Took an early dinner at home alone; Angelique has online classes through 9:30 PM and Aubrey preparing for her night shift.

When you allow someone to fall in love with you, make sure that he does not want from you more than you are willing to give.

It is always useless to scold the wind for passing through.

When your feet are frequently numb, it could be because you were a merman in an early, past life.

One-hour, late afternoon nap.

Worked half an hour on thirty-second glaze.

An early lunch at home alone.

Worked an hour on thirty-first glaze.

Three deliveries arrived.

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

In the last analysis, the masses are sick and tired of religious leaders and university professors telling them what to think, what to say, and what to do.

You cannot impose your own heaven on those who have a different concept of heaven, no more than you can dictate what they should wear and what they should eat.

Some people get awards. Other people get popular votes.

They seldom get both.

Good morning, Cubao!

The self-righteous are incapable of locating their blind spots.

There are magical spells that should be cast for three days straight and in isolation.

When a man says that he was called by God and is doing His will, what he does not realize is whether he was called to glory or to chastisement.

Good night, Cubao!

Light prayer joss sticks and candles in bottles regularly, not only when you need to.

One Message For One Of 283 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with nine syllables in your name: Whatever the outcome of anything, the future is STILL in your hands.

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.

6:30 PM. Granddaughters back from voting. My younger son Chito voted too.

Aubrey passed by the neighborhood teahouse before coming home.

David watered the plants in the roof deck, side balcony, front balcony, and ground-floor gardens.

Worked half an hour on thirtieth glaze.

Worked half an hour on twenty-ninth glaze.

Worked half an hour on twenty-eighth glaze.

An early lunch at home alone; Aubrey still resting upstairs.

Angelique left the house 3:00 AM to report for work 4:00 AM as election paralegal at one of the schools designated as a voting venue. 

Good morning, Cubao!

The day gnomes sell sweetmeats at stalls on both sides of the street.

Good night, Cubao!

Never complicate your life with adolescent melodrama.

One Message For One Of 280 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Always be aware of the amount of time you are spending on evening activities in order to make it to bed at a regular hour. 

Dinner at home with Angelique and Jazz; Aubrey still resting upstairs.

Jazz bought pizza to celebrate his office promotion.

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.

M. and David moved the canvas I am working on to a second easel.

One-hour, early evening  nap.

Worked half an hour on twenty-seventh glaze.

Worked half an hour on twenty-sixth glaze.

Staggered lunchtimes.

Good morning, Cubao!

It is in the moment you clear your mind that your magical spell shoots forth.

A real life counselor must be able to see things differently from everyone else. 

Good night, Cubao!

Light a cone of incense, rest your weary head, and leave everything to the kindness of the cosmos.

One Message For One Of 291 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Keep safe--not only from viruses but also from human beings.

Angelique and Jazz arrived from dinner out.

Asked Nino 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.

In Mandarin "Diba?" means "Isn't that so?"

Exactly like "'Di ba?" in Filipino.

Staggered dinnertimes.

David watered the plants in the roof deck, side balcony, front balcony, and ground-floor gardens.

Noel and Chin leave for Bicol tonight to celebrate their town fiesta there.

 Worked half an hour on twenty-fifth glaze.

One-hour, afternoon nap.

Worked half an hour on twenty-fourth glaze.

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

Worked half an hour on twenty-third glaze.

What you do not have, others have.

That is the curse of being a social animal.

Remember this, that karma is almost always immediate, or occurs within one's present lifetime.

The succeeding lifetime is seldom to fulfill past lives' karma. It is, rather, an opportunity to live anew.

I love grape-flavored Gatorade. Drinking it is like drinking liquid amethysts.

Yes, drink it from a crystal goblet, not from the plastic bottle.

Tony Perez's Art of War: When someone tries to embarrass you or put you to shame, do not hide under a stone as he wishes. Instead, ascend to the highest level and light fireworks in the sky.

A person's writing and painting will always reveal his educational attainment and level of sophistication.

The weekend immediately before elections, observe how every diehard campaigner manifests superstitious thinking, superstitious behavior, and the defense mechanism ritual.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky fairies rewind skeins of drizzle yarn.

Good night, Cubao!

The angel of vindication puts a protective hand on your shoulder.

One Message To One Of 290 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with six syllables in your name: Embrace aging. It is a great blessing, especially if you prepared for it financially.

Retirement is the time to relax and do nothing for the rest of your life. 

Dinner at home alone, then Angelique and Aubrey came down to dinner in the dining room and organized the day's major groceries.

Aubrey now preparing for her night shift.

Brought some food over to the 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 twenty-second glaze.

Heat rainfall on Cubao.

It was a Great-Gatsby-summer hot night, it is a Great-Gatsby-summer hot day.

Back from jalan-jalan with Angelique and Aubrey. Toto drove for us. Did major groceries and had lunch out. Bought some stuff at a mall and then swung by Book Sale, where the salesperson had set aside two books for me. 

Good morning, Cubao!

Sunbeams spin like the wheels of golden bicycles.

Do not clip your enemies' wings. Even they are still entitled to fly.

Years from now, when you look back at this time in our history, you will see that the pandemic was cruel to many, yet kind to a few.

Good night, Cubao!

Remain calm and composed.

Never panic, especially at night.

One Message For One Of 289 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with four syllables in your name: Do not dwell on your past joys. Take pleasure in the current ones to the fullest, and look forward to those in the future.

Yes, there will always be joys.

May 5, 2022

Worked on glazes #17, #18, #19, #20 and #21.

Dinner at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

Asked Nino 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.

Worked half an hour on sixteenth glaze.

Angelique is back from her second, on-site briefing.

Worked half an hour on fifteenth glaze.

Brian left for Bicol to celebrate their town fiesta there.

A very late lunch at home alone.

Aubrey came down to lunch in the dining room.

A delivery arrived.

Taking my morning cup of very black coffee at noon.

The sky is concave in the summer and convex in the rainy season.

Good noon, Cubao!

Overslept this morning, then went to the center with Toto. Withdrew money at the bank, changed dollars to pesos, paid our electric and phone bills, and sent some money to my younger son Chito.

The Spiritum Wacsim Pectorals

Left: The 2015 Brass Prototype; Right: The Final, Stainless Steel, Pectoral, of which several copies were struck 2016 - 2017. There are at least three interesting differences in text between that on the Prototype and that on the Final Pectoral. Note that these are not only talismans, they are also taladros in themselves. Only the Front (Masculine) panels of the pectorals are shown here; the Back (Feminine) panels were not and will not be photographed. 

I have observed, over the years, that Spiritum Wacsim is responsive to males only, and so I have stopped recommending him to my female students.

There are many interpretations of Spiritum Wacsim. Mine is that he represents dark (yin) energy from the Seven Archangels On The Left:

W - Waraquiel
A - Ariel
C - Cabriel
S - Seatiel
I - Iudiel
M - Mikael

As to the figure of Wacsim himself, he is, to me, an embodiment of Archangel Raphael, since he is depicted as being in the sea with the fish Venena at his feet.

Last but not least, I believe that Spiritum Wacsim is also the red-haired, hairy man in the Brothers Grimm's fairy tale "Iron John", a story that masculinist Robert Bly used to illustrate the dynamics of the Wild Man and the Shadow in every boy. Because of this, it is possible that Spiritum Wacsim is especially connected with men born under the horoscope sign Aries (The Ram/Mars/Red/Haring Bakal/Iron/Rust).

I am considering passing on both pectorals to my youngest male student, since he belongs only to my group and to no one else's. (I detest magical cross-fertilization and shun meetings with persons who have their own groups or octopus tentacles in groups other than my own.) The only constraint so far is that his first language is American English, and he is not very proficient in Filipino.

Good night, Cubao!

Four young men on a mystical journey check into the Travelers' Inn.

One Message For One Of 287 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with six syllables in your name: Always be careful on the road. Keep to well-lighted areas. Change your route from time to time.

Dinner at home alone; Aubrey preparing for her night shift.

Asked David 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.

Forty winks.

Four glasses jalu-jalo for Aubrey, Brian, David, and myself.

Worked half an hour on fourteenth glaze.

Aubrey came down to lunch in the dining room.

Two deliveries arrived.

Worked half an hour on thirteenth glaze.

Brian and David reported for work to overhaul, clean, and reorganize the laundry area.

Worked half an hour on twelfth glaze.

An early lunch at home alone; Aubrey asleep after her night shift.

Cocks crow to the sun across distances, as wolves howl to the moon across distances.

Good morning, Cubao!

Only the sunlight can shine through walls.

Good night, Cubao!

Crystal balls attune you to the different planets.

One Message For One Of 287 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with five syllables in your name: Sometimes it helps you sleep quickly and well by imagining that you are in bed with high fever, but do this cautiously lest your body slip into an actual fever.

Asked David 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 alone; Aubrey preparing for her night shift.

Forty winks.

Two deliveries arrived.

Worked half an hour on eleventh glaze.

David watered the plants in the roof deck, side balcony, front balcony, and ground-floor gardens.

Aubrey came down to lunch in the dining room.

Worked half an hour on tenth glaze.

Worked half an hour on ninth glaze.

A delivery arrived.

 An early lunch at home alone; Aubrey still resting upstairs.

If an artist is starving he is essentially an individual and social failure, because his first responsibility is to survive as a human being free from want.

Too much feminism creates a yin-yang imbalance, that is why Robert Bly came up with the concept of masculinism.

Otherwise our history would consist of drastic swings from male dominance to female dominance, and so forth, rather than a smooth and steady progression.

Good morning, Cubao!

Day gnomes serve coffee in golden mugs.

Angelique and Jazz came down to dinner. They are leaving for La Union with Angelique's former university classmates at 3:00 AM.

Good night, Cubao!

Lavender-scented cone incense induces a good night's sleep.

One Message For One Of 286 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with four syllables in your name: Learn how to maximize every weekend and every holiday from sunrise to sunset. Most importantly, never think of the work you need to resume afterward.

Staggered dinnertimes.

Night chores.

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

A drum band has been making the rounds of the neighborhood. Our barangay's patron is Saint Joseph the Worker.

M .'s cafe sent us a bowl of sopas.

Worked an hour on eighth glaze.

Currently using blue and green pigments, which are VERY difficult to wash off my fingers.