Good morning and welcome to this week's edition of Encompass Live. I am your host, Christa Porter, here at the Nebraska Library Commission. Encompass Live is the commission's weekly webinar series where we cover a variety of topics that may be of interest to libraries. We broadcast the show live every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. Central Time, but if you're unable to join us on Wednesdays, that's fine. We do report the show as we are doing right now and is then posted to our website for you to watch at your convenience. Both the live show and the recordings are free and open to anyone to watch, so please spread the word, share with your friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, anyone you think might be interested in any of the topics you have on the show. For those of you not from Nebraska, the Nebraska Library Commission is a state agency for libraries and we provide services to all types of libraries in the state, so you will find topics, shows on topics that would be for potentially any type of library. Public, academic, K-12s, corrections, museums, archives, just runs could be anything, but we do a mixture of things, book reviews, interviews, many training sessions, demos of services and products. We bring guest speakers in sometimes from libraries across the country and across Nebraska. We think that we're doing cool things that everyone might want to hear about, and we also have Nebraska Library Commission staff that sometimes do presentations for us, and that is what we have with us this morning, as you can see on the screen. Amanda Sweet, our technology innovation librarian is here with us today. Good morning. Good morning, Amanda. The last Wednesday of every month is our Pretty Sweet Tech session on NCUPAS Live, so if you're the techie person at your library or you're interested in that kind of thing, this is definitely the one to sign up for, Amanda will always share something that is tech related. Some might do things other times during the month too, but you can always depend on her to have something for the last one. And today we're going to talk about something cool and fun, maybe, the Oculus Quest 2 VR. I know it's out and people are getting it for their holidays, maybe. Libraries can help us too, and we have ways to get you on top of that. So I'm going to hand it over to you, Amanda, to tell us all about it. So as we've been going over some of the new grant stuff, people have been looking at makerspace equipment, and people have been indeed looking at holiday gifts. One of the bigger questions I've gotten is which VR headset is the best headset to get? And I decided to zero in on Oculus Quest 2 because one, it's the one that I got for the library system here, but after I got it, Facebook decided to make a few changes. And yeah, it's been a quiet chaos, really. So we're still kind of waiting for that to see how that all shakes out, and I'm going to go over some of the different changes that's going on as Facebook is shifting over into meta, what that means for the Oculus Quest. If you've already purchased the Quest for your library, or if you're thinking about purchasing the Quest for your library, and I'll go over what in the world happened to the previous models that were made by the Oculus line, and then I'll go over how I actually had to go through to set up that Oculus Quest to make it available for the public, then some tips for the policies that have come up that just keep everyone safe and secure, recommendations for a liability waiver.  And then I'll go over what some of the common alternatives to using the Quest are. So in case you learn this stuff, you want to find a different option, I'll go over a few things for that. And then I'll go over some, like the wrap up of was Quest to actually worth getting after I already did it. So again, I did purchase these headsets before I found out that Facebook was going to be shifting over to meta. It felt like Mark Zuckerberg just kind of dropped that out of the blue. But so after that announcement came out, I found out that so the Oculus headsets, they all have to be registered in using the Oculus app. And but now that app is going to be turning into the meta portal and the meta app. And instead of continuing with the quest line, meta is going to turn into a new headset called the Cambria. And so they just took a complete right turn there, left turn, whatever it is, it's not going in the same direction anymore. And it's and they completely, they are not going to be branding anything Oculus at all anymore. So they're going to be doing the like the Oculus Quest is still going to exist. It will likely look exactly the same, have the exact same features. But instead of a big sticker that says Oculus, that's a big sticker that says meta or Cambria or whatever title they decide to call it. So they are still supporting the quest to which has only been out for about a year so far right now. But they are no longer supporting Oculus go as of they are not doing any more updates or any more support or security patches, privacy patches for the Oculus go. They are not allowing developers to make any new games for the Oculus go. They are phasing out the Oculus Rift. So the Oculus Rift still exists as of right now, you can still purchase it in stores, but I wouldn't because they are going to be phasing that out. And they're one of the reasons they stated for that is because the Oculus Rift will require people to connect the headset to a really expensive gaming computer. That gaming computer was required for this headset to function. And it's because that headset required really fast refresh rates and really good graphics card. But now with the Quest 2, there's actually a cord called the link. And the link is an optional cord that you can use to connect the headset into that gaming computer. So the Quest 2 can be a standalone that doesn't need anything else to exist. Or you can extend the features with that link cord and basically turned into a Rift. So with that cord, they don't need the Rift anymore. And I have no idea what they're going to be doing with Cambria. They haven't told anyone yet. Well, when did this even just happen? I mean, we're talking like in the last couple of weeks even, I put this article to the from the verge that kind of talks about all this. So if you do want to read more about this, if you grab these slides and read through this article, this is a really, really recent article. And so they talk about all those changes that I just kind of summarized. And there's I also embedded a few other articles if you want to read more about the reviews and what is going on with all of this. So these are Google sites as Amanda always uses, and we will have the link to the slides, which have all these embedded links available to everyone afterwards. And in case you want to take a gander, while I'm talking about other stuff, I will put this link to the slides into the chat so you can access that article and anything else that you might want to take a glance at. All right, so let me pop back in here. So now that I've given you the little caveat about Facebook turning into meta, the Oculus, the Oculus Quest two is still going to be supported. So I'll go over, this is just a quick thing that I just put together for a reference slide. I have better resources that I'll go over after this. But so for the Oculus Quest two, it actually requires both the Oculus app and a Facebook account to function. So the caveat to that is that when you connect the Oculus headset to a Facebook account, Oculus Quest two was designed for individual users so that it could kind of play off of social media so that you can connect the friends. But when you're in a shared, when this is a shared headset, and you're in a public library where everyone has access to that account, that headset can only be registered to one Facebook account. So I actually created a dummy account that is a dummy Facebook account and a dummy Oculus account. So that, and it's just for privacy security purposes, so that it's not connected in through my personal Facebook account or Chris's personal Facebook account or anyone's personal account. So everyone's information is secure, and it just goes through that separate account. And but I had to jump through hoops to create that because Facebook at the Facebook account has created new validation processes to be able to register for that. So in practice, when I send these headsets out to different libraries, when people log into that Oculus account and log into that Facebook account, they'll be asked to verify that they are who they say they are. So they actually need to log into the Facebook account, but then they'll get an email to a Gmail account that will say, are you this person? And so I actually have to give people access to both those dummy accounts to be able to get into the library account. Facebook did promise that in the near future, they were going to remove that element where Facebook account was necessary, but they haven't done it yet. I heard that that was coming, which I think is going to be a little very helpful to situations like the libraries and schools that want to do this, use these. Yeah. When it's first a one on one and personal, no. But I mean, but once that's done, the rest of it is easy. You put the headset on and it actually automatically guides you through the process. So it will, like you put the headset on and it'll ask you to connect to Wi-Fi and you'll pair the controllers and headset to the Oculus app, which has been merged with your Facebook account. And they added a new silicone cover. The reason that they started including a silicone cover with all of the headsets is because there was a small percentage of the population that was having an allergic reaction to the facial interface on the original Oculus Quest. So to fix that, they added the silicone cover. I thought it was actually for COVID for sanitation purposes, but it was actually for that facial interface. And they actually had a recall on some of the original facial interfaces because of that allergic reaction. So I actually bought a case that includes a free silicone cover and now every single new headset you buy includes that silicone cover. So it also doubles as a good sanitation thing. Just wipe off the silicone cover between uses. You're good to go. And there's also a feature where you can set a guardian boundary within your headset. So how that works is in older headsets like the Oculus Go, you would put it on, but then you would not have any idea of your physical surroundings. So you might move in through a virtual world, but then accidentally run into a real table. What the Guardian Boundary does is you clear out some space. Oculus recommends 6.5 feet by 6.5 feet to be able to navigate safely more if you have the space. But you actually draw a digital boundary with your controller.   Like an invisible fencing for dogs in your eyes. Right. That would actually be kind of cool. And so that Guardian Boundary does exist with the Oculus Quest, the first generation, but it's also included with the second generation. And there are external cameras on the outside of the headset that they use to show you the outside environment when you're drawing that boundary. It shows up in grayscale, but I mean, it doesn't matter. You can see a clear floor where there's a clear floor. And so this is something that Oculus Quest has included with all of their games that are registered through their system is they have comfort ratings. So when people go through virtual reality, they, when you're just a first initial user, it's usually better to do a seated experience or one that doesn't include very fast movement or have really fast scenery going past you. The reason that they do that is because that fast scenery and like, like if you're going on a simulated roller coaster or something like that, it's known to cause nausea and it's known to cause like bad reactions in people. So Oculus made different comfort rating levels and I'll actually pull those up because if you're using this in the library, you will reference this chart a lot to help people choose the best experience for them. And so a comfortable experience, you just usually stationary. It doesn't have any disturbing images in it. It doesn't have any jolting camera motions and moderate is pretty much a middle of the road that some people have been known to react to it, but it's usually you and when you have, when the player actually controls the movement instead of the scenery moving for you, that will also impact how you adjust to it. Like if you have control over your own movement in the virtual space, you react to it better. The physics are more natural and it just kind of, you know, but I've gone into some space experiences where I'm stationary, but the entire rest of the scene is moving for me and I actually had to take the headset off right away because it was just, it did not compute. My brain was like the physics of this is not meshing up. And then the intense version would be like if you're going on a virtual roller coaster or if you're going on something that is just designed to mess with people, but each different experience has that rating in it. So when you're choosing an experience for yourself or choosing or helping a patron choose one, take a gander at this guide. And if the experience is unrated, you can also just rate it for yourself in the library because you know how people do it. And so I did say that there were additional resources that I had beyond just the slide that I popped together yesterday. But so if you were looking for how to train library staff or how to get up to speed in your library, I put together the Oculus quest to librarian preparation guide, which is exactly what it sounds like. Right. And so this one will run you through and I'm just going to click through this. And is this available through our TechKits website where they can, where Nebraska libraries can borrow these from us too? So I haven't added this Oculus quest to the TechKits page yet. I haven't finished the website part of it yet, but I also checked out all 10 copies of Quest 2 already. So it's also, I'll be adding it probably next week, week after, because I have the stuff for it. I just need to get it on the webpage. But you can access this through the slideshow. And Christa, if you want to, you can put it into the resources that say this is the slide, this is the recording, this is the preparation guide, what have you. So this will just run you through how to experience and prepare for virtual reality and learn the basics yourself first.  So this will kind of run you through, and there's also different secondary resources that you can use for learning a software overview. Some people have been known to not even put the headset on until they know what they're getting into. So they will walk into the library and say, I don't know what that is. I'm kind of curious about it, but I'm not going to touch it till I know what's going to go on my head. And so I've included this video so you can view it for yourself or show people what they're getting into.   If you're new, you can't see it. So this will actually remind you to memorize or familiarize yourself with those buttons. It's just like a little series of stuff that you might not think about until you done did it.  But if you do it off enough, you do remember it's like riding a bike, the habit is there. So if you do practice this enough and you yourself, you'll know. Yeah. I want to just set your hands correctly on the controllers. Yeah. And there's also a printable reference guide. So if you're standing with a patron, you can keep this on hand so that you're able to remind yourself where the button is. And you can say, and someone says, I can't get out of this game. Where is the oculus button? And you can look at this and let them know. And so for a quick reference guide, and this is just something that you can plow through and look through and get yourself up to speed. And there's also, and this is what is currently on the Tech Hit webpage. So I'll show you two different sections that you can go to to find activities and different resources that you can do within the, with people in the library. So. And for those of you that might not have heard about this before, either in Nebraska or outside, this is something we do for the well-mandered those to the Nebraska Library Commission. We loan these tech, we have these tech kits available to loan out to Nebraska libraries so that they can test out all these kind of high tech things first before deciding if it's something they would buy themselves for their library or just be their way of always using these items. And so I'll just go over some different main ways that people have been using it. Just in case you were trying to gather some different ideas. I'm going to pop down into, so there's two ways that you can do this. The first way is that you can experience virtual reality in the first place and just know that it exists and find the initial way that most people explore virtual reality is through an experience called first steps for Oculus Quest 2. So if you're using that headset, Oculus actually designed an experience that will let you, that will orient you to the buttons, orient you to the physics of the game.  And it'll actually pop up a little virtual version of the controller so that you'll start learning which button is which within the headset itself. And it just first steps is awesome. I recommend it for anyone who has never used virtual reality before or has never used the quest before. So, and then you can go through the different experiences themselves. So by default, I pretty much grabbed all the free well rated experiences that are included with Quest. But then I started gathering some of the paid ones that are actually helpful. And so one way that some library state or some library systems have been starting to use this, you may have heard before, but Nevada State Library has been using this for a career like career exploration. So when you go out to different career fairs or when you're going out to like a job center or something like that, each different job center or career center, they aren't actually able to know all the things about every single career that's available. So Nevada started working with different people and different organizations to create virtual reality experiences to introduce people to these different career options. So now instead of having to train people to memorize like 500 different careers, you put on a headset and then you can just explore it. And I've been talking to Abad about this and it'd be kind of cool to expand it to here. Yeah, that sounds very cool. Right? Yeah, it can be. You can't do everything again. Anything you can have, it'll help. Right? You can learn about it now. And but we'll see where that goes. It just be kind of awesome. And so then another way that people have been using this is there are different experiences for flight training. There are different job simulations. There are different, so there are different organizations that on their own accord have been creating career exploration in virtual reality. And so it's not just Nevada, there are other organizations that are just doing it. And there are also different headsets that exist purely for business purposes. Virtual reality is used a lot in manufacturing and instruction and instructional design and training. And it's used in, so if you have like a imagine that you are trying to figure out, do I want to work on the high beams on a construction site? So now instead of asking people to go walk across a physical beam to find out if this is the thing that they want to do, they put on a headset and they walk across a virtual beam. So if you plummet to your virtual death, maybe you know that you need a little more practice or maybe this isn't something that you want to do. You can suddenly discover, no, hypes are not for me. Right. And so that is actually something that's been around for a while. And there are different experiences that you can start digging into to introduce people to that. So and there's also a tour creator. So if you have a 360 camera, you can also take a 360 video of your environment and you can load it into the quest. And so there are free apps that you can use to do that like on a web on like a web VR. Glitch is one of them. Glitch actually takes like a single line of code. I think I actually did it for Encompass before where you just pop in one line and then it pulls in your entire 3D world. But there's a difference between 360 video and actual 3D like virtual reality. In a 360 video, you can't interact with your environment. So it is not actually true virtual reality.  But if you try to reach out and touch something, your entire environment will move with you. And so it's trippy, but it's cool to look around, but it's not VR.   And you're able to like so instead of just having to walk around all these different objects, you'd actually be able to interact with them. And so there's also physics and animation that is attached to each one of the different objects so that if you bump into a chair really hard going at a certain speed, it will tip over and it's mimicking physics. So now when people understand what virtual reality is, the second way that libraries can start helping people get introduced to these concepts is to say now that I know what this is, how can I make it? I want to start experimenting with this and for my school I want to start experimenting with it for a small business. I own a construction company. I want to know what this is all about so I can go hire a third party contractor or I want to not contractor, developer. Very different things and so down at the bottom of this there are different options for actually creating your own environment. If you're working with kids, Cospaces is a really good option because it has a lot of pre-made assets. Assets would be or what like the chair or the table or the people in your virtual environment are called. So when you start designing something you start with a blank space or like a template and then you start adding assets, add a chair, add a punching bag, add a whatever thing you want and those are just in co-spaces that's made it for you and in A-frame it's kind of like the one step up so if you are familiar with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript or basically web design then A-frame is kind of a good place to get started and so it's basically it uses those tags to be able to add in different features. So you say I want to add in a ball that's one line of code, you want to change it to red that's another little CSS block and so it just if you click this link there's a series of tutorials that will guide people through how to get started with virtual reality so you don't actually need to be able to know how to do it yourself. The library usually provides access to the computers that are good enough to be able to do this design and the headset to be able to test it out. So library provides access to the technology and A-frame has already put together the tutorials and a community of resources to help people do the thing. And that A-frame I recognize that you did a session about that. Yeah and I think that was this was that the same session that I did like the glitch thing where I pulled in the 360 video? I don't remember it might have been a few. And but this one is like if you're already into HTML, CSS this isn't a great hop, skip and a leap. But so when you're doing virtual reality for professional purposes the more common one is Unity. So I put in a link to Unity tutorials for anyone who wants to get started with that. So if you have people coming into the library that are exploring virtual reality as a potential career or something that they want to get a certification or a extended training into then Unity also has resources for educators and resources for people who want to get certified as a trainer, people who want to get certified as a developer and they have different tracks and pathways that people can take to get started with this. And they also love a good badge system. I mean are you surprised? And so this is another one of those library provides access to the tech. You might be able to connect them over to a local community college or a local university that provides training or you can sync them over to here if they just want to get like the certification. And you can also help can help people connect over to different organizations that are using this stuff like instructional design organizations, workforce technology training organizations and start connecting people over to the places that use the thing. All right so that is I probably spent longer on that than I probably should have but I'll take it. It's interesting information to have. So I'll just briefly touch on a couple of the resources that I have available for you. I'll touch on the so in the tech kit section you have that set of resources specifically for the headset. If you go into this high tech section it gives you additional information about how virtual reality is actually used in the real world, how it's applied across different industries, some different privacy security things, the roles that it actually takes to be able to build a virtual reality team and just digs into some of the different learning communities and places you can connect people over to learn more. And when you are actually doing an activity in the library you can use these VR safety and security guidelines for pretty much any headset that's available. This is not specific to the quest. I provided it as a template just in case you want to be able to make changes to it. It is in Canva. You can make a free account in Canva to be able to make any designs that you want to. And so this is something that you can either print out and hand to patrons or keep a laminated reference guide for when you are facilitating a session or if people want additional information about what they need to know about health and safety concerns. And one of the ones that I did not know before is that if you have a pacemaker or any or certain medical devices it's recommended that you either don't use the headset or you consult a doctor before using the headset. And it's because magnets can interfere with pacemakers and some of those other medical devices. And so this is just something that you really want to let people know because hopefully nothing ever happens even if they do have a pacemaker. But it's really good information to have and to provide for people. And I honestly did not know this before until I was putting all this together. But good to know. Yeah, things that you wouldn't realize. Yeah. Yeah. Because my uncle actually has a pacemaker and I was actually going to find out if you wanted to use one of these for a minute but then I'm like maybe I won't. And so this is just reference guide that you can use. And the other one the getting started with VR template. I skipped ahead. Oh, it's I need to get out of the slideshow before it's going to let me interact with the actual link itself. There we go. Use template. So the other one that's available in here is basically a checklist for the library staff and for anyone who's facilitating a session. So the first page of this is the steps that you would want to complete with basically any headset, not just the Oculus Quest, to be able to prepare for virtual reality. And because if you don't charge your headset before doing a session and you find out that it's only in 10%, people aren't very happy about it. Not a good experience though. Yeah. So this will help you clear out the physical space, set up the actual headset and make sure that you've dotted your eyes crossed your T's and everyone has signed that waiver so that people know the safety guidelines and what they need to know.   And so you'll start by actually, this is a step that facilitators tended to skip a lot, which was give people a preview of what they're actually going to expect when they put on the headset. So just let them know that you're not going to be able to see any of the outside world. You might be able to see a tiny strip of light at the bottom of the headset. That's okay. You'll still be able to give the experience. And when you first put on the headset, you'll see one of two things. If the previous user didn't accidentally didn't close out of the experience the right way, you might actually be pulled directly into an experience, in which case you'll be very disoriented if it's the first time. Then you'll guide them to use the Oculus button popback and you'll show them how to use an interactive virtual menu. Because while we know that the software that's inside the headset is made exactly the same way that you make the software in your computer, you experience it differently. Because you actually feel like you can reach out and touch it and interact with it and you may never have been immersed in the computer before. So using the controllers instead of trying to use a keypad or reach out and touch it. And with the hand tracking, you sometimes actually can reach out and touch it. But basically it's just kind of a series of things that you want to cover before like with the actual person in front of you and how to guide them through and how to monitor them. And each one of these different sections corresponds with a section in this library and preparation guide. So you'll actually get additional information about like links over to the waiver, links over to pretty much everything you need to know. And there'll also be additional information about facts and different troubleshooting things and just stuff like that. Alright so let's plow through this here because we're getting close to time here. Yeah I just want to remind everyone if you have any questions about any of this about the Oculus Quest 2 VR in general, the resources and things that Amanda is sharing here go ahead and type into your question section if you go to webinar interface. If there's something she hasn't covered yet that you were wondering about, make sure that she let us know so that she can answer your questions. And so I've already gone over, I did promise that I would talk about safety and policies. So I think that's a very important part of this. Well I mean the library setting just personally you know yeah thinking oh this is a great new cool thing and then they put it on and they immediately wig out. And there have actually been a lot of people who have asked like they've gotten really disorientated but then they've asked can I take off the headset because they think they're going to break something if they take off the headset but if they leave the headset on they're going to lose their mind. So it's just in the beginning letting them know that they can take the headset off at any time and the world is not going to end. The virtual world will end but the real one won't. You're not like hardwired into this thing like the matrix it's okay.  And did any questions pop in or did anything? It's day before Thanksgiving. I really didn't expect there to be. Why recording everyone live access to this you can watch it. And so let me pop open this liability waiver. So this is basically like the legal ease of that safety guidelines like the safety infographic this is translated into lilies. And so you'll see on the top here this is something that I haven't changed yet. This is actually from the original Oculus Rift. This is a liability waiver that was actually recommended from the from Oculus themselves to keep the library safe. This is from a pilot project that was done through Nevada, Washington and a few other library systems. I got this through COSLA. I don't know who actually originally sent it over but that's where it's from. So this is just something that has been adapted from that. So it's gone through a bunch of different library systems and it is what it is. So you can change it to suit the needs of your system. I recommend adding the logo of your library or branding it to your own library so that it's tied directly to your organization. So basically all I did was pop in the library commission logo add in the address over here and ask people to either mail or scan an email in completed copies of this waiver. And this is also linked over to from the slides and it's also eventually going to be on the website when I actually have time in the world to put it up there. Yeah, I'll mention we did say that the website we're talking about is where we loan the tech bits in Nebraska libraries. All the resources there are available to anyone to use. However, you don't have to be in Nebraska library to get to this site and click on all the links and access all the training and the curriculum and the waivers and whatnot. The only thing you can't do if you're not in a Nebraska library is borrow our kits. But all the resources in these libraries are available to anyone. And so each one of the kits actually has that preparation guide and most of them have an introductory lesson plan. But I add stuff as I have time. Story of the librarian. And so let me pop back into here. So if you don't actually like the Oculus Quest or if you want to find out what else is going on, I put together kind of a brief little overview of some of the different options that are available. So probably the next next in line for competition for Oculus is the HTC Vive line. And HTC Vive is also coming out with the HTC Vive flow. And the flow was actually designed to work with a smartphone. I don't know how well it works. It could be awesome. It could not be. I don't think it's actually a thing yet. So I couldn't tell you. And but the thing with the Oculus with the HTC Vive Pro is that one, it's a lot more expensive. The Oculus Quest 2 headset was $299 per headset. And they also have one with a larger memory capacity that's $399. And the case for it, I found one for like under 25 bucks. But for the HTC Vive, it's $1,399 for each different kit. And it requires base stations. If any of you have used virtual reality systems before that standalone. So the standalone headset is just a headset and the controllers. That's all you need to make it run.  And these are just different separate boxes that you have to set up so that the system will function. And it can be tedious and kind of laborious to be able to set up those base stations. The Rift actually had that same exact thing. And the Valve Index also uses those base stations. So when you're used to them, you're used to them. And it's just like a second thing. Well, you don't even think about it. But if you are newer or if you are just looking for an easier way to do things, I would look at for something that look like look at just the standalone headsets. But the Vive also has really good image quality, great refresh rate. And that's why it's one of the competitors to Oculus. If you are working with a classroom or if you want standards-aligned content that has better privacy security for students, they also make class VR. Class VR, you can purchase either one headset or you can do a classroom pack. I put in the quote for five kits, which is about 1,250, which you can see that five kits of that class VR is actually cheaper than one fill kit of the HTC Vive Pro. A little bit. The thing is that the class VR, the functionality is not as much. The visual quality is not going to be quite as awesome-tastic as either the Vive or the Oculus Quest. But I mean, when it's like a learning experience and when you are using it with kids, you actually require a different system and you actually want newer or content that's available. So if you don't want to worry so much about filtering, it's basically like the SIPA for VR. And there's also, so it also includes the, I may have mentioned this, but it has the standards-aligned content that has been created and also has new content that's created regularly. And so that link down at the bottom, I did promise that I would embed some articles that have more information about all this stuff, that one from CNET will tell you what you need to know and is probably more important than what is on the summary slide. It has all the things. And it also summarizes what is upcoming in virtual reality. And this upcoming column is actually upcoming as of next year. So if you are trying to time out the best time to bring virtual reality into your library, next year might actually be a better way to go. And so the biggest one is Cambria is now coming from Metta. So that might be a thing. They will still support Oculus Quest 2, but the other thing is that PlayStation VR is actually coming out with a second version. The controllers are changing and they're supposed to be expanding the content that's available, but PlayStation VR is still primarily a gaming headset. So if you're trying to introduce a virtual reality to businesses or to education, PlayStation VR may not be the best way to go, but if you're a gamer, you may fall in love. And if you are looking for a smartphone version, as I mentioned, this flow is going to be synced up directly to a smartphone. So if you're thinking, so think more like a Google Cardboard, not better than Google Cardboard. The Daydream, is that the one? I think because there was Google Cardboard and then the Daydream, I think was the other one that worked with a smartphone, but this is just supposed to be like a better experience. I don't actually recommend Cardboard at all anymore. Just because, yeah. Yeah. It was a start. It was a start. And that was fine for what it was. Yeah. I mean, it was really cool when it was the only thing available. I mean, being able to make it yourself was kind of cool. Yeah. But you can also basically make a Google Cardboard with a piece of card stock and like two lenses that you can get off Amazon for about $1.50. There are tutorials online, but so all in all, is the Quest 2 actually worth getting? And honestly, still yes. The biggest frustration was setting it up is the requirement of that Facebook account. And if it had actually been slightly easier for me to set up that Facebook account and if there hadn't been such a hassle doing it, I wouldn't have any problem with it at all. I wish that they didn't require that Facebook account at all, but it sounds like pretty soon they're going to be doing that anyway, just because they've gotten so much feedback about it. And it also is one of the most cost effective headsets that can actually do what you need it to do. Because when you compare this tuner $99 over to the $1,399 or the $1,000 Valve Index, I mean, you can get a lot more bang for your buck and the visuals are really good. And there's, yeah. And there's also this new, this is not the link cable, but the link cable basically looks exactly like it. So if you want to be able to extend features or bust out your more advanced functionality, get the cord for an extra like, I think it's 70 bucks or you can bundle it and get it cheaper. And you can step it up doing it that way. And don't touch the Oculus Rift because it's not going to be a thing. Going away. Yep. Yeah. You probably will see lots of deals and people selling their used or refurbished ones because yeah, that restrain yourself. Yeah. And if you already did it, go to Amazon and look for on the right hand side of the screen, wait until there's a trade in button because Amazon started doing a trade ins. So if you have an old go, if it's in really good, almost perfect condition, you can trade it in for, they quoted me out at about $67, which is better than the no dollars than you would have gotten. Yeah. And I'm probably going to be trading out the Oculus, like the Quest original versions because I doubt they're going to keep supporting Quest for the long haul because whatever Cambria. But so all in all, yeah, I still recommend it for cost. Facebook is going to be Facebook is now meta. The metaverse is all about virtual reality, augmented reality and interactive experiences. So it's in their best interest to support this product because it is what they do now. And the Cambria is not going to be this, it's going to be a more advanced feature that is a lot more expensive than this one. So they are, they have an incentive to actually keep both models. So this would be the cost effective one that people can actually afford. And then they bump up with Cambria for their basically to replace Rift. And so that is pretty much the long and the short of it. I'm about three minutes out, but it's the day before Thanksgiving. So I'll take it. So were there any questions about anything that I covered any resources that you were looking at? Yeah, no, we don't have any questions. If anybody does have any questions, go ahead and get them typed in. If you have anything you want to chat with Amanda about regarding this VR and what we're doing or what you can do at your library, even though it is a day before Thanksgiving here, we'll figure out one of your questions. We do just one comment that someone did say Barbara who said I just want to say that this is super interesting and helpful. We just opened to make your Space Center in the learning mode. Thank you for great program. This is Barb, she's a librarian at a library in Pennsylvania. Oh, cool. And that did remind me of one more thing that I ran into, which was if you are buying games for the Oculus Quest or Oculus Quest 2, there is not an option for tax-free purchases within the app yet. And I'm sure they'll fix it because a ton of schools and libraries have complained about it, but it's not an option yet. But what you can do is purchase games through a separate account and you can gift it to that account or you can just buy it with tax and then make a note on your for the auditor that it wasn't an option, which is what most libraries have been doing. I don't see any other questions coming in. I can't see if you all are typing and just that's fine. We don't have to have any questions right now. There's lots of information here and definitely it's something to check out and experiment with. As you said, here in Nebraska, if you, well, I think you said they're all checked out at the moment? And I will be getting more once the trade-in goes through on those go, but yeah. So if you are in Nebraska, go to the website for the tech kits and keep an eye on that for checking them out to test them out in your library. Maybe if you're not in Nebraska, check your state library, some other group that may be doing the same thing. Mo is dead. Thank you, ladies. You're welcome, Mo. Glad to have you here. And if you want a little flyer of the kits that are available, I'll send over a little link to your options. Just if you want like an at a glance. Oh, everything in the tech kits. Yep. Yeah. This is the same flyer that went out to like the school libraries and it was at the NLA booth. And let me, I'm going to clear out this first page because I accidentally duplicated it. It's really a one-page front and back. Yeah. Yeah. I designed a safe paper. Yeah. And I'm not going to let you edit it because that would be a nightmare for me, but I will let you view it. And public libraries, school libraries, academic and pretty much if you're a library, you can check them out. And I just put that into the chat. And if you want to request the tech kit, it's just a quick form to fill out. Let me know who you are, which kit you want and how many you need. And then when you need them by and we are good to go. And I will put the request link in here too. And there we go. Yes. And there are, so you can check out multiple copies or you can check out a petting zoo just to see which one you actually want. Yep. The limits as long as they're available. That's good. There's a waiting list for them now. And this is the full listing of what is available. Like you'll actually see the full listing of what's available on the request form, but it just, I'm still getting caught up on the website. There's only one of me. You know what you have. Yeah. All right. I don't see any actual questions coming in. So I think we're good. If you've got all the information I need for now. You all know how to reach out to Amanda, links to the page, the library commission page. If you have any questions, but any of it beyond what's out there already for you to use all the resources. Reach out to her and she's happy to chat with you about anything you're doing at your library and ideas, what you could do. And as she speaks, I am typing in my contact information because I forgot to add my contact slide yesterday. I don't see any desperate questions coming in right now. So I think we will wrap it up for today while Amanda is speaking her slides. So thank you so much for being here with us again, Amanda. The last Wednesday of the month for the break that many of us are going on. Some people are already on the break. I am going to hold the presenter control back to my screen. There we go. Here is I was looking at the tech kits that we have. The slides that will be links available to all of this when the recording does go up will be made available to everyone on our Encompass Live website.  Nobody else is allowed to use that name. You will find our website. This is our upcoming shows, but right underneath the upcoming is a link to the archived Encompass Live shows. I do all our recordings. Today's will be at the top of this tier. My goal is to get it done by the end of the day today since I do have, I'm off the rest of the week. So everyone who attended today and registered today's show, get an email from me, let me know when it's ready. We also push it out on our various social media, Twitter, Facebook, and our mailing list here at the library commission so you'll know when it's ready to watch. We'll have a link to the recording in our YouTube channel. The slides on Google and anything else that might be useful. While we're here, I'll show you there is a search feature. You can search our show archive if you want to see if you've done some show on a particular topic. You can see you can search the full archives or just most recent 12 months if you want something just current. That is because this is the full archives and I'm not going to scroll all the way down because if you look over here, this is the show archives going back to the very beginning when Encompass Live first premiered which was in January 2009. So we're going to like 12 years worth of recordings and they're all here. As long as you have somewhere to host them, like right now it's in YouTube, we will always have these up there. So this is what we do as librarians sometimes. We archive things, keep things for historical purposes for whatever reason. So just to pay attention when you are watching a recording to the original broadcast date that's on all of these, some of the shows will stand the test of time. They'll be good, useful, valuable information, but some things will become old and outdated. Information may be wrong or have changed. Services and products might not exist anymore, links might be broken. We don't go and update those things. They are as of the date it was broadcast that would be the situation. So just pay attention when you are watching our archives. As I mentioned, we do social media and Encompass Live does have a Facebook page that I've linked off our page. If you like to use Facebook, as we talked about today, give us a like over there. You'll get reminders, just a reminder to log in today's show, information about our presenters, when our recordings are ready. So any other interesting things you might think you might be interested in. So you can give us a like over there. And you can also use the hashtag Encompass Live's little abbreviation on Instagram and Twitter and where else our social media people are using it. So you can keep an eye on that there as well. Try to use pretty sweet tech whenever we're talking about one of Amanda's shows too. So that's what we're going to put up for today. I'll help you join us next week for any other upcoming shows. We've got another open date in December that I'm working on. You'll see this a good update as I finalize things. So keep an eye on the schedule for the date you see that might look like they're missing. We've got things coming. But I hope you join us next week. If you are interested, this is an I'll start in mind, Nebraska specific session. The Pioneer Consortium is a shared cataloging consortium here in Nebraska with libraries that is making some changes and expanding and wants to see if anybody is interested in joining and being part of the consortium, if you're looking for an online catalog or some other things they might be doing in the future. Sign up for next week's show and Robin and Sammy who are part of the consortium here and Jesse who's from Bywater Solutions, a company that runs their shared catalog will be with us next week. He talked all about that with us. So please do sign up for that show or any of the others we have here. So I'm going to wrap it up for today. Thank you, Amanda. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Sorry. I was sipping my coffee. All right. And hopefully we'll see you all on a future episode of episode five. Bye-bye.


Some ex-militants in Ondo state have protested against the failure of the federal and state government to incorporate them into the amnesty program. They protested in Igboqada, the headquarters of Ilajeh, local government area of the state. The ex-militants lamented that despite a series of letters written to the government, no meaningful step has been taken to ameliorate their sufferings. The members of the group, Deji Williams, said that they had not been integrated since 2017 when they surrendered their arms. They also wanted the state government to address the issue of surveillance contracts awarded to ex-militants in the state. But if the summer lot is being granted to Ilajeh, it will be between the old amnesty and the new amnesty. Correct. Ok, look, did not call us for any meeting. He's just telling us that he will be given Isis Camp 3300,000 out of 28 million. What we are ordering the state government to do for us is to separate the old amnesty from the new amnesty. Correct. Let Otte logo and take care of his people and we that submitted fresh, our percentage will be given to us and we need 50-50 or at the summer lot.


So we're here with the Brain Power here at the Hong Kong Fair. Hello! Hello! So who are you? My name is Echo and I'm from Brain Power Manufacturer in Wiching Locain Central. And this is a Brain Power team, right? Yes. And you make a whole bunch of drones like this drone look really really cool. Can you show it off? Yeah, sure, sure. I can show you that this drone can fold like this. It is a vertical structure and it will look like a rocket and it also have the working both camera and you can control the camera by your remote or your smartphone. And it also have the optical avoidance function and I think... Optical avoidance? Yes! How? It use by the infrared sensor and some of the people... Where is the infrared? Infrared was here. Put it inside. The receiver is here. They are all around. Yes, each side. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. It's real. Yeah, it's real, of course. Real infrared. Yes. Can we see it fly? Yeah. You can start it there. From there. Okay. So it's stable? Yes, stable. Can it fly higher? Yeah. Maybe we can fly up. How do you do optical avoidance? Can you avoid the wall? Okay, so. Well, so fly. But... You can avoid people also? Not exactly because people is too much. But the wall is okay. Nice fly. Oh, good. Okay. Good. So, how much it cost? This one is 39 US dollar. Only 39? Yes. F-O-B Shantou. F-O-B Shantou. Yes. Our city. What is M-O-Q? Oh yeah, NanoQ is about 800 to 1,000 piece. So what is your job? What do you do? I am a sales manager. Can you introduce your favorite colleague? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who's your favorite colleague? My favorite colleague is Romy. He's one of my best friends. He's our director. Director? Yes. Nice to meet you. I'm Romy. So how many robots do you have? How many cars and drones? How many do you sell? Actually, we have two serious ones. One is the RC cars and one is the RC drones. And for the RC cars, we totally have three scales. And 18, 16 and 12, 22. And the RC drones, we have about 12 models I present. Which one do you feel? This one. I love this one because it's very easy controls for the kids and for the learners. It is quite very stable and can play some stumps. And have video? Yes, with Wi-Fi function. So you can play it through the smartphones by our apps. How much is that one? This one is about 11 US dollar. Only 11, that's very good price. This one we have for promotion. Some people, they sell some like car accessories and the PC accessories. So they as a promotion gift. And you have another favorite one you can show right there. Which one is that? Is that this one there? Yes, yes, yes. This one is a foldable drone also. And it can fold like this. Look, it is very special. Designed for inter-level drone. This is like the Mavic Pro, DGI. Yes, but we care about... Not the same price. No, no, no. Well, our price is much cheaper. How much? We sell this one, 32 US dollar. 32? And it has a very special wide angle lens. It's not gimbal lens. Yeah, not gimbal lens. You need to control it by your hand. And it with very beautiful LED light. Nice, you can see it at night? Yes, yes. How many million drone do you sell? It's about 50,000 pieces. 80,000 every month? No, per year.  We are factory. Factory? Yes, we are built from 2001. 2001? Yes. 2001? Yeah. It's a long time. Yeah. Right. That's very long time. I don't want to say hello. It's a long time. Yeah. So, how about... Wait, wait, wait. Actually, our city is famous by toys. And we... In the last 10 years, we produced the toys, the building blocks, the doors and the RC cars. Now, we are developing the RC areas for the electronics clients. So, I think we are a good choice for the clients. Actually, Shenzhen, they don't know how to do toys, right? Not exactly. Shanto is better. Yes. It's the most... Most of the worst toys... Come from Shanto. 80% of the worst toys come from Shanto. So, all the kids from Shanto, they play all the time? They have a lot of toys, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, for free? Yeah. Because their parents bring them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Their parents have their factory, have their company and they can take the toys by free no matter what kind of toys. So, what's the future of toys? What's the future? What's going to happen? Yeah. For education. For education. Hello, words. I'm Italian and maybe can be more high technology, I think. And everybody will like Shanto toys, I think.


We often talk about culture and climate as if they're one and the same. And while they're certainly related, for anyone interested in changing an organization's culture, it's important to understand that they are in fact different. The CEO and Director of Human Synergistics International, Dr. Robert Cook, defines culture as a system of shared beliefs and values that leads to norms and expectations, and says that climate is more about shared perceptions and how people view an organization. He goes on to say that of the two, culture is the one you want to impact for lasting change. And yet, of the two, culture is the harder one. His recommendation? Change the culture by changing the climate. Zero in on the parts of the climate that reinforce the parts of the culture that you want to espouse. So what do you want to change in your organization's culture? And how might you use climate as the vehicle to get there? Lead well this week.


Hey guys, I'm just thinking about my house and how great it will look when there's a counter-depth silver fridge here, you know? Um, anyways, welcome to another vlog. Today's exciting. Today's a Tuesday.  I think that's it. It is 12.30, our friend Caleb is about to come over. Q is here. I'm recording a Boy Advice podcast episode and we're making pizza for lunch, guys. So, very exciting. We have some pizza dough. I'll show you guys when we start that. I have a whole corner of my house right now that are just packages that I need to open. Um, hopefully Caleb can mount my TV today in my office. That's like really high up on the priorities for me. Um, Q got me a Celsius drink, so I'm gonna drink this and hopefully just take it on the world. I have a lot of filming to do today. Today is definitely like a work from home kind of day, um, and it's also a very big filming day, which makes it hard to vlog, but we'll, we'll figure it out. Dating to Mary. Dating to Mary. We're about to start recording. The boys just took seven years to eat, so. To eat. To eat. Hey. I had to do, help you do any kind of trick shots, like I'll film for you. I'm, I'm done. Cute. Since when are you into... All right, everyone. We're doing a little Boy Advice segment for the vlog. We just recorded a hour, 15 minute long podcast episode, that means it's gonna be an hour and a half at least. Yeah, 20 minutes of it was just me plugging myself, so. Caleb is single. We are all the look out for his wife. You can fight with that. Caleb and I have a speech session. Yeah, exactly. All platforms. So it's really all about me because I just want to be able to give a speech at the wedding and then make the wedding all about me. I told her she could have a speech if, if... Six minutes. Somehow. I can sing, dance, or... Somehow the person I marry is from her podcast, I don't know. It would be absolutely cool. There's a strong bond, bro. You need a bath, go for it. We know. Her groomer is close today. Good lord. That's unfortunate. I know. We'll give her two in the past 12 hours. Well, she has. Thank you for the credit. Okay, so we're gonna answer a few questions in my view. I mean, one. I know a girl that messaged me like a really long knee, so we're just gonna answer that one. Okay. Long story short, it was like how do you keep your independence and keep growing while you're in a relationship? I think that... You know you don't need the mic. Why are they still here? Also too, we had to do this, the entire podcast, and if it dropped for a little bit, kids were like... I'm like a stage mom. Geez. Because the audio, like you have to talk straight into the mic. Right, I'll be you. You be me for a second. Go ahead. Pick the mic up and do... You were like this. Literally, you know, straight up he was like this. He was literally like this. And I was speaking from the heart. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was pretty funny though. Thank you. I would say that you have to maintain your individuality by maintaining your own... That was a lot of pops. It really was a lot. You have to maintain your own individuality by maintaining your own friendships outside of the relationship. It's great to have a couple friends. It's great to be friends with his friends or her friends, but you have to have an understanding of with each other that like, you know, if I'm dating Sally, like, hey, Sally, I'm going to go hang out with the boys and not in a disrespectful way. Like you see in a lot of memes and then you see on TikTok or whatever, like Saturdays for the boys. Yeah. Boys come first. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that like you need to have a healthy balance of being together and doing group activities, couple activities, couple friend activities and being yourself by hanging out with your friends and doing what you love on your own. I was watching some show and the wife really wanted to go golfing with him. But what she didn't realize, that golfing, him golfing was his alone time, his time to grow and think and be with his friends and hang out and then the fact that she wanted to go means they were together 24-7. And I think it is healthy to be able to be apart from each other and then be able to come back together at the end of the day or the weekend. Like if you go to me and Q were to go to like Big Bear for the weekend or something. Can we do that? I'm slow down. Let's do it. Okay.  We're just going to go hang out with the boys and like talk about basketball and soccer and God and do what we do because that's healthy. Ultimately, that's what's going to help their relationship together. And now if they wanted to be together 24-7, which I've been in relationships where I was with the girl 24-7, I didn't have that healthy balance of like going off and doing my own thing and the relationship didn't go well. Relationship what? Crash and burn. That's why you're single. It didn't go well. So I think you definitely need to have the healthy balance of being together and then being yourself. If you have a hobby that you like to do on your own, continue to do it on your own and if y'all love each other and trust each other, then he or she is going to understand that you need to do that on your own. So that that's just how I think you're going to continue to grow with one another and don't and please ladies, please, I'm speaking for all men here.  I'm pretty straightforward.   It is only going to kind of like make their want and their need to be alone kind of stronger. So they're going to want to go on more guys trips or whatever. So if you give him that trust and that healthy, like have a good time, babe, text me when you can. I love that. Text me when you can. Love that. And if you do that, like I guarantee, I guarantee I'm going to take them for an example just because I'm sitting in between a couple. If me and Q go to Big Bear and she says text me when you can. When we go to Big Bear. When we go to Big Bear. Q is going to text her the minute we get there. He's going to text her before he goes to bed. He's going to call her before he goes to bed. But if Kenzie is constantly like, so what are y'all doing now? What's going on? Q is going to do this right here. I don't know if that's necessarily Q. He might answer for sure, but a lot of men, if they feel press are going to be more likely to hit you up later. But just give him his room to grow with his boys or grow by himself if he's doing his own thing. Like give him his room. And then I guarantee he's going to, if y'all love each other in a healthy balanced relationship, he's going to want to talk to you. He's going to want to text you and call you and do all those other things. So I think that is how you are going to grow individually. But if you continue to grow individually, y'all are only going to grow together as well. Yeah, I agree with that. So yeah, that was great. Thank you. We'll hand clap for that. Thank you. That's good. Can you just read the full question one more time? I'm just paraphrasing. How can you grow together and keep your individuality? How are you growing as an individual? Of course it's going to be like your morning routine, the first few minutes of my day, they're really important. I'm not going to bank account, man. That's how you stay independent. Oh, god. It's a joke. I'm just kidding. We're going to cut that out. I'm kidding. Okay. Good news. But I think there is, in a relationship, I think it's important. There are going to be times when you're going to have to sacrifice some things. Because if you're with somebody, they should be a priority to you. But I think there is a fine line between sacrificing and it's kind of brutal, but self-annihilation.  And there's been a couple times, even with kids, I'm like, hey, I know we've got a lot to do today, but I just need an hour. I just need an hour. Yeah, yeah. Seriously. Of course, sometimes it's inevitable, but I try not to budge because if I'm taking care of myself and doing things that I love, that's the Quinton that Kinsey fell in love with is the Quinton who's doing all these things. Those are the things that make me me. Yeah, well, I like that. I like that because she fell in love with you for a reason. And then the second you stop doing those things, that interest is now like... Yeah, because I think it can be easy to say, I do love you and I want to show you that, so I'm going to sacrifice all this stuff, but then it's like you don't have that excitement about life and then they're like, who is this person? This isn't the person that I got into a relationship with or started dating or fell in love with or people say married. So it's like, I think it's important to, like you said, have time with the boys and like when Kinsey's like, oh, girl's night, I'm like, great. So as soon as she says that, I'm like, hey, be efficient. Hit up your boys. Sometimes really do coordinate. Like that is annoying, but I'll be like, hey, I'm hanging out with my friend this night, you should go hang out with your friends or whatever. But I think that's important because, like, if you don't, like, if she's having a girl and you're just saying at the house, yeah, you can't, you can't do it. Like that would be Caleb. Who is that? Caleb Nash Femes or who is he? Yeah, who is that guy? What a scrub. You can find Caleb Nash Femes on Instagram, YouTube. Leave your wife, okay, so I'm not looking for a wife. I'm looking ready. I'm in a point of view. I'm looking through the wife. I'm not like actually like, oh my gosh, I got to find a wife. Well, what's that point of life? Love is blind. Set them up. You know, some people really want me to do on that show, but I'm at a point in my life where over the last year and a half, two years, I haven't been ready because I've been in such a season of grinding, growing, building. I'm still in that season of grinding, growing, building, but I'm at a point now where I'm like, if it were to happen, you'd be ready. Yeah, I'm okay with it. I'm not out here like. I'm really over doing. I'm, I, it's me. It's not you. So, I've heard that one before. Okay, okay, okay. Wait, so what are the questions? Do you have any paraphrase for you again? I haven't. Don't worry. I think, I don't know. I just think that's a really quick way. If you don't have that, that's a really quick way for the relationship to be unhealthy. So it's like, I don't know. I mean, I don't really have anything to add that you said it all. Yeah, you guys, you said it all. I think it's healthy to get somebody who's doing something. If you, if you're able to text me all day, every day, then, then it's kind of unattractive to me because I'm like, what are you, what are you actually doing? Yeah, you're not grinding your business. Like if we were in LA and Kinsey would stop Hapulates for me, like, I don't know, but they'd be weird. I'd be like, that's... Strange. Kinsey, her name is synonymous with Hapulates. It wasn't going to happen. It wasn't going to happen. Yeah. She'd give me up before Hapulates. That's not true. Okay. Guys, I just made my pasta look not as cute anymore with the chicken, but it looks so good and it smells so good. Wow. Chef Boyarkins. Basically, so I just fried some garbanzo beans with olive oil and rosemary and then I put some tomatoes in, just some pasta, really simple dinner, baked this chicken from Trader Joe's. Just incredible. I'm really just, wow. Okay, so I'm so sorry. I feel like today is in the worst vlog of vlog week. I'm going to try to make it up to you guys, but I'm actually about to put on like a, I'd put on like a worship set or something.  But we have Bible study or Zoom Bible study. The reason I do this thing where I drink a lot of caffeine that I'm so focused on filming and recording and whatever and then I forget to eat until I'm like starving and I'm like, oh my gosh, I need to go eat.  Oh, very exciting. Out Your Voices sent me a new exercise score so I now have the red one. Oh, I also changed into just something to wear on the house. This crew is from Dip Dye Supply. It's so freaking cute. First thing I got are these little cake pans because I'm going to make these like three ingredient little chocolate paleo cakes. And then Instagram handles like really all over the place because I need to get on this call. But these, oh my gosh, no way. This, okay, this ring is so cute. I know that Brooke wears their stuff all the time. Wait, oh my gosh, no, this is so dope. Wait, okay, I need to figure out which ring. Okay, eventually it will, wow. When I get this on, I just don't have time. And then these really cute hoops have to go because it's playing. All right guys, so obviously my face is a lot lighter than my body right now. But I got the tan, it's beautiful, it's easy, a color-correct face tanner. And I really want to try it. My lips are also chapped, which is like the worst feeling ever. Really, I'm trying my best here, guys. I cannot stand chopsticks, it's the worst thing ever. Okay, one, I love the smell. Two, I love the consistency already. I hope this actually does a good job with the tanning because I'm already really into this product. Okay, now it's kind of sticking in my face. Okay guys, I'm back because I wanted to show you. So basically, on a start of this, she's the first generation Mexican American woman and she wanted to create something for herself and her family, which is so cute. So, beautiful ring that I'll be wearing every day. Oh yeah, saps here, guys. And then gold hoops. Oh yeah, Bible study happened and now it's over. Okay, and then other, oh my gosh, I'm obsessed with these. They're like chain links.  I know, it's gonna match my bracelet. I'm not a gold wearer, but like, love. Okay, well again, check them out. Kinsey15 for 15% off. So haven't I always do literally a send each other tweets and like TikToks and everything back and forth. Guys, it actually looks like I had the chicken pox with how many buckets I have. Like, they're not looking too good. They're not, like my legs are like, like what is this bruise? Oh my gosh, remember that bruise that was really bad? Yeah. I'm kind of cleared up. So, you know, it is what it is. You know, if I don't have some sort of iron deficiency, like, not that I want that on myself. I got a tie to, got my blood drawn everything the other day because there's something up with me. Um, if I don't have something, I'm even more concerned honestly, because like, I need some sort of explanation. I need them to tell me. This is just stand known. You know, when you just like once went like, this is like when I go to my therapist and she tells me that like, I'm not doing something wrong. I'm like, okay, so like what is it? Like clearly there's something going on. I'm like, no, no, no, no, like there's something wrong with me. Like diagnosed, like to explain this to me. She's just gonna be diagnosed as I can go from there. Exactly. And like, I, here's my thing. Like I didn't know what's wrong with me.  Yeah, exactly. And she just literally, half of my sessions to her talk, you have to tell her where I am. Okay? No, literally.  And I'm like, yeah, see that's where the problem lies. It's really in that. So I'm like, listen, so I know I need to do this and I know I need to do that, but blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, like honestly, I mean, my therapist does really help me. She's great. Don't get me wrong. Love her. But like it was mainly cause like, I don't need to like bother me. The cake stuff has got to go cut one more thing and it ended up being cake and like, I'm going to get an idea. It's not like, yeah, but we're going to have to drive all the way there. But like, it's like really, really not good. I'm getting it. I mean, we haven't done anything in months really. So I've only like, see you literally. Yeah. So like, that's really going to be something, but anyways, I'm going to go back to school. But are you going back? I don't know. Do you really like, are you really going to do that? I don't have a choice. Got it. Yeah. I guess also I literally have like three causes left. Tell me why like to get me to do a discussion point post at this point. Like I'm like three classes away from my bachelors. Oh my God, Jason. I totally agree with this post. Thanks so much. Love what you said about insert the first phrase you see in the discussion post. You know what I was thinking about? You have a different insight. Yeah. I'm going to open my eyes. And then again, thanks so much. Great post, Jason. Yeah. But you know what I was thinking about? Like on my discussion post, I just like, I don't even read their posts when I respond to it. I mean, I do read it, but like not. Honestly, no, I don't. I even read it all of it. I skim it. I skim it. So like what happened agreeing with something that's like totally actually not okay. And then like at all, like I actually even like worried. We should start like proofreading stuff. Exactly. But I also think that collectively as a society, we would just know that we all do that. Yeah, like everyone knows how the discussion post works. Yeah, exactly. They'd be like, oh, I didn't read it. Yeah, I know what they're getting at. I mean, I don't know what they would ever be able to say that I wouldn't agree with and like a business said it. Like, I mean, actually, there's a lot of things. But it doesn't get like political or like it's always. It's like, yeah. Describe this term and then like explain this in a setting and like point out how it's not like term in a setting. It would be controversial. Yeah, basically, but anyways, I don't know guys. Discussion post like maybe we'll come back to bite us and ruin our lives one day. But I hope not. This could really not age well. Just like, can you tell I haven't like seen a friend? I haven't seen Kinsey in almost three weeks. Yeah, like I literally was talking like I'm like, Sam, what's new? Okay, so anyways, this is what's up like and now guys, I literally have my legs are like on fire. I want to clarify the discussion post thing. Let's get back to that. Yeah, now that I'm thinking about it, nothing is controversial but like they're oh, you know what? One time, okay, I will say one time I did get an argument with a person in discussion post thing. It was an old lady. I guess she was like going back to college to take tests or like, I don't know. It was like really old and she was just being really ignorant and like hateful and I did get in an argument with her. So I did read that in my like Bible courses, which I don't have really like many like just straight by but it's just like more so I like infused their infuse. It's just like throughout the past. Yeah, she was just old and like saying some pretty mean things.  I had to let her know how I felt. So I was the person that thought I'm argument. But it was truly for the greater good. Like what if other people saw that and then I made them feel sad for themselves. So I had to stand up for what was right. Yeah, I had to stand up for my people. Yeah, just all of them collectively the world. You know, so anyways, you have a voice. You have to use it. Exactly guys. I'm like delusional of this. I'm like what's wrong with me? Anyways, hope you guys enjoy. We're going to watch. Um, I don't know something. Maybe we should watch this simple life. It's on Amazon. I think I'm on QZ Amazon here. We'll figure it out. Okay. Love you guys. Bye.


Video Friday with Art Resin. Why don't we use that hashtag together, everyone? Hashtag Art Resin. Yes! Yeah! Okay. Was that good? Oh, amazing. Okay. So, today, quick tip. This one came all the way in from the cleanup crews after a crash on the highway. This is cat litter.  What do I do? Get some cat litter. Don't panic. Pour it onto it. This is what the pros do. And then you just, like, sticks or cardboard. How much time do I got, Jeff? Not much. Okay. Look at it. It just kind of all goes in like that.  Bada-bing, bada-boom. No one needs to know anything happened. See you next Friday. Video Friday with Art Resin. Oh, I think that's over.


We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These words from the Declaration of Independence are familiar to many of us, and yet it took 143 years for women to get the right to vote and 189 years for Black people to get the right to vote. And still today, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are still only words for many people. Here in Boston, life expectancy varies by 30 years depending on where you live. In Roxbury, with many poor and Black people, life expectancy is 59 years. In the back bay, wealthy and mostly white life expectancy is 91 years. It's tough to have liberty when you are in prison. The United States incarcerates 716 people for every 100,000 people. Our rate of incarceration is more than five times higher than most countries in the world. Millions of people in our country don't have health care, a decent job, good education, a home they can afford, and that makes it pretty hard to pursue happiness.  People today who are making the words of the Declaration of Independence come true. Hi, welcome. My name is Michael Jacoby Brown, and I'm your host today for We Hold These Truths. Today is February 2021, and we're very privileged and honored to have as our guest today, Walter Davis. Walter Davis was born about 75 years ago in Peewee County, Kentucky, not too far from Louisville. I hope I'm saying that right, Walter. Walter has worked for the last 60 years as a social justice organizer, starting when he helped desegregate the Democratic Party in Louisville. He's worked on civil rights. He served in the Peace Corps in Columbia, South America. He's worked for the Encampment for Children. He went to Canada to protest the war in Vietnam. He was indicted in 1970 for refusal to report for the draft, and that indictment was thrown out by the U.S. Attorney General about five years later. Bill has been married to his partner Bill. Walter has been married to his partner Bill Fields for the last six years. They've been together for over 45 years. He spent over 20 years training community organizers throughout the South. He spent five years as the director of the National Organizers Alliance, four and a half years as the director of the Tennessee Health Care Coalition in Nashville, Tennessee. He's currently an organizer and associate at the Appalachian Community Fund in Knoxville, Tennessee, supporting, among other things, LBGTQ Plus organizing in central Appalachian communities. Walter, welcome. I'd like to ask you a little bit about how you got started and who your mentors were early in your life. Well, I was really fortunate because I was exposed to Georgia Powers Davis and who was the first black and first woman elected to the Kentucky legislature. That was part of the fight to desegregate the Democratic Party in Louisville, Kentucky, which loved black votes but did not like to have black candidates elected. We worked really hard on that and scored some success, which is pretty heady when you're a teenager, and I was 15 when that happened, and I'd start off with a victory on something where you actually saw some marketable change. By the way, it's Pee Wee Valley, not Pee Wee Valley. What did I say? Pee Wee County. Oh, sorry, Pee Wee Valley. I hope you'll forgive me about that. They write. Thank you. I don't want to make that mistake again. Yeah, and can you tell me a little bit, you know, some of your early experience I know in elementary school even and junior high school with the few black students that were there, how did that lead you to working for justice, you know, as a white young person? What led you to be interested in that? Well, you know, I came from a primarily white rule background into the Louisville schools, and Louisville, Kentucky was one of the first places desegregated in the South, and it seemed to be peaceful, but that's because it was the desegregation really only integrated a small number of students. And years later, you saw the real reaction, the white supremacists who pushed back against the crude desegregation in the schools. So I saw that as a kid, these young African American students who came into a primarily white environment and had no preparation, no support. And when I was in high school, ironically, the first biracial group I was ever in was junior achievement. And out of that came a group that black and white students who organized to also to build a participation of equal numbers of black and white students. And so out of the young capitalists came the people who were young people who were fighting to desegregate the Democratic Party and to open up to the people of the state. Where do you think you did that? I'm sure not every white high school student had the reaction you did to those black students at that time. What do you think led you personally to react the way you did as opposed to the way, for instance, other white people did? Well, I think it, you know, we were a poor family. And I drew some lessons as a poor white from our experience and also experience the liberation of seeing people standing up and fighting and gaining some, if not power at least, some voice in public change. And it was very impressionable for the rest of my life that people found their voices through organizing. Right. You mentioned Georgia Powers Davis as a mentor when you were very young. Can you tell me a little bit more about her and what she did to influence you to become an organizer for the past virtually 60 years now? Well, I think the biggest thing she taught me was that you have to have a strategy. You have to understand tactics. And she was very good in the legislative on the legislative front when she got there of being able to work across the not only race lines, but party lines. When she first went to the Capitol to Frankfurt, she couldn't stay in a hotel because it was still a segregated system. And so she had to work on all levels. Ironically, we have a mutual friend in Kentucky who still experiences some of those obstacles. Attica Scott, a dear friend, who is in a similar place of isolation in the Kentucky legislature, but has stood up and given a lot of people a voice for the who been left and excluded. Yeah, hopefully we can get Attica Scott on this show. She's a young woman and now the only female black legislator in the Kentucky legislature. I know you were involved in the civil rights movement early on, even met Dr. Martin Luther King once. Can you tell us a little bit about what your involvement there was, Walter? I was mainly an activist. I wouldn't say that I was playing any leading role except getting some people out from my small Baptist college to take part in activities. But I remember the first time there was what was called open housing in Louisville and seeing white supremacists show up and actually stoned Dr. King with police sitting and watching from across the roads. So the Louisville's got a long history of dealing with the police issues when it comes to race. And so I learned from that. But I was not at that point, really an organizer. I was one of the people that, you know, you don't always hear about who may have lived their whole lives being an activist, supporter, community leader, who don't get the cameras turned in their direction. Can you a little bit say a little bit more about what you actually saw when you said Martin Luther King was stoned and by white people throwing stones and rocks at him? Yep. He was, the rock was thrown at his back as he was marching to go to the auditorium to give a speech. And he was fortunately not severely hurt. But that was pretty common, if you'll recall, on civil rights protest. And, you know, nonviolence was a pretty high marker for most people to follow through on and all the civil rights protest in Kentucky at that time were nonviolent, peaceful. But it was the people who opposed you who were the violent. And it's interesting the parallels we see to today of with Black Lives Matter, which the protests have been largely peaceful and overwhelmingly involving people who did not come to create violence. And yet the other side carried off such capricious violence and hasn't been punished. I wonder if you can tell us a little bit about your years at college in Kentucky. And then I know you went to Canada after that. But what was it like when you were a young man in college? Well, I was out of small Baptist college. And I got my degree in two years and eight months because I was in a hurry to get out of school. And so we had a trimester system, small progressive Baptist college at that time, and which was Kentucky Southern College, which was strangled by a growing conservatism in the denomination. And so I actually share with Mitch McConnell a degree from the University of Louisville because they brought all of the former Kentucky Southern students under their umbrella. And so I was very much a political activist while I was student body leader at this small college and also a volunteer in Appalachian communities with the Appalachian Volunteers program. I don't know what's more. I was certainly not the, I wasn't the representative of the majority of the students politically, but I was student body president. So most of them were Republicans. Right. And I know about that time you were certainly like many of us protesting the war in Vietnam and refused to join the US Army as part of the draft at that time. Can you tell us a little bit about what that experience was like and you're eventually being indicted and going to Canada. What was that like? Well, I went into two years in the Peace Corps in Columbia as a community development volunteer in rural communities, working with Indian communities and Afro-Columbian communities. And by the way, that was the first place I ever heard of Saul Alinsky. I never had had any training in community organizing. It was a different Peace Corps in those early years of training people and when power and tactics and strategies. So that's where I got my Saul Alinsky part of the training. Anyway, so I came out of the Peace Corps. I'm sorry that Alexis is trying to talk to me. I came out of the Peace Corps, worked that summer for the encampment for citizenship, which, yeah, which, which was, I still have a relationship with today is boarding it, which was wonderful high school kids from all over the country, very diverse, probably the most diverse organization I'd ever met and kids in their teens. And I was leading the politics workshop while fighting the selective service. I remember this was Muhammad Ali's Cassius Clay Stratford and they'd already taken their stand about religious independence, religious freedom and the right to refuse on that basis. And so, and one of the side stories on working for the encampment was that the kids found out I was facing this situation. And the they started debating what I should do, go into organize inside the army, go to Canada, just not show up and go underground. And so I let them have it to have the discussion that was their right to talk about it too. Then I got a call the next morning that from Fort Knox, from the MPs at Fort Knox, that this group of young people had shown up and were leafleting soldiers talking to soldiers of Fort Knox against the war. And fortunately, they didn't arrest the kids and they were returned to Louisville and things were all right. But a short time after that, I moved to Canada after losing my last appeal on being a conscious objector. It's been 20 years.  Well, it was where I am really sorry that there, there's something trying to interfere.  And I found a place, I found a home and was able to become very active politically as well. Even while I was working for the Canadian government, worked in immigration for the Canadian government while I was organizing in several, several areas, including when the first Prime Minister Trudeau declared martial law under the War Measures Act. So after being there a lesson a year, I was out organizing, talking to people about building a movement against martial law. And so those, wow, you know, these were great times. I was, I worked for every level of Canadian government, and I organized anti war, some of the largest anti-war protests in Toronto. And, and also did, did work on many other issues, learned to have a great deal of respect for what are called now First Nations peoples, the leadership of, of Indians in aboriginal peoples in Canada to this day. I have a special place for them and in my consciousness. So throughout those years, and I know back in 1975, you were able to come back to the United States. And I know you worked for decades, organizing and training people throughout the southern part of the United States. I wonder if you can tell us, I know it's, you can't cover more than 20, 30 years of work in a couple minutes of the short time we have, but you can tell us something about where you worked and who you met and what that was like working with the Southern Empowerment Project and the training and the organizers and the organizations that you worked for in those days. Well, it's every possible kind of organization. We trained organizers from Louisiana to West Virginia and, and everywhere in the southeast and, and worked with people in other regions who were doing different issues that were similar. A lot of the groups that are well known, Kentuckians through the Commonwealth, they work on the mountains. Jonah, which was, was a primarily African American organization in western Tennessee, just all kinds of places where people had not necessarily had an opportunity to work across racial lines before. And that was important for us that it was, there were several things that when we started off, people weren't necessarily bought into fighting racism, despite the fact you can't organize in the South without dealing with racism. And, and later on other, other issues that were used as wedges to divide people, gender equality and discrimination based on sexuality and sexual identity. They, we, I'm proud to say we helped introduce some of those discussions. We didn't always close them, but they continued in their own fashion all over the place. But I deeply admired local leaders in communities who were prepared to face the issues and talk about them and be honest, even if they had differences. And I think that's one of the critical things that's been missing for a number of years now is that we, we can't seem to talk to each other, even when we have areas of agreement. We've let, we've let people create, build walls that divide us when we have more in common than we have difference. I wonder if you could tell us something about some of the people you actually met, who they were, particularly the ones that impressed you for all those years working in the southern part of our country? Oh, I would be, I would be careful about that, because people have deep memories in the south if you leave them off a list. But I'm one of the most treasured relationship was with a co-working named Rosemary Derek, who was a long term, she was also very involved at one point in the National Organizers line, but she was a long term transplant survivor, African American, from a rural African American community. And she was one of the most natural organizers, always hesitant to use that term. She certainly was a natural leader. And she brought so many people along in understanding the forces that were operating on them. And she, she just was such an example. And unfortunately, she, she passed away. And, and another was Vicky Kwapman, who told us, who taught a lot of us how to do fundraising. And that you couldn't do organizing if you're not willing to raise the money, that that's part of the work of social change. And you can't necessarily wait for the foundations to pay for the revolution. And so Vicky really taught us a lot about how the two things are related. And she died in the Highlands, Bolivia, helping women form sock making co-ops for, for develop self development. So everyone, there's hundreds, I could go through hundreds. It's usually been colleagues and local grassroots community folks that I drew the greatest strength from. And like I said before, they don't tend to be ones that are going to get their name in books. That's why it's important to remember those people. And I wonder if you can look back over the, all these years, it's been now over 60 years, what are some of the lessons you would draw for younger people who are interested in organizing for justice today in 2021 and into the future? What are some of the things you'd like them to to know? Well, some of it comes from my own experience of being realizing this is a privilege to do this kind of work, especially in my case for the whole life. You know, you're, you're privileged to meet these folks who are in struggle standing up and speaking for themselves and taking some control over events. That's why it's important for not only the young to listen to the elderly who've got mentorship experiences to draw upon, but for us to pay it as older organizers, pay attention to what young people are saying. They've brought new methods, they've brought new energy. And we have to learn from one another because that's where we're going to go forward. Let's say celebrate. We are at a point where it's very hard to celebrate because you can't do it in a box. You've got to actually be out, out in the world. And so the pandemic's forced us to do things differently. But relationships and art and music and celebrating and creating beauty, that's part of organizing too. It is. It's not an extra. It's, it's essential because that's what that's, I think, what you're saying, right? Right. Yeah.  And it's hard to be an ally if you don't own where, where you are privileged. And, and I would say the other privilege I've enjoyed in my life is to do this just to be able and to understand a little bit of why things happen in the world and to do something about it. And I, you know, people also, why would you choose to do that all? Well, I didn't make any money, but I have had a hell of a ride. Right. Right. But you have a home and you have a, you have a husband now. And what's, what's that been like a little bit? I know you've worked on LGBTQ plus issues throughout Appalachia. I just, we have just a couple minutes left, but I know you're now working for the Appalachian Community Fund. And I wonder what is it important, particularly for people outside Appalachia, like those of us in Massachusetts and the Northeast to understand about Appalachia? Don't believe the stereotypes. You know, this region has been controlled by Boston and New Haven and other places from people who had drained the wealth from the region. There's an incredible creativity and strength at the community level in, in Appalachia. And we're going to be part of the solutions in this country. And so don't read it. Don't believe every stereotypical novel that comes out or sounds are some New York Times article that slams the create the people who are trying to bring about change. You've actually been there. And do you have any final words for other younger organizers, whether they're they're in Appalachia or whether they're in South America or wherever they are? You have any final words from all your 60 plus years of experience, Walter? Well, I guess I draw on the LGBT movement and say it gets better. There will be times when it doesn't seem like that's true. And, you know, despite the tragedy of the pandemic, people working together will make a better world.  My generation is pretty well done in terms of solutions. We're, we're now supporters of young people who are leading the fight. And I mean young under 50. That's young now. But God bless the Black Lives Matter. I think they, they change the, the language and the what's happening in America. And we'll need that inspiration for the future. Well, thanks a lot, Walter Davis, an organizer for over 60 years. My name again is Michael Jacoby Brown. I'm your host at We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident. We hold these truths that all men are created equal, but it's taken people like Walter Davis to make those words in the Declaration of Independence come true, not only for people in Appalachia, but for people all over the country. So I want to thank you, Walter. We're really privileged to have you on We Hold These Truths today. And until next week and the week after, we hope to see you and we thank you for all you've done over so many decades. Thanks a lot. And now again, I'm Michael Jacoby Brown. This is We Hold These Truths and I'm signing off. Thank you very much, Walter. Hope to see you soon. Okay. Bye-bye.


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