Finished watching The Devil's Novice from the Brother Cadfael series. A lot of fine jewelry. A mysterious novice arrives and has nightmares that the monks believe are caused by demons. But that, of course, is not the entire story, which is really a story about filial and fraternal love. And about treason.

Again, there was truncation, such as Janyn's escape by horse. I also seem to recall that the bride and groom had a different ending. Still, a very enjoyable episode to watch.

Ironically, it was my Halloween fare.

Angelique and Aubrey arrived home 10:00 PM. According to them there was heavy traffic from Cubao to the cemetery, but there were few people at the cemetery, and the trip home merely took an hour.

We had dinner at M.'s cafe.

There are people we have a soft heart for and people we have a hard heart for, and it is perfectly normal except that it is the unspoken foundation of all discrimination.

Power is quiet, like the sea on a calm, sunny day, not when its water is being roiled by a tempest under a glowering sky.

You are never unplugged, even when you are sleeping.

Went to bed last night viewing The Four on GTV. Despite the albeit short synopsis it is getting VERY difficult to follow. Han Dong, whose character died several episodes back, seems to have resurrected as a completely different character, an elf-like one. And Leng Xue, for some reason, is getting to look like a former student of mine, Dom Esteban.

Knitting while waiting for family to come back from their cemetery visit. I suspect they'll be home 1:00 AM.

When I am knitting I automatically go into an altered state of consciousness. My mind becomes still, People I'd long forgotten suddenly appear, like faces on a Skype screen, and talk to me. This afternoon a former librarian I used to know said that she is in dire straits and needs money. A former college student said that he wants to see me again because he is caught in an unhappy marriage. Even sentient animals come to talk to me. A rat that died came and said, "I died two days before Halloween."

Very weird. Still, I don't mind.

A man truly in love is never attracted to other people.

"Truth is never a wrong answer."
--Ellis Peters, The Virgin in the Ice

Knitted a few rows, then watched The Virgin in the Ice from the Brother Cadfael series. A major change in casting: Hugh Beringar is played by someone else now, just as the former actor--an interesting cross between young David Duchovny and young Peter O'Toole--was growing on me. The former performer was unreadable and therefore ambivalent, capable of both tenderness and ruthlessness. The present performer is the very trap that every casting director falls into, which is to assign the role to someone who will play it like Miles Hendon from The Prince and the Pauper.

Love that soft montage of the nun frozen inside a block of ice and surrounded with fires as the ice gently melts.

This episode is all about how Crusaders can turn out to be bandits, and how a nest of monks can be comprised of paranoid and malicious gossips. As the previous episode introduces us to Richildis, Cadfael's long-abandoned betrothed before he took on the cowl, this one introduces us to Olivier, born to Cadfael and a Syrian woman from when Cadfael was a soldier in battle. It is faithful to the book, but the long stand and the minutely-described fight against the renegades is missing, possibly because the construction of the bandits' fort would have been too expensive for one sequence. At any rate the truncation is proof that words can be more spectacular than visuals, and that, no matter how much you edit out from Ellis Peters, she will always remain a magnificent raconteur.

Refilled the lamps with pink and green paraffin oil.

Now it's a toss-up between a Brother Cadfael murder mystery and a quiet afternoon of knitting.

Didn't hang the expensive witches on broomsticks this year. Also two sets of series lights: jack-o'-lanterns and assorted Halloween images.

Lunch with the granddaughters at M.'s cafe.

Good morning, Cubao!

The granddaughters and Ivy's relatives are traveling to the cemetery later today.

All university presidents and professors should know that when one graduates from university, one does not stop learning. One discovers other, more important, things.

It is also when one's journey begins.

After I gave my presentation to my co-alumni during a reunion at___________________________, the dean insisted that I give a recap of what I gained from the institution as an affirmation to everyone. I wanted to ask him but could not, "What is the point of doing so, when I am no longer the same person who graduated from your school?"

Very few martial artists know that Bruce Lee studied at University of Washington, Seattle, majored in drama, and studied philosophy and psychology, among other subjects.

Finished watching Monk's Hood from the Brother Cadfael series. A delightful episode, as the book is. Whenever I am inside Brother Cadfael's herbarium a.k.a. workshop I feel like building one for myself. Even if I were to have a clumsy assistant like Oswyn.

Prior Robert embodies all clergy who are obsessive-compulsive and power-driven. I know so many priests like that. And religious professors.

Love that chest with iron straps, the huge copper pans and water vessels in the infirmary, Brother Cadfael's leather satchel, and those leather scrips a.k.a. pouches tied to the men's belts. You might see me wearing one someday.

Also love that line: "No man is measured by the love he gives to others, but by how much he is loved."

Use it to remain connected with me.

When you feel that you no longer want or need it, give it back to me.

"When yesterday is already ours, what more can we ask?"
--Ellis Peters, in Monk's Hood

Gave E2 a reproduction of my signature ring, three books on magic, and a sack of healing herbs. Was about to give him a dagger but remembered that he's taking the train.

Aubrey is off with a classmate to Starbucks.

Angelique is off to meet J. at Gateway.

I guess I'll be having dinner alone.

E2 visited. It was nice spending time with him.

Finished watching The Leper of St. Giles. Thankfully, quite faithful to the original. In my mind while reading the book, though, the bridge was much higher and the river much deeper, and the confrontation scene was set in a wider space toward dusk, with torches alight. I also seem to recall that there was a little boy that had gotten attached to Joscelyn and whom Joscelyn later adopted, which is how the book ended.

The only flaw I saw is a movie strategy that I have always found unconvincing: when a fugitive at large ducks from behind one prop to another and is, hilariously, not seen by anyone. Another one for a future Scary Movie.

Love the liberated abbess, who becomes a close friend of Brother Cadfael in later books. Also love that ring, that bejeweled locket, and that silverplated thurible!

About to watch The Leper of St. Giles. Hoping it's good, because I enjoyed the book, though it has a sad ending.

Wondering again why Filipinos have St. Giles Hotel in Makati and another, expensive one in Bohol. It turns off foreigners. I myself have heard of St. Giles Hospital, but those hotels seem to have been mistakenly named. Maybe the owners' favorite movie is Ben-Hur.

Angelique and I hung seven black-cats-on-pumpkins on the glass doors to the studio and the small loggia.

When your children and grandchildren tell you that it is their last exam day or the last day of school before semester break, it doesn't mean that they will be home earlier than usual. On the contrary, it means that they will be out with friends and coming home later than usual.

Lunch with Angelique at M.'s cafe.

Aubrey and her friends still sleeping.

Good day, Cubao!

Wearing Platinum by Roberto Verino.

Batong Lagusan

This amulet is alleged to be the companion of the GEATAO oracion, which is used to triumph against all odds, as illustrated by the tree root piercing through a stone.

Of course it is highly possible and even more highly probable that the albularyo drilled a hole through the stone and shot a tree root, still alive, through the hole and unearthed it after some time, but, contrived or not, I can see how this is considered an appropriate visual metaphor for GEATAO.

Good night, Cubao!

Finished watching The Sanctuary Sparrow from the Brother Cadfael series.

This episode is quite gripping and VERY faithful to the book, so much so that I could anticipate what would happen next and what it would look like. Minor scenes had to be edited out due to the time constraint, such as the painstaking restoration of the battered lute and the minstrel's progressive lessons under a designated monk. The hiding-place for sex was also not convincing; as I recall it was in some crawl space under the floorboards of the oratory and not behind a stone sarcophagus. Perhaps the crab dolly had not yet been invented at the time.

Overall, one cannot help but appreciate the creation of the mise-en-scene for every sequence. I now know that some of the plants and herbs in the garden, in the hut interior, and in the fields HAD to be fake for the purpose of continuity, which must have been an art director's nightmare.

This episode was a study of pathos.

Love those black, pierced tin lanterns!

Gave my son Chito the Samsung phone, a motorcycle raincoat, a bolster, three T-shirts, and a padlock and keys for his room. We had sodas at M.'s cafe.

Angelique arrived home 8:30 PM. She'd eaten out with friends.

Had dinner alone.

Aubrey and her friends are buying their dinner via FDS.

I now have only one SIM card and decided to retain my Globe number. Apologies to those who are still trying to reach me via my now non-existent Smart number.

Finished watching One Corpse Too Many from the complete Brother Cadfael series. Set in Shrewsbury in 1138, during the Middle Period, or Medieval Age. The screen size is small and made me think of 8-mm celluloid home movies from the 50s, but the production is quite excellent, except, perhaps, for the chain mail suits which look like they were knitted from recycled plastic trash bags using garter stitching, and the plastic vines creeping round the door to Brother Cadfael's hut, which showed up as fake in two medium shots. Other than those, it was quite thrilling to see actual faces and bodies telling the story. And speaking the language. My sister was right, it's Cad-FILE and not Cad-FELL as in Michael, which I erroneously thought.

Loved the sets, the rest of the costumes, the props, and the weapons.

Of course, I am biased, because I love Ellis Peters, gemstones, swords, and daggers. Like the Poirot and the Marple series, though, one cannot fully appreciate this series without having read the original books, which I had the pleasure of doing. Yes, you can have your cake and eat it too.

Knitted a few rows.

Aubrey and her classmate arrived home 3:40 PM.

Angelique still at university.

Our Halloween lamps will be lit all night October 31, November 1, and November 2. All of them are in glass containers.

Halloween fever rising. Unearthed more decor and passed on some to M. to hang in his cafe.

Semester break is a break for my grandchildren but not for me.

I have learned never to believe that they will stay home and rest during break time. They, on the contrary, plan going out with their friends, eating, shopping, and having fun. In the end, I see that it is more expensive than having them all day at school.

Lunch with Aubrey at M.'s cafe. Then she went off to meet a classmate in Gateway for coffee at Starbucks before coming home for her little party.

I have always loved Ellis Peters's a.k.a Edith Pargeter's command of English, use of imagery, and powerful description. She humbles speakers of English as a third language like me. There'd been times when I wished I could learn yet another language, such as Mandarin, but, after reading the works of Peters/Pargeter, I refuse to take on any other foreign language if I am unable to write eloquent stories using it.

What use would Mandarin be to me on the street except to go shopping in Lucky Chinatown?

The Parable of the Ten Virgins a.k.a the parable of the Wise and the Foolish Virgins is a clear illustration of the absence of charity. Though the foolish virgins did not oil their lamps, they were clearly in need of help, and no one helped them. Reminds me of The Voice and The Amazing Race contestants.

Everyone is a fool at different times in life and need not suffer because of it.

T. of Baguio City was the first person who sent me a text message on my new mobile phone.

Done with the 12 Miss Marple episodes I have.

Soon commencing the complete Brother Cadfael set.

Still encoding contacts in my mobile phone. Tedious. I need to inform everyone that I am retaining only my Globe number. As of today my Smart number no longer exists.

Wearing Chanel No. 5.

Why can't electronic pages Refresh immediately, considering that insertions and erasures can be seen immediately on a hard-copy page?

Is this one indication that cyberspace reality is slower than physical reality?

Went to the Sitio Catacutan Bakery.

Breakfast with Aubrey in the kitchen, where our breakfast table is.

Good morning, Cubao!

Had a rocky night because of an astral visit by _____, who wanted to stay with me the whole night.

Finished watching Why Didn't They Ask Evans? It threw me off. I don't recall that Miss Marple was in the book. Apparently the writer had to weave her in. I also do not recall that mouse and reptile collection.

More scenes with knitting work that doesn't seem to progress, and, apparently, Miss Marple doesn't knit for speed because her work is never close to the tips of her needles. She may not even have been aware of what she was knitting at all. For all I know she was knitting tension swatches.

In this version, scenes and locations are compressed for economy. A lot of outdoor sequences are taken indoors. There are few locations, certainly a lot less than in the book. The original was fast-paced and action-filled like an espionage novel. And, sadly, the woman who plays Frankie does not look aristocratic. It is, however, understandably difficult to find the right performers for such characters.

Those hideous acrylic portraits trying to pass for antique oils shouldn't have been given close-ups. They look like early David Hockneys, like, when Hockney was 16. The least the production designer could have done was have them varnished and heated.

This episode ends like a cheap melodrama, with everyone converging in one location for the final unraveling of the mystery. Not to mention those jaded, delaying tactics used to prevent one of the antagonists from jabbing that venom-filled syringe into her victim's arm (even when the victim begged and pleaded with her not not to do so but to do so!), which should be parodied in a Scary Movie sequel. And I do have one question there, why does snake venom have to be colored fennel green ever since Walt Disney's invention of it in Snow White and Sleeping Beauty? The only saving factors were those gorgeous, gold-embroidered-on red-satin dragon pillows, which, I am delighted to say, were shown in more than one sequence, the exquisite necklaces, and the performer who plays Bobby, who is a dead ringer for a young James Franco.

The moral of such disrespectful productions is that every producer should KNOW that there are loyal and intelligent Agatha Christie fans out there, including countries outside the UK, who remember not only Dame Agatha Christie but also the works she left behind.

Good night, Cubao!

Tempus fugit. Deleting all the messages and contacts from my Samsung before turning it over to my son Chito.

Angelique needs her own laptop, Aubrey needs a pair of shoes and wants a pair of blue paraffin oil lamps for her bedroom.

Dinner time with the granddaughters.

Now switching to Angelique's iPhone, and then my Samsung goes to Chito.

Watched They Do It with Mirrors. A house with a secret passage. Fabulous necklaces--I like the one with tubular, jet beads.

Miss Marple's penmanship isn't spidery enough,

Wearing Fantasy by Britney Spears.

Back from a jaunt. Didn't bring any walking-stick, though.

Why are people still required to be quiet inside libraries if they are not required to be quiet inside Internet cafes?

Aubrey is off to the dentist's to have her braces tightened.

Finished watching Murder Is Easy. This one has Benedict Cumberbatch, whom my sister has such a crush on that she even has a photo of herself with Benedict Cumberbatch taken in Sydney. I enjoyed this episode because it has graceful montages and is relaxing to the eyes. Again, though, it has two performers who also played supporting roles in the Poirot series: Lyndsey Marshal and Russell Tovey, both the kind of superb actors who will never become stars but will always give dimension to their roles, no matter how small.

The flaw of the book and the movie is that everything is too contrived. No, murder is never easy. Anything can go wrong except in a writer's mind.

When Filipino movie producers decide they don't like a director, they cut down on the production budget, assign dumb crew members, and engineer circumstances so that, because the director's reputation is at stake, the director is compelled to pay for many things out of pocket.

Immortality is achieved when you continue to live in the hearts not only of the people who love you but also in the hearts of the people who do not love you.

My sister Sylvia and brother-in-law Rey are on now on a plane to their home in Sydney.

My chalice is full. I am ready. But are you?

Good noon, Cubao!

Slept nine hours last night.

Lunch with Aubrey at M's cafe.

Still on page 11 of the Jeet Kune Do manual.

Took back my offer to _______________________ to volunteer as one of the speech writers/editors and principal poster designer for his/her presidential campaign.

After all, why should a hedonist leap into the fracas when he is already enjoying his present life?

Good night, Cubao!

Finished watching A Pocket Full of Rye, which has a major change in casting: Miss Marple is played by a different actress, albeit someone more convincing and more smartly dressed. A trifle school-marmy, but the best to me so far. (All three versions, however, fall under the "white witch" category, but, I am certain, the producers thought it unwise to make this version too physically unlike the previous ones.) Nonetheless she has more nuances in acting.

It was a nice viewing on a cozy Tuesday night. Since I no longer have to wake up early in the morning, I mean. This episode, though enjoyable, seemed quite long.

Dinner out with family. We waited first for Angelique and J. to arrive home from university.

Kichiro Mayuzumi was introduced to my sister Sylvia. We went on the side balcony, the front balcony, and the roof deck.

2 1/2 hours deep tissue massage.

Lunch with Aubrey at home. We decided to cook all the remaining meat inside our freezer.

Wearing Aramis.

Yes, _____, I very much want to do what you want me to do.

Or do I mean, I want to do what you very much want me to do?

If all of the saints had social media accounts during their time, none of them would have been canonized upon investigation of their hard disk drives.

Finished watching The Moving Finger, which I found to be more enjoyable than the book because of the fresh, young faces of the cast. This episode also has Ken Russell, the film director, appearing as the Reverend. Frances de la Tour plays a supporting role, as she did in Evil Under the Sun, and so she is the third performer (after John Hannah and Zoe Wanamaker) to have been cast as a completely different character in the same author's world--quite disconcerting, because there really are thousands of talented British performers out there and one would think they could have been drawn from instead.

Loved that French country cottage, that imari tea service, and that jade necklace, but I eventually got fidgety. How exciting can letters from a poison pen be?

I was thrown off by the frequent use of colored gels (mainly saturated reds, blues, and greens) and the juxtapositions of reds (dresses, lampshades, roses) against greens (dresses, neckties, bottles). Combined with the sometimes irregular, low-angle, and canted shots, I felt that I was watching Sin City the movie and that this episode was out of place in the entire series.

Miss Marple participates in a group embroidery session here, but she also knits. Unfortunately, she is shown knitting small pieces and with different kinds of yarn in separate sequences spanning only a few days. Did she start out a project, abandon it, start out another, also abandon it, and start out yet another? And not only that: in the entire series the only stitch she seems to know is stockinette. Indeed, in ALL movies featuring knitters, I've seen nothing but stockinette, stockinette, stockinette.

I still love British movies. No one plays basketball.

But, in retrospect, what, no lesbians?

Angelique off to university. She has classes through Thursday, after which her Halloween break begins.

Perhaps we could eat out again and go shopping on Friday?

Saw the most attractive and the most unusual jack-o-lanterns that can be lighted from within, but I really don't need any more Halloween decor and so I passed on them.

Still, I must avoid buzzing by that place again--or I know I'll give in and buy half a dozen!

An alma mater is an abstraction until the alumnus realizes that it is a mere, collective image of his few, favorite teachers.

Wanting to sell my collection of swords and daggers because my granddaughters don't want them. But then again I may have future grandsons-in-law who will. And then, of course, I do have my youngest grandchild, Vinci.

Saw some former college students from the 90s on TV because they are now in public office. I am shocked to see that they look a lot older than I do.

The most frequent mistake of a thief is assuming that he is smarter than the person he is stealing from.

When people whom you hurt die, it is sad and distressing. When people who hurt you die, it is not.

An intelligent student is always a threat to his classmates.

Good morning, Cubao!

Mellow sunshine. Moseyed over to the Sitio Catacutan Bakery.

Good night, Cubao!

Must remember to buy little paper bags to fill with all the Halloween candy that my sister gave me, to hand out to the children on the compound on October 31.

There is The Moving Finger, but I'm saving that for tomorrow.

Finished watching The Sittaford Mystery. Truly enjoyable, with good performances by a still-dashing Timothy Dalton (whom I will always remember as the prince of the woods in Flash Gordon but whom Alan Holst always remembers as James Bond) and Rita Tushingham (who did a cameo as Lara and Yuri's daughter in Dr. Zhivago) wearing three fabulous necklaces, one of which is identical to an antique that I have and actually wear. They were, thankfully, given hefty roles. All of the characters in this episode are interesting anyway, because they actually develop and are not mere set decor.

The story begins with a typically thrilling situation: everyone is caught up in a blizzard in Captain Trevelyan's Sittaford House and in the nearby Three Crowns Hotel in Exhampton while a convict is announced to have escaped from Dartmouth Prison.

Lots of Egyptian jewelry and artifacts. A most interesting, red Ouija board--a huge one, as huge as the round table. Love that red Sheaffer pen on a console--which somehow disappears in a succeeding, reverse shot, a lapse in continuity!

Sittaford House looks too familiar--I am certain it was used in another episode because I recognize all of the paintings on the walls. And, at last, Miss Marple is knitting something substantial: a sweater sleeve.

The episode seems to end, however, with two of the characters apparently taking on a lesbian relationship. Again.

Finally, that mysterious, ending shot is quite atypical of the entire series, it seems to me.

Watching The Four on GTV.

Brief afternoon cloudburst in Cubao.

Wearing Silver Rain by La Prairie.

Angelique arrived home from university 3:00 PM.

Filipinos have no excuse to decorate with fake flowers because fresh flowers are not only abundant but affordable in the Philippines.

If you cannot be bothered to place fresh flowers inside your huse, fresh, potted plants are a good substitute.

When you send away bad weather, it does not disappear. It goes somewhere else.

The female peacock is really as beautiful as the male peacock, but no one wants her feathers.

It is immaterial which direction your altar faces because your heart faces 360 degrees at all times.

The reason it is easy to believe in ghosts is that many people are already ghosts even while they are still alive.

The best way to deal with ageing is to let it happen and not go against it.

To let something happen is an act of will both of the mind and of the heart.

She never lost stardom because she was never a star to begin with.

It is sheer irony when you fall in love with someone who does not love you back, and then, years later when you no longer love that person, that person is now in love with you.

Finished watching By the Pricking of My Thumbs. Enjoyed it, but maybe because I can't recall enjoying the book. Nice elements: three murders, a witch's house, a painting with clues, an exciting hunt. Claire Bloom in a supporting role. In this episode, Tommy and Tuppence are introduced. The first 3/4 of the episode is exciting, and then, when the truth is out, it comes across as too elaborate and incredible.

Well into the sixty disc, I am disturbed by Miss Marple's taste in clothes. It's quite drab, and it is disturbing to me because I am compelled to see her in almost every sequence.

Whenever you shake a tree, some good fruit will fall along with the rotten ones. It is all right. You have to lose some, who are weak ones anyway.

Aubrey wants to have her friends over for two days and one night, now that they are on sem break.

We stopped using floor wax 30 years ago because I observed that, rather than clean floors, it traps and seals dirt in them.

In my mind I saw that a new form of trick-or-treating will emerge, and it will always occur before Halloween: ADULTS will put on costumes and go to friends' houses for treats (no tricks), stopping by for short conversations, an exchange of candy, trinkets, cards, and such. In effect, they will be costume parties for adults held in more than house in a neighborhood.

I also see that some of these events will involve mysteries or puzzles that need to be solved (every house will provide a clue), with prizes for the winners.

Amazing--I saw, also in my mind, that even some vehicles were dressed in costume.

While streamlining our home, I gave away all our Christmas tablecloths, napkins, and napkin rings. Ever since I decided that they are actually as tacky as fake flowers. Maybe like fake Christmas trees.

It is all right to wear two or more talismans together. They will NOT cancel out one another, whatever they are.

If you wear two talismans, for example, you will actually have the power of three: that of the first talisman, that of the second talisman, and that of the two talismans combined.

Magical power always adds. It never subtracts. It is only the impure heart of man that subtracts.

Went to sleep last night watching a feature on Taijiquan on CCTV. It seems that Bruce Lee's Jeet Kwan Do has its roots in it.

As with magic, Taijiquan follows the rhythm of Nature, honors water as the softest but strongest element, and combats action with "inaction".

Wands still to the earth, not to the sky.

Aubrey on semestral break, Angelique on the last week before Halloween break.

To me, tea is not just the beverage. It is everything else I associate it with: the time of day, the room it is taken in, the service set, the snacks it is served with, the table, the cart, seating, the company, the conversation.

Unlike other snacks and meals, tea is best served in silence, never with music, for it is a solemn ritual of rest, of regeneration, of comfort, of solace. It is taken only to the music of the heart.

Good morning, Cubao!

Another bright and sunny day!

Finished watching Sleeping Murder. The production sure took liberties. It doesn't end like the book does at all. Its ending in the DVD seems somewhat tailored after the ending of Three Little Pigs. I don't recall that the theater ensemble played a huge part in the book, and I missed the terrace that one side of the house opened onto, with the stone steps and the plants beneath which Helen's body was supposed to have been buried. In all, the book is a lot more introspective than the DVD, told almost solely from the point of view of the protagonist.

A nice supporting role played by Geraldine Chaplin nonetheless, a lovely necklace with sardonyx stones which I'm sure most viewers mistake for rubies or garnets, and a scene in which Flit Insect Spray, which I have neither seen nor heard of since I was a child, appears.

The house was all right, although, when I imagined it, it was bigger and had brighter walls.

And of course I know why the DVD detracted from the original. Had it not done so, Miss Marple would have figured as a mere extra.

I am so tempted to try to join Yat-Fung Yeung's photo competition on tea but, whenever I reflect on what shots I could possibly take, I realize that I enjoy drinking tea so much that it never occurred to me how I could interpret the subject in photos.

Good night, Cubao!

I am about to watch Sleeping Murder, one of my favorite novels by Agatha Christie. I liked it so much back then that I still remember who the murderer is. One of the things I am excited about is whether the house in my imagination as I was reading the book will match the house used as a set for the DVD.

This is one of the few novels by Agatha Christie that show how much Sigmund Freud had an influence on her work, though she never gave him due credit for it. Her characters frequently mention the work "psychology", especially Hercule Poirot, but not one of them ever mention Freud.

Only knowledge from within is a sure sign that someone is a master, for knowledge derived from without is easily acquired by fakes.

Our family visited Art in Island: Interactive Art Museum on 15th Avenue, Cubao, yesterday evening. I had to delete a lot of shots, as I took too many. We were counting on spending an hour inside and were completely exhausted afterward. We should have set aside an entire morning or an entire afternoon for the visit.

The building is loaded with fabulous trompe l'oeil by Korean artists.

See https://plus.google.com/photos/+TonyPerezPhilippines/albums/6209226551876631905.

There occurred that wonderful moment again--that in which everyone and everything all together ceased to make a sound for a second. I cherish that moment. I wonder if it is only I who manages to capture it.

Still on the Marple series. Watching A Murder Is Announced. This one has Zoe Wanamaker (who plays Ariadne Oliver in the Poirot series) as the murderer, as John Hannah (who plays one of the murderers in Appointment with Death, also in the Poirot series) plays a completely different and wholesome character in 4.50 from Paddington. Quite discombobulating, because I expect an author to populate his/her world with characters who are not supposed to be other characters.

Therefore, no exquisite Ariadne Oliver necklaces in this episode. Instead, a fabulous lilac and black evening dress!

And I do so love the way the British arrange their dinner porcelain on shelves.

P.S. There is another lesbian relationship in this episode.

A quiet afternoon with a mellow sun beginning its descent on the horizon. The kind of afternoon I recall as a schoolboy looking out of the classroom window, wishing I were elsewhere. The kind of afternoon I recall as a little boy in our huge ancestral house, looking out onto the street and knowing that it led to worlds I was not yet allowed to see.

It is heavenly to take a piece of jelly candy and then sip a cup of tea without sugar.

The magical chessboard will protect your home.

There should be, however, a chessboard in each one of the four corners.

A new and separate island will be the outcome.

Home alone to do some rows of knitting.

Forgot to return the sheaf of photos to my sister, and to send a talisman that she should wear everyday.

When you are taken for granted by those who are near, you are honored by those who are far; when you are taken for granted by those who are far, you are honored by those who are near.

Lunch with the granddaughters at M.'s cafe.

Depending on the work shift, there are times when M.'s cafe is lesbian central. M. has two, young, personable, lesbian waitresses, and that seems to attract a lesbian clientele.

Family going swimming today, but I'm staying home.

Unless I am traveling, going into huge bodies of water is one of my prohibitions.

One of the biggest ironies of war is that, while its perpetrators sink into a morass as amoral as pornography, its victims become spiritually purified.

If you need to review injustices done you, review also injustices you did others.

Good morning, Cubao!

Bright and sunny with Wands pointing to the earth.

Good night, Cubao!

Downloading more than 100 photos. I think I'll call it a day and resume tomorrow.

My sister Sylvia reminds me that the original The Body in the Library was NOT about a lesbian relationship.

Back home with family from Art in Island Interactive Museum on 15th Avenue, Cubao, and then dinner at Hap Chan.

Knitted a few rows.

Dinner out with family later.

Not all men age graciously because most of them cannot help clinging to the delusions of their youth.

Watched The Body in the Library. I'd completely forgotten that this was about a lesbian relationship.

Loved that mauve and turquoise gown--a most unlikely combination that, I'm sure, others won't fancy at all.

When someone is knitting in several scenes in a movie, I expect to see the knitted work progress, not see someone knitting a dinky square in the first scene and then an entirely different piece of dinky knitting in the next.

The reason why a rushed production is always a bad production is that the pacing of each member (the performers, the director, the scene designer, and the cameraman) of the production is never identical with the others.

Lunch with Aubrey in M.'s cafe.

My antique dealer brought me three rare objects.

I do so enjoy staying home and just having things brought to me. What is the point of going to an excavation site and sweating it out when it is the excavated object finally enshrined on your table that counts the most? Your adventure merely becomes an intangible story that you tell over and over to others, while the tangible treasure in your possession, though sitting silently, is worth more than a billion words.

Every time there is a passage of two years, I take stock of my priorities and find that there are things I used to care about that I no longer care about.

Selected photos from the wedding of Katrina and James, for three possible oil portraits.

The world weeps when a master dies because he leaves behind only mediocre seconds-in-command.

The only way to enjoy your portrait is to have it painted at your present age and not after an image of you when you were years younger.

Wearing Platinum  by Roberto Verino.

Wanting to send my dragon nunchucks to my godson Raymond in Sydney, but they won't allow items made of wood into Australia.

Selected 20 antique bead necklaces and set them on a huge tray for my sister Sylvia to choose from later. I also want to send necklaces to my eldest sister and two nieces-in-law in Sydney.

Good morning, Cubao!

Setting aside antique bead necklaces to send to Australia.

Good night, Cubao!

Angelique arrived home 10:15 PM.

In the meantime I watched The Murder at the Vicarage, and I'm glad I did, because I recall reading the book when I was in high school and finding it quite boring. The production gave the book the dimension and the life I was unable to appreciate at the time, because the first two-thirds of the story unfolds non-linearly like the first two acts of a Chekovian play.

Be mindful of your neck area. It has become extra sensitive. Sleep flat on your back without a pillow if you can.

Watched this episode of The Four on GTV.

Dinner with Aubrey at home.

Waiting up for Angelique to come home from her org event.

Whenever you unjustly try to put a person down, he will rise and soar to a pinnacle higher than any you have ever dreamed of for yourself.

A fundamentalist religion is like a restaurant that serves only Coke products.

When a man tells you that you have made him the happiest man in the world, do not believe him.

A person does not love you if he/she does not smell good to you, and it has nothing to do with his/her cologne.

My antique dealer from Mindanao has a quirk. Whenever I ask him what community or culture an item is from, he gives me a vague answer. When I ask him, on the other hand, "Is this Maranao?", he gives me an immediate and concrete answer.

Back from a Thai lunch with sisters and brother-in-law. Coffee and pastries after.

I had to go to the Sitio Catacutan Bayad Center to pay our water bill. Shopped a bit. Then bought bird seed at the Sitio Catacutan Market.

Angelique came home from the dress rehearsal for their org event 10:00 PM last night. Now she is at university for a long day, eventful day.

Watched 4.50 from Paddington. As enjoyable as the Poirot series is, except for one thing as far as I am concerned: Miss Marple looks like Brother Cadfael in drag, her hair is too grungy and looks like she just stepped out of the shower, she acts like an obsessive-compulsive Mother Superior and quite unlike how she is described in the books, and her eyes look like Yoda's. Did the producers feel obliged to match Poirot's flamboyant eccentricity? Because, as the author mellowed, the point was to recede into the normalcy of everyday characters.

The image of Miss Marple I have is that one on the covers of all the Dell paperbacks that came out in the 50s and 60s. In fact, the publishers must have commissioned that back-cover portrait to somewhat look like Agatha Christie herself: more of a prim lady and less of an old woman trying to act like an adolescent boy. Set a decade or so after the Poirit series, the Marple series comes closer in time to the modern era--and closer in time to the author's persona. There is minimal art deco, no chinoisserie, the costumes and hairstyles and make-up are all one generation ahead of the setting, but, of course, there are the usual, lovely tea services.

Good morning, Cubao!

Off with my sisters in a few.

Good night, Cubao!

So tempted to watch a Miss Marple episode tonight but I need to rise earlier than usual tomorrow. We are meeting up with our sister and our brother-in-law at their hotel.

Dinner with Aubrey at home.

Watching The Four on GTV.

A well-trained martial artist is never haunted or "possessed" by spirits.

When exercising or training for martial arts, do not allow your mind to challenge your body to go on overdrive. Your body will short-circuit and collapse.

Let your spirit, instead, lead your body.

This is the reason why masters encourage their students to keep a state of no-mind, for the mind harbors many hidden agenda of its own, and is potentially dangerous to your body.

Rediscovering Johnny Depp after my sister Sylvia gave me a DVD of Sleepy Hollow.

Sleepy Hollow is my favorite Johnny Depp. As far as I am concerned, that film was the height of his beauty. I have always wondered why he became biased toward roles that made him cover his face with a lot of make-up--as though he were constantly auditioning for action figures by McFarlane Toys. At the rate he's been going I wouldn't be surprised if he starred as Michael Jackson in a movie biography.

With a face and a body that was voted Sexiest Man of The Year at some point, Johnny Depp doesn't need any of that.

His worst performance was in Alice in Wonderland, in which his eyes were always covered with contact lenses. No performer can ACT with his eyes covered.

Martial arts teach us that the spirit needs to be as alert and as adept at self-defense as the body is.

Did a round of the Sitio Catacutan Food Court.

This shirt or this combination of pendants attracts attention.

My sister Sylvia and brother-in-law Rey arrived from Sydney last night. They came to Cubao this morning.

Lunch at M.'s cafe, after which we visited Artery Art Space. And I bought something I couldn't resist.

It is neither technology nor Nature that will ultimately destroy the earth. It is men's desire for war.

Love may not be as powerful as we think it to be, because, since the beginning of time, men have waged war on one another, and they continue to do so to this very day, and the presence of war is the sure absence of love.

War is a painful reminder that The Devil is within man and not outside him.

The morning is always heartbreaking whenever you wake up and open your eyes to war.

When you wake up in the morning and find that your pillows are on the floor, it is because you had a particularly frightening nightmare. Unfortunately it will most likely have been repressed from your consciousness, and so, you will be unable to analyze and heed its message.

A man who marries for sex will deteriorate with age.

A man who marries for love will mature in his happiness unto death.

You need to search for that spell in one of my blogs by which, when you cast it, people who curse you will only cause you to prosper, and people who praise you will themselves prosper.

Tony Perez's Art of War: When you want to get rid of particular students, pretend to make stupid mistakes in their presence or show them a put-on habit or characteristic that will turn them off. They will then gravitate toward other masters and leave you. After they realize they are wrong they will try to return to you. Shut the door. Do not ever let them in again.

Good morning, Cubao!

Another bright and sunny day!

Wearing Elizabeth Taylor's Passion for Men.

Ate the last of the huge tin of Whitman's chocolates that my granddaughters don't like. The tin is as big as a folder, and makes a great container for documents.

One of the scariest things in life is breaking up with someone 20 years ago and recently discovering that that person is still madly in love with you.

Good night, Cubao!

Now knitting the back of Aubrey's cotton top.

Aubrey arrived from school 8:40 PM, and Angelique still has volleyball practice.

Caught snatches of Korea's Pluto on RED. I don't like school-set movies, but this made something resonate within me. I didn't watch the whole thing, though.

Finished casting-off/casting-on neckline of Aubrey's cotton top.

When a fog descends, visibility is poor and erratic.

When a mist disperses, the eyes, when opened, see everything crystal-clear.

The social tension increases.

Apparent problems of environment are merely symbolic of what the people's minds and feelings are going through.

Doesn't anyone from Clean House ever call the production staff weeks later to ask, "Where did you put my extra pair of reading glasses?"?

The hired man cleaned the staircase, the writing room floor, and the rear passage, and I had to stay and supervise him.

Thinking of going to the Sitio Catacutan Market to buy bird seed after he leaves.

Wednesday, Wednesday

Do not find your devil in other people's religions if you cannot find your god in them as well.

Wondering why some people insist on spelling "asuwang" as "aswang". The root word of "asuwang" is "asu", the big, black dog one metamorphoses into. It is also possible that there is a second root word, "uwang", referring to a big, black beetle.

Never give thanks to an abstraction. It is VERY unfair to those whom you really should be grateful to.

In Bahasa Philippines, halimaw is lion and dambuhala is dragon.

Never think of dragons in terms of generics. There are Celtic dragons and Chinese dragons, and worlds of difference between them.

Once a dragon comes to you, it never leaves you.

This is my opinion only, but wire jewelry has never appealed to me. It is more of a craft than an art.

I have met master gold- and silversmiths in my time, but I know that I shall never meet a master wire jewelry maker.

Found another humidor. This one is huge and can accommodate one, full ream.

Answering The Riddle Of The Sphinx: An Old Man May Have Three Legs, But A House Has Four

When I was a child I would leave the house for school everyday and marvel at the mystery of my mother and other adults staying home, enjoying the house, and doing things at their time and at their leisure while I slaved inside classrooms. Now I am retired and have that same, singular happiness. Yet, I know that in order to have achieved this wonderful thing it was necessary to perform well in school, and then at work, in order to build and to have a house of contentment.

Nothing goes out of style. It is how you wear your self that matters.

If water on your right and fire on your left do not work at the time you want them to, switch their positions on your body.

How you look like to others depends on how you feel and how they feel in that single moment when they set their eyes on you.

Collecting and caring for plants is a noble tribute to Nature.

I think that this particular spirit guide came to me because I have several statues of the Goddess of Mercy.

It is the number four, or anything that comes in four, that will protect you from dangers brought by sea water.

Wearing Chanel No. 5.

Good noon, Cubao!

A bright and sunny day!

Slept nine hours last night.

Good night, Cubao!

Finished watching everything on the DVD, and I'm glad I bought it.

Aubrey came home from school intrams 5:20 PM.

Angelique and J. came home from an org meeting 6:15 PM.

We all had dinner at home.

Now watching Bruce Lee: The Man and the Legend, the last two parts of my DVD.

Finished watching The Big Boss. The workers celebrate Chen Chao's promotion in their neighborhood. So does the manager, who takes him away to a restaurant and gets him so drunk that he ends up in the room of one of the prostitutes at the party. The prostitute later reveals that she used to work as a maid for the big boss who owns the ice plant, and hints that the big boss couldn't have made money producing ice alone.

Chen Chao sneaks into the ice plant at night and discovers an opium laboratory, and that there are opium packets inside blocks of ice. He discovers more, though--the four murdered and missing men are trapped inside ice blocks as well. The big boss's son and their minions follow Chen Chao to the ice plant. A big fight ensues, but Chen Chao takes all of them down, including the big boss's son.

Back at home, Chen Chao discovers that everyone in the household has been massacred. Chen Chao swears vengeance and proceeds to the big boss's huge residence, where he renders vengeance. There is much bloodshed. That final fight between Chen Chao and the big boss is fantastic.

If Fist of Fury ended with B.L. being gunned down by a police squad, this one ended with him being arrested.

Am now halfway through The Big Boss. Cheng Chao accidentally pushes a block of ice too hard on a conveyor bridge. The block falls to the ground and breaks into several pieces. Two of the workmen discover that there are packets of opium concealed within the ice, They are called into the manager's office, where they are offered money for their silence and for their allegiance to the opium ring. They refuse, and they are murdered. Two other workers--Hsu Chien and a cousin--investigate their disappearance, only to also wind up dead and missing. When the workmen do not return home, the rest of the workers storm the manager's office, demand to know where their missing mates are, and go on strike. The foreman attacks them. The manager calls their supervisor to send more men to intimidate the strikers. During the ensuing fight, one of them accidentally snatches Cheng Chao's jade token, which smashes into two pieces but frees Cheng Chao from his pledge to not fight again.

Cheng Chao defeats the oppressors. The manager sacks the foreman and promotes Cheng Chao to his position.

I can't say that I enjoy this movie. Bruce Lee is quite passive during the first half, there are too many characters, and the romantic scenes can all be deleted without affecting the story. It seems that Nora Miao makes an appearance as an extra, though, a sidewalk food vendor. Unless I am wrong.

Your e-mail message:

"Manong, last Saturday, 11th, I had siesta with my son.

The first part of the dream I couldn't recall.

The last part:  I walked into a small, brightly lit room with no windows.

I sat on a bed similar to those you find in doctor's clinics.

You went in and sat on a blue stackable chair with steel legs facing the bed.

You wore a red shirt like the one on your blog, with white inscriptions on the front, faded fitting jeans and sandals ala Birkenstock.

Our eyes never met but it was clear that we knew each other.

You stretched your left arm and beckoned me to come closer.  You laid your hand onto my right face/neck/nape and placed it close to yours.

You were saying something but it wasn't for me.  It was like a chant/prayer/invocation.

My thoughts: 'I need help and I hope this works.'

Eventually I started to doze and lie on my left side on the bed.

My body was lethargic but the mind was aware.  At about five more seconds I felt a tremor within.

My soul/essence/spirit was trying to detach from my body.  My spirit/soul was about to sit upright when I felt an apprehension and went back.

My thoughts: 'Ano na 'to?  Tama/puwede ba 'to?'

There was nothing scary or fearful but more of doubt whether to do it was right.  And then I decided, 'Ok lang naman siguro at di naman niya (you) ako pinipigilan.'

My spirit/soul sat upright then found out it can rise/levitate.  Through my periphery, I can still make out that you and my body were still a few feet below me while I started to alleviate inside the room.  As I was about to hit the ceiling, everything turned bright so I closed my spirit eyes.  It wasn't blinding, just bright and warm.  No negativity whatsoever.  Though my eyes were closed it's as if there's another pair of eyes within me that can  see.  I was staring at the surrounding brightness when a square figure/frame appeared in front.  About 4x5 feet.  'Ano kaya 'yan?,' I thought.

A few moments after, I was transported to a small, dorm type room for single occupancy.  I sat on the bed. To my left was a locker/cabinet w/ a jacket on  its door.  To my right is a flat screen crt tv.

And that square thing is now a window which I'm staring at.  There's a table with a seat beneath that window.

On the table is a blue leather bound book which I make out is a bible. 

(Manong, I'm trying to enumerate everything because they might have some significance.)

The lights were off in the room but the brightness outside provided enough illumination to make out the room.

My thoughts: ' Anliwanag sa labas. Gusto ko'ng pumunta do'n.  Gusto ko'ng lumabas.'

It was bright/sunny outside but I couldn't see what was out there. It was just bright.

I thought, 'Teka, baka may sinasabi siya (you) sa 'kin.  Kailangan ko na yata'ng bumalik.. Kaso pa'no?'

Then I woke up.

My take, pls. correct me if I'm wrong:

You're assisting me rise above my earthly self.

The latter part I couldn't get.

"Salamat po."

My reply:

Hi ______________________!

I am glad that you were able to remember and record the dream.

I conduct pre-announced night classes in Cubao. You are in a different time zone, meaning that it is daytime where you are when that happens.

Yes, I continue to teach you through your dreams. You need to realize at this time that God has given you everything that you need, and that your current fears and insecurities about family and career are fetters that prevent you from approaching the brightness that awaits you.

The second part of your dream is set within a room for a single person, i.e. you, because you need to learn your lessons alone and for yourself.

Hang in there. I hope you followed my advice in my previous e-mail message. 

"The Curriculum" (Night of Monday, October 19, 2015)

Events of the Day:

Slept through 11:00 AM and then had lunch with the granddaughters. Angelique visited her classmate in the afternoon.

The storm was still raging in the north. A news report stated that the Angat Dam water level slightly increased (as opposed to the water levels at all the other dams that had to open floodgates to release water), and that it would assure us of no drought for only half a month, or 15 days.

Watched the second version of Game of Death and The Way of the Dragon on DVD.


The Dream:

I am inside an open gymnasium [bridge to different places of training] in ____________________ University. It is summer time [bridge to my desire for the storm to end], and I have been asked to do a five-day workshop in magic involving emotional truth exercises for undergraduate students. I ask the students to arrange their seats in a circle.

I write a diagram on the blackboard. I am amazed, as I lucidly dream, that the diagram summarizes my entire curriculum, and that I can draw vertical lines and horizontal lines through the diagram's content so that they make sense both ways [bridge to the letter square SATOR-ARETO-TENET-OTERA-ROTAS]. I then prime the students for the emotional truth exercises.

A nun hurries by and gathers six of the students to leave; she is afraid of the emotional truth exercises. More and more students come in, however, and I have to ask them to sit in a second, outer, circle round the first circle of chairs.

I walk over to a refrigerator in a nearby kitchen to pick up mineral water bottles for the students [bridge to water as a symbol of emotion and as a source of life and nourishment].


My Interpretation:

I wrote down the dream diagram as soon as I woke up because I had never, in my conscious life, thought of that diagram before.

I believe that the trigger for this dream was my successive viewings of Bruce Lee's movies. I am always amazed by his physique and his fighting technique, and also by his discipline and passion for training, though the latter two took their toll on his body in the end. He is partial to children, but he acquiesced to become one of my spirit guides. He once visited my "Bruce Lee altar" containing some of my son Nelson's souvenirs of him, and scrutinized it with much amusement.

Both my spirit guide and my psyche are telling me, in this dream, that, while kung fu and jeet kwan do are used in physical warfare, complete discipline and training in emotional truth are used in magical warfare. They are also telling me that true spirituality is unreachable to many people because of their denial of the roles that emotions play.

Before the dream ended my spirit guide informed me that even if I should write down my curriculum in great detail, no one can teach it the way I can. Indeed, a few years ago, my workshops were videotaped at the Quezon City Drug Rehabilitation Center and at the Department of Education in Marinduque with the staff members' intention of replicating my work in the future, but I know that they will always be unable to do so.

Wearing Kiehl's Original Musk Oil.

Started watching the first third of The Big Boss a.k.a Fists of Glory. Bruce Lee plays Cheng Chao, who visits his nephew Hsu Chien and his relatives, workers in an ice factory. Before he leaves home, Cheng Chao's mother gives him a jade token to wear round his neck as a reminder to keep out of fighting. The neighborhood he visits, however, has thugs who prey on the weak.

Directed by Lo Wei, who also did Fist of Fury. So far fast-paced and eventful. The movie is of additional interest to me because, in a documentary I watched a year ago, B.L.'s life was seriously threatened by jealous members of the production.

The majority of people are unable to read minds because of their defense mechanisms. Were they able to read others' minds they would lose their faith in their fellow humans.

Members of The 36 Wands: The Wands should continue pointing to the earth.

Good morning, Cubao!

Bright and sunny!

The granddaughters are back to school.

Exploring the Internet is a full-time occupation. Many doors lead to light, others to darkness. The balance you need to seek is not in cyberspace but within yourself.

Afterward make your blog shine to light the way for lost travelers.

Sad to know about the many casualties of the storm.

Would drought have brought the same number of casualties?

Now halfway through The Way of the Dragon. I like this second only to Fist of Fury. After long, drawn-out, comic vignettes, things perk up when Tang Lung arrives at the restaurant. The restaurant staff members remind me of the Spirit Questors--working up front looking normal and then secretly training in kung fu and Chinese boxing in the back yard.

In this movie, Bruce Lee is in top form and definitely still king.

The only flaws of this movie are the same of the others: interiors that look totally out of the environment, in this case un-Roman and probably shot in L.A., and walk-ons and extras looking like L.A. streetwalkers.

Nora Miao co-stars in both The Way of the Dragon and Fist of Fury. In both movies she is cool, level-headed, and neither cries nor screams.

Will watch all of B.L.'s movies over and over, as I do the Poirot series.

I wonder if Jiminy Cricket will rally for another season.

The Egyptian goddess moves to the south.

Despite the concept of the little black dress, not everyone looks good in black.

Good night, Cubao!

Watching wuxia in bed.

Skies above Cubao are still overcast, and a fine but steady drizzle forced me to go back indoors. Ironically, I heard a fire engine on EDSA.

Now watching The Way of the Dragon. Produced by Raymond Chow , this one has Bruce Lee not only writing the screenplay but directing the movie as well. It is set in Rome. Miss Chen Ching Hua picks up Tang Lung (B.L.) at the airport. She has hired him as security for the restaurant that her uncle recently left her and that a business syndicate with thugs is trying to grab from her.

Too many long shots of the city, if you ask me, as though to convince the audience that the characters are really in Rome, the same trap that Light in the Piazza fell into many years ago, but then again I'm still in the first third of the movie.

Finally finished the official version of Game of Death. The obligatory warehouse scene. Everyone was soaking in the pouring rain outside. Then, when everyone went inside the warehouse, everyone was inexplicably dry, including their motorbikes. That's B-grade continuity for you.

The nunchaku duel was nice but too short and too unimaginative. The last fight against Kareem Abdul-Jabar was not credible. The ending was abrupt and anti-climactic. The girl suddenly disappeared, but, I'm sure, no one in the audience cared.

Now done with two-thirds of the official version of Game of Death. Love that lion dance. I recall that E. once tried to sell me an authentic Chinese drum for P15,000, but I didn't have space for it and I knew I wouldn't use it that much. Things pick up only when Billy Lo gets out of hospital and starts going after his enemies. As for his girlfriend, all she ever did from the beginning was hang around, scream, pick up instructions from men, and now, in the part where I'm at, serve as bait for Billy to come out into the open. Female performers should protest against such roles, except that they often acquiesce to accept any role they can get, wanting to achieve stardom.

Will view the rest of the movie later. This is the kind of movie that, when it plays on the big screen, the audience eagerly watches for the fight scenes, only to doze off during the other scenes between.

Done with the first third of the official version of Game of Death. It's like a bizarre dream. In this movie, Billy Lo and the production team are shooting the ending scene from the first version of Game of Death, in which Billy runs from the school doors through the open gates into the police squad that shoots him down. A syndicate member puts a real bullet inside a gun and fires (a chilling portent of the death of Bruce Lee's own son, Brandon, during the shooting of an edition of The Crow). Billy is taken to hospital, his face injured. The men who are on his side decide to change his identity and announce to the world that Billy Lo is dead. More funeral shots of the Bruce Lee funeral.

Very interesting. Both versions of Game of Death fit like metaphysical, three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle pieces. If version #1 came before version #2, you get one implication. If version #2 came before version #1, you get another. Though both may very well have been shot at the same time, I believe that my sequence is the correct one, because version #2 gives added dimension to version #1.

Will view more later. My attention still flags. When the producers need to develop the story, all the action scenes stop and what you get is a series of talky discussion scenes by inferior actors not looking at home against their equally inferior sets.

Wearing Platinum by Roberto Verino.

D. gave me a free bag of Yakee! bubble gum.

Good day, Cubao!

Lunch with the granddaughters at home.

The chained god claims more for himself.

Cozy night. Tenants and guards conversing at the station between the small loggia and the studio entrance.

I am truly sorry that others are spending the night on their rooftops. I hope they won't ever have to go through that again, but the only way for that to happen is for them to MOVE.

Watched 30 minutes more of the official version of Game of Death. Billy Lo the movie action star is being forced to join a syndicate that uses big stars as pawns. A former star who reneged was fished out of the river, and Billy is constantly hounded by minions (surrealistically always dressed like aliens in motorcycle jumpsuits) to pledge loyalty to the syndicate.

My attention flags. I can't watch all of it in toto. The chinoisserie on every set is comprised of cheap, sidewalk vases and plates, the kind that you can buy in Lucky Chinatown for a pittance. The protagonist's situation seems to allude to the actual situation Bruce Lee may have been in before he died. In this movie he has a Caucasian girlfriend (as he did in real life). He is not invincible, he loses fights--ten steps down from his status as a god in Fist of Fury. Moreover, as the second version has a disturbing, subliminal message (all masters are constantly challenged), this one may have several subliminal messages as well. So far I see one, that blacks and whites are the enemies of Asians.

Will resume my viewing tomorrow. The only saving grace so far is a peek backstage of a Chinese opera, where Billy's uncle is a performer, and watching the players apply their make-up and put on their headdresses.

The fight scenes are ho-hum. B.L.'s filmography was a downhill drive, perhaps due to poor advice from his agent. If he had an agent.

Fist of Fury's ending was ominous.

Isn't it cheaper for everyone in the long run to just move to safe locations once and for all rather than near coastlines and on slopes?

Cheaper for the government, the residents, and volunteers, I mean. Instead of evacuating people, packing relief goods, begging for food and water and medication, setting up shelters, and monitoring sanitation three or more times a year.

Don't say that it's easier said than done. Constant evacuation looks a lot more difficult to me. It also seems to encourage the "Maawa ka sa akin, ka'wa'wa naman ako" mentality that a lot of people bank on. It is always matched, of course, by an equally revolting, media mentality--"Here I am, I am your savior."

This game of having to be saved and saving can be tiresome in this country, because it happens several times within a year. It is, as a matter of fact, the underlying theme of every melodrama.

Good night, Cubao!

Still tuned in to the local news coverage of the storm in the north.

M.'s cafe is bustling again. It's a Sunday night, but tomorrow's classes in Metro Manila are suspended.

The werewolf in me stirs, but the better part of me decides that I should stay in bed and go to sleep.

Everyone who comes for healing enters my house with great anxiety, especially after taking in the antiques and the decor, because they begin wondering how much I will charge and if they can afford it. I have to inform them as early as possible that my spirit guides do not allow me to charge anything to heal anyone. It is they that do the healing, not I, and for their own merits, not mine.

A tricycle driver came to me for alternative healing. His motorbike fell into a manhole some time last year. He was comatose for a while. Thankfully, his body healed except for his right knee and a finger joint on his left hand. I used herbs and oil on him. I asked him to come back next week.

When I am healing, my hands become as hot as a clothes iron. Sometimes it terrifies patients.

Now watching the OFFICIAL Game of Death (the FIRST version), in which Bruce Lee--also playing a kung fu artist named Billy--is being shot for a film. (Bruce Lee's acting in all of his films is natural and relaxed because his roles were designed so that he could play himself. As for the rest of the cast in all of his films, including the extras, they should have taken acting classes.)

This version is also a Raymond Chow, but it is directed by Robert Clouse and co-stars Chuck Norris and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

I have to stop watching for now and resume later.

To water or not to water, that is the question.

Finished watching the rest of Game of Death. Bruce Lee does NOT appear again. Bobby, played by Tong Lung, travels to the Tower of Death, an inverted Chinese pagoda that is built deep inside the ground, the interior of which looks like it was recycled from Logan's Run. It is quite distressing to watch pre-computer-age art and how it depicted computerization. All of it opted for the "mad scientist" look.

In the end, Bobby discovers that the master Chin Ku is the real villain, and is alive, after all. He staged his own death and funeral to escape being arrested by Interpol for his drug trafficking.

Alas, Tong Lung's career didn't seem to take off from here. Maybe he tried to look too much like Bruce Lee.

This movie is also worth collecting to me, though, because it marks the end of Bruce Lee's life. I just didn't see enough of him.

Maybe I should hunt for his old Green Lantern movies.

"I walk around heavy-hearted and sad/
Night comes around and I'm still feeling bad/
Rain pourin' down, blinding every hope I had/
This pitter an' patter an' beatin' an' spatterin', drivin' me mad/"

--"Stormy Weather" by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler

Sipping a cup of tea while watching the live coverage of the storm in the north. Hoping there are no casualties.

Decadent as it sounds, I wish there would be medieval festivals in the Philippines the way they do in the U.S. (the Philippine version being Asia, rather than Europe, in medieval times.) I wouldn't mind spending money on costumes. After all I seem to be wearing costumes everyday.

The festival should be filled with many medieval-fun activities.

Yat-Fung Yeung and I are now in each other's Circles.

I hope the world celebrates a tea month!

Back from lunch at Hap Chan, which we always do in memory of Ivy because she liked the food there, especially yang chow fried rice.

No interesting DVDs. Found exactly what we need for our tea parties, though.

The granddaughters did groceries while I canvassed heavy-duty equipment for future construction projects.

Wore my new trench coat from the UK via Australia (actually I've had it for years but wore it for the first time today) and loved it. I wish that I could wear it everyday.

Also wearing White Musk from the UK.

She gives unpleasant prescriptions on the air that she does not take herself.

Good morning, Cubao!

We are eating out for lunch even in this weather.

Cerefina whimpering in the rear passage. She is either cold or knows what's coming.

Pet birds inside the small loggia have their feathers all fluffed up and their beaks buried in their chests.

Some compound tenants and residents of Theresa Towers are in M.'s cafe for beer, coffee, and whatnot. The Forgotten Realms Cafe is bustling. Men tend to go outside their homes during disasters. It is due to a restlessness not unlike that of sexual arousal, a reaction-formation giving rise to the desire to procreate in the face of a force majeure that might imply death. I myself want to bundle up in a trench coat and go there for some hot food and wait for the 3:00 -5:00 AM storm landfall, but will eat in our cozy kitchen instead.

Still steadily drizzling in Cubao, but it's getting heavier.

I think I'll leave the TV on the local news all night, with the audio on low volume.

Good night, Cubao!

Watched the first third of Game of Death, a Westernized Raymond Chow. Bruce Lee plays Billy Lo, a young master who has written a manual for Jeet Kwan Do. He is constantly besieged with challengers, and so this third of the film is full of fight scenes. Another master and a family friend, Chin Ku, dies. Billy visits Chin Ku's stepdaughter, a night club singer, who entrusts to Billy a box of celluloid film that the deceased master bequeathed to her, asking her to keep it safe. A chase by Chin Ku's enemies begins. During Chin Ku's funeral, an enemy helicopter snatches the coffin into the sky. Billy jumps onto the coffin and is flown away with it.

Alas, it is at this point that Bruce Lee (the man) dies. A double is shown clinging to the flying coffin and being hit by a dart from a man inside the helicopter. The double falls to the ground and dies. Actual scenes from Bruce Lee's funeral are then shown.

Billy's brother, Bobby, is then tasked by their father to go to Japan and avenge his brother's death. This is where the second part begins, which I hope to view tomorrow even if it is minus Bruce Lee unless I am served flashbacks.

This movie is semi-documentary because it includes photos and home movie footage from Bruce Lee's own childhood. Aside from the fact that Bruce Lee DID write a Jeet Kwan Do manual, of course.

There are more bird cages in this movie, making me think that martial artists kept birds and spent hours studying their movements. Bruce Lee's muscles are also more prominent and more sculptured here. Quite sad to know that the giant died for real.

And I don't blame Raymond Chow for making this movie a tribute to B.L. for fans both in the East AND in the West.

Text-message conversation with T. of Baguio City. Her brother passed away, and she is going through her period of grief.

Storm watch on the local news.

Lit our Halloween lamp at the entrance to the studio for the night.

I celebrate and decorate for Halloween during the last 15 days of October.

Caught Part One of Bright Lights, Bright Minds: A Tale of Three Cities, featuring the surrealist movement in France and its proponents: Breton, Magritte, Dali, Bunuel, and de Lempicka, on BBC.

Probably watching Game of Death tonight.

It is inconvenient to be androgynous when young and then freaky when old.

It is unpleasant to be good-looking when young and then ugly when old.

It is best to look plain when young and handsome when old.

How wonderful is this--GrandTea Club Added me to their Circle. Now I can browse a page devoted to tea whenever I want and as long as I want. They have tea sets for sale, too!

Really a perfect afternoon for tea.

An atchay always stages a flamboyant entrance.

A master always suddenly appears out of nowhere.

A movie is B-grade not because of the total cost of its production but because of the low, collective talent of its cast.

Finally, finished watching the rest of Enter the Dragon. I'm not sorry I did. It was spectacular, though it had NO close-ups of Bruce Lee. They probably wanted his fighting stances in long shots, and nothing of his character. Fist of Fury was lower-scale but more lyrical.

I liked the hundreds of bird cages hung like lanterns and the mirrored hall, but was left wondering why no one had firearms, not even the bodyguards, considering that this was before the age of CCTV.

Those bear and dragon claws were completely randy and looked like props from hardcore porn, but then again those were the blades that slashed those famous wounds on B.L.'s face and torso.

P.S. Only Captain Haddock of The Adventures of TinTin has the RIGHT to wear turtleneck shirts.

War is, ironically, the time when people go into the deepest reflection. It is like fasting in the wilderness.

She showed me the tall, steel tower. It will fall, and all households within its perimeter will panic. The owners will pay not millions but billions in damages and subsequent repairs. Their rivals will come and valiantly rescue the people.

Members of The 36 Wands: Do NOT point your Wands to the sky. They should continue pointing to the earth.

Wearing Silver Rain by La Prairie.

Good day, Cubao!

Nice and drizzly.

Angelique at university. Lunch with Aubrey at home.

Started watching the first third of Enter the Dragon. This one is utterly un-Chinese and features the Western theme music that became very popular during its time. The movie is like a 1970s Mission Impossible episode (the black-and-white TV series), with initial flashbacks of the players presented a la Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians (and it's set on an island, too!). It's definitely a B-grade, but I do remember that, at the time, and I was in college then, no one really cared about the photography, the story, and the production design. All everyone cared about was the fighting. They didn't even care about sex!

This time around Bruce Lee as Mr. Li is avenging the death of a sister, not a teacher.

That's all I can stand for now. I refuse to see any more Richard Roundtree afro hairstyles, Shaft turtleneck shirts, and matching jackets and pants tonight--please spare me!

Will view the rest tomorrow.

Good night, Cubao!

Finished watching Fist of Fury. Good fight scenes with minimal special effects. A nice collectible. The great thing is, it is subtitled in English.

This was totally uncensored and showed the Japanese stripper's dance in full. The disguises were neither convincing nor credible, though. And of course there was this unexpected cemetery scene in which runaway Chen roasts what looks like a cat or a dog over a bonfire and eats it.

I still have my old, dragon nunchaku, which you can now get arrested for carrying around, and so I'm keeping them as a mere conversation piece.

I gave my kamagong arnis sticks, on the other hand, to Angelique, who was the top-notcher in their P.E. arnis class last year.

Angelique and J. arrived from university 6:30 PM.

Aubrey arrived home from school 5:30 PM.

Watching Fist of Fury. I can tell how the producer and director loved Bruce Lee so much. He was one of a kind. He photographed so well, and the camera made love to him, no matter how crude the production. He plays Chen, the favorite student of deceased martial arts teacher Ho Yuan Chia, who founded Ching Wu School.

I heard the Chinese term again, "shu-fuo" (master).

Long, steady drizzle. For some reason felt cooped up and decided to go shopping.

Found a 28-in-1 Bruce Lee DVD, and hope that it's good.

Our Cubao New Orleans French Quarter front balcony was designed for us to watch street parades from, though only three, dinky, religious parades pass by within a year. We don't have fabulous carnival parades that people spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on. The name of the game is going el cheapo while having fun.

Early lunch with Angelique, who has afternoon classes at university.

Met A. again at the Sitio Catacutan Food Court. He brought me to his house and showed me his new tattooing equipment. He used to make drawings for my granddaughters' class projects when they were in grade school, and I recently thought of commissioning him to patterns on our walls.

Now I am considering having those three, additional tattoos I'd always wanted.

Presuming that you have a house with adequate space, set aside a bed in a spare room to accommodate any young member of the family who has fever or must recuperate from an illness. As much as possible, dissuade the patient from staying in his/her own bedroom, otherwise he/she will forever associate his/her bedroom with being ill.

Today wearing Fantasy by Britney Spears.

Despite our leaps and bounds from the Iron Age, war is still the outcome when every leader believes he is strongest.

It is very possible to derive personal satisfaction from helping others and making others happy rather than doing them as mere acts of charity.

I observe that supervisors pretend to be completely devoted to their jobs, work hard, give their subordinates priority, make personal sacrifices, and even bake cakes for everyone.

I also observe that no one is taken in by this stupid rigmarole.

Tony Perez's Art of War: You know exactly who the people are who do not like you. The best retaliation is to not like them in return.

It is wise to honor order of birth.

He has three Ns in his name and is bound for stardom.

It is easy to be different without looking different. All you have to do is refrain from talking about what everyone else is talking about.

Lying still with your eyes shut and your mind at rest is equivalent to sleeping.

Havoc ensues when the serpentine (a.k.a reptilian a.k.a triune) area of the brain is activated in more than one person.

An incompetent leader is an embarrassment not only to himself but also to his followers.

A deputy is an excuse for a chief to go on vacation.

One way of looking at how well you spent your money on an item is to divide the total cost you spent on the item by the number of days you've ever had the item.

For example, if you spent $365 on an item and have had it for a year, that means you paid $1 a day for having it so far. In two years time, if the item is still good, you'll have paid $.50 a day for having it so far, and so on.

Do this for every significant item in your possession, including clothes, and decide how satisfied or unsatisfied you are with having parted with your money.

And then know that diamonds are forever.

Everyone who works for you, no matter how excellent their credentials, needs YOUR supervision.

War is still the best professor on the subject of death.

No matter how well you fortify yourself, no one in this world is ever safe from the world, and you are no exception.

A woman who nets in a husband as a conquest is soon depleted of her resources, including everything that she set aside for herself.

Never rush into a marriage. Your husband or wife will always be a mirror to your shortcomings, regardless of what the mirror is framed in.

Good morning, Cubao!

Bright and sunny but cool.

No matter how passionately you feel for your country, avoid arguments. There will be some bloodshed.

It is normal for others to have differing opinions anyway.

After the storm passes there will be another sighting in the sky.

The goddess of the storm is my mother. She is also the goddess of tornadoes.

One down, one more to go.

Unless I hear that they need more.

Synopsis of The Four from the Internet: "Four young constables--Heartless, Iron Fist, Chaser, and Cold Blood--work together to solve cases and attempt to bring down the corrupt Prime Minister of the Song Dynasty." Replete with martial arts, magical implements, enchanted characters, and sets and props that I love so much. Such as those exquisite potion bottles and lanterns.

When I was in my 20s I used to stroll down Ongpin Street in Lucky Chinatown. A Chinese wine seller kept a display of unusual and antique wine bottles from China in front of his shop. I inquired about them, but they were not for sale. Weeks later the wine seller saw me again and called me aside. He said that he would allow me to buy one of his bottles. I did so, and I wondered why he let me do that. He couldn't have needed money, considering that the bottle wasn't expensive at all. I still have that bottle. It is, as a matter of fact, prominently displayed on my writing desk.

It's been some 40 years, and I know that I will never see that man again. I know for a fact that that wine shop no longer exists.

Cozy night. Guards and tenants conversing at the lighted station between the small loggia and the studio.

I like the current set-up of the Spirit Questors. It is the best, the safest, and the most effective set-up I am managing so far.

I take them with me only two at a time. I make sure that those two have known each other even before I trained them.

All of them have no idea exactly how many Spirit Questors there are. Only I know that.

All of them have no idea who the other Spirit Questors are. Only I know that.

No two Spirit Questors have the same abilities. After all, why have duplicates in the group?

None of them appear on television, and so, they are not known to the public.

Good night, Cubao!

Had a middling day.

Musical Phones

Bought Angelique her iPhone 6 today and we are poorer by P35,000. Her iPhone 5 goes to me, my Samsung goes to my sister Alice, and my sister Alice's Huawei goes to my son Chito.

Done feeding and watering the birds.

Waiting for Angelique to come back home from the center.

Whenever the water rises, the snakes make their way toward the top.

Never live for sexual satisfaction. It drags down your consciousness and your sensibility.

When we stumble on the Internet, we do so without skinning our knees.

The best moisturizer is to wipe your skin with water and then let it dry without toweling.

The mind has no race, no culture, no shape, and no countenance despite the fact that it belongs to a particular person with a specific background, perhaps a specific ideology, and perhaps a specific religion.

That is why it is very easy to connect with other people's minds across space and time, even if you do not know how they look like.

Abstinence from TV is one of the most effective grounding experiences.

The dust bin man offered me mango, coffee, and jackfruit seedlings, but I passed on those because they are best grown on the ground and not on a roof deck.

Spent the entire afternoon with the hired man on the roof deck. I love trimming plants and replanting cuttings. Harvested gulasiman bato a.k.a. pansit-pansitan for an evening salad.

Time stops whenever I am on the roof deck.

One of my antique dealers just arrived from Mindanao. I'm looking forward to seeing five special items.

A hired cleaner with a green thumb is now working on our roof deck. I'm thinking that it's time to give away the spirit house that I bought in Tayabas, Quezon two years ago. I've also decided to take down our two antique, bronze, Chinese cauldrons.

The dust bin man gave me more plants taken from the abandoned garden of the newly-sold-off lot adjacent to ours. According to him the lot has nests of cobras. No wonder we haven't been seeing a lot of rats lately. Yes, I have known all this time that there are more cobras in Cubao than pythons, which seem to live in lower-level areas.

Stow away your kitsch. They will accrue in value only after 20 years.

Overcast skies above Cubao.

Wearing Aramis. I am probably rotating my cologne the way I am rotating my jewelry.

So far everyone thinks that the singer is cute and petite, but she will quickly turn out to be one of the most hideous users that her country has ever seen. She will first seduce members of the staff and then work herself upward. Everyone will call her the Little Slut behind her back.

Windows 10 has been giving me a variety of screen savers to choose from, but most of them are tourism shots and stock shots and look like pretentious entries to equally pretentious photo competitions. I quickly eliminated all snowy scenes, since I can't relate to them, and scenes with structures and landscapes that are not tropical. There is one I particularly like and am using for now, that of an erupting volcano surrounded by a swirl of slashing rain and topped by a glowering sky.

Persons who consulted me when they were alive in their physical bodies continue to consult me after their demise.