Hi everyone, Joe for jaspyscasegrakes.com. Happy Thursday. I have an opening day coming at you with a little basketball right here. This hooped premium stock Salopak break, number 30, where we're giving away eight teams and pick your team 11. And that fills up, pick your team 11, prison basketball, pick your team 11. And that'll be in a separate video. Those are the teams that you can win. Big thing, we're gonna do the break itself first. Big thanks everybody here for getting in on the action. And there are the teams right there. Let's roll it, let's randomize it. Eight, the hard way, four and a four. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eighth and final time. After eight, we got Kevin down to Brian. Eight, the hard way, four and a four for the teams. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, five, six, seven, and eighth and final time. After eight, we got the Bulls down to the Grizzlies. All right, so here's the first half of the list right here. And the second half of the list right there. No trade window for these little filler breaks. We just wanna get to the giveaway as quickly as possible. There's a John Morant right there, nice. Rookie John Morant going to Brian Owens and the Grizz. There's the final printout right there. There's the bonus pack. And that's gonna be Kevin Love, Drew Holiday, and Alfonso McKinney. All right, so nothing crazy there beyond that nice John Morant. Now let's randomize some teams to people. Billy down to Martin and everyone in between. Let's get you into this list. Let's roll that dice and randomize that list. Six and a four, 10 times on the randomizer. And we'll match you up with the team. The name on top gets the Celtics. Eighth name down, it gets the Pacers. There you go, nice. It's not the top nine names, it's actually the top eight right there. That's the accurate one right there. All right, top eight. After 10, good luck. One, two, three, four, five. And 10th and final time. After 10, from nine on down, unless Martin you're on the top eight, unless you're there, my apologies. We'll get them next time. Big thanks to everybody for giving this shot. I know these aren't really easy to win, but appreciate your trying. Top eight, you're in the break. Roy, Robert, Steve, Monty, Steve. There you go, Martin, Anthony, and Roy on top. So Roy with two of the eight teams, there you go. So Roy, and everyone else on this list, we'll put a little rooftop next to your name so you know you won that spot in this filler break right here. Roy with the Celtics, Anthony with the Pistons, Martin with the Cavs, Steve with the Heat, Monty with the Magic, Steve with the Sons, Robert with the Raptors, and Roy with the Pacers. There you go. That was Break 30. I'm Joe for JaspysCaseRakes.com. In a separate video, we pick your team 11. Prison basketball, bye-bye.


It's interesting. I grew up in the city. I was actually born at Alexandria Hospital and went to city public schools. I remember hearing about just vaguely about the sit-in as a child, but I really didn't know very much about it or its historical impact until probably about six months before we were able to get the order dismissing the charges against the sit-in participants signed by a judge, and I learned about it from the mayor, Justin Wilson, who I believe had been contacted by Gretchen Bulova of historic Alexandria. And from there, of course, I started learning a great deal about it, its impact on the community, and we started thinking of ways that we might be able to do something to try to rectify the wrong that had occurred almost a century before. I would say I think we're very lucky in Alexandria. Obviously, first of all, the town is very old and there is a history here. I think we've been better than most in being willing to look at and address and learn about the difficult parts of our history. Obviously, there's always room for improvement in that regard. And historic Alexandria and all the people that both work there and volunteer there have been really important for that journey of self-introspection, right? So it all originated there, and we've got a number of things in the city that we do to try to remember our very difficult past. We've got Freedom House Museum. We've done a number of lynching memorials, one of which I was recently privileged enough to participate in. This is an outgrowth of that, and it's a real testament, I think, to the people in the city who were willing to kind of get into these very difficult chapters of our past, not shy away from the difficult conversations that go along with it, and really kind of delve into it so that we understand what happened and why it happened. So I remember when the mayor called me and asked me about it. I mean, my first impulse, his ask was, do you think we could find a way to get discharged dismissed? From a justice standpoint, obviously I was immediately committed to it. From a lawyer's perspective and a procedural perspective, when I originally received the call, I thought it was probably a long shot that we would be able to do it. And luckily in the event, it turned out that I was wrong with my initial concerns about that. Well, the first thing was to try to determine what had happened with the case. Unfortunately, if these gentlemen had been convicted of a crime 100 years ago, or almost 100 years ago, it would have been far more difficult to kind of get an order entered that might rectify the situation a little bit. So we had some understanding that the case had never been adjudicated in court. We looked into it. Obviously Gretchen Boulevard and her staff were really important to that process. And what we were able to determine was that the sit-in participants were actually arrested. They were charged with a crime of disorderly conduct. But apparently probably because the prosecutor at the time realized, hopefully the unjustness of it, but was kind of probably stuck in politics of the 1930s, basically he had done nothing. He had not sought a conviction. He had never tried the case, nor had he ever dismissed it. In other words, these men were charged, had a criminal arrest on their official records, and just never had any disposition of the matter, just kind of hung over them the rest of their lives, and indeed even posthumously. So once we determined that, the next step was me reaching out to the Chief Judge of our circuit court, Judge Kimler, to bring up an unusual situation. Obviously this is not something that we would frequently see in our courthouse, and discuss with her whether or not, if I brought a motion to dismiss, as she felt like she would be in a position to sign the order, because that's how courts operate. And so she asked for some time to look into it and think about it, and then a short time later she called me back and told me that if the order was appropriately written, she felt that she had the authority to enter an order dismissing the charges against the sit-in participants. The way it works, I mean it's just like any criminal case. The prosecutor maintains the ultimate discretion in whether to go forward with the case or to dismiss it. Obviously as I pointed out, that decision was never made 80 years ago in the 1930s. So the case was in some way shape or form still extant and still kind of pending here in 2018. So the way any case is dismissed would be normally upon a motion from the prosecutor's office. Our office drafted the motion. I actually wrote it myself, but I don't have the authority to officially dismiss the case. That has to come from court. The court actually dismisses the case by looking at my order, signing the order, and once the judge's signature is on it, it goes into effect. In the matter of the Commonwealth of Virginia versus William Evans, Otto L. Tucker, Edward Gattis, Morris Murray, and Clarence Strange came now the attorney for the Commonwealth and prayed the court to dismiss the charges of disorderly conduct against the defendants named above. And it appearing that the defendants were charged with disorderly conduct in August 1939 at the Alexandria Library Facility on Queen Street. And it appearing that the defendants were lawfully exercising their constitutional rights to free assembly, speech, and to petition the government to alter the established policy of sanctioned segregation at the time of their arrest. And it appearing that the conduct in which the defendants were engaged at the time of their arrest, to wit, sitting peacefully in a library reading books, was not in any fashion disorderly or likely to cause acts of violence. And it appearing that the defendants were in fact not breaking any law and no criminal charge was appropriate at the time of their arrest. And it appearing that the judge assigned to the case elected to avoid issuing a ruling and that the result was that the criminal charges were never adjudicated and the defendants never declared guilty or innocent of any offense. And it appearing that therefore the disorderly conduct charges remain technically extant today, 80 years after they were instituted. And it appearing that in the time period since those charges were instituted the Supreme Court and the Virginia Courts have held that the government endorsed segregation policy of separate but equal is unconstitutional that it diminishes the dignity of American citizens and fails to ensure the lofty ideals contained in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal and should enjoy the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is hereby ordered that the disorderly conduct charges against the five defendants named above should be and hereby are dismissed with prejudice this 18th day of October 2019. Enter this 18th day of October 2019 by Lisa B. Kimler Judge, petitioned for by Brian Elporter, attorney for the Commonwealth. I think the most salient point for me from this entire experience, from an internal journey if you will, is you understand, it helps me understand the inherent authority of the law and the authority that is inherent in my office. And what I mean by that is I, when this occurred, I used this entire incident as a learning experience for the very young attorneys that worked for me as assistant Commonwealth attorneys, assistant prosecutors. And what I reminded them was 1939 was not that long ago. It was outside of my parents' lifetime, but well within my grandparents' lifetime. And in that not that long ago time, six, five, six general individuals who went to a library to read and simply were sitting there had the full authority of the law thrown against them for doing nothing more than sitting in a library quietly reading books to kind of silently express their displeasure with the unjust laws of the time. And so the point that I take from that is that it's really important for all of us to remember that the law is an incohate intangible thing. It's enforced by people. And people are subject to prejudice and they're subject to internal dissension and they're subject to the whims of just being a human being. And so there's a real lesson for us there to understand that this is an ancient history. It didn't happen far away. It happened here in our city. Police officers like the ones we work with went to the library, arrested people for sitting there reading books, and a prosecutor who inherited my or who was in my position and there's only been I think six prosecutors in Alexandria since that person was in charge of this case back in the 30s had a decision to make and he made pretty much no decision. And I can understand it must have been a difficult position for him I guess at the time, but that really is unfortunate because by making no decision he made a decision really in effect to allow these charges to remain extant for almost 100 years. So I use that as a learning experience for the people in my office to understand how the law can easily be used for negative ends and how people who are tasked with enforcing the law have to do it in a non capricious and a thoughtful way and they really need to understand the impact of the decisions they're making. So that really stood out to me and I think it stood out to the people in my office when I was able to sit down with them and give a credible, tangible, close to home example of how the law can be used for really terrible ends. So the first thing I would say is a step like this situation where we were able to enter an order 80 years later. I mean obviously I think that's a very positive step and I attended the event at which the order itself was acknowledged and the family members of the charged sit-in participants were there and it did matter to them in a way that was actually very reassuring to me. The fact that we would take the time 80 years later to try our best to rectify the wrong matter to the family members but I would start off by noting that an order 80 years later does not absolve the city or the prosecutor or the police at the time of the wrong that was committed against these men and 80 years after it occurred there's no way for me or for the mayor or for anyone to really make things right. On the other hand acknowledging the wrong, putting words to paper and having a judge officially clear these men so that they don't have the posthumous stigma of having a criminal charge against them is important. We have to address the past, we have to look at the past with open eyes, we have to be willing to admit that our forefathers failed as human beings in many circumstances and so that's a first step toward making a better Alexandria but it's not the only step, right? I mean we have to continuously kind of reassess where we're going. It's entirely possible in my current position that I can make a decision that 80 years from now people might think was backward or unfeeling or unthoughtful and so people in positions like mine, elected officials, city department heads have to be very, very willing to look at all of the decisions that we make on a day-to-day basis and we have to be willing to be very introspective about that to see the other side of arguments and in the end do our best to do what's right so that's a very kind of amorphous thing but the other thing I would say is particularly in the criminal system where I've been my entire life basically I think it's really important for people in positions like mine to acknowledge that the system has been used for racially biased reasons in the past not just subliminal or unintentional but in this case obviously intentional and I think when we start acknowledging that and not pretending that it didn't happen we can make an effective and a positive difference going forward and so being cognizant of the wrongs that have been perpetrated upon people of color over the years by the criminal system is important people like me enacting policies to try our best to address some of the inequities in the system while still obviously having to do our job I think that's important and the final point I would say and I've already alluded to it is really for somebody like me to sit down now that I'm the old guy in the office and talk to the younger prosecutors who are the ones that are actually on a day-to-day basis trying to get just results in court and explain to them the incredible authority they possess and the concomitant need to possess it and utilize it and wield it with thoughtfulness and with a sense of equality for all people is really important the only thing I would say is this was a very important personal event for me I was definitely moved by the event that was held at the Beatley Library to acknowledge and commemorate the sit-in and the order there were a lot of people there it's interesting because if you'd asked me beforehand you know I would have thought well this is a historical anachronism you know maybe the family members might be interested in it but you know I would have thought a handful of people would have been present and I remember I had another event that night and I wasn't really running late but I didn't get there early either and when I walked into the room and saw that it was just packed with people in the room only, they really had to find a chair so that I could sit up at the front place where the officials were sitting I was just really impressed it affected me in a personal way that I remember now as I'm talking to you and thinking back about it and I guess just to simplify things a little bit stuff like this matters the fact that historic Alexandria came up with this idea the fact that we're willing to assess these things and open our eyes to the injustice that's occurred in the past in our city that matters and I'm very proud of playing a very small part in this I mean all I really did was draft a piece of paper and make a phone call to a judge but that piece of paper and that signature of the judge mattered to the family members of the men who were so wrongly accused of a crime many years ago and so I considered a privilege to serve my hometown and to have participated in this


Ik heb op de Intel NUK gezien als een muzieksserver, dat was afvorderbaar, werkt fijn, maar een beetje fiddelig om te zetten, zoals ik in mijn 3-part video showed. Ik heb de Rune Nucleus Plus server gereverd dat alleen een drijf voel van muziek nodig was om te spelen, maar dat kwam bij de premium. Dit keer een muzieksserver dat is makkelijk om te zetten, onderzoek op welke protocol gebruik voor audio-servers en dat kost niet een arm en een leg. Er is dit ding in het audioworld en misschien beyond dat, waar er een heel low appreciation is voor goede software, alstubel in het monitair sens. Dit is zo ongelooflijk, omdat je onmogelijk is dat je alle kleine problemen in de muzieksserver kunt ontdekken als ik de vragen van me vragen zie.  Ik ben niet clairvoyend en remote toevallig te zetten betekent meer tijd dan ik kan uitvoeren. Dat is waarom ik de muzieksserver die ik hier discussieerde kwam. Alleen heel basic computer schilders zijn nodig om het op te zetten en het komt met een lifetijdsupport. De Sonic Transporter i5 heeft een zwarte aluminium houding en is ongeveer de zes van een Mac Mini, 58 x 134 x 172 mm. De vondt houdt alleen de powerbutton. Short presses switchen de computer erop, waardoor een long press voortst het om het op te switchen zonder de software te voortstellen, zoals ook andere normale computer. En in feite is het een normale, funless computer gemaakt door Polywell dat een Intel Core i5 5257U at 2.7 GHz en heeft 8 gigabytes of RAM en een 64 gigabyte SSD binnenkant voor de server database. De rear zorgt voor twee USB3 portten, een HDMI en VGA portten, voor servicepurpose alleen, dus er is geen audio over HDMI, twee USB2 portten, een gigabyte ethernet port en de 12 volt DC power input. Waardoor er vier USB portten zijn, alleen één USB drive kan op een keer behoorlijk zijn. Nee, ik ga de computer niet openen, omdat er niet veel is om audiowise te leren. Wat is interessant audiowise is de server versie van de Sonic Allbitter OS dat je kunt zien als een Linux-base frontend van waar je de server software wilt gebruiken. Just open an internet browser on another computer, tablet of smartphone and type sonictransport.local in the address field. The HTML interface includes a mobile version so even on a smartphone maintenance is done with ease. The apps menu lets you check if there is an update for the Sonic Transporter OS. Check on the installed software and lets you install other software. Since the software version was up to date, lets go to the installed apps. Currently DriveMounter and Roon Server are installed, but installing another type of server like HQ Player Server, Minim Server, Plex Media Server, Bubble UPNP Server, Subsonic Media Streamer or Squeezewalk Server is a matter of a few clicks to stop or uninstall Roon Server and installing the alternative. I ran also Roon Server and Squeezewalk Server simultaneously, although this is foolish of course, since Roon is capable of driving Squeezeboxes as well. For paid software like HQ Player and Roon, you do need to buy the license separately. Also keep in mind that erasing a server software will also erase the library data. Instructions on how to save and backup this data can be found in the forum. Next to the server programs, there are also some nice tools like the Sonora UPNP bridge that lets you use selected DLNA renderers as endpoint for Roon or Squeezebox. I didn't try this since I didn't have an appropriate DLNA renderer available during the testing. Judging by the forum information, this is really something for the enthusiast. When you open the settings for Roon Server, there will be options dat de Roon Rock Server doesn't offer. You can have the server access the drive containing your music in read-only mode, so protecting your music collection. This also means that you can't connect to the drives on the sonic transporter using a filefinder and thus need to connect to drive to another computer to add music or change the settings temporarily of course. A second option lets you switch on of off local playback in the Roon Server. I presume it saves resources when local playback is not used. Remarkable is that you have to mount a USB drive manually using the external drive mounter while Roon Rock offers auto mounting. But it needs to be done only once, so it's not really a problem. For the rest you use the Roon interface for all settings in Roon. The same goes for the other programs. The Squeezebox server looked functionally identical to the regular version and I presume the same goes for the other server programs. A feature I really like is the system status that shows the CPU load. It takes away uncertainty if there is something wrong in your system. According to Small Green Computer, the sonic transporter i5 is suited for music libraries up to 450.000 tracks. I can't imagine there are many people that have that amount of tracks. To show you how powerful the sonic transporter i5 is, I started playback of 8 streams while still importing music. On the right, the CPU load as indicated by the system status. The top graph shows the cumulative load, ignore de lower grounds and certainly don't think there are 4 cores. The Intel Hyperthreading technology simulates 4 cores as where there are just two. As you can see, that's probably all you need and it results in a 9 watts specified power consumption. Another thing on this test, most streams also needed DSP work since they were chosen for that. Look at the zones panel. The top Apple TV played DSD and thus needed to be downsampled to 44.1 kHz. The second Apple TV was playing downsampled music from 24192, as was the Jabra Bluetooth headset connected to my iMac 5K and the Sonos. The other endpoints could handle the higher sampling rates. Please realize that these are 8 separate signals and not one track sent to all endpoints. In de background, er were also other DSP functions active. Headroom management minus 3db and 3 band stop filters at 32, 64 en 128 Hz, with a Q of 15. At no single moment did the CPU load exceed 85%. Where the sound is concerned, the following. If you use the sonic transporter as intended, using a network audio interface like the Sonori or SOtM models or other endpoints connected over the network, the sonic transporter doesn't sound. Meaning that there is no sound quality difference with other well built audio servers in the same situation. Only when you connect the DAC directly to it, the sound quality will be influenced. Don't forget that the hardware is just a good vanilla computer. It's not better or worse than an Intel NUC running Rune Rock or Rune Nuculus Plus. Only if you use a computer that is specially tweaked for audio or a streamer built to do the server part as well, you might get results equal to using a networked audio interface. A rather expensive way to go. I receive many questions on this topic and will dive deeper into this next month. The US price is 795 dollars. European viewers keep in mind that prices in the States are always excluding sales tax, as where in Europe vendors are obliged to publish prices including sales tax called VAT. Also realize that the sonic transporter i5 comes with an operating system. I know, if you're computer savvy, you could use Rune Rock or Linux and that's free. But for those that are not, be aware that even mounting a drive in Linux system can take you an hour or more if you don't know anything about Linux. Been there, done it. I've been looking around and found a silent NUC and when configured identically it costed 1000 euros. If you want to save money, go for a NUC with a forced cooling and step back to an Intel Core i3 processor if your music library isn't big and you don't want to do DSP functions. What you can't buy separately is a sonic orbiter server version. And although I have installed Rune Rock many times for my testing and for people in the trade that rather have me do it, I enjoy the almost plug and play approach small green computers have. For reference I will place links to the other reviews of servers en keep a keen eye for other interesting servers. So if you're interested in more of these, subscribe to this channel or follow me on twitter, facebook of google plus. If you like this video, please consider supporting the channel through Patreon or Paypal. Any financial support is much appreciated. The links are in the comments. Help you to help even more people enjoy music at home by telling your friends on the web about this channel. I'm Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theHBproject.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music.


Hello friends and welcome back to another episode of our VGC 2020 battle series My name is Lee also known as Osiris and today on the channel We're gonna be featuring a team based all around the dragon type gudra Now gudra is a dragon type that in my opinion is a little underused in this format It is an incredibly strong tanky Pokemon that has some offensive pressure as well We went with an assault vest in this team build and paired up with the whimsicott there for the speed control And then partnering that with the ex-gadrill the persimian chandelier and rounding the team off with vanilla So it's a bit of a fun team that we're gonna be featuring today But I'm kind of hoping that we come up against some Sun teams because Sun at the minute is pretty popular and And gudra does an incredible job. It's got that SAP strength Ability, you know immune to grass types and particularly immune to sleep powder So making it very strong against things like Venus With the assault vest very strong against Charizard can hit back for good damage It's got the sludge bomb the max use there as well to boost its own attack And then we've got fake tears as well and the whimsicott to pair up with that nice tailwind So we've got a lot of options in the team As always there will be a rental team at the end of the episode as well as a poker paste in the description So if you guys want to try out the team stick around till the end of the episode and you can pick that up And if you do try it definitely let me know what your thoughts are on the team And I hope you have a lot of fun with it either way Now we've got our first opponent of the episode and running team of whimsicott malamar Exkidrill Sylveon Indeedy and Lapras, so we've got some shenanigans going on here. You know, you've got the Malamar. It's got that contrae ability so Any drops that it would potentially get are turned into boosts got to be very careful around that Pokemon in particular Not a great too many ways to hit that for super effective damage because we've not got a very type of our own in The team apart from the the whimsicott where we could potentially make use of it there Whimsicott on the opposing side of the field as well with a speed control potentially Victors charm to boost that malamar even further. So we've got to be very careful around that and this is where something like Redirection would be really useful for us, but we don't have that so we're gonna have to look at different ways to get around this Pokemon so And what are we gonna do? I think we want to lead with whimsicott for sure Um whimsicott and we could potentially there's no Yeah, we could potentially go we're gonna have to lock in really quickly. Um Oh, we're not even running out of time. This is a classic classic start to the episode giving ourselves a handicap to begin with and and literally just because i'm talking way too much but It's all right. We're leading off with the gudra and the whimsicott They're the kind of key parts of this team there where I started with the team We built up around that pairing up Um, some other interesting pokemon with these two to help us around some particularly difficult match ups Uh, as we were saying and we talked the majority of the time about that malamar that is what we're gonna see coming out first for my opponent Um, it's gonna be very very very very very difficult to deal with for sure. Um Um We probably want to get rid of the the opposing whimsicott as soon as we can Um in all honesty like if I can just double into that now They'll probably tailwind But I want to like if they do tailwind that's great because then they're not boosting there. They're malamar um Further than what we want it to um And if it is maxing that's fine because Honestly, it's not gonna have access to like superpower and things like that which would be more Threatening more more detrimental to us. I guess in this situation. So we'll see My opponent does from their end. I'm kind of hoping that we can get rid of remove the whimmy straight away That's what we kind of want to be doing. Hopefully the malamar goes for max darkness. Maybe max Like psychic. I don't know. Mindstorm. I don't know. I could try and set the terrain I guess it kind of prevents our whimsicott from doing very much Although we can't really do much to the malamar anyway because of its dark typing. Um, we are going to see a charm Which is not ideal. So there's going to be plus two attack straight off the bat This is why we want to get rid of the um The whimsicott as soon as possible because we're going to see the smack dog miss Three plus two just not great and does a massive chunk to agudra Um We are going to get the max use we'll get rid of the whimsicott And we still got access to our tail in this next turn. We really want it and we get the at least a boost special attack boost so That's good. I feel really threatened though from this malamar straight away and it's a bit of a pain it's like It's such a difficult pokemon to deal with especially when like it's fine if you've got a fairy type in your team Like 100% really like all day along.  I think we've got to go for the Max Flare, I hope it's not Sashed Exkidrill and go for Tailwind, where that wins the cut. If we can get rid of the Exkidrill here, well we're going to see it protect. We are going to probably lose Gudra in the process, but we potentially break a Sash on the Exkidrill. That's not the worst thing in the world. Okay so it's not too bad. Marmar, Max Rockfall, huh? Okay well I'm going to boost the Exkidrill speed, but it doesn't actually take down our Gudra. Okay so we do actually get through the turn, which isn't the worst thing in the world, although Exkidrill now going to be in a position to pick up the knockout onto our Gudra this next turn, because it's going to be, uh, going to be Sand Force for sure. Now what Pokemon have we got in the back? Because we didn't select the Pokemon, did we? So it doesn't make it that good either. We've got Exkidrill to see me in. But the weakness policy on Exkidrill, so we could potentially get our weakness policy cropped, and then we've got to hope that we are going to be faster than the opposing Exkidrill, which we might be. If that's Sand Force and it's Adamant, we're jolly.  Now do we preserve our Whimsicott and bring in Persimian to sack that? Persimian, what can we do to the Malamaw? We could knock it off. Maybe that's not a bad idea, because we bring the Persimian in, hopefully we take, like we get through this turn. Okay, then the next turn we take down the Exkidrill, get a knock-off into the Malamaw. Get rid of whatever item it's got, do some decent damage, put it into Moonblast, kill range, get Wimmy back in, knock that thing out when it's not Dynamax anymore, and happy days, that's that would be ideal. Doesn't look like that's gonna be what's happening here as we see an earthquake come out from the Exkidrill, and it's gonna be lipled. Max Mindstorm, it's into Exkidrill, okay, that's perfect, alright, that's not the worst thing in the world. Unless that is like, well no, no, unless it is Jolly Sand Force, Sand Rush. I don't think it's gonna be, I really don't, I really don't think it's gonna be Jolly, like you just got Adam in Sand Rush, that is the optimal like nature, unless you're in this exact situation, and then, and then you're better off going for Jolly, but I think we might, with the tail wind up, we might have to beat it. The problem is if they protect here on our tail wind. Gonna go into the knock-off, I'm gonna just go for the play that we talked about, I think that's the way that we can get back into this game. So we do actually have to beat the opposing Exkidrill, that's perfect, okay, ideal, get rid of that threat, there's a Sand Rush, so it was Adam in, unless we did speed time, get the knock-off, and do decent damage now, it's in Moon Blast Range, we'll get rid of the Solvus as well, now we probably will lose, oh, oh, okay, Simeon going down, I prefer this because I kind of want to keep Exkidrill, like out of the two, Exkidrill is probably the one that I'd prefer to keep. Now the Marmal's definitely 100% in Moon Blast Range now, so it all comes down to what my opponent's last Pokemon is. We'll get the Rank Master, Whims are caught in, right, come on, could be worse, it definitely could be worse, do a Rock Slide or do I just Iron Head the Lapras? Rock Slide could miss, I'm gonna Iron Head, and I'm gonna go for the Moon Blast into the Marmal, and hope it doesn't have, yeah it does not protect, okay, so we'll get rid of the Marmal, thankfully, okay, but it's not over, we've got to deal with this Lapras now, Lapras is like one of those Pokemon that you just don't want, you know, we want the flinch, that's what we want, we want that flinch, come on, get the flinch, we get it, yes, come on, the RNG gods are constantly shining down on us, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, okay, we're fine now, because the Moon Blast and Iron Head will be able to get it, and guys it's all about believing in the RNG, that's all you got to do, you got to believe in the RNG and the RNG will come to you, it's like a weird religion, if you've got pure faith then you'll always get it, you get the special attack drop as well, which is a little unfortunate for my opponent, yeah, and then we do pick up the wind, so whoosh, come through, unscathed, get past that Malmo, so scary in the beginning, and considering that we didn't even lock in a team to start with, that was pretty lucky, but I mean we'll take it and I guess it shows that the team can work with that mode for Pokemon as well, so we get a good old bomb mushroom for our troubles there, and we'll move on to our next opponent and hopefully we can keep the streak going, hopefully we can, that would be ideal, come on, come on, but I do really love Gudra, I would like to, like if you've played Gudra this season it'd be great to hear your opinions on it, like drop a comment down below and let me know, I do really like it's one of those Pokemon that I always look at and I always think I need to build around Gudra and I never do, and it gets to the normally the end of the season and I'm like why haven't I touched Gudra, it's such a good Pokemon, and then you see players coming along with it at certain points, especially when sun is such a powerful thing, and it does so well, so it's good to get into it now and let's not get into the trap of not going into team preview until it's like 20 seconds left, so we've got our next opponent Whimsicott Lapras, Incineroar, Durant, Gothatel, and Snorlax, so kind of a hybrid trick room, Tailwind team, lots of bulky Pokemon, big threats in the Durant of course, fake out in the Incineroar and the Gothatel, I'd imagine we'd probably see Gothatel Durant lead here for my opponent potentially, what are we gonna do though, what are we gonna do, couldn't bring, would it be better to bring Shandler here maybe, but she gets to Durant potentially, because we could go with Shandler Gudra, and then me and Pissimi in here isn't bad, but I don't expect my opponent to lead Incineroar because we've got that, I think let's go with Winnie and Excudrill, yeah okay let's lock in, I feel like team preview, I feel like I need another 90 seconds in team preview, I talk way too much and yeah I'm just trashing the place now, yeah I talk way too much, I'm talking way too much today, it's probably because I'm quite excited to get recording again today because it's been a little well it's been nearly weeks since I've put a battle series episode up, so obviously I enjoy these days, hopefully I can get some more time to do more of these videos, I've got like a bunch of teams ready to go, I just need some and literally just need a bunch of battle points so I can get some mints to get these Pokemon ready, so starting next month they're going to be exciting, we've got the Durant and the Whims are caught up by my opponent, they've got to go into Shandler right, they've got to go into Shandy, they have to, they have to, like I'm going to come into Excudrill, I'm going to Max and go Max Flare into the Durant, because we should take a Max Rockfall, if that's what comes out, we might see a Max Quick from the Durant of course, so that's a like it's a definite possibility and if it is that you know you have to just take that on the chin and it's like we've made that decision, I'm kind of wanting to keep Shandler around rather than lose it, it's a nice trick room option for us if we need it and it's a nice way for us to reverse the trick and we do see it come out from my opponent, you're going to see the Durant Max, I mean if we get this Max Flare off into the Durant even with a special defensive boost, I can't see it surviving that, like unless it's like seriously invested, um I just, yeah I don't know, doesn't feel like it's gonna, we're going to see Tailwind, tickle, okay well we're losing Excudrill, that's fine, that's fine, Max Quick, no Max Rockfall, that's better, that's better for us, because the Max Quick would give the special defense boost, we don't want to have to deal with that and it does mean that we uh, that good old Excudrill lives to see another day, so that is ideal for us as we get the Max Flare off with our Goudre doing some work and uh, wow, wow, it actually takes it, ha, let's focus Sasha, okay that's a cheap, that's a cheap move, how dare you, I'm not allowed to do that, um all right, uh I think we just rocks, did we rock slide at all, just iron head with Durant, um we're gonna rock slide, it's a little risky because we could miss the Durant but I don't feel like we're gonna and I'm gonna go for a Max Wyrment into Durant, wow, we're gonna switch out, they want to preserve it for later, okay, that's interesting, it comes in, Snorlax, all right, that's fine, I'm gonna see the Wimzacot couple, no tickle, just feeling, feeling very generous with these tickles today, this Wimzacot, okay well, we've got a rock slide, it's not gonna do much, it chips down a little bit, nice damage onto the Snorlax there with a crit and a bit of damage onto the Wimzacot, Max Wyrment here is pretty nice because now it does put the Snorlax, it does increase its attack, I'll put that minus one there, and we're in a really, you know, we're in a really nice position this next turn to potentially go for a Max Ooze, we're gonna see the Snorlax go for a belly drum, for sure, it's definitely what I'm gonna see, it's just kind of like we could get rid of the Wimzacot, it's probably better if we do, we'll go for the chandelier in place of the extra drill, we set those tickles and we'll go for a Max Ooze into the Wimzacot, get rid of it, and then we've got our own Wimzacot in the back, I do think that the Snorlax is gonna go for the belly drum here though, you would imagine that's the set that it is, especially with the berry, do you see another tickle here, it's all the Wimmy's doing so I don't mind that, we do get a special attack boost onto our chandelier, interesting to see what the Snorlax goes for, likelihood is though, we're gonna have to probably sacrifice something to switch the Shandy out to get Wimzacot onto the field so we can get a tailwind, that should give us, ooh, yarn Snorlax, nice, I like, I like, okay I do like that a lot, our Goudre is in a tough spot here, especially if Duran comes in now, that's gonna be Lackress, really don't mind that actually, because I can just switch our Goudre now and get X-Gadrill onto the field, just heat wave, I mean why would I not do that, plus one with our chandelier, chandelier is like the most ridiculously strong special attack, oh one of the the strongest special attackers in the game, we've got the sun up as well, so we're gonna be doing a lot of damage, Shandy can take this home for us, pretty sure right now, so we'll get the X-Gadriller, we'll ignore that yarn, this is thick fat Snorlax which would make sense, you know, it's gonna be able to take it a little bit better, so wow we'll do some nice damage there and it is gonna be the yarn into the chandelier, so that's fine, kind of would prefer not to not have chandelier go to sleep, we're gonna bring in Wimmy, because this will give us the opportunity now to get the tail wind up with Wimsacott and even though we have got the plus one special attack, it is a little bit annoying that we have to reset that, but I mean the grand scheme of things is fine, like aiming to get Wimmy onto the field so we can get a tail wind up, so we can deal with the Durant better, because the Durant coming onto the field is pain in the butt because of its speed here, so we're gonna see a Hydro Pump, X-Gadriller does avoid but I'd stand by us taking that in the sun and that would only proc our weakness policy, so you know it does seem quite fortunate for us, I mean it's fine because now we just get a tail wind up and we go for, we just go for an iron head, we don't need to risk anything, we don't need to risk on for the the rock slide here, the Durant does protect and the thing is even if X-Gadriller goes down to a Hydro Pump right, it's fine, we get a switch into Shandriller and we can just get rid of the Elapris that way, so there's the iron head, Hydro Pump it does connect, but I mean we don't even need to do that really, you know we just bring in Goudre, we just moonblast the Durant and then we thunderbolt Elapris and Goudre can finish this game off for us, so that's gonna be pretty nice, right I do love you Goudre, Goudre is great, Goudre is so great, moonblast into the Durant, we'll be able to get rid of it there and then thunderbolt into the Lapras or to the Lapras have the weakness policy and just clean up this game, it's gonna happen, nah it's not gonna happen, it's alright, we've got fake tears as well, so we'll be able to deal this Lapras, whatever happens, I don't think it's gonna be able to knock out Goudre even plus two, that's decent damage, this is something like Lapras and there's the weakness policy, so we called it, we called it, is it gonna bite us, here we go here's a freeze drive, see some tasty damage there, it's good but it's not strong enough because now we can just go for fake tears and then another thunderbolt and that is gonna be game, so we do pick up two wins with the Goudre team which is amazing and we've got to kind of see some nice options there from the Goudre, also other members of the team performing really well you know, I'm actually quite happy with the two matches that we've kind of showcased today, it's showing the elements of the team and different parts of it, I think we featured all six, have we featured all six Pokemon in the team today, um maybe, maybe, maybe we left one out, I don't know but it feels like we have, like I said at the start of the episode I will be doing a rental code for this team and what I haven't realized as well, when you take a rental code away and don't make it public anymore which is really frustrating because you can only ever post six rental teams at one time, so the old rental teams that I posted from previous videos, I've had to take down to post new ones which is really frustrating because I didn't realize that in the time now people are watching old videos, so what I'm going to try and do is run through my shield copy and then all the old rental teams that I've had that are unfortunately taken down, I'm going to put back up on my shield copy and I'll post those out as soon as I've done that and so that is a way for us to have like at least 12, 12 rental teams at a time and you know the format will kind of move on so there will be points where all the teams won't be as relevant anymore, manage teams to share so we need to get rid of something here which is questionable which one do we want to get rid of because you know, I'm guessing players are using like all of them really, I mean the talk stress to team one is probably one to maybe get rid of, the Grim Snarl I definitely don't want to get rid of that just yet, the newer ones probably not so yeah we're gonna have to I think get rid of this one, don't make public and you know it's not like I've not got these Pokemon anymore, I've still got all the Pokemon, the teams are all there so it's just a case of me trading them over to shield and then creating the new rental teams so the one for this week is this one so we want to make this Guja team public and there we go so it should be good, Vanillux was the only one that we didn't really get to feature today which is a little bit sad because I do love Vanillux, it's a really good Pokemon and we can have a look at this one here and there is the rental team my friends so have a lot of fun with it if you do try it remember I did ask let me know what you think of the team have a lot of fun and I hope you do and leave a drop a like on the video if you've enjoyed this episode do subscribe to the channel for more of this content more news updates and things like that all Pokemon orientated and we'll be back very soon with another video and until then my friends all I'm going to say is thanks for tuning in have a great rest of your day and I'll see you all for the next one so until then take care and bye bye


Hey, it's Herman here again on Artlist, and for the first seven years of my career, I was too scared to jump into freelance. I think the biggest thing holding me back was my lack of self-confidence in selling myself. But going freelance turned out to be the best decision for my career. Now, you've probably heard most people tell you to cold email like there's no tomorrow or to attend networking events. But I wanna share a different view based off my personal journey. So let's dive into three key tips that could change the way that you think about finding work as a freelancer. Tip one is to focus on improving your craft. Now, picture yourself as a blacksmith, aiming to forge the perfect sword. The more that you practice, the sharper your swords become. Before graduating high school, I was pushed towards careers that I had zero interest in. You know, the usual expectations of being a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, but I took a leap of faith and I disappointed my parents by choosing video creation as my path. And boy, did I practice. I made videos for free, for peanuts, and even just for myself, because I really loved it. Learning and performing magic tricks was also a big hobby of mine, so combining that with video creation, I'd make these experimental montage videos that I am now glad are just hidden in the deepest corners of YouTube, but each video that I made was an opportunity to try new camera techniques, new editing styles, and it was just really rewarding watching my skills grow over the years. Yes, building relationships is important, but my journey was more like a solo adventure, a quest for self-improvement. All I had on my mind was creating the best videos I possibly could, and trust me, there's no better feeling than knowing that you've made a video that you can be proud of and leaves a lasting impression on your audience. It's like what the legendary actor Steve Martin said, be so good they can't ignore you. That is the attitude I had, because for me, making videos is always a passion before it's a job. As a side effect, I made so many videos and my portfolio grew like crazy before I knew it. The pattern I found was that clients were most impressed with videos that were both visually stunning and had great sound design. Using Artlist helped me create my best work by having a vast music library and high quality assets. Using their songs, sound effects, footage and templates made a world of difference in adding that extra polish to my work. Check them out if you're also embracing your inner blacksmith and you wanna make the best videos you possibly can. Tip two is to make yourself discoverable. You know that guy at the corner of a party trying to blend in with the wallpaper? That was like my relationship with social media for most of my career. I was too focused on my craft to care about being in the spotlight, but around the time that I transitioned to freelance, something clicked. I realized that most creators that I admire would share their work and their process online. Thanks to their inspiring Instagram posts and valuable YouTube tutorials, my work became what it is today. So you know what I did? I still didn't post my videos because my crippling imposter syndrome made me feel like that they would never be good enough to share. It was like stage fright without the stage. That is when Austin Cleon's book, Show Your Work, came at the perfect time in my life to get over that nasty feeling of self-promotion. One of the chapters was think process, not product. Reading it inspired me to treat my posts as works in progress as opposed to like, look at my finished masterpiece. So I started posting behind the scenes of my work in tutorials based on my own experience. It's something that I did consistently and still continue to do. This shift in mentality not only made me more discoverable but it also allowed me to give back to the creative community that helped me grow. In the process, clients could now see what I was capable of and they started reaching out to me instead of the other way around, including Artlist. I wouldn't be here making this video if they hadn't found me on my Instagram and YouTube.  But having some degree of online presence makes it so much easier for your talents to be discovered. So tip number two is to take advantage of how easy it is to now promote yourself by just showing your work. Finally, tip three is to build strong relationships with your existing clients. I used to think freelance saying was like a bee buzzing from flower to flower, hopping between jobs and clients. But in reality, I found myself building solid foundations with a select few of my existing clients. Why? Because they were a dream to work with and we both benefited from consistent work. Now picture yourself as a gardener, tending to a plot of various plants. Instead of stretching yourself thin, trying to care for every single seedling, you choose to focus on nurturing a feel that grow into strong thriving plants. And that's what I aim for with my clients. I make sure to meet or exceed their expectations, deliver on time and maintain open communication. While it's tempting to treat each client as a potential cash cow, it's essential to resist that mindset. What helped me instead was to focus on helping one another achieve our goals. When you approach your clients with empathy, like a caring friend, you'll find that not only do they appreciate your work more, but you'll also enjoy working with them. So be that gardener, tend to your relationships carefully and watch your opportunities grow. And those are the three secret ingredients that turned my freelance career from a terrifying leap of faith to a rewarding adventure. Instead of worrying about hunting for my next job, I'm happy to say that I'm at a place in my career that works so well for me. And I'm confident these tips can help you attract the right clients, enjoy a steady stream of work, and most importantly, be proud of the creator that you've become. Otherwise, make sure to check out Artlist for all your video creating needs and subscribe to the channel so that you don't miss the next video. Until next time, keep practicing, sharing your work and building those relationships.


Today we're in 2 Samuel chapter 17 and we're going to be looking at what has been referred to as Disaster on Absalom you're going to see that as we go through this passage together Because it's the Lord's intent to deal with Absalom the son of David who is attempting to destroy David his father and to and to usurp his authority He's already stolen the kingdom from his father and so Chapter 17 deals with that and so let's begin reading at verse 1 2nd Samuel 17 will read to verse 3 and get into our study Moreover a hithifal said to Absalom Now let me choose 12,000 men and I will arise and pursue David tonight. I Will come upon him while he is weary and weak and make him afraid and all the people who are with him will flee and I Will strike only the king Then I will bring back all the people to you When I'll return except the man whom you seek all the people will be at peace now as we've been going through Samuel We've discovered a few things one as we know that that king David at this point has has had to flee the city of Jerusalem because His son Absalom has made a decision that he wants to take the kingdom from his father And so Absalom has entered into the city as David has exited it Because he knew that if he were to remain David would possibly lose his life He would certainly lose the life of some of the people who were with him and Therefore he felt it wiser for him to leave the city in which he did and to travel to the east Now he didn't leave alone. He brought citizens with him. He brought his his bodyguard as well as a variety of military men and As he was going not only did they travel with him, but there were others who wanted to accompany him We we saw how the priests had wanted to come with him how that Abiathar and Zadak had wanted to come how their two sons Jonathan and and Ahimaz had wanted to come along with him it but David had said to them no you remain in the city of Jerusalem and You can actually be my eyes and my ears if you hear something's going on you can have it sent to me and And that would be of greater help if you were to remain behind then for you to travel with me then David encountered one of his friends an older man by the name of Hushai and Hushai wanted to travel with him. He's a dear friend of David been a counselor for many years to him But he was an older man and he would hinder his travel. He would have been a burden to him And so so David says to Hushai no you remain behind and and and you can once again You can become like eyes and ears and if there's anything you hear that's taking place Let me know and so that's what is taking place. He is left behind the priest He's left behind his counselor Hushai as as this is all taking place now At the same time Absalom has a counselor counselor who formerly was the counselor to David a man by the name of a hithafel a Hithafel hates David. He has a deep resentment for him because a Hithafel's granddaughter Bathsheba was the one that David had taken committed adultery with impregnated and it was her husband Uriah that David had made sure had died and and so Hithafel who at one time had been a counselor to David is now angry at him and desires him to die The Bible tells us in Proverbs chapter 10 verse 12 that hatred stirs up strife And that's exactly what is taking place in the heart of a hithafel and a hithafel begins now to instead of advised David he begins now to be an advisor to his son Absalom Now as he has advised Absalom one of the things he has told him to do is To take the wives rather the concubines of King David ten of them who are left behind when David fled Jerusalem and Directed tent on top of the house on the roof of the house So that all Israel would see when he went in and had physical relations with these concubines now He was doing that in order that he might openly declare that he was the one who was occupying the throne a Hithafel was the one who said for him to do that and during that time I hit the hithafel's advice was so good that that people would line up to receive it remember verse 23 in chapter 16 How it said the advice of a hithafel which he gave in those days was as as if one has had inquired at the Oracle of God So was all the advice of a hithafel both with David and with Absalom And so he was known for having wise counsel and he's the one who had counseled Absalom to do what he did in Order that he might he might cause The nation of Israel to know that David no longer was in charge and and that Absalom himself was and so we get into chapter 17 and now as we enter into chapter 17 a hithafel is given advice and notice with me in verse 1 The advice he begins to give it says here in chapter 17 verse 1 a hithafel said to Absalom now Let me choose 12,000 men and I will arise and pursue David tonight And so basically what he's saying is this one I I want to be appointed a general in your army I want you to give to me 12,000 Soldiers whom I can lead and and as I take them and I lead them what we're going to do is We're going to go and we're going to take care of the business that needs to be taken care of now The bottom line is is he wants something to be done quickly because it may be that he's afraid that that Absalom if given too much time Might not want to kill his father Then he might not want to take care of business with his father You see a hithafel wants David dead and Absalom at this time is doing everything he can to consolidate his power there in Jerusalem and so if a hithafel can take 12,000 men a large force of military might and Attack David in a surprise fashion and make sure David is dead Then he's going to be able to get his vengeance on David because a hithafel wants David dead And he's afraid that it's possible that that Absalom might show mercy and that's why he's giving him this advice He wants to take care of business and he's afraid that David might show mercy around the David might find mercy from Absalom If he doesn't deal with them quickly bottom line is that that time has a tendency of healing all wounds as they say And and if you give this enough time Absalom may lose the fire in his heart against his father and in doing so David may find mercy at the hands of Absalom. It's better to take care of business now than later on now So what he says to him is he says let me do that notice in verse 2 He says I'll come upon him while he is weary and weak and make him afraid and so listen David is tired because of the energy expended in leading the people out of the city and Fatigue has a tendency of leading to despair and sorrow and grief and and and if David is in sorrow and grief and despair Then David may lose his resolve if he loses his resolve. He'll be easier to take. He's tired right now Just give me opportunity to come upon him and his anxiety is surely going to overcome any resolve you might have It's interesting how Proverbs 12 25 says anxiety in the heart of man causes depression When people are under a lot of stress and strain and David indeed was It's it's possible for them to not think clearly and and a hit the fell knows that and so he's simply saying to Absalom Don't give him time to rest and recuperate You need to act quickly deal with it now and allow me to take these 12,000 men and we'll take care of business immediately Not only that he's saying when David is is killed It will demoralize all those who are following after him why because they'll no longer have a leader and without a leader They'll simply lose heart. They'll have nobody to direct them. It's like Zechariah 13 7 says strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered If you give me an opportunity, I'll go in I'll take David It'll demoralize Israel and Israel will become yours even in a greater way and notice in verse 2 How he says I will strike down only the king in other words I'm the one who's going to do it Absalom. You're not the one who's going to be responsible for the killing of your father I'll do it and I'll take responsibility for it now This is going to provide an excuse for Absalom's conscience because it's a horrible thing for a son to kill a father and Then he goes on in verse 3 and says and I'll bring back all the people to you When I'll return except the man whom you seek in other words, they're going to return to you and consider you to be king and that's going to happen because The man whom you seek will be dead now. I want you to see this real quickly here Notice he speaks of David as the man whom you seek He doesn't call David his father Because that might make Absalom have second thoughts He doesn't want to take he doesn't want to say I'll go and kill your father because it'll make Absalom start thinking about the fact that David indeed is his father When I was in the military many years ago in the Civil War When I was in the in the military The our drill sergeants and those who trained us and I have veterans in here and perhaps is still true I'm certain that it is Those who were training us would use words to describe the enemy That were words that were racial slights. They were racial slights. They called them names Seeing that we were at war with the Vietnamese at that time the Vietnamese were given names Because it's a it's a it's a tactic that has been used. I guess in every every war that's ever been fought is the enemy is Dehumanized they're given a different name because if you give them a different name then something inside of your mind psychologically Responds to the name and not to the fact that this is a person with a family and a history and in dreams and desires But when he's simply called this name you have a tendency I think of just forgetting that you're killing a person and so that's how it works in war It has always been that way I hit the fell doesn't want to say your father's gonna die Because if he says your father's gonna die that could cause absalom to begin to consider the fact that is my father How can I go about killing my own father? But if he says to him well that man whom you seek it depersonalizes the whole thing It's just a guy that needs to die and so he's saying to him look It will take care of this and the result will be the nation will be in peace and the nation will be in peace because people forget quickly They're gonna forget how much they love the king David they will forget because people have a tendency of doing that We know that to be true to this day, don't we you know? Somebody who's a hero today is tomorrow's villain the person that everybody thinks and admires and looks at Today it thinks is wonderful today as somebody that tomorrow they may forget immediately just think about it It's true in all of our public life Think about the music that you listen to today and think about the music that you might have listened to 10 years or 15 years ago Or whatever your age may be and and things change over the years There are a lot of things that remain the same but a lot changes and the people that were so cool and so great And the styles that were so cool and great look at them now You know like the hippies that the hippie garb is is making a comeback But the 80s stuff, you know the orange pants and the you know those those pants that hammer used to wear I Hope they never come back man They were ugly and orange and and all of that you know But you see it and at one time you you just had to have that you had to have that clothing or you had to Have that song or that person was the greatest thing in the box office great hero, you know and all that's just the way It is that's just how it is for us. We forget quickly You know in a couple weeks. We're gonna have a national holiday It's it's Easter Christmas and Super Bowl Sunday in the United States and we it's a religious holiday We have all of our friends over we even have communion chips and salsa I mean that's what happens on Super Bowl Sunday, right and your neighborhood is gonna be filled with people watching the game That's what happens. It's on Sunday and people who show up and and that's how it works And and there are a lot of people are very devoted to that. They love that game They love getting together and it's really in a time that they look forward to and they will tell you all All about it. They love it the commercials and everything else. They enjoy it very much But the interesting thing about that is they forget because if you ask a person who's really into it I'm not saying somebody who's an expert who makes a living about speaking of this I'm saying somebody who really likes them and enjoys going to the Super Bowl parties and all of that if you ask them Who was a Super Bowl champion 18 years ago? What was the score? What were the teams that played? Who was the MVP? Well, most people don't know that Because immediately you start thinking 18 years ago. I don't remember who what that's just the way it was That's the way it is with us. Most people can't do that Most people don't remember who even last year won that's just wait is because last year is so last year What we're looking for is this year. Who's gonna win this year? That's what people are and so David was a hero of Israel But Absalom has taken over and if you can have David kill the hith fellah saying if he can be put to death The people will forget quickly who he was they'll return to you and you're gonna be the king and all of this Is his plan because he wants David to die Now notice verse 4 the saying pleased Absalom and all the elders of Israel This council advising Absalom as they're listening to the advice of a hith fell are all pleased with it because they see This has been a good plan No, it's interesting because what you're seeing here is a plan to basically surprise the king at night and kill him It's one of these plans where you seize the moment instead of waiting simply and To wait instead of waiting and that made sense And and also he would be reminding day Absalom David was a decisive leader When something was in front of David his history was that he would respond to it Quickly and so he's basically saying listen Absalom your father is decisive Seize the moment But one of the things that he is not presenting and this is very important When David made decisions remember as you've studied with me through first and second Samuel David had a tendency of inquiring of the Lord first He prayed first. He didn't just go out and make decisions normally David normally especially in areas of battle would first seek the Lord in prayer I want you to notice that a hith fell is not saying that you need to inquire of the Lord whether this is good or not He wants to usurp the authority of God as he gives this advice to Absalom now Why would he do that? He hated David Why would Absalom be in favor of that? Because he was angry at his father. They both had something in common and that was a bitterness towards David both of them Listen, this isn't something that just came up in the life of Absalom and certainly something that didn't just come up in the life of a hith fell The bottom line is years have passed and It took years for this anger to build up And I want to speak to you about something that I think is very practical at this moment something that I think that all of us if we listen can actually learn from We need to remember something about David We need to remember that David was a just king and That David was a loving though ineffective father Nobody would argue that in the history of David that David didn't try and rule righteously because he did and Nobody would argue that David didn't love his children because David did David loved his kids and he loved his nation but the problem was is that David though is a loving father was ineffective and so Absalom was angry Over his father's actions that dated back with his half-brother Amnon and his sister Tamar because when Amnon raped Absalom's full sister Tamar his father David didn't do anything about it and That is something that remained stuck in the heart of Absalom a Hithafal had been carrying anger towards David for years Because David had committed adultery with the Hithafal's granddaughter Bathsheba and as I've said earlier Worked in in such a way that a raya her husband had died And that is something that has been in his heart for some time when you think about it when David fell with Bathsheba it took her nine months Till she finally gave birth and some commentators say that the child was already two or three months old when the child died So that could be as much as a year out of a life of Bathsheba That would be included in the anger of a Hithafal We know that the child died when the baby was around a year old and then a year after that Solomon was born now after that Tamar was raped and Absalom her brother waited for two years and then he killed Amnon then he fled for three Then he returned to two years of isolation in Jerusalem It could have been in the case of Bathsheba and a Hithafal that around ten years have passed and In the life of Absalom several years have passed so what you have here in a practical way is Anger that is unresolved that is bitterness that is Causing them to say the only solution is the death of David That's what bitterness does in a person's heart You see Absalom and a Hithafal are motivated by anger and an unforgiving heart And it's all coming from the inside of them somebody once said nothing External to you has any power over you. This is all coming from inside. This is all what's taking place within them When Jesus was speaking on one occasion, it's found in Mark chapter 7 verses 21 through 23 Jesus said from within out of men's hearts come evil thoughts sexual immorality theft murder adultery greed malice deceit lewdness envy slander arrogance and folly all these evils come from inside and Make a man unclean. It's what's inside of us. It's what comes out of us It's not what's coming on towards us It's what's coming from us and from these people from Absalom and a bimlich there is this rather a Bimlich and a Hithafal what you have here is an anger of the heart that is causing them To to plan the death of a man who was a loving father, but ineffective and a good king Listen, if we don't deal with the anger that we carry sometimes within us We're capable of doing almost anything bottom line If we don't deal with the bitterness that some of us if you have right now We've been experiencing for some time then the end result in our life is going to be nothing but pain bottom line That's how it works. You know, some of us are like debt collectors. We you know somebody has hurt us and we basically keep that debt in the back of our mind and And whenever we have future dealings with them The only thing that we can remember is what they did to us Even if it was three years five years ten years or 20 years ago It stays with us. We don't let it go We hold on to it and and a lot of the times the ones who have hurt us don't even remember what they did It is us who keeps that flame that fire burning It's it is us. It's within us that keeps that desire for revenge.   We have to release it We have to let it go because if we don't it will consume us and in the life of a Hithafel and Absalom There were years of holding to this anger to the degree that they finally were in agreement that David needed to die Well When this plan has been made and it brings pleasure to Absalom and all the elders to hear it notice verse 5 Absalom said Now call who shy the archite also and and let us hear what he says To now who shy was David's dear friend, but he wasn't part of the council that advised Absalom So he's inquired of now. He's called in and and they want to see whether or not he approves a Hithafel's advice It's possible that they think that who shy is going to confirm the council of a Hithafel And so they bring him in and what they do is they begin to speak to him notice verse 6 when who shy came to Absalom Absalom spoke to him saying a Hithafel has spoken in this manner Shall we do as he says if not speak up? He made a mistake here and And obviously the mistake was of the Lord because I want you to see verse 14 It says the advice of who shy the archite is better than the advice of a Hithafel for the Lord had proposed to defeat the good advice of A Hithafel to the intent that the Lord might bring disaster on Absalom Bottom line was that a Hithafel's advice was good, but I want you to see what he did what he did is when Absalom is Speaking to who shy Absalom tells him everything that a Hithafel had said and in telling him everything He's giving to who shy the opportunity to debate it He's giving him opportunity to hear what his plan is so that he can formulate Something that is contrary to that because that's what who shy is going to do see who shy is going to give advice to save David's life a wiser thing Would have been if a Hithafel would have called or rather Absalom would have called who shy in and Would have said to him I need some advice on how to to take out David Tell me what you think it would have been a better a smarter thing to do that But he betrayed he gave away his cards He showed him what he was holding and in doing so he actually gives it to who shy the opportunity to one know the plan and Two to countermand it When I would I do ministry very often what I'll do is if I'm looking for advice on on something is I will ask somebody what would you do about that or how would you handle this and I listen to him And I want to know everything and I'll ask him questions as they begin to speak so I can hear their plan and Then later on if I speak to somebody else, I'll ask the same question to them. I'm considering doing this this What do you think about it? How would you go about it? I don't say oh, I was speaking to so-and-so And he said we should do this we should do this we should do this we should do this What do you think is he right? I don't do that what I'll say is I want to do something What do you think give me your advice and then I compare the advice that I get Because somewhere in the middle there's going to be good advice and sometimes I'll take something here and something from here And I'll combine them and produce something that feels consistent with what I feel the Lord is leading us in what happened here Is that the advice of a hithafel was given completely to who shy? Absalom tells him and it gives to to who shy the opportunity to hear the advice and To to actually counter it and that's what he's about to do here Shall we do as he says if not speak up verse 7 so who shy said to absalom? The advice that a hithafel has given is not good at this time For said who shy you know your father and his men That they are mighty men and they are enraged in their minds like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field Your father's a man of war will not camp with the people Surely by now he's hidden in some pit or in some other place It will be when when some of them are overthrown at the first that whoever hears it will say there's a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom and even he who is valiant whose heart is like the heart of a lion will melt completely For all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man and those who are with him are valiant men Therefore I advise that all Israel be gathered to you from Dan, which is the north to bear sheba Which is south like the sand that is by the sea from multitude and that you go to battle in person So we will come upon him in some place where he may be found We will fall on him as the dew falls on the ground and of him and all the men who are with him There shall not be left so much as one Moreover if he has withdrawn into a city then all Israel shall bring ropes to that city And we will pull it into the river until there is not one small stone found there So Absalom and all the men of Israel said the advice of Hushai the archite is better than the advice of a hithafel For the Lord had purpose to defeat the good advice of a hithafel to the intent that the Lord might bring disaster on Absalom let's see what he says. Let's see how he deals with this The first thing I want you to see in verse 7 is he didn't say it wasn't good advice Notice that the advice that a hithafel has given is not good. He says at this time So instead of saying it's wrong He acknowledges that it's a good advice, but he doesn't agree with it in other words It's a diplomatic way of making a point without an immediate negative response You see direct confrontation often makes people defensive.  He's basically saying this is good advice But not for the moment. This is good advice, but not at this time Because a hither fell is standing there and if he says that's just terrible advice Then you're gonna have to debate point by point with a hither fell So he says it's good advice when he says it's good advice a hither fell is is basically Not being called into question. He's not being confronted It's his advice that's being spoken about at this time and as a result of that He's gonna remain silent as who shy begins to speak and so it's a diplomatic way of making a point without an immediate negative response He goes on in verse 8 and he says, you know your father and his men they're mighty men So by comparison he now reminds Absalom that David is a battle-tried warrior and Absalom is not And he's saying you know your father at least I do I know him from personal experience Your father and you need to know what your father does when he's cornered your father fights your father's not weary your father is not weak and he certainly is not afraid and Anyway as a battle-hardened veteran. He is not amongst the people right now. He's hidden in some pit. He's in some other place So if you send your forces into the camp, he's not even gonna be there.  Not only that, but the troops are gonna be enraged and They're gonna end up slaughtering a hither fell's troops because David's troops are inspired So instead of taking David by surprise a hither fell himself and his troops could end up dead That's gonna that's gonna upset your army and many of them may defect He goes on to say in verse 10 and even he was valiant whose heart is like the heart of a lion will melt completely When your men are routed, it'll cause even the most brave to become afraid and Your father will receive greater glory than he already has and you will look weak Therefore, I advise that you simply gather all of Israel together from the north to the south Because it's wiser to take the time to gather your forces from throughout Israel in order to be prepared This is also going to unify the nation to oppose David and you will be greatly respected It will also buy time for David And he's going to be able to rest and be prepared for such an encounter now as all of this is going down Verse 14 they like the advice of Hushai now. Why did they receive it? It's because he says God determined to undermine the counsel of a hither fell Even though it hit the fells advice was very good in the book of Job in chapter 5 verse 12 It says that God frustrates the devices of the crafty so that their hands cannot carry out their plans And that's what we see take place here the psalmist in Psalm 71 and 2 said and make haste Oh God to deliver me make haste to help me. Oh Lord. Let them be ashamed and confounded who seek my life Let them be turned back and confused who desire my heart and that's what the Lord does He confounds the advice he has purpose to defeat the good advice of a hither fell to the intent that the Lord might bring Disaster on Absalom and that's what's happening Absalom is going to be destroyed Now verse 15 Hushai said is the dock and Abiath are the priests Thus and so a hither fell advised Absalom and the elders of Israel and thus and so I have Advised now therefore send quickly and tell David saying do not spend this night in the plains of the wilderness But speedily cross over lest the king and all the people who are with them be swallowed up And so David's original purpose and leaving them behind is now fulfilled so they can bring information to him now verse 17 Jonathan and Ahimaz Stayed at Enragal for they dared not be seen coming into the city So a female servant would come and tell them and they would go and tell King David nevertheless Aladdin saw them and told Absalom But both of them went away quickly and came to a man's house in Bahurim Who had a well in his court and they went down into it Then the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth and spread around and spread ground grain on it And the thing was not known and when Absalom servants came to the woman at the house They said where are Ahimaz and Jonathan so the women said to them They've gone over the waterbrook and when they had searched and could not find them. They returned to Jerusalem Now it came to pass after they had departed that they came up out of the well Went told King David said to David arise cross over the water quickly for for thus has a hither fell advised against you So David and all the people who were with him arose and crossed over the Jordan by morning light Not one of them was left who had not gone over the Jordan now When a hither fell saw that his advice was not followed Saddle the donkey and arose and went home to his house to his city Then he put his household in order and hanged himself and died And he was buried in his father's tomb Why did he kill himself? I want to spend some time looking at this with you. Why did he kill himself? Well, the easy answer would be because he was angry that his advice was rejected There's truth to that Hushai Had given contrary advice a hither fell being a proud man would have been upset that his advice was not taken in a certain degree of Pride involved in that But is that why he would kill himself the answer has to be no why would you kill yourself because your advice was rejected? Has to go a little deeper How about this? How about the fact that he knows that Hushai's advice is going to lead to David's victory over Absalom? and That ultimately when David has victory over Absalom David's going to start coming looking for those who betrayed him and How about the fact that a hither fell is the one who was advising? Absalom concerning what to do and therefore would be concerned that David upon Capturing a hither fell would put him to death It would seem to me that the reason he goes out to kill himself Found its basis in the fact that he did not trust in the mercy that David might have shown him and in that I think he could have made a large mistake because David as much as as a warrior as he is and as as great as a general as he is is also known as a man of compassion David had been broken David had been broken over his sin with Bathsheba and Uraya David knew that he was bearing the Result of that because of God's word to him through Nathan the prophet David knew even when he was fleeing and shimei was there cursing him and throwing dirt in the air and throwing rocks at him David said perhaps his curses have been ordered of the Lord and maybe God will show me mercy as a result of this David had a humility of heart And here's where the mistake could have been made by by by by a hit the fell and that is It is possible that a hit the fell could have trusted that David might show him mercy and he did not have to go out and kill himself Because David was a man who was broken Men who are broken have a tendency of showing mercy to other men who are broken As I've said with you before when you're a young person you may think that you've got it all hammered down You've got it all down You you haven't failed in some ways. You're still young. You haven't had life opportunities You haven't had the greater temptations before you circumstances haven't surrounded you that make it seem easier to compromise than to speak the truth As you're growing older you find yourself in different situations different places and different hard decisions to make And sometimes we're not always successful In and holding fast to what we know is true and sometimes we can fail When you're first married you you're in your honeymoon phase and and everything seems to be good the first year or so You think everything's going fine After a while you begin to have children after a while you start to have more little more problems You start going through financial situations You start discovering things about one another that you didn't know when you were dating You didn't know some of the things that about that woman or that man when you were dating that come out once they're married Once that rings on their finger. I got you and this is who I really am You know when marie and I were dating and everything everything she liked. I liked too Everything kind of food. Do you like well? I like spaghetti. Oh man. I love spaghetti You know what kind of music do you like? I like western music hot dogs. So do I?   I knew everything I knew much more at 20 than I do now at 59 I knew everything. You know just ask me. You don't even have to ask me.  He was handsome. He was a songwriter He could sing like an angel.   There's no life There's no taste to life anymore.  I haven't forgotten yet wrap it back up and put it away again That's what people do with bitterness You can let it go but you don't it becomes a treasure You know where it is at any given moment and it can come out at any time It can come out in an argument. I remember what you did 15 years ago. I haven't forgotten yet I may forgive but I don't forget then you're not really forgiving Because you're holding on to something and you're using it as a wedge You're using it as a tool you're using it as a hammer a sword or an axe to take somebody's head off That's what you're doing with it and that person that you're bitter with will never ever know the joy of the forgiveness that you could have offered because you simply had a whole fast that a hithafal was willing to keep that till he killed himself over it We have to be careful about these kinds of things because they are destructive And he went on hanged himself I wonder what would have happened if a hithafal would have said I'm gonna cast myself in the mercy of david To see what david will do if I ask him to forgive me We'll never know because he killed himself Then david went to mahanim And absalom crossed over the jordan He and all the men of israel with him And absalom made amas a captain of the army instead of joab This amasa was the son of a man whose name was jithra and israelite Who had gone in to abagail the daughter of nahash the sister of zuruya joab's mother So israel and absalom encamped in the land of gilead The land of gilead is if you're looking at a map of israel you have the jordan river just over the eastern border Of the jordan there a little Region of jerusalem going up a bit is the land of gilead Now it happened when david had come to mahanim That show me the son of nahash from rawa of the people of amin mahir the The son of amiel from lodevar and brazilite The gileadite from roguelim brought beds and basins earth and vessels and wheat Barley and flour parched grain and beans lentils and parched seeds Honey and curds sheep and cheese of the herd for david and the people who are with him to eat For they said the people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness two things and will close amasa is now Appointed to replace joab as general over the army And it's interesting about this is that amasa is david's nephew He was born to david's sister abigale, which made him cousin of absalom joab and abashai And so they encamp east of the jordan in a region called gilead But you also have somebody here named show me who's called the son of naash from rawa who is an aminite We'll look at that for just a moment and close david had displaced his brother hanun hanun was the one who had disgraced david's ambassadors in chapter 12 It's possible that show me had been put in power And in gratitude Cares for the needs of david It's interesting to me how it says in verse 28 That he brought beds and basins earth and vessels and wheat But he also brought him some beans man. That must have been good And they had some Kind of saw that was just great One of the things i'll close with this is this david had shown kindness to this man And in response the man showed kindness to david I've discovered that when you have a kind and generous heart towards people That people have a tendency of reciprocating they have a tendency of responding in the way that you responded to them David had been careful with this man. He had replaced hanun his brother With this man shall be and shall be shows to him his appreciation by taking care of his needs And in a way christians are very generous and we have a tendency of you see a need We have a tendency of meeting that need that's because we're children of the king and our god is generous with us So when you see a need and it's in your hand It's empower your hand to do something good for somebody you have a tendency of doing that simply because that's what we do That's what believers do is we help people But the bottom line is is we do it not to receive anything We do it because it's more blessed to give than to receive yet. I have just discovered that some people upon receiving some good It touches them to such a degree that they want to do good for somebody else and in the case Of shall we what happened is he had been placed in a position by david And now he finds that david is in need And he takes care of david in the needs that david has And that's generally how it works He has been put into power But he also has the ability to help david and out of gratitude for what david has done He responds And helps him the people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness Therefore I'll help them and that's what believers do to this day We use that as an example of what we as believers ought to do if they're hungry weary and thirsty in a wilderness God has given us the ability to help them which we ought to do


Hello and welcome back to the craft box. My name is Brent and today. We're an episode 8 of the completionist crafter series Welcome back. It's been a while These things that we're doing today have taken a lot of time together So today we are doing the Tapestry to the school of storm The wizard city library the bizarre and The commons hopefully I should have everything. Hopefully do I have oh Okay, well, I'm missing a couple of deep mushrooms. That's annoying anyway, so for this we need 19 crack and tc's five jolted decoy for them. I went into Barkingham Palace just see inside of it and fish there just win a storm and then yeah for that or one dagger of absolution 60 amethyst which is from 30 amethyst. Sorry, which is from the guy just over there 60 mistwood and 30 acorns and a whole bunch of deep mushrooms, which I need to get We also need for the wizard city library. We need 19 pixies which are from the library itself Five mechanical armor heads, which is from Barkingham Palace. I think again Think that's where I got that one dagger of absolution 30 glass vials A whole bunch of cat tails a whole bunch of water lilies and leather straps Territory bizarre. We need 19 tower shields a dagger of absolution five cuttlefish Which were extremely difficult for me to get I spent like a whole week trying to get this I went into Cyclops lane. Just win a death and you get a whole bunch of difficult is so yeah Good luck with those 30 amethyst a whole bunch of deep mushroom, which I still need to get I thought I had everything but I apparently didn't have the deep mushrooms Nightshade, which is why I have no deep mushrooms anymore And then ectoplasm and then we also need 19 fairies which are again from the library One dagger of absolution five catfish, which is super easy Just go to the commons pond and winnow fire and you should get a whole bunch Sapphire 30 of them 60 mistwood 20 acorns and 15 leather straps So yes, I will quickly go and get the last couple of deep mushrooms and I will be better back to craft I Am back that didn't actually take too long Luckily somebody put enough a bunch of deep mushrooms if only they did that earlier when I was collecting reagents That would have been great, but no So hopefully we've got enough. Let's craft the tapestry to the storm school. Let's do the Tapestry to the library But um the tapestry to the bizarre and the tapestry to the commons and Look at that. We had enough of everything. Thank goodness That would have been really bad if I didn't after all of that time trying to farm it So I'm gonna actually start making these episodes slightly have more things and a bit It's just that these tapestries take forever So had to kind of just cut it down a bit because I don't want to be crafting tapestries For a whole bunch of weeks and then have like one video for it So yeah, we're just gonna Have a bit more in the common times. Let's put up a tapestry to the bizarre Which cannot fit in here. No a next room. I can need to go in here someone. Nope. This is outside. Okay Okay, next room this one here. Is there any wall is there enough all these Tapestries are just slightly too big. It's really annoying Terrestry to the storm school. I want to make something really cool out of these sometimes soon, but um for now. We are just gonna Like that should be able to fit there right like there's definitely enough space, but whatever that's fine There yep, you can go there fantastic. It could probably go there as well So yeah, those are the new tapestries that we've made To the library to the bizarre which is actually really useful. I might even Put that somewhere better in a bit We've also got the storm school and the commons So yeah, they actually look really cartoony the commons in the bizarre like look how cartoony they look it's quite cool just that thick lines and Then the other ones aren't as like these are just like pictures from the game, but the But the bizarre is like a cartoony thing and so is the commons That's interesting didn't know that. Um, but anyway, that is gonna be it for this video really short But that's how these crafting videos go Um, so I think if you're watching you're interested I can subscribe and if you're subscribed press the weird little bell So you know exactly when I post another video and a member craft outside the box