Okay, folks, listen, I'm trying to build up my playlist, right? Listen, the playlist is called Budget Friendly Meals. Now, do I have a doozy for you this time? Listen, just because it's easy and they're not a whole lot of ingredients, I don't want you guys to think it lacks luster in any other taste. Guess what, folks? We're doing a five ingredient baked chicken and we're doing it in the crock pot. Let's get it. Okay, folks, now look, you guys can see right here, these are my ingredients. This right here is for garnish, right? This is real simple. Like I said, I already stated that we're gonna be doing it in the crock pot, right? So I want you guys to come in here and take a look at how I'm gonna do this. Now I've already washed and cleaned my chicken, pat it in dry, there it is right here, right? So the main thing you wanna pay attention to is listen, if you got a crock pot, you know what I mean?  I like to spray my bottom and my sides, right? Now I'm gonna take, look, it's really like the placement, right? So we take it and we just gonna like, I guess the word would be like stagger it maybe, you know, like this, right? And if you got a bigger crock pot, that's the more that you can put in there, you know, more drums, now you don't have to do it with drums, you can do this with, you know, thighs, the whole shebang, right?  Like that, and we'll try to get this one over here like this. And this would be the placement that we wanna have. Again, let me get it over here so you guys can see it. Okay, so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna dust this with just a little bit of fresh black cracked pepper. Now this is where you can level up and do anything that you wanna do on your own. Don't forget, it really doesn't have to be done. You know what I mean? I'm trying to show you guys, you don't always have to add nothing, but look, I'm looking for a unique flavor and I love the way that, you know, fresh black cracked pepper, you know, tastes, right? So then I'm gonna dust it with my A. Don't forget, this is great with poultry too. Poultry, fish, veggies. You guys gotta have some of this. A lot of you guys got it. So I just put a little bit over here like that. Don't have to be on the bottom, don't worry. Cause as it get hot, it's gonna, you know, slide down to the bottom, mix with our sauce. This is gonna be fire. You serve this over rice and there you have it. Now, all right, so we're gonna start with, I'm gonna just start adding my honey, right? Now don't forget, this ingredient list along with the other recipes that I do, now all of them are printable. It's on my website, smokingandgrillingwithab.com. Once you get all your ingredients in here, right? We can come with a little bit of this ketchup. Then we come with our soy, our soy sauce, right? You guys look, I love to use this version right here. Just a little bit on the left side of our sodium. Anywhere I can cut my sodium, I do it. All right, so then I just take my whisk and just work it all together, right?  But you'll see, look at that right there.  So we take it, look at that, you can hear it. But look, I hope you guys are being able to catch that. Then I take the back of my knife. I know a couple of people told me they were doing it and they were using the front of their knife. You know what I mean? Listen, we just gotta be smart. You don't wanna like dull your blade, right? Just use the back, doesn't harm it, right? And once you get it all mixed up, all we're gonna do is pour it on the top. All right, now once you got it fully coated, right? We sprayed it, it makes it easier for the, you know, for our sauce to like spread around and it ensures that nothing sticks, right? Now, only thing you should have left, and that's your green onion, because we're gonna use that for a little bit of the garnish and then sessing the seeds. One of the things I like about this recipe is, I'm willing to bet like eight out of 10 times, you guys have everything minus the chicken. You probably have that too, you know what I mean? Cause we all keep chicken, you don't throw. So if you got a little pre-thought, you know what I mean? You can just make this, this will feed a lot of people. All you gotta do is have some rice and maybe a side of broccoli. Now you can invite me to dinner. Now, okay, so we're gonna do it on high, right? So if we do it on high, we're gonna do it for four hours. Usually on low, I go about six, six hours, right? So power's on, hit high. We'll move this up to four hours and I'll see you guys in just a minute. Okay, folks, look, my timer went off and the type of a Crock-Pock that I have or slow cooker, listen, any time my timer goes off, it automatically kicks down to what they call a warm, right? So it'll keep everything nice and hot. So these are great things that you can start like in the morning, you know what I mean? On your way to work. And then when it's done, it'll stay warm. So when you come in, all you gotta do is make your rice or if you got one of them good rice cookers, you can just set it on a timer. You come in and food is ready. Now let's go ahead and take a look at this. Look at that right there. That right there, that's that money, folks. Let me get me some tongs. I want to show you something. You tell me, look, look at that. Matter of fact, let's go ahead and do this. Let's just put that in there just like that on this bed of rice. Let me grab another one. And that's enough right there. Now, if you've been following me for a minute, you guys gotta know my favorite veggie in the world is what? That's right, I love that broccoli. I'm gonna tell you a quick little story. Most people when they eating at the table, they parents tell them, hey, don't drink that drink.   Now, with that being said, you see this, let me go ahead and get this cleaned up. Let me try to get a thumbnail out of this and then I'll be right back. Okay, folks, look, I don't finish taking pictures of this sexy chicken legs. You know what I mean? I'm gonna get a little bit of this sesame seed on the top just to give it a little bit of garnish. I don't know about y'all, but look, if my food look good, it tastes even better. Now, with that being said, I'm gonna go ahead and just get me a little bit. Oh my, look, why did I even get a knife, right? So if you really wanna know how soft it is, look at this. Mm, mm, mm. Then I want you guys to come in here. Take a look at that. That right here is fire. Now, if I really wanna show you something, come on in here and let's get personal with it. You see that right there? We can just hit it with a little bit of this.    If you guys wanna take this and turn it into a gravy, all we gotta do is strain it, put it in a pot, add some heat to it. Once it comes up to a boil, we hit it with a little bit of cornstarch. We gonna make a slurry. So we gonna do equal parts. You can know, for something like this, I probably would just do one tablespoon of cornstarch and then a one tablespoon of cold water and then let it thicken up like that gravy. Now, so that I don't continue to over talk, check this out, folks. You see that right there? I don't know what to do. Whew, cheers y'all. Now check it out. I really didn't even eat enough to be wiping my mouth but I can tell you this, my mouth is salivating though. You know what I mean? So look, this is what I'm finna do. You guys let me know down in the comment section below what would you do? What type of veggie would you serve this with? And don't forget, this is a budget friendly meal, right? So let me just go ahead and pour myself a glass of this great Kudai. Yes, sir. And you know what I'm about to do, folks. I'm out.


Right. You would, I guess, in some sense, like to say, okay, we now have like a competitive market in search or information discovery or whatever you want to call it. And then we can have actually less scrutiny on what you do. Yes. That would be the dream. Because it's hard for regulators and antitrust enforcers to know what the best search engine ought to be, right? You and I don't know the answer. Right. I mean, that's the, I guess, the competition policy dream is that instead of having the regulators constantly over your shoulder, you have competition. And then you say, people can do what they want to try.


Hi, you are so watching Wraiths. Now, World Animal Day is celebrated annually on October 4th to raise awareness of animal welfare and celebrate all animals. It was first celebrated in 1925 at the First World Animal Day, Animal Welfare Congress in Berlin, Germany. The date was chosen to coincide with the first day of St. Francis of Assisi. I'm the patron saint of animals. World Animal Day is a global event with celebrations taking place in over 100 countries. On this day, people come together to raise awareness of animal welfare issues, promote compassion for all animals and celebrate the animals in their lives. Actually, I'm in love with animals. Like, if you check my Instagram timeline, cats and dogs, you will see. Because I watch a lot of videos on cats and dogs. And, you know, sometimes I watch the wild animals, but I'm really scared. I don't think I can keep a wild animal as a pet, but hey... Why should anyone even keep a wild animal as a pet? I saw a video I shared with a few people on, like, the... The lady that raised the panda? No, no, no, no. The most deadliest dogs in the world. If you see them, jeez. They are like lions. These are dogs that they use for hunting, war and all of that.  We've not even seen anything. No, we've not. All the time, each hour. You watch this Geo World on TSTV.  I love the animal channel.  Some people actually take good care of their pets. Like, you see a dog having a massage, having, you know, the proper, like, a proper house. Even a bath. With the bath, you know, there was one, I saw the puppy, she was so cute, she was shaking.  It was so beautiful. Actually love, I had a cat, so I took care of my... But the problem, the reason I've not revived my love is the time. I would not have time to feed that animal. Time consuming. Because it's actually very time consuming. For you to be able to take good care of a pet, it's time consuming.  Animals are beautiful. I like animals. And when I say animals, I don't mean all animals. I like dogs. Because you carry goats, I mean. Goat is an animal. Or snake. But I would kill it. I'd chop this deer or a snake or a lion or, like, I mean, I enjoy nature well. Just, it helps me think about humans and animals and just relationship. But aside from that, I think animals are meant to be just animals, outdoor. Like, I have a problem with people who sleep on the same bed with their pets or having a chicken and a pet. And let them inherit. Yeah, I'm sorry. Like, animals are for outdoor. I love you, but stay outdoor. Indoor is for me. Or if you must have an indoor, your house, you have your house, but just... Yeah, it's a child. An animal is not a child. That's just my perception. An animal is an animal. I have a friend, if she catch you, if you enter one child, like, you say this to her, An animal is an animal. A human being. It's a human being. Exactly. If you say this to her, she's gonna come for your truth. Your job will... Like, how do you wake up and say, I'm a dog, dad? I'm a dog, mom.  I am talking about your...   Mom, you're saying... Listen, it's because you don't... I grew up with dogs. I grew up with six. It didn't grow up with you. Let me explain, right? Animals are so brilliant, and their sense of emotion is highly heightened, right? If you're ill, your pet knows that you're ill.  You haven't just gotten that intimacy yet with them. That's why you don't understand why somebody would go that extra length to do all of those things. That's why. They are actually a lot more highly sensitive, attentive than even humans. They pay attention to your emotions, all your senses. They are watching you when you're not in a good mood. So that's why in the U.S., for instance, when they come back from war-torn countries, all these veterans, Yeah, they use animals. Yes, they attach a pet to them because it is those animals that help them to heal.  But you see, until you get to that level of intimacy, you will not understand it. So, you know, I have had a pet, and I understand it, right? And it was difficult because that connection was just with that one. When I lost that one, I couldn't connect with any other pet again because, again, I was also afraid that I don't invest so much in emotion in my other cat, and they want to use the cat to go out here. My mother, I'm not forgiving her for that, you know? I'm just saying to you that so once you get that level of intimacy with an animal, but you will not understand why these people go through those extra lines. But they are a lot more sensitive than humans. They pay attention to every sense in you, and they feel it.  So it's such a beautiful feeling, honestly. I'm not a kid. I love them. I just don't want them on my bed. And because that kind of, but the sense in you, they talk, say, you never, when you get, that's another level. I like the level of energy. I like it. I have with Leah's run-through, and she is only five months old. Ah, okay. So this one is, Pope suggests Catholic Church code, bless in sex marriages. So in 2021, the Vatican decreed that the Catholic Church would not bless gay marriages because sin is not to be blessed. But by late Monday, the Vatican published a letter by Pope Francis, which addressed, which was addressed to a group of Cardinals who asked him for clarity on the issue. And he said, yes, there is an emphasis on pastoral charity, which suggests the willingness to address the pastoral needs of same sex couple and extend understanding and support to them. The Catholic Church maintains that marriage is strictly between a man and a woman, but is open, and they say that humans or people in this category, LGBTQ community should not be judged, and they should be accepted, and they can't be blessed. So I don't know. I mean, they're saying that this move is supposed to help them live better lives and maybe change their lives. So I don't know what we're going to see in the coming days, understanding that the Catholic Church is like the largest single entity, single Christian entity in the world, you know? So that's some, some, I don't know. It's like, what's the word? It's a ripple. It's going to, it's something that would spin around the globe, you know? Because Nigeria, there are so many Catholics all over the world, really, all over the world. Here is my question, right? And I'm not asking this in judgment. I'm asking to understand better. So the Catholic Church obviously operates with the Bible and in the Bible, it is very clear. Like the Bible, Christian faith does not support same sex marriage, right? So if you must get married, do you really have to bring it to the church? Because there are other entities. For instance, if you're on a sheep, the canteen could wed you. Absolutely. They're licensed to do that. Absolutely. If you're aboard, the pilot could wed you. True. If you're on ground, you could go to a law court. So, this question you're asking is because you see, you need to understand how these principles work.    The reason they would want to approach a church is because What's the church endorses it? The church allows it. It means the church has said it is okay to do it. So it becomes almost like law. You get. So, of course, they would target those kinds of institutions. I think they've had their way with the government. They've had their way with a lot of places. So they need to now start infiltrating. Religion. Yeah. I mean, it's just a no-brainer. How are your stories sounding quickly? Okay, so we're discussing medicine today and breaking news today. The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Tunji Aroussa in Abuja was saying that the federal government has put in place plans and strategies to double the population of medical and dental doctors from 5,000 to 10,000 starting from the next academic year by increasing admission into medical and dental institutions. So basically they're saying that the brain drain is a lot. So we need to like get more people into the medical field. So instead of the usual 5,000 quota that is admitted into universities, you know, per annum, they want to increase it to 10,000. And he also went ahead to say that they are hoping that to make the healthcare environment more attractive to retain people. And I'm like, amen. I think that latter part is most important. And we're going to talk more about that when we have our guests. In line with healthcare as well, ministerial nominees slums during screening. I've been looking for the full story, but I mean, it's just a short one. They just said that the nominee Abbas Balarevi, you know, slummed around 1.50 p.m. After this was a merry story yesterday, she took that he was nominated and all of that to replace Nasser El-Fai. So he slummed around 1.50 p.m. after he introduced himself and highlighted his achievements so far in the private and public sector. I don't know. I don't know. I don't... Could it be stress? Honestly, a lot of people in Nigeria were not very mindful of our health. We are so stretched clean because we keep on taking so much, so much of that. I won't be saying anybody that is going to go into... Governance is not small. Remember when Frasjala was entering? Look, I see. Y'all don't like her. That became all great. Like, if it was something Obama, it actually ages you because you think... Look at me now. It's a burden. It's a huge burden. So whatever it is, I need people to understand that no matter how juicy the thing is, if you're not healthy enough, you know, we don't know his reason for slumming, but I'm just saying that just generally because we had the president that died, right? Yeah. Yeah, I do. So no matter how was he called, juicy the thing might look, these things also come with their own pressures and it might take a huge toll on your health. But this was discussing healthcare. We'll just see if all these healthcare issues still bring in our guests. Stay with us. We'll be right back.


Hi everyone, this is Dan O'Neill, the Executive Director of the Ethan Allen Homestead Museum. Before we get to our third Sunday presentation, I would like to thank the following businesses for sponsoring today's lecture. They made a vital investment in our museum, and their support is why we are able to bring you this lecture series at no charge. This month, we are pleased to welcome Susan Evans McClure, the Executive Director of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. She will present, on the USS Spitfire, a revolutionary gunboat that sank in the aftermath of the Battle of Valcor Island. She will discuss the ship and the museum's efforts to preserve it. Hello, I would like to start today by recognizing that we are on the unceded land of the Abenaki people. The Abenaki have always been and continue to be a thriving indigenous culture in this region. We acknowledge the land and the people, and we are grateful for their generations of stewardship, past, present, and future. I'm Susan Evans McClure. I'm the Executive Director of Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, and I'm happy to be with you all to tell you a little bit more about the museum and about our efforts to preserve and share the revolutionary war gunboat Spitfire. Before we start, a little bit about Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. Here it is on your screen. It's always sunny. There's always a rainbow. It's never cold, and the winds never blow off the lake. We are a history, ecology, and archeology museum that connects people to our unique region with the goal of building a healthy future for Lake Champlain and for our community. We're located seven scenic miles outside of Regens, Vermont on the shores of Lake Champlain, and our team of archeologists, historians, boat builders, and educators lead programs, research, and museum exhibits both on site and for the past year, mainly online. Lake Champlain itself is about 120 miles long and centrally located between two states and two countries. The waterway has always been a central travel corridor, so there are lots of stories to tell. We are looking forward to being open for our 2021 season, outdoors only with masks on starting in May, and we will actually be free to visit in 2021 as we want to give back to our community and offer a place for people to connect with each other with our history and with our environment. So I hope to see all of you at the museum in 2021. And before I get started, I want to specifically thank my museum colleagues, Chris Sabic, Art Cohn, and Sherilyn Gilligan for their work on this project that I'm going to share with you all today. So why does one particular boat at the bottom of Lake Champlain mean so much to us and to our work? Let me take you back to the summer of 1776 on Lake Champlain. The Continental Congress had just issued the Declaration of Independence, and Benedict Arnold had been given their blessing to build a navy that could defend Lake Champlain from the British. He built the boats in what is now Whitehall, New York, and leading to their proud display of the birthplace of the U.S. Navy sign that you see in Whitehall today. So Benedict Arnold in 1776 led the building of eight 54-foot gondolas and four 72-foot galleys. The British general Guy Carlton was attempting to take back Fort Ticonderoga, or at least to take control of Lake Champlain. Whomever controlled Lake Champlain would be able to get to Albany, New York, get to the Hudson River, and then split the American colonies in half, effectively winning the war. Now on October 11th of 1776, Benedict Arnold's fleet of hastily built gondolas and galleys and stolen boats, manned by a ragtag group of largely untrained sailors, met with Carlton's British Navy in Velcro Bay, which is just near Platsburg, New York in Lake Champlain. Arnold's fleet was roundly trounced and captured. After almost six hours of fighting, cannon fire and snipers, Arnold's fleet was completely captured. And that's actually where things get more interesting. Guy Carlton ordered that the royal savage, one of Benedict Arnold's fleet, be burned. And between the flaming ship distraction, the fog, the cannon smoke, the echoes in the ears of all of the sailors from hearing nothing but explosions for six hours, Benedict Arnold made the pretty rash move to seek away. He lined up his boats bow to stern and rode away under cover of darkness. And when the British woke up, I weren't they surprised to see that their captors were gone. Carlton immediately ordered a pursuit and a battle ensued down the lake. Carlton knew that if he could get his men to Fort Ticonderoga, they would be fine.  Some of the boats continued to Fort Ticonderoga, while Benedict Arnold ran the rest of the boats around in Ferris Bay, which is now called Arnold's Bay. And he lit them on fire to prevent the British from getting control of the ships. And in fact, our team in the museum is undertaking another research project this year, funded by the National Park Service and Park Service's American Battlefield Protection Program, that will specifically examine Arnold's Bay and the surrounding land to learn more about this really interesting part of the story. We're hoping to determine exactly where the ships were scuttled in the bay. And people have been taking objects from that site almost since the day the ships were burned. Of course, what happens in that bay comes back to be a big part of Benedict Arnold's trees and story later in the war. When Arnold gave the orders to light the boats on fire, they were still full of cannon and gunpowder, so there were lots of explosions. And actually one injured sailor was still alive and left on the boat. And he was then killed when the boats exploded. There was a pretty gruesome account of the soldiers' body flying through the air. Arnold claimed later that it was a huge misunderstanding, wrote about how he never would have left a wounded man behind. But those who were against him after he committed treason said that they used this incident in Arnold's Bay as part of all of his bad character that led to what they called his inevitable treason. Anyway, Benedict Arnold, complicated guy with a fascinating story, who is a big part of this tale. So Benedict Arnold runs the boats around, lights them on fire. He and his men make their way to Fort Ticonderoga by land. And when Carlton and his men also made it to the fort, they realized they could not take the Fort Ticonderoga. It exists on a spot that the reason Fort Ticonderoga is where it is, it's really hard to capture, it's on high ground. So Guy Carlton realizes that they won't be able to take the fort. But then it's mid-October and things in the North Country are their bleak. There was snow on the mountains and Carlton decided that he was just going to wait out the winter. So he turns around and goes back to British North America to wait out the winter, but then everything changes by 1777. So Benedict Arnold lost the battle, but by delaying the British over the winter, he helps to win the war. And this was one of the many instances of Benedict Arnold's heroism before he becomes a traitor, which is of course what we all mainly know him for today. So Benedict Arnold's sunken fleet was out there in Lake Champlain after 1776 and people were looking for it. Boats and Arnold's Bay were taken out piecemeal by the end of the 19th century. And in the mid 1930s, Lorenzo Haglund raised the Philadelphia from Baltimore Bay. The Philadelphia being one of the gondolas in the fleet. The boat went on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in 1965 where it has remained ever since. And while Haglund was the one to find it, he certainly didn't do it alone. And like all good researchers, he had a benefactor. Haglund's work was funded by a man named J. Rupert Schalk. And interestingly, J. Rupert Schalk was the nephew of Jacob Rupert, who was both the founder of Jacob Rupert Brewery and the owner of the New York Yankees from 1913 to 1939. And for those of you who are Yankees fans, you will know that he was the owner when the team purchased Babe Ruth from Boston Red Sox, which at least in my divided household still is a point of contention. I am a New Yorker married to a Red Sox fan. So Rupert Schalk was an executive at the Jacob Rupert Brewery. And he both funded and participated in Haglund's efforts to raise the Philadelphia. So all of that is to say that the reason we have the Philadelphia on display at the Smithsonian is because of the American fondness for buying and drinking beer. So by 1952, all but one of the 15 boats in Benedict Arnold's fleet had been found. So what happened to the boats during the battle after the battle? Some of them returned to Fort Ticonderoga in 1776, the revenge crumble enterprise in New York. In the 1930s, Haglund found two boats at Valkor Island in Valkor Bay, the gunboat Philadelphia, which he took out of the water intact and the Schooner Royal Savage. Three of the boats were captured by the British during the battle. The Washington, Jersey and the Lee. And then other boats were burned in Ferris Bay, now called Arnold's Bay, including the Galley Congress and four more gunboats. But that still left one missing gunboat. So where was it? And how are we going to find it? So efforts continued past Haglund's discovery of the Philadelphia and the Royal Savage. And those efforts continued into the 90s as part of the work of Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. The team at Lake Champlain Maritime Museum was undertaking what was called the whole Lake Survey in the 90s to examine the entire bottom of Lake Champlain using sonar scanning. When it was discovered that zebra mussels had arrived in Lake Champlain, the museum started this ambitious 10-year project to map the bottom of the lake and document what it found, assuming that the zebra mussels would damage the underwater cultural resources. Fancy term for shipwrecks in the near future. So as the team scandal the lake bottom in June of 1997, they found what looked like a mast and a double-ended vessel. They sent divers down on the target to verify that it could be what they thought it might be. And indeed it was a gunboat with the mast at almost full height and still intact at the bottom of the lake. This is an image by an artist named Ernie Haas, who has been working with the museum to recreate some of the iconic images of Lake Champlain history, including the images of the Battle of Valcor Bay that you saw earlier. Ernie's work is really instrumental to understanding the past in our region. It really puts a picture on something that we can only read about in words and it's really helped generations of people understand and feel the importance of the history that happened right here. So that's what the boat looked like underwater. But it took yet more research to piece together which gunboat it actually was because it was clearly a gunboat. The study of history is really the study of primary sources that we piece together to learn what happened. We can only make determinations based on what the primary source tells us. But the more digging you do, the more you find. And with more focused research and the team uncovered a new document that was detailed that was actually called The Fate of the Fleet and it was written in 1776. So once they had access to that document called The Fate of the Fleet, which was actually a pretty amazing story of how it came to the museum. The museum had publicized that they found this gunboat and they were working to figure out what it was. And someone actually contacted the museum and said he happened to be an antiquarian book dealer. And he said, I have this document that's been in my family. It says The Fate of the Fleet and it says 1776 on Lake Champlain and names all the boats. Is this possibly helpful to you? And it definitely was because you can see, here's the document here, and you can see that it lists the names of the boats and what happened to them, including the Spitfire. And it says, for Spitfire, sunk at her anchor by the enemy. So they also went through and saw the names of the other boats that said they were sunk into Ferris Day and what happened to them. And they were able to piece together that the four boats that were in Ferris Day were the Connecticut, Providence, New Haven, and Boston were the names of the four gunboats in Ferris Bay. And then it was indeed the Spitfire that was left at the bottom of Lake Champlain. So this was a really exciting process of historical discovery, putting the pieces together, finding the primary sources, finding the objects and really solving a historical mystery. But with the identification and discovery of the boat by the late 90s, now what? So Lake Champlain Maritime Museum created the Spitfire Management Team and began doing inspection dives on the site almost annually and keeping tabs and monitoring threats to the boat ever since. Finding shipwrecks is actually the part that most people hear about. And in some ways, it's the easiest part of underwater archaeology. It's actually what to do about them and how to take care of them after you find them that gets complicated. And in fact, the Spitfire is extra complicated. Due to the Sunken Military Craft Act of 2004, it is, in fact, the law that if a ship is used by a government during a military engagement, it continues to be the property of that government. So in this case, the boat is the property of the US Navy because it was sailed by the Navy in a naval engagement. The boat is also technically in New York state, so New York state waters of Lake Champlain. And Lake Champlain Maritime Museum is in Vermont. So we have a multi-state research team working with a federal partner now because the boat is the property of the US Navy. So what we thought was just about discovering the boat then becomes even more complicated, figuring out what to do with it. So now that we know it's there, what do we do with it? And I always like to flip that question. And instead of asking, what do we do, I start with why should we do it? So why should we preserve the spitfire? Well, I believe that it all comes down to people. The Revolution I wore in the Champlain Valley was fought by real people. And it's only by learning more about these people and their decisions that we can begin to think about our own role as history makers in the world today. We don't know what we don't know about this boat. And we have a tremendous opportunity to learn about how people lived and what decisions they made in building these boats. So Philadelphia, out of the lake and on display at the Smithsonian was actually one of the first boats built in the fleet and the spitfire was one of the last. So this really is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the differences between those two boats and think about the individuals who were making these choices on the fly about how to build these boats, how to sail them. Also, there's objects on there that we don't know what's on there. We have an idea of what's on there but there might be new material that will show us something about the experience of living through this conflict. So if our why is about learning more about people and their decisions so that we can feel more connected to our own role as history makers, well then we get to the how. And that's exactly what we're exploring this year as we try to move forward on a plan for preserving and learning from the boat. The best practice in underwater cultural resource management always says that in situ preservation, so leaving it there is really the best way. Nothing that we as humans have created is better than cold, dark water for preserving wooden boats. But at the same time, we also need to look at potential threats. And for the Spitfire, those are invasive species and well-intentioned lake users, including fishers and divers, people who are fishing and diving. So the invasive species that we're concerned about here with the boat are mainly quagga mussels which are basically a bigger, more intense zebra mussel that lives in deeper water. The Spitfire is deep enough that zebra mussels can't colonize down there but quaggas can and they have colonized and destroyed many shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. However, currently there is no evidence of quagga mussels colonizing in Lake Champlain. And no one really knows why. They should be here basically based on how invasive species move. So we are working with the Lake Champlain Basin Program to stay up to date on the work they're doing to track quagga mussels and track invasive species overall. And of course, the goal with invasive species is to prevent their arrival. So we're trying to support as much research as we can into invasive species and invasive species mitigation and prevention in Lake Champlain to help protect this boat. I also mentioned well-intentioned lake users. So even well-intentioned divers have the potential to do major damage. The ship is very deep. You actually need advanced diving, training and certification to access it but with Sonar technology advancing every day it's easier than ever to find things in the lake. So you might even be able to find this and dive on it which could lead to unintentional damage or it could be very dangerous for divers who are not trained. People who are fishing specifically with downrigger boats could also catch the mast or do some other kind of irreparable damage. So there are threats and we know what we wanna learn from the boat. So how do we do it? That's a great question. And this year we're really focused on identifying what's possible. You all may have heard initially about our plan to bring the boat out of the water. And while that may still be a plan we are following in 10 to 20 years, right now we are really focused on what we can do by the 250th anniversary of 1776 and of this ship sinking in Lake Champlain. So we're coming right up on 2026 which will be a year where there will be lots of attention on our region on this important story and on the boat. So we really wanna make some great strides by 2026 that will help us both to learn new things from the boat and also share it with more people. So our first focus will be on documenting the boat where it is and developing a three-day model of the ship. We're starting hoping to start that work in 2022 using a relatively new technology called photogrammetry. Photogrammetry uses an underwater digital photography to capture several thousand images of a given shipwreck or really any object in a confined space. And then it plots that confined space into a computer program and the computer program makes a 3D image using points that you've added to the program. And the model that it three model creates is a scale model that you can use to visit the boat even without going underwater. So that'll be our first step is photogrammetry and documentation. We wanna know more about specifically where it is to take measurements, take photographs. So that's step one. Step two will be a major excavation and conservation project. So that will be focused on in-water excavation to learn exactly what is on the boat and where the things are and potentially to take some things off the boat and conserve them out of the water and put them on display. That will be a very complicated process. And as I mentioned earlier that the boat is the property of the US Navy. So we are working in partnership with the Navy and have to apply for and receive all of the appropriate permits so that we can undertake this work. But it'll be really complicated. It's in deep water, it's highly technical and the Navy is an important partner in this work. And we wanna be supporting the management plan that they are leading and we also want to work with them together in Lake Champlain. So that'll be a really important and exciting part of the project will actually be the excavation work on the boat in the water. And then finally, by 2026 we want to put Spitfire in the context of the entire Revolutionary War on Lake Champlain. Lake Champlain Maritime Museum has been doing extensive research on everything that happened in the lake in 1776 and beyond. And we'd like to put that all together in a resource that people can access from anywhere so that people have a broader understanding of the Revolutionary War on Lake Champlain. And now this resource could include all of the other projects that we've been working on throughout the years and the projects we're doing this year in Arnold's Bay. And I think it will be a really important way for people who will never come to visit even Lake Champlain to be able to access this important information and really learn from our past. We don't know what we don't know about this boat and we have a tremendous opportunity to learn from it and we really want to be able to do that in time for this important anniversary that's coming up. We also want to learn more about the shipbuilders and the shipbuilders themselves and the people who built the ship. So there's work to be done. You know, I talked about modeling and photogrammetry and excavation, but there's also new research that needs to be done into the story. A lot of the research about the Battle of Alcor Bay was done in the 20th century. It was important research. It was, a lot of it was kicked off by Haglund actually finding the boats. There's also some amazing 19th century research into this story. So people have been talking about the Battle of Alcor Bay and that in journals for a long time. I think there's an opportunity here to do lots of new research into things that we haven't documented as much. Who are the people who built the boats? Where did they come from? What expertise did they bring or not bring? And what did they think about being here in the Champlain Valley? Who were they interacting with when they got here? There's a lot of layers that we still have to tell. So our goal is to learn the most, the best and share it as widely as possible with the public to help people connect with the national story that happened right here on our lake. The upcoming 250th anniversary of 1776 offers new possibilities and new attention on this amazing national story that happened here. We have new things to learn from this history that can shape our understanding of the people who founded our nation and the choices they made along the way. When we learn more about the individual choices and actions of individual people in history, we can see that all of us as individuals have the ability to make history every day. We look forward to these new discoveries and to sharing all of these stories with you as we head into 2026. Thank you. Thank you, Susan, for a wonderful presentation. Next month, we are excited to feature Angela Vallatinetti of the Vermont State Archives, which are a valuable resource for researchers and historians. They contain documents and items that tell a lot of the history of our state. They also contain interesting items and stories that don't often see the light of day. Join us next month to learn some of them. And as always, if you enjoyed this presentation and would like to support the Ethan Allen Homestead, please go to the donation link in the description box below or on our website, ethanallenhomestead.org. Thank you very much and we'll see you next month.


Hello everybody, HTT788 here, and this is an unboxing and assembly of a GI Joe vehicle, the Dino Hunters set. It is more of an assembly than an unboxing, the box was already open, but it does have some sealed contents. And I need to find out if it is complete because I intend to review this pretty soon. So we're going to open the sealed vehicle and we are going to put it together. The dinosaurs in here as well, the action figures are in here, they were not sealed, but it does have some sealed content. And yes, I'm very interested in reviewing this, and we got to open and put together to do that. This box has seen better days, as you can see it's pretty badly damaged, but it does have the file cards on the back. For me that's the important thing, I need the file cards, but it should be all here. It will be tempting for me to review this as I am assembling it. It will be hard to not comment on it, but I will try to save my comments for the actual review. But let's put this thing together and see if it's all here. I have the tools that I will likely need to assemble this vehicle. One thing I will not be able to do, at least I don't think so, is put these stickers on. It does include the sticker sheets, but the stickers are all dried out, the glue is completely gone. So I will need to restore those and put those on at a later time. But that's too bad, because one of my favorite things about these assemblies is putting on the stickers. So let's pull this out and see what we've got. It does have the cardboard insert, but as you can see this is like water damaged. It's all warped and the interior cardboard tray is also warped. So I'm going to move this and we have right off the bat the assembly instructions. So that will be helpful. This is of course based on the GI Joe Desert Fox, but I'm going to withhold comments. It's going to be really tempting to comment on this thing. I mean look at this, but let's do this. Let's do it properly. I know that some folks will be upset that I am opening a sealed example of this, but I understand the objection to that. I do. There are still plenty of sealed examples of this set if you would like to get one. But what I can't do by leaving it sealed is show you what all is in it. So by opening it once here in front of the camera, I am for posterity showing all of the contents and how they were put together. So that's my justification anyway. At any rate, I need this to review and I need it to be put together. So we're going to do that. Assembly instructions, tools. This, obviously this is not a factory sealed bag. This includes the figures, low light and ambush. Unfortunately, pretty much every part of this set is rare. Here are the accessories trees. I'm not going to take those off. The sticker sheet is here, but you can see a lot of the stickers have fallen off because they're totally dried out. When I got it, some of the stickers were just loose in the box. I think I got them all together. But this stuff is going to go to the side. It's going to save this for an eventual review. We are going to focus on two things. We're going to focus on assembling the vehicle. And we're going to go ahead and take the dinosaur out of his plastic prison. So here we go. Let's move this and I'm moving the tray out of the way. Hopefully I've got a good camera angle for you guys. The assembly instructions are pretty easy. And if you have a GI Joe Desert Fox, I think you pretty much know what to expect. So let's do this.  Let's just go ahead and get it out of the way.  Let's make this formerly sealed GI Joe Dino Hunter vehicle unsealed. I do keep all the packaging whenever I do this. I will keep the plastic bag. You never know. For historical purposes I may want to see the text and stuff that's on the plastic. So I do keep all of that. I don't throw any of it out. But we're doing this and I just did it. I just did it, didn't I? So I'm going to slice through this. This knife is getting dull, man. This knife has served me well for a long time but it is getting quite dull right now. That's really unfortunate and I have to sharpen this thing. Okay, so we have a gash in the bag. We've got some vehicle parts. There looks like the grapple hook firing mechanism. Again, I will do my best to not comment on this vehicle because there is so much to say. I've done some research on this thing in preparation for an upcoming review. So there's a lot that I could say about it but I'm going to hold off. It's so tempting though. Alright, let's pull this out. This is the main body of the vehicle and the wheels. And there is this cardboard insert kind of holding things together. There's the wheel number six. There are the missiles. For a proper review, I would have the Desert Fox out here to show you a side by side. But we are not doing a review. We are just doing an assembly. So let's do this. There we go. And that's it. So I'm going to keep that. I do not throw any of this out. None of it is junk. Every piece of this is a part of history. None of it is junk. So we keep it all. This is a sealed part. I'll just hold off on that until I actually need it. I've got one, two, three, four, five wheels. That's odd. Where is wheel number six? Wheel number six is in here. If we are short a wheel, then we know that it's not complete. Here we go. There we go. I just opened it from the factory sealed bag so it better have all the wheels. So it's kind of clicked together a little bit already. But it's not supposed to be. I'm going to try to not break it and not strain the plastic. But I need to put the axle right in here. So let's first cut the axle off of the frame. That is this part. I'm going to use my nippers. Nip and nip. Oh, one more nip. There we go. Oh, that didn't cut all the way through. Come on. There we go. All right. Axle. The axle needs to be straightened out. And it goes, let's see, this direction. Okay. Holes go this way. All right. So there are a couple of holes in the lower part of the body. This is not wanting to come loose. And I really, really want to be careful with it. So I am going to try to do this without disturbing or stressing it. Since apparently inside the package, it kind of got mashed down. And the back part has clicked on there before we were ready. So the axle goes a little something like this. There are these pegs here. And the axle goes, the holes on the axle go into the pegs. If I can pay attention to what I'm doing, let's see. Difficult to see at this angle. Okay, there's one peg. Let's see. Come on. Oh, almost got it. The front wheels do turn. So that's why we've got to have this axle in there. They don't just clip on. The front wheels will turn. There we go. Axle is on. And step two is to fit the upper body onto the brown lower body. So let's just do that. This should now line up and snap on. Sort of. There's a clip right there. And it's having a hard, this clip right here is having a hard time. Well, actually it's lining up pretty good. Actually, if I look from under here, from the top, it doesn't look like it's lining up very well. But from the bottom, I can actually see that that is working fine. So let's see. Is that is that on? This needs to press down until those click together. So the front end needs to, there we go. There we go. We have to assembled vehicle halves, top and bottom half are together. Next step is the dashboard and steering wheel. Let's clip those steering wheel dashboard. There we go. There we go. Okay, so the dashboard, according to our assembly instructions, how does that go in? That's the side for the steering wheel. So it has to go this way. Okay, so there are these two tabs kind of on the top front body of the vehicle. Those fit into these notches on the dashboard. And it looks like that's just how it fits in. You just press that in, right? Yeah. So, yeah. Oh, that was easy. That was easy. Oh, that was incredibly easy. Hey, something was easy. Let's mark the date, mark the calendar. Something was easy. So there's that. Let's see. Just trying to make sure it's on solidly. It's as solid as it'll get anyway. Steering wheel. The steering wheel is keyed, so it will only fit one way. It will only fit this way into that little hole right there. So we have a steering wheel like so. So there we go. Dashboard and steering wheel. Next, the wheels. So, yeah, we basically snap six wheels into place. So front wheels go on this front axle that we just put in there. And they have mushroom clips so you just basically press them on until they click firmly. Come on now. Now look here. You've got to cooperate with me. The other one went on just fine. All the wheels should be exactly the same so it should not matter which one I put on. Oh, there we go. There we go. See, this one has decided it's just going to be a little bit tight, huh? Okay. All right. That's making me nervous, man. We cannot break this body. And this wheel, this wheel is just too tight. Let me see if it's the only one like that so far. If you're wondering if it makes me nervous to do this with the very old and very expensive plastic, yes, yes it does. But we are going to press on so to speak. All right. Something is wrong with this one. Something is wrong with this one. I've got to carefully remove it. This one is not going on. It's not snapping on like the others. There's something up with it. And it just came out of the sealed box so there should be nothing up with it. So what's up? It should be quite simple. Yeah, that really should work. So let's try one more time carefully and press. Yeah, it's not snapping on. Yeah, okay. I'm going to pause for a second and take a closer look at this wheel and see what the heck I can do with it. So pausing the video just for a second, I'll be right back. And we're back. And I was able to get this back wheel on with a little coaxing, but it is still tighter than the other wheels. Like look at these other wheels. They spin. These other wheels roll. But this one back one is very tight. So we're just going to be very cautious with that. We won't play around with it too much. But it is on. It did go on safely and without breaking. Thank goodness. Okay, next step. Step number five is the gun assembly. Now we will need to open this. Now if you have seen some of my other videos, you may recognize this grapple hook launcher because it is a figure accessory. It is a flak viper figure accessory. Look familiar. And these are also figure accessories. Again, I really should. I'm going to save it for the review, but these are reused from action figures. So we need to put the turret on. It's similar to the original Desert Fox turret, but instead of a machine gun, it has this cut out here so that it will fit this. And it looks like it just goes like this. The holes go in the pegs. Yeah, that was easy. So there's that. And this goes in there. And if I remember from the Desert Fox, you just kind of work it in and voila, it's in. It's got these teeth at the bottom. My steering wheel fell out. I'm going to have to do something about that now. Let's get the steering wheel in a little bit better. Okay, there we go. Steering wheel is in there solidly. Let's see. Now this, if you're so inclined, you can place the grapple hooks in the launcher if I can get them turned the right way. That way. Okay, careful now. I am really trying to exercise caution with this incredibly expensive old thing. So let's pop those in. Notch side up. There we go. And of course those will really fire with the triggers, right? Come on. Come on. Fire for me. There we go. Cool. Those will really fire. Now we need to put... Let's see. The next step is the roll bars. I know that's where my nippers. Let's clip the roll bars off. I'm trying to get a good camera angle for you guys so you can actually see what I'm doing. But if you've ever assembled a Desert Fox, then all of this looks very familiar because there's basically nothing new. So far the only thing different is this bit right here. It didn't cut well. There we go. Alright, so roll bar. And then the piece that goes between them is right here. Keep these organized a little bit. This piece with the... Oh, that's interesting. Looks like it has a little bit of flashing on this headlight. I'm not sure if I should clip that off or not. It's not supposed to be there. I'll leave it for now and I'll decide later. So these pieces assemble like this. That should peg in firmly. There we go. And then this one goes like this. Peg in firmly. Yeah, press it all the way. And now this roll cage bar thingy goes in these slots. So we've got slots in the front, slots in the back, and they go in like flin. So let's gently press these in. I know that it's a little bit of a challenge. Fortunately, the plastic of the roll bar is a little softer. So it'll flex a little bit. The plastic of the body doesn't flex very much. So we need to be careful about that. If we're going to flex anything, we've got to flex the roll bar and not the body. And we've just about got it. Just about got it. It's just this side. This side went in just fine. This side needs a little coaxing, but I think we about got that one too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. All right, so we've got our turning front wheels. Sort of. They turn some. We've got a roll cage. Next is the antenna. We need the antenna. That is right here. The antenna, of course, is a frequently missing part on all GI Joe vehicles that come with antennae. So let's, let's nip it. Nip it good. Looks very similar. Basically the same antenna that came with the Desert Fox. So let's, it goes here on the rear bumper. I think it's not really keyed. So I think I can put it in basically any way. Just kind of wedge it in like so. And there we go. So we have antenna. And we basically have an assembled vehicle. I guess we need to put the missiles on. Let's put the missiles on. Can't forget that. These are the same missiles as the Desert Fox, just in a different color. You can see they are bright. Bright, kind of. Well, they sort of greenish yellow. They may look more yellow on the camera, but there is a slight green tint to them, and they are neon bright. Neon bright. Look at that. You know, so the dinosaurs can see them common. There we go. And there we go. Okay, so that's basically it. The rest is the sticker sheet, which again, I can't really do because those stickers are wrecked. So there's your vehicle. Let me put the grappling hooks back in. Notch side up, like so. Yes. Notch side up. There we go. So you grapple hook on the turret, and we've got some elevation, and of course that rotates. So there is a complete assembled, I guess you call this the dino hunter. I think this is supposed to be the dino hunter of the dino hunter set, but you may just refer to this as the dino hunter desert fox, because it is the desert fox, mainly just with a color swap and with a new turret.  We're not done with the fun yet because we need to open this thing. The dinosaur, the terrifying beast that the dino hunters must dino hunt. So yeah, here we go. Opening factory seal bag. There we go. And we are going to take this guy out. Like I said, every part of this set is rare and expensive. That doesn't mean it's good. It just means it's rare and expensive. Don't equate rare and expensive with good. But here we go. Again, we keep all of these. Nothing gets thrown away. Even this cardboard insert that is holding the dino together is, there we go, is going to be kept. So there's that. So there we go. For historical purposes, for posterity, here we have the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the dangerous dinosaur to be hunted by our dino hunters. So there you have it. It is... Man, I really want to talk about this. I guess that's why I'm so eager to do a review of it because I want to talk about this. There's so much to say. And I know you'll think that I'm probably going to have a lot of negative things to say about it. And you're probably right. But I think there's an interesting story behind this. There is more history to this thing than you might think. And let's talk about it in a review. But that's it. There's our assembly. Thank you very much for watching. I will see you all soon with a GI Joe toy review. Thank you all for your patience. Doing the best I can to, you know, get back to making videos. And here's a start. This crazy, silly thing. Thanks, everyone. And I will see you next time.


It is not the physical belt that we wear around our waist that makes a difference in the martial arts. It really comes down to the hard work, the dedication, and education that you put into your training.  Well, that's all well and good, but what does that mean exactly?  Now what? Today's topic comes from a question from one of our Patreon viewers. And I wanted to bring this up and present it to you guys for feedback and see what kind of point of discussion that we can start from here. Matthew Hemker asked me about the correlation between getting your black belt and then the obligation slash requirement that comes with it. Now, sometimes teaching is assumed just because you got your black belt or senior rank, depending on what art you're training. He asks, do you think that there is a place for the black belt that doesn't want to teach or perhaps shouldn't be teaching? And I think the quick answer I can give right off the bat is, my opinion? Yes, I do believe there is a path for those who don't want to teach. There is a popular misconception out there that just because you achieved your black belt means you were automatically certified and qualified to teach. Honestly, in my opinion, that couldn't be further from the truth. There's no definitive relationship between rank and teaching abilities. In a nutshell, achieving your black belt means or should mean that you have finished your curriculum and that you have at least an understanding and the ability to implement all the basics of your art. But that doesn't mean you're automatically qualified and ready to teach. Teaching another person is a skill in and of itself. It's not just knowing the knowledge of the material, but it is having the ability to communicate that knowledge to another person. And vice versa, the ability to teach well isn't always dependent on your rank either. And once again, I just have to reiterate that the belt itself physically means nothing. It is a piece of fabric. It holds your uniform closed and it's just used as a marker as to where you are in the system. And I think they're fine in that regard. You know, belts are great for keeping track of where you are in the curriculum and they're great in the classroom setting. But they are not the end-all answer to what you know or what you can do. Just like in school, a 12th grader is not automatically smarter and better than all the 9th graders. You know, all it means is that you have certain expectations based on the curriculum that you've completed thus far. So when we say that the black belt is just the beginning of your training, that means that at this point you've learned all the individual pieces and how they work together as a cohesive unit. What comes after that? Well, that's where things get interesting. So we can talk about advancing beyond the black belt. And of course, this is going to vary greatly depending on what art you train and especially if you're in a Chinese martial art or Brazilian art or karate, they're all different and there's all different requirements. But most of the time, once you achieve your black belt, like I said, you're beginning that there's room to grow after that. It's not the end of the curriculum. And in many, many cases, there's still more curriculum to learn so that you can still keep testing for further degrees or down levels. This is also the opportunity to take a deep dive look into your system. All those basics that you've learned, well, now's the time to start playing with them, analyze them, break apart techniques, put them back together, look at them from different perspectives. Sometimes you'll be very surprised what you can learn from material where you thought you already knew. So there's always a new nugget of information you can pull out. And here's where you're going to see a big divide. This is going to vary greatly across different schools and different systems. Every martial art works different. They all have different ways to lay out the curriculum. So just because one study topic works well for one art doesn't mean it's going to work for another. And that's actually honestly part of your quest to become a senior rank and become an expert in your art is to learn how that system works, learn where you can find the information and break it apart.  But when it comes to teaching, teaching is often a big part of achieving your black belt because it's kind of assumed to be a natural part of the progression.  Oh, and then you eventually become a teacher. Okay, well, that is true in many cases. And sometimes some schools, like even my earlier school, when I first started was, in order to test for your black belt, you had to have some time put in as an assistant instructor. That just meant helping out in a few classes. You had to have the hands-on work. You had to look at the material from an educational point of view, not just as a student. Now, if teaching is something you truly don't want to do, then this is something you need to really have a serious discussion about with your instructor. And if you're in an art where teaching is absolutely required to advance, then you may have come at the end of your own. You know, you might have to start exploring options, if that's not the direction you want to go. But in many cases, there's still a lot you can do, and there's still paths that are offered that you can follow that don't involve teaching. Now, when Matthew asked me the question, he actually used, as an example, American Kempo, because he knew that was my background. American Kempo, we don't use titles for our black belt ranks that are typical karate titles. We don't use to show it on, need on. It's typically more teaching titles. So for example, we use instructor, professor, and master. So the first four belt ranks are instructor levels. The next three belt ranks are professor levels, and the last three belt ranks are master levels. And they're called that because there is an expectation that you should at least have the ability to explain something. You know, once you reach a professor rank, you should know enough about your system to answer questions and really analyze and have a pretty good academic view. You're not expected to know everything yet, but you should have a really good grasp of the overall system and be able to teach it to somebody else. Now, the funny thing about that that was using Kempo as an example, you know, Matthew asked me about, because of the Kempo titles, but funnily enough, in Kempo, at least in my experience, I know a lot of people who chose not to teach that are still ranking up on black belts. They're still doing their training, but they chose not to teach. Teaching is not a requirement. You don't have to go open up your own school. You don't have to become an instructor if you don't want to. It's available and it helps rank you up. You know, if you want to advance, teaching is one way to do it. And also with Kempo, depending on what curriculum you went through, you've seen all the material. By the time you get to third, fourth, or fifth degree, and on which curriculum you follow. But by then, you've achieved and you've tested and you've learned all the curriculum, all the book work. And at that point on to rank, if you want to get sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth degree, it's time, commitment, teaching, contribution back into the art.  You actually have to bring something to the table, whether it be a new discussion or thesis or you teach. This is where you start to infuse your knowledge into the art and take it further. So a lot of us are like that. Yes, it's you giving back into the system. You giving to someone else or you giving new knowledge out there. That's how you rank up in many cases. So let's break that misconception right now that just because you got your blackmail automatically means you can teach. Teaching is a skill. It is a separate skill. It doesn't mean you accomplish book work, but it means that you have the ability to communicate ideas in such a way that you can break them down, make them easy to understand, and convey knowledge to a person and help that person on their quest to digest that information and learn it.  It's something that you learn or some people can have a natural ability at it because the reverse is true. Just because you don't have a black belt doesn't mean you can't teach. My previous instructor, by the time he closed the school and moved out of the state about five years ago, he was a seventh degree black belt. But when I first met him, he was a green belt and he was just an assistant instructor in the class, but he was really good. He understood the material. He was very charismatic. He knew how to break it down for us to understand it. And as he ranked and has he got better, he got more and more teaching abilities. But he was one of the primary instructors at Brown Belt just because he was that good. And honestly, he was one of the best instructors I've ever met because he really knew how to open your eyes in a new way. He didn't just tell you to do this. He didn't just teach you the moves. He taught us how the moves worked, what they meant, how to take it apart because it was not just about memorization. It was about understanding. And I think that's really, really important when it comes to teaching. And unless you know how to do that or want to do that, just because you have your black belt doesn't mean you can do that. Again, black belt was just the beginning. And that's even if you're just in the traditional martial art. Even if you're in other arts that don't use belts such as MMA or maybe you're a boxer, there's always more you could learn. So just because you're really good at something or efficient and it could be considered an expert or enough to learn. Maybe you want to improve that footwork or maybe you want to learn how to dodge faster or do try out different combinations or break down a kata. There's always more you can peel back so it doesn't matter what art you're in. There's always something new to learn. You're always going to be able to drive forward to become a better fighter if you want to. But you have to take that initiative to do it. This is extremely true of American Kempo as well. You could spend a lifetime trying to find all the information embedded within the art. I know a lot of people out there are all about the fighting aspect and self-defense and that's one aspect but there's also something to be said about understanding motion and the science of motion and that's something else you could look at and learn if you want to. But the information is there. Whatever you're trying to learn it's in there and even now after 27 years of American Kempo I still go back to my wipeout material and I find new nuggets of information I never knew were there before. So there's always these layers you can peel back. And anyone who studies Kempo knows what I'm talking about because every one of our techniques has an idea or a concept. Whatever one technique does somewhere in the system there's another technique that has the opposite and reverse of it. Many times it's obvious, many times it's not. You have to find it a lot of times and it's kind of exciting when you do. Even just recently I was reviewing some old material and I came across two different techniques and I did one and I did the other and I went oh, wow. The second technique but it was upside down. Meaning that it was the same ideas, same principles of emotions that applied to the lower body versus the upper body. It was in reverse.  For me that's exciting because that makes me look at it differently and understand that the concept cannot only be applied here it could also be applied there. And I think that's the important part of once you achieve your black belt is going back and looking for things like that. Look for patterns. What kind of hidden knowledge can you pull out? You can do the same thing with your combinations in MMA. You know, just because maybe a combination, a punching combination worked. Well, can you apply it to kicks and vice versa? What can you play with? What can you discover? Discovery is half the fun at least in my opinion. So to answer the question, yes, I do feel there is a path for those who are black belts that don't want to teach. There's plenty you can learn. There's plenty of knowledge to seek after there's a thousand different ways you can make yourself a better fighter. But I do recommend teaching for those who are willing to try it. At least understand how to do it because it offers you new perspective and I can't tell you how many times I've been teaching in class or I've been working with kids. I'm explaining the topic and through the process of my explanation to get them to understand it something clicks and I make a connection.  And it just makes more sense to me. So to be able to explain something in detail to that person only helps you understand it even more. And for the record teaching children and teaching adults are two completely different experiences and both valuable in their own way. Teaching children is you have to take this complicated knowledge and break it down into small pieces so that they can understand it. You can't sit down with a ten year old and give them a two hour thesis on the economy of motion or maybe you could for some kids. But for the most part you got to break it down into smaller chunks and let them absorb it. Whereas with an adult, a person is going to expect more of a thorough explanation that they're going to want to know why. They're going to know how and they're trusting you to give them effective knowledge. So teaching children and teaching adults are two very different experiences but I do recommend at least giving it a try just because you can only sharpen your own skills by teaching somebody else something new. So if you're at a point where you're concerned with your future, you're not quite sure where they go next honestly talk about it with your teacher sit down with your instructor lay out a clear path to your training because you always want to have goals regardless of what you train in. So I can only speak for myself my own experiences. I would love to hear from all of you. What does your school do? When you achieve black belt or senior rank do you have to teach? Is that required?  I'm looking forward to all your feedback please be sure to leave it down below in the comment section and perhaps we can circle back around and continue the discussion in the future. So thank you all for watching and we'll see you next week.


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We are alive. Sorry about all the movement. We're gonna make sure feed doesn't die while live-streaming.  I'm Erica. Jeff is here. What's up Kim? We just got back into town. So I wanted to go ahead and go live for y'all. I need that. This over here. You guys hear me okay? I know this thing didn't just go kaput, but I think it did. Yep. Alright. Plan B. Drive in the struggle bus today. We'll be able to see what you're seeing. There we go. Sweet. Alright. How are y'all doing? We've missed you guys. Anything new since we were out of town? Alright. I can see what y'all can see. Humidity? That's no good. So Karen, how have you been? Long time no see. Okay. So I did this piece forever ago, roughly forever-ish ago. And I've been trying to think of things that I can add to it. Change it up a little bit to make it more unique. And I think I've decided that I want to create some dimensional waves, I think. So what I'm going to do is find some gloves. Gloves are important. Nope. Nope. Can't go this way. I'm going to go around this way. Well, I guess I can use some of Jeff's big hand gloves. So the idea is that I'm going to take cellophane and hot glue and create some waves that kind of stick up a little bit and look awesome. But that's in theory. So what I did with these, you can probably see there's a little strip of hot glue up here and I rounded the cellophane over so that it is kind of a little bit more malleable, rigid. All those good fun words. I did those ones, but I wanted to do one with you guys so you can see what I'm doing. So I just have this irregularly shaped. I want to see those Kim. What's up, Kim? Sherry, Melissa Annette. So excited to see all you guys. So I'm going to do this one so you guys can see what I did to do those. You're in the hospital, fell by the pool, severed all of the tendons and ligaments in my right forearm this past Friday.  Well, tropical epoxy, I'm so sorry that you have quite a substantial injury, but we're happy to have you. We have more YouTube time. I hope you feel better soon. That sounds awful. I'm trying to kind of get these waves to play together but not be one solid wave. Maybe I'll underlap it. Is that a word? I don't think that's a word. Maybe I'll just have it back set a little bit. The static with this stuff is unreal right now. So this is just holographic cellophane. I got it off Amazon. It's just got all that really pretty. Yeah, this is not as easy as I thought it would be to just line up these waves that they look like they're supposed to. Nope. That's definitely not it. Give up me and the cellophane. I've been arguing. Maybe the problem's this. I like how that one looks together. Anyways, we'll line it up. So I'm just going to put some hot glue a little bit down the way on my cellophane and I'm making it into a curved line so that I can really shape how this wave looks. Also, now it's on my thumb. So it looks like this. That doesn't look cute to cut that off. Anyways, I think I may just proceed with this so you guys get the idea and we can move on. So I'm trying to pinch it upwards just slightly so that there's like an undertow just slightly. Now I have my V's. The next thing I'm going to do is take some thing, this. I'm going to take my 3M spray adhesive and spray just the area where I'm going to have it actually in contact with my board. So that's going to be probably from here down. Nope. That just got my hand. So that's fun. So you can see, I don't know if you can see. Maybe you can see where it's cloudy. That's where the spray adhesive is. We're going to just pinch it around a little bit so that it creates this little bit of a lip here. Make sure that's as flat as possible because that's going to be under-rethined.  I'm working and super excited about the cellophane. Well, I'm glad you have something that makes you feel better and really, really hope you have a super speedy recovery because that sounds not fun at all. What's that, Nancy? Right, at least I have you on some good stuff. Did you? You just got moved, right? Oh my goodness. This stuff is sticking to everything. I may spray this little bit so that I can tack down this part. That's a little bit flappy. I'm just going to hold it with my handy dandy these. I'm spraying it over the trash can. Sorry, you guys can't see it, but I don't want it to get anywhere other than where I want this stuff because it is not a joke. It makes everything super sticky. There we go. Now that part's down. We got it all down. Can you show the adhesive spray? Oh, sorry. So it is 3M Super 77 Multipurpose Adhesive. That's awesome, Nancy. Okay, so now I'm going to take this one and spray the bottom part as well. Not this top part. Just that part. Overlap it slightly. Make a little bend in the middle or wherever, whatever part you want to have a lifted area. Get this part as flat as possible because we're going to have resin to hide that seam right here. So I'm kind of offsetting these a little bit so they don't look like all one wave. I think I'm going to put this one here and then make another one that just comes this way. At least in my head, that's what's about to happen. Wait, I could probably use this one because it's a little longer. I'm trying to bend my hot glue so that it does what I want it to before I get it. Always try to plan out what you're going to do before you add your spray adhesive. Just trust me. Once things are sticky, there's no going back. That's a life lesson. You have a love-hate relationship with spray adhesive. Same. Very much same. So I'm just cutting another bit off for this area. Maybe not that one. I don't know why I'm being particular about how the front edge looks because I'm about to just curl it all under anyways. So also remember it doesn't have to be perfect. This is an ocean wave and anything in nature has a certain degree of flaw or imperfection. The nature of nature. So don't beat yourself up if it doesn't look exactly like what you have in mind because wave's going to wave. I hardly ever beat myself up over things that don't look like how I have in my mind. Let's make this sticky and we'll put it right about here-ish. Sweet. Looks like various waves rolling in. Jelica. What a fun name. Okay, we're going to do one more wave. Just right here. Now we're going to get to resonant. Resonating? Resonating? Words are hard. You know what I mean. Every time I fold one of these over, I'm like, I'm not going to put my finger in the hot glue. I'm not going to put my finger- Every time it gets me. I'm going to stagger this back just slightly. So how many of you guys have worked with cellophane before? Do you enjoy it? Is it horrible for you? What are your thoughts?  So I'm going to do the same thing we did before and get just one of these scrap pieces. Cover it and spray adhesive and use it to just put this little corner down. Nice to see Stonefoot online, huh? Right? I wish they got online more often, but those guys are always super busy. I feel like if I put one here, I have to put one here. But I also feel like one isn't enough right there. What do you guys think? Get baskets. Ooh, I like to get basket idea. Also, I crinkle it before I start working with it so that it has all that awesome ocean-watery texture. I'm just using cheap hot glue. Cheap hot glue gun because you're not going to be able to see it anyways. You have to worry about if it's going to yellow or whatever. It's all wrapped up in cellophane, so no one will ever know. Okay, I guess for real. I stuck every finger, I think, into the hot glue that time. Luckily, the cheap hot glue guns don't turn into lava. What that dance is? We're going to do this, and then we're going to do that, and then we're going to mix resin. Capiche? Capiche. We will just roll that one under. How about that? How about thin apples? Okay, to do that, I'm just going to put a dot of hot glue. Just on this, just on the tip. Sounds good. That is what he said. What's that mic read? Hey, JJ. You guys having an awesome day? I hope so. If I put my finger in the other hot glue guns that I have, the more pricey ones, I don't know if I'd be able to not say every bad word I've ever encountered because those shoot lava. Alright, I like it. So you can, like, pinch the sides in a little bit to make your wave area kind of curl up some. Just don't let it get too high of a wave because that won't look too natural. Now, I'm torn. Should I put cellophane on the rest of it, or just tint it a little bit more to hide my cellophane lines? What do you guys think? Just tint it, tint it, hide the lines. Skinny strips that are horizontal. That's not a bad idea. Just to bring in the look a little bit. Let's just cut out some streamers. Nothing too crazy. Nothing too fancy. Nothing too similar. I want to keep that look really random. That should be good, right? I swear I cut more than this many, but also maybe not a couple more. This spray adhesive dries pretty fast, so by the time we get our resin mixed up, everything will be set. I am again going to use these tweezers because I don't want my fingers stuck together forever. I'm pretty sure what would happen. Other than Whitney breaking her everything, have you guys had a semi-awesome weekend? I hope so. Sorry that I'm doing this spray adhesive off-camera, but once you guys use it one time, you'll be like, I'm going to spray mine over the trash can too. Just trust me. Not bad, Swapper. Good. Good. Not bad is better than bad always. Really hard not to kind of stagger them too evenly because nature, that bolded a little bit. Hopefully it won't interfere with anything. I think I've been thinking of that video of Rhonda all night and laughing, poor thing. I'm not kidding when I tell you that Jeff woke up in the middle of the night laughing at that video. The thought of that video. He didn't like wake up watching it. He just was in his brain. If you guys haven't seen the video in question, I think Jeff posted it to ATV's poor people. It was a hoot. A riot even. All right, let's move all the stuff we're not going to use. There, there. Unplug the hot glue or else it'll be plugged in for the rest of the eternity. So forget. Okay, let's get ocean-y. I'm going to be honest with you guys. I'm not exactly what I'm going to do for a lot of this. I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to blend some of this in, but we're going to find out together, right? Rhonda was a good sport about it. She was, but I think I'm pretty sure Kenny scares her like that, like once a month. So not that she's used to it, but she might be a little bit used to it. I'm on the other side of the table mixing some resin real quick. I think for this, I'm going to use eight ounces. Even though six will probably work. I'm using just resin diamond coats because it is a solution and it just works out better personally for my waves. I kind of abuse them while I'm designing the piece. And so it just, stone coats is more durable after curing, but for some reason it doesn't do so hot at this point in the process. I don't even know if that makes sense, but Clara can translate my Wi-Fi off on this. What's up Arlene? So I'm going to mix this resin real quick and hope my internet connects again. So did you guys like that? The alcohol ink geo pieces that I've been doing recently. Are you interested in seeing one of those live or do you prefer them in time-lapse? Tell me where your thoughts are. Need to know. You want to try alcohol ink? Do geos live? Prefer live? This way we can ask questions. Good point. Live. Cool. Cool, cool, cool. I will do it for you guys. Absolutely. I forgot to say that we're artists till death.  Usually it's at 6 p.m. except for on Tuesdays. It's at 2 p.m. But that's only usually. Most of the time on the weekends it's irregular. So make sure when you subscribe you hit the little bell icon so that YouTube will usually let you know when we're live. Give you a notification and you can join us. I think I'm going to go back to doing giveaways on the channel too. What do y'all think? Multi-Geodes class like your huge one. A class class? Okay, thank you so much. You want to do it with me? If you want to do it along with me then maybe we'll like plan a day. So maybe a week from now so you guys can get all the materials you need together. We can just plan an ink with me. You're building today, Arlene. Yeah, it's hit or miss. Kitty Fantastic, we're happy to have you here. Welcome. Don't care for time-lapse, I'm dyslexic and ADHD. Understood, understood, understood. I have to sprinkle in some time lapses because people get all butt hurt if I don't do time lapses because I think the lives are too long. But anyways, cool. Let's plan maybe for a Friday evening. Will that work for everyone? Love your works so beautiful. Are you out of focus or is it my eyes? I'm not sure. Maybe that'll be better. It looks kind of clear on mine so I'm not sure. It could be the internet catching up with the live feed so maybe like it's not buffering but it's working on it. Thank you Arlene. So the majority of our color is going to be blue. I need a little white from the waves. That's probably too much. Yeah, I made too much resin most likely. So the white I'm going to use is titanium from just resin. You don't need a whole lot of stuff super pigmented. You just want it to be opaque. Lisa, you understand Thornton better? Sorry about that movement. I just ran into the camera with my face. So, yeah. Speaking of face, I got this funky like, almost looks like hives that came up on my cheek. I think it's from probably stress from shenanigans over the week. And yeah, hopefully it's going away. I've had to take Benadryl to get it to be under control so I'm a little groggy. And that's why mostly I'm early today. Because I don't want to leave you guys without a live again. What's up Mommy Eunice? How are you today? You guys, that's my future mother-in-law. Did I tell you that I'm engaged? It's true. I'm trying to keep it a secret. That's Eunice Sandoval, Jeff's amazing mama. Okay, so the blue I just used is Bondi blue from Colour Possession. It's a tint. I'm going to put a little bit of this, oh I guess it's violet, bring it in here. It's powder. I just want to create a tea tiny bit of sparkle. This will also help to hide the seams. I think you have it in. Let's take the camera with my face again. Sandy is a little bit more sparkle. You don't want to use too much because it will go opaque. So just build up the amount of sparkle that you want in it. See that little bit of purple interference sometimes. It's true Tim. I know, it's true. This is layer two. So I think I'm going to do, I don't know, I have another one of these. Where's mine? I'm just going to make this sticky real quick. We just put it right. So I'm going to do a wave and let it roll back and catch and do whatever it wants to do. And then I'll do probably another one here. I know Lisa, I've been keeping it very much on the low low. Okay. So I'm going to use the clear to decide where my wave will be. Good. Let's bring you guys in a little bit more. It does look like mermaid or fish scales. I'm just going to set this under my piece to keep everything flowing backwards because this is a little bit too close and I don't want it to roll over and break this plane. So I'm going to use this to drop Bondi right here. I have no idea how this is going to go. But in my head, it's going to be awesome. Oh, we're going to take the rest of my clear resin and put about five drops. And this is going to be the deeper part of the ocean. So that's why I'm using more drops, but it's still the same Bondi. We're just adding more drops that will make it opaque. You can get all of this stuff, except for the cellophane on my website, artisttilldeff.com. Exactly, Clara. Let me see the purple interference in there now. See how it shines kind of purpley blue. That's the bling it. It's still a little bit light. So I'm going to add three more drops in there. I'm glad you're having an easy day, Clara. So if you guys wouldn't mind, please subscribe to our channel. Leave us a thumb or two and something else, sorry. Doing too many things at one time. I can't think. Share our videos with the people you like, or if you don't like our videos and share them with people you don't like. Hey, Kim, thank you so much. All right. So now the next part is going to be trying to make sure there's no raw spots. Because when I start to manipulate this design, I want the resin to flow evenly. And it'll kind of part ways where it hasn't been yet. So you want everything to be coated, even if it's just a thin skim coat of resin. Got it pretty much. I'm just pushing some of this Bondi blue up onto the wave so it's not just cellophane. It's a little bit of blue tinted cellophane, but I'm lifting it back up after I do that so it's not stuck down. Now we're going to add our white. I'm just going to add this where part of it touches the dry bit of the first layer of resin and part of it touches the clear. Typically, I don't do too thick of a line because I don't want it to cover up what's already there. And I guess I should go ahead and add any other lines that I might do because I kind of only have one go with this, you know. Make sure everything's coated. Super important. Maybe right here. Okay. Hopefully this looks awesome. We're going to find out together though. I guess I need a heat gun, but I took it just again, so let me get this one from over here. Let go. Give up. Heat gun check. Now, heat guns and cellophane, you want to try not to hit your cellophane with too much heat because it'll kind of start to shrinkwrap it a little bit. So, I'm doing full heat though and all the way air. Right now, I'm just popping bubbles and making sure I have no floaters and make sure that everything is coated with resin. All right. I'm going to lift it just a little bit. It's not pushing my waves back. That's interesting. So, because the air is getting caught under the cellophane, it was pushing my waves back at me. I didn't anticipate, but should have. All right. It's looking good, but I want to do another wave here. Right now, I'm just trying to get the waves flowing backwards. I'm not like aiming to get them to flow off the piece, but also I'm letting them flow off the piece. The hair is a very, not angry ocean, but active. Let me say active. Cool. Ideally, it wouldn't be like a white wave, these things, and then more white wave. It would be not. It'd be more intermingled, but as a test run, not really mad at it. Maybe I can bring a couple more of these in here. It was way too much, but that's okay. It's down cut very different from the other brands. I'm just getting started with epoxy, and I am mainly a traditional artist, oil paint, egg tempera, pastels, and so on. So it's my opinion that it is far and above a lot of brands. It just works better for my application, which is traditional, usually. But I think when you choose a resin, it comes down to preference a lot of times. You may want it to do things that I don't, and vice versa. Kitty, if you want, if you order anything from me on my website, artistildepth.com, let me know that you're a fan, and we talked about this, and you want to try Stone Coat, and I can send you a little eight-ounce kit to give it a shot.  Let me give you a better view of what we've got going on. And I'm probably going to come in with a paintbrush and stipple the edges of my cellophane waves to make them white, or a little bit more white. You know what I mean? So I can show off the break, the cap of the waves. You can really see the depth of the piece, the bottom layer of wave, and the top layer, because I'm using a transparent tint so it gives so much more depth and dimension. You can see those strips of the cellophane. Very angry ocean. Well, Melissa, have an awesome day. Give Gabriela a hug for me. You can really see the sparkle of that bling it in this little pocket right here. All right, so our waves. I didn't want them very high. I just wanted them to be able to cast a bit of a shadow. And I think it worked. Let's get a side angle. I'm definitely very happy with how this piece turned out. I'm going to give it another go. I typically don't do 3D art, but pumped about the possibilities for this for sure. I'm nervous about this right here. I don't want it to break this barrier, so I'm probably going to leave this. Words are hard, but I'm going to leave this under it while it's setting up to keep everything rolling backwards. We'll see how it sets up. More than likely, I'm going to maybe do a final wave right here. Just to further hide some of it, but right now, my seams are fairly well hidden. As a resin levels, will it smash the cellophane and cover it? It will not. It will stay mostly just like this. Any high peaks? You can see some right here and right here. We'll stay high peaks unless I go in and push them down as the resin setting. I love how cellophane changes colors. Thank you guys. Thank you very much. I'm going to take this to the dust-free zone. I'm going to take a nap. I hope you enjoyed this test piece. I hope you decide to give it a shot. That looks fairly real to me. As a mermaid, that's what my ocean looks like. Very colorful, very active. Of course, I will show you guys what the piece turns out like as a quick recap. The products that I used are titanium white from just resin, Bondi blue from Colored Session. You're probably not going to be able to see the name. Oh yeah, a little bit. And then buoyant violet sparkle. Whoops. A roll of cellophane, some hot glue, some super 77 adhesive, a 16 by 20 cradle board and just resin diamond coat epoxy. Everything except for the hot glue, the spray adhesive, and the cellophane can be found on my website, artistilldebt.com. And yeah, if you decide to give it a shot, then post your results in our Facebook group, ATD's Poor People, so that we can all see it. Arlene, this was Diamond Coat from just resin. Anyways, I hope you guys have an awesome rest of your weekend and we'll see you guys back live tomorrow. Have an awesome night. Be kind to one another. You never know what someone may be going through and always remember, we do the tests. Uh huh. So you don't have to. Oh, I forgot to tell you guys, it's my baby moves birthday. Let's go say hi, baby man. Let's go say hi, baby man. It's his baby move birthday. Hi, baby man. Hi, baby man. Is it your big boy birthday? Is it his big boy birthday? It is. You know it.   You know it. My babies. My babies. You guys didn't know I had this built for them so that they could see out the window. So three story. Let me find the entrance. Right there. And then it goes around that way. Around that way. So that they can just see out and then they have their little fans. All right, you guys have an amazing day and we'll see you guys tomorrow. Bye.