with them. Their children would sometimes come and play with me. Our friendship was really my first exposure to people who were living lifestyles of poverty. One of the residents of that community was a psychotic woman who always muttered to herself and intermittently screamed out, "Cualta! Cualta!" I asked my aunts what was wrong with her, but they had no knowledge of her story. We simply called her "Cualta", and would hear her screams outside while we were having meals in the dining room. This was my first knowledge of psychotics. It would be why, many years later, I enrolled for an M.A. in Clinical Psychology: to finally piece together and know, albeit in terms of layered syndromes, that woman's story.

There would be less mental and nervous breakdowns in this country if there were less problems about money. I have observed, though many might disagree with me, that money problems are more psychologically harmful than love problems. To begin with, even if a person had all the love problems he could possibly have and handle, he would still need money for his security and peace of mind. It is money that buys one a house, a car, clothing, and three meals a day--and those are basic needs.

I sometimes even suspect that many of my co-writers and co-painters actually write and paint for money--not for fame, not for glory, not for posterity, and certainly not for love.

I love houses with windows that glow like lanterns on rainy nights, reminding passersby to trudge on patiently because they, too, will soon be home. The warmth within those houses makes onlookers think of bowls of hot soup and comfortable chairs and picture books they could pleasurably pore through forever, of children sleeping inside cozy bedrooms with stuffed toys exuding the smell of new velveteen, their ceilings sprinkled with yellow-green, glow-in-the-dark stars, of pet dogs dreaming their dreams under spinning dreamcatchers. Outside, from the street, those windows shine through screens of tree leaves and branches stirring like black, Spanish lace being washed by rain.

I am the man in the street, and I am also the man inside the house, but I know not which me has the heavier burden of love.

The rain is a series of long, bridal trains. We lift them up with the tops of our umbrellas as the fairies who wear them march down the aisle.

Sloth day. Lolling in my bedroom. On Chapter 16 of The Dream Spheres.

Sloth is not a Deadly Sin on a rainy day like this.

When the rain falls, every drop contains a memory--retroactively from the past, currently from the present, precognitively from the future. Some of the memories soak my hair, my face, my body, activating computer chips within me. Others go deep into the ground, like thoughts that must be buried and remain hidden forever.

Thinking of the days I was a high school student and a college undergrad. I loved walking under the rain in a trench coat, and I did so for hours. Many of my ideas for plays and novels occurred to me in the rain.

Two cups very black, Italian blend.

Rain.

Tony Perez's Art of War: Know that your warrior spirit guides will have vengeance on your enemies, not on all of them at the same time, but on all of them, one at a time.

It is now that his underlings are learning how to exercise their own power in his protective shadow. They are savoring it. They like it, and they intend to hold on to it for as long as they can.

The sky is an aquarium filled with moonfish.

Good morning, Cubao!

The city is as washed and scrubbed as crockery in a kitchen sink.

If you have psychic abilities, stay away from media. They will only sensationalize and use you to their own ends, and those ends have nothing to do with the spiritual enlightenment of their audiences.

As a result:

1) The most credible psychics today are those who are not featured in any kind of media, and these are the psychics whom intelligent people go out of their way to consult.
2) Psychic abilities and activities do not look good in curriculum vitae.

I have put a stop to my annual invitation to coffee with Friends in my List whom I've never met before.

At 66 I am no longer interested in meeting new people. The friends I already have deserve more of my time.

Two wooden palettes finally scraped clean.

Set aside more stuff to give away. The dictionaries and almanacs I will give to Chito for Chevy and Vinci.

I have been invited by at least two fellow artists to join their group exhibits, but their common lead time was one month. I observe that this is typical of art events, maybe because a longer lead time makes their spark of interest die out. If so, I can never join such events, because I am not only an oil painter, I am a glazer as well, and glazing takes time.

The downside to wet weather if you are an oil painter:

1) The drying time is prolonged by 300%.
2) Varnishing is a no-no.

Water is the Bird of Life, but rain is the Fountain of Youth. Learn how to draw its essence into your body.

Wet your palms in the rain and visualize drawing the rain into your body and taking over your body.

Try it to believe it.

The goddess of the storm is my mother.

I love chilly, rainy weather.

I love wearing my favorite sweaters in it.

I love lighting our incandescent lamps to glow in its semi-darkness.

I love curling up in bed to read a book to the sound of drumming on the rooftops.

It makes me, at 66, feel like 27 all over again.

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey. We all like this kind of weather, especially Aubrey, who collects lanterns and lights scented candles.

I am always being invited by friends to Like something I know absolutely nothing about, but I Click on "Like" anyway.

If you are psychic, know that:

1) You are not obliged to help others, for your gift, like magic, is mainly for your self-development.
2) You should not meddle in other people's affairs just because you see something that they don't.
3) Your abilities have NOTHING to do with religion or salvation.
4) There are psychics like you in every country, all over the world.
5) There is nothing wrong with you except that you are 20 to 50 years ahead of your time. YOU are where everyone else is going.
6) Do NOT feel constrained to adapt to society. That would be like climbing a tree to pick fresh fruit, looking at everyone else groveling on the ground for fallen and rotting fruit, and jumping down to join them.

Can we not store the rain the way Joseph of Egypt stored grain for seven years, and then distribute the water for free?

I am still in hibernation and am not available to anyone.

Need to do a portrait.

Need to dramaturge nine plays.

When a person gets in touch with you for a consultation because he/she has an urgent problem, schedule an appointment at your earliest convenience. If the person does not respond, does not show up, or postpones the appointment, CANCEL EVERYTHING, because what it means is that his/her problem is not urgent at all.

Never drop everything for such persons. They are most often nosy creatures who seek to be entertained. If you have to schedule anything with them, do it at your convenience only. Let THEM drop everything for YOU.

The sky is a glass pitcher of ice-cold water.

Good morning, Cubao!

Slept ten hours last night.

Everybody home.

The flower man buzzed by. I bought a strand of white flowers, placed it on the shivalingam, and poured clean water.

Aubrey walked Cerefina in the driveway upon her arrival from her friend's house. Angelique's class will be over early this evening. We are waiting for her so that we can all have dinner together.

I always write inside the small loggia at 5:00 PM. It is the perfect time to reflect and watch dusk fall. I light a lamp on a small table, and of course take it in after I am done.

Maintaining a List of 5,000 Friends compels you to weed out people who used to matter to you but no longer do.

Exercise regularly. It keeps you in shape and keeps you alive.

Repression compounded by loneliness (and sometimes poverty) is the open door to "possession" because "possession" can be nothing more than an overwhelming desire to wreak vengeance on the world. It is both a form of immediate self-expression and a form of slow self-destruction.

Write and paint--and continue writing and painting--for you do not do so for the present but for the future. Your most appreciative audiences have not yet been born.

Tony Perez's Art of War: Always make certain that the persons who attempt to drag you down miserably fail to do so.

People are now collecting the mobile numbers of Grab and Uber drivers they really like, just in case they urgently need their services in the future.

Almost everything in your house will outlive you. Do not give that honor to plastic, resin, ceramics, cheap souvenirs, junk, and trash.

My sister Alice finished translating one volume of rituals from Spanish to English. I have yet to read it, as well as two books, and view entire collections of DVDs that my sister Sylvia sent me from Sydney, but I'm not doing all of that until I finish reading The Dream Spheres.

Angelique at college. Aubrey bought two boxes of doughnuts and is now at a friend's house.

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Two cups black, Turkish dark.

Good noon, Cubao!

The sky is an inverted searing pan.

Watched Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders (based on the book The Haunted Monastery by Robert van Gulik), a DVD my sister Sylvia gave me today. She had some difficulty obtaining this; it is, indeed, a rare acquisition. This 1974 movie for TV, filmed with a square screen a la the Brother Cadfael series, co-stars a young Mako as Tao Gan and a young Miiko Taka as first wife Jade Mirror, who looks no older than she was in the 1957 movie Sayonara. The rest of the cast is Asian-American, except for one Caucasian. Asian-American, not Chinese-American. I even suspect at least one Filipino-American in the cast. It was an era, after all, when a purely Chinese-American cast would have been impossible to assemble.

I was a little put off by the casting, but only because the characters look nowhere near the illustrations of Robert van Gulik. The actor who performs the role of Judge Dee is quite paunchy and not as fit as the protagonist of van Gulik's series. Because it is an old movie, the scenes are washed out. The continuity is poor with regards to posture, lighting, and sound. A dinner scene is unconvincing--there is hardly any food in the bowls. Finally, nothing can beat that fake, wild bear. This was, nonetheless, a good attempt and quite a hard shoot: the setting had to be as complex as that described in the novel, and the first half of the movie occurs under a heavy downpour.

Searching for a Judge Dee movie is like searching for a needle in a haystack, and so I consider this DVD an exotic treasure. It is now mine, mine, mine! I did enjoy it, but I can see how a present-day audience would not.

Must ask one of my students to stay in my house for a week so that we can watch the entire Grimm series in all of seven days.

The karyoka vendor plies P. Tuazon Boulevard at least twice a week, in the morning. I am fascinated with the way he calls out the word "karyoka"--he sings it like an Arabic chant, and in five separate notes, "kar-yo-kah-ah-ah!". Quite haunting. You have to hear it to believe it.

I will never own a mobile again. It requires more attention than our pet dogs, pet birds, pet fish, and house plants.

I asked B.L. for something and he gave it to me.

Lunch at home with my sisters Remi, Alice, and Sylvia, my granddaughter Angelique, my brother-in-law Rey, and J. A cozy, noontime get-together.

The sky is a bowl of salted popcorn.

Good day, Cubao!

A surprise visit from my sister Sylvia and brother-in-law Rey this morning. They arrived last night from Dubai en route back to Sydney.

Unexpected goodies--the complete _Grimm_ DVD set (all six seasons!), a Judge Dee 1974 DVD, a bag of arabica coffee, a bag of Turkish dark coffee, and a box of dates from the Middle East, three Winsor & Newton watercolor packs from my nephew Raymond, and a special (gold edition) of _The Thai Occult: Sak Yant_.

The book is a special (gold) edition of _The Thai Occult: Sak Yant_ (alas, pulled off the market but thankfully not before my sister Sylvia was able to get me one!) and comes with a sacred drawing stamped with gold leaf on handmade paper. According to the publisher, the talisman is on "handmade Saa Paper of Northern Thailand, created from the pulp of the bark of the mulberry tree. This paper has been used for the grimoires that were copied with each generation. It is a rough textured paper that is notoriously difficult to use as mistakes cannot be corrected.

"These designs have been made by Ajarn Metta and blessed with a sheet of gold leaf. During the whole process of creating the image and the spell, the relevant kata was chanted and they have a presence to them. It is pot luck as to which design you receive, some are quite simple, some very complex and some in other languages than the usual Khom script."

The Wands must continue pointing to the ground.

A year without a mobile now. I will never own one again. It requires more attention than our pet dogs, our pet birds, and our house plants, and thus prevents me from focusing on writing and painting.

Settled for portions of The Karate Kid starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith--because of the Chinese motif.

But I must say that, in real-life tournaments, there are no bad guys. No one plays dirty because everyone believes that he is on the side of good.

And nothing beats "Eye of the Tiger" for closing titles.

Boring Sunday night. Nothing on TV.

Did more work clearing the writing room.

Desire not only freedom but financial stability, for what does it matter to be free if you will only envy and gawk at others who can not only pay their bills but go shopping as well?

For some mages, the age of retirement is when, while you may share what you know with others, you may also cast spells on everyone you never liked.

The greatest indignity you can give to children is to make them go hungry.

Nightfall, with a chorale of cicadas in the dragon tree.

Not the cleanest studio in the world, but it's the finished paintings that count.

Furniture rearrangement done. Now I have to organize the studio before commencing painting again, but I'll save that task for tomorrow.

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Rearranged some heavy furniture.

Rainy morning, warm noon in Cubao.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is a fresh-water aquarium.

The problem with religion is not that it is handed down to its followers, but that it needs a fan base of atchays in order to survive.

Fright is an indication of immaturity.

To me, it is more enjoyable to snuggle in bed and read about a mystery than to analyze and solve it myself.

One of the tenants on our compound, Abdillah, is a religious Muslim. He goes to work everyday in Maranao garb. This evening I gave him ALL of my Muslim clothing from Pakistan and Indonesia, two big sacks of them, because I don't wear them anymore. I used to, before I retired, when I was conducting creative writing workshops for Muslim youth at Mindanao State University and for child combatants at a center in Ermita. Abdillah was most appreciative of what I gave him and assured me that he would wear all of the kurtas and the matching pants. He wistfully asked me whether I speak Maranao, and I sensed that he was longing to be able to use his language with a friend--any friend.

I decided to grow into my old age wearing not my Muslim clothing but my traditional Chinese clothing. Whenever I wore the former in Metro Manila, Muslims would approach me, expecting me to be an imam whom they could converse with regularly once a week.

Whenever I am wearing my traditional Chinese clothing in Metro Manila, on the other hand, NO Chinese approach me, because no Chinese in Metro Manila ever wear such clothing. And so I am safer wearing that.

Well, I made one man happy this evening.

Lunch with my sisters Remi and Alice and my granddaughter Aubrey at the center, then jalan-jalan at Lucky Chinatown. Bought bags of purple yam goodies. My sister Remi was planning to buy an ivory-color mahjong set but, when we saw the red set, we all agreed it was stunning and gorgeous.

Angelique couldn't join us because she has classes at her college.

Good morning, Cubao!

The clouds are white doves cooing on the branches of the sky.

Happy Birthday, Judy Aca Saclamitao!

Your birthday messages:

1) Celebrate with three different cakes. One of them should be embellished with clean cowrie shells.
2) Be less aggressive; allow your spirit guides to be aggressive for you.
3) Make a list of three things that make you nervous and work on countering them the coming year.
4) Your birthday colors are black and white.
5) Men, not women, will help you engineer your prosperity through 2018.

Did it ever occur to you that his objective is to annihilate all atchays?

To eradicate your hate for or anger toward someone, imagine him/her as a Care Bear carrying about a throw-pillow heart.

Your hatred and your anger will immediately disappear.

Caught another replayed episode of The Curse of Oak Island on History. The replays are confusing to everyone because of chronological shuffling.

Why didn't they just consult psychic Kim Russo and save themselves a lot of time and money?

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Still cleaning out drawers. Discovered my old Sheaffer fountain pen with italic nib, which I bought on a jalan-jalan with my nephew George 30 years ago. My name is engraved on it--the shop offered free engraving for every purchase--but the gold leaf has rubbed off.

P.S. Bold and italic nibs consume more ink.

The sun is a man in a shining, white suit.

Good morning, Cubao!

A quiet morning in the neighborhood, except for drivers who take P. Tuazon as a shortcut and discover that they can't pass through but try to anyway. Devils are unable to break habits.

Your e-mail message:

"Hello po Sir Tony Perez, _______ po ito from channel __. Sir sa ngayon po kumakalap po kame ng mga kababalaghan stories for november. Special show po for __________________, saan po ba nmen kayo pd makontak, mag ask po sana kame if me maishare po kayo sa amen na pwede po nmen gawan ng feature pero pang new millineals po mgging treatment. Thank you so much po sir tony.

"_______________"

My reply:

Hello _________________!

Thank you for thinking about me, but I am not interested in these things. I have always believed that TV programs like yours only serve to keep the masses unenlightened and misinformed about life after death, ancestors, and spirits, and, consequently, about God. It is not the kind of spirituality they deserve to be taught. And now you want to give millennials the same harmful education disguised as entertainment.

I know of no one who can help you or participate in your project, because such people do not belong to my circle of friends. 

Still reading The Dream Spheres. Love the magical objects, the magical weapons, and the magical jargon!

Angelique now home from college.

I am slowly becoming poorer and poorer by thousands, having to buy all these law textbooks, references, and voluminous case printouts.

Never bring home set pieces or props to decorate your house. They will only make your rooms look pathetic.

Good sandwich jam can be savoury rather than sweet, but you have to make it yourself.

I would buy a throne just for fun (and to seat models for my paintings on), but it would be way too big for any of the rooms in our house.

Cinematic blocking has always been a problem in movie direction, especially in scenes where two or more people are conversing. In real life, people do not turn their backs on the people they are talking to simply for both to favor a camera. Neither do they suddenly rise from their seats and step away to address a wall or a painting on a wall. They sit down and stay where they are, as when the men in The Curse of Oak Island hold discussions inside their war room. It is the camera that moves, not the performers.

Stealing photos and postings is online shoplifting.

Stealing magical spells is electronic kleptomania.

The night is a Berenstain Bears storybook.

Put together another bag of stuff to give away.

The flower man saw me at Toto's shop and pressed two strands on me. These had camia, sampaguita, and ylang-ylang. Offered them at the shivalingam and poured purified water.

Aubrey walked Kichiro Mayuzumi in the driveway earlier, now she is walking Cerefina.

Dusk falls. The sky is an indigo light bulb.

Turned on the incandescent lamps inside the house.

It is science that is simple. It is magic that is complex.

The absence of emotion is not an emotion.

Confusion is not an emotion. It is a mental state.

Indifference is not an emotion. It is an attitude.

Being at a loss is not an emotion. It is a state of memory recall.

Water was the first-ever mirror or means of reflection in our history, and it will remain the most magical.

Children's fears are bigger than adults', and so, do everything you can to dispel them.

They will flatter you and pretend to be on your side, because they want something from you.

Never begrudge a person his success in business.

What one began, he must finish, or else everybody loses.

There are too many epic battles and too few bards to sing them.

Work and rest can be done at the same time if you only knew how.

Unwarranted arrogance always prevents one from wielding effective magic.

Your Messenger message:

"I dreamt i was happily fitting a beautiful pair of white high-heeled shoes. There were people around me, mostly monks . In the dream , i was thinking of what relevance the heeled shoes were, considering that everyone walks around here in sandals or slippers.

"May i request you to interpret the above dream, Tony?"

My reply:

Hello ___________!

The white, high-heeled shoes are the key image in this dream.

1. They represent your attainment of the kind of purity you have always wanted, and you are ready to commence a new journey wearing them.

2. Yet, since you are human, the image also bears its opposite--the shoes could easily represent an attitude of superiority over others.

3. The archetype of white (a.k.a. glass or crystal) shoes is found in the story of Cinderella, the female phoenix who literally rises from the cinders or ashes. In this particular dream Prince Charming is not a person but an abstract ideal.

Never ask what the world is coming to. It only reveals your ignorance and your being a blind slave to tradition.

Drizzly noon in Cubao.

Lunch with Angelique, Aubrey, and Benjie. Bought trotters, among other viands, which my son Chito used to cook for meals.

Then Gene arrived. Angelique and Gene are now at Farmers Plaza. Angelique proceeds to her college from there.

In my dream I am lying naked on a gurney. My ancestors are passing in single file on my left, my colleagues on my right. All of them look at me as though they were viewing a cadaver in an open coffin. I consider my situation and believe I am dead. Then I see that it is my colleagues who are dead, like my ancestors. I want to ask each one of them how they died and what they left behind, but I am not allowed either to move or to speak, at least for now.

The Wands should remain pointing to the ground.

Every disaster is a tragedy, but not every tragedy is a disaster.

Wondering how a former, manic-depressive co-worker from 30 years ago is now. She migrated to the U.S. after 15 years of service to work there and find herself a husband. She lost the first and didn't find the second, and conveniently went back to her province in the south.

The clouds are decks of blank cards.

Good morning, Cubao!

Cerefina had another shampoo and is being walked by Benjie in the driveway. She is ceaselessly and happily barking, announcing to the world what a wonderful day it is.

Dinner at home with Aubrey.

Then Angelique and J. arrived from college and had dinner too.

"Abra abracadabra/
I wanna reach out and grab ya/"

Do not for a moment believe that "bahala na" and other such negative values are attributes of ALL Filipinos.

They are attributes only of atchays.

Two cups very black, Italian blend.

Good morning, Cubao!

The clouds are gray parachutes descending into the city.

When a prospective student comes to me, B.L. immediately tells me whether I should shut the door on him or not--and why.

When you come to me for healing and I cannot do so no matter how hard I try, it is because you have done me some kind of wrong behind my back. It is not I, after all, who heals you, but my spirit guides.

Jose invited me to join him and his fellow artists for their FarceEyed exhibit, but I need a specific model for a painting that I have in mind and will work on that painting only if I find that model within the week. Otherwise I must first read all nine TheatreWorks play drafts (from Ivan, Danial, Clara [two plays], Eve, Wisely [two plays], Eleanor, and Yvonne, and, as I understand it, more play drafts are coming in), must work on Keng Sen's portrait, and must work on a painting of tropical plants for Sarah.

Nine play drafts from TheatreWorks Singapore finally came into my e-mail Inbox. The playwrights who participated in my workshop sure write fast a la MasterChef Australia. Will get down to reading them and posting my dramaturg's notes on my blog Writing from The Heart.

Caught the second half of a replay of The Unborn, a Jewish horror movie about the dybbuk, on HBO. It still has all the elements of the 20th-century genre: dark scenes, nightmares, screaming, everyone dying but the protagonist, power outages, chases in which the chaser inexplicably appears in front of the chased's face, endangered children, possessed and therefore dangerous children, boyfriends appearing and performing rescues at the last minute by a mere cell phone call, locked front doors but conveniently unlocked back doors, and an ending that suggests that evil triumphs and continues.

The Jewish exorcism ritual was interesting. A Christian minister is present to perform a parallel exorcism and conveniently translate to the audience exactly what is going on. The Christian minister, hilariously, ends up being possessed himself and eventually killed, and I wonder if that is supposed to bear a message.

I think I watched the movie to the end for only two reasons: Gary Oldman, of whom I am a fan, and an exquisite, leather-bound, Hebrew book with lots of Hebrew letters and grim illustrations a la Grimm.

Watched what must have been the nth replay of the 2015 Asia's Got Talent finals last night. Someone please tell me why, when Filipino artists are adulated abroad, they are conveniently ignored by their fellow Filipinos when they get back home, as though they were painted birds.

A very mellow Tuesday afternoon in Cubao. Lolling in the small loggia while everyone else is at work. When I was in third grade, I'd look out the classroom window and envy everyone who was not in school.

Finally put all my leather folders and leather notebook covers together on a shelf for easier access. I amassed them over the years, and now I have more than what I need.

I make it hard for every student, but I do not make it impossible.

Tried the Sitio Catacutan bakery's bread pudding, but I find that it is too dense and too heavy. They actually make it out of excess and burnt bread of different varieties.

He used to crack witty jokes during staff meetings, until the officers quenched that, believing that only they could crack witty jokes. He should have worked in the private sector instead, because, this year, I heard that he retired a man with a broken spirit.

From personal experience and observation, I note that one has to ask a specific god, goddess, or saint for a specific thing.

Caught The Unexplained Files on Discovery. Interesting. It featured the man in the ice, and I do have the book The Man in the Ice by Konrad Spindler. Didn't know that the man in the ice was most probably a sacrificial victim, and that a curse surrounding his cadaver has already killed seven people.

What I do know is that, 5,000 years ago, men already knew how to knit, because the cadaver was wearing a knitted tunic.

Lions lie beside lambs all the time.

He thinks he has power, but what he really has is only the lust for power.

As you pollute the rivers of the earth, you pollute the rivers in your veins.

The air is still when a starship hovers over you.

A volcano will erupt once again.

She looks pretty in photographs, but she has the mind and heart of a savage.

A young man cannot sing an old man's song.

The sea is angry because you do not cease polluting it.

Every smear campaign is a commission of murder within the heart.

A half-open door is neither open nor closed. Either open it wide or shut it.

As long as you are comfortable with your convictions, you are a successful trailblazer when people disagree with you.

Like attracts like more strongly than opposites attract.

Nature changes its raiment, and so must you.

It actually hurts more to be suspicious of others than to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Who has the real economic monopoly on sainthood?

The paint brush is mightier than the sword.

Do not take as an apprentice someone who wants to be a star.

A person is beautiful not because of how he/she looks but because of how he/she moves.

At 16 people hardly listen to you. At 60 they sit up and listen. At 66 no one can tell you what to say or do.

Do not be harsh on a child who is like wildfire. He will grow up to be a famous person someday.

Reading literature on magic is like diving underwater without an oxygen tank. After a few pages you will need to resurface and take in fresh air.

When you knock on your father's door asking for a piece of bread and he gives you instead a stone, it is certain to be a five-carat diamond.

When you criticize a woman for wearing a beautiful dress, she will change into an even more beautiful dress. Then you will criticize yourself for having neither of the two dresses.

What others say and what is are usually two different things.

Never buy temporary fixes. If you do, you will be stuck with junk the rest of your life.

Every day is a distinct journey.

Look back and evaluate it every night.

We are all blessed with people, but not all of us are blessed with material things.

Good morning, Cubao!

The clouds are white, porcelain mugs.

Life is woven like reed baskets. Study their patterns and learn from them.

Tears elicit tears.

Know that even spirit guides and deities can change their minds, especially if your intentions are not clear to them.

For men only; women, do not read this:

When you wake up with an erection at dawn, it isn't because you're horny. It's only your body's way of preventing you from peeing in bed.

Loneliness is the worst excuse for religiosity.

The left hand contains fire, the right hand hurls it.

Basic magic harnesses the energies of the sun and the moon, but advanced magic goes beyond those and harnesses the energies of the planets.

It is also possible for alpha mages to harness the energies of other galaxies.

Finished tearing up another cartonful of diaries. That's the end of the lot. I think. Unless another carton in storage rears its head sometime in the future.

Lunch at home with Angelique, J., and Benjie.

Aubrey going jalan-jalan with a friend at MegaMall.

This tragedy will catch everyone by surprise.

There are gold and diamond lodes on Mars, which disproves the theory that aliens came here to harvest gold.

The sky is slathered with whipped cream.

Good morning, Cubao!

Benjie cleans the house today.

Globalization will remain unbiased toward religion, faith, and creed. As such, none of those can rightfully claim it for their own.

Tony Perez's Art of War: Sever all ties with those who are quick to speak ill of you, for it is about time they resented themselves.

An ignorant person will always flirt to get what he/she wants because he/she knows no other way how to.

Everyone is in someone's fantasy one way or another.

The laborer takes to drink after a hard day's work to temporarily forget that he has been demeaned.

A ratiles tree always grows on the spot where someone died.

You cannot try to be someone you are not, because you are not even sure who the real you is.

Magic flourishes even among non-believers.

I do not go on magical trips and tours, and I do not go out of my way to meet practitioners, because I already have more than everything I need. It is other people who want to come to me but, since I am a hermit, I never let them in.

Before I retired I could not completely enjoy holidays and would actually resent them, because I knew that they would be over all too soon and that I would have to go back to work again. Now every day is an infinite holiday that only death can put an end to.

A mage should have only ONE apprentice.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is lathered with soap suds.

Everybody home.

Waiting up for the grandchildren.

Angelique and J. at a movie, Aubrey at a friend's debut party.

Family game session done. For tea we had bread pudding and orange soda.

Back from jalan-jalan. Three finds.

Lunch at home with Angelique, Aubrey still in bed.

An eventful day for everyone. Going jalan-jalan briefly, Angelique off to law school and having dinner out with J. later, after which they watch a movie, family game session at 2:00 PM, and Aubrey attending a friend's debut party.

Home alone later, and will probably read a few more pages from The Dream Spheres.

Two cups very black, Italian blend.

The sky is wearing a necklace of sharks' teeth.

Good morning, Cubao!

Woke up and rose in very slow motion. Delicious.

Family game session scheduled at 2:00 PM.

Do things leisurely and at your pleasurable pace, but, when others demand speed and accuracy, deliver with a cool head and show everyone that you can beat them at speed and accuracy as well.

Looking back over the years of my employment, I can see that my co-workers could have accomplished more had they been more candid and straightforward as I was.

It is possible to be diplomatic without gilding the lily, because gilding the lily only encourages hypocrisy. And it is hypocrisy that slows down the world and makes people comfortable living on untruths.

Night drizzle.

When one wants to, the other doesn't want to; when the other wants to, one doesn't want to.

To get rid of night terrors, nightmares, and night visitations, print out a picture of Baku and place it in your room.

People feel more secure about you when they've seen not only your Social Self but your Shadow as well.

To be presumed guilty without being proven innocent is the real definition of original sin.

Lunch with Angelique at home. Aubrey still in her room.

Slept nine hours last night.

Are there secret pathways below the Internet?

Why is it that, when the Net is down and I am on stand-alone, Google et alii can still get to me, send me updates and security checks, and walk me through several pages of a checklist? Afterward, when I try to go on the Net, I can't, because the Net is STILL down.

Good noon, Cubao!

The sky is strewn with white rice.

There is a reason why certain persons take an interest in antiques from as early as childhood. In previous lifetimes they either volunteered or were designated to have the ability to communicate with their ancestors, do them proud, or avenge them.

Anything that is raveled can be unraveled.

Paranoia kills innocent people.

Still drizzly in Cubao. Had to wear a cap just to take out the trash.

Dinner at home with Aubrey.

Then Angelique and J. had dinner out after Angelique's class.

"Final Countdown" and "California Dreamin'" can be sung together.

Cloudy sunset.

Angelique off to college, Aubrey back from groceries.

Cubao rain, with distant, rolling thunder.

Every toolbox must be under lock and key.

The best toolbox, believe it or not, is an empty filing cabinet, disguised as occasional furniture.

Repetition is not identical with persistence.

People get excited in different ways. Some become hyperactive and garrulous, some sit tight in a corner and hug themselves. Others binge on food. Yet others spend hours inside the toilet.

When insects do not die immediately, it is because Mother Nature is giving them a chance to fight for their existence.

Beware the student of magic who comes to you pretending he knows nothing.

Gave away more unwanted stuff to our less affluent neighbors.

She failed miserably because she was under the illusion that she was working in a First World country.

Intermittently cleaning out drawers. We must have hundreds of drawers, and there are thousands of forgotten little treasures stored in them.

And then it will move to the opposite side of the globe.

No matter how intelligent a coward is, he is never cut out to win.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is the surface of a goddess's hand mirror.

There are seven, and only seven, alien nations represented on this planet.

Afterward, a buffeting storm.

Sleep. It resets your mind.

The first year of elementary schooling is usually the most miserable in everyone's life, and I would not be surprised if most of a person's social hang-ups and fixations were rooted within that period of time.

When men kill trees, it is because they resent the fact that trees outlive them.

Thieves will always be hesitant to infiltrate tiny houses.

While frogs are symbols of lust, lizards are symbols of potency.

Reminder: A rainmaker not only calls forth the rain, it also stops it.

A couple should have a shared bedroom and individual bedrooms, because, sometimes, it does everyone well to go to sleep and to rise in solitude.

That way, also, neither one will make excuses to come home very late.

C., a relative and employee of T. at T.'s neighborhood Net cafe and photocopy service, left his mobile on a table yesterday afternoon. Minutes later it was gone. They later surveyed their CCTV footage and saw that the culprit was a female student of STI, across EDSA.

A sad situation. When students have no pocket money and a meager allowance, they resort to theft and prostitution.

Be careful where all of your English comes from.

I once heard an old, mediocre, and somewhat pretentious TV director say, "Let's cut this scene. It's so la-de-dah." He meant whimsical, flimsy, and unnecessary.

He didn't know that "la-de-dah" means royal and upper-class.

On social media, write as perfectly as possible. Do not truncate or coin words. Do not be swept away by verbal garbage. Check your grammar, your spelling, and your idioms. Do this not for yourself, not for the world, but for your children, who are reading your messages.

The door creaks. Something knocks on the wall. There is a brief scent of cologne.

But look in the mirror. The ghost is you.

If only you could see the marvelous cities above the clouds.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is a blank page in a writer's diary.

Never give up pursuing your life goals. All you need to do is rest awhile, and then resume with renewed energy.

Tony Perez's Art of War: When you bless those who dislike you, you receive blessings tenfold.

Tony Perez's Art of War: Don't just fly. Soar high above everyone else.

No one is exempt from knowing suffering especially if they listen to world news.

Drink lots of water and flex your limbs after ingesting food with high uric acid. If you rest, nap, or go to sleep instead, you will wake up with painful gout.

Now on Chapter 10 of _The Dream Spheres_.

Wondering which really came before the other--Forgotten Realms or Dungeons & Dragons.

Dark skies and icy breezes in Cubao.

The dragon tree will grow where it will, not where you want to plant it.

No one should call you master unless you have a master's degree.

The sky is the mansion of an artist's mind.

Birds of a feather shop at identical stores.

When you heal others, you heal yourself.

Big houses are fine to set interesting stories in, but not to maintain and live in.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun is an ancient galleon's steering wheel.

Finished watching Seven Dials Mystery, a novel written after The Secret of Chimneys, both featuring Lady Bundle as an amateur detective. This production features Sir John Gielgud in one of the roles. The DVD version is slightly discombobulating to me because, like The Secret of Chimneys, some scenes were re-set in different locations and compressed to fit into a two-hour show. The DVD version of The Secret of Chimneys, moreover, was drastically rewritten to include Miss Marple as the star sleuth. Again, Inspector Battle does not look like what I imagined him to be while I was I reading both novels.  As if that were not enough, James Warwick plays an offbeat role here, and I watched this after watching the Partners in Crime series, in which he plays the detective Tommy.

Set in the country, with a lot of French country decor.

I was riveted to it anyway, not because I am biased toward DVDs of Agatha Christie novels but because it was a good production.

One more for our Agatha Christie DVD shelf.

I wouldn't have recognized Ronaldo Valdez as Colonel Sanders in the KFC TV commercial had my sister Remi not told me it was he. He looks like such a far cry from when he played the role of a male prostitute in my Balintataw teleplay "Mestizong Quiapo", stage directed by Joey Gosiengfiao and directed for TV by Lupita Concio, when I was 18 and in junior college.

Back from the center. Bought Chito's medication. Bought him dinner.

Aubrey and I are about to have dinner at home.

One more DVD to watch--The Seven Dials Mystery--featuring Lady Bundle, another whimsical, Agatha Christie amateur detective, but this one's feature-length and I need more time for that.

Waiting for my son Chito. Must buy him his prescribed medication.

Collaborations are fine, but it is your individual work that will bring you fame.

Put your best foot forward only if you can maintain both the energy and the image.

Otherwise you will soon dwindle and be a letdown.

There are late afternoons when the sun lights everything around you like pale champagne.

I love studying tiny weeds. They are really gnome plants and flowers. They simply sprout forth from the earth. They survive extreme sunshine and extreme rainfall, yet they die when given attention, taken care of, and replanted.

And then it will move farther south.

Watched "The Crackler" from the Tommy & Tuppence series Partners in Crime. Forged notes, casino scenes. Love those counter-top and wall lights shaded with shell-pink glass--ironically, they make the rooms look very masculine.

This is the last episode in the series and I am now placing the set in our DVD cabinet, with the Poirot and Marple sets.

Back from jalan-jalan. Dropped off our bedroom laundry, checked out a new water station, bought a bottle of food for Aubrey's goldfish, and also bought five much-wanted items at a local store.

We live in a Miss Marple neighborhood.

Reviewed the titles in the recommended list of law books the college gave Angelique. We need to convert an upstairs bedroom to a study. Half will have a law bookcase for Angelique, half a medicine bookcase for Aubrey. And we'll have to locate their respective rolltop desks in there.

As for myself, I've always wanted a Grimm trailer and spice shop, but, I guess, my downstairs writing room will have to be those.

When uncertain, listen to your spirit guides.

A day of hustle and bustle. Angelique shopping for school supplies (mostly pens and highlighters), off to college, and meeting J. later for dinner. Aubrey probably going to gym. Going jalan-jalan, taking bed sheets, pillowcases, and counterpanes to the neighborhood laundry, then buying goldfish food and checking out something at a favorite shop.

Slept nine hours last night. Everyone who is retired is entitled to this delicious, relaxing, and enjoyable hobby. It cannot be bought by money, only by contentment and peace of mind.

A hot day in Cubao--volcanic-heat hot!

Only predators are attracted to those who look desperate for money.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is entwined with astral highways.

Watched "The Case of the Missing Lady" from the Tommy & Tuppence series Partners in Crime. Suspenseful, and rather frightening, episode with a surprise ending. This is the penultimate episode in the series.

Never direct a movie or a play like a carinderia cook skimping and saving on materials and ingredients. Really good producers should never be impressed by that, because excellent productions are always deliciously expensive.

Watched "The Unbreakable Alibi" from the Tommy & Tuppence series _Partners in Crime_. A doppelganger puzzle that ends in someone's death.

Nearing the end of the series now. I'm going to miss the characters and the performers who played them, especially the performer who plays Albert (now an old actor), who reminds me somewhat of the young Mickey Rooney.

A magic wand transforms itself into an ancient weapon in your dreams, that is why mages have more than one magic wand.

Sweltering Sunday night.

Will probably read more pages from _The Dream Spheres_ later.

Whenever he loses, his face looks like the theater mask of tragedy.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Angelique's first day at her college of law tomorrow.

You do not reap what you sow if what you sow never grows.

Three-hour, deep tissue massage.

Gave away a lot of T-shirts I no longer want.

Watched "The Man in the Mist" from the Tommy & Tuppence series Partners in Crime. A cozy hotel, a cemetery haunted by the ghost of a policeman, a flamboyant stage actress a la Sarah Bernhardt, a dejected poet. Enjoyed it.

Lunch at home with Angelique. Aubrey decided to sleep some more.

Two cups very black, Italian blend.

Like a lover who must attend to other affairs, the rain comes and goes. When it comes, it seems like forever. When it goes, it seems like forever also.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is a slice of winter melon.

Finished watching "The Ambassador's Boots" from the Tommy & Tuppence series Partners in Crime. Interesting.  Opens during a garden reception hosted by the U.S. Ambassador. Love that jitterbug scene and Tuppence's glittering party dress. There is also a scene in which Big Ben chimes midnight.

Noticed that the exterior scenes are grainy, compared with the studio-clarity of the interior scenes.

A bit thrown off by that all-white-walls scene with three women and Tuppence, which came across as a lost fragment from an Oscar Wilde play.

The best teacher is usually the least available.

What makes you happy is never the opposite of what makes you sad.

A driver without gadgets in devils' traffic will soon be overcome with bipolar road rage, for he has no other means to be creative with his mind and with his time.

Watched "Finessing the King" from the Tommy & Tuppence series Partners in Crime. A murder is committed in a pub after a charity masquerade ball. Quaint situations, but the forensics are dubious.

Dinner at home with Aubrey.

D.'s boys came to pick up the old ref.

Angelique on her way home from an 8:00 AM - 8:00 PM orientation at her college of law.

Our space is so labyrinthine that the new ref had to be carried from the driveway two steps up into the small loggia, then one step down into my writing room, then left past a work station into the studio foyer, then right into the studio, then right again into the studio lounge, then three steps left to the dining room, then one step right into the kitchen. The old ref was taken out the same route in reverse.

The new ref arrived at noon. Giving the old ref to D.

2:00 PM Saturday Game Session. Mahjong tutorial.

Every night, write a list of phrases that will comprise the scenario of the following day.

Every morning, review the list and allow your psyche to make revisions.

Whenever you meditate, cradle a globe of the Planet Earth in your hands.

Two cups very black, Italian blend.

Allow the day to step in synchronization with you.

It is the person who doesn't stop who never knows the race has ended, and that he didn't win.

It is the person who does not look who always misses out on love.

It is the person who does not listen who always misses out on everything.

Slept nine hours last night.

Good noon, Cubao!

It is at its zenith is when the sun sends flying kisses to the earth.

Angelique and J. have arrived, and so I'll call it a day and go to bed.

Watched "The Clergyman's Daughter" from the Tommy & Tuppence series Partners in Crime. An apparently haunted mansion, a poltergeist frightening off paying guests, and buried treasure. This one was truly exciting.

There were changes in the detectives' office decor, most notably a gorilla bust and a faux zebra sofa throw. This episode was set in the Christmas season, and so there was also a decorated tree.

Loved Tuppence's Gloria Swansonesque disguise!

Watched "The Sunningdale Mystery" from the Tommy & Tuppence series Partners in Crime. Make-up improving--more subtle. More dresses, more hats, more period decor. A queer lapse in continuity, though: a dresser mirror inside a hotel bedroom has a lovely crown designed like calla lilies, and a few shots later the mirror is completely different.

This episode is unusual in that Tommy and Tuppence solve a murder mystery with only newspaper articles to go on, without meeting and interviewing the victim's relatives, the suspects, and the witnesses.

Dinner at home with Aubrey. Angelique and J. are having dinner out after J.'s basketball game.

A plan is a living document. Do not be afraid to tweak or revise it if you have to.

More than halfway through The Dream Spheres. Staying home tomorrow to read more pages.

Anything that glows in the dark wears off and becomes a waste of money.

Watched "The House of Lurking Death" from the Tommy & Tuppence series Partners in Crime. The plot and treatment were quite gothic. Not a glitzy episode, set in a dark, depressing house. But I loved it anyway.

You can never ruin things for other people. You will always end up ruining things only for yourself.

Every tree will always show you how joyous it is to be alive.

When you feed others, you will always have enough food for yourself, for the universe will never allow you to go hungry.

The new is not necessarily better than the old.

Big and little make good partners.

Every person who is alone talks to himself.

What encompasses part of a whole very soon encompasses the whole.

Do not laugh at the ignorant, for they will grow wise sooner than you think.

Back from the center. Came home with nine unusual finds.

Always love your body more than you love anyone else's.

So glad to know that the compound tenant who had a heart attack is now doing fine. His son is a nurse and is taking care of him.

To avoid imitating someone at all costs is the equivalent of slavishly imitating him.

Spirit Questing is never all about you. It is always all about your client.

Lunch at home with Angelique, Aubrey, and J.

Now Angelique and J. are off to J.'s basketball game in Manila.

As for myself, I need to go and check out something at the center later today.

When a loved one, significant other, or dear friend experiences an accident, disaster, or death, it is never YOUR karma--it is HIS karma.

Other people are never used as props, and their tragedies are never used as teaching aids, for you. They have their own minds, their own lives, and their own destinies, as you have yours.

Do not be overly upset by delays--they are spirit guides' ways of preventing you from encountering accidents or misfortune.

Allow your spirit guides to change or adjust the rhythm of your day.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is lined with silver tissue fabric.

Every time I watch Agatha Christie DVDs I am all fired up to do our rooms in that exquisite, in-between period between art nouveau and art deco.

Finished watching "The Affair of the Pink Pearl" episode from Partners in Crime, the Tommy & Tuppence series that my sister Sylvia sent me from Australia. Loved it. Deliciously 1920s. Gorgeous sets, costumes, and jewelry. The action, performances, blocking, and entrances and exits are deliberately stagy and comedic, even ambiguously Chekhovian. There is something Lucille Ball-ish about the actress who plays Tuppence. Very whimsical Agatha Christie, and I am happy to have the Poirot series, the Marple series, and this one.

When a virgin does not oil her lamp, it is because she prefers to be escorted home by a handsome, Good Samaritan.

If the buildings do not topple, they will sink into the ground.

There are things which, the older they get, the better they look.

The ant labored all summer while the grasshopper played the fiddle all summer.

In the winter, the grasshopper should have thought of holding a solo fiddle concert. Tickets would have sold out.

It is useless to go anywhere in Europe to study painting if you do not have the necessary talent to begin with.

You lust after a person in a photo, not knowing that that person no longer looks the same and will no longer be desirable to you.

When disaster strikes, there will be enough blame to go around.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

We discussed the granddaughters' university schedules for the first semester.

Not home alone anymore.The granddaughters are back from their shopping spree, and bought a lot more stuff than I expected.

Never say that you need "just one little table" to put your junk on, because you will end up with a lot of "little tables" and never get rid of your junk.

There is only ONE rule to follow to de-clutter your house: NOTHING ON THE FLOOR, and that includes any kind of furniture.

Think twice before deciding that you NEED more furniture, for it is furniture that encourages clutter in your house. Furniture makes you put all sorts of stuff in it, on it, and around it, including piles of books and papers.

Home alone.

The granddaughters are out buying shoes.

Back from a Spirit Quest and consultation at Rockwell. Was picked up 1:00 PM, was brought back home 5:00 PM. Did not take photos because the agent is an international celebrity. The agent also wanted me to come alone.

Yes, the tikbalangs are still in Rockwell. I think that they will always be there.

Gave the agent five items to install in their house.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is hatched with impressions of rain.

Aubrey lights vigil candles on the family altar on the second anniversary of my daughter-in-law Ivy's death.

Dinner at home with my sister Alice, Angelique, Aubrey, and J. on the evening of Ivy's second death anniversary.

The broadcaster claims to be nationalistic, but he wears T-shirts with foreign flags on them.

It is all right to tune in late to a news program in which the hosts use the first 15 minutes to warm up and introduce the show and intermittently crack jokes and engage in small talk.

Ambition is the downfall of every wannabe mage.

Always treat the students you KEEP as your own sons and daughters.

Whenever you are unselfish, the universe brings you what you want for yourself tenfold and on a silver platter.

Whenever you are rushing, remember that you are not only rushing to accomplish something, you are also rushing toward your own death.

Before continuing to gripe about someone you haven't seen in a while, first find out whether that person is still alive. Otherwise your griping would only be a waste of time.

Jalan-jalan at the center with Chito. Went to the bank, paid our utility bills, did groceries, bought medication and vitamins for the grandchildren, and had a snack at the Cubao Leaky Cauldron.

The devil always argues.
The devil always thinks that he is right.
The devil never hesitates to hurt or harm others.
The devil goes to church.
The devil uses religiosity as his last defense.

The sky is garlanded with nylon mesh.

Beware devils' traffic, in which devils do the rounds to possess atchays.

Good noon, Cubao!

Slept nine hours last night.

A compound tenant suffered a heart attack but refused to be brought to the hospital. A son or daughter attended to him, according to the security guard on duty.

Fear of hospital is equivalent to fear of death.

There is nothing so restricting as preventing yourself from doing the things you like and conforming to other people's expectations, just because you have a reputation to keep.

Dinner at home with Angelique, Aubrey, and J.

Angelique and J. back from attending to official paperwork.

Aubrey back from gym with a pair of potted flowers for Ivy's second death anniversary.

Knitting and magic are directly correlated.

As you work, you create the magical weave of ether necessary for your spells to travel through.

Your e-mail message:

"Good Morning.

"I have this dream last night. eto po yung details na naaalala ko:

"i went out in a classroom and ended up in a forest like place. i am carrying a blanket around my neck. i noticed my supposed teacher surveying the river. then i decided to return to the classroom but it was raining so i decided to wait in that forest like place. i took shelter in canopy made of rock. there was a huge rock protruding from the ceiling where water is trickling. i catched the falling water with my hands then i took notice of what was in front of me. It was a small falls instead of a river. the falls were made of pile of round stones and in the spaces of stones was where the water falls. after sometime i thought to use the blanket as cover from rain to leave the forest. i ended up in a steep stone walkway. i managed to reach the top in the 2nd but before i reached the top, while struggling to climb the steep walkway, a woman asked me why i chose that way when just beside it is a stone steps which is much easier to climb (the woman was using that stone steps). i can't remember my response or if i responded. anyways on the top i was hugging the polished top stone in front of me was a button that will open the door. i pushed it, the door opened but the opening is very small and with unusual shape since i needed to stick out my elbows while hugging the stone (i was in a sitting position). i managed to enter the door and ended up in a comfort room where a guy just finished using the bowl (i remember seeing this guy in the forest earlier in my dream). i decided to poop. weird was i throw my underwear in the bowl then decided to poop while continously flushing the bowl. i heard the guy talking to his father to not enter the cr. but the father opened the door. then i noticed that i was in a room of someone since i saw a double deck on my left side. a girl entered the room. she didn't bother seeing me sitting in a toilet bowl. then the father (turned out to be my former manager) saw me and made the usual jokes. he was holding a pillow and scissors. he cut a small portion of the pillow case and jokingly offered it as tissue. i continously was flushing the toilet bowl but my underwear was not flushing out. the when i looked again to see if my undies is flushed out i saw a guy instead in the toilet bowl fighting not to be flushed out. my dream ended with me also being flushed out and found myself in a dungeon with the guy i am flushing out. 

"thanks in advance"

My reply:

Hello ______!

This dream tells me that you may have married or given commitment to a woman you do not really love. You probably went into this relationship because you and/or the woman (and maybe your father as well) desire to change your lifestyle, your habits, and your orientation.

The decision, of course, is yours.

There are those who believe that people can change. There are those who believe that people do not change.

Just ask yourself: What really makes you happy? What makes you a complete person? What makes you feel confident, successful, and fulfilled?

Never live a life that others choose for you. Follow your own heart, not the hearts of your religious leaders. Even if it eventually leads you to sadness, you will have the least regrets for having done so.

Your Messenger message:

"Hi Sir, just woke and I had a dream still fresh in my mind. I was running with a few of my officemates in a parking lot and we were like being chased by people who were acting like zombies. They werent really looking like zombies in their appearance. My current officemate A. was chasing me, she was a zombie. And I managed to escape her by pushing her to a fire exit stair case. After which I jumped down to thw 26th floor, and hid on the cars. 26th floor was still a parking space. As I was hiding I noticed two men, and when then saw me I shot them with my hand by gesturing a gun, and I said bang. Then one of the guys shot me. However it was weird because there were no gunshot wounds. He also shot my officemate who was inside a red mirage glx car, and it appeared that he was mortally wounded. I rolled under the car pretending to be dead and the guys left. I rushed to the car since I knew my officemate G. was shot. I started the car and it was a manual transmission. It is weird since I was able to drive it even though I do not drive manual cars. It also appeared that L. was there which is one of our officemates. I drove and we arrived at a parking space once again. G. was suddenly okay. No wounds. Suddenly there was a car parked in front of us and we cannot leave the parking. I went around in leather boots which became wet inside due to wet ground. As i returned i noticed that the car in front of us already left. I noticed a car which was a white mirage g4 which was trying to park and scratched it by trying to do so. G. was trying to leave the parking slot, and when he saw me he was trying to the car. I told thim to brake and put the car in neutral. He was able to do so and it appeared to be an automatic transmission now. And I woke. Good day sir."


My reply:

Hello ____!

Whenever you dream of being in a building and going to a particular floor, that floor represents an age in your life. Think back to the time you were 26 years old--a situation occurred then that is potentially repeating itself at the present time. Your impulses are to project your predicament to your co-workers, and the tendency is to flee or escape.

What is happening in your life right now that corresponds to this situation? What solutions did you apply in the past to such a situation--or did you do anything at all about it?

Personally history repeats itself, and you are being called upon by your psyche to take appropriate and effective action rather than ride away.

I've always wanted a hardwood knitting bowl and I'm glad my sister Sylvia sent me one. Everyone thinks it's for peanuts or candy, but it's really to work simultaneously with three balls of yarn while preventing the threads from getting entangled with one another.

DVDs, books, and chocolates.

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain.

OMG tonight is Agatha Christie night, because my sister Sylvia sent me two more DVDs and two books from Australia!

If your religion makes you constantly fearful of the rest of the world, then you are constantly fearful of yourself, and you most probably are practicing the wrong religion.

Are you as corny as Kansas in August,
High as a flag on the Fourth of July?

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky opens its candy stores.

Never use a ragged umbrella. It will make you look ragged too, because, when it is open, it is the first thing that other people see.

Gaining confidence is an important step in attaining success, but it is only one important step, and is not sufficient by itself to bring you where you want to go.

Lying back awake is resting, sleeping is recharging.

Tony Perez's Art of War: Do not welcome and embrace strangers who come to you, flatter you, and pretend to be on your side. They are traitors to everything they say they represent, to you, and to themselves.

Hold a yellow, glass ball in your left hand to properly handle your emotions, especially grief, and to strengthen your spiritual connection to your ancestors. The ball can also be held in your left hand while astral traveling.

Rolling thunder beyond Cubao.

There are none so arrogant as graduate students, yet most graduate students end up as nobodies even to themselves.

Make repairs before or after a storm, not while it rages.

Tony Perez's Art of War: When someone dislikes you, dislike him back, and do not bother to mend the lost relationship, the way you would not bother to mend broken glass.

A coward never takes risks because he believes he is always on the losing end.

Tragedy not only has consequences, it has even more implications.

We weep not immediately after a tragedy but after our minds have completely comprehended it, which can take from a week to a year.

Everyone can be attractive, but not everyone knows how they can be so.

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Aubrey and a friend are buying concert tickets later.

Happiness is achieved when you cut down the number of people who come to you and the number of people you go to.

Two cups very black, Italian blend.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is an incomplete jigsaw puzzle.

He doesn't eat preserved dates because they look, to him, like candied cockroaches.

Tony Perez's Art of War: Know that your enemy's real enemy is the person he always wanted to be but cannot be.

A mirror on every wall creates an astral crossroads inside a room.

Every season brings concomitant inconveniences, but all you have to do is prepare for them.

Have season boxes in storage containing everything you need to make things as pleasant and as comfortable as possible for your family.

The rain has stopped in Cubao, but the streets are still slick with it. Night falls. The surfaces of the streets are black mirrors that reflect the colored lights above shop doors and windows.

Hold a cobalt blue, glass ball in your left hand to fine-tune your comprehension, analysis, foresight, and precognition.

Now snuggling in bed and continuing reading The Dream Spheres.

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain.

Wind-driven drizzle on Cubao.

In the meantime I set up the mahjong table in the studio lounge. Our old dining chairs are just perfect for the table. Will use the lavender set on Saturday.

Still hibernating. Do not disturb.

My sister Remi will conduct a mahjong tutorial for the family on Saturday in lieu of our Bingo afternoon. My sister Alice and I, however, already know how to play it.

Now he will become paranoid.

When your god tells you to stop, why bother to pray to be allowed to not stop?

Go out of your way to make money because you love what you do, not because you have to pay bills.

Good day, Cubao!

The sky is an astral carnivalscape.

If you are afraid of going to bed after eating pancit, drink a tall glass of soda and, of course, do not go to sleep immediately.

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Scandalous as it may sound, I think I need one more mahjong table. A mahjong party is more fun with eight people. That's a good number for two to four pizzas, one cake, one or two pies, a bucket of chicken, and two family-size bottles of soda.

And, when no one's playing, I can use the tiles for experimenting with three-dimensional stage set models--and for creating magical structures. It is said that General Chuoko Liong/Kung Ming created a small, labyrinthine structure after the ba-gua so that his enemies would lose their way, and that he could summon strong winds with that same structure.

Hold an aquamarine, glass ball in your left hand to manifest clarity in communication and self-expression, and facility in different languages.

A cold compress will alleviate gout, a hot compress frozen shoulder.

Never begin an art project with painstaking detail and end up in a slapdash manner. You will only manage to be like a comic book artist who eventually loses interest in his work.

Too much showmanship will not bring you the coveted trophy.

His face has become puffy and his eyes are tired.

The rain descends on the landscape like a big, black bird come to roost.

Back from jalan-jalan in Lucky Chinatown with Angelique and Aubrey. Amazing that they remember the places we went to the last time we were there, and that was years ago, when I bought our two Chinese lanterns.

This time around bought a wooden mahjong table, thanks to a referral from my spiritual son. And we splurged on purple yam delicacies.

The goddess of the storm is my mother. We beat the rain on our way back.