Happy Halloween, everyone!

Candles must be lit no later than 6:00 PM.

All candy must be given away. Keep no leftovers.

One will back down, the two will follow.

Getting candles ready for Halloween.

Spent a good part of the day at the _________ branch of my bank, my retirement branch choice because it is near my house.

A lot of time was spent:

--filling in at least six, tedious forms
--establishing my identity
--having my picture taken
--claiming my passbook

The downside is that no one but myself can withdraw money from the passbook, and so it is a race between withdrawing what I can and dying a la Judah Ben-Hur in the chariot race scene.

I am so glad I took care of things early. It's no wonder that other retirees' applications get delayed, what with the paperwork confusion, their getting lost in the bureaucratic melee, and the general chaos that retirement changes brings.

We have been conditioned, by history, to believe that it is necessary to have disciples to feed our insecurities, and yet, as we enter yet another age, we are called upon to rely more and more on ourselves and become independent of others.

For the longest time she believed that she was a queen and that the world owed her a living--until she looked around her and saw that she was finally being left behind by everyone else.

For everything that has been said and recorded about the might of man--including his muscle power, his speed, his competitiveness, and his capacity to develop, if not overdevelop, the true power and mystery of man is and will always remain within himself.

Once you've lived long enough, you note that every generation repeats its own history. Your required action is not to sit back and to observe, but to ensure that the same mistakes are not repeated.

It's called real evolution. The mind of the divine does not like being rushed. It prefers that human beings learn the slow way, a way that is a far cry from the lightning speed of technology--a fetus, after all, cannot develop as quickly as a graphic icon can.

There is one effective way to slow down, which is to write deliberately slowly and carefully.

A week before December 31, 2014, I will no longer be using a mobile. I can be reached only via my e-mail address.

A Message Only for My Co-Workers

Yesterday I attended my first-ever pre-retirement briefing at HR. There were two us there; a third would attend at a later time. Three others were scheduled to come on different schedules, making a total of five of us in all.

I had the distinct advantage of being with an HR employee who was able to guide me wisely and well through my retirement process. I discovered that the few dollars more that I will be making from January 2015 - March 2015 are not really worth all the time and effort, and that I am much better off retiring three months earlier, in December 2014, as Santa Claus temporarily garages his magical sled for the year.

And so, my dear colleagues, you will soon be seeing me saying goodbye--though not for good because I will always be in cyberspace as the eternal specter of your road not taken.

In addition to the rational factors behind my decision for early retirement:

--I want to leave before I decide that it wasn't worth staying too long.
--The traffic situation has made the metropolis a purgatory. (You don't know what this is if you don't live in the Philippines, and I see us backsliding unless something is done about it. Believe it or not, out-of-town is the next frontier.)
--Every morning and every afternoon of my life I see people jostling one another and fighting for survival in BOTH public and private modes of transportation, and it really brings out the worst in everyone. I refuse to see people getting hurt everyday.

I've computed the number of office days I still have, and I'm counting only 20! This is truly the last rainy season of my office life, but every day will be a blissful holiday for me!

Good luck! As for myself I shall be oversleeping, writing, and painting--the way I always dreamed I would!

GUIDELINES FOR MY GOOGLE+ FOLLOWERS FOR THE COMING WEEK (OCTOBER 27 - 31, 2014) are available on my Google+ page, but are are visible only to my Google+ Followers.

Your Hangout Message:

"Hi sir,this _______. This is too personal sir but I know you can listen to me. I regret I didn't listen to you when you advised me about the guy I told you online. We've stayed together for 14 months. There were good days and bad. He left me now sir because he said he can't handle another suicidal attempts. Yes sir, I have emotional and psychological problems.

"During the relationship it's so easy for me to make rush decisions and go back again. The nature of my changeable mind. Then when I am at those darkest hours in the relationship, it's so easy to think about suicide. It's like I am threatening him about my life. He said it's so hard for him because he's the one only fighting for my life. Now that he's gone, I couldn't think of dying because the pain makes me even more alive. I am so devastated sir. I know I have so many things to change in my self. I wanted to forget about those failed promises. I wanted to be better because I am in the darkest hours. It's like I am catching all the negative feelings poured down by the heavens. 

"I want to throw away my negativity, and learn how to handle myself in situations like this.I wish I could undergo a therapy or a workshop that could release me from distress."

My answer: Hi _______. Never center your life around a single individual, especially since both of you are in a small place. No matter how close you become to each other, you will still be having differences--differences that will only become more ampified and lead to more and more disappointments.

You can never own a person completely. Neither can that person completely own you. 

Consider taking a vacation or a change of place completely.

The Night Before An Early Halloween

I chose a leeward cottage once again. There is something about a room that constantly faces the sea; the sound of the waves is always threatening to me.

It is 8:30 PM and all of the employees are busy decorating their rooms. The island is pitch dark. We are surrounded by nothing but darkness. Every once in a while I see people on bikes or on foot with nothing but LED lights to light their way. I am reminded yet again of the time I was in Bali, years ago, where people believed in "living in darkness."

(This has an accompanying Album. However, it is visible only to my Google+ Followers)

No one has ever really recorded prophets in joking words. Proof that jokes are ephemeral?

People will never grow tired of old fashioned clocks because their faces and dials are shaped like birds against the sky. Literally, tempus fugit.

By manipulating your thought processes you can make a scoop of ice cream remain cold inside your belly for the next two hours.

As a general rule do not sit beside someone who has excess energy. It affects the way you think and write.

A person who keeps announcing bad news loses his credibility.

When you look above the skyline, the clouds will appear like swimmers.

Sex drags down the ability to heal.

An object of lust is never the real person whom you think.

It is unwise to believe that you are above the rest, unless you really are.

Like love, intelligence flows, and is not a discrete entity that can be measured for good.

To control your BP, relax your body AND your mind.

A smile makes anyone beautiful at any time.

No two dreams ever coincide.

Corruption doesn't pay. After having acquired all of the things you thought you wanted, you will neither have the time nor the conscience to enjoy them.

Did it every occur to you that the desktop clamps on pencil sharpeners and elbow reading lights never worked, never will, and that that no one really cares whether they do or don't?

GUIDELINES FOR MY GOOGLE+ FRIENDS FOR THE WEEKEND (OCTOBER 25 - 26, 2014) are now available on my Google+ page, but are visible only to my Google+ Followers.

Packing for Grande Island. Selling off a lot of magical stuff.

Nielsen came to the house this evening with a vigil candle for her father Nelson. We placed it and lit it on our family altar.

I flip a page on my executive planner and come across a note on the top of October 24 indicating that it will be my son Nelson's birthday. Tomorrow would be his 42nd birthday. He passed away at 28, but I continue marking my planners with his birthday. Not so much to remember, because people will remember only what they want to, but as a form of admission to myself that, as long as I live, that special date will always be marked on my calendars--and how hopelessly we desire to cling on to memories that have special meaning only to ourselves.

Nelson lived a normal life as a successful dentist. He left behind his girlfriend, who was a successful dentist also. He dabbled in writing and in painting not so much to please me but because he enjoyed indulging in these. I have at least four of his works.

Someday, when I am gone, Nelson's birthday will no longer be recorded in my executive planners, and neither will mine.

I believe that immortality is not in building monuments or in conquering worlds but in keeping that spark of love alive inside your heart, and knowing that it is one of the greatest treasures that no one else but you can ever have.

Corruption will never win because:

--truth transcends everything, including religion and religiosity,
--there are more non-corrupt people than corrupt people, and
--frankly, corruption is too expensive to maintain by any one group or individual.

I am NOT active on Linked In and would appreciate knowing how to deactivate from it. It's come to the point when I had to get on my Linked In profile and post on it, "I am NOT on Linked In. If you wish to connect with me, please join me on Google+."

Role Models?

Sometimes I feel that more and more boys are resorting to effeminacy because they are shown "ideal role models" that they are threatened by, cannot feel that they can match up to, feel inadequate in comparison to, and are unable to relate with. As a result they subconsciously decided to go the other way rather than meet the challenge.

Never keep or give away hotel toiletries as gifts. They are all junk; that is why I travel with my own toiletries.

I once had a graduate-school classmate who religiously saved and repacked them as gifts to friends. I found this so tacky and distasteful that I dropped her from my roster of friends. She is probably still doing this to this very day.

Hotel toiletries are not even fit to be given away to beggars.

If only you knew what chemicals are used in them!

Always thank the spirits of a place before leaving it.

I am amused whenever people try to make money off me and other people over the tiniest things.
.
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Paying attention with new ears ensures that you do not become jaded.

Only the correct posture will completely relax you.

A trip is a desolate venture only if, at the end of the day, you feel that Nature has abandoned you.

Wind down psychologically toward the tail end of a trip, not after you get back home.

You travel in maturity not to have fun but to see the word truthfully though different eyes.

There is something that you need to seriously consider and accept:

That your enemies agree with you a hundred percent.

The worst thing about watching a movie on the big screen is to emerge from the movie house and come back harshly to the real world.

All food must be cooked with love, or it is not food at all.

Now I can do this with my eyes closed.

You cannot make a full-time profession out of fun, because it something is you cannot really sell everyday, not even to yourself.

Only the mind can look beyond walls.

Goodbye, Leyte!

Hello, Cubao!

The Continuity of Clouds

Since I am a cloud-watcher, I've been noting that, even in the biggest motion picture epics, the background of clouds inconsistently changes in every shot.

No one has production-designed clouds, and I mean moving clouds, not matted ones, satisfactorily.

Never build a house to entertain outsiders. You will frequently end up staring into empty space, not to mention not wanting to use toilets and bathrooms used by people other than yourself..

Before deciding on having a big house, remember that every room inside it will entail administrative responsibilities, maintenance, and the creative use of space.

Looking through some of my jewelry, I note that there are two pieces that were given to me by very special supervisors many years ago: an exquisite Turkish anti-evil eye talisman from Pat from her travel to that country and a brass, Victorian-style, bachelor's button locket from Salem, Massachusetts, from Robin.

Do not over-associate with riffraff. You will soon end up thinking and reasoning like them.

Monuments to youth and beauty are soon torn down because they are pathetic reminders of their transience.

A personal fantasy is like a jail cell. You spend time inside it with the pleasure of knowing that you have the key and can let yourself out whenever you like.

Some people prefer living inside their cells forever.

Many men, especially bachelors, don't linger after sex because they are conditioned to immediately clean up and go--a carryover of guilt from adolescence.

Sometimes you have to stop and tell yourself that you are really a nobody.

Self-effacement is a prerequisite to humility.

Whatever your religion is, it is not your duty to convert other people to your religion.

What your duty is, is to end all suffering in this world.

When you see a man dead or condemned to death, walk an extra mile and do extra hours' work to thank God that you are not in either man's shoes.

When you see a man down or defeated, extend a hand to help them get up.

The classic cap, typically a sports cap, is the best protection for one's head in all kinds of weather. It prevents one from catching a cold or the flu.

It is unfortunate that I discovered this only within the last five years.

There is nothing so wonderful as, having prepared to enjoy a snack, you suddenly meet someone who is starving and willingly give up your food for that person.

This is my last Halloween season before my official retirement. I am so tempted to dress up "appropriately" for the month, except that I am not sure that I wish to be remembered that way.

I have been so focused on the ASEAN region over the past few weeks that I overlooked something that has been happening on another continent.

Everything is clear to me now. I can take this as a sign. I am vindicated.

As long as humans are imperfect, there is no such thing as a model citizen, a model representative, or a model anything.

There is nothing so tragic as a well-intended party going wrong.

Everyone deserves a good weekend.

All you have to do is make it so.

People are discouraged from collecting art not by artists but by art critics.

I follow only one rule: If I like it, I buy it.

The gods and goddesses have been extremely kind to me as I look forward to my retirement. I have been blessed with two successive PAOs and two successive CAOs who represent, to me, the kind of supervisors I have always wanted. They have encouraged me to give my best in everything and are making my stay most memorable.

I will be happy to be far away from here when things begin to change and my former colleagues will begin to be dismayed.

Selling fake diamonds for real is a form of deception.

If you heal him, you heal yourself.

I am beginning to see things from his point of view.

The Octagon was filled with dozens of broken rainbows this morning, as though it could not have enough sunshine on this particularly fine day. I was unable to photograph everything because I ran out of available shots. There were broken rainbows on the ceiling, on the posts, on the benches, on the concrete floor, on our clothing, on our bodies, and on my notebook.

Ironically the subject of our conversation was particularly gruesome.

I believe that no one is hopeless, and so I offered my help.

If physical beauty is transient, then so is ugliness.

Never offer an in-depth psychoalanysis of someone without a full knowledge of him.

Your statements will end up as sweeping generalizations, and people will eventually conclude that you are psychoanalyzing no one else but yourself.

The easy way out was considered more than once.

Love is a connection that never burns out no matter how far away in the past it was.

Countdown: Five and a half months to my official retirement!

Do not cremate a cadaver that contains important clues to a case.

I was jolted awake by an incoming phone call at 3:00 AM. Not recognizing the number, I ignored the call, rolled over, and went back to sleep. My rising time on week days, after all, is 4:30 AM, and I had no intentions of curtailing my rest by responding to a possibly wrong number.

This morning, a former student sent me an urgent text-message and asked if he could call me. It was he who desperately tried to reach me at dawn. His elder son, who apparently had been bothered by elementals from an early age, was having very serious problems that now included somatic manifestations. My former student consulted a practicing spiritist (who prescribed very drastic measures) and an another practitioner (who prescribed the exact opposite), both to no avail.

It is quite annoying to be called in when nothing else works and everything seems too late--and when I need to be in bed early every night and leaving for Tacloban over the weekend.

I had to prescribe interim measures. My former student will see his son this noon. I asked him to ask the boy two questions. My response now entirely hinges on the boy's answers to those questions.

Possible "Writing from The Heart" workshop for Mangyan high school students in November, partnered with Ayala Foundation, Inc.

Changing Routes

A family friend had her purse picked while she was on a bus on her way home. It was her payday, and she lost all of her money that day.

Fifteen days later, the same thing happened to her.

She didn't realize that she'd already become a "customer." Groups of hoodlums frequent bus stops and carefully observe passengers whom they see as easy target- and re-targets.

Change your route regularly. If not, report all such incidents to the police and solicit their help.

It is a huge consolation that this is my last rainy season commuting to and from work before I finally retire in March 2015.

No one deserves to be punished like this. The problem is, the public always gravitates to what they feel is to their personal convenience. When everyone discovered that the ertswhile MRT was "fast," everyone started waking up later and later and congested the trains at the peak hours rather than schedule their trips efficiently.

She has lost her passion for what she has been doing. Unfortunately she painted herself into a corner and has no avenue of escape.

Now this is how she will be remembered by the world, whether she likes it or not.

Why wear a tuxedo in a tropical country if you have to air-condition the venue in order to do so?

A kind neighbor is now taking away our construction debris to use as filling material.

Do not fall into the movie trap of thinking that protagonists who practice magic are young, cute, and sexy proteges.

If they were, they mightn't have needed to practice magic in the first place.

The Best of Both Worlds

Took a cue from Clean House and organized my clothes inside rectangular, plastic tubs, BUT placed the tubs inside my antique armoire.

I just didn't like the Handyman- and Ace-Hardware-organizer approach.

You know you have a beautiful garden when birds, butterflies, bees, and dragonflies nest in them.

Anyone who attempts to look seductive in social media has got to be a very bad illusion, if reality didn't work the first time around.

A person who rides on the shoulders of immature followers eventually falls under the strain.

Never accept interviews from student groups. They are all bunkum, and are the seedlings of future deception, corruption, and crime.

Accept such interviews only if they are accompanied with formal requests from the dean and department chairperson.

Don't just be a star.

Be a giant.

Packing for Tacloban and Palo, Leyte in preparation for the Commemoration of the 70th Year of the Leyte Gulf Landings of Douglas MacArthur.

My students, forgive me for not devoting as much time to your works as I should be.

I am tentatively scheduled to be back in Singapore within the time frame November 30 - December 8, 2014 and will make it a point to spend hours with you.

How to fall quickly out of love:

Imagine the person as an anatomical figure, with the dermis peeled off and masticating his/her food.

A teacher who does not change has stopped learning.

GUIDELINES FOR THE COMING WEEK (OCTOBER 13 - 17, 2014) are now available on my Google+ page, but are visible only to my Followers.

Daydreams are just that: fantasies, fabrications of the mind, emotional fixes.

Unless you are an artist it is useless to indulge in them.

Compute the number of seconds, hours, days, and weeks that you engage in daydreams. That is the amount of time you could have spent on something productive.

The ancient symbol of navigation becomes a modern aid to astral travel.

It's tofu day.

Moved Diego to the family altar.

To my students: There have been major changes, which I am certain you have been sensing.

A slow, two-hour breakfast--as I shall have it everyday after I retire.

Whenever you pray for love, you get it, but not in the way you exactly prayed for.

YOU: Why does a mawkish, sentimental scene keep playing again and again in your head when you very well know that you will soon get tired of that very person?

A man with many collections lives out the karma of simultaneous lifetimes.

A Regional Call

I've been studying the statistics of my blogs, and, six months into my official retirement from the office, I would now like to send out a regional call to practitioners of magic from Bali, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and perhaps India. I would include Brunei and Malaysia except that I may not get any respondents from those countries.

Please indicate your interest via an e-mail message to me at studioantenor@yahoo.com.

There are certain requirements:

1) You must have a full Google+ account with a complete profile that I can readily access.
2) You must be a practitioner of magic indigenous to your country (no Wicce, no Strega, no Celtic magic, no Qabbalah, and whatnot borrowed from other cultures).
3) You must have a deep knowledge of your indigenous mythology.
4) You must be a mature individual, at least 50 years of age. No snotty teenagers, please.
5) I will accept only one representative from each country. Needless to say I am the sole representative from mine.

I will eventually send out a questionnaire for you to fill out.

Be advised that my objective is to give, not to take.

One of the things I need to explore is how earth changes can be controlled by magic, since Nature seems to be particularly responsive to magic.

You will eventually be included in a restricted blog. Hopefully, we can convene at least once a year.

It's Quezon City Day.

Araneta Center crossed the midnight hour with a long, spectacular--and noisy--fireworks display that sent Cerefina howling.

Cerefina's ancestors were among the canines sent to battle.

Ate a handful of Aubrey's M&Ms.

Watched the concluding episode, followed by a new episode, of  New Zealand's Hottest Home Baker. Dean Brettschneider always reminds me of the actor who took Robin's "stead" in Dark Knight Rises.

I am so fascinated by languages and the New Zealanders' pronunciation of yes as yis, Ben as Bin, Emily as Imily, yet as yit, ten as tin, negative as nigative, very as virry, ready as riddy, contestants as contistants, and best as bist.

Truly, there is no such as thing as universal English.

Night class

3:00 AM

Whenever liturgy steps in, every religion becomes a form of paganism.

Never allow your trash to outlive you.

Alan Holst's axiom: Whenever you have teenagers in the house, your wallet never has cash.

My axiom: Whenever you have teenagers in the house, you cannot plan anything without consulting them.

One of the most ecstatic expressions I have ever seen on a woman's face is when she is about to sit down in front of a mirror inside a beauty parlor--it is the look of a princess, of knowing that she will be treated like one for the next hour or so.

The second most ecstatic expression I have observed is whenever I ask my granddaughters and my sister where they are going. When they say, "Groceries," I see the same look on their faces. (Groceries, to me, are a chore I refuse to be bothered with.)

It seems that the beauty parlor and the grocery store are places where people are surrounded with choices. It is possible that people like having as many options as can be offered them.

I suppose that I have the same look on my face whenever I am going to a fountain pen store.

Aubrey's Shelves

For a long time now since construction began on her bedroom, Aubrey has been keeping a most-treasured photo of the bookshelves that she wants for her blue bedroom wall.

We showed the photo to the contractor, who advised against it--the braces would have to be embedded into the concrete wall to give the illusion that the shelves were floating in space.

We hunted all over for those shelves but found nothing.

The space in Aubrey's wall is still waiting for her much-vaunted bookshelves.

I am waiting for Aubrey to sail in some day and announce, "Grandpa! I found the bookshelves that I want!"

The Americanism of calling people by their first names does not work all the time. It is an artificial manifestation of egalitarianism.

I have observed that many former students have tried calling me by my first name, which is fine with me except that they rather than I seem permanently uncomfortable with it.

I think, as a rule of thumb, before calling a superior by their first name, consider the following non-egalitarian realities:

--did the person attain a higher educational level than yours?
--does the person have more accomplishments than yours?
--does the person have more credible experience than yours?
--does the person have a better curriculum vitae than yours?
--was the person awarded by society more than once?
--is the person making a bigger difference than you are?

Superiority has nothing to do with having a higher-paying job or a hefty bank account. That, as a matter of fact, is the wrong notion people have about "egalitarianism".

It is highly probable that this is a non-egalitarian world, but maybe only you can answer that.

It is easy to hunt for antiques at incredible bargains. All you have to do is seek out families that have been-newly converted to fundamentalist Christianity

The Ignorance of Religiosity

Many years ago, when I was still single and no one had ever heard of cell phones, I hung ethnic masks from Ifugao on my front porch as demon-quellers. One morning, while my porch door happened to be open, a group of born-again teenagers passed by, saw the masks, threw a tantrum in the street, shouting out, "Bakit? Bakit?"

I did not bother to enlighten these teenagers that they had just turned their backs on their history, their culture, and their origins by embracing a foreign religion that was slowly eradicating their origins.

It is not my duty to educate all of the ignorant. Most of the time it is something they should be doing for themselves.

Most of the time, also, one gains deep insights as to which demons are being quelled.

Compress your garbage, no matter what your garbage container is. Keep on pressing down until you are able to compress it some more. This makes you save on garbage bags rather than have bags with lots of empty spaces inside that will only contribute to the bulk of trash that the garbage collector must gather.

"My Two Cups of Coffee"

"Don't talk to me until I've had my second cup of coffee" is an American expression that originated in the early 1980s. It was a manifestation of people who lived alone inside lonely studio apartments with no one to talk to--and who dripped their coffee into cups. Typically, the strong coffee would be good enough for one extra cup so that it would not go to waste, and, the person would be compelled to take the second cup instead of sharing it with an absent person.

Had Jose Rizal been alive today, he would have loved this year in particular.

It is the year that social cancer is finally brought out in the open, and concerned citizens now have the courage to do something about it.

Pamper yourself. It's the least you can do, and, sometimes, you actually owe it to yourself.

You don't have to wait for Christmas or the long summer break to take a vacation--that is a Procrustean mentality.

If you need a vacation now, take it now.

You don't have to wait for your birthday to throw a party or buy yourself a gift. If you want them now, have them now. Have them, as a matter of fact, as often as you like.

I have only one secret to happiness: I never take anything seriously.

Giving up hope is an act of suicide.

Your Hangout Message: "hi sir how are you hope you are doing well. Kindly include me in your prayers sir if its ok I having health concerns lately. Thanks sir. - _______"

My answer: Hello, _______!

There are several viruses going round, most of them preying on people's vulnerable immune systems. Take lots of water, lots of fruit, and lots of Vitamin C.

The stress caused by the Philippine government system, corruption, the law and order situation, the public transportation system, and earth/changes is taking its toll on the "man/woman on  the street."

Watch comedies. Laugh a lot. Buy your inner child a new toy.

Avoid anything that spells out Thanatos.

Because, as above, so below.

Your Hangout Message: "Hi, Sir Tony. Magandang araw po. Magbbirthday po ako sa sabado. Maaari po ba akong humingi ng birthday messages mula sa inyo? Itatanong ko lang din po kung totoo po ang pamahiin na lapitin sa aksidente ang taong magbbirthday? Kailangan ko po kasing umakyat ng Sagada sa araw ng kaarawan ko para sa trabaho. Ano po ang pwede kong gawin para humingi po ng protection at safety sa byahe mula sa langit? Maraming salamat po. :)"

My answer: Hi _______!

Happy Birthday!

It is not true that a person becomes more prone to accidents as his/her birthday approaches. That is a mere superstition. It is borne of the fact that one becomes more conscious of wanting to have the happiest day and the most perfect day ever, so that the ego amplifies everything that could possibly go wrong.

The best safety precaution when traveling is to take the most logical measures to ensure that you have a well-prepared-for and well-planned-for trip. The psyche after all is an extension of the divine mind.

Have fun in Sagada--I've been to the Kabayan Mummy Caves but not there!

Your birthday messages:

1) It is who you celebrate with that truly matters.
2) Wait for someone to give you the souvenir.
3) Pleasant memories are much better than junk items you will eventually throw away.
4) A wonderful suprise will be the climax of your trip.
5) People are happy when they are well-fed.

There is a splendid way of giving while giving the impression that you are not giving.

The traffic on Google+ is increasing.

When working at home you will tend to be normally slow-paced. It is because you are surrounded by everything you own and need time to enjoy and reflect on your possessions.

But, since you are also your own supervisor, you can step up the action whenever you like.

Usually I am a month too early.

GUIDELINES FOR THE WEEKEND (OCTOBER 11 - 12, 2014) are now available on my Google+ page, but are visible only to my Followers.

The Chinese taught me that a cup of fresh tea after a heavy meal washes down cholesterol.

Time passes more quickly when measured by the sun rather than the clock.

The man without a safety valve will explode like a volcano.

Fret not over what a thief took away from you, for he will lose what he took from you tenfold.

Before spending any money on anyone, ask yourself if you should spend the money on your family instead.

The best way to discourage yourself from taking in students is to compute how much time and money you have spent on them.

Our roof deck is fast becoming an enchanted forest. We can't seem to have enough plants, especially since Bulacan Gardens is a mere tricycle ride away.

Potted plants are Nature's best dividers, drapes, and sunscreens.

Between the adulating masses and a handful of brilliant followers, go with the latter.

The pomp and spectacle of the former drag down progress, including your own, over a long period of time, as compared with the quick and permanent enlightenment of the former.

Moreover, the magic of the former lasts but a lifetime; the latter, for generations to come.

Streamlining my potions bottles.

And discovering that empty, translucent, Patron tequila bottles, minus the corks, make great, self-sustaining, eco-cycle terrariums!

Blog, blog, and blog until the whole world can trace every original idea to you and to no one else.

Every room must have one, big thing, whether it is a painting or a piece of sculpture.

Never design your house with the firm intention of not changing anything sooner or later.

Of the five things that you do best and that you enjoy doing most, go only with the one you would like to be REMEMBERED BY.

Not planning to die is one of the biggest mistakes in life.

Go easy on fiberglass and resin. In turning your back on plastic bags for the sake of the environment, you have forgotten that they are forms of plastic too--and they are HARDER TO GET RID OF.

Blog, blog, and blog until the person who lives halfway round the world can actually feel that he or she can reach out and touch your face.

The mind and the heart outdistance physicality.

In only a few years, "tenure" will be a thing of the past.

Globalization is fast creating jobs in which a person will need to move on very quickly in order to grow--as a professional, as a human being, and as a creative person.

I look toward other people who have held their jobs for many grueling years. I see how they have been so enslaved to the very system that they see as their economic salvation, and I also see how that is so against the life that God envisioned for them.

I observe that "tenure" is important to:
--people who are inflexible.
--people who covet other, "tenured" positions.
--people who need a means to achieve and wield power.
--people who use a system for covering up things they do not really now.

I have yet to attend an office team-building exercise in which, a week later, the participants have not already forgotten the exercise.

It's because, in the facilitator's attempts to offer exercises that are unique and pricey, he/she develops exercises demand artificial skills that are never really used in the workplace.

Nine times out of ten, office workers attend team-building programs for a change of place and for the food, and that is really all.

My work conditions are part of my Gestalt perception of my work. That includes the transportation system that I take to and from the workplace, the weather conditions, what I am able to buy and not buy with my salary, and the people I work with.

When you turn your back to the past, you turn your back to the people who were in it as well.

It is not what could have been that matters, but what was.

Google+ is peaking.

I've had to unsubscribe from e-mail notifications to prevent my Inbox from clogging.

How strange. Three employees are planning to resign, to coincide with my retirement.

Dreaming of three TinTin items I've been wanting to buy, but restraining myself because my grandchildren won't appreciate them.

The first hour upon arrival at work should be devoted to rest, provided you are able to disguise it as productive work.

Blind habits are the hardest to get rid of.

Why insist on taking the train when it is bound to be a consistently unpleasant experience?

Why not wake up an hour earlier and take a leisurely bus ride?

You know that a braggart is down when she starts hiding her own children away.

A music box is an exquisite mechanism.

Persevere. It pays.

The heat at the Octagon was so palpable this afternoon that I couldn't keep my eyes open for long stretches of time. It was like swimming underwater in a hot tub.

One of the worst, broken promises that a facilitator can tell his participants is, "Don't worry, I'll give you a printed handout on this later"--and then conveniently forget to do so.

GUIDELINES FOR THE COMING WEEK (OCTOBER 6 - 10, 2014) are now available on my Google+ page, but are visible only to my Followers.

I do most things for fun, because, whenever I do things very seriously, it drives people crazy.

I can comprehend "S**t" as a cuss word because of its unpleasant association with defecation.

However, I cannot comprehend "F**k" as a cuss word considering that it refers to a "sacred act" associated with love, pleasure, and reproduction.

My suspicion is that "F**k" as a cuss word has "Satanic" origins.

Either that or we are a culture of ordure and sheer ejaculation.

My own penmanship from my notes--old or recent--functions as a scrying device. I was gazing at the word "plastic" on my planner this morning, because I'd written it to remind myself to buy organizer tubs this afternoon, and I suddenly saw the word as the name "Peachie". It occurred to me that a woman named Peachie, who was one of my classmates in graduate school, is very ill. I have neither seen nor heard from her in 25 years.

Too many award-giving bodies create a social short circuit.

When one award-giving body gives an award to someone for being the best in something, and then two or more award-giving bodies give awards to others for also being the best in the same thing, then no one is really the best in anything.

Anyone who knows psychology also knows that there is no such thing as a role model.

When you encourage people to steal from you, you encourage them to punish themselves tenfold.

Don't stock up on books that your children and grandchildren will not appreciate after you pass away. The books will end up as so much trash and a burden to your successors, no matter how much you treasured them when you were living.

A sunny morning in Cubao

Your e-mail message:

"Hi sir,

"I have a friend whose husband was killed/murdered a year ago.  Unfortunately, the body has not yet been found up to this time.  There is this witness who testified that he was tortured and killed inside a ________ vehicle.  However, the witness does not know what happened after the killing incident, as to where the body was disposed. Fortunately, just this week, we have found the _______ vehicle identified by the witness.  We are hoping to communicate with my husband's friend through your help.  We are hopeless, and you are our only hope to reach him.  My cellphone number is ___________.  I really want to see you in person and discuss the matter in details.  I will wait for your reply as to your availability. We are willing to meet you at any place that you may wish and you will be comfortable.  Please trust us. We need you.  Kailangan talaga namin tulong niyo.  Maraming salamat po.

"_____________"

My answer:

Hello __________!

Yes, I will help you. However, I can only do so this weekend. After that I leave for Tacloban and Palo for the Leyte Gulf Landing Commemoration, and the weekend after that I am doing a Halloween activity on ____________.

You are most welcome to join me on ____________ where I can spend more time with you, but there is a catch--you have to pay your own way, since I do not own the place.

Color pencils are my karma. Hundreds of people have given me varied sets (aquarelles, blendables, pastel-tones, you name it) over the years, thinking that they are useful gifts to me. They are, however, not my preferred medium,

It is possible to have best friends across cyberspace.

It is amazing how one finds others who think like oneself in countries far away.

I believe that God set us far apart from one another, only in order to be united once again, against all odds.

Faith and salvation are not exclusive to Christianity.

If you cannot accept that, neither can you accept world peace.

One of the most ignorant and inexperienced persons in this world is the classroom teacher, because of the many, unrealistic restrictions that the educational system imposes on him.

Beware of former school mates in grade school, high school, and college who used to envy you for what you were and what you had.

Believe it or not, they continue to envy you TO THIS VERY DAY.

I have absolutely no respect for "psychics" who:

--are constantly in need of money and cannot solve their financial problems.
--cannot keep a normal, regular job to pay their bills.
--are dysfunctional.
--expect you to pay for their meals and coffee.
--manufacture talismans, medals, and other useless, new items and sell them.
--copy everything you generate and then run off to establish their own secret group of "students".
--desire to appear on TV to gain the admiration of riffraff.

When someone flatters you by saying that you are a chosen one and receive the "grace of the elect" among other such claptrap, secretly laugh at him and ignore him.

All of that is his excess baggage, not yours.

What you think has been taking too long to happen, now happens.

Never allow your fans to believe that you are a very special person.

It is enough that they read your books and that they are touched by your works, without your even seeing them.

No one can tell you whether you are an artist, a psychic, or a writer.

ONLY YOU CAN.

And only you know exactly what you need.

If your maturity is in question, I will never take you in as a student.

I see airborne conjunctivitis germs in the city.

If you have a Tarot deck, it will help if you isolate The Star card and place it at your bedside during night classes.

Your blog site is a mansion. Every entry is a room.

It is best to say goodbye gradually and repeatedly, rather than suddenly.

After I retire, I can actually take a vacation from rest by working only when and where I want to!

Every day of rest is a day of healing.

Pride and arrogance are not identical twins.

GUIDELINES FOR THE WEEKEND (OCTOBER 4 - 5, 2014) are now on my Google+ page, but are visible only to my Followers.

Night class

Another thunderstorm in Cubao

You are too rich for your own good once you believe that you can control other people with what you have.

At the Corner of Serrano and 5th Avenue, Quezon City

Estee phoned me an hour ago to inform me that my pick-up for the office off-site would be at the corner of Serrano Street and 5th Avenue, Quezon City, rather than at the originally-designated EDSA Shrine. I am already here with my overnight bag, waiting for the bus that has the rest of my co-workers to stop by. They are still on EDSA/Makati, and so I have lots of time to write in my leather notebook.

There are several hole-in-the-wall canteens here, across a military facility, but I choose to sit under a jeepney stoop where I can observe vehicles and other passersby. Inside the taxi on the way the driver has the radio tuned to a news station: there is so much political havoc elsewhere, none of it evident in this part of the city. The few people who sit to rest briefly near me are all friendly--a street cleaner, a student, and a tofu vendor. Everyone else, whether in vehicles or on foot, pays me no mind despite the ethnic jewelry that I chose to wear over the next two days.

I am suddenly overcome with metaphysical angst, and I realize that it is within my power to alter the course of my future. Now. As in every moment that demands deep reflection.

There is the option to pick up my bag and go home and inform my co-workers that I am unable to join them--an act that would forever remain a mystery to them, and a mystery that I will never bother to explain. Yet, the decision to remain conventional and predictable prevails.

I am looking forward to being in a venue in Antipolo that I have never been to before and observe the syllabus and methods of a new, team-building facilitator. I sincerely hope that his exercises will not be comprised of nursery rhymes, action songs, dancing, tossing plastic balls, twirling plastic hula hoops, wrapping ourselves with yarn, building paper towers, holding fashion competitions using old newspapers, and the like--all of that went out in 1960. They are such a far cry from my own workshops.

I hope I learn something new. Otherwise I might just as well go home.

(Accompanying Album is on my Google+ page, but is visible only to my Followers.)

To my students:

Never accept cases in October. People just want something to do for Halloween.

Shake the public by the shoulders and schedule them on Christmas Day.

That will start educating them by forcing them to think outside the box.

Goodbye, Cubao!

Hello, Antipolo!

Your e-mail message:

"Hi Mr. Tony Perez,

"I am _____________________.  I or we need your help.  You are our last hope.  We heard so much of you, and your expertise is what we may need now. If you are available, please email back on you availability, or give me a call or send me a text.  My mobile number is ____________. I am willing to meet you and discuss the details in person.. Thank you very much.

"____________________"

My answer:

Hi __________!

Thank you for your message, which, considering the urgency you might be feeling right now, is sketchy and incomplete. It reads like a SPAM message. It's somewhat like asking help from a doctor without describing exactly what the symptoms are.

Please organize your thoughts and write me a coherent description and narrative of everything that led you to contact me. You will find that, upon setting everything down on paper, the problem will have been solved already because of the detachment and insight provided by actual writing--if there was even a problem at all.

It is not necessary for me to meet up with you. Why should I? When people request that, I am very much perplexed, since I am capable of solving problems by remote, such as via e-mail.

I must also assume that, prior to contacting me, you have ruled out diagnoses by two professionals: a physician and a psychologist. That is the only time I really step in. A physician and a psychologist, however, exact professional fees. There is no barangay health center in this country that extends psychic services.

Finally, I am amused that other "psychics" would readily respond to you, call you, meet up with you, and snap up the opportunity to work on "a case". This is, to me, "Tubero Mentality", and I laugh out loud whenever I discover that "psychics" I know accepted cases I'd already rejected--sometimes for the mere thrill of being on TV.

I accept only one case out of 100. The 99 are best left to common sense.

After working with watercolor or acrylic, nylon-bristle brushes should be washed and dried. This prevents the bristles from curling and extends the life of your brushes.

The same should be done to your toothbrush. Dry the bristles by pressing them between a towel before storing.

As we have Human Rights, we have Spirit Rights, yet no one has bothered to write them down.

Chili is more potent when fried.