To continue reading my electronic diary, proceed to http://www.tonyperezphilippinescyberspacebook25.blogspot.com.

Height of summer in Cubao

"One of these mornings/
You're going to rise up singing/
Then you'll spread your wings/
And you'll take to the sky/"

A renovated house with good repair work is ten times better than a new house with undiscovered defects.

At the moment one of you is being tempted to set up an aquarium.

Now that the eyes of the world are turned elsewhere, please, just sit back and relax.

Do not try to regain attention by claiming sightings of religious apparitions, statues that weep tears of oil, and crowds being possessed by the devil.

Entertainment is ephemeral. Thank God, not everything in this world is entertainment.

The color red is inappropriate for aging women.

The worst friend in this world is someone who is intelligent but is extremely lazy. Such a person is all talk and no action, and will get you--and himself--nowhere.

Never get involved with your students' personal problems.

A true mage never searches without for answers, for he knows that all of those are already within him.

Your Hangout message:


"Hi Sir, I need to consult you on what I may do regarding my relationship with my husband.  He and I are growing apart, he is usually out and gaming and should he be home it will be for a maximum of 4 hours to get some sleep, take a bath and leave again. We have a son turning 5 this year and the reason I am not ending the marriage is because of our son.  However, inside it really pains me to see the marriage is on the rocks.  If you may please advise on what I may do I would truly appreciate it.  Thanks,

"____________"


My reply:

Hello ___________!

1) First of all, why don't you discuss this directly with your husband? Are you afraid of what he might say, and that he might place the blame on you rather than on himself for the deterioration of your relationship? You need to be prepared for whatever he has to say.

2) If your husband prefers to live his life without you, the problem as you stated it has nothing to do with you but everything to do with your son. Again, only both of you can discuss that on a practical level.

3) Improve the way you look. Go on a diet, buy new clothes, pamper yourself with sessions at a beauty parlor, change your hairstyle, learn to cook new dishes, rearrange your house.

4) If you were asking me for a magical solution, however, go to Baclaran and buy a talisman made of deer horn (sungay ng usa). A married woman who keeps this on herself will rest assured that her husband will always come back and find home in her heart. 

But, do #s 1 -3 as well.

If you cannot live without a seamstress, buy a sewing machine and learn how to operate it.

If you cannot live without a photographer, buy a camera and take your own pictures.

Sometimes survival means reducing your dependence on other people.

Taking in this day more slowly than usual.

Good noon, Cubao!

Seen two episodes of Obsession: Dark Desires on Ci so far. Both episodes involve stalking by telephone, especially mobile phone. This does not work in the Philippines, because Filipinos:

1) Will answer an unknown number only once and then, if the caller is a nuisance, either block the number or change the SIM card.
2) Creatively out-nuisance the nuisance caller with a bevy of tricks.
3) Feel flattered to be stalked at all.

In the end, the stalker will end up wasting his time and his money.

Good night, Cubao!

Knitting in bed again.

When you put a suicide bomber to death, you assist him in achieving his martyrdom.

Shutting him away for life is the worse punishment, because such a situation is never in the script.

Reshuffled bird cages in the small loggia.

Lunch at Gateway with my granddaughters. I remember that, when Angelique was six and Aubrey three, their parents allowed me to take them out for a snack at Yum-Yum Tree in Rustan's Cubao. We walked, and Aubrey got exhausted, and so I carried her most of the way. It was a thrilling experience for them to be waited on and entertained by Resty, the head waiter at the time.

Now Angelique is 19 and Aubrey 16, and both of them are metropolis-wise. It was nice being taken care of by my granddaughters for a change.

World-class always wins outside the Philippines.

A Saturday that has many exciting things in store.

A day that goes whichever wonderful way you take it.

Media not allowed in court trial, which is how it should be.

Life is not a TV melodrama.

My e-mail student from Georgia is so far satisfied with the readings I sent him. He is halfway through a book and is begging for more.

It is not the shapes of clouds that fascinates us, but the gradual dissipation of those shapes as the winds prod them across the sky, reminding us that life on earth is not forever.

When astral traveling, try to control your vision as though it were a video camera.

I cannot understand why champagne fountains were scandalous in the 1970s. The ignorant probably thought they were bottomless.

It is your goddess who determines how your enemies are punished.

Good morning, Cubao!

Fed and watered the birds in dappled, morning sunlight.

Good night, Cubao!

Knitting in bed again.

The king made my face of clay
I remold and shape it every night
So that, when the sun rises
I am someone else all over again

The queen gave me many colors
I change my raiment every day
And cover my new face
With a mesh of wind and fire

Angelique home after her last final exam this semester.

The night always brings the inspiration to reflect, because the mind is a lamp that shines in darkness.

Whenever you re-read a good book on magic, you discover new meanings that you didn't catch the last time around.

Lately the best part of my day is after lunch, when I feel on top of everything!

Aubrey and I have been having large glassfuls of neighborhood halo-halo every other day. Angelique doesn't care much for it.

The bird man arrived this afternoon. I like his avian ware and enjoy his instructions as to how to care of them. What I don't like is that, whenever I buy birds from him, he encourages crowds to gather and gawk at us.

My sister Lourdes sent me a bottle of instant coffee called Noir from Australia. I always take my coffee black, and this one tastes like brewed coffee!

When you pass up on a magical object, it will never be available to you again.

My current obsession with knitting is an indication to me that, once I finish up with my current knitting projects, my obsession will shift to painting or writing. Again.

Making up for lost time, I guess. Doing everything I've always wanted to do but couldn't when I was still employed in an office.

More and more people express their talent, meaning that, despite all suffering, we are all on the right track to the future!

T. wants two talismans--one for him and one for a female friend--that they can take with them whenever they travel. The thunderstones I gave them show up as opaque black on TV monitors at airports!

The only way to survive cleaning, doing laundry, washing the dishes, and pre- and post-activity chores such as before and after cooking or before and after painting is to convince yourself that they are enjoyable, and that they are meant to be enjoyed.

I must say, when one plans to go astral-travelling at night, one must be open to waking late the next day, such as 12:45 NN!

Good day, Cubao!

My jeweler arrived. It's quite exasperating that our smith is left-handed. All of the hooks are on the left, and the silver screws turn counterclockwise to lock!

I have to go back tonight. J., would you like to come with me, or are you still afraid?

Good night, Cubao!

Knitting in bed again.

The Test of Staves

Two or three years ago I was sitting in the studio lounge with three former, male students. I told them that I would give away three staves and that each of them could take one: one from Siquijor, one from Tayabas, and one from Bulacan.

When I brought out the staves I deliberately gave them wrong information abut the sources of the staves.

One of them went straight for the stave from Siquijor. The other two had no choice but to go visual. The youngest student ended up with the shortest and most ordinary-looking stave.

Unbeknownst to the youngest student, he has the stave of true power--unless he threw it away when he got home.

Tests like this demonstrate how power-hungry students can be.

Bipolar priests should be prevented from hearing Confession.

A window box kept opening and selling a security application. Per the advice of an IT friend, I kept closing it.

Eventually another box opened--it said that the application would be downloaded and applied anyway.

Angelique came home directly after her exam today.

Good morning, Cubao!

I've been hearing of too many people getting hospitalized of late. There must be a magnetic wave passing through that is generating this tendency.

Today the sky over Cubao was made of steel. The sun blazed on the sharp edge of its blade.

Night classes, 4:00 AM

Third session on the same topic, after which, and I hope you are successful, we astral-travel to a disaster area. I will give instructions upon our arrival there.

If you are unable to sleep at any appointed time, tune in to Baby TV. Gaze at the screen without thinking of anything.

Baby TV is a third-eye opener, a sedative, and a perfect entry point to my night classes.

Good night, Cubao!

Knitting in front of the TV.

How sweet! I received my renewed MTRCB card today.

I, of course, am always R-18.

A heart that is seldom kept clean is festooned with cobwebs.

Angelique home after a three-final-exams day.

A cup of Brendan's wonderful Zen tea. Mixed berries and herbs.

The ancient Chinese were extremely wise to include wood and metal as elements, because we cannot live without them.

Prudishness is always a mask or a front. The most lecherous person will pretend to be offended at the slightest joke about lechery.

That is why I doubt that any living person has the right to refer to himself as "holy".

Always be aware that protective magic has a radius. With normal wands you can protect, at best, yourself, your family, your house, and your neighborhood.

Whenever you accidentally tip a glass on a table or desk, it is because your psyche is urgently reminding you that you have been neglecting doing something for too long.

War always begins in someone's heart. And gradually works its way outward.

We are so proud of technology and its series of milestones. Yet, we are not cognizant of its many side effects on our individual freedom, our family life, our communal values.

The source of all unhappiness is wanting things--things one has lost, things one has always wanted but can't have, things one can only dream about, things impossible to get.

This source is directly linked to yet another source, a lack of money. Because, despite your finicky, religious protests, money can buy anything nine times out of ten. I have observed that it can even buy love.

And so, get a good job, start your own business, save up. And get to it now. That is the real meaning of "leveling up", which has nothing to do with intelligence, talent, or beauty.

On my Google+ page, someone in a foreign country tagged me on a photo I am supposed to be in. His name is also Tony Perez and he is, apparently, a rock fan.

Even in your saddest of moods you will find that there are people who will say and do things to lift your spirit. If no one does, know that it is in your power to do so yourself.

Good morning, Cubao!

Bright and sunny again!

Good night, Cubao!

Finished knitting the front and back panels of Angelique's pullover today, and then spent hours teasing the red band with the ribbons. Will commence doing the sleeves tomorrow.

It won't take long before she decides to expose her abusive marriage and ask for freedom.

I have a wand that no one has ever seen and that of course I shall never photograph. Whenever I hold it I feel very much empowered and, believe it or not, I can prevent anything from happening that day.

I enjoyed heritage conservation because it was a big part of my job before I retired. I would never allow it to take over my life again, though. I much more enjoy staying at home and doing things that make me happiest, and that is what blissful retirement is all about.

Overcast skies in Cubao.

Trimmed plants on the roof deck earlier this afternoon.

It is wrong to relegate to museums all of the artifacts of a tribe or community THAT IS STILL LIVING, and many such tribes and communities ARE STILL LIVING IN THE PHILIPPINES. You will simply be telling your museum visitors, "Here are things that are all in the past and are no longer part of the modern world." All of those pieces that you label as "ethnic art" are implements that are BEING USED in everyday life.

Similarly, do not convert those tribes and communities to the religion you practice because, in doing so, you take away from them EVERYTHING.

Do not allow any "program" to "make changes" to your computer.

Good morning, Cubao!

Three bits of new information made me feel good today.

Night class, 4:00 AM.

Last night's lesson continued.

Good night, Cubao!

Resting from knitting tonight.

Every relationship must be scrutinized not only in the light but also in the dark.

One of the worst Psychology teachers I ever had in the 1970s was B., an obsessive-compulsive, lay nun who was extremely biased against non-Christians and always insisted on having the last word even if she was terribly wrong. Her habit was to copy entire textbooks by hand and then pass those voluminous sheets off as her lecture notes--she read from them asloud in class.

B. was my practicum adviser in Clinical Psychology. She decided that I should spend my practicum hours in the Guidance Office of the university's high school department. Its director at the time was a Father Duffy.

B. went through the formality of sending Father Duffy a memorandum outlining the course's requirements and expectations. Two weeks later she was thrown off her seat when Father Duffy replied that his office could not accommodate practicum students.

In every class session we had thereafter B. kept rubbing her palms together and asking the walls, "What shall we do about Father Duffy? What shall we do about Father Duffy?"

To the best of my knowledge B. no longer teaches in the Psychology Department. It is safe for me to assume, however, that, if she is still alive, she continues to have a tortured mind.

Knitting the day away.

If "outreach" means becoming riffraff, don't even bother to do it.

Listening to Ivy's Strauss CD.

Everyone has two "guardian angels". The second "angel" is usually a living, human being.

Even underpainting should be smooth and well-executed.

Never perform rituals that make you look like a fool--to others and to yourself.

It is easier to accept that a person was a hero or a saint after he has passed on to another lifetime.

The majority of astral students arrived on the roof deck at 4:00 AM. This happened more than once before, and so all night classes will henceforth be held at 4:00 AM.

The Philippines has four strong contenders to the Grand Finals of Asia's Got Talent.

Vote, but DO NOT OVER-CELEBRATE. DO NOT GET EMOTIONAL. DO NOT GET HYSTERICAL. DO NOT GENERATE SIXTH-GRADE GIMMICKS.

Allow them the dignity of fighting their own battles alone and minus your obtrusion.

Otherwise, after the event, you will be like a mad dog yearning to pounce on the next possible splash that will put the country on the map.

Again.

The problem with programs like Brain Games and How 2 Win is that, after they air, they nullify themselves. Like books on how to achieve success, once they are published and read, they no longer work.

Always celebrate AFTER a victory, never before it.

Good morning, Cubao!

Another bright and sunny day!

Good night, Cubao!

Knitting in bed again.

Night classes at 4:00 AM

The bird man visited our compound at 8:30 this morning but I was still fast asleep. I cannot recall my dream--only that it was a long, long dream and that I was traveling to different cities with my workshop portfolios in that dream.

The day creeps on in quietude. I spent most of it alone. When I woke up late this morning, my granddaughters went out on a jaunt to the commercial center. I suppose, it is their way of de-stressing, as writing, painting, and knitting are mine.

This is the kind of life I have always wanted--sleeping, waking, and eating whenever I want, going where I want, and meeting only with people of my choice. I do not care who need me and who do not need me. I note that even my current works have improved by leaps and bounds because of this social, psychological, and emotional freedom.

I am bound by nothing except sickness and death, when they come, because, after all, they come to everyone.

It is everyone's human right to dream, but it is a human tragedy that we almost never attain our dreams.

Google+ is my secret room in which I receive visitors who come for consultation.

It is all right to be sentimental as long as you have a lot of money to back up your sentiments.