What lies ahead for the narcissist? What do they have in store for them? What awaits them? Narcissists can be very grandiose. They can be very impressive and imposing in appearance and style. They can be arrogant and audacious. They can be very entitled. They can reveal an exaggerated sense of their own importance and abilities. Which leads them to believe that they are inherently deserving of privileges and special treatment. And when you first meet them, you may believe in this illusion. You may validate their false self. But as time goes by, you begin to realize that it's all a lie. They're not as great as they claim to be. They're just exaggerating. They're trying to impress you. Because not only does it get them what they want, but it also gives them supply. It makes them feel special and important. It makes them feel desirable and attractive. But this only works as long as people believe in the illusion. As long as people validate their false self, once you stop believing in it, it all falls apart. They can no longer control you or make you do what they want. And they will immediately sense it. They will notice that you no longer believe in the illusion. They will notice that you no longer validate their false self. And that is when they will discard you. That is when they will no longer want anything to do with you. Because the narcissist does not want to live in reality. They only want the fantasy. They want to live in this imaginary world where they are everything they wish they could be.  They still want to be this larger-than-life character. They still want to have it all. But to manifest any of that, you first have to accept that you don't have it. While narcissists just want to be that right now, without putting in any of the work, they just want to fast forward to the part where they get reactions of admiration and desire from other people. Because there is no real meaning or purpose to anything they do. All they care about is how people respond to it. Which is why they can never be happy. Because they focus so much on other people's reactions. And although many people may fall for the illusion, as soon as one person doesn't, it hits them like a ton of bricks. It makes them forget about everyone who did support them.  Because in that moment, it's like life or death for the narcissist. Their feelings about themselves don't come from within. Which means that they cannot experience true happiness. They can only experience emotions based on how they think other people think of them. Many YouTubers who talk about this may say that what lies ahead for the narcissist is nothing but difficulties and problems. And while there may be some truth to this, I would like to take it even deeper. There are times when it seems like the narcissist is happy. There are times when it seems like they're having a good time. But the truth is that none of it is even real. Because their experiences are not generated from within, they can't be generated from within. Because even they're not real, they created a false self which needs to be propped up by other people. So they experience life through the lens of how other people view them. Rather than how they view themselves. Which means that they're not really living. They're operating on a very low consciousness. They're not really experiencing life. What lies ahead for the narcissist? Narcissists experience conflict with almost everyone they deal with. There's always something that needs to be resolved. Nothing ever goes smoothly. They deceive everyone they meet. They lie to them. And at some point people figure them out. They realize what they're doing. And then they want nothing to do with them. Because they realize they've just been conned. They realize they've been taken advantage of.  They want to take back control over their own lives. By no longer being involved with them. So as time goes by people will abandon the narcissist. They won't want anything to do with them. The narcissist may go through a period of isolation. They may be left alone. Or they may find an enabler. They may find someone who gives them the means to continue their behavior. Or this person may be too afraid to leave. Because that's usually what they end up with. People who don't really want to be around them. But they're afraid to leave. They're afraid of what the narcissist might do if they try to escape. But the narcissist never really finds anyone who really loves or respects them. It's either people who are too afraid to leave. Or people who are just using them. People who just want them for money or sex. The narcissist created a false self. Because they wanted to feel valued and respected. When that was the very thing that stopped them from ever receiving that. Because how can anyone ever value or respect a corn artist? Someone who lies to you. Someone who intentionally tries to deceive you. So when the end all they end up with are people who are too afraid to leave. Or people who are just as fake as them. Because anyone who really loves and values themselves is not going to want to deal with them. They're not going to put themselves in a position to be disrespected. Because that's all the narcissist is going to do. They don't value themselves. So they cannot value you. Which is why the best thing you can do is just to leave them alone. And walk away. And focus on your own life. I'm not going to say that all that lies ahead for the narcissist is misery and pain. Maybe there will be times where they actually feel like they're happy. But it isn't real. It's all a facade. It's an outward appearance that is maintained to conceal a less pleasant or credible reality. They're just doing everything they can to escape how they really feel. Which is actually the very thing that would set them free. Narcissists are broken damaged people who will do anything to appear whole and complete. When the irony is that the first step to them being that which they seek is to confront the fact that they are broken. If they would just do that, they would be fine. But they don't. Because it's too painful for them to deal with. They have too much pride and arrogance. They're too lazy. They don't want to do the work. And they don't think that they should have to. But because of that, it greatly affects what lies ahead for them. Because even if they think they're having a good time without you, it isn't even real. Their happiness is determined by how they think other people see them. It's not based on how they feel about themselves. Because they don't self reflect or look within. They live from the outside in rather than the inside out. Which means that all they can experience are the other people's realities. Which is why that identity is just a concoction of different people that they have seen in magazines or on TV. Because they're not really living. They're not really alive. They're just imitations. It's like a simulation of life because they're not connected to reality. Reality to a narcissist is like sunlight to a vampire. What lies ahead for the narcissist? What do they have in store for them? What awaits them? What lies ahead for the narcissist? Is similar to what they have already seen in their lives. More problems and difficulties. More stressful situations which they struggle to deal with. And while it may seem like there are moments of happiness or peace, it isn't real. The narcissist idea of having fun is to make other people envious or jealous of them. That's what gives them satisfaction because they cannot experience anything they have directly. It doesn't do anything for them. They can only experience it vicariously for other people. Which is why they have to make you envious or jealous. They have to make you feel like you're missing out. Which then makes them feel like they have something. They look at it like, if you want it, then they must have something great. But they cannot experience that directly on their own. They can only experience happiness and satisfaction based on their real or imagined perceptions of other people's envy or jealousy. They live vicariously for other people. They live in a way that is experiencing their imagination. Through the feelings or actions of other people. Through imaginative or sympathetic participation and the experiences of them. Other people are merely mirrors. They reflect something back to the narcissist. Which is why there's never any real human connection. You never feel like you're understood by them. And you have difficulty understanding them. A person who is detached from self will be detached from other people. But they watch how other people interact. And they mirror their behavior. That's how they create the illusion. But really, nothing good lies ahead for the narcissist. If it looks good, it isn't real. Thank you for watching. I hope this video resonates with you. Please like, comment, share and subscribe. If you would like to donate, my PayPal link is in the video description. Coach Linkwise. You can email me at coaching.narchsurvivor.co.uk. Thank you for watching and I'll talk to you soon.


Hey, space is filling up fast in our virtual Wing Chun training system I have a lot of really good feedback from our students and I printed them out here So I'm gonna read them to you. Ted G says it worked I was training in the videos in the course the ones where you use the action camera and recorded guy punching you I got my friend to punch me immediately. I used the time. That technique against him I couldn't believe how fast my reflexes were. I'm loving it. And then Robert Leslie R said see for David You're the man. Love it, bro. You're the man. We did it. This is perfect This is the first and best Virtual Wing Chun training in the world. Congratulations. I am proud to be part of it and have you as my seafood. All right Thank you. And Billy C says this is absolutely genius They were revolutionized the way everybody learns Wing Chun and even martial arts in the world. Well, yeah, wouldn't that be cool? That's awesome. So Stephen W says there's no classes near me and I want to train a minute This is exactly what I needed. Thanks, David. You're awesome. Thank you. You're welcome and Robert F says I can't believe why no one ever thought about this before Virtual Wing Chun is the coolest martial arts course I've ever seen. All right, cool And Dan T says this is fun. It's like a video game I joined VWC yesterday and I tried practicing with the randomized attack videos And this is the best way to learn Wing Chun and I'll be practicing more. Okay? Well keep practicing. Okay, so I'm getting more and more awesome feedback like that every day So you want to become part of this course and you don't want to be left behind You want to join our virtual Wing Chun family? Then go ahead and sign up for the course right now and we'll see you in the course and start training virtually


guys and happy 2023 happy new year man the first blog of 2023 I don't know if you're gonna be seeing this or a like what's on my iPhone it'll probably be this video because I'll be excited to edit it I have had this what's on my iPhone video for the longest time and I was using it as a just in case I didn't have a vlog miss video I was kind of using it as a just in case cuz like I always have those videos and like one of my most top performing videos was one of those so anyway guess where I'm going I'm going to cycle bar it is a Beyonce versus Bieber ride or I don't know I just love Ethan and I like the type of music so I'm going to this one cycle bar which regarding is so much closer it only takes me about like 20 25 minutes to get there which is like amazing unlike fighting the I4 traffic to get to winter park so that's where I'm headed now it feels so good to vlog again and the fact that I completed vlogmas like true vlogmas just makes me so happy I've never actually done true vlogmas before it's always been you know some videos were like what up my Christmas wish list or some type of tag as like fillers but no I legit picked up the camera like this and vlog so I'm proud of myself for doing that I wanted a big break from filming which I got because I was kind of burned out on the vlogging the editing just everything like that I was gonna try to get a video up yesterday the what's on my iPhone one I was gonna post that one yesterday but turns out we got this like huge like packet about the brain and spinal cord and I'm like I want to do that right now and finish up my medical terminology book I had like one thing to finish up and then a whole like huge packet to do and I wanted to get that done because I'm a really busy weekend that's why like we're vlogging this weekend because I'm actually doing something so first it's cycle bar obviously and then we're going to get ready and get a glam but not really not full glam but I might curl the hair though because I'd like to it's fun yeah just because I want to but we're celebrating my friend's birthday so we're going to this place called Bosphorus it's like a Turkish cuisine and it's really nice and then we're going to this place called the wine room and you guys have seen the wine room before on my channel so it's gonna be super fun and yeah that's what the plan is today and then tomorrow we're looking for furniture I think for the outside so I don't really know like what all that's gonna entail but you know this is gonna be a fun filled vlog with fun adventures and doing things and I'm actually just listening to Gretchen Garrity's podcast and I love Gretchen Garrity you know me because she's so positive and she just like puts me in a more like positive mindset she's talking about the lucky girl syndrome and honestly I feel like I have that like in all aspects of my life except for like the love life I have not been so lucky but that's only one little entity and that's something that I really like you can't control the other person but other things like like where my life is going my career my family it's just like I am so lucky and so grateful my friends like everyone I have in my life and stuff it's just I feel like I do have the lucky girl syndrome yeah I'm looking forward to the future and where life takes me and I'm kind of like going on a tangent and I need to pass this car so I'm gonna cut the clip here okay so the ride went so well I got my Starbucks because it's just a thing and I still have like money from the gift card I always have to justify it because like I don't know but I guess the cheapest order I can like it's just iced coffee with like almond milk and some vanilla it's the economical route but no it's like my favorite too because it's not like too sugary and I don't know anyway gonna run this some errands now I'm gonna go to the grocery store real quick and I have to pick up a prescription for like Sherry's blood thinners so yeah got the goods just my salad materials and celery cuz we didn't have any and you guys know made the celery also too I'm using my reusable bags I think that it's really important so this isn't like a New Year's resolution because I've been using reusable bags for a while but I encourage you to make that goal too okay so now I'm going to just get ready and everything is falling it is about 2 17 or 2 18 I have to be at like the restaurant near 5 30 like that's the time so yeah just gonna get ready did not know what I was going to wear and typically I always like know what I'm gonna wear to certain things like oh I have this outfit for this specific thing but I didn't have that this time I'll show you guys once I'm like already and everything but as you can see I chose to wear this sweater it's supposed to get kind of like cold so that's why I'm just like wearing this like light sweater and then we're all gonna wear like our Virgo Capricorn astrological sign necklaces which I think is gonna be kind of fun guys it's just one of those days where like I think it's like nearing my period week but I am just like not I just feel like lazy today I think it's because I want to cycle park to be honest I'm just like oh my gosh I do not want to do anything I just want to like sit at home and sleep but it's okay I know like once I get to wherever I'm going it's like oh it's fine but like leading up to that I'm just like I don't know it's like that with like a lot of things like I was like that today with cycle bar I was like oh my gosh why did I sign up for this I am so tired but I ended up going and having a really good time obviously great workout good full-body workout yeah it's always like the anticipation to like something I'm just like oh my gosh but then you're feeling good you're with fun people it's always like fine it always ends up being fine I might do a time-offs at the hair again I'm not sure it's just kind of repetitive like I do the same exact thing if you want to see like my everyday makeup routine and stuff I will link it down below I did one for a vlog miss where like I show everything and then I have all the products linked which I can link also to in the description box of this video if you want to check it out but it's kind of repetitive so that's why I'm like I'm like gonna bore you guys with a another time-lapse also to my face is breaking out so bad and I just I think it's also due to my period coming up but you know it's one of those things so I am going to listen to a YouTube video I do this and yes I'll see you when I'm done okay so this is the final outfit it took me forever to like get this thing together cuz like I just didn't know normally I always have a plan about what I'm gonna wear to certain things but this one I didn't maybe that's why my mood about this is like oh my goodness I don't know and like sluggish because I didn't know what I was gonna wear yeah I think that's it because now I feel good and we're ready these shoes are honestly falling apart but I'm wearing them because they just look good and I need something comfortable because I always commit biological suicide that's the wrong meaning of the word I just like using it when I say I wear like heels because I think it's cute but then we end up walking like five miles and like my feet are literally dead get blisters that don't heal after like seven days so I just like tortured myself also to never wear heels try to make a guy like you because it doesn't work I've tried doesn't work so save your feet the trouble of like looking cute and trying to impress someone because it doesn't work and all you end up doing is hurting yourself and then the rest of the day you're just like why and you just focus on the feet so I'm wearing the flats because we're probably gonna like walk a lot so and then the sweater because it's supposed to get to like 60s in the 60s or maybe 50s or whatever also to I don't know if you guys noticed but back there there's nothing because well frankly let me just take this off because when I do like outfits and stuff like showing you guys I don't want a bunch of stuff like in the background like that's not the goal and since I'm waiting to get I'm waiting to get my furniture because I don't have the budget right now like it's just wouldn't be smart for me to do so I pretty much moved everything over here because I don't have a nice stand either so I'm gonna be like set my stuff here and then plug my phone in and like set it here and everything oh my gosh see I already like threw a shoe like these are not good but it's okay that's another thing I have like no shoes but I do have that stuff it just boxes and then this stuff we still have to go over I mean go through my parents but at least like all the clutter and stuff is like not in the view so it looks a lot cleaner when I do outfit ideas and like trying on things and ticktocks and whatever I don't want like a bunch of stuff in the shot I also have this angle as well that I can like use I just need to move the trash can which is not a big deal so yeah over I love my room it's just still a work in progress also too I'm carrying this bag because it's cute and I would wear the belt bag cuz it's like super convenient but I don't know I just want to be like casual dressy I don't know if that makes sense I'm not really good at casual dressy as you can see and it took me like two hours to like get this as an outfit because it was just like so hard but yeah casual dressy is not my thing I'm like either good dressy dressy or lounge wear dressy okay so we made it to boss first this is where we're eating looks pretty cute Anna got a sauteed eggplant then what'd you get for a day girl hummus and baba ghanoush that's such a fun word and then I got this you know no warrant it's so good the waiter like recommended it and I'm like she did a really good job how was yours you know my usual just a taco hard shell with the meat the next day okay so now we're headed to Ikea we're gonna do some like furniture shopping so I'm gonna take you guys along with me on that this is the fit I'm gonna also wear my like belt bag but it's just like cute casual and you know good for like Erin running I did like a light makeup look like I literally just put on really like light makeup just because why not it's kind of fun and my face has been breaking out so bad and I don't know what it is I think I need a new beauty blender so when we if we go to the Millennium all like I'm gonna probably hit up Sephora to get a new one because I've had I just realized it's kind of gross I've had my beauty blender like for a while like last October don't judge guys but the thing is I rarely wear makeup like during the week like I never wear makeup that beauty blender has been used every day but like you know bacteria and stuff so I'm going to try to get a new beauty blender when I'm out and about today so Valar and I are twinning we are so whatever denim shirts on yep dark pants dark pants shoes dark shoes well I like shoes and Sherry's sport her gray I know I'm not gonna show you oh my goodness she's not get the memo that there was a denim shirt required with black but if we had another one but I don't know where I would find another one because I know exactly so I don't know yeah guess I just left out some black on we have black one now I have black on all right the ladies and I are headed into Ashley home store furniture so we'll see what we end up getting here things sparks are curiosity it's so nice in here they have so much furniture here guys it's crazy all right we found a chair that looks and feels pretty good we don't know if we you go with it but it's this one very sleek simple comfortable okay so that was super successful we ended up going with those black chairs that I just showed you guys so yeah they're gonna get delivered pretty soon and we're gonna have like better chairs because our older chairs are kind of like falling apart because they're old so yeah it was very successful next up we are here at rooms to go to look for outdoor furniture for a little patio this furniture store is also like so big but right now we're heading up to the patio furniture area just because this is what we're looking for obviously so we found one that was kind of why is this like cool gray here different fabric choices there you also like this one I think we've landed on a little something okay so we ended up getting the one that you just saw with like the blue we didn't get it but we're almost about the reason why we're not getting against yes okay so now we're an idea and we're looking for like a little place for our stop and drop so we can put like stuff that we keep downstairs somewhere like here one little location guys this might be an unpopular opinion but I do not like that here it takes forever to walk through this place and even though it's like cute to like see the furniture and stuff I'm over here like I don't know it just takes forever so I don't know it's that just me so we're in the lighting section so I have to always say Quasl saying ooh this lighting though and lastly I think we're going to be eating at Cheesecake Factory hopefully they don't have a super super long wait keeping our fingers crossed as Sherry says all right so we got our bread yeah you can have the rest Sherry's having that whole thing over there and then I'll have this but we got our bread so I got my pasta dish and Sherry got chicken isn't that like a chicken and pasta thing it's perfect thank you and then Valerie got her fillet with green beans and some potatoes over there looks really good Sherry show us your s'mores cheesecake look at that so crazy


Doctors have seen it in pianists, tailors, and assembly line workers, but never before in someone whose repetitive action consisted only of saying prayers. The doctors appear to have been surprised and possibly a bit delighted. They bestowed upon this condition the name... Praying-induced oromandibular dystonia. Oh, please say it one more time. Praying-induced oromandibular dystonia.


The University of Colorado has developed a unique program called Leadership for Innovative Team Science, Lists, to help senior CTS researchers develop their leadership skills. Lists provides participants with the opportunity to learn about topics such as organizational behavior, communication, negotiation, and conflict resolution. Participants also gain insight into how to lead interdisciplinary teams and navigate the complexities of the academic environment. Overall, the program helps senior CTS researchers become more effective leaders who can better manage their teams and foster collaboration across disciplines. This article was authored by an M Libby, David H. Hingbar, Catherine A. Neering, and others.


Hi everybody. Welcome. Welcome to the Spring Fever Garden forums where we connect you, the gardeners, with the experts at North Dakota State University. And my name is Tom Cobb. I'm an extension horticulturist in the Department of Plant Sciences. Tonight is the third of our four Spring Fever forums. And tonight our theme is biology and technology. So let's get started. Now last week we got acquainted with monarch butterflies. And tonight we can learn how to participate in a project to monitor for monarchs in our gardens. And here to share with us with her expertise is Dr. Janet Knoedl. Jan is the professor and extension entomologist at North Dakota State University. And for 25 years she has provided statewide leadership for extension entomology and the integrated pest management program. Jan studies pollinators, including bees, surfid flies and butterflies in gardens and field crops. She works in collaboration with Dr. Esther McGinnis, who's our next speaker, by the way. So let's get started. And Jan, welcome to the forums. Thank you very much for the introduction. And I'd like to acknowledge my collaborators first, Patrick Bozé, my research specialist, Dr. Esther McGinnis, in the issue of extension horticulturists, and April Johnson, extension pollinator technician that you met last week. So monarch butterflies, they belong in the family Nymphalidae, and this family is characterized by having four walking legs, as you can see in the picture here. And the first pair of legs is reduced dramatically and are used for cleaning the eyes and also the antenna and tasting flowers. And this milkweed family Nymphalidae has many different groups, and the monarch belongs in the brush-footed butterfly group. And it happens to be the only species we have in this group in North Dakota. Occasionally, we may get a clean butterfly coming up from the south, but it's very, very unusual in North Dakota. Another characteristic is when they're at rest, the antenna is turned down. So you can see here for the monarch antenna. And also, when they're flying, they tend to fly rapidly and then glide for a long time, and they'll kind of look like a V. Their wings will be turned up into a V-shape. And so this is the only species in the brush-footed butterflies in North Dakota. There's mimicry in this group, and this is done with the viceroy. And as you know, the monarch has the bright orange and black markings on the wings, which indicate that it's toxic to predators. And the male has the black spots on the hind wings, and you can identify the viceroy from the monarch by this line on the hind wings. So they do look quite a bit alike. I find the viceroy a little bit smaller. And the previous speaker talked about butterfly gardening more. And again, locations, very important. You want a nice, sunny, sheltered location. Then you want to provide flowers and sources for the caterpillar, which is milkweed in the monarch, you know, all season long. Then shelter them from the wind with either brushes, your house or other structures provide water. And of course, we need pesticide-free gardens. So the life cycle of the monarch, it's one generation takes about 30 days. If we start with the adult that migrates up from the overwintering, Mexico, it takes usually about three to four generations before it'll get up here to North Dakota. The adult of the summer generations usually live two to five weeks. And once they get up here, they'll mate and then the females will lay three to 400 eggs per female. That seems like a lot of eggs to you, but unfortunately, only about 2% of them make it to the pupil or chrysalis stage. So 98% of them die. The egg lives or it'll hatch about three to four days into the caterpillar larvae. And then that takes about a couple weeks and it goes through five different growth stages. And each time it molds into the different growth stage or instar, it grows larger. And we'll talk about how you can identify each instar a little bit later. And then it'll go to the chrysalis or pupil stage, which is a transformation stage where it undergoes metamorphosis and transform into the adult butterfly. And this takes about 14 days depending on temperature. In the picture here, you can see a young chrysalis that's nice and green, and these are metallic. They look like gold, but they're not gold spots on the chrysalis. And it takes the butterfly three to four hours to expand the wings and pump blood into it, and then they need to dry before they can fly. And then when they go back in the fall to Mexico, so the overwintering generation we call it, they can live much longer than the summer generation, six to nine months. So in North Dakota, we're kind of one of the last stops for the butterfly. You know, it'll get up here in June, and you then usually it peaks in mid-August through the fall. And with our warmer falls that we've been having, you know, we'll see it into October. And if you like tracking butterfly migration, you might like the Journey North website. And you can participate as well, and this is a project if you're interested. But they report the first sighting of the adult monarch, and this was last year's data. And you can see in North Dakota that most of the sightings are late May and June into June. So, which is typical, and last year was kind of a cool year. If you go to the website, it's all animated, and it'll show the map as it's moving northward. There's many other species of animals on this website besides the monarch. But we're interested in getting more people involved in monitoring for monarchs in North Dakota. And we're doing that through the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project. This was first developed in 1997 by researchers at the University of Minnesota. And they wanted to collect long-term data on larval monarch population and milkweed habitat. And the project yearly focuses on getting, you know, community science volunteers to collect the information on monarch distribution and abundance during the breeding season. So it was maintained under the University of Minnesota Monarch Lab through 2018. And now it is jointly led by the University of Wisconsin Madison Arboretum and the Monarch Joint Adventure Program. So we're going to just kind of briefly, it's a real involved program if you want to get real involved or, you know, you don't have to get it as involved. So it's up to you how much time and effort you want to put in. But the data is very valuable for monarch conservation. And Esther and I have been promoting it through our NDSU Extension IPM program and the Pollinator Objective. And we've been busy training master gardeners and NDSU Extension agents to get involved in this project. And I'll kind of just briefly describe the key activities that you can get involved in. So first off, I just want to say there's very, a lot of monarch community science programs that you can get involved in. I mentioned the Journey North one. So there's all different types of them. One just monitors for parasitoid of monarch. So it's kind of up to you to decide what you're interested in. But this one is an interesting one because not very many of them actually look at like the interaction between milkweed and larvae and then success of the adults. So that's what this one is looking at. And some of them are just focused in certain areas like California or Mexico or California again. Quite a lot of people like to tag monarchs and that's the monarch watch. So, you know, you can decide what's best for you, but we're hoping that you'll help us out on our monitoring effort here that we're collaborating on. And part of the reason I thought this was a good program for us because I got on about this is a two two year old map. And you could see there's hardly any observations in North Dakota. And then they're all near the major cities, none out in the western part of the state. So I thought, wow, I know we have more monarchs than that in the state than just nine sites. So it's pretty easy to get started. You just create your login ID. And then you have to get trained. They have a series of very detailed online training that you can go through. And also there's in person training if you want to go to Wisconsin. And then you need to find a site, you know, with milkweed. And you can either create one in your backyard and your garden or maybe you already have a pollinator garden with milkweed. Or maybe there's a park nearby that has some gardens with milkweed or a natural area. So you can, you know, figure out where's the close nearby place that you can work. And then you do your survey work and then it's entered into a data portal on their website. And maybe you don't want to get that involved and have a login ID. Well, then you can submit non-site milkweed and monarch observation where you may do just one or two observations a year. Everything counts, even the smallest observation is important. So if you want to get more involved on the site description here, it kind of, you just do this mainly at the beginning and then you're, you know, it really doesn't take much time after that. But each visit you would update it if something changed about the site. So it just doesn't take too much time, five to 15 minutes. And then we have the milkweed and blooming plants survey because they're looking at interactions between milkweed and larvae and blooming plants and adult monarch butterflies. And they want to take a look at diversity to see how that impacts the success of the population. And then there's the egg and larval survey. But you also record adults, so it's kind of confusing that way. So I don't know why they just called egg and larvae, but you do record the adults the same time you're out there. And that's weekly and it usually takes about an hour depending on how many sites you're doing. And you just look for the eggs and larvae and for the adults, you look to see what they're doing and, you know, their behavior. Are they flying low? Are they flying high? Resting? Mating? Are they feeding on nectar? If so, what plant? And etc. So I'll show you some of the data sheets. And here's a couple additional ones you can do if you want to get more involved. This one's bi-weekly, about 30 minutes it takes. And this last one is very, very involved. So I wouldn't do it unless you had a lot of time. Monarch parasitism and survival. It's a daily activity. It takes about 15 minutes. I could take more time because you're rearing the monarch caterpillars to estimate survival and parasitism rates from like to cannon flies or other parasites. So here again is kind of a summary of what we just went over. We're kind of just recommending you get involved with these top three at the most. But I said, like I said, if you have a lot of interest in monarchs and you'd really like to do activity for, you know, go ahead, go for it. There's lots of training online. You can spend days watching all these videos. So they've done an excellent job in the education. So here's an example of the milkweed and blooming plants survey. You put your species here and then for milkweeds, you know, the plants, we're getting an idea on density. So usually you have like a square meter and use number of plants and number of stems.  And then when you're looking at the, for the monarch observations, I here's the adults and you decide over over positions a lane. So what they're doing if you see an adult while you're out there counting the stems and what they're doing and list the species if you know it. And then look at the eggs and first through fifth in stars. And then the pupil, I'm surprised they list pupil because usually in the fifth instar, the caterpillar will move out to find like a shrub or tree to form the chrysalis. And usually they don't stick into or stay around in the milkweed patch. And there's hundreds of different species of milkweed in North America. But these are some that are most common in North Dakota. However, if you have a garden, and I know April talked about this last week, we're not recommending the common milkweed because it's so aggressive. We'd rather see you put in like the swamp milkweed. And I gave you a couple fact sheets. This is from their website and their fact sheets that are available for the Dakotas in Minnesota. And then here's the other sheet that you feel out measuring monarch egg and larval density. So it's very similar to the previous one number of milkweed species here.  And then plants with zero and then you tell me and then here you would list the number of plants with in the instar stages. Then again here at the bottom is where you would tell me everything up. And again, these are called miscellaneous. They're still important. So just so you can identify the eggs, they are very small, but you can see them with the eye. You know, you might need a hand lens the first time you start out, but then after that they're pretty easy to recognize. They're kind of elliptical shape and they're pointed at the end and then they have some lines running through it. They're usually white to green colored. And then this is one called the black head stage because the larvae has a black head set capsule. And it's ready to hatch when you see this stage. And here's the example of the egg. And then here's the latex drop from the sap of the milkweed plant. Hopefully you don't see this. This is a dead monarch egg. You can see in the bottom that the larvae is dead and it's liquid fight either parasitic wasps or maybe it died because the temperature got too cold or too hot. So let's go through the end stars now. There's the five end stars. The first end star, of course, it's very small. When it first hatch, it's kind of white to translucent. And also the head is black in this stage. And here he's eaten the eggshell, the Corian, which is rich in proteins for it and helps get that little caterpillar going for a good start. The other characteristic you look for is the dots. They're actually not dots, but they're actually little tubercles. And these are the front tentacles and then they have some hind tentacles as well. Then you could also identify the first end star by its feeding behavior. It's nice circular little cuts in the leaves. And sometimes it doesn't go all the way through because its mandibles are so small. So it kind of looks skeletonize. And this is a good video. It's not from their website. It's just one that Pat found for me. That is a very good at just letting you know what the key characteristics to use are and simplify the whole process of end star staging. And the second end star, of course, it gets a little bit longer and bigger as they grow. But now you can see the color, the black, white and yellow bands appear. And then you also see the tentacles both in the front and back have grown a little bit. But the front ones still haven't grown that much. They're only about halfway. If we could bend those forward, it would only be about halfway to the tip of the head. Third end star, this is probably the hardest one. The bands become the colors become a little more deeper and more distinct. And the front extends to about the tip of the head. So, and then they also have a unique behavior where they cut on the little circles on the leaf edges. So it'll be right here where they would take out a leaf, a little half moon or whatever. And then the fourth end star, here we got the tentacles and the front really elongating two times beyond the front of the tip of the head.   It's more plump.  And they often use those front tentacles for tapping the leaf in front of them. And I see them a lot of times they'll cut a little notch in the main vein. And then the leaf will fall over and they like to hang on those fallen parts of the leaf. So that's the fifth end star. Definitely. So we did do some monitoring and had more people involved this last year. We had a total of 38 sites and 24 users. And we looked at about 30,000 milkweed plants and we got some observations, you know, out here in the central part of the state and further north. So I'm really happy about the effort that we had this last year. And even here you could take a look at the density. And you can see there were a lot of eggs laid. July 17th is the blue. And then the orange is the first in stars and the next week there was an explosion of the first in stars. So it's kind of interesting data that we can produce so we know when, you know, the monarch is present. And this can be used in management too for the monarch. You know, don't mow the ditches when the eggs and larvae are present. So this is important. I hope to get more people or we hope I should say to get more people involved. You know, the monarch needs our help. This is important for conservation. We can work for habitat restoration by planting more milkweeds and pollinator gardens. And also they use this data to make baseline decisions about monarchs. You know, we look at the density of flowering plants when they're available. How does that impact the butterfly? And then also the same thing for the milkweed to diversity and density of milkweeds. That impact the success of the larval stage. And then also for gardens when we know what size your site is. So they can take a look to see how successful things were in smaller gardens versus larger natural areas. And there's a lot of research going on in population modeling for monarchs. So this is helping to refine some of these models. And here's some extension pollinator resources that we have available now. But we actually have, we just submitted one monarch publication to AdCom. And there's another one that's currently being reviewed. So we'll have two more for you on monarchs alone this summer. And with that, Tom, I think I've used up most of my time, Tom. And I'd like to thank you for your attention. Feel free to email me if you'd like more information or Esther. Okay, Jen, that was great. We've now it's time for questions and we got some that are already coming in. And one has to do with the life cycle. And they are asking, do the chrysalises over winter in North Dakota? Yeah, no, it's too cold here for the chrysalis over winter. You know, most of the butterflies in North Dakota probably over winter as eggs or larvae and leaf debris. I would say or migrate up into the state from further south. So we're pretty harsh for climate. So they do the reverse migration as you can tell from the storm coming. So most of them prefer to stay to winter in Mexico, huh? Yes, I guess the migration started. So I looked at the website there north, the north one, north way or something. And they were just getting up into, you know, Texas and so forth. They're on their way to a long trip. Yes. How about can we let Western Minnesotans participate in this project? Oh, sure. Yeah, go ahead. It's open to everybody anywhere. Even Western Minnesotans. Yes, anywhere in the US. Okay. If you wanted to buy some swamp milkweed seed or another type of milkweed seed, where would you go? Well, try to get a local seed so you can get the native plants that are from this area and not like Missouri. So there's quite a few of them in Minnesota. I know, I think Esther has a list of resources so she can probably address that better than I can. I go through Minnesota a couple of places. Like prairie moon nursery. Yeah, prairie moon nursery, or you can either get seeds or plants, a tray of like 40 plants. Or you don't have to buy that many. They have a three pack as well for smaller gardens. How about for those butterflies, what's the purpose of their rear tentacles? It's just a sensory. They use them mainly for sensory because they don't have good hearing. So they mainly sense movements. So, you know, that's how they would, their main function is just sensory, sensory movements. So they know if a parasitoid is near them or a predator, like a bird. Okay. How about, what is a female adult do after it's done laying eggs? Well, they continue to live, you know, they'll live two to five weeks. You know, she'll continue.  So there's like a peak egg laying period.  Okay. How about, have we seen butterflies or monitors in southwestern North Dakota? I haven't seen any data entered from that area. But probably it's, it's, it's at least partial rates because our population's not, there's not that many people to observe it. Yeah, there's, that's right. There's a lot more observations from out east, you know, near the large cities and, because there's a lot more people to observe it. But I saw, when I lived in Minot, I saw quite a few monarchs in. So I would expect they go through that area. Yeah, it's pretty windy. Probably go fast with that. Yeah. A bug. But the late spring this year, what can we do to help the monarchs? Should we start our plants now indoors like those milkweed plants, for example? Um, I think the seeds need a period of cold in order to germinate properly. So what you, like if you're doing a natural area, some people will seed on top of snow and then let the snow move the seed down into the area.  So we really don't have to worry. Um, I guess, you know, encourage, if you have people further in the southern states, encourage them to plant plants for the, uh, both the adult for nectar feeding and the monarch larvae milkweed. We've got someone who lives along the Red River and they have milkweed, but they've never seen a monarch larvae eating the leaves. What can we do about this? Well, it's, uh, uh, I, I live close to Buffalo State Park and I monitor a lot of their milkweed there and a lot of times they don't see. Uh, it's just due to not as many monarchs as there used to be. So it's harder to find them. And there's a lot of other, we don't know much about how they select their sites for egg lane. But I would assume it's, you know, natural areas. They, they like more open, you know, sunny locations. I don't know if it's a treat area or not, but, uh, yeah, it's, it's hard. I, you know, it's hard to say why one site's more preferred than another. Maybe just have to be patient. Yeah. Got the milkweed there. Make sure you have the flowering nectar, uh, plants for the adult butterfly, as well as the milkweed for the larvae. That's a good idea. Uh, we got a comment there question about should somebody or should we start collecting larvae and raise them to adults? There's a lot of controversy about that. Um, but one it's not easy to do. Uh, you have to have a special knack for raising monarchs. Um, so I'm, I'm not doing it because it's very time and labor intensive. You need to be there, you know, every day to check on them. So if you're willing, yeah, check the resources out on their website. If you're interested and there's a lot of other good websites, um, and YouTube videos on how to raise them, but it's, it's not an easy task. How about birds? How do they affect the monarch populations? Well, you know, as you know, they carry the coloration with the indicate danger or the poisonous cause they, when they larvae, they ingest the toxin in the milkweed plant carc, carcinolids. So, uh, in general, most birds will avoid them, but I have seen some birds that seem to not care about the, you know, make some distasteful poison. They probably fly away and die, huh? Yeah.   Right. How about, uh, what's the best plants that, uh, for attachment of the chrysalis arm? Is there a recommendation? Was it just something sturdy? Isn't that what April? Yeah. Yeah. And something that's protected from winds, you know, high winds. Um, Okay. Okay. What's just trees and shrubs? I would recommend, um, Well, like, uh, Nana berry, uh, Oh, I don't think I don't know if anyone who has done a study on that, or I've never seen a list for the chrysalis, but I'm sure somebody has one. But even a bench would work. April said, I think they like trees more, um, Or they move away from the milkweed patches. So you may find a mature fifth instar crawling far away. He's looking for a protective place where he won't be found from by birds or parasitoids.  It's sticky. It's not a black mold. Do you know what that is? Yeah. That's probably from all the aphids, which excrete a, uh, sugary substance. And then on that you get black mold growing. Okay. Just sooty mold. Yeah. Sooty mold. Yeah. Is it beneficial or detrimental to capture caterpillars and keep them in glass jars? Kind of. That was it. Or so they can make a cook. Yeah. From watching. I guess I'm not recommending that unless you have the time and. Yeah.  Make sure the humidity is right. Um, if it's too dry, they won't properly go through the mold. And, uh, I brought in not monarchs, but I brought in, uh, thistle caterpillars into my office and I didn't have enough humidity.  How about, I know as there's into B lawns with growing clover in the grass, does that help a monarch butterfly having clover in the yard? Yes. They do like, um, alfalfa and clover. Okay. Um, just got a couple of minutes here. How about there's a question like, what is a parasitoid? You mentioned that. Oh, it's the, uh, a wasp, uh, parasitic wasp. I'm an after was usually they're very tiny. Uh, they're parasitic. So they'll lay the egg usually inside the larvae. Uh, the body of the larvae and they eat it out from the inside. And then eventually, um, instead of the butterfly emerging, you get the parasitic wasps emerge and some of them are, um, they'll have multiple eggs within the body. So you'll have, you know, hundreds of parasitic wasps because they're very, very tiny, many of them. A terrible way to go, huh? You just be eaten alive by guts or being eaten alive by wasps. It's like an aliens movie, huh? Yes. Many of the horror movies we watch are based from entomology. Is that why you're an entomologist?  I actually don't like to watch them at all. Okay, Jen. Jen, thanks for your talk tonight. And if anybody's interested in working on this project, please contact Jen or our next speaker, Esther and, and, uh, we can get a great team for me. Thank you, Jen.


internal revenue service rs tax news tax tips for gig economy entrepreneurs and workers yeah i got a tax tip for the gig economy watch your because the irs wants a piece of it and they hired a bunch of new agents in order to get it what's that what's that feel they just hired the new agents so they can pick up the phone every once in a while and totally help everyone out okay yeah i that's like saying freddy krueger has those claws just so he can scratch that annoying itch like in the middle of your back that's that's like saying the joker smiling because he's looking forward to a nice wholesome game of checkers with batman this evening it'd be funny if it wasn't so pathetic no what the heck i'll laugh anyway honest that's like saying that that strange horny grade school boy who keeps following little girls into the girl's restroom while wearing women's leggings which display a quite conspicuous horizontal teepee upon entry is doing so because he's actually a girl no of course not strictly professional mr bergen do you have a massive erection really i'm sorry it's it's the pleats it's actually an optical illusion it's the pattern on the pants they i'm actually taking them back right now taking them back to the pants store i mean i'm sorry i hate to sound like a jerk here but that's ridiculous i mean give me a break no no fill i don't mean by a break that i need a piece of a rainbow colored kitkat at the moment okay the irs is on the prowl for profits from gigsters i'm telling you i don't care if they dress it up like they're just trying to help you out with some phone service i mean the irs is projecting revenues will go up due to the new agents i mean what do you think that that's that that's because they're going to be so nice over the phone people are going to stop doing business with the irs's competitors and then start fulfilling their tax paying needs by working with the irs that's that's not how it works there's no competition here taxes are paid by compulsion not markets honestly i mean if you're a gig worker you should go out right now and buy yourself a full length mirror why because you need to watch yourself that's what that's what i think the irs is saying they're like you best watch yourself gig workers because watching you is what the irs is planning to do that's for sure that's that's what i'm talking about anyways tax tip 2023-05 january 12 2023 and recent years the gig economy has changed how people do business and provide services taxpayers must report their gig economy earnings on a tax return whether they earned that money through a part-time temporary or side gig so the gig economy has been a place that the irs has put in more focus in part due to the fact that the gig economy is growing and in part due to the fact that they don't have as much oversight to double check that people are reporting their income on it as they do in some other areas let's just take a step back and take a quick overview of the income tax system we have an income tax system so we're taxed on the income it used to be more of a self-reporting type of system but more and more the irs has been putting in these tools so that they can basically see what you are doing before you actually file the tax return and obviously the most obvious example of that is that on the employer employee side the employer actually withholds the money before you even receive the money and give that to the irs as well as the w2 that goes to you and to the irs as well that's really what they're looking for they're looking for them to get the w2 so they could basically double check that you are reporting the income so the general idea then would be that they're going to try to pressure the side of the business transaction that is paying because the payer possibly have the deduction that's where the iris has leverage so if you have one person's paying the other one's receiving the income the receiver of the income has income which is bad for taxes and the other has a payment which is good for taxes so if it was a business to business transaction they're going to pressure the payer like the employer like the person that pays out a contractor forcing them to provide a w2 form possibly withholdings and 1099 in exchange for being allowed to take the deduction on the tax return which is of course quite substantial however there are some businesses where it's still difficult for the iris to do that most of those businesses used to be the ones that do business directly with the customers and i think that's kind of why they kind of crack down on the pandemic like they're like oh we're cracking down on the restaurants we're cracking down on the hair salons they just don't like those businesses right because those businesses still deal with cash right they can't they don't have as much of a stranglehold over them because they're providing goods and services to the end user and the end user isn't has doesn't have any leverage they don't have any leverage over the end user because there's no deduction that you can get fruit for for getting a massage or your nails done or you know getting your hair cut or something like that so so those businesses has always been things that the iris don't really like they don't have a handle over them so you would think that they would try to squish them out of the economy to the point that they can because they want the control right and so now that the new issue is the fact that you've got the the gig economy has these platforms which i would see as kind of like a silk road it's a new kind of silk road meaning it's connecting people that want goods and services and people that provide goods and services but it's not actually hiring anybody so once again you have this dynamic where the the you have these small businesses that are that are growing but they don't have any way to really force the person paying the business owner to give them a 1099 what are they going to do then well you would think they would try to have somebody force them to give the 1099 either the person that's creating the silk road right meaning the platforms themselves they hold them responsible for issuing 1099s or even worse they make them hire the people as employees acting like that's going to improve life for everybody but you know it'll probably shrink the size of the economy which can only be worse off for people because it's going to have less growth there'll be less stuff the pie will be smaller and that would that's usually not good would be the general idea or they've they force the payment platforms like the pay pals and the stripes and that kind of stuff to issue the 1099s which again you would think would would probably you know limit the scope but that's that's the general idea so if they don't do that they want to of course keep on reminding people that the gig economy still should be reporting their taxes and they might be increasing the audits of people doing the gig economy which is the old-fashioned way that they used to do the enforcement with the one I would think they would kind of fall back on instead of all this other intrusive stuff I think the old audit strategy where you're going to audit returns and have the the risk of people that aren't reporting properly subject to an audit rather than having all this intrusive oversight I think would be preferable in my opinion but no one cares what I think so whatever the IRS gig economy tax center there's a link to that here provides information and resources to help this group of entrepreneurs and workers understand and meet their federal tax obligations here are key things for individuals involved in the gig economy to remember as they get ready to file in 2023 there's a link to that here get a gig economy income is taxable they say that's what they want you to know so taxpayers must report all income on their tax return unless excluded by law whether they receive an information return such as a 1099 or not so there's they're highly concerned with this if you don't get a 1099 you still need to report your income and you should and so they're there they want you to know that individuals involved in the gig economy may also be required to make quarterly estimated tax payments to pay income tax and self-employment tax which includes social security and Medicare taxes so a lot of people when they move from a w2 the whole w2 system to me also there's kind of issues with it in that it's so automatic right now that people actually they feel like that the earnings that they are receiving are actually the net income and not the gross income because the taxes being withheld is such an automatic thing but the problem with that of course is that when you move from a system that you're an employee and the taxes are being withheld for you automatically and everything's kind of reported automatically is you're not really linked in or involved in the actual processing of the system you're not actually writing the check you're not figuring out how much you owe you're not really looking at the gross income versus the net income per se to see how much is going to taxes when you actually move to gig work then then you actually have to calculate those things out and for a lot of people they just haven't had any experience doing that before because everything's just been so automatic so a lot of people a lot of small businesses don't make it not because they don't have the revenue to generate they just get so far behind on the taxes because they just didn't calculate the taxes and and now they're in a hole right once you're in that once you're in a big hole in terms of the debt for taxes that can really be detrimental so you want to make sure that you're calculating the taxes you have to do it as you go and you have to annualize your taxes because you can't just say well look I made $10,000 in gig work this month and I'll just pay whatever percent on $10,000 no you got to annualize it because it's a progressive tax system and then try to figure out how you how much you're going to owe on an annual basis and you've got to pay them during the year why because you'll they'll hit you with penalties and interest possibly if you most likely if you do not so the last estimated tax payment for 2022 is due January 17th 2023 and remember those taxes include not only federal income tax but self-employment tax meaning this the equivalent of like payroll taxes social security medicare both in essence on the employer and employee side again quite significant amount of tax that you need you need to understand there as well as the federal income tax okay workers report income according to their worker classification gig economy workers who perform services such as driving a car for booked rides running errands and other on-demand work must be correctly classified classification helps taxpayers determine how to properly report their income so the iris has this idea that they can define what an employee is and what an a contractor is specifically so that you can they should be at their their ideas they should be able to look at the relationship between you and your employer or your you and your employees or contractors and determine based on what they do whether they should properly be classified as a contractor or an employee now off the iris would kind of like them to be an employee right because if they're an employee the iris can force you the employer to withhold their money and pay them directly to the government as well as report the w2s which is a much more significant reporting so the tilt when you hear the government talking about having companies forcing them to hire people as an employee or a contractor it's usually tilted towards well these evil business owners are trying to hire people as contractors instead of employees and if they were hired as employees they would have more benefits and and this and that but it's not always beneficial i mean it depends on the circumstances whether it be beneficial to be a w2 employee or a contractor obviously the irs wants the employer to be their tax collector right so they kind of like the employee or employees structure so if they are employees they report their wages from the w2 wage and tax statement there's a link to that here if they are an independent contractor they report their income on a schedule c form 1040 profit or loss from business sole proprietorship so obviously if at the end of the day you're not sure then i mean you should probably check it out but you're either going to get a w2 that means you're an employee or a 1099 that means you're a contractor or nothing which means you're a contractor and they just didn't issue a 1099 because they weren't required to or didn't for whatever reason so the business or the platform determines whether the individual providing the services is an employee or independent contractor the business owners can use the workers classification page there's a link to that here on irs for guidance on properly classified employees and independent contractors so you want to get that right i'm like i mean you want to have a justification a rationale as to why you classified someone as an employee or a contractor because if you classify them as a contractor and the irs comes after you and they say no we think based on the circumstance that they should be an employee then the employer might be subject to you know back taxes and you know whatever at that point so check it out have your argument in the case that the irs argues with you about it expenses related to gig economy income may be deductible individuals involved in the gig economy may be able to deduct expenses related to their gig income depending on tax limits and rules so if you're thinking would it be better for me to be a gig economy person or w2 employee if you're a w2 employee then you you might have you might pay less in social security and medicare because you're only paying the employer and not the employee portion when you're a sole proprietor the self-employment tax is actually twice or almost twice you're kind of paying both sides of it but on the other side of things if your w2 employee and your employer doesn't provide you the things necessary to do the job and you're still buying your own stuff meaning you have a bunch of expenses you can't really write them off as easily as a w2 employee but if you were a contractor you would so if you're buying you know if you buy stuff if you're doing business related stuff that's where the benefit comes in for the w2 employee to be able to write those things off taxpayers may be able to lower the amount of tax they owe by deducting certain expenses it is important for taxpayers to keep records of their business expenses pay the right amount of taxes throughout the tax year and employer typically withholds income taxes from their employees pay to help cover taxes their employees owe so i so notice how they say it here i just i just like to point out the framing here because again this is the constant kind of i see it as basically gaslighting that you get from like government kind of entities you can see why they would want to do it and whatnot but they're basically always framing it as this thing is in place to help you right but obviously why is it there it's there because the government wants to make the employer the tax collector and they want to get their money before you even get your greedy little hands on it that's that's that's what the withholding system is designed to do i mean you know so i just you know it's just just to point out the euphemisms from time to time i think is important so individuals involved the gig economy have two ways to cover their taxes due if they have another job whether they're considered an employee they can submit a new form w4 employees withholding certificate to help employers to have more taxes withheld from their paycheck to cover the tax owed from their gig economy activity they can make quarterly estimate attack payments throughout the year so in other words if you have gig economy that's just a side job then maybe if you still have a w2 employee or you might be able to just adjust your w4 which is the form used to increase or decrease the amount that they withhold out of your paycheck to cover the amount from the gig economy that's one approach that you can do if you can't do that because you're not working somewhere else as a w2 employee or you don't want to do it that way because you'd rather pay quarterly instead of paying every paycheck which you know that might be a little might hold on to your money a little bit better or longer you know that way because you might pay your paycheck every week or uh or you don't have or you or you the the w2 withholdings won't cover the amount of gig work that you're doing because you're growing and you're you're doing well with it then uh then you have to do the estimated tax payments so more information down below you got publication 525 taxable and non-taxable income publication 1779 independent contractor and employee there's links to that stuff here there'll be a link to this in the description


just explain to us how you know how what do you think was the the secret ingredient for you to to get to this point. Well first thing is that I took the advice you gave whole whole heartedly. Example before I joined at Landeros I tried to start Arabic three times and I stopped each time you know. One time I was okay I was enough after an Arabic language I picked up a random book with vocabulary out of context wasn't in context I memorized everything like the body parts so I went to my teacher and I told my teacher hey I learned 100 words and she told me okay tell me how to say I could go to Basim I told her I don't know how to say that but I can say hand and leg you know I didn't know what verbs were and nouns were and what hakehda so you know I made the eyes a lot of mixed Arabic easy for me and that's some of your your videos I watched your presentation then I joined so when I joined I try to do things people don't do so I can reach a level that people are not at you know so when I did the lessons I repeat the words more than I should have repeated it I repeated until I never got around again and now you can write it over and over and over again into my hang up familiarize with it at the beginning and then like after finish book one even I wouldn't stick to the program only as well I would do my outside reading I would listen to audios over and over again I have an Instagram page where I actually translate the RLMS sometimes I get videos and I translate to English I send to my air friends maybe they can make sure I make no mistakes hakehda and I make sure I'm in the language I go to my message is out I speak with them I to know English when I'm traveling I say no I try to make myself immersed as much as possible you know to the point when I pick up the English book I open it the wrong way so I'm just I'm like and it's weird to open each book because I read more Arabic than I read English you know so I think in a lot of things that students they don't really take a heat of is memorizing it's not fun to memorize but when you reach at the end it's fun you know because you memorize the words here word here and they all they don't make any sense but then when when they come into a sentence it makes sense you know so people they don't want they don't want the easy path but they want to reach the end to be a sheikh or speaking you know clear with balaqa when he came and asked for a cup of water you know so I think people don't have the house to learn Arabic language now now and that's literally the difference that what makes the difference in students like if I look at all the students that actually had results they always like this they always have the mentality of consistency they know how to listen and they have an empty cup as well they don't come into the program thinking oh well me I really know this so I'm just gonna do this and then I'm not gonna do this because I already I don't need to memorize that much because these and yeah and what happens is that then you don't get the results because you don't listen to to your instructors and it's actually one thing I did one quick thing like when I memorize the words and I go out and I hear those words being used but it took me a while to connect the meaning I knew my head was da'if and I go back to Muradira because like if you if you have a ayat and you take a while to guess surah it means surah is weak if I hear someone say a sentence and I couldn't digest it quick enough that means the word in that sentence I have memorized it correctly so that's that's a big advice I would give yeah no alhamdulillah I'm a zammil man may Allah put the barakah in your progress you know it's been 827 days since you joined really and I've been kind of on off if I was the whole way throughout I've been a probably more fluent now definitely what lesson you have you on version number two until what lesson do you think is that I'm supposed to start book three but I read book four book one four times and I'm doing book two for my third time I'm making sure I don't have a single word stood by me before I start the next books because that is more of a message of little words you have then go and buy a lot of words and now understanding all of them you know so I want to make sure I'm going slow no no no


India is an eccentric country. For the last 20 years, India has been growing at the GDP growth rate of average 6.25%. Even outpacing China's GDP growth for the past decade. Impressive, isn't it? During this time, India has climbed the economic ladder, surpassing countries like Korea, Canada, Italy, France and the UK to become the world's fifth largest economic powerhouse. And guess what? Morgan Stanley predicted that within the next 5 years, India might even surpass Japan and Germany to become the third largest global economy. Tech unicorns have been popping up left and right in India, covering everything from fintech, e-commerce, agile tech to gaming. In fact, even Apple plans to move a quarter of its iPhone production to India. It's like India is on a rocket ride to the top. But hold on a second, despite all this progress, around 10% of the Indian population still live in extreme poverty. I remember visiting India a decade ago and I was shocked to see people just yuring openly in the public and slipping on the streets in the city centre of New Delhi. And based on the last I researched, things haven't changed much. Corruption is another issue that cripples India? So is India economy in good shape or in bad shape? And for investors, is India a viable place to put our money in? Let's find out in this video. To understand where India is coming from, let's take a quick history lesson. If you check out this very interesting graph from IMF, you can see that while countries like US and China have risen economically in recent years, India's contribution only appears as a thin line. But if you move back the timeline and trace the time back in the 18th century, India was actually an economic powerhouse, contributing to a third of the global economy. So what's causing the drop? Well, the Industrial Revolution in Europe played a huge role in boosting the West's productivity. However, for India, British control of nearly 300 years did be the exact opposite. Under the British rule, India's focus remained on agriculture and textile. And there was minimal development in the industrial and technological sector. And this led to a stark contrast in GDP growth between India and England back then. Before that, this video is brought to you by OctaFX, a global broker that offers a wide range of trading options. Whether you're into stocks, commodities, or indices, they've got 230 choices for you. OctaFX Trading App can help you to get super low spreads, and there are no sneaky commissions or swaps into your profits. But wait, there's more. If you're new to all these trading stuff, they've got a lot of educational materials in different languages, from live trading sessions, market analysis, and useful trading tips. Plus, they've got a demo account that you can test out with virtual money. Perfect for practicing without risking your hard-earned cash. They have solid customer service too. Need help at 3am? No problem. Their support team is there 24-7 to answer all your questions. And handling your money is a breeze at OctaFX. Deposit takes just a minute, and withdrawal rolls are under 49 minutes, even faster than your food delivery. So if you're ready to kickstart your trading journey safely, hit the link in the description or scan this QR code to download OctaFX Trading App. My promo code, Aligato, allows you to double your deposit for trading. Now let's get back to the video. After World War II, India finally gained back its independence after the British left. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. But at that time, their GDP had already dropped from 25% to only 2%. That's why after gaining independence, India turned inward. It started to adopt a Soviet-style economic model, with tight government regulations and limited foreign investment. Alright, no more free trade. The government also came up with a licensing regulation called the License Raj. In short, most businesses, no matter what you wanted to do, you had to apply a license from the government. And that resulted in a sluggish economy with inefficiency, corruption, and inequality. Things took a major turn in 1991, when the Indian economy finally went through a major transformation. The collapse of the Soviet Union, India's biggest trade body back then, and some Gulf War drama through India, a big curveball. Imagine losing your main source of income and having the oil price shoot through the roof. It's like getting hit by a double whammy. At that time, inflation skyrocketed and Indian governments soon ran out of cash. They were on the edge of defaulting their debt. So what did India do? They had no choice but to turn to IMF to borrow money. And IMF said, Sure, we will help you out, but only if you promise to play by our rules. And that's when India rolled out its sleeves and went to work. Economic reforms start to happen. They slash the rift, let interest rate flow through open the doors to international trade, even give a big welcome hug to foreign investors. It's like they leak a firecracker under their economics chair, and boom, growth was on a fast track. From 1995 to 2019, their exports were growing at 13% year on year. Ka-ching! Hold up, there is more. The service sector became the MVP of the India's economic rise. Back in the 60s, agricultural was the major contribution to the economy. But now it's taken a back seat while the service sector struts its stuff, making up over half of the GDP. And in this sector, there's one rock star. Outsourcing. India is like a heavyweight champion of outsourcing, responsible for over half of the global outsourcing economy. Big companies like Google, Amazon, Apple, all ship out some of their tasks to India, including technical assistance, software development, customer support, and more. I bet you already had a chat with an Indian support agent before, the throne Indian accent on the other end of the line. Yep, that's the one. So why do all these big tech companies choose India? Three magic words. Cheap, talented, and English speaking. For example, the recent famous open AI, they need a lot of feedback to train chat GPT. If they hire people in the US to do so, it's going to incur a lot of labor costs. So they go to India and hire people over there to do the feedback, and they only need to pay less than $2 an hour. India also got a pool of IT reserves. Their culture and educational system focused a lot on IT training. And as a result, they can develop a pool of IT talents with remarkable intelligence. If you look at some of the top US tech companies, many of the CEOs are Indians. Google CEO, Microsoft CEO, Adobe, IBM, they are all Indians. From there, you can see that India's IT education is truly impressive. And one good thing came up from the British colonial past is they speak very good English. No wonder India became the go-to destination for outsourcing. But wait, there is a twist. While the India economy is booming like a firework show, it's not all sunshine and rainbow.  Although the country's GDP is huge, but when you break down into GDP per person, it becomes so insignificant. In 2021, India's GDP per capita was only $2,600, compared to the US jaw-dropping of $80,000 per person or even China's $13,000 per person. India was a far cry from them. In fact, if you compare to Laos, Philippines or Indonesia, India's GDP per capita is even lower than them. And if you look at the population structure of India, there's something even more interesting about it. When you compare it to countries like China, you will see that India has a younger population with more youth and more children. The median age of India is only 27.6 years, meaning that half of the population is under 28 years old. In comparison, the median age of China and US is 38, Singapore 43, Japan 48.4. So with such a huge population advantage, it should be a strength for India, isn't it? But here is the puzzling twist. Despite of the youthful advantage, the Indian government has been advocating as citizens to delay procreation and in fact have fewer children.  Why would they do that? Well, it turns out that India is facing a very huge problem. While its population is booming, there's simply not enough quality job to provide to the citizens. Unemployment is a bit of a sore spot with a rate of 7.3%. To put it in perspective, that's higher than China's 4.9% and the US 3.6%. And given India's massive population, the sheer number of unemployed individuals is staggering. You see, for India, adding more people doesn't necessarily equate to more productivity. In fact, it often translates to more mouth to feet and more strain on the country's resources. So what is the root cause of this dire problem? Now let's rewind a bit to understand another piece of the puzzle. While most countries start by developing their agriculture and industrial sector, before diving into the service sector, India kind of skid a step. They jump straight into the service sector, and that leads to a situation where a significant population lacks the necessary knowledge. In an attempt to address this issue, in 2014, the Indian government initiated this Make in India project, and the goal is to transform India into a global manufacturing hub through various incentives and policies. After all, India is famous for its low-cost labour, making it an attractive destination for companies to set up factories there. As a result, it attracted giants like GM and Kia to invest over a billion dollars to set up manufacturing facilities in India. However, the overall result is still rather underwhelming. Despite of the government's effort, many businesses face losses due to low productivity and the E-efficient system, and the percentage of manufacturing in India's GDP dropped from 17% to 14%. Corruption and inequality is also another hurdle according to Transparency International. Around 39% of Indians who dealt with the government reported pain brights. The highest percentage in Asia. The poverty gap is another concern. There are 2.5 million people dying every single day in India. Around 10% of the population is in extreme poverty, and many lack access to basic amenities such as proper sanitation facilities. And that's why urination in the open public space is a common sight in India. But then again, India is working very fast to change this. From 2004, 40% of the population was in extreme poverty. By 2019, the number dropped to 10%. So from this angle, the government is definitely moving towards the right direction. In my opinion, although India has a lot of challenges, there are also a lot of growth potential. Over the past two decades, the Nifty 50 Index, a benchmark for the Indian stock market, has seen an annualized return of 17.5%, reflecting the country's massive economic expansion. The financial service sector, which makes up a significant 37% of the index, plays a pivotal role in driving the country's economy. India is also making a huge progress in digital payments. Currently, digital literacy is more than twice as high in the urban area as compared to the Euro area. A mere 14.9% of rural households have internet assets, compared to 42% among the urban households. As the infrastructure continues to improve and the population becomes more and more prosperous, this could unlock future economic growth. As an investor, if you believe in the future trajectory of India, there are many ways for you to tap into its growth. Firstly, you can invest in ETF that tracks the Nifty 50. In the US stock exchange, the ticker symbol is IMDY. If you prefer a more diversified ETF, you can also consider INDA that tracks 115 top companies in India. And if you know how to do option strategy, you can even consider doing BOSS by selling a pool option on INDA. For example, by promising to buy INDA, I get to collect a premium of 3.4% in just 1 month. And if I manage to get the share, I am more than happy because I personally believe in the long-term growth of India economy. However, if the stock price continues to go up and I do not manage to collect hundreds shares of INDA, the next month, all I need to do is to do BOSS option strategy again to collect another round of premium. By rinse and repeating that, I am able to generate passive income using options as well. If you are new to options and you want to find out exactly how you can do it as well, then you can join us in our upcoming options masterclass to learn it step by step. All you need to do is to click on the link around this video to register for your spot. Recently, I have been reading this book called The Joys of Compounding by Garden Bay and I really learned so much investing wisdom and insights from him. As a fund manager of Stellar Wealth Partners, Garden has a lot of insights into the India stock market. And if you don't want to miss out our upcoming interview, then make sure to subscribe to my channel right now. By the way, the information presented in this video is all based on research I came across from watching various YouTube videos as well as plowing through a lot of data from Google. My opinion should not be taken as an investment advice and it's very important for you to do your due diligence before making any form of investment decisions. If you want to learn more about investing, make sure to check out some of my videos over here to continue your learning journey. In the meantime, don't forget to follow my telegram for more updates. I will see you in the next video. Arigato!