After being a guard dog for so many years, Cerefina has become completely un-sedentary. She roams the house at night and sleeps in different places on the ground floor: in the studio, outside my room, in the dining room, in the living room, in the computer area. I like the idea. It means that our house has clean energy.

Pets peacefully roam houses that are not inhabited by entities.

I am regularly online and therefore notice the electronic movement in cyberspace.

Today was a strange day. Very few people were online. Everyone else was inactive.

Your Messenger message:

"Hi sir, just wanted to share. I was passing by Tomas Morato and I noticed that a Goodah was being built on the old Ozone Disco . I used to read your books when I was a kid and I remembered your stories about the tragedy there. I couldn't help but feel sorry for those who may not have moved on. No memorial or anything, just another business taking its place. I suppose its a step towards moving on for the people around the area, but I just felt immense pity for those who chose to stay and help the other spirits move on. I'm sorry, it all sounds so trivial but I just felt the urge to tell you. I can't see or anything, but I always held on to your stories and the Ozone was one of them."

My reply:

Hello __________!

Not to worry. A new enterprise on the site will help sweep away any residual negative energy and will help remaining spirits to move on. It is not even necessary to do any cleansing because these remaining spirits are transients. No, it isn't trivial. Thank you for sharing this with me.

This electronic diary continues at https://tonyperezphilippinescyberspacebook32.blogspot.com.

Two cups black, Artisans coffee.

This a mild coffee.

Good day, Cubao!

Slept eleven hours last night.

The clouds are angels' down feathers.

The Green Man, deliberately tarnished sterling silver locket. Contains an important relic.

At 65 I no longer adjust to what other people want.

If they want my presence or my help, they should adjust to what I want.

Three-hour, deep tissue massage.

It resets my body, my mind, and my spirit.

Came back from the center. Did groceries with Chito, Chevy, and Vinci.

Bought three Halloween jack-o'-lantern containers filled with candies. I should have looked more closely. They are sugar candies, and after last year I swore to myself never to buy trick or treat candies again because they are very unhealthful. Ah well, I did buy these for their containers only. Should give the candies to the security guards. They need a sugar rush from time to time.

Shakes at the Cubao Leaky Cauldron.

And I did something quite scandalous. Yes, I bought more Spandex shorts.

Anything you consult me about in e-mail, in Messenger, or in Hangouts is copied, pasted, and replied to on my blog, on Google+, and on facebook, my rationale being that others will also learn from it. I do, however, change your identity.

If you indicate that you don't want me to do so, I don't reply at all.

Picked up a bowlful of overripe ficus seeds from the front of M.'s cafe. Planning to place them in the planters on the front balcony.

I like low-maintenance plants.

Two cups black, Basilio coffee.

If there is anyone worse than a religion fundamentalist, it is a science fundamentalist.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is a bolt of taffeta.

Your Messenger message:

"Hi Tito Boy. Have been dreaming of Tita B____ (Silva), Papa (B) and lola L_____ for months, about 3 times a week. It can be a silent dream or there would be talk about every day things.

"I have read your advice to others. Hope you can help out a pamangkin. Hehehe. Thanks!"

My reply:

Hello ______!

Things will come to a head as we approach All Souls Day. It is normal for dreams about deceased relatives to escalate toward this time. The deceased wish to be remembered. If you have a family altar, place their photographs on them. Offer fresh flowers and lighted candles: these are forms of prayer in themselves.

Two Faces Are Better Than One

My collection of antique, two-face beads, also known as two-faced Eshus

Confused by preferred nouns.

Isn't a person from Florida a Floridan rather than a Floridian, because a person from Uganda is a Ugandan and not a Ugandian?

A person from Bohemia is a Bohemian, but shouldn't a person from the Bahamas be a Bahaman and not a Bahamian?

Are we hung up on the noun Martian?

Our house is too big for us. All the females are on the upper floor, all the males on the ground floor. There are times when it seems difficult for me to go up the stairs to call my granddaughters to lunch or dinner. We Message or Viber each other instead.

Gone are the days of the intercom.

I have very few activist friends. I found that:

1) They do not take kindly to criticism.
2) They listen only to themselves.
3) They are offended by the slightest slur.

As late as the age of 65 I finally decided that I don't need cranks as friends.

Always thinking of taking a day off from my novel, but, whenever my back hits the bed, ideas keep rushing through my head. I've had to keep my notebook and pen beside me all the time.

Good morning, Cubao!

The clouds are bouquets of Queen Anne's lace.

You are a success when your greatest detractors become your greatest fans.

Today is my elder son Nelson's birthday. He would have been 46 today.

We lit the lamps at our family altar the whole day.

On American Ninja Warrior, people have been wondering why the Team Japan members--who have conquered Stage Four in their own country more than once--seem to have substandard performances in the U.S. competition. They believe it is due either to the climate or to the enormous support of American audiences for the American players.

I believe otherwise. I believe that it is due to a residual, archetypal guilt in the Japanese players' subconscious that goes back all the way to World War II.

Sterling silver Mexican peso clad set in sterling silver, 1882

Slept eight hours last night.

Home alone. Angelique at university, Aubrey at a three-day school retreat, Jeff assisting Hedwig at a photo shoot.

Good day, Cubao!

The sun is a smattering of gold coins inside a treasure chest.

Rainfall on Cubao. Shopping whim thwarted. But, the goddess of the storm is my mother. I love rain.

There will be chilly spells not only at dawn. Rediscover scarves and neck cloths--to tie round your neck, not hang uselessly on your shoulders. Perhaps even sleeping hoods.

The chariots of the cold viruses have flown in.

Your Messenger message:

"Good morning, Tony! "I dreamt yesterday that I was attending an ____________ masterclass. When I awoke , the [song] being sung in my dream is exactly that being played on my radio. Any explanation ?

"Which of my clothes do you see as not lucky for me? Where can my 'regular ' income come from ? Kindly read and i will read in exchange ."

My reply:

Hello __________________!

The environment we sleep in can affect our dreams. That is why it is important to have a bedroom conducive to the kind of sleep one needs.

If it is cold, you will dream that it is cold. If a heavy object falls on you, you will dream that you are being physically attacked. Your psyche incorporates your immediate surroundings within its radar, so to speak. That is the reason you dreamt of the song being played on the radio, and I would attach no other meaning to it.

I don't do readings such as what you ask for in your second paragraph. It has no deep, psychic, metaphysical, or clinical-psychological significance. I am certain that both of us have friends who do such readings. I suggest that you ask them for one.

Good noon, Cubao!

The sky is strewn with salted popcorn.

Wednesday, Wednesday

Day of Odin.

Didn't you notice that the trickster Loki caused you tiny, annoying troubles yesterday?

Saved all of my granddaughters' notebooks from grade school and high school. Most of them were only half-filled. Using the clean sheets to write notes on. Some of the pages have stick drawings on them of my granddaughter Ivy, which the girls labeled "Mama".

As early as now, the award-giving body decided to make it up to her. See her win the next time around.

The Wands must continue pointing to the earth.

In my dream last night someone gave me a pair of orange sneakers. I wondered if they would suit me, but I tried them on anyway.

Back from the center.

A drizzly day, but I had to do groceries.

Good noon, Cubao!

The sun is a cluster of brass bells.

Root beer in a tall glass filled with ice at M.'s cafe.

Now writing more pages in cursive in my leather-bound notebook.

Some of those men on the panel are regularly hired by institutions to haze their incoming members. Especially that one man.

Men, remember that your personal powers are in the length of your hair, and that the reason others want it to remain well-trimmed is for them to have complete control over you.

In my dream last night I went to Batangas. I was with a male member of the military who showed me his bullet belt. Hidden within the vinyl compartment inside the belt were magical objects, He explained to me what each of them was. I remember telling myself that I knew where those objects came from.

All throughout my years of employment I observed that whenever a supervisor decided to give an employee "a hard time", that supervisor experienced having "a hard time" tenfold in his or her personal life.

Finished encoding more pages for my novel.

Good day, Cubao!

Monday, Monday.

Aubrey at school. Angelique and J. studying for their prelims at a coffee shop in Gateway. Angelique has never done that before and has been wondering how it feels like. I told her that there will always be nothing like her own bedroom. I also told her that people who study and work in coffee shops do so because they either do not have their own bedrooms or have houses in which there are people they do not like or people who yell at them all the time. Indeed, whenever I see people at coffee shops with their laptops I see that coffee shops + laptops is the classic manifestation of escapism.

Ah well, at least Angelique will now know what it feels like.

When you accidentally Click on a bad link, don't just change your password immediately. ALSO erase all your browsing history. If you don't, the link will still be there.

Things are back to normal. Thanking facebook for helping me recover my account. In less than 24 hours.

Your Messenger message:

"There is this guy I m interested in !!!! We r so alike in a lot of things ! Scorpio n family oriented ! Please help me !!! Thank u"

My reply:

Look for my blog 143 Gayuma and read all of it.

Watched Malaysia's Oo Nana Bobo (the title of a child's lullaby) on RED last night. A bold attempt, to make a horror movie set in a brightly-lighted, ultramodern house with most sequences shot in the daytime. The director tried extra hard to make the scenes scary. It didn't work for me, though, mainly because of the shallow screenplay and the downbeat ending.

Then caught the Western remake of The Ring on HBO. Again, it had a downbeat ending. And, somehow, it was corny this time around.

Before buying any souvenirs, ask yourself the following:

1. Do hundreds or thousands of other people have it, because it is mass-produced?
2. Will it accrue in value or will it just be trash a few years from now?
3. Is it something that you really need and want or are you shopping only because you are lonely, homesick, and anxious?
4. Is it a work of art or merely a handicraft?
5. Can you see it being loved inside your house?

Antique, sterling silver pendant with The Bull Of Mithras

Everyone comes home to live, not to die.

TONY PEREZ'S GUIDELINES FOR HIS GOOGLE+ FOLLOWERS FOR THE COMING WEEK (MONDAY, OCTOBER 3 - FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2016): 1) Envy is the ruination of the envious. 2) There are times when you have to give and give until it hurts. 3) Snack on fruits rather than on anything else. 4) Use what you have rather than let it be idle forever. 5) Four friends have financial worries. All four of them will get in touch with you. 6) There will be two big things in succession. 7) False pride is every graduate student's downfall. 8) Do not be the moth that hovers closer and closer to the bright flame. 9) Wait and see. Do not plunge into impulsive action. 10) A pleasant surprise travels toward you. 11) Home is where you can eat three meals a day, have a roof over your head, sleep peacefully, and be taken care of when sick. 12) No one can teach an independent-minded person a lesson. 13) Never resort to false flattery. It does more harm than good. 14) You can be more beautiful and more attractive if you first look closely at yourself without biases. 15) The content of a person's mind is infinitely more precious than his gadgets.

Toto is here fixing something that went wrong on my computer. A facebook option says that in order to get rid of malware, I first have to "uninstall Google". No way am I going to do that. I would rather that all of my facebook Friends join me on Google+.

Good day, Cubao!

Two cups black, Basilio coffee.

We had lunch at M.'s cafe.

Angelique and her classmates are over to work on their group project.

Jeff came back from his medical check-up.

Always sit down with your children and grandchildren at meals, and stay with them until they have finished even if you have finished early.

I had lunch at M.'s cafe yesterday. Jerome and Kenneth are cooks who double up as waiters. When I asked Kenneth, "Sino'ng nagluto nito?" he answered, "Ako po" with a beaming smile.

If there is anything a person will always be proud of, it is of something that he cooked well. I have never met a shy or self-effacing cook in my entire life.

More Atchay Speak:

1.Wrong: "mga commuters at mga drivers..."
Correct: "mga commuter at mga driver..."

"Mga" already renders the noun that follows it a plural. If you spell out the noun as a plural, it ends up as a double plural.

Also correct: "commuters at drivers..."
There is no "mga", and so the pluralization of the nouns is correct.

2. Wrong: "Sa lahat ng mga nakikinig..."
Right: "Sa lahat ng nakikinig..."

Tanya sends me photos of Sacred Heart Seminary of Bacolod's production of "Sacraments of the Dead":

Still writing and currently lost in the world of my imagination. I live with my characters. I see them. I smell them. I talk to them. They keep me company while I drift off to sleep.

The year was 1995. This was the first-ever item I bought off the Internet, at a time when e-commerce was new and very few people knew how to avail of it. When everyone else finally did, all the magic shops in the Philippines lost their business.

This is a pewter, Robin Hood of Locksley, Celtic cross. In the center is a malachite cabochon. The three rings round the cross represent the three layers of creation or consciousness. It is also said that the ring represents the Roman sun-god Invictus, which is why many people also call the Celtic Cross the Sun Cross.

During the adolescent stage, pubescents test boundaries by seeing how far near the edge they can go before they are admonished or punished.

Some adults, unfortunately, remain fixated to that stage and live the rest of their lives far from maturity.

A quiet afternoon. Writing the beginning of a novel in my solitude, as I informed Tina, Karina, and Ambeth. Not working for any deadline, which is how I like it. I can stop, do other things, and go back to writing whenever I want to.

My writing habits are quite eccentric. I begin passages on Word and keep rewriting them until I have the right point of attack. Then I switch to writing with my dragon pen in a dedicated notebook. I encode that and continue writing on Word again. I switch regularly between computer-encoding and writing in cursive. It gives me the best of both writing sensations.

It is like living my current lifetime and simultaneously reliving a past lifetime.

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Chito and Vinci visit.

Slept nine hours last night.

Late lunch with Aubrey.

Your hubris takes you down not when you are standing in front of an applauding audience but when you are finally alone and have no one's shoulder to cry on.

The bird man visited this morning but I was still in bed. I hope he comes back next week. I want to add three more costas and three more batubatos to our pets.

Two cups black, Basilio coffee.

Into the month of Halloween.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is a skating rink for dragonflies.

Went to the Sitio Catacutan Market to buy bird feed.

Bought ink cartridges for my six dragon pens. Mahalia Jackson. They take only original Cross cartridges.

Treasured pendants from Ifugao, strung with antique beads:

Above: Bulul, carved deer horn

Below: Consort of the god of the crossroads

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is a bowl of glass marbles.

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Dinner with Tina, Karina, and Ambeth

It is all right for other people to look at and touch your talismans. Their contact with the talismans will be only temporary, while yours remains constant and stronger.

After wearing a talisman for 30 days straight it will have imprinted itself on you. You then have the option of continuing to wear it or keeping it hidden inside your room.

Meeting with Lou at the Cubao Hogwarts Espresso Station. He is with a group of graffiti artists. He gave me some of the stickers they made.

Spirits of the deceased have always been major players.

She who has crossed over decides to stay and have a proactive hand, so watch carefully for the changes.

Pendant my sister brought me in the early 2000s from Sydney, Australia. It features a two-headed snake wrapped around a dagger.

This is actually a talisman of deception.

The pendant is also reversible, and can be worn both ways.

I wonder why news reporters, including atchay psychiatrists, cannot distinguish between a nervous breakdown and sheer anger. A person on the verge of a breakdown becomes immobile and unable to think and speak, as though sleepwalking, and incapable of coherence, of speaking in complete and sensible sentences, and of editing his/her words.

Two nights ago watched Westworld on HBO. Interesting concept, interesting film. It was as gripping as Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. Minimal music, minimal sound effects, and the last half of the movie had no dialogue at all. Richard Benjamin is a fine actor, underplaying his role while carrying the tension of the plot through the end. It brought me back to the early 70s, when Italian and French films were all image choreography.

Two cups black, Basilio coffee.

The sky is scalloped with cream icing.

Good morning, Cubao!

Wet driveway, chilly air.

But I do doff my hat to non-atchay beat reporters like Jeffrey Hernaez, who are given assignments other reporters elude, who ply the midnight through dawn hours while everyone else is comfortably ensconced in bed, who are treated shabbily by their elements, who often go hungry, and who are always not given due gratitude and appreciation.

It is not one's enemy that pushes a celebrity to hysterics. It is the idiotic questioning of atchay reporters.

A few pieces of advice:

--When an atchay reporter does that to you, know how to give him or her a dose of his/her own medicine, whether on or off the air.
--Do not waste your time exercising good public relations with atchay reporters. They have no real loyalties.

It has been my singular experience that the more things I have, the less I am attached to anything.

Late lunch at M.'s cafe. Thought I would do some writing at the table afterward, but there were too many people in the cafe. Must reserve that pleasure for really late nights.

On the road outside the gate I picked up this pewter Star of David. If you are my neighbor and if you dropped it, please claim it from me. Before doing so, however, you need to answer two questions:

--There are two letters of the alphabet inscribed on the back of the pendant. What are they?
--Two other things were dropped along with the pendant. What were they?

Home alone. Granddaughters in school and Jeff assisting Hedwig on a photo shoot.

Thinking of a late lunch at M.'s cafe.

Today I am wearing this antique, enamel locket. I purchased it from Lina Cristobal of Cristobal's Antiques many years ago, when the Cultural Affairs Section was still located on Buendia Avenue.

This locket isn't for photos but for a "lock" of hair (hence, "locket") or a tooth-fairy tooth. I haven't thought of anything to put inside it, though.

Two cups black, Basilio coffee.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is a glass slipper.

Still reading the book on emotion in the service of playwriting and teaching playwriting.

Night Classes 4:00 AM

Please go directly to the roof deck.

Years ago she gave my students "crystal terminators" and expected them to be eternally grateful to her. The "terminators", however, were made of cheap glass, and broke easily.

Very drizzly night in Cubao. The werewolf was prevented from going to M.'s cafe.

Yesterday's set-up on my tiny back porch. I have a total of 12 bululs of different sizes. Most of them were passed on to me on Banaue by the son of a mombaki who passed away the previous year. The son did not want to take on his father's role.

Always strive to be on top of yourself, never on top of other people.

Watched Crimson Peak, a Victorian horror-suspense story, on HBO. Everyone looked like a model for a pre-Raphaelite painting.

Love those props!

Caught the Chinese news on CTV. Saw how the typhoon has been devastating China. I couldn't understand a word but the visuals were terrifying.

Know when to rest on your laurels. Otherwise you will continue racing to your dying day and, on your deathbed, wonder where the time for your well-earned rest went. It is how life cheats you. Never wait until it is too late for anything.

Today I am wearing my birthstone, bloodstone. According to legend this stone lay at the cross and the blood of Christ dropped on it. That can only be a legend of course, but, having said that, bloodstone is very hard to find. I bought the oval cabochon at a jewelry shop in North Carolina years ago. The ball was a gift from a co-worker. My jeweler put them together and set them in gold.

Since bloodstone is rare, a second birthstone for the month of March was established: aquamarine. Ironically, real aquamarine has also become very rare, and the usual substitute for it is blue topaz.

Your Messenger message:

"I had a creepy experience pag uwi ko. Got home at 1am from Gapan. While I was browsing ate _______'s posts I heard a growl, at first I thought it was my tummy, so I went to the kitchen for a glass of water. Then I went to bed. Then I heard louder growls which were coming directly outside my window. Funny thing is I was on the second floor. I thought perhaps it was my pet dog. So I went downstairs to check on him but I was surprise to see him asleep under our SUV. Then I heard the growling, now as if getting closer so I ran inside the house quickly bolted the main door and the kitchen door and ran upstairs. While in my room the growling didn't stop outside my window as if it is waiting for something. So I put on my headset played music and prayed. The noise stopped at 3am. This is the first time I've experienced this. What's your take?0"

My reply:

Hello _______!

The growls you heard were from tree elementals a.k.a kapres in the vicinity. They were in trouble and were asking for help. Such calls for help (even to the most unlikely persons) usually occur when there is fire somewhere, or toxic waste, or the threat of being cut down. Why not check your environment to see what it was all about?

Siquijor calls, but I still don't know who I can take with me.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is tented with cheesecloth.

The second training program I underwent in DC, years ago, entailed a visit to the U.S. Marine Base and a briefing on border security in San Diego, California. My co-participants and I were allowed to walk all the way to the beach, along which ran a huge cyclone-wire fence, directly behind which was Tijuana. We conversed with the Mexicans on the other side of the fence and shook hands with them through the wires. It was a phenomenological experience for me, standing on the border between two countries, conversing with Mexicans, and, in my case, straddling time zones.

I picked up this red, triangular stone from the border and brought it home. It helps me a lot in magic, particularly magic that involves crossing boundaries.

Things are looking uglier and uglier. Not that people were always decent in the past, but that they are now more lenient about letting their Shadow Selves slip through.

A word on the magical maximum: You can successfully cast only one magical spell a day. More than that will deplete your energy.

Retirement has made it possible for me to do the following, and as I please:

--Paint the whole day.
--Write the whole day.
--Knit the whole day.
--Sleep as much as I like.
--Go anywhere I want, at any time.
--Window-shop and shop the whole day.
--Watch TV and movies the whole day.
--Read books the whole day.
--Contemplate my antiques and my jewelry.
--Garden.
--Have two-hour meals.
--Choose to be with selected persons only.
--Change what I am wearing several times within the day.
--Withdraw from the chaos of the outside world.

At the end of decades of working, retire and enjoy it. You owe it to yourself.

I am disturbed by the way he talks. His jowls are thick like Alfred Hitchcock's, and so he talks like him.

Two cups oolong tea.

Working on a project, but proceeding leisurely and in a relaxed manner. Definitely minus the sense of urgency I would have given it had I not yet retired.

There is always something wrong with any institution that will not update, adjust, or revise its laws along changing times.

Today I am wearing two jade pendants:

Above, a green jade tumblestone wrapped in copper wire, purchased by my sister Alice from crystal queen Riza Regis and given to me as a gift

Below: A heart-shaped, green jade Kwan Yin flanked by a dragon and t
a phoenix, a gift from Boyet Vergara, who worked as a sales manager for Lillian Too many years ago

Finished screening "Ancient Mysteries: Camelot", the third episode of King Arthur and Medieval Britain by History. It is told in five acts, and shows the development of Arthurian literature from Malory to Tennyson.

So strange that, after King Arthur died, Guinevere became a nun and Lancelot a hermit. Same, tragic ending for Maria Clara in Noli me tangere.

Imagine your head divided into four quadrants: left front, right front, left rear, and right rear.

Never let even a single drop of rain or any kind of water fall on the left quadrant (unless you are showering or bathing, of course). If you do, you will develop a cold or a fever, or take on the flu.

This is why many men wear caps or head cloths. It is to protect that particular quadrant.

I really miss those fancy pencils I had in grade school. They contained capsule insets filled with oil. In the oil was a miniature figurine that could slide left and right. My favorite figure was that of an ocean liner. I would play with it for hours.

Come to think of it, maybe those pencils also functioned as spirit levels.

A quiet Monday at home.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun is a giant, white sapphire.

Wondering what semantic relationship, if any, "Maranao" in Mindanao has to the state "Maranhao" in Brazil.

Saw a brief feature on fire walkers, actually fire dancers, on GMA7. The sound of the bell seemed a stimulus that induced and maintained altered states of consciousness. Interesting that the participants wore red and white.

Could not appreciate the interview portion. The participants seemed not eloquent and quite naive.

Light rainfall on Cubao.

ROTC parade rehearsals at Samson College of Science and Technology, which is just on the other side of the fence. The sounds bring me back to my college days.

Sunday, September 25, 2016

Wolf-like Cerefina

Today I am wearing this brass locket. Robin and Ben Diallo bought it for me during their trip to Salem, Massachusetts in 2013. On the lid of the locket is an authentic, Victorian bachelor's button made of mother of pearl.

I haven't gotten down to placing photos inside the locket, after all these years. Maybe I should place photos of Chevy and Vinci.