Meditation on Karmic Influence

 

Meditation on Karmic Influence

By Marcus Levis

2019-06-04

The definition of something such as Karma is officially lost on the average person living in the 21^st century except those who happen to practice faiths and spiritualities in which it is incorporated (Wicca, Paganism, Hinduism ect.). I am of the belief that Karma affects more of the day to day lives of all of us now then it ever has. I hear a lot of people use this term in my day to day with a lot of them not really having a deep understanding of how it truly affects them. Karma is all over the place and exists constantly. Karma is dished out or awarded based not just on our actions, but the intentions behind them and how severe we mean those intentions. I could do something nice for someone, but if I am thinking in my head how much of an ungrateful asshole they are, and that they should be lucky that I am even helping them at all, this will negate any positive karmic value.

Karma is of course awarded in a score. This is something that I will touch on later in a separate piece of work, since it is quite complex, but for now I will focus on the level of influence Karma plays in all our lives. It is in every thought, every action and every emotion. Karma itself does not take a physical form, but it persists in a way that is easily manipulated by the universe. In that way, and that way alone can Karma always be with us.

We must watch the way that we speak as it can be in the harshness of our language. We must watch the way that we think because it can exist between our thoughts and we must watch the deepest feelings of our souls as it can manifest itself even in there, and in there it will and can cause the most damage. It can even exist n our dreams though that one is up for debate, but there are a few points to be merited for that.

We must not fear Karmic recompense, as if we do, the negative repayment for our actions will be far worse off in the end and the positive repayment will be less so to the point where we may not even believe in ever doing good things for the old adage “no good deed goes unpunished” is only true in this sense. One is never truly punished, only delayed the desired gratification.

Karma’s positives and negatives will show themselves at different times. The positive payouts will be not immediate, but always done with your best interest in mind. The negative payouts will always come when it would most inconvenience you as that is part of why they are negative payouts. The universe does not like owing anyone and will always return itself to a neutral state as best possible. If a deed is done with such an amount of positivity that the universe could not pay out all at once, then it will trickle out over a long period of time, but one day it will neutral out, same goes for something negative, though that tends to then come with many later in life obstacles.

Karma is a huge influence and its reign should never be questioned as it cannot be stopped even if few tried. It is here to stay and this is how I believe that it exists even more than ever today in the 21^st century!

Marcus Levis (Age 23)

Camp NaNoWriMo April 2022 - Preparation

 Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! Today I want to talk a little bit about the preparation that I have had underway for Camp NaNoWriMo April 2022! This is going to be my first one, and I want to try to explain the camp as best I can and then talk about what exactly I have done to prepare for it.

NaNoWriMo is the National Novel Writing Month and it takes place in November of every year. The organization NaNoWriMo runs that event on their website and really it is all about getting yourself into writing and it is all about honour system, self-reporting. The main event in November is to start a brand new piece of work (usually) and starting from scratch, try to write 50,000 words in the month which usually averages out to about 1,667 words per day. 

They also run these smaller "Camps" twice a year in April and July where you can work on any project and even prepare yourself for the larger event in November. 

For me what this turns into is me working on 2101 and preparing for April 2022 Camp NaNoWriMo by putting an additional 10-15k words into my book in order to have the story already well started for when the month starts. I am also trying to add 50,000 words into the book by the end of April 2022. This will in my opinion really get the book on the way towards being completed. Somewhere between 60-70k words should be where I find myself after the month is over and it will be one hell of a nice effort.

By the time I get to July 2022, I think I would either want to work on the same project and get it right to the end by August 2022, or if I can manage to finish the book before July 2022 camp, then I can work on another project that I have waiting in the winds. 

Just thought I would let everyone know what the process has been like and I have now finished the first three chapters of the book which really helps to create the world of 2101. I will talk more about that book in a future entry soon!

See you all tomorrow!

My Two Books - A Walkthrough

 Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! Today, as per what I stated yesterday, I want to talk about the books that I wrote back in 2019 and self-published around this time in 2020. I was really in my Philosophical groove back then, and of course I will find it again in the future, but I wanted to share these with you and of course I will be creating a page with more information as to where to find them and purchase them.

The Anti-Judgementalism Handbook (2020)

So, I am just going to call this one AJH since that is much better than writing out the entire name of the book. This is my entrance into the Philosophical field. AJH isn't very long, but I think it hit on all of the right points when having the conversation about why it is that we judge each other in society instead of living and letting others do the same.

I spent quite a bit of time writing this book over the course of many overnight shifts while working in halfway houses and it felt good to feel that I was able to concretely get at least one idea set together and completed! I can only wish for the same thing when it comes to my future projects

This book is available on Amazon Kindle and Apple Books, since in the case of this type of material I want to limit tree waste, I wanted my Philosophical material to be published digitally only. 

2019 Meditations (2020)

The companion piece to AJH above is the 2019 Meditations. These are a series of essays that I wrote as warm up pieces and many of those essays will eventually become available on this site as well since on Apple Books I was able to make the book FREE OF CHARGE! That was my plan with Amazon, but it had to be made $0.99 since that is the lowest they would let me go. 

The collection of essays were on a wide range of topics and I kept a running tally of all of the future ideas for warm up essays. I think I will get back to this style eventually, and since I have many essays also from 2020 that have not been organized and edited and published I think a 2020 Meditations could be on the way soon? 

This book was also published digitally only on Apple Books and Amazon Kindle.

I can only hope in some way that I may make you curious enough to take a look, these books are rather inexpensive, but give you a start to really think about Philosophy and mainly how I believe that Anti-Humanism is the way forwards towards eventually Post-Humanism and the proper future for us all!

Thank you for reading and see you tomorrow!

A Meditation on the Nature of the Afterlife

 

A Meditation on the Nature of the Afterlife

By Marcus Levis

2019-05-25

I have spoken before on the nature of whether or not it is possible to prove my existence in this life, but now I wish to take that one step further and add to it by talking about what I feel may be the end goal of my purpose here. This is something that I have thought about for a long time, and now that I am truly taking that next step and thinking about and questioning the nature of existence, I am willing to ask these tough questions and do the best I can to answer them for myself. What is my purpose here? Why is it that we have a life, gather as much knowledge as we can, affect as much as we can, and then just die off and poof, all of that knowledge is gone and (according to most people anyways) we then do not return to this same plain of existence, we die and go off somewhere else...somewhere eternal.

I wish to posit a potentially different view.

What if, the knowledge that we gather, actually does go with us to the next life, and that yes, according to what it would look like for those of us living right now, it would be considered the “after-life” because it takes place after this current existence is over. What if instead of it being that, it was preparing us, or even judging us to see if karmically speaking we are worthy of moving on to an existence where everyone is at the very least a good person. Where every person who has been proven worthy and it is not just famous people who have been known all of their lives for making change on a massive scale, but also the common Joe or Jane who was a good person all of their lives will go, and all of those with neutral or negative karma scores will be forced to repeat an existence on this plane, to forget all of their knowledge gained, and do it all over again.

What if this next life that we are all working towards, will have us keep all of our memories and knowledge, and have us then live among the others who have also garnered a positive karmic score. In that life there will then be more trials, different ones in what I will call Second Life (no longer after life, and it will make sense in a minute why I am saying this), we will all be good and pure of heart, but in order to move on from Second Life into Third Life, you must set yourself apart during what may be a longer and more reflection-filled life. To me, it is akin to what all Witches are told about Summerland (Wiccan After-life), it is a warm place, where the weather is always perfect and the setting is the perfect place to reflect on one's life and prepare to make the inevitable return to this plane of exitance. The only difference I feel being the fact that that will be what the next life is, that eventually you will die in that realm and if you have set yourself even further apart from the rest of the crowd (let us say there were 8 Billion people when you died in First Life, and then when you got to Second Life there were only 5 Billion, it is about setting yourself above those who are there and they come from all across human history), then you will be able to move on to Third life, which will have even less people (say 1 Billion) and it will have different challenges and tasks for your longer life there and so on. Prove yourself in Third Life and you can move onto Fourth Life with even fewer people who have set themselves apart from the previous crowd (Say 500 Million) and so on and so forth until eventually there is an end (I am not sure when or where, but there will be one) where you sit among immortals who are talked of only in storybook context back in First Life territory.

This is First Life, and I fully believe that if we were only given the one life to live, we would all be pushed towards experiencing only hedonistic pleasures, so that when we die at the end of this life, we could say we have done stuff before poofing out of existence forever. I do not believe this to be the case. I think this life is set up as a testing grounds (as with the rest of them going up) for the knowledge that we gain in this life, to them use it to help our lives in Second Life if we get to move on to it, if we do not because of some form of karmic imbalance, then when we die we will be reborn unto the same plane of existence in First Life, with the karma bank reset and we will try it again. There is no Heaven or Hell, but a world where the only people who live there are people who have made positive contributions throughout their time in First Life, where there would always be sunny days, green grass and cool breezes. Where there would be no crime and where we could do as we please because the universe would trust us to do so, is that not a comforting thought? Something to drive one to want to do good in this life? For sure it is!

Marcus Levis (Age 23)

The Father of Anti-Humanism - My Philosophy explained in Brief

 Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! About 5 years ago, I really got to thinking about Philosophy on a personal level. I love to think and ponder things and pick ideas apart. I also found that I really do love the wider world of Ethics. This also got me thinking about how in every generation there are new Philosophical theories that come to light and of course I wanted to plant my own flag in the field as well. I will talk more tomorrow about the books that I wrote back in 2019 and how you can get them for yourself, but I just want to take some time to talk today about Anti-Humanism and what it means to me and why this is the form of Philosophy that I am planting my flag into and calling myself the "Father of Anti-Humanistic Theory".

The first thing I feel when it comes to creating anything new, especially when it comes to an idea set like Philosophy generally is, is to find something that you oppose and then to connect yourself to the viewpoint opposite that. In tihs case, to know my enemy; Humanism. Humanism has been around since the renaissance around 1500 AD and due to it being over 500 years old, I do not believe that it makes sense to speak in those terms anymore.

One of the major parts of Anti-Humanism is a belief in working with what we have now. Humanists believe that if we all just hold hands and sign "coomb-by-yah" that all of a sudden all of the world's problems will go away and we will be harmonious into the future. That is of course bullshit since there are so many inequalities that exist in the world today and life is just too complicated to boil it down to a single fix item that solves roughly 8 Billion people's problems. 

When it comes to Anti-Humanism we work with what we have and meet people where they are at. Morality is a big part of the system, but when it comes to Anti-Humanism there is encouragement for you to find and develop your own moral code and set. There is only one rule that MUST apply if the system is to work, and it comes from the Wiccan Rede "And Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will". This meaning that all of the moral decisions that you make should inherently either effect ONLY you, or be for the betterment of everyone that would be effected. 

Another major part of the system is Accountability. OWN YOUR SHIT! If you did something, you own up to it! That is all there is to it. No pointing fingers, no throwing people under the bus, take your raps and move on! There is no need to draw things out if there is a clear blame to be found with you. The major problem in the world today is everyone feeling that they are not worthy of blame in situations where they clearly are. WE would be better off in society if people owned up to their shit. 

There is a lot more to this, and there is a "manifesto" of sorts in the works, I am working on my first writing project, my novel, then I will get back to Anti-Humanism, but I want to start talking Philosophy here on my brand new site!

Thank you for your time! See you all tomorrow

Ps. Logo above is the logo I created to represent the Anti-Humanist movement! The energy and passion comes from within to improve ourselves and society...remember that. 
 

The Only One (2017)

 

The Only One

By Marcus Levis

2017-03-23

            It is really hard being the only one

            The only one who will listen

            The only one who understands

            The only one who is always there

            The only one who cares.

 

            It is really hard to be the rock

            It is really hard to be the ONLY shoulder to cry on

            It is really hard to be the one to take all of the abuse

            It is really hard to be the one still hanging on and still caring

            It is really hard to not feel like I have done enough.

 

            Not showing emotions

            Not thinking others to be relevant to my pain

            Not letting others in because they will not understand

            Not wanting to be hurt…again

            Not wanting to burden others.

 

            It is hard to be the only one who gives

            The only one not taking

            The modest one

            The Happy-go-lucky one

            The talkative one

            The only one who cares...

            But that one no one cares about.

            The one wanting personal space but needing to talk

            The one having trouble but being told to “SUCK IT UP”

            The one feeling like the one getting tuned out

            The one feeling different…inside and out

            Being The only one.

 

            The one having a tough time but can’t talk about it

            The one no one approaches, but expects the world from in return

            The one everyone ignores

            The one that is deemed as CRAZY, an OUTCAST, a LOON

            The only one.

 

            Being the only one viewing the world in a different light

            Like an observer of human behavior

            Like an “other”

            Like someone who doesn’t fit in

            Like a “non-human”.

            But that is okay…I have embraced that

            Because it is all that I have in this world

            Is me

 

            The only one.

Freelance Writing Begins!

 Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! I wanted to take a quick moment to shout out the launch of my Fiverr Profile! Over the course of the week ahead I will be taking time every day to look into how I can make it in this Freelancing, Gig-Economy and I am more than ready to get there! I will also be updating the blog to have the information for my account available on it, but for right now, if you are interested in taking a look https://www.fiverr.com/markythewriter?public_mode=true this is the link to the profile!

I will be doing a much more In-depth run down of the services that I offer, and linking that information to the home page of this blog as soon as I have figured everything out! 

Wish me luck and check it out if you have time!

One Month till 26 - A Look back on being 25

 Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! One thing that always hits me around this time of year is the one month countdown to my birthday. April 27th is now just under a month away and I wanted to take some time to look back on and reflect on what the last year has brought me and what things I want to look forwards to once I have turned 26 at the end of April.

Starting the story back at the end of April 2021 I of course turned 25 and that in my mind was kind of a big occasion. No longer on the early half of my 20s anymore, I am now in the upper echelon of years heading towards 30. I just feel you can be taken more seriously in life when you are 25 and over since you are not usually new to life's challenges at that point. 

When I turned 25 I was working a job that I rather liked, but due to the pandemic it had been hard to make the money I needed to survive and unfortunately that lead to a small mental breakdown on my part at the end of May and into June 2021. The stress of not knowing if I was going to make enough money to even buy groceries was an apparent issue for me. This lead me to start applying to full-time jobs as of mid-June and finally snagging one at the very end of July to start near the end of August. 

At the very beginning with my first ever Full-Time job things seemed to work out perfectly! My coworkers were lovely (and still are) and the fact that I was finally working a consistent job with consistent shifts really just worked out for me...the only problem was, I was not used to working Full Time and it was slowly chipping away at me, having to be ON 24/7 when at work and always at 110% energy output really started to wear thin starting in late October 2021. By December 2021 I was dying for the Winter holidays that were to come and even took an extra week off during the winter holidays.

I am not a fan of Winter anymore...the cold sucks and I want as little of it in my life as possible. I did my best to get through January and February of 2022 and start the year off on a positive note, but things just were not meant to be in that way. The cold weather, mixed with the stress of the job got to me and I just had to leave. Age 25 has been an age of trying to figure things out and try to go in the natural direction, but it not being what I am best suited for.

This bring us to now, March 2022 (well late-March 2022) and now I have just begun my Freelance Writing career (which I will talk about in the next post very soon) and I will be looking to try to get that off the ground as soon as possible in order to start getting some money in, help people and just have that freedom to work anywhere at anytime and control my working life for the first time in my life. I realize that is what I really want and would love for 26 year old me to kick it up a notch and make it at least a consistent living (not looking to make millions here, just enough).

25 you have been interesting, higher highs than the last few years here at the end, and some of the lowest lows I have ever experienced in my life, but we survived and I am stronger for it. 26 you will kill it, I know you will!

Thank you for reading everyone and see you in the next one!  

My earliest Writings - A Conversation

 Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! Today I just wanted to start a conversation about some of my earliest writing ventures. I know for me that I have been interested in some sort of writing since about the 4th grade which would be around 2005 for me. 

My earliest writing project that I can recall was some sort of medieval story that I remember starting out writing by hand in little school notebooks and even my teachers thought it was quite good. I worked quite hard on this around that time and ended up giving it to one of my teachers in the 5th grade to look over in mid 2006 and aparently she lost it and only came across it again about 3 years later when I started the eighth grade in fall of 2009 she came to me to hand me back the notebook with her notes in it and unfortunately, that one project was all of my momentum at the time and of course I was a child so my attention got pulled away to other things, but eventually I got back into writing again in early 2013.

I started an idea for an Historical Fiction series (that may one day be written) and I have tried since then to try to write it, but of course school, work and life got in the way of it all and that is something that was unfortunately a theme, but this time I think I am finally able to get into the writing game when there is not much more time to be able to do it..as per some new things that are coming in the week ahead. 

I will talk about it then!

Let me know if you have ever gotten into writing! Tell me about some of your earliest writing ventures in the comments! 

How can I be aware of you when you don't exist? (2019)

 

How can I be aware of you when you don’t exist?

By Marcus Levis

2019-05-18

How exactly can I be aware of you when I am almost completely sure that you do not exist? So far as I know it, the only person whose existence I can prove is mine own. I know that I exist, and even if I go back so far as to use the quintessential piece that is supposed to determine my existence from Rene Descartes “I think, therefore I am”, I know for damn sure that I am thinking, but if this is to be believed, how exactly can I prove that you exist? Where exactly do you appear on the spectrum of existence? I cannot prove that you are thinking. How exactly can I prove that you are even alive and legitimately in front of me at this very moment? How can I not think that this existence is but a simulation (I do not generally ascribe to the simulation theory, but for this point it makes a lot of sense), and how am I to truly know that I cannot wake up at any time and be back with those I have always known in the realm unreachable by those living.

I know I am alive, I have a pulse, I breathe, as I type these words out, I can hear the tippity, tappaty of my fingers on the keyboard and I can hear the sweet sounds of Antonio Vivaldi playing through the speakers on my iPhone 6s. I am hyper aware of the feeling of the keys as I am pressing them to spell out the words on screen, and I can smell the sweetness of my heavy-creamed coffee sitting on the table and taste its oh, so sweetness with every sip. How exactly can all of this, all of these sensations come to pass and come to exist, but that I cannot still be sure whether the other person in the room, or the other people I meet on a daily basis, or even those closest to me, actually exist.

They say that only those who truly question the nature of existence itself are truly to move on to become philosophers, or at least join the ranks of the greats. Well, then if this is the true measuring stick, I have been ready to join the ranks of the greats since I was 13 because this is a theory that I have talked about in one form or another since it came to me during the summer of 2010. I have told many people this and it seems to make sense to a lot of people. I know I am alive, but how exactly can we prove that all others around us are truly alive as well. Sure, when I touch you, I know that you are there, I feel the warmth of your skin, I can hear your breath and even smell it too. When I kiss someone, I can taste them, I can hear them when they speak, and all of these things you would think would more than satisfy the curiosity and check off all of the boxes on the checklist for “definitely alive” but it does not. Sure, I can say based on all of the sensational data my senses get that your body is in fact there in front of me, if you hit me or throw something at me, I am going to feel that pain, but here is where I will reverse it...if I throw something at you...I will not feel the pain, guilt maybe, since we are naturally programmed to feel such emotions when we do something “wrong”, but I feel none of the physical pain that you experience, thus in a small sense bringing back the question from off the top; how do I even know that you exist?

I certainly do not have the answer as of yet, if I did, I would gladly share it, but this is a question that has been on my mind for over a decade now. I know that I am not even close to an answer, but this is for sure worth exploring in more detail in the times to come.

Marcus Levis (Age 23)

My Early Essays - A Conversation

 Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! Today I want to shift gears from the awesome entry from yesterday and talk about some of my earliest essays, many of them will be ending up on this blog, and they are of course Philosophical in nature and they start to outline my many Philosophical theories that I have used to build my personal belief system. Today I will posting the first of those. 

The Philosophies that I post from pre-2019 (of which I think there are only 2 that I can find) are not a part of this larger set of essays that I wrote in 2019 and 2020. I will also soon get back to the essay writing game here in 2022 in order to again keep the mind fresh and warm just before writing. Those essays served much the same purpose that typing here on the blog on a daily basis does, it helped me to warm up my fingers and mind for the process ahead when it comes to writing. 

I am curious though, if there are other writers who are following me, or others who write as a hobby, what is your warm up? Or are you just the kind of person who starts writing as soon as you have an idea, no warm up necessary? Let me know in the comments!

I will see you all tomorrow for another post!  

My Top 5 Books in 2022

 Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! Today I wanted to talk about my Top 5 Books here in 2021. Admittedly, due to things going on in my personal life, I have not had a lot of time for reading up until now, and I certainly plan on getting back to it, but I wanted to take time today to talk about the 5 best books I have read in my roughly 26 years on this Earth so far! Let's dive into it!

#5 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

I know that quite a few people will not necessarily agree with this (especially after some of the terrible things the author has said), but when you grow up a Potter head and have been reading the books and watching the movies since you were a small child there is no way that this leaves you.

I love this series to death, I disagree with the transphobic remarks made by the author, but that does not lessen the impact of this book series on my childhood. It was the perfect, low-fantasy escape and of course I did spend quite a bit of time as a child waiting for my letter to Hogwarts to come as did so many other people I knew. 

Specific to the 2nd book in the series, the first book sets the tone, but is a little light on the character building and action that the 2nd book has. It takes on so many different genres all within the same book; Fantasy, mystery, murder mystery, action and it just grips you all throughout and it is not the longest book you will ever ready either so that is of course another fantastic bonus for those of us without a hell of a lot of time for reading,

#4 - Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese 

This is a book that I did not read, but listened to on Audible. It is the story of a young Indigenous boy going through life in the residential school system in Canada where it shows in quite a few degrees the horrors of the residential school system which unfortunately I did not know all that much about.

I was engrossed by the story and the late Richard Wagamese did a fantastic job capturing Saul Indian Horse's journey. I do warn those that who want to read this that this book is not one that you read to feel good, but to just feel. You feel for the character when he experiences racism and discrimination as well as a few of the more positive moments when he is doing well playing hockey, but remember the book is about highlighting the fact that he was taken from his family at a young age and FORCED to attend catholic school in order to "beat the Indian out of the child" which was the unfortunate belief by those running these horrific schools. 

#3 - The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

This one may come as a cliche pick to some people, but it was honestly the first EVER of the books that we were forced to read in school that I liked. The story of Holden Caulfield, even though he is kind of nothing more than a whiny little 14 year old, does set the stage for something really real. A feeling or set of emotions that most of us are maybe still working through when we get around to reading this book; growing up.

Holden of course being 14 and growing up in the 1940s during the war seems a little more adult than maybe what we would have envisioned other 14 year olds or even when looking back on ourselves at that age. The thing about this book that really got me was looking at the cover (seen in this image on the left) the carousel...it does not even come into play until the very end of the book when Holden takes his sister to the park to ride on it and he sees her (age 10) having the time of her life riding the thing. \

The big piece of this book is two-fold in my opinion; do not be in a rush to grow up, because you are going to not matter what so enjoy whatever moment in life you happen to live in now because it will change in the future without your consent, and secondly, cherish any moments of happiness that you can because those will be important in those darker moments of your life as inspiration to pull you out of any funk.

#2 - The Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind

I love fantasy books and this is the beginning of one of the best fantasy series that I have to believe has ever been written. The Sword of Truth series written by the late Terry Goodkind (who passed in 2020 without any cause of death released) is by far one of the best, long running fantasy series of the past 30-40 years. This series began with The Wizard's First Rule, a book I have read 3 or 4 times in my life and a perfect set piece for the events to follow.

Now, I have yet to read the entire series as of yet, but this is a goal of mine to finish. There are always so many books to read that over the years I start this series and then drifted off to other things, but the fantasy and magic in this series (which predates the number 5 entry on this list) is engrossing and it is the current read for me in order to progress through the series. Richard and Kahlan come alive in the book and their adventures through the boundary and eventually into the Midlands and D'Hara were fantastic and I loved it.

RIP Terry Goodkind (1948-2020)

#1 - 1984 by George Orwell

This one is my most recent read and honestly I do not think there could be any doubt as to it taking the number one spot since this book influenced me wanting to write what can essentially boil down to a modern love letter to this book.

Written in 1949 and the last book that Orwell would write before his death in 1950 was certainly a masterpiece. This is dystopian fiction at its best. Set in the futuristic year of 1984 (which was 35 years in the future when the book was being written) "The Party" rules over the country that the main character Winston Smith resides in (its England despite it not being called that) and The Party also controls everything and is everywhere in people's lives. This is one of those books that really will make you stop and put it down a few times when reading it and just think. It really did that for me!

It is a blown up exaggeration of what a post-WWII soviet communist society would look like (according to Orwell) and due to the time the author was living in I can certainly see his views. This does as of right now rank as my number 1 book of all time!

Next year in 2023 I will want to rank all of the books that I have read in 2022 (so far that is 0 haha!) and so I will talk more about that when the time comes!

Hope you all enjoyed this and maybe you are going to seek one of thee out now? That would be pretty awesome!

See you all tomorrow for another post! 

Fair Weather Friends (2014)

 Preface

This was one of the first pieces of anything remotely "Philosophical" that I wrote back in 12th grade and I thought it would be interesting to share it here. It is rudimentary at best, but I think it still applies in some ways. I hope you enjoy!

### Fair-weather Friends (June 15th, 2014)

The one thing that I personally feel that people do not need in their everyday lives, are fair-weather friends. These are those people who stick around you for the good times only, and at the first sign of either trouble (money, job loss, breakups etc.) or mental issues (depression, anorexia/bulimia, PTSD etc.) they fly the coop as quickly as they can, because they don't want to deal with you, and help you through anything, mostly, because they never truly cared.

The things most wrong with the ideology of people who are only fair-weather friends, is the lack of caring and often times the lack of giving back to their friends is an issue. Its either always excuses as to why they will not give back, or they just will leave at the first sight of needing them for more than they bargained for (which I'm telling you, isn't much).

When we are looking on the surface for the signs of who may or may not be a fair-weather friend, we are looking at a few key aspects; attitude, loyalty and egoism/narcissism.

The attitude portion, is mainly that their attitude towards you is very, very passive, they either will not get huffy or too hot and bothered by you because they feel that you treat them well, or they are always on your case, but never want to help you with anything at all, and in both cases, they will flee at the first sign of trouble.

Looking at the loyalty perspective, they are either fiercely loyal (until something bad happens) or their loyalty is based on whether or not you are in good times or not, these kinds of people will pop in and out of your life, through only the good and not the bad, hence the term "fair-weather friends".

Now examining the egoism/narcissism portion, you will very much come to see that this kind of an individual is very much either all about themselves (or others like them) or needing to be the center of attention/glory hog. Being the center of attention naturally is great and a great feeling, but these kinds of people will naturally go out of their way, to be the center of attention and it is so pitiful the lengths they will go.

What are the problems that having fair-weather friends can bring into your life? Well it can for certainly bring upon loyalty issues with people, wondering whether one day to the next your "real friends" will be there for you or not, or whether they will abandon you just like your fair-weather friends have. This kind of thing can be torturous on a person's mind and way of life. Going from having the positive support of say 8 people to finding out that really only 3 or 4 of the people would really be there to help you.

## Marcus Levis' Scale of Friendship

This scale has 5 levels on it, and each will be explained:

Positive Acquaintance: These people are people who are in and out of your life, but you really do not have much bad to say about them.

Fair-weather Friend: The friend that is only around you for the good times and flees when there is any sign of trouble, as they do not really care highly about you.

Friend: Someone who has been in your life constantly for a period of 6+ Months and has been a positive force in your mind.

Best Friend: Someone who has been in your life for 3+ years and has been an extremely positive force and is very much willing to help you in dire times of need.

Ultimate Friend: Someone you know and trust (and may have some degree of either love or respect for), who has been in your life for 8+ years or longer and would help you through anything at the drop of a hat (pretty much) and the only thing they really want in return for assisting you, is your friendship, and to know that in the same situation, you would do the same.

There are of course the many types of friends that a person can have, but I am mainly focusing on the concept of fair-weather ones.

Fair-weather friends can really bring a person down, because as was previously mentioned...they give one a very false venire of trust and companionship that just sours the mood when you find out that it is fake.

In closing, I would like to simply give advise, as cruel as it may seem, test the loyalty of your friends, but only do it in either dire situations or in minor situations where you will need help, to try and learn who cares...and who doesn't.

Marcus Caydon Levis Age 18

Trying to get into Writing Habits

 Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog. Today I just want to start a short conversation about how it is that I am trying to get into the habit of writing every, single day. 

I think one of the first things about getting into a habit is to do it every day and I try to start my day off by getting around to the writing (today being an exception due to something I had going on this morning). I just think that my brain is the freshest when I can get it rolling right away...coffee, breakfast and writing. That way as well, especially when I am writing for myself, it does not get in the way of the rest of the day if I knock it out first thing.

The other thing that really helps is making sure that I have everything open that I need for when I am writing. A content calendar, which I have physically written in a journal next to me as a type this, is key so that there is a version of myself in the past that thought out all of the posts that I would make, and then day of, I can warm myself up to writing but typing out a blog post, journal and then eventually work on my novel for a little bit.

All of these things are key, timing, not skipping a day when you do not need to and just simply working your day around whatever you have to do since writing can always be done as well as adhering to a proper sleep schedule and getting some exercise in the process too such as the mid-day walks that I like to grab since at this time of year the best weather is in the middle of the day. That may change in a few months time, but for now this is my March 2022 writing habit building process!

See you all tomorrow!

Pages on this blog - A Walkthrough

 Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! Today I just wanted to write something quick to walk everything through what is currently here on the blog, and potentially what things I am thinking of adding for the future. 

First off of course you have the main page of the blog where you can check the latest and most popular posts on the site. This is also the landing page for the site and where you can also find the navigation bar to head to any of the created pages.

Secondly, there is the "Works of Fiction (2014-Present)" page. This is the place where any of my short stories and one off writings can be found. Whenever a new one is eventually posted on the feed, they will all be linked on that page so that you can read any of them at any time.

Finally, a page that is going to be under development is the "Philosophies" page that will be created today. This page will house links to all of the different Philosophical pieces that I have and will write...starting of course with the ones that I wrote in the past to be posted, then eventually getting around to new ones once I post the best ones from pre-2022. 

Just a quick overview of what exists on the blog here in March 2022 to start things off!

See you all tomorrow!

Touchdown (2015)

It was a bright and sunny morning as the local junior league football teams got out onto the field. The grass was as green as the leaves on the trees and as luscious and soft as a pillow. Today was the opening game of the season for these teams and they were all looking forward to getting a chance to win game, win trophies and make it to the playoffs and eventually win the championship. There were hundreds of young kids out of the fields warming up, but one in particular, who was not.Billy Smith, who with his short blonde hair, crazy green eyes and freckled face, was sitting off under a tree off to the side of the fields. Billy had been a soccer player his entire life, and thus had very little grasp, if not interest in the playing of football. Sadly, since moving to this part of the country, there were no major soccer leagues for him to play in, and he was forced to either play football, baseball (which he doubly hated) or do nothing, and he couldn’t just do nothing when he loved sports so much.

             His parents had always been so supportive of all of Billy’s sports endeavours, and really loved coming out to the games to watch Billy play. They had already bought him all of the proper equipment and paid the fees for him to play at least one season, so he had to play, and he figured he might as well at least give it a try.

            Billy got up from where he was sitting and joined his team on the field for the practise. His team was called the Bears. The Bears had always been a losing team, the same player kept coming back, year after year, and they still kept missing the playoffs by a small margin every single time. He hoped that this year, they could be a successful team. The coach of the team was a grizzled, older man who was always apparently known for working his team hard, and harder when they lost games.

            Today, was the first game of the season for the Bears. They were playing against their rivals the Flames. The Flames were often playoff contenders, and were known for several years, going deep into the playoffs, due to their amazing passing game, blitz plays and running game. The first few quarters of play went just as they knew where going to happen, the Flames got out to an early 7-0 lead on the first drive of the game, and by half they were already up 35-7. The Bears were getting blown out.

            Billy was a wide receiver, meaning that it was up to Billy to catch the balls thrown at him by the Quarter Back (QB). Billy, having played soccer all of his life, had no ability to catch the ball whatsoever and kept dropping the ball when it was thrown to him in the first half, so much so, that the QB never threw to him again in that game.

            It was basically that way for Billy all of the season, even though his team won a fair amount of their games, he could still not catch a ball. His team won 7 out of their 15 games played, and with a 7-8 record, they were one win away from possibly making the playoffs, or one loss away from being knocked out of the running again.

            Well, just like in the first game of the season, they were playing the Flames, and the Flames had been having a disappointing season. They were also 7-8 and if they won, they would go to the playoffs, and if the Bears beat them, they knocked their rivals out of playoff contention.

            This being the last game of the season, this made Billy more determined than ever to complete the goal he set for himself after the first game…catch one pass. Just one pass would elevate his morale and would also make the team believe in him so much more than they already have been. Due to his lack of skills he was benched in a couple of the games this season, and the coach debated benching him for this one, but he didn’t, he let Billy play.

            The first quarter started easy enough, with both teams tying 7-7 and grabbing a touchdown a piece. The second quarter saw two of the major Wide Receivers for the Bears taken out of the game, and two guys (allegedly worse than Billy) brought into the game. The score was 21-7 for the Flames at the half. By the end of the third quarter, they had tied it up at 21-21.

            The 4^th quarter began with an easy field goal for the Flames and they were now leading 24-21. They then went back and forth on two consecutive drives each (not getting a touchdown) and all this time never throwing to Billy. There was now 00:30 on the clock and the Bears had the ball on the opponent 21 yard line, almost in their red zone. This was almost a desperation play for the QB, knowing that his team was about to possibly have another losing season, he decided right then and there, he was going to try…to throw to Billy. The QB hutted the ball back in the shotgun, and waited for Billy to get open, he dodged one tackle and when he saw an opening, he launched the ball into the end zone right at Billy.   

            It was as if time itself, slowed down. You could hear the whooshing of the ball through the air as it travelled. The ball was in a perfect spiral, it could not have been thrown any better than that. As it neared Billy, his determination grew, he pushed aside the defender and dove towards the ball, and instead of it just hitting off of him…he caught it!

            TOUCHDOWN BEARS! Screamed the announcer. As Billy lay on the ground, not wanting to get up for fear that he had failed, even though he was not sure he hear the announcer correctly. Billy eventually got up slowly to see his entire team looking at him from down and coming to run at him and dog pile him to the ground. He had done it! He had won the game for his team! It was the most amazing feeling of elation he had ever felt in his entire life!

            From that moment on, Billy sought to make football his sport of choice. His team went ot the playoffs and won the championship that year. Then when Billy came back the next year, he practised just as hard if not harder than the other guys, to make himself better and make more catches. Billy would go on to play the game of football well into his adult life. 

            The moral of this story? Don’t judge a book by its cover, and if you don’t like something, don’t jip it until you try it, the best way to live life, is to only have opinions on things you either understand completely, or have tried, not ignorance.

1st Writing Project - Revealed

 Hello everyone and Happy Monday and also Happy Spring 2022! 

Yesterday we took a shallow dive into the subject of "The Muse" and now that we have started on this daily blogging journey together you and I, I want to take some time to announce my first writing project that I have begun working on, give you a little background and then maybe...just maybe I can give monthly updates on the project until it is completed. 

I have written a Philosophy book in the past as well as an essay collection (they will eventually be linked to the blog) and we will talk about those at a later time, but this is my first foray into the novel writing department and I wanted to give everyone a little taste as to what the project is...and maybe I can think about giving a sneak peak when the time comes. 

The first book I am writing right now is currently titled 2101 and it is an Orwell-inspired future dystopian novel, where much like in 1984 the world that the main character knows is one that had been taken over by "The Party" and was spreading what could be seen as an exacerbated form of Soviet Communism in the Post-WW2 era, my book is taking some of the similar style of ideas, but of course blowing up many of the modern tropes and looks at what life would be like if Big Data controlled the world through a massive merger during the late 21st century and the state of affairs in a technologically advanced society where everyone is essentially controlled by Big Data to keep their grip on the world holding strong. 

I have finished so far the first chapter of the book and I am currently working on the second chapter, character development and trying to build the world in the present day, as I will be willing to admit here, character development is not my strongest attribute, but I did a lot of history and scene setting in the first chapter that a few people I have read it off too have said it is really good.

Creative people do not often like to toot their own horns for fear of backlash or being made to look vein, but I too think it is rather good, but good because my mind still deeply flows with ideas. I think when you are creating something through a certain level of inspiration, it is only as good as the flow of ideas. Even if it seems at times like the ideas can be random, there is always a way to piece everything together in order to form a story. I have always been someone who enjoys telling my stories and so here we are now, me telling a story that I am completely conceiving of based on the most recent book that I read.

This is the first time in a long time that I honestly feel the ideas flowing, and I really do not want to let that all go to waste just being ideas. I plan to get the book past the 5k word mark today in order to really get the story rolling and help to prepare me for my first Camp NaNoWriMo experience that begins April 1st, 2022. I will be talking about that as we approach the date.

Taking things one day at a time is the best way to live and it is the way that I find my story unfolding. I hope you all have a great day and a great start to Spring 2022 as WINTER IS OVER!

See you all again tomorrow!

What's in a Muse? (Philosophy)

 Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog! I wanted to start a series of conversational posts that can help to encourage people to share, comment and just spread more of the conversation surrounding writing. Today is the first of these topics and moreover it is the first slightly new Philosophical venture for me since 2020, so that is of course fantastic.

First and foremost of course we need to start with a question (you know...in the Socratic way) and that question is "What is a Muse?" before we can figure out what it contains, we must first define it. Miriam-Webster defines Muse as "To become absorbed in thought", "A Source of Inspiration" as well as the classical/historical definition of "The 9 sister goddesses in Greek mythology presiding over the arts and sciences". This of course if just a standard definition, but it is a good starting place to ask ourselves whether or not we agree with the first two listed definitions (one is just about Greek myth which is obviously nothing more than stories)? 

Personally, I view a Muse as a hobby that brings one a sense of belonging and peace of mind. There are always hobbies that anyone can do that are fun or relaxing, but do not bring with it the sense of fulfillment that a muse otherwise would. A muse as well could also be something that you not only enjoy and feel a sense of purpose, but it is also something that you naturally find yourself wanting to learn more about and not tiring or getting board of it easily. You can still pick up and put down your muse as you please, but in a way I feel that a muse just clicks with you as a person and you will know whether or not you have a hobby or a muse on your hand simply by seeing how things just naturally flow when you are "in the zone".

Writing for me is that muse. I really feel in the zone when I get an idea and just go with it (this post for instance), whereas my other large hobby, gaming, is just something fun that I like to do and I do really enjoy it, but it does not give me the same feeling of control over the words on the page and the power of typing away and finally getting your thoughts to come into existence in the world (I am no game developer). That is power and that is a muse, at least in my opinion.

What do you all think? I am curious so let me know in the comments below a few things: what do you find is the true definition of a muse to you and also what, based on your definition is your personal muse? Tell me what you like about your muse as well in the comments down below!

Thank you for reading and see you all tomorrow!

The Flight of the Raven (2014)

 The Flight of the Raven

By Marcus Levis

27/12/2014

It was a night as black as coal and as cold and winters breath, one of the times of day when man, woman and child were holed up nicely inside their homes, all snuggly and warm, while the creatures of the night came out in search of food. The most majestic of these night creatures is the gorgeous raven. The bigger, smarter and often more beautiful cousin to the lowly crow, they are also often a quite lucky sighting. But this night, you were not apt to come across one, as their sleek black feathered bodies and beautiful majestic wings flapped through the night as their beaded eyes searched upon the ground for any significant food source.

The raven flapped its large wings and flew overhead of a large forest, having such good night vision as ravens do, it was rather easy for him to see the ground from up where he flew. From this distance he could see, but a lowly mouse running its way along the ground, it too in search of food maybe, but tonight, it was going to be food.

The raven dove with the perfect grace and precision like a diver on an Olympic diving board, and headed on almost the perfect beeline for the little mouse. Just before he could get to the mouse he heard the cawing of two crows, but he did not alter his course, they were but lesser birds of prey, they would have to let him take his earnings…if he got to it first.

He continued to dive towards the ground with the utmost precision, but before he got there, the crows were already ahead of him, as they were already on the ground to begin with. The raven landed on the ground with grace, and a small puff of dirt went up in the air, cloaking him for a brief moment before falling away and revealing to the crows what was to come.

The raven gave the crows a look of displeasure. I found that food first, spotted it from the skies above you before you had even given it a thought, it is mine by all rights.

The crows began cawing at him in a very bird-like laughter and then gave the raven a look of annoyance. We are tired of all of you ravens laying claim to all of our food, what’s ours IS OURS, we found it and I have it in my claw, IT…IS…MINE!

The raven looked at the crow’s mangled, yellow claw, and clutched in it, was the tiny mouse that the raven was hoping would make a nice dinner, but alas, the crow was trying to make it a rather tough time for the raven to even get so much as a whiff of it. He would have to maybe try something a little more forceful.

 The raven’s look turned menacing.  YOU LISTEN HERE YOU IGNORANT SCUM! You are NOTHING without the assistance of the ravens! You had better give me what I deserve before I take it from you, and leave you for the birds!

The crows gave a bit of a recoil, but then they too put on menacing looks. You ravens think that you are all that huh? Well, we shall see about that!

The crow without the mouse leapt at the raven, and began to claw and snap at the raven’s face. Feathers began to fly all around, black as the night that it was, and a sleek as the wind.

The raven began to fight back with its claws and much larger beak and managed to get the crow’s neck into its mouth and hold it there and hold it tightly, slowly cutting off the air to the crow. The crow was struggling to breathe, and was squirming violently, the raven was struggling to hold on to the crow as it squirmed and wriggled around in its mouth, but eventually the struggling slowed down, and the crow stopped breathing and died in the mouth of the raven.

The corps of the crow flopped out of the raven’s mouth onto the ground, like a child would flop into a bed. The lifeless bird lay on the ground, eyes wide open, as if frozen in peril, and in an endless struggle.

The other crow now had a look of fear in his eyes as he clutched onto the mouse, the mouse wiggled around in the crows clutches, completely helpless from the rather voracious appetite of the raven. The mouse squeaked and attempted to free itself, but inevitably couldn’t.

A loud, booming screech came from the tree above the crow, raven and mouse. It was the grand owl. The crow and raven both recoiled and fell back, the crow released the mouse upon falling to the ground, the mouse scurried off into the night, thankful to be alive. The grand owl flapped his wings and landed with a small thud upon the ground before the three of them. He screeched again in anger. I AM VERY DISSAPPOINTED IN ALL THREE OF YOU! RAVEN! You feel you have an entitlement to everything just because of what you are, and because you are bigger than this crow. You need to GET A GRIP! You are nothing more than any of the other birds!

The raven shook his head and tried to regain his senses, he now realized that he has acted impulsively and was not supposed to have killed that crow, especially over something as small as a mouse.

The grand owl now turned to the crow.  AND YOU! CROW! You need to not get hot-headed and violent just because someone challenges you for something, you have half a brain, so USE IT! Your friend died because of your STUIPIDITY! NOW DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN, MUCH LESS INFRONT OF MY HOME!

The grand owl’s humongous, white wings, flapped the snowy owl up and into the air and off into the night.

The crow and raven looked at each other, with questioning eyes, but also sad eyes. The crow leapt up into the air and was gone in an instance. The raven sat on the ground and thought to himself. He wondered how he could have acted in such a way, and why he lashed out when he was challenged by a bird he viewed his entire life as lesser…it was unimaginable to think he did something like this, but he knew for sure…it would never happen again.

The raven took back into his majestic flight, off towards the rising, golden glow of the sun as dawn is breaking into action. The day has begun, and the night is now over, but what will come of lessons learned? Sometimes it is better off, to let some things go.

Getting into the Blogging Spirit!

 Hello everyone and Happy Friday! 

A friend of mine sent me some information regarding sometihng that I remember only hearing about briefly back in 2020 and it is called NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which is a non-profit site that helps aspiring writers to do a little bit more than just aspire. I think this is really cool and you should all go and give it a check out if you want to get into the writing game a little more seriously! 

https://nanowrimo.org/

Now, onto the main content of the posting after that quick shoutout to NaNoWriMo. This is not the first time that I find myself in the blogging space as I have been in and out of blogging/site building since I was in the 5th grade way back in 2006. Come to understand it now, if I had picked something and been able to stick with it, I would have a 15+ year old blog by now! Oh well, I often find myself drifting in and out of interests over time, but do find myself quite envious (in a good way) of those that find their passions and settle into them. I am actually in the best part of my life right now to commit to a passion and writing is the one that I have always wanted to do.

I do just want to give everyone a little light-hearted walkthrough of my blogging history. None of the sites or things I will be mentioning are available to find anymore because there was either not much on them that deleting them was not that difficult, or it was something that I found as more of a niche and a niche is really only enjoyable (in my opinion) when there are people to share that niche with. 

Early Days: 2006-2013

As a child, I have no idea why (maybe its the Asperger's I do not know for sure), but I was really into Website building and used sites like Weebly (which is much better now than it was in 2006) in order just to mess around and try creating things. I did not have internet access at home back in those early days of pre-2013, so any and all of the website creating had to be done at school and occasionally I was allowed by the teachers in Elementary School to stay inside some recesses to work on my sites. I did occasionally have other kids who would also stay in to watch me do this, no idea why we found it so entertaining but we loved every minute of it. For sure NONE of those sites still exist today and they are tied to an old, rather unprofessional email address that I no longer have (moronkiller@live.com) because....kids and also first emails...I mean I was 11 there was no way to know about the professional ramifications later on, email was deleted around 2012 and I stopped making sites in that way around the same time.

Middle Years: 2013-2016

Now we come to something of course a little more formal as I now have a proper email address and I am now around the age of 17/18, I am on social media now and it is there that I found the next chapter of my online blogging type of journey: Facebook Pages and Groups. I made a Facebook Page in mid-2013 (very niche) and eventually the page itself garnered up to 2500 likes by the end of its active life in 2016, we eventually merged with another similar community page and became sister pages and eventually formed a group with over 500 members and it was very active on a day-to-day basis. I left the page and group in mid-2015 and handed it over to someone I trusted to do whatever she wanted with it, and the page has been dormant and defunct since late 2016 but that whole concept and idea led to the next phase.

Third Phase: 2016-2021

This time I finally got more into actually blogging as we see it today with me finally starting out on Blogger in early 2017 trying my hand at a Philosophy blog (I will talk more about my philosophy on here in the coming weeks and months) and then eventually moved over to WordPress and actually paid for a domain name on a site that I ran about my Philosophy and posted my writings on (it does sadly no longer exist as I gave up on it due to many things that went on for me during the pandemic). It was also a start of blogging about my attempt at doing University in late 2019 that only lasted until early 2020 before I started up again with a different school in early 2021 that did not last longer than a few months. (Let's just say my pandemic time has been as much of a rollercoaster as it has been for you probably).

Writing as a Career Focus: 2022-Present

Now we make it to the present day! I am currently not working as I need a little time to physically recuperate and get things back on track, but I am feeling a lot better these days and I really want to try to make writing out into a career. This site here will serve not just as a place to write in and keep everyone abreast with what I am up to, but also a place to act as a portfolio for my writing skills once, in 3-4 weeks time I have a routine going on here and enough on here that I can use the site to pitch my writing abilities to anyone who might be willing to pay for my services. I really would like to try to make it as a writer, and there are steps that need to come before that I know, but I am finally feeling free enough to give it a try. 

I hope everyone has enjoyed this run through of my blogging history, just as a away to show that writing has really been on the brain all of these past 15 years or so. I am approaching 26 in about 5-6 weeks time and I think if I can make tihs finally stick for me, 11 year old me can rest easy in the past knowing that it actually did all work out.

Final note, I am creating a series of pages starting from today where when you head back to the home page you will be able to see my writings as I have already completed and potentially some new essays ripe for the reading! I hope you all enjoy that!

See you all tomorrow!