I had to rush to the Philippines to take care of my Dad. He was looking for me. He wanted to die and didn’t want to eat anymore. And most importantly, he said he was losing his memory. None of my other siblings were available so I had to go.

He passed away almost 10 years ago but his memory lives on. He was a lawyer who had so many talents, he played lead guitar, composed music and wrote terrific prose --- he even wrote his own musical play. Halloween season reminds me of Rod because he told the scariest stories.

We were having dinner and I asked her if she heard the shrill of the neighborhood dog around 2am. It was as if it was being bludgeoned to death. To my surprise, Tata said that howling happens often. According to Tata, the dog is seeing a ghost of a young girl who was murdered years ago. The girl keeps going back to the scene of the crime. That’s when Tata opened up about the spirits around us.

The midterm election is just around the corner. Whether living conditions have improved or not since the last election is the normal gauge of whether one votes one way or another. In other words, if things got better since the last election, you re-elect the current establishment. If things got worse, you vote for the other guy. Simple, right? No. Not really.

Wyne from Mandaluyong, Philippines sent me a video about the song Amazing Grace (it’s linked below) which was written by a reckless slave trader named John Newton in 1772. The oppression towards the black slaves was so bad that blacks were not allowed to use the white keys of a piano which explains why all negro spirituals only used note combinations of the black keys.

I'm embarrassed to say this but I succumbed to temptation. Over 20 years ago, I was a true blue follower when this started but I soon quit when I realized it was taking too much of my time. However, early this week as I was skimming through my Roku channels, curiosity got the best of me. Bless me father for I have sinned.

I fell asleep watching the news. I woke up in the middle of the night with a silly song about the craziness of people "gaslighting" (confusing reality) and pointing fingers at each other for the socioeconomic mess we're in. Let’s do a little experiment. Which political party does this song describe?

I saw this video commercial of this shaver and this bald guy saying that it was so easy to maintain his baldness with that gadget. So I went online and bought the cheapest rotary electric shaver. I thought this was going to be a piece of cake. I didn’t know you’re only supposed to use that shaver to maintain an existing bald head. So when I tried it on my overgrown buzz cut the shaver got stuck and literally tried to yank the individual follicles. I was thinking of retreating and doing more research but when I saw the unbalanced hairless patch on my front lobe, I knew I had reached the point of no return.

It’s been a long day and I am past my midnight deadline. So I will steal a provoking essay I got in the mail today. I edited a lot out of respect for people with opposing viewpoints but the kernel of the writer's idea are quite provoking. What do you think of this?

If you've been following my emails since summer time, you'll remember that I was in a farm in Dalipuga, Philippines —- I learned to love a Mother Hen and her 11 chicks. I witnessed the babies' birth and I fed them rice every morning and afternoon. It was fascinating that minutes after coming out of their shells, they were already foraging for food.