Closure of NYC Schools

Due to budget cuts, the city has been closing schools and laying off teachers. Now more are being cut.

Bronx 3

Brooklyn 2

Queens, Manhattan 1 each

Staten Island 0.

Bronx has most school closures. My window is getting closer.

Staten Island probably has lots of rich folks.

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Ruo Yi Jiang

When I came across that name after viewing the 2011 17 year old winner on cancer treatment prize, I was shocked.

He went to my former church at Stony Brook, once a while. Baptized there. I regret we were so into the Stony Brook childish fellowship that we didn't provide much for the likes of him. I regretted even back then, when he was eager to come to Sunday School and we didn't do much about that either.

Though I am proud reading this.

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Live view of West Wall Jerusalem

It is a way to look at the other side of the world, live stream, without travel.

The prayer wall of Jerusalem...see how they go and pray. Live!

http://english.thekotel.org/cameras.asp

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The Effect of Ameristians

Its influence is not only in North America, but global.

Ameristians, today's American Christianity.

One major problem is they consider white-lie not a sin, because white-lies to them, is politeness, thus not a sin. Or as if there will be a time when one has to sin and by choosing the 'lesser' sin, one has not sinned.

This is the kind of perversion I've been shooting at with bloodthirsty temptation.

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Christmas Lights repair

It is apparently common to have those strings of christmas lights malfunction (not turning on) after a short time (like one usage).

While the two common suspects are light bulbs (just need to replace the burnt ones) and fuses (the two fuses located at the male plug - push the very inconspicuous cover outward to reveal the fuses inside), my case at NYGC was the fuses.

The burnt fuse is darker. They threw out 5 strings of lights, and each string has one fuse blown, which I suspect is a normal thing, so I could 'fix' only 2 strings. By taking out the working fuses from the other 2 strings to replace the burnt fuses of these 2 strings. Leaving those 2 strings with 1 burnt fuse each and the 5th string with 1 burnt and 1 working fuse.

All thanks to this site for the How-To. Now all I need is to go buy those other fuses (125V fuse 3A Max.).

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For French Horn

To study some horn pieces, Richard Strauss has plenty. A youtube search could easily bring up a few.

Of course, there's also the fun Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 2 in E Flat major, 3rd movement.

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The Stupid and the Clever Dilemma

It is only used to filter out the false flatterers, not for encouraging anti-social behavior.

Adulatio: Wah, you are so clever!!!

Callidus: Nah, you're just more stupid!

Adulatio: Wah! you so sombong eh?

Callidus: You were offended? shows that you weren't sincere.

Adulatio: Not sincere? How do you know?

Callidus: If you deemed me clever, that could only mean that you are less clever than me. And if I know how stupid I am, then that means you are admitting you are stupider. So really, it is not pride, but quite the opposite. And if you were smarter than I, then by calling me clever, it is obvious that you were patronizing me by that kind of tone, which I would not consider for now, for it is more evil.

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Lockpicking

I thought I had lost the skill of lock picking ever since my family old Mazda car has been sold.

I purchased a Southord lockpicking set years ago, but never really got to know how to use it.

I was asked by one client to open a locked drawer recently, which motivated me to re-kindle that old lock-picking spirit.

After watching Youtube videos, particularly the ones on double sided waffer locks, I've finally managed to crack the case.

With double sided  locks, you just need to gosok both gigi while holding the tension wrench with a moderate (not too strong) force (counter-clockwise to unlock in my case).

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Best Narator for the Bible in English and Chinese

Thus far, other than James Earl Jones' voice (but he only did New Testament), Steven B. Stevens has my favorite voice in the market for reading the Bible in English.

Chinese,  it is from 漢語聖經公會.

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Not all homeless men are greedy

An Arizona homeless man returned $3,300 ending up with $10,000 after media spotlight.

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