This electronic journal is continued on tonyperezphilippinescyberspacebook28.blogspot.com.

We fear isolation, but it is in isolation that we come face-to-face with God.

We yearn to create as a form of competition, making us blind to the true beauty of Creation.

An electronic device is designed for its company to express itself, never for you to express yourself.

It is inadvisable to post photos of yourself in which you do not look as you do in person. You become a big disappointment to others, and, ultimately, you become a big disappointment to yourself.

Good morning, Cubao!

Why do computer companies continue offering more and more apps when they know, at the same time, that the computers they are selling don't have enough memory to accommodate them?

Good night, Cubao!

Watching replays on TV while sitting up for Aubrey.

Began a thorough cleaning of the kitchen, since it was slightly exposed to the wall cutting the previous week. Will also continue doing a thorough cleaning of the dining area tomorrow.

Cleaning house is an art and a skill. If you don't know how to do the cleaning efficiently and well, you won't manage to clean anything at all and will even feel miserable for it.

Once you know how to clean, on the other hand, you afterward have a feeling of great satisfaction.

"And I wear my sunglasses at night/

So I can keep track/

Of the visions in my eyes/"

Now Aubrey is off to a birthday party with a classmate, after spending my coffee change on two boxes of Krispy Kreme to take to the party.

I shall have to wait up for her tonight.

In the meantime Angelique wants to eat just the rest of the pizzas for dinner. I am still trying to convince her to join me for a regular meal at M.'s cafe.

Three Down, Nothing More To Go

We received a text-message from Seattle's Best yesterday, informing us that their planners are now available.

Finally, I have one, and in a color I like: orange. When conducting the Blocked On Colors exercise with my creative writing participants, the colors that are blocked from their memory are, consistently, orange and violet. No one can give a satisfactory explanation as to why.

My personal explanation is that they are magical colors and that they are not for everyone.

I gave Angelique, Aubrey, and Angelique's classmates the money to wipe out all the blank spaces on our card with Christmas drinks and espressos to take home.

We have now passed the three-planner Christmas challenge. Quite ridiculous and petty, I know, but we all need planners for 2016 anyway. Electronic calendars are too unwieldy and do not offer us the luxury of space, the luxury of feeling and smelling the sweet scent of paper, and the luxury of writing. They also seem to deprive us of our individuality.

J. arrived. Now I have five young adults in the house.

Ordered pizzas for the granddaughters and Angelique's classmates.

I had lunch at M.'s cafe.

Took out the trash and cleaned part of the dining area.

The dead mouse said, "We take what we can get and we get what we can take, because only human beings practice politeness and correctness."

The dead mouse said, "I lived in trash, but you, too, live in trash. You take out more trash from your house than you take in other things. All of your rituals and celebrations result in even more trash. There is not a day or night on earth that you do not produce trash. The moment you leave your house you are surrounded with trash, and only the annihilation of the human race will change that, for trash is not what it is but what human beings define it to be."

Good morning, Cubao!

Slept eight hours last night.

Overcast skies above the district. I love it. It allows me to see people in soft lighting, and without shadows.

Angelique's classmates are over to work some more on their group project.

I need to clean up today, starting with the dining area, and then do my laundry.

Benjie will have his three-day weekend again and will resume work on Tuesday. Must clean up while he is away, then decide what colors to paint the walls.

Good night, Cubao!

The granddaughters want to visit the cemetery with Ivy's relatives on Ivy's birthday. I need to know what the plan is.

When it rains, it snows.

Dinner with Angelique at M.'s cafe.

Aubrey coming home later tonight. I might have to pick her up from school.

Felt like Simoun, presenting my tray of jewelry round the compound, the cafe, and D.'s store.

Tried the egg mayo sandwich at M.'s cafe. Nice!

All Wands must point to the east.

I always dispose of my cigarette butts and ash from ashtrays in the kitchen waste bin. It absorbs the smell of food particles and renders them unattractive to rodents and insects.

Never renovate a house 100%. Retain at least one part of the old structure. This will ensure continuity of life and continuity of blessings,

Electrical outlets done. With lots of good luck we can repaint the walls tomorrow, after which we install the glass sliding doors.

Angelique back home from university. Aubrey still on her class field trip.

Lunch with Benjie at M.'s cafe.

Cement work is still ongoing, but we plan to finish up with it today.

I love the sky at night, whether it is filled with silver clouds or with stars. I usually wait for the moon to come out, because the sight of it seems to reassure me that all is well in the world despite the news on TV. It is probably the reason I had a roof deck built on top of our house.

The night sky always reminds me of my father because, when I was little, he used to take me and my younger sister for rides through the city at night and buy us milk shakes and toys. It was the only time he was ever available to us since he worked all day.

This New Year's Eve I plan to have our midnight snack on the roof deck. I hope it will be a memorable time for my granddaughters, and that they will remember it long after I am gone.

Always distrust a former lover who wants to come back to you. He/she is no longer the same person he/she used to be. And neither are you.

A typical condominium unit for the hoi-poloi is not a tiny house but a tiny room. It makes its inhabitants feel cooped up and forces them to "live outside", thus creating more crowds and more traffic.

First Batch of Excess Jewelry

Asked the compound and cafe staff members to choose one piece each. The most unlikely persons chose the most unlikely pieces!

Delivery morning. Five, five-gallon jugs of water for our dispensers, and Angelique's comforter and my two canvases from the laundry.

I noticed for the first time last night that King Kong has no genitals. Surely they can't be tucked in beneath all that short fur. It somehow makes him look impotent and non-threatening. Like a stuffed toy.

In the Philippines, devils' traffic is the most effective form of terrorism. It paralyzes personal, social, and national progress.

Devils' Traffic

Feeds on blood
Anger is its aperitif
Welcome to the smorgasbord

Try this for a change:

http://tonyperezphilippinescyberspacebook16.blogspot.com/

After all the griping and bitching, it still has not occurred to anyone that there will be devils' traffic as long as there are atchays.

So what if you go to an exclusive school, work for a prestigious company, or are an eminent scholar? If you are always surrounded by atchays, none of those count.

Good morning, Cubao!

We are doing cement work today.

Good night, Cubao!

Nothing on TV, and so I settled for Peter Jackson's King Kong, which I've seen many times before. This is the only movie in which Kyle Chandler reminds me so much of JR Dalisay.

M's cafe is quite cozy. A perfect place for our neighbors to enjoy a tall cup of coffee and read.

I sit back, appraise our renovation work, and relax, while everyone else is trapped in devils' traffic.

Fed and watered the birds this evening.

Asked Angelique and J. to fill my Seattle's Best card with stickers. Since the journals/planners are not yet available, I told them to cancel everything except for the drinks they are having.

Dinner alone at M.'s cafe, since Aubrey is on her field trip and Angelique and J. are eating out. Whenever I am alone at M.'s cafe I cannot help but think that this is how my life would be had I not adopted two boys. Nonetheless I do not regret having done so. It was and is an extremely grounding experience.

It feels great to look sexy to everyone but not give in to any of their advances.

Finished the third panel of my wuxia scarf. Now working on the fourth panel.

All of the dead skin has peeled off my new tattoo. Peter Tran is indeed a fantastic tattoo artist!

When your computer bogs down, clear your browsing data. You don't need all that history after all.

When your neighbors see that you are renovating, they follow suit and also renovate, resulting in a better-looking neighborhood.

I cannot be bothered to travel all the way downtown and back in this nightmarish traffic, and so we are settling for supermarket ham this Christmas. The trip just isn't worth it. Ham is evil anyway.

Angelique is back from Aubrey's school. We have paid the reservation fee for Aubrey's enrollment next school year.

Then J. arrived. Angelique and he are going to the center this evening to do some errands.

Someone just asked me to model for a photo that he will later convert to a medieval painting. I was flattered. I said yes (how many people come up to me with a request like that?)! I asked him what he wanted me to wear for the photo. He said that a medieval costume is being sewn and that I should wait for it to get done.

Evidently he's never seen all the medieval stuff in my wardrobe. Quite exciting, but let's see whether this happens or not.

The dead mouse asked, "Are you not saddened by the separation of empty bottles from their bottle caps? Are they not like cadavers that are thrown into a pile with their heads off?"

Now that the apertures in two walls are done, the energy of the house has begun to re-circulate. Most wonderfully, I am fascinated with the way new areas of light and dark have emerged with the ceiling lights or the lamps on.

It is light that paints a house. That is why I love frosted-glass sliding doors so much. All it takes is a sweep of headlights or tail lights from a car in the street, a passing parade, sunrise and sunset, halogen street lamps, paraffin oil lamps, a candle in a holder, or a torch beyond the glass to paint entire rooms in different, enchanted colors.

Construction and renovation madness continues.

Always a good excuse to turn unexpected visitors away.

I am perplexed at other people's metaphoric use of eating within the contexts of lust and sex. There is the phrase "sex-starved", and I have often heard references to other people as being "delicious" or "good enough to eat". Then there are people who perform sex and are described as "ravenous", after which there is the phrase, "one's lust is sated". The only explanations I can think of is that people who use such metaphors engage in oral sex, and that too many people may have been reading too much Tennessee Williams.

The fact is, I never feel like having sex when I am full or when I am hungry, because, to me, eating is not only an art, it is also an act independent of anything else.

Lost Parents and Professors

Many years ago the Cultural Center of the Philippines conducted a nationwide writing contest for children, and I was invited to be one of the judges. A day after the results were announced, a woman called me on the phone and tried to convince me to change my decision, claiming that her son deserved to be a winner. She offered to take me out to lunch, among other things, but I declined. I spent an hour on the phone trying to convince her that, while her son's entry was good, there were others that were much, much better--something she could not accept--and that it would be in her son's best interest to teach him that it is all right to lose contests. She wept, she ranted, she told me how much she loved her son and how high her expectations were for him, but I did not give in. I had to terminate our conversation. I didn't even bother to ask her how she was able to reach me; she must have done extensive research and called up all the judges on the panel.

Also many years ago I taught an elective course titled North American Indian Shamanism for the American Studies Department at De La Salle University. Some time in mid-semester a mother of one of my students called me on the phone and complained about my assigning her daughter the construction of a simple dream-catcher. She also offered to take me out to lunch and tell me about her born-again Christian faith. I declined, and said that REAL EDUCATION IS NOT EXCLUSIVE TO ANY RELIGION.

I note, however, that, when I enrolled for my M.A. in Religious Studies, my professors were just as bigoted and as biased to Christianity. They did not believe in tolerance and they became very upset at the slightest contradiction to doctrine presented in class. When I chose, as the topic for my public lecture, the divination stones Urim and Thummim from the Old Testament, the president himself went out of his way to assign me the most fundamentalist nuns and priests in his roster as consultants. I went to them one by one, listening to their condemnations of my topic, but I remained unfazed. I thought that it was such a cheap strategy--and a waste of time--to send me to those "consultants" and show them my outline. They might as well have changed the title of the course from "Religious Studies" to "Christianity Studies".

Thankfully, I did conduct my public lecture on the topic of my choice. A year later I graduated magna cum laude. My thesis, Pagsubok Sa Ilang, was published and later won a National Book Award for Best Religious Publication.

However, now, at the age of 64, I am completely convinced that there is only ONE religion of peace, and that is Buddhism. I don't practice it, though. Perhaps, the warrior in me prevents it.

Never bank on popularity or public support. You will end up asking yourself, "How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?"

Bank, instead, on what is given: on what you have, on what you do not have, on what is real, on what the truth is, and on the best that you can do ALONE AND FOR YOURSELF under all of the circumstances.

The more you lead, the more you should listen.

Unable to oversleep this morning. Benjie is off to buy more cement, sand, and cinder blocks. We also need to pay a reservation fee for Aubrey's enrollment next year.

Good morning, Cubao!

Cement work commences today.

Good night, Cubao!

Everyone should have the talisman by which curses are transformed into blessings.

Dinner with Aubrey at M.'s cafe, which now serves four kinds of salad and four kinds of dressing.

Then Aubrey decided to do groceries, at this late hour, for their class field trip.

Inside my own house, the sounds of construction and renovation are music to my ears, because they make me feel that my house is being healed.

Lunch with Benjie at M.'s cafe.

Wall cutting is done. We are now adding two, additional, electrical outlets on the lounge wall.

As long as you are truly talented and consistently productive, you will become renowned:

--even if you don't try to be.
--whether you like it or not.
--no matter how much you isolate yourself from others.
--long after your physical death.

Note that only the untalented need promotion and public relations, now and forever.

What I love so much in my state of retirement is commissioning house work--or any kind of work--and being able to monitor it from time to time. A year ago I had to give instructions before leaving the house and then come home in the evening to check the work that was done. Not to mention being in the office the whole day and worrying about how the house work was proceeding.

I have a very strong feeling that Benjie is of Native North American lineage, but I have not yet psychically figured out how one or more than one Native North American happened to come to the Philippines two or three generations ago.

Good morning, Cubao!

Still bright, sunny, and cool!

Benjie working on the wall again. I hope that the cement work gets done today, so we can start cleaning already. As it was, my spiritual son and O. dropped by last night, and the only place we could have a decent conversation in was the kitchen.

Good night, Cubao!

Took Angelique and her classmates to dinner at M.'s cafe.

Then my spiritual son and O. arrived, and I took them to dinner at M.'s cafe too. We spent two hours catching up on stuff. We intend to get together again soon.

Now Aubrey is awake and the girls want pizza delivered.

A Very Special Gift From My Spiritual Son

My spiritual son gave me a very special gift tonight: a ring struck after my countenance. He connived with my daughter-in-law Ivy, when she was still alive, for her to take photos of Julie Lluch's bust of me, which this ring is modeled after. The artist wanted to include the magical rings I am wearing on the bust. Since my hands do not show in the ring, he sculpted them, instead, in my hair. They are minuscule, but can be seen through a magnifying lens.

This ring means so much to me, more than all my other rings, which is saying a lot, because I have at least 36. It is a symbol not of me but of my spiritual son's and my daughter-in-law's love for me. I know that Ivy can see this ring, and that she is extremely pleased with how it turned out.

The genuine teacher is he who guides you but pretends not to.

It is irritating how, after every sentence, she pulls back her lower jaw and purses her lips, as though to suck in everything she just said.

Two days after the washing machine released its sudsy water, the dead mouse said, "There was a flood. My husband drowned first. I tried to save him but I could not."

Never waste your time on a depressed person whose objective is to remain depressed. That person is perfectly capable of self-healing but wants to get all possible attention from others.

Two Down, One To Go

This one was Angelique's choice, because Aubrey wants to be the only one with a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf planner. I like Starbucks for its ground coffee varieties for sale in sacks on the shelves, its souvenir mugs and glasses, and its coffee things. The staff members of the outlet on the northern arc of Araneta Coliseum is especially cordial, and that is the outlet we go to often.

The only thing I don't like about Starbucks is the clientele it attracts, whom I call "the metropolitan homeless": they usually order only talls, seat themselves in the most promiscuous spots, and stay there for hours laptopping and making sure that everyone can see them. They can't be professionals because they try too hard to look like professionals. I always get the impression that they are escaping from dysfunctional homes and don't have their own bedrooms or dens to work in.

My tattoo has completely healed. Now the skin where the ink was injected is as tough as a Kabayan Mummy's, and is beginning to flake and peel off. This is the phase of having a tattoo that I don't fancy. Keeping my chest covered for now.

Good morning, Cubao!

Bright, sunny, and cool!

Benjie is back to work after his weekend in Cavite.

The Wands must be oiled and cleaned, because they will need to be used again.

My younger son Chito arrived to pick up a big bag of old toys and children's books for Chevy and Vinci.

Good night, Cubao!

Almost done with the third panel of my wuxia scarf.

Dinner with the granddaughters at home. They have no classes tomorrow. Benjie reports for duty, though, to resume cutting a door through the lounge wall.

Angelique's friend is coming to sleep over.

Strange. Immediately after I encoded and published the previous post, a news report came in about the incident.

Everyone now at home for the Monday.

Tuned in to world and local news.

Aubrey's friend's younger brother was "kidnapped/held-up" yesterday afternoon for a P100,000 ransom and I learned today that the parents paid P50,000 to get the boy back. They were too shocked and embarrassed to report the incident to the police, which I believe is wrong. I hope the perps get caught and apprehended.

A hot day.

Back from the Sitio Catacutan Market. A quite uneventful jaunt. There was nothing of interest, and so I ended up buying only bird seed.

Learned early on that I can't just buy or bring home a bunch of ballpoint pens and expect my granddaughters to use them for school. Each granddaughter has a very specific pen preference, and those are the only pens they will ever use. They dislike, in particular, hotel pens (including the Carlton Hotel pens I used to have) and freebie pens.

There is nothing more annoying than needing a spot of white titanium acrylic, knowing that you have a small tube somewhere, not knowing where you placed it, and refusing to buy a new one because you have shifted 100% to oils.

In a battle episode of The Voice of China a couple months back, a female who sang like a male rock star and a male who sang like a male rock star were set up against each other. Naturally the male won. Sometimes there is nothing like the genuine article.

When teaching a class or conducting a workshop, do not attempt to convert the participants to your religion.

By the same token, do not allow the participants to convert you to theirs.

My new tattoo healed very quickly. I was able to shower the same night without feeling the sting I thought I would feel upon its contact with my shampoo, soap, and water. The tattoo itched the second night, but I was able to control myself from scratching it, even in my sleep. Now I am ready to have it photographed all over again but am still deciding what to wear with it.

When a poor man or woman ignorant about art has the courage to come up to me and inquire if I could do a painting to hang on their wall, I do so. I never go uppity and refuse, anticipating that they and their family will somehow be uplifted by my work.

Good morning, Cubao!

Need to go to the Sitio Catacutan Market today and finally buy bird seed, as I wasn't able to do so yesterday.

Good night, Cubao!

Hoping to accomplish more work this week.

I was unusually open this evening, and could read the minds of the other patrons in the cafe. Quite disturbing.

Dinner with Aubrey at M.'s cafe. Ordered cornsilog for the first time (Angelique frequently orders it), and Aubrey, buffalo wings. Both good.

Fall in love with a person's character, not a person's looks.

Glass will always deflect negative energy.

A knight is mistaken for a king. A king is mistaken for a knight.

Lunch with the granddaughters at M.'s cafe.

Angelique is spending the night at her classmate's house. They are still working on their group project. It was a stressful afternoon for Angelique, though. After arriving at her classmate's house she realized she'd left important materials behind, and had to go home again. In Metro Manila traffic, this is sheer hell.

Should you happen to find loose seashells in your house, gather them in a dish and place them inside your bathroom.

A bright and sunny morning, but quite cool.

Need to buy more bird seed.

Always listen to water when the rivers are as restless as the seas.

Good morning, Cubao!

Today is not exactly a rest day. I intend to throw out more stuff from the walk-in closet upstairs.

Good night, Cubao!

Sitting up for Angelique and J., who have not yet arrived from J.'s parents' dinner.

Perfume-making workshops are offered in Cubao at P500 per session. But then I have to buy a starter kit that costs P3,500. The kit is quite intriguing. It reminds me of alchemy. It contains two graduated cylinders, a stirring rod, a beaker, an Erlenmeyer flask, fixative, dipropylene glycol, perfume grade alcohol, an amber bottle, a clear tube, a perfume box, fragrance oils, vials, a photo sticker label, and a manual.

The workshop store sells quaint perfume bottles, too. Aside from amber they have clear, raspberry, and cobalt blue.

Am I ready to create my own gayuma?

I hesitate to launch into this because I still do have my creative writing, my painting, my knitting, and my house renovations.

Wore Aramis today. When Aubrey and I walked into a store that sells scented candles this afternoon she asked me to smell the bayberry and said that it smells so much like Aramis. It does. Maybe that's what Aramis is--bayberry.

Tried the halo-halo at M.'s cafe for a bedtime snack. Nice. It's neither chain store halo-halo nor sari-sari store halo-halo. A nice alternative to my werewolf burgers.

Two former students text-messaged, one of them my spiritual son. They want to visit me some time next week. I warned them that another wall is being cut on the ground floor, and so the furniture will be disorganized. Among other things.

Angelique and J. left 6:30 PM. They are having dinner at J.'s house. J. is formally introducing Angelique to his parents.

Dinner alone at M.'s cafe. They now serve halo-halo aside from their fruit shakes, and they also have a shelf of Philippine souvenir items for sale.

So far their dishes that I like are:

--Sisig, served sizzling, dressed with mayonnaise, and with a runny, raw egg on top, quite different from Lucing's
--Bulalo
--Pork teriyaki
--Kaldereta
--Tapsilog
--Longsilog

If she is elected, there will be no significant change, because she is essentially an inadequate woman.

Aubrey left for the dinner party 5:30 PM.

Waiting for Angelique and J.

Why doesn't she want to be a senator first?

Taking care to be well-dressed everyday prevents you from being overweight.

He saw his disadvantage from the very beginning, but chose to ignore it, banking on popular support.

It's not where you vacation or visit--it's where you live that counts.

If she is elected, she will be surrounded by fascists who will commit abuses in her name.

It will save yourself a lot of trouble if, as early as grade school, you learn, accept, and acknowledge that there will always be others who are better than you are.

He will not win. In every discussion, everyone forgets that he is even running.

I eat because I am hungry. I am hungry because I eat.

He was never ill.

Bought a tin of French Roast ground coffee. Never had it before, and will see if I like it.

One Down, Two To Go

Finally filled in all the spaces on our Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf booklet by taking out six orders for the compound security guards. This is the planner Aubrey wants, and in her favorite color, blue.

CBTL not only serves the best pastries in town. To me they also offer the best planners of all. Each one contains different kinds of paper: blank, lined, boxed, and squared. Not only can you write in them, you can draw and plot coordinates in them as well.

Now saving up for Angelique's planner.

Aubrey and her classmates are attending a birthday party at a hotel this evening. The dinner party will be held in one of the dining rooms. The celebrant, one of their classmates, reserved a suite that they will sleep in tonight.

I accompanied Aubrey to have herself waxed at a salon in Gateway. I didn't know there were upper-floor shops in Gateway I'd never been to before. Interesting.

We had coffee at the Cubao Hogwarts Express Station.

Did groceries with Aubrey, which usually means that she will ask me to buy her something that she likes. This afternoon, it was a pair of Converse shoes.

I don't mind buying shoes for my granddaughters. They don't take hours like other women do. They usually know exactly what they want and zoom in on it.

Whenever my granddaughters and their friends say that they need to go out shopping for bags, I always think of formal bags. I am thrown off my seat to learn that they usually mean casual bags, like drawstring bags.

Every Man Should Know How To Tailor His Sexiness To Himself

Every male can be sexy as a boy, and then as a man, and then as an old man. A sexy boy, however, does not necessarily become a sexy man, and a sexy man does not necessarily become a sexy old man.

One should learn how to alter his sexiness according to his age. The problem is, man men and old men become stuck on images of themselves as boys. A man trying to be sexy as he used to be when he was a boy and an old man trying to be sexy as he used to be when he was a man are both fixated at previous stages, and are victims of regression.

Good morning, Cubao!

Aubrey and I might do groceries today.

A lot of cleaning up to do.

Good night, Cubao!

The werewolf will cross the street to the burger stand.

Dinner with granddaughters at M.'s cafe.

Ten white, capiz lanterns are already hanging from Chito's tree in front of and below the spirit house, in honor of the elderly god.

Cement work on staircase wall is done, but there is still a lot of work to do.

Every master reveals secrets, but will not always provide the keys to unlock them.

It is acceptable to have outdoor furniture indoors, because it is also acceptable to have indoor furniture outdoors.

Lunch with Benjie at M.'s cafe.

Scorching sunshine with the blatant chorus of cicadas in Cubao.

Part of Aurora Tower is on fire, and so is a commercial/residential area in downtown Manila, according to the news.

Cement work is in progress on the staircase wall.

"Stop/
Look/
Listen to your heart and what it's saying/
Now/"

Do not be upset whenever your own relatives do not wish you well. They are immediately punished by your ancestors.

Good morning, Cubao!

We are proceeding with the cutting of the den wall to accommodate glass sliding doors.

Good night, Cubao!

My chest is still stinging from the new tattoo. My old tattoos are comprised of my finger tattoos and the sky dragon on my head. This was the first time I had a chest tattoo, and the experience was completely different. The tattoo artist worked close to my chest. I must say, there was something erotic about it.

Dinner with Angelique and her classmates at M.'s cafe.

After Aubrey arrived from varsity volleyball training, I took her also to dinner at M.'s cafe.

We can't eat at home while the house hasn't been completely cleaned after wall cutting.

Now knitting the third panel of my wuxia scarf.

Angelique and her classmates arrived 4:30 PM. They are working on another group project.

The granddaughters will be off school for the Christmas break really soon.

Heart and Throat Chakras Tattoo

Peter Tran, an American-Vietnamese tattoo artist based in Los Angeles, picked me up 11:00 AM. We crossed EDSA and went to his Cubao residence, where he has a multi-purpose space functioning as his studio for photography, painting, and tattooing.

I'd been wanting to have a tattoo of a lotus flower in the middle of my chest for the longest time.

Peter designed this double skull on a lotus flower for my heart chakra with bamboo trees rising to my throat chakra for me.

I arrived home 4:20 PM. By that time Benjie had completed cutting the aperture on the staircase wall.

Love that tattoo. I can't wait for it to heal. May I not wish death to enemies, because the goddess who lives in cemeteries is my mother.

American-Vietnamese tattoo artist Peter Tran with his custom-made, shamanic walking stick. In the background are his artworks.

Inside Peter's unit

A cup of superb, Vietnamese coffee

 Peter's portfolio of tattoos and photographs

Peter shows an electronic study of the tattoo he designed for me.

The ritual begins.

I loved many people who lived and died in obscurity. All around me there were people I did not love who lived and died in obscurity too. Because of this I gave up my desire to be somebody. I saw that the people who count most are those who have no such desire.

Need to get ready soon for P.

MTRCB sent me an electronic Deputy Report Form to fill in before December 25. This is the first time I received this form, and I hope that I won't be considered delinquent.

Good morning, Cubao!

Work has resumed on aperture in staircase wall.

Never frustrate a child. He/she will punish you by punishing himself/herself.

Children sometimes try to show you that they know more than you do:

--because they want you to learn something, from them, somehow, unaware that you always do.
--because they DO know more than you do in certain aspects. You'll even be surprised that they know more things now than you did at their age.
--because they want you to know that they are worth educating further.
--because they want you to feel proud of them.
--because they love you.

Good night, Cubao!

Made some progress with the spread in my adult coloring book and with my wuxia scarf. Had to lock myself inside my bedroom while Benjie was cutting/grinding/chiseling the large aperture in the staircase wall. Thank God for glass sliding doors: no dust, smells, and insects can seep through--as opposed to the traditional doors on hinges that don't really swing shut and often have crevices above and below, I mean.

It was a good idea to do the cutting while the granddaughters were at school. Benjie had somewhat mopped up long before they arrived.

Work resumes tomorrow, though.

The line-up of candidates for the Philippine presidency is quite surreal.

Angelique and J. came home 9:00 PM. They had dinner out.

P. dropped by and wants to meet up tomorrow for something I've always wanted. Excited! I'm still wondering what I can give him in exchange.

Angelique and her classmates are still on campus, watching the live stream of a basketball game.

Cutting has commenced on the staircase wall. I think we should be walking around wearing masks.

December renovation madness.

Fed and watered the birds while Benjie is out shopping for hardware supplies.

Aubrey on half day at school today, and so she arrived home early. She preferred to go to sleep rather than have a late lunch, though.

Never create a work of art while in a state of discomfort. It will show in the final product.

The succession of colors in the rainbow remains a metaphysical mystery to me in light of secondaries. Green comes into being from yellow and blue, and so it makes sense that it is located between yellow and blue (YGB) in the spectrum. The same thing goes for orange, which is between red and yellow (ROY). Yet, if violet arises from red and blue, why is violet not between red and blue? Why is red so far away from blue (R-OYG-B), and why does there have to be an intermediary color called indigo between blue and violet (B-I-V)? Is indigo, therefore, a tertiary of blue and violet? If so, should not indigo and blue-violet be identical rather than indigo being described as a dark, midnight blue?

The only answer I can think of is that there is a second, invisible, circular spectrum superimposed on the first spectrum. And, actually, there may be more than one--so much more that the circle is really a sphere, except that we have been brainwashed to view rainbows as two-dimensional.

Did a round of the Sitio Catacutan Food Court. Benjie is still doing a major clean-up of the upper floor. We are having lunch at home as usual, since the granddaughters are in school.

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Anyone with such bad English and poor encoding skills like those is truly pathetic.

Many people cannot conceive that earth changes entail changes also within human beings and animals, for we are also of the earth.

Where a department chairperson is an atchay, all other faculty members will be atchays.

Good morning, Cubao!

Benjie reported for work again. We are gearing up for a lot of things. I hope to accomplish more than we planned for today.

I fear he will not make it to the very end. He will probably be cast in a future episode of X-Men or as Aunt Em in a future, bold episode of Spiderman.

Good night, Cubao!

Changed my bedroom reading lamp bulb to a stronger one, and I like the stronger one better.

Dinner at home with Angelique, Aubrey, and J.

Did a walk-through of the ground floor. It seems that I crave some sort of renovation at least once a year, which is possible only in a flexible house.

Received an e-mail message from my spiritual son, whom I haven't seen in three years. He doesn't know that Ivy passed away of leukemia in July.

Angelique and J. are out to take Kichiro Mayuzumi to the pet parlor, pay some of our utility bills, and replenish supplies in our medicine cabinet.

I must say, Kichiro Mayumzumi is an expensive pet to maintain but his love is so unconditional and everyone is fond of him.

Aubrey is out to buy a birthday gift for a classmate.

Done with housework for the day. The kitchen drain pipes were changed, the Moriones masks in the living room re-hung, and some minor repairs were done in one of the upper floor bathrooms.

We are now moving furniture aside on the ground floor, in preparation for cutting a larger aperture on the staircase wall, and for cutting another space to accommodate sliding doors from the lounge to the passage between the writing area and the kitchen. House energy will be reshaped and diverted but, until everything is done, the ground floor will look like a disaster area.

Buying a new blade for our grinder first thing tomorrow.

Visitors and students beware!

If he is elected President, one thing is for sure: the entire atchay population will be wiped out overnight, and they won't even know what hit them.

The headaches notwithstanding, times of crisis are really the best times to be President and make a difference.

Your e-mail message:

"Manong, I saw you (dream) a few days back.

I was standing in a void, observing, as if waiting for something.

You appeared wearing light colored denim, white shirt w/ print.

Just like last time, I was looking at your face but I couldn't see your eyes.

They were looking down.

Your right foot in front of the other.  It wasn't a stance.  You were going to take

 steps towards me.  Your right arm stretched, bent at the elbow, your hand  was

gesturing as if to say, "xxxxx, ganito 'yan...."

Then that was it.  Very brief.

If you indeed came to give instructions, next time, can you pls. stay a little longer.

I need more instructions and I've got a lot of questions.

"Patanong lang po sa panaginip.

My wife and I were at an entertainment venue (concert or movie theater).

There was an emergency and everybody had to leave.

Everybody was being ushered out of the building.  It was orderly but since there were a lot

of people, it was creating a bottleneck going down the stairs.  Sabi ko, "Matagal 'yan,  Dito tayo

sa kabila."  Which was to the left side of the building, yet unfinished. It looked like it was being renovated or

it was newly constructed with all the construction materials scattered around.   We entered through a window and encounterd a small puddle.  We walked around it and headed for the stairwell.  My wife encountered

a construction crew and he asked, "Ba't kayo nandito?"  She replied by nodding up.  I spoke and said, "Pababa lang kami, pare."  We instead went to an elevator going down.  It opened at the basement parking lot.  It was a basement parking but it looked a little fancy.  I looked ahead and saw a grade school classmate.  I know he saw me but pretended he didn't.  He was a security guard.  He rose from his chair and fixed something from a board and went back to his seat.  I lead my wife to an entrance at our left.  It introduced us to a fancy restaurant.  We were a little sweaty from the walking but it was a relief being inside because we were about to eat.  All the while I was leading her, she held on to me by my finger.

"Second part.

My wife and I were walking/driving.

I had to relieve myself so  we stopped at a place which initially looked like a strip mall, and when we entered, the place turned into like an airport.  The place was themed after brutalism where it was all concrete and no paint and color.  I asked somebody for directions to the restroom.  The entrance was a big glass wall with an opening.  It was covered wall to wall in old tiles.  Upon entrance there were red couches.  You turn to the left and it's where the cubicles, sinks and shower stalls were.  There was a few inches indention on the floor that acted as a canal where a yellow stream flowed.  I was wondering what it was.  When I was to take my pee, I saw another grade school classmate and other people wrapped around in towel about to or has just taken a shower.  I know these people. They know me but was ignoring me.  They were talking to each other mentally.  Laughing, having a nice time, but there were no words.  When I was through, and was about to walk out, all the showerheads and faucets started to run with the yellow substance.  I realized it was a mixture of water and pee.  It was flowing out through the canal.  Then I said, "Pa'no ba 'yan?"  Bewildered about the liquid.

"Third part.

I was in a wet market playing with brown/black crabs.

My son came and we both played. 

He pointed out a crab behind me.  I thought it was going to pinch me so I moved.  But it didn't . Then it became two crabs.  Then we left.

"Part four.

I was looking at the ground while walking inside a building. I was wearing board shorts.  I think it was a hotel.

I opened the glass door and I was out into the sun.  I looked up and there was a building a little far off.  At my front was a swimming pool.  I recognized my son was behind me.  I jumped into the pool and my son followed.  We were having a nice time.  I dived and a crab (like the crabs from the previous dream) stopped in front of me.  We were staring at each other.  It's eyes elongated and rolled around in a playful banter then went on its way.  When I went up the pool was starting to smell fishy as more crabs gathered. I decided to go.  I called out to my son, " 'Tara na."  He said he's having a nice time and wanted us to stay. I said the pool's getting dirty so we should go.  He said ok.

"Your thoughts pls.

"Thank you."

My reply:

Hello ____!

The trigger for the dream was the terrorist attack at Bataclan Theatre in Paris. The incident aroused your dread of mortality, which was the emotional springboard for your dream.

The first part of your dream is an optimistic narrative. You will rescue your wife at all costs, and your wife still loves you even if she is holding on to you merely by your finger. Note that you say, "Dito tayo sa kabila," illustrating that you are capable of creative, if not unconventional, problem-solving. 

Dream locations such as restaurants indicate a hunger for affection or attention. Airports, train stations, and bus stations indicate that you are at the threshold of a major transition.

The appearance of grade school classmates indicates to me a fixation at that stage when the most important people to you were your peers. It is this boy inside you that could be preventing you from loving your wife as she deserves to be loved, for it seems that you are still constantly trying to prove yourself to other people. The mixture of water and urine that comes down from the showers, however, also indicates to me that you are slowly becoming consciously repelled by this fixation.

While the first two parts of your dream are about your wife, the last two parts are about your son, whom you love and is one of the main reasons why you desire to keep your family together. Your dream articulates your fear that your son will take on your negative habits and become like you in life. The dream, however, ends on a positive note. You take him away before the pool water becomes completely dirty.

In this dream, water from the showers and water in the pool represent not only emotion but a wish-fulfillment of cleansing.

The wet market is the residence of your primal instincts, while the crabs are your repressed urges. In this particular dream the crabs collectively represent your Shadow.

Congratulations on being able to remember your dreams. All dreams contain a description of your present situation and your psyche's prescription of the action you should take.

I look forward to the improvement of your status and your successful journey of self-discovery toward your having a loving family whom you can ably and adequately support.

One does not fear death and dying as long as one lives every minute of his day with the fullest awareness.

If books in your collection have not been touched or read in six months, donate them to your community library. There are avid readers outside your walls who will appreciate them more. Unless, of course, those books are an intrinsic part of your interior design.

Come to think of it, "earth changes" refers to interior evolution while "climate change" to exterior evolution. Although they entail disaster and death on our part, they are both evolutionary from the point of view of Nature.

The Philippines is one of the countries most affected by earth changes (a term fundamentalists refuse to use, instead using "climate change") because, like the other countries in question, it will undergo a major alteration in configuration. Rather than submerge, I see that it will actually rise and increase its land mass due to a series of volcanic activity.

Good morning, Cubao!

Bright and sunny! Benjie took Cerefina for a walk to start the day.

Granddaughters in school.

Wearing Fantasy by Britney Spears.