If you're watching Asia's Got Talent (or any such competition), listen to the song and instrumental numbers WITHOUT looking at the screen. Some of them will sound 100% like non-winners.

At the age of nine I knew I would be a writer. At the age of 12 I knew I would be a painter. None of these happened because I had particular role models; in fact I had none and still have none. They happened because of the continued encouragement of my grade school teachers.

If a former supervisor was not nice to you, do not be nice to him/her also, especially now that you are rid of him/her, and do not be nice to him/her at any time in the future.

If you are a writer, share your experiences through your writing without revealing anyone's identity, for it is your duty to enlighten other employees and provide them anecdotes they can learn from.

What you buy and what you have, you are obliged to maintain.

When you buy for someone you love, buy for quality and not for a bargain price.

We live a different life in his dreams, and it counts as a second lifetime.

Avoid making paintings that have meaning only to you and nothing to others.

A painting is not a projective test. It should clearly convey the artist's intent and not rely on viewers' diverse interpretations.

It is possible for a high-level mage to purchase an amulet or a talisman that is inert and then charge it with his personal energies.

A frazzling day for people trying to survive out in the city is communicated even to those who are staying at home.

Painting Day 1, God Of The Wolves

Not yet a year after his wife died, the desperate flirts are already lined up at his front and back doors.

Before the year ends, contemplate the list of things that you were able to do, over the entire year, for your SELF.

Work and study well, not work and study hard.

The latter means that you don't necessarily accomplish anything.

Good morning, Cubao!

The blazing sun is the sting of the doctor's needle.

Devils' traffic is evil. It will show up as the root, the cause, and the instrument.

Your primary karma is that your country will not solve its problems over many of your lifetimes.

The brutally frank person, rather than the hypocrite, is he whom you ultimately can trust.

It is always absence of mind that makes you seek escape through the wrong exits.

Tony Perez's Art of War: Do not try to change the mind of someone who does not like you. Instead, do not like him not only in return but also even more so.

Some people are actually getting paid full-time salaries to waste your precious time.

They zealously defend him because their continued existence relies on his continued existence.

There is one way to find out who unFriended you on facebook.

Go to your "Friends", Click on "More", and Click on "Following". You will then see all the people you are "Following"--they show up no longer as your Friends, but they still show you as Following them.

Naturally, unFollow them.

Bruce Lee's signature: The capital letters B and L show up exaggeratedly pronounced lower halves, reflecting the warrior's emphasis on the lower chakras. The consistency in size of the lower case letters indicates success in the control of emotions. The loop of each lower case e, however, is tight, meaning that he does not trust other people, especially those who seek to dominate him.

Manny Pacquiao's signature: Like a cat, he desires to establish territory in all directions. His monicker is always bigger and clearer than his actual signature, indicating that he values his image more than his true self. Unlike those in Bruce Lee's signature, his vowels are widely looped, meaning that he trusts others to a fault. Narrow letters between big swashes show that, despite the magnanimity that we see, he either finds it difficult to open up or resents giving of himself.

My dragon belt arrived!

Below: The Haring Bakal belt I'd been using for ages. (The buckle has a detachable Zippo-type lighter.)

On The Set of _Mars_: Thursday, November 30, 2017

Photos courtesy of Mars

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun is a gallon of yellow house paint.

Into the last month of the year.

It feels like last year's New Year's Eve was but yesterday.

All I have to show for it are one playwriting workshop, nine dramaturged plays, five oil portraits, one novel, and a lot of antiques shopped for.

It was two of my grandchildren's year. Angelique graduated from university and Aubrey from K-12. Then Angelique enrolled at law school and Aubrey enrolled at university.

This is a photo I took at 12:00 MN December 31, 2016.

The November leaf falls off my planner.

What a person says and how he says it are two different things.

Knowing how to relax does not mean resting in a chair, napping, sleeping at night, or going on vacation. It is the ability to remain relaxed at work, in high-anxiety situations, and during the onslaught of stress.

Knowing how to relax is an art. Everyone should master it.

The most overused words and phrases of 2017:

--Absolutely
--Awesome
--I got it/You got it/I got you/You got me
--It's all good
--Going forward/Moving forward
--That's a slippery slope
--I'm stoked
--I got blindsided
--One thousand percent


2016:
--Absolutely
--It's so fun!
--Tough love
--Now that's what I'm talking about


2015:

--Absolutely
--Seriously?

2014:

--Absolutely
--Amazing!
--Whatever works
--Robust

Thursday Sessions With The Spirit Questors: November 30, 2017

November 30, 2017. These rare, Philippine seashells are called epitonium scalare, a.k.a."The Precious Wentletraps". They are prized not only by shell collectors but also by mages, who call them "suso" ("snails") and use in them in pairs as amulets because of their external, white spirals. These shells are very brittle and difficult to find undamaged.

Thursday Madness

Back from a videotaped interview on dreams for Mars at GMA-7, hosted by Suzi Abrera and Camille Pratts. The guest artists were Samantha Lopez and Boobay.

No, I don't know when this episode is airing. I never watch myself on TV.

Good morning, Cubao!

The clouds are white chocolate candy bars.

The right sequence:

1) Work well and save money.
2) Retire.
3) Laze and relax.

The wrong sequence:

1) Laze and relax.
2) Retire.
3) Work well and save money.

Yet, a lot of people seem intent on following the wrong sequence.

Tentatively continued insanity

Next in line for screening is my three-disc Roger Moore collection.

Watched Licence to Kill starring Timothy Dalton. The only other time I saw him was as a prince of the forest in Flash Gordon, where he was spry and dashing. In this movie he looks rather tired and is somewhat sluggish. I feel that he was not misdirected--I feel that he was not directed at all, and was pretty much left to his own interpretation of his role. Unfortunately the screenplay renders him, during the first half of the movie, more as a small-town detective rather than as a 00.

The movie comes across as a B-grade, and gives me the impression that the producers tried to save as much money as they could. Most of the settings look like they were shot in friends' buildings and houses as they were, without any production design; only after 3/4 of the movie does that change. There are no spectacular long shots, making the movie look as though it were being shot for television rather than the big screen. Everything was low-tech. The fight routines are old, predictable, and unexciting. But, most of all, to me, it is B-grade in the sense that all of the supports, bit players, and extras were ill-chosen and could not act. The horrible dialogue didn't help them any.

The Living Daylights wouldn't open because it allegedly has a regional code that I can't fix, and so, I am passing on that.

Wondering if a third planner for my art and literature projects will serve me well. It's just that I particularly like the design of this year's planner.

If you use yellow, gold, or orange ink, avoid installing incandescent bulbs on your reading or study lamp. The ink will hardly show up under that light.

It behooves every psychic to know how to connect--and to know how to DISconnect.

I would never read oracles on a full-time basis, for a living, or for the same person more than a few times. I find that of the one million people who come to me, only one is a Perseus, or a real hero with a destiny. The other 999,999 are riff-raff who are bored, who seek entertainment, and who are too lazy to take the initiative to work for themselves, and that the atchays among those 999,999 are emotional leeches who become dependent on me. 

New dragon pen

Your Messenger message:

"sir, magandang umaga. ano pong mangyayari , nakailang bangon po ako sa akong panaginip. tho nung ibang parts alam parang malay na ko na panaginip pa rin ako kaya nung mga dulo... naghanap ako ng ibang tao, fapos prang maybkiniha ako sa nga ulo nilantapoa nagiging usok...tapos binibilog lo po sa aking kamay. tapos sinusunog ko sa kandila. after nun nagising ulit ako... pero this time ginarab ko na phone nghanap ako ng light para magising ng tuluyan. pagod na pagod ako ngayon pagkagising. salamat po ng marami."


My reply:

Hello, ________!

First, never sleep on a full stomach.

Second, you have been in disagreement with your co-workers over something. While you have consciously decided to push it away, it continues to upset you.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is a spreadsheet of simple strategies.

Even a mage is either world-class or mediocre, for it is the duty of every mage to be a master.

Not every artist matures to greater beauty.

To every mage, every time is an in-between time.

Reading faces is a wonderful art that everyone should master, for every face tells the stories of its owner's multiple lifetimes.

The worst suspicions jump out first, and, sometimes, all of them are wrong. Always wait for the cloud, the fog, and the mist to clear before acting.

I relish waking up woozy and plunging deep into sleep once again.

Never attempt to wreak revenge on a mage.

After jalan-jalan, kera-kera.

Back from the center--it was an unforeseen jalan-jalan afternoon. I had to take Angelique to our family dentist's. Amazing how children refuse to go to the dentist unaccompanied; they seem to feel safer and more secure when you are there to talk to the dentist and take care of purchasing the necessary medication. Or is it because you go out for a treat afterward? At any rate I was able to do minor groceries while Angelique was in the chair. And claim my second Seattle's Best planner. Had to gorge myself on holiday drinks and buy some for the building security guard and the dental staff, though.

I chose the black planner this time around. Its pencil has a faux amethyst crystal on its end. I'm using the red one for my workshop syllabi and the black one for my everyday activities.

A new stall on the Sitio Catacutan hawkers' lane has opened. A neighbor is taking up baking and this morning was selling banana bread and dark-chocolate lollies. I bought a bag of lollies. I like. They have rice krispies and were shaped inside different Christmas-figure molds.

It is YOUR OWN sickness and death, NEVER the sickness and death of any of your loved ones, that is your karma.

Because, as you have your own karma, so do they have theirs, and one has nothing to do with the other. After all, you could very well have been completely unrelated  to each other in your previous lifetimes.

What you do about a situation is a thousand times more valuable than what you like or don't like about it.

Determine which part of your bedroom you first see when you open your eyes upon waking up, and arrange that part accordingly, taking care to place there your most effective power symbols.

Good morning, Cubao!

The sky is a newly-paved sidewalk.

Anger can always drive us along the wrong pathways.

You are never the same as your ancestors, and neither will your descendants be.

You can wipe the dust off the tabletops and the shelves. But, minutes later, the wind will cover them with dust all over again.

I love working alone. I am most creative and most productive whenever I am.

I know, however, that the majority of people cannot be or work alone. They cannot control their truthful thoughts, and it drives them crazy.

Next viewing my two-disc Timothy Dalton set, but I'll do this tomorrow. I can't take more than one James Bond movie in a single day.

Nature produces many gems more beautiful than diamonds, emeralds, rubies, pearls, and opals, but we have all been brainwashed to value only those that men price the highest, in the very same way that men place psychological price tags on religion and on art, expecting the rest of the world to follow.

You would not be less of what you are by hanging a roadside pebble round your neck or for turning your back on any man-made religion.

Watched _Die Another Day_, the fourth and last Pierce Brosnan in my set. This one's all about Korea. I'd seen it twice before, once on the big screen and the second time on TV. I viewed it again to confirm that it is the Bond film with the worst prosthetics.

Actually, this movie was controversial in its time. It was banned both in North Korea AND South Korea when it was released due to political and cultural objections. And, of course, none of the performers in the cast playing Koreans were Koreans.

I like the scenes in Cuba, but all the sets were stereotype "Cuba".

Exciting movie, though.

Lunch at home with Angelique.

Now she's off to the coffee shop to study for her finals.

And take another card to begin gathering stickers for my hopefully third planner.

My spirit guide advised me to tell you that this is THE day for a new beginning.

I never counsel people who are irritatingly in love.

All I tell them is, "Follow your heart but pay the consequences."

Good morning, Cubao!

The sun is a bottle of golden nectar.

Watched The World Is Not Enough, my third Pierce Brosnan. I liked this one, but for a strange reason--I liked the villains and felt sympathetic toward them. I thought that they were real, flesh-and-blood characters, and so, my suspension of disbelief was complete.

Also used this in my novel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gMNlIZvQUs

This was all I listened to while I was writing my novel this year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea2WoUtbzuw

It brought me to the gentle ocean lapping the shores of Bohol. I desired to buy the shells in the novel as souvenirs of my own experience, like an exercise in dream objectification.

"You may be right/
I may be crazy/
But it just may be a lunatic you're looking for/
It's too late to fight/
It's too late to change me/
You may be wrong for all I know/
But you may be right/"

Three-hour, deep tissue massage.

Teach only when you have all the time in the world, and only after your house and your family are well provided for.

A homely man who talks and moves well comes across as very handsome indeed.

Two cups very black espresso blend.

Angelique's fourth weekend volunteering to assist at the 2017 bar exams. Gives her a preview of the prospective future.

The breezes swirl through the tops of the trees, but only I can see them.

On the driveway, a neighbor trudges home from the marketplace as though unhappy with his purchase.

Dead leaves fall, but only I can hear them.

They are the footsteps of elves. Of trips to and from the grocery store. Of the man inside me who desires to go out and invite my neighbor to a heartier meal.

Good morning, Cubao!

The clouds are trip tickets on acrylic clipboards.

Every writer writes even in his sleep, every painter paints even in his sleep.

If  a magical apprentice does not understand you, do not bother to explain yourself to him. He is better off with another master, and you are better off with another apprentice.

Watched Tomorrow Never Dies. This time China comes into the picture, pun intended, and two of the features are Michelle Yeoh and another fantasy car. Now EVERYONE talks like tapes played on high speed, so that, to a person who knows no English, they sound like adult chipmunks. In every sequence where people walk fast, they also waddle forward like stilted, mechanized robots. It seems that this kind of talking and walking is as contagious to everyone as the use of the word "absolutely".

As in most Bond movies:

--the gender problem is the portrayal of women as being as cumbersome to the secret agents as the actual espionage, and thus being cumbersome to the story line.
--the true challenge is never presented, and never will be, which is to give all of the gadgets to the enemy and allow James Bond to triumph using sheer will, physical prowess, and sharpness of mind.

The exciting chase through the streets of Vietnam reminds me of what a flop the Manila chase scene in The Bourne Legacy was. The cameraman just couldn't be industrious with his shots because no one in the production foresaw that, in Manila, wherever you shoot, there is more than one billboard and multiple advertisements--none of which paid the producers anything--in the background.

And why is it that in all Bond movies, NO ONE gets hit when people shoot through ladders, railings, cyclone fences, and grilles, and so why do they bother to shoot at all? 

Your Messenger message:

"Good morning, Tony! I dreamt of being busy with teaching and other work at the ________ in _____. There is a scene in the dream where i tried on clothes but the one I liked wearing was a pair of denim cullottes.

"As i have taken an additional vow in ( real life ), I was aware even in my dream that there are clothes I could no longer wear, so i kept on asking 'Does this come on as jeans ? Or it is loose enough to look like culottes. I was assured by others that, indeed, they look like cullottes, not jeans.

"Strangely, a close friend of long ago who died in August was with me in my dream. She and i were often together. As it was dark in the ________ area at night, i felt safe walking with two of my ____ students always trailing behind us as we go home. One of the ____s is identifiable while the other is not. He is one of my favorite students in terms of character but he is one of two who flunked last semester.

"In this dream, i was very happy in that pair of culottes and happy there were always two ____s walking behind my friend and me.

"Can you interpret the above dream?"

My reply:

Hello _________!

Whenever we do vows or consciously change our lifestyles and our values, our old self still lingers, thus rendering the change incomplete especially on the level of the unconscious. Real change does not occur when we deliberately engineer it, it happens only from the inside going out, and it happens when we are truly ready, not when we want it to happen.

The culottes represent your clinging on, albeit by a thread, to a previous lifestyle.

Your dead friend represents your old self--not your dead self, for even our dead selves can come back to haunt us.

The students who walk behind you in your dream represent your defense mechanisms. The darkness represents your fear--perhaps fear of regression, or fear of the unknown.

Reread the last sentence of your dream narrative:

"In this dream, i was very happy in that pair of culottes and happy there were always two ____s walking behind my friend and me."

Do you see the answer now?

Meaningful change is not destroying and rejecting the old in order to take in the new. It is taking in the new and merging it with the old, for both realities comprise the yin and the yang in our lives.

Good morning, Cubao!

We dive into the sky in search of the most precious pearls.

Contrary to what everyone else believes, talent can be asked for and acquired, not from human beings or institutions but from spirit guides. Each of us is born with the highest intelligence and immense talent, but only our spirit guides can awaken our sensibilities and open the right doors to the things that we are capable of doing best.

Knitting is my least favorite medium because I wish to knit without making my work look like knitting. Since that is next to impossible, I find it extremely restricting.

I can paint in oils and make it look like a watercolor or a photograph, among other things.

I can write and make my work seem like I actually murdered a person or lived on the planet Mars, among other things.

Yet, when I knit, the stitches dictate my work, whether I use big needles or small needles.

Two psychological states motivate a person more than anything else: peace of mind and anger over injustice.

The magic hand is always more powerful than the invisible hand, for, while the invisible hand is controlled by human beings in worldly authority, the magic hand is controlled by high-ranking spirits in cosmic authority.

Whether your children are male or female, allow them to be assertive and demanding. It teaches them to stand for themselves in this world of prejudice and injustice.

You cannot sign up as an apprentice to a master who does not want you.

Tony Perez's Art of War: Allow your enemies to think that you are miserable and suffering, when in fact you are enriching yourself, having the time of your life, and becoming more and more powerful.

Dinner at home with Aubrey.

Angelique and J. arrived from their study session at Seattle's Best and dinner out.

Now I need only six more holiday drinks for my second Seattle's Best planner.

Should have checked into a hotel for one week with a friend to view the entire 007 collection.

Your Messenger message:

"Good day Sir Tony,
"You adviced me to have a dream book but when I have this dream. I goes like this I pulled two cards and I remembered perfectly the two cards and its interpretations but then I woke up and remembered it perfectly in a different way, its was now a different card from the first. This cycle of a dream within a dream happened several times that when I woke up for real. I remembered that the last dream was not the two cards I had initially but the first cards was maybe a 9 and a queen but at the same time I am now confused and I dont know what cards are there in the first place. Thanks

"When I woke I was watching the movie 'now you see ' a movie about magicians.. "

My reply:

Hello ______!

Remember all the sets of cards you saw, and record them. Then interpret them within the context of what they mean to you. As I have often said, the dreamer is the best interpreter of his own dream.

Your psyche's indirect way of sending overwhelming messages is through card reading. Read the cards as though you drew them for your own, and then you will "see".

Actually, you cannot stop the water by plugging your finger into the hole of a dam. 

Now into my four-disc, Pierce Brosnan set. Watched Goldeneye. This seems more faithful to the 1960s, when it was all about Russia. It has all the hallmarks of the original concept: Batman-like sets, gadgets that are put into play a la deus ex machina, a featured power car, women portrayed as sex objects and playthings, mostly chunky and fancy jewelry, boxy computers, witty flirtations, and 60s repartee and humor. I have problems with Bond's female partner in this episode; in putting on a Russian accent she speaks like a tape recorder played on high speed.

The minor villains here are carried all the way through the end, unlike in the Daniel Craig series, in which villains and minor characters are killed off  in series and then replaced with other minor villains and minor characters.

Now Angelique and J. are off to Seattle's Best to study for final exams. And gather more stickers, of course.

In the meantime Aubrey arrived from her sleepover at her classmate's house, where they worked on a group project. And is now upstairs in her bedroom, sleeping.

Still gathering stickers.

I like taking my drinks in my TinTin mug.