The Crystal Ball that told me things from the Past

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I had been soul searching this past few days. Many of you might know why I am doing it. To find myself once more I read through my older blog entries, even those that dated back in 2006 (that is when I started blogging) in livejournal. Anyway I've discovered and rediscovered myself from reading my older blog entries.

Some entries made me smile, some even made me laughed. Seeing what I have written made me see what I really felt back then. Although it felt awkward, I still continued reading hoping to find new insights on my life as I know it.

Reading those entries made me realize how forgetful I am or at least whatever doesn't affect my present, I can't remember much anymore. For example I didn't know that I used a username "argent" in one of my "lost" blogs. Along with all my older rants on a lot of things, that I can't remember that I have written, I really can't remember why I wrote some of them. Anyway I find that helpful for me because that means that I had moved on from the past.

This brings me to my second realization. Reading through my blog entries made me realize how I evolved in a sense on how I formed my identity. At that time, I was more into anime (like 70% more) than into magic I saw myself from the over anime loving Jordan into the more mature Magician Jordan. Maybe it's just me, whatever I am in to, it influences me and my personality. For example the anime Jordan is idealistic, just like most anime heroes. Becoming the magician made me look at things not as they are. Now I analyze things and see the reality that not all things are ideal, no matter how much you try to make them.

Realizing this I looked at myself again from both my past self , my present self and my future self. I have these characteristics from my past self that has disappeared in my present self. For example I used to believe that everyone is inherently good but now after a few years I have learned to believe that there are people who will use you for their personal gain. Another is before I am the type of person who tackled problems in a way that I swayed with it to avoid conflict. Now I learned how to be headstrong and tackle the problem head on because I learned that being too passive will not get you anywhere. Now I take action so that I won't be left behind.

Of course some characteristics simply just faded away and the bad thing about it is that some of these characteristics are good and could have helped me face my current problems. This the main reason why I tried finding my past, to see how I got through problems that were worse than what I have now. How I wish I could meet my old self and ask him what would he do if I were him.

Magician Superheroes

This is a follow up to the previous entry about having superpowers and using them for magic. Now what if it is the other way around: using magic as if they were superpowers? This lead me into writing this entry about Magicians who use their magic to become superheroes.


1.Mandrake the Magician
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Created in 1934 by Lee Falk (the same guy who created The Phantom) Mandrake uses an impossibly fast hypnotic technique to create illusions to battle the lowliest gangster up to aliens and demons. One magician actually adapted his Pencil-thin Moustache and Top hat and there's no doubt they look the same. He is Leon Mandrake

2. Doctor Fate

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Doctor Fate may not look like your average magician, because his powers came from a certainlord of magic: Nabu who is from Egypt. He was trained in the art of not only any magic but magic of the highest order. He could manipulate objects using that kind of magic. I don't know if anyone would adapt his costume.

3. Zatanna



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She is a descendant from a long line of magicians including, Da Vinci, Flanel and Nostradamus. Before discovering she was a real magician, she worked as a stage illusionist. Using spells she combats evil along with other magicians.


There are more magician superheroes out there and it might take me more than one entry to list them all. I wrote about them because they had made magic not only for stage, but also for comics and TV series as well.

Superpowers? I hope I have them for REAL

I am a magician but I don't have any superpowers and I don't even claim to have any. All that I do and perform are merely illusions designed to entertain or puzzle people's minds. No matter how simple a trick is, I know for some it leaves an impression that I have a superpower.

Thinking of this, I started imagining, what If I have real superpowers? What would it be and how will I use them. Then all of a sudden I started daydreaming of how nice it is I have those super powers.

I thought how nice would it be if I know how to teleport from one place to another. If I did then I wouldn't have to pay for my transport fares and maybe I could go anywhere I want. On the side of magic, I could actually make an even better version of the transported man.

Another is what if I could be invisible or at least make thing invisible? Then I wouldn't be worrying about angles if I make things vanish right? (I actually now have the power to read minds and I know that if you could be invisible, the first thing you will do is to go somewhere where you are not allowed to go, to watch some things.)

Well we all know that I don't have those powers and what I do just gives an illusion that I could do those extraordinary things, but come to think of it, isn't it extraordinary too if we could make the people around us forget the harsh realities of life even for just a minute? Seeing them smile is a proof that they believed even for a few seconds that you do have super powers.

Actually putting a smile on their faces is something extraordinary too and I think that is a superpower that we all have.

Rubber Band Philosophies

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I've been playing with a few rubber bands as of the moment. I was practicing my usual tricks with it and when I got bored, I just started stretching them. Trying to make sense of what I was doing, I then remembered something about people and rubber bands.

I've heard once that people are like rubber bands. When rubber bands are stretched they can only be stretched up to a certain length and the moment it reaches its limit, it would either go back into its original form or it would just snap. Just like rubber bands, people when put into a lot of stress either goes back or snaps.

Stretching these rubber bands made me realize what I am really feeling right now: being stretched. I've been stretched to much with problems and frustrations from work especially. I'm trying my best to stretch myself even more trying not to snap amidst the pressure combined with the realization that I should be in another job. What I'm talking about is a usual office day job and I'm not a professional magician so don't worry I'm not planning on quitting magic. (A magician? Why not but of course I need a more stable job than that.)

If I will write all the things about my work that stretches me to the limits, it might take me a whole day writing about it. Besides I think it's not worth the bandwidth and space on my blog. (How I wish I had studied escapology so that I could just escape through all of this.)

Well so much for philosophizing, ranting and comparing myself to rubber bands. I'm more than a rubber band and I know I could surpass even my own limits. So for now I'll let you enjoy an older blog entry with tricks with rubber bands.

Dealing with know it alls

Whenever someone asks me how I did a certain magic trick, I just smile and say that it's by magic.
Of course some people would say that there is trickery or it's just that my hands are fast. When I hear that I just smile back at them.

Well an annoying situation might be when someone says how you do the trick although more often than not that person really doesn't know how the trick is done. I've actually heard someone once when I've performed said that it's more fun when he solves the trick.

Ok I'll leave you to your happiness but as far as I know you may know ho it is done but surely you'll never be able to do it. Also I've heard that same guy explained to the person on his side how it is done but as I was listening to him I just laughed from the inside because what he was saying was really a different method for a trick. I was doing an Ambitious Card routine at that time but when he saw me placed the chosen card face up on the center and having it come back to the top, really he just stood there silent and maybe embarassed that he tried to expose me.

So to all magicians out there, don't be afraid of those heclers who says they know how to do a trick. Usually what I do is show them a "sucker trick" wherein a trick might seem to go wrong only to find out in the end that the trick is working fine all along.

Also I try not to present a challenge for this "know it all" type of people, doing this might make them more observant and even to nosey that they will roam around as you do your trick, viewing some angles that might give away your trick.

To sum it all, just remember that when dealing with those know it all hecklers just remember that no matter what they say that they know the trick, they can never do it because nothing equates a magicians dedication and hardwork that has been put into a trick.