What should I pack for teaching English abroad? In the run-up to your departure overseas to teach English, there will inevitably be plenty of things to organize. You will probably have one or two leaving parties to attend and you might have to clear out your old apartment and office space. Even if you only have to pack a bag in preparation for your trip, you will still need to consider exactly what you will and won't need to take with you. Should I invest in a good quality camera? Although mobile phones now have improved cameras built in, taking a separate high-quality camera is certainly recommended. Mobile phones are only as good as the battery that runs them and these can be short-lived when using the camera extensively. Bear in mind that many of the places you might visit could be lacking in charging points and you do not want your phone to die on you while you visit the Great Wall of China or the Taj Mahal. Your overseas teaching adventure could well be one of the most exciting times of your life so it would be a major disappointment to miss out on the photographic memories. What clothes should I take when teaching English abroad? The bottom line with clothes is, if you are not absolutely certain that you will wear an item regularly, leave it behind. A bit of quick research will reveal the local climate throughout the year in your chosen destination, which should have a large bearing on what you do and do not need. If you are heading to the tropics of Southeast Asia or Latin America, there is a good chance that your destination will be hot all year so that favorite native jumper that your nan gave you is only going to take up valuable space. It is also worth remembering that most popular teaching destinations will have plenty of options for buying suitable clothing for the local climate at cheaper prices than you will pay in your home country. Will I need a raincoat when teaching English abroad? Wet weather gear is not something you need to worry about if your teaching destination is in the Middle East. However, if you are heading to Europe or a more tropical location, heavy rain might be something you will encounter quite regularly. In your previous life, a wet day might have offered a great excuse to crash on the sofa and watch movies. However, if you find yourself living in Rome, Beijing or Santiago, you should not let a bit of wet weather get in the way of exploring and adventure. A light, high-quality raincoat might prove to be one of the best investments you can make before heading overseas. What shoes will I need when teaching English abroad? As shoes are generally heavy and take up a lot of room in your luggage, it is best to only pack a couple of pairs rather than a pair for every day of the week. Two pairs of good quality shoes that can cover all types of occasions between them are all that you really need. Just bear in mind that they will need to cover long spells of teaching in the classroom, weekends and holidays traveling and exploring, as well as time spent socializing with your friends and colleagues. What other things should I consider when packing? Many people tend to overload their bags with unnecessary toiletries when heading overseas for the first time. These not only weigh a great deal, but can also limit the space you have for other more important items. In reality, you will be able to find comparable local products wherever you are heading and they are also likely to be cheaper. A small backpack is often an invaluable item when teaching abroad, as you are likely to take a number of short trips within your new country as well as further afield. Whether you enjoy hiking, cycling or simply exploring by train or bus, a good quality backpack will come in very handy.  Living in a new environment can bring many new and unfamiliar noises, such as roosters, cows, busy traffic, the call to prayer or even a snoring roommate. Similarly, thin curtains or a night bus trip can be made easier to handle with a plain old eye mask to help you get the sleep you need. Thanks so much for watching! We are ITTT, the leading provider for Teflon TESOL training courses. If you like this video, please subscribe by clicking that button down here and click on any of the videos here on the left for more interesting teaching tips for getting certified to teach English abroad and online.


the Spanish . Thank you Pablo. Good morning. Let's go ahead and call our special city council meeting and it's special because it's the holidays. Special city council meeting to order. Councilmember Shwedhelm. Here. Councilmember Sawyer. Here. Councilmember Fleming. Vice mayor Alvarez. President. Mayor Rogers. Here. Let the record show that all councilmembers are present with the exception of councilmember Fleming. So because our city attorney never misses an opportunity to put more work on the agenda. Since we are having a special council meeting we're going to start with two closed session items. Do we have any public comment for items 2.1 or 2.2? We do. We receive no written public comment nor voice message public comments on this item. Okay. Do we have any hands on zoom? We have no hands on zoom for item 2 closed session items. For those wishing to make a public comment on closed session please raise your hand if participating via telephone. Mayor I see no hands being raised for public comment on item 2 closed session items. All right. We'll go into closed session then. We'll be back for our regular item after this. And welcome back. Madam city clerk could you please call the roll. Yes. Thank you mayor. Councilmember Schwedhelm. Here. Councilmember Sawyer. Here. Councilmember Rogers. President. Councilmember Fleming. Here. Vice mayor Alvarez. Thank you. Madam city attorney could you please give a brief report on our closed session? Yes. Thank you Mr. Mayor. The council met in closed session. Discussed two items. First was 2.1 which is a conference with real property negotiator concerning properties located on Herne avenue. Council gave direction to the negotiator. Council also discussed item 2.2 which is a conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation. That is the Vinucci versus County of Sonoma and city of Santa Rosa case. Again council discussed the matter and gave direction to legal counsel. Thank you. Thank you so much. We'll move on to item 5.1 that is our discussion on the council vacancy. Madam city attorney I believe it is time to move on to item 6. Thank you. Madam city attorney could you please give us off. Yes I am. Thank you. And it is still morning. Good morning mayor and council members. As you know council member Tibbets announced his resignation from the council at last next slide. So we move into how do we fill that vacant position. The city charter provides that the vacancy may be filled either by appointment by the council or by the calling of a special election. If the council is going to fill the position by appointment that will have to be done within 60 days and that is by Saturday February 19th. Next slide. If the council chooses to fill the vacancy by special election the election will be governed by state elections code and under the elections code the earliest potential date for a special election to fill the vacancy created by council member Tibbets resignation. The earliest potential date is June 7th. This is there 2020 of course that would be June 7th 2022. The estimated cost of the election the snowman county registrar of voters has given us this estimate would be between 56 little over 56,000 up to a little under 103,000. That cost is based on the number of registered voters in the district. If the council wants to move forward with a special election in June the council must call the election by February 13th 2022. And I do want to note and I think we'll probably talk about it as we go forward this is a decision entirely within the discretion of the council. I do want to note though a June election would add considerable workload to the city clerk's office and please keep in mind that this is at the same time that we are moving forward on both redistricting and the charter review. So this would be additional work on top of that. Primarily for the city clerk's office also of course for our office. Next slide. If the council decides to move forward to fill the vacancy by appointment that is governed by council policy number 00-23. That was originally adopted in 1988 and it's been refined a couple of times since. That policy creates a seven step process. The list is there. You adopt a schedule, you prepare the application forms, close the application period, disclose the process, prepare interview questions, have the interview and then a voting process that is set forth from the policy and then finally the appointment. The next slides coming up will walk through that process. So step one is that the policy requires that the council adopt a schedule at the earliest possible date. So we are here today to talk about a potential schedule. First the date and time by which applications must be submitted. The date and time for the public to submit potential interview questions. We'll talk a little bit more about that. And then finally the date or dates for the actual applicant interviews and those interviews will have to take place at a public meeting. Next slide. We've set forth a suggested schedule but this is very much again in the discretion of the council. We can be flexible. The application period is to run, we're proposing that it runs for 14 days. We had a similar 14-day application period back in when we had the vacancy that was created by Julie Combs departure. We're proposing to open it on January 3rd at noon and close the following Monday January 17th at 5 p.m. Although I just did get a notice that apparently the third may be a city holiday. And so we may want to adjust that since we will not be accepting any applications when we are closed. So one possibility and again up to the council maybe we move it to Wednesday through Wednesday. So January 5th through January 19th. Similar issues going to come up with the period for the public to submit proposed interview questions. We also propose that would run for 14 days and we were just having it mirror the application period. So finally we've suggested that the city council interviews could take place on February 8th and 10th if necessary. We have not pulled the council and had the opportunity to do that to make sure that everyone would be available on those dates. So that's the schedule. So we're hoping that the council will adopt a schedule today. And next step the application form. So in accordance with the policy, the council's policy, the application must include three things. Statement of the background, statement of your qualifications and statement of why the applicant wishes to be appointed. Additional questions can be added by the council and in fact in the instance of in the 2019 vacancy there were a number of, I think there were eight additional questions that were added. The application must be accompanied by a nomination form that has signatures of at least 20 registered voters. And also the applicant must complete and submit a statement of economic interest. That's the commonly known as the form 700. Next slide. We did attach a suggested application form to the staff report and includes all of the elements required by the policy and then it adds additional questions. The application form does not need to be finalized today if you give discretion on what's been used in the past council appointments but again completely at the discretion of the council. The last vacancy, my recollection there was an ad hoc that was appointed to help craft those questions. So that is an option as well. I would say if you give discretion and authority to an ad hoc to finalize it obviously the application will have to be posted and available to people in sufficient time before opening of the application period. So given the holidays really our time is very short. Next slide. The policy sets forth a statement regarding the disclosure of applications and no application information will be disclosed before the application period is closed not disclosed by city officials or city employees. Following the deadline for submittal of applications all of the applications become public and they are available for anyone to review at the city clerk's office. Next slide. Step four, the interview questions for the public. Again the council will decide on what questions go on to the application itself and then we need to provide an opportunity for the public to submit questions for use by the council during the actual interviews. Once the we close the application period and then the proposed questions will be forwarded to all the council members. Council members can use those questions as they wish. They may use them or not. There is no requirement that the questions submitted by the public be used during the applicant interviews. Next slide. The council can also decide to provide advanced questions for the applicants that are to be interviewed. They can propose advanced questions and they can also direct that the applicants provide a written response before the interview or can simply provide verbal responses to those advanced questions during the interviews. Again, if the mayor wishes to point an ad hoc committee to help draft those questions that is permissible or individual council members may simply come up with their own questions. Step 5. Next slide. So we've gotten the applications all in. We've gotten the questions all set and the interviews take place during a public meeting, during a regular council meeting, doesn't have to be regular, but during a public meeting each applicant is interviewed and each applicant must be given the opportunity to make a brief opening statement and then to respond to any advanced questions if the council submitted any advanced questions. Then each council member is given that opportunity to question the applicant and that questions can be on any subject that the council member feels is relevant to the applicants' qualifications. And the council member can place a time limit on each interview or can place a limit on the number of questions asked. That can be done once we know how many applications we have received. Next slide. The voting procedure and this is by a process of elimination in the first round each council member, this is all set forth in the policy, each council member shall vote but if we have 10 or more applicants, or more than 10 applicants, council may allow for 4 votes, the mayor may allow for 4 votes in that first round. Those applicants receiving one vote or less are eliminated and we move on to the next round where each of the council member's votes for one fewer applicant in the prior round. And until you keep lowering that down until we're down to you have each council member has just one vote. The applicant at the end of that process that receives 4 votes in the final round is appointed to fill the vacancy and next slide. If no applicant receives a majority vote of the council and that did occur during our last vacancy, the council may adopt such other procedures for appointment as it deems appropriate. Again, the charter requires that the appointment be made within 60 days. Again, that's the mid-February date. If an appointment is not made within that timeframe, then a special election must be called. Next slide. This has to do with how long the appointee serves or either elected or appointed individual serves. If the council moves by a special election then the successor serves for the duration of council member tibbet's term. So that's four-year term, the remaining ends in December of 2024. So another three years. If the council moves forward with an appointment, then the appointee will be elected in November of next year. And then the individual that's elected in that November election will serve for the duration of council member tibbet's term again until December 2024. And then I want to note for the public and of course for the council that council member tibbet's was elected from and represents council district three. So the successor, whether elected or appointed, must also reside in district three. And next slide. It is recommended by our office and by the city clerk that the council by motion approve the procedure and schedule for filling the council vacancy created by the resignation of council member Jack tibbet's. I'll also note that I did have a question that came to me as to whether the council could appoint someone in February and also hold a special election in June and yes, there would be nothing that would preclude that. In that case, the person who was appointed would just serve for those few months between February and June. Happy to answer any questions. All right, thank you so much Madam City Attorney. Madam City Clerk, is there anticipated to be a significant cost if the council were to put this on in June versus November? Yes, there would be. And just to make an amendment to the cost that was presented in the presentation, I did receive an e-mail yesterday from the registrar voters office and because Sonoma County has been designated a bilingual county due to the census, we now have to factor in an additional 50 cents to a dollar per voter for the election. So in a special election for District 3, that cost now is anywhere from $65,982 to $122,538 and that would be the burden on just the city for a special election. If the council waits until November, then that cost is divided between the four districts. If District 3 is added to the ballot along with districts 2, 4 and 6. And then also it's factored with any measures and it's divided between the other cities that are run by the county. Okay. Councilor, are there any additional questions? All right, seeing none, let's go to public comment on this item. There is nobody in the chambers. Madam Deputy City Clerk, can you check and see if there are any hands on zoom? Mayor, I'm seeing no hands be raised on zoom for the council vacancy item 5.1 on the agenda. Okay. And did we have any voicemails? We did not. I'll bring it back to council then. Is there any discussion before I entertain a motion? I'll ask Council Member Schwedhelm to put a motion on the table for discussion. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I move a motion that the council fills former council member Tibbet's seat by a council appointment consistent with council policy 000-23 and I also support the suggested schedules outlined by staff. I will second. And as a point of clarification that would be an appointment consistent with the city attorney's outline, an appointment for essentially one year until the November election for 2022 can select a successor. That is correct. Okay. Is there any additional discussion from council? Council Member Fleming? Yes. I know some of you were there and some of you weren't. When we went through this process I want to say two years ago now and I'm concerned that the benefits of going through this process as outlined outweigh the downside outweighs the benefits that it's going through this process the benefit to the community as outlined is cost savings and representation the downside is that it's for a very short period of time and I'm wondering if there's any appetite on the council to have a special election in June in the primaries and to wave the process of appointing someone for four months in the interim. Looking for additional hands or discussion? Okay. Well it seems that everybody is excited maybe they go through that again I'll be there with you then. I'll give some comments Council Member I think from my perspective it's worth looking putting it out there to see if there's anybody who would apply to fill in for a year that can provide constituent services and representation for the community if we don't find anybody who has the skill set or the experience that we're looking for we have the special election that's scheduled at that point for the voters to be able to decide for themselves. Okay well my thought on it you know just to counter is that this is a district that has some of the highest voting participation rates in the state therefore by holding a primary election we would not be disadvantaged by the public participation in the election and we would be giving the community from which Council Member Tibbets was elected additional time to have a duly elected representative in his seat so I think that probably the most democratic way is to move it up and get it done with rather than having us you know put our finger on it now that we're in district elections I think it is you know really not so much our place anymore to tell a community to represent themselves and I'm not sure that three or four months that we can't function as a six member council I think we can get it done it's really not that long and it you know there's a lot of burden on the city clerk's office moving it up there's also a lot of burden on staff it's going to take many meetings and ad hoc and all kinds of extra meetings to get somebody to fill in for a few months a year that could easily be avoided by a more streamlined process and I think you know we've heard from staff over and over about how this process you know we're overburdening staff and this is one way to just cut out a ton of work for everybody and have district three have a representative of their own for longer so I'll support the will of the council but I think that this just makes a heck of a lot more sense to go that way I understood Council Member and just as a point of clarification what I've heard from staff is that it is more of an impact on them to move it up so I am cognizant of the staff time and that's part of why I'm supportive of November any additional okay so the motion on the table is to call a special election in November and to start the appointment process in the interim for somebody to fill in Madam City Clerk can you please call the vote? The motion would then be with the change that I mentioned that the application period would begin January 5th and end January 19th and the time period for the public to submit interview questions would also begin January 5th and end January 19th and that the interviews would be scheduled on Tuesday February 8th and continue on to Wednesday February 9th if need be. I'm looking to the motion just to confirm whether or not it was included yes all right and the second for me I will second that motion let's call the vote Councilmember Schwedhelm Councilmember Sawyer Councilmember Rogers Councilmember Fleming Vice Mayor Alvarez Mayor Rogers that motion passes with six eyes thankfully we didn't need a tiebreaker on that vote with that we'll go ahead and adjourn thank you everybody have a good holiday. May I also ask I'm sorry before we adjourn in terms of preparation of questions advanced questions do you want to consider appointment of an ad hoc do you want us to I mean advanced questions we would not prepare that for staff but if you're comfortable with questions that are set forth in the proposed application that was attached to the staff report we can simply move forward to that. I look to my colleagues Councilmember Sawyer thank you Mayor well I think that the questions that were developed at our last process were comprehensive and I'd never heard I didn't hear any complaints about those questions yes there is a question about whether or not we want the applicants have an questions that they would respond to in writing that's something that we do we need to decide that today as well no we don't need to decide that the application form the questions that are on the application and what we'll do is we'll make sure that what we've attached is consistent with what we did in the last go around and we'll have the application last time those questions are submitted in advance I mean the responses to those questions are included in the application I don't recall last year or last time whether we had any additional advanced questions but if you're comfortable with what's in the application itself there is not a need to have advanced questions and the application the questions that are asked in the application are good ones and kind of can give the council I believe a good sense of the applicants background etc and there's also something to be said for the council applicants ability to think on their feet which they will have to do in service so I don't see any need to have anything in writing any questions that need to be in writing to the applicant questions I think they are adequate thank you any additional feedback council members Mr. Vice Mayor thank you Mayor I would ask those who have been involved in the process before how beneficial the question was whether the applicant had intents to run at a future date and the advantage that creates I do remember a conversation about that and the conversation was you can you can ask the applicant whether they have an intention to run in November but you can't use that as a final decision making you can use that to weigh your decision as to whether or not to select an applicant but it would not be the only issue that one could use in other words I don't believe that we can put in the application form nor can we restrict an applicant from running in the November election but you can ask them the question if I remember right that was the process yes that's correct so nor would it be binding in that sense no but Vice Mayor I will say my history is not as long as some folks at the dais I know that in all three cases all three individuals promised not to run for the seat two kept that promise and did not run including the last two and then the third one did end up running and actually ended up losing in the election because it was held against that individual that they had not kept their promise in part thank you any other feedback sounds like we're good with the questions thank you anything else before we adjourn thank you everybody you guys next year bye council members happy holidays happy holidays


Good afternoon everyone. So I want to talk in this video about a mindset that I don't know one of the most dangerous Mindsets out there. Well, I don't know. There are a lot of competitors for that But what are the ones that's most annoying for me? I'll tell you this In my time doing videos on YouTube, I get this kind of comment all the time I don't know why I actually I do know why I get it. I'll tell you why but here's how it goes I will put let's say I put up a tutorial on something Okay, let's say it's a tutorial about how to do references automatically in LaTeX Okay, you can set up a bibliography file and once you do that you will never have to do references It'll do it automatically. It'll even format them an APA or MLA whatever you want automatically. Wow fantastic Okay, so I've done videos on stuff like that and here's the kind of comment. I'll get okay people will say Okay, that's more effective But what you don't understand Luke is that my time, you know I am just too busy and important to learn how to do things effectively. So This doesn't matter for me. Okay. Now. That's a weird comment for me to get first off I mean, this is a tutorial about LaTeX Well, you know why you why you literally just coming here to learn about it and tell people why you shouldn't or something like that I mean the point here is me facilitating you learning something, but more importantly, here's here's my theory There are people out there who are psychologically Incapable of learning anything or developing at all because there's a kind of arrogance in them And the arrogance goes something like this if I learn something or if I see something done that I don't know how to do If I admit to myself that that is useful It is admitting that I do not know everything or that you know admitting not that I was wrong But that I don't have all the answers Okay, that's how I'm convinced that how you know a lot of people think about things like this now Let me give now one of the reasons I'm doing this video. I should say is I remember being directed to a video on YouTube I'm not going to tell you exactly which one it is But some of you will be able to guess and it was by a guy who I think was walking around not unlike I am right now and he was a software developer or at least the former software developer And he was talking about why he doesn't use Linux now. I am not a big Linux evangelist. I use Linux I'm not gonna use.  I at all. I mean if you watch my videos, you probably know that But here here's my perspective. Okay, what the what this guy said was oh Well, I would use Linux, but Linux here's the phrase Linux is only free if your time isn't worth anything it's really a big pain to learn how to do everything and you know, it's a struggle and Basically, he admitted to not knowing how to work a desktop environment and his only experience with the Linux was basically SSHing into an Apache web server or something like that, which you know, if that's what you think Linux is I can understand Why you don't you think it's a meme for people to use it But let me let me give you a little parable a little metaphor Okay, that shows you why this is particularly stupid for someone like that to say Imagine you had a friend who talked of who would not stop talking about how much he loved cars Okay, he loves cars talks about them all the time talks about the different types the different brands talks about Engines all the things that could be wrong with them stuff like that He'll try and diagnose from afar what he thinks is wrong with your car And he maybe even works for a garage you you hear and he goes off does his job comes back And then one day his oil needs changing and he says so I need to get my oil changed and he but he decides Okay, instead of changing it myself.   It's an easy enough pro You know process anyone could do it. I mean even if you're replacing the filter. It's not a difficult thing to do What if he reacted saying whoa? Whoa, no, I am far too busy and important to actually know how to do that. I'm sorry. I'm optimizing for my time So I have not learned how to do this basic thing that everyone you know people who you would think I'd be like would know How to do I don't know how to do that because I'm just too I'm busy doing more important things Okay, this for whatever reason people in technology say all the time they will say stuff you will say Oh, here's how you could call this function more effectively Here's how you could you could make your code more efficient and time and time again, especially in software I mean you get there are other domains where people do this as well But especially in software. This is just this mindset where if you Even tell anyone how to make how to do something more effectively where it is nothing for them But gain they will react in the most egocentric way of how dare you correct me I in the rationalization is always this I'm economizing for You know development time. Oh, maybe it runs a little slower, but you know Development time is just as important if it's easier for me to write then that means that you know I'm saving time now in software, especially that's a terrible argument because you know Let's say you make code a little bit, you know Let's say you spend 10 extra hours on some Script that makes it, you know half a second more efficient, okay That might sound like a huge waste of your time But in terms of software quality if your script is being run a dozen a hundred Thousand tens of thousand hundreds of thousands. I mean if it's it's if it's well-used software It's gonna be run millions maybe billions of times and yes Microseconds make a different make a difference at that scale So especially if you're a software developer you have an obligation now No one's gonna come to your house with a gun and tell you you have to do this But you know one of the reasons that people complain about code being you know Everything is bloated nowadays everything's inefficient is because a lot of people just don't have this sense of optimization now The other thing that's weird about this is if Let's go back to that hypothetical video I was talking about a second ago if you are someone who openly identifies as a computer person someone who programs someone who Loves computers and stuff like that um I'm confused why you would have the reaction of oh, I don't want to learn how to use Linux or I don't know Vim That's another one. Oh my goodness. Geez the the amount of it I'm sorry It takes an afternoon to learn Vim takes a week to get good at it It is it's one of the few things that will make your life so much easier if you just learn it But again, there are so many people who are rationalized why they are just too smart too good too efficient to actually learn How to use these more or less basic tools And so this is this is the thing that's so confusing to me I guess I'm but again I think it's it's something that's more based in people don't want to admit that they don't know something so They their first reaction is to shoot it down and mind you I have had to you know Sometimes I'll have temptation to do something like that for example one piece of software that I've never really used I've never really gotten into is emacs. Okay? Emacs you can do lots of great things in it I'm familiar with a lot of the things you do but for different reasons, you know I've never used emacs, but I think when I was first exposed to it I too had that a that desire to shoot it down and say oh, it's just a big time sink or something like that Now here is that here's the I don't know the punchline I guess Because again, I get a lot of people who on one hand will say oh it's a big waste of my time for me to let's say learn Vim or Install arch Linux or something like that. They'll say oh, it's a big waste of my time And then on the other hand the same people will say hey, how do I learn how to be good at computers? How do I learn how to become you know, write good scripts or you know, weren't learn how this works on my? Linux desktop or how how to write? Good Unix system tools well stuff like that and the thing is they are both perfectly aligned If you are a well-adjusted person who's involved with computers You're going to want to experiment things which are quote-unquote time wastes. Oh, I'm gonna install arch Linux Yes, I could install manjaro which basically is arch Linux that auto installs more or less but in the process of doing something like installing arch Linux or doing something that might seem I don't know like a quote-unquote waste of time That is exactly where you learn how to actually do this stuff. Well You don't learn how to do things well from just watching someone teach you how to do it even on YouTube Even in my tutorial videos. I have no illusion that the goal of my tutorial videos Is not to teach people things but to pique their interest so they can experiment with their own things and learn how to do that I cannot teach you how to use Vim. You have to be able to you know go out there and experiment it with it but instead there are these people who insist they have this arrogant reaction wherever they are Exposed to something that they don't know about they just want to shoot it down They want to rationalize why they don't why they don't have to learn it and they're just too important not to okay And aside from that so the one point. Yes This is exactly where you learn things Experimenting with things which sometimes might seem as a waste of time to learn how to program To learn how to set up a Linux desktop or something But you that is where you actually learn how to do things more effectively it doesn't seem like that but that is exactly where you learn and Another point the other point that I will say is I'm sorry. You do have enough time. You absolutely do have enough time Just let me I know that you guys like to believe that you know a lot about my life But let me tell you about where I was. Let's say a year ago.  I graded papers from my university That was a job and I also worked as a carpenter full-time 40 hours a week. That is what I did I wanted to learn carpentry so I was working for a friend so I did that I graded papers I put out videos on my YouTube channel and I still went to church three actually four times a week I still had a normal social life. I still I cooked all my own food I still had enough time for that and that was a period of my life where I was learning how to use a lot of suckless software Specifically D menu and or not D menu DWM. I already knew knew how to use D menu It's the easiest thing in the world, but that's when I started using DWM So I know there's this cope that people have that. Oh, I'm just I'm just too busy. I'm just too important I don't have enough time to actually learn how to do the things that I pretend to care about But you do have enough time.  Frankly. Okay. All right I'll make an exception if you're married, you know, I don't know women Sometimes they take up a good bit of time, but especially if you're single or frankly even if you're married you have enough time I mean, I I have married friends who do the same kind of stuff that I do and they have plenty of time So anyway, that's that's just it whenever you see yourself and this is the lesson not just for you But for me as I've said I've been tempted to have this reaction before If you are ever tempted to shoot someone down for what they're doing telling them that explaining to them This is the absurd arrogance of it explaining to them Why what they're doing is a waste of their time as if they don't have a better assessment of what their time Is worth than you are then you have Whenever you have that that tendency to do it check yourself because really what you're probably trying to do is rationalize the fact that you Don't know what you're doing you the onus is on you to actually learn and yes As I said, I think I said a second ago about emacs There are some things I had the tendency to want to shoot down the idea of learning emacs And you know what I experimented with emacs it wasn't for me But I can definitely understand why someone else might enjoy liking it or really have a much more efficient workflow in it So anyway, that's about it. Just check yourself. Check yourself before you wreck yourself. Don't Well, I said something in the last video that was like don't don't knock it if you haven't tried it something like that Whatever who cares all right. See you guys next time


Mr. Chairman, my dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, when I reflect on the history of Christianity, three key words stands out for me. Incarnation, kinosis, and parousia. Incarnation, the self-revealing God, Logos, become flesh, sarks, and enters the material of the word history, humanity. The word history, humanity, and culture become the agent of the Logos, the form of God's self-communication. In the Hebrew Bible, the creation story, the word and men are a parable and image of God. Creation is similar to God, precedes the story of the fall, which amends the previous one. The word and mankind are dissimilar from God. They are the mixed image. The outcome is the paradox, proclaimed by Christian theology. The word and mankind are similar to and dissimilar from God. We now see God in the mirror of the world, in nature, history, and humanity, only partially, like in a riddle. We will not see God fully until we see God face to face in Eschatto. The historical word will not truly reflect God until it is whole at the moment that history is fulfilled, the moment of Parousia, the second coming of Christ as Saint Paul told. Similar, the New Testament, the Christmas mystery, the incarnation of the Logos is complemented and amended, protected from too naive, a notion of divine and human identity, the Logos and flesh, by the Easter message of the cross, the mystery of Canosis, God's self-empting, surrender and self-destruction. He, who was God equal, destroyed himself, taking the form of a servant and became obedient unto death on the cross. The outcome is again a paradox. The message of resurrection and redemption, defeat means victory. Those who give and sacrifice their lives will obtain them. Those who wish to keep their lives for themselves will lose them. Resurrection is the mysterious answer to the painful question of the dying Jesus. Oh God, why have you abandoned me? What was the point of it all? Resurrection isn't the happy end of the Easter story. Victory over death is not evident to all people. It can only be accessed and experienced through faith, love and hope. The history of Christianity is the history of a search for the beloved one who is conceived and surprises as in the song of songs, often appearing in a form of a stranger, like on the road to a mouse, who appears in the anonymity of the least of his present and anonymity that will only come to an end at the moment of their last judgment. Yes, throughout the history of Christianity, the Christmas mystery of incarnation merges with the Easter mystery of kenozes. Christ is present in the manifest life of the church in the liturgy and in the carigma, preaching, proclamation and indeed in the visible institutions of the church and baptized word. But we must not forget about the other dim and mysterious form of God that disrupts our notion that we are capable to fully grasping the meaning of incarnation with the tools of our own reason, imagination and previous experience. Christ is present in his church and his truth. He himself as the fullness of truth is present in the carigma and the proclamation of the church. But at the same time, Christ divinely transcendence the historically conditioned institutions of the church and its verbally articulated proclamations and teachings at a specific time and in a particular culture and social space. The Second Vatican Council accepted a very important truth about the church when it choose the expression subsisted in to replace the previously proposed word asked. The church of Christ is identical with the Catholic church when defining the relationship between the church of Christ in its eschatological fullness and the Catholic church in its historical form. This means that the church of Christ subsists in the Catholic church. But the fullness of the crisis church is not entirely exhausted in the Catholic church as we know it from historical experience. It is not fully contained in it without any remainder. There is space for others beyond the borders of Catholic church institutions. There are many authentic gifts of the spirit that are part of the fullness of crisis church that we find in other churches and Christian communities. That is why the Christian churches and communities should be regarded as communion as viatorium, pilgrim communities that should come together and enrich each other on the journey through history by sharing experience and exchanging gifts. I think we can seek an answer to the complex question of the relationship between truth and pluralism by applying the concept of subsisted in analogously to the relationship of the truth that is Christ to the truth as taught by the church. In the church doctrine, truth subsists but is always necessary to add that the culturally and historically conditioned forms of church doctrine do not contain the fullness of truth. There is always scope for father seeking, for questions and interpretations the door can open for anyone who knocks on it with a sense of desire for the truth because the spirit that leads to the fullness of truth bloat where it listed. Likewise, church doctrine subsists sometimes implicitly more than anything else in the religious consciousness of individual believers but no single believer owns its fully and the religious consciousness of individuals and groups of believers do not contain solely the defined phase of the church. There is room in the hearts and minds of believers for critical questions. Likewise, there must be space in the face of the church for meditative silence, for quiet repose in the cloud of unknowing, for the unending paths of seeking and the humble endurance of questions that remain open such as the question of the origin and meaning of evil misterium iniquitatis. So long as we treat God's truth with the arrogance of the monopolistic owners, we forget that Christ alone is permitted to say, I am the truth and every moment of history we are disciples on the path of following the Lord we are pilgrim community, communion viatorum and fullness of truth is an eschatological objective. The work of crisis spirit, which is our mystacoc on the journey remains an unfinished project. The spirit of the Lord undoubtedly speaks through the verbally formulated doctrine of the church but also through the size too deep for words. It is also present in the pain and longing that pervades creation and our hearts. Christianity has been embodied in culture, society and history and dream lies at the foundations of European Christianity. It is said that on one night before a battle the emperor Constantine had a dream in which he saw the sign of the cross and heard the words through the sign, you will be victorious. Next morning, Constantine ordered crisis monogram with the cross to be fixed to the standards of his troops and he did indeed defeat his enemy in the ensuing battle. So the emperor convinced himself that a God of Christians the cross as a protective amulet was a reliable guarantor of a powerful victory, the triumph of power. In gratitude he said Christianity on the path of freedom and soon afterwards on the path of triumph and power. I asked myself over and over again what would have happened to Christianity, the church and Europe and the word if the emperor had understood his dream differently. If he had had his disposal more intelligent dream interpreters who would have offered him a profounder hermeneutics of the sign of the cross. 15th century's after, emperors Constantine another dream, enter European history, a madman carrying a lighted lantern arrived in a marked place in the full light of day and cried out that he was seeking God.  God was simply a projection of people's wishes and fears. Religion was an illusion. Religion was opium of the people. Didn't the three great prophets of the 19th century, Nietzsche, Freud and Marx all express the same experience just in different words namely that God no longer serves as a tool of power, not as Christianity as a triumphalist, triumphalist ideology. Didn't those three mages from the West bring us the royal gift of a deeper understanding of emperor Constantine's dream? A different hermeneutics of the symbol of the cross. Also smelly, beautiful and profound things have been written about the cross by the great see-logians, mystics and saints and all those individual Christians and many local churches have endured the barn of the cross. It seems that only now in the period of letter day modernity has Christianity of the West been able to experience the good Friday of history when the cry of the abundant crucify Christ was heard in the darkness of God's silence. No longer were they individuals who enter the dark night, God's hiddenness, gradually become a collective historical experience in many countries with a thousand year old Christian culture to understand Constantine's dream. One must understand the meaning of the cross, loss can be gain and gain loss. Victory can be defeat and defeat victory. The cross and suffering can be Cairo's, the right or opportune moment. Isn't what some call secularization and others the death of God? Say the dark night of God's hiddenness. Cairo's, the opportune moment. And isn't it as such a royal gift to the cradle of a new, canotic Christianity, a space for a deeper and more mature face does not face and church need in certain sense to endure weakness, suffering and death in order to experience resurrection and be believable witnesses to the victory over death. If the God who guarantees military victories and is a reliable ally of the powerful is really dead, if the Christianity as Europe's ideology is dead, need Europe and the church become a mausoleum of the dead God, or should they become the battle hem of a new understanding of the gospel? The history of Christianity and the history of the church, faith and theology have not, are not and will not be definitive one way highway of progress, but rather a drama of alternate decline and revival of strength and return and dynamic current of continual recontextualization and reinterpretation of the message and trusted to them. Perhaps the pontificate of Pope Francis will mark the beginning of a new chapter in the history of Christianity, a new reading of the gospel, the promise of an open ecumenical Christianity for the planetary age, the present transition from one historical form of Christianity to another, like similar transitions in the past, could well involve crisis, tensions and conflicts and the gift of discernment of spirits will probably be of greater need than ever. The reforms of the Second Vatican Council would have been unthinkable and unthinkable without the efforts of the great theologians of the 20th century. It strikes me that the reforming pontificate of Pope Francis also urgently needs the support of the painstaking war of today's theologians. It needs a new theology of which an essential part will be chiralogy, the art of reading the sign of the times. In other words, a theological hermeneutics, a critical interpretation of contemporary culture, which is the context of our face life. One of the evident signs of our times is return of religion, expressed in the title of one popular book that says God is back. But God is back in what form? Which God is back? The religion then is returning has surprised both the proponents of the secularization theory and the representatives of traditional religions. It is returning in a form that is different from the religion that existed before the era of secularization. Indeed, even present day fundamentalism, which swears by fidelity to tradition is far from being good old time religion, but is a typically modern phenomenon, a modern reaction to modernity. Psychoanalysis has shown us that the displaced and suppressed content of our minds resurface from the subconsciousness in a different form. Likewise, religion, which was suppressed in modern times by the process of secularization is resurfacing in a new form, rather than a return of religion or return to religion, it would be more appropriate to speak of transformation of religion. In the present time, this transformation takes three main forms, the transformation of religion into a political ideology. The transformation of religion and theology into philosophical hermeneutics and phenomenology. And the transformation of religion into spirituality. Whereas the latter two transformations of religion chiefly concern Western culture and would seem to vindicate the theory that the post-modern era is a post-secular one, the politicization of religion is a global phenomenon. In his 1991 bestseller, Larry Banj de Dier, God's vengeance, Jill Keppel noted that politicization is not restricted to Islam, but is a reaction of all three major monotheists to the mystical religions, to the crisis of liberal democracy in the last quarter of the 20th century. And then even other religions are politicized. I have seen it in Japan, the Shintoism is going back and in Africa, the religious nationalism and Buddhism also. And I spoke with an Indian ambassador in Prague and he told me when I returned home to Calcutta, it was always the streets were packed by people. And when I returned every Sunday morning, the Calcutta was absolutely empty. And it was the time when in the television was a serial about the Indian mythology. And all Indians were looking at it and after all the artists, they played God's, the candidate to the parliament and won. So also he said no part in India cannot be without religious symbols. So this return of religion into politics is a global phenomenon. The entire culture revolution of 1968 and the whole of the second enlightenment in the 1960s were the culmination of the secularization process in the West and also the end of modernity. The conservative wave of the 1970s coincided with the beginning of the post-modern era and the deepening of the globalization process. The Czech philosopher Radim Palos called 1969, the year that humans landed on the moon and the microprocessor were invented as the symbolic beginning of the global age. If he studied the recent political awakening with the Roman Catholic Christianity, we discover that it's a multifaceted phenomenon full of contradictions. On one hand, there were the left-wing currents inspired by the liberation theology and on the other, conservative attempts in the spirit of the American evangelical religious right. It was the time I was speaking about this morning when the church was too consecrated, too concentrated on the criminalization of abortions and the sign of orthodoxy was to be against the contraception and homosexual and gay couples and so on. I think they are important thing but they are not the only important and I think the answer of this word for this concentration of the sexual ethics was look at yourself and then was the scandals with the misusing of children and so on. I think it was the answer, the natural answer for this concentration of the sexual ethics and when Pope Francis has courage to say it was the neurotic obsession with such of things, so this scandals in the media slowly calmed. But another aspect of the political involvement of Roman Catholics is the part played by them in human rights movements in the communist countries and important contribution made by the Catholic church to the peaceful transition of both left wing and right wing authoritarian regimes to democracy and civil society in Spain, Chile, Argentina, Poland, the Philippines and many other countries. Since the enlightenment the relationship of religion to politics has been perceived chiefly as a relationship between the state and the church. The separation of state and church was regarded as a final ideal solution protecting the freedom of civil society from the danger of church domination and the freedom of the churches and religion from the absolutist state power. Today's situation is different however, the nation states have lost their monopoly of politics and the churches have lost their monopoly of religion. The relationship between religion and politics needs to be considered afresh. An interesting phenomenon is the use of religious language by secular politicians. It seems that in very dramatic political situations when emotions are extremely powerful the secular language is unable to express them and politicians instinctively resort to religious concepts. The enemy is the great Satan. Its fear of influence is the empire of evil, et cetera. The secular world underestimated however, the potential energy that religious symbols conceal. Religion can be a force for healing in international relations but it can also become a weapon. It transforms political conflicts into a destructive apocalyptic war between good and evil. First in people's mind and then in political reality. I think this misuse of religious language is generally in my seminar about the psychology of religion I'm always explained when I visited the last match in Isoke in Nagano. It was the great screen in one Prague square and at the end the people were kneeling and reaching the hands to heaven and then were crying in Prague, Hasek. It was the Isoke man. Hasek is not man, he's God. So this people's theology, I don't know what they mean by that. But sometimes when the emotions are so strong and the secular language and the secular gesture are not able to express it and the people spontaneously reach to the religious language but it is not the neutral language, it's the language which is full of power.  I ask myself whether the use of religious language for political phenomena and for political conflicts between different ethnics and interest groups is not one of the main reasons for a religion's presence in politics nowadays. That would mean that instead of talking about politicization of religion, we should be talking about sacralization of politics, the radicalization of political conflicts through the power of religious symbols. I can only do briefly with two other forms of the return of religion. Whereas up to about the middle of the last century, any mention of God in academia was often looked upon rather like the mention of sex in Victorian society. We don't speak about such of things, this is a private thing. In recent decades, there is a talk of a religious turn in post-modern philosophy. A major step away from traditional philosophy of religion and from theology cultivated within the traditional metaphysics was when Paul Ricard made a distinction between the first and second naivety. We cannot return, however, to the pre-modern world of the pre-critical relationship to religion. We must pass through the desert of rational criticism, deconstruction, only then will a post-critical new relationship to religious symbols present itself to us by means of interpretation. And as a step is the Richard Kurnitz's anateism to believe again after the criticism, to accept the philosophical criticism of religion and to believe again in a deeper way, this anateism. In my old books, I speak similar about ways as the courage to enter the cloud of mystery as the art of living with mystery, living in midst of life's paradoxes and preserving in an open space of questions for which no answers will be found in this world. God often comes to us as a question and there are questions that are so good that it's pity to spoil them with answers.  Let us move on to the third transformation of religion, the increasing emphasis on spirituality, partially mysticism as religious experience. The bargaining interest in spirituality since the 1960s has been a reaction both to the cold rationality of technological civilization and to the spirituality in speed offerings of the Christian churches. The Christian churches, the mysticism was closed in the monasteries, it was too dangerous for lay Christians, for lay Christians was the morality enough and the ritual enough and now it's the third for the religious experience for mysticism and so on. The ways of syncretic linking of oriental mysticism and psychotherapy with their new age is on the decline and spirituality is seeking new paths. Among Christian thinkers, the most influential are authors of spiritual literature like Thomas Merton, Annenouven, Anselm Green and others. A theology growing on the source of Christian mysticism is capable of speaking to people beyond the church's visible borders. There are many people who could be described as seekers who generally say of themselves that they don't believe in organized religion, but are spiritual people. I think there are many seekers now, also among those who interpret themselves as believers, they are not only the dwellers in the treasure of faith, but also the believers as seekers on the way, the belief that faith for them is the way and also among those so-called Atheists, they are our non-believers. There are many people, they are seekers and also between them, they are the people like Martin Luther spoke about simil justus et peccator. I think there are many simil fidelis and infidelis, the people they are praying in the night, but in the everyday life they are living without God and the people they are going to the church on Sunday but in their nights they are full of anxiety and despair and for many people it's the day life, the life, the space for pace and not the night. And for the others is the night side of the world, the moment for belief and not the everyday life. There are many people, could be described as seekers who generally say of themselves, they are spiritual people. Some of that group are former practicing Christians who parted ways with churches either having formerly left the church or remaining a passive membership but have not ceased it to be believers in their own way. These people now constitute a diffuse church in the West. One is possibly more numerous than the church of practicing Christians. Pope Benedict, evident the Pope Francis said that Jesus said that a pastor, good pastor, must leave the 99 sheeps and to seek the one which is lost. And he said now the good pastor must leave the only sheep and to seek the 99 lost. Pope Benedict has evidently realized that where the church to identify solely with practicing Christians and where to concentrate on them alone, it would soon become a sect. That is why he has urged it, the church to do like the Jews did in the temple of Jerusalem and open a court of Gentiles for those who do not fully identify with the teaching and the practice of the church but nevertheless have an ear for religion and for spirituality. Pope Francis pontificate would seem to be creating scope not only for Pious pagans but also for the ex-Catholics. In a sense, the future of the church and the future of Western civilization in general largely depends on whether the church will realize that another task awaits it in addition to pastor care for disciplined parishioners who have been termed dwellers and in addition to classical missionary activity namely the survey accompanying spiritual seekers in delt. This differs from classical missionary activity that seeks to bring seekers into the church and to squeeze them into the existing institutional and intellectual boundaries of the church. Instead, it seeks to extend those boundaries and enrich the treasure of the church with the experience of those who don't walk with us. New ecclesiology should be based on Jesus' firm response to the disciples' wish for a monopoly of the truth. Who isn't against us is for us. And new ecclesiology should be hypnotic in character and abandon any nostalgia for mass church. It should abandon notion of the church as a sect creating a counter-culture against contemporary society. And also the model of a church as an uncritically conformist in its attitude to major society. I'm now working on a book which will have a title, Afternoon of Christianity. It's an idea inspired by the Tsege-Yung, Tsege-Yung said, the human life is like a day. The use is the morning. Then came the midday crisis and then is the afternoon as the opportunity to go deeper. And I think I can apply this for the history of Christianity. The morning it was anti-modernity, the time to build the institutional structures, the doctrinal structures, and then with secularization came this midday crisis. And now we are on the threshold of the afternoon of Christianity. This struggles between the progressive and conservative. It is always the agenda of the morning. And now it is the struggle about the institutional structure, doctrinal structures, but I think there are something more important and we should spend the afternoon of the church history to going deeper. And so for the church to have an open door, Christians must have open minds. New evangelization will only be truly new if it's preceded and accompanied by a humble silence and attentive listening, the contemplative reading of the signs of the types. Thank you.


An indication of what's to come. This week Dublin played a male in a mock All-Ireland final on St Pat's campus. The teams were made up of a mixture of students across all campuses and a combination of rules of the ladies and men's football games. Academic Affairs Officer and Referee James Donohue explained the idea behind the match. We felt like the team that we wanted to really push was that we can have a vibrant campus on each of the campuses and it's student-led, so we sat down and we talked about what we could do and we felt like hand-now-free stuff was just basic, but we felt we'd do something that's really student-led and all our final weekend obviously we saw an opportunity because mass numbers from Mayo and Dublin in the college and it went really well, we're really happy with it and we're going to do a bit of daytime music and stuff in Queens because we think the daytime stuff is good for commuters and stuff like that, so really happy with it. After a considerable half-time lead for Mayo, the Dublin students fought hard back to win the match with the aid of a Mayo-owned goal. Both captains said a few words after the match, but it was the Dublin team who were smiling, bringing home the coveted Hamburg Wire Cup. Actually it was a tough one to be honest, we knew we were going to get a good game from Mayo like they were going to be hard hitting and they were going to be moving the ball fast so we knew what to expect going in, but we started off fairly poorly. I had to say it was a slow start, Mayo got on top early, but we picked it up in the second half and the goal was really made a change to the whole thing. So no, it was a good game, Mayo got a great game and we're just relieved to have the right side of the result. It went pretty good, I mean the curse had followed us the whole way here at St Patch's campus. We scored an all-goal, but look that won't get us down. Mayo are magic, Mayo madness, and Mayo are back. Come on Mayo! This is Liam Ashton for DCU TV.


We were literally just talking about the Patriots here with them being interested in one Leonard Fortnett But they had some other plans that they were taking care of Behind the scenes and of course in that video. We actually talked about how we had heard that Muhammad Sunnu wasn't doing so good, but I wasn't sure if it was true or not, but I Guess it's confirmed now And then Tom Pelicero said that the Patriots were actually trying to trade one Muhammad Sunnu But there were no suitors and NFL Of course, it's the national football league, but we all know it really stands for not for long and He was just acquired from I believe the Falcons. He used to be a bingo a while back But he was acquired from the Falcons for a second round draft pick Just last year They acquired Muhammad Sunnu for a second round draft pick So they invested some pretty high draft capital to obtain one of Muhammad Sunnu and it obviously Didn't work out Didn't work out So now he's gonna be being released Officially tomorrow So you have to pass the waivers and whatnot and then he'll become a free agent and we'll see where he ends up Now Muhammad Sunnu he does have a few few years left in him. He's somebody's not the fastest guy in the world But he's a decent blocker got some decent hands, too So he's gonna get picked up by somebody if he still wants to play he's definitely gonna get picked up by somebody So he can be a contributor to whatever often he doesn't have to be the guy He's not the guy anymore That's that's certainly not him anymore, but he can be a decent contributor To somebody's offense out there who may be in need of a receiver He's a veteran guy and he is going to have he's gonna have suitors one big reason because of this entire pandemic With this entire pandemic a lot of teams they obviously got a lot of rookie receivers who they drafted and whatnot And they expect big things out of them, but at the same time Without having to have without having gone through preseason they they haven't had that game experience yet and With NFL teams more so NFL teams and win now mode. They don't always want to sort of risk it They want more of a sure thing and not to say that a rookie can't come in and still perform well But at the same time you want somebody on your roster that's been there done that and they have that experience So Muhammad Sunnu is going to be on somebody's team this football season And I don't think it should take too long worst-case scenario for him is that it happens after week one, but I think it'll happen sooner than that Because it's cut downtime teams are cutting off the dead weight. They're getting their roster down to 53 But Mohammed Sunnu, I think he's gonna end up making it on somebody's roster actually before week one But let's see how it all turns out. So anyway, just like Mohammed Sunnu with the New England Patriots. I'm out