Hey, this is Brett and this 2017 Ram 1500 Quad Cab Short Box Express is stock number 23T102A. I'm here at Summit Automotive in Phondlec, Wisconsin, you're new and used light duty truck and Ram headquarters this 2017 Ram 1500 has the 5.7 liter V8 Hemi engine. It's paired up with the 8-speed automatic transmission. This truck has been fully safe and inspected by our service shop per the state of Wisconsin inspection process. It has a fresh oil and filter change. All the fluids have been checked and topped off and this truck is 100% ready to go. I'm going to go all the way around in this video inside, start it up, take a look under the hood. You have the most accurate representation that I can of the vehicle. Flame red is the color. I shoot all my videos in 4K and if you like the video you can subscribe to my YouTube channel which is youtube.com slash summit auto click the bell notifications you'll get updates in the videos I do each and every day as well as having access to one of the largest catalogs of vehicle walk-arounds on YouTube. This one comes with the 20 inch factory alloy wheels with the chrome covers and it comes with Goodyear Wrangler 27560R20 tires. These tires look like they have probably 60 to 70% of the tread left on them. New tires on there. Front fenders in excellent condition. Headlights are nice and clear. The express package gives you the painted front and rear bumper. No scuffs or scrapes on there. Factory fog lights, painted grille as well and the hood is in fantastic condition. I didn't see any major dents or dings on there. Passengers side front fender is in nice condition and the passengers side front wheel no major scuffs or scrapes on there. As you go down this side of this 2017 Ram 1500 take note of how clean that body is, how reflective and mirror like that paint is. Take these HD videos so if you're far away or even if you're close by and you just cannot make the trip down but you're still interested in purchasing the vehicle you can see the truck, hear the truck and have confidence in the vehicle that you're looking at before you even get here. So when you do get here there's absolutely no surprises and you can make a smart and informed buying decision from wherever you're at. Now if this video helps you make that buying decision let your salesmen know that you saw the video that it was helpful and that Brett sent you. Back wheel is in excellent condition and the back tires have right around 50 to 60 percent of the tread left on them. You get the plastic wheel well liner on there as well which keeps your frame and under body looking really good. Really nice under there. Lower rockers all look really good. These come with some nice chrome step bars and you probably saw right there, there is just a little bit of clear coat delamination on the cap there but other than than that this truck is really really nice. Coming around to the back the rear bumpers in great condition does have the chrome tip dual rear exhaust full towing package which includes receiver hitch four pin and seven pin wiring. The tailgate is in excellent condition as well that is a locking tailgate and inside the cap you can see the shocks are doing a nice job holding that door up. The bed is in really nice shape. Very little light duty usage on this truck bed. Really nice condition. Tailgates in nice shape as well and that shuts nice and solidly. Cap closes nicely too and down the driver's side just as clean as that passenger side. I didn't see any dents or dings in the box and for full disclosure this back wheel is in fantastic condition as well. Cap on this side looks really good and that's a ranch cap and down the rest of the side of the truck doors and cab all look really good. The express package comes with the heated power mirrors. Take a quick look at the back seats. They are in really nice condition no rips or tears back here. It does have the latch child safety system for any child car seats you may have. Fixed glass rear window. You get storage underneath here and factory formats back here. It does come with side turn airbags and child safety locks on the back doors. Inside and bottoms of the doors all look fantastic. Hop inside. Actually we'll take a look at the front seats here. The express package gives you the gray cloth interior, the 40-20-40 split bench seating in the front. No rips or tears on the driver or passenger seat. Factory formats up here as well and auto headlamps. Power windows locks and mirrors. Hop inside check out the miles radio and everything that this truck has to offer on the interior. See this one has 86,806 miles believe it or not. It's in really nice shape for those miles. Digital speedometer. Compass and outside temperature display and that instrument cluster is nice and clean. You get the multifunction steering wheel, Bluetooth and information center controls on the left. Cruise controls and gear selector on the right. This one comes with the Uconnect 5-inch touchscreen radio. You get AM, FM and Sirius XM radio capabilities. This is also where your backup camera shows up and you can connect your Bluetooth phone to it. 8-speed automatic transmission, your climate controls here, stability control and tow haul and this is a two-wheel drive vehicle so no push button, four-wheel drive on there, two-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive truck. That's why the price is so good on this one. Passenger side floor, mat and seat are in excellent condition and the headliner is in really nice clean condition as well. I don't think this truck's ever been smoked in and you do get map lights up there. Start it up, take a look under the hood. Starts right up. Back engine lights or anything of that nature. I wanted to show you the VIN sticker and the tire and loading information sticker real quick. No Canadian truck seat. I would personally like to thank you for checking out the video today and hopefully from this HD video you've been able to verify the quality, condition options and of course cleanliness of this truck all the way around inside. Now I think it's probably one of the cleanest 2017s with this kind of miles on it that you'll find. I don't know how it could get much cleaner. And under the hood we have the 5.7 liter V8 gas engine, engine base, very clean runs, very smooth. Once again this truck has been fully safety and inspected by our service shop, has a fresh oil and filter change, all the fluids have been checked and topped off. There's the emission sticker. Also doing a nice job holding that hood up. And this truck is 100% ready to go. I would highly recommend it from a quality and condition standpoint. I'd ship this one to Florida, Texas, New York, California, wherever, whoever is going to get this truck is going to love it. And to see more pictures of this truck or one of other 550 new and used cars, trucks, SUVs, minivans, Wranglers, half tons, two quarter tons, one tons, you name it. You've got to go to that website right there, summitauto.com. Full pictures and descriptions of every single vehicle, all at summitauto.com. And if you'd like to check out more HD videos, you can go to youtube.com slash summitauto. Click the bell notifications to get updates on the videos they do each and every day, as well as having access. One of the largest catalogs of vehicle and light duty truck walk-arounds on YouTube. In fact, in a second you'll see a link to subscribe in my YouTube channel on the upper left. A link to more Ram 1500 truck videos I've done in the upper right. Link to this vehicle on our website on the lower left and a link to one of our latest YouTube videos on the lower right. Click those check us out. We're super excited to help you with this Ultra Clean 2017 Ram 1500 Quad Cab Short Box Express Package in Flame Red Clear Coat. Thanks again for checking out the video. Remember to like, subscribe, and share on the YouTube channel. I really appreciate it. Thanks again.


Hey guys, what's up? So I'm a little late with uploads and all that stuff, the videos these days because I'm training for my, you know, my half marathon coming up this Saturday actually. And I'm also working on building my new coaching business. So sorry about that. So the following video is a little bit late because I've actually filmed it over a month ago, but better late than never. So let's go to the track and do a track session with snow on the track, all right? Let's do it. All right, so I'm on my way to the track to do my first real track session of the season. We're doing a VO2 max session. The plan is to do six times 800 meters at VO2 max pace. And we're going to throw in some 200 meter reps there as well at mile race pace. So it'll be a tough session, but tough sessions are awesome. There's still a lot of snow out here in Norway, but it's definitely spring. So the ground is the road, so to speak, it's more or less dry. And I think there's one lane on the track that's available too, we'll see in a minute. All right, so it seems more than one lane is freed up from snow. Too bad that the inner lane isn't free though because I would love to run 400 meter for the lap, but whatever, close enough. So let's get changed and get started with our warm-up. All right, so we're warming up. I like to do the warm-up clockwise, which is essentially the wrong way around the track, but I think it's a good idea just to move both ways a little bit, as long as there's no other people here. All right, so I've done the warm-up four kilometers. I did it mostly easy, did a little bit of like a couple of laps at a little bit of a faster pace, and then I did a few strides at the end, just four light strides. Now I'm gonna do some foam rolling. It's my first time doing foam rolling at the track, actually, but I think it's a good idea. You know, I've been struggling a little bit with various injuries. I'm very prone to getting quad strains and glute strains. So I think it's a good idea to just get those muscles nice and supple just before the workout. So I'll start out by doing two times 200 meters, just a couple of them. To touch on that speed, I'll do a 200 meter walk in between. So it's basically a lap where I run 200 meters fast and then 200 meters walk. Do that twice. And then I'll do six times 800 meters, as I've said, with two minutes rest. So, you know, I'll do the 800 meters in about three minutes, a little more than three minutes. All right, I'm gonna get changed. Just take off this jacket and stuff, and then we're gonna get going. All right, we've done our 200 meter reps at mile race pace, about. And now it's time to do the video to max work. So we're starting over there. Two laps, 800 meters. I'll put you guys down here. So you can watch me as I pass by. We went out a little bit too fast. We'll see. The heart rate will keep rising over the course of the six repetitions. So it's good to be a bit on the conservative side at the beginning, actually, which is not what I did. But we'll try to keep it steady on this second rep. Put you guys down here. So you can see me from the back this time. It's a little bit cold. So I put on my hat again. I'm gonna put on some gloves as well. I'll put you guys up here now. So you can see me coming through the turn. That was hard. And I'm definitely running a bit too fast. We can slow down a bit by the lactate. So just gotta be even more conservative. So difficult sometimes to just hit that right pace. So easy to get a little bit too eager, especially in the first half of a lap or the first half of a session even, just overdoing it a little bit, ending up not being able to hit the right type of intensity in those later reps. So I've decided to take a little bit of a longer recovery before the last three reps. So I've done three. I have three to go. And so rather than doing two minutes between, probably gonna do three, possibly even four. We'll see. And just jog it out a bit. Because you know, when it comes to lactate, lactic acid, hydrogen ions, acidity essentially in the muscle, active recovery is better. Meaning if you just sit down and rest, even though that might feel really good, you're actually recovering less than if you went for a jog like I'm doing right now. And that's because when you're jogging, your muscles are actually in your heart, et cetera, are actually consuming lactate, clearing lactate. So clearing lactate is a good thing. Of course, in a workout like this, you actually want a fair bit of lactate because that's actually part of the training effect that comes from running with a lot of lactate. You know, VO2 max pace is a very anaerobic pace. Even though it is considered maximum aerobic capacity, there's still a lot of anaerobic contribution to the metabolism at that point. So all right, so we've done three minutes break now. So we'll do four minutes. So I'll put the camera down here. You can watch me from the side this time. I was able to keep it a little bit more conservative on that one, which is good. But I still need to keep it even more a little bit on the conservative side. Because honestly, I'm probably better off doing like somewhere between 5K and 10K pace on this workout rather than true VO2 max pace, just to ease into it a little bit as I have a few more weeks where I'll do workouts like this. So it's good to just start off a little bit easier. So note to self, even easier on the next rep. Now what puzzles me is, you know what? I'm gonna save that for the next talk after the next rep. There's something that puzzles me with in terms of my heart rate and pace. We'll get to that in a minute. We have two more reps. Sure put you guys on the other side maybe. We'll vary it, the view. So there you are on the other side. Two more reps, 130. So I have 30 more seconds of rest and then we hit it. Kept it more conservative on that one. Around like, I guess, 356 per kilometer pace, which that's closer to like 10K pace for me. So that's good. All right, what puzzles me is that I'm just hitting like 190 and maybe 192 in terms of heart rate and my max is like 208, at least 205, I've seen 205. So that's, I find that strange because that's pretty much the same heart rate I have when I do lactate threshold runs in this. Maybe the heat is a factor because it's pretty damn cool right now. So I don't know. All right, there's one more to go. One more to go. I'll put you guys up. I'll put you guys up here and I'll actually do it from here. So finish up at the finish line. All right. We did it, 345 pace. I think it has to do with the heat, must be. So when it's warmer out, I'll get a higher heart rate. So my lactate threshold heart rate today would probably be like 185 or something, right? And then my video to max heart rate is more like 192 whereas on a hot day, my video to max heart rate is more like 200, 203, that sort of thing. Whereas my lactate threshold heart rate would be like 190 in those situations. So yeah. Anyway, it was a good workout. I always love going to the track. It's always a lot of fun. And today was a bit interesting with the snow. So anyway, first workout done. I'm gonna do three weeks of video to max focus. I'll still do threshold. And then I'll follow that up with three weeks of more like race pace, half marathon pace, threshold pace, that sort of thing. But we'll still touch on the video to max pace. And then we'll throw in a little bit of that sort of mile race pace, just like the fast reps in between there, just to maintain some speed and work on that economy and leg turnover. And so that'll be good. I wasn't able to put down as good of a base as I wanted over the winter. As you probably know, I did. If you follow me on Strava, there's a link in the description to my Strava profile. You'll be able to look at this workout, look at the heart rate data and analyze it and stuff. So if you follow me on Strava, you'll know that I've struggled a little bit over the winter with a couple of bouts of cold. And I also did get like a couple of minor niggles and stuff like that. So I wasn't able to get the mileage up as much as I wanted, but it's all right. It's all right. Maybe I'll be able to tolerate these harder workouts now without any tendon issues or anything like that. So anyways, thanks for watching. I'm gonna do a cool down and yeah, that's it for the day in terms of training. So hope your training is going well. Leave a comment down below what you think of this workout and if you've done anything similar lately and please subscribe of course if you haven't done so already. I'll put a link to some of my other track vlogs somewhere here as you can check that out. All right, have a great day. Bye.


The behavior of a parasite is the action of a living organism benefiting and thriving in their surroundings at the expense of the natural environment for the purpose of survival. Humans have shown parasitic behavior on earth for thousands of years now, but with proper understanding of our impact on other living organisms, we can change and in the new age of communication we can focus our attention on the things we have impacted the most and as we look to make planet earth our sustainable base home in the centuries ahead for the purpose of space exploration in the expansion of human interest. Our home should be the place we are the most proud of and if we ever encounter another civilization in the universe then we should be as awake as possible for that inevitability. Lidar technology has accelerated the discovery of the past and this will help us piece together the end of previous civilizations under cataclysmic occurrences so we can prepare our people better for these inevitable circumstances in the future. Lidar is an exciting technology at the forefront of discovery. Only a few years ago this was unimaginable and so was the idea that the 4 billion people on the earth that are not connected to the internet suddenly being connected. At the beginning of 2020 for example we had around 2000 orbiting satellites well it is all about to get much more crowded up there in the great unknown because in the age of technology an explosion of knowledge is going to be unleashed on the population as an apparent effort to accelerate the awakening which is now begun. Wait till you hear this. When it is completed and brought into operation SpaceX Starlink satellite system will be the largest satellite system ever brought into operation and other companies are making similar arrangements to compete and this is good news for the unconnected but signifies major problems for others. This will unfortunately affect earth viewing of the universe as the satellites are appearing as white streaks competing with the stars. Astronomers say these satellites will seriously hamper stargazing from the earth. It remains to be seen how damaging this may be when the satellites are brought online later this year. The satellites are going to bring high speed internet access to everyone on the planet that is the goal. Even in the most remote regions the idea is that if you have enough of these satellites bouncing the signals about all over the place then it is close to impossible to not get a connection. Instead of being constrained by wires and cables satellites can beam internet access down to the ground from space. Currently there are just 2000 odd active satellites flying around the earth but when the starlink constellation is complete there could be over 12 000 in orbit. They are currently on their third batch of launches launching 60 satellites into orbit every few weeks. This will mean about 1500 satellites will have been launched by the end of next year and by the mid 2020s there could be a fleet of 12 000. UK company OneWeb are aiming for about 650 satellites but this could rise to 2000 if there is enough customer demand while Amazon have a constellation of 3200 spacecraft planned. The night sky it seems could become visibly busier and if you are an astronomer then this could be a concern. An astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich said these satellites are about the size of a table but they're very reflective and their panels reflect lots of the sun's light which means that we can see them in images that we take with telescopes. These satellites are also big radio wave users and that means they can interfere with the signals the astronomers use so it also affects radio astronomy as well. The astronomer warns that problems will grow as the number of satellites in orbit increase. They present a foreground between what we're observing from the earth and the rest of the universe so they get in the way of everything and you'll miss whatever is behind them whether that's a nearby potentially hazardous asteroid or the most distant quasar in the universe. It will be particularly troublesome for telescopes taking large surveys of the sky such as the future large synoptic survey telescope LSST in Chile. What we want to do with LSST and other telescopes is to make a real-time motion picture of how the sky is changing. Now we have these satellites that interrupt observations and it's like someone's walking around firing a flash bulb every now and again. SpaceX said in a statement that they were actively working with international astronomers to minimize the impact of the Starlink satellites. For the next launch which launched January 8th they are trialing a special coating that is designed to make the spacecraft less bright to see if this will help but this remains to be seen. The explosion in technological development is the result of humans making improvements to necessary developments. Through trial and error we can make things cleaner, more sustainable and by connecting civilization we can deliver these changes. If the Starlink satellite constellation works then 4 billion earthlings will have internet access within a few years. Not only are our skies about to get crowded the internet is about to blow up as well. What do you guys think about this anyway? Comments below and as always thank you for watching.


Hey guys Dylan Schumacher, Citadel Defense, and today I wanted to talk about the Bravo Concealment I think it's called a super pack or something like that I'm just gonna call it a civilian battle belt. It's kind of made-up term But or or a concealable battle belt I guess it's maybe a better way to say that but it has the main elements that I would want on a Battle belt and it comes in kind of these three little packs and it comes all together. I think it's like 80 bucks Pretty decent deal and I ordered mine about a month ago I got it about a week ago and I've been testing it out since then and I've really liked it And so I thought I should share it with you So the first thing let's talk about is the holster Okay Holster comes with adjustable belt loops so you can adjust it for a straight draw rather than a canted draw It comes set up for a 10 degree can't But you can adjust it for a straight draw which is the best way to do that I went with the outside the waistband holster eventually. This is all going to go into cash I'll do a video on that later or a cache. Have you want to pronounce that to be fancy? So with the holster itself. This is the 3.0 holster, which I like a lot I think they did a really good job. This is a One I got about a year ago I think it's a 2.0 and as you can see here the kydex has a lot more flex to it They used a lot thinner kydex about a year ago Whereas this is much stiffer It's much more sturdy and I just really like the feel of it a lot better So I think they've really up their kydex game and I love this holster. I think it's a fantastic holster It clicks in pretty positively You can hear that it does not come out, right? So it's a great holster been a huge fan of that There's no adjustable retention or anything on this particular holster, but it doesn't need it as it is Comes great. I might end up end up cutting off the sweat guard here I'm not a big fan of sweat guards in general on any of my holsters and This bump here will kind of dig into your side a little bit Which can just get annoying so fantastic holster highly recommended I think just the holster you can buy on their website for like 40-ish bucks 45 bucks. That's a steal This is the fantastic holster. I would highly recommend it So that's the holster they on their 3.0 mag pouches here They have a this is a double mag pouch and really what they did is they took two single pouches and they just Riveted them together Usually if you look at their single pouches, that's just one of these with a belt loop right here And they just riveted two of them together. This this does have adjustable retention I did have to play with that a little bit, but not a big deal This is decently comfortable. It doesn't like wear on you It weighs a decent amount and it doesn't wear on you like it exhausts you or anything. So Love these. These are great. And then the air 15 pouch has a great positive click and Comes out smooth goes in smooth. It just has two simple belt loops. Nothing complicated there They do have a screw to adjust for attention. I never used that Came great as is But a huge thing in this pouch I also like that they beveled the lips out a little bit here Which makes it a lot easier to put the mag back into the pouch So that was some good thinking there just a small little detail that was helpful So the way all this works right is you can just take your standard belt for me This is a mag pull gun belt right or an Aries gear gun belt or whatever And this can all fit on your gun belt and it rides pretty comfortably like I said I've worn this whole kit for about a week and it's not been too bad I mean, it's it's some weight obviously and if you have a good belt That's gonna really be the difference there between it being comfortable or not comfortable However, I found it to be entirely comfortable entirely adequate and like I said for me I like this because one it's affordable I mean it's 80 ish bucks that goes on a gun belt that you should own anyway So it's not like you're really having to spend a lot of money on a hundred and two hundred dollars Just on a new battle belt and then all the pouches and stuff to go on that you can buy this as is and boom You're ready to go. So I really appreciate that factor and like I said for me This is eventually going to ride in a weapons cache so it's not super expensive yet, it's completely functional and That cash is gonna reside somewhere where I often travel to to take classes So I will no longer have to fly there with firearms, which is kind of a pain and Rather I can just have this stashed in place. I can show up. I can put all this on I can carry while I'm there and then I can also take classes while I'm there and have all the requisite equipment So this is a great little kit for that if you want a battle belt kind of setup and you Don't want to break the bank. This would be a really good option for you. Like I said, I love all this kydex It's extremely high quality for what it costs. I can't believe it and It's extremely functional. It works really really well The only thing this battle belt setup is missing of course is some kind of medical kit that which I would recommend you put on Your belt, but you can do that separate as it is for the tools for the fight. This is a great setup Just super big fan of it. So I'm not wearing the most concealable shirt thing today, but it conceals decently well Well enough that if I wanted to carry it and I wanted to conceal it I could do that The biggest thing to drop would be the AR-15 pouch because I don't know if you're carrying a rifle around too much But that would be the easiest thing to drop. But honestly, I don't know if that really prints that bad Then the holster itself of course lines up and you have your two mags So it's a nice little setup. It doesn't weigh too bad on a good gun belt And like I said, I would recommend it to you. So that's all I have at this point Let me know if you got any thoughts on it. Till then, do brave deeds and endure


Hello everyone and welcome to Inside Leather History of Fireside Chat. I'm Doug O'Keefe, the host and the producer of the chats. The Fireside Chat series is a program of the Leather Archives and Museum. This evening, I am on the Zoom chat with Gretchen Rene, who was, I want to get this right, you were Alaska State Boot Black 2018 International Ms. Boot Black 2019. Correct. Okay. And it's very late in the evening in Chicago, but because of the time change, it's only seven o'clock for you this evening. So I'm glad we can sit down and do your chat. Gretchen, let's begin right at the beginning. Tell me a little bit about your growing up, where you're from, your family. Born and raised up here in Alaska, mainly Anchorage, so South Central Alaska. And I have one older sister. My parents lived nowadays about a two and a half hour drive south of here, but they moved up in like the late 40s and 50s when they were young. So technically first generation, but not really. Then I went, let's see, I moved to Seattle for school and then Phoenix for four years, and then I've been back up here for nine. So what brought your parents up to Alaska? They didn't have much choice. They were a year and a half and three years old. Both their fathers actually came up for work and then did the whole send for the family a year later once they were better established kind of deal. Okay. So that had to be a very challenging time. Alaska was still very much in the growth process some years ago. Yeah, yeah, I think so.  Just because it's such a different, their lives were very different compared to family members and cousins who lived outside, outside being the lower 48 or outside Alaska. Yeah, but I think also in some ways I'm jealous of the experiences they got to have. It's changed so much even since I was a kid, like Anchorage is practically doubled in size since I was a kid. There's a lot more here now and that's been in, you know, 20, 30 years versus back in the 60s when my parents were at school in Fairbanks and hitchhiking in the winter from Fairbanks to Anchorage, which, you know, is roughly 400 miles. So tell me a little bit about your growth in the leather community, your growth in the, as you went toward boot blacking and other things in the community. So it's funny in that I officially started in the community at large, if you will, in 2012, fall 2012, looking back a lot more from, made sense from when I was, you know, toddler and on a lot of things made more sense. But when I first started the community more on the just kink and fetish side and trying things out and I never, I thought, oh, well, there's this, there's this what I'm doing and then there's leather over here where there are, you know, we didn't know of that many people that were real leather folks here and just that preconceived notion, whatever that was. So it's interesting to realize for me over time, for a lot of things like I wouldn't have thought myself nine years ago, if someone said, oh, you're a leather woman, I would have been like, I don't think so am I? I don't know. But it's kind of like a, it's funny about a lot of identities that I have is that it's built in top like over time where the suddenly the realization is, oh, yeah, yeah, that does describe me. Okay, great. It's been, it's been interesting. It's been interesting to go from kind of not even a spectrum, but like one area thinking that was my thing and then realizing there was this core of leather underneath. If that makes sense at all, I don't know. Let's take a bit of a step back because you alluded to the leather scene explaining a few things from when you were a toddler. Tell us about that. Certain fantasies from a very young age made a lot more sense. They usually involve some form of bondage, I realize now. At the time, it was just being strange and pressure points or whatever, like, oh, please, no, press on that.  I'm like, no, it feels good when you're digging in more and the look on her face. She really, I think she was a little shocked, a little disturbed. She probably realizes now makes a lot more sense. Just the things that I found, I think, intriguing or alluring, like one of my first crushes, lady crushes, whatever you want to call it, was the character Lady Heather on CSI, who is a dominatrix in like season two. And I was just captivated, absolutely captivated. It just hit a chord, if you will. And apparently it was more obvious to others than it was to me. So I think, what was I, 16, 15, 16. And in some German high school, in a high school German class, and it was one of those projects of, okay, get together in pairs and talk about figure out what your partner is going to be when they grow up, and then find a German word and draw a picture. My partner drew, to my surprise me, as a dominatrix, a stick figure dominatrix with fangs and a whip and high heels and a corset with little bandaged bleeding and crying figures in the back offering me bags of money. I was like 15, 16. So it really made me, people had better ideas about things than I did myself. Tell us more about that evolution when you were young. What were you doing? Experimenting? Were you reading about this? Tell us how that evolved. So I'd say, probably when I was very young, it was more about sensation. Like the feeling of taking, like a lanyard for keys or a piece of twine and just wrapping it really tight, pulling tight for the feeling of constriction, being able to pull around, certain pain things, pressure points, or it's probably part of the reason why my pinkies are a little crooked, is I used to do this really, really, really hard. I probably broke them at some point, but it felt good. It just, it, yeah, it just felt good. It just felt good. So, yeah, some of the early sexual fantasies that generally involved things that weren't, I don't know, oh, he's going to take me on a date and blah, blah, blah, whatever, you know. And similarly, when I was in high school, I was the, I thought I was one of the straight members of my apologies now to everyone I told that to. I didn't know. No, I know. Same thing in college, but one of the members, we started a GSA in my high school.  It's a student group, yeah. And like our very first summer, after we've been around for, I think, a year, the Westboro Baptist Church came up to pick it, the city, and all the churches and the parade and all that. So we marched and all that, but that same year we went to, there was a small workshop or weekend conference at the local university. And one of the other students and I were able to go for a short period.  And leaving, because we had to head home or back to school or wherever it was, past, we were walking out in past, one of the women who had been in the class, she had gone after a cop, obviously, for something and had come back in. And it was just a double, what's that term? A double look? Second look, I had to look again. I'm forgetting the word. Delighted? Yeah. Double take. There we go. Because she was just, when I could barely, I can, just that feeling of warmth and connection and I mean, hell, it's been over 20 years and I'm still just like, don't know that I've ever seen her again, but just that recognition of, it was just really delicious. So things like that, that at the time, let me do my own thing, looking back, I'm like, oh yeah, nope, I have a type. Okay. When did you begin really experimenting with other women? Way late, honestly. Well, sometimes in my 20s, probably. And then even then, not, not much. It was, I think some of my own, oh, what would you call it?  Do you identify as a lesbian or as queer? How do you identify? Very good question. It's something that's definitely been continuing to evolve from me. You know, I used to think of myself as being, no, I'm straight, I'm friendly, but I'm absolutely straight. I'm only like guys. I blah, blah, blah. And then as time went on, coming across the idea, I'm like, oh, I feel, I feel queer. I feel this way, but you know what?  That's not me.  I'm not enough to count as queer. I'm not enough as to be this or this. And that's, that's been an interesting development. You know, I really love, there was a quote from Jack Thompson, whom I adore, when he won IML. And I literally, I actually have it, someone I made an art piece and I have it hanging above my desk at work, that says, if you're enough for you, then you're enough, period. And I think about that a lot. I think about that a lot. Because I didn't know necessarily where I fit in. And I, I've always struggled with, what am I? Where do I fit? Because I didn't necessarily feel like I fit clearly one place or another. So I, I do identify as queer. My pronouns are she, she, she, her. I really, I like people more than I like a set gender. And I find a lot of people alluring and a lot of energy delicious, if that makes sense, whether it's play, romantic, sexual.   It's more about, it's more imbued through my life. So things will like my belief that the personal is political. And so is pleasure. Pleasure is absolutely political.  And also just that sense of energy and trying to be present in my body and feel all the things.  So those all kind of like, link up for me. Identify as queer, identify as a leather woman, identify as Jewish. I'm neurodivergent. So in some things that puts me under a disability umbrella, I guess, and the black, but and then I'm also a switch. But in my current relationship and a lot of relationships, I tend to be more on the S side of the slash. But there are times that goes on the other side. So I just feel like a big mix, if that makes sense. Tell us about early experimentation. How were you finding out about this whole genre of lifestyles? So it's something. I'm watching your facial expressions. They're great. From the early, early feelings of sensation, you know, certain pains felt good, pressure and restriction felt good. The type of character that I found enthralling like Lady Heather, my first relatively like, well, I can't even say totally first. How old was I when I, okay, see, there's something else that makes sense. I got an adult fantasy novel somehow. I don't know how I got it at the bookstore, but I did when I was 11, because I remember showing it to my fifth grade teacher and having, you know, me reading through this section where it talks about like a raping bench and things like that. And she just like, okay, why don't you put that book away? And I think I was probably the summer after high school, I did, I read the what is that? The Sleeping Beauty trilogy from Anne Rice, I think. But my first more in-person exposure and experimentate, not even experimentation, just exposure was when I was at university my first year in Seattle during, they had some like sexuality awareness week or something. And they had Mr. Matisse come and do a lecture or talk, something like that. And, oh yeah, I was so excited. I don't know, I didn't know at the time, like, why I was so flippant excited to have heard about her coming. I just was like, I gotta go. I took one of my door mates and she's like, oh, okay. And went and sat in the, yeah. I'm sorry, would you please tell us about Mr. Matisse? So she's a Seattle area dominatrix. I believe she was a prodom. And then also she wrote for, what was it, The Stranger, which was an alternative newspaper in Seattle. She actually had a pretty regular column called Control Tower. So she and I want to say she brought one of her S types with her to do a talk during sexuality week about alternative lifestyles, I think would probably be the official term. And yeah, I just, I had to go. I absolutely, I just knew I had to go. And I took my neighbor there at the dorm and, you know, eagerly awaiting. And I just, I felt like I hung on every word. I found it just absolutely fascinating. And it was just, I loved it. I loved it. There was something about it that just felt like it made perfect sense. And that it was perfectly right. It's actually really funny, because I knew just like vaguely new to the other students that were there, like sitting directly behind my friend and I from the Hillel, the student Jewish group that I went to. And that's a good way of really breaking the ice, you know, if you're at a small gathering, listening to a dominatrix talk together, really does a good job at breaking the ice. And it's really funny because one of the two, they both became really, really good friends and still are friends. But after their initial embarrassment, I didn't pay attention, one of them actually eight years later became the first person I ever played with when I was visiting them in New York City. So, and then they were really like my introduction to the larger scene, you know, my first actual play happened with this person. And they took me to the Purple Passion in New York City, which I love and I go to every time I'm in the city. And that's actually where I think it's Lola. When we were there, she told me about the, because I was getting ready to move back up to Alaska and she told me about that there was an Alaska community. So I learned about the Alaskan Fetish and Kent community and Fet Life and Northern Exposure, which is our yearly conference. I learned about that from someone in a BDSM shop in New York City. How fascinating. Yeah, it's a small world and I love it that way. Well, tell us more about the Alaska community. What do you have? Okay, what do we have? Can you, can you be more?  No, I'm just, what, what kind of clubs do you have? What organizations are there? What activities go on? If someone like, we're coming to Alaska, what could I anticipate? Very good question. Very good question. We have a fairly relatively small, I think community compared to a lot of places outside because our demographic pool, our population is relatively smaller. And we can be really isolated from other communities because of the geography, the distance. A lot of times when people travel to an outside event for the first time, it's absolutely mind blowing because there are so many people and the, the vibe is just different. I think a lot of people get spoiled living outside of Alaska for the risk, heard it a number of times when presenters and educators have come up here and Alaskans turn out and they play hard because we don't have always the same level of opportunity. We can't just drive to another state over. We could, it would take a week, but we could. So, I mean, it's possible. Here in Anchorage, we have, we have the more widely known gay bar, Mad Myrna's does a weekly drag show, all that good stuff. You know, a block and a half away, we have the Raven, which is our leather bar smaller, but it's definitely building up a little more. That's where we host a lot of events for our leather community. Up until a few years ago, I think about two years ago, we had a, gosh, it's coming up on three years ago. We actually had for five years, the Alaska Center for Alternative Lifestyles, which was done by the Fox fighter productions.  And then there were parties, there would be workshops or classes, social events during the week, play parties on Fridays and Saturdays, usually a boot black on duty on the weekends. That was really great. The club was around for about five years, I think.    So many levels. It's really interesting in Alaska. We're kind of a mix in that on the one hand, we can be pretty internationally minded and also open minded. Historically, a lot of people in Alaska have been like, well, I don't really care what you do. Just don't mess with what I do. And we'll get along fine. That's changed over time. I think there are a lot more churches and people are more conservative and just with more people. Population wise, some of that feeling and that sense has changed. So people seem to care a little bit more now about other people's business. So we have a mix of, hey, you know what, do what makes you happy if you're not hurting someone else? Then you have other places like in Fairbanks, to my understanding, it's against the law because someone cannot, you know, being particularly impact or BDSM activities because there you cannot consent to your own abuse, quote, unquote. So it's an interesting difference, you know, versus Anchorage. All right, open dungeon. We had a trifle on the street. Cool, great. Fairbanks, even at a house party, we noticed, we'd got up there and years ago noticed that people wouldn't stand and watch a scene happening necessarily the way they would at other events, you know, in Anchorage or outside. And we asked at one point, we said, okay, well, obviously someone's interested because they're looking with and they quickly, not like with a hand, but they're not looking as much and certainly outstanding. And we made that comment to a friend at the time who lived up there.  It's technically illegal here in Fairbanks. They're not used to being able to see or to watch because it's not legal. And that that's a little, we have a huge mix. We have a huge mix of things, you know, even at, and I think it's the case everywhere. In the case of like pride parade and pride and does leather or kink or blah, blah, blah, or long at pride. I think that's pretty much every year and every June it comes back up. It was probably two, three years ago, pride. Yeah, 2019. I think two or three years ago. And Alaska Center for Alternative Lifestyles, we always marched in the parade towards the back, happy to bring up the rear. And that's comfortable for us. And there was some group in the pride parade. It was one or two away from us. I don't even remember something relatively vanilla, but we're dressed. No one was showing nipples, although technically in Anchorage, nudity from the top up is totally legal on the street. It doesn't matter what parts you got. You don't have to wear pasties outside in a bar or a cab array setting. It's different. Wow. You could march naked from the top up down Fifth Avenue. No problem. But you see how that mixed and then there was this group that when we're all prepping and gathering for the parade in the morning, blah, blah, blah, they looked at us and said, uh-uh. And they left. They refused to march next to us. They didn't want to be next to those people and they left. Wow. So overall, I feel like we've got a pretty good community. Like most communities, there's factions and changing and oh, there's this new thing and oh, this person, lots of this happening. It was interesting with the pandemic kind of setting in some of the newer groups that it started. For a while, we usually had about three different groups and a lot of people would float between different social groups, if you will. But there's constantly changes. This group, the leaders moved out of state. So that kind of went by the wayside. But then these people came back to Alaska because there's a lot of transience in that sense. So like all things, it ebbs and flows. It ebbs and flows. But we do really like to get together when there's not a pandemic. And it's just, it's exciting and it feels different at events here than most events I've been to outside. So I feel like most events here are a little more, this doesn't sound strange, but homegrown, home grassroots in some sense, which I know throws some people off. They're used to, hey, this is the yearly conference. There are 180 people coming. Shout out to them on the exposure. But it's, they're used to, okay, it's at this specific venue with these specific badges, this is the schedule. And there's some of that. Absolutely. There's a lot of that. And a lot of work goes into it. But it's, it feels more like the whole community, for the most part, comes together to help with it, rather than just attending, if that makes sense. Yeah, it just, it feels more, just different, more down to earth sometimes, which some people are all for and other people not really a big fan of, and that's okay, because we all got our things. When do you hold Northern exposure? It's usually every July. Obviously this year and last year, kind of mess that up. But it's typically in the summer, the weather is gorgeous. Doesn't interfere with fishing too much. We love to fish here. But it's lovely also. I'm sadistic enough.  And I get to tell them this fall. I love that.  It's great. Now, what sorts of things do you do during Northern exposure? A lot of different educational classes and workshops on a variety of topics, soft skills, hard skills, panels, round tables. So we've got a lot of those. There's usually the Alaska State Blue Platt Contest. Typically happens that weekend. And then there are a couple of play parties. It's usually officially a Friday, Saturday, Sunday. But then we have presenters that have come up that come up a little bit before and stay afterwards. So there's things like going sightseeing or going fishing. Just the fun stuff and being able to really spend more one-on-one time with people that you've either never met or you haven't seen in a while. Really hot play. Really, really hot play. But it's an incredible chance to get to really get one-on-one time. Not that they have to, obviously, if they don't want to, but historically, community-wise, community members were driving, picking up presenters and saying, okay, you need coffee. Let me go grab you this coffee and take you to the class and all this happening. And I feel like you don't get that some other places. So it makes some really, really good connections that way. Let's take a step back, though. I'd like to know more about your learning process for boot blacking. How did that evolve for you? My sir's boots were horrible. That's literally how it started. My sir and I have been together oh, it was four years in August. And one of the things we talked about entering into our relationship was expectations. What I really enjoy service and what does the service look like to me? Okay. Well, and what does my sir want for service? And leather care was one of those things. He wears leather boots, at least at that point, was wearing leather boots that were pretty much his only footwear. Whether it was working in a restaurant kitchen, hiking on a glacier, take your pick. They were falling apart, shredding holes. You couldn't tell what color the leather was originally. And so I was like, okay, Panda, I need help. What do I do with this mess? And Panda was great. I was starting to show me. So I started doing that. Okay. I actually kind of like that. I like how things feel. I like having something to focus on and use my hands on. Then it also turns out pretty nice. Okay. So yeah, it just started there. Had it done a whole lot. And then I was, he debates whether this is entirely true, most of the time, he just admits it. So like a few weeks before the 2018 contest for state bootblock, there was some conversation about, oh, one of our friends, Preston, was getting ready to run. He's like, oh, you should do it. And I'm like, no. And sir, look at me said, do I really need to volunteer you? He essentially volunteered me to run for the contest. But what were you? So I blame this all on him. What were you able to do with his boots? You said they were in terrible shape. I cleaned them a lot. Multiple, multiple, multiple times I cleaned them. I fixed laces. Actually, I might have replaced his laces because there wasn't much hope. I picked out years worth of pebbles and gravel ground into the sole. I reglue bits of the sole of the soleing that had come off. At that point, I didn't know how to patch holes.  And they looked like actual boots. And you could tell they were leather. And then he wore them for another week, and they devolved. And I was very sad for a little while. But take us a little further back.  We had talked about caring for his leathers. He had boots, he had a vest, like a bar vest, and a leather jacket that he wore and still wears. Huge majority of the time. And it's something that I liked the touch of and I liked the feel of.  Okay, well, I want to make you happy. This would be something that do. And then it just kind of became a monster on its own. Yeah. Before that, though, I honestly, I didn't, like I knew it existed vaguely in the back part of my mind. But it wasn't really on my front burner, if that makes sense. Now, you mentioned Panda, another boot black in Alaska. Were you otherwise recorded in that area? So Panda, absolutely. Bow Black from Washington State, Mickey Rebel, Door, Mickey. And there have been so many other people that have been really happy to learn from. Although I feel like I never, never enough. You know, I never were quite, I want more. I want more and then life intercedes. So those would be some of my first people that really working with. Now, do you have specific products that you like to use? Most boot blacks, I find, do have that. It really depends on what I'm using it for or what type of leather I'm working on. We have up here, we do a lot, a lot, a lot of oil tans rather than high shines. So I really love really thick, heavy conditioners. I really like open offs. I've made some of my own like soap and I know Panda makes a really nice conditioner as well. A lot of times I just, I've used Hubert's, I have to be in the right mood for Hubert's or Hubbard's, if that makes sense. Open offs is more my go-to because of the, I think the smell and I like the way it feels, whether the oil or the more the ointment style. Now, what do you mean to be in the right mood for Hubert's? You know, this is going to sound strange. I think I generally would use Hubert's, I'd be more up to use Hubert's in a scene if it's something I know that the person liked and it was more, not really for show, but more experiential than more just for leather care. If I like a night in the club, a lot of times I would still use open offs. I'm not a, I'm, I know, I'm going to bless being here. I'm not personally a huge fan of the smell or taste of Hubert's. I know, waiting for lightning to strike. But you know, I really, I just, I love the feel and the smell of open offs and the beeswax and I just really like those. But if it's something where, oh, some of my favorite things to do, honestly, are even at events like there's a fet ball, a fetish ball fundraiser most years, to benefit one of our local non-pros. That's a HIV and AIDS charity, essentially. And so that's a big thing where, you know, the, the vanilla people get to come and look because the people are the show, meaning us. And that's definitely a, right? Yeah, we're the show. But it raises some really good money for a really, really good cause.  I get to spank people and they ask for it. But similarly, as part of that, doing like the blacking demo or scene, keywords with the tint, I wear white. You can really see it a lot better when it's smeared all over. Same with polishes, diamonds, things like that. When it comes to polishes, I tend to like Lincoln the best. So fear is beautiful. But I save it because it's a small tint and it's expensive. Tell us a little bit about boot blacking in the community in Alaska. Are you able to go into the Raven and do this? Or is this more something you would do in a private party setting? It can be done in a private party. Generally, you can do it at the Raven. And at events, we absolutely do it at the Raven. It's still something like trying to get people to recognize more, if that makes sense. Panda does a really good job on the blessing of the bikes in the spring. You know, for when motorcycles hit the road, there's a huge blessing on the bikes. And there's usually a boot blacker too there. I've done boot blacking on some Saturdays at, it's been a few years now, at Tandy Leather here in Anchorage. And definitely at the Raven, we have a boot black stand there. It's currently in storage. We're going to get COVID, but that was made to sit there at the Raven for during events. You know, most private house parties, not so much certain play parties, more official ones, like from the show box, from Sarah, or at a cow, those kind of parties, those generally will have more of a black kind of on duty, if you will. Tell us about preparing for the Alaska, I want to get this right, Alaska State Boot Black, because you said that your sir was threatening to volunteer you. Yeah. That time is really a blur. A lot of these things become a blur. Just trying to figure out, like what is this and what is this and how do I make this go there? Yeah, it was a lot of more practicing and trying to just figure out what the hell I was doing. And especially as I got closer being able and kind of talking myself up, if that makes sense, I tend to be more of an introvert, having to talk myself in and up to the lean in, letting my flirtatiousness come out, which a lot of the time I tend to otherwise like bring back and like reign it in, reign it in. Oh yeah, some of my favorite photos from that weekend. I've got a corset, tits are up to here. Oh yeah, just, oh, I'll just do anything. I mean, not quite anything. And just being able to embrace that, I think. So there are different components of that, of getting more comfortable with talking to people, the physical skills, and then just lean and just go for it. I think that was a lot of the prep, which is good because there really wasn't much time. It was just a few weeks beforehand. How many contestants were there your year? For Alaska State, I was one of three. Okay. Okay. Now, what do you feel set you apart to win that? I think just different energy. You know, I also tend to sometimes hyper focus. So just, I'm getting this done. I'm getting this done. I can't go and look at anything else. I've got to stick and do this and not letting myself get distracted sometimes because otherwise, I am very distractible. Very distractible. Shiny objects, a lot. So I think that was probably part of it. Also, it coincided to my benefit with women of drummer having a regional meeting at Northern Exposure. So in that case, the girls and the feminine energy definitely worked on my favor. What did you have to do as part of your contest in order to win the title? So for the Alaska State competition, it was a few different categories. One, selling raffle tickets at the beginning, of course, and then to raise money, stand time and spending it, getting your stand time in, having people come and sit for you, and then people could give tickets to whoever, you know, whatever person they thought did the best. There was a a tech boot to do. And then also a speech. The speech, I don't believe, counted towards points for anything, but it was a good practice because you're to give it in front of everybody. And unlike many other bootleg competitions, there was a fantasy portion on stage. Yeah. So that made it extra fun, nerve-wracking, but also fun with music and, yep, right there. What did you do for your fantasy? Oh, I want to say I did something along the lines of, like, there was a music mix, and it was pretty much, I like to think, most switches fantasy, but maybe it's just me, of being able to come home and being the more the dominant partner and being taken care of and loved and eaten out by a beautiful red-haired woman and an apron, lovely versus and then having my sir come in and yank me around and beat me and she's kissing me here and he's yanking my hair and I got to have my way with both of them. So that worked for me. After winning that, what were you able to do with your title? So I was able to do some really nice state things, doing some small classes and things in the state within the state of Alaska, and Saral was awesome and sent me to events outside as well. So I got to go to things like women of drummer, just being able to go to events. Why am I driving a blank? Being able to go to events outside, events in the state. Yeah, that was pretty sweet and just trying to increase some of that recognition or exposure and also, I mean, the chance to, not that I couldn't have done it before, but the chance to really get a lot of practice enough, hey, all right, Friday and Saturday, you're going to be at the club and really being able to be at home in the club and, hey, this is my area and developing a lot of that ongoing relationship and that connection with other people in my community. Because I'm there, maybe you want me to do your boots, maybe you want me to do your chaps, maybe we're just going to hang out and chat and catch up. It all works out for me. Tell us about going to the international contest. Terrifying. I mean, really, okay, very intimidating. I was incredibly lucky with the team I had. Saral, my partner, and Allie, the latter two are my handlers. Just to have some idea of what I was getting myself into, the amount of prep work for interviews, for tech boot, for what you need to wear, how you need to present yourself because you're going to be on display. All the bits and pieces, that weekend is a blur. I have vague little memories from here and here, but an absolute blur of faces and people and events and the rushing from here to here to here. Yeah, it's really wild, really, really wild. For someone who might want to attend the contest, tell us, where is it held? So at that point, it was held in San Jose, California, and had been for a number of years. Mademoiselle Sisi has taken over and now is producing the contest. She has talked about wanting to pick up again what had been done, I think it was Amy Marie Meeks had done years ago and actually start migrating it a little bit, the contest, so it's a little more accessible. Yes, I know Amy Marie Meek took Imzel at the time and was moving it to different locations and then it would have fettled in San Jose. So are you saying that the boot black contest has now been sort of branched off from that? No, no, it went from the Imzel weekend to the Imzel baby weekend. So those contests happened together. The Imzel and the International Miss Boot Black happened as part of the same contest weekend. But I know, no, no, that hasn't changed, but there's been discussion about potentially starting to rotate the location again. Oh, as a whole unit, okay. Oh, okay, okay. Now, what you're doing is pretty exciting. What do you feel set you apart for the international contest? It's a very good question. I think energy and probably positivity. Brooklyn's amazing. So there was just one other contestant for boot black. Oh, I see. But just we have different, I'm sorry? I see. Yeah, but we also, we just have different presentations of the energy we put out. And I think that I think that's the big thing. Brooklyn's a really talented boot black and knows more and many things than I do. We just have different focuses on skill set, I guess. That makes sense. Now, what were you thinking? What were your feelings when you won? Oh, what have I done? Pretty much that I think that's really quite actually possibly word for word. Yeah. So what did you do? What have I done? It's one of those things. I feel like I got a lot more out of the year than so many other people. I was able to travel and to meet people and make incredible connections and share space with people that I'm absolutely in awe of. Some of whom I knew before the event, others that I have met since and in awe, isn't really even quite a strong enough term. I feel like to be able to represent because Alaska, you know, yay, Alaska's amazing. But to me people, oh, oh wait, they're queers. There are leather people in Alaska. Are you sure? Yes. Yes, we are everywhere. I am quite sure. But being able to, the other is a little bit of a face, but it's always struck me as strange. I never think of myself as being a very memorable person. And it was weird for me during my title year for International Instance when anyone has said, oh, you know, I know you. You're the frozen femme. Or, oh, I just really love that you're doing this. Like, really? Me? Really? But it's been nice to be able to have that and to like for so many things to see and be seen. And my speech at the International Contest came from a place of determining my own queer and Jewish identity and how those things really played into how our community can be richer. You know, food is improved by flavors and bringing it all there. And some of my fears, you know, about the state of our country and our world and where things were going and starting to not feel safe again. And it was interesting to me because there were several people who came up after the contest, after the speech that night. Some I hadn't talked to before and they they sought me out and said, me too. I feel this too. I'm afraid of this too. And that that was really touching, you know, is also one of the reasons I feel like I got more than I could have possibly given back. Who were some of the most impressive people you met during that time? Oh, mom of I and Judy towing are absolutely. I can't even, I can't even. All my sisters are incredible from the IMSL, IMSL and IMSLBB community. Absolutely incredible. I have I am so in love with just I just love people. That's going to sound weird. I being able to find a common spark, whether I was in Australia or Montreal or New York City. And I was just people from all over the place.  Absolutely amazing. You know, closer to Tegan and Ange, of course, just by spacing, but I'm just trying to say there's so many, there's so many people that thinking that I might not have met them and gotten them in my life. That that's the that is the real win for me. That's cheesy as that sounds. What were some of the places you were able to visit? Never enough. I made it to Chicago several times. Montreal and Sacramento, Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, New York City. Where else may I'm blanking on? Des Moines, Iowa. I know I'm forgetting others. My my my title year ended in the onset of COVID. So yeah, that kind of messed with I ended up canceling like my last three trips or well one of those was still title year and then other trips were like carry over. Yeah, because we arrived back state side from Australia on March 8th. So I always kind of went to a handbasket. Talk with us a little bit about mentoring in the boot black and community. What does that mean to you? For me or at least to my mind, mentoring in the boot black community has several different areas, or at least a couple facets. One, you know, it's that it's the hand skills. It's the which products, it's the the the book learning, if you will. And then, okay, physically feels like this. It tastes like this. This is the practical aspects. There's also mentoring about asserting oneself. What's your place with regards to the stand?  How do you run your space and your time and your energy? That's a whole other area, you know, and I also think another area that because that's something else that also is directly or can be directly, hey, this person's doing this, this is a way you can address that. And then there's the mentoring by example or the leading by example of, hey, this is how I put myself out in the community. This is how I'm supporting people. This is what service I'm providing. Not in a, you must do this exact same thing as me, but showing an example of what a boot black can be and can do for the community at large. So I think for me, mentoring involves those multiple areas. We haven't touched upon how unique is the general fetish scene in Alaska. I'd like you to tell us a little bit about that. How unique is it? We have a weird thing for being in bikinis outside when it's 55 below. Just going to throw that out there. It's a thing. It is a thing. You know, I feel like if you're looking at fetish community itself, I feel like there's not because we have a smaller population that there isn't necessarily as many opportunities for people that would be more as identified as fetishists versus kinksters versus leather. We have very much like a lot of places, an overarching umbrella, but there just aren't as many and specifically for different fetishes, which we don't have the population, at least not that they're willing to admit it. That's probably accurate. Yeah. What will be your legacy in the community? Oh, man. What I hope my legacy will be is I don't know that I ever really get to decide that. My hope will be that my legacy will be someone warm and who brings smiles, relatively little drama and tears, and someone just welcoming who's able to pass on information and provide a safe space for people. I would love it if my legacy were being someone kind who continually worked to take care of others, serve the community and keep moving it forward in a positive direction, and just becoming a better boot black, stronger person, and someone who helped lift other people up.  I haven't made it there yet. My final question. What's the biggest misconception about you? That I have it together. I have my stuff together. I really don't. Well, Gretchen Renee, I would like to thank you for being part of Inside Leather History, a fireside chat, and for being our first representative from Alaska. Thank you for having me, Doug. I feel incredibly honored. Thank you.


Climate activists like Nigeria's goodness Dixon say high costs are barring them from attending the COP26 climate conference and that means their voices will not be heard. Details now. Climate activist goodness Dixon thought an invitation to attend the upcoming COP26 climate conference in Scotland would mean his voice would get heard. Instead, the 28 year old Nigerian is one of dozens from developing countries struggling to attend due to, among other things, sky high hotel prices. Me being present, it's a voice for Africa, it's a voice for Nigeria, and I can be able to tell the story, the grassroot story from the communities on what is going on, on the experiences. And I feel my voice should be heard across the world because we need a change, not just what it has come in together, making this chance for countries we wouldn't really have more of the climate change. Reuters has spoken with dozens of activists in countries including Kenya, Uganda, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Some had secured funding, visas and vaccines. Others had given up. Dixon, who represents Nigeria's eco clean active NGO, still hopes to attend but he estimates his costs at over $4,000. I have sought for funding, I have applied different groups and all I get in return is sorry, we have high applications, we have so many people who have applied for the fundings and that's not letting me down because I'm still hoping. COP26 is taking place in Glasgow and the UK has offered funding assistance and vaccines for delegates who could not otherwise access them. But some would be delegates say they're unable to access help although it doesn't go far enough. Others say their own national governments should be doing more. The UK government is expecting around 2,500 people to attend the 12-day COP26 which starts at the end of the month. As of Tuesday, prices for the few hotel rooms still available began at around $400 a night.


Daily Tech News show is made possible by its listeners, thanks to all of you, including Tony Glass, Philip Less, and Daniel Dorado. Coming up on DTNS is the chip shortage done? Maybe for some, but not for everybody. Plus, the NFL launches its own mobile streaming service, and Terence Gaines helps us understand the mysterious world of third-party iPhone repair. This is the Daily Tech News for Monday, July 25th, 2022 in Los Angeles. I'm Tom Merritt. And from Studio Redwood, I'm Sarah Lane. And in the suburbs of Atlanta, this is Terence Gaines. And on the show's producer, Roger Chen. It's going to be a lovely day. Shall we start with some tech things you should know? Bloomberg sources say that the British satellite internet company OneWeb is close to a merger deal with France's UtilSat to create a pan-European operator. This could mark further consolidation in the private satellite industry. Last year, ViaSat acquired InMarsat for $4 billion, rather, to create the biggest geostationary satellite company. Yeah, competition heating up. That's always a good sign for us. Meta launched a music revenue sharing program in the United States, letting creators include licensed music in videos on Facebook and earn 20% of in-stream ad revenue, because there will also be ads when you welcome that in. This applies to videos posted to Facebook that are longer than 60 seconds. Reels are not eligible. Remember, reels get cross-posted from Instagram to Facebook. Creators can view expected earnings in their Creator Studio, and Meta will expand the program to other markets outside the U.S. in the coming months. Google fired Blake Lemoine. You might remember him as the engineer who claimed the company's Lambda language model was sentient. Lemoine had been placed on paid administrative leave after making statements about Lambda to the press. Google said he, quote, chose to persistently violate clear employment and data security policies that include the need to safeguard product information, end quote. It maintains his claims are wholly unfounded. Yeah, Douglas Hofstadter had a really good article about how you might be able to tell if an AI is sentient or not worth checking down. Netflix's iOS app now includes a sign up button that will take you to their website to sign up. So they're circumventing the Apple payment system, and this is okay. You may recall that up until 2018, Netflix let you sign up within the iOS app using the Apple payment system, but it switched to only allowing existing customers to log in to avoid sharing its percentage of the sign up with Apple. Apple updates its policies for so-called reader apps like Netflix in March, and now Netflix is allowed to offer external links for account creation. Intel announced a new strategic partnership with MediaTek to build chips for smart edge devices using Intel Foundry Services, hoping to provide more balanced, resilient supply chain as well as capacity in the U.S. and Europe. TSMC currently produces most of MediaTek's chips used in consumer devices. Ah, speaking of chips, is there good news? Good boy. We're starting to see signs that demand for chips might be slowing down, at least in some sectors. TSMC, the aforementioned TSMC, had an earnings call and CEO CeCe Wei warned, quote, our expectation is for excessive inventory in the semiconductor supply chain to take a few quarters to rebalance to a healthier level. Note that he's not saying, I expect excessive inventory. He's saying it's already here, and it may take a while to reach equilibrium. After literally years of covering an ongoing semiconductor shortage, excessive inventory isn't something we've really heard a lot about from any particular chip maker. So something has changed, not just in CPUs either. DRAM prices have fallen 10.6% in Q2. GPU prices fell 17% last month. So Sarah, I mean, it's tempting to want to say that chip shortage is over, right? It is tempting, but not quite the reality. Wired's Will Knight spoke with supply chain analysts, and it seems like the whole topic is about to get a little bit more complicated. So in the past, it was easy to say chip shortage because the shortage affected pretty much all chips. Different types of chips, though, need vastly different components. So yes, some chips are seen excessive inventory, but not all chips. And it's worth talking about the different kind of chips that we consider separate at this point. Yeah, so yes, Intel is freezing hiring. Yes, SK Hynex is considering cutting capital expenditures by as much as a third. But Wired's Knight notes that lead times on chips for more business and enterprise-focused electronics, things like medical devices, telecommunications equipment, cybersecurity systems are still roughly double what they were pre-supply chain crisis. You're talking 52 weeks to get a delivery. And the supply of chips for cars has not improved either. And in fact, supplies of raw materials like resin and steel are now starting to run short for automakers. And the COVID-19 unpredictability obviously plays a part here. The impact on the supply chain remains an issue. Strict lockdowns in China affected companies like Tesla and Apple, big companies making lots of stuff for consumers. Those lockdowns, they come and go. But according to a Shenzhen government notice, the city once again this week has asked its 100 biggest companies like the automaker BYD, Huawei, ZTE, DJI, Foxconn all to operate in a closed loop with living employees and even minimal contact between plants and offices. Most companies aren't saying how this will impact output, but obviously there's a lot of speculation there. Foxconn says operations remained normal, at least for now. And if that sounds like deja vu, that's because a similar situation occurred in Shanghai a few months ago. So you might say, okay, well, what's going on with the lockdown? Shenzhen reported 21 cases for Saturday up from 19 a day ago. I'm obviously talking about COVID. Yeah, right. China considers 21 cases to be lock it down, shut it down. We're zero COVID where the rest of the world, I mean, and you could argue that it's too much the other way. The rest of the world isn't operating like that for the most part right now. I don't know. I look at this and I think maybe it was even a better idea to have Roby on Friday talking about building a PC because it sounds like the parts GPU CPU Ram are the things that are coming down in price and becoming more available. Whereas the specialty things you need to make electronics that you buy off the shelf, you know, at a best buy out of target are the things that we are not going to see as much of because they use older equipment. And so you can't increase the capacity of making them as fast. Terrence, what's your take on all this? It just sounds like things we want them to go back to normal. So any little slice of hope that things are getting back to normal, we are quick to report on it. But just like you mentioned, China, even though that 21 cases seems like low dust to them, that's important. Monkey pox coming back. Well, I'm not coming back. You're starting to get more coming on the scene.  They're starting to re re invoke mask mandates. So we want to turn this corner so bad. So any little news that things may be changing for the better, I think we're quick to report on. But I don't see this being over anytime soon. Yeah, I look at this. And I think it's not that the chip shortage is over. It's that the supply chain has has new problems, right? It's not a static situation where it got bad and it's just going to get better. It's a complicated situation. And it goes back to what you're saying, Terrence, which is COVID didn't get bad and then get over. COVID is more complicated. It's transmitting in a different way. It may not be as lethal, but it's more transmissible. That causes more uncertainty. You've got inflation. You've got a war in Ukraine. There are all kinds of factors that are changing things up to the point where we may have great news for chips in certain sectors that could lead to a glut, which is what TSMC was warning about. And it may be that in a year or so, we have a problem where there are too many of some chips and too few of others and suppliers of either or both risk going bankrupt because they can't access the capital they need in a worsening economy to deal with either prices that are too low or shortages that don't allow them to make things. Well, you all might be familiar with the song. Are you ready for some football? If you live in the U.S. anyway. But there's a variation on the song called, are you ready to pay for some streaming football? There is. Yeah. The National Football League hopes so. NFL just launched its first in-house streaming service. So here's how it used to be. If anyone's not familiar in the past, Yahoo Sports offered free live local and prime time games on mobile devices and also laptops. Game Pass for $100 a year offered access to replays of full games. Game Pass will still be available outside the U.S. These are both being replaced though. So Tom, tell us, what are the new services? Yeah, NFL plus because everything is a plus is 499 a month. It lets you watch on a mobile device all the live out of market preseason games. So preseason, you can watch everything that's not in your home market and live local and prime time regular and postseason games on your mobile device. Seems a little topsy-turvy, but it gives you more in the preseason than it does in the regular season. You also get NFL network shows, some live audio of all the games either in your browser or the app. NFL plus premium is the next tier up. So 499 a month gets you the live games. 999 a month adds ad free game replays, condensed games, coaches films, all 22, which lets you see every player on the field. A few more bells and whistles all available in the NFL app. Now you might say, well, is this just NFL Sunday ticket? It isn't. This is different than NFL Sunday ticket. That lets you watch live out of market games on your TV as well as mobile. Direct TVs deal on Sunday ticket ends after this season. Multiple outlets report that Apple and Google, among others, are involved in talks to get those rights. Yeah, and they're not projecting any subscriber numbers yet for this service, especially because it's combining two other services, one that was priced well above this one, one that was free. So it's kind of all bets are off. But this is significant, not so much in the service itself, but that the NFL is taking control of some of its content that the NFL is saying, we're going to do this in-house. We're going to provide it through the NFL app. And they are not going to do that with Sunday ticket. They say they're going to contract that out to a streamer still. But Terrence, I know you're not as big of an NFL fan as you used to be, but you still follow this stuff, right? Yeah, no, absolutely. I was going to say when you mentioned NFL Plus, and it's like, aren't we tired of the pluses in the streaming services? I mean, just pick any other word. Any other word. But I was going to lead into it to also say, I think as a whole, I think we're starting to get tired of streaming services in general. But if the one entity could kind of change our minds about streaming, it would be the NFL sports in general, but particularly in the United States, it would be the NFL. So while I think NFL Plus and all pluses and while streaming services in general starting to get long in the tooth and we're starting to get tired of them, I think the NFL, while they should have done it maybe a year or two ago, especially with COVID, I think NFL may be one of the one entities to where people say, hold on now. And people do the streaming service juggle. It's like, all right, well, how do I get NFL? And if I get NFL, then what do I have to get rid of? Am I getting tired of Netflix? Does Peacock serve me? How much am I really watching on Apple TV Plus? I think consumers will really start to not necessarily entertain the idea of just jumping all in. But at the same time, I think the NFL going streaming and offering the versatility being able to watch it on mobile or on your TV, whatever the case may be. I think people will actually start to take more interest into streaming when originally we was kind of, and we're over it now. Yeah, I think that's 100% true and we'll get more true if they announce Apple or Google or Amazon as the Sunday ticket performer. Like these two combined are going to be the big story. Right now it's a situation where for the coming season, it'll be, oh, I need to get a satellite dish if I want to get Sunday ticket. Right, it's more accessible with mobile or it's more accessible via Apple and Google versus, like you said, trying to figure out how I'm going to get a satellite dish.  Or a couple of them over a month. Yeah, exactly. Or for a month. Yeah, or they'll clip something else. Something else to get chopped off. You know, people are getting tired of Netflix. Yep, yep. That might be the thing that goes. So I look at this and I think it's going to get that person who's out and about, doesn't want to get direct TV, wants to watch the game and realizes, oh crap, I could pay $5 right now and watch the game. I will. And then they're signed up as a monthly. Which is, I mean, that's a good point, Tom, that, you know, if you really want to watch a game, you pay $5 to watch the game. Yeah. But if you get a bunch of other games as a result, then it starts to seem pretty attractive.  But maybe you're not really using. Then that drops off. And so it's a little bit of a, you know, a domino effect. Yeah. GPag84 asks a good question in our chat room. Direct TV does do an internet TV service called Direct TV. Now Sunday ticket is not part of that. And that's partly because the rights were for Verizon's Yahoo. Back when Verizon owned Yahoo and Direct TV didn't get that. So. Remember that. Those were the days. Well, folks, if you have a thought about this, if you're like, wait a minute, I live in an area that's in 17 NFL local markets somehow. What games will I be able to watch? Email us feedback at DailyTechNewShow.com.  So what do you do? Well, you might go to one of those mall kiosks. You might go to that little store in the strip mall down the corner. Terrence used to repair iPhones as a side hustle. And we're going to ask him to help us from the other side of the counter figure out if this is a good idea or not. Terrence, if somebody breaks their iPhone, what do you think their first step should be? I know people don't want to hear this. And I know it sounds boring and I know it sounds lame. But the first thing you should do is check and make sure your backups are on, whether it be iCloud, if you have an iPhone, if Google Photos or Google Sync or Google Drive, if you have an Android or just good old fashioned plug it up to your computer and let the backup do its work manually. That would be the first thing because even though you think, oh, it just the screen just cracked. You never know what other things are connected because these phones are so tight and so intricate that the screen may be sitting on top of the cellular radio or the modem or the wireless connection that kind of throws everything off. So while you think it's just cracked slowly, but surely you're losing connection and then now you can't get to anything. So I think the first thing to do is make sure your data is safe and secure someplace else. I mean, even a cracked screen, which I am a non-iPhone case user. I don't know. I just can't learn from my own mistakes, but thank you Terence. But I also have had many cracked screens over time. You know, putting your, well, in my case, iPhone down and like, I don't know, there's a little bit of water on the counter. Not the biggest deal. Once it's cracked though, kind of a big deal. Yeah. Absolutely, absolutely. So when do you think it's appropriate to go to a third party like, like a kiosk or a local store versus if you have an Apple store as a choice, go into the genius bar. In my opinion, it depends on your phone. And what I mean by that is back when I was repairing phones, the iPhone 8, 9, 10 were out. Those in my opinion were relatively simple to repair. Back then there wasn't, you know, Apple wasn't certifying them as being waterproof or water resistant or dust resistant or any of these things in those older phones. So if you have an older phone, like for instance, in my case, I've got kids. I don't give them the new phones. They get the older versions, right? So if one of my kids cracked their phone, I wouldn't be so concerned about, okay, I need to make sure it's certified and I get the extra special Apple certified license and I make sure I got to go to a retail authorized repair center. I would typically say, okay, well, if I'm not going to fix myself because I don't feel like it, then I may take those type of phones, earlier iPhones or just Android, Samsung in general, the older versions that used to be a little bit easier that wasn't so technical. Those would be the ones that I would consider, okay, I would take those to the strip mall or I would take those to the mall kiosk because I'm going to fix those now. The newer phones, like I said, they're now waterproof, they're dust proof. They've got all these extra restrictions on them, which makes them even more restricted as far as how they're put together, which makes them much more harder to take apart, put that back together. Those devices I may consider going to an authorized Apple authorized or OEM manufacturer certified repair shop or go straight to your corner Apple store if there's one in your store. And the certification part of this does make it a little easier to figure out who's been vetted. A, do you think that certification is a good guide and trustworthy? And B, how do you tell if a kiosk that isn't Apple certified is okay to trust? Well, I can guarantee you with almost certainty that the kiosks folks are not certified. So you are throwing caution to the wind or, you know, playing the luck game when you are taking your phone to me. There's not a trick where you can like look them in the eye until you just got to try them out. No, you just got to trust them. Some, it depends on the person there fixing the phone that day. They may treat your phone like their own and take the extra special care. In most cases, those places are simply there to turn a profit, so they're not going to get, I'm pretty sure, let me see, I'm not going to, I don't want to go shade on anybody, but I'm pretty sure they're not getting the most best, you know, screen parts, you know, they're getting all the high end supplies. They are just there to fix your phone while you eat cinnabon, right? Exactly. You know, they're not going to treat your phone in many cases like a Apple store, which they have a little bit more reputation. If you take your phone at Apple store, you know, and you don't have the same experience, that carries a little bit more weight than some dude in the middle of the mall. And last, last question, what about Apple self-repair? So, if you are a person that really is interested in seeing the inner workings of your phone and you have the small enough fingers to deal with all the different parts involved into taking a phone apart and you have the patience and you have the diligence and the resilience because those parts are very, very small because you think all of the components that go into a phone is not just the screen, it's the battery, it's the cameras, it's the vibrators, it's all these other, the battery, all these other parts, that stuff is very compacted in there and it takes a while to be able to get through that process. So, the self-repair kit will give you some, I guess for lack of a better term, a ease that Apple has at the very least on your shoulder and saying, look, this is how we suggest you do it and these are the tools we think you should use and this is the process that you need to go through. There's that sense of ease that Apple has already done this and they're giving you the blueprint versus you going to another website or going online and just downloading something from the internet or going to YouTube which is most people will probably do, you know, it's based on their experience versus the people who made it, this is the blueprint that you need to go through to get through this process. So, while it may be intimidating to do it, at the very least it's coming from Apple, so you kind of feel better that they've kind of laid everything out to ensure you have the best process. Well, moving on to AI. We talk about AI and it's pluses and minuses on the show all the time, but in many cases, AI can be kind of fun, especially if you're a creative person. Example of that, the next one, so over a year ago now where a group developed a short film script, they called Date Night. After experimenting with an AI called Clever Bot, the group switched to another bot called Shortly AI, that's marketed towards people suffering from writer's block, encouraging writers to overcome their frustration of writer's block by using AI. The researchers of this particular project say as long as they input the beginnings of the script, it is pretty able to follow the screenplay format that they originally set into place, including scene headings, dialogue, action lines. So they generated a few inputs for the project called Date Night. I will include a few now. Intro, Benny's house, night time. Benny and Julia, both in their 20s, sit at two ends of a long table drinking wine. This is all written by AI and it's a little fun, but it'll blow your bleeping mind. And that's how it starts. The group tried out a few options, how the conversation was going to go, what's going to happen, and says at this point, the AI did struggle to stay on track with the characters reorienting themselves to swinging emotions. They're living in a kind of heightened melodramatic reality. We will have a link, by the way, in our show notes to the film. It's worth watching because it's very strange toward the film's end. The characters even start talking about the movie itself referring to prior fictional events. And the craziest part is, at one point, in the action lines, the AI said, with a looming pause, Julia, I think we're in a movie. Self-awareness. I mean, if it's sentient, I think this is the best example of that. It's a little creepy. It's creepy, but it's like, what's weird is that, obviously the actors, they're like, okay, let's see how crazy this gets and we're going to act this out. That's kind of cool. And it sort of turns out to be pretty cool, but it's strange. It's like, why are they seeing these things? The AI is like, I don't know, I'm doing my best, guys, you wanted a screenplay. We know this has been kicking out for a while. We've got a lot of news coming out around GPT-3 and the boy getting fired and all that stuff. Go check it out. It will help you feel better about AI. My question is, is this plagiarism? That's my question. Is this plagiarism? I think it's just a fun Friday night. That's what I think. Let's check out the mailbag. Let's do it. Mike in Steamy, Dubai loved our special guest week last week. We're going to talk a little bit about what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about quality and quality. Mike also said, I wanted to ask your indulgence with a little e-waste rant. I've seen an increase in manufacturers including very short cables that don't give users enough distance to actually plug in their device and put it on a table for charging. The most recent example are a new pair of Sony headphones that I purchased. I bought the headphones with a USB-C port to have the option of using USB-C cables as a headphone cable given the lack of headphone jack on my Android devices. I thought I could save battery and get better sound, but no. Sony included a three inch to four inch nubbin that would not reach from a power outlet to the floor, let alone my head to my pocket. Additionally, it's a USB-A to USB-C cable. As we make the transition to USB-C futures, why even bother to give me a cable that will be useless in just a few years if not sooner? This is the third or fourth cable like this. I had package, I found package with a device and would rather have none at all than a useless e-waste cable. Yeah, man, I've been there. My ring doorbell battery charger is a little short orange cord and it's just enough to sit next to the outlet, but if your outlet's up above, it's a problem. So, you know, I think they do these for cost savings so they can say they gave you a cable without having to spend a lot of money. I can't even be saving them that much. Right. You know, to have another few inches on a cable, I mean, I can't imagine that that is where the price really gets into play. Yeah. I don't know, Terrence, what are your thoughts? No, this is clearly just a check a box and say, look, we gave you all you needed. You didn't have to buy anything else technically.   Right. Technically, it works. Yeah. We also sell very small tables that you can sit next to your outlet to set your device on when it charges. Right.  You're fine. Yeah. They gave them, they gave the little mice, the little tacos and the little food. Now they have a cable. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I'm with Mike though.  Well, because then you get to know each other. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Mike. And thanks to everybody who writes us in. Please do keep those emails coming. It helps us make a better show. Feedback at dailytechnewshow.com. Also thanks to Terrence Gaines for being with us today. Terrence, where can people keep up with all that you do? Well, you can find me on the internet via social media at brother tech. That's BRO. T H A T E C H Instagram, Twitter and Facebook a little bit. I am also a podcast Apple centric post podcast with my co-host Monica Montfort. It is the SNABOS cast and my folks Rob Dunwood and Stephanie Humphries. We have a tech podcast from a different perspective called the tech John. You can find us on the internet at thetechjohn.com. Good stuff. Definitely follow what Terrence is doing. He's making good work. Also, it's Monday and we have brand new bosses that came to us over the weekend. David, Joshua, Christophe and Kenneth are all now backing us on Patreon. Thank you, David. Thank you, Joshua. Thank you, Christophe. And thank you, Kenneth. The fantastic four Patreon backers. Yeah, you all got to get together and figure out what your superpowers are. And we look forward to your AI movie script soon. Yeah. And seriously, thank you. After not having somebody Friday, we thought, ah, the streak is over, but you've restored our face. Really appreciate it. Indeed. A reminder, there's a longer version of the show called Good Day Internet. We call it GDI for short. Available at patreon.com slash DTNS. Reminder that we are alive here on this show Monday through Friday, 4 p.m. Eastern. 20 hundred UTC is where it all goes down. Find out more at dailytechnewshow.com slash live. And we are back doing it all again tomorrow with I as actor joining us. Talk to you then. This show is part of the fraud pants network. Get more at frogpants.com. Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this program.