After you take off the sash, insert the brass figure of the man through the loop round the brass figure of the woman, then wind the rest of the cord around both figures.

It's the feast day of Barangay Kaunlaran, which is right across us. Their patron is Saint Joseph the Worker.

Anticipating a lot of Mardi Gras parades.

This will be a month of extremes: grave disappointments for the unworthy and substantial merits for those who worked hard for and deserve them.

If they can pronounce "PayPal", why can't they pronounce "Nepal"?

Especially, for heaven's sake, the broadcasters who look like they were born in the vicinity and are pretending that they were bred and raised differently.

Good morning, Cubao!

Switched to ceramic mugs for the blackbirds' feed and water vessels. Birdcage vessels are too flimsy.

Good night, Cubao!

I am mastering the art of the small bedtime snack.

The Librarians was not successful because:

--Everyone in the cast was trying to be sexy rather than wholesome, as though all of them were auditioning for future programs.

--You can't really change the public's expectations of what librarians look like and how they behave.

Whenever you announce that you succeeded in the name of your god, people who have other gods will go out of their way to prove that it was otherwise.

Aubrey's knitting lesson resumes. Her current project is to make swatches in the following stitches: stockinette, 2 x 2 ribbing, and garter stitch.

I flinch whenever broadcasters pronounce "Nepal" as "Neh-poll".

If wrong pronunciation cannot be corrected, how much more so wrong information?

It's 2015 and people are still using the overused and pretentious word "robust" in their speeches and reports!

It's one of those days when I can't just sit in quiet--my sisters dropped by to send bananas and mangoes, the guard delivered a package that arrived, my son text-messaged several times...

Still, I believe that it is possible to be a hermit in an urban setting. I just have to keep trying.

A charlatan will be forced to give up his position and his job, and he will die in obscurity.

Good day, Cubao!

Slept eleven hours last night.

Whenever you raucously celebrate in the name of your god, people with different gods raise their eyebrows.

Pray inside your closet, never in public.

Good night, Cubao!

Morbid as it sounds, I'm tuned to crimes and hauntings on Ci and hoping to drowse off to sleep.

One victory, one loss.

The skull is the temple of the body.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit can be interesting while one is knitting, but the formula it often uses makes it too predictable--close to the ending, the perpetrator in each episode launches into a long-winded, Tennessee Williams monologue as the camera moves into extreme close-ups. I suppose the performers themselves consider these as opportunities to showcase their talent, although, most of time, they verge on over-acting. The formula, you see, typically works for theater but not for television.

Sheer madness is when your sister orders something for you on the Internet, it must travel from the U.S. to Australia and then to the Philippines, and the shipping will cost three times as much as the actual item.

Passersby on the driveway have been gawking at my new knitting project. This one's in warm colors of autumn.

Compassion is not complete without compassion for self.

The grandchildren may be fortunate to have a Grandpa who knits, sews, embroiders, does beadwork, draws, paints, and sculpts, but Grandpa is equally fortunate to have gorgeous young models.

When an insect flies away from its drove, it fades and dies.

When a human being detaches himself from the madding crowd, he recuperates.

Good morning, Cubao!

Be in silence for a change, and let the world go by.

Good night, Cubao!

My knitting needles were freed up after I finished Aubrey's pullover. I repaired them again tonight, so that I can commence knitting Angelique's pullover tomorrow.

"Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,
And Edith with golden hair."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow describes three of my five grandchildren--except, of course, for the golden hair.

It takes me two months to finish a pullover. Apparently that is my current pace in knitting.

Assembling Aubrey's pullover. A most relaxing and most rewarding phase of the project, and so, I am taking my sweet time.

Love is forever, because human beings are forever.

Sometimes I wish that the day would last. That the sun would never set. That I would be able to gaze at the cerulean sky and have as much time as I could to contemplate everything.

If the day would last, if the sun would never set, I know that I would have all of the answers to all of my questions.

It is possible, therefore, that the day does not last and that the sun will set because we are not meant to have answers to our questions.

You cannot collect pendants and not collect chains to go with each and every one of them.

Home alone again. There have been many moments like this since I retired, just me and the house, and I treasure them.

Good day, Cubao!

Slept eleven hours last night.

Tuned in to "CNN Absolutely".

Good night, Cubao!

Still knitting Aubrey's pullover.

Always, in the past, whenever I dreamt of food--piling it on a tray in a restaurant or in a cafeteria--I actually never get to taste or eat it. Either something happens that compels me to leave the food or I wake up. Like dreams in which someone or something is chasing you.

Last night I dreamt that I was in a restaurant, and that I was actually eating the food on my plate and enjoying it.

I believe that, as one ages, one's worlds merge in one's dreams, and that one eventually gets what he wants.

Re-reading my copy of The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee tonight, only because I love Judge Dee and Robert van Gulik and because it is my only other Judge Dee book, alas! I actually remember it as a depressing read.

Lovers are not meant to sleep in each other's arms
Both soon shift their bodies, love is a dance
It is not static, one stirs while the other keeps still
And keeps still in turn while the other stirs

Even a kiss, no matter how ardent is love
Must cease for lovers to catch their breath
Love is a dance, love always moves
Until the dance is put to end by death

Waking, I see you sleeping against my body
The dream slips back and can no longer be retrieved
I ponder briefly whether it is you who are the dream
For you feel one and the same in my mind's embrace

You have not lived life fully unless you meet a man obsessed with art.

Extraordinarily talented people are, by nature, unpredictable.

Every week I draw up a list of house chores to do. The most delightful thing about it is that no one sets deadlines for me. I simply do what I think I'd enjoy most first, and leisurely go down the line.

Commencing a re-read of another Judge Dee book tonight.

Judge Dee and TinTin are my default escape mechanisms.

Good morning, Cubao!

Almost done knitting Aubrey's pullover.

Angelique went to school extra early today.

In ancient China, the literati always wore caps outdoors and indoors. They took off their caps only before going to bed. This wonderful body signal helped their minds and their bodies prepare themselves to sleep.

Because death surrounds me
When love beckons I am unmoved
You call me yet I hear only the voices of the dying
My vocation is to give to those who will soon be forgotten
At the expense of losing you for my own

In the summer I dream of rain
In the wet season I dream of sunshine
I want you and I do not want you
I love you and I do not love you
We lie together in the night
but I wait for sunrise

The night holds my head against the pillow
I set the day aside, imagining you beside me
What would you be like if you were really here?
What would you say of the pattern of the bedsheet
the scent of my body
the passion in my heart?

Another hacker scam:

DHL Express

To

studioantenor@yahoo.com

Today at 9:49 PM

=D H L=

Dear Customer ,

Your partner in business sent out an enclosed package addressed to you.

Due to usual parcel misplacement that we have experienced in the past,

we now confirm delivery address from receivers before final delivery.

You need to re-confirm your delivery address to ensure smooth delivery.

Failure to verify address might lead to delay in scheduled delivery or loss of important document

Sincerely
DHL Delivery Team.

Reply, Reply All or Forward | More


How tempting to reply:

Dear DHL Delivery Team,

What is my name?

What is the name of the sender of the package? Did he or she not pay you enough to ensure delivery?

And since when did you change your logo?

Your Dear Customer

P.S. How did you get my e-mail address? None of my business partners have it.

Good night, Cubao!

Weaknesses are not excuses to prevent progress.

Don't even bother selling anything to someone who cannot afford to buy it.

To wait for the best until it is available again, or to settle for second best now.

Decisions, decisions.

I think I will wait.

And now, back to "CNN Absolutely".

To heighten your psychic abilities, switch to Pepsi Max.

When the sun shines directly above and the trees cast their shadows on the ground, when men and women walk by laden with bags of vegetables, when children sit in the shade chipping away at halo-halo cups--even if I am in Cubao I feel as though I were in some remote province.

There is something about the Philippine sunlight that encourages contemplation.

At last they have found a convenient excuse to step in.

It is the mind that weeps, never the heart.

CNN hosts say the word "Absolutely" so frequently that it spontaneously comes out of their mouths without their thinking, almost as though they don't mean it at all.

Like "Thank you so much".

I am waiting for, and somewhat dread, the showing of the Asian edition of How Do I Look? This program's success is based on its taking the average American woman off the street and raising her consciousness to tasteful style.

The average Asian--the very target of this program--DOES NOT SPEAK ENGLISH AND DOES NOT THINK IN ENGLISH. As such, I am certain that the program will resort to drawing English-speaking participants from the upper-middle class--mostly literati and perhaps more highly intellectual than its hosts--a drastic change in concept.

GUIDELINES FOR MY GOOGLE+ FOLLOWERS FOR THE COMING WEEK (APRIL 27 - MAY 1, 2015) are now on my Google+ page. To access them, click on my round badge on the right-hand column.

"CNN Absolutely".

Can't they think of another word?

Jewelry goes through cycles. Develop the sensitivity to know when their positive energy peaks.

You know that a teacher is superb if his former students come back to him again and again--even when he drives them away.

Restoration is foolish if a structure has collapsed completely. Time, the earth, the sky, and, perhaps, God Himself took it all away.

Why not just use the funds to cover more pressing needs, such as those of living human beings?

When winter comes to the Philippines, it will share the same seasons that Russia and China have.

Good morning, Cubao!

Tuned in to CNN all night. It's night time here while it's daytime in the U.S., and so the program makes a good, informative bedtime companion.

If the mind is capable of telepathy, the heart is capable of its own. This is one of the foundations of magic.

The bird man keeps text-messaging me, but I'm not inclined to buy his mynas at this time.

There was a time when I kept wishing he would pass by.

Now it is he who wishes that I would ask him to the house.

Life is a series of Chekovian ironies.

Placed my African statues together on two glass shelves inside my captain's cabin bedroom. I hope I didn't miss anything.

Tomorrow I am redoing the alcove and moving its present contents to a new location.

There is a dream I did not bother to record. It was about a statue of Saint Anthony that I used to have but that I sold off 15 years ago, and I can't even remember who bought it. Its head and base were more than 100 years old, its sculptured robe was shellacked in metallic gold, it held a sculptured calla lily in its right hand, and tiny diamonds were encrusted at its feet.

In the dream the statue comes to life and tells me that it has finally awakened and is unleashing its power.

I wish I could remember who owns the statue now.

Good night, Cubao!

Knitting in bed, then reading more pages from Poets and Murder before turning in.

Angelique will have her final exams in arnis next week. So far her grade is high. This evening I gave her my magical, kamagong arnis sticks--not to take to school but to keep in her self-defense arsenal.

There is order in earth changes, in the same way that there is order in chaos.

If you are currently in a relationship, ask yourself if you feel free, satisfied, joyful, complete, and centered. If you do not, you are in the wrong relationship--you have stopped being creative, have reached your ceiling, and have stopped learning new things.

The next will begin with O, and then with P.

Now placing all weird stuff inside my captain's cabin bedroom. All other parts of the house should look normal and attractive to ordinary people.

Whenever I oversleep, I only have half a share of daytime.

The more you watch a commercial, the more you take note of its risible flaws.

Taking a break from Saturday afternoon knitting.

I offered Angelique the option of giving her piece a front closure like a blazer, but she wants it knitted and assembled like Aubrey's.

On TV, frequently repeated trailers and teasers actually, subliminally, make the viewers resistant to the subject matter. The subconscious mind first becomes annoyed by the repetitions, and then becomes highly critical of the subject matter, and then triggers off a dislike for it.

When a repetition comes on, hex it by hopping to another channel and staying there for a few minutes.

Good day, Cubao! Slept eleven hours last night.

Caught the replay of the final episode of the first The Amazing Race Australia. I enjoyed watching this series--I felt like I was traveling with the participants all over the globe.

Should the show come to Metro Manila, here are a few suggested challenges:

1. Travel through Katipunan Avenue and C-5 at 4:00 PM to deliver something in 30 minutes.

2. Buy something at any SM branch, then try to convince an atchay saleslady to search for a better item in the stockroom even if she says, "Ser, all out na po."

3. Go to any branch of National Book Store and ask an atchay employee to search for a book title on the shelves.

Good night, Cubao!

Been having a Law & Order (you name it, SVU, Criminal Intent) overdose the entire week. Good for kids, actually. Raises awareness about crime and perpetrators.

Once the no-longer-a-cafe space is up and running, I will focus on creating a room for bed-spacing for call-center employees in the back of the house.

Don't go on a hunt for blessings.

Give God a chance to send them to you.

As of 12:00 NN today the ground-floor cafe space has been taken--not by the man from Saudi Arabia and his wife but by a woman who owns a shop at Market! Market!.

She was willing to follow my New Orleans French Quarter design requirement for the facade.

Sadly, it won't be a cafe at all.

The heart has a lid that can be opened and closed. Yet, the heart itself is bottomless.

Itching to do a Cubao New Orleans mural on the far wall of the ground-floor cafe, but it all depends on who the lessee will be.

Staying home has opened my eyes to areas of the house that need constant cleaning and maintenance--things that I never saw whenever I went to work in the morning and came home in the evening.

People read Tarot cards because they are responsive to matters of the heart.

I light candles only on our family altar.

If I must light something similar elsewhere in the house--for a specific purpose or simply for atmosphere--I use lamps filled with paraffin oil.

Why are people afraid of Tarot cards? Why are they not afraid of lit candles?

Whenever you light a candle, all kinds of spirits come forth. They are attracted to candle flames. That is why churches are full of them.

GUIDELINES FOR MY GOOGLE+ FOLLOWERS FOR THE WEEKEND (APRIL 25 - 26, 2015) are on my Google+ page. To access them, click on my round badge on the right-hand column.

The Hermit will of course choose a social medium that is not as easy to access as others are.

Good morning, Cubao!

Bright and early on a Friday!

Good night, Cubao!

In bed and watching TV.

Your preference in jewelry arises out of your need for the day:

Crown/headband: Intuition
Earring(s): Clarity of psychic hearing
Choker: Throat chakra, communication
Pendant/Pectoral/Long necklace:Heart chakra
Arm band: Strength, defense
Bracelet/Bangle: Action, aggression
Ring: Feeling chakra, plus further meanings depending on which fingers you place rings on

It is not easy to read one's mind. But, it is easy to read one's heart.

Love falls like rain and burns like sunshine, and should never be given nor received in excess.

Taught Aubrey how to knit and purl.

Because we have the moon and the stars, we were never meant to sleep in total darkness.