peculiarities of English, how it affects our understanding when learning. English as a spoken language has become the international standard for people as a first or second language, whether it be for business, science, or just recreationally. This, of course, means that a lot of people are learning the language as a second language. For anyone who knows English as a native language, you know that it has many difficult learning curves along the way to the true understanding that make for many difficulties in how new learners communicate. This essay will touch on a few examples that people undoubtedly run into when learning English, and why it's so difficult to master. Reasons to confusion. Spoken English. When very early learners start to learn English, often they undoubtedly notice some confusing trends. A lot of words share pronunciation but have a different meaning. For example, stationary and stationary have identical pronunciations and almost the same spelling, but have totally different meanings. The former describes being motionless, while the latter generally refers to writing utensils. Even in my previous sentence, you could find some confusion if you were not familiar with English. The term I used latter is written similarly to later, but are pronounced differently and have completely different meanings. Later is generally used to describe a time in the future, while latter is denoting the second or second mentioned of two people or things. For a new learner, or even a seasoned English speaker, this can be very confusing and oftentimes leads to poor communication and understanding. Written English. In thinking of English in the written sense, it's almost more peculiar than how it's spoken. Most languages are pronunciation driven, meaning that when you see the word, you'll know how to say said a word. With English however, you'll find that it oftentimes doesn't work that way. An example being brick and peak share the same structure, but the sound you make is completely different. This is a fairly tame example, but looking more deeply you notice a trend of words that use letters that don't make sense. Phantom is spelled in a way that a person who is new to English may assume that the proper sound may be phantom or puhantom. Rather the proper pronunciation is phantom, making the same sound that the letter F would make. One may wonder why it doesn't use F instead, but this can lead to many confusing situations as there are a lot of words and phrases that share this phenomenon, that is knee, knife, doubt, etc. Being able to even notice these things as well as recognize the proper meanings take a great deal of skill and understanding for the English language. Along this same thread of written English and its complexities, one cannot forego mentioning punctuation. As previously mentioned, understanding written English is already a daunting task because of how things are spelled and pronounced. When you look through that framework and throw in punctuation, things get even more peculiar. An example that I observed recently is a simple phrase let's go eat, sally. This makes perfect sense and is concise in meaning. Take away the comma, and the meaning changes completely, let's go eat sally. The change is immediately noticeable to people who speak and read English natively, not for someone who doesn't know how to properly formulate sentences or what to look for it can be extremely peculiar and confusing for them. This example is just a small one, but there are many debates over simple phrases in literature written before modern punctuation and how it should be translated because the meaning can be totally altered. You see this often in religious literature and classical literature and it shows how English is such a difficult language. Undoubtedly because English is so widely used in so many different cultural circles, it's going to have its own deviations and slang terminology that make it very hard to keep up with proper English on its own merit has its quirks and interesting peculiarities. When looking at modern contemporary English however, you have another matter all on its own. For those learning English for business settings this may not be such a prevalent issue, but for those who are learning English as a second language for recreational purposes, whether it be for school or to connect with people in a different country, etc it is very confusing. The advent of the internet makes for cultural and social circles that one would not normally have had previous to this period. What happens now is that there are many deviations of English that are culturally appropriate and have their own terminology and slang terms. For example, many youths and adults alike use text-based communication, which has led to many words, sentences that are abbreviated. LOL, laugh out loud, OMG, OMG, IKR, I know right, these are just a few examples and a list goes on quite extensively. Not being familiar with these things can inhibit communication even if it isn't proper English. There is terminology that uses an OMA word to describe different meanings as well. For example, salty is used in a passive-aggressive way to describe someone who is upset. That is Rebecca just failed her test, she's salty now. Again, this is just one example but the list could certainly go for extensively. As to why or how these words become associated with these meanings is up for debate. This is just another reason that makes English as interesting as it is, as well as peculiar. Do you want to teach English abroad? These were just a few examples out of surely millions. They are a testament as to how weird English can be, not only for people who are familiar with English but especially for those who are new to the language. It often doesn't make sense as to why English evolved in this way, but learning all the intricacies takes years of learning to master. This essay doesn't do justice to that fact, but it points at a few common things that people will almost certainly run into on their learning journey. Speak with an ITTT advisor today to put together your personal plan for teaching English abroad. Send us an email or call us toll free at 1-800-490-0531 to speak with an ITTT advisor today.


I must go on and introduce Rhino, who is an old friend of mine, I first met him I think in the 1980s or thereabouts, which must be about 40 years ago now, and we're all much older, and he has a distinction that he became a director of a national museum and the Irish had the good sense to appoint someone who knew about objects to be a director of a national museum, which is not as what happens elsewhere. But anyway, welcome Rhino and give us your take on Irish personal seals. Thank you, John. I think that's green up now. You're with me? Oops, share. Okay, yeah. Is this, can you see this? Hello? Yep, yep, yes, you're very clear. You've gone on to slide two. Okay, so I've just started the beginning. Okay, start the video now. Yeah, right. Okay, thank you very much, John, for that introduction, and it's good to see you after all these years. And I'd like to thank you for the kind invitation to speak at this conference, which I'm delighted to get back into the subject, which is a subject that I did some research on many, many months ago. What I'm talking about today is basically just a preliminary work towards what I hope will be a major project on the seals of medieval Ireland. Now, the study of Irish seals is one which has been neglected for over a century, and unconscious of this material will be, will not be, will be new to most people, including many Irish people. Therefore, what I offer here is a general overview of the subject as it currently stands. It's based largely on published sources and the few images of seal matrices which have been photographed, because this subject, as you'll see, is fairly poorly researched. The conclusions arrived at therefore must be regarded as preliminary, and from the first and form the first step in what I hope will be more comprehensive understanding of seals and seal usage in medieval Ireland. As elsewhere, the subject of seal geography was popular in Ireland in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but interest in the subject has waned thereafter. A large proportion of the surviving Irish seal matrices were collected at this time in the, during the 19th, early 20th centuries, most of which are now preserved in the collections of the National Museum of Ireland. The study of Irish seals reaches peak in the early 20th century, primarily to the work of E.C.R. Armstrong, keeper of Irish antiquities at the National Museum of Ireland. His monograph on Irish seal matrices and seals published in 1913 is still the only reference on the subject, covering seals from medieval through to the modern period. These came from cabinets of a small number of 19th century private collectors who seemed to have cornered the market in seals matrices. In his monograph, Armstrong listed 62 medieval seal matrices, of which three quarters were either ecclesiastical, heraldic or equestrian, and only a quarter could be classified as personal, so that's the top row there. This reflects an inherent bias in the interest of 19th century collectors, but the study of seals was largely confined to those by identifiable churchmen and institutions and the seals of lay sigilance with recognizable Irish names. They also reflect an interest in heraldry and in particular the question of when heraldry was adopted by the Irish. Since Armstrong's time, as further seal matrices have come to light, both as new finds and through literature search, it's been possible to get at least some indication of the range of medieval seal matrices which were used in medieval Ireland since Armstrong wrote and the profile of seals has changed dramatically. As you can see in the period since 1913, vast majority of seals, almost all, were personal seals and there is a further group of metal-detected seals which have yet to be examined, mostly of lead alloy. Consequently, today a total of around 140 matrices, medieval seal matrices are known from Ireland, to which may be added some 60 papal bullies recorded as having been found in Ireland, but I will be dealing with them here. The table here then shows that the total number of medieval seals since Armstrong's day has doubled. The number of personal seals has increased by a factor of five, accounting for almost 60% of the total and of course this raises the question of whether these seals were being found in the 19th century but not being collected or not being recognized. They certainly didn't enter public elections and no new equestrian or heraldic matrices have come to light since Armstrong's time and finally there's been a substantial increase in lead alloy seals since 1913, many of these amongst this metal-detected group which have yet to be examined. The holdings of the Dasher Museum of Ireland, I should say, also include several hundred wax seal impressions and cast collected by Armstrong which have yet to be catalogued. Only five seal matrices have been found from archaeological excavations, I think we heard that last week as well, and all our personal seals. Going through the only two Irish medieval matrices of bone, one of which is shown on the left, that of Adam the Chaplain, found in the course of excavations in Dublin Castle in dump ditch deposits and one on the right is from excavations at Grand Parade Cork, found again in a deep redeposit context. Around the Central Fleur de Lis, the Cork example has the name of the Sigeant Adam Gold and the Gold or Gold family were to become one of the principal merchant families in the city of Cork through the medieval and into the early modern period. So far I've been discussing matrices but coming to seals themselves, the situation is far more difficult. It is very difficult to get a sense of the numbers of extant medieval Irish seals that have been preserved in public archives and no comparable study to those such as by Lang or Birch have been undertaken for Ireland. A large proportion of Irish seal medieval records were lost when the record store in the public record office in Dublin was destroyed by fire in June 1922 during the course of the Irish Civil War. This was only the latest in a pattern of loss through fire damage and neglect to befall Irish medieval records. While a large number of these records were published both before and after 1922, the principal concern was to record their contents and the presence of seals was only noted in passing, if at all. It is also clear that seals had become detached or were deliberately removed from documents and that others survive in poor condition. The largest single collection of medieval records now extant in Ireland was that kept by the Butler Earls of Ormond collectively known as the Ormond Deeds now preserved in the National Library of Ireland. Though calendars, the seals have never been studied and only a few have been photographed. An estimated 1,300 seals survive, though many are damaged and fragmentary. The only substantial archive of ecclesiastical medieval records are those of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity Dublin known collectively as the Christ Church Deeds. These however were destroyed in the fire of 1922, but luckily the principal deeds were copied in the 18th century and include drawings of some 50 seals which remain to be studied in detail. And you see at the bottom right there one personal seal of Richard, one Richard of Castle Martin attached to the age of 1220. Few parochial records survive, one set associated with the parish of St John in Dublin are now preserved in Trinity College Library. A selection of seals was drawn for publication by Armstrong when he wrote a note on the seals to accompany the calendar of the deeds which was published. I'll refer to these later in my talk. Smaller numbers of seals survive in other public archives including an estimated 300 Irish seals in the National Archives in Kew. The number of extant Irish seals of pre-1600 date is just thus a present unknown. The best estimate and it is only that is that it would be calculated in the low to mid thousands, possibly around three to four thousand. A number comparable to those catalogued in the seals of medieval Wales project. There are no certain instances of seals in Ireland before the 12th century. The earliest seal charters in the European tradition in Ireland were drawn up in favour of the Sturgeon Houses, the majority of which were founded from other houses in England. The use of seals certainly predates the Anglo-Norman conquest of Ireland in 1169 though the use of seals did not become widespread until the arrival of Anglo-Norman settlers and the retainers, many of whom became major landowners in much of the south and east of the country. Others would have settled in the major towns such as Dublin, Cork, Ekenny and Vada attracted by the rights and privileges grant to free purchases. It is no surprise therefore to learn that Ireland generally follows the development of seals in terms of form design and motifs found in contemporary England, Scotland and Wales. The scale of this settlement in the wake of the Anglo-Norman conquest is best reflected in the Dublin Guild merchant rolls shown on the screen here. A document listing those admitted as free men to the city in the 13th century. This map shows the geographical origin as recorded in the by names of those entered in the rolls and as you can see the preponderance of names of individuals from the south and west of Britain and from the Welsh marches in particular is clearly evident. One of these individuals was no doubt the owner of this council-led seal with the motif of a centaur with bow and arrow found during the course of excavations at High Street Dublin just close by the cathedral in the centre of medieval town. The citulence name Adam Birston suggests that he was originally from Boreston in structure and is surely his nephew Thomas who is recorded in the Dublin Guild merchant rolls. The earliest accent equestrian seals in Ireland are those of the Anglo-Norman knights who participated in the Anglo-Norman conquest such as this double-sided seal of Richard Fitzgillbert Clare on a strongbow Earl of Pembroke who is famously married to Eva, daughter of Dermot McMurray King of Leinster who is responsible for bringing the Anglo-Normans to Ireland in the first place. Along with the figure of the mounted baron on the right it carries a figure of the standing knight holding a shield for the arms of the Clare family. This would have been the seal that would have been used by Clare in both Britain and in Ireland. Other seals belonging to lesser knights like these attached to the characters of Duisk Abbey Kilkenny are smaller and are single-sided. In the cases out on the left though the legend is unclear it is interesting that the by-name of the citulence Adam Pettit is rendered in the accompanying deed using the Irish form Adam beg, beg the Irish term for small or young. This is a by-name commonly used by Irish kings and lords to donate to younger sons and represents an early example of cultural affiliation, a cultural accommodation found on seals. The use of the equestrian device was soon adapted by Irish provincial kings and local chieftains. One of the earliest is the silver matrix used by Filebo Conner king of the western province of Connacht on the left. The silver matrix was found in the early 17th century but is now only known from a drawing made by the Irish antiquian historian Sir James Ware. The seal would appear to be finally engraved and interestingly the king's forename Phelamed modern Phelan has been accurately rendered by the engraver along with his title as king of Connacht. Phelan had allied himself to powerful Anglo-Norman magnet in an attempt to secure his contested kingdom under threat from both Irish and Anglo-Norman rivals. His father had tried to secure his land by charter from the English king in an attempt to secure feudal succession for his heirs according to Ware an impression of this very seal attached to a letter from Phelan to King Henry III survived in the record in London although it can no longer be traced. Another royal equestrian seal matrix this time of copper alloy is that shown on the right of Brian O'Neill king of Tyrone who's given the title Regas the Kedal-Ogan which is the Irish rendering of the area under which he helps way. The equestrian device in a simplified and reduced form remained popular in Ireland especially among lesser kings and chieftains throughout the 13th and 14th centuries. Modest in size measuring five centimeters in diameter or less their use of silver indicates the importance of their owners though size does not necessarily equate with status. A group of these small silver matrices carry a variety of devices those of Donalogue MacCarty king of Desmond and Macon McNamara the two on the left who's styled as Duchess or Lord of Hicep of the Icassian in Canticlare his name rendered in a mixture of Latin Irish and English for a equestrian. The seals of Brian O'Brien and Donna O'Brien on the right carry images of a griffin and a galley respectively. It is unlikely that these latter are to be considered as heraldic devices but what is significant is the fact that in the 14th century there was a demand for seal matrices from local kings which were required to authenticate documents. As there was no tradition of the use of documents requiring seals between Irish kings or lords these seals were must have been used in land transactions with the church and with the administration. Returning to the range of personal seals now I illustrate here a number of the more interesting examples. This silver seal of Vivian de Aula found in County Meath contains a central device which is an obvious play on the name of the owner in this case a single roof building or hall or Aula. This is a rare survival of a silver matrix of an owner of Anglo-Norman origin and it may well have been brought to Ireland from England or Wales. The flower motif, the lead motif appears on a number of seals of individuals bearing both English and Irish names. In the case of the seal on the right the engraver rendered the first name of the sealant close to its Irish form Dominol for what would now be Donald or Donald rather than the Latinized Dom Naldos. By the surname Kimelach the modern cavena is expressed more phonetically so this this interesting play and use of the of language is found itself throughout as a motif throughout the period. A more elaborate design of fully rigged galley found on this impression of a lead alloy seal, metrics of Walter Champion, found at the poor town of Draude in the last century. The original is now lost but the reverse is described as bearing scroll rock decoration similar to that found on the Greek cathedral chapter sealed now in the National Museums of Scotland and we saw examples of such foliar decoration last week used on lead seals found in Britain. There's a number shown last week from the EPS database. The silver matrix of William's son of William of London found in Ireland and now in the British Museum is a more ambitious affair bearing the motif of a hawk seizing a bird. The question here again is whether William's seal was made in Ireland or was brought by him to Ireland. The fact that he's called William to London doesn't necessarily mean that he was actually physically from London he could have actually been based in Ireland. Another example interesting example in the British Museum is this anonymous matrix showing a spurred cock bearing the inscription immutable sign and then changing sign. It was discovered at Flood Street Kilkenny in 1859 and this was the site of a market in the Middle Ages in the town of Kilkenny and may represent casual loss on the part of its owner or perhaps even of its seller. Other small private seals from Ireland include seals with the more common legends such as Pri Vesu and Elastius Vipri. A couple of pages carrying the motif of paired peacocks fronting a tree across are known also. This example only known from a publication early in the last century carries the name of the owner Alexander whose by name is unclear and it could be the Irish surname or it could be the Rutland or Rutland or it could be Rutland it's unclear and without actually examining the origin it's very difficult to be certain. The second seal with a paired peacocks is anonymous bearing the legend Deo Servire Regnare est to serve God is to reign which ultimately is a quotation from the 11th century Benedictine Moe Peter Damien and it'd be interesting to know whether anybody has discovered a seal with a similar legend. Women's seals are far less common and no matrix of silver or copper isle has so far been found. Those that do survive can be pointed oval or circular in form. These I'm talking about both seals and seal matrices. However some seals of elite women such as the seal of Joan, wife of Hugh Le Bigot in the Ormond Deeds shows a standing figure in a long gown holding a lily in one hand by that of Amos wife of Walter Cusack also in the Ormond Deeds depicts a standing female with long dress and pillbox hat and veil. However these have not been photographed so I I'm only going by the description given in the calendar records. It is likely that these were of cast copper alloy if not of silver. Seal matrices of women of lesser status are of lead alloy and include this flirtaly as the central device on the seal of Maud and a metal detected fine from a lake dwelling in the Irish Midlands. While another belonging to Alex Fitzphilip also of lead and appointed oval bears a crescent moon and a star. Other women employed anonymous seals such as that used by Catherine Hannan on the right who sealed the deed in Galway in 1394 with advice bearing a chained how or is it after last week is it a lion. I leave that with you. Among the seals recorded but unfortunately not illustrated by Armstrong is that used by Johanna de Mosque Poulin in 1302 which bore the figure of a lion and the inscription in French just be ready to best I am the king of beasts. I'm also derived from the description of the lion in medieval best truth. There are some gem set seals which have an association with Ireland but in the absence of names it is unclear whether all of these were actually found in Ireland or represent collectors items. One such as this silver seal of unknown provenance in the National Museum of Ireland inscribed Eche Agnosti with the Cornelian gem engraved with the lamb and flag. Another is which will be very familiar to you is this example in the British Museum set with an antique sword bearing the head of Hercules. It is said to have been found in Ireland and is inscribed Kiemenpoch seal Lemus Eukaryospea fairs best it would be interesting to actually try and track down if more is known about this seal to establish whether indeed it was actually found in Ireland. Whatever about these there is no doubt however in the case of the silver seal matrix made for one Brian O'Harney which contains an inset gem with the head of the Helmut warrior or that of John styled Archdeacon of Cachell County Tipperary with the setting of a seahorse. However further study is required on these gem set rings to identify both the gemstones and also whether they are of antique or medieval manufacture. My final selection of seals are those attached to a set of deeds preserved in the Library of Trinity College Dublin dating from the 13th to the 15th centuries which I mentioned earlier. I have not yet been able to examine these but some were illustrated by Armstrong and given idea of the wide range of motifs employed by trade people and property owners these are from the deeds of the parish of Saint John in Dublin located in the town centre city centre under the shadow of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. These included seals with simple wheeled devices such as that of Thomas Leblon de Voxmans town or the more elaborate stag's head used by John the Butler. Richard Saint Olaf on the other hand chose a fish as a motif for his personal seal. And the reason for this may be the fact that Richard is recorded in the deeds as owning property in Fishamble Street in the parish and advice may indicate his occupation as a fishmonger. Religious imagery in the case of the parishes and John seals was preferred by ecclesiastics such as the seal used by Brother Adam Payne, a sub prior of Holy Trinity with an Agnes day within branches. By that of William Brown chapter carriage and effigy of Saint Catherine very, this is now Armstrong's drawing of the seal crowned with the wheel and pram branches and interestingly an inscription in English naming the saint Saint Catherine. However, there are other examples of seals with religious devices which were used by laypeople those not exclusive to enthusiastic. It is important in the case of seal matrices to recourse their history and provenance that I mentioned this earlier. Like medieval jewelry, the sheer mobility of seals, the fact they were highly sought after by collectors and that many carry universal designs, legends and names which could be found anywhere in Ireland or in Britain means that caution must be exercised in attributing an Irish provenance to those in our collections which have no known history. Seals of Irish ecclesiastics and nobles have also been found in England, but the seal matrix of Thomas Barry Bishop of Ulcerie 15th century Bishop of Ulcerie founded the River Thames at Southern Bridge down the Museum of London or that of Brian O'Neill King of Kineleon shown earlier found in the minstery yard in Beverly in Yorkshire. How these arrived in England we can only speculate they could be relatively modern introductions. On the other hand Barry may have visited London either in his capacity as bishop or as treasurer of Ireland and the loss may have occurred on one such occasion. Brian O'Neill if he did this matrix is his because there are several kings of Rome bearing this name and was killed by the English at the Battle of Down in 1260 and has been suggested that a seal may have been taken as a trophy or it may even have been lost at an earlier date when Brian is said to have joined Henry III's Fourth Indian Expedition against the Scots. In conclusion therefore this survey of personal seals demonstrates that the Irish series in general reflect those found elsewhere in England Scotland and Wales in terms of material shape size form of legend and motifs employed. Usage was confined largely to the anglicized parts of the country where seal usage was practiced. Apart from their use in the ecclesiastical context seals were used sparingly amongst the Irish and appear only to have been employed in dealings with the ancient administration whether in Dublin, London or with Anglo-Norman magnets and their successors. Much work remains to be done in particular in identifying the individuals mentioned on seals and most particularly in terms of the study of the seal oppressions attached to documents which have received no attention whatsoever. The corpus of seals remains largely untouched but there is now potential to build on the digital initiatives such as those of DigiSig and the Seals in medieval Wales project to develop a database for Irish medieval seals. It is timely that this renewed interest in Irish scig geography comes along at a time when work is currently underway on the completion of a project being developed by Trinity College Dublin in partnership with the National Archives in Dublin, Belfast and London entitled Beyond 2022. This aims to create an open access to digital reconstruction of the record treasury in Dublin destroyed in the 1922 fire and include a virtual reconstruction of the documents as far as it can. It is also fitting that this revised Irish seal studies comes at the centenary of the death of the father of Irish scig geography Edmund Tarnth Richard Armstrong in 1923. Thank you very much.


You need a financial advisor with the freedom to focus on your specific needs. Whatever your goals, Reed Potter can create a game plan tailored to you. Call Reed at 432-0777 at Pikeville, Kentucky to learn more. After 22,000 people signed a petition to rename Painsville Lake State Park in honor of the late Loretta Lynn, her cousin, state senator Robin Webb, thought a resolution. So my resolution allows stakeholder input, perhaps, to work with parks to try to find an appropriate acknowledgement for tourism and to honor her legacy and to tie in with the other attractions that are there. So it's not probably so much renaming the park as just trying to find a niche or something, if you will, that pleases everyone to honor her and to start tourism. But as far as tourism, it speaks for itself. The state park would also see an increase in tourism as travelers would enjoy and explore Loretta Lynn's home place where she wrote, sang, and shared memories from her career. Yeah, the family and fans that I've spoken with will support anything that really brings tourism and honors her legacy and becomes a spot for them to gather, to have a festival, to do something to benefit the local economy and the park and preserve the Loretta Lynn heritage. Loretta Lynn! Loretta Lynn! While Loretta Lynn's legacy will live on through her music, this resolution will ensure her impact is remembered for generations to come. I just want everybody to know that the family really wants to do something for the region and the area and they will defer to the will of what we can come up with to build that consensus. And that's what I hope that this interview helps to do and anything in the future. Reporting from Mount Top News, I'm Ethan Miller.


What's going on guys got Kyle here late in sports cards, and we are doing a personal this one's gonna be for Robert out It's one box of tops chrome platinum anniversary lights Good luck. Good luck Robert. Let's see what we got Some lights some good box. I would one good box yesterday had some real nice color Get some color in those four black-and-white mini diamonds Hey chippy, how are we doing sir? How are we doing sir? Can't complain over here, man Had a fun night have a fun night got to watch some football while we were ripping to can't complain about that. Yeah, they're real The the world's champion chiefs got beat tonight man. That was kind of crazy Cal Raleigh We've got a Alfonso we've us and black-and-white mini diamond Eddie Matthews Hear that album you see here Donny saying real football real football. Oh, man. Oh, man Julio Cabrine haze we got a black-and-white mini diamond or no, that's just a mini diamond to 150 Yos money grand all Like the team colors are black and white. That's not black and white though. It's a McCovey real football Yeah, they're actually watching. Uh, we actually watched the soccer a second ago Had some international game on Glenn Otto rookie refractor. I'm guessing it was a replay this time of night Greg Deepin football the sport where it's 98% using your hands. That's true George Springer the the one where you barely use your foot. Yeah, that's true I mean you I guess you guys got a point you guys got a point chippy There's a black-and-white mini diamond Enos slaughter for the Cardinals Kyle Lewis is that cranky? I mean handball is already taken That's true Couldn't be handball throw ball stallings. We've got another speckle. This one is Teosca Hernandez to 150 the blue jays Nick Fortes I Think I asked you this Jimmy, but are you going to the either the London games this year? I think there's a few right? I think the Jags are playing over there. The Falcons are playing over there Oh, I like that. We should start home nice Julio refractor. What was that? I agree. I'll we just start calling grid iron Great iron. Yeah I like that. I like the rock movie was a grid iron gang Yeah, it's Hans Krauss and Shane Bob's rookie The grid Gotta go to the grid iron game later Go get drunk in the parking lot. There's a black-and-white mini diamonds Salvador Peretz And Tony Larusa a John Heasley that one's gonna be the aqua ray wave Rookie for the Royals to 299 Dawson and a Matsui of early this morning. Aren't you Alvin? I'm about to say it's only like what 630 Heralta refractor CJ Abrams rookie and Muzanino In London's five hours. That sister lives there. Yeah, no, okay. I was singing all I Was a little there. I think that's like full 12. Yes Mac. There's a Larusa X factor. Yes Mac is Australian Tony Larusa X factor. I don't think that's a yes. Yes. Oh, it's sold out on the those games Hey, I'm I imagine it's probably pretty expensive. I think I do remember asking you now and you were saying that um The tickets got scooped up pretty quick for sure Actually, I don't feel like or take on the black-and-white mini diamond. I feel like UK is a big basketball Yeah, I feel like the NFL I mean that's more of a question for Alvin obviously it was directed then but David right there yellow to 250 about the same Mets. It's about the same really that is interesting figured football be a little bigger, but You can see it I can see it They'll Murphy you got refractor rookie Steven writings Gaylord Perry and Hermon Marquez Well, righty there mr. Robert that'll do it for your one box of top scrum platinum lights. Thank you, sir. Nice. It'll never fracture Jayrod I haven't seen many of those tough hits very nice one there


Vietnam has been locked down over two months of being stuck inside Citywide closure the city was dead There was very few motorbikes or traffic outside and on a typical night like this in Ho Chi Minh Especially on a Saturday the streets are buzzing. It was only 10 p.m. People are still driving around even getting coffee Nobody really wanted to go outside because of all the spread Let's step back a bit. So I arrived in Vietnam four months ago. I moved from Thailand Got the flight to Singapore and from Singapore Headed into quarantine Stuck out 14 days in quarantine Came out and it was heaven. Everything was open people were still living their normal day lives and it was great I spoke to a friend and I said in Thailand. It was so chill I could like work on my videos, but here I'm like running around a lot of people to see a lot of drinks a lot of food It's crazy, but it's fucking crazy I was doing lots of things design workshops meeting up with friends going drinking exploring eating Having a whale of a time, but then boom directive 15 only the necessities were open You're mostly stuck at home ordering takeout. So really it's about entertaining yourself at home What can you do when you're indoors? Maybe you might upgrade the setup if you haven't seen the video. Here's my setup It's pretty minimal pens notepad laptop speaker microphone Wireless charger nothing out of the ordinary and I'm still working from a laptop So I just ordered something which is gonna make the design and editing workflow much better I'm waiting for the delivery and the guy said it's gonna be 45 minutes. Whoo, but it's actually raining outside Hopefully if they deliver it on a bike, which they probably will it won't get so I'm just so excited for it Oh, come on.  It's my birthday Tomorrow this is basically an early birthday present to myself I know I'm unemployed but sometimes you just got to treat yourself plus I'm gonna write it off as a work expense, but I don't have a job How does that work? Where's this motherfucker? Hello, okay. He's here. Yes. Are you downstairs? Let's go. Okay, let's run and get it here. It is Let's unbox this bad boy. Shall we?  Oh my who has a CD drive these days for a manual? So turns out that this gap is pretty wide which means that I need to move These up to here so we can have a smaller table gap. I didn't think I had any tools However, I have a skate tool that comes with a screwy head All right skate tools for life We've been through this before. What do you do when you're at home? Maybe you might revisit the podcast that you were doing This is my podcast setup.  I'm gonna get some drinks. I need a bit of lubrication for this one Because some mad shit went down and then boom Directive 16 the highest alert Ho Chi Minh has been because of the spread of cases closures of Almost everything everybody suggested to work from home, but I was lucky had a distraction It's 7 30 and I've had three hours sleep ahead of me is a two-day workshop The official name is advisory learning series CIW level 300. So what does that mean? It's Amazon's effort to train facilitators to help them with their partner businesses We're gonna be trained in their customer innovation techniques I have the agenda, but I still don't really know what to expect in terms of how they're gonna run it Some things are familiar. Some things are not. Oh, I think I need some coffee Before any long day in front of the computer, especially in a workshop setting you want to get ready So you need to prepare your table and there's a few things that I like to prepare Of course, we have our coffee some form of other drink here I've opted for some tea and some water I have my note pad because you're gonna be taking a lots of notes It's better to actually do physical notes rather than digital you need your phone there just in case also to Have some sweets on the table just for that sugar boost and you need your microphone for that crispy crispy audio some more snacks I have here Oreos and some other bickies all designers love poster notes and I am The same you got to have your headphones and of course the main event Which is the two screens you definitely need a webcam. That's the man This is the digital whiteboard if you're familiar with workshops. This is a must-have for remote workshops We're using mural here. So let's get started with the day Today we spoke about customer validation overall went well started at eight and finished about half three We have Seven teams that we broke out. Of course the slide design Could be better, but you know and I can see me actually not only being one of the facilitators for Amazon when they Scale this to bigger teams of customers that they have but also using this in Some sort of context for my own side projects. So day one completed. Let's get ready for day two. All right 730 and today we're starting day two. So lots to get through today covering the Experiment part of the workshop.  No, yes My first one is you input problems into this magical machine and then some AI thing Does this computation and it basically tells you what the solution is, right? So input problems output solution all done Finish the two-day workshop. Just need to give the feedback on the survey overall I would recommend it to anybody looking to get into the field of Innovation so working backwards is sort of like design thinking but in different orders It's a lot of different naming conventions But people who have done design thinking before will understand the working backwards framework from Amazon Definitely, I'll use some of the tools and he retained like 30% of the information probably less but putting it to practice will be the real test. All right day two done Boom you advised only go out for grocery shopping like for someone like me who hasn't cooked in such a long time It was a bit hard one of the benefits of living in Asia is actually you never need to cook It's cheap enough for you to actually get takeaway pretty much every night unless You're in a pandemic and the government decides directive 16. It's all locked out. That means I Have to get back into the kitchen Not very happy about this another thing they added to prevent people going outside and doing that stuff They're doing fines that I mean, they're so strict.  Spam yes, how do people not like spam?    It's long Little bit Looks Crispy mummy.  God. I'm hungry.   Let's see. We can do it one-handed Nope. Okay. Okay latch Whoo Spamages watch out my cool it look at that soup. It's proper bubs I want to burn myself on time. It's like nothing. It's like water. So tomorrow making Japanese curry.  It's so over cooked It's terrible and it's got bits of rice all over it. Yum. We have the rice The staple I think I put too much water in it. It's a little bit fluffy.  So welcome to Cockney Chris that cook in chepion. That's it I'm gonna draw a meal and you guys can I haven't had a haircut in so long. Look at this. Terrible It's I've got like an afro So my landlord just text me and he was like hey Do you want a haircut because I'm getting one layer during lockdown? Directive 16 straight to the lock down. We've had I just got a bar. What's come to my place probably need to clean this up a little bit but Fast forward to today. We're day eight in the directive 16 lockdown So we have been indoors I would say maybe 95% of the time about two months and during those two months It has been up and down in terms of creativity and motivation. I've still been working on my own projects But I don't know what it is. I think it's the psychological effects of being locked down And the whole world has been through this other countries have done six to nine months lockdown And that must be really really hard for you to go in and out of lockdown I think that's much more disruptive because you think everything is okay, and then not and then okay New variants coming out booster vaccines are under experimentation There's just a lot of uncertainty in the world at the moment So I think that's how it really affected me in terms of not knowing what's happening You know getting through it like everybody else So this is another way to keep me busy during literally don't go out. Otherwise, you'll die period of my life Yeah, so making something like this is a good distraction From just all the craziness that's out there and in here And this is probably one of the easiest videos you can make where you just talk into a camera and you're just taking random shots anywhere It's the vlog. There's not much point apart from stay strong and See you on the next one What you doing? What you doing? Where you at? Where you at? Oh, you got plans. You got plans Don't say that. I'm sleeping one. Sheep sheep in a row. Drip it. I look too good.  What's happening? I am playing no games and now what did I say come straight from the heart So if you try not a in this arms I'm a rib that Open I'm a rib that open I'm a rib that Open girl, I'm a rib that open open That you feel that I feel and you want me like I want you tonight, baby Tell me that you coming through