Hello there, it's Thursday at noon. I know it is. Do you remember our Arrangement Thursdays at noon on CFUV Are you ready to get started? What do you have in mind? What I want to do now is called first-person plural You make it sound excessively attractive That's what I have in mind One of the reasons for keeping a diary is to be able to revisit it years later in 1995 from January to July Carl kept an official diary of activities He did as an intern working for the Tampa, Florida chapter of the US National Organization for Women the internship began with the goal of providing a high-level statistical analysis Comparing the status of women in Florida to the remaining 49 states and The rest of the world this turned out to be an ambitious project That was more worthy of a doctoral dissertation than an internship But the volumes of data and the lack of a cohesive source of data to use for comparisons Were not the only reasons that the scope of the original project narrowed what started out to be a research project That Tampa now could use but could never have afforded from a consultant ended up being a journey into the world of political Organization protest and burnout that shaped Carl's views of political action most especially the role that the media plays in Determining who gets heard and who does not in the year before this internship the now chapter went through a major upheaval With the ousting of the previous board of directors and favor of a group that was determined To connect the chapter to social justice issues that affected the lives of impoverished women The members who achieved this change in leadership were mostly poor themselves Carl's internship coincided with a period of time During which many of the members were discovering how difficult it was to put issues of poverty and social justice on popular agendas It was a time when the US Congress's newly elected Republican majority Was flexing its muscle with the so-called Contract with America the political rhetoric at both the federal and state level was backing poor women and men Into corners from which they could not return unlike the recent worldwide protests against the war in Iraq and against Globalization protests during this period were small and largely ignored by mainstream press The internet was young and no quote alternative media closed quote Existed beyond a few local newspapers here or there Today on first-person plural We are sharing excerpts from the seven-month diary in chronological order The diary in many ways speaks for itself as we follow the course of both intern and organization During a difficult period of transition away from social justice in Florida and in the United States Carl shares his experience his analyses and his insights and an episode we call working for women January 20th 1995 I've been in contact with Carolyn Waldron and Susie Shannon of the Tampa chapter of the national organization for women We have been trying both to develop the project idea and to determine its proper locus in the organizational structure It appears that the idea is sufficiently specific To warrant it's being included under the heading of welfare reform which Carolyn is in charge of in addition to her Responsibilities as president of the chapter Susie was supposed to be doing a research project of some sort for the group But she hasn't really shifted it out of first gear yet And it doesn't appear that she is poised to take advantage of my presence Carolyn brought me a handout on the contract with America Drafted by the Republicans in the federal Congress one possible project is to gauge the effect of some of the actions listed therein I have read the contract as well as an assortment of related documents Carolyn included with it Also a potential interest is the recent 25% cut in Florida state-funded programs I'm not yet sure of the scope of the cut. It could be welfare only or it could be all state programs January 27th 1995 Carolyn called me on Tuesday afternoon remind me of the economic justice committee meeting that evening an hour later She called back to tell me it was off none of the committee members were going to be available. I Will be in contact with Carolyn early next week to see if there are any organizational developments I'm beginning to wonder if I will be assuming significantly more autonomy on this project than I had anticipated There are experienced social workers and public administration professionals within the Tampa chapter of now But no one has expressed a specific preference as to the direction that project should take I have been preparing by doing some research on sociology of minorities and countercultures and the conventions employed in application of statistical technique to their study February 3rd 1995 I prepared a verbal presentation vis-a-vis the direction and extent of my progress to deliver at the Tampa now meeting last night The meeting ran long though and my report was postponed until the economic justice committee meeting on Monday February 13th By that time I will have had another week to do preliminary research and should be ready to begin data collection. I Anticipate that the committee will have some non-negotiable Suggestions regarding the design of the project. However, and until I know the extent of those suggestions. I will forego data collection February 10th 1995 I have not had time to do additional preparatory research this week I have however narrowed the initial scope of the project into research topics I will present both at the economic justice committee meeting Monday night and upon hearing the comments of the committee members Select one of the topics and begin data collection The first project is assessment of the effects of a $500 per child tax credit Similar to the one mentioned in the contract with America The second project is comparing the current standard of living in Florida to those in other nations The project is intended to serve as background information for assessment of the 25% budget cut applied to all state agencies effective this year Comparisons of the United States as a whole to other nations in such areas as infant mortality life expectancy adult literacy and the like are common February 17th 1995 This week I attended the economic justice subcommittee meeting on Monday night and the chapter meeting on Thursday night On Monday, I ran both of my project ideas by the subcommittee The Florida as independent nation idea drew raves with subcommittee members actively providing advice E.g. sharing knowledge of similar studies and proposing an emphasis on women's conditions and asking pertinent questions I will proceed with it and abandon the tax credit project on Thursday at the chapter meeting there was discussion of among several other projects a trip to Fort Lauderdale later this month to Congressman Shaw's office Shaw has been named the point man for federal welfare reform efforts by the president To establish for the press the organization's position on welfare reform I may be going on this trip depending on what the officer court decides Whether it will be realistic given the time and expense it would entail After the meeting adjourned I was put to work on assembling newsletters and other items to be mailed to chapter members They're responding enthusiastically after their initial hesitation to the idea of having my labor at their disposal for the semester It appears that there will be plenty of opportunities for me to establish my bonafide days as an entry-level activist as well as a statistical researcher and analyst February 24th 1995 Wednesday, I went to the government documents room in the usf Tampa campus library After almost two hours of researching I discovered something important unless I'm looking in entirely the wrong place The material in the government documents room is too voluminous to be of direct use There are simply too much verbiage and not enough guideposts The problem of poverty is apparently not new numerous congressional committee and subcommittee hearings were held on it in the 1970s, but not in the 1980s apparently With numerous persons testifying during each hearing There is so much hearsay and obvious bias present that the information is scarcely information at all It is more like a series of advertisements A scientific approach to the problem was apparently not acceptable Perhaps the need to treat diplomatically the egos of the interested parties was present March 3rd 1995 More time at the usf library this week The outlook for the project has improved I have assessed all the data sources available and begun to sift through the seemingly infinite amount of pertinent and almost pertinent information for the dense quantitative timely figures that I need I have poured over the titles and were available abstracts Of perhaps 10,000 books and magazine articles this week with very few of them Mirrored in closer examination The process has taken me longer than I expected What I am after is a basis for comparison Do conventional Read popular Indicators of standard of living and quality of life show that Florida is a good or bad place for women to live Relative to other states and relative to other countries None of the state employees in the Tampa chapter of now has expressed much interest in the project But part of the fault has been mine I have neglected to contact them outside of meetings and discuss matters with them Of course part of that is due to a sneaking suspicion on my part that they are up to their ears and work already between their real jobs And their now activities And that they need another project right now about as much as they need additional holes in their heads Spring break is this month. I may not be able to use the library while classes are suspended I will be able to stay busy though in between the material I have been perusing from other sources and the raffle tickets that the fundraising director apparently expects me to sell March 10th 1995 The Fort Lauderdale trip is on for tomorrow I spoke with carolin on the telephone today about it and I worked with patty who was also going on the trip On slogans for the signs we plan to carry around while demonstrating It is clear now that the contract with america is not going to be implemented in full But the local chapters in florida still consider the issues involved to be of sufficient import to merit an action of some sort Shaw remains the local political figure most associated with welfare reform efforts by the current congress Therefore the action has been scheduled for his district The action itself will be simple enough A group of now supporters and contingents from other groups Will pick it and several speakers will give statements on federal financial policy The most challenging part of the day for me will be my having to ride in a compact car with three other people all the way to Fort Lauderdale and back in one day And I should be grateful at one point it appeared that a car was not going to be available I was struck by the unfairness of the situation Several people who are for the most part poor wanting to protest discrimination against the poor but not able to afford a Decent vehicle to attend the demonstration I wonder what happened to the concept of the level playing field I also did some work on the research project this week. The overwhelming size of the government documents room alone Has made me realize that there is a great deal of material related to my topic and very little in the form I require It was time to take a step back and do a little planning. The first step was outlining what data sources there were Needless to say no comprehensive list of the data sources existed But I managed by pulling together several partial listings of online services compact disks And other services available at the library to list 51 sources that I will need to check March 17th 1995 The Fort Lauderdale demonstration was Saturday At first it had appeared that we would not be able to attend because we could not come up with enough roadworthy vehicles Among ourselves to transport everyone I found something inherently unfair about this a group of people wish to attend a demonstration to protest poverty But they are too poor to get there Eventually two people agreed to take their own cars and a third person who was not attending Lent the chapter her car for the day Tampa now had seven people including me make the trip We set up operations outside clay Shaw's office Which is in an office park and not in a government building as I had anticipated Along with about 50 other people from various now chapters in florida. I was entrusted with the operation of the pa Everyone marched around for about three hours carrying signs and repeating slogans Toward the end of the event We had speeches by two current welfare recipients to put the lie to the misconception that all such people are dishonorable malignant incompetence One speaker was a 3.9 student from usf and the other was a resident of a Tampa housing project Who is known for her selfless and energetic community service Rowan county now had asked Tampa now to take the lead in the action and show their relatively inexperienced members the ins and outs of political action Tampa now had complied assuming most of the responsibility for making things come off smoothly, which they did Passing cars hawked in support for the demonstration The media was there in force Thanks to some earlier press releases by now Announcing the event with several local television stations showing up to get footage of us and the associated press Sending a reporter who was to do a feature article on welfare reform Even the policeman assigned to the event said that he was there for our safety rather than to examine us for any signs of wrongdoing The event transpired seamlessly almost to the point of being mundane If this were one's first political demonstration, it was not mine One would get the impression that it was simple to arrange and execute such an action The now people involved seem to be unlike the left wing maniacs that the right has suggested they are Feminazis etc If anything, they seem too community oriented many of them financially shaky themselves But still willing to expend what limited resources they have To increase awareness of political and economic issues that would otherwise be glossed over or go misunderstood Far from being militant The general appearance of the group was that of the pta stopping off to touch base with each other And make a dent in their organizational workload between Saturday grocery shopping and picking up the kids at the roller rink Somehow irresponsible and criminal were not the terms that came to mind On Thursday the local chapter had its yearly elections Carolyn Waldron the chapter president and my de facto supervisor on the research project ran unopposed In fact, most of the races were unopposed with a shortage of candidates and a great many jobs to be filled The raffle drawing was held thursday night as well I never got around to selling the book of tickets I had been assigned but I did take on the herculean task of drawing the names of the winners I was not one of them Despite my wife and I purchasing six tickets Bonnie Boehm the unfortunate person placed in charge of the raffle Told me to consider the book of tickets I had at home to be dead meaning that I was not to sell them Now that the prices had been awarded another path to personal self-sufficiency blocked by compulsive honesty This internship is not lucrative I received no pay hence the term volunteer work And have not been reimbursed for my materials or job related expenses not that I expected to be March 24th 1995 Yesterday I used my home computer in modem to access the usf library computer system Hoping to further outline the information sources pertinent to my project available at usf It turned out to be more than I bargained for It became apparent to me that there were just too many data sources available for me to thoroughly research them all Even restricting my search to sources available at or through the usf Tampa library And through the internet access I have via the usf computer system I have accumulated more sources than I could exhaust in a decade I do not want this project to turn into a bibliography Especially one that it would take the rest of the millennium or until the millennium to complete First person plural Your source Pursuing sounds of sociological So gaseousness The police state is using its phallocentric organ the corporate media To control ordinary people like you and March 31st 1995 The economic justice committee held a meeting on tuesday It is clear now that the contract is not going to be passed into law except in a much amended form But there is still concern over the measures that have survived the first two months of the legislative session Well organized current information regarding the status of women and children is important to the committee Statistics on poverty are used often in the discussions But not maintained or made available by the committee or the local chapter in a comprehensive format My project will be helpful for a time but within a year of its completion It will begin to be inadequate Perhaps an mis director would be apropos Also discussed at the committee meeting was president clinton's visit to hillsboro community college thursday Clinton has remained silent throughout most of the goings on in congress This session and there is much speculation on how he will react to the portion of the contract that makes it to him In the form of bills needing his signature to be passed into law Most of the committee members were unable to attend clinton's appearance due to prior commitments But a few made time for the event April 7th 1995 The scope of the data sources continues to spiral upward As this is not to be a doctoral dissertation. I am going to revise my methodology I will speak with carillon and the rest of the economic justice committee about what they want from this report and follow their instructions It is possible that they will be satisfied with data from one or two sources Or that they will want me to omit the international perspective and convert it to the rest of the united states only While I was planning to do a more thorough report It is true that I am a contract worker of sorts and need to avoid spending my time on tasks My employer considers trivial There is no shortage of work to be done in tampa now And I might well be instructed to put the study to bed as quickly as possible so that I can get to work on other tasks April 14th 1995 The last week has been hectic for the local chapter Sunday there was an economic justice committee meeting A pastor from the first united church attended in hopes of building an anti-poverty coalition with us We hashed out our respective positions and agreed to proceed with the anti-poverty demonstration scheduled for april 21st I also brought up the necessity of narrowing the scope of my project and the consensus response Was that I should concentrate on the state-to-state comparisons and forget about the international data Tuesday I sorted through some of the paperwork that now members tend to get buried under Thursday I received an emergency call from carillon saying that the april 21st demonstration was off Everyone involved was overworked and there was a new threat in the form of a reporter from the weekly planet a local paper Planning to do a hatchet job on the chapter A meeting was scheduled for Tuesday to discuss damage control I agreed to call some of the committee members and informed them of the change in schedule A lack of funds and the overworked highly constrained state of the members are taking their toll on tampa now The sort of large-scale media blitz that richer organizations regularly carry out Is simply not fiscally possible for them to initiate Moreover many members are forced to conduct their membership related activities on the sly for fear that their employers will discover that They are in the organization and fire them april 21st 1995 The action that was to take place today has been moved to may The date is not certain yet, but it will be either the sixth to coincide with a similar demonstration in new york city or on mother's day Media coverage is the key element with there being some question of whether the press will be too busy taking pictures and videotapes Of more traditional mother's day activities to be bothered with a little thing like a substantive pro mother's political action Also at issue is the press line of the new york demonstration organizers While the new york demonstration is being endorsed by everyone from tom hayden to kasey casem We are not sure yet exactly what it has meant to support One of our members is in contact with the organizers and will contact them and get back to us with the information My tour of duty with tampa now has been extended through the summer or at least through july 31st I am looking forward to continuing my research on women's living conditions in florida and participating in the other activities That will take place under the aegis of the organization The organization is apparently very impressed with me as they have written me a glowing evaluation Including the statement quote. It is a joy to have someone as capable and committed as carl at our disposal close quote april 28th 1995 I have volunteered for slash been assigned to susie shannon's local coalition building effort In preparation for the may 6th multi organizational anti-contract with america march My object will be to contact a selection of organizations See how compatible their press line is with the one generally agreed upon by the organizations already involved And ask them if they would like to take part in the demonstration This is not a now project per se, but both national now and tampa now are endorsing and participating in the event It is beginning to look as if the inability of tampa now to get geared up for the proposed april 21st anti-poverty action was a blessing in disguise With the may 6th march sure to create more of an impact april 30th 1995 My initial objective in committing to work for the tampa chapter of the national organization for women this semester Was to begin work on a statistical research project for their benefit The project has progressed well with the final form to be an annotated bibliography with attachments and statistical analysis Where pertinent on the status of women in florida versus the status of women in the rest of the united states My most significant educational discovery this term has been my realization that it is impossible for many organizations To speak to the public directly There is much talk about free speech, but little of the practical nature of speech One who invokes the sanctity of free speech implies the right to be heard No one seriously considers a person standing in his living room talking to himself or writing in his diary about politics To be of any particular importance Political speech like speech in general is hampered in its effectiveness My restrictions placed on the number of people who may hear it which people and which viewpoints therefore have the right to be heard More important from a practical standpoint Who determines which people and which viewpoints have the right to be heard The answer to the latter question is easy the communications industry And the communications industry is not the most reliable or least biased of sources This bias and unreliability anathema from a scientific standpoint Are due in part to the industry's essential lack of responsibility to anyone except itself and its own interests Which are determined by various historical and political factors and can be observed only through a glass darkling What is clear is that the communications industry decides who will be heard For what period of time they will be heard and under what conditions they will be heard This contrasts sharply with the idyllic picture of a society in which anyone can say anything He likes and everyone will hear and consider immediately what he has to say that the term free speech invokes One is not necessarily the center of attention in the united states While with having 250 million other people to compete against for the honor And the battle for attention is conducted on the terms of those who control the airwaves and the print media A large percentage of the total airtime on united states radio and television And the total space in american newspapers Is for sale to those who can pay the communications industry the price for it Many political organizations do buy time on the air and perhaps now could if it were better funded However, such activity does little to foster reasoned even handed debate If only because the side with the most money is permitted to speak for a proportionately longer time The equal time law was revoked in the 1980s and in any case never applied to any political or human rights organization Other than the democratic party and the republican party Most people are with some justification suspicious of ideas in persons they have not previously heard of But the process by which one hears of things is not entirely free of prejudice Moreover the very industry in charge of mass communication is unlikely to circulate an admission of its bias Leaving the observer with little way of knowing that he is witnessing a fixed political fight Unless he spends a substantial amount of his spare time doing independent political research and analysis Tampa now has no advertising budget and no access to television broadcasting facilities Their exposure is limited to that which is granted to them by existing television stations and networks on their news programs Aside from the semi monthly local chapter meetings, which usually are confined by necessity to administrative matters And the monthly newsletter, which is produced only at a cost that is proportionately prohibitive There is no form in which one can hear what Tampa now and its members have to say Now is pursuing their political ends on nothing like a level playing field The game which consists for the most part of cultivating public opinion is virtually over before it begins With the opposition being much better funded and bound by few rules regarding their use of the funds The issue here is more epistemological than it is political If the now press line is the closer approximation of reality, will it make any difference? In the 1950s the soviet threat prompted much discussion in the west about what specifically Made the russian way of life unacceptable to more enlightened minds And one of the phrases that came up often was quote reality control close quote When the means of information exchange is marked by bias and even sold outright, there is reality control We have moved beyond Voltaire's contention that he who defines the terms wins the argument To a forum in which he who determines the facts wins the argument May 1st 1995 I reviewed the press packet for the may 6th rally that Susie Shannon gave me on Friday Now is pulling out all the stops to announce this march Both to the press and to other groups that might want to participate The list of persons and organizations that have already pledged support to the action is over 10 pages long and contains more than a few mainstream names I spoke with Susie by telephone today She has several people working on calling local organizations engaging their support for the action I will be assigned a certain number of them and given some more specific instructions on how to approach them May 8th 1995 The margin rally were Saturday and they were a success We drew 150 people locally We assembled at the county center in Tampa from 9 30 to 10 in the morning Did chance for half an hour Marched to the federal courthouse and set up the 90 minute speakers program that followed We are still uncertain how successful the national effort was The corresponding actions in new york and boston drew well But the turnouts in cleveland and atlanta were poor. I do not yet know what the turnout was like in other cities I saw myself on the television news saturday night Standing in the crowd of people assembled at the county center I doubt that I will enjoy much fame as a result though Because I was wearing dark sunglasses and a long sleeved black shirt due to my sensitivity to the effects of the sun That combined to make me virtually unrecognizable I may even have been on television before in connection with now related activities Although I do not know if I have The possibility exists that I will accumulate media exposure due to my role in now Something I consider but not appreciated until saturday night. The demonstration did not happen all by itself Susie shannon was in charge of assembling it and she was very busy My role was to call some local organizations and probe their willingness to support its general aims I had little success but did draw some amusing remarks from the contacts Amnesty international told me quote. We're not a political organization close quote The tampa bay friends of children and children's health care asked me quote. How did you get our number close quote? And the tampa bay gay men's chorus told me that quote david katon monitors us close quote Further interrogation yielded the clarification that david katon local religious right lobbyist Photocopies the chorus's requests for grants from the arts council to check for compliance with the legal prey requisites Other nonprofit status Today on first person plural Carl shares his experience his analyses and his insights in an episode we call working for women The more time that passes the more convinced i am the tampa now has little interest in my research project Despite my dramatic announcement last month that I was scaling back the project considerably from its original scope No one in the organization expressed concern about its progress I have the feeling that they are more in need of other types of work right now Which would explain why I wind up being drawn into so many other projects I had hoped to get the research project finished by this time But ultimately I am not working for myself and must delay building my professional resume when it conflicts with the goals of the organization I've had a few calls to action as a statistician But none of them would look as nice on a resume as the research project would have in its original incarnation May 15th 1995 Tina Engler an officer in tampa now had an article on her life published in the weekly plan this week The article about Tina was encouraging if only because it shows that the press is not completely written off economic justice issues Has not worth the effort to deal with The difference in information content and objectivity between academic style and newspaper style writing is beyond belief The mirror standards of documentation and even handedness are employed in the latter But the inequity of distribution of assets income and economic power in general is too great to be ignored indefinitely Especially as america increases its pace towards having 51 of its population Inadequately fed clothed housed and medically attended to by un standards Perhaps such an eventuality would provide an appropriate focus for my research project or what is left of it I could find out what the un standards are for various social indicators And see how the separate states measure up to them I will speak to the now officers again about including international data Because I think the international perspective will be illuminating Weekly planet should have an article next week about tampa now Carol and waldrin expects it will be sympathetic Weekly planet is widely perceived as a more reliable source of local news than the tampa tribune and the st. Petersburg Times If only because the planet is unafraid to conclude that a wealthy person is a scam artist If the fact supports such a conclusion and unafraid to publish that conclusion once it has been reached How the article treats tampa now will have a lot to do with what direction the organization takes for the rest of the year May 22, 1995 The national people's campaign the organization of organizations under whose banner was arranged the national anti-contract on america march and rally on may 6th Is having a conference in new york city the weekend of june 3rd Susie shannon was our liaison with the mpc for the may 6th action and has been asked to run for national office in the npc tampa now has been interested in coalition building for some time wanting to establish communication Among different human rights groups as a means to the end of effective political action Tina engler the quote poster girl for single motherhood close quote as carolyn culcer is also going I do not know if enough money can be raised to send them and I don't know what they will accomplish by attending But the mpc is doing serious coalition building and some effort needs to be made to connect with them Wendy jones the new vp of membership has informed the chapter that there are 278 regular members of the chapter The times ran a monumentally irresponsible column by paul wilburt in february In which he dismissed tampa now as politically irrelevant gaining attention only because the media continues to pay it He echoed gertrude stein's comment made by her about oakland california to the effect of quote There's no there there close quote It would be fun to send all 278 members of this non-existent organization over to the little wise guys house at four o'clock in the morning To serenade him in esperanto or some similar project May 29th 1995 My now work this week consisted of reading chapters one to three in handbook and research and evaluation By isek and michael according to isek and michael quote a comment error made by graduate students is to carry out A hurried review of the literature in order to get started on the research project This usually results in overlooking previous studies containing ideas that would have improved the students project close quote That has also been my experience So often the researcher contents himself with reinventing the wheel Neither knowing nor caring if his analysis is time or cost efficient in comparison with passive research of existing literature on the topic Academia is supposed to build upon previous results But often the aim of the researcher seems to be to get as many articles published as possible regardless of how redundant they are At the same time, I believe that academic and scientific research is an easy target for criticism at the hands of compulsive naysayers And consider such criticism to be unproductive and unrevealing June 5th 1995 The weekly planted article on tampon now came out last week It was pretty disorganized The author completely missed the point of the organization's voting out margaret zeller last year The attitude the author projected was that the two-thirds of the members who thought margaret was a snotty rich Self-aggrandizing jaguar driving sheltered crooked spoiled rotten overgrown daddy's girl This is a mild characterization of how the current board feels about her Had no business voting her out of office just because she had completely lost touch with the goals of the organization That one must support one snotty rich self-aggrandizing jaguar driving sheltered crooked spoiled rotten overgrown daddy's girl at all times And in all situations a courtesy apparently not extended to those of us who do not only $40,000 car or have the approval of margaret zeller's immediate circle of friends It was odd to see a normally hard-bitten paper grovel serve freely before wealth and power And express shock that anyone else might not find it appropriate to do so Catherine rail an assistant state attorney for hillsborough county was a guest speaker at the chapter meeting last week She is setting up a domestic violence task force in hillsborough county She claimed that every third person in her office has been a domestic violence victim during her tenure at her current position She observed with this taste the common conception that it's still okay to beat people up as long as they're related to you Susceptibility to domestic violence was an indicator of quality of life for women The vast majority of cases are men on woman of which I had not thought June 12 1995 Most research projects have a clearly defined objective long before a researcher or group of researchers are hired to work on them I am in the reposition of being an intellectual contract laborer who has been allowed some leeway in deciding what to research The major disadvantage to having this freedom has been having to justify my efforts more closely than I would have had to Had I been assigned a pre-designated topic The question why are you doing this is never really answerable I fear that once I have completed the project people who had nothing to say about it when their criticisms could have had some productive effect Will expound at great length upon what they would have done if they had been running things Work is always easier in the hypothetical and in the first person It is becoming apparent that the project is going to be more of a social science effort and less of a statistical effort than I Would have liked at the outset of the project. I envisioned analyzing a single definitive data set using highly advanced methodologically valid quantitative techniques and creating Brilliant yet subtle models of what was really going on in the world around me to be used for decades to come by all really responsible academics Such an ambition was I thought reasonable given the time constraint facing me The non-academic portion of my work for now has been very highly regarded by my superiors No one has opinion counts has any significant bones to pick and I am happy that despite the considerable loss and scope of the research project The other aspects of activism have gone so well for me June 19th, 1995 Judy Hill of the Tampa Tribune wrote a reasonably even-handed article on Tina Engler recently To absolutely nobody's surprise but Tina's there was a resulting deluge of hate mail to the Tribune Lecturing Tina on having dared to bring into the world a less than physically perfect baby And then having compounded her error by daring to go to college At the regular meeting of tampa now on thursday several members volunteered to write letters to the Tribune in defensive Tina It continues to amaze me that many persons who have strong opinions on what is wrong with the world country or neighborhood Feel no desire to back up their assertions with rigorous argument let alone substantive documentation To condemn single mothers for creating children that cannot support at first And then to disparage them further when they attempt to gain the means to support their children Is to me the height of sloppy mental activity A little consistency would be nice I begin to wonder if the only people who write letters to the editor are idiots who cannot find other outlets for their impulses Susie shannon reported on her trip to the national people's campaign conference in new york city She said the Tampa now and an organization from georgia were the only organizations from the deep south that sent any representatives at all Whether this was due to the geographical remoteness of the conference or a lack of southern sympathy for the issues involved remains uncertain June 26 1995 Last thursday carolyn walden called me to let me know that there would be a congressional subcommittee meeting regarding religious issues at jefferson high school in tampa the next day The meeting turned out to be a florida state house of representative subcommittee meeting on a proposed amendment to the u.s. Constitution clarifying the scope of religious freedom By the florida state house was doing conducting hearings on a federal issue was beyond me, but i paid attention on the west The subcommittee was chaired by charles canady of lakeland There were nine witnesses if that is in fact the term to my knowledge No one for tampa now appeared as a witness if they did it was not in the capacity of an official spokesperson for the chapter The apparent rationale for lending our support to the cross organizational anti amendment forces Was that the amendment while cosmetically a bulwark of religious freedom covered no issues not already covered by the first amendment And therefore served no purpose except as an intimidation ploy by the christian rite Tampa now is not big on intimidation ploys by the christian rite July 3 1995 One aspect of tampa now that strikes me as unusual is its lack of social activity Even getting anyone to go out for a hamburger after a meeting is like pulling teeth I believe that the old maxima about all work and no play and its effect on jack must apply to jill as well When a student from us after off by one of the meetings to announce that she and some of her friends were starting a now chapter on the usf campus She mentioned among their upcoming activities a social plan for the coming sunday I remember laughing inwardly at the low subjective probability i placed on tampa now ever having a quote social close quote But a large part of this apparent anti social tendency must be attributed to lack of money members are for the most part destitute A restaurant expedition would likely be an unconscionable expense for these members More expensive planned activities would be less acceptable still july 10 1995 At the regular chapter meeting thursday carlin waldrin conducted a workshop on dealing with the press Representatives from several local organizations were in attendance tampa now's methodology and philosophy vis-a-vis press contact has influenced the direction of its political efforts And a closer look at it provides insight into the organization quote going public closed quote Is not always done by choice the media often stereotypes certain organizations and fosters misconceptions about them in order to counteract these Errors and prevent additional ones an organization may have little option other than to issue press releases and other public statements An organization might also go public when there is potential gain on an issue And is forced to go public when asked about its objectives or its methods Repetition of organizational positions on key issues is important The cognitive process is such that in order for any one aspect of organizational policy to be identified with a group It must be heard different times in different places Moreover the more the public knows about different issues addressed by the organization The better it is for the organization's goals public statement of chapter policy has to be uniform Now has a quote single spokesperson closed quote role that allows control over uniformity of policy and record July 17th 1995 there was an executive board meeting tonight. Caroline Waldron is quitting the organization Her reasons were personal and will not be repeated here. The executive board has had a high attrition rate this year In addition to carolins resignation roger coffee died last month while in turkey Several officers have neglected to come to meetings or have disappeared entirely As such the organization is left with more vacancies at present than it can fill I find this ironic considering the bitter battle that the current officers waged in 1994 To unseat the presiding board Admittedly with all the political and economic concerns that now embraces it seems inevitable that some decentralization should occur At the meeting tonight I suggested that some of these seats on the board be eliminated in order to achieve greater efficiency and unity of command The consensus response was that the issues connected to the board seats were too important to the chapter to be symbolically dismissed in such a manner July 24th 1995 The chapter meeting on july 20th was somewhat uneventful The weather conditions were terrible as a result of which only four people were in attendance The lack of a single candidate for president was discussed Apparently the job had taken a great deal of carolins time and effort and no one especially wanted to sacrifice additional time and effort in the proportions required Whether a president is required by national now or the local chapter's charter. I do not know But the news of carolins resignation is still fresh and someone in the organization will likely submit to being drafted The worst-case scenario is that the executive board will be forced to run the local chapter until the next regular elections Which are only eight months away july 28th 1995 Unlike most political organizations now operates largely on a grassroots level Organizational structure is from the bottom up With local members electing the executive boards for the local chapters and decisions regarding the local chapter's activities left up to them for the most part As such tampa now is essentially a self-contained human rights group The summer term saw the death of my quantitative sociology research project idea I was determined to do an academic journal quality paper on a social justice topic pertinent to now's activities However, I found myself caught up in the other concerns of the local chapter And the research paper became Deprioritized in the views of my formal and informal supervisors on the project Worse yet, it appears from the circumstantial evidence that I was the last person involved to figure this out I uncovered some information vis-a-vis women's treatment in florida that I related in one form or another to the executive board of tampa now The term started off dramatically with the May march and rally in conjunction with the national people's campaign Several local organizations and local branches of national organizations Showed up to take part in the festivities and it appeared that a summer of effective coalition building was underway However, the project seemed to use up all the local chapter's time and energy And that of most of the other participating organizations as well And no further inter-organizational actions took place except for the press conference before the quote religious freedom amendment closed quote subcommittee hearing While the summer was so uneventful compared to the spring is uncertain But it has been observed that summer is not a time of high productivity in most industries Reasons for this include the weather, the high rates of worker absenteeism And the conditioning of americans as children to regard summer as quote time off closed quote Certainly the first to apply to tampa now Frequent storms and occasional flooding Combined with 90 degree temperatures To make travel and outdoor activity difficult and to reduce stamina and attendance at the regular meetings on the first and third Thursday of each month was low except when a special event was scheduled Perhaps the lowland activity was in accordance with the norm rather than a departure from it A discrepancy between the television and the print media and their treatment of tampa now became evident to me this term The print media was atrociously irresponsible in its stories about now Even the here to force semi responsible weekly planet Managed to get in an article that essentially criticized now for having the presidency of the organization be an elective office The television media by comparison bent over backwards to be even handed news cameras appeared at all the political actions and the station subsequently broadcasting coverage of the actions Stated tampa now's position on the issues while resisting whatever urges they had to add cutesy dismissive comments afterwards In fairness to the print media They did publish some in-depth stories on tina engler the welfare mother who is trying to raise a child while going to college Both the planet and the tampa tribune published stories on tina this term The resulting rush of hostile scatterbrained letters calling for tina's scalp Only went to show that stupid people should not be given access to postage stamps The summer term was a bad one as far as officer attrition went With two executive board members moving out of town One resigning to pursue other projects one dying and several not showing up either in body or in mind If rank and file members were not always present at political actions in the numbers desired They were even more conspicuously absent when the time came to fill executive board vacancies Or that this was a result of the aforementioned floods and heatwaves typical of summer in central florida is uncertain But it is at least equally likely that the organization has spent its time and energy too liberally over the past six months And now needs a recuperation period to avoid mass burnout How tampa now will progress in the future is uncertain despite attacks by the local print media Membership rolls are still full and the current shortage of executive board candidates will be alleviated within nine months With the worst-case scenario being that the current vacancies remain until the next regular elections in march Most of what can be done by outside factions within the limits of the law has been done already And it has had only limited effect on business as usual within the chapter Tampa now has passed its first real challenges to its survival and has survived You have been listening to first person plural because how people get along with each other still matters First person plural is a show created for community radio by carl wilkerson and dr. Patty thomas to examine social and organizational issues Music for first person plural is performed Composed and produced by carl wilkerson except where noted For more information about first person plural dr. Patty thomas or carl wilkerson Visit our website www.culturalconstructioncompany.com or email us at fpp at culturalconstructioncompany.com


She picked this item up at a thrift store for two dollars, and she took a best offer of $750 Hey, Bolo buddies. Thanks for watching. All right, you guys in this video We're gonna talk about some big money bolos I am featuring an eBay store and I'm gonna tell you where they got the item what they paid for it and what it sold for So this is basically a what sold video, but these aren't things that I have sourced. These are things that It's all good 94 has sold and she is a Bolo finder waiting to you see some of the cool items that she sells. This is her eBay store I will link it down below in the description. Oh You guys remember I did a video on these Talking about parting it out and that's what she did. She parts stuff out as well She has a really unique different store Definitely go and look at the item. She has listed it will definitely teach you about some different things to look for She is also over on what not as it's all goods 94 as well So go and give her a follow over there as well if you guys are not on what not you can use my referral link down below and Get $15 to shop when you join with that link. So Get the $15 go buy something to resell or buy yourself a nice treat and see if you like it It's super super fun. And if you want to sell on what not I also have a referral link for that as well So join with the buyers link so that you get the $15 and then come back and Apply with my sellers link and that will tell them that I referred you to sell on their platform So it's kind of just a way that you may get accepted quicker I've had a lot of people tell me they got accepted very quickly when they used my referral link So those links are down below, but let's dig into some big money Bolo's Alright, so the first item we're gonna start with is one that is just unexpected so I sent her a list of Items that I wanted her to send me information on and I saw this and I was like I have got to share this because No way what I've ever picked this up. I mean I don't think I would have I guess I can't say for sure, but they're empty cookie boxes from McDonald's Yep, I said that empty cookie boxes now. These would probably be a little bit of a pain to ship I wonder if you can flatten them out Flattening them out would be nice, but I'm not so sure That might damage them. So not a big money Bolo, but definitely unexpected. She said Found online on high bid bought a lot of 40 boxes sold them off in sets of four paid 20 for all 40 boxes sold this set for best offer of 14 plus shipping and have sold all 40 boxes she's sold out. Can you believe it cookie boxes empty cookie boxes from McDonald's? That's cool. This one's really cool. Also Barbie loves McDonald's place that picnic table found at a local thrift store whole bag of Barbies McDonald's accessories paid 20 Decided to part it out sold one piece for full asking price of 2499 So you can see right here. This is just the bench the picnic table 2499 plus shipping Here is the replacement sign 1499 the cash register right here. She said she took Let's see 1499 plus shipping on the cash register. So That's weird Maybe it's a different one, but it says 1499 plus shipping. So I see 11 with it crossed out So maybe she was thinking of this one and then I'm not sure what this one sold for she may have had them mixed up Disney Dumbo Timothy mouse mini snow globe retired and This one right here She got it a garage sale all things Disney have so many globes paid $4 and sold for full asking price of 3999 and you can see a little bit of the water is missing from the top Probably some evaporation there. She's got a picture of the bottom. This originally retailed for $12 This is a deaf leopard hysteria LP original 1987 first press Mercury inner sleeve vinyl picks now. I don't know what any of That means so she does have a picture of the vinyl Maybe that's what it means and you can see the condition always smart to include photos of that She got this at a garage sale for $1 and sold it for full asking price of $44 and she said it sold quickly The next is this stife teddy bear. It's mohair anything mohair Definitely look it up. There's other bears that are mohair that can do really well that are not stife So if you see the mohair look it up stife is a great brand. This is one of the newer tags. I believe um, let me see right here I don't think this one's as old. Oh, it says 1981 Right there. There's your tag But they do vary Some of the stife go for crazy crazy money like the really really old ones So if you see a stife look it up and if it's cheap just grab it and run All right This one she got at the goodwill for four dollars and sold it for full asking price of 42 plus shipping The next item I couldn't get to pull up. So this is the screenshot you're going to get It is a super scrabble game. She found it at a church rummage sale paid five dollars for it And sold it for full asking price of 39 99 plus shipping One little tip that I like to give out when I'm talking about board games is You can see here. The shipping is 11 65 I like to put my board games. I like to cross post them over to poshmark because poshmark has that flat rate shipping And if it's under five pounds, so it's going to be cheaper for this item to ship over on poshmark So definitely something to consider I do have a referral link down below if you use that to join poshmark, you're going to get $10 to shop Also have mercari down there You'll get $10 to shop on mercari and another $20 to shop when you sell $100 worth of stuff on mercari So those links are down below if you want to join those other platforms This is an orbits 90s lava lamp soda bought online for 20 for three bottles sold one bottle for full asking price of 49 99 plus the buyer paid shipping So i'm not really it says that it's a lava lamp huh So how do you heat it up? How does it work? Oh my gosh? It was originally a dollar 19. That is awesome That is so cool. Okay, titanic tau beach 90s elite brand promotional tau in plastic bag she got this at a collector's garage sale and Paid five dollars for it and sold it for 45 plus shipping The next item are these bay blades. She said she founded a local thrift store for 20 dollars two big bags full They're selling well individually parted out sold two for best offer of 24 plus shipping so This is something I always pick up when I see them and do you want to know what they do? They go into my money pile pretty much because I don't know anything about them and I don't want to sell them in bulk because I know some of them are worth money so What's another thing that I do this with? The bionicles the lego bionicles the ones that I have a whole box full that are Incomplete and I know some of the masks sell for a lot of money and They're sitting somewhere in my money pile. I don't know so they'll just sit there They'll become more vintage and more rare and more hard to find and be worth more by the time I list them That's what I tell myself. It makes me feel better about my money pile so here are some of the bay blades that she has sold and I guess maybe google image search would work. I'm not really sure if you guys don't have google image search I do have a video that tells you how to use it. It's called just type in bolo buddies google lens And it will pull that up. It's a free app that helps you research items by taking a picture And it will identify your item that way. It's fantastic. It's a great resource for resellers and it is free Easy bake kitchen 2000s found at the salvation army for six dollars sold for full asking price of 54 99 Yeah, this is a bolo that I've heard about over and over again I don't know. I feel like I've passed them by even though. I know they're a bolo I don't know why but Let me know in the comments. Have you ever sold an easy bake kitchen? Have you ever used one? Like how does it work? How does it work? I want to know. All right. Here we go This is a role-playing adventure game and let's see. She got this at savers I think is a thrift store for five bucks It was like new content sold for asking price of 69 99 And that is what it looks like. So she opened it up. She showed what was included. She showed the condition All very important things for collectors poly pocket 1993 cozy kitty's pink heart compact bluebird. So this is by bluebird Bluebird is what you are looking for but this one has all the little accessories included I don't know if these are original to this poly pocket or not But you can see here it says bluebird if you see that look it up She got this at a garage sale on a bulk lot of small toys for five dollars and sold it for a best offer of 52 department 56 north pole santa little cake sweet shop series whatever retired And she got this at savers and she paid five dollars for it found. Uh, let's see Items like new found with another one next to it on a shelf paid five dollars and sold for a best offer of 78 plus shipping This is an old school 1980s bmx huffy thunder road for bicycle number plate. It's a bike plate How cool is that garage sale lady gave it to her for free? She had so much good stuff clearing her mom's house out sold for a best offer of 50 plus shipping Got a love free fisher price flip track mountain 1995 play set original box And this one she got at the goodwill for nine dollars and ninety nine cents She got it home and it had two complete sets in it. So score She thought it was good, but it was really good when she got home Uh, let's see color was half off of So paid five dollars sold for a best offer of 80 plus shipping and I think she has the other one still listed Royal haggar brown green mid-century large face Year drip, I don't know how to say that glaze 18 and a half inches Ah nightmare to ship Um, that's what I say about that and she got this at a church sale for she paid five to ten She can't remember so very quickly for 89 99 plus shipping The next item is another department 56 and this is the other one. I think she got it savers this one was brand new six dollars And sold it for 75 plus shipping received positive feedback breakables always make me nervous. I hear you girl. I hear you This one here is absolutely crazy George s Irving scary stories to tell in the dark rare vinyl record new sealed sold for a best offer of 750 dollars and she picked this up at a thrift store for two dollars Super score And the last one is this vintage scream ghost face mask fun world division gen one gen two Not sure which one fantastic faces 90s and it says c picks So the person buying this is going to know if it's a gen one or a gen two She says garage sale one dollar turns out to be a gen two sold for a best offer of 50 dollars so Let me know down in the comments. Which bolo was your favorite. Did you know about these? Have you sold any of these? I've sold some screen masks I've also made some mistakes in my early reselling years when I didn't really know about the screen masks So be careful with those because um, I have under sold some but I have also sold some for big money so they are definitely a bolo if you can find those old ones and Check out some youtube videos. They will teach you what to look for It'll tell you how to know if it's a gen one a gen two. Just type it into youtube I've went and like when I found them. I've searched videos to try to figure it out. It is complicated You know, it's the shape of the eyes. It's the dimple like in the chin the things on the bottom There's just different things that help you know, which generation it is And if you list it without a generation somebody's more than likely going to message you and say hey This is what it is And also one thing I've noticed when I sell them is there's a lot of non paying buyers So if you do an auction kind of expect a non payment If you get paid awesome, you're lucky I feel like one of them I had went really really high and they didn't pay and I'm like ah And then it happened again and I'm like ah, and then it finally sold So they do end up selling. They are highly collectible people want them But people do play around with sellers. I think on those Let me know if you've experienced the same thing when you've sold a screen mask. All right, you guys Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for watching again. It's all goods 90 94 I almost said 1994. Hold on. Let me pull it up It's all goods 94 on ebay. I will link that down below and then also like I said She's on what not go give her a follow over there. She's just starting out. She sold 293 things So go show her some love with a follow Be sure to click on the heart and follow her ebay store also. All right, you guys, thank you so much for being here Thank you for watching. Be sure to like comment subscribe and share and thanks for watching


So I'm not going to talk as fast same material I'll probably add a couple things at the end may extend it out a little bit if you guys are all right with that So like people have mentioned this very clickbaity title Will microservices die First of all, I'm Rich Hagerty. I work for IBM a developer advocate looking at new technologies. I'm more Java runtime focused This is about microservices, but at the end I'll Deviate a little bit into Java So the agenda we're going to talk about let's see I can read better up here Myth and facts about microservices thing you should know the future and a little bit about Java performance So first thing we need to define microservices And we can start by saying what it's not Which is the monolith right that's where most people or that's that's the standard and it's old news monoliths They're old-fashioned. They're problematic. They're evil but they work and Half the country so it's like Java 8 right no one admits they're using Java 8, but half the country is using it Monoliths around we have clients that are running the same application never taking it down for years That's how solid they are But it's not new and shiny we all want to go to the cloud we want to take advantage of cloud Technologies, so we're talking about microservices So these are the microservices over here. They're all maintainable and testable as single units Independently deployable loosely coupled. That's the key microservice should not count on other microservices of being up for their livelihood Organize around business capabilities. You want the like-minded people working on things that they understand And owned by a small team Submits about microservices the smaller the better the more the merrier Not true It depends on the function right they could be very small they could be very they could be huge I've seen some very large microservices Microservices are the destiny Monolith will have to be migrated all monoliths are gonna have to eventually be migrated. So here's an interesting poll Taken last year. So this is the amount of people actually doing microservices only about 17% 54 are content with their monoliths and This is really interesting 12% have started and they decided to go back Some more myths microservices make developers job easier Increases productivity boosts performance Microservices are fast. That's the selling points. But once you get into it, it's just like any other development, right? It all depends on communication and And working good as a team This is a job influencer. He's he brought up a good idea He goes why don't we take these microservices combine them into one big application and call something new and everyone will jump on that bandwagon because he's tired of microservices, but When implemented correctly like a couple of you folks have mentioned you've done it so microservice facts Independent deployment need continuous development pipeline. That's the key right the whole point of microservices One big point is maintainability, right? So you have the accounting microservice over here You want to make updates? You can do those independent of everything else You don't have to roll the whole application to get those updates Owned by a small team we talked about that Shouldn't have any code sharing no beta big no database sharing. So these are independent loosely coupled Very little integration between microservice other than through their APIs And they are agnostic to language. You can implement them in any language So things you should know if you're gonna do microservices Is it the default answer for your all your problems? I think we all know the answer know it isn't Microservice still need a good architecture So some of the more common architectures used for this right now are Domain driven design Event driven design. This is pretty funny Don't go down there resume resume driven design, right? I haven't done that. I need that. That's my resume day two operations Real important is anyone heard that term before day two operation is basically here's our new Application with microservices all in containers second day comes it's been running now what? How do you determine if it's working right? Right? You have to have a standard programming model to interact with other microservices So open API is a good good way to go with that set those APIs up front set up contracts Know that you affect others when you change those Be mindful of refactoring monoliths to microservice. So The people I asked earlier have implemented microservices. Did you come from a monolith you said sort of Anyone else did you come from Kina? So there if there are tools out there you should take advantage of one of them is I work for IBM anyone heard of WebSphere It's been around for 25 years. It's a Java runtime. We have a new version of that that runs containers. It's more Cloud native. It's called open Liberty. We have a tool called mono to micro That actually uses AI to look at your monolith and breaks it down and says this is where you need to split it up So I know other tools like that exist take advantage You don't have to reinvent the wheel We don't need to get into these So monoliths and microservices will coexist and going into the future But what the important thing that you should take away from this is you have to change your mindset Whether you stick with monolith moving to cloud or you're gonna go to microservices you need to embrace this cloud native application concept Cloud native application. There's so many tools on the cloud to support your application but if you don't Provide your application in a way that it can understand that you're really gonna defeat you're defeating the purpose of it What are cloud native applications? Here's a really good starting point. This was developed about 12 years ago It's called the 12 point 12 factor Application methodology and this was developed by heroku was one of the early cloud platform providers They took a look at what was working. What wasn't as teams try to bring force their their development their applications And they came up with guidelines best practices and these are the 12 factors. I'm not gonna go into each one of them But basically some of the things are kind of obvious right code base It's all gonna be driven from the same code base in get hub or some Repository like that your dependencies are gonna be really explicit Down to version number so you can reproduce your builds configuration is always external to your source code Have these well-defined build release run Processes in your in your pipeline Concurrency that's taken care of with your orchestrator like Kubernetes Disposability so your microservices need to be able to start clean and and clean up when they're done This is one of the key ones the dev prod parody what we're saying there is Whatever you're using to develop Should be as close to as possible what you're produced you're gonna put out in production right? So we don't have different folks working with different source code We get the same code base We say I want to build a test Version it's gonna be the same code.  You see it's in containers. You're gonna test in containers So you want those as close to as the same as possible logging becomes ultra ultra important in a microservice world You can have thousands of instances of your microservice you have an error How do you see that how does it tie to that instance running in another location on another another site? Logging is huge And of course your admin processes should be a part of the code, but they should be called externally as one-offs Over time I said I was developed about 12 years ago Since that time we've they've added some more API first we kind of talked about that Define your API is up first what your microservice is gonna provide Set up contracts saying this is what all your clients are gonna say I understand that contract I will live with that. So if anything changes your build will find that not when you run Telemetry is is basically logging extended so Kubernetes has hooks in it that it will ping your microservice and can determine its health and its Metrics, but you have to supply that going through these so Like I said, there's a lot of companies a lot of standards a lot of folks out there trying to make your life easier So there's a lot of API standards out there. These are the micro profile and jacardi with Java Right. These are open specs That define how you should define your applications a lot of these run times implement those specs Like I work for IBM. That's open Liberty. You got cork is from red hat All the big players Jakarta's got oh This slide is pretty interesting. So different versions of the spec depending on what you want to build I'm going through these kind of fast and of course Everything has to be containerized You know the tools pod man or Docker and When you have those you can deploy them anywhere any type of cloud private public or hybrid So the other thing is anyone implemented serverless So this comes up a lot. So it's called cloud native applications obsolete with serverless. So the concept is serverless It's either on or off So you have an application out there when it servicing a request it starts up service the request and goes away You as a consumer only get charged for what the time that it's Servicing the request. So a lot of folks are jumping on that because it sounds pretty good As far as using resources Some myths about serverless it actually does have a server obviously But it's always in an idle state when not being used. It's a pay as you go Occasionally running and fast operations scaling to zero So basically serverless is for short-lived applications. That was the intent people are kind of abusing it But that's what it was for Now here are some of the implementers of serverless IBM code engine Amazon Lambda. You probably have heard that one Google function is your function There's also Kubernetes extension called K native if you're aware of that. That's that's scaled to zero basically the same thing Now in the Java world It's pretty interesting. So any Java developers are working Java shops No one one Okay, so the biggest problem with Java is it has Biggest problem is its strength.  So the code is so optimized as it's running the longer it runs the better it gets Profilers go out and check the code see what's actually the parameters that are being passed Optimize the code that way. That's called dynamic compiling that happens as it runs So that's a benefit people like that the problem is Let's make that into a microservice. Well, it takes now 10 seconds to start up because it has to do all that Right. So instantaneous startup is is not a thing with Java. So Whenever there's a opening people jump in so Here are some options that have come up lately to try to solve this issue growl VM and Growl VM basically does static compilations of Java code. So it treats your code like see The problem with that is you lose the garbage collector. You lose the JVM and There's some dynamic features of Java you lose not the best solution a better solution is taking The Lennox CryU technology has anyone heard of that? CryU has been around for a long time. It stands for checkpoint restore and user space Basically, you can take a process in Lennox and you can say I'm running stop it take a checkpoint kill it Come back the next day start it. You'll start exactly the same spot So that that technology has been pushed up into the JVM's now So there's actually open J9, which is an open source JVM Has this feature called instant on so you basically start up a container run your job application It'll take a snapshot as soon as the application loads It'll shut down and it'll keep that image and that's what you load in your docker file And now when you start that container again, it starts up instantaneously I'm gonna show I'll show a demo of that real quick So the key point there is microservices are not the same as serverless if you hear that Microservices are supposed to be they last a while. They're not not up or down So when you're talking about scaling of microservices, we're talking about scaling from one instance to and instances Scaled to zero or serverless is talking about scaling from zero or one zero or one Before I leave I want to give a plug so at 455 I'm doing a talk couple rooms down that I'm gonna talk about microservices in Java if there's not a lot of Java folks here So you may not be that interested But basically the the concept there is we're gonna pull the jit that does the compiles out of the JVM and make it a remote service Now all your JVM clients will talk to this jit and the results are fascinating So key takeaways, I do want to do a demo if you want to stick around for a minute on that instant on So key takeaways do not use microservices as a goal Define your problems first monolith is not evil use best practices cloud native applications Definitely go down that road So if there's one little nugget you could take if you want to go to cloud You want to develop applications embrace cloud native technologies? All right, let me do a little demo real quick By the way that took well, I don't know I started my clock timer late. All right So I have this Java application it basically it's a simple app comes up and it shows system metrics and Some system properties for the underlying host now If I run let me do this. Where is it? I have a so this is The normal application this how long it takes to start up a job application Simple application still running. Here we go. Can you see that? five seconds right and Here's the application There you go return system properties and some some metrics and health So that's five seconds normally This is a solution for serverless by the way so now I'm going to start it with So I created an instant on or a cry you image With the same application I started it and stopped it took a snapshot of that and put it into a container So now let's see how long it takes So there you go it took 358 milliseconds Pretty impressive now. I also set up a aws cluster With kubernetes and the extension Knative so I have both of those images sitting in Knative and It's got a 30 second time out. So if it doesn't get a request it goes idle and Sit there for a while So let me do this Let me kill that application. I Think I have the pods command. I could type it but there it is so Right now it finds there is nothing running in the pods It's dead That means it's been over 30 seconds since I accessed this So here is the first so I have this loaded already the page But if I go to refresh it or I asked for system properties, it's going to send another request So I'm gonna click on this link. So this is a normal version So if you wrote a job application you want to take advantage of serverless. This is how long it takes We'll go ahead and start click One two three Took ten seconds So now here comes the instant-on version Destiny demo gods. Let's see how it works So three little over three seconds and what happens is Knative itself takes three seconds to fire up It's gonna get better But that just tells you the difference so this is Is acceptable Three seconds three point, you know through 300 milliseconds is acceptable. The other one really isn't so That is a instant-on Solution to serverless for Java applications. I know you guys aren't into Java, which is gonna what do you guys develop your Microsoft what what language oh? Okay, so goes real popular with serverless to is anyone implemented any serverless functions Okay, no JS. Okay, and what does it do? Okay, so it's a it's a it's an administrative function you do once in a while just a Okay Yeah, so that's perfect example of what the serverless is intended to be right it's a function that isn't very It doesn't isn't used very often, but it's there your code is probably in the code base, right? It's probably an API that isn't probably called by the any any other part of your application But you can create this little function start up get the information and die. That's what it's for But folks are looking at that model going hey that that sounds cheap It only gets it'll only get charged when it's being accessed. What if I put my whole model? It's on serverless Right no one's using it at night. I Don't know so one of the big the big problems with Microservice is what you're gonna find is as people are the intentions are correct, right? We want to take this monolith we want to put it into microservice so we can take advantage of all this cloud technology They're moving at the cloud thinking they're gonna save money and they don't Initially it takes it takes work your containers are gonna be too big Your scaling is not gonna work right because it's not gonna be efficient scaling So you have to have more instances running than you want You're gonna wind up and then you get that Amazon bill and you're gonna say hey, are we really saving that much? So it's that second day part where you figure out what's actually needed Streamlining all that application code making your containers smaller all those things But anyway, thank you very much. That's the end of my talk any thanks Any questions Yes Yeah, those are all features that you had to build into your application so they can determine metrics Microfile has a good API's for that. So metrics on health and Logging all that stuff to see what you're really doing. Where is it spending all of its time? That's a hard That's hard. There's no to hit button make efficient. All right, it doesn't work like that. You have to dig deeper Anything else? Well, hopefully in 10 years. We're all talking about converting our microservices back to these monoliths But anyway, thank you very much


This is Will Spencer from the Renaissance of Men here with the new 21 Report and Dr. Sean T. Smith. Hey, Sean. How you doing? Good to see you, Will. So you spoke this year at the 21 Convention. What was the subject of your talk? My usual topic of men being selective about the relationships that they bring into their lives. And what angle did you take this year? I talked about separating the person from the relationship and looking at the relationship as its own entity that you're bringing into your life because it's very easy to get infatuated and smitten with a human being. And then you can lose sight of how the relationship that you two are building is actually affecting your life. And how did you break that down for men, like just take it apart a little bit? Well, I talked a little bit about Peter the Great because he was an interesting character and he had these two marriages. He had a lot of relationships, but he had two marriages in particular. And one was a good marriage and one was a very bad marriage. And I talked a bit about how those marriages affected what he was doing in the world and how I guess the reason I chose him is because it's an illustration that this question of choosing your relationships wisely is a very old question. And if a regent from Russia in 1700 had to wrestle with this question, then obviously it's something that we should be paying attention to. You also talked a little bit about shame, I heard, as I said in Forbidden Your Speech. So break that down a little bit because that's the subject that's been coming up more and more of noticed. Yeah, it has been coming up and it's great because you did a presentation on shame, which was brilliant. Thank you. And of course we have Robert Glover who talks about shame and he's brilliant in the way he discusses it. I just took a little different angle. I talked about what it is as an adaptation in our minds, what it's for, and how it can and is weaponized and used against us. I think what's my observation, you can tell me if you think it's fair, that between men and women, well I think you said this. So I know you think it's fair that women, we were given physical strength and women were given shame. Those are the two forces that you laid out so brilliantly. So I talked a little bit about how women use wheeled shame on a societal level and then in turn how that puts us in a really bad position for choosing our relationships because if you buy into the messages that you are despicable, you are contemptible, then you're approaching your relationships from a position of supplication and submission and that's not good for anybody. It wasn't good for Peter the Great. He had a relationship that was forced upon him in arranged marriage. He had no power in that choice and it worked out very poorly and we can look all around and we can see men who are relinquishing their power because they are buying into the messages that you are contemptible.  I do, yeah of course. I think you did a nice job of showing how we are swimming in this messaging and that's what I took from it. It becomes difficult to see the messages, the shaming messages because they are so pervasive and it's just part of the normal discourse. You called attention to noticing it, just being aware of what's coming in. It's almost like you and I spoke two different sides of the same coin. I was lucky enough to see yours, you didn't get to see mine. When you see it, hopefully you'll say, oh yeah, this fits nicely with what I was saying. Now you've spoken at the 21 convention, this is your third time? I think so, yeah I spoke at a 21 convention and at a patriarch convention. What was the first year that you spoke here, if you remember? Probably 2018. 2018? That would be my guess. What are some of the ways you've seen the 21 convention change over the past, I guess we're at three years now? Well some things are constant, like Anthony Johnson, he's so utterly professional in the way he puts this together and if you follow Anthony on Twitter, you see one side of him. What you don't see is this man who is just calm, cool, collected, unbelievably professional and he puts together this event. This is like a three ring circus, I don't know how, I just got good people around him too but he has managed to put together this thing and it's kind of stunning to see what he's done here. Like the production value, the stuff that you don't see when you're watching videos like this. So that has remained a constant. The thing that changes I guess is the topic of discussion because we've seen a lot of different, I've seen a lot of different topics of discussion through these three conventions that I've been to and it's just a collection of ideas and I've even seen speakers disagreeing. I saw this afternoon two speakers having a disagreement about something that was pretty fundamental to each of their beliefs but it was a very civilized discussion and it's wonderful that we have a place like this where we can discuss ideas and it's okay to disagree, it's okay to have your own opinion and there's so little of that in society now. And so I guess going back to the point of what you see of Anthony Johnson if you follow him on social media, he's created this place where we can have these conversations. What are some of the new ideas that are coming in and some of the old ideas that may be going out in this, I guess, field of ideas? I haven't heard much about the pills this time around. Not that there's anything wrong with the pills but there was a time when so much of the conversation centered on what color pill are you?  But this conference has been a little more inclusive and a little less of the categorizing people and it's a discussion of ideas like you and I and Ken Curry just had a discussion about therapy and there are a lot of guys that are lined up to ask questions and that's a conversation that I don't know would have taken place three years ago just because things have changed. Have you gotten the chance to interact with any of the attendees? Yeah, they're great guys and that's another thing that doesn't change. Every time I come here, like I've reconnected with some old friends that I met first time around and the guys who come here are just so squared away and they're so motivated to get themselves to the next level whatever that is for them and that's also a constant in this conference. Have you gotten the chance to listen to many of the speakers as well? Yeah, not as many as I would like to because sometimes, well, there's always two speakers you want to hear and sometimes there's two talks going on at the same time and you have to choose unfortunately. But the good thing is get to watch the video later and when you missed. Who are some of the speakers you've enjoyed hearing speak? Well, I've really enjoyed your talk. I really enjoyed your discussion of shame and the project that you're working on which I won't say anything about it but it is going to be I'm excited about it. Thank you. Wonderful project. Arthur Kwam Lee talked about aesthetics. He's an artist. He's a fine artist, a classically trained artist. And he talked about the decline of masculinity and aesthetics and art and why that is not a great thing for the standards in arts. Like you got to have a balance between masculine and feminine and everything and his profession, like my profession, has been overly feminized to the point where the bad things that come with that being overly taken with that side of the spectrum happened to be in his what he was arguing was a loss of standards. So we went from he showed beautiful pictures of beautiful renaissance art and then he showed a banana duct tape to a wall. That's that's the new standard of what's brilliant in avant-garde. And he's he's making the case that I think he's making the case. I hope I'm not misspeaking that part of the problem there is that there is the loss of masculinity in art has led to that particular problem or created that particular contributed to that problem. Yeah. Yeah. And as he was talking, I was thinking about my own profession. Like there was a time when my profession was overly masculinized and it was neglecting the feminine side. And we've gone 180 degrees the other direction now where my profession of psychology is overly feminized. And we've lost some we've lost what the masculine brings to my profession. What sort of things is the masculine bring to your profession? Well, one of the things that the masculine brings to any discipline, I think, is standards. The dad is the one in the house, usually, who has the standards about getting your chores done on time. Mom typically, you know, and not every house is the same, obviously, yada, yada. But mom typically is the more you're attending more to the emotional side of things. And that's necessary. But you also need the dad to come along and say, Hey, we got a schedule here. We're going to keep moving. You have a job to do. I'm going to hold you to it. The dad will oftentimes let a kid get hurt in a way that is safe and controlled in a way that a mother won't because the dad will let the children take risks. And that's absolutely vital because that's how a child finds out where the limits are. And you find that out in a safe, contained environment rather than growing up and not having any idea what your limits are. And then you get hurt. So these are some of the things that the masculine brings standards and demands. And so you see that in my profession, I think, where. I don't think I know that in my profession, you see a loss of discipline in how to think about the job of doing psychology, whether it's therapy or research. Talk about your relationship with your Twitter account, because you're one of my favorite accounts on Twitter, consistently one of my favorites. And it sort of seems like as as much as I enjoy Twitter, maybe you don't enjoy Twitter as much sometimes. So talk about that because that shows up in your feed and just something I've been curious about. Do I look grumpy on Twitter? No, well, I mean, sometimes everybody's grumpy. You're supposed to be grumpy on Twitter, right? Yeah. No, I don't know. I don't know how to characterize it as grumpy. It's I would characterize it as a sort of ambivalence with social media. And that's kind of the world that we live in right now. It's like where some of us are many, perhaps even all, are reluctantly using these tools that sometimes feel like they're using us. Yeah, for sure. And I do enjoy Twitter. There's a time to turn it off. I tend to turn it off on the weekends just out of disciplines because I could scroll through it all weekend if I don't discipline myself. So I tend to step away. But the nice thing about Twitter is that if you use it correctly, it can help you hone your thoughts and be succinct. And I try to use it that way. And I try to present when I'm arguing with feminism, for example, I try to argue against feminism from a stance of not from anger, but just the amusement because I've declared myself the spokesman for the patriarchy. I don't know if anyone's noticed, but I have declared myself spokesman for the patriarchy. And congratulations. Thank you. Yeah, quite a promotion. And when I think about how to post things as on behalf of the patriarchy, I'm thinking, OK, well, if there was a guy, a bunch of guys sitting around and they actually had all this power that people think they have, how would they respond to things? And it would be sort of a detached amusement with what's going on. I'm not troubled by anything because I'm in control. And so that's that's the attitude I try to take on Twitter. And I try to use it in a way that cheers me up. And if it cheers somebody else up, that's fine, too. I don't care. Well, that's fantastic. Well, I mean, it's it's an honor to be sitting across from the spokesman for the patriarchy. I'm a big fan of your work. Anthony Johnson declared himself the president of the Manisphere. Kevin Samuels declared himself the I think the head of the Feminist Party. And it's incredible, maybe I've got to declare something, too. But I think we've got to get you a title. We've got to get me a title. I mean, I think that's great, though, because I think there's this caricature that's put out there of patriarchy is this nebulous, this nebulous force or this conspiratorial thinking. It's like, well, you know, there that doesn't actually exist. And it's a it's a phantom. It's a fiction. But if it could exist, this is maybe how it would talk. Is that kind of the exercise? Yeah. What are some of the things that the patriarchy would say if you can think about the top of your head? Um, well, here's there was a actress recently. I don't know if I can. Well, you'll edit it out if I can't say it, but she had a gown on or a t-shirt or something that said peg the patriarchy, which is a it's an act, right? And so my response on behalf of the patriarchy was, well, thank you, but we don't like you in that way.  My sense is that that's how these guys would respond. Just a little bit out of touch because they don't need to be in touch. For sure. I think, I mean, that voice needs to be out there. Well, speaking of patriarchy and the relationship with the patriarchy, I suppose there's a 22 convention make women great again. This happening this year.  I haven't spoken there. I got to sit on one talk. And again, that's just a scheduling problem. I wanted to see all of them. I happened to see Suzanne Venker. And what a lovely lady. And she was just a lovely message of we don't have to be in conflict with each other all the time, men and women. We can actually get along. And there were other lots of other talks I wanted to see. Did you get to interact with any of the women attendees? A little bit. Yeah, wonderful women. Yeah, they're not angry. They're like nobody here is angry. That's one of the things that stands out. Yes. There's nobody here who's in a grumpy mood. Yeah, my observation is incredibly positive all the time. Just a lot of happiness and a lot of joy to be discussing ideas. Now, it's your third year speaking here. What do you get out of coming to the 21 convention? It's fun. It's a hoot to be here. And plus, it's a challenge to try to put together a decent talk. You put together an amazing talk, but you know that it's a challenge to try to put something together that is clear and succinct and you're well-dressed and you're polished. And it's important to challenge yourself with these things. And not just sit in your office and do the same old comfortable thing over and over. What if you could talk a bit about your book, The Tactical Guide to Women? What would you like to know about it?  You have, what is it, the tactical guide to men? Is it the say, the practical guide to men? The practical guide to men. Yeah, but you've called this book your baby. I'm going to speak a little bit about that. It's my baby, I think, because this one more than others has really spoken to people. The reason I wrote this book is that I've been in private practice for about 16 years or so. And one of the things I started noticing early on is that when men were talking about their relationship difficulties, most of these men had, nobody had sat down with them and talked to them about being selective about their relationships. How do you choose somebody that is going to fit well in your life? Are you going to fit well in theirs and you'll be a nice team? They just don't have these conversations. And so that was my premise. That was my hypothesis. And so I started going through my files and looking for patterns and looking through the research and looking through evolutionary psychology to see what adaptations might apply here. And I wrote a book that said, all right, here's some basic things that you might look for in a woman so that you don't end up in family court. You don't end up with a string of a trail of destruction behind you. And apparently it struck a nerve because it's been very well received. And so it's gratifying to know that what I saw was a problem that needed to be addressed is actually a problem that needs to be addressed. Still get a lot of feedback from the book and people saying thank you and share my life and the book saved my life. I'm laughing at that because we just had a discussion about that phrase, the book saved my life and you'll have to watch. And they guess a viewer's laughter. Red Man Group, The Therapist, Livestream. Yeah, so that's where the book came from. And it's been a blessing because I guess apparently when you do something useful in the world you get paid for it and that's been nice. That's not nice. Yeah, yeah. I mean, but how is this book received in your professional in your professional world? Like do you get therapists contacting like I read your book and hate it? I read your book and I loved it. Occasionally someone will tell me that they read it and they like it. This was not written for my colleagues. Right, exactly. And one of the many reasons I didn't go to a research track, besides I like doing the work, but a minor reason that I didn't go into the research track is I didn't want to write to my colleagues. There's nothing wrong with that. I think that's an admirable thing to do, but I wanted to compete on a larger stage and see if I could produce something that more than seven people, including my supervisor, we're going to read. Yeah. Now your Dr. Sean T. Smith, what does the T stand for? Toxic or testosterone depends on the day. That's actually what some of my friends said last night. Yeah. Sean testosterone Smith. Yeah, I was going with toxic for a while, but then your friend told me testosterone. I think it's a positive shift. It's appropriate for the spokesman for the patriarchy. It's actually my grandfather's name, Theodore. But we can add another T in there. Yeah, we could. Well, cool. Thank you so much, Sean, for all the toxicity and testosterone. Thank you, Will. You add to this. And where can men go to find out more? Men and women go to find out more about you and what you do. I have a website, ironshrink.com, and my Twitter handle is at ironshrink. Awesome. That's it. Thank you again. Thank you. This is Will Spencer from the Renaissance of Men here with the New 21 Report and Dr. Sean T. Smith. Thanks so much.