Does making either bad or unoriginal art undermine your identity as an artist? It can if you let it. A number of comments on my previous video called when is a crafter called an artist indicated that some of you had assigned the word artist based on the quality of the work produced or whether or not it was made with any help from a class or tutorial. And if the art doesn't live up to that standard, well, it has to settle for a lower description than being called art. Well, I am Sandy Allnog. I am an artist and I want to talk about this and I want to share three tips that I've used to overcome bad art days and to learn to respect myself as an artist. Everybody has bad days. That day when nothing you do seems to click. Nothing comes together and you need some help. You're still an artist even on your bad days or your bad weeks. It's part of the process. If you're an accountant and you can't find that four dollars and sixty-seven cents anywhere on the spreadsheet, you're still an accountant.  An actress who I just spoke with this week about this very topic said she's in a theater company with people who are both better than her and worse than her at acting. But that doesn't make any of them not actors. It's no different for artists. We have bad days too. Bad weeks. Times when we need a tutorial or a class to kick us into gear. Personally, I schedule my bad days regularly once a week. I go to a drawing group where we practice drawing people from live models. That is my most humbling day of the week because drawing people is no longer my forte. I was very good at this during college. So good that I taught a class on the topic, but I lost that skill. I'm definitely getting better. I can see the improvement. But honestly, if I come out with one drawing on a Thursday where I feel like I got all the body parts in the right place at the right length, and the fingers don't look like claws, I'm pretty happy. I've actually found that I'm really good at doing the warm up drawings that I used to hate. They're two minute poses. And I struggle with the 25 minute poses. It's the opposite of what I used to go through. But I go anyway, week after week. I talk with the other artists there about art in general and sometimes about what's specifically in front of us. We bemoan for shortening and laugh about it. We say things like, oh man, did you see what the light did to the shadow on that elbow? We all go through the exact same thing. And that's what keeps me going back, knowing that other people have the same struggles as me. And if they can keep at it, so can I. We encourage each other. We all have different styles. Some use watercolor, charcoal, pencil, gouache. We're all learning from each other. Some of these folks have been at it for decades longer than me. I'm the youngest one in the group at nearly 60. And it's good to see those ahead of me still learning, too. So it's OK that I struggle. Now, I know that some of you are going to tut tut and tell me that every day is a bad day for you, that you never make anything good. Some of that is just having too close of a perspective on your own art when you tear down everything you do. You need someone with a fresh perspective to speak into your work. And I'm going to talk about an idea for that in just a little bit. But I also want to address those seasons when we fight through our art. Sometimes it's a day, a week, a month. I've lived a long life and had long dry spells, and it's often enough to make you want to give up. But it's also often based on where you're at on the spectrum of art and how you handle that. In the previous video, I explained that art is that long spectrum. We start out at the beginning using crayons and learning how to hold a marker and making macaroni art. As we grow and get more experienced, our art gets maybe more refined. We use better tools and practice and develop more motor skills. We start to see colors and maybe find a style that we like, even if we aren't great at it. But this whole thing can be a super long stretch and can get discouraging if you're not careful. It's often during this stretch that most people quit art entirely. Now, some of you may have passed that long period and come back to your work as an artist. And I know a lot of people who have stopped their art for many, many years to have a family, work, a job, handle family issues and life stuff and are getting back to it in their later years. And that is nothing to be ashamed of, celebrate that you're getting back on the wagon. But something else not to be ashamed of is going back a few steps and relearning some things you've forgotten, like I am with drawing people. You might need to go back and relearn hand to eye coordination. You might need to refamiliarize yourself with the basics of the medium that you want to use, develop a more refined touch with them. Understand how to have that more delicate touch or maybe a looser brushstroke or whatever it is that you want to learn, all of that takes time. But as we get older, we get impatient with ourselves and we look around at somebody who's younger than us and doing the same kind of thing we want to do and they're rocking it and we're not. Well, if you could sit down with them, you might find out just how long they worked on that skill to get where they are. But it's also easier for younger people to learn things than for us older folks. There is nothing wrong with you that the three tips I'm about to drop on you won't fix. I promise you that these are things that I do, not just things that I'm telling you to do, because I wouldn't say so if I didn't believe that it worked. Get a pencil and paper, write this down. Number one, 10 minutes a day. At the end of most of my videos, I try to remember to tell you to create something every day. And I want to talk about what that means and detail it out for you. 10 minutes a day will develop a practice habit. You can do it while you're having your morning coffee during that baseball practice where you need to wait around for someone else. You might think you can't do this because you need to drag your entire studio with you in order to practice your art. But I want to give you a suggestion. Doodling is practice.  It'll help you to build hand to eye coordination, become comfortable and confident in making lines and shapes. But the real benefit is learning to loosen your mind while you're working, figuring out when you have 10 minutes to sit still and just make art without thinking. Now, if you want to draw a thing, if you're at a place where you can, then that's OK too. That's what I do. But give yourself permission to just doodle shapes and patterns if that's not the case for you. Something that's going to make you not think so hard so that you won't think of these daily sessions of making art as a penance that you have to do. It's not a punishment. It's not like exercise, even though it's called exercise, it's not exercise in terms of push-ups. It's exercise in relaxing your brain and getting it used to the idea that when you sit down to make art, that it's not painful. So just doodle, just make lines, shapes, colors, whatever it is that you feel like making that day, but do it for 10 minutes a day. And by the way, this 10 minutes is in addition to or a way to start off a regular session of making whatever art you make.  Number two, keep a grace journal. Judging your work harshly is a surefire way to encourage yourself to just give up. Remember that you're learning. You have a long time to keep growing. I was recently trying to paint a photo that I loved and it took me seven tries. Yes, seven full, complete paintings of which six got tossed in the can. It takes a lot of stored up grace for yourself to be able to just take a deep breath after each attempt, knowing that you learned something from the last failed try. You succeeded at something in it, but wipe all of that away and give it another go. So what is a grace journal? At the end of your daily 10 minutes, write down a compliment for your art in a little journal, just a date and a sentence. Look at whatever it is you just made in your 10 minutes and write down something like, these colors make me feel joy. The lines in the upper left look really elegant. I sat down frustrated this morning, but I got up peaceful. The note doesn't have to be connected to the piece that you worked on, whatever you drew, but the notebook is about getting practice in putting good words about your art on paper that can stick in your head. And every time you open up this journal, it's going to be filled with short statements of grace that you've poured out into yourself. And that's going to go a long way to conquering some of the negative thinking that creeps into your work. Number three is probably the scariest of my tips, but I think it's the one I've grown the most from and it's to befriend a cross-discipline artist. Every artist learns from somebody else who's ahead of them on the road. The old masters learned from older masters by copying their work. And it's no different for us today. We often do this with tutorials and classes. And if I didn't believe that those worked to help people grow in their artistic skills, I wouldn't be making YouTube videos or teaching. But what do I mean by cross-discipline? I've found that the best people in my life to encourage me artistically are the ones who are making art that is nothing like mine. They don't do what I do. They use different mediums. They have a completely different style. Those are the people who can see your work for what it is, not comparing it to the pool of the same stuff that you live in, where everybody is making the same kind of thing. There's a place for those kind of friendships to talk about your niche. But if you want to start seeing your work on that bigger spectrum of art and not get sucked into thinking your, quote unquote, only a crafter again, then you need some outside input. That's what got me into urban sketching in the first place. Years and years ago, I was looking for people who could look at my work more independently. And urban sketching is where I started to find artist friends. I still remember a lunch with three of the women from the urban sketch group after one of my first sketchouts that I attended. And it was the first time that I remember being automatically respected as an artist without even having to justify myself. Everybody knew that the people at that table were artists. I had no idea what kind of work they did. And they had no idea what kind of work I did. All we saw was each other's quick sketches that day. And I had no idea if they were beginner sketches like me or if they were people who had fancy shows in galleries. And it didn't matter, not one bit. I found the conversation also didn't get bogged down in the latest gossip about what was going on in the crafty world. What was the latest stamp release and whose video, blah, blah, blah. I was instead speaking with artists about our love of color and line, the things that we're trying to learn and practice. And I tell you, the respect from other artists is something profound that you just can't beat. And it really will help you to see yourself as an artist on that spectrum because you'll get an idea where other people are coming from and heading to as well. I know you may not consider yourself a sketcher or even want to sketch, but I can promise you that if you find an urban sketching group, you will find people who literally draw the same way as you do.  And there will be people who you can meet, watch, grow alongside. Maybe you'll even find that person you can have coffee with and ask about their journey. And here are how they got through tough times of self doubt in their own art, and they can be one to help you keep going to. I recommend developing an in-person community as well as an online one. The online is what we do at ArtVenture, my community on mighty networks. Online friends are with you daily in your phone, although your real life friends can be in your phone in texts as well. But an online community is great to share in between when you see real people. But there is nothing better than sitting in a cafe talking about art with other artists. It just feels so artsy. Whatever level you're at, you'll start to see your own work more clearly in the spectrum of art. And it normalizes calling yourself an artist and helps you overcome those bad days. So you've been watching another of my patterned stamp pieces come together. This one isn't in the pattern stamping class, but it's from the same template as lesson two. And I'll include a few notes about what the adaptations were over in the lesson itself. The link to the class is in the doobly-doo in case you want to join in the fun in this new class. But I do hope this video helped some of you and that my stories are informative and will help you to get over some of your own challenges and struggles. And maybe you'll try one of my three tips. Let me know if you do. So get out there and create something every day, even if it's that 10 minute doodle. And I will see you in a new video next week. Bye bye.


pipeline but yeah thank you that's helpful and just finally in terms of workforce i wanted to ask last year attended the opening of the Edinburgh colleges renewables and energy efficiency training centre here and what was interesting was to see number of young people had come to Edinburgh i'm sure other larger colleges are also in that space from rural communities to do these courses and had you know their intentions would stay and work here so you know welcome the fact that the mobile heat pump training centre has been brought forward to showcase this but i just wondered if there was a specific strategy for rural and island communities that young people who want to start out in a career on this will end up probably training in larger centres and then being offered a lot of work in urban areas and so we're not necessarily returning these people to their communities to do this work in the future and just wondered where the government was on a lot of this yeah i mean i had a meeting just the other week with graham day talking about some of the connections between the scottish government's approach on the what we're trying to achieve in in energy terms and the impact on skills the potential role that the college sector can play i think there are great many colleges around the country in fact i think one of the first that i visited in this role was in was it done free certainly was in the in that area in south of scotland where yes they were investing in additional capacity because they knew that demand was coming and they knew that those skills were going to be needed so i think i would challenge the idea that it's only happening in in the central belt or in big cities i think it is happening around the country inevitably a great many of these these decisions about the the capacity for training and skills around the country will be determined by the demand that industry is placing for for these skills that's why i would come back to this the point i made earlier the government's approach to regulating to create the demand in the first place is absolutely central to giving industry the the confidence to invest knowing that these skills are going to be required knowing that the demand is going to be generated is what's needed in order to see that that supply for those skills the investment in those skills and the wider supply chain capacity come about and the the one thing that we could do that would imperil the the investment whether in skills or wider supply chain would be to say actually we're going to take a step back and and delay or water down the the regulations that we're taking forward the regulations are necessary part of setting the conditions for the investment that we need to see thanks for that as i suppose my point was around workforce really though in rural communities and low carbon skills grant for example whether or not the government are looking at an uplift for that for rural apprenticeships and specifically for SMEs who will have individuals coming out to do potential training and need extra cover or need to look towards how that's going to work for them in their business what works going on around that because the one for scotland approach doesn't seem to be necessarily working for SMEs and for rural scotland and the additional costs of transport for example for students going to rural colleges or just where capacity seems to be building quickly in places like Edinburgh well i mean just tangentially on the on the transport side that's one of the reasons why we were keen to develop the free bus travel for young people policy you know i spoke to people young people who were not taking up college courses because the cost of the bus would have been you know 10 20 30 pounds a week and that was just not viable for them so i'm very pleased to hear that there's the support for what the government's doing on that area and tony do you want to come in on we don't currently yeah we don't currently have an uplift for for any of the training in relation to rural and island areas and i don't know if gareth has any further anything further i think it's something that we can it's under consideration it's something that we can kind of take away i think i'm not putting words in the minister's mouth but i think it's something that mr briggs raises an important point that that support is needed and we need to kind of continue to review it and and think about how we can improve our offer i'm sure i can expect a blizzard of parliamentary questions absolutely thank you thanks gamina okay thanks miles okay so we've come to the end of our questions out thank you for thank you all for your evidence today there's no requirement for the committee to make any recommendations on negative instruments but do any members have any comments on the instrument okay we don't have any comments is the committee agreed that we do not wish to make any recommendations in relation to the instrument agreed thank you and i'll suspend the meeting to allow a change of officials so before we turn to the next item i just want to give apologies for my colleague mark griffin uh he had a problem getting in and we thought he might arrive at the committee but it seems that uh he's further delayed so i just want to extend those apologies we now turn to agenda item number three which is to take evidence on the cost of living tenant protection scotland act 2022 amendment of expiry date number two regulations 2023 and we're joined again for this item by patrick harvey the minister for zero carbon buildings active travel and tenants rights and mr harvey is joined for this item by Scottish Government officials adam crack crack chick head of housing homelessness and regeneration analysis poppy prior who's a solicitor and a vet shepherd who's the head of housing services and rented sector reform unit and i invite the minister to make a short opening statement thanks very much convener and nice to be back with you again pleased to be here to present the cost of living tenant protection scotland act 2022 amendment of expiry date regulations 2023 as colleagues know the emergency act came into force on 28 october last year and since then it's provided additional protection for tenants in what remain very challenging economic times the act originally ran to the 31 march 2023 and has been extended once until the end of this current month in june i published a statement of reasons for the second proposed extension of the emergency act as part of that report and in line with the requirements of the act i set out the intention for the measures in the act to be extended for the further and final six months to the 31st of march 2024 the report provides updated data and economic analysis which shows that the challenging economic position has not yet fundamentally changed and many households in the private rented sector in particular continue to struggle for example according to recent ugov polling for the Scottish government in august 2023 levels of concern about paying rent were twice as high in the private rented sector at 27 percent than paying rent or mortgage mortgages across all 10 years as a whole at 12 percent and this hasn't improved since the polling in march 2023 even though it was recently announced that the energy price cap will reduce it's reducing from a very high level and the positive impact on fuel poverty rates has of course been offset by the UK government's decision to withdraw the 400 pound energy bills support scheme that was paid to all households last winter meanwhile the freezing of local housing allowance rates by the UK government for the third consecutive year is yet another reason why lower household incomes in the private rented sector sorry lower income households in the private rented sector who access local housing allowance will find it more difficult to afford rental properties so while the picture has changed somewhat since a year ago the circumstances remain very difficult for many tenants and many households on low and modest incomes continue to feel the strain of cost of living pressures it's for that reason that the amendment of the expiry date regulation 2023 seek to extend part one of the act in its current form including the rent cap measures for the private rented sector the eviction moratorium provisions across all rented sectors covered by the act and other important protections until at least the 31st of march 2024 I beg you pardon until latest 31st of march 2024 in reaching this position I've reflected on the views expressed by stakeholders and partners seeking to find the right balance in terms of the statutory duty to ensure that the provisions will not remain in place for longer than is necessary in connection with the cost crisis however I also recognise the ongoing impact that the cost crisis is having on some private landlords the private sector rent cap is set at three percent but there is a safeguard for landlords who can alternatively opt to apply to rent service Scotland for a rent increase of up to six percent if they've had an increase in their defined prescribed property costs within a specified period and I know that some landlords are making use of this safeguard with 1031 landlords submitting such an application to rent service Scotland as of the 1st of September turning to our proposed continuation of the eviction moratorium provisions tenants in both the private and social rented sectors and those living in student accommodation will continue to benefit from the additional time to find alternative accommodation provided by the six month pause in the enforcement of eviction action in addition they're protected from private landlords seeking to end a tendency to raise rents above the cap and reduce unlawful evictions by increasing the level of damages payable as with the rent cap the eviction moratorium provisions include a number of safeguards for landlords these recognise that there are some circumstances where enforcement of an eviction order or decree should be able to proceed to protect communities for example in instances of serious antisocial behaviour and also to strike an appropriate balance between the protection of tenants and the rights of landlords so in summary convener i believe that the latest evidence shows that the cost crisis is still very much with us it's crucial we continue the remaining protections in the cost of living tenant protection Scotland act beyond the 30th of September this year if the committee agrees with my recommendation it still remains the case for that final period i will continue to keep the measures under review and to consider their ongoing necessity and proportionality on an ongoing basis advising parliament through regular reporting and indeed the next report is due to be laid no later than the 14th of October so i'd like to thank the committee for their continued interest in this issue and scrutiny of the instrument and i'm happy to answer any questions that you've got thanks very much for that statement and it's good to hear that you are going to continue to monitor and look into the proportionality of of this for these regulations i would be interested here i think we've had we've been hearing concerns about these regulations leading to landlords leaving the sector and i would be interested to hear if there's evidence on that you know is that a concern that you have it is something that we continue to keep a close eye on we're aware of anecdotal evidence that landlords have been talking about this you know some will cite the tenant protection act the temporary cost of living measures as one factor i've heard from a number of landlords for whom for example changes of tax policy at UK level have actually been a bigger factor in in what their motivations are for the decisions about whether they're going to consider leaving the sector in terms of actual evidence though the number of properties registered in the for private rent in Scotland under the registration scheme has not changed significantly there is likely to be a bit of a time lag in the collection of that data we're conscious of that but at the moment the figures don't show any significant reduction in the number of properties available okay thank you very coffee thanks very much good morning again Patrick interestingly the local authority chief housing officers are recommending that you withdraw rather than extend this this proposal they say that it's not having the impact that it was intended and so on what's your view of that statement and why would you disregard that and proceed with the proposal today well i think it'd be worth maybe separating out the the rent cap provisions from the eviction moratorium provisions you know the local authority housing as well as housing association housing we reached a different approach in terms of the rent cap with the social housing sector we agreed with them taking account of the the concerns that they had and the differences in the nature of the sector the way in which rental income is reinvested for for public purposes whether that's for services for tenants retrofit to improve energy performance or indeed the investment in new build we'll recognise a range of differences in the way the private and the social rented sectors operate and we found that the best solution was to work with them to agree a voluntary limit on the average rent rises across scotland so in that regard we removed social housing from the the fixed absolute rent cap and agreed that that voluntary approach you know for an average size of property it amounted to a monetary close equivalence between the the increased rent cap after it raised from zero through to the voluntary the voluntary agreement that had been reached with the social housing sector my view is that that has achieved a level of stability for tenants in a way that has been agreed in in mutual terms with the sector i think some of their concerns may be more focused on the eviction moratorium rather than on the rent side we believe it remains important in the current climate for people to have that additional time available to them if they if they are faced with the prospect of eviction the safeguards for those social landlords that do need to evict someone in cases for example of severe social serious antisocial behaviour remain and i think social landlords whether that's local authorities or housing associations for the most part have been very responsible landlords and have never wanted to move to eviction as their first recourse they do seek to achieve better outcomes for their tenants they've had the pre eviction protocols in place for substantially longer than they've been a requirement on the private rented sector so i believe that we do still have the right balance in terms of protection for tenants who might face that that prospect of eviction in some circumstances as well as protection for landlords whether in the social sector or the private sector who in rare circumstances do have legitimate need to pursue an eviction order yeah i can pick up on that point as well if you don't mind particularly i'll actually were saying simply like it just pushes the rent due to the end of the process which is a bigger rent due amount at the eviction point and it doesn't actually ultimately reduce the numbers of evictions how would your response to that be sure i mean in terms of arrears we were we were clear when we debated the the bill itself when we took the act through through parliament we we recognised that in cases of severe rent arrears what what a tenant in that circumstance needs is not simply to be left stuck in one place accruing ever more debt and that was one of the reasons why severe rent arrears were included as a ground for for pursuing eviction okay and in terms of the suggestion in some of our evidence that the supply of private rented homes has been adversely affected by the emergency legislation what would you have to say about that and also the potential deterrent for institutional investment in private rented housing are we seeing an impact in those areas again i would draw a distinction between anecdotal evidence that's being put about and and what we are actually seeing on the ground the the direct impact of the cost of living tenant protection scotland act in terms of rental incomes was only ever possible to to exist over a period of 18 months now that we're into the the proposal to extend for the final six months the the effect of a decision today cannot possibly impact on the rental income of properties that are subject to investors decisions at the moment investors decisions at the moment would be about supply of homes that would be available to generate rental income in the future after the the temporary provisions in this legislation have ceased i think some of the wider concerns that institutional investors have are around the longer term proposals that the Scottish Government has for for rebalancing the private rental sector and in particular on a new national system of rent controls we're keen to continue to work closely with the sector including engagement that myself and Paul McClellan and his housing minister have with investors as well as developers as we as we work through the process to to determine the the shape of the housing bill that will be introduced next year that would give effect to that that commitment for a national system of rent controls i think the the impact that we're seeing on rental prices at the moment reinforces for me the the need to commit to that work we need to ensure that affordability is part of our understanding of what adequate housing is and that all people have a human right to adequate housing and so you know we will continue to develop that work and we'll continue to do so in a way that's well informed by the perspectives of tenants of landlords of people who work with them and indeed of investors you know across europe you know the the the the situation that scotland and the rest of the uk have been in in in recent years and decades is unusual you know this is a particularly unregulated market in terms of private housing investors and particularly the bigger institutional investors make decisions across a wide range of different countries and they are well used to making decisions about more regulated and less regulated markets in terms of rent the evidence from across europe is very clear that a well-designed rent control system is entirely compatible with a vibrant housing market and investment in private rent homes made for private rent we believe that that can be achieved in scotland as well and will be consistent with supplying the quality homes that scotland needs and achieving affordability which has been lacking in too many cases thank you very much for the detail in that response minister thank you thanks really now i'm going to move to questions from miles bricks thank you convenient i don't know if you want me to do all my questions at once or start with the third one just do three and then we'll come back great the committee's received evidence concerning the increased cost of landlords which are currently being impacted by rising interest rates in recent months and so wondered what the government's view was around the case for increasing rent cap of 3% to 6% for prescribed property costs well as i said we will continue to keep under review the proportionality and the necessity of the measures i think the next report that i mentioned which is due by mid october would i think inform the committee's consideration of our proposals at that stage um we believe a set out in the um the statement of reasons that we published in June that the evidence is sufficient to justify continuation of the rent cap any any subsequent variation in in what it would be i think would be more likely to be covered in in that report in october um you know the the cost crisis is continuing to have an impact and we need to recognise that that continued impact is being felt on tenants as well as on landlords that's always been part of the the design of this legislation is to recognise the protection that tenants need but also that there need to be safeguards in place for landlords and that there needs to be a proper balance between those the the fact that the economic circumstances have not fundamentally changed the cost crisis has not fundamentally gone away and even if we do see some of the hopeful projections around reduced inflation in the in the months ahead come to pass people are still living with those increased costs that have that have been landed with and that applies to tenants as well as to landlords and i i don't think it changes the fundamental calculation that we've made about the balance in protection on rents and safeguards for landlords that we've proposed okay thanks i'll come back to my questions later thanks and our question from pam gusall thank you chair and good morning the act the minister will probably know has unintended consequences of both tenants and landlords and we've heard from multiple organisations that landlords are increasing the rents between tenancies to cover their costs and anticipated costs due to fear of on-going rent control and in the 12 months to july 2023 private rental prices experience their highest annual percentage changed since 2012 would you accept that this legislation is leaving landlords with no choice but to increase rents for the new lets higher than they might have done so if the legislation wasn't in place i don't think i would share that character characterisation of what the legislation has done the member is absolutely right that rent increases between tenancies are not covered by this legislation as emergency legislation it wasn't ever going to be possible to fundamentally restructure the way that private residential tenancies work there was a recognition that this was only ever going to provide protection within tenancies for the annual in tenancy increases that are allowed under the prt what we see now as a result of this legislation being enforced in scotland is that the difference is that in scotland it's only those inter tenancy increases that we're seeing happen and tenants are in the absence of the the exceptional six percent people are being protected with a three percent rent cap within tenancies whereas down south they're being subjected to both we know that increases in market rents rents being advertised are significant you know Glasgow 12 percent Aberdeen 10 percent but we we also know that similar figures are being seen in parts of england as well cardiff 10.4 percent southampton 10.7 percent magister 13 percent the the inter tenancy increases are happening for a wide range of factors including necessity in some cases i'm sure but there are also some landlords who are pursuing whatever they can get away with now that that is by no means that last is no by no means characterisation of the whole of the private rented sector there are landlords out there who are committed to trying to provide as affordable housing as they can for their tenants there are also landlords who will who will go to the maximum that they think the market will bear what we have in scotland is protection for sitting tenants protection for those tenants from annual in tenancy rent increases rather than being subjected to both in tenancy and intra tenancy rent increases so the level of protection that exists for those tenants is higher in scotland as a result of this legislation excuse me i'm going to take a glass of water thank you sorry can i just add to that please chair minister would you be aware that obviously students are really affected by this when landlords have put up prices higher i know from the indian students groups association they've contacted me that some of the students had to go back basically because they couldn't find appropriate accommodation because the rents are so much higher that they can't afford and sometimes there is actually lack of even supply of housing in the market to rent yes absolutely you know the the increase in intra tenancy rents is very significant it's very significant down south it's very significant here it's very significant partly because of the economic circumstances and partly because of the unregulated nature of those rental increases and this for me reinforces the need to continue to make progress on the development of the new housing bill and a rent control system for scotland that will be fully effective rather than only relying on emergency legislation that could only protect people within tenancies this legislation as emergency legislation was only ever going to be able to do that and it was only ever going to be temporary and it has to be subject to that continual on-going test of necessity and proportionality and you know it's it's very clear that the affordability issues within the private rented sector more generally require that longer term reform and the scotland government's committed to doing that thanks we're going to move on to a question from Ivan Mickey thanks very much convener in the interest of chance banser just reiterate my declaration of interest with regard to ownership of a rental property and share of a rental property business and the I just wanted to turn minister to the future period after march next year and you've you can already answered in regards to I think Willie Coffey's question about investors looking at the longer term so I think in the terms of the clearly the interests of tenants and landlord certainty of the situation or as much as you can give after that period is obviously helpful to allow for longer term planning you previously told the committee that the way of bridging the gap between the end of the rent cap and longer term rent control measures would be to use the rent adjudication measures in the 2022 act so just an update from you on your current thinking on how those powers may be used and when would you announce your proposed approach for the period after in the march next year yeah this is hugely important and Ivan Mickey's right to point to that power within the legislation that allows a an adjustment to be made to the rent adjudication process and the idea of that is to prevent a kind of immediate cliff edge when the temporary emergency legislation ultimately is switched off we are still at the point of exploring the options to make the most effective use of this power I'm afraid I'm not at the point where I'm able to kind of publish detailed proposals on that but I think we can expect it to come forward in due course in time for the the expiry of the rent cap event is there anything more that we're able to say at this point on expected timescale I know there's been dialogue with a number of stakeholders on this as well yeah we are still taking sort of taking views of stakeholders into account and we are looking as minister reflects there are a number of different ways that we could amend the adjudication system but broadly speaking the adjudication system at the moment relies on comparisons with market rent so we're looking at with our stakeholders what the alternative options could be in that space but we would be hoping that we'd be able to bring proposals forward probably in the first few months after the current extension takes place in October okay we accept that the longer that goes on the more uncertainty that is in the more difficult it makes it in terms of investment going forward to increase supply which is clearly a significant objective of what needs to happen yeah I mean that's why we're keen to make sure that we're hearing from those those widest possible range of voices as we as we bring forward any decision I would like to hope that there's broad support now I don't recall serious opposition when the legislation was being passed in parliament I would like to hope there's broad support for the principle that a mechanism like this is necessary to prevent a cliff edge but yeah Ivan McKee's quite right that it needs to be designed in a way that's consistent with our protection for tenants but also on our wider need for you know a housing market that's that's meeting people's needs okay thank you thank you so we're now going to move to question from Murray McNair thanks convener I'm from Ivan obviously some of the evidence we've received obviously has pointed to the need for the Scottish government to review and update the private rented policy again do you have any timescales when you're going to publish the tenant strategy and obviously the housing bill to introduce the long-term rent control provisions yeah I mean the the programme for government does include a commitment to introduce the housing bill to deliver the new deal for tenants that will include the the introduction of long-term rent controls and other tenants rights as well as new prevention of homelessness duties so you know I hope that members and stakeholders as well will take confidence from the inclusion of that commitment in the programme for government and it's always the case that the precise date of introduction of a new bill is a very slightly movable feast within that commitment but yeah we have the commitment to take that forward and we're continuing to work with a range of stakeholders to to make sure that we shape that bill in the most effective way possible thanks minister thank you it's good to get that reassurance we are we stood to attention when we heard the the pfg I've got a question about joint tenancy loopholes so living rent have stated that they believe there's a loophole in the legislation where a joint tenant who remains in the property after another joint tenant leaves might not be protected by the rent cap how can such tenants be protected I mean I share the concern about this I'm not sure that I would personally use the phrase loophole I think it is a consequence of the fact that the emergency legislation could only take forward some some temporary steps it wasn't possible to use that temporary emergency legislation for a fundamental restructuring or a kind of major surgery on what a PRT or what a private residential tenancy is and you're part of that that current legislation does give a landlord the right to decide not to agree to continue an existing tenancy in circumstances where one joint tenant leaves that the intention of course in designing the PRT in that instance going back a good number of years now was to avoid the situation where others are made homeless because one person chooses to leave a joint tenancy so it's I don't think it was the wrong decision to take that approach in the design of the PRT but we do need to recognise that one of the consequences is that the emergency legislation here was not able to to address this particular circumstance and I think once again I come back to the point that it highlights the need for us to to make good on those longer term commitments including the new housing legislation and the new deal for tenants and as part of our work to develop that we are looking at joint tenancy issues including the existing approach to ending those tenancies. Thanks for that and final question from Miles Briggs. Thank you. I had a couple of points I wanted to raise with the minister firstly and I think we'd accept that for current tenants this has been useful but for people seeking tenancies I wondered whether or not the minister has any view on the fact that we now have some of the highest homelessness rates we've ever seen in the number of children in temporary accommodation and council saying that they're unable to work to put together sustainable tenancies with the private rented sector and if he understands that consequence of the policy. The question is of course an extremely serious one and some of the longer term the work that we're doing including the homelessness prevention duties in the new housing bill are going to be relevant here but I think I would point out some of the information that's already been published in relation to referrals to people becoming homelessness and the tenure that they had been previously living in there has been a significant reduction in the private resident a private rented sector showing up in those stats over this period in fact I think it's come down to pre below the pre pandemic levels I think Adam may have found the graph that I was frantically searching for there Adam is there anything you can say about the the figures you've got in front of you yeah short so um these statistics were published in august um the the biannual update on homelessness statistics what they show is that for the six months up to um september 22 before the emergency legislation there was 2,990 assessments of homelessness from people in the private rented sector for the six months after um so that's from october to march there's 2,200 so there's a 26 reduction in the number of households assessors homeless coming from the private rented sector and as mr harvey says that level is now below the pre pandemic levels for the last six months compared to what they were in 2019 yeah and some of that that variation again will be uh you know protections that were brought in in relation to covid and then those started to ease off and you know over time this this does change significantly i can remember i don't think we have to go back very many years to see a period when you know evictions from the private residential from the private rented sector were the principal the biggest route into homelessness for people that started to come down because of a number of actions that had been taken we need to continue to make sure uh that people are protected from the risk of homelessness and the new homelessness prevention duties are going to be really important in achieving that but the uh i think the evidence is pretty clear that this legislation has given additional protection that's been necessary in particular to those living in the private rented sector um you said earlier you didn't want to see a the creation of a cliff edge um but my reading of this would be the impact will be that every landlord in scotland can seek a review then in march without any further extension the government's outlining and so my concern is what that means for our tribunals and the backlog which they already face and the resources that they'll need and whether or not the government's considered what that looks like well we we obviously do uh stay in in touch with the tribunal uh around the impacts uh partly around the design and then the implementation of this legislation we'll continue to uh to keep closely in contact around the implications of any further changes um i think it's it's worth reflecting though that even once this legislation ceases to apply once it it comes to an end uh the the level of protection that tenants have had in scotland was high already uh some of aspects of that protection the UK government is now starting to put in place for example and i welcome the fact that they've made that change of position so you know the the end of this emergency legislation would not be the end of tenant protection not by a long way we would return to a position where tenants have that that high level of uh of legal rights and protection uh that existed prior to this legislation okay and just finally in terms of the extension to the regulations do they how do they fit with the Scottish government's wider objectives around housing to 2040 and and again to return some of the homelessness duties which are being presented a lot of that was around sustainable tendencies being developed with the private rental sector and i don't know if you have the data to hand of what that is today but my understanding edinburgh is there's very few being taken forward since the rent controls were brought into place so it's re-establishing that relationship seems really critical for the housing crisis we're facing yeah i mean i would come back again to the the difference between the longer term development of policy and legislation on housing and the the work that will be done on the new housing bill and the homelessness prevention duties and the um the good level of dialogue that we have with the sector in in the broadest terms as we take forward that work and in this instance the specific test that we have to go through that are required under the emergency cost of living act um to to justify the necessity and proportionality of not only continuing but then in this case extending we will remain under a duty under the legislation to keep that test of proportionality and necessity under ongoing review and to expire provisions which we can no longer justify in those terms so the extension to march next year the latest doesn't doesn't remove that requirement for us to continue to keep that review on going okay thank you thanks okay great thank you very much that includes our our questions and i thank witnesses for our evidence and we're now going to return to agenda item four which is consideration of the motion on the instrument that we've been discussing and i invite the minister to move motion s6m 0 9 2 9 0 that the local government housing and planning committee recommends that the cost of living tenant protection scotland act 2022 amendment of expiry date number two regulations 2023 be approved thank you do members have any points they wish to make myles with these other extensions and we'll be opposing them okay thank you minister is there anything else pan sorry i didn't see you i'm just going to echo myles as you were we're posing them thank you is there anything else you further you wish to add to thank the committee once again for scrutiny and for the time to explore the issues with you thank you very much the question is that motion s6m 0 9 2 9 0 in the name of patrick harvey be approved are we all agreed we are not all agreed all in favour that's four all against two and any abstentions no thank you and the committee will publish report okay right so the motion was agreed with four votes four and two against the committee will publish a report setting out its recommendation on the instrument in the coming days we agreed at the start of the meeting to take the next two items in private so as that was the last public item for our agenda today i now close the public part of the meeting


Statistics and Excel. Where to find data to practice with. Got data? Let's get stuck into it with statistics. First, a word from our sponsor. Yeah, actually, we're sponsoring ourselves on this one because apparently the merchandisers, they don't want to be seen with us. But that's okay, whatever.  Like our, trust me, I'm an accountant product line.  Because apparently we're among the only ones equipped with the number crunching skills to answer society's current deep complex and nuanced questions. If you would like a commercial free experience, consider subscribing to our website at accountinginstruction.com or accountinginstruction.thinkific.com. We are in one note. One of the problems we often run into when practicing statistics is how can we get a hold of how can we get our hands on some interesting data sets so we can use them to practice our statistical tools on those data sets. Now, obviously we are in the age of the internet. So there's a whole lot of data out there, but you need to know how to search for the data. Because for example, if you just do a search in your favorite browser like a Google search or something, you say just give me some data sets related to salary or something like that. The likely result that you will be receiving is the summarization of some kind of statistical analysis. I'll give you the average of the mean and that kind of stuff when what you really want is the actual data like the survey data, the information so that you could apply your own statistical analysis. So again, there's a lot of different data out there, but sometimes you have to dig a little bit deeper. And if you know what you're field of interest in, then you can go to more of the sources of that data. So if you're interested in medicine, you know, you can go to some of the sources of the actual testing that's taking place to get the data related to that. If you're interested in financing, go there. If you're interested in agriculture or the environment or that kind of information, then you can dig a little bit deeper to actually find the source data. But if you just want to practice the statistics, then you have a couple tools available to you. A lot of the tools that we will be using the data sets come from Kaggle's K-A-G-G-L-E. So that's an interesting resource we'll take a look at. And then, of course, when you're in Excel, you can try to generate your own data if you just want to practice applying your statistical tools and making graphs to it. So one of the ways you can do that is you can create random, a random number generator. Now, obviously, if you just create random numbers, what you're going to get is a source of data that is going to have just random numbers. But we'll talk about different ways that you might want to, that you can kind of make your data sets using the random numbers just so you can then practice making a histogram or whatever we're doing from that line of data. If you want to practice a particular technique, that would be the fastest way to go. And you also have this random between. So the random between will give you a random set of numbers between any two numbers. Say we're talking about salary and we want salaries between 60 and 90,000, right? So if we take a random generator, we're going to take the bottom 60 and the top 90. And again, if you do that, you're not going to get a random source of numbers between the two, right? But at least you can kind of play with that and put together some number sources so you can practice installing graphs and whatnot in Excel. But it would be better to get a nice data source that has actual data in it so we can analyze the data. So let's take a look at this source. So we're going to. So I've set up an account over here. And so if I go into, it's K-A-G-G-L-E dot com K-A-G-G-L-E dot com. If you create an account, I'm in the homepage of the account. And then basically I'm just looking for the databases. So I'm going to the databases. And so now you've got the different ways that you can kind of sort through your databases. So you've got all data, computer science, education, classification, computer vision, NLP and so on. And there's different ways that they provide the data sources. So they've got the user and they rank them actually as well. So they have the usability ranking. So you might want a higher usability ranking. But we're looking for basically CSV files. The CSV file is a file that's a comma deliminated file, but usually you can kind of open it in Excel. So that's going to be an easy file for us to take it and then pull it in to an Excel document so that we can then practice with that data set. So that's what we'll be looking for mainly, at least at this point. So you could filter up top within here. And you can say, I want to filter by just the ones that have a CSV file. We're not looking for these other file types because we just want to pull the data into Excel. So I'll say, give me a CSV file and then boom. And then up top you can sort this way as well. And you can say that you want the hottest, the most votes. So you see they've ranked, you've got the rankings up top here. The most votes, the newest updated usability. So I would think the hottest and the usability would probably be what we would want to sort by. So then you can go into this information, rent prices and so on. So if I go into it in one of these data sets, it's got a usability of 10. That's great. And so I'm going to go down. Sometimes they give you the summary of what the data set looks like down here. And then you can download the data set up top, downloading the data set. And it's in a zipped file. So if I open that up, I've been trying to get this program off so I have the normal zip. But we've got the rent prices. So here we have it in just a list of data. Now just note that this file type, again, is a CSV file type. So you don't usually want to just start working in this file because if you if you say file save as you can see it's a CSV file type. So you want to convert it once you start manipulating the data to an Excel file. You can do that in a couple of different ways. I can go on the CSV file and I can convert it to just an Excel workbook. Or oftentimes I'll just open the CSV file like this. And then I will open another Excel file that I'm working on because I might be working with multiple tabs in a separate Excel file. And then I'll just I'll just copy the data the entire triangle of the data right click the whole data set. I'm not going to try to copy just a bit of it. I usually copy the whole sheet if I want the whole sheet over. And now I've pasted over here in an actual Excel file right so now it's an Excel. If you manipulate the data in a CSV file by the way. What will happen is when you close it back up and then open it again. You'll lose all your data because the point of a CSV file is that it's been stripped of all the Excel Excel formatting, which makes it easier to see it as just data right so so it's easier to kind of upload it takes up less space. And different programs can open it up whereas once you start manipulating it in Excel. Now it has all these Excel type stuff and you can only open it in Excel right so it's just a data file is how I see it in a CSV is it. So I'm going to close this up to you there's a large no I don't want to save that. And so that's the general idea and I'm going to close this back up. So so I I think this is a pretty a pretty neat source but remember this is only one source so if you know what you're interested in. Then you can start looking at the source of of the of the data that's being like census data or economic data and you can find different data if you know what you're in housing data whatever. You can find the data but if you're just looking for databases that you can practice with then searching through these databases is one place where you can go to find a broad arrange and that's why we're going to go here because that's what we're looking for. We want to try to show how statistics is applicable to different things. So we're looking for databases that that stand you know different areas would be the general idea.


I'm Master McGannis and you see extension horticulturist and director of the master gardener program. Now planting carrot seeds can be difficult. The seeds are notoriously small. They're hard to grasp. And it's hard to ensure proper spacing in the garden. So today we're going to learn how to make seed tape. That's going to make the process of planting carrots more precise. And in addition you won't be spending as much time bending over in the garden. So what you'll need for this project will be paper products. Now you could use paper towels. You could use newspaper. But I'm using toilet paper for this particular project because it's really easy to work with. Now you're going to want maybe a three to four foot length of it. That's pretty easy to work with. So I've measured it out using my handy dandy tape measure here. Now we're going to want to mark the spacing for our seeds. However before you do that you need to determine the proper spacing. So look at your seed packet and look at the final spacing. Now my carrot packet says that they want a final spacing of three inches between carrots. Now if we knew that every seed was going to germinate we could just put one seed every three inches. However we know we're going to get less than a hundred percent germination. So I'm going to go more conservative. I'm going to glue a seed every one and a half inches just so that we have some spares. Now we may have to do a little bit of thinning in the garden but it won't be too onerous. Alright so we mark the spacing every inch and a half using a marker. Now I've already done that. Now next we're going to want to make a non-toxic glue. Now I've mixed one quarter cup of flour with one quarter cup of water to make this thick goop. You'll see that it's goopy but it still is going to run off a spoon. That's about the consistency that you want. Now we're going to apply the glue to the seed tape using a paintbrush. So I'm going to put a little dab on the marks. Now that I've done that I'm going to want to put some seeds on those dots of glue. Now I'm going to use a flat toothpick. I'm using the broad end of the flat toothpick. I'm going to dip it in the flour and then I use that to pick up an individual seed and then put it on the dot of glue on the toilet paper. Now once I have glued all the seeds onto the toilet paper you can then fold it in half and allow that to seal in the seeds. Allow it to dry for 24 hours and then you can roll it up and put it in a plastic bag and store it in a cool dry place until you're ready to plant it in the garden. Now with carrots you tend to plant them at a depth of one quarter inch to maybe a half inch. Somewhere in that range but no deeper than that. So you would lay the seed tape out in the garden and then cover it to the appropriate depth with soil. Happy planting!


Welcome role players! My name is Mario, and let's learn about basic dice rolls in Stars Without Number Revised Edition. Most dice rolls in Stars Without Number are driven by two key parts of your character, attributes and skills. From fixing the engine of a starship to resisting a psychic attack, dice rolls are easy to understand for new players. Attribute scores translate to an attribute modifier ranging from minus 2 to plus 2, depending on the attribute score. For all of our examples, let's use the following attribute scores and modifiers for our sample character, an expert entertainer. The second relevant part of a character are their skills. At character level 1, each skill will either be untrained, skill level 0, or skill level 1. We'll use these skills for our sample character. The first roll to learn is a skill check. A skill check is rolled with two six-sided dice, commonly referred to as 2D6. When the Game Master asks for a skill check, they will specify both the attribute and skill required for the check. However, there may be another combination that makes sense depending on the task. The GM makes the final decision, but don't be afraid to justify another combination. For example, you are trying to evade a group of thugs who think you're responsible for a missing prototype weapon schematic. The GM asks you to make a dexterity sneak check. However, you are untrained in sneak, so you decide that instead of sneaking around, you would like to use your contacts in the space station to cover for you as you disappear through a busy nightclub. You suggest using Charisma and Connect to get away from the gang and the GM agrees. To make a skill check, you roll 2D6 and add your attribute modifier and your skill level.  Skill level 0 has no bonus, and a skill level higher than 0 is added to your 2D6 roll and attribute modifier. In the previous example, our sample character doing a dexterity sneak check would roll 2D6 and add 0 for their dexterity modifier and a minus one for their untrained sneak skill, equalling a roll of 2D6 minus one. If instead the character rolled Charisma Connect, it would be 2D6 plus 0 for Charisma and 0 for their connect skill, equalling a straight roll of 2D6. The GM determines the difficulty of the task, but the minimum score necessary would be a 6, which is a simple task that exceeds the type of task appropriate for your background. The GM may also assign a modifier to the roll ranging from plus 2 to minus 2 based on circumstances or tools available. Using the previous example, if you had a coat that was a different color when reversed, the GM may give you a plus one bonus to your roll. Matching or exceeding the skill check difficulty is considered a success. A skill check may also be modified by an ally attempting to assist you in the task. Attempts to assist require a relevant skill check at the same difficulty number. If they succeed, they grant you a plus one modifier on your skill check. You cannot have more than a plus one bonus from aid, even if from multiple players. Imagine a situation where you barely escaped a group of space station guards and made it back to your ship, but one friend in your party was mortally shot just as the doors closed. You decide to try and stabilize them with an intelligence heal skill check, and the GM says the difficulty will be 10. Your ally decides to help you by trying to stop the bleeding, so they roll a dexterity heal check and succeed. You get a plus one to your roll. You roll a nine, get a plus one from your intelligence, but a minus one from not being trained in heal.  Finally, you can also have an opposed skill check. For instance, your character gets a little too tipsy in a local bar and suddenly finds themselves in a 10 paces in turn shoot out with the local bad boy. For this opposed skill check, both you and the GM would roll a dexterity shoot check, the higher number being the winner. In case of a tie, the player character would win. Looks like you just barely won this deadly game. There are two more types of basic rolls in Stars Without Number. The next one is initiative, which is a straightforward 1d8 roll, adding your dexterity modifier to the roll. Higher numbers go first. The final type of roll is a 1d20 roll. This is used for combat and for saving throws.  Character saves are based upon your attribute modifiers and your level. Here are the values for our sample level 1 character. If our character was on a new planet and tried to drink the water, not realizing it was toxic to them, the GM would have them make a physical saving throw. The goal is to meet or exceed the saving throw value with your 1d20 roll. For this character, that means a 15 or higher to not get poisoned. If instead our character was diving through closing bulkhead doors to outrun an explosion, this would be an invasion save. Our character would need to get a 14 or higher to succeed. One final note about saving throws. A 1 always fails and a 20 always exceeds, regardless of your save value. Congratulations! You are now ready to roll in Stars Without Number.


Okay, so I've got three triptok I have a new monarchy one future walkout one vanguard two crucible and two dead orbit where to start Let's start with a coup d'oeuvre. Why not? Okay, so I've got two blues One legendary and a blue I will open them in this video and two more blues and not bad, but so whatever Let's go with the new monarchy. I got the electors boots I got a strange coin and a moth of light a Moth of light a single moth of light for my package.   I mean come on. It used to be shards. Now. It's most of light. I'd rather shards to be honest That's so many months like it's unbelievable. Okay from the vanguard. I got the sort of Usculator, which is the vanguard every machine going and two more moths of light I'm a crucible two more months of what the hell is going on Yeah, I got under city and two strange coins.  I've had a hundred city about a million flipping times From a dead orbit.   I got hangman hangman This little shadow of wanting for so long. It's unreal finally got that bad boy What we're gonna get from this file of package a strange coin and a moth of light What the heck what who cares I got hangman anyway a shadow of wanting for so long I think I'm gonna delete something to get well through a quick this and see how badass it looks on my character They get rid of under city do not need that whatsoever Just grab this and try out see how sexiness thing looks Okay, okay, okay, okay? Okay? Let's just see let's just see let's just see Let's just see here. We go.


T. F. N. N. Headline news update. Hi everyone, Basil Chapman here, host of the Tiger Technicians Hour, and we are looking at the Dow up 166 finally the Dow had a little bit of leverage from yesterday's pullback, that initial up thrust that went from the 25,252 level just a few days ago spirals up and then it stalls. Now there's a green candle. That's very important. Whether it holds or not is going to be dependent on the close today. I mean, holds this week depends on the close today. We're up 157 just gave back a little bit. If the Dow is only up about 110 by the end of the day, that suggests we're going to stall for a little while. I am impressed with the weekly chart. I've seen that for a long time. It held the 14 period exponential moving average exactly ran higher. I'm going to be watching this very closely. There's a chance that a chunk of this move to the downside has been done and that we might have to do a little bit more retesting. That's what I'm looking at. Let me explain why. If you look at the spy, which is the S&P 500, the S&P itself is up 24 by 28 15. So you're at 28 281.84. It's just made a new recovery high above that PDA. I'm calling this a V shaped patent. And just for argument's sake, I don't want to change anything that I've got you other than to put in an E rather than an A. And that has extended the weekly chart to leg B continuing. Here's the big issue. Three days ago, the Q's had a really good rally much better than the other indices yesterday made a new recovery high. Today it's extended that. And here again, I'm calling this an E. It has a characteristic that it could become a new buy mode. I'm not going to argue with that. That weekly chart has been very strong. IWM has not been as strong, but it is still pretty good today. It's at 1.17 and 155.54 way underneath. And the reason why I'm looking at this is a small guess board of different indices to give me a bigger picture is it's individual indexes that are doing different things. The Q's are leading. All of a sudden, you've got the Dow following and then you've got the the spy. Sorry, the spy following the Dow hasn't made a new recovery high and IWM is lagging. So yeah, you've got your four indices, not in lockstep, but we're going to watch it closely. Gold and a good rally today. We'll talk about this when we get back for my show, the target technicians are coming right up after this break. Stay tuned. Thousand Chapters signing off. Otherwise, I'll see you in a moment. Otherwise, it's tomorrow.