CHAPTER 47 Harvest Time For a year Joe and her professor worked and waited, hoped and loved, met occasionally, and wrote such voluminous letters that the rise in the price of paper was accounted for, Laurie said. The second year began rather soberly, for their prospects did not brighten, and Aunt March died suddenly. But when their first sorrow was over, for they loved the old lady in spite of her sharp tongue, they found they had cause for rejoicing, for she had left Plumfield to Joe, which made all sorts of joyful things possible. It's a final place, and will bring a handsome sum, for of course you intend to sell it, said Laurie, as they were all talking the matter over some weeks later. No, I don't, was Joe's decided answer, as she petted the fat poodle whom she had adopted out of respect to his former mistress. You don't mean to live there? Yes, I do. But my dear girl, it's an immense house, and will take a power of money to keep it in order. The garden and orchard alone need two or three men, and farming isn't in Bear's line I take it. He'll try his hand at it there, if I propose it. Can you expect to live on the produce of the place? Well that sounds paradoxical, but you'll find it desperate hard work. The crop we are going to raise is a profitable one, and Joe laughed. Of what is this fine crop to consist, ma'am? Boys, I want to open a school for little lads, a good happy home-like school, with me to take care of them and Fritz to teach them. That's a truly joy-in plan for you. Isn't that just like her, cried Laurie, appealing to the family who looked as much surprised as he? I like it, said Mrs. March decidedly. So do I, added her husband, who welcomed the thought of a chance for trying the Socratic method of education on modern youth. It will be an immense care for Joe, said Meg, stroking the head of her one all-absorbing son. Joe can do it and be happy in it. It's a splendid idea. Tell us all about it, cried Mr. Lawrence, who had been longing to lend the lovers a hand, but knew that they would refuse his help. I knew you'd stand by me, sir. Amy does, too. I see it in her eyes, though she prudently waits to turn it over in her mind before she speaks. Now my dear people, continued Joe earnestly, just understand that this isn't a new idea of mine but a long cherished plan. Before my fritz came I used to think how, when I'd made my fortune and no one needed me at home, I'd hire a big house and pick up some poor for learned little lads who hadn't any mothers, and take care of them, and make life jolly for them before it was too late. I see so many going to ruin for want of help at the right minute. I love so to do anything for them. I seem to feel their wants and sympathize with their troubles, and, oh, I should so like to be a mother to them. Mrs. March held out her hand to Joe, who took it, smiling, with tears in her eyes, and went on in the old enthusiastic way which they had not seen for a long while. I told my plan to Fritz once, and he said it was just what he would like, and agreed to try it when we got rich. Bless his dear heart.  That he'll never be. Money doesn't stay in his pocket long enough to lay up any. But now, thanks to my good old aunt who loved me better than I ever deserved, I'm rich, at least I feel so, and so we can live at Plumfield perfectly well if we have a flourishing school. It's just the place for boys. The house is big, and the furniture's strong and plain. There's plenty of room for dozens inside, and splendid grounds outside. They could help in the garden in Orchard. Such work is healthy, isn't it, sir? Then Fritz could train and teach in his own way, and father will help him. I can feed and nurse and pet and scold them, and mother will be my standby. I've always longed for lots of boys and never had enough. Now I can fill the house full and revel in the little deers to my heart's content. Think what luxury, Plumfield my own, and a wilderness of boys to enjoy it with me. As Joe waved her hands and gave a sigh of rapture, the family went off in a gale of merriment, and Mr. Lawrence laughed till they thought he'd have an epileptic fit. I don't see anything funny, she said gravely, when she could be heard. Nothing could be more natural and proper than for my professor to open a school, and for me to prefer to reside in my own estate. She is putting on air as already said Laurie, who regarded the idea in the light of a capital joke. But may I inquire how you intend to support the establishment? If all the pupils are little ragamuffins, I'm afraid your crop won't be profitable in a worldly sense, Mrs. Bear.  Of course I shall have rich pupils also. Perhaps begin with such altogether. Then when I've got a start I can take in a ragamuffin or two just for a relish. Rich people's children often need care and comfort as well as poor. I've seen unfortunate little creatures left to servants, or backward ones pushed forward when it's real cruelty. Some are naughty through mismanagement or neglect, and some lose their mothers. Besides, the best have to get through the hobbledy-hoi age, and that's the very time they need most patience and kindness. People laugh at them and hustle them about, try to keep them out of sight, and expect them to turn all at once from pretty children into fine young men. They don't complain much, pleky little souls, but they feel it. I've been through something of it, and I know all about it. I have a special interest in such young bears, and like to show them that I see the warm, honest, well-meaning boys' hearts in spite of the clumsy arms and legs and topsy-turvy heads. I've had experience, too, for haven't I brought up one boy to be a pride and honour to his family? I'll testify that you tried to do it, said Lori, with a grateful look. And I've succeeded beyond my hopes, for here you are, a steady, sensible business man, doing heaps of good with your money and laying up the blessings of the poor instead of dollars. But you are not merely a business man. You love good and beautiful things. Enjoy them yourself and let others go haves. As you always did in the old times. I am proud of you, Teddy, for you get better every year and everyone feels it, though you won't let them say so. Yes, and when I have my flock I'll just point to you and say, There's your model, my lads. Poor Lori didn't know where to look, for man though he was, something of the old bashfulness came over him as this burst of praise made all faces turn approvingly upon him. I say, Joe, that's rather too much, he began, just in his old boyish way. You have all done more for me than I can ever thank you for, except by doing my best not to disappoint you. You have rather cast me off lately, Joe, but I've had the best of help nevertheless. So if I've got on at all you may thank these two for it, and he laid one hand gently on his grandfather's head and the other on Amy's golden one, for the three were never far apart. I do think that families are the most beautiful things in all the world burst out, Joe, who was in an unusually uplifted frame of mind just then. When I have one of my own I hope it will be as happy as the three I know and love the best. If John and my frits were only here it would be quite a little heaven on earth, she added more quietly. And that night when she went to her room after a blissful evening of family councils, hopes, and plans, her heart was so full of happiness that she could only calm it by kneeling beside the empty bed always near her own, and thinking tender thoughts of Beth. It was a very astonishing year altogether, for things seem to happen in an unusually rapid and delightful manner. Almost before she knew where she was, Joe found herself married and settled at Plumfield.  For Mr. Lawrence was continually finding some touching case of destitution and begging the bears to take pity on the child, and he would gladly pay a trifle for its support. In this way the sly old gentleman got round-proud, Joe, and furnished her with the style of boy in which she most delighted. Of course it was uphill work at first, and Joe made queer mistakes, but the wise professor steered her safely into calmer waters, and the most rampant ragamuffin was conquered in the end. How Joe did enjoy her wilderness of boys, and how poor dear Aunt March would have lamented had she been there to see the sacred precincts of prim, well-ordered Plumfield overrun with toms, dicks, and harries. There was a sort of poetic justice about it after all, for the old lady had been the terror of the boys for miles round, and now the exiles feasted freely on forbidden plums, kicked up the gravel with profane boots unreproved, and played cricket in the big field where the irritable cow, with a crumpled horn, used to invite rash youths to come and be tossed. It became a sort of boys' paradise, and Laurie suggested that it should be called the bare garden, as a compliment to its master and appropriate to its inhabitants. It never was a fashionable school, and the professor did not lay up a fortune, but it was just what Joe intended it to be, a happy home-like place for boys who needed teaching, care, and kindness. Every room in the big house was soon full. Every little plot in the garden soon had its owner. A regular menagerie appeared in the barn in shed, for pet animals were allowed. And three times a day Joe smiled at her fritz from the head of a long table lined on either side with rows of happy young faces, which all turned to her with affectionate eyes, confiding words and grateful hearts, full of love for mother bear. She had boys enough now and did not tire of them, though they were not angels by any means, and some of them caused both professor and professorian much trouble and anxiety. But her faith in the good spot which exists in the heart of the naughtiest, sassiest, most tantalizing little ragamuffin gave her patience, skill, and end-time success. For no mortal boy could hold out long with father bear shining on him as benevolently as the sun, and mother bear forgiving him seventy times seven. Very precious to Joe was the friendship of the lads, their penitent sniffs and whispers after wrongdoing, their droll or touching little confidences, their pleasant enthusiasm, hopes and plans, even their misfortunes, for they only endeared them to her all the more.  Yes, Joe was a very happy woman there, in spite of hard work, much anxiety, and a perpetual racket. She enjoyed it heartily, and found the applause of her boys more satisfying than any praise of the world. For now she told no stories except to her flock of enthusiastic believers and admirers. As the years went on, two little lads of her own came to increase her happiness. Rob, named for grandpa, and Teddy, a happy-go-lucky baby who seemed to have inherited his papa's sun-shiny temper as well as his mother's lively spirit. How they ever grew up alive in that whirlpool of boys was a mystery to their grandma and aunts, but they flourished like dandelions in spring and their rough nurses loved and served them well. There were a great many holidays at Plumfield, and one of the most delightful was the yearly apple-picking. For then the marches, lorances, brooks and bears turned out in full force and made a day of it. Five years after Joe's wedding one of these fruitful festivals occurred, a mellow October day when the air was full of an exhilarating freshness which made the spirit's rise and the blood dance healthily in the veins. The old orchard wore its holiday attire. Goldenrod and asters fringed the mossy walls, grasshoppers skipped briskly in the seer grass, and crickets chirped like fairy pipers at a feast. Squirrels were busy with their small harvesting, birds twittered their adieu from the alders in the lane, and every tree stood ready to send down its shower of red or yellow apples at the first shake. Everybody was there. Everybody laughed and sang, climbed up and tumbled down. Everybody declared that there had never been such a perfect day or such a jolly set to enjoy it, and everyone gave themselves up to the simple pleasures of the hour as freely as if there were no such things as care or sorrow in the world. Mr. March strolled placidly about, quoting Tusser, Cowley, and Columula to Mr. Lawrence while enjoying the gentle apple's whiny juice. The professor charged up and down the green aisles like a stout, teutonic night with a pole for a lance leading on the boys who made a hook and a ladder company of themselves and performed wonders in the way of ground and lofty tumbling. Laurie devoted himself to the little ones, rode his small daughter in a bushel-basket, took Daisy up among the bird's nests, and kept adventurous rob from breaking his neck. Mrs. March and Meg sat among the apple-piles like a pair of pomanas sorting the contributions that kept pouring in, while Amy with a beautiful motherly expression in her face sketched the various groups and watched over one pale lad who sat adoring her with his little crutch beside him. Joe was in her element that day and rushed about with her gown pinned up and her hat anywhere but on her head, and her baby tucked under her arm ready for any lively adventure which might turn up. Little Teddy bore a charmed life for nothing ever happened to him, and Joe never felt any anxiety when he was whisked up into a tree by one lad, galloped off on the back of another, or supplied with sour russets by his indulgent papa, who labored under the Germanic delusion that babies could digest anything, from pickled cabbage to buttons, nails, and their own small shoes. She knew that little Ted would turn up again in time, safe and rosy, dirty and serene, and she always received him back with a hearty welcome, for Joe loved her babies tenderly. At four o'clock a lull took place, and baskets remained empty while the apple-pickers rested and compared wrents and bruises. Then Joe and Meg was a detachment of the bigger boys, set forth the supper on the grass, for an out-of-door tea was always the crowning joy of the day. The land literally flowed with milk and honey on such occasions, for the lads were not required to sit at table, but were allowed to partake of refreshment as they liked, freedom being the sauce best beloved by the boyish soul. They availed themselves of the rare privilege to the fullest extent, for some tried the pleasing experiment of drinking milk while standing on their heads, others lent a charm to leapfrog by eating pie in the pauses of the game, cookies were sewn and broadcast over the field, and apple turnovers roosted in the trees like a new style of bird. The little girls had a private tea-party, and Ted roved among the edibles at his own sweet will. When no one could eat any more, the professor proposed the first regular toast, which was always drunk at such times. Aunt March, God bless her, a toast heartily given by the good man who never forgot how much he owed her, and quietly drunk by the boys who had been taught to keep her memory green. Now grandma's sixtieth birthday, long life to her was three times three. That was given with a will, as you may well believe, and the cheering once begun it was hard to stop it. Everybody's health was proposed from Mr. Lawrence, who was considered their special patron, to the astonished guinea pig who had strayed from its proper sphere in search of its young master. Demi as the oldest grandchild then presented the queen of the day with various gifts, so numerous that they were transported to the festive scene in a wheel-barrow. Funny present some of them, but what would have been defects to other eyes were ornaments to grandma's, for the children's gifts were all their own. Every stitch Daisy's patient little fingers had put into the handkerchiefs she hemmed was better than embroidery to Mrs. March. Demi's miracle of mechanical skill, though the cover wouldn't shut. Robb's footstool had a wiggle in its uneven legs that she declared was soothing. And no page of the costly book Amy's child gave her was so fair as that on which appeared in tipsy capitals the words, to dear grandma from her little beth. During the ceremony the boys had mysteriously disappeared, and when Mrs. March had tried to thank her children, and broken down, while Teddy wiped her eyes on his pinafore, the professors suddenly began to sing. Then from above him voice after voice took up the words, and from tree to tree echoed the music of the unseen choir, as the boys sang with all their hearts the little song that Joe had written. Daisy set to music, and the professor trained his lads to give with the best effect. This was something altogether new, and it proved a grand success, for Mrs. March couldn't get over her surprise, and insisted on shaking hands with every one of the featherless birds from tall friends and e-mail to the little quadruun who had the sweetest voice of all. After this the boys dispersed for a final lark, leaving Mrs. March and her daughters under the festival tree. I don't think I ever ought to call myself unlucky Joe again, when my greatest wish has been so beautifully gratified, said Mrs. Bear, taking Teddy's little fist out of the milk-pitcher, in which he was rapturously churning. And yet your life is very different from the one you pictured so long ago. Do you remember our castles in the air, asked Amy, smiling as she watched Lori and John playing cricket with the boys? Dear fellows, it does my heart good to see them forget business and frolic for a day, answered Joe, who now spoke in a maternal way of all mankind. Yes, I remember, but the life I wanted then seems selfish, lonely and cold to me now. I haven't given up the hope that I may write a good book yet, but I can wait, and I'm sure it will be all the better for such experiences and illustrations as these. And Joe pointed from the lively lads in the distance to her father, leaning on the professor's arm as they walked to and fro on the sunshine, deep in one of the conversations which both enjoyed so much. And then to her mother, sitting enthroned among her daughters, with their children in her lap, and at her feet, as if all found help and happiness in the face which never could grow old to them. My castle was the most nearly realized of all. I asked for splendid things to be sure, but in my heart I knew I should be satisfied if I had a little home and John and some dear children like these.  My castle is very different from what I planned, but I would not alter it, though like Joe I don't relinquish all my artistic hopes or confine myself to helping others fulfill their dreams of beauty. I've begun to model a figure of baby, and Laurie says it is the best thing I've ever done. I think so myself, and mean to do it in marble so that whatever happens I may at least keep the image of my little angel. As Amy spoke a great tear dropped on the golden hair of the sleeping child in her arms, for her one well-beloved daughter was a frail little creature, and the dread of losing her was the shadow over Amy's sunshine. This cross was doing much for both father and mother, for one love and sorrow bound them closely together. Amy's nature was growing sweeter, deeper, and more tender. Laurie was growing more serious, strong, and firm, and both were learning that beauty, youth, good fortune, even love itself cannot keep care and pain, loss and sorrow, for the most blessed for into each life some rain must fall, some days must be dark and sad and dreary. She is growing better, I am sure of it, my dear. Don't despond, but hope and keep happy, said Mrs. March. As tender-hearted Daisy stooped from her knee to lay her rosy cheek against her little cousin's pale one. I never ought to, while I have you to cheer me up, Marmy, and Laurie to take more than half of every burden, replied Amy warmly. He never lets me see his anxiety, but is so sweet and patient with me, so devoted to Beth, and such a stay and comfort to me always that I can't love him enough. So in spite of my one cross I can say with Meg, thank God I'm a happy woman. There's no need for me to say it, for everyone can see that I'm far happier than I deserve, added Joe, glancing from her good husband to her chubby children, tumbling on the grass beside her. Fritz is getting gray and stout. I'm growing as thin as a shadow, and I'm thirty. We never shall be rich, and Plumfield may burn up any night, for that incorrigible Tommy Bangs will smoke sweet-furned cigars under the bed-clothes, though he set himself a fire three times already. But in spite of these unromantic facts I have nothing to complain of, and never was so jolly in my life. Excuse the remark, but living among boys I can't help using their expressions now and then. Yes, Joe, I think your harvest will be a good one, began Mrs. March, frightening way a big black cricket that was staring teddy out of countenance. Not half so good as yours, mother. Here it is, and we can never thank you enough for the patient sowing and reaping you have done, cried Joe, with the loving impetuosity which she never would outgrow. I hope there will be more wheat and fewer tears every year, said Amy softly. A large sheaf, but I know there's room in your heart for it, Marmy dear, added Meg's tender voice. Touch to the heart Mrs. March could only stretch out her arms as if to gather children and grandchildren to herself and say, with face and voice full of motherly love, gratitude and humility. Oh, my girls, however long you may live, I never can wish you a greater happiness than this. End of Chapter 47 Read the book, Little Women.


expert, former prosecutor. She knows and understands American idealism. Please, give her a hand for Chris Hamill. You're going to have to turn me down, because I am way loud. Boy, type of formula has been whispering. Try to breathe. I've been speaking to groups for three years. I don't practice law anymore, this is all I do.  I don't even know my name. Breathe. I don't know what's wrong with me. I am so honored to be here. And Sheriff Mack made it mandatory that I sit through every single presentation today. Because he told me I had to wrap up everything that everybody said at the end. And then told me I had 30 minutes to do it. I can't say my name in 10 minutes, much less give you a wrap-up of what happened here today in 30 minutes. Not only that, he said the bar really high for me. Now I'm going to stand over here because if I stand behind him, he won't see me. I'm too short. But you know what? What I want to give you is a common theme that I've been seeing today. Several common themes. First and foremost, liberty. The greatest problem that we have in this nation is our lack of understanding of liberty. Nation was built on the principle of liberty. And if we don't understand what liberty is, there is no way we're going to know what our job is to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. It is the thing upon which our entire nation ends. All the disagreements that our framers had, the federalists, the anti-federalists, and I mean the real framers, not the ones that were planned. Because you realize only 30% of them were in favor of leaving the king.  We call them the undecideds. But you know, they're not undecided. They simply declared they don't care. When you declare that you're undecided, what you mean is I'm not benefited enough by the guy in government to support him. I'm not detrimented enough by the guy in government to oppose him. So leave me alone in my happy little world of me because I simply don't care. And that is a human, a truth of human nature. It always exists like that. So the real framers understood that it was liberty that they were shooting for, but what is that liberty? John Adams said liberty must be supported. It all happens. Can I mention to you he didn't say prosperity. Can I point out to you that he didn't say healthcare?  He said liberty must be supported. It all hazards. We have a right to it derived from our maker. Because you see, they understood this principle of natural law, that liberty comes from God. And because we are created in the image of God, we've inherited certain things from God. One thing that we've inherited from God is freedom. But we don't understand that either. We run around and use freedom and liberty like they're synonymous and they simply are not. We cannot live in a nation that is free. We do not want to live in a country built on freedom. Do you know why? Because if our country is built on freedom, that means I'm free to lie. I'm free to steal. I'm free to murder. I am free to do whatever is right in my own mind regardless of how that affects you. Does that sound like someplace you want to live? Freedom all by itself is anarchy. Liberty and freedom are not the same thing. Liberty is freedom plus morality. That's shared morality. Thou shalt not lie. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not murder. That thing that says I am free to do whatever it is that I want to do but I won't because some things are wrong. Because you see there are only two things that will stop a man from murdering his neighbor. One is the understanding I am free to go next door and murder my neighbor if I want to but I won't because it's wrong. The other thing is a well-armed neighbor. You guys know more than anybody or should know criminal laws do not stop crimes. Criminal laws are not designed to stop crimes. Criminal laws are designed to identify criminal activity and establish the mechanism to punish criminals. If criminal laws stop crimes we would be a crime-free nation because we got way too many criminal laws. Laws we cannot even enforce. Even in our wildest dreams. Because you see the only thing that stops someone from committing a crime is saying I can do that but I won't because it's wrong. It's this thing of liberty that we have to understand because it's the thing that John Adams said we must support liberty in all hazards. We have a right to it derived from our maker but if we have not our fathers have bought and purchased this liberty for us with their ease, their estates, their pleasure and their blood. Because you see liberty comes at price. And that's the second recurring theme that I've been seeing here today. Liberty comes at a price. It's not a matter of will you pay. It's a matter of when will you pay. I didn't volunteer for this. God had a call for me. I didn't accept it readily. But I fear God more than I fear man and I felt God's boot in my blood. Because he spoke to me through Esther. He spoke to me through the parable of the talents. And I may not be a recovering Baptist preacher but I am a Baptist minister's wife so you'll have to tolerate me just a little bit. You see liberty is a gift from God but it comes at a price. I was told that I could not teach the Constitution on my spare time and keep my job. I was a prosecutor for the state of Florida told that if I teach the Constitution and I teach limited government that was an ethical conflict for me. I was told you can speak or you can keep your job. I said that's my right not yours. I'm not going to let you take that from me. And my liberty, the liberty that belongs to my son is more important than a paycheck. You see it's going to cost you something. That's what started my ministry and this is a ministry for me. I travel all over the country. I teach the Constitution. I am grateful for what Sheriff Mack has done because Sheriff Mack is spreading the truth of liberty and he's utilizing the tools that we have because we can't all do everything. I can't be everywhere but I've met several people today that teach the Constitution. Not maybe what I teach but the things that are important about the Constitution nonetheless. And because of Sheriff Mack I spent two days in Northern California teaching the deputies of Del Norte County the importance of their oath and why we support and defend the Constitution. You see you're not only being given a call to stand for liberty today because that is what the call is to stand for liberty but you have to recognize something. The liberty John Adams said was bought and paid for by our fathers. This is our fathers that bought and purchased this liberty for us. Liberty is not a gift that you purchase for yourself. Liberty is a gift that you pay forward. We enjoy the liberty that has been bought by those who have come before us. It is our job to pay forward our liberty if we do nothing. We don't suffer but future generations do. Sam Adams said if we tainly suffer a lawless attack on liberty we encourage it because you see when we're talking about liberty here doing nothing is not doing nothing.  He said when we tainly suffer a lawless attack on liberty we encourage it and we involve others in our doom. He said it is a very serious consequence to consider as millions yet unborn will be the miserable sharers of our negligence. See we have a charge not only to stand for liberty but to preserve the blessings of liberty to our posterity. But always remember this no matter what you're doing there are people watching you and by tainly suffering this lawless attack on liberty what are you teaching our children?    Can I break some news to you? I have a radio show that runs Monday through Friday out of my state capitol. I love being up there because they hate me. I went up there and spoke to the senate committee about nullification. My senate president Don Gates sent me an email because I told him that he needed to stand for the liberty that belonged to his people and as a representative of the state of Florida as a senator of state of Florida he had an inherent right to stand against federal encroachment. He sent me an email and told me that I should be shot or hanged. Do you think that's the proper behavior for a senate president? Where's my Duvall County Sheriff? He's still here? Just watch out because I don't know where my sheriff comes but if Don Gates comes after me to shoot or hang me I'm going to be giving you a call man. Move the Duvall. Well listen, you have an inherent duty by the nature of who you are whether you be a law enforcement officer or a citizen you have a duty to preserve this liberty and on my radio show I always tell people I endeavor to bring you the truth. The bad news is the truth is never fair and balanced. The truth is sometimes hard to deal with. I want you to understand some things that you're seeing. The truth of the matter is that this is not a Republican or Democrat thing. You have to understand that your conservative Republican House has handed more power to this president than he's stolen on his own. NDAA, the one of those heinous provisions in 1022 is the Section 4 waiver incorporated by your Republican House because the president said he wouldn't sign it unless it was in there and that thing, you know, not only NDA not only allows for the indefinite detention but this is the worst thing as if that could get worse, right? It allows the president to transfer the powers under the laws of war outside a declaration of war to this thing called hostilities. Why do you care? Because the same Section 4 waiver allows the president to transfer the power under the laws of war from the military to the Department of Homeland Security. You wonder why the TSA, you wonder why DHS is giving 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition because they have been empowered with the power under the laws of war. Thank you, Republican House. Justice Kennedy and his Arizona ruling declared that government agents have more power than the states. That's a big thing that came out of that Arizona immigration ruling by Justice Kennedy is that the individual discretion of individual agents has more power than the states. Justice Scalia, I thought he was the good guy, right? Just issued a ruling on Monday that says in its city of Arlington versus the SEC that agencies have the ultimate authority to define their own boundaries and that the court should have nothing to do with them. Do you know what that means? That means that there's a vague issue within the rule. Justice Scalia said the courts don't need to have anything to do with them. That's up to the agencies themselves. So when you have these things called water in the Clean Water Act of the EPA, that means the EPA is the sole determination of what water means under federal jurisdiction. And you have no challenge now in court. What about HR 347? Thanks to a Republican HR 347, the Federal Building and Ground Improvement Act has nothing to do with planting trees and making filling potholes but makes your first amendment a federal offense if you simply disrupt the orderly conduct of government business. That's the new standard for the first amendment. So you need to not only be worried about the TSA, but you need to be worried about the DHS and the Secret Service coming into your jurisdiction and trying to arrest your people for disagreeing with their congressmen in a town hall meeting. How about SB 1813, which allows the IRS to seize your passport without any due process whatsoever simply because they determined you have a delinquent tax debt. And some even interpret that to allow them to treat you as a convicted felon without any due process and take your guns. What about the Food Safety Modernization Act? Because after all, we have to have the FDA have an armed slot team so we can raid Amish farmers for their weapons of mass destruction called raw milk. Do you know why that TSA provision says we're only in the search, we're not in the seizure business? Because they have no authority to arrest in your jurisdiction without your permission.  That's why you have the ultimate authority and right to say get out. I will not allow this to happen to my citizens. We have a high school boy in Bethune, Massachusetts who's been arrested for posting a rap about the Boston bombing on Facebook. He is still on jail, he's looking at 20 years in prison because the police department said his rap was particularly violent. When was the last time you heard a rap song on the popular culture that was not particularly violent? It's even in my day we had cock-killa. Are we going to start arresting all of these rap artists now? No, because they have major record labels. We don't arrest them, we give them grannies. Share with you a couple things because I think the overriding theme is this. What can one man do? One man by the name of James Otis Jr., an attorney who had received the highest post any attorney can get in the colonies. Basically the attorney general of his post in charge of arresting and prosecuting people for these rids of assistance, which by the way we have today, whether you realize that or not. We have modern day rids of assistance. Otis Jr. called them the worst instruments of arbitrary power. The most destructive of liberty and we have them today, thank you Patriot Act. They're called national security letters. We screamed we needed them to protect us from terrorists and the government of accountability office found out that in 2006, 49,000 national security letters were issued. Served on al-Qaeda terrorists? No. 60% of them were served on US citizens and legal resident aliens. They need no warrant. They need a handwritten warrant. Arbitrary power in the hands of the agents. Arresting and seizing people with no fourth amendment protection whatsoever. But James Otis Jr. fought against these rids of assistance for five hours. John Adams wrote about it later and he says, Otis was a flame of fire. With a promptitude of classical illusions, a depth of research, a rapid summary of historical events and dates, a profusion of legal authorities and prophetic glare into the future and a rapid torrent of impenetraous eloquence he hurried away all before him. John Adams said 40 years later, he said, American independence was then in their war. The seeds of patriots and heroes to defend the vigorous youth were then in their zone. Every man of an immense crowded audience appeared to me to go away as I did, ready to take arms against rids of assistance. Then and there was the first scene of the first act of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then and there, the child of independence was born. And in 15 years, he grew up to manhood and declared himself free. James Otis Jr. lost his profession. He lost everything, argued for five hours and lost. But you see, you never know who's watching because in that gallery was John Adams and George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and Sam Adams and they birthed independence that day. Anybody know him? Christmas addicts was the first man to die in our battle for liberty. Christmas addicts was a black man, a slave who had become a free man. He was a whaler for the merchant marines. He heard the bells of alarm go off on his ship. He climbed up top to find out where the fire was because that's generally what the alarms meant. Can you imagine being on a wooden ship? Anything worse than a fire? Only to find there was no fire, but that his own government had brought up arms against him. He ran back in the ship, got 55 other of his shipmates and came out and died for our liberty. There was this poem written about him. Honor to Christmas addicts who was leader and voice that day. The first to defy and the first to die with madrid car and gray. Call it riot or revolution. His hand first clenched at the crown. His feet were the first in perilous place to pull the king's flag down. His breast was the first one rent apart. That liberty's stream might flow for our freedom now and forever. His head was first laid low. Call it riot or revolution or mob or crowd as you may. Such deaths have been the seat of nations. Such lives shall be honored for a. What about Ned Hector? Ned Hector was a freed slave who fought in the battles of Brandewine and Germantown. When the order came for his troops to retreat, had Ned Hector refused to retreat, he conveyed this statement, he shouted, the enemy shall not have my team. I will save the horses or perish myself. How many of your history books teach that there were battalions of freed slaves that fought for our liberty? The states had provisions that if you were a slave and you wanted to fight for liberty in the Revolutionary War, you would be declared a free man. There are men whose only free breath was given so that you and I could be free. And how do we repay them? We completely wiped them out of history to appease some insidious progressive agenda to maintain that slavery in this nation today.  What about the women? Because the women sacrificed more than the men did, often being left alone for a year or more at a time. Elizabeth Adams, the wife of Sam Adams, wrote Sam a letter one day and said, don't worry about us. If the British should take Prospect Hill, we have a scape route. How many of you woke up this morning with an escape route from your own government? And in her letter she doesn't call him a sorry rascal for never coming home or not sending any money. She does nothing but tell him, don't worry. And then she apologizes and says, please excuse my letter. The paper is bad and my pen is made from a broken pair of scissors. Sacrifice. It's going to cost you something. How many of you heard of Penelope Barker? Penelope Barker held a second Tea Party. After the men in Boston threw tea in the harbor, there were 55 women called together in Edenton, North Carolina. They pledged to not purchase any English made goods until the laws that enslaved their people had been repealed. And they made this statement. They said, remember now Justice Ginsburg and Hillary Clinton and the like, want our daughters to believe that the women were weak and irrelevant. So I want you to keep that in mind as we discuss these weak and irrelevant women. They said, maybe it has only been the men who have protested the king up to now. That only means we women have taken too long to let our voices be heard. And then they went on to say, we are signing our names to a document, not hiding ourselves behind costumes like the men in Boston did at their Tea Party. The British will know who we are.  But you know what's even more amazing than that? These are not women of no reputation. These were women whose husbands, fathers, brothers, uncles were English merchants. They pledged to not purchase any English made goods, sending their names and the names of the men who were English merchants to the British government. In that single statement without saying that words, they declared that liberty was more important than the paycheck that would provide them with food and even more dear than the very lives of the men who would provide it. What can one man do? What can one woman do? Sow the seeds of independence. That is our obligation. Winston Churchill said, still if you will not fight for the right, when you can easily win without bloodshed. If you will not fight, when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case, he said. You may have to fight when there is no hope because it is better to perish than to live as a slave. We have an obligation not to ourselves. I was a Russian linguist in the army. I studied the Russian culture, the communist takeover of Russia and I can tell you with great sincerity, if we do nothing, we will not suffer the consequences of our negligence. But we will condemn our children and our grandchildren to purchase back a gift that was supposed to be purchased by us. And they won't do it at the ballot box. They will not do it when it won't cost much and it won't take much to get it.  You see, this is the decision that we have to make. Is the Constitution worth preserving? That's the question that Daniel Webster asked his people in 1806. So let me ask you again, because I maybe think you think it was a speech on how to question. Is our Constitution worth preserving? Daniel Webster said that guard it as you would the very seat of your life. He said guard it not only against the open blows of violence, but against, and he wrote this in 1806, making this up, guard it not only against the open blows of violence, but also against the seed of change. He said miracles do not cluster and that which has happened but once in 6000 years may never happen again. One government, a government such destroyed would leave a void to be filled, perhaps with centuries of riot and tullment, evolution and despotism. You see, I teach the history of our Constitution. It didn't start in 1787. It started in 1041. Our Constitution has a genealogy. It took 700 years to write our Constitution. Five fundamental documents had to be written and the first one was not the Magna Garda. The first one was the 1100 Charter of Liberty and Daniel Webster knew this. He knew that they went from 1100 to 1215 battling for liberty. He knew that they went from 1628 to 1641 battling for liberty. He knew they went from 1641 to 1688 battling for liberty and from 1688 to 1776 to get the greatest documents that we would ever see, the greatest human rights statements ever written by man called the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and I don't care what Justice Ginsburg says about it, she should be impeached. She was following along. If you were following along, you noticed I missed a big chunk of time there because Daniel Webster also knew that they had to fight from 1215 to 1628 for 100 years. I want you to see and I forgot to play the video so we'll just... No, we'll do a picture now. We'll do the video at the end. This is why I do what I do. This is my ministry. It is a ministry. I don't charge anything for anything that I do. If you want me to come teach your deputies for a week, there's never any speaking fee. I don't even require you to pay for my travel. This is a ministry because God called me to it and I believe where God calls, He will provide and we have been doing this for three years and we have never begged for bread.  Because every day now that's the question that's going to have to come to your mind.  Amy Carmichael, a great missionary in India in 1892, tells him a dream that she had. She had this dream where she was standing on the edge of a cliff, watching people run off this cliff to a hellish abyss, she said. And in that, there were people lined up, a long arm, trying to prevent people from diving off the edge of that cliff into a hellish abyss. And then she noticed in her dream that there were a group of people, a large group of people just sitting under a shade tree. She said the very picture of peace, making daisy chains. Every once in a while she said in her dream, somebody would try to get up from making the daisy chains and go help prevent people from leaping to their death. And they would get pulled down by the others and say, what are you so worried about? Are you sure it's the time to go help? Why are we so concerned about all this? What are you really going to do anyway? Look at all those people. How are you going to stop all those people from leaping to their death? And the people would sit back down and get to making their daisy chains. Amy Carmichael says in her dream, she ran over to them and started screaming. What are you doing?  Onward Christian Soldiers, how brave we are! Don't we fight our battles very comfortably? What can one man do? One man can sow the seed of independence. One woman can strengthen a generation. One man, one woman can stand in the gap. Is it what you stand in the gap? Because! And watch that woman leap over the edge, because he didn't know any better, but because nobody was there stopping. That is your call. When you take the oath to support and defend the Constitution, to protect and serve, your call is to stand. Will you stand? Will you stand? For those who came before us, and gave the ultimate price. For those who live today, and cannot. For those who will come in the future, we have a nomination to stand in the gap. I'm doing this video real quick. It's only a minute and a half. I just want you to see how much fun it can be standing in the gap. I'm left here, and I can just jump in and respond here. The existence of the law. Okay, let me set the background. This was a Second Amendment Town Hall meeting that I did in Pensacola. It was broadcast on national TV through, I remember it was CBS or ABC or somebody like that.  Wouldn't let anybody have any word to say, and he kept going, NRA, NRA, NRA. So back it up a little bit.  I can take no more of what this guy was doing. So there you go. Partially conduct here, and I can just jump in and respond here. The existence of the law does not create the constitutionality of that law. We operate under unconstitutional fringements all the time. Government regulating how you speak and what you do is not a constitutionally established right. It is an unconstitutionally exerted power. The federal government said, or the founders of this nation, were very, very clear that the reason we have a Second Amendment is not to protect yourself in your home but to protect yourself, George Mason said, from becoming enslaved by the federal government. Nora Webster said that you bear arms to keep a standing army out of your doorstep and to keep the national government from enforcing unconstitutional and unjust laws on you. This whole idea that the Supreme Court, may I remind you, is a portion of the federal government has the authority to grant power beyond the constitution to the federal government is an absurdity. And what that tells us then is that the constitution is not the limitation of the federal government. What is the only limitation of the federal government is the Supreme Court of the United States and the will of the federal government itself. That is not a republic. That is a monarchy.


Abstract 2D materials such as emzines, borafine, and graphene foams have been gaining significant attention due to their unique physical properties. These materials offer potential applications in lightweight foam, sensor development, energy storage, and energy conversion. Additionally, they provide a platform for AI-enabled health monitoring systems. This article was authored by Rahul Patil and Saqqad Dutta.


preparing and testing your technology. This section will cover setting up your technology for a great presentation, but even a great presentation can be challenged by technical issues. Checking your technology in advance can help minimize some of those issues. Setting up equipment for in-person presentations. In-person presentations often involve technology and you may not have a say in what is available to you. You may have a projector and a computer showing your visual aids to your audience, or you may be presenting in a high-flex space with multiple cameras and microphones and an audience attending both in-person and virtually. Anticipating and preparing for various situations will help you navigate technical issues with ease. In general, there are four tech aspects to in-person presenting that you should pay attention to. Number one, check the tech. If you can, check out the space for yourself so you know what technology is in the room you're presenting in.  If you're using tech like a microphone or a smart pointer, will you be able to connect them? How do you project to the screen and more? Number two, accessing your content. How will you access your presentation? Options include emailing the file to yourself, using a USB drive, using Google Drive or OneDrive, using the file directly from your computer or your instructor may ask you to email it to them. It is always best to prepare multiple methods of access, just in case. Number three, compatibility. Confirm your presentation will work with the technology. You do not want to use software or hardware that is incompatible. For example, do not use Apple's Keynote if you'll be using a PC. Browser-based tools such as Google Slides, Canva, Kahoot, Mentimeter and Prezi are good bets as they do not rely on installed software. Number four, check the lighting. Will any windows in the space impact your presentation, making it difficult to read? Will people in the back of the room be able to read and see everything on the screens, even with the overhead lighting? Are you able to turn the lights down or close the blinds? Setting up equipment for online presentations. Online presentations compose a whole different set of potential problems. While with in-person presentations, you may be dealing with an unfamiliar space and different technology, at least you can count on everyone being able to see and hear you because you're all in the same room. You are likely giving your presentation from the comfort of your own home. And while your home serves as your sanctuary, it may not naturally be conducive to giving a professional-looking presentation. You'll want to avoid anything that might distract the audience from your presentation. This means having a good camera angle, flattering lighting, a clean background, a quiet space and a working microphone. Number one, cameras. Try to position your camera at eye level. This will allow for a good camera angle that shows your entire face. You can use a riser or a stand or you can use sturdy objects like books or boxes. If you're using a phone or tablet, a tripod or a stand may help keep your camera steady. Be sure that whatever you use is stable so your camera or device does not shift or fall. It may feel more natural to look at your screen or keyboard, but looking directly at the camera will give you the opportunity to make eye contact with your audience. Rehearsing your presentation will help so you can feel confident and will not need to spend as much time reading from notes or off the screen. Number two, lighting. Natural light coming in through a window can be very effective.  Having a light shining from in front of you or from an angle can be more flattering. If your room does not have a window or other sources of natural light, you can use lamps.  Number three, space and background. Avoid having a cluttered background behind you. The ideal is to find a solid background to film in front of, but if that's not possible, make sure the area behind you is neat. You may wish to close any doors behind you. Some video conferencing software will allow you to change your background to a digital image. If you do change your background, make sure it's appropriate for the tone of your presentation and that it's not distracting. Try to limit background noise during your presentation. This may mean turning off or moving away from fans or muting your devices. Number four, microphones. Your microphone is key to your online presentation, so you need to make sure it is working as intended ahead of time. Here's what to consider when it comes to your mic. Use an external microphone. The built-in microphone on your computer may pick up other sounds in the room. Consider using an external mic like a headset to give a clearer sound. Microphone position. If possible, position your microphone near but not too close to your mouth. With a headset, aim to have the microphone slightly above or below your mouth. Test your microphone. Test with another person or record yourself to make sure your voice is coming through on your microphone. Video conferencing software will often have an audio test feature or may allow you to record your session to test for sound quality. If you do use an external microphone, check that your video conferencing software is using it over your computer's internal microphone.


I maybe drove around for half an hour before the batteries were pretty low. I can charge them better, I'll have to charge them to a higher voltage. They are very used batteries though, so I don't know how much energy they'll be able to store. I did start emailing places requesting possible battery sponsorship. I did the same thing with the solar panels, and somehow miraculously got super lucky with that from those Solbion guys who sent me these. Oh, that was so nice. Like, this boat wouldn't be working if I didn't get those. I wouldn't have made this boat without those actually, because I can't make this boat with the heavy solar panels. The lightweight ones make all the difference. Anyway, maybe I can get some battery sponsors too. Some brand new batteries. That would be sweet. In the meantime, well, I'll see if I can email some other battery places, and then I'll work on charging these ones better too. I might have to pop these ones open and inspect every cell individually to check if any are bad. Alright, let's figure out what that error message actually is on the speed controller. There's two green blinks, three red blinks. High throttle over range. What the heck do I do with that? I'm getting a lot of blank pages after that. I don't care about the warranty, what do I do? Alright, that's my error. There, note one. Note one. The throttle could be faulty. I think it's okay. I did check it before I put it in. Wiring connectors, that should all be fine. I just did it. Incorrect throttle, set in the program. Okay, I'll have to check that. Otherwise, clear throttle auto calibration. Clear throttle auto calibration and try again. Okay, clear the throttle auto calibration. And check the throttle setting. Okay. Alright, I just spent about half an hour going through all the settings, resetting the auto calibration, testing and testing and testing. Still doing the exact same thing. I wish I could just get into the programming and just say, if the thing, you think it's too high, just stay at 100%. Anyway. So what's happening is, when I turn the throttle, everything works great, works great, works great. And then just as it gets to the top, like as far as you can turn it, it shuts off. So just like the last little bit. So I think I'm just going to physically prevent it from going that far. I checked on the monitoring thing on the computer and it is actually getting to 100%. Just before the throttle is turned all the way.  So here's what it's doing. I got my throttle here. Accelerates, no problem. Turn a little more, no problem. And just as I get to the end, it overthrottles whatever errors. So I could just put like a physical thing in here to stop that little metal pin that's part of the spring. Stop that from moving. Or maybe I'll open it up and see if there's some way of limiting how far it rotates. Seems like such a silly error to have. Like, hey, you've pushed the gas pedal too far. So now we're going to completely deactivate the thing instead of just being like, oh, we'll just stay at 100% throttle. Even though you've gone past that. I guess I could check the resistance on the little potentiometer and the thing when you see if the resistance is doing something weird when you get all the way up or whatever. I don't care. I just want it to work. So let's see if I can open it up. Alright, handful of stuff. I should be able to do something with that. There is a second thing I want to do. That's pretty simple. Let's put this in this bag. First, let me fix this simple problem. There's a blocking diode I want to take out. Now normally in a system like this, if I had multiple solar panels charging the batteries, the solar panels would be connected to each other. So if one solar panel is in the shade and the other one is in the sun, the sun one could push electricity backwards through the shaded one, possibly damaging it. So you put a diode, which is like a one-way street for electricity. You put diodes in line with each solar panel. But right now there's only one solar panel connected to this, so it doesn't need the diode. The reason I want to take the diode out is because the diode kills a bit of your voltage. And my solar panel is already kind of low to charge these batteries. So if I take the diode out, I'll get a bit more voltage. I'll be able to charge the batteries a little higher. Here's mud. And I made my wires short. There's no extra space to take this out and plunge these together. So I'm just going to insert a Y connector to take up the space. OK, 27.2 volts with the diode. 27.4 without it. OK, that's not a big difference. Hopefully it's a bigger difference when there's full sun out. I'll charge the batteries up a little more. We'll see how much more. Let's see about opening this silly thing. I need like special six-side screwdriver thing. Nothing useful in that section. All right, I ended up taking this apart, moving the gears so it's offset by one gear tooth, like skipping a gear basically. So it doesn't get all the way to full throttle. I also reversed the direction of the thing and took the spring out. So that way I can mount this wherever I want. I don't have to hold it all the time. Oh, and because I skipped a tooth, I may be losing a tiny bit of high-end throttle. But like a negligible amount. And I should be able to correct for that in the programming if at some point I feel like it. All right, let's see how ergonomic that is. Easy to reach up nice and high where it's not going to get splashed. And now I have a free hand. Oh, marvelous. All right, now recharge. Oh, I guess some sun would help with that.


Question is from JYB9. Knowing what you know today, is there anything you would go back and change in your first three programs? Ooh. I kinda like that question. I do, because there's one that comes to mind because we just had this discussion off air yesterday or a day before yesterday. In the MAPS antibiotic program in there and Sal had to like really explain what he means by it because I think people misinterpret it or do it incorrectly. And that is touch and go deadlifts. And it's not because I don't think any of us value touch and go deadlifts. I think I do occasional touch and go deadlifts. I just think, considering that we speak of MAPS antibiotic as our foundational program, a majority of people that are first getting involved in our programs probably start there. A touch and go deadlift is probably a little more advanced for the average person. So that's the only thing that I feel that comes to mind. I think didn't we lower the reps on one of the lunge matrix?  We actually did go back and revise that and change because, I mean, initially it was about volume. And so we're thinking about what was reasonable and actually going through it and calculating out left versus right leg and seeing how much actual volume of lunges that was, it was a little bit excessive. So we were getting a lot of feedback from that from your average person that that was just like kind of an overwhelming amount. And so, we recognize that. It's like, oh yeah, okay, like for some people, lunges aren't really that difficult.  I mean, that transition itself was a very drastic change for a lot of people. So it's like, okay, we have to acknowledge that and that new stimulus is gonna be like exhaustive, you know? And so yeah, we did change the rep count for that. So we lowered it a bit and then, you know, people could sort of... When we went back and we did, I mean, we've reiterated them now a couple of times. Yeah, and we don't really change, we haven't changed the workouts too much. There's been like a couple of things. Look, here's the thing, as a good trainer, you have to take feedback and consider it always. Now for the most part, the workouts are almost identical to when we first put them out, but there's a couple, you know, changes here and there because we got feedback. We got thousands of people that are following these programs. Now here's the deal, training people in person and writing a program to be used online is a little different, isn't it? Like two different monsters, completely. There's certain things that I might have put, for example, touch and go deadlifts, you know, they're in maps and a bollock, but when I would teach them, I'm watching the client. As I'm getting feedback from people, I'm realizing I can't watch all these people that are doing it and so there's some very good points being made that we're probably gonna change that. Another one is rest periods. Here's another one, like we put in prescribed rest periods in some of our programs, but I'm getting a lot of feedback from people who are like, oh, you know, I'm resting for a long time and the workouts are taking a long time and shorter. And I'm thinking to myself, like, you know, there's a lot of individual variance when it comes to rest periods with clients. And so it might be better to be a little bit more general to say more like shorter rest periods, longer rest periods rather than saying you have to rest for three minutes or more type of deal. But I mean, we're really going in and like splitting hairs. And for the most part, if we had to go back and reiterate very much, then we're probably not very good at what we're doing. Like, I mean, that's part of what I think makes the three of us combined because we're different, because we have so much experience with so many different types of clients. I mean, man, when we write these things, it's not like we sit down and go, I guess sit down and write a fucking, you know, four day, five day a week program for the next 16 weeks, like in 15 minutes, if I just wanted to rip it out. But we go back and forth over a lot of this. It's a two day process of just writing the workout. And it's this type of stuff. Like we try to foresee like, oh, well, what if we have a client that's like this or, oh, I've had people that give me this fee. And so there's a lot of that, you know, debating back and forth with each other. And there was things that were in programs that got pulled out. So I mean, I mean, I would hope that we wouldn't have to reiterate too much, but those two things, and those are like really simple. It doesn't mean that they're bad or necessarily need to be changed. Just that we've taken into consideration now that thousands of people have done it. It's like, oh, we probably could have worded that different. I mean, one of the things we even noticed too, like we do little things like the blueprints and stuff and how- Just easier to read. Yeah, easier for people to understand and read and use. And so we're more concerned.  Yes, the usability. The UI is pretty improved. We want that to be like the cleanest and most straightforward that we can. And so we're always coming back and evaluating that and getting feedback from people in our forum and just trying to make sure that we're always keeping that fresh and something that people can just like almost ready, set, go and push a button. The look of the programs have changed a lot. That's for sure. You know, when we first started this company, we would pump these programs out and have ourselves demonstrating the movements. And we were on a tight budget and time. And you know, there's videos of us demoing maps anywhere. We filmed it all in a house. So we're demonstrating all the exercises on that. I laid on the couch one time while you were doing like dragon flags. Yeah, to keep the couch from flipping up or Adam. At one point, we forgot to film. It looked like a porn set. I mean, what were we doing? There were like four exercises we forgot to film.  Doug pulled over to the park. Go to the park? Yeah. Doug is going out. This was coming back from Maps Anywhere. I actually did a post on my Instagram about this. So you can go back and I think basically in my post, I think I'm talking about people not getting paralysis by analysis, right? And just getting something out there and then reiterating as you go. And this was an example of that. Like Maps Anywhere, we just, you know, we shot, we rented a VRBO and we were definitely on a budget even then. It's not like we even rented like a really nice VRBO. We got like an okay house, right? So it's like not really, not really aesthetically pleasing on the video. So Doug shoots that. Doug, as we're driving back home from, I think it was Sacramento is where we did that place. And Doug was like going through the blue front.  Like, well here, pull over to this playground. Yeah, it's a playground. Let's pull over to the park. I've got my fucking, you know, I don't know what's sunglass. I'm wearing some dark sunglasses. It looks like a biker. Yeah, I do.  Yeah, yeah, so. That's the, that's the biggest things that we've changed. They look a lot better. Yeah, we changed, we changed a lot. But you know, the meat and the potatoes of what's in the program, it's like we, I talk about, I think I even refer to this in that post is you know, we spent a lot of time building the engine, you know, building the engine of the stuff and the real meat of this. And now, now we've, you know, we're new paint and spoiler and, you know, make the car look cool now. But it originally. It was fast as hell back then.  And now we've come back. Now it looks fast too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Next.


special guest that I had the privilege of meeting up in the mountains in Ulsan, Korea, where we were all part of this Korean international, what was it called? Ulsan International Mountain Film Festival. Is that right? So I have here Oswald and Bartek, and I will allow you to do the honors of telling a little bit about yourself so that I can kind of start unpacking the interesting film that you made together on the mountains and the experiences you've had, and I have many questions about life, but let's start with you introducing yourselves first. Hello, so I'll allow Bartek to go first because he speaks less. Hi, so my name is Bartek and I love skiing. That's it? You get this every time, Oswald, when you go anywhere, it's okay. Yeah, it's always like this, but okay, I'll say more about me, and maybe Bartek will come with a couple of words more. So hello, my name is Oswald Rodrigo Pereira. I'm from Portuguese Health Polish, so let's say my Polish part of my brain decided that I like mountains, and five years ago I decided to go as a TV reporter for an expedition to go between winter, and since then I started producing and preparing either small short documentaries or longer documentaries about things that happen in the mountains, but what I really try to observe are the intentions and emotions that sometimes are just when faced with the highest peaks on earth, because what we see there is so extreme that I think you can see another level of humanity, of emotions, of living. I wonder if it's the deeper, more honest way of seeing human emotions, because you're faced with situations that are literally life-and-death choices sometimes, and when you see how things play out, or how people react to certain situations, I can't think of a more metaphoric way than to use a mountain as a launching pad for talking about humanity, so yeah. Okay, so that's really interesting, yeah. I think it's quite a tough, I would say, mission because there are moments that I prefer to switch off the camera. I have situations like seeing someone close to me dying, or someone being dying for like one hour and a half in front of me, and maybe some filmmakers would film it because it would make like a potential image that would be like really important for the film, but for me it was more important to think about the family of this person, and think that, and also respect, and basically you are trying to help this person, and even when you know that you will not help this person anymore, I never thought about switching on the camera because I felt like it's more important than any climb, than any film, so as I said, it's sometimes you are in very sensitive situations, and I think it's always like the most important is to be just keep your values and be a human person, not just a climber or a filmmaker, and on the other hand, sometimes you see emotions or like quite deep situations where people are exposed, and it's always a thin balance because maybe sometimes it will show a little too much, and you will hurt the protagonist. I'm not saying it's in the case of Bartek, but also in the case of other films that I did, so it's always a thin line, and I think I'd still try to keep this balance. Maybe at some point I will be already used to so many extreme situations that I will not care anymore, but for now I still try to keep this you know human vision that not everything that happens there probably it would be very attractive to be shown, but then I think it's not a reality show, you don't want to show like all the dark sides and destroy someone just because you want to make a good film. You bring up a lot of points there, I'm trying to process it right now, but the idea of the politics of framing of what you show or what you decide not to show in a film that could like you say expose certain elements that maybe some people don't want to see or you don't want to share, but I'm wondering if it comes down to your innate values to begin with of what your fundamental core issues are in how you interact with people, right? Can I just go back a little bit to talk about like the title of your film even, The Silent Escape. I'm thinking about silence and I'm thinking both of you, you were on a two-man expedition for what was it 50 days, more than 50 days up there, just the two of you, right? More or less. Yeah, so I mean obviously you have encountered people, but to have the isolation of being with just one person on such a dramatic backdrop with very limited resources, what does silence mean to you? Like what is the silence in the mountains, what do you hear in the nights and how does that kind of silence affect you as a person? Like do you, would you go crazy or is it a beautiful thing that you take in as a meditative, you know, or to what extent does it change the silence turn into something disturbing? I wouldn't always call that a silence, it's a venture in mountains, but just in a remote place and yeah, switching off internet for a month and literally doing it because you can't really turn it on, it's something special nowadays I would say, like for me at least because normally I'm every day at work, so there I can just completely get out of it and yeah, that's valuable for me. Wow, so it's power in a sense. Yeah, maybe you can call it beauty. And staying, yeah, I'm staying with just one person, I think less people, even better and easier to actually, you know, like we met on a big expedition and staying with more people in the base camp is much, much more difficult. Yeah, I would say it's a luxury to be disconnected from civilization and I don't want to sound rude, but sometimes it's even good to have some break from your friends, maybe finally if someone has one, but most of all it's like of these, like, speed that you have every day and I don't know if you can recall the last time you didn't have internet for, I don't know, 40, 30 days, because for people it's even hard to imagine that after a month you don't even have Spotify, so even in terms of music that you can listen to, you have silence on your phone, because Spotify after one month, even the sounds that, even the music, the tracks that you downloaded, they are offline, so you cannot listen to music anymore, so even on this matter it's a silence there, so I would say from one hand what Bartek said and when he says a sentence at the beginning of the film that the main goal was to run away from civilization and the internet, of course it's I would say the most important goal was to climb and ski down, but meanwhile you can understand in the film that we are happy being there, that we are happy having each other and of course after some point maybe there there can be some frictions or people will, you know, are or discuss, in our case it didn't happen actually we were more direct when we met probably other people because then you you're already in your comfort zone, you like interact with each other and suddenly you meet new people, we spent, when there is bad weather, we spent like 10 days in base camp, we didn't have anything to read because our digital books broke, so basically we were there, we were forced to talk, I'm not saying they are but people but you didn't choose them, they just decided to go on an expedition and suddenly you share your intimacy with them, if you are sick, if you feel bad, if your head, I don't know, you have some problem with your head and then you need to spend time, so you start opening with these people and suddenly you have like very good conversations with people that you never seen before and some of them you'll never see them again, so it's quite unique but yeah, so I would say from one side it's like this escape from civilization, this peace, this silence and also I would say in the mountains you dive somehow at least me because maybe I see things differently than Bartek, I think I dive deeper into myself, even the 10 days that you have to spend in base camp doing nothing, it's a tough experience but I think it teaches you like a lot about you. Yeah and then many people don't want to find a deeper self because it's uncomfortable, sometimes it's hard to do and you think I'm thinking about silence, a lot of people have, they can't handle awkward silences like even a moment of quietness, people make a laughter or a joke because we're so used to all this stimulation that we don't know how to treat silence, yeah, yeah, so you're saying that there is something that we need to kind of go beyond in order to find that deeper truth or that open up that more pure space for us to kind of, you know, search for things. Can I, you know, I also remember conversing with both of you back in Korea, what struck me and my big takeaway from this mountain film festival was that the idea of our approach to the mountains not to generalize but is very different in the so-called Western approach in terms of conquering the mountain, the goal of to achieve the top as opposed to the Asian way, if you will, of a more philosophical approach of the relationship or a respect for the mountain. How do you both feel about that? Is it about getting to the top? I think probably it's again different for us because like Bartek said, it's an adventure for him, some sort of like spending free time. For me, I think it's a bigger, I take it as a challenge. I'm not sure if I think about the mountains in a philosophical way, but probably it's some internal trip as well. I mean, when I'm at the expedition, I really, I become more quiet, peaceful. I return with a different mindset. So I would say in my case, it's a combination of both like the sports side, because of course, you are there because you want to climb the mountain. That's why you went there. But on the other hand, I said, I would say this time that you spend with yourself, with another person, the partnership you create, the bond, means that you return home changed. And I think for the better, and it doesn't mean that you are a better person, but you are more self-confident and you know more about yourself. You change every time you come back from the mountain, like each trip. That's for sure. And I know people that sometimes they go for like a week of this solitude, I don't know how to call it, like treats that they don't talk for a week or something. And I say, well, I don't need that because I've been like so many times in the mountains that you spend so many hours alone and in extreme situations. But usually you are like really in peace. When you climb, you don't think about like the dangers. I think you go in some slow motion state of mind that I don't need like meditation at home because I go like those for my life. Your process up the mountain is already very meditative. Is it for you also, Bartek? Is it meditative for you or is it more of a thrill for you? Like what is it that drives you to do this? And you are by the way skiing down the mountain. You are not just climbing down like normal people. Yeah. So it's mostly an adventure for me and a perfect way of spending holidays. Yeah. But besides, of course, it helps to understand how valuable normal things are.  So it helps in some way as I also said. Yeah. I think we under, well, I think we all know the power of the mountain, but maybe a lot of us aren't willing to do it or until we do it, do we know the life-changing powers it has. So for example, my daughter, when she went for a three month hiking trip around the mountains, she came back and she used to be a dancer and she went straight into a ballet studio and she couldn't handle it. She said she couldn't function with four walls with mirrors. She's like, why can't, how do people function looking at themselves and being in a constricted space when she had the world, she had like sleeping under the stars, she couldn't go back.  Yeah, I'll say sometimes it's even, I would say for me, when I come back from the expedition in mountains, it's even hard to talk to people. Because on every expedition, it's different, of course, but after this one, we're like together 50 days. And I think three weeks later, we went on a run, a relay run 400 kilometers to the seaside of Poland. At the end, there was an after party. And there were like, I don't know, 100 people, maybe 200. And a friend of us came to us and said, guys, maybe we should stop talking to each other because you spent all of this so many days. And I don't know, like somehow, instinctively, we're searching for each other in the crowd, like we are, I don't know, partners or we have a special bond, which is maybe dangerous. But I would say back to the time after the expedition, that you get used to one person that you share everything with, then suddenly when you have 50 persons around you asking you questions like touching your face, which is burned by the sun, and how are your frostbites, blah, blah, blah, how was the expedition. And you hear like the same question so many times. After some point, even me and I'm a social person, I would like, okay, I'll eat some holidays.  So yeah, I would say, yeah, you get used to like your solitude, just your partner, you and freedom. But of course, then you have the practical things, like Bartek said, you have nice food at home, you have your bed, you can take a shower and change clothes after 60 days, which is of course, I mean, civilization has nice things. And I remember when I come back from Monastery in winter, and some days later, it was the birthday of my friend, and I went to a club and they were like, it was quite a post club, you know, people were ordering, I don't know, champagne bottles of some alcohol or whatever, whatever. And I look at these people and I thought I felt like so distant, because I just came back from a, from a village, Samagon, and there was a woman that was about to give birth. And of course, she couldn't afford to fly with the helicopter to Kathmandu. So all the village like gathered money to make her fly. But before she made it to Kathmandu, she already gave birth somewhere there in the Halipat.  And I felt somehow disconnected. But then I thought to myself, okay, but the other, I would say civilization or culture in the small village, it's neither mine. I mean, I don't belong there. But I also felt that I neither I don't belong to the place where people have already, you know, a luxury life and they can think about like how they dress to go out or something. And there was this woman giving birth. So I'll say the time after the expedition is always like this, this time that I feel like between two worlds. Yeah. And it also seems like there are things that happen, you have these encounters that force you or maybe naturally allow you to reassess what's important in life. But you know, back to your point about the woman giving birth, I was thinking, do you think that it's really, is there a gendered space on the mountain? Do you think that women have to endure different types of challenges up the mountain? Do you think it's equal? Do you think that, you know, we have to think of it in different ways? Yeah. I think that, first of all, physically. So that's a physical challenge, right? And of course, here, there are natural differences. And we have the same actually rules, right? We climb the mountain and that's it.  Yeah, I would say there was once a test, a survey, and they compared like women that decided to start in an ultra marathon and men.  And they compared that there was a bigger percentage of women that decided to take part in an ultra marathon that finished the race. So we would say that usually for male, it's easier to decide to, you know, jump into a deep water, but they don't accomplish. So this shows that women, when they decide for something, I think the mental is somehow stronger. But as Bartek said, like, if we think about like physics and natural like capacity, of course, I would say, I mean, not climbing because I think in the road climbing, the difference is smoother. But in Himalayas, we're basically on our style of expedition. What does it mean? Which means carrying a heavy backpack, spending a lot of hours, not even climbing sometimes, but walking in deep snow. And then setting at then, like being under adverse conditions of weather and everything. So I would say in terms of body, like, men have better, better solutions, they are better prepared for this. But I would say it depends on every individual because, yeah, I mean, there are women stronger than men. But I would say in general, also like the physiology of women and et cetera. Also I would say maybe sometimes the intimacy, like you don't have that much, you know, hygienic possibilities, like taking care of yourself. So I would say in these terms, it's a much bigger challenge for women, not mentally, but in terms of things that you cannot train for. Right. Yeah. I thank you for distinguishing that. I have one more question and I don't know, and this is kind of a big, heavy one and I don't know how we can end it on time, but try.  And it's part of in your film. And so you went, it wasn't part of your plan. And this came to you and you both decided to go back up there to save him. Where, you know, this was a positive case, but in some cases, maybe where some people think, okay, well, what are the chances of somebody being saved? How do you make these hard life decisions of whether you're going to risk your life for the sake of saving someone else? And what does that mean for everyone? You know, can you talk a little bit about that? So maybe I'll start and I had already a situation in my life when I crossed the line of what's safe for me. And I was angry at myself that I decided to stay and help someone. But this time it wasn't the case. When we made the decision, when we made the decision, first of all, it was obvious for us that if we can help, we'll go. But also, we never thought that we were risking our life. We're just thinking we are helping someone. Of course, just in short words, when you are like in a nice hotel and your breakfast shower after 50 days of expedition, and you're in your comfort zone and suddenly you are launched. Again, any city based and then suddenly you are on camp two on the mountain that you're like, it's done. I can go home. It's a strange experience. But I think we never hesitated a minute. And I think when we talk about partnership and us like working well together, it's also important not to have like the climbing speed or something. It's the values that will decide about the life. And the values will decide about our partnership. So yeah, we never fought for a while. And even when we were treated here in Spain by his family and his friends, and they stood up and gave us like an abortion applause. And we felt like really humble, but like that's not necessary. We did what should be normal.  And we are not saying this, you know, because it's just words. We just think that it should be normal for everyone. Unfortunately, it's not. Some people are thinking, well, I have this mission. I trained so hard for it to get to the mountain. Nothing's going to come in my way. Or, you know, they think other ways that just resituated. Even when we are going to the speech, we spoke with the interpreter and she asked us like, do you think people stuck when they see an accident to help people or they take pictures of the accident? I was like, yeah, I think usually most of the people, if you think of them, they would just pass, you know, slow down for a while, provoke another accident, but they wouldn't stop to ask if everything was okay. Because they always think, oh, someone will take care of it better than me. And maybe that's the truth. But here in this case, we just thought if we can be useful, of course, we are going there. And at the end, well, the situation was quite tough and we're quite useful to the rescue operation of Carlos. But yeah, unfortunately, it's not. It's a sad thing. But, well, we'll try to keep our values as long as possible. And I think what we have in the climbing spirit, what I have in my film, ethics and etc., if we would just say this and then kind of situation like with the rescue operation with Carlos and we wouldn't move a finger, these would be empty words. So I think this shows that when we talk about this, we're really believing these values and these compartments. Yeah, yeah. And you can't train for that. It's your innate value, I think. And you've seen a lot on, I think the mountain again, revealing the real human nature of different types of people. I think, remember, you also once mentioning that there's a statistic side to some people who attach themselves to the mountains for the reasons for maybe being closer to death. I don't know. I'm not trying to distort. But can you tell a little bit about that mental space of that attraction? Well, yeah, there was this, I mean, some scientific research by a university from Canada, that basically people that went out from trauma develop a better preparation for extreme sports. And in this case, it was compared to mountains. And yeah, so I would say when you come from tough situations, sometimes you think nothing worse will happen in my life. So when you are in the mountains and you are freezing, climbing and you are tired, but then you think, yeah, but I'm doing this for myself. I paid to be here, like big amount of money, because I needed to buy a permit and everything. So thinking, it's basically my holidays, no one forced me to do this. So I would say whatever, I mean, of course, it depends on the approach of every person. But I would say in my case, whatever I passed in the past, made me stronger. And I think when I have like good like crisis, I go back to some of the tough moments of my life. And I just remember like you could be there.  So take some advantage and enjoy the process, even if it's minus 30 degrees. Yeah, process indeed. And I and unfortunately, we're probably out of time to talk so much about your process, but leave us with something.   What, you know, going forward, are there things that you want to accomplish in life? Or is this your process of doing something that, you know, you just can do now? What are your thoughts on life? Well, I would just say, I want to enjoy life and have fun. And you're doing that? That's it. Yeah, I'm trying to. Okay. But it's good for now. Okay, great. Thank you. And also, what is, what is your life mission?  I feel there's so much. I like, I like to have fun as well, of course, like Bartek said. Bartek, does he want to have fun? Or is all the world too serious? No, I'm not serious at all. I just like, I have a couple of sides of my face to show to people. So that's a serious one. But I mean, I'm older than Bartek. So I'm 39 years old. And of course, probably I spent more time on this earth. So I have more time to think, and I'm overfinger for thinking person. So yeah, I would say, like, I always like to, at first, when I was a kid, to read stories or big adventures of, like, history of people, story of people. Then when I become a TV reporter, it's part, it's like the core of your job is searching for stories and find a way to tell about them. Then it turned into climbing and filming. So I would say, like, it's a, it's a process, it's a path. And like, there is this sentence at the beginning of the film that if you search for a goal, you become empty when you find it. But whoever finds a path will always carry the goal inside. So I would say, I cannot even say what's my goal, because it's somewhere there. It's not the climb. I can say what's my goal for next year. It's going again with Bartek to $8,000 for Bartek to ski down. For me to make the film, most of all, for us to come back alive and be friends. But that would say, like, my life goal, well, it's still like so far away that I cannot even think about this. So for now, I enjoy the path and I'm happy with myself. I'm in peace with myself. And I would say that's one of them. I think that that's the most important thing in my life. I was asked, like, a month or two months ago by a young club member from our climbing club, where do I see myself in 10, 20 years? What I want to accomplish in that month. And I think about five years ago, like what happened. And then I think about, like, I don't know, my friends that live in Ukraine, how their life changed in a year and a half, how COVID changed our life. Like, at some point, you know, you are not allowed to travel in the world. So I'll say, yeah, let's go step by step, small goals and enjoy the path. I like that. I think that's what we're going to leave it with. Enjoy the path. I think that's the biggest takeaway I have, because you are taking your paths and we all have our own paths and they can be bumpy. They can be smooth, but they are our processes. And it's so important to enjoy and appreciate that process. So thank you for sharing a glimpse of your processes, because we learn so much from stories like yours. And good luck with your next adventures and your next films. Look forward to seeing and hope we can see each other again in person in the near future. Thank you very much. It was a pleasure to meet you in South Korea and spend this time with you. And thank you also for your insights about the film and our persons. And tell people how we can look for your film. So for now, the film will be shown on a tour, a mountainous stage. It will be shown in 20 countries, 250 locations, also apart from Europe in USA, in Canada and Australia. And so let's say until spring, I'll be just showing these in festivals. But at some later stage, probably it will be available online, because I'd like more people to learn stories, be sure to see how and some and adventure is more big. Oh, he just zips down so gracefully like it's nothing. Okay, great. Thank you again and good luck with your next projects. You both are amazing people.


Stevenson gets the 68-51 win over Lebanon Valley here tonight, Glenn Clark with Hannah Christ who scored 12 points and included in that, Hannah, two really big threes. How good did it feel to knock down those shots as your team started to pull away there in the second half? I think with the slow start that we were having, it was nice that me and everyone in the second half really were hitting the shots that we know that we can hit on our home court. Coach has talked a lot this season about how important it is for you all to turn your defensive intensity in the offense. How much do you guys buy into that and how much do you feel that on a night like tonight? I think we really have faith in that because the slow start, the slow scoring in the first half, really we just came back out with the same defensive intensity in the second half and that really brought us up with the steals again and then we were able to convert off those. And as a veteran we talked about this season, you all lost an All-American and Sarah Tarbett, who I know is still around here, but as far as being on the floor and everybody has been tasked with picking things up a little bit this season, tonight you were one of five players in double figures for this team, but nobody had more than your 12, right? How important is it for everybody to be doing their part this season? I think that's our second game of the season where five people have been in double figures and that has always come out very good for us. If we keep that up and if freshmen are stepping up like they are, then we'll be good from here. And how good does this team feel as a whole now? You've had a great stretch where you've won a few games in a row, including a couple of big conference games. How good does this team feel as you go into three games on the road to wrap up calendar 2017? We feel good. We have had like a couple losses, but just being together, getting to know each other because we're still kind of young on the freshman side. So I think we're still trying to learn how each other play. So I think these next couple games will still be in that flow. Great. Hannah, congratulations on a great game and a big victory. Thank you. She's Hannah Christ. I'm Glenn Clark. This is GoMustangSports.com.