The idiomatic phrase "Tama na!' is quite interesting. It is uttered by victims of torture and gang rape to indicate to their tormenters that they cannot take any more discomfort and pain.

Yet, literally, "Tama na" means "Right already" and can actually be taken to mean approval rather than disapproval.

The soul will go on and on in a series of different bodies in successive lifetimes. Its faces will almost never be the same, but its hands and feet will.

If you no longer dream of your deceased parents, it is because they have reincarnated into new lifetimes.

Which of your ancestors always figure in your dreams and are undeniably responsive to your prayers and your pleas for help?

Never write nonsense, for it is a waste of energy and is nothing more than mental debris.

Enunciate clearly. Men who feel that they are losers in life tend to mumble and speak inaudibly.

 Angelique and Jazz left to buy something and have a late lunch out.

Worked half an hour on thirteenth glaze.

Worked an hour on twelfth glaze.

Jazz arrived.

A very early, mid-morning, lunch at home. Angelique and Aubrey still resting upstairs; it's the first day of their holiday break from school.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun wears a royal turban encrusted with topaz for sunshine and aquamarine for rain.

Remember that your skin needs to breathe easily at night.

What at first appears difficult turns out to be easy; what at first appears easy turns out to be difficult.

Old photos are fun to keep and nostalgic to look at and relive, but the reality is that they keep you back more than they move you forward.

It is not superstitious to wear or use at least one new item on New Year's day. It jumpstarts your year with a fresh attitude or outlook.

Due to the pandemic, am foregoing one of my favorite pastimes: watching the crush of travelers going home to their respective hometowns at the Araneta Center busport.

Always paint human figures from actual models, never from imagination. Otherwise you will never be able to capture the myriad of characters and emotions available. When you paint human figures from imagination, the only character and emotion that will come through are your own, and you will tend to repeat yourself in every painting until your entire oeuvre becomes decadent and boring. 

Good night, Cubao!

Coffee and cacao were originally grown by earth elementals.

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 spending some time watching Bounty Hunter D, Patty Mayo, Paula Zahn, and Dan Patrick videos.

Asked Lennoel to deep-fry two bowls of french fries in our kitchen for the granddaughters.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Worked an hour on eleventh glaze.

Worked an hour on tenth glaze.

Hired Neil and Brian to wrap Ascension and then set up the current work in progress, Painting #20, on the easel.

Back from jalan-jalan at the center. Had money changed for the weekend, sent some money to my younger son Chito, paid our water utility bill, bought three items for the studio, two items for the granddaughters, and one item for myself.

Fascinated with Rav Dror's commentaries on the Old Testament and on Jesus.

Unexpected holiday gift of Benguet Blend coffee from Peter and Christine Bellen Ang.

Whenever I take coffee from the Cordilleras, I hear gongs striking rhythm to a primal dance.

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Language deteriorates where social media rule, for, while words are used in social media to communicate with others, social media are really not verbal in nature--they employ, rather than left-brain hemisphere thinking, three-dimensional thinking.

The sky fairies sow silver seeds in the plantations of the clouds.

Good morning, Cubao!

Slept nine hours last night.

Good night, Cubao!

Elementals are silent witnesses to human misdeeds committed in the night.

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

Worked half an hour on ninth glaze in the studio area.

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

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, and then spending some time watching Bounty Hunter D, Patty Mayo, Paula Zahn,. and Dan Patrick videos.

Took an early dinner at home; Angelique is still resting upstairs and Aubrey is attending an electronic meeting.

Adequate rest helps prevent your body from being vulnerable to many kinds of ailments.

The hermit sees more than socially active people do.

Be rich, but do not be a prominent person. You will avoid having huge problems that way.

Sometimes the messenger is himself the source of the news.

I am hopelessly hooked on Chinese hot sauce. I eat almost everything with it.

Your works in progress always tell you what to do next, every step of the way.

Learn to shun a religion that continues to condition the public that men are superior to women.

The head of the family must always be constant and consistent, even to himself.

Worked half an hour on eighth glaze.

Gave Yukiko Taka her second dose of deworming drops. It's been two weeks since the first one.

Worked half an hour on seventh glaze.

Worked an hour on sixth glaze.

Angelique came down to lunch in the dining room; this is her penultimate day of electronic classes before her holiday break.

A very early lunch at home; Angelique and Aubrey still resting upstairs.

Huge areas of Yukiko Taka's fur are gradually turning beige. She won't grow up to be a white dawg after all.

Good morning, Cubao!

Glass castles sparkle above snow-white clouds.

Good night, Cubao!

House mice knit warm sweaters from cobweb skeins.

My day was wiped out by all of the time we spent at the center.

I hope to do a lot of painting tomorrow to make up for it.

Night chores.

My favorite time of the day has come again: an evening shower, then spending some time watching Bounty Hunter D, Patty Mayo, Paula Zahn, and Dan Patrick videos.

Worked half an hour on fifth glaze.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

There will be herald angels.

When your feet tingle and become numb, it is usually because you need to be better-grounded in reality.

It is not too early to make plans for and map out your first quarter of 2021.

Fully experience and savor happy moments, for they do not last and are easily buried by sad moments.

Observe more than you act.

Train your children to value money and make it whenever they can, but honestly and without undue stress.

Think pleasant thoughts of yourself and of others only, and your dreams will be pleasant as well.

Because, if our dreams are the heaven or the hell we continue to exist in after we die, we would not want to exist in an eternal nightmare.

Now prepare a personal scenario for each day through the end of this year, and mark the highlights, if any, of each day.

What do you need to make each day satisfying and complete?

Have you omitted any obligations and activities?

How much time each day are you spending with your family and alone?

A well-prepared scenario each day helps you balance your availability, your energy, your time, and your money.

Each scenario is also a snapshot of a day in your life.

Author your life and give it a happy ending.

Worked an hour on fourth glaze.

Happy Birthday to my daughter-in-law Ivy!

Lit candles and special joss sticks at our family altar.

Angelique, Aubrey, and I are back from the center. Toto drove us there.

We did major groceries and had lunch out.

Good day, Cubao!

During a solar eclipse, the sun sends flying kisses to everyone.

Good night, Cubao!

Empty bedroom corners are best converted to pets' sleeping spaces.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

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, then spending some time watching Bounty Hunter D, Patty Mayo, Paula Zahn, and Dan Patrick online videos.

Worked half an hour on third glaze.

Worked an hour on second glaze.

An early lunch at home alone, then Angelique came down to lunch in the dining room; Aubrey still resting upstairs.

Early gifts from my sisters arrived this morning. Everything is in cash--as my gifts always are. I guess, no one feels like shopping the old-fashioned way.

To view the photo, go to Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=3568910693195632&set=a.936008466485881.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun casts rainbows through dragonfly wings.

Some years ago portrait artist Rafael del Casal was chosen to do the painting of Aeneas carrying Anchises for the movie Ang Larawan, the musical version of National Artist Nick Joaquin's Portrait of the Artist as Filipino. For some reason the producers did not like the painting, and it was kept mostly defocused in the background. Rafael was perplexed and quite offended by this.

I never bothered to inquire, but it is possible that the producers felt that Rafael's rendition of Lorenzo el magnifico's painting in his classical, realist style was inappropriate to the material. Lorenzo el magnifico was a rebel and an outcast among his peers. Braque, Matisse, and Picasso were already deconstructing realist images elsewhere in the world--so, then, must have Lorenzo el magnifico.

Good night, Cubao!

Conscientious pets go on night patrol round your house at 12:00 MN and 3:00 PM, that is why they sleep a lot in the morning.

While going over many of my Postings, I notice that the first letters of successive Postings sometimes spell out names, but I don't know why that happens. My recent Postings recently spelled out the name "Dido".

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Asked Neil 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 Bounty Hunter D, Patty Mayo, Paula Zahn, and Dan Patrick online videos.

In my blog titled Tony Perez's Enchanted Knits I mention a workshop I once led for the high school students of Philippine National School for the Blind under the auspices of the U.S. Embassy in Manila. One of the exercises in that workshop was to have the participants feel crayons and strands of yarn of different colors and determine the differences in feeling. Ninety-nine percent of the participants succeeded in identifying colors by feel alone. The color pink stood out most--pink yarn has a sandy, sticky feeling between one's fingers.

While painting this afternoon I noticed, for the first time, that different colors mixed with linseed oil have different SMELLS. I'm going to continue observing this before describing the unique smell of each color.

Do not spend your money on a trip or a vacation if part of what you are buying is the danger and the probability of contracting a virus.

One way of explaining that God is everywhere is that He/She is in your Superconscious, your Conscious, your Subconscious, your Unconscious, and the Collective Unconscious.

You need not worship gods and goddesses. All you have to do is believe in them.

Talismans you've forgotten but are still in your possession continue to work effectively for you.

Rest and sleep are the best medicine for physical and psychological stress.

https://tonyperezphilippinescyberspacebook18.blogspot.com/

Employment's evil is taking employees away from their families, for all of that time can never be repaid. This is one of the reasons why most intelligent employees desist from getting married and/or having children.

Many people are mentally, emotionally, and physically weary. They yearn to lie back and rest and have someone take care of them. Their biggest mistake, though, is taking on lovers in the hope of achieving that end.

Lovers don't take care of you. They expect you to take care of them.

Swung by the neighborhood grocery and did minor groceries.

Worked half an hour on first glaze.

The year-end holidays should never be a source of stress. If they are, you miss the point of the holidays completely.

Teach your children ambition. Only then can they change their lives, the lives of others, and the world.

The best block lettering to adopt is the handwritten block lettering in your favorite comic book.

Remember this throughout your old age: a retiree needs no new friends, for he has more than enough of old ones.

Both a loving wish and a curse travel swiftly through ether.

The least unlikely person is usually the one who has an intense crush on you.

In the midst of the hilly city I hear the rushing of the sea.

Working on Painting #20 but already making sketches for Painting #21.

An egg-shaped container is the best vessel for written wishes.

Honor the elements in your paintings and in your literary works.

Never praise a fat little girl for being cute. She will only grow up to be fat woman.

I always cherish my freedom to be unpredictable.

Monday, Monday

UnFriended more non-interactive Friends. It was like placing unwanted items in a cardboard box to give away to charity.

Now down to 4,757 from 5,000.

Angelique came down to lunch in the dining room. She has an electronic class after noon.

Sangria delivery for New Year's Eve arrived. Must pay Aubrey for it.

Worked half an hour on fourth glaze.

Lunch at home alone; Angelique and Aubrey still resting upstairs.

The granddaughters' last week of electronic classes before the holiday break, and Angelique is counting hours.

Since about a week ago the compound tenants have been allowing their little children to play outside, albeit within the gates, perhaps because it's getting close to holiday time. Yukiko Taka is oblivious to their shrieks and laughter since she spends most of her time in the laundry area and is focused on lapping up her milk, but I recall that Cerefina loved children and used to bark at them while standing on our side porch.