I've been in the mood to read something that truly scares me. That's pretty rare, I'm not a person who scares easily. It's possible that some modern writers are told to dial it back when they write scary books because who knows, a kid could be reading them. I don't know, but I do know that I've been feeling the lack of genuine scares lately, so I went to my local used bookstore and browsed the shelves in their horror section. I like used bookstores because they usually have much larger horror sections than a chain store might, and they definitely have a lot of older stuff there, stuff you will never see on bookshelves in modern bookstores anywhere ever again. I happened upon this book almost by mistake. It was one of the last ones on the shelf, and it was shoved behind some others, almost like the store wanted to hide it. Everyone looked at it, and I knew it was old, quite possibly a first edition. The book was clearly first published long ago, and this one had been well-loved. Its pages were yellowed, dog-eared all over the place. The cover was peeling up and near to falling off. Actually, the cover was what caused me to pick it up. There was a precious little description on it. Other than its title and the author's name, the front contained no information, and on the book cover there was simply a Yates quote. The darkness drops again, but now I know that twenty centuries of stony sleep were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, and what rough beast its hours come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born. That poem always gives me the shivers, and I was impressed by the decision to put it on the back. The first page had an excerpt, and it seemed to be about a farmer and his haunted scarecrow. That really didn't sound too horrifying, but if the cover made me pick it up, the quote is what made me take it to the cashier. At worst, I would have wasted five bucks. At best, I might have a genuine undiscovered classic on my hands. The cover of the book made it feel both ancient and timeless. It was very simplistic, but it evoked something in me. Some primal feeling that I found impossible to ignore, I might be making too much out of it, but I got a sense of foreboding looking at that cover. Modern novels tend to go all out and create an image of a monster that might be found in a special effects laden big-budget horror slog fest designed to do little more than get teenagers in the seats. This cover was far more minimalist, but conveyed more of a sense of unease in me than a million killer scarecrow movies ever could. So I picked it up and I brought it home. I'm only a few pages in, but already starting to feel like I've made a mistake. I've never heard of R. Scabri before, but from the first few pages, he doesn't strike me as much of a writer. He goes pretty light on the scares, and when he does try and scare you, he uses a torrent of cliches that I doubt would scare a five-year-old. I'm being a little more forgiving, though, because the book isn't very long, and it's not unlikely that these cliches weren't cliches at all when Scabri was writing them. Hell, he might have intended some of them. The story, believe it or not, spends surprisingly little time out on the farm or anywhere near the titular scarecrow. It's actually strangely political. Especially about this 50-ish farmer named Fenton McCall and his tireless efforts to throw the local farmer's union rep out of the town, because he doesn't feel that they'll be fair to the workers. At least that's mainly what it's about in the first three chapters. The only time the scarecrow itself makes an appearance is at the end of chapter one, wherein McCall has just finished setting it up and thinks to himself that it's a mighty fine scarecrow. That's literally all the scarecrow action we've gotten thus far. There was one scene that was slightly unsettling, wherein McCall, who has been depicted as a stern but loving husband, snaps at his wife when she asks about the assembly meeting he's just come home from. Just that one part, that's all that's gotten under my skin, and even then it was less about the out-of-character behavior, and more just a sense that scene gave me that not all is well. Update. As it turns out, I was right about the scene being meant as unsettling. It's becoming clear as I read that Fenton McCall is slowly losing his mind. That's kind of more like a horror story, but still not particularly frightening. What does it have to do with the scarecrow, you ask? Well, as McCall's madness grows, he begins to imagine the scarecrow talking to him and following him as he does his work on the farm. It whispers horrific ideas, or at least ideas that Scabri clearly hopes you'll find horrific in his mind about murdering his nagging wife and burning down the town assembly hall at the next meeting. However, there was one thing I wasn't prepared for. The book is illustrated. I'm not kidding. I don't know how I missed that when I flipped through the book at the store, but there it is. The art is something special, not at all in tune with a rather boring book. I flipped to the incredibly sparse credits page and could not find mention of an artist except the one for the cover image, and he clearly isn't the guy who made the illustrations on the inside. His style is very vivid, even if it's also simplistic. His drawings look almost like photographs, except blurry, or with eyes shown as glowing holes. I've scanned in the first image, which I trust you will agree is rather strange looking. That's literally supposed to be McCall and his wife. Yeah, I don't get it either. There's nothing scary about this scene in the book. They're just walking home from church and discussing the union leader. But this is how our illustrator chooses to convey that scene. If the book itself were one-tenth as frightening as that picture, I'd probably give it a much more favorable review than I have so far. I know that some of you might think the image is cheesy looking. Okay, I'll grant you that even looking at it here on my computer, it looks way less intense. But there's something about looking at it from the page itself that I can't even begin to describe. A feeling like they're looking at me. Maybe I just stayed up too late reading. Update. Taking a break from reading this damn book today. It's starting to get to me. Not Skybury's writing.  But just the... I can't really explain it. There's more pictures in the book than I realized. I'm not going to upload any more of them for now because I'm having a hard time bringing myself to look at them. It's not so much what's in them as what feels like is there behind them. Whatever it is, I don't like it. I'll say this. The story has taken a strange turn. It's still barely talked about. But Skybury at one point has the Scarecrow while talking to McCall make mention of they. As if he has someone he's reporting to behind the scenes. I don't want to dig out that passage right now because when I read it, it gave me a chill. There was a picture on the next page and somehow I knew that they, whoever they are, were in the picture. It only showed two young girls. But I could sense them in the picture just the same. That's enough of that. I sound paranoid or something. It's really not as bad as I'm making it sound. Not really. I decided to google our Skybury today. See if there's anything else he's written. Literally only three hits came up. I'm pretty sure I would get more hits if I googled my own name. The first hit was a used book site that had once been selling Scarecrow, but it was out of stock and the site looked like it hadn't been updated in years. The second hit was a dead link, which was too bad because it looked like it might contain the most actual info about the book. Maybe it would even tell me who did the artwork within the book. The final hit was a pure black page and the weight circle kept spinning in the center as if it were loading a video or something. I waited for nearly ten minutes and while no video loaded, I could swear I heard whispers coming out of my speakers. They were low and I could never make out what they were saying, but I could hear them, even as the circle kept spinning. Now here's where things get weird. I went back to the search page later on because I was going to try and let that page sit there as long as it took to load, but the hit wasn't there anymore. The first two useless links still were, but not the last one, which was the only one that I seemed to get any kind of result from, even one so unsatisfactory as a blank page attempting to load a video. So instead, I googled the name of the publishing house that printed the book, Margrave Press. I got tons of hits, but when I put the name in quotes only two pages of hits loaded and only one hit seemed to have anything to do with a publishing company. It makes a brief mention of a guy named Tom Harky who worked as a copy editor at Margrave Press for a short while in the 60s before leaving for Bantam when Margrave went under. I googled Tom Harky who has his own page with contact info and so I sent him a short email. It went like this, Dear Mr. Harky, I recently picked up an older, used book that was published by a now defunct publishing house that you worked at until it closed. Do you remember much about your time at Margrave Press? If you do, I hope you can give me some information about a writer named R. Scabri who wrote the book I'm reading. It's a horror novel called Scarecrow. Specifically, I'd like to know who it was who contributed the in-book artwork for the book as it's very well done, but I can't seem to find the name of the artist and online info doesn't seem to help either. Any help you can offer on this would be greatly appreciated. I also decided to google Wesley Childs, the artist who did the work for the front cover. He also has a website, but nowhere on it did I see the simple yet evocative picture he had done for Scarecrow. In fact, nothing he had up on his website looked much like that. We'll see if I ever hear back from either of them. Update Well, I am almost halfway through the book now. I decided to keep reading despite any misgivings I felt the other day. Scabri's skills with prose and dialogue haven't improved, but the story has taken a much darker turn. I guess I understand a little better why Yates' second coming was used as a quote now. As McCall's madness grows, the more he starts speaking in poetic, gloom and doom language, like the poem. He even quotes it a few times. At one point, he screams at the man leading the town assembly meeting that the best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity. He turns murderous later and finally kills a fellow farmer, one that was the most outspoken that the union should be formed. And just before slitting his throat, hisses at him that things fall apart. The center cannot hold.  Because honestly, it's like Scabri just liked the poem and thought it sounded scary. So he decided his murderous farmer would start spouting passages of it. There's no clue elsewhere that he's the kind of man who would even read Yates. However, there is an apocalyptic tone to the poem and the Scarecrow has an apocalyptic tone when he speaks to McCall. He warns him that the tide is turning and soon all innocence will be drowned. Which also comes from the second coming. Somehow Scabri's able to make the line sound like the Scarecrow came up with him. Maybe he's not as bad a writer as I thought. So those pictures keep appearing. I swear earlier today I flipped ahead five or six pages to see when this chapter would be over and there weren't any pictures. Just now I flipped to the third page and I was greeted by this.  It has nothing, literally nothing to do with the story. And I could swear wasn't there earlier today. Much like the others, those eyes, man. I wanted to be just my imagination, but I swear they're looking at me and seeing me.  Update Heard back from Wesley Childs today. He says he only barely remembers making that drawing. The dude is something like 80 now and he was commissioned for that piece in the early 60s. He said he's never read the book himself and that he only remembers the painting when I emailed him. He seemed surprised that anyone is reading this book in the modern age because according to him they only printed a handful of copies. He wasn't sure how many. He was not aware that anyone was hired to do in-book artwork or even that there was any. That inspired me to try and get a hold of Tom Harky again. I decided it had been long enough that I should have at least gotten a formal response. So I sent a quick email to him asking if he'd had time to consider my request. Almost immediately. And I mean like 5 minutes after I hit send, I received this from what I guess is one of his staffers. Do not attempt to contact us again. We are blocking your email and your IP address. Farther attempts at contact will be considered harassment and will be dealt with by the proper authorities. Whoa, I wasn't expecting that. I mean I waited a week between emails and I was pretty polite both times. I'm trying not to read too much into that. I went back to the book today, still not sure if I had the constitution to keep reading it. I don't want to see those pictures again. I don't want to feel them looking at me. The scarecrow is not actually speaking to McCall, but it's clear that something is. Every time there's a mention of them, the next page has a photo of those strange silhouetted people. And I have to believe it's just the way the artist had with his work that makes me sure that something is watching me from behind those pictures. Update. Okay, I'm sorry for the tone my review as I go read has taken. I am trying very hard not to let my concerns show in my posts, but it's slipping through. I haven't had the strength to pick up the book since the last time I wrote. I got worse after receiving a second email from Wesley Childs. He apologized for lying to me and told me that the reason he didn't remember the scarecrow painting is that he had purposely tried to forget it. According to him, as he was painting it, he kept hearing whispering. And once it was completed, he could swear it was coming to life and talking to him through his dreams. He mailed it as soon as he could and spent days after that trying to get rid of the feeling of being watched or believing that he heard whispers. He says he's never made a painting like that before and never has been able to again. It was the first and last work he did for Margrave Press. He also told me that he met our Scabri, but only once and that it was just a pen name. Unfortunately he doesn't remember what the man's real name was. He said Scabri was a small man who seemed nervous all the time. I wrote back and asked him why he thinks Tom Harky would wish to block me and threaten me with the authorities just for asking about this book. He replied just a few minutes ago to tell me that Harky has been asked a couple of times before during Q&A sessions about his time at Margrave and anytime he is asked he immediately concludes the session and walks out. He won't talk to anyone about Margrave. Harky once tried to reach any other contacts that commissioned him for the cover art, but he found none. It's as if Margrave Press never existed other than its tenuous connection to one man. Update It's been another week. Woke up this morning to an email from Tom Harky in my inbox. It wasn't the website address. It looked more like an account for personal use. It said only this. If you have that goddamn book in your house, burn it. I haven't burned it. It's on my coffee table right now. I can barely bring myself to look at it. Whatever is seeing me through the book can now see me even when it's closed. I have a feeling it's the rough beast moving its slow thighs slouching towards Bethlehem. Maybe that beast inspired the great poet William Butler Yates to write about it and just over 40 years later inspired a hack writer who called himself our Scabri to do the same. I don't know. I don't care anymore. I just wanted to stop talking to me. Update I tried to burn it. I did. I used kitchen tongs and took it out to my backyard. I dropped it in an old steel bucket and struck a match. Then I held it there. I waited. I couldn't drop the match. Something was going to make sure that if I burned the book I would feel every flame the book did tenfold. I put the match out and left the book in the bucket. I'm not going back for it. Update I've nearly finished the book. There have been no pictures for the last several pages. There don't need to be any. They tell me what has already been happening. They tell me what is going to happen. They see me through the words I read.


I seal the breakfast and plus severe Africa the African action Congress have condemned the use of caustic and abusive Divisive and threatening words by supporters of some leading presidential candidate in the 2023 elections the party through a statement by its National Publicity Secretary Femi Adeo on or Maintain that such use of abusive and caustic words have been heating up the polity The party maintained that by the action of these supporters of some presidential candidate The all-important 2023 general elections are being reduced to a regional Strive and scuffle that's ricks of religion bigotry and ethnic Jingoism the AAC stressed it's a matter of fact that the Nigerian space has never been this Polarized since it was established. No, thanks to the nepotistic clueless Regime that has further widened the division among Nigerians through very dangerous social and economic Inequalities now should we as a people and the space then continue to widen the trench through Divisive rhetorics of valent threats to one another all in the name of campaign These political party and groups stress that its presidential campaign slogan we cannot continue like this Speaks to not continuing on the path of ethno religious division that had kept the nation on a Retrogressive plane it other that we are clearer than getting out of the Quagmire and would not be through the parts that brought us here in the first place there must be a 360 degree Turnaround which definitely includes the respect for humans irrespective of age social status Religion or tribe and that's why a pan african party We urge a young people not to fall for the antics of the ruling elite This people you support even with those valent threats you used to one another have always been friends And will continue to protect their own class interests our path is the only party today that has put its interests Through our people-oriented Manifest and we continue to mobilize with without issuing threats to anyone adherence to Non-adherent the AAC will not Mute the idea of gagging anyone or group as we're Them believers in the freedom of speech and after speech well The the conversation might just go on and on and on but less quickly You know share the thoughts of our guests this morning for me a day who joins the conversation this morning via zoom it's good to have you join us All right Well, I don't know if this used to be something that's very common But it is actually generated a lot of consents from different quotas I mean this morning you also have the police who is saying and asking this presidential candidate You know to call their supporters to order. What are your thoughts? Sleepy It's actually a network issue. It's not asleep, you know, but we'll get back to him I think he's a national publicity secretary of the of AAC or the or your state public That's something we need to clear With him to know where the ways ways he's coming from but the African Action Congress They mess what we met where it was part of a statement. They issued and I don't know Is it because some things I want to say, you know, sit well with him. So I have to be careful But I can say them. I don't I think the party maybe I would like to ask him I would like to ask him if if this isn't a this isn't a AC Grasping at whatever I can grasp but to try and remain relevant in a 2023 conversation because nobody is talking about a No, no, no, but apart from that also they've helped and puffed, you know, they've done everything revolution now Nobody's talking about so you think that this might just be a strategy. Yes. Yes. Yeah, I want to I would like to ask him So, I mean, I'm sure you had the banter the conversations So is this a Like a young people say Jason cloud Even though I would have not to answer that question in another way or we go banter for banter, but I think we should not do that That would be falling for the antics of the people who want us to reduce those old campaign, you know to Some kind of banter and I'm leaving the very serious issues that should actually populate The 2023 campaign. So this is not a AC for clouds It is because we understand so well that this is the antics of the rolling class. They are the ones who This ethno religious conditions. They are friends. They don't fight Provided your class interest are fine. They are okay.  Okay? I think we're having that Okay It is not Every time for the antics of the rolling class the idea was when it is ethno religious They are trying that you see on Social media and that is why we are pushing the address like we have always done even during the revolution now Protests that you have to get to we have always called Nigerian's house to say see this is the path We need to move home. You cannot stop a 360 degree turn around Yeah, for me, so we'll say it could be argued it could be argued right by people that you know AC is trying to remain relevant, you know, nobody's talking about a AC Yeah, I'm just I'm just I'm just coming to the point. Yeah, you know, no one is really talking about your party In the 20th a conversation in between hardly here. I mean we don't have really hardly anything We know those who have been talked about and But a AC doesn't get any coverage. Nobody is even is even mentioning your candidate And some will say well, you've tried to be be relevant with the revolution now protests Nigerians didn't jump on it Then you try to be relevant in the answers protests Your presidential candidate was booed away by the young people in acts to go back and then in this current conversation Your presidential candidate has tried to turn Nigerians that they should be discussing him not another candidate who is Attracting getting some traction on social media that he is the one they should be talking about not that person You know, so it's it also is a pattern of trying to try very hard to attract the attention and support of the Nigerians Especially young people and it seems not to have worked so far for your party All right I can send you a YouTube link, you know, it's I even discussed it extensively. It's on the internet. Just Google it. Google it He said People should talk about Peter. He should be him. He's the one who's been fighting for Nigerians all this while It's on the internet. Please go on YouTube and look for it. All right, family idea. Do we see have you? What else Okay, did you not see that you don't see that clip? I have seen a lot of things You know, I have seen a lot of things, you know talking about him Not Peter be that he's the one that has been fighting for you want to talk about those who were laying down the lives for and he has a point He has a point, you know, but I'm seeing that he did say that, you know, it's what I'm saying I don't know if it's back. All right, so for me. Yes, okay, family. Yeah, if you're back, can you speak to what I did? Yes So Of a tipu was keeping quiet I didn't know I spent when our presidential candidate was on the streets He was fighting was arrested or five months was detained was And so many other things So talking about readiness is also to say that out of the 81 political parties that were around in 2019 That has not been reduced due to the registration that we do not subscribe to We are still very much around Out of the 18 political parties that you have now half of 16 political parties that are going into the elections There's the very much around this is the party that was just created in 2010 You want you don't want to compare it to the labor party that has been around since 2001 to be yet Trying to gather 5,000 votes in the 2019 elections. We went into the 2019 elections just five months old Yes So I was talking about The By anybody The discussion about the media I think the journalists Should be asked this particular question The media blackouts. They're trying to do It should go down to the journal Come on You're you're national TV.  We are talking to you We've not even had a pdp or liberal party spokesman on this program. You're the first You know Okay, so from your day, I mean, I think it's important that we stay All right, okay, so can we stay with the issue on ground now, you know the the issue of That's fantastic That's fantastic We we don't have so much time because in no time We'll call it a wrap right here on the breakfast But quickly on the issue of I mean, it's a good thing It be because if you look at it no matter how you want to You know put it there seem to be a lot of consent that have been raised by different quotas including your party I mean, we also have the police who was saying on the one hand. We need to call You know supporters need to call themselves. I mean Presidential aspirant and those who are vying for political officers need to call their supporters together Because of you know, the troll wards and all of that But this will really not be the first time where you have propaganda that has been used as a tool In 2019 very prominent was the fact that you had the governor of kaduna state eruphi Describing pitao be as a tribal begot That was that was a very big one at the time. That's because at tico abu baka You know, what's the presidential candidate of the people's democratic party and then of course there was a major So was a combination of a larger tico abu baka and pitao be as this running mate And then he felt like it was a big threat to the pdp. I mean to the apc at the time And so this statement was actually put out, you know to incite a sudden group Now we also have that again as a repeats where you have the meti Allah saying Hey, we are asking all of the fuller knees not to vote for the person of pitao be So this has been going on It's not the first time that we're having all of this kind of comment The polity been heated up by comment and from supporters and what have you so what is really different? Why are you guys Making a statement now. There's really nothing new. It's been going on for a while Yes, you see the fact that you've been doing something but We're very long time does not mean that it should not be cautioned And for us you will agree with those that Is here's what you consistent in our message, you know, like We are fairly diverse of freedom of expression We're fairly diverse of freedom of expression of speech and even after speech But the fact that something has been happening, you know over time does not mean that it should not be cautioned We've been really asking for and that's what we are saying what we're saying. This is the game of the elites It is not the ordinary man on the of the streets That is that is that will just make up your mind that start talking about any division The people who cook off all of these things, they are nearly Look at what you just said about last year, if I call you the Particular candidates ethnic bygones It started at how this thing starts So what we are saying is that we cannot continue like this To see that you cannot continue to divide the people And know all this ethnic and religious Lines just to fill your political ambition and that is what we are saying So it is not something that we just make up our mind and we are saying this When the initial decision started in this country, we came up with a very good statement I see that it is not by dividing Nigerians Or dividing Nigerians that you saw the problem of Nigeria The problem of Nigeria is not about the personnel or about Sogeographic space It is about changing the system and it's something you change that system And the personnel who are already in that system Nigeria is not going to move forward We are called slaves at that time Although you are not supporting the people, you are not supporting the people But we need very clear that we need to bring everybody together And then we solve the problem of Nigeria So Femi, because of time, let's quickly bring this question up I looked at your statement It didn't particularly tell us which words, which caustic words Or abusive words you were referring to Which political parties or presidential candidates you were referring to In terms of their supporters now being abusive So can you come out straight and tell Nigerians Which candidates are you referring to when you say they ought to caution their supporters I guess maybe you didn't read that part of the statement There were examples of some of those caustic words Words like, if you call to Lagos to campaign Or we'll see who goes Lagos There was a particular example in that statement That we'll see who goes Lagos if you come to Morali at Lagos We had, you know, that was an example that was written in that statement We are very strange people We will not make words or we will not form words with the real candidates Because we need your votes So who will tell you what we have to do Without, you know, making your votes about it We also, in that statement, when you find out the place we reported Some of those things that are being said That no NEC candidate should come out of the Southeast No PSN should come out today To Anambra places like that What we are saying is that nobody, nobody Ask the rights to determine where you're running Nobody has rights to determine where you campaign It is the Nigerian people who decide how to campaign And this campaign must be devoid of ratios and benefits Femi, can you, can you pin this? Femi, can you pin this on the political parties? Yeah, Femi, can you pin this These comments on the political parties and their candidates If somebody, if somebody stays in his room Yeah, Femi, if someone stays in his room And puts out such a tweet That Thinbo doesn't know who that person is Or someone says don't come to the Southeast And will be, will be, will be picked up It doesn't know who that person is Can you pin it on them? Because all sorts of people can tweet anything Everywhere, we don't know who they are It is, it is clear It is clear that the statements made it very clear That there are reports, you know, in the social media space Of some of those extremist rhetoric Do you understand? And what we're saying is on a general view Is that Nigerians should show all of these extremist rhetorics Which is still to the issues Nigerians who base is, is, is, is, or elopressivists All right, I'm not taking Nigeria out of the precipice It's one of these extremist rhetorics Okay, we have to go And that is what the international press Is about to tell me it's worth Femi Adei, thank you for joining us You're the publicity secretary of the AAC In all your state, I believe And we appreciate your time And of course, clarifying the issues on the table this morning Thank you very much Thank you very much Thank you very much All right, all right That's the size of a package right here On the press, it's been quite interesting With interesting conversations and analysis this morning Well, that's it If you miss out on any part of the conversation It's fine To follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram And do subscribe to our YouTube channel We're at PlusCVAfrica and PlusCVAfrica live sale My name is Messi Bukal Have a fantastic Monday And my name is Kofi Bartels We'll return tomorrow, good morning


So, this is our first town hall that we've had with our federal partners. And we've been looking at FirstNet for a while and doing outreach and we realized how important our federal partners are to make this system really work. And that management. You know, one of the unique things about public safety is we have many, many different departments, you know, 60,000 different police, fire and e-mess agencies across the country. It's important to unify, versatility, broadband network, two words, sorry, exciting. I think it would be incredible to be able to truly get the information that I need to do my job at the time when I need it and to be able to work together with other agencies that I can just have to work together to share that information. I think it will connect law enforcement agencies on a network that they won't be intimidated by with a major event that will keep us functioning and sharing information. So, for the dispatch to have access to a public safety network that's encrypted or in some way a better service that would be able to still provide the same service and systems as other networks out there that are available to them, but over a secured network would make it a lot better for the public safety dispatchers to get information or to access information that's unavailable to them through their regular providers. Well, I think probably the biggest prospect we have with it is the ability to provide service to all public safety and do it efficiently at a reasonable cost. So having the ability to have officers that aren't in dead zones that are able to talk with each other, having the ability to use video to keep suspects under surveillance, those things we lose all the time. And during those critical moments, if there's a bomb that goes off, having the inability to see what's happening, have people unable to strive what's happening in the field, it becomes critical for decision makers. You can't make a decision because they don't know what's going on. So from my world, having the ability to use FirstNet, having the ability to use this LTE broadband capability will be a game changer for us to improve our operations and for the bad guys, it should be a fear of this capability.


Remember when kids used to play outside, in the sun, family vacations on the beach, pockets stuffed with souvenir seashells? But those souvenir memories often got lost or forgotten. Wouldn't it be nice to turn that memory into a decoration? Copy that. There is an endless number of things you can duplicate with mold making material, but there are two methods that work best depending on the object you're copying. Objects with a flat cider base can be molded in one sitting with a one-part mold method. Objects like the starfish don't have a flat portion anywhere, so they require the two-part mold method. A two-part mold is made through two separate pores, using plasticine in the bottom half of your mold to hold the object in place. Here's how you do it. First, we measure and cut a cardboard box big enough to fit the starfish. We then place and spread plasticine into the bottom of the box so that the whole floor is covered. Next, grab your starfish and press it into the plasticine so it is halfway covered. Now it's time for the mold making material. You'll want to mix equal measurements of part A and part B until the color is consistent. The first pore of mold making material should cover the entire half of your object that is exposed in the plasticine. Now wait approximately three to four hours for the mold making material to cure. Once that time has passed, cut and remove the plasticine and mold from the box. Try not to damage the box as you'll be using it again to pour the second half. Remove all of the plasticine, cleaning off any little bits that may be clinging to the object or mold. Now place the mold back into the box with the cured mold making material on the bottom. Now is the time to add a straw or something similar to your object in order to create a pouring spout. In this case, we simply reused a little bit of the plasticine in order to create the spout. A pouring spout is a hole in the cured mold making material that allows you to pour in the substance you intend to use to make your duplicate objects. The second half of the project can now be measured, mixed and poured over the rest of the starfish. Once again, wait three to four hours and the mold will have cured. It can now be removed from the box and your object can be removed from the mold. Cutting a mold to remove an object should be done in as few cuts as possible. We typically cut from the pouring spout and down the middle of our mold but it does depend on the shape of your object. Cut the mold in small increments until you are able to pry the mold open to remove the object. Your two part mold is complete and you can now make exact replicas of your object. You can use many different substances to fill the mold but we recommend Art Resin. When combined with our colorful line of resin tints, Art Resin produces a strong, perfect copy of whatever object you've selected. Just like mold making material, Art Resin is a simple one to one ratio. Measure out equal parts of resin and hardener and mix thoroughly for three minutes. Once mixed, you'll have approximately 45 minutes of working time with the resin. Grab any color of resin tint and pour a few drops into the Art Resin. Mix it all together and pour your tinted resin into the mold right to the top. Best to let it sit for at least 24 hours. Art Resin is hard to the touch after 24 hours but a full hardened cure will take 72. Now remove your starfish clone and boom, your very own memory of the sea. Use it to make a splash in your bathroom if you want. Or don't, I'm just fishing for ideas. So that's it. Please check out our other how-to videos in this series and keep making stuff. Mold making material is available now on ArtResin.com. Mold making material. Do you copy?


Good morning guys. Happy Saturday. We are starting off the day by doing a really big exciting thing, getting my nails done. If you guys have been watching the vlogs like this is what I've been looking forward to this whole time I was moving in because I got my nails done the last time I, oh it was like right after Ryan's graduation right before we went to the beach. That was like May 3rd and it's currently almost mid June so I've been going a long time with them and they're very grown out. This is actually SNS dip powder so they're kind of like starting to chip on the sides but that's just because I'm like biting them.  Thank you. But I'm excited. I'm gonna have pretty nails. I think I'm gonna ask for them to be rounded out. Usually ask them to be squared but my nails are like long enough where I could do that like really pretty oval shape. Today is the day that Ryan's mom leaves so we're gonna drop her to the airport around like six or something like that but we are gonna try a barbecue place for the first time today so I kind of wanted to vlog it for that reason because I feel like that's such an Austin thing to do so I'm not really sure what the name of the place is but I know it's not the one that you wait in the line for because I don't think we're like ready for that especially like this end of the year and this heat don't think so maybe one day though and then later tonight we want to go out um not sure where again a lot of unknowns but I also posted a video last night so please if you guys are watching this video go watch all my other moving vlogs because it's gonna be all up by by the time you see this video so my empty apartment tour my apartment hunting my first impressions Boston I'll probably make a playlist of all my moving vlogs and put it down below so go check that out so last night I was trying to buy this camera online on ebay and my payment wouldn't go through then I tried doing it through PayPal my payment wouldn't connect to PayPal then I tried it on my laptop it just gave me the same error and I was like what the heck is going on like God does not want me to buy this camera but it's funny because I already bought a camera and it wasn't the same camera and some shipping shit happened and literally took a whole month and I got a refund back because it's not on my house yet so yeah that was really really sad because I was like so excited to play with it so that time I got the Canon 60 mark 2 I think that's what it was and um yeah so it never came to my house so I had to deal with like USPS and they weren't getting any information it's literally stuck in LA for some freaking reason it's stuck in LA and yeah so I didn't get any information on that still haven't like it's still a case that we're trying to figure out I guess but I ended up just reaching out to ebay and like they gave me a full refund like really really fast like I was actually pretty amazed um so you guys are probably like oh don't buy from ebay because obviously that happened to you but like every other time I've bought camera lenses I'm pretty sure I bought cameras on ebay nothing like that has ever happened to me so I'm going to still keep buying from ebay because obviously they have a good um policy so I thought this was god telling me that I didn't need the Canon 60 and that I needed the Sony a7 III I think so I got that camera and I'm really excited it's supposed to be here June 20th or June 21st or something like that the only thing that was like holding me back from that camera because I knew that was like the obvious winner because I was between those two I'm sorry if I'm like geeking out on you right now if you don't know anything about cameras but um the only thing that was holding me back is that I have so many Canon lenses and I literally just bought a new one and I didn't want to get rid of them and I didn't want to like sell those and get Sony lenses because it just is a little expensive um so I found out that there's like an adapter that you can use Canon lenses on Sony cameras so I decided to go for it and buy it I'm not sure how well it's gonna work so hopefully it works really really well because I'm a little nervous about that like I'm probably gonna have to buy like Sony lenses down the road if I really want to make this my career you have to like kind of buy native native lenses um but yeah so that's the update on my life I bought a new camera and I need to start making business cards because I need to get on my grind but I don't know I feel like I don't want my company to be smelly production so if you guys have any names out there that's like not a company name with my name in it let me know because that'd be great it's almost 10 so I'm gonna call around to some nail places get the best price on my nails and then go there I'm on my way to a place called lovely nails hopefully they're good because they're you know pretty affordable I'm driving right now and I honestly don't think I've driven yet maybe like once because Miss Brenda was driving my car this whole time and Ryan was driving his car this whole time so I didn't have to drive mine I'm not realizing that Austin is like really hilly at least in the area that we're living in it's like randomly hilly and I'm coming from Orlando right out of college so I mean Orlando's like super flat so it's just like weird that it's like super hilly I mean even in like Roswell where I'm from back home it's not this hilly my nails are freaking done it literally took so long it is currently 1244 not sure what time I went in there but I'm thinking it was like around 10 since it took so long I have to meet Ryan and his mom at the barbecue place we're gonna get on the road and eat some food I'm starving it is almost 1 p.m. and I haven't eaten anything so we're in the city and we're going to Lambert barbecue apparently we're supposed to go to Terry Blacks but the line was too long so we're here in the city you may not recognize me you're gonna haircut yeah he did finally thank god we are new people today got my nails done he got his hair cut we just finished lunch yeah I look fat it's my new business what do I look fat my new business we just had some barbecue yeah and I ate hers and my mom's brisket yep it was good I got this like hot link it was like jalapeno sausage something that was really good but the brisket I don't know I don't know what I was expecting I feel like I thought there was gonna be like barbecue sauce on it thought it was gonna be sweet I say if you need well I saw some youtube video with Jackson say if you need barbecue sauce then it's not good barbecue anyways we're here at Walmart we need to get some stuff I swear we've been here every single day since we've been here like not even just apartment shopping we even came before that but yeah we what do we need from here are we going grocery shopping today getting groceries very important because we have literally nothing at the house we want to look for patio furniture I found this really nice um like love seat on Walmart for like 200 bucks or something like that and I feel like it's worth it because we could put it in our living room for now since we don't have a couch and then we could just move it obviously on our patio um when we get our real couch in our living room so we are gonna see if it is at this Walmart if it's not we'll just like look around and see what they have when we were in the city it's just so like different from Atlanta it's just so cool to see like the culture down there because it's like everyone's like outside walking around like when we were passing by the lake everyone was out and they were all like hiking and swimming and stuff so that's okay now we're looking for a tv mount for my new tv well dammo it's fast this boy just said he's looking for the pulp orange juice I don't know guys I might have to move back to Georgia just so we just got back from our first grocery trip in the new apartment we got a lot of basics and just other things so gonna put them away now remind me why I chose the third floor apartment so we dropped Ryan's mom off at the airport unfortunately her plane is delayed until 10 we didn't find that out until she got there so I guess she's just chilling there until her flight but um the airport's really small like it kind of reminds me of Orlando because Orlando's airport is pretty small I mean compared to Atlanta of course um I just did my hair my hair's getting so long I'm so happy I mean I just got it but I feel like I've been looking at like so many pictures of my hair and it when it was long I was like getting sad but we just got an Amazon package and I ordered a laundry hamper online and this is what it looks like it has like dark color light because Ryan's very specific about his laundry so I wanted him to like separate it so that if he's at work and I'm at home I can just go ahead and do the laundry so we're gonna find out how to set this up and outfit of the night I have this um t-shirt on that I got from Forever 21 last summer it actually got softer over time which is weird because it was like really stiff at first but now it's like I like it and I was so close to getting rid of it I was literally about to put in the giveaway pile and then I felt it after I washed it I was like what the heck it's never this soft so I'm gonna keep it and then I paired it with these cool jeans um I think I got these at Plato's closet I'm pretty sure kind of just gonna go for the minimal look today um I have some gray mules that I'm gonna pair with it that I like never wear hopefully they're comfortable because we are going out our first night in Austin so don't know how crazy it's gonna get don't know how much I'm gonna have to walk but I guess we'll find out today it's currently almost seven o'clock and it doesn't look like seven doesn't feel like seven it's just weird like I don't know I just feel like I'm in a weird dream or something it just doesn't even feel real but anyways it's seven we're about to go pick up my friend Merisid Merisid went to UCF with me and she was in Katie but then she dropped so we're really good friends um and still are so I'm really excited that she moved to Austin too um and we're gonna pick her up we're gonna go to the liquor store get some goods we already have like rum and Ryan bought like this random like margarita stuff that's mixed with alcohol already last night from HEB I think but I want to get like tequila and like just kind of like stock up because we don't really have much here I literally only have rum I think I also just want to buy a bar cart but we just splurge on so many items like I bought a couch I just bought a tv I just bought patio furniture and yeah so there's just so many things that we still have to buy I feel like bar cart is definitely the last on the list because that's not like a you know requirement of this household trying new things this is Merisid hi the pig in a drink is not actually this much taller than me I'll tell you yeah I am I'm six foot five I was like wait wait she's wearing heels so the sales guy at the liquor store sold us on this four dollar wine three ninety nine yeah do you like it I know it's okay I know it's not the best but hey it's four dollars so then we got what do we got Ryan your scary ass alcohol I was like red and shit and then frackin I got this then this is the random margarita mix that he bought with alcohol already in it the crackling thing with the coke yeah no it's a small drink this is how it's the game this is the perfect size bowl I really like that building it's just my arrow onions on the downtown scene and just like 6th street and kind of compare it to both of our college going out scenes we didn't really go into that many bars um so we kind of just saw it from the outside plus it was bike week and there was really weird seriously so many freaking motorcycles on the street and like the streets were blocked off and stuff like that so it was you know an interesting night to go out on but we did end up going to a really like nice hotel balcony bar yeah and I was like kind of calm and relaxing yeah that was more fun than the actual like party scene we also went to carolines and that was really cute and there were a lot of young people like literally pretty much right on the next four yeah very interactive bar um but like there were kind of like the bars that looked like uga and yeah there were the bars yeah it definitely looks like a big Athens but then there are the prices are not the same as Athens way more money unfortunately if you go to ucf and you graduate from ucf and you go out at ucf and then you go out after ucf oh my god like we get i mean you pay cover at ucf but it's so worth it because you get free drinks until like 12 and i mean sometimes you don't even have to pay cover because like with zup you can get free cover and other ways you can get free cover but um yeah so it's very like what's it called like culture shock or not even a culture shock like just a real world shock like damn i really have to pay ten dollars for a drink like that is insane to me it's pretty good yeah and that's what we tried to do but then i just kind of like it faded like when we got there yeah i mean it was really cool i definitely want to go back out on six street yeah when sauce yeah not by quick because it was like crazy how many people there were so i'm actually interested to see how many people actually go out on a saturday in downtown austin i want to see like a texas game day really i don't i think that's gonna be very scary but yeah also fun um i did buy patio furniture yesterday so it's gonna be here on june 24th and we're gonna use that as our temporary couch so we can get rid of this just to move back in here and then um what else what else our birthday isn't thursday yeah oh yeah how about just a happy birthday message it's fine don't have your birthday be with me let me watch yeah so we're gonna plan some big big things for his birthday i think we want to go like kayaking in one of the lakes or rivers or whatever the bodies of water are here alam's boots impressive pretty famous personally everything and i'm looking for a pair of boots to wear to work next round work work yeah that was just a few banks told me that's like very very common to wear cowboy boots at the same time oh god he was like everyone else was like sure i was wanting to pair like watch you like roll up to oracle the first day yeah cowboy this is a cool place i already got me some cowboy boots look at these sparklies i got cowboy boots in high school because i'm pretty sure it was like country day and i was like i want cowboy boots so i got cowboy boots in high school not knowing i was gonna move to texas let me see them they're really cool alligator or snake what is this


Well, you know, La Poste group in France consider that innovation is at the heart of its development and diversification strategy, as we demonstrated it last week in Paris at the Vivette exhibition. And innovation should be carried out through a participative and open approach. This first UPU hackathon is perfectly in line with its approach. And we hope that, of course, this first experience will be followed by other hackathons. It will be very helpful to bring new ideas, new solutions, a new process in the postal sector. And of course, I am very excited to see the outcome of these two days. And thank you.