So if you saw my post yesterday where I said I was going to take the day off yesterday was a holiday here in the U.S. And I decided to take the day off. And in that post, I said that I was going to do a video today on AV Linux. And that was the plan. I got up this morning and ready and raring to go going to make this video. I was going to work on getting ahead for once. But the best laid plans, right? So Linux sometimes just hates my guts and I don't know why. And I understand that some of this is probably going to be user error. But I really need to rant just for a little while today about my Linux experience over the last 12 to 14 hours, everything that I've tried on Linux for the last 12 to 14 hours has just completely failed. So when I got up this morning, well, let's back up just a little while over the last four or five days, I've had a problem with my computer where the screens will not go to sleep. Usually when that happens, that means there's an application that's keeping them awake.  I'm used to that, but it wasn't steam. I didn't have steam running. And even if I did have steam running, like sometimes steam won't actually close or like close to the system tray or whatever the hell. And that's keeping your screens open. I rebooted my computer several times and I was still having the same problem. So I've been trying to troubleshoot that over the last couple days. And I've been completely unable to find out what's keeping my screens on. I thought I had it narrowed down to Zimwiki, but that's not actually the case. It just happened to be that I did find, leave, get my screens to go to sleep a couple of times and then they stopped doing it, even though it wasn't Zimwiki. It's it's a weird thing. I thought maybe it was Polybar because I'm using a really old Polybar config and they've changed the Polybar configuration details now. But I thought maybe I was getting errors in Polybar and, you know, so I killed off all my polybars and I still can't get my screens to go to sleep. I even used a different window manager thinking that maybe there was something wrong with I3. It did actually allow my screens to go to sleep for a couple of times, and then it went right back to not letting my screens go to sleep. And it's not that big of a deal.  Not something I want to do, but, you know, it's something that I could do if I had to. So I just figured this morning, I would continue troubleshooting that. But when I got to my computer, none of my flat packs would load. None of them. Like seriously, not even like load a minute later or something like that. They wouldn't load at all.  Like nothing happened overnight. It's not like my computer automates updates or anything like that. I do all that stuff manually. So I don't know how from last night to now. All my flat packs just completely stopped working. It doesn't make any sense, but it did. So I did a little bit troubleshooting and tried to like run, you can run your flat packs from the terminal using like a convoluted command and nothing. It just sits there and hang. Like there was no output at all, which is really weird. So long story short, I decided I was going to hop. Well, no, I didn't decide I was going to hop. I just decided I was going to reinstall Arch Linux. When I installed Arch Linux before, I used Arch Linux GUI ISO. And I've used that a couple of times and it's usually pretty good. But this time I didn't want the plasma stuff. And that was the only ISO I had. I didn't really want to have to download another ISO. So I decided I was going to use the Arch Linux, just no Arch Linux ISO. I had one of those lying around. I burned it to put it on a USB key and I used the brand new Arch install script that comes in on every Arch Linux ISO. And the install was successful. It worked really well. So I spent my day getting Arch Linux set back up on my computer.  So during my attempt to get my setup back up and running, I tried to get my polybars working. That took forever because the way I have my polybar configs set up, they all have their own configuration files for each theme.   Like, I don't know why, but now all of a sudden, instead of DP-2 and HDMI-2 and now just Playport-1 and HDMI-A-1, which is just why do they change? It doesn't make any sense at all. Especially considered they were both Arch Linux, right? They both were Arch Linux. It doesn't make any sense why they'd be different, but they were. So I spent the morning getting all that stuff, you know, up and running and finally got polybar working and all of my configs in the proper places and reinstalled nerd fonts and that takes for freaking ever because I never seem to remember just to keep nerd fonts on a disc somewhere. So I always have to re-download them. And it's like 10 gigabytes of fonts that I have to download. It's really dumb. It took forever. And then I started installing software and that's where I've been having some problems. So I decided I was going to use the Flatpak version of OBS. So I downloaded the Flatpak version of OBS and that downloaded fine. It took a while, but it downloaded fine and it opened up fine. But it wouldn't set up. Every time I tried to go through that little wizard that comes up when you first launch OBS, it froze. Like it completely froze. And I don't know why. Like it wasn't doing anything other than going through the wizard and it froze. I ended up having to use Xkill in order to kill it. So I decided, well, you want to I will just download it from the Arch repo. But then I remember that the Arch repo version of OBS is basically bare bones. Like it's completely bare bones. It has none of the good stuff that OBS has to offer over the last 10 versions. They don't compile it that way. You're just kind of limited to what you can do with that version of OBS. So I decided I was going to install one of the versions from the AUR. And the AUR ones that have all the good stuff in them take literally forever to compile. Like I waited an hour and a half for that thing to compile and it still never got done. I gave up. Like I was done with it. I need like I wanted to make that video. Like I was told you I was going to make the AV Linux video today and get it uploaded.  I can still get this done and get it edited and upload before midnight. But that was before I sat there for an hour and a half waiting for OBS to compile. So I was like screw this. I'm going to try the flat pack version to get in the flat pack version. Finally decided it was going to work. That's what I'm using now. And, you know, so I was like, it's nine o'clock. Maybe if I rush, I can still get the AV Linux thing to work. But I need audacity because I always record my audio separate from OBS. So I always have two recordings of the audio and it's just easier doing it that way. Because then I can just edit it right in audacity, move the audio raw file out and then combine them in Kate and live when I do the video editing later on. I've done that basically since I started editing my videos. So I downloaded the flat pack version of audacity. And now I always use the flat pack version of audacity because I need a version of audacity that's higher than 3.0. Because a lot of my old projects in audacity use the new file format, which is something that was introduced in 3.0.  I can understand why they did it, but I just like I need a new version. So I use the flat, I downloaded the flat pack and it wouldn't launch. I launched it from the terminal and there was no output. I launched it from Rofi and I got the splash screen, like the little audacity logo splash screen and it sat there for three minutes and did nothing, absolutely nothing. So I had to kill it with H top and it's like, fine, I'll uninstall the audacity version. And I just I'll just because I want to get a video done tonight. So I'll install that arch repo version that is at version 2.4. That that installed started up fine. It would not for the life of me recognize my microphone. Like it had no access to this microphone at all. It wasn't even showing in the drop down list.  I'm using pulse audio. The only microphone that it would actually catch would be the webcam microphone, which it would actually it did actually work, but nobody wants to listen to a video with me with that microphone. It's horrible. So that's where I gave up on even considering doing the AV Linux one. So I just decided I was going to do this. And right now I'm recording all my audio here in OBS. Most of this was just so I could rant for a little while. But the bottom line is that sometimes Linux sucks.  And for me personally, and I don't know if this is for anybody else, but usually when one thing goes wrong, everything seems to go wrong when it comes to Linux. And I don't know why. Like it doesn't really make sense that it does that. Like seriously, when something, why did I wake up this morning and have none of my flat packs open up? That doesn't make any sense. Like flat pack doesn't automatically update as far as I'm aware. I mean, that'd be pretty silly if it did. And I just didn't like know, but I don't think it does. So why overnight did my flat pack install just completely Bork? It doesn't make any sense. And that was kind of like the tipping off point because that led me to reinstalling Arch and apparently Arch just takes me. So I'm at the point now where I'm just don't know what I'm going to do.  And it's probably the problem with that idea is that, yeah, sure. I'll hop to MX Linux or I'll hop to Ubuntu or I'll hop to whatever. Josh moves distro and I'll use it for hours. I was going to say a couple of days, but I doubt that it's going to last a couple of days.  I've tried MX Linux before. I love that distro. It's one of my favorite distros. But the problem is it's all the softwares that completely outdated. And not a big deal for most things. Like it's probably really stable that way, right? But there are certain things where I need the newer version of software.  It's not something that I couldn't work around. But I like they you are, man. Like, like just every time I have to jump through hoops in order to get the latest version of Python, I'm like, why can't I just use arts? Like I want to use arts. And today is a good reason why you don't use unless you're like super lucky or something. I don't know. I've been daily driving Arch Linux now or version of Arch Linux, like an Arch based distro for two or three years. And the vast majority of that time. It's been fine, right? It's worked really well. But then you have days like today. It's just I don't know what's going on. Did I wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Somebody kicked me in the head or something? And I don't know what I did wrong. I don't know why I did to deserve this, but Jesus. Okay, so that's it for this video. I've been ranting now for I don't know how well this video was edited and not been edited at all, because I haven't installed Kate in live yet. And I should go do that. I'm going to go look. I'm going to do right now, pseudo. Actually, I will show you my screen. You can, by the way, that that failure right there is when I was trying to install the audacity version from the AUR. I don't even know what that I mean. I don't know what that means. It's some kind of make air, but whatever it is. Obviously that failed. The tenacity version failed as well because it couldn't find the dependencies. I don't maybe I did something wrong with the paro config. I don't know. It doesn't matter. I give up. So I'm going to do pseudo pacman right here on camera. So if something goes wrong, you guys can see this. Turns out I just needed to record everything that I was doing today. If I recorded it, maybe nothing would have went wrong. So I know. Oh, another thing I tried to do today is try to set the default browser. Didn't figure out how to do that. Like I tried, tried. I've done that many times. Like use the the either XDG open settings or the MIME type thing. And that's usually the way it goes, but I didn't want to do it today. I don't know why. Linux hates me. So anyways, that's it for this video. I don't have any of my normal scenes here. So just if you're if you're one of my Patreon supporters, thank you so much for being a Patreon supporter. I truly do appreciate it. If you're a supporter on YouTube, thank you as well. I don't have your names at the end, unfortunately, today. I don't have that scene set up. And if I'm going to hop, I'm not going to bother doing it now. So but anyways, thanks for all your support. If you want to, you can follow me on Twitter at the next cast. Follow me on Mastodon, all those links waiting in the video description. You can put in tomorrow. Hopefully there'll be a video if I don't switch to Windows. So thanks everybody for watching. See you next time.


What up everybody it's your girl Kenzie here from late in sports cards, and I'm ripping a new release at 21 22 Panini mosaic basketball hobby 4 box break number 14 pick your team We've got Alessandro Franco R with the Clippers Bernie s of the Pistons Rockets and Thunder Brian P. Bucks Dan D Warriors Eric M Celtics John W. Nix Kaizo a heats Kensin T T-Wolves Kevin B nets Kevin s magic Koji Oh Lakers Kyle M calves Marvin and Spurs Matthew K Hawks Michael s Raptors Mike Y Grizzlies Morgan L Hornets Nick P Blazers Penju and see with the Pelicans and Pacers Ping Rui T Mavs Ryan a Nuggets Stephen B Kings to Loon H Bulls Tony K Suns William P Wizards Zachary C with the Sixers and jazz All right best of luck everybody Here we go. Let's see what we can get Man, we are on a roll. We have literally completed half of the stained glass. I'm really hoping we got two breaks left Let's see if we can pull five stained glass and We pulled three in one break. So hey, you never know Here we go. All right Good luck We've pulled two of those three stained glass rookies now. We just need the Cade one Brown Todd book nights You have silver Scotty Barnes for the rafters to start us off. There we go a red Mitchell Gordon, we've got straight fire Steph Curry.  Oh, man, that's annoying. I hate when that happens Scotty Barnes Got mosaic Chris Middleton red air Gordon on the color match Tatum Lamella Balls Stairmasters The cell bomb the Randall What's up tiktok Lincoln bio? We're all sold out on mosaic for the day. We got a Wagner debut Let's see a nice magic kit here. Let's see one of the the big rookies here Coro, we got silver. I'm gonna do the yellow blue for the jazz little on the keel Alexander Walker That is 16 of 99 the Caruso Chester chief said, let's see we get you one get down barns debut Josh Giddy base comminga Got Greg Brown the third mosaic red drew holiday Kyrie introductions mosaic of Scotty Barnes Or McCall arms. Yeah, perfect third Josh Christopher Got silver Eric Gordon red Julius Randall All right, we're down to four on our stained glass Grizzlies this is ridiculous just ridiculous Grizzlies who's got them and Memphis Mike why?  Sorry about that Muhammad sometimes it's weird with with the with the PayPal that's happened If I've seen that happen a few times But yeah, I'm glad we could get that that squared away for you. I apologize about that So we are looking for LeBron Yanis And Cade who didn't who am I missing we pulled Luca we oh and Steph Curry So we're looking for LeBron Curry Yanis and Cade. Those are the four we have not pulled yet Yes, Cortes Like I said earlier Shawty fire burning on the dance floor Someone called 9-1-1 Total mosaic We've got red Alec Burks Moments in time Blake Griffin You think so Brian? No, it's not one per box. They're usually case hits But obviously they're a little bit more prevalent today Silver Leonard Carmelo red can be like that. It could be you know short prints can be case hits. They can be I Don't know I did I guess they grabbed some nice cases from the back Murphy Highland Horton Tucker Chris Boucher we got a red national pride Evan Mobley Introductions Josh Giddy. We've got montage KD No person's out there daytime Muhammad. No and personals are full for tonight as well Mobley debut So if you order now, it'll most likely go tomorrow nights. What's tomorrow? It's Friday With forest silver Kevin Herner. We've got come on. Give me nice Jason Tatum on the pink for this Celtics 33 of 49 Boston Nice one there. I was hoping I saw the I saw the Celtics logo. I was hoping that was it That is Eric M. Very nice Tatum There you go. We'll mag this one for you Course Mike. Thanks for hopping in that's awesome I love the big hitters are in chat today. I love to see it There we go. All right LeBron Moody Quentin Grimes Got Isaiah Todd mosaic red Iggy rising stars Zion rising stars Lamello Face Was it would you hit Muhammad Any nets pulls this break? I'm not yet not yet simple. That was just the first box though I like the banana mojo Love it. That's bananas All right box two here Todd book nights Russell mosaic we got red Kyrie Curry moments in time Tim Duncan Brandon Boston jr. Jackson's gotty Barnes national pride You got silver kind jones for the Hornets red Josh Christopher rookie Junctions Davion Mitchell What's up, Brennan, how's it going? How's it going Williams moody We got silver to buy his Harris blue here for the Pacers Ricky Rubio I know he's in his calves jersey, but you got Pacers logo as well as Pacers on the bottom So Pacers it goes 25 out of 99 Fully Dr. Seuss there for a second Uh Duarte Jalen Green on the rookie base Mobley rookie base Evan Mobley on the mosaic nice one there calves We've got red Luca Donchich Lamello Off the delivery Awesome. Awesome. I am so hyped for that pickings to get graded I am I'm very excited We've got silver Norman Powell red Aaron do Wiggins Stair masters Jalen green on the overdrive. There you go. Um, why do you want me to say astros? You've been ripping so much baseball lately Um rockets on that one Very nice Um, so yeah, I bought the George pickings tessellation out of 15 off of ebay out of uh from mosaic football And I send it over to Brennan who is um, gonna send it to psa for me He had a sub going out. So I was like, let's send it We got kelly ubré jr. On the mosaic auto for the hornets So i'm very excited to get that one back. It looked really clean to me, Brennan I know you'll look it over um as well silver bio red josh hearts We got starting five mosaic for the Pacers Done well with my subs with Brennan Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, that's right. You're coming here in March. Uh springer mobley, uh giddy debut Heck yeah, Duncan Robinson mosaic. We've got red jammer ant. Oh look nice next to the stained glass. Oh, we got white Oh, wait, no, we don't I saw the white from the jersey. I apologize. Uh stare masters. Yannis I hope it gets back before mars. That would be that'd be nice Uh Wagner on the rookie base Cameron thomas Mosaic kevin love. We've got red codwall pope Kd on the stare master mosaic ren junior johnson and melton scuddy barns debut giddy rookie base kominga Got silver bog donovitch Now we have white for the pacers again a tj mcconnell There you go pacers heating up here 16 on the 25 on the white Yeah, just a bonus fox last pack box two Get everyone mosaic basketball is all full for the daytime Uh more going tonight with forest and then we've got illusions going after uh this donovan michael We've got red tyler hero this color match there for the heats Curry we've got steve curry montage mosaic Williams wood and buddy healed All right. All right. Again for the first illusions. We had two left last time we checked Um just cardinals left just cardinals left in the first illusions for 49 bucks There is the link for you Box three See another stained glass. We got obi mosaic red jaren jackson jr. Clay thompson. We've got stair masters kawai kisper garuba Irving uh rookie auto herbert jones. There you go pelicans. It's a nice auto New Orleans Silver rookie based moody. We got nix blue cam resh a new york 77 of 99 Well zake starting five for the bowls bassy wiggins bones Uh, yep, riley if you go to our website latent sports cards dot com And you go to personal boxes. You can order almost all of those ships sealed We do ship um sealed boxes. We do we can ship you sealed case Um for sure. So bonus silver booker red. You mind dropping the link for me? Sure Um dylan's dropping the link for you right now that will take you straight to our personal boxes Just be sure to click um ship sealed Because if you do rip on youtube, it'll get it'll get ripped Jaw mosaic. We've got red russell westbrook montage montage lebron mosaic Kispert. We have a jalen green debut and lebron Um, how many packs are in e solutions? um 10 10 packs with five cards per pack it looks like Haven't ripped any illusions yet Looking forward to that Okay, we've got silver will barton red kai jones rookie Reductions kaminga mitchell. We've got a kade cunningham on the ricky base and cameron thomas quickly home scion eggy berks We've got silver duarte debut nice and we got pink for the pelicans a zion Nice one there new orleans eating up here 37 of 49 nice zion We have overdrive of jonathan kominga for the warriors K debut kawaii and a scotty barns ricky base Yep eight boxes is a half case. There's 16 boxes per case. Uh get down So half case breaks up pick your team Herbert jones pelicans mosaic rookie davion mitchell on the red We've got steer masters luka donchich Book night mitchell and primo. They're already marked down 850. I can't drop them any more than that I appreciate it We've got diallo on the mosaic red rookie for the rockets josh christopher introduction scotty barns yannis montage jaw robinson url and darin sharp That's what you hit yesterday. Oh my gosh Joe b hollow heroes to 10 brock purdy. Oh you hit that brock purdy auto is watching when that hit My goodness you're on a roll mohammed geez I would buy some more personals too. Geez louise silver clackston red davante gram That's awesome though. Congrats.  Yeah, you never know Never know. All right last box here everybody Let's do it. Let's pull one more stained glass from here and then the other Three that we need from the last break. How about that? How about that? putting grimes rookie myles mcbride Rosen auto franz vodner magic boom Boom There you go, Orlando Let's see who's got otown Kevin s very nice franz We'll mag this one for you heck, yeah We got silver paul george and man pelicans. Have a break. How about at harbour jones pink six of 49? There you go Thanks for subscribing get down. We appreciate it rising stars for the pistons. We've got straight fire josh giddy Lou d'or bogdan and poodle again everyone if you're not subscribed to our youtube be sure to Subscribe and like greatly appreciate that garza sangoon don't sumu Booker got jared butler rookie mosaic red marcus morris senior The honest lilard mosaic You get some more subs. I can't see it on this end Or gifted subs on twitch. Thank you. Wahoo's johnson kade national pride rookie vodner debut Wade We've got silver steven adam's red dem of the cell Morris butler appreciate you. Wahoo's Hope everyone's having a great day having a lot of fun here this morning pulling some very nice guards kade cunningham's debut Got silver la marcus aldridge red nassir little Most important chief not name my home's question mark scotty barns rookie. We got book night davion michel kenya martin jr. Mosaic. We've got red lani walker the fourth luka introductions mosaic france vodner D rose sga a young asson to the cool So Yeah, right. I act like my home's is the only person on the cheese. It's got a very Just Good team around him. It's not only him desmond bane mosaic Brockton red Ben bleat mosaic tomorrow de rosen You can't just have a good quarterback Like you have to have at least someone to throw to you a hand the ball off her, you know It's not a one-man team Got josh christ for on the silver for the rockets rookie blue thunder sga nice one there Okay, c62 of 99 Just a couple packs left jalen green national prize suds debut Mosaic desire williams debut. We've got red luka garza for the pistons yokich, uh, lebron stairmaster mosaic yellow pool harris The ones below, uh, they're called silvers prism sangoon kisper jalen green debut Forney mosaic dylan brooks, or are you talking about like this one? This is called mosaic mosaic uh red treyong kd rising stars mosaic josh giddy kd smart and beaverly last pack here everybody and then we'll do a recap Another very nice break ron michel. We got a kade cunningham ricky bass cameron thomas akaro Silver carousel avert red bobon Steph curry What's my name courtese? What's my name courtese? I know you're watching Queen of stained glass bad got it again What is that seven? Yeah, so now now we just need three more Oh, nana. What's my name? Oh nana. What's my name?  That was the last pack craziness out of the last box too Shoot I need to go buy a scratch off at this rate All right, let's do a quick recap my goodness gracious We got color and autos here. We got our blues cam reddish nicks ricky rubio pacers Alexander walker jazz. We got pinks jones Herbert jones pelicans zion pelicans pelicans did very well this break white tj mcconnell pacers our autos kelly ubré jr Herbert jones Our magged cards. We had the pink tatum to 49 nice one there celtics Uh, we had the franz vagner on the uh mosaic auto And then two stained glass we had jaw and stef curry We have literally pulled seven of the ten stained glass names seven we're going for the whole the whole set Wow. All right. That will do it y'all. We've got one more mosaic coming right up


At a Japanese airfield, an American war hero is about to take off for home and well-earned retirement. This was the news story just a few years ago. The hero York, a veteran of the Korean War. The attendant publicity helped focus attention on the generally overlooked fact that dogs had been employed in that grim struggle. Perhaps his citation will bring back the story to mind. Remind us too that dogs have been used in warfare since far back into antiquity. Another link in the bond between man and man's best friend. Big Picture. An official report produced for the armed forces and the American people. Now to show you part of the Big Picture, here is Sergeant Stuart Queen. A great many words have been spoken and written on the subject of science and our national defense. Perhaps too many. There are some otherwise intelligent citizens who visualize the new technology as exclusive protector of our freedoms. The machine, they say, is even to outmote manpower. Fortunately, most of us know better than that. Yet even the best informed are inclined to smile indulgently at the idea of animals participating in our military efforts. They know that the carrier pigeon is going the way of the cavalry horse. Soon the army dog will join them. As to the likelihood of this happening, today's chapter of the Big Picture offers some second thoughts. Appropriately it is titled Canine College. Out of the natural companionship that exists between men and dogs comes the latter's easy adaptability to military use. In Korea, his acute senses made him a valuable aid for patrol, sentry and guard work. In conflicts prior to Korea, a wide variety of breeds found their way into military use. These were frequently donated by owners as a patriotic gesture. Size, intelligence, aggressiveness were among the desired characteristics. Bloodlines were unimportant. Nevertheless, out of experience there emerged a preference. Quartermaster Corps procurement and training found in the German Shepherd the closest approximation to the quality sought. It is a strange paradox but nonetheless true that the very nature of modern warfare is creating new uses for old-fashioned dog power. Consider our missile bases, widely located among the nations of the free world and each covering considerable area. The manpower that would ordinarily be required to maintain maximum security and protect against sabotage at these installations would come to a staggering figure. It is here that the army dog, far from having outlived his usefulness, plays a new and an enhanced role. At an increasing number of defense installations, the army dog is making his appearance. Endowed by nature with acute natural senses, he can cover greater areas of surveillance than can in a human sentry. Trained together, man and dog make a perfect team. It is just such training that the Quartermaster Corps provides. At Lenggris in Germany is one of the best-known schools and here a selected group of servicemen are chosen for the work. Private Pets, I have here your application for training with the dog training branch. It shows that you've been in the army for seven months. How do you like it? I like it fine, sir. What were your hobbies in civilian life? Fishing and hunting. Have you ever had dogs as pets? Yes, sir. What breed of dog do you have? Springer Spanish. Why do you think you would like to train dogs in the army? I train dogs in the civilian and I think I'll do the army myself some good.  Yes, sir. I know they bite, but I think I can handle them. You also know that these dogs take up a lot of patience and hard work to train, don't you? Yes, sir. Well, I think you have the proper qualifications for the job. I wish you the best of luck in your new assignment. Thank you, sir. New arrivals at Lengres can look forward to 17 weeks of intensive training. It starts off with an orientation lecture that stresses the seriousness of the work and the individual's responsibilities. We've been selected from a large group of volunteers. We feel that you possess the qualities of leadership, courage, initiative, and patience to fulfill the mission of an infantry scout dog platoon. As you know, dogs have been used for military purposes for hundreds of years. The United States Army first used dogs for military use in the last war in World War II. And although your course of instruction here will consist of only 17 weeks, we will make every effort in training you to be able to carry on a training program of your own when you reach your infantry division. Today, you men will be assigned the dogs that you will be working with for the next 17 weeks. These dogs, by nature, are quick to learn. The dogs will learn faster than you will.  Well, a little professional jealousy. So let's listen to Bendix, one of our new Army dogs. Thank you. And now me, I tell you about us. The German Shepherds are recruited through public sales, though not every Schaeferhut wants to join. But then the Army doesn't want everybody. Obviously, the military can't use gun-shy softies. And so, before they even test us for other qualities, the fireworks have eliminated quite a few. And then there is a field test for aggressive qualities. The Army is quite serious about it, but, confidentially, it's more like a game to me to some of the others, too. And it's easy to be carried away. Later, we learned that that's precisely what the procurement officers want. Apparently, when we are finished with school, we'll be expected to turn on the old fight at a word of command. And this is the time to drop the applicants who don't have it. By the by, that was a hoon at the end is me. Sorry, please, I meant I. Needless to say, we undergo a rigid physical training. But when one is in tip-top shape, there needn't be any fears on that score. Just the same, there are bound to be a few more dropouts at this point, since the Army wants only the cream. As you can see, I made the grade, for my owner is striking a bargain. This phase strikes me as a bit sordid, but then men and dogs have different standards. And so it's settled, handshakes and all that. At last, I'm in the United States Army. There's paperwork, of course, but I'm not interested. That's for humans to worry about. And welcome to it. For me, there is a new collar. You might call it my uniform. Those collars, I might add, are very important to the program. There's one for training and one for duty. We learn quickly which is which. And we learn too that when no collar is worn, we are free to play, eat or sleep as we see fit. Nothing left to do now except job training. Nothing left to do now except join my new buddies. That's strange. I can hear them, but I don't see a soul. Oh, those boxes. Why we are cooped up in crates, I don't quite understand. Very difficult to get acquainted that way. And so it's off to school, in style at that. Some of the more unsophisticated thought might have to march all the way. And now, while we make this trip, suppose I turn you over to our narrator. He'll tell you what's in store for us. By the time the dog caravan has arrived at Lengres, the machinery for inducting the new arrivals has been set into operation. Instead of the regular kennel area, the trucks take the dogs to a special reception kennel. There they will have an opportunity to quiet down and adjust before embarking on the first steps toward becoming sentry guard dogs. All right, soldier, easy. There's a nervous recruit inside. The newcomers may have been house dogs or personal pets, but no matter which, they never have had drier, better ventilated, or generally more comfortable homes than these kennels provided by their new master, the United States Army. First steps in the new life will take Bendix and his buddies to the infirmary for routine processing. Included is a complete physical examination, one that is more thorough than the earlier checkup conducted during the sales. Bendix may not care for this, but an Army dog's acute hearing is essential to his work, and so the veterinarians are going to make sure about those ears. Any lesions or suspicious condition will receive immediate treatment. The new recruit will never be expected to carry a rifle. Yet care of his own particular weapons is of vital concern to the Army. The well-being of an animal is not infrequently reflected in the health of his teeth. Of utmost importance to the work for which he will be trained is the service dog's feet. As sentry guard, he will be covering many more miles daily than his civilian counterpart, the home pet or companion. The areas he will patrol may be hard top surface or stubble and stone covered ground. Initial examination looks for any cracks or injuries between the toes or any breaks in the protective padding of his paws. Callous and any unhealthy accretions must be paired off. This meticulous care and attention will continue throughout the years of his Army service. A check is also made of coat and skin for any suspicious condition. These, like the mouth, can give an indication of the animal's general health. And as any new enlistee in the Army knows, there come those inevitable shots. Inoculation against a variety of ailments will protect the dog's health. Inoculation will also ensure the school program against any disruption through epidemic or spread of infectious disease. And what is this? Why it's the quartermaster corps method of identification. Bendix expected the familiar dog tags. It sounds logical enough, but the Army has other ideas. It's to be a number tattooed on the skin. In any event, Bendix will never be in trouble with his commanding officer for having misplaced or lost his identification. Compensating for the indignities and any discomfort is a welcome show of affection. Care of the Army dog is every bit as important as the process of training him. The men being schooled as handlers are taught how to watch over their charges, safeguarding health and general condition. It's the Army, and so appearance and proper grooming receive the same attention as does the soldier's care of his own appearance. Soon the day comes when Bendix and his new buddies are ready to start active training. For men and dogs, it is an event. The handlers fall in, ready for the march to the kennel area. And why shouldn't one admit that within the soldier and the man, there's just a bit of the small boy who thrilled to the companionship of his first dog? In the circumstances, it might be rewarding to hear about this phase of the program from one who is directly involved. Perhaps our old friend Bendix again, if he'll oblige. Only too happy. Now, suppose we look in on Hunt's. You've observed him before. That's a way of getting himself in front of the cameras. Show-off, but a decent sort. Notice, please, the brief get acquainted period through the steel mesh. Just a safeguard against undue excitement and, let's say, unpleasant incident. And now, a little play and affection. Affection, you should understand, is part of the training system. It's used as the reward. Eventually it becomes an incentive. That choke collar is quite another thing. Unpleasant pressure in the recruit knows he has goofed or has failed to follow instructions. There is another collar, plain leather. It's worn when on active duty, but for class work it's always that unpleasant choke type. It takes some doing, but sooner or later even the cut-ups learn they can't fight it. The pressure and yank on the leash accompanied by spoken commands make basic training easy. Most of us, new words like come, down, and stay in German. Now we learn them again in English. When these have been mastered, we don't need the pull on the leash. Down. Soon we are learning more complex orders. How to stay down and, at the same time, obey the order to come. That's how we learn to crawl. Clever. There are drill commands, too, that must be mastered. But it's fun, especially when your classroom is the beautiful Bavarian countryside. After lessons well learned, there's the usual reward of affection and a chance to play in blow-off steam. The one in the black uniform is an Alsatian shepherd, actually a branch of the same family as the rest of us, although Alsatians like to think of themselves as something special. Notice, please, the use of play and affection in our program. Great incentives to good work. Repetition of commands and our responses to those commands is a major teaching aid. It keeps us on our toes after lessons have first been learned through choke collar and tugs on the leash. Repetition also helps to keep memory from slipping when we've gone on to new and more complex problems. The little test comes when orders are barked to, oops, I meant called out, by a stranger. We know, of course, that the stranger is an officer and he is out there to see how we have progressed in our work. Once upon a time, the idea was to train an army dog to react solely to one person, his handler, but that's all been changed. The idea of the one man dog has no place in military life. We learn to work with anyone who is assigned to us. There's another assist to getting an education I haven't mentioned yet, probably the most important. It's called patience. It's something the army insists upon. Sometimes one wonders who needs it most, the student handler or the student dog. But it does pay off and pretty soon one more lesson has been mastered. Once you've got the knack of coping with one obstacle, learning how to take the others is relatively simple. Someday I would like to see my handler take this one. Now, here's one. And not even a cat at the other end. This is an interesting device. At the risk of sounding disrespectful, I must observe that only man could dream up a gadget like this. But four. Just to make life a bit more complicated than it need be. On the other hand, I will admit that there are some projects, such as the simulated patrol operation, where the men face up to the same problems and manage quite as well as we do. But then I'm forgetting that they should. In this quarter master's school, they are students too. When the course has been completed, we'll all be going out to serve together. Uh-oh, that hunts again. A smart yank on the choke collar wouldn't do him any harm. Dog gone if I'm going to talk about him. I'm quitting. Just as well, too, if personalities can't be left out. But thank you, Bendix, just to say. And now, let's visit the infirmary where hunts will be taking his turn on sick calls. It may be a superficial injury, but conscientious care of army dogs is a first rule, and handlers take no chances. Usually, it means just one thing when a dog begs. But it's not to be table scraps for Uncle Sam's dog. There's as a scientifically arrived at diet and prepared under rigidly observed sanitary regulations, not to mention personal service that goes with it. If there are doubts about the patron's satisfaction, a visit to Hunts Kennel should end them. Army slang chow hound seems to take on real meaning here. The healthy animal, naturally alert and intelligent, quickly masters the elementary training steps. His participating in exercises that simulate the actual conditions he may one day face. The intruder will be cornered if necessary attacked. The concealed trespasser flushed out of hiding, training the animals to attack by command as the result of conditioning, and the original aggressiveness toward the stranger is constantly cultivated throughout the entire 17-week cooks. For the unwary and the uninitiated, it cannot be stressed strongly enough that, however gentle the dogs may appear with their handlers, they are nevertheless extremely dangerous animals. As an interesting demonstration of the Army sentry dog's capabilities, our friend Bendix goes through the entire obstacle course without guidance. After a first spoken command, the handler's only participation is limited to occasional shouts of encouragement from the sidelines. This is more than a mere stunt. It illustrates how through training, a whole complex of varied tasks may be linked in one operation. These all triggered by one initial command. Here is the learning process not too far removed from that of the human. As an added demonstration of intelligence plus adaptability, the dog Bendix, at command, climbs a ladder. Here is performance of a task that is not generally considered to be within a dog's natural capacities. These two demonstrations are graphic testimony to the effectiveness of the conditioning system used in the quartermaster core training program. With the completion of the 17-week program, men and sentry guard dogs have become smooth functioning teams. The men conscious of their responsibility through their charges. The animals bound to their handlers by their natural response to training plus affection. But the school at Lenggris is only the first step in the careers of these working teams. From the training center, they will now be sent to posts widely scattered throughout Western Europe. There they will take up the jobs for which they were trained. There's will be the task to guard against the trespasser, the saboteur against any who would tamper with our defenses of the free world's peace. Training center at Lenggris is but one of many now maintained by the United States Army quartermaster core on the continent here at home and even in the far east. Only recently plans were set into operation to transport some thousand trained German shepherds to the United States. Here to serve as sentry dogs and to be utilized in the training of additional thousands, it is safe to conclude that the army dog is very much with us. Today, however, he has become a specialist. With the college training behind him, man's best friend is taking on a share of the job protecting the defenses of our free world. Now this is Sergeant Stewart Queen, your host for the Big Picture. The Big Picture is an official report for the armed forces and the American people. Produced by the Army Pictorial Center, presented by the Department of the Army in cooperation with this station.


the Creative Life, a collaborative production between Think Tech Hawaii and the American Creativity Association. I'm Darlene Boyd, your host for today. Our guest, Dr. Alyssa Gleacher, joins us from Chapaqua, New York. Dr. Gleacher is a prominent cognitive behavioral clinical psychologist. She has played a major therapist role with clinics at UCLA, Columbia University and New York University. Alyssa received her professional foundational strength and PhD from the University of Hawaii. Alyssa, let me welcome you back to Hawaii as we broadcast virtually of course from the Think Tech Hawaii Honolulu Studios.  Feels wonderful, Darlene. Too bad we're not outside, right? Right. Perhaps the best way to begin the show, since we're going to be talking quite a bit about cognitive behavioral therapy and you are a cognitive behavioral therapist, could you just help us out and give us a short sketch of just what cognitive behavioral therapy is? Sure. That's a great place to start, right? I always say you have to start at the beginning. Yes. So cognitive behavioral therapy is the most evidence-based intervention for a number of mental health disorders. I focus a lot with children, so I'll be kind of child focused today if that's okay, but we're going to conceptualize problems. So anxiety, for example, is having three parts to them. The thoughts that we have are cognitions, the feelings, emotion, and the physiological symptoms associated with the experience of emotion and what it does to us in terms of how it impacts our behaviors or what we do. So there we have the cognitive behavioral therapy. So if we're talking about intervention for anxiety, we would work on cognitions that promote anxious thinking or misinterpretation about the meaning of threat or about a stimuli. We would also work with that feelings portion of helping folks gain coping skills or tools to help relax or calm their body when they're physiologically aroused due to anxiety. And then we would work on the behavioral patterns that promote anxiety as well. So there we would work on all three of those aspects to gain tools to help you overcome that experience of anxiety and situations where you may not need it or you may not need as much of it as you're having. And is it your opinion perhaps that, and I know cognitive behavioral therapy is referred to as CBT, that CBT might be more effective than the traditional forms of psychological therapy or psychiatric medications? I'm going to take those separately. I'm going to take other forms of therapy or, you know, talk therapies and then I'll address medications separately. Okay. So with respect to the research that has been done, some of it at the University of Hawaii, and I was a part of some of that way back when, but it has been shown to be more effective than a lot of other things that you would go out if you were just receiving mental health services. So that not all talk therapy is created equally. It's not the only intervention that has evidence behind it. There's other things like interpersonal therapy that have some success with different types of symptom consolation, depression, or things like that. So it's not the only one that has evidence behind it, but it definitely has the most research behind it. And then there's a lot of offshoots or kind of CBT and combinations of other things. So a good example of that would be dialectical behavior therapy is kind of a treatment for started out with borderline personality disorder or some of more severe emotional dysregulation and uses a lot of cognitive behavior therapy, but also borrows from other interventions as well. But definitely not all talk therapy is created equally. All right. And then medication is another question. So there are very often we see that for certain disorders that CBT has equal rates of helping with symptom reduction as medication alone. For others, for ADHD, for example, talk therapy does not do as good of a job at all as medical as medications would. So it really is disorder specific with respect to medications. And also I think there's a severity to that sometimes that psychosocial or CBT intervention is always warranted. But for things that are very severe and we need more symptom reduction as quickly as possible, we would definitely confer with a psychiatrist or a medical professional to help get someone treatment that helps to improve their symptom constellation as as quickly as possible. Melissa, I think that overview is that you provided for us is very helpful for us to set the stage for our topic at hand. And that is the effect that the pandemic is having on our youth. So the tools used to mitigate the threat of a pandemic, such as masks, social distancing, they may they may very well threaten child growth and development. How so? That's a great question. And I think it does it on a number of fronts. Now that being said, I think during the pandemic there have been times where those were absolutely warranted and we needed to isolate, we needed to go into lockdown, we needed to socially distance. I think though, if we think about the experience of childhood and the most basic thing, I like to say a child's job is school. So the first thing that happened to our kids is that stability that they have every day that regularity that no one quantity of going to school interacting with the teacher learning and also a huge part of school as a social aspect was taken away from them. And I know educators did a phenomenal job in trying to put together things. And I think that goes into the creativity part of the show as well. Educators were incredibly creative in how we tried to deliver education, but we can't take away the fact that that loss of normal for such a long extended period of time has an impact on children, right? And that when they, so they were out of school for months doing online learning. And then they returned to school very often in a hybrid model where they were out of school a couple days a week and in school a couple days a week.  So it definitely had an impact on that. But if we think about the things in particular with anxiety that would promote anxiety, I like to say just there's more to it than this. But one of the things that I say as a quick and dirty rule is anxiety is maintained by avoidance, right? If I'm scared of dogs, and I stay away from a dog, I'm never going to be unscared of dogs. And all of the things that keep us functioning socially that keep us unscared of social interactions were off limits in a large number of domains across a child's life. We lost school, we lost socializing, we lost extracurricular activities. And so I think that's one of the huge reasons why we're seeing so many mental health issues and children at this point. So you just closed by saying that we're seeing many more issues with children. I suspect you can say that with great authority. How has this affected your practice? The pandemic and the anxiety issues. Yeah. So I'll talk. For practice, I think it is busy. And people, I think anecdotally, and then I'll speak to what the Surgeon General released in December that kind of backs up what we're seeing anecdotally. I'm seeing that the number of weekly referrals is up 150%. So I'm getting multiple phone calls a week. And what we're seeing is a greater need, right? That kids are in a lot more distress than they previously were at baseline. There's a larger number of kids who are suffering and in greater distress are having more symptoms than maybe we were usual. There's no easy cases right now. What about the age groups? Are they differing? The younger or the older having more cases or is it not that representative? I think the effects of the pandemic were different across age groups. I think if we look at the Surgeon General's report, we're seeing that in particular adolescent girls were particularly hard hit with the statistic that they referred to most in that is the number of referrals to emergency room for suicide attempts. So we're seeing, I'm forgetting the exact number by a drastic increase in that. But if we look at that same age group with males, with boys, we're not seeing as drastic. So I think it was something around 4% as compared to above 20% increase in those referrals. So we are definitely seeing that. But I think that at this point, without a lot of research to back it, I think I'll just say I'm definitely seeing that group as being very hard hit. But what I'm also seeing is younger kids who are now entering the lower elementary school grades who lost some of this critical development time and socializing and had spent more time with parents that there is a lot of separation and social anxiety going on amongst younger kids. But I think the severity of it we're seeing in that older group. So sometimes older kids, bigger problems, right? So we're not seeing that. We're not seeing the number of suicide attempts in younger kids, because that's just not how younger kids express that. But with older kids, we are seeing an increase in those types of things. You quoted the Surgeon General's report as, if I hear you correctly, as referring to the differential between boys and girls adolescence this is. Can you speculate on why that differential between girls and boys? You know, I'm not sure that I have a great answer for that one. I think that that they're just somehow it's different. I'm not sure why. I think speaking to that age group in general, it could be that boys were more connected with video games and things like that. I maybe they found other social outlets. I think we're seeing the back to your original question, Darlene, when we talk about like why we're seeing different effects. I think when we think about kids who maybe started the pandemic with a baseline level of anxiety that might have been a little higher than normal, this kind of deprivation, the loss of normalcy, the loss of these normal social educational and life experiences led them to this increased fear. I think we're also seeing a lot of kids who are having issues in school, educational difficulties because they lost education and then that plays out in terms of anxiety as well with performance anxiety, fear around taking tests, fear around peers, knowing that you don't know these things. So I think we're seeing a lot of different anxiety and I think that that makes sense if we think about it in terms of kids who may have had baseline anxiety or may have had a more difficult time socially or a more difficult time educationally, we just lost time and they weren't able to keep pace with some of their same age peers. But I don't have a great answer for why we might be seeing that difference between males and females. I know we're talking about the pandemic and its effect of the quarantine effects and the masking. I find it rather interesting. I've heard recently just from people in the neighborhood or moms that have crossed paths with saying that their children, now that the masking is coming off for the schools and some of the schools, they're afraid to take off their masks, the younger ones, they fear. Is that coming up? That is actually, that was a hot topic in my office today with my clients before I got on with you guys. How do you feel about tomorrow when the masks come off? And I think that the answers run the gamut. Some kids feel, well, if the CDC says it, then it must be okay to kids who really want to throw a party tomorrow morning before school when they get on that bus with no mask on to others who are very fearful of taking it off, that it's almost become part of that and that their underlying fear around COVID and germs and catching stuff is still really high and their brains haven't kind of made that adjustment to the different level of threat that we're experiencing now. Do you think as we move along and as things open up that the pandemic has scarred our children? And I recognize that's not a universal question. I mean, certainly some children, but let's say children that have high anxiety, do you think this whole pandemic process could leave them with some scars? And is that why they would come to you to port that off or heal? I think yes, definitely. I think there's a higher number of kids who are seeking treatment because they are experiencing distress. Our parents want to give them the tools. So this is a bump in the road. It's a part of our history. It's this time that we've all lived through and we've coped with and we've come through and we overcame it versus that kind of scar or defining moment that kind of there was pre-pandemic, post-pandemic. So I think the hope is that, and I think the reality is that with treatment, this becomes something that you can overcome. But I do think there are a number of individuals out there, children and adults, probably, where this was and is something that will last a long time and that the fear could become more permanent without treatment. And I think that's the great thing about the resources that are out there with mental health treatment is that there is treatment available. There is help available to children, families, and adults that need intervention. What effects do you think our pandemic or a pandemic hopefully will not live through another one? But we know those have preceded us. What effect do you think it has had on parents and the family? I think the effects are intense. Especially when children are suffering, parents are suffering to an extent. And I think the demands on parents throughout the pandemic have been high from shifting to becoming working, stay-at-home parents who are also educators and the only companion of your children. The demands were really high for all of those things and still continue to be. So I think that parents have definitely suffered through this. And I think the effects with when you're having a child who is in distress, it does impact your ability to perform your role and it affects your happiness, it affects your level of anxiety. And there was just a survey study that came out, I believe last week, that says 30 to 40 percent of parents report that their job performance has been impacted by their children's mental health in this kind of pandemic slash emerging post-pandemic world. So I think this shows us that children and families are really struggling to deal with the effects of the pandemic and how it has impacted children's mental health. I think the hope is as we return to normal more and more that there is help with treatment and that the world becomes a shift back to normal more and that that then provides the foundation to go out and to live life more fully and more normally without as much fear. Not to put you on the spot, but what might be some measures that parents can take right now to protect their children and perhaps the adults in the family too, spouses or older siblings? Protect them from anxiety. From the anxiety issues that you say or projected or perhaps you could predict are going to still remain for a while, the scars so to speak. Well, so as we kind of go into treatment, I think what we want to do and I'll kind of put my mom hat on at the same time as well is we want to, one, if we're fearful of things, we don't want our fear to impact our children as well. So we always need to help ourselves. I always think of it as when you're on the airline and you read the safety card, you have to put on your mask before you put on someone else's so that if you're suffering, you need to help yourself as well. But I also think when we think about anxiety and that avoidance component to it, we want to provide our children with those normal childhood experiences and if they're experiencing a lot of fear, we want to try to come up with smaller chunks that they are able to manage successfully and build off success with that. And that would be a big part of if you were doing treatment, you would do exposure therapy for anxiety, gradual exposure where we start low, go slow, and we do little bits of the things that make us feel anxious and nervous. And we see that those negative things didn't happen and we build that back into our repertoire. So I think parents can do portions of that, but I also want to say if your child is really suffering and the things that you're doing at home don't seem to be helping, treatment is out there for folks. Do you, are you doing much family counseling and also small group, especially I would guess perhaps small group therapy might work very nicely with adolescents? It does. There is and there's a lot of research on group therapy. I don't do as much group therapy and I think when you're working with children, you're working with families, right? So there's very often a family component to what I do in practice. So definitely when I'm working with kids, I'm working with families because very often, especially if you have a child who's been in a lot of distress, the family system has adjusted to limit that distress so that we're working to give parents tools to help them overcome that. So a good example is if I'm an anxious teen and I'm texting my mom all day from school, mom is probably has the inclination to respond to the text if their child is saying, this is so hard. So we would work with the family, we'd work with the child on having tools and coping skills so that they're not in that level of distress and feeling like they need to reach out to parents. But we'd work with the parents on strategies of how to deal with those things as they come in. So that's just like what small example of some of the things that we would work on and see. So I'm thinking of the examples you gave about we have to take care of ourselves first as parents before we can help the anxiety in our children. But I'm also thinking of those parents when you mentioned the texting, the parents that will constantly text the child during a situation to say, are you okay? How are you doing? Right. So I think we, especially during the pandemic, that everything we've said about kids, except for maybe the school component can be said about parents as well, except they, right? So we all as parents, we all as adults lost all of those things too. So I think anxiety across the board is high and we are probably had just kind of biologically primed since something bad did happen to all of us with the pandemic to see more threats. So absolutely, I think the inclination for parents to check in is a normal one, but we would definitely work on if we're providing cues or clues to the child that they might be in an unsafe situation. How about the effect on the really little ones, the toddlers, the toddlers that I don't, I know under two did not have to wear a mask. So they were pretty much exempt and were probably getting a lot of love. But do you see some effects on toddlers, those long lasting effects, because they're living with witnessing anxiety and can't express themselves? I'm thinking the very little ones. You know, I think the kind of juries out on what those effects are, right? So the hope is- Probably because they can't communicate, I would suspect. Right. So I don't think we exactly know. The hope is that we take off the masks and as quickly as they adjusted to having them on, they adjust to not and we kind of move past it. But I think for some kids who are just more genetically predisposed to anxiety, I imagine that there will be effects of those things or that we'll see more effects when they're separating from their parents more for the first time. I know a lot of people have delayed things like preschool or they've gone to shortened programs. So they're not getting as many of those social things. Although I do think it's easier to catch up to being three than it is to catch up to being five or 10. So I think that we have a lot of hope there that as things return to normal, that that group can return to normal as well. So we're about to wrap up our times about up. But I have one final question and nothing like getting some free advice here, right? So those of us that deal in creativity and those that watch us regularly know that we talk often about problem solving and recognize that the experts often recognize that sometimes the problem is that we don't identify the real problem that we're not there. So do you think cognitive behavioral therapy, even if we just do it very privately or attempt to do it ourselves, can help us to be better problem solvers? Absolutely. Problem solving is a huge part. Problem solving is a really if we look at the evidence base and we look at dismantling studies of CBTA problem solving shows up, you know, across most of the major disorder subtypes as one of the evidence based interventions that we'd be working on. And I think you nailed it, Darlene, is that part of what we're working on is to actually really define what the problem is accurately, right? To say what the big problem is and then think about it. What is, how does that break down? What's bad about that so that we actually are working on solving the right problem? Thank you, Alyssa. Thank you. It's been, it's been a pleasure as always. I'm so glad to have had this opportunity to chat with you. And as with all our guests, we just don't have enough time to discuss what we would like to. So you have been for our viewers, you have been watching the creative life on think tech Hawaii with our guest cognitive behavioral psychologist. Wow, Alyssa, that's a long time. Dr. Alyssa Glitcher, we hope your time spent with us has offered you a better understanding of today's youth mental health issues and the utilization of cognitive therapy as an effective treatment model. Join us in two weeks for the next edition of the creative life until then Aloha. Thank you so much for watching think tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.


Today we're going to talk a little bit about and maybe more importantly or more specifically the idea of a curved waistband versus a straight waistband. I think at least in the circles that I am in online there is this sort of notion that curved waistbands are better than straight waistbands or it indicates a pattern is better drafted and I just don't think it has anything to do with that. In my opinion the type of waistband is the shape of the waistband that you should be using depends completely on where on your body that waistband is going to hit and that is so perfectly illustrated using my ditto form. So as you can see here this is my body this is my ditto form which is an exact replica of my body. I went in I got a 3d scan and now I have a way where I can fit things on my body easily accurately without like some sort of like specialty in yoga but it's a really great way to show you guys too sort of the difference between a straight and a curved waistband. The body as you can see at least mine as at the natural waist which is where this waistband is sitting it's this line right here is curved I do have a very curvy body it gets more curved though below the waist than it does at the waist typically at your waist no matter what shape you are pair hourglass inverted triangle upside down unicorn whatever it is you have sort of flatter part or straighter part of your body at your natural waist which is why a straight waistband typically fits better than a curved waistband if I were to put this waistband down lower where there are naturally more curves to the side of the body than a curved waistband would certainly fit better. So let's take a closer look at each of these options like I said I have the curved waistband here and this pattern is simplicity 9267 it is a really kind of simple basic straightforward button front skirt so it is a curved waistband and this is what happens with curved waistbands on a straighter part of your body up here right here there is so much extra ease like a lot of extra each and you can also see because we have these like super big seam allowances I folded them up from the bottom but they create like this I don't know there's like a bucket effect there's like a lot a lot a lot of already extra ease under here and the seam allowance even whenever you trim it back is still going to create like these really kind of weird puckers versus the straight waistband so I literally just cut this waistband out of a straight piece of tracing paper I'm going to take that out so we'll talk about that in a second here and wrapped it around my body putting the seam line at my natural waist or yeah at my natural waistline which is this dark ribbon here and you can see with this that it still ends up being a little bit big but it's not big on the bottom instead it's big on the top which is so interesting because the curved waistband is smaller at this top line than it is at the bottom seam line but it's almost like too much here not enough here whereas for me with the straight waistband it's too much at the top and not enough at the bottom so I am almost going to be making like a hybrid of the two where I take out this small small small little pleat that ends up being I'm going to say roughly a quarter inch so a half inch total pleat from there to there so a half an inch so I'm going to create my own little curve that is much less curvy than this and curves to exactly fit my body which is the whole point I think assuming that a curved waistband is going to fit every body is very confident of a designer I think the amount of curve is so unique to each person especially at the natural waist as we start to go down into the curves of the body maybe a little bit less so but at the natural waist I don't think we need nearly as much curve as some of the pattern designers are giving us so I would much rather just take a straight piece of tracing paper wrap it around my body and then take out the small small little wedge that I have to take out and now I have a custom waistband that is made exactly for the shapes in the curves that I have so the next time you come across a pattern that has a curved waistband or a straight waistband for that matter try to reserve any judgment until you can either tissue fit or muslin that particular waistband of course like I said the beginning it definitely depends on where that waistband is sitting on your body and if it's higher up at your natural waist it's going to naturally need to be a little bit flatter that's just how our bodies are made if it's lower on the waist then you're going to have a little bit more curves there making a custom waistband using a ditto form or even just wrapping some tissue paper around your body is not difficult to do at all so I encourage you to kind of just maybe like forget about whatever waistband the pattern designer has included and just start making your own every single time you'll obviously have a much better fit in the end because it was truly made for you I mean think about it if we're having to make bust adjustment hips adjustments grading out here and there then why aren't we doing the same thing with our waistbands they deserve just as much attention as any other part of our body in order to get great great fit so so don't forget to check out the description box I have a link where you can check out ditto form she is actively on the road doing scans different parts of the country different times of the year so I'm going to link you to her schedule of course if your city is not on that schedule reach out to her anyways and let her know that you are interested because she will plan a trip around your area if there are enough of you that have expressed interest but that is going to do it for me today y'all thank you so much for watching happy waistband making and I'll see you very soon bye


Welcome. This is Melissa Arma with the Stock Swoosh and I'm doing a July 4th special for the Golden Gap course for July. Happy July 4th, everyone. This is a wonderful holiday, basically celebrating summer and celebrating our freedom in the United States. So, you know, one of the things that I love about trading is the whole concept and idea that you can work for yourself. And if you can work for yourself, you have financial freedom, you have independence, and you can have the life you want. So, let's get right into it. If you have questions, you can email me at MelissaTheStockSwoosh.com. You can also call me at 929-3200 Gap. You can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or Skype. So, happy July 4th, everyone. I can't wait for the next couple of days. I hope it doesn't rain every day in New York, though. And we have a lot of rain in the forecast coming up. So, we'll see if we're, I'm going to be able to see fireworks or if they're going to be washed out by the rain. But hopefully, hopefully, it will be nice to see fireworks on the 4th of July. So, the July 4th Golden Gap course special is, if you sign up for the Golden Gap course by July 4th, of course, you will receive the Stock Swoosh Show live trading room free for one year and the Gap Options newsletter free for one year. So, this is for the class for July 22nd and 23rd. Class is always Saturday and Sunday. You can sign up ahead of time and get in the room, get in the Options letter, start trading. Class is 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time. And again, everything that I do focuses on gas, which we're going to talk about here a little bit. But this is a nice special because it gives you a lot of time to be able to decide if you want to focus on day trades, options, get all of my calls for a year, and again, be in the room. So, even if you have a busy schedule where you can't be in the room five days a week, then you'll get the options trades and you can still trade doing the options. Now, what do I trade? I trade only gaps. That's the only thing that I trade. That's the only thing that I focus on, that it's exactly what you'll learn in the class. You're going to learn the rating system in the class, how I make the picks, and specifically shorts because I focus on shorting. The play of the day yesterday was GIS. This was earnings, General Mills, stock closed here, night before around 81 and change, open in the morning, under 79, fell, boom. We shorted it. Down here's the volume. So again, we got in and out. I call this trade live in the room. I call the entry to stop, the exit. And again, this is the benefit of being in the room. You will get these calls live. Again, this is a day trade, a day trade where you'd have to have a margin account. Now, there are people in the room that are doing options, if that works better for you, but the options really go to your email. So you don't have to be in the room to take the options trades. But one of the things that I love about trading gaps is you're in and out fast, quick, super-dipper fast. And again, it's summer. It's the time of the year where you don't want to be sitting at your desk for eight, 10 hours a day. You don't want to be working on the weekends. And so many people are working somebody hours right now to make ends meet because of inflation. You want to be like this guy.  Again, it's about the quality of your life. It is not about working forever just to get by. And you want to improve the quality of your life. You want to get ahead year over year over year, not just with your trading, but also with your finances. So this was a nice trade that we did. Actually, we did a bunch of different trades in this. This was CCL. Again, another gap down just to show you again how you're going to learn how to rate this in the class. Stock close here, gap down, dropped. This was earnings too. We had a really nice short in this that I called in the live room. The entry was $14.45 and we added because it was cheap and I liked it and we got it up through the price. So I added at $14.80. Average price was $14.62. I held this. Some people got out a little bit earlier. I said $14.14.14. It got to $14.00, broke, bounced. I was out. Profit was $6,700 and $5,000 shares. And again, this is a trade on margin and it's cheap. We do things that are all across the board as far as price points. You can open up a margin account in a prop firm if you want to. So this was a nice trade. Great trade to have on a week going into the holiday. But it's all about chunking it out. Fast trades. Get in, get out. Short moves. Even the options that we're doing I think are fairly quick because we're doing the weekly options. So again, making money, staying focused. That is extremely important. And if you're one of those people that really, you know, doesn't want to sit at the computer all day and stare at a screen like I don't want to do that either, then this type of strategy, the type of strategy that I do will really appeal to you. And whether you want to make an extra $100 a day or $200 a day or $1,000 a day, it's really about how much you risk and how good you are at trading, which I mean finding the gap, writing the gap, taking the entry. And again, I teach that in the class. But financial independence is on the forefront. I think of everyone's mind right now going into the second half of 2023. It's hard to believe in a few days will be halfway through 2023. This year seems to have flown by. Feels like just yesterday I moved and then it was the holidays and then boom. So this year has really gone fast and it seems to be that way lately. And when the Fed talked the other week, they were talking about the fact that inflation is going to persist and continue into 2025 and probably beyond. So you've got to take it upon yourself to make extra money, earn extra money. And even though people are getting raises, it's not covering the cost of inflation. And the fact is that trading is fun. I like doing it.  Learning is fun too. So if you're interested in learning my GoldenGap 26-point rating system, you can sign up by July 4th for the class. Again, the class is at the end of the month. So it gives you plenty of time to plan ahead, but you can get in the room and start trading. You can get the options news as already. You can get into it, start to do it. And again, set up your account and do all of that stuff after you sign up for the class. So I go through the checklist. It's 26 points that you'll let you learn. It's how to rate the gap to find the best bearish gap on each day to trade. A lot of people, you know, are trading on their own and they don't really have a mentor. They go to these trading rooms blind or the Reddit chat rooms and they're not really following any one specific person or any strategy. You're going to drown in the market if you do that. You cannot just trend trade everything. And trends don't hold the same trends for a long time. And a lot of times people don't know how to read trends right. It is very, very important to understand what to do, have a set strategy and follow someone when you're trading each and every day. If in fact you want to be successful, which of course you do. You do. So this was a put. For example, again, if you sign up for the special, you'll get the newsletters for one year free with the class. This was June 21st at 9.52. I emailed this out. It was Wednesday the BA 210 put. They expire this Friday and out of this. But it was a nice trade. It was a really good trade. Again, we're going to look at the chart. It was Wednesday. Cost was 225. 40 contracts is an advanced trader risk of 9,000 or you could have taken five and risk 1125. Sold at 550. Profit was 13,040 contracts, 1625 on five. Either way, returning investment 144%. And actually I could have held this longer. But you know, I thought it was a good exit. Again, 100% or more is a fabulous trade. So let's look at that Wednesday. Let me see what was Wednesday's date. The 21st here. So you can see how this went because I called it here. Then it gapped down. Then it fell the following day. So that was really, really nice because of the follow-through. Again, the follow-through in what? BA falling. BA selling off the follow through in the gap. And we are already in the trade overnight. One of the benefits again of being on the options newsletter is being in those trades overnight when they follow through and you're just up in the morning and you don't have to do anything. You just get out, boom, right into the open, you know. And that's a lot of times what I I think is the best most conservative thing to do but I could have held that longer. So again, being in the live trading room with this July 4 special will give you the opportunity to ask me questions every day. Here what I have to say about the market and learn. It's a continually learning process. And again, it's very important to think about your own livelihood, your financial independence, and how are you going to create that? How are you going to make that happen? You need a plan of action. A plan of action.  So for me, it's the checklist. It's the Golden Gap 26-point checklist. I get up early every single morning and I go through everything and I rate the gaps and I rate the market and I decide what I want to do and this process is invaluable to me. And it will be invaluable to you if you take the class and learn it. And in the class I also teach six entries, exits, and targets. And again, all of this is very important for you to be successful. So if you want to sign up for the Golden Gap course, you can. It's July 22nd and 23rd. It gives you plenty of time to plan ahead. 9 a.m. the 5 p.m eastern time cost of the class is $69.99. The class is online. It can be anywhere in the world and take it. The July 4 special is a great deal. It's a great deal because you can get the support of the room and the options newsletter. Many people are doing both. Options of day trades, but if you're not sure which one you want to do, this gives you an opportunity to trade both and decide and also to trade before the class and make money before the class. So again, very, very important. I try to do the most things that I can to help people. I do want people to succeed. And one of the things that's special about me is that I will take people's calls. I will email people after the class. After you sign up for the class, I don't disappear from your life. I'm here. Even if you did the class five years ago and you want to call me.  You know, I am here. I want people to make it. It's very, very important. And again, the support system in the room is invaluable because it's the daily time that you have with me. And then of course, I'm calling the live trades. If you have questions, you can email me at Melissa at thestockswitch.com. And if you'd like to sign up, don't miss out on this great special. Happy July 4th, everyone.