Welcome to the Sports Playbook where we discuss solutions to issues that impact sports. I'm your host, Angela Hazelett. Today's guests are Catherine Noor, a principal of Sports Futurists and Beth Pyle, the sport management student and sports writer. Today, we're going to discuss the future of women's sports, generational perspectives. Welcome, Catherine and Beth. Thank you for joining us today on the Sports Playbook. Aloha. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me. My pleasure. Well, I'm really excited because we're representing some different generations and we're going to be talking about the future of women's sports. Let's talk a little bit about opportunities for women in professional sports. It's kind of been slow to go. Women have only been able to play at the professional level, starting back in 1974 with the women's professional football league, pro basketball league came up in 1978 and the WNBA being created in 1996. Although the U.S. women's soccer team has experienced success for some time, the National Women's Soccer League has only been around since 2012. So let's talk about the growth in women's sports and leading to more opportunities, funding and recognition. So, Catherine, do you see this as a vital shift for increased acceptance and appreciation of women's sports? I do. And I think that there's a lot of indications that we are getting there. And I will defer to Beth to provide us with the statistics for that growth. Yeah, so the growth specifically for women's soccer, they just settled an equal pay lawsuit under the terms of agreement the athletes will receive 24 million and a pledge from the Soccer Federation to equalize pay for the men's and women's national team. So this growth you're talking about is really about equity and not necessarily the opportunity to play but the opportunity to play under equal terms and conditions. Catherine, what are your thoughts on this move towards equal pay for women? I think it's everything because I think that fundamentally everyone needs to make a living and if it's unfair and if sponsors and marketers and companies are not backing women's sports in the same way they are men's, it isn't going to have the recognition and it won't have the credibility but if you pay women the same huge amounts as men and just think about it, when men get these huge contracts, it's big news. What would happen if women were on the front page of a newspaper or sports page because they landed some incredible contract? It would create a buzz and that would create an interest in following that woman's career. I'd like to see that happen and I don't know, what do you think, Beth, do you think that's possible? I think it's definitely possible. I mean currently right now we're seeing it a lot with NIL and women making millions of dollars through sponsorships and things and it's sparking so much attention towards their sport, towards their school, towards their brand that they're supporting. I think that women making all of this money that they weren't originally and getting offers for millions of dollars to pay their sport or to receive sponsorships is huge and new and I think it's going to be even more prominent in the next few years. And so NIL is really changing the game, the name image and like this for collegiate athletes, even high school athletes, but at the professional level they have that right to get the sponsorships and get those endorsements so how are we going to leverage those sponsorships and allow that money to be funneled into the leagues, into the teams and down through to the players themselves? Catherine, do you have any thoughts on that? Well, you know, I actually haven't really given that one a lot of thought. How are you going to funnel it? Well, how are we going to get, so Beth brought up an excellent point that women are getting opportunities through using their name, image and likeness and that opportunity for professional women athletes has existed, right? Maybe they haven't been leveraged to the same extent that it could be, but how are we going to get direct those sponsorships? If we're talking about the growth in the future of professional women's sports, how are we going to get those sponsorships to direct their attention towards the professional athletes? I think now we're also even sharing that revenue with collegiate women athletes. It's sort of splitting those funds into different directions now, so Beth, is there enough sponsorship dollars do you think for all of the women athletes at all levels of sport? I certainly hope so. I know that there is a lot of proof and a lot of research being done on return of investments in sponsorships. I'm not sure specifically about individuals, but I know that the LGPA sponsors just gained 400% return on their investments, which is huge. And I know that most brands, there was a study done that showed that in the UK people are more willing to purchase items or work with companies that support women's sports, which I think is really interesting. And I definitely believe that that's true. Any brand that works with a big tournament or specific athletes in general, women's athletes and women's sports are getting a lot more traction and a lot more people in general are just willing to work with those companies and purchase things from those companies. So one thing that I think that we should look at is, I mean, we haven't talked about team sports a bit, but when you're looking at individual sports, let's look at Allison Corpus, who just won $2 million in LPGA US Open. And that was about two weeks ago. What's interesting about that is the prize money was $2 million. And of course, the IRS gets a large amount. Her agent, her manager, her caddy will get their cuts. She may have fees. She's probably expended a lot of costs. So the amount that she gets will be less. However, she did get the right to enter, I think it was five additional LPGA tournaments without qualifying. And she just got second place in one on, I believe it was Sunday. But if you look at the value of that win, the US Open win, it's huge. It's exponential beyond the $2 million because her opportunity to get sponsorships and it was incredible. So the value of that could be 20 times $2 million. So there's definitely an opportunity for women to make money from sponsors. I think one thing we have to consider though is in order to make things equitable, we have to create circumstances that are equitable too. So having stadiums that will in cities and locations where ticket sales will be strong, giving them prime time lots to play and have the media be able to broadcast those games. And then we think about the WNBA and how those women have to play overseas to really either extend their season or even have not even really equitable compensation. But their season is not as nearly as long as the men's team. So Beth, what are your thoughts on creating equity in other ways other than strictly sponsorship dollars? Well, a new thing that just started that's set to start in January of 2024 is a new women's basketball league called Unrivaled. It's the New York Liberties Breonna Stewart, and I want to pronounce this correctly, Nefessa Folier of the Minnesota Lynx are launching a new women's basketball league to give WNBA players the chance to play domestically during the off season rather than playing abroad. And I think that this is a fantastic opportunity. And I really hope that it works out to their full advantage because the men's season, the W, or sorry, the NBA is just so much longer than the women's season. I believe it's over double the amount of games. And these women aren't making the same number of money or the they're not making the same amount as the men are. Their contracts just aren't as lucrative. And so being able to play during their off season and staying with their families and continuing to make money where they are, I think is huge rather than having to go completely out of the country in order to get the same experience almost as the men's league. But you know, if the season for the men's and I think it's 80 something games for the women versus I mean the men versus 30 something games for the women, is that correct? I believe so. Okay, so one question I have is why not increase the number of games for the women, especially if there's greater interest, more sponsorship? Maybe I mean, you know, I don't know why they only have so few games compared to the men, but why not expand that and make it make them equivalent in every way rather than requiring them to supplement their number of games by going overseas? Because if you look at the number of games they're playing overseas versus the number of games that they're going to play domestically, then the question is, is it the same as the men? So why not just expand it? Why do you have to create another league in order to make that equitable? Yeah, I agree. According to the National Research Group, especially when we're looking at viewership and maybe that being a big reason for why there are as many women's games throughout the season as there are men's, I think that this is super important 30% of sports fans in the US say that they're watching more women's sports than they were five years ago. So I think that whether it's this new league or whether the WNBA decides to make their seasons longer, I think that a lot more people will be willing to actually watch a longer women's basketball season, because I'm sure that that's probably the main reasoning behind the amount of women's games lacking versus the amount of men's. And some of the reasons that people are saying that they are watching women's sports a lot more than they were five years ago are because there's more women's sports being broadcasted because they have learned more about the specific females playing in these sports and have now created a bond with them. There's more press and attention around women's sports than there ever have been. And women's sports are being more talked about on social media. Social media is huge for promoting women's sports right now. Yeah, and you know what's interesting about that is that if you put the women's sports on prime time or at a time that people will actually watch, people will watch. I actually had a conversation with a client yesterday about women's sports and that we were talking about the LPGA U.S. Open and I explained that the reason why I watched is because my brother on a Sunday during prime time sports watching time, he texted me that a Hawaii player was in the lead and it was on NBC and it turned it on. Well, it was prime time for sports on Sundays. So I turned it on. Normally I get those texts from him at 6 a.m. or a ridiculous time. But this was actual and they won't be broadcast on a channel that I even have access to. They'll be on some weird satellite channel or something. So anyway, it was interesting in this conversation that I had that the reason why my client watches women's sports is because he said it's more interesting. He said that the women play with more finesse and teamwork than the men. That the men like for example basketball, all they're doing is dunking. The women actually have finesse and teamwork and it's a more interesting game. So that confirmed my suspicions that the women's game is ultimately going to be more interesting and will draw fans to watch on prime time television. It's interesting that a lot of times in women's sports, you notice that the women have this camaraderie and support of one another on the court on the field and that that does definitely change the human interest in those teams. There's also some other leagues that are growing as well. The U.S. women's soccer league has been in existence since 2012. But as of next year, they're going to get a competitor. We're talking about this growth in sports. There's a super league that's being created that's supposed to launch next year. Catherine, you had mentioned the concern for why can't these existing professional leagues extend their season and support the women athletes in that manner.  We have something coming up for basketball, having two leagues, something coming up in soccer, having two different leagues. What is that going to do? Is that going to dilute women's sports by having all these competitors that are in the field? What do you think about that? I don't think it will. I think that there are so many new people to women's sports that everyone's interested. I also think that everyone is different interests. And lots of different sports are throughout different seasons of the year. I think that it'll be spread out enough, hopefully, that everyone will be able to catch enough or just as much as they want to. I also think it's interesting when looking at some of the most followed people on social media, prominently women athletes, there's seven different sports in the top 10 of the most followed women's athletes. And they're not the WNBA or like this isn't your typical men's athletes with football or basketball or soccer. It's so broad. You've got tennis, soccer, cricket, gymnastics, badminton, skateboarding, and UFC are all covered in the top 10 for most followed female athletes, I think, which is really interesting. And I would hope that with the addition of all of these new league that all of those people and all of the different types of sports, I think that women's sports in general have just become so much more popular that I think a lot more people will be interested in seeing new league being built. Katherine, do you think social media is the key for these women to be successful? Read my mind. Okay, so fundamentally sports is entertainment. Okay. And what people want is to see the greatest of all time, the goat. Let's look at the number one that you were talking about, Beth, you're talking about Serena Williams. Yeah, these goats. She's amazing. She's, she has a brand. Okay. And her brand extends far beyond sports. It's expense, spends into fashion, and so much more. And then you talk about in that top tier is Simone Biles, greatest of all times gymnast. She has a brand that's amazing, but her brand is more focused on gymnast and also the Me Too movement and the Larry Nassar incident. So really, it's all about the brand. It's all about social media and and the story that emanates from these athletes. And if you look at like I talked about the US Open and Ellison Corpus, it was, it's very interesting that when you watch any kind of sports on on TV, like any, anything, Olympics, any kind of sport, you see that they do the up close and personal of the athlete and that gets you to understand their brand and to have empathy with them and to get excited and interested in following them. So you have and TikTok is really big in promoting women's sports.  And it's a powerful, it's powerful entertainment. But the stories that are being told that are promoting women are not always stories about them being athletes or them being successful or maybe not successful on it, on and off the court, right? A lot of the stories are these side stories, like you said, the Me Too movement, what happened to Simone Biles and what happened to some of these other athletes, some of the NIL deals are about women and the way they, they look and not necessarily perform. And so there is a big difference currently in how social media is talking about women versus male athletes. And another point to kind of understand is that a lot of these top women who are bringing in most of the money are individual athletes and not team athletes. So that's another factor that we need to consider. Beth, what are your thoughts on the distinction of how women versus men are talked about in, in social media and as far as like revenue earning? I think it's definitely interesting to look at women in social media versus men in social media in general. The content is different. It's a lot more about their personality rather than just their sport. And I don't think that that's necessarily a bad thing. Like one of the points that I pointed out earlier was a main reason people are watching women sports now more than they were five years ago is because they feel a connection to these athletes.  It ranges from everything. And I think it's so important that these athletes are standing up for different things in general, being an activist, being an advocate for all sorts of different things, but especially women's sports. I think that's the one thing that they all are obviously in support of is promoting women's sports and being advocates and really just waiting awareness and helping young girls get into sports and stay in sports. I think is just a main influence and inspiration to how all of these women use social media. Catherine, do you think do you do you anticipate that there's going to be a change in the way media and fans talk about women athletes in the future on a more equitable playing field focusing on performance over personal stories? I think even with men they want to talk about the men's, the children, the wife, the family and I think media understands that viewers really want to know what's going on at home with the men. They don't want to just show them dribbling a ball or in the gym lifting weights. So seeing with women they want to show what their story is and I'm going to go back to LPGA again. Because when they do the up close and personal they show how there's a question in everyone's mind. How did that young woman take up the game of golf and be so serious and started at like six years old? How did they do that? Why did they continue and why are they at 25 years old when the US opened? Well when they talk about how their dad taught them the sport and got them into it that's an interesting story and when you're looking at compare that to men when you look at like what is their back story? Well you know that like they played with their friends you know and that's not that interesting. So I think the women's stories just have that inherent interest and as we get to know these women and women on teams too like women's soccer players women's softball and you've seen that with the Olympics you get to know those team players and you follow them. Once you understand their back story you get hooked and you follow their career. If each of you are going to speculate what the future of women's sports might look like what would you say that might be? What changes might take place? What might stay the same? Advances or maybe lack of advances really? Beth let's start with you. What do you think what do you think the future might look like for women's professional sports? I think there's going to be a lot more prime time women's sports and that kind of include I think that there's going to be eventually a network just all women's sports being broadcasted all the time and when they're not being broadcasted that there's going to be talk shows about them just like there is on ESPN but just women's sports in general if these networks don't start showing more women's sports during prime time. I think that just accessibility in the media especially on television and streaming is going to be the next huge step for women's sports and kind of creating an equal access and engaging new audience. Catherine, same question to you. You know I think it's going to get more advertising dollars infused I think more businesses are going to understand that there's a good return on investment in advertising with women's sports and I don't think it's it's going to be a quick rise but I think it'll be a gradual rise and ultimately in the distant future I think we'll even see women's sports surpassing men because it's arguably more interesting. Those are some interesting perspectives though potential growth in women's sports maybe equity or maybe even rising above men's professional sports lots of things to consider. I think we're going to have to also think about the growth of the grassroots level in order for women to be more competitive at the professional level but I also envision women getting embedded more in coaching and officiating and having representation in front offices. We see a trend towards having women even professional athletes becoming women athletes becoming owners or part owners of professional teams and even men that are professional athletes investing as owners in professional teams and leagues and so you know I see that I think the athletes see where this is heading and that they see this growth and that it is actually a good investment so they're getting it on the ground floor when maybe the price is a little more affordable so I see that more women having access at all levels in the future. So Beth and Catherine thank you so much for your time I really appreciate the conversation today and the insight into the future women's sports and the different generational perspectives. Appreciate our audience for being here today. We'll see you next time on the sports playbook. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do please click the like and subscribe button on YouTube. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Check out our website thinktechawaii.com. Mahalo.


October is gone and November's here. It's incredibly dark and dreary outside but let's talk about the books that I read in October. Welcome back to my channel. I hope you're all good. Today we're going to be doing my October wrap up. I feel like October was a pretty good reading month. I mean I loved the vibe. Spooky, oaky, coaky and creepy. I love reading in October and November. They're probably my favorite months to read and December. I don't know. I just love the vibe of reading at the end of the year. I think particularly the books that I read like mysteries. Mysteries are so good. Horror like Spooky Bex are so good at the end of the year. So I feel like I had a pretty good reading month on the whole. The camera does a good job of hiding it but it is like the most depressing outside that has ever been outside. It's just November 1st today when I'm filming this and like hmm. So if you don't know either way that my wrap ups work, first we go through my reading statistics for the month because I'm obsessed with statistics. I love just going through the statistics. Okay I am obsessed with mustard. I can't believe I just said that out loud. Mustard? Then I chat about every book that I've read. Well I chat about. I say every book that I've read with the rating that I gave it and then we go through the disappointment surprises and hits of the month. So I don't go into depth on every book because pretty much every book here has appeared in a reading vlog on my channel so it would get a bit repetitive. So I only talk about the books where I've got something different to say about them essentially. So let's get straight into the reading statistics. So in October I read 11 books which is pretty good. I read a total pages of 3714 which averages out to 120 pages per day. The average book length was 337 which I think is one of my higher average book lengths of the year so far because I typically read like a few long books and then a few maybe novellas or short books and so 337 I would say is one of my higher book average book lengths of the year so far. My average rating was a 3.86 which I think is almost identical to last month. What was last month? A 3.89 so literally 0.03 lower than last month so pretty similar in terms of the books that I enjoyed and the average time of my TBR was 11 and a half months which I think is pretty the longest I had this year. It's really skewed by Cersei by Madeleine Miller which was one of the oldest books on my TBR. It'd been on my TBR for 44 months. So everyone so we're definitely skewed by that. There was another one on there that had been on there for 22 months and then there's someone there that had been on my TBR for no months so just ones I picked up so averaged out to 11 and a half months. Okay let's get the pie charts out everyone are we excited? In terms of individual ratings I gave two five stars two four point five stars which is pretty good three four stars one three point five star two three stars and one two star. It's been a while since I had a two star I'm not gonna lie to you and that book was originally two point five but I was like you know what it's a two. I had a lot of two stars at the start of this year I think within the first six months of this year I had pretty much the same amount of two stars as I had the whole of last year but then I think you know it's always tricky because I was talking about this I think with my patrons where I had a really tough start to the year and I had lower ratings I think at the start of the year or just more two stars and I don't know was I just picking up more books that I didn't like and I've been luckier with the books I've been picking up the latter half of the year because this has been like my only two star um this latter half of the year or was my mood affecting the ratings that I was giving because like you could read a book one day and it'd be a five star you could read a book another day and be a four star. I don't reckon like you know books can be too far you know skewed depending on mood but it does have an impact and so I just wonder what which one of those it was you know in terms of genre I read two fantasy two horror two mystery two nonfiction one romance and two thriller so a really nice wide array of genres in terms of format I read one via the audiobook four via mixed media which means I had the physical and the audiobook and six just via the physical I've been trying to read much more books just physically again that's how my reading has changed from the two halves of the year whereas at the first half of the year I really needed the audiobook to read a physical book I was struggling to read as much whereas this part of the year I'm finding I'm actually preferring to just read physically so it's just interesting how our reading tastes and habits change depending on the wider context of our lives. In terms of audience I read nine adult and two y a I remember I was filling out my form like my um my spreadsheet and I was like it's a lot of adult it's a lot of adult and even one of those YA I'll talk about it in disappointments I think is new adult I don't think it's categorized right that was something I forgot to mention in the vlog that I did a bit but a few of you are minding me in the comments so yeah not a lot of YA this month. In terms of where the books were from one came from a book box two were from Book of the Month four were gifted to me three were books I'd bought myself and one was from Audible. In terms of series statistics I know we all care about this two were first in series and nine was standalone so I didn't make any progress in series this month but one of those books is first in series I'm not continuing a series so I've only started one new series this month which is okay I've really not started many series this year compared to other years I mean that's not difficult like previous years I was starting like 20 series a year um and it's been much more constrained this year but I would have liked to make some progress in series but the videos actually didn't lend themselves to that and then finally in terms of author status three were debuts three were authors I'd read from before and five were new to me which looking at the stack I don't I guess I didn't think that but yeah really I can't believe that I actually can't believe that oh my god yeah I suppose so yeah a lot of authors I'd never read from before and a lot of debuts as well so really only three debuts imagine the hundred yeah okay I suppose that math wasn't nothing for me at first but that does make sense okay that is all I read in statistics let's just go through all of the books I read this month with their ratings first I read horrid which was 4.5 stars then I read love on the brain which was also 4.5 stars I read wildflower by Drew Barrymore which was three stars true crime story by Joseph Knox which was five stars Cersei by Madeline Miller which was four stars sleep by C.L. Taylor which was three stars forgotten women the writers which was 3.5 stars in my dreams I hold a knife by Ashley Winstead which I gave five stars Bella Donna by Adeline Grace which was two stars Ascienda by Isabel Knaas which was four stars and The Three Dahlia's by Katie Watson which was four stars okay that is all the books let's get into the disappointment of the month so my biggest disappointment of the month was Bella Donna by Adeline Grace I just read this in my cats right not cats halloween pumpkins let's just uh forget about that shall we could you just cut that halloween pumpkins pick my tbr vlog definitely go check that if you haven't yeah lux one of my cats picked Bella Donna now if you watched videos where I was talking about this like when I got it I think maybe I put it on some tbr I don't know but I spoke about this quite a few times before I read it and I was bigging it up like I was like wow this book is going to be my new favorite book and like so in this we're following a young girl who's been orphaned who goes to live with some of her distant relatives there's kind of like a murder mystery going on there it's a very gothic book and our main character cannot die and she has kind of this close relationship with death because death has been intrigued as to why he can't take her soul like she can't die and so it's kind of like a love triangle with her and death and also the stable boy and like I said in the video it's not really a competition I just did not love the writing of this I spoke about how a lot of the plot felt very fragmented it was like half mystery half romance but the two never bled together you know sometimes you read writing advice or watch writing advice online and it's like each scene should serve a purpose and I often believe each scenes should serve multiple purposes because what would happen in this is that the scenes just felt very like isolated from each other and I didn't love the writing at all I just it wasn't for me I felt really bad I was so excited to read this and then it was just very disappointing the writing simultaneously felt a bit um I don't know if simple is the right word I don't know what to be mean listen do you but I want to say juvenile by like she was oh she was very rude weren't ya that's mean there's sexy times in this book there's like sex scenes and like I just I don't know where we draw the line because I've heard some people speak about how sex scenes in a book doesn't necessarily stop a book being YA because you know teenagers do have sex but I don't know also the fact that our main character is 20 I just feel like it's a new adult but I guess publishing doesn't really recognize new adult as a genre really so it's a tricky one it's a tricky one and I but I also don't feel like the writing is new adult I feel like the plot and the writing is more YA so it's a tricky one I don't really know but yeah I was very disappointed with this I was very sad because this was one that I really hyped up I'm sorry to any of you who I made by this book and then I didn't really have any massive disappointments the rest of the month but I would say that my other biggest disappointment was sleep by CL Taylor I read this in my 24 hour reading vlog with pausing the timer whenever I'm not reading I just didn't love this as much as I thought I would I thought this would be a great isolated murder mystery stuck in this cabin fun mystery right very unlike an unwanted guest by sherry lapina which is one of my favorite you know stuck in this hotel cabin kind of thing and there's murders going on right it's basically about murder happening at this isolated scottish inn and our main character is kind of being targeted for she was in a car accident that killed some of her co-workers it wasn't her fault but she is being blamed for it somewhat and blaming herself for it and I just didn't love this firstly I didn't feel like there was enough twists and turns the book is more of a thriller and I was expecting more murder mystery but it's also not very thrilling I just feel like in my memory not a lot happened well here's the tip like it was just like everyone just sitting around being like well been deaf it's pretty awkward you know and one of my biggest problems with this is like if you're gonna be stuck in a snowstorm I don't know if it was snow I think it was wind and rain more so but if you're gonna be stuck in a storm in a in a place I want the house and the weather to feel like another character and this felt very separate from the weather and the landscape and everything like it I just didn't I never envisaged it I don't know I just never fully got into it it wasn't terrible I thought the writing was good but it definitely was disappointing okay surprises of the month let's talk about one of my 4.5 stars of the month which was horrid by Katrina Leno this is like a haunted house book our main character has just moved to her mother's childhood home with her mother and it seems like the house is haunted and this was a surprise to me on just how well the haunting house was done I feel like I've been banned with a lot of haunted house books I've read like three haunted house books this month but previous this is the first book I read this month and previous this I think I've been banned like books would promise to be haunted house books and then it just wouldn't be a haunted house I'm like what am I reading this for whereas Katrina Leno always does our world with a little bit of surrealism a little bit of fabulism a little bit of speculative nature to a book I just say words I don't fully know what all those mean I just know the the vague vibes of those words you are the biggest fraud that I've ever met and I just love Katrina's writing but like this was a surprise to me because it was like okay I believe I have believed strongly for ages that I could love a haunted house book but this proved it to me because this was so good the only reason this wasn't a five-star is the ending is like come on girl like I am all for uh open ending an unsatisfying ending but this was too unsatisfying this was perfect for to be the first book I read in October because the vibes and this like the falling leaves the autumn like it's still you can still have great vibes reading this in November so I would 100 recommend picking this up if you're interested in it and then my other surprise of the month was the acienda bite is about to nurse another another haunted house book probably I'm just surprised by how much I love haunted houses so in this our main character has just married for stability it becomes clear that the house that she has moved into and is now alone in may be haunted by her husband's ex-wife who seems very angry and she recruits a priest who yeah there may or may not be a romancer yeah who tries to help her cleanse the property I just thought this was a great debut I loved the writing in this the writing in this is some of the best writing I've read in a while from a debut where the imagery in this was so good and I was talking about how you're in the book the characters are talking about how the house feels so lush and overpowering and claustrophobic and I feel like the writing really mirrored that I had this lush imagery this like full overwhelming writing that I just thought was it just mirrored each other so well I really liked the slave and romance in this you know I read it straight off to belladonna and like I feel like the two opposed one another in how in how it should be done and you know whereas horrid was a YA this was adult oh my god it's raining so heavily outside can you hear that spooky anyways this was adult and so it really went there and this had so much haunted houseness like it was like not just a few see the horrid I feel like just had like maybe four main moments where the house was haunted this had so many events where things would go wrong and stuff would happen and I just I just thought it was really good it just wasn't quite a five star but I do think this really knocked it out of the park for a debut and finally we are on to the hits of the month now first you will have seen in all the books I mentioned I did give in my dreams I hold a knife five stars I'm not gonna say anything more about it this will be in this weekend's vlog it will be the first book in the vlog so you just got to tune into the vlog if you want to hear what I thought about it I'm not gonna say anything otherwise it spoils the vlog and I don't want to do that a 4.5 star that I did have was love on the brain by Ali Hazelward I did really like this listen Ali Hazelward is my favorite romance author I know she does the same thing every time I'm as annoyed at her as you at the big man tiny woman thing the cover for love theoretically that just came out I guess we're gonna be getting the same thing I just ask Ali please do something different like we don't need it but I love her anyway apparently this is about two co-workers who she believed that he hated her when they were a school together and now they have to lead this NASA program together the first half of this I think I preferred to love hypothesis I loved the slow burn of their romance and her thinking that he hates her but him just loving her so much there's like uncontrollable also she runs a Twitter account like a famous Twitter account that's anonymous and she has this guy that she messaged who she doesn't know who he is and um he's messaging her about this girl that he loves and like saying all the stuff that he loves about her and it's him but she doesn't know that that gets me but the second half I didn't love quite as much but I still it still does something to me Ali Hazelwood still knows how to how to push my bad ends I really did like this and I'm very excited for her next book to come out next year and I just seemed to rate all of her books high even if she does continue to burn me with the massive man tiny woman thing like you can just afford to not do it once Ali don't be scared we'll still read the book and then finally my last hit of the month was true crime story by Joseph Knox so this is a mixed media book primarily interviews about this girl who went missing many years ago and on a radar is the author so Joseph Knox is a character in the book it's getting weird it reminds me kind of like a house of leaves where there's like almost like a metanus to it going on throughout the book so Joseph Knox is the author of the book and he talks to us throughout it like it opens up with a letter from Penguin Randonhouse talking about how him them and Joseph Knox are severing ties after this book has been out basically Joseph's friend did a lot of research this book she conducted the interviews but then she was murdered as well so it's him trying to kind of collate the book after her death and it's a lot of interviews of the different characters in this girl's life who went missing talking about their perspectives and you pretty much know one of them you know knows more than what they're letting on and you're trying to figure out who that is and I really loved this I would recommend getting the audiobook the audiobook is full cast but I think because there are some visual elements in this like there's pictures and stuff I would recommend reading it physically and audibly that I often don't recommend that because obviously that's like double the book but I think this book really benefits from having both both formats of media I just love this this is my kind of thing right like a mixed media murder mystery like we kind of always knew it was gonna be five stars I just loved it and I found the ending really shocking I thought the ending built up really well and I just love those meta elements where like I almost believed that this was the second edition of the book and like the first editions of controversies that had arisen from it had actually happened in real life and I was like hang on like what is going on here so I really really loved this I would recommend picking it up I think it is just my kind of thing right mixed media murder mystery you can't really go wrong so there we have it that is my reading wrap up for October I hope you enjoyed this video let me know how you're reading when I would love to hear your statistics any of your disappointment surprises and hits of the month I had a pretty good reading month in October but November and December are about to be like off the charts right everyone get excited I love end of year content even January like I've already got all of January planned end of year content and beginning of your content just they get me so excited so there's a lot of exciting stuff coming in November and December in terms of reading thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you very soon in another video bye


What's up guys, takedown here with another hockey card video for you, well for me too because I enjoy doing it, I enjoy the collecting, but today I am opening up, I have four packs of the Opiechki 2017-2018 cards, I am hoping to get another Conor McDavid card, I haven't had one since, I think it'd be since the Tim Hortons card, since the first video as I had of hockey cards on the channel, really want one of his, Jaeger would be cool because I like Jaeger, all about senders I only have three cards of Opiechki that I got I think in the last video or the one before that maybe I got one, but let's just get right into it and as always how do you use my knife to get them open because I for some reason can't get the Opiechki packs open, but let's just get right into it and as always I'm going to try my best to pronounce them, I know there's going to be a lot of screw-ups and you guys are going to call me on it because you guys always do, but I respect that, but I'm collecting for myself and to me I'm trying my best, so let's just get right into it, Oliver Ekman Larson, Henrik Lundquist Quivist, I know I messed that one up, not intentionally, Tanner Pearson, oh I'm going to pronounce this one on Jory Leterra, it's probably Yori, probably pronounce it with a name, oh I don't mind that carry, Matthew Perrioltz, I think I have his for the upper deck series one, I think I got that not too long ago, Team Checklist Los Angeles Kings, LA Kings, which is one of the teams I actually like and I like collecting of, there's actually a few, I might mention that in another video, just comment down below if you want me to mention that, Mats Dumba and Vlad Slav Namzakova, really tried my best with that one, pack number two, see I just can't get them open, I never can get these packs open, hoping to get some rookies too, I'm enjoying the rookies I've been getting, oh I feel, yeah I think there might be a mini in here, Jacob Vorak Mike Fisher, that's actually one I would like keeping that for my personal collection, I got a mini Ottawa senders, Kyle Turris, can't really see, there we go, so I got a mini Ottawa senators, I honestly wasn't expecting that, would it like somebody else, honestly I'm not a Kyle Turris fan, I'm an Ottawa Senators fan, but I don't really like Kyle Turris, I like who we gots, Matt Duchain, I actually like this card a lot too, this is a Retro Max Nomi, I might be pronouncing his last name wrong, gonna look up the value and like always I'm gonna put, if I can find the value, sometimes I say I will and I don't, that's because I couldn't find the value, if I can find the value of that card or anything else that's significant in these packs I will put in the comments below, Kevin, Shaten Kierke, or Kirk, I said Kierke in there, Brian, Gianta, I'm really trying my best, oh I thought that was a flaw there, Eric, Hala, the E it looked like it was smudged, that was gonna be P, Brett, Richie, Richie, pack number two, I actually had a black foil mini card in the last packs I think, I didn't acknowledge it because I didn't really know what it was, not bad, Keri, Lynn, Taunton, I may have butchered that one too, Nekita, whoa there's no R there, Nekita, Shoresh, skip over that one, sorry, Calvin Pickard, Travis, ooh, I see you kind of like the, what they do with their packs, Travis, I got a mini for Tuka Rask, just the regular minis, so I like the minis, which means I got a Brandon Sad for the retro card, enjoying these retro cards, Calvin Dahan, and I'm trying not to butcher these names, Matt Zaken, Zuckarello, and I got one pack left, come on Conor McDavid, I feel, I think there's a mini in here too because I can feel it, Adam Lawry, Damon Severson, Shay Weber, that's a nice one for me, I got a mini for Thomas Tatar, can you see that, little blurry on the blurry side, so I got three minis, I like that, I got three retros, Nekita, that's the one I couldn't pronounce a minute ago, I just got the B's card, now I got his retro, so I couldn't pronounce that one either, John Moore, Oliver, wow, George Strand, I want to say the B's silence, comment down below if the B is silence, Anthony, Mantha, and that is all we have for the 2017-2018 Opiechki cards, honestly, I love the retro cards, the three retro cards I have got, this one's my favorite, put him on the Ottawa Senders in NHL 18, oh that could have been bad, Shay Weber, Mike Fisher, LA Kings card, and of course the three minis, so that means in total I have four minis, one's the Black Foil one, which probably is the top and it's the Panthers one, but anyways I'm going to leave this video here, hope you guys did enjoy, I was hoping to do an MVP upper deck card opening for you guys, but where I get my cards is sold out right now, so unless they get more in soon, I will do it then, but anyways I will leave this video here and I will see you guys in the next one, peace.


Always wanted to bench that you're gonna get one our time here at the Airbnb and Christchurch is over Bags are packed. I know there's a lot of traffic right here right now It doesn't seem very outdoor-esque, but trust me not too far away. It's about to get very very real cool little place here Christchurch I'm loving it go for today get a great meat pie. That's been high up on the list here in Christchurch Here in New Zealand things to do. You got to experience a good meat pie So hopefully we'll find one along the way and then just get to our destination It's clear skies right here, but our buddy that we're going with Todd. He's saying that it is like mega pouring over there We're going quite a long ways five or six hours To a different part of the island. So it's really rainy over there I think similar to like Hawaii where there's like different climates in different parts of the island But our plan is we're gonna go there first. That's our best chance at getting a tar or a shammy JT really he's he's been wanting to do this for many many years and Really wants a tar badly and to get one with a bow. It's a huge challenge I just monstrous challenge. That is our best chance is to go to that part of the island And especially because it's gonna be raining even more as the week goes on brutal y'all brutal conditions This is what I'm wearing in. This is my axis hybrid jacket It's kind of like softshell, but we're probably gonna be in rain gear for it's all over it's just gonna get nasty Get round nasty and then we'll come back here towards this way this part of the island as the week goes on And we'll have more of a chance for other species like fallow deer and things like that Ever loaded down a Subaru to that amount. I don't think so. We gotta figure out Just put it on top That thing has traveled Thousands of miles Take your doinkr off We'll put this here so it doesn't break the wind out. I helped load it. I promise. I'm not just standing here filming being that guy So apparently they don't have no dryers in New Zealand or it's not very common So people just be driving them out out in the winds We're out on a farm right now. We're we're dropping our stuff off at a at a friend's house leaving all the computers and bags and all that good stuff One thing that's just crazy about New Zealand I've seen so far Well number one the trees just in general like everywhere you look massive Megalodon trees, I guess it's just the right conditions for for growth here, but then they they have these hedges For days and the hedges are all just nicely trimmed everywhere you go Just out in the farm side. It's like everywhere is a nice park The grass is green gorgeous It's so majestic I'm not a total world traveler, but I think I can pretty much confirm that this is one of the most beautiful countries on the planet JT is testing an air rigger Looking okay Like this is the right spot This is the supreme right here Be JT got the supreme. This is like an everything which is a potato steak bacon bacon So I kind of kind of relayed this to a kalachi I've officially experienced the greatness they do Delicious thank you. Have a good day. Possibly was the best thing we will eat all week In the famous town of Sheffield And just around the corner is our mountains You can see him over there. That's where we're going. So this could be the last great thing I eat before we start eating mountain houses. I don't know, you know, what's everywhere is a finch A daggone finch will live anywhere in the world I feel like we're on a different planet Mr. Lark That's we're about that's a drive on the left on the left hand side of the road Don't forget that blinkers on the right hand side. Yeah, get her windshield wipers here Deal We're good except it's pouring down cats and dogs That backup beeper rolling Everybody's got snorkels here. Oh, yeah, the blinker being on the wrong side is so weird Low traffic situation. Which way are we going now?  I don't know how you would even navigate through that Looks dark deep in there Like trolls will be living in there We have arrived at our home for the night in this fern gully now. We started out It was dry and there was some mountains and things like that Then we went through a pass then it started getting like clouds low to the ground and now We are just in the I guess you call this a temperate forest close to the ocean It's crazy like the forest just goes right to the ocean and there's these beautiful huge river rocks everywhere Giant trees ferns. It's majestic looking. There's no question. And then this building right here just out in the forest There's a there's a glacier nearby kind of a tourist area where you can go view glaciers And there's just this little guest cabin out here in the woods later on we're gonna be staying in what's called a hut and Those are like government set up Stations that sleep like 20 people so you can literally go out do hiking Enjoy the outdoors and just just stay in these places that they built for you everywhere. You look there's something just growing There's not a branch a vine that doesn't have something else growing on top of it I can't imagine The kind of of animals and the thickness of The forest like things that are gonna be living in here It's gonna be a challenge filming this y'all challenge physically. Just look at this Imagine trouncing through this right here after an animal.   They're going to stay away But the adventure is about to begin. I just heard first thing off the bat We're gonna be crossing a river or creek this morning And let me just tell you that water is coming off a glacier is going to be bitterly biting nasty cold y'all So we're just getting our gear prepared before the Sun comes up and then we're gonna head out and it's about to get real The bridge washed out Wow, so this is like a temporary bridge bridge Just to tell you how much water it was over this bridge That's wild some local head is dump truck. He was cutting people across This is not fake behind me on Waterfalls up in the mountains Fern gully it looks like all sorts of wildlife birds things.  It's already chilly out here. We have to cross with our big packs That's how we're starting this thing off y'all Todd tells who you are and What you're about Well, I'm Todd Howard originally from New Zealand born and raised here Hunting is my passion been living in Canada the last four years so Time to get home into a little hunting for ourselves Hang up the guiding boots and yeah Get some lead down range and a few time shemmy hopefully this week Tell me what you really think about me carrying this bow instead of rough. Oh Yeah, we'll see you'll see after the first day that what you should be going out there and field with I'm pretty Look at you Ready to go Todd and I've never seen a man with crocs With glories beard and a rifle like that ready Punished right now these flies man. What are these called sand flies sand flies?   Oh It's really close where I have to like almost get down in my underwear, but I don't think I do I just watch Todd cross I think I can cross With just my pants rolled up, so Here we go, baby. Oh My god, that's cold. That's pretty cool. It feels good though But that is anything that's showing what is to come This is gonna be the most incredible thing that we've ever done, so Y'all make sure to stay tuned. We'll see you