sorry for being a minute late okay the recording has just started fine okay good morning everyone welcome let's take a moment just to pray together and then we will start I just request somebody to pray together with us and then we can start it please loving father this is coming to your presence of father but thank you for us wonderful morning as we gather to yours for the class of Lord Jesus you guide us and he is a father but keep us of you from all the distractions of father but Jesus we pray see you all in Jesus name with this prayer okay welcome everybody to this class and just drink a little water here to this class here on church and ministry administration last week we talked about volunteer management and today we're going to just do a very simple class on communications so I think we will spend just one lecture on that and then we're going to get into our class on Friday we'll get into talking about organizational culture so that one we'll spend maybe two lectures on that this week and we continue with continue it next week so a communications that's what we're going to talk about today I'm going to go ahead and share the PDF all right Dave you have a question before we move on to in communication yes just a small inquiry about how APC is handling with the the polluter recruitment and is there any kind of contract or any guideline for for the volunteers that they should or should not doze and runes or is there anything that the foreigners would know yes so good question thank you so in terms of enlisting volunteers like we do different things you know one is of course we announced periodically in our Sunday announcements the video saying we need volunteers for for various things various areas of involvement so that announcements happen we also have a sign-up sheet in our church website maybe I can just show you this quickly so we also you know in our church website if you go right here you know they can come and they can sign up here volunteer they go here and they they can see this page they can sign up they just put in their details which location they want to serve where they want to serve and sign up so this email comes and immediately when somebody signs up they'll get a call and they you know they'll be assigned to a particular team or the teams that they showed interest in so this is another way we do it from time then as I mentioned we also have a welcome banquet that means when new people come every three months we invite them for a lunch and then during that time also we will you know talk about volunteering and we give them a sign-up sheet similar to this so they can sign up and also personally you know where different people contact different people saying hey would you like to help so that isn't I think that would probably be the most important way when we personally ask somebody can you help in an info desk or in any of these areas now people sign up then we also have in that's listed here the staff and volunteer guidelines so we have this document that we share with people from time to time where we tell them you know these are all our these are the guidelines if you want to volunteer now this is a little strict of course it's not been updated for a while but it's quite quite strict you know so we tell them here's your personal life example your spiritual life your court of conduct all of those things you know how you in the state agreement of statement of faith you should respect the church community you know you respect your delegated leaders and these are the attitudes you have as a volunteer and your commitment to being a one-heart one-mind so this is our you know standard document we have you know it covers everything we haven't updated it in a while because it pretty much covers all that we want to tell volunteers before they start serving so from time to time we take our volunteers through this document which is our guidelines for staff and volunteers in terms of them serving and of course we have to keep reminding them because people will tend to forget so I think it's a good thing to do this once every year that we and now that we are resuming you know in person services I think we should do this once again with all the people once they come back right now we have very few people you know going to be involved but that that that's what we do yeah so I hope this does this answer question Dave yes so one more inquiry if somehow somehow somebody didn't go through the pipeline and he went against the pipeline and you have to dismiss the volunteer so what is the best way to do that so you know we do like you know it's like so you know we give at least two chances to people so you know if they do something that is against this you know what we have requested here in this volunteer guidelines document you know if they go against it do something that's not correct you know so you know we say hey first warning like you know just you know please this is what we require we want you to follow this guideline and and please you know so one warning second time second warning third time we have to say hey you know in a nice way sorry you're not you know you're not meeting our requirement here so we would ask you to please step away from being a volunteer you know you could serve I mean you can just you're welcome to attend church but as a volunteer we can't you know so for example if if they you know they've been rostered and they don't show up and they don't tell anybody that they're not coming so you know first time you tell them hey you should at least you should inform so somebody else can come in your place they repeat the same thing second time so again second as hey if you're not coming you know you should tell somebody so that we can do this and then if they if they do it again third time then we have to say look this is repeating and we don't know how many times it's going to repeat so maybe it's best you don't volunteer we'll find somebody else so we have to talk to them lovingly and release them from being volunteer yeah so we do take action now if somebody's done something straight away that's very serious then of course immediately we have to tell them you know please we want you to step sit down step down but if it's something smaller we can you know give them two chances and then yeah let them go yeah yeah all right good go ahead and is it okay for us to use your guidance APC guidance in our church or in our community yeah sure sure okay so so you know if you go to like okay this is our guidelines document so if you go to apcwo.org slash guidelines we'll find all our documents there all it's available just we haven't you know so we have all these guidelines for different areas like book table child protection policy different areas we have all these guidelines available and of course among them is the volunteer team guidelines staff and volunteer that this is the document I showed you staff and volunteer this this applies to all staff and volunteers that's the thing that we have to go with everybody every year but there are team specific guidelines there are training documents that we can use to train people there are role descriptions that are for different people who are serving in church so you're welcome to take any of these or all of these and modify it use it you're welcome so that's one reason why we put it out here because one is for our own benefit that we can always tell people you know go here and read the document but also to share with others so when you usually when pastors and I'll talk to me and they say hey how do you do this then I just direct them here to this website webpage and I see you can just download it and you can use it so please feel free we'll be happy if you use it modify and change it and however you want to suit what you're doing and you can use it thank you thank you very much you're welcome all right so today like we said we're going to talk about communications it's it's a very small lectures not nothing very complicated and most of us are already maybe already aware of these things but I I'm doing it more for the sake of completeness and also maybe there might be a few thoughts that that we could take away you know so we understand you know that in any organization communications is very important communicating with all the people who are part of the organization so as a church and as a ministry there are two directions in communications one is you're communicating within your own people who are working for the organization whether they are staff or volunteers so you're communicating with them but you also have to communicate with the congregation with the larger audience so that means as a church you know you have a congregation several hundred people sometimes several thousand people so you have to communicate with them or if you're a ministry you may need to communicate with people who are your partners your donors and so on the focus on on the staff of course is internal communications that means communicating with your own team members your staff or volunteers people are serving in the organization that's the focus of this lecture today but many of these things also are relevant when you're communicating to the larger crowd I mean the congregation or your donors and so on right so so most of what I'm saying is more in it from an internal point of view as an organization right so why is open communication so important and and and these are things we already know but you know just for the sake of reminding us you know why is communication internal communication communication with your staff and volunteers why is that important well it it it enthuses people about you know the the job or the role they have you know people feel excited or of course they feel informed but they feel that look I have a great place that that that speaks to me that you know that keeps me informed of what's happening it makes it gives people a feeling like you know this is a great place to work because they are telling me what's going on what's happening and rather than feeling you know I don't know what's happening right so part of just making people feel that you know feel good about the organization enthusiasm over the organization really helps in that of course secondly it makes people connected feel they know what's going on so they don't feel uninformed like oh I don't know what's going on when people don't know what's going on they feel disconnected they feel out of sync but when they are informed you know when the goal and direction what's happening is communicated people feel like hey I know what's going on and I am I am part of this whole thing you know I'm connected to it so I can flow with it so that's a very important piece there of communication that is if you want people in the organization to feel like I know what's going on I'm going with this I'm flowing with it you know we need to communicate we need to share with people what's happening also number three is they feel ownership of the direction we are taking so it's not you know it's not just okay you know somebody on top made some decisions and they're going on going ahead with them on their own but everybody's going and everybody's like ownership of that decision or direction right so we're all taking responsibility we're all going to put our efforts towards the decision that has been made towards the direction we're all responsible so there's a sense of ownership towards where the organization is going the decision that's been made there is also alignment that means in the other decisions that are therefore made in the other actions that are therefore taken by people they will stay aligned to what has been communicated if you don't tell them then they may make decisions sometimes that may be exactly opposite to what you know the direction and the decision that the organization is going it's not their fault they didn't do it intentionally it is just that they were not informed so that's why they decided to do something different right so in order to keep everybody aligned we need to communicate it also shows that we care about the people we care about their place and role in the organization they that you know look you are important to us you need to know these things you know we care about them people just just basic information you know just inform hey this is what's happening this is the latest update this is the news this is the result of what has happened this is the progress we've made this is where we are like just just basic information is another aspect and also people feel inspired you know when you share with them a success when you share with them a good outcome and you share with them something that has happened you know they feel inspired by it and that's a great way to keep people in the organization motivated in their work so you know these are just a few but important results outcomes of good communication if you're keeping people in the organization informed here are the benefits that we can have right now there's a lot that can be said about communication but i'm just highlighting some of the important parts it's important to keep communicate to look at communication as a dialogue rather than a monologue meaning communication is not a one-way thing right it's not just somebody telling people here this is what you have to do this is here's information just read it you know it's not just a one-way thing it's a dialogue and the more opportunities for dialogue the more you know healthy the organization will be right that means you want people to be part of the decisions that are made you know of what is happening and so on so of course you know depending on the size of the organization the how things are done can be different but there has to be the opportunity for interaction for discussion for sharing of ideas for solving problems together for making decisions together all right one of the best ways is just to you know have have a group meeting right so of course you know there are different teams so teams can have meetings for things that they are involved in so you know very often we call the IT team together you know happens almost every week and we all get on a call and we talk and we discuss and you know this is what's happening now yeah so so the whole team knows okay this is what we're doing this is where we're going etc and then from time to time we call all the staff together now we are not that big a staff group so it's easy to get everybody together especially these days we can all get on a call and then discuss you know everybody is welcome to speak everybody's welcome to share their ideas but then that is very important because it's not like okay one one person or a few people are making decisions and everybody has to go with it but rather we put things out in public you know have any ideas any thoughts we can you know we can discuss we can look at the pros and cons we can work out what is good and leave out what is you know not very useful so that kind of a platform or an opportunity for people to communicate people to share ideas actually builds not only do we get good outcomes not only does it keep people informed automatically because they were all there in the meeting they know what was decided but it also creates a very healthy environment because what we do in that group meetings big staff meeting or townhouse town hall meeting people will replicate when they have their own smaller team meetings so they will know that when you have a team meeting it's all about one person making a decision but it's about let's sit on and talk and let's discuss let's throw around ideas and and you know let's go over the best ideas regardless of who gave it so they will replicate that same thing and and so that improves communication between team members at all levels right so you know this dialogue opportunities for dialogue platforms for discussion interaction is very important and actually it's very simple it's just everybody getting together and talking about something that needs to be decided or planned or things like that you know so you do it at a big level well you know all the staff together you do it at all the team levels and team members get together and have discussions to make decisions so that's the that's a great way having dialogue now a great way to strengthen communication at all levels within the organization of course all communication must be open honest and direct right there's no point in communicating untruths or things that are not honest so whatever we say you know it has to be facts it has to be factual so that people can trust this is very important you know on Friday we'll start talking about culture how can you create trust see trust initially people trust implicitly that means you know they give us we all trust each other implicitly that means we say okay and i'm taking i'm trusting that person so people are going to trust the organization implicitly in the beginning but if they find that the organization people are not open and honest and direct you know what happened they will lose trust it affects the culture you know that means everything we say becomes susceptible people are questionable are they really telling us the truth so we need to maintain this it's got to be our long-term commitment it's got to be something ongoing if you want to create a culture of trust so beginning everybody gives trust as a gift implicitly we trust people but then as an organization we need to make keep it we need to create a culture we need to basically earn and maintain the trust of our staff and the best way to do it and the only way i would say to do it is to be open honest and direct over time right you know so when we communicate to people we uh share things okay this is good things this we made a mistake you know there have been times when uh i've made a mistake i made mistakes i'll send i send an email to everybody in the office hey guys sorry i i i did this i did that i'm sorry i made a mistake so everybody knows hey uh if if the pastor can be open about his mistake they can also be open about their mistakes there's nothing wrong to openly admit your mistake it doesn't change your value a single bit uh in fact when we are open and honest about what our failures are mistakes it just you know it creates that culture where everybody can be open but uh we do that over you know over time we keep that this is what it is and it builds a culture of openness honesty and being direct about what we want to do uh and so we need to be direct that means say what you mean and mean what you say uh don't beat around the bush so to speak meaning just say it straight uh and don't assume people can read your mind people cannot so you need to write what you're thinking and state it clearly so these are some basic things you know it has to be open it has to be honest it has to be direct then it really builds a good culture in the organization um some things about you know the congregation so for us as a church we have our internal staff so everything i said earlier was from that perspective communicating with our staff and volunteers but we also have to communicate with the congregation that the people or an organization may have to communicate with its donors a Christian organization so this has to be regular you know so people feel yeah they they are in touch with us but don't overdo it you know now if they get you know five six emails a week it'll be a nuisance you know they'll get upset so from time to time you know and then you're giving them the option if they want it or they don't want it so of course these days the tools we have and later on you know in another chapter we will talk about technology and we'll be doing a full course on technology in ministry next semester we have these tools you know we have a mail list service that you could use and you can maintain your mailing lists and different kinds groups of mail lists so you can target your communication so if you want emails to go to a certain group you send it to them if you want emails to go to multiple groups you can send it to those multiple groups so uh and then you give them the option to unsubscribe if they don't want it but so we need to communicate with the congregation keep them informed um so one simple thing that we do is we send every week we send an email with the sermon right now of course you can unsubscribe to it if you don't want it but at a very basic level we're saying hey here's a sermon here the sermon notes this is what it is and especially if somebody doesn't come to church missed church on a certain Sunday at least they will know okay this was a sermon topic and this was what was preached in church and if they want to go listen they can just click and go and listen to the message it's a very simple thing right now so we've been doing it for many years and just to keep the congregation informed it's of course an automated thing it's not personal as such but it's just a connect that's happening between the church and the congregation with that one email that has information about the sermon and then that email we may include any special announcements for that week or month that needs to be done right now if people don't want to receive that they can always opt out but you know usually people will say i didn't get the weekly sermon what happened you know if it doesn't go out on time i've had people ask what happened to that email so it seems like people just want to give whether they actually open it and read it i don't know but you know it's it's there they feel connected that okay but a very important part of this communication with the congregation is a little it's a passive communication which is the website meaning it's there and they can use it when they want it so it's a passive thing but we keep you know it's important to keep it updated as always current is updated almost every not almost but it is updated every day with the latest things changes there's a daily devotional that goes on weekly summons content and also the website is a means to communicate with the the larger group your congregation or donors or you know people outside it's a passive thing meaning they have to come to it to get information but the important thing is information should be there and information should be updated there so for example you know Arma once somebody wanted to invite a friend to church and but they wanted to know who's going to be preaching on sunday because they wanted to invite them so that they can come and hear the pastor preaching right so they need they want to know who's preaching on sunday so we have you know a pulpit calendar that's put out on the church website and this is done just to let people know who's preaching where on sunday now of course after this whole lockdown thing happened that's you know it's it's not very relevant because everything's now online pre-recorded and so on but when we're having in-person services people want to know who's preaching in which location if they're inviting a friend they would prefer I mean if they want to they would prefer this friend to come maybe hear the pastor not a guest speaker those kinds of things so they will go to the website and the ones okay who's preaching okay all fine I can invite my friend and so that they can listen to the pastor and so on or if there's a guest speaker whatever so just a simple thing but you know this has happened congregation won't want to know who's preaching there and so on and at different locations so this is helpful and it's just it's there and those who want it will come and look it up and use it to make their decisions and so on so the the website is a very important tool that churches and organizations can use and of course we you can use it for a lot of other things like registering for events which again is a very important thing okay so just some practical things here in in communication you know we need to be clear what we're communicating and to whom we're communicating right you know a poorly written email or communication is a disaster yeah it's better that it's not sent than being sent so you know so just some basic thing and I'm sorry for stating it but you know our communication should be clear there shouldn't be no spelling mistakes no grammar mistakes these things are unacceptable from an organizing from an organization perspective so and nowadays we have tools to help us you know a simple tool is Grammarly you can put it on to your to your web thing where you're using you can check your grammar or if you're using a word document automatically the word document has grammar tools and spelling and grammar checkers so make use of it send you know an email or anything a communication that has spelling and grammar mistakes is not acceptable another important thing is to keep things very concise you know today we are living in a day and time and people are used to SMS's and WhatsApp meaning it's very short messages so if our emails you know you it may be wonderfully written but if it's too long nobody's gonna read it so always when we're communicating you say how can I say everything I want to say in the fewest words that I can use that's the goal right if you can say it in one sentence say it in one sentence you don't have to put more than what is needed right so try to keep communications to be very precise and concise why because we're living in that kind of a time we're living in that kind of a generation for whatever reason people have so many things so many things to read and so they will give few seconds to read an email or read a message so when we're sending emails especially our goal must be keep it precise keep it concise that thing will not one word more than what is needed because people you know are just in that mindset you know they don't want to read long emails and things like that wherever possible you know in our communications and again this is more from an internal perspective try to meet people face to face wherever possible because then it's not just the words you get to see their the non-verbal part of the communication their expressions actions and you also get the sense of their emotions things that these things cannot be picked up in written communication so wherever possible try to keep it in person face to face and today we do have the benefit of technology where you can actually see people even though you may be physically in different places that does make things so much better because at least you can see them you can see the sound of the non-verbal parts of their communication so we can you know reduce time like other costs by using these tools and technologies that are available right so make make make use of those things today right so that's it you know just a very short lesson here on communications but it is very very important in terms of taking care of the people within the organization keeping keeping them excited about the work feeling connected sense of ownership staying aligned feeling cared feeling informed and feeling inspired all this happens through good communication important to keep communications as far as possible as a dialogue rather than a monologue where you know people have the opportunity to share their ideas participate in the decision-making participate in problem solving so keep that provide opportunities for that another important part is to keep things open honest and direct because that's going to create a culture of trust and they're going to repeat it you know if they see it happen from the leadership they are going to repeat it in every level we also had to think about communicating with the larger congregation there can be active communication that's happening keep it regular but don't overdo it and there's a passive communication where you're making information available through the websites our website and portal so people come and take it from them and as in and they need it and some practical tips here of you know when you're communicating there has to be it's got to be clear it's got to be well written etc keep it very concise and precise because people don't actually will not read long emails and try to have face-to-face communication whenever possible with and we can take advantage of tools technologies okay so just a little note there on communication I want to ask if there are any questions any thoughts on this I will share with you later on some tools that can be used you can set up your mailing lists whatsapp groups all those things some of us are already familiar with that but we'll mention it later on tools that can be used any questions any thoughts any points to discuss all right so I think this is a pretty simple lesson most of us are already familiar with these things and probably already doing it so what we'll do on Friday to get into the next chapter which is on culture organizational culture there's a very important aspect of administration running the organization creating a good culture because it affects just the workplace environment it also affects performance and it eventually affects outcomes you know for the organization as a whole culture that you have if you have a good healthy culture things are good things are very positive if the culture is hostile toxic difficult then people don't like it they may not stay and the organization will struggle in trying to pursue its goals so it's a very important part I will pick it up on Friday okay let's wrap up let's close in prayer and then we will dismiss can I just request somebody to pray with us and then we will dismiss anybody okay all right nobody's volunteering to pray all right let me ask Prince Prince would you close in prayer please thank you dear Haripara Lord just coming forward Lord thank you you help us Lord to learn from your word Lord that communication should be open and thank you and help us to more and more that we could learn and use your kindred more thank you and I submit all the they all in your hand Lord just I pray in Jesus name I pray Amen thank you Prince okay everyone thank you for joining the class and we will see on Thursday Friday sorry as we talk about the next part thank you enjoy the rest of the day bye now thank you thank you thank you thank you sir thank you


show me so So I know kung-fu whoa Show me so today we'll learn how to simplify and Power up your Rails apps using a graph database But first let's look at what the current database landscape looks like We're gonna start with the lower complexity so by lower complexity. I mean not very connected database but high volume like a key value store and This is something like you know react Redis man-cached KC that kind of stuff and it's useful like session data or monitoring or you know huge catalog stuff, and you have columnar Which is a little bit more structure something like H base or Cassandra and I think H base was made by Google So you use the product search engine stuff like that and then document databases, which is a little more structure But you then you have the notion of collections MongoDB and couch DB and you use those for like health records and insurance and stuff like that and then the the one that we're most familiar with is the relational database and This is you can use it for something simple or something very complex And you know I have my my sequel or postgres Oracle And you can see the stuff like banks or I could say anything. So the question is where where does a graph database fit here and the answer is a graph database is as general purpose as a relational database, but you can you can actually treat it as a Key value store or you know as each node to be a document so in a sense a graph database is like a super set of all these databases, which is pretty cool and Of course, I'm gonna talk about a graph database. I'm talking about a way of storing That a data structure in a graph, right? So you're familiar with linked lists or you should be anyway, if not, that's okay I wasn't familiar with it until I went to college Trees and then a more general purpose data structure is a graph and That allows you since it's so general purpose that allows you to store that and However, you want to it's pretty cool So let's go Let me show you just a quick example of a relational How you would do so in the relational database So say you have a user's table then you have an interest table and then you want to you know see What what what user has what interests, right? So you will say I'm gonna start With this user I'm going to look up this user ID in the user interest table and then correlate that to find the interest very straightforward very familiar with this so let's go from thinking relational to thinking more like relationships and We what we do is we kind of spread these Nodes out as we're going to current nodes and we're going to want to connect them with these Relationships or edges and then we're going to say I want to start with this user and I want to know What this user is directly connected with and those are my My interest and that's it see a graph database Focuses on the relationships between the data and rather than the commonality among values, you know foreign keys and stuff like that So in this message is very naturally with the way that we think about Or the way that we humans conceptualize data right we think of families or families as trees we think of our friends as a graph right so Most of us don't imagine personal relationships as self-referential data types, right? We don't think about oh, this is my foreign key over here, you know, you're you're thinking more in terms of Of a graph right so and what I've been describing here is Technically a property graph in a proper good f has nodes it has Relationships and then it has properties on both and that's important because that makes Both the nodes and the relationships first-class citizens right so you can put a key value store And that's the property in both a relationship in a node Relationships are also typed so a relationship Could be something like I follow you right and then a different type of relationship could be you block me Right because I'm being annoying or whatever so so it's typed and it's directed as well more on that later So I'm gonna go, you know, you may be thinking right now man Lunch was very good Or you may be thinking I want to know more about graph databases So I'm gonna use a graph to describe a graph a graph records data in nodes It records data in relationships a relationship organizes a node a node Nodes have properties and relationships have properties right so and you can see that there's also the relationships are directed here So they have a sense of direction In most of the cases you don't care about direction, but again, it's it's it's chemo is it's it's the It's up to you how you how you structure stuff in a peptide of this So again, what what could we use this for I've been asked this question a lot And it may or may not be obvious to you that you know, this is very much so like a social graph, right? I follow you follow me. It's it's very obvious, but there's so many more Things that you can do and this is just bit. I mean barely the tip of the iceberg Monitoring routing and by routing. I mean something like like network packet routing You can you can say where has this packet been and then you can basically track all the points in that and Your brain genealogy all kinds of stuff. It's it's very cool And what's most exciting about this just up up to a few years ago There wasn't really an easy way for us to kind of get a hold of a A graph database that we could deploy to easily and of course in came Neo4j the J is for Java and It's a property graph again. It's nodes and relationships and properties and both It's it's perfect for like complex highly connected data, right? So that's why they call it a whiteboard Friendly so basically what they say is like if you can draw it on the board Then you can represent it and you can capture it in the in the database and store it that way Which is pretty cool. It's very scalable. I think it's it's supposed to be able to take 32 billion nodes and 32 billion properties Sorry, 32 billion relationships in 64 billion properties Lots of billions of stuff there that you can fill out so Very cool. And then the most exciting part is that it has a rest API and therefore it also has a Neo4 sorry a Neo4j Heroku add-on so you could right now spin up a scenario app or spin up a Rails app and start messing with the stuff and you know kind of tinkering with it and deploying it So that's pretty exciting now when Neo4j was created. It wasn't created, you know as an academic exercise It was more created out of necessity these guys in Sweden Had a relational database and they were trying to solve a problem and what is decided to do was create a sample Social graph to kind of track their progress as they were going to build it right And basically it was going to be a thousand person social graph with an average of 50 50 friends per person And the query was going to be this is does does a path exist between person a and person B right and and this is basically The the small world phenomenon, you know that you can reach anybody within six degrees or the Kevin Bacon path everybody's familiar with that Okay, make it six degrees of Kevin Bacon is awesome and not to and not to Say that you couldn't do this in sequel There's you know lots of ways that you could do this in sequel like recursive sequel to be very inefficient But you could do it you could do it using a closure tree but it's it just adds a whole bunch of overhead and space that You know, why would you do it if a graph database does it for you and naturally right? Before I move forward I wanted to show you a way to do this in postgres using recursive sequel it's pretty ugly and Let me point out This is teamwork. Oh It disappears Union all should be like the worst thing that you could do So anyway, I'm gonna remove it from the screen because it's embarrassing Yeah, don't do that so So here we go, right? What were the benchmarks that these guys were getting so for a relational database? It took on average, you know to do that query it took an average two seconds two thousand milliseconds And on Neo4j took two milliseconds, which is pretty awesome and Now whenever they increased the sample size to like millions of records The my sequel database didn't even finish right and I'm not saying that the sequel that I showed is what they used Because they were using my sequel and the sample that is was postgres But the point is in Neo4j is still with the millions of records still to two milliseconds, which is pretty cool And if you ask me It's dogs all the way down, baby Wait Or is it lions all the way down? I'm confused Your loss care and confused me anyway, which brings me to my next point. It doesn't really it does My next point is is interacting right so the key to understand why it took The same amount of time in a in a with millions of records versus, you know thousands of records comes to us By the way on how we traverse the graph right and so bear with me with the syntax here And I'm gonna talk to you about it later. So the syntax says start with n You're assigning and the results are you're finding node in the users there is a An index with a key value of name and Morpheus, right? So you find Morpheus and you want to say I want Match in and then everything that's between you don't care. So you don't want his direct Connections you want his friends of friends that's a foe there and then you want to return that and what that gives you is You know his immediate network So it doesn't matter how many how big this is it can be 50 or a hundred His immediate network can be 50 right because remember in the oh, I'm sorry I guess I forgot to mention on the on the on the query instead of doing 60 degrees of separation They were doing just four degrees of separation. So it's it's a finite number So you're not gonna go more than four deep right on on finding this stuff So let's say Morpheus's network is just a hundred because they're all directly connected It doesn't matter how big the graph is it can be millions of of notes or it can just be 200 notes Since you're starting at a note and then you're you're walking the graph or traversing the graph from there It doesn't it doesn't care about how big the rest of the stuff is so that's why it only took two milliseconds What you saw there is Cypher, which is the query language. It's pattern matching it has a declarative grammar with classes kind of like sequel and It you use it to mutate you can create you can delete and update You can do aggregations and ordering all that stuff and I'm gonna show you some examples in a minute Let's start with a real example with a real graph Everybody's familiar with the Matrix movies, right? Yeah, believe it or not. There's somebody a hash rocket. I'm not gonna name names that Has never seen the movies Which I was like what? really anyway, so Neo needs to save The world and he needs to find the keymaker, right? So you're gonna start at Neo and I say Neo knows the location of Morpheus who knows the location of the Oracle who knows their Location of the Merovingian who knows the location of the keymaker This is a pretty straightforward graph and pretty boring actually so let me throw in some more details in here Because again, we can add properties to both. It's a cool stuff.  And the location is the Matrix and the disclosure again is public. So the Oracle knows a location of The Merovingian which is in Club Hell. That's what it was called. I'm not even kidding you Club Hell In the Merovingian, in the Merovingian knows a location of the keymaker which he's holding him captive in a Windows server May or may not have made that up But but anyway the disclosure is secret because he's holding him captive, right and so You know, Neo's mission should he choose to not a different movie So here's how you would create the stuff Are you create you create a node in Cypher like this very simple? It's good. It's gonna look very similar to to sequel So Neo and then you you you assign that the only reason we're assigning it to Neo so we can return it You could just say create and then that That hash and then they will just return the ID and then the has to just create it And that's how that's how easy it is to create a node in the console To create a relationship again You find the nodes that your industry does the start and the end node and then you say create you say Neo No location of you pass in the properties that you want and they say in Morpheus And then you go to go and then you return R and then it will look something like this I guess it gives you The nose location of is a type of relationship the ID and then its properties pretty straightforward Yes so To to now to query what you we just created we want to know Nio's immediate network right so basically his first degree network you would say excuse me You you find so you got to start with a node remember and then you say I want to match Everybody who is Nio's immediate network and then it will return Morpheus because if you remember That's it now This doesn't mean that you have to just be it can just be one linear thing for simplicity I just left it like this but you know out of out of Nio Nio knows the location of Trinity, you know because they're you know they hooked up and whatnot and Nio knows the location of you know tank and all the other guys are cool in the first movie and Then whatever happened on the other two. I can't remember but you know Nio in all so there's more so this this This result would probably be larger you have more nodes here to to know who who's The Nio's first an immediate network right cool, so To get the path to the keymaker So if you want to do like a straight line all the way to the keymaker you would say something like start with Nio Right, and then give me you do something like this cool-looking syntax here They say no location of star one dot dot four So you want to go for deep because if you remember it's one two three four all the way down And then and you and you can return just parts just like a property from the relationship And it would look something like this right so this becomes Nio's to-do list of who needs to go find Right Morpheus oracle mervingian keymaker save the world check. We're done And what you've been seeing here is just a weird screenshot of the Neo4j console web admin console and you can like write all this stuff and create it all by hand if you wanted to There's also on the tab next to it, which I didn't have a Site for that, but you can go check it out. It is local host on your local host You can install this very easily with brew or you can install it with some other gems You can visualize the data, right? It's pretty cool, but I'm not gonna go into that I am gonna go into how you will implement this using rails, right now If you're using JRuby, then Neo4j that are be there's a gem that basically replaces Basically replaces active record, but at that point what happens is that your the graph database becomes your only data data Whatever you call the thing database However Now Neo4j implements Neo4j that are be implements active model and parts of active record So, you know, it will be very similar like has and and all that kind of stuff. You can do all that stuff and that's cool But what if I told you you can have both Because in most cases realistically you're gonna have a Polyglot database environment, you're not gonna want to just say hey everybody you're gonna only use a Graph database for everything now forget about anything else because Realistically, that's not it's not practical and you want to leverage a graph database for it's good for in the case in my case we just We have a client that we are in close beta right now that they needed to to track degrees of separation so Postgres was our system of record and then we had the things that matter to us synchronizing With with a Neo4j database and then that way we were able to just use The Neo4j the graph database for you know measuring the degrees of separation and then the rest of the stuff the bulk of the stuff was still happening with You know postgres and stuff like that so So yeah, so if you're not using JRuby, which Is is you know, it's been my experience that I you know I haven't been able to use JRuby yet on a on a project then the recipe is what you want to use You know you want to hit the recipe I and there's and there's a handful of Ruby gems that that wrap that the recipe I The first one that we started with was neography, which is a very thin wrapper There's another one called architect for our and then of course my favorite one is called keymaker Mostly because I wrote It's actually still a work in progress is pretty in its infancy we extracted it from the project that I was talking to you guys about and then and What it aims to be keymaker aims to be a multi-layer Ruby wrapper, right for Neo4j in hamburger So the first layer interacts with Neo4j REST API raw request So I'm talking about like the everything basically tries to implement at the lowest level every request that you can make To the Neo4j REST API, right and then the second layer binds those raw requests Into Ruby objects and then finally the top layer Implements parts of active model or implements active model and treats those notes and relationships as bonafide Ruby objects now so as as you go higher in the stack then then it becomes a little bit more rigid, right because at the very Lowest level a graph database you can it's schema. So you can do whatever you want The properties are whatever properties you want to do and But as you go higher up in the stack then it becomes a little bit more structured and that's okay You know because you want some structure hamburger Sorry, I was just random thought so what would it look like and this is again more code. Am I boring you guys with code? Cool. All right, here we go So the program because we have we have programs and we have humans you would say include include keymaker node Right, and then you would give it a property. So now this this object can only have a name Even though you can you could technically create more properties You're now making it a little bit more rigid or more structured by giving it a name Then you say I want to create an index called programs And then I want that to be on name or you can do on name and on email or whatever else right and now this is a very Weird and long way. It's like a find by sequel type thing that it's a real weird way to creating a Relationship and I'm going to show you a different way to do it later But I wanted to show you that you could actually execute the cipher So you would write the cipher like I was showing you earlier and then You can you know, you see the name over there That's how you pass stuff into it and then you you pass a it's very similar to to these to the The hash syntax that you can pass in when you're doing a word class in Active record so then you execute the cipher and then it you know it creates the the Relationship an easier way to do this is to dig The cool thing about the key maker is that it allows you to use all the parts and at every point in that in that in the Three layers you can go and dig down and use this lower level call To the rest API right create relationship Which you say you pass in the type you pass in a start node you pass in an end node and then whatever properties and you're done It's a lot cleaner than this Right and I mean I guess eventually the goal is to be a little bit more To kind of abstract all this stuff out and be a little bit more active record like for key maker But for now it works and it's pretty cool. There's the same thing basically for humans, right? So So program and then humans the same thing and then if you want to get for the humans You're gonna get the first-degree network For that instance you would just for this you have to kind of do this You can't really hide this so you need to get this is how you get the first-degree network and It uses the instances name So to find to where you're starting and then it says give me all the network stuff And then that gives you the network the first-degree network now the fourth degree network It's different than getting all all of them at the same time you want to get only the fourth network You would do something like this, right?  Or find them create them and find them and now you have all these Variables and then you can say I'm gonna create all the relationships, you know that basically we're creating the Graph that I was showing you by doing this stuff and then eventually finally you just say give me Niels first-degree network and then give me the fourth network which would give you eventually a keymaker And you're done. That's it You're good to go So questions Yes Yeah Yeah Yeah, so the question was what kind of It's just that we had synchronizing Postgres with the graph that it was Neo4j and what we do is we we basically keep a Neo4j ID in active record is so in postgres and we have And we have the opposite in in the graph database We have an active record ID and as a matter of fact a keymaker does that for you Keep that stuff in sync It has it and how to keep them in sync we we use observers Probably wouldn't do that again. I'll use something else Some some other way of doing it But but yeah, it's it's it's it's part of the challenge of having a polyglot Database environment, but it's it's worth doing because it really simplifies how you would I mean think about creating that crazy Union all Sequel that would be insane like so Any more questions? Did I just speak through it? Yeah, what's up? Would I not want to use a graph database? since it's so It's so general purpose that you could use it for everything and it's pretty performant I Can't really think about I mean, I'm not gonna tell you to go and only use a graph database because it's just not realistic, right? But I just can't think of anything that you couldn't do my graph database It's pretty cool Once you start thinking in that way because again, it maps real close to how we think what's up. Oh, yeah Yeah, yeah, right. So the question is how do you? Maintain referential integrity very carefully Yeah, I mean because again, you know, that's part of the of the pain points whether you have to make sure that your your Rails app Well, I guess that would that could be the Responsibility of keymaker right or the library that you're using to keep those two things synchronized and and I will keep that in mind and by the way keymaker is That's my that's where it is if you want to fork it and take a look at it and and stuff and help me out That'll be great Again, it's it's kind of what I've been focusing on with Travis. We've been working on it together is We've been trying to Get all the low-level requests done. So the first layer to be You know tested and all that stuff and then kind of move up You know because right now that all three layers are there but layer two and there three are a little bit, you know, not all the way Yes, yeah, it does and that that's with Cypher now It's worth mentioning that they do have a different So Cypher is very expressive as you saw it's it's very verbose and I don't mind that I actually like that the the counter Plug-in that they had they had two plugins going to had Cypher and they had a gremlin Gremlin is like very very concise like G is a graph dot capital V Perence is the entire graph. It's very very very maybe I'm getting that wrong, but anyway, it's very concise So concise is kind of cryptic at times, but it still works and you can still use it and You know, you can do all the algorithms and stuff like that like breath first or you know that first and like cool stuff. So Yeah Any more questions? Yes, oh how to oh, well the way that we did it is we did it with observers So anytime that there was a save or a review So what sorry the question was sorry, can you repeat? Yes, there are transactions in graph databases So are there transactions with graph databases and how do you synchronize them with postgres? The way that we did it is we use observers every time something was updated on postgres. It was synchronized with With a graph now we would we could Recreate the graph database with everything that was on postgres and that's how we cannot say That's what we said that postgres was a system of record right cool have time for one more question Who's gonna be the lucky winner Nobody oh yes right now it's It had like 12 or 15,000 nodes and so so the nodes Start to multiply because in the properties Then it's like you know because each node could have properties and then the relationship properties So yeah right now it's about that because we're still testing it locally the Neo4j guys could probably give you better They're they're really good. They're they're awesome community. They're very helpful guys that new technology is the parent company Kind of like Basho correct me if I'm wrong is the React company kind of like that So Neo technology is the parent company of Neo4j, but it is open source. So Cool If you want to know more about databases Read this book. It's pretty cool seven database in seven weeks. I think somebody else mentioned seven programming Seven languages in seven weeks. This is pretty cool by Eric Redman and Tim Wilson Yeah, so thank you


5 ways to cite like a pro. Citing sources might seem like a minor detail in the grand scheme of writing, but their importance cannot be overstated. It's like the secret ingredient that gives a dish its unique flavor or the GPS that keeps you on track during a road trip.  It's a nod to the collective knowledge that we're all a part of, and it ensures that your work stands on a sturdy foundation. So while it might be tempting to view citations as a pesky afterthought, they're really the unsung heroes of responsible writing and deserving a bit more of our attention. In this video, we'll explore five things that you can do to strengthen your understanding of proper citations and get you citing like a professional in no time. Number one, master the citation. A citation style is a set of rules that specifies the format and content of a citation. Each style outlines a set of rules for authors to follow. Most academic disciplines have a preferred style, but the style you should use is usually specified by the instructor or noted in the assignment guidelines. Some common citation styles are APA, MLA, and Chicago. Start by thoroughly understanding the citation style required for your work. Learn the specific formatting rules for in-text citations, reference lists, and bibliographies. Every citation style is based on a set of rules outlined in a published manual. Many colleges have created online versions of these resources to guide you through the process. Getting familiar with these guides will increase your efficiency when citing your sources. Number two, get into the habit. Make a habit of tracking your sources as you do your research. Note down all the necessary citation information, including author names, publication dates, titles, page numbers, and URLs. Getting into this habit pays off in numerous ways. It not only serves as a safeguard against unintentional plagiarism by ensuring that you can accurately attribute the information and ideas you use, but it also streamlines your research process. Effective record keeping allows you to revisit sources easily, verify facts, and cross-reference information when needed. Moreover, it promotes transparency in your work, helping you build a clear and well-supported argument. Over time, this habit fosters a disciplined approach to research and writing, enhancing your credibility, and the reliability of your work while saving you from last-minute scrambles to recall or find the sources you've used. Overall, keeping thorough records of your sources and having this information readily available will make citing a smoother process. Number three, manage your time. When you give yourself lots of time to do your research for your assignment, whatever that may be, you are less likely to plagiarize because you won't be panicking. Effective time management during research optimizes productivity, enhances the quality of your work, and minimizes stress. Managing your time will reduce last-minute rushes and anxiety, providing a calm and focused environment for creativity and critical thinking. When you're crunched for time and under pressure to complete an assignment, there's a higher likelihood of accidental plagiarism, where you might rush to incorporate information without proper citation or inadvertently forget to attribute sources. Proper time management allows you to plan your research, evaluate sources, and cite them correctly. It provides the necessary space for you to understand and digest the material, which in turn makes it easier to paraphrase or quote while giving credit to the original sources. Ultimately, effective time management will allow you to present a well-researched, thoughtfully crafted, and properly cited assignment, setting you up for success. Number four, understand the difference between paraphrasing and direct quotes. Paraphrasing and direct quotes are two distinct techniques for incorporating external information into your writing. It's important to understand the differences in these techniques, as well as how to use them proficiently. Paraphrasing involves retelling someone else's ideas or information in your own words, effectively expressing the same concepts while keeping the original meaning. A paraphrase must still be attributed to the original source by providing a proper citation. Paraphrase material is usually shorter than the original passage, taking a somewhat broader segment of the source and condensing it slightly. This method allows you to integrate the source material seamlessly into your text while demonstrating your understanding of it. Direct quotes are word-for-word copies of a phrase, sentence, or paragraph from an information source. When using direct quotes, enclose the quoted text in quotation marks and provide the appropriate citation. Direct quotes are used when preserving the exact wording of the source is essential, whether to emphasize a powerful statement, illustrate a unique phrasing, or maintain the integrity of the original author's voice. The choice between paraphrasing and direct quotes depends on your specific writing goals. The significance of the source text and your desire to balance your voice with that of the source. Number five, take advantage of citation generators and managers. Citation generators are online tools that create popularly cited citation for academic papers. They automate the citation process, saving time, and reducing formatting errors. Citation managers work in a similar way whilst helping you organize your sources and integrating them into your documents. However, these tools can also have limitations. Citation generators and managers may not always provide perfect accuracy, especially for less common sources. Overreliance on these tools can discourage writers from developing a proper understanding of citation practices, which is a valuable skill in academic and professional writing. Think of the citations these tools generate as the rough draft of your bibliography or work cited. Then you just need to double check it against the trusted citation guide. By mastering the appropriate citation style, getting into the habit of keeping comprehensive records, managing your time, understanding how to properly paraphrase and use quotes, and using citation generating or management software, you can elevate your citing skills to a professional level, enhancing the credibility and quality of your work. Check out the how to cite module on the learning portal to find more information about the importance of citing, review citation styles, learn how to build citations, and discover citation support tools.


Music is something that everybody can do. As a music teacher, I like to focus on the fact that it's something for everyone.  Even with the human voice, it's something that's a part of you and it takes care and practice as an instrument just like anything else. So it all just takes practice and time and to just never really give up on that. There's a place in the music world for you if that's what you want to do.


Okay, so we're at MZ 06 maize reincarnation and let's see how we're gonna do this Okay, so as you examine you have three doors, but Any door you pick to be honest will just reveal the colors of the three doors. So let's go down here As we push open the door Let's skip this Going through Different key doors as well. So as you can see it's going to be opening up you to three colors and I did this already couple of tries. There's no No sequence to it you eventually end up with the green door not the key doors here So let's try out going with green first So as you open it's gonna skip this one So as you get in the door Collapsing all the floors is going to happen Don't worry. You're gonna be okay Have to go straight and again, you'll be Drawn back to this so now that you've done green Next is you do blue as That very disappears to go through yellow then go back To green the green will be your last one The green blue Yellow then going back to green then when you see this one who's humming. This is the last part So all you have to do is go through that green door the back sometimes these mazes have a Challenge some of them uses have to go through them one by one There you go as you skip it's going to be cleared and thank you guys. See you in the next one


I would highly recommend Small Worlds in Tokyo. If you watch my other videos on this place, you may have noticed that some of the people on these dioramas don't seem to belong there. You can actually have yourself 3D printed and then pay to be part of any diorama. That's why so many of them are facing you, the audience. In fact, there are three sizes you can choose from. So of course we had to get one made. And you know what? It didn't turn out too bad. Immortalized in miniature form. So if you're wanting a 3D version of yourself,


How can I see reports in my Moodle? As an administrator, you have access to a number of reports showing activity on your Moodle site. Teachers in courses also have course-based reports. You can access site reports from site administration reports. Let's look at just a few. If comments are enabled from advanced features, you can see them here to ensure there is nothing inappropriate. Config changes shows changes made to the site settings by administrators. Live logs shows the activity on your site at this moment, while logs allow you to see recent activity in general or select specific users, times, actions and more. Question instances shows you how many questions of a certain type there are on your site to gauge their popularity. Security overview is important to make sure your site is safe. To summarise, site reports are available from site administration reports. Course reports are available to teachers within courses.


7 Reasons Why Narcissists Don't Love Bomb Love Bombing is where the narcissist objects their target to excessive attention, aberration and affection. The purpose of it is to make you feel dependent on them, to make you feel as though you owe them something in return, which is highly effective on empaths. Because if someone gives us their time and energy, we naturally feel obligated to return the favor, it's instinctual, it's almost outside of our control, so when we're being love-bombed by a narcissist, it's very powerful, it's like we can't rest. Unless we know that they are pleased and satisfied with us, we have this innate need to ensure that they are safe and comfortable, and at times it can feel like a curse, because it's like no matter what we do they're never happy, so we often blame ourselves. We feel insecure, we try to be better or different, and we may even yank our personalities inside out in an effort to please them, but to no avail, because they have a void that can never be filled.  They will leave you feeling like you're worthless underneath their consideration, which is just projections of how the narcissist feels about themselves, but as in pass we take it to heart. We self-loathe and strive to be better, what sets us up for the cycle of abuse, where we're running endlessly on this hamster wheel in an effort to please them, but no matter what you do it doesn't make a difference, they're never going to be satisfied and you will always be left blame yourself, or they will blame you, because they're not going to take any accountability, which is the perfect setup for an empath. They know exactly what to do to drive us insane, but at least at the beginning of the relationship they often love bomb their targets. And although it may just be a shared fantasy or shared psychosis, in that moment it feels like for the first time in our lives someone actually cares about us. Someone wants to get to know us, someone sees us, someone knows that we're alive, but sadly for some victims you won't even get that, they won't even love bomb you, and that can really play on your mind and affect your self-esteem, especially if you've been watching these videos and you've discovered that other victims have been love bombed, it may make you second guess yourself, and you may feel like something is wrong with you, as though you're not even worthy of being love bombed, which is why I decided to create this video to let you know that you are not alone, and that there are other victims who go through this, but you should know that being love bombed by a narcissist is not something to be proud of, it has nothing to do with love, it's abuse, victims who are love bombed are exploited, they're treated in an unfair and selfish way, and they're manipulated and deceived into believing that it's love, which can really mess with a person's mind, so with that being said there were reasons to feel grateful for not being love bombed, as that could have really put you under their spell, but if that's not enough to comfort your soul, here are seven reasons why narcissists don't love bomb, one, pride, some narcissists just have too much pride to put themselves in that type of situation, they can't be vulnerable, they probably view intimacy as being disgusting, as something repulsive and sickening, which is why you may have noticed that whenever you try to be affectionate with a narcissist, they always turn away from you or made up excuses, because they have too much pride, two, they assume that you're too smart, love is for fools, or at least that's what narcissists believe, they see love as a weakness, or as something that is beneath them, and they will only use it to exploit those who they believe are vulnerable to it, if they think you're going to see through it, they won't waste their time, love bombing is reserved for those who they believe are going to be susceptible to it, so if you're someone who is able to detect it, or even confront them on it, they won't bother doing it, they're not going to expend their energy on something that will inevitably fall apart, three, arrogance, narcissists have an exaggerated sense of their own abilities and importance, they believe that they are superior to you, as though they're the best thing since life's bred, so they expect you to see it as a privilege just to be around them, they expect you to fall to their knees, just because they're physically attractive, or they have some other desirable quality, and at times they're so wrapped up in their delusions of grandeur that they can't even see that they may actually pose as a liability to you, but if they are aware of that they will hold back, and they may save their love bombing for someone who they deemed to be more foolish, four, you're already primed for the abuse, you've already been groomed from a past relationship or trauma, you've already been prepared and trained to be a source of supply to the narcissist, so there's no need for them to love bomb you, they could just carry on from when your previous abuse are left off, which is seen as attractive and efficient to most narcissists because they don't have to put in so much work, you're ready for them to do what they do to you, and you may be more likely to tolerate it, because for many victims it may be all you've ever known, five, they don't have the means or the skill, the narcissist may not be able to find a method or a way to love bomb you, you may be very resistant to it, so there's just no possible way for them to conduct it, maybe they're not very charming or charismatic, they may not know how to seduce you or they may not be physically attractive, in some situations they may not have any money, maybe they're struggling to take care of themselves, so it's a bit of a stretch for them to take care of you in that way, or they may have some form of means or skill, but they don't think it's going to be enough, they think you won't be satisfied, so they don't want to put themselves in a position where they could be rejected or humiliated, they have too much pride, so instead they will hold back on the love bombing, and they will go straight into tearing you down and making you feel insignificant, but when they do that just know that it's nothing more than a projection of how they feel about themselves, six, envy, the root of narcissistic behaviour is envy, without envy it would not be possible, they targeted you because they decided to take something from you, not because they were trying to help you or build a relationship with you, although that is how they will often portray it, but in some situations they have so much envy towards their target that they can't even bear to love bomb them, they can't even stand the thought of you being the recipient of that admiration or affection that alone just eats them up inside, so instead they will just skip it and go straight to the devaluation, seven, they've already been exposed to you, if the narcissist was already exposed to you from the very beginning and you already knew what you were dealing with, they're not going to waste their time love bombing you, it wouldn't make any sense because you already know who they are, you already know what they're about, when that type of treatment is reserved for those who aren't knowing, those who don't know what is about to happen, so if they've already been exposed or they know that you know then you are exempt to the love bombing because they already know that you're going to be immune, it's not going to be effective on you and this may irritate them and make them feel inferior to you because they're so used to people falling at their feet to where they may develop an obsession with you and they will want to tear you down because you're constantly reflecting back to them that they can't love bomb you, so they're not even going to try but as long as you're at peace with yourself it just winds them up because it just reveals what the problem is in that situation thank you for watching if you found this video helpful please give it a thumbs up share your thoughts in the comment section hit the subscribe button to receive the notifications if you would like to support the channel you can donate at payfortheame.me.narchsurvivor you can book a one-on-one with me on my website it's narchsurvivor.uk thank you for watching and I'll talk to you soon


It's that time again. Time for another YouTube tip. Last week we asked what you wanted and you said more free tools to add to your arsenal. So today, Mike is going over 5 free powerful programs that can positively impact your channel. And this just in, Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. This episode is brought to you by Game On Snacks, jerky that's changing the game. Enter the promo code FREEDOM at checkout for 10% off all orders. What is up everyone? My name is Estie Mike and last week we discussed 5 free useful internet tools. And today we're going to discuss 5 free powerful programs that are a must have for any channel that is just starting out. That of course doesn't have a lot of money. If you have all the money in the world, go ahead and buy whatever you need and just take your channel off right. But if you don't like most people, then you should take this video to heart. Number one, Audacity. Whether you're a gamer or a filmmaker, it's always nice to have a nice voice recording software where you can do cleanups if needed. Audacity is a simple yet powerful voice recording software that can help take your game channel to the next level or help give you a solid platform to record voiceovers to. Now if you are a gamer, I always recommend recording your voice by itself. This way you always have the opportunity to clean up your audio. You can add effect chains to it, give it a little bit more bass. And of course you can always make your voice prominent over your game audio. That's one of the most common things I see is the game audio is so loud that you can't hear the voice. So if you do it this way, you have control and you can actually turn one up louder than the other or one down lower than the other to make one sound better than the other. That's a lot of others. Number two, OBS. This is targeted to anyone who likes to compliment YouTube with live streaming and allows you to create different scenes and layer assets on top of one another so you can actually make your live stream as presentable as possible. And of course you can use it as a screen recorder and record your gameplay as well. Number three, GIMP. This is a powerful photo editor that is a must have for anyone who wants Photoshop but can't afford it. GIMP allows you to create multiple layers and erase backgrounds so you can have those must needed transparent layers. Number four, free API converter. I don't know about you guys but I've had really bad luck with converters. I tried to find a good one for a while and every single one I got either was a virus or contained with bloatware. I had to fill out 17 surveys about different stuff and I never even got to the converter that I needed to use. But this free converter is free and clean and simple to use and it's not full of bloatware. I actually use this program quite often. It allows you to convert your files so it will cooperate with your system. Whether it's downgrading to something that your computer can handle or converting a file that your computer will actually like more. Like for instance, mine doesn't like quick time movie files so if I can convert it to something like AVI or something that my computer will like I can edit a lot easier. I found that I use this the most when it comes to gaming. Now those of you gamers can probably understand where I'm coming from but with my gaming channel when I was running it I would always have stupid issues. Whether it was the webcam coming out of sync or the video breaking mid-recording. I was able to use this program to make my webcam sync up again by simply converting it and sometimes I was even able to recover broken files. And number five, Celtics. This program is a shout out to all you filmmakers and storytellers out there. In school I actually used this program quite a bit before I switched over to final draft. Now Celtics is a free script writing software that is actually quite powerful. What's nice about it is it helps format your scripts in a professional manner. As you start typing your script it actually saves your characters and scenes and locations and stuff and as you're typing it will help you fill out and speed up the process and format it professionally. So whether you write scripts for short films or features or comedy sketches or whatever I highly recommend looking into this because it can help take your script from average to professional. Not only that but it will look more professional as well. Which in the filmmaking industry it is quite important to have presentable scripts. So check it out and see how it can benefit you. But anyways guys that's it for this video. If you have any further questions regarding anything that we talked about today be sure to leave it in the comment below and I'll do my best to answer it. And of course if you want to see more of this face the links are in the description below to my personal channel where you can come hang out my face every single day. So anyways guys that's it and we'll see you next Tuesday. Click here or visit the link in the video description.


Well, this will be a special Christmas for some kids in Bergen County. The toys you see here will be delivered to children at Hackensack University Cancer Center. They were collected by the Woodridge team at the Carney Bank in Woodridge and Boy Scouts Troop 180 in Bergenfield. Gunnery Sergeant Mario Monaco from the U.S. Marine Corps also accepted donations for their Toys for Tots program.


Hi guys and welcome back to this video guys. I'm done. I am officially Ashley Adkins, MSN, RN, CCRN. I'm pretty sure that's the correct order. As many of you know I was a sponsored FlexPass student at Capella University and I finished my master's guys. I'm done and I'm so happy to be done. I feel super accomplished. I'm proud of myself and I just, I'm speechless. This whole process of being a Capella FlexPass student has been, it's been awesome. Honestly it has been the least stressful thing that I've added to my life because from day one I have picked when I want to submit my assignments, when I want to start a new class. When I want to finish a class I have finished classes super quickly. I have taken longer to finish other classes and I've really been able to kind of just go with Evan flow of whatever life was bringing me. When I started this program I was nine months pregnant. I gave birth. I was navigating being a new mom and what it was like to experience motherhood for the first time. I was exhausted. I was tired and I didn't feel like doing school some days but then there was other days where I could work on my assignments and I didn't feel this pressure to not spend time with my newborn baby and enjoy her because I had school. I was able to have the best of both worlds and get my master's degree but also still be a present mom, wife, friend, co-worker, daughter, whoever I am to everyone in the world. A lot of people ask me like do you recommend that I start my degree? When's the best time to start it? And honestly it's a totally personal decision to you but when I first started my Capella journey I was super hesitant. I was like this is not the right time. I'm about to give birth. I'm gonna be a new mom. I can't really take on this extra thing right now but I was like you know what if I don't do it now, when am I ever gonna do it? And if I started in a year from now or two or three or four I could already be done. All that time that I would have spent thinking should I do it? Should I not? Should I go back to school? Should I not? I could already be in school just getting it done. So I took on the opportunity and it has been so wonderful. The program from day one has been just smooth sailing, easy to follow, flexible.  I just want to take a moment to like thank Capella because this has been so awesome for me. Being a sponsored Capella student has been just wonderful and a great experience and not stressful and Capella has always been super understanding of everything that I have going on in my life and just been able to work with me and be flexible. If your staff is that way you know that your program is gonna be that way. So I've just had a positive experience in all realms with everything that has to do with Capella. Thank you guys for following along with my journey. I'm going to be doing a commencement ceremony for my graduation come March and I can't wait. I'm excited. It's in Orlando and we're already planning to have my husband there and my daughter is going to be there and I'm excited that she gets to see me walk and get my master's degree. But thank you guys so much for following along. If you like this video give it a thumbs up. If you're interested in Capella all their links are always down below. Thank you for watching and I'll see you in my next video. Bye.


So with that, I am going to introduce Mayor Rickman. So I met the mayor maybe 15 or so years ago. We actually, I think met the first time, you may not recall this mayor in Switzerland when the city of Columbia was involved in an economic development trip. That was at the time I was over in Munich and mayor was on city council and I believe it was in Basel and I had no clue that this, that we had a councilman who could speak fluent German. So Mayor Rickman is his parents, as I understand it, he can tell you more about this. He is half Swiss or one of his parents is Swiss and so he learned German growing up and believe it was Spartanburg, right? So we have been, we stole someone from the upstate who came here to Columbia that really, for this kind of project, it just makes us feel like we got someone in our corner who has been there from the beginning as a city councilman and now as mayor and I want to turn it over to Mayor Rickman to make some remarks. Thank you. Good afternoon everybody. It's an exciting day here.  What for me is coming home. Both my parents moved here from Switzerland in 1967. My entire family lives overseas other than myself and my immediate family here. So growing up, I spent a lot of time overseas and walking in here just reminds me of spending time with my family or being out here in the garden and being able to sit at a skinny table with a bunch of strangers passing food and having beer. But that's what's so important about it. You know, anybody, I'm not, no disrespect, people can make beer, but you gotta have everything else around it. It's the beer, it's the people, it's the atmosphere, it's what you create. They're pieces of the puzzle and if you don't have all the pieces, you're missing out of it. That's what's so exciting about this. They brought all the pieces together. And you know, we hear a lot about international communities in the upstate, in the low country, but the reality is, is we have one of the largest international communities right here in Columbia, South Carolina. And a lot of it has to do with our education system, our 60,000 students, but also our military. You know, you forget that we have military families that have been stationed overseas who are ending their careers or moved to Columbia to be at Fort Jackson. They're now choosing Columbia. This is exciting for us because there is a great vibe here and people are discovering because we're actually telling our story. We're actually showing people what Columbia has and this is gonna be one of those things that's gonna be great to share with people is, hey, have you tried this experience?  You can tell the cool feeling and the killer right there is, I don't know anywhere else in South Carolina that has that vibe. Having the beer here and the commitment, the authentic commitment to the way it should feel is so exciting. So I'm excited for Sam and Scott for y'all's adventure because watching it from a pop-up to this is what it's all about.  And to be quite honest, I really wasn't planning on staying here. I had taken a job overseas and I wanted to squeeze one more football season in because I knew it would be two years. But what happened during that period was I saw friends starting businesses, people taking jobs here. And part of that was is this community supports small businesses more than any other community I've ever seen. And so I decided to stay and open my first restaurant in 1994 in this community and we loved every minute of it. I'm excited that I stayed here. I'm excited for what's to come. And this is just one more piece of the puzzle and congratulations guys. So, so mayor, thank you so much for the kind words. Scott and I on behalf of the beer calder family want to present you with a small token of our appreciation. You will find in here our signature ceramic stein which is a Zahn glasstein. Is German made. And a beer dekkel which you can use for multiple purposes. I'll let you figure that out but you probably already know. And then your logger beer beer killer t-shirt. So, we hope you use this in your mini-design to come to beer keller. Thank you. Come with free free free free free free free free. Free free free free free free.