Welcome into another Go Mustang Sports.com minute with women's ice hockey head coach Tracy Johnson following a 3-0 loss to the number 2 ranked Elmira Soaring Eagles. Coach, I have to imagine it's about as good as you're going to feel following a loss, but your girls really gutted out and played hard tonight. They played unbelievable. They stuck to the plan. They brought the energy for the whole 60 minutes that they needed to. Yeah, I mean, we may have lost on the scoreboard, but I'm extremely proud of how hard they played that team. And the goalie tandem tonight, just phenomenal. I know I like to ask about goalies, but tonight, I mean, they really did shine. They played great. They had their work cut out for them.   Switched them out a couple of times, but they played great back there. They did everything that we could ask of them. I said this on the broadcast, a game like this in a weekend like this is really a gut check or should say a program check. You get to see where you're at and everything like that. You guys, there was only the fifth time in now 17 conference games that Amira has scored three goals or fewer. That's a pretty proud thing to hang on the mantle. Aside from the loss, that's a big reason to smile. It absolutely is. I mean, I know, like, I'm smiling even though we lost, but they just, they executed everything that we talked about and they believed in each other and they believed in themselves. And to see them compete like that against the number two team in the country, I'm pretty happy. Two more things. One is I thought, I mean, we talk often about your large group of freshmen. I thought tonight they had their best collective effort. Agree completely. They just, they brought it. They bought into the game plan. They bought into each other. And again, just so proud. Then the energy on the bench tonight was palpable, was noticeable. And I have to imagine as a player, when you hear that, when you have that long shift and you, you know, you're having trouble getting it out of the zone, you know, still playing defense, that's got to be hugely uplifting to have your teammates that into the game. Yes. And that was one of our game plans, was we needed to celebrate the little things. We needed to celebrate blocking a shot. We needed to celebrate getting a clear when we needed it. We needed to celebrate shoulder checking to feel the pressure, just those little things that make such a big difference. And, you know, we wanted to celebrate them like they were goals. And that's what they did. So it's contagious. All right, I lied. I have two more things. One is you guys only had one penalty tonight and I believe it now killed off 12 straight. That was the number one power play unit in the entire nation. And you didn't allow a goal on that. The one power play. Yeah, they really had to dig deep on that one because our PK unit was out there for quite a while in that zone. And but they stayed dialed in. And again, with the energy from the bench, I think definitely helped. And they grind it out, stuck it out. And even though it was just one, again, to kill off the top unit in the country, great job by our team. All right, coach, congrats on the good effort. Go get another solid one tomorrow and try and sneak into the conference tournament. Thank you so much for coach Johnson. I'm Paul Taylor. This has been a go Mustang sports.com minute.


Welcome back to another FNA and today I want to talk about the differences between technical notes and creative notes. What to ignore, what to focus on, kind of tips and tricks not to advance in your animation career. And this is going to be a true FNA for new animators because this is something that students face all the time. They submit their shots and they get notes, it's a tip from me. And they can vary. They can be fix this part versus this is not as funny. But funny is kind of subjective and this is why I want to differentiate between technical notes and creative notes. But before I continue, if you're new to this channel, hi my name is JD and I do animation lectures like these, I do animation analysis clips, I do acting analysis clips, I do review reviews, product reviews, news, all kind of stuff. If you've been on my channel, you know this is the beginning pitch. If you like those things on my channel, subscribe and if you want to, if you don't just stick around and see if you like it and maybe you come back. But that's that for the pitch, let's get back to the topic at hand. We are now in a summer break in the States, that means I have finished all my spring semesters. I teach at the Academy of Art, I teach at Animation Mentor and I have my animation workshops which you can plug, you can check in the description, you can sign up whenever you want to. What I see a lot with the students because I've had a lot in the spring semester is that sometimes they have difficulties understanding what is a note they should really address, what is a note where it feels a bit like it's compromising their vision and should they ignore that. Sometimes they also get notes from friends and other teachers or other mentors and just it gets kind of convoluted. Maybe they're a bit overwhelmed in terms of, well, what should I focus on and what it's actually going to help. So right off the bat, technical notes you should always address. So if you show your shot and you get notes about the arc is, you know, it's not smooth enough, it has a pop there or something is funky about, you know, if you trace the tip of a sore or the nose or elbows, certain technical things you should address, right? It's like arcs and pops or even something in communicating a certain action, like an anticipation could be pushed or stuff like that. It's kind of in the realm of that needs to be addressed. There's not a lot of creative freedom within that. If there's a pop, you got to address the pop. So if you're getting those notes and they're technical in nature and if you're not quite sure, ask the teacher, always ask, is this something you need to really address or is this something we can discuss? But if it's technical, what I would highly recommend is to write it down. So when you get those notes, don't just write down, I got to do this, fix the shot and then submit and then get the next round of notes. If you do that, you're going to be constantly stuck in a loop of feedback where you won't progress because you are dependent on the notes. So if you do the shot on your own, you're not going to be able to fix those problems because you're always waiting for someone to tell you what to fix. So as you get those notes, write those down and then make your list arcs, pops, whatever it is, visibility, eyeliner and stuff like that. And if you start seeing a pattern where I've been getting those notes about pops, for instance, all the time, maybe I should really focus on that. As it comes to the point where you've gotten so much feedback that you should be able to have a list of, okay, I've been hearing this all the time. These are technical notes. I should go through this list first, fix all of that and then submit for review. So again, the big tip is that don't just rely on notes all the time. You need to be able to learn from those notes, understand that this is something you should always address, make that list for yourself and then go through that list before you submit for review or whatever you have in your school or even at work. Maybe you're just starting at work. Because there comes a point, and I see this a lot in my classes, in my workshops is that if I start week one, right, you see the shots, you learn about the teacher, the students, it's fine to get all those notes. But if it's mentor by week 11, 12, or if it's academy week 15, or my workshops by week 16, if I'm giving the same notes, technical notes on week 16, that's a bit of a problem because after a couple of weeks you should have realized, oh yeah, this is something I should always focus on. Here's my list. I'm going to go through this and fix it and then submit. But if I'm giving notes about pops by week, whatever, 12, 13, 14, by 16, then it's either I have failed as a teacher by not teaching you the right ways, you haven't quite ingested that idea and worked on fixing that on your own, or you have fallen to the trap of just relying on the notes from whoever's looking at your shots. So there comes a point where you have to be proactive and really look at those shots on your own, the own critical eye. And again, if you don't know what's going on, how to do this, ask questions. I can't repeat that more often. This is you have to ask questions when you're in class and you get notes. Don't just implement notes without understanding them. Ask why. Why am I doing this? Because if you make that connection, you understand it, then you won't make that mistake the next time. Again, these are not really negotiable. If there's a pop, you got to fix the pop. That is the technical side. But then what is the creative side? Well, maybe you have a shot and you want to make it very specific in terms of slapstick or humor. And whoever sees the shot might go, I don't know, maybe that's a bit too broad. Maybe do it more like this. And at the end of all the feedback, you end up with a shot that's more serious and maybe sad or melancholy or whatever. The dog again. Come here. This is the puppy. Always, always in there. No, you can't come into a frame. That's my little one. You can't come into a frame. Come on. Take the dog, you can get it out. You can close the door if you want. Second in a row, the dog. Anyway, going back. So you might start with a shot that's funny and you can end up with a shot that's sad. The problem with that is that the shot, the humor, kind of your sensibility of what's going on with the creativity, that is you. That is what's going to make your shot stand apart. And you should be careful that whoever is reviewing your shot and giving you notes is not steering you in a different direction. That being said, you might have something that's wildly inappropriate. And yes, that needs to be corrected. Especially, let's pretend you want to send it to a specific company and the teacher works at that company. They kind of know better what that company's looking for. So definitely listen to that. Well, my point is that there is a level where you work as an animator. Again, for new animators, you're working. It's all technical. And it comes upon where you reach a technical level where you're pretty good and now you can focus mostly on creativity. And then it will be very subjective. Acting choices will be very subjective. And then the discussion with your teacher method is going to be a bit different because you might think something's funny and the teacher would think it's not. Or whatever it is. And then it's okay to kind of push back. I think, in my opinion, it's okay to tell the teacher, listen, technical notes, these are great, but I really want this to be like that. Can you help me make this just better but not change the idea too much?  Because if you look at the landscape for demo rules and everything, everybody's at a very high level of polish once they submit for demo rules and application and all that stuff. So this is your minimal level that the polish needs to be really high. But what's going to set you apart is the idea behind it, the creativity, the humor, the originality. And that's something that comes from you. So I would really hang on to that and not compromise that, if that makes sense. Comment if that doesn't make sense. So don't compromise your creativity, but fix the pops, basically if you could summarize the whole thing here. Maybe you have problems addressing those things or raising those questions because maybe you are intimidated by the teachers or you really want to work where the teacher's working at. And you feel like if I ask questions, I'm questioning the wisdom of the teacher. That is not the case. You are the student and the teacher is supposed to help. There shouldn't be any ego involved. So if you don't understand something, then you need to ask questions and there shouldn't be any type of repercussions. Now, if you disagree with the teacher, that's fine too. You can absolutely disagree. You can't disagree on a pop, technical things like I said, can't disagree, that's just something you gotta fix. But if it's a creative aspect where you feel very strongly about something, it's okay to discuss. And you can say, you know what, I don't know. Why would it be like this? And it's okay to discuss and maybe you will learn through that. Maybe you can stand your ground and say, no, I really want to do this. And then even then the teacher has to say, all right, listen, you're paying for the class, it's your shop. And then I feel like you're just gonna have to help the student get that way. Even if you made all the pros and cons arguments about why this wouldn't be a good idea. Again, I feel like personally, I don't want to animate through a student and I don't want to impose my ideas on a student. So don't be intimidated. Don't feel like you have to be a specific way and agreeable so that the teacher thinks like, oh, that's a nice student and they can work for me. I would prefer that you argue with me, not yelling at me, right? But we can hash out ideas, we can discuss things that ultimately your shop gets better or even better. And it's still true to your vision and something that you want to do. And that comes up in every semester. It's, I mean, it comes up, it came up this spring, but it comes up all the time. Over the years, it's always the same thing. So I would really focus on fix the technical notes, recognize the patterns so that you don't need to get those technical notes. So after a couple of weeks, you can fix those notes on your own. You know what to look out for. Make a list if that helps, it helps me. And then know that you will reach a point where it's not technically anymore, it's more creative. And then it's okay to ask more questions and have more of a discussion and like a brainstorm of ideas. You don't have to do everything the teacher tells you to do. It's not made so controversial, but again, through the lens of don't have someone animate through you. The end result should be something that is something that you like. It's something that is representative of you, your sensibility, your humor, your sense of drama, whatever it is, and not something that the teacher or mentor would have done in your place. Hope that makes sense. As always, comments are open. Any questions or discussions, feel free to let me know and we can continue with that or I can do a part two if you want to. And if you feel like all of that is reasonable and you want me to work with you and your shots and I will listen to you in your notes, I have workshops to pitch again towards the end. You know you can sign up at any time. Link in description with all the information and that is that. And speaking of time, as always, thank you for watching until the very end. If you're still watching, thank you. And subscribe if you don't miss any of those clips. If you feel like that was cool, and you don't want to miss the next one, subscribe and hit the bell button. And that is that. I will say thank you. I will see you in my next upload.


Hey guys! Hi, Linda here from ITTT back with another live session this week at The New Time. Yeah, thank you so much for tuning in. If you're watching from Facebook or on YouTube, we're live on both platforms at the same time. We're also always turning our live sessions into audio-only podcast episodes. So if you're watching or sorry, if you're listening to this as a podcast, thank you so much for the download. We really appreciate it. And yeah, today's session is about which TEFL course is right for you. So I'm going to help you and hopefully try and figure out which of our TEFL and TESOL course options is the right one for you because we offer so many different courses. There are so many different courses available. If you just do a quick Google search, there's so, so many available. So I'm hopefully today going to try and help you navigate your way a little bit better through our array of courses that there are. So if you're watching, if you're here, just leave a quick hello in the comment section. I would really appreciate it. I see that there's Puvana from Malaysia. Hi, thank you so much for tuning in today. Love Malaysia. I was there one time and I really, really, really want to go back. It's a beautiful country. So yeah, I am actually in South Korea. It is 4 p.m. in the afternoon on a Friday. Normally I actually do my live sessions in the morning six hours ahead or six hours before earlier, earlier than this time. But we are trying to figure out a couple of new different times. So people from all different places and regions of the world can watch our live sessions. So that's what we're going to do from now on. But yeah, we go live actually twice a week. If you haven't seen any of our live sessions yet, my name is Linda. My colleague Lisa, she also goes live once a week. So I really just highly recommend liking and subscribing to our social media. So like our Facebook page, subscribe to our YouTube channel because that's how you get notified whenever we go live. Turn that notification bell on as they say. So that you never miss any of our sessions because every week we actually cover a different topic. And I think it's going to be really, really helpful, especially if you're trying to get started with teaching English online or abroad or whatever kind of teacher you want to be. Our live sessions also always remain on our playlists. So we have a huge playlist on YouTube, all our live videos. You can find them there. And also on Facebook, if you're watching from there, we do have a playlist there as well with all of our previous live sessions. So you never miss any of them. If you tune in late, you can always watch the replay. So there's no problem there. And as I said in the beginning, we also have a podcast. If you're into audio only, I know I always love listening to podcasts while I'm driving. So maybe that's something for you. You can download these episodes as a podcast. You can find us on all major podcast platforms, iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify. You just type in the Teflon T-SOL podcast. And it should show up. So yeah, thank you so much for being here today. I'm super excited to talk about today's topic because I know it's so, it's going to be so helpful to many of you, hopefully. And please, if you're already Teflon T-SOL certified, also great because I'm also going to cover different courses and basically like next steps that you can take. If you're already certified, we also have a lot of like top-up options or like specialized course options for people who are already certified and also a diploma. So if you are already certified, keep watching, please. There might be something for you as well. Also people who are not certified at all yet, also welcome. I have something for you as well. And also before we get into it, I also want to mention that we do have a 30% off discount code that we always share during our live sessions, only during our live sessions, very, very special. So what you can do is you can either scan this QR code in the upper right-hand corner. If that doesn't work, no problem. I'm just going to share the direct link with you that is actually going to lead you to the application page one second here. It should appear in the comments now. So it looks like this. If you click on that, you fill out the application.  Any Teflon T-SOL course, all of the courses that I'm going to mention today, you can get them 30% off with this link. So great for anyone who wants to take the next step and sign up today. I highly recommend it. With this discount, it's going to be so much better. Great. Okay. Hi. Carlos is here from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Hi, and thanks for tuning in. We also have Annalyn. Hi there. Thank you so much for watching, guys. I highly appreciate it. Um, and then my laptop is a little slow at the moment. I don't know what's going on. Okay. There we go. I just want to turn this off. Okay. Great. Okay. I always, if you haven't seen any of my lives before, I always prepare a couple of slides that go along with what I'm saying. So it's a little bit more interesting. So that's what we're going to do now. I'm going to make myself a little bit smaller, like so. And here we go. I think the connection should be better or not. Had some technical problems for a second, but should all be good. I hope you can see me. You can hear me. Everything's working well. If not, please say something in the comments.  But I think we should be good now. Uh, okay. So this is the topic today, which TEFL course is right for me, basically for you, right? We're here to, that's why we're here today. That's what we're going to do today. And first off for those who don't know me yet, if you haven't seen any of my lives, because I usually go live at a different time. Welcome. My name is Linda. I'm a TEFL writer slash content creator under the name Linda goes East East because I have a passion for Asia. I've been living in China, South Korea, pretty much since 2012. And yeah, I have my own personal website as well at Linda goes East.com and on Instagram at Linda goes East. So if you have any questions, you want a personal one on one with me, no problem. You can just send me a DM on Instagram. And I would love to have a chat with you. I'm originally, I'm originally from Germany and the US. My mom is German. My dad is American. And yeah, I've been based in South Korea pretty much since 2015. And before that I was in China as well. I taught English full time. Also my first year in Korea. I taught full time. And then I transitioned over to the other side into this section. So Teflon T cell marketing. That's what I've been doing full time pretty much since 2016 for it. That stands for international Teflon T cell training. And you can find us at Teflon course.net. And also on Instagram at international Teflon training and obviously on YouTube and Facebook where many of you guys are watching from at the moment. And it is a leading Teflon T cell course provider with many different course options that we're going to look at in just a bit. And yeah, worldwide we operate worldwide. And yeah, thank you so much for tuning in today. That's the intro spiel. If you were here before, you know this intro, it's usually the same, but we also get a lot of new people every time. So I just want to provide this introduction for everyone. So everybody is on the same page. And so now we're just going to get into today's topic. Also at any time throughout this live, it's probably going to take between 45 minutes to an hour. If you don't have that much time, no problem. You can always come back and watch the replay or, you know, no problem watching it at any time. You can throw your questions at me throughout this live at any time. Just leave a comment if you have a question about Teflon, about T cell, about teaching anything. And also at the end, there will also be a Q&A session Q&A time. So you can also wait until the end. And then we have just an open Q&A for a couple of minutes before I then sign off. So that's usually how it works. And yeah, let's get started. Maybe I would like to know all of you who are watching at the moment who is already Tefl or T cell certified? How many hours is your certificate? Are you currently taking a course? Or are you not certified yet at all? Let me know real quick before we start. Let me know real quick. I would really, really, really love to know. So are you already Tefl or T cell certified? Please let me know. And then we can get started. Then I know kind of what you guys might be looking for today and I can sort of tailor this. So are you already Tefl or T cell certified? Let me know in the comments. I like my audience to be very active during my life sessions. So please don't be shy. Don't be quiet. It's supposed to be sort of an exchange. I don't want to sit there just talk to myself. I would really appreciate, you know, if you also share a little bit about yourself, that would be really, really cool. So we can have like sort of an exchange. So if you're already Tefl or T cell certified, please let me know also how many hours was your certificate because they're different hours actually of Tefl certificates. And we're also going to cover that. Literally like ranging from a couple of hours, like 20, 30 hours all the way to like 600 hours or even more. So depends. Let me know. Depends. Let me know. And then we can continue. Okay. We have illustrator who says I'm already Tefl and T cell certified. Great. How many hours? How many hours was your certificate? I can show you real quick. These are my certificates. So basically, here we go. Basically, I have a lot of four certificates. We're all going to talk about all of these certificates and more actually in just a little bit. But basically this is the basic. Yes. Also what illustrator has 120 hours. Yeah. This is the pretty much the basic standard Tefl certificate that you want to get the 120 hours. So here is in here. Yeah. Here it's just 120 hours. So this is basically the hours of your certificate. All right. Great. So moving on. Thank you illustrator for volunteering and being the one person to comment. I really appreciate it. Sure. Sure. I knew what you were saying. Thank you. Okay. Great. All right. Moving on. Basically what I just said. So at ITTT, we actually offer Tefl course training or Tefl courses between 50 hours and 550 hours of training. But as I said, pretty much the international standard for a teaching job abroad requires at least 100 hours or even 120 hours like this standard certificate. And so at ITTT, we have a wide variety of different courses to suit all different needs. There's also no previous experience required to take a Tefl or T cell course with ITTT. And we also have different Tefl and T cell specialization courses to add to your portfolio. I'm also going to talk about those. Those are especially great for people who are already certified. All our courses are internationally accredited and accepted worldwide. So this allows you to basically work, teach English in countries all around the world, as well as online. That is the introduction for ITTT and our courses, our range of courses. So let's jump in the first one. This is great for new teachers, the 120 hour Tefl certificate. So the one that also illustrated just mentioned. Okay. So this certificate looks like this. This is what you will receive. I'm going to show you this bigger in just a minute. Once I'm done with this slide, basically this certificate course is completed 100% online. You can take this from anywhere in the world with a laptop, with your tablet, with your smartphone, anything with an internet connection. There are 20 units that this course covers. It's basically have teaching methodology, teaching theory stuff, and have English grammar, because that's also very, very important as an English teacher, obviously, to know grammar. And then, yeah, you can study at your own pace. You have up to six months to complete this course. You will then receive an embossed hard copy certificate. It will be sent to your door, no matter where in the world you live. And we also have notarization services available. So some countries, I think, especially China, and I think recently I've heard from somebody in Vietnam, they sometimes need their certificates also to be notarized. So we also offer these services to people who require them. But for the majority of people teaching abroad, they do not need it. And I've taught abroad and I've never had to notarize it. But some rules and regulations, they also change. And sometimes, you know, someone might require it. So that's something that we also offer. Okay. Then let me share this comment with you guys. So Amitava says, hello, Linda, how are you? I'm already TEFL, 120-hour intensive in-class course in June 2019, as well as a TESOL, 250-hour online course in April 2021. Obviously both from ITTT. Great. This is a great foundation already. Keep watching. There are some other course options, add-ons, specializations that might really be interesting for you as well. So keep watching for sure. Great. Thank you so much for sharing, though. So this course is by far the most popular option for new teachers, people who don't have any experience, but they want to go abroad and teach or also teach English online. They go with this course. This is the pretty much the standard, the first one that you would start with. And then all the other courses build upon this one, basically. So let me make myself bigger again and let me share the certificate with you and what it looks like. And can I, okay, let's remove this for a second. So you have a better view. So this is what the embossed hard copy certificate looks like. It's really, really nice quality. And yeah, so also it shows you when you got your certificate, obviously your name. And what's great about ITTT certificate is that you can choose between TEFL or TESOL. Actually, in my life session last time, I kind of covered like what's the difference between TEFL and TESOL. And it's basically only like the training and the meaning of those two terms is the same. The only difference is that TEFL is mostly more used in Europe and Europe and UK. And TESOL is more used in North America and Australia, like the term. So you can choose whether your certificate should say TEFL or TESOL. You have an option here where it says, successful completion of the ITTT 120-hour TEFL course. So I chose TEFL. But as you can see in the logo, it also mentions TEFL and TESOL. So you always have both on your certificate anyway. That makes any sense. They also never expire. So you don't have to worry about having to renew it. Obviously, you can always stay up to date with different, our website, for example, where we have a blog and we share about new trends in the teaching world and things like that. And there's also worth mentioning this number. So each certificate has a unique number down here. So what you can do with this number is you can go to the ITTT website and you, or especially your employer, they can punch this number in and they can verify that this is a real accredited TEFL or TESOL certificate. Because there's also a lot of people who just, honestly, Photoshop their certificates. And this is how you can prevent that and really show your employer, no, no, I've really taken the course. I'm really certified. Like I'm a real teacher. So this is for that. Great. All right. A couple of comments here. Let me have a look. Adelphus says this free training or teaching. So the course I think you mean, let me add this again. As you can see this particular course, okay here, this particular course starts at 249 without tutor and we always also have a tutored option. The tutored option is 339. So what the tutored option means you have a tutor, a professional tutor at your disposal that you can ask questions and get more information from, ask more things 24 seven. They are available to you basically for the duration of your course. Okay. All right. Then Amitava asks Linda, how do I notarize my two above mentioned certificates on an ASAP basis? You would just email the course admin. Let me share that email address with you. So you just email us and then they will set it up with denotarization. Okay. This goes for anyone. If you have any questions, you want to know anything, you want to sign up for a course, you just send an email to us and then we get back to you. So this is the email address. Looks like this. Admin at tesall-teffel.com. So you can just send an email there. Tell them you are an ITTT certified teacher. You have this and this and this certificate and you need denotarization service and then they will help you with that. Okay. Good. So this is the 120 hour TEFL certificate. Like I said, this is great for new teachers if you are not certified yet, if you don't have any experience. This is pretty much the first course to go for when it comes to TEFL and TSOL training. Good. Then the next one I want to talk about is great for online teachers. So if you're interested in teaching English online, this course would be the one to go for. Again, this also, this course is also completed 100% online. This course also includes the course that I just mentioned, the 120 hour course which you complete first and then it is followed up by 50 hours of teaching English online specialization and then you also receive an embossed hard copy certificate straight to your door and also you can notarize the certificate. So that is that. And as you can see, it starts at $289 without a tutor and $369 US, that's US dollars with tutor. So anyone who is interested in teaching online, this would be great. Now, if you already have the 120 hour, you can basically do a top up only the 50 hours teaching English online and I'm going to talk about all the different 50 hour specializations that you can do if you're already certified in just a minute. So those are also coming. So that is that for teaching English online. Next up, we have the option for certified teachers. So if you already have the 120 hour course, you want to go more, you want to go higher. This is for people who are certified who are looking into a more higher like head teacher, teaching management kind of position. They go for the T-SALT diploma course. Again, this is also 100% online. It's an advanced level course and topics that you will study include development of English language teaching, course syllabus design, designing classroom materials, student assessment strategies and also classroom management and a lot more. So this is great for anyone who basically sees themselves teaching English as a foreign language long term and wants to really advance in this career and this one starts at $599. Okay, cool. Then next up, we have our specializations. So that's what I just mentioned. This is for anyone who already has the standard 120 hour TEFL or T-SAL certification. If you already have that and that's actually what I did. So this is my 120 hour certificate that I just showed you and I completed this in 20 minutes and I completed this in 2015, March of 2015 and then I was teaching English in China at the time and I was teaching kids so I decided to do the Young Learner certificate course after that, which looks like this. So it's kind of the same. All ITTT certificates have like the same style to them and this one I completed in January 2016. So almost a year later, now it's like 10 months later, 10 months later, after getting the 120 hour course I decided to take this one, the Young Learners and then I also took the Business English one here. That one I took in April, so three months after the Young Learners and then this one, the Teaching Online, I took that one as soon as it kind of came out. It came out in 2020. So July 2020 is when I took the Teaching Online certificate and so now my portfolio covers nine, four different Teflopoices basically. So yeah, this is what you can do. You don't have to take them all at the same time. You can. That's when you can purchase the bundles and I'm going to talk about the bundles in just a minute, but these are the specializations that we offer. So Business English, Young Learners and Teaching Online. So yeah, Business English, if you want to teach adults, Business English type classes that is great for that. Young Learners, anything, and Young Learners is pretty broad. So I taught Young Learners literally ranging from two years old all the way to like university and I guess university is not Young Learners, but like high school I guess, high school. So those are all Young Learners. Yeah, so it covers a broad spectrum. So I did that. And then also the Teaching Online course, obviously a totally different kind of field. Also very helpful. I actually started teaching English online this year and this course really helped me kind of kickstart that career and now I have a lot of regular students online, which has been really, really fun and great, especially during the pandemic where I had a lot of in-class, face-to-face, Business English classes before. I now have Business English online classes or like general English online classes. So these courses are very helpful to build your portfolio, to also stand out from the crowd. It's also something that I've realized because the 120-hour course has become a standard nowadays. So everyone who goes abroad pretty much has the 120-hour course. And then if you have a specialization, it definitely kind of sets you apart from the competition. So that definitely was the case for me when I applied. I was first, I was in China. I took my TEFL course and the Young Learners course. And then I moved to Korea and I actually worked for an international kindergarten and my TEFL and my, especially my Young Learners specialization was a huge bonus. And not only was I just hired right away, I also got a higher salary because of these two certificate and the specialization because they knew like, okay, she really knows how to teach kids and we are a kindergarten. So that's great for them. So that's one reason. Yeah. And these courses start at 175 US dollars without the tutor to 75 with tutor option.  Should I not get a tutor? It really depends on, you know, your personal learning style. Are you great at just self-studying? You know, can you motivate yourself? Can you really sit down every day or every week and work through your units? Or do you need someone who kind of helps you, is there for you and kind of gives you a little bit of a push and helps you out additionally that you can ask questions. So it depends on your own sort of learning and study style, I guess. Okay, great. Again, if you have any questions along the way, feel free to just leave your questions in the comments. There also be a Q&A session at the end towards the end. Don't be shy. Don't be shy. During my life sessions, please don't be shy. Anything that you want to say, you can just say it in the comments. I would love for this to be just an exchange. I always say this like an exchange of information. Every time I go live, I learn so much from you guys. And at the same time, obviously, you learn hopefully a little bit about like a little bit from me as well. The sun's coming out now. It was like really great a whole day and now it's really bright. I hope it's fine. Should be good. Might have to move this out of the way for a second. Okay. I think that's better. Anyway, moving on. Okay. That's that about the specializations. Next up, I just want to mention our courses with a teaching practice component. So until now, we only spoke about all the online courses. They are 100% self-study and 100% online. However, we also have the option of courses with a teaching practice component. So what does that mean? Teaching practice component basically means not only online, but you also take a certain amount of hours actually teaching and your teaching is evaluated and you get actual teaching practice. That's what that means. The normal 120 hour course does not include that. So that is basically only the theory. But that is pretty much enough to find a job abroad, but a lot of people just want that extra teaching practice to have the most training possible before they actually set foot in a classroom. And if you are among those people, you can do a course with teaching practice component and we offer three different ones. So one is the 150 hour certification course with teaching practice. That is similar to the 120 plus 30 hours of teaching practice. Similar this one, the 120 hour zoom certification course. So this is where you actually are part of a virtual classroom with a tutor, very much like an in-class TEFL course, but on Zoom and you all are in the group together. You learn from an actual teacher. You can ask them questions. You also have to teach your own students live online. So this is pretty much the same version as the in-class course, but on Zoom. Yeah. And then if you're already certified, you already have your 120 hour course, for example. You can just do this one, the 30 hour certificate of teaching practice recognition. And you can get your 30 hour teaching practice under the belt. And yeah, that is also a possibility and that is evaluated and counted as teaching practice to complete your 120 hour degree. And these options, they started at 99 US dollars. And yeah, great. If you either want teaching practice or your job or the country you apply to requires that because some do it's kind of rare these days because it's mostly all the online courses, but some do prefer people with teaching practice. So that will be an option. Okay, great. Then we're moving on to the bundles. So this is basically if you already kind of know what you want to do and you can also save money. So for example, I told you that in 2015, I took the 120 hour course and then like 10 months later, the other specialization and then another few months later, the other specialization and then in 2020, the other specialization. So it's actually much cheaper to just get the package instead of waiting longer obviously and doing them one by one. So this is a very, very popular package, the master package which includes the 120 hour course and then you can choose between two of the three specializations. So you can either do the business and the young learners, that's the most popular or you can also substitute one for the online course. So, yeah. That's, yeah. Hi, Lisa. Yeah, that's the new type of course that we offer now with teaching practice. We only used to have online and we used to have in class. We also have a combined option. I'm going to talk about that in a bit, but yeah, the CTPR courses with teaching practice are really, really great and they're definitely something new that we offer. Elani, hi and thank you for your comment. Elani asks, what level of TESOL certificate do we need to teach more higher classes like university level? Okay, great question. So that would be definitely the TESOL diploma course that I mentioned. That's definitely great. And then also the bundles right here are actually great. So obviously for university, the more hours you have, the better. And also some universities, they actually also require a master's degree. So most teaching jobs, they require just a bachelor's or four-year bachelor's degree. Some even just associates a two-year and some you can even find without a university degree. But I find that definitely for universities, it depends on where, but typically they will either ask for a master's or a bachelor's and a couple of years of teaching experience. But then again, also the more TESOL certifications and the more hours you have, the better. So for university, you definitely want to aim for at least the 470-hour professional package that includes the 120-hour course, two 50-hour specializations, and also the 250-hour diploma course. So that one is really great for that. And this is actually the highest we offer. This one is so right now.  I hope it's fine. Anyway, the 550-hour expert package is the highest that we offer at ITTT at the moment in terms of online courses. And that is 120 hours plus the 350-hour specializations. So all of these four plus the diploma in TESOL and also the 30-hour certificate of teaching practice recognition. This is the most you can get for your buck in terms of online training, basically. Great. Yeah, Raymond, I just mentioned you can also teach English abroad with just an associate. There are a lot of options actually. And me and my colleague Lisa, we did live sessions before about where your options are without a degree. And I recommend you checking out the playlist. There is a live session about that. And also just on our website, you can go to teflacourse.net and check out our FAQ section, which has a lot of information about where to teach and how to teach without a degree. There are options, especially with an associate. So don't worry. Don't worry. It's all possible. OK, so these are the bundles. Now I want to talk about the in-class TEFL courses. Obviously, actually, this map is taken from our website and this is where all of our in-class centers are. So in-class TEFL courses are, like it says here, you spend four weeks at a location of your choice. So as you can see, we have locations in the US and South America, Central America, Europe and Asia, pretty much everywhere, Africa, Australia, everywhere. So what you can do is spend four weeks in the location of your choice, of your dreams and get four week in-class training. You also get a lot of teaching practice. These are actually some pictures of centers, our centers and what it looks like. So you would be in a group with other like-minded teachers and those who want to be teachers. And yeah, that's usually how it works. And you spend four weeks there. You learn everything that you learn in the 120-hour course. So all the theory plus all the practical teaching experience as well. And what a lot of people do, they basically take their in-class course in the country where they also want to live and work after so that they can stay there and start interviewing and find a job after. But it's not necessary the certificate that you get from your in-class course is valid all over the world so you can just pack and leave and move on to the next destination. Yeah, so that is that. And then I also mentioned already the combined TEFL course option that we also offer. And this is basically combining the benefits of the online course with the benefits of the in-class course. So you complete an online component of the course. You also have up to six months to do that. And then you get in-class training for either five, eight or 10 days at a training center worldwide. So similar, just a combined option for those who do want that teaching practice. They do want to go to an actual center and get in-person training but complete the first portion online. I think this is actually a great option for people who are new to teaching who also want to get that in-person training. So yeah, also possible. You can find a whole list of all our combined course locations also on our website. If you go to teflacourse.net and you click on Combined, you'll find a list of all of our combined course centers right there. All right. Then also all of our ITTT course graduates, they get lifetime job support that never expires. Even if you're not teaching right away, if you take a course, you're not teaching, you start teaching maybe a year later, five years later, 10 years later. You still have access to the ITTT job support. So what does that mean? You get access to our database of potential employers. We work with a lot of different schools all around the world, with recruiters all around the world. We have a big network and you have access to that. Yeah. Also, they send us exclusive job offers. They are not advertised anywhere else, only on ITTT websites. You also get advice on constructing a high quality CV or resume that gets you hired. Also advice on writing your cover letters and assistance with planning trial lessons for job interviews. Because a lot of times when you apply for a teaching job, they actually ask you to teach a quick demo lesson, like a 10-minute or a 20-minute lesson. And we help you. If you have no idea what you should do, we definitely help you and give you some tips and ideas on what you can do for your trial lesson so that you definitely get hired. Yeah. So that is the job support. Then also worth mentioning how you can find ITTT online, obviously. If you're watching on YouTube, if you're watching on Facebook, you already know that. We're also on Twitter at Tefl Core's and on Instagram at International Tefl Training. So find us there. Like I said, please like and subscribe so you never miss any of our live sessions in the future. We do go live twice a week, one time me and then the other time, my wonderful colleague, Lisa. And what's great about that is actually that she is a non-native English teacher from Russia. She has taught English in China like me and also a lot online. She knows a lot about teaching online and how to create your own lessons and all that stuff. So it's a great balance between native English teacher and non-native English teacher. So definitely go check her out. She has a lot of interesting content as well. Browse our previous live sessions, the playlists on YouTube and on Facebook. We literally like every week, we talk about a different topic. So we would, we have a lot of content about different teaching destinations, teaching in Asia, teaching in Europe, teaching without a degree, teaching online. Also like I did a few live sessions a few before about Tefl contracts, what to look out for when you sign a Tefl contract. What scams to look out for, how recruiters are trying to scam you, how you can avoid it. All of these kind of different topics. So please don't forget to check that out. If you have any other questions at any time, just email us, admin at tesall-tefl.com or also reach out to me here at LyndaGhost East. On Instagram, you can hit me up, DM me no problem at any time. And yes, also what I want to mention, the again, the 30% off situation. So scan this QR code or let me share the discount code one more time in the comments in case someone missed it. So you can just click on, click on, click on this. Where is it? Where is the link? Okay, here we go. This is it. Looks like this. Click on that. You get 30% off any Tefl or TESOL course from ITTT. Great deal. We only share this special link during our live session. So it's a little secret. But if you're not yet certified or you're interested in maybe doing a specialization course, this is really great for you. So now I'm just going to open up the Q&A session so you can ask me your questions about Tefl, about TESOL, about teaching abroad, online, in Korea and China, ITTT, anything. Feel free to leave your questions in the comments. I still have a couple of minutes left that I can stay on here. And I would love to just answer some of your questions. Or if you had any questions about the course options that I mentioned, let me know. I hope it was all clear.  So I know how they work. And maybe I didn't explain it good enough because I already know how they work. So let me know if something was not clear. I'd love to explain it again and walk you through that. Yeah. And just thank you so much for tuning in today. I see that a lot of people are sticking it out until the end, which is super nice of you. I really enjoyed doing these live sessions week after week, even if it's a different time, even on a Friday. No, it's fun. It's a lot of fun. And I actually learned a lot because most of the time you guys share a lot, a different. We did like a live session about different teaching strategies before. And some of you guys were sharing your teaching ideas, and it was just really, really great. Every time it's just something really, really fun. Oh, here Raymond. Raymond asks, when is the next time you go live and what's your next topic? So next time I think we'll be also Friday. So in a week from now, but probably six hours earlier than this. It's my morning time. Now is my late afternoon time. So normally I go live in the morning. So probably that time. And I'm not sure about the topic yet. If you have any topic requests, do let me know. And then I might be able to do that. Unless other than that, yeah, I just usually think about it. It's the beginning of the week, to be honest. I do have a couple of ideas that I know down. And then I pick whatever I feel like that week, what I gravitate most towards. That's what I pick. But yeah, if you have any topic requested at any time, let me know. I'd love to know what you guys are interested in seeing and hearing about. So I'm always open to suggestions. Okay, my email address is actually info at Linda goes com. So that's my sort of personal email ish business email, my business email, not my ITTT email. But yeah, if you have any questions personally to me, you can email me at info at Linda goes east.com. That is my email. Or if you have any ITTT questions, you email this email address. Where was it? Here, admin at T saw minus taffle.com. Or you just send me a DM on Instagram at Linda goes east. Just at Linda goes east on Instagram. That also works. All right. Cool. Yeah. Sure. Thank you so much. I'm a Tava says thanks a lot Linda for all your help and suggestions. Thank you so much for watching. I know you've watched before as well. So thank you so much for coming back. And I'm sharing and asking questions as well. Okay. Raymond says when you go live next week, I would be better prepared. I'm in Alabama. And it's 2 49 a.m. Yes. That's why we kind of rotate between different times. So normally when I go live at 10 a.m. In Korea, it's like evening for for people in America. So that's why now is kind of late for you. Yeah. So yeah. Next time will be better for you for sure. So look out for that. Like our Facebook page and subscribe to our YouTube. I you're watching from YouTube. So just subscribe and then you get notified when we go live next week. That would be cool. Would love to see you again. And if you have any topic suggestions, please do let me know as well. Always open to suggestions. Okay. All right. I'm going to stay on just a little bit longer.  So I don't want to cut it off too early. In case anyone else has a question, but I am going to sign off soon. So if you still have a question, you better ask now. You better ask now. Yep. Oh, thank you. Thank you. You look lovely in your eye glasses. Thank you so much. I'll be watching the replay. The topic is quite interesting. Thank you. Thank you so much for tuning in so much as well. Yeah. I normally wear contacts, but sometimes my eyes just get too dry. And I actually got these glasses. Not too long ago. They're pretty new. And yeah, I do like them as well. So yeah. Then if there are no more questions, I don't want to sit here and complete awkward silence. So if there are no more questions, then I'd be ready to sign off. Please don't forget the discount. Take advantage of that. Watch the replay, browse our live video playlist on YouTube and also on Facebook. And do tune in again next week. I will be live again on Friday, but probably six hours earlier than this. Just please like and subscribe so you do get notified whenever we go live. Also check out my colleague Lisa's live sessions. She typically goes live earlier in the week, Tuesday or Wednesday. I highly recommend checking her out. And yeah, then that's it for today. I hope you found it interesting. You found out which course to take, which course fits your needs best. And yeah, if you have any questions, like I said, reach out to me Instagram or email anything, Facebook Messenger. You can also find our contact information on YouTube. So no problem. All right, Raymond asks, what are the prices of the course if I take anything 1,200 or above? Do you mean 120 or 1,200 price wise? I did mention the prices. So you can watch the replay or you can just look on the website. But they are not that expensive. So like in class courses are more expensive. They are more than $1,000 typically because they're four weeks long and everything. But online courses start at 175 pretty much 99. We also have 249 for the 120 hour course. Without tutor. So yeah, do check that out. All the prices, because there's so many different prices for all the different courses, either watch the replay. I had the prices there or just go to the website. You can find all the price details there as well. Great. Then that is it for today. I am going to sign off and I hope to see you again next week. Thank you so much for tuning in. And yeah, stay safe. Stay curious. Stay subscribed. And I hope to see you very, very soon again. Thank you guys. Until next time. Bye bye.


Substance misuse is a serious issue for construction workers. Substance misuse refers to using alcohol or drugs in a way that is excessive and interferes with relationships or the ability to get work done. People can have alcohol or drug problems whether they misuse on a regular basis or binge use a few times a year in a way that is dangerous or harmful to themselves or others. A recent study concluded that the construction industry has one of the highest rates of drug and alcohol misuse in the United States. Workers who come to work under the influence of drugs or alcohol or even just hungover may make poor decisions or act recklessly. They may disregard safety practices or take other unnecessary risks that can lead to serious accidents and injuries. According to research, males are more apt to consume alcohol, have drinking problems, use illicit drugs and develop substance abuse disorders. Subsequently, men make up 90% of the construction workforce. That, coupled with the nature of some construction jobs, long days for repetitive tasks, may contribute to why the construction industry is so susceptible to substance abuse. Some workers use alcohol, opioids and other drugs to numb the physical pain from manual labor or from past work-related injuries, while others head to a bar for a drink after work to cool off, relax and socialize. Over time, the regular or habitual use of drugs and even alcohol becomes problematic. The most common substances misused are alcohol, drinking any quantity of alcohol impairs a person's judgment, thinking ability and coordination, prescription drugs. Including opioids, prescription drugs are highly addictive and can cause confusion, nausea, coma and brain damage.  Workers who misuse these substances are more likely to have an accident on site when under the influence. Workers often try to hide their symptoms and downplay their substance misuse problems. Using alcohol and drugs change you both mentally and physically. Some common warning signs are changes in personality and mood swings, deterioration of physical appearance, slurred speech or impaired coordination, memory loss or confusion and being late or missing work. There's no doubt that being impaired because of drugs or alcohol poses an immediate danger to those under the influence. But it also endangers every worker on the job site. So never come to work under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Inform your manager if you're taking any medication which may affect your work, even taking over the counter drugs like cold and allergy medications. And if you work in construction and are battling addiction, seek professional help immediately before you put any lives in danger. Your employee assistance program can offer free and confidential evaluation and offer you guidance on how to resolve the problem. Remember as a worker you're not only responsible for your own safety but also the safety of your coworkers as well. There's just no place for alcohol and drugs on a construction site. It's too dangerous. A safe, healthy and drug free workplace is everybody's responsibility.


Coming up next is the badge talk. This is always one of my favorite talks every Defcon And we're running a little bit late, so I'll just get right out right to it So coming up to the stage. We've got DT and MK factor, which is Michael and Katie Okay, I can't get you from up here. So I'll take my mask off. You're safe Hey, welcome to Defcon 30 as you can imagine it has been a very tumultuous crazy crazy pants year and We are all super duper excited to actually be here and When I started seeing everybody around it's like this huge sense of relief, and I'm I'm not gonna lie after I'm done With this talk. I don't care if the place burns down You know, it's like I got it. We got it done. We got it here. It doesn't matter You know if it only lasts for a couple hours, but whoo So normally what we do in this talk is I kind of welcome everybody welcome everyone Just give you a quick overview of some of the challenges of Organizing the con and then we go right into the challenges of actually creating the badge What I hope most of you are wearing with the bags designers MK factor and Yeah, this year you've got some pretty good stories One one was the most impressive was a sort of I'm living in Singapore There in Utah and the time zone is terrible difference and it's for me It's like the morning and they're in the middle of the night And they're like we found this one chip and we need to order the chip right now And and yeah people were anyway good stories coming up stay tuned So what we try to do with the badge is We try to make it interactive. We try to make it collaborative We try to force you with mind control To use it to socially interact with others around you one more way for you to make an unexpected connection with a fellow hacker and Originally all the badges were simple Paper plastic metal and we always folks put a lot of time and trying to make them more counterfeit resistant Because after a few years people started copying them and Because we don't take corporate sponsorship the only way we make money is through selling badges and T-shirts and if that Gets undermined we don't have any other resources, you know any other revenue to fall back on so it turned into this cat-and-mouse game where the people counterfeiting would get better and better and we'd get better and better and And it finally they got so good It's like, you know, I don't mind if you can really counterfeit it at that level because there's only like three of you that can and and Why don't you give talks and tell us how you did it? Because it was really I mean they were like melting records and ovens and smudging things to get a reflection and I mean They were doing some really cool stuff. So every once in a while you'll see a display or you'll see a contest a badge counterfeiting contest And then at some point we realized that we shouldn't put all of our energy into the anti counterfeiting And we started to Joe grand. I was talking to Joe years ago and We were lamenting that if the end of the world was coming if Skynet was gonna wake up We need like an army of hackers to do battle against Skynet except everybody Is doing software nobody can hack the hardware of Skynet. So and Joe was one of the only hardware hackers I knew at the time and so we needed To build an army right to defend the world against Skynet. So how do we get hackers more interested in hardware and We created he designed him. We did the first electronic badge for hacking conference at Defconn and It was super super simple by today's standards But every year it got more complicated and better and new tricks and back then a lot of things were happening It was aluminum PCB. It was persistence of vision LEDs. It was infrared communication It was and it just took off and now badge life everybody. I think we helped accelerate The skill set to defend against Skynet. So thank you Defconn attendees for for jumping on board and and and now The badges are so complicated out there that other people are creating Honestly, it's too cost costly to really compete with some of them and we can't do a hundred dollar badge All right, we have we have some limitations and So it becomes more important for us on how to interact All right, the ideas behind them and maybe not the super duper build So it's been really fun. It's sort of like Launching something into the world and now it's sort of outgrown us a little bit. And so now we're just trying to Help inspire and and get more people involved. It's not supposed to be counterfeit proof. It's not supposed to be unhackable It's intentionally hackable So so that's sort of the idea with the badges and normally we alternate between a paper badge meaning a physical non-electronic badge an Electronic badge and even years are normally Physical and odd years are normally electronic and that's to help save us some money because they're so expensive to do But how can you not have an electronic badge for Defconn 30? Right, you got to have one. So we had an electronic badge last year. We had electronic badges this year We haven't figured out what we're doing next year yet You know, maybe you can do a mechanical computing badge Like an old curta calculator or slide rule badge Don't test me. You might be wearing one next year All right, so with that said I would like to introduce the badge team that was responsible for this wonderful Experience and later on we have other interactive Zubler has created some interactive bad stations. You'll see around where you can plug in your badge You can go head-to-head and and chill out rooms battling each other. There's some contests So there's some installation art stuff you can do with your badges, too We want it to be fun. Okay with that. I'd like to introduce the M and the K So, yeah, we're MK factor I'm Michael Katie so we have slides Okay You get to wait now. You're welcome. Does everyone love the badge?  I didn't set it up I'll just unplug it and plug it in that you aren't really held There was While he's fiddling that fiddling around maybe just tell him some stories about the background of the or the idea Yeah, so I guess we can talk about some of the ideas behind the badge. So You want to tell the story? Yeah So Last year I was talking to someone and he's like wouldn't it be cool to have a musical badge and I was like, yeah I would I would really love that idea And so we sat on it and we thought about it we also love the show Bob's burgers and Jean has a sampling keyboard which So Jean has a sampling keyboard which we'll see in a second That he loves to make sounds with and we're like, what's the better way to capture the sounds of Defcon? with the sampling keyboard, yeah First thing we want to do is thank all the people that came and helped us assemble these badges and helped us create them and oh My gosh, so many people that helped. It was amazing We have really great friends and family in the community is just amazing. Thank you everyone Yeah, thank you so much that we would not have made it without you All right, so let's talk about the the problem with the badges I'm sure some of you have Run into this and I apologize So there is a terrible terrible stupid design flaw in the badge. I take full responsibility for that so the problem is this little little bitty chip that's under the little cover board and that's the audio amplifier and What happens is that amplifier is designed to power a speaker and it does that really really well what it's not designed to do is be connected to an audio output and Well, I want to you know make excuses and whatnot and there are excuses, right? We had to change this last minute and supply chain being what it was We could only get certain things and fit it in budget and everything and I did not check that if this was going to be a problem and So it became a problem and that's the chip that burns out This is what's under that chip. It is a nine pin BGA flip chip It's pretty much microscopic. It's like one and a half millimeter square. It's ridiculous So if you have hurt your badge HHV does have some spare chips if your board is not too badly damaged They would be happy to help you fix your badge. Don't bring them and say fix my badge That's not going to happen. So Be willing to learn and Help do that The other thing we found out when we got here is The lanyards can cause problems and we did not know this because we didn't have the lanyards We didn't see them until we got here a few days ago And we didn't think they were that close to the hole or they would be big enough or yeah Yeah, that lanyard connector is the perfect size to wrap around that connector and just short it out So tape over that if you can we've got tape if you find us Yeah, yeah so With that out of the way This is our our original concept design so This is one of them. So we went through several different ideas We originally it was gonna be super simple, right because that's how you first start your badge And then you're like wait, I need this and now I need this But honestly it was literally gonna be four buttons and a screen and then your keyboard That didn't happen, but that's we had hopes So Yeah Like we said gene He has a sampling keyboard and so we were really excited when he's like I get we should buy these and play with them and see How they work and see if this is really our idea we want and so here's our kids They're like this is the coolest thing and so we all turned into Five and just pounding on these keyboards and having a great time and making sounds and things like that And we do have this keyboard with us So if you want to play with a real sampling keyboard that works really nicely Find us in the contest area All right, so artwork last year the theme with the you know the kind of 80s vibe and everything everything was hard lines and Very geometrical this year Katie got to run wild with the artwork and it's amazing Thank you Yeah, I had a lot of fun. It was kind of cool to just take stuff from different things. I Don't know what's to say, but you're enjoy Stock supply chain because it's a problem again and will be forever and ever and ever So this is one of the stories that DT had started talking about When was that February We reached out to him like oh my gosh, we found a chip that's in stock. That's not ten dollars. We need to buy these now and so Yeah, we bought a crazy number of these chips. It was a really weird circumstance so Raspberry Pi has on their site links to all the different distributors that have this chip and They One of them was digikey right and all these things were sold out everywhere and I happened to be searching on digikey one night and Came across this chip and they had like 50,000 of them in stock But the link on Raspberry Pi's website hadn't been updated yet to the new link on digikey. So it's like this is our moment. We've got Before anyone else sees this weird thing we need to just take these these will be ours Yeah, so yeah, we got that DT and bought those really quickly and to our great surprise digikey actually shipped them Well, yeah, I think I kept asking like, okay, did they go in the shopping basket? Yeah, yeah, okay Did it check out? Did it charge the credit card? Okay? Yeah, we've got them. Okay, and then you said on eBay people were marking these things up ten times Right they would people would swoop in see that a chip was in low supply buy them all Mark it up ten times on eBay and so I think a several times they contact me like we found the chip Oh, no, they're all gone. Yeah, okay. We have to redesign the whole badge now. Okay. We got another chip Oh, no, they're all gone. Okay. Now we have to redesign the back. It was like. Oh my gosh Yeah, so when we saw this we're like we want it can we have it Please let us have this because all the other ones were smaller and they were like eight bucks a chip And you would have had a board and a chip Yeah Yeah, and this also did pose some problems because if any of you have messed with the RP 2040 It doesn't have any audio stuff any DSP stuff. It doesn't have a floating point Stuff so It was a bit of a challenge programming wise all the audio on your badge is all in software But it's a good thing that chip is fast, but even so it's still 8-bit audio. So That was a compromise, but it works So custom parts The screen, I don't know if any of you have played with those little OLED screens Normally, they've got a big long flexible connector and it's to wrap around the back of a board and be soldered there That didn't work for us because everything needed to be on the front side of the board and no one made that screen with a short enough Cable on it and one that goes in a connector rather than soldered because we were not soldering that many screens And so we contacted the supplier and got those screens custom made with a very short little flexible cable on them. So They're custom you can't get your own there They're fancy So yeah, that's one of the cool things you can do when you're ordering many Crazy numbers of things you can get custom stuff kind of fun So then parts started arriving at our house We don't have a big house It was everywhere. Yeah, so these bins hold 4,000 audio cables There there were many more of these off-screen there And they were heavy DT are we allowed to say how many we made yeah, okay, so 25,000 is the number of badges we made So there were many of these buckets Yeah, two pallets of boxes just So Batteries, yeah, 25,000 badges so 75,000 triple-a's were delivered to our house Our the poor Amazon man. He's constantly like what are these? There are small boxes, but they were packed a punch So one of the things that happened is we got the battery holders and the batteries Right we ordered all the stuff for the badges all at the same time And so a lot of the parts and the circuit boards and everything those go to an assembly house And then batteries and battery holders came to us. And so we had some time So we pre-filled the two batteries on every single one of those battery holders And this picture on the right. I don't know if any of you notice. That's not right So when you order this many of something you start finding the weird ones So about one in every thousand battery holders was malformed or put together backwards Weird crazy stuff you find I Don't think our kids will ever want to see a battery again So they they had a blast opening the batteries I walk in the kitchen and they're like we made a pyramid Yeah, for reference each of those boxes is 50 batteries that's 8,500 batteries so just over 10% They were everywhere and we made some custom tools so those battery holders have like inch-long pins sticking out of them and We were not going to cut 50,000 pins by hand not gonna happen So I bought some metal shears at Harbor Freight and 3d printed a little jig for it And so we could just slide them through and cut all the the leads off the battery packs That was fun. Yeah, it was way fun. There's metal everywhere. It's fine and Jigs So we design and custom printed little jigs to bend the top boards enough to get them into the badges Without having to manually bend each one over. I don't know if any of you tried to do that with your hands It's not fun. I physically can't and so I was like we need something because I cannot do this 25,000 times So he's kind of amazing into that for us so and if any of you need help with that I've got some of these jigs on me. So I can help you put the top board back on or flip it over if you want Assembly PCB X is amazing. They did all the assembly on these boards They're based out of Ohio and they are awesome This is what they dealt with This is what got delivered to them bear circuit boards It's it's like 1800 pounds of circuit boards. It's ridiculous and so yeah, they Assembled all these put them in anti static bags Okay, so once we got to assembly We had to take them all out of their static bags all 25,000 of them and then we As you can tell the Jeff's us were awesome. They taught us how to like do it faster So we had like them everywhere and we were constantly unloading boxes and we had static bags everywhere So our next part of assembly we had to do soldering we soldered all of those battery packs Back on like on to the backs of these so we did 50,000 solder joints. It was great. It was fun Our kids got really good at soldering And Of course our good friends Troy and Burley they graciously You know offered their house as well for assembly so they Did thousands and thousands of them at their house as well and had them everywhere? Yeah, both houses looked very similar Boxes everywhere and badges everywhere Yeah, so many badges like that's a couple hundred on that table 25,000 is a ridiculous number Yeah, I think that's only 300 on that table They were bigger than we were expecting So our top boards for the human came as panels and we had to break them all apart So this is me and my mom sitting there breaking. We also have they did it at their house as well There was breaking everywhere. I did not see this picture till today that they used We used our hands So yeah, that was that was a fun there was fiberglass everywhere so yeah, one of our kids breaking more boards heat sealing and Putting little little cuts in every bag so you guys could rip them apart rip them open easily Yeah, it's just ridiculous So these are just some of the people that came to help of our friends family community We had just so many people Like for three or four weeks Yeah, yeah four weeks of assembly Ridiculous, I don't think I want to go in my shop for the next like month and I'd be happy Yeah, they had smiles till the end Well, we said smile for the picture So when we got to the den we're like, oh That's a lot of badges like that's more badges than we thought and we're like we're gonna need a hundred boxes We don't have a car that can do that Yeah, so each box of 250 is about 60 pounds So we loaded about 6,000 pounds worth of boxes in this U-Haul and tried it down here It was great. So for those of you who saw this picture on Twitter. I love the guesses. You're all way wrong We had lots of guesses around 13 14,000 we had the 30,000 guess, but yeah 25,000 and Badge challenge. I hope a bunch of you have started playing that and having fun Today you can actually do more with it because contest is open So These lovely ladies this morning. We went to set up our challenge table in the contest area and our boxes of stuff We're gone They were not where they were supposed to be Someone took them to the hardware hacking village in the Flamingo. I don't know why and It's okay. It happens. So these three lovely ladies ran and got them and brought them back to us It was fun. It was good. We got our cardio in and a lot of sweating So huge thank you to redacted who helped with the badge challenge and all the hardware set up for that It's awesome. Please go play with it and have fun On the badge challenge. Don't make real phone calls All right, there are special phones for you to use Don't call people and Make them mad Yeah, I'm sure people have been called Don't do that anymore Inspecting people So that's what we've got So if there's any questions, I think someone's gonna run around with a mic if you have questions for us Okay, we got a question in the front and then another question will be in the front to start off and then we'll work our way back Thank you Amazing badge, but fortunately mine got fried in the first 10 seconds So I guess my question is it's the same hardware, right all the badges or did I understood that wrong? There's the badges are different some of them Still working and mine is not so you're talking about between the different badge types Yeah, the hardware like the chips are being used Are they all the same hardware or they're different hardware specs for different types of badges? They're all the same hardware. Okay, and why are some of them are being fried the chips and some of them are still working It's the shorting out from either the lanyard or if you've created a loop of any sort All right. Thank you So Thanks for badges. They've been great. Love the musical tones and Obviously making these there's a lot of repetition But what would you say was the most dreadful part of repetition? Which part of this did you not ever want to do or see again? I know this one It's the I'm not going to Chris. It's it's the speakers Because when you the speakers are loose in there, right? We couldn't find one that could go through a reflow oven To do what we wanted to do and so That's why we made it the cute little thing that goes over it The speakers once you put that on there When you pop that thing off it creates a lot of force and so like it sometimes it would joint it And then you have to like pop it into place Also, I think about a third of our speakers all their leads were bent the wrong way So we had to go and bend them back so that they would touch where they're supposed to touch so Those damn speakers That's the part Again, thank you very much for the badges. They're awesome. Do you have a good source for the six pin SAO headers? Here at the con down at the hardware hacking village. We have four pin headers, but no six pins handy so We have some Don't you know mob us, but we have some available. I think HHV has a small selection of them and a lot of SAO Designers provided them with their SAO's All right, any other questions?  Yeah, wouldn't a musical badge be Be interesting. So was it just I mean, why did you choose the keyboard? Because of you know, the show that made it exciting to you or was there something about the music that really? Drew you into it differently. You know, why are we doing it with the keyboard versus any of the other types of music options you had? so Coming to the design choice, so we had several different ideas We thought like guitar hero kind of thing like where everyone had a different instrument It posed a Building like making it harder for us to have custom things to help us put the badges together But generally we we landed on the keyboard. I Felt like it was more relatable for everyone like everyone's touched keys on a keyboard before Do you know what I mean? And so I think more people are willing to I don't know. Maybe I think that's where it was The sampling was a really big part of it so the people could record their own sounds and play them and You know add their own sounds to Def Con I've seen a couple that have a different color. Is there any significance to the color of the badge? Sorry say that again. Sorry. We couldn't hear you Is there any significance to the color of the badge the color of the badge? Like the different types Yes, yeah, so all the different colors are for different groups of people So other than the the white black ones like red is for goon There's some for all the different people that help run the conference basically you got your speaker you got CFP you have Press you have Contest village vendor So there's nine different colors Does that answer your question? And they all have something different on them Hey, so this is my first Def Con. I just wanted to say For me personally, I love the I love the keyboard this you couldn't have picked a better theme badge for me personally And I just wanted to say thank you for all the effort. That's an incredible amount of effort Thank you. Thank you. I got it one one to your to your right Further right but okay So a two-part question first of all, is it possible to Reset the challenge to factory state? I know like when you pull the battery and then put it back in and and start it up it resumes where you were in the in the challenge and secondly Do you think it's theoretically possible to? Like does the chip have any more capacity to maybe do like a more advanced synth or anything like that Okay, so Yeah, so to reset it From raspberry pi they have you have to file called flash nuke dump that on there and then We'll need to We release the firmware not yet. I don't think we have we will throw the firmware up on the Badge website, so then you can reflash and that'll put you back to the beginning For the other one, there's tons of flash space left There's not a whole lot of extra Processing power available mainly due to my terrible code I don't know if any of you've noticed if you press like four more keys at once It kind of hangs there and the screen doesn't update for a second So yeah, we're right at the limit of what it can do with my terrible coding skills I think you're so I was up till two in the morning decompiling assembly code, so thank you for that So I've called all my friends, but can you actually call Jenny? I mean, yeah I can't give too much away, but maybe you know there's there's a whole area of contests in the Venue here, so just don't use a real phone. Yeah, no no real phones. Don't use your cell phones for it There's a special Any other questions Hey, thanks again, what was the budget per badge? Are you allowed to say no we don't talk about budget? Okay, that's fine. Yeah Thank you. I'm just curious Can we try what it sounds like if everybody in this room plays something at the same time? Say it one more time, please. Can we all play something on our badges right now at the same time to test what it sounds like Get in do it What are we all playing the final countdown or I'm so good Frickin hands. That's awesome A little bit creepy, all right I hope to hear the creepy sounds throughout the whole like hotels as well. I would enjoy that Excellent Great idea. Hi folks, how are you? This is my first fcon But so I just came from my first sky talk and It was it was really interesting, but on my way up You know, I got yelled at put away my phone for talking or on possibly and I was just wondering how Hard or theoretical would it be to repurpose it? So you can turn this into a recording device in the middle of sky talks because that puts a recording device in every single person's hand here I mean don't do that.  Yeah, so there's not enough memory to hold enough audio. You could you could secretly record three seconds Okay, so that's good. Good. Thank you. All right. Any other questions? Oh Right here. So awesome badge And when I first saw it I was like, oh dang, I should have paid more attention in music classes So did you have to do some research in terms of how to read a music sheets or anything like that? Or were you already musically inclined? I'm not but she's musically inclined So music's been part of my whole life I perform in theater and do musical theater and so I was like I'm happy to do and I play the piano a little bit like this hand really well this hand doesn't do so great But this hand is great I just want to thank the community of death con for Re-sharing my final countdown video I posted on on the forum Literally the most likes and shares and views I got on all my music So I want to thank you guys for just completely just going wild just re-sharing that so it made a big big big impact on music Thanks. Thank you. Thanks All right, any more questions you only got time for one or two more All right right here. Hey, awesome. Thanks for the badge. It's been actually pretty fantastic This is actually in regards to the badge challenge So I guess minor spoilers for some people Will the I guess the Phone system or whatever it that you guys have on the badge challenge. Well, that may be made available for post conference usage No, it won't be available after con We might be able to work something out, but I wouldn't count on it at this point Last question how long do you expect the batteries to last for did you test that at all? We did test the batteries a bit it depends on a lot of things So just leaving it on it'll go to sleep after a few minutes And that should last pretty much the duration of the conference the more you play with it the faster It's gonna die if you got an SAO. It's really gonna die All right, thank you so much for coming to the badge talk Let's see you at the con