Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Saving Using the Envelope Method

My friend Juan Bernardo Patino (owner of Stock Market for Pinoys) once introduced me to the envelope method for saving. Basically, you just get one envelope and assign to it the funds that you intend to save for a specific purpose. If you have varying expenses that you need to save for, then you need an array of envelopes with each one assigned to just one expense. So if you have to pay for Electricity you get one envelope and assign to it "Electricity Bills". Then if you have to pay the water company you get another envelope and jot down "Water Bills" on it. And so on and so forth...

Because I overspent this September 2014, my siblings and my sister's best friend concurred that I need to use the envelope method. So here is the breakdown of my savings plan using the envelope method.

In terms of allocation, this would mean that for every 100 pesos I earn:

- 40% or 40 pesos will go to my Medicine envelope
- 20% or 20 pesos will go to my Food and Other Living Expenses envelope
- 20% or 20 pesos you can spend freely (put in the Free Spending envelope)
- 10% or 10 pesos goes to savings - not to be touched (put in the Savings envelope)
- 10% or 10 pesos will go to the Emergency Fund (put in the Emergency Fund envelope)

To make sure that I stick to my savings plan, my younger brother will hang on to the money for me. This means that whenever I earn anything, I have to turn over the gross income to him and we will separate the funds according to the envelope it belongs to. I also have to keep a small notebook into which I will write every expense that I have paid for. That way, I know exactly where I spent what and when. My younger brother acts as my "check and balance" so that he can help me control my spending. Also, he serves as my banker because I cannot take money from the envelopes without informing him first.

Of course, there are risks even with this method. For example, I am notorious for not listing down each and every expense I've incurred so there may be discrepancies. So that's my lookout. The money might also be stolen from my younger brother's place even if we put it in a locked cash box (after all, people are only human). I might also get into emergencies that might suck the life out of my emergency fund meaning we might be forced to get money from the other envelopes to make up the difference.

But saving this way is better than not doing anything and it's simple enough to follow regularly. So for now we stick to this method so that I don't go overbudget with my spending on a regular basis.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Making Mistakes is Good

Someone once said that “you learn more when you make mistakes than when you get everything right”. I forget who said that but it’s just as true today as when I first heard it. Today was a good example of that.

I was trying to do something at work and my boss was fortunately online while I was doing it. I kept making mistakes and I was getting frustrated until my boss stepped in and pointed out what I was doing wrong. Then a light bulb flashed in my head and I realized that the experience of making all those mistakes is just as valuable (if not more valuable) than the experience of getting everything right the first time. The value to me this time was that I was able to see the process at work from the point of view (POV) of the user of the system. If I were an instant expert who could see everything only from the point of view of the developer of the system, I probably would not have that kind of insight.

In my case, I was able to see where the system would wind up confusing the end user. There are many ways that an end user would wind up getting confused as he goes through this process and I saw some of those pitfalls. Fortunately for me, that is important because it serves as useful material for my work blog. I could point out to the readers where they might make mistakes but more importantly, to acknowledge that no one is perfect and even the most intelligent of people do make mistakes too when trying something new.

If you start to feel that you’re never going to get your work right and that everything you are doing seems futile, don’t give up. You may eventually get your own light bulb flashing in your brain and you will then realize that the effort you put in is really worth it in the end. And if the process of learning does become so tedious, tiring and discouraging, don’t give up – most likely the solution is within reach and you just have to be persistent about finding it.

My First Try at Investing in a Mutual Fund

My Financial Advisor at Sunlife (Sasha So Seng Yu) helped me buy into a Sunlife mutual fund lately. The money I used was initially supposed to go into a Sunlife insurance plan but due to various reasons I backed out of the insurance idea. Then Sasha said I can always invest in a mutual fund because it gives good returns anyway although there’s no insurance coverage. So I gave her written authorization to process my entry into mutual funds, signed the necessary documentation and now I have 1937 shares in the Equity Fund.

Although I knew that buying into equities is a big risk (because the returns can even be zero over time) I agreed to it because a) I trust Sasha’s judgement and b) I know also that the opposite is true, that the returns can be 20% over time or even more. I remember a guy friend of mine telling me that for decades he owned these shares of stock that were practically worthless and he merely held on to them for sentimental reasons – then all of a sudden the shares became profitable and he cashed in. Sasha did make it a point to tell me that I can still withstand the risk because I’m only 40 and though there may be some bad years down the line the odds are on my side that I will profit from my mutual fund investment. She also stressed that a mutual fund is good for a long term investment POV.

I’m still learning about how mutual funds work as I go. Today I learned how to find the fund value, by following Sasha’s instructions. The value of putting my money in a mutual fund, for me, is that a Fund Manager will be managing it on my behalf, because I really have no experience in investing in stocks. I do have one friend who let me peek at her stock shares and she was 4000 pesos in the red. She says it’s been that way for months now. To me, that’s a pretty big loss though of course she might eventually recover everything if the market turns in her favor. So that’s why I decided to invest in a mutual fund instead of being a Lone Ranger and doing every stock transaction by myself.

Sasha also taught me about the Cost Average Method which basically means investing in the mutual fund regularly whether the market is up or down. The idea behind this Method is that eventually the average value of your investment evens out to around 20% if the market doesn’t crash over time. I did my homework about the Cost Average Method with help from my friend and my brother so I trust that this is the right way to go. All things considered it’s still preferable to a regular savings account in a bank where your money will not profit as much. So I assume that I did the right thing by trusting Sasha’s judgment about putting my money in equities, for the long term.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Why Life Insurance is Important to Me

Why Life Insurance is Important to Me
Even though I am schizophrenic, I am getting a life insurance policy soon from my friend Sasha So Seng Yu who is an active Sunlife agent. Because I am schizophrenic, I only qualify for the basic insurance plan (no riders) which is okay with me because I am glad the Sunlife company is willing to assume the risk of insuring me. And I am thankful to my friend for taking the time to explain to me how the policy coverage works. But why take life insurance in the first place?
To me, getting life insurance is important because I know that there are many unforeseen risks out there that can threaten my life at any point in time. Take that MRT train getting derailed recently, for instance – I used to be a frequent passenger at that station where the train was derailed. I wonder how many of those 30 people who were injured in that accident actually had life insurance coverage. Although apparently there were no fatalities, how would the families have coped if their breadwinner had died in that accident? How would I cope if I had been there that day in the MRT station and suffered a serious injury leading to loss of a hand, an arm, a leg or a foot? The thought of it is scary because right now I have no life insurance coverage yet, meaning if something happens to me now (before I am able to pay even one premium) I cannot afford the medical treatment. Life insurance coverage only starts once you pay the first premium.
I know some people who don’t believe in life insurance – but that’s because they have not thought carefully for a long time about how they would pay for huge medical bills if they suffered a serious accident or how their families would survive if they (the family breadwinner) were to die suddenly. I have, because I am schizophrenic. Having this kind of illness makes me wonder how I can pay for surgery if a jeep loses its brakes and suddenly plows into me as I wait on the sidewalk for a ride. I wonder what I will do if I lose a hand in the accident because touch typing is a necessary skill for my freelance writer job. And I wonder how my siblings can pay for my wake and burial in case I die in an accident (because even cremation is costly, though it is the less expensive option compared to being buried in a coffin).
I hope I am getting through to you people about the need for life insurance. If you would like a referral to my Sunlife agent, please do PM me and I will be glad to refer you to her.
Her name is Sasha So Seng Yu.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
ELEANORE O. HATTA

Why You Should Care About Carbon Sinks

Note: I wrote this for a client but he rejected it for not being "popular enough". So I decided to post it here and on Cyber Isko.

Why You Should Care About Carbon Sinks

For many people, global warming is an alarming prospect but one which they do not fully understand. This means they leave it up to the scientists to interpret the data and then filter the conclusions the scientists reach to come up with their own interpretation. However, carbon sinks is not one of the more well known concepts related to global warming – although it should be because this could mean the salvation of the human race from the many effects of global warming.

Basically a carbon sink is any kind of reservoir (natural or man-made) that can absorb the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it for an undetermined period of time. Forests are the most viable form of carbon sink and the most desirable. Not only do forests change the carbon dioxide humans and animals emit as part of normal respiration into pure oxygen, but forests will absorb the surplus carbon dioxide. That, in a nutshell, is what a carbon sink does. The theory is that if the surplus carbon dioxide floating around in the atmosphere is absorbed by forests then global warming will slow down or at least be mitigated. We then gain more time to plant more forests and thus create more carbon sinks. The end result? The reversal of global warming.

One side effect of having too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is ocean acidification. Basically this means that the carbon dioxide is absorbed by the ocean which then turns the ocean into a more acidic body of liquid. This is not good because acidification of the ocean can result in many disastrous outcomes such as destruction of the fragile and delicate marine ecosystem because marine organisms like coral cannot replicate in an acidic ocean. If the marine ecosystem is harmed this way, it is possible that our supply of seafood will be cut off because the oceanic food chain that is dependent on smaller marine organisms will find their food supply terminated. The ocean’s food chain will collapse and its effect on us humans is that we can no longer get our food supply from the ocean because there are no more marine life to harvest. And yes, that includes fish too.

So that means our survival as humans on this planet is heavily dependent on carbon sinks. We can and must revive our forests and raise these to maturity. Not only that, but we must repopulate countries whose forests have been decimated by overharvesting and illegal cutting with new growth so that they too will be able to nurture carbon sinks. The idea is to keep putting up new growth and guarding them so that they reach maturity so that the carbon sinks will absorb all the surplus carbon dioxide. Presumably then the negative effects of global warming will slow down and we will be able to cope as humans on this planet we call home. So do the human race a favor and plant trees today.

Can We Halt the Cancer Epidemic?

The client rejected this article (because he's a lunatic) so I'm posting it here:

Can We Halt the Cancer Epidemic?
Doctors are alarmed by the steady increase of cancer cases not just in developed nations but also in the developing nations throughout the world. For example, Dr. David Servan-Schreiber claims in his New York Times article “We Can Stop the Cancer Epidemic” that the types of cancer which afflict children and adolescents has been on the rise by at least 1% per year since the 1960s. Dr. Servan-Schreiber further notes that these types of cancer that afflict this demographic cannot be screened, so it may be too late for the patient when the cancer is detected. However, is it possible to stop this extensive spread of cancer before entire populations come down with it? Dr. Servan-Schreiber believes so.
This doctor thinks that physicians have to dig deep into the causes of cancer in order to halt the epidemic. And we now know more about what causes certain types of cancer. For example, most medical research has given evidence that smoking tobacco products leads directly to oral and lung cancer. Obesity is also known as a contributing factor to cancer as studies show that obese people are more likely to come down with cancer than skinny people. Eating a diet rich in fat, sugar and salt may also contribute to other types of cancer.
The problem now though is that there are other new probable causes of cancer that have only recently been identified. Examples of these (according to Dr. Servan-Schreiber) are phthalates and parabenes that are found in some shampoo and cosmetic products; alkylphenols that can come in cleaning products; and of course pesticides and insecticides that are used in households and commercial establishments regularly. There is also evidence, says Dr. Servan-Schreiber, that allowing liquids in plastic containers to be exposed to extreme heat can allow elements of the plastic to leach into the liquid – case in point, bottled water left in cars that are exposed to direct sunlight. These elements (such as bisphenol A) are suspected to be carcinogens as well. So we need to be aware of the new probable causes of cancer as well as the traditional causes if we are to halt this spread of cancer in global populations.
Doctors like Dr. Servan-Schreiber are in agreement that a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables can contribute antioxidants which are useful in preventing cancer from starting and spreading. Stopping the use of tobacco products and prolonged use of alcohol are also good ways to prevent cancer. But since we know there are new causes of cancer these days, we also need to be vigilant about keeping up with research as to probable new causes of cancer that we are exposed to without our realizing it. Doctors, medical researchers and the general public have to cooperate with one another in analyzing possible new causes of cancer, reporting this, testing new theories, and finally coming to some logical conclusion about how to prevent these causes of cancer from afflicting the general population. We may not be able to wipe out incidence of cancer but we can slow down the rate of the global epidemic to manageable levels.

Why Brothers Will Guide You to Healthy Relationships With Other Men

I wrote this for a client but he rejected it (he's in a straitjacket now at some hospital). So I'm posting this here. Enjoy everyone:

Title: Why Brothers Will Guide You to Healthy Relationships With Other Men

Let’s face it – brothers are really good to have around, especially if you are the type to get into the wrong relationships with the wrong men. Brothers will guide you to the right men because brothers know what other men are thinking about you. Here is a list of why your brother will help you find healthy relationships:

Brothers once played dollies with you.

Yes, that same hulking behemoth who inhales food like a vacuum cleaner at the family dinner table was once your constant playmate when you were young. Your brother was your regular companion and so he knows when to be there for you when you are going through tough times, bouncing back from a bad relationship.

Brothers know when sisters are in trouble.

They just know. And don’t be surprised if he invades your privacy just to tell you that your guy is bad news – he’s doing that out of love. Your brother wants you to have the best relationship possible.

Brothers know how far their territory goes.

Don’t be surprised either if your brother sends suitor after suitor away just as they are prepared to enter your home. Your brother wants to protect you and the best way to do that is to show your suitors that he is the man of the house.

Brothers will never date anyone you hate, so he doesn’t want you dating someone he hates.

Your brother wants the family to like whoever he or you bring over for a getting-to-know-you dinner because that is how you keep peace in the house. And remember, brothers know what other guys are thinking about you. So if your brother makes it plain he disapproves of your current beau it would be wise to send your boyfriend away.

Brothers are good at picking up the pieces, even if they hate that.

If you have just broken up with your boyfriend for any reason, your brother knows that the best way to get you out of that funk is to date someone better. So your brother will let you cry it out of your system then help you put the broken pieces of your life together because that’s what brothers do.

Brothers sometimes meet the best guys through their own girlfriends.

If your brother has a girlfriend your brother probably knows a lot of other guys that are friends with his girl. Without you knowing it, your brother probably has someone lined up for you to date already (with his approval).

Brothers have to answer to Mom and Dad if you wind up with the wrong guy.

Yep, there is a higher power – two of them actually, and one is named Mom and the other is named Dad. If you have never heard your parents tell your brother to watch over you, that’s because that’s a common secret between your brother and your parents. If somehow your brother fails to guide or protect you, that means World War III will break out at home.

Now that you know why brothers are the best advisors for health relationships, you can freely go on dating other men – just be sure your brother knows about it first. Brothers like that.

The Mental Shoplifter

The Mental Shoplifter

This morning I woke up and my two other in-body friends also woke up, albeit grumbling for another five minutes of snooze. But I had to wake up because…I am hungry. And now here I am taking my sweet time getting dressed because I know…that the refrigerator is empty which spells trouble for me right now.

Georgie is saying “well, so what’s for breakfast?” And again I take my sweet time replying because I don’t want her to remember that the refrigerator is only full of mold and spilled grape juice that I was too lazy and groggy to clean up last night. Happy then pipes up “I’m sure it’s pancakes” and I want to strangle her because there is nothing worse than a perennial optimist in denial of reality. Then my tummy rumbles as I put on my shirt and pants. Georgie and Happy rub our tummy as I try to make up my mind what to do.

“There’s no food, is there?” whispers Georgie as I face the mirror to comb my hair. Again I refuse to answer. Reality sucks but it sucks more when you have an audience staring at you from the mirror, accusing me of being a negligent in-body buddy. I can feel Happy sighing in the background.
“What are we going to do? I’m really hungry now” says Georgie raising her voice.

“You know what we have to do” I reply, trying not to raise my voice in return. I then ask myself if this is what normal people feel like after they’ve been rendered jobless for two weeks and are tired from going from office to office and interview after interview. I also ask myself if other people have to contend with eating for three even if you’re not pregnant. I finish combing my hair and stare at my hungry although still healthy looking reflection. Man, I look good! But let’s see what I look like after another week like this.

“I’m okay with stealing food you know” says Happy in her cheerful pre-adolescent voice. “I mean, it’s better than having hunger pangs. And I’m not okay with begging so you can throw that idea out with the trash”. I wince at the word “stealing”. Yep, I’m definitely not okay with this. But I have no choice because…I’m broke. And I’m not going to my friends and relatives to ask for food and money…because I’m pretty sure I’ll not only get humiliated but they will readily show me the front door and lock it after I leave.
“What about you, Georgie?” I ask my reflection. “I vote we beg.”

“Annie, we don’t really have a choice do we?” Georgie snaps back. “But if I had my way, we’d go through the garbage to see what we can scrounge around for.”

“Great” I reply. “Happy wants to steal, I want to beg, and you want to go through other people’s garbage to find leftovers. Not much of a consensus is it?”

I sit on the bed again and sigh. Ever since I was fired from work, my life has not been easy. I suppose I should be glad the landlord hasn’t come by asking for the rent yet. Being independent is not all it is hyped up to be – meaning I want to strangle Mary Tyler Moore with her crocheted cap right now. Or maybe the person I really want to strangle is myself, for not being marketable enough to employers.
“If you hadn’t talked back to your boss, we wouldn’t be in this mess” hisses Georgie. “You had a great thing going for you and you had to mess it up.” I stare at the floor. “Why is it so hard for you to do something as simple as accepting reality?”

“If you mean dodging taxes forever, yes I do have a problem with that” I reply. “It’s wrong not to pay taxes”.

“Your doctor dodges his taxes. Why shouldn’t you?” asks Happy. My blood pressure is rising but then I remind myself that Happy is only an adolescent and not the same age as Georgie and me. Georgie however is getting angrier.
“All this is doing is making me feel hungrier! Let’s go do as Happy says and steal something from the grocery” snaps Georgie.

“A minute ago you wanted to go through the dumpster. Why the change?” I ask.

“We might get food poisoning if we eat food from the trash, that’s what happened” she replies. “Besides, you don’t have health insurance anymore. If we get sick, how would we pay for the emergency treatment?” Good point, I think and Georgie laughs sarcastically. “Some partner you are” she drawls.

Well, I’m tired of the argument and finally give up. “Alright, Happy wins. It’s two against me. So which supermarket are we going to target this time?”

Happy gives a loud hoot of triumph and we dance around the room, until we realize that we’re using up valuable blood sugar and could come down with hypoglycemia at any point. Happy thinks for a moment then suggests “Hmm. Why not Tony’s Grocery Store on the next block?”

We head to Tony’s, not running, just jiving down the street as if we were healthy with full stomachs, as if we were normal people in three different bodies instead of just one person arguing constantly with two alter egos inside her head. The advantage with going to Tony’s is that I don’t usually shop there, not even when I had a steady paycheck on 15/30. The disadvantage with going to Tony’s is that I might run into someone I know. But a growling stomach cannot be ignored, especially with two other people to complain about it when it goes unfilled.

“Good morning!” says the young man behind the counter as we come in. Great, I think, busted as soon as we cross the threshold. I smile back at him with my best I’m-not-thinking-of-robbing-you smile. Happy giggles. Georgie sighs in disgust. “Can I help you?”

“Oh I’m good.” I say cheerfully. “I just want to shop around if that’s okay?” I thank whoever is in charge of my life up there that my teeth are perfect and still white, and my smile hasn’t drooped yet despite malnutrition. He smiles back unsuspectingly.

“Sure!” he says. “Go and see what you like. We’ve got plenty to choose from.” So we do. I’m torn between heading to the processed food section as Happy suggested (because she really wants pancakes) and the health drinks section (because Georgie is a health nut aside from being such a prude). I grumble beneath my breath and force myself to go to the bread section. Happy and Georgie break out in a cacophony of yelling, almost making me knock over some canned tomatoes stacked in the aisle.

“Will you two shut up? I’m trying to steal here” I whisper. Happy starts to cry, as all adolescents do when they run out of arguments or simply want to get their way. Georgie laughs. “We’ll get to what you want later. Just shut up so I can think.”

I glance at the young man behind the counter again and he seems to be reading the morning paper, occasionally looking my way. “Damn, my cover is blown.” We’ll never be able to get a box of pancakes, a can of Gatorade, and a loaf of bread this way. I ponder what to do. Then I have a great idea.

“Okay, you two shut up now. I’m going to fake it” I say inside my head. I then fall to the floor, violently knocking over god knows what all over the place. Happy screams in surprise and even Georgie is stunned into silence. I moan and keep my eyes closed. I can then hear the young man’s steps hurriedly coming nearer and I have to fight back a smile.

“Hey! Are you alright?” he says anxiously. I open my eyes and pretend to be disoriented. He takes off his hoodie jacket, rolls it into a ball and places it under my head. “Are you sick?” he asks again.

“Ooohhhh” I moan. “I feel so bad.”

“What’s wrong? Did you faint?” he asks.

“I guess I must be hungrier than I thought” I say wearily. Actually, I’m not faking all of this because I can feel the onset of hypoglycemia already. But I make it seem worse than it is because I really have to make this work to get what we want.

“You haven’t had anything to eat this morning?” the young man asks.

“I wasn’t really thinking of eating anything. But I guess my body really needs its sugar right now”. I moan again, milking the drama for what it’s worth. The young man places a hand on my forehead.

“You don’t seem feverish. Maybe you’re just really hungry” he says.

“I guess so” I say. Then I try to get to my feet but he makes me lie down again.

“Lie still. I’m going to get something.” He goes to the counter and gets some doughnuts from the display case. He comes back and helps me to a sitting position. “What you need is a big surge of sugar. Here, have a doughnut.”

I badly want to smile but I know if I get out of character that he’ll be on to my act. I chew on the doughnut slowly even though what I really want to do is snatch all three doughnuts from his hands and wolf them down, even without coffee to kill the sweetness. He watches me eat all three doughnuts slowly, the look of concern never leaving his face.

“Do you feel okay now?” he asks.

“Um yeah. How much do I owe you for the doughnuts?” I pretend to reach for a non-existent wallet in my hoodie.
He waves away my offer to pay. “You don’t owe me anything. Glad to help. I just hope you’re okay enough to get home?”

I pretend to smile weakly. “I’m okay now. Thanks so much for your help.”

He stays behind the counter but I know that he is watching me even from there, as I walk out the doors of Tony’s. I keep up the slow walk until we are well out of sight then I burst out laughing. Happy whimpers.

“I wanted pancakes” she says simpering.

Georgie laughs sarcastically. “Great, so we got three doughnuts in our belly. Too bad we can’t repeat the same trick twice, in the same place”.

We walk home now, our walk powered by the sugar of three doughnuts. It’s enough for one morning but somehow all three of us know that there is still lunch and dinner to scrounge around for in a few hours. I pace ourselves so that we don’t use up the sugar rush right away.

“I still say we should have gone through the trash this morning” snarls Georgie, as expected.

“Well, if you like we can go through Tony’s dumpster later.” That shuts her up.

I wonder how long this kind of existence will last. Especially since I’m eating for three.

THE MISTAKE OF THE SNAKE IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN

THE MISTAKE OF THE SNAKE IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN

The grievous error of the devil when he seduced Eve in the Garden of Eden is that he thought and Eve thought that God is not on the job 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In a way, the soul of the devil was actually crying out for relief from his loneliness. So subconsciously he wanted to get caught. This is why the devil always tries to corrupt us throughout the history of mankind – being alone in your own loneliness is the most cruel punishment that God can deal out and ironically also the kindest because there is no violence involved.

This is why the Devil becomes violent and loves it when humans become violent. He cannot understand why God refuses to be violent towards him because subconsciously the devil wants to be destroyed. Because he can no longer stand on his own without God’s support. This is why the devil is KSP. He is actually saying to God “You were supposed to destroy me when I sinned. Why did you not end my misery?” God did not destroy the devil because God is a kind God and understands the devil and the devil’s motivation which is loneliness.

But God also understands the need for a penalty that the devil has to live with because that is the natural order of things = for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction = justice.

God had to lock out the devil from God’s presence and also lock out Adam and Eve from God’s presence because forgiving them would have upset the natural order of things and would have been unjust to the rest of Creation that does what God wills.

However, God is not a cruel God. He said “If you are not going to behave yourself, you get a time out until you come to your senses by yourself”. It is like making your disobedient child stand or sit facing the corner of the room as punishment. So the devil, Adam and Eve got a time out from God’s presence.

But because the devil, Adam and Eve refused to acknowledge their sin, this “time out” punishment extended for centuries, even millennia. They refused to acknowledge their sin which was assuming that the devil and man can know everything about the universe. This is a lie, a heresy and just what Eve and her husband Adam were subconsciously looking for. So they got what they wanted – the devil got his companions to accompany him through his lonely walk through time (meaning evil humans), Eve got her wish to be superior over men and especially over God, and Adam got his wish to delegate his responsibilities (of making wise decisions) to a woman (because Adam was weak psychologically).

So there really was no tragedy of the Garden of Eden because these three (the devil, Adam and Eve) got what they set out to get. All three of them set out to make God look incompetent but subconsciously wanted to get caught in this sin so they could also prove that God is competent.
God knew that this would happen because God knows and can control past, present and future time. But he knew that human development is based on free will. God was saying and is saying that “It’s time to grow up my children and learn to think for yourselves. This is my gift to you – the freedom to determine your own future by yourself.” This is the ultimate kindness a father can show to his beloved children.

So Adam and Eve refused to acknowledge their sin and got a time out to think about what they had done. And the devil became even more illogical, insane and lonely because he really wants to end his life rather than persist living away from the benevolence of God.

The lesson here is that time is a frightening fact of life. We all must return to the Creator at the end of our life and at the end of time. God will then ask us “So my child, what did you learn from your exile on Earth? Do you realize now the sin of your parents Adam and Eve?”

God is a loving God but he is also a just God. We humans cannot exist without acknowledging our sin because God can never be evil like us. God is saying “You need to become pure, just as I am pure, then you can live in my house without messy illogical problems”. We need to learn our lesson from these years of exile on Earth – that God is good, loves us, and wants to reconcile with us.

Jesus is the key to this because he and Our Father in Heaven talked about it. Jesus said and is still saying “Father, I feel sorry for humans because they really have no understanding of their sin starting with Adam and Eve. Can’t we do something?” And Father God replied “Yes they don’t understand what the sin of the devil, Adam and Eve was. What do you think we should do, my Son?” And Jesus replied “I will go to Earth and teach them because I love them and want them with us.”

Our sin is assuming that God is stupid and we are smarter than Him in every way. This is why the world is in chaos. Jesus showed that through his life, death and resurrection that God is wise, knows everything, and is not arrogant because he has self confidence therefore the Son of God (Jesus) is also wise, all knowing and humble about it.
God wants sane, humble and intelligent children. He could always just decide to create sane, humble and intelligent children from scratch. But God really loves us and wants us to learn our lesson so we can be forgiven. So our example for this is Jesus Christ. He was, is and will be obedient to God and was rewarded for it with his resurrection from the dead.

We are not gods nor do we know everything. True wisdom starts when you admit you don’t know everything. This is also the start of reconciliation with God. This is why it is so hard to remove our sin by ourselves because we really don’t know or have forgotten what our sin was in the first place.
Jesus understood our sin = the motivation (weakness of character), the action (deliberately doing something forbidden by God), and the consequences (being shut out by God from His presence forever). But He also knows and is teaching us that there is still a bit of time to say sorry to God. And it all begins with admitting you don’t know everything.

THE TRAGEDY OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH

THE TRAGEDY OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH

In the beginning, the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah were godly people. You could even call them children of light – and this led to their downfall.

You see, they thought that the light came from them – that they had created the light, owned the light and could dictate how the light would behave. This is the same sin of Lucifer and this is why Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed.
The light is a blessing from God. It is supposed to help us guide our way as we remove the darkness in society. That is the true nature of our souls.

The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was thinking that light can coexist with the dark. This is the lie of Lucifer. He says “I am an angel of light and I can coexist happily with the darkness – and so can you. My way is a happy way and you too will be very happy following my pure way.”

Why do people fall for it? For some, they truly love the perversion and they cling to it like a lonely man clings to prostitutes. For others, they want to experiment out of curiosity. For others, they are frightened of the real perverts so they go along with the ride.

This then is the tragedy of Sodom and Gomorrah – they were actually destined for greatness. But since they thought that they could control the light and mix with the darkness at the same time, Lucifer was able to make the situation a lasting one. So the perversion spread throughout Sodom and Gomorrah this way.

The cruelty of the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah is that they were not satisfied corrupting themselves. Their lunacy was such that they wanted to have sex all the time, thereby spreading their gospel of “try-anything sex”. That is why It had to be destroyed. It was symbolic of God’s desire to destroy the evil one.

However, God did not want to destroy them, in the same way God actually wants to give Lucifer a second chance of regaining a normal relationship with God. But because they were stubborn, arrogant and harmful to the innocent, God realized that there was no hope of repentance anymore. God also feared these perversions would spread to the innocent. So He had no choice but to obliterate the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah to protect the children – because the devil really hates everyone and really hates innocent children.

Hate cannot coexist with love. Children who are innocent spark a wild illogical anger in the devil because secretly the devil wants to be saved. Children who are illogical hate children who are innocent because innocent children love God automatically. The devil actually loves God and recognizes God’s superiority and authority.

However, the hate overpowers the love because of pride. The sexual perverts want to get caught because their souls cry out for help. But the darkness (the sexual perversions) cannot logically coexist with innocence. So the perverts are actually lunatics.

This is why sexual perverts eventually became psychotic. Their minds can absorb that the darkness can coexist with the light because God is good even to the evil ones.
However, the souls of the sexual perverts are crying out to be killed because their souls cannot stand separation from God who is The True Light. This leads to a spiral of lunacy so the city of Sodom and Gomorrah was actually a dead society already. When you are insane, you cannot think straight so you cannot hold down a job or perform well in school.

God is about logic and order so his blessing is expertise in multiple professions. When you become a sexual pervert you prevent yourself from receiving that gift of multiple expertise. So the society of Sodom and Gomorrah was actually on the verge of economic collapse because the perverts could not hold down a job and earn a decent living. Violent crime is only a system of a society dominated by perverts = financial bankruptcy.

God is not a violent God therefore violence cannot mix with peace. So God wanted to make sure the innocent, particularly the children, would not be corrupted spiritually. So that God’s true children would not be devoured by the society of perverts that was on the verge of economic collapse anyway.

This is why repeatedly God says in the Bible: “Come out of her my people”. Sodom and Gomorrah was and is a prostitute who spreads his/her legs for any man but especially for the perverts. Once you sample a prostitute you want more because there is no love, only hate. So sexual perversion is not psychologically fulfilling. It leaves you wanting more sex because what your soul really desires is true love.

There was no way anymore for Sodom and Gomorrah to be saved. God had to make a choice between waiting for the sexual perverts [to confess their sin, seek repentance and become angels again] and protecting the innocent, especially the children.

So the devil was able to destroy a whole community by claiming that he does not love God. This played into the hands of the rebellious children who were in love with sexual perversion and want to say “fuck you God”.
This kind of misdemeanor led to the destruction of even the innocent residents. Most of the innocent residents were killed because they lacked the courage to destroy the sexual perversion. These innocent residents were fence sitters and remained neutral. So God also had to destroy the fence sitters because they did not do their obligation of protecting the innocent, particularly the children.

The fence sitters thought that by ignoring the hurt done to the innocent children that they [the fence sitters] were absolved of all sin. But they knew about the hurt done to the innocent and chose to do nothing. But their soul told them to do something which they suppressed. So in the final analysis, not stopping evil is also a perversion.

In the end, everyone from that community lost big time because not only did they kill innocent tourists and visitors to their city but they killed their own souls.

This is the victory of the evil one – preventing the innocent from becoming mature, loving, caring, responsible adults. So that is why the devil is after the children.

Free will is the key. You make a choice then you stand by it. Sodom and Gomorrah made its choice and was destroyed by God, including the fence sitters who lacked the courage to be loyal to God.

For this reason, the Holy Spirit was sent to us. Our society in the Philippines is now Sodom and Gomorrah. It is on the verge of collapse. The devil’s lie is that this is the normal way to go. This is why many Filipinos are going insane.
The Holy Spirit is speaking to the souls of everyone, including the evil ones. Because God wants to restore the community of perverts to their rightful place as children of God. But this is hard to do if you’re a pervert who likes perversion anyway.

So God cannot coexist with evil because God is all good. The devil wants the children as trophies because he hates them so much. God is a protector and provider while the devil offers false salvation and false ownership of light.
So don’t be gullible, listen to your soul. This will lead you to prosperity and a truly happy life. Because only God can create life and ensure happiness because God is a happy God. The devil is all of hate and lies and will never return to God despite his love for God. It’s lunacy.

God in his Mercy had to destroy the whole of Sodom and Gomorrah as “mercy killing” to relieve the souls of the perverts of their suffering. Once the body has given up the soul, the soul is free of the perversion and is free to love God again in a pure way. Our solace today is that the sexual perverts destroyed by fire by God now have free souls, relieved of their suffering and chastised. These souls that repented are now united with God. So they found peace.

THE TRAGEDY OF CAIN AND ABEL

THE TRAGEDY OF CAIN AND ABEL

The tragedy of Cain and Abel was the loss of Cain’s natural birthright as the elder brother and the firstborn son of Adam and Eve. In God’s natural order of things, the eldest male child is supposed to receive the birthright from both his father and his mother because he has the right to dictate the future of the entire family. This right is dependent on the concern and care that an elder brother has to have for the future of his siblings. Why male? Because this concern and care extends up to death meaning if anyone will threaten the very life and survival of the siblings, it is the responsibility and obligation of the eldest male child to kill (yes, kill) anyone who threatens the life and survival of his siblings. That is important in God’s way for the survival of the family.

Cain did not recognize his responsibility and obligation towards his parents and thus had no care and concern for his sibling Abel. Cain was selfish, careless with his birthright, and literally pissed it away by becoming envious of Abel’s innocent, obedient and dutiful offerings to God. God wants cheerful givers, people who are willing to serve God by prioritizing God first. Obedience to God is the first step to prosperity and thus Abel was blessed with more fruits from his harvests by God, leading Abel to give more offerings to God without hesitation. Cain on the other hand did not want to give God everything he had so he was selfish with his offerings to God. He only gave offerings because he would have been scolded by his parents if he didn’t make the offerings from the harvest. Grudging gifts are actually no gift at all. So God said “Cain does not want to offer what I gave him to me therefore I will not give him anything anymore”. And that increased Cain’s rage because he believed he was entitled to everything without the duties that God demands from a true servant of God. Cain was irresponsible.

So Cain thought to himself “if I kill Abel, God will no longer see his offerings and will only see mine. That way, no one can compare to my offerings and I will still be the best child in the family. Then the birthright will pass to me without any competition.” Cain considered Abel his competition rather than his sibling so he killed Abel so he would have no one to compete with. The problem was, he also rejected his duty as the firstborn son to take care of his sibling so that countered with the natural order of God’s creation. You cannot care for your siblings and kill them at the same time. It is a tragedy because Cain actually had the leadership capabilities to become a great leader of his family if he had only recognized one fact – he was actually competing with his own soul. So he killed Abel then realized “oh shit! What did I just do?” So he tried to hide from his sin.

The problem is, he spilled blood on the soil and nature never counters what God has intended it to do. So the very earth cried out against the destruction of the natural order of things and that is how God knew what Cain and the devil had done. And God was enraged but he also understood what happened. That is why he didn’t kill Cain outright (and also why God has not killed the devil yet even though he can do that in a second’s worth of time). He knew that Cain knew his sin and that Cain’s own soul was crying out to be found out, scolded, punished then forgiven. Cain’s own soul wanted to return to God but Cain fought his soul and thus became insane. So in the end, Cain actually condemned himself to wander around looking for his natural place in society and in the world, because he lost his birthright as the firstborn son. And looking for his family that he had betrayed. But God knew that other people who do follow the natural order of God’s way in the earth would kill Cain for his sin because Cain’s soul was crying out to be killed. Cain’s soul knew that there was no way to go back and reverse what he had done and Cain was so stubborn that he refused to acknowledge his soul’s misery. So it would have been a mercy to kill Cain and end the suffering already.

But God also wanted Cain to realize his sin. So he told Cain that he would put a mark on Cain so that other Godly people would not kill him. Cain wound up a zombie – alive physically but not knowing where in society and in God’s green earth he belonged. He also knew that by not apologizing for the murder that he had lost his birthright as God’s son. So he was a zombie. To console himself for this half-life, he married a woman hoping that this would bring comfort and subconsciously bring back his role as the head of the family. He was craving for his birthright as the firstborn son but knew it was gone forever.

This tactic of marrying a woman didn’t work though because all Godly people knew what Cain had done because of the mark put on him by God. So he would never be able to fit in with normal people who are not murderers. So in effect, Cain lost friendship with everyone – with God, with his friends, with his parents, and of course, with his brother.

The lesson here is that God does want us to be his friends even though technically we are just dust in the world and not worthy to be God’s friends. But if we persist in going against God’s natural way of doing things, and refuse to apologize for our sins, and accept our penance, we will have psychological landmarks and landmarks in our souls that will tell Godly people who we really are. Godly people will shun us and people who reject God become criminals and insane psychotics.

The penalty here is that time is always the common denominator between God’s people and with criminally insane people. So God’s people are always ready to go back to the Creator with a clear conscience and with joy because we have done what God intends us to do. We know our purpose here on Earth and that is our sole consolation because the riches of this world and the desires of the flesh are foolish and temporary and empty. Those who become criminally insane are people who reject God completely yet their souls are crying out to be discovered, for their sins to be analysed for themselves, and to be forgiven by God. They become insane and criminals because they cannot accept that they are wrong and that they need to say sorry for their sins, and of course to accept their penance to be disciplined by God. But time always ends for each of us. So the tragedy and penalty is that criminally insane sinners cannot accept time because it means being lonely, alone, and afraid of the afterlife.

This is why criminals often pack together to join forces = loneliness. Because the most frightening thing in the world is to commit a sin then to know that you know your sin and that God knows your sin. When you go to sleep at night, your soul cries out against you and you become uncertain and uncomfortable in your own skin. So to assuage this loneliness, we have sinners who will get other sinners to join them. But this is tragedy too because in the end we all die alone, even when surrounded by our allies.

So make up your mind now if you will confess your sin or not. Because tomorrow might never come and you can die at any point. Then you have to face your soul who will condemn you before God. And God will have to make you suffer eternal death because your eternal soul requires justice. The End.

Thursday, October 2, 2014

My Next Steps in My Career

I guess this really means that I'll be leaving the Philippines, possibly for good, after I earn my BA English degree. So my focus over the next two years is to get really good grades in BA English so that I graduate with honors from UP Diliman. I hope that job in Wisconsin is still available because Bambi says it is easier to get into the US as a migrant if I have an American company or employer to sponsor my migration papers.

I don't see a future for me here in the Philippines. There is nothing much really I could do here in the Philippines as a writer unless I join a broadsheet or a tabloid. Cazoomi is okay for the next few years but maybe they are not my final employer. I don't know...I am floating...I don't know what else to say...except that Manila is so hard to live in and I really couldn't live here for the long term as a self supporting professional.

I don't know so much about migration...it's really a vague idea at this point....but Bambi says it would be good for me to move to the US, away from the madhouse that is Manila. She says life would be better for me in the US because it is so convenient there. It would have been cool if Bambi stayed in the US permanently so I'd have a close friend to visit there but I guess she has to go home to Manila also after her assignment is done. Cy is in Indiana so that's pretty far. And Eydie I have no idea about.

There's really nothing left to say about it until I've consulted Doc Bolet and my siblings. So that's it for now.