And here in a single family house on the upper side of Manhattan, we were invested in developing sort of a through line between digital design methods and techniques and artisan material processes that include the forming and sculpting of ceramics, as in the case of the terracotta facade system that you see here. Metal fabrication in the case of the stair with a braided bronze railing and faceted with treads and sort of decidedly parametric geometry. And robotic milling is in the case of this carved and lacquered wood ceiling. So for us like in this project in particular and maybe kind of in general, craft and sort of craft processes are really thought of as a way of bridging between the historic context that we often find ourselves working in and sort of contemporary life of our clientele. So, Charles and Ray Eames were fond of saying that that the details are not the details that they really make the design. And the practices, the practice of the Eames is is one that I've always held personally as a kind of aspirational model, or the wide ranging and diverse sort of interests that it encompassed. And also there's a play, but also their ability to reach across disciplines and bodies of knowledge in each project. So here in a series of studies in plywood first there, their molded leg splint for the US Navy that actually required the declassification of a number of, of adhesives, in order to make possible, which sort of led to patented techniques that they developed for forming plywood around sheets to their famous rubber shock mount welded to the back of their plywood and fiberglass chairs that was at once flexible but also allowed for the fastening of the metal frame to the smooth seat and back without having to drive a screw through the face of the formed surface. And the rubber welding technique is one that was being used at the time to assemble automotive dashboards and is part of an even larger project of the Eames is to connect the manufacturing techniques and engineering expertise war effort, and it's associated technological advances sort of into the and bring those to bear in the in the post war design of housing and consumer products. And there's a detail in the sense of that it's an enlargement or a kind of articulation of note that makes that sort of makes the design aesthetically and experientially, but it's also a gateway between between worlds and bodies of knowledge. And so we've really tried to build a practice where our ability to bring together many different voices and facilitate and power the work of others is truly central to the to the work. And interestingly enough, interiors have afforded the opportunity to pursue that objective and sort of some incredibly surprising and satisfying ways. Because there are so many individual design elements and potentials for collaboration, and because the standards for performance and for quality and for detailing are so high. So, here in the dining room of a park Avenue apartment, we have a space that is meant to function as a library as a family and dining as a family dining space and also as a formal entertaining space. It's a long standing collaboration with the Hudson Valley sculptor Christopher Kurtz, with whom we created this table that is made of oxidized cherry and aluminum that's been cold forged into into sort of like a rippling lasagna noodle surface. And the table is the table is meant to sit against the wall most of the time, you know, against this, this, this banquet, but then it's brought out into the center of the room and expanded with leaves to seat 14 when the family entertains. We also collaborated with with the designers ladies and gentlemen studio rubbish and red hook to create this chandelier with a stainless steel reflector and an uplight and a pendant drop pendant and slumped glass. The chandelier rotates 180 degrees in the room so that it so that the drop is always centered on the table irrespective of what position it's in whether it's kind of tucked in or if it's at the center of the room. And so like, as in the case of many of our interiors, the design here emerges less through singular vision of an individual author, let's say, and more from from the curation and cultivating of relationships with other designers and creators, where our role as the architects or kind of principal designers is really more to create opportunities and technical support for others, and then and then to sort of get out of the way and let them run with their with the opportunity. So here in the penthouse structure of a townhouse on the Upper East Side. We were working with the artist Sarah Oppenheimer to create a site specific artwork that we commissioned when the building was still in schematic design. Sarah's work really plays with and expands the sort of gray zone between artwork and environment. And this is one of the very first of her works to be permanently incorporated into the high performance envelope of the building. And sort of as such it became a central element in organizing the structural and other technical aspects of the building, as well as the volume and form of the addition from a from a zoning perspective. So the piece is a is a kind of a hinge that introduces a skewed angle around which these other systems are then sort of organized. And eventually what what Sarah's piece, really, what it really does is it is it projects a sliver of sky into the space below through a skylight incorporated into the roof terrace and optics that are that produce an effect that is at once entirely visually beguiling, but that also begins to really kind of confound the line between inside and outside where the glass rooftop structure meets a 19th century based building. This is so beautiful. Before you move on to the next. There is a small window that says that's like build order. If you could minimize that we can see the slide. It hasn't been particularly disruptive but really this little Okay, that's gone. Try. Try playing again. Yes. It's like the, the one the many wonders of zoom. Yes, exactly. Now it's gone magically. Thank you so much. So, in that same operation project we also had this really special collaborative opportunity that emerged out of the client's request for a vertical garden. So vertical gardens are notoriously difficult and maintenance intensive, particularly in environments like the northeastern United States where there are large swings in the climate between summer and winter. So we approached the design of this garden through kind of a hyper local lens, which started as shown on the left with a really detailed environmental analysis, where we were measuring and simulating a series of variables like humidity temperature or solar exposure, and the like, in order to construct a very highly detailed ecological profile that was sort of unique to the to the facade and its geometry and its location on the globe. So with that profile in hand, we then went in search of a target ecosystem and begin to concentrate our search on the limestone cliff faces of the Hudson Valley that are immediately north of the city. And really started to look at this plant species that were native to that environment, kind of with the theory that they would perform well and in our environment. The facade and the roof top and the gardens of the house really track the dimensions of that ecosystem from the forest floor to the cliff face to the cliff top. And interestingly enough, in that ecosystem there are also a number of native species that are on the federal endangered species list because they're losing their habitat due to climate change. The garden facade really began to be an exploration into the into the efficacy and also a kind of degree of agency that an individual building or individual building component might have on a planetary phenomenon like climate change, and the loss of biodiversity. So we concentrated a lot of our energy around a particular species, it's called known as the North American hearts tongue for nor splenium burn, which is one of these federal federally endangered species. And in collaboration with the landscape architects local office and a team of conservation botanists at SUNY in Syracuse, and the graduate forestry department. And the strategy to propagate and plant the wall with with species that included these endangered ferns actually had to seek out a warrant from us fishing wildlife in order in order to do so. So running parallel to this effort was a design effort to put the form of the planter itself at stake, looking at the three dimensional texture of the facade, as well as the form of the planter unit and the shadows that it would that it would cast below. The development of the facades actual geometry really took these factors into account to coax out these ecological intensities is sort of nano biomes. That that kind of tease out the environments of a limestone cliff face, and then begin to compress those intensities, those kind of ecological intensities into a single 35 foot tall wall. So using with Boston Valley terracotta, who are a manufacturer of terracotta facade systems, we developed a zero waste casting process to create the planter units themselves which are then coated with a with a pH neutral glaze and then kind of planted with a variety of native species. So another view, another view of the vertical garden sort of shortly after its initial planting for these really beautiful ferns who are also kind of a poster child for the threats of climate change. So, one of the really interesting byproducts of this design research project is that the ferns had to be propagated outside of a laboratory environment for the first time, with the help of commercial greenhouses, and, and that the quantity of ferns that we had to order, was available commercially for propagation and other contexts. So, part of the data that is being returned to the to our conservation partners in this garden concerns how different subspecies of the Aspenium firm perform in this kind of garden setting to see if they can become commercially in the marketplace and kind of creating another pathway out of off of the endangered species list. We've also recently started a project for a ground of house in in northern Westchester in within the Croton, the Croton watershed, where we're also looking at creating similar kinds of supply chain linkages, but in this project using timber from New York State and other northeastern sources by kind of sourcing them from logs and trees that are taken down as part of the New York State Department of Conservation efforts to help to manage the the of New York State and kind of like certain certain certain trees have to be brought down for the health of the forest. But, and we're collaborating with a with a fellow GSEP alum and Professor Lindsay Woodstrom, as well as Sillman on the engineering side to create a hyper local timber supply chain where one doesn't presently exist. So we're kind of taking measure of how the fruits of that supply chain might also inform the form of the building instead of the other way around. So the building itself is a series of pavilion like volumes that are unified under under a very thin wind wing like roof. So the structure is the roof is structured and then clad in timber and it's supported by these by these kind of ceramic cloud volumes that lift the roof above an elevated courtyard. You can see in this this concept model on the on the left. And then you get a sense of sort of like these pavilion like volumes and this kind of manifold timber cloud roof with with the floors also in glazed terracotta. So I think like one of the interesting kind of opportunities and projects like these because you know we do so many projects for individuals or kind of individual clients. So we do these projects there. We've been looking for opportunities that the projects afford to kind of link them durably to to larger systems are kind of planetary phenomena. And then kind of find find the find the imprint of those systems in the in the individual buildings as a way of kind of sort of sussing out where where these, you know, these residential projects are kind of interior projects have, have an opportunity to have agency within those larger contexts. And at the same time we've been doing research sort of like on some of those larger phenomena to try to link them back to two individuals. So this is one example of that. So this is an image of the Empire State Building. This is kind of specifically the the spire of the Empire State Building, which was sort of famously designed as a mooring for airships, but really has been home to broadcast infrastructure since the very beginning. This building was was home to RCA and it's and it's experiment early experiments and television from the 1930s, 30s onward and really like, except for a brief period after kind of in the in sort of like the the the 80s. Since 911, the Empire State Building has also been the primary broadcast point for the entire metropolitan region again. So we, we've been sort of really fascinated in kind of the, the relationship that urban form has to the technologies of broadcast. Particularly as they move from kind of traditional broadcast to mobile, kind of thinking about how the ultra visible sort of iconic form of New York City which literally that of an antenna. And it should kind of be dematerialized as as we move as we shift to kind of a similar but but essential infrastructure that is that is entirely secret and entirely privately owned, which is the mobile phone infrastructure, which is really only visible in the ways that it rubs up against other other indices or other units of measure like FAA databases or kind of protests, you know when tenants kind of like protest their landlords installing antennas on their on their rooftops. So we created a series of events, kind of looking or kind of walking around the city with with academic groups like, you know, that we recall these antenna spotting events like trying to trying to kind of understand the distribution of mobile phone antennas on roof on rooftops. We also went in search of a kind of electronic registration. So this is data that's pulled from a single Android phone using an antenna tracking app to kind of log which antennas that phone communicated with over the course of the day. And ultimately we were kind of the research sort of culminated in the in in the kind of scraping of building permit data, specifically kind of electrical electrical permit category that pertains exclusively to mobile phone infrastructure. So this is a map that we created that was that was exhibited that be an online 2012 on the American civilian of all 14,472 mobile mobile phone antennas in New York City, at the time, kind of cross reference against the age and height of the building that they're on, which really begins to be a kind of a portrait of this of this infrastructure and kind of like it's and how tightly mapped it is to the to the form of the form of the city. One of the really interesting collaborations that sort of then emerged out of that research which we thought was just like a kind of interesting way of trying to find other registrations of this kind of communication technology is that since 2016 well beginning in 2016 we were contacted by city bike about a partnership because the bike stations communicate on mobile phone networks and so since 2016 we've been we've been engaged in the kind of data sharing arrangement with the city bike to provide to provide data kind of mapping layers and also insight about the about the mobile phone infrastructure to help them to position their stations more intelligently and to help them to grow the system. And then sort of switching gears kind of back to the interiors we've also been a couple of years ago we were contacted by a donor who was interested in making a library, a children's library inside of a shelter called concourse house, which is a shelter that serves women and young children who are transitioning out of out of homelessness it's located on the grand concourse in sort of the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx. So the library is located on a mezzanine above a former chapel in the shelter and it's sort of unique in this facility as a space that is specifically dedicated to reading and storytelling and imagination. And it's it serves by by and large a population of children who don't actually own their own books. So the project itself is largely a shelving element and study tables for reading and homework. And this extremely graphic carpet that we collaborated with the artist Alex proba on that sort of very loosely indicates different functional zones like a spot on the floor that is appropriate for sitting in a circle and of course, for hearing a story. There's also this wall of upholstered elements that can be brought out for collect for collective events and proceeding but that when stashed. It creates a really soft upholstered surface that that makes sitting on the floor meaning a book comfortable. So the geometry of these elements themselves is sort of cuddly with integrated lighting to brighten up the space which was which was obviously quite dark before. And it's also a scale that that works as a kind of a guardrail or balustrade between the space in the double white space but what beyond, but also to make it much more approachable, or for young children. So, this is a project that we did on a pro databases, and it's been one of the most instructive and sort of eye opening aspects of that project. And it's a real effort that we engaged in to solicit donations and raise money to support the fabrication and the resourcing and the decoration of the project. And so, in this sense, there was a kind of expanded field of practice that that that emerged beyond the design, beyond the territories of design proper where we had agency and could make a contribution. And so we raised a number of fundraising efforts, a couple of events in our studio, as well as an, and then we also kind of. We created an online auction on artsy and petalate featuring sort of ultra high end design objects from many of our friends and collaborators in New York in the in the design industry. There were options off to create an endowment to support the ongoing maintenance and supplying of the library once the sort of initial donor involvement began to begin to fall off. And, and I think one of the most kind of potent takeaways from this project has really been our capacity to kind of act in that in that manner, and also the fact that it wasn't that hard. It's an enormously satisfying kind of impact on on the lives of this very needy community, which has really informed our subsequent pro bono work and and also the formation of design advocates. So, in late last March, right as the COVID crisis crisis would be good was beginning to unfold in a really serious way. I was really afraid for myself but also and for my team but also for the for the workers and the other design businesses that we, that we frequently collaborate with. So the origins of design advocates was was actually a few Instagram stories that I posted at the time looking for friends in the community in the design community that we could talk to you about doing something.  And we began to think that architects might somehow be uniquely qualified to be helpful. Also in in in the United States and also in particularly in New York is the crisis was unfolding amid kind of the utter absence of any form of organized federal response or plan. And I made conflicting and limited guidance from the state and city. And that was also as these maps show sort of disproportionately and somewhat horrifyingly impacting low income communities and communities of color. Because of course, as as the crisis was rang out of control as we all know it also coincided with this nationwide reckoning of our racial injustice and police violence against communities of color and as a sort of queer Bible person myself like that was something that resonated with me deeply and so that's the sort of context for design advocates and the and the twin issues that we felt compelled to engage in a sort of productive way. So the impetus for the small group of us who got together at that time may initially have been to help each other. But it but the mission of the of the organization really came into focus as we began to observe a real need to help other businesses and organizations to connect the dots between the fairly broad and uncoordinated guidance around COVID-19 was out there in in in sort of the atmosphere and in what that guidance meant for individual spaces and communities and businesses, as well as other nonprofits and and public institutions. So our objective has been to help to convert some of the general governmental technical and public health guidance that's out there into implementable action for individuals and to help them pro bono to adapt their spaces and operations to the pandemic and beyond. So, from the beginning of the pandemic until the present there was this kind of enormous reluctance on the part of many actors whether they're professional or or whether public or professional to really step into the fray at that particular scale. There was a there's always been a kind of a preference towards high level guidance over over direct and individualized aid and that gap. We feel has contributed to that there's a so there's an important gap between between expertise and implementation, which continues to be present and and frankly dangerous everywhere. Especially in, in communities that are disadvantaged or communities of color, who have not always had the most positive experiences working with or, or I've not necessarily had access to design professionals, and who have also been the hardest hit by the pandemic and the long term collateral and long term impacts. So, as an organization that's primarily made up of small firms this is this is sort of individualized health that we thought that we were particularly qualified and sort of set up to do. And it also became began to be a way to continue to collaborate and share what we were learning with each other and with other organizations and then to end and then to in turn use that learning to develop partnerships and return insight from the field back to public agencies. So we're interested in creating this sort of cook this this sort of productive and collaborative feedback with where where individual interventions are informed by expert guidance that then in turn promote equity and constituency building and communities of need that then return insight back to kind of the powers that be to inform future expert guidance and regulations. So, the design, the advocates part of design advocates also means that we're engaged in work with public agencies, like the New York City Department of Education. So, one of the things that we've done since the beginning are we've developed these four reopening plans for New York City public schools. And so this is one study that was done for PS 34 in Brooklyn. Which is the oldest operating public school building in all of Brooklyn, you can see from the plan that it's that it's an unflod style building like it's a railroad plan, meaning that there are no corridors, and every classroom is access from another classroom, which meant that the possibility of a physical distancing or kind of the regulation of the of the student and staff population was almost impossible and in a building like this. So, so the reopening plan is really actually just kind of a color coding and circulation strategy that makes use of every single stairwell in the building and creates a series of pathways. Kind of built around the, the, the schools AB kind of constituent are kind of cohort structuring which is like half of the school is present on one day and half of the school is present on another day and simply creates routes and rooms that that different students in each cohort utilize including the bathrooms to ensure that one group of students can access their classroom without having to without having to pass through the room of another cohort. And it was kind of like a uniquely architectural problem solving. That was then reinforced with color coding and signage, you know kind of implement that could be implemented really simply and as a result of this plan, we immediately received all this feedback from from teachers and also parents, telling us things like I was really afraid going back to school but now that we have this plan. I know what we need to do and we've got it like we can do this, and that was really I think proved positive for us at the very beginning of this of this effort that this that we were sort of on to that we were sort of on to something. So, this idea that design could be about communication and trust building, maybe even in advance of being about things and spaces was something that started to inform many of our early efforts and design advocates. So, part one of the, one of the things that we were doing very early on is working with neighborhood restaurants. And as a result of that work, we were asked to join the neighborhoods now effort, which was a, which was a kind of initiative that was created by the vanilla and the urban design forum to create teams of architects who would be working with community community development organizations in organizations in the four neighborhoods of New York City that were the hardest hit by the pandemic. So this is a, this is a brochure that we made that was distributed to restaurants in in the Bronx. Around this time the city had created a program called open restaurants, which many of you probably know about that enables restaurants to open outdoors in the, in the public way. So, this was a way of kind of communicating to the community in advance about the existence of the program because it really was not known. And kind of to tell them about elements that we could help them help them with on a pro bono on a pro bono pro bono basis before we ever kind of set foot in that in the neighborhood and attempted to kind of like design anything. And this is one of the projects that kind of came out of that effort. It's Dominican restaurant on subject Avenue called tropical and our kind of work on this project involved a collaboration with two local artists, Felix and Dexter Dexter Cyprian, who grew up in the neighborhood and have then since returned to the Bronx to live to live and work. Dexter and Felix kind of work in collage and around themes of identity and and memory. And so they transformed what we had created for them which is a sort of base infrastructure which is very kind of like regulation friendly open restaurants. And then they kind of converted it into this phantasmagorical expression of Dominican thingies like kind of using sort of construction off cuts and and paint and corrugated roofing to kind of create this, this really vibrant space for this for this restaurant, which really need an outdoor dining pavilion because it's really more of a take out kind of restaurant. And so the pavilion instead became nominally sort of like outdoor dining room but it also became a little bit of a community hub. So there's a. So this is a digital projector projection screen and there's a projector that is used to display artwork and kind of community information and it's and it sort of was available for for meetings and other kinds of community communities and so this is sort of this is some images from the opening. And so like the idea that these kind of individualized street installations might be kind of powerful on a community basis is also organizing some of our research. This is some images of a study that we're doing with Community Board for in Queens. And a team of designers that includes the traffic safety and engineering group at Thornton City. We're basically we're looking at how we could equip the Community Board with proposals for very selective street closures that they can bring to the Department of Transportation. And how we could target certain blocks that meet the criteria of the DRT in terms of selective pedestrianization part of the kind of effort to create more accessible and equitable access to outdoor space, but also where the street closures can be instrumental, not only to local local restaurants, but also because of their proximity to other institutions like libraries or public schools might be able to be those street closures might be able, maybe, maybe might be able to be leveraged to become more a more kind of essential community resource. One of our other kind of partnerships has been with the New York City Economic Development Corporation and the AIA to create a program that's called the Design Corps, which is sort of design advocates and miniature. It's a program to partner individual restaurants with individual architects who can help them with some of the elements to enable them to open outdoors. And it's a way of kind of taking some of the lessons that we've learned and kind of try to fold them into a citywide program. And then kind of running in parallel with that we've created a winterization retrofit toolkit that kind of considers how the improved traffic safety, kind of snow and wind kind of structural stability and heating and enclosure strategies could be could be implemented to safely help to transition these provisional structures that were erected over the summer. Into kind of like the into the winter and the next the following seasons, now that the program has been made permanent. So this is a, this is a sort of initiative that we've been that we've been engaged in kind of looking at at bringing engineering expertise to some of these really lightweight kind of temporary structures. And also thinking specifically about how to incorporate other kinds of safety measures, you know, from sort of the incorporation of water filled traffic safety barriers to kind of safe strategies for reinforcement. So we have really inexpensive and easily and easily implemented to kind of retrofit some of these structures to do more kind of robust engineering expertise around around airflow so we kind of engineered a kind of enclosure strategy that that that triples that that that sort of increases or augments the the ASHRAE standard for safe indoor air and kind of beats it by between 300 and 2000%. So all of the kind of as part of an effort to to improve sort of this the safety and longevity of these of these outdoor elements because we believe that that that effort will serve the kind of durability of the program, which is currently, and kind of incredibly caused a sort of reconsideration of the public space of the street and what that space is for and who it's for. And then kind of a last project, an arts project this is a, this is a, we've been working with a gallery in Williamsburg called summertime on kind of a retrofit of their space and I will. And kind of as part of our efforts, creating these videos to to spotlight the clients and the work that the work that they they've been doing so I'll let them explain the project in their in their own words. Summertime is an art studio and gallery space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and we champion a more inclusive art world for artists with intellectual disabilities alongside artists without disabilities. What we're working on with design advocates is to make our gallery and studio space more accessible for artists as well as transition from a studio to a gallery space seamlessly. One of the things we loved about working with design advocates was that working collaboratively is so central to their ethos and that's something that aligns perfectly with summertime submission. We did a participatory pinup with the artists that we work with, as well as people in the neighborhoods, friends and colleagues where we invited them into our space to look at our designs, give us feedback and let us know what they would like in our space. We want summertime's physical space to be a collaborative creative hub for all. Working with design advocates has had a huge impact on summertime as an organization and it's really the first time that we've been afforded the time and space to think about our design, both on an accessibility level as well as making it a mutual space. And that really perfectly aligns with how we want to support and exhibit the artists that we work with. The artists always come first. And some images from the participatory pinup. So I mean one of the interesting things about these kinds of projects is that all the design advocates projects are collaborations between multiple offices and clients and so it's also kind of afforded us this really interesting opportunity to try out other forms of collaborative and kind of participatory design processes and kind of workflows that we've maybe not had the opportunity or kind of like the projects in our respective offices don't necessarily afford, which has been I think one of the most kind of incredible learning experiences from the organization. And as a result of that, like the collaborative teams are starting and the organization as a whole. I mean, we're just about to hit the one year mark. And we are suddenly finding that our initial kind of premise which was that, which was that small firms shouldn't be limited to kind of thinking about small projects is actually is showing it's kind of proving to be true so kind of in a return to this antenna image. We've, for example, been recently. We've started a collaboration with a group of telecom workers who have kind of broken away from spectrum to create a community sourced and worker owned alternative internet provider in New York City called people's choice. We may have a contract to install internet connectivity infrastructure on 50, starting with the 52 New York City housing authority buildings. So we're starting to be kind of asked to partner with organizations as well as city agencies to kind of think about more equitable distribution of essential infrastructure like internet connectivity for for communities like the public housing community and for public transportation. So this has been a really interesting kind of outgrowth of this collaborative energy that that has really been kind of built into into the organization. So, these are the six firms who kind of started the the group and some of the logos and kind of persona that that have been involved in it over the course of the last year. Thank you, Michael. That was fantastic. I'm inspired now so I can go do my studio work. This is great. No but seriously to see such a diverse body of work. I would love to know how you manage all of that and I mean I don't know of any other firm or designer with both like rich interiors compact living design socially conscious urban design interventions and academic research so I mean that's it's extremely unique. And also to see what you're doing with design advocates is really exciting, especially living in New York City I see how much need there is for that so thank you. We have about 10 minutes so we'll to have the Q&A so that's, I'll go ahead and try to start the process. First question, and please feel free to write anything in the chat as we go. So first question is from Gary, and he says, Sir Michael good day. Sir may I ask, what would be your best tips to become a successful graduate in a mark at Columbia GSAP. And do we need to become more experimental or do we need to become more conventional and traditional. So, I guess my, that's a big question. I think that my, my, my reply is probably something along the lines of I think that you should do you. But I can just say that from my own path. I, I think that you know I've tried to, I was really deeply inspired by both the kind of critical training that I received at Columbia, as well as a sort of experimental kind of the spirit of kind of experimentation, particularly around, around digital technology. I was kind of happening in the early odds when I was, when I was in a mark. And, and, and I, and I guess like my career trajectory, certainly in the context of the office has been defined as many applications of that training as, as I, as I, as I could create in within the realm of, of a conventionally structured, you know, sort of not especially novel practice model, you know, which is that like, we're structured like a conventional architecture firm. And we do primarily built commissioned work, you know, like much of it in New York City right and so trying to find ways for that context, like Park Avenue apartments right which are, which are in a way some of the most traditional most coded most kind of rigid project contexts for them to be hosts to some of the more kind of radical thoughts or kind of techniques or working methods. And I think that that has sort of been, let's say foundational to my own training as an architect like, I find not to be an incredibly enriching environment to work in right like and, and sort of like an interesting challenge to, to, to engage in is it what it means is that that what it means is that is that the people who are practitioners of those more experimental processes digital fabrication, you know, kind of coders programmers, as well as more experimental makers, it means that they are the people who keep the profit from these projects. And so that is a way of, I think, kind of an important form of community building and kind of capacity building that as an architect we, I have have sort of the privileged position of being able to to kind of conduct right and so, so I think for me it's about kind of connecting the dots it was never really about it was never really about choosing either or. That's fantastic yeah I mean to see the ceiling in the Fifth Avenue apartment it's like it's both like extremely contemporary but it has like this traditional aspect to it says really interesting. So, Chris has a really good question. He says thank you Michael I wanted to ask what your vision. Oh, sorry, now it's moving on. What's your vision for your firm in the next five to 10 years and what do you hope to achieve and I would also just add in there. How do you see design advocates playing into your role of like of your firm and over the next like five years. Yeah, I mean, well I think, you know, so I'm like in my mid 40s right and so like, like, I feel like I feel like for the firm, after a, you know, a decade or two of sort of striving that we're finally kind of hitting our, our professional stride, and that's been really powerful and kind of exciting for me personally and also for the whole team. And I think that that interestingly enough like many of the opportunities that we've been afforded recently have kind of coincided with some of with the advent of some of this more sort of civically minded. You know, kind of pro bono work right so kind of work with institutions that has led to other has led to other things and so in the, in part of the kind of ulterior motive behind design advocates was always to use the organization as a way to be a cheerleader for and a kind of a support mechanism and a resource for other small firms. And so something that we are very much invested in right now as an organization is talking about how we can kind of transition from being more of a kind of like led or kind of executive led organization to being a more member led organization that serves the, that kind of returns, shall we say profit or kind of benefit to the members the volunteers who actually contribute their and the energy to to the projects. So, as the profile of design advocates has been kind of on the rise over the course of the last year, and we're being asked to be sort of essential partners, kind of working on essential work for organizations and also for the city, like, we're trying to, to use that as an opportunity to advocate for the importance of small firms are kind of independent firms and the sort of energy and and and expertise that that resides within. So, I think that the hope is really that that that the two organizations are, are kind of mutually reinforcing in that, in that way, you know, like that, and that, and that that benefit doesn't kind of like flowed to me or or my fellow board members but it begins to really be spread across the people who are who are active in the organization. And I think that it's being, it is, you know, we have we have sort of indications of proof of concept of that simply by virtue of the fact that we're like recently being kind of approached with with non pro bono kind of like paid work, you know, kind of work on infrastructure for larger institutions and kind of larger actors. And so we think that there's and we think that those are really interesting opportunity here within within design advocates, I mean, and, and that sort of plays very well into my own ambitions for the practice which is that we want to be making more buildings we want to be making larger buildings we want to do more work, kind of in the public, in the public realm, where some of the research capacities and and kind of technological possibilities that we have in the office gain a foothold and sort of like the material world. I think when you showed the first slide you said there was about like five firms together in in yourself for design advocates, and how quickly did it grow to about 120. We're closer to 150 by now and I mean it was just like it's been just like a slow additive, you know, process so I mean we probably have to like close to 300 people kind of like cycle through the organization at one point or another in the last year and I probably say that there's probably like a, probably like a group of 30 or 40 forums who are really kind of core to the, to the, to the organization. Now we're doing a lot of work. And how has the city responded so when you do those like guides of the like ventilation and like street side eating like how has the city responded have they been very helpful. They have I mean like, so the the winterization guide is actually being released in conjunction with the Department of Transportation so it's, it's, it required quite a lot of back and forth with city agencies, you know, do to do be small business and so I think that's been a very interesting kind of outgrowth of the whole experience, as well as you know we we assumed that we would have the door slammed in our faces and actually what we found is that the city is so desperate for people to step in that not only is there an opportunity to get involved but there's actually an opportunity to help them to kind of move the needle, a little bit on what these, what these various programs will mean down the line, especially as they become permanent. And so this is sort of like, to me this is the, this is the Holy Grail right is to is is for some of the people who have been who have been active, and in this process on a kind of pro bono and self organized level to be both recognized and kind of agency in the context where the city is starting to consider like what are in what manner will outdoor dining become a permanent feature of the of the of the landscape of the street in New York City and that that's, that's a conversation that's happening right now. And so we're trying to exert as much pressure on that process as we can. Okay. And would you it's already one o'clock so would you be willing to answer one more question. So, Andrea says, great presentation. Thank you and how do you find local artists like Dexter and Felix Cyprian. So, so, one of the amazing things about working with a team of 300 other designers is that we have an incredible network. It's a great answer. It's like, you know, Felix and Dexter are friends, like, they're friends of friends. And, and it's the same with kind of like the artists and designers that that we work with in the, in the office, you know, sometimes it's about people, sometimes it's about recognizing that there are just gems in your own network or kind of your extended network. And it's been about tells kind of telegraphing that that, at least for us in the office, it's been about telegraphing our desire for kind of interest and commitment in collaboration. And then we use platforms like Instagram, you know, like we find we learn about people who are interesting to us. And then throughout, we kind of cultivate relationships, and then we try to find ways to get them paid, like done online right and we kind of look for paying opportunities or kind of commission opportunities, and try to find ways to kind of share the wealth like that's, I think. So I think you find partners by being a good partner.  I mean, like this has been one of the most miraculous things about design advocates right is it like all of us like many of us are friends right like a lot of us have associations with schools or like we went to school together we teach together. And so we have kind of, we have a certain kind of community that's that is that is built in but but professionally we are kind of nominally in competition with one another all the time right. And that doesn't mean that we're not still friends of course because we're architects and our friends are all architects. But we've never been able to, we've never had the opportunity to collaborate with each other in quite the same way. And so it has been kind of magical, like it's been a really wonderful experience kind of like my favorite thing that I've worked on in the last year is, is sort of like this, you know, this kind of like rag tag team of, of fellow designers in New York where we get together on zoom and on mirror and kind of like work on these amazing projects for these amazing communities. That's fantastic. Thank you so much that was such a great note to end on I wish we had more time. But I want to thank Michael and Nash for bring more awareness to what the GSAP community does in the city and beyond, and hopefully we can have Michael back for an update on all his projects and design advocates in the future. But I've dropped some links in the chat to stay in touch with Michael and for updates with his firm as well as participating in upcoming GSAP lectures so thank you. Thank you everyone. Thank you so much.


i'r gloriaf god. We now have topical questions. Question 1, Liam McArthur. To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has abolished the getting it right for every child programme board. Minister Eileen Campbell. In order to develop our getting it right for every child policy, the Scottish Government established a programme board and a strategic implementation group. The board's role was to help shape the policy in relation to the drafting of parts 4 and 5 duties in the Children and Young People's Act 2014, and it met 14 times from February to September 2014. The National Implementation Support Group has responsibility for oversight of implementation and continues to meet. We recently refreshed its membership to take us into the significant phase of implementation of the new statutory duties. Liam McArthur. I thank the minister for that response. She says that the GERFIC programme board was set up to oversee the implementation of GERFIC. According to the Scottish Government website, it helped to drive improvements in outcomes for children and young people in Scotland by embedding the GERFIC approach across relevant services. At the weekend, the Scottish Government made clear to the press that the decision to abolish the programme board was a decision made at ministerial level to wind up the GERFIC board after May 2014. Does the minister think it is acceptable for such a decision to be taken by ministers without any apparent recourse to the Scottish Parliament that had responsibility for scrutinising and approving the legislation? Minister. As I said to the member, the programme board was established to take us through the legislative phase of getting it right for every child. I took a decision after the act was passed to look at options for maintaining the strategic engagement and to drive forward the implementation of GERFIC. The programme's board's job was done. We got through that legislative phase. The strategic decision that I took was to focus on implementation. That is why the NSIG group is there to provide that strategic engagement and to make sure that we drive forward the implementation of GERFIC. That was a decision that got the consensus at the last meeting of the programme board in September 2014. With recognition that we needed to make sure that we had the right people on that group to make sure that we did the right thing and that we did the right thing on that group to make sure that we did drive forward the implementation of getting it right for every child. While the board did wind down there was continued emphasis on implementation and that was done through the national implementation support group. Liam McArthur I am grateful to the minister for that further clarification but I could press her on the point about when and how this Parliament was informed about a decision in relation to a programme board that this Parliament was responsible for setting up. It does not appear to have been any information despite the fact that she says that consultation took place with the programme board members to keep this Parliament informed of a decision in which it had a legitimate interest. I reiterate that we had gone through that phase of legislation and to maintain that strategic engagement with the sector and agencies and other people that I decided to focus on the implementation which is why the implementation support group continued. It had been part and sat under the programme board but that was continuing to make sure that we could drive forward the GERFEC agenda. I can make sure that the member is furnished with all the details of the meetings if he so wishes and to make sure that we can have that clarity that he is seeking but certainly I am determined to make sure that we get the implementation of this important legislation. On the legislative phase that the programme board was charged with towards implementation which is why then we decided that we did not need both organisations and we decided to maintain our focus on implementation which is the role of the NISG. Mr MacArthur, you want that again? Yes, please. In terms of the implementation looking at the minutes from the meeting in May 2014, one of the issues that was raised then was the assistant chief constable Markham, Graham of Police Scotland who raised issues surrounding ensuring that high-risk children remained a focus. She will recall that even among those of us who are prepared to accept the case for named person one of the key concerns that we had was that we shouldn't see a diversion of attention and resources away from those who have genuine welfare issues to address the wider concerns in relation to wellbeing issues. Can she perhaps update Parliament what reassurances have been given to Police Scotland and other members of the programme and implementation boards that there hasn't been a redirection of focus away from those high-risk children? The whole thrust of getting it right for every child as we've learned from the Highland model is that it allows us to focus and to be more strategic with our resources and to make sure that we're getting it right for those children who show that level of need and that require that additional support. Retracting back from our focus and trying to ensure that we do things better for a group of vulnerable children but that is part of the whole GERFEC approach is about getting it right for every child every time. The GERFEC approach with the named person there behind it is about making sure that we do just that and make sure that we can use our resources in a strategic way that's an effective way and the Highland model shows that that works. Like I said at the last meeting that we had consensus from the board members to wind down the board. I thank everybody for their input and for their efforts to get us through that legislative phase but it was clear that we needed to turn our attention on the effective implementation of this important policy that's designed to make sure that our children get the best outcomes that they deserve. Again, I'll put those minutes available, they'll be on the Government's website and also make sure that we give members any reassurances that they want if they want to get in touch with me or write to me or they want further briefing we'll make sure that that's there but there is no hiding that this is an important plank of Government policy. We had a programme board that helpfully got us through that legislative phase our attention I think correctly is about getting this absolutely right for children that requires adequate implementation that is why our focus turned towards that implementation via this group and all the people who are involved and that include Police Scotland and others who have been contributing through our work through the programme board so happy to share any information if the member so wishes but certainly I think our thrust and our efforts on towards implementation are the correct ones. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Is there not a case for getting it right for the public? The minutes that were published were very clear in telling us exactly what was going on now that that board is no longer in existence we're not in a position to know what is going on so is it not time that the Scottish Government published all the information and advice that is being given to it about the implementation on GERFIC and name persons. Minister. I understand that the member doesn't have share my views on how the getting it right for every child approach takes goes forward but I am absolutely committed to this policy I know that it's the right thing to do for our children to make sure that we have much more co-ordinated and coherent approaches towards helping our children and we'll also make sure that if there's any information that the member requires that we can look into those queries but I have made clear that the programme board was there to fulfil a function which was to steer us through the legislative phase. The implementation is where our focus is on and we'll make sure that we're driving that forward for the benefit of children I understand that the member doesn't share those aspirations through that we set out through getting it right for every child but it is the right approach to take we are doing our best for children making sure that we get it right for every child every time and we are using our partners across the health authorities across local authorities, police across social work, across the care inspectorate across many different third sector organisations working in partnership working collaboratively to do our very best for children and if the member has any bones to pick with that then she can get in touch with me we'll let her see any information that she so wishes but I know that our approach is right we've focused on the legislation on implementation and I'm content that we are doing all we can in an open and transparent manner Question 2 Murdo Fraser To ask the Scottish Government how many farmers will not receive the 70% emergency common agricultural policy payment in December Cabinet Secretary Richard Lochhead The first tranche of direct payments will be paid to around a quarter of claimants and should start arriving in the bank accounts before the end of the year The majority of farmers should receive their initial payment in January with all first installments paid by the end of March The balance of payments is due to be settled in April and our decision of course to deliver payments from two installments is similar to the situation in 2005 when the last reforms were introduced Murdo Fraser I thank the Cabinet Secretary for his response but he will be aware I'm sure of the anger and dismay amongst the farming community as it delays in these vital payments In February the Cabinet Secretary told the NFUS AGM that everything was on track for payments to be made in early December this has not been delivered This is an issue which is entirely the responsibility of the Scottish Government The cabinet secretary cannot blame Brussels he cannot blame Westminster the buck stops with him and his department so will he now make a proper apology to Scottish farmers who have been badly let down Cabinet Secretary I say to Murdo Fraser the vast majority of farmers I've spoken to our understanding given that jointly with the industry we took the decision over what the policy should be in Scotland and the agreement that I had with the industry was these policies should be implemented in Scotland with the additional complexity that would bring with Scottish decisions over and above the already complexity we had from Europe If the policy outcome was right and even if we had to have later payments compared to the payment window last year under the old system can I also gently remind Murdo Fraser that at least we're having £500 million worth of support to underpin agriculture on the issue to the next few months if his party, his Conservative party had their way there would be no payments going to farmers in Scotland over the next few months given the Conservative party's policy is to get rid of pillar 1 of the common agriculture policy and that's what they argued for that's what they argued for during the negotiations in Brussels so Murdo Fraser belies his sheer hypocrisy with his anger today given that there would be no support for agriculture if his party was in charge but we understand the challenge of cash flow for many farming businesses in Scotland and that's why we are working flat out to maximise the number of farmers who can get the first payments and to get as much of the first payment as possible we've said we'll pay a minimum of 70% in the first instalment with the second part being settled in April given where England was in 2005 when they changed from historic basis of payment to area payments and given we're implementing not only the reforms but we had to go through in 2005 but the second set of reforms in Scotland I think what we're doing is reasonable under very challenging and difficult circumstances and many farmers I've spoken to understand that even if Murdo Fraser doesn't Murdo Fraser You can tell when the cabinet secretary is in trouble when he starts blustering in the fashion that we've just heard over the last few minutes The National Farmers Union of Scotland have asked the cabinet secretary to commit to paying 90% of CAP payments by mid-January He's made it pretty clear in the course of his answer he's not prepared to do that Will he now ask for parliamentary time to make a full statement to this chamber to explain in full the reasons for his decisions and to allow proper questions we made to him Cabinet Secretary I've already said to the industry and indeed colleagues that I will be bringing a statement to Parliament in December before we issue the letters to farmers given the estimated value of their payments I've also said that we will continue to increase the level of the first payment I've said a minimum of 70% if we can go above that we will do for the first payment but can I say that we cannot give the full payment or a higher level at the moment with the information we have because we cannot finalise the value of entitlements until we know the total number of eligible hectares of both basic payments and its greening element in each of the three payment regions we decided to implement in Scotland That's why it's a bit more complex in Scotland to have three levels of payment depending on the type of land in Scotland Three payment regions We also introduced voluntary couple support schemes to support the sheep sector and the beef sector schemes that were opposed by the UK Conservative Government initially before we persuaded them that in Scotland we have to deliver such schemes and they really have to listen to us Against that backdrop we will continue to work flat out because we recognise the cash flow problems facing farmers and crofters and £500 million worth of support will make their way to these important businesses over the next few months I hope that the minister would accept what crofters said to me last night is what payment they're going to get and that's now the crucial issue as well as the timing Would he also accept that when the Government held its roadshow meetings for example in Shetland the officials present made it crystal clear to crofters that reseeded land and improved croft land would receive the higher payment level of permanent grazing permanent grassland and not that of rough grazing 523 areas of Shetland croft land will now receive the lower payment and those crofters are now wondering what that assurance was about when they received it earlier this year I wonder if he could enlighten me and the Parliament Due to the fact that this is a very radical reform in Europe's common agricultural policy I do accept that our lessons will have to be learned and as the first year is implemented we have the ability under the policy to revisit the payment regions as we move forward if there's a case for doing that but I should also say that moving from historic basis of payment in Scotland to an area basis of payment will actually help many of the western parts of Scotland and hopefully many of the island communities so that will bring additional payment to the uplands in particular and hill farms in many parts of Scotland but it's a very radical reform we're going through there is no doubt that this Parliament, the industry committee will reflect in the first year of its implementation as is happening in every other part of the UK and every other part of Europe as we go through this very radical change in European agricultural policy Is the cabinet secretary aware that the NFUS in-house magazine acknowledges complexity was always going to increase the risk of payments coming later and admits the complexity stems from meeting the commission's new rules a limited Scottish budget with its own demands for a three region model phase transition and coupled support Can the cabinet secretary indicate to what extent factors outwith the Scottish Government's control and our willingness to listen to the union may have contributed to the lead away in full payments being made I also note the comment of the Tenant Farms Association who said that as stakeholders we have known all along there would be challenges for Scottish Government with regard to payment timings as was the case when the single farm payment was introduced in 2005 but now that the payment schedule has been indicated they can now remove many of the uncertainties in terms of the reason for the complexities of the new common agricultural policy it is because it is extremely difficult to fit European decisions into Scottish circumstances we've got uplands, we've got lowlands we've got sheep, we've got cattle we've got islands, we've got mainland we've got areas, we've got severe weather problems in climatic conditions in Scotland and others that don't have quite severe conditions so that's why we sat down with the industry and stakeholders and looked at how we could mould the European policy to Scottish circumstances and that's why, as I said before in this country, we agreed with the industry even if the price was to delay payments by a month or two or whatever the timescale may have been three different payment regions unlike other parts of the UK as well as implementing greening as well as voluntary couple support schemes for sheep and cattle and as well of course it's the big radical reform historic basis of activity to area of land you have so I think, given all these ingredients we can understand why we have these complexities in Scotland and these challenges but the key point is we're getting there and £500 million worth of support that would have not been there if other people had got their way will be delivered to food production in Scottish agriculture Sarah Boyack Can the cabinet secretary tell us £30 million on his computer system what proportion of the 21,000 single application forms have been successfully processed how many farms have still to be inspected and when individual farmers will know which category of payment they will be in so that they can budget accordingly given the financial crisis that's affecting many of them Cabinet secretary Sarah Boyack's right in that we have from memory I think around 1,300 farms we have to inspect and we're working flat out to make their way and they're making good headway through those inspections which we have to carry out before we make payments to the farms concerned in terms of the £178 million business case for implementing the new common agricultural policy in Scotland that's not just for the IT system and is over several years it equates to 4% of the cap payments over the next six years and hopefully the system will last a lot longer than six years so we have to invest that resource as has happened in other parts of the UK and other parts of Europe to deliver the complexities within the common agricultural policy in terms of the applications we have to go through as Sarah Boyack says all the applications so we can get a degree of accuracy that allows us to pay out the payments because it's an area payment scheme if you don't know all the entitlements and then you have to revisit then you have to get refunds from many of the farmers who have already received their payments that's why the wise and sensible thing to do is to pay out in two instalments as has happened in 2005 for a minimum of 70% in the first payments and the balance has been settled in April so that's the background Alex Ferguson I wonder if the cabinet secretary would accept that it was the inadequacy of the IT system that has currently cost £10,000 per application that caused the whole process to be extended by a month and it's that month's extension that has led to the delay in the entire rest of the process if it hadn't been for that, payments could have been made on time in December as has become the norm Cabinet secretary I fully accept that things have not gone well with the IT system as compared to what they could have been and that's a case facing all Governments and we've all got lessons to learn in terms of IT projects but the reason why we gave a month's extension was because of the complexities of the IT system to give the sector more time to submit the application forms so the root of that issue of course again was the complexity of the new policy otherwise the IT would have been easier if it had been a simpler policy but it wasn't, it was a complex policy therefore the IT issues arose I have to say that the Conservative Party, Government south of the border I think I read somewhere it's effectively dumped its IT system and using paper for the transition and they're not even having to go through in Scotland what they had to go compared to what they did in 2005 as well as this reform the key point here is that we have to get the payments out the IT system is now working and we're working our way through the applications the key point here is getting the £500 million out of support to Scottish farming businesses we're agreed with the industry that takes a few weeks longer because of the complexities as long as we get the policy right and that's what we've done let's not forget that farmers have been fortunate in receiving their payments in recent years in December rather than later in the payment window up until the following June and let's not forget we are where we are because of the more complex policy requested by farmers and crofters can the cabinet secretary confirm that the economic impact of delayed payments will be modest as has been confirmed by the banks and that most farms should have little difficulty funding if necessary Cymru Angus Macdonald is right and of course that the payment window which we've not mentioned and which people conveniently put aside is from 1 December to the end of June and that is the legislative payment window that we have and we've had a very good record in past years under the old system of getting the payments out as early as possible in the payment window so clearly people are comparing our timetable with the new cap to the fantastic success we had in the payment window under the former policy but in terms of the economic impact I have met the banks the banks are comforted by the fact that they know that £500 million worth of support will be making its way to the sector in the coming months they do of course urge any farmer who has any issues to contact their bank as early as possible and I do hope that that's advice that all members can take back to their constituencies and work with their clients and that should give us all comfort Thank you, that ends the difficult questions we now move on


Weird game where you have a significant deficit.   In your mind, what was it, I guess, that cost you? Was it just one or two plays, or was it more a big picture?  I think came down to just details of the game. Just small plays that we needed that end up being a huge place for us. Stops, rebounds, and buckets. Was the, I mean, I know every game is going to be a little bit different, but was the shot profile what you guys were looking for, or you guys want to probably need more threes? Yeah, I think we're still figuring each other out and still learning. It's game one. I think we can take a laugh in this game and implement that into what we want to see in the future. But I mean, we had a lot of great looks. Still getting a feel for everybody out there, keep building and learning. Howard, you grade yourself. You had 10 rebounds, he says, for there. But Howard, you grade this official first game for you since February? It's OK.  It's OK. I got much more to give this team. So, yeah. And then obviously, Ken Thomas' scoring was huge. But for him to do that within the flow of the office, to kind of bring you guys back, how much is that going to do just for his growth, being able to just kind of do it in this kind of situation? Huge.  You know, he's the scorer. I think he's just learning to read the game a little bit differently and pacing himself and still making good reads. Were you on any kind of, I mean, it's your first official game. And while were you on any kind of minutes limit? No. You and Spencer, I think, combined like three minutes in the fourths. Was that just flow of the game type of thing here? Yeah, that's coach. Oh, no. You guys wanted to crash the rebounds a little bit more. And I was a goal in the preseason. How would you assess kind of how you guys did that, whether it was by committee or in that fourth quarter, just being more assertive? Rebounding? Yeah. I mean, that's rebounds, running plays, you know. Every rebound counts. Another opportunity to get another possession.  They're huge for us. How did you guys maybe keep McKell encouraged? And obviously, the Cavs did a good job physically getting to him and making him work a little bit. How'd you guys try to keep him encouraged or to keep going? To keep pushing them. I think they obviously were very physical from the start. And that's how we need to be, you know, to give a test for us. He's going to be fine.  It's our first game back. We got some guys that want to take here and play with that physicality also. So I think it's just going to start for that first five and start from there. I was going to say, I mean, following up, I mean, are there, I guess, lessons to be learned in terms of the physicality that you guys are going to need to? This is the NBA. It's not easy to win. It's not a guarantee win every night. So you got to arm it.


Hey everybody, welcome to the Wallach way. I'm Jessica and today's video is going to be part two of our four part series about self care as a homeschool mom. Today we are going to be talking about physical self care and in case you missed the first video, which was just kind of the overview of what the series is gonna be and kind of why self care as a homeschool mom is so important to me and some of the benefits that I have seen from prioritizing myself for a year, I will link it up here for you guys. Okay, so I know that this is a video that most of you have been looking forward to when I announced this series. Obviously, if you are new here, you are probably not going to notice, but if you are not new here, you have been picking up on it for the past year. I took 2022 as a year to prioritize myself and I have made some physical changes, which I'm so not done, but I have lost 35 pounds and four sizes and a lot of you have been commenting along the way about how much you have enjoyed seeing the changes and how you would love to know what I'm doing. And so that's kind of what this series is all about. In this series, I am going to be talking to you about how I prioritize self care as a homeschool mom, how I fit it in, the benefits of it and any tips that I have. So today we're talking about self care physically.  That was the first thing that I did because when I think of self care physically, I think of like drinking, eating and moving. Like those are kind of the top things that I did, but I started out small you guys because baby steps add up to big changes. And so you really have to think like what is one thing that I can do or what's something small that I can do? At least that's how I had to start because I had started and failed this process so many times that I was like, it's because I'm trying to do all of the things. So the first thing that I did was, okay, you're going to just change your sodas, which if y'all have been around the Waldoch way, you know that I was powered by Dr. Pepper. Like I was somebody who drank way more than I want to admit switching from soda to water was not easy. I luckily only had about two caffeine migraines and Excedrin migraine has enough caffeine in it that I was able to take that and get past the migraines. But that was my first step as I changed soda for water. And I kind of just stuck with that for a month. Like that's it, that's what I'm going to do. And then in February, I started saying, okay, it's time to move your body. And we just started going on walks and our walks were short because I couldn't walk very far. We started out with about a mile just around the house, like out in the, I say our neighborhood but it's not really like a neighborhood. But we would just go for walks. All of us, sometimes just me, it just depended on the day. And we would just walk leisurely, nothing fancy because I couldn't do much more than that. And then once I started drinking water and moving my body, it was like, okay, well, now let's eat some more fruits and vegetables. So at dinner instead of all potatoes because I am 100% a carb girl. So if you're wondering, did I give up carbs? I totally did not. I am all carbs all the time but I would give some of my potatoes up and have a vegetable. I would have fruits and snacks instead of junk and just little things like that. That's all I did. I didn't have to do anything drastic. I was trying to just make small changes. And it was crazy because I was already making sure that Emily was eating healthier or has always ate healthier. I just wasn't great about doing it myself. So I kept tons of fruits and vegetables in the house. I mean, Emily will eat any fruit and vegetable. Like she loves them. So I was keeping them in the house. I was feeding them to her. I just wasn't eating them myself.  So I would have fruits for snacks and veggies for dinner. I started eating breakfast because I haven't always been that great about eating breakfast. I was making sure that I was eating a breakfast. And as I started feeling better, I decided I wanted to work out a little bit. And so I started with Grow With Joe has a YouTube channel. So I will link her up here as well. And I just started out with some of her workouts. She has some really short ones like Walk, The Weight Off and just kind of a short cardio. I would do 10 or 15 minutes once or twice a week. Nothing crazy. And I did that for about four months. In April, I was ready for something a little bit more. I didn't know what though, because I felt like there's so much information out there. Like so much. It's overwhelming and it was hurting my brain of what was the best thing to do. So I reached out to a friend of mine who happens to also be a homeschool mom but also a fitness coach. And I valued her because I knew that as a fitness coach who also was working from home while homeschooling, she would be realistic. Like she wasn't going to be like giving me all the stuff that I couldn't do. Like she's a fitness coach and she homeschools and she works from home.  She knows what it's like. She knows how complicated it is or the unique situations of it. And so she was like, okay, this is what you're gonna do. And she gave me macros, which is macronutrients. If you're not familiar with it, it basically means that you have a certain number of carbs, a certain number of fats, a certain number of protein and then like an overall calorie goal. And so at first, I mean, the goal is to eat even, but at first she was like, just stay under these calories and try to hit your protein. And that's what I did. I tried to do that as frequently as possible. And then we slowly started moving my protein goal up higher and higher because I started really low because that was not hard or not easy for me.  But then at the end of the day, you would realize that you were starving because you ate junk instead of whole food. And eventually I started realizing that I could get more for my calories if I would eat whole food. So even though I wasn't like, I'm gonna eat better, it slowly happened on its own because I could fill up and eat more of it, right? Like I can eat, for example, a whole bag of popcorn for 100 calories or I can have like three peanuts. Like you start looking at things like that, I can have I think like four or five M&Ms. Like you start looking at it like that, like what you can have and the fact that the one is gonna feel better and do more for your body than the other. So you just start making better choices whether you intend to or you set out to or not. And so that's part of what I started doing with my health is I just started making more choices that were better, that were fueling my body and filling my body more full that still fit into that. So if you're curious, because I want to be 100% transparent, my macros have been the same the entire year even though I wasn't hitting them, I now hit them. My daily goal is 1810 for calories. My protein goal is 145 grams for protein. My carb goal is 172 for carbs and my fat goal is 60 grams. So just full transparency there. That is my goal for eating now and that's been my goal all year but I just eat better at it now. And then I started saying, okay, let's work out too. So she designed a workout for me. I was working out three days a week and I started with nothing but body weight because I couldn't do any more than that. So we're talking body weight squats. I remember she had me do an incline pushup with just my body weight and my incline was like this, you guys like against the wall. I was probably at, I don't know, like a 20 degree angle because that's the best I could do. And I couldn't push my body up any more than that. And I would do step ups with just my body weight. But that was pretty much it. I wasn't doing a ton of weight. We started slowly adding to our home gym. Our gym is on our back porch. It is screened but it is not closed. So that means it is very cold when it's cold and it's very hot when it's hot. I will share with you guys what our home gym looks like but I do wanna say before I share with you what it looks like, that this is over the course of a year. We did not go in with any of this. In fact, I started working out in the gym with nothing, like we didn't even have mats on the ground yet. And so we slowly collected over the year and it's also because Kevin got involved with me too. So I started working out with body weight only in about April. By the end of May, I was using some weights like dumbbells and Kevin had started working out too because he wanted to give me enough time. This is what he said to find my own way before he kind of like joined me, right? Because he says that he would have loved to have seen me do this earlier and he was afraid if he did it with me or tried to push in any way that I would go running in the opposite direction which I probably would have. So he waited until like the end of May before he started kind of mid into May before he started doing it with me. I just kept adding from there. Like we kept adding to the gym and I kept just doing more of the things I was already doing. So I just kept drinking more water until I got up to about, right now my goal is 80 to 100 ounces a day of water and I just kept eating better and better until I started hitting my macro goals that Kristen had made for me. And me and Kristen just kept changing my workouts every eight weeks which is what she does in her program and she redos your workouts every eight weeks so that she was pushing me to either do more reps or higher weights and I love that she was there the whole time hyping me up. So for example, let's see if I can pull one up to give you an idea. When I first started doing squats I was just doing my body weight and now I can squat somewhere between 40 to 50 pounds depending on whether it's a kettlebell or a dumbbell. But that took me a year to get there. Again, I just wanna be transparent I want you guys to know everything. And it was hard work. It was not easy. There was tons of days when I was not motivated or I didn't wanna do it but I was determined if we're being honest to kind of just prove everybody wrong. Like I knew that Kevin wanted me to keep it up and he wasn't sure if I would and I wanted to prove to Emily I could like I wanted to prove to her that I could do it and I could do things that I couldn't do before once I lost some of the weight. So she's always wanted to go zip lining but when we first started I was over the weight capacity so I wouldn't have been able to do it with her. I'm still not sure I wanna do it because I don't like heights but now I'm under the weight and I could. When we would go to theme parks I would have to ask for the special seat for like the plus size person or the poo size person or whatever they call it which meant that she didn't typically get to sit where she wanted to sit. When we would go to the mountains and do the mountain coaster gets on the roof she always had to ride with Kevin because if she had rode with me even when she was very, very small and very, very light we were over the weight limit. I by myself wasn't but us combined were. We had talked about kayaking before but the idea of kayaking stressed me out because I knew she would have to be with him which would mean I would have to be by myself and I wasn't sure if I could handle a double kayak but was a single one gonna hold my way and it was just always stressful and so there were so many things we didn't do and we didn't experience because of either my help or my size or my weight and I was just determined I was like I'm just gonna do this and so I just kept pushing. What I did to make time for it is I would find pockets in our days. Our walks either started like after dinner we would go for a family walk. I slowly started getting up earlier because I found that rest was really important to this whole process and to progress if you don't rest enough you're not gonna make progress and so I started prioritizing my rest as well making sure that I was getting to bed at a certain time which meant my phone getting turned off. I actually have modes set up on my phone like you can go in and I have bedtime so that it renders my phone a paperweight after midnight. I have exercise mode so only my exercise app works when I'm exercising so it doesn't distract me. I actually now have a homeschool mode set up so I don't get distracted when I'm homeschooling but I just found either pockets of time or I was very creative. So I started going to bed a little bit earlier which meant I could get up a little bit earlier and if I strewed something for Emily which I used to do to be able to get more sleep in the morning or be lazier in the morning I could strew something in the morning and I could sneak out to the gym, porch and get a workout in. And because Kristen was a homeschool mom who was a fitness coach she was able to design my workouts that worked for my schedule so I could say like look I've got 30 minutes and that's all I've got it should make the best 30 minute workout for me. And then I started getting really creative during the summer because I had set a step goal for myself. I try even now to stay between seven and 10,000 steps a day. I'm not like die hard on that but I try really hard to do that. And again, our gym is on the porch which means that we have treadmill out there but it's hot and it's Florida and so it was hot outside. So I just got creative. I would pace back and forth when I would read aloud if you're not very graceful I wouldn't suggest doing that. It took me a long time to get used to it but I would just pace like the length of the living room or beside the table to get my steps in while I read out loud to her. There were times when it was cooler weather that I would have her come sit like I would put a blanket or a towel on the floor at the porch slash gym. And I would have her listen to me read while I walked the treadmill. I would read for my Kindle out loud while she walked the treadmill or while I walked the treadmill to get steps in. I just got super creative. One of the ways that I am creative now, I don't get steps although you could technically I guess put your active watch I guess around your foot if you wanted to or on your shoe but I don't do it with mine now. But I got an under the desk elliptical because I find that I am sitting a lot between what I do for work and homeschooling. I'm still a lot. And so I got an under the desk elliptical and I will put it in front of my chair when I read aloud and do it or I'll put it like I'm not doing it right now because I'm filming a video but if I was working like if I had my laptop you know when I was working I would have it under the table right here and I would be doing it while I was working. It's not going to be enough by itself to make any drastic changes but I just find that it helps me add some more movement in. It's about the equivalent of riding a bike and it keeps me from being sedentary which I find that if I keep moving like the more that I move the more I want to move. So it just makes it easier like the more I move the more I want to move so if I just keep moving at some kind sneaking it in somewhere like it just little things add up to big changes and that's kind of I guess really the main reason I want to do this series number one is because I know a ton of you had questions that you wanted me to answer or you wanted to know my story but I wasn't ready to share it so now I am.  Walking, adding in some exercise, eating better foods but slowly over the course of a year and it just adding up to bigger things. So I am also going to try to tell you some of my top I guess resources for self-care as a homeschool mom physically. My number one top resource is going to be some kind of active tracker, fitness tracker. We had FitBits for a really long time. I now have the Samsung watch because we have Samsung's and it was a gift and I really like it but some sort of fitness tracker so you can track. Like, okay, you don't have to go for 10,000 steps but if you do 2,000 on average, try to get three like just up your steps. I like having Kristen as a resource which I will link all of her stuff in the description if you're interested in hiring a fitness coach she hands down is an amazing one and she's a homeschool mom so she's gonna get your unique situation. My under the desk elliptical for sneaking in some extra movement but if I had to pick one thing and one thing only it would be the set of dumbbells that we started with because I think that strength training hands down made the biggest difference in the changes that I saw physically in the way that I felt mentally because I would have never used the word strong to describe myself a year ago like that's not I was anything but that but strength training has definitely made me feel stronger like physically stronger mentally stronger emotionally stronger like when you can lift some weight I don't know that's just a really, really good feeling so those are some of my top picks if I was going to pick a few things to start out with also a really reach over here a really great cup or bottle or whatever it's gonna take to encourage you to drink water this is mine I will link it as well it's 40 ounces so I know that bare minimum I have to drink two of these a day and that's that's in cup holders which is nice anyway so that would be probably some of my top picks if you're going to count calories or do anything in the kitchen a kitchen scale like a decent I mean they're not any bad ones like I think ours was like $20 and it works really, really well as nice because you can weigh and know exactly what you're eating and yes I weigh the majority of everything that I eat and eventually it just becomes second nature and it doesn't feel like a chore anymore so it's no longer a chore for me and then I purchased a scale for like myself that I will link because not because I think you need a scale but because this specific scale measures like muscle mass and bone mass and water weight and all of the things and so when I wasn't losing weight then there was a lot of times I didn't lose weight it was nice to be able to look and see that okay you're not losing weight but your fat percentage is going down and your muscle percentage is going up and so that kind of mentally kept me still going in the game and keep pushing forward because I could see that okay well you're not losing weight but you're quite literally changing fat for muscle so those were the things I think made the biggest difference again hands down if you can only get one as the dumbbell set but something that's gonna encourage you to drink water a kitchen scale if you're going to be either measuring or weighing your food the scale in the bathroom just helped me mentally be able to keep going and then I really like my end of the desk elliptical but if that's all you're gonna do it's probably not going to be enough it's great for extra movement but not if it's gonna be your only movement and then some kind of fitness tracker and it doesn't even have to be like I don't know you can track it however you want you can probably track it with pen and paper if you want it and be just as good but some sort of tracker where you can track what you're doing and then if you want somebody to gift you something or you have a little bit of extra Kristen as a coach because she was invaluable now if you have any tips for homeschool moms and self-care to stay healthy physically or how to prioritize themselves physically I would really really love it if you would leave it down in the comments not just for me but for other moms I really wanna make this a place where we can encourage each other and we can help remind each other and homeschool moms in general that you can't pour from an empty cup you need to take care of yourself first and any tips or tricks that you have I'm sure will be greatly appreciated by somebody so make sure you leave everything you've got in the comments and then make sure you come back next week for the last two videos in the series which are gonna be where we talk about self-care on the homeschool moms emotionally and self-care homeschool mom mentally.


We have a two-component mixture of sodium hydrogen carbonate and sodium carbonate. We've masked out about 2.5 grams of the mixture. We're going to take that mixture and we're going to add it to an evaporating dish with a watch glass. We've masked the evaporating dish and watch glass previously. We add the solid to the evaporating dish. We cover it. We're now going to slowly add hydrochloric acid to the mixture. The hydrochloric acid will react with the sodium hydrogen carbonate and the sodium carbonate to produce water, sodium chloride, and carbon dioxide gas. The carbon dioxide gas will escape from the reaction mixture. The watch glass prevents any loss of compound from splattering. We'll continue to add the hydrochloric acid until all the compound has reacted. We'll know this by the fact that we will no longer see carbon dioxide being emitted. We'll gently swirl the mixture to make sure that all the compound has a chance to react. After it appears that all the compound has reacted, we'll rinse the bottom of the watch glass to make sure that any compound that may have splattered up on the bottom of the watch glass has a chance to react. We'll then evaporate the mixture to dryness. We've heated the sample to evaporate all the water and the excess HCl. What we're left with is the sodium chloride. We masked the evaporating dish and watch glass, and this allows us to calculate the mass of the sodium chloride produced. We use the mass of sodium chloride to back calculate how much sodium hydrogen carbonate and how much sodium carbonate were in the original sample. We're going to analyze the same two-component system of sodium hydrogen carbonate and sodium carbonate by a volumetric analysis. We've masked out about one gram of the mixture of sodium hydrogen carbonate and sodium carbonate. We're going to add that to 125 milliliter Erlenmeyer flask. We're now going to pipette 25 milliliters of a standardized solution of one molar hydrochloric acid to the mixture. The hydrochloric acid reacts with the sodium hydrogen carbonate and sodium carbonate to produce water, carbon dioxide, and sodium chloride. The carbon dioxide escapes from the reaction mixture. There will be an excess of hydrochloric acid at the end of the reaction. We'll gently swirl the reaction mixture to make sure that the sample gets a chance to react. We know the reaction is complete because we no longer see carbon dioxide being emitted. We'll now rinse the sides of the flask to make sure that all the sample has had a chance to react. We'll add a few drops of phenothaline indicator. Phenothaline is an acid-based indicator. It is colorless and acidic solution and pink and basic solution. We're going to titrate the excess HCl. The phenothaline has already been added to the reaction mixture. We filled the burette with a standardized solution of sodium hydroxide. We've taken an initial burette reading. We're now going to slowly add the sodium hydroxide solution until we reach a pale pink endpoint. We're close to the endpoint. We're going to rinse down the walls of the flask to make sure that anything that is splattered on the walls of the flask has a chance to react. When we reach the pink endpoint, we know that we've added the same number of moles of sodium hydroxide as there was excess HCl. The solution is now turned pale pink. We'll take a final burette reading.


Mr. Peter Mba, presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the recent elections, says the Supreme Court judgment that upheld the victory of President Bola Tinobu has damaged people's confidence in the judiciary. Obi spoke in Abuja on Monday at a press conference. He said the Independent National Electoral Commission displayed incompetence during the elections. On October 26, the seven-member panel of the Apex Court in a unanimous decision dismissed the petitions of Obi and Atik Wabubaka of the People's Democratic Party, challenging Tinobu's victory in the February 25 election. Certain legal issues aside, the Supreme Court has bitted a disturbing aversion to public opinion just as it abandoned its responsibility as court of law and policy. It is therefore to correct this man that has observed that the court's decision contradicts the overwhelming evidence of election rigging, false claim of technical glitch, substantial non-compliance to the rules set by INEC itself, as well as matters of pejority, identity theft, and forgery have been brought to light in Constance's election matter. These are healthy allegations that should not have been treated with levity. More appealing, the Supreme Court's judgment willfully congealed preaches of the Constitution relative to established qualifications and parameters for candidates in presidential elections. With this counterintuitive judgment, the Supreme Court has transferred a heavy moral burden on the court room to our national conscience.