Started reading the book on emotion that I bought from Joscephine. I incorporate emotional truth exercises in my workshops, after all. This is one of the rare and hard-to-find volumes that contain the first scientific treatises on emotion, a field that psychology still finds difficulty defining and grasping.

It begins with the theories of the four giants who pioneered explorations in emotion: Charles Darwin (emotion and survival), William James (emotions and bodily changes); Walter Canon (extensive studies on pain, hunger, and rage); and Sigmund Freud (hysteria and catharsis).

I am currently reading the studies on the impact of emotion on behavior (arousal theory), and the loci of emotion in the human brain (emotions and neural programs).

Very interesting. But, no, this isn't a book that no one can and should read overnight.

Someone seems to be living one of the lives in my novel Cubao Crossing.

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

And tomorrow will be light and bright.

There is an application that evens out the flesh tones of selfies with a shade of pumpkin yellow, and I wonder why people like it. The results remind me of the portraits used in traditional Chinese funerals.

Watched "The Fever" from Jaime's The Twilight Zone DVD set. About a slot machine that takes on a life of its own and leads a compulsive gambler to his death. Every gambler should watch this.

Dreaming of my favorite Siquijor snack: suman (sticky rice pudding), fresh mango, and hot chocolate. I should ask M. to have that in his menu, but, since he is from Bicol, the only effective way to do that is to take him to Siquijor.

I think we should call that snack "Siquijor Sunday". As I posted in blogspot, it is a wonderful, lazy-afternoon snack to take in the shade after a rainfall.

Woke up 1:45 PM today. It is now 4:55 PM and feels but like lunch time. 

It is now market time for dinner. The advantage of living near a wet market is that the food is always fresh.

Sauntered over to M.'s cafe and had a chocolate milk shake. Neil, the youngest waiter, is M's cousin. Whenever he makes a chocolate milk shake for me he sits down in the kitchen and eats up the dregs in the blender with much relish.

There is a magical kerchief by which, when someone steals something from you, the object becomes a curse to that person.

An afternoon on the roof deck with Jeff. The Chinese cabbage and the chili peppers are growing in the vegetable boxes. Also, after the rain, there are a lot of strange-looking plants. Jeff wanted to get rid of the weeds but I felt that they should be allowed to grow, since they are fairy plants.

Whenever I am on the roof deck I feel that I am far, far away from the city.

Your Messenger message:

"Sir pasagot nga po ng tanong he he,bkit po kyo naniniwala sa isang dyos?why do you believe in a god"


My reply:

Because man alone could not have created this world.

While it is also convenient from the point of view of law and order to believe that there is only one God, it is also possible that there is more than one God. That is why Nature and humankind are very diverse, and will always remain diverse.

This is the last night of Hungry Ghost month.

Have you not considered adopting a ghost child? I just thought it would be a good idea.

The sun is an inverted mango tree laden with ripe fruit.

Good afternoon, Cubao! Slept nine hours last night.

My sleep was deep, long, and uninterrupted. I accompanied one of you on a road trip.

Finished watching "The Hitch-Hiker" from Jaime's DVD set of The Twilight Zone. This one was quite chilling. I think I saw it with my family when I was in grade school.

What I like about Rod Serling's writing is that it is serious. No cheap humor that provides comic relief. The program, after all, was competing with The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Boris Karloff's Thriller, One Step Beyond, and even his own Night Gallery.

I really miss those huge, chocolate candy boxes with layers of assorted chocolates set in pleated, wax-paper cups.

Unenlightened parents panic when their children are addicted to gadgets, forgetting that during their time, their own parents panicked when they were addicted to TV and the telephone.

Finished watching "A World of His Own" from Jaime's The Twilight Zone DVD set. About a playwright who creates characters that come to life.

I wish that I could do that.

Or maybe I already do.

The werewolf visited M.'s cafe and had a pineapple juice.

Nothing is ever enough, because what is enough today is not enough tomorrow and the day after..

All you have to do is look at your electric bill.

Do not disturb. I am still in The Twilight Zone.

When the batubato sings inside its cage, all is well.

Finished watching "The After Hours", about a young woman who is taken to the mysterious ninth floor of a department store; and "The Mighty Casey", about a robot baseball player, from Jaime's The Twilight Zone collection.

I like Rod Serling's writing. It is extremely difficult to tell a complete TV story in 30 minutes, than in one or two hours.

Watched the episode "Mr. Bevis" from Jaime's Twilight Zone DVD set last night. About an eccentric man who loses everything and then meets his "guardian angel".

Both granddaughters in school, Jeff working on L.'s portrait, and I watching the day flow from my captain's cabin bedroom window.

Good morning, Cubao!

When the sun is newborn, so is the earth.

I wonder how people with diabetes mellitus hold in their urine in the thick of devils' traffic.

Watched three more episodes from Jaime's Twilight Zone set: "A Stop at Willoughby", about an office worker who yearns to escape from drudgery; "The Chaser", about a young man who resorts to entrapping the woman he adores with love potion; and "A Passage for Trumpet", about a desperate trumpet player who gets a second lease on life. Love the simple studio sets and the original music. The protagonist of "The Chaser" much later played the sheriff in Psycho.

For me, if an unpolitically correct work of art is a good work of art, it should be adjudged legitimate and accepted as such.

Every person who dreams but cannot make his dream reality should be allowed to dream anyway, provided that he never succumbs to envy.

The werewolf visited M.'s cafe. This time around, a light beer mixed with pineapple juice in a glass filled with ice cubes. Sipped through a straw because must be drunk from the bottom.

A perfect "toddy" (albeit a cold one) for an adult with the flu, because it makes you drowsy.

You need to read up completely on gods and goddesses before taking them on as avatars, because each one of them has a tragic flaw that you don't want to end up with.

Staying home has been so heavenly since I retired that I have no incentive leaving it except to go shopping.

Caught portions of World War Weird on NatGeo last night. Interesting, but it raised more questions than answers, and everything was way below the threshold of enlightenment.

Finished watching "Where Is Everybody?" from Jaime's Twilight Zone DVD set. I like. About a man who explores a town in which there is no one else but himself. A monologue in different settings.

If there is anything that turned me off, it is Rod Serling, who tends to over-narrate.

The day is still, as still as a teardrop on a baby's cheek while it is finally being fed, as still as a dewdrop on a blade of grass before sunrise, as still as the hand of a reader who has been lulled to sleep by the page of the book he was reading.

It is extremely relaxing to read a novel.

It is not relaxing to read a play.

Good morning, Cubao!

The rain is a bridal train that sweeps the grassy, garden path.

_Harry Potter and the Cursed Child_ Review

Finished reading Harry Potter and the Cursed Child this evening. It was a big letdown for me. I wished that the publisher had given me the definitive, director's script with photographs of the production instead. Drama does not become literature until it has undergone its definitive production. What is a rehearsal script, after all, but an unpolished version with superfluous scenes that the authors will insist on retaining? In this case it is a rehash of characters, plots, and subplots from the previous seven novels with too much magic that functions as deus ex machina. One can only imagine that the final production played like a long episode from Masters of Illusion, with a montage of numbers just as short and just as sketchy. There is a difference between complex and convoluted, and this play certainly isn't the former. It is at best a test script or an audition script. At worst, it reads like a story originally conceived as a novel with the hidden agenda of being shot as a movie, and then mentally translated to the stage in an endeavor to make a difference.

The play has a premise, specifically about fatherhood and childhood, but only well into Part Two does one accept that something dramatic is really at stake, and the authors had to murder someone in order to establish that. In all the early scenes everything is just about a shared identity crisis on everyone's part, and as early as page 42 I realized that the play might not really have a focus at all. The dialogue is peppered with weak banter meant to titillate the audience, and none of the roles are acting roles. If this is drama, it is certainly drama without economy, and is merely a young-adult melodrama. Moreover, the blueprint of the production seems to rely on visual spectacle rather than on character, which is a no-no onstage. I was looking for depth in character that the novels do not provide. Indeed, the most insubstantial and unlikable character is, surprisingly, Harry Potter himself, and on top of that he is just as one-dimensional as everyone else.

Many of the scenes, especially those in the beginning, are nothing more than tedious exposition. They take us backward rather than forward (despite the Time Turner motif). The REAL play begins in Act 2, Scene 16, and I wonder if the director ever considered cutting out everything before that. A director, after all, is always a legitimate co-author of a play. It might even have done the work a lot of good had it been handed to the likes of Webber and Rice or Stephen Sondheim. The world would then be already singing Harry Potter songs with wonderful lyrics.

Finally I am surprised that, after 19 years, the work does not manifest the maturity I would have thought it to have. The readers of the series, after all, have already grown up--as have the performers of the movie versions.

Many readers I know did not like this book but could not exactly pinpoint why and decided, instead, that it was because this read like "a play". A real play, on paper, reads like sheet music and is hard to understand unless one can "sight-read". Hence, perhaps, the superfluous exposition scenes that over-explain.  My personal analysis is that this play is about the author's fear that her magic may be no more. It is a manifestation of her subconscious desire to turn back time and go back to when she first received international acclaim. In attempting to do so, she goes back to Square One, like a poet constantly rewriting his favorite poem after every publication, insisting that it is not yet finished. Ironically, the author was at her true peak at a time in her life when she was on the edge of poverty. Now that she has "food on the table", the elves have abandoned her to assist other, needier, persons, and so the magic may have gone. I believe that when an author's status in life has changed, he/she should not venture into previous subject matter. There is only one British author who successfully exploited her subject matter in many volumes, and that is Agatha Christie, yet she was, of course, writing mostly about adults--and she hardly changed her status drastically.

I have all eight Harry Potter books now, and I must say that this one is really corny. It is clear from the last three scenes that the authors do not quite know--or are unwilling--to end the story of Harry Potter. They are elegies a la Arthur Miller's Death of A Salesman. There are hints that the story could go on and on for many more generations to come, and I wish that that wouldn't happen. All such attempts, like this one, would merely un-closure everything that had already been given closure. I don't want to sit back and watch the series deteriorate any more. I don't want to keep buying books and rewrite the stories in my mind along with the author's tortured cogitations. Harry Potter has served his author well. It is probably time to put him to rest, and leave everything else that happens to the readers' imagination. Otherwise the boy himself would truly be a cursed child.

My color pencil drawers. Derwent, wood with brass handles. My sister Alice's friend Ludy bought a Holbein from Japan--mahogany, much wider, but with two drawers also. We plan to replenish with ordinary sketching pencils afterward, or else take out the trays and place jewelry inside.

Another episode of Forged in Fire on History channel. Love those Roman gladii!

L, J may visit me soon, and I will send you this through him. Wash it only on the three nights of the next full moon.

This is a magical, bronze wishing owl that I bought in Bali in 2009. It has been on my bedroom window sill for the longest time and now wants to fly out to someone else who needs it. It is only three inches tall and easily snatched, so take good care of it.

It is meant to be carried about in one's pocket like a fetish (it IS a fetish), but I know you have a table full of owls and you will probably keep it there.

Interesting. One of the boys who deliver drinking water jugs to our house peeked into our studio and saw our paintings. As it turns out he makes charcoal portraits too. He came back and showed me his sketchbook--his work is passable and can stand improvement. I invited him to spend his days off here to do sketching and learn from us.

Destiny seems to be sending me student artists. Studio Antenor might eventually expand into an enterprise.

People have discovered how to order food at M.'s cafe during the baptismal party, which is to go through the service entrance and pay for take-out.

John has one of these, made of malachite. I've had mine since about ten years ago: onyx for banishing fear, clear quartz for energizing, rose quartz for soothing. When I told him how I use them one after another to heal others, he was shocked. Bwahahahahahahahaha!

Joke!

When a long and loud parade passes by:

1) Just stand beside the street and watch.
2) Do not jump into the parade or you will lose yourself.
3) Do not envy the paraders; do not wish that you are one of them.
4) After the parade, go home and resume your usual life.
5) Reflect on strength, silence, and humility.

Even without parades, people will remember your name.

Baptismal party ongoing at M.'s cafe.

No walk-ins through 3:00 PM.

The sun is a frosted globe lamp.

Good morning, Cubao!

Everyone home. Jeff's excursion with his co-hip-hop dancers got called off due to the rain.

Midnight sheds her black lace and dons the purple chiffon of dawn.

Night Classes 4:30 AM

Caught part of an episode of The Librarians on Universal. Still love the library set and props. But only those.

A leading member of his staff is unwilling to reveal his well-hidden past. Photographs of his past will eventually surface. Maybe it is a good idea to get rid of him while it is still early.

Now she is no longer in demand. No one wants a ham actress and a sham princess.

After turning over the men to him, he gesticulated to him with his arms and hands in constant movement, as though to show everyone that he was always in charge and still was.

Unfortunately the people know a desperate act when they see one.

Caught the last two episodes of Ninja Warrior UK 2 on Universal. A lot more fast-paced than its American counterpart, and very obstacle-oriented as opposed to participant-oriented. The participants are hustled on without giving us much time to appreciate their individual personalities. The setting is a huge, indoor gymnasium, allowing for more control in the physical challenges--minus unpredictable elements and cold weather--which is extremely kind not only to the players but also to the participants and to the hosts and program staff.

Watched, once again, the nth replay of "The Diamond of the Day: Part 2", the last episode of the Merlin series on DIVA. Well-written and well acted, except for the last two shots, which I find too commercial and too corny, and which I consider to be the last, stupid, attempt at deconstruction in the entire series.

Watched FYI Weekend Binge on fyi, because I am always thinking of ways to keep improving M.'s cafe.

Everyone balks at the prices of oil paintings. They have no idea that a single, three-inch tube of Grumbacher costs between P300 - P600, and that is only ONE tube of color.

Never do something you like whenever you can but only when you feel like it.

Happiness is a sheltered garden. As long as you know how to keep it, no one can ever destroy it.

Now Angelique and J. are going jalan-jalan at the center to watch a movie.

Jalan-jalan in a few.

Late lunch for the family. It's a Saturday for Aubrey, who is in K-12, and Angelique's university building got flooded out last night.

Monday is a national holiday as well.

The intelligence of our remote ancestors remains encoded in our cells. That is why we take to computers and other gadgets like ducks to water.

When an adult fumbles with electronics and asks for assistance, it is because he/she exercises the defense mechanism of denial and desires the secondary gain of being given attention and affection.

Aubrey will cook only with newly-purchased cooking oil. She refuses to do so with oil saved from a previous cooking.

The sky is strewn with clouds of white roses.

Good morning, Cubao!

Slept eight hours last night.

I always have the option of sleeping less, but sleeping is really more heavenly than sex, chocolate, and ice cream.

Watching a Chinese costume drama on CCTV 4.

My prayers for Norma Liongoren. She was so full of life, I actually thought that she would live forever.

When something is the worst, whatever follows it is easily perceived as the best.

A curriculum vitae is constructed ALWAYS for conservative thinkers and for no one else.

When shock wears off, resentment sets in.

Don't you feel the hungry ghosts playing little tricks on you?

Tony Perez's Art of War: The enemy whom you think is down and out is the enemy to watch out for.

It is dissatisfaction with one's life, not with the world, that renders a person bipolar.

Death is lonesome but restful to the homeless, because they have peace of mind in that no one will grieve for their demise.

The sky is a field of sunflowers.

Good morning, Cubao!

It is the morning that must rouse me from bed and not I who must rouse it from the dawn.

If you own a bottle of healing oil from Siquijor, follow closely what the elemental said: You may replenish the oil with extra virgin coconut oil as often as you like, but DO NOT TAKE AWAY FROM THE BOTTLE EVEN A SINGLE LEAF FROM THE 200 LEAVES INSIDE.

Drink 13 glasses of water a day, but be alert as well to whether your body is experiencing heat. It will give you dizzy spells. Move to the coolest place possible or eat ice chips.

Drizzly evening with rolling thunder in Cubao.

Tonight's episode of Fit to Fat to Fit on fyi, was truly wonderful!

Early afternoon drizzle in Cubao.

His diagram has Malkuth, but where are Daath and Kether?

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is a schoolboy's fantasy through a classroom window.

Finished reading Symbolism in Hinduism, another book I bought from Joscephine. A very thorough volume on Hindu deities, rituals, and objects associated with them. Now I know why deities are depicted with four arms, and what the objects they are holding in their hands mean. Now I know why some deities have blue skin, and why only Siva's neck is blue. Now I know the ten Avataras, and why some lotus blossoms are depicted in fill blossom and why some of them are said to have a thousand petals. Among a lot of other things, of course.

I love sacred objects, and this book rightfully belongs to me!

Do not wait for blackouts to enjoy your candles, oil lamps, and lanterns. Light them as often as you like.

J.'s birthday. Angelique is attending his party.

Watched the Grand Finals of My Kitchen Rules Australia. So glad that the Indonesian sisters won.

The Wands must continue pointing to the earth.

When one wakes up and rises at noon, 5:00 PM is merely 11:00 AM to him.

High-rise never pays, because nothing lasts forever.

The computer age has conditioned us to value shortcuts, especially if they are effective, over long-drawn, traditional processes, especially if they are no longer effective.

If it is no longer pleasant to drive around, then don't.

To ensure that a city does not get congested, institutions located within that city should employ only residents of that city who have been living there for at least ten years. Otherwise many jobs go to transients.

Not everything imported is good.

Wearing a size small T-shirt today. I have size smalls, mediums, larges, and extra larges. I look different in each one and can't make up my mind as to which I like best.

You create an entire world of other beings by cultivating fungus in a bowl and feeding it cold tea.

When you give a gift to someone, it is never because it is a wise choice of a gift but because you know that it is exactly what will make the receiver happy.

Ketut Liyer passed away and was cremated June 2016.

He came all the way for the ring. I have it, but I will not part with it.

The persons he wants to meet are not the persons you want him to meet, and he will meet them behind your back.

My heart breaks whenever I see someone invest all of his emotions, groom himself as best he can, and then attend a meeting in which all his hopes are dashed.

Your parents are still very much with you through your own demise.

There will be a proclaimed sighting, but it will be a false alarm and a mere attempt by someone to call attention to himself.

The designer is ill, and knows not which way to turn.

Never fret as to what legacy you leave behind, for it has a mind of its own and will always take care of itself.

A mosquo is an adult mosquito.

Joke!

If editors really wish to change the world, they should go out of their way to offer services for free, because it is the writers who do not have editors who are most prolific and are most widely read.

A head of soldiers should never be like a father to his sons. Otherwise he will merely scold them and keep forgiving them for their abuses.

Also finished reading this, which I bought from Joscephine about a week ago. It is a treasure trove of simple but ancient divination systems. I particularly like the section on joss stick divination. One must observe the joss sticks when they are lit halfway. The heights of the sticks mean certain things and prescribe certain actions.

I can see why many people might be turned off by the book, though. It is written in English as a third language and its use of idioms can be misleading. It should at the very least be read keeping in one's mind that it is a translation, even if it is not.

Most of the time complete strangers send me Friend Requests. We have no Mutual Friends in common and we are very clearly from different backgrounds. If their Walls have open histories and their accounts are replete with posts and photos no matter how inane, I take them in.

I admire users of social media who are not ashamed of everything they are and step up to without the slightest pretension and disguise. As a matter of fact those are the very people who end up being my long-time students.

Finished rereading this and decided to keep it on my Chinese bookshelf.

Good day, Cubao!

Slept ten hours last night.

The clouds are schools of jellyfish.

The channeling will be done under the same conditions, as they were in 2009. However, I want only five of us to be there. L., myself, and S. already make three.

Never engineer separations only because you enjoy reunions.

It is safer to say "peanut praline" instead of "peanut brittle" if you want all of your readers in cyberspace to understand what you mean.

L. visited. We had dinner at M.'s cafe, then smoked outside the cafe afterward.

Planning a channeling session regarding climate change and Philippine politics for The Spirit Questors and The Wands.

Yes, I'm wearing my Spandex shorts.

And that's Bogart, the now fat, outdoor cafe dog.

He inches into the limelight, only to become a sitting duck.

When fascists beat you up, it is to provoke you to fight back.

He is being treated well for now because of the valuable information he is providing.

She remains unruffled because she secretly relishes the scandal. As she predicted, it made her a real human being in the eyes of the public.

Take care of the male tandem. One cannot operate without the other.

She who served what she always regarded as a royal family will now decide to serve herself.

Two cups Basilio coffee.

Try mixing chopped prunes in your Coffee Crumble ice cream.

When I wake up in the morning I drink water and do a 30-minute workout. After that, believe it or not, I can go back to sleep again.

Ate a bowl of Coffee Crumble ice cream and now feel sated.

Wearing Kiehl's Original Musk Oil.

Back from groceries and shopping, or do I mean shopping and groceries.

Bought ink cartridges for my six dragon pens and an alternative down pillow for my sister Alice.

I believe that too much sexual suppression, such as blurring out genitals and breasts on paintings, will only lead to sexual outbreak. Modesty is fine, but launching into a neo-Victorian age in the 21st century seems a little too much.

As long as there are artists, art will support itself and survive, no matter what the conditions.

A journalist is a sponge who must learn how to squeeze himself dry from time to time.

Actually, when I am writing in my notebook, I deliberately make my penmanship illegible--to everyone but myself, of course. I learned how to do this because I used to have a very inquisitive co-worker who liked looking over my shoulder to see whatever I was writing.

Isn't it amusing that "demo" means "demonstration" in the Philippines and "demolition" in the U.S.A.?

Caught Silmido on RED last night, about renegade soldiers in Korea. A gripping, true story.

I recall, but vaguely, that I used to take my own toys apart when I was small, and this seemed to worry my parents. One day I overheard our family doctor tell them, "He only wants to know how they are put together and what makes them work, so that he can make them himself someday."

And, when I was five, my mother asked my First-Grade schoolteacher why my penmanship was so bad. She also told my mother not to worry. "Your son thinks faster than he writes."

"You frigging shmucks" is a catch-all subtitle I frequently encounter on RED, and I always wonder what the original lines are.

As Alan Holst pointed out, whenever someone says "Shit" in a foreign movie, it is immediately subtitled "Crap".

Honor is an accolade given by other people and never by oneself.

It is, therefore, like beauty, always in the eyes of the beholder.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is a basket of eggs.

Sometimes the night laughs, and it is a sound that men do not want to hear, because, at night, men want to hear only their own laughter.

Everything boils down to whether you believe that you already have everything that you can ever want, with or without fame.

Still closely following My Kitchen Rules Australia on DIVA.

The werewolf visited M.'s cafe.

Sipped a root beer while listening to someone's horror story.

Also bought this from Joscephine because the title sounded whimsical. I used to have a book titled The Psychology of Clothes that I gave Cliff Candelaria decades ago, and I still have two or three treasured volumes on costumes and patterns.

This book was written mainly for the businessman or salesman who never quite made it because of wearing the "wrong" clothes, i.e., non-traditional, non-conservative attire. It is biased toward the suit and a restricted palette of colors: black, navy blue, brown, and white. It does have interesting examples of how Hollywood costume creates character more than dialogue does.

After reading the book I maintain that clothes are a mere illusion, and that I am always interested in the person behind the layers of fabric on his body.

No, you are never what you wear. You are a lot more than that. And, sometimes, you are what you do not wear.

Thank God that I no longer have to dress to create an impression.

Jaime gave me this the first time we met, approximately five years ago. Haven't viewed them yet, and so I must, and soon.

Everyone home, and J. here as well. A normal dinner after three FDS meals Saturday and Sunday.

It is foolish to reserve your existing mobile number for family and select friends only by acquiring a new number and blasting everyone with: "This is my new number. Please disregard my old number." People will NOT disregard your old number; they will keep it as a backstop, and they will sometimes dial it out of habit, thus depriving you of the privacy you were expecting.

If you want a private number for family and select friends only, use the NEW number for that, and give the number to no one else but the people you want to call you via that.

Do not throw away your coffee grits. Pour them into your potted plants.

Home alone. Angelique at university, Aubrey at school. Jeff on his weekend off.

Two slices of pizza and a glass of cranberry tea for a late lunch.

Two cups Basilio coffee.

My adopted family of white witches in Siquijor wants me to come and visit them again, and I do want to bequeath to them a lot of books and implements, but I am having so much fun and peace and being centered at home for now.

In the Philippines the postman rings only once because there is always someone at home to open the door.

Slander is the ugly old witch within every man.

It is the secret name of the witch in Hansel and Gretel who lives in a deceptively sweet and delicious gingerbread house yet wreaks vengeance on all the men and women who have what she knows she cannot have.

It is what a person does, not what a person is, that makes an entire nation move forward.

One of the worst things a leader can do is believe that he is more intelligent than everyone else.

Upon deciding to buy something, always pay up cheerfully for it.

Stayed up late last night to watch R-Point on RED, a Korean movie about a military patrol tasked to locate a missing unit of soldiers. This is an unusual ghost story with a cleverly-written script. I just wished it were shot more sensitively and with a finer ensemble. The movie has many creepy scenes, and to think that I am not at all creeped by horror movies!

This was followed by Angker (Haunted), an Indonesian movie about a mother and her children who move into a house formerly owned by the village witch. Very credibly acted by the female lead, and the audience is never shown anything more than necessary. The movie held my attention despite the deliberately slow pacing and that everyone spoke in hushed whispers--or maybe because of them. Love that long ritual conducted by a local medium!

Angker reminded me so much of the story of Aling Bucia of Siquijor. Her story can be Google-searched.

Never desire to be a sex object, because all sex objects age beyond all desirability.

Good noon, Cubao!

The sky is a sheet of pearlescent mylar.

The werewolf visited M's cafe. A chocolate shake.

A new item on the menu, roast chicken (whole and half), will be available beginning Wednesday.

Whenever I am home alone I think of doing all the things I think I would love to do if I had no family to take care of: wandering through the city, eating alone in fine dining places, going on a shopping spree, even having a wild time.

Strangely, I actually never do so.

Watched the nth replay of San Andreas on HBO. This was about the third time for me, because I really love its magnificent special effects. The movie also showcases Dwayne Johnson's best performance. His commitment to acting shines through all the spectacular visuals, and that is really saying a lot.

The biggest tragedy of the 21st century is that we will continue to raise fences, rather than build bridges, separating us from one another, regressing farther and farther into waging the same battles that we did in our history.

M.'s cafe celebrates its first anniversary September 1, 2016. Everything will be on an order-one-take-two offer that day. From 9:00 PM - 12:00 MN, one of M.'s friends will be playing his acoustic guitar for diners.

Cubao Moulin Rouge?

M.'s cafe will be closed to walk-in customers 9:00 AM -3:00 PM Sunday, August 28, 2016. Someone booked the space for a baptismal party.

He will become more and more unpopular, but I will always remember him for the first time I admired him. I am not sorry that I have a souvenir _____________ of him.

When children suffer due to war, it is YOUR fault, not the fault of others.

The sun is more constant than the sea because the sea is capable of changing emotions.

In the midst of making love he suddenly asks himself, "What am I doing here?"

Have a practiced hypnotist take you back to that time in your life between your innocence and your sexual awakening. You can begin from there, psychologically, to release and develop all of the potentials you had but never gave yourself a chance to explore.

If your lover does not stand by you, then your lover used you more than you used your lover.

Workplace flirtations become exposed.

The retired, female manager still has a lech for the gay actor.

An old song takes you back to a happy time ten years ago.

There will be no budget for national celebrations because the money is better spent on other things.

Look, because I see: The social media administrator is punished with fire.

Do not exclude oil from your diet, because your body needs it.

I can no longer conceive of life without pet dogs. I love the way they greet us at the front door whenever we arrive; the way they sit quietly beside us either when we are working or doing nothing in particular; and the way they pad about the house and identify spots of good energy. When they are cozily curled up and napping I feel secure and sense that all is well. And, at night, when they are slumbering in peace, I know that there are no transient spirits that will disturb our sleep.

Pet dogs, cats, and birds do not only protect us from strangers and from thieves. They protect us on astral levels as well.

Time does not plod on. It churns.

Wishing we had ancient Chinese, four-season, lacquered clothes baskets--in this country we would only have two. Then we wouldn't need any closets at all.

The head of a family always spends the least money on himself.

When you author your dreams, you author your life.

Wanting and needing are not states of being. They are periods of time.

The goddess of the storm is my mother.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is a suspended bridge between hills of rain.

The werewolf visited M.'s cafe. A light beer mixed with a root beer in a tall glass of ice = Cubao butterbeer, the true liquid amber. Sipped through a straw because should be drunk from the very bottom of the glass.

Enjoying this. Saturday night might very well be my Cubao butterbeer night.

The old director won't make it. Everyone is saying that he is over the hill.

Finished reading Vastu Shastra, one of the books I bought from Joscephine. The Hindus, after all, were settled in the Philippines long before the Muslims arrived.

Vastu shastra is the precursor of the Chinese feng shui. It is practiced in Bali, where I visited some years ago, and where I noted and appreciated the differences between Hindu architecture and Chinese architecture.

I learned so much from this book. For instance, that housewarmings are of Hindu origin, and that the Tagalog word "kulam" derives from the Hindu word "kolam" (a ritual design placed at the front door of the house). The book is replete with guidelines for arranging all of the rooms in every house, office, classroom, and inner sanctum, and for knowing how a well-arranged house heals the body. It also provides rituals that one can perform with available ingredients.

In all, this is one book I am happy to have and to keep. It provides all the justification I need for purchasing more than a dozen metal images of the Hindu gods and goddesses in Ubud. It is also quite interesting that every house is a cosmic body, as seen in the illustration. Apparently my bedroom and Aubrey's bedroom are at the head of the cosmic body, and Angelique's bedroom falls within its right arm and hand. I really should move the studio to the area that encompasses its genitals!

He plans to latch on to the celebrity but will only make a fool of himself and will wish he'd just stayed home.

The world of politics is like the world of Harry Potter minus Harry Potter.

Fresh cherries from my sister Remi. I love them, as well as fresh dates and fresh plums.

A man who lives on the edge gets pushed over it sooner or later.

Planned to do groceries with Aubrey but she has a dental appointment this afternoon.

We will have to do groceries tomorrow.

Two cups Basilio coffee.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun is a yellow beach towel.

Caught 60 Days In: The Aftermath, the closing episode of the season, on History channel. Interesting.

The werewolf visited M.'s cafe. An egg mayo sandwich and a root beer.

I have always enjoyed having a cafe in front of our house. (M.'s cafe--Sa'Wrapped--is actually the second, following Miranda's Cove which we opened in 2002.) I believe it is because I was terribly impressed with the first play I ever watched, when I was five years old, Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. The first scene was set in the Admiral Benbow Inn, which had a tavern on the ground floor. It was a very cozy set. I loved the door, the tables and chairs, the kegs, the tankards, the lamps, the glass windows.

Treasure Island is not the reason I became a playwright, though. After all, there were hundreds of other boys in Prep, and only I, of that batch, became one.

Another One For Men Only

When you are pissing in your bathroom, take a tip from our Muslim brothers: Do it sitting on the bowl, like women do. It is more hygienic and it keeps your toilet bowl and bathroom floor clean.

Come to think of it, only animals piss standing up.

I know that not everyone has a choice, but if you have to take on a lover anyway, it had better be someone gorgeous, famous, and/or extremely talented, of which everyone will say, "Wow! I don't blame you! I wish that were MY lover!"

Please do NOT take on a lover whom I will Google-search only to feel VERY disappointed about.

Dinner alone. Angelique and J. are at the Chainsmokers' concert. Aubrey decided to skip dinner because she is on a diet. Jeff went out on an errand and just came back.

Eating chunks off a block of chocolate compound.

I miss the days when Aubrey was three years old. She would play beauty parlor with me while I would nap. I would wake up, of course, with my hair messed up in some way, and covered with powder and tissue paper all over.

I suspect that not everyone can do this, but, whenever my grandchildren were sick I would hug them and "absorb" their sickness into my heart chakra. They would then get well.

If you suffer from sinusitis, know that even in tropical countries we have pollen problems.

You probably live in an area that has narra trees, golden shower trees, or other trees that have tiny blossoms that fall to the ground.

For Men Only; Women, Do Not Read This

And if you are a squeamish man, don't read this either.

To get rid of a migraine headache, go inside an air-conditioned room. Take off your pants and your underwear, turn on the fan and direct the cold air to your anus. You have to stretch your cheeks in order for the cold air to course through you.

Try it. It won't kill you. Bwahahahahahaha!

Note: If you do not have access to an air-conditioned room, an ice cube wrapped in a face towel will do.

Do not trust a broadcaster who cackles.

The Wands must remain pointing to the ground.

Nature cleanses with fire and with sea water.

Explore the mysteries of moss. Cultivate them in your garden if you can.

A person who tends to wake up much later in the morning is most probably really a night person,

Back from jalan-jalan at Sitio Catacutan.

Saw more gorgeous lanterns!

I am thinking of developing with M. a "Super Soda Center (We Serve All Kinds of Soda)" at his cafe. Pepsi, RC, Sarsi, other kinds of root beer, Gatorade, you name it, would be readily available in it, thus pleasing all kinds of customers.

I am sick and tired of atchay maitre d's apologetically stating, "Sir, we serve Coke products only."

Our super soda center should be a social first.

No discrimination.

Mug Root Beer in a tall glass of ice at M.'s cafe. I love the way it stings my throat. After I consume my drink I munch on the ice like candy. It prevents me from feeling thirsty immediately after taking a soda.

Finally bought a block of dark chocolate compound. I don't reduce it in the kitchen. I eat it as it is.

Actually she was the biggest social climber the world of Philippine art has ever known. She envisioned herself as an influential trend-setter, which she was not and will never be except to a very small circle of friends who humor her by treating her as such.

It is not P. Tuazon Boulevard that is the best shortcut. It is Banahaw Street.

Reb Belleza commented that anti-anxiety medication causes catatonia. Perhaps such medication is the modern poo of the Ibong Adarna. You become Don Pedro and Don Diego turned to stone at the foot of Piedras Platas because you allowed yourself to be lulled to sleep in your futile attempt to capture the Bird of Life.

You belong to a new breed of thinkers if no one else thinks the way you do.

I observe that many people are comfortable being diagnosed as bipolar because they are already addicted to their anti-anxiety medication.

This is my jalan-jalan day in Sitio Catacutan.

Since it isn't raining I have to wear normal pants instead of my highly scandalous Spandex shorts.

There is one Filipino phrase that makes me cringe when I see it pronounced on TV, and I wish the camera would avoid taking close-ups of mouths when that happens. The phrase is "mga nangangailangan".

There are very few broadcasters who I really believe in, and Kaye Dacer is one of them. I like her quiet, un-hysterical strength, her superior judgment, and her carefully measured words.

There is only one thing. I wish that Jeannie Mai would give her a make-over. Her hair and wardrobe are drab and droopy, like a 1990s Wiccan's.

There could be one way to alleviate devils' traffic, which is to prevent everyone who has been diagnosed as bipolar from driving.

The streets might then be as clear as the streets of West Virginia on a fine, spring morning.

If there is anything I cannot stand it is an American diplomat who thinks, talks, and acts like British aristocracy.

I suspect that the Philippines is psychologically stuck in the 1970s, as though it yearns to compensate for all the lost years of freedom during the martial law period. Like a ghost eternally in a loop that keeps replaying the circumstances of its death.

It is, however, 2016, some four decades later, and we must all step up to that reality.

You must search for music that blazes like fire, that undulates like the sea, that blossoms like the earth, and that rushes like the wind.

My body wakes up not when it has to but when it wants to.

Good noon, Cubao!

The sun is a cluster of brilliant sequins.

Love the chocolate shake at M.'s cafe because there are always chunky bits of cacao at the bottom of the glass!

Why is it that miniature worlds populated by miniature people do not exist on a microscopic level on Earth, despite the fact that the conditions of the planet are conducive to their existence and evolution.?

Or are we merely predisposed to not see them?

A warm, dry night in Cubao.

I take a notebook and pen with me to have a root beer or a chocolate shake at M.'s cafe. I sit at one of the small, round tables and write, and my writing just flows from the tip of my pen.

Many passages in Dan Brown's Inferno are eerily parallel to the unlocking of secrets in Philippine taladros and talismans.

Finished reading Dan Brown's Inferno, which Jeffrey gave me a few days ago. I was initially dismayed that it wasn't an illustrated edition (because I have the illustrated editions of Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code) but, now having read all of it, am delighted that this novel doesn't even need an illustrated edition at all. It is, to me, Dan Brown's most mature, most compassionate, and most credible work.

I have always considered Dan Brown's books to be well-written airplane books, i.e., thick tomes to be read on a long flight, except that people prefer to watch movies on planes these days. All of them are Mission Impossible minus Tom Cruise adventures in print, and are the closest competition in print to TV and DVDs.

Here is another Dan Brown book that has all the elements responsible for his previous successes: a clever plot, interesting puzzles, exciting chases, sexual tension a la James Bond, hopelessly Catholic frames of reference, the knowledge that Robert Langdon will always be saved by some twist (no matter what), cut-to-cut pacing, short chapters, guided tours through cities and museums that verge on dwindling into travelogues and tourism brochures--you'll know them when you encounter them because they comprise the longer chapters. The only incredible element, as usual, is an antagonist like a Batman villain who stage-manages a highly unlikely, theatrical, and elaborate situation that everyone else must crack.

There is of course, that four-page episode/flashback set in Manila that raised a furor when the novel was first released, which makes me wonder, really, what that furor was all about. Whatever Dan Brown saw, I often see. (Maybe the episode was too sordid in comparison with the lush descriptions of Florence, Venice, and Turkey.) If you ask me, the only unbelievable thing in that episode was the old, Filipina woman who sticks a knife in the would-be rapist's back to save a foreigner (she might as well be committing suicide). Whoever complained of that episode most certainly had no access to Lino Brocka's movies. At any rate, I certainly had the intelligence to keep in mind that what I was reading was called fiction.

The only criticism I have in this series is that the protagonist has the most undefined character of all--unlike Judge Dee in Robert van Gulik's Chinese detective series, for example, but then again maybe that is the point. Langdon's precursor is Leamas from The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, a man who could be anybody.

Strangely, the author makes reference to Logan's Run but not to Soylent Green.

And finally, there is one schizoid episode that throws me off--the duplication scene in which a man, and then a woman, follows the genius into a bar and afterwards submits to his sexual domination. It doesn't go with the rest of the novel's texture. Yet, it could be a Freudian slip on the author's part, an indication that he yearns to write something more literary in the future, for a change.

He is old-school macho, and I wonder how far it can take him.

When a painting makes you feel sated, it is because colors have flavors.

On days that are neither too rainy nor too sunny, you can do whatever your heart desires.

Everyone wants and deserves the best.

When you skimp and save on other persons, you do the same to yourself.

Sand-casting is a process by which a cheap mold is made from cement and sand, into which molten metal is poured. The product has a surface that is pock-marked and pitted.

This is how crude medallions are mass-produced.

People keep posting photos of their talismans, not knowing that they are mere sidewalk souvenirs.

Here are other tourist items you might as well get rid of:

--Singing bowls
--Prayer wheels
--Pentacles
--Pewter pendants
--Sand-cast, brass medallions "oxidized" with black candle wax
--Anything that you find in a published catalog.

Your pet dogs, cats, and birds will alert you to the presence of transient ghosts. If they sleep peacefully, all is well.

Never wish to have someone else's physique, because you will be given his internal maladies as well.

Do not entertain ghost lovers.

You'll know it when it happens.

Wear a necklace or a pendant on a chain whenever you wish to prevent yourself from being swayed by other persons.

Never criticize others for doing something if you had every chance to volunteer to do it and you did not.

Do not allow your children to play with ghost children.

Never play politics during Ghost Month.

Even artists and writers fall into ruts.

--Is what you are doing worth doing everyday?
--Does it give you true satisfaction, or is it out of sheer habit or compulsion?
--Is it making you a better person?
--Are you continuing to learn from it, or have you reached your ceiling and must move on to something else?
--Is it merely a mechanism to call attention to yourself and subconsciously ask others for affection?
--Are you profiting materially from what you are doing?
--Are you still what you were ten years ago?

Music is like the smoke from joss sticks. It repels negativity.

Another performer exits.

His power animal is the Tasmanian devil. Only a practicing shaman can impair it.

They stick pieces of adhesive tape on the Cheshire Cat's butt in order to keep her occupied and distracted.

Tony Perez's Art of War: Whenever your impulse is to jump up and down and scream out in protest, remember that your enemy skillfully engineered you to do so.

We create and we destroy, because there is a direct correlation between Nature and human nature.

Jeff works on the center panel for his paintings at M.'s cafe.

Whenever the sun is out, the rain was but a dream.

A poor man who pretends to be rich always fails. A rich man who pretends to be poor always fails.

Good morning, Cubao!

Slept eight hours last night.

The sun is a bushel of golden mangoes.

Hark! The herald is a woman.

Festival of Hungry Ghosts, Wednesday, August 17, 2016

A chocolate shake at M.'s cafe. Oh, the joy of having a cafe in front of our house! I MUST get down to creating that secret passage between our living room and the rear of the cafe.

A mellow afternoon with sunlight filtered by sheets of clouds and no rain--the kind of afternoon that makes all living beings--from humans to insects--happy because they are neither being scorched to a coma by the sun nor being drowned and forgotten beneath floodwaters.

The kind of day in which one's destiny is shaped by the will rather than the weather.

Moseying over to the Castle of Baking and Confectionery in a while to buy a bar of bitter chocolate.

Their presentation gadgets are quite appealing. They always have that irresistible, rotating, tabletop ferris wheel designed to place cupcakes on. Should I be crazy enough to buy it someday, I will use it to accent a garden for gnomes.

Must screen another movie and monitor another theater for MTRCB. I am entitled to one companion, but the person I want to take with me is in Singapore!

Always save for your insanity.

Tragedy is he who has the passion but not the pocket money.

You are a worthless teacher if what you teach inside the classroom is not applicable outside the classroom.

Amnesty is never granted in a state of flux.

In your dream, I took you to an old house by the beach. I showed you the rooms within and asked you to choose one, suggesting that you take a quiet one in the far corner. I told you how I planned to make interesting changes in the house, wanting to have a secret staircase off an existing staircase and knock out a wall panel behind white tracery so that passersby could be seen from within.

The sky is a jumble of translucent pick-up sticks.

"Viva forever, I'll be waiting/ 
Everlasting, like the sun /"

Good morning, Cubao!

Slept ten hours last night.

Night Classes 4:30 AM

Must come in red.

Please go directly to the roof deck and not to my office.

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

The Cheshire Cat said that she would support him all the way, but that is not what she is doing.

Place a bowl of coins on your offering table for the Hungry Ghosts. After the Ghost Month, set the coins aside and keep them for one year.

My iPhone finally conked out. I survived a week without it and am therefore in no rush to replace it.

I can be reached via Hangouts, Messenger, and e-mail.

I see the black viper streaking the sky toward the south.

This means that many people will be short of money all through this week.

And hopefully it will be over for them as soon as the week ends.

If you are one of these people, relax and do not despair.

Note that the actual Ghost Month is August 3 - 31 this year, 2016.

This is the eve of the Festival of Hungry Ghosts.

In a sense, it is an Asian Halloween.

Check out this site: http://www.chineseholidays101.com/hungry-ghost-festival/

Iced barley water is good for blood pressure.

Unfortunately it is not available in the Philippines.

Tony Perez's Art of War: While everyone is jumping out of their skin to take center stage, remain backstage, but be silently productive.

Very soon everyone will leave the theater and go backstage just to meet you.

Aubrey home early. They have midterms starting tomorrow.

Angelique still at university.

When your heart finds your one, true love, there is nothing else that you will want.

Perhaps our one, true love is shopping.

M. installs wooden, vertical louvres in his cafe. Awaiting painting or varnishing.

Before:

After:

One of the things you can do to liberate yourself from worry is to allow others to make their own decisions.

That you think others are wrong does not make you right.

Never perform magic in a state of sexual arousal. You will lose both.

Noon is the zenith of the sun. When magic is performed at this time, you will reach great heights only while freeing yourself of grounding shackles: food, sex, and other pleasures that make your body, rather than your spirit, come forward.

Learn to be even more independent, and aloof, upon retirement.

Otherwise you will seek more and more attention from others, subconsciously believing that what they give you, whether or not begrudgingly, is love.

Remain proactive even as you go with the flow, observing everything around you, what other people do, and the lessons shown as you seemingly aimlessly drift by.

Sometimes there are more things to be learned from going with the flow than from launching into battle.

Every new painting you make should be ten times more difficult than your previous one. It should present and overcome new painting challenges and new painting problems.

Otherwise you are merely repeating yourself, and there will come a time when people will say that, once they've seen a painting by you, they just as well might have seen them all.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is a cake of scented bath soap.

Jeffrey came back at 6:30 PM to pack up his cotton candy machine. He has an entire network, apparently. His trade name is Lolli Puffs.

Books have been coming my way lately. Jeffrey gave me this--I actually haven't read it yet. Gave him one of my amulets.

Rafael does not like calling undue attention to himself. He never wears his jewelry in public--he wears them only when he goes to sleep, then takes them off when he wakes up in the morning.

I have actually tried doing that, and I recall that I felt like Hadrian! Bwahahahahahaha!

Now that the cicadas have laundered their opalescent raiment, they are singing at full volume in the dragon tree.

Maybe they want some cotton candy too.

The cotton candy cart is being set up in front of our house. It will stay for only three hours.

Jeffrey gave us 30 free servings for family and friends on such short notice--they gave an early morning demo on Umagang Kay Ganda but I read his message only after I woke up at noon.

I am having a multi-flavored flower and a plain ube, and I just can't take any more.

The neighbors came and bought cotton candy for themselves. One of them even booked the cart for a children's party.

Question: How does a man with a moustache and a beard eat cotton candy?

Answer: With a fork, like spaghetti off a stick.

All social media delusions address the rich.

To this day I have read no social media delusions that address the poor, even if the poor are on social media.

When eating is a compulsion, it becomes a curse.

I warned you that if you migrate to ___________, born-again Christian communities will shut you out until you become one of them.

They operate like jihadists.

I went on training in the U.S. twice.

The big surprise the first time around was discovering what a bunch of cultural ignoramuses my counterparts were.

Alas, it was no longer a surprise the second time around.

When a maid desires to have sex with the man of the house, she has no other motive but to wreak revenge on the woman of the house.

Remember that even your servants are on social media.

If social media changed your world, so did they change your servants'.

Never call, text-message, or PM me before noon because I will most likely still be asleep.

Atchays are laughing because classes were suspended but the rain has stopped and the sun is out.

They should be educated to know that, even when the rain has stopped and the sun is out:

--Streets are still flooded
--Houses are still in terrible disrepair
--Some areas still have no power
--Some areas still have no running water
--Engineers need to check structures
--People who were evacuated from their homes need time to return to their houses and get their households restarted.

It's called a rehabilitation period, and atchays believe that there is no such thing. All they know is when to unfold and fold their umbrellas.

Received another PM concerning a maid who stole jewelry and stuff.

I want to make it clear to everyone why maids allow themselves to be maids:

--They want to make it big in Metro Manila, believing that they can.
--They want to be rich.
--They are hoping that the masters of the house will fall in love with them and transform them into Cinderellas.
--They are at the very least hoping to get married to successful houseboys, after which they can say ta-ta to their respective households.
--They dream of being models and movie stars.

They turn lonely and psychotic when it dawns on them that none of the above is possible because you--yes, YOU, acting like the very diva your maid wants to be--keep treating them like maids!

Who has the real delusion now: you or your maid?

It feels great to be reading mountains of books and losing myself in different worlds again. Before I retired I was able to read books only on stolen time, sacrificing my non-work hours in order to do so. (Reading tons of textbooks in university doesn't count.) Now I feel that I really own my time--I can pick up a book in the morning and not let go of it through the night if I want to.

The sun is a bouquet of tiger lilies.

I just woke up, and sorry for the short notice. Jeffrey will bring the cotton candy cart to the house at 3:00 PM sharp this afternoon.

"Sun, sun, sun, here it comes!/"

--The Beatles

Good noon, Cubao!

Slept ten hours last night.

The sun is out at last!

If the night has a thousand eyes, the wind has a thousand fingers.

My big failure this week was not staying home all day because the rain kept calling my name.

I hope to stay home the whole day tomorrow and pore over Joscephine's books, whether it continues to rain or not.

I am looking for a friend who has all the time in the world and is willing to check into a faraway hotel with me for a week so that we would do nothing but read all eight Harry Potter books in succession and discuss them.

Whenever you are experiencing something pleasurable--eating something, watching a good movie, reading a good book, wearing your favorite jewelry, contemplating your best antique--do so not only with your mind and your heart but also WITH EVERY CELL OF YOUR BODY. Such moments relax your nerves, improve your blood circulation, and actually, psychologically ensure that you are in the best of health.

Upon retirement you can sleep as much as you like. You can also enjoy what I call the two-hour breakfast, the two-hour lunch, and the two-hour dinner (not necessarily all in the same day). Not to mention the one-hour shower, which is most enjoyable.

The community image of the Black Nazarene was paraded through the streets with thunderous drums in accompaniment this evening.

Despite the rain. Or maybe because of it.

Through the glass wall of the inner wing of the Cubao Hog's Head Pub I am able to look down onto the courtyard of the Cubao Hogwarts Espresso Station. It is quite wonderful that my two favorite coffee shops at the center are aligned.

Lashing rain. Just when everyone thought it was all over.

Wearing Pour Homme by Lomani.

4:30 PM. Back from the center. Met up with Joscephine Gomez at the Cubao Hog's Head Pub. Bought some of her books. A nice, warm chat about old times.

She is thinking about moving to Bougainvillea Mansions, a few meters away from our house.