Section 16b of the Mountains of California. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer. Visit LibriVox.org. The Mountains of California by John Muir. Section 16b from the Bee Pastures. The average elevation of the north half of the Sierra is, as we have seen considerably less than that of the south half. And small streams, with the bank and metal gardens dependent upon them, are less abundant. Around the headwaters of the Yuba, Feather, and Pit rivers, the extensive tablelands of lava are sparsely planted with pines, through which the sunshine reaches the ground with little interruption. Here flourishes a scattered, tufted growth of golden aplopavus, linoceros, bahia, guayathia, arnica, artemisia, and similar plants, with monsonita, cherry, plum, and thorn in ragged patches on the cooler hill slopes. At the extremities of the Great Central Plain, the Sierra and coast ranges curve around and lock together in a labyrinth of mountains and valleys, throughout which their flores are mingled, making, at the north, with its temperate climate and copious rainfall, a perfect paradise for bees. Though, strange to say, scarcely a single, regular bee ranch has yet been established in it. Of all the upper flower fields of the Sierra, Shasta is the most honey-full, and yet may surpass in fame the celebrated honey-hills of Heibla and Harthi Hymetis. Regarding this noble mountain, from a bee-point of view, encircled by its many climates and sweeping aloft from the torrid plain into the frosty azure, we find the first five thousand feet from the summit, generally snow-clad, and therefore about as honey-less as the sea. The base of this arctic region is girdled by a belt of crumbling lava, measuring about a thousand feet in vertical breadth, and is mostly free from snow and summer. Beautiful lichens enliven the faces of the cliffs with their bright colors, and, in some of the warmer nooks, there are a few tufts of alpine daisies—wallflowers and penstemons—but, notwithstanding, these bloom freely in late summer. The zone as a whole is almost as honey-less as the icy summit, and its lower edge may be taken as the honey-line. Immediately below this comes the forest zone, covered with a rich growth of conifers, chiefly silver firs, rich in pollen and honey-dew, and diversified with countless garden openings, many of them less than a hundred yards across. Next, in orderly succession, comes the Great Bee Zone. Its area far surpasses that of the icy summit and both the other zones combined, for it goes sweeping majestically around the entire mountain with a breadth of six or seven miles and a circumference of nearly a hundred miles. Shasta, as we have already seen, is a fire mountain created by a succession of eruptions of ashes and molten lava, which, flowing over the lips of its several craters, grew outward and upward like the trunk of a naughty, exogenous tree. Then followed a strange contrast. The glacial winter came on, loading the cooling mountain with ice, which flowed slowly outward in every direction, radiating from the summit in the form of one vast conical glacier, a down-crawling mantle of ice upon a fountain of smoldering fire. Crushing and grinding for centuries its brown, flinty lavas with incessant activity and thus degrading and remodeling the entire mountain. When at length the glacial period began to draw near its close, the ice mantle was gradually melted off around the bottom and, in receding and breaking into its present fragmentary condition, irregular rings and heaps of moraine matter were stored upon its flanks. The glacial erosion of most of the Shasta lavas produced detritus composed of rough subangular boulders of moderate size and of porous gravel and sand, which yields freely to the transporting power of running water. Magnificent floods from the ample fountains of ice and snow, working with sublime energy upon this prepared glacial detritus, sorted it out and carried down immense quantities from the higher slopes, and reformed it in smooth, delta-like beds around the base. And it is these flood-beds joined together that now form the main honey-zone of the old volcano. Thus, by forces seemingly antagonistic and destructive, as Mother Nature accomplished her beneficent designs, now a flood of fire, now a flood of ice, now a flood of water, and at length an outburst of organic life, a milky way of snowy petals and wings, girdling the rugged mountain like a cloud, as if the vivifying sunbeams beating against its sides had broken into a foam of plant, bloom, and bees, as sea waves break in bloom on a rock shore. In this flowery wilderness the bees rove and revel, rejoicing in the bounty of the sun, clambering eagerly through bramble and huckle-bloom, ringing the myriad bells of the Monsonita, now humming aloft among polliny willows and furs, now down on the ashy ground among gillias and butter-cups, and anon plunging deep into snowy banks of cherry and buckthorn. They consider the lilies and roll into them, and like lilies they toil not, for they are impelled by sun-power, as water-wheels by water-power, and when the one has plenty of high-pressure water, the other plenty of sun-shine they hum and quiver alike. Sauntering in the Shasta bee-lands in the Sundays of summer, one may readily infer the time of day from the comparative energy of bee movements alone, drowsy and moderate in the cool of the morning, increasing in energy with the ascending sun, and, at high noon, thrilling and quivering in wild ecstasy, then gradually declining again to the stillness of night. In my excursions among the glaciers I occasionally meet bees that are hungry, like mountaineers who venture too far and remain too long above the bread-line, then they droop and wither like autumn leaves. The Shasta bees are perhaps better fed than any others in the Sierra. Their field work is one perpetual feast, but, however exhilarating, the sunshine or bountiful the supply of flowers, they are always dainty feeders.  But bees, though as dainty as they, hug their favourite flowers with profound cordiality and push their blunt, polliny faces against them, like babies on their mother's bosom. And fondly, too, with eternal love, does Mother Nature clasp her small bee-babies and suckle them, multitudes at once, on her warm Shasta breast. Besides the common honey-bee there are many other species here, fine, mossy, burly fellows who were nourished on the mountains thousands of sunny seasons before the advent of the domestic species. Among these are the bumble-bees, mason-bees, carpenter-bees, and leaf-cutters. Butterflies, too, and moths of every size and pattern, some broad-winged like bats flapping slowly and sailing in easy curves, others like small, flying violets, shaking about loosely and short crooked flights close to the flowers, feasting luxuriously night and day. Great numbers of deer also delight to dwell in the brushy portions of the bee-pastures. Bears, too, roam the sweet wilderness, their blunt, shaggy forms harmonising well with the trees and tangled bushes, and with the bees also notwithstanding the disparity in size. They are fond of all good things and enjoy them to the utmost, with but little troublesome discrimination, flowers and leaves as well as berries, and the bees themselves as well as their honey. Though the California bears have as yet but little experience with honey-bees, they often succeed in reaching their bountiful stores, and it seems doubtful whether bees themselves enjoy honey with so great a relish. By means of their powerful teeth and claws, they can gnaw and tear open almost any hive conveniently accessible. Most honey-bees, however, in search of a home, are wise enough to make choice of a hollow in a living-tree, a considerable distance above the ground where such places are to be had. Then they are pretty secure, for though the smaller black and brown bears climb well, they are unable to break into strong hives, while compelled to exert themselves to keep from falling, and at the same time to endure the stings of the fighting bees without having their paws free to rub them off. But woe to the black bumblebees discovered in their mossy nests in the ground. With a few strokes of their huge paws, the bears uncover the entire establishment, and before time is given for a general buzz, bees old and young, larvae, honey, stings, nest, and all, are taken in one ravishing mouthful. Not the least influential of the agents concerned in the superior sweetness of the Shasta flora are its storms. Storms I mean that are strictly local, bred and borne on the mountain. The magical rapidity with which they are grown on the mountaintop, and bestow their charity in rain and snow, never fails to astonish the inexperienced lowlander. Often in calm, glowing days, while the bees are still on the wing, a storm cloud may be seen far above in the pure ether, swelling its pearl bosses and growing silently like a plant. Presently a clear, ringing discharge of thunder is heard, followed by a rush of wind that comes sounding over the bending woods like the roar of the ocean, mingling raindrops, snowflowers, honeyflowers, and bees in wild storm harmony. Still more impressive are the warm, reviving days of spring in the mountain pastures. The blood of the plants throbbing beneath the life-giving sunshine seems to be heard and felt. Plant growth goes on before our eyes, and every tree in the woods, and every bush and flower, is seen as a hive of restless industry. The deeps of the sky are mottled with singing wings of every tone and color, clouds of brilliant chrysotidae dancing and swirling in exquisite rhythm, golden-barred Vespidae, dragonflies, butterflies, grating cicadas, and jolly, rattling grasshoppers, fairly enameling delight. On bright crisp mornings a striking optical effect may frequently be observed from the shadows of the higher mountains while the sunbeams are pouring past overhead. Then every insect, no matter what may be its own proper color, burns white in the light.  In Southern California, where bee culture has had so much skillful attention of late years, the pasturage is not more abundant or more advantageously varied as to the number of its honey-plants and their distribution over mountain and plain, than that of many other portions of the state where the industrial currents flow in other channels. The famous white sage, Audubergia, belonging to the mint family, flourishes here in all its glory, blooming in May and yielding great quantities of clear pale honey, which is greatly prized and every market it has yet reached. This species grows chiefly in the valleys and low hills. The black sage on the mountains is part of a dense thorny chaparral, which is composed chiefly of adenastoma, seanithus, manzanita, and cherry, not differing greatly from that of the southern portion of the Sierra, but more dense and continuous and taller and remaining longer in bloom. Stream-side gardens, so charming a feature of both the Sierra and Coast mountains, are less numerous in Southern California, but they are exceedingly rich in honey-flowers, wherever found. Melilitus, Columbine, Colencia, Verbena, Zauschneria, wild rose, honeysuckle, Philadelphia, and lilies rising from the warm, moist dells in a very storm of exuberance. Wild buckwheat of many species is developed in abundance over the dry, sandy valleys and lower slopes of the mountains toward the end of summer, and is, at this time, the main dependence of the bees, reinforced here and thereby orange groves, alfalfa fields, and small home gardens. The main honey months in ordinary seasons are April, May, June, July, and August, while the other months are usually flowery enough to yield sufficient for the bees. According to Mr. J. T. Gordon, president of the Los Angeles County Beekeepers Association, the first bees introduced into the county were a single hive, which cost $150 in San Francisco, and arrived in September, 1854. Footnote. Fifteen hives of Italian bees were introduced into Los Angeles County in 1855, and in 1876 they had increased to 500. The marked superiority claimed for them over the common species is now attracting considerable attention. End of footnote. In April of the following year this hive sent out two swarms, which were sold for $100 each. From this small beginning the bees gradually multiplied to about 3,000 swarms in the year 1873. In 1876 it was estimated that there were between 15,000 to 20,000 hives in the county, producing an annual yield of about 100 pounds to the hive. In some exceptional cases a much greater yield. In San Diego County at the beginning of the season of 1878 there were about 24,000 hives, and the shipments from the one port of San Diego for the same year from July 17th to November 10th were 1,071 barrels, 15,544 cases, and nearly 90 tons. The largest bee ranches have about 1,000 hives and are carefully and skillfully managed every scientific appliance of merit being brought into use. There are few beekeepers, however, who own half as many as this or who give their undivided attention to the business. Orange culture at present is heavily overshadowing every other business. A good many of the so-called bee ranches of Los Angeles and San Diego counties are still of the rudest pioneer kind imaginable. A man unsuccessful in everything else hears the interesting story of the profits and comforts of beekeeping and concludes to try it. He buys a few colonies, or gets them, from some overstocked ranch on shares, takes them back to the foot of some canyon where the pastureage is fresh, squats on the land with or without the permission of the owner, sets up his hives, makes a box cabin for himself scarcely bigger than a bee hive, and awaits his fortune. Bees suffer sadly from famine during the dry years, which occasionally occur in the southern and middle portions of the state, if the rainfall amounts to only 3 or 4 inches instead of from 12 to 20 as in ordinary seasons. Then sheep and cattle die in the thousands, and so do these small winged cattle, unless they are carefully fed or removed to other pastures. The year 1877 will long be remembered as exceptionally rainless and distressing. Scarcely a flower bloomed on the dry valleys away from the stream-sides and not a single grainfield depending upon rain was reaped. The seed, only sprouted, came up a little way and withered. Horses, cattle, and sheep grew thinner day by day, nibbling at bushes and weeds along the shallowing edges of streams, many of which were dried up altogether, for the first time since the settlement of the country. In the course of a trip I made during the summer of that year through Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Los Angeles counties, the deplorable effects of the drought were everywhere visible.  Even the birds and squirrels were in distress, though their suffering was less painfully apparent than that of the poor cattle. These were falling one by one in slow, sure starvation along the banks of the hot sluggish streams, while thousands of buzzards correspondingly fat were sailing above them or standing gorged on the ground beneath the trees, waiting with easy faith for fresh carcasses. The quails, prudently considering the hard times, abandoned all thought of paring. They were too poor to marry, and so continued in flocks all through the year without attempting to rear young. The ground squirrels, although an exceptionally industrious and enterprising race, as every farmer knows, were hard pushed for a living. Not a fresh leaf or seed was to be found, but a wave in the trees, whose bossy masses of dark green foliage presented a striking contrast to the ashen baldness of the ground beneath them. The squirrels, leaving their accustomed feening grounds, betook themselves to the leafy oaks to gnaw out the acorn-stores of the provident woodpeckers, but the latter kept up a vigilant watch upon their movements. I noticed four woodpeckers in league against one squirrel, driving the poor fellow out of an oak that they claimed. He dodged round the knotty trunk from side to side as nimbly as he could in his famished condition, only to find a sharp bill everywhere. But the fate of the bees that year seemed the saddest of all. In different portions of Los Angeles and San Diego counties from one-half to three-fourths of them died of sheer starvation. Not less than 18,000 colonies perished in these two counties alone, while in the adjacent counties the death rate was hardly less. Even the colonies nearest to the mountains suffered this year, for the smaller vegetation on the foothills was affected by the drought almost as severely as that of the valleys and plains, and even the hardy, deep-rooted chaparral, the surest dependence of the bees, bloomed sparingly while much of it was beyond reach. Every swarm could have been saved, however, by promptly supplying them with food when their own stores began to fail, and before they became enfeebled and discouraged, or by cutting roads back into the mountains and taking them into the heart of the flowery chaparral. The Santa Lucia, San Rafael, San Gabriel, San Acinto, and San Bernardino ranges are almost untouched as yet by the wild bees. Some idea of their resources and of the advantages and disadvantages they offer to beekeepers may be formed from an excursion that I made into the San Gabriel range about the beginning of August of the dry year. This range, containing most of the characteristic features of the other ranges just mentioned, overlooks the Los Angeles vineyards and orange groves from the north, and is more rigidly inaccessible, in the ordinary meaning of the word, than any other that I ever attempted to penetrate. The slopes are exceptionally steep and insecure to the foot, and they are covered with thorny bushes from five to ten feet high, with the exception of little spots not visible in general views, the entire surface is covered with them, masked in close hedge growth, sweeping gracefully down into every gorge and hollow, and swelling over every ridge and summit in jaggy, ungovernable exuberance, offering more honey to the acre for half the year than the most crowded clover field. But when beheld from the open San Gabriel valley, beaten with dry sunshine, all that was seen of the range seemed to wear a forbidding aspect. From base to summit all seemed gray, barren, silent, its glorious chaparral appearing like dry moss, creeping over its dull wrinkled ridges and hollows. Setting out from Pasadena, I reached the foot of the range about sundown, and being weary and heated with my walk across the shadeless valley, concluded to camp for the night. After resting a few moments, I began to look about among the flood-bolders of Eaton Creek for a camp-crown, when I came upon a strange, dark-looking man who had been chopping cordwood. He seemed surprised at seeing me, and I sat down with him on the live oak log he had been cutting and made haste to give a reason for my appearance in his solitude, explaining that I was anxious to find out something about the mountains and meant to make my way up Eaton Creek next morning. Then he kindly invited me to camp with him and led me to his little cabin, situated at the foot of the mountains, where a small spring loses out of a bank overgrown with wild rose bushes. After supper, when the daylight was gone, he explained that he was out of candles, so we sat in the dark while he gave me a sketch of his life in a mixture of Spanish and English. He was born in Mexico, his father Irish, his mother Spanish. He had been a miner, rancher, prospector, hunter, et cetera, rambling always, and wearing his life away in mere waste. But now he was going to settle down. His past life, he said, was of no account, but the future was promising. He was going to make money and marry a Spanish woman. People mine here for water as for gold. He had been running a tunnel into a spur of the mountain back of his cabin. My prospect is good, he said, and if I chance to strike a good strong flow, I'll soon be worth five thousand or ten thousand dollars. For that flat out there, referring to a small irregular patch of bouldery detritus, two or three acres in size, that had been deposited by Eaton Creek during some flood season, that flat is large enough for a nice orange grove, and the bank behind the cabin will do for a vineyard. And after watering my own trees and vines, I will have some water left to sell to my neighbors below me, down the valley. And then, he continued, I can keep bees and make money that way too, for the mountains above here are just full of honey in the summertime, and one of my neighbors down here says that he will let me have a whole lot of hives on shares to start with. You see, I have a good thing, I'm all right now. All this prospective affluence in the sunken, boulder choked floodbed of a mountain stream. Leaving the bees out of the count, most fortune-seekers would as soon think of settling on the summit of Mount Shasta. Next morning, wishing my hopeful entertainer good luck, I set out on my shaggy excursion. About half a mile's walk above the cabin, I came to the fall, famous throughout the valley settlements, as the finest yet discovered in San Gabriel Mountains. It is a charming little thing with a low, sweet voice, singing like a bird, as it pours from a notch in a short ledge, some thirty-five or forty feet into a round mirror pool. The face of the cliff back of it, and on both sides, is smoothly covered and embossed with mosses, against which the white water shines out in showy relief, like a silver instrument in a velvet case. Here come the San Gabriel lads and lassies to gather ferns and dabble away their hot holidays in the cool water, glad to escape from their commonplace palm gardens and orange groves. The delicate maiden-hair grows on fissured rocks within reach of the spray, while broad-leaved maples and sycamores cast soft, mellow shade over a rich profusion of bee-flowers, growing among boulders in front of the pool. The fall, the flowers, the bees, the ferny rocks and leafy shade, forming a charming little poem of wildness, the last of a series extending down the flowery slopes of Mount San Antonio through the rugged, foam-beaten bosses of the main Eaton Canyon. From the base of the fall I followed the ridge that forms the western rim of the Eaton Basin to the summit of one of the principal peaks, which is about five thousand feet above sea level. Then, turning eastward, I crossed the middle of the basin, forcing away over its main subordinate ridges and across its eastern rim, having to contend almost everywhere with the floweriest and most impenetrable growth of honey-bushes I ever encountered since first my mountaineering began. Most of the Shasta Chaparral is leafy, nearly to the ground. Here the main stems are naked, for three or four feet, and interspiked with dead twigs, forming a stiff chervaux de frise, through which even the bears make their way with difficulty. I was compelled to creep for miles on all fours, and in following the bear trails often found tufts of hair on the bushes, where they had forced themselves through. For one hundred feet or so above the fall, the ascent was made possible only by tough cushions of club moss that clung to the rock. Above this the ridge weathers away to a thin knife-blade for a few hundred yards, and thence to the summit of the range it carries a bristly mane of Chaparral. Here and there small openings occur on rocky places, commanding fine views across the cultivated valley to the ocean. These, I found by the tracks, were favorite outlooks and resting places for the wild animals, bears, wolves, foxes, wildcats, etc., which abound here, and would have to be taken into account in the establishment of bee ranches. In the deepest thickets I found wood-rat villages, groups of huts four to six feet high, built of sticks and leaves and rough tapering piles, like musk-rat cabins. I noticed a good many bees, too, most of them wild. The tame honeybees seemed languid and wing-weary, as if they had come all the way up from the flowerless valley. After reaching the summit I had time to make only a hasty survey of the basin, now glowing in the sunset gold, before hastening down into one of the tributary canyons in search of water. Emerging from a particularly tedious breadth of Chaparral I found myself free and erect in a beautiful park-like grove of mountain-live oak, where the ground was planted with espidiums and brier roses, while the glossy foliage made a close canopy overhead, leaving the gray dividing trunks bare to show the beauty of their interlacing arches. The bottom of the canyon was dry, where I first reached it, but a bunch of scarlet mimulus indicated water at no great distance, and I soon discovered about a bucketful in a hollow of the rock. This, however, was full of dead bees, wasps, beetles, and leaves well steeped and simmered, and would therefore require boiling and filtering through fresh charcoal before it could be made available. Tracing the dry channel about a mile farther down to its junction with a larger tributary canyon I at length discovered a lot of boulder pools, clear as crystal, brimming full, and linked together by glistening streamlets just strong enough to sing audibly. Flowers in full bloom adorned their margins, lilies ten feet high, larks spur, column binds, and luxuriant ferns, leaning and overarching in lavish abundance while a noble old live oak spread its rugged arms over all. Here I camped, making my bed on smooth cobblestones. Next day, in the channel of a tributary that heads on Mount San Antonio, I passed about fifteen or twenty gardens like the one in which I slept, lilies and every one of them, in the full pomp of bloom. My third camp was made near the middle of the general basin at the head of a long system of cascades from ten to twenty feet high, one following the other in close succession down a rocky inaccessible canyon, making a total descent of nearly one thousand seven hundred feet. Above the cascades the mainstream passes through a series of open, sunny levels, the largest of which are about an acre in size, where the wild bees and their companions were feasting on a showy growth of Zauschneria, painted cups, and Manardella, and gray squirrels were busy harvesting the burrs of the Douglas spruce, the only conifer I met in the basin. The eastern slopes of the basin are in every way similar to those we have described, and the same may be said of the other portions of the range. From the highest summit, far as the eye could reach, the landscape was one vast bee pasture, a rolling wilderness of honey bloom, scarcely broken by bits of forest, or the rocky outcrops of hilltops and ridges. Behind the San Bernardino Range lies the wild sagebrush country, bounded on the east by the Colorado River, an extending and a general, northerly direction to Nevada, and along the eastern base of the Sierra, beyond Mano Lake. The greater portion of this immense region, including Owens Valley, Death Valley, and the sink of the Mojave, the area of which is nearly one fifth that of the entire state, is usually regarded as a desert, not because of any lack in the soil, but for want of rain and rivers available for irrigation. Very little of it, however, is desert in the eyes of a bee. Looking now over all the available pastures of California, it appears that the business of beekeeping is still in its infancy. Even in the more enterprising of the southern counties, where so vigorous a beginning has been made, less than a tenth of their honey resources have as yet been developed. While in the great plain, the coast ranges, the Sierra Nevada, and the northern region about Mount Shasta, the business can hardly be said to exist at all. What the limits of its developments in the future may be, with the advantages of cheaper transportation and the invention of better methods in general, it is not easy to guess. Nor, on the other hand, are we able to measure the influence on bee interests, likely to follow the destruction of the forests, now rapidly falling before fire and the axe. As to the sheep evil, that can hardly become greater than it is at the present day. In short, notwithstanding the widespread deterioration and destruction of every kind already affected, California, with her incomparable climate and flora, is still, as far as I know, the best of all the bee-lands of the world. End of Section 16b, The Bee Pastures, and End of the Mountains of California by John Muir. Read by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California, for LibriVox, Spring 2007.


So today I want to announce something very important. I'm starting a second YouTube channel I've decided that one YouTube channel just it doesn't make sense anymore for me because you know I've got the Linux related YouTube channel distro tube and I've made about 1500 videos now in the last six and a half years I've made 1500 videos about Linux and free and open source software and it's great. I love Linux I love a lot of the software that I talk about, you know I've made so many videos about command line utilities and them and emacs and I love all those topics window managers love all the Tiling window manager stuff and it's interesting. I'm passionate about that stuff, but there's so many other things in life I'm passionate about right so it's one of those things. We all have different interests different hobbies Nobody is interested in just one subject and I really started thinking about this You know seriously thinking about this about four years ago So this has been this has been a long time coming because about four years ago You know my channel is about six and a half years old. So really after about two years I'd probably made 500 videos about Linux for an open source software at that point in the first two years of the channel Because I was even more active in the early days of the channel than I am now So I made a lot of videos at that point and even then I was like, you know what I'm tired of talking about Linux Or I don't want to just talk about Linux like I want to break the monotony. I want to keep things interesting I want to keep things fun. And you know, I had seriously made the determination Like you know going into the third year of the channel like this is the year I'm gonna start at least one other YouTube channel and I never did it because you know starting a new channel Like that's gonna be some work.  I was like, this is the year I'm gonna start a second channel and that never happened and then finally, you know six years into it I finally decided you know what, you know, it's time, right? It's time because again, I want to break that monotony I want to keep things interesting keep things fun because I want to be able to do this for the long term You don't want to get Burnout and part of getting burnout is not necessarily the workload Part of being burnout is when things are just not fun anymore And I think it makes sense to have multiple channels because everyone has multiple interests in life, you know even multiple interests that They are passionate about I mean everybody knows a little about everything But most people, you know have real passion and deep knowledge It at least in a few areas a handful of areas in life, you know It's not like Linux is the thing that I know the most about in life And you know oddly enough all the made 1500 videos about Linux and free and open source software And I've certainly spent most of my adult life, you know Playing with computers and tech and especially Linux and free and open source software have dedicated a large portion of my adult life To that but honestly as a kid growing up I mean if we're talking about subjects that you could consider me an expert in I didn't go to school for Computers or anything tech related right my school training my university training is actually in music I've spent pretty much my entire life from the time I was in fifth grade till now, you know as a musician, you know, so I've actually got college degrees in music I've got a bachelor's degree in music a master's degree in music worked on a PhD in music Although I never finished it because professionally. I wasn't I decided I wasn't going to pursue a profession in music But you know, that's that's something that I'm very passionate about and there's again There's a handful of topics in life that I'm very passionate about so I always kind of resented when I started my Linux YouTube channel that I just had the one YouTube channel and the one topic to discuss right because you know I wanted to do other things But it didn't make sense to do multiple channels when you're new to YouTube because honestly when you're new to YouTube You need to just focus on that one channel that one thing because it takes so long to actually learn how to do YouTube right There's a learning curve right there There's actually a steep learning curve and you do have to put in a lot of time a lot of effort a lot of discipline And you probably have to make a few hundred videos on YouTube before you really kind of know how the game is played So, you know now that I kind of know how the YouTube game is played right now Now it kind of makes sense to branch out a little bit I think also this is the right time because I'm in a better place mentally as far as Especially most people on YouTube, especially when you first getting into YouTube kind of new to YouTube You're you're so concerned about the analytics the viewers the subscribers You know, you get wrapped up into all of that where these days Hell I haven't even looked at my analytics for YouTube probably in months I have no idea, you know what any of the analytics are because these days I'm just not as interested in that stuff to me these days It's more about am I enjoying what I'm doing and that's kind of where I'm at now So I've created the second YouTube channel this new YouTube channel is going to be called DT options now What this channel will be about will be primarily focused on option trading It's going to be primarily a financial and investing channel. So I've been a trader for many years You know, who knows when I started I I actually remember buying my first shares of stock You know, well, like when I was a teenager, right? But I wasn't an active trader back then but I say I've been really active Actively involved in trading for you know more than a decade But I first discovered options about eight years ago And you know, I became really passionate about options trading because options Really kind of changed the way I thought about trading and really about life in general because you know options are so different than other financial instruments because you know unlike trading stocks or Forex or Cryptocurrencies or futures, you know options are really interesting because of their Flexibility, it's a really neat kind of trading instrument options are because for one thing They let you define your risk if you want to put on an options trade that has a 90% chance of winning You can do that if you want to put on a options trade that has a 10% chance of winning You can do that and obviously the more risk you take the more reward that you could make Obviously the less risk you take the less reward so you can kind of pick exactly your comfort level when it comes to risk Rewardness as something very different. You know, for example, if you're used to something like trading stocks or trading futures Which are essentially coin flips, right? It's a 50-50 bet right you flip a coin. It's either heads or tails Right, it's either going up or going down options or something quite different options are also amazing in terms of their flexibility as far as strategies that you could use because there's literally hundreds of option strategies out there that you could choose to employ and Another advantage of options compared to trading things like stocks, for example is options are leveraged They they actually are very capital efficient much more capital efficient than just trading stocks So I've been seriously trading options as far as in a very active way here and the last I would say four or five years where you know, I typically make Thousands of options trades every year. I would say here in the last three years or so I average about 2,500 options trades every year, right? I put on a lot of options trades and you know, it's one of those things again It's such a passion of mine nowadays You know, I can't imagine not trading and a few years ago. I would say a couple of years ago I really you know one of my other passions that I had well It's a new passion is I wanted to get into writing books because so many people write books these days You know, everybody now writes books especially now that self-publishing is a thing and I had so many ideas of topics That you know, I really love I had like three or four different book ideas And I started kind of writing these books You know, I started, you know outlining a lot of different things But ultimately I would say about a year ago. I decided hey It's my very first book and I'm kind of I'm doing it wrong Let me focus on one book and really focus on writing one book So I decided to write a book about options trading and specifically my style of options trading The strategy that I typically employ when I trade options So I just recently finished and it's currently published over on Amazon the super wheel options strategy How to achieve financial freedom trading options So you'll find a link in the description for those that want to check out my book And I may actually do some videos here on the distro tube channel about the whole Book writing process because that was a journey in itself, especially someone that knew nothing about it Yeah, it's kind of like when I started my YouTube channel I knew nothing about audio and video and such a steep learning curve writing a book There's a serious learning curve with that as well now some of you may wonder, you know Is there any kind of connection between starting a channel about trading a channel about finance? Is there a connection between that and a channel about free and open-source software? I mean is what's the deal DT? Well, I think there is I actually think it makes sense Why I'm passionate about free and open-source software and why I'm passionate about Financial freedom, right? I think yeah, I've stated this many times that I'm all about all things freedom, right? And you know unlike a lot of other freedoms that are granted to us by the government or for those of you that are Religious you you think certain freedoms are granted to you by God, right? But you know financial freedom is a totally different kind of freedom because it's not given to you by anybody It's it's not something that is granted It's something that you actually have to earn with financial freedom You have to work for it. You have to earn it you have to go out there and achieve it And it's one of the saddest things about the world is that most people are not financially free They're not financially independent most people when I say they're not financially independent They actually require the assistance of somebody else just to get by whether it be their parents or their spouse or if you're older Maybe you depend on your children for a financial help or many people depend on government assistance for financial help And there's no reason why everyone can't be financially free because achieving that financial freedom that financial independence I'm talking about it. It isn't difficult, right? This isn't I won't say it's easy But you know you don't have to be a genius to do it. It requires some work You have to work at it a little bit But it's something that I believe pretty much anybody can do Part of the problem with why so many people aren't financially free financially independent It's just a lack of education. There's just not a lot of education being given to the general public and especially to the kids, right? Kids in school they don't learn about finance trading investing That's typically not subjects that are really covered. It's certainly not in depth in school And unfortunately, I think that's part of the problem with today's educational system And one of the things that you know, I've always been a teacher as far as earlier in life I taught music obviously when I mentioned I had music degrees. I've been a music teacher, obviously I've made 1500 videos teaching people about the gnu slash Linux operating system and learning the command line Learning text editors like vim and emacs and I've made all of these educational kind of videos I've I've been a teacher right and then I'm good at it And this is what I want to focus on now is educating the public about trading and investing And again, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to make this work All you need is a little time you need a little time you got to dedicate a little time to studying And you got to be a disciplined person if you're not a disciplined person You know, then you can't make this work. You have to be disciplined not just in your trading but also in life You have to go to work. You have to make a little money You have to be able to save a little money so that you can actually find a proper Size trading account and then when you start trading you have to be a disciplined person That's really all it is is learning to be disciplined And if you can do that you can achieve that financial freedom that so many of us desire So for those that want to follow along with me on my new youtube journey, check out my new channel dt options peace guys


Hi again, in this lesson we're going to learn about that how to check what operating system I'm running on in Python programming language. To do that, first, what we need to do is to import platform module. Platform module in Python programming language give to us a lot of methods which provide to us further informations about our platform and our operating system. So if we want to find out informations about our operating system, we will call method system which returns the system operating system name. So it will return either Linux, Windows and so on. Let's check it, our operating system is Windows, but which version? If we want to find version of our operating system, we will use method release of platform module. This method returns the system release. Let's check it out and release of Windows is Windows 7. We can combine those two informations to be a little bit beautiful, to combine them into one string. For example, let's say platform.system plus platform.release. It will combine just those two strings. I don't want to give any blank space to those two words. And that's just a better, fancier information of our operating system and its current release. So it's Windows version 7. That's all in this lesson. Thanks for watching. See you in some next lesson. Bye-bye.


My name is Julius Kidinji. I work for International Livestock Research Institute as a research assistant. I support dairy development. I've been working on an accelerated variety and development program whereby I've been coordinating research, meaning dairy. We've worked in western Kenya, which is more of the pre-commercial dairy areas. We've been doing work around improved forages of brick areas, which we've been taking to farmers. One of the things that we realized especially for our female smallholder farmers is around the conservation of brick areas. The most available technology of conservation has been box-belling, which is quite involving in terms of labour. It will require the woman to compress the grass, which is quite tasking. One of the things that we worked on is an improved box-beller, which doesn't require a lot of effort. It's a lever-beller and the women are able to build the grass easily. We promoted this technology across different counties and the women were able to build grass just like the male counterpart and also participate in the market. We were able to look for alternative ways in which we could work with women to participate in the fodder value chain. One of the ways that we've been able to work with the women is allowing the women to participate in the dairy value chain through leasing of land whereby the women are able to lease land, they are able to grow improved forages and from growing the improved forages they are able to generate income. Now from this income the women have been encouraged to take part in dairy by buying cows, which now they take as their own and from those cows they've been able to derive income from dairy. Also the other thing that we've been able to do with the women from that is that we are able to target our trainings. One of the things that we did is that we realized that women play an important role around milking and we targeted our trainings to have an audience that purely is the one that is in charge of milking. So what we've been able to do is the trainings around mastitis, we've been able to purely target the women and through that we've been able to reduce the cases of mastitis infection in our areas. The other things that we've also been able to do is around breeding work, we rolled out a campaign of mass insemination and from our previous studies is that we realized women are the primary caregivers of the cows and working with the women training the women on heat detection we've been able to improve our conception rates and we've been able to get more conceptions out of working with women as the ones who are detecting heat and also the ones who are contacting the rates for breeding.


Hello everybody, let me know if you can hear me for sure. So this is super last minute I just came home from hanging out with some people my Brian's away doing stuff And I just thought I would hang out with you guys for a little bit and chat about the day I went up to Denver to a limb loss event April is actually limb loss awareness. Oh hi chipper soul and Alex shenanigans It's great to see you guys here and Ford boy Interesting comment and Raven wool. Thanks for being here guys and perfect and Ethan and Alexa Awesome, I'm so glad you guys are all hanging out with you here with me tonight so like I said, um, this is like super last minute, so I'm super psyched you guys are all here and Zarina, let me know if I said your name, right or not and Katie and Katie. Hey guys So like I said, um, I was up in Denver this morning At the amputee coalition Lim loss awareness event like specifically for amputees, but also just for everybody. Hi Jim or gin gin There we go. Definitely shout out for you And hey Ben. Oh, thanks. Thanks for encouraging people to hit that like button And so I thought I just got to hang out and chat with you guys See everybody was doing and then talk a little bit about talk a little bit about that If you guys were interested in some things that I learned from the handy dandy informational sheet Which I actually didn't know you would think being an amputee and You know kind of being in the public eye for this stuff that I would I would know a thing or two about it being Lim loss awareness month, but I definitely didn't until like this week Hi, Juliana and Alex shenanigans Oh It's full as a new Subscribers, thanks so much. I really appreciate you being here and Juliana. Thanks so much So, let me know what you guys have been up to today. I would love to hear as we dive in here, so I Was I've only ever been to like one event where there it was like when I was in a room full of amputees and it was right after My amputation like I was still in a wheelchair. I think I was like right out of the cast sort of been like two weeks out of surgery and You would think it would be like super comforting to be surrounded by people who were going through the same thing that That you know, you were to some extent, but it was kind of weird and back then because I was still like adjusting and everything and so I was excited to go today and It was a much larger event because the amputee coalition is like this huge national organization they do awesome awesome awesome things and So Brian and I went and I felt the same way like it was so good to go It was so good to get education But it still felt like slightly Uncomfortable even though I surrounded by people who were going through the same thing so it was it was really good to go and get some more education, especially about like phantom pain and like really more kind of what behind what more of what is behind causing that but Um Excuse me great public speaking there, right I'm just gonna keep continue coughing here But I thought this was kind of cool. I put these You are on late for used East Coasters. That is true I am going live pretty late for anyone on the East Coast. You guys are like two hours ahead. Oh Thank you so much to Anna. Oh my gosh.  So I go by Joe But it's not like a secret that my name is Jordan My best friend named me like nicknamed me Joe when we were like 13 and I've kind of gone by it ever since So I really really appreciate that so I want to go through kind of some of some of this like just like Tidbits like facts that I thought were kind of interesting Thanks for liking my name. I appreciate that like for instance orange is the official color which is cool and Also, like like for instance if you log on to their website, which I'll put a link in once I'm actually like done with a live stream April 11th. Did you know that 36% of people with limb loss or limb difference? Which I guess is another term for it again learning things every day Experience depression. I was like, oh, I actually had no idea and I was talking with a friend earlier today We were all out getting dinner and he was like, how many people in the US actually like don't are like missing limbs And I was like, I have no idea till I pulled out my handy-dandy sheets and realized that that question was actually answered for me here Well, it was answered if I could find it Essentially, well, we'll find it eventually we'll come back to it here. Oh, yeah, April 26th Did you know that 3.6 million people will be living with limb loss by 2050? so we're not quite there yet, but Yeah, so it was really it was really interesting to go. I went to a couple educational sessions one was about like strength training and and stretching and nutrition, which I was like that's something I need to get on top of considering I will be Getting in the prosthetics process again here pretty soon and then I went went to one specifically about Pain management, which was also really cool so Yeah, so it was just It was good and then we got to like the lunch portion of things and I went and got lunch and I was just like I this is this is a little overwhelming and so we kind of we headed out after that But I'll have it like the official video up on it a little bit later So let me go see it go go through some of your questions here.  I can make that joke cuz I miss my limb You know very often, but but there are a lot of people out there who are missing parts of their bodies Which is kind of crazy for me to realize Let's see here It's full says one thing that brought my attention to your channel is that you weren't afraid to tell people Anyone your story or show people your leg. Oh, thanks. I really appreciate that. I find I've inspired them to make a vlogging channel That's really cool. I think that's awesome. I wonder do any of you do any of you guys actually make videos of your own I have found it to be So helpful in like expression and expressing myself. That's really awesome. I'm really glad that you're doing some vlogging there That's that's good for you. Seriously Um, oh Joanna, you're so sweet. Thank you so much for that again That's a do I really really really appreciate that that's very generous of you Joanna, thank you so much Um Edda asks oh Edda, that's awesome. I see your comments all the time. Have I ridden a horse since my accident? Yes, I have actually My physical therapist like the first physical therapist I had after the initial accident when I was like 14 Told me cowboy up is a phrase that is used a lot which is basically means like when you fall off a horse you get back on the horse and So my physical therapist told me to cowboy up You're so sweet Joanna.  Seriously. Thank you So she has a YouTube channel too You guys should check out Joanna's channel. You can see her in the super chat. She's highlighted in green there Yeah, so after after the accident I was in physical therapy and my physical therapist really encouraged me to like get back on the horse to like face That fear and so I did I rode for a little while Honestly like long enough to make sure that I wasn't scared to do it to like get over that fear So I wouldn't be scared of horses and then like life circumstances changed and everything like that And then when I went to college I joined a horseback riding club, but it was real expensive and I was really poor So I didn't get to do that too long and then a couple years ago I went to a therapeutic riding center that we have in here in the area that helps a lot of veterans especially like PTSD and things like that and also helps people with physical disabilities and I volunteered there and I also rode to there because I was having a lot of issues with like Migraines and balance and also my ankle and so they helped me a lot too. So I love horses I cannot wait to get back around them. I'm really looking forward to that soon. I would really like to ride again That's something I'm really looking forward to Not a Lee says her mom recently lost her leg below her knee. Okay, and oh, I just lost your comment. Here we go and Your videos have helped. I'm really I'm really glad that they've been helpful but I'm really sorry that your mom's going through that and You know, I've not been on the care like the caretaker side of it But I imagine that's got to be really hard seeing someone you love Go through this like going through that kind of a loss and I and I hope she's doing okay.  Seriously. Thank you so much It is appreciated and more than you know, especially right now To pursue I ride English. I've written English and Western I rode at Western most recently, but I ride English for the most part Like that's what I actually learned to ride I did some like hunter-jumper stuff not like shows or anything like that because again I was pretty broke and that takes money to do usually but I just like I just like trained, you know jumping jumping horses Mia ask what causes phantom pain actually I'm gonna get to that first but first I'm gonna answer Megan's question Megan's worst question. I know you love big dogs, but do you love small dogs? Yes I love small puppy dogs too.  That's really comforting to me if that makes sense They're just and I know they're just like good for good for snuggling with and they also made me feel safe Like I got Sadie after a lot of like the the trauma that I went through and then like I added monkey on because she was adorable And Sadie needed buddy and then we got Sophie because I love German shepherds and she needed a home, too So I think we'll probably mostly have big dogs Brian Surprisingly, I mean Actually before I tell you guys guess what kind of dog Brian would really like to have keep in mind Brian's like a Real badass guy like he's super into jiu-jitsu and he's really strong and like yeah He's like he's hardcore, but just guess what kind of what kind of dog he would like and I will reveal that in just a moment So oh You guys are not oh so many stars Two people guessed it. I'm just gonna reveal reveal it right away. Yes.  I think because Like it's not all in your head, you know that's something I kind of used to wonder about well before I had but well like years before I faced any of this stuff I was like is it just something that's like in your brain because you think you're like still there or whatever It's it's literally your nervous system sending signals so your nervous system is essentially like electrical wiring right and When you lose a limb your body is still sending signals and it's like trying to reestablish that connection like it wants to feel that because your body is like programmed to be a whole body and So as it's sending those signals those electrical signals don't necessarily differentiate between trying to find sensation and between pain So sometimes like right now I can feel my foot Completely the foot that doesn't exist the foot that's been gone for months. I feel my toes I feel what position they're in even though they aren't there, which is a bizarre thing to feel and say but then The electrical system in my body like the nervous system being what it was and being what it is It will it just keeps firing to that area even though doesn't exist anymore And you'll get really bad pain as a result of that I want to do a video kind of more in-depth about what causes that with more scientific explanation than I just gave Yeah, so So that's basically what happens.  Oh my gosh You must you are going through a lot right now and I'm really sorry that you're facing that that's got to be really really scary I feel like the unknowns are sometimes like the Most terrifying like if you can even just like no, this is gonna happen or no This is gonna happen. It's easier to deal with but when you don't know what's gonna happen That's really scary and you're really brave for facing all that and I really hope that it goes smoothly and that they're that that you that you're able to keep your arm and that you know that there isn't any pain I don't know your whole situation, but good luck. My heart is with you and my fingers are crossed for you as you head into a surgery See here Ethan asked will phantom pain always be there? Yes, probably chances are it was really bad Towards the beginning like the first six weeks were hell and then after that it's gotten a lot better But I'll have like just random Fits of pain and they only yeah last for like 30 seconds a minute So I'm really grateful for that that like it's not it is not as bad as it could be that is for sure for sure Miguel hello back Jazzy girl asked if there are different kind of prosthetics. I'm looking into yes And that was actually part of the whole event. I went to today There were like eight different prosthetics companies there, which is weird because like most states only have one or two Colorado We're pretty lucky in Colorado that we have so many to choose from And I was able to meet the prosthetist that I will be meeting with on Monday At the at the kind of conference thing today and I was able to chat with him and I really like him He's kind of a younger guy. I I've known of his wife for a while. She's a public speaker and I I feel like we connected pretty well, so I'm looking forward to meeting with him And I am open to different kind of prosthetics, you know the leg that I did have old Christopher Walken Seemed like it was gonna work really well, but I also want to stay open to different possibilities Whatever is gonna work the best if that makes sense so whatever We come up with Yeah, I'm definitely open and and and what I'm really holding out for is is a running leg I cannot wait until that day. That's what I'm really Really looking forward to and I hope it's sooner rather than later. It'll be months It'll be months away. Maybe a year away at a minimum, but That's the kind of stuff I got to see today Like there are like a lot of running blades there that I was like, oh, this stuff is so cool, you know So it's it's pretty fun Um See here Alyssa odd question was I interested in technology? Prosthetics like the materials and the function design of design of them like the tech stuff That's not something that that's super interests me. I'm more and I'm more interested in it just like Working if that makes sense Jeff hey Jeff, it's good to see you here. I know Jeff in real life. He's awesome. He's a good friend of ours So there there is not a bolder scrambling leg I believe they make something that's basically like just like a spear basically it's like just like a stick and That can work pretty well for rock climbers a lot of rock climbers climb with no prosthetics because they seem to think that that's the easiest way to do it and I love rock climbing and I can't wait to get back to that And so I'm definitely looking into options for that But I think I'll probably just be climbing without a leg But we'll see we'll see what happens Alyssa and Dustin hide back Pumpkin boy, oh says he freaked out when I when I hearted his comment. Well, of course, of course, no problem Joanna says people missing limbs are more motivated than I am in session inspiration. Oh gosh. I Think that um, I'm sure that you are more motivated than I am in other areas of your life You know, I think it's kind of a balancing act for sure George asked if I've heard of a one-legged tamp dancer. No, no, I haven't I'm not sure if that's a That's a I haven't I'm gonna have to look into that that sounds really cool Because dancing is like the third thing I care about I care about Jiu Jitsu rock climbing and dancing I'm a terrible dancer. Just so we're all really clear on that Zero dancing skills, but I love it. It makes me so happy And I really hope to take some like actual dance classes when I'm up in up and moving pretty well So Alex asked about when I'll actually be able to return to martial arts Probably not until the winter At the earliest just because all like everything in my leg needs to be really really healed Like there needs to be no chance that like if I fall that things aren't fully healed I'm gonna break something or something like that. So we have to be really careful with it I was initially told six months after surgery, which would be now But now that I had to have this other surgery and all of that it kind of complicates it and makes it take a little bit longer So I'm learning a good deal about patients and net. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your super chat That's awesome. She says hi Joe. I love your videos You've helped me so much. Well, I'm I'm really glad and really honored and I'm thank you for watching Thank you for supporting me. I really appreciate that Logan asked what I need a special prosthetic for martial arts. No I won't wear one at all because jiu-jitsu you're it's like grappling So you're you're like you're rolling around with people your hand fighting you're on the ground It's like submission based and no metal can be involved So I'll just be wearing like a leg liner or something like that if that makes sense Let's see here Ethan asked what books I am reading right now. So, oh Oh, I had it right here I had the book I was reading like literally right here until I put it over there right before I started this But I'm reading a book right now called American pain I'm listening to an audiobook and I'm reading it, but it's all about the rise of the opioid Crisis epidemic whatever you want to call it. I feel like those are such buzzwords But it's like from the story perspective of like like kind of like the people behind it who did some really shady stuff For the record if you haven't seen my other videos. I am I have a huge huge heart for anyone Like I'm on pain medication like I am on narcotics. I have nothing against it But but the way that the pharmaceutical industry pharmaceutical industry has handled narcotics is Really bad. Um, so I'm learning a lot about that and I have a I have a big project coming up regarding that So I'm reading that I also just finished watching uh finished reading um girl stop apologizing which is like a I don't even know how to describe it. It's like a Not a self-help book because I don't read self-help books. It's kind of like a motivational like um business entrepreneurship kind of kind of book and really Figuring out what you want for your life and not making excuses and going after a kind of book So I like I like those it's written by Rachel Hollis Yankee asks if my husband does jujitsu jujitsu as well. Yes, we actually met through jujitsu, which is awesome Um, so yes, and we still do it together Pumpkin boy asks what my favorite youtube channel is Okay So I love I love youtube like I watch a lot of other youtubers and I admire a lot of them One I will consistently watch is Kaylin Nicholson We have not a lot in common. Um, she's like vegan and super into meditation and stuff like that Which is not really me But she's a lovely lovely human being and has a lot of like real life wisdom She doesn't you know like bullshit stuff if that makes sense And um her videos are just beautiful like the cinematography and how she shoot stuff is is really great. So I listen to her often um I'm trying to think I've been listening. I've been I've been watching a lot of um ash hardell recently who is a um transgender youtuber because that's that's an experience I don't know about and I want to learn about and so I'm trying to learn about like, you know, kind of from From their perspective I also I'm trying to think I'm kind of dry it gary v. Gary Vaynerchuk. I listen to a lot of he's a lot of fun I don't know if any of you guys know him, but he's pretty great. How about you guys? What are what are some of your favorite channels? I would love to know What what else you guys listen to oh christy um Christy cedai also watch all the time we chat back and forth. She's she's she's a lovely human She's awesome. I love her to pieces if you don't know her channel check it out She's missing a hand So, you know, she's the fellow amputee, but her videos are really fun too. So I enjoy watching her stuff um Let's see here Logan uh says ash's videos are really interesting. Oh wait, cool. That's awesome This is so cool that you guys uh watch some some some of the same stuff. I do life apollos I watch pretty much on the daily seriously He releases pretty much daily videos about car news. I know him in real life He's a freaking fantastic human being. Um, we're good friends with with him and his wife And uh, that's yeah, they're they're great. And so, uh, I watch a lot of his content and it's really good So if you like cars or exotic cars or like car drama, go check out life apollos channel. It's a lot of fun Um squirmy and grubs. I also do watch squirmy and grubs. They are marvelous as well I also started watching life of stripes Which is a girl, um going through life with I mean a lot of medical complications, but specifically um Ehlers Ehlers danlos syndrome. I think I said that wrong, but that's something I've wondered for Years if I have if that makes any sense Um, I'm sure I'm sure I don't as we know I kind of worry about stuff But uh, that's something I actually want to get tested for because I have a lot of the the symptoms of it Anyways, um, but she has an awesome channel too. So Let's see here um A lot of custom doll customization videos Interesting that is a something I have never watched any of that's really cool um I uh, so god's girl 77 asks any advice for journaling more So I just started Consistently journaling again. I actually have um, I'll be having kind of a video series coming out specifically around that and I used to journal All the time like every day like it was my outlet for things and I really got away from it Because I think it kind of like it forces you to be a little bit in touch with yourself And there were a few years there where I was like nope. I'm good Like I I've got other stuff to do you know like I didn't want to really get quiet and um, especially this last week. I was like that's something I really need to reincorporate into my life and So I've been like journaling here and there bits and pieces but I really decided to get serious about it and commit to it so I've been journaling every day for a week now and it um As far as any tips or or or like You know pointers for it Just don't censor yourself. I think is the first thing that I would say Sometimes I want to censor myself because I'm like, oh, that's mean or like I shouldn't say that or you know I shouldn't feel that way or or something like that but The point of journaling is to kind of just let things flow and just Get whatever is in your head out on paper or work something out or I don't do a whole lot of like what I did today It's more, you know, kind of what's going through my head or what I'm struggling with or what I'm excited about And so if you can write without a filter and not judge your thoughts, but just put them out on paper Um, almost I almost feel like it's kind of like a meditation to journal because I'm not critiquing what I'm thinking. I'm just Like just writing it down. So I'm I'm not sure if any of that's helpful I'm definitely not a journal expert, but it's something I would like to uh get a lot better in Um, fun fact when my house burned down the second time Because I've had a house burn down twice in my life when my house burned down the second time I had a chance to Run in and grab like a couple things as like the forest fire was coming towards our house And the thing that I grabbed was my journals So like what I have from my past which I will always be grateful for is like seven journals Um and a toothbrush. I also grabbed a toothbrush, but not toothpaste Not sure why I didn't think to you know Grab toothpaste as well and and a bright orange hoodie. Those were the things that I decided to Grab as a as a forest fire was rushing towards our house. So thankfully everything worked out and everyone was okay But I was I was glad to have those journals. It's kind of fun to have a piece of your history if that makes sense um Let's see here cursed Uh, am I cursed or something causing my houses to burn down? You know, it's a really good question The first house burned down when I was 16 It was because my brother had spilled gasoline on the ground like the floor He was changing out. I think it was the gasoline filter in his Mazda R7. I think it was cleaned it up. But the next day our Um our refrigerator sparked And then our house burned down. It wasn't a total loss We had to be out of the house for seven months as they were rebuilding But the second time which was in the black forest fire I think five years ago this year total loss literally nothing left Like literally ashes and nothing else. I will show you I um, I feel like that's a story worth sharing at some point because I was quite an experience and I have a lot of pictures from that So yeah, so yeah, I don't know who has two houses burned down But I've had two houses burned down which is an odd experience to have for sure um Oh jim asked have I taken a ride in erin's mclaren? This is this is going back to life of paul's. No I haven't which is real dumb because uh, brian Wrote up to denver with erin the other day in his mclaren and I wrote up in their other car with his wife I could have like asked to ride back in the mclaren. Why did I not ask to ride back in the mclaren? Or like ride to like, you know, at least like take a ride in it. I was that was really a mistake on my part Missed opportunity to like ride in a fancy car But like brian's really really into supercars and I just think they're cool But brian's like obsessed with them. So it's like you take them to claren. I'll just ride them. I'll ride in the Porsche, you know um Let's see here Jack asks. Oh first of all chipper soul also had a house burned down That's I am really sorry. It is quite an experience, isn't it? It is not it is not fun Um jack asks, what is the most hard Moment in your life? Let's see here. And is it weird going of from a foot to no foot? It definitely is weird going from a foot to no foot for sure. Um the most like the hardest moment in my life um The hardest moment in my life is is probably more of a a story than I have time for right now But it was probably the Like if I could compress it all down to a single moment, there are way worse things that I've gone through But like the I feel like the worst day where like everything hit me I was supposed to have brain surgery and um, I had to shave my head for it and yes, I do have photographic proof of all of this And uh, when I got to the hospital They basically changed everything said they weren't going to do it. It wasn't going to help Um, and it was like supposed to fix all the migraines I was having because of the qr qr email formation everything like that And so I like had all this hope that like everything's going to be better and then my head was shaved And they're like actually just kidding You're not having surgery and we can't fix it And then that launched like two years of going to doctors and the Mayo Clinic and stuff like that So that was probably like the worst individual moment in my life um Yeah, that was that was a fun day. I say very sarcastically um George says Joe does that make you feel defeated? Do you get the pun? Because I do and I really appreciate puns. They're the the highest form of humor It's what I always tell people and people disagree with me, but those people are wrong. I'm just kidding, but they are wrong Um, yes, Mike. I shaved my head for no reason for literally no reason And like I said, I 100% have photos of all of this and I will share those with you guys at some point Because I feel like that is just an interesting story and a pretty unique one Let's see here. Um Chase asks if my medical issues have caused me to be more grateful for everything That's a good question Yes I think so I think when you have Not that like you're required to have issues to be grateful but when you have a lot of like damage or trauma or medical problems or you know things like that you're definitely faced with a choice and the The moments that are good are a lot Sweeter and like the smaller things in life are You realize how big of a deal they are if that makes sense So yes to some extent. I do think that like my health issues have been a have have definitely been a factor in Fostering gratitude in my life if that makes sense Uh jazzy girl says everyone could stand to be punny. Thank you. I totally agree people make fun of me When I when I when I make puns Like I said, I think they're great Alexa asks favorite singer. Okay, so linkin park will forever be my favorite band hands down Always will be always always always will be I love linkin park. I grew up listening to them. They were the soundtrack to my life um But currently I really enjoy I think it's at this in the last live stream um, I really enjoy a song called Stupid deep by john belotone belotone. I think it's called And Let's see here. Uh panic the disco is one of also my all-time favorite bands. They just get better with every single album Um, I also really like all kind need to breathe need to breathe is also amazing I'm actually going to a concert of theirs pretty soon, which I'm really excited for they're like one of the only bands I would actually Go see a concert for um I've pretty varied tastes in music I do occasionally enjoy quite a few m&m songs and I may have memorized way too many lyrics I'm not saying it's great music, but I am gonna say I really enjoy it. I also do like taylor swift I'm just gonna fall into that stereotype of being being you know, that girl who likes taylor swift Um, she's pretty great. So I like a lot of different kind of music, but I'd say panic the disco Uh fallout boy and linkin park are probably like at the top of my list Um, alexa says her favorite singer will forever be taylor swift. Cool. Okay, so we've got something in common with that That's awesome. Um, 21 pilots. I definitely definitely do like 21 pilots um Austin jack So austin asked do I have any favorite makeup products? I Don't necessarily have any faith. I really like color pop lipstick and I really like tart um What's it called concealer, but I'm not great at makeup. I like stick to like A couple things and that's about it. Like I have fun with it. I enjoy it. Um, but yeah, but but but that's about it and uh Jack butt says can you turn it into a video? What what were you referring to with that? I would definitely like to answer your question. I'm not sure what you were talking about. Um Let's see here george.  Ah, I am kind of like I'm not like a crazy fan girl about her But I think she's I think she's brilliant at marketing I really respect that about her and I really like her music. Yes. I absolutely do Um, let's see here. Thank you queen jillies. Thank you for spreading my question about your merch I'll definitely be buying some this summer. Oh, thanks. I really appreciate that. That's really awesome of you um Ethan asked about my favorite candy Uh, gummy bears Guy bears anything gummy really. I also do enjoy Having um jolly ranches around because they're just so simple to eat You know, they're like easy to keep in your pocket It's pretty handy um Let's see here Oh amber says who sings the end Uh end screen music in my video so many people have asked about that Low light and the song is called summer snow. Um, so the band is low light It's called summer snow and you can find it on spotify The artist on spotify is art list So if you want to check out that song that's where it's at Let's see here gift spark says she got the elephant one. Oh, that's awesome the elephant t-shirt I really thank you for doing that. I super super super appreciate that. Um, everyone has been so So supportive with the like the t-shirts that I designed. I did the artwork myself on them and um, I had no idea how it would go and um, you guys have been super supportive and actually Bought it and I that means Really so much to me like that really means a lot to me and I really appreciate that. So thank you all The con the comic bud says what's my favorite quote that keeps me motivated. Okay, so Amy Um, I can't remember her last name right now Says the greatest act of faith some days is to simply get up and face another day And I think that will always be my favorite quote It's something I fall back on a lot The greatest act of faith some days is simply to get up and say and face another day and um, yeah I just I think it's true. Sometimes that's the hardest thing in the world It takes a lot of courage. It takes a lot of faith and on the hard days I uh revert back to thinking about that if that makes sense um Let's see here Savannah asks if I'm coming out with some more merch Yes, but it's not what you guys think In may, um, I don't want to announce this just yet, but it won't I won't make any money from it I'll say that much. Um, I it will be benefiting Something else. Uh, so I'm very excited about and I and I partnered with somebody else on it That's all I'll say. I'm really really excited about it. I think you guys will like it And I'm excited to do something that will like help other people. Um, yeah, so so yes I will be just not quite yet That'll be in May. Um, K. E. Rose says hi Joe. Hi back Chipper, so when will your prosthetic, uh, will my new prosthetic be named Christopher Walken? You know, that's a good question. I don't know. I think we'll have to we'll have to meet it Figure out if it's a he or she or an it And then then name then name them and you guys will definitely be a part of that process It's fun naming things. I think it's fun Anyways, um Marisol Angelica says she's cleaning her room and enjoying having my live stream on the background. Oh, thanks I appreciate that and way to clean your room by the way I, uh, I actually just got done cleaning kind of straightening up my house right before I got on this live stream I was able to use my eye walk today for the first time Since surgery which is so much more freedom than using crutches and it was wonderful. So, um Yeah, so I did some cleaning myself too Marisol Chase asks what's in the mini fridge? Well, what is in the mini fridge? I'll tell you it's nothing very interesting Here's some of my, uh surgery snacks, um I couldn't remember what this called for just a second applesauce applesauce is fabulous for like not getting sick and throwing up When taking medications after surgery and then We do have some Gatorade in there and then also Uh, these are super handy to snack on. So that's my super fascinating fridge Uh, I know like there should be cool things in there if I was an interesting adult like, you know Interesting adult beverages. I'm just not very into drinking. So it's just snacks lots and lots of snacks um Let's see here. Yeah, uh gift sparks that she loves sober snacks too Uh, good. They're awesome Alex, I am a blue belt in jiu-jitsu. I just I just got my blue belt right before I had to kind of quit everything So that is where I am Mike. You can absolutely have that Gatorade a hundred percent. I would totally give it to you If that was possible to like teleport it to you Because Gatorade is awesome Um, all right, I'm gonna have to hop off here pretty soon. I'd love to answer a few more questions I'm actually gonna kind of clean up a little bit more before brian gets back here and uh, just kind of chill out a little bit But um, it's been awesome hanging out with you guys and I'm so happy that you guys spent some of your your Saturday is it a Saturday, right? Oh god, is it Saturday? Yes, it's Saturday. Okay. Yes, your Saturday evening with me, um So let me go through a couple more questions Yeah, thank you. Thank you for reminding me that it is Saturday. I appreciate that so, um Uh, Lisa asks about the shortened eye walked Yes, so I literally tried it for the first time a few minutes before hopping on here, but after shortening it Yes, it does Help. Um, I need to modify it some still like we need we need to tweak it a little bit But having it shorter definitely takes some of the pressure off, which is awesome And really really helpful Um, uh, you guys are so sweet. Thanks for uh, thanks for not wanting me to go and then saying bye In Denver right now it is 10 20. So it's getting oh, it is getting pretty late. Hmm. Yeah, it's getting pretty late here um chase asks uh song that means the most to you Probably photographed by Ed Sheeran because that's the song that I Walked down the aisle to meet brine like to to get married to brine too I realized it's like a very cliche song But when I hear that song I can like I I feel everything that I felt in that moment And I can picture everything that was happening. So it's like a really emotional song for me So that's kind of like the song that song that comes to mind and also the outside like outsiders By need to breathe is a fantastic song and there's lots of really good memories tied to it for me. So all right guys, um, oh Cetry the succulent behind me Is a um fabulous plastic plant because I can't keep real plants alive Uh, I do not have a green thumb. That is not one of my many skills not any skills And with that I am gonna hop off and I so appreciate you guys hanging out with me Thank you for everybody who sent in super chats. That is so sweet of you guys I really cannot thank you enough for that and I hope you have a lovely rest of your Saturday evening Um, enjoy whatever you're doing cleaning your room or you know watching netflix or whatever that is Um, I love you guys. I'm thinking about you. I have a video coming out tomorrow about life with fused ankle. So Um, maybe I'll see you guys in that. All right, I'll talk to you guys later Whoops, how do I how do I end this? That'd be a good quick


The Department of Defense hosted a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or LGBT pride event June 25th at the Pentagon to honor gay and lesbian service members. Our nation has always benefited from the service of gay and lesbian soldiers, sailors, airmen and Coast Guardsmen and Marines. Now they can serve openly with full honor, integrity and respect. This makes our military and our nation stronger, much stronger. With their service, we are moving closer to fulfilling the country's founding vision. That all of us are created equal. From the Defense Media Activity, I'm Petty Officer Shannon Burns.


Well, they would have an oldster like myself following these three fabulous kids, but Kirk Reed got to the microphone faster than I could get to the first step over there When I was growing up My community didn't have very much to read. In fact, we didn't have a community and We only did have a few books, but at least we have it a few books. They weren't terribly cherry books, but we did have some It took until 1982 for this book to come along this wonderful book for young lesbians and It is a book that is very precious to my community is very very much loved I Hmm. I sent an email to Nancy garden In New York last night telling her that I would be reading from her book and how honored I was And she sends a thank you and love to all of you in San Francisco Speaking of San Francisco, I would especially like to thank Susan Hildreth and Joan Jasper for putting this program together. It's There are There are days. I'm very proud to be a san franciscan and this happens to be one of them The the scene I'd like to read involves the two young women who are 17 years old in high school And it's the scene with the two teachers who are lesbians who have been fired when the Secret of their relationship the relationship between the two young girls comes out into the open And it's a scene involving these four people Mrs. Ms. Stevenson got up and went to the window Then she stooped and touched the orange cat's nose affectionately through the grading in his carrying case Look, she said quietly I can't lie to you and say that losing our jobs like this is easy. It isn't But the point is is that it'll be okay. We'll be okay, and we want to know that you will be too Ms. Widmer leaned forward Isabelle was a whack for a while. She said between high school and college Someone found some of my letters to her talk about inquisitions The army's a good deal better at them than foster high school is I can assure you But you know what? Ms. Widmer smiled lovingly at mrs. Stevenson The important thing is she said is that we got through that time too and we're still together Ms. Stevenson patted mrs. Widmer's hand then she came over to me and put her hands on my shoulders I should also tell you She glanced at mrs. Widmer who nodded The cath almost left me after my discharge.  Widmer softly Then nothing would have happened. No court marshal no discharge It took me a couple of years to realize said mrs. Widmer that it wasn't my fault That it wasn't my homosexuality that had gotten is about discharged. It was what people wrongly made of it Annie's hand tightened in mine and she whispered see I think said mrs. Widmer that I had to accept I was gay before I could realize that it wasn't my fault about the discharge She chuckled That's why I like that quote so much the one about the truth making one free It does you know whatever that truth is And she said mrs. Stevenson said Liza liza forget about our jobs forget that for now. This is the thing to remember The very worst thing for cath and me Would be to be separated from each other Or to be so worn down so guilt-ridden and torn apart that we couldn't stay together anything else Anything else is just bad said mrs. Widmer, but no worse than bad bad things can always be overcome You did nothing to us mrs. Stevenson said gently If you if you too remember nothing else from all of this mrs. Widmer said please remember that Please don't don't punish yourselves for other people's ignorant reactions to what we all are Don't let ignorance win said mrs. Stevenson let love Thank you