Early lunch alone.

Worked an hour on eighth glaze in the studio area while Angelique, and then Aubrey and R., took their lunch in the dining room.

And I thought that I would be taking another rest from painting today.

This year it's gigantes.

Our May gnomes

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun is a big, brass tuba in a marching band.

May 1 is the feast day of Saint Joseph the Worker, the patron saint of Barangay Kaunlaran. Wondering whether we shall all wake up early in the morning to the sounds of a marching band on P. Tuazon Boulevard again.

Be wary in the month of May and keep a good head on your shoulders. This year it is the month of potential disloyalty and of the temptation to be unfaithful.

Dinner at home with Aubrey and R.

The April leaf falls off my planner--and one-third of the year 2019 has already gone.

My younger son Chito visited.

Electric power is the set of teeth of your house. Take immediate action whenever it has a toothache.

Lunch at home alone; Angelique in college and Aubrey at university.

Worked half an hour on seventh glaze.

It is the DNA we leave on everything we touch that makes sympathetic magic possible.

Worked half an hour on sixth glaze.

Two cups very black barako.

V., I visited you last night. I showed you the differences between three-dimensional thinking and linear thinking. We were inside an office. There were two female employees watching us.

If you don't remember, that's all right.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun sends its golden horses to help take latecomers to school.

Dinner at home with Aubrey. Then Angelique arrived from college and dinner out.

Worked half an hour on fifth glaze.

Helped Joey sweep the driveway.

Worked half an hour on fourth glaze.

Worked an hour on third glaze.

Lunch at home alone; Angelique in college and Aubrey at university.

Alkaline water delivery.

Now I have the rest of the day all to myself.

Like a cook who must eat early on and stay in the kitchen so that his guests eat well and on time, a person sincerely rendering service should put his ego in the background, behind the cameras, and not aim to reap awards in the process.

B., an antique dealer from Ermita, swung by unannounced in his new car to offer me two luscious statues.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun is the fiery tassel on a string of cosmic mala beads.

Retrieved 16 pieces of laundry from the washing machine this morning and hung them. Now all of the pieces are dry and folded and organized inside my armoire. This is one thing I love about summer. When the rains come, it will take at least two days for my laundry to dry.

Watched an Avengers episode on HBO. There are so many characters that a question frequently occurring in the dialogue is, "Who are you?"

Dinner at home with Aubrey. Angelique and J. are having dinner out.

Spent an hour writing on the studio porch. Lit citronella candles in the copper lantern and on the Byzantine candelabra.

MauMau is back on porch duty. He seems to have gotten fat after a long absence. I have a suspicion that he took a vacation in John's townhouse canteen across the street, where the hawkers' stalls are and where there is always a lot of excess food. He continued shamelessly lolling on the side porch as dusk fell.

Paid our cable bill and bought a few things. Back from jalan-jalan and a banana split, then took a one-hour, afternoon nap.

Did my laundry, cleaned more paint mixing bowls, then took an early lunch because I must go jalan-jalan in a while.

Granddaughters still resting upstairs.

Campaign vehicles playing blaring jingles course through the neighborhood, parking in places long enough for an entire jingle loop to be completed. This strategy is a remnant of public announcements made in barrios from the 1940s to the 1950s.

It is really a form of Pavlovian conditioning. Since psychology has advanced by leaps and bounds all the way to the 21st century, it no longer works, but it is a way for campaigners to have fun, to celebrate fiestas even when there are none, and to throw musical tantrums.

Never live in a house you wish you didn't live in.

Our high school librarian, Rogelio Mallillin, passed away. One of his sons, Gino, was my college student and we both keep in touch with each other.

I could count the large number of people I knew who passed away from January to April 2019, but I refuse to.

Still, someone should probably make a list.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun is a bowl of sliced, tropical fruit.

Dinner at home with Aubrey. Angelique and J. are at a party.

This time Aubrey tried the Hokkaido milk tea.

I bought a mocha milk tea for the compound security guard and tried the taro milk tea (reminding me of Bataan's gabi [taro] ice cream, which JR and I tried during the preparations for the 75th Year of the Liberation of the Philippines there).

This was my first time to try milk tea, and it is an interesting alternative to brewed coffee and brewed tea.

Your Messenger message:

"Tony, an Indian friend of mine said he is assisting earthbound souls to light? Is this possible without the danger of being possessed? The boy is still young, a student? Lacks experience. No one guiding him."


My reply:

Hello _____!

Temporal age does not matter because, in reality, we are all millions of years old.

Cleaned three wooden palettes and five, small, paint mixing bowls.

I clean my stuff best. My idea of a studio apprentice is not someone who learns painting under me but someone who picks up after me in the studio and cleans all of my instruments well. I've had a series of six such apprentices and the last one messed up my studio more than he cleaned it. I was completely relieved when he left, and, of course, I will never take on a studio apprentice again.

Lunch at home with Angelique. Aubrey still resting upstairs.

Two cups very black barako.

If I don't have it, that means it doesn't work.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun paints the earth with patterns of golden light.

Sat with Aubrey while she took her dinner in the dining room. Apparently the milk tea is all right.

Dinner at home alone; Aubrey still resting upstairs.

Bought Aubrey a winter melon milk tea at the new milk tea shop beside Toto's Internet cafe. Hardly a traditional tea shop, but I think I can make myself feel like Judge Dee when I'm there.

If you want the rabble to properly dispose of trash, first build clean public toilets for them all over the city. It is a sign of respect for their bodies, and, when they feel that their bodies are being respected, only then will they respect other spaces.

It is never too late to institute good toilet training, because proper trash disposal cannot be taught backwards.

More often than not, money is The Devil.

A good wand should have indices readily identifiable to its wielder. Before holding the handle, one should be able to tell its top, bottom, left side, and right side so that he is able to place his forefinger on top of the handle and not anywhere else.

A hot day. Kept my bedroom door to the foyer open, and the window looking out onto the small loggia, and the window looking out onto the rear passage, and the door leading to the bedroom's back porch. It didn't help any.

Angelique off to college. J. and she are catching a screening of The Avengers: End Game later.

Aubrey and R. are now having a late lunch in the dining room. Their P.E. class was called off today.

Lunch at home with Angelique.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun is a golden kettle on a cosmic stove.

Connect the earthquake dots and read the image.

Remembering the last time Aubrey baked two batches of chocolate chip cookies using the best ingredients available. We computed everything we spent (not including electricity, hypothetical rental of kitchen space, transportation, and labor) and each cookie amounted to PHP 150.

Expensive cookies are like expensive chocolate. You get what you pay for.

Dinner at home with Angelique.

Life is a box of expensive chocolates.

Started rereading The Phantom of the Temple.

Aubrey and R. off to watch The Avengers: End Game.

A four-hour, afternoon nap.

Now watching the evening news.

Lunch at home with Aubrey and Roi. Angelique in college.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun braids his beard with golden beads.

Everybody home.

As it turns out Aubrey and R. are home also; they arrived while I was installing paintings at Maryhill School of Theology and thought that I was napping inside my captain's cabin bedroom. They're now getting ready to have dinner.

Dinner at home alone. Then Angelique arrived from college together with Jazz, who picked her up from work. They bought a takeout dinner and are having that upstairs.

I love that every bedroom in our house is a tiny house in itself.

Installation of Seven Paintings from _Nightwalker_ at Maryhill School of Theology for the Festival of Catholic Social Teaching in the Philippines

Lunch at home alone; Angelique at college and Aubrey at university.

Now waiting to be picked up.

Was hoping to do housecleaning today but can't because of an appointment.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun is a beacon for all traveling spaceships.

Missing the 1950s Fizzies. They were tablets that you dropped in water and became root beer. There were other flavors, but that was my favorite.

A 30-minute, late afternoon nap.

Went to the neighborhood grocery.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Back from another interview with Suzi Abrera and Camille Pratts for Mars at GMA7. This one was on diabolic possession. Guests were Tom Rodriguez and Inah de Belen, who star in Maledicto. We talked about their experiences while they were shooting the movie.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun is a gold box of potent amulets.

Dinner at home with Aubrey and R.

Classes were suspended at law school, so J. picked up Angelique and they are having dinner out.

In the meantime Aubrey and R. just learned that their university classes tomorrow are suspended.

Now set aside another Judge Dee novel, The Phantom of the Temple, for rereading.

Back home with Toto from jalan-jalan in _____________, where Chito is staying with a coworker,  M2, because the place is near their office. M2's father was a UST Fine Arts major who passed away two years ago, leaving a lot of items of furniture and decor that his children are not interested in maintaining and are selling off to make way for the remodeling of the house. I bought three pieces and will come back for more.

Took an early lunch.

Now Aubrey and R. are taking their lunch in the dining room.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun fairies are setting up steel scaffolding to repaint the sky.

Sat up for the Ipswich horror movie on AXN but gave up after 15 minutes. It's one of those crosses between the Brotherhood of Satan and Teen Wolf series with what look like Bel Ami models in the cast.

Our water bill this month was a mere 186.21 PHP, but I really wish that this shortage would finally be over.

Dinner at home with Aubrey.

Back from jalan-jalan at the center. Had to do minor groceries for myself, including a small sack of barako coffee. Paid our water bill and bought some chocolate bars for the granddaughters. The supermarket was so utterly devoid of crowds that I could go figure-skating inside. Asked the cashier if it was like this all day--she said yes, and that it was like this all of yesterday too.

Couldn't resist a slut purse with reversible gold and black sequins, and what better day to have a new purse than Easter Sunday? I love slut purses. I love the looks of shock and disapproval on others' faces when I whip them out. They're like the looks of shock and disapproval on others' faces when I wear Spandex shorts. I LIVE FOR THOSE PRECIOUS MOMENTS.

You have jolt people out of the box every once in a while.

Finished rereading Necklace and Calabash, then took a one-hour, afternoon nap.

Now Angelique and J. are off to meet up with some of Angelique's university friends.

Neil went live--he was in M.'s cafe. Watching him was like having a CCTV camera with audio.

1:45 PM. The atchays are already:

--pigging out on pork
--painting the town red
--playing Christmas carols.

Had I become a doctor I would have become famous for having neat, legible, and beautiful penmanship.

Worked half an hour on second glaze.

Lunch at home alone, then worked half an hour on first glaze in studio area while Angelique and J. took their lunch in the dining room and told me about their trip to Sagada.

Aubrey still resting in her room upstairs.

Woke up this morning to see that Angelique and J. brought home a succulent and a cactus from their trip north. I hope these plants adjust well from the Sagada climate to the lowland, Cubao climate.

I do not conduct workshops in places where I cannot buy substantial pieces to take home with me. Otherwise I would consider that trip a great waste of time. I do not go to marketplaces. I do not buy trinkets and cheap, sidewalk souvenirs.

I do not conduct workshops with subject matter that can be picked up from books.

I do not conduct workshops that can be conducted by other people.

When I conduct a workshop, I make sure that my syllabus and teaching method cannot be replicated by others.

Indeed, I have always believed that a workshop is and should always be the person conducting the workshop himself, and that the workshop is irreversibly bound to his personality, experience, frames of reference, and worldview.

Class reunions are designed for former classmates and faculty members to see how they can benefit from you in the immediate future and in the long run.

Make something of your house and your family, but also make something of yourself.

Unfortunately the sacrifice all of this entails includes not going to parties, not socializing with users, and not hanging out with friends.

Wondering how many people will be dressed as the Easter bunny this morning.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun hides golden eggs in the most unlikely places.

A spoiled but intelligent brat, when feeling abandoned, will take good initiatives to improve his status in life.

In ancient times, warriors' armor and weapons were bejeweled and blessed by their loved ones.

Heaven may be light and hell may be darkness, but hell can be searing light and heaven, a mere lamp's glow in the night.

Dinner at home alone.

Aubrey and R. arrived from dinner out.

Angelique, J., and J.'s family proceeded to Baguio from Sagada and are now en route to Metro Manila.

Swept the driveway beside our house. It IS our dragon tree.

Spent an hour writing on the side porch, then worked half an hour on sixth layer.

Now Aubrey and R. are off to have dinner with R.'s family.

Worked an hour on fifth layer.

Knit. It is a masculinist, as opposed to a feminist, move. In the 70s, at the peak of "women's lib", many women gave up needlework and other "domestic" preoccupations in favor of corporate jobs, though ending up mostly as office secretaries. As a result, K-12 girls learned to loathe such projects in school and relegated such projects to their maids to finish, all in the name of feminine freedom, albeit without considering that their maids are females too.

Be a masculinist. Pick up everything the feminists left behind: needlework, cooking, house arrangement, interior decorating, and the like, and claim it completely for yourself.

It will make you more complete. It will fulfill the male and the female within you. It will help you survive independently in a world of feminists.

When the rains come I might just pick up my knitting needles once again.

To paint or to loll like Garfield, that is the question.

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer 
The gold and diamonds of outrageous luxury, 
Or to pick up my brushes and work on my canvas 
And by doing that finish a portrait?

If social media can link you to persons in countries you've never visited and never will, so can prayer and ritual link you to patron saints and spirits in countries farthest from your own. The difference is that you don't need wifi to do the latter.

The district of Cubao slowly stretches its long limbs, awakening from deep sleep.

I can hear devils' traffic on EDSA once again.

R. arrived from Palawan and gave Aubrey a surprise visit.

Good morning, Cubao!

The clouds are white dream catchers hanging from the sky.

Hell is not characterized by pain and suffering, it is characterized by chaos (which can, but does not always, cause pain and suffering), for its dualistic partner, heaven, is characterized by order and tranquility (which can also, but usually does not, cause pain and suffering).

Those who live to create chaos are agents of hell.

Night classes

4:30 AM

Black Saturday

The Descent To The Collective Unconscious

Good Friday Night With Eckhart

Tonight I allowed Eckhart to pick me up and sweep me off to dinner at Seafood Island at Araneta Center, where we had to fall in line for a table for two, then to Jam's for margaritas and light beer on Granada Street. The city was all ours.

Eckhart was a student in my Shamanism class at De La Salle University more than 20 years ago. He was 18 then, he is 41 now--time does fly. He was a Spirit Questor and still is. We spent most of the night discussing the abilities he had as a high school boy, which he still has. One never loses them after all.

If things go right, we'll make that road trip together for a prospective workshop in Candon, Ilocos Sur.