Staggered lunchtimes.
A sunny day.
Photo by JR Dalisay / April 21, 2017
Saturday, July 31, 2021
Look not to the Philippine government to support artists but to the Philippine PRIVATE SECTOR. It is the private sector that is capable of creating REAL industries (comprised of 20 or more successful, operative, REAL companies per field, none of which are university- and foundation-based) that can give proper, regular employment and retirement annuity to artists. The creation of REAL arts industries is something we should have done in the 1950s, after the Second World War, but WE DID NOT. As a result, artists have become freelancers, many of them distrustful of prospective employers.
In actuality, it may even be too late for us to begin creating REAL arts industries, for arts businesses today are viewed as losing propositions. People do not buy paintings everyday. People do not buy books everyday. People do not watch stage plays everyday. What people are spending their money on are FOOD, SHELTER, and CLOTHING. The only successful industry closest to an art industry today is commercial advertising, and that is where most artists seek employment as a viable resort.
And yet, why are we graduating hundreds, if not thousands, of arts majors every year? Where do they find REAL work, other than abroad? What kind of jobs do they land themselves in? Has anyone conducted surveys to find out where all of these graduates have ended up? It is fine to say that art matters, that art is the air we breathe, and that we live art. But that really doesn't mean anything because we live science and cuisine and medicine and left-brain hemisphere thinking as well. It is, in fact, placing the cart before the horse.
But, no, if you must do something, do NOT seek assistance from the Philippine government IF YOU ARE AUTHENTIC ARTISTS. Because, if you do that, everything you create will be subject to government censorship, and everything you create will be perceived as government propaganda.
One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with a Y in your name: When the rain is gone, you yearn for rain. When the rain comes, you yearn for sunshine. Seek not what is not there but how you can learn to be content with what you have.
Staggered dinnertimes.
Asked Bertod to bring some food over to M.'s cafe staff.
Night chores.
My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shiower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed with Henning Mankell.
The small-town murder mystery rises to the level of espionage.
Friday, July 30, 2021
One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with two syllables in your nickname: I receive your mental messages every afternoon and every night. It seems that you think of me whenever you feel down and out and feel that your life is meaningless. There is a great, physical distance between us and you have looked forward to meeting me in person. You now believe that spiritual forces are preventing that from happening.
Relax, live, and enjoy living. We will be able to meet after it is safe for everyone to do local travel.
First Page of the Nine Yin Manual:
"The way of heaven:
Give surplus to the deficient
Hence: empty over full, deficient over surplus
It is expansive, profound, and captivating in meaning
The demarcation of earthly phenomena, of Yin and Yang formation
The understanding of changes, the manifestation of life and death
They just come into being without prior design or agreement
Dig into the roots, check for the Truth
This is the ultimate way, the beginning of rejuvenation
The understanding of heaven's will and earth's mysteries depends on intuition.
Integrity is shown by the legacy
Effectiveness is proven by practice, there is no birth without impregnation
As for fastidious studies of the minute and hidden
Follow the right time and essence of the internal organs"
Preparation for martial magic:
"Sit facing the north.
Palms up.
Concentrate and free your mind.
Focus on the dantian (field of elixir), the seat of life force energy in the body. [My Note: Your genitals.]
At the break of the life force, palms together in front of your chest. [My note: As soon as you are aroused.]
Point the fingers to the front."
--Zhou Botong, in The Return of the Condor Heroes
Thursday, July 29, 2021
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with four syllables in your name: You have always been on my mind lately. I sense that you are lost and confused. I hope I am wrong.
You may pass all the necessary bills and laws to support artists, but two important questions will always need to be answered:
1) Will artists be assured of continued employment and retirement annuity?
2) During times of disaster such as a pandemic, will they be among the first to go homeless and hungry?
Otherwise those bills and laws are no better than what existing cooperatives, foundations, and assistance funds are already doing: extending aid not to all artists but only to artists who are ill and in need of urgent, financial help.
Staggered dinnertimes.
Asked Bertod to bring some food over to M.'s cafe staff.
Night chores.
My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed with Henning Mankell.
Am a little more than halfway through the book. What this novel lacks is texture--in language, in characterization, and in the characters' thought processes. The women are especially unconvincing, as though the protagonist from whose point of view the story is being told has an inadequate personality.
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with six syllables in your name: A true leader serves his followers, and you sometimes neglect to do this. Be consistent; it is expected of you. You will reap rewards because of your sacrifices.
Monday, July 26, 2021
One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with a Z in your name: Never stop trying to prove that you are as as good as others, despite your disadvantages. Continue believing in yourself.
Always spoil your daughters and your granddaughters. That way they will choose to get married only to men who will treat them as well as you do, or even better. Or, if they choose not to get married, they will seek occupations that will enrich them and enable them to spoil themselves.
I note that daughters and granddaughters who are not treated well at home decide to marry any Tom, Dick, or Harry who comes along just to escape the miserable situation they are in.
Sunday, July 25, 2021
One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with the letter J in your name: Whom you think you will never see again, you will see again. Whom you think you will see again, you will not see again.
An early dinner at home. Then sat with Angelique and Aubrey while they took their dinner. Aubrey lit a tea light on the lazy susan.
Asked Q to bring some food over to M.'s cafe staff.
Night chores.
My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed with Henning Mankell.
A complex murder mystery. I'm curious to know how the author resolves it.
Saturday, July 24, 2021
One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with four syllables in your name: You will dream of me taking you through downtown Quiapo. In the dream, we are meeting someone who will give us a ride home. We get down at the wrong stop and have to walk back to the underpass entrance, but it gets dark and the driver of our ride home is anxiously looking for us.
Dinner at home with Aubrey.
Angelique arrived from a day out with old school firends.
Asked M. to bring some food over to his cafe staff.
Night chores.
My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed with Henning Mankell.
Friday, July 23, 2021
A heavy breakfast, as in The Color Purple.
It continued to rain all of last night and early this morning.The sky is gray, the sun nowhere to be seen. I am reminded of being hustled to my first, rainy day in school. Breakfast was rushed. I was swaddled in a jacket that was not of my choice and that some well-meaning adult must have bought for me. People were bobbing round under umbrellas. The driveway was slick, there were tiny streams and rivulets snaking their way on the ground to where I was standing, and they formed puddles around my shoes. The schoolbus windows were stippled with droplets. Everyone inside the bus looked different because they, too, were in jackets. I detested that day, for I would rather have stayed home. Though I was wearing a jacket my legs and feet were cold. Despite the playful rowdiness of my classmates there was no sunshine inside the classroom, and I kept wishing that the rain would stop and that the wet days would come to an end.
Like now.
One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with four syllables in your name: Cherish memories of your father when he was still alive. He never left you, he is still very much with you. He now guides you in your search for fulfillment and happiness.
Aubrey's online graduation day, College of Science:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=476285667156583&ref=watch_permalink
Thursday, July 22, 2021
One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with four syllables in your name: Though you are a creative writer, learn how to veil your innermost thoughts. Your life should not always be an open book. Preserve a good amount of mystique in your persona. Both you and your writing will be more interesting that way.
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with five syllables in your name: You live close to disaster. What are five things, other than human beings, you would save and take with you? Does your current situation impact on your work and your happiness?
Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.
Asked Brian to bring some food over to M.'s cafe staff. They're now cooking a vegetable dish comprised of santol rind.
Night chores.
My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed with Henning Mankell.
A pleasant, bedtime novel.
Tuesday, July 20, 2021
One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with six syllables in your name: Do not be daunted by your unsuccessful business ventures. Maintain your courage and your optimism. Your wife and child are always right behind you, and they are the greatest treasures you will ever have known.
Monday, July 19, 2021
Your Messenger message:
"Back in September 2019. I always do meditation for more than 3 consecutive months even now but very often. Back then, I always had a lucid dreams. Unexpectedly I was able to travel in outer space and spoke directly to extraterrestrial beings, I always have a precognitve dreams. Sometimes I can sense heaviness in some places. I was able to speak to one spirit like my dead friend. I was able to swim in a Deep ocean with a mermaid. I even saw Hades with his three headed dogs, and also I was able to speak to one of the Gods, he said sumerian like the picture below but I don't know who she was. Do you have any suggestions Sir Tony to protect my self from danger because sometimes I was not able to control my Astral travel. I feel very drain and weak sometimes every morning. It happened a year ago and I just want to protect myself if it will happen again."
My reply:
Hello _____________!
Those are not situations in which you are endangered; they are simply new and unfamiliar and make you uncomfortable rather than afraid.
The simple solution is to stop meditating and rely merely on lucid dreaming.
The elaborate solution is to change the circumstances under which you meditate: a different scent of incense, a different mat, different lighting, perhaps even a different room.
Your Messenger message:
"Good day Sir Tony. My older brother just passed away recently. My sister-in-law (not my late brother's wife) had a dream about him.
"In the dream, my late brother, my mother, my younger brother and his wife (dreamer) were together on a table talking to each other. "Then my late brother told my mother, 'May dalawa kang anak na hinahabol ng bata.' My mother responded (in the dream) 'Sino?' Then my late brother answered: 'Ikaw na ang bahala umalam.' "What could this possibly mean? My mother, have seven remaining children after my brother passed away, (3 sons and 4 daughters). "Thanks Sir."My reply:
Hello _______!
There is nothing for you to be concerned about. As for your sister-in-law, she has subconscious regrets over not having revealed certain things to her older brother-in-law before he passed away. I hope she becomes more honest with others, especially family members, and also more honest with herself.
One Message To One Of 208 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with four syllables in your name: Many years ago you firmly decided what your happiness would be, and you stuck to it while living your life through the present time. Do not waver now. Do not look to the distant past before you made that decision. What you decided is a point of no return.
Staggered dinnertimes.
Asked Brian to bring some food over to M.'s cafe staff.
Night chores.
My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed with Henning Mankell.
Quite strange: Like Tana French's novel, this has a prologue and becomes interesting only in Chapter 4. The only difference so far is that this one is written in consistently short, choppy sentences.
Sunday, July 18, 2021
One Message To One Of 208 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
I met you only once, but I remember you very vividly. I wish we'd gone for coffee the first night, but it was late and I was exhausted. I don't think we shall see each other again because we now live in two separate worlds, both of which demand our undivided attention.
I hope that everything is okay with your family, and I hope you are fine.
Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.
Asked Bertod to bring some food over to M.'s cafe staff.
Night chores.
My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, and then spending some time watching online videos.
Finished reading Tana French's book last night. Definitely an airplane book for a very long flight, but it has an unusual, metpahysical, and unique ending, implying that the ancient death-dealer and the contemporary death-dealer are actually one persona, and that nothing has changed over hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
Snuggling in bed with Henning Mankell's Firewall tonight. Possibly another postmodern novel that might make me miss those cozy countryside mysteries all over again.
Saturday, July 17, 2021
One Message To One Of 208 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with four syllables in your name: Loneliness continues to roam your streets. Learn to live and be happy alone. It is not a great curse, it is a great blessing. To the enlightened, there is no such things as loneliness.
Dinner at home with Aubrey; Angelique and Jazz ordered food from outside and are taking their dinner upstairs.
Asked Q to bring some food over to M.'s cafe staff.
Night chores.
My favorite time of the day has come again:an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed with Tana French.
Friday, July 16, 2021
One Message To One Of 208 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with four syllables in your name: Continue to value the elders who stood by you and helped you in the past. You will be needing them again in your times of sorrow.
Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.
Asked Bertod and M. to bring some food over to M.'s cafe staff.
Night chores.
My favorite timke of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed again with Tana French.
The real point of attack is on page 356, in Chapter 22.
Thursday, July 15, 2021
One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with six syllables in your name: Continue to do whatever makes you happy, though you are surrounded with people who do not agree with your passion and your interest. What you believe in will always be much more important than what other people say.
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Angelique and Aubrey were having lunch when I woke up. Took a late lunch.
It started drizzling again; lately we've been experiencing hot, sunny mornings and rainfall after noon through dusk.
Very black coffee.
Yakult delivery.
Brian and Q installed a hanging plant in Aubrey's bedroom and moved her rolltop desk to the future study room.
My day begins, but I feel like I've been left behind by a tourist bus.
Watched the full, 1961, movie Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? on Facebook videos. A long movie for a macabre but simple premise. I was in fourth grade in 1961, but the first time I saw this movie was on TV, perhaps in 1966, and I was in high school then. In 1966 I wasn't aware of the Bette Davis-Joan Crawford rivalry, and anyone who still isn't cannot completely appreciate this movie.
The first half of the movie now seems like the precursor of Stephen King's Misery, and the second half a Tennessee Williams play gone over the edge and shot and edited by wannabe Alfred Hitchcocks.
Too many mannerisms in acting, verging on overacting.
I will never look at patterned and papered risers on staircases the same way again. Henceforth, each time I do, I will expect to see Blanche Hudson at the top of the stairs.
It was also impressed on me that the movie is not just about actresses--it is also all about enfant terribles and proteges who end up being nobodies--and that includes creative writers, of whom I know quite a few!
In the last analysis, producers should be prevented from cooking up "acting vehicles" for performers. This one won only one academy award, and that was for best costume.
One Message To One Of 210 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with nine syllables in your name:
1. Your marriage will always be what you make it, not what your spouse makes it. That is because you are more level-headed than your spouse.
2. Your real and lasting friendships are with women, not with men. Make the msot of this personal reality.
Back from jalan-jalan at Farmers Garden with Aubrey and Bertod. Toto drove for us. Bought a hanging plant for Aubrey's bedroo and a potted plant for Angelique's bedroom. Also bought nine pots and plates and eight baskets of ferns, completing our fern rows on the front and side balconies. Cubao New Orleans French Quarter balconies are not complete without ferns.
Tuesday, July 13, 2021
Watched the more-than-two-hours-long, full, 1981 movie Mommie Dearest on Facebook videos. Based on Christina Crawford's book of the same title, it is the same movie that made Faye Dunaway the laughing stock of Hollywood for years. To me, it is a failure not for the reasons critics gave, but for the fact that it comes across as an act of vengeance by a daughter who received no inheritance, generating much negative energy and leaving a very bad aftertaste. In addition, none of the characters seem worth sympathizing with; they are either too mean or too inadequate.
Production-wise, the movie seems to have been an assemblage of sensational scenes independently conceived, strung together, and then padded with awkward, if not abrupt, transition scenes, resulting in a montage of disjointed sequences. You couldn't tell how it would all end, and, in the end, the lesson was a simple one that everyone already knows: Be kind to your children.
Faye Dunaway's character acting verges on the caricature, and her grotesque make-up doesn't help any. In all fairness to her, however, there were several moments when I felt that I was watching Joan Crawford on the screen. Having said that, I am certain that, in retrospect, Hollywood disapproved of Faye Dunaway not because of how she played the role but because she consented to play it. Both the book and the movie were not merely irreverent to Joan Crawford--they were unnecessarily disrespectful.
I'm sure even Bette Davis hated it.
One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with four syllables in your name: Do not wallow in despair, but do not go the other way and wallow in false hope either. Stand up and work for the money. This is a time for constructive action.
Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.
Asked M. to bring some food over to his cafe staff.
Night chores.
My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching Facebook videos, and thten snuggling in bed with Tana French.
Still too much decsription, all of which are digressions from the novel's main trend of thought.
Brother Cadfael, Brother Oswin, Sister Nonna, and Brother Columbanus worked on the roof deck, side balcony, and Cubao New Orleans French Quarter front balcony vegetable and flower gardens. Brother Oswin planted red rose seedlings that Sister Nonna's sister brought from Masbate. Brother Columbanus hung nine more iron planters on the side balcony and front balcony grilles.
Monday, July 12, 2021
Asked M. to buy something for me at the Shopwise building.
Asked Bertod to buy two rolls of the thickest nylon twine at Ace Hardware.
Neil is on his way to Farmers Market to have his cell phone repaired. I asked him to look for one of the compound tenants, who owns a cell phone shop there.
The male crew feel antsy and like going to the center from time to time.
Claimed my laundry at the compound laundry.
Never let "religious" people manipulate you to do what they want you to do. You will find that they have uptight, if not dysfunctional, family and community dynamics, and that they vent their personal frustrations by trying to control others.
When such people try to harass you that way, simply tell them, "No one tells me what to do." Love seeing them sputtering, their faces turning red, and their bodies trembling with un-displaced anger.
One Message To One Of 208 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with an F in your name: Your saddest moments in life are when you see your former college friends and are amazed at how far they've gone ahead of you. Stop comparing yourself with them. You have far more blessings, including good health and a happy family, which, unbeknownst to you, they do not have.
One-hour, early evening nap.
Dinner at home with Angelique; Aubrey and Roi ordered food from outside and are taking their dinner upstairs.
Night chores.
My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed with Tana French.
More description, all of which actually stuff the novel like a Thanksgiving turkey.
Sunday, July 11, 2021
Time And Time Again
madaling-araw = dawn
bukang-liwayway = daybreak
pag-akyat ng araw = sunrise
umaga = morning
tanghali = mid-morning, late in the morning
tanghaling-tapat = noon
hapon = afternoon
dapit-hapon = evening
paglubog ng araw = sunset
pagdadagimdim = clouds turning gray and black
takip-silim = after the sun has set and the sky in the east darkens in its wake
agaw-dilim = twilight, the last ember of sunset
pagsilim = dusk
pagdilim ng langit = fall of darkness
paglatag ng dilim = settling of darkness
pagkagat ng dilim = occurrence of darkness
ganap na dilim = complete darkness
gabi = night
malalim ang gabi = late in the night
hatinggabi = midnight
One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with a K in your name: Know what you want before even taking the first step on your journey. Don't just start walking and see where the road will lead you. It will lead you nowhere.
Dinner at home with Aubrey.
Asked Bertod to bring some food over to M.'s cafe staff.
Night chores.
My favorite time of the day has come gain: an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed with Tana French.
Sadly, I believe that literary description does not belong to the detective story, unless the descriptions contain vital clues leading to the solution of the mystery. When description launches, the action stops, as it does in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, indicating that the writer has been swept off her feet and has momentarily tuned her back on the plot.
Brother Cadfael, Brother Oswin, and Brother Columbanus visited the roof deck, side balcony, and Cubao New Orleans French Quarter front balcony vegetable and flower gardens. A lot of repotting done. Brother Columbanus placed garden debris in sacks and dropped them from the rooftop to the driveway below, where Brother Winfried picked them up and placed them in the compound dust bin.
The water tank filled up and overflowed while we were on the roof deck. It was as though it were raining all over again. We watched the water fall over the sides of the stainless steel tank onto the metal wind chimes we'd tied along the iron parapet.
I need to buy ten more pots, and that will be it!
Saturday, July 10, 2021
Releasing And Letting Go
nilisan = left
nilayasan = left behind
pinakawalan = released
tinulak = pushed away
tinaboy = drove away, drove out
sinipa = kicked out
hiniwalayan = separated from
tinalikuran = turned one's back on
inabandona = abandoned
inayawan= refused
pinagsawaan = outgrew
binitiwan = released, let go of
nilayuan = distanced oneself from
nilargahan = left behind taking all of one's belongings
nag-alsa-balutan = packed up and left immediatelyginawang basahan ang damit = used a person's clothes as rags
pinabayaan = left to founder
pinaubaya = left to others' charity or to fate
hindi na binalikan = did not come back to
tuluyang nawala= never came back to
inetsa-puwera = considered as nothing
itinakwil = broke off relations with
binale-wala = gave no value to
binasura = considered trash
winaksi = cancelled or deleted relations with
tinanggihan = denied
One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with an S in your name: Your love burns like a flame that is low but steady, unlike the raging fires and the mere sparks that characterize others' marriages. You have found not only steadfast love but also steadfast friendship and steadfast partnership, and your spouse has found the same in you.
Asked Q to deep-fry hash browns for us.
Dinner at home with Aubrey.
Angelique and Jazz had dinner upstairs with food they ordered from outside.
Asked Bertod to bring some food over to M.'s cafe staff.
Night chores.
My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed with Tana French.
Sam O'Neill is a cardboard cut-out character who materializes at the most convenient times and functions as the deus ex machina that provides useful information and clues to the protagonists.
I have the DVD, but watched Enter the Dragon for the nth time on Facebook videos. It had lapses in sound at the most strategic moments, possibly to prevent atchays from "pirating" the movie for their personal use. It isn't my favorite Bruce Lee movie, though; this was merely a series of fight scenes strung together. I prefer the all-Asian casts in the Hong Kong productions The Big Boss and Fist of Fury, because, whenever non-Asian performers are cast beside Bruce Lee, they always come across to me as B-grade actors and actresses--and only Bruce Lee remains the timeless character in those movies. Unfortunately this is probably the movie that Bruce Lee is best known for round the world. Its main accomplishment is eliminating romance altogether from a fight movie.
The screenplay and dialogue are forgettable except for the famous lines "Boards don't hit back," "You have offended my family, and you have offended the Shaolin temple," and "Destroy the image, and you will break the enemy."
The final showdown between Li and Han, however, is Bruce Lee's best fight scene ever. Many of Bruce Lee's iconic stills were taken from it.
Loved the five-second scene, of course, with that bumbling extra named Jackie Chan.
Friday, July 9, 2021
One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with a K in your name: Never use religion as a defense mechanism; it is like hiding behind the skirts of your mother. Neither should you rise to your religion's defense; a true religion always speaks for itself.
Your messenger message:
"Hello, Sir Tony! I apologize for this message. Today, I will checking in a COVID-19 facility in Yangon. I will try to access social media whenever possible. There's nothing inspiring than reading your wise words. Ingat po.
"Yangon po is the cultural capital of Myanmar, formerly Burma.
"In 2021, the military govermnent took over the civilian rule.
"Our plan was to meet you but we trapped here."___________"
My reply:
Hello ________!
I wish you well. Take care.
Try visualizing my spirit guide B.L. seated beside your bed and watching over you.
Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.
Asked Brian to bring some food over to M.'s cafe staff.
Night chores.
My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching Facebook videos, and then snuggling in bed with Tana French.
Wondering why there are so many references to American culture and American pop culture when the characters are in Dublin and never set foot on the U.S. No significant references to Dublin culture, as a matter of fact. The novel could very well have been set in Portland, Oregon. So that the novel would sell in the U.S.?
Watched another gothic, full horror movie, Mill of the Stone Women, on Facebook videos. The first time I saw it was on the big screen in 1960, when I was nine years old. I was fascinated, I was terrified, and I never looked at Good Friday processions and fashion mannequins on conveyor belts the same way again. Now all I saw were a lot of ham acting and screen business without adequate motivation. A movie conceived before the arrival of dialysis, if I may say so.
Thursday, July 8, 2021
Your Messenger message:
"Good morning sir. I still follow your posts. I didnt mind if im not in your FB friend list. Anonimity equals not being open to judgment. Im living in Thailand and when you're outside looking in, you feel more free from the religious and cultural constraints you once had while living in your own country. I listen to you and i believe you're a wise man and worth listening to. I really mean for you to have healthier and meaningful retired life. Once all this has passed, and you've reached the finish line, God forbid and please don't hex me for saying this, i hope you have someone to carry on with your legacy and who can interest me as much as you do. More power to you."
My reply:
Hello _________!
Thank you for your kind words. I do not fear death, though--we always come back to pick up from where we left off, and that applies to both me and you.
Your Messenger message:
"Good morning Sir Tony,
"I hope you’re having a great week. Nais ko lang po humingi ng payo kung inyo pong mamarapatin na sagutin kung magpapatuloy pa ba ako sa pag-aaral sa Haring Bakal. "Nagsimula po akong umanib noong Abril ng kasalukuyang taon at nagsimula mag-aral ng mga oracion. Nitong Hunyo ay nagpunta ako sa isang healer at sinabihan ako na malas daw po ang mga anting-anting at ang mga dasal ay galing sa demonyo. Binanggit niya po na bakit daw kailangan pang pakainin ng dasal ang mga anting-anting. "Masama po ba umanib sa Haring Bakal? Ang mga dasal po ba dito ay galing sa kadiliman? Ano po magandang gawin sa naibigay na anting-anting at mutya sa akin kung sakaling hindi ako magpatuloy sa pag-aaral? "Nais ko rin po itanong kung saan ko matatagpuan sa pampanga ang mangagamot na binanggit nyo sa inyong blog na tumulong sa pag-kontrol nyo sa tikbalang. "Marami po salamat sa inyong oras at pasensiya na po sa abala. "Lubos na gumagalang, "_______"My reply:
Hello ______!
Akala ko ba nakatira ka at nagtatrabaho sa barko? Paano kang makapag-aaral ng Haring Bakal sa barko?
There is nothing wrong with Haring Bakal. Their origins can be traced back to the Pulajanes, who massacred the American oppressors in Balanguiga years ago. When they expanded from the Visayas to Mindanao they were known as Tadtad. When they expanded to Manila, they became known as Haring Bakal.
Haring Bakal is nothing more than a brotherhood of men with common interests. When they work in the context of volunteerism, they go side by side with Vanguards, a non-magical community group, also of men, who keep peace and order and assist those in need of help.
There is also nothing wrong with reciting oraciones, with or without talismans. You do the same thing to your rosary, and priests do the same to sacramentals and holy water. You are disadvantaged by having consulted a healer who is neither a member of Haring Bakal nor has deep knowledge about it.
I was initiated into Haring Bakal in Santander, Cebu, in 2014, a year before I retired. I was given the most sadistic and infamous blesser, a police sergeant, who prayed over me and dealt me the first seven blows. The bruises on my stomach and legs lasted three weeks. I thought of establishing Haring Bakal Cubao when I got home but decided against it because I already had the Spirit Questors (none of whom are Haring Bakal members) and was determined to live my life as a hermit immediately upon retirement.
If you have doubts about anything you get yourself into, that means, to me, that you are half-hearted, wishy-washy, and uncertain. Unfortunately I will never give you any concrete advice as to whether to go forward or backward. That kind of decision is best made by yourself--as a man and as a mature human being.
One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with a K in your name: Follow only genuine artists, not some flash in the pan who has only one or two successes to his name. A genuine artist is consistently productive, and his art stands upright with a strong, philosophical spine.
Wednesday, July 7, 2021
Your Messenger message:
"Hi, Sir Tony. Kumusta po? For two consecutive days,my dreams were quite memorable.
"First, my bestie in high school’s mom passed away from covid. I was close to her mom also since I lived with them when I was in _________. Before she died my bestie told her about her plan of buying a new house and aside from the prayers for the repose of her mom’s soul, she also asked me to pray for the successful closing of her new house. Yesterday, I dreamt that we FaceTime each other and the background was her new house, all white with her mother beside her. It was short then it was followed with all my first cousins from my father’s side who came for a visit which I felt was death in the family but I don’t know who died."Today, I dreamt that a dear friend came to give me back the things I had when I was at CCP, _____________ from Outreach was even present. But my dead Lola who’s my first love and influencer refused to face my friend. We chased her and she was even driving a chariot ( like that of Ben Hur) and turned in a corner. We almost missed her but a young girl pointed where she was at. We ( my dear friend and I) approached her and she was putting back cartons in a safe place and finally had no choice but to face my friend. Up close, she didn’t look like my Lola and she was younger but I knew that the lady In front of me was her. And she said sorry to my friend but I can see in her face that it pained her to admit how disrespectful she was. Then I woke up.
"Hope to hear from you, Sir Tony. Take care of yourself. Thank you so much.
My reply:
Hello _______!
The two dreams bear opposing messages.
A new house signifies that the dreamer (disguised as a bestie in the first dream) has begun to change her priorities, values, and life objectives. In this dream, you feel that someone has died but do not know who it is. It is you--your old self--who has died.
Putting back cartons in a safe place, on the other hand, signifies that you need to treasure your old self, your past experiences, and your previous life lessons and keep them as memories rather than throw them away. In this dream your grandmother is your psyche. She is telling you that you are going too fast, as though you were participating in a chariot race.
I'd say that, at present, you are torn between two major decisions. The second dream ends with a painful apology. Are there things you first need to apologize to yourself for?
One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with a K in your name: It's time to take your art up a level or more higher. Do not be satisfied with crating slum book Postings, they do not do you justice. Set aside your fear and face the world with confidence.
Stocked up on fresh mangoes, musk melon, and strawberries.
Brother Cadfael, Brother Oswin, and Brother Mark visited the roof deck garden. Major rearrangement of pots, planters, and furniture. Harvested more okra. Brought down the repotted peepal seedling and located it in the small loggia.
Glowering skies above Cubao.
Tuesday, July 6, 2021
After the initial crush of people and implementation of improvements on procedures, it was time for us to get vaccinated. The Office of the Mayor sent me a message that Moderna vaccine was available today. Toto brought Angelique, Aubrey, and me to the Mayor's Office after lunch to receive our shots. Our next shots are on August 4.
We left Cubao 1:00 PM and were back home 2:30 PM.
You with a __ in your name: I held an unannounced night class 4:30 AM because you came with either a female student or your girlfriend. Two more students joined us.
I taught you how to fly using the water element and falling backward (rather than lunging forward like in comic books and the movies) and, of the four of you, only you were successful. We floated above everyone while your three co-students followed us on foot. I noted, though, that you were timid about doing what I was doing because there were crowds of people around us. I assured you that only sensitives in the crowd could see us and that NO ONE ELSE COULD. I brought you to more densely populated locations, including an old university. You remarked that it would be great to fly everyday without having to be in traffic.
I told you that only I could fly and teach flying using the water element in this country, but that there is one other teacher, also in this country, who can teach it with fire.
At the end of our lessons I posed two questions as some kind of test:
-- Who was the person I talked to before leaving you?
-- What was she selling me?
You were able to answer the questions.
I wish, all of my students were like you.
One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with a J in your name: Before deciding to come back to the Philippines, make sure that you've retired and will be receiving annuity in dollars. Know, however, that your children will be unhappy to follow you and live here, because they were born in a foreign country that might even be the only country they've ever known.
Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.
Asked Bertod to bring some food over to M.'s cafe staff.
Night chores.
My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and ten snuggling in bed with Tana French.
The novel is a fictional exploration of investigative journalism and police methods. There are no definite suspects--anyone in the town could have committed the murders--and so the reader cannot make deductions of his own and must wait helplessly for what happens next.
Monday, July 5, 2021
It's the annual tagkiwere (from June through September) once again where my younger son Chito lives. During this time, crops experience drought and the fishermen are barely able to catch fish. I am reminded of crop circles and cattle mutilations in Europe. I wonder whether there is some kind of connection that is worth investigating there.
Your Messenger message:
"Hi, Sir! I hope that you can still help me with my dream even if I am not anymore in your personal FB contacts. I seldom remember my dreams but the few that I can recall are vivid.
"Here it goes. "I am attending a birthday party but came in late. It is actually already evening when I arrived. I entered the house and most of the guests are gone except for a few who are also beginning to leave. The gracious eldelrly woman served me food and is hospitable. She says the birthday celebrant will come out and I can greet him. He comes out of the room and it turns out to be you. "I greet you a happy birthday and you nod. But I also sense that you want to rest. Actually you are quite irked that I came late. I picked up the signals so I hastely say goodbye and you nod again. As I leave your house, I am looking for a ride home. The street is well lit and empty except for a few cars and tricycles passing by. I am wearing my mask and see that the tricycle drivers are wearing theirs. I am afraid that I will catch the corona virus. I feel vulnerable outside the street. "As I am about to ride a tric, I notice that I am holding an old cellphone like the ones used in the late 90's, the Nokia ones with button pads. I wonder who owns this. I must have accidentally picked it up from your house. I decide to return it. I look for the house I entered earlier but the main door is already closed and locked. I see you from a basement window. I discover the door going down and entered it. "It's a study/library. You are standing beside a desk, instructing a young man with books, maps and papers around.You are smiling and enjoying teaching the young man. I ask if the cellphone belongs to you and you say yes. I place the phone on top of the desk and decide to leave. I have wanted to stay but did not really want to disturb you so I go ahead and walk out of the door. I remember leaving the gate and walking through the street again, looking for a ride. "Then I wake up. "Thank you for your response in advance and for your time, Sir and good night.My reply:
Hello _________!
You attended one of my night classes. You arrive "late", leave without receiving a lesson, yet wish to take away something with you: an old cell phone representing the year you learned about me and wished to contact me.
The part of the dream where you ride a tricycle unmasked reflects your current anxiety, which is about contracting the virus.
You will be coming to more of my night classes in the future. Yes, despite the fact that I unFriended you, I remain one of your living spirit guides.
EDSA was Highway 54 in the 50s. To give you an idea how free of devils' traffic it was during those years, when I was five years old a length of the highway spanning our street, P. Tuazon Boulevard (then Central Boulevard), was blocked off to serve as the venue for the (then annual) Soap Box Derby. I was in Prep at the time and was so thrilled with the event that I attempted to make my own soap box vehicle out of junk materials in our garage.
One Message To One Of 209 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with a K in your name: Rejoice, for you have been on an upward trend ever since you introduced yourself as an artist. The only thing that hampers you is that you tend to overshoot your mark. Set your sights lower. Enjoy success a little at a time.
We went out to lunch today and I forgot to give Yukiko Taka her lunch. Ordered seven pieces buffalo wings from M.'s cafe and gave those to her.
Brother Cadfael, Brother Oswin, and Brother Mark visited the roof deck, side balcony, and Cubao New Orleans French Quarter front balcony vegetable and flower gardens, under the drizzle. Transferred plants to ten new pots. The base of the spiral staircase to the roof deck is also now clear of sacks of garden soil.
Sunday, July 4, 2021
Your Messenger message:
"Hello, Tony!
"I noticed you have eliminated me from your friend list, but that's alright. "I dreamt my youngest daughter (36) was sleeping in the same room with me and she was crying loudly, saying 'Mommy, mommy!' "In the same dream, i awoke and told her, 'Halika rito, anak, halika. '. "What does this mean?"My reply:
Hello ___________!
I unFriend the least interactive Friends to achieve a List of only 200. Facebook Friendship, after all has nothing to do with actual friendship, and I've unFriended close friends and relatives as well.
You gave me a dream fragment and not a complete, dream narrative, and so, this is the best I can do:
--You may have been neglecting your youngest daughter--or else she feels that you have been neglecting her--and so I suggest that you get in touch with her once again.
--This is the daughter who offers you the most affection. Yet, she is also the daughter who has the most emotional needs.
Your Messenger message:
"Sir Tony I am also reporting this to you now… lI sometimes hear noises from my downstairs even when I know it’s empty. It’s 1:48am now and I had to go down to my kitchen to turn off my oven which was turned on and on a setting I never use. I am actually quite rattled as this could have caused a fire. I will ask the oven technicians to check it out, maybe there’s a machine error which caused it but I am honestly quite shook sir."
My reply:
Hello ________!
Continue observing and get back to me if there are more of such occurrences. I will be happy to go there and check it out.
Your Messenger message:
"Sir Tony these past few years have been so filled with death and sorrow, and now that I have a child I find myself fearing and dreading all of our inevitable passings. I know I am not special, I know others must have felt this way as well but is this something that will eventually go away sir? I already lost one parent and try to keep positive but this sadness and dread weigh heavily on my heart."
My reply:
"Hello ______!
In childhood we are introduced to mortality. In adolescence we believe that we will never die. In adulthood we take care of our health and stay as far away from death as possible. And then, toward middle age, the reality of mortality hits us once again. In middle age the children in us are reintroduced to it, and we anguish because, by that time, we have already established our homes and our lifestyles and raised our families and desire to see not only our children but also our great-grandchildren.
Reflect without fear and without dread. I believe in reincarnation--I have seen too much evidence of it. We come back to the same karmic groups primarily because of love, and only secondarily because of karma.
At this point in your life the key questions for yourself are:
--Are you happy and content? Is your family happy and content?
--Do you consider yourself as a success, whether financially or otherwise? If not, what is the big deal, for, after all, there are innumerable states of existence and many of them do not hinge on success?
--What else do you need to do before your time comes?
--Does it matter at all to you whether you are remembered or forgotten? (It shouldn't.)
--There is reincarnation, but it moves forward and never backward. Therefore, none of us can go back in time. Know that memory and reminiscence can be curses, but how can they be gifts?
One Message To One Of 208 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with a V in your name: The reason for your long-term loneliness is that you never confide your feelings in the person whom you really love. As a result, that person shrugs you off and does not bother to bring out your secret feelings to make them reality.
Saturday, July 3, 2021
One Message To One Of 208 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with a J in your name: Be content with the simple joys of family life. You dream too much about each and every member of your household. Allow them to blossom on their own. Do not teach them to live in a future that has not yet happened and that may not even happen.
Dinner at home with Aubrey; Angelique and Jazz had dinner out, Angelique had her hair trimmed, and now Angelique an Jazz are having dinner out.
Asked Brian to bring some food over to M.'s cafe staff.
Night chores.
Night drizzle.
My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, spending some time watching online videos, and then snuggling in bed with Tana French.
Friday, July 2, 2021
Lunch at Burgoo's Gateway with former co-worker Erwin Gonzales, who modeled for Saint John the Baptist in my John The Baptist triptych in 2004. Erwin left the Embassy in 2012 for stints in Canada and in Geneva, and I retired in 2015. I saved three studies for Saint John to eventually give him, and I finally did today--in 2021, 17 years later!
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