enmeshment, yummy, engulfment, merger, fusion, sounds like good sex, symbiosis, bring it on. But actually, this is the central dynamic in any relationship, intimate interpersonal relationship with someone who suffers from A-class to B personality disorder, possibly with the exception of the psychopath. And today I'm going to ask the question, what are the differences between the enmeshment, the engulfment, the merger, the fusion, the symbiosis of the narcissist, and those of the borderline and the codependent? Welcome to my channel. My name is Sam Vaknin. I'm the author of Malignance of Love, Narcissism Revisited, a former visiting professor of psychology and currently on the faculty of CIAPS. Good for them, I hope. Okay, start with the narcissist, of course. He is always number one. Numero uno, the narcissist. Don't listen to self-styled experts online in general and don't listen to them when they tell you that narcissists do not experience merger or fusion or enmeshment. That is expressly untrue. This is a central dynamic in relationships with narcissists. Narcissists in intimate relationships try to recreate the symbiotic phase that they used to have as babies with their mothers, and this is the principle of dual mothership. Now, of course, we don't use the word symbiosis or the phrase symbiotic phase anymore, but it's still a valid point. The child is one with a mother. The child sees the world through his mother's eyes. Mother brings the world to the child, and the child can't tell the difference or the separateness between itself and the mother. And this is the symbiotic phase. It's one organism, psychologically speaking. Whenever the narcissist comes across a potential intimate partner, and even to some extent friends, family, and so on and so forth, they try to recreate the symbiotic phase. Of course, the symbiotic phase involves by definition merger and fusion with a maternal figure. It's a precondition for the shared fantasy. It is instrumentalized in the case of the narcissist. The narcissist recreates the symbiotic phase to allow him to separate from the intimate partner. And to become an individual, he reenacts his early childhood conflicts within the relationship to allow for a much better resolution, this time becoming his own person, acquiring personhood. But still, it's there. It's temporary, but it is stable. The narcissist suffers from object inconstancy, and so he experiences separation in security known colloquially as abandonment anxiety. And the way he resolves this is by converting the intimate partner, converting external objects in general, but especially the intimate partner, into an internal object, into an avatar, into a representation in his mind. And this process is known as internalization, introjection, incorporation, identification. Identification is the key word here. The narcissist identifies with his intimate partner to the point of making her disappear in his mind's eye and reappear inside his mind. So henceforth, from that moment on, the narcissist continues to interact only with the internal object, the introject, the avatar, the snapshot that represents the intimate partner out there. The narcissist refuses to recognize the externality of the intimate partner has separateness, her independence, her autonomy, her agency, and her self-efficacy. This is the ultimate form of enmeshment and engulfment and merger, fusion and symbiosis.  Now, the borderline. Similar to the narcissist, the borderline suffers from separation in security, abandonment anxiety, but hers is existential. It's much heightened, much more intense, much more all-pervasive, and it is triggered by her own imagination and anticipation, not necessarily by real life events. So the borderline is clinging. She clings to her intimate partner in order to make sure that he sticks around. Her engulfment leads to anxiety as well. So the borderline shuttles relentlessly and inexorably between two poles, abandonment anxiety, the fear of being ignored or rejected or humiliated or shamed or abandoned, and engulfment anxiety, the fear of the opposite, the fear of becoming one with the intimate partner, of merging and fusing and getting enmeshed with the intimate partner. Consequently, borderline's display of behavior known as approach, avoidance, repetition, compulsion. They shuttle, as I said, between these two behaviors. They approach, and then when reciprocated, they avoid, and then they approach again. And all these reflects symbiosis, reflects merger and fusion, and so on and so forth. While the narcissist mergers and fuses on a temporary basis in order to accomplish separation individuation from a maternal figure, the borderline mergers and fuses on a permanent basis, but her own engulfment anxiety keeps disrupting the enmeshment and the engulfment. The enmeshment and the engulfment are instrumentalized. What the borderline tries to do, she tries to become one with her intimate partner.  And indeed, the intimate partner fulfills one of the main ego functions, reality testing. What the borderline does, she externalizes her regulation. In normal healthy people, emotions are regulated internally. Moods are stabilized internally. The borderline outsources these functions. She expects and demands of her intimate partner to do it for her, to regulate her emotions, to stabilize her moods. And so to accomplish this, she opens herself up, she becomes hyper vulnerable. Whereas narcissists present a facade of invulnerability, the signal invulnerability, the borderline signals maximum vulnerability. And that draws the intimate partner in when he tries to act as a savior, or a healer, or a fixer. And then she merges. It's like a carnivorous plant. She opens up her beautiful petals, and when the fly comes in, she devours him. So then she closes in on the intimate partner and renders the intimate partner an extension of herself. The exact same way the narcissist does. But the narcissist treats his partners as intimate partners and regards them as extensions in order to ascertain control, to make sure that he is in control. It's a reflection of his underlying insecurity and inferiority and shame and so on. The borderline makes sure that the intimate partner conforms to her demands and edicts and wishes and so on and so forth. And she treats the intimate partner as an extension, but an instrumental extension. In short, a tool, in every sense of the word, someone who would do things for her and replace internal regulation with external regulation. As distinct from the narcissist, the borderline does have object consistency. What she doesn't have is introject consistency. She is unable to maintain an inner representation of an external object. So out of sight, out of mind, the external object exists for the borderline only as long as he is physically present or as long as there is the potential for such physical presence. But the minute the borderline kind of detaches from the intimate partner or even goes on a trip or goes to a bar or whatever, the intimate partner cannot form a part of any narrative or the relevant narrative. That minute she loses sight of the intimate partner. She can't even remember him.  It's like his gun and this is introject inconstancy. And so the borderlines and measurement and engulfment, they are intended to convert the intimate partner into a source of external regulation and to compensate for introject inconstancy by becoming one with the partner. While the narcissist uses and measurement and engulfment to recreate the early childhood environment with a substitute maternal figure to allow him to proceed into separation and individuation at the same time mitigating attendant separation insecurity or abandonment anxiety. The narcissist doesn't have object constancy or permanence, so his exact opposite is a mirror image of the borderline in this sense. Finally the codependent. The codependent controls her intimate partner from the bottom. She controls by being helpless, by being needy, by clinging. She is very reminiscent of the borderline, but whereas the borderlines only demand from her intimate partner is essentially, please regulate me, please stabilize me, please be a secure base for me, please be a safe place for me. The codependent actually demands total service, total room service from her intimate partner. He's supposed to do everything for her. Her helplessness is not only learned, but it's practiced and ostentatious. Her neediness, her vulnerabilities, they're all on display, conspicuous, intended to motivate the intimate partner to take over, simply to take over. And then she has no responsibilities and no obligations and no duties and she's scot-free. Now this is very reminiscent of what babies do. Babies cry in order to elicit attachment responses. They cry so that mommy comes and picks them up or gives them food or something. Codependent does the same. She babyfies, she infantilizes herself in order to provoke these instincts or reflexes in her intimate partners and others, by the way, and provide her with a full panoply of services, mental, psychological services. Now this is called control from the bottom. Control by being helpless, control by pretending to be the plaything or the victim of others. And this control from the bottom allays and mitigates separation in security, abandonment anxiety. The codependent is, has abandonment anxiety equal in intensity and strength and pervasiveness as does the borderline. But her solution is different. Her solution is different and she does not have an engulfment anxiety. The more engulfment, the better, the more enmeshment, more yummy, merger and fusion to the very end. Codependent wishes to disappear, literally vanish and reappear inside her intimate partner, of course, all the time with the ability to manipulate him and control him from the bottom. The co-dependence, I'm sorry, enmeshment and engulfment are instrumentalized. She feels that life is meaningful only when she has an intimate partner. Her interactions with the intimate partner imbue reality with some sense, give her direction, goals, a purpose. The unity, the dyad, the couple, the union, they are the world as far as the codependent is concerned. She shuts off reality by immersing herself in the equivalent of the narcissist's shared fantasy. And so this gives meaning to her life, direction and goals. Now, the codependent possesses or is possessed by object in constancy and in this sense, she is very similar to the narcissist. And her separation insecurity, abandonment anxiety leads to clinging manipulativeness, Machiavellianism and so on. So one could easily say that the codependent is a combination of narcissists and borderline. Indeed, all narcissists are codependent and many borderlines display codependent behaviors. Now, this would aggravate and irritate and provoke many people when I say this, but I do really think that codependency, aka dependent personality disorder is a form of narcissism. It is very egocentric or egotistic. It is very manipulative. So there's an element of Machiavellianism. There's no dysregulation involved. So it's distinct from borderline. There is a lot of control from the bottom by displaying ostentatious selflessness and clinging and so on. So it's a combination. It's the bridge between borderline and narcissism. And very often, codependence laps into one condition or another and distress, anxiety, rejection, abandonment, humiliation, shame, especially public shaming, modification in a way, codependence become narcissistic, highly narcissistic or highly borderline, highly emotional, dysregulated. Okay. I hope I succeeded to make some sense and to introduce some order into this very fuzzy region, the Venn diagram, you know, the part that is common to all the circles. And I hope I have counted the myths and nonsense spewed by self-strapped experts online.


Beautifully stated, we have all of the solutions. Now we just need to build the movement to get there. And as all good organizers know, local place-based work is where it all starts. And that's how we're going to get there. So my name is Liz Maxwell. I'm a senior product manager with Socap. And since Socap 15, I've been running the Socap 365 series. Raise your hand if you've ever been to a Socap 365 event. Yeah. Oh, for the live stream, the whole room is raising their hand right now. And it's just overwhelmed. It's so great. So the Socap 365, we've been running year-round events for three years now. And we've done over 40 events all across the country. So between Boulder, New York City, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Boston, Seattle, Austin, San Francisco, and Detroit, we've been doing a lot of these, taking the show on the road and all to the point of place-based networks. And we've really been seeing the impact investing community just grow and trying to keep up with it and give reasons for people to come together, not just once a year at Socap, but all throughout the year. And the other good news that I wanted to share is not only is the field rapidly growing, there's high demand for our events, I'll say, more than we can keep up with of how many, how often people want to come together in how many places, but also it being the 21st century, what Ben was just pointing out of the solutions right at our fingertips. The networks are place-based and rooted, but also digital. And the potential for networks and systems to catalyze massive change is just transformative. So that's all a long plug for our new digital platform, which is a podcast that we're starting that features our Socap 365 events. And so if you're not able to make it in person, you can catch our events there. And we also do fantastic interviews with other unlikely allies in the field. So that podcast is called Money and Meaning. You can take out your phone right now and subscribe. It wouldn't even bother me if you took it out. Just go ahead, I see you on your phone. You can just find us in the Apple Store wherever you get your podcasts. Money and Meaning, we've got some free stickers up top. And really, I push it, and it's such a pleasure to push it because we bring together really great content, I think, and I'm really pleased to be able to feature all of the amazing people who do this work. And I will use that as a not so subtle transition to our next panel here. But to say that the work that we do matters in these places and also who is involved deeply matters, as we all know. And so to that point of the amazing people that show up to SoCAP and show up to these conversations and are really strong speakers and leaders who are true voices in the field that we can follow, you can find all of those on our podcast. And a special plug to two folks who are on the next panel, who have been part of SoCAP 365 events in the past. So let's, yeah, I can do that now. Jessica Norwood was part of a very early SoCAP 365 event we did in New York City on the Missing Infrastructure for African American Wealth Creation. And Debra Fries was on a very recent SoCAP 365 that we did in Boston on, let's see, that's what happens.  They just kill it, yeah. Did everyone subscribe to the podcast? Did we do that? Great. Okay, good, we're counting down now it's time. Debra was on a recent SoCAP 365 in Boston on community capital funds. It was fantastic, you're gonna hear more about all of their work next. So I do encourage you to connect with us here around and hear more of it. So the Runway Project aims to solve the friends and family seed funding gap for African American entrepreneurs all across the country. And we'll have two wonderful folks, Jessica Norwood and Condomason from the Runway Project on this next panel. And they'll be joined by two also wonderful folks from the Boston Impact Initiative. Debra Fries and Mark Watson. The Boston Impact Initiative is a fund oriented around economic justice, investing in enterprises that address the growing wealth gap and ecological challenges of our time. Thanks, please welcome our next panel.


Hello everyone this is Dan from Smoke Cartel and here in front of me is a very special collection of water pipes from Cade Maid. These water pipes are special because they are 3D printed. If you're not familiar with how 3D printing works it's very similar to a 2D printer. Only layers of molten plastic build and build on top of each other to form an object. Maybe if you or someone more manly than you has ever built a house out of bricks it's a very similar principle. So first you start with the computer model and then the printer takes that model and with a tiny nozzle builds it with molten plastic. And it doesn't get much more precise than a computer. 3D printing started as kind of a novelty but it has become a very powerful building tool. So it makes sense that they would use this technology for one of mankind's greatest achievements, the bong. The way bongs work does require a lot of precise engineering. So bongs and 3D printing go together like peanut butter and jelly and weed. It comes in a few different varieties but all the designs are very beautiful. As you can see with this one it has bands of color represented by the layers of molten plastic. And if you look really closely you can see that all the bands are kind of beveled and textured and you can actually make out precisely where the computer started on to a new layer. There are a number of advantages to using a 3D printed bong. One of the biggest ones is that they are shadow resistant and extremely durable much like a silicone piece.  So in a way you could think of it as combining a glass piece and a silicone piece but that's not really it. It's kind of its own new thing. So it gives you a lot of different advantages and it makes these pieces definitely some of the most unique you'll have in your collection by far. You can definitely expect to see a lot more smokeware utilize this technology in the future because it's relatively new. So check out our collection of 3D printed bongs on our website SmokeCartel.com because they're definitely unlike anything you've ever seen before in the industry.


This presentation introduces you to the content of the VLC Class Language Typology. The presentation is organized as follows. First, we will look at the content of the class and its syllabus. Then we will provide an overview of the e-educational strategies that are applied and will finally list the requirements students have to fulfill to get the class credits. The class is subdivided into three parts. After an overview of the evolution of language and the early principles of language study with a focus on the comparative method, we will examine and apply the main parameters of language typology. From phonology to syntax. This includes a discussion and exemplification of as many as possible languages. The second part of the typology class is devoted to a more general perspective. We will look at languages and language universals and the main principles of language change. We will have to deal with language endangerment and will eventually investigate the typological changes that the English language underwent. The last two sessions will be used for the analysis projects and their presentation in class. The whole class is organized in such a way that the online content serves as the backbone for our in-class meetings where we will practice using a wealth of exercise material. If you are a remote online student, model solutions and additional online help will be available instead. To realize this ambitious goal of e-teaching and e-learning, we need a special approach towards education. Let us look at this approach that flips the phases of content delivery and practicing. In traditional teaching, content delivery and content acquisition are realized in class where several dozens of students have to gather at the same time to be entertained by their teacher. In a second phase, students practice on their own, on the basis of additional exercise material, homework, tasks, etc. We will flip these two activities. Content acquisition is now self-guided, takes place first and is done online. The additional in-class phase is dedicated to practicing, rehearsing, discussion and analysis. This means prior to each in-class meeting, students must have worked through the online content of the respective unit on their own. This approach is referred to as the inverted classroom model or the flipped mastery education model. In phase one of this model, you are now the autonomous learner. In phase two, we will meet in class where classical teaching is now out. Now the central teaching method, it's not really teaching anymore, is that of a cooperative interaction between instructor and students. The content you are given is multimodal and involves all sorts of channels. In our class, we will supply you with highly interactive multimedial content, the so-called virtual sessions. Recently, we have added video clips, the so-called e-lectures. These are never longer than 15 minutes and are closely connected with the virtual sessions. Furthermore, we have our workbooks. They supply you with a text material but not with any other media and give you the opportunity to supplement the text with the online content. The combination of multimedia, video and text is unparalleled in the world of e-education. Now finally, you want to know what you have to do in order to get the six class credits where one credit is the equivalent of about 30 hours workload. Well, we want you to actively participate, that's a prerequisite. You have to submit nine ungraded worksheets. These show us that you've dealt with the online content prior to each in class meeting. We want you to do two graded worksheets which count 20% of the overall grade, one language project 40% of the overall grade and finally, you will all take part in an e-exam which is also valued with 40% of the overall grade. Well, this class has been taught before and in our class evaluations which are a constant feature of this class, our students have been very positive about it. So, see you in class. Until then.


What's up everybody, Jay-Z over at JayzZeroJazzbeatsCaseBricks.com, win five spots in the mixer. These are the last five spots we're giving away. 2019-20, Panini, Mosaic, Sello, Pack, Break, Random Team number 72. This is the last five spots in the mixer. The way it works, guys, is to randomize customer names and teams. Distribute the hits out of the Sello Pack. And then at the end of the break, we'll randomize customer names again. Customers in the top five will win spots each in the mixer. So let's roll the dice and four in a one, five times. Good luck. One, two, three, four. Alright, five times. Matthew, down to Sean. Alright, five times. Teams, one, two, three, four, and five. Pelicans at the top, down to the Charlotte Hornets. Alright, so, Matthew, you have the Pelicans. Derek with the Jazz, Oliver with the Wolves, Brandon with the Nets, Martin with the Hawks, Stephen with the Spurs, Ace with the Warriors, Derek with the Suns.  Alright, there you go. Closing the trade window, guys. Trade one of the clothes, and then we'll come back and see who wins spots in the Mixer. Shaquille O'Neal Hall of Fame, Green, Karma Boll. Here we go, guys. Quick sell-out pack. Now let's see who gets into the Mixer. Good luck. Top five get in, guys. And it's a four and a three lucky number seven. Top five get in. Good luck. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Three and a four and a three, seven times. Sean, you're in. Derek, you're in. Jeff, you're in. Eric, you're in. And Stephen K, you're in. Congratulations. Top five after seven times. Now coming up next in a separate video is the Mixer. Appreciate it, guys.


Hello, in this lecture we will define check register. According to fundamental accounting principles, while 22nd edition, the definition of check register is another name for a cash disbursement journal when the journal has a column for check numbers. So we're talking about those cash disbursements that we will then record in the check register may look something like this might have the check number of the check that is being recorded. We will then have the date who it's going to we may have a description of what it is for then we'll have the amount that will be listed and we know that the amount of course if we're saying it's disbursement type journal will be reducing cash then we need to know what other account will be affected. We may have a list of other accounts or some type of format that we can describe the other account that will be affected in this case we're saying supplies then we could have another check we could have the date who it's going to what it's for with a description the amount and then once again that's going to indicate that it's reducing cash what's the other side in this case rent and we can do this so on and so forth for a particular time period showing the total for that time period as either detail to back up say the general ledger account or another format basically for a general ledger account or we could fill out something like this by hand if we're doing a system that's going to be a manual system and then take this total at the end of a certain time period whether that be a week a month and then take that information and record it into our system with one lump sum meaning we would be reducing cash by that 2003 30 out recording the debit to supplies debit to rent debit to utilities phone and then this other one here we may have a column where we have to put things that we don't know exactly where it's going to go we might have to put that to miscellaneous in this case it looks like it was for insurance so we could put it to insurance expense and that would be the journal entry that could sum up the cash disbursement journal the check register


Urr said, he had a big J for me in Amsterdam, not what I thought you meant, bro. As soon as we booked this battle, I hit up bag and said, let's get drugs. Magic truffles. I eat those. It's another promo battle, make sure you click through it and vote on the poll for who you were the one for.  Alright, no further ado.  Out of Jersey, we've got O-Red, make some noise. And on my left hand side, Philly veteran and Don Flop veteran. We've got O-Red. It's going to be round number one on O-Red. Local Philly's friends. Yeah, y'all get it? Make some noise, y'all get it?  But it's time that you do this bottle that you owe. I said, that thing's true though. Who you want me to chew though? He said, I got you uno. I said, uno, he said uno. I said, really nigga? Uno, he said uno. I said, uno. You want me to show you? You're shabby. Y'all want me to show him?  Let's go, Red. Let's go. Your bar's empty, nigga. My non-venomous. You got defatables.     That ain't all of this time. You've been doing nothing. P.S.,  Get it, nigga? Get it, nigga? Yeah, I said it.  I said, you came to this event late, but it's funny.  I said, you probably think I'm just some typical PG nigga.  Let's be honest. I got more fans, views, been in more countries than you.  See, you lucky. Because with one phone call, as soon as you stepped in the PA, my niggas would have been dumping them slugs as I run it. How this motherfucker got treated with a pop as soon as he stepped in the city, you're brotherly love. I said, it's bad with me. You going to need more than luck. I said, this is war. This body's coming back. So chill, man. You going to need more than luck. This is war. So this body's coming back with me, nigga. I'm for his gun. That gun, now I'm going to put it to sleep. I keep the 40-tuff.  If you try to breeze through me, think cheap movies. Because the red box, I take out one of his discs with a buck.  I mean, somebody did this guy bad. It looked like Sirius Jones did your shape of that. He got knocked out by math. I said, why you ain't laughing?  Because my gun is 22. That's why I get a kick out of it. See, I'm known for the shovel dance. In my competition, I be burying them, bro.  You won't believe what we be carrying them crows.  I said crack his head to his neck pop. A knife will make his flesh drop. Close range, that's the head shot. Just smack it in the desktop. I said, turn his head to a wet mop. You don't got enough drive to get away with that tech pop.   I said, yeah, I said something about your mom.  It's just getting you the excuse that you was looking a bicker. I said, he's pushed you. So his red beef is rare. That's why I'm cooking this nigga. I don't care who you are and beat.  Now that's Keith's sweat. You put yourself behind these bars. That's cheese dip. I'll bang the hammer and get a kick out of it. I'll bang the hammer and get a kick out of it. That's a reflex. In case you won't see him around. That's T-Rex. I said, will this pump send you in hell? Shit. I'm talking to you.  I'm talking to you. Shit. I said, will this pump send you in hell? That's a deep breath and exposure to different parts of your chest. That's a V-neck. I tap your pockets to see if he's gangsta. That's a G-check.  That's E-neck. Oh, yeah. This is bad. I'm usually the vet niggas don't want that wreck with you. You must got a death wish. Because the last time I skimmed on, oh, no. I believe I said I make them text spit. Wild card, rage, raw tune. Shoot, walk in reverse and make your sex skit. This time around. But this time around, I'm only bringing one text from the past, dawg.    Come on, bro.  What? Joke. I'm trying to show a tiny choke.  That straight, you didn't take y'all in the Spanish with great grandma. When the radish, I said when the radish popping your grandma. Everybody get kicked. I'm the five, bro. Oh, you don't get it?  Hitting right next to a million ooze in your life, guarding your bay, watching me.  Looks like she got the food. She's in a leg lock. All right, let me stop. I said, if I did this clown, that's something I was sworn to do. Blame your people for not warning you. Let's be up front already. The crowd is getting bored of you. Wait a minute, be up front already. See how I just felt bored for you?  I said, it's Nina. It's a big old red. You get bored like a tumor. Yo, this Nina is dick-sucking. Like what she need in this sex. I said, I guess you're the vet. I'm the rookie. Well, it's time to see me rap. But with those arms, nobody believed that he squeezed the text. So I stomp you out if you don't prove your ground here. Nigga, that's my PG step. I say, you know for the translation, right? Well, that's cool. Nah, nah, I'm a wild boi. I think I got a translation for you, too. Ding dong. It's the rock. Bang bang. Funny, and some of the fans hating.  So let's get into that translation. I'm at your door like your hole is witness. And you get smacked for trying to beat me. I got a gun that I gotta tuck it under the arm and squeeze.  Now that's cheeky. Now remember I said, the animal noise isn't ended with boot blocker. You want to know what that means? Peek, that translation is. You be lying there on the floor once I take this eagle out of this big tee. I said on the floor, it's why I left red. Your crew straight up left red. Someone please go 911 like a club sad. Whoever said I was gonna win, that was your best bet. I heard you sleeping on me, yeah? But I put that silence up over your mattress and that's your death bed. I said what, you think nah, son?  What they gonna see after this bet? A tech nine in a shotgun. A tech nine in a shotgun.  They said, true nice. Hell no. I said, you got paid for this battle and that money is your consequence.   You want to beat me?  You getting pennies for your thoughts for this nigga with blah or your common sense. I said this part of the round is so silly I'm about to take it back though. When he was the man, though. Back when we was digging this kind of pool by Shelly Gallo. When you had the KO control that acted like Rambo.  I said, let's go back, back. Like the niggas from bed, right? Or I'm giving that feeling, give me the truth.  But you get in that head, 45-minute show. Got minutes and a round with the better. I follow you, nigga. So I see how you get down. Either you living bitch-style or stint-style. Hustler. Please hide your birds when it snitch-brains. He telepaints, cops come pressure.  In the 22nd, probably. I don't respect you. I keep Mexican snitch-bitch.  A federale?  That mean it's bad when you get 6 million views if I reach in my arsenal and put that shoddy on everybody. I think, I think first. I don't side-talk.    You the type of nigga I throw in the sleeper. Fuck. If that chicken in the floor is a bullrope on your Caesar. This drama about, yes? Rock swag. I play it. C'mon, c'mon. Let me fall back. What's up? Oh, he knocked himself west. True. So he don't know what that drama about. Yes? He claims he's southwest though. The nigga claims southwest. It don't matter. Don't be fooled by the rock swag when I put that llama out there. Put you and homie on the right thoughts, fly it out left. You don't know what that mean? That mean you get 2 bags for free when bullets fly it. I don't know how. Cause you a captain's favor hose slash still don't get put. Now I'm gonna prove it.  It was booted Chris. Old red busted through the door like sure that you aint gotta go through with this.    I said bro, I heard this story from Calico's Big T and Hitman.  I said bro, how can you look at yourself in the mirror and don't laugh?  I said you came out of pocket for everything. Like you was gonna get some plate.    It still didn't let Old Lane. It still didn't let Old Lane. It still didn't let Old Lane. It still didn't let Old Lane. I watched all of the niggas. It still didn't let Old Lane. I said bro, you just type to go up to a girl like hey, can I get your number? She's like, I ain't got a phone. Can I walk up to your friend? She's like, I ain't got a phone.  Can I take you out to dinner?    Standing by the booty.  He be that dude at the standing by the candy machine just in case somebody's still dumb. He be acting all rough and tough until robbery happens and they got real guns. He be on the phone with police. I thought he was the police. Nah, he gone across the road once.   I said for real, in your oops battle you was wearing that teflon while when that was in New York you and Philly bitch, you better have that teflon now.


Well, good morning everyone. My name is Alan, Alan Moran. I work for a company named Althoros and I've been working in Cloud Foundry for the past two years. Today I will be delivering to you a talk that was prepared by my friend Alexandre Lomov. Unfortunately, he couldn't travel today. So today we will talk about managing multiple clouds with only one Bosch installation. We will particularly tackle two questions here, how we can manage Bosch deployments on a single multiple regions and how we can manage Bosch deployments on multiple clouds. So let me say a few words about Althoros. Althoros is a consultant company. We provide solutions from the Cloud Foundry ecosystem to our clients. We are in various locations around the world. So how we started working on this? Well, a client came to us. A health service provider came to us that we've been working for them and they wanted Cloud Foundry. But they wanted to have Cloud Foundry all around the States and they wanted to be able to spin these clusters on demand and that was not the only concern that we had. They also wanted us to be able to deploy those Cloud Foundrys on multiple infrastructures. So we said, okay, we'll look into this problem. The community has been working on similar problems. We will look and we'll start working on a proof-of-concept in our own data centers. We have offices in Minsk and a cloud provider in Minsk and a cloud provider in the States. So we said, okay, let's start working on a proof-of-concept. But why? Why would we want, in the first place, having multiple Clouds deployments, which would be the reasons that we would want that? Well, to start with, we want to be as close as possible to our clients, right? We want to be as close as possible to the user. We want to have our cluster physically close to them. In this way, we will have better response time, less latency, less probability of package losses. And having multiple clusters also would bring us a system with fault tolerance. But let's think for a minute. What about Cloud Foundry? How come Foundry works over one? When there are serial issues like Cloud Foundry is not prepared to work over one out of the box. I would just mention a couple of them. For example, the UAA Cloud Controller. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, the UAA Cloud Controller has two components of Cloud Foundry. The UAA would manage the users and authentications and role. The Cloud Controller would basically manage all the rest from apps, services, spaces, or everything. And these two components persist data on SQL solutions, such as MySQL and Postgres. Now, if we would want a Cloud Foundry deploy on multiple clouds, we would have to make this component this SQL solution to work over one. So that's the first problem that we will have. And another problem that I can mention is NATS. For the ones who haven't heard about this component first, this is the component that allows all the internal communications that happen within Cloud Foundry. And the problem of this is that NATS is not optimized to work over one. And NATS, each node of NATS, nodes about a group of nodes of other nodes. And it is not prepared to work over one. So if you want to take risks and we find a solution of a SQL database such as RDS that actually would work on different regions or distributed in a distributed way over one, I will say, okay, let's try to do the deployment. The first problems that we will find would be the internal communication between the components. We will write into timeouts, right? For example, we will have unpredictable things happening, right? We could lose packages such as Harbit and an app could be relaunched or the app staging process could have problems too. So we went forward and said, okay, the solution would be to replicate the same Cloud Foundry installations on each of the regions or clouds that we will be. Together with this, we would use a GeoDNS. In this way, we would distribute the load between the different clusters and make sure that the closest cluster responds to the closest client. And then we will leave the app deployment process to be distributed on all our clusters. Then the app developers will need to find a way of their apps to actually work over one if they need any storage solution at all. But this will be the decision that we will tackle. And to apply this solution that this is what the community and we personally at Altos have been doing so far whenever we have multiple clusters, we always need at least one Bosch installation in each of the regions or each of the clouds that we are at. So we started thinking of possibilities. We started thinking how hard it would be. We know how Bosch works behind. How hard it would be to do some changes on Bosch and be able to spin up multiple clusters from only one Bosch installation. And why would we want to do this? Well, this client in particular wanted to have different clients to spin up on the band. And it would be less hard for us to have all the synchronization in one cluster. And also it would save us DevOps time and resources in particular because we will have only one Bosch. I would prefer personally as an engineer to have a really robust Bosch installation instead of having multiple installations on each of the regions. So we went ahead and we said, okay, let's first start this proof of concept internally and see if we manage to do it. So how we did it? Well, first to understand how we did it, I will explain briefly how Bosch interacts with the different cloud providers and show the different changes that we had to perform for Bosch to be able to do this. To simplify the scenario, whenever we do a deployment or we update the deployment, we have three main inputs. One is the release that is basically the recipe. It's everything that we need to run our software. We have a manifest, which is a descriptive file that describes the properties and the desired state of our cluster. We have an instance, which is an image that is prepared to run on this particular provider that we are working with and also holds a piece of software that will let Bosch later communicate with these VMs that we get created on our cloud. So these inputs arrive to the director. The director is responsible for concentrating all deployments in Bosch and all updates on the whole life cycle of our deployments. The director talks with the CPI, and the CPI is a particular component that is developed one per cloud, and it lets Bosch be agnostic to the cloud that we are. And finally, we have the cloud API that this would be like the AWS API or the OpenStack API that we're actually talking to. Now, for Bosch being able to work asynchronously with deployments on multiple clouds, we needed to do some changes on Bosch director so they can hold in one instance of the Bosch director, it can work with different CPIs at the same time. That was the first change that we needed to do. Then we needed to address the inputs. We have three different inputs here, which are the release, the manifest and the stem cell, but unfortunately only one is cloud agnostic. The release is the only input from our system that is cloud agnostic. The manifest holds information about the cloud, and the stem cell is also related with a particular cloud provider. So let's start by addressing the manifest. There's, luckily, we didn't have to do much work because on recent release of Bosch, there's a cloud config feature where we can extract all the cloud-related information and put it on a separate file. This is an example of how the cloud config file would look like. And together with this feature, they distributed on the key the options to be able to set and output what we are actually having that file. So we have our first problem address. We would separate the, hopefully, all the cloud-related information about our manifest in different cloud configs. One per each of our infrastructures. Now we still need to address the problem on stem cell. This is not actually a problem if we would do a serial deployment. We would first work with one cloud than with other, but working on multiple clouds, we would need to have a reference to it. So to understand how this stem cell gets to the cloud API, I would describe this process briefly. Bosch director sends the image file to the CPI. Now the CPI is irresponsible of talking with the cloud provider. Here the CPI sends the file of the image that we have to the cloud API, and in response from the cloud API gets a reference, a reference in the domain of the cloud provider that then later Bosch would use to spin up machines. So then this reference ID comes back to Bosch and is stored in Bosch director database. To be able to perform this, we did some changes. We were able to be able to tag the the different stem cells that we want to get to the system. So we used this cloud tag in this example to tag the different clouds that we're going to work with. Or in the current situation, we could do this here. We could just update the cloud configs and upload the different stem cells so that Bosch makes the different changes between the different CPIs that need to talk with each of the cloud providers. So let's make a quick recap. We have everything ready, right? We have the manifest, ready, we have the different cloud configs, we have the stem cell, we have the release probably upload or ready to Bosch. We have everything ready to do the deployment or an update with Bosch. So we will go briefly through the process of how this works and which are the modifications that we need to do to support these multiple clouds. The first two processes that happen are the binding deployment process and the plan creation process. During this process, Bosch receives a manifest and it links all with what it knows that it has in the database. It finds the deltas between the desired state and the actual state, for example, like the amount of machines that are actually created, see if the jobs that I'm planning to deploy are the same amount and finds the deltas and while doing this, it creates a deployment plan. So we have one problem here, how we can do the binding for multiple clouds. So for this, we had to actually do some modifications in Bosch and support a new entity which is cloud. This is the database model of Bosch and we added the cloud entity here. Next part, package combination. For those who don't know what happens here, it basically grabs the package that hasn't been compiled for a particular stem cell and on a particular cloud provider and it compiles this package. Let's go through the process briefly to see what happened behind. So Bosch director talks with cpi, cpi talks with the cloud API and they create a VM. This VM is used with the stem cell that was previously uploaded and it will compile the packages from our release. These packages later get sent back to Blofzor so they get downloaded from Blofzor, pre-compile and then get uploaded to Blofzor, compile now. So the next problem, how we make this Blofzor accessible from multiple providers that deploy maybe in many regions or not around the world. Well, there are a couple of options that we analyze. We could have like separate Blofzors and sync them. We could have separate Blofzors and compile on each of the Blofzors only what is related to its own cloud. We could use an external Blofzor public and everyone could point to that one. Or we could use what we did actually as our solution, which is use the current Blofzor and establish VPN connections from where we have our main Bosch server to all the other clouds. So the last problem, creating jobs in VM. Let's see what happens here. Well, when we create a VM, we first send some agent settings that this will be, we will put inside the VM and the stem cell ID. And the CPI later talks with the Cloud API and creates this VM. In return for the Cloud API, we get some information about this VM, like for example, IP, so we know where we actually need to look for it. Now, CPI sends somehow depending on the different clouds some initial configuration, initial settings to that VM through the Cloud API. The VM and the Bosch agent, which is like a piece of software that lets that VM talk with the Bosch installation, receive these initial settings and from it are able to talk back with Bosch. And they do this through NATS. NATS is back in the picture here. Now, it's in the context of Bosch. So we will have only one NATS or maybe highly available deployed, but they will be on our own installation of Bosch. We need to make NATS accessible somehow or be able to perform these processes at least. Then with NATS, it receives back the information on what it needs to run. The VM, it's identified and it's assigned of a resource pool. And it brings all the packages and shops that we run to start the actual system, the actual deploy that we're performing our update. So, again, we have this problem. What we do in NATS, how we establish this communication being on multiple clouds. So, there are two options here. There's the HTTP message in BAS, which is one option that doesn't use NATS, which is the one that you apply when you deploy a micro Bosch or when you do a cloud in it. Or the second option that you have is establishing a VPN connection. This is the one we took, similar to what we did with the Blobster solution. We established a VPN connection from each of the clouds, providers that were connecting to our main Bosch installation. So, this is a picture of how it works. We have a VPN server on the data center that is connecting to our main Bosch. Now, to recap, we proved and we finally got it working. Our two data centers, one OpenStack on Minsk, one AWS deployment of Cloud Foundry on the States, working with one single Bosch deployment that was deployed on Minsk. We got this working. Unfortunately, I don't have time for demo because this process takes a long time. But this week, we'll be releasing a blog post. We are looking forward to work with the Bosch team and see if this is of any interest to introduce to the main branch. In the blog for that, please check this website during this week. There will be a video of how this is actually working on our clusters. Furthermore, we will work on applying this solution for the client that we've been working for. Finally, let me say some words about Bosch. We proved that Bosch is extensible. We proved that Bosch is a powerful tool and it's easy to work with. We are really thankful for Bosch team for making such a great tool. Again, thanks to LOMOV. Are there any questions you guys might have about this? Yes? Right. No. You mean what do you ask in particular? How do I keep absencing? Well, we haven't implemented a solution for that, but we can work on a plug-in and just make sure that it manages the different reference to the different Cloud Foundries. Then on my experience, the problem is itself how the apps would work on multiple Clouds, right, which if they need to search any type of data. Yes? How do I manage it? Yeah. Well, that's more on the developer side, like how you will develop your app. First of all, you will have to find solutions that work over one if you want to have sync your data layer or at that level. Then it depends which type of apps we are working with, right? Oh, you mean like how this actually works in regards to latency, these VPN connections that we establish? Well, at least we are still making tests on how it doesn't work in regards to the lifecycle of the deployment and using features such as the Resurrector. We haven't worked on these things yet, and we are still testing this. Again, this is a perfect concept, but at least the latency is enough for us being able to do performance deployment, let's say. Yes? Yeah, actually, we did consider using it, which is when this path, because we implemented already the VPN solution for NATs, so we said, okay, let's just, we have it there, and we just applied, but yeah. Yes? So you are saying the question is how do we manage data isolation from the app side in different clusters? This is correct? Well, that depends if you really want data isolation. That depends of how you want each of the clusters to work. If you want like always same clients will address through Geo DNS to the same clusters, if they are located in the same place, but if they move around, they might be addressed to a different cluster. So that, I don't know if you, again, that depends of the use case that you're working with, if you need data isolation at all. Yeah, yes? Well, I'm actually, I haven't worked much on implementation, unfortunately, but what we did is add on the domain of the Bosch database, a new entity, which is cloud, so we can reference to that one. If we have a way to speed up our orchestration process? Well, no, but by having only one Bosch, it's already speed up this feature that our client wants in the very beginning, which is having clouds on demand. Having one Bosch, we don't need to go there, they spin up a micro Bosch, spin up a Bosch, and then do our deployment, which is have, no, there's no constraints in regards to scaling, as long as your Bosch still has connection and you still have resources in your, in your cloud provider. We have only done simultaneously and asynchronously deploying two clusters of OpenStack and AWS. That's what we have done so far. We haven't done further tests, yeah. Well, that's, yeah, no, we haven't worked in any of those, but the GDNS, if it's, it will redirect to the other IPs if it's down. I understand what you mean. Well, if any of the clusters fail, then there will be the others providing at this point. We haven't made a solution for that yet. Yeah. Yeah, the cloud config. Yeah, we talk about that. It's actually a feature that we make use of and it's one of our issues actually. It's great. Are there any other questions? Yes. Bye. I didn't hear what you say. Sorry. Not yet. We are, we are, we are, we are playing on, on doing it in the next week or two. We want to, we want to put this public and we'll be together with the blog folks that we are, that Lomov is finishing working on. Together there will be a video demo that, that shows all the different customizations that we did in Bosch Cli to interact with clouds and yeah, it will be, all the information will be there. Okay. Thank you very much.


Great. Thanks very much, Keith. And I'd like to thank Ann's for the support of ParitySec over the years. So ParitySec has been running for some time, and as you can see, it's become a significant collection. We have 31, most likely more than that, because it's increasing almost every day, but around 31 terabytes of material, representing over 1,100 languages and 162,000 files and 7,500 hours of audio. So it's a significant collection, and there's a huge management task involved in that. And one of those tasks also is making sure that this material is findable by the people. We want to find it. We have a catalogue that we've been working on for a number of years. We've built our own. Unfortunately, we didn't find one on the shelf that we could use, but the catalogue allows you to look at material with geographic point of entry into a faceted search. We have OAI, so Open Archives Initiative, and Dublin Core-based metadata. We try to be as lightweight as possible with the metadata because of our experience. We're all researchers. I'm a linguist. My colleague Linda Barwick is a musicologist, and our experience was that people just won't enter metadata if it's too complicated. So we've tried to make it as simple as possible and to make the catalogue do as much of the work for you as possible. So using control vocabularies, doing predictive data entry, and having a minimal number of fields. As you'll see here, we have a screenshot of the catalogue. We have the possibility to make the metadata private. So as Keith was just saying, fair doesn't mean that everything has to be made publicly accessible. If you're constructing a collection, you can keep all the metadata private and then publish it when you're ready. You can also assign various kinds of access conditions, including open subject and normal conditions, or closed subject to whatever conditions you want to specify. Because our project is really focused on language materials from small languages, that is all of the 7,000 other languages that are out there in the world, we include language identifiers for subject language and content language of items in the collection. And this is the linchpin that lets us then feed to a number of different harvesting services that I'll show you in a minute. Our online catalogue lets you specify geographic coordinates, which then also allows you to search using that geographic information. Because of the work we're doing, we have lots of connections into the region, in particular the Pacific, and we're actively seeking collections in the Pacific, collections of analogue tapes that need to be digitised. And you can see the various agencies there that we've collaborated with and continue to collaborate with digitising hundreds of tapes and then putting them into the collection and making them accessible. So when we talk about findability, we can talk about the granularity of finding. We can find collections and we can find items and we should be able to drill down into the collection to find things that we're particularly interested in. So we can sort of characterise findability on a scale, if you like, from 0 to 10. So if we talk about research materials, primary research materials that people have in their offices or in their homes, typically the findability of those things is about 0. It may be 1 if your colleagues know that you've done this work and you have these tapes sitting in your office. But a speaker of the language trying to locate recordings that you made with their grandparents, they're not going to be able to find that material. So from our point of view in Paradisic, we infer that these records must exist because we know that the research has been done. So we can go looking for it. And then what we can do with that is we could add records to our catalogue pointing to analogue materials and we do this in some instances. We also point at websites that we know exist. So there are some fine websites that have language materials on them, but the websites might be transient. And what we then do is point at the Wayback Machine or the Internet Archive entry for that. So here's an example of a text that was produced in the Solomon Islands put online by the Project Canterbury, which is an Anglican archive, online archive, but it's a website. There's no guarantee of longevity. And so by us putting it into our catalogue, it then makes it available and findable via the search engines that we'll see in a moment. So there we increase the findability of that to perhaps three out of ten and using the language identifier. So there you can see the three letter ISO 6393 code for languages. In this case, it's LKN. What we've also done is provided images of manuscripts. So this is a collection of papers produced by Arthur Capel during his life. He was a professor of linguistics at Sydney University. When he died, he left a huge number of papers, which we then digitized. We just set up a camera and took images of all of these papers. And as you can see in the bottom right there, there are a lot of handwritten original manuscripts, which were really valuable from a research perspective. But, you know, sitting in a box in his executor's house, they're completely unfindable. So putting entries into the catalogue and we put this through the Heritage Data Management System to put a HTML framework around it. And you can then find these items and, you know, resolve to the level of the image. Now, you can't get to the transcript of the image because at the moment all we have images there. But one of the next things that we do to increase findability is to include transcripts together with recordings. So here's an image from our catalogue. And what we have is time-aligned transcripts of recordings. These allow us to play the recording and you can imagine, because I won't show it to you, that as the recording plays, it scrolls through that transcript. So this is increasing findability. Significantly, you can resolve down to the level of words and find them in the context of the recording. One of the other things that we do is we embed some metadata into the header of the WAV files in our collection. We create a broadcast WAV format file, which is the European standard for archival formats of audio files. And you can see a little snippet of XML there, which is extracted from our catalogue and inserted into the WAV file before it's all sealed up and put into our collection. We use persistent identifiers of various kinds. Because the collection started, as I say, 15 years ago, we have an internal persistent identification system, which is a collection followed by an item number. More recently, in the last couple of years, we've put DOIs through the whole collection. So we have DOIs from the level of each file up through items and up to the collection level. You can see also that we have Zatero and Mendeley integrations. So that also makes things findable in that people will cite these items using this form, and they can click and insert them into their Zatero and Mendeley databases. We have an API. We have two feeds that we produce so people can link into our collections. RIFSIS is at the collection level, and that's what's harvested by Research Data Australia and other services. Trove also harvests that material. And the OAI-PMH feed is primarily targeted at the open language archives community. So linguists have been very good at setting up services based around these language identifiers and the OLAC page allows you then to look at all the material that's produced by any one of their 60 member archives for any given language. So it's a fantastic resource of finding information about the world's languages. And if we update an item in our catalogue, then the nightly harvest from OLAC will update that OLAC harvest the next day. So as you can see Research Data Australia takes feed and produces it in interesting ways. So the benefit for us is not only that our material is more findable, but some of these services present the information in our catalogue in ways that we don't. So you can do faceted searches in some of these services. And it also links into all kinds of other services and data providers that allow you then to do interesting new searches. There's the Open Language Archive Community page. They have a faceted search on the right and a whole lot of services that they provide advertised on the left there. If you're interested in languages at all, really the one-stop shop for finding information. What's in any archive in the world in their harvested system? This is the Virtual Language Observatory, which is a European service funded by Claren in Europe. They also take our feed and you can see that you can search our collection through that service as well. And WorldCat, the international catalogue of all libraries also takes our feed. So that's sort of on the big picture side of it and international search engines. On the other side are the people that we want to find this material out in the Pacific. And we've been working very hard to get material available in forms that can be accessed by people in the Pacific. On the top right, there's a really interesting little project that was run in Medang where they took recordings and played them at a local market and asked people in the market to comment on the recordings perhaps and enrich the metadata in that way. They then sent that to us in a spreadsheet which we were able to import into our catalogue. At the bottom, you can see a speaker of one of the languages who happened into my office in Melbourne and went through the collection and found his grandfather speaking and he was quite amazed by that. So there's an example of how unfindable I suppose the material can be that he had to come into my office to find it. And that's one of our big problems is how to make the material in our catalogue accessible to people who aren't perhaps always looking around on the web because they just don't expect to find material in their language. On the left, there's a man who's working in our office in Sydney. This was an ANS-funded project to enrich the PNG metadata in our collections and he's going through listening to material and adding metadata where he can. So one of the other ways that we're promoting the collection is by building a virtual reality project. So what you're looking at there is a map of Vanuatu and each of those shards of light coming up represents a language where there's a little symbol there. You can listen to snippet of the language which comes out of the Paradisic collection and you can see some information about how much we know about the language, what if there's a grammar, if there's a lexicon and so on and how many speakers there are of that particular language. Now this is generating a lot of publicity as you can see on the right. There's an article from the Papua New Guinea Post-Korea and on the bottom right there's an article written about this in pursuit at Melbourne University and so on. Getting this publicity is important exactly so that people will then go to look in the catalogue and to find information or think about collections that they have that need to be digitised. So it's an investment of time and effort to build the virtual reality but it's captured a lot of public attention. And it's also a research output in that it is driven by well-formed data in the Paradisic collection. We've automatically snipped 20 seconds out of audio files and used the naming convention and the metadata that's in the catalogue to then feed this virtual reality display. So ultimately we do want to get this material out to the Pacific and what's amazing really is that now most people in the Pacific have mobile phones that are accessing the internet. On the right you can see a poster for the internet on your phone in Port Vila in Badoatu and on the left you can see a church but above the church there's a mobile phone tower which is now the way that people are accessing all this kind of information. So we want to make our material findable for people in these remote locations even in the highlands of Papua New Guinea or in the most remote parts of the Pacific. So the catalogue is findable to them through various means including of course Google but we also need to make the data accessible, interoperable and reusable for them but I'm not going to talk about that now. So Paradisics created a standard metadata set that means that as the data comes in it's described with a light touch. As I say we apply as much metadata to items as possible but for some of the legacy material there's just very little metadata and we have to infer what we can. We also rely on people putting that metadata in online if they can or sending information to us. You're always open to enriching the metadata that's in the collection. The main point of the metadata is that you are able to then locate the primary records and have them play to you or see them or download them if you have the privileges. So all of that makes it more accessible and findable and by publishing that material the metadata through APIs for our discipline specific and more general search tools that makes it more findable as well. We do many things to try and publicise the existence of the collection including what may seem gimmicky, virtual reality or augmented reality but all of this goes to increasing public knowledge of the collection so that it will increase the findability but also increase our location of analog data that needs to be digitised. Part of all of this also requires data management training so that people know about how to build their own collections so we do a lot of training of researchers here in Australia but also in the Pacific and we also have a lot of engagement with community agencies in the Pacific and try to get funding to run digitisation programmes with those agencies. So that's our story about findability. Thanks.


One to our second Portland Rising series. Portland Rising is a production of the Portland Phoenix and the Portland Media Center. Thank you to Leslie and Josh for helping us out with this. Portland Rising gives us at the Phoenix away for a more interactive and in-depth look at the people and news we've been covering in the pages of our weekly newspaper. And this month we have a very exciting guest, at least I'm very excited. And here's my partner and editor and dear friend in this endeavor, Maryam McHugh, for the introduction. Maryam. Thank you, Karen. We are excited to have Dan Clucci with us today. And I just wanted to say a few words about what we've been doing editorially at the Phoenix since we restarted the Phoenix in November of 2019 after the previous Phoenix had gone out of business. The Phoenix has been an alternative newspaper starting in 1968. But it was totally out of business in various towns until we took it over in November of 2019. And we've been trying to do intensive local coverage of Portland and issues in Portland, as well as continuing the arts coverage that really was the hallmark of all the previous versions of the Phoenix. We have Megan Grumbling covering theater. And Ed Beame, Maine's premier fine arts writer, and Sam Feifel, who's well known for his music reviews. I just wanted to mention briefly a few stories that we've covered recently. One of these was an in-depth exploration of the effort by nurses at Maine Medical Center to form a union, which has happened frequently in the last few years. There's another effort going on right now. And our state house reporter and former Maine Times editor, Doug Rooks, took a very intense exploration of that, as well as looking at the history of the other nurses' union attempts at Maine Med. Most recently, as I said, we've tried to cover Portland news very, very closely. Most recently, we've inquired as to why the city of Portland inexplicably has not granted any licenses for recreational marijuana stores, despite the fact that the applications went in last August. And many business people in that area are wondering why they haven't gotten licenses yet. And colonelists also explored a continuing dispute between Havad, religious organization, and the city of Portland. And also, our reporter, Elizabeth Clemente, followed up something. We're trying to cover the schools very intensively because that's so important and how schools are responding to the pandemic and the challenges of education in this time. And she had a front page story on high school seniors talking to many seniors and their parents about the issues they face in trying to get their kids back to school, a really good story. So I just wanted to let you know about those things and also urge you to, again, thank you for watching us today.  If you have story ideas, please write to maryann at portlundfenix.me or letters to the editor. We'd really like to hear from you because we will be successful really if we really can connect to our readers. So thank you very much. And now I'm going to turn it over to Elizabeth Clemente for our interview with Dan Clucci. Thank you, Marion. I am so glad to welcome our guest today, Dan Clucci, who recently began his role as the senior presidential speech writer at the White House for President Joe Biden. Dan is a native of Cape Elizabeth and a graduate of Cape Elizabeth Public Schools. He later went on to graduate from Amherst College and Harvard Law School. His first speech writing job was under the Obama administration in 2011 as an internship. And he later went on to write for President Biden at the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware before writing for him on his presidential campaign. I spoke to Dan back in November for a story in the Phoenix. And I'm so excited to have him back today. Dan, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much, Elizabeth. It's good to speak with you again. Of course. So let's start by talking about how did you get into this line of work? I mean, what was your path from Amherst to landing the internship under the Obama administration? Seems like a great first speech writing gig. So how did you do that? Sure. I think I sort of had speech writing on my radar from a relatively early age. I don't think of it as a profession that a lot of young people are even necessarily aware of, or maybe you see it on the West Wing or something like that. But it's, I guess, a less traditional sort of career. So I think for me in college, I just got the bug and realized that my real passions, I had a real passion for writing, particularly creative writing in different forms, but also for politics and especially for progressive causes. And I guess I sort of located speech writing as a place where there was sort of a confluence between those two things that I cared about so much. And after that, the challenge was figuring out how to do it, how to break in. It's not a job you can really, there's not really a traditional path in. So for me, it was when I got to law school and started looking for that first speech writing internship, there wasn't really a question of what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to do it. It was just, how do you do it? And the answer to that ended up being you got to badger a lot of people and cold call folks and sort of figure it out and carve your own path in. So that's what I did. Awesome, yeah. And I know you said during our last interview that law school is kind of a common path for a lot of speech writers, which surprised me a little bit. So how did Harvard Law prepare you for your job now? It's a question I think about all the time when the bills come due. But I think there are a lot of speech writers who are lawyers. And I don't think it's entirely an accident. I think when I was thinking about applying to law school, I looked around at the top speech writers and what their paths had been. And a lot of them had gone to law school. And it's not really an intuitive connection between that education and that line of work. And to be honest, I don't use my legal education every day. Certainly not in really tangible ways. But I do think it was good preparation. It's law school is good preparation for any number of jobs in the political sphere, I would say. And it mostly manifests in sort of more intangible ways. It kind of trains you to think through arguments in a certain way, which is really helpful when your speech writing because so much of it is about making a case, frankly, framing an argument. And as a writer, I think for me, it definitely helped. I think by nature, I tend towards being a more sort of flowery, over-the-top rhetorical type of writer and law school. If it's good for nothing else, it's good for discipline and economy of language and kind of bringing you back to the ground level, which I needed a lot of writers do. And I think really helps a speech writer. Definitely awesome. So from your internship with the Obama administration, you went on to write for President Biden at the University of Delaware and then onto his campaign. So maybe talk a little bit about how you got in with President Biden at that point and then what the journey has been like since, how the speech writing has changed now that he's in this first term. Sure. Well, my internship was a long time ago. It was back in 2011. So I worked in the Obama administration full time after law school. I wrote for Secretary Kathleen Stubbilius at the Department of Health and Human Services. And I worked at the Export-Import Bank, which is a small agency within the executive branch. So speech writing is a small field. And speech writers kind of get to know each other a little bit. It's a little bit of a niche profession. So you get to know the other folks. And it makes it easier to sort of hear about openings and things like that. It's a small world, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. So I was able to kind of get word years later in 2018 that President Biden, then private citizen, Biden was looking for a new speech writer for his domestic policy institute work on sort of everything that isn't national security or foreign policy with him. And I jumped at that chance. My wife and I were heading back to DC around that time after she finished law school. So it worked out timing-wise as well. And I've been along for the ride ever since. And the second part of your question, the process has certainly changed. When I first came on board, he wasn't yet a candidate for president. And it was a much, much, much smaller team, although some of the same phases we've been with him for a very long time. So I would say the scale of the operation has changed pretty dramatically. And that kind of changes the speech writing process. But the great thing about it, and it only gets better, is that you get more and more really smart, really competent, really talented folks into the mix and onto the team. And that only makes the speeches better, frankly, and the process a stronger one when you have a really smart, diverse group of voices who are kind of buttressing everything that goes into the speeches in some way. Definitely. So let's talk a little bit about that process. How do you start a speech? Where do you go for research to make sure that you're including the most up-to-date references and things like that? And who else is editing the speech before President Biden goes and gives it? Sure. Well, it's a pretty big universe of folks. Each speech, the process might be a little bit different, but you're always consulting with policy folks and subject matter experts. Those are typically the people that we look to first, because they're the people who know these issues the best. Depending on the nature of the speech, those are different people housed in different offices and things like that. But you go to the people who know the substance, and you go to the people who know the audience as well.  A lot of speech writing is listening, frankly, and absorbing as much as you can, and sort of mining through looking for the best version of the story or the tightest version of the argument within the broad base of knowledge that so many folks in the administration and outside of the administration have at their disposal. We have a great research team who help provide the best facts and figures. They're advisors. There are different offices within the White House. They're always folks who know best and you've drawn their experience, sort of depending on the subject matter. Awesome. So what's a typical day like for you now that you work for the White House? I'm sure it's pretty busy. A little bit. Well, a lot of us are working. Typical is a tough word to pin down. I'm working remotely primarily. A lot of folks are. Even though there are some folks who are in the White House and in the West Wing right now. But the majority of us, the vast majority of us are not. So in some ways, I think that's made it a more kind of seamless transition because it kind of looks the same as it did before in some ways. And we're not maybe, I'm not as blinded by the lights, I guess, but a typical day, hopefully with luck, we kind of know what's coming down the pike a little bit in terms of speeches, announcements, statements that need to go out, videos that need to be recorded, all the different ways that the president communicates with the world. On good days, we know that well in advance. Certainly sometimes you have to react to the news of the day with an appropriate statement or speech or something like that. But you generally know what's on the table more or less.  And there's some writing that happens in there as well at various points. But no two days, it's a cliche, but no two days are the same, I think, is my assessment so far. For sure, for sure. And so as far as those speeches that are kind of more planned, like a big speech like President Biden's victory speech after winning the election, or a speech at the Democratic National Convention, how long does a long or bigger speech like that take to write? I would say that the larger speeches, every speech is a team effort to a certain extent. And the president is someone who cares deeply about speeches and is very tuned in word by word, line by line on his speeches and never more so than those big moments or those kind of higher profile speeches. So the process for those is going to start much earlier, I would say, and comes with a little more initial direction, I would say. For every big speech the president gives, he has a pretty clear vision of what he wants to communicate and what he wants to evoke. I've worked for many different folks, and sometimes the issue you run into is helping them shape their voice or helping them figure out what they want to say. That's not really the case with this president. He has a defined voice. He knows what he wants to say. So the writing isn't about pulling anything from whole cloth. It's never about that. It's about pulling out the threads that are already there and putting the best before it on that message and creating the best version, threading together the best version of that message. And sometimes those big speeches come together maybe faster than people would expect even a day or two for an initial draft, sometimes even less, sometimes more. I know that's not a very clear answer, but it's true. It varies. But then there's a lot of iterating, multiple drafts, getting everything exactly right and exactly true to the president's voice. And he's very involved in that. Definitely. Do you have a most stressful memory or a most stressful speech that you've worked on for President Biden that you can remember? I think I've maybe repressed all of my stressful memories. Yeah, I mean, the stress often comes into stakes, I would say.  That's really the nature of the job. I don't know, none stand out in particular, but pre-pandemic, the most stressful thing for me, always pre-pandemic was being sort of on site at events, hovering over the shoulder of the teleprompter operator. For me, that's the most stressful thing because the president is a very confident speaker and he'll get up there and he can sort of make edits and really good edits in real time and tells everybody knows he's a storyteller. And when you're back there with the teleprompter operator, making sure you're in the right place and that you're going to be there when he sticks the landing so that he can sort of flow on naturally, those are some stressful moments, I would say it's something that every speechwriter, no matter whom they're working for, has dealt with at various points. Definitely. And I know during our last interview, you said that the pandemic obviously was probably the most challenging part of writing for the campaign. So I'm wondering how was writing for a Zoom or virtual format different than writing for a speech that President Biden might give in front of a crowd of thousands of people? That's a really good question because it is a little bit different and you have to sort of think about it as not as a speech to a thousand people, but as a speech to one person because that's how anyone viewing a speech over Zoom or viewing a speech on their laptop, they're not experiencing it as a part of a group, they're experiencing it as though they're having a one-on-one conversation, frankly, or at least listening to one person speak and you write differently when you're speaking to one person. And fortunately, I think one of the great strengths, frankly, the president is, and anyone who's sort of been on the campaign trail or met him frankly in person, knows how sort of compelling and powerful he is in those one-on-one environments. He's fantastic at really connecting with the person in front of him. And Zoom isn't quite the same, but you are sort of replicating that format in a way where you can have a more personal conversation that you can't have in a high school gymnasium or in a sports stadium or a concert hall or whatever. And I think you can write to that and he can speak to that on a little more of a personal one-on-one level. And it's a place where he really shines and always has. And I think that does influence the way we write sometimes. Yes. Definitely. Do you have a favorite memory from the campaign or from working for President Biden in general? Yeah, I mean, winning was good, certainly. That stands out. It's interesting because it goes by in a blur, I will say. And as anyone who's worked on a campaign before knows, it's long hours, it's a lot of work that can be very stressful and it flies by all the same. And I think for me, the moments that really stand out are, these are gonna be fairly obvious because they're sort of the public moments, but the night of the South Carolina primary was just a huge moment and kind of a restoration of faith and belief and a sense of, you know, we're on the way to really accomplishing something and there's so many moments scattered throughout. But I mean, nothing tops the election, I think. It's fair to say. And that was a little bit of a delayed gratification. But you know, you're sort of running this marathon the whole way and you don't really stop to appreciate it as much as you showed along the way. And then you hit that wall at the end of it and or you hit the tape, I guess I should say at the end of it. And it does sort of hit you all at once and that you've been bottling up what an experience this was and what it meant to you and what it means to so many people out there. And yeah, that hit me like a truck. Absolutely. Do you have a favorite speech writer or a favorite famous speech that you think is particularly good and why? Oh, yeah, I don't, I'm not sure I have a favorite speech writer, although I've worked with some fantastic ones and worked with some fantastic ones right now, but I do have some favorite speeches, I would say one that I like to go back to a lot was delivered by Teddy Roosevelt over a century ago. I think it was 1910 or thereabouts that he gave in Osawatomi, Kansas, called the new nationalism. And it's something that's struck out to me as being sort of anachronistic in a good way. It's something I can read and you know, not everything sort of resonates to these times, but a lot of it sort of surprisingly does even though it was more than a century ago and it has Teddy Roosevelt's sort of signature vigorous style and sort of a vision of what the nation could be at its best that really resonates with me, but there are so many great ones. A great main speech, Margaret Chase Smith and her Declaration of Conscience is another favorite, but you know, it's a real Sophie's choice trying to just pick one favorite speech. There have been some great ones, but they're always good to go to for inspiration. What do you think makes a great speech in general? That's a great question. I think, you know, there's a lot that goes into it. I think one of the, a couple of things. One of the underrated things that makes a great speech is the sonic quality of it, which probably doesn't sound like a top thing, but maybe this is like speech writer inside baseball a little bit, but I think the cadence and the rhythm and some of it comes from the delivery, but the great speeches sound sort of like symphonies and they've got the swoops and the crescendos and it just sounds right. And it hits you in a way where you don't even independently of the content. You know you're listening to something sort of profound because the music and the language is there. That's not the most important thing. The content is the most important thing, but the music of speeches is really an underrated quality that if you go back and hear speeches that really resonated with you, it was often sort of lurking there under the surface. You know, great speeches, I think, also have a call to action.   The Gettysburg address ended with a call to action. You know, we have to re-consecrate this nation. So the great ones ask something of you and I think that's very important. There's a lot else that goes into great speeches, but one other thing I would say is like having a thread that ties the speech together because you can have a collection of great sentences and pretty turns of phrase and memorable quotes, but to be a great speech, it has to have some sort of a thread tying it all together, a rhetorical device and an anecdote that sort of drives the whole story. It has to have something that ties it into one product. Absolutely. And just to kind of close out here, I know that you've also published a book which was published in 2014. So obviously writing a novel is no small feat. I'm not sure how you've accomplished that while you were so busy doing all these other things. But I'm wondering obviously you'll be in this role for four years, maybe for longer. Do you have aspirations to write more books?  Kind of where are you headed? I don't know the answer to that. I did, it's a 2016 my book came out but I had actually written it a few years earlier. It just takes a while. And that was something I really enjoyed and something speechwriting made possible because when I finished law school, I had a little break before starting my job with the Obama administration and time on my hands and used that time to sort of draft a novel and honestly did not think anything would come of it. And frankly, not much did, but it exists. And I loved it because it was a chance to, the thing I love about speechwriting, it has a lot in common with writing fiction because you're inhabiting another character just happens to be a real person saying true things but it's the same principle of exercising empathy as a writer and stepping into someone else's shoes. But in one case, you're creating the people into whose shoes you're stepping. And I love speechwriting for basically the same reasons and I would love to write another book someday. It made me very tired. I don't know that I might take some time off before attempting that again, but if I ever had the opportunity to do that, it's something I enjoyed very much but I have no quarrel with speechwriting. It's a great line of work and I encourage anybody, there aren't enough speechwriters out there, it's a small profession, but if you're interested in politics and you enjoy writing and creative expression, it's a great meeting place for those things. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Dan. We seriously appreciate you chatting with us today. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. I'm flattered and happy to be here and thank you so much. Awesome, thank you. And now back to Karen Wood. Thank you, Dan, and thank you, Elizabeth, but Dan especially, I've been so curious to hear what you had to say because those of us, the majority of us who sit and listen to these wonderful speeches or terrible speeches, I won't say who, but anyway, I think we all know who, but yours were very inspirational and I think you very accurately pointed out that it speaks to the individual and we definitely feel that when you write, so I just want you to know that and to thank you very much for spending time with us on our little show today and to everyone else out there, please, like Marion said, let us know what you think. Email Marion, call us, social media, us, whatever you do, but just let us know what you think and thank you for watching and join us next month. Thank you, guys.