After receiving the property tax card with the assessed value for our house, I tried to reach out to our township tax assessor Beverly Johns, by email. Didn't think I would get response given the township office track record, but she did email back today, as her office hours are Wednesdays 4pm-6pm. And she was very helpful in answering my quick questions, in order to learn about all this as a beginner. It's interesting how she said if I file a tax appeal (appealing the assessed value - such as finding another house that's less value than mine) she's going to win more likely. Interesting because of course she's going to win since she's the one I'm learning all these from LOL.
Anyway, she's going to scan a copy of this to me but here's the summary:
House bought at $335k. Assessed value is 263,400, and the ratio is 64.05 (per last revaluation which was in 2004-2005). She said that though the calculation for the market value of the house is 263,400 divided by ratio 64.05 = 4,112 => $4112k, the real price could actually be higher around $600k.
2:15PM water started with booster pressure at 65psi from driveway water source to Costco 27Gal storage tote. So far so good, TDS from source reads from
RODI system IN red line (after two canisters: 5 Micron Purtrex Sediment Filter & BRS 5 Micron VOC Carbon Block, and membrane, respectively) is 11-12ppm OUT is 0ppm (after 3rd canister = Color Changing DI Resin). Water waste is at 440ppm (black line). Garden hose water is at 320ppm, while kitchen faucet cold water is at 340ppm.
at 5:39PM about half tank filled. So it's about 13.5Gal/3:24hr, thus, about 4 Gal/hr.
This is just my theory, so I'll put it in reflection.
Do we look at only the success rate of someone's track record? Say, if we are to hire them, or partner with them in businesses. Or how important is his failure in history?
If you have talent, all kinds of people would love to come partner with you left and right. Trustworthiness is also a kind of talent. Many of them would assume that you are the one being evaluated while they are above evaluation themselves. They may even find it shocking if you even attempt to evaluate them back.
But then how do you judge them? First, I would think that someone who's failed much in life (and also aware of, admitted his shortcomings) and learned much from it is all that matters. But if he has never achieved as much as he failed, that tells me that he's probably just good for failing.
Then we look back at those who's track records are only successes. Unlike others, my first impression is not Wow, that's impressive! But more cynical instead: Of course he's successful, he's rich, he's living the American dream, he never have to go through trials, never knew what hardship is like. Rarely would I think that he just got it without the experience of failures. Nevertheless, I'm not that closeminded. Only that such virtually flawless character is rare and more likely would not care about being my friend anyway, seeing that I may be his first downfall rather than being brought up by him. So this metric, let's just sleep on it for now.
There's certainly no need to befriend those who have neither: failure nor success. For they are cowards in life. Unlike how others would perceive them, I actually see these as worse than those who always fail in life. Those who fail fail because at least they attempted something. These however, do nothing, Jesus even condemned these as flatterers and what they have already have would even be forfeited. One ought to run away from these and there are plenty of such around us, recognizing them may not be straight forward.
Consequently, there's only one option left for me, if I cannot find the perfect friend, that is to befriend someone who's failure and success are equal and respectively great. And I should also strive for success greatly, boldly, so that the kind of friend I am, is also the kind whose failure and success are great equally as well!
To join more than 1 360 videos together and still export as a single but 360 video, Insta360 Studio is not going to be able to accomplish that. For that, and for free, you will need the DaVinci Resolve and a special plugin called KartaVR. I also learn that DaVinci Resolve 19.1.2+ will require you to purchase ($300!) it's full studio version just to use the Karta plugin. So I downgraded my to version 18. Good thing their official website support page still allow downloads of previous versions, but I'm backing up DaVinci Resolve 18 just in case, as well as the Reactor-Installer Reactor 3 for KartaVerse. If I have time, I'll try to figure out the highest version that supports the plugin for free.
Then, we just need to apply the kartaverse effects to the 360 video. The video can then be keyframed from the KartaVR controls in the Inspector section. These are the best tutorials for it I've found on Youtube:
#1. How to get KartaVR plugin and do keyframes in Davinci Resolve (note: resulting video is not 360, for that, check out video #2):
#2: Making a equirectangular-panoramic video 360 by injector: Spatial Media Metadata Injector.
After getting the KartaVR plugin, the rest of #1 can be ignored, if the goal is to export 360 videos and not preframed video from a 360. The injector also works for images. equirectangular-panoramic media source comes from Insta360 Studio's export.
So to recap, to produce 360 videos, Insta360 Studio can only export single 360 videos/images in standard format (mp4/jpg), or equirectangular-panoramic (equirect-pano) format. To merge multiple 360 media files into a single 360 video export, the Studio cannot do this (yet), so that's where Davinci Resolve (version 18, because the later version restricted this feature for paying customers) comes in. Using the KartaVR plugin, Davinci Resolve is able to read the source as 360 media properly and thus able to combine multiple media files into one single equirect-pano media (by switching off the KartaVR effect after applying the plugin to the files).
Now, this saves me tons of time exporting 360 to Youtube, because I can just be lazy and export a single raw file, instead of doing any special video editing, if all I care is more storage than presentation.
The Imposter Syndrome is one I realized early on to be a failure but somehow many commit to it. If you don't know, just ask, even if it maybe a stupid or elementary question. Also, don't be afraid to be laughed at, it's going to be their loss, not yours. Don't be afraid of being misunderstood either, if they like to misunderstand you, then your reputation is not worth them beholding anyway.
2/20/2025Latest on Migraine treatment and understanding. Gepants are the latest known effective medication.
Hebrews 4:1 What many preachers who emphasize too much on grace fail. Stephen Tong's "either too fast (Charismatics focus on fast number); or too slow (not doing our part to the fullest of what is given by God), are both sinful" I would say our pastor's message often times, because of overly focus on grace, fail in the latter: "nothing to worry about, God has already saved you, leave everything to God, in fact, your sins won't even be judged in heaven" was the gist of his message. Not that he is advocating for unaccountability, but it seems that he's quite vague about it when it comes to it, falling to the fundamentalist's legalism: i.e. head covering, etc. instead.
2/19/2025 Came across this video about a Taoist called Zhongli Quan, 钟离权. But I couldn't match the story told here on google. So I asked in the comment and was given this response: Me: Great story. Where did you find this story? Wikipedia on 李铁拐 / 钟离权 doesn't relate to this story LOL LearnChineseNow: In English Eva Wong wrote many books on Taoist stories. If you want the really old stories, you need to go to the source texts, like《夷坚志》
So I downloaded some fragments of 《夷坚志》by 洪迈. Also downloaded "Record of the Listener: Selected Stories from Hong Mai's Yijian Zhi", for English version.
2/18/2025Websites capable of taking screenshots of your screens.
The basics of making Web Extensions, by Hui Jing Chen.
The trendy song 아파트 Apt. by Rose (New Zealand/South Korean singer) & Bruno Mars is everywhere in kids' instagram. It's popular like many modern songs in going through their fad, due to their catchy words, such as A-Pa-Teu = Apartment in Korean, Opa Gangnam Style, etc.
2/16/2025 Sun Sunday School on William Gurnall's The Christian In Complete Armor. I think Nadia mistaken the pastor's beginning prayer "Father...teach us, challenge us..." as the pastor's admission to pray for challenges. Though I could be wrong and Nadia could be right, I think what the pastor meant was just challenge us with questions in discussions, not challenges/sufferings of life which is the will of God (1 Peter 4:19) which I have always find it hard for folks in this church including the pastor to accept.
The pastor asked why is it impossible to walk away from the Bible feeling neutral about it. This is a vague question, though I think his point was the imperative message of God's word. He just asked a bad question for that. His English should be good, the reason of this fail is perhaps as Nadia puts it, fear of the people, or I would also say the inability to handle paradoxes. Thus, the answers everyone tried to give weren't to his satisfaction. i.e. Patty's response from Jeremiah 23:29 "Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?" Tom's "you mean believer vs. unbeliever?"
It's interesting he gave the Quran some credit a few times. It's good, but it begs the question why doesn't he point out that the only two sacred texts claiming to have divine origin/authorship are the Bible and the Quran (discounting the Book of Mormon, of course, because it's more descriptive than serious prescription).
I think a good term to use would have been that the Bible is the LIVING word of God, rather than using the term "supernatural", which is vague and possibly shallow in the understatement sense.
@6:50 Patty always came up with great questions. Here she asked what does it mean "Word of God, OT? NT? etc." This would have been a great time to tackle against the Pentecostal's belief that the Holy Spirit supersedes the Bible. And pointing to the difference between General vs. Special revelations, something the Baptists are very weak in despite knowing the terminologies, so no surprise here when this is not communicated during the Sunday School. This is why I stressed the importance of church history, you going to have to touch on how the Bible comes to be, what Rome did with the Apocryphal, etc. I think the pastor's beginning to see the importance of church history. @8:15 Phil also alluded to apostles in Pentecostal churches today.
@20:30 The pastor asked a great question to challenge for similarities and differences between the Bible and other sources. Sadly, those who responded only heard "differences". It's also interesting that their only comparison is Western moral sources of morality. They know nothing about the East, which is where religions come from. Again, the talk circles around the inability to distinguish general vs. special revelations.
@24:30 The pastor's example about parents mapping out their children's life path to graduate from ivy league universities as legalism, is what I would rather call materialism. It will take more revelation to call something deeper legalistic.
@32:30 The pastor's view of Rome's primary motive for not having the Bible translated was because of having control or power, is not accurate, though that's not off the table. Rome's best defense of this would be interpretation of the Scripture runs wild, should everyone have access to it.
Of course, at this point, it begs the question, why didn't I say anything. My best response to this would be: They love to talk, I let them talk.
Came across interesting Youtube video by 阿冉, on the theory of how incest was a norm in Latin America world due to the disruption of colonial rape, in spite of the heavy Catholic influence. This is interesting because due to racial distinction today, incest is culturally frown upon, to a point one would wonder why the Bible would even care to put a bar against it. However, the further back we go in history, the lesser racial distinction there is (my theory), thus, the more it was the situation that is similar to the incest due to colonial rape, 阿冉's theory: Father seeing mixed blood daughter or white brother seeing the mixed blood sister not as the same family. The fact that Catholicism was accepted widely in Latin America was due to the hatred against the European "preachers" [colonizers], while the Gospel message was reached (the locals compared their sufferings to the Cross), but it was ironically convenient for them to see their conquerors as the forces of Satan. This video can be controversial between left & right wings, so to properly understand this, obviously, I would need the best source from both sides of the aisle.
阿冉's incest theory breaks into 3 categories:
The rape of own daughters resulted from the rape of local women by the colonizers - The yellow suffered as Christ against the white devil.
The separation of different kinds of mixed blood (more white vs. more yellow) due to colonial resource (Cuban sugar, etc.) management (more white looking siblings are looked higher upon, given higher social status), resulting in more white looking brothers sleeping with more yellow looking sisters - White vs. Yellow Catholics.
This point really doesn't have much ground as he's trying to metaphorically equate St. Mary with their motherland after taking back their land from the colonizers, rebelling against St. Mary's virtue and changing the ways of colonial use of their local resources to something more devastating for immoral gain, thus, as if raping their "mother"-land.
2/12/2025To build one's own AI LLM. A brief overview from someone's own experience.
WebAssembly (WASM) vs. Virtual Machine & Containers.
2/11/2025 Came across this Presbycast Podcast episode "Pastoring in DC, Planting Differently w/Rev. Brian Lee", at @45:20, when prompted the question how a pastor should respond who he voted for, the host, Brad, I presume, said "Jesus, I voted for Jesus". Though it may have come out as a tongue in cheek, this response is so wrong in so many levels. I'll sum it in two main points:
Jesus does not need our vote: All Christians obviously should know this already. Even a fake Christian would know this. So this is very bad as a testimony to non-Christians. A mar in the distinction between creator-creature relation, a shallowness in the Kingdom of Heaven understanding, a failed understanding of the cultural mandate, leaning towards the false doctrine of Christomonism, if not SOLO (not SOLA) scriptura also, etc.
You're not answering the question. To a Christian, this is a sort of avoidance of the truth out of low IQ (foolishness, not seeking understanding), or fear of men. Hence, no difference from the Chief Hinderer of the truth himself, Satan.
Stroop Test - Psychological test using different font colors that are not matching to the words of the colors. Studies show that bilinguals are better at this test than single language native speakers. I'm doing this LinkedIn Learning course just to get a certification for NYGC's PD training.
UX Designers Salariesfor 2025 by countries, states, taxes, etc. A good direction to look for jobs in the field. Perhaps with the right combination, I can get it from a high salary paying state while hacking the taxes from somewhere else.
China's at it again with AI - ByteDance's OmniHuman-1 turns photos into videos with audio, such as this Einstein video. To compete with China, I think America really need to get rid of this nonsense about intellectual property and find a new direction:
ByteDance, the company behind TikTok has just announced OmniHuman-1, a revolutionary video model.
With just one image & an audio track it can generate hyper-realistic human videos, seamlessly adapting to any aspect ratio or body shape.
2/10/2025 "This form is not secure. Autofill has been turned off" this recent (past few weeks) warning message pops up in my custom page search fields in Chrome. Upon search submission, I had to go through an intermission page telling me about the insecurity of the search again. Strangely my Surface Laptop does not show this problem. The fix is as easy as changing http to https in the Form Action.
Aquariums dilemma: We will so be gone for three weeks in Malaysia in April, and though I successfully set autofeeders for both the 55 gal marine aquarium as well as the fresh water mini tank (Betta fish) for the last 2 week Eurotrip, I now have more than just one betta fish in the freshwater tank and some concern with water flow (with constant algae bloom and blockade) for the salt water tank. I believe I just turned off the filter circulation for the salt water tank for two weeks to prevent any unforeseen spilling. Hopefully, I can get the algae down by then and still able to maintain some circulation of the filtration/sump tank. I saw the marine tank low on water today so I added two buckets of water from the dehumidifier, so let's see how long this actually will last before critical dehydration. I should be getting the 4 Stage RO/DI system by next week from BRS.
2/9/2025 I asked the pastor if he watches the Super Bowl, he said yes. I was wrong about him. I guess the Super Bowl really is the norm of Americans. I just told everyone the only thing I like about SB is their commercials.
I think I looked it up before, Basile means King. In Revelation 19:16, King of Kings - βασιλευς βασιλεωνtells me that our pastor's full name could be translated as The bearer of Christ the King.
To my surprise, Bob asked me what I do with the laptop during service. Not many people ask and I sometimes would think the worst, that they imagined I was browsing something completely unrelated. Rudy also interrupted by asking me to show him, since I told him before, the drawing-notation I took during the sermon. Revelation is a fun book to make drawings for, Bob called mine "shorthand notation". But I was happy to show Bob the German origin hymn (by Samuel Rodigast in 1675: Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan) I was looking up that was mentioned in the sermon: Whatever My God Ordains Is Right. It's in our hymnal #108 and I tried playing it at home later. As long as the church allows, this laptop thing is very precious for me to really get more relevant matters out of God's providence. I no longer feel sleepy in church services. I wish I know how to influence Nadia in attention.
From my Facebook Archive downloaded from Facebook (nice download tool they have in settings) May 18, 2024 9:29:00 pm @[100038736394235:2048:David Walker] Here's what we can understand "Israel" [or being a Jew] to be, and they can sometimes be mutually exclusive, sometimes not, but do note "sometimes MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE":
1. God's people, God's children, God's elect.
2. The Church (Deu 9:10, etc.)
3. Jesus (and the foreshadow of...Exo 4:22, Hos 11:1, etc.)
4. The 1948 geographical land of Israel and her citizens.
5. Folks around the world who think they are of Jewish descents either with concrete PROOF or WITHOUT, matrilineally or patrilineally.
6. Folks who were gentiles ( = not Jewish) converted to Judaism, and maybe the descendents of those non-Jews who converted to Judaism.
7. The "colony" called Israel under the rule of the Roman Empire
8. The Babylonian exiles who were largely from Judah, Southern Israel kingdom, but not really the Northern Israel kingdom, returning to the land of Israel.
9. The Northern Israel kingdom, after the split of North and South after King Solomon, so not really the Southern Israel Kingdom/Judah.
10. The land of Israel and her people after the Canaanites in OT, both northern and southern tribes.
11. Jacob's descendants
12. Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham
13. Hebrews (more than be talked/debated about on the origin or etymology of the word "Hebrews, so I'll stop here, to avoid getting off track) You can probably list more, but this is the gist of it. So it's not as simple as you think in the definition of "Israel".
