Happy Feast of All Saints, everyone!

Lit candles and joss sticks at our four, ground-floor altars.

Contrary to tradition I celebrate All Saints Day for the deceased, and All Souls Day for the living.

We are coffee lovers AND coffee ritual lovers, but we don't like grinding coffee beans. We buy our coffee already ground. 

I don't like the tedium of grinding coffee beans. Moreover, I cannot stand the harsh noise the grinding machine makes. It always reminds me of pretentious men sounding their noisy motorcycles.

Whenever I go on Spirit Quests and whenever I am praying, I almost never use the word "everybody". I use the word "everyone" in its place, because spirits have no corporal bodies.

Good noon, Cubao! Overslept on Halloween night.

Sunshine is filtered through the gossamer screens of tea houses.

It is past midnight and spirits are already roaming round your neighborhood.

Watched all seven episodes of the U.S.A.'s Midnight Mass on Netflix. I enjoy cozy, small town settings with occasional storms and pot luck fairs, boating trips, ferry rides, and candlelit processions on cold nights, but perhaps especially if the movie turns out to be a chaotic vampire story (no spoiler there; the movie is actually about warped faith in a fallen angel with secondary themes of death, rebirth, and resurrection, and a tertiary theme of how small-town Christianity always hinges on personality and power, thus rendering itself as a non-world religion). 

I am always wondering why only Catholics have vampires in their lives, like diabolic possession--all the way from Bram Stoker's Dracula, whose victims roam cemeteries with cement statuary and fear crucifixes to Anne Rice's homoerotic vampires to Mike Flanagan's island vampires--although this movie does have two Muslims participating in the chaos.

It seems to me, as a writer, that Midnight Mass was initially conceived as a stage play. There is too much concern with characterization, and the dialogue too rhetorical, poetic, and metaphysical for island folks. Scenes rely on entrances and exits, and on-screen business comes across as stage business.

Being a Religious Studies major, I immediately found the first inconsistency: Paul Hill claims that Jesus' first miracle was filling empty nets with fishes after being cast into the water; some sequences later he claims that Jesus' first miracle was turning water into wine. There were too many hymns, too many prayers, and too many quotations from the Old Testament taken out of the context of Hebrew history. And, like all Hollywood writers, the screenplay writer seems to believe that the Book of Revelation is all about the future rather than a metaphorical reflection of John of Patmos' present under the reign of Emperor Domitian.

As a result, Midnight Mass is a classic example of Bible misinformation, and has the aftertaste of an idea-oriented M. Night Shyamalan production.

Unfortunately that Jeepers Creepers monster also didn't help any.

Good night, Cubao!

Moonlight pours onto the concrete driveway like full-cream milk.

One Message To One Of 214 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Look back on your adolescent crushes only to see how foolish they were.

Asked M. to bring some food over to his cafe staff.

Lit Halloween candles in the small loggia and on the rear porch. Should last five hours.

Night chores.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, and ten snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Turned on the lights of the miniature houses in the small loggia.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

One-hour, mid-afternoon nap.

Worked half an hour on thirtieth glaze.

Worked half an hour on twenty-ninth glaze.

Angelique's second day of online midterm exams.

Worked an hour on twenty-eighth glaze.

Lunch at home with Angelique; Aubrey still resting upstairs.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun has 365 sets of jewelry. He rotates them by the day.

Good night, Cubao!

Darkness is a black, feathered cloak.

One Message To One Of 214 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with more than three syllables in your name: Who you think is madly in love with you actually is not, and so it is safer to live as though no one is madly in love with you.

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, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Currently watching _Midnight Mass_ because my granddaughters and Ferd want to know what I think of it.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Worked half an hour on twenty-seventh glaze.

Watered the ground-floor plants; M. watered the plants on the roof deck,. side balcony, and front balcony gardens.

Worked an hour on twenty-sixth glaze.

Angelique's first day of online midterm exams.

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Classroom exercise in oil pastels I made 17 years ago under the tutelage of Fernando B. Sena at the Saturday Art Group in Ali Mall, circa 2004. The flowers were plastic, and we were instructed to make them as un-plastic as best we could. I changed forms and colors and, as you can see, used complementaries in the color wheel (red-green, blue-orange, yellow-violet).

Gave this to Agnes Sicam Caballa during a lunch with former co-workers. She had it framed and it now hangs on her bedroom wall.

Good morning, Cubao!

A breakfast room in the city should have access to sunlight and a view of the neighborhood.

Watched all ten episodes of Korea's Strangers from Hell on Netflix.  Based on an animation series no less terrifying even when viewed with human faces, it is slow and suspenseful, but especially creepy for single men. Come to think of it, only single men will find this series fascinating. The story is told from the point of view of Jong-u, a young writer, and is done in cinematic postmodernism. Most scenes are edited in such a way that two or three apparently parallel events are happening at the same time. The music track is chilling. And the camerawork is subtle but exceedingly clever. 

The dentist, Mung-jo, in this series is the man who played the red fox in _Tale of the Nine-Tailed_.

Very dark, frequently protracted. Every succeeding episode becomes more and more macabre, leading to a well-composed, balletic climax. Very sadistic within the self and toward men in a way that only men will understand. The male viewer will find himself identifying with Jong-u and Mung-jo at the same time, and will be haunted by this series long after Halloween is over. It's an other-men-will-grab-your-balls-and-break-them movie. Its subliminal messages to the viewer are:

--Other men, especially strangers, will bring out the worst in you.

--Salvation for men is not possible even in a world that has women who understand the innermost darkness of men.

--The scum of the earth is not comprised of the useless. It is comprised of the wicked.

Good night, Cubao!

Turn off your lights whenever you want to keep your neighbors away from you.

One Message To One Of 214 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Never undervalue coins and loose change. When saved up and totaled, they come up to a hefty amount.

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, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Worked half an hour on twenty-fifth glaze.

Worked half an hour on twenty-fourth glaze.

Worked an hour on twenty-third glaze.

Angelique and Aubrey came down to lunch in the dining room.

A sunny, cloudless day in Cubao.

"Who will buy this wonderful morning?/

Such a sky you never did see!/

Who will tie with up with a ribbon/

And put it in a box for me?/

"So I could see it at my leisure/

Whenever things go wrong/

And I would keep it as a treasure/

To last my whole life long/"

Staggered lunchtimes.

Swung by the neighborhood grocery. Did minor groceries.

A Tale Of Two Surprises

Thursday, October 28, 2021

The Concrete Bench

Raul Deodato Arellano

Oil on panel

16" x 20"

2006

Raul Deodato Arellano and his apprentice and assistant Beth gave me a surprise visit this afternoon. Raul presented me with a most unexpected gift: one of his framed paintings from his 2018 exhibit at Altro Mondo Creative Space, his very first exhibit in the Philippines after he moved to his retirement home in Calaca, Batangas.

Unbeknownst to him, I had a surprise for him too--I am currently painting him, without having asked his permission, as Saint Paul for my next piece for Maryhill School of Theology. I showed him the work in progress.

We had an afternoon snack at the Cubao Leaky Cauldron afterward.

Good morning, Cubao!

The clouds are pockets of shining, gold coins.

Good night, Cubao!

Sleep to the gentle caress of the moon.

One Message To One Of 214 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with one syllable in your name: Is your election campaign truly effective, or do the masses view it as a series of spectacular events generated by intellectuals for their fellow intellectuals?

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, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Worked an hour on twenty-second glaze.

Worked half an hour on twenty-first glaze.

Worked an hour on twentieth glaze.

Angelique and Aubrey came down to lunch in the dining room.

Yakult delivery.

Staggered lunchtimes.

Good morning, Cubao!

Sunlight is a scarf of golden fabric that falls from the sky.

Good night, Cubao!

Everything you own should look good not only in the daytime but also at night.

One Message To One Of 214 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with four syllables in your name: The cosmos often sends you a teacher in the guise of a non-teacher.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Brought some extra rice over to M.'s cafe staff.

Night chores.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Worked half an hour on nineteenth glaze.

Jerico and I visited the roof deck, side balcony, and front balcony gardens, and then did some studio and house chores.

The sun takes afternoon strolls through garden paths.

Good afternoon, Cubao!

Slept ten hours last night. The granddaughters fixed their own lunch, then Angelique woke me up 2:00 P.M. just to check up on me.

Ordered a default meal from M.'s cafe: a chef''s salad with ham and red wine vinaigrette dressing, a dozen buttered buffalo wings, and rice.

I'm now at my desktop computer at 3:00 P.M. and almost ready to start my day, or what's left of it.

Still wondering what made me oversleep. Mental and physical exhaustion from painting? The eerie, Korean movie I'm already on Episode 5 on? The bedtime snack of two, grilled pork sandwiches? The tea light in one of my bedroom window sill lanterns?

Good night, Cubao!

Save money during the day, for there are expenses that need to be incurred at night.

One Message To One Of 214 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Do not think of the daytime at night. Do not think of the night in the daytime. Be one with Nature rather than attempt to be steps ahead of her.

Worked half an hour on eighteenth glaze.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Asked Jerico to bring some food over to M.'s cafe staff.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Back from jalan-jalan at the center with Jerico. Bought a pack of striped garbage bags, a blue ice tray with molds shaped like faceted gemstones, four sets miniature painting brushes, two packs salmon and tuna sashimi, a bottle of Chinese hot sauce, a box of kimchi, and a bottle of Korean mayonnaise. 

Those Korean movies on Netflix are already getting to me.

Ice cream delivery from a nephew.

Cubao rain.

Worked half an hour on seventeenth glaze.

Two deliveries arrived.

Took an early lunch, then Angelique and Aubrey came down to lunch in the dining room.

Worked half an hour on sixteenth glaze.

 A lot of feminists rally against the portrayal of witches as Halloween witches without realizing that we LOVE Halloween witches and ARE INDIFFERENT TO non-Halloween witches.

Good morning, Cubao!

On Tuesdays the sky is a pale pink.

Good night, Cubao!

A satisfying dinner ensures a good night's sleep.

One Message To One Of 214 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Do not read meaning in signals apparently being given by another person, for perception is subjective and is often wrong.

Worked an hour on fifteenth glaze while Angelique and Aubrey took their dinner in the dining room.

Asked Jerico 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 snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Staggered dinnertimes; Angelique has online classes through 9:30 PM.

There are ghosts, but they are not scary and horrific as they are made out to be by the ignorant.

While looking at the yin, look for the yang.

While looking at the yang, look for the yin.

Avoid bipolar people at all costs. They will only make you adjust to them and they will never adjust to you.

Bipolar people do not compromise.

Electricity is expensive in the perception of one who has a few appliances, never to the person who has many appliances.

It is not necessary to strike while the iron is hot, for when it cools down you can always heat it up again.

Paint as though you were doing sculpture, but do not sculpt as though you were painting.

The painting--not the gallery owner, curator, impresario, or agent--sells itself.

Caps and umbrellas protect your head not only from the rain but also from blazing sunshine.

Don't stop while you're ahead. Go for the finish line.

Worked an hour on fourteenth glaze.

Worked half an hour on thirteenth glaze.

Angelique and Aubrey came down to lunch in the dining room.

Worked half an hour on twelfth glaze.

Worked an hour on eleventh glaze.

Staggered lunchtimes.

Love is never blind, but it is often thoughtless.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun is a campfire in the forest of the galaxy.

Worked half an hour on tenth glaze.

Watched Korea's Confidential Assignment (2:04:12) on Netflix. A North Korean detective and a South Korean detective, different from each other in more ways than one, team up in Seoul on a dangerous mission. This is the second movie on North-South Korean espionage I've seen, the first one being Commitment (1:52). While Commitment has a tragic ending, though, Confidential Assignment is more upbeat.

I thought I wouldn't be able to relate to this kind of espionage, but, except that the Philippines is not a First World country, Korea and the Philippines share many parallelisms in ideological dichotomy. 

Good night, Cubao!

Take a long break and rest from all of the affairs of the day.

One Message To One Of 214 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with three syllables in your name: Always keep an emergency fund, not for yourself but for your children.

Staggered dinnertimes.

Asked Lennoel 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 snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Every person is reflective, but not every person knows how to properly express his thoughts.

In October, leaves drip like green raindrops from the branches of trees.

It is impossible to count stars not because there are too many but because some of them no longer exist.

Marie Antoinette should have said, "Let them eat candy!" because candy sits well in a hungry person's stomach, but cake does not.

It is fine to have a glut of movies, stage plays, books, and paintings, but it is not fine that most of them are forgettable, if not already forgotten.

Good art cannot happen if daily chores are left undone.

Your body will tell you to wake up even if you planned on oversleeping.

The practical artist should always seek to be in a position in which he can afford to turn his back on everyone.

Before I become a team player, I need to like everyone on my team. I don't want having to like them as my first challenge.

Friendship is always a process of trial and error.

If you don't own the building, don't even attempt to open shop.

Some Words Pronounced Alike

collar and color

serial and cereal

neigh and nay

corps and core

sheer and shear

four and fore

guild and gild

steak and stake

boar and bore

dye and die

bough and bow

toe and tow

too and two

plain and plane

shoo and shoe

pie and pi

sore and soar

flair and flare

stares and stairs

flour and flower

fairy and ferry

hi and high

know and no

feet and feat

beet and beat

sew and sow

colonel and kernel

bred and bread

son and sun

marry and merry

hour and our

air and heir

fare and fair

red and read

Worked an hour on ninth glaze.

The compound dust bin is right across our security guard's platform. I really don't mind for two reasons. First, of the 102 different pathways of Eleggua, there is one called Okada, who lives in dust bins, interacts with scavengers, and delivers blessings. Second, I get to see not only the compound tenants and the things they throw away but also the different rag[pickers who come and retrieve items they feel they can sell or use. I am a familiar sight to the latter. If we were in ancient China they would surely elect me as their King of the Beggars' Guild.

This afternoon one of the rag pickers stepped up to the small loggia, where I was resting after a day of painting. I heard him say that old line, "Bos, me ipapakita 'ko sa inyo." He took out a pouch from his pocket and showed me an EXQUISITE ladies' watch and asked, "'Di po ba, sinauna 'to?"

I advised him to have the item appraised at a pawnshop. I know that he expected me to buy it from him, but I felt that it was snatched or stolen from someone. Besides, if I did buy it, he would come back to me with yet more snatched or stolen items.

Maferefun, Eleggua! Maferefun, Okada! I will never run out of dustbin stories to tell!

Worked an hour on eighth glaze.

Aubrey came down to fix herself a late lunch in the kitchen.

Worked half an hour on seventh glaze.

Worked half an hour on sixth glaze.

Staggered lunchtimes. Using one of our glass, skull mugs for black coffee for the first time today.

A wet Sunday morning in Cubao.

Good morning, Cubao!

Today the male birds perform courier services.

Watched Singapore's Greedy Ghost (1:32:05) on Netflix. A supernatural comedy. Not scary at all, but a good break from the blood and gore of the usual horror movies.

Good night, Cubao!

Record the times the neighborhood dogs howl or bark agitatedly, and see if there is a pattern.

One Message To One Of 214 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Count your cash on hand every night, when you are alone. Divide the amount by the number of days remaining in the month. That is the amount you can safely spend every day through the end of the month. Note that whenever you desist from spending, the amount increases.

Jazz arrived.

Staggered dinnertimes.

Asked Lennoel 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 snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Worked half an hour on fifth glaze.

One-hour, mid-afternoon nap.

Worked half an hour on fourth glaze.

Worked half an hour on third glaze.

Took an early lunch, then Angelique and Aubrey came downstairs and took their lunch in the dining room.

Worked half an hour on second glaze.

Worked half an hour on first glaze.

Worked half an hour on ninth layer.

We are not free as long as we are expected to obey others. 

My elder son Nelson's 51st birthday.

Lit candles and joss sticks at our family altar and columbary.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is a skein of baby blue cashmere.

Watched Thailand's The Maid (1:42:48) on Netflix. At first it appeared to be a corny, stuffed-toy horror movie, and then I thought it was a reverse take on The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. In the end it became a psychological thriller. The movie is divided in three chapters. A good screening for Halloween. Didn't care for the way the birthday party in Chapter Three was production-designed, though. 

Ordered a chef's salad with red wine vinaigrette dressing and a lemon cucumber iced tea from M.'s cafe, for a bedtime snack.

Good night, Cubao!

Insert a Tarot card a night inside a hard-plastic case and place that under your pillow. Record your dreams the following morning. By placing one card per night under your pillow, you will be able to determine what your principal card is and which other cards resonate with your psyche.

One Message To One Of 214 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with three syllables in your name: Make a list of everything your house needs. This should include improvements and repairs.

Dinnertime with the granddaughters; Angelique and Aubrey ordered Korean food and are eating upstairs.

Asked Jerico 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 snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Worked an hour on eighth layer.

Ordered a Very Veggie sandwich from M.'s cafe. Really a tossed, green salad with thousand-islands dressing in a half-subway bun.

Jerico arrived from Cavite to help out at M.'s cafe.

Worked an hour on seventh layer while Angelique and Aubrey took their lunch in the dining room.

Deliveries and staggered lunchtimes.

Enchanted Night

Last night, past midnight, was one of those rare times I didn't go to bed immediately. Had a cup of strawberries in cream ice cream mixed with fresh strawberries in the kitchen, then spent half an hour in our small loggia, along the driveway. It was the second night of the full moon, but both moon and stars were covered by thick sheets of rainclouds. The only lights around me were the windows of Cyberpark 2 Tower, in Araneta Center, where night-shift employees were busy at their call centers, fluorescents on the upper floors of the trainees' dormitory at Police Precinct 7, across the street, the lamps on P. Tuazon Boulevard, and the red-orange tip of my lit cigarette weaving random patterns in the air. 

The night was alive but still. It was the kind of night when toys came to life, when gnomes held their visiting hours, and when leaves dropping from the dragon tree onto the driveway sounded like elfin footfalls. Past curfew time, young men walked diffidently across the compound entrance; could they be elves in human disguise?

I continued smoking in the semi-darkness, wondering what my loved ones were dreaming of.

Good morning, Cubao!

The day stretches its limbs in the cardinal directions of time.

Watched Korea's 2013 The Flu (2:01:52) on Netflix. Produced almost a decade before 2020, it seems to have foreshadowed the COVID pandemic.

A Filipino illegal migrant survived the initial infection and it is his blood, which contains the necessary antibodies, that is used to develop a vaccine. Unfortunately the sample they obtain gets contaminated, and riots break out.

A must-watch, but a disturbing movie.

Good night, Cubao!

Surround yourself with bolsters and sleep like a baby in a crib.

One Message To One Of 214 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with three syllables in your name: impatience is the downfall of October. Avoid countdowns. The New Year will come, but only when it will come.

The granddaughters took a late dinner in the dining room.

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, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Worked an hour on sixth layer.

Staggered dinnertimes; Angelique has online classes through 9:30 PM.

Asked M. to go to the center to pay our water bill.

Worked an hour on fifth layer.

Rain.

One-hour, afternoon nap.

Worked an hour on fourth layer while Angelique and Aubrey took their lunch in the dining room.

People are making fun of Manny Pacquiao's narration of a dream he cannot seem to comprehend.

There is nothing funny about the dream.

It is about dashed expectations and the failure to deliver.

Staggered lunchtimes.

Swung by the neighborhood grocery. Bought a pack of spaghetti pasta, two cartons all-purpose cream, a dozen eggs, a loaf of white bread, a bottle of Nutella, and a box of strawberries in cream ice cream.

Angelique and Aubrey took a cereal breakfast in the dining room.

Two cups very black, Cotabato coffee.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun is a golden sequin in outer space.

Watched China's The 9th Precinct (1:35:25) on Netflix, which is really about Spirit Questing. A good screening, but a lot of black humor is woven in, such as the devil woman's zingers in English, making everything like an old Batman movie. It is also quite perplexing how Baphomet and a magic circle of Celtic runes found their way to China. And that Ghost Whisperer ending, I thought, was quite abrupt.

Good night, Cubao!

Alley cats frequent their back-street jazz bars after midnight. Can you hear the music from your bedroom window?

One Message To One Of 214 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Do not rush into the fray when freedom is merely in theory. Hold back, wait an see. Observe others. Be more cautious than ever.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Brought some food over to M.'s cafe staff.

Night chores.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Neil and Bertod walked Keiko Kashigawa, Yukiko Taka, and Cloudy on the compound, gave them a lavender-scented, anti-flea shampoo, then watered the plants on the roof deck, side balcony, and front balcony gardens.

Worked an hour on third layer.

Worked an hour on second layer.

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is slathered with clouds of whipped cream.

Watched Korea's Night in Paradise (2:11:55) on Netflix. No horror or fantasy there; it's a gangster/noir/action movie. The Anne Rice title is misleading, too; not a scene remotely close to anything in  Exit to Eden and the Beauty series.

Very noir.

But, wow--I wasn't expecting that spectacular ending!

PLDT Sales unleashed itself again, this time disguised as "PLDT Home". How many times do they need to be told that we pay our phone bill to USE our phone and not to be called by the telephone company promoting sales designed to increase our phone bill?

Of course, I took the ringer off our phone again.

Good night, Cubao!

On Tuesdays the night is a Mars black.

One Message To One Of 214 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with more than three syllables in your name: You need to give up on a senseless infatuation, for while you are always thinking of him, he is definitely thinking of someone else.

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, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Worked another half-hour on construction lines, then worked half an hour on first layer.

I asked the dragon tree elementals for an analogy of what COVID would feel like to animals. They said, it was like being a mouse hopelessly trapped on flypaper.

Worked another half-hour on construction lines.

Now that M. has Rose, Brian, Bertod, and two new employees to man the cafe and the "food truck" section, he took on a part-time job that allows him to work from home 11:00 P.M. through 8:00 A.M.

Worked half an hour on construction lines.

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Good morning, Cubao!

Rooftops function as stops for small alien ships.

Finished watching China's Hospital on Netflix despite the number of bad reviews it received. A good Halloween screening, though, if you ask me. The way to enjoy it is to pretend you're on a ghost train riding through a tunnel of horrific surprises. There is no main plot, only a handful of subplots, like snatches of anecdotes from one's subconscious, which is interesting in itself.

The Taoist medium and his son, I find, had too many charms and gadgets and bottled water and oil for my comfort. I can't imagine myself going on a Spirit Quest with all that baggage.

Good night, Cubao!

On warm nights between seasons the gnomes lay their beds in rooftop gutters.

One Message To One Of 214 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: You were not able to get everything done in September because you did not make a proper checklist to follow.

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 snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Staggered dinnertimes; Angelique has online classes through 9:30 P.M.

Finished watching Korea's #Alive (1:27:17), yet another zombie movie, on Netflix. Almost like an Asian, young male, take on Wait Until Dark. 

Only First-World countries like the U.S. and Korea produce zombie movies. They are reflections of paranoia, distrust of others, the need for isolation, and the advantages of alienation in highly technological societies. 

Long before that, industrialization in Europe produced the Theater of the Absurd, Eugene Ionesco's plays the most well-known among them. After the Second World War, Japan produced Rodan, Mothra, and Godzilla, fantasized mutations as a result of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

In the 21st century, we have zombie and apocalyptic movies, which we've been watching without really knowing what is going on in the countries that produced them.

Worked an hour on construction lines.

This painting begins today, October 18, 2021.

About to begin my 23rd painting for Maryhill School of Theology.

Sorry, no visitors allowed.

Portrait of Cecilia Manguerra Brainard (after John Singer Sargent's Portrait of Lady Agnew of Lochna_)_

Oil on canvas

82" x 46"

April 24 -30 and October 18, 2021

Worked an hour on 49th and 50th glazes on Cecilia's portrait while the granddaughters took their lunch in the dining room.

Staggered lunchtimes; Angelique resumes online classes today.

Good morning, Cubao!

Search for the silver railroad tracks in the sky.

Amazing how Netflix subtitles read, "Fuck!" even if the character didn't say anything.

Watched Korea's RV: Resurrected Victims (1:31:10) on Netflix, about murder victims who come back to life to avenge their deaths. Kinda hard to follow during the first half of the movie, but everything came together very well after that.

Good night, Cubao!

Gnomes know ahead of time when the earth will quake and volcanoes will erupt.

One Message To One Of 214 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with three syllables in your name: As early as now, make a list of everything you need to get done in the month of November.

Angelique, Aubrey, and Jazz took a very late dinner at different times tonight.

The "food truck" section of M.'s cafe is coming along very well. All it needs now are the lights and paint on the awning. 

M. hired two more personnel from his hometown, Bicol, to man the "food truck" section.

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 snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Staggered dinnertimes.

Neil and I swung by the neighborhood grocery. Bought two cartons each fresh milk and non-fat milk, and four packs Samyang noodles.

Sunday, October 17, 2021

Bracing for an awning is being installed above the right section of M.'s cafe.

M.'s newly-arrived chiller awaits being located in the cafe's "food truck", take-out section.

Staggered lunchtimes.

Slept nine hours last night, as I did the night before.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun paints in primary colors, the moon in secondaries and tertiaries.

Watched Korea's Psychokinesis (1:41:38) on Netflix. At last, a feature-length movie, not  a movie with multiple episodes. At last, a story with a happy ending. It starts off as a simple narrative about fascist measures against illegal squatters, but ends like a spectacular, superhero movie.

Good night, Cubao!

Gnome children love riding on the backs of pet dogs and pet cats.

One Message To One Of 214 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Never take risks when it comes to financial matters, for true security is not only being safe from intruders, it is also having more than enough money to cover your needs.

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 snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Two-hour, deep tissue massage.

Jazz arrived.

M. and Bertod visited the roof deck, side balcony, and front balcony gardens.

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Good morning, Cubao!

The boy gnomes go on a bivouac over the ledges of stone walls.

Finished watching Alice in Borderland. A tad less depressing than Squid Game, because it is dream-like and creates greater detachment between the subject matter and the viewer. A lot of senseless killing in both, though. They triumph by leaps and bounds over Texas Chainsaw Massacre and House of Wax. 

I have a feeling that the creators of Borderland really didn't know how to end the movie. Or were banking on a second season.

I recognized the Mad Hatter, but where was the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the March Hare, the Duchess, and the Gryphon, among others? Come to think of it, which of the characters was really Alice?

And Episode 8 ended before the Queen of Hearts could make an appearance.

Great cinematography, though. I know it wasn't easy to delete everyone from Tokyo.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Completely unexpected Friday surprise from Tanya Lopez, through Glenn Mas--a box of my favorite Bailon piaya!

Swung by the neighborhood grocery with Neil and did minor groceries. Bought an order of Taiwanese chopped chicken at the neighborhood tea house for the granddaughters.

Lit champa joss sticks and a tea light at the kuman thong shrine.

Turned on our rainy-day incandescent lamps.

A perfect afternoon for tea.

Bought a bag of fresh, golden mango.

Angelique and Aubrey took their lunch ahead of me, since I woke up so late.

Rainy afternoon in Cubao.

Everyone says, "Vote for this, don't vote for that", completely forgetting that everyone will vote for what they want regardless of anything.

We have the option of choosing what our heaven will be, and it will always be a place populated only by the people we love, not by a crowd of fundamentalists whom we never wanted to be with in the first place. 

That is why many people refuse to have their loved ones buried in cemeteries, surrounded by the cadavers of complete strangers.

Fortunate is the man whose spirit guides also love everyone whom he loves.

Happy Birthday to our eldest kuman thong, Mongkut (2016)!

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The water delivery boys ride on bikes that cross the sky.

Good morning, Cubao!

Slept nine hours last night.

We all have different heavens, the way we have different houses and dream houses.

Good night, Cubao!

Sometimes you will be granted the ability to see gnome shoeprints on the floor.

One Message To One Of 213 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with one syllable in your name: Special dinners should be carefully planned a week in advance. That way, everything will be well-thought out and done right.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Night chores.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Thursday, Thursday

Sat around doing nothing the whole day, and it was sheer heaven.

Thought of wrapping holiday lights round the faux Elizabethan bird cage in the side porch writing area, but passed on the idea.

Did it ever occur to you that Squid Game could be a neo-Nazi production?

Like most women I know, my granddaughters take cooking and eating very seriously. They will book only with the right ingredients and utensils, and they turn up their noses at dishes they don't like.

He who picks up a keen interest in good bed linen keeps his bed and his bedroom neat and clean.

It is easy to pluck a talented person from the mire of poverty, but you will only soon discover that his willingness to work well and develop his talent is nil, and is what drove him to poverty in the first place.

The scrupulous businessman usually dies in abject poverty perceived only by himself.

Never be deceived and made complacent by a calm day, for something usually happens to upset it.

I know there are transient Serpentines in the neighborhood when our compound tenants saunter along the driveway and I can see, through their clothes, what their genitals look like.

Brian and Jay went to Araneta Center; Brian to claim his NBI clearance card and Jay to pick up his girlfriend.

Neil escorted me to the Christmas bazaar. Bought puto bumbong and bibingka for merienda, and pork barbecue on sticks and bagnet for our dinner later.

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Happy Birthday to Yukiko Taka, who is now one year old!

She is now a happy, playful doggie on her way to being a phat doog!

I love SOME recordings by the Beatles and SOME recordings by Michael Jackson, but I would never post their photos on my bedroom walls.

Considered buying a gold animal mask from the Squid Game franchise, but decided not to because my granddaughters would only tell me it was a waste of money.

Despite its unpleasant characters, negative premise, and flimsy screenplay, Squid Game is fascinating to me because:

--its game episodes are chilling

--it is irreverent

--it breaks all Ten Mosaic Commandments

--it showcases inconsistency and treachery in relationships

--it places material wealth over family values

--it is a rebellious statement against everything conservative that everyone has comfortable gotten used to

--whereas in Alice in Borderland the enemy is an invisible entity that represents adolescent anger and schizophrenia, the enemy here is one's fellow human being, and will always be

Squid Game suffers only because it has immature characters who never achieve maturity, and none of these characters undergo significant, dramatic change.

(Still loving that lecher's gold mask, though. It showed me that it is all right to be gay but not all right to have an undesirable body.)

Good morning, Cubao!

The clouds are metal shavings suspended in the sky.

Good night, Cubao!

Gnomes specialize in string instruments, fairies, in wind instruments.

One Message To One Of 213 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with more than three syllables in your name: Try room visits--seeing each family member in his/her room for a cozy chat. Your house is a city, a floor is a neighborhood, a room is a house.

Asked Bertod to bring some food over to M.'s cafe staff.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Last night watched A Second Chance, Singapore's contribution to the Yellow Ribbon Project. Am currently watching Malaysia's Bunohan, a quiet, slow, almost static movie except for intermittent combat scenes. There is something about it that appeals to me, something primal, almost like the shocking realism of the Japanese film Onibaba (The Hole).

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Neil reported for work this afternoon.

Another delivery arrived.

A delivery arrived.

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

It is the body that rests in peace, not the soul, for the soul will always have to make a choice between reincarnating or reuniting with God.

For your candidate to win the elections, do NOT campaign amongst yourselves. 

Go out, walk ten extra miles, and campaign amongst people you normally do not associate yourselves with.

A heavy breakfast, as in _The Color Purple_.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is as clear as sparkling water.

Good night, Cubao!

You will hear the tittering of the elves on their games night.

One Message To One Of 213 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with more than three syllables in your name: Be different without making an effort to be different. If you have to make an effort to be different, you will end up being a hypocrite not only to others but also to yourself.

Aubrey took dessert while Angelique took her dinner.

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 snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Dinner at home with Aubrey; Angelique has online classes through 9:30 PM.

Political colors?

Green = Grab Food

Orange = LaLaMove

Pink = Food Panda

Red on Black = Mr. Speedy

Blue =iStock

 Tom sent me a portable lantern and candles. Ready for Halloween and All Souls Day!

A hot day in Cubao, a possibly stormy day in the north.

Just woke up, Slept nine hours last night.

Angelique and Aubrey are taking their lunch in the dining room while I am still taking my morning (noon) coffee.

Good morning, Cubao!

The day heralds a new season into your life.

Finished watching Squid Game. Interesting, but Episode 9 was both anticlimactic and superfluous. It brought the series from being believably real to being believably unreal. The only lasting thing I can recall is that rich foreigners can afford to use Asians as playthings--so, yes, we are horses. But, in the last analysis, who cares about spending billions proving one's philosophy in life when there are better things to do, like living? And Seong Gi-Hun's ten-year-old daughter comes out as the ultimate loser--she never gets to reunite with her father.

I've watched quite a few Korean movies by now and am impressed with the actors' and actresses' truthful performances despite terribly flawed scripts. I believe this is because South Korea has a School for Performing Arts, a real academy, which we don't have in the Philippines. Johnny Delgado and Laurice Guillen's daughter Anna Feleo, however, is trying to change all of that.

It is quite unfortunate that, after all these decades, there are no real arts academies in the Philippines. Most of what we have are short-term workshops. As a result, performers are essentially freelancers, and that is already all that our society expects them to be.

Good night, Cubao!

The gnomes bring their trash deep within the earth, where they turn into precious minerals.

One Message To One Of 213 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Never go to bed and call it a day without having provided closure to the open-ended.

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 snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Now on Episode 3 of Squid Game. Didn't think I'd be watching this because I didn't like the Rene Magritte costumes in the publicity shots. I even thought it was a comedy. Then my younger son Chito, my two granddaughters, and Joel wondered whether I'd seen it.

Didn't expect this to be about financially desperate people. Quite depressing at a time when so many people are jobless. But it's quite engrossing so far. Am somehow a little disturbed that Player 001 reminds me so much of Juan Ponce Enrile.

Staggered lunchtimes.

Delivery of the granddaughters' Torani vanilla syrup arrived.

Good morning, Cubao!

Slow bonfires turn dead leaves to ashes at the end of the day.

Good night, Cubao!

On Sundays the night is a burnt umber.

One Message To One Of 213 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: There is always more to rejoice than to grieve over. Love yourself. Love life and celebrate.

Joined the granddaughters after they took their dinner. We had dessert together.

The oil portrait I made of Raul Deodato Arellano in 2018 hangs on the east side of his studio.

Portrait of Raul Deodato Arellano With My Friend, The Spirit Of The Peepal Tree

Oil on canvas

24" x 20"

January 10 - 23, 2018

Brought some food over to M.'s cafe staff.

Night chores.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Am on the seventh and last episode of The Stranded. Comes across as an adult interpolation of Lord of the Flies minus the innocent nudity, but the ensemble acting is very good and the suspense well-sustained.

Staggered dinnertimes.

Believe it or not, I once had a CAO whose greatest fear in life was being abandoned. He courted many women, Americans and locals alike, in the hope of having a lasting relationship with someone. Once, when an American pop singer was visiting Manila to perform in a concert under private sponsorship, he asked me to call her up at her hotel and set up a dinner date with him. I was glad that both the singer and her agent turned him down. And I was so relieved when he was finally posted to another country on the globe.

Always be well-dressed. There is nothing as disgusting to others as a lousy passerby.

To many people a fine day means cloudless skies and bright sunshine. To me, a fine day means cloudy skies, a just enough light to see the world, cool breezes, and outdoor pockets of shade.

Sometimes villages and neighborhoods are not flooded with water but with other elements.

Compassionate persons take in wounded and sick animals because it is the most they can afford to do. Had they been affluent, they would do the same to humans.

Appreciate your job and do it well, but do not fall in love with it, for you will find that it will always remain faithful only to itself and not to you.

It is when you stop caring and you let go that good fortune knocks on your door.

A gift can be both a blessing and a burden.

Staggered lunchtimes.

A quiet Sunday at home.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun gives life to his favored garden plants.

Now watching Thailand's The Stranded on Netflix, a seven-episode thriller about a group of students stranded on an island. I'm following it because it was produced and directed by Ekachai Uekrongtham (the different episodes, though, apparently have different directors or assistant directors). 

Ekachai was in the very first workshop on psychic abilities in the service of playwriting I conducted in Singapore, in the early 1990s. He also directed The Beautiful Boxer some years ago, a movie about Parinya Charoenphol, a transgender muay thai warrior. That movie was written by Desmond Sim, who was also in my workshop.

Of all the cakes Angelique received for her birthday, I like the rainbow cake from Boulangerie the best. Aubrey tells me that it's only a multilayered chiffon cake with food coloring in five colors of the rainbow (they omit orange and indigo for some reason), but I SWEAR that I can taste colors as I can feel them on my fingers with different crayons and colors of yarn, and so each mouthful from each layer is a different flavor to me.

Good night, Cubao!

The moon powders her face with soft stardust.

One Message To One Of 213 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: The conscientious single parent will wipe the dining table clean after everyone has eaten and retired for the night. So, too, must you wipe your mind clean at the end of the day before having a good night's sleep.

Staggered dinnertimes. Aubrey took her dinner upstairs; Angelique and Jazz went out to dinner.

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, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Jazz arrived.

Neil and Bertod walked Keiko Kashigawa, Yukiko Taka, and Cloudy on the compound and gave them a lavender-scented, anti-flea shampoo.

Then Neil watered all of the plants on the roof deck, side balcony, and front balcony gardens.

Yakult delivery.

It is all right to disagree with a philosopher, for his objective is always to show you how much you disagree with truth.

Neil reported for work this afternoon. He's now doing a thorough cleaning of our kitchen.

My mother's birthday. Lit candles and joss sticks at our family altar and columbary.

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

 One can never move on from injustice.

Good morning, Cubao!

Nature always responds to the sound of the drum.

Finished watching all 16 episodes of Tale of the Nine-Tailed on Netflix. Enjoyed every minute of it. Loved the story, screenplay, direction, special effects--and most especially everyone's truthful performance. The entire series could have been tightened to eight episodes, though. In my opinion there were too many characters, too many subplots, and too many sequences with magic and magical gadgets, as though there were an attempt to make it an adult Harry Potter movie. Having said that, it is really all about love, brotherhood, parenthood, and friendship, and it was in the scenes involving those that the dialogue sparkled like verbal diamonds.  

A must-watch for the pandemic period. (Yes, in the later episodes, an epidemic broke out.) And I must say, a lot of gorgeous knitted sweaters!

One of the strangest results of the lockdowns is that families are now more comfortable watching movies only with themselves, or people they know, rather than inside a cavernous, dark movie theater filled with strangers.

Raul Deodato Arllano 's _Island_ at Altro Mondo Creative Space, Makati (October 2 - 24, 2021)

The artist has become a tropical island. Back to the country where he was born, he sheds his concern for all of the expectations previously imposed on him by his foreign audiences. He has come into his own and has nothing more to prove to others. The artist's clearest biographical piece is his triptych titled The Island. In the left panel, reflecting his past, he lets go of black boulders, signifying his burdens, that drop into the sea. The center panel is his present: he has become The Awakened Volcano, an island within an island, spewing his plume of assertion into the sky not like lava but like semen, declaring that he is back, that he is here to stay, and that he is a dangerous force, albeit a creative one. In the right panel, he dreams of a future not without woman--someone now distant? someone as yet unidentified, since we cannot see her face?--and not without his loved ones, whom he allows to ride on his shoulders and cling to his body.

Submission of Man depicts the artist's surrender to solitude's embrace. He is aware that isolation has consequences yet does not regret his choice. To the left of his painting is his Shadow Self sitting like a black bulul, the rice god, the god of the harvest, whom he has begged to be his ally rather than confront as an enemy. His submission pays off. The rocks of the god's cavern rise into the sky and transform into clouds.

The motif of the Shadow god reappears in ALPHA. What we see here is not the typical pair of bululs comprised of a man and a woman. Both bululs are male, the Shadow Self and the artist who has now become his equal. Or more than his equal, since his penis is much longer than the Shadow Self's. This is a painting about potency: the artist's newly-acquired powers over men and women. The sun rises behind both figures along with the world, a woman with a deconstructed vagina and breasts, that is ready to receive them as one.   

The rest of the paintings in the exhibit are landscapes of the artist's mind. They are of the artist's retirement home as seen through his eyes. Unlike his paintings done abroad with furious colors and deliberately jagged lines, there is something soothing and graceful in these new works. There is no more anger, only passion, and you know that this man will be producing more astounding paintings to his dying day. 

Monet has found his Giverny in Calaca, Batangas. It will be a place that many a co-artist will visit in the years to come. This impressionist, however, is no longer a fan of Cezanne. He is completely Raul Deodato Arellano.

Good night, Cubao!

Night elves sing mysterious serenades at midnight.

One Message To One Of 213 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Give priority to the needs of your family over your own. You will feel so much better for it.

Staggered dinnertimes.

Things are hopping at M.s' cafe. An entire group of employees from EDSA came to have dinner there.

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, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Replenished our soda supply. Nog carried the leather tote bag for me and walked me home.

Swung by the neighborhood grocery with Neil.

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Aubrey cooked hot and spicy tuna pasta again, this time with fettuccini. I also had ground pork in fresh bell peppers.

A man who populates his garden with as many different plants as possible is truly appreciative of multiculturalism and diversity.

I became so sick of American supervisors telling us to "never use the passive voice" that I deliberately went out of my way to break the rule. And I called it creative writing.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is a sieve through which sunlight falls on earth.

Good night, Cubao!

Gifts keep arriving when a fairy prince or princess is in love with you.

One Message To One Of 213 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Teapots are designed to serve at least two, but what's to prevent you from having the whole pot all to yourself?

Angelique came down to a late dinner after a 30-minute recitation.

Brought some food over to M.'s cafe staff.

Night chores.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Dinner at home with Aubrey; Angelique has online classes through 9:30 PM.

Asked Bertod to fry Hungarian sausages in the kitchen.

Greedy students are interested only in taking what they can get--not only from their teachers but also from their fellow students.

If we have literature, art, ballet and modern dance, and theater yet only the elite patronize them, we cannot say that the entire nation has achieved the right level of sophistication, enlightenment, and spiritual development.

Never trust institutions that offer free visas in exchange for your enrolling your children in their countries' universities. It does nothing to help your own country's economy.

Mayana plants resent being located where there are many passersby.

When an ambulance passes by, say a silent prayer for the speedy restoration to normal health of the sick person inside it. Believe it or not, it prevents you from being hospitalized yourself.

You see--it didn't pay off to stick with friends who were funny and made you laugh. In times of crisis, even they had less money than you had and were more desperate than you were.

Pixies like residing not only in flowers but also inside snow globes.

Being well-intentioned is not enough for people to want to vote for you.

The weak will always strategically place themselves behind the strong.

The best part of working in an office is always when it's time to go home.

Know the mythology of the country you were born and raised in. Only then will your psyche be in direct communication with you.

When ill or feeling out of sorts, listen to the music of outer space.

Learn to enjoy being wherever you are. Upon doing so, you become beautiful to yourself and to others against any setting.

Nature produces gemstones, but it is the goldsmith who showcases their full beauty.

Never stock up on plastic ware you will never get to use. They age, they discolor, they go brittle, and they become trash.

The Parolan Christmas bazaar, on the Farmers Garden Parking lot along EDSA, Araneta Center, is now open--this early, in October--and I can take sunset walks through it again, as I do every year. Looking forward to buying Vigan empanada, bagnet, puto bumbong, and bibingka, and to getting lost in the fantasy world of colorful lights and decorations.

Staggered lunchtimes.

https://tonyperezphilippinesenchantedknits.blogspot.com/

Whenever you feel restless and unable to focus on an activity, it is because the spirits want you to be still and converse with them.

Detachment is a form of freedom.

If you are neither self-sufficient nor talented, ask for help from your spirit guides rather than from other people. Many a nobody's genius blossomed to the fullest because he had this kind of humility.

There are people who will never get rich because they are too kind.

Good morning, Cubao!

Mercury shines in the firmament even before the sun sets.

Of all the different pieces of jewelry, only earrings have no binding effect on their wearer. Necklaces, bracelets, and rings do.

Good night, Cubao!

The single mother dreams of a bright future for her little boy.

One Message To One Of 213 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with more than three syllables in your name: While windows allow you to look out into the world, they also allow the world to look into your house. Never show more than the world should see.

M. sent over a bowl of sopas.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Night chores.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

It always pays to have a hard copy of everything.

Never stock up on electric lanterns with wiring that deteriorates over time. It is wiser to have those lanterns for one-time use only.

It is calmer after the storm than before it, except that no one notices in disaster's wake.

You have the power to populate your heaven with only the people you like, as you have the power to encode their names and their faces in a computer.

On Episode 9 of Tale of the Nine-Tailed. Am fascinated with the spoken Korean language. Unlike Chinese and Japanese I cannot make out distinct, separate words. Everything sounds like a succession of vowels in undulating intonations.

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Asked M. to deposit money in an antique dealer's bank account.

Waiting for a delivery.

Shou Chen sent me these photos of the set in progress for Singapore's experimental production of On N. Diversion Road (On The North Diversion Road). Set designed by TK Hay and lights are being done by Alberta Wileo.

The production is mindful of health protocols.

In any country, educated minds are a sorry minority.

Educated minds believe they have attained supreme salvation from ignorance, conveniently forgetting that uneducated minds have a completely different outlook on salvation.

Uneducated minds will always see, over every past 50 years, that educated minds are concerned only with themselves and have the arrogance to believe that only they know what is right and what is wrong. Indeed, the most that the educated minds did for the uneducated minds was dole out material freebies and evacuate them from their homes during natural disasters. They did NOTHING for their MINDS. 

Thus, when the majority vote differently from educated minds, educated minds rant and rave and call them hopeless fools.

In the end, really, who are the hopeless fools? 

Life is a continuous cycle not only of physical but also of mental karma.

Good morning, Cubao!

In the daytime, stars are silver on a silver firmament.

Good night, Cubao!

The enchanted puppy asks for its own bed, pillow, and blanket.

One Message To One Of 212 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: A good administrator, whether in the workplace, at home, or online, never holds grudges.

Brought some food over to M.'s cafe staff.

Night chores.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

OMG I think the Koreans drink Soju with EVERY meal.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey. We ordered Chinese food from Hap Chang, Ivy's favorite restaurant, and a black velvet cake. Angelique's high school and college friends sent cakes as well.

Center yourself not when the world is tranquil and still but when chaos surrounds you.

Only delusional fools organize festivals during a pandemic.

As often happens, when you find The One, you will also find that he has found someone else.

A reality check always involves not only how practicable your fantasy is but also how much money you have and how much you can spend.

It's also Lennoel's birthday and M.'s cafe crew has scheduled a private drinking party tonight.

Back from jalan-jalan at the center with Angelique and Aubrey. Toto drove for us. Went to the bank, changed dollars to pesos, sent some money to my younger son Chito, did major groceries, and had lunch out. Also bought two more stainless steel pans.

Happy 26th Birthday to my eldest granddaughter, Angelique!

Grandpa loves you!

This was the baby I used to carry in my arms. She once cried and sulked for half an hour because I forgot to give her a kiss before leaving for work. Now she has come into her own.

Good night, Cubao!

Single and unattached gnomes wear striped pants.

One Message To One Of 212 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with three syllables in your name: Enjoy variation. Never get stuck on personal routines and rituals that no longer mean anything to you.

Asked Bertod to bring some food over to M.'s cvafe staff.

Night chores.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Staggered dinnertimes; Angelique has online classes through 9:30 PM.

My younger son Chito rode a small boat to an island barangay and did postmortem antigen testing on three cadavers. 

Mike sent us a grocery bag full of assorted joss sticks.

Staggered lunchtimes.

Alkaline water delivery, 45 gallons.

It was a rainy night. It is a rainy morning.

A big breakfast, as in The Color Purple.

Good morning, Cubao!

On Mondays the sky is a pale cerulean.

Now on Episode 2 of Tale of the Nine-Tailed. Really about a red fox's search for his lost love from 600 years ago, who is supposed to have reincarnated.

As for myself, if I discover that my loved one has reincarnated as an atchay, I'll choose to forget everything.

Staggered dinnertimes.

Even if people think you worship statues, it is not the statues that respond to your prayers but the spirits they represent.

M. and Bertod are now working on the roof deck, side balcony, and front balcony gardens.

"Saan ka nagtatrabaho?" is the most embarrassing question of the year. People feel that they need to give a substantial answer to this question if only to save face and show others that they are employed.

Yet, this is not the time to go out and seek employment--no more than it is the time for a playwright to write plays that will only remain unstaged.

Aubrey graduated from university last semester and has been eager to apply for a job, but I've been doing everything to keep her safe at home. In the meantime I've been encouraging her to engage in creative activities. So far she is into gardening and clay sculpture.

Only a person with no electric power at home dreads the sunset.

Broke my viewing rule and am currently watching Tale of the Nine-Tailed, a Korean series. It has 16 episodes but I couldn't get off it after the first, gripping, episode.

There are no red foxes in the Philippines. The asuwang is too crude and too primal an equivalent. Although they feed on viscera, foxes are extremely beautiful, highly intelligent, possess unusual, magical powers, and some of them have even been elevated to the ranks of deities.

Brian and Neil are on a jaunt to Divisoria. Missing the days when I spent half-days exploring Chinatown. I want to look for my lost friend Ho Jie again.

Varieties of "English" in the Philippines:

Teacher Trainer/Educator: All consonants exaggerated and unduly stressed, such as pronouncing "transformational education" as "CHranSHformaSHUnal eJUcaSHun". 

International School: Confused hodgepodge of East Coast English (usually New York) and West Coast English (usually San Francisco).

Balikbayan: Caricature slang, frequently with a twang.

Call Center Supervisor/IT Tutor: Slow and overly clear, as though directed to a subordinate in an insincerely friendly manner.

Broadcasting Auditionee: With a conscious and deliberate effort to introduce variety of rhythm and texture.

Visayan: Pronouncing "short o" as "short u" and "short u" as "short o".

Konyo Male: A lot of obscenities mixed in.

Konyo Female: Sing-song and with a pretentious Spanish accent that comes across as Italian.

Engalog: Peppered with Tagalog words and expressions such as "ano", "kuwan", "nga", "naman", and "eh".

In all my 70 years I have never met anyone who speaks "American English" and "British English"--maybe because no such things exist. Even the American officers at the Embassy spoke in different ways when I was there.

I find that "American English" and "British English" are mainly a matter of spelling, syntax, and idiomatic expression. Therefore, while I have never met anyone who speaks "American English" and "British English", I have READ many authors who WRITE in "American English" and "British English". SPEAKING "English" is an entirely different matter, and cannot be judged as right or wrong because of the speakers' culture, historicity, and frames of reference. As such, none of the eight varieties I mention above are "wrong", they are simply different.

Tony Perez's Art of War: Be a complete bitch to people who don't like you, simply because you don't like them too.

Sights transport you to past memories and associations. 

Scents transport you to magical realms you've never been to before.

It is that moment when your eye focus coincides with the exact location of an insect in mid-air--and in that moment you see every detail of that insect with breathtaking exactness--that you realize you are a gamma werewolf.

Temporal time is always limited, but dare to take your time. There is no such thing as "unfinished business". You can always pick up from where you left off in your next lifetime.

Staggered lunchtimes.

Second batch of clay materials for Aubrey arrived.

Watched Commitment on Netflix last night. Liked it, but am beginning to suspect that serious Korean movies always end with the protagonists getting killed.

Angelique and Jazz had an early celebration of Angelique's birthday with a dinner out; they came home past midnight.

Replenished our soda supply. 

Wearing my black witch's hat today,

Rose 11:00 AM. I met Death in the street on my way to the hawkers' center. A black hearse laden with white flowers pulled out from Barrio Panopio en route to the district cemetery. Aling Elvie, who owns the snack stand, not only informed me that the deceased was a 50-year-old police retiree, she also said that someone else on Planas II died. 

The air is still. It will most certainly rain soon. There is no traffic on P. Tuazon Boulevard because it is a Sunday. In the meantime life goes on, but death goes on too.

Good noon, Cubao!

The sun  transforms terracotta into useful vessels.

I celebrate Halloween every day of the month in October. I have 31 different fantasy and horror T-shirts and nine hats that I wear in rotation. It's a costume display I like doing every year. The shirts are laundered and then stored in a big backpack, and the hats in an armoire, November to September.

Good night, Cubao!

Gnomes' health care and beauty salons are always in flower gardens.

One Message To One Of 212 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Always review your week and make a list of everything you were unable to do and everything you would have done differently.

Asked Lennoel 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 snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.

Staggered dinnertimes. Angelique and Jazz are going out for dinner.

It is NOT a small world. There are many friends and acquaintances from my past whom I want to see but I know I will never see again.

As a matter of fact I have next-door neighbors whom I haven't seen in years.

Avoid regressing, whether physically, mentally, or emotionally.

The mind is a labyrinth, the heart an open field.

Everyone has a unique style of being. That is why there cannot be only one heaven in the afterlife.