Good night, Cubao!
Stardust settles like silver glitter on the ground.
Photo by JR Dalisay / April 21, 2017
Sunday, November 6, 2022
One Message For One Of 1,600 Friends, One Every Night Of The Yeatr
You with four syllables in your name: Do not hesitate to ask for what you want. It will be given you as long as it is possible.
If it is not given you, do not ask a second time.
Saturday, November 5, 2022
Watched the Netflix documentary Earthstorm, in four parts: Tornado, Volcano, Earthquake, and Hurricane, each part running less than an hour.
Tornado features twister chasers across plains and the American south in 2021 and the tornado that swept across Kentucky in 2022. It includes explanations by meteorologists about how a tornado is formed.
Volcano shows the eruptions of Fagradalsfjall in Iceland, Cumbre Vieja of the Canary Islands, Masaya and Fuego of Nicaragua, and Campi Flegrei in Italy. There is brief mention of the eruptions of Vesuvius in Naples, Yellowstone in the U.S.A., Mount Toba in Indonesia, Taupo in New Zealand, and Baiae, in Rome. Scientists explain why, although volcanoes are dangerous and lethal, they are also beneficial to the earth.
Earthquake focuses on tsunami in Japan, the devastating quakes in Northridge, California in 1974, California's biggest earthquake in 1906, and the earthquakes and tsunami in Tohoku, Japan in 2011. Other places in Japan that are mentioned are Rikuzentakata, Sendai City, Kamaishi, Otsuchi. Seismologists and firefighters are among those interviewed.
It is interesting that Japan has a record of tsunamis stretching back over a thousand years. It is mentioned in Morioka Domain's Book of Miscellaneous Subjects that one tsunami "doesn't fit the mold," that in Kuwagasaki on midnight of January 27, 1700, in which 20 houses burned down and 13 were washed away--an "orphan tsunami" because there was no record of an earthquake at the time. The documentary poses a hypothesis: if the massive earthquake that occurred in Chile in 1960 was able to cross the Pacific and reach Japan, couldn't a similar earthquake elsewhere have caused the orphan tsunami in Kuwagasaki in 1700?
The documentarians turn to both ancient legend and science for an answer. In the Pacific Northwest, a North American legend of the Quinault people tell of the the Thunderbird Xanissah, who would fly over the sea, pick up the biggest whale, take it as high as the mountaintops, then drop it. The whale would hit the ground so hard that it would shake the earth. We are also shown how scientists in the Copalis Ghost Forest, in Washington, are able to search for evidence and telltale signs among the long-dead trees, inspecting their rings and determining that their final ring was in 1699 and stopped growing in 1700, indicating that a huge earthquake occurred there the same year as the Kuwagasaki earthquake.
The third part ends with how analysis of sediment can trace the patterns of earthquakes, such as those that occurred within the Cascadia Fault.
Hurricane shows the work of storm chasers and storm journalists, particularly during Hurricane Ida, a Category 4 that swept the Gulf Coast and New Orleans in 2021. There is reference to Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5, which tore into Louisiana in August 2005. There is also mention of Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines in 2013. We are informed that hurricanes are called cyclones in the region of the Indian Sea and typhoons in Asia.
On the whole, it seems that the documentary is meant as a wake-up call for everyone to heed the warning signs of climate change, although the ultimate conflict we seem to be facing is not only man against Nature also but man against fellow man.
One Message For One Of 1,600 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with four syllables in your name: Practice your talent without arrogance and without condescension, for those have been preventing you from making it big.
Friday, November 4, 2022
Watched all three episodes of the USA's 2022 Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes, based on 60 hours of conversation (November 1979 - April 1980) taped while Gacy was awaiting trial for murder, never released until now in this documentary.
Gacy was a neighborhood precinct captain, a Jaycees chaplain, a parade and party entertainer known as Pogo the Clown, and owner of a construction company called Painting, Decorating, Maintenance in Norwood Park Township, Illinois. He murdered more than 33 boys and young men, many of whom were his employees and labor recruits. He buried their bodies underneath his house, and, when there was no more space there, he dumped his victims' bodies in the river.
The taped conversations were made by Gacy's legal defense team. The entire documentary, however, includes interviews with a criminal attorney, prosecutors, a Jaycees president, a parade director, a defense attorney, a police lieutenant, a police officer, an investigator, a former inmate at Anamosa Reformatory where Gacy was imprisoned for sodomy early on, relatives of victims, survivors, and former employees.
The documentary is structured around the case of Gacy's last victim, Rob Piest, a 15-year-old pharmacy assistant in Des Plaines, in 1978, all the way from his being declared as missing through the time his body surfaced in the river a long time later.
As with other documentaries in this interview series, there is an attempt to provide a psychological analysis of the perpetrator from his childhood onward: a strict and abusive father, two failed marriages, a sexual identity crisis, egocentricity and arrogance, and a flair for fabricating lies and rationalizations. Gacy committed his first murder--that of whom he called the Greyhound Bus Boy--in 1972. Excavations of victims' bodies in Gacy's house in 1978 are shown, and, in the final episode, his trial (February 6 - March 10, 1980), after which he was sentenced to death.
There are interesting, rare film clips from the 50s and the 60s,.many of which the viewer will miss if he blinks his eyes too frequently and too long.
Gacy was executed May 10, 1994. A few of his victims' bodies remain unidentified.
One Message For One Of 1,600 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with two syllables in your name: Always draw energy and strength from within you, without being dependent on anything else.
Thursday, November 3, 2022
Your Messenger message:
"hello Sir Tony.. Just want to consult this.. If this has a way to let out.. My sister's friend broke a mirror for 3x last year, and as what we believed it will cause a great misfortune for 7 years. And now she's in troublesome life. Her family abandoned her.. She got pregnant and the father don't want to take responsibility. Is there anyway to contradict the spill?"
My reply:
Hello ______!
Breaking those mirrors have nothing to do with your sister's friend's current situation. "Bad luck" due to the breaking of a mirror is a mere superstition. What really happened is that your sister's friend made a series of wrong decisions.
Tell your sister's friend to ask a Chinese friend to take her to a Taoist temple and undergo a kue-un ritual.
Watched all eight episodes of Vietnam's 2022 Land of Spirits: The Young Shaman, a slapstick comedy about Tinh Lam, the son of exorcists, who takes on different cases and performs rituals, assisted by his butler, Manny. The cases include a haunted house, a river ghost, a series of possessions, a raped and murdered victim's ghost, a paralyzed old man, an abusive father, ghost children, and a haunted theater (my favorite set of sequences, though Ms. Nga's dialogue had no subtitles).
The cases overlap and are intertwined for they are all within the milieu of characters who are village stereotypes, including a Greek chorus of three gay gossips. The props and rituals are interesting. I liked the prayer prelude "May my prayer be heard everywhere. I pray to the deceased souls. I pray to all the elderly, uncles, aunties, brothers and sisters, to all my peers, and to all the children." The writer and the director give us some unique imagery. The movie is, however, hard to reconcile with psychism because the comic elements keep getting in the way and Tinh Lam uses sleeping pills, but it has poignant moments and is probably best viewed on a dull afternoon.
The Young Shaman is one of several movies in the series Land of Spirits.
One Message For One Of 1,500 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with seven syllables in your name: Years ago you saw crowds of people wanting to be your friends. Know today who the real friends are, for there are but a few of them--and this is true for everyone.
Wednesday, November 2, 2022
Back home from jalan-jalan at the center. Went to the bank, changed dollars to pesos, paid our electric and phone bills, and sent some money to my younger son Chito.
Had a Black Mamba with fries and blue lemonade at Zark's Burgers. I love having a big, fat, greasy burger once in a while, though I usually go alone because my granddaughters don't like it there. Among other things, the names of their burgers are scary, but their burger meat is excellent--it isn't made of ground beef patty. Love going there with male friends. There is ALWAYS mustard beside their ketchup, a sour variety as opposed to Australian mustard, which is quite bitter. I love taking fries with mustard, which is inconceivable to many Filipinos. Many atchay burger joints don't even KNOW what mustard is, and atchay supermarkets don't carry it as well.
One Message For One Of 1,500 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with five syllables in your name: Do not make the mistake of wanting to have fun with strangers.
Your Messenger message:
"Magandang hapon po. May itatanong po sana ako sa inyo tungkol sa aking naranasan: Noong ako po ay nagkaroon ng severe COViD last year. Tuwing 4pm po, sa loob ng isang Linggo, may naririnig ako na mga Buddhist monks na nagdadasal. Naririnig ko ito sa bintana ng kinaroroonan kong room sa ospital. Critical days po ang mga araw na yon sa akin. Only to find out, paggaling ko, wala daw pong Buddhist temple na malapit sa ospital. Halusinasyon ko lang po ba iyon? Sigurado ako sa naririnig ko, dahil pumupunta pa ako sa bintana, para marinig ito."
My reply:
Hello ______!
May kaibigan o kakilala kang Buddhist na taimtim na nagdasal o nagpadasal sa templo para sa 'yo. Naglakbay sa hangin ang mga dasal na iyon upang abutin ka.
Tuesday, November 1, 2022
Your Messenger message:
"I would like to ask for advice regarding the 'closure' for _____ and me. We have been separated for 20 years but stayed together in one house( separate rooms) for the sake of the _______. He has been using my company, enjoying the benefits but never a good provider. The money he was giving me was not even enough for food. I had a feeling he was a paranoid schizophrenia for his friend, Fr. ______________ was warning me to be careful for he dreamt _____ wanted to bury me alive with the boys in the hole he ordered to dig up pretending there was a treasure burried there.
"He was always promising to buy a house. We have been renting for more than 26 years with 5 cases of Ejectment Civil Case and Credit Card Case with _______ Bank . I have been implicated with his cases since he made me his co_maker. The Dept. of ______ Chief asked me to use my maiden name to protect my credibility. I wanted to file for Annulment but Lawyer and Judge were asking for almost 1M.
"Few years ago I borrowed 550,000 from a friend in Singapore to buy a house and lot but _____ stole all the money. Before that, I borrowed money to pay all his debts, car amortization, teachers salaries, kids tuitions, office rentals, etc.
"Before pandemic, he got blind and deaf. He was completely broke. Few months ago, the ________ Consulate suggested to send him to Nursing Home in _______. He got a Psychological Analysis last week and General Check up to go this week. He is very sick now. I would like to ask you what to do for 'closure' since he is in transition now. I am forgiving him for all his abuses to me and the boys likewise I am releasing him.
"Thank you, Tony."
My reply:
Hello _________!
You should have sought advice from women's groups such as Gabriela. I am certain they would have helped you somewhat had you consulted them early on.
Now that ______ is at the tail end of his journey, sit beside him and talk to him--tell him all of your thoughts and all of your feelings. Lead him through a visualization of crossing over to the light. It matters not that he cannot hear--it is like reciting the ritual prayers from the Tibetan Book of the Dead into the ear of the deceased. This exercise will be of help not only to him but also to you.
The candle of forgiveness is white. Light one at your altar every night.
Your Messenger message:
"I remember when we met when I was a teen and you tried to do a mental scan on me, you said that I had a strong psychic shield
"But Sir, how come I’ve only tried astral travel in my dreams 2.5x in my life (that I remember and was aware of doing)?
"Once when I was a child flying through our neighborhood streets and a few years ago as an adult flying over streets I am not familiar with
"The 2.5x was a few days ago when I dreamt that my spouse (I’m not married) offered up his hands to hold mine. Once I held his hands, my body just floated parallel to the ground and he twirled me around because he knew I would enjoy it very much"
My reply:
Hello _____!
Astral travel is pretty much involuntary rather than voluntary. It cannot be induced or incubated. It occurs when your presence is required by a group of spirits to:
--witness something important
--be with persons you've had relationships with in previous lifetimes
--meet your spirit guide or guides
--visit a place that your subconscious needs to remember, because you will actually be visiting that place in the future, in waking life.
--be with persons you've had relationships with in previous lifetimes
--meet your spirit guide or guides
--visit a place that your subconscious needs to remember, because you will actually be visiting that place in the future, in waking life.
One Message For One Of 1,500 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with four syllables in your name: The past comes rushing in, because you discovered that someone who disappointed you has actually still been waiting for you.
The Christmas bazaar on the west parking lot of Araneta Center is now open through the end of December. Can't wait to buy their pork barbecue, bagnet, Vigan empanada, bibingka with scraped coconut, and palitaw.
The best time to go is late at tonight and tomorrow night, because Farmers Garden will be open 24 hours. Would go and soak in the atmosphere if I were not a single parent and grandparent.
Monday, October 31, 2022
One Message For One Of 1,500 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with five syllables in your name: Always plan ahead. That way you'll ever be pressured to meet a deadline with your pants down.
Sunday, October 30, 2022
One Message For One Of 1,500 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with four syllables in your name: Overcome the bashfulness that prevented you from going and getting in the past. Now that you are ready, the teacher will come.
Dinner at home alone. The neighborhood is a ghost neighborhood; many stalls are closed and even D. shut down her store, presumably for her family to go to the cemetery.
Angelique, Aubrey, and Jazz went shopping this afternoon and are having dinner out.
Surprisingly, M.'s cafe has customers. Possibly neighbors who don't feel like doing their own cooking tonight.
Night chores.
Brought some food over to M.'s cafe staff.
My favorite time has come again: an evening shower, and then snuggling in bed with a Netflix movie.
Saturday, October 29, 2022
Your Messenger message:
"Hi Sir Tony, good afternoon! I hope you and your family are alright during this typhoon season
"I was hoping you could kindly shed some light on an experience I had when I was 6 years old
"We used to have games during Math class where we’d be divided into teams and each team member would be asked to solve a problem on the blackboard
"My team mate was writing the wrong answer, so from my seat, I just had the idea of pushing my answers to her through my thoughts
"What I found interesting was that the timing of my thoughts and her actions were nearly simultaneous. Of course, six-year old me did not yet know about telepathy
"But what I am very curious about was that while I was pushing my thoughts to her, even down to the act of erasing her initial solution on the blackboard, I felt this ball of energy in my right hand
"What was that ball of energy, Sir Tony? Unfortunately, I never got to feel that energy since
"I remember that my right hand was positioned as if it were trying to hold a big, imaginary ball
My reply:
Hello ____!
The ball of energy was your psychic power bank. The right hand is usually the giving hand, while the left hand is usually the receiving hand. You were giving energy to your team mate.
You no longer feel energy transfer because it has already become second nature to you.
Your Messenger message:
"still a goodmorning sir tony.. I hope you and your family are doing fine amidst the typhoon...
"I would just like to try if you can help me with my curiosity. "I had no electricity last night so I checked the living room with my flashlight and when I scanned across the tv screen there seems to be a doodle of a spiral on it. (will try to send the video, but messenger will dumb down the quality).. "I live alone and I know for sure I didn't and won't doodle a spiral on it."I hope you can shed some light and wisdom on this. I only have google to depend on and will meditate to listen to my guides too
"btw, I live in an old house po. 1950s po yata ito sir
"our ancestral house"
My reply:
Hello ____!
Based on the video you sent, I believe that the images on the TV screen were formed merely by air and moisture.
The surfaces of flat-screens are naturally difficult to wipe clean. Even after you've done a thorough cleaning, smudges reappear due to changes in temperature.
You have nothing to fear even if you wanted to have something to fear.
One Message For One Of 1,400 Friends, One Every Night Of The Year
You with five syllables in your name: It is time to showcase your talent. The first thing you have to do, however, is dissociate yourself from friends and acquaintances whose talents you admire, so that your own will shine through.
Friday, October 28, 2022
Your Messenger message:
"Goodevening po sir. Kailangan ko lang po ng tulong nyo. Sana po matulungan nyo po ako sir as im really heartbroken due to the sudden passing of my mom due to aneurysm.
"I really hope that you could notice me sir.. gusto ko lng po malaman how is my mom? Kng nasa mgnda po ba cyang klagayan just like nun npanaginipan ko po saknya that shes infront of what seems to be like a palace or kaharian
"...My mom's name is ________________________, 69/F,
"Last July 18 po sir, around 11am time, we were in the car bigla lang po cyang ngcomplain na parang sumasakit daw po batok nya. She asked us kng pwede daw po cyang uminom ng paracetamol. Husband told her na kng batok yan, BP yan at need nya magrest. When we got home, nkalakad pa c mama. As soon as she reached the bed, bigla nlng cyamg humiga. she was having excruciating Nape pain. Noon ko lang po cya nakita na ngreklamo ng ganun at umiiyak habang hawak po batok nya.. pagkabp ko 160/90 po. Ngcatapres po kmi sknya, bumaba nman po after few min, after 30minutes i was cinvincing her na sumama padin samin but she told me na 'dito nlng ako, maiwan nlng ako dito' kung kaya mo ba, ma? 'Oo kaya ko' then i already bid her goodbye, and told her i love you Ma.. then huling silip nmin ng husband ko sknya, she was getting pale.. i was reluctant to leave my mom in that state, i was questioning myself kng tama ba gagawin ko, na aalis ako at iiwan ko mama ko but napressure npo ako coz ngmamadali npo un husband ko at sister in law ko na umalis kaya i was left with no choice but to leave at that moment. Pero binilin ko po mom ko sa helper na tingnan tingnan cya coz masama po pakiramdam nya. after 1.5 hours po, tumawag npo yun helper and she was frantically screaming for help na coz my mom was on the floor, Unconscious na but still with pulse. Nagsuka yun mom ko pala, mukang she walked pa para kunin un arinola, para doon magsuka. Inisip nya pa na di cya magkalat.
"Hangang na-ICU npo c mama. Findings sa ctscan is aneurysmal bleed po. 4days pa po cya sa icu na coma state..
"(Pasencya npo sir ha at napahaba)
"This picture po was taken nun last june lang po."
My reply:
Hello ________!
Your mother is in a good place where she continues to watch over your family and you. Place her framed photo on your family altar. You may offer flowers, lit candles in bottles, and fresh drinking water on special occasions.
The grief you are experiencing is perfectly natural. Losing a mother--more than a father, if I may say so--is especially devastating. Go through your period of mourning, then pick up and allow everyday life to go on. You can always talk to your mother, aloud and when you are alone, as though she were still alive.
I need you to be aware and understand that your emotions are being complicated by other factors:
--a feeling of guilt, because you could have done more for your mother before she passed away
--denial of her death at a relatively young age
--denial of her death at a relatively young age
--dreams of the future unfulfilled
--things that you wish you could have shared with her and told her
--having to take on certain responsibilities, now that she is gone
--fear of your own mortality
--having to take on certain responsibilities, now that she is gone
--fear of your own mortality
--changes in family dynamics
Do whatever you have to do, even if you have to do them on autopilot.
Rest and be assured that your mother is a shining spirit and is free from suffering.
Watched all four episodes of the U.S.A.'s 2021 Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer. a documentary on serial killer and rapist Richard Ramirez, also known as the Night Stalker. The documentary features narratives by Detective Gil Carrillo and Detective Frank Salerno of the Homicide Bureau, LA County Sheriff, and includes interviews with officers, a criminalist, and a crime scene technician; a news producer, a reporter, a journalist, and broadcasters; survivors; and witnesses.
All, if not most, of Ramirez's crimes are presented in chronological sequence from the murder of Dale Okazaki on March 17, 1985 all the way to the murder of Peter Pan and the rape of his wife on August 18, 1985. He committed six to eight murders and 25-30 attacks, though it is suggested that there were more.
The documentary is well-written and well-directed. It is not treated like a horror story, it does not showcase excessive gore, it avoids hysterical scenes, and it does not dwindle into melodrama. It is also completely un-Freudian and presents facts as objectively and as dispassionately as possible.
The last episode includes a glimpse into the past life of the perpetrator, his conviction on 43 counts of murder and assault on September 20, 1989, his sentencing to the gas chamber on November 7, 1989, and his death due to cancer on June 7, 2013.
Your Messenger message:
"Hi Sir! I am writing in hopes that you can interpret a dream I had about my deceased brother. On the night of my daughter's birthday, I dreamt of setting the table for her celebration and noticed my brother sitting there. He was smiling at me and I instantly woke up. A few days later, his friend messaged me and said she dreamt of my brother preparing for the birthday of my husband and that our whole family was wearing white.
"Was this a coincidence po or was he trying to tell me something? I am sorry to bother you po and thank you for your time.
"btw, I remember you po because my brother was in ACT and around twenty years ago I was invited to a couple of spirit questor events. Thank you so much again"
My reply:
Hello _____!
Your brother wants you and his friend to know that he is happy where he is now, but he wishes to be remembered.
Thursday, October 27, 2022
One Message For One Of 1,400 Friends, One Every Night Of the Year
You with five syllables in your name: Determine what else you need to do to improve your employment status, and work hard to achieve it.
Watched all 12 episodes of South Korea's 2022 Through the Darkness, based on the 2018 non-fiction book written by Korea's criminal profiler Kwon Il-yong and journalist Ko Na-mu. Inspector Song Ha-young, the main protagonist in this movie, successfully figures out complex murders and eventually becomes the first criminal behavior analyst of the detective force. The movie spans the years 1998 - 2007, is interfaced with actual world affairs and current events, and revolves around the cases of four serial killers: the initial killer Red Cap, Gu-young Chun (a.k.a. the Child Rapist), Nam Ki-Tae (a.k.a. the Triangle Killer), and Woo Ho-sung (a.k.a. the Camping Knife Killer). It involves in-depth analyses of criminal psychology and is exquisitely performed--indeed, the best performers are the actors who played the roles of the three serial killers and two other killers consulted in incarceration. It secondarily gives us a peek at the bureaucracy of the South Korean police force.
The criminal acts portrayed are violent,, but images of nudity and death are blurred, and, later, enacted out-of-frame. The characters were further unhampered by unnecessary excursions into family life and romance. There were, however, loose ends, such as the body of the woman that was thrown into the lake and was afterward neither mentioned nor retrieved.
An most substantial movie. It illustrates that, in movies, psychology is not melodrama, and that melodrama can never substitute for psychology.
Quite interesting that the Korean word "kaniang' means "it's just that", and I wonder how it is related to the Ilonggo word "kanang".
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) delivers copies of my novel Cubao Ilalim: Unang Aklat to our doorstep.
The book is available at KWF, but keep in mind that they are not a commercial book publisher/distributor. They are a national/government commission mandated to publish a wide range of Filipino literature. They are not concerned about sales.
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