Good night, Cubao!

Will check out the chandelier again tomorrow, and I will buy it only if it takes in regular-size screw bulbs, not the small-size ones.

Aubrey is in varsity volleyball training again this year, meaning that she will come home late on certain evenings, but, I want her to follow her heart.

I didn't allow Angelique to join college varsity volleyball, though. It would have entailed her coming home to Cubao from UST at 11:00 PM, and that would certainly drive me insane.

To maximize the use of your candles, ensure that they remain upright, that they are away from breezes that will make the flames burn irregularly, and that they are not moved, causing the melted wax to drip along their sides.

Yes, the drippy candles that you see in Halloween haunted houses and on sorcerers' desks are all lit wrong.

Aubrey now has an iPad for school.

Finished watching "Elements" from Warehouse 13. Liked this one too.

P.'s messenger, D., finally came.

In the meantime, finished watching "Claudia" from Warehouse 13. A wonderful introduction of an additional, regular character. Liked the play on parallelisms.

Finished watching "Magnetism" from Warehouse 13. Not as imaginative as the ones I really liked.

Ten disposable lighters and two packs of joss sticks from my sister Remi.

Fire engines on EDSA.

Still waiting for the two people I'm expecting to arrive today.

The boy who is courting Angelique came to pick her up. He is a DLSU Marketing major, and I finally met him. The two are off to purchase Aubrey's iPad at Saint Paul Pasig.

Suddenly thinking forward in time to when someone will be courting Aubrey as well.

I feel like the old man in the Junior Classics Illustrated comic book "The Japanese Lantern". Before he consented to marry off his daughters Suki and Yuki, he instructed them to search far and wide for paper than contains fire and for paper that contains wind.

They came back with a lantern and a fan.

After you sweep bird seed husks and bird dung off the floor, do not throw them away. Place them in your plant pots or plant boxes. They will function well not only as fertilizer but as moisture retainers.

In your bedroom, the COs should be at your head, the Gs, or Ws, at your right-hand side.

Your Hangout message:

"Good evening sir! I'd like to share about my dream and hoping that you could give me your interpretation on it. In my dream,me, my sister and another person( whom I can't remember the face) were climbing an uphill road. It's so hard to climb because its slope is almost like in 130 degrees angle. In that scene, we've met motorcycles going down the road. My sister was pregnant in my dream but in real life she can no  longer bear a child because of ligation. There's an energy which almost pulls us down and we're almost crawling, dragging our bodies to the top. My sister and the other girl/woman reached the top following the road while I chose another path which is cracked road, gripping my hands to the road as though I'm climbing a wall till I reached the edge.While doing that, my sister and the other one called my attention guiding me and told me to follow what they did,still I chose the cracked road. Thank you for reading sir." 


My reply:

Hello ____________!

My radical interpretation:

In order to protect you from being hurt, your psyche splits yourself into three characters in this dream, but they are one and the same person: you. You might have given yourself to a man and you might be pregnant, which you project to your sister who has had a ligation, as though your psyche must remind you, "This is you because it really can't be your sister." In your dream you choose a separate, "cracked" path--an abortion? You choose this despite the advice of the other two women.

You do not see the face of the third woman because her face is yours. She represents all the familial values that you still truly cherish, but that you deny yourself whenever you are overcome with rebellious attitudes and feelings.


My conservative interpretation:

You are constantly frustrated with the discrimination and injustices you have been experiencing, blaming these on the fact that you are a woman. Life, career, and love are a struggle--an uphill, "130 degree" climb. These experiences have made you desire being different from the rest, so that you would not hesitate to choose a path that no other women take, no matter how "cracked" it is.

Always be cautious. Always be aware of your welfare and your safety, for the present and for the future.

Good morning, Cubao!

Bright and sunny!

So late in the day I have become a Matt Damon fan, and I wish that I could see more of him.

Saw the premiere telecast of Good Witch on DIVA. Nice. I wish I had a shop like Bell, Book & Candle though I wouldn't call it that.

I could have sworn that Bailee Madison was that adopted little girl in Law & Order years ago, but it looks like I am wrong.

Shouldn't the title of the series really be Hedge Witch?

Good night, Cubao!

People coming to the house tomorrow. I have to stay in.

Finished watching "Resonance" on Warehouse 13. Another nice one.

Never go with a magical system that attracts bums and people with low IQs.

Religion is the most structured and disguised form of human slavery.

I love taking the day slowly. I now question why I couldn't when I was young, and what the rush was all about.

Whenever I take the day slowly, everything I think and do is a prayer of praise to God's Creation.

Passed on acrylic stand. Will check out chandelier tomorrow.

Finished watching the pilot episode of Warehouse 13. Loved it. A hi-tech Friday the 13th, which was one of my favorite series when I was young.

Leena's Bed & Breakfast already makes an appearance here, and, of course, so does the Farnsworth.

When Fox broadcasters agree with what their interviewees are saying, they nod their heads, smile, and let them talk without interruption.

When they do not agree with what their interviewees are saying, they interject, whip out unrelated questions, superimpose their own voices, and try to stop the interviewees from saying what they are saying. One of them even abruptly ended an interview with a renowned psychiatrist by saying, "The truth isn't as simple as that"--completely oblivious of the fact that what the psychiatrist said was highly complex rather than simple, yet, perhaps, above her level of comprehension.

These are clear examples of bias in broadcasting, and, sometimes, of national paranoia.

Always be alert to the possibility that broadcasters are leading you to think what you do not actually think. They have no right to do that.

You love and relate to a person in your fantasies. In reality he never thinks about you.

A clock must be decorative as well as functional.

Every successful person has an excellent sense of timing.

Your e-mail message:

"Good morning po sir! Ako po si _______ mula sa palabas na _____________ ng ______________. Para po kasi sa linggong ito ang topic po namin sa _________  ay isang spirit questor. Gusto po namin magbigay ng isang __________ treat sa isang deserving po na spirit questor.

"Pwede niyo po ba ako matulungan makahanap ng isa? Hihingi po sana ako ng referral mula sa group niyo po kung sino ang pwede? Maraming salamat po! Ito po pala ang contact number ko: _____________."

My reply:

Hello _______!

The Spirit Questors are on an on-call basis. Those whom I retained are very private persons and have no interest in appearing on TV.

We believe that featuring these things actually prevent audiences from developing true spirituality. I suggest that you relegate such topics to your fictional tele-melodramas designed for sheer entertainment.

I used to think that I would frequent Chinatown after my retirement, but now, everything outside Cubao seems terribly and inconveniently too far away from home.

Good morning, Cubao!

For me, a day of many, wonderful options.

Finished watching "MacPherson" from Warehouse 13. Interesting.

Good night, Cubao!

I need an additional stand for our driveway sales display.

That or the chandelier for now.

It is possible to vanquish bully students and teachers with a brass talisman, but it will make them sad failures in life.

The mug shots of the escaped prisoners make me think of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, for possible portraits.

Finished watching "Nevermore" from Warehouse 13. I like. Very imaginative, with an Edgar Allan Poe motif.

I wish I had something like Arthur Bering's Bering & Sons Bookstore, with living quarters on the upper floor.

The only disturbing elements I find are Mrs Frederic's business suits, which always look like they were sewn out of couch upholstery material.

No one will be able to enter or exit the ______ for two days and three nights. The avenue will be riven in several parts, and nobody will be able to traverse it by vehicle or by foot. The undaunted will attempt to leave through the rear, only to be stymied by rising floods that will form a minor tributary. The multilevel habitation of the old men will be ravaged, and many of them therein will be trapped and will despair. Communication by mobile will be impossible. The steel tower will fall.

The building where puppet shows were held will crumble.

The movement will be toward the east, toward the ocean. Most walls in that direction will collapse.

When people begrudge you something, it is because you have so much more than they do.

Back from the commercial center. Bought a really strong working light for the studio lounge.

Saw a chandelier that I really must have.

Bought two kilos of bird seed.

Anyone who works hard for his freedom deserves to have it forever.

Good morning, Cubao!

I need to buy a new lighting fixture for the studio lounge ceiling today.

Finished watching "Breakdown" from Warehouse 13. I like this best so far. There is no substantial "case" being worked on in this episode, but it is the clearest episode of all. I like the warehouse set, which, since I am still rearranging, reminds me of the ground floor of my house, on an infinitely bigger scale.

This episode was a three-dimensional Escher, showing how the warehouse operates and showing some of the warehouse's contents while delineating the regular characters and their relationships to one another.

I wish that our front space would be like the regents' venue, Ted's Restaurant, a cafe in disguise for my meetings with the Spirit Questors.

Because of his haircut, the shooter reminds me of Alfalfa from Our Gang.

It is most relaxing to walk through a supermarket and a hardware store. You see many things that stimulate your imagination and that give you ideas for future projects.

People live in crowded cities in order to lose themselves.

Good night, Cubao!

To watch Warehouse 13 or not watch Warehouse 13, that is the question.

The point of working is retiring as early as possible, especially if your monthly pension is equivalent to your monthly salary. You then get paid the same amount for doing nothing--and suddenly realize that, had you retired earlier, you would have more years enjoying your retirement.

I worked in an office 36 years. I wish that I could live another 36 to make up for time, but, I know that is not a realistic time frame.

Watched "Sorcerer From Hell" with footage from the Indonesian movie Dukun AS on Ci, about Ahmad Suaraji of Medan, North Sumatra. He was a village healer whose target was to kill 70 women and suck their saliva while they were dying in order for him to obtain power.

This isn't the first crime feature set in Indonesia on Ci. I note, once again, the similarities between Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Philippines. Among the words I recognized were apat, lima, takot, lagi, taon, niya, asawa, and dapat.

It is quite disconcerting that, all the way from grade school through college, none of my Pilipino teachers ever mentioned any influences on Tagalog by Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malay. I wish that someone would finally correct that. I know that, during my time, there was such a frenzy over establishing national pride, but our children should not grow up, as I did, thinking that Tagalog was such a unique and incomparable language.

Nothing is impervious to fire and water.

In the last analysis your house, the food you eat everyday, and the bed you sleep in every night count a lot more than the art you seek to produce.

What you enjoy in your privacy is ten thousand times more important than what you create for the public to enjoy.

Rain crosses the city, a loud parade
Come to the windows and watch
Men marching in their silver boots
The band music calls to you

Drizzly evening in Cubao.

Looking forward to a cool night, and to sleeping through mid-morning.

Overcast skies in Cubao. Rolling thunder.

Even with the lights from inside the studio lounge spilllng out onto the small loggia, the birds know that the sun has set and that all other sources of illumination are artificial.

Slept last night with the TV tuned to world news.

Good afternoon, Cubao!

Back from the commercial center with the granddaughters. Breakfast and lunch out, shopping, groceries.

Good night, Cubao!

The boy who is courting Angelique wants to meet me.

Aubrey was so thrilled to receive the baking items from Australia!

As though to match the day's leitmotif, watched Cookie Mobster on DIVA while having a muscle-wrenching massage.

My neighbors know my pet birds more than I do. They take their children to the grilles every morning and say, "Birds! Birds!"

This morning I discovered that one of the African lovebirds died during the night, and I quickly disposed of it, wrapping its body reverently in plastic sheeting. Some hours later, while I was seated at my writing desk, I overheard neighbors passing by, sadly informing their companions that one of the African lovebirds had died. One of them said, "It was the blue one." Another corrected her and said, "No, it was the white one."

I smile with amusement whenever I meet someone who owns a souvenir Tibetan singing bowl and a souvenir Tibetan prayer wheel with a fake prayer roll inside and think it so cool.

Remember this if you are a powerful mage, that whenever you sell a magical item to someone, it will always retain a part of your energy.

Angelique and I went to the commercial center this afternoon.

My sister Sylvia sent me the rest of the DVDs in the Hercule Poirot collection from Sydney. I intend to spend the rest of my life watching them over and over again.

Never attempt to prettify your shop by placing attractive items that are not for sale. It conveys to the market that you are keeping the best things for yourself and disposing of everything that you consider to be superfluous junk.

Always make your customers feel that they are buying the best of what you have.

Tony Perez's Art of War: Life is good when you see your enemies suffer--not by your own design but by their own.

A destructive person's primary obligation is to construct.

The older they get, the more people should take a keen interest in their clothes.

Switch to warm, incandescent bulbs in preparation for cold, rainy days and nights.

Good day, Cubao!

Need to go out and buy a few things myself.

Can't wait for M. to have his cafe up and running. We shan't have to cook breakfast, lunch, and supper whenever we don't feel like it. All we have to do is eat in the cafe. And pay for our food, of course.

Good night, Cubao!

Thinking of having a poster framed.

The last candle you should blow out is the altar candle.

A long day. M. and his workperson just left an hour ago. Transom work is done.

Like yesterday, I didn't do any work today. I simply wallowed in the luxury of allowing time to go by.

Will probably resume reorganizing the studio lounge tomorrow.

MERALCO has finally inspected our front area, and we are working on the installation of an independent light meter for the prospective cafe. M. and one of his workpersons are now covering the transoms, per MERALCO's recommendation. M. has shown me a draft of our contract, which looks good.

In all, I screened four applicants over the past four months for our front space:

--An Arab and his Filipina wife who wanted to open "any business" I wanted. I ruled them out because, psychically, I saw that the Arab was planning to abandon his wife as soon as the business was established, after which the wife and her relatives would all move in.

--A middle-aged woman who operates an Internet cafe and a digital printing shop in Market! Market!, who seemed okay except that I wasn't sure that she had good taste.

--Two young women who wanted to put up a beauty salon but didn't have enough capital to launch it.

--And, at last, M., a young entrepreneur from the Visayas who I felt would be very successful with his venture.

My dream was to have a jazz cafe with a bar, music, and dim lighting for an art crowd, which, of course, would not make money. M. wants his market mass-based, offering all-day breakfast, hot and cold drinks, lunchtime and suppertime meals, and free delivery to surrounding offices. His cafe will be open 9:00 AM through 3:00 AM everyday.

However, with M., I know that I am not dealing with an atchay.

Also watched Scents and Sensibility on DIVA. Nice. I love flowers.

Watched "The Haunting of Fairuza Balk" on Ci last night, only because I watched The Craft more than 20 years ago, when both of us were younger.

I have used the photos of a certain deceased celebrity as my Google+ scrapbook photos more than once, and I will finally post here, at the risk of being misunderstood, that that celebrity is a powerful and effective spirit guide--as long as you know how to approach him correctly.

As we face the rainy season, we brace ourselves for cold water in the tank, clothes not drying quickly, and puddles in the driveway. Still, I haven't seen my favorite jackets in a long time, and I would like to do so.

I am going to miss the Philippine summer and will always wistfully remember that the water in the tank would give us pleasantly warm water to shower with, without our having to turn on the heaters.

A hangover is an indication that you did not drink to relax but to put off fulfilling an urgent responsibility.

My spirit guides saved me from disaster again.

I was attracted to a pair of faux Syrian lanterns and was all set to buy them, but something told me to take a closer look--sure enough, the panes were made not of glass but of colored spotlight gels, the casing panels were made of tooled copper sheets flimsily spot-welded together, and everything would fall apart and end up as junk after a few months. Not to mention the plastic beads, which looked like they were salvaged from cheap chandeliers in the trash bin--every bead even had two holes for connectors to go through!

I pity the people who fell for this visually artificial ruse.

Saw the final episode of Amazing Race Australia 2 last night. The team I was rooting for came in second. I rooted for that team simply because one of them looks like Sam, a former student whom I was and still am fond of.

Good day, Cubao!

Back from Makati after a morning appointment. Took the bus for the first time in six months. One must apparently take the bus two hours before an appointment, in order to arrive only a few minutes late! The only saving grace in taking the bus is that I am able to observe different people once again in order to create characters for future stories.

At some point Monchito got on the bus on his way to work on Ayala. We talked of other people. The hermit caught up with the latest on mutual friends.

Finished watching "Regrets" from Warehouse 13. Regained my interest in the series. I like the metaphysical twists. No regrets.

Good night, Cubao!

I thoroughly enjoyed this day.

It is reincarnation that affirms the perfect structure of Creation.

Resurrected an antique reading lamp from storage and located it in the studio lounge.

How do the pretentious pronounce Palau? Poll-lau?

Is it pretentiousness or ineptness in linguistics?

Poverty becomes rampant when many people play pranks on other people. The typical karma package for people who play pranks is comprised of loss of employment, bankruptcy, failure in business, and inferiority.

Playing pranks on other people is an indication of deep-seated arrogance, and the lesson to be learned from it is humility.

Thunder and rain in Cubao.

Finished watching "Duped" from Warehouse 13 and felt duped. Sexiness and seductiveness creep in. An insubstantial script results in a low-budget Ocean's 11 episode.

Do performers actually beg writers to create scenes that will show how sexy and seductive they can be?

Sex and seduction, unfortunately, do not work on TV, because they are too grounding and too heavy, whereas TV audiences seek escape by flight.

Sex and seductiveness on TV also gets extremely boring because of the restrictions and parameters of the medium.

Finished watching "Implosion" from Warehouse 13. Enjoyed it. When adequately researched and executed well, the formula "Western perception vs. Oriental mythology" works.

I have decided on a luxurious choice that I have, which is to do nothing but enjoy existing today.

Atchays always gravitate toward bubble wrap and start popping the bubbles with their atchay fingers, trying to look cute and saying, "I can't resist doing this." They have no clue that, in doing so, they render the bubble wrap useless.

I always tell them to pay for the bubble wrap.

Your e-mail message: "Good. Day sir I am writing this in hopes that you could enlighten me. I have been having these moments when I Do t he thing is that I have been always having these sexual thoughts wherein I dominate or rape interests me. Maybe because I want to have control because in real life I a m like a mirror, a person who is undecided. These thoughts have been affecting my life and that when I think of a relationship most of what o think now is sex and that disturbs me a lot. I am hoping sir na you could advice for I believe that you are full of wisdom in these things. Sir these rape thoughts are normal or not ? And please how could I curb it." My reply: Hello ____________! Those thoughts are normal. Lust and the sexual urge involve power, control, and domination--which you can see not only in the actual physical position of human bodies engaged in the sexual act but in those of animals as well. Even when sexuality is expressed in an art form, such as dance, it depicts attitudes of power, control, and domination. Self-sex is the safest solution that functions as a safety gauge for the average person. Sports and martial arts are also good, albeit indirect, channels. The best solution, however, is the defense mechanism called sublimation. Recall that, in medieval times, philosophers thought that they could turn base materials, such as lead, into gold, which Carl Jung later saw to be an allusion to the refinement of the soul. Other examples of sublimation (using base materials and putting them through a process that elevates them to something higher): culinary arts, sculpture, and, yes, painting. Many Renaissance painters were thrown into prison for picking up boy prostitutes or having young lovers called bardassas--yet, later on in life, they abandoned this practice and produced some of the greatest art the world has known. A lustful person has a great artist within him. That is why I have always believed that all criminals in prison could have been great artists, except that they did not meet the right teacher at the right time.

Home alone again.

Aubrey in school and Angelique at a Marketing Org meeting.

Morning Becomes Electric

Good day, Cubao!

Angelique woke me up early this morning because all of the kitchen outlets suddenly conked out. Annoying because of our meat stock in the freezer and the prospect of not being able to use the microwave, hot water dispenser, and rice cooker.

The electrician, fortunately available at such short notice, was able to trace the problem to the principal outlet, which we promptly replaced. I paid him well for his trouble, Now all is right.

The electrician, who is from OMECO, which my father directed when he was still alive, has an unusual name, Romilon. His son is due for a hernia operation today. I gave the boy a Bart Simpson action figure.

Good night, Cubao.

Resuming rearrangement of the studio lounge tomorrow, but I know it will take me more than a day to finish.

Finished watching "Burnout" from Warehouse 13. Very interesting--creative mythology. Performers performing, not trying to look sexy or cute.