Welcome to Think Tech Hawaii and I Never Got Quiet. This is a half hour program that explores the Hawaiian connection with the Vietnam War. I'm your host, Mick Kraft. Our program last week attempted to identify some of the issues and lessons learned from the Vietnam War. Our panel arrived at least at least one issue where there seemed to be consensus and that was the draft. All felt that every able bodied individual should serve the nation in some capacity for a period of their lives. Female and female. When one thinks of the countries with high standards of living, most lists would include the countries of Scandinavia and Switzerland. Curiously, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Switzerland all have compulsory military service for all able bodied men. Women too may join and serve similar terms of service. The military in those countries serve a purpose other than just defense. It is a place for young people to learn self-discipline and how to work with others. During the Vietnam War, the Army and sometimes the Marine Corps used draftees in their respective services. A lot of statistics have been bandied about over the years. Some have been misleading or been outright lies. Today we are going to discuss some of those statistics and reasons for resurrecting the draft or some form of national service. Our guest today is our founder and CEO, Jay Fidel. Jay worked as a law specialist and military judge in the 14th and 3rd Coast Guard districts, which were Hawaii and New York during the Vietnam War. Welcome, Jay. Hi, Rick. Nice to be here with you. Yeah. We got a lot to go over because I'm looking at the statistics when I was preparing for this and of the military personnel that were on active duty during the time of the war, which is around August of 64 through May of 75, there was something on the order of about 9 million plus of GIs. Curiously, the number of draftees didn't even represent a third of a total. And it has been said that the preponderance of the casualties during the Vietnam War were from the draftees and also from lesser lower class people or folks who are economically depressed. Statistics show otherwise that it was a great deal different that the draftees did not have the highest number of casualties, nor were the casualties focused on ethnic groups other than column white Anglo-Saxon Protestants. It seemed as though the most number of casualties came from the enlistees and also from the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant group. So to dispel those myths, the thing is that we're talking about the draft and what it did as far as the military. A lot of folks in professional military kind of balked at the idea of having a drafty army or a citizen army. They felt that they were more of a hindrance than they were of a professional nature. What did it do to us? I mean I'm looking at what the country did after World War II, after Korea and then after Vietnam and thinking what kind of a nation or a culture did we have that we developed. I mean we had a lot of draftees out of World War II, something on the order of about 66% of the military was drafted. What did it do to the country? We had a great thing going in the 50s, I think. Yeah, we did. I mean you remember all those stories about small town, USA, backwater small town. Every man, Jack, is down there enlisting. They want to go right now, they want to participate in this national effort and World War II. And I think we were operating on this kind of patriotism, this kind of duty to country, it was kind of a sort of simple approach, it's my duty I have to go, it's my way of seeing the world, it's my way of learning things I would never otherwise learn. And it's okay because we're fighting a moral war and we're going to win. And I think we did. We did fight a moral war and we did win, maybe that's an overstatement, there's some people disagree about some parts of it, but we did win. In Korea it was less clear, we didn't win, we got stuck, we got, what's the word, we got tied up in it and we couldn't win and we gave up. And then there was a period of no wars between say Korea and Vietnam. And I think the shadow of World War II was still playing out, people still felt a sense of patriotism, they still felt it, they should enlist, they had an obligation and if they were drafted they should go. Vietnam was not a straight line, it was not linear, it changed while it was organic and it changed and it's winning and losing, capability changed, it declined you saw in the movie. In the Burns series you saw that in the beginning we were very hearty about it, we were confident about it and we were winning in the beginning, in fact, but as time went on we started losing and I think you could do crosshairs on the chart as we started losing and however many draftees got killed, the level of confidence or dissatisfaction, so if you're losing dissatisfaction goes up and over time during the course of that war, which was geez seven or eight years anyway, you probably know the number better than I do, the number of years that we were inactively engaged in Vietnam starting in the early 60s maybe. Well if you go from Tonkin Gulf through the last trips it left in 73, so that was 64 to 73, so nine years. Nine years, and during that period the animal changed, all of a sudden people were not confident, we weren't winning and they were not happy about going into the meat grinder and getting killed and I think people, you could see a national change, it wasn't only Kent State, it wasn't only the parades and the protests and I'm going to go to Canada kind of mentality, it was that they changed in their respect for the government, their willingness to enlist or go voluntarily as draftees and in the end it was really fragmented. One of our guests pointed out as far as having a goal, we didn't have a Hitler to fight in Vietnam, we didn't have, I can remember Johnson sitting or standing at the podium saying we're here to protect the freedom of the peoples of South Vietnam and we had a corrupt government in Saigon that we were protecting, we were throwing all of these resources in there and yet all of the information that came out publicly from the Department of Defense and from the government said, hey we're doing a great job of winning, Westmoreland turns around and says, we're winning, send me 250,000 more troops. How is it, there was some kind of a conflict there or it wasn't... Well they were lying to us. Yeah, they were lying to us, we know that now. We found out, I mean thank goodness to the press, I suppose thank goodness because they found out and they shared that with us and at first nobody believed them but after a while we started to hear it so often that we realized this was dead end. We weren't going to win, that it wasn't a moral war and that people were getting killed for no good reason, that the brass and the White House were taking us in the wrong direction, you could get very unhappy with that. And I think that's, you know it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you have a military force out there that's really discouraged, doesn't believe in the war. If you have a population back home that believes in it even less, you're not going to have a winning force. They're not likely to win, they don't care. In fact they care not to be there. Well in comparison with Vietnam and World War II, World War II required the entire resources of the nation, gas rationing, all kinds of food rationing, coupon books, things of this nature. We didn't have that in Vietnam. It was the guns and butter routine that we had that the politicians kept saying well we can fight this war, we can still have a good economy. There was a lie to that because what did Nixon do after he got in in 1971, we put on the price controls nationwide because inflation was just going out of sight. But what I'm looking at is in 73 we stopped the draft because of the public pushback on the idea that government had really lied to us. Now I don't want my little Johnny to go into that kind of... That move, that event of stopping the draft, I met the guy by the way, the lawyer, whose duty, I think I told you, whose duty it was to take the draft apart, to unravel it all. I told him gee, I don't know if you're proud of that or what but it was not really a good move. I mean arguably if he hadn't done that, if they hadn't told him to do that, if they hadn't unraveled the draft, it would have continued. Maybe it would have been tuned, it would have been made more reasonable and maybe our wars would have been made smarter and more reasonable.  Everybody was up in arms and politically it was an attractive thing to do. It was... General Ford was during his administration after Nixon and the whole thing is the country was demanding it and they gave in to that politically and the problem is that's a one-way decision. You can't reverse. Do you think, Vic, that you can reverse that decision, you can go back and do a draft now? The mechanism is still there. The National is trying to recall what the act was called in 1940. It has not been... Selective Service Act. The Selective Service Act, I believe, but it has not been shelved. It's there. People, lawyers, judges, whatever, who are a part of the Selective Service Committee within their communities. It's there ready to go at a moment's notice. My concern is... Don't say a moment. Well, that's the... I know. I mean, we're sitting here allegedly in the crosshairs of a young man in Pyongyang, but how long does it take to train somebody? Stop to think about the draft. The long lead time item in the military is one soldier, and it takes at least 18 years to get them to the point where they can go and be trained to go into either a high-tech position or even just be a fire stick carrier. Well, the military is very high-tech now, and you can't pull a draftee off out of his civilian community and make him a high-tech soldier right away. You have to train him and all that stuff. And I suppose you could make the argument is that the draft is no longer practical, that you can't have an army or a military of largely draftees because they won't be able to get trained fast enough and so forth. But I would differ from that. I would too, because I go back to my experience with the Swiss. I was on the Swiss F5 program and got to learn an awful lot about their National Guard system and how they function.  Because you're going to go in, you're going to get basic training, and you're going to learn how to carry a rifle, how to fire it, all the field work and whatever, and take your uniforms after you're through with your 16 or 18 months out in the field or whatever.  Now you stop to think about the crime rate in Switzerland. It's one of the lowest in the world, knowing that there's an automatic weapon on the other side of the door. That kind of is a prevention method there. But the other side is that the Swiss have this national sense. They belong to Switzerland, even though they maybe speak French or from a French section, the Italian or the German, they have this sense of national unity. And it's been going on for hundreds of years. So how do we kind of instill that in this society that we're going to get pushed back? Never happened. I don't think it would ever happen. Politically, it would be deadly. It was deadly when Gerald Ford took it apart, because people had a terrible experience in Vietnam. They didn't believe that in that war. We lost that war. They believed that the government had been lying to them. They had the different relationship with the government. At the end of it, then they had at the beginning of it, and they had no confidence in the government in any way.   I'm not doing that. And their mothers and fathers and friends and uncles and aunts fell the same way. So once it came apart, it's not very hard to put it back again. And we do now have a functioning volunteer army and all the other services who are very well trained. And politically, it's a different animal as a draft army. But there it is. There we have it. Maybe in some ways, they're crack troops. But in other ways, they don't really represent the country. And I feel that one of the things in our lifetimes is that at the beginning of it, when you and I became aware, so to say, the country was us and we were the country. We were bonded at the hip with the country. We were patriotic. We felt comfortable in the country, believed in the country. Mothers told us this is the best place in the world to live. It's the best place in the world to be born. And I took that through Vietnam, I felt that way. But what happened since as a result, I believe, of Vietnam is that later generations don't feel that way and aren't going to feel that way. They're not going to feel that our war is a moral or intelligent. They're not going to feel that they should go or want to go, that they have an obligation, a patriotic obligation to go. And they'll be resistant at every level. Let's talk about that after the break. Let's take a break for a couple of minutes here and we'll be right back. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. The host of Voice of the Veteran, seen here live every Thursday afternoon at 1 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii. As a fellow veteran and veterans advocate with over 23 years experience serving veterans, active duty and family members, I hope to educate everyone on benefits and accessibility services by inviting professionals in the field to appear on the show. In addition, I hope to plan on inviting guest veterans to talk about their concerns and possibly offer solutions. As we navigate and work together through issues, we can all benefit. Please join me every Thursday at 1 p.m. for the Voice of the Veteran. Aloha. Welcome back. We're discussing the possibility of resurrecting universal service in some capacity. With our guest today, Jay Craddell. Jay Craddell. Yeah, I know your name. So I have a question for you. Sure, Jay. How do you feel about this? How do you feel about the possibility of resurrecting the draft? Can we? Should we? Would we succeed if we tried? Our guest last week, one of our guests on the panel, said it's going to require a huge culture change. I bring into question, I put it before my grandson. I said, how would you feel about it? Your government is going to demand of you 18 months, two years, whatever period of time for you to serve the country in some capacity, not necessarily in the military but peace corps, vissera, whatever, and then he said, oh no, it's not for me. I was kind of, okay, well, you're enjoying the benefits of the society that we have worked for and those of us who have put on a uniform and fought and defended, even though in the case of Vietnam, I didn't see Hanoi bombing Los Angeles, but it was still, that was what we felt was not a terror but a threat to our country. I put my life on the line and now here's this youngster who, oh no, it's not for me. I have my plans and this is what I'm going to do and oh no, I just could not, I could not do that. So what if it's a law? Would you be breaking the law? Oh yeah. I wouldn't do it. Wow. But we've had, since 73, what, two generations, three generations, or two, however you measure a generation, we don't, some say 10 years, some say 20, whatever.  Why, why should I bother doing something for you? Why should I put my life on the line for you? Why should anybody put their lives on the line for these people? At the time, at the time it was appropriate. At the time you felt the way you felt, the country felt the way you felt, the government was a different animal in those days, public opinion was in a different place in those days, and it all fit. And remember too that a lot of people who were threatened with the draft or who got drafted, they found other ways, other ways to avoid the draft, to serve in some other capacity or to leave for Canada, or in the case of Donald Trump to have a spur, a bone spur, he had like five medical deferment, that poor guy, and he didn't serve a day in his life. But a lot of people who managed to get out of it, it was a different time is what I'm saying. All these wars were a different time. And now what we have is we've been excused the subsequent generations from any obligation. There's no obligation at all.  We don't like felons, although that's kind of mixed up a little because sometimes you can be a felon and get away with it, as we see in white collar crime. But mostly you don't have any obligation to participate in the government. The government is out there, it's almost like an adverse party, and it will take care of you no matter what. You have a sense of entitlement. That's the generation we have created now, two or three generations later. And the problem is, the ultimate question here is, is that sustainable on a national level? Can we have a country that doesn't care about the country? Answer, no. Robert Heinlein wrote about it many years ago in those books for Lazarus Long. Any society that doesn't follow any kind of, have any sense of duty, loyalty, or honor is doomed. And so you can't do anything for it, get the hell out. And it seems as though we've lost that sense of honor and duty, but I think it's also partially because of the government that we've had. People distrust the government. Why should we have a draft when our government can't be trusted? They've given us an application. It's a fair question, isn't it? Yeah, well, I mean, here's another, here's a good question for you right now. I just got into problems with the business of calling the mother of the slain soldier who was ambushed in Niger. I didn't hear anything in the press asking, what the heck are we doing in Niger? So where's the accountability the government is going on and doing things without public notice of this thing? I'll bet you you walk up to somebody on the street right now and ask them where Niger is and they wouldn't be able to tell you. Meanwhile, our men are dying in Niger. For what purpose? And we don't know why they're there. We have no idea why they're there. And let me go slightly off that and say, have you noticed that we're doing a lot more in Afghanistan? Have you noticed that we're doing a lot more in Syria? Wasn't this president as a candidate saying he wanted to get out of all this and fold up our efforts overseas and bring it back home and be nationalistic and chauvinistic right here at home? Now we find these things are happening subcelentio. We have more troops, more action in Afghanistan. We have more things going on in Syria. And for that matter, Iraq, there's all this action. And nobody is telling us what's going on, what the strategy is. Niger is just the top of the iceberg. There's a lot going on that he's commanding. And what strikes me is really amazing is he gets into this silly feud with a grieving widow and I say to myself, presumptively, he's always going to distract us from the reality, from the truth. And this is just another example of that. The feud with the widow is a distraction, Vic. He's distracting us from the fact that it all happened in Niger. What's going on here? Well, and there are other places in the world where things are happening that we don't know about. And I ran into that quite by accident when I was up at Tripler getting treatment for something. And I looked at the medical officer. And of course, in the Army, on the right shoulder, you wear the unit that you were in in combat. And I couldn't recognize the unit that this doctor was in. And I said, where'd you get that? And he said, well, I can't tell you. Really? And I said, you received the authority to wear a unit insignia on your right shoulder in combat, but you can't tell me where. And I'm just going through my mind thinking, wait a minute, how many other instances of like this? Having participated in one of those myself, you weren't there. But it's sort of what is it that our government is getting into that we don't know about? And we are depending, because this is a Republican-formed government, we're expecting our representatives to have the oversight and monitor this thing and manage it properly. And yet, when we had the problem with Syria, with the gas, what, was it two years ago? And I wrote an article about it, and I got pushed back on it. Because I said, basically, going into Syria and doing something, why are we there? What are our goals? What is it that the American interests are in Syria? Why are we there? And we don't have people asking that question. And this is one of the things that the panel brought out. And everybody in our vet group last night, we were talking to the same. There's no engagement, no involvement, either by people in the politics of what's going on. And perhaps maybe that is a result of getting rid of the draft in 1973. I no longer have skin in the game, because little Johnny is not going to go into the armed forces or anything else to do with government service. So I don't know. I mean, how do you balance this? Well, it's not balanced now, that's for sure. I mean, if he didn't want to tell us about what he's doing in these various places and putting more troops in and getting involved in clandestine operations, then at least tell us that. Tell us we don't have a need to know. Tell us he's got it under control. But he's not even saying that. It just pops up like this with the feud with the widow. And I think it's consistent, as you say, with the notion that we no longer have confidence in the government. We wrote it off. We wrote off what it is doing. This is very troubling. And as I mentioned, it's kind of not sustainable. How you come back from that, I don't know. And furthermore, where it goes, I don't know, because you have a volunteer army that is involved in clandestine operations. You have the CIA, which is running right close to them, very parallel, doing all kinds of clandestine things. You have things like the Patriot Act, which were established after 9-11. And you have an intelligence community that doesn't tell us what they do or know, what their plans are. And you have a president who's retributive to anybody who speaks against him. All of this sounds like the steps on the way to a dictatorship with an army that maybe worked for him, but I'm not sure they worked for me or you. So I think we're really in a kind of dangerous situation right now. And I don't think the draft is going to come back. But that reason also. Jay, thanks very much for being with us. I wish we had more time. In closing, what I'd like to do is say something here as far as how do I feel about the draft? But I kind of like to go and quote Robert Heinlein again. Robert Heinlein wrote Starship Trooper, which turned into a movie, a very popular movie.  But he basically said, I also think there are prices too high to pay to save the United States. Conscription is one of them. Conscription is slavery. And I don't think that any people or nation has a right to save itself at a price of slavery for anyone, no matter what the name is called. We have had the drafts for 20 years now. This was in 1961. I think this is shameful. If a country can't save itself through the volunteer service of its own free people, then I say, let the damn thing go down the drain. Well, I may agree with some of what Robert Heinlein said. If he were alive today, I would remind him that warfare is a high-tech thing, and it happens very rapidly. During the Cold War, you had 24 minutes in which to respond. Because ICBMs aren't controllable. Once you shoot them, they're gone. How do you prepare for that kind of thing in 24 minutes? And so I think of it, what's the defense plan if you have no body of people that are going to defend the country? Next week, we will have Jim Borsma on our program. We're going to discuss his experiences, both during and after his tour in Vietnam. He's written a book called Loveless in Nom, which is kind of a comedy. It's a novel, and it promised to be a lively show. We would love to have some feedback. If you have some comments, please send an email to 808VietnamVets at gmail.com. I would like to thank the staff here at Think Tech Hawaii for all their support and their assistance. Truly without them, this program would not be possible. Please come back again next week for another issue of It Never Got Quiet. Mahalo.


Welcome back. Welcome back. The hashtag to use is hashtag entrepreneurship Tuesday on why in the morning at Y244 channel as you can find us across all of social media platform. At Michelle Ashira is where you can reach out to me. I'm reading some of your comments out here and I'm just going to sample them after this particular interview. So in this particular session we are talking about matters of creating warm spaces. Be it in your home, the office, wherever you are, just to show that your space is warm and cozy. We're talking about interior decoration. So in studio right now, I have Carol Gecoño. She's the CEO of Porsche Deco and design apostry design. I didn't want to, I didn't want to button the morning hand. Thank you very much for creating time, Carol. Thank you. How are you doing? I am fine. Who is Carol?  I am a daughter. I am an entrepreneur.  Before interior decoration, what was Carol doing? Before interior decoration, I was a banker. I worked in the banking industry for over 10 years, going 12, and then I left because it wasn't, I think it wasn't my place to be in it. Then I stumbled into the interior design decor business. All right. When did that happen? It started in 2013 when I left employment. I did my own seat as in that's their post-repart because I re-posted my seat in the house and I thought wow. So you can take an old seat and make it look nice, change colors, just it changes the whole environment. Then I thought okay, I'm coming from the professional world where nobody knows about this as in, and then nobody wants to hassle about it because the hassle of going to talking to fundies is too much. I was like by the way, this is a good thing. Can I post on Facebook and see if I can get somebody who will be interested in this. And yeah, I got clients. I got a call from a friend. Can you do this for my seat? And it started. It started like that, like a joke. But because I was still thinking maybe I can go back to employment. I was still in between. And I was also in school. I was a day star. So I had school. So it wasn't like a full time thing. It was just like a hassle in between jobs. Then I did it for 2013, 2014, 2015 and back to employment. Then I went to work for my co-finance. I did two years there. Then I think that the moment you've tested your own money, your freedom, you just can't seat in an office. You can't do an age to five because you're just restless. So I found myself back out. And this time because I had already created a page because I run my business on the page. It's online. Then I decided, okay, let me revamp it. Let's try and do different things. And it exploded. As in it was, no, that's when everything just fell into place. Okay. So you've tested both sides of the world. Employment and being your own employer. What is the difference of the two? Maybe you could highlight some of the experiences that you've had in employment and in entrepreneurship? In employment, when you're an employee, you're in a comfortable space. And there are people who, as I say, there are people who have been born to stay in one job, one environment, all their life. They can survive even 30 years in one employment. My issue was, and maybe most bankers, we move. As we move from one bank in those like 10 years, I had done like four banks. So that means there's something you're very restless in what you're doing. The other thing, you also move from one bank to another or from one employer to another because of the money.  But you see, you end up pure slave to that whole thing. But for others, it works. The poll will get rich out of employment. But the percentage is like 1%. The rest, you're just leaving paycheck after paycheck. Like the new language I've learned so far, the month becomes longer than the money. Because by mid, I think by the first week, you're broke. And now you're looking forward to the salary. When you're in employment, you have your freedom. You have your time. So you choose how you're going to run it. But it's crazy because you're more committed to it. You give it 110%. The money that comes in, you're the only one who is going to do the budgeting.  Do I save? Do I do this? And there's more money. You make more money. In the first two weeks of the month, you can make more money than you ever did with your salary when you're employed. But let's look at when you're starting off the transition now from a secured job where you are assured of a paycheck at the end of the month. And now you're stepping into a new space where you're not really sure about the future. How is that? Let me tell you entrepreneurship takes days. You have to be consistent. You have to be persistent. And you also have to be optimistic because you have more than 99% of the time you want to go back to employment.  No business is coming through. But if you're employed, you'd have your salary. So it's a choice that you make every day. I'm willing to do this. I know where I'm doing this. And again, when you're passionate about what you're doing, you never feel this thing is not right. You push yourself. But it takes a lot of consistency and being persistent. It takes a lot of, it takes a lot from you to remain as an entrepreneur, especially if you've come out of employment. Because the options, even I, like this year, I've talked to a few friends of mine, can I go back? Can I come back? Can I get a job? But then something happens. Like when you decide that I want to go back to employment, at a time, the doors just open. You start getting work.  I don't know what you'll do here. But others tell you, hang in there. As in, why are you going? Stay there. Okay. So for our viewers who are watching this, and they will be wondering, what are we talking about interior decor? What is interior decor? Interior decor is what you see. It's when you get into a room, how it's been put up. The furniture, the curtains, the colors, as in the whole space. Interior design is the concept. They can give you, like when you're designing your house, that's where they come in. It's a space. Maybe you can decide on these meters, the meters and the square feet, all that. Interior decor is the aesthetics. What, how do colors blend in? How do you do color blocking? And for most guys, especially for my clients, because we do a post, we do, where I'm online, it's because I don't need to be like at the workshop. We re-upholster seats so far as curtains. So we come to your space. That means you have a house, big or small, and you think I can change. Maybe I can get a different color for my seats. I need to change curtains. I need to do this. So we come to you and we create your space. And also we have someone who might be watching this and they always want to have a nice cozy place and they might want to invite an interior decorator, but they feel like, oh, the expenses, it might be quite expensive. How would you work with your client in terms of meeting towards what they want and work within their budget? So it's, it's conversation. Basically, the first thing you do is consultation. So it's, you tell me this is my budget. This is what I want. The others will go like, I have this seat. Can I change it? Can it look this way? Because you see, you can see the ones that are out. Because right now, I think the, the hippiest seats are the tuft, the tuft seats. The Chesterfield ones that have buttons. So everybody looks at theirs and they think, okay, can I change this to, can it look like this? So I have to tell you, yes, no, the structure is like this. Then you tell me this is how much I have. Then we work with our budget. Interesting enough, any budget can fit. You can do something with what you have. You can change something with what you have. It is just being open. Yeah. I would tell us like we can go for cheaper back quality. Yes, yes, you can. Yes, there they are. As people do, it's also how, how far you want to make your mind to open it up and explore out there. Because the thing about deco is you can use anything. You can use Kangas. You can use Kitangas. You can use, you can go to Gekomba. There is fabric for everybody. There is the high end. There is the other. You think it's low end, but it's very nice. And it's also how you put up, you bring the pieces together. It can be a cheap thing, but it looks nice. What sort of a background does one require to just venture in this particular business? For me, I think it's, it's talent. Everybody has been born with their God-given talent. There is something that is in you. Maybe you're in employment or you're sitting at home. You're wondering, what do I do? So it's more of what you do with what you have, where you are. So take, take, take the courage and creativity. I think everybody, we did the 844 system at Encraft. I think everybody knew these were, they are those people who are good in drawing, those people are good in bringing colors together. People who did agriculture, you know, we were exposed. And most people who are running activities or doing things with that are talent-based and passion-based, it's something that started from when you were a child. Because for me, when I was young, I wanted to, okay, I had a few things. I wanted to do political science because I was thinking I can do politics. Then I also really wanted to do interior design. That was also something else. Then when we finished school, you find we're in the technology space.  You can actually explore. Yes. Then you go and do business because everybody is doing, then there's white collar jobs that everybody needs to get. So you find yourself in employment. But there's still that thing in you that is the creative space in you. That's the one you need to tap into. And that's the one that takes you to the next level. Okay. And at what point were you confident to the point where you need to, from a vision to actualizing whatever you had in your mind, which is now coming up with that push-decker? When I got a client, got the first one, got the second one, the third one, and you're thinking, ah, this is nice. And interesting enough, back then, when I started, I would go, I didn't have confidence to go to the clients alone. Because like now I come to you and need to take the measurements and all that. I did not know how to hold that, take measure, how to calculate. But with time, ended up now, I normally do the consultations alone. I am the one who does the measurements. I can calculate. I've gotten to know if I look at a seat, it needs how many meters. If I take measurements of a window, it needs how many meters. You learn as you go, yes. Speaking about learning, from a point of passion, I'm so sure that is not enough. How did you gather more skills while going further in this business? Google is your friend. There's interesting enough information is out there in the net. And it's how you do it. If you want to grow, learning never stops. You have to read a lot. So read books, read blogs that are in this interior space. Read everything. As in just learn, be willing to open up your mind to new things. Because what we say is that success is uncomfortable.  It will be difficult. It's not an easy thing because you also meet difficult clients. So how do you manage them? How do you deal with it? You also get losses because you might get into a job, but I'll tell you, yes, I can work within your budget. And then I come and find myself, it's gone over budget. And the thing with entrepreneurship, you do not go again professionally. You don't go back to your clients.  Yes, you have to. Because I promised this and I have to deliver.  You don't know what you're talking about. You're not credible. I can rely on you. You started off by working within your space and then you posted it on social media and people appreciate it. And then that's how you got your clientele. How do you retain your customers before we actually check out some of your images? There it goes. But you can answer that and then we'll check out the pictures. Interesting enough, I come to your house. I do a good job. You refer me. The referral is even better than somebody who just comes to the page. Then others, whatever photos we have in the page, they do, they work for you. People are lazy. Let me say Kenyans, where we're getting. People don't like going and getting tired. So they'll end up on social media pages or they see a photo and then they're like, okay, sir, I think I want to call her. And then there are some who are very confident. They'll give you their business. But there are others who come with referrals. But I also like the ones who just come. They've just I've gone, I've checked everywhere. I've gone through your page. I think I like your work and I want to give you business. Okay, now we can check out some of the couple of your projects that you have done. We can start off with the curtains and tell us more about this. So this is a new trend of curtains that are coming up, where you're mixing, you mix in much colors. And then it needs somebody who's very bold because most guys don't like colors. And they'll be like, and then the other thing about, if you have such curtains, that means your house has to be blending. So that means the seats, the sofa, no, the sofa, the seats, the table, the carpet have to blend in to this, but it can have an element of that blue. You can have an element of yellow or you can have white. Oh, you just don't throw in curtains? Yeah, curtains don't. Interesting enough, curtains compliment the room. What if I want to go for darker colors from the curtains? If you want to go for darker colors in the curtains, that's fine. Then you can brighten up the seats.  The interesting thing about why they are called throw pillows people, it's because you throw and they are there to bring in the element of color into the room. Then what we are noting with, and not so you see there is a change, the trend currently, our parents era them, they were dark, brown, gray, you know, dull colors, but now people are becoming very bold. So the colors are bigger. Let's look at this setup. Okay. Yes, this looks a little bit warm, cozy. Maybe you could take us through this image. This, this is, that's an ottoman, but it has, yeah, it has arms. And it's also a storage ottoman. That one you can sit, you can use it to, like, if you're reading, this is a room, this is like a bedroom, because you can use it as storage, because it has somewhere for storage. And then it can be a sitting area. On the bottom? Yes, the bottom storage. You open it up. So this is a very functional piece in any room. It can be in the sitting room, it can be in the bedroom, but it serves different purposes. Is it intentional we have the walls to be gray, the mats to be gray, and the seat to be gray? Yes, that's intentional, because that's, that's, that's how you blend in. Then you see there's that, the karak that has been thrown there, which is like a blanket, that is maroon. So gray goes very well with maroon. Okay, let's look at that. And now let's look at this sitting room here. So this is blue and then a blend of, like a floral print, which is more of abstract.  The poloos say I don't want floral, but I want something that is abstract. So this is also, this is also the new trend, is what people are doing. Yeah, nice. Interesting. Yeah, that's how you blend. Oh, right. So the seats, they look amazing. Okay. You see now those are tropilo. So you can have, and then you see it's blending in with the curtains, and the color of the seats, and the tropilos. Okay, okay, okay. The caution, okay. Those are tropilos. Yeah. Pilots, floral, and then we have plain. Yes. Okay. The poloos are very comfortable. The people who are comfortable with the floral prints, but they are very comfortable with the plain. So it's just a personal taste. So it's all about personalization, because it's your space at the end of the day. You want to feel at home, warm, cozy. Oh yeah. So going back to now, Posh Deco, what makes the company different? What makes your interior Deco company different from what we have in the market, so that I'm sure if I come to you, I might get something different? For me, as I say, it's also, it's more of a personal brand. It's, you'll be comfortable maybe dealing with me, because you're not going to deal directly with the fundies, because I will be the face of the company. So you talk to me, we agree, then I bring my staff on board, they deliver, and then you're happy with the process. Then the other thing is that we work at home, in your home. So we come to you, we say work on site. So we don't, we don't expect you at here, we come and see your things and like, no, bring them to their workshop. So what makes it very different is that we come to you and we go everywhere. We've gone to Kisumu, we've gone to Nakuru, we've gone to Naivasha. So we come to your space and we're there. So how many team, what's your team? My team, it depends because, okay, on site, we can go like four, we can have like, okay, but I've come to see when I have very many projects, it's crazy. I've tried to have like three going on at the same time and it's really, really crazy because, again, the client expects you to be there. If they see something, this is not right, they won't talk to them, they'll talk to me. I don't like this, I don't like this. So the team can go up to 20, but mostly I work with four.  What I'm proud of is that I've been able to hang in there, I think, from 2013, which has been difficult, but it has also been very fulfilling. My first year was 2018, 2019. Those years were when everything just opened up and I got very many clients. The other thing that I also am happy about is that I also got to learn how to navigate the social media, especially Facebook, how do you get clients out of it and also the digital space. The other thing that I'm also happy about is that I am doing what God blessed me with and I'm becoming a blessing to people. And also, yeah, because the other thing that we say like even the COVID times, if I get a business, I'm not only feeding myself, I am feeding five other families. So there are people who, if I'm not working, they won't get anything. So you've also blessed many people in their process. Then also making clients happy, and really enjoy into their homes. You mentioned something very important that during this time we learned how to navigate social media, Facebook, share the nuggets of wisdom plays. You know what's your attempt when you're sharing, because if you go through my page, I don't just put photos, these are narration, because I've also had research. So when I'm talking about a color or I'm talking about a certain piece, I describe it. So there's that. Then there's, I show the process.  So, but this I got from a client. There's a client who told me, you page, that's a better thing that was 277. He's like, hey, your photos, I really looked for you. But I think what you need to do for you to grow, you need to show the process. So you found it at looking like this, and you show that your people are working on it. Oh, before and after. Yes, before and after, but they're in between. As in has it been stripped? How has it been done? And then people will see, yeah, it is real. It is not just something that you've posted. Awesome. Okay, sorry. Continue. It's okay. So that's one. And then now boosting. There's something, there's Facebook boost, where you boost your posts. And the, and when you boost, that's when there's a lot of attention that you get. Because they go, as in when you open your Facebook page, you know, there's that whatever the one that is written sponsored, that's boosting that somebody behind it who has boosted it. And then Facebook takes it to the right people. What's some of the challenges that you have faced? The challenges is the managing, managing people, managing the workforce, and also even clients. You know, people are different. And there are people even like, because this work is a skilled, it's a skilled labor. Absolutely. Me, I'm not skilled. So me, I'm more of the concept, the creative and all that, but it's somebody who's going to do it. So you find some of these guys, you try and correct them, it becomes beef. They don't want to change anything. They feel offended. And you're trying to show them. Then also telling them, as in trying to change their mindset to, it's not just finishing the work. It has to be fine. It has to be fantastic. Attention to details. As in that corner, that nail, have you done it? Are they consistent? As in, are they, we even measure, we use, is it one inch from one to the next? You know, small, small details. And interesting enough in this business, people don't bother with what you've done. It will take you two days, three days, it's okay. But as long as what I see is appealing to my eyes, and what's the final product, it has to be very detailed. Yes. Okay. Many industries have been affected with COVID-19. And I don't know about into the day, considering that most people right now, we have too much time to ourselves. So maybe we'll learn to change our space. Be looking at my house, I want to change this, I want to change that. How's the business been? The first two, let's say the first two, two, three months, let's say from March, April, May, it was quiet. Because at that time everybody was maintaining social distance. They were all locked up in their houses. Even I was locked up because they were wondering, where are you going?  From that June, yeah, the same thing. What you said, yeah, guys know, they can tell their friend, you need to repair your seats. Yeah, he told me, I've stayed at home, I've looked at that seat, it needs work. So yes, it opened up because not everybody was like, I need to change this, I need to change my curtains, I need to do this. Guys were moving out again because of the economy. People have moved houses. So you move to a smaller house, how do I take it down? How do I, I've gotten requests for people, can I offload as in, can I sell? Now the problem is that we don't buy, we don't buy old seats. Yes. All right, you mentioned something quite interesting, but you said, my desire is to overcome fear of an ordinary life. Tell us more about that. Yes, that's what I was saying about employment. When you're in employment, you're just living an ordinary life. You're living the comfort zone. It's good, it works. But I want to do more. I want more from life. I want to, to explore things that I didn't know I could do. As you know, we've been given our imagination you think out of the box. And for you to make millions, if I'm thinking of dreaming of millions, that means I have to really put myself out there in a place that I don't know. But what I've learned or what I've read, interesting enough, you don't think about the how. And I think that's how I ended up in this business. You need to know the where and the what. The how happens. It comes to you. Okay. And then there's also what I was, what I was writing my thoughts today in the morning. A quote from Teddy Roswet that he says, do what you can with what you have where you are. To be that whole view of speculative. Okay. Do what you can with what you have where you are. And let me tell you, for me that aim for me to stumble into this business. So you've left employment. So you're wondering what to do. So yes, I had a car.  So there was this guy who was doing creative work and he was getting clients. But he was always using taxi. So I told him, why are you using a taxi? See you call me. I'll drive you. And then you pay me. And I got money from it. I was thinking, okay, your answers are with you. They are within you. You just need to tap with it. You just need to tap within yourself. And then it's the thing is, let's look at even this COVID station. And I think that's where as a nation or even as a world and for the youth especially, you in this situation, we cannot control anything. We don't know how long this thing will go on. We've just been told adjust and learn to live with it. So you just need to know that you're the one who makes the choice. So I will choose how to react to this space or to this situation. And then you do what you can with what you have where you are. Yes. I like that. I really don't like that. What is the future of Porsche Deco? The future is my dream is to have, you know, you see it Mombasa Road, those showrooms and all that. Oh, yeah, I see the showroom. I want to have one like that. That would be amazing. Yes. Yes. That is Kenyan.  So we'll do it here. You know, sort of like all the, I think all the shops or then ends and all that, they bring in as in their, they are made in China, then they come and assemble them here. And that's why they expensive. But yeah, we can still replicate that. But as I've said, it's just the final details, attention to detail and make it fantastic. All right. And it's actually way easier for a client to to be able to visualize whatever they want with whatever they actually can see in the showroom. Yes. Yes. How can you guys work it and find you on social media? They can find me on Facebook. It's called, my page is called Posh Deco and the Posh Tree Services on Instagram. It's Posh.254. All right. Amazing. So guys, that's all Marta Patini into Deco. Make sure you follow up with Carol Gekoyo and then she will be making up your space just the way you visualize it. And then you can actually get to see it in real life right now. Thank you very much. Thank you very much darling. We've learned a couple of things. Checking out your art and creativity. So then I will go into comments.


To... We're here with Michael. Baby Michael. Alright, so we want to tell you the whole birth story. Well, bits as much as we can. But before we dive into that, remember we announced to all of you maybe six months ago that he was on his way. Point, we found out Boy or Girl. And we showed you this! And here we go. Yeah, Boy or Girl. Alright, so that was amazing. That was amazing. We found out, baby boy, we didn't tell you the name though, which was really hard. I can't tell you how many times in editing I had to cut Michael out of the vlogs over the last, what, four or five months? This is the first time we found out out of our three kids, if it was a boy or girl. So we really loved knowing and naming and talking to him and addressing him. When did we choose Michael? Because they thought I don't... Well, that's a good point. It was probably, I think it was like January-ish, like officially, so maybe two months ago. Yeah. We were like, Michael Colby. If you watched the birth vlogs from a week ago, oh up there, check them out. You might be wondering, oh, there's a few holes in the story. Well, obviously... This will be the full story. True love was in a lot of pain. There was things happening and so we could not tell the full story in the moment. We were not capable. We just, we were not capable. So here's the full story of the birth. In our infinite wisdom, our game plan, what game plan did we have? So, Sethi, our youngest at the moment. Our second born. Okay. Yeah. Second born at the moment. He, his birthday was two days before this guy's due date. And we didn't want labor and delivery to interfere with his birthday. And so we, because we're so brilliant, were like, oh, we'll pop his birthday up two weeks, March 10th.  It's almost your birthday. And we just rode that fake birthday hard because we, we just were, we didn't want, we wanted to get a special day. He's a bit of a sensitive child. And they didn't want him to steal the thunder. Right, exactly. And so the night before the fake birthday, Seth is decorating the whole house. March 9th. I'm in bed wrapping presents. And at the end of my very last present taped it. I felt a little, it was like the first, I guess, mini contraction. It was just the first time I was like, oh, that, that's weird. That doesn't feel normal. I remembered Seth and Joseph, but especially Seth's birth. And I just knew that something was happening, even though it was two weeks, he was two weeks early. But I called the doctor, maybe what, maybe an hour later, 45 minutes later. Oh, like maybe 25 minutes later, he said, let's just start, let's just start tracking these weird things that are happening called contractions. And I was like, this is a weird thing. She was into that. Yeah. She was a little bit big time. I was like, hon, where's the hospital bed? I know. And then when he called the doctor, I was like, um, should we just go back to bed? Let's just think about this. We, let's just all go back to bed. And then I left for five minutes and I came back dressed and I think that freaked you out. I came back dressed because I was like, all right, we're going, we're, we're going. You, you had the wisdom. I knew. And so this is probably what, and I didn't even tell True Love this. I called my mom to come over, to come over to watch the boys because I knew we were going. You guys, it's so nice to have a spouse and a best friend who has wisdom and, and, and knows you and knows like when real things are happening. When the pain, the pain, right? When the pain is happening. When the pain is happening. We're in the hospital room at 1030. Yeah. So I'd say. Whatever time now. Yeah. 10 ish. Yeah. We started heading toward the hospital the first time. Yeah. That's like you caught in the one video we say round two. So we got there at, she checked me. It was like 1030. I think I remember the time we got up to the room and got undressed and everything. And she checked me and I was a one and I was having some serious pain. And I thought for sure, I mean at least I was grateful I wasn't a zero, but I thought I would be at least a two or three or in my head. I was like, I'm probably a four and I was a one.   Let's, we can give you like two, two and a half hours. And if you progress, if it changes at all, then we most likely can admit you. And so we were just thinking no problem. Things are progressing and contractions weren't progressing. They were, it was the five one one thing, you know, where it's like every five minutes for at least a minute for an hour. That happened like for an hour, an hour and a half, almost two hours. That happened at the house. That did happen at the house. That's why we went in. You know who you are, nurse? Basically at 105. 105 AM. She was discharging me because. And that's where the first vlog you might remember cut before. You didn't see that because it's the next day. It's 105 AM. Oh, you've got to go home. You've got, no, she gives me an ambient. She tells me, which is like a sleep. Yeah, it makes you sleep really hard. And she was really, we really loved her, but she definitely was treating us like we were first time parents and was like, you know what?  It's going to be a couple weeks. Don't worry, this happens to a lot of women. And then she was like, don't worry, we're not back behind the nurse's station laughing at you. And I was like, why would you say that? What? Yes you are. Yes you are. And she was really, she checked me three times in that. Even right as we were leaving, I was like, when can I come back? She checked me one more time. I did not change at all. I was a solid one that whole time. So to her defense, she, you know. Couldn't really admit us. She couldn't admit us. But she also gave me an ambient and was like, we'll see you in a couple weeks. And we get home and I, we fall asleep for an hour. An hour. An hour. So it's about 230 to three ish. I started time, it woke me up. My contractions woke me up. So I start timing it again. Nana, my mom is sleeping on the couch. Bless her. And we wake her up at, you know, 1am at 1.30 when we got back and then 3am ish. Because I remember we got back into the hotel room. I wish it was a hotel room. Back into the, back into the hospital room at 4.11. And when we got back, all the same nurses were on shift. So that's, so this is the start of the second vlog. Okay. The second vlog is kicking in. When we say round two. Round two. Round two. We're going back at 3.50 something. Well, let's see, no four. Yeah. Well, we were in the room at 4.11. And she was checking because I went to the clock. And she says to this guy, don't unpack the car. She thinks it's not going to happen. She doesn't believe us. And I knew in my gut. She's kind of giving it a side eye. Like, I was like, are you kidding me? This is happening. Round two. Round two. And this is where maybe I'll insert a few more screens. Without. Good job. It's painful. I knew the baby, Michael. Oh, it was really painful. I don't handle pain. Well, I don't know anyone who does. Well, I'm sure there's a lot of people who can handle pain. But I am so far from being one of those people. And I never in my life thought, I would like a natural birth. I just want that challenge to push another my own. Never. Never. I want my epidural. Give me my epidural. Joseph, like halfway hurt. Worked the epidural halfway. Seth, we were too late. Michael, what happened? We get in. She checks me M5. She lets him unload the car. Thank you. They call my doctor. They hook up the IV because they needed to get some antibiotics going. And they were starting to bolster me for my epidural. Only a dream of an epidural.  And then my water broke. And that's never happened. The other two, they broke it right before I was ready to push. And then I was like, I want to push. And they were like, don't push. And then Tammy was like, are you so mad at me? Or no, she was like, do you hate me? And I was like, no, no. And then the contract was coming up and I was like, yes. And then so 411, we were in that room by 446. This precious Michael was in our arms. 30 minutes later from the second time we arrived. So good thing we came back, Mrs. Nurse. Two pushes. Two pushes. Which they were hard. And I'm grateful there was only two, but. And that's where the vlogs slipped and fades into black. Guys here. That's the story. So it's crazy. It was great.  All would have been well. We would have had just like a little peaceful entrance into the world, but later we were in the same room for a little bit before, for recovery for maybe like 12 hours or something before they moved us to the other side.  And we asked and hon, what was the answer? It's because they all have an epidural. Their pain is numbed. We're bringing it all full circle. He came on the fake birthday. And so when the boys woke up on Saturday, we were not here. Nana was here, but they just rolled with it and had a birthday without their parents. We were a little worried. Like, what would they be who said they would be sad? And like, we do everything as a family and we're not there. And when they came to visit, we asked when like, how do you go?  They didn't even mention your name. So, so they love their Nana. Such is life. Such is life. All right. The end. And it was all ended well. And thank you again for all your comments. And I haven't even replied to them, but you know, life happens. We appreciate it. Thanks for your support. Yeah, support. It's awesome. So, we love you guys. All right.  See beauty. Work hard. And love you. Love Michael. And love Michael. He's talking to you. That was precious. Where that may have been a burp.


Right. This is the last panel session for today's agenda. And the theme for this session is on designing for density. And in this session, I have four speakers, three of them are architects, and one urban planner, and one urban geographer. Each of the speakers will be given 10 minutes to talk, and then we'll have 30 minutes for discussion. In the interest of time, we are running again behind, 10, 15 minutes behind. So without further ado, I would like to start by introducing the session. This session is on designing for density. And speaking of that, you have heard in the morning sessions and also just now on space and density, that it's interesting that we are not debating whether it's desirable to have high density or not. I think it's quite clear to us that what Ricky started at the beginning and also throughout the presentation, that it's not a matter of high density, but it's a matter of how to find a balance. The balance is between the physical environment and also the societal environment, economic and all that. Let me give you a local example that the desirability of having high density, but at the same time trying to bring in what York child talked about earlier this morning, to bring in the theme of high density and health. Remember the SARS episode that took place in Hong Kong in 2003? In fact, it started off by somebody ate some kind of exotic species, and then that species, the animal carries some kind of virus, and then that person came to Hong Kong and stayed in one of the hotels, and they pressed a hotel lift, and then it happened that the lift button spread the virus. And then that wasn't the end of the story, but the proliferation of that disaster actually took place in one of the high density living areas, in one of the private housing estates that's called Armoid Gardens. And what happened is that somebody was cooking or taking a shower in one of the tiny flats, and then somehow because of the light well or the re-entrance, because of the tightness of that space, it was supposedly as a light well for openable windows, for prescribed windows, so that every flat would have penetration of light and ventilation. But somehow because of that tightness, the virus spread from one flat to another. As a result of that, the entire block or several of those blocks were quarantined, and people have evacuated and lived in the quarantine area for quite a few number of weeks. So it's not a matter of whether we, as a city as a whole, whether we should have high density or not. It's a matter of how we balance those qualities, including quality of living. So in this session, we're hearing the four speakers, each one talking about their own experience. First of all, I would like to invite Rainier Degave as a partner of OMA to start with the presentation. Each of the speakers' bibliographies are all in the handout, and I don't want to spend more time on introducing them, so you can please refer to that. So Rainier, please.


Throughout True Detective, season one that is, we constantly see decay. This place is like somebody's memory of the town and the memories fading. This can be found from the very first episode and the concept is introduced to us when we see the city. Vacant industrial buildings, signs on the side of the road showing off missing people, crime and almost nothing good. Within this landscape and this bright, bright environment exists darknesses. But this decay isn't limited to the city it stretches much further than that into the people, the culture and ultimately our two protagonists. But True Detective takes it a step further than that suggesting that everything bad that we see throughout the season is caused from the decay of morality. Of the utmost importance to True Detective is the location. We want to establish this landscape as realistically as we can. Not only on its own, but in a background for our main characters as something they live in and that affects them and surrounds them. We spend almost the entire season in and around rural Louisiana venturing into Swampland and other areas far from society. It creates a timeless feel to the story. Although the narrative unfolds over a period of 17 years with a segment in 1995, 2002 and another in 2012, the world itself feels consistent. People out here, it's like they don't even know the outside world exists. Some characters change Marty gets a new car, but the location always stays the same. More importantly over the course of the series, the conflict is always the same. Two detectives trying to catch a monster. The show's location stays constant all the while corrupting people around it. Over the course of the show we watch as characters slowly lose their morals. Nothing means anything to them anymore. They just start to exist. People turn to crime, to violence, to drugs, anything that will give their life purpose, but ultimately find none. This is reflected in the show's opening title sequence. We watch as the Swamplands and rough-looking industrial buildings melt into the protagonists and other characters, ultimately corrupting them. I think what True Detective does best in what it is able to do so well because of its eight-hour runtime is to render and develop two broken protagonists who we as the audience are able to relate to and care for despite their flaws. I want to start off by looking at Marty, of what we see from him in the first few episodes. He looks like, well, he can say it better than I can.  He is hardworking, loves his wife, is at times overprotective of his daughters, is religious, and hates the way the world is. He tries to help an underage prostitute by giving her money to start a new life. Do something else. Even though he does all these good things, he still does his fair share of bad things. He is an adulterer, he doesn't pay his wife and daughters the attention they need or deserve, and can be a violent alcoholic. He is someone who doesn't have a full understanding of the world around him, nor does he understand who he really is. Marty's single big problem was that he never really knew himself. Despite both of these, he still tries to change the world and to make it a better place when he really should at least at first be focusing on himself and his family and what is really important. In this scene he walks in on his daughters playing with dolls in a rather suggestive way.   Soon this problem starts to escalate, and years later when Audrey has a less than ideal sexual encounter, Deputy found her parked in a car with two boys. He becomes violent and upset with her. The captain of the varsity slut team.  Even though he's part of the problem for not doing anything earlier. This storyline with his daughter acts as a great microcosm of his entire character. He's willing to do the least amount of work required to get something done. He never looks closer into anything. He just accepts what is presented to him. You attach an assumption to a piece of evidence. You start to bend the narrative to support it. That changes when he is taken out of his comfort zone. Once his wife leaves him and once he leaves the force, he stops seeing everything so cut and dry. He starts to look closer and explores more. But most importantly, he finds out who he really is. Early on he made excuses. You gotta decompress before you can go being a family man. He lies to others. But most importantly, he lied to himself. He told himself that he was a good person. It's only when he's able to realize that he's not, is he able to find out who he really is and set out to improve his life. At some time between 2002 and 2012 after his wife left him, he was finally able to change. He found a new purpose in life trying to make the world a better place. His change started back in 1995 when he executed Reggie Ladoe. Russ commends him because for the first time, I can see you committed something. he did something good, finally starting to realize who he really is and this pattern only continued when he was taken out of his comfort zone. Comparatively, Russ is someone who always knew who he was. By pulling himself away from society, Cole has a much more clear sense of his place in the world and what he doesn't want to do. He has an understanding of the purpose of life, to combat evil. Whereas there are two conflicting stages of Marty, pre and post 2002, there are three stages of Russ and in the 17 years of the show, we only see one. The other two being his time with his daughter working in narcotics. We don't learn too much about who he was when his daughter Sophia was still alive. I don't want to dive too far into speculation, but I think it's safe to infer that he had a positive outlook on life or at the very least, more positive than when we meet him. He was able to stay in a committed relationship and was happy with his wife and daughter until... We had a baby girl, she died. Car accident, she was two years old. Upon losing his daughter, he also lost himself and his faith that there is anything right in the world. I think human consciousness was a tragic misstep in evolution. We became too self-aware. During that time, he loses faith in everything good. He starts to think that people were just put on the world to suffer.  Somewhere in there, I emptied a knot into a crankhead for injecting his infant daughter with crystal. And this changes him during this period. It was safe to say that he walked around without any real purpose in life. And after a few years of this, he broke down having found nothing to live for. Eventually, he did find a purpose in life. When he switched from narcotics to homicide, he began to gain a better appreciation of life. He is making the world a better place day by day by taking bad people off the streets and doing his fair share of good. He is great at detective work. We see this in all the interrogation scenes and even the moment he arrives on the first crime scene and he's able to piece together everything. It's fantasy enactment. Ritual. If you want a perfect visual metaphor from the first crime scene, pay attention to how Marty looks down where his rust looks up. He has seen the very darkest that humanity has to offer and through working to take monsters off the streets, he is able to do good. At the end of the show, he discusses the battle between good and evil. This perfectly encapsulates who he is. At one point, his entire existence was darkness, but after working, he started to make it bright and through his work continues to every day. At first glance, it may appear as though he eventually became broken again. His messy hair, uneven mustache, and drinking habit we see when in conversation with the other detectives leads us to believe that he fell off the wagon. But that isn't true. He may drink to drown out his pains, but he stays focused. He is able to bring down the Yellow King. Ultimately, True Detective reveals to us how deep the problems facing this area of Louisiana go. We learn about corrupt politicians, a self-serving state, and how all of these are the root of the problem. However, they are also the roots of poverty, crime, and violence. It's a problem that is institutionalized. There are signs, literally littering landscape, that bear the mark of the man they are looking for. It doesn't stop at an individual level. Instead, it extends itself into every part of society. In my discussion of Zodiac, I mentioned that it acts as a monster movie. We watch characters trying to hunt down something that they are incapable of understanding. I think True Detective acts as a monster story, but in a different way. Because the monster isn't Arial Childress. He is just one of the many tentacles of a much bigger, much more menacing force of evil. And the only way to combat that bigger monster is to bring a little bit of good into the world every single day. Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed. I think True Detective really is something special. To truly understand the far-reaching references, you would at the very least need to have a good reference and a good understanding of Nietzsche Young and the Bible. Without a real substantial knowledge on any of those, I hope I was able to shed some light on some of the bigger issues and characters, and have enough breakdown of some of the themes and ideas. Like many, I wasn't too big on the second season. There are too many characters and didn't have the uniformity that made the first so great. With that in mind, I'm really excited for the third season. Hopefully whoever ends up scripting it can learn from the past two seasons and make it the best that it can be. I know Mahershala Ali is on board, who, as far as I'm concerned, can do no wrong. So needless to say, I'm very excited for that. In the meantime, be sure to check out my last video that broke down the assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford, and to hit that subscribe button. Thanks for watching, and I will see you next week.


Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to my channel. So for today's video, I have this huge drugstore haul now If you're familiar with my channel, you would know that I'm kind of a high-end makeup junkie, but I do love drugstore makeup I'm just a little bit more picky with what I buy and so I kind of took plunge and ordered a bunch of things And I want you to see because I got such a great deal I got over 24 items for $170 and there's some stuff that they sent me that was incorrect So all this makeup is about to be a hundred and fifty dollars, which is insane So if you would like to see what I picked up in this haul, then just keep watching I cannot believe all that I got for what I spent so I purchased all this makeup on Cyber Monday, so every single makeup product that I bought was on sale and then towards the end of video I would show you some other makeup that I bought here and there from Ulta But for now I just want to show you the order just so you can see all that I got for the price Like this is amazing.  Thank you for those of you who responded and gave me Suggestions and whatever so the first thing that I purchased was the makeup revolution conceal and define full coverage Foundation now I actually already have this in a lighter shade I did want to pick up a deeper shade just to see if this would match me better because f7 doesn't really work that well for me It's a little bit too pink. I wanted to see how f8 would work Yeah, I can say right now that I really do already like the formula I have worn this a few times I just wanted to see how this shade would do for me, but makeup revolution I believe is like 40% off. So I got a really good deal on that foundation I had to pick it up while I could I also got three of these sent to me two of which are the same shade So two of these are going to get returned. I got the flower beauty light illusion Foundation flower beauty was 50% off and I was so excited because I really love flower beauty as a brand It's something that I want to experience more So I got the shade nude and I got two warm beiges sent to me So I believe I'm in between one of those two colors once I play around I will know the last foundation that I picked out was the physicians formula the healthy foundation I got mine in the shade LN4. I mean so the packaging of this guy is absolutely amazing It's a glass bottle and a little bit of the corner jipped off on mine So hopefully this matches me because I meant to order two shades of this And not three of the flower beauty So I don't know if they mess up the order or if I put it in wrong But hopefully this is my shade because I really want to try that foundation I also did pick up one primer because I felt this in store a few months ago And I love the way it felt but I didn't feel like picking it up And I believe next was like buy one get one half off or something along that range So I did pick up the NYX Hydra touch primer I love the way this feels when I rub it on my hand not exactly too sure how it works I haven't used it on my skin, but hopefully it is hydrating But I do love the way it feels when I swatch it on my hand So I did pick that up. I also for the half off I picked up the Sculptin highlight in the shade Caramel and vanilla I really love liquid and cream like bronzers and contours and I just thought this would be an interesting product to buy Haven't heard much about it, but I kind of as I'm trying to expand my channel. It's different brands and different products I want to discover some products that I haven't heard people talk about, you know So I did kind of take a plunge with a lot of these products, which is Hopefully they work concealer wise I picked up three concealers. So the first one is the flower beauty Light illusion concealer. This is in the shade Light I've been on a huge concealer kick lately trying to find my perfect and my favorite concealer So my concealer collection, I've never had a big one, but all of a sudden it's like exploded and I love concealer So I also picked up the Physicians formula instant ready full coverage concealer So it also comes with like a little Spongy guy. I don't know. I haven't heard anybody talk about this concealer. So again, I was like I was interested in it So I just picked it up. I also got the super size of the makeup revolution Concealing to find I love this concealer and I literally just finished mine So I figured I would pick up the super size while it was like 40% off And then I also picked up just the same concealer But I actually picked it up in white because I thought this would really be really good for my makeup kit I know I like this formula and the white is just going to light in the shade So if I have somebody and I want to use a specific concealer on them, but it's just a tad too dark This is going to be great to add in. I also did pick up a new Physicians formula butter bronzer Um, I shattered mine on the bathroom floor and I was really really sad about it And then the next day they had like 50% off Physicians formula So had to had to that is what stemmed this whole haul was needing to pick this guy up Okay So I also picked up a few face powders from flower beauty just because the packaging on these like beautiful now I had watched a video and somebody loved these powders, but I couldn't remember if they liked the glow powder or the matte powder So I bought both. We'll see which one I like better So this is the flower beauty miracle matte powder and this is the flower beauty miracle glow powder now These four drugs or have the most I mean everything from flower beauty has the most. Oh It's the most amazing packaging like look at this. That is so beautiful well This is like so beautiful and it's drugstore and I just I can't believe that it's really bulky So you can't really travel with it But how cute so I have the matte version and the glow version and we will see which one I like better Okay, moving right along. I got the next Micro brow pencil in the shade brunette I just picked this up in the case that I wanted to do a full face drugstore makeup I didn't have a drugstore eyebrow product. So I picked this up. I know this is good. I've used it before I'm it's a pretty just generic eyebrow pencil, you know moving on to eyes I picked up two eyeshadow palettes now as far as the drugstore goes. I do not like drugstore eyeshadows I'm just gonna be straight up I don't even like morphe that much. I mean morphe is good But I don't like the way morphe wears so I don't really have like a deep love affair with any drugstore eyeshadow products I've gone through makeup revolution eyeshadow products before and I wasn't that impressed But I have been eyeing these for a few months now. So while it was on sale I did pick them up and I got both of these Sof ex makeup revolution palettes If you don't watch Sof does nails you should she's really really sweet. I enjoy her videos So I just picked up both of her palettes because I couldn't side between the two so I just picked up both So hopefully I like the formula of these. I've only swatched them. I haven't done anything with them But this is the extra spice palette. I mean the one thing makeup revolution does fantastic It's their presentation and their packaging and just their makeup is so appealing to me I've stood clear of their eyeshadows because I've had a bad experience with their eyeshadows Where I just bought one and I didn't like it and I thought it was really cheap and it is cheap So I'm not like knocking it, but I'm just saying it. I have such good quality eyeshadows Why would I even waste any of my money on eyeshadow? That's not good quality and then here was her first palette that she came out with again really really beautiful Hopefully these are good and they stepped up the formula with these. I know they're old But I just I love the color of these I'm so excited for these. I like these I'll probably pick up the Emily one So we will see I also picked up two little things from Jay Cat Beauty. I've never tried anything from Jay Cat Beauty so this is the shimmer powder in Desert orange and then the sparkling powder, which is this glitter and tangerine I don't even know if it's gonna focus, but these are just a little they were like a dollar I don't I don't know. I just thought I'd try them. I heard people talk about Jay Cat Beauty before I couldn't remember what products and I'm pretty sure it wasn't these but these intrigued me so I picked them up Also, what I'm really excited to try out is the flower beauty warrior glitter eyeshadow. Y'all this looks Absolutely stunning. This is in the shade camo. I haven't tried this on my eyes, but from what I swatched I really love this. I cannot I'm like I want to pick up more shades of this I can't believe it's drugstore. So hopefully I have as good of an experience on my eyes I did just watching it, but this is stunning and then I did pick up a few flower beauty lip products So I did pick up a liquid lipstick just to try I trying to get out of my comfort zone with the products that I choose So this is the flower beauty nude blush Liquid a lipstick looking really nice. So it's like I just a really beautiful every day Color so I've been wearing a lot more natural makeup lately. Believe it or not on my day today So I thought this would be nice and then I also picked up four of the lipsticks from flower beauty These are currently my favorite drugstore lipsticks. I love these. So I did pick up a few shades It looks like I picked up three of the matte formula and one of the cream I didn't even know they had different formulas, but regardless these lipsticks are amazing. So I picked up naked blush cinnamon crush Spiced petal and then autumn rose packaging on these are so luxurious and This is a formula that I've tried before and I went back and I bought more. So obviously I love it So that's actually all of the makeup that I got for just a hundred and seventy dollars And it'll be a hundred fifty once I return the things that I wasn't supposed to get so for a hundred fifty dollars I got like twenty three items, which is absolutely crazy to me It's like wow just for makeup is so cheap after you've been buying all those Pat McGrath Ballots like I have I'm like overwhelmingly all that I got I did pick up a few other things as well Just as I've made visits because I go to Ulta like a couple times a week And I've been trying to buy more drugstore products for some future videos. Okay, so from Essence I picked up this satin touch blush in the shade satin coral It looks like it's not gonna have much color to it But when you put it on your cheeks, it's actually a very pretty blush Things like these are what I like to bring to travel because if I lose them It's not the big of a deal But it is still good quality that I rely on it and then I also got the pure nude highlighter People have been talking about this for years and I never picked it up, but it really is Super duper beautiful on the skin and it doesn't look like it'd be like that in the Pam But you put it on your skin and it really does give you such a nice beautiful glow I want to play with it some more but so far this is quite an impressive highlighter I also picked up a few drugstore lip product a ton from Maybelline specifically So I got two of the vivid matte liquid lipsticks So we have orange shots and nude flush I think you can guess which one is orange shot and which one is new flush I've played around with these guys a little bit so far. I'm not impressed But I do want to play with them some more before I give like my final opinion And then I also picked up a vivid hot lacquer in Unreal I don't know. I was just interested because I've never tried these products before I'm sure Jacqueline Hill has put a lot of you guys on to this too But this is the shine lipstick in the shade that is beige She mentioned this in her favorites video said it was like her favorite nude color So I got that it reminds me a lot of that mark Jacobs. Can't remember. It's called right now But it's like in sugar sugar. It's a lipstick and like a lip gloss hybrid This is like the drugstore version of it And then I also picked up spicy mauve which is a little bit of a deeper color beautiful shine Truly do love this actually definitely need to wear a lip liner with these. Otherwise, these will get all over your face But these are really lovely over liquid lipsticks as a part two to the baddest page Well, this is part one the baddest page was part two to her favorite liquid lip This is what she put underneath it. This is the morphe liquid lipstick in Virgin my Ulta just recently got a morphe display finally and it's like a really nice one So I can't pick up this beautiful Liquid lipstick and I don't think I really like the formula of this But this with the baddest page really is truly beautiful though, and then I also okay So I ordered these off of the juvious place website But you can get these on Ulta So I am just throwing them in here because you can't pick them up on Ulta I bought these during their black Friday sale because everybody's talked about these. I was bored My student teaching and I think I was on lunch break or something and this popped up on my feet And I was like, you know what screw it. Let's try out some different things So I got the warrior palette and oh my gosh. This is so stunning. This is like Uh, this is so much more beautiful in person. I cannot believe it the shadows so far. I've only swatched them They're so pigmented and creamy though Hopefully they aren't like the morphe formula and that they're too creamy that they like all blend together by the end of the day But these are so stunning and then I also got the Horan palette which has a little bit more unique colors pretty excited to play with this as well I will give you guys an update on this but these are really affordable and I got them for 50 off So they were like 10 dollars Seven dollars something crazy like that so far from swatching them. I'm so excited to use these.  I try to go through it pretty fast. Hopefully I didn't bore you guys So if you have any video ideas you want me to do with this drugstore makeup, let me know The possibilities are endless. I have so much and then I have some more drugstore products in my collection So I'm so excited to see how I can incorporate some more drugstore products into my content So I hope you guys enjoyed this video. Thank you so much for watching Hopefully I see you guys in the next video if you hit that subscribe button and I will see you guys Later. Have a great day guys. Bye