February 2-8

On Chink Positive: Through the years, my Sunday evening habit if I'm awake and at home is tuning in to Inner Mind. Also for months now, my Sunday mornings would start with Chink Positive.. As I write this on Jan. 30, 2013, my entire life is about to change drastically. Again. I may not be able to tune in regularly, like what happened when I couldn't listen to the radio broadcasts of Charles Morris and Chuck Swindoll anymore. Here are some of the lessons I got in my continuously improving life: Investment is spending to get a profit. If you buy a vintage car and sell it a higher price, that's investment; if you have no intention of selling it, that's not investment: it's acquisition. Chink is preparing a marathon seminar on the success secrets of Chinese-Filipino business titans, all of whom show a common admirable trait: humility. Here is one: Never invest out of ignorance, greed and fear. To focus your life: Ask: What do I want? How do I get it? Why do I want it? WHAT, HOW and WHY

On Martilyo Gang: A group of thieves broke into a jewelry store inside SM Megamall some days ago. Apparently, they bought a hammer from a hardware shop inside, which they use to smash the glass cases. The police, with their media-oriented knee-jerks, called them the Martilyo (Hammer) Gang, a generic name for all syndicate groups with the same modus. Public outcry, naturally. Knowing the culture, I'm not surprised by level-up self-righteous condemnation. Some blame the security guards. So the next episode is the inevitable power-tripping of the guards. It's a cycle. All the public criticisms will not stop thieves. There are no winners here, just more victims: the mall-going public. The only deterrent to crime is swift detection and capture. But the guards will be busy harassing innocent customers, treating them as potential thieves. Expect SM to become hostile to customers like paranoid Puregold

On Sean Connery: I love Sean Connery. One of the earliest movies I've seen as a kid was Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade. I felt he was really special, from there to Highlander (watch here the FULL MOVIE)  to The Hunt For Red October, to The Medicine Man, to The Rock, to Entrapment, to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and to Finding Forrester. He is actually one of the first people who I looked up to as a father figure, imagining that my real dad, if he was alive, would have been like him 

See the special Huggybear story on Finding Forrester

On Marco Polo: I don't care if everybody else wants to be Alexander The Great. I still remain like Marco Polo. And not even Kublai Khan can tell me what to do with my life. This is a metaphor, on the level of Ideas, not People. But I can imagine some insecure people will get paranoid. What do they think of me, thinking of them? I find it bemusing that there's a lot of those who pathetically keep overestimating their importance, as if they're the center of other people's lives

On Lou Salvador Jr: My beloved late grandmother once told me that my father looked like the 50s matinee idol Lou Salvador Jr., known as The James Dean of the Philippines. Wow! Even more important, my father was a decent man, who had a "ginintuang puso (a golden heart)." I'm proud of my dad, and of course, my mom. My parents died when I was a baby so I never knew them. I just hope that, if they can see me now, they would be proud of me too 

Watch full the Lou Salvador Jr movie Faithful here on 2Rivers

Heart of Gold by Neil Young 

"If you can see me now..." 

Loving Arms

Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge 

See also Huggybear's Favorite Rita Coolidge Songs

On Bill Murray: "A rolling stone gathers no moss." WHO. NEEDS. MOSS? That was my Facebook mobile post last Jan 29. It reminds me of Bill Murray. I really admire that guy. I read in a Time article that people were telling him to compromise to get more film assignments. You attract more flies with honey than with vinegar, they said. He replied, in his famous deadpan: "Who. Needs. Flies?" His artistic integrity remains inviolate because of his total lack of interest in sucking up to people. That's what led him to landmark films like Lost In Translation that earned him the respect of fellow artists and independent-minded people. Huggybear’s favorite Bill Murray movies are Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day

From The Journal of Jonathan Aquino aka Huggybear

January 21, 2013 
9:30 a.m., Monday 

Someone just told me I'm a young man in a hurry. Zoom! My off-work weekends are sacred to me: they're the only time I can pursue my real passion, which is writing, and other personal stuff, like my studies, and also, with the help of Tony Robbins, (See Huggybear's Virtual Life Coach), fine-tuning my mindset and strategies to achieve my goals. I'm getting results too! 

I go the extra mile to maximize every moment by focusing on my priorities. Sometimes it would take time before I can reply to non-emergency text messages because I seldom get SMS prepaid load, always regular load to send MMS which would be consumed immediately. Some people label me as a Type A personality: always on the go, always on the rush 

That's weird because I'm more of the hippie, bohemian artist type, like the characters in Rent, my favorite Hollywood movie. And yes: 

"No other road, 
no other way, 
NO DAY BUT TODAY!" 

For me, its not so much as being in a hurry as making up for lost time. I would do things I have to do as fast and as efficiently as I can, so I could do the things I WANT to do with a chillaxed, creative mind. I'm doing now a lot of things I should have done before, but I was then learning lifelong lessons and undergoing experiences that made me a better person. 

So "all in all, I've no regrets," as Tiffany sings in All This Time: 

"The sun still shines, 
the sun still sets; 
and the heart forgives, 
the heart forgets..." 

One thing I make it a point to avoid taking for granted is my personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I'm not holier-than-thou and I admit I had my share of casual sex with strangers. So I don't label myself as a Christian but unlike some religious people I've encountered, I'm not self-righteous. I don't go to Mass but I go to churches when there's none, like in this photo I took of Santa Cruz in Manila in January

I pray almost all the time, for thanksgiving and kinda just checking in, even when I'm drinking coffee while having a cigarette alone, like telepathically talking to a respected friend, a mentor.  I'm more at peace with spontaneously praying with my heart even without the words, rather than praying with memorized words but with an empty heart

About Huggybear’s photo: 

Taken December 2, 2012, in Quirino Avenue, in Manila, where I used to live. It's across the bus stop of the busses going to Naic, where I'd get in when I go to Tanza, and General Trias, in Cavite, where I both also used to live. Reminds me of Carole King: 

"So far away, 
doesn't anybody 
stay in one place anymore..."