My favorite clean-up activity is going through my Circles list and weeding out people whose Circles I am not in.

None of the Tiny House houses have prominently featured exhaust fans. In a space as small as a tiny house, smells are amplified, such as garlic cooking in the kitchen or someone's pervasive cologne. Among others.

The Balinese have words for the conscious realm, sekala, and the unconscious realm, niskala. I wish that Tagalog had the same. In my book Pagsubok Sa Ilang: Ikatlong Mukha Ni Satanas I used "pagkamalay" and "silong ng pagkamalay".

Reorganized my books on magic. Discovered that I have 13 hardbound duplicates. So far I have given three to E2.

Hoping to find more duplicates and streamline my bookcase.

For every injustice done, one pays back 1,000%, and it is the only way a victim can ever feel vindicated.

The librarian used to manage information. Now she cannot even manage her own life.

She dragged her husband and children to the U.S., promising them a better life. Now they all hate her for it.

Tiny House could really get tinier for people who live alone. A tiny house is really a tiny room.

Good morning, Cubao!

Spirit Quest today.

This was a no-DVD day, though there are two more items on my second Bruce Lee disc that I wish to check out.

A Lesson In Slicing Oranges

Imagine the globe. Imagine slicing it vertically into four sections as you would an orange. Several countries will fall into each section. The countries in the section you belong to are covered by the collective magic of the practitioners in those countries.

That is why, in practicing magic, you need to go beyond your geographical confines and look toward the other countries in your section.

Note: There are many ways that you can slice the globe into four sections. You need to determine the one, correct way.

They ask that newborn babies be named after them.

Good night, Cubao!

Looks like a busy week. Something else is scheduled tomorrow.

Their framed photos should always be on the console table in the foyer, where there should always be a vase of fresh flowers or indoor plants.

From the time I was in high school through the present, I have always known that other men have envied me for the absolute freedom and the consistent courage to be different.

When the blogger lost his computer, he lost everything in this world.

It's AM and PM, not am and pm. Although "ante-meridian" and "post-meridian" are in lower case, you write letters as ABC, not abc. Otherwise you would pronounce "am" as "ahm" and "pm" as "pumh". One o'clock ahm, one o'clock pumh. "AM", on the other hand, is "Ay-Em", and "PM", "Pee-Em".

The same is true with AD, BC, CE, BCE, AC-DC, and others more.

In the Philippines, should you happen to have the TV on but your cell phone not on hand, switch to GTV Taiwan. It displays  the time 24/7 on the upper right corner of the screen, and we are in the same time zone.

Tea and Sympathy

Two-hour consultation with J. and her male friend over Ashitaba tea. Scanned and diagnosed the friend, did a reading, and did an oil ritual on his upper body.

Gave them sea stones to place under their pillows.

Good day, Cubao!

Slept eleven hours last night. Possibly an effect of the deep tissue massage.

Rose just in time to prepare for the arrival of J. and her male friend.

"A good martial artist does not become tense but ready. Not thinking, not dreaming. Ready for whatever may come."
--Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon

"I cannot teach, only help you to explore yourself, nothing more."
--Bruce Lee

"The art of Jeet Kune Do is simply to simplify."
--Bruce Lee

Finished watching Jeet Kune Do from my second Bruce Lee DVD, narrated by Bruce Lee, Brandon Lee, Dan Inosanto, and Walt Missingham. It is a documentary on martial arts as self-expression. Felt like taking out my nunchaku but prevented myself from doing so. The documentary contains a lot of footage and photos I'd never seen before.

Here is a summary of the chapters:

--Chapter 1: In the Beginning
--Chapter 2: Towards Personal Liberation
--Chapter 3: Punching
--Chapter 4: Footwork
--Chapter 5: Kicking
--Chapter 6: Training. It is this chapter that contains passages on spirituality and the importance of cardio-vascular strength and knowledge of muscle memory.
--Chapter 7: Think on These Things

Jeet Kune Do has 32 sequences, but they are not shown here in detail.

Members of The 36 Wands: We should watch this together sometime. It contains a lot of applicable body movements for wand work.

Take the following lesson, for example, which could be directly applied to magic:

"The Three Factors in Attack:

"1. A fine sense of timing.
"2. A perfect judgment of distance.
"3. A correct application of cadence."

An interesting anecdote: In an interview, Dan Inosanto claims that when Bruce Lee was facing an enemy, he saw the enemy not from where he was standing but from high above and from different directions. An illustration of projection?

Checked out the contents of my SECOND Bruce Lee DVD. Apparently the literal translation of "The Big Boss" is "China Mountain Big Brother".

Good night, Cubao!

Waiting for three hours to pass before I take a hot shower after that deep tissue massage.

The bell tolled for all of us.

He is richer by several million, which he believes will last him for the rest of his life.

"Sunday, Sunday/
So good to me/"

Sadly, the starship can be sensed above the Sitio Catacutan Hogwarts Express Station but NOT in the Sitio Catacutan Leaky Cauldron. Ah well, then, the latter probably makes a good hideaway...

Came home from shopping with Aubrey three hours ago. We bought groceries, stuff for go-bags, a dressed, grilled chicken, and potatoes and bread for dinner. I decided to buy the granddaughters' two flashlights from a specialty store. There was a fabulous, really fabulous, flashlight calling my name, but my better sense prevailed and I passed on it. Coffee and a shake at the Sitio Catacutan Leaky Cauldron, and we managed to earn two stickers to fill up a card.

Deep tissue massage.

Quite intriguing. My masseur informed me that he has new, next-door neighbors, Tatay ______ and his wife, who are albularyos and whose house is full of people all of the time. He once availed of their services and was told that the spirits of two babies, one a result of a miscarriage and the other a result of SIDS, are constantly clinging to his shoulders.

Now he wants me to give him a reading.

Going to one of the Sitio Catacutan supermarkets with Aubrey in a few. Angelique prefers to stay home. Like me, she believes that there should be at least one day in everyone's week during which he/she stays home and does nothing.

A power bar a.k.a Muesli bar or PicnNic bar must be included in each granddaughter's go-bag. I still think that sour balls are better. They were what we survived on during late night rehearsals at the theater. During my time there were tins of sour balls called Charms. Alas, it seems that they no longer exist.

If the letters on your keyboard are close to effacement, create your own keyboard letters by cutting pieces off the adhesive portions of Post-It paper and sticking them onto the keys.

Need to complete my granddaughters' go-bags a.k.a survival kits.

There is one thing that no one can take away from you, and that is your curriculum vitae. Once it is complete to your own satisfaction, no one can ever change it.

Tony Perez's Art of War: Show other people interests and pursuits that they will covet and will try to acquire for themselves, only for them to find out much later what you really have been preoccupied with. By then, it will be too late for them to turn back from where they have already gone.

Tony Perez's Art of War: Allow people to emulate you. While they are doing so, use your time to create more original works to your name.

The world always knows who is original and who is not.

Three take in one to make four, but their mission will still be a failure.

Every lamp takes the sun into your house.

The publicity-hungry lawyer has beady eyes like a rat's.

If you were to listen to the voices of five men in darkness and afterward have the lights turned on, you would be unable to match their faces with their voices.

Every man should be handsome in darkness as well as in the light. In darkness, it is his voice that makes him handsome.

Good morning, Cubao!

Fed and watered the birds first thing.

B. arrives this afternoon. I'm mulling over whether I should go to the hardware supply store or not before he does.

Good night, Cubao!

Finished watching Trick 'r Treat, which puts Tales from the Crypt to shame and makes Jeepers Creepers a mere "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". Violent, lewd, obscene, sardonic, perverse, involving children and adults in the most unlikely situations--and totally hilarious! I should have watched this on Halloween.

Four stories are cleverly intertwined, all of them occurring on Halloween night. Definitely not for children, but very visually imaginative. I loved the surprises, and I loved how I could not tell exactly how each story would end. Recommended only for people my age.

We ordered pizza for dinner.

Angelique arrived home from her marketing survey 7:00 PM.

Gave Regina oils, herbs, incense, and magical earth. I asked her to bring her own empty bottles.

The safest romantic relationship is one with a person whom you don't love so much but who loves you very, very much.

"A Trip Downtown" (Night of Friday, October 7, 2015)

Events of the Day:

Did a round of the Sitio Catacutan Food Court in the morning. Passed by T.'s Internet cafe to inform him that I need to postpone our previously scheduled trip to Lucky Chinatown.

Did some knitting work.

In the evening, Angelique and her friends continued their marketing survey in our neighborhood. Dinner at M.'s cafe.

Aubrey arrived 8:45 PM and decided to go to bed without dinner.

Viewed the last Brother Cadfael episode in my collection.

Slept extra early.


The Dream:

I am with two young men. We are in the Sta. Cruz district [bridge to the location of Lucky Chinatown]. We have been shopping for necessities before hitting the road to go on some kind of pilgrimage [bridge to the Brother Cadfael episode]. I am holding the money purse. I allot certain amounts to the two young men as we buy things. After we are done we decide to go on our way, but one of the young men says, "Maghiwalay tayo," meaning that we should temporarily split up in case someone tries to stage a hold-up and make away with our money and goods [bridge to such a scene in the Brother Cadfael episode].

I walk on, but see my companions from a distance. We cross the compound of a children's school, where we stop a while to rest.


My Interpretation:

The dream has nothing to do with T. and Lucky Chinatown; both merely served as a collective springboard for the dream.

Two very young men, boys, actually, have approached me of late to serve as apprentices for magical work and research. I am as yet uncommitted to them, although in the dream my psyche has already taken them on and we have begun a journey.

The image of the children's school conveys to me the present level of magical knowledge of the two young men. They need to be taught essentials from scratch before we can proceed any further.

Your e-mail message:

"Manong, when I was in grade school, the ACT used to have its plays at the Meralco Theater.

One year, when I was in grade 6/7, they decided to stage it at our local gym and it was titled 'Tolda.'

Was that yours?

"I was going through your blog and two of the works were introduced by JB Capino.

This guy was my batchmate at UST High.  I was in the p.m. classes and he was in the a.m.

I don't think he remembers me.  He wrote for the high school paper; and his works, be it poetry

or prose, were way above everybody. I remember him for his very lofty air which I knew was due to intellectual superiority.

The guy was really a man of letters: brilliant and confident...while I was a goof bag.

"I stayed in Cubao circa '93/'94:  on Brooklyn St. and one of those apartments a few blocks behind Ali Mall.

Malapit lang po ba kayo dito?

" Your plays and other works (I know it's a lot of work.  May be scanning the pages will do.), we, your readers, hope to see them online.

"Salamat po.

"__________________"

My reply:

Hi __________________!

Yes, Tolda was mine. That play is in a book titled Pagkamulat Sa Kastilyo, available at UST Publishing House and still in print until further notice, after which I will post the entire book in cyberspace. What you may have seen, however, was my musical Luwalhati, which was staged in Meralco Theater. Tolda was staged the following year, but in Ateneo Grade School's auditorium, with Lance Martinez, son of actor Leo Martinez, and Gerard Reyes in the lead roles. It was held in the auditorium because it was impossible to do it in Meralco Theater, which has a strike-down-the-set-after-every-performance policy, and it would have been hell on earth for the crew to take down the full carnival set every night.

JB was my student in college. I believe he has been a professor at UC San Diego for the longest time. He is one of the most superb and insightful writers I have ever known. Rather than having "a very lofty air," he is, as I recall from when he was my student, a person who has preferred to lay back. An artist chooses to be that way when he has frequently been wounded for being an artist by the people who matter the most to him. I sincerely hope that he leaps out of the box and begins to take risks again someday. But one cannot be a professor and a major artist at the same time.

Brooklyn Street is in the northeast quadrant of Cubao. I am in the southwest quadrant. If you can imagine Cubao with x and y axes and Cubao Crossing as the center, Brooklyn Street is in the upper right quadrant and my house is in the quadrant diagonally across it. The second place you mentioned, Ali Mall, is, on the other hand, in the southeast quadrant, between the two quadrants I already mentioned.

A detailed description of the Cubao quadrants are in my albeit fictional book Maligayang Pagdating Sa Sitio Catacutan.

Believing that we each have only a single lifetime always results in discrimination.

Wearing Fantasy by Britney Spears.

People practice magic because the root word of "self" is "elf".

Bwahahahahahahaha!

To renew and boost your love of life and self at the end of each month, change the wallpaper of your cell phone. What you see on it is not what you get--it is actually a psychological stimulus that reminds you of something new and of something to look forward to.

Note that people who retain the same wallpaper tend to be easily bored and irritable, and always seem to be in a rut.

Good morning, Cubao!

Bright and sunny again!

"There are so many people in this world born to pain they have not chosen."
--Ellis Peters, in The Pilgrim of Hate

Good night, Cubao!

Finished watching The Pilgrim of Hate from the Brother Cadfael series. I enjoyed it because I'd forgotten the story, and so it was like learning it for the first time.

Adam has replaced Oswyn as Brother Cadfael's assistant. Love the decorative, pilgrimage banners and the mors teutonicus scene, in which a cadaver is boiled in a vat of boiling vinegar so that the flesh falls off from the bones. Exquisite rings and reliquaries, and the bronze thurible makes another appearance. That silver cross pendant wasn't so hot to me, though. It looked like wire jewelry made by a New Age enthusiast.

This episode was directed by Ken Grieve, my favorite director in this series. Many of his scenes reminded me of the paintings of Peter Bruegel.

8:10 PM. Finished assembling Aubrey's top.

Will commence make-up and binding of threads tomorrow.

Angelique and her classmate C. arrived from university 4:00 PM. They continued their marketing survey with respondents in our neighborhood.

Dinner at M.'s cafe with Angelique, J., and C.

Finished watching The Potter's Field from the Brother Cadfael series. A woman's body is found in the potter's field while the monks are plowing the earth. It was not a suicide, but there was no murder.

This episode was directed by a woman. She was able to draw from the two female performers characterizations more dynamic than those of the men.

Love the potter's workshop, the carved, Celtic crosses, and the oil vials. The blisters and boils were completely realistic, the mob hysteria scene well-executed and convincing, and the poisoning-by-hemlock wager lyrical and mesmerizing.

That quill-making scene, on the other hand, is questionable. As I understand it, the tips of quills must be buried in hot sand several times before trimming, and that it is the only way that their tips can harden.

Hired man cleaning our rear passage.

Lunch at M.'s cafe.

Two cups green tea.

When Christian bureaucrats say of their employees that no one is indispensable, they are really secret patrons of anti-democracy and anti-human rights.

I personally believe that no one is indispensable. Not even my fountain pen is dispensable, and that isn't even a living, human being.

Where there is fire, there need not be smoke.

Wearing Chanel No. 5.

Assembling back of Aubrey's top.

One who is willing to give up everything and make sacrifices for the good of all is truly outstanding.

Good morning, Cubao!

Bright and sunny again!

"You only know what you can touch, and that is a slavery without end."
--Ellis Peters in The Holy Thief

Good night, Cubao!

Finished watching The Holy Thief from the Brother Cadfael series.

The first third of the film occurs in the rainy season, and the chapel is flooded. I know how tedious it is to shoot rainy and flooded scenes. Those scenes were quite faithful to the book, though.

There is only one, short sequence with Lady Donata, but I was glad to hear the psalter music and the young monk Tutilo's and the slave girl Daalny's songs, which, naturally, I could never have gotten from reading the book.

The irony of St. Winifred's relics is lost to the reader/viewer without his/her having read A Morbid Taste for Bones. Her casket is plated with silver here, and smaller than in the A Morbid Taste for Bones DVD. I do not recall how the bones were translated without arousing suspicion.

Yet another actor plays Hugh Beringar. This one's face is more expressive, but, in this series, the role is hardly an acting vehicle for anyone.

Love the leatherbound and brass-studded Bible, the Bible-cutting scene, the completely medieval trial-by-water a.k.a. trial-by-drowning sequences, the bronze candleholder, the bronze thurible, and that fleeting brass ewer in the background.

My only problem with this episode had to do with sound. Even with the volume on full there were many scenes in which the characters were muttering beyond audibility.

There is also a significant change from the book: the telltale thread is from the murderer's cloak, not from his saddlecloth. I also can't recall that he committed seppuku.

The happiest times in my life are when I see that my children and grandchildren are happy.

A Powerful Combination

It took me no less than 15 years to locate and put together these two medallions: Left, Cinco Vocales. Right, Sator Rotet a.k.a. Sator Ropet.

The first amplifies and speeds up all uttered or vibrated magic engaging AEIOU. The second amplifies and speeds up all magic based on the magic square of SATOR.

It is said that the medallion on the left belongs to the Aklat Na Buhay, i.e., conceived and crafted by elementals, while the medallion on the right was conceived and crafted by human beings.

Practitioners have difficulty translating the GEATAO oracion because they don't realize that most of the words within it are NAMES of spirits. There are 17 names of spirits in all, GEATAO being the head spirit of the oracion.

Here are three of the 17 names:

MOLAI
MALANAI
MOLAO

As blood circulates and goes down to one's feet, so does salt water settle at the bottom of the globe.

Whenever I am away from home I wonder what ever happened to my day, as though other people had taken it for themselves.

Whenever I am at home time stands still, and I am forever surrounded with the people and the things I love, and I want nothing--nothing--to change.

In times of crisis, when things are not in your control, step back, keep calm, and exercise your powers of observation.

Just got back from buying bird seed at the Sitio Catacutan Market.

The granddaughters arrived before I did.

A Way To Dispel Your Negative Feeling

Whenever you are angry or upset with someone, imagine that person as a pet cat with its forearms folded under its body, gazing ahead and waiting for something good to materialize.

Your negative feeling will immediately go away.

Three arrows pierce the lion's hide.

A potential relationship is an open door. Everyone hesitates upon treading on the threshold.

We cannot take back words because we cannot take back feelings.

"Hands, touching hands/
Reaching out, touching me, touching you/"

--Neil Diamond in "Sweet Caroline"

One of these days I shall read tea leaves in the cups of the guests who come over for tea. That means, however, that I should not use the strainer when pouring their tea.

The dust bin man is back from his Halloween vacation, and so is his precocious little boy.

Two cups of Brendan's Zen tea.

Walked to the shop and bought the (faux) Moroccan lamp. Because it was the best I've seen so far.

It will catch everyone unaware, and even the men will scream, for, in my mind, their screams are the loudest that I hear.

You Are Not The Music. The Music Is You.

Whenever you hear a piece of music--whatever it is or was meant to be--it will always take on your current emotion.

No matter how hard you try to cast that evil spell, it will not work because you are inherently programmed to do good.

Sometimes the person who refuses to look at death also refuses to look at life.

The bird man dropped by but brought nothing that I don't already have.

Re-discover the short stories of Anton Chekov. They have the deepest understanding of grief and of the possibility of finding hope and solace in that grief. If you are sensitive enough, you will feel the warm embrace of God within them.

Grieve but do not over-grieve for young ones who passed away. Upon crossing over they are only too glad to have been spared the miseries and deceits of adulthood.

The mountain of fire rises in the land where it snows.

Good noon, Cubao!

Both granddaughters in school.

A list of things to do. Assemble Aubrey's knitted top. Buy bird seed. Check out a lovely Moroccan lamp, this one really nice.

We watch movies and stage plays to see what we are not, rather than see what we can be.

I wonder how long it will take for everyone to discover what lies BENEATH the ocean between Batanes, in the Philippines, and Southern China.

Staring At A Wall

Years ago, when my parents were still alive, I would see my mother or my father resting quietly in bed, staring at the wall. I wondered then what each one of them was thinking of.

Yesterday, when Aubrey came home from school, she stepped into my room and caught me resting in bed, doing the same thing--staring at the wall. Those moments from the past rushed back to me, and I reflected. While I was staring at the wall, I was thinking of the things I did in the past that I wish I'd done differently, how they affect my present, and what I can do about them in the future. I was also thinking of my children and my grandchildren, how I'd raised them, and what journeys lie ahead of them. It is probably while one is resting in bed and staring at a wall when such things descend upon one's being.

I am certain that Aubrey was wondering what I was thinking of. Yet, how could I communicate all of that to her in so many words?

Aubrey did not ask me anything, as I did not ask my parents anything when I was a child. I would not have completely understood my parents then, and neither would Aubrey have completely understood me had I told her what I was thinking of.

Aubrey will understand everything someday, when she has children and grandchildren of her own.