and Tex here coming at you from the Palatial Tex Dom Studios here in Texas. Got my flags flying behind me. I am feeling pretty good on a Saturday night. You know I had a video of a soldier that had come home for the first time in months and I guess you know we've all seen these right you know that they surprise the kids and the wife and all that and bring the soldier in but this was an interesting one I'm going to post a link to it down at the bottom here because I think it was just freaking cool it was just it just broke broke my heart I mean I got a lot right. Kid was in mixed martial arts or something and they had that had the young boy blindfolded and he was going up against his teacher you know just trying to anticipate and you know I guess what little Star Wars thing going on there or what but what they did is they had his dad come in and his dad had obviously been deployed for quite a while and came in and just started sparring with him because you know a kid was blindfolded right and at one point he was like keep your hands up Chip keep your hands up I think that was his name and you know eventually the second time his dad said something the little boy started to figure it out right he stopped put his head down tried to pull everything off of his head you know and as soon as he saw his dad he launched into his dad man it was like you know like like a middle line backer taking out or running back I mean just launched into him and you know I showed that a couple of weeks ago I posted it and honestly I mean my eyes leaked like I ain't gonna lie it is what it is man I I'm emotional I'm emotional man you know shit gets to me sometimes and I let it out I don't fucking bottle that shit in but I will tell you this much I actually was watching an Astros game with my wife a while ago I said you gotta watch this video and she afterwards she's like well you want to make me cry tonight or what but my original point was when I posted that thing is kids need their dads okay you know there's a lot of single parent families out there right now there's a lot of moms single moms raising kids and the dads are five states away kids don't get to see their dads kids get a couple of phone calls a week if they're lucky right that's that's that's not right that is just not right in a perfect situation mom and dad love each other they get along they fuck like crazy you know they're happy in life they raise their kids and things go well and for a fortunate group that works for another large portion of that group it doesn't work so you end up with children with with fathers in a best case situation for them mom and dad live in the same town you know and that's a pretty big deal and that's that's you know you think about that oh my god they're divorced they don't you know but at least they live in the same town okay I bring this up because in a month we are going to convene in Orlando Florida for the 21 convention patriarchy edition and this was a brainstorm I've talked about it before but you know Hunter Drew got together and was asking Anthony some questions and talking you know to Tanner Guzzi and they were trying to work some things that yeah how can we do this for dads you know what we did for in October for 21 count how do we do this for fathers and husbands and that type of thing admittedly right it's a subset of the group that was there in October in Orlando last year so Anthony as he is a master of doing pulls together speakers that can provide incredible content on a subject he did it back in October and he's pulling it off again here in May I will tell you right now ticket price is going up again tomorrow night I believe it is if you are on the on the fence and you can't decide if you want to go or not I've got a couple of discount codes that I can get you in if you still want to get in so reach out to me by email my email's going to be down below you can email me anytime I always answer emails by the way it may take me a day or two sometimes but I never ignore an email because a lot of people didn't ignore my emails when I was going through my crap years ago and I I do this for one reason only and that is to help other men and help families help kids you know I believe in it I am blessed that I have a full-time gig that pays me well that makes me happy as hell to get up and go to work to you know day in and day out I'm not here listen I don't begrudge anybody making money on the internet God bless you go for it that's your calling you're an entrepreneur that's your passion you know you're out there selling or whatever you know we laugh about selling soap and all that kind of crap but dude you fucking do you right I do me what I do is what I do and when I'm here online I'm talking to you it's because it's from my heart and it's because I believe in what I'm saying and I'm not here to try to show I'm gonna try to make money and I'm gonna try to hear a fucking be somebody I'm not I'm just who I am right I'm a grandpa I'm a dad I'm a husband I'm a warrior I'm a fucking fighter right and I'm gonna fight hard for people that are trying to fight for themselves as well so you know we talk about throwing ropes down to men in holes this is what we're doing once again but you got to climb up so one step might be for you to consider meeting us in Orlando in a month again reach out to me by email I've got a couple of discount codes I can pass on I don't have a lot left but I can pass them on and get you a 25% discount if I you know if you just reach out the content is going to be fucking amazing because I know the speakers now I've gotten to know them really well over the last six plus months and I know they're all fathers there they all get it some are divorced some are not and you know we have a wide range of experience age groups married not married blah blah blah whatever but we're all dads we all get it and we all know that raising a child today in the year 2019 ain't easy right I got grandkids now my kids are raised my kids are gone they're out there in the world foraging for themselves they're got three grandkids ten eight and six and anything I can do to encourage other men to be able to step into their roles I'm going to do so that's it for tonight at this point I just wanted to touch base one more time I think it's tomorrow night the prices go up again and one thing I did learn a couple of years ago from watching these things at 21 convention the prices don't ever come back down again so I look forward to meeting with you I will say this much I I've talked to a couple of guys after October and one of the things that came the feedback that I got back was that everybody was in the same rooms together and everybody hung out together and everybody got to talk to each other and whether it was in the hallways whether it was the freaking elevator whether it was at the bar wherever you might have been at the time um I mean I was exhausted when I walked away in October and it was mostly because it was nonstop conversations but they were great conversations man there were guys that were you know that were talking to me I was talking to them and they were talking to other other folks that were there other speakers and whatnot um you know these are guys that you you tend to generally follow their content online because of a reason because you you connect with the content and to be able to connect with these guys live in person they ain't gonna lie man some of these guys I've been following them for years and I got to meet them for the first time in October and I was total fanboy I was kind of almost embarrassed but hey you know what I like these guys I like the you know everybody that I ran into I I just gelled with and there were guys asking me questions about dominance and submission there were guys asking me questions about fatherhood you know I talk grandparenting stuff with another couple of guys I mean just freaking age groups are all over the place so my talk in in May coming up is going to be talking about things along the lines of setting boundaries with children but you know I might even re-title my talk is I married a single mom yeah I did it so um listen I got I got things to say I want to say I'm I'm not going to say I'm here right now I do know the beauty of the 21 convention is if you don't if you're not able to get there within a year or so you will get to see all the content anyway so that's one of the coolest things about what Anthony and his team are doing you know the content is available I mean it's not like oh it's too expensive I can't go fuck you guys right no that's not the way this whole thing works thing is yeah there's a there's a paywall you got to be able to afford to get there because you know why because it's a nice facility it's going to be a nice place it's going to be run professionally it's going to be first class in all regards and that costs money so if you're not able to do that I get it but guess what hang in there because the talks are coming live on YouTube they come live first 21 studios you get a month free you can get in there and do it if you want to it's not that much money so it's like Netflix for men it's it's years worth of talks and discussions and such that are on there so again one more time reach out to me I've got a couple of discount codes left I hope to see you there I can't wait it's going to be balls to the wall I cannot wait to hit this thing we've got a brand new venue it's supposed to be world-class and I cannot wait to see what we're up against here men I again I'm stoked I had a call with George over at 21 one of the guys that works here at 21 today we were talking about stuff and I've been pumped up all freaking day as you can tell right the fact is after it was lost tonight I'm bummed but I had a couple margaritas along the way so girl and I had a pretty good time watching that's about it I'm out and I hope to see you in early May in Orlando click the link below if you're interested stay safe


This is what I want to do You have planted a flag in the sand and you've gone I'm going to create this photograph and I'm creating for me if you like it Fantastic if you don't jog on great photographers Understand that creating photography to please the masses is the quickest way to ruin your creative spirit How's it? How's it? Back when I was 19, I started at photo school and I was full of excitement and joy about finally beginning my career as a professional photographer and and I sat in those classrooms and and I was taught how to you know Create photographs that looked like various images and and that was an important way of learning and Over time my group might make my class we began to compare ourselves to each other Throughout the the critiques and all those things we would say well, you know I want the crowd to To like me to say that that work was good so you would start taking your photographs and Putting into them the things that you knew would get a positive response from her people around you It's a natural reaction, especially when you're new that you want people to like what it is you do And of course then I went off into the big wide world and I started working as a photographer and For a while it was fine. I had my own you know way of doing things, but then along came the internet and Through that I started dabbling with with digital as the digital was coming in in and because I hadn't had a training in digital I was going online and looking at these kind of notes There's very basic tutorials about how to do various things and I was liking the effects that I was seeing I was going artist this is great And and I would try and copy what I saw there and and then along came, you know social media and all these things and I Wanted people to like my photographer I felt that I had some sort of God-given right for everybody to go wow your photography is awesome You know and and of course when somebody does say those things it strokes regal makes you feel good And it made me feel good, and I chased that dragon I embraced going after that that dopamine rush with both hands and I went off thinking that you know if I could just Get a handle on all of these techniques that I was seeing all these things that people liked and were responding positively These two then they would like my photography as well And then I would become you know fated as some sort of wow, you know genius photographer But through all of that I was losing What had drawn me to photography in the first place and that was you know doing Photography simply for the pure love of doing photography of being like my grandfather used to remind me just you know Seeing the world in in your own unique way and putting it in on to film just for that pure pleasure of doing so There was a man on a forum who I met and I started talking to who Reminded me of that grandfather figure in my life and I started to Remember and reconnect with the photography that I wanted to be making and it was such an important change in my life Did it freed up my photography? It made me a better happier more creative Photographer because I wasn't now worrying about trying to please other people and and chasing those Pointless likes and his pointless shares. It's understandable why this happens, you know, we are By our very natures, you know drawn to the praise of others of of saying Hey, you know you did a good job and and in the modern world This is never more evident than you know places like Instagram and and Facebook and YouTube to a lesser extent where we are So easily drawn into the idea that you know, if other people Like our work if they just hit a like button and move on to the next picture Then somehow we are creating great Photography and I really don't think that is the case at all It's of course one thing to learn by copying You know all of us when we started off photography started by You know doing tutorials by learning to achieve various things and that's a natural process But we tend to get lost in this idea that copying is just the way to Make something that is popular and I really would like you to stop thinking about Copying just for the sake of copying because that's what's what is popular at the moment That is what's kind of you know, driving all the likes and if you if you photograph in a certain way Then other people will like your photography and and by definition you may think that you are a good photographer The great issue with all of this of course is that that social media is one giant echo chamber so one person comes along and Creates something new that tends to resonate with a few people and then they Create more to make like that and so on and so forth You know, you just got to look at these ideas of you know shooting portraits with extremely shallow depths of field very Contrast across processed kind of looks with with sort of gaudy neon types of colors all these things, you know, they're all just Fads that come and go around and if you've been in photography for a while You'll see them come and go and you'll see the news the new guys, you know pick them up and go Wow, this is this is amazing and you know, they're fine, but it's not what we want to do as photographers We want to speak in our own unique voices We can speak in our unique voices by being brave And this is what you really need to start doing is to to if you want to show your work is To stop worrying about what other people think about it Don't care that they might say it's rubbish or whatever. In fact, if people don't like it That's a good sign I would say that that is a really great sign because it means that while you might not be creating Fantastic work, you know for it for you in your own mind or what have you at least you're not creating something that is just you know like like Milk toast for everybody else that they just kind of like oh yes, I like that, you know Provoke a reaction with your photography.   You're going to go in directions that don't really quite work But the thing is that you are willing to try you are willing to take the chance You are willing to experiment and and explore the unknowns Don't worry about all these videos that tell you all the seven mistakes that you must you must absolutely not make as a photographer You know, it's it don't worry, you know mistakes are cool.  How do we start on this process of? You know being brave and and and and challenging our ideas about photography Well, the first thing I think and I'll link to a more in-depth video about this at the end is that It's great as I mentioned as a beginner to learn from other photographers to you know Learn the basics of of how to actually wield the the tool that you have in your hand that camera in a way that You know that actually works, right? But you get to a level and you need to start going beyond where everybody else is drawing their inspiration from and so you need to go off From photography you need to to go away and expand Where it is that you're looking for your images, you know the moving image You know art galleries anywhere that has any sort of visual Ideas that are not specifically photography that you can bring into your photographs if you love painting Then bring those painters that you like into your work if you love, you know album artwork cover if you love graphic design If you love something i'm sure that because you're a visual person you like other visual mediums and just photography Bring those inspirations into your work Your work will be far richer for it because you are bringing in fresh Ideas rather than those stale Ideas that everybody else is just kind of repeatedly regurgitating While we're on the subject of ideas you You have to stop thinking that likes Validate your photography that that if a thousand people Like your photograph then that's good and if 10,000 people Like your photograph then that photograph is is like 100 times better than it was it doesn't work like that You know it doesn't work like that and and and a lot of you I know are not into the whole kind of social media thing But really don't seek validation about whether or not your photography is good from anybody else because it really It it does not matter what other people think That whether or not your photography is good And there is it. There's a little kind of caveat to that is that you can't actually Decide whether or not your photography is good because it's not up to you And this is a point that touched on in a previous video that that Who decides your if your photography is good or not is the viewer is the person who's looking at it And you may not get tens of thousands of people go. Oh my god. That's amazing if you photograph Work that people don't like but for the people who do like it. They will absolutely They will adore it They will be so into your photographs that is not even funny because you are making something that is has a unique voice has a voice that reaches out to them to them specifically And pulls them in and that's what we want to get in your photography You may not have the 10000 likes, but you may have two or three people who for them You are the greatest photographer who's ever lived and I want you to ultimately always remember that that you Are somebody's favorite photographer As soon as you get hold of these concepts as soon as you grasp the nettle of wanting to Create photography once again just for yourself then all of a sudden all of a sudden You're going to take off so much worry. We spend so much time worrying about what other people think That it is like a lead cloak that just weighs us down and it drags behind us the whole time And it consumes our thoughts every time we we go to press the shutter.  Will it be okay? You know it and as soon as you stop worrying about the opinions of others Then you will find that your photography becomes so much More fluid it becomes a free of more rewarding Experience akin to the feelings that you first had when you initially started Photography it doesn't matter if you've been photographing, you know for a week. They're still there You know, you know 100 years if you've been photographing for 100 years, let me know in the comments below I'd love to talk to you But these are the you know, this is the thing you you need to kind of just be free You need to be zen because when you are in all these states of mind It will connect you more with the actual process of seeing the world Of photographing it in your unique way of being the best photographer that you can be And and this is that's a theme that comes up so much on this channel is I would love for you to be the very best photographer that you are capable of being because I know that you can be I know that you are you know, occasionally we all make little Trips into the into the wilderness that doesn't quite work and and we sometimes feel that we're we can be a bit lost But come back come back if you're feeling lost to that feeling that you had when you first picked up the camera Which is that this is awesome and this is this is a an endeavor that is like It's like magic it still feels amazing that you can see something that everybody else can see and See something unique in that it's How many other people go through their lives day to day just never never seeing Never never looking never being aware of everything that is around them I want you to do that. I want you to stop taking boring Photos that just everybody else goes. Oh, yeah, that's nice.


Hello and welcome back here to the channel torque drift Tuesday episode 2 of the 350 z build So make sure you guys follow me on all social media all of which are found in the description box below So we're here on episode 2 of our 350 z build if you guys remember last time we bought a bunch of parts So it's time to get those parts installed the 2j and everything. So we got our mission moto our field Suspension we got that we have our pro angle kit and And all of our import parts and that 2jz. So we're gonna fit everything No, come on. Come on. Why don't you? What? Okay, we're just gonna go do them in the actual parts thing because apparently they don't feel like fitting correctly So we're gonna go to I'm gonna go at it All right, so engine wise we got to drop that 2j in Drop that 2j and that definitely dropped the The front of the car. Did you see how much it dropped? Yep? So definitely adds some more mass to the car. So we have to adjust the front suspension accordingly So we also have our import clutch import intercooler Getting all the power gains today Import turbo And we're gonna crank that up to 11 psi Confirm yes No, I keep doing this Engine we got to upgrade our ECU there we go and Our import intake So and we're gonna go to the front corner of the wheel import brakes Now we do the pro angle kit Because we have the ability to do that We're just gonna go right into it and dial it up Apparently my controllers tweaking out right now dial that up I don't think we're gonna do seven and a half degrees of camber. We're gonna do six So we're gonna leave everything else how it sits. So we're gonna throw that confirm I should probably just use my keyboard Continue and then suspension we do have field suspension So with the added weight We're gonna stiffen the front up to 14 we're gonna lower a little bit because of the added weight So we'll drop it down, but we're gonna stiffen it up to 14 and Confirm that Go back. Yep. So we have all of that on there So now let's go to the back end of the car because we have our Sicki quick change LSD Nope, we've got to go back to the back end of the car. Come on. There we go We're gonna put the suspension kit in here We're going to put it up a smidge and then drop it down a little bit So that's where we're gonna confirm that setting there Confirm then we have to go and do the rear angle kit Which we are not running positive camber. We're gonna run About one two five of negative camber So that is where we sit right now We are pushing Wrong button wanted to see what we're actually pushing Power wise in the 350 right now Engine max torque upgrade your engine We have a 2j in there apparently our 2j is not strong enough for 11 pounds of boost so We're gonna have to see what we can do with it right now, so let's take it out to the track See what kind of Runs we can get into we got hidden path hidden path Car park jump ocean waves and the beginning Daiya Shihara's test drive, so Hidden path would be a great one, but I feel like We're gonna do the yard jump in this car 728 horsepower We're gonna leave it on those tires and see if maybe that'll be good So see if we can find somebody to go against here for today the first battle It looks like we do have a 900 horsepower GTR Let's do it a little Z versus GTR 2j very loud Like we're already scraping We are we need to raise the car up because we are just scraping everywhere right now and No, we're near The line we need to be running and we probably need to be in fourth gear. Oh That's a bit of a wall tap Yeah, we got to go to fourth gear and we are scraping way too much. We're gonna have to raise the car up So we're not just dragging bumper We're gonna try and chase him, but we're dragging frame of the car So not going to give us the best benefit When it comes to being in the chase Nope. No. Yeah, those scrapes are definitely screwing with us right now We're gonna have to definitely oh I have absolutely no control so we're gonna tweak it raise the car and hope that We can get a better feel in the Z Because it's not feeling the greatest right now. It felt better before we did all the upping So now let's go back. Let's go back Raise the car up some because apparently Z is way too heavy Oh, yeah, you can tell it's definitely on the ground. Yeah, my side skirts are in the ground. So we're going to increase our height To ten We'll soften it down to about a 12 man, we'll go we'll go nine feel like nine is a good number So we're gonna oh now we're gonna go do the backside that's much higher now Oh, man, I feel like it's monster trucking and it's oh The fitment is terrible. We're definitely gonna have to get a Body kit on here so that we can get a better fitment So we're gonna have to raise that up to a nine We'll soften that down to an eight. So maybe this will help now So hopefully that Helps us when it comes to not dragging on the ground All right, so we got the Z raised up a little bit We're gonna take it back to Kelly bank where we were running it before that way we can really Check if it's how much different it is based on the previous runs. So we're gonna run the FD FD Irwindale section because that's what we were running last time Kick it in definitely much more power all kind of into the wall We're not scraping anymore. I'm gonna be in fourth gear. I do not have enough grip so Gotta do some more tweaking with this car to get it Better I feel like the 2j will work very well. I just have to get It dialed in so we can try and give it one more run here for today a little more grip in the tires Kicking the fourth There we go much more grip. Yep. That's what we needed.  We're gonna try that one again So the pro tires the 2j working pretty well the suspension I feel like I need to dial a little bit better the weight of that 2j in the front is definitely a Causing some very different forms of control with this car, but We're getting it. I don't think this car would be dead perfect from the grip But now we do have a starting point gonna get some bigger wheels on here and stuff of that nature So the Z is definitely starting to come along There'll be more builds with it in the future episodes to make sure you guys follow me on all social media as always I thank you guys for watching and coming back to the channel and as always I'm evil rabbit. I'll see you on the track


If prayer is to be powerful, it must be an act of the Spirit, not of the flesh.  That's Jude 1 verse 20. You can't accomplish spiritual growth through carnal actions. Neither can the flesh sustain what the Spirit begins. Some pray from their emotions. Some pray from their own carnal cravings and desires. Some pray from need. But the most effective prayers are prayed when you pray from your Spirit. As advanced as our phones have become, those who use the call feature will still, from time to time, experience the problem of a weak or low signal. Whenever I'm on a phone call that begins to lose signal strength, the person on the other line will more often than not start to yell louder so that I can hear them. But because of the poor phone connection, the unclear communication just goes from being gibberish to being loud gibberish. In moments like those, I explain to the caller, you don't have to yell. The volume is fine. The problem is the connection. The problem is not the volume. It's the connection. As a person will try to make up with volume what lacks in connection during a spotty phone call, so some believers try to make up an emotion and hype what is lacking in connection during prayer. The connection is there, but they allow matters of the flesh to disrupt what would otherwise be a moment of powerful prayer. Willpower fails. Emotion fails. Carnal effort fails. Intellect fails. It's not by power nor might but by the Spirit. Too many believers exhaust themselves in prayer, straining to obtain what can only be found in connection with the Spirit. The key then is to lower the emotional carnal volume and just listen to the Spirit. Let the Spirit guide you as you surrender to Him. Be at peace. Don't become agitated or emotionally riled. Relax. Surrender. Trust. Trust not in your ability to connect with the Holy Spirit, but in His ability to connect with you. I'm David Diga Hernandez and that is your Moment of Truth. This message was taken from my latest book, Praying in the Holy Spirit. Order now at amazon.com.


Out with the old and in with the new with Appalachian wireless trading and upgrade to one of the hottest smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S9 and save a hundred dollars better service bigger savings that's today's Appalachian wireless an East Kentucky network company to your agreement required I know this laying in plain sight and the passenger side floorboard was a pair of blue jean shorts and inside the pocket you could see a cellophane package that look like it had some crystal ice in it which later we suspect that's that's what it is it's probably about four ounces they had an undisclosed amount of money on them a firearm that we ran through dispatch came back stolen I believe out of Georgetown so we're following up on that


Welcome to EuroBSDCon 2023 in Quimbra, as they say here. First, we have to thank our sponsors. Our platinum sponsor is Modiron. Our platinum sponsor is Iron. Our G-Nets. Our gold sponsor, damn, there's no name on the slide. Who's that? Thank you, Apple. Our server sponsors are OpenSense and the FreeBSD Foundation. Our brand sponsors are Genoa, HA Proxy, and NetBSD. And our partners became so many that I really had to get the logo pretty small on the slide. Skyline, PC Engines, PowerDNS, NetsCommune, dinfrastructure.infrastructure, I don't know. OpenBSD Amsterdam, Lalo, and Cis. Thank you to the University of Quimbra for hosting us. The Quimbra team, the local team, Pedro. Thank you. Nelson, Bruno, and Paolo. And the video team largely in the back, John Baldwin, Patrick McEvoy of BSDTV, Florian, Albert, Phyllis, Jerome, DCH, and Dexter. A program committee led by Peter Hansen. Well, Philip Ruehler, Stuart Hansen, Tom Jones, Kristen Nielsen, Misha Peters, and Benny Siegert. The EuroBSD Confoundation, Paul DeWeert, Guido van Rooij, René Ladin, Philip Ruehler, Thomas Merkel, who's that? Henning Rauer, Katie McMillan, Jerome Johnson, and Bernard Spill, who's stepping down years and years and years of great service. Thank you, Bernard, even though you're not here today. You have the Paul Schenkerfeld travel grant. We do have a grantee here who wishes to remain anonymous. We will have the travel grant for the next conference again. So if you know a person that should be at the next conference in... that should be at the next conference, please let them know that they apply for the travel grant and we will get one person to the conference at our cost, which is really your cost. Coffee is just outside the auditorium. It will be served in the coffee breaks. There's also going to be natas. Yay! I don't know where the auditorium is, but apparently you found it because that's where we are. Room C7 and C13. We already used them yesterday. So basically, out of the main entrance, left, left, and straight into the door, you are seeing open there. In general, if you need help to find anyone in the real group, that's the people with the blue bar on the batches. We will happily help you. We want to make a family photo with everybody. So we ask everybody to meet at one o'clock just outside the door and make one, well, family photo. Because to me, EuroBS decons are like family meetings in the most positive sense you can think of. As every so often, we forgot to ask for your country in the registration process. So we kindly ask you to log into the registration system again and do the country survey so that we have nice statistics in the closing session. Does anybody need more time for the QR code? There's going to be more. It's a one-click survey. You can do it. The social event that is tonight, right? Tonight? Yes. The social event tonight, bring a batch. It's at 10 to the event. It's one and a half kilometers, or 22.72 minute walk from here. Maybe 22.73 if you walk slower. For those who do not want to walk, like, we'll walk over from here. It's not very far. For those who do not want to walk and want to take a cab or something, the QR code has the destination coordinates. I see at least a couple of cameras there. Okay. In general, check the website. We've updated it and we keep updating it. Answers to most of your questions, those regarding the conference at least, are there. And for that, develop them through whatever, which means as much as enjoy the conference. And now I hope we are ready to switch over to the keynote by Paul Alexander Silver, facilitating change, embracing gender diversity in computer science.


Once again, thank you so much for being here today. We are very fortunate to have a COPS community organized for public service. Our presenter is Laura Grill. She is with the Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in El Otis. We also have Tony de Osada here with, and they have been really helpful in going out in the community and doing these presentations. So let's have a round of applause for her. I want to congratulate you too on shaking yourselves out of bed on a Saturday morning. And I know it's out of love that you're here because some of you are coming with questions for yourself, but also questions for your family and for your friends. And today we're also going to celebrate some sweet fruit because I understand that we have navigators and CACs with us today who have trained and invested a lot of time and energy in order to be able to answer your questions. So now they'll have that opportunity before the day is over to visit with you. As Irma said, my name is Laura Brill. I'm a parishioner at Our Lady of Guadalupe in El Otis. And I'm also a member of an organization called COPS Metro. COPS Metro is a broad based institution with 33 dues paying member institutions. This organization, rather, it combines faith leaders, educators, school people. And we work effectively in our communications, not only amongst ourselves, but with elected officials and with business community leaders. So our presentation today is one that we want to continue to improve on. And see how we can serve our greater community area. One thing about COPS is that it fosters a relational culture. So we're not just pushing out information to you. We want to have a conversation with you. We want to hear your story and the question that you have, what your experiences are, and have that loop. So that in doing so, we can consider together how we can improve the situation. How can we advocate for positive change? The big elephant in the room is that the website, the healthcare.gov, is not where we thought that it would be at this time. And so it's going to take a lot of communication on an ongoing basis so that we can catch up to the point where that is working, as well as the navigators and the CACs and the own lines and the other ways. We'll have to continue that conversation, keep communicating to our community, what's working, what's not working, what needs to change. So in this session, this is a little bit of an introduction to the rest of the morning. We want to give you a background on the state of healthcare, just a very light overview. We want to talk about the health insurance marketplace, which at one time was known as the exchange. We want to talk about who benefits, how it works. And it wouldn't be a COPS Metro presentation if we didn't give you a little bit of an opportunity to discuss together what your reactions are and what our next step should be. So regarding the background, according to the Center for Public Policy Priorities, which is a nonpartisan group, there are 6.1 million uninsured Texans, a million of which are children. And one of our leaders included that bullet, Texas leads the nation. Everything's big in Texas, this is a big problem. Okay, we don't want to be number one in this. In our own Bear County, we have 390,000 uninsured, about a quarter of our population. So what is the health insurance marketplace and how does it help us with that gigantic problem? In 2010, the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act created the marketplace, or also known as exchange. And the idea is that it would provide a one stop shop to compare plans.  Also, the Affordable Care Act provides tax subsidies to make insurance more affordable. So a subsidy is just money that the government puts in to make a product more affordable, of course, the government gets this money from us. But it's a way of making health insurance coverage affordable for the people we've heard about on that previous slide. So what are the benefits of the insurance that is provided under the health insurance marketplace? Preventive care is covered 100%. And we know that that's one of the things that drive health care costs up, is that we wait until it's an emergency or a crisis before we get attention. Be cheaper to do it with preventive care. Maternity and newborn care, that's our most vulnerable population. Prescription drugs, we don't want people choosing between food and their medicines. Mental health and substance use disorder services. That's an area I think we all know in our community that many struggle. It's not, they have healthcare issues, but it's come because they weren't having their mental health needs addressed. Also, these kinds of plans cover children on their parents plan until age 26. And I'm sure some of you in this room are probably waiting to kick out your 40-year-old. So we know they don't grow up even at 26. It caps out-of-pocket expenses. So what the individual pays versus what the plan pays. So who benefits? This graph has done a lot of information on it. Where you see FPL that stands for federal poverty level. So we've got family annual income, family size across the horizontal axis. So family size of one, an individual. Family size of two, maybe husband and wife, mom and child. The family size under the ACA is you and your dependent. So even if grandma lives in the household, if she's a dependent, she's part of your family as well. So 100% of the federal poverty level, up to 400% of the federal poverty level, is who is going to benefit. So for example, let's say we took a family size of three, maybe single mom and two kids, federal poverty level is $19,530. So that family size that has a combined income of between $19,530 and $78,120 would be eligible for some help with their insurance plan. So what is the status for right now? We're in that enrollment period, October 1 to the end of next March. Now I was just listening to a news report this morning. And the goal, the promise is that by the end of November, that we would have that healthcare.gov site working. But the reality is, insurance is complicated business even for people who've had it for years. And so I think a lot of us are going to seek out the help of navigators and CICs and other people who can guide us through the process. And hopefully through institutions like this, like Central Med, that we trust that can just provide us that chance. Maybe to talk with each other and our neighbors about what's necessary. So we'll be using a lot of different means to get involved, to get enrolled. And we have between October 1 and 331 of next year. Coverage begins January 1. And so do penalties for those who are qualified and eligible to participate but who are not covered or choose not to be covered. So we've got a lot of time between now and the end of March. But it's one of those things where we just have to dig in. And those of you who are here are pioneers. I'm sure you'll be educating your families and your friends about it. That is one thing that penalty is looming. So people are going to have to wait. What is the cost to my family? Can I budget for this health insurance? Or am I going to pay a penalty? And what are the pros and cons of that? It's reported that 110,000 residents in our county may qualify. And you'll notice that's a different number than what we had earlier. There's going to be some people who fall through the cracks just because we didn't in the state of Texas opt to expand Medicaid. But even at that, there's going to be 110,000 who will qualify. Health and Human Services has granted some resources to higher navigators, certified application counselors, and other personnel to help. There are three navigator agencies in Merritt County. They've received some grants right now for that gigantic population. We're looking at about 22 navigators, all right? And different organizations are also training CACs and others. It's a position of great confidence and a great responsibility. These are people that are going to be handling our personal information. And so they need to have that strict privacy understanding. Our governor, too, is looking for even tighter regulations for navigators requiring US citizenship, more training for those people who are going to take that position of such great responsibility. Here are a few details. You may have heard these terms before, bronze, silver, gold, platinum. I mean, it sounds like the Olympics. But a lot of things are keyed off of that silver plan. So the expected actual value of what, during the year, my health costs are going to be, the silver plan would cover 70%. And I, as the insured, or we, as our insured family, would cover 30%. So you can see that we've got those different levels where the plan pays more than the insured family, but it varies. So the most complete coverage is where the plan is actually kicking in 90%. And so you can imagine that those who have the most dire financial situations are going to be helped subsidize so that they just don't have the budget. So that the plan will be kicking in more money. One thing that's helpful for us with COPS Metro is we want to have conversations with you, we don't want to add to the confusion. So it's important that we learn to have that vocabulary of insurance, not that we're going to be doctors and lawyers, but just so that we can understand what we're comparing, because a lot of these words are just flying around. So what is premium? That is the amount you pay for your health insurance coverage. So you might talk about an annual premium, or in this case, maybe a monthly premium. A lot of us budget on a monthly basis, so they're talking about a monthly premium. A deductible would be an amount of money you pay every year before your insurance kicks in. So if I have a $500 deductible, I'm paying out until I reach that $500 deductible. And now the plan starts paying at that percentage rate that we talked about. What is the co-pay? Some of you have experience with that. You go to the doctor, and maybe your co-pay is $25 or $30. So the bill may be $150, but when you come, before they even open the door, they say you're co-paying, okay, $25, okay, come on in. So that's how that works. The lifetime cap would be that cap, the lid, the ceiling, on what over your whole lifetime would be paid. The term out-of-pocket refers to your pocket, okay, the pocket of the insured, the insured family. And other things just to, you know, that you'll hear other terms will be healthcare navigators, application assistors, certified application counselors. You'll hear people say CACs and champions, whoo, champions for coverage. So those are some young people who are being trained in our area. Some of them are being trained for the medical profession who have taken on this role in our community to help share their goal is to help us, not only with the education process, but depending on their certification, also to enroll us. So they can sit down with us one-on-one and we can complete the enrollment process with some of those people. So what determines what the insured, what the family will pay? Each insured pays depending on their age. Okay, you can imagine a younger person versus a much older person. Where do you live?  Family signs, whether or not you smoke, but as we know from what we first heard about Obamacare, about the ACA, one of the great things is that pre-existing conditions will not be considered.  Who can use the marketplace? Actually, small businesses can also use this to help their employees, families and individuals. Now there are some restrictions, U.S. citizens and legal residents, okay? We must live in the U.S. and we're not incarcerated. Who cannot use the marketplace? Persons who are undocumented residents, the dreamers, DACA, residents with deferred action status, and those who already have insurance under Medicaid, Medicare, that's going to continue. So how is it that the government is subsidizing our participation and our ability to buy health insurance? It's through this system of tax credits. So the tax credit is going to be the way that the government helps you pay. Now one thing that's important to know, not a hundred percent sure, it'll come on a slide later, but I want you to understand that, you know, we talked about annual premiums and monthly premiums.  That would also be when I could apply my tax credit. But that doesn't work for everybody. For some of us, it makes more sense to budget on a monthly basis. So there's also a way that we can apply these tax credits, not just when we file our taxes, but every month, okay? So there's a calculation involved. What is, you know, based on my income, my family size, all those other things we've talked about, what is my premium going to be, what is my subsidy, and then the government will give you this tax credit that you can either apply on a monthly basis or when you file your taxes at the end of the year. Now that payment doesn't go to you in a check. It goes to the insurance company to pay for your insurance coverage. Part of the calculus is that people should not be paying more than nine and a half percent of their income in healthcare premiums.  So if, you know, you're looking for your options and you see, well, you know, I would love to have this insurance that I'm eligible for, but it's going to be x amount of my salary. That's what those tax credits, that's what the subsidy has in mind. To make it affordable where it's kind of in that range, no more than nine and a half percent of your income. And as I mentioned, the government sends that money, that portion of your premium, directly to the insurance company so that you just have that remainder. The two main ways that we're going to constantly be talking about getting access to the information and to enroll are the website and the 1-800 number. As I mentioned, you know, all over the United States, you know, this is just in our community that the website is not working. The hope is that by the end of November, that piece is going to be working. So that healthcare.gov, the 1-800 number works now. Now, I understand some people have called and they're getting referred to the website. So if those two things aren't working, here's another option. Besides online and phone, we have in person. Oh, sorry, I was thinking the next slide might have had a list of those people. The terms that we're using for people that help us enroll are navigators, certified application counselors, application assistants, and those champions for coverage. We in COPS Metro, we're just part of the education process, and we're part of that conversation so that we can, you know, keep advocating for making this work for our community. You may be wondering, well, what is it that I'm going to, what kind of information do I need to apply, you're going to need a Social Security member. Employer and income information for those members of your household, your dependents. If some of your family members already have insurance, you're going to need, well, what's the name of that insurance and what's the policy number? And an employer coverage tool is something that your employer will be able to give to you. And it explains what coverage you have and what, you know, the cost and so forth. So what happens if you don't get coverage? Because you can imagine a lot of people are going to throw their hands up in the air, right? So what if I don't? Well, if you don't have coverage as of January 1, you will have to pay a tax penalty. And so in the year 2014, it will be 1% of your income or $95 per person, whichever is higher. And some people are going to opt for that, okay? Now, some people, though, are going to find out what it means to have health insurance coverage and they may convert those penalty payers. But I can understand, you know, budgeting is always hard. The fee for uninsured children is $47.50 a year, but the most a family would pay in penalties would be $285 a year. Then there's an amount for 2015. It goes up, you know, marginally, I think it's like $285. And then 2016, it's $6.95. All right, of information. And again, it's not to make us experts. It's just to help us have this conversation together about, you know, what is this Affordable Care Act? What does it mean for us? What is it going to do for us? And how are we going to educate others in our community? So, Tony, do you have a suggestion for a conversation? Depending on time, what time we have. It's their time to work. I want to make sure we don't take up all the time in the morning if we could. What I think would be best to do first is for each of you to talk to someone next to you about the things you heard, a question, a question that, you know, well, you heard this, but I heard that, so what about that? You know what I mean? Talk to each other for just a minute about a question, about something you heard that you thought, oh, I didn't know that. Did I hear that right? And then after you've talked amongst yourselves, then we can have a conversation, okay? That sound okay? And this will prime the pop a little bit for you to have conversations with the navigators and the CACs.   And we'll just take, like, three minutes to that. Yeah. You're not going to be here all that all morning, three minutes to talk to each other real quick. What did you hear? Okay, we're going to bring it back. And I'm so proud of you, except for the exhausted child in the back, everybody is having a great conversation. That's awesome. I'm just glad my voice is so soothing. We're very calming in fact, they're in a coma in the back now. But we have a lot of good questions, just so that we can all hear each other, so we're going to ask us to bring our individual conversations to a close. And let's see, we had a question from probably, you're probably the youngest person in the room. Okay, so the, oh, that's right, but he doesn't count, he's in a coma. We need the health care to get started right away. But ask your question again. I was asking for some clarification on the dates for the March 30th birthday compared to the January first day. You know, a lot of this centers, a lot of the enforcement centers around the IRS. Okay, and so you can imagine that if our charge is we have to make a decision about this and enroll by 331 2014. If we have not, then for this calendar year of 2014, we are going to owe that penalty. Okay, so they're probably not going to catch up with us until we do our taxes. But the idea is that every year, every calendar year, you have to make some kind of decision about your insurance. Hopefully you'll make an informed one by coming to things like this, but that's, you know, the penalty kicks in. They're not going to come to your house on January 1. It's that when you fill out your taxes and so forth, you're going to be responsible for that tax penalty. Okay. Yes, sir? First of all, let me convene on your presentation. I've been in several of these presentations. You have made a pair of claims. I don't know how complicated that is. That's a very important push-off done. To my major concern is what I hear in the community. I work with a legal resource alliance. Because the communities that we're working, a lot of people don't have computers. And they can't go online either. Specifically in the east-west and southern sectors of the city. What is the strategy of COPS Metro and Central Med in making sure that we get those people enrolled in the system? Do you all have a strategy for that? I think what you're doing here is beautiful, but I think we have a lot of people who can't even have a computer. And we could get those numbers up now. So what is the strategy for you? Sorry, if I may. What we're going to be doing with COPS Metro, first of all, as you know or may have heard, we sponsored a stakeholder's gathering a little over a month ago of different organizations who are going to be in the forefront of this particular ACA. From there, there are some decisions made on how to help streamline the process for folks, especially those folks who don't have access to the internet. Central Med has their own plan because they were there too. They're part of that conversation and they're here. They can give us more information about what they're doing. One of the issues in San Antonio is that there's different organizations that were funded to promote this program. Central Med and Communicare being the federally qualified health centers were giving the funding to provide application assistance, in particular to their own patients first and to their local community. So whatever service area we are at, that's where we're marketing. However, we joined forces with the City of San Antonio and Bear County because there's different organizations that are doing outreach and education. COPS being one of them, the City of San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, the mayor's office, the county judge's office, and also a university health system, UT Health Science Center. There's a lot of organizations that we're part of a committee that we visit with and go over what areas are not being addressed. And if those areas are not being addressed, ACOG was one of the organizations that was funded through CMS. They're the ones that have navigators. There's a difference between certified application counselors and navigators. And the difference is that the navigators were funded through CMS grant directly. The certified application counselors came from a grant through the Bureau of Primary Health Care for community health centers. And the main difference between a navigator and a certified application counselor is that the navigators are also responsible for educating the small business community about the SHOP program. They can sign up for a better rate for their employees. Bless you. And so they're marketing to small businesses. We're marketing to community. So all these organizations are meeting together and planning where are the pockets of areas that nobody is marketing to. There's another organization, the IPAs. I forgot what they stand for. But they were contracted, I think they're called in-person assistors through CMS grant. And they will go to people's homes. They will go into different areas that are not being addressed. They're meeting together and sharing a map of what we're focusing on. And those areas that are being left untouched, they're going to be directed to ACOG and or IPA. I think the biggest health though is going to be people like yourself that have a heart for our neighbors. And we know who is confused and is not likely to even ask about it. And they're just going to face this penalty. So we need to watch our neighbors and then point them. I think there's going to be a Clearinghouse website through Fair County. Fair County. I hear you and I respect what you're saying. Some of the groups you mentioned, outreach is not in their DNA. You mentioned the city of San Antonio, red flag goes up. You mentioned Fair County hospitals, red flag goes up. They don't know anything about reaching our people. And let me clarify that. You raised a good point in that. And yes, thank you for, I want to say tops with the Texas Organizing Project. We're doing outreach and we've worked with TC and this group and we just hired canvassers and we're hiring phone bankers. They're not in the neighborhood. The other thing is that we're also working with COPS to see what we can do to outreach to the faith-based organizations because we know... I have all the comments in the world. COPS makes real life. So I've worked with it in the past. They have a track record in the people who trust them. Here's what we're up against. We're up against the Fox News stand and we have a lot of people in our community specifically in the west side, south side, east side where they're being brainwashed by the Rush Limbaugh stand about not participating in this program. And I'm just going to say this. I think we have done a lousy job in how we have framed decision and that's why we're getting beat up so bad by the right wing conservative because we're not framing the issue. We're marketing to our people the way it should be done. The best program I've seen is what this young lady has done here this morning. I've been to a lot of programs and this program is what needs to happen but we need to get it out on the airways. We need to get it out in our media to make sure that people know what's going on.  There's a comment back here. We have Saturday events, two or three events a month for the next couple of months. One of the things we're also noticing is that when we ask people, how did you hear about us? They're citing news articles on TV and newsprint. So we're getting the word out that way and we're clunking that data and finding out what method is reaching that population that we're discussing. And the faith-based organization, we've been in touch with several churches and other religious groups around the communities and where we are at above. And so they're sending people to and from our toll point to a spike dramatically in the last week of the national visibility. So I think people is a trickle-down effect in terms of awareness. And then the United Way Health Plan is another resource where people are calling to find out where to go to have an in-person assistor with the applications while the website is not functioning properly. So it's here and there, but it is coming together. I mean, we're launching something from Ground Zero to get it up and moving. Well, I would invite Central Med to be a part of the KRLB radio station. This is a radio station out in Florida. San Antonio Community Radio. We meet a lot of those people. We've had talks on them. We've had the old America. We haven't had you guys, honestly. And, Tisi, thank you so much. And I think we did reach these people and they're here to get their one-on-one. We'll continue discussion with you. And we need to continue this discussion, but we want to get these people into the application of site. Thank you. In the meantime, let's go ahead and take... Oh, you have a question. I was going to say, how much more time do we have? I just want to know. We have another two people that already signed up, but we want to just put these families in a... with a family, I mean, application assistant program. I was going to say, let's take the value of the time that we spent asking our questions. Have those questions ready for when you have that opportunity. And so, you know, just before our presentation concludes, I really want to thank you again for coming and also to say, you know, hopefully with everything that's happened in our capital that people are ready now, people of good will, you know, conservatives, liberals, whatever, you know, however people self-identify, hopefully they're ready to be pragmatic and work together, especially to reach our most vulnerable. So God bless you for what you're doing. Thank you for coming out today. Thank you to the opposite. Quick question. Well, there's different numbers. So for Central Med, because we are making appointments according to your schedule, we are directing people to our main call center, which is 9227,000. However, if you want to promote it to anybody in the community, you're welcome to do that. But you also can call the 211 line and they can direct it to a location that's near your neighborhood. There might not be, you know, this might not be convenient to somebody in the east side. They can direct it to Communicare and Communicare. I know they're here as well. And they're one of the agencies that was funded as well. And they have a site at the Frank Bryant Center and different locations. So there's different locations that can help you. But 211 is a main line that can direct you to different places. Central Med can help you. And we can also direct you to other locations. So we're all working to do that. If you want to see any of these slides that we've talked about, you can go to the COPS Metro Alliance website. And you can go to the email section there. Hopefully with only one voice. So anybody who's ready? You have that quick question right here. I'm sorry. I was just going to say that when I called the numbers that are on the the recorder. What do they have? They have the numbers for the different central meds which refer me to the 922-700 option four. So even though I called the specific med, they still transfer me somewhere else to call. Yeah. encourage you to call the different clinic sites because we have a system where it's going to track how many calls we're getting but direct but and we need to follow up with them as to why they're listing that number because we're telling everybody to list the 9227 thousand. You're listing all of them in location. Yeah that's too bad. I can't control what media prints but we'll give that a go into it. Yeah. Thank you for coming. Thank you for coming. I have a question. Y'all dial the 9227 thousand. Make sure you get the option 4. Yeah. And it'll direct you directly where you want to go. Instead of dialing another option besides the 4. If you dial the 4 it'll take you directly where you want to go. And it'll take you directly to the certified application counselors who sometimes patients just have a question. You know do I have to apply have care link? Well no you don't. You know if you have care link it is not an insurance. I'm talking about this. Yeah. So but if they can direct you you can encourage them to listen to town 4. We're just encouraging them to listen to the 4 options that are available. If you want to make an appointment or visit with a doctor or whatever. But town 4 is for the health insurance market. But in the meantime let me take you into an exam room. Let me take you into an office visit where we can personally and help you apply for the process. And although I know the system is not working we do see a lot of families that really want to do the 101 application. And we are doing paper applications. And we've already seen the people we've applied that have applied through the paper application are already getting enrolled. So it is a fast turnaround time. However I heard that the easiest and the fastest system is calling the one 800 line. So it's up to you but we can help you either way.