Whoever is going to work on it and whoever provides input to this story, whoever is involved in this story in any kind of way, put them in a room, spend 15 minutes talking through the story and come up with some examples to describe this story. And when you do that, some amazing things will happen. Well, first, you create those examples that will come out of it, but the next thing you'll discover is with these examples, you'll start to notice that the business rules around this story become clearer, or maybe some of them are already defined, but you will discover new ones. You will realize that the ones that you already knew about were ambiguous or unclear or contradictory. But as soon as you start talking about concrete examples, people can visualize it. You can see where it's inconsistent. The other thing that you come out of these meetings is questions. Every now and then, the developer will ask the product owner about something, and the product owner goes, that's a really good question. I don't know. Let me try and find out. And then you can just park it. What you've just done is to promote an unknown unknown to a known unknown, that the BA or the product owner or the domain expert or whoever it is, can go back and analyze and find out about before you start writing the defective code. So I said 15 minutes, because it's important to keep these meetings really fast and really frequent. You want to have a 15-minute meeting for every story like this. So don't try to solve the problem or get an answer to the question. Just write it down. Another thing that happens is that you can create smaller stories. Tomorrow in my workshop, I'm going to do this, so I'll show you some techniques about how you can come up with more examples for a story. But one thing that happens is for some stories, you'll get a lot of examples. Or for some stories, you'll realize that there are so many different rules. When you see that there's lots of examples and lots of rules, well, that's an indication that this is a big story. You can break it up into smaller chunks. And it's much easier for the product owner to realize the magnitude of what they're asking for when they can actually experience firsthand through a conversation that there are so many different paths here, so many different examples. We have to break this up. So stop breaking your stuff up by tasks, user interface, domain, layer, persistence. Break them up in examples which are more like horizontal, sorry, vertical slices, which is just like this is one path through this story, this is another one. But perhaps the most important thing that you get out of this meeting is not even any of these. It's that you get a shared understanding between everyone on the team. And some people have told me that this actually has some amazing effects. It helps people create empathy, it helps people be more empathetic. When things go wrong, which they always do, even if you do three meagres meetings, it's harder to blame one another because everybody was in the same room and gave their best shot. So if you have a problem with blame in your organization, this is a great tool to just get rid of that toxic culture. There's absolutely no excuse not to do this. Just try it out. Don't say it's BDD, just try and grab some people and say, can we have a quick chat, talk through some examples, just see what happens? You'll be amazed. So, yeah, because everybody has a different perspective. So talking about perspectives, what I see a lot of people do when they're trying to adopt BDD is we have this syntax called given.


of the United States, and Mrs. Reagan of the Republic of Mali, and the United States of America. Your first official visit to the United States. You and all the people of Mali are good friends of the United States. In addition to deeply appreciating your support on international issues, we admire Mali as a country where people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds respect each other and live together in peace. You, as well as the people of Mali, are excellent friends of the United States. In addition, we deeply appreciate your support on international issues, and we admire Mali, a country whose ethnic and religious populations respect each other and live in peace. You and your country have also courageously embarked on an economic reform program. As a result, Mali has been one of the major aid recipients in Africa, and we are pleased to have been able to assist you with this program. You have launched with your country courageously in an economic reform program. This time, Mali is one of the main beneficiaries of assistance in Africa, and we are happy to have been able to help you with the development of this program. Mr. President, we are also pleased by your visit because you represent not only Mali, but also the Organization of African Unity, of which you were recently elected chairman, and we ask you to accept our congratulations on your election to this important post. Earlier this year, the OAU celebrated its 25th anniversary. During its history, the OAU has played a vital role in resolving the issues of the African community, and the OAU has celebrated its 25th anniversary. During its history, the OAU has played a vital role in resolving regional conflicts in Africa, and has helped African countries to work together to solve problems and promote economic development. This year, the OAU celebrated its 25th anniversary. During its history, the OAU played a vital role in solving regional conflicts in Africa and has helped African countries to work together to solve problems and promote economic development. Under your leadership, Mr. President, I am confident the OAU will continue with these crucial activities. You have already demonstrated your interest in helping to promote regional settlements in southern Africa and the western Sahara. Under your leadership, I am confident the OAU will continue with these crucial activities. You have already demonstrated your interest in helping to promote regional settlements in southern Africa and the western Sahara. We hope the OAU can play an even more active role in solving those regional problems and play a key role in promoting development in Africa by encouraging economic reform and cooperation. Mr. President, I understand there is a Malian proverb that goes, Bologna of Calente, Belaita, one finger cannot lift a rock. I think this proverb expresses perfectly the goal and the strength of the organization of African unity. Africans must pull together and work together, and we wish you and the OAU great success in working together to achieve common goals during your time as chairman and throughout the OAU's next 25 years. Mr. President, the Malian proverb that I have just mentioned and which means that one finger can't lift a rock by itself, expresses perfectly the goal and the strength of the organization of African unity. Africans must work together and work together at the same time. We wish you and the OAU a great success in working together to achieve common goals during your time as chairman and throughout the OAU's next 25 years. Mr. President, we look forward to talking with you over the next few days, not only about bilateral concerns and African regional issues, but about concerns we share in other parts of the world. For Africa, I believe, which represents nearly one-third of the member nations of the United Nations, truly has come of age as a participant in the international arena. Mr. President, we look forward to talking with you over the next few days, not only about bilateral concerns and African regional issues, but also about concerns we share in other parts of the world, because Africa, I believe, which represents nearly one-third of the member nations of the United Nations, truly has come of age as a participant in the international arena. Let me say again how pleased we are to welcome you to the United States. We wish you an enjoyable and profitable visit. Thank you and God bless you. Mr. President, we look forward to talking with you over the next few days, not only about bilateral concerns and African regional issues, but also about bilateral concerns and African regional issues. Mr. President, I would like to address my own delegation, and I would like to address my sincere thanks for the kind invitation that has been given to us to visit this great country, the United States of America. Mr. President, I should like on behalf of my delegation in my own name to express my sincere thanks to you for the kind invitation extended to us to visit this great nation, the United States of America. Our visit means two concerns, first of all, the concern of making even stronger the friendship and the solidarity which have been a trademark of relations between our two nations. May I cite in this connection Vice President Bush's memorable visit in Mali on March the 8th in 1985. It was for our people tangible evidence of the unwavering commitment of the United States to the Republic of Mali. May I now express my honest wish to bring to the American people in my capacity as President of the OU a message of friendship from the peoples of Africa. Indeed, over and above the worldwide role played by the United States, there are between your nation and the African continent, human, cultural and spiritual relations becoming stronger every day to the greatest benefit of the American and African peoples. I know for a fact, Mr. President, that my visit will give us a chance to discuss together the major issues of common interest. I am convinced, Mr. President, that our discussions will enable us to make progress in the search for a solution to the problems which are of concern to both our sides. Mr. President, I thank you.


Wait a minute. Have you heard the whistler? The whistler if you could look upon Charlie as I do you'd realize he's inanimate dead with no power to harm That was old Peter Medford the jungle explorer now confined to a wheelchair with paralysis I would suggest that you leave this place at once Miss Medford at once that was clay Alden Peter Medford secretary and And this is Marie Peter Medford's young niece. No, no, no. It's no dream. It's here here in my room Saturday night and CBS presents another in the new mystery series the whistler And I the whistler know many things For I walk by night I know many strange tales many secrets hidden in the hearts of men and women who've stepped into the shadows I know the nameless terrors at which they dare not speak And so I tell you tonight the strange mystery of the shrunken head In the quickening darkness of a stormy fall evening The young girl paces the deserted platform of a small suburban railroad station From her anxious attitude, we know that she's waiting for someone But just be patient Miss Medford. There is someone coming to meet you He has just now driven up. He's coming through the station door Walking up behind you miss medford. Oh Oh, yes, I sorry to have kept you waiting. I'm play Alden. Oh, yes Uncle Peter has mentioned you in his letter His secretary argel. That's right Where is my uncle? He was disappointed. He couldn't meet you pretty much of a task for the old gentleman to get around these days You see he's confined to a wheelchair. Oh, I didn't know There is legs are paralyzed result of jungle fever just came on him lately Yes, it's a shame. All right Well, shall we get going Cars out front better run for it or you'll get wet. I'll take care of your luggage. Thank you very much Rather a disappointing reception. Marie Medford, wouldn't you think You have come over 2,000 miles all by yourself just to see the only living relative you have in the world Then you are met by a stranger The car turns up the treeline driveway This Marie is what is known in this countryside as medford man It's all that the name implies a gloomy pile of a structure Even made gloomier by the blackness of the night and the driving rain Someone has heard the car approach. The door is open. It's the butler victor Well, Marie are you going in? What a pity. You don't know what I do. You'd never cross that threshold if you did Too late now Your luggage is being brought in the young man in the butler stand beside you The door closes Victor take Miss Medford's luggage upstairs to the south corner bedroom The south corner bedroom, sir certainly Why not Very good, sir Any further instructions? No Oh, uh, has mr. Medford retired yet? Not yet, sir. He's in his study. I I just gave him his His warm milk. He may have dozed off, sir. All right. Thank you victor. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir Would you care to follow victor to your room miss medford? I'd like to see my uncle now if I could please Very well come this way Here we are I'll speak to him Wait here, please How do you like it? You get a feeling of something not as it should be Strange fellow this clay and the butler too Uh, look about you at a depressing house huge and cold Unfriendly Not at all as you'd imagined it. Is it Marie or uncle will see you now Marie my dear child come in come in come in Very well by poor child take off those wet things at once old and what's the matter with you? My niece will catch your death help her off for those things. Sorry mr. Medford. Thank you Bless my soul pretty as the picture. You got a kiss for us. Of course That's it now you sit down here beside me I'm sorry. I couldn't meet you my dear, but I'm afraid the ravages of old age and malaria have finally caught up with me My one comfort is this wheelchair getting on to it though. You should see me wheeling all over the house The only thing that baffles me is the stairs My life is now confined to the first floor only pretty bad trip, wasn't it? Endless well you hear now. Thank goodness. This is your home You're free to come and go and do whatever you please thank you uncle Peter Don't suppose any of this is what you imagined I know that I'm different from what I'd hope you'd find Tell me uncle Peter Do you think you'd have recognized me if you hadn't known I was coming recognize you of course You have the family of medford written all over you. No mistaking you my dear Well old and what are you standing there for? What are you staring at? Oh? Waiting see if you need anything for this. No, no, no, no, no, that's all I'll ring for you if I need you Yes Oh, I forgot to thank you for what he gets paid for whatever he does Forgive me for saying this but Somehow I don't like that young man. Was he rude to you. Oh, no not actually But he seems to resent my being here and the butler he seems resentful too I feel as though I don't belong. Oh, they're harmless enough, but getting back to you. I I was so sorry. I was in South America at the time The time it happened Must have been pretty ghastly for you my child like a nightmare uncle Peter I'm not myself yet and I should think not an only child losing both parents so suddenly and And so horribly maybe it was a good thing. It was sudden It had to happen at all One spectator at the crash said that they never Never knew You mustn't talk about it or let's behind you a new life from now on That's the way I want to look at it uncle Peter And I'd like to get something to do well Oh, no, yes, really. I would I want to be active if I can I'm quite capable I'd really like to get a job uncle Peter. Well bless my soul secretary will work or anything Well, that might not be a bad idea keep you from brooding Well, you'll see what we can do and now now I have a little surprise for you You haven't seen my collection. No, I haven't mother and father often talk to father And if you'll just open that door over there, I'll show some of it to you Oh, that's right You'll find the light switch just inside Over here my dear Look at these. Well, what do you think of them?  Well, that's exactly what they are Life size at one time But isn't it remarkable the way they shrink them down look at this one See his little features perfect in every detail. He's my favorite Interesting history about him. He was once a white man Forced down in the South American jungle when his plane cracked up. The headhunters got hold of him and there he is His name is charlie. I'd like to see him closer. I can unlock the case. No, no, please Do you mind if I don't look anymore? Oh dear, I I keep forgetting people are sometimes shocked by these things I see them only through a collector's eyes Oh, well, you'll have lots of time to look over my jungle paraphernalia I mean well, perhaps you better get some rest. Would you like victor to get you something to eat? No, thank you uncle Peter But I am rather tired I think I'll say good night to you know your way about do you? Yes, I'll find my way Good night uncle Peter. Good night my sweet child. I'll see you in the morning Oh marie Know something You're going to have dreams tonight Unpleasant ones too Well, let's move the clock ahead and go to marie's bedroom It's a little after three in the morning. She's asleep now. The rain's still coming down. The wind moans outside Hear it? Yes, marie's asleep Looks peaceful enough lying there in that big four poster bed But suddenly she begins to toss Things so real I'm sure I heard it whisper only the wind And oh, I wish I hadn't seen that dreadful thing Miss Medford. Are you all right? So there play olden. Oh, oh, yes, mr. Olden. I uh I just had a bad dream at all. I'm quite all right. Thank you. Well, if you need anything just rain Yes, I will. Sorry.  Just a newness of everything. I'll get used to it victor. I hope you will miss Of course you will. Oh and mr. Alden Um, don't mention anything to my uncle about that silly dream I had last night. Oh, of course that did you have a bad night miss? Yes The daytime makes such a difference in things Even you seem different mr. Alden for the better. I trust. Oh, sorry. It wasn't very complimentary Oh, here comes uncle Well, good morning you two good morning mr. Medford morning, uncle peter you look quite fit this morning So feelings splendidly had the best night's sleep and I don't know how long and how are you feeling night child quite well Thank you uncle. Oh, you remember our conversation of last evening. I mean about you wanting to do something Yes, I think I've got it for you Friend of my name finneas drake collects books just purchased a library complete want someone to catalog it for it Small pay but not too difficult. Well, how does this out? Oh, it sounds wonderful. It's just what I want Splendid I'll call him again after breakfast Can you imagine such an ambitious young girl alden wants to work and she's only worth a cool million Well, not yet. I'm not uncle peter. Well, whenever you become of age or whatever it said and your father's will I thought you knew what it said. I would inherit my cool million until I married What was that with Medford? You see right away. You've put notions into his head She said she won't come into her inheritance until she marries If I have a father made that strange provision, I shall never know But marie you stay your distance from this young man Can't an old man have his little joke Anyway, with all the eligible young men you'll meet poor alden won't stand a chance All right, all right, all right victor where my eggs right here, sir Oh, yes, soft boiled eggs.  Oh, yes, it's a lovely room. It's almost like a castle Oh, I miss my old room the one next to yours. I haven't been up there in over a month One day soon. I'll have victor and alden carry me up those stairs just to see if the place looks the same Victor serve my niece some more coffee. Yes. Yes, of course, sir So marie you're going to have something to do But you're an intelligent girl should do well at your new assignment That's harder work than you thought though hours of scanning small print and copying down the individual histories of countless books All goes well for several weeks and then early one afternoon you return home marie to find your uncle as usual in his study Why are you so upset marie? You're not finished already finished as far as mr. Phineas drake is concerned I can't understand. I've done my work. Well This afternoon mr. Drake came to me and said he had no further use for my services Didn't explain why just just looked at me clearly and said he preferred someone else to finish the job Well, that's strange. Oh, well, he's an old crank. Don't let this upset you. We'll find something else for you to do No, no, no, no, don't you worry Surely it's been satisfactory. Well, you see because of the peculiar nature of my profession. I I must have someone more experienced I'm sorry miss medford Professor Hanley I did exactly as you instructed What on earth is wrong? You'll excuse me miss medford, but uh, well your ability as an assistant has not come up to stand I've studied botany and I I've checked this manuscript most carefully There's not a single mistake. Very sorry miss medford, but they're not all acceptable. I have to get someone else Is there something wrong with me? Well, I shall certainly call dr. Humphrey right away. No, no, I'd rather you didn't But it was only the other day he telephoned me and said what an efficient secretary thought you were Something wrong somewhere.  I I think I'd give up this idea of wanting to work I hadn't mentioned it to you, but you're really not looking your best lately Well to tell the truth uncle I I haven't been sneaking well I have the most frightening nightmares In fact, it's the same dream every night. Well, that's odd What's the dream about? I keep seeing that little head When you said was called Charlie oh Dear, I I suppose I made a mistake showing that to you in your first night If you could only look upon charlie as I do you'd realize it is inanimate Dead with no power at all to do your harm You built up a phobia about that head now the thing to do is to destroy that fear by facing it You come along with me my dear In there again, it's the only way now come along. Oh, no, uncle peter.  Oh, I know you think I'm being cruel But I know my psychology. I By that strain By somebody's broken into this case ring for victor and get old and here's once something missing somebody has deliberately taken that head So charlie is missing, eh? Wonder who could have broken the lock and lifted the little head from its black velvet pad I wonder But now several nights have passed Still the head called charlie has not reappeared Marie has just taken a sedative or uncle peter gave her is now lying on her bed tossing fretfully praying for sleep Sleep marie tonight Oh dear heaven No dreams tonight Let me get some sleep No No No, no, oh you don't believe I actually thought I'll ask you some questions. First of all in this dream you hear a voice of any kind A voice that whispers my name's charlie over and over But tonight it's said something different Now you wouldn't go on my dear I had hoped and prayed with all my heart that this wouldn't happen to you What are you trying to tell me, uncle peter? You've heard me go on about the fine old medford stock Well, it so happens our branch isn't so fine But there's been something wrong You mean insanity insanity in the family Why haven't I heard of it before? Because my dear it's It's the medford secret ever you do marie. You must not let go of your salad But it's not easy being told you're mad If I am afflicted That's why they discharged me But how did they know what did I do that would give evidence? Perhaps perhaps you do things you're not aware of Maybe I do things you're only logical What's to become? Now now now we'll work this out together my dear child. No one will ever know you can depend upon me I won't leave From tonight on I shall be taken upstairs and I'll stay near you Knowing that which afflicts us gives us a weapon with which to fight it Just you rely upon me my dear The one he calls charlie it's back in its case when did this happen sometime last night? I guess happy or nightmare I'm convinced now that that's all it was I am not so sure When you threw charlie to the floor a piece of his ear broke off. I found it after you went downstairs Yeah, here it is. It's charlie's ear. All right. I checked it very carefully. Oh, no, this doesn't make a sense Did you ring for me miss? No no good to know. I I didn't ring Oh Sorry miss Yes, leopard you're in grave danger you've got to leave this house as quickly as you can and never come back What's going on in here? I'm gone. What was that?  I'll be glad to sir I think miss medford is in danger of losing her sanity as well as her life What is all this poppycock? Are you trying to frighten my niece lord? No, she's been through enough. She's been through too much She weren't made of pretty stout stuff.  I'm afraid you're wrong, sir I'm not leaving not yet. Maybe you're leaving mr. Olden. What's the meaning of this? I'm sorry to break it to you this way, but I'm definitely convinced your uncle is a diabolical fiend I can take so much no more Look here olden if you know what's good for you leave here at once at once you here You're pretty anxious to get rid of me, but it's too late Miss medford you remember your father's will you'd come into your money only if you married Well, if you didn't marry uncle peter would get the money and if he could prove you were insane You'd never be able to marry you see how it all works out. Well, how dare you listen to that?  It's hooked up to a microphone in the back stairs hallway The voice you heard was your uncle peter.  How could I possibly be a puny?  Look look at this ear a piece of charlie's ear I found it in marie's room that proves she wasn't dreaming and it fits perfectly. I've tried it. Why you give me that ear Give it to me You're walking give it to me Look at him marie standing unaided. Does that prove anything to you? Right, it's true.  You'll never marry anyone marie. I'll see to that vector grab him Don't move mr. Medford. He's in house. Don't believe what halden says. You're crazy marie There's no escaping it.  I think you're the one who's crazy medford. Maybe that could be proved Take it easy now mr. Medford. Take it easy. There's nothing wrong with me. You know it. Is the car ready vector? Yes, it's ready Come in gentlemen These are the officers. Then you'd better take him away. Yes, sir. Please come quietly mr. Medford.  I'm lying. I'm lying. You hear your lie I'm terribly sorry about this marie Terribly sorry But it's all for the best. How can it be for the best? But think what does mean Leave my father's brother and it's insane and And it means that I might be too Run from the peril. No, no, don't worry marie. Don't worry. You're safe.  I know Yes, you see he wasn't your real uncle. He was your father's foster brother.  How do you know that? Someday marie I'll tell you all about it Tomorrow why don't you tell her now clay? Tell her why you were working as peter medford secretary Because your father was peter's partner His partner that your father was ruined in business by peter and killed himself killed himself in disgrace That you suspected him of having cheated your father That you came to find the evidence and discovered in time peter's diabolical plan to prevent marie from ever marrying Let her tell her clay I would CBS has presented the whistler By wilber hatch tonight's whistler story was written by joseph curams Directed by j donald wilson and originated from columbia square in hollywood Next week same time I the whistler will return to tell you the strange story of the curse Good night This is the columbia broadcasting system


And that doesn't look good. We're supposed to be getting some massive storms coming in. I don't know what time it is. So I got some reports late last night from a neighbor that some of the mailboxes had been broken into. Stolen mail is a thing whether it's at your house or it's in a mailbox bank down the street like it was a thing in San Jose. It's a thing here. It's unusual here because we're in a closed community. Our box doesn't seem to be tampered with but we're down farther in the community at the dead end street. So I'm guessing that would be why an artist looks untampered. So I'm going to walk around and get some pictures. I don't understand not calling the post office and the police. I don't understand that nobody's called anybody and the neighbor in question hadn't checked his mail in 10 days. Is that a thing? All right anyway I'm going to see what I can see and I'll be back. Okay so it has been a fun afternoon but it is six o'clock now so it's time to turn off the computer as soon as I wake it up. Oh there it is. I spent the afternoon doing some more sketches and chatting with my friend Leslie McGrath while she was also doing some crafting. She was working on some, there we are, followed the court for her house. I was looking for something earlier and I ended up, anybody notice any differences? So I had two, I had two of these they were single one, they weren't a four cube. These two here are two, two, two cubes and you cannot put a shelf inside of them to split the cubes into two. So I moved these down to the end and I moved the four cube that was down there down here and I put the shelf in the top sections. So we have the same kind of bins going all the way across and then I replaced out the bins and drawers that were at the bottom that didn't match. Everything matches. I don't know why that's a thing for me today but it all matches. I did used to have some drawers over here for those that remember my bits bank and the drawers had like dry botanical nature things in them and jelly plates and stuff and I've redone it and my jelly plates are still in tins but they're in this big bin here along with my other like stamping tools and stuff like that. Yeah stamping tools and stuff. This one has botanicals and sea shells and stuff in it. This one has driftwood and feathers and rope and stuff in it. Yes I have rope in the art room. Don't ask. And so I like that much better because it's just nice. It's cleaner and it all matches. Good morning everybody. It is just after 11 a.m. Tuesday, October 19th. And it's just a quiet morning because I got most of my work done yesterday and Sunday. So today my time is free to play with some new dyes I got and my Sizzix big shot and play with cutting out some embellishments I want to use for our future journaling pages. So I'm going to work on that today. We're also getting ready to go. Now I'm going to problem tell you this because by the time you all see this I'll be back but we're getting ready to go to my brother's wedding. He's getting married this weekend in Southern California so I have started laying out my packing what I'm going to pack to bring. I am that person that starts packing way ahead. I don't pack at the last minute. I don't pack at the last minute for lots of reasons but mostly because I'm obsessive compulsive and I'm afraid of forgetting something. Yeah and I got also got to lay it out to make sure I'm not bringing too much stuff because my husband and I are chronic overpackers. So anyway those are my only two things to do today. Dad's coming into town tonight he's going to spend the night I've got to take him to the airport tomorrow for the same wedding and we're not leaving for a few days yet but he's going at early so he can hang out with my brother and his fiance and my nephew and all of that stuff. So yeah it's going to be a busy couple of days with dad here so I don't know what I'm going to film or what I'm if I'm going to get steps into even later today I don't have any idea. So anyway that's it for the minute. I'm going to practice with my physics and I'm going to see how thick a paper these new dies will cut because I have no idea. I'll be back. Is just after lunch I got a bunch of die cutting done which was great all the new dies were great even on some of the card stock so that's that's good actually one of them works better on card stock than it is regular paper so good to know. Had a nice phone meeting with the new person from the HOA management company about the mailboxes that got broken into in the neighborhood and told her I reported it already to the post office they're going to do an additional report she said we need to get pictures first I said I got some I'll email into you had a nice chat so anyway uh my dad's coming into town tonight because I'm going to take him to the airport early tomorrow which I think I said already um I'm not sure we're going to be able to do or go walking later my dad can't walk too far he's got a really bad he and I have the same knee problem but his is much worse than mine he is 82 but anyway um I don't know if we will go walking later and if we do how far he can go so I'm going to go get some steps now I don't have any pressing projects to work on anyway so the timing is good so we're going to go do that and see what we can see and I'll be back so my dad will be here any minute but while we're waiting I did some um drawings last night for the people over at patreon and for my own personal enjoyment um and they can use them as digital downloads or they can print them and hang them on the wall I I don't know I did sign them and so um they're two floral drawings based on images I took um this is one and this is the other one so these mats I got in a two pack like this this is this is a pair of the two pack from um Fred Meyer which is part of Kroger and um they were 37 cents for the pair I should have bought more I should have bought more um yeah I should have bought more if I go there again this week I'll be looking to see if they have any more anyway they probably will um I thought when I bought them to take the prints out that are in them because they print they're cute I wanted to use them in other artwork the first pair had these two botanicals that I thought were cute and then this these this pair of course has these but then I also thought wait but these are cute mats you could put some of your own artwork in there and then either sell it or hang it on the wall or give it away or whatever so cute right so here's one so I'm going to do the other one how cute is that how cute would they be hanging on the wall so there you go whether you're thrifting or you're buying things on clearance look around for those things that you can repurpose and create into your own unique home decor like it's a good idea I'm going to keep going I'll be back it's 7 28 a.m Wednesday October 20th and I just dropped my dad off at the airport he's headed down to southern California for my brother's wedding so windshield wipers it's also raining heavily so it's after six o'clock we're headed for a walk finally I spent the afternoon working on some stuff up in the art room while chatting with my friend Leslie McGrath and Cathy Whitney that was a lot of fun and I started out working on some daily drawing and I'm going to be doing a few pages ahead because we have some stuff going on this weekend but that led to me cleaning out the daily drawing bag which led to me realizing it needs washing which led to me maybe trying temporarily and different kind of daily drawing setup downstairs anyway if you guys want to see what I'm doing and why let me know put something down in the comments below all right I'll be sharing pictures on social media maybe so follow me over there look at my link tree list links you'll find my instagram and facebook and all that stuff anyway I made good progress that's all good I got some cleaning done I've got garbage cans to empty tomorrow and laundry still to do but this is all good all right we're gonna go get some steps in and see what we can see it's raining a little bit but not too bad and see you later I'll be back it is what time is it I don't even know 11 oh 2 a.m thursday october 21st I am up here in the art room and I am working with my gel pens to finish up two journals I have been had had sitting around for a long time this one where I was doing noodles on black paper and then this one over here which was the toned tanned journal which started out as these and then ended up with these botanically inspired there's only a few pages left so my goal today is to sit up here and finish both of these and then maybe find one journal in my collection in the closet of colored paper journals to start new and put with it gel pens I do have one gel pen I just put it back over here with the other ones I have quite a little collection I like the jelly roll gel pens mostly I use the regular jelly roll moon lights and then I have a few souffle colors and this particular one although it looks like it has ink in it that sucker is like not coming out it's dried up is I've tried everything that the jelly roll people suggest none of it works like I ripped a hole in the paper trying to like yeah so anyway you're gonna have to see if I can get a new one I don't and I don't have a backup so I just checked so anyway it's just after two it's like 205 two journals I started before the pandemic done I'm so excited this is a Strathmore like softcover journal what does it call it's a Strathmore it just says Strathmore oh softcover art journal the one I was working in is the toned tan paper this one I have another one that was in my closet I don't remember where I got these are when I don't like the covers because although I don't care if my covers get messed up and marked up I prefer it's from my artwork or stickers and not this yeah I don't like them but I'm gonna use them the paper's fabulous just FYI this one is toned gray I like the challenge of doing some of these drawings on paper that's other than white I think that's interesting so anyway broke out a new one it'll probably take me two years to get it done but you know all right all right that's it for the moment on to the next thing I don't know what that is but I guess I'll figure it out I'll be done so we are headed out for a walk to get some steps in before dinner it may not be a long walk one and I may not get any pictures of video footage too because do you hear that it's raining it's not super hard yet but my guess is it's going to get harder and cell phones and rainwater don't really mix so we'll see how this goes I'll be done land of much water and do you think we can easily find umbrellas all the time no we did find two but yeah we really should get a couple more umbrellas because that's a thing all right let's go get some steps and see what we can see I'll be back I don't think that's a good thing I don't know what that means probably flooding but I guess we'll find out it's probably also a good thing I'm not the wicked witch or I'd be melting oh god slippery bridge hold on the sound there on its original volume that's heckle out and I just stepped in another giant puddle my shoes are soaking wet I think it's time to go home it is 10 o'clock 7 a.m. Friday October 22nd we leave to go to my brother's wedding weekend tomorrow late tonight we're celebrating one of the kids birthdays Brian it's his birthday and going to Benihana I think very late tonight I haven't had a dinner at 8 o'clock at night no long time so that's going to be interesting going to do sit up here at the art room do some more journaling I did a little cleaning I've got to take a couple pictures and send out some messages to a couple people ask them if they want some supplies I've been holding on to you and or trying to sell Nancy shop but I purge that I'm not using that should go to good homes that are going to use them um so we are now in Ontario California San Bernardino San Bernardino area sort of I don't know what county it is but anyway you get the idea we are headed to our hotel we're here for my brother's wedding I think I said that in the previous clip um did we realize as we left on the plane we forgot a couple things at home yeah he's forgot his night guard I just realized just now I forgot my little thing to shave my mustache all the time I have a razor too I might be using the regular razor rather than the electric buzz bus so anyway what are you going to do anyway we're here um it's cloudy it looks like just back at home um that's okay but we're headed to hotel we're going to get checked in get cleaned up rest a bit and then I guess sent over to my brother's he's having an open house family thing that I'm here for the wedding so


So we're going to talk about selling online Anybody in the room excited about selling things online. Yeah, okay So this is titled so you want to sell online or a brief treatise on the complexities pitfalls processes patterns thoughts and dreams of Modern e-tailer and some tech too Yes, that's the whole title So who am I other You know what, okay, everybody. That's my business partner in the back of the room So I'm Zach Steppick. I'm a partner development and strategy at mind size I've been spending the last nearly 20 years building the web 10 years of teaching that to others.  I mean, it's some great marketing speak, right? We want things to be fast. We want them to be efficient and we want them to look good That's our core on everything we work on We've done some sites here Oscar Mike Clinton electronics unwashed which is a dry shampoo and conditioner great company I'm wearing an Oscar Mike shirt today because mom you have to rep your clients But the more important question is who are you? So is there anybody in the audience today that is a store owner a Store owner a store owner Okay, anybody who wants to be a store owner who wants to Sell things online. Yes Okay Anybody who wants to build stores for other people Okay, I had a feeling that was gonna be a big part of the room here So our job when we're consulting with these clients on on building a store is to have guide them through All of these pitfalls and complexities that we're going to talk about today And if you're you know selling your own thing There are a few questions we'll go over in this presentation that talk about How to determine what you want to sell? so we're gonna start off just talking about selling online and You know selling online is a very large topic. There are a lot of pieces that go into selling even just one simple product online This is the dream that everybody has right. I'm gonna start selling things online I'm going to live on the beach for all but one hour a day And I'm gonna have somebody else do all the work, you know I'm gonna have Amazon ship everything and I'll never have to worry about any of it, right? This is the reality Welcome to home So, you know, you've got your products and bags and poly bags and boxes Shipping station and a giant warehouse and maybe a few other people This is how most e-commerce businesses start. In fact, most of them don't have a shipping station that looks this nice when they start So but this is the reality of running an e-commerce business. So The platform does matter We as a company work with both WooCommerce And easy digital downloads as well as Shopify You really need to target the platform that you're working on to the project, right? WooCommerce isn't gonna be the right fit for everybody Easy digital downloads isn't going to be the right fit for everybody and Shopify isn't either So that's why we support all three You know, it's important to fit the platform to the project at hand But what are you looking for in a platform? Well, as a store owner, you're looking for ease of use. You're looking for something that makes the daily tasks you have to do easier and Your daily tasks are managing products inventory and orders and Then shipping those orders, right? So those are your daily tasks those are what you have to do in order to keep your business running but You know, I say the platform matters It doesn't really matter There have been people that have been very successful that are still running Really really old shopping cart software There are people who are doing millions of dollars on Top of seven-year-old OS commerce installs it happens and So the platform matters, but it doesn't Matter as much as you would think There are a couple other considerations for those of us in this room that we have to make as designers and developers which platform makes it easier for us to do our job and That's part of what brought us to new commerce in the first place and to easy digital downloads because they do things the word press way it's it's a way that we're used to working and They have near infinite customers a custom ability customized ability. Yes customized ability The big thing with a platform like Shopify or any other software as a service platform is You're kind of limited by what the platform allows you to do or what somebody else is already written for the platform or Learning how to do something specific to that platform and it's completely different Than everything we do in the wordpress world. So We do some custom stuff in Shopify, but we highly prefer working within wordpress So I said we were gonna talk a little bit about finding a product This is really the first step in starting an e-commerce business, right? You have to determine what exactly it is you're going to sell and There are a few questions you can ask to try and narrow this down and actually find Something that you're going to enjoy selling or make money selling And that's where this passion or profit question comes in Do you want to sell something that you can be incredibly passionate about? Or do you just want to sell something that can turn you a profit? And there are business owners who have chosen both of these routes, right? Personally, and I think Scott back there the heckler would agree that passion is The important thing to us We want to be passionate about what we do So if we were to start an e-commerce business, we would have to find a product that we could be passionate about Because that's where we're going to invest the time Some people don't need the passion to be able to invest the time So they find something that they think they can make a great profit in I belong to a forum where I'm the WooCommerce expert not that that really matters, but it's called e-commerce fuel it's a whole bunch of six and seven figure e-commerce store owners and they share all of these stories about How their businesses are going what they're they're trying the things that they're experimenting with to improve their businesses and I'd say it's about a 33 to 67% split We're only 33% of them are really passionate about the product that they're selling And about 67% of them just went after products. They knew they could make money That's probably pretty standard across the board I don't know of a ton of eBay Sellers who were really passionate about going and finding things other than Some of my my friends and my girlfriend in the back there. She was passionate about what she sold But it's hard to be passionate about other people's products, too, so That's the first question though, do you want to sell something you have a passion for or something just for profit? The second question is are you selling a physical product or a digital product? so E-commerce isn't just relegated to what you can physically get in the mail, right? Amazon has made a killing with digital sales, especially e-books over the last multiple years now They started selling music now So there's really no limitation of delivering a physical product and that might be easier if you are Someone who doesn't want to have to staff warehouse or who doesn't want to have to Deal with UPS FedEx USPS possibly DHL Maybe less than truckload freight and all of these other things that you have to worry about if you're running a physical product business so Now that's another consideration to make physical or digital. I would encourage everybody in here You know something about something right? You're here. You're learning more about something today You know something Try to sell that knowledge Go out and write an e-book And that's starting the e-commerce business right there. That's all it takes So here's the other interesting question to me Do you want to sell your own original product or something that's already existing? So we see this in a number of different formats Original physical products original digital products or existing physical or digital products If you're selling existing products You just have to be better than the next guy that's selling the same product. That's really the trick You can make more money than somebody else who has the exact same product you do if you're just better at it If you have better customer service if you have a better-looking website if you have You know higher converting website because you've spent time on conversion rate optimization all of these things factor into whether or not somebody chooses you over the competition So that's another question original or existing products Another question if you're creating an original product is how are you going to source the product? Where is it going to come from? so I'm going to take a break from lecturing everybody here and just say I have a short story about a company that I'm wearing right now They made some very interesting decisions about sourcing that most people don't make anymore Oscar Mike is a veteran owned American made apparel company and because of that because they're veteran owned they wouldn't source from anywhere but the US and I think that's a very valiant thing to do. It's something that Really ties their brand directly to the people they're trying to serve because the other part of Oscar Mike is a foundation that helps injured veterans participate in adaptive sporting events so it's an awesome company and an awesome cause and So their sourcing had to fit their cause, right? So we all know that buying products in China manufactured in China's Cheaper than having them made here, right? So there's a premium you pay for an American made product today And that's okay People are willing to pay that premium if there's a reason for it So How do you source? Make that part of your story if you're sourcing your product a hundred percent American made tell everyone Make it a part of your brand if you're not Don't make it a thing at all. You know if you if you're helping a village in in Africa to Make a living wage by having all of your manufacturing done there That's a story. I've heard from multiple brands. So this is kind of an important one You can have the greatest ideas in the world But if there's no market, you're not gonna sell it, right? So how do you determine? whether or not you have a market for your product and There are a couple of ways that you can do that Probably the best way is to go and test it Find the people you think are going to buy it and try and sell it to them Build a small site Throw something up on the web with WooCommerce and storefront and no customizations other than throwing a logo up there and try it Verify and validate that your market exists and then put the time and the money into building out a bigger site And here's an important one fulfillment. So You're sitting in your your brand-new warehouse and You get your first order in and Now you have to ship it to somebody Anybody here know how to navigate the complexities of all three major shipping companies USPS UPS FedEx No, trust me. It's not fun But it's something you have to know right so you have to know how you're going to fulfill your products now We use tools to help our customers do these things there are tools like or Doro or ship station that will help you to Get the product into the hands of the person who ordered it They do that through allowing you to compare shipping rates Through all three of the shipping providers at once That sounds useful, right? Let me tell you the way that this used to be done and How awesome it is now So when I first started working with Oscar Mike back before mine size existed My friend Noah the the founder of Oscar Mike had called me in and he had had a big issue with The site going down over Thanksgiving Day, and that's another story that I'd be happy to tell any of you later, but They also had a problem where it took them over a half an hour from the time They got an order to the time they were able to put it in a shipping bin and have it ready to be picked up and The reason for that is the way that the post office and UPS had come in and set up their shipping They were running four separate pieces of software that were all tied to QuickBooks and So when an order came in on the website the website wasn't talking to QuickBooks So they had to manually enter the order into QuickBooks in order to get it to show up in the shipping software That then talked to the three other pieces of shipping software to get the comparative rates back But you had to go in and manually choose the rate from each one And then go back to the one and choose which one you actually wanted based on what was cheapest That process took them a long time. It took them about 25 minutes every order to get that entered So we got rid of all of that and we gave them Ordo and Ordo at the time was Incredibly fast for them We recently had to switch to ship station for them and that's because they started selling on a new channel they started selling through GovEx, which is a It's a website that sells directly to veterans and active duty military and They provide discounts for veterans and active duty military through that website So because they're on GovEx we had to have a solution that GovEx could talk to and ship station ended up being that solution But both do pretty much the same thing. They make that 25 minute process take about 15 to 20 seconds They click on the order They type in the dimensions of the box They just put it all in or the poly bag they just put it all in because most of what they sell is t-shirts so you can fit three or four in a poly bag and It gives them prices from all of their shipping providers. So really really cool stuff Here's another consideration that not a lot of people think about So There's a metric that's tied to subscriptions called monthly recurring revenue or MRR How many of you would like to have monthly recurring revenue without having to keep selling over and over and over again? If anybody doesn't put their hand up I'm going to call you out of line We all want this right so subscriptions give you monthly recurring revenue They give you a chance to sell the product for a period of time rather than just one time so in the WooCommerce world WooCommerce subscriptions Supports a new plugin that they developed recently That's called subscribe all the things which is a very apt name and Subscribe all the things lets you turn any product in your WooCommerce store into a product that can be subscribed to And you just choose which ones can be subscribed to and the order happens every month or every three months or every six months However, you can figure the subscriptions to happen So something to definitely consider offering to your customers or offering to your Clients if you're building a site pricing Pricing is a deep subject one that we're not going to be able to cover in depth or even anywhere close to in depth But I can Dilute this down to a very simple Mantra that we work by The best price for your product is the price a customer is willing to pay If you want to experiment with pricing Raise your price a little bit see if your orders go down or if they go up Lower your price a little bit see if your orders go up or if they go down There are other things you can do around pricing like free shipping Free shipping may increase your orders. It does by the way In almost every case offering free shipping will increase the number of orders you have so These are all things that You can look at a lot of companies in order to create a lead funnel Will offer something as a free plus shipping item and they're charging 8 12 $15 for shipping and handling on an item that costs 8 12 or $15 and People take it because free is attached to it, right? They're willing to pay $15 worth of shipping and handling get an item that may be cost $3 to make if you're lucky and So the best price in that case is free plus shipping, right? So That's great. How do we find customers, right? None of us can afford these Large ad agencies to do gigantic ad campaigns anymore, right? I Love this picture. I think it's great So Traditional marketing has worked and it still works, but it's a lot harder There's a lot more noise And it's really hard to be heard through that noise There's also email marketing How many of you get too many email subscription newsletters? Yep Uh That's one option if you did subscribe and you still want to get it There is a great website called unroll that will give you a digest every day of all the subscriptions You don't want to see pile up in your inbox That doesn't hurt them because unsubscribes actually can hurt a seller's Rating with their email service. So keep that in mind Also something to know if you're setting up email newsletters and marketing for your customers Um, so email marketing is great as A customer buys you capture their email address during the purchase process anyway And so you can send them a receipt ask them at that time if you can send them a newsletter or offers or Information about new products whatever however you want to word it get them to opt in to allowing you to continue to communicate with them and Email marketing Can get you new customers that haven't converted before so Another Tactic for getting new customers is search engine optimization. How many of you were in Ryan Irwin's session about SEO? He's great. I'm not going to try and repeat any of the things he did because he's much better at it than I am but Search engine optimization is part of your lead funnel. It's how you get people To your site to convert If they don't know about you, but they know what type of product they want and they search for your product type You better be near the top of that list pay-per-click How many were around during the time that pay-per-click was cheap and very very effective? Yeah, me too. I was there It used to be that pay-per-click was really an effective mechanism and it still can be If you are incredibly highly targeted to exactly the customers you want Okay, but it's very important that you are highly targeted Otherwise you're just throwing money away because the bids for these are higher than they've ever been So that's all doom and gloom right that's let's let's get away from that social media marketing though not quite over that wall where it's too expensive yet The targeting is better than it's ever been. It's better than any of the pay-per-click providers. So Advertising on Facebook is an excellent option for getting people to purchase a product and the greatest thing about Facebook is That the Facebook pixel will track from when they go to the ad through your site to the point of conversion and You can retarget those people and we'll talk more about retargeting later, but you can retarget those people Based on how far into your sales funnel they got It's pretty cool There is a man who knows way more about Facebook marketing than I could ever dream to know His name is Ezra Firestone and Ezra runs a blog called smart marketer It's an excellent resource For anybody who wants to learn social media marketing So I'd highly encourage you to check his his blog out And he's got so much energy like a ridiculous amount of energy Ezra Firestone and It's smart marketer.com So one of the things you'll learn from Ezra and that I learned from Ezra is that video is powerful Especially in social media Video is incredibly powerful if you lead with a video ad at the top of your funnel You will convert more frequently The other tip that I'll give you that it took listening to him a few times for me to really understand is That you should optimize your Facebook ads if you're if you're creating the Facebook ad for e-commerce Optimize it for conversions on your website All of the other stuff doesn't matter what you want is you want them to come to your website and buy something So Facebook is really smart about how they optimize ads as they run the longer they run the more optimized They become until they fizzle out because you've hit the whole audience, right? so if You're optimizing for conversions Facebook starts to look at the kind of customer that comes to the site and then converts and They optimize to get more of that same type of person to see your ad So that they convert so that they get paid more Because if they convert more You're they're getting paid more So and if they convert more you're getting paid more too, which is awesome, right? That's what you want One other thing that I'll talk about here Is creating a branded experience? How many of you have purchased an Apple product I know all I have to do is look out in the room, right? That unboxing experience is just something Completely different from anything else, isn't it? you know you you take the Cellophane off the outside of that box and you start to open it up and the care that's been taken with every single detail in How that product is packaged? It's amazing. It really is They put almost as much thought into the design of the packaging as they do into the look of the product Other companies do a really good job of branding we Are huge geeks at home. We even run a blog about geeky things called geek battery my girlfriend back there Rachel Leads that team and We get things like loot crate and geek fuel which are monthly subscription boxes that have geeky things in them from Funko figures to Random reprinted comic books occasionally that we get just fun things that we collect and you know have sitting everywhere in our house It's really great, but the branded experience that you get with loot crate for example That's a black box that comes with loot crate on it and you open it up And there was care in how the things were placed into the package and the way it's wrapped and all of the other things that they've you know included and It just gives you a good feeling to get that box and know You know you're gonna get some pretty awesome stuff and you don't know what's coming before it comes generally So that's kind of the you know the mystery subscription box model, right? But that branded experience keeps us as subscribers So in all of these things what we need to do is you know calculate another metric as we are looking at this called cost of acquisition What is the cost of getting a customer to the site? What is the cost of getting them to convert once they're there? How many times do they have to be retargeted? What is you know how much how many times are you actually paying for an ad to be shown on Facebook? And then them to leave the site without converting then shown another ad You know different ad hopefully if you've set up a good funnel the way azerest tells people to and What is that total cost of acquisition for that customer versus what their customer lifetime value is? We'll talk about customer lifetime value in a second So once you found your customers, then you have to keep on it, right?  So customer lifetime value is really important Cost of acquisition is one metric and there is a cost to acquiring a new customer who's never seen your brand before So if you have a repeat customer You're avoiding the cost of acquisition on those repeat sales most of the time Especially if they're coming directly back to the website and buying Remarketing however is a way to get them back if they don't just come back directly So using those same targeting tools we were talking about with social media We're using email marketing to get them back to the site after they've purchased These are huge If you don't remark it to the customers who have purchased you're going to lose potential sales Getting people to come back How many of you are familiar with Zappos? The Amazon shoe brand, right? Would anybody in this room Disagree with the fact that Zappos provides a superior customer experience How long do they let you return a pair of shoes for it's ridiculous, right? You can have worn it, you know worn them multiple times Return them. That's fine as long as they can be cleaned up a little bit. They're fine with it Even sometimes if they can't be reworn they don't care. It's pretty amazing Providing a superior customer experience sets your brand apart and gets your customers to keep coming back You only get one chance to make the first impression as any business, right?  I actually have heard from back when I worked in retail Well, I had to come back and see you. You were just so sharply dressed That was very a very weird thing to have somebody tell me But a superior customer experience Will make the difference between whether or not they choose you or a competitor the next time around and I don't know if you've seen the big behemoth in the industry But Amazon is trying to take over every corner of e-commerce, right? Amazon Basics is their line of products that they are replicating other people's products and selling them They're doing that to the their own vendors who sell through Amazon they're just Deciding they want to make it and make it cheaper and generally in China So providing a superior customer experience will make you stand apart Even on top of a Gigantic brand like Amazon if you have a better customer experience People will shop with you Even if the price is more than with the competitor Just because they like your brand How you fix things matters too So if something goes wrong The reaction you have to a customer letting you know what's gone wrong Will determine whether or not they come back to you in the future if they got the wrong size shirt for example and They call up or email in and your response is well I looked at the order and you ordered the wrong size.   No so Well, they might if they're fans of ed to bevix in Chicago, but that's another story entirely So They're not gonna come back How you fix an issue Makes a gigantic impression on your customers, so we've talked a lot about All of these things that go into deciding how to start an e-commerce business, right? We've talked some about tools We've talked some about Now How you find a good product fit for you? We've talked Quite a bit about How you get how you gain customers how you retain customers There is no excuse Not to start To quote this crazy man on the green screen here If this is something you want to do with your life Don't let your dreams be dreams, right? Just do it. Just go out there and start something What's the worst that could happen?  And if you want to find me on Twitter, I'm at Zestepic. It's our company mindsize.me We have live chat. Please blow it up. We love it Thank you very much Yes, how long did it take them to get 2.0 out? It's a good platform still but It's not as developer friendly as say WooCommerce. It's definitely not as easy to use for You know a store owner as WooCommerce or Shopify are And there is still even in 2.0 a lot of legacy code that just it's not as fast It's faster than it was but it's really a matter of choice There are people who are on that e-commerce fuel forum that I mentioned before That are making millions of dollars on magento. So why not magento? I Don't know. I don't like it It's not my favorite platform by any means it would be like telling me I need to build a marketing site in Drupal but You know, it's to each their own, right? No problem any other questions Yes So generally we choose clients that we know are going to be not just clients but partners So we look at long-term partnerships with everybody that we work with That being said, that's not always a good fit, right? Both WooCommerce and Shopify Can be run by somebody who's trained properly Without any involvement from us We just find that most of our customers value their time more than Their money in that regard they would much rather just have us do it all When that doesn't happen we wish them the best and let them know We're here if they need us and what our rush fee is for when an issue comes up You know, that's just the reality of how things work, right? You're not gonna end up with a retainer for every client that comes through we try to Because we feel that we have a lot more to offer than just building a site and letting it go You know, and I don't know I kind of feel like every site I build is you know, one of my babies, right? I don't like letting them go. So if we can build that deeper relationship, you know, I'm all for it Any other questions That went down over Thanksgiving weekend Sure, I can tell that story So I've told the story a couple of other word camps. It's it's really sad and enlightening all at once So Noah called me on Thanksgiving and he let me know that the Chicago Bears had interviewed him in their You know locker room set and aired it before the Bears Packers game three years ago on Chicago local television Is it four years now? Wow time flies But they had aired it on television and The site had gone down After about 11 orders now at that time I wasn't involved with the site at all So I get this call out of the blue from my friends saying help My site is down, right? on Thanksgiving Luckily, I had my laptop with me So at my parents house where they have satellite internet if you've ever dealt with that that's fun I'm sitting there trying to debug a VPS, I've never touched at some random hosting company in Chicago. I've never heard of and All of their staff is gone because it's Thanksgiving. So nobody knows how to do anything for me So I have to figure out one Noah. Do you know where your VPS password is? No, I'm not sure so four hours later We finally figured out where the VPS password had been and we got the server back up by rebooting it Okay, but the more important story Behind this is why it went down How many of you have run a VPS in the past that has the website and the database server and the mail server and All the things all on one VPS Come on. We've all done this at some point and and The 12 simultaneous orders that came through Were enough to crash the email queue on The mail server which then took down Apache which took down the whole site 12 emails 12 So we are very adamant with all of our clients that they use a transactional email service Something like a send grid or a postmark or you know any of the Mailgun any of the services that are out there that are not SMTB based and are not on your server at all I Would rather fire off an API call to somebody else let them handle it and let my server keep running So that is the lesson learned from the Thanksgiving debacle because we don't know how many orders they would have gotten this was the biggest thing they had ever had happened for PR and The saddest part of the whole thing is given what their mission is and the fact that all the profit from all their sales goes into the front the foundation that they run That meant they weren't helping as many people so We fixed that really quickly and we made sure that was never going to happen again, but that's the story of what happened on Thanksgiving You're welcome Okay, any other questions Thank you guys so much. I'll be around if you have anything you want to talk to me about


I am Ankur Kulkarni, a professor at IIT Bombay. You have probably seen me before in an NPTEL course on optimization from fundamentals and also one on stochastic control and communication. This time I will be teaching you a new course. Welcome to Games and Information, a very popular course at IIT Bombay. How to trade strategically in financial markets? How to place bids in an auction? How to bluff in a game of cards? And even what time to go to your college canteen to avoid crowds knowing that others are also going to do the same? These are all complex strategic tactical decisions in which the rewards we receive depend not only on what we do but also what other similarly smart agents do. These are what we call games. This is an advanced course in the theory of games with a particular emphasis on the role of information. We start with an overview of static games where information is basically plays no role and then move to dynamic games where information is central. We will see how agents can create complex strategies including giving bluffs and threats and then study games where players can send messages or communicate with each other and even get into binding contracts with each other. These are fascinating and evergreen themes. I look forward to seeing you in this course.


Back with you here in the post-game, Stevenson with a big win over Salisbury 35-21. Gary Stein, along with one of the defensive heroes, Demetrius Salli, number 25. Hey, first of all, just talk to me about that defensive performance today, especially in the second half. Well, look, we had a great day today, though the first half was a little rough, of course, but what we practiced on all month, do your job. And of course, the guys came out, they did their job, they shut them out, and I appreciate all the defense from the D-line to the DBS. They helped me out when I missed, and I helped them out too. We were great with Unity, we were great with our coaching staff, and once again, like, we just came out, we did our job, and we did what you need to do.  Ripping the football out from the quarterback's hands and the running back's hands, and all the turnovers that you guys created in the second half is something a little different than that. Talk about the aggressiveness of that defense and the ability to create takeaways. Well, we knew they were going to come out and they were going to be aggressive. And what we practiced on is that we need to make impact plays. And so I appreciate the guys that did that because they set the tone. And without them, I feel like our defense wouldn't have stepped up to the energy that they have because those guys, they really made a big deal today, and again, I appreciate them so much. Take me through half-time. It was 21-21 at the half, they were running the football, they had about 250 yards rushing in the first 30 minutes. What was the conversation and the tone like at half-time? The conversation is, fellas, we're doing our job. We're missing key assignments, but at the end of the day, we're doing what we need to do. Come out of half, it's 0-0. Let's start over. We start over, we do our job, we fix what needs to be fixed, and you see the result. You were a special team's ace last year. You were voted all conference first team, if I'm not mistaken. You've converted that now to another level of your game.  Tackles for losses, et cetera, like the whole defense did. What's happened to you and your maturation process over the last year? Last year, I really just wanted to play and it has not changed since then. Wherever I'm a special team's rather than defense, I will come to this school to make an impact because I love the game of football. I started my junior year of high school. I'm appreciate the opportunity that came here and that's all I want to do at the end of the day. Play football, help this team win, and let's just have some fun at the end of the day. What does football mean to you? Football is everything. It made my high school career, it's made my life so far. Not only is it maybe the player that I am today is maybe the man that I am today and I can not truly say how grateful I am for that opportunity. Sounds good. He's Demetrius Sallie, 25, defense. Stevenson, on Go Mustang Sports.tv.


On behalf of the General Assembly, I have the honor to welcome to the United Nations his Excellency, Mr. Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, and to invite him to address the Assembly. Mr. Secretary General, Mr. President, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen of the world. Thank you for granting me the honor of speaking today on this first day of general debate in the 38th session of the General Assembly. Once again, I come before this body preoccupied with peace. Last year I stood in this chamber to address the special session on disarmament, but I've come today to renew my nation's commitment to peace, and I have come to discuss how we can keep faith with the dreams that created this organization. The United Nations was founded in the aftermath of World War II to protect future generations from the scourge of war, to promote political self-determination and global prosperity, and to strengthen the bonds of civility among nations. The founders sought to replace a world at war with a world of civilized order. They hoped that a world of relentless conflict would give way to a new era, one where freedom from violence prevailed. Whatever challenges the world was bound to face, the founders intended this body to stand for certain values even if they could not be enforced, and to condemn violence even if it could not be stopped. This body was to speak with the voice of moral authority. That was to be its greatest power, but the awful truth is that the use of violence for political gain has become more, not less widespread in the last decade. Events of recent weeks have presented new, unwelcome evidence of brutal disregard for life and truth. They have offered an unwanted testimony on how divided and dangerous our world is. Now quick the recourse to violence. What has happened to the dreams of the UN's founders? What has happened to the spirit which created the United Nations? The answer is clear. Governments got in the way of the dreams of the people. Dreams became issues of East versus West. Hopes became political rhetoric. Progress became a search for power and domination. Somewhere the truth was lost that people don't make wars, governments do. And today in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and the North Pacific, the weapons of war shatter the security of the peoples who live there, endanger the peace of neighbors, and create ever more arenas of confrontation between the great powers. During the past year alone, violent conflicts have occurred in the hills around Beirut. The deserts of Chad and the western Sahara, in the mountains of El Salvador, the streets of Suriname, the cities and countryside of Afghanistan, the borders of Kampuchea, and the battlefields of Iran and Iraq. We cannot count on the instinct for survival to protect us against war. Despite all the wasted lives and hopes that war produces, it has remained a regular if horribly costly means by which nations have sought to settle their disputes or advance their goals. And the progress in weapons technology has far outstripped the progress toward peace. In modern times, a new, more terrifying element has entered into the calculations, nuclear weapons. A nuclear war cannot be won and it must never be fought. I believe that if governments are determined to deter and prevent war, there will not be war. Nothing is more in keeping with the spirit of the United Nations Charter than arms control. When I spoke before the second special session on disarmament, I affirmed the United States government's commitment and my personal commitment to reduce nuclear arms and to negotiate in good faith toward that end. Today, I reaffirm those commitments. The United States has already reduced the number of its nuclear weapons worldwide, and while replacement of older weapons is unavoidable, we wish to negotiate arms reductions and to achieve significant equitable, verifiable arms control agreements. And let me add, we must ensure that world security is not undermined by the further spread of nuclear weapons. Nuclear nonproliferation must not be the forgotten element of the world's arms control agenda. At the time of my last visit here, I expressed hope that a whole class of weapons systems, the longer range INF, intermediate nuclear forces, could be banned from the face of the earth. I believe that to relieve the deep concern of peoples in both Europe and Asia, the time was ripe for the first time in history to resolve a security threat exclusively through arms control. I still believe the elimination of these weapons, the zero option, is the best, fairest, most practical solution to the problem. Unfortunately, the Soviet Union declined to accept the total elimination of this class of weapons. When I was here last, I hoped that the critical strategic arms reduction talks would focus, and urgently so, on those systems that carry the greatest risk of nuclear war, the fast-flying, accurate intercontinental ballistic missiles which pose a first strike potential. I also hope the negotiations could reduce by one-half the number of strategic missiles on each side and reduce their warheads by one-third. Again, I was disappointed when the Soviets declined to consider such deep cuts and refused as well to concentrate on these most dangerous destabilizing weapons. Well, despite the rebuffs, the United States has not abandoned and will not abandon the search for meaningful arms control agreements. Last June, I proposed a new approach toward the start negotiations. We did not alter our objective of substantial reductions, but we recognized that there are a variety of ways to achieve this end. During the last round of Geneva talks, we presented a draft treaty which responded to a number of concerns raised by the Soviet Union. We will continue to build upon this initiative. Similarly, in our negotiations on intermediate-range nuclear forces, when the Soviet leaders adamantly refused to consider the total elimination of these weapons, the United States made a new offer. We proposed as an interim solution some equal number on both sides between 1 and 0 and 572. We recommended the lowest possible level. Once again, the Soviets refused an equitable solution and proposed instead what might be called a half-zero option, zero for us and many hundreds of warheads for them. That's where things stand today, but I still haven't given up hope that the Soviet Union will enter into serious negotiations. We are determined to spare no effort to achieve a sound, equitable and verifiable agreement. And for this reason, I have given new instructions to Ambassador Nitze in Geneva, telling him to put forward a package of steps designed to advance the negotiations as rapidly as possible. These initiatives build on the interim framework the United States advanced last March and address concerns that the Soviets have raised at the bargaining table in the past. Specifically, first, the United States proposes a new initiative on global limits. If the Soviet Union agrees to reductions and limits on a global basis, the United States, for its part, will not offset the entire Soviet global missile deployment through U.S. deployments in Europe. We would, of course, retain the right to deploy missiles elsewhere. Second, the United States is prepared to be more flexible on the content of the current talks. The United States will consider mutually acceptable ways to address the Soviet desire that an agreement should limit aircraft as well as missiles. Third, the United States will address the mix of missiles that would result from reductions. In the context of reductions to equal levels, we are prepared to reduce the number of perishing tubalistic missiles as well as ground-launched cruise missiles. I have decided to put forward these important initiatives after full and extensive consultations with our allies, including personal correspondence I've had with the leaders of the NATO governments in Japan and frequent meetings of the NATO Special Consultative Group. I have also stayed in close touch with other concerned friends and allies. The door to an agreement is open. It is time for the Soviet Union to walk through it. I want to make an unequivocal pledge to those gathered today in this world arena. The United States seeks and will accept any equitable, verifiable agreement that stabilizes forces at lower levels than currently exist. We are ready to be flexible in our approach indeed willing to compromise. We cannot, however, especially in light of recent events, compromise on the necessity of effective verification. Reactions to the Korean airliner tragedy are a timely reminder of just how different the Soviets' concept of truth than international cooperation is from that of the rest of the world. Evidence abounds that we cannot simply assume that agreements negotiated with the Soviet Union will be fulfilled. We negotiated the Helsinki Final Act, but the promised freedoms have not been provided, and those in the Soviet Union who sought to monitor their fulfillment languish in prison. We negotiated a biological weapons convention, but deadly yellow rain and other toxic agents fall on Hmong villages and Afghan encampments. We have negotiated arms agreements, but the high level of Soviet encoding hides the information needed for their verification. A newly discovered radar facility and a new ICBM raise serious concerns about Soviet compliance with agreements already negotiated. Peace cannot be served by pseudo arms control. We need reliable, reciprocal reductions. I call upon the Soviet Union today to reduce the tensions it has heaped on the world in the past few weeks and to show a firm commitment to peace by coming to the bargaining table with a new understanding of its obligations. I urge it to match our flexibility. If the Soviets sit down at the bargaining table seeking genuine arms reductions, there will be arms reductions. The governments of the West and their people will not be diverted by misinformation and threats. The time has come for the Soviet Union to show proof that it wants arms control in reality, not just in rhetoric. Meaningful arms control agreements between the United States and the Soviet Union would make our world less dangerous. So would a number of confidence-building steps we've already proposed to the Soviet Union. Arms control requires a spirit beyond national, narrow national interests. This spirit is a basic pillar on which the UN was founded. We seek a return to this spirit. A fundamental step would be a true non-alignment of the United Nations. This would signal a return to the true values of the Charter, including the principle of universality. The members of the United Nations must be aligned on the side of justice rather than injustice. Peace rather than aggression. Human dignity rather than subjugation. Any other alignment is beneath the purpose of this great body and destructive of the harmony that it seeks. What harms the Charter harms peace. The founders of the UN expected that member nations would behave and vote as individuals after they had weighed the merits of an issue. Rather like a great global town meeting. The emergence of blocks and the polarization of the UN undermine all that this organization initially valued. We must remember that the non-aligned movement was founded to counter the development of blocks and to promote détente between them. Its founders spoke of the right of smaller countries not to become involved in others disagreements. Since then, membership in the non-aligned movement has grown dramatically. But not all the new members have shared the founders commitment of genuine non-alignment. Indeed client governments of the Soviet Union who have long since lost their independence have flocked into the non-aligned movement and once inside have worked against its true purpose. Pseudo non-alignment is no better than pseudo arms control. The United States rejects as false and misleading. The view of the world is divided between the empires of the east and west. We reject it on factual grounds. The United States does not head any block of subservient nations nor do we desire to. What is called the west is a free alliance of governments most of whom are democratic and all of whom greatly value their independence. What is called the east is an empire directed from the center which is Moscow. The United States today as in the past is a champion of freedom and self-determination for all people. We welcome diversity. We support the right of all nations to define and pursue their national goals. We respect their decisions and their sovereignty asking only that they respect the decisions and sovereignty of others. Just look at the world over the last 30 years and then decide for yourself whether the United States or the Soviet Union has pursued an expansionist policy. Today the United States contributes to peace by supporting collective efforts by the international community. We give our unwavering support to the peacekeeping efforts of this body as well as other multilateral peacekeeping efforts around the world. The UN has a proud history of promoting conciliation and helping keep the peace. Today UN peacekeeping forces or observers are present in Cyprus and Kashmir on the Golan Heights and in Lebanon. In addition to our encouragement of international diplomacy, the United States recognizes its responsibilities to use its own influence for peace. From the days when Theodore Roosevelt mediated the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 we have a long and honorable tradition of mediating or damping conflicts and promoting peaceful solutions. In Lebanon, we along with France, Italy and the United Kingdom have worked for a ceasefire for the withdrawal of all external forces and for restoration of Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity. In Chad we have joined others in supporting the recognized government in the face of external aggression. In Central America, as in Southern Africa, we are seeking to discourage reliance upon force and to construct a framework for peaceful negotiations. We support a policy to disengage the major powers from third world conflict. The UN Charter gives an important role to regional organizations in the search for peace. The U.S. efforts in the cause of peace are only one expression of a spirit that also animates others in the world community. The Organization of American States was a pioneer in regional security efforts. In Central America the members of the Contadora Group are striving to lay a foundation for peaceful resolution of that region's problems. In East Asia, the Asian countries have built a framework for peaceful political and economic cooperation that has greatly strengthened the prospects for lasting peace in their region. In Africa, organizations such as the Economic Community of West African States are being forged to provide practical structures in the struggle to realize Africa's potential. In the beginning, our hope for the United Nations has been that it would reflect the international community at its best. The UN at its best can help us transcend fear and violence and can act as an enormous force for peace and prosperity. Working together, we can combat international lawlessness and promote human dignity. If the governments represented in this chamber want peace as genuinely as their peoples do, we shall find it. We can do so by reasserting the moral authority of the United Nations. In recent weeks, the moral outrage of the world seems to have reawakened. Out of the billions of people who inhabit this planet, why some might ask, should the death of several hundred shake the world so profoundly? Why should the death of a mother flying toward a reunion with her family, or the death of a scholar heading toward new pursuits of knowledge matter so deeply? Why are nations who lost no citizens in the tragedy so angry? The reason rests on our assumptions about civilized life and the search for peace. The confidence that allows a mother or a scholar to travel to Asia or Africa or Europe or anywhere else on this planet may be only a small victory in humanity's struggle for peace. Yet what is peace if not the sum of such small victories? Each stride for peace and every small victory are important for the journey toward a larger and lasting peace. We have made progress. We've avoided another world war. We've seen an end to the traditional colonial era and the birth of a hundred newly sovereign nations. Even though development remains a formidable challenge, we've witnessed remarkable economic growth and industrialized among the industrialized and the developing nations. United Nations and its affiliates have made important contributions to the quality of life on this planet, such as directly saving countless lives through its refugee and emergency relief programs. These broad achievements, however, have been overshadowed by the problems that weigh so heavily upon us. The problems are old, but it is not too late to commit ourselves to a new beginning, a beginning fresh with the ideals of the UN Charter. Today at the beginning of this 38th session, I solemnly pledge my nation to upholding the original ideals of the United Nations. Our goals are those that guide this very body. Our ends are the same as those of the UN's founders who sought to replace a world at war with one where the rule of law would prevail, where human rights were honored, where development would blossom, where conflict would give way to freedom from violence. In 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower made an observation on weaponry and deterrence in a letter to a publisher. He wrote, when we get to the point, as we one day will, that both sides know that in any outbreak of general hostilities, regardless of the element of surprise, destruction will be both reciprocal and complete. Possibly we will have sense enough to meet at the conference table with the understanding that the era of armaments has ended and the human race must conform its actions to this truth or die. He went on to say, we have already come to a point where safety cannot be assumed by arms alone. Their usefulness becomes concentrated more and more in their characteristics as deterrence than in instruments with which to obtain victory. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, as we persevere in the search for a more secure world, we must do everything we can to let diplomacy triumph. Diplomacy, the most honorable of professions, can bring the most blessed of gifts, the gift of peace. If we succeed, the world will find an excitement and accomplishment in peace beyond that which could ever be imagined through violence and war. I want to leave you today with a message I have often spoken about to the citizens of my own country, especially in times when I felt they were discouraged and unsure. I say it to you with as much hope and heart as I have said it to my own people. You have the right to dream great dreams. You have the right to seek a better world for your people, and all of us have the responsibility to work for that better world. And as caring, peaceful peoples, think what a powerful force for good we could be. Distinguished delegates, let us regain the dream the United Nations once dreamed. Thank you.


Ukraine blocked the Russian's way to Bakhmut. By liberating the settlement of Klesievka in Donetsk, Oblast, the armed forces of Ukraine have created a springboard that would allow the development of upcoming offensive operations. Ilya Yevlash, Press Service Chief for Operational Command East, said this. Now we have gained a springboard for ourselves, which in the future will allow us to continue to develop offensive operations and liberate our land from the invaders, he added. Yevlash explained that, above all, this means controlling the logistic routes through which the Russians supply their forces in Bakhmut. First of all, this is the control of the logistics routes that provide the city of Bakhmut with various types of supplies. This will allow us to advance more easily into enemy lines in the future to deliver more accurate and deeper fire strikes using artillery systems and other weapons, he said. In addition, this exposure of the flanks, in particular the southern flank, will allow us to further move more conveniently into the depths of the enemy's positions and deliver more accurate and deeper strikes using various artillery systems, FPV drones and other available weapons, Yevlash asserted. He reported that battles are now ongoing near the railway track. The railway is very important for the Russians because the range of the supply routes they have is somewhere around 50 to 60 kilometers. Everything that is further away is very difficult to provide with the logistics of the occupation army. Now there are intense fierce battles on this front, we are fighting for every meter of our land. When it is possible to finally inform the public on who controls the railway, we will definitely do so, he said.