Thank you very much for the very kind introduction and for most of all for welcoming me here at this institute. It's my first time here, not only at the think tank, but in Dublin, and I'm very honoured to be able to share my views of China's policy, not so much in the entire world because it's an entire book in itself and we have limited time, but I will be focusing on China's approach to the region, China's approach in China's foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific and most of all focusing on the last two years and the sitting pin because many questions have been raised about potential change of foreign policy. Is there a real change or not? What does it mean? How China is approaching the region? Is there some form of coherence strategy building up concerning different zones of the region, being Central Asia, Eastern Asia, Southeast Asia? This is a type of question that I would like to share with you today in 20-25 minutes. Sorry about the slide, I didn't know about the room setting, so if it's too small, just let me know. Or we can pass, so the PowerPoint will be online, I think, so no need to take too much. So why did I start to focus on this question is first of all looking at official communication, sitting pin and central leadership over the last two years. I've been underlying that for them the region is a priority of the foreign policy. This is an official term. It has been first underlined in October 2013, so it was this peripheral diplomatic work conference. In China, you have regular diplomatic work conference, major one, not every year, it's because it's a major gathering, but the last one was in 2006 and it was a general foreign policy, I mean it was a diplomatic work conference that was talking about the entire global situation and this last conference was specifically focusing on the region and half of the communication that was issued at the end explained that the region is more than important than ever for China's foreign policy. We have been witnessing a multiplication of bilateral and multilateral meetings with neighboring countries and the sitting pin has been traveling all over the region, except maybe Japan, but all over the region and he has received a significant number of top leaders from the region and thinking also in particular of central Asian leaders, but not only some Southeast Asian leaders in recent years. Well, you may say well, but this is not an argument to say that something is happening in the region or China's foreign policy in the region is changing. No, but there is some, at least for example if you look also at other elements such as rhetoric, there is an intent to be innovative with now I'm mentioning very frequent mentioning all over the world and especially when Chinese research are fitted to think they're struggling with what they are emphasizing on this new concept of maritime silk road and silk road economic belt. We can discuss about it in more detail in the coming slide. It's not a new concept, but now sitting pin is saying that they are guiding access of development for China's strategy in the region and we have to take them seriously. We have to analyze it, but that's official communication and a sitting pin. So in general term, we are witnessing a sitting pin and not necessarily a U-turn, a complete change of strategy, but at least an acceleration of the reason of visits, meetings of your communication on China's foreign policy in the region and a slight change of style in this approach. Existing concepts, existing motivations, I just said that I don't think there is a major complete significant change in China's foreign policy in the region because the motivations, the drivers, the factors explained in this region of foreign policy are still the same as under Huyin Tao. First of all of course is the opening up of inland provinces. Huyin Tao has not managed to reduce the imbalance in terms of economic development within the Chinese territories. Western and central provinces are still strongly underdeveloped compared to eastern provinces. So it's urgent now under the current leadership to try to develop these provinces and one way to develop them is to reinforce the international exposure and its belief that through cross-border exchanges, investment, regional investment, development and infrastructure of the region, that might be a way to open up these provinces which cannot be opened through maritime exposure such as the one in Futian, Zhejiang, etc., which were targeted, identified by debt-shelping in the beginning of the year or pre-promenade opening up at the late 70s and beginning of the 80s. So in this context the central government has been identifying several provinces and trying to put them or to develop them, I bridge four specific investments and trade with specific region of the world. Just an example, for example, it's Ningxia, which we don't talk a lot about Ningxia, Ningxia provinces. Northern western part of China and there is a strong Hui population. So the central government, when Niko Tian was still not prime minister, identified this region as a bridge to the Arab world because it considered that possible connection, language connection, religious connection, cultural connection might help in developing economic exchanges. I've been there so far, there is not much happening, but it's interesting to see what the general methodology was, the general approach of central government to these provinces. And you go to Yunnan, which has been identified on the Houtian Solidarity as a bridge to the Southeast Asian provinces, so because of geographical location. So every provinces who are still considered as poor or remote or underdeveloped compared to the eastern side are kind of pushed to be toward regional integration and that's the general idea behind the Silk Road project. The Silk Road project is basically, the core of the Silk Road project is infrastructure development. It's hard to see really the consequences so far of this concept because there are still relatively new concepts. But the leadership is trying to develop investment projects in Central Asia or in Southeast Asia with Chinese companies, major Chinese companies contributing to the construction of ports, railways, highways, roads, airports in many countries of the region. And in general terms, it seems that the current leadership is very ambitious in terms of trade investment in the region. The current leadership is talking about reinforcing trade investment between China and its neighbor and most specifically, there is an official name of China as their trade to reach US$1 trillion by 2020 in comparison with US$400 billion in 2012. Existing concept, existing motivations. I just talked about the development of infrastructures in the region. This is so far the main concrete implication that we can witness when we talk about this concept or this regional policy. And recent visits, sitting being visited to neighbors, significant infrastructure contracts have been signed, including with a country which has ambiguous relations with China, such as I'm talking about, for example, India. And China is pushing and has pushed and now it has successfully managed to create Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, where China will highly contribute to the budget of this bank and this bank is supposed to generate a multilateral project of infrastructure development and to fund countries such as Cambodia or Laos who are not themselves able to finance such projects. We are not sure, still, once again, it's too early to assess the outcome of this bank and we are not sure because we also have other development banks, such as the ADB, which is already well established and not sure that this bank can compete with the ADB. And also, some countries have not been attending the launching ceremony of this bank, some Asian countries are thinking about Korea, I'm also thinking about Australia, Indonesia, among other countries and of course Japan to name a few. So, but these are just to underline this project to underline China's focus and emphasis on infrastructure development in the region. And we also have to read this development in light of the need to open up the underdeveloped provinces of the western and the central part of the country. Additional motivations behind China's approach toward its neighborhood, the first one, of course, is energy security, which is clearly a top objective of SEAS Visit to the four Central Asian countries in September 2013. Major investment projects have been conducted in Kazakhstan in the field of energy among other countries. And there is still this ongoing strategy of diversification of supplies in the region as far as energy-rich countries are concerned. Another additional motivation, I'm listing them, but of course the list is not exhaustive, right? We could talk about it for an entire day. This is fascinating topic, but another topic, another motivation of China's foreign policy in the region is counterterrorism. We have to remember that China, I mean, that since China has several, not only ethnic tensions, but rise of radical extremism in Xinjiang. And it is a concern about the situation in Xinjiang and is trying to develop ties with countries neighboring Xinjiang, namely Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, to try both to open up economically this province and to reinforce potential security cooperation within the region. Of course, this is in the process, and I don't myself have a specific views of the nature of security cooperation, but that is China's concern, the security of the region and specifically the ties and the networks that may exist between Xinjiang and other countries of the region. A broader security objective of China, when we just talked about security, we also have to remember that China is concerned about the situation in Afghanistan, especially post-NATO Afghanistan, what will be the situation and how to stabilize the tensions in this context, so situation in Afghanistan or so the situation in Pakistan in the broader region as well. So to sum up, region is a clear priority for China because the region necessarily concentrates a series of security, energy and economic interests for China that are core to both its economic development and security concerns. At the same time, we have to underline the fact that just as observers, we have to remember that we are witnessing both soft and hard move of China's foreign policy in the region. Just previously when we talked about the Silk Road project, we meant it actually is our main economic diplomacy project. We talked about reinforcement of cross-border investment, reinforcement of infrastructures, reinforcement of cooperation between the countries, but if we look at the other side of the region in the East and South China seas, we have been seeing a tit-for-tat move vis-à-vis Japan and regular-getting territorial disputes. And China, China is considering that starting point was Japan's purchase of part of the Diaoyu Senkaku Island in late 2012. Japan would say that this purchase was actually on the contrary to the countdown tension raised by the nationalist mayor of Tokyo who wanted to purchase the island in a more assertive and offensive aim and also to be more active on the island. This is a matter of debate and I won't enter into this debate, but what we have seen, we have seen more initiative from the side of China in these waters. The first one that I can list, or once again the list is not exhaustive, is the ADIZ, so it's Air Defense Identification Zone above the Diaoyu Senkaku Island in November 2013. This in itself is not something uncommon, but it's the declaration, because the Euridice declaration is often unilateral, but the context of the declaration and the timing, because it was already very tense, the situation was very tense regarding this island and considering that it was already patrolling on interior waters, the timing of the declaration was considered as a provocation by a part of China's neighbor and they were response from Japan, the US and other countries in the region. China also declared the equivalent of an ADIZ ADIZ for fish in January 2014 in the waters of South China Sea, recrying basically at foreign fishing vessels and trying them to seek permission. This is a very brief summary of the situation and most recently as you probably all have noticed, China's decided to set an oil rig in a contested area of South China Sea in May 2014. It was a 2014, this rig was guarded by China's vessels and it provoked reaction from Vietnam because Vietnam considering that this is within its territorial waters and at least it is within disputed waters. So all these initiatives, if you could say, or hard move, whatever you call it, all these actions are appearing in sharp contrast with so-called low-profile foreign policy that has been developed under Deng Xiaoping, so-called Taowang Yang Hui that has been like the tradition of the core of China's foreign policy because basically Deng Xiaoping was considering that in late 70s, in the 80s, China was so poor that it has no mean and it has no time to focus on foreign policy issue so we leave status quo or we don't care so much about territorial dispute and we focus mainly on domestic economic development. It doesn't mean that we don't care about this dispute, it's just that we will resolve them later and wait for next generation when China will have the means and the time to address these issues. A question I would like to raise with you is does China have a clear-cut strategy in the region because how to read these moves basically? Are they corroding currents with a broader approach of the region? I would say at the moment, no. We can list several ambiguities that I'm calling. First, ambiguity is the relation between this soft economy diplomacy and how they move on territorial disputes. What is the relation between them? Is there is any? And in terms of communication as well, we'll see that this various type of moves or initiatives lead neighbors to raise questions about the ambition of China and the region and also give additional way to the China-thread thesis that have been supported by Japan, for instance. The second ambiguity is related to the concrete implementation of the new Silk Road project. For sure, faster-to-development is a concrete and serious implementation of this project. We should not underestimate them. We're talking about major contracts, rapid implementation, start of the construction of this project for some of them. But apart from this faster-to-development, what are the guidelines for the new Silk Road project? It's unclear for China. China itself, within Xinjiang, resites region. Xinjiang is thinking now on the best ways to implement this concept that have been underlining and will be emphasized by the central leadership. So what concrete does it mean? China itself is thinking about it. How to put this in practice in the best, most efficient way in the short and medium term. It's also unclear for China's neighbors. Neighbors who are directly identified as part of this new project, or at least who are considering that they've been identified as a country where the roads will pass through them, don't know themselves what does it mean. Some, for example, I was a senior researcher in Kyrgyzstan. There are some of countries who are already friendly with China, consider it's potential good economic opportunity and they're welcoming the general concept, but sometimes they ask Chinese government, so tell us what does it mean for us, what projects we really implement and how fast you will do that. Some neighbors are welcoming China's Silk Road project. Some of us are not so much welcoming it and I'm thinking, for instance, about Russia. We often talk about relatively good ties between China and Russia and we mentioned the recent gas deal that has been signed, but actually when the Silk Road project was first mentioned by the top leadership in China, Russia did not recognize it. It's only one year after, actually during the joint communique on the gas deal, actually, that Russia agreed to recognize the existence of such project in black and white on paper. But still, Russia is considering, for instance, that China's new project towards Central Asia might interfere with Russian influence in the region and is not so welcome. Another question regarding the Silk Road and regarding the potential ambiguity surrounding the project is how to secure the roads. We talk about security issue, talk about tourism. If these roads become valuable, they might become target. Target, I'm not just talking about a terrorist target, I'm talking about mafia, criminal network that might be hard for China and the neighbor to secure this economic network that are supposed to pass. I remember it was from China up to Europe and the general motivation for developing the Silk Road, at least the center, the inner part of the Silk Road, not the maritime one, is to also transport the goods to find an alternative transportation route for goods, Chinese goods from China to Europe by train. So faster reducing, significantly, the time of transportation, not the cost, but this might work effectively if there is security surrounding this transportation line. Another ambiguity that I would like to mention with you when we think about China's foreign policy in the region is what is the weight of affect or historical recentment on foreign policy decision-making process and the sitting pin? And I'm specifically asking on the sitting pin. Of course, the weight of affective and historical recentment is varying according to the issue at stake and certainly higher on some flashpoints, such as the Diagu Sen Ka Khudan on other issues. At the same time, also, we have to nuance a bit the weight of historical recentment and affect on foreign policy decision-making process because pragmatism is still very widespread or still the guiding approach to China's foreign policy decision-making process. China will have an ideological framework but it's pragmatic decision-making process that can account economic interests first of all and concrete situation on the ground. But at the same time, we see that it's not new but under leadership, new leadership is particularly obvious. There is a general belief that under previous decays or even dynasties, China was occupying an international or regional status that was not in line with its long history or culture. So you have frequent official, I'm talking about official references to the hundreds years of humiliation, to the European war, et cetera. And the sitting pin has been opening new museum regarding a Second World War, regarding tension with Japan, and anti-massacre has been opening new memorials and we have, it's not, while Japan now is hoping to turn the page of history and build a new defense in the foreign policy strategy region that is not a direct legacy of a Second World War, China now is opening back the book and want to analyze it in more detail and to focus in more extent, at least in its communication, that's what it is trying to do. And sitting pin has been often mentioning the following expression, the great revival of the Chinese nation. It's still unclear what it means in concrete foreign policy term but there is a general belief in China that it's now time to occupy the regional status that China should occupy considering its long history culture. So it's more culturalist approach, a culturalist argumentation to this development. But I would like to underline and something that we discussed informally in our just previous discussion before arriving here is that the dangling of this great revival of the Chinese nation is a long-term deadline. It's set more or less at 2050 for the centenary of the PRC. So it might also be broad concept also to appeal to a general public to kind of build some form of unity behind the current leadership and reinforce and counterbalance the erosion of the CCP legitimacy but in concrete terms that might not have so much short-term middle-term implication. Still, the great revival is not new. It was a silent hope but it is becoming an official aim on the sitting pin which is considering that China now has a means, economic means, financial means to support such revival. It's still to put in line with Deng Xiaoping, a foreign policy and Deng Xiaoping they might have a willingness to revive the Chinese nation but on foreign policy level China did not have the financial means to do that now. There is a clear rising confidence on the side of China following the 2008 global financial and economic downturn. China resisted relatively well to the crisis thanks to the stimulus package that has been launched at a fast pace and current leadership is considering now we are entering a favorable context with the development of new economic balance of power in the region and also China is conscious that the region itself is under restructuring. So as things are moving it is now time maybe to take more initiatives because if you don't take initiative in this favorable context then when will you promote your national interest when will you advance the regional status of China from an economic view at least or economic side but also a more general term of influence and political influence. So there is also, there is obviously under sitting pin is a belief that it's now the appropriate time for China to consolidate its regional power status. We're talking about ambiguities before and the question we can raise as researchers and analysts of China is are these ambiguities intentional or unintentional? And I would answer that they are both. They are both intentional and intentional. Intentional first, well, yeah, just if you remember foreign policy and the Mao Zedong and even lecture, there is a personal belief in the opacity that opacity is itself a strategic asset. It's not necessarily good to disclose information about what you want to do but this is not specifically China but it's not even sometimes good to disclose basic information about the mechanism of the foreign policy decision making process about who is heading which office and how does it work. This is a general belief in China from several decades and it's still waiting on the approach of China. So when we say, well, China is not explaining clearly what it wants to do. Well, it has never really done so. Both at foreign policy level and at institutional level, neither. Also under the current leadership, there is an attempt to develop some form of transparency on some issues or some decision making mechanism. There is also, it seems, and this I in fact I don't think because we are still quite early to analyze this foreign policy development, it seems that there is a general belief in China that economic diplomacy and foreign territorial moves can be conducted concurrently or even to some extent independently. What I mean is that the leaders, so the territorial moves, the harder territorial moves will not impact the former, meaning economic diplomacy. Given the size of Chinese foreign direct investment and the general attractiveness of the Chinese market, the leaders of China will still be able to sign contracts given in this situation and considering that China would like to reinforce its economic diplomacy in the region. At the same time, ambiguities are also non-intentional and intentional for one reason we have to remember that there remains strong institutional obstacles to strategic planning and the sitting pin. A number of institutions taking part in the frame, policy decision making process over the last 20 years have been increasing at a very sharp pace, fast pace. You have economic oriented institution that are very powerful, I'm thinking about the NDRC, but I was also thinking about major SOE, state-owned enterprises who also are contributing to some extent to the shaping of China's foreign policy and who have also institutions such as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in China who are on some issues, weak, and I can say that. Basically, the more important, the more closer to core interests, the issue is the higher the decision making process is, logically, but on some issues, the party is CCP is certainly more influential than other institutions, and there is in this context an issue of coordination of the decision making process, how to coordinate the different institutions who are taking part in it, so sitting pin is calling for coordination of diplomatic work, and it's also talking about top-level design, so it's having a strategic view, long-term one, and not only responding to moving the region, not only being passive and basically establishing foreign policy day by day, which may not have a broader comprehension of the general geopolitical context. I'm mentioning this because when we talk about ambiguities, ambiguities are partly originating also from the institutional framework in China and from this overlap and issues of coordination, and there is also another issue regarding China's foreign policy, if we can say, is the under assessment of communication and strategic impact of the hard move that were previously mentioned in the East and South China Sea. We received recently researchers, friends, we can say from a Chinese think tank, and I'm quoting her now anonymously, but I could quote many others who share the same comments. She was saying, China needs to use international communication standards to explain its foreign policy better. So far we have failed, we are not used to these standards. There is a communication issue here and also an issue of perception gaps because we could say that the moves in the East and South China Sea was counterproductive as seen from Beijing, at least in terms of national interest, Chinese national interest. It contributed to reinforce the fear of its neighbors and some were even more favorable to reinforce their ties with the US. So China is sending mismisage and there is still some ambiguity surrounding its foreign policy in the region, just mentioning a counterproductive effect of some of these moves, but we also talk about a productive effect of these moves or let's say of these ambiguities that is surrounding China's foreign policy. We could say, we could argue, these are just points of analysis to support and to give some food for thought for the debate. We could say that the remaining flexible or adaptive inner region that is itself undergoing a restructuring can be a strategic advantage to position itself or to size opportunities faster than rival. Just a footnote, but the secret project actually is the initial idea, of course there is historical legacy but the initial idea was coming from Hillary Clinton who gave a speech in 2011 in Afghanistan saying that to kind of stabilize the region would be good to reinforce ties and economic integration within the region and talk about Silk Road and then China said, oh wow, why not, this is a good idea and maybe we are more legitimate to do that considering historical background and we can do that maybe faster way, so let's do it and there's a declaration of hitting ping on the rival and then there is implementation of it now. So you see how China's foreign policy is trying to readjust according to moves from main regional key players. That's also a matter of flexibility and sizing opportunities. Another point is domestically as well and not only China is trying to reshape its foreign policy division but also other key regional players such as Japan and the US who could talk about the US pivot or rebalancing to Asia but also Japan's new foreign policy security guidelines under current ABL leadership. We could also argue that remaining ambiguous may disturb strategic planning of neighbors. I'm thinking for instance of the declaration of the ADIZ over, as I think I could have had, there was, after this declaration in November of 2013, there was a series of rumors and discussion among regional players and beyond on potential declaration of a similar zone in the South China Sea, above the South China Sea and each country was trying to see how they could react or adapt to this move if this move effectively happened. Actually it did not took place but that should give you an example of how this ambiguity may disturb the strategic planning or shaping of neighbors. So even if China's foreign policy in the region remain ambiguous and even if I'm now doing a risky exercise which is to analyze development that are really new and we probably need to take time to continue to analyze it with more distance but even in this context we have, even with these ambiguities, we have one sure that one development that we can be sure of is a reinforced China-US regional competition. China is clearly trying to establish a new regional balance of power with the U.S. As you think Ming has been talking about new type of great power relationship. In this regional balance of power is being developed at several level. First of all security strategic competition. China is trying to develop and to enhance asymmetric catch up with the U.S. It knows that it's clearly laid behind them of military capabilities but maybe there is a smarter way to coordinate these capabilities in order to face U.S. presence in the region militarily in case there would be escalation and also sitting pink has been emphasizing and the need to develop a strong navy in particular and he has been talking about a navy that should be able to fight and win wars. This declaration has been made during the visit of me, Terry Bay, at the beginning of its mandate. So maybe it's also to reinforce the loyalty of the PLA to the CCP. So it has the domestic target, this communication as the main target and not only maybe not only reflecting new foreign policy orientation but it's important to mention them, I believe. Another reinforce China-U.S. regional competition at another level, which is trade level. There is of course a dichotomy TBP asset that I won't go too much into detail because it's another chapter but China is also trying to, beyond this mega FTS, China is trying to negotiate FTA with the maximum of country in the world and especially in the region with the focus on East and Southeast Asian countries. Another competition that has been reinforced and the sitting thing with the U.S. is at the monetary level. China is hoping to expand the scale of the use of the GenMINB in the surrounding areas and hoping that the influence of the GenMINB in the regional monetary system become higher. So we could talk about the intent of internationalize the GenMINB but also to regionalize itself first of all with the number of cross-border trade settlement in GenMINB that has been signed and also number of bilateral currency swap agreements signed with neighboring countries. I just mentioned a few on this slide since 2008 but the list is not exhaustive once again. Regional competition between China and the U.S. also is also noticeable at institutional level. China is trying to reinforce its participation in existing regional institutions and framework such as ASEAN Plus 3 app pack that will open very soon but also China is hoping to create or trying to create or even refresh institutions in which it could play a leading role. For example, thinking about the conference on interaction and confidence building major in Asia, CICA, CICA, whatever you call it but China has been focusing and emphasizing on it a lot because it's heading it for two years. It has been hosting it and now there is 20 plus participants but not the U.S., not Japan. And the official aim from a Chinese perspective is to convert it in a reference institution for regional security cooperation. That might be too optimistic given that there is no, not all key regional players are taking part and also given that you also have other institutions in place in the region in this field but I'm mentioning it because the speech of given by sitting in the opening was also enlightening regarding competition in the U.S. For instance, in the speech sitting being talked about and for the fact that it was according to him up to Asian countries to solve their own problems and it was time to forge the Asian communities of common destiny and the meaning in the U.S. is not welcome in this community building because it has no legitimacy according to Beijing to take part in this new Asian community of common destiny. This is quite a new rhetorical development that at least has been more emphasized on the sitting thing. Question we could ask is, are we heading toward a competition or more frontal rivalry between the U.S. and China? The answer is that at the moment we don't know the relation is not stabilized and there is a debate within China, China's foreign policy community about the orientation of this relation. Some and including influential researchers are saying that, well, we should not engage in a two confrontational relation with the U.S. considering the strong economic interdependency and considering that also we might need the U.S. to cooperate on a set of security issue including in Afghanistan but also including on the development of terrorism in the broader global context. So you have diverging views among China policy makers and analysts regarding the nature of China-U.S. relation and we should not be over-simplistic and say that China is heading towards a confrontational relation with the U.S., I believe. Some concluding remarks to support the Q&A session. We are clearly witnessing a multiplication of initiatives and moves in the region. China's foreign policy is becoming more proactive in the entire Asia-Pacific region from Central Asia to the China seas and it's likely that these initiatives will continue to be numerous in the short and medium term. We will, it's likely as well that we will witness still a continuity of soft and hard moves in parallel concurrently because there is no political will but also there is no institutional ability to coordinate a homogeneous regional policy under the current leadership. The regional policy student construction, we have a diversity of interests and a flash point to manage in the region. Sometimes we say, well, China does not have a common foreign policy strategy in the region. I say, well, yes, it's still ambiguous but at the same time we have to consider the diversity of the flash points that it is facing. Addressing the current peninsula issue require a different approach than addressing the East China Sea territorial dispute, the South China Sea territorial dispute or the border dispute, for example, between China and India. All these are very different set of issues that probably that would be hard to address with a common coherent strategic framework. And in general term we have to remember that we have to remember the strong geographical hierarchy of foreign policy priorities from a Beijing perspective. Still, it's following a geographical logic. China has a lot on her plate at domestic level. We talked about social tension, ethnic tension, economic imbalance at the scale of the national territories, coordination between central government and local government. It has these issues. If we just focus on security issues, we have strong security issues in Xinjiang but not only with increasing the number of attacks beyond Xinjiang and concerning, for example, recently Yunnan province or even Beijing. So a lot of that played domestically. It has a lot of a plate also. If recently we think about Hong Kong issue and to some extent Taiwan, if the issue is different and it's not so much a flash point today but election are coming up, local election and then 2016 presidential election. So if there is a change of part, if the DPP come back to power that might be a flash point I've seen from Beijing. But in general, China has a lot to do in the region and we just received some flash points of current peninsula, East China Sea, South China Sea territorial border dispute. So in this context, China is hoping to build a leadership role first of all at regional level. We often try to analyze China's position regarding Syria or Ukraine. China is following very closely these issues but I wouldn't say that establishing global power status is a top priority for China in terms of security of foreign policy initiatives. I would say that first of all it wants to consolidate its power at regional level and it wants to focus because it has to protect increasing number of investments and also citizens abroad. So it is taking more seriously international issues that is happening beyond the region and it is participating to anti-parasy for instance operation near Somalia. It is sending UN peacekeeping soldiers in several regions of the world but at the same time we cannot say for instance that China has a very clear cut position or has been very proactive in Syria or we cannot say even if the vote at the UN we cannot say that China is also a top leading actor regarding Ukraine. It's trying to position himself still to some extent in an ambiguous way keep trying to maintain good relations both with Russia, with EU and the US in general. I won't go too much to detail but I thought that on this because I want to say that there is still a very strong geographical hierarchy of priorities of China's foreign policy and the focus is mainly on the region. So when we talked about reinforced competition between China and the US China has been aiming at, it's first of all the region that it should take place and that it has no means to do so at a broader international level so far. So I will conclude on this and so to keep enough time for the Q&A session but there is seriously strong willingness there is undoubtedly strong willingness from part of China to counter US influence the region but still the regional policy remains ambiguous at several levels. And maybe one last comment is that I fully understand that this is an analysis only after two years of power of sitting ping. I would be happy to continue to exchange with you. I will continue to focus on this topic much later in the year and sitting ping is in the coming years and sitting ping is at its position until 2022. So that may be a timeframe that we have to follow to analyze more closely front post development in the region to see if there is some form of current strategy building up in the coming decades. Thank you very much.


Today we are going to hook to a Bluetooth speaker using our Linux shell. Obviously most distributions have a GUI interface, a graphical user interface for connecting to Bluetooth devices, but we're going to look at one of the few options we have for the shell. So let's go ahead and jump right in and see if we can get this speaker playing. As I stated, there's a few different options you have when it comes to connecting to Bluetooth devices from your Linux shell, but we're just going to use a Bluetooth control application today. You'll probably want to install these packages if you don't already have them installed. The first one here is Pulse Audio Module Bluetooth. Pulse Audio is the sound system that I'm currently using and is common on most Linux desktop distributions. The blues with a Z, blues firmware and blues 2. This blues might actually install these two, but I'm going to go ahead and just say install all those I already have them installed, so I'm just going to skip that. Now let's look at what audio outputs I have on my computer. There's two different commands you can try. If they're not installed, you can use app to install them, but Pulse Mixer is a shell based one, and here you can see I have the analog stereo. That's the audio card that's built into my motherboard, and then I also have my USB audio headphones. I'm going to hit Q to get out of that. If for a graphical interface, PAVU control, one thing in a graphical interface, you can see my two audio outputs right now. Okay, let's go ahead and we're going to go ahead and run the command Bluetooth CTL Bluetooth control, and that comes with the blues package that we just installed. We'll go ahead and enter and now we're in its interface. You can see that currently my Bluetooth device on my machine, and it is parable, but we want to find this Bluetooth speaker, so let me go ahead and power up this Bluetooth speaker. I have not connected this Bluetooth speaker to this computer yet. Turn it on and it's connected to my phone, so I'm going to put it into pairing mode. Okay, now I can type in scan on, and now we'll give it a moment and we'll scan, and there we go. That is the device I'm looking for. It gives you the name, and it gives you the MAC address. So at this point I'm going to type scan on. I'm not sure if that's needed, but I have found that if I leave scan on, lots of times it won't connect to a device. So first thing we need to do now that we found the device when we've got its MAC address is pair it. We're going to say pair, and I'll just paste in that MAC address. And it connected. If the device requires a pin, it will ask you for the pin. Next, I'm going to trust that device so that my computer sees it as a trusted device. Now that we've paired it, we've paired it. Let's go ahead and just connect to it. So connect and that MAC address, and it's connected. Let me go ahead and exit out of this interface and I will clear the screen and I will pulse, mix, and again now you can see that device is on my audio, one of my audio outputs, and right now it's set as my default device. My computer detects a new device and switched over it. Again, you can do PAVU control devices. You can see that speaker right there. So we successfully connected to it. Let's see if I do eSpeak. And I say hello world from Linux shell. Hello world from Linux shell. That came out of the Bluetooth speaker. So that's connecting Bluetooth speakers or really any Bluetooth device to your system. So short, simple. I hope you find that useful. Again, there are other options and I guess I should also mention the Bluetooth control. If you wanted to run a command, well let's go into here real quick and what I'm going to do is I'm going to, I think of course you can always type help for all your options, but what we're going to do is exit out of this and I'm going to show you that you can actually run those commands. We went into the interface but if I do scan on from here, it's going to turn scan on and start looking for devices. Of course I can control C to kill that. If I try to control scan off, it already does if I've disconnected from that. I also want to mention, so you can also obviously pair devices this way straight from the shell without going into the interface. But let me go ahead and do scan on. And if I try to scan on again, you'll get an error. It tells you right here that it's already in progress. Same if I try to scan off. So I'll scan off now. It says discovering but if I try to run it again, it'll say failed. That's because it's already off. So if you get an error, it will probably tell you the last part of the error will tell you what it is. Like if you're trying to pair and you're trying to pair again, it might tell you pairing already in progress. So you can't do something that's already been done without undoing it if that makes any sense. So thank you for watching. Please visit filmsbychrist.com That's Chris the K. There's a link in the description. Also check out my Patreon. Link in the description below as well. And I hope that you have a great day.


Welcome to the RF elements unlicensed podcast. I'm Caleb now or and this is Tossos Alex you what's going on buddy What's happening everybody? How are you? How are you? Oh man? Good So we we've managed to survive yet another year in Vegas at whistlepalooza. So absolutely. I'm tired I don't know if it shows and maybe get some bags into my eyes or something But you know, I spent a few extra days there as well My wife flew in on Thursday evening after the event so I stayed till Sunday and whoo. That was tough It was definitely tough. Yeah, it was a long week I'm gonna use this as excuse for the bags under my eyes for at least the next few weeks So didn't didn't go hard as it would have sometimes gone, but it still went pretty hard. So yeah I'm glad to be back. So we had a really great show I thought what we do this week is talk a bit about our experience kind of give a recap of what happened But before we do that give the audience the call-to-action Tossos Absolutely, don't forget to like listen or subscribe to our podcast on YouTube or anywhere else you download your audio podcast like Google Spotify and Apple Alright, alright, so the show most things went really really well with it We did have a couple little bombers. I figure we get the bombers out of the way Then we'll talk about all the cool stuff that happened. So The first one was the travel. So luckily I got in okay, I flew in on Sunday American flight out of Charlotte Got there. No problem. I'm like, alright, everyone's gonna be here when I get here. That's gonna be great, but unfortunately Didn't work out that way do it. Nope not at all It did not I mean I was I was I would say you were the most fortunate because you made it, right? I was more fortunate than others But yeah, it was terrible, especially with Southwest canceled so many flights and Yeah, I knew it the night before I was like damn it. I'm gonna get caught up in this I woke up early in the morning to get my early flight out and sure enough as soon as I checked canceled Southwest allowed me to rebook my flight, which I did for like an 8 p.m. Flight that night Which was you know more than sufficient because it was Sunday We really don't have to be there till about noon on Monday, but somehow I knew I had a feeling that you know This is probably too good to be true. I was like what if what if I get there at 8 p.m. And then they cancel it now I'm struggling to get there on Monday. So yeah, I went on Expedia I found the the cheapest flight I can find not on Southwest, which by the way much love for Southwest Still but I found a flight So I bought a second ticket with American Airlines to leave at pretty much like 20 minutes before my Southwest flight And I was at the airport and I was considering I'm like well shit, you know, it still says Southwest is on time Maybe I should just take you know my original flight good thing I didn't because I took the American Airlines direct flight as soon as I landed in Vegas and took airplane mode off Here come the notifications, you know flight delayed flight delayed with Southwest So I don't know if those people ever made it out, but I made it and all things are good now.  I'm like come on down. You're like no, no, I'm done. I'll see you in the morning So probably good decision, but yeah, I was made for a long day So now flying back is kind of a different story for me because we take off Friday morning. Everything's cool We're a little late.  He's like, yeah We got some check engine lights on one of the engines I'm sure it's not a big deal, but we might be making some changes a few minutes later He's like, yeah, we're going to Dallas and I'm like, but I don't want to go to Dallas But I didn't have a vote in this. So We get a Dallas we land We get to the gate. They won't open the door. They're like, well, we might reuse this plane We might fix it.  We're not really sure, right? Okay, sit there 20 30 minutes That comes on he's like, yeah This plane is broken. So Everybody off we're gonna get you a new plane. We finally and they shuffled us around whatever else So it went now on a couple hours. We hung out So got home a few hours late about 11 o'clock, but could have been a lot worse So that's my first diversion because of a broken plane. So that was really cool Definitely, I mean my my flight back was uneventful whatsoever I was just an absolute genius and deciding to book like the 730 a.m. Flight I wasn't think I probably saw 730 p.m. Who knows it was 730 a.m. So I woke up at like 430 right to get to the airport by 5 Thank God I did because the line was like all the way around the corner outside the door Luckily TSA pre so like I got on that line at first and I'm like, is there TSA pre no like it's all the way The other way so I ended up zooming through. I was there two hours early So this you know, despite just being exhausted from a week in Vegas I made it home direct no issues. No check engine lights. No baggage loss Nothing right to my car right to my bed and cuddled my puppies man I was I was happy I was happy to get my see my dogs again and the kids. Yeah, yeah for sure So that was a crazy thing like we got to I'm like Friday morning 11 o'clock fly is gonna be packed to get there about nine I was 15 minutes from walking in the door to being at the gate. I'm like, man, this is awesome We're gonna get home so easy. I was feeling good. I got some sleep night before I'm like couldn't be easier and I was wrong, but So anyway, it's not a big deal now the real bomber unfortunately it was some little logistics and shipping stuff in so Terrible we're we're spread out the the US folks are spread across the country and then of course young or based in Slovakia and that's where they send most of the marking material So our things like shirts and you know all the new stuff and everything else So we're like, all right, we ship everything like we've done every year piece of cake We had like two weeks to get your shirts and stuff here. They got stuck in customs got stuck I mean for two weeks. They got stuck in customs in LA Never could move it and that really sucks because that's what a lot of people are for we have this super cool Ultra horn shirts that we're so excited about so absolutely and of course, you know supposed to be to debut, right? Exactly, everyone's like man. I want one of those shirts. I'm like, well get into we got a whole lot coming They're gonna be here like Tuesday. They're gonna be here Wednesday. So we tear down the booth We get done tearing down the booth about 6 15. No five minutes out the door. I get notification. It's like it's cleared customs Yeah, yeah, y'all really coming through the other 15 shipments not a problem the one people actually cared about so Yeah, that was lame, but we're not gonna focus on the bombers. Let's talk about all the cool stuff Which is definitely, you know, the the majority of what was happening. So we had a great show as always I guess the biggest news for us winning product of the year for the asymmetrical horns for the third year in a row My precious is right here hold on 2021 product of the year is three years in a row. This is fantastic I can't even begin to tell everybody again how proud I am of the company how hard we worked and how thankful thankful we are For everybody in the wisp industry that continues to support us and vote for us I actually have all three and I kind of sleep with these things underneath my pillows at night and stuff like that Maybe that's why your back is jacked up Yeah, it's that lump on my pillow The awards stabbing me in the neck and no honestly for all you guys out there much love. Thank you so much We love you guys we work hard seriously for you guys for the industry We try and do what's best even if it's you know some some tough medicine you have to take sometimes We have to do what we have to do in order to be at the top and we're getting there we're definitely getting there and it's an amazing feeling and Y'all should be proud too because you guys are you know doing what's right for this industry and working hard and Showing that you know with a little grit and some effort man. The sky is the limit everybody. Love you seriously. Thank you Yeah, thanks so much. We definitely couldn't do it that you guys and can do what we're doing right now with that you guys so True another yet another shout out to the folks back in Slovakia I mean, you know, it's real easy for a process and the rest of us to slide up our own stage. We're like, yeah, we roll I've been here. I've been here like six months. I'm like, yeah, you know, it's just what we do, right? But everyone back at HQ.  So thanks. I say it all the time I mean they honestly our Extremely talented designers and engineers. They are the heroes that don't wear capes Honestly, they are the ones behind the scenes, you know, they they see me the face they see you the foyer face and They think but we have an army an army of talent and not just engineers and designers logistics people right administrative people Everybody we really can't do it without the entire team coming together. You and I Caleb I mean, we get the easy part of thing, you know, these guys work hard make a fantastic product and we're up front Receiving all the praise. So yeah, definitely team Slovak 100% 100% so of course nobody from that team could get here this year because the travel restrictions and stuff another looks like Yeah, another bomber, but it looks like that's about to live So you'll get to meet hopefully a bunch of these cats in New Orleans for Whisp America in March Definitely, I'm looking forward to that some more. Hmm. Yum. Yum's good food That was another thing, you know, Vegas is always a cool town, but you know, it's funny or the older you're getting used to be like We're just the biggest party and now we're like, what's the best meal we can find? So How early can I escape and go to bed and nobody'll notice? Yeah, we're like you want the 930 reservation or the 630 reservation. We're like, oh 630, please But the food's great, you know, it always is so I know we're looking forward to that New Orleans as well That's another eater's town and we will definitely get it done then for sure. So the show itself You know, I think went really really well, especially for being yeah We did Whisp American Dallas and that was a big show But the Vegas show is just so much more involved, you know We were talking about the venue and the unions and you know the shipping and all this other stuff And I think the show came together really well Yeah Again, like I said, I really can't say enough about the again the entire team, right? So so people again just like us they see you and me, right? So they think whisper is Claude, you know And and those guys that are like kind of the face of whisper that I see up front But man, there's an army an army of hard-working individuals behind the scenes that are doing all the work the contract Negotiations the food preparation stuff to make sure that we have enough food and drink to feed people and just you know Making sure that it really goes off without a hitch and and I'll tell you I mean it was absolutely smooth There was really zero problems.  I mean they did a fantastic job once again So Bravo to our friends at whisper and we look forward to the same the same type of event at the same caliber in Nola in March For sure for sure. I like the flow was really good Like you said the meals were good like everything just move the way it should have as we would expect So that was really good Attendance was good, you know, not as high as some folks at home But realistically considering the state of where everything is right now I think we had really really good intent is not from you know from the staff But also you know all the other exhibitors and stuff, you know, there were a crowd of folks there I think we were 17 2017 50 and 1800 which is a really strong count for where we are right now. So yeah again I think 2019 was like 500 people so in 2020 when it got cancelled because of COVID we were expecting to see, you know 3000 people, right? So I would have assumed that you know, this one would have been at around that same level Maybe slightly more maybe, you know, slightly less But yeah, again with a lot of the travel restrictions and uncertainty and stuff like that I mean even a lot of whisper or having a hard time finding employees to work, right? So a lot of people who would have had backup, you know, and they could have came Had to stay behind and run their wisp. So I mean bravo to you guys too. You got to do what you got to do There's always, you know, whisper America next year whisper Palooza as well I am excited to say that for the second time in a row, you know, whisper America and now whisper Palooza We had a showing from somebody from Rhode Island. So we had our Rhode Island whisk So we still got all 50 states at least at least we got representation from every state again And that was cool to see so I'm excited about that as well That's very cool. Very cool. So Puerto Rico is huge too. Did you notice how many people showed up wisp from Puerto Rico? Some really really big teams, you know, we saw our Geno which we we see quite often Ivan from most net came out as well with his team It was great seeing his face again. I mean a bunch of wisps from basically the Caribbean area, right? I think there were some people from Virgin Islands as well and stuff like that So that was again really cool to see Yeah, there are a few more a few more countries and you know other regions I wouldn't necessarily expecting so Mexico had a strong contingency. Yeah, one's Canadians and stuff You know folks that could get into the country. So yeah, basically anybody who could travel made it, right? So again, 1700 is a really strong number I think considering all the obstacles that we've had so Yeah, um, we talked to a whole ton of folks at the booth So it's kind of we did the scan thing just to see how many people we talked to and I don't think we got everybody You know Our best efforts, but you know, it's just hard to do but you know, that was really cool seeing the numbers Um and getting to see like names were like, you know, I'm looking through the list I'm like, oh those guys were there, but I couldn't talk to them. I wonder why I'm like Oh, because you know, there were four or six of us. Excuse me. They were talking constantly, you know During the main hours and stuff. So yeah, can our sales guy lost his voice on day one, you know Man down, you know poor guy.  Uh, yeah, it's not back yet. So we may have broken Ken. So Oops Not our fault. Yeah It's why here's this is nothing had nothing to do with what we were doing. So But no, the attendance at the booth was really good. It has some really cool conversations again You know getting to meet, you know, folks we've known for a long time Getting to meet a lot of folks that we've talked to on calls and stuff You know, we picked up a lot of new customers over the last, you know Since we've had one of these shows for sure and getting to put faces to those names You know, as always is a really good experience. But I think especially so now and this year that was really cool We had our product launch too, right? So we had a lot of new items that we brought to market So we did a virtual product launch, you know, eight months ago or something like that So it was really cool to see people's faces and to get their real reactions and feedback most importantly on The changes that we've made to some of our existing products and in the new products for bringing out like larger array sectors We finally have a CBRS sector, which is pretty pretty kick-ass and we're excited to see that stuff come out So that that was really good because really it's that feedback we get from the user base is how we, you know Build products that are just outstanding and get better, you know, year after year So that was really really good to have that interaction Yeah, that was a fun part you put all this work into it. I'm like, hey, we made a new thing You guys want this thing, right? Like this is cool. Okay. Yeah, all right so Definitely some sort of unique touches on stuff here CBRS sector with the new port Doors and stuff. I think that's really slick a lot of interest in the new two for the higher gain sector The new asymmetrical 45 starter horn. I think that one's going to be a beast That's kick-ass for its size and the gain is just really fantastic and it and of course the the cost, right? It's a definitely an entry level 45 degree asymmetrical starter horn It's going to be fantastic when that thing comes out Definitely is so share the new tweaks to the 60 and 90 asymmetrical with the chassis change and stuff So got a really good feedback on that plus the stuff that you know that we launched last time people hadn't really seen yet You know, everyone's been so busy this year. It's been hard to catch up So, you know, the starter dishes had a lot of really good conversation about the starter dishes some different applications Whether using the isos or the mimosas and stuff like that with the native wave guy So I had a ton of really good conversations about that Especially as people are seeing the need more and more to have this higher gain and quality antennas at the cpe side Get those higher snr's and push those higher modulation raisin stuff. So That was super cool. What else we had? Oh the taco truck Tossos tacos. Yeah, the tossos tacos the tossos truck taco tacos. Yeah Yeah So, uh, I think a lot of folks got a big kick out of that So that was for those that didn't see it or didn't see the pictures, you know We've got this cardboard cut out of a taco truck and it was mainly for new whisk users or you know, you're getting started You know, I'm frustrated. Yeah, maybe I should just do the taco truck, which is this long-running sort of Uh, joke that's been going on social media and stuff So we had a little fun with it take a lot of pictures But it was mainly to say hey new folks like you can do this It's going to be okay And here's a way that you can start out doing a smarter, you know as you go so A lot of really good feedback from that Uh, plus it's just kind of cool to have something different. So now we're already plotting out next year. What we're gonna do So we might have to have a little more Might have a few more of our late night friday sessions to do some more Hard thinking to come up with some more ideas. So we'll see Yeah, yeah Let's see. What else we do. It was cool. Oh the session, you know I Bitched and moaned about that session being at 9 15 the whole time until finally ken explained to me He's like no, it's not.  It's just the best attended sessions. I'm like, okay. Well, if you don't open with that I'd have been a way less fussy about this whole thing, dude. So yeah, but the the session went really well We had like 60 some odd folks in there The folks were engaged Answered questions. So at 9 15 in the morning in vegas to have that sort of engagement and question and back in a worth conversation I was more than tickled man. So that was that was super cool I really can't complain about that either and you can only imagine What it possibly would have been if we had full attendance at the show as well, right?  So that was it was good. It was good information good updates And again another really great reason for people to come and join whisper and attend these shows because There's a lot of information that you get directly fed and you know It's really again not about getting information because you could always go to a company's website and try and get, you know All the updates and stuff But where else can you just sit down with the manufacturer and just beat up on them and let them know? Hey, this is what we need. This is what we want and this is why Something isn't working and you know, of course, this is what you're doing great, right? Because there's no better motivation than, you know, some praise from your user base and stuff like that So it's really important, you know, if you you know, if you're going to sit back and complain About everything that isn't right and really not do something to get involved and be part of the change you want to see Well, then, you know, there's nothing we can do about that But definitely whisper is Is the place to be for a lot of this stuff and and making change For sure for sure a hundred percent. So And I think all those sessions went well like the feedback from everyone I talked to was really good So just more of the good things and we're gonna keep on cranking. So like we said new orleans They announced it's going to be new orleans for whisper america march like 14th to 17th something like that. So That'll be a fun one. Um But yeah, so it was it was great. Um, happy to be there. Happy to go back. I'm happy to be home in the inter I think I I think I slept to like like noon or one o'clock on on monday So I was a little late coming into the office, you know With with occasional kind of wake up on skype and kind of answer like I was working But now I was I was dead man. I was dead Yeah, I feel you so oh and the last thing that the paris paris worked out really well I did like not having to walk eight miles between the exhibit area to the room So it was pretty short hikes there. That's always a really awesome thing too Yeah, my feet were thankful for that for sure very much very much. So Well, we got a lot to catch up on so not to try to cut anybody short here But you know, we have a lot going on. We still have a lot going on We have a lot of things we got to get back to folks on so I think we're gonna wrap it a little bit early this time In the meantime though, if you guys have any questions reach out to us Oh, thanks to everyone by the way who was like, hey guys, we'll listen to the podcast and it's awesome Like I was surprised how many folks were like, oh, hey, he's here from the podcast. I'm like, hey, dude I have no idea who you are awesome So Yeah, we're super pumped We got a lot of energy coming back from the show to do this. So again, you know, we've got a lot of plans But in the meantime You guys have any questions or anything? Please reach out to us You can find us on all of our social media channels and the facebook groups Caleb at RF Elements comm tosses RF Elements comm Let's know what you want to hear. Let's know what you want to talk about and we'll get after it Yeah, and we definitely want to see you on our podcast, right? So if you're interested in being a guest if you're a wisp specifically, we want to talk to you If you're a hardware manufacturer, we want to talk to you too So here's your chance to kind of get on board join our podcast and kind of plug into what we have going on here So I hope to see you guys soon, you know, send us some direct messages and let us know if you want to get involved But I guess until next time stay horny everybody Stay horny all


What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution and if you're new to my channel, welcome. So previously I was a mental health channel. I've rebranded more towards social commentary. So if you're into that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. So yeah, this video might be the dumbest thing I've ever done but I had to make it. I had to make it, all right? So I have a massive support system and something I learned a long time ago in recovery which I'm trying to do even more so now is that you gotta bounce ideas off other people and get suggestions and get advice and before I do anything I try to ask somebody like what do you think I should do, right? So this video might have some of the people in my support system, some of my YouTube mentors a little upset but I just have to do this and here's why. I'm talking about why I haven't been making videos about Trisha Paytas because when this nicocato avocado thing first popped off, ever since it first popped off I've gotten dozens and I mean dozens of tweets, DMs, emails and everything like that asking me to talk about the situation and I've replied to quite a few of them but something I hate doing, something I absolutely hate doing is answering the same question a million times, right? So for all of you who have been around for a while or all of you who are new like I feel like I just need to make some kind of public video and discuss why I haven't been making videos about Trisha Paytas.  But I want to talk about the situation that I'm in and just explain some details around this thing. So let's rewind back in time. So I made a bunch of videos about Trisha Paytas when my channel was primarily mental health and the goal of my channel was always to educate people about mental health even though I'm not a licensed professional by any means but I wanted to educate people about mental health and also what every commentary channel out there is doing is we're pointing out things that are out in the public eye and saying is this okay or is this not okay? So a primary example of this thing was I made a bunch of videos about Trisha Paytas and her relationship with Jason Nash, right? So the goal of my video was my videos was this is not an example of a healthy relationship and I took issue with the fact that their toxic relationship was being broadcast to millions of people and there's a high chance that a lot of people are saying oh this is what a healthy relationship looks like and I was coming in and I was using that as an example to say this is not what a healthy relationship looks like. Now one of the difficult parts about doing commentary in any way shape or form or just just life in general is like intentions often don't matter the result is what matters and I never I never intended on hurting Trisha Paytas all right I just saw a public figure and I was like hey let's talk about this okay and something else that I did which got me a lot of backlash was talking about her vocalizing that she has borderline personality disorder. I advocate a ton for borderline personality disorder and here's why I first learned about this form of mental illness when I was working at the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center for a little over three years because many clients that I worked with had borderline personality disorder and once I started learning about it I started to learn more about the stigma around borderline personality disorder.  There are a lot of myths around borderline personality disorder and everything like that. Like a lot of people just do not understand borderline personality disorder. One of the things that I talk about when it comes to BPD is the fact that most of the time from my experience and the research I've done in the books I've read is that the person's symptoms of BPD are a result of some kind of trauma or traumatic childhood right? So like I think it's awful that people stigmatize BPD so much. So I saw an opportunity to educate and increase awareness about borderline personality disorder by using trichopatitis as an example because she opened up about her borderline personality disorder which is kind of tricky because she goes back and forth between being diagnosed and not diagnosed but anyways I found that as a good way to educate people on what borderline personality disorder looks like and share what I've learned about the the illness and how to get treatment and help for it because again I'm not a licensed professional and all the videos I made discussing that I said go to a therapist dialectical behavioral therapy is the best option right? But again I never intended on hurting trichopatitis but eventually she saw my videos and she made a video, she made a few videos talking about me and all these other things and you know the the biggest one that got trashed was when she was in her car eating a turkey sandwich many of you saw like she said she like attacked me quite a bit right? Like she said oh a drug addict is a drug addict she talked about my physical appearance she talked about how you know I'm no longer with my son's mom and I live in an apartment you know and all these other things just saying all these things about me. Einaber who is another commentary channel he actually made a video about that and a few other channels made videos about that issue right?  I screwed up big time by DMing other people when that situation happened and saying like oh did you see trichopatitis made a video about me lol something along those lines and it was it was messed up about me because the perception of that situation I've explained it in an interview I did um with Paul Grossclose um like I screwed up because the perception of that was I was laughing at her pain and that wasn't my intention but that's how it was perceived and I've learned from it right? But that's created a snowball effect of what happened after that and a bunch of drama channels made videos about me and then there was all these other videos that came out and everything like that and this is why a lot of people like Chris just stay away just stay away from this topic you got heat and everything but anyways I ended up making an apology video I made a few apology videos but one was directed at trichopatitis and saying listen I'm sorry like I'm sorry and I ended up privating pretty much all the videos there's a few videos still up ones that I didn't think were you know those were ones that never got brought up as being controversial so out of like the dozen I made or so there was probably like I think there's like three or four that I didn't leave private that you still go check out um but anyways I apologize to her and everything like that so when I took my break from YouTube and kind of assessed my situation what I'm gonna do and everything I'm like okay don't talk about youtubers for a while by the way that's really interesting because a lot of people are like commenting like so you weren't gonna talk about youtubers anymore I have literally never said that and if you could find a clip of me saying I will never talk about youtubers again all right but anyways so I took a break from talking about youtubers when I came back to YouTube I talked about things about you know movie tv shows news and everything like that and I mentioned this in my Logan Paul video I just made the other day was like I can relate to him because I felt restricted on what I could talk about so I finally started to ease back into talking about youtubers and part of that was rebranding my channel as a commentary channel so one of the things is is that something when I was asking you guys for your advice and I want you guys to give me feedback and everything on this was the number one thing that came up was ask a person's permission before making a video on them now in my opinion that's ridiculous if you look in the commentary community if you look at the drama channels do you really think that every commentary channel or drama channel gets permission first from the person they're making a video about no they don't but I took that feedback into consideration so I have reached out to Trisha Paytas I've reached out to her a few times I've messaged her privately um on instagram saying yo hey sorry about this I've told her like you know hey saw your video about this or whatever you know um sorry that you're going through that but just the other day I actually shot her a dm saying listen because I was getting so many requests to talk about this situation I said listen I said hey Trisha um because you can see that like I see that she reads my dm so I was like yo people want me to talk about you or get on my channel all right I said so would you be okay with that would you be okay with me talking about you on my channel like without talking about anything to do with mental health because that's what I'm trying to do now do commentary without talking about the person's mental health because it seems like that's the line that gets crossed that got me into trouble so I DMed that to her and she didn't reply so I hope you guys understand the situation that I'm in where you guys want me to reach out to the youtuber like that that's what people consider ethical to reach out to the youtuber and ask their permission but what do you do when they don't respond and you have your fans your audience your followers asking you to talk about a situation like that's the position that I'm put into so because of this like when the whole nikikado avocado situation popped off like before anybody was making videos about it people were reaching out to me I don't mean to sound all hipster about that like I knew about that situation before anybody but anyways people were asking me so like full disclosure like I reached out to some other people in the community who do commentary and I'm like yo you know like I'm I'm like not off limits like Trisha pages is off limits for me like here's what's going on you might want to make a video about it right and some of them did and now more and more people are starting to do it like even like keemstar made a video about it right so like it got out there right but you know one of the things is is seeing nikikado avocado story like just my quick thoughts and opinions on it it reminded me a lot of my situation right where Trisha paid us in a live stream she started to create a narrative that I'm some obsessed stalker and she should feel in fear or danger and that's kind of a tactic that she uses and she used it on nikikado as well as like oh my god I'm in fear for my life and safety and it's like really so I've legitimately felt bad for Nick in that situation especially because he's gotten so much backlash over the years about it and Trisha paid us like I've been following the story and like people like I never have brought up she's completely neglecting the real issues that people are having with it but anyways anyways again I wanted to make this video to give you all an explanation about this so please give me feedback give me feedback like now what are your thoughts what are your thoughts for somebody in my position where you reach out you ask somebody permission they don't get back to you you have you know an audience like I'm currently at a little over 80,000 subscribers you have people requesting a video from you like what do you do where does your loyalty lie because a weird line that some people have drawn in the commentary community is like it's okay to do commentary until you hurt somebody else's feelings which I think is a weird line to draw because every commentary video is going to hurt somebody's feelings right when we have opinions on a situation it's going to hurt somebody's feelings so is it just not okay to make a video if it hurts somebody's feelings and this is something I'm going to be talking about on my podcast like not this specific subject but just like these ideas and like the way people think because like the other issue is you don't know if your video is going to hurt a person's feelings until you put that video out there you see what I mean so I think this is a bigger discussion to be had you know so I hope this video explains and gives you know like just some some thought processes I've been going through and everything like that like I've tried to change and grow as a channel I'm still working on that and everything any of you who caught my first episode of the podcast live stream last night you heard more of my thoughts about why I've rebranded this whole channel you know as like social commentary where I still talk about mental health every now and then but anyways let me know your thoughts and opinions on this like what do you think I should do like I will say this for accountability sake for all of you out there because the fear the fear that people in my support group have is like once I once I reopen that boss making a video about Trisha Paytas like I am right now I'm going to continue to make a bunch of videos about Trisha Paytas get myself into trouble and down and out and out so what I'm going to say to all of you is I'm not going to make another video about Trisha Paytas for a while regardless of what happens all right I'm going to take in all of the feedback that you guys leave down in the comments whether you like or dislike this video whatever it is videos if people make videos about this situation I'm going to take that in and that will give me a better idea on whether I should cover Trisha Paytas stories with my thoughts and opinions on it in the future so please do me a favor and provide me feedback down below because even still I know mental health is still a touchy subject but let me know your thoughts and opinions on this like you know nicocato avocado brought up that she uses her mental health as a weapon towards people I have thoughts and views about that like I've talked about Kanye West in the past Trisha Paytas is talking about going back to therapy and again no ill intent towards Trisha Paytas like I'm so glad that she's going back to therapy I saw her video about her breakup with Jason and like that's awful and I feel terrible um for her about that but like where's my responsibility lie to take that because just for example if I was making videos about Trisha Paytas I would have talked about her breakup with Jason I would have talked about her situation with the hospital and the substances and everything like that and I would have tried to turn that into a message for all of you to not be a shame to get help because a breakup can be a traumatizing experience all right and again I I never meant to hurt Trisha Paytas with my videos but I meant to use that as a gateway to help people out there who struggle with borderline personality disorder and try to advise you to get help or it was more to create awareness for everybody who has all these myths and misconceptions about borderline personality disorder all right but anyways I'm starting to ramble so that's all I got make sure you leave comments down below if you're new go ahead and subscribe hope this video cleared the air a little bit all right thanks so much for watching I'll see you next time


Can you smell that the rock is on autopilot? That's a hot mug guys. Hi guys. This is my review for red notice This is the latest Dwayne Johnson film on Netflix and this was a pretty big deal for Netflix It was the most expensive film that they had ever made with a budget of a hundred and sixty million one million at least according to IMDb more than the Irishman and it has Johnson playing an FBI profiler Yeah, sure chasing after Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot who are two highly acclaimed Thieves they are under the red notice banner which the highest degree of Criminalization in terms of international criminals ran Reynolds once again plays a different version of himself being a quippy guy while also being an expert thief and then Gal Gadot was also another thief who is Just there and good at her job too now to be honest This isn't exactly the most ingenious or creative idea that Dwayne's come up with in the last little while if anything It's kind of an amalgamation of all of the generic ideas that he's had and all the generic films that he's been in and just kind of Comes together in this big piece of generic miss while you have such massive star power in this film It doesn't help get the film out of Ankle high water in terms of entertainment to be honest the choices that are made in this film are Obviously kind of a relationship to budget and to production and to scheduling now It was very interesting to me that they kept on talking about how high the budget was for this movie and at least 20 million each went to Dwayne Ryan and Gal Gadot. So where the hell did the other hundred million go?  They are all sets They are all sets even the tropical locations are sets I swear they all have this fake as ass Look to them and maybe that might have been why this was so expensive because they kept on having to build sets And that's just the beginning of kind of the issues that you have because you've got a story that is very uneventful Very boring you don't care It is a very generic version of every single heist movie you've ever seen at least even with generic stories or generic Kind of is heist movies like national treasure that one's beloved because it has to do with American history Or in some cases at least when these movies are being made there is history to them I feel like they just do one segment of that There's one little bit in the film where they actually talk about the history of Cleopatra's eggs But not even actually from Cleopatra's time just the Nazis and it's not a fulfilling aspect the tension with Everyone in this movie is completely lacking Ryan is trying I swear his hardest to keep the movie out from slumberville, but he goes too hard He's too much of himself He is essentially Deadpool without the mask on and without being able to kill people which that's another thing as I was watching the movie I noticed that no one really dies and if you look in the IDB credits No one actually dies not a single person in this entire movie dies Which when you're doing an action movie of this kind of caliber How does no one die? Is there some good parts to this movie? You're kind of stretching to be honest at one point where this car chase is about to happen the rockets in this Porsche Which I don't know how he fits in it And it pumps you up to think that there's about to be this awesome car chase But in the end he can't even get out of the parking lot without getting into car accident That was the first joke that made me laugh Then the second joke was this bad guy who this British dude who has the most Theatrical kind of accent and demeanor about him. He's clearly a theater major at one point He's talking about this pistol and he says ah this was a way. Hang on. I gotta try and do the accent This pistol was my father's prized possession.  He's not even trying in this movie I think he is literally believing the presence of himself in this film Something that I kept on thinking of when I was watching this movie is that this is a very Bad version of true lies without the whole espionage bit in terms of a big muscular dude doing stuff that Really a big muscular dude couldn't do but it's funny because it's Arnold except that doesn't work here It's not funny because it's Dwayne. It's just not funny If anything the end of the movie does leave you with this kind of idea that maybe if this bit had been the whole movie Maybe that would have been actually really fun to see Instead you have to sit through nearly two hours before you're actually kind of Invested in anything that's happening with the characters or the movie itself overall red notice is a big flop in my opinion for netflix This is probably the worst movie that they've ever put out and i'm Including the really bad anime adaptation I'm including all of the bad romantic comedy movies because those ones did not cost nowhere near as much money As this one did this one cost more fucking money than the Al Pacino Robert De Niro Reunion that y'all have been really waiting for since heat this movie Then the end red notice is flat on its entry flat on its midway and flat on its exit It is just a very flat and boring Movie for people who like these kind of movies back in the 90s Maybe you might enjoy it because it kind of has some reminiscent values to that But very poorly done. So in the end i'm gonna give red notice a one out of seven And that's based on the promotion for this thing. That's based on the budget that this thing had It's based on everything that was pumping this bloody movie. Uh, this film is just as boring as its title is Yeah, I I don't know how this movie costs this much I really hope that the corridor crew guys do a breakdown of the vfx for this movie because it's shite Anyways guys, that's all for me. I hope you enjoyed the review If you did leave a like and if you're interested in more subscribe. Otherwise, see you guys next time


Hi friends, welcome back to my channel and welcome if you're new here. My name is Jen, I'm a certified weight loss and nutrition coach and I'm on the WW or the Weight Watchers Blue Plan. Happy Friday friends, it's Friday, it is a weekend, it is August, summer is coming to an end, which I'm grateful for, I am so ready for fall, hence my fun little fall attire here. But I'm here on this beautiful Friday to share with you how my week went, set some goals for next week, share my weigh in and go over this week's WW workshop topic. So if you're excited for another Friday weigh in video, give this one a big huge thumbs up and if you're new or you're not yet subscribed, I'd love to have you here. Hit the subscribe button and don't forget to click the bell right next to it so you never miss a single video. We do weigh-ins every Friday so you definitely don't wanna miss out. Check out the description box down below for nutrition coaching. I do offer personalized to you macros and calories as well as one-on-one coaching if you'd like to chat with me directly. Links, discounts to all my favorite things and my Facebook group. We'd love to have you come join us over there or also down in that description box. So we have lots to talk about, we have a weigh in to do, so let's jump right in. Happy Friday again. I hope that you guys had the best week ever. It's been a pretty good week for me. I've been busy with real estate, not excessively busy, which I appreciate, but busy nonetheless, which I also appreciate. I've been doing so good you guys with my tracking. I promised myself that I would get back to tracking August 1st, and I haven't missed a day. I have not missed a beat when it's come to tracking. I've tracked every meal. I've tracked everything I've eaten, good or bad, and I'm nailing my workouts every week as well. I'm consistently doing three days a week like I wanted to do. So I'm feeling really good about tracking. I'm feeling really good about exercise. I will say that this week I've been feeling a little bit more tired than usual and I've mentioned in a couple of my weigh-in videos that I do track my cycle in a cycle tracking app and I am moving relatively close to starting my cycle and leading up to that, I'm generally extra tired and I'm also extra hungry. And I haven't noticed the hungry part as much as the tired part. I have just been exhausted all week long. I will sleep all night and wake up in the morning and feel like I haven't slept at all. So I've struggled a little bit this week with feeling tired, but on the flip side I've also struggled this week with being hungry. I know, who am I? Where'd she go? Where's Jen? I don't know why, but I just have not been very hungry.  I'm very much a snacker and a grazer.  It's just very, very abnormal for me. And maybe this is happening because of being really busy but also because of moving into my cycle. Who knows? But I'm not gonna complain about it because it's allowed me to stay on track this entire week and I've mustered up enough energy to make it through my workouts and I've actually had really good workouts considering. So I would say overall this week went pretty well. But before I jump in to my way in for the week, I wanna talk with you guys about this week's WW Workshop topic and that is building confidence in the kitchen. When we're on a weight loss journey or a healthy lifestyle journey, part of that includes cooking a lot of meals at home. We know that when we eat out, we can't control the ingredients. Generally, restaurant food, whether it's takeout, fast food or sit down restaurant is generally higher in calories and points, so higher in things like saturated fat and trans fat because again, we don't know exactly how that food is prepared and what methods are used to cook that food. So it's essential that we're able to prepare most of our meals at home. So that means it's also essential that we're pretty confident in the kitchen. So I wanna share some tips from WW with you on how to gain confidence in the kitchen if you're not quite there yet. When we're preparing food at home, there's three ways that we generally cook our food. Number one, especially this time of year in summer, we can grill our food on an outdoor grill. We want to steam our meals using an instant pot, the microwave or the stove top. And third and probably becoming one of the most popular is using a product like an air fryer. There are certain tools required for each of these methods of cooking. So first let's talk about if we wanna grill our meals on an outdoor grill. Well, obviously we're going to have to have an outdoor grill, whether that be gas or charcoal. Also going to need to have grilling tools, the little spatula, the tongs and maybe a pan to grill on your outdoor grill. And when it comes to steaming our food, we're going to need some tools for that as well, such as a pot, a stove, a steamer basket and a microwave. And lastly, if we wanna cook in an air fryer, we obviously need an air fryer. Now you're probably asking yourself, great, I have all the tools, I have the methods of cooking, but what foods are prepared the best in which of these methods of cooking? So I wanna share with you some ideas of some foods that can be cooked in each of these styles of cooking methods. On the outdoor grill, really any meat tastes better grilled outside. I don't know about you, but that's how I feel down in the comments if you agree. If you think that chicken, steak, pork chops, fish just taste better on an outdoor grill. You can also grill things like vegetables and fruit. Some of my favorite fruits to throw on the grill are pineapple and peaches, absolutely delicious. Now when it comes to steaming, one of the main foods that benefits from steaming are things like vegetables, broccoli, green beans and cauliflower to name a few. Also things like shellfish, so clams, mussels, those types of things taste best when steamed or boiled. Lastly, what about cooking in your air fryer? Now in my humble opinion, an air fryer is the most well-rounded kitchen tool to have. In fact, I have several air fryer. I actually have three of them. I will go ahead and link my two favorites. I have an oven-style air fryer and then I have a large and small basket-style air fryer. So I'll link them all down below for you if you're in the market. But you can really cook just about anything in an air fryer. Chicken, potatoes, vegetables, seafood, meat, desserts, you name it, you can pretty much pop it in your air fryer. So now that you know the cooking methods, you know what tools you need, now I wanna share some tips on how to make your food taste the best with these different methods. So let's first start with grilling your food on an outside grill. One tip is using a piece of tinfoil so that your food doesn't fall through the grates. Nothing is worse than putting vegetables or meat on your grill and having it all fall into the bottom of the gas grill or into the charcoal. When it comes to steaming, save yourself a lot of time and buy steam in the bag vegetables. It's much easier than putting the vegetables in a microwave-safe bowl, adding water and microwaving them. You literally just toss the bag in the microwave and poof, you have steamed vegetables. And my number one tip when you're using an air fryer is keep an eye on your food. Stop it midway through cooking and shake up the basket and really get that food tousled and tossed around in the basket so that it has the opportunity to cook and crisp up on all sides. Each of these cooking methods is going to take a little bit of practice, but like I said, it's essential to be able to prepare your meals at home for any type of health or weight loss journey. So find one of these methods, make sure you have the tools on hand, take the tips that I shared and see if you can become a master of that particular cooking method and then you can venture into some of the others out there to create just a smorgasbord of delicious meals at home. So now let's jump into this week's weigh-in. If you watched last week's weigh-in video, you know that I lost weight the first week in August and I'm happy to report that I am also down the second week of August. When I stepped on the scale today, I am down 0.6. As you guys know, I love points, point this, point that, all adds up to a pound. Slow and steady weight loss is the most successful weight loss so I'm thrilled, I couldn't be happier. So my goal for the rest of August and especially moving into this next week is to continue to track every day that's been very, very helpful for me and also to make sure that I'm moving my body every day as well. I find myself sitting a lot because I'm editing videos, filming videos. I have to mindfully get up and move around throughout the day with diesel recovering from surgery. That's been good because I've had to take him outside to go to the bathroom and diesel's MO is to go to the bathroom at the back gate of our yard and our backyard is almost two-acre. So it's quite the little jaunt out to the back gate but it gets in those extra steps and gets me up and moving. So my goals for this next week are more of the same, moving my body, tracking my food and of course I'd like to see the scale go down even a little point this or that this next week. So now I wanna hear from you guys down in the comments. First let me know, are you confident in the kitchen or are you somebody that needs to build your confidence when it comes to preparing your meals at home? Also don't forget to check out the air fryers that I love that I've linked down below for you. Also let me know how your week was, did you gain, did you lose, was it a good week? Did you struggle this week? I just love hearing from you guys down in the comment section. And of course if you're new or you haven't yet subscribed to my channel we do this weigh-in thing every Friday so we'd love to have you. Click the subscribe button and click the bell right next to it so you never miss a single video. Again, don't forget to check out the description box for the air fryers, nutrition coaching, links and discounts to my favorite things. And of course my Facebook group, come on over, join us there as well. Give this video a big thumbs up if you enjoyed it and I will see all of you guys in tomorrow's grocery haul. Have a wonderful Friday and I'll see you next time. Bye.