All right. Hello, everyone. Welcome to the virtual stream of the DEF CON talk. The Pax Man comes for us all. We may still be vaccinated, but access control still sucks. We're going to jump right into it today because we have a lot to cover. For those of you who don't know, my name is Babak Chavadi. I'm a lock picker, hardware hacker, and reverse engineer. I've also been a professional red teamer and covert entry instructor for over a decade. Founded the open organization of lock pickers, the red team alliance, and the core group. Nick, tell us a little bit about yourself. Sure. Yeah, I'm Nick Drafton. I like to hack things where the physical and digital world intersect. I'm involved in the RFID hacking by Iceman Discord and find me there. Eric, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? I'm Eric Betz. Hi, everyone. My name is Anja. I'm a student of computer science in Slovenia, a security researcher for about five years now. Disassemble everything I find. Bug bounty hunter made it into the Google vulnerability research program Hall of Fame. Mostly now I do RFID research. All right. So today we're going to talk about two things. We're going to talk about a new tool that we're releasing that's going to make red team a whole lot more fun and a whole lot more easier. And we're also going to talk about a interesting vulnerability that we found in some readers. So first, what are PAX? What is the PAX man? Well, that refers broadly to physical access control systems. And we're not going to go in depth into how they all work, but we'll give you a very light overview. If you're interested in more, check out our other DEF CON talks or check out the RFID hacking Discord or red team alliance. But we are talking about enterprise access control systems. These are embedded boards that take in inputs of various kinds, most often credentials. And based off of logic, controls certain outputs, such as door hardware, magnetic locks, electrified strikes, etc. The most important concept to keep in mind throughout this first part of the talk here is that RFID credentials, regardless of what technology they are, they are basically very simple, very tiny containers. So whether it's a prox credential or a I class or my fair credential, these are just different ways of all storing the same data. So a lot of older low frequency credentials, they're simply like folders, electronic wireless folders that contain a very small bit of data inside. And when we present that folder to the system, some interesting things happen. So to talk to you about that, we're going to cover a really short, very simple analogy. We have some characters here, some of you may have seen them before. So we have our RFID reader, we have our RFID credential, we have our door controller, and then of course we have the door hardware. So what happens normally is that RFID reader is always scanning, looking for credentials nearby. As soon as that credential comes into range of the reader, it actually is powered on by the field of the reader and immediately starts transmitting the data stored on the credential. The reader receiving that information takes that and then retransmits it out to the door controller. The door controller performs some logic functions, decides, hey, is this person authorized or not? And if so, we go ahead and release the electrified strike, magnetic lock, what have you. Of course, it's not just low frequency credentials that work this way, high frequency credentials work in a very similar way, but with a couple of extra layers of protection. So the data might not be in plain text, it might be stored in some sort of obscured encrypted format. And most importantly, that data is protected. So if we imagine our credential data being folded into an envelope, placed into a secure bag, and then that bag being put into a locked container, that is similar in many ways to how a lot of contactless smart cards and high frequency credentials work. The data inside is ultimately the same, we are just adding additional layers of protection. So again, really oversimplifying how these technologies work. If we take a look at, you know, a high frequency credential, here's an example where mutual authentication takes place. So it doesn't immediately start transmitting the cardholder data, but rather a secret handshake has to take place, where the credential and the reader mutually authenticate each other without revealing any secret key material. And once that information is verified, then the cardholder information is provided to the reader, the reader then retransmits that to the door controller and everything else continues as usual. So credentials come in a lot of different shapes and sizes. A lot of them are broken. A few of them are not. And ultimately, they are just one major component of the access control system. So we have a bunch of different credentials. We have readers, we have the door hardware, different types of sensors, motion sensors, door contact sensors, etc. Then of course, we have the door controller or control panel that is making all the decisions. And that is all managed by some server side software or PAX software package. So oftentimes when in the hacker community, we're talking about interacting with access control systems, very often we're really talking about hacking just the RFID piece, the credential side, which really just refers to the method of communication used between the credential itself, the card itself, and the card reader. So all these different pieces, they are set up in a very interesting way. And they all kind of work independently of each other, but are kind of glued together in a couple of different ways that we'll see. However, let's talk about some of the most common tools of the trade when we're talking about RFID hacking in general or in red teaming as it applies to it. Some of the really common tools that you'll see or may already be familiar with is first of all the Proxmark 3. This thing is ubiquitous. It's an open source hardware project originally released by Jonathan West used ages and ages ago. Since then, there have been many different hardware variants that have come out, some good, some not so good. It's very much a kind of Swiss Army knife of RFID. It's a software-defined RFID tool that can just with, you know, reprogramming the code and firmware, we can change what different credentials that can talk to. And this is one of the reasons why it's been so popular with the community. The most recent, most common variant of this tool is the Proxmark 3 RDV4 made by the RFID research group. And it's one of our favorite variants. It's very mature today and finally has become stable and good enough that it can be used much more easily for red teaming. One of the coolest add-ons that it has that hasn't really been fully taken advantage of yet is the Bluetooth add-on or the Blue Shark, which is a Bluetooth 2 interface to the reader. And we're also going to be using in this first part of the talk the ESP key. This is a weekend interception device originally made by Kenny McElroy or OctoSavvy on GitHub and Twitter. And this is a weekend interception and replay device. And it's not the first of its kind. There have been a number of others before it, the VLE key, and of course the gecko made by Zach Franken and Adam Laurie. And this is a device that is optimized for field deployment. So it's very fast to install. It has a very easy to use user interface. And very happily is one of my favorite and cheapest, fastest ways to weaponize any reader. What do we mean by weaponizing a reader? Well, that's just a fancy way of saying we took a regular card reader that knows how to talk to the credential that we want to talk to. And we're going to connect the data logger to it. So we've supplied some portable power in the form of a battery. We connect a data logger of some kind that can be a Arduino or Raspberry Pi or whatever you want to use. In this case, we're using an ESP key. And that's it. You have a weaponized reader. Data is read by the reader. The reader sends it to the door controller, except there is no door controller over the ESP key, which records it. So this is a really cool versatile multifunction tool. Typically, in the field, what that workflow might look like is once you capture that card holder information, now we have to then encode it onto a card, which we often do manually, either from a computer terminal or if you have an Android phone, you might use the Bluetooth enabled phone application. But it's a little bit clunky sometimes requires some extra steps. And it does take a little bit of time. So once you clone a credential in the field, you still have to then go back and write it to a card later. So how do we improve this experience in the field? Well, we know that there are these Bluetooth capabilities out there for the Proxmark 3, and we know the ESP key has Wi-Fi. So surely there must be a way to automate these things and to tell us what we ended up coming up with to create this automation, I'm going to hand things over to Nick, who wrote some really cool software. So yeah, thanks for the introduction there, Babak. Yeah, Babak and I were on a phone call talking about usage of weaponized readers in Proxmark 3s in the field, trying to come up with a unique way to glue them together and leveraging those functions that are already on the ESP key with the Wi-Fi and the Proxmark 3 with the Bluetooth. We kind of thought about what else had Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. And the quick and easy answer to that, what would be portable in the field was a Raspberry Pi 0W. It's small, it's able to be battery-powered, and it has both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth peripherals, so we can connect it. So this is where we kind of came up with the idea for Odo. Odo, if you don't know, is a character on Star Trek Deep Space 9. Odo is a changeling in this show, which is a shapeshifter, meaning that he can take the shape of any object or person. So with the idea for Odo being that you capture a credential via the weaponized reader, you then shapeshift into that person, essentially leveraging a physical privilege escalation in the field. You can bump into someone, grab their badge, and become that person, and use that to your advantage. So what is Odo under the hood? Odo is an open-source framework that takes credentials in, puts credentials out, and it's language agnostic because it basically leverages the fact that it's a JSON over MQTT API. So there are credential producers, there are credential consumers. One side, like an ESP key, or produces credentials, and emits an MQTT message. The other side, like Proxywork 3, can consume those messages and then do something with that data. So this allows it to be language agnostic. Even though the base framework is written in Python, we have a number of different modules that are in different languages, currently basically Python and Node.js, but it doesn't really matter. So essentially, this framework can drive not just the implementation that we are going to show here today, of the weaponized reader and the ESP key, but any type of thing that can produce a credential data that you can then write to another credential, you could add modules to this framework. So it also gets better with hats and haptics. So for that field usage, being able to see the credentials that you've captured, select a specific one, specifically if one was better for you than another, you can go and select that credential and it will rewrite that to the tag that's on your waistband or on a lanyard, because the proxy mark will be battery powered on a class behind the tag. And then using a haptic feedback device, which we have pictured here, will indicate to you that you have captured or cloned a credential. And with that being said, I'd like to do a quick demo. So let me switch down to my top-down camera and do the big version here. So you'll see that I have a Proxmark 3 powered by its battery. Blue light is on because it's connected to the Raspberry Pi Zero W over there. Our haptic feedback device is here in a case so it doesn't go haywire on us. This is our target credential.  The source and target credential technology doesn't really matter because we're taking that weekend value and encoding that onto a target credential. So I have a weaponized reader here off frame. I'm going to scan this credential. We will see a new item up here on the screen. And the haptic device indicates that it has seen a credential. And then once that credential is written, which we see the blue light blinking on the Proxmark, it vibrates again to indicate that the credential has been written. So yeah, that's pretty much what we have with Odo. The ways that you can contribute and make one, we have a GitHub open source repo with the framework and our initial modules. Raspberry Pi Zero Ws are cheap and readily available. The Pi Sugar that we chose to use here is a great way to battery power the Pi in the field. And the LCD module is helpful for that local interface. And there are a number of different ways that this could be extended pretty much immediately with other credential producers and consumers, new feedback mechanisms, and leveraging some sort of wearable smartwatch or even haptic feedback vest and just go wild with all the different possible producers and consumers. So with that being said, I'd like to hand it back over to Babak with the evolution of PAX. You're muted. Thank you. One of the things I really enjoy about the Odo framework is that this now allows us a way to do in-field, live, privilege escalation, completely automated and touchless. And if you come to our live talk, you'll see what that looks like in action. And it's really, really cool. Now, that's just one part of something we wanted to talk about today. Something else that's really interesting has to do with how evolution takes place in access control. So what we're going to talk about is what I'm calling the physical security chain of trust. And it really kind of underscores how discreet and rather independent a lot of these components are and the way that they're glued together really has nothing to do with other components necessarily in the system. So what I mean by that is, for example, let's take a look at an old, old system that's running weekend wire and a weekend reader. When this system first came out, it was very good. It was the newest technology, very difficult to clone and manipulate, but systems age. So as they age, the chain of trust ages as well. And because of budget constraints, you don't really rip and replace the whole thing. You replace specific links in the chain selectively. So maybe a new technology comes out, Prox hits the market and you're like, oh man, I'm so tired of swiping cards. I just want to use Prox cards so I can just go boop and get through the door. So we replace just those links, but they have to be backwards compatible because that's the only way that we can really afford to deploy a lot of this new technology in massive scale sometimes. So what that means is only parts of those links are replaced. So then the chain of trust continues aging and we have different components replaced. We again upgrade our cards and readers. This time we might also upgrade our door controllers and software, server side software, because maybe we want some of those new functions, some new capabilities, more memory, you know, faster, all of the things, but that's not necessarily, again, addressing the whole thing. So you might notice there's one particular link in this chain that keeps aging more and more and more. And so now by the time that we are in biometrics territory and people have, you know, facial recognition, this and iris scanning that, a lot of systems historically were still using a weekend. That's this really old link in the chain here. So considering that your chain is only as strong as the weakest link, that is of concern, right? So recently over the past couple of years, this has begun to be taken care of with OSTP. It's something that we talk about more and some more other talks and in our trainings, but it is the replacement for weekend is for the replacement for that weak link. And it offers a lot of new functionality in the form of bi-directional communication and encryption that really kind of help improve the overall security of the whole physical security chain. However, security alone is not enough for the industry and for a lot of customers. We keep wanting more and more functionality. So even though we've now have this new tool here for this chain, the development elsewhere has not stopped. Now the new hotness is mobile credentials. So mobile credentials of the new black and access control, they can come in a lot of different shapes and sizes. But ultimately, if we have to work with smartphones, we only have a few different interfaces that we can work with. Ideally, we would want to use NFC with the credential data stored in a secure element on the phone, but not all phones have NFC. Only the more higher end, more modern phones have that. And even of the phones that do, not all phones provide a proper API that you can use. Apple, until very recently, had iOS pretty locked down when it comes to anyone but Apple using that NFC interface on the phone. So a lot of vendors have resorted to BLE or Bluetooth Low Energy because almost all smartphones have this technology. But unfortunately, BLE, as a lot of you know, was not designed for this purpose. So how do we shove BLE into these older readers that did not necessarily have this technology? There's a couple of different ways that vendors have done this. There's inline adapters that you connect to the weekend line that are basically Bluetooth enabled ESP keys that are not used for attacking but rather functionality. And then there's also stuff like this where one major vendor decided, hey, why don't we use the debug interface on the back of the reader that we made for upgrading and programming? Why don't we use that to add Bluetooth functionality to the reader? And now we can have this beautiful new future where everything is mobile enabled. And now we have this phone-based diagnostic capability. We can do firmware upgrades. And most importantly, we can reconfigure the reader. We can disable older technologies that we don't need anymore or that are insecure. So for this particular platform, what was used was an application called Reader Manager. Reader Manager allows you to reconfigure the reader's settings, what protocols it supports, et cetera. It scans for nearby Bluetooth enabled readers. It allows you to reconfigure it. So it allows you to change configuration, turn credentials on, turn credentials off. But if you're using Bluetooth, Bluetooth is not a short-range technology. You can cover quite a bit of distance. If you have a lot of readers, how do you know which one you're reconfiguring? That is the question. So there are a couple of different ways that companies have dealt with this. But what this particular company did, and we'll go ahead and see if we can cut video here. There we go. So what we have here is a example reader. And I just have a little field detector card here in front of it. We're going to talk about that in a few slides. And it's kind of hard to see. So we're going to adjust the brightness here. Let's see if we can see my phone a little bit better. Not really, unfortunately. So one thing that it has, and it should pop up here shortly, is there is, there we go. So we can see all the readers listed there. And when I tap on a reader, I get this option to inspect or locate. So when I tap locate, what it will do is it will make the LED flash and make the reader beep. So I know which reader I'm about to configure or touch. You might have also noticed something else unusual that just happened, which is the LEDs on this field detector card turned off. And we'll talk about in a moment why that's a problem. Because while that reader field is off, we're not actually able to scan and process media. So where does that leave us? We have that locate functionality to identify which readers we're working with. There are some security functions that we found that was built into this. The changes, sorry, the functions were allowing you to make changes to the reader or the inspection functions. These are functions that require some form of authentication. So the most common method that is used is you have to power cycle the reader to apply certain changes because we don't want people just turning credentials on and off unexpectedly. So the reader only accepts certain administrative configuration commands for a very short period after power on. But that by itself may not be enough for a lot of applications. And this is where a lot of customers can go an extra step and get a custom key or elite key in certain systems. So custom keys basically add an additional restriction in that not only do the credentials have to have that special key, but also any phones that need to reconfigure the reader also have to have a special administrative key that is unique to that site. Now, what's interesting here is that some the locate functions did not require any authentication, meaning we found that you could locate a reader regardless of whether or not it was a standard reader or an elite reader. And because that locate function temporarily shuts off the field, that is of concern. So in regards to the Bluetooth, I'd like Anjay to really talk a little bit more about some of the things that we found once we took a closer look at this. Thank you, Babak. So after further looking at what is happening over Bluetooth though energy, we found out that all of the readers advertise a single service, all of them, of course, with the same new ID. The service had a single notify and write without response characteristic upon subscription to that characteristic. The reader sent an initial message. If it didn't receive a reply in a certain amount of time, the reader disconnected automatically quite aggressively. So under the hood, we wanted to see what the BLE conversation looked like. And so we wanted to sniff that out. We got an NRF 52 development kit loaded NRF sniffer for Bluetooth LE located the device, saw what was exchanged and got the messages as PCAP files. So in those PCAP files, we wanted to look at what a BLE conversation looks like. We can see here that the message looks quite similar to an ISO 7816 APDU, which is also used in other smart card protocols, most notably in credit card processing or EMV cards. And to that the phone replied that the AID the reader was trying to select was not found. So you might be wondering now what is with all the readers that everyone has behind them at this talk? And the readers have some blinking lights. So why are the lights blinking? The readers have field detector cards made by prox grind and RFID research group. The LEDs on them are powered by the electromagnetic fields emitted by the readers to make them blink. There are separate LED colors and separate antenna windings on the PCBs for low frequency and high frequency. So the red LED means that an LF or 125 kilohertz field has been detected. And the white LED means that 13.56 megahertz or the HF field was detected. But because we all know that PCAPs are boring, we of course went and implemented our first demo in Python. And it was able to take down one device. We then rewrote it in Node.js, made it async, which allowed us to take down about five liters at a time. But then we wanted to see if we can go even further. We got ourselves an NRF 52 development kit, rewrote the whole thing in C, and we're able to connect to quite a bit more devices. But because we all know that a development kit is something that you don't carry around, we then moved to a Pug.js, which is a NRF 52 832 based development board with RGB LEDs, a button and powered by a CR2032 coin cell battery. And now we will have a demo of what happens when we start sending that to all the readers in our vicinity. So I would ask everyone here to please turn on your dongles. And we'll go ahead and activate. And what the code is going to do is automatically look for any available readers nearby. And one by one add them to the list of readers that we send a barrage of locate commands to. And now you can see almost all the readers, except for that one guy, don't worry about that one guy, have the fields shut off. And in that state, they're unable to process media, meaning no cards will be able to be read by that reader. So you've just had a physical denial of service event. And now I would like to give my word to Eric. Yes. So as Bob mentioned before, these field detectors, they stop blinking. What does it mean? It means there is no EM field. That means it doesn't matter if you present anything to it. These are basically just like dead plastic at this point. And so that is very bad for all of this. Sorry, that's sort of the field detector part of it. And we got to thinking, what else has an NRF 52? And for anybody that's been around at DEF CON the previous couple of days, they may have watched talk about this. You know what else has an R52?  So we put our firmware on an air tag. So here's me putting the battery going to go ahead and slide that closed, flip over to this and you all can see it has also knocked out the readers, except for that one. Nope, not that one too. And so now I'll hand it back to Ange. Thank you. So we wanted to really bring it home and remember the backpack that added BLE to our readers? Well, we found out that BLE is also powered by an NRF-based chip for Bluetooth Low Energy. And we asked ourselves if we can also reprogram that and we found out it is possible to reprogram it the same way as an air tag. So with that we were able to take down eight readers in the vicinity of the backpack being powered. And then of course, because NRF 52 is such a widespread chipset, we then asked ourselves what else we can use as an emitter for the attack. And we found out that there's a COVID test that has an NRF 52 in it. There's some development devices, personal pleasure devices, and the universe of NRF 52 is pretty much endless. And now I would like to give it to Babak for some closing words. So what does this all mean?  That depends on the situation. So we've evaluated a number of different customer deployments and different use cases where these readers and Bluetooth backpacks have been used. And what we're looking at is really, really dependent on what the attacker wants to do. So we can do either a highly selective or a very area wide denial of service attack. So we can identify specific readers and attack just specific readers, or we can deny access to an entire area. And in the field and practice, what this means is that there are sensitive egress and ingress points that we can then prevent people from using unexpectedly and without any indications to why or what's going on. So turnstiles, especially locations that have required badge in, badge out systems for mustering purposes, security vestibules and mantraps, you could create some problems by preventing those readers from working properly. So if you disable the RFID readers and the turnstiles or mantraps from working, then you might be able to create artificially a situation where you more easily be able to social engineer your way into the building. Because if none of the employees can use their cards, and you know, business has to go on, they might revert to just visual confirmation or identification by the printed badge, or any other special areas, security operation centers, equipment rooms, etc. On the lighter side, yeah, you could, you know, just use the beeping function to annoy the heck out of some employees by beeping all the readers, or a attacker may choose to use a denial of service post entry to evade security. So after you successfully work your way through a door by whatever means, whether it's lockpicking, bypass or card cloning, you might choose to disable the reader temporarily, so that even if someone does try to come after and inspect what's going on or engage you, that they will have increased difficulty in actually getting to your location. And the final really interesting thing that we came up with, especially after Eric figured out how to reprogram an air tag, is ghost mode, where we can program a device like an air tag to scan for an only jam or rather, do the denial of service attack against the first one or two readers that have the strongest signal. And what this would do is it would create the unusual situation where if you place this air tag in someone's bag, any reader that they approach will suddenly stop working. And by the time they get to the reader and try to present their card, the reader won't actually read the card. And so they'll be like a ghost. They become invisible to card readers. So for some customers, this is a big deal for others who may not have these particular modules or Bluetooth-enabled readers installed yet. It may not be a big deal. However, we have been in contact with the vendor in working with some solutions. So the vendor in question, which in this case is HID, is aware of the problem. They're working on some firmware updates that will mitigate or minimize the risk related to this issue. It will be made available through their reader manager application. So you can remotely go around and update all these readers, although at the moment it does require that you use that app physically at each reader to do so. They're also working on some methods in the future that are not available yet to allow for upgrading of certain readers over OSDP as long as the right hardware fits. So that's not something that is finalized yet, but will be available for certain configurations. In the short term, there's a couple of options that we think may be possible depending on the use case for different customers. We do recommend that if you have to use mobile credentials, if you have to have these Bluetooth-enabled readers in the field, that you do provide some guidance and education to relevant security staff on how to respond to different situations if a bunch of readers stop working correctly, for example. Some customers may decide to ask to have Bluetooth functionality disabled. If you are one of these customers, we do recommend that you reach out to your HID account manager and ask for guidance. We may have updated guidance that we can provide at the live talk, but we don't have that yet, so we're staying nice and general at this time. And finally, some customers that are not using mobile credentials but still require OSDP may be able to, under certain circumstances, get OSDP-only backpacks that don't have that additional Bluetooth layer of functionality. But ultimately, this is something that is really just kind of a byproduct of a lot of things kind of going wrong and adding up to a very unexpected situation. So these are one of the reasons why a lot of us in the hacker and security community get a little bit nervous when people start just adding Bluetooth to all of the things. So we'd really like to send out some thanks and acknowledgements to people who kind of really supported us along the way. First of all, huge thank you to HID for listening and responding to the problem. We know that this is not a problem that is unique to one vendor, but these kinds of mistakes can be made by a number of vendors. In this case, it happened to be them and they are working through it. Thank you to Iceman and all the other core contributors and developers, you know, Philippe or Dogox and everyone else who is constantly contributing a code to make the Proxmark 3 even better and more stable. All of our friends at the RF Village and RFID Hacking Discord, RFID Research Group, and the iCopyX team for donating some prizes that we'll be giving out during our live talk and also Gordon Williams for providing us some guidance on some of the Node.js stuff when Eric was working through that code on some of the things that we had to tweak to improve performance. So we also want to, all of us briefly say thank you. Let me switch back to the quad view and say thanks for joining us, for listening. Thanks for kind of putting up with how fast we've been trying to go through everything to try to fit it into the time slot that was made available. And hopefully you guys really enjoyed it. If you have more questions, as we know you will, feel free to reach out to us, talk to us in person or on the RFID Hacking Discord. We hope that you take a little bit closer look at some of the other Bluetooth solutions that are out there in the access control world. And finally, if you're interested in really getting, you know, cutting your teeth, getting your feet wet, learning more. If you're a hobbyist, come check us out at the RFID Hacking Discord, link is right here in the slides. And if you're a working professional and you're interested in more hands-on training and certification for physical security, come check out Red Team Alliance and see what we have to offer. Thank you very much again. And that's it. That's all we got.


Yes, so yeah, we will continue from where we had stopped in the last class So I just like to request somebody to pray and then we can get into our time of study today So anyone would you please like to lead with the word of prayer, please? Okay, Dave, would you like to pray? Okay, man having a father we thank you for this day and for this wonderful morning Thank you that you have given us this opportunity to come to that as a class to to learn from your word, but you just pray that you No, it was Nancy as he speaks from when you were as he teaches from your word but he looked at the word that comes out of our mouth be anointed by your by your spirit and and with the wisdom and your knowledge for Jesus so that those words may May give us life in our spirit of Jesus and we can learn so that we can learn it accept it and notice and Lord Lord we can compare everything that you want us to know Lord Jesus We thank you for this time once again. We submit it and every student who are here and Fasculating that in the name of Jesus I pray Amen, thank you. Thank you Dave for leading us in that word of prayer So we'll get back to what we were looking at in the last class. So we said that You know Jesus Initially, we saw the description of Jesus as deity and then how John the Baptist Talked about Jesus being much greater than him and then we went on to Seeing how Jesus did a sign he began doing his signs and miracles in Cana By turning water into wine and then in continuation We saw how the disciples of John the Baptist became the disciples of Jesus Okay, and how Jesus Spoke over the lives of different people.  So all kinds of people different class section of society they are coming because they have heard about Jesus and the ultimate Requirement that God puts before the people is to trust in him to know that he is the son of God So again when Nicodemus comes and he tries to ask him certain theological questions His answer is that you must be born again. So it's important to be born again We talked about that and then moving on We saw that, you know, there was a little bit of a Like the Pharisees were not very happy with Jesus So he thought okay, how about I move out of where I am right now and then he started moving towards Judea right and he decides Sorry, he left Judea and departed again to Galilee. So he was going to Galilee and the shortest route was through Samaria But the Jews would not take that route because the Samaritans were people who were considered as half-breed by the Jewish people We didn't go into the details of that. But basically it's something like when the Babylonians Had fought they took away the the cream of the society so there were People who were well to do educated all that, you know, the Samaritan such Samaritan people those people were taken captive by the Babylonians But the in Samaria the people who were left behind whether so-called lower section and nobody really wanted them so they stayed back and In the region as people from other parts You know started coming in these lower class Samaritans intermarried. So for the Jews The people who remained in Samaria. They were already the lower section and They had also intermarried. So they just felt that, you know, they're so mixed up and They no longer No You know the the ways of God or the so they basically thought that Everything has been diluted, you know religion culture Everything has been diluted and so they never liked the Samaritans They looked down on the Samaritans and even though it was the shortest route. They never took that They took some other way to go to Calilee but We see Jesus going through Samaria and we see the humanity of Jesus that he became thirsty If he was not human, how will he become thirsty? But it tells us he was tired and by the third third hour of the day Third hour or six that I Think it's a six that of the dates is roughly about 3 p.m. In the afternoon So you can imagine in the Middle East how hot it would have been So he's thirsty and he goes to the well and at the well It was customary for women to come and collect water and usually They say in the mornings, but for whatever reason one Woman came in the afternoon and she was collecting water and Jesus began talking to her so we saw that whole thing of how Jesus asks her for water and She's surprised that a Jewish man is talking to her and then you know While they're talking Jesus says if you if only you had known that Who is speaking to you? I am able to give you living water So see you see even in the case of Nicodemus Jesus presented that he is the way to life and in the case of the Samaritan woman also the discussion is about Normal things natural things, but ultimately Jesus wants people to know him So he's bringing the conversation to that that point He talks about living water The conversation from there it moves on to She asks a theological question. Oh, which is a good place to worship. So then Jesus tells her look It's not about the place right because the time is coming when the father seeks true worshipers They will worship him in spirit and in truth. So her question was where But you see God chooses to answer what he thinks is important for us to know So Jesus said he answered mainly the why and the who Okay, I will be able to offer true worship to God So in spirit and in truth and of course how they are going to worship the Lord So once this is done you know, it was probably a better thing for a man to talk to a Couple than just the woman in those days because it could have been considered You know, it would have gone down in a wrong way So maybe because of that Jesus said where is your husband? And then, you know, she begins to answer the question. Okay, but Jesus Through the word of knowledge reveals that she has had failed marriages and also right now She is in a relationship where that person is not her husband So when he brings out these things the woman says, oh, I perceive that you are a prophet, okay, I perceive that you are a prophet then Basically, she gets so excited about the Lord Jesus that you know, she goes and she tells everybody that He has told all things about her which again, it's not true But she was so excited that she Exaggerated what Jesus had actually done for her by this point You find that the disciples are back and they have come back with food for Jesus again Talking about the humanity of Jesus if he was not you remember when we talked in one John We said Actually the epistles of John we talked about how there were no sticks at that time who did not believe that Jesus was fully Man they were willing to say that Jesus is fully God But you say it's problematic even if we say that Jesus is not fully man or If we say that Jesus is not fully God either way, he cannot be the perfect sacrifice of the father So it's denying Christ Of who he is right or denying that Jesus is the Christ so it's problematic However, in this case, it's so clear that Jesus is so Dependent on the natural processes. He's asking for water now. His disciples are coming back with food And you know that that shows you that he is just like any one of us. Okay, so that's where we are at so Right now. Let me read from verse 28. Okay So this is about the woman Going into a city and telling the people then the woman Left her water pot went her way into the city and said to the men Come see a man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ? Then they went out of the city and came to him Okay, so lots of people came to Jesus in Samaria and they believed in him Now after this is when you know, we will talk about Philip doing ministry in Samaria later in the book of Acts after a few years, you know, Philip will be doing ministry and See how God Loves places he loves People he loves towns. He loves cities. Okay, and Jesus also in his lifetime had done ministry in Samaria so because of the Prophetic word or the word of knowledge which was spoken over this lady many came to believe Right, they came and they believed in Jesus. So every time you find that Jesus Jesus is directing people to know who he is and believe in him So even the sign which we saw the water turned into wine. What happened the disciples believed So belief is coming faith is coming in the hearts of the people as Jesus is speaking to them as he is doing the miracles. So That is what God expects when we read the word when we learn about Christ faith should arise Okay, we should believe we should trust and that is how the journey of faith is So if you read it and then it doesn't change us Then you know something is wrong with the way we are understanding God But you see chapter by chapter that is God's invitation to us Jesus what he said in what he did, you know, the people started believing he did the miracle people started believing so That is how God works and that is what it produces in you know people it should produce in people So now moving forward the disciples brought him food And when they brought him food, you know Jesus had a way of talking he would take the natural things and then he would Speak some spiritual truth. So earlier when water was being discussed He told the lady Okay, you want to give me water if only you knew you know who's talking to you I am able to give you living water or in other words your thirst your longing and We know that ultimately he was referring to her spiritual longing. I Am the one who's able to satisfy it. So that is the point he was making now the disciples They come and they urge him to eat He says to them I have food to eat of which you do not know So he's using the natural Eating and food to explain something spiritual. So then obviously the disciples are shocked. They're saying what is he saying? Why did he send us that he told us to go bring food and now he's saying I already have food What Jesus, you know, what are you trying to say? But it was a spiritual truth with Jesus is trying to bring out. So he says Uh, the disciples asking has anybody brought you food before us? So He explains the point and he says my food is to do the will of him Who sent me and to finish his work? So what is he saying? He's saying see when we eat food What happens? We are nourished We are again satisfied right deeply satisfied and we are strengthened. So Jesus is saying his satisfaction his strength right his nourishment comes from Engaging in the work which God has called him to do so he says my food is to do the will of the father So as long as I am doing what God has called me to do. I am strengthened. I am nourished I am satisfied and it's not just, you know, a little bit of what God had called him to do but He says to do it and to finish his work So that encourages us for us also to lead a fulfilling life We need to fulfill God's purpose for our lives Okay, we could be engaging in different things in our lives and hoping that those things will somehow You know it somehow life Goes on and the journey of life takes place and maybe you know those things are good enough for us to engage in But look at Jesus's life. It's a life of purpose and that is something you observe the whole time because he says this is happening because it was said or What was said is now being fulfilled. So Jesus is in line with the prophetic word Jesus is very much in line with the purpose that God had for him.  He said this temple I'm going to destroy it and then raise it up on the third day So he was always talking about his purpose and that is the life of Jesus even now. He's saying what is satisfying in life ultimately You know the things around us.  That is what will satisfy us. So He talks about that and he says and I want to finish and That should be our goal Right, so our goal should be that I must walk in the will of God I must also fulfill the purpose of God for my life and that is An exciting journey to make that is the most Beautiful and rewarding journey for anybody to make and that is the example with Jesus has given us in the word So that is what Jesus was saying to run the race Paul Paul talks about the race, right to run the race and finish the race Okay For the purpose that God has for us. We have to hold on to it and Jesus was telling his disciples purpose is very important Okay, moving forward Then he begins to talk about this purpose, you know, and what is the purpose of God? We know that during his lifetime Jesus preached the message of the kingdom of God So he said the kingdom is here. The kingdom is within you Okay, and he did miracles and said the kingdom is upon you now So his work Was about bringing people into the kingdom of God. So he says look similar to how people say that When you look at the fields after you so There comes a time When there is a harvest So he's telling the disciples look in the when you look at the world around you or the people around you, they are like those those crops which have been planted and You know, when you look at them It's as if they are ready to be collected. So he says Lift up your eyes and look at the fields for they are already white for harvest or he's saying People are ready to be brought into the kingdom of God Okay, and he says that that is our duty even that that is what Jesus came to do right, he came to pay the price to initiate the coming into the kingdom of People so he says It's as if people are everyone's ready the harvest Look at the fields. It's white for harvest Somebody has to go and collect it. The season has already come for us to collect the harvest and He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together So once again, you know, he is talking along the same Theme of doing the will of the father, which is work, which is labor So he says when we are doing God's will which is to bring people into the kingdom of God Now we may be doing different things in the kingdom. Okay, somebody is preaching somebody is You know serving somebody is Compassionately ministering to people so different things we are doing in the kingdom of God But when we are doing it with the goal of bringing people to the Knowledge of Christ what happens, you know, there is a reward. So that's also an encouragement people are ready and there's a reward He reaps he who reaps receives reward meaning When people labor for the harvest there is going to be a reward and he says gathers fruit for eternal life And what kind of a reward is this? It's not just when we serve in the kingdom of God It's not just something that will fulfill us right now, but eternally Eternally rewarding eternally fulfilling gathers fruit for eternal life Okay, so it's a very blessed reward and Even right now those who are laboring for the sake of the kingdom. What is the other benefit? We see that, you know, we rejoice together Everyone who's laboring rejoices together. So it's beautiful to serve God one is it is fulfilling Then there is a reward the reward is an eternal reward and we see that While doing this work We are able to rejoice with those who are also serving in the kingdom of God So he's basically talking about serving God and no life purpose and the reward and all that to the disciples Yeah, so then he kind of talks a little bit about you know, it sounds more like a teamwork for in this The saying is true one source and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored Others have labored and you have entered into their labors. So he's also reminding The people that the disciples they are not the first ones to serve in the kingdom of God Because earlier you have had so many people of God, you know, you had the prophets you had Devout and those who have prayed those who have spoken God's word those who have served Israel Okay, and God is reminding the disciples. You are coming after them. They have done their part Now you have to do your part But remember that there are so many laborers in the kingdom of God and together we are all Serving God. So you see how Jesus had a way of he really carried the wisdom of heaven okay and He took every opportunity to Disciple that's why we say disciples because in the Jewish culture a disciple was somebody who Would follow the life of the leader and that is why earlier we saw Jesus said come and see the people who want to Become Jesus's disciples those who are John's disciples, they've become Jesus's disciples So he says come come with me stay with me learn from my lifestyle and Every now and then any opportunity he gets, you know, it's like a teacher who really wants to build up the student okay, so in Like anything any subject actually you would find that the teacher would Train the student to tell all the small details Okay, off, you know, whatever the procedure or You know the the the subject so any incident the teacher will say okay look now it happened like this Why did it happen now tell me and then the students will give the reason so he's trying to help them get The the hold of the subject right in and out and that's a real teacher and that is how Jesus is He wants to disciple these people. So any and every opportunity natural opportunities He's taking to reveal spiritual truth and even us as leaders elders in the church Pastors it can be something simple, but we can speak the word of God through it, you know parents do this right when children are At home it can be something very simple like, you know, I don't know Cleaning the room the room is a mess and you have to clean the room So you just help them do that, but at the same time, you know teach them something about discipline teach them something about Like, you know order so Basically, it's about the heart of the teacher. How well do you want to equip your student or your disciple and Jesus is taking every Opportunity I'm sure he knew that he had roughly about three and a half years here on the earth But he had to impart all the wisdom which he had With him or if not all whatever he needed to write he was doing his best to give it over to the disciples, okay, so As I told you earlier in Samaria When Jesus had spoken to that woman and she went and told everybody We see that many believed right many Samaritans believed Jesus and You know that was kind of The way in which Jesus had done his ministry in Samaria So again, you notice sometimes we minister to one person Okay, and we think what can happen, you know, maybe God has called us to some cities and We don't know how we are going to touch the city. Yes, we can pray prayer is very important You know, we have studied about it in about when we talked about building the local church About Intercession how it's a spiritual engagement. So prayer is important In addition to that after praying for the city You know God sends people for us to minister to and in this case in Samaria only one lady now, how do we if we if we are Thinking in the natural way we may feel that This is not how the breakthrough will come God I will preach in a crusade then a lot of people will be saved in the city But you see how God is working for Samaria through one lady one lady at the well and Jesus ministering to her is touching the entire city because we read in verse 41 Many people came and verse 41 and many more believe because of his own word So she came she told everybody many others came and you know Jesus ministered to them And it's also says Jesus stayed two days. I told you earlier That the background of the Samaritans was not something That Jews liked so they never even wanted to go through Samaria But look at the Compassion of Jesus His heart for equality. He's not looking at class. He's not looking at, you know background But human beings because Christ died for us, right for mankind So that's all which mattered to him even man woman didn't matter Jesus did not wait for a man to come to the well or you know something else But there was a woman. It's okay. No bias. So he ministered So what are we saying? We are just saying that Every human being we may share the gospel with one person, but don't underestimate it Right, who knows that might that one person might be the open door for the gospel to spread to the entire city and we have seen this in the book of Acts Ethiopian eunuch Philip never knew spending some time with the Ethiopian eunuch means Gospel is going to touch the continent of Africa. So we don't understand God's design from the highest level, but we have to be obedient and Every soul is Important in the kingdom of God. We must not Think that God works the way we work So Especially, you know, if you have a ministry where you're still building right and one by one people are coming into a God's house Never feel bad that what is this only one person? What is going to happen through one person? Jesus didn't think like that The city of Samaria was touched by through or it started through the lady one lady So any person that God sends our way We can be excited to minister to them and we really never know how That can touch multitudes of people later on, right? So do your best for every single person who got sense Okay Okay, so these people who believed we're also told that they told the woman now We believe not because of what you said for we ourselves have heard him And we know that this is indeed the Christ the saviour of the world So the people of Samaria, they believed in Jesus With their own faith So it was not the woman's faith But they needed their own faith to put their trust in Jesus, you know, this is true even in families The parents can be very good believers But that doesn't help the children Because the children have to accept Christ as their saviour as their God Okay, so somebody said, you know God does not have grandchildren meaning every single person has to respond in a fresh way Personally to the message of the gospel. That's when they can be saved the way Jesus told Nicodemus. You must be born again Okay, if your father is born again, it doesn't help you If your father is born again, that's good for him But you must be born again and here in Samaria the woman accepted Jesus, but others also accepted Jesus personally. That's what we say, right? Personal saviour not just like a community One person believed in the community. So already all the people in the community are fine It doesn't work like that each one has to respond and the people are telling her look It's our own faith now Because you told us we are not believing we have already Tested tasted and we have believed so it is a personal faith now So Jesus has now Travelled and he comes to Galilee. Remember that's where he wanted to come. So he comes to Galilee So after the two days he goes out of Samaria comes to Galilee and Over there it feels like You know the Galileans they received him and you know, they they Jesus continued to do his ministry. So they receive him Because of whatever he had done. So having seen all the things he did in Jerusalem at the feast For they also had gone to the feast. So based on his works.  Okay, and we are told that he comes from Kaepernum So, you know people are coming from other cities They've heard about Jesus and they're coming from other cities and also notice Jesus is traveling Right. So Jesus went from Judea through Samaria to Galilee from Galilee to Kena So Jesus is traveling. So obviously people have an eye on this Jesus and this man His son is dying. So somebody would have told him follow that Jesus. He's going here. Oh today He's here tomorrow, you know, he will be in this city So he understands the identity of Jesus and he's following. So he goes to Kena because finally That's the place where Jesus is at right now It's like a desperate father.  He came out of Judea to Galilee And then, you know, he finally found Jesus in Kena And he kind of approaches Jesus and he tells him look I am in this situation Jesus But Jesus tells him Unless You people see signs and wonders you will by no means believe So by now as Jesus is doing his ministry, he realizes a lot of people were following him You could say You know for based on their own mindset They wanted to see signs and miracles and only then they would trust Now nothing wrong with signs and wonders and miracles, but it is as if that's all they wanted They did not even want the person who did the miracle. So Jesus understood, you know, if for example, you know Breaking the the bread and feeding the people.  Don't worry. He will say, thank you. He'll break it We'll all get food. So they were following. So you see Jesus, he understood He knew the hearts of the people obviously by the discernment Through the Holy Spirit that these people are not after me They are after the food that I can give them. So the same way By now he had realized people were following him for signs and wonders not necessarily for him. So When this man came and he asked My son is very sick. Jesus at the point of death. So Basically, he's saying can you heal him? But Jesus is responding sternly And he says you people see signs and wonders you will buy no unless you see you will buy no means believe So it's also like a rebuke, right?  So Jesus understands that okay fine You know the this this man. There is some faith in him So what does Jesus do? He doesn't minister in a way Which is easy?  Is that is what what is easy for us if Jesus says, okay, the sun is not well, I'll come with you Is that easy to believe or to believe?  I'm not coming with you What do you think what is easy Jesus going with them or Jesus not going with them? What are your thoughts? No thoughts, sir. Not going would be just picking out Is it okay Okay, fine there. So that is Dave's point of view. What about the others?   Jesus going will be better, I think isn't it. Yeah, even I like I feel that way if Jesus comes with me to my House to see my dying child. I'll have more trust. Wow. He's coming with me. He will touch the child Okay, my child will be well. Jesus says, okay Nancy.  It's more difficult for me to believe really.  It's very hard. How to believe? He's only saying something But look at this noble man. Jesus said He's begging. He's saying, sir, please come my child. My child is dying Before my child dies meaning I'm at the end of the rope For that. What is Jesus response?  He will call down fire from heaven Something amazing something dramatic will be done. Then I'll be healed. But what prophet says go go to the river Dip yourself seven times. You'll be fine. And Nehman is shocked. What? So simpler You're asking me to just dip in the water seven times and I should believe this You know, sometimes This is how God works. He wants us to take him at his word and it's as simple as that but the simple can be hard to believe because Sometimes people want, you know, some drama something great, you know, Jesus Imagine if it would have said then Jesus went with the noble man to Cappanum He traveled and he traveled on a donkey and many people followed him and so much Very dramatic. He went to his house and there he did this. He told that Jesus made it very simple. He said, okay, let me see. Do you really believe? Okay, you go your son lives finished case closed And see the faith of this man The Bible says so the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and he went his way I don't know in many places in the Bible. It says Jesus Said oh great is your faith and all How come here Jesus didn't say anything But great is this man's faith it simply says The man is desperate and Jesus says I mean, he didn't say I don't have time or anything, but it's like that.  How beautiful it says so the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him That's all Okay, so this is This is how you know, God wants us to trust in him. This is how God wants us to believe in him, right? So This if you want to learn how what kind of faith to have the noble man is a great example He's a great example of faith Then let us see how faith works So faith works on the basis of the word of God in this case Jesus said Jesus spoke your son lives so faith comes from God's word your son lives Faith arose in that man's heart and what should be the response? believe the man believed and He went his way and it was Gapernaum was not close to Galilee. It was little far. Sorry close to Kena It was far away. So he's going back to Gapernaum and the whole way he went his way You think about it these days we have phone, you know, somebody would have immediately called up and said Yeah, your son is really healed Maybe he never knew what happened, but he continued to believe and he went And as he was going down his servants met him and told him saying your son lives Okay, so his faith Had seen him through and the word of God had already touched Somebody in Kapernaum. So see there is no distance in the word of God sometimes when we pray for people No, people also expect us to pray long prayer quote lot of scriptures This one, you know, Isaiah 53 By the stripes of Jesus, but let's say inspired by the word of God, we are praying we say, okay There's this this We pray that your your son be healed And after the prayer we just say brother, don't worry your son is healed Sometimes it's very simple how God's power works. We don't we should not complicate it Right one sentence Jesus said one sentence and what do we see here? The servants are telling your son lives. So then he tries to find out little more. Okay, okay Tell me tell me more. How did this happen? He inquired when he asked them and He understood, you know the same time when Jesus told him It says the hour when he got then he inquired of them the hour when he got better And they said to him yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him Your son lives and he himself believed and his whole house household. Wow, isn't that amazing? When God speaks right In this case like we see that word was released in the same hour The son was healed the fever left him and earlier also I told us that when Jesus performed miracles performed signs wonders What is the result of that? The disciples believed The Samaritans believed now the normal man He believed that his son will be healed But now it says he himself believed so now he believes in Jesus. Oh wow this man Something special about him. He's the Christ. So he believed in Jesus and not only he but his household believe Okay, so Everything that God is saying and doing what what should be the response of the people believe faith Okay, and faith is arising in the hearts of the people and The Bible records that this is the second sign which Jesus did in Kena Okay, all right. So what we'll do is we will take a break. We are kind of Done with the first session. We will have to look into the next chapter Which is chapter 5. So let's take a small break and then we will come back to proceed with chapter 5 Okay, so y'all are doing okay. So far. Is it making sense? Whatever we are discussing. Is it helpful? Okay, that's great. That's great Okay, I see something here on the chat going with them. Did I miss something? Is it a question? He was trying to answer the question. Okay. Okay. Got it. Got it. Okay. Got it. All right. Yeah Okay, fine class. Let's take a break and we will come back soon in 10 minutes. So 10 o'clock We will start again. Thank you


Watch the word, y'all. After watching Go Bear, you're outplayed by rookie center on a two-way contract. The Timberwolves have asked themselves, if the Go Bear they got in the trade with the Jazz is a shadow of the player who was such a force in his years in Utah. Whoa, today's supposed to be an off day.  I want the chill, relax, and then this hit the timeline. And I'm here to talk about it because I didn't watch this game live, Miami Heat versus the Minnesota Timberwolves because in my mind, there's a layup for the Wolves. Of course, they're missing Karthin Towns. They were also missing Cal Anderson and some rotational players, but the heat were missing Jimmy Buller and Bam on a bio. That should be a win in a lot of cases. So I didn't watch this game, but after wrapped up, I got so many tweets, Kenny, you got to go watch your boy.  You got to go watch your boy because this is bad.  I watched those minutes and I watched specifically the Rudy Go Bear minutes and I'm disappointed. And so to see this tweet come out, this is the perfect time to start talking about all things Rudy Go Bear because it's what? 30 plus games into this experiment and things are ugly. Now I made a video on November 29th, 2022 where it was a 14 minute video. Actually, I can just show you videos right here. November 29th, as you can see, zero views, zero comments unlisted in the name of it is Kenny Timberwolves. Now there wasn't going to be the name of the video, but in this video, I spent 13 minutes and 14 seconds just talking about how disappointed I was in Minnesota Timbers. I went over some film and stuff like that. The reason I didn't publish this video is because it was the same day that Carnegie Towns got injured and it felt like it was just add an insult to injury literally. Why I didn't want to talk bad about the organization while they were missing their guy. And as you notice, if you go through every video on this channel, I've very rarely talked about the Minnesota Timbers because it's been impossible for me to kind of gauge the stuff that's going on. But yesterday when I went through and watched these minutes, I think it's time, it is time because whether Carnegie Towns is on the floor or if he's not on the floor, one thing should have been consistent this season and that is Rudy Go Bear playing good defense. Now this has also got a lot of people to come out the woods and say, oh, he been tricking y'all for years and years and years. I don't believe that is the case. When I watched this version of Rudy Go Bear, it is dramatically different than the version that we got in the regular season in the years that he won defensive play of the year. Once we get to the postseason, I know everybody got their own different opinions about Rudy Go Bear, whatever. But I mean when it comes to doing the things to win basketball games in the regular season, Rudy Go Bear was king on the defensive side of the ball. And so far this season, it has fallen off. And I want to show you some of the moments because Orlando, or not Orlando Johnson, Orlando Robinson legitimately may Rudy Go Bear look bad.  What? If you've never watched the basketball game, he had no history. And I put this game on and said, one of these players is a max player and one of them is a G-leaguer. You would have thought Rudy Go Bear was a G-leaguer. Legitimately. So shout out to Orlando because he looked amazing last night. Remember, I'm the guy that has defended Rudy Go Bear for the entirety of his career, but I'm not a jackass. I'm a call to spade to spade. And so far this season, 27 has not been the 27 that we've seen over previous seasons. And we go dive into that in a second. So here's one of the plays where Orlando Johnson just, I think a lot of what Orlando Johnson was doing was a lot of heart and hustle. Rudy Go Bear's stone hands, maybe got hit in the face, whatever, a rebound for Orlando. Drop coverage from Rudy Go Bear tries to get a contest. I don't see this as a Rudy Go Bear thing because he's there for the contest and causes a miss. This is Anthony Edwards gotta get down into the nitty gritty and box number 25 out. And you can even see Rudy Go Bear look at Anthony Edwards. And one thing I will say, the entirety of the season for Rudy Go Bear and the Minnesota Timbers body language has been terrible. And that's one of the things I mentioned in November 29th in that video where anytime there's a defensive lapse, whether it be from Rudy, whether it be from Ant, from Austin River, whoever the hell is on the court.  Like the body language is crazy. They always pointing at the next guy. Oh, you supposed to do this. You supposed to, it's been two and a half months. I know every basketball's evolving and we always learn it but bro, we gotta get snappy with it, bro. It's not like we got an entire season to figure it out. Rudy Go Bear's always been a good rebounder so far this season the Minnesota Timbers can't rebound a damn thing.  And even Austin Rivers, I mentioned body language. I didn't even realize that when I first watched his clip. Even Austin Rivers is pissed off at Rudy Go Bear allowing this two-way rookie to out hustle him and out heart him for offensive board in a close game. And right here, this is one of the last clips we'll see of Rudy Go Bear. Cause like I mentioned, he was played off the court for the last five or so minutes. Shout out to Orlando. He was a dog last night. Like I mentioned, there are a lot of people coming out the World War. They say, hey, he's been like this entire career. This is just who he is. And I don't see that as the case. I think that there legitimately has been regression here. And you can argue that regression is starting at a 30 year old center who uses his athleticism and things like that to be effective. I can see that. But overall, I'm just extremely disappointed when people do remember that at the height of Rudy Go Bear like two season ago, thinking basketball is dropping videos as Rudy Go Bear defense make him a superstar. The answer to that was no, even in the moment. But that's just how impactful he was defensively.  His rim deterrence is as good this season as any other season of his career. When he is on the court, people don't go to the rim. I know everybody can say they're not afraid of him. Even Anthony Edwards, his own teammate before they traded for him said, hey, I got no fear in this man. It's apparent that there's at least a little bit of hesitancy when Rudy Go Bear's under the basket to go with him. I know we had the series. Again, we can talk playoffs all be won. I'm not even talking playoffs success or nothing. I'm legitimately talking about the regular season. Cause once you get to the playoffs and hold different monster, but like I thought that there was going to be a world where like they saw Tarrant's man hit a million three pointers and that once there's gets to clippers in an occasion to leave. We saw Richie Jackson going to the chest to Rudy Go Bear. And then the year after that, Maxi Cleveland hit a million three point shots in their series in Jalen Brunson. Damn, they got a max contract after dogging them boys that a lot of people see Rudy Go Bear and still just just test him, test him, test him. They still don't, they still don't test them. But one thing that this is again, just me just spitballing. One thing that has been consistent with Rudy Go Bear's career is to drop coverage. It's always has been a thing because his job is to protect the rim. Teams are just shooting. They're just shooting and they're hitting shots. A crazy stat that I just looked into. Ridiculous. When Rudy Go Bear is on the floor, the opposing teams accuracy in the mid range area is in the 1% tile. I'm sorry for the team, it's in a 99% tile. Means that when Rudy Go Bear is on the court, teams are shooting 10% better from the mid range area.  But it's a fact. And Rudy being the drop coverage big, there's not a lot of contests on those mid range. There's not a lot of contests on those three point shots. And at Utah, they kind of lived by like, hey, we're gonna allow you to shoot the threes on the pick and roll and we just gonna assume that you gonna miss because it's hard to shoot off the dribble. Now it's the mid range. It's a little bit easier to hit that shot. So I'm extremely disappointed by the play of Rudy Go Bear. And I know that Minnesota Timbers fans feel the exact same way. But like we gave up all of this and he's not performing nearly as good as we want. But I also still wanna give them the benefit of the doubt in a way. Mostly because this hasn't even been 45 games or so. We haven't even got halfway through the season with this experiment. And about a month of it is without the other player. And I know it wasn't good with the other player in the towns.  Oh, it's weird to look at these stats to see that he's giving up a bunch of offensive rebounds. And I'd say that we just saw a bunch of clips of Orlando getting a bunch of boards on him. So anyway, quick hit a Rudy Go Bear, be better. Simple, is that crazy? Be better, be better. All right.


and a lot of people aren't going to want to hear this. Overall, I am very excited with me mythology porn, misery porn, kung fu porn, money porn, and I'm about to let the candles burn. Gotta let it burn! I love those chicken lettuce wraps from P.F. Chang- A harrowing story of beautiful Chinese women escaping Chinese patriarchy and making it into the arms of loving white Americans. David, the studios just gave Joy Luck Club number two, the green light. This is great for Asian-American cinema. Oh yeah, I guess it's really cool, but wasn't the original really Orientalist that made Asian men look really bad? Yeah, a little bit, but she's a great writer and it was a great movie.  Maybe you have to just take what you can get, but do I? Welcome everybody to the hot pop boys. David and Andrew here. We gotta talk about the controversy behind Joy Luck Club number two coming out. Now objectively speaking, it was a great movie 30 years ago and a great book. However, it maybe didn't age that well. So there's a big discussion in the community around it right now. Right, there are three major opinions, Andrew number one. I love this book and movie. I'm so glad. Maybe it's considered the PF Changs of Asian-American movies, but guess what? I love those chicken ledges wraps from PF Changs. Number two, dude, this movie is so outdated and stereotypical. Maybe it was good and passable back then, but nowadays in 2022, it's trash.  And number three, hey, why did we just keep remaking everything? Can we get some new characters? Like why is PF Changs something we're still even talking about in 2022? Like their menu is from just like 1960s. It's super outdated. All right, David, let's get into the first perspective of people who are very hyped for this book. Yeah, I mean, let's be honest, Andrew. We analyze everything on this channel for stuff for the oldies to, you know, the Gen Z TikTokers. Let's be honest, the caring about Joy Luck Club number two, I'm gonna put it more in the oldie category. But listen, Andrew, a lot of people like they remember the impact this book made in 1989. They remember the hit movie in 1993 and especially a lot of white people were like, you know what? Literature gives us the opportunity to experience lives, perspectives and worlds different from our own because the book was about, you know, four daughters of four women from China, the strain tension, the relationships. It was like very sad, but people related to the sadness because they were like, maybe my grandmother went through this when she came from Poland or she came from England or whatever, you know, were removed from the immigrant experience. But this movie made me cry and it made me relate to Asian women. And I do think it's important to note and remind people that Joy Luck Club is not a autobiography, it's not a biopic. These movies, these stories are made up and Amy Tan, she is from America, she's a Chinese American. So she didn't really even go to China, but she did, was inspired by some of these stories through her family. Yeah, I would say this, Andrew. The only criticism of number one is not that it was not a well-witten book and not that it wasn't a great movie because those are both true, but is that it fit into like stereotypical perceptions from 1940s, 1950s, 1960s of basically Chinese women being trapped in these like horrible systems that they needed to be rescued from by white guys. A harrowing story of beautiful Chinese women escaping Chinese patriarchy and making it into the arms of loving white Americans. The Joy Luck Club, directed by Wayne Wayne. That wasn't the only trope in the book, but absolutely you'd have to say that that was a top, top three trope. That, like I said, book was good, movie was good, but absolutely stereotypical. That's like saying every black movie has to be like black boys in the hood or every Latino movie has to do with immigration and naturalization and every Muslim American or Arabic story has to do with terrorism or something like that or something to do with religion. Yeah, these are unique issues that may legitimately exist within the community, but to the level that they're exaggerated and put into media, that's like due to the gatekeepers only allowing a narrow slice of stories into the game. Yeah, and I think it kind of goes back to a lot of the argument where it's like, hey guys, we're just here for a good movie. They showed great emotions. It was a very well-written book, of course, and these women actresses were so good at portraying it that like we just want entertainment. So movies should not dictate your life or shouldn't define the narrative. Although I will say, unfortunately and fortunately, unfortunately and fortunately, depending on your perspective, Joy Luck Club for the past 30 years was kind of the Asian American movie. Literally it was the only all Asian American cast movie that had a major budget before Crazy Rich Asians. Like literally it was the only one. And I know Amy Tan herself has been always dismissing the criticism going, hey, listen guys, I did not write like Chinese America 101. Don't fault me. I was just trying to write a good story for people, but realistically, probably white people. Moving on to number two, Andrew. What's the other perspective? This story's outdated. It's about stoic crappy Asian men who are super Confucian and patriarchal, controlling Asian moms, broken immigrant families. It's Orientalism that caters to people who were born in the 1940s and 1950s. Andrew, I can't believe they're bringing this sequel back. What are they gonna do? Make us look bad again. And like we're all living these weird, ritualistic, like sad, miserable lives. Okay, to be fair, I think the next movie is not going to be the same as the first movie guys. So I mean, I think we can bet on that. I do think that this just kind of falls into one of the three main categories of Asian stereotypical movies that they want in America. For example, there's Misry porn, which is what Joy Luck Club would fall under. There's Money porn, which is crazy rich Asians and House of Ho and Bling Empire.  That's like American born Chinese. That's that movie. Yeah, and I don't really wanna fault the people who wanna have a career who can provide those stories, but at the same time, the gatekeepers are only allowing people who can provide those narrow set of stories into the game. So it's a very 50-50 equation because if you wanna have a career in entertainment or media or whether you're writing books or TV shows or movies, you're like, well, what stories do you want from me game?  You know, money porn, and you're just like, okay, well, I guess I can give it to you. So who's at fault? Is it the provider or is it the game for wanting that? Andrew, it's been this way for like 100 years. Anna Mae Wong, she had to play under those tropes. You know, and that was in the 1920s. Now we're in the 2020s and it's still somewhat of the same. I think it's changed. I do think Asian American power has increased since 2010.  And when they make movies about those worlds, they often take Asians out or give them minimal exposure. I mean, I guess the final thing I'll say against this is that like, man, we live in Western society. We live in American society. Obviously Asians are like probably the least powerful group in the entertainment game. So to some extent, it's tough to say and a lot of people aren't gonna wanna hear this. It is what it is, right? But I will say that it always kind of made me mad when Asian American subcultures like the dance scene, the JDM scene, where Asian Americans in California make up like 50, 60s, I don't even know, at least 40% of those worlds, when the actual movies came out about dancing or JDM, they were only like five or 10% of the movies because people were like, oh yeah, Asians aren't that marketable. So take them out of the subcultures that they are pioneering. You know what it kind of feels like right now? Because there's so much content from Asia. So if you wanna see fully Asian faces in all different aspects and different movies and different stories, then you can watch a lot of the Asia content, right? Coming out of Korea, China, Hong Kong, wherever, right? Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, right? They have a whole bunch of movies. So I guess in India too, right? You can go to all those movies and see Asian faces. So I guess do you think in a way it almost leaves a space for American movies to be more stereotypical because you have the Asian movies to balance out with it? Right, like if you wanna watch a movie about Asian break dancers and Asians actually doing something that's like actually modern and rooted in reality, just watch an Asian movie. Yeah, so I think like, I don't know. I'm not sure. Maybe because Joy Luck Club and Amy Tan, they are so strictly to be honest, like Chinese American stories. Like they're not from China and then it's not like fully American. It's like strictly Chinese American. So maybe that's the space that it's in. I don't know. And which brings us to number three, Andrew, some people are like, you know, I don't even have an opinion. I didn't even watch JLC. I didn't even watch CRA, whatever. I don't care about any of this stuff. Why do we just have to keep bringing up old movies? Can we get some new characters that I actually relate to? Like why does everything back to the monkey king? Everything's back to mahjong. Everything's back to filial piety. Everything's back to like some 1950s sense of like crushing, suffocating Asian parenting. I'm not saying none of that exists anymore in 2022, but it's way less than it was in 1950. I know some people from that era. Yeah, it's true. It wasn't tight to be Chinese. Like the way the parents were, it was pretty bad. So David, I actually wrestle with this feeling because on one hand I'm very grateful that there's so much history, so much mythology and so many stories that you can base so much content off of, right? Like not all Asian groups even have the type of history that maybe Hollywood wants to make movies about. So I don't want to be ungrateful for all the Chinese history and stories, right? But on the other hand, I'm like, damn, like can we just have some modern stories that don't have to do with some of these classic tropes? Like, you know, and maybe those movies are from Asia. I don't know, but I would like to see those in Hollywood more, but I don't know if we're there yet. It seems like the things that make money that people want to see, that the mass market wants to see are still kind of stereotypical. Yeah, I mean, I think everything comes down to two factors when it comes to Hollywood. One can like a older person who gate keeps Hollywood that does not Asian understand it. A number two, do they believe it's gonna have ROI, return on investment as it's shown old IP? It's not just comic books where they rehash. Like, I don't even know how many hulks and like spider-man's there's been, you know how many Batman's there have been, but it's just like at the end of the day, people keep watching those movies and they make money. And right now to take a bet on like the Boba Luck Club is just too big of a risk. So they'd rather bring back the Joy Luck Club because there's the old IP, the older people are gonna tune in, the pre-internet, pre-iPhone generation. Hey, they are shooting a pilot about ABGs. Look out for that one. Yeah, hopefully that's like the next candle that'll burn. And that takes me to my final takeaway, Andrew. David, what's your final takeaway and what's everything that I said?  I don't like Fung Bros. Always taking the middle fence road. And I'm just like, listen guys, this is how it's gonna work, man. I don't like that this is like our journey in our representation, like certain groups are definitely gonna get screwed. Certain groups are gonna get in the club first and they may be not gonna show love to the other people who got stuck in line or even not even in line at all. Like we said, obviously there's a lot of Southeast Asian groups shout out to you guys that are not even in line.  We're not even a candle yet. But I will say this, you gotta let the candles burn. Gotta let it burn. And it's unfortunate, man. You gotta let the candles burn.  You gotta wait for ABCDEF to get in line, like to get in the club before G can go. And there's no way I think maybe you can speed it up or you can hope that those people like turn their head and smile at you, I guess as they enter the club. But there's no way to guarantee A and A stands for ambition and like C, you know, the letter C stands for like cheesy or whatever, but it's like you just, you could feel how you feel about those letters getting in.  You know what I mean? Like I just encourage people to care about their candle, care about their own life come completely irrespective of what's going on in media. But then it's like, you just care about your own candle or build up people who are building the next candles that are gonna burn after these burn out. Yeah, and I wanna remind everybody in 2022, movies don't define you guys. There's so many movies, shows, clips, TikToks, so much content, streamers out there that you could be influenced by. I do think 30 years ago movies meant a lot more. So that's why maybe Joy Luck Club, it was such kind of a punch in the face for some people depending on how you interpreted the film, right? And, but nowadays, don't let this define you guys. So it doesn't really matter how Joy Luck Club 2 is. First of all, I think they're gonna update it. I don't think it's gonna portray Asian men in that way. Although based off the ending of the first movie, there's gonna be obviously a lot of Hoppa grandchildren and there has to be because they got with white guys in the end, so I guess that's gonna be that. But that's not really like offensive and there's no problem with that. But I'm just saying as much energy as you wanna pour into complaining about it and ripping it apart, the movie hasn't come out yet. So use that energy to support the artists and the content that you do like, that you do approve of because there's a lot out there. So I guess that's my overall takeaway at the end of the day. Don't let one movie define how you feel. Yeah, like I said, you focus on your own life, make sure you are not like the stereotypical men in Joy Luck Club or the farewell or that cousin that was like kinda- You mean David, don't be like Russell Wong, a very handsome but problematic Chinese man. He was frickin' evil. All attractive men are frickin' evil.  Wow, so all great looking Hoppa men are, I'm just kidding, shout out to Russell Wong. Met him before, he's a nice guy. But I will say this man, at the end of the day guys, the media game, it ain't what it used to be. So just use it as another thing. But of course, the Asian-American community, like we said, always fighting about things. They gonna have the debate on Reddit, TikTok, Instagram, et cetera, et cetera. We're just here to break it down. All right, everybody, thank you so much for watching that honest discussion about Joy Luck Club 2. Again, you know, you should give it its flowers. It was a great movie. Of course, it probably didn't age well considering the conversations and where the Asian community is at right now. So I can only hope that they update the story and it touches on Boba and ABGs and becoming TikTok creators in the movie. Maybe, I don't know. But please let us know in the comments down below what you thought about this discussion and what you look forward to seeing from other Asian-American films and even Joy Luck Club 2 or what you thought about Joy Luck Club 1. Was that a great movie? Did you really like it? Would you watch it again? Or are there major problems with it now? Let us know in the comments down below. Please hit that like button, subscribe to our channel and check out other episodes of the Hop Hop Boys. And until next time, we out. What are your favorite types of porn, Andrew?  They'll sound like those should all be movies that get made. And shows. All right, everybody, overall, I am very excited to see Joy Luck Club 2 only in the fact that, you know, I'm interested to see what they do given how the climate has changed and there's all these different issues, everything from Asian hate to all the sexualization, fetishization of Asian women to the emasculation of Asian men. Those conversations have come to light so much more in the past 30 years. So I guess I am interested to see what they do with the story. You let me know if you agree in the comments down below and until next time, we out. Peace.


Hey, what's up, everybody? So some exciting new Unreal Engine news today. Preview 1 has been released. And hopefully, this is a big step up from the previous early access builds that were kind of buggy to me and crashed pretty frequently, really to the point of where I had gone back and started to use the 4.27 for most of my projects. So I'm very, very excited about this. I've been following along with the source code. And maybe once a week or once every two weeks or so, building from one of the branches, the 5 Main or something from GitHub, and experimenting with some of the new stuff. But that takes a long time and a lot of disk space to try to keep up with that type of stuff. So I'm very excited now that they did a code freeze and they've got this Preview 1 that's available. I'm very excited to get into that and test out some of this new Unreal Engine 5 stuff in a more stable environment and make some videos about some of this new stuff. So another topic, I've been building this game Outpost 14 for a while. And I've decided to kind of take a little break on that and do some other things, participate in some game jams and make some more cinematic videos, taking a break from the bigger game as I learn more about what I want to do. I've been taking a lot of the courses on the Unreal Engine learning library or whatever that's called. I've completed about 33 courses and I've got a goal of completing 100 courses this year. So far it's pretty good. I've got another video in the pipeline talking more about my experiences and my opinions of that and whether I think that's worth it or not and some things that I've learned from that. So make sure you subscribe to the channel if you're interested in that type of thing and want to know more about that or Unreal Engine 5 going forward. So anyway, just wanted to give a quick update. Excited about all the stuff this year and excited for a final release of Unreal Engine 5 to come out someday so that we can actually begin to release projects on it. And thanks for watching.


This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Electronic books have changed the way many people read for pleasure. Now, online textbooks are changing the way some students learn and some teachers teach. More than 175,000 students attend the public schools in Fairfax County, Virginia, outside Washington. Last year, the school system used digital books in 15 schools. This school year, middle schools and high schools changed from printed to electronic textbooks in their social studies classes. Luke Rosa is a history teacher at Falls Church High School. His students work on school laptop computers. He explains the idea to them this way.  Peter Noonan, an assistant superintendent of schools, says with electronic textbooks, publishers can quickly update the content. The world's changing consistently and the online textbooks can change right along with the events that are happening. Online books also cost less than printed textbooks. Usually, it's in the neighborhood of between 50 and 70 dollars to buy a textbook for each student, which adds up to roughly $8 million for all of our students in Fairfax County. We actually have purchased all of the online textbooks for our students for just under $6 million. Many students like the idea because it means they do not have to carry a textbook around. Also, they can write notes on their work and save the notes in their account. But one student complained that the internet connection does not always work. Social studies teacher Michael Bambara says the e-book he uses in his government class is better than a printed textbook. He likes the way it has materials for students with different reading levels. So a person can individualize their learning and I can individualize their instruction. But the students also need internet access when they are not at school. About 10% of students in Fairfax County do not have a computer or online access at home. Public libraries in the county have free internet. There are also after-school computer labs as well as computer clubhouses supported by the county. Other school systems in the area are considering online textbooks. Officials in Prince George's County, Maryland plan a test project next year. A survey showed that 40% of students there do not have computer access at home. We have a video about online textbooks at voaspecialenglish.com. For VOA Special English, I'm Carolyn Presuti.