Hello everybody and happy Halloween. I hope everyone is having an excellent holiday. And welcome to HCC788 Live The Revenge. That's right. This is the episode where I get revenge on all who have wronged me. I can't think of anyone who has wronged me such that they deserve revenge. But if I think of any, if I think of any, they better watch out. So yes, that's right. This is the revenge episode as soon as I think of anyone upon whom I shall exact revenge. Which may not be anyone. So perhaps you're sitting out there thinking, I gave up trick or treating for this. I was expecting revenge and I may in fact not get any. Well, let me explain something to you. See, this is what we in the biz call marketing. Right? So if you think that it's going to be a revenge episode, then you're more likely to tune in because revenge is interesting. Hey, revenge was the entire motive of the Snake Eyes G.I. Joe Origins movie and people liked that, right? So a last poor Darth. I knew him Horatio. So yes, welcome to the special Halloween episode in which I am in costume. I couldn't decide what costume to wear so I improvised. I improvised. So yeah, I got into the costumes and props box for the show where I keep all the costumes and props for the show, which is why it's called the costume and props box. And I just pulled out, you know, whatever I found in there. So, so here we go. So we are. I don't even know you know what you guys think of what this ensemble should be called because I don't really know this is I came up with this like five minutes before I started. But revenge. Hello, Rob Irozeri perhaps I need revenge on Rob Irozeri there's comic tropes perhaps I need revenge on comic tropes I don't think so but perhaps. Hello Cyclonus and draws and from the Hilt and Lester and Zemott and jump in general and Joe fan 84 hi guys. This is the episode in which I work with no notes and try to remember important things to talk about for this episode because a lot's happened. Revenge 788 you know what that number 788 has been pissing me off and maybe 788 has it coming. Not really it's a number that's dumb. But the point is, you know, you clicked on it didn't you you thought there would be revenge that is that is what we in the biz call marketing, and I am basically a marketing genius. Important things have happened and important things are coming up. Hello crash. What is my least favorite candy. That's a good. That's a good question. Okay, like black licorice candy, which is that is licorice candy. I don't like the licorice flavor that some people love it. I am not one of the people that love it. That yes brand recognition. Hello rat face and jump in general and David Andrews. Nice to see you guys. I don't know how about like, you know what this makes me think of this. But tell me what tell me what the what the scene is from. I'm tired. I'm wasted. I love you darling. So it's going to be a great holiday as you can tell important things though. Hello Victor. Hello K dog Hello Andrew Andrew the guy so nice they named him twice. Important things that I get I got to get right off the bat or else I will forget them. Assembly required is coming up this weekend. Okay, I will be there I'm going to Des Moines, Iowa to be an assembly required this weekend I will be at the dinner on Friday evening. I will be going up on Thursday. I'm not sure exactly why I booked the hotel for Thursday I don't remember, but whatever I'm going on Thursday. And I will be at the hotel most of the time on Thursday working here's the thing about my life I work all the time. So I just went on vacation not let that long ago I was on vacation. I was on a boat. I came back. Okay, it was sort of a vacation. I had to take Zartan with me I had to. There's no sun here like we have overcast skies here, and I had to take an action figure with me so I could get some sun. So that was vital and had absolutely had to be done. But, but yes, I, but I just got back from a vacation on Thursday. And suddenly when I got home I had to get to work. And I've been working ever since. And I will work all the way up till Thursday to the time that I leave for Des Moines. When I get to Des Moines get checked into the hotel I will work. I will also work on Friday, until I can actually go to the show and go to the dinner and when I come back I will work some more. On Saturday, I will work before and after the show and then Sunday I come back home, and then I will work then so that's my life. However, I will say that, despite not sleeping and not having time to do much of anything but work. I have got a lot done on the next review video. A significant amount of work is done. The writing is all done. A lot of the shooting is done some of the shooting I'm going to do in Des Moines. In Des Moines, Iowa, I will, I'm going to bring my equipment and do some of the work there. I am waiting on a couple collaborative segments from other people. So I'm waiting on a couple pieces that I need to include in the edit. But my part is getting pretty close to being done. It's looking good. It's looking good. So that means that you can expect to have an actual video, quite a significant video in fact. Not this Sunday because I'll be in Des Moines, but the following Sunday you should get something special, something substantial and I hope you very much enjoy it. I've enjoyed working on it. I've just had to work around the very little free time that I have. So it's Halloween is what they say. That's what the kids say. That's what the kids call it. I don't know. Mary Ann was going to be here.  We went on vacation together. Actually, the vacation was our, for our first anniversary. We've been together for a year. We decided to do something special for our first anniversary. We did something special for our first anniversary. But we were going to spend this evening together and she was going to be on this show. But her daughter is going trick-or-treating so she's spending time with her child as she should. That always takes priority. She really dodged a bullet because she could have been on the air with this. She could have been sitting right next to this hotness right here. But yes, it's just me and I'm trying to remember all the things that I was going to remember because there have been some important announcements. G.I. Joe related. There was the Hasbro 1027 thing. They did an unboxing of the Haslab His Tank and I really like it. I did get in on the His Tank Haslab. I am now really glad that I did. I will open the thing when I get it. I will show you in detail my copy of it so that you can see it and you can see it. But I'm really excited about that. More so after having seen the actual production version come out of the box. It looks gorgeous. I think it's fantastic. But they also posted the classified vamp and clutch on Hasbro Pulse. And yes, I did get that. I did order that. That's one that I've been looking forward to for quite a while. Honestly, it's 100 bucks, which is I think remarkable for what you're getting. The figures are running 25 bucks, so it comes with a figure. The vehicle itself is just $75 for a vamp. That's less than I would have expected to pay for it for something that substantial. This is considerably more substantial than the Ram motorcycle that came with clutch and Tiger Force Duke. I'd say that's more substantial than two Ram motorcycles that came with breaker and Duke. To get that for 100 bucks with the figure is... The prices on classified, some of them are going up because they did create this new price tier for the deluxe figures. But some of the other prices have been remarkably less than expected. The Haslag Dragonfly was priced less than I thought it would be, so that's awesome. The vamp and clutch are less than I thought they would be, so that's great. I still suspect that crimes are being committed. I don't know how they're doing that, but I think at this point, I'm supportive of those crimes, whatever crimes they're committing. It's getting cheap stuff to me, so I'm okay with it, I think. But it's Halloween, so I'm evil hoodie. So perhaps my new pro crime stance is just the evil side of me coming out.  Comic Troops ordered one, that's awesome, and Crash says he pre-ordered two. For that price, I was tempted to get a couple, but I don't really need one. I'm not a completist when it comes to classified, and I'm not reselling them, so one is enough. Hey, Sparkster, nice to see you. He says, I recently built my own Dragonfly out of Lego bricks. I'd love to see that. I would love to see that. And my apologies to Sparkster. Bart says, isn't Cobra Commander already evil? Well, now I'm double evil. And you know what, Bart? You are on the revenge list. I mean, not really.  Bart is nice, but watch yourself calling me evil like that just because I am. Hello, Agent Chuckles. Comic Troops says thoughts on them actually making Raptors. So that was one of the other announcements. I guess that a name only reveal is that they're going to do Raptor. I think it's hilarious. Why not? I mean, we're already working through the crazy animal themed Cobra's. We already got Crocmaster. You know, they did Crocmaster. You might as well do Raptor. I just don't know. I mean, when are we going to get Python Patrol crystal ball?  I either I get Python Patrol crystal ball or I quit GI Joe. There you go. Ultimatum, which I completely will not live up to. I will not follow. Oh, thank you. Thank you, Comic Troops for the super chat. He says, have some candy. I will later because I don't actually have any. I'm not. And as you might have noticed from my from my costume and again, let me get to the full effect of the costume that I've been working. So I was a little unprepared for Halloween. So I didn't actually get any Halloween candy. I didn't actually put together a costume. So I'm a little behind the times here. Thank you for the super chat, Comic Troops. Now I can get some candy. And since when I get the candy, it will be after Halloween. I can keep it all to myself because I am evil hoodie this time. This looks ridiculous.  And that's saying something because I've done some pretty dumb stuff. But this is like way up there on the dumb scale. Okay, so other things that I need to make sure that that I mention because they're important, probably the most important thing is that the charity drive, the Christmas charity drive that Timmer does on half the battle starts. I believe he said it starts on Sunday. As soon as his video goes up, I will share it and I'll try to make a video of my own. Because I really do like the charity drive that he does each year. I think that's a really fantastic thing. I always participate in it even when my channel was on hiatus. I still jumped in to do the charity drive. It really is that important. So thanks Timmer for doing it. And as soon as his video goes up, I will make sure to share that. And I want to participate in a more significant way. I just need to find a more significant way to actually participate. I want to help more. So I want to see what I can do to help. But the links for assembly required and for half the battle YouTube channel, they are both in the description of this live stream so you can go check them out. So Commando Hank, lawyer cosplay could be used for extensive enterprises. Honestly, going back to Raptor, I think Raptor is absolutely ridiculous. But he's in GI Joe, right? So there's no point in objecting to his inclusion in GI Joe. He's already in and has been in since what 1987, I guess is when they introduced Raptor. So being that he's in GI Joe lore, he was in the comic book, you know, not in the cartoon, he wasn't in the animated series because it was in the break. But he's in, no point in objecting now, it's too late. So given that he's in, I want the classified Raptor action figure to be as redonkulous as possible. I mean, he's a bird man. So just go all out, right? Go all out. Give him a beak, you know. And I think it's very important that he have the silver painted toenails on the outside of his boots.  And I'll just make it as absurd as it actually is. You know, don't hold back. Just let it, let it go, let it loose. There's no point in holding back, right? And croc master, by the way, is also a kind of a ridiculous character from the vintage era. But the classified croc master figure turned out to be actually a really nice figure. So that does give me some hope that in the larger scale, they can bring out some better things about these kind of silly characters from the vintage era. So I don't think I can pass on Raptor.   I mean, just look at me, just look at me.  So I'll have to, I'll have to check it out. Hello, Renegade Biker, didn't see you come in here. Hello, Sean Beckett. Hello to everyone. Hello, Matt Noon. And hello, I'm sorry to anyone that I didn't say hi to. I just started talking, like my eyes shut off, like my brain cannot process reading the live chat and talking at the same time. It's a mental defect. I have nothing I can do about it. But once I start talking, like I just lose the ability to read. Comic Trope says, do you think classified will make, will make the stinger since they made the vamp and have the mold? I think yes, I think, I think it only makes sense. And this is why I, this could be one of the reasons why they're able to do the vamp. So, you know, relatively inexpensively, given the size of the vehicle that it is, and including an action figure is because they, I'm sure that they've included in their cost analysis, the fact that they will be able to reuse that mold several times, right? Because, of course, it is the original vamp, and then there's the vamp mark two. There's the stinger, there's the tiger sting. They already have Tiger Force. Why would they not do the tiger sting also? So, I mean, they, they're coming out with the dread knocks now. They've come out with the dread knocks and they have already done the Ram motorcycle and they are doing the vamp. So, they could do a dread knock ground assault two pack, like the old Sears ground assault set. They'll have everything they'll have everything that they need to do that without having to pay for any new tooling, they will already have it, right? They don't have to pay any extra for it. So, yeah, I think they absolutely will. I think that just makes sense. You know what I mean? But, but yes, that was one of the big things that came out and then the name only reveals. There was Raptor and there was, I'm blanking on who the other name reveal is, I'm sorry. There was another name reveal. Also, some photos have come out with, oh, it was Iron Grenadiers, wasn't it? Yes, that's what it was. Once again, Comic Tropes comes in with the clutch with the clutch information. Oh, hello, Matt Rubin. Nice to see you, Matt Rubin. Thanks for being here. Hello, Robert Olson. What was I saying? So, Iron Grenadiers, okay? So, they are doing metalhead and it looks like metalhead will have Iron Grenadier branding. So, if they have the Iron Grenadier, the basic Iron Grenadier trooper, it seems like, it seems logical that a classified version of Destro version two should follow. And I like the Iron Grenadiers. The Iron Grenadiers are pretty cool. So, that's something that I think, I think we can look forward to. And, yeah, I think that's, it's a positive thing. They're moving in a really cool direction. Comic Tropes says, Crimson, Lobotomax, that's any day now. You know, why not? Just do it. You know, okay. Obviously, I think the Lunar Ticks aliens are ridiculous. And in fact, a lot of the 90s gimmicks are kind of ridiculous. But having said that, I do know there are lots of fans of 90s G.I. Joe. And I think that is a well that they could go back to more often because a lot of our younger fans are fans that came into G.I. Joe from the 90s. And that's something that that's a group that may be a little bit underserved. So they're giving us Metalhead, which is an iconic 90s character in Iron Grenadiers branding. Something that is a character that was very memorable from the Deke animated series. So the Lunar Ticks aliens, I think might be a stretch, might be a stretch, but I think I would be okay with them serving the 90s fans a bit more. There is another group of fans that I think Super 7 is trying to serve, but is having a hard time. And this is where we need to talk about something that is not going quite as well. Renegade Biker, is there a mailing address? We're going to send something to him. Obviously, there is. He has an address, but you would have to ask him. I can't give out his address. I can't send a couple of things to him, but he obviously gave me his information not to disseminate. But if you reach out to him, he may be able to give that to you. Let's talk about Super 7 because that's a doozy, right? That's one that's not going well. And I've been checking back, that's comic tropes is right on the money as you might say. And Nyquist, yeah, 500 bucks. The Cobra Mothership, which is in the 118th scale, so it's scaled for vintage figures. It includes some cool stuff. It includes an O-ring figure. And there's an expansion pack that you can get with a squad of O-ring figures. And that's really cool, especially for fans of O-ring G.I. Joe who are not getting that stuff right now. There's nobody else making anything for them. Well, okay, G.I. Joe's not making anything for them. There's some awesome third party O-ring figures that are happening right now. If you like O-ring, there's actually a really good time to look into third party sources, awesome stuff going on. But as far as specifically G.I. Joe, there's not really a lot of it out there right now. But the $500 Cobra Mothership, it may be a bit of an ask. I'm not getting it. It's too much for me. And even if it weren't, that's not really in my wheelhouse. The Super 7 stuff, I think Super 7 is very smartly focusing on nostalgia around the animated series, which is where the Cobra Mothership comes from anyway. And I think that makes perfect sense, especially for their five point of articulation, simplified figures. I think those figures kind of lend themselves to that kind of really basic design and color scheme that looks like animation, right? That's all cool and well and good. But $500, that's a big ask. That's a big ask for fans. And it's not making a lot of progress. I've been checking back periodically. And the line on that thing is not moving very quickly, sometimes not moving at all for days. So that doesn't bode well. I'm not going to tell everybody to go out there and buy it because if $500 is too much for you, then you can't justify that. Or if this is something that you just don't need or want, then at any price you shouldn't have to go get it. But it's definitely not a good thing for GI Joe if a licensed crowdfunded project fails, right? That doesn't bode well. I don't want, okay, to Super7 and Hasbro who are definitely watching and listening right now. And of course they are. I mean, who wouldn't listen to the wisdom emanating from this oracle right here? So of course they're listening. So let me say to everybody, you know, don't lose your minds over this if it doesn't work out. It may not necessarily be a lack of interest. But I mean, you may have found the top end of the price scale, the price point that people are willing to shell out at any one time on GI Joe. That's a big ask. Hello, Firefly. I just wanted to say hello to you. It's nice to see you. It's got the footprint of a piece of furniture and it's wider than the flag. Yes, it is enormous. And Comic Tropes was able to see it at New York Comic Con. Thank you again, Chris, for checking that out. I really appreciate it. It's big. It's really big. That's fair to bring up because that's another issue that some folks may have with it. Even if you are interested in it and even if you can't afford it, it's really big. You may not have the space for it. That would be my issue. I got in on the Haslab Dragonfly and that thing is huge and I already don't know where I'm going to put that. I would have to live in the Cobra mothership. I'll have to move my bed in there in order to have space in this place for that thing. It is enormous. I think I understand in any way why Super 7 went that way. If you're going to do a high-end crowd-funded project, some kind of special project, that you couldn't financially justify doing any other way. This is way too big to ever put out at retail. That's just not feasible. The only way to do it is to try to get the funding through preorders. It's a conditional preorder is what it is. I understand why they did it. If you're going to do something like that, it really needs to be something special. You can't just do a fang helicopter as a crowd-funded thing. It's got to be something big. It's got to be something substantial. It's got to be something that people will be interested in. It's got to be something that you can't get any other way. I understand that. Man, that's a big ask. That's a big ask. The base vehicle is $500. I believe I've seen folks post their receipts for when they ordered it and they signed up for it. Tax on top of that. I don't believe that includes shipping either. Add-ons, it's much more than $500 at the end of the day. I understand why they did it, but I just don't think... I think that you've reached that tipping point that it has to be bigger, but now it's too big. It has to be big enough for people to want to buy it, but now it's too big for people to be able to buy it. I want to see everything related to GI Joe succeed. I want GI Joe to win. The more we succeed, the more GI Joe we will get. That has been the case. The classified series has been doing well enough that we're getting more classified. The Super 7 series is licensed, but it's been doing well enough that we're getting more Super 7 stuff. That's good. It has been the case that the more successful GI Joe has been, the more of GI Joe we get. I want to caution everyone, don't lose your minds if the Super 7 mothership doesn't fund. It's not good. Failure is never good. I'm not a silver lining kind of guy. Failure is never in itself good. Success would be better, but if it doesn't fail, please don't look at that as the end of the world when GI Joe is done. GI Joe is not done. I just think maybe that's not the project that realistically can succeed. This is all assuming that it doesn't succeed. There's still a lot of time left.     If it does end up funding, well, then good. Then disregard everything that I said. Just ignore the last, I don't know, 20 minutes or so of the show. But anyway, is that everything I was going to talk about? Like I said, I'm not working from notes. I'm not working from notes, but I'm trying to remember everything. We talked about assembly required. That's in Des Moines. That's this weekend. That's coming up. I will be there. Please come and see me. I will not look like this. I'm not bringing this. So look like, look, you know, refer to previous images of me to see what I will look like. Look for me there. Love to see everyone. Oh, no, it's black Halloween cat. Look, spooky. Okay, go away. There we go. He muted the mic. Thanks a lot. I was, I was on your side. I've been telling people all month that black cats are not bad luck. And then within two seconds of coming up here, you unplug the mic, you mute the mic, and I got to fix it. Anyway. So anyway, assembly required. Half the battle Christmas charity coming up. I will share. Oh, thank you. Joe fan 84. He sends a super chat and says Mr. S wants everyone to know his bag is absolutely full to the brim. And we're heading home now. Happy Halloween to everyone. Congratulations, Mr. S on the Halloween candy loot. Now, please give me my share. I will be expecting my kickback. Okay. That's how this works. I get 20%. I get 20%. So just send me 20% of your candy and we're good. But congratulations and happy Halloween, Mr. S. Gray Fox says just tuning in is this battle core. Hoodie Coco. It might be this is after all. The best in the world. As soon as I figure out something to get revenge on, I am going to be revenging all over that place. So, so yes, it's, um, I'm in quite a festive mood. where this show started and as soon as this show is over, I got to work more. Yay, that's my life, man. But yeah, so, but if you're in the Des Moines, Iowa area, please come by. Please say hi. The show, Assembly Required, it's not an expensive show to come in. So please come, please say hello and I'll be there. I'm going to shoot some of the next review video while I'm there. And hopefully when I get back, I'll be ready to start editing. I can actually get you guys a new video. I'm trying to get stuff out on a more regular basis, but unfortunately, more regular basis doesn't necessarily mean weekly because, well, a couple of reasons. First of all, I've been really, really busy with many other things. Black cat, the destroyer of worlds done. Yeah, that's, yeah, he's over here destroying worlds. That's what he's doing. Also, hello, Christian Bricks. Nice to see you. Thank you very much for being here. What was I saying? Okay, so yeah, Assembly Required, video coming, working on it, did a lot of shooting on it. Hopefully be ready to edit by the time I get back. That'll be awesome. And what else was I supposed to talk about? I think that was it. After this show, I believe what's on JoeMind is live today, right? So I'm having a hard time keeping up with anything. So my apologies to everyone. You know, if you have a show, lately, I probably haven't kept up with it the way that I would like to. I'm barely keeping up with my own stuff. So I'm having a very hard time keeping up with other people's stuff, but I'm trying to do better. I'm trying to do better. And yeah, Comic Tropes points out, so we've got something, we've got something big coming, at least I hope it will be big, for JoeFest in Augusta. So I know that JoeFest is like half a year away or more, more than that. But also, Cobra Convergence is normally we wouldn't start planning that until January. But because, you know, we're trying to do something special. We're having to, you know, kind of work on these things early. Oh, hey, hello, Toy Connections. Thank you very much for being here. Oh, and what's on JoeMind is running a supercut tonight. That's nice. Frankly, I could use a supercut. So thank you, what's on JoeMind for doing a supercut, because frankly, I could use one. I know my hair is fabulous, but I could use a trim. I could use a slight trim. So thank you for the supercut on what's on JoeMind. But yes, anyway, I don't want to give away too much yet, because well, because there's not a lot to give away yet. We're still very in the very early stages of working on it. But at JoeFest, coming up in Augusta in June, there will be a booth and a presence for Cobra Convergence specifically, and a Cobra Convergence panel at JoeFest. So we will, we're gonna try to make it big. We're gonna try to make it big. We're gonna try to make it special. But to do that, we're trying to get started on it now, so we can have some hope, some hope of having it done on time. Oh, hello. Thank you, Josiah, for the super chat. He says, does Toy Connections want to break any news tonight? So Toy Connections, have you any news to break? I don't know. You got news? Well, you know what? I was about to say talk about Ken, but I don't want to tell Tails out of school. I don't want to jump the gun on anything that Ken's doing. I want to, he should be able to announce things when he's ready to. So, but I have been talking with Ken about some of the plans for JoeFest. Well, I've been talking to a lot of people about the plans for JoeFest, but it's coming up. It's coming up. What would all of you want for a Cobra Convergence Booth Art collection displays something else? That's a good question because I think the presence is going to be significant. See, the nice thing about JoeFest in 2024 is that it's going to be late in June, whereas this year it was early in June. It was really too early to announce a lot of the Cobra Convergence stuff that was going to launch in July. Well, this time, it's right before Cobra Convergence 8 launches, so the timing is really good. The timing is really good to do something special related to Cobra Convergence at JoeFest. Toy Connection says, Delta 17 shipment is on the water and on the way to North America. Delta 17, that is something you must check into. Speaking of third-party toys, it's a great time for third-party action figures and Delta 17. I was able to see their samples at JoeFest this year. They look fantastic. It says, HCC and I have collaboration with Kelly Slaughter airing Friday. That's right. If you're on Patreon, you saw it early. Thank you, Ken, for letting my patrons get an early access of that. I really appreciate it. Thanks to the Super Chat Josiah, HCC, and Kelly did great. Thank you very much. I think Kelly did very well. Kelly's got a very good announcer voice. Kelly Slaughter, she's got a good presence. I just try to keep up. Ken was there when I did the recording of my part, so he saw how many attempts it took for me to say simple lines. Simple lines. I lose the ability to speak English and say intelligible words. Yes, Bart. Toy Connections is in the house. That is correctamundo. What was I saying? I think that's it. It is Halloween. I'm missing out on some of the live chat. Rainier Barker says, I conclude my Cobra Glass showcase at the upcoming Cobra Convergence event. Yes, absolutely. As usual, there will be a call for new participants in Cobra Convergence. I really want Cobra Convergence 8 to be the biggest. I really want it to be special. They're all special, but we've tried to make it a bigger and more significant event each year. I'd like for us to really step it up in 2024. Thanks for mentioning that, Renegade Barker. At some point, probably after January, I'll start doing calls for Cobra Convergence participants. We'll try to get it going. We'll try to get everyone in who wants to be in and who's actually creating something related to GI Joe that really should be in the event. I'm going to do my best. I always miss a few people. Every year, I always miss a few people who really should have been in, but I didn't get them in the event and I'm always like, okay, well, I've got to get them next year. Jamelyn Park says, how is Marianne? Marianne is well. She is probably trick-or-treating with her child right about now. That's why she's not here. She is halloweening with her child. Actually, I saw her earlier today and she's doing quite well. Cometrope says, I think the folks at the CCA table should be in cosplay. I sort of have an idea. Anyway, okay. Some of these things I haven't even talked to anybody about because they're just in the idea phase. I like to hold on to an idea for a few minutes before I start tossing it out there because sometimes when you get ideas, they sound like they're really good ideas, but you sleep on them for a few days and then you're like, that actually wasn't that good an idea and I'm glad I didn't talk to anybody about it because that would have been just dumb. But I got some ideas still in the idea phase, but the Cobra Convergence presence at Jofest should be significant. I'm pretty sure. At least it's going to be the best I can do, which I don't know. You've seen what I can do. My powers are limited, but I'll do the best I can. I'm surrounded by books, mainly.  Oh, thank you, Josiah. Josiah, thank you for the super chat. It says, cooler, what's on Joe Mine's shirt to wear at Jofest, classic logo or Sergeant C-nugs. I like the C-nugs. I like the classic logo. Don't get me wrong. I like the classic logo. I have a t-shirt with the classic logo. I don't have a C-nugs. Maybe I should get a C-nugs. You raise a good question. Perhaps I will get a C-nugs for the show. I got to go look at their merch page and see if I can get a C-nugs. Comic Trope says, I always wanted to go to Jofest, but I don't know if I'd have enough to do. Is one day plenty? Well, it depends on when you go. There's the show with the panels and the floor show. I assume Sergeant Slaughter will be back. I think he tries to go every year. A lot of it is the after-party. The after-party is significant. The game show, the karaoke night, just everything. There would be plenty to do. As long as you are outside of your hotel room, there's the huge toy swap that they do. There are impromptu meet-ups in the hotel. When I say impromptu meet-ups in the hotel, it's not, well, I actually can't prove that it isn't anything dirty. There probably are some naughty meet-ups in the hotel. That's none of my business. Outside of the rooms, people hanging out. There's a lot to do. There's a lot to do. We had a pizza party. I planned a gathering at the Mellow Mushroom. I called in early to have a table available. We ended up waiting for a significant amount of time. Won't do that again. Won't do that again. Hello, Woodman29. It's nice to see you. Thank you very much for being here. You know what? The important thing is that Bart was there. Once Bart's there, then you know it's a party. The thing about Joe Fest and really a lot of the GI Joe-centered conventions is that they're significantly smaller than your Comic-Cons in your major cities. Because of that, you can really make some actual connections. You can really meet people and really spend a significant amount of time with people, including the people doing the panels, the celebrities there for the signatures. You can actually spend some real time with people. That's what most of us do. I'm looking forward to it, especially the karaoke night. Not because I'm going to sing. I don't do karaoke. People pay me not to sing. But Marianne has a special song that she's already committed to doing with another participant there. Yes, that'll be amusing. Anyway, we've got about seven minutes. I'm going to wrap it up. I don't want you guys to miss the Supercut. I definitely don't want to miss the Supercut. I mean, look at this. It's not that, but it should be equally entertaining. Just to recap, and then I will wrap things up here because I've got to go back to work. Of course, I'm not done working. What? I've only been working like 6.30 this morning. Of course, I'm not done. To recap, assembly required in Des Moines, Iowa. This weekend, I will be there. Half the battle Christmas charity event coming up. We'll share that when that goes live. GI Joe Stove, classified vamp and clutch and so forth. Classified his tank looks gorgeous. Super 7, mothership. I mean, it looks nice, but it is struggling to get the fumbling. So I hope it goes well. But as I said before, that's a big ask. Cobra Convergence presence at Joe Fest 2024 should be significant. I'm really tired and I need to probably go to sleep. I'm probably going to have some kind of psychotic breakdown due to lack of sleep deprivation. That's a bad thing. You really got to keep you got to make sure to get your rest. The brain starts to not work properly when you're asleep deprived for too long. And that's I'm there. I'm there. So oh yeah. Hold on. Comic tropes. We didn't talk about that at all. GI Joe number 301, Cobra Commander number one, Duke number one, all coming soon, all of which I do intend to get. I will get all of them. I've been feeling more positive about the image skybound GI Joe than I was before. I'm encouraged. Of course, you got to read it. There's no substitute for actually looking at it and experiencing it. But I was pretty concerned about the direction they were going when they first announced it and a few details got out. But as we learn more, I feel a little better about it. So knock on wood. That's not wood. It will it will go well and it'll actually be good. And the most important thing is it has got to resonate with a current comic book audience. That's GI Joe needs relevance. GI Joe needs a current audience, not just a nostalgia audience. So that's, I think that's the important thing. We'll do. Okay, hold on. I can I can sort of see with I got my glasses on. I can sort of see K dog will do be about his shadowy agent past. I don't know we will find out or is the rightful spot as the leader of GI Joe and boyfriend of scarlet. You're okay. I'm banning K dog. I'm kidding. I'm not. And the comic tropes it starts with him leading a new team to investigate both Cobra and transformers. And hopefully, you know, he through his investigation, he will find that transformers doesn't require that much attention. So, you know, focus on Cobra. That's that's what I'm hoping he will find in in his in his investigation. Robbie Rosary, who is is a comic book a fish Yanado says, I like transformers one and I rarely like transformers comics. Well, that's that's also encouraging. The thing about the GI Joe transformers crossovers is that you know, I don't want to be the dead horse, but I've in general have not enjoyed the crossovers. It's very hard to balance GI Joe and transformers in the same story. They're just made with different purposes. They're different scales. They, you know, one's more of a cosmic thing and one is more of a grounded thing. And they they they do not mesh easily. So so yes, but it's encouraging. That's all that's all I can say right now is it's encouraging. And I hope I hope it goes well. But I see that it is it's about time for us to wrap up. We got about about one minute. So thank you for joining me for this Halloween the revenge episode. I mean, look at me. Look at me. I am wearing the literal face of evil. So of course, I'm revenging on someone I don't know who I'm revenging on. Nobody really comes to mind that I would revenge upon. But as soon as I think of that person, they better watch out. Because I'm gonna be revenging. Oh, I'm gonna be revenging. Just see if I don't just try to stop me from revenging. Another super chat from just I thank you. Watson Joe mine shirts on sale at key public now. Yes. And I do have I have a couple. I have three. I have three Watson Joe mine shirts because they did a shirt for Cobra Convergence five five. It's one of them. But I've got I got the Cobra Convergence shirt. I've got the the the the Mark Weber off target. And I've got the basic. I've got the basic logo shirt. Um, anyway, but but before I go, before I go, let me take this mask off. Just once.    I can't see you.  Well, hello. Hello JLS comics. It's nice to see you. But in fact, you you came just just at the end of the show. So I will wrap up so we can all go to to supercuts with Watson Joe mine. And I will see you all again next Tuesday. And hopefully if all goes well, after that, I will have a really significant review video for you should be a pretty big one. So anyway, good night, everyone. Have a great Halloween gets lots of candy. Be careful. Check the candy to make sure there's no LSD in it. Or I mean, if there is a LSD in it, just save those for yourself. Don't give that to the kids. You know, that that's for later. That's for mom and dad later. But but have a great Halloween. And and we'll see you all next week. Bye, everyone. Thanks. See you later.


So first of all, I wondered if we could talk about your kind of background in arts and sculpture and how your interest in art came about. Um, I had always been artistically inclined from the time that I was very small and I had a early love of comic books that facilitated my interest in graphic representation. So I would copy comic book pages and draw my own superheroes and make my own stuff up. And that kindled my interest in drawing profoundly, which can take out my childhood and into my teen years. And in high school, I became much more interested in fine art. I saw a very romanticized portrayal of Vincent van Gogh starring Kirk Douglas called Lust for Life while I was at a summer program for art at a university campus. And when I was 17. And from that point on, I just wanted to become a fine art painter. But when I got to college, the painting department was less than stellar. This was at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Okay. So I saw the sculpture department producing some pretty interesting things. So I switched my major to sculpture. And I'm still vacillated throughout my time in college because I did switch back to switch the illustration for a semester, but then I switched back to sculpture again semester or whole year I forget. I continue my sculpture studies and graduate school. During college and graduate school I met a Russian Ukrainian born professor trained at a Russian Academy. His name is Leonid Lerman. And he was like my Obi-Wan he sculpted better than anyone I ever met drew better than anyone ever met had a completely different philosophy about sculpting and drawing anything I ever encountered in college or grad school in New York. Part of my reason for wanting to go study grad school in New York was so I could be closer to him because he was in New York. So the whole time I was in grad school I was taking classes with him and even afterwards. And eventually I decided to go study where he studied, which was at Russia's leading sculpture on monument monumental sculpture Academy it was called the Mukina Institute. His name has since changed. And I went there for two years. And then that was that was pretty much that I got married there had a child there. We came home after two years. And that's when I started my professional career. Wow. Okay. So you you kind of you really went for it in terms of getting the training and the background. I was in school for 10 years. Yeah. Wow. Thank you. So during that time did you learn anything about coin engraving or new mismatic art. Well, what was in Russia that's where I was really truly introduced to the proper way of sculpting relief. And I held up.  I was doing a metal design. And as an example, I put, I stuck a quarter, you know, just a regular George Washington quarter, Flanagan quarter, averse, you know, to my board so I could see it as a guide. My, my Russian teacher, spitlawniser gave me was who's since passed away, came up to me, picked the quarter off my board and showed it to the entire class and said this is this is what good relief is. Look at this, look at this coin. This is how you do really. And that really excited me. And, you know, when I was in college, being in going to college in Philadelphia. My job at the mint was like this kind of like apocryphal mythical thing. Yeah, you know, the chief former chief engraver Frank despair was from Philadelphia, and he did the reverse to the penny and it was it was used to work twice but it was like a there was this mystic, mysterious legendary status about the mint. So when I was in school basically there were just a handful of places you figured you could get a starting job. It was either the mint, but that seemed impossible. There's a place called the Frank, which was a, which was a prior a private. Private was a private. Collectibles. Yeah, fine fine art collectibles house. And then also this place called the Johnson atelier which did life size statues and more as a foundry, but also sculpture studio. So those those are the things that I always had in the back of my mind as an option and the mint always seemed like something that I wanted to do because I was told that I sculpted really very well when I was in Russia. But again it seemed like it seemed like a close it just seemed like this mysterious thing. You know, it didn't seem like something you could actually get a job with. Yeah, because, yeah, it's just, you know, it was like, yeah, there was a mystique about it, you know. Yeah, okay. Oh, I'm sorry about that. No, no, so how did you kind of had that education you went to Russia you've spent 10 years studying how did you then turn that into a career. Was it easy to find a job when you came back to the US. I got I came home, kind of what looked around for about a month and I found a job at the place called the Johnson atelier the fine art foundry. Okay, and there helped his life size figures and more for about eight years and I was also, I also took the initiative to get digital sculpting software for our department. When it was apparent that the that the organization was going digital. Many years after work. And on the weekends, teaching myself digital sculpting software and I also took a community college class in that direction. But you know I was kind of like thinking about getting a job in film or video games this kind of thing I didn't really ever see that I didn't foresee that there was a way that I could leverage my new digital sculpting skills into a career making actual other than like somebody's assistant or something like that because that's that's what I did at the foundry I would I would make models for famous artists but it would be there their product you know okay. So, then, then the opportunity at the mint presented itself. And I took advantage of that and I started here in 2005. And it was August of 2005 July or August. Okay. And what do you remember the first coin you worked on. Yes, my, I did a, I did a, I did a design for the Utah State quarter. Under the mentorship of, of, of future chief engraver john mercanti or canty. He was not there at the time he's just kind of like the unofficial department head. So I took my design along and it actually got picked. So I sculpted the Utah, the Utah State quarter. And I'm following that my design for the George Washington. Presidential $1 coin, the golden dollars that were kind of popularly popularly known. I did Washington I did Jefferson I think I got Martha Washington.  I did a lot I did a bunch of coins my first year. And one thing that was interesting is the mint made me sculpt them all traditionally, because they wanted before they would, we were the mint. I think before, rightly so digital having been so new at the time and me being in me being so new. They wanted to make sure that I understood the fundamental principles of relief sculpture for coin making before they would allow me free reign to just go digital and do my thing. I learned a tremendous amount even though I had a lot of experience sculpting stuff relief traditionally. I learned a ton of stuff about coin making that first year when I sculpted everything in clay and plaster. It was great education. Excellent. So coming back to the kind of digital aspect. So you first got exposed to that. I was in New Jersey at the Johnson Atelier is that right. It was in a Princeton was in the Princeton area. And I exposed my that I got exposed to the idea of digital there but I was the one that I, I want to phrase this right. I pursued learning digital sculpture on my own independently independent of the of the organization the organization at the time. I had a pretty close door policy about who was letting into the digital department. So I had to teach myself in order to what I thought was going to be preserving my job. And it proved to be effective because the owner of the of the of the place. And it kind of gave me a position as as as like one of the digital as the digital sculpting resource for the for the organization and you know worked out worked out well, you know, it wasn't my favorite job in the world working there. But it was a great stepping stone I was there for eight years so I was it was very difficult and painful in a lot of ways, but I learned a tremendous amount. And I was I was, you know, a lot of good people were there. Okay, so when you initially started using technology to sculpt were you completely open to that idea. Was that something you wanted to kind of embrace. Yeah, I think having been born as part of the first real video game generation members.  But you know all the arcade games and all that stuff and I always had an interest in in technology interest in space and stuff like that. But one thing that was cool was I remember when I was in grad school in New York. I saw an article in in some art magazine about the production of portraits via scanning or scanning and then CNC milling computer numerically controlled milling machines which are like, like it's like a regular mill but it but it moves around in space on an arm and it cuts things out of stone or styrofoam or things like that. And that that made that I saw, I just kind of felt like to me at the time that, despite the fact that I was working in just with clay and charcoal and stuff like that. And he spoke to me that I don't want to sound like I was prophetic or any any pretentious stuff like that. But I definitely got a little twinge in my stomach saying this is the future. Yeah. Excellent. Okay, so do you think or do you ever get either coin collectors or just just kind of our critics or fans of art that that think digital is is somehow inferior to the traditional approach? I think in all branches of professional, I won't say fine art, but you know any type of professional art, say it's coins or collectibles or anything like that. There was a bit of a controversy early on as to what was better traditional or digital. And I know I was met with, I know that it was met with some skepticism by different folks that I've worked with over the years early on in getting into it. But I think that that has that dialogue has kind of come to an end. And it's been resolved very peacefully. And now it's more of a question of, you know, efficiency without a sacrifice of quality. And as long as, like my goal, you know, I started sculpting digitally for the mint, like my goal was like, I don't want anybody to be able to tell that this, this should be indistinguishable from something that was made by hand, the finished product.   I mean that we were successful in that endeavor. I was the digital, I did the digital sculpting part of it. But then they had the tooling side of the manufacturing part of the division that handled making the, you know, the steel that to create the actual designs. And through through a concentrated team effort, we were able to bridge the bridge. We were able to build a bridge to the future for the United States mid. And I think thereby for the rest of the world because I honestly think with all due respect in terms of the developing and engagement of the digital technology early on, I with all due respect all of mint and this might be my own ignorance as well. But I think we were a world leader, and still are in our engagement of that technology. Yeah, not me or anybody else just because it's every nothing. You know, engravers artists to get a lot of credit. And that's cool. You know, you get your initials on the coin and that's a tremendous honor I don't want to downplay that the reality of it is, is every single product that's made by any man is a team effort. And depending on the workflows of the respective organizations, it takes a small army of people just to get out the master tooling part of it. I mean, right by master tooling, you know, the stuff that gets disseminated throughout the rest of the minutes, so that facility so that they can make their, their respective products. But um, and but that's the other minutes over the years from what I've seen, I'm not really, really well burst in the technical capabilities of our colleagues around the world, but I just see nothing but beautiful stuff being done all over. And I think it's just, you know, a lot of people get a lot of people, I think a lot of people on the inside of the coin world. Some people wonder about the viability of the coins and currency as a, as a, as a utilitarian product. It's this is perhaps the most exciting time in modern history to be working at a mint. And I think there's more potential than ever there's more potential for incredible products than ever before. And I think there's going to be a, you know, the collectors and fans of coins have a lot to a lot to look forward to going for going into the future. Right, that's just my intuition. That's just my feeling. Yeah, no, that's, that sounds really exciting. So it could all be my desire for job security. Yeah, I guess so. And no, no, that's that that does sound really exciting. And one thing I wanted to ask as well was, how does it compare working on something like a coin quite intricate quite small, compared to the other kind of sculpting you were doing presumably you've worked on quite large scale. Sure. Well, the one thing and I was just talking to a colleague today one thing that's interesting is, you know, when you're working digitally, there is no scale, really, because you can zoom in to something that's like an inch in diameter and make it so it. It's 13 inches across on your screen, or zoom into the just the eye of a portrait fills your entire screen. It's a completely different way of working. And even though the final product is sculpture. I think that the process itself is equally analogous to drawing as it is to sculpting, because typically you use a stylus and you're sculpting on a glass surface. And, and it requires it relies on the on the gesture of your hand the way drawing does, and you think in three dimensional space the way you do with drawing. But you're making a form that ultimately is realized the sculpture so it's, it's an interesting challenge, you know, yeah. Excellent. Okay, so I guess this this might be a quite a difficult question to answer but how. How does the process work from the very concept of a coin right through to the kind of you, you finishing up you signing off your parts of it is there. There are a lot of preparation in terms of artwork and different ideas. There are all artists here in this department and we get to submit designs along with our artistic infusion program colleagues. And then the drawings get reviewed by committees, the CCAC and the CFA, and based on their recommendations of design is selected for particular product. You get your design you get the sculpted or you know if it's designed by one of the artistic infusion program artists and then I assign those out, and then they get sculpted. And some people work in clay and have them ultimately digitize some people work in clay and also in 10 with digital software sculpting, and then some people work exclusively digital digitally. There's no imposition on any, there's no requirement that anyone here work any particular way. The only requirement is that they work the way that's best suited for them to make the best possible product. And then once that is process is finished in tandem. The this the medallic artists as were as they're called as I used to be called work in tandem with what are called product design specialists. These specialists are also artists themselves and what they do is is ensure the coinability of the design before it goes into production. That's basically it, you know, we have we have a very practiced and successful pipeline in this side of in this corner of the minute. And we're very fortunate to be, I think to be able to play the part in the process that we do and it's a lot of responsibility. And everybody here takes it really seriously. And how does it feel, you know, when you've gone through that process to actually see the coin or have one in your hand. I mean, it's always great. It's easy to take it for granted after a long time up in your 15 years. But you never, you know, you never really take it for granted. You know, you see when you see something that you work really hard on and see that it's come out well. And it's going to represent, you know, not just the mint, but your entire country to the world. It's a great honor. And it, it's always a great honor, you know, it's easy to take it. It's easy to take it for granted, but I don't think anybody who does. It could be easy to take it for granted, I mean. Yes, yeah. So, I know your, your initials Joe on the penny that's using the US is that right. Yes, that was the reverse of the penny was designed by a great artist and lindel bass. So that's her actual drawing. And I sculpted it but we what we we typically at the mint. When there's a designer and artists when they're separate people entities rather both initials go on the coin, but if the sculptor was also the designer then just that there's only one set of initials on the coin. I see. Okay. So you ever tempted to tell people if you see, you know, if you're in the store and you get some change. You ever tempted to say, that's me. I did. I did some of that early on. Yeah. Or like, you know, I'd be walking with a fine one tails up on the sidewalk. That was cool. And you know, and yeah, I mean, it's really that was a great honor to be assigned that. And I'm very fortunate. I guess it's, you know, I mean, I just turned 51 a little while ago and I have been here 15 years and I start to think about the long run, you know, my portfolio of what I've done. And that's definitely highlight, you know. Yeah, absolutely. And of course, becoming the chief engraver that must have been something really special as well. Yeah, that's one of the greatest honors of my life in any capacity, professionally or personal. Yeah, fantastic. And where I mean where you're aware of the kind of history of that role and also just the many coin engravers that have been active at the minute in the past. I was here when my former boss and mentor John McConte became the 12th chief engraver believe it was when he was when he was named 12 chief engraver by then director Ed Moy, I believe it was at the time. And so this is going to sound like self serving but even before John was chief engraver you know John served under. Frank Esparro and former chief engraver Frank Esparro. And I hope I got that name right when I was talking about the apocryphal story about the penny I may have said John McConte. But anyway, Frank Esparro was the was the sculptor of the reverse the penny. John used to tell me that I reminded him my mannerisms reminded him of Frank's and John would, John would always say that one day I was going to be chief engraver, you know, it always tell. And I just took it for it. Yeah, I was like, I whatever, you know, and I'm, and he was one of the first people I called when I got the job. And he just said I knew it, I told you. Yeah. Fantastic. What does the sorry carry on Joe carry on. No, no, go on, please. I was just going to ask what what the role kind of entails so you know making that step up, obviously a real honor. But is there a lot of responsibility that comes with it. Yeah, there's a lot more than I thought honestly, I still sculpt and draw, although not as much as I used to because I have managerial duties that include art directing. Well I expected the art direct art direct all the 2d artwork from the outside artists and the inside artists. And then I also art direct on all the sculpting that's done. I also get all the assignments to the various sculptors and I have to meet the schedule deadlines. We as a team have to meet them but I'm old if if if a schedule benchmark is missed it's my responsibility more than it's not the artist responsibility, ultimately to my responsibility. So, you know, we have a pretty, we have a pretty robust workload at all times, and, and I take that responsibility very seriously to make sure the schedule is is met with the highest level of quality quality. And, and, yeah, I mean basically, there's a there's a lot is I mean it's not but it's not like over. It's not overwhelming sometimes a little bit for me but it's not that. I feel like I've been growing into the world the more the longer I've had it. And I'm very great. I have the mentorship of my supervisor Ron Harago. I mean Ron really walks me through a lot of the, you know, I won't say pitfalls but navigating the world of being a manager is very particular skill set. Ron's Ron's Ron's an incredible manager, along with John McConte he's one of the best, best people I've ever worked for. And he's really helped me get through a lot of the harder stuff and be productive and still be compassionate at the same time. I also have to, I owe a great deal of thanks to director Ryder, David Ryder for, you know, trusting me with this position, you know, and he's he's also he's he's got a great vision and he's done a lot for the mint I think in the time I've been in 15 years. It's not his first time here but as a director he's, I think he's doing a fantastic job. It's just a really great time to be here in general. Yeah, just going on in the outside world. I know we're having a hard. That's the other thing that's really cool is that we've managed to stay. We're talking to another colleague about this.  And it's just a testament to all the people that work. It's not just this division. It's everybody that works at the mint and every and every facility in any capacity. I always say that I don't want to sound like rah rah pretentious but I mean, it takes everyone in this building to make the coins and metals that we do, you know, from from from the custodial staff, not saying that there are any other, but I'm just saying from the custodial staff all the way to the superintendent's office, every single person in this building and every other mint facility are equally equally important in the process. Yeah. One of us can't do our jobs without the other doing theirs. Yeah, that's fantastic to hear, you know, such a difficult time for everyone around the world that to hear those kind of, you know, even if it's from a kind of a work perspective to see people coming together and getting on with things and doing the best they can. It's fantastic. One thing. I know you've got so many different coins you've worked on but would you be able to pick a favorite do you think, if you had to. Honestly, I think, well, both are metals. Reverse for his holiness the Dalai Lama's congressional gold medal was was a great honor in and of itself, but had that having gotten in 2008 the opportunity to go to his hotel room in the morning with a group from the mint and Don Everhart the man who designed and sculpted the and John and just the whole team. Wow. An hour with this holiness. Before going to the Capitol to watch President Bush give him the metal and the whole thing. That was incredible. But then also having done the, I designed and sculpted the but for the shanksville heroes of 911. I'm probably garbling the name, but it's the heroes of 911 congressional gold medal. The shanksville Pennsylvania site metal design and sculpt the opposite of that. And that just as a sculpture and design and piece of art that that's probably the most important thing I've ever done in my life just provided commemorated. Well, that's, that's really kind of such a poignant thing to have to do isn't it or responsibility. So, I mean, how do you kind of, how do you kind of approach something like that that's so emotional. And how do you, is there a way you can kind of put that emotion into the design into the artwork. Well, I think having studied monumental sculpture in Russia and learning how to invest yourself in the creation of a memorial or monument. Lent itself to my approach doing either commemorative coins or medals that honor particular recipients in a certain way. And just, you know, basically, I think I try and imagine what, what, what this product's going to mean to the people who it's going to mean something to try and make it with an eye towards, you know, being worthy of their cherishing that object that you that you have a hand in making. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's kind of brought me to the end of the questions one, one final question. It's just what what kind of what does the future hold you think for the US men and do you have any kind of projects that on the go at the moment that you can tell us about. The future of the mint is best described by people above my pay grade. But I wouldn't be here if I didn't think that this was not the place to be for me until I retire. I think the future of the minute is bright. And I just, I just, I'm very grateful for the opportunity to be here. And, and however long that is I will be grateful for to it for it to the end. And we're always working on new stuff. I never allowed to talk about it but I'm sure you that, you know, my goal is that as chief engraver is whatever we do is always going to be the best thing we've ever done. I would just look forward to continue high standards being being met and presented to the American people in the world. As a result of our efforts collective efforts. Yeah. Okay. And with your, you kind of experiencing comic books or love of comic books and sci-fi that kind of thing. Do you think there's any, any kind of future projects that might combine both of those interests to be in terms of calling projects. If I were to retire. And, and then then I could do the different things for different minutes to do license stuff. But I have, I have a very active personal side profile where I do collectibles and work in that world so it kind of satisfy that that that interest. I feel very fortunate that I'm able to enjoy my, my, my passion for fantasy sci-fi and comics, and still be chief engraver the US Mint and execute the, you know, profound duty of serving the mint and country by my, you know, modest efforts here, I guess. Again, I hate to sound like I really feel this way. I really feel strongly about being here. I think it's like really I'm really lucky to be doing this job that any, any, they could have picked anybody else who wanted to and they picked me so I feel very lucky. That sounds like a great combination of interests if you can do both of those things successfully. I think as a community of artists around the world, participating in this craft. I think it's very, very strong. And great work is coming out. So, I mean, yeah, we're all individual men's and all that stuff and of course, my mind to my country comes first but I do have a profound respect for my colleagues around the world. And just like I would as any other branch of sculpture, I, I try to keep a universal perspective of what's going on because you can only learn by looking at other people's work.  And I think that's a, that's a, that's a boring thing. Yeah.  I don't really buy my own coins because my mother bought all of them and tripled it going back. So she pretty much buys most of what I do. And I have that collection in safe hands. Yeah, no, I just, I just, I don't, I really don't buy any art products that I participate in. It's not, you know, it's not because I don't think they're good or anything. It's just like, I'm always thinking about the next one. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's great Joe. Thank you so much for your time and good luck with with everything at the mint. And, and stay safe. Thanks so much for your time. You too. Thank you so much for having me. I really, really appreciate it. I hope this is useful for anyone that that hears it and I really appreciate being able to participate. Yeah, thank you for very honored. Thanks Joe speak soon.


Welcome to Intro to HR Concepts. My name is Koji Makai, and I'll be serving as your instructor. Before we talk a little bit more, let me share my experience and my education as well. I hold a BA in Psychology and Speech Communication, a Master's Degree in Business Communication, and a PhD in Applied Management and Decision Sciences. Now I know that sounds like a lot, and it sounds like it's a lot of words, but at the very basic level, I care about human beings. I care about human beings in the workplace, which is why I'm teaching this course right now. One of my experiences, at least my very first experience out of college, was working at a Target, and that's a place that I got to learn a lot about people, what moves them, what motivates them, what drives them, what excites them. And my interest in HR and organizational behavior only increased from there. At this moment, I am teaching courses both in business, as well as in communication, because I believe those two things are linked, and there's great value in how people do their work day to day. I am very interested in how people perform their work because I know that most people are going to spend most of their days at work. We have 8,760 hours every single year, and we will spend up to 70% of those either at work or in work-related activities. And my goal is to help people function a lot better at work because it helps them function a lot better at home, and on the whole it makes people better human beings. As a consultant, I spend time with HR departments, but also with executives, trying to find ways to make work much more meaningful for people. And that's why it's my pleasure to work with you in this course to help you become part of that process of ensuring that work becomes much more meaningful for people as they show up day to day. The HR assistant assists with the administration of the day-to-day operations of human resource functions. This basically means you could take on the role of helping an HR manager or an HR specialist as they do the work that they do. You are going to be the go-to person for taking care of the basic aspects of HR administration. Now the HR assistant is going to have multiple responsibilities, and some of these are listed. Let's start with the first one, department development. When it comes to department development, just like any other department inside the organization, it's your job as an HR assistant to ensure that your department functions effectively and efficiently. So not only are you assisting in making sure that everybody else is taking care of within the organization, you also make sure that the department itself is functioning and flourishing. But you're also going to deal with HRIS, which is the Human Resources Information Systems. This is the computer system or software that handles all the information that comes in that is pertinent to HR. That means applications come through this process, resumes come through this process, birthdays, and all the other information that is contained within the organization pertaining to HR. This is a vast system. It can spit out information for us that we need at certain times. So it's important for you to know that information. But the other side you're going to be dealing with is employee relations. That means you get to be the interface between management and the employees themselves. And being that interface, you get to be the face of what it means to connect to the organization as a whole. So when a person comes in and they're first hired, you get to be that person that orients them towards what the organization is about, what the culture is, what the heart of the organization is. And that's related directly to training and development. In training and development, which is my favorite thing to do is we get to really look at a person and say, what are the potentials that you have? And how can we develop those potentials to unnamed heights? And so in training and development, we develop people personally and professionally. And that's going to be part of the work that you do. I think it's exciting work because you get to work with people and see how valuable they are when they come in and how much more valuable you can make them. Another part of the work that you'll possibly be doing is benefits administration. And the benefits administration section, you start to work with the extra money that people make. It's the money they don't see in their paychecks, but it's the money that comes in the form of benefits such as healthcare. You get to administrate this part of a very, very important piece of why a lot of people tend to work is so that they can have benefits. The other side is compensation. Everyone likes to make money. Now, most of us aren't driven by money, but we're okay with the little money that we do have. You get to be a part of that. You get to be a part of understanding what motivates and drives people and how can we compensate them in the way that makes them feel great about themselves? The organizational development piece is another one that excites me because it starts to look at the organization as a whole. What does the organization do well? What does the organization do poorly? How can we benchmark everything that we do? How can we go from being over here successfully to being over here successfully? You get to be a part of that. And organizational development is a huge component of HR work. The executive administration part is sometimes either running the HR department itself or helping the organization run different departments. So you might be interfacing with managers and supervisors of different departments, but in your role, you get to have a cookie from each part or each plate of the departments. The other side is employment law. It's very, very important for you to know the laws that govern how employment ought to be. And so you get to be the person that explains not just to the executives, but also to employees what laws govern their rights and how they ought to behave. Now going a little deeper, there are a few objectives that the HR assistant is going to have to take care of. And I'm going to spend a little bit of time talking about each of these. The first one is safety of the workplace. Now in this one, it could also read as safety in the workplace. Your job as HR assistant is to provide a workforce and a workplace that is safe. That means people can ergonomically sit comfortably. That means the interaction between technology and them. That they can sit at computers that will make them feel comfortable. That they can work in a position that doesn't hurt their back, for instance. Your job is to provide safety. That means you hire the best type of people, not people who are unstable, but you also provide tools that can help people really work successfully within the organization. You're a part of providing the balance that's required for work. You know, a lot of people are looking for work-life balance. You get to be the interface for that. And I'll use that word quite a bit of interface because that's you. You get to be the bridge between where people want to be and where people currently are. And through that, you're going to develop a superior workforce. It's your job. Every day you come in, how can we make our organization so much better? What is it that we can do to make our organization successful? Part of that is managing HR so much better. We have to manage our human resources because that's the trick to being a successful organization. See, we could have really, really strong products or really, really strong services. Now, even if we had those, if we didn't have people to sell them who are wonderful at doing that, if we didn't have good customer service, if we didn't have good administration, none of that would work long term. So you get to be a part of developing that superior workforce. The other part is you get to develop the HR department itself. Not only are you developing this larger organization, you're also developing the people around you. You're finding trainings for the people say who are in benefits administration, sending them to new trainings and getting them prepared so that they can answer the questions that employees might have. So you're going to be a part of improving your human resource department by providing all the tools necessary for them to do their work well. You'll also be developing an employee-oriented company culture. And there's three emphasis that I want us to talk about. Number one is quality. See, quantity is a big deal and a lot of people talk about wanting more. The problem is instead of us having more, we need to have less and actually have less that is quality. So it's important for us to have quality people. Imagine having a workforce of 20,000 people and only 5,000 were effective people. What a waste. We're paying people to be there and they're not producing in a way that we need them to develop or to produce. So you get to do that. You get to develop this workplace that emphasizes quality but it also emphasizes continuous improvement. That means just because people are wonderful at certain things, it doesn't mean that they are perfect at them. We're always seeking opportunities for people to improve. How can we take our manufacturing to become better? Well, not only do we have the right systems in place, we also have the right people. So you are constantly keeping an eye out and your ear down for a lot of people who might come in and provide added value to the organization. The third point is high performance. We want high performing people. That's the hallmark of a good HR department, bringing in high performance. This is people who are in the manufacturing section, people who say who are in customer service, people who are on the sales side, people who are on the service side if we have tools that need to be serviced, you are bringing in the very best people and developing them. Now sometimes you're going to bring people who aren't exactly the greatest but because of your time and attention they start to become better because they start to see themselves through the lens of their strengths and that's what you get to do because now you're developing this culture that says it is all about you and we want you to become strong. Now with all this said, it's important for you personally to develop. If you are not developing you provide no example for the people that you're trying to encourage to become so much more of what they could potentially be. So it's important that in the process of you constantly developing other people and sending them to trainings and providing benefits for them and giving them the information that they need that you personally develop as well because when you develop as part of the HR department you increase the value of the HR department and by doing that you also increase the value of the organization itself.


Thanks for checking out this movie review video, so this is for the 2020 film Violation. It is a shutter original and it's coming to shutter on Thursday, March 25th and for that reason this is going to be a no spoiler review. Now when I say no spoilers I mean a little bit I will tell you some thematic things that end up happening in the film but I'm not going to really tell you the events other than a very quick synopsis that's like a sentence or two that doesn't give much of anything away. So anyway and it's usually a lot less than what's actually in the trailers just So this film Violation like I said shutter original coming Thursday, March 25th written and directed by Madeline Sims Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli this is their first feature film together and first feature film not together for that matter as well. Sims Fewer actually plays the main character of Miriam and I do need to shout her out because her performance was very good. It's not an easy character to play in my estimation and she pulled it off really really well. I think in general the acting in this is quite well done. Now that said this is a mix. I'm going to tell you good things about the film and I'm going to tell you bad things about the film and if you really need to know overall I would not watch this film again. I watched it once and that is enough for me and in fact overall I did not like the film. There is a great film in there and that's what frustrates me about this movie is there's a really good film in there. It's just a lot of kind of technical things and I'll talk about those kind of came together to really stifle that and make it very frustrating and very hard to actually watch so let's get going. So the synopsis a real quick synopsis basically it's about a two sisters and one of them has some indiscretions with the other one's husband and then she seeks to fix it basically and things get messed up because it's a horror film and I don't want to tell you too much more than that because if you want to watch it go ahead and watch it I mean if the trailer looked interesting go ahead and check it out. Like I always say even though I didn't like this film and I'll tell you why I will still tell you things I did like about it just like the acting but I also always say that every film is worth watching at least once just for the purpose of figuring out if you like it because yes there will be people who see this review and they're like you're crazy it's an amazing film and that's good that's great I really hope that is the case but there will be other people who see it and say yep I don't like it or they're in between so it's all kinds it's just an opinion people but anyway let me tell you what I felt the opening with choir music oh and you do need to know for this first note that I'm going to read you the way I do this is I take notes as I'm watching the film so the notes that I'm as I go through the notes it's as I was watching the film so it's chronological for the film typically the opening with choir music and lots of up close slow motion shots tells me it's either going to be great high art or too artsy that it just crashes and burns closer to the crashing and burning in my estimation than the high art there is an aspect to this of trying to do too much visually and trying to think too much that you're an auteur or these two individuals thinking too much that they're auteurs when they don't have the technical skills in my opinion now that said certainly better than me at filmmaking so I would be the first one to admit that but when you're trying to you know make a living doing this you're putting the film out there it leaves it open for pointing out these you know criticisms yeah but that's why I always present good and bad with these the camera work is unbelievably unstable in this film this is something that bothers the hell out of me this is something that's very problematic with films and I'm going to tell you why I'm going to read it exactly how I wrote it please use a tripod it's fine to be shaky when you're moving with characters or it's an intense crazy scene but when characters are just sitting or standing use a tripod this is a piece of technology that's been around for quite some time now we have tripods we know how they work if you're just if you have a camera that's consistently unstable and moving during shots even when nobody in the shot is moving it's a stable shot like someone's just there two people are talking and they're just sitting or laying down or whatever that should not be shaky that's a poor choice it is very bad this film it's shaky throughout the whole thing the camera work there are a few shots here or there where you could tell they actually used a tripod so they own one and I think they should have used it a lot more it's very distracting it doesn't make sense like I said though using that kind of shaky you know more raw camera work is totally good for like really tense moments and there are some of those where they use that and it works it's fine like that or if you're you know filming and moving with the characters or trying to move around them or whatever but there are too many shots where it's just one shot from one position nobody's really moving and it's extremely shaky that is bad filmmaking in my opinion I hate it it's very distracting it really kills one of the things that really kills the film for me uh they do a good job of establishing an underlying issue between characters without being cliche about it that is one of the things I think story wise there was a great story idea when the script was being formulated granted I think the script needed to be cut down a lot they needed to do more passes that I don't know if they had other people read it other than themselves but it needed some more edits in my estimation really needed to be edited down now it also could have been a situation where the script was you know more slim and then when they started shooting things they just added stuff or they elongated scenes and then they just left that in for the final edit but I don't know but they do do a good job of kind of establishing character relationships and I think that's partially through the writing of who the characters are the events of what go on the dialogue and the fact that the dialogue actually feels very realistic and that is not easy to do I do have to give them a great credit for being able to create characters who feel realistic and who speak in a realistic manner and have a conversation that feels very true to life that's not easy to do and there are so many movies that do not accomplish that so that is a really awesome thing I was a fan of that there are a lot of real nice looking nature shots in this film but there are also way too many close-ups of a multitude of things that's another one of these things where you can tell to a degree that this is kind of a first feature film because they're trying to incorporate one type of shot a lot of times you know it's kind of like when new filmmakers use the lens flare a lot which thank thank goodness they didn't do any lens flare in this thank you for not doing that but so many close-ups it gets so annoying and you can't see what's happening now I'm sure there was some sort of purpose for it where you know it plays into the actual story I have some theories on that I'm not going to go into but because it could spoil things but it doesn't look good it doesn't play well and you did it too often with a lot of things if you do them too much the impact of when you're doing them becomes less and less and less and that's kind of a theme with a lot of things with this film is doing certain things too much or for too long and it just waters it down it makes it less interesting it has less impact that's just something that ends up happening with this film so and I'll talk talk more about that in a minute the dialogue and characters once again great script writing but also the acting they deliver it super well that's another thing I need to say the music beats you over the head it is very over the top at times this is another thing that kind of bothers me with film even in times when there's not really that much going on or it's not particularly scary or tense or whatever it's kind of like over the top music like bring it back but to balance that out I do have to say there are a bunch of scenes where they use no music they basically cut it out so you can focus on the sound design which is pretty good and what's going on and leaving the audience to their feelings to try and you know work through things and there are some very key scenes that are very good scenes very well done acted and shot and everything where other than the shaky camera where that silence really plays into it it makes you uncomfortable it increases tension increases being uncomfortable and it's great for the overall feel of the film so I like that it doesn't take long for the film to feel like it's dragging that's bad it is a hour and 47 minutes of a film by the time it got to about the half an hour mark I started looking at my imaginary watch because I was like is this going to be dragging the entire time and the answer is yes yes it is going to be dragging the entire time cut this thing down this is what I was talking about about cutting down the script or just cutting down you know the scenes they let scenes go on way too long the editing is a problem with this film a huge problem and for that reason it has very significant pacing issues and you just lose your desire to keep going with the story in my opinion like I said I'm sure there will be people out there who feel differently about it people who you know stuck with it the whole time and they were like yeah pacing was fine for me for me way too slow watered it down like I was saying really long scenes that did not need to be that long you got to get better with editing I'm gonna say something I say a lot I'm refer back to the hit movie host which was under an hour because that's how long the story needed to tell to be told basically and with this film you needed a lot less time than an hour and 47 minute runtime to tell this story they needed to cut at least 20 minutes maybe a half an hour maybe even more and that's not good that is not good in my opinion okay so scenes are just too long and a few drawn out scenes about an hour and an hour and 15 minutes into the film would have stood out in a very good way where it not for the rest of the drawn out scenes this is kind of what I was saying is when you do something too much it waters down the impact of when it should have impact prime example there are two really good longer scenes that work as being longer scenes but by that time they don't have the impact that they would have had all the other scenes been cut down a lot more see what I'm saying see where I'm going here there's a scene people are going to lose it over because it's going to make them very uncomfortable and I'll just say this make them uncomfortable in a sexual way people are going to lose it I have no problem with this I'm actually fine with kind of putting this in there pushing that boundary go for it because if the roles were reversed people would not complain I'm just saying uh but I did applaud that move because I was like oh I did not see this company that are this coming and people are going to lose it over this so it'll be interesting to see online what people say about that with about an hour left in the film I just wanted it to end it speaks to how bad the pacing is how long it's drawn out oh my gosh and that sucks so bad because like I said there is a really good movie in this film there's a really good movie there it just gets lost it gets watered down it gets drowned out it's so unfortunate actually they could just take it you know it won't solve the the shaky camera situation but they could just take the footage that they have and edit it a lot better a lot tighter and make it a much better film in my opinion much better there's a weird look at in certain scenes where the light is actually blurry I think it has to do with the exposure time for the camera like literally you'll see like prime example like inside of a house like an actual like lamp that's lit and there's just this like weird blurry glow around it it looks terrible um those things are not good that should not be in there the most intense scenes do not use music that bears repeating which was a good choice because it makes you more uncomfortable and there is stuff to be uncomfortable about in a very good way in this film and I applaud that stuff there is some messed up stuff there is some intense stuff uh and for that reason that's why I say I'm so let down by the fact that all these other technical things really killed this film for me I wanted to love it I really wanted to love it and there were parts I did love obviously points for good practical effects at certain times in this film really good practical effects at certain times that really enhance the uncomfortable level the gross level all that great stuff um the end scene the the very end portion of the film has great dialogue and it has wonderful gravity to the film and for that reason I really like the way the film ends probably the last like five minutes or so very good um it's a powerful ending it's a great ending it's really well done but the road to get there was tough it was too hard you're gonna lose people before you even get there unfortunately just saying all right so my last feeling on this film to wrap it all up there are good and important points to this film having to do with consent victim blaming and silent suffering but the directing the cinematography and the editing kills this film it's very unfortunate in my opinion but there's a lot of good raw talent here this is the first feature film so those individuals who made this film you know realize what could have been done better and go on and make more film like I said I'm just one person giving my opinion on it I know there will be people will probably say this is an excellent and perfect film sure you know but that's all I have to say about it I am very interested to hear what everyone else has to say about it so put it down in the comments which by the way go ahead spoilers in the comments no problem and we'll we'll talk about it did you love it did you hate it were you in the middle I could see people being everywhere on this film and let's talk about the more controversial scenes of this film because there are a good amount of them so anyway do me a quick favor and hit that subscribe button that is your best way to repay me for doing this video or any video on my channel I'm sure you've liked at least one video at some point hopefully and if that is the case take that one second and hit that subscribe button whenever someone does subscribe I get an email notifying me I look at that person's profile and I say internally thank you to this person very cool person that is actually true I actually do that it's not a lie so also if you're going to do that please hit the notification bell button and then that way you'll know whenever I'm putting up new reviews whether it's a no spoiler review like this a deep analysis review with spoilers or some of my unboxing videos haul videos all that jazz but regardless thank you for taking your time to watch this and until next time keep it brutal


So, I am with Siemens, it's a 175-year-old tech company, I'm in charge of cybersecurity and trust there, and to the topic of today, Siemens operates in verticals that really addresses roughly 63% of the greenhouse gas emissions that account for 63%, so it's a large amount, so it's buildings, it's transportation, it's industrial production, and so it's for us really an imperative to look into ways of decarbonization, and that's, as you probably know, if you're a little bit familiar with the topic, typically in four different areas, you can look at your direct emissions, indirect emissions, energy consumption for instance, you can look into the supply chain as it comes from upstream, that's actually the biggest challenge that links to the technology of blockchain and decentralization, and then the upstream part as well in the supply chain, and finally also carbon capturing and the possibilities to offset four emissions, and here we really see the big problem around actionable data on a product level as well as trust worthiness, and here the term trust already links probably to the technology that connects us here.


So as we have shown in the previous video, the line of best fit or the regression line, the orange line going through the predicted values, shows the predicted relationship between the independent and dependent variables. You can see that some of the actual results, the blue dots, give it from our predicted results using our line of best fit. In this video, we will introduce a measure to evaluate how well our model can predict the actual results of the experiment. This measure of evaluating how accurate our model can be for predicting the reality is known as the R squared value. R squared is the proportion of total variation in the dependent variable, which is caffeine content in our example. That can be explained by the linear regression model or the line of best fit. Because it is a proportion, it takes on a value between 0 to 1. Our R squared value of 1 means that our model is capable of predicting all of the variabilities around the sample mean, meaning that we know exactly how much the independent variable will affect the dependent variable, and then there are no error terms. R squared of 0 means that our model can do no better than the sample mean in predicting the actual results. You can use the R squared value when analyzing your own data from experiments. It's important to remember though that it is just a statistic based on your own data, and R squared value won't tell you whether your experiment results are correct or not. Only gives you a rough idea on how well your model, or in this case the line of best fit, can predict the actual results. If R squared is low, our line of best fit might not be what its name suggests. And we can probably find a better line or model that will become the line of best fit. You also need to use your own analytical skills to draw your conclusions.