Our quorum number is four for voting. Mm hmm. Well, we just need one more. And Lauren is not coming. Is that right? That's right. Yeah, so we won't have a quorum. We won't have a quorum. We can't vote on anything. And, you know, they're so on the agenda today was check in on the declaration of inclusion. And look at the strategic. Plan for C. Jack. And think about what next steps we need. Um, D. Helen and Michael. Do you feel like there's any discussion to have an absence any kind of voting. Without the other members or we, we kind of stuck. Um, what I, we, we did get one comment. Um, from Peter Tom's about who made some suggestions. So we don't have necessarily vote, but we could, we could discuss those. And if we think that they're, we want to do that, we can. Table remote table and emotion and then circulate the revised. You know, circulate a revised version to the members and vote on it next time. And the same thing with same thing with the plan. We can make, if we want to make some recommendations, we can do that without emotion. I think is that right? We can Kelly, we can. We don't have to make a motion to make recommendations for consideration. So you, you can review. Sort of the materials and, you know, make some recommendations to the committee and then, you know, take them up at the next meeting for sure. Yeah. I mean, I'm comfortable with us looking at Peter's comments. I did look at his word document. The edits are. Kind of. Non-controversial in my opinion. But he did add some other comments too. Jeremy, can you share your script? Is it possible? Thank you. I'll pull up. His comments. Let me. Actually drag them into the document. Just give me one second. Share. I'm going to put Peter's comments. At the very end, I'm going to paste those in. And I will share right now. And I can also share his edits in just a second. So his main comments are. I'm going to put that in the document. I'm going to put that in the document. And I'm going to put that in the document. And even its title was notable name. The declaration of inclusion was not mentioned until the end of the third bullet, about three quarters of the way down. So that's, that's interesting. We want to reference that somewhere in the first paragraph. We're at a statement. Do you want to talk about these one by one or review them all first? Let's talk about them one by one. Okay. Okay. So. While we do have a title, declaration of inclusion. We're not actually mentioning that. Until further down in the document. Is that something we want to address?  We can do it. It doesn't make a whole lot of difference to me. But it does make a whole lot of difference.   You've got a title right there at the top. So. Yeah, I tend to agree with you, Michael. On that. And we like the Middlebury is. Right. The, do they use it? Sorry. I don't remember. I have to have my computer. It's interesting. And I think the point here. The actual text is the declaration. The title is clearly. Declaration of inclusion. I think. I think I'm comfortable with it as it is because the thing is the declaration. Yeah, me too. We can say this. Wait, what other members will say. Yeah. Right. Okay. So let's just. Give a check to that one. All right. His next comment. Well, it was the last of three coming out of the paragraph referring to the 2018 creation. See Jack, when the statewide declaration effort had not yet started. Let's see what he's saying there. All right. So this is kind of a timing issue. I didn't understand the point. So we are talking about our committee, right? Not the declaration here. Yeah, that one doesn't quite make sense to me either because we're just noting kind of a historical moment. The city council had established see Jack. And see Jack. Moving forward. Well, and has and moving forward will do these three bullet points, which is inclusive of us. Kind of adopting the declaration of inclusion. So I, I don't. I don't feel that comment is necessarily something we need to incorporate. Yeah, I agree, or we can ask him what he is trying to say, right? He can elaborate a little bit. If everybody wants. But yeah, say Jack and the declaration of inclusion. They are two different things. Yeah. Yeah. The only change I would say is. The end of the fourth paragraph for the vision. The city council established, et cetera. And somehow. Just say the various social by continuing to identify and nurture instead of. I mean, if we want to, if we, if we want to see that we've been doing it already, if that's important thing to say. That's the place to say it continuing to. For that first bullet point there. But I don't think it's really essential. Yeah. Yeah. That's my opinion too. Yeah. The comments, these two comments don't feel substantive enough. To really incorporate. So I would, I would say. You know, thank you, Peter, but. We're good. And they are there just as you said, comments or feedback. So it's not that we need to change anything. It is very nice of him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This was as we talk. Yeah, they are kind of minor. Minor things. We don't have to change whole text based on them. Okay. Let me pull up his word document because he did have some good. I thought edits. Let me just make this a little bigger. Some of these look like they were already changed. So. I think that. Yeah. Anything in bold he was proposing. Right. And then strike through. I guess the one thing, the one last place. In the last paragraph, the city council and partnership with see Jack will establish a process. He points out that. Assess and review. The same. So just review and evaluate. Our progress in these issues. Yeah, I'm comfortable with that. So you're saying. Helen, what do you think about that?  Yeah. So process to review and evaluate. Our progress in these issues to ensure that. Yeah. And then the other one. The others, I think are fine. Yeah, I don't know if we, and well, and third, the third paragraph as a city, we formally condemn. I don't know if we need the word formally. We hear by, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's a modifier that I don't. It sounds legalistic. Well, Peter is a lawyer, you know, so. Yeah, he was a lawyer. I don't know if he does it. Yeah. Helen, as you're reading through some of these edits. Do you have any opinion. I think I will go with yours and Michael's decision because these are really advanced for me. Okay. It's very much as far as the language. Yeah, but something so. That's fair enough. Well, I. So take out formally and take as he suggests, take out the word all discrimination. Because it's not necessary. We're going to add a, we need to add that in here. Ensure that. And just back and forth here. No, there's the addition of Montpelier up above. That's already there. So take out formally formally where you are. Yeah. We've got adding our C Jack acronym for clarity here. And then down below, we made this change already. We changed it to review and evaluate. Yeah. He's suggesting adding in our account, our last accountability statement to our citizens and to the intention set forth in this declaration. I mean, I like, I like that as a. Sentiment. To. And to the intention set forth in this declaration. Okay. And then we've, like we've missed a word there. What had been. Has been. I believe that's all of his edits. That we'd like to incorporate. I think you said, delete all, right? In the. Yes. Yes. No way. Yeah. As a city, we formally condemn discrimination in all its forms. Yeah. Take out the first all there. Yeah. We got that. We can. I thought you did too. Okay. Did anybody notice I sent around this article from the Times. Argus, which was, was somewhat confusing and disturbing about. High gate. Yeah, I looked at that. I read it and I was wondering if we want to discuss. This and what really they are trying to say, because I went there. Website and try to understand what it's meaning. I couldn't find anything. So it will be great if we discussed. I think it's a good. Good thing that you shared with us, Michael. I guess they had, there's a city manager, right? Or somebody was a spokesperson for. Okay. The select board vice chair, Vern broski explained the move during the, when we signed on, we hadn't quite done our homework and yet. After doing our homework, we're not sure if we want to be associated with that group. So I would, I'd be interested to understand what that means. Is there something about this, that group that we should know. What, what, what is the group? Do you think? Well, I think it's, um, Al, um, Wakefield's group. That it's interesting when you go to the website, they don't identify themselves as an organization. There's no name for the organization. It's just declaration. Yeah, I don't, I don't think. My understanding it's not an organization. It's in. It's Al. And I think two other folks. Coming together as concerned citizens. Kind of organizing a movement. To get this decoration. Kind of off the ground in cities around Vermont. Yeah. So can you reach out that person. The select board member or spoke person and. It is not really very clear and it creates some kind of suspicion, which. Is interesting. So. I don't know what he meant, but now I, I have a, like, okay, should we, should we also investigate what's happening? But it wasn't clear what he's trying to say. Yeah. I have to, so my. My interpretation. The kind of ambiguity and lack of specifics. I don't think that. I think that raises alarm bells for me in terms of the motivation of the city council and rescinding. The declaration. It, it just speaks of strategies. That are often used to kind of.  So I. I don't find it credible. And my, my kind of read. I don't find it credible. I don't find it credible. I don't find it credible. I don't find it credible. But. Again, that's just my personal opinion. And not the, the committee's opinion. Yeah, I think we have to be cautious, cautious here, but I think cautious at both, on both sides. I mean, I'm not willing to take the. High gate as, as. You know, as an authoritative condemnation. I think we should be cautious here. Especially since there are no specifics as Pellin points out. On the other hand, this has been, you know, thrown in our face. And I think we should just. At least. Understand a little bit better. What, what's going on. If, if you, if, unless you object to it, I could put, I could try to put in a phone call and see if I could get. Some more information from. The spokes. What was his name? Verne brusky. Yeah. And see if he wants to talk about it at all. And also from this group, right. The declaration of inclusion group. We should listen to their side. They might have more details too. Yeah, we cannot only, you know, ask one side. So I guess that means a phone call to. To Al Wakefield.  We know from this, whatever, whatever it is, organization or coalition or working group or whatever, whatever they're calling themselves. Do we know anybody else? I'm checking the website. Contact us. There's three individuals named J Alvin Wakefield out Wakefield. Bob Harnish. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think I'm, I'm certainly fine with that, Michael. I mean, we do have time. We're not going to be able to vote this forward until the next time we meet. Anyway. Okay. So if, if you feel you could do some digging. I think it's worthwhile. Okay. Well. I have other things on my desk, but I can, I can do it sometime later today. We'll get started on that later today. Okay. Thanks. And it's okay for me to say that I'm calling on behalf of our committee, right? Yeah. As a member, sure. I have your, I have your agreement on that. Okay. Absolutely. Okay. So. I think where we're at is the language of the declaration. Seems settle based on some feedback that we've discussed. We did get feedback from Lauren in her email that she feels it's solid. But again, I think we can't, we can't vote it forward to. You kind of start. Maybe sharing it more broadly. And getting it ready for city council. Until we have a quorum. And then secondly, Michael's going to do a little bit of investigation about this high gate. Situation. Have I got everything on the declaration? Okay. I'm seeing no disagreement. Question for you, Kelly. Are there supposed to be minutes for meetings that are not, that have no quorum and take no. Voted action. So because it's sort of more of like a working session, there's not a majority of you here. You wouldn't necessarily need minutes because it would be as though, you know, it wouldn't be an official meeting. However, it might not be a bad idea just to capture. The general comments for the group so that then you can kind of just keep things moving forward. That was a purely selfish question. You understand. Whether I have to write another set of minutes. I think, I think Michael, in my opinion, I will want, I appreciate you doing that. I think it's a few bullet points of the highlights. And maybe more importantly for our committee. Colleagues is. Kind of those next steps. That we just outlined. So that they are aware of what's going on between now and the next time we meet. Okay. So then the next question. Is. Well, I have an opinion. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure if we have a plan and kind of checking in on. You know, what other actions to take. Do you all feel. We should start discussing that or without. Kind of our quorum. Should we wait on that? Well, and we have been discussing it. And I'm not sure where we've left off. Exactly. Part of the problem of taking minutes is I either focus on the minutes or I focus on what the conversation.  I'm not quite sure where we're going to go in that discussion. And if you will discuss again with the larger group. Then maybe we should wait because it will be like repetitive for us. Yeah. Um, yeah, but it's, it's up to you. Yeah. Both of you. Um, I think Pella and I tend to agree with you. We. We are kind of at a loss in terms of making decisions. Um, and I think. The strategic plan work is about making decisions because we have to decide. Okay. Who's doing what, what's our next step. Um, so I, I would support that. Like, I think we could. Table that until we are all together again in a couple of weeks. Um, and that's on Michael. Is it my, um, Am I correct that the plan was to try to have our strategic plan ready for the time when the city council starts to talk about its strategic plan? Is that right? That's, that was. We were working around the, the coincidence of those two. Um, so I, I would support that. Like, I think we could table that until we are all together again in a couple of weeks. Um, and, you know, I think we could probably do. When Kelly, when does, when does the council start? We're talking about its strategic plan. Um, so we probably will have everything. Um, On the eighth as we onboard new members and to get everybody up to speed. Um, and so there's that the eighth though is going to be a pretty. Uh, You know, of the land kind of things, some strategic items for sure and then the 22nd probably you know we'll get into a little bit more of that. And so in terms of the timeframe I think you know bringing this forward as part of a conversation with the council probably the 22nd or the you know first April meeting. Michael I missed I think a key meeting at the end of last in December about this so I am probably a little less clear. My understanding was we had kind of I started to identify some different tactics in each of the quarters of this coming year and we need to kind of start to mobilize around those but I there could be another dimension here that I'm not aware of about kind of checking in with council and making sure we're all on the same page but so my confusion is something that I feel like I need help from the full council to clarify our full committee sorry. Yeah well I'm okay with leading it at that. Okay then I think our next meetings agenda we're going to kind of hear back from you Michael about the declaration what you've discovered at Highgate we're going to get the full committee together to just confirm that our draft is solid and then figure out how we start to I think socialize it move it forward and then we'll just continue to have the strategic plan on the agenda as well so that makes sense for everything. Okay thumbs up Helen. Yeah I think I think unless anyone has anything else we can go ahead and end early today. So when would the next meeting be? So you're thinking let's see here all right weeks from now the first is that yeah we're on a two weeks two week cycle okay. So yep if we can get that warned and the link set up. Awesome thanks. Okay all right well good to see you all thank you. Thank you Jeremy and Michael, Kelly. See you next time.


Today, Real Madrid could score as many goals as they wanted to. Barcelona had no answer and they haven't had answers defensively over the course of the season, so it's not a surprise that this happens on this stage. It's time to sound the alarms for Barcelona. It's time to sound the alarms for Xavi. On January 11th, Barcelona won by more than one goal for the first time in nearly four months. But any momentum that could have possibly been created from that has now disappeared after a 4-1 disaster in the Supercopa final against Madrid. I am probably the most optimistic Barcelona fan in the English-speaking world, some may say the most delusional, but right now it's really hard to be optimistic. I wish it was because of just tactical errors or just bad refereeing decisions or just individual mistakes, but we lost because of all of those things and more. Sure, we can give credit to Real Madrid for coming out of the blocks immediately prepared to press high and play through Barcelona's high line. Madrid played like a team that was organized well and was coached well and had a clear identity to their game, but they weren't miraculous. Jude played fine, Vinny played fine, and Cruz played fine, but there weren't a ton of moments of brilliance in this match from them. Barcelona was just so poor that Madrid didn't need to be brilliant to win. They could just follow their game plan and it worked perfectly. Vinny's hat-trick was probably the simplest hat-trick that I've ever seen at the very least in an El Clásico. A tap in, a pen, and a tiny bit of composure to go around the goalkeeper, but even in Occupania made that very easy for him to do. From the very start of that match, Chavi's 11 men were not prepared to play. Conceding two goals in the first 10 minutes of a match is unacceptable, but it's even more unacceptable when it's happened over and over again this season. Of the 28 matches they've played this season, they were the first to concede in 11 of them. That means 40% of the time this team has had to chase the game. That may not be terrible for a team that can score well and can come back well, but for the team that has some of the worst finishers in all of Europe, that's pretty much a death wish. Over and over again, Barcelona is not ready to play, and they come out too slowly to start matches. Sometimes you can get away with that, like when you play Almeria, the worst team in the First Division in Spain. But that's not okay when you play against a team that has a very clear footballing identity, like Girona, like Las Palmas, and like Real Madrid. In this squad, there is plenty of quality. They have the captain of treble-winning Manchester City, the most important player to the Iax Champions League run in 2019, and one of the best strikers of his generation, as well as a dominant backline.  And it's not like this was a Champions League knockout match where you can understand that their mentality issues that they've had for the past five years might show up and might be a problem for the team. It was actually the least important trophy that Barcelona are going to compete for all season, as well as one that they were victorious in the exact same fixture last season. This team has the quality to perform, however, not in the way that Trabi's coaching staff is asking of them. If you were in my live stream for this last match, you probably heard me complain about the problem for these basically all of the problems from this match, Barcelona's high line. To make a high line work, you need heavy pressure on the ball everywhere from your forward line all the way to your center backs, but that's not feasible with this profile of players. For that first goal, Christensen was way too slow to pressure Bellingham, and he was easily able to play the ball through to Vinny, whose man Kunde was not ready to defend running into space like that. Kunde tried to step up to play the offside, but you can't do that when your entire backline is not prepared to do that or on the same page to do that, and they weren't. This happened over and over again, and not just in this match. Our players are perpetually uncomfortable. Gundo and Frankie struggled so much to move the ball around in the midfield, and it didn't help that Sergio Roberto and Pedri were pinned so far up the pitch, so it was basically Frankie and Gundo vs Real Madrid's four midfielders, and there's not much you can do in that situation at all. And so whenever they inevitably lost the ball, the team was very exposed on the counter with basically just Christensen and Kunde up against Vinny Rodrigo and Bellingham. Among all of the problems in this match, this was a terrible performance by Chavi, and I'm glad he apologized to the fans after this match, because this was his fault. He is asking these players to play in a way that is suboptimal with the profiles that he has. We can't play that way without a proper pivot, so at least try and play Romelu so he can operate the space that Rodrigo and Bellingham were constantly in. And I can't believe he played Sergio Roberto against this side, because he just does not have the quality to compete with that over the likes of Ferdinand Lopez, who can bring the energy that we need without Gavi and the pressure that we need without Busquets. I think the reason this team has been terrible out of possession this season is because Chavi is trying to find a way to make these guys play well together, but that's the problem. He hasn't found it yet, and we're more than halfway through this season. Chavi probably knows he can't have these guys press like crazy, so he's trying to compensate for that in different ways, but he hasn't been able to figure it out, and he's making silly mistakes in the process. You don't need to have players that perfectly fit a position if you have a style of play that these players know so strongly, so solidly. That's why Oro Romelu looked so good last season for Girona and why Barcelona wanted to sign him, but also why he looks so bad with Barcelona now, because Barcelona does not have a solid style of play, and that is why they are suffering so much this season. I've defended Chavi way too much this season, but after putting some thought into it, he is on very thin ice. Valverde was sacked for less than this, so was Kumin, and so was Setien. I can't continue making excuses for Chavi. If we end this season without any silverware, his time is up, his chance is gone, and the dream is over with him. We need to move forward, we need to move on, we need an identity. That's what makes teams successful. That's why Las Palmas is so far up in the table, even though they just got promoted, and Bayer Leverk Kusin is winning the Puntas Liga right now, because they have a clear idea of how to play. From game to game, there might be slight changes to their game plan, but they can have a good idea of what to do no matter what. It's the manager's job to give these players a baseline idea of how to play, so they can have the confidence to do more and to play at their best of their abilities. But Chavi isn't doing that, and the best example of that is how many early goals Barcelona has conceded this season. It takes Barcelona way too long to get comfortable and get into the rhythm of the match, which allows teams that are able to get into the rhythm quickly, because they have a clear identity, to take advantage of that and score early goals on Barcelona and make Barcelona chase for the rest of the match, just like they did in the Super Classical. With how this team is playing, it's pretty hard to be a Barcelona fan, and I guess it has been for the past five years, but it's especially hard to be a Barcelona fan that speaks English. Sure, this team is struggling, but the announcers and the pundits are constantly talking so negatively about Barcelona. And sure, I understand there's not a ton of good things to say, but it's so profoundly negative that it's very difficult to listen to. Everyone that announces the Barcelona matches is even negative, and not only that, they're almost always very biased toward Real Madrid. And sure, this was a bad game for Barcelona, but I don't think it's fair to have clearly an ex-Real Madrid player announcing a match to all of North America. It's not like we have other options to listen to if we're English speakers, that is our only option. So I may be profoundly positive in my reviews of Barcelona and the way I talk about potential moves and things like that, but I feel like I have to, because there are so few positive things. That may mean that I might get flamed in a lot of my comments for the takes that I have, but if that means that a few people have a better idea and a better sense of what is going on and a little bit of hope, then I'm okay with that. That's the kind of content I want to offer, because there's a lot of Doomsday-type reactions towards the way Barcelona is playing, especially on Barça Twitter. I haven't been able to open Twitter in two days, because I just don't want to see the crap on there. Whatever, I'm just upset right now and I needed to rant, but that doesn't discard my points that I made about Chavi, because he is still on very thin ice, and if we don't walk away with Silverware this season, he should be fired. But having a clearer style, I believe could help this team immensely. Also, I'm going to be doing another live stream for Barça's Copa del Rey match on Thursday against Unionistas, and it's basically a safe space for Barcelona fans to rant and talk and be delusional about Barcelona with me without being flamed for being a Barcelona fan, because these days we basically need it. But if you enjoyed this video, jump on over to this video, which is all about what's going on with Balde and how he can fix his situation, because he isn't really great right now, or check out this video about whatever YouTube thinks you might be interested in. But thank you for watching, and I'll see you in the next one. Peace.


Right this feels like a lot of pressure but it's time to find out what my top 10 books of the year are. I'm to my best books of 2022. I feel nervous. Yeah I've ranked my top 10 books of the year and I'm very excited to share them with you, chat about the books that I loved this year. I feel like we know what the top book of the year is. I feel like we all know that. But I feel like there will be some in the top 10 that are kind of surprises. So I want you to put your predictions down below. You don't have to predict number one. I feel like we know where that's going. But I want you to put your predictions down below for what some of the top 10 will be. I will say that I think there's a pretty clear divide between the bottom five on the list being favorites of the year and the top five being favorites of all time. I wouldn't call any of the bottom five on the list favorites all time. They're kind of ones that I've really enjoyed reading this year but I'm not necessarily gonna think about in like 10 years. Whereas favorites of all time I do view like that. So any questions, any queries or do we just get straight into it? I feel very nervous. Okay. Oh my god. Okay it's happening. Everybody stay calm. What's the procedure everyone? What's the procedure? Stay f***ing calm. So coming in at number 10. This was difficult. I'd say number 10 to 8 could like other books could have edged their way in that I haven't made it onto the list but I made my decision. I actually made this decision very quick. Okay. I was like right that goes there, that goes there and then I've just trusted myself with my initial instinct. So number 10 was The Dragon Republic by R.F. Quang. So I read this and The Burning God this year. I would say this is my favorite in the Poppy War trilogy. So you know many of you will know what this trilogy is. We're following Rin who's an orphan. She goes to this military academy. Train's really hard to get there. Train's really hard when she's there and then war breaks out. I think this series in particular, Rin as a morally grey character, you don't always agree with I think is very refreshing. A lot of books I read nowadays want you so desperately to love the main character, to like love them, to want to get all the merch, especially fantasy, like get all their merch, like make a fan account for them and like I like that this doesn't really want you to do that. It wants you to question the decisions that Rin makes throughout the series. And I love a good like war strategy, like the kind of book that other people might find boring. I love, so I love this book. I can understand how other people wouldn't love it, but I just think the writing is taking up a notch. I think it's so immersive. The ending, whoo! I was a little bit gagged. I was a little bit gagged. I was a little, I remember sitting downstairs reading it and being like, I mean, I cried more at the Burning God, but like that is, you're meant to cry. But I still cried at the ending of this one as well. And it's not quite as emotionally manipulative as the Burning God is. But yeah, I think this series is such a wonderful fancy series. Yes, it's miserable. You know, I talked to my parents about R of Quang, they're like, I don't know if I can read anything by Rebecca again. Don't know if I can do it because of the the sadness, the misery, which is fair enough. My dad read this whole series and he's like, I don't know if I can do it again. It is unforgiving. It is in many ways holding a mirror up to real history. And I think it's educating people on real stuff that happened throughout history, not showing away from war, not showing away from the bitterness and the horrible acts of war that happen and really showing people, I think, what happens. Then coming in at number nine is actually a book that I don't know and I should probably get a copy of this. And it is I'm Glad My Mum Died by Janet McCurdy. I believe this is the only nonfiction in this list. Yeah, so this is my favorite nonfiction I've read this year and I wanted to put a nonfiction on list. I mean, what is there to say that hasn't been said about this book? I read the audiobook, that's why I don't own it physically and I would really recommend the audiobook. So of course, maybe you all know, this is Janet McCurdy talking about her childhood and adolescence and becoming an adult and the effects of the abuse that she suffered from her mother throughout all of that. It's a very difficult read. It's a very, very tough read. But I think it's a book that a lot of people can take a lot from and I think her writing is incredible. I am so happy for her. As someone who watched, like I was the generation where iCarly was it. I would come home, I'd watch iCarly, Victorious, Hannah Montana, like that was my era, you know? I loved iCarly. I'm so happy for her that she's seeing the success that she has. I am so proud of her, I could cry. And she's gonna write fiction and I can't wait to read what her fiction is because I think she had such a way with words and conveying emotion and feeling throughout this book. You know, I would say if you know what the the book is gonna touch on, particularly for me when she was talking about her ed and her struggles with food, it was kind of triggering. Like it's a lot. She's very, very honest and she like puts it out there kind of not sugarcoating anything, which I think is important. But just prepare yourself because I wasn't prepared, I don't think, for quite how descriptive some elements are gonna be. But I think it's such an important story for her to tell. I think there's a lot of people out there that relate to what she experienced. I think she's just incredibly brave for putting this out there with such honesty. And yeah, I would totally recommend this. I feel like everyone's recommended it, but I would totally recommend it. Number eight on this list, I feel like it's a little bit of a surprise, but it's gonna be Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Julia McAllister. Now this could be recency bias, is that a word? Because I did just read this for my video where I read The Goodreads Troye Somanese for Mystery Thriller. And I feel like I didn't speak about this enough in it because I was kind of like a-exhausted and I was reading like six books in three days or something. And I don't know, I still do find it easier sometimes to talk about books I didn't like and point out flaws than point out what I love about a book.  And he's taken into police custody, her and husband go to sleep, she wakes up, it's the day before. And she does it again and wakes up it's the day before that. So she keeps going back in time. And she figures out essentially what she thinks the reason that's happening is because she has to stop that from happening. She has to stop her lovely son, you know, he's obviously, as we go through the book, he's struggling with stuff and he's changed recently but he's, she views him as his child, her child, right? Like I think he's just turned 18. Sometimes I feel like we view 18 year olds as adults but as someone who's been 18 I'm, I was still a child. I'm 22 and I'm still my mum's child.   So you know she wants to protect him and stop that from happening. And I thought it was just such a unique take. I thought it was so different than anything that's out there at the moment. And I liked that it wasn't Groundhog Day. She was going back and back in time. There's a reveal halfway through this. Oh, I was a bit gagged. I did then predict what, like, how that progresses. But like the little, the halfway twist, again, I said, I think I said in that video, thrillers don't often leave me with my mouth hanging open like shocked. But this did, I thought the writing was great. And I loved that we were following a more mature woman who's like, what, like, I'm trying to remember how old children got pregnant. Like 40s, you know, I loved that we were following her and her ingenuity. And her love for her son, really, this book boils down to her mother's love for her son and her child. And I just loved the perspective, you know, and it's also kind of a love story between her and her husband, just the family as a whole. And I just thought there were some really good reveals, really good, like, twisting with time and like, just having to see her figure it out. Because like I said in the video, if she makes contact with someone who can help her, or she tells someone in her life what's happening, when she goes to sleep and wakes up, it will be the day before or a week before for them. And they won't have had that conversation with her. So she's on her own again. And I don't know, I just thought it was very, very unique. Number seven, if I'm honest, is kind of a double ticket, because number seven is Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid. But I will say it's kind of like, you know, it's kind of at this point in the list, because it's kind of for both of these, but really Malibu Rising. I preferred Malibu Rising to Carrie Soto's back, but I did give these both five stars. I give Taylor Jenkins Reid five stars every time, seemingly. I just love her writing. But I'll talk about Malibu Rising, Carrie Soto's back, I think. Partly I loved it, because I read it almost all on the beach in Italy, and that was a great experience, oh my god. Like, having the pizza on the beach, going and swimming in the sea, then coming back and meeting us, it was a vibe. But objectively, I do prefer Malibu Rising. Many of you will know what this is about. We're following the Riva siblings. In the present day as they're throwing a party and kind of discussing where their lives are at the moment, a lot of them are surfers. But also going back into their childhood, especially in the first half, and following the love story of their parents. And Mick Riva is a very famous singer, their dad, and kind of their childhood and how that progressed. And I read this right at the start of the year. So again, that's why it's kind of like, ooh, which one do I put on the list? Because I gave them my five stars, and I wanted to put Taylor Jenkins Reid on the list. This one I did prefer, because I loved in the first half the story of their parents and their childhood.  I loved their mother. I thought their mother was a very interesting and unique character. And I mean, I don't often like split timelines. But when you love both so much, it's not really a problem for me. There's something hot breaking about when you know what happens and has happened in the present day. And yet when you're reading the past storyline, you're rooting for something different to happen and like, but you know it's not. So I think that's very fun. I like when dual timelines are used in that way. I just loved Taylor Jenkins Reid's writing. I just love it. What can I say? She just does something to me. I feel like her characters are always so vivid. I really liked then in the second half, rather than going from past to present, it was kind of jumping around the party that they're holding. And I just thought it was done so well. I just loved it. I loved the sibling relationships. I'm really into siblings and families this year as something that I'm reading about. I don't know, I just loved it. I just loved her, Jane, because Reid I can't. Okay, number six is another one similar to Carole Sotisback, where like the reading experience and the time in which I read this does, I can recognize, you know, put it up the powerless that it possibly should be.  I know some of you might be surprised it's so high up. But I didn't even vlog this. I read it for my, well, I did vlog it. I read it for my Patreon book club. So I've logged it over there. So I read this when I had in the summer and I could not focus on anything. I could like not watch TV. I tried to read some different books and I couldn't. But I could read this. There was something about this that just captured my attention. And so I think I'm just very grateful for giving me something to do. And it was just a perfect book to read when you're like feeling shit, the drama. Oh, it's all the drama Mick. I just love it. I loved it. I really loved this. So Big Little Lies, we follow these three different women who all have young kids out this school.   In between the chapters, there's different parents getting, we just get little slices of interviews that they've had. But they're like talking about what happened or their perspective on what happened. And it's like kind of like a Greek chorus, like whispering about each other. But again, I thought the reveals in this were great. I actually accidentally spoiled myself for one of the big reveals that kind of like sport the whole thing very early on when I was trying to Google, I think it was like the cast or something I wanted to try and envisage the cast of the show, which by the way, I tried to watch and I didn't like, because this is like campy.  Whereas the show is like moody and like, you know what I mean? That's not what I want. I want like ridiculousness. Oh my God. I thought this was a classy party. And it to be fun. You know, I didn't really like the show when I tried to watch it. Anyways, yeah, I spoiled myself one of the big reveals and it didn't impact my enjoyment at all because I was still just so excited to see how that was revealed and how it came about and like how the tensions built throughout everyone. I just thought it was really, really, really fun. Turns out I don't like domestic thrills between husbands and wives, but I like like suburbia. I like wives. I just want to read about the wives. Husbands can get gone, you know? Anytime a husband gets involved, it just ruins it. Right, we are now into the top five, which are all time favorites. Those were favorites of the year. These are all time favorites. Number five is The Broken Girls by Simone St. James. I read this on Mara from Book Likewise recommendation. To be honest, any of her books she recommended me could have made it into the top 10. I just didn't want the whole video to be that. The Rook almost made it. The Rook was one that like almost edged out Dragon Republic or I'm glad my mum died a wrong place on time. I was like debating putting it in. But I loved The Broken Girls by Simone St. James. I loved this. So this is actually two storylines, two different timelines, which we know I don't usually like, but listen, Simone St. James managed to do it in a way I loved it. So in the 1950s, there's this like girls boarding school and we've got four roommates who are following and they're kind of bonding over secrets, etc. Then the main story line is the present day and we're following our protagonist and her sister was murdered 20 years ago on the kind of field of the school, the remnants of the school. And then renovations are happening at the school and then the body is found on the school property like a skeleton, essentially. And I just loved how this was written. I really, really loved how this was written. This was my introduction to Simone St. James. And I just fell in love with the writing. I thought both storylines were really captivating, really readable. And I just remember the ending. The ending, I think is what puts it this high on the list. The ending is so different and the reveal is so different than anything I've read from before. I think I'm just special. Special. It just takes it there. It takes it a step higher than what is normal. And it kind of diverges from what we've been like, I don't know, the tone of the rest of the book in a way that I really, really enjoyed. There were reveals in this that I loved. I loved following the girls in the past, but also the present day storyline where there was a bit more momentum. But the ending, like some of this I can't remember what happened. I read it quite a long time ago. But the ending really sticks out in my brain. And I'm just so excited to read all of Simone St. James because I think her writing is incredible. Then coming in at number four is Jade Legacy by Fonderly. I loved it. You know, this is similar to the Poppy War trilogy where I read the second and third books in it this year. And I just loved them so much more than the first. And Jade Legacy, oh, it is just a culmination of everything that's been built up in the first two books. So this series is following kind of a mafia family where we're in the society where like they get magical powers from Jade. And we're following one particular family, the Kools, throughout many, many years. And Jade Legacy is kind of the culmination of that. I loved the ending of Jade War as well. So I think how much I loved the ending of Jade War really, and then I started this straight away, really brought me into having so much feelings for these characters in this book. Wen Supremacy, I don't care. Anyone who hates Wen is incorrect. I love her. I just love Wen. Wen and Anden, my babies. I love them. I root for Wen and Anden.   But like, I just think the details, like the way that stuff will happen, like a plot twist will happen, that is repercussions from the first book is just so clever. I mean, they're really long, but I was just so into it. It's just 700 pages. Oh my god, I think this is the longest book I've read this year. And as much as I like reading shorter books, I do love a good long book that gives me depth and detail. Love you Jade Legacy. Okay, we're into the top three, which are like definitively my top three favorites of the year. Any predictions for what we're missing so far that we haven't had yet? I don't know if you're gonna be surprised by number two. Number two I read a long time ago. Anyways, let's get into it. Number three is The Bullet That Miss by Richard Osman. You had to be here. Number two, the man who died twice. I also read this year. It has not made it onto the list, but The Bullet That Miss, oh yeah, it was good. You have changed my life forever. The Thursday Metaclub, which is the first in the series, was number one on number two. I can never remember last year. I think they're pretty much tired. Number one on number two was Thursday Metaclub and the Once and Future Witches last year. We're down to number three, but it's still a valiant effort. I love this series from Richard Osman. This is a murder mystery series where we're following a cast of elderly characters at their retirement village. They used to run the Thursday Metaclub. They still do actually. This is kind of what the mystery of this one is, where they try and solve cold murder cases, but then kind of stuff starts turning up on their door in the present day. And you know, these are so funny. They are so humorous. They are great murder mysteries. They're very good, fair play murder mysteries. I feel like they're plotted really, really well. Do you know what I mean? Like, I'm not lying. This is like, you know, some of the best like modern murder mysteries I've read in having that kind of nostalgia that the classic age of crime I think has, but also having, I don't know, this modern twist to it. I just love them. So we have that amazing murder mystery, but I've spoken so much about how these books can also be heartbreaking. And I'm like choking up because they really show humanity and they really show like loving people and and aging and like what that does to the human side. And like I cried in this. I think I've cried in them all, but like there was a moment in this. If I think about it too long, I'm gonna cry. It happens near the end and I'm gonna cry. And when I read these books, I just want to live my life. I want to go out there and live my life to the fullest and appreciate everyone in my life and prioritize what's important. And I just think it's amazing that a great murder mystery manager to do that as well. So I love you, Rich Dosman. You're the only celebrity who actually had Jim McCurdy's on this list as well. That's like, you know, a memoir.    Number two, I said might surprise some people. I think this is the second book I read this year maybe or like third something. It was very early on. It was in January, but I can't stop thinking about it. And I think it deserves its number two spot. And it is as good as dead by Holly Jackson. It made it. It's number two. I loved this book. This is a very Marmitey book and anyone who doesn't like it is incorrect. So this is the finale. We've got quite a lot of like, well, No Dragon Republic is second, but we've got Jade Legacy as well. I do like an Ender series. Anyway, this is the Good Girl's Guide to Murder series. It's the final book. We're following Pip in this series as she tries to kind of uncover different mysteries in her town. In this one, she is the mystery. She has a stalker. She's getting letters like, who will look for you when you're the one who disappears? It also makes media this series. And I think something that Holly Jackson does so well is make a really engaging modern day mystery. She plays with like Fitbit, GPS, wireless printers, like so much like modern day tech she uses in her mysteries, which I think is like no other. And this book is going to take you on a ride. If you have read the first two books, be prepared because this is a different tone, okay? This is a different tone to those first two books. Thank you. I'm just engaging. I am not engaging. And I loved it. I was like, I've, this is a book that probably made me feel most stressed when reading it. If you've read No Exit by Taylor Adams, which is an all-time favorite for me, and like how tense and terrible and horrible and sick you feel while reading that book, that is what the whole second half of this book feels like. Cool girl. Oh my god. I, it's so tense because of a very tense situation happening without spoiling anything. But also the kind of, how do I phrase this? Like what Pip has to then do and like the wheels that have to be put in motion and like how anything could go wrong at a certain moment, it snaps. It, it's so good. The fact that anyone like hates this book, I can't understand it. To me, it's, it's absolutely incredible. I love the direction. It's a risk. Like I, she took a risk and I love her for it. I love you Holly. Also, actually, literally right before I started filming this, my copy of Five Survive arrived. I was supposed to be doing a vlog for this in December, but it's now going to come like near the start of January. I'm very, very, very, very, very, very excited. I can't wait. Oh my gosh. Miss Holly. I'm just very excited. So yes, as good as dead, number two on the list. Can't stop thinking about it. Love her. Amazing. And then my favorite book of 2022. I think we all know, we all know what's coming. It's Babel by Ella Krang. Her second appearance on the list. I love her. I don't even know what to say to you. This book is incredible. It is a all time, all time, all time favorite. So this is following our characters at Oxford learning translation and being scholars of translation because in this society, magic exists through silver working. And you have silver bars that will have two words that I'm trying so bad at describing this. It will have two words engraved on it that mean similar things, but also have slightly different meanings. And that will power the silver to have some sort of effect, essentially. But really what this book is about is dismantling the blood and the colonialism and the exploitation that a lot of England and England's institutions are built on and racism. And I mean, it is so above me. It is incredible. I feel like I can't describe it, but this book is so clever. It is so clever. I just love it so much. And this has Footnotes, which I absolutely, I'm just talking about the basics now because I just feel like I'm going to do a bad job of just what this book does. But I love Footnotes. We all know I love a gimmick. I love something that does something different. The Footnotes add this depth and this detail and this whole like weld to it that I just loved. I just think this is incredible. I think this is better than the Poppy War. I mean, Dragon Republic is on this list, but this is everything to me. I loved it so much. I sobbed a lot. I cried a lot, but I don't know. I just loved these characters. I loved the journey that the book went on. I loved what it's trying to say. I love the messages that it has. I think they're so important. I just think this is incredible. I just think it's absolutely incredible. And you all need to go and read it right now. So there we have it. That is my top 10 books of 2022 ranked. Let me know if there's any surprises on this list. I feel like there might be, but I stick to my guns. And these are my top 10 books of the year. Let me know in the comments what your favorite book of the year was, what your top books of the year were. I'd love to know. If you've gotten to the end of the video, put a star emoji because these are obviously the stars of the year. Thank you guys so much for watching. Thank you for all your support this year with my channel. I cannot tell you how much. I appreciate it. And yeah, I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye!


What's going on everybody is Stas here welcome back to another video. So in today's video guys as you can see I'm on a little bit of a hike Walking on some back roads here in Greece This is actually the village where my grandparents grew up. They're from here in the 50s They grew up here immigrated to the United States, and I'm out of breath And it's great coming back here after four years of just not being here Honestly, I haven't been here in a long time But anyway guys I had to take a little seat because this is an uphill and it's hard vlogging while going up The breathing is ridiculous, but anyway in this video I just wanted to talk to you guys about you know what the market's been up to lately What are my thoughts in regards to this market and what I've been doing you guys saw my community post a couple of days ago I think that was yesterday or the day before that I've been buying one particular Stock and I want to share this stock with you guys in this video But in a couple of minutes but before we do get into that the markets have been absolutely Bloody these past couple of trading days well today and yesterday They've been recovering but before that the markets have been getting killed the Dow Jones had one of the worst days In its history the Nasdaq had a day where it was down 4.5% in one day that's ridiculous right the S&P has just been getting killed and during these time periods guys during this past week I've been getting a lot of questions on Instagram a lot of questions on the discord group chat DM and people in general And the whole entire community they've been panicking right they've been saying oh my goodness Should I sell my stocks should I you know completely liquidate my account there's just been a lot of stuff going on that I kind of just want to talk about but before we do get into that what's been going on in the markets Well, we got more tariffs slapped from Trump onto 300 billion dollars worth of Chinese goods Right, that's what really set the markets down We had the 25 basis point rate cut which if you guys have been following the channel You've been following with financial news you knew that this was going to happen right and this scenario that played out is called buy the rumor Sell the news if you guys were paying attention the whole time that we were expecting the rate cut We weren't a hundred percent sure that the rate cut was going to come but we kind of knew right Powell was hinting towards it Trump really wanted it right and the markets were buying up the rumor right we were buying up The rumor the S&P had an all-time high and then once that rate cut actually happened the markets Dumped right the markets dumped that day and then the next day Trump slapped those tariffs which sent the markets into Mayhem right and then the Chinese currency manipulation happened and the markets really were reacting negatively To that and now again like I said these past two days the markets have been slowly Recovering but people have still been panicking guys. Should I liquidate my account? Should I sell all my assets? Should I not buy stocks now? Well in my opinion guys every time not maybe not every time right? But whenever the market corrects, it's worth looking into stocks It's worth looking to buy into dips doesn't mean you always have to but it's worth looking into potentially buying into the Opportunity that was opened up from the massive drop right and me personally again I've been buying one stock that it kind of dipped before the whole market drop And I personally see this stock as a very good wealth builder over time And why not I'm gonna give you guys a stock right now that stock is Johnson and Johnson guys Johnson and Johnson. I really like it right. I really like the dividend yield right now It's at about a three percent three point one percent dividend yield the payout ratio is a forty to forty five percent right now And for those of you guys who don't know what a payout ratio is It's pretty much the percentage of a company's earnings that are being paid out in dividends So to put it in a very brief and simple example, let's say a company reports $1 of earnings and they pay out a fifty cent Dividend that quarter well that payout ratio is going to be 50% right and Johnson and Johnson again has around a forty to forty five percent Last time I checked which is very very healthy, right? And my reasoning behind adding more and loading up on this position is because of the security of the company the Security it provides through recessionary periods. And am I saying the recession is going to happen tomorrow the next day? Of course not right. Nobody knows but it's never bad to prepare and to put your money in places where you feel more Comfortable than in some of these growth stocks or at least in my opinion I feel more comfortable putting money in Johnson and Johnson at this point in the cycle than in some of these growth stocks and getting Back to that payout ratio. So let's say Johnson and Johnson a lot of the companies out there including Johnson and Johnson They're going to suffer a bit during the recession right and let's say their earnings drop The payout ratio provides a lot of safety because it's really low So let's say the earnings were to shrink right for that example We just use a dollar earnings fifty cent You know dividends as that's a fifty percent payout ratio. Let's say the earnings shrunk to eighty cents, right? There's no way Johnson and Johnson will cut the div end because there's still that buffer you guys understand what I'm saying, right? So if they had an eighty percent, you know Earnings fifty percent dividend is still or fifty cent dividend is still going to be very very doable for the company right on the flip side Let's say you're investing in a company that maybe has a ninety five percent payout ratio and then their recession comes They get killed in terms of their earnings Well, they might be cutting their dividend because they may come to a point where their dividend is going to be higher Than their earnings right and that puts companies in a very very shaky Situations so now that I kind of shared, you know what I've been buying Johnson and Johnson, right? This is a time period where especially if the markets continue to drop don't panic Don't just sell out of your positions realize that this is where the real wealth is built, right? This is where the money is made not buying at the top not buying at the top If you want to maximize your returns in the stock market, you know, you have to buy when stocks are red, right? Be greedy when others are fearful. I know you guys know that quote, right? So when the markets are dropping look at companies and be be like, okay These are opportunities to buy great companies on sale and if you're looking at dividend companies Let's say you want to live off of your dividends one day. Well when the markets are going down Guess what's happening to dividend companies? Let's say a dividend stock goes from a hundred thirty dollars to a hundred and ten dollars That dividend will go from let's say a three percent to a four percent for example, right? So if you're buying shares at a hundred and ten dollars a hundred dollars, whatever it may be at a lower price Your yield is going to be higher. Your starting yield is going to be higher your cash flow is going to be more and you could take this cash flow and Really just buy more stocks compound your wealth and just really it's just snowball, right? You get the dividends you buy more shares, right? And over time in 10 20 years when all this blows over right when the recession happens When everything blows over the market goes in a bull run again, you're going to be thanking yourself guys Trust me. You're going to be thanking yourself that you bought when others were fearful, right when the markets back in December I know you guys remember it's December 2018 when the markets dips 20 25 percent Everybody was panicking.  I came out on top their returns were in the 20 30 40 percent for some of the stocks that I was buying So guys, you know, that's kind of the basis of this video, right? Don't panic view this as an opportunity to load up on great companies You know if the markets drop again, although the markets have been recovering Let's say they start to dump again next week. Don't panic, right? If you're truly in this for the five ten fifteen twenty, let's say you never want to sell You know, this is the perfect time to buy not one stocks are at all-time highs But when stocks are dipping so that's it for today's video guys. I hope you enjoyed this different type Video I might relay some, you know clips of this whole beautiful area that I'm in right now Across this video. So if you did enjoy those hit that like button consider subscribing and yeah guys That's pretty much it. I'll catch you all in the next video. I'll be back in the States in about a week So I'll be back to the regular content. I can't wait for that. I love you guys. Peace out


She should have kept her husband's affair a secret. So she is to blame. If you like true revenge stories with fleaky visuals, you found the best place for your vengeful needs. In this episode, a cheating father refuses to take responsibility for his actions, and points his aggressive finger to his loyal wife, for not keeping his dirty affair secret. When his children don't agree, he calls them ungrateful brats. So they simply act it as such. If you are in dire need of ultimate justice, this is for you. Before we start, whenever a shady website asks your personal email address, put in the like button's address, as it will surely be appreciated. Let's dive in. Naturally, viewer discretion is advised. This revenge story, might be disturbing to cheating fathers. This whole thing happened a year prior, but the repercussions are still happening, and I hope they continue until the day the bastard passes. This is a wild one, so buckle in. Growing up, me and my sister had no love toward our father whatsoever.  When my sister got accepted into a much better but also further high school than our local, she moved immediately and rarely visited. We were 10 years apart so I was 4 at that time. I grew up presenting her for leaving me to deal with his crap all by myself, but now I understand better, and we're on good terms. Our local factory was so big that it supported my whole town. Virtually everyone worked there, so everyone knew each other. My parents worked there too. But when it was purchased by the defense ministry, they decided to cut off anyone without at least a high school degree. My mother was let go, and this was after she'd had me 4 months. My father, however, made it until retirement and was granted military status. Basically, they gave him an honorable rank, so his pension would almost double. You'd also have to act accordingly because, in terms of speaking, you're military personnel.  Anger management and mental instability are notably the worst and I'm still working on them. When I turned 18, I enlisted. Two major benefits, it didn't cost money and I could never come home if I didn't want to. For me, it was literally a highway, out of hell. Just forward three years later, I got an honorable discharge. Turned out I had actual mental problems, who would have known? I got a bulk load of money and even more in the following months, when they were able to process my military insurance. I came home to find my town incredibly underwhelming and my father hadn't changed a bit. Not wanting to spend the rest of my life in this hellhole, I took what I could and moved to the city where my sister was living. The last words dear old dad said to me was, you'd never make it, because apparently, being discharged for a mental illness showed that I was a coward. Also, I could tell he didn't like that I became tougher than the boy I once was, who used to obey his every word. I became pretty beefy, thanks to the military.  I moved to a new environment, took up a blue collar job and decided to pursue a career in IT, all the while taking care of my mental health. And during this time, he got diagnosed with cancer. I was told it was not dangerous, but operations were required. My sister had actually reconciled with him a few years prior, partly because of my mother, and would occasionally bring my niece home to visit them. She was quite successful, so she decided to pay for the whole thing. Operations, treatment, hospitals, recoveries, it was all hers. She paid for this while moving into a new house and buying her first car. I add this because, those things are pretty expensive in my country, which is Vietnam. My father had a huge bank account because of his pension, but he didn't have to pay a single penny. After a year or so he's on recovery, and all in all, things were looking good. During this time, I was struggling with working and studying, living paycheck to paycheck, and had to rely on a social program to get treatment for my illness. I visited him after every operation, though it wasn't anything tearful. If he didn't poke me, I was fine. After nearly a year of staying at my sister's house, he and my mother headed home after his doctor gave him the go. At that time, I was looking for a new job, because the current job was horrible and it made my mental health actually worse. I was lucky to find one where most of my skills were transferred and I had enough time to finish my studying. One day my mother called in tears and asked me to come home that weekend. She shared with me that my father, had been seeing someone else. Now I must admit, my first reaction was not to point finger to my dad. My mom can be very paranoid. She still is up to this day, about lots of things. So me not taking it seriously, combined with the resenting thought of going home on a four hours trip just for something that seemed utterly unimportant, I calmed her down and swept it under the rug. Fast forward a few months, I got another call, this time for my sister. She came to visit that week with my niece to inform them that she was three months pregnant. What was supposed to be a happy reunion?  Apparently, when my father left his phone unattended for a few minutes, his mistress sent him a very sexy picture, and my mom saw it pop up.   The situation escalated and he tried to hit her, so my sister threw herself in between, which prompted her husband to throw himself in between, as you know, she's three months pregnant. It all ended in a very teary trip back to our city after hours of hurling insults at each other. The only good thing that came out of it, was that my mother somehow was able to bring his phone with her. We tried convincing my mother to get a divorce, but she's the submissive housewife who thought divorces were worse than boiling living puppies, and I think back then, she's still somewhat hoping that he'd turn around. They've been together for almost 35 years at that point, so I figured something must have been there. She didn't want it, so we dropped it and decided to cut him out for good. Lo and behold, half a year after the incident, my father's side of the family started to contact me. I have a strict no-call policy, where the only people allowed to call me outside of work hours are my mother, my sister, her husband, three of my best friends, and only recently, my boyfriend. So do my bamboozlement, my father, his sister, my aunt, his mother all called within a day. They suddenly acted so nice and actually convinced me to come to visit them. Obviously, that was all a ruse. After the incident, my father's side blamed my mother and said, she should have kept it a secret and not made a mess, for the family's sake. On top of this, they added the ultimate argument by saying that, he's your father after all. We didn't accept this, so they disavowed my sister and I and added that we were ungrateful brats. Out of morbid curiosity, I ventured back alone to see what it was about. Turned out, they wanted to sell his house. But it was on my grandmother's land. Back when he was about to undergo his first operation, we didn't know how it had turned out, so he transferred the house to my name because apparently, inheriting a dead person's estate in my country, is a living nightmare. Out of convenience, we convinced my grandmother to give me the land, also because she was 80 at the time. This was back when we were on good terms. I knew for sure, they would rather gouge their eyes out than follow up with any of that, if it had happened a year later. I smelt something in the air, I couldn't place it, but I knew it was there. So I told them, nicely, that I would think about it and immediately went back, faking an emergency. A plan formed when I was driving back, and that's the first time I'd been so pleased about anything, I actually cracked a smile. I went to my sisters immediately to meet up with her and my mom, since she had been staying with my sister, and after sharing what happened and what I found out, we laid out a plan. After a year living in the city, my mom was much more open-minded and it only took a little bit of convincing for her to agree to the plan. My sister contacted a lawyer and asked what our options were. Because both the house and the land were in my name, they had no claim to them, and any paper that didn't have my signature on it would be considered useless under the law. They could try and claim it was rented out, but then they'd have to move far away in hope that I'd never be able to locate them, and I knew it'd be too much trouble for a couple of old folks. They could claim it's his life achievement, but because he and my mother never divorced, it's technically half hers as well. This is when I came up with an idea. I asked the lawyer, what if my mother filed for a divorce? He said, it's highly unlikely the court would reward my mother's full claim, unless we could prove that he was unfaithful before the separation. To his surprise, I could. Remember the phone that my mother brought back from that day? It was smashed during the fight, but generally still in one piece.  Sufficient to say, it provided us with more than enough proof of his indecency. Small side note, I'm Vietnamese and infidelity is definitely a crime here.  After weighing our options, I called to inform my father that I would come home the next month to make an announcement. He was eager to hear it. Upon my arrival, they were so nice and sweet and whatnot. But after I introduced my lawyer, it's like they flipped a switch and suddenly became violent, violent. I presented him with two options, relinquish any claim to the house or be served with a lawsuit. In my country, marital violations are six months probation minimum, up to two years in prison. After a lot of screaming, name callings and feet stomping tantrums, he kicked us out. So naturally, I assumed he chose the latter. At the first hearing my mom, me and my lawyer were present. It turned out to be another screaming contest in which he made up all kinds of lies about my mother. At some point, my lawyer leaned in to tell me that if the officer didn't stop his rantings, it's likely that they were buddies and asked me to let him handle things. The officer told us this case wasn't a priority. It would take months to process. We wouldn't like the paperwork, so it's best to settle this out of court. My lawyer politely declined and told my father to expect another hearing soon, under much less friendly circumstances. He tried one more tactic in between, which was calling all the relatives and telling them how my mother was a biatch, and I was an ungrateful brat, in hope of creating some kind of pressure on us. Very few of them took his side and even if all of them did, I would have never let him go that easy. In the second hearing, he finally cracked and agreed to my terms, which were relinquishing any claim he might have on the house and divorcing my mom. Basically, the only person who has any claim to the house now is my mother. I agreed to let him keep living in it for the rest of his life though, but not anyone else, aka his mistress, whom he was basically living with. I make it sound easy, but that's for the sake of the story. These small court claims can be highly unethical in my country and the law can be slippery. The whole thing took almost a year before our claim was rewarded. My sister gave birth to my nephew around this time. So back to the story, onto the revenge. This was where my work started. First, my sister gathered all the receipts from all the medical billings she has paid for his treatment. A few of them were missing, but we were able to create a huge folder. I also shipped my pants learning how expensive cancer treatment could be, not a fan. When we had a general sum of the money, we billed him for it. This is very unethical in my country, since children are expected to take care of their parents, but we threw that out the window long ago. We also knew it was not a criminal case, so we just went to small court claims and then sent in bailiffs to collect, which was just this lady.  Say goodbye to wooden furniture, a 27-inch smart TV, a fridge, and a reclining massage chair, which were all bought by my sister I might add. He had to pay out of his pocket because the fierce lady insisted they continue seizing whatever he bought until she saw the money. Although the final amount was halved, my mother, under the eyes of the law, shared half of that for some reason. It still cost him 70% of his savings. Of course, this wasn't about the money, we were just petty. We told the moving company they could do whatever they wanted with the furniture.  After that was done, I contacted my local factory and filed a report. Remember the sweet pension he got with the condition that he behaved accordingly? Clearly, someone had been a bad boy. Even though it was a small town and most would partially know about his wrongdoings, they just let him be. Besides, nobody ever filed a official report before, but that's not the case anymore. I gave them a very detailed folder with pictures from his phone. To say they were sexy time related, was an understatement. They immediately set up a hearing and he was stripped of his rank, having the original amount of his pension. I know this because old folks gossip like their lives depend on it, and my mother is not excluded. She was very happy hearing about that, it's all she talked about in a month. I was about to call it quits and leave him be, but a week later, my sister called to tell me that my aunt came to her door to berate her and her children. My sister was working from home, my mom also lived there, but had gone out for some reason. My sister just called security to kick her out and warned me she could go for me next. I was seeing blood, not because of some lame-ass Karen that could cause me inconveniences at most, but because she was screaming at my niece and nephew.  So I dug a little, and found out my aunt was knees deep in debt. She was hoping she could leech some money off my father, if not from the money he made selling the house, and even if that wasn't possible, at least from his big bank account fed by his pension. Since neither of those was available anymore, she was very angry and thought she could lay it on my sister.  I never set up an online social presence, mainly because up to my 18th birthday, I was too poor to have a phone and then the military taught me it wasn't needed. But for this special occasion, I made an exception. I created a Facebook account and befriended her. I didn't even have to pretend to be anyone since old people apparently accept friend requests from anyone. She had this vibe where she'd show off her money, her vacations and her items, as if she was a wealthy person. From my mother and her trusty gossip circle, I knew that she always told whoever she owed money, that she was struggling. So I figured she must be blocking them. The next part was easy. I just had to send all of her selfies to everyone she's owing to. I didn't have to declare myself since I was literally on a throwaway account, so it's just this really long line of messages that showed my aunt spending her money lavishly. For the next following month, she was threatened, not with legal actions like I did, but with much more sinister actions. She would have thugs throw gifts at her door, like paint, fish sauce, and sometimes literal doo-doo. My mother also told me this of course. She finally figured out what I was doing when I told her to find me a list of all the people she's owing to. This is not where the story ends. As much as I wanna take credit for this, the idea wasn't mine. Forgive me, for I once again had to lay out a bit of background. My father's side of the family is this very traditional family, where you would have a person acting as the head of the family deciding things that matter. This was way before the war so obviously, they don't do such things anymore. But the head of the family still has a certain voice, and there's this once in a year ceremony where we gather together to pay tribute to our ancestors.  Then there will be a celebratory party where we basically get drunk. My great grandfather was the head. He had three sons and two of them died during the war. So my grandfather took the mantle, then my father, and eventually, me. This whole side of the family is in another town that's like three hours away from our town, mainly because my grandfather didn't expect to be the head, so he moved out seeking opportunities. I found these gatherings redundant and unnecessary, but that year I was actually looking forward to it. My father tried to keep the actual date hidden, it wasn't fixed but generally, someone between June, but he seriously underestimated my mother. She doesn't have a gossip circle, she has an infinite number of them. So my mother, me, and my sister's family all head back for it. The trip was 14 hours in total, but the result was worth it. We timed it so we would come two days earlier than my father, again, thanks to her gossip circle. This side of the family had never heard the full story before, only the version my father gave them, which was that he and my mother left in good faith. I actually gave my father some credits for not badmouthing my mom. After weighing all the pros and cons, we decided to let my mother loose, and she's exceptional when it came to relaying details about her personal tragedies. I kid you not, if I had posted her story word for word, by this time next week, there would be a global justice for my mother movement.  The look on his face when he arrived, with my aunt and my grandmother, seeing my family already there was priceless.  Now I know what they said about dead horses, but this plan was too brilliant not to follow through. My uncle, let's call him Oliver, came up with this. In the hierarchy, he's equal to my father, and in the event that my branch doesn't have a male successor, 100% what's going to happen, his branch will be the head of the family. He told me I should take up the mantle of the head. It was very sudden, I didn't have a speech ready, my father was supposed to do that, but Oliver told me I could just tell whatever I want, because nobody really paid attention to that thing anyway. All the other elders were okay with it. The speech wasn't even the best thing. At the celebratory party, people will be assigned tables based on the family tree.  Because I was elevated to the head of my branch, I would be sitting at the big boy table. My father didn't even get to sit at this table because miraculously, it was full, even though I could have sworn there weren't 20 of us and each table has place for up to 10.  My father is now just a miserable old man. His mistress left him because surprisingly, she was after his money. He's living in our old house with next to nothing. His retirement money, though halved, was good enough for him to live by. Last I heard, his cancer has come back, and obviously this time my sister won't be paying for it anymore. He had tried to initiate contact with my mother, trying to make amends. We had to block his number and his profile on my mother's account because she actually considered it. She has her soft sides. My aunt has to sell her house to pay for all the debt, or else they just continue harassing her. She now lives in a small house she bought with the rest of her money. I felt bad for her husband, because he's actually chill and quite nice, but he's not the most decisive and therefore doesn't really confront her. I hope he's doing better. I have no empathy for her only son, though. Let's just say the apple doesn't even fall from the tree. How do I know all of this? My mother's gossip circle. I left my grandmother out of this because she's very old. She's not demented in any way. She's perfectly sane, but she loved her son too much to admit he's in the wrong. Also, she was very nice and sweet to me growing up. A lot of my good memories are with her. I'm sad because she doesn't see my mother the same. I also stopped talking to her, and would only visit once during Lunar New Year. She's lived in the small house she and my grandfather built, on the land that's now in my name. When she and my father pass away, I will carry out her wish to build an altar for her and my grandfather. Whether or not my father will be included is still up to debate. You stay till the end, which means you're the one I make these episodes for. I wanna take this moment to thank you. I really appreciate you because you bring me a great amount of joy. Subscribe for future uploads and show your vengeful devotion by tickling the like button without mercy. Do you have any experiences surrounding the topic of this episode? Share yours below. I'll join the conversation and I'll be seeing you in the next one.


VidCon 2021 is cancelled. It was meant to be in October this year and they're rescheduling in June 2022 but PAX West is going to be in person. That's happening next week. PAX West is the first big gaming convention that I know of that actually hasn't been cancelled due to COVID and it will be in Seattle next week. Let me show you how it looks without the background removal. This is my room and that's my light here in Dubai. I'll show you a little quick tour. This is the setting sun in the distance so I have to finish this video quickly before it gets too dark. I will turn off my echo removal so now you can only hear my true sound with an echo in this room but now with the echo removal on there is no echo it's like magic. A friend of mine told me that friends do not let friends skip leg day. This is an important tip that I would advise all of you who aren't going to the gym with your buddies because leg days are what most people want to avoid because they're so painful. I have some sad news to share that VidCon 2021 is cancelled. It was meant to be in October this year but I got this email which gave the unfortunate news that due to COVID-19 the entire convention is cancelled and they're rescheduling in June 2022. They will give everyone a full refund if you already paid for your tickets and they look forward to seeing you in person at the Anaheim Convention Center in California in 2022. This link here to the FAQ takes you to this site behind me. The link to it is down there in the description below if you want to read all the information from the official source at VidCon.com. How does this make you feel Freedom Family? Were you planning to attend to meet your favorite YouTubers? My daughter who's only 12 years old she had her birthday yesterday. She was so excited to go and she was so heartbroken when she learned she can't. Hopefully you also were looking forward to going and you will go next year. I hope there are other conventions like VidCon that will be coming on. All of them this year have been online. We were at Gamescom. I'll show that to you right here but we didn't go in person because it was an online only event. If you go to youtube.com slash Freedom you'll see Freedom is at Gamescom 2021 and it was all online. Same with PAX. PAX East was only online. You can see here E3 was only online but PAX West is going to be in person. That's happening next week. PAX West is the first big gaming convention that I know of that actually hasn't been cancelled due to COVID and it will be in Seattle next week and we of course will be there in person. So I hope you'll join us at PAX West if you are near Seattle and you happen to be there. Freedom Games will be on the show floor and we'll see you there. I'll make videos about it once we have footage to share. And as before I am using Nvidia Broadcast to create my green screen without a green screen. Let me show you how it looks without the background removal. This is my room and that's my light here in Dubai. I'll show you a little quick tour. This is the setting sun in the distance so I have to finish this video quickly before it gets too dark. And this is my lighting. One of my lights. I have three but today I've only set up one. And yeah I've been living here for three years guys. It's been an exciting adventure and I'll turn my background removal on. Voila. And it also has for the microphone noise removal and echo removal. I will turn off my echo removal. So now you can only hear my true sound with an echo in this room. But now with the echo removal on there is no echo. It's like magic. You do need an RTX 2060 or better graphics card in order for Nvidia Broadcast to work. And the website again the link is down there in description below. Check it out. Use it if you have the required hardware if not upgrade. There are a lot of games these days that benefit from the new 3060, 3070, 3080 graphics cards and the 4000 series should be coming later. I don't know exactly when but certainly I never advise waiting for the next generation even if you're hoping it'll push down this generation's prices because it won't push down by much. So get your upgrade and use Nvidia Broadcast. Tell me down there in the comments below how your experience is with it. I'm using it exclusively now for all of my 4k videos and I do create everything in true 3840 by 2160 resolution which is exactly four times as many pixels as 1080p. It gives the videos more quality even if you watch it at lower resolution because there's such high pixel density the downscaling creates a better effect than if I just recorded at 1080p raw. And I made a video about all that if you're interested to see it it's right here 4k versus 2k versus 1080p. Click that eye to see this video behind me and in that video I show the differences between 4k, 2k and 1k.  So I hope you'll all join us at VidCon next year. I hope you'll join us at PAX West and I hope you'll share with us your best practices on how you make your videos whether it's with NVIDIA broadcast or Xsplit or OBS or OBS stream labs tell us down there in the comments below what tools you feel are the best and why so we can all learn from each other and help each other grow together as a family because that is the spirit of freedom. Until the next episode I am George CEO and founder of freedom and host of the george show click that eye to see a playlist of all episodes of the george show in case you missed any and keep getting your exercise today I had a break I did not go to the gym but yesterday I did leg day a friend of mine told me that friends do not let friends skip leg day this is an important tip that I would advise all of you who are going to the gym with your buddies because leg days are what most people want to avoid because they're so painful it's one of your biggest muscles and it takes a lot of energy out of you when you do leg day in fact I was one of these people who didn't like leg day yet my friend got me to do it and I will continue doing it because friends don't let friends skip leg day it bears repeating do you guys get your exercise how do you motivate yourselves do you go with a buddy tell me down there in the comments below because really all of us just need a little bit of extra motivation to get off our chairs and get some exercise and sometimes it's a helpful comment sometimes it's a short story so share your story and motivate somebody to be fit it's an important part of life and he will thank me for it as you get older believe me I am almost 46 years old and I start feeling the pain of age with bones creaking and joints crackling but it's not so bad if you exercise it feels a lot better the muscles are stronger and a lot of pain just magically disappears if you get your exercise regularly trust me on that one I know from personal experience a high freedom family until the next episode I'm George and you've been watching who you're dreaming but love yeah click that I to partner with freedom and join the freedom family so we can all grow together you get many perks like position music you also get epidemic sound a lot of other access to royalty free videos sponsorships and many things to help you grow just click the links down there in the description below to get involved in our community our forums our discord chat servers meet our graphics team meet our community team all of that on discord and the forums what are you waiting for get started and we will grow together as a family because this is the freedom family you are part of it we are all part of it and we're all growing together to get more George click that big f that will subscribe you to freedom central home of the George show and pewdiepie gave one of you freedom family a big shout out click that video to see the shout out and to see our new 3d sets for you and click that video to see what youtube recommends you watch next


The key to a successful job search is a strong resume and cover letter. This is how you introduce yourself to potential employers and show them you have what it takes to excel in a position. Start by building a resume. Begin with your name, phone number and email at the top of the page. You want to make sure the employer can easily contact you. Next, list your relevant education, skills and experience. Begin with your most recent and relevant positions. Including volunteer experience is a great way to demonstrate your work ethic and commitment to the community. Try to use phrases, keywords and skills that are listed in the job posting and be specific when describing previous roles and responsibilities. Use verbs to describe situations that reflect specific skills. For example, rather than simply stating that you are a good public speaker, offer a situation that highlights the skill such as I presented at weekly meetings with board members. The ideal length of a resume is two pages. This can vary depending on the industry, but you should always try to maximize space. Employers are often reviewing a lot of resumes in a short amount of time, so you want to be clear and direct. Make sure each point is related to the position and only provide references if required. You can always give more information if you land an interview. Plus, there's the cover letter. This is your opportunity to stand out from the crowd. Use the cover letter as a way to expand on your resume, highlighting in more detail why you're perfect for the job. Treat it like a short essay. It shouldn't be longer than a single page. The ideal length is 300 to 600 words. Begin by introducing yourself and why you're interested in the position. Try to personalize it as much as possible. Instead of starting with to whom it may concern, try to find out who exactly is hiring and address it to them. Next, briefly detail your applicable work, education and volunteer experience. Demonstrate you've done your research by customizing it for the organization and the position. Share concrete examples and try to relate everything back to the job description. Your conclusion should sum up how your combination of experience and skills makes you the best fit for the role. There's no perfect way to build the resume and cover letter. Just do your research, avoid spelling errors and show what makes you uniquely qualified. Remember, confidence is key. You've got this.