Litany of Castigation

Current System Configuration: Indignant
Earworms:
-Avantasia from Tobias Sammet's Avantasia: The Metal Opera [Power Metal]
-Kyrie by Yoko Shimomura [BGM: Parasite Eve]
Sustenance:
[Breakfast] Cheese toast
[Lunch] Cabbage rolls and wheat bread
[Dinner] Burger steak in mushroom gravy with rice
[Coffee] Venti Mocha Frappuccino with Valencia syrup. Double blended.
Current Read:
-None right now; finished Wormwood and The Secret Garden

Classes have been suspended since Monday, and the monsoon rains have not stopped. It has been raining all day. This kind of rain, of course, made students want classes to be suspended again tomorrow.

I was annoyed to receive a Y!M forward message that was basically a prayer for more rain so that classes would be suspended again. They did not consider, however, that there are four cities and municipalities that are already underwater. They did not consider that many families in Marikina are being displaced by the raging waters of the Marikina River. They did not consider that many small businesses are suffering because the floods are keeping customers from coming. They did not consider that the La Mesa and Wawa dams are bursting at the seams. They did not consider that most of this disease-ridden water is saturated with trash, rat piss, dead animals, and many other unsavory substances. Of course they did not consider these things. They're busy sitting in front of the computer, surfing the net, playing their games and chatting idly with each other. They're not worried about the floodwater entering their houses. The only effect the rain would have on them is that they won't have class.

I was so enraged by the forward message that I wrote this reply.

Lord, please have mercy on the thousands of people being displaced by the floods. Have mercy on the tens of thousands of people living in depressed areas who have no way of escaping the floods that may result from our rivers and reservoirs overflowing. Grant thy grace to the teachers whose lesson plans are being disrupted by the dreadful weather, and pierce the hearts of the selfish and lazy students who wish that this weather may continue lashing the city at the expense of so many others who are less fortunate.

Shame on you. May God turn a deaf ear to your selfish prayers.

Castigating you with righteous indignation,
Your Black Lion

Dreaming of the Dragon

Current System Configuration: Disturbed
Earworms:
-Reach Out for the Light from Tobias Sammet's Avantasia: The Metal Opera [Power Metal]
Sustenance:
[Breakfast] Longganisa, cheese omelet and fried rice
[Lunch] Tuna on whole wheat pandesal and salad
[Dinner] Not eating dinner tonight
[Coffee] Homemade mocha
Current Read:
-none right now

I had a nightmare last night. I haven't had nightmares in a very, very long time, so I was rather disturbed by this one especially since it involved school.

It started out innocently--we were on a field trip that involved boating in a river. That part was fine. The order in which the following events happened is fuzzy. When we got back to the campus, there was a certain substance being passed around (it looked like shabu/meth). Whatever it was, it caused a lot of students to go on a psychotic rampage, mobbing people and beating them up. I myself was mobbed, but I was able to fight the crazed students off. And beneath the campus, there was an imprisoned dragon---a n enormous red one with seven heads---roaring and breaking free of its bonds.

I'm no prophet. Some of my students mistake me for a psychic due to my intuition. I'm not. If anything I lack foresight and often find myself having to make things up as I go. However, the mere occurence of a nightmare after not having had one in such a long time disturbs me. I don't believe anything is an accident, and so I think this dream really means something.

Now, being mobbed by drug-crazed students is bad enough (don't worry, I didn't see any faces of students I knew when everyone was going berserk), but what really disturbs me is the dragon. When I told my mom about this, she told me I just played too much Warcraft. Okay, but there are no seven-headed dragons there.

Another sign was seen in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns.

His tail drew one third of the stars of the sky, and threw them to the earth. The dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. --Revelation 12:3-4

The Great Red Dragon here is Satan himself. Seven heads for perfect earthly knowledge, seven crowns for perfect earthly authority, and ten horns for tremendous power. Now why is it appearing underneath the campus, breaking free of its prison?

The implications of this terrify me. I still don't know what to make of it.

Confused and perturbed,

Your Black Lion

The New Temple

Current System Configuration: Insomnia
Earworms:
-Palace of Fantasy by Freedom Call [Power/Epic Metal]
-Heart of the Brave by Freedom Call [Power/Epic Metal]
-From the Inside Out by Hillsong United [CCM]
Sustenance:
[Breakfast] Grilled cheese sandwich
[Lunch] Beefsteak and salad
[Dinner] Grilled cheese sandwich
[Coffee] Gourmet mocha, forgot the brand
Current Read:
-Wormwood by G.P. Taylor (Not really in the mood for reading)

Can't sleep. Apart from sleeping too long this afternoon, something has been weighing heavily on my heart, something that I knew I gave up already. Someone. I'll spare you the mushy details. You get enough of that from other blogs. In any case, this isn't really something bad. But it isn't for me. Not yet, if ever.

I thought I'd gotten rid of certain things in my life already, but they persist like irritating fungal infections. These are the bad things that should be axed. I guess I've been trying to live the Life from the outside-in, doing things in the hope that they will change me. It shouldn't be that way. The change should come from within. As the song goes,

Everlasting, Your light will shine
When all else fails
Neverending, Your glory goes
Beyond all fame
And the cry of my heart
Is to bring You praise
From the inside out
Lord my soul cries out

I'm ready to face another long day tomorrow. I know there is a God who loves me. There is nothing to fear.

Goodnight,
Your Black Lion.

Plastered, hammered and gone

Current System Configuration: Totally exhausted
Earworms:
-The Seven Angels from Tobias Sammet's Avantasia: The Metal Opera [Power/Epic Metal]. Can't get enough of this song. 14 minutes of sheer epic quality.
-Rise Up by Freedom Call [Power Metal] Something to help spur my tired spirit on.
-Worth It All by Disciple [Christian Rock] Excellent Christian rock song. Disciple is a must for any believer who sings a new song
Sustenance:
[Breakfast] Chocolate oatmeal
[Lunch] Homemade burger steak in mushroom gravy with buttered rice.
[Dinner] Grilled cheese sandwich
[Coffee] Homemade mocha
Current Read:
-Wormwood by G.P. Taylor (Too wasted to read it right now)

To my dismay, I've missed almost an entire week's worth of working out. I've been squeezing my brain working on the lesson module for our next series of grammar lessons, and doing so has not been kind to my sleep schedule. More than once this week I had only been kept awake by caffeine and the grace of God. Today was the worst by far.

I usually enjoy having three classes in succession---I don't forget to say anything in the later classes and I don't do anything for the rest of the day. However, today's lecture was particularly heavy and two of the classes were interrupted by the quake drill we had. As such, I had to cram all my points into the truncated periods. It took quite an effort especially since this lecture required a lot of energy.

The quake drills were not very successful. It took longer than expected to take everyone out of the building, and had it collapsed, certain sections would have perished. <_< style="font-style: italic;">The Seven Angels, some weird lyrics came to mind.

Chorus
We are the Seven
Judgment of Heaven
Why don't we know? We are the angels!
It's revelation, soul castigation!
Fire will burn us away!

My version:
We are the Crammers!
Struggling learners!
Why can't you tell? We're Pisay students!
It's vegetation, procrastination!
Midnight oil burning away!

Ending Coda
You've been fighting for your soul
And sometimes it takes a toll
Hope one day you'll understand
What it means to hold in hand
What they call a fantasy
It is nothing but a key
To the world that now you're in
That they call a wicked dream!

When you're walking on your own
And you think you're all alone
You may feel us from inside
From the other side of LIFE!

My Version:
You've been struggling for your grade
And sometimes your nerves get frayed
Hope one day you'll understand
What it means to hold in hand
What they call Acuity,
It is more than just a key
To the future of your soul
To your glorious destiny!

When your strength is all but gone
And you just can't get that "One"
Call Him and He'll hear your cry,
Rise on eagle's wings and FLY!

Fatigued and drowsy,
Your Black Lion.

The Return

Current System Configuration: Physical Fitness Mode
Earworms:
-Jin/Shin/Ki -MAN-GOD-MACHINE- by Yuichi Ikusawa [JRock, Kishin Houkou Demonbane OP]
-Ages of Power by Freedom Call [Power Metal]
-Subarashiki Shin Sekai by Flair [JPop/Trance, Namco vs Capcom insert song]
Sustenance:
[Breakfast] Grilled ham and cheese sandwich
[Lunch] Fruit magic's pesto spaghetti and choco-banana shake.
[Dinner] None yet. Antonio's despedida tonight.
[Coffee] Homemade mocha (just ordinary coffee+Swiss Miss mix. I don't have espresso, sadly.)
Current Read:
-Wormwood by G.P. Taylor

My brother's finally coming home tomorrow night. I really miss the guy even if I visited him last summer. It'll be great to have him here again. I guess I always take his presence for granted. Most of us are like that, anyway.

He just graduated from High School in the US. He did pretty well there; he was exempted from practically all his final exams because of his performance. He'll be staying here for about 8 months, as he will leave for Singapore next April. He's most likely going to take up Management and Culinary Studies at Temasek Polytechnic. At least he'll be much easier to visit in Singapore, and as I have plans of eventually working there, it won't be such a big problem.

~~~~

Wormwood has been an interesting read so far. It's not particularly excellent; I find it too dark, the imagery too squalid. Nevertheless, I'm sure it's an accurate portrayal of 18th-century London. My main issue with G.P. Taylor's work is that I find his world view confusing and inconsistent with the Christian ideas that he is trying to present. Of course, his main target audience is the goth demographic, trying to draw them to faith in Jesus Christ through his horror novels. That was certainly clear and present in his previous novel, Shadowmancer, but in Wormwood I'm having trouble seeing who the good guy really is.

There is no clear protagonist, though I see two who are experiencing the story in a similar way: Dr. Sabian Blake, an astronomer and master of the Kabbalah, and his servant girl, Agetta Lamian, a flea-bitten teenage girl with a knack for thievery. Both are caught up in things they do not understand, a web of deception. They both encounter angels who tell them more about the greater scheme of things, although Agetta's angel is a remorseful and disempowered being who had been doomed because he had fallen in love with a demonic sorceress.

The plot seems smooth---the action rises, slowly but surely, through each cryptically-entitled chapter (most of them have Latin or Hebrew titles). As I see it, Wormwood is much more allegorical than Shadowmancer, which was very literal in its treatment of the use of magic and salvation. More to come when I finish the novel.