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Monday, October 3, 2022

Chase McBride - Laws of Attraction Lyrics

This is my attempt at listening to the lyrics of Chase McBride's song, the Laws of Attraction. I'm not sure how accurate it is but I hope it helps you out.

STANZA
I remember this side in my sheet
And the warmth from your hand pressed on me
And the golden light flickering
Falling in
As we begin

STANZA
And I remember this soft on my skin
And the word synonym
As you pursed your lips
In the month of August
Following
Is just like this

CHORUS
Baby I needed help
Baby I wanted peace
Found someone who's a little like me
Baby you wanted proof
Remember what it's like to lose
Someone who's a little like you

Instrumental

STANZA
And the blur of state lines
And people we know
Bucking on high
On the radio
And we follow the yellow line
On our own time
In the Western night

STANZA
And she said it felt just fine
The laws of attraction
Its the crap shooting night time
The laws of attraction
But it don't last forever
However
They've been pretty good to me

CHORUS
Instrumental

Monday, September 19, 2022

LTO Car Registration Renewal 2022

Here we go again. Left the house at around 9:30 a.m.

Went to the emission testing center to have the car tested and it passed. Paid 500 pesos for the Certificate of Emission Compliance (CEC).

Went to the LTO and bought Certificate of Cover (TPL) insurance for 1,550 pesos. (Again despite the vehicle already being insured with Standard Insurance for 2022 to 2023.)

Gave the stenciler 60 pesos as tip. (Stencilers act as gate keepers. If you don't deal with them, you don't get to fill out the Motor Vehicle Inspection Report (MVIR).

Went to window to submit all the documents.

Waited at the Cashier for the name of the vehicle owner to be called. Paid 1,610 pesos for the Official Receipt (OR). They no longer print out the Certificate of Registration (CR) so make sure you photocopy that to go with your new OR.

In total, paid 3,660 pesos. Finished at around 11:30 a.m. which is a record for the LTO since I've been spending between 3 to 5 hours in past car registration renewals. Hope this helps out newbies in registration.

 


Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Tap Fantasy

As of this writing, I'm really pissed off at this game. I've invested about a month into it, upgrading hero  levels from 1 to level 60, and equipment levels from 1 to as high as 13. And then yesterday, the game decides that the current season is over and you have to start from scratch once again. That means, all hero levels are back to level 1 and all your equipment in inventory is gone.

I've played a lot of RPG's in the past and the reason why this game appealed to me initially was because it reminded me of grinding in Final Fantasy III in order to strengthen your heroes.

But if you lose all the experience and weapons/armor every season, why would you want to redo the whole game? Maybe there's a paid option where you get to retain all the stuff you've worked hard for. But that's no way to retain your audience in my opinion.

So goodbye Tap Fantasy. I'm deleting you from my apps.

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Sudoku Pattern Adjacency

If you have been able to memorize all the patterns I shared in my post about Sudoku Square Patterns, then solving some Sudoku puzzles should be a breeze.

The non-diagonal Sudoku Square Patterns I shared were:

  1.  123
  2.  345
  3.  678
  4.  135
  5.  357
  6.  316 (which I called John 3:16)
  7.  196
  8.  145
  9.  945

In the figure below, I simply drop the Non-Diagonal Pattern (NDP) labels so that it is easier to visualize.

 

Based on the diagram, we can see that a 678 NDP, a 135 NDP, and a 357 NDP will always be in the same row or column. Shifting of rows and columns are possible. So the 678 - 135 - 357 row can switch places with the 145 - 945 - 123 row. The 135 - 316 - 945 column can shift positions with the 357 - 196 - 123 column. The square patterns act like jigsaw pieces in a 3 by 3 jigsaw puzzle. If you can figure out the location of two pieces, then you can pretty much figure out the location of the rest of the pieces.

 

 

Monday, June 13, 2022

Sudoku Square Pattern 945 Horizontal

Another favorite pattern of mine is what I call the 945 Horizontal Pattern or 945 Non-diagonal Pattern. You can see a sample of it below.

 

I usually remember it as 945, 138, 276. And again, you can switch the order of rows or columns. And 945 can be vertical or horizontal. But once you find the 945 sequence in a row or column, then the entire square pattern should hold.

Back to Sudoku Square Patterns


Sudoku Square Pattern 145 Horizontal

Another favorite pattern of mine is what I call the 145 Horizontal Pattern or 145 Non-diagonal Pattern. You can see a sample of it below.

 

I usually remember it as 145, 298, 673. And again, you can switch the order of rows or columns. And 145 can be vertical or horizontal. But once you find the 145 sequence in a row or column, then the entire square pattern should hold.

Back to Sudoku Square Patterns


Sudoku Square Pattern 196 Horizontal

Another favorite pattern of mine is what I call the 196 Horizontal Pattern or 196 Non-diagonal Pattern. You can see a sample of it below.


I usually remember it as 196, 832, 745. And again, you can switch the order of rows or columns. And 196 can be vertical or horizontal. But once you find the 196 sequence in a row or column, then the entire square pattern should hold.

Back to Sudoku Square Patterns


Saturday, June 11, 2022

Sudoku Square Patterns 316 Horizontal

Another favorite pattern of mine is what I call the 316 Horizontal Pattern or 316 Non-diagonal Pattern. As a Christian, the verse John 3:16 is very memorable for me since I memorized it in Sunday School. The verse states:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

You can see a sample of the pattern below.


I usually remember it as 316, 489, 752. And again, you can switch the order of rows or columns. And 316 can be vertical or horizontal. But once you find the 316 sequence in a row or column, then the entire square pattern should hold.

Back to Sudoku Square Patterns


Sudoku Square Patterns 678 Horizontal

Another favorite pattern of mine is what I call the 678 Horizontal Pattern or 678 Non-diagonal Pattern. You can see a sample of it below.


I usually remember it as 678, 245, 931. And again, you can switch the order of rows or columns. And 678 can be vertical or horizontal. But once you find the 678 sequence in a row or column, then the entire square pattern should hold.

Back to Sudoku Square Patterns


Sudoku Square Pattern 345 Horizontal

Another favorite pattern of mine is what I call the 345 Horizontal Pattern or 345 Non-diagonal Pattern. You can see a sample of it below.


I usually remember it as 345, 726, 891. And again, you can switch the order of rows or columns. And 345 can be vertical or horizontal. But once you find the 345 sequence in a row or column, then the entire square pattern should hold.

This square also has another Bonus sequence and I think you can easily spot it from above. If you guessed the 123 Diagonal Pattern, you are correct! As long as I see a 123 diagonal in any 3 by 3 square, I immediately know that I am dealing with a 345 Non-diagonal Pattern.

Back to Sudoku Square Patterns


Sudoku Square Patterns 357 Horizontal Pattern

Another favorite pattern of mine is what I call the 357 Horizontal Pattern or 357 Non-diagonal Pattern. You can see a sample of it below.


I usually remember it as 357, 694, 812. And again, you can switch the order of rows or columns. And 357 can be vertical or horizontal. But once you find the 357 sequence in a row or column, then the entire square pattern should hold.

Back to Sudoku Square Patterns


Sudoku Square Patterns 135 Horizontal

Another favorite pattern of mine is what I call the 135 Horizontal Pattern or the 135 Non-diagonal Pattern. You can see a sample of it below.

I usually remember it as 135, 946, 728. And again, you can switch the order of rows or columns. And 135 can be vertical or horizontal. But once you find the 135 sequence in a row or column, then the entire square pattern should hold.

This pattern is also what I call a Bonus pattern because it has another easy-to-remember sequence of number within it. Can you spot the numbers?

If you guessed 234, then you are correct. I could memorize another set of numbers as 234, 856, 719, but instead of doing that, I know that if I spot the sequence 234 in a row or column, then I'm dealing with a 135 Horizontal Square Pattern.

Back to Sudoku Square Patterns


Sudoku Square Patterns

I have been playing Sudoku for many years and what I noticed was there were certain 3 by 3 square patterns that seem to come up in every new game. Sudoku is made up of 9 by 9 squares or can also say, Sudoku is made up of nine 3 by 3 squares. And the patterns that I have noticed are in the 3 by 3 squares. Memorizing these patterns can help speed up your puzzle completion time.

Here is an example of a 3 by 3 square pattern.

 

This pattern is one of my favorites and I call it the 123 Horizontal Pattern. I usually memorize this pattern as 123, 589, 746, if you read each row from top to bottom. Once I spot any of these combinations in a row or column within a 3 by 3 square, then I can most likely complete the entire 3 by 3 square.

Just look for any 3 by 3 square with one row or column with the number 1, 2, and 3. It doesn't even matter if you reverse the order, or switch the order of 1, 2, and 3. For example, the above pattern can appear as 321, 985, 647 if you switch the positions of the first and third column. Or it can appear as 231, 895, 467 if you again switch the first column with the second column. Or you could switch the order of rows and come up with a pattern like 589, 746, 123. As long as you identify that the 123 numbers are in the same row or column, then you can expect the other numbers to follow the pattern 123, 589, 746.

But maybe I should call it the 1 2 3 Non-diagonal Pattern instead because this pattern will still hold even if 123 is vertical. I have noticed that there are diagonal patterns, too. However, spotting them might not be as easy as looking for horizontal or vertical number sequences.

I have tried to come up with patterns that are easy to remember such as three successive numbers or three successive odd or even numbers. Below is a list of the patterns I have identified so far: (a.k.a. stands for also known as).

Hopefully, these patterns will help you out in solving Sudoku faster. Who knows, in the future, you, too, might come up with your own favorite patterns which you'll hopefully share with other players in the world. 

Once you have been able to memorize all these patterns, then you might want to try your hand at Sudoku Pattern Adjacency which is another technique I share to try and speed up your Sudoku puzzle solving time.


Monday, March 28, 2022

How Much Can You Really Earn From Bitcoin Games?

With the popularity of NFT games on the rise, I wanted to try out one and find out how much I can realistically earn if I played the game on a daily basis. I picked Bitcoin Sudoku from the Google Play Store.

After playing a game of Sudoku, I can earn between 1400 and 3000 points. These points can then be exchanged for Bitcoins after meeting a certain minimum threshold. I needed nearly 10,000 points (between 4 and 5 Sudoku games) before I could exchange it and I got 0.00000001 Bitcoins which, as of the time of this writing was equivalent to 0.01 USD or about 1 US cent. So, if I played this game on a daily basis, I would get 3.65 USD after a year of playing. I'm not so sure that's a smart way of spending my time and phone's energy, plus wearing out my phone's touch screen.

Bitcoin Sudoku also has a maximum number of games allowed per number of hours. I guess this is to prevent players from playing the game continuously using some kind of AI-PC setup. So even if I could up my daily output to 10 cents per day, or 36.5 USD per year, this would require either active participation on my part, or some technical wizardry to come up with an AI who can play this game continuously without getting bored.

The developer/s of the game on the other hand, earns about 0.18 cents on every ad that it shows after every completed game. That's roughly 90 cents every 5 games, or 9 dollars per day if I upped the number of games I played per day to 50. That's 3,285 USD going to the game's developer/s after a year, and that's passive income on his part since all he had to do was wait for me to play his game. That's nearly 100 times what I'm theoretically going to get if I played the game at maximum effort for an entire year.

So, although many articles talk positively about the earning potential from NFT games, I think that most of these games are actually a waste of time and energy - time and energy you could be devoting to actually learning more practical things. While there is potential in trading for game pets or game items in other types of games, the chances of that occurring on a regular basis is probably like winning the lottery.

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Star Trek Picard Season 2 Trailer

Warning: Possible spoilers ahead. Read at your own risk. 

I just saw the new trailer of Star Trek Picard and it appears that Trekkies have a great second season to look forward to by March 2022. The trailer shows Q, Guinan, The Borg Queen, Vulcans mind melding with human children, and time travel to Earth 2024. Check the trailer out for yourself below.

 
 
So like any other time travel movie, we expect that something has happened in the past that changes the events in the future and our heroes have to make the correction, otherwise, the future is doomed. It will be interesting to see why Q has once again re-emerged. If you have been watching Star Trek Discovery, it was mentioned that the Federation hasn't heard from any representative of the Q Continuum for a long time, and they have nothing to do with the moving "black hole" that is endangering the Discovery crew's future. And Discovery is already ahead of Star Trek Picard's timeline. (I think)

I also remember, from trading cards, (again I think) that Guinan is supposedly as powerful as Q, although they have never gone head to head in the original Star Trek Next Generation series. So how will these two interact in this new season?

Also, why is the Borg Queen alive again? Didn't the Enterprise crew deal with her in the movie First Contact? Will the Borg collective rise once again and become a threat to the universe?

And what happens in 2024 that is significant to the Picard and friends' future? Humans and Vulcans met for the first time in 2063 and was the reason for the birth of the Federation? If they meet earlier, is this the reason for the divergence in the time line?

As a next generation fan, I can't wait to see it all tie together next month.

Sunday, January 16, 2022

The Covid Pandemic and Post Tribulation Beliefs

I have been thinking about Christians who believe that the Lord Jesus Christ will only return for His people after the seven year Great Tribulation period.

The Bible says that during the reign of the Antichrist during the Great Tribulation, people cannot buy or sell without the mark of the Beast either on their right hand or on their forehead.

We have experienced how hard it is when our rights become limited. Governments can restrict movement during the pandemic by removing our rights to go out of our homes, our rights to riding public transportation, or access to malls and other establishments, and even other regions and countries. People can easily lose their jobs or business or source of livelihood.

So, if you are a Christian who is present during the seven year Great Tribulation, can you really survive? Even if you are a Doomsday Prepper, and have your own farm for food, solar panels for energy and deep well for water, how long can you last? And if governments take these sources of necessities away from you, what then?

It has been easy for governments to sway people into getting vaccinated. They use carrots and sticks. How easy will it be for the one world government to sway people into getting the mark of the Beast on their right hand or forehead? This pandemic is the test if one rule can be imposed on the entire world by all countries and if every individual can be forced to follow.

Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. If a believer finds himself in this situation, God will give him the strength to live on or the courage to face death for the Lord.

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