Hi, welcome to the All Things LGBTQ Interview Show, where we interview LGBTQ guests who are making important contributions to our communities. All Things LGBTQ is taped at Orca Media in Montpelier, Vermont, which we recognize as being unceded Indigenous land. Thanks for joining us and enjoy the show. Hi, everybody at All Things LGBTQ. I'd like our audience to meet Madeline Narikouma, and she is, this is Narikou. Nakamura. Nakamura, sorry. And she is, this is your first novel, right? Yeah. Breakers, here it is, it's a delightful read. And she is a writer and editor based in Los Angeles, the author of First Breakers, a lifelong fantasy devotee. She was writing her first novel the day she realized that computer science degree wasn't happening, and you graduated from Mills College in California.  I did, yeah. I had this idea that I was going to write for video games and didn't think that hard about it until I get to college and quickly realized that that wasn't a great career path for me and also that I couldn't do math. And so programming wasn't going to work out either. Yeah, I think it has some close to languages too, right? If you're good at languages, you'd probably be good at writing languages for computers. I think, yeah, I think there's transferable skills, but I couldn't do the, I couldn't pass like the basic classes that you needed. Yeah. Quickly changed courses. So what was your major after that? Creative writing. Nice. So tell us a little bit about you first before we get into the novel. When did you start writing and when did you think, I know you said that you started thinking about it after you realized that your computer life wasn't going to happen, but were you always interested in writing even as a child or? So interestingly, not, not particularly. I always loved to read. I was a big reader and I always knew that I was good in English classes in school as a kid, but it didn't really occur to me that I could write things that other people would read that I could make any sort of career out of that basically until college because I had very, I had really very little idea of what I wanted to do at all in, in school up to high school. And it wasn't until I started reading really interesting things in college that I developed this ambition to be a novelist. But yeah, no, I, I did not write that that much in as a younger person. So you created this whole world of places and characters. And you made your lead character, Adrienne, bipolar. And could you tell us like why you maybe chose that as something, as something that your lead character would have? Um, I think that I wanted to tell a story that kind of ran counter to a lot of incorrect narratives that are out there about people with mental illnesses that are viewed as more, well, that often are more severe than the mental illness that most people are familiar with. Um, that, that is something that I struggle with in my life. Um, and I was noticing that most of the narratives that most people are familiar with are very, um, damaging and unkind. And a lot of people have misconceptions about these, um, lesser known mental illnesses because of that. Um, and I thought that I just wanted to contribute something against that kind of, you know, flow a little bit.  Um, and, uh, I found it, uh, really an interesting concept. And, and when you don't find in literature all that often in this kind of a way, so I really appreciated, um, that. And, and there were some, uh, I'm just going to ask you, like, why a male character and not female? Oh, um, I've been asked that before actually, and I should have, uh, you know, anticipated that other people would wonder about this, but it really never occurred to me. Um, I don't connect my gender to my writing that much. Okay. Um, it's not something that, you know, looms large in my mind as I'm writing. I don't feel any particular barrier to, uh, writing in, in a male voice. Um, it was at random. Mostly I was just thinking of when I, when I come up with a main character for a book I want to write, um, I just come up with a person and it, it doesn't, uh, factor in that much the gender of the person unless I'm going to be, you know, addressing any gender specific issues. But Chris breakers is not really particularly about that. So, you know, there was, there wasn't a barrier there for me. Yeah, I was just, yeah. Um, and, and, um, some of the names like his last name was the name of a French physician, and I don't know whether that was intentional or, or not. So, um, the last name de Forna, actually I got because that was the last name of the, um, the man who performed the last guillotine execution in France. I didn't choose it because of that, but I stumbled across the name while I was reading, you know, a book about French history. And I thought it's a cool name. And I wrote it down in my list of names that I might choose from in it. You know, it ended up being chosen, but that, that is how I get most of my names by combing through history books and like finding a name that I think is cool and just writing it down. There's not usually an intentionality in which specific like meaning is attached to that name though. But Malaise is a really, you know, like an interesting name given Malaise definition also. Um, oh yeah, Malaise, Malaise, his best friend that her name was chosen, really a random just for nothing. And, uh, is it Rache or Rache is actually a dog? I, I looked it up. It was like really cool. It's like a dog that hunts by scent. Yeah. Um, the, uh, the name of the creatures that these military officers have accompanying them. I believe it's pronounced Rache in real life, but I, I don't really like how that sounds. And I find it impossible to read out loud that way. So in my head, it's Rache, but I'm wrong. Um, but you know what, it's my fantasy world. So I'll be wrong if I want. And as we go along, uh, and also he has, um, a keeper, did Casimir and, um, his keeper is kind of, um, oh, I don't know, what would you say, harsh? Terrible. I would, he's pretty terrible. Yeah. Yeah. You're not meant to like Casimir particularly. And, and, you know, Adrian is in love with him. Um, and so that speaks to like how he feels about himself, uh, and, uh, coming to terms with that whole issue of, you know, sometimes just loving people who aren't that good for you. Um, and, and, and how did he, um, did that come from like a, uh, like a, a, where they have, uh, people who, uh, are, you know, take care of people with alcohol problems. Like I don't know, I forget what you call them on. Sponsors. Yeah. Yeah. So he was like a sponsor to him, right? Yeah. I mean, it's a similar role, I think. And, and what did you want to get across with your book?  The people were really fascinating also. And I really in, um, I loved Belize, but I also liked the relationship with, um, him and, and the soldier, uh, Gennady. Uh, I think Gennady is probably closest. Yeah. Um, and so it seems to be that under all that you're telling a story about illness, um, compassion, um, and all of those sort of human emotions that are involved in this, in this novel. And, um, I was kind of hoping they would become lovers in the end, I mean, but I was looking like, oh, maybe they'll be, you know, um, so, so what did you, what were you trying to get people to see and understand in writing this book? Um, my primary motivation for writing any book that I write is, is honestly to tell a fun, enjoyable story with characters that people can attach to, um, in terms of like messaging.  Those all just kind of came out by coincidence as things went along. My main goal was essentially just, I wanted an interior perspective. I wanted a narrative by someone who was bipolar in, in, in his own words, um, not an outside perspective of this person, not other people who don't have that illness talking about them. But, you know, someone who, uh, has bipolar speaking about themselves because that is pretty, pretty rare, I find. So that was like my main intention with the story.   It's a, it's a metaphor. Right, exactly. Um, but, and I think it's addressed at some point, the, the intention of this language, he says, you know, I'm giving this a name, um, that's separate from me so that I can separate it from myself. But, you know, he's, he's aware that that's kind of, it's a defense mechanism because it's not separate from yourself particularly. Um, but that's how he chooses to comfort himself a little bit. And it, and, and when he uses, uh, so when he uses his magic, uh, near the end of the story, he has lightning in his hands. Hmm. Uh, right. Um, so he's kind of deciding about whether, I mean, he's taking a moral stand there, right? About should I use the powers that I have and if I use the powers for good, is it still a bad thing? Cause he, cause he was involved in an experiment that went wrong early. Right. And I think that his relationship to his magic is very complicated, partially, of course, because he has this massive guilt over a mistake that he made as a doctor, healing people. Um, and so his ability to get past that mental block and help, uh, Kennedy, his friend is, is a development for him. But I think the moral stand that he takes at the book is just like, should I kill this guy? Right. Like I, this guy just stabbed my friend. Do I kill him? We're on a battlefield. Um, and that's his, that's his choice. I, it is a moral stand, but also partially, I think it's about, you know, what can I live with? What, um, what actions do I need to take to make sure that I can like live with myself? I found that was, that was throughout the novel. That was one of the things that I found to be, um, you know, draw me to these characters was they were feeling complex and, um, they, uh, you know, there was a lot of sort of moral or, uh, choices they had to make throughout this novel, um, that I found pretty interesting. Um, so I have here a little synopsis of the book and, um, I don't know if, well, maybe we should just have you read and that might be a better way to do this. So do you want to start in the beginning? Sure, um, I'll read a couple of minutes of the first chapter. Okay, great. Um, the day before extravagant disaster, I The day before extravagant disaster set in, I walked to work alongside the opera circadia. It's water is swollen with the ongoing down for. I barely paid attention to where I was going. The error I'd made revealed itself when I ran right into someone, a black streak in the rain. Streak resolved itself into a vigil officer, and I prepared to be executed on the spot. I said reflexively, stars and saints. He said equally reflexively, something unspeakably impolite. He was a young man, only a little older than some of my students in his earliest twenties, I guessed, a lieutenant star gleamed on his uniform. He pushed an unruly sweep of black hair out of his face and pointed his chin at me, narrow eyes, dark with scorn. He was soaked to the skin, but he didn't seem to care. Excuse you, the officer said. Watch it. True, I'd walked into him, but I bridled nevertheless, biting my tongue to suppress a waspish response. I stand by my aversion to the vigil. Their uniforms are designed for intimidation, all black and sharp edges and their race hounds are bred to terrorize. Strange animals, neither wolves nor lions, ill tempered to a one. This officer's race was much smaller than most, not quite coming up to his knees, but the sight of her still drove a shiver through me. The yellow eyes set deep in her black, fox-like face, shown with a dreadful intelligence. I said, excuse you, the officer said. I said, watch it. His race slashed her tail, sending raindrops flying. Yes, I heard, I said delicately, taking a measured step back. I regretted my choice within an instant. I should have been practical and apologized. He scowled, one hand drifting to the hilt of his saber. I remembered my earlier thought that he might simply run me through in the middle of the street. But other people had noticed there was something amiss while watching. The majority of passers-by who stopped in their tracks were university students and faculty. Most of them soaked just as the soldier was. People are unused to inclement weather in Astrum, but I brought an umbrella. One of the advantages of my affinity for lightning is a sense for storms. The soldier looked around and noticed his audience. I saw him weigh the situation. Side, and his hands went, went in his pockets instead. I could take you in for assaulting an officer, he said. It was an accident. Whatever. And that's the first couple pages of Adrian encountering the soldier for the first time, Kennedy. Thank you. That's great. So what is your next project and have you started? Um, I have a stockpile of a few finished books. I'm publishing the sequel to Curse Breakers in 2025, also with Canis major. Um, and then I have a few other finished books. Um, one is about a pair of witch finders also in this universe. Um, I'm not sure where that'll go. Probably with Red Hen. And I'm not sure yet, but yeah, I have a couple finished books. And my current project that I'm actively working on is about a shapeshifter assassin. From the same, no, it's just, you know, different stuff. They're like, wow, I can't believe you have books already in line to go. That's amazing. And was this actually the first book you read? I mean, that you wrote? No, um, the first novel that I wrote, I wrote for my senior thesis project in college. And that was the novel about the pair of witch finders in this universe. And then Curse Breakers was second. Hey, and, and when, and your book is coming out in September, correct? September 12th. Can people get pre-orders of them or? Yeah, you can pre-order them on Amazon. I think that you can pre-order them on Barnes & Noble, Kobo, various like websites. It should be pretty easy to find pre-orders. Okay. And for your last words, what would you like the audience to know about you or your writing or what they can look for in the future or anything you'd like to tell our audience? I think I'd like to shell for the sequel. If you like the book, please, please keep an eye out in 2025 for the sequel. And buy the book on the Amazon. Yes, please buy my book. Yeah. And we'll have your, your website on so that people can go there and take a better look at you and perhaps buy some books there too. And this was great. Thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate it. And we'll see you soon. Thank you so much. Thank you. As people who watch LGBTQ have noticed, I will frequently make reference to Vermont's Human Rights Commission and the work they are doing and the initiatives where they have taken the lead, particularly as it looked at redefining what constitutes bullying. Well, the Human Rights Commission has hired a new executive director. And we thought we would take this time to say hello and congratulations to that new director and talk about the work of the Human Rights Commission. So please welcome for a first interview, Big Cartman. Welcome. Hi, thank you. And indeed, congratulations. And my deepest condolences on your job. But from reading the press release, you were one of the attorneys for the Human Rights Commission before you were appointed as the executive director. So you had a sense of what you were getting into. But first, let's let's talk a little bit about Big and how you happened to come to Vermont and your experience as an attorney in Vermont. OK, sure. Yeah. So I I grew up in upstate New York and after college, where I got a bachelor's in studies for social justice, I went to Vermont Law School and just felt really lucky that after graduating there, I managed to get a job here and I've gotten, you know, blessed to be able to continue to work and stay here in Vermont as an attorney since 2005. And one of those roles as an attorney was with the Vermont State Employees Association. Yep, my first job out of law school was with a like law firm, you know, private practice, doing personal injury and workers comp for, you know, injured workers mostly. And I wasn't really interested in doing that kind of for profit work, reading medical records. And I was so psyched when the VSEA had an opening that was like, you know, a dream position for me to get to be in house counsel for them. And I so I stayed there for about six and a half years and then decided to go another way and, you know, open up my own practice where I did solo work for mostly like consulting kind of took all of my experience representing workers and wanted to work with managers to help them have better workplaces. So I got to do some great work with small businesses and nonprofits and government, like local governments, doing trainings around workplace harassment prevention and, you know, personnel policies, had to do some, you know, investigations, personnel investigations and, you know, things like that as well, but mostly trying to do preventive law. So not so much responding to a crisis situation at a workplace, but helping foster a better workplace before it gets to that point, you know, of needing to do an investigation or needing to deal with a harassment allegation or something like that. So working with the State Employees Association, you probably got more than the casual view of how state government works and state systems.  Well, you know, one of the areas that the Human Rights Commission does work on is state employees discrimination claims. So I knew that I was well equipped to do that work, you know, well versed in employment law and having been in so so many workplaces in Vermont in state government. You know, I've been to every correctional facility in the state, you know, I've gone.  So it was a nice. It was nice to be, you know, familiar with how a lot of state operations already go. But I was also really drawn to the work here at Human Rights Commission because of the other areas of our jurisdiction. So we also enforce fair housing laws and we protect against discrimination in places of public accommodation. And those are two really like emerging areas of the law around, you know, protecting the rights of our community members from being discriminated against. I think there's a bit of uncertainty in public forums when you make a reference to public accommodations. Exactly. Exactly who is or who might not be be included as a public accommodation. Yeah. And it's it's definitely a legal term. And we're saying a place of public accommodations. So it's really any place that is open to the public or providing services to the public. So it does include all state government, all local government services it includes schools, it includes restaurants, gas stations, hotels, anything that the public is supposed to be able to, you know, enter or receive services from. It's really broad. And if I were to encounter what I perceive to be discrimination, you know, when when I'm in a local restaurant, what is it? How would I approach you? And what is it that I can expect that the Human Rights Commission is going to be able to do for me? OK, great question. So any of our areas of jurisdiction, there are multiple ways to get in touch with us. If you think you might have experienced discrimination, you can always call our office. You can call a human being. We'll either answer the phone or get back to you very soon. You can go onto our website and fill out an online questionnaire, start to give us some of the information about what happened, or you can just email us at human dot rights at Vermont dot go. And we receive complaints from all those different ways every single day. So what what are the types of complaints that the human rights commission has traditionally received? And then after you get the complaint, what is it that you do with it? OK, so let's go first to what we do with complaints. And then we'll talk about the types of cases we see. So our complaint process is you know, pretty straightforward intake. We have an intake specialist here who will receive any information that you can share about what happened to you. And if we feel that sometimes that's just a phone call, sometimes it's a few emails, you know, sometimes people prefer to come in and meet with us. And that's great. Our office is here in downtown Montpelier, still standing and open. And if we decide that what you're sharing with us is, you know, could be enough to be a legal claim, then we will help complain it. You become a complainant and we draft a complaint for you to summarize what has happened and that gets sent to the the respondent, the party who we think may have been discriminatory. They get an answer. They get an opportunity to answer that complaint and to go point by point and say whether they admit or deny each of the elements of your complaint. And then we ask them to provide any relevant information, documents, you know, witnesses and we conduct an investigation. We have three investigator positions here who are working all over the state on way too many cases at once to investigate these complaints of discrimination. And then it so and throughout the process, it's our statutory duty to see if we can work with the parties to find a resolution if we can just work something out and kind of heal what's occurred or get to a better understanding about how to make it right. We're always supporting the parties and trying to do that. And many people are here without attorneys and really benefit from a neutral investigator who can also like serve as a go between for conversations about a resolution. But if the parties aren't able to work something out, then our investigator will interview everyone who has relevant information, look at all the documents and write up a pretty comprehensive investigative report that will summarize all the facts and all our investigators are attorneys. So they also do a legal analysis about the claim and they make a recommendation about whether or not there's reasonable grounds to believe that discrimination occurred. OK, so once that investigative report with recommendations gets sent to the parties, the parties get a chance to provide a response to say why they agree or disagree. And all that information gets reviewed by the human rights commissioners. These are these are governor appointed commissioners. There are five. They conduct a hearing once they have hearings as part of their public meetings once a month. And the hearings are held in executive session. That part of the meeting is not open to the public. Everything that has happened up to this point is entirely confidential by law. We do not disclose it to anyone except the parties. Parties have the right to know what's going on in the investigation. But the commissioners do not conduct like a trial. They don't take evidence. They just give the parties an opportunity to say their piece and to answer any clarifying questions that the commissioners might want to ask. But it's usually under an hour. And then the commissioners go and delivery and they make a determination about whether there's reasonable grounds to believe that discrimination occurred. That determination, if it's reasonable grounds, like, yes, we think this happened, then that determination is a matter of public record under our statute. And then it opens up a six month time period where the Human Rights Commission director, me, will try to see if the parties can do a mediation or settle the case at that point. If the if the commissioners go no reasonable grounds and they decide that there's not a reasonable grounds to believe that discrimination occurred, that's basically the end of it for our process and everything, you know, maintain we maintain confidentiality of that information. OK, so if you determine that you could not substantiate that discrimination occurred, but I, as the party who felt that I was aggrieved, decide no, no, no, I want to do something independently. That would be a civil action. Would the information that I have already provided to the Human Rights Commission then be available to whoever it is that I sought to represent me in a civil suit? So the parties have the right to anything in our investigative file. OK, but only the parties. We can't disclose it to the public. If. If the commission substantiates it or says, yes, we think there is reasonable ground and you as executive director cannot mediate some kind of settlement, would you then be the party filing and representing me in a court proceeding? We could we could file the case as the Human Rights Commission as the plaintiff. We have the authority to be the plaintiff in an enforcement action and you as an individual would still have your right to pursue a case with your own name as the plaintiff. You may have other claims, right, that you want to have as part of it. Sometimes we have cases where we're the only party who's a plaintiff. Sometimes the plaintiffs file their own case. We file the enforcement action and we end up joining together, but have separate counsel. But yeah, but we don't represent. We don't take all cases to court that go reasonable grounds. We take many. We take more now than we ever did. And we but we have an agreement with HUD for our housing cases. We generally do have to take our HUD cases to Superior Court. But our process is is separate from what an individual can do in court. So partway through the process, you can say, you know what? I got everything I need here. I'm out. You know, you can withdraw your case and you can file any time. We don't issue a right to sue letter. You know, you can pursue your state court claims regardless of what we're doing and regardless of what our determination is. So it sounds as though the commissioners and you said there were five of them. Have a great deal of say in. What the actions that the Human Rights Commission takes on, the things they pursue, sort of the direction the agency takes. If if I as a private citizen decide that, you know, this is something that has interest for me is. How are those commissioners appointed? What I believe you said that they were appointed by the governor. Correct. And they have a set term. OK, that's six years. I could be for I'm pretty sure it's six years. And so they're staggered. They don't all go vacant at the same time. And so when there's a vacancy, I believe it gets posted like through the governor's office. There's like a page about boards and commissions and you would submit an application for the governor to consider. OK, all right. So we can put up a link to and this is how to find out when there was an opening and if you're interested. So. This sounds like a great deal of responsibility. Yes. And that you were truly looking out for for the average for monitor. From having already been on staff as one of the attorneys knowing. The responsibilities of the job.  Um, lots of reasons. I I came here because I was very inspired by the work of Bo Yang, our prior director. Bo made amazing progress for civil rights in just a short number of years that she was here really pushing to advance this agency's work, increase our resources and our reach and like, you know, really strengthen our mission and our ability to serve more people. And I was very inspired when I first met her and would not have applied for this job if I didn't have inspired leadership after working for myself for many years, you know. So that was certainly part of it. I mean, I definitely see this career step as a natural a natural culmination of all of the work I've done in this field and the issues that matter most to me. You know, probably around 2017, 2018, I started to have this deep feeling that I was not going to be doing work that I didn't care about. You know, I wasn't going to just do a law practice to make money. I never thought I was going to do that. But I didn't want to just, you know, you know, get this client here, get this client here and have there be no meaning behind it. I realized I really only wanted to do anti-discrimination work and everything that I did after that was in pursuit of that vision. And it's like totally happening now. I'm deeply grateful. And, you know, I definitely wish I'd had more time with Boryang here before she left so that I could learn more from her before before stepping up. But, you know, I'm really excited for this challenge. I like to do a lot of different things in a day. I like to reach out, you know, to our community and make connections and build the network of people who are fighting for our rights. So I realized that, you know, you are still transitioning into the role of executive director but do you have a sense of your priorities of how you would like to advance the work of the Human Rights Commission and how to expand on the advocacy you already provide? Yeah, I mean, I do. And there's short term goals and things that need to get accomplished in-house here. And then there's a longer term vision that can't just be my vision. It needs to be a shared vision among the staff and among the commissioners. But right now, the position that I was in is vacant. And we also were successful in getting funding for a new position that is a full time litigator. That position will be posting and recruiting for as soon as possible. So, you know, that brings our team of six to seven and with that, you know, I also see a need for more resources to this office. Three investigators handling every discrimination case in the state of Vermont is not enough. The cases sit here for a long time because it's there's just a continuous backlog. Some cases take two or three years to get to a resolution. And it's just incredibly stressful for the people who are involved. And it's incredibly stressful for the staff who are feeling the weight of that. And we absolutely need another investigator. We need to take some of the pressure off the people who are here so that we can move through cases more quickly and be able to, like, you know, handle a staff transition if it occurs, like something like that. You know, we also need more office management support. You know, the director kind of does everything and we have, you know, a wonderful admin who's also doing all of the intakes and handling all of the initial complaints. And we have a director of policy education and outreach Amanda Garstas, who's wonderful and is doing so much important work. I mean, all of these parts of our operations need more resources and more staff. So that's like my big long term goal is to just keep increasing our staff, our budget, our ability to reach more and more people. I also think that there's work to be done on the information that we put out there. So our website needs a whole revamping. We need better information that's more understandable for regular non lawyers and more training opportunities that we can provide virtually and around the state to just get the word out more about, like, what is a place of public accommodation? What happens when you come to the Human Rights Commission?  You know, all of these things. It's great that we also with this with the employment law stuff, there's a lot of opportunities for partnership, especially with the Attorney General's Office Civil Rights Unit. You know, there's there's there's already such a strong network of folks working on these issues. And I see us continuing to be a voice for, you know, the cause. And with that, thank you for spending this first interview with you. And I'm already giving you notice that I'm going to want to talk again just prior to the legislative session, right? Talk about what are the issues coming up? Yeah. And how members of the queer community might become involved in advocating on those issues. Great. So thank you and congratulations. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. And until next time, remember, resist.


Dear Professor Wenzel, dear members of the Board of the Society of Friends and Patrons of the Jewish Museum Frankfurt, honorable guests, ladies and gentlemen, I am really delighted to be able to address you on the occasion of the official reopening of the Jewish Museum Frankfurt. This is a heartwarming event that lightens up these times of worry and anxiety. It will enhance the cultural life of this city by showcasing the richness of the Jewish presence and culture in Frankfurt over centuries. As president of the European Central Bank, I'm particularly proud that our institution has a special relationship with the Jewish Museum Frankfurt. The Großmarkthal building in Frankfurt's Ostend, which is part of the ECB's headquarters, hosts a Jewish memorial. It marks the space of horrible suffering of the Jewish citizens of Frankfurt and stands for our commitment to keeping the memory alive. It also reminds us of our responsibility to work hard to make sure that such horrifying times never come back again. And as guardian of our common currency, we play our part in this by helping to build an ever-closer union of peoples of Europe, all of them. In this way, a darker past connects to a brighter future. I'm very pleased to see the same outlook in the concept of the new Jewish Museum. It is not only focused on the past, but it also wants to present today's Jewish life, art and culture. With its strong emphasis on openness and invitation for people to come in and engage, it will for sure generate curiosity and foster the free exchange of ideas. In times of worrying populism, nationalism and anti-Semitism, this is more important than ever. And museums like this one play a crucial role in raising awareness, knowledge and mutual understanding. Dear Professor Wenzel, let me congratulate you and your team on this wonderful achievement. I wish you great success for this exciting new modern museum and its striking architectural form. I'm confident that you will make it an attraction that is not to be missed in Frankfurt as an international and multicultural metropolis. I myself look very much forward to visiting the museum and I will definitely recommend it to my colleagues. Wazel Tov.


Hello everybody Andrea Trowsky here with dental well tutoring, please excuse the mess again If you haven't seen the videos that I've been doing pretty much all week we moved last week, so we're still slowly but surely unpacking and Tom and I have just been working so much that we just haven't had a lot of time to yet So sorry about the mess behind me, but the funny thing is I actually see Lily One of my dogs just kind of resting. Oh, yeah, she says hi She says hello everybody my other dog Daisy is somewhere downstairs. I'm sure she'll be up soon But anyway enough about that what I would like to talk to you guys about today is anatomy and I've been using this textbook here Pretty much all anatomy textbooks are Okay, you know you do not have to spend the money on buying the newest textbook because anatomy doesn't change Obviously right anatomy doesn't change But I find the newer textbooks seem to have they're easier to understand because they include more pictures and less text so that's kind of nice too, but I would like to talk about a little bit about anatomy because I am actually tutoring my Dental L members on anatomy this Sunday So I thought that I would just kind of do an introduction to it Because for the board exam you don't have to know as much as you think you might have to you do need to know the head and neck But there are certain muscles that they never ask about there are certain areas Landmarks that they never ask about I hate to say never because of course as soon as I say this probably on your next Your next exam they will start asking it But so I just kind of like to give you guys an overall Heads up of kind of where to start because if you simply open up your anatomy textbook There's no sense reading the whole thing like there's just no point If you're studying for the board exam, you will be spending Weeks studying anatomy when you probably have to spend maybe a day and that's it Like you don't have to go in it as thoroughly as you might think but the nice thing though too about anatomy is everything that you learn you Will use when you start working. There's nothing more Exciting if that's the right word for it then showing a patient certain landmarks on the x-rays or if they have Let's say that they're having Sinus issues, you know, it's nice to have an idea of where the sinuses are which is Obvious to some but not to all So it's nice to have a good overall I guess knowledge of anatomy So I did save actually some images here, so I'm going to share my screen So this will just take a moment. I put some on a PowerPoint for everybody. Can everybody see my screen? Okay, now I'm going to make myself smaller so then that way you can see the full anatomy screen now It's hard to see of course because We aren't in one of my lessons. So I'm just kind of showing you guys my screen From the PowerPoint here, so if you can't see all of the text that's okay because I will just explain to you What you have to know and this is a perfect example right here of all you have to know I mean not all but the majority So if you simply wanted to get started with anatomy The best thing to do is to actually print off something like this. There are some Images online that show maybe less than half of this So if you print off that other image that is showing maybe half of what's showing here You're not going to learn enough But this image is perfect because it gives you a good overall idea of the bones of the skull Okay, they there are a lot more so simply What you see here there are a lot more, but do you have to know them all no So the main things that I want you guys to focus on is think of your main Bones of the skull so your forehead here. They love to ask you guys about the forehead So what a bone is that that is the frontal? Bone and then what about the bones on the sides? Okay, so on the sides here There are two of them is the um parietal and you can see that right here And they actually have them color coded which is nice So the parietal is right here and what about the bone in the back They always love to ask about the bone in the back here So they typically refer to it on the board exam as the back of the skull What is this bone here that is the occipital bone and actually I don't think you guys have it in here Showing you where that is so I'm happy that I'm talking about it. So it's the bone back here. Okay now What about the bone here? Okay, so think of your cheekbones? What bone? Fits the cheekbones and you can actually see them there in orange here the Zygomatic bone. Okay, so these are the cheekbones and What about the bone here now you all should know which one that one is so that is the maxillary bone, right? And then the mandible is this one here. See how easy that was so that is a very simple overall sort of Review of the bones of the skull so like those you have to know The most if that makes sense. That's horrible English But those ones you need to know like the back of your hand and then to take it a step further I want you guys to know The lacrimal bone, which is you might not be able to see it But the lacrimal is over here. So close to your eye socket and your nose They love to ask about the lacrimal and there's two so close to your eye socket and your nose So not over here not up here But your lacrimal is near your eyes and your nose so you guys need to know that as well the orbital Surface of the maxilla you should know that too. So that's kind of on the bottom here So think of your eye socket on the bottom So remember your lacrimal was on the sides here and I kind of feel like I should make myself larger So I am going to make myself larger now So the lacrimal is right here What did I just say the the Shoot I just kind of lost my train thought. Oh, yes. Sorry the orbital Surface is on the bottom. The lacrimal is kind of off to the side. So does everybody see the difference? It's probably easier to look in the image here anyway And the nice thing is that if you're a member of either the board exam prep Academy Or the dental L student program, we talk about all of this So we we actually go a lot more in depth because our session is typically an hour Sometimes more if we need it. So so this is just kind of a good overall now the one that's students always forget is the Vomer so V O M E R So that's kind of right in the middle of your nose now It's inside so I can't show you where that is because it's inside the nose But does everybody see this middle part right here? That is the vomer, okay? They want you to know that and students always forget. So that's just something that I want you guys to know And the rain mist of the mandible so you have the mandible, but then off to the side So sorry guys here. Let me move my hair. So off to the side. This is your rain mist Of the mandible and thankfully I have a very easy to see mandible if that makes sense Like you can see where it starts the angle and my chin here, right? So this whole piece of course and on the other side too is the mandible so The rain mist is over here Does that make sense and your chin you need to know your chin the mental? Protuberance I can never say that Mental protuberance that is your chin so I'm probably saying that wrong, but you need to know that as well I apologize if I'm moving too fast But I kind of would like to keep this video short and sweet because you all like the shorter ones if you want the longer ones Then you should be a dental L member because we have like our long ones. Okay, so they're long Okay, let's see and clearly you can tell that I love talking about this stuff I love talking about anatomy as a student I hated it because you had to memorize everything right, but I've been tutoring now for 13 years So now I actually like it. So I like to talk about it. So if you have questions, please let me know But yes, you guys so I was talking about the mandible so the rain mist and then the body of the mandible so The remus starts and stops here and then continues at the body of the mandible and then the mental protuberance here Okay, is that easy so far? I could go more in depth, but those are the main things you have to know So does everybody understand that so far now moving on here? Let's talk about the sutures and I'm going to make myself smaller again. So you guys can see this and I'm going to make my image larger as well. So the sutures Okay Now some of these you actually don't have to know so I'm going to tell you the ones that are always on the exam So if you look at the main sutures, those are the ones that are always on the exam Okay, so your Coronal suture is kind of in the middle here. Does everybody see that you guys need to know that now? How can I show you guys sort of how this is showing you guys on the skull because kind of backwards? so the back of the skull here is Is I'm sorry. I was I'm showing you guys on the screen But you guys can't see that so the back of the skull is right here So does everybody see where it says the occipital? This is the back of the skull here so if you're trying to landmark now this actually isn't the best picture because it's a Skull of a newborn so you know what you guys?  I'm going to find a skull of an adult and then I'll continue Okay, everybody, so I find I found a better picture so the skull of an adult So let me share my screen here Okay, can everybody see this okay? I am going to keep the webcam small So then that way you guys can see this lovely picture of the skull so This skull of a newborn they typically do not ask about that on the exam because it's so small and all of the Sutures aren't present and some of the sutures that are present quickly Fused together so they don't ask That on the board exam because you would not be seeing a newborn, you know So it wouldn't make sense, but they will ask you about the skull and the sutures of an adult So all of these you guys have to know okay, so make sure to study them So let me explain them a little bit and the landmarks are the same so the back of the skull back here the Opsipital okay, so we are starting here. So the frontal bone here, they are showing and the frontal eminence is like Right kind of in here So if they ever ask you the middle of the forehead that is called your for your frontal eminence Okay, but then if you move further back your coronal suture and then so the coronal suture is horizontal and then Vertically is your sagittal Suture and then you have your lamb doido, which I'm probably saying that wrong. Sorry lamb doido Suture closer to the back towards the occipital. So does that make sense to everybody easy, right easy So you have to memorize these Sutures you don't have to memorize any of the other ones These are the main ones and the photo that I showed you guys before this one here. Make sure to memorize that So let me stop sharing my screen. So sorry that this video was a little bit longer So yeah, so I talk about more about anatomy In my courses So if you're interested let me know and I would be more than happy to teach you because I love it But I do hope that this helped any questions. Let me know and I will see you guys very very soon


Join now from way up north, my buddy J.D. Richardson. How are you, man? I'm fantastic, man. Thank you. It's so good to talk to you. You live in Alaska. You're repping the Titans gear. How does someone in Alaska become a Tennessee Titans fan? Yeah, it all happened. I think I was like eight years old and it was a Sunday morning. I think I was waiting for my family to get ready for church and turned on some NFL football. I saw the two-tone blue, Eddie George, Steve McNair, and they got me into football. So we're not really obligated to a specific team up here. A lot of people, they like to go with the Seattle Seahawks because they're the closest state to us. I'm different and chose my own path and stuck with the Titans. Do you have a favorite Titan player of all time? I do have a favorite player. It's Eddie George. I was born on July 27th, and that's one of the things that got me interested in the Titans. I saw Eddie tear it up. We're in 27, but besides Eddie, I probably have to say Javon Curse, the freak. The freak! He was a lot of fun to watch, really charismatic. We drafted him, so he used the original type. Yeah, like you see, I'm September 27th. My birthday, 9 27, so I've got the full look up there. What's the most common misconception someone, say, from Tennessee might have about someone who lives in Alaska, like your lifestyle? Yeah, I probably say there's no snow 24-7. We do have seasons. It's a pretty typical upbringing, but so we're obviously distant from people, but we're not isolated. We're well connected with everyone else in the lower 48, but kind of exotic in its own way. Yeah, no, that's great. So that's not an igloo that you're actually living in currently. Yeah, it's a three-story igloo. That's great, man. Thank you for hopping on here.  I'm glad we're friends. I'm glad I met online before you go from way long distance. Give me a big old tighten up. Tighten up. There you go, JD. You've been fanzoned. I appreciate it, man. Take care. Thank you, man. Take care.


So my name is Marta. That's my Twitter and GitHub handles. I'm a software engineer, and I'm interested in DevOps, and I'm currently unemployed. So if you read the talk description, talk, you might ask yourself the question, why do I? Why do me? Why does Marta hate fun? Well, I hope that when I finish, you will realize that I actually do not hate fun. Just a very small subset of it. So a couple months ago, I took part in a discussion about modifying a user group's code of conduct. And the discussion was very long and very difficult, and there were different views, obviously. And one person who opposed any modifications to a code of conduct presented an argument centered around free speech and quoted George Carlin, an American comedian, who ranted about a trend to soften language. And it got me thinking, why mention free speech and why mention words of a comedian in this setting? After all, we're talking about a programming meetup. And I do think that is important to be aware and to speak about how culture influences our industry. And in such a context, talking about free speech might be important and might happen. But in that context, I think that wasn't the case. And I think that oftentimes the actual issue is that we tend to forget that we organize, participate in, host conferences, meetups, et cetera, first and foremost to share knowledge. And continuing on the subject of jokes, there is a trend to confuse conferences with stand-up comedy evenings. Have you ever noticed that? I think that should I get a microphone, an extra microphone? So I think there is a, have you noticed this trend? I think I'm not the only person that has noticed that sometimes we really, I don't know, sometimes I'm confused when I'm at a talk. I don't know if I am at a programming conference or a stand-up. And it seems that we sometimes forget that sharing knowledge is what it's all about. And we started believing that the speaker needs to be exceptionally entertaining in the process of sharing knowledge with us. And I think this is connected with how we portray ourselves. Think about it for a couple moments. Who are we? We are young. We are hip. We are edgy. And that's how we portray ourselves as an industry, as a community, as early adopters of new technologies. And it's also built in oppositions. We are not like those Java people. We are not like those Microsoft types in suits and ties, tucked in shirts with their corporate culture. We're not like them. We are cold-driven. We are innovation-breathing. We are flannel-bearing. We are rugged, coding rock stars. And we still see that in job advertisements. And we see that on conferences. And I'll be honest with you, seeing another hip edgy guy on stage kind of makes me cringe. It's not original. Being edgy is not original. Being edgy nowadays isn't really edgy. What edginess, we believe that edginess means being controversial. But what is edgy on stage is actually very mainstream. It's just perpetuating all the stereotypes and all the negative isms that we see every day. And it has nothing to do with originality. And furthermore, this being hip and cool means that we allow ourselves and encourage ourselves to engage and cherish behaviors that are not associated with corporate culture. And this has, obviously, there are good things connected with it. For example, the fact that we don't have dress codes on conferences and that our events are generally more laid back. And this is good. But we still say or do things that would be frowned upon or found simply unacceptable in a corporate setting. And one of those things is cursing on stage. Now, I'm going to tell you something that you might find weird, but it actually happened. Last year, I had this conversation within a certain community. Where it's prominent members. It's kind of thought leaders. We're known for repeatedly using heavy language on stage to a point where they kind of created a sort of peer pressure to do it. It's kind of weird to believe that things like that happen in a group of adults. But it happens and it's good to have a strong vocabulary for when you need to express strong emotions like amazement, anger, frustration. But first and foremost, there is a time and place for it. And secondly, some people really go over to top and should we really do that on stage? So when you're standing on stage and you're cursing, for example, during your talk about Docker, it just makes you sound aggressive and will alienate you. People will not want to engage with you, especially if they disagree with you because they will be scared. And it takes away from your message. People will focus on your tone, not on what you're trying to say, and it will make others reluctant to speak. So the modern computer showman with his strong language, strong opinions, invited to speak at conferences because he will attract an audience, a very homogenous audience. He will help organizers fill their room, but the problem is he will fill the room with people just like him. Then people who are just like him will get inspired to get into conference speaking.  And that is going to make people like me just literally go crazy and leave. Over half of women in technology will leave technology sooner or later at one point in their careers. Men do that twice, women do that twice as often as men, and there's a plethora of reasons. And I guess that seeing everything, seeing the same kind of people on stage kind of adds to that. And if everyone on stage looks the same, that will be what we desire and what we perpetuate. We listen to people that look like those people on stage. We hire people that look like them. We design people for people that look like them, and we will ignore anyone who doesn't. And the thing is that being a speaker has a lot of benefits. It's not only the financial stuff. Like, not often you will get paid, but sometimes you will. And even if you don't get paid, you will get a free conference ticket. You might get accommodation and conference organizers might cover your travel costs. That's also financial benefit. But apart from all that, you gain recognition and respect in your community. You mingle with influential people on speaker's dinners and do not underestimate the value of that. You might, during your talk, while being on stage, you might casually drop a, by the way, I'm looking for work. And you will have tens or hundreds of people instantly registering that and remembering that. And it's hard to say how many jobs in our industry are filled outside of the official recruitment process, but I found some data that LinkedIn collected based on their networks. And about a quarter of people in tech, in computer-related industry will be hired thanks to networking. So who will get hired if the most visible people always look the same? So at a conference like your camp, it might seem that I'm preaching to the choir because your camp is really different. But not every conference is like that. And some of you might consider speaking, but might be scared of a lot of things or just a couple things. But how about we all just agree to try something different? Just remind ourselves that more places can be like this place and that we can do something if we consider speaking or we can remind other speakers that there's a couple rules that we, if we all follow, we could have a more diverse community. So the first thing is that we should all relax and realize that there's no need to show off, that if we are on stage, if a speaker is on stage, it means that the audience will assume that there's a certain level of competence that got that speaker on the stage and that's enough. And despite what capitalism might tell you, exceptional is optional. Good is just perfect. It's, you don't have to excel all the time. That's not healthy. So we should realize then that fireworks, literal or symbolical or having a chorus of singers humming your anthem behind you during a conference talk or strong language and excessively strong opinions, they all aren't necessary for people to listen and to engage and as I said earlier, they often have the opposite effect. And let's remember that even though a lot of conferences in Europe and in the Americas are held in English, but that doesn't mean that every participant will be fluent in English and the English language or that they will be fluent in English culture. So if your talk relies heavily on memes, on TV series, on knowledge of TV series or obscure references to works of fiction, consider rethinking that because maybe some people wouldn't be able to follow and I'm not saying to completely drop it because I don't hate fun, but I've seen programming talks where it was all about applied memeology and I learned nothing from them. So my working title for this talk was you don't have to be funny to be a good programmer and I think funny is fun.  Like it's truism, but we are all different and in the end, people will want to learn about the topic of your talk and everything else is optional glitter except actual glitter, that should be mandatory. I'm not joking. So simply try to be a good speaker and there's a lot of resources on that so I'm not gonna reiterate them here, but if you want to sum it up in three points, it's to speak clearly, you should just speak clearly, rehearse and try not to get your egos then in the way between the audience and your message and Katie Sierra, some of you might know us, Sirius Pony has this great blog post about what not to do when presenting and at one point in that blog post, she writes, the problem is thinking that what matters in your presentation is you because unless you're a paid performer, a musician, comedian, motivational speaker, you are not the reason that people came to the conference and I couldn't agree more, I think that as long as we give in to the cult of heroes and showmanship, we will not have a healthy, thriving and diverse community, thank you. Great, are there any questions for Martha? Hey, thanks for the talk. It's more like a comment, not a question. I totally agree when it comes to the written part, for example, in job offers. I mean, you read things like, yeah, we want to hire the best of the best and everyone, I hope everyone says that we want to get more women into tech and we want to get more women into companies and you probably really don't get the women with these job offers. If you want to have women in tech, you probably just get rid of these silly job offers of these way of things. But I disagree, I mean, we all have our own opportunities but I disagree when it comes to presentation or the spoken word as I really like to be entertained on stage but if it's just spoken, I mean, yeah, we're super awesome, we're something like that, I like to say things like that but it's always with a wink and yeah, with a little bit ironic and I think that's okay and it's more meant like motivating other people and I think it's okay when you're on stage and you can catch something with your self-confidence and I rather like that but I mean, I was entertained by your talk and I wouldn't say that you are really showing off or bragging and so, I mean, there are different ways of presentation but I also like, I think I like entertaining kind of showmanship presentations, yeah, yeah. Thanks for your comment, well, maybe I didn't make it clear enough, I'm sorry, that I don't think we should drop all of this, I think that we just have maybe this push, this drive to, like I said, to be exceptional that if we just don't deliver a good talk, that that's not enough, that we have to excel and make people remember our talks for the rest of their life and the thing is that they will never, there is not a talk that you can give that people will remember for the rest of your lives so we should just chill maybe. So you're talking about the relationship between the audience and the speaker and I'm just interested to know, what do you think makes a good audience member? What makes a good audience member? Well, if it assumed, hmm, well, sometimes I'm too nervous to look at my audience but when I do, what makes me more nervous is when people sit with their phones which I'm also guilty of doing when listening to speakers means that I have, I can do two things at once but it is kind of sometimes discouraging but it's a small thing. I think that a good audience is in your top checking email and maybe waits with checking emails for afterwards and I guess that's about it. Any other questions, comments? If not, then another round of applause for Martha. Thank you.


There we go. I'm intimidating.  I Am Totenkov you will usually see that avatar associated with my screen name So yeah, a little background on myself. I grew up in the IT department of my dad's work every day off from school. I would spend there working on computers and networks and servers Similar as you're gonna work. There you go similar to these but it was a little bit messier and Yeah, so anyways then last year my dad dared me to Hack one of these digital billboards and I spoke actually spoke on this last year at Def Con And it was responsible. It's unofficially responsible for my losing my last job Cuz clear channel doesn't like it So somewhere between computers and billboards. I started having conversations with neon rain and a bend and And we started talking about neuro hacking or using technology to improve processes Involving your brain and body and of course my mind went to The brain that wouldn't die Because I'm like sweet I get to put someone on a table and hook them up to wires and such similar to tiger right next to me So Yeah, just to let you know I have little to no medical background But I do have access to extensive medical resources So the idea behind this talk started when my friend Amanda and I went to go see a really really bad horror movie The camera kept shaking really badly and it wasn't even 15 minutes into the movie before she had to leave the theater because she was getting sick So we started talking about What caused motion sickness and how it can be stopped and we thought it was ridiculous that there was no cure or fix for Motion sickness even though it's been around for Ages Currently there are pills, but I don't think that a pill is a good enough fix There's no universally accepted definition for motion sickness It's usually defined by the signs and symptoms present when you experience it these include nausea vertigo fatigue pale clammy skin increased elevation and hyperventilation Even though this is also associated with men seeing women at DEF CON Oh So So motion sickness first occurred or they assume it first occurred when man tried to improve natural mobility We believe this is when we started using animals such as horses and camels or Using rafts and boats the first recorded incident of motion sickness occurred in ancient Greece It happened on the water and they coined the term nausea Nause being Relive of or related to water and the suffix ea meaning illness So illness on the water makes sense Um So now some time for some statistics yay math 90% of the world's population suffer from motion sickness at least once in their lives 300 million people in the US roughly experience it 9 to 75 million of those have a debilitating response meaning They're immobilized by the signs and symptoms of motion sickness and two million of these people have to visit a doctor to be prescribed something Some people feel the effects of motion sickness worse than others There's been a recent study that shows a genetic predisposition to motion sickness Inherited by either your mother or father Some races feel it worse than others. I found that African-Americans and Asians are more likely to suffer from motion sickness than Caucasians others with increased Increased susceptibility to it include pregnant women frequent migraine suffers and people with anxiety disorders There are different types of a motion sickness and Those are characterized by where they occur Which is in an automobile, you know train or a bus on a plane while playing video games or on a boat Now you would think with all of these people suffering from motion sickness scientists and Doctors would spend more time studying What causes it and they would know how to fix it But they don't So a matter of fact there have been several Theories of causation Starting back from ancient Greece and going to today We're first going to discuss the disproven theories Which Come on Include the blood and guts theory they thought that At first they thought that motion sickness was a result of a blood disease and Thinning of your blood from being on the waters or on a camel Upset your stomach and that's why you got motion sickness. Well, they were wrong Respiratory issues they assumed that it had something to do with the lungs or your heart Then after that was rejected it went to a reaction to shock to the central nervous system and or the atomic nervous system What's once that was rejected they thought it was an infection similar to cholera or yellow fever and Then they're like well, maybe the person's just moving too much and they're getting sick So the over-stimulation is the most recent rejected theory and that was in the mid 60s And now they're going for something called foveal slip Which we'll discuss right now Foveal slip is of it relates to fixation disparity Okay, how do I explain this? okay fixation disparity Lee is When your retina and your phobia have moved over time due to Watching TV or reading a book in the dark staring at your computer for too long and your phobia moves actually inside of your eye a few a Few degrees and this leads to a lack of visual active acuity it There's a misalignment in the eye one eye has these a moved phobia more so than the other It can be a horizontal and or vertical and it results in over or under convergence of the eyes at the fixation point The misalignment of the phobia is only a few arc minutes, which is 160th of a degree and it eventually leads to depth perception problems So unfortunately as hackers and IT security folk who sit in front of the computer all day We are more likely to suffer from motion sickness than normal folks Okay, so here's a picture of the eye if you look There's The phobia right there now. This is where it's supposed to be But over time it moves up towards the retina or down towards the blind spot and optic nerve It leaves us it leaves people unable to track motion accurately with their eyes There's a definite correlation between phobia slip and motion sickness a group in Oxford Found out that it occurs during optic kinetic stimulation eye movement basically Increased fixation disparity leads to increased phobia slip, which leads to worse manifestations of motion sickness Another theory that's going on right now Going around right now and has not been disproven is the motor sensory conflict theory What it states basically is that it's a defense mechanism for your utilize by your brain to protect against neurotoxins it occurs when signals from your Signal sent to your brain from your eyes disagree with signals sent to your brain from your inner ear So say if you're watching a movie and your eyes sense movement on the screen But your inner ear says no, I'm sitting down in a chair your brain goes Oh, you're hallucinating time for you to throw up now Or when you're in a car reading a book your inner ear says you're moving and your eyes say no I'm I'm just sitting here reading a book.  It's time for you to throw up now It's upset because your body cannot sustain homeostasis Here's your semi circular canals that's part of your vestibular system right inside of your ear It consists of the semi circular canals which is responsible for balance and sense of spatial orientation Movement of your head causes fluid to move from the Indolemphatic sac which is There is right here To push against the cupula, which is this thing right here Which has hairs that translates mechanical movement into electrical signals, which is sent to your brain When the eye sense movements Wait, yeah, I already explained that so Now that we're going into current prevention techniques and treatment Prevention methods include sit where motion is felt the least.  Keep eyes on the horizon Keep window open. Don't drink or smoke and eat small low-fat bland and starchy foods Now I don't know about you, but I can't do Most if any of those when I'm about to go on a long trip, especially on the plane from Florida to Vegas So that just doesn't work for me So I have to go to I can either go to the natural remedies which include powder or liquid ginger the use of acupuncture acupressure or mild electrical shock to either the pericardium which is three finger widths below your wrist, which is like right there or The small intestine 17 Just locate which is located just below the earlobes and the indentations behind the jawbone If you guys pat that is a pressure point also, so don't press on it too long. You'll pass out and I'll feel bad So, okay time to discuss drugs Whoo drugs not the fun kind though Dip in hydramine is the active ingredient in sleep aids You can't use it if you're an infant. It's not good for the elderly pregnant or breast feeders or people with glaucoma heart disease constipation or in large prostate So It's and also it makes you sleepy because as It's pretty off is made pretty obvious since it's the main ingredient in sleep aids There's also antihistamines being used It's most effective when taking 30 to 60 minutes before a trip It less it makes you drowsy and less alert and it shouldn't be used by people with emphysema or bronchitis so after finding all this out, I'm like well, that's kind of lame and So part of the neuro hacking thing is that we like to apply Technology into trying to fix things so it's time for me to present DOS goods The the first one I actually don't have with me it's called an aura oscillator it uses a Program made in pure data to produce a signal in the point zero one to ten kilohertz range Which was chosen because that's the range for typical head movements such as shaking your head nodding it up and down It works using the motor sensory theory as a basis Basically, if you are sitting playing a video game and use your eyes since movement and you start feeling motion sickness theoretically you can put this thing against your the bone in your head and it'll stimulate inner ear vibrations which should stop Motion sickness the onset of the symptoms or making them not as severe By the end I don't have it with me today. I don't have the code up yet, but by the end of the day I'll have it. I'll have the code available here Tone cough comm slash strobe dot txt and the next device. I actually have on tiger They're called strobe scopic glasses their LEDs are mounted just outside the wearer's peripheral vision lights flash at 20 Hertz with eight millisecond Dwell time it prevents your eyes from going into foveal slip and It could theoretically cause epileptic seizures, but it shouldn't so since since this is def con my Device has decided that it doesn't want to work So she's she's modeling it for me anyways Okay, so Yeah, tiger. Can you stand for me? All right, so she's wearing that basically what we have here at the material list Okay, come on get rid of the seizure warning Materialist, okay, so there's this cheap sunglasses found it for a dollar at the dollar store The hat which I found at the bottom of the closet. I think it was my little sisters or something We have a lily pad Arduino right here and then we bought the e-sowing kit now The LEDs are mounted right here and theoretically you won't have the crocodile wires right there so So they flash right they flash right outside your peripheral vision so you only see the flash, but you don't see the actual LED So that's supposed because I from what I've read. Are you okay? Okay from what I've read Thank you tiger From what I read if it was within your peripheral vision then you are more likely to suffer from an epileptic seizure While it's flashing so don't do that By the end of the day, okay, that's all I have by the end of the day you should have I should have all the stuff up on totankoff.com and You can follow me on Twitter as at Totankoff and yes, I misspelled it on purpose. I know That's it


We've got Steve Maeda, five-time 21 convention speaker. That's a lot of times. I think that's the record, except for Anthony. Steve is the founder of The Sexual Life, blogger, podcaster, seduction coach at The Sexual Life. Good friend of mine, awesome dude. He's going to lay you guys down with some amazing knowledge and let's bring him up. What's up, man? Yeah, yeah. What's happening? All right. So, man, this is the last speech. Thank you guys for staying because the 21 convention is like so much of my life. You have no idea. I started speaking to this convention in 2008. And I started in the seduction community in 2006. And my life is transformed in ways that are truly amazing. And what I want to talk to you guys about tonight, there's mainly two main things that I want to kind of pound in if that was the proper words used for it. Number one is that seduction can make you, it gives you the opportunity to live the best possible life. And the second thing is seduction is organic. I'm going to write those things down here in a second. But I also wanted to talk about my journey in seduction a little bit and what it meant through the convention. What I love about the convention is because there's a running history of me and who I am and what I put out there and all that sort of stuff. And if you watch, I mean, I don't even watch all my speeches, but if you watch my 2008 speech to now or even 2011, you see this evolution of how this has influenced me. And you have no idea how much this convention has taught me so many things from Anthony Johnson to the guy behind the scenes, Mike Gutino.  And hopefully, by the end of this speech, you can truly see that seduction can be the gateway for you living your best possible life and that seduction is truly an organic thing. So what I want you to do is I'm gonna write this down or I'm gonna write a few things down on here. And what I want you to do right now is on your piece of paper, I want you to write down one question. You may know me, you may not know me that can do with anything. It can do with seduction, it can do with life. It can do with whatever you're wondering now. And I wanna engage you guys on that question and bring it back to some of the core beliefs I have. If you're watching this at home, you can do this. You can email me at Steve. That's my name at thesexuallife.com. And I want you guys to also know that you can email me there as well. And I'm probably gonna do a lot of writing, so bear with me here. I'm gonna be turning pages, it'll be crazy. Number one, remember that one principle that I really wanna hammer in is seduction. Oh, how should I write this? Goes to your best self. I was gonna write ideal man, but I don't wanna steal the 21 conventions thing. And then also the second thing is seduction is organic. All right, so what I wanna do here is have that microphone ready and really interact with you guys. The best way that I interact with people, well, the best way that I deliver the what's truly in my head, what's truly in my heart and how these things have influenced me is to interact with you guys. And the reason why I wanted you guys to write something down is because whenever I ask for questions, you're like, ah, and then it takes a while to get people going. So who wants to start first? How about we just hand it right next to the patrol? So what question did you write down? I didn't write a question down yet.  But okay, so what's up, man? You've known me actually for a long time and what's on your mind with all this stuff? You've been traveling the world, all that fun stuff. Let's see here. Yeah, I can ask you a question. Well, okay, I've been involved with this stuff for some time. I've learned a lot. I'm at a point in my life where I'm pretty satisfied with the women I'm getting. Pretty satisfied with my lifestyle overall. Right? What is, what else is out there, I guess? So what's the next thing I could look forward to as far as personal growth is involved? Sure, sure. And there's a couple of things. Now, number one is, I also have a podcast that you guys should all listen to.  And to be honest, I don't have a lot of seduction guys on there. There are a few people on there, but it's really promoting a message that your life can be broad and have a lot of travelers. And all of my former clients that I work with and stay in contact with, we hardly ever talk about women. What we talk about is actually shit that's in this convention, what we're doing for our health, what we're doing for our diet, what we're doing for business, what we're doing for our mentality. And I think what's so important for me, what I learned and I really wanna bring it back to these things is if you're going to have the best social life, sexual life, lifestyle, you have to be your best possible self. If you're going to be the best expression of yourself, this is actually something Keith Norris taught me, one of the speakers here is the best, the best, the superlative, whatever, the best speaker or the best personal trainer that I've ever known. And man, my brother went through the Olympic trials and I know a lot of athletes.   Now, one of the things about humanity is humanity is an organic thing. We're not a machine. We have components that we can repeat and stuff that might be patterns and all those sort of things, but what makes the world move, what makes God, man, what makes seduction the biggest teacher of my life is that it happens in an instant. In any human emotion that we feel that's moving, that you feel when you're traveling, that you feel when you're experiencing another culture, that you feel when you eat the best food or make one of the biggest accomplishments, that could be, well, that could be sexual, that could be sadness, that could be fear, that could be true happiness, all those things, that could even be violence. Those things happen in an instant. Those things are organic. Those things can't be replaced. And for me, what seduction has taught me is that