OK, so we're going to take some questions. Y'all good? All right, serious? Taking naps? Question? Yes? Sure. So everything. So talk about everything. I can do that. Sure. I'll try to focus on something. Well, process is really, for me, I particularly, I call it the catapult method. Basically meaning there's a thing George R. R. Martin says where there's architects and there's gardeners as far as how we write. And architects will plan it out everything meticulously and have it outlined and know exactly what's going to happen. And gardeners are just like, hey, let's see what happens.  Which is generally what I am, a gardener. But I kind of think of it as the catapult method because for me it's like I'll have a notion of where this thing takes place and the voice of the main character. And then I'll have a very vague and kind of far off notion of where we're going but no details at all. And I'll just kind of aim in that general direction. And I'll just put myself in the seat and then launch and go, ah! And then find out as I go. And then sort of as I'm flying through the air about halfway into the process, I'll sort of start to be able to make out the details of what the ending's gonna be like so that I can really come down with precision when I land there. But I really don't know what's gonna happen when I write. Sometimes I'll start a scene and don't know where it's gonna go. Which is really the joy of it for me. I love that. I love having to find out, having to write to find out because it really keeps me awake as a writer and keeps me knowing that, well if I wanna know then if I have to put the energy to write it to figure it out and it's worth it to me then probably it'll be worth the energy to read too. And then you're kind of in this process that I think of very conversatory between yourself and the story. So it's not dictation. It's not like I'm just like, okay whatever spirit says I'm gonna write. Because you bring craft to the table too and strategy and your own, all your stuff. And then the story comes with all its stuff and then you meet it somewhere in between and find out what's really good basically. Yeah, that's a great question. Yeah, yeah, yes. Oh, thank you. So if you kind of do the catapult method or I've heard of it, it's like panting, just like writing off the seat of your pants. How do you kind of, do you give yourself like daily limits or how do you like know, I don't know, I've started a thousand stories and I've never, yeah. No, great question and that's important. Finishing does matter. I do, when I'm on a roll with something, I will try to get, like if I'm gonna sit down and write, I tend to try to get like a thousand to two thousand words and then I feel like I know I'm moving solidly along. The thing to know really is that if you keep doing that regularly, you will finish the project and it's not always gonna be fun and there's gonna be days when you don't want to. But ultimately, like if you keep writing, the book will be done and then you'll have a book and then you can go back and edit that book. That's the whole sort of idea behind word counts. I do want to caution and I've written about this and tweeted plenty about it against the idea of writing every day. I think that's a very dangerous concept to impose on a writer. That might be your method and if that works for you, that's fantastic. But most of us don't have the ability to do that because we have lives and jobs and other things like that and they'll say like, oh, well, if you really love writing, then you'll figure it. Okay, that's great. However, I love paying my rent. You know what I mean? I love eating. Eating is awesome. So I just want to encourage you, all who are writers in the room, to forgive yourself and to not write every day but to write regularly and write a lot. I promise you I don't write every day. They're months that I go without writing and I'm a prolific motherfucker. I'm gonna put out my 10th book next year, y'all. Like that's no joke. Thank you. And I don't write every day and I tell you that not to brag, partially to brag, but also to be like you can still get the work done and not do it every single day.   What good does that do? Your process is nothing. It trashes your process. And then you resent the process and then you resent the blank page because it's looking back at you like, where you been, my dude? Like, I haven't seen you for like four days.  And no, yeah, that's what you're supposed to do as a writer.  So allow yourself the room to do both those things. You can actually live and work and write and all those things. It's very possible and you should and you shouldn't be sitting down and feeling like bad about shit, I think. So I don't even know what you asked. You said, oh, with word counts.  And sometimes it's because you might have something about your process that's not working right for you. Because a lot of times it will be, maybe it's not that, but it's a matter of us trying to adopt someone else's process instead of our own. So the main best only piece of advice that is about writing is really honor your process. Know and honor your process, whatever it may be. It might be late at night. It might be early in the morning. You know, it might be both, it might be neither. Whatever it is, you have to be self-aware and reflective to understand what that is and what's your process so that you can do it and continue to do it. And then that's how you write the book, not by subscribing to someone else's WAC method or someone else's awesome method. You have to find your process. Yes. So when you first started writing, were you ever tempted to, in order to get your book sold, were you ever tempted to have fewer characters of color? The only modification I ever made, and I knew it was a very temporary one and a very strategic one, was that the first line of half resurrection blues, first of all, no. Just a quick answer to your question is no. But the first line of half resurrection blues, which I actually started, the inspiration for half resurrection blues came from this city. I was here over New Year's in 2008 into 2009 and I was just wandering around the hate all by myself and I grabbed like a pocket rum and a cigar and I just walked the streets and I was like the only person of color there until I bumped into this tall, very immaculately kept black dude with locks who just went, looked at the sky and went, what up douchebags and douchebagettes? And I was like, wow, this motherfucker. So we immediately became friends and just walked the streets obviously. So we just spent the whole time walking the streets making fun of people basically and bringing in the new year and that turned into the first two chapters of half resurrection blues. Anyway, the first line of that is, because I was in the hate actually and then I later transposed it over to Park Slope but it's something like it's a little past 11 on December 31st that Hazy Time when we're not quite here and not quite there and Park Slope is full of white kids.  And I think when I said, when we went on submission I changed it to Park Slope is full of like rich kids or something like that. And then as soon as it got accepted I changed it back to white kids. And now I would never do that again because I don't wanna work with an editor that's gonna turn off. But I was brand new at the time and I didn't think there was any hope of getting that book published. So it was kind of just like a shot in the dark. And I didn't wanna come out the gate like literally the first line of the novel and have people be like, yeah, this is a little too much. I'm just gonna, you know. So it's all strategy. You know, you have to be very strategic and very clear of the marketplace you're working with. I'm at a point where I've, without really meaning to, made a name for myself as a loudmouth. But that's also worked in my favor because it's filtered out a lot of the trashy type of folks that I wouldn't work well with, right? And I also would say that I entered into publishing with a very clear and explicit mission. It wasn't to get published and get famous. It was to get like books like this, to write these books, this book, and put it out into the world and change publishing because publishing was a disaster. It's still a disaster as far as race goes. And so I entered like, I knew I was like a little bit of a sleeper cell. You know what I mean?  And hopefully I can just, you know, get published and make some money while I'm doing it too. You know what I mean? And it worked out really well, but there was no model for that when I was doing that. And Shadow Shaper, which went on to win awards and be a New York Times bestseller, it was rejected 40 times on the path to publication because at that time, there was no movement around diversity in books. And publishing, which is still 80% white was 80% white then, but they were also 80% white with no sense of like decorum, first of all. And also just the very obvious idea that we actually read. So that was like news to folks. So they were reading it and being like, this is so pretty and nice and everything. I just don't know where we would sell it. Or I just don't identify with the main character, right? Which is like, how do you not identify with Sierra? Have you met Sierra? What's wrong with you? So, you know, it's been a process, but I knew that going in, I would face that kind of headwind. And that's part of also why, you know, with very selfish reasons in the way I started being very active was because I knew I had to clear space in the world for this book to come out because I knew it was coming. But I won't, no, I was never interested in writing books with like more white people with them to make, to be more publishable or whatever. And when Hollywood came knocking and they were like, this is great. Can we just put in some more mainstream characters? I was like, no. And they were like, oh, that's too bad. It is gonna be a TV show at some point. I don't know when. That's not officially yet. No one's bought it, but it has been optioned. So that's excited. But when it is, it's gonna be done right. It's not gonna be whitewashed because that's not what I'm about. As much as I have the control over it. As long as I have control over it. At a certain point, you don't have control anymore. You all should understand that because everyone's gonna still come knocking on my Twitter like, what'd they do that for? And I'm gonna be like, look, look, look now. I did what I could do. And then at a certain point, you do sign it over. But that means that when you sign it over, you have to sign it over to good people, which is what I'm invested in doing. So, yeah. Yeah, man. So these characters, like, how long have they been swirling around your head? Cause like, I don't write, but I have all this like weird like people and stuff fiction swirl in my head.  A little bit of both. I've always, I definitely always wanted to write more than characters though. What I've had in my head since I was a kid is monsters. Okay. And I know that, especially for those of you that know what what pad is. It's like a social media site for writers and a lot of young people are on there. It's pretty cool. But anyway, I've been posting the first draft of Shadow Shaper on there on what pad. It's pretty easy to find. It's called Sierra Santiago in the Invisible City. And it's a totally different book. Totally different book. It's about, let's say about 95% different. It has Sierra, it's in Brooklyn. There's like one scene in common. It's really interesting. So I posted up there to read so that people could see how much a book will travel between draft one and publication in part. And so people could see some of the mistakes I made. And one of the mistakes I made was because it was a classic first novelist mistake is that I was like, I've been, one of my dream jobs when I was a kid was to make up monsters for George Lucas' Creature Shop. That's what I wanted to do. So I'd just been making up monsters for an entire lifetime when I sat down at 29 to write this. And I was just like, oh, I could put all these monsters into the book. I literally put all the monsters into the book.  There's a ton of motherfucking monsters in there. So instead of just being like the paint, you know, this sort of shadowy world of paintings come into life, it's all the monsters live in Brooklyn. And they're invisible, so only Sierra can see them.  And there's different monsters for every part of the city, which is dope, but it's a heavy burden for a book to carry. So I got the great advice to just calm down and just like pick one and roll with that. And the coolest one in that book was called The Paint to Dead. And it was the murals coming to life. And it was like a whole side. Like when I tell you, I try to put everything in, I'm reading it over now to post it.  I didn't remember. Shit, and what I ended up doing was cannibalizing and putting some over here and taking other characters over there and everything. But anyway, so I had lots of monsters and I tried to put them all into one book. Sierra and them though, Sierra showed up like fully formed basically once I was like, okay, I'm gonna write this book about Brooklyn and magic and whatever. Well, I'll see what goes down. I was basically thinking like Harry Potter meets the wire. Cause that's, you know, that needs to happen. So Sierra was like, that's me. I'm ready. You know, she just stepped up. And then I was like, well, who are you?  And I was like, oh, all right, so what are we gonna do?  Was I writer enough to write this character? And maybe fortunately at that time, I didn't know enough to really fully ask myself those questions yet. So I started to ask them and I was trying to figure it out and I was a little bit gung-ho about the whole thing. So I just wrote. And then in the process, also fortunately, they took a really long time. It was about a six-year process from edit to publication, from first draft to publication, which is a little longer than some and shorter than others. I learned a lot about, I was already really engaged with questions of power and privilege because of work as an organizer. And so I really took that to the page and really demanded I'm like kind of like make sure I wasn't trying to protect myself. Because I think that's where a lot of us go wrong when we're writing characters who are in us is that we try to make ourselves come out on top somehow or pretend that everything is cool. It would have been really easy to write this book and not include the deep anti-blackness that happens in Latino communities and not include just so many of the problems that we have or the patriarchy that we enforce. And I knew I couldn't do that because that would be a lie, especially the stakes are so high for writers of color because this is like the Latino fantasy book of the year, of that year that it came out.  But like publishing treats people of color, like there can only be one and we have to chop each other's heads off. But that also adds to the pressure.  And that's deep. But then once they all exploded to life, there was no stopping them. And that's why the novellas are about other characters like Izzy and Tea, who are two of her best friends are the main characters in Go School in the Corner because those characters were so alive just as I learned about who they are writing them in this book.  They have their own stuff, stories to tell and everything else. So now they're like that, this whole world is just very vivid and I can just kind of sit down and write it, which is good. Yeah. You said something about working with audio earlier. And then when you were just like reading out your typed words, it sounded like spoken word, you know, the rhythm of the cadence of it really translated really well. Thanks. I'm wondering how does audio play into your writing? Yeah.  I do always read out loud. And I recommend that for every writer because first of all, you catch all kinds of stupid mistakes and it's very helpful for that. Just the basic stuff. Second of all, you get to interact with the actual sound of the words, which is what makes writing good. And I think we really forget a lot. And we were just talking about this in the back. You know, like the roots of all literature is in the spoken word, not Microsoft word, you know? That's where literature comes from. It comes from people talking to each other and having conversations and storytelling out loud. And that's such a powerful and beautiful thing to know. And I think that the more we honor that, the better our writing gets. So I don't write like, I don't speak while I'm writing at all, but I do take as much inspiration from like the gossip on the corner as I do from the Iliad and the Odyssey, which were originally spoken out loud anyway, right? So there's that. You know, homework was blind and illiterate. And we're over here acting like the written word is like primary somehow. It's not. The stories that we tell each other are so powerful and have their own just literature and epicness behind them. So I think in part my process just includes honoring that. And then I also just, I love talking. So that's part of it. Clearly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hi. I wanted to, I know you were talking earlier about your process and how you don't force yourself to write anything or whatever, but do you ever have moments where you're like, I'm stuck and how do you get unstuck when met with the page? Well, let me clarify. I don't force myself to write every day, but there are days when I don't wanna write when I write. And I do think you have to be somewhat rigorous, you know, on getting yourself to sit down and do the work. When I get stuck, it tends to be not so much. I don't think of it as writer's block because of my particular methodology. Generally when I'm stuck, it just means I'm not sure what's supposed to happen and I need to take a break to figure it out. And I think most writers will tell you that a lot of the writing doesn't happen in front of the computer at all, in fact, but it happens when you're taking a walk or having a conversation with someone that you're supposed to be paying attention to or showering or whatever. And you're like, oh snap, this whole thing, you know. So that's when, on the train for me a lot, you know, in the commute, I'll just put my headphones on and I'll just jam out and figure out what's supposed to happen. So it's become just a very built-in part of my process to step away and know when to step away and just be like, oh yeah, whatever I need to figure out is not gonna happen in front of the computer. So let me go do that somewhere else and then come back and do what I need to do. And allowing for that truth to be true is really helpful again in this forgiveness thing, right?   That's what I've learned from my own process. Yeah, yes. Hi, I'm a fan. Oh, thank you. And I tweet you too. Oh, what's your name on Twitter? CocoaFly. Oh yeah, cool, nice to meet you. Yeah, nice to meet you. So my question is, yesterday was a good timing actually. Cause I've been pitching a book, it's nonfiction. And an agent contacted me and said they were interested in representing me. Congrats. So I'm supposed to thank you. Excited. So I'm supposed to have a conversation with him actually tomorrow morning. And I've been researching questions I should ask. Any suggestions for questions I should ask? It's less about the questions you ask and more just about how y'all get along. An agent relationship is like any relationship. It involves communication being the primary thing. So if you find that, whatever you choose to ask, you find that you feel you can ask them and get the answer you need. And if they say something that you're not clear about, you feel like you can clarify that. That's a good sign. That's what you wanna look out for. Cause that's really what's gonna matter down the road. Not the details of like, cause all the details are basically the same. They take 15% and they have certain policies about this or that or the other.  Yeah, he's legit. That's what's up. So that's what matters. There's the basic stuff like I said, like who do they work for, who do they work with? And then there's the how and that's more complicated cause that's what you have to figure out. Like, do I work well with this person? I've left agents mostly on the strength that they don't really get my work and we're not communicating well.  It's like leaving any relationship. It's a breakup and you gotta deal with it as such. But if you enter into it kinda knowing that, cause they don't really tell you that.  None of that matters. If you can work with someone, that's what matters. If they have high powered clients and they don't have time for you or they're so like caught up in their head game about having high powered clients, that doesn't do you any good until you are one. And that's like a, you don't wanna work with that kind of hierarchical thinking anyway. So I would just have the conversation and see what you feel them out. But congrats, that's exciting. Yeah, yeah. Yes, right here. These are great questions, I appreciate that. So I also tweet you. I almost bought you a tote bag back there. Oh, you're the one. I'm the one. Wait, what's your name on Twitter? Robin Ravenclaw. Oh, you're Robin Ravenclaw, nice to meet you. Cool. Thanks for coming out. No problem.  Yeah, it's rude. But I just had a question about like how do you, cause you do write both like adult and then now, how do you choose which story is which? Like when Sierra came to you, did she say, and I'm gonna be on the YA shelf? Or how do you, or do you not know that until afterwards? No, you know, I mean, it's sort of easy cause it's very clearly stratified with me. Like I write in two different worlds that are actually the same world, right? Two different series that are actually the same world.  And so I can let them in and have, they have point of view roles and they have big roles in the story and everything else and even are on the cover of some of the books. To me, what defines a young adult book is that the primary crisis of the book is one that forces the main character to actively step out of some of the mythologies and shed some of the mythologies of childhood and into adulthood. That's what makes it a YA. That's it. So, a perfect example is Shadow Shaper came out the same year as Midnight Taxi Tango, right?  But Kia, thank you.  But her arc, while she does grow up some during Midnight Taxi Tango for sure and if it was just her arc, it would be a YA because of those other points of view characters who are both adults and because the heart of that book is not about her growing up but it's really about fighting off these evil cockroach dudes and dealing with grief in different ways because each character is dealing with grief and that's the heart of the book. You know what I mean? That's why it's not a YA, besides the marketing stuff and all the other bullshit, right? But with Shadow Shaper, this is a book about Sierra stepping up into the world and understanding her legacy in an active way and so thereby growing up, shedding mythology of childhood, whether it be safety or a sense that everything is all right or whatever it is, that's what the heart of this book is. That's the crisis at the center of this book. So that's the defining thing. And then when I'm approaching a story it's sort of a question of that. I might not know the details of how things play out but I do sort of have a sense of the heart of what it is and that's what's gonna guide me towards where it's gonna land on the show. Great question now. Yeah, yes.  Plenty. No. And just talking about that process about how you negotiate that working relationship. Yeah, I've been really blessed. Once I kind of got through like a couple duds I found really great people to work with. So in general and in any relationship with an editor or an agent it should be very conversatory just like the one between the writer and the story itself. You should be able to like push back and forth in a friendly way to see where you're at about stuff. It can't just be like, well this is how it's supposed to be done. And it's best it's like getting to talk about storytelling and writing with someone whose opinion you trust even if you don't always disagree with them so that you can get a sounding board and get different points of view and then bounce them back off each other. And that's what it's been so it's been really cool. Do we always agree? Absolutely not, but you know you shouldn't. So generally it's like there'll be something where they'll be like what about this? We had a really interesting conversation about the last line of the novella which I won't say what it is because that would be a spoiler but in my version of it it kind of slides into the future tense and then goes into almost a dream-like thing where it kind of fades off almost. I think of it as like a cinematic fade to black. And in Cheryl's version of my editor she really wanted it to be a very concrete action that happens at the end still in the future tense but the character actually doing this thing and then walking away to have that kind of image really just be like boom concrete, right? And it was fascinating because it really did come back to like many questions when you're editing it came back to what the heart of the novel was and what the story was really about. And I mean at the end of the day I had the last say so I went with it but with my version because that's really what I thought sang the most on top of speaking the most deeply to the book. That's what that's what left. You know there's different forms of resonance that come with the last line. It can be like a boom, you know or it can be like a fade out and this story really required a fade out but it was a great conversation, right? Even you can hear me describing it it's like we're still trying to find a language for some of these things and that's exciting, right? Every time you're hitting up against the edge of a language that means that you're somewhere exciting because you're pushing some kind of boundary which is cool. And to her credit, you know she's great. She was just like well this is what I think it should be in his why and boom and we went back and forth. So it's been really great when I was first starting out the agent that actually left part of the reason I left her was because she crossed out a line in Shadow Shaper where Sierra's uncomfortable in a white neighborhood because she doesn't have a white baby in a baby carriage basically she's the only person of color there and she's getting side-eyed by all the white people and the agent crossed out the whole section and was like it just doesn't happen in 2012 and I was like. That's not when I left but now I would, you know now I mean I was brand new, no one knew who I was I had no books out so I was like let me, you know I had been through that 40 rejections on Shadow Shaper so she was kind of the bottom of the stack so I was just like I have an agent she's trash but I have an agent, you know she's not trash, well that was a trash thing to do but yeah, so I didn't walk away at the time but it was kind of the first step to me walking away because there's some things that if you're showing me you're not gonna listen that's the communication piece again, you know if you're just gonna cross it out not even be like, oh I didn't realize that happened no, you're just gonna tell me it doesn't? Okay, that's cool, bye. So you know these are all the and it's hard, it's complicated because of stuff like that, you know that's where the gridlock of being, you know writing, being and writing characters of color in an industry that's not, you know that's white that's where it gets complicated it's things like that and then having to make decisions within that and know where to plant your flag and what's worth it and what's not and there's just no, there's no fucking map, you know there's no one to be like, here's what you have that's why mentorship and community are so important particularly the writers of color because we don't have, there's no one to be like okay, this is what you're supposed to do in that situation when someone tells you that something that you know to be true doesn't even exist in the course of editing a book and you're powerless as far as you know to push back because there's just so many opportunities for you to just be like, well I don't know what am I supposed to do and I don't we all make that robot walk in it and hopefully find mentors and people that we can talk to who are like, no, that's fucked up, you know, but yeah, it's complex. Thank you for the question, good question. Yes, sir. Yeah. If there's one, what is that? That's a great question. I feel like I'm supposed to have the answer to that like right there, because I think about that stuff a lot and I just, while I'm thinking, I'll just say that this is an exciting age of the counter narrative I feel like and it's really dope. Tor.com is putting out so many great novellas that are like anti-Lovecraftian, Lovecraftian and like, you know, Victor Levol is on it, like The Ballad of Black Tom. There's just so much good stuff happening in that realm. And in that realm, I also have a Rosarium is, I'm working on a comic book series of a Rosarium that's Lovecraftian, the anti-Lovecraftian that's like San Theodos in Brooklyn back in like the 19 deans and there's some dinosaurs up in there. So that's dope. I gotta think about it and get back to you. That's a great question though. Huh, okay, someone ask another question so I can keep thinking about it. I'll ask a question. So you just shared that you're working on a comic and it seemed, it's very exciting to me because the library does host day one of the Black Comic Arts Festival. And you see how many young or even not even young like black creatives are transitioning from, you know whether it's being essayist or novelist to writing, getting involved in graphic novels, comics slash graphic novels. And I wanted to talk to you a little bit about you throwing your hat in the ring as far as, you know, producing some comics. Yeah, I'm just really excited to do it. I don't have a lot of insight into it yet because I'm not, the comics head that I probably should be to be entering into the field. I do love this stuff, I love the work but I'm not like a fictionado or an expert but I do think it's just such an exciting and amazing medium that's just, people are doing so much amazing work with right now and it's really like so many other things achieving a kind of renaissance. And I think it's coming out of this place of people having much like all of science fiction and fantasy and stuff. You know, it's a medium that people sneer at and it's out here changing the world. I mean, look at March, which won every award known to man like so far, which is fantastic. You know, and people are just pushing boundaries with it in such excited ways. So it's an exciting thing to be a part of. I mean, I'm not a friend field. Yeah, Dracula's one of my favorite novels. I love Dracula and I love so much about it. It's also, I think, one of the first urban fantasies and doesn't get credited for that in some ways.   Who came up with his ad? He's like the damsel in distress, but stupider and just in the way. And then Mina comes along and they're just like, all right, we got this, you know, like it's a great story.  He eats bugs, what's up with that? And I feel like he's probably deeply misunderstood and it would be kind of fascinating to have his, you know, like, first of all, the way that we criminalize lunacy, you know, and just kind of blow brush off the insanity and use the word crazy as a slur and all these things. And here we have this character that's like thrown in his lot with this like, you know, most powerful being known to man, which is actually a good move if you think about it. That's probably smart. And then, you know, pay the price for it. I just think he could be a really fascinating character. And then, I know it is.  And then, Richard III is my favorite Shakespeare play.  But, well, in the play, historically, apparently, he wasn't even that bad. But like, I just love that play. And I think that there's something to be done with it somewhere, cause it's just, it's so good. I just, I love, I love Shakespeare a lot. Yeah, other questions? Yes, love. You get the last question. Well, thank you so much. You've been really engaging and sharing and opening with us about your process. And I was just wondering more about what you were talking about in the beginning, like, you know, being like the first to deliver things for the, the society and community that you come from. How do you create this mentorship that you were talking about that would lead to a better publishing industry for people of color? Ooh, that is the question, isn't it? I think in some ways it happens naturally and it has to and in some ways it also has to be really, we have to be really strategic and intentional about it too. And those aren't really at, those aren't really at odds at all. I think that there's a, the natural part of it is that when you're on your way up and people make room under their wings for you as they did for me. And I think as most writers of color have had the experience of someone doing for them on some level, whether it's their English teacher or, you know, their professor or just someone random or a writer they admire, you know, or someone that they just follow on Twitter and just feel like they're speaking to them even when they're not. All those are forms of mentorship, whether we know it or not and whether we own it or not. So when you, when you have had that experience, even if it's, again, even if it's not personal, even if you just feel like someone was really speaking to you with the things they were talking about, even if they didn't at you, you then are a part of a community, whether the community knows it or not. And then that makes it sort of impossible for you to not go ahead and do that when you're somewhere where you have an opportunity to, which also doesn't mean that you need to burn out doing it for every single person that comes your way. It just means that this is a part of how we are in community and in the writing world. This is how we maneuver because this is how the generation before us taught us to maneuver. So this is what we need to do. Whether it's like, again, someone just having the talk with you. I remember how many different mentors have had to sit me down and give me the talk, which is the same talk that parents give their kids, which is to be like, look, it's fucked up out there. And you have to protect yourself and you have to do twice as much and you have to be twice as good at all this other shit that we have to tell ourselves and like is a badge of honor and kind of this burden that we carry at the same time. And we have to embrace some different levels.  So when, for me, it happened very early, both in getting the talk and then in giving it because Salsa Nocturna, which was my first book, which came out in 2012 and then I just re-released this year, last year, that had a story in it that really spoke to a young writer on Twitter who then like sought me out and was like, okay, you know, I'm gonna be a writer now because of you.  You know, and then we became like really, really good friends.  Like that was absolutely the goal from jump. And including in that, I knew that that had to, the leadership development had to be a part of that because I come from an organizing background and I know that we can't do this alone. You know, it's not about us, that very white model of success where we just shoot up over everything else and like become a part of the stars and the rest of the community is destroyed beneath you.  We can't afford that because our people got us here. Our people are gonna keep us staying together. So we all rise together.  Here's how we're gonna get through it together.  Like all these different layers are part of doing the work. So that's the natural piece of it. I think the more intentional and strategic piece of it, it does have to be solidified and codified in certain ways. And that's why it's really great that there's organizations like Vona out there, which is a writers of color workshop that you all should know about if you don't check it out and try to work with them. And just different folks, you know, the Black Comics Initiative, like just different folks that are doing the work and finding spaces where we can all get together and have the hard conversations with each other and find each other. And then, but it does have to be codified. We have to make sure we keep to that and we make room for ourselves to have those conversations, whether it's a conference, you know, or a workshop or just online communities. Like, you know, for me, it's so key that there's groups like Black Girl Nerds or Black Nerd Problems, you know, or fan bros. Like, those are really important sites because, first of all, they weren't Nerds of Color. You know, they didn't have those when I was a kid, obviously, because there was no internet really, but like, also just, I didn't know.  I have one. Oh my God. It was beautiful. Because I've been like majority white cons up until that point and it blew my mind. I just didn't know we were out there and those numbers showing up to places in costume. What? So that was really dope. You know, like just finding spaces like that and then holding tight to them. And then finally, I'll say, you know, we don't have the luxury of petty beef. And that's hard.  You know, it's great. No, it's horrible really. And it's exhausting and it wears everybody out and it tears us to pieces. And we see it happen on Twitter every day. It seems like, you know, and you've seen it shred, you know, some aspects of the Black Lives Matter movement and different forms of feminism have been really, hurt from it. And that's not to say we can't call each other out. It's to say we don't have the luxury of petty beef. Petty beef is not the same as calling people out. Calling people out is calling people out.  That's love. We check you out of love.  But the resources aren't nearly as limited as they act like. Especially now, with self-publishing and with just so many different platforms. So that's the last thing I'll say on that, is that we don't have that luxury, which is actually a blessing. We just have to make sure we know that and act accordingly. Yeah, thank you all so much. You've been wonderful. I will absolutely sign books. I'll be right, whatever, somewhere. And again, I'm on Audible. I do the thing. If you're not tired of my voice by now, then you find it on Audible. And Shadow House Fall comes out in September. Battle Hill Boledo came out on the third. There's another novella on the way, but in case you haven't gotten Ghost Girl in the Corner, it's 99 cents on Amazon. Thank you once again. And thank you for bringing me. Thank you, Library. Thank you, everybody. You were wonderful.


Upgrade your smart phone with Appalachian Wireless. Get $300 off selected models, capture memories, stream and stay connected with the latest technology. Visit one of our stores or AppalachianWireless.com right now. The Tuck Valley Roadrunners will be hosting the 11th annual Kicking Butt for Crohn's Gene Stanley Memorial 5K Friday, July 21. All proceeds from the race will go to the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation. My wife, her mother passed her Crohn's when she was 18 years old. They didn't do a lot about Crohn's back then. Wasn't a lot of awareness or anything. So 11 years ago, she decided, you know, we got into the Tuck Valley Roadrunners Club and they had an opening for a monthly event. And she's like, I might do something and we'll send the proceeds to Crohn's and Colitis Foundation. So that's what we did. Race entry is $25 and includes an event t-shirt and a finisher medal. Awards will also be given for the top three and last place in male and female divisions. We give the last place award because I know it's and it doesn't make it. It doesn't say last place or anything. We always make it nice. We do it just because we know that individual worked harder than anybody and they know they're coming out to do it and they're not going to get an award. So that way they get one. For more information and to register, go to Tuck Valley Roadrunners on Facebook. Reporting for Mountain Top News, I'm Brianna Robinson.


T F N N headline news update Good afternoon everybody I'm Tommy O'Brien company alive from TF net headquarters in st. Petersburg, Florida 1 p.m. Eastern time on Monday three hours left to go in the trading day and we have a relatively mixed market so far pretty close to Flat for the day. Excuse me Dow Jones negative 17 points trading at 25,000 485 You get the S&P's currently negative two points trading at 2798 and the Nasdaq negative by 10 points trading at 17632 Russell 2000 positive by a point trading at 1507 and the VIX will start it off VIX currently we had some volatility on Friday saw a spike above 17 early this morning 1785 on that volatility index VIX currently trading at 1680 as we jump over the futures markets We will start it off with the S&P. So there's some oscillation for you this morning 9 30 There's your opening bell and we're sitting basically right where we opened at pretty close to flat for the day You saw some upward action right after the bell quite an escalation to the downside you from 2813 All the way down to 2791 Quite a move you're talking about more than 20 points in the S&P's and then what do you do from 1015 in the morning? You go from 2791 all the way to 2815 you're talking about 24 S&P points to the upside and then we're right back where we started the day 2802 Nasdaq 100 pretty close to the similar story. We'll zoom in a bit There is your opening bell bar and as you can see we basically open at 73 33 We're trained at 73 35 a little bit of volatility in both directions during the day Dow 30 much the same as well. There's your we'll find it. There's your 9 30 bar opens at 25504 we're within six Dow points of where we opened and talk about some volatility We basically trade from 25,600 down to 25,400 right off the bat, but as you can see both sides of the direction in the market crude oil Volatility as well, but what do we do? We're back above $59 with crude trading at 5906 Gold contract trading above 13 20 13 21 44 and Euro US dollar trading 1 1312 terms of what else you have happening out there big day for Apple as they are hosting an event and they are going to announce Their new streaming service it'll incorporate some original content along with a number of other providers But Apple on that news It was dramatically lower gotten a bit of a pop but still down about eight tenths percent on a day with a market Is basically flat Apple trading 189 41 Stay tuned Steve Rhodes coming up right now at the trader's edge Dave white at 2 o'clock with a power trading hour Tom O'Brien at 3. Have a great Monday everybody


So, Cody Askins and Lauren Askins are doing something that the industry has never seen before. And that's taking people who were once considered competitors and putting them in a situation where we can collaborate together. Because if we want to get better at what we do, it takes more than just you to get that done. And so they've opened up the industry to allow for us to have some friendly competition and conquer better things together. I believe the biggest thing that I took away from this conference was really spending time with other people who are in the trenches with me. Alright, listening to other people's war stories, listening to their adversity and how they overcame that, listening to how they're fighting through the daily grind of trying to make it happen and really being able to take some of the aspects of what they've implemented in their business to allow for them to streamline and scale much better and implementing those things. And me trying to give that back to them as well. And I think it's important to understand that, again, we cannot do this by ourselves. There's an independent model that's being preached out in the industry right now and it's doable, but you don't have to do it alone. You can still bring partnerships in to take your business to the next level. So if you're an insurance agent and you find yourself struggling and unsure of what your next steps are, you need to come to 8% nation. The reason for that is because you're going to be challenged to what the status quo is and until that status quo is shaken, you will become the same thing over and over again. You'll never evolve into anything better and you have to get yourself around people that are innovating and changing the industry and even if you just take away one nugget, it will surmount to a lot of extra money in your bottom line if you're looking to truly be what you would consider successful in this industry.


Analytical measurement and control of pH within a system is necessary for many processes. Common applications include food processing, wastewater treatment, and chemical industries. To maintain the desired pH level in a solution, a sensor is used to measure the pH value. If the pH is not at the desired set point, a reagent is applied to the solution. When a high alkaline level is detected in the solution, an acid is added to decrease the pH level. When a low alkaline level is detected in the solution, a base is added to increase the pH level. In both cases, the corrective ingredients are called reagents. Accurately applying the correct amount of reagent to an acid or base solution can be challenging due to the logarithmic characteristics of pH reaction in a solution. Implementing a closed-loop control system maintains the pH level within a certain range and minimizes the degree to which the solution becomes acidic or alkaline. An example of an automatic pH level control system is a water treatment process where lime softened water is maintained at a pH of 9 using carbon dioxide as a reagent. As the untreated water or influence enters the tank, the pH is continuously monitored by the pH sensor. The sensor is the feedback device to the controller where the set point is compared to the control value. If the values are not equal, the controller sends a signal to the control valve that applies carbon dioxide to the tank. The reagent is applied to the tank at varying rates to precisely control the pH level. With the pH level at 11 detected by the sensor, the controller commands the control valve to open and introduce more carbon dioxide. As the increased carbon dioxide mixes with the influence, the pH is lowered in a controlled manner. Reaching the set point, the carbon dioxide flow is minimized and the process is continually monitored for variation. The effluent is the treated water that is discharged out of the tank. The process continues to provide the lime softened water at the desired pH level.


Greetings, aspirants! A very warm welcome to the Hindu newspaper analysis of Shankar AS Academy. Today's date is 4th of August 2022. So, displayed here are the list of news articles that we are going to discuss today. Without much delay, now let us move on to the first news article discussion. Now have a look at this news article. The news article states that India will be hosting the UNSC meeting on counter-terrorism. The meeting will be held on October 2022 and officials from all 15 countries of the United Nations Security Council including China, Russia and US will be participating in the meeting. This meeting is very very important for India because India is halfway through the second year of its two-year term as an elected non-permanent member of the UNSC. India's tenure at the council will end in December when the country will also preside as president of the powerful UN organ for the month. Yes, you hear me right? See, the UNSC or the Security Council consists of 15 members of which five are permanent members and the other 10 are non-permanent members. Five permanent members include China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The other 10 members are elected on a regional basis for a term of two years. Likewise, the body's presidency also rotates monthly among its members. So in December, India's tenure both as a member and as a president will come to an end. That is why this meeting is very important for India. The meeting is called the Counter-Terrorism Committee that is CTC meeting and it is normally held in New York. So with this idea, now let us see in brief about the Counter-Terrorism Committee that is CTC. See, the CTC was established by Security Council Resolution in the wake of the 11th September terrorist attack in the United States. So after the 11th September terrorist attack in United States, United Nations Security Council through a resolution established this CTC. The committee comprises all 15 Security Council members and its main task is to monitor whether countries have implemented the measures that are intended to enhance their legal and institutional ability to counter terrorist activities at home. So they monitor whether the following measures are implemented by the countries or not. The measures are displayed here. Just go through it. Now coming back to the news article, see the special meeting will be specifically focusing on three significant areas. They include firstly, the internet and social media, secondly, terrorism financing and thirdly, unmanned aerial systems. That is UA, yes. See, as you know, these are the areas where emerging technologies are rapidly developing, experiencing more use by member states and facing an increasing threat of exploitation for terrorism purposes. These three focus areas are chosen for the meeting. So here you might think that terrorism financing is already recognized and dealt with through mechanisms like the financial action task force that is FATF. Then why there is a need for separate discussion in CTC? See, it is because FATF lacks templates and codes of conduct for newer threats like financing through cryptocurrency and the use of drones for terror attacks. So that is why terrorism financing is also included in this meeting. Now exclusively talking about India's role in the meeting, see as per the article in the meeting, UDLE is expected to highlight cross-border threats from both Pakistan and Afghanistan. In addition to that, see India has been pushing for the United Nations members to adopt a comprehensive convention on international terrorism. This was first proposed in 1996, but still it did not get concluded. So India is likely to raise this convention during the meeting. As a whole, this event will showcase India's role as a victim of terrorism as well as as a country at the forefront of global counter-terrorism efforts. So these are all some of the important points that you have to remember about CTC and the role played by India in this. See, you can quote these points as value addition in your main sanser writing. These facts are something unique and it will help you to stand out from all other papers. So these learnt points. Now let us move on to the next news article discussion. See this editorial article. This article is all about the draft echo sensitive areas, notification and the opposition by the Karnataka government for the notification. In this context, let us discuss about the important points in this editorial article. Before that, the syllabus relevant to this article is highlighted here for your reference. Just go through it. First of all, what is this echo sensitive areas? See, echo sensitive areas that is ESAs or regions located within 10 kilometers of protected area such as national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. ESAs are notified and regulated by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change under the Environment Protection Act 1986. The purpose of declaring ESA is to create shock observers to prevent ecological damage caused by developmental activities. Also, it's aim is to minimize the negative impact on the ecosystem. They also act as a transition zone from area that require high protection to those that need lesser protection. See, generally the width of the ESA can go up to 10 kilometers around the protected area, but it may vary from place to place based on the degree of protection needed. It may even go beyond 10 kilometer in some cases. So have this basic understanding. Now coming back to the editorial article, see on July 6th, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change that is MOEFCC reissued the draft notification of the ecologically sensitive areas that is ESA in the Western Guards. Now we'll see some important features of this draft notification. Firstly, this draft notification prohibits new townships with 50 hectares of land or 1.5 lakh square meter of buildup area. Secondly, it also bars setting up of new thermal power projects and expansion of existing plants in the sensitive area. Thirdly, the notification proposes to completely ban mining activities and red category industries in the area. However, hydropower projects and industries under the orange category are allowed after ensuring compliance with environmental regulations. See the industries are categorized based on pollution index, industrial sectors having pollution index score of 60 and above is called as red category and industrial sectors having pollution index score of 41 to 59 is known as orange category industry. Just remember high score in the pollution index denotes higher emission of pollutants by the industry. So this draft notification actually allows hydropower projects and industries under the orange category after ensuring compliance with environmental regulations. And fifthly, there is no restriction on repair, extension or renovation of houses. All existing healthcare establishment can continue. The MOEFCC has made it clear that nobody would be evicted or relocated. So these are some of the significant features of the draft notification. See, we have seen that every time a notification is issued, large section of farmers, planters and elected representatives oppose it. They protest for various reasons. For example, several villages in the Hilly-Mulnard region have not got proper roads and access to electricity because there are certain restrictions on cutting trees and laying roads in the forest area. They fear that the fresh notification might worsen their situation. The elected representatives also oppose the draft notification. They reiterate these sentiment of the people. But according to the editorial, the real reason for their opposition is that many of them are involved in sand mining and quarrying. See, just now we saw that the draft notification puts a restriction on sand mining and quarrying, right? So that is why they are opposing it. No other says that politicians are misleading the public by spreading wrong information only to serve their vested interest. Also, the notification bans mehar development projects in the USA. So politicians are worried that they might lose the illegal income they get from these mehar development projects. See, the editorial just conveys the personal opinion of the author. It does not mean that you have to align your thinking with the thinking of the author. If a question is asked, you can write positively like, there is a need of a strong political will to support the draft notification. You may write like that also. Now coming back. The another issue with the notification is that majority of the people in the village living near ESZ are clueless about what is said in the notification. Many could not go through these documents because they were not available in the local language. There were hardly any meetings by the electorate representatives of the government to spread awareness on the issue. Also, no effort has been taken by the politicians to consult people at the grass root level before taking a stand on the issue. See, several parts of the Malnard region have witnessed large scale landslides during heavy rains in recent years. The environmentalists want the state to take appropriate steps for the conservation of the western cards. They argue that implementation of the notification is crucial to safeguard the environment and the people. So that's all you have to know about this news article. I hope we have covered this news article in all the dimensions. In this news article discussion, we saw in brief about ESA, ESA or regions located within 10 kilometer of protected area such as national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. They are notified and regulated by the MOEFCC under the Intraman Protection Act 1986. The main purpose of declaring ESA is to create shock observers to prevent ecological damage caused by developmental activities. So to put it in simple words, it aims to minimize the negative impacts on the ecosystem and they act as a transition zone from area that require high protection to those that need lesser protection. We saw all that in our discussion. Then with respect to the recently released draft notification, we saw some of the concerns listed by the author. So these learned points. Now let us move on to the next news article discussion. Recently the National Tiger Conservation Authority that is NTCA signed a memorandum of understanding MOU with Indian Oil Corporation. The MOU was regarding the Cheetah reintroduction program. The Cheetah reintroduction program involves relocation of cheetahs from Africa to India. The Indian Oil Corporation promised that it will contribute rupees 50 crore over four years for the project. This advertisement is regarding that. So in this discussion, we'll discuss some points about the Cheetah reintroduction program and its importance. Little heads up first. See there are two project cheetahs. One is about the reintroduction of cheetahs in India and the other is defence related. When I say it is defence related, this program was launched by the Indian Air Force and under this project India's Heron drones are to be upgraded and armed with Israel's help to carry out offensive operations against the enemy. So in this discussion we are going to discuss about the former one. That is the reintroduction of cheetahs into their historical ranges in India. First let us look at the important points about the project. See India historically had Asiatic Cheetah population. In India the Asiatic Cheetah got extinct due to habitat loss and hunting. Currently Asiatic Cheetah is declared critically endangered according to a UCN Red List. Presently only around 100 individuals survive in Iran. 70 years after the cheetah's extinction, the Indian government is planning to reintroduce them into their historical range. Here the term historical range is the area where these majestic beasts once roamed freely. Also note that here the term reintroduction is a misnomer because what our government plans to do is not actually reintroduction. See in case of reintroduction that same species must be introduced back. But what is happening here is our government plans to reintroduce African cheetah instead of Asian cheetah. So technically the correct way to say it is introduction of African cheetah into the historical ranges of Asian cheetah. On this note let us see some of the point of African cheetah also. First note that both the African cheetah and Asian cheetah have the same genetic makeup. They are present all over the African continent. In terms of size compared to their Asian cousins they are slightly larger. Also therefore is slightly darker and black spots are more prominent. While IUCN classifies Asian cheetah as critically endangered the African cheetah is classified as vulnerable. Now coming back to project cheetah see our government plans to get cheetahs from Namibia and South Africa. In India the place chosen for the introduction of cheetah is Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Remember this fact Kuno National Park is in Madhya Pradesh. Now without getting into the technicalities what the government plans to do here is first release the cheetahs into a soft enclosure filled with Indian prey species to make the cheetah accustomed to the Indian prey behavior and later proper integration of the cheetah into the actual Kuno National Park ecosystem So now having seen the basics now let us see the reasons why this project is carried out.  See a keystone species holds the entire ecosystem together. They have a large influence on the ecosystem in which they exist so conservation of the keystone species result in the conservation of the entire ecosystem. The reintroduction of cheetahs will help restore India's open forest and grassland ecosystems which have been suffering. So having cheetahs will result in greater biodiversity. You guys know about the great Indian buster right the state word of Rajasthan. The great Indian buster is a critically endangered species. Their number or declining due to habitat loss. Note that cheetahs and great Indian buster prefer grasslands. So introduction of cheetahs and the conservation of the grasslands of central India will help revive great Indian buster population in the wild. So this is the first importance. Second important advantage is low human animal conflict. See cheetah are a non-aggressive species that do not generally attack humans. Among large carnivores cheetahs present the lowest level of conflict with human settlements. This is because they prefer hunting wild animals and they do not normally prey on livestock maintained by humans. Now moving on to the last advantage. See introduction of cheetahs will give a boost to ecotourism. This will enhance livelihood options and living conditions among the local communities where the cheetah is introduced. But before promoting ecotourism the government should ensure capacity building of the local community to make sure that they live in harmony with the cheetahs. So these are the major advantages of the cheetah interaction program. See although the program has these advantages there are some concerns with the project also. The concerns include whether the availability of prey population within the Kuno National Park will be sufficient for the African cheetah or not. The second concern is whether the African cheetahs which are not native to India will come in conflict with Indian predators. The last major concern is regarding genetic viability. See this program plans to create just an island of cheetah population. So that is a possibility of in-breeding. This will affect the genetic diversity among the cheetah population and in turn their health. See there are also other concerns regarding this project. We'll discuss the concerns exclusively in forthcoming discussions in detail. So as of now let us wind up with this news article. So in this news article discussion we saw in detail about project cheetah. This project aims to reintroduce African cheetah into the historical range of Asian cheetah. Then we saw about the importance of the project. We saw that cheetahs are keystone species and hence conserving them will result in the conservation of the entire ecosystem. Then we saw that cheetahs have low human animal conflict and as the last advantage we saw that introduction of cheetahs will give a major boost to ecotourism. Then we saw about the major concerns about the project as well. So these learned points now let us move on to the next news article discussion. This news article talks about a tweet posted by Tamil Nadu chief minister. In that tweet he posted that six more wetlands in Tamil Nadu have got Ramsar recognition. See exactly on July 27th, 2022 we saw that India has added five more sites as Ramsar sites or wetland of international importance right. On that day we saw that this addition of five more sites has brought the number of Ramsar sites in the country to 54. Among the five sites we saw that three were from Tamil Nadu they include Pallikarani, Marshland, Pichawaram, Mangroo Forest and Karikili bird sanctuary. Now along with these three wetlands exclusively from Tamil Nadu six more were added yesterday. So that is why it is in news. The six more newly added wetlands include Kuthankulam bird sanctuary, Gulf of Mannar marine biosphere reserve, Vembanur wetland complex, Willode, Vedantangal, Udaya Marthanta Buram bird sanctuary. So this is the essence of the news article given here. On that day itself we saw in brief about Ramsar sites. We saw that Ramsar convention is an intergovernmental treaty and it provides a framework for international cooperation for the conservation of wetland habitats. It has two broader aims. First is to halt the worldwide loss of wetlands. Second is to conserve the wetlands through wise use and management of those that remain. So greater the number of wetlands we declare as Ramsar site, the more will be the conservation of the wetlands and the site will also receive site specific international cooperation for conservation. See wetlands are very important for ecological processes as well as for their rich flora and fauna. They are an important source of food and they are the major habitat for most of the world's water birds and wetlands act as a key habitat for migratory species. So conservation of wetlands becomes very important but there is another record that you have to know about with respect to wetlands. It is called the Montrex record. See the Montrex record is a record of wetlands sites on the list of wetlands of international importance where changes in ecological character have occurred or occurring or likely to occur as a result of technological development, pollution or other human interference. So it is just a record of wetlands sites on the list of wetlands of international importance and the wetlands site which is recorded should have changes in ecological behavior which is occurring or occur or likely to occur due to the result of technological developments, pollution or other human interference. So only those kind of wetlands are registered in Montrex record. It is maintained as part of the ransom list. Remember the Montrex record should be employed to identify priority sites for positive international and national attention towards conservation. So if a wetland is recorded in Montrex record then that means the site will be prioritized with international and national attention towards conservation of that site. Remember sites may be removed from and added to the record only with the approval of contracting parties in which they lie and remember at present two Indian sites are listed under Montrex record. One is K-Lado National Park which is in Rajasthan and the Lokduk Lake to be very specific K-Bull Lamjo National Park. So these two sites are recorded under Montrex record in India. See in 1993 Chilka Lake was also listed in Montrex record due to the problem of siltation but later in 2002 it was removed from the list as the problem was tackled by government actions. So that's all you have to know about this news article discussion. In this news article discussion we saw in brief about Ramsar convention and we saw about Montrex record. So with these learnt points now let us move on to the next part of the news article discussion which is the preliminary practice questions. See today we have only two questions one question I'll be discussing with you and the second question will be the quiz question for you today. Let me read out the first question consider the following statements about Kuno National Park. Statement one Kuno National Park is located in the Satpura ranges of Madhya Pradesh. Statement two this national park has lush evergreen forest like equatorial Africa. This is why it is chosen for cheetah reintroduction program which of the given statements are correct. Option A one only, option B two only, option C both one and two and option D neither one nor two. See the correct answer for the question is option D neither one nor two. Statement one is wrong because the Kuno National Park is located in the Vindian ranges of Madhya Pradesh. It is located in the northern part of Madhya Pradesh. So this statement is incorrect. Now moving on the second statement is also incorrect because cheetah both Asian and African do not prefer evergreen forest. We saw that in the discussion it's of right. They are mainly located in grassland environment. Kuno National Park is dominated by grasslands and scant forest, abundant in thorny trees. This is why this national park is chosen for the cheetah reintroduction program. So the problem's question displayed here is the quiz question for you today. Try to solve the question and post the correct answer in the comment section. Along with that the main question for today's discussion is displayed here. Just go through the question write an relevant answer and post that also in the comment section. So this we came to the end of the news article discussion. If you find the video useful hit like, do comment and don't forget to subscribe to Shankar IS Academy YouTube channel. Thank you.


Good morning, everybody. We're here in Headingley, Manitoba, just west of Winnipeg, getting going on our day.  Again, we pick one of them up in Edmonton the next day, and that's going down to George, but we're coming home for the weekend first on the way down to Georgia. It's a pretty good trip, pretty good schedule for this week. My blood pressure this morning was 132 over 75. If you missed yesterday's vlog, I've been trying to get my blood pressure down with help from the doctor, so I've got to monitor it for the next couple of weeks, but we're in the green zone for this morning, a little high, a little high. I'd like it to be more around 120 over 80, but we're going to start making healthier choices. We're going to start eating better. We're going to start exercising every day. Get ourselves healthier. Keep an eye on ourselves, you know? I want to have a lot of life ahead of me yet. I don't want to have it cut short because I was too lazy to keep myself a little healthy, or a little healthier. I don't got to go all crazy, but I got to make some kind of effort. Pay off one day. Right, Diesel? We're just waking up here. Doesn't take too long to wake up in this cold. We're at the Flying Jay. I'm going to be heading west right away. So I've found it's true that it's much easier to say you want to get healthy, you say you want to get more active than to actually go and get more healthy and get more active. You know, I'm just like everybody else. You know, I always make these promises to myself, like, I'm going to get healthier. And then, you know, a week goes by, two weeks goes by. For those of you that have been watching my channel long and you remember that before my wedding, I was on a mission to lose weight and I actually succeeded in losing like 30 pounds because I had a goal in my mind. I mean, I'm a person that needs to have a goal in my mind and I need to come up with something else now that will motivate me the same way as my wedding. It's sad that I need to do that sometimes, I guess, but it's how my brain works. So it is possible and all we did then was walk, right? And I had to walk every day, even if it was just a little bit, even if it was just a mile, I would try to get in three miles every day, at least. But, you know, if I was strapped for time, at least one mile. And I'd just walk wherever I was, went parking the trucks off and just take off walking. I'd set my app to keep track of where I went and how far I went and how fast I was walking and it worked for me.  And then pretty soon it turns into, you know, next time we stop for two days and the next time we stop, oh, you know, we just won't do any walking this week.  I think I'm in pretty good shape, you know, we could probably just skip it. And then day after day after day and pretty soon that turns into a year. And my friend Troy in Washington state there around Seattle, he makes vlogs every day too. The channel's beyond 1031. Link's down below in the description. He's been walking every day. Since around the time when I started walking every day since before my wedding, well, we started around the same time. We sort of motivated each other to get healthy a little bit.  He's still going every day and now he's engaged to his fiance, Angie, who's in Canada up in BC and they go hiking together all the time and they're constantly active. I mean, I'm really proud of him that he stuck to it and that he remained on track. Whereas me, I beared off and gained 30 pounds from where I was. I gained another 20 over the summer. And you know, sort of my fault. I like to eat a lot of stuff. I shouldn't, but anyway, enough about this. I'm trying to motivate you guys to be active and healthy as well. I'm not saying I'm perfect. I'm trying to explain to you I'm not perfect. So don't look to me for the perfect example of how you should be, but I'm gonna go inside, get my coffee and let's get to trucking. That's way more interesting than talking about how fat I am. Wow, that's a messy load. Thanks. Just off to the left there. Can't believe he didn't want to park in a parking spot. Just go grab his coffee and park right there. Just hold right while it gets blocked. There's a lot of people lining up for fuel right now though. Yikes. Must be something wrong with the pumps or something. I thought I heard them talking something about that when I was inside there, driving my coffee. I thought I heard them say, yeah, something's wrong with the pumps. It's not usually that big of a lineup. So let's go. We're gonna be taking Highway 16. Good for you, buddy, going for a walk, even in the cold. Good for you. Highway 16, which is the other highway. You know, the TransCanada is a four lane. According to Karen here, I could save 90 kilometers by going up Yellowhead and taking some other shortcut up there. Cause we're not going to Saskatoon. We're going to North of Saskatoon. Probably around like, what is that, Prince Albert up there? But it's a town called Wakaw or Wakaw or Wakaw. Something like that. Well, 700 kilometers away, a little under 500 miles. So we got some time. We got some time. Well, plenty of time to stop somewhere yet and get out of the truck, go for a walk today. That's why I left last night already. Cause you know, I started here and heading late this morning. Cause, whoa, we're in my wipers. Pump was in my hand. I started last I wanted to get a little bit of a head start. So I had time today to do that. To the end of our four lane driving experience, turning on to the other highways. 600 meters, keep to the right on. TransCanada Highway, Highway 16. Technically it's a TransCanada. TransCanada, for those of you new to the vlog, is pretty much the same thing as an interstate, except not as nice. It's a one road, or one system, road system that goes from coast to coast in Canada from the Atlantic Ocean over to the Pacific across Southern Canada, where all the people live. So you get TransCanada one across the West here that goes all the way to the south. And you get Highway 16 here, which goes a little, little further up north. Goes through Saskatoon and to Edmonton and to Jasper, Alberta, and heads up into Northern BC. And I believe it gets close to or meets up with the Alaska Highway and goes up to Yukon and Alaska. There's only like two main roads that go through the entire country here. And this is the Northern one. This one's not as well traveled between Manitoba and Saskatoon. It's a two lane highway. They still haven't twinned it because Manitoba, they haven't fixed that railway there either. But yeah, so it's a two lane road. I don't usually take this route. It is a little bit shorter, but there's also a lot of towns you gotta go through, a lot of stops and start. So it doesn't really save you a lot of time, but it is shorter distance wise to get to Saskatoon from Portage of the Prairie, Manitoba. Well, we figured we'd go up here and change the scenery up a little bit. I go up here every now and then. But if you're in a big rush like this guy here, this is exactly what I was gonna tell you about. There's always one person. It's 100 kilometer an hour zone. There's always one person going 85. And then when you try to pass them, they can suddenly do 120, right? Well, I don't wanna pressure this guy too much to go a little faster. But at the same time, I wanna go a little faster. But I'm not getting any closer than this. Maybe he'll get the hint. Other than that though, this is a nice, it's a little bit of a different route. Not as many stops, it's a little more back country. I mean, there's not much scenery to see on the prairies, so this is the most we can do to switch it up. We didn't get to see that flat land over there, so we'll go see this flat land over here. All right, I've got my winter pants on. We're in Nipahua, Manitoba. This is where we're gonna do our walk today. Some gloves, got my reflective jacket. I'm gonna leave diesel here for this walk, even though I know he needs to get a good walk in too, but maybe we'll get a good walk in before bed. I wanna focus on power walking, we'll call it.  I just wanna get a good walk in. And it's a little cold. It is minus eight, so I'll see us right now. And there's a lot of fresh snow and ice on the road and sidewalks, and I think diesel's paws might get a little cold. And I'm gonna be out there for a little while longer than I would usually want him to be out in the cold. So we'll take him for a shorter walk later before bed. But for now, I don't want his paws to get too cold. For me, I've got my winter socks on. Hopefully I won't be too warm, I don't wanna be cold. We're gonna take a walk around Nipah Walk. I've never gone for a walk here yet, so let's go explore this town a little bit. So I use this app called Map My Fitness. And it'll pretty much just track my movements as I walk, oops, and keep track of the distance, the duration, my pace, a minutes per kilometer, average pace, and calories burnt. So I've entered in my weight and height and stuff so it knows approximately how many calories I burn. This is what I used last time. So here we go, Diesel, making good decisions today. All right, you guard the truck. Well, got ourselves onto the first side street here from where we parked. No sidewalks. Hmm. I hope not every street is like this. Or whatever, I guess we'll just walk down the street then. No sidewalks there either. Hmm. All right, well, we'll go down at the end of this street and wind our way around town till we feel like we've gone far enough. Curling Club, wouldn't be a Canadian town without a curling club. This looks interesting. Looks like an old school train station. The railway isn't even nearby here, though. It's a museum. Well, that'd be fun to explore, but they're closed right now, says in the window. I wonder if the train tracks used to go past here. Oh yeah, there's some rail back there, but it doesn't go anywhere. Maybe it was moved here. I don't know if you could move a building like that. Interesting. Never knew that was there. Some pretty old trees, eh? Makes you wonder when this neighborhood was built. These are probably just little baby trees when these houses were built. It's interesting when you go on walks, you see so many things that you wouldn't see just driving through. And the fresh air is really nice, dude. It's a really cool house. Wow, that thing's old. I bet you that was one of the first houses around here. Beautiful old church. I wonder which church this is. We'll go around the front and we'll see. Knox Presbyterian. Okay, cool. Yeah, it's still in use. Cool. I'd love to see inside there. They sure don't build churches like they used to, you know? It's beautiful. See, that's more along the line to a modern building. See, they don't build them like they used to. Still looks nice. Modern architecture is sort of, I don't know, I don't want to say it's a stain on our history. So I mean, look at this. Here's another nice old building. All the intricate details. You probably can't see it from here with GoPro, but you know, these take a lot more pride in the architecture and all the fine little details, you know, that's not a good example, that building there, but you know what I mean, right? You people living in Europe who have buildings that are hundreds and hundreds of years old, you know, you know firsthand, modern architecture does not compare to the way buildings used to be built. I wish we'd go back, take a little bit more pride, you know? Think I was born in the wrong century. Well, they've got a sidewalk on at least one street in town, it's kind of nice. Most streets in Nepal here don't have any sidewalks. At least like eight churches in this little town on my walk. I think there's another old one. What are you trying to do, Nepoi? You trying to give Steinback a run for their money? Ha ha, Steinback's like the church capital. I think of Canada. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe that Steinback has the most churches per capita of any town or city in Canada. But Nepal seems to be trying to take that title from us. A lot of churches in town. Check this truck out. So that was a good walk, I felt good about it. Now I'm trying to get back onto the highway and there was literally nobody on this road a minute ago. And as soon as I put it in gear and pulled up to the road here, non-stop. I guess church just got out. I am filming this on a Sunday and almost 2.30. I mean, that'd be a late service. There is a lot of Filipinos in this town. You know, walking around this town, I never knew. There's almost mostly Filipinos here. There's even a Filipino church. So now we got 600 kilometers left to go, but at least we got our exercise in for the day. Feel good about it. Blood pressure was looking pretty good after the walk. We'll see what it is this evening again. I think it was 136 over 74 after my walk.  I just know I gotta keep an eye on it. So we're working with the small amount of daylight we're getting nowadays. It always happens so quickly. Halfway between the solstice, suddenly the days just completely change. Same thing happens around the, I'd say what, in spring the days suddenly just get longer really quickly. Just in this Saskatchewan now, so we still have quite a ways to go. My GPS is telling me 376 kilometers and we've already driven 400. So we're just over halfway over. Approximately halfway there for today. Kind of thinking that we'd probably have more daylight hours today, but that's what it is. I think we're saying that a lot lately. It is what it is. So many things that you just can't change. Just gotta Yorkton Saskatchewan. We're gonna pull into the Petropas here just on the east side of town. Grab a coffee real quick. 140 kilometers left on our day. That's three and a half hours of driving. So six times three, 18, 200 miles, say somewhere around there. Parking's on. Oh, hey, what's this? This is new back here. Truck wash. Look at that, a touchless truck wash. Really? I wonder how expensive it is. You know, there's one truck wash along the TransCanada by Edmonton. And they say, oh, it's an eight minute truck wash. I went to go and get my truck wash there once. I walked right back out because the washes cost like $150 or something like that. Even more expensive than the Blue Beacons. So I wonder how expensive the truck wash would be here. Real way to find out that. That'd be a good spot for one though. You know, Yorkton's halfway up to Saskatoon. It's hard to find good truck washes in Canada. I wish we had more Blue Beacons. I really like them. They have a good setup. I just gotta find some good ones. I'm gonna park right here. So I'm at that 24 seven truck stop again in Saskatchewan. It's actually a really nice little place right over there. Can you see it? So I'm highway 16 and I'm gonna get an early night here tonight and start early tomorrow. Get our hours on the right track. So I'll be leaving here at about 7 a.m. tomorrow. I'm at a better schedule than what we were working with today and I'm really tired today for some reason. We have about 11 hours so we have to leave here but I'll probably leave here a little earlier than that just so that I'm not late. Get this place ready for sleep. I watched some TV. I'm into this Netflix series right now about zombies. It's actually made me have a couple of nightmares about zombies in the last couple of weeks but which is weird because I usually don't have nightmares. I usually don't. I don't dream very often but I don't know. It's a good series. What can I say? They make it into my dreams and you know it's good. So I'll talk to you guys tomorrow morning. First thing, don't forget to subscribe. Hit that like button and I'll see you tomorrow.


Meanwhile, Speaker of the House of Representative Femig Bajabiamila has met with President Mohamed Abouhari as part of efforts to resolve the ongoing strike by the academic staff Union of Universities ASU. The Speaker who led a delegation of principal officers from the House to ASU Rock Presidential Vila immediately after a Tuesday's plenary said he was hopeful that the crisis might soon be resolved as a delegation had a robust engagement with the President. Speaking with journalists after the meeting the Speaker said the House of Representative has had a series of meetings and has been able to get both sides to shift grounds on an extent.