Staggered dinnertimes; Angelique has online classes through 9:30 PM and Aubrey preparing for her night shift.

Once in a while, fill in the blank for yourself:

"I can die happy only if ________________."

Five deliveries arrived.

It is infinitely more fun to be the person watching the movies than to be the person making them.

M. and David cleared the rooftop gutters and the secret parapet of leaf and twig debris.

Worked half an hour on fiftieth glaze.

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

Worked half an hour on forty-ninth glaze.

A very early lunch alone; Angelique resting upstairs and Aubrey asleep after her night shift.

Love makes a person beautiful.

Character makes a person beautiful and attractive.

But it is money that has the power to make a person beautiful, attractive, and appealing. 

Good morning, Cubao!

The clouds are crystal buckets suspended in the sky.

Good night, Cubao!

One must pick up after the rain, for things do not pick up themselves.

One Message For One Of 282 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with six syllables in your name: Petty thrills may make you feel good, but do they actually improve your status in life? 

Angelique came down to dinner in the dining room.

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

Night chores.

My favorite time of the ay 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 and Aubrey preparing for her night shift.

Gray skies and rain in Cubao.

Worked half an hour on forty-eighth glaze.

Watched all three episodes of The Raincoat Killer: Chasing a Predator in Korea (2021), a documentary about serial killer Yoo Young Chul. The first crimes occurred in 2003. The documentary is told from the points of view of the police, criminal profilers, detectives, journalists, historians, and victims' relatives.

Yoo Young Chul is the Korean counterpart of the USA's Richard Ramirez, minus the Satanism.

   

Angelique came down to lunch in the dining room.

Worked half an hour on forty-seventh glaze.

Two-hour, late morning nap.

A very early lunch at home alone; Angelique resting upstairs and Aubrey asleep after he night shift.

Good morning, Cubao!

Summer heat is a serial killer.

After the Mardi Gras of the month of May, no one wins the competition.

The ailing priest says goodbye.

Fire speaks out again.

Good night, Cubao!

Patience harvests more rewards than you think.

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

You with eight syllables in your name: Do not be too quick to turn away a group of prospective clients from your restaurant. Two of them will be blessings to your business in the future.

Night chores.

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

Nino fried calamares to add to our dinner.

Staggered dinnertimes.

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

Worked half an hour on forty-sixth glaze.

You are the needle, and your astral thread is what you leave behind as you go from room to room.

Worked half an hour on forty-fifth glaze.

Worked an hour on forty-fourth glaze.

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

Staggered lunchtimes.

Good morning, Cubao!

The pixies and the bees gather their share of honey from the flower gardens.

Watched all 59 episodes of China's 2020 Love and Redemption, about several pairs of lovers on missions and adventures through the Heavenly, Mortal, and Demon Realms--a xianxia version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, especially with the eventual revelation of secret identities as the plots unraveled. The main protagonists are 16-year-old Chu Xuanji of the Shaoyang Sect and Yu Sifeng of Lize Palace. The overall backdrop of the narrative is that the members of the Demon Realm are attempting to revive the Mosha Star to rule over all three realms, while members of the Heavenly Realm and the Mortal Realm are out to prevent this from happening. There are four mortal sects on earth that keep spirit keys for that purpose: Fuyu Island in the east sea (the moon blade), Lize Palace in the west sea (the dragon seal), Dianjing Valley in the north barren lands (the seven-star plate), and Shangyao sect in the mainland (the crystal lamp).

I enjoyed the succession of reincarnation through nine lifetimes in Episodes 27 and 28, and the albeit bizarre transformation of Chu Xuanji into Rahu Ketu and then back to Chu Xuanji in Episode 55. The earlier episodes feature a lot of split-screen scenes. As in The Untamed, fade-to-black lap dissolves are used, and an innovation I've never previously  encountered in other xianxia: extreme close-ups of hands and of fists, usually clenching fabric, to convey emotion rather than the usual reaction shots of characters' faces.  

There are continuity glitches. In Episode 12 Chu Xuanji is shown toying with an ink brush over a clear table, then in succeeding shots she is shown eating with chopsticks, the table suddenly filled with dishes. Head angles and eye directions do not match in some cut-to-cut shots. Many of the the landscapes are painted for matting, which was charming in its own way because it made me feel like I was virtually inside Chinese paintings. There were times, however, when concrete slabs looked like they were made of styrofoam or Urathane.

Because of the age bracket of the main protagonists, many of the scenes are mawkish and filled with adolescent misunderstandings. Some of the tender moments seem contrived, and the many grammatical errors in subtitling do not help any. Moreover, 59 episodes were really too long, so that there were unnecessarily repetitious flashback and protracted sentimental scenes that obviously served as padding. The real excitement begins in Episode 33--more than halfway through the entire series. That the Heavenly, Mortal, and Demon Realms are equal and coexistent was very interesting. And, thankfully, in the end, there was both love and redemption for everyone. 

Good night, Cubao!

Bedroom windows let in not only unusual, outside light but also unusual sounds from the environment.

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

You with seven syllables in your name: Make a serious effort to solve your problems before going to others to ask for help.

Dinner at home alone; the granddaughters are still full from their visit to the coffee shop and bake shop at the center.

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 forty-third glaze.

The granddaughters arrived from jalan-jalan at the center.

Worked half an hour on forty-third glaze.

Forty winks.

Worked an hour on forty-second glaze.

Back from a celebratory lunch out with family.

Good morning, Cubao!

The day is a camphor box of little treasures.

Good night, Cubao!

Four students camp out on the floor of the mage's den.

Angelique and Jazz back from registering for their National ID cards and having dinner out.

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.

One Message For One Of 279 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Things are not and do not look completely bad, so search for everything that gives you hope in your present situation.

Staggered dinnertimes.

Forty winks.

Worked half an hour on forty-first glaze.

Swung by the neighborhood grocery with David.

Worked half an hour on fortieth glaze.

Angelique came down to lunch in the dining room.

Worked an hour on thirty-ninth glaze.

After an absence of eight years, the bird man from Nueva Ecija passed through P. Tuazon Boulevard again. He brought his ware to the small loggia as soon as he saw me sitting there. Such gorgeous birds! Unfortunately all of our bird cages are now on our roof deck and contain plants in small pots. I should ask David to bring down one of them soon. 

An early lunch at home alone; Angelique has morning, online internship and Aubrey asleep after her night shift.

Laugh at others only if you are capable of laughing at yourself.

Since we do not have servants with itchy fingers, I keep a lacquer bowl of coins on our foyer table in case my granddaughters need small change. I dump all of the coins from my coin purse into the bowl regularly. There are times when the amount of coins in the bowl total hundreds.

Flores de Mayo parade at Araneta Center at 3:00 PM, but I'll just stay home and paint.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun strews yellow sapphires on the district's concrete pavement.

Good night, Cubao!

There are sentinels in every corner of the fairy palace.

One Message For One Of 278 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Stay where you are happiest, but make sure you always have the best for yourself.

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 Angelique; Aubrey preparing for her night shift.

One-hour, afternoon nap.

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

Look, Dick, look!

A new piece of cradled canvas arrives. This one's not for Maryhill School of Theology, though. It's for Painting #9 for my next exhibit. I so can't wait to finish Saint Sebastian to get started on it, but Sebastian might take me another month to complete and varnish.

Worked half an hour on thirty-eighth glaze.

You want this country to change?

First, endow the masses with higher education.

But that is not the end of it.

You then have to endow them with sophistication.

And sophistication is more expensive than higher education.

Like a dream almost realized, a good painting should arouse your insides so much that you feel like going to the toilet.

An early lunch at home alone.

Two deliveries arrived.

Worked half an hour on thirty-seventh glaze.

Good morning, Cubao!

Freedom from others is one of the greatest reliefs.

Good night, Cubao!

Once in a while, turn off the house lights and see how the neighborhood illuminates it from outside. 

One Message For One Of 277 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with seven syllables in your name: Do not fall into the abyss of self-righteousness.

Nino fried pepper beef for us.

Angelique cam down to dinner in the dining room; Aubrey already on her night shift.

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.

Staggered dinnertimes.

One-hour, early evening nap.

Worked half an hour on thirty-sixth glaze.

Yet another delivery arrived, this one for Aubrey.

Worked half an hour on thirty-fifth glaze.

Two more deliveries arrived.

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

Worked half an hour on thirty-fourth glaze.

Another delivery arrived.

An early lunch at home alone; Angelique still resting upstairs and Aubrey asleep after her night shift.

Another delivery arrived.

Three deliveries arrived.

Good morning, Cubao!

If everyone is a protagonist, then everyone is also an antagonist.

Good night, Cubao!

Gnome sentinels always take the secret corridors between bedrooms.

One Message For One Of 276 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Rest adequately, then get on with your own life.

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

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.

Staggered dinnertimes; Angelique has online classes through 9:30 PM, Aubrey preparing for her night shift.

Someone please tell me why the shoulders of all statues of Our Lady of Fatima that I've seen are too narrow. They are anatomically not proportional to their heads.

One-hour, afternoon nap.

Worked half an hour on thirty-third glaze.

Lunch at home with Angelique and Aubrey.

One-hour, mid-morning nap.

And then three deliveries arrived.

And now I just received a box of my favorite Bailon piaya from Tanya P. Lopez, through my neighbor, Glenn Mas.

M. sends me breakfast.

Good morning, Cubao!

When the elite are displeased and migrate to foreign countries, they finally become, in turn, members of the masses.

Good night, Cubao!

A glampsite is not complete without a snack tent.

One Message For One Of 276 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year

You with two syllables in your name: Every day is the beginning of a new life. Shed the troubles of the previous days and move forward.

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.