Yeah, I think tech Hawaii think tech tech talks. And today we're going to talk about the data divide and what we can do about it. And we have Jillian Daibald. She's in Washington. She's a policy analyst. And we like both of those things we like policy. And we like analysis. And she's at the center for data innovation. And she moderated a webinar in Washington a few days ago about the importance of the data divide and what we can do about it, what we should do about it, what policy makers should do about it. So we are so delighted to have you on the show, Jillian. Thank you for being. Thank you so much for having me. So what is the, what is the center for data innovation. Tell us about the organization what it does and how far it reaches. Yeah, so, like they said, we're based in Washington DC center for data innovation is part of the information technology and innovation foundation it is a mouthful. And we're a nonpartisan nonprofit think tank and we studied the intersection of data technology and public policy. And so part of our work involves educating policymakers and public like I'm doing now about the opportunities and challenges associated with data, as well as technology trends relating to artificial intelligence and open data and the internet of things. And so I'm pretty early in my career and I joined the center for data innovation a little over a year ago and I leave my teams work on digital inequalities. And I'm going to have also done some work on web scraping and AI and open data issues and I'm especially interested in data for social good so all of those good issues is kind of what we cover here at the center. I got it all except for the web scraping what's that what's web scraping you know it's when if you're a researcher and you need to get data from a publicly available website so you want. You know, a data a giant data set of like all tweets on a subject and you know that could be hundreds of thousands of data points. It's sort of an automated program that lets you collect all that data at once. Like a crawler. Little bit. It's kind of controversial but not controversial I think it's journalists researchers love it companies don't love it it's complicated. It's why it's a good one to look at you know what are the challenges that you know that you see that you deal with I mean imagine. You know of all the things that happen in the world of data there are plenty of them. And you have you know before you determine policy and you know advocate for one policy or another you have to identify the problems. So I know we only have half an hour here, we could spend a lot of time on this but can you give us some of the primary problems in, in data in data divide here in the United States well in the world today. Yeah, definitely I mean I think it's easiest to start kind of with just the definition right so the data divide is a term coined by the center actually before I started there about 10 years ago. It's been kind of we're bringing this issue back to light but it's the social and economic inequalities that result from a lack of collection of data and use of data by certain individuals and communities. So, even though right now, advances in technology have made it cheaper and easier than than ever to collect and use data some groups still lack really high quality data that they can put to productive use about themselves and that kind of hinders everything you know it hinders data driven innovation and it really impacts everything from their health outcomes to public safety to economic growth. Wow, so it's very important to understand the world around us I guess that's what I get out of it. And you these days in the complexity of the 21st century, we cannot understand the world around us without without having the data. What distinguishes somebody who's on the right side of the divide. And I don't mean that politically, maybe I do, who's on the right side of the divide and who's on the wrong side of the divide. How can you tell the difference be somebody who is who has it and doesn't. Yeah, I mean I think it's, it's the key question and it's really whether it comes down to whether data driven services work for you and you kind of feel confident that they are working for you and or whether they don't. So probably the best way to do that is to just go right into an example. So with financial services you know I would say you and I have maybe I'm assuming we have credit cards and the credit agencies, but not everyone does and that's sort of that's a divide in itself right. Whether you have access to credit or not and that comes down to data so the credit agencies they have they're built on certain systems that you know underweight loans and whatever. And they, they need certain data that allows them to collect and score individuals and that's usually based on so called traditional items about you know financial borrowing and your repayment loan repayment history. But those same systems are not equipped to take in so called alternative data sources so they leave out things about your on time rental payments so they really privilege home ownership. Or they leave out your utility payments your cell phone bills and your cash flow in your bank account and so as a result. You know a lot of consumers are kind of left unbanked or you know left with unnecessarily low or really inaccurate inaccurate sports so you know that's an obvious one you know whether or not you have access to a credit score that you believe actually represents your credit worthiness or whatever you want to say, and I think these kinds of examples really pop up in so many different facets of life. So I asked you this before you told me you're writing a paper about it. What's the difference between the digital divide and the data divide. Let me make a guess before you start. You know, here in Hawaii we have areas that are poor and rural, and nobody in the given neighborhood has a computer even. They don't have broadband. In fact, we have a state broadband strategy officer whose job it is and try to get broadband to areas that are disadvantaged. Is it digital divide or am I missing the book. No that's that that's the digital divide and I think like where policy, at least in Washington is now is that the digital divide really just pertains to internet to the broadband. So it's all worried about broadband deployment and adoption. We kind of I mean the term obviously builds off that it's using the same the same alliteration whatever data divide digital divide, and the data divide like I said is really just instead of do you have access and can you put broadband to use to have data. And so it's sort of taking a step back and just looking at the fundamental, you know, building blocks of information and say what information do you have about yourself it's not necessarily about can you get connected to the internet you know where the focus has been on that for the last year and it's reaching pretty high levels of adoption, obviously in the four rural areas you're speaking about there's still work to be done but you know I think now the thing to worry about is you know we're in the internet economy that that's agreed upon and we're kind of moving into this data economy so to speak where data is sort of the new, you know currency in some ways, although I don't love that analogy. It allows you to do a lot of things and to participate in the economy and so when there's that that that divide, you don't have the data about yourself. You're kind of going to be left behind in that and so that's kind of why we built off that digital divide terminology in this report and so the next one is going to be exploring you know what solutions. Do we have for the digital divide and what what's out there right now what kind of programs are we are we doing. What's the government doing and sort of. I'm going to be saying you know what should we be doing and do those solutions work for the data divide. The answer spoiler alert is sort of no. And sort of what do the solutions look like what does policy solutions look like for the data divide. We can't just say oh because they sound the same digital divide solutions work for data divide they kind of require a little bit different, different different thought pattern. Let's assume for a minute that I don't have a digital divide problem that I that I can get the broadband I can put a browser up. And I can you know I my own experiences I can learn anything I want really anything with a browser and broadband anything. That's because of Google.  So why can't I, as a person on the wrong side of the data divide, get on the right side of the data divide just learning just Googling everything just finding YouTube is another commercial name YouTube videos or Vimeo videos or some kind of information on my system and educating myself. What is stopping me from doing that and if I do that, won't I be able to cross. Yeah I say that I've been waiting to say this to you. May I cross the divide. I think it's a good question but I think what it is is that you know, yeah you can Google anything but can you Google actual information about yourself, can you Google things about what's your possible your personal health outcome if x, y and z or you know where should you go to school based on your specific educational history. I think those are the kinds of things that it's a lot harder to bridge. The internet doesn't really just let us bridge that you can't just Google personal information about yourself and see patterns over time and so that's really what the data divide is and why it's a little more than just having access to information although obviously I want that for everyone and everyone should have that. There's more about, you know, information about yourself here is the real the real problem and what that's what that's what these communities and people I mean you and I probably there's divides here. That's what people are lacking is is sort of information about themselves as it pertains to health education financial services the environment. So if you're a certain gender or race or whatever all those things it's you can't find that information if you don't have enough data collected about you, you won't be able to see that kind of thing about yourself. Are you including communities. It sounds like you are in other words. I'm a redhead. I'm not a redhead I was never a redhead but I'm a redhead and I want to connect up with other red heads. Are you wrapping around the whole notion of social media and finding people of like mind like interest like persuasion is that part of being on the right side of the data divide. Yeah I think it's especially about information about that community so yeah we'll use the redhead example you know it's you can be connected to them by internet but again do you have information about people with that specific story and your outcome in X Y and Z so it's so yeah I mean it really is we look at it I think it's it's most important sort of at the community level because that's you know where a lot of friends happen and that's kind of where that's a data collection is done especially when you want to preserve privacy you know you have to look at it at the group level. So yeah I think that I think that thinking is sort of right. So you know the problem I see is that you know you suppose you cross over and you learn about programs that can help you and those programs help you take better care of yourself those programs help you learn about the possibilities that you can employ to become more successful more more wealthy in the community do more have more learn more all that but but here's the big but this is a moving target just as you and I speak you know there's hundreds of thousands of programmers out there and entrepreneurs and companies that are inventing new software to give new leverage new justice to bring that term into play. And so how can I possibly keep track of that how can you keep track of that how can we collectively achieve that kind of justice when it's moving all the time. I think I think it's a great point I think it's just that we really need to raise the baseline and that kind of is where I bring in the data equity term of that you know it's not necessarily I at least me I don't think the goal should be every single person has a smart watch. It's more that every single person has an X standard of data collection about them and so that you know obviously that's something that policymakers really need to prioritize and you know we need to be able to ask them to do so effectively about you know what are the key areas where those those data gaps really persist because like you said, yeah new things are coming up every day and it's not necessarily important that every single person can keep up with every individual fitness tracker, but it is really important that you know every hospital system is held to the same standard of you know data access or data sharing so that when you move to one or the other you can choose where it goes and you know whether whether your doctor has access to it that kind of thing so I think it's a tricky question obviously but I think it's the system level is sort of we need to worry about the systems rather than maybe the individual devices here you know I think we need to think about healthcare as an umbrella system or education as the system and so raising the baselines of those will kind of allow us to allow it to be dynamic and sort of just keep moving in the right direction rather than kind of getting bogged down and oh no they missed this one this one device or whatever. So okay justice just to dwell on that for a moment. What's how do you fit justice into all of this. What is justice in the context of the data divide. What do you seek what do I want. What is a better community and and how do we achieve justice. It's a is it a legal thing philosophical thing, a technological thing what is it. I mean I think it's a good question again I think it's, it's a technological thing and it's again ensuring and and you as an individual you know believing that these data collection systems are to your benefit so it sort of brings in the trust issue to me is really you know trusting that these data driven technologies they work for you and you know I think there's been a lot of you know concern or hostility around some of them because you know people are seeing there's you know when there's incomplete inputs you know it's it's coming out with with inaccurate outputs and that applies to so many different systems right now but I think that it's that creates you know the trust problem of. I don't believe that that system is actually working to my benefit it's actually harming me and you know that might be happening right now so I think. Where justice comes in or it's really the equity concern comes in is that we're raising the baseline for everyone so everyone can kind of feel a lot better about. You know, how these services are working and how this kind of decision making is working to someone's advantage or you know to believe that it is doing so called a fair decision making. Well you've opened a really really interesting connection between you know our life in these times and the whole notion of data equity. And I just, you know, the word trust sticks in my brain trust, we have such trouble these days in trusting information trusting fact trusting conspiracy theories if you like. Trusting you know trusting lies. And I mean that's just all over the media is all over our social cultural world right now. And doesn't that infect the problem for you, or those who would follow and analyze the data divide, you know it doesn't mean anything if you don't trust it, and we have a trust crisis. What what is your thought about that. I think it's like the key policy problem to solve right, and it applies in so many ways but I think in in tech policy specifically it kind of relates to this this house the tech lash or whatever. You want to call it the hostility towards big tech and all of that, and really just technology as a whole it doesn't necessarily have to be big part of the science sentiment in the country. You know, in a sense at least at least part of it is yeah. And so I think the way trust comes in here how you solve it again is sort of. It's only until we really improve these systems and by improve these systems I mean improve their input. So I trust that what is going into a system that's making a decision about whether I get credit or not I trust that that information is accurate complete. And actually represents who I am or what I what I do and whatnot. And I think that is kind of what's missing here that's the dated five really in its essence so it's sort of, you know but closing it that's the solution really is reducing it because reducing it will sort of naturally, at least I theorize it'll naturally kind of improve trust overall and at least sort of ameliorate some of the hostilities it's not going to solve you know the greater hardest and trust problem that we have in the United States that's not at all what I'm saying but I do think it'll sort of reduce some of the hostilities towards technology as a whole and I think that's really important. It is I mean to move forward we have to trust it. We have to trust this huge system on which we live. So, I want to talk for a little bit about your webinar in Washington a few days ago, where you moderated no easy task on subjects so complex. Can you give us a thumbnail of what it was like of who is there subjects covered. You don't have to be very specific. I don't want you to borrow is no boring we don't do boring, but could you tell us how that went. It was great. I think the highlight was really that we had us chief data scientist Denise Ross, give a keynote speech and so I think that again was obviously the highlight of it. Denise is working works with the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the White House, and her, her remarks kind of just surrounded all these good issues about the data divide and really went into the concept of kind of equitable data engagement and all of that which is, it's sort of when in the report I'm recommending you know policymakers need to prioritize this through concrete federal action I think the work of OSTP Office of Science and Technology Policy is, is really doing just that and that's kind of what she was speaking about she was speaking about all these opportunities for the public to actually participate and say I'm missing, or I am from X background and there's not data in X agency about me. She opened up a request for information on that kind of subject, which I think is really exciting and that's kind of what she went into was you know, again, sort of just shed it, the way more data will kind of shed light on issues that we didn't even know about you know it's not necessarily, or it's not due to it's not on purpose that some federal agencies are missing information about some groups. And it's sort of a fact in the end what happens with data collection, especially at such a massive scale is the federal statistical system is that they don't even know where the gaps are so I think she was talking about how it's all the opportunities kind of to the contribute and say I'm directly affected or my community is directly affected or my school district is that kind of thing and I think it was it was a really great speech to kind of again touched on all the issues that I wanted to hear about and then in the final. And we see it is your webinar available for us. It is it's available on on our website data innovation.org under events, or on YouTube under the same channel name. Let's talk about data analysis. What I mean is, you know, you can have all the data in the world but the end of the day, it can make so much more of it. If you have tools to analyze it. And that of course includes AI doesn't she talk about that. She definitely talked about the need, I mean high quality so raising the standard across the she was specifically talking about federal data, raising the standard there across the board and then she talked about. And I think it's a really key theme that I'm thinking about OSTP is definitely thinking about about disaggregation so you know, you have this giant pool of data but can you split it up specifically by race gender age income, whatever other kind of like what you want.  So she she yeah she spoke about that and she spoke about that specific part again as a focus right now. It sort of seems obvious I think maybe maybe not, but it seems obvious you know our census data would be disaggregated by all this and it is largely but you know when you look at some more specific agencies that might relate to public health or something like that. It's often not split and or maybe it's just split by two races instead of you know however many there should be. So I think there's some it's sort of sometimes egregious examples actually and that's that's another big focus of the current administration and so she definitely touched on the disaggregation aspect of analysis. So what else was there in terms of the speakers the panel. Who did you have to moderate. Yeah, we had Chris would he's the executive director of LGBT tech so they kind of focus on all the good tech policy issues like data equity and things like that but from the specifically LGBT angle. I mean, Dominique Harrison who heads. I'm going to forget her full title but she's at city ventures innovation and she's kind of heading their diversity equity inclusion as it pertains to data research. And we had a program manager from Microsoft who works on their accessibility team. You wanted to not say and then lastly I had Dr Tracy Morris, who is from the director of the American Indian Policy Institute so she works on different things and tech policy issues, especially broadband as it relates to Native Americans and Native American access and inclusion. So I mean they, they all brought, I think really interesting perspectives and kind of different I think they agreed on more than maybe I thought they all would, which, which is a good thing you know I mean everyone is sort of we're seeing this issue and I think what's interesting is that on the data divide issue there's actually a lot of consensus surrounding the issue but no one's necessarily talking about it in the exact same terminology so kind of the term data divide itself provides like one way to unite all these groups who are worried about all these issues, especially from the diversity equity and inclusion angle to sort of just all put all the efforts into one, you know one stream line which is great. So that's valuable, you know just to get the nomenclature down together and have agreement on the nomenclature is a valuable result. What else, who else, what else did you do. Breakout sessions that you have group discussions that you have surveys and polls and Q&A. I bet you're asking for a lot from a from an hour long webinar. You know that we had so we had this the keynote speech and then the panelists had about 45 minutes of discussion and audience questions and I think the audience questions were really interesting because they actually wanted to take the issue which my panelists are all from the US and a lot about the US context but the audience was super interested and you know how do we think about this issue on the global scale especially when the issues are global like climate change or things like that so I think we got into that a little bit at the end and as a shameless plug I think I will having an event kind of taking it to the to the international level in a few months. I'm glad to hear that. That's a good direction. Yeah, looking at how the, you know, international institutions are kind of dealing with it or thinking about the issue or not. So that's exciting.  And that is, Billy and DiBone a policy analyst. So what came out of this webinar in terms of policy. And when I say policy I mean not just conceptually what should be done but exactly what should be done where. I think it is what Denise in her speech talked about there, at least to if not more open requests for comments right now which means policy analysts like me are going to be I mean I am currently writing comments, but also members of the public should be writing it and saying this is how this specific lack of data is really affecting me so I think that's where policy is at right now and obviously you know it's sort of slow moving but in certain issues of the bit I mean obviously this is a massive umbrella issue I think we're seeing some progress so especially within LGBT data and inclusion there's been some legislative action, kind of on an enshrining data collection about that community. Likewise with Native American data actually and I think there's kind of it's currently kind of on a piece by piece basis of you know x demographic or location I think there has been some movement around rural data as well, but right now again it's it's sort of about the Biden administration once as much information as they can get so it's on it's kind of on the public it's on the it's on the policy world it's on everyone to sort of contribute that information that's that's where we're at. How do you distinguish between data, you know that is, you know, for example there was a piece of the paper this morning about Ed Snowden, and Vladimir Putin has made him a citizen of Russia. You know that there's this that's troubling in some ways because he had a lot of data in his mind. He took away all kinds of classified data. And of course we've seen issues around classified data in Mar-a-Lago and all that, you know, big deal. But how do you distinguish between data that should be public that should be available to people and data that should not. That's the key question and I know we're kind of running running out of time but the key question here is data already has strong de identification protocols that's collected by the federal government so I think that in my opinion, most data should be open and the view of the federal government as well is that the more information available for researchers for you and I the better. That's my general philosophy and obviously I think it's a controversial one but we can kind of we can debate that all day. Well, let me go a step further. Let's say let's say that that that philosophy is the enlightened philosophy, and I certainly agree with you. What how is society, the human experience, the world, referring to your next webinar. How does that improve the world, how does it improve the quality of life, the quality of governing and self governing the quality of the economy and, and, you know, and all those things that come with a more enlightened life. What are you seeking in terms of connecting the data, you know how being on the right side of the data divide and a better world. What is that world like because of the data. I think it's a more equitable world so you know these systems are including many more people and you know maybe the communities that kind of stand to benefit the most so it's. Trusting that the medicine you're receiving is the correct medicine for you and not only is it the correct medicine for you but it will work the best for you for you know it will really you know more data will really enhance our ability to sort of come up with new mitigation or adaptation strategies for climate change it's it's all things like that I think it'll with more data it will both empower individuals so that we'll have this more participatory relationship with with government or with whatever institution because you are empowered to say, I know that this is happening to me and I have concrete evidence in the form of data. I think that's another thing that you'd see. So you know, the sort of data driven world it's really important that it isn't kind of including as many people as possible and I think that it will include with more data collection we will be able to include more people and sort of, again, it kind of to loosely to that trust issue it's more people also feel feel better about the data that's being collected about them and the fact that it is being collected about them because it'll sort of see the benefits to it first hand. Yeah, you talk about the number of people and I'm wondering, what's what's what's your reach. I mean, how many members or followers, what have you are following the Center for data innovation. How many people showed up in the webinar. And what do you see in terms of increasing that reach going forward, especially with your notion of expanding, you know your research analysis and policy beyond the United States and into a global sphere. Yeah, I mean I think it's a great question I think the webinar, well, I'll preface it by saying the policy world, everyone. You asked me this off camera but you know everyone's kind of a nerd about their specific issues so I think that's that's important to preface but you know the webinar had about 300 attendees which is actually, we were really happy with that fact and I think it kind of is because it includes this issue the data divide includes so many different umbrellas so you might just do climate policy up the data divide applies to you you might just do data analysis as a raw discipline that applies to you only want to work on healthcare this applies to you so we were able to kind of bring in so many different policy viewpoints and and these these are the webinars we host at the Center for data innovation. They're open to the public, I would say but they're largely targeted at the policy community so we're all kind of getting on the same page and learning from each other about these topics so you get around 300 people and I think when it comes to the center of health, you know we have a newsletter and social media accounts that reaches many many more I, I wish I knew the exact amount of my head but I don't. You know, thousands of people honestly and so I think there is, and again there's so much potential with this issue to really raise the phrase awareness about it, just because it encompasses so many different facets of policy, daily life, whatever you want to say. I have a one C3 nonprofit exempt organization, supported I suppose by a wide swath of members all around. Who helped you, who helped you operate that's great. So one more time your website. It is data innovation.org and you can find the report on there under report. Thank you Jillian Jillian dive all the, the moderator of this webinar and sounds terrific I'm sorry I wasn't there but I'll try to be at the next one, and I'll try to circle back with you, so we can have a similar discussion about the next one. I hope so. Yeah, thanks. Thank you Jillian and great talking to you. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktecawaii.com. Mahalo.


Just to avoid breaking up with me. Hello, good morning. Welcome back to another vlog. I have been in a bit of a funk the last few days. The weather's been pretty cold and rainy and just blah. And I feel like that's really been affecting my mood. But I really wanna pull myself out of that today and just have a nice day to myself and just like start feeling good again. Today is also supposed to be like 70 degrees which I am very excited about. So I definitely wanna spend some time outside. Enjoy the warmer weather. So I had my coffee already this morning. I watched the last episode of and just like that. Now I'm gonna hop in the shower because I feel so disgusting. My skin is like all red and gross and dry. I feel so much better. Also I decided that I'm gonna rock a slight side part today. I parted down the middle pretty much all the time. So we're gonna try something a little bit different. And I'm just gonna let my hair air dry because I really don't feel like blow drying in all that today. So I'm taking a little bit of the Palmichel Invisible Wear Velvet Cream and I'm just gonna scrunch this into my hair. So it'll give it a little bit of definition and kinda help a little bit with the frizz but without it feeling like crunchy or hard. I don't like the feeling of product in my hair. My little tip for the day, if you are feeling kind of in a funk, not feeling your best, not your most confident, take a nice shower, do a full body exfoliation, shave. The works.  Do all the things that you need to do to make yourself feel really good and really clean. Sorry if you can hear the banging. They're doing some kind of work in the hallway. And then just stand in the mirror and look at yourself naked. It is such a power move. Take it from somebody who has struggled with body image my whole entire life. I am finally, as I'm approaching 30, I'm getting to a point where I'm actually like the heaviest that I've ever been but like the most confident in my body ever which is so crazy. It's not every day, you know, of course there are some days where I'm just feeling like not my best and not good about myself. But there's just something about like looking at yourself in the mirror naked and just like admiring yourself. Like the female body is so beautiful, so sexy, no matter the size, shape, et cetera. Don't compare yourself to other people.   Like nobody can tell me anything to like super insecure feel gross about myself but we're swinging back over to the confident bad bitch side. They're still working outside, kind of loud. I don't know how much the camera's gonna pick up and they're also like right outside my windows. So we have the blinds closed but I am all ready to go. I wanted to share with you my little outfit. I feel like I just stepped off of like an 80s workout video set. I have this little cropped tank top from Primark. This cropped zip up hoodie from H&M, Adidas workout leggings and Adidas sneakers. I feel like I have just been living in sweats the last few days and feeling very blah and gross. So I wanted to wear something a little bit more form fitting and embrace my body today. I also wanted to show you the earrings that I am wearing. I got two new huggies which I am obsessed with. They are so dainty and so beautiful. They are from Ana Luisa and they are sponsoring this portion of the vlog. Thank you so much to them. If you've been following me for a while, you know I have been working with them for quite a while now. Pretty much all the jewelry that I own is from them. If you are like me and you like more dainty, gold pieces that are nice to wear on their own but are also really good for layering, then you will love Ana Luisa. I actually am gonna put on a necklace too that I also have from Ana Luisa because I feel like I could use a necklace. And I love this chain because it's really pretty on its own or you could easily stack it. I love layering a whole bunch of necklaces together. Ana Luisa makes really high quality pieces. I have a lot of jewelry from them, actually this bracelet in fact. I have had this for about a year now and I never take it off ever. I wear it in the shower, I wear it swimming. These earrings also that I have on, I don't know if you noticed them earlier in the vlog if you could see them but I put these in a week or two ago when I first got them and I have not taken them out since I wear them in the shower all the time. So if you're looking for jewelry that's gonna be high quality that you don't have to worry about taking off every time you get in the shower but you don't wanna pay an arm and a leg. Ana Luisa is the perfect option. They're also carbon neutral which is really amazing from their packaging down to their actual pieces. So we love that, we love companies that actually care about the environment. They're actually running a Valentine's Day sale right now. So if you go to the link in my description all of their pieces are buy one, get one 40% off. Their jewelry pieces make great gifts especially with Valentine's Day coming up. I think you should definitely take advantage of that sale. Maybe get something for someone that you love and then keep the other piece for yourself or just get both pieces for yourself. So yeah, check out the link in my description. Take advantage of that discount. But yeah, let's grab my bag and head out. I'm gonna see how I'm feeling and how the weather is feeling outside. I definitely wanna take Benny for a walk and if it's feeling really nice maybe we'll even go walk on the beach for a bit and then we also need to go grocery shopping. I don't know what I wanna have for dinner tonight but I do wanna make myself a nice meal. There's like no one on the beach right now. It's kinda nice and it just feels so good. It's warm and humid and I'm actually really happy that I decided to just wear my hair natural because if I blew it out, it would have been a disaster. Real frizzy mess right about now. A few hours later, I ended up walking on the beach obviously as you saw and then I went grocery shopping and while I was at the store, I saw this which intrigued me. I've never tried this before. This is the TaZo Refresher, TaZo TaZo Refresher's iced watermelon cucumber. How refreshing does that sound? So, wanted to try it. Not usually like a sweet beverage kind of person like I honestly only ever drink water or plain coffee. Oh, it says that it only has seven grams of sugar. So for three quarters of a cup and 35 calories. So hopefully it's not too sweet. It says I should combine it with equal parts water or seltzer. I guess I should have read that first. Well, let's see how it tastes. Yeah, it definitely needs water. Okay, I diluted it down a little bit. That is very refreshing. Just like the Refresher's at Starbucks. Is this something that I would get again? Maybe, but like not on a regular basis. It's pretty good though. What time does it say on the receipt? Oh, okay, there you go. Right, that's what I was saying because if they gave me the ticket at nine, because I know that I got there, like I said, a few minutes before nine, before my appointment, and then I had put two hours in and then from there, after my two hours were up, I added more time on the app. And the app says that I put in at 10.50. I added more time to it. Funny story, I just got off the phone with my mom. She was calling me because I got a parking ticket in the mail from the beginning of December when I had went to get my hair done. It was right before I had moved. They have like on street meter parking, but it's not like one of those old school meters where you put coins in.  I know for a fact that I did that. I paid for my parking and when I was there, she was telling me like, oh, you don't really have to worry about it because they rarely give tickets around here. Like I almost never pay for my parking, but whatever, I'd rather be safe than sorry. Get done with my appointment, go out to my car. Every single car on that block around me has a parking ticket, but my car did not because I paid for the parking. But apparently they gave me a ticket anyway. It just seriously wasn't on my car, but was still on all the other cars around mine. I don't know. And now because it's like so late, it went from being a $10 ticket to a $50 ticket. My mom had the receipt for my parking because she has an app where you like scan your receipts and then you can get gift cards and stuff like that. So right before I had moved, I gave her a big handful of receipts that I had in my car and that parking receipt happened to be one of them and she was able to open up that app and find the picture of the receipt that she took. So now I have the actual physical receipt showing that I paid for the parking in the morning. They gave me the ticket at 9 a.m. and it shows on this receipt that I paid at 8.53 and it was good until 10.53. So I'm gonna call them tomorrow and dispute it and hopefully it won't be a big issue and they'll be able to just take all of that off no problem. What are the chances? I never hold onto receipts for things and I was trying to like pull it up in my banking app but obviously it doesn't show on there like the exact time or anything. At first I was a little stressed because I was like, oh now like I don't have any way to prove I know I paid it but I have no way to prove this. It's just gonna kind of be like my word against theirs I guess. Now I actually have physical proof. It's time to make some dinner. There we go.  The hanging was up with such a pain in the ass because they're right above my couch and I couldn't reach because I'm only five two and I couldn't like use a ladder because the couch, I mean I guess I technically could have tried to move the couch anyway. I was like stacking up couch cushions on my tippy toes and like now with this, I mean yeah I couldn't have got the step ladder but it's little things like that every so often and I'm like, damn.  So tonight we are making some salmon with some roasted red pepper and basil quinoa and then we're gonna make some green beans. I'm gonna do the salmon in the air fryer because that's gonna be the fastest, easiest thing. The green beans, I'm going to roast in the oven. Let's get the oven preheated to 400. There are any new podcast episodes? Oh, I have two that I haven't listened to yet. My two favorite podcasts are Crime Junkie and Crime Weekly but there's two new Crime Junkie episodes that I haven't listened to yet so I'm gonna play those while I cook. I'm just basically gonna cut up the salmon, drizzle a little olive oil, salt and pepper on top, put it in the air fryer for, I don't know, I'm gonna start at 10 minutes and then see if it needs any more time after that and then the green beans, I'm just going to, same thing, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, put that in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes and then this has to cook for about 20 minutes too. Super easy but it's gonna be real delicious and a nice healthy meal because that's the thing too, I feel like when I'm stuck in a funk, I tend to get lazy and I don't wanna cook for myself so I eat a lot of quick frozen meals or I'll get takeout and obviously it's really important to take care of our health, eat right and there's just something that feels so good about taking the time to prepare a healthy meal for myself and just knowing that I'm taking that time to care for myself, it feels really good. I have your host Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And the story I have for you today is as furiating as it is heartbreaking with him because he was trying to do something to her. 100% sure how that happened, to connect the dots. You have to be home at 10 p.m. Dinner is served. I'm gonna eat this while I watch some YouTube. I am ready to take off my makeup for the night. So I'm gonna share with you guys my skincare routine. First I'm gonna wash my hands and then I'm going to use some coconut oil. They make so many like makeup melting bombs and oils and stuff but coconut oil is so much cheaper and it works so well. Somebody one time had said like, oh you shouldn't really use coconut oil on your face. I can clog your pores but I figure if I'm just using it to remove my makeup and then I'm double cleansing after I'm like fully removing the oil then I feel like it should be okay. I've been doing this now for almost a year and I haven't noticed that it's like caused any issues with my skin or any breakups or anything like that.  And then I'm going to use my circadia micro exfoliating honey cleanser. This is a professional only product but it reminds me a lot of the Tatcha exfoliating cleanser. I used to use that one too. And then take a hot washcloth. Oh my God, this is my favorite part of the day. I am at a point in my life, I've been here for a few years now where I will never skip my skincare routine. Doesn't matter how late I get home, how drunk I am, I will always wash my face and do my full routine. And I think if you make a routine that's enjoyable for you and you find products that you really like and you see results from using those products it'll make you not wanna skip it as well. But like doing that hot washcloth, I'm not even kidding. It is my favorite part. It's a close tie between that and my first cup of coffee in the morning. Those are like my two favorite things in the whole world. But I just, I love that and I look forward to it and it feels so good to just have a nice fresh clean face and all your skincare on. So, clean it twice just to make sure I got all the makeup and coconut oil and everything off. Next I'm gonna take some vitamin C suspension from the ordinary. This has been helping to fade any like little dark spots I have from previous acne. So you could put this all over, sometimes I do. Sometimes I will just concentrate it on any spots I wanna fade. And then I'm taking some of the nighttime repair facial lotion from Cercadia. Then I'm taking the vitamin C eye cream from Liliana Naturals. They sent this to me a while ago and I have been using this consistently. Like morning and night for months now and it still hasn't run out. And I really like it. It has made my under eyes so, so soft. The next thing I'm implying is this Nivea cream.  But it's like real heavy. So I would not use this on a regular basis. But when it's cold and your skin is like really getting dry and crusty. This stuff does the trick. Then I'm going to put my serums on. This is the Grande Brow Brow Enhancing Serum and the Grande Lash Lash Enhancing Serum. Put this on my top and bottom lash line. This stuff seriously works. It has made my lashes so long and healthy. And then the Brow Serum. Now I'm taking the 100% Organic Cold Pressed Rosehip Seed Oil from the ordinary. Just take some of that and then whatever's left over I just rub on my neck and decolletage. Palmer's Cocoa Butter Lip Balm. Oh, I hate when I have oil or something sticking on my face and I can feel that there's a hair stuck to me but I can't find it.  I've just been doing this like every so often at night just to help keep my teeth looking nice and white. And I just use the Brilliant's White. So I'm gonna leave these on for 30 minutes and then brush my teeth and go to bed. I'm gonna wrap up this vlog here. Thank you guys so much for watching. Thank you for supporting my channel and being here every week. It means so much to me. My online community is truly like my support system.  I just want you to know I never take that for granted. That's gonna be it for this vlog. Thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to check the link in my description to Anna Louisa so you can take advantage of there. Buy one, get 140% off Valentine's Day sale and I'll see you very soon in my next video. Bye.


Everybody for us here ripping 2022 select baseball hobby six box number 27 random teams There are the results you can always find them a late sports cards calm at any time and there's a Lincoln chat as well Thanks everybody for joining the good luck Yeah Family leagues are always like that's it's so funny Joe Doug premier level 109 of 149 on the blue angels Jake McCarthy 32 of 199 Ricky Gersiotto diamond max wonder franco phenomenon Jose Barrero 49 of 199 Jersey auto for the Reds nice camo Jersey Silver Concourse rookie Jose Siri Houston Concourse white Ryan Vellade for the Iraqis 1950 now I agree I haven't had first pick in any drafts this year. Thank God Concourse tri-color Cardinals Harrison Bader. Where do you like to be at? Probably like the bottom three four five, okay, okay Tyler McGill Nets rookie Jersey card non-numbered. I won't like chase cup Accaparate the four or five gets you a good turnaround as well. He stays healthy silver premier level Johnny bench for the Reds You're in a standard league. That's crazy Standard scoring premier level Salvador Perez 158 of 199 Royals silver diamond level Turner for the Dodgers Drew Ellis Rookie Jersey for the diamond backs non-numbered in a silver moonshot Salvador Perez for the Royals There were some cards. There were a few cards like this guys where they have like ding the left top left corners I'm not sure why that is. There's a few of them in this box All base cards though But not all the base cards Tri-color for Cleveland Aaron Savale My main dark dynasty league which started like years ago was a standard league until like a couple years ago I was pushing so hard for PBR forever. I wanted like expanded rosters.  Yeah, dude Get that one magnet of course 91 to 299 rookie Jersey Otto Luke Williams Yeah, I finally had to tell the people in my league I was like I'm only in this league you guys still because you're my friends like that's the only reason I'm in So we should just do happy VR.  Good God, dude All right, I expect more now in this box Tri-color Premier level Kevin Smith blue J's rookie Jaren Durand rookie Jersey Red Sox Chat doesn't even care Unimpressed I get it I get it Silver Chapman Premier level for the Yankees Expectations are pretty high Premier level red for the Red Sox Chris sale 1 35 of 199 Silver Club level for the Orioles Cal Ripken Jose Siri rookie Jersey card for the Astros numbered 44 of 250 silver numbers with Merrifield Tri-color concourse Jake Berger white Sox rookie we go Devers Touchdowns and yards are negative Well, the thing is illegal you have to have the person play and also not do well so they can't get like benched You know what I mean? So it's pretty tricky And you also need them to not score either just be a turnover machine that has never reward but also plays a lot James is pretty solid, but he's also gonna throw for a lot of touchdowns Premier level red for the Orioles 120 of 199 white Lucina It's making me think pretty hard about it. Hey, Jalaxie 279 of 299 rookie Jersey Auto Rangers Rookie quarterback is good Mike Balman 253 299 rookie Jersey Auto for the Orioles Silver concourse rookie for the White Sox Gavin sheets. I think you're right Colin 20 of 149 premier level blue Jose Barrios blue jays Try color concourse for the angels Mike trout There are some cards in there that are gonna Spencer strider rookie Jersey card for the Atlanta Braves Premier level silver rookie Rangers Curtis Terry Hey Neon green Brandon Lau concourse 44 of 99 Tampa Bay silver diamond level reds Jesse winker Josiah Gray Nationals rookie Jersey card silver moonshots Chris Bryant for the Giants Try color premier level Braves Ronald Acuna junior concourse light blue a Israeli fingers 149 of 149 you know for Chasley Cormac to 18 of 299 rookie Jersey Auto for the Astros for preseason NFL They should also do like backup announcers Back up everything backup coach backup announcers Hans Kraus auto 2 out of 99 for the Phillies back up everything Except for except for refs. Don't do that Didn't need a practice summer concourse rookie Red Sox Connor wall lamb green Chris Taylor Dodgers premier level number 20 of 99 Try color concourse Royals with Merrifield Wander Franco raise rookie Jersey card or you go Tampa Bay So for premier level white Sox Tim Anderson That would be pretty cool That'd be pretty cool Concourse red for the Reds DJ fridles 60 of 199 concourse silver Mariners Each row they should let Antonio Brown commentate a game That would be like must see TV. No one would care about the game itself Kevin Smith rookie Jersey for the blue jayzer at least give him like a quarter Silver phenomenon wonder Franco He needs my help It is like not funny anymore really the premier level try color for the Brewers Devin Williams Is an incredible receiver he was on like all-time trajectory. Yeah, they should give him like I Wonder how long he'd make it before they'll have to like pull them out of the booth probably like a couple plays He'd probably start off kind of professional like As soon as like he's something else comes to his mind he probably just start Going off on something else Some player that he had something going on with back in the day he'd probably Want about that six six two ninety nine Ricky Jersey auto white Sox Gavin sheets Yeti capping 96 of 199 youth explosion auto Marlins nice hits had Bev So we're concourse Orioles Ryan Mountcastle premier level white for the Brewers Devin Williams 1950 try color premier level Mets rookie Patrick Mazzica light blue concourse Kyle Hendricks Cubs seven of 149 Josh Lowe Ray's rookie Jersey card So for premier level rookie O'Neill Cruz. There you go Pittsburgh. Nice He's kind of died down a little bit as averages isn't good. No still got that pop though concourse red Mike Zeno 51 to 299. It's basically his first taste of the big leagues. He played for like maybe two or three games last year Plus the Pirates they stink all around Jeans to girl club level silver for the Phillies Has been bad just been streaky right Luke Williams 85 of 99 a rookie Jersey card Phillies, but he crushes AAA. So there's no reason for him to be in triple a Freddie Freeman silver numbers Braves Try color concourse Astros Jose Siri Right exactly illegal, but like when he was destroying triple a like he was just murdering it Every other day he had like a 470 foot home run could see him starting next year in triple a again Yeah, for being what 22 and Had the speed that he has the size that he has the arm that he has at shortstop I mean you could you're certainly much worse starters in the major baseball current Concourse white Yankees don't Carlos Danton 250 silver diamond level Cardinals Dylan Carlson Eli Morgan 93 and 99 rookie Jersey card for Cleveland Silver numbers Corbyn Burns Brewers Concourse try color Pirates rookie Redulfo Castro Concourse red Phillies Bryce Harper 141 of 199 Demsion wonder Franco rookie Jersey auto cracked ice out of it at 25 big hit raise Grass at Tampa Bay What a break man Matthew R. Congrats raise Great break Bradley raise 90 of 99 youth explosion auto Tampa Bay again Taj Bradley that time Silver concourse Shohei Otani angels Concourse light blue raise Mike Zanino 76 of 149 try color premier level Brewers Willie Adames Illegal you said that fantasy football draft is what Tuesday night. I think I could probably join Tuesday. I don't know man My car needs some money. I'm here Garrett 115 to 250 Jersey card for the Reds. I Don't know what's up with it. I got a fair round. What Thursday Thursday's the first Louise heel rookie explosion Yankees on the short print Yankees and premier level silver rookie Shippuki for the Mets Everybody we take all our cars We got a jersey card for the Reds Amir Garrett Cleveland Eli Morgan Phillies Luke Williams Raise Josh Lowe Blue Jays Kevin Smith raise wonder Franco Nats Josiah Gray brave Spencer Strider Houston Jose Siri Red Sox Jaren Duran Debaks drew Alice and Matt's Tyler McGill Rookie explosion short print insert for the Yankees there is Louise heel Raise out of Taj Bradley Got wonder Franco cracked ice RPA redemption for the rays congrats on that raise Eddie Cappy Marlins did the explosion auto White Sox Gavin sheets Phillies hunts Krause Astros Chas McCormick Orioles Mike Balman Rangers AJ Alexi raves Tucker Davidson Phillies Luke Williams Reds Jose Barrero Debaks Jake McCarthy in two gold vinyls a diamond level Barry Larkin for the Reds and a premier level Roman Gonzalez white Sox Crazy crazy that'll do it everybody. We've got absolute coming up


Hey everybody, we have another fountain pen unboxing for you today. This is a Narwhal Nautilus Grand Rhapsody fountain pen. This is a semi-exclusive release in Narwhal's popular Nautilus collection. I would consider this one an oversized pen, although it's not one of your grande oversizes that you might find in some of the other brands. Some of the most distinctive elements of this design are the ink windows, the proprietary ink windows.  This design has a great pen clip, it's very springy, and it's not postable. That's the one thing that you might want to take note of. If you like to post your pens, this pen, you're not going to post. It's got a pretty dreamy material, a bunch of colors swirled together here. It's got the threaded cap, and it's got the Narwhal nib that so many of you love, and it's still got the Narwhal brand there. And that's the number 16, the steel nib, if you're not already familiar with the Narwhal nibs. I say the much-loved Narwhal nib because we just get so few complaints about Narwhal nibs, and we get responses that the Narwhal nibs just are really great to work with. Really easy to get started right out of the box. Subscribe to App Pencilay for more unboxings, and visit Pencilay.com to get


Okay, good morning once again. Welcome to the youth ministry course. Good to see you. Oh, you all are doing well as always Right, let's continue Maybe left off in the last class we cover chapter five the challenges in youth ministry In that in this chapter, we were looking at challenges that are faced by the youth pastors youth leaders And also the second half it will be focused on the challenges that the youth Themselves face or they go through. Okay So some of the pointers that we looked at all the challenges that the youth leaders of youth pastors face In the last class we looked at was one of the things is impatience Right, so they want immediate results they want to bring about changes immediately and And if that doesn't happen, they get impatient and they end up quitting Prematurely. All right, so we looked at Approaching this as a marathon race compared to a hundred meters dash like a hundred meters sprint, okay So train yourself equip yourself to be like a marathon runner to to run this race with faithfulness with perseverance Right to keep at it Okay, and the other challenge that a youth leader faces is time management. So if if the time is not managed well Then you know, if you don't manage your time, your time will be managed for you by other people So learning to say no was one of the important points that we looked at And we also looked at a book suggestion by Cal Newport called deep work Would suggest you to go through that another challenge a very real challenge that a youth leader faces is discouragement And we saw a list of things that can be That which can be reasons to that lead to discouragement like lack of respect and criticism and discouraging emails and whatnot So those are all and and a couple of other things is come communication and intimacy with God Because as a leader as a pastor and full-time ministry or part-time, whatever if things things can get busy and What not and that could actually affect your walk with God your intimate Relationship with God and so the more busier you get doing the work of God Don't forget who you're working for and making sure that you have you walk You know your relationship with with with God is strong okay, so And those were some of the things that we looked at in the last class And this session very briefly again, we look at some of the challenges that our young people face Okay, what what are some of the challenges? That a young generation a youth of this generation of this day and age Going through okay, so one of the things which has been a huge topic and also over the During the pandemic as well. It's been the topic of mental health and it's The numbers are very scary. I just didn't want to throw numbers at us, but then It's doubled and tripled in number during the Pandemic of how many young people have been affected by mental health It's okay. So and yeah, they are facing incredible challenges in their day to day life every day, right and so And especially when we talk about this generation, uh, you know, they experience change more often than the youth or the teens from 40 years ago So there was a survey that said from the 19th century for 1900s to the 1990s All right, that's about 90 years right from the 1900s to the 1990s um The number of change the people from that Era would have seen is maximum say five or six changes like drastic changes five or six drastic changes and just from the 1990s till now and that I mean that that number has just gone off the roof and now we know that Uh, there's a we experience change on a daily basis on a regular basis and uh And that also has had an effect On on the youth on the energy, you know, and I mean how many times have we had uh Our parents or our grandparents tell us, you know in our days.  So, uh, the days are different. The times are different The challenges that the teens and the youth faced today are very different From the challenges that uh, you know, the teens and the youth that faced 40 years ago Which is obvious, isn't it? Everything changes in time So, yeah mental health was Is like right on top of the list of challenges that the young people faces Um in this day and age and again various various factors reasons factor into that Right, I think for example, uh, I mean stress leads to mental health like and the reasons that can cause it is a life choices Uh academic achievements the needs to accomplish Uh, I mean you guys I'll be the first one to say, uh The generation today are so advanced Uh And I'm like when I was about their age. I say this as a joke, you know, I used to play marbles or play in the mud does But some of the things that these guys talk nowadays is absolutely scary You know and they talk about ambitions and academic achievements and I'm like What was I doing? You know, um Oh, I was sorry. I was busy trying to live life or something I'm scared Uh, but it's just absolutely crazy, right? Uh with the life choices, uh, that the have to take. Um, I mean Have you ever tried to make a choice or choose something anything in nowadays like In I'm not that old. Okay, but then just going 15 years back You know, it's just for example Even choosing a bike adds to their stress level I mean having conversation with some of the young people is just absolutely crazy, you know For example in my days, there were like three Important bikes like major bikes that a student wanted to buy in, you know, and I don't want to mention the names Okay, a tv s Pulse or something just three other bikes Maybe the bullet, you know, the royal infield or something with that So there were three or just a handful of bikes to choose from and you know choosing was easy Yeah, yeah, I'm a harm Yeah Is it so easy and now you have like a hundred or more different bikes to choose from This is just an example guys. Okay And they're like, okay, which one do I choose and just doing Researchers and whatnot and again the same example could be used for mobile phones, isn't it? Nokia double one double zero Was like the boss you could kill a person with that phone Okay, which one you want to buy? Okay, Nokia and just a different model from that. Uh, but then gosh now Uh, you want to choose a phone? It just adds to the stress level, right? I think it's just for young people But then, you know, it's just an example and just the life choices Are there's so much so many for this generation to choose from and that adds to their stress level because they want to please themselves They want to prove themselves, right and and you know to their parents and etc. Etc.  Okay, like until a couple of years ago And uh, and so you can imagine You know, I do I want to become an entrepreneur or an employee which career path which college School blah blah blah and you know, and so that's one of the things life choices adds to their stress levels and uh, you know affects their mental health and uh, and again loneliness is another big deal, uh in this day and age and And You are part of a group. You can be connected, you know, uh You know online, you can this is the most connected generation and and at the same time the disconnect the most disconnected generation Uh, that's you know, and that's what the study also say the most connected and yet disconnected generation Okay, and that has led to this loneliness which affects the mental health of the youth in this day and age Right. So in a group, they are part of a group or feels left out and alone Uh, and they and so they They say the way because socially they are not accepted or they have the fear of being rejected Uh, and follows the trend to be want to be Uh, and you know trends, uh, we'll talk a lot about trends in you know in the next chapter in detail Not so in detail, but uh, yeah, so So the factors of being the fear of being rejected, uh, and uh, the fear of not being accepted Of being looked at differently Uh, you know adds to their mental health. Uh, and so because They don't want to be rejected and they want to be accepted. They will know, um They will do what those what their peers are asking them to do It comes into the topic of peer pressure But uh, and that's a whole study in itself, but yeah, and so they're given to peer pressure and um And that eventually kind of leads to loneliness and hurt and that turns into hidden rebellion and whatnot so again, all of this is part of mental health and um And the need And that again, it's kind of correlated. Most of these points are correlated. It's just interwoven between why it's just so complicated so interwoven uh, and because they feel lonely and uh, and they don't want to be seen as that As well at the same time And so they they see the need or feel the need to show themselves that they are happy all the time Right, they are happy all the time. Uh, I mean if you were to do a survey or take a percentage of the number of Happy posts on instagram or facebook, uh, facebook is still cool Uh, you know the percentage of all the happy posts would be so significantly higher Uh than a sad post Very very rarely you would see someone with a very sad display picture dp Or a very sad, you know status.  Um, this is amazing That is amazing. My life is amazing. I look great. I feel great I'm doing so many things. I'm an influencer and blah blah blah uh, you get I With me, you get what I'm saying, right? So uh, always partying. Um, you know, it's just the most amazing display picture ever you can add some more layers And uh, you know artificial makeup make you look very different. Um, but yeah so it's just And all of this is with is related in wanting to be accepted and the fear of being rejected And then so they kind of manufacture happiness Um, right. Okay. Uh, are you all with me? Okay, a able to relate or follow what's happening Yeah Anything you want to add to this couple of points that we've just discussed. Uh, right. Yeah comparison to yes. Yeah. Thanks to say for adding that. Yeah That's huge, isn't it? Um, yeah Again, you just take the topic of comparison and making this talk for a couple of hours on that. Uh, so yeah And it's the same goes with any of these points that we're talking about right? You can just talk about loneliness for a half a day Uh, you know in the way everything that they are, you know going through and uh, and you can talk about A mental health for you can have two days seminar on it itself or more um So yeah, uh, okay. Yeah, great. And let's um, see where we go with this But I mean but edit Any of you relate to the choices, uh, you know the affecting the mental health Right, uh, the the list of choices or life choices of the academic achievements that you know that the young generation have to deal with nowadays Does anybody has have had any conversation with young people? Uh, yes say go ahead um, I think To a large extent and I'm not saying this for all the the younger generation is that The upbringing has it has a role to To why we have the huge numbers of mental health issues. Yeah Up bringing the sense that I think the earlier generation the way we were kind of raised um not harsh not in a harsh condition, but You were You were you were taught how to man up. You were taught how to bear with conditions You were you know those those those opportunities to Can do difficult situations with there whereas A lot of things have been made so easy Yeah, and so just A change in that condition Can spiral a lot of effects that mental health issues So I think I think upbringing has played a huge That's role in the numbers that we see today in terms of mental health issues That said it's not something. Yeah, we should pack Aside and and blame it on that but I just think yeah that that also Has to be looked at for us to have a holistic solution In ensuring that we can drop these numbers as generations progress Correct. Yeah, that's correct. Yeah, so yeah, I'm bringing is definitely one of the major influences I think I'd like to put it that way Yeah, and then because there are also so many other influence factors that influence The younger generation, but then you're absolutely spot on uh, and I think it's It's not like, you know our generation did not go through depression or loneliness and whatnot I'm sure all of us At some point in time have felt lonely And I I know I have felt lonely. I know I have been depressed I have I have struggled with mental health just that I didn't know the words Called loneliness and depression or mental health even existed. I didn't know that's what I was going through But then uh, yeah, it was like, okay, such as life. This is life. Just move on with it.  Um but uh Yeah, so Anything else anyone else want to add Pastor our time the only stress we had was on the day of result Yes, you would go to school and get the reason otherwise. There was no stress at all.  Yeah I don't anything that you want to add, uh, as in some of these points I don't know why I feel like asking I I totally agree to whatever I could very well relate to the Everything like types of bikes and the amount of things we did. They're also simple like, you know marbles flying kites. That's my child Yeah Yeah, and nowadays in fact when I speak to the teenagers They tell me social media apps that I have never heard about They're like, oh, do they exist? What do they do? Like how is it different from facebook? They have so many things that they remember Yeah, it's it's so different. Yes Yeah, thanks there and thanks for sharing. Yeah, it's absolutely scary. I'm I can I'm I can't tell you how scared I am just interacting with some of the kids in the apartment You know, they are in fifth standard sixth grades Uh, some of the things that they talk about and know about.  Uh, and uh, yeah so another challenge, uh That adds to you know, everything that they're going through is time um, and And with time is so they are super busy um, you know, they are incredibly busy in everything that they're doing right now uh, I mean with the The way the schools function or add, you know, get them to do things and also extracurricular activities Uh, sometimes that and and and there are times where they don't really have a choice When it comes to teenagers and also, you know, like what say mentioned, uh, you know The the parents want to just put them in so many different things, you know at the same time Um, and so they don't have the time. So they go to school college. They come back. They have I don't know swimming lessons music lessons dancing lessons. Uh Skating lessons what else, you know football coaching hockey coaching basketball coaching and this The list can go on And 24 hours is not enough And so and and because they're coming from that kind of an experience, uh, you know And they and they they reach a point where they get to choose what they really want to do And so they like to see that okay, what I am doing is they're worth in what I am doing Is they're worth in what I am doing and so, uh And when you come put it in context for a youth meeting Uh immediately by default the question they ask themselves is do they see Uh, you know that this meeting is worth their time. Is it worthwhile? Right and so I mean they ask this question in the in the for good reasons and also for the bad reasons Because if they don't see that this is going to help them or interest them or please them They're going to see value in their time in every other places and that's not necessarily good Right and so some other places that they will begin to look at is, uh, you know When it comes to the topics of say sexuality and topics of that or identity Uh, I mean sexuality and identity is again Another challenge that I don't think we really need to talk about it and we just know that Uh, the world is not going the right uh, you know in terms of the pronouns and Everything that is happening the woke generate, uh, you know culture that is moving across the world And also the the lgbtq and all of that. Uh, it's just Absolutely scary and so and they don't mind getting into topics like that and talking about all of that and Right. So sexuality identity and also the absence Of a parent figure it could be the father or the mother They might come from a broken family or they can come from a family that where they've experienced constant violence and abuse And uh, and some of these counselors now who deal with abuse say there are hundred different kinds of abuse That they can talk about and so we don't know what exactly that they are traumatized by Right. So an absent of a parent figure adds to that and if as if all of that was not enough there is the media the negative influence of the media That is constantly like, you know, these big billboards on the highways are just screaming at you Uh, metaphorically speaking everything on It could be on the news or advertisements or social media ads And all the different platforms are like these billboards screaming at you asking you these questions Or saying that, you know, to be worthwhile. You must be beautiful Uh to avoid pain and pursue pleasure at all cost Uh, right pain is Uh, they don't understand the idea of pain. They don't like the idea of pain and as soon as they experience something about it They don't think about avoiding it. They they succumb to it kind of a thing, you know And so they pursue pleasure at all cost and most of the times they don't know what it's costing them a certain pleasures that they are pursuing and Sex has become a recreation recreational pursuit That there are they think that there are no consequences to it And everybody does it so it's okay Um, so we've come to this point and I'm not talking only about the west. I'm talking about My country here generation here in india uh, right, so it's gotten to that point, uh, and you know violence and vengeance is an acceptable way to deal with your problems um, and then the pursuit of Uh, you know, the ideology of money brings happiness is everywhere so the negative media influence and and over dependency on technology Um, right and so this this statement was given in the us for their, you know, the youth They call it the society calls them the ice generation, which is the internet and cellular Generation The ice generation right just the instant access to information at their fingertips Is is incredible. It's not just information that is available at their fingertips. It's Information that is not necessary for them.  Uh, you know, I mean as it is in my youth days I thought, you know, it's something about that phase you think You are the right person You know the most right person in the world and everybody else is wrong no matter what they say you are always, right And we didn't even have a lot of information back then and imagine with all the knowledge and information That's just present and available Uh, you know, the reason for them to think that they are right is is just magnified It's simply because of uh, they reached to the technology and information that is available Um, you know, I was actually having this conversation with uh, uh an associate pastor yesterday I was saying that, you know in the mid 2000s, uh Before google became famous and whatnot As a worship leader, you know, I I would put on the cassette or a cd Which was just becoming popular then to learn a song I would put on the cassette play the song sit there close to the tape recorder You know, if I hope you all know what a tape recorder is Right, uh, sit with it play the song. Okay, learn the song. Okay identified by listening to it. Okay. Is this the is this the right card? What's happening? And that's how we learned a song Play the song stop it rewind it forward it and the tape would get spoiled um But now uh the chords, okay, I want the chords for so and so song. It's just available like that and and uh, and how that the availability of such resources Which is fine. It's easy Has affected the skill level of musicians these days is um That their years is not as good as you know, it should be A year having a good year for a musician is everything um, right so And how and we can see like like a dip in the musicianship these days because it's not challenging and because they don't have to put an effort to learn a song that that you know the trains their year to hear well right, so these are all just Different challenges that's uh, you know, that's affecting our young people in this day and age from the mental health and be feeling lonely and the need to show happy So show themselves happy all the time and and that they are super busy and because of which They need to uh, because they can search for all the The things that they think is worthwhile in the wrong places like, you know, sexuality identity um You know the negative influence of the media and technology etc But the the point of understanding all of this is not just to show that they're You know what the challenges that they are going through because knowing the challenges alone is not enough. It's a starting place Right, so knowing the challenges alone is not enough because it's a starting place It's a good place to start. We know what they are going through. We know This is what their challenges are and so now as a youth leader, uh, you know We must carefully work on finding practical and biblical solutions Right and so how we can help them how we can empower them Uh, and you know, how we can talk about uh, their god given identity and tell them that they are beautiful as they are You know that they're worth it as they are because god created them and they were made in the image of god Right and so You today must not only be taught god's word. They must be mentored and discipled in ways to apply the word to their lives just preaching to them is not good enough That they need to be Mentored that you need to walk along with them and teach them how to apply the word in their lives Right and so, um as the conclusion of this chapter, uh, you know, I've just put together some of the topics that can be covered Uh in the youth ministry Right and so just some of the topics are identity You know, there's an apc publication on identity that you can use foundations Again, another apc publication called no gossip Sexual purity is another important topic. Uh, if if the church doesn't talk about sex Every information that our youth are getting About sex is from the media. It's from the world and so, uh, and I I don't see any reason as to why the church should not talk about sex. I don't see why we don't talk about it enough Uh, but we should uh, you know sexual purity overcoming sexual sin Sex as god's idea Uh, right overcoming uh as a topic and different uh subtopics like how do you overcome depression? Overcoming anxiety overcoming fear overcoming addiction Emotions that destroy it like anger You know and then peer pressure overcoming all these subtopics Um intimacy with god their daily walk with god worship as a lifestyle salvation and just a little bit of Slightly theology heavy subjects are important as well like trinity and salvation baptism of the holy spirit and lifestyle evangelism discipleship and you know the list can go on prayer word how to read the word how to study the word Uh basics of apologetics love and relationships Etc and the list can go on but this is just some of the topics that we've managed to cover at my time at apc and and the list can go on and so, um Yeah, just pausing here for a minute and understand knowing that The chat just knowing the challenges of the youth that are Challenges that the youth are facing this day is not enough Uh, you know, that's the starting place But we need to just pray fully go before god and seek his wisdom and his guidance as to how We can equip and empower and disciple our young people in this uh generation Right, so uh any questions or thoughts at this time? Okay All right, so, uh Yes, I should go ahead Good morning pastor. Good morning everyone. Um, it's not necessarily a question per se. I just wanted to To just echo what you're saying is so true And um, it's so right among the young people what they're learning is from the world And the sometime the church is so kosher about certain topics Um, as if they're afraid to talk about it, but yet still they're learning these things Um in school and from friends and from watching videos And negative influences while at first should be taken this on and leading from the forefront And showing, you know, what is god's stance point on this and also Emily they have good and godly marriages let people emulate that Not let the world tell them it's okay to do this and it's okay to do that And then when they're broke and broken they run to the church and then we have to be clean up with messes So it is so true Yeah Thank you, taisha. Yeah, again, I just wanted to I think we need to just discuss a little bit more about this The challenges and what some of the challenges that you've seen you can add on to what we've just learned because Uh, I think everybody's sharing some of their your views will also help each other help me at least So, uh, you're just like taisha shared anything that you observed feel free to unmute and uh, speak If I may um go again Seeing nobody else's wisdom and some of the challenges that I am seeing Amongst you young people um now in my country I've seen it with my own two eyes. This young lady. There's this drug that they call mali I'm not sure if you guys are familiar about it, but it's now raving among the young people It's as if they like the high but this eye allows them to hallucinate Is as if they're seeing monsters They're seeing all and they think it's funny, but it's actually rather dangerous, you know They're attacking the the the the police officers and all of this and think the gun is actually fake But it's actually real and they take these things So I actually saw a young lady I was in my brother's barber shop and she walked in and I saw the young men. They were laughing But I was looking at her and said she didn't look too all together But then they were like someone needs to take her home because they knew what she took because she was coming from a rave And then she started wanting to take off her clothes right there on the streets You know to jump the guys.  So you find some young girls they end up in hospital They have some kind of std. They don't know how they don't know They're rate.  That's what I'm seeing some of the challenge the challenges. I'm seeing the jogs now Even in schools and happening in my country Okay, yeah Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah Yes, Christopher, go ahead I think in some some way the other In an urban context, I think, you know, they have been You know challenges faced by by the youth uh for some years now Particularly maybe sometimes with influence of the west and I mean even in you know, when I was in college Some years back. I mean, I think a lot of these challenges were were there But I think one fundamental difference is that Is the is the speed and you know the rate of information that that is coming to To the youth And to us also, I mean, you know, we as you know adults also You know see this Can see this also And there is a you know, I think it's It's the rate the speed the The the the good the good I mean the grass Some of the some of the advantages of that is also that you know, you are you know, you get this information You can even get a whole host of You know topics covered, but I think on the on the on the downside is a lot of Things around are missing misinformation Yeah, a lot of you know bad influences which are which are which are happening very fast and I'm at When I mean very fast, I mean I tell you my light and speed and you know, you can and you can access that information And the youth are access access to that information so I think the challenge in in in my in my views that you know that The The amount of misinformation The information that is coming to dead, you know through technology Which is which is the bad influence Is much more firstly, you know from you know, the The the actual, you know one term of it Versus what is good?  There's not that level of you know, you know actual you know It's not a product of them, you know, right in the way that you know, uh, you know The bad influences are are actually getting them disseminated So, I mean if you look at Twitter, you know feed and you know, how if someone's reputation is getting Getting completely, you know And totally nullified Uh, you would see that, you know that there's a lot uh More, um, uh, you know, the way it has been put across and how it is, you know, how it has been disseminated and Is much it's it's much more attracted to to to how it you know The good good good information is coming through. Yeah Because the good information is coming through in a way in a much more traditional way Yeah, so, I mean, yeah, so that those are some of the points that I as a registered Yeah, I think yeah, thanks at Christopher. Yeah, thank you Yeah Yeah, I think uh, yeah another interesting thing about I'd say comparison as well We just talked about the need to show themselves happy, right? There's a um The way that it affects mental health is for example, um, so See I keep portraying myself to be Happy all the time and you know, just going to this great places on vacation and I'm constantly living my life on the road traveling Uh, it's what is happening and so Maybe what I'm portraying on social media can be true or false right And that also affects the other person who's looking at my profile and saying, okay, you know, wow Look at this person. They are always amazing happy and you know going to these amazing places. Why does my life? Uh, you know, why is my life like this?   Yeah Um, um anything else anyone wants to share, uh, you know Like some of the challenges that you have seen that the youth are also facing nisha harrison Yeah, who shared, okay, they need someone to who accept them without judgment and spirit available to listen and guide when they are ready. Yeah You know people has become like handled with kf racha Yeah now, please remember that, uh They did not come up with all these challenges for themselves or by themselves You know what i'm saying i'm just reminded of these scriptures From the bible and i think i've mentioned this before you know in judges chapter two and again, it constantly says in the book of judges is uh after after this generation, uh arose another generation that did not know god Uh, right, um, it says and i forget which verse but it says in i think in judges chapter two Just before at the beginning or something says after this generation Then there arose another generation that did not know who this god was what he had done for them And so talking about god and teaching the next generation about our god and Testifying about everything that he has done Uh, it come it falls on us Right and then you know And if we do what we have to do, um, you know, then You know that the list might decrease Not saying the challenges will completely erase it erase, but then at least the list will kind of increase decrease um Yeah, thank you have me Abinas, do you have uh, I mean from what you have observed from I mean, I should say from the place where you come from Uh, is there anything that you have seen or observed the challenges of the youth?  So yeah, yeah, they don't know what to do what not to do Most of the people Like even students like they're not able to take This isn't properly what they have to do next even I have a stereotype that same challenges say So mostly youths Yeah, and they don't have the proper direction like where to go where to Go what you do what you do So I have seen very faster. Yeah Yeah Yeah, thanks Thank you. Uh, I think uh, so I mean again I'm just continuing to develop the content as well for youth ministry and for the most part because my audience were the youth from urban and I uh, I have Uh, you know not studied enough on the challenges that a rural youth face and so I think I just want to go a little deeper on that and um Yeah, if any of you can just look into that a little bit and Send me an email of some of the challenges that uh, the youths face in the rural area of the cities Um, that would be great for me to look into it as well Okay, uh, but yeah, well, uh So we'll pause here. We'll continue with the next chapter in the next class um You know, so thank you all for joining in uh, I guess take care. Have a lovely day. I'll see you around Thanks guys. Bye


It likes to be stupid So anyways you guys There's some cell action No worries Arlene glad to see you So which one do you guys like better this version or The pre-swiped geode this is definitely a softer version That anyone can do anytime I do a piece that I'm not that into Jeff comes in clutch with the Just swipe it and it always turns out better. I have the lids for those somewhere But I like this Accent on the edges this kind of looped swirling Scallop look that we kind of left make a clock. I'm working on Some clock faces for you guys. I just have to make sure I get the proper materials. Oh, thank you Arlene anyways you guys Really it is May 1st In a minute this will be a countertop. I just have to narrow down the design elements that the client wants We're still getting some cells and this is with our coat How fun I think so So anyways, let me know your thoughts down below if you want to see how this piece was made tune in to the video prior to this one and See how we did it and Let me know your guys's thoughts. I will let you guys know what the client thinks and I'll see you guys later You kind of one another because you never know what someone's going through Kimberly Cox. Thank you so much. I Don't have a new button. Oh Preloaded I forgot to show you guys the star of the show. Sorry about all that movement Hi, my precious He loves being up on this table tumblr area and 70 wedding tumblers that my craziness decided I was gonna do for the wedding Apparently anyways, I Gotta get back to doing work stuff, but I will see you guys tomorrow for two o'clock live and Thanks for everything. You guys mean the world to us. We'll see you guys later. Bye Do you say bye


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