Hello, guys. My name is Marcel Fonso. I'm an engineer at Talkbox. For those of you guys who don't know about Talkbox, we are a telephonic company based in California. What we do is we offer a cloud platform called OpenTalk that basically helps you a lot if you want to develop a WebRTC application. If you want to know more information about us, please check our website, Talkbox.com. But today I'm not talking about OpenTalk. I'm actually talking about how you can make sure that every cloud works. So in order to start and in order to explain better to you guys what I'm talking about, I would like to start with some real user stories that are actually very common problems that we hear from our customers when we have an application based on WebRTC. So let's take a look at some examples. So the first one, the user says, hey, your app is great, and everything is working fine. But the problem is sometimes video quality is not that good. So why does it happen? In this case, we also have a screenshot. As you can see, the first screen doesn't really have a good video quality. Then the second example is the user says, hey, when I joined the conference, I could see my friend, but he only saw a black screen. Why did that happen? So we have an example of four streams, but two are then not black. So why did this happen? And then the third one is the user says, when I joined the conference, I was able to hear the other person, but I could not hear them. So why did that happen? So as you can see this, no audio for user one. So based on these problems that we, again, we hear very often from our customers, I basically have three questions for you. One, how can we answer our customers in these situations? And the two is how can we identify the source of the problems? And third, how can we avoid problems like this to happen in the future? So in order to help you with these questions, I have some information to share. Well, the first information I want to share with you is a very cool application called test.rgc.org. And this is the WebRTC troubleshooter that lets you identify problems with a specific user. So I will show you how it works. So as you can see in the top part, there is the start button. And when I click here, what the app does, basically, is five checks. Okay? So you check first my microphone to guarantee that the microphone is capturing audio. It also checks additional things like clipping and the volume of the microphone to see if not too low or too high. Then you have the second check, which is the camera. So here the app's check that the camera of the user supports some defined resolutions. And it also checks that the video frames that are being generated are not black or frozen. Okay? Then we have the third check, which is the network, in which we would check if the firewall is not blocking specific protocols like TCP and UDP. And the fourth check is the connectivity where we can test the connectivity to our turn and turn servers. And lastly, we have a bandwidth test, which will basically test our bandwidth and our packet loss. So the other thing that I want to show you here is that there is also in the top part there is a menu that you can click. And you can also specify some settings when you run the test. So if you have more than one microphone, you can specify your microphone, also your camera, and you can also specify your turn and turn servers. Right? So as you can see here, you can specify turn and turn. So when I run the connectivity tests, it will be against the turn and turn servers. So test to our BGC.org is really great. But the point is, how can I avoid problems like this to happen before users join the conference? So what I have here, basically, three really quick checks that you can implement inside your app. So the idea here is that inside your application, users can test basically these three things. And if something goes wrong, you can just play a message to the user before they connect to the session. Right? So the first part is a hardware setup in which we will test the microphone and the camera. The second one is the connectivity test, in which we will test the connectivity to our eye servers, our turn and turn servers. And the last part is the network test, in which we will check bandwidth and packet loss of the user. Right? So first, the hardware setup. Right? So the idea here is that inside your application, you can implement a preview screen just like this one. So users, before they join the conference, they can basically test their camera and microphone to guarantee that it's working before I join the conference. Right? So how can I implement something like this? The first part is basically creating the combo boxes. Right? So we have two combo boxes, one for selecting the camera and the other for selecting the microphone. So what I need here is I need to get the list of the devices from the client. I need the list of microphones and the list of cameras. How can I do this? So in the Media Devices API, there is a method called Enumerated Devices. And this will return an array of media devices. Each media device has basically four information. It has a kind, which is the type of the device. It can be video input if it's a camera. It can be audio input if it's a microphone or audio output if it's a speaker. Then we have the device ID. And the device ID is important because this is the information that we will pass in the get user media call to specify that that is the microphone or the camera that we want to use. Okay? I will show you later how we do this. Then we have the label, which is the name of the device. Right? Camera FaceTimeGigi, for example. And then we have the group ID. And there's ten group ID as two devices that have the same group ID if they are physically in the same device. For example, I can have a monitor that has a camera and a microphone inside the monitor. So both the camera and the microphone, they will have the same group ID because they are physically in the same device. So, okay, once I get the devices, the next part is passing the devices to the get user media call. So I can specify the microphone and the camera. So the first thing we need to know is the concept of constraints. So when you call get user media, you basically can pass an object containing some parameters, which we call constraints. Right? So there are basically two media string constraints, which is audio and video. So we basically specify true or false for audio or video. But you can also specify some additional constraints. So in this example, in the bottom part, I specify my audio is true. And for video, I'm specifying resolution there. So I say, hey, my resolution here is 2080 by 720. Right? There are other constraints you can specify. So here, we have a list of the main constraints you can specify. These are not the only ones. So there are more constraints. There is a complete list of about 15 constraints. If you, yeah, in the media devices API, there is a method called get supported constraints that will return a complete list of constraints and basically true or false for each one of the constraints to see if that constraint is supported or not. So once we have the devices and once we know how to pair the constraints, then we can specify microphone and camera. Right? So I'm creating a variable called constraints. And I'm saying that for my audio, this is the device ID I want to use. It's the ID of my microphone. And for the video, this is the device ID that I want to use, which is the ID of my camera. And then I call get user media passing the constraints as the parameter. Right? In this slide, I also left a reference for you guys for how to create the audio level bar. So in that sample that I showed you, in the bottom part, there was an audio level bar. So as the user speaks, you can see the bar animating to indicate the microphone is working. Okay? So the second part is checking the connectivity. The connectivity to our eye servers. So here I have a fact which is because of restrictive networks such as corporative firewalls, sometimes users cannot establish a call using our eyes servers, our stun and turn servers. So the question is, how can users test the connectivity to our turn and stun servers before they join the conference? So what I have here is a sample that explains to you how you can do this. So what I'm doing here basically is I'm creating a peer connection. And I'm specifying the IC servers in my peer connection configuration variable. And then on my own eyes candidate listener, what I'm doing here is I'm verifying the type of candidate that I get. And I'm basically counting how many reflexive candidates I get and how many relay candidates I get. So look, I analyze the type of the candidate and then I say, oh, it's reflexive? Okay. Increment the counter for reflexive. If it's relay, increment the counter for relay. So in the end, I have the number of relay candidates and the number of reflexive candidates. Once I have the number, I can basically set my test. So when I create my offer, I will see how many reflexive and how many relay candidates I get. And then I can say, okay, if I get relay candidates, it means my connectivity to the turn server is working fine. If I don't, it's not working. The same for reflexive candidates. If I get reflexive candidates, my connectivity to the turn server is working fine. Otherwise, it's not. This sample is not covering the check for protocols, right? So it can also happen that your firewall can block, for example, UDP traffic. So it's possible that you can get, for example, relay candidates if you deploy a turn server in TCP, for example. I'm not covering this here, but just for you to know that you can also do something more complex to also verify things like this. And the third part is the network test. So I have another fact for you guys, which is a high number of problems related to video quality happen because of two problems, right? One, users don't have the minimum bitrate required. And second, there is a high audio and video packet loss in the session. Of course, there are many other reasons that can cause video quality problems, but what I'm saying here is that a high number of problems are caused by these two reasons. My question is, is it possible to check the user's bitrate and average packet loss before they connect to the conference? What I have here is a sample, which you basically run for some seconds, and you get statistics about my network, okay? Or better yet, statistics about my audio track and my video track.  Once I have this information, I can work with them and just play a message to the user. So in this case, your network looks fine, you are okay. So how to implement a test like this? So in this slide, I will give you just a spoiler of next presentation, which is about WebRTC statistics, because I just want you to know that there is an API called GetStats that allows you to get statistics about your peer connection and statistics about all the objects inside your peer connection, your streams, your audio tracks, your media tracks, your ice candidates, and more. So what I'm doing here basically is I have my peer connection, so my peer connection objects, they have a method called GetStats, so I call GetStats. And what I'm doing here is I'm basically filtering the results, because I'm only interested to get a specific object, which is my audio track received. So I have my streams received, and I'm getting the audio track for the stream. Once I have this, I just console log the result. So I have an object with some information there. So I can get information for the audio track, for example, things like the audio level, the bytes received, the ID of the object, the number of packet loss, and much other information there. But I just want you to focus on the information which is in red, which is bytes received and packet lost, because this is the information we want, right? So look how cool it is. Once I call GetStats, I can get information of bytes received and packet loss. Once I have this, what I can do is I can create a basic network test. So what I'm doing here basically is I'm specifying a timeout of, let's say, 15 seconds, and now you let my app run for 15 seconds. And after that, I will call GetStats, right? So I'm calling there, after the timeout, I'm calling pconnection.getStats, and I'm getting information about the audio and the video. So I'm getting statistics about my audio track and about my video track. My process stats, basically what it does is I will get information about bits received. So what I'm doing here is I get the total of bytes multiplied by 8 because it's the number of bits and not bytes, and then I divide by the number of seconds. So what I have in the end is the bits per second, right? And the line above, so in the following line, I have the packet loss per second. So I have the total of packet lost divided by the number of seconds. So I have the packet lost per second. So at this point, I have basically four different information. I have the video bit rate, the video packet loss, the audio bit rate, and the audio packet loss. There is an observation in the bottom part, which is this sample only gets one snapshot. So I only call getStats once. You can do something more sophisticated if you want, and actually call getStats, let's say, once a second so you can get things like network variation or packet loss variation instead of just calling once because you only have one snapshot at the end. Okay, once I have this information, what I can do here is that I can create some three shots to display the information. So what I'm saying basically is the user is okay for the audio and video if the audio bit rate is higher than 300 kilobits per second and the video bit rate is less than 3%. If my user doesn't satisfy this condition, I can also try audio only. So what I'm doing is if my user has an audio packet loss that is less than 5%, you are okay for the audio only. So I have basically three possibilities, audio and video, audio only, or none of them. Let's say, oh, sorry, your bandwidth is just too low. The last part is just playing the results. So just making a recap, we have basically three parts. So the first one, the hardware setup in which we test camera and microphone, then connectivity test to our stun and turn servers, and last, network test to test the bit rate and packet loss. Once you test everything, check, check, check, you can be sure or almost sure that every call will work. Thanks, Marcio.


This movie stars Wings Houser. What kind of name is Wings? It's an odd name, that's for sure. Maybe he flew out of the womb? Yeah, it's a super easy delivery. He's in tons and tons of stuff, but I want to mention that he was in Kung Fu the Legend continues as Kane's evil brother Damon. Of course Damon is his name. No originality there.


Ease and blessings and all of this abundance, that's from him. And when he is testing you, that's from him. You can't just switch your heart or turn your heart on and off based on your circumstances. You got to take it all, right? And that's why the Prophet's wisdom taught us that in the beautiful hadith, right? How wondrous is the affair of the believer? Because in every circumstance, if you truly understood your deen properly, if you have a proper Aqida, you will see it's all really good for you. Alhamdulillah, ala kulli haa, no matter what you're going through. Even if you're physically, outwardly going through a lot of hardships, in the grand scheme of things, you are actually in immense blessing. And this is where again, that beautiful story of Ibn Al-Tailah is very powerful as a reminder for us because in our limited understanding, we sometimes perceive tests as only things that are difficult, right? But the story of Ibn Al-Tailah actually teaches us that no, every human being is being tested always. Right now, think of a person that you think hasn't made. Think of anybody that you think they're wealthy, they have beauty, they have lineage, they have all the things that people envy, right? Guaranteed they're tested. Why? Because even in blessings are tests, right? So the story of Ibn Al-Tailah is that he was burdened and he came to another teacher, Abu Sayyid al-Mursi, I forgot his first name, but he's another great sheikh. And so he asked him, he said, I am really burdened in dunya and I need guidance. And so he asked him, you know, like what's going on? And then he explained to him his situation.  And if you really understand it, it'll free you of all your burdens. And he said, every human being is in one of four situations, a possibility or a mix of one of four. And then he goes on to, and he says, all of them are tests and each of them have a response, right? So the first is the obvious one, tribulation. That's when you're in hardship, like all the things we just talked about. That we understand as human beings, because you look at someone who's being tested, oh my God, they just lost someone, ya Allah, that's a test. And so what is the appropriate response, right? Why does Allah swt put some people through really difficult tribulations? It's because he is seeking from them what was modeled to us by Sayyidina Ayyub, right? And Sayyidina Yaqub, right? The Sabrun Jamil, the beautiful, perfect patience. Those are the tests of tribulation, is that you're going to go through really serious, severe hardships.  That's Sabrun Jamil. That's the first one. Okay, then the second one is that you have Naama. It's the complete opposite. So now some people will think, well how is a person who is in utter blessing or complete abundance and blessing, how are they being tested? As they may know, how are they being tested? Excellent, absolutely. So their test is do you have gratitude? Allah SWT is seeking from you if you're in abundance. Like right now if you have khayr in your life, if your marriage is really great, your kids are healthy, you have health, you have financial security, you've just maybe traveled or you have plans to travel. There's all these good things happening for you, you've got a promotion at work. Your test, it's literally your test, it's not that you just get a free ride, is can you show the requisite gratitude or at least a portion of that? Can you show gratitude to Allah SWT for your abundance? And also what does gratitude look like practically speaking? It's not just sitting and saying Alhamdulillah because that's easy to do. Gratitude is actionable. Gratitude has to manifest in what we would say, paying it forward. You have to share your blessings. So if you have money, you better be giving more Sadaqah, more Zakah because you recognize Allah has given me so much. I have to now help and redistribute some of this to the less fortunate. If you have more knowledge, you can't sit home and just read books. You could do it, but what is the point of that other than just benefiting yourself? Allah gave you knowledge. He gave you the ability to teach. Go out and serve your community because there are people who need that. If you have anything, any skill set that you can share, don't hoard it for yourself because Allah gave it to you as a test of your generosity as well as your gratitude to Him but also your generosity of spirit. So that is your test. That's why many people, this point about the next one actually is really tied to that. They forget Allah in times of prosperity. How many people do we know who when things are going rough, times are rough, they're like Allah, Allah, Allah. But as soon as things are easy for them, they become forgetful. It's really scary how common that is. When you tie your practice of faith only with adversity, that's what we're talking about. There's a lack of consistency there, but there's people who suffer that. So again, that's a second test that he mentioned. Then he mentioned the test of obedience. So how are those, inshallah, who consider themselves Muslim, who are in a state of submission to Allah, how are we being tested? What's our test? Because this is a test. If you looked again at the world in these dichotomies, like, oh, those who are guided and those who are not guided, it would be obvious like, okay, if they're misguided, they're being tested, but it might not occur to you that people who are guided are also being tested. But there is a test there. What's the test? When the situation occurs, why do I have to do it? So I didn't follow the rules and regulations that I learned from Allah. This is what I needed to do. Absolutely. My God has taught me and my Prophet has taught me something. I should have done that. Absolutely. So maintaining the purity of your practice of faith, absolutely. Which is what we're talking about, being mindful, adhering to the sun. And not trying to rebrand your own version of Islam. That's definitely there. The other part of it is also not becoming self-righteous. Because this is, it comes from that, right? It's a form of arrogance. Arrogance can work in many ways. It can be like, oh, I'm better than you, but it can also be, I've got my, you know, I'll figure it out or I'm going to create my own path, right? And it can also be what many people, exactly that I'm always the right one and you start to look down on people. And this is the danger of guidance. If you, it's a blind spot, right? It's like, oh, I'm now wearing hijab. Oh, I went and I, I'm taking classes and I memorized Quran. So what's going on internally with you? Now, do you feel suddenly that you're superior to other people? When you go out into the world, do you look at people as, oh, those kafir, right?  They're the dirt of the earth and you're the God's gift to humanity. Like, what's going on internally? Because just because you're guided, just because maybe you're, you excel in your prayers, you fast in Ramadan, you're very righteous and pious, does not give you any edge over any other human being until you die, your record is not closed, right? And neither is theirs. And so the humility required with guidance is that you know guidance can be taken away at any minute from you and given to someone else that you may have looked down upon. So it's very dangerous to let self-righteousness and arrogance enter the heart because you're playing with your own station with God. So our, you know, test as Muslims is not to turn on our fellow Muslims, first of all, or our even fellow brothers and sisters in humanity with this arrogance where we think that we are more deserving, we are more entitled, we are somehow the chosen people and they are left behind out of that. That's a very serious danger. So it's a test though.  And I remember again when I first came to Islam because we weren't taught properly. I was learning Islam from books and really figuring things out on my own. I was reading literally things into things that I had no understanding about. So this actually disease afflicted me. I would watch people pray and I would presume that, oh, they don't know what they're doing because they weren't doing certain things that I thought was the standard, right? So imagine subhanAllah, you know, there are people, unfortunately that's what they think. You know, they're a madhahib. We have four, you know, canonical schools of law that allow people to, there's going to be some variance in certain things. Now, if you're not taught that, right, but you're taught one version, then you think this is Islam, then you're going to look at other people, for example. I mean, the most obvious one is prayer, right? There are some people who pray with their arms down by their side. In the Maliki fiqh position, this is the position of Imam Malik, right? To have your arms on your side. If you don't know of Imam Malik's position, he's Sunni, you may look at a person doing that and presume, oh, they're Shia, and then if you have a Sunni Shia complex, you know, all of a sudden, you're thinking all these terrible things. Who are you, first of all, to think anything about another person praying to their Lord? Whether they're praying with, you know, with their arms down, or maybe they're clothing.  They might come in, they have nail polish on.  Why are you looking at them and, you know, in your mind? Or, what's even worse? By the way, it's riba to do this. It's riba if you and your friend or someone is sitting and you want to do an ishara, like, look at that person. You don't have to say a single thing, but it's all implied, right? If you do the whole, check that person over there and you're making a glance of judgment, that's riba, right? And it happens all the time. It'll happen here in the house of Allah on Juma, tomorrow. You'll have people who look at someone that they don't approve of the way that they're dressed or behaving and they'll make all these presumptions and judgments and even while they're doing an act of worship and you have to sit there and say, what's wrong with me? That I'm preoccupied with another person calling into question the sincerity of their faith. Who am I? I don't know what's in their hearts. Maybe they're, and this is why many of our scholars said, never look, meet people, right? Like, I think it was Imam Shafi that I never, he never met anybody, but that he presumed that they were better than him, right? Because the Wali Awliyev Allah are hidden and we don't know who they are. Again, so that's the third test, is that if you're a believer, you have to check your ego. So these are internal checks. So when you have those thoughts, you don't share them. It's shameful. What you should do is inwardly go, astaghfirullah, may Allah forgive me for that thought. Right? Follow up a wrong deed with the right one, the prophecy I said to him said, may Allah forgive me. And don't wallow.  We're human beings. We're going to have these intrusive, negative thoughts, which you do as you self-correct and you move on. And you catch yourself. And if you do that more and more, you don't think eventually you're going to stop and surely you'll stop because it gets tiresome to keep policing yourself, right? You're going to get tired of yourself. So you'll be like, okay, I'm done. I'm done looking at people. And this is where the hadith of the prophecy I said to him, right? Which is, which is Part of the beauty of a person's Islam is minding their own business. You will get to the point of, I got no, I'm not looking anywhere. I'm not looking to the right or to the left of me. And actually one of our teachers, Sheikh Mohammed Ali Aqibi, he told us that that's actually a really strong practice of fulfilling this hadith, is even if you were like walking down the side of the street and there was an accident, right? Unless, I mean, people needed help. But you know, the whole rubber-necker kind of phenomenon that we have now, where everybody wants to see what is going on, that if it didn't have anything to do with you and there's nothing you can benefit or nothing you can do to help mind your own business, why do you feel the need to know what's going on in the first place, right? Inquiring minds want to know. This is the fundamental issue of the human being is we're nosy, we're preoccupied, we're distracted. And the more we focus on other people, we absolve ourselves of our own diseases. And that's really at the root of it, right? Your nefs would rather you be distracted looking at other people and judging them than inwardly facing your own diseases. And this is where our job is like, you know, we reorient, right? So your heart strays, you start looking and judging, you reorient the focus back onto yourself. That's the state of the believer. So it's a test and it's a struggle. That's what Majahed the nefs is. It's like constant fighting, constant talking to yourself, constant internal checks, constant lip-biting. Oh, I shouldn't have said that. Astaghfirullah, ya'llah, forgive me. Constant apologies, right? If you're not apologizing often for your mistakes, you have an ego problem. Because it's not that you're not making mistakes. You just refuse to apologize. So what does that mean? That means that you refuse to set right when you are proven wrong, right? And that's a big, you know, reflection of the ego that you can't admit wrongdoing. So that's also part of the spiritual practice is to bring in humility, humble yourself, be willing to admit your mistakes, don't look at other people, don't bother yourself with other people, mind your own business. So this is the test, the third test. The fourth test is misguidance. When you have strayed and you're distant from Allah, you're in sinfulness. You're doing things you shouldn't be doing. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is testing you to see if you are going to pay more attention to every ayah, every hadith where he is literally calling you back to him, right? He is a Tawab. I mean how many verses, how many hadith, how many stories have been revealed that indicate to us that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la does not close the door of Tawbah. We are the only ones. We either open it or we don't, right? The door is always open. So are you going to succumb to the whispering of shaitan or to what people tell you your trash, your waste, your waste of space? There are people who are so heartless when they're angry with someone for whatever reason, they will use these types of words. This is a form of spiritual abuse, right?  Oh, you're so disgusting, you've done this, this, and this, and this, and it's all to basically tell them you're worthless, even in the sight of God you're nothing. A human being will say that to another person to tear them to shreds to nothing, whereas Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la the one who is owed the obedience, the one who you have betrayed in the sinfulness has never said that. He actually says the opposite. Even if your sins accumulate to the sky or the foam of the ocean if you seek sincerely come back to me, return to me. I mean the man who killed 99, how many beautiful stories have we heard where Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is teaching us over and over again, don't close the door of Toba. Return. Right? Because Iblis will come in, you know, his station right? Ablaza Iblis despair. That's his station he wants to pull us away from Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. So he's not going to fill your mind with hope, he's going to fill your mind with disgust, with self-loathing and that's why we have a tragic problem of people falling into despair and then spiritually going in the opposite direction because they don't have hope. So those are the four states and they're all tests so you can't find a single human being right now on the planet that's not being tested because everybody falls under one of those four right? Or a combination you could be guided and in blessing, you could be guided and in tribulation you could be misguided and in blessing or misguided and in tribulation. You're in one of those four, a combination of those four and that means that it's an equal system right? Because everybody has their own tests and nobody can say their test is not as easy as mine and that's where we also have to check our nafs from falling into a victim mindset because if you victimize yourself and you start to think like oh woe is me, I have more problems than everybody else and I deserve this and I deserve that first of all it's an allegation against Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. You are literally accusing Allah of being unfair when you frame things that way right? If you've ever had the thought that I'm being tested more than I deserve, why me that's an inspiration from Iblis because he wants to turn your heart away from Allah but you also have to read into what you're actually saying which is I am accusing the most merciful of the merciful the most just of being unfair to me because I somehow deserve less problems and I'm comparing myself to this person and that person and I think well they are not tested and I am that's not fair who are you who are you accusing you're accusing the most just of being unfair so this is where again calling your sincerity into question the claims you make into question and the sign of a true a person who's really on the path is that they are consistent with Allah no matter what's going on they have ridah with Allah I lost something I'm going through problems Allahu Akbar I will pray my prayers just as I do when everything's going amazingly that's consistency so that's the fourth foundation the fifth foundation right and these are all the the five that he the sheikh that Sidi Ahmad Zarruq outlines for us as being the essential platform or foundation to build our faith upon the fifth one is is about being active right because the contentment is your reaction right that you are reacting to ease and hardship in a consistent way right the fifth one is turning to Allah so now you're actually the one who's doing this right so you are turning to Allah in prosperity and adversity so they're different in this way Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar we have the adai so we'll just wait Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar I bear witness that there is no god but Allah I bear witness that there is no god but Allah I bear witness that there is no god but Allah I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah to the prophet to the success So, the fifth and final foundation is turning to Allah in prosperity and adversity. This is where you actively know what to do. Whether things are going well for you or whether they're not, you are always turning to Allah. You don't go to, you know, the first line of defense basically in every situation is Allah. As soon as you have a worrying thought, you're concerned, you're freaking out, you're having a moment of anxiety, you're having a moment of fear, panic, or you're in a moment of joy and excitement. Your words should come through Allahu Akbar Alhamdulillah Subhanallah because you're exalting the one that deserves all praise, right?  But in both situations, you have, you've calibrated yourself, you've calibrated your heart to know what to do, that it's always Allah as your first line. You can then pick up the phone and call your loved ones. You can then tell whoever or seek advice and use the means, the subab that he's given to you, but your first turning should be Allah, help me with this, right? And so it's an active thing, a practice that we do and it pairs like I said with the previous one in that the previous one is about the way that you react to things and this one is about your actions, right? So they're different and similar in the same way, right? That in both hardship and ease you have ridah, that's the way you're perceiving the tests or perceiving the blessings, you're receiving them in that way. And then in this final one, it's that you are actively turning. You know what to do in all situations.  But this paragraph here again, if you're reading along, he says, the realization of mindfulness of Allah is through scrupulousness and uprightness. So if you want that taqwa, right? The taqwa that is the first foundation, how you realize that, how it comes into being is that you are upright, you have scrupulousness, which means you're really, as our sister said, you're upholding the integrity of your actions, that you're actually following the rules. You're doing things according to how you're instructed to do them. You're not improvising, you're not trying to create your own set of rules in Islam. And unfortunately, again, we do have that problem where sometimes people think that, well, if my heart feels it, what's the problem with it? Well, if it doesn't align with sharia, then there is a problem because you're doing your own thing. It's not Islam at that point, right? If you're going to pray, you know, one prayer here and then abandon the others and you're thinking, oh, well, my heart is clean. You sure you can tell yourself that until you turn blue in the face, but you're not following sharia. That's it. It's that simple. So it's actualized through following the rules and being upright, right? And then the realization of adherence to the sunnah is through caution and excellent character. We cannot develop or the prophesied sunnah is really about obviously worshiping Allah, but it's also character development. So if you want to have the highest character and really be the best version of yourself, emulate him. It will come through just by taking his practice on, right? So a very simple example of that is if you're temperament, if your entire life, you have been more subdued and not very emotive, right? Let's say there are some people who were raised in a family environment or in a culture where they weren't very demonstrative in their affection.  If you want to develop and become a better version of yourself, you have to look at what's the practice of the prophesied sunnah. He always welcomed people so it will require you to step outside of what's normal for you and force yourself into a prophetic, you know, way of being. Which is even if this isn't comfortable for me because I wasn't raised this way, if he did it, I want what he did. And I'm gonna fight harder.  Again, what do we say in the beginning? Stop caring about how you look to people. Do you think Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, knowing that it's harder for you? Because some people come from traumatic backgrounds. Some people come from real pain. I mean, my parents' generation, a lot of our parents' generation, if you ask them, they suffered a lot of things, right? So it's not easy to just suddenly become smiley. But for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, when you're in a gathering, and I'm not saying the whole time you have to sustain this fake smile and walk around like, you know, no, it's about just at least receiving people with warmth, right, with that feeling of I'm happy to see you. And the Prophet said to him, he was not excessive. So his laughter, as we know, was not audible, right? His laughter, so I'm not talking about suddenly becoming this exuberant, fake version of yourself. I'm saying to see where you're at and say, I want to at least push myself to try to emulate him. So that might look for some people like, you know, just a pleasant smile for other people might be an open mouth smile, something that just is more welcoming. But find the balance for you as a way of trying to emulate him. Because this was his sunnah. This is one of the things that almost every description of him, when you read is consistent, that he smiled at people. And it removes people. And we now know through research, right? There's mirror neurons that are activated as soon as a person smiles. It's this incredible science that now supports the power of smiling. And this is the sunnah of the Prophet, and he taught us how to spread peace between the hearts without conveying love. And love is usually expressed not always in words, but through warmth, through these gestures. So that's how, you know, we adhere to the sunnah, right? And then it goes on to say, the realization of indifference to others and acceptance or rejection is through patience and trust in Allah. That even if you're suddenly excluded from people, right? Don't worry. Allah could take all of, you know, your friends and replace them for you with better people, right?  They are, to me, incredible. Some of them literally lost everybody. They lost their parents, their grandparents, their siblings. They've been cut off entirely from their whole tribe. But it was worth it because they've inherited the umma of the Prophet, so I said them. And of course, the replacement of whatever they lost is, you know, it's so great, so they don't feel the loss of it. But that's what patience and trust in Allah means, is that you don't let your emotions or that sense of, like, doom and gloom and loss overwhelm you. You just stay the course. You're in it for the right reasons. You're trying, you're doing it for the sake of Allah. He will give you topia, right? And then the realization of contentment is through acceptance of what one is given and turning over the management of one's affairs to Allah. So, you know, if you have a hard time, like with your circumstances, we have to remember that al-Waspah that is a distributor, right? He's, it's all portioned out. So to me, and this is where even if you study like the disease of the heart where they talk about envy, it's really important to reflect on these points, but it's already been divided. Your portion and my portion, it's already divided, right? So just think of like, you know, if you had, you know, I'm thinking of like, you know, if you stumbled upon wealth, but the numbers were already kind of predetermined, like everybody's gonna get this percentage, right? Or maybe there was a different distribution system, but it's kind of like the numbers were already worked out. So this is it, it's, there's no fighting this. It's done deal, right? Then everybody has to just kind of be content with their portion and not look at it like, you know, oh, this is unfair. No, because you have your, and the thing is if we're really being honest, all of us have advantages in some areas over others, and maybe we are disadvantaged in some areas. And that's to show you the incredible justice of God is that not everybody has everything. There's, there is this system at play. We might not be able to see all of it. We might not be able to understand the design or the way that it's all proportioned out, but we should trust the one who's doing the division as being just and fair. And if we deserved more, we would get it. And if we don't get something, maybe it's because in this life, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala is choosing not to give us more of something like wealth, right? There are many people who spend their entire day and night just dreaming of wealth and they have so much envy for people of wealth and they don't realize that if you really knew your Lord maybe your disease of wealth would be too much. And the perfect evidence of that is look at what happens to many people who stumble upon wealth, right? Like these lottery winners. There's been a few different articles written about some of them who have completely become like their own worst enemy. As soon as they came into money, it destroyed their life. So that could be the circumstance, right? That Allah's preventing greater harm for you. So He's not giving you this thing that you want so desperately because He knows it'll cause more harm for you. And if you had that trust, you would then just let go and say inshallah in the next life. Because this is not our permanent boat. We're going somewhere else. This is one leg of the journey and it's a significant leg in that it determines where we go, but it is not the part of the travel that you want to invest in, right? This is not, the investment is in the Akhira. So that's where again, being content with what He gives you and just leaving the rest to Allah's Father. And then the last point, the realization of turning back to Allah is through praise and gratitude in times of prosperity and taking refuge in Him through affliction. So this is it, you're being proactive. You know what to do. When things are going rough, you are turning to Allah. When things are going ease with ease and you don't ever feel safe, you know? Part of the formula that I think is effective in this dunya is don't ever get too comfortable. Do not ever get comfortable, because you'll get blindsided real quick by dunya. If you start coasting, you know, it's kind of like when you're on the freeway. I'm sure it's happened to all of us before. Sometimes whether you're driving late at night or you're driving on a road that's really nice and smooth, right?  And it's like, I'm just enjoying it. Everything feels so good. If you lose sight of the fact that at any minute the road could bend, right? Or at any minute the cop car could zoom right past you, it'll, you know, you'll completely lose yourself. So you have to be alert. And the dunya is a place that requires our alertness that things can happen very quickly. Things can suddenly change very quickly. But that doesn't mean it's the end and it doesn't mean it's your, you know, this is like you're being punished through this. It means that your test is that, you know, change or it's sudden change or whatever it is in your life that's happened. But inshallah, if you respond according again to the appropriate response, you'll get through it. So there's so much of this text still to come. And I really, really hope that inshallah, as we meet month after month, we will continue to expand the discussion. And I advise you all to please look over this PDF like beforehand and just kind of read through it because it's really powerful. And it gives, and the way that, again, the structure is that we start with the five foundations and then everything that comes after is the building blocks that will get us to these foundations. So he's starting with the destination in a way in mind. Like if you want to get to all five of these, then the rest of the document tells you how in great detail. So it's really structured beautifully. Alhamdulillah, Jazakumul Khidrin, I want to thank all of you again for attending and those of you who are streaming and watching on Instagram live, Jazakumul Khidrin. We're gonna be praying in a few minutes, but are there any questions here at least? Yes. Alhamdulillah, you're welcome. Barak Allah Fikir, washa'Allah. Masha'Allah. That's so sweet. Ya Allah. La ilaha illa Allah. Allahumma Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim. Allahumma Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahmani r-Rahim. Amin al-Ahsan al-Fatiha. Ya Allah, you know, it's interesting you mentioned this.


Ukrainian military encounter five Russian mines per square meter of territory. Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov has said that during the counter-offensive the Ukrainian military sometimes encounter as many as five Russian mines per square meter of territory. Reznikov said this in a comment to The Guardian. Today Ukraine is the most heavily mined country in the world. Hundreds of kilometers of minefields, millions of explosive devices, in some parts of the frontline, up to five mines per square meter. Russian minefields are a serious obstacle for our troops, but not insurmountable. We have skilled sappers and modern equipment, but they are extremely insufficient for the front that stretches hundreds of kilometers in the east and south of Ukraine, he added. Reznikov said that the huge minefields can be overcome, but it is critical that allies expand and expedite the training already being undertaken by some countries including the UK. The Guardian noted that the number of bomb disposal experts in the Ukrainian armed forces was insufficient to break through the complex Russian defenses on the vast 1,000 kilometer front where engineer units were targeted by heavy fire. Serhii Risenko, the chief doctor at Mechnikov Hospital in Nipro, where many of the most serious wounded are being treated, said he was seeing 50 to 100 soldiers a day, with mines the second most common cause of injury after artillery.


And we're long and I believe we are on time for once. Awesome. Okie dokie. Let me just drop a link in one place. I'll be ready to rock. Hey Byron, how you doing? Good to see you and Chad. Hello everybody. There's Green Yeti again. Max Reavos ghost music. The letters are very tiny. I have to read. Hey Lance and Delvis. Wow, the game's all here. Johann and Benny, Brian. Hey, guys, I just got to post something real quick. Hi, Isaac and Corry. Hey Brandon. How's everybody doing? Alright, just real quicky quick here. Hi Kevin, and Brandon Knight, how are you doing? Matt, Chad, hey, lots of people are showing up. Good to see you. As you might have determined from the headline, I had some thoughts about the possibility of G.I. Joe in Transformers. So, we'll talk about that. I just need to grab this link really quick, and off we go. Okay, you now have my undivided attention. Hello everybody. It's great to see lots of regulars in here. It's nice to see everyone. A lot of you guys show up every week, and that's really awesome, so thank you for that. Once again, like last week, I'm surrounded by clutter from reviews that I did. Like, here's Wetsuit. I'm not reviewing Wetsuit. I just have him out because he was in a review. Hey guys. Oh, and Isaac mentions Toys R Us returning. Yeah, that's a possibility. I just saw that headline today. So there's a possibility of a return of Toys R Us in the U.S. Yeah, the Transformers, the Bumblebee movie looks good. I'm really excited about seeing it. I think it has the potential to be one of the best Transformers movies yet made. Hey Chili Swerve, how you doing?  That's really awesome. That's something that I think we've always wanted to see. One of the things that Michael Bay did other than just put his stamp, his style on the movies that he made, but he also drastically changed the look of the Transformers. Hey Wayne, everything's going pretty good. Thank you. Hi Chris. And that was, I mean, you can do that in movies sometimes. You know, as long as you keep a few visual cues that makes the character still recognizable. But some of the changes in Michael Bay's Transformers movies were so drastic that you really couldn't tell who the character was. But in this Bumblebee movie, I mean, you've got basically updated G1 designs. Yeah, Soundwave actually looks like Soundwave. That is, I mean, that's significant. I'm pretty excited about it. I'm not the biggest Transformers fan even, but I'm still excited about seeing that movie. It's potentially Transformers done right. And it's the kind of Transformers I think that a lot of us wanted to see in the first place. I think a lot of us kind of felt like, you know, those G1 designs could work on the big screen. Hey Michael Paz, how you doing? Yo, yo, yo. Yeah, Optimus Prime with the mouse. I mean, if there's just one thing that you could say or I don't do, don't give Optimus Prime a mouse. And yet that's the thing. That's the thing that they did. But yeah, but there's a, there's a rumor, and that's really all it is right now, is a rumor that John Cena's character in the Bumblebee movie is somehow linked to G.I. Joe, or like he might be the original G.I. Joe. The pictures that I see in, like on this Screen Rants article, that he has a scar on the side of his head basically. And that would line up with like 1964 G.I. Joe with the scar on the face. So it would kind of make sense. Yeah, sort of. I'm just, I'm just not convinced that that's, you know, that's actually what they've done. Maybe, maybe. But I'm also, you know, always have been a little nervous about G.I. Joe and Transformers crossovers.   You love Galobulus, but you don't own Galobulus. Well, you know what? Maybe there'd be someone who'd be willing to donate a Galobulus to you.  In fact, you know, I don't, I don't have an extra one. I only have the one, and it just happens to be right here. Here's Galobulus, but I can't give this, I can't give it away. It's my only one, and I do need it for reference, even though I don't really like the figure. But there's your Galob, there's a Galobulus there. If I have one, I'll bet others have one. So, you know, you just ask around. Hey, Kenneth, how you doing? Yeah, so the, this news, I was actually going to save this for later in the video, but why not? We'll just jump right in and talk about it right here at the top. Yeah, Johann, Timmer is doing a Cobra Law this month. I supplied a couple photos for his reviews. So look for me in the credits. So yeah, let's start by asking this. Leaving aside whether or not it's a good idea. Who thinks that this John Cena character in Transformers is related to G.I. Joe? Do you think that he is, or do you think that he isn't? What do you think? Just based on what you've read, based on the evidence, what's your opinion about that? Do you think that they've done that, or do you think it's just a coincidence? Oh yeah, Mike Lopez, you found a 1.5 stalker for under 50 bucks. Yeah, well that's awesome. That is a tough one to get your hands on, especially intact. I was pretty thrilled that I got mine. It's still the only one I have, but I'm happy to have it. The prices are just going crazy. So yeah, what do you think? Do you think they've done this kind of sneaky G.I. Joe crossover in Bumblebee? Or do you think that it's just a coincidence? I still think it could just be a coincidence. For commercial reasons, I could see why they might want to hold it off on introducing G.I. Joe, or putting G.I. Joe into Transformers. Mike Lopez, he has both of his thumbs. Well that's good for him. Chris, coincidence, I'd like to see more evidence before I believe that it is real, that it is a G.I. Joe crossover. In the same story though, let me scroll down a bit. DJ Crusoe said that he came up with an ending to his script for the G.I. Joe 3 movie that tied the Transformers in. So, hey Jenna, how you doing? And sorry, I missed a few folks that came in, so hello everybody who has joined us. And again, that's not conclusive. It doesn't mean that they're actually going to include Transformers in the G.I. Joe movie. All it says is that he's come up with an ending for his script. That's all it says. Doesn't say that the studio has accepted that script. Doesn't say that's what they're going to do. But, hey JJ, welcome. So, the stronger possibility may be that they will sneak in a crossover with Transformers into the G.I. Joe movie in a couple of years. That's a possibility. So, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I've never been big on crossovers between G.I. Joe and Transformers or really G.I. Joe and anything. I really feel like G.I. Joe is an excellent self-contained universe. But I know that a lot of other people like it. I know that a lot of folks are fans of both and like to see them interacting. It's not my thing. It just isn't and never has been. But, ultimately, again, I've said this before. I want to reiterate that the ultimate test of the G.I. Joe movie is not whether I like it, but whether it is accepted and enjoyed by a larger audience. No G.I. Joe in 18 for you. Yeah, G.I. Joe, I think, at least in the comic book series, I feel like has such a strong narrative that it doesn't need crossovers. And, in fact, sometimes crossovers, to me, kind of divert the story a bit. It kind of muddles the narrative a bit. But again, like I say, that my opinion is not the only opinion on that a lot of people do like it. What I am always concerned about with transformers and G.I. Joe crossing over is I feel like G.I. Joe would get, would kind of, would, I think G.I. Joe would sort of be second fiddle. You know, they get, they kind of have to take second stage to transformers. Because, I mean, one reality that I don't think anybody can really deny is that, at least at the moment, transformers has a larger fan base than G.I. Joe does right now. I think the numbers make that clear. But, that being the case, the obvious temptation for the writers is to make a transformers movie with a little bit of G.I. Joe in it. And that's not how I really want to see G.I. Joe on the screen. I feel like G.I. Joe can hold its own. Yeah, and previous crossovers that they've done, you know, even in the vintage era, there was the G.I. Joe and Transformers mini series. And as I recall, that one was okay. I mean, I don't think, I don't recall it being necessarily anything spectacular, but it was all right. But then in the regular G.I. Joe series, they had transformers for a couple issues, like two or three issues or so. Transformers was actually in, you know, G.I. Joe. And so that's a tough one. It's not my preference, is what I'm saying. Who is Cobra Commander's son? That would be Billy. So, I mean, okay, I don't want everybody to be unduly influenced by my opinion. I want you to share honestly and with, you know, no criticism at all. If you want to see G.I. Joe in transformers, in a movie form, what do you think? Is that, do you like the idea? I'm going to go see the movie either way, you know, and I will hope that the movie does well. Regardless of whether or not I like the movie, I really want the movie to do well. Lance, maybe that's certainly an argument that I've seen made is that G.I. Joe doesn't appeal to modern audiences, but I'm just not sure about that. I think we've got a few other examples that suggest that it might be. And one big example for me is the Captain America movies, which I think have been excellent. Big budget movies, you know, great special effects, really interesting stories. Lots of effort went into the stories and the acting and everything. And they have done pretty well, even with international audiences. Even though a large part of those movies have, you know, military or pseudo military themes, and they're very American centric. And yet audiences will go to see those. And if you structured G.I. Joe in the right way, I think it would. I think G.I. Joe has a good chance of appealing to modern audiences. But, you know, the other side of that is it might, well, might not. It definitely would not be exactly like our G.I. Joe. That's true. But, I mean, everything has to evolve. Everything has, I mean, if you're going to make money and, you know, sell tickets, then you have to put out a product that's going to be, it's going to be interesting to your potential audience. So, I understand. I understand Hasbro is a business. They need to, you know, think about the bottom line. They need to put out something that they're confident is going to make money. So, I get it. I get it. And again, I'm not looking for a movie that is my G.I. Joe. I'm just looking for a movie that's going to be good. So, yeah, there's, I'm just not going to, I'm not going to be a point of conflagration for G.I. Joe fans who are going to come into any movie with the intention of hating it. I just, I'm not going to do that. I've seen that happen in too many other fandoms right now. So, I will be expecting and in fact, insisting on having a mature audience here that is capable of reason. So that's, I'm going to hopefully be a voice of reason, even if I don't like the movie. It's got to be at least something that is going to bring G.I. Joe back into the mainstream.  The only chance of that is to have a product that sells and a product that makes money. And I think it can be done. But it's not going to be like the 80s. I don't think it can be. I just don't think it can be. So, you know, hopefully, hopefully they will accomplish that mission. So that's, that's what I want to talk about as far as G.I. Joe and Transformers. I just, I'm not a big crossover fan. Yeah, Mike Lopez, we're waiting on the G.I. Joe movie review. Yes, that is something that is, I'm pretty confident I know when I'm going to do that. It's just getting the time to do it. I'm actually trying to work ahead on some of my regular reviews so I can have the time to do that. Wait, who's that? Hey, Gray Fox, thank you. I'm glad you made it and I'm glad you like the videos. Yeah, so, wow, I lost track of what I was talking about. Sorry, guys, part of my problem is that I'm really tired. This is a problem that I've had for the last couple of months, actually, is just being really fatigued. And oh, hey, this is a good opportunity to apologize to everyone. Okay, I'm going to extend a big HCC apology to everyone. I have been trying to keep up with messages, emails and whatnot. I know that I haven't been able to keep up with all of them and I apologize for that. But I've just been really overwhelmed with regular work, like my job work. Thank you, Barry. I appreciate it. But, I mean, the job right now is not bad. Actually, the job is really good. I love my job. We've fixed the job problems. The jobs are good. But I'm still learning a new position and it's taken a lot of time and energy. So I've not been able to divert a lot of my time and energy to doing some things that I really need to do. I've been trying to make sure I keep up with the video reviews, right? Because I've got to keep doing the show. I don't want to slack and not do the show. But things like getting to messages and stuff like that, I have just not done that as well. I've got a stack of sketches that I need to get out to patrons and I just got to do it. And I just haven't had the time to do it. Oh, and I was, you know, getting some more sketches ready for... Man, losing concentration. I was getting more sketches ready for patrons and trying to get them ready to mail out. And then I realized I'm out of code books. Everybody who gets a sketch also gets a code book and I'm out of code books. I got to print more of them. And so I apologize for that, guys. I know that I've been running behind on a lot of things, but I'm trying to keep up. And as much as I can, I've been diverting my time and energy toward making sure I get the videos done. So there's sometimes when I just don't have the time or the energy to do much else. I had a big influx of new patrons over the last month or so. So I had some perks to fulfill including putting their names in the videos. You know, you see them at the end of the videos. Well, I ended up misspelling people's names and had to fix it. Mainly because I had to do some of that stuff kind of late at night when I'm really tired. And that's when mistakes are made. Anyway, I just want to assure everyone I'm fine. I'm doing okay, but I'm a little struggling to do some of the things that I need to do for the channel. So if any of you guys have a YouTube channel or any other kind of creative endeavor, you kind of know how it is. You know, you could easily work on that stuff all the time. You could spend 24 hours a day just working on that because no matter how much you do, there's still more that you want to do. And I love doing this so much. It's a thrill for me to be able to produce something and put it out there. And some people like it. Hello, Lone Star Viper. Nice to see you. So it's fun. And so I enjoy doing it. But the more you do, the more work you got to do. So that's my issue right now. So I extend my apology to everyone. If you sent me a message and I haven't replied, I'm sorry. If I got to get a sketch to you and I haven't got it yet, I'm sorry. It is coming. I am working on it. But I'm also trying to make sure I get the videos out on time. So there, there, I'm done. I'm done. We can talk about something else. We can talk about something else. So what projects am I working on other than the Defiant and how is that going? Defiant is coming along fine. The big thing with the Defiant, the thing that I'm going to need to purchase myself and really invest in is the crawler gantry doors, the big blue doors. There's just no way around that. They are expensive. They're not easy to come by. I've seen a few online. So that's the big thing with the Defiant. Other projects, I don't have like any other like big specific projects that I'm like picking away at. I am trying as much as I can to move a little bit more aggressively on some of the rare items because the prices are going crazy right now. Prices are going nuts. And seeing, you know, the prices of the more rare items escalate. Whenever I find a good deal on one that's more like what I want to pay rather than way up here, I've been trying to snag those because those good deals are going to be harder and harder to come by as prices escalate. So that's really what I'm working on right now. It's not really a specific project. I'm just trying to get some of the rare stuff before it gets so expensive that I can't get it. So Gray Fox asks, is my G.I. Joe action figure collection complete? It is not complete. Actually I have quite a few gaps in it. But thanks to some folks that have sent stuff to me donated things to the channel. I have a lot fewer gaps than I used to. And that's helped out tremendously with doing the reviews. So yeah, there are a few gaps. And before you ask, I don't have a list. I used to try to keep a list of what I had and what I didn't have. And it didn't work because I would get stuff so fast that I couldn't keep up with it. So my list is in my head. And that's not a good place for it because I forget stuff all the time. Yeah, Gray Fox, I don't really go off to the modern stuff, but people have sent modern figures to me. And when they do, I go ahead and try to put that on camera because I think it's kind of cool to look at the modern figures next to the vintage ones. All of the action packs, I have some of the action packs and I cannot remember off the top of my head which ones I have and which ones I don't have. But I know that there are some action packs that I don't have yet. And to be truthful, I haven't really been targeting them yet. Not super high on the agenda, but I don't have all of them. I will eventually get them though. Vanilla Gorilla, have I been feeling better? I'm feeling a lot better. Vanilla Gorilla, I appreciate your checking in on me. I'm doing a lot better. We were having a little bit of trouble when some changes happened with my job, but we made some other changes happen and the job is doing better and I'm doing a lot better. But right now I'm really busy right now because I'm actually learning a new position at work. So it's taken a lot of time and energy and most of the time I'm pretty tired. Delvis, when I review them all together or as a quick shot, you mean the action packs? I'm not sure. I think FormBX257 did them like multiple action packs in, you know, a review with multiple action packs in them and that seems like a pretty good way to do it, but then I don't want to copycat FormBX257. I've got to figure out some way to do it and make it my own. But I feel like the action packs probably don't deserve like individual full reviews. I'd have a hard time getting a full review like a big Sunday afternoon review out of the action packs. So I feel like a review might include more than one. That's my thought at the moment at least. Have I accidentally bought any Joe Doubles? Yes, yes. I don't intend to, but sometimes it just happens. I've been trying to get the 1985 Cobra Bats, or 86 Cobra Bats, the yellow paint variant. Most of the Cobra Bats have that yellow-orangey paint on them. They're boots and stuff. Well, they're the variant with a bright yellow paint. That's the only difference. But I am having a heck of a time finding that yellow paint variant. Even though, and I bought some Cobra Bats thinking it was the yellow variant and it was just another one of the orange-yellow ones. So I'm still working on that. Comic Tropes is here. Hello, Comic Tropes. And Comic Tropes wants to know if I vape. Why not vape? I smoke big tobacco cigars. Like a real man. Do I vape? So, and I'm just kidding about that, by the way. I pass no judgment on anyone vaping. Live your own life, really. So there's... Oh yeah, I know. If I flip it, it won't be in mirror mode. But I've kind of gotten used to doing it like this. So I will... I'll think about it in the future, especially if I have to display something on screen. So, hey, I thought I had an idea. I had an idea. Here's my idea. I'm surrounded by stuff, by just like clutter, you know? From earlier reviews that I just haven't put away. I was thinking, what if I show you some of this stuff that was in the reviews that I just shot, and you can try to guess what it is that's being reviewed. I won't show you what's being reviewed. You just got to guess based on the other stuff that's in it that I show you, right? And so, yeah, let's try that. Let's try that. So I'm going to show you some stuff. Now, it's not in this coming review, right? The one that's coming up this Sunday, I already finished that one. It's the one for the following week. The following week that I just finished shooting. So I'm going to show you this. You guys guess what you think the review is, okay? I'm not going to tell you if you're right. I won't tell you. You just guess, and then you find out if you're right in a couple weeks, okay? So here's one. This, this is in the review, right? This is in the review, but I am not reviewing this figure nor the vehicle that he came with. I already reviewed that, but that is going to be in the review. Let's see what else. Let's see what else. Let's see what else. This will be in the review, okay? I had to bring this in for reference, but the review has nothing to do with Iron Grenadiers. Nothing. Nothing to do with Iron Grenadiers. I just needed this as a reference. Is there a poop joke Delvis asks? I make no promises, okay? Another thing that was in the review that you haven't seen yet that you will see in a couple weeks is this. But the review is not this. It's not the conquest. It's not slipstream. So that, but I needed this in the review for a reference. So I think that's it. I think that's it. That's all we got. Oh, hold on. Here's something. The review will include an action figure. All right. That'll narrow it down, right? And this is the file card for the action figure that I just finished reviewing. There you go. There you go. All right. All right. So now those are the things that are in the review, but I haven't showed you what will be reviewed. Okay. So now make your best guess and see if you can guess what I reviewed that I needed all these other things for. You'll never guess. You'll never guess. Hold on. Somebody said something and I missed it. On the trail with Kevin and Scott says, hello, hoodie. Well, hello on the trail with Kevin and Scott. So, yeah, so that would be a fun game. So if you figure out what it is, it is not Galobulus human mechanism. It is not Galobulus. Galobulus is here not for that review, but because actually Timmer needed some pictures of Cobra Law, but not Galobulus. He actually, he needed pictures of like Nemesis and Forcer, but I have Cobra Law all stored together. So, yeah. So, yeah. So anyway, let's see if you guys can guess, guess what it is that I reviewed. Right now the cats are knocking things over in the kitchen because that's what cats do. JJ, visit to Dallas. You're right, yeah. I haven't been to Dallas in a while and I'd really like to go to Dallas. I would like to go anywhere, really, but as discussed earlier, I'm having a hard time finding time to do anything. So, yeah, maybe like a weekend trip sometime to Dallas. It's been a long time since I've been to Dallas and I like Dallas. I like Dallas very much. Green Yeti apologizes for how much he talks about Galobulus. Well, you know what? You don't have to apologize.  You just be you and you like what you like and you don't have to apologize for it, not at all. So, yeah. I think it's going to be very interesting to see if anyone guessed correctly what I reviewed that required. I'll show you again. I'll show you again. The review that I did required me to include this action figure, this ironic Grenadiers vehicle, this GI Joe vehicle, and this file card.   If you get it right, you win nothing at all. And again, I'm not talking about the review that's coming up this Sunday because I already finished that one, but I actually just finished shooting the following review. So that one will go off. When will that go up? Let me pull up this calendar here. The 14th. So, yeah, I just finished shooting the core review for the video that will go up on the 14th. And I got some special stuff coming. Oh, wow. October is going to be fun. October is going to be a lot of fun. We're having guests in October. You know, we've got special things going on October and it doesn't have anything to do with Halloween. Let's see. Mutant Alien Jesus asks if I do customize figures. I don't now. I used to, you know, back when I was a kid, we did a lot of customizations, but I don't really do it now. I pretty much just kind of stick with reviews and try to get them complete for review. I've seen a lot of really cool customizations that a lot of fans have done. And some customizations are really amazing. It's just that I don't particularly do that myself. Gray Fox says no Halloween episode. Well, now I did say that connect there for a second. All right. The stuff coming up in October, not Halloween related, but it still could be scary. I will tell you this. There is a theme month for October. It's a theme month, but it doesn't have anything to do with Halloween. So speaking of speaking of theme months, Timmer just started his monster month. And yes, for October, I'm sorry, for Crenson Law or for Cobra Law Lovers. I can't talk tonight. For Cobra Law Lovers, Timmer will be looking at Cobra Law this month on half the battle. So if you tune in, you can see a photograph of my Royal Guard and my nemesis enforcer. Yeah, RTD-1, I feel like now it should be renamed the Crenson Law. I like that. I like that better. Sorry, guys. I know I'm missing some of your comments. I apologize about that. Oh, wow.  Okay, my camera, I think, did something weird to the picture. Sorry about that. Anyway, so, yeah. So we've talked about maybe G.I. Joe in Transformers. We've talked about Transformers maybe in G.I. Joe. We've talked about, we have had a guessing game about, you know, what my next review will be. And now Chad just sent me $1.99. Thank you very much, Chad, for the super chat. It's much appreciated.  I will give you a free no prize. In fact, just reach out through the screen. Thanks to modern-day internet technology, I can hand the no prize to you directly through the Internet. There it goes. There it goes. But thank you. Thank you very much. Joe Motion Video's buyer-in says, I can send you $1.28 to $98. So how are you going to do a decimal of a penny? How are you going to do that? How much money are you supposed to donate each live stream? You don't have to donate anything. But if you're going to donate anything, it's great to have it in denominations of hundreds. 100, 200, something like that. A modest amount. Inflation. But no, you don't have to give anything. I do appreciate it when people do. But you don't have to. I'm just happy to have everyone here. Look at this. We have 81 people here. That's fantastic. You know how crazy it is that 81 people actually show up and mug and listen to me talk? That's nuts. That's nuts. I can't complain at all if nobody sends the super chat. I'm just grateful to have all of you here. $1 million. What's my favorite non-toy-related YouTube channel? I believe... That's a trick question. The answer obviously is comic tropes. Comic tropes my favorite non-toy-related YouTube channel. Duh! So there you go. I got the right answer. You can send me a no prize now. Oh, not you. Not counting Present Company Accepted. The channel that actually jumps into my mind at this moment is what's his name? Steve1999 MRE Info It's the guy who does video reviews of MREs and, you know, military rations. Man, that channel is crazy. It's kind of mesmerizing. But it's a lot of fun. It doesn't have anything to do with toys. It's just this guy who opens up old military rations and sometimes eats it. But I have countless hours of fun watching that guy Steve1989 Have countless hours of fun watching that guy eat rotten food. Eating spoiled food. Mike Lopez says the spaghetti MRE was his favorite. Well, there you go. See? He probably has reviewed that one. You can watch the review and relive all those good memories. Have I played the Commando Attack game? I haven't played the Commando Attack game. I have what's it called the Cobra Battle Game. The one with the foam darts that you shoot at each other. I have that one, but I don't have the Commando Attack game. I was thinking about getting it though because I think Kevin reviewed it and it looked fun. It looked like it would be fun to play. So that's something I might get. Even though it's a little bit outside the scope of what I would normally get, it just looks fun. So I give it a try. The Ham and Lime... Yes. Okay. SnakeBitGoat asks if Steve1989 has eaten the Ham and Lime and Lime and Lime being rationed. The answer is he has. There is a video on the Ham and Lime and Lime being C rationed. The most hated of all the C rations. And the one that kept popping up in the G.I. Joe comic book. Yes. There is a video on that. If you want to see 40 plus year old Ham and Lime being C rationed, you can see that. I can tell you though, it's pretty gross. Oh, wow. Kevin Haynes, 10 Euro. Thank you, Kevin. Thank you, Kevin. You didn't even ask a question. If you want to ask a question, if you send a super chat, I will be glad to answer any question you have to ask, but thank you. Thank you very much. Codename... Oh, yeah. You've been new to Vero, too. You've been doing IDW G.I. Joe reviews. Comic Tropes Chris has been encouraging me to read the IDW Larry Hamas series. I know. I know. I've only read bits and pieces, but I will read more of it. I've been told it is really good. So, yeah. Good question. We've got about 15 minutes left to go. I try to keep these videos to about an hour, but we still got plenty of time. Still got plenty of time. How is coffee working, David Fitchner asked?  Since this whole debacle with my job recently, and since I was really close to not having regular employment and perhaps having to rely on my revenue from this channel to pay my bills, that was pretty scary. I've been much more conscious of my revenue streams, and I try not to focus too much on that. I want to make sure I focus on the important things, which is, you know, putting up the reviews and communication, communicating with people, interacting with you guys, but I was uncomfortably close to having to you know, at least for a short time, make a living off of this right here, and that made me a bit nervous, so yeah, I've just you know, I'm a bit more conscious of that now. It's amazing what, you know, what you start thinking about when your employment becomes a little unsteady, so fortunately, though, that's not something we have to worry about right now. We're okay right now. Actually, we're in really good shape right now, so I'm not worried right now. I'm okay, I'm okay. But oh yeah, great Fox, YouTube revenue sounds complicated to understand. It's not just you. YouTube and revenue, as far as I can tell, is voodoo. I totally don't get how they calculate that, and I tried to look into it to try to figure out, okay, how does this work? It's voodoo.  That's as far as I can tell, that's how it works. So yeah, I don't know. I don't know. How long did I choke the cobra rat while it was in the bucket of water? Only a few seconds though. It's extremely easy to drown. It's not it doesn't float. The cobra rat review, despite being that being a terrible vehicle, it was a fun it was a fun video to do. I enjoyed it a lot. Sometimes I mean, I love looking at great GI Joe toys. I really do. You know, the really good ones they're just a joy to review, right?  But sometimes the ones that are on the opposite end of the spectrum are fun too.  It works. It works. Steel Brigade applications for patrons. Interesting idea. Thanks, Elvis. I will give that some thought. I will give that some thought. Yeah. Usually, if it looks like I'm having fun in a video, I usually am. You know, the truth is even if I'm reviewing something that's bad, something that just is an eyesore and I can hardly stand to look at, I have so much fun making these videos.  I was just thinking about this last week as I was putting together the the video. Actually, I guess as I was putting together the rat video to get it ready to upload, I was just thinking about how much fun this is. It's just, it's so I mean, it's not something I ever thought I would be doing.  It, you know, YouTube has only really even been around for a few years, but thanks to technology and the internet, this is possible and I'm able to first of all have a great time making these videos. It is fun and also meet all of you fine people and enjoy, you know, talking with you guys. But it is just honestly and I'm seeing I'm out of fun to do these videos. Do I keep this stuff? I don't like Chili Swarps ask. Yes, I do because sometimes I have to use this stuff for reference. So I still have to keep it. For instance, like, well, where's one? Right. I didn't particularly like Xandar but Xandar has shown up in several videos recently. So, you know, that's why I have the figure so that I can reference the figure when I need to. So, yeah, I do keep it, but really just for reference, not for like display purposes. So, okay, and I see new vids Hasbro release G1 Transformers Common Clone in the 80s release. I don't doubt it just because well as anti-war, but I wouldn't be okay. It's amazing to see Joes. Yeah, I haven't seen your video codename new to Vero 2 but I'll try to catch it as soon as I can. That's another thing I'm behind on. I'm behind on watching other people's videos. That's something I usually like to really keep up with. You know, I watch FormBX257 every week. I watch Timer every week, but sometimes videos, I see them come up, but I'm just too busy and I don't have time to watch them. So, I think I make a mental note. I'll get to them later, and I don't get to them later. And so I'm sorry if I'm behind on watching your videos. If you're somebody that I follow, I do try to watch those. I just it's just all I can do right now to just get the reviews done every week. And like I said, I've got a fairly big one coming up soon. I need some extra time to work on it. So I'm trying to work ahead so that I can create a little extra space of time to work on a special video. So right now my time management is tricky. Wouldn't it be nice if Hasbro did this for G.I. Joe like they are for Transformers? I mean, it would be cool. I don't think they will just because we've been told that Hasbro isn't putting out anything for G.I. Joe until the new movie comes out. So they basically have straight out said that they're not doing anything until 2020. So that's too bad, but it would be nice if they reconsider that. Brandon, would I like to borrow your yellow cobra bat for a review? I'll tell you what, I will refrain from that. I don't usually borrow figures or toys for reviews because I get very nervous that something will happen to it when I have it and I won't be able to get back to you in the same condition that I received it. Now, probably wouldn't happen, but borrowing toys makes me very nervous. I feel the responsibility of having it and if anything happened then I would feel very bad about that. A couple of years ago there was a guy that was going to loan me his gold head steel brigade figure to review. I really thought about that because I want to review the gold head steel brigade. But after talking with the guy and after thinking about you know all of the things that could go wrong and that kind of transaction we backed off a bit and changed our mind about that. So yeah, borrowing toys to review it makes me very nervous. Oh hey, Transformers and video games are a channel that our old friend CyberTiger used to talk about all the time. So hello thank you for joining. Speaking of CyberTiger speaking of CyberTiger I indulged a little bit over the weekend and watched a little bit of my of my own reviews. I watched a few of my own videos over the weekend. Some of them aren't terrible but I watched the one that I did with CyberTiger the review of of Action Force and you know not to toot my own horn but I thought it was alright. I actually enjoyed watching one of my own videos which is which doesn't happen very often. And I do very much miss CyberTiger since he decided to leave to leave YouTube and not make videos anymore but that guy was a really good friend to him. A next night force figure review hey good question. Michael Lopez asks when the next night force figure review is good question. I do have one that that I have ready to review but but you know I have this rule on the channel that I want to review the first version of a figure before I review any but I just did. But excuse me the night force figure that I have ready to review is Crazy Legs which is a figure that I love Night Force Crazy Legs what a great figure but I haven't reviewed the first version of Crazy Legs yet so I really need to review version one of Crazy Legs before I get to the night force version so it's on the agenda it's on the radar I don't know exactly when I'll do it but I'd kind of like to do it sooner rather than later because I would really like to review Night Force Crazy Legs I want to look at that figure what an awesome figure spoiler I think it's a good figure Yes Green Yeti I haven't reviewed the fantastic and wonderful Crazy Legs figure yet but I'll get to it am I going to review Kevin Mealy Hello Kevin Mealy another guy that I did a video collaboration with the bridge layer and Tollbooth and I had the privilege of meeting Kevin at Jocon in Orlando Florida Hello Kevin Kevin asks about the battle gear accessory packs I've been thinking about that there's one thing I haven't decided yet about reviewing the battle gear accessory packs and that is do I want to review them all loose or do I want to have the loose pieces and a carded example of them and I have not decided yet so part of me says yeah get a carded example of the accessory packs for the review otherwise it's just a review of pieces and for the most part they're pretty common pieces so I feel like I might need to do that in order to review the battle gear accessory packs but you know what I really should I should review the accessory packs because I mean they're an important part of the series right they're very important as a kid and we talk about them a lot don't we we talk about them as collectors because you know as a collector you're trying to find accessories and you have to figure out if it's is it original or is it battle gear accessory pack hey rat face how you doing everything's gone good thanks for asking so that's my dilemma as far as the battle gear accessory packs go I have some decisions to make I dive into that but it is important you know the more I think about it the more important I think it is because yeah I mean it's one of those things that it's like it's so baked into the GI Joe collecting experience you know maybe people don't think about it all that much just because it's sort of the accessory pack accessories are just always there right so yeah I'll think about that I will think about it and Avarna 2B says you got a snow serpent without equipment but I'm just going to give a light blue dragon off to from accessory pack yeah and those those blue weapons that came with the accessory packs actually look great with some of the figures some of them look better than the original to be honest if you're collecting and you want original accessories you know the battle gear accessory packs don't quite do it for you George Lopez says greetings from Guatemala hello and greetings from the United States nice to see you hey guys it is getting close to an hour and and I admit I'm really tired so I am going to stop at an hour I do try to keep these live streams limited to about an hour but hey really great discussion this time guys I really appreciate it thank you all for showing up really interesting conversation I very much enjoyed it thank you for giving your perspective on you know the GI Joe Transformers thing I did want to express my opinion but I wanted to get some other opinions as well so thank you for that thank you for those who sent to Super Chat very kind of you but yeah I'm pretty gassed right now it's been a long day and tomorrow is going to be another long day so having said that I will say good night to you guys we will do this again next week don't forget to check out Timur's theme month his monster month doing cobra law this month over on half the battle that'll be a lot of fun and I will I've got a video going up on Sunday it's kind of special I don't mean to brag but it's pretty much great I hope you like it and we'll do this again next week on Tuesday so thanks everyone for showing up and thanks for talking and I will shut this off and I will see you next week


Hey everybody, Matt here for late in sports cards ripping one box of 2022-23 Panini select Premier League soccer hobby. This is for Chris S. Look Chris Ronnie sees up after this with an off the pass break basketball with rice soccer and Rookie tie-dye Jayden Anthony stuff 49 Bruno Fernandez silver and camo The granite sock soccer Lissandra Martinez red Sakumara Mason Mountfield level and five of five That is green auto. Yeah, yeah, Ture for Manchester City Go nice low numbered green auto for you Chris Phillip billing. No, this is um No, this is a hobby box been white Timothy Castain. No, we have a mega coming up here in a bit Anthony Robinson tie-dye 49 And see so this is auto Cesar aspila quite a Silver auto okay Osaka. I'll do this and I'll do Ronnie's box, and then I'll Run and grab some more boxes. So if you want something rip grab it up now Stefan B. Rookie and Anthony Robinson try a color Julianne Alvarez future Silver Rookie insert Mohammed Salah red and Ali Watkins orange Martín Odegaard field level and Jersey Bruno Fernandez unstoppable Caru Mutoma Jeremy Sarniento Yeah, Tiago silver silver silver silver silver and Helena Saliba Alexander Isaac field level Louis Sinistera Rookie red and tie-dye field level James Ward prowls pros All right last pack Chris Virgil van Dijk and Allison Becker Silver field level Brian Mbuehmel and I don't do it for your box Chris Appreciate the purchase congrats on that green auto get these right out to you


What is going on guys welcome back to channel critical overload here So the closest thing ever that we'll get to it chapter 3 is now Looking like it's coming closer to being a thing over at HBO max because we have learned that a series a Prequel series is now in the works over at HBO max It hasn't officially been green lit But I believe the anchor was the first source to actually report this and they kind of assumed that then that the Narrative about this prequel series we were all around the town of dairy and it was going to the origins of Pennywise of course The shapeshifter that stalks the town of dairy every 27 years and has been there for many hundreds of years Before even human civilization was there But variety has seemed to have disclosed a little bit more info about this They said a prequel to it is in development at HBO max and the series currently called welcome to dairy will begin in the 1960s to the time leading up to the events of it part one The stories also said to include the origin story of Pennywise the clown Andy Muschietti who directed it part one and the second one it part two is attached executive produced this series along with Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs According to sources the Muschietti's infusion developed the story for the show with the future writing the script and he Would also direct the first episode should the project go to series and the writer's room for it has already been assembled for the most part So, you know at this point if the series isn't green lit I just want to talk about the idea that if this happens this is again the closest thing we can get to it chapter 3 and We've already had this type of rumbling for many years in between it chapter 2 and now Even in between it chapter 1 or it part 1 and it chapter 2 There are rumblings, and you know and Andy mad at Andy Muschietti not mad a check He's gone on record to state that There's a lot to explore regarding the the town of dairy and Pennywise of course has been around for many years I know that the films themselves have changed a lot of the Timeline in regards to when certain events happen So like if the series itself would actually be set in the 60s leading leading up to what happened in it chapter 1 Maybe they could explore the whole black spot incident where the where it was burnt down and we know They could touch on some other stuff that has gone on in the town of dairy That wasn't necessarily I guess documented because the the shape shifter itself Which we know it's its most favorite form at this stage is Pennywise We know that even when it's in its slumber it has a hold over this town It has some type of Magnificent mind control that even when it's in its slumber It's kind of acting as the source for all of these hate crimes to go on and all of these crimes That just happened in general in the town of dairy. It's some type of malevolent force that just Causes all this chaos to ensue in dairy and then it awakens every 27 years to feed off of children because children are the easiest to Manipulate and spark terror in and the shape shifter finds something delicious in them all now as far as like Whether anyone from the movies themselves that we got in 2017 2019 will be participating in it That's not official But if this is indeed latched on to what we have already seen from the 2017 2019 movies I know a lot of you will want to have Bill Skarsgard back in the role of Pennywise and would want to see him You know carry this mantle even further in a prequel series because I'm certain that if this is a series That's again set in the 60s. This will be before Pennywise had awakened in the late 80s where the first movie was set at This will be before that they could explore the black spot being burnt down Then they could also touch on I guess some other undocumented things that have gone on in the 60s leading up to what happens in The first movie but all in all that might mean we won't see very much of Pennywise because as far as like them touching on the Origins of it in the 60s Pennywise wouldn't be awake So as far as like flashbacks, that's the only way we'll be seeing him Who knows anything regarding like what the character character names will be as far as like who will be focused on if this is set in The 60s prior to what happened in the film They could just do a whole thing where we are introduced to Characters that have nothing to do with the actual black spot incident and kind of just keep it based off the novel But then still tweaking the source material taking your liberty with it And giving us a whole slew of new characters set it in the 60s These characters can go over the origins of the town a little bit talk about Pennywise And that's how we get flashbacks of Pennywise have Bill Skarsgård factored in but maybe this is going to just be a more of a deep dive into Not necessarily Pennywise itself, but more so its hold it has over the town of Darien all these All these terrible crimes and incidents that have gone on in this town because of its presence And then lead us into the more than More than astonishingly great first installment and then of course that led us to the Second one, which I know a lot of a lot of people don't really like thought it was a bit of a step down Which I can agree with It has some pacing issues too, but not to go into a tangent on what's wrong with it chapter 2 But I would love to see this happen. I would love for this to officially be greenlit I would love for it to come into fruition become its own entity and Again act as the closest thing will have to it chapter 3 with the TV series You have a lot more opportunities to develop characters a little bit more of Dive into some other aspects of the lore of Pennywise a bit more because that is going to be something that's factored into it I'm sure I just feel like what it'll be more about is a deep dive into the heinous crimes that go on in Dairy because of Pennywise's Presence because again if it's set in the 60s Pennywise shouldn't be awake at this time We could go into details as to how It came to favor this identity because the film itself the second one in particular teases us that Pennywise was actually a Actual person and maybe this shapeshifter just decided to take on this form for whatever reason after maybe it possessed that Individual or maybe again, it's just taking on that form because that's what it seems to draw the most fear out of children with But we know it can take the form of anything that people fear the most I would love to take a deep dive into the town of dairy the novel itself is one of the best things I've ever had the pleasure of reading We know Stephen King. He's pretty much a horror master when it comes to his novels So we'll see if this gets greenlit I know a lot of you would also love to see it happen Those of you who are fans of the original two films also fan of the miniseries and if there's a chance for Tim Curry to be involved I'm not against that either. I think Bill Skarsgård and Tim Curry both do their own unique things with Pennywise I know a lot of you have your favorites one over the other If I had to say which one I prefer I guess I would say Bill Skarsgård But that's not to discredit anything from Tim Curry Tim Curry was just the one that I grew up with for a long period of time And then I saw something very fresh in my late teen years with Bill Skarsgård I just kind of latched on to a bit more But let me know what y'all think about all this down in the comment section below If you have already of course make sure you subscribe turn on post location in this video in the description I've linked some social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram You can message me there of course and then there's any movies news or views like me to cover in the future With all that in mind guys. I will see you in the next video