The story is old, almost 15 years old at this point. To this day, it remains probably the single most unexplained event in my entire life. Those who witnessed it seldom, if ever speak about it. All these years later, and I'm still not sure what to make of it. So I figured posting it here may lead to some answers. I was in sixth grade at the time, but my memory of the day is as vivid now as it was then. Much to my dismay. I've suffered from nightmares on and off ever since, and the true extent on my mental well-being may never truly be known. It started like any other day, with me grumpily walking to catch the school bus and nearly missing it as per norm. It was mid-September at the time, with temperate winds and comforting warmth, renowned of early autumn. The place I grew up in was a small Midwestern town in the central United States. The whole school had only maybe 200 kids in its grades, one through eight, and my bus only brought around 20 or 30 of us. My friends Scotty and Lamar hopped on at the second stop, and the three of us discussed Yu-Gi-Oh cards most of the way to school. Maybe most of this is irrelevant, but I think it's important to emphasize how boring and routinely this whole day began. It made what happened later that much stranger. It wasn't until lunch that something finally happened. I'd met up with Scotty, Lamar, and a few of our other friends. After eating, we formed a group and went out onto the grass field to play our variation of football. For those that don't know, it was basically American football but with more youthful angst. Somebody would just punt the ball, and whoever got it would run aimlessly while praying to the good Lord above as everyone else tried to obliterate them. As you can imagine, it spawned a lot of fights and got many of us suspended over the years, and yet we kept playing because we were just dumb school children. So one of the kids punts it, and this kid named Robert catches it. He made it like three steps before getting clobbered by like five kids to the laughter and winces of everyone else. Things went on that way for a bit, and at some point Kyle got the ball. Kyle was like the best punter in terms of distance, but knowing which direction it would go was anyone's guess. So Kyle boots it, and we watch as it soars far to the left and off into the woods. Our school was in the middle of this big field, and the improvised football field was right next to the woods that surrounded it all about 200 yards out.  Another kid pressed and jeered. Kyle just laughed and flipped him off as he jogged towards the tree line to retrieve it. He reached it a moment later and slowly began searching the woods while the rest of us waited. I watched as he looked around him there, and suddenly he just froze up. His whole body just went stiff as a board, and he just stood there staring for like 10 seconds before someone finally yelled at him to hurry up. Kyle didn't budge, nor react to the insult in any way. Another few seconds passed before he slowly turned back to face us. That's when I noticed the slack-mouthed, wide-eyed expression on his face.  Another kid, Carlos, said with a laugh, but Kyle's expression didn't falter. He then quickly glanced back at the woods. A split second later, and he fell onto his back, scrambling backwards and muttering frantically. He was met with a chorus of laughter from the others. Without pausing at all, Kyle just walked quickly back towards the school without another word. The others made jokes and laughed, but his reaction really unsettled me. The horror on his face appeared genuine, and I'd never seen him look like that. Kyle was the type to never seem afraid of anything, and seeing him react like that was downright worrying. Scotty and I then silently approached the spot that Kyle had gone to, both of us now a bit hesitant. The rest of the group had now gone mostly silent, with only muttered conversation and hushed tones behind us. Once we reached the grove, we slowly peered within. I spotted the football almost right away. Only about 30 feet within. But no sign of anything out of the ordinary. I'd been in that patch of woods a hundred times before, and nothing looked any different. Nothing obvious that would have spooked Kyle like that. But still I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up. It was a really odd feeling, but I just shrugged it off. Ignoring them, I sauntered inside to grab the ball. As soon as my hand touched it, something changed. I've still not found the best way to describe this, but the closest thing is like when a plane depressurizes. My ears popped, and my equilibrium seemed knocked off kilter for a split second. It was the weirdest feeling, and it struck me completely out of nowhere. After pausing for a moment to confirm I wasn't about to pass out or something, I grabbed the ball and stood back up. As soon as I did, I felt something on the back of my neck. Hot air coming in rhythmic and rancid waves like someone was literally breathing down my neck. I spun back around, heart suddenly raging in my chest. There was nothing behind me, aside from Scotty standing and staring unsettled back at me. You good, dude? He asked. If be told, I didn't know whether I was or not, or how to account for what had just happened, but I nodded back anyways. Part of me wondered whether it was just anxiety or something, but I didn't really know what to think. As a young boy in middle school, though, admitting to fear was social suicide and not something I was about to do. He didn't see anything behind me, did ya? Scotty gave me a curious glance. No. Why? I responded. With an uncertain shiver, I shrugged it off as best I could, and the two of us returned to the others with the ball. I didn't play much after that, as my mind was suddenly convinced that something was very wrong, but I couldn't pinpoint it. It felt like someone was watching us, hidden well within the trees. Eventually, I decided to go try and find Kyle, but the bell rang before I could. Death was my next class, and I spent most of it trying to forget that unnerved feeling and just calm myself down. Things went as normal, but after about 20 minutes, I felt I had to use the restroom. The teacher excused me and I grabbed the hall pass from her desk as I exited the classroom. As I made my way down the hall, I noticed that outside it had gotten suddenly dark. Not dark enough for night, but dark like a thick overcast of clouds. Since the sun had been shining brightly during lunch, I found that kind of odd too, but didn't think much more of it. As mentioned earlier, our school was small in terms of students and faculty, so of course the building itself was no exception. It was only about 75,000 square feet, or about 20,000 smaller than the average Walmart. It was just outside our hometown, and about half a mile away from the local police station. The lights flickered when I was in the bathroom washing my hands. Again, not something super unusual as the school was old and prone to the occasional electrical mishap. They stabilized a moment later and I made my way back out into the hallway. As soon as I exited the bathroom, I froze. The outside window had gotten much darker than before, like it was suddenly the middle of the night. My initial thought was, cool, a solar eclipse? But as someone emerged from the office, that thought evaporated. A familiar middle-aged man hustled into the hallway, scrambling to the front doors and quickly locking them. It was our school principal, and as he turned to face me standing in the hall behind him, I saw terror etched upon his face. Get back to your class now, tell your teacher code silver. My heart sunk as I heard the words, and I realized the deadly seriousness in his voice. Without a word, I sprinted back to the classroom, flinging the door open and scrambling inside as I got one last look behind me. The entire environment seemed to have flipped in an instant, and something was very wrong. My teacher, Mrs. Smith, scolded me in an annoyed tone as I re-entered. I turned back from the door and just stared at her. Her expression seemed to slowly turn from cross to visibly concerned. Code silver, I muttered out. Mrs. Smith's eyes went wide, lock the door, everyone into the corner now. She commanded. The students did as requested, quickly filing into the corner and out of sight from the door. I locked the door, and Mrs. Smith rushed towards me to ensure it was secure. After which, she rushed back to her desk, dialed a few numbers in her desk phone, and spoke. Her voice blared over the intercom, reiterating the lockdown orders for all others in the school. Everyone packed together tightly into the corners, out of sight of the door. The entire class then hunkered down as we'd practiced many times before. Mrs. Smith turned off the lights, and everything felt eerily silent. The next few moments, we heard the faint sounds of the next door classrooms likely doing the same as all of us held our breath. Most American kids probably know that Code Silver is a national alert given for an active shooter. Anyone who attended a school in the States probably remembers practicing the lockdown drills at one point or another. Basically, the whole class just locks the doors and hides together in the corner. The only defense is the locked door, in hopes that whatever danger is outside will not be able to get in. What did you see out there, Eric? One of the girls in the class whispered to me. Mrs. Smith shushed the two of us before I could reply. I pondered the same question in silence as we all waited. The sounds of the other classrooms soon hushed as well. The entire vicinity felt eerily quiet as all of us waited like fish trapped in a barrel. The more I thought about the way the principal reacted, the less sense it made. I hadn't seen anything to indicate an active shooter and just assumed that he had. And yet still, I had no explanation for how things had suddenly gone so dark. It wasn't like a school shooter could affect the weather and the windows were far too large for someone to have covered them so quickly. Something very different was happening. The hallway lights extinguished a few minutes later, leaving us alone in silence and complete darkness. Even the windows in the classroom didn't show any light from beyond and the darkness became so thick I could barely see my own hand in front of my face. We stayed like that for several minutes before a sudden calamity struck. It sounded like the shattering of glass and creaking of metal. My heart was throbbing in my chest then and the muffled sounds of crying and whimpering from the other students surrounded me. Mrs. Smith shushed all of us, trying her best to maintain order. By that point, my eyes had adjusted a bit to the darkness and I could see Mrs. Smith looking through the door side windows. She then gasped and backed away from the window. I saw her hold her index finger up to her lips and could see tears sparkle in her eyes. Suddenly the room began to grow brighter. I thought the power was coming back on when I realized the light was actually coming from something out in the hallway. It was a bright light with a very slight reddish tint that softly shimmered. The light seemed to flicker ever so slightly like that of a flashlight losing power but different somehow. In the years since I've tried to replicate that light using various other light sources but I've never quite gotten it right. It wasn't a flashlight or open flame producing the light that much I'm certain of and I can't say for certain what it was. A sound emerged along with it, sounding like wet, squishy footsteps as though someone were trudging through a swamp. They came closer and the light grew brighter. In a few seconds it seemed to be directly outside the classroom door and I could literally feel the other students hold their breaths. A slight thud hit the door and none of us dared make a sound. The door handle jiggled slightly but from our vantage point, none of us could see who or what was on the other side. The light seemed to flicker and change intensity outside, beaming through the windows and altered variations. We were hunkered down perpendicular to the door, meaning the light couldn't reach us so long as it stayed outside. We could only hide there and offer silent prayers that whatever was making the light wouldn't get in. By some miracle it didn't and several seconds later the jiggling handle stopped. The footsteps then grew distant and the light faded. The relief was palpable but it didn't last. Perhaps a minute later and a sudden shrill ear piercing scream rang out down the hall, one that seemed cut short at its apex. The sounds of slight skirmish ensued with crashing and thumping. It was over in just a few seconds and the uncomfortable silence returned. It went on that way for hours, with me and the other students hiding in the darkness. We heard more screams and other noises at certain points but whatever was out there never returned to our door. At some point, the darkness outside finally relented and it seemed as though the sun was beginning to rise. I know that wasn't the case because my wristwatch told me it was just before 5pm. Seeming to affirm that discovery was the fact that the sun was still high in the sky and not anywhere near the horizon. A few minutes later and the sounds of police sirens emerged. Dozens of police and even a SWAT team swarmed the building soon after, helping us all get out. The sense of relief was indescribable as they let us out but not without a modicum of confusion. Several windows and doors were shattered and parts of the hallways had been damaged as well with parts of the hall even appearing melted. Some of the lockers were slumped and malformed like an intense heat had been focused on them. I don't know how that would be possible without causing a fire but that's apparently what had happened. Once I finally stepped outside I found my parents waiting for me along with my older sister. They hugged me tighter than ever before as dozens of other families around us did the same. Behind us I noticed the police sectioning off the school with barriers and tape as though it were an active crime scene. I questioned my parents on what had happened but they didn't say much. We returned home and allowed the cops to conduct their investigation and that's when everything got a lot stranger. Later that day I started feeling nauseous and proceeded to puke my guts out for the remainder of the evening. The headache I got then was by far the worst I've ever experienced. My parents at first thought it was an aftermath of the trauma until some of the other parents said the same thing happened to their kids.  They run a bunch of tests on me and tell me to remain calm. My parents and sister were separated from me and I didn't see them for several days afterwards. The obvious concern was that myself and the other kids that felt sick had contracted some sort of virus and with the previous events at the school people were worried it was some sort of bio weapon terrorist attack. Thankfully I woke up the following day feeling loads better. The medical personnel continued running tests but everything looked relatively normal. Eventually they made the discovery that our sickness was not due to a viral agent, bacteria or mold but instead due to radiation exposure. Thankfully it wasn't enough to do serious long term damage but obviously explaining it was another matter entirely one which we have yet to resolve. Our school was closed for almost a month after this event which at the time was fantastic news for me. Once we were finally allowed to return to school we were given zero explanation and just basically expected to forget anything ever happened. There were never any news reports nor articles or interviews of any kind. It's like the whole thing never happened and were it not for the memories of those who lived through it there wouldn't be any record at all. Kyle the same kid from earlier ended up not showing up for his English class directly following lunch period. For a while people thought he had something to do with the lockdown and hell maybe he did but I doubt we'll ever know now. He hasn't been seen since that day almost 15 years ago now and he's not the only one. Our school's principal the same guy had seen in the hall along with one of the school's janitors also vanished never to be seen again. Police found no bodies nor evidence of abduction or physical conflict at least not that they're willing to admit publicly. There are no death certificates for any of them and all three are simply listed as missing and I doubt that's going to change anytime soon. I've questioned my parents about this and they claim all the police told them was that a dangerous fugitive had broken into the school that day. A dangerous fugitive who apparently was capable of summoning eclipses, melting lockers and tearing metal doors from their hinges not to mention the whole radiation thing as well. That's another thing too. There's no record of a solar eclipse on that day and I've looked everywhere I can think to. We weren't allowed anywhere near the school for weeks afterwards cops sectioned off the streets that led to it while others patrolled the surrounding woods. On several occasions we saw guys in blacked out suburban and cargo vans driving down there but they never formally identified themselves. I overheard my parents talking and I remember my dad telling my mom that he didn't think the school would ever reopen. He didn't think the police were conducting a routine investigation and told her the entire thing seemed more like a cover up than a crime scene. I've asked them more recently as well but they seem to have learned very little. I've shared this experience with them too and although they agree it was weird and disturbing they don't seem to have any further theories. I've spoken to others who were there that day too and gotten all manner of mixed responses. Lamar seems to think we were attacked by aliens while Scotty seems to think our entire school fell into a separate dimension for a period of time. Maybe there's a logical and boring explanation to all of this but I've yet to find one. Considering the secrecy, the lack of coverage and the way the authorities behaved I'd say it's safe to conclude that something out of the ordinary happened that day but we may never know what. Whatever it was I think Kyle saw it and I think that's why he's gone. When the school finally reopened it never quite felt the same. We ended up finishing out that year but it wasn't without incident. Multiple students I know claimed to have seen things they couldn't explain in that building everything from ghosts and demons to wild animals. A few students even suffered full on mental breakdowns and panic attacks while in the old school. I even know of at least one girl who spent some time in a psych ward afterwards. Perhaps most of it could be attributed to PTSD related to the lockdown or maybe there was something far more sinister at play. Nightmares and bouts of sleep paralysis followed me for years after this event and I still get them every once in a while, even now. I never know how to describe them but I wouldn't wish them on anyone. I've always hoped that one day I'd be able to look back on this event with hindsight and understand that it was only scary because I was a kid, like I imagined it wrong or just didn't understand. But I can't help but feel more worried now than I was then. As a kid, life goes on and you forget, but as an adult you end up just ruminating on it over and over until coming to a worrying realization. We as humans set up these systems, ways of life and comfort zones, but there are things out there that can and sometimes will bypass all of them. Things that are far beyond our understanding that we have little power against and sometimes we get shown first hand what those things are truly capable of.


Good evening everyone and welcome. This is Melissa Armo with the stock swishing them here taking a look at Amazon Amazon reported tonight and Man, wow is this up close today at nine seventy two fifty and the high here. I think was ten fifty five Yep, let's just be right exactly ten fifty five minus 972 fifty But Amazon gapped up at one point here just a little bit ago eighty two dollars and fifty cents So what a powerful bullish gap for this stock Technically speaking Amazon is an amazing chart And I did comment earlier in this week that this was such an important report for the stock because it's the first earnings report since they bought Whole Foods and The stock had not made previous highs just like the market was doing since July So the previous high happened right before the earnings 727 10 8331 we are really not that far away from it as of the high tonight at 1055 I have no idea where this will open tomorrow morning because that's very far away very very far away here And there's a call at 530 and earnings call at 530 for Amazon. So Technically speaking this chart is extremely bullish. It's been one of the strongest stocks all along. You can see how it's made the lift It's been a great buy for traders many many times over in here And we'll really see where it goes tomorrow morning be interesting to see where it opens how it trades But as of right now, this is up Google's up I believe the market gaps up tomorrow and runs up and we'll see where Amazon opens tomorrow as well So this is a big big watch for tomorrow and should lift the market in fact, let's look at where the market's at tonight because of these two big Stocks Yep, and there you have it. So the market's up a lot. Yep, so we're gonna actually look at this We closed at 146 98 so the market's up a buck and a half in the queues and The spy not as much So this is Amazon looks amazing very bullish chart and Was a very important report and the stock did not disappoint So we'll be watching this tomorrow and in the course of the next week last report for the year here for the stock And they did it they did it. They did it. They did it So good luck if anybody's long this if you are if you're long the stock I mean this what a move 82 points up overnight again It could be even up higher but by the time tomorrow morning runs around or I could commit a little bit But either way this is gonna Hold a gap up tomorrow whether it drops in the day or relies on the day after wait and see where it's at in the pre market Tomorrow morning, but it will still be gapping up tomorrow morning. This is not going to flip in reverse and occasionally that happens I don't think that's gonna happen here by tomorrow morning Very very strong. Good luck everyone. If you have any questions email me at Melissa the stocks wish calm If you'd like to sign up for the golden gap class in November It's November 4th and 5th email me for more information. Thanks everybody. Have a great day


Welcome to our session, Incorporating Library Wiles in Campus Digital Experiences, Enabling Secure Access to Library Resources via OpenEssence. My name is Houma, I joined by my colleague Margaret Harner. We're both from Loyola University, Chicago. We are a library system. I'm head of library system, Margaret is our digital services librarian. Today, we are going to present to you about our experience about Incorporate us into the campus technology roadmap. Next, please. As we all know, digital age just forced everyone, the campus or technology partner as a whole institution including library into the digital transformation journey. So, started with years ago, the library systems technology department really repositioned ourselves as a driver of digital transformation for the entire library. So, we did a lot of effort in terms of realign with our technology priorities with the campus technology roadmap. And also at the same time kept to worry close up to date library technology needs to build, try to build the bridge between the two. As we all know, campus technology partner and the library and other unit, we share some priorities about in terms of privacy, security, similar user experience, but however, we might have a different aim or different priority at a particular time. We also limited in the local managed infrastructure. So, the preparation of understand each other better, understand our common user community better is become very important. So, here just some example about we are gradually in bandit ourselves into the campus it in the campus committee committees such as academic technology committee information security council and research technology walking groups. So, library really particularly library systems technology department we try to very proactively advocate the seats in those committees really understand the agenda spring to those campus centralized the committee also brings a timely update from library point of view to those initiatives. In addition to that library system team also initiate to try to maintain and develop a very strong pointed to point to relationship with a particular campus it teams based on the project or maintain regular communication making sure we understand each other where we are in terms of a digital sense of information and to do our best to deliver best value to our common customer and our user community. Next please. So, the example like about two years ago, the light by the campus it as they started running out of the whole five years of Loyola digital experience with the three faces, as you can see here, the basic is a fundamental one is is a face one is focusing on infrastructure and architecture. As we highlighted here identity and access management is security and the single sound become the major part of this phase. So, at the same time, we also again the library word what happened in which we started everybody start realize IP based on the occasion is not secure it's not in good best practice in terms of a technology involving. It's no longer because users have been tensed multiple mobile that multiple devices different more complexity computing environment that's no longer the case. So, we're helping also follow closely with the trending like I 21 same is access to the less so initiatives through the variety of avenues such as the year and now conference and other avenue. Next, please. The maintaining since we are positioning ourselves as a driver of this trans digital transformation. So, we really laid down where made made sure we are kind of a well situated in understanding the campus IT technology roadmap, as well as a trend from the academic library technology sector. With that, I'm going to turn over to my colleague, Margaret, she will that make sure she will dive into the particular project and about how we make our start our journey in this project. Yeah, so this was a very, it's been a very intense year working on this project so let me go over a little bit of a timeline about this. So, we, we first sort of thought about open Athens is the spring of 2019 so it sort of came to our attention as how we could get access to it. And through through Epsco, and we started to think about at that time, there were a lot of appealing aspects of it but overall we sort of were really warm because of the money aspect. While we knew it would solve a lot of problems and give us a lot of opportunities. We felt like it was, we couldn't justify that expenditure at that time. However, later that year in November 2019. So about a year ago, we were offered a very good deal through our consortium, and then that started to bring the pieces together that it was possible to do, because we knew over throughout the course of that rest of 2019. We could really see that this would really work well with the way our campus IT was moving. So we decided to move ahead with it. And we had our first meeting March 5 with our Epsco representatives to kind of kick off the project. So we all know what happened shortly thereafter. And we sort of thought like, well, what do we do? Do we go forward with this? But, you know, we're all working from home. But one of the things that became very clear to us is that relying on local infrastructure and local access was not going to be the easiest thing to do with everyone working remotely. We had a fire in our data center shortly after everyone started working remotely that kicked access for everyone for a whole day. So that sort of indicated to us that this really was going to be very important to keep moving forward with making our infrastructure a little more distributed. So yeah, we started meeting with our team weekly or bi-weekly later on since in April. And then so shortly after this presentation, we will then finish our implementation in terms of working with our implementation team. However, of course, we still will have work to do. And I'm going to talk a little bit about what some of that work is. So there are a lot of challenges in doing this project. Number one was navigating different federated solutions and or IP based authentication among different content service providers. Our second challenge was performing layers of configurations among library systems in a volatile time environment volatile system environment, which I'll explain in more detail, and then providing tailored ongoing education for library staff and our user community. So get into these challenges in more detail. We started this project. I think the idea of federated authentication was somewhat new to us. We sort of understood it at a high level, but didn't really know how to implement it. And so we had to really work with our campus. I teach understand a lot of these these issues early on and now I think we, you know, we've come more partners on this but So we just have a little background our campus directory services active directory and there's multiple services tied to that so it's used for as your active directory shabla as other things like that. We are also a member income in addition to open happens. So like I said our internal discussion or internal understanding with somewhat cursory. We work very closely with our IT colleagues who actually joined our implementation team meetings for weeks and weeks. Early on in the project, so that we can make the correct selections for integration between Azure active directory and open Athens, which is what had the way they wanted to go. And I think that was really valuable that we had them there all the time and no complaints they just showed up to meetings and kept being really helpful. And I think we also didn't necessarily appreciate that our vendors that we work with have different expectations and knowledge levels when it comes to federations or their support of them so some of them kind of what nothing to do with it and they say, it's still IP based authentication. And so we had to work on setting those up as proxy resources. Others of them sort of, maybe, you know, have one they prefer. So we do have some that are sort of, you know, unsure, so to this day whether we want in common or open Athens so working through that as an ongoing challenge. Our configurations for library systems we have a lot of different projects going on at the same time so while we were trying to do this project we also were moving over to the X labor central discovery index as part of our on the premise suite. And also in this summer, we're migrating to Premo VE. Those projects had mostly been planned to farm advance, and it just was sort of a coincidence the timing all worked out on all of it. Meanwhile, an open Athens project we had different aspects where we had to check all our links internally on open Athens that they were providing to make sure it was working for authentication at a basic level but then also how do we manage to get to resources for our Research Guides A to Z list and links on our website A to Z list which had to be rebuilt for multiple proxy prefixes. And another piece in here that I don't is important to realize is that we also had to update links within and Premo again complicated somewhat by the fact that we were migrating to a different system of Premo at that exact time. Our layers of staff training was another piece that we are still kind of working through but but I think early on we sort of understood that our patrons of course are at the center that's why we're doing it. And our public services staff work directly with those patrons. We certainly work a lot with them as well. But they need to have a sort of enough understanding to help library patrons, our implementation team has to be able to train our public services staff and then sort of the, you know, how and I and other people in our systems department and our IT staff have to understand the sort of technology at a different level to train everyone else at those different levels so I will say getting that first that the systems and I to training took enough time for implementation team to work it out. So there's certainly things where we're still working on how do we actually train and users at this point. So this is a sample staff communication and this is what I'm showing this to indicate the amount of things we had going on over the last over this year. So from May to August, so many different moving pieces and projects and groups getting together. Again, also in a very volatile time so it was a lot to take on, but I, you know, in the end we do feel pretty good about the fact that we did all these things because we feel our infrastructure is much more secure at this point. This is a kind of example of an early open Athens explanation we gave them just a really basic level. We're sort of finding that this level is we're kind of beyond that at this point like we, we have more information to give them we have more nuance to this. So we are actually now rolling out more training for our public services staff to explain more about open Athens and more about troubleshooting. One thing that's really important to our library is collaborative documentation collaborative understanding of projects across departments. So we worked with public services and other liaison libraries to create documentation. So for example, this is our off campus access page on our website. We had a group edit this page together to make sure that it made sense to everybody they could explain it. And there's certainly more that could be done this but it helps clarify our questions and training needs it certainly didn't answer all our questions but this kind of process we find is really critical and making sure that our projects are success. So pros and cons of our open Athens project. So this infrastructure definitely works more seamlessly with our campus infrastructure. I think we really appreciate the fact that we can now offer people a much more seamless experience where they're not if they've logged in to their campus services they don't have to log in again to access material from off campus so that's great. We have somewhat more control over user experience with sample attributes than we did with our previous all that easy proxy integration but that I will say is not always it's a mixed bag sometimes because sometimes we have too much control. I would say our cards where it was much more a complex project than we entirely understood at the beginning we sort of knew it was a big tool that could do a lot of stuff but we did not necessarily know all the bits and pieces we were going to need to know and maybe the way that the project was going to be managed. I think overall was a project any project that was done this year I think it's going to have a similar con here. We started this project right as we were all working from home and trying to adapt to a new environment so we had a very slow start so And we had a lot of people with personal issues over the summer that meant that things got behind but I think that's sort of the nature of this project of any project done this year was going to have this problem. So, in conclusion, we now feel that doing this project has put us in a much better place in terms of our integration with library or library technology with campus technology. I think we really appreciate the knowledge we've gained and cementing the relationships that we have with our IT colleagues. As Hong mentioned, we really work on building those over time. And this was yet another example where we were able to make that happen. So we would love to talk to you about if you have questions about your own implementation or have some feedback you'd like to share with us about our project. We'd love to hear with you. You can email us or you can contact me by Twitter. Thank you very much.


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My weekend was busy I was trying to just do some repair works in the house so had artisans and trying to also clear out stuff i think for me i'm on the nasa made fun of me and send me a meme sometime last week about people who have a lot of stuff so i was trying to actually leave me alone i'm already on the minimalist kick where i'm trying to clear out my house and give away so much baby stuff and kid stuff and also i think i spent time this weekend trying to sort a lot of those things and so i mean tell people to watch my whatsapp stories i'm going to start putting up things for giving away as much as i'm coming back we don't give out a long time we go you know the good thing about me is first of all i bought really expensive things with my first son so um of course the younger brother used it then you know when my sister said they're having good enough they were boys so it was just like oh yeah passed it down she has even passed it down too i don't know if actually shipped it down to either bini or buja to some family because they are that quality where you buy quality things yeah i i get you is hard to let it go yeah i'm not really be sure that you can give so all the baby stuff because i did the same thing as well but you know you when you're having a first child you don't actually think about this you know i keep telling people i think i i bought one of the most expensive breast pumps and i don't think i use that thing twice or three times like it was the my normally annoying so i just i literally gave it away but i over time you know some things you just want to be sure that the people you are giving it to will take care of it so i have overtime but even still i think naturally if you're a bulk buyer like me um you just find that eventually you will have like two of things or three of things and you've gone past that point where you know you know these things again um and even for certain things i think it's i'm i've found it hard to apply that if you haven't used it in six months then but so i'm trying to do that now oh no i don't know really i hate plotters like literally if i have something that i've been looking at it last year two years i've not used it i would pack it out and one give you a benevolence yeah so i'm so i'm having this again the good thing with my own church is that if you give it to benevolence you are very sure it will be for you so i put all those things in fact when my boys came back home this holiday they actually cleared out their closets you know because almost everything they've all outgrown them and you know again with them we buy very because of the difficult to get their things so usually their things come in really expensive so they just packed everything to church and they donated it to benevolence so i think it's good for you to just declutter and again i always believe in that principle when you let go more suppose just hoarding all right so one of the responsibilities of lawmakers is to pass the country and state annual budget regrettably transparency and accountability concerns have continuously plagued this particular arm of government so tonight in conjunction with enough is enough we'll be focusing on holding the legislature accountable this how much they give this later again please now tell me why you laughing how much they give them don't call me yeah all right our circumstances of national and them says oh god of creation direct our noble cause guide our leaders right help our youth the truth to know so one of the responsibility that i've mentioned is this transparency so um june 2020 2023 that's for decades people of no sorry let me give you just let's let's quickly run down that's a long story it says join community development advocacy or civil society organizations focusing on specific issues you can pressure elected representatives and senators to address pressing concerns by mobilizing grassroots support and by encouraging others to hold your representatives accountable actively so suppose you believe that a law or legislative decision is unconstitutional in that case you can engage your community or advocacy group to challenge its validity so how do we get to these communities i think that would be the question let me come to you diola okay so also talking about the national assembly i think it's important that people know that there are 360 members and that's the number of members very per state depending on population and land mass we have the most in karno and legas which with 24 representatives each and then the least is nasa rawa and bayosa with five representatives each and then the fct has two members also the number of members very per state sorry fct currently has no seats um okay i think this is a bit of a mistake but let me um take that again the most states with the members would be karno and legas with 40 members each and then the least with um taraba yubes and fire play two nasa rawa quara eboi edo enogo gumbi aba bayosa and cross river with 24 members each at the local government council you have well counselors don't pass laws but they regulate the affairs of the local government and the functions of legislature let me just quickly read that senators members of the house of representatives and state houses of assembly members have five primary functions pass the state or nations annual budget make laws to promote peace order and good governance overseas projects appropriated for implementation by the executive arm represent the constituent and consent to high level appointments which is just the the yeah which only the senators can do so how do we hold our legislators account table i think that's which is part now abhi because i'm confused yeah i think that was what i read yeah that was what we were so um yeah so how to hold your um legislators accountable so it says join a local community development groups to pressure your representatives to address issues that affect you um follow the activities of your representatives for example the implementation of constituency projects um also you can recall a corrupt representative or vote them out during the next elections so in doing all of this first and foremost you need to know who represents you you can find the details of your representatives and communicate with them regularly um via the office of the citizen chatbot which is your new um assistant on civic engagement there you can find the details of your governors senators house of rep members state house of assembly members local government chairman and counselors to get started uh send a hello via whatsapp to 017006381 so send hello via whatsapp to 017006381 um it talks about a bit more and holding your legislators accountable it says writes to request an explanation about a bill under consideration or request audience for dialogue and in conclusion it says holding your representatives in the legislature accountable will safeguard our democracy by combating corruption and promoting effective governance so some interesting angles there perhaps a bit more information needed on how people can actually find and join these local community groups and you know a bit more information about how to follow the activities of course the media the news information like that is out there for you to follow their activities okay so today we want to discuss our ministerial list we've been holding off on that um especially the female representation and here's what we found as today's quote women have always had had to be creative about making limited resources work to sustain themselves and their families they understand what it means to make the hard decisions and to get to just get on with it that is why it is imperative for women not just to be the ones dusting off the tables but crafting its leg for our world to stand on this is from sandra sea lay now while some african countries are making giant strides in women's political representation others like nigeria have achieved very little progress so last week president bola amer to nambu represented or rather presented his ministerial list to the senate with 25 percent women representation 10 percent points short of his promise action planned to allow at least 35 percent participation of women in government positions as contained in his manifesto renewed hope 2023 so today we'll be discussing women representation um in the ministerial list and the impact on governance with more more fully at what's her name phijabi she'll be joining us much later but first let's quickly run off when we come back from that break we'll see what we found in the news all right national avocado day is celebrated on the last day of july at the peak of the avocado season in california now but luckily avocados can usually be found in supermarkets all year round for people who want to eat them in all the seasons national avocado day was founded in 2017 and has been observed annually and it's gaining a lot of popularity ever since who is a fan of avocado here absolutely i've been seeing so many videos on instagram on avocado salad avocado ice cream avocado these i was wondering what was going on in fact the video what this morning was a woman actually showing you how to quickly check if an avocado is bad so once you pick it up you know that small whatever the top if you if you peel it off if it is dry or if it is hollow it's bad but if it is still fresh you can see the the fresh avocado it means that avocado is good i say don't be smutting avocados i think it's a super fruit actually it's it's a food it's a whole meal on its own and it's just you know that these days my sister if you touch one thing so i'm a big fan of so i bought a bunch of plantain yesterday for 60 000 you know i didn't even have the energy to because i mean i have a child that loves plantain and you know we had talked about the ripening so we had run out so i'd been holding off not wanting to buy on the roadside because i you know i wanted to buy the bunch i can normally do when i touched it and they said it's madame 6000 and i was like you know your brain just really like okay i mean i just said okay because my brain couldn't even comprehend but anyway we're talking about avocado i love avocado it's it's a funny thing that i hated as a child so growing up i would watch my mom eat a hot steaming bowl of white rice with avocado and a little salt and i thought it was the most awful so i can't even tell you when i switched from hating avocado to loving avocado but literally now i can't put avocado in a bowl with spoon i just need this small salt just tiny sauce one i will just eat the whole thing so any good thing is that it can serve as anything can serve as a dressing on your salad it can serve as a spread for your crackers it can serve as a spread on your bread it can serve as any like literally anything you want it there's something really nice if you dice your tomato put some parsley in it dice your avocado just mix it up you have a salad put some olive oil you can sprinkle black pepper sprinkle small salt you know i'm putting it in place if you like as in that's grak na you know like i mean it's just so much like i think the thing for me as well was that i used to he used to go bad all the time in my fridge and then i realized i actually could start freezing it so i have it already like in little containers in my freezer so when i'm blending like sometimes i use it for salad for salad or sometimes in smoothies like it's just so versatile absolutely oh yeah what's our what's in the news it's you have brought them talk to you did you we have the news the president's speech that is the go ahead well it was a i think he believed there's about a 40 point a 40 line items if i was going to call it in the speech it was live i believe at 7 p.m today and he largely came to address the matters in the economy as they are today of course we know that we're all facing the country is going through economic hardship at the moment we are seeing the effects of the removal of the subsidy we're seeing the effects of the harmonization of the effects window so basically he's coming out to talk to us about the economy and he said he wanted to talk in plain language and really just address the issues that we're facing he highlighted his commitment right to the fact that he had never been or has consistently maintained the fact that the fuel subsidy had to go he talked about the small select individuals who are benefiting from the subsidy so essentially the wealth of the many are in the hands of a few kof kof the procedure he talked about the fact that the preceding administration saw the problems that this was causing and as such made no provision in the 2023 appropriations for the subsidy after june of this year he talked about the fact that people again highlighting the few making money from moving um just simply moving effects around to make money on the spread and that he had promised to fight the good fight in terms of reforming the economy um and then talking about the defects in the economy so we were just talking funny enough about the polarization in fact that the middle classes has almost certainly disappeared and we're now firmly in you know such a polarized of the haves and have nots um he echoes that here and that um he's looking to remove those flaws in the economy um and he says what he can't offer in the immediate is to reduce the burden of the current economic situation in trying to understand that this is sort of the dark before the darkest before the dawn um and that he's working closely or the federal governments working closely with the state governments to implement interventions to cushion the pain of the people and then he then goes on to talk about the executive orders that he signed the deferment of taxes essentially trying to address the unfriendly fiscal policies that that are currently in place to help places like businesses and the manufacturing sector to thrive he then goes to talk about how there's 75 billion going to 75 enterprises so we single digits interest rate of 9 percent for one billionaire one billionaire credit to be paid over a max repaid over a maximum of 60 months for long term loans and 12 months for working capital he also addresses the micro small and medium that's the ms me sector with 125 billion going to them out of that 50 50 billion of that will be a conditional grant to one million nano businesses between now and march of 2020 2024 so their target is to give 50 000 to each of the 1300 nano business owners in each of the 774 local governments across the country i mean he largely reels out and he talks about food as well food security um how he's trying to make food items more available more affordable of course we saw the rating of the warehouse in a dam our yesterday and sadly the loss of two lives there so he talks about having ordered the immediate release of 200 000 metric tons of grain from strategic reserves to households across the 36 states and fct to moderate prices also providing 225 000 metric tons of fertilizers healings and other inputs to farmers who are committed to our food security so again we were talking about food insecurity just before the show so these are some of the things that are in place cultivation of 500 000 hectares of farmland and all year around farming practice remains on course to be specific 200 billion out of 500 billion are approved by the um by the national assembly will be dispersed and then he goes on to read 50 billion to cultivate 150 000 hectares of rice and maize 50 billion will also be airmarked to cultivate 100 000 hectares of wheat and cassava um agricultural programs uh expertise so essentially he's talking about you know food security and what they're doing at that point in time and then he's pledging to the fact that he is working to improve to work for us and improve our welfare and living condition again he says that's the only thing that keeps him up day and night and he's approved infrastructure support fund for the states so we've seen some governors you know talking about the palliative measures that they're taking so he's just highlighting that improvement of rural access roads to move and farm produce to markets um programs to rule out bosses across the states and local governments for mass transit there's a provision there to invest 100 billion between now and march of 2024 to acquire 3000 units of 20 seater c ng fueled bosses and these will be shared to major transportation companies in the states using the intensity of travel per capital um and passes being transport companies will be able to access the credit facility at nine percent per annum again over the same 60 month um repayment period there is review of salary for the minimum new national minimum wage for workers so they're working in collaboration with labor unions um and that once we are once they agree on a new minimum wage and a general upward review then budget provision will be made for it for immediate implementation okay so um he also takes the opportunity to salute private employers in the organized private sector who have already implemented general salary review so well done to them he says this period may be hard on us but there's no doubt about it it is tough on us but i urge you all to look beyond the present temporary pains and aim at the larger picture sadly there was an unavoidable lag between subsidy removal and these plans coming fully online however we're swiftly closing the time gap so he's pleading with us to please have faith in his ability to deliver and in our concern for the well-being of the populace we will get out of the turbulence um and ideal be better equipped to be able to take advantage of the future that awaits in a little over two months we have saved over a trillion narrow that would have been scondered by the unproductive fuel subsidy which only benefited smugglers and frauds as the money will now be used more directly and more beneficial um fulfilling the promise to make education more affordable so referring to the of course the loans for a higher education that was um launched a few months ago um so basically commitment to the greater good i mean he says point 38 for me we are also monitoring the effects of the exchange rate and inflation on gasoline prices if and when necessary we will intervene the if and the when is now please intervene so it's it's for me my take on this is quickly it's good that he spoke about it he's or rather he's good that he came out to speak i only wish that this had come out two months ago and then we have seen in those two months how he's going to move quickly that it took two months for this to come out after the inauguration for me it's a bit slow um it's very high level for the average man on the streets i'm not hearing what is here so this is a good start please come out and tell us more as your your special advisors and co everybody is watching this one trillion that has been saved they haven't said what is for so that's what i'm saying that they need to be very specific so it's a good start right but then where's the follow-ups and that's what has to happen if you say you're going to move quickly communicate clearly communicate often and this would have come me i feel you said after the subsidy announcement me i feel that this one should have been the first announcement before subsidy announcement came at inauguration what this should have happened is this should probably have come out a few days later yeah right but these things you know they've happened all of it's happened we really talked about buses right we talked about buses we don't have the road for more well so there needs to be creativity in transportation there just needs to be particularly in the largest cities yeah i mean legos has a full waterway network can we try using that i mean just even let's come into putting ferries on the water let's come in i mean people are coming from koridu to let's in fact a member of my team was saying today how it took him it's 14 minutes he said it was even a slow journey but on the water from me koridu to cms 14 minutes take people off the road i mean we're seeing the impact of cars already being off the road with the absolutely with the fuel so we just need to do more to move people around more effectively on that note we are with your implementation sir we'll take a break now let's discuss the ministerial list


Let's go to the new other area Wow this huge building Let's go Open this Here we have the bathroom This is my bathroom Yeah Over here we have my closet I don't want to go into my closet right now Okay This is the guest bedroom Wow And then over here Uh-huh She also gave me her makeup palette Excited to try this Don't waste my time I'm at a studio today To film the video part For leave the door open cover It wasn't supposed to be a huge project like this It was just supposed to be casual We kind of filmed ourselves while practicing And recording in the studio Just for fun, like with our phones But um Apparently they wanted to make it more like Official Our video is probably up by now To be on her channel So go subscribe to Sojung's gift And go check our cover I'm singing now Super comfortable Look at the details It's 100% cotton Organically sourced cotton Made with love and environmentally friendly Thank you, Ami Having my quick dinner Before I go to radio I just ordered myself A salad It's got pork, it's got sweet potato Sauteed mushrooms and onions Pineapple Corn She's always coming over tonight She's actually sleeping over because She has an errand to run in Seoul Like just trying to get my episode 60 of adulting series All finished and ready to go Tonight, I'm like almost done We're just going to watch a movie and sleep But this girl right here I wanted to drink some wine So we're going to a convenience store To get some wine I don't have a lot of choices I don't have a lot of choices Okay, let's get this This is chicken breast And then we have These Irish chips That a listener sent This is really good Mmm, it's good Sesame seed snacks Made by Soobin's mom And then she really Yeah, it's so good And then she brought me some coconut cookies Because these are my favorite We have dried mangoes We have Australian snacks Good night Good night Good night I'm going to meet up for coffee with Joan I love the fact that we live close to each other Because we can just be like Hey, let's get coffee near our houses And then I'm going to get A lash perm And also get Brazilian waxing Because I'm going to Tejado on vacation This weekend So this week, this past week Has been like self care week Getting my nails done Lash permed for the first time ever Are you ready to go? It's the black hair and then the bleached And then my super cute nails I'm amazed by my lashes right now It was painful as always It's worth it at the end I don't have to curl my lashes anymore Okay, let me stop Being obsessed with my lashes now I'm eating the corn that Joan got me


I got tired of having bad makeup, because I wasn't that good an actor, and I needed something. I don't know, I've never made a severed head, but I'll try. Tell me about the first time you blew up a head. It didn't go well, because I don't know anything about shotguns. Everybody welcome to the show. This is a show about tenacity, about getting back up when you get knocked down. This is what we do in order to become successful. Anybody that has succeeded in anything has screwed up in a lot of things, and that's what we're going to be talking about today. My guest is Christina Cortum. She runs Ravenous Studios. She is a makeup and effects artist. She's done masks and special effects for some shows that you have definitely seen. I'm super, super excited to talk to her about it. Hi everybody, welcome to the show. On tonight's show, we have Christina Cortum of Ravenous Studios, it's makeup, masks, special effects, all sorts of cool things. Welcome to the show. Thank you, thanks for having me. Yeah, 100%, I'm really, I'm excited to, I don't want to, I was gonna say nerd out on this stuff, but that's kind of, maybe that's a stereotype. No, it's fun. What are you talking about? Monsters are the best. Perfect, tell me a little bit about the studio, like what you're doing now. Well, I make prosthetics for film, basically, for TV and film, and I also make props that's a side business that's kind of popped up and taken over in some way. So you make masks that people wear. Basically, masks, yes. Somebody needs to, let's say they're taking a character and they want them to be 80, they'll be 40, that sort of thing, I make the pieces to do that. To make that happen. Like would you put, if I wanted a mask to look like I was 80, or just to make me a good looking, just give me one of those.  Yeah, so the first thing we always start with is usually a life cast, because we want it to fit perfectly, because that's how it's gonna fool the camera. So we do a life cast and we use silicone now, not just, used to be, we used alginate, which was like a natural product. It's made out of seaweed, believe it or not. Silicone's way better. Now we've advanced and we use two part medical silicone, which is really, really great. Basically you mix the two components together and it's a little bit like frosting and then it firms up after, you know, like anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes and you have an exact copy of your face. And the awesome part about that is then I can make multiple copies of your face to do the different parts of the prosthetic that we need to do. So just the nose maybe, or just the ears or just the cheeks, you know, I can kind of break it down into all the pieces that I need. Have you ever made masks for yourself? Oh, all the time. That's how I started. Yeah. That's how I started, was doing my own makeup. Yeah. Like doing your own mask as well? Well, I started in haunted houses actually. Okay. And I started as an actor and I got tired of having bad makeup because I wasn't that good an actor and I needed something. I realized that I wasn't cutting it as an actor and I needed like something really, really scary to help you. Then I don't need to say anything. You can just be that actor. You just stand there and look. Yeah, exactly.  I fell back on that because I wasn't that great an actor. But I started making my own makeups and coming in makeup to the haunted house. And after a while they're like, wow, you're getting pretty good. You wanna join the makeup team. So that's my absolutely strange. You would show up in makeup to the haunted house. It's a funny story. Because of my schedule, because I worked in, I was actually at the time a network engineer. And I didn't have time. I'd get off work, slap on the makeup, rush hour traffic in the Bay Area to the haunted house. There was just no time for me to not come in makeup. And then I'd leave and nobody actually knew what I looked like. So they just started calling me evil clown girl because they just had no idea what I actually looked like. They just knew I showed up as an evil clown every day. It actually really helped me later because a lot of makeup artists they go to makeup school or whatever, but they haven't really worn the makeup. You know, it's one thing to wear makeup for 10 minutes and another thing to wear it for an eight hour shift. And it really helped me when I was on shows like Grimm and stuff like that, that I knew what the stunt guys were going through. I knew kind of what it felt like to wear prosthetic that long and what it felt like to take it off and just like sensitive areas of the face and things that are tough. So I was so grateful later that I did all that work earlier to kind of have empathy. Well, so tell me about ravenous then. Like what does the day look like for you with your own business? It's a little nuts. I'll wake up and the first thing I do is answered a ton of emails because any business owner knows the hell of paperwork, right? All the emails, all the requests for things six, eight months out. So just trying to juggle all that, that's I think one of the toughest things I found about owning a business is while you're working on the current job, you're working also on the next five jobs. To find the next five jobs. And then I go out to the shop and I usually have anywhere from a 12 to 18 hour day. Just depending on what's due, when it's due. You've got an actual shop that you go into where you make everything. That's correct. Right next to my house, which is awesome. And that if I make a disaster or spill something all over myself I can just run in and take care of it. Yeah, but it also was cause I have a family. And I had shops in warehouse districts and all that stuff. And it was very tough on the family in that I was just gone for 18 hours a day. Now they can at least pop in and oh, she's still alive, sort of thing. All right, well, are you, we're gonna talk a little bit more about your present.  I suppose so. Okay, okay, okay. So I do, like every time I get a little shaky, nervous, Jack makes amazing drinks. They always taste great. And they're always magical and different. So, Jack, are you ready to put your concoction together? The question is, are you ready? No. Tonight I've got for you a new moon rising. First thing we're gonna do is we're gonna add 1.5 ounces of the hapkavaka. Good healthy pour. Little bit of acid phosphate. Just three dashes, roughly a quarter ounce. Then we have our imbue vermouth that's been turned into an aperitivo. Half ounce of that. And now time for a little bit of champagne. We're going to drink the champagne today. Are you ready for that, Sean? Ah, ah, ah, the bubbles. Bubbles just for you, buddy. And we're gonna use three ounces of champagne to start and three ounces of our guava soda. And now time to ice her down. All right, now that we are ice cold and silky smooth, I'll be adding a little bit of rose water. And there you have a new moon rising. Don't you think? That's impressive. It's like a lifesaver. It is, it's so pretty. It is pretty. I'm gonna pick mine up from the middle. Okay, all right, we gotta, we gotta hold. It's heavy. It is heavy. All right, we have to. Very cold. Yeah, there we go. Proust, I don't know what the, okay. All right, thank you, Jack. Thank you. Thank you. That's guava. It's really good. This is really good. All right, it's good. All right, are you good? I think so. All right, I'm probably gonna, how about if you lift it up again later, then I'll lift mine up again later. Then we can, I'm so careful, like, okay, it's huge. All right, now, tell me. It's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful. You had some popcorn vodka? Tell me about your childhood. I get the feeling that you liked this type of stuff when you were really young as well, like certain types, like movies or heavy metal or like, yo, at the double, Star Wars. Star Wars, yeah. And my dad, see, I wasn't allowed to see any of this stuff, but my dad would like, come over. I saw half of Alien through a reflection in the window because I had to duck behind the couch every time my mom came in. Alien's serious. How old were you when you saw Alien? I was like 12. I was like 12. That is some serious, yeah. And I was like, wow. But you know, I was a kid in the Bay Area. I didn't think there was any chance of me getting involved in movies or any of that. The joke in the family was I was their worst night, an artistic kid was their worst nightmare. They were like, no, no, please, please. Can we swap? Can we swap this kid with somebody else? That's not.  Yeah. Like being able to put together prosthetics and mask. Well, it's interesting. My dad's a mechanical engineer. Yeah. And, you know, he didn't get what I was doing. You know, I broke them in gently. I actually started in engineering. How do you know? And then I switched to English and then I switched to creative arts. It was just a slow, slow breaking of their hearts, but. No, that's actually, I think that that's every parent. Yeah. Oh boy. We're done. Oh boy. Yeah. She's gonna be living at home forever. Clean out the basement. Here she comes. Yeah. But it's funny. My dad actually early in my career, very early when I was screwing everything up right and left, came to visit and he was helping me with stuff and he was like, you're doing what I, it's just a different field. But he's realizing that part of the reason I love special effects so much is it's, I was never happy if something was all artistic or all technical. I wanted both. And it's the first field that I found that I really got to have both.  Like the algae on your face. The algae on your face. You have to know how that works. Yeah. Yeah. You have to know how all this works. And then there's also the creative side of it. You know, I get to sculpt monsters, which is really super fun. Yeah. That's awesome. When I started out, I had a full-time job and then I was basically working on film for free. What was your full-time job? Plus materials. I did database design. Oh, okay. It was a database designer. Your DBA designer. Yeah, database designer. So I did that during the day and then I did film, independent film on nights and weekends. And it was always the conversation of like, I don't know, I've never made a severed head, but I'll try. If you want to take a risk, buy me some materials and I'll try it out. And that was a lot of, you know, it's crazy, Portland was my school. Yeah. You know, and it was all these independent filmmakers were my teachers in a way because they believed in me and they gave me materials and they let me try stuff out. What was your first severed head? Do you remember? Oh, yes. Yes, it was for David Walker. I love that we're having this conversation right now. Tell me about your first severed head. Well, it was really my first fake head. Okay. That's really what it was.  What's the difference between a fake head? Oh, cause the severed head would be like weird and bloody.  That's worse than the severed head. Tell me about the first time you blew up a head. It didn't go well. I know. It didn't go well at all. Cause I don't know anything about shotguns. This keeps getting better. Like I'm just picturing just like a cantaloupe.  Well, actually I called the person that did the head explosion on scanners and I asked them how they did it. And he said, two shotguns rigged up. That's how they blew up the head. Yes. Two shotguns rigged up. Yeah, sawed off shotguns. Sawed off shotguns, like comes in different angles. Sawed off is very important part of the whole process. They're illegal by the way, sawed off shotguns are illegal. Don't forget about that. Did you find two sawed off shotguns? No, I found one.  And I just put a hole in the head. That's it.  Is this a thing in Portland where they like to make movies where they have to blow up heads? Is it like this underground scene I don't know about? There's a ton of creatives. There's a ton of creatives doing stuff way outside the box. And it was a great place for me. I landed there and fell in with some indie filmmakers and just, it was a great hobby. It was really fun. Well, you worked on a show that I've actually seen an awful lot. Grimm was the show? Yes, yes, I worked in the special effects makeup trailer with the special effects makeup team. Bernie Berman, from the Berman family, it's a famous makeup family. He was the department head and he was very nice. That's like a dream come true for you, right? It was. When I got that call it was weird because here I am a database programmer and I get asked to join the team and I'm like, you know. No, where has he seen your work? Like, where did he know about you? Well, actually the guy from Scanners said, hey, you should call this, this, this talented, upcoming artist. That's right. She knows about sawed off shock guys. Give her a phone call. Yeah, no, it was a recommendation. So this was like your corporate job would be doing so, which is crazy because you wouldn't want to call that a corporate job but that's you working for a company. Yes, I was working for Universal Studios. Yeah, before you, working for Universal Studios, that's awesome. Yeah, NBC Universal, yeah. It was great. It was a dream job and the best job I've ever had.  So of course he has a lot of famous makeup friends, you know, and I turn around, it's like one of my idols and you know, every week it was that way. It was like, okay, don't freak out. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Only say smart things, only say smart things. But I mean, wow, what an opportunity to meet the people that had seen their work and admired their work so much and just, you know, meet them in the flesh and get to work side by side with them and assist them. It was nuts. You moved on to doing your own thing. Like what pushed you into that? Why not just stay doing stuff for Universal? Well, you know, it was a rare opportunity to show that large having all that creature work coming here. And I realized that that wasn't, you know, that was a once in a lifetime kind of thing. Like I had chances of another show with that heavy effects team needed was probably not gonna happen. And so I just realized I had to start working on expanding my business and basically preparing for the future. So a lot of time, Graham, we'd have a hiatus of about three months. And I tried to always make sure I did a feature every time. I just really worked hard. So I never got any time off really. I just went straight from, you know, we'd wrap on Graham and like the next day I'd be on a plane or, you know, I'd be in the shop building stuff. So I just knew that I had to get my skill set up and I had to get my shop built up to the point that when Graham left that there would be something. Now, did you already have, so when you started doing that, did you have ravenous to exist or were you just doing like business as you? Oh, no, I started ravenous in 2009. Oh, okay. Yeah, I started ravenous in 2009. I had started doing film in 2006. That's when I started doing like the little side gigs and getting into it. And then I realized 2009, I was like, I need to make this like a real business because I started making prosthetics and nobody else in town was making prosthetics. Everybody was purchasing them either online or from friends. And I was like, no, I'm making stuff. I need to actually have a business to do this. And I don't know how to start a business, you know? Nobody in my family. That's what's so interesting to me.  You know, that was, that's something a lot of people don't appreciate. It wasn't like I could call someone up and say, how do I start a business like this? Like, there's no books, how to start a special effects business. Guarantee it, I've looked. There's no such thing. Or everyone's like, don't do it, don't do it. I love that you looked.  The problem was every gig was heart pounding terror. Because I had no mentor. I went down to LA for the International Makeup Artist Trade Show. And I just basically parked myself in front of the demo booth. There's an International Makeup Artist Trade Show? Yes. With like, prosthetic stuff that's there and everything else. Was it like Comic-Con? Like when you're wandering around? Yeah, you guys booths and people wandering around doing demos of crazy makeups. And that's what I did. I just parked myself in front of a demo booth and just took a lot of notes and paid a lot of attention. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna figure out how to do this. And that's how I did it.  And like, yeah. Getting stopped by Lithuanian security. Lithuanian security? In the airport? Getting stopped in the airport because I'm covered in blood and my bag is covered in blood and it looks like I'm fleeing a murder scene. Okay, yeah, please. And no one speaks English, by the way. Wait, wait, so you're- No one speaks English. You're in Lithuania. I'm in Lithuania. What were you in Lithuania for? I was on a horror film out there. And we put, and all the effects got pushed onto the last day. And it was insane. It was like, on top of it, there was a strike in the middle of the last day by the crew because they hadn't gotten paid.  Yeah, well you want to avoid those Lithuanian strikes. Those are bad news. Well, when that four hours missing means all my effects were compressed. Now, you know, I had 12 hours to do it. Now I got eight, you know, sort of things. Now you just got spray bottles of blood that are coming out. Pretty much. Yeah, and it was like, I had the, you know, I was putting the director of the work, the producer. I was like, hey, this is all your fault. Come over here, hold this syringe, you know. I was a little nuts. I was a little nuts by the end. I was like, and then I was gonna miss my flight. I scraped my stuff into, like off the table, just literally scrape it into my trunk, close it up, get in a taxi. The actors actually helped me pack up my room because I'm not gonna make my flight the way we're going. And we rushed to the airport.  Not one person. And I get there, and I get in line, like I'm barely gonna make the flight.  It was bad, and no one speaks English. So I got hauled out of the line. My name's Dexter, let me on the plane.  And they're like, oh, and then everybody, everyone knew about the movie. Now that you've had Ravnastu, you've had it for, how long is it, 2009? 10 years now. It's been up in 10 years. Yeah, like what are you thinking moving forward? Like what have you learned so far, I guess, in running a business, because nobody knows how to run a business like this, like people are gonna come to you, and say, hey, how do I start this kind of a business? Well, I'm so lucky in that I've, in the last five years, I've found some mentors, people that own shops, and other areas. So that was like a huge, huge thing. Who have been kind enough to give me advice, and kind of like some business tips, and stuff.  No, if you go over, that's you. That's me, I mean, I'm gonna take the, and there's been gigs where I haven't made any money, because somebody poured a mold wrong, or that's the other thing, you start hiring people, then you start introducing other elements into the mix, where people are doing things, maybe somebody forgets to close a bucket lid, and then it dries out, and the next day, you're going to use it, and you're like, oh God. It's really stressful, it's very, very stressful, but it's, I love the challenge, I guess, so. That's amazing, you're looking just to continue to grow, keep doing what you're doing, like, what else? I would like to expand, I would like to expand. What would you do if you weren't doing this? Anything else you can think of? Writing. You'd be writing? I would be writing. I mean, that's still a love of mine. So, I've got, I think where I'm headed now is I'm writing a lot of scripts, and I got a stack, and I was like, yeah, maybe I'll produce these, you know, maybe I'll make my own. Do your own make up for the shows. My own stuff, yeah, so we'll see. That's, I'm looking at my retirement years going, maybe I don't want to sling blood anymore, but I want to hire people to sling blood for me. Well, listen, I, well, wait. We have to eat this other thing that, are you okay eating the other thing that's on there? Wait, there's a. How do you eat it? I don't know, I don't eat the leafy part on the top. You can eat the whole thing. Take a minute, don't listen to him. Just eat the parts that look like you're supposed to eat them. Just take a bite out of it, okay. So, I guess a weird cheers. Thank you for coming on the show. Yes, thank you for having me. I love everything about this. Of course, I was a big, I'm a big theater guy, I love sci-fi, it's huge. I love talking to you about this stuff. Cheers. All right, here we go, I'm gonna, wow, it's, all right. How do we do this? Oh, it's really good. Yeah, it's good, it's crunchy. Everybody, thanks for watching the show and if you like what you see and you wanna watch other people, you know, face plant in the world, which I like and recover, then subscribe and ring the bell. And if you ring the bell, then you're gonna know when we do other things and if you have a screw up you think would be great on the show, go to fups.com. We'd love to have you on the show.