Tips on Budgeting

To the Tight-Budgeted,
    I am by no means a financial expert, but there are things that I do which I have found helpful with my own finances and planning my future. I won't give advice about investments, just the mentality about the cash you have now or receive. A lot of people have a bad mentality when it comes to cash. They coins as burdensome and a waste. However, coins are what make up the dollar bill which makes up the $5 bill, and then the $10, and so on. It's weird to think, but while we can't really buy anything in the United States for a penny, it's worth a lot to other countries. Also, it can save you time.
    So the United States finally got the chips in the credit cards that Europe has had for quite some time. However, it's slower than the old method and a waste of time if all you are trying to do is pay for a quick snack in the grocery store for lunch. After all, grocery store lunches are more affordable than going to restaurants or even vending machines. And yes, that was tip number one for budgeting. Anyways, in these times, cash is fast, especially if you have exact change, which is a fantastic feeling.
    I mentioned it before that I learned how to use pennies. In fact, my wallet barely ever has more than 10 coins, which is pretty manageable. What you do is occasionally overpay at the cash register so that the cashier will give you a bigger coin instead of a bunch of small coins. For example, if the bill is $4.96 and you pay $5, you will get 4 pennies. If you have 1 penny already, use it with the $5 bill and the cashier will give you a nickel. Since it's the cashiers that always dispense the pennies, and hence the ones that need them, they'll appreciate you giving one back. It's actually less of a hassle for them. The result will eventually be that you will have exact change quite a bit and you don't waste anything.
    My third tip is to have a spreadsheet and track your spending. I find this helpful because it helps you predict how much you will spend in a given month and where you can cut on spending. I know I don't need to pay for car insurance every month, but when it comes, it'll be a lot. Hence, I do need to budget for it every month. If an unexpected fee comes, then I know I can save some money by not going to my favorite pizza place a few times and get the cheaper, and probably healthier, sushi from the grocery store.

    For a bonus tip, I suggest use services like Bing Rewards which give you points for using the search engine. After about a month of doing the searches, you can get a $5 Amazon Gift Card or other credit to different stores and services. The Skype ones pretty nice since you can use it for phone calls. With one being free unlimited calling to US and Canada for a month, you can possibly save quite a bit on your phone bill assuming you are using wi-fi instead of your data plan. This is bonus tip because the service could always disappear or change its terms. However, right now it's pretty useful.

    What about credit card rewards points? Don't bother unless you can fully pay for a big purchase right away. It's a trick to get you to spend more and the conversions aren't favorable even if you don't incur fees. My one praise for Bank of America is that the conversion was pretty simple for 100 points equaling $1. Other banks like Citi make it confusing like crazy. For Citi, you can use the points to pay your credit card bill but it's 133 points for every $1. You can use them on Amazon, but you spend 125 points for $1. You can get gift cards with a 100 points to $1 conversion, but you need 2500 points before you can use it. Considering that you have to spend $100 for 100 points, but you need at least 2500 points before you can redeem... Not worth counting on. The only people who earn money from you using a credit card is the credit card company. Not only because they charge the merchants a fee (Apple Pay adds an additional fee as well), but then they also charge you interest if you cannot pay the full amount right away. In fact, they will charge you as much as they can even if you could and did pay the full amount (Bank of America). If you use cash, then you know how much you can spend.

So there is my quick advice for some better money-sense. Hopefully it helps you out. After all, if you can save a few dollars, that's another meal, which can possibly get you through until you can get into a better situation.

Good Luck,

N. D. Moharo

P.S. Have your own helpful advice you wish to share? Feel free to leave it in the comments below

New Design

So I decided to change the template of the blog. I feel like the old design made it difficult to read my writings sometimes. This new style I hope accommodates reading more. I'll probably see about removing the background image but at least you should be able to see the text more clearly.

Here's the before image

And here's the new

If you prefer the older style, feel free to comment. Right now I'm experimenting with styles so I may go through a few more tweaks before I'm done. I'm open to suggestions.

N. D. Moharo

Warning about "Friends"

To Those with Frenemies,
    While everyone is giving Daisy Ridley advice about life and fame, I might as well chip in: Beware of the Entourage! Why? "Be careful of who your friends are" because "a friend is another self." The moment when you are first friends with someone is when they comment that they like something and you say, "you too?!" This is because friendship is built on common ground and your best friends are the ones you share a lot in common. This is also part of the reason why your spouse does not need to be your best friend despite what young people say on social media.
     That sort of example of a group voicing their thoughts is exactly why the entourage is so dangerous. If your crowd of "friends" are all bad examples, then you will become a bad example yourself. Is it possible to overcome this? Yes, but that is dangerous in itself because you risk becoming too prideful. What I mean is that it's only possible if you have a very strong spirit and stick to ground.
    My father would often say that he was proud that I knew how to pick friends. It's not exactly that I didn't hang out with "bad friends", but I was the leader who generally decided what would be done. I was also the one who would determine what was appropriate to do. Age was probably part of the reason why I was able to do this. The combination of Sanguine and Choleric (Fun and Leadership) blood was also likely beneficial. However, the core was that I stuck to my core values and was respected for it. Even in college, I didn't have to say anything for my friends and roommates to know what I would watch with them and what would cause me to leave.
    That ability to leave is powerful and is probably the best way that show you are above the influence. If my friends did something I really didn't like, such as gossiping and talking bad about "friends" behind their backs, I would just leave and find another group to hang with. That's how you find out who are your friends and who is just trying to control you. Eventually, only those who really want to be your friend will come and follow you, and to be honest, you really only need maybe 3 good friends to be happy with life. It's fine to have lots of friends, but very rarely would you have more than 5 good friends. There's no need to worry because it's not the numbers that matters but the quality of those few friendships. If you can find good friends, those who encourage virtue and love you as a friend, then there's hope that you can survive even fame and fortune.

With Love,

N. D. Moharo

Critical Thinking: Blue Light and Sleep

To the Idle Mind,
    Whether or not a theory is correct is not always important. Sometimes, the important thing is to exercise the mind by practicing critical thinking. Musing is essentially just that: critical thinking. When we speak out our thoughts, it can help put them in order. We might find flaws in the thinking, but the lessons we learn from the process can assist us in finding those flaws faster in the future. In today's post, I don't really care so much about if my theory is true, but rather that you have an example of the critical thinking process. More research could certainly go into this topic and if you have comments and thoughts, I would be glad to hear it. Enjoy.

N. D. Moharo

    I've lately been having trouble sleeping. It's not so much about falling asleep at night anymore but waking up in the middle of the night and being unable to return to dreamland. I'm certainly guilty of using computer screens at night, but I try to at least have them off 1 hour before going to bed. Unfortunately, I might need more than one hour, but what's the problem with computer screens to begin with?
    I've heard that the culprit is Blue Light and maybe bloggers recommend installing a program called f.lux to adjust your PC's light at night. In fact, Google and Amazon recently updated their own applications and tablets to enable the same thing. Apparently, using warm colors like orange and yellow instead of Blue is more conducive to sleep, but why?
    I recall reading that the warm colored light might remind our brains about candlelight or the incandescent lights we used before bedtime and therefore our bodies get ready for bed. I will note that I recall finding it easier to fall asleep when I have the light on. Maybe the reason why was because of the warm orange glow filled the room and that helped negate the blue light from electronics. However, I doubt that's the case since that doesn't explain the physiological aspects of our bodies. We didn't always have fire (or maybe we have, but that's up for debate), so how can warm color lights have been useful for telling our bodies to prepare for sleep? In fact, when I look outside at night, I often think of the Moon as giving off a blue light, even more so than the Sun. So where in nature do we see Warm Colors to signal going to bed?
    Sunset! If you think about it, most people in the old days probably didn't stay awake long after sunset until the discovery of fire. With the warm colors of the sky to signal the day is about to end, our bodies probably took that cue to say, "prepare for sleep." Since the farming life was work while the sun is out, people would wake at or before sunrise and then sleep after sunset. There must be a reason that it used to be that the day was considered over after sunset (Hence, the Sabbath for the Jews began on Friday night, not Saturday morning).
    What do you think? Is the blue light thing a myth or reality? Is there somewhere else in nature that we see warm colors to signal going to sleep? Don't be afraid to share your respectable thoughts.

Shared Post: Magic Confusion, LOTR, and Shining

Sharing this post from J. D. Nyle (with permission, of course). After going through this, I actually recommend that you read his novel even more. For those who haven't read Neostriker: Shining, scroll to the bottom for important terms and definitions. Now for the post, though it's probably easier to read on his blog at http://neostrikershining.blogspot.com/2015/11/magic-confusion-lotr-and-shining.html :



Society today has an interesting practice when it comes to words and meanings. They change the definition of something but then try to imply it was always the case. For example, the definitions of “witches” and “magic” are being changed while the creators imply that it was always this way. I find it interesting and terrifying because of the implications of changing these definitions can have.

When you take something that is by nature evil, such as magic, and then strip away the elements that make it evil, you have something completely different. Even though you may end up with the same word, the substance that makes up the word is now completely different. However, if you were to go back in time, people would not accept your "new definition" because it would not correspond. While you may be able to "re-cast" the old word to fit your new definition, you cannot impose your new definition on old interpretations of the word. The fact that you had to change the definition means that you understand they are different. Hence, what we must be careful of is that when we teach our children the concept of "good magic," they might not be able to distinguish the old definition and therefore think what is evil to be okay.

Definition of Magic

Now what does this have to do with Neostriker? There were no witches or apparent magic in Shining. As for my next novel, there won't be witches yet, but there will be magic according to what I have determined to be its original meaning. Magic is the use of evil spirits (or evil nature) to do "your will" with the twisted notion that you have power over them. In the new and modern confusion, you can see traces of this definition present. The problem is that authors did not properly convey this when they wrote their stories and their influence made it even worse.

By “authors”, I'm referring to the likes of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. When you read their stories, they indicate that their meaning for "magic" is different, but they never explained why or how it's different. So when new authors recall their stories, these new authors remember that, "since those guys used magic for good, it must be okay." In these minds, magic is a tool and the evil stems from the purpose it's used for. A recent series I saw that followed this line of logic was BBC's Merlin. However, this isn't what Tolkien or Lewis had in mind when they used the word.

For the old and venerable authors, magic is how the humans described what they saw but could not rationally explain it. The analogy would be that if we took a flashlight to medieval times, they would not be able to understand the concept of electricity and therefore it would appear as "magic". In Tolkien's case, there is a section of the Fellowship of the Ring that explains it's advanced science that we would be unable to comprehend.

Now it could be said that Tolkien failed to easily convey the difference between the "magic" that corresponds to my earlier definition and "magic of nature". For example, powers that are intrinsic to the nature of the being can be considered as okay and as a tool. In this case, Gandalf as the wizard (or Tolkien's equivalent of angels) is okay, but a normal human who studies to become a warlock is not. This is because, even in the magic of nature, there is evil when one tries to grasp for it, such as the One Ring from Lord of the Rings.

Problem 1: Grasping

When you look at the One Ring, I recall it being referred to as a "magic ring", and that is key. We often assume that its power is simply to make one invisible. However, that doesn't make sense when you read the "Ring Monologues" each character has when presented with it. In fact, both Isildur and Sauron had the ring but never turned invisible. The ring's power was actually to amplify an aspect of the nature of a character to the point that it corrupts. Hobbits are described before as already good at hiding and so invisibility makes sense. Sauron was powerful and so the ring granting him even more power makes sense. Gandalf mentions that he would initially use the ring to help his magic for good but he would eventually become worse than Sauron. The thing is that evil happens when a character tries to grasp for the Ring or, in Sauron's case, all of the rings. However, when the ring comes to a character, they are eventually able to get rid of it, with the exception of Isildur. Those who grasped: Sauron, Boromir, and Gollum. Those who didn't grasp: Bilbo, Frodo (until the end), Gandalf, Aragorn, Faramir, and Sam. The ones who grasp are seeking magic to do their will, but those who didn't were able to overcome their own desires for the good. In this sense, you can say magic is the tool for the author to develop his characters, but you should still never grasp for it.

Something N. D. Moharo says is that "tragedy occurs when someone does something they were not supposed to or not do something when they were supposed to." This falls in line with what I am saying about grasping. For example, if I'm driving and want to make a turn, I need to check to make sure there is no one in my way. Even if I really want to make the turn now, I must wait and allow the right moment to come. Otherwise, I might hit someone. That would have happened because I turned when I wasn't supposed to; I grasped at the ability to turn instead of waiting for my turn. One problem with magic as I defined it is that you are trying grasp for something to happen instead of letting it happen (more on that in my novel).

Problem 2: Calling of Evil Spirits

The second problem with magic is the calling of evil spirits. Evil spirits don't change. Hence, the only reason why evil will help you is if they believe you will cause a greater evil. Therefore, the use of magic will lead to evil unless you are able to break from it.

This part of the traditional definition is perhaps played with the most. When authors say that their definition of magic is that it’s a tool and of the nature of the character, that can be okay. However, if that’s the case, they cannot use spells or enchantments. The nature of spells indicates that another spirit is being called and therefore contradicts the idea that magic is part of the nature of a character.

The second aspect authors may play with is by suggesting that spirits can change. However, there is a philosophy that probably stems from Thomas Aquinas or Aristotle and Buddhism (if I'm interpreting the idea of reincarnation correctly) where spirits cannot change unless they have their own body. It's interesting because it could mean that the test of the angels was that they were given bodies. In fact, it could be that C. S. Lewis was onto something when writing the Magician's Nephew in that "angels" actually had their own world with a morality similar to our own and its time finished before our own world began (or maybe they existed before the dinosaurs). Anyways, hence the old understanding of magic is that evil spirits will always be evil, hence summoning them is evil.

Problem 3: Possession vs Inspiration

The third problem with magic is what essentially becomes possession. This occurs when you seek a spirit's power and they give it to you, linking you to them. You may think you are in control, but slowly and surely, you surrender one part of yourself after another. In stories, it'd happen like this: "I cannot do that now, but if you do this, then you'll have that power." Sometimes authors are nice and blatantly write it as "surrender your soul and you will have all the power you want." Now let's mark a distinction. Evil spirits possess; good spirits inspire. That's important because that's how it applies in Neostriker.

When I wrote Shining, I didn't have this full understanding of magic. As a result, you get an idea that it's the Asens that give David his powers, but it's supposed to be that they guide David to manifest and grow his own spirit. I actually determined this when preparing for my next novel (still trying to figure out a good name for it) so when I went back to edit Shining for publication, I tried to hint towards and explain this logic properly. The funny thing is the misconception actually makes sense in Episode 11 and is completely appropriate. In that episode, an evil spirit/Dark Power starts the process of "surrender for power". To contrast, Zel as a good spirit only assists, guides, and protects. With inspiration, there is still fullness of freedom in your actions, and nothing is sacrificed except for perhaps your ego.

Something you must be careful of is the nature of possession. Throughout human history and the cultures of the world, no one is able to free himself from possession. It always requires someone else or God to intervene. This is because of three things: 1) the evil spirit is more powerful than you simply by nature otherwise you wouldn’t use them; 2) The spirits can convince you that they are part of your mind and hence the actions are your will; 3) Only those siding with the powerful Good Spirit (aka God) can cast them out.

Summary and Closing

In summary, Old Magic is the use of evil spirits (or evil nature) to do "your will" with the twisted notion that you have power over them. This old meaning indicates the three things evil of magic: Grasping for something you shouldn't be; Calling upon evil spirits; and what amounts to as possession. Therefore the opposite of magic is: patience and self-sacrifice, the avoidance of evil spirits, and inspiration.

Not too long ago, N. D. Moharo, in a mutual exchange of ideas, brought up in my mind that people are skeptical about the idea of the Holy Communion changing from bread to the body of a God but they practice something very similar when it comes to definitions. I saw this to be true when I was playing a demo for a game and I came across the concept of good witches. I originally meant to cover the evil nature of witches but magic was the first step. However, I do hope you appreciated this insight not only into the philosophy of magic, but also the look into the process of writing Neostriker: Shining. If you want a more clear explanation on how Neostriker is advocating the defeat of magic, feel free to say so.

J. D. Nyle

Terms and Concepts

P.S. For those who haven't read Neostriker: Shining, here is a brief explanation of the terms used:

    David is the main character of the story who has the ability to don special armor and become a "Neostriker". It's revealed halfway through that this armor is a manifestation of his own spirit/soul called "neo" and therefore the term "Neostriker" means "Spirit Striker".

    Asens are also revealed halfway through to be spirits. Zel is the Asen who helps David grow and become more powerful.

    The Dark Power is the source of evil and hence, for the purpose of this essay, can represent magic.

For those who want to read Shining, I shared the entire story here on blogspot. You can find the links to each episode/chapter at http://neostrikershining.blogspot.com/p/full-story.html or click "Full Novel" on the top bar

I also shared half of it on Wattpad if you would like to read it on your tablet. If you like the story, please tell your friends. I would totally love to publish a hardcopy version to make it easier to read but I need support. At the moment, the only thing I can add to it is a page for each episode devoted to how I designed the chapters, characters, and ideas that changed. Unfortunately, that alone isn't enough to convince publishers that it will sell so I need some vocal support. Maybe we need a twitter campaign #publishNeostriker

Concerning Beauty

To the low in self-esteem,
    It's amazing the things we do in the pursuit of beauty. The funny thing is that "perfect beauty" is never truly obtainable except by accepting yourself as you are. Yes, this sounds cliché, but let me explain it by using a certain well-known anecdote.
    It is certain that you have heard the phrase, "Beauty is in the Eyes of the Beholder." This is certainly true, but why? The quick answer would be to define Beauty as "The Proper Order of Things." Yes, that may sound weird, but it is the answer. When you look at someone and consider the beautiful, it's because you see the combination of features in the correct order and proportions. Consider this chart I grabbed from LifeHacker:

What this chart indicates is that there a certain hairstyles that match and flatter certain shapes of faces. Now will this aesthetic change? Probably. Why? Because what we associate to be the correct order tends to be what we see the most. So if some model with a square face becomes popular with a very short haircut, that will influence our perceptions of beauty. The word "influence" is important because it hints towards how we developed our sense of beauty: through our experiences in childhood.
    When we are children, we are heavily influenced by what we see, whether on television, magazines, or our parents. The style you like the most is probably the one your parents had while you grew up. For example, my mother had long hair for most of my life, but when I encountered a woman with really short hair, it scared me or I felt repulsed. However, the more time I spent with her, the less apprehensive I would become, and when her hairstyle changed, I was confused. So if you want a hint about what sort of people would find you the most attractive, find the people who had parents like you.
    This concept of influence is another reason why I object to makeup on women and airbrushing in magazines. Even as adults, we are influenced by what we see. Hence, if we only see these "perfect models," it corrupts our sense of beauty to something that isn't real. I often tell my lovelier other half that I like seeing her without makeup and that it was important to see it early on in the relationship. Women often have a reasonable objection: "if he cares so much about what I look like, there's a problem." Of course, the counter is, "Since you care so much about how you look by putting on a fake face, there's a problem." I also ponder that if "Women are the fairer sex," why do they need makeup or show cleavage? The answer is they don't need makeup or to show skin.
    I mentioned that it's important to see the face without makeup early in the relationship, and I hinted to the reasoning. The longer you go without showing your true face, the more likely he will be apprehensive when he sees it, especially if you use a lot of makeup. This is because the first impressions have solidified and the proper "order" in his mind for you is what he has seen the most. But when he sees your real face in the beginning of the relationship, he can then say "That is the proper order for her. I like the way she naturally is." Lastly, if you can feel comfortable with your "flaws" around your beloved, then you'll feel more beautiful yourself which leads to a better beauty that others will notice. So yes, "Beauty is in the Eyes of the Beholder," and the one you want to impress the most is yourself but that is done by accepting yourself as you are.

With Love,

N. D. Moharo

P.S. In this letter, I only covered visual beauty. There are other things that aren't so much visual as they are representative, such as a smile. While a smile is what you see, it's also something you can hear because the voice sounds different with a smile than a straight face or a sad one. While some people can adjust their smiles to be the most flattering, the natural smile evokes joy and when your friends see that, they feel happier as well. This "happiness" is also considered a thing of beauty because we see that as the proper order of things in pleasant circumstances. So if you smile more, you will also feel more beautiful.

Language Theory

To the Communicators,   

    Undoubtedly you have heard over and over that it's harder to learn a new language when you're older than when you are younger. I can say that it makes sense for a number of reasons, and I can even give some analogies as to why that is the case. However, I want to discuss learning a language in general as we did with our primary language.

    When we were toddlers, as we did not have the ability to comprehend, we were allowed to eavesdrop and listen to people speaking all the time. This allowed us to subconsciously learn the different sounds we can make.

    However, when it comes to understanding someone, speed is key. Not only the speed at which the other person speaks, but the speed at which you can translate what was said. It's often not recognized as such, but our brains actually translate from our "primary" language to our imagination. This is why when someone says "pink elephant" you "immediately" think of one. Your brain did a translation of the words and converted it into the image. This might also explain why abstract thinking can be so difficult to teach and learn. Also, the reason why learning a second language is hard, at least by the current methodology, is because we go through an additional translation process. This slows down our comprehension speed.

    Perhaps the biggest thing that aids in our comprehension speed is the phrase "predictive analysis". You may have heard that with computers and artificial intelligence, but it's actually what we practice when we listen. The most famous example is when couples are able to confidently and accurately finish each other's sentences. When we are able to predict what is about to be said, that allows our brains to comprehend much faster. This is also why when we encounter some words we don't know or a pronunciation we are not familiar with, our comprehension drops.

    This is why lectures need to be slightly slower than normal conversation. It's also why if it's too slow that we fall asleep. When we cannot predict what is going to be said next, we need time to comprehend it. However, if we get to the point where we do know what is being said, holding it in our fast memory too long is just exhausting. This is because what happens is our brains are telling us the same predicted word over and over again which breaks the string of words you had already understood. In other words, by speaking too slowly, it actually creates more work for the listener to comprehend.

    To be fair, the mind does offer a few tricks into understanding things we don't know. The one we are familiar with is context. Take the name Nick for example. When there is no context, the mind assumes that someone saying the word "Nick" is calling a person (or a dog) but in the context, "I made in the nick of time," a person named Nick will rarely assume he's being called. This is because the context helps clue in the meaning of the sentence. Likewise, by reading the context, one is able to assume what the meaning of an unknown word is and progress. Context also happens to be the key for "predictive analysis".

    Because the context is the key to understanding something, that is why it is not enough to repeat vocabulary when learning a language. By practicing sentences and grammar, you are able to learn context of the phrases and better predict them when someone is talking to you. I often find myself having to listen to a conversation twice, and I figure out that I knew the words but I couldn't comprehend them fast enough to understand the sentence the first time. The more you practice, the more you are able to sort and grasp the individual words and sentences. By doing this, you speed up the translation process to your brain and develop your predictive analysis and with those taken care of, you are on your way to mastering a language.

    Anyways, that is enough theorizing today. Hopefully you find this useful if you are studying a new language. If you think it is lacking, then feel free to send me a comment.

Happy Communicating,

N. D. Moharo