Hello there! Today we're here to talk about Orca-nomics, or actually the series is called The Dark Prophet Saga, that's Prophet with an F, but Orca-nomics is a little snappier, rolls off the tongue a little better. And plus this isn't the whole series because only the first two books are out, but you know, we're here to talk about it. Also this will probably be my last video that I ever filmed in this room because I'm moving in a few days, so after the review we're going to do a quick room tour, so let's do that. This is the introduction song. It's not very good, but it's not too long. It is so easy to look at Orca-nomics and think that you know everything about it and everything about what it'll be like from the start, you know, from very early on. You know, you think there will be jokes, particularly jokes at the expense of the fantasy genre as a whole and tabletop RPGs. You think there'll be crazy zamy antics from the characters, you think there'll be RPG references, and yeah, all of that is true. All of that is there in spades, but there is so, so much more here, like so much more than I was expecting. I went into this expecting a quick laugh, but there's so much stuff here. Like it is a very, very rich story. I mean, it is rich in humor. It's genuinely hilarious, a couple of books. It is rich in character. All of them are pretty amazing. It has stellar, stellar prose. Like there's so much personality in almost every line, especially the dialogue, and there's a perfect mix of dialogue and narration and everything. It's great. It has a very detailed world.  It has a very, very heartfelt story. Like, you know, it's not just an excuse for cheap jokes and laughs. Like it really gets to you at a few points. And it has some surprisingly biting social commentary. Like I really mean that. You know, based on the title and the premise, you might think, okay, it's like poking fun at business and economics. And yeah, that's there. But it's surprisingly deep when you stop to think about it. And like, yeah, it really does point out a lot of serious flaws with some of these things, but it also points out flaws in like governance. And it has, like I said, some meta humor about RPGs as a whole, but also like the sort of people who look just for pure escapism and this sort of thing. Like, it is surprisingly biting. It really is. And overall, I just have very, very little to complain about here. The basic setup here is that it takes place in this realm called the Freedlands, which like I said has all sorts of magical stuff there, a bunch of different races live inside by side. And the Freedlands in the past used to be kind of a tumultuous place. Like there was a lot of war, there were forces of evil going around, there were Dark Lords, all that sort of thing. But that's all in the past, they've all pretty much been defeated. And so things are much more peaceful now. And one of the largest organizations in the Freedlands is the Heroes Guild, or its official name is actually Adventure Capital Incorporated, which I'm ashamed of how hard I laughed at that. Like several of the company names in these books are great. Like there's a bank called JP Gorgon, and there's a weapons company called Plus Five, which I don't know, I'm a child, but those made me laugh a lot. But the Heroes Guild exists and it's run like an actual company. You know, it's a joke that I've seen before, but I haven't seen it done nearly this well. Like what if adventuring companies were run like actual companies? But in this case, it has like actual stockholders and investors and stuff, which like you wouldn't expect to see in a fantasy world, but it's there. See, the basic idea behind it is like let's say there's a monster that's terrorizing people and hoarding a bunch of treasure that it steals from them. You want a band of heroes to go and fight them. But those heroes, before they can go fight them, they need to buy like equipment and stuff in order to do it, and they also need to get paid. So what do they do? They find investors and people will pay the money, which they use to buy equipment and everything in exchange for a share of the loot. And so there's a lot of money in this.  You know, like there's inns and companies that sell stuff to heroes and people that guide them and give them advice on their travels and all sorts of stuff that they need is built up around them. And you might be thinking to yourself, this sounds kind of unsustainable because it's not actually creating wealth, it's just moving it around. You know, you slay a dragon, take his horde, all that's doing is changing who has control of that treasure and of that horde. So that's not really helping anything, and you'd be correct. And it's actually even worse than that because with so many, with the heroes guild being so big and with so many bands of heroes roaming around and killing all these monsters, the monsters don't really have time to, I don't know, they don't have time to attack as many towns and gather up as much loot as they used to. So their hordes of loot are getting smaller and smaller and smaller. And on top of that, the Freedlands have this system where there's Shadowkin and Lightkin basically.  And we learn pretty quick in the books, like, okay, that's not true, orcs and them are, they're fine, they're generally fine people. But they're considered foes, forces of evil, like by default. However, if they don't want to be targeted by the heroes guild or anything, because it like heroes can just kill them and take their stuff without consequence, then they can arrange to become noncombatants. And so they just go to a government office, fill out some paperwork. They declare that they don't have a criminal history, you know, that sort of thing. And then they get their noncombatant papers and they become noncombatant paper carriers or NPCs. There's so many little jokes like that spread in these books, it just, it gets me. But you know, more and more Shadowkin are becoming NPCs and just entering society and getting regular jobs and stuff. And so they can't attack them and take their stuff either. So like, loot yields are going down, down, down. And from pretty early in the first book, it's mentioned that this is not sustainable and something's got to change. And the way that the people in power go about it and try changing it, I'm not going to get away here, but it makes sense. And it's pretty dark.  Like, when industries and companies can no longer grow organically, they tend to cannibalize themselves. But that's just the setup for the world, though. The actual story here follows a guy named Gorm Ingersen.  But he got in trouble for cowardice during the quest. And he was banished from the guild, he was banished from the dwarven kingdoms, banished from his clan, all that stuff. And so now he's basically just abandoned. Like, he lives rough on the road, he occasionally robs people. And pretty early in the story, he winds up getting roped into a quest with a whole bunch of other misfits. Like, there's a whole party of like seven or eight people that none of whom want to be there. And none of whom really fit into society because of one reason or another. And they all kind of get strong armed into going on a quest together. The quest is that there are these marble statues that were created by orcs like thousands and thousands of years ago. And at some point they were stolen by elves. And then at some point the elves lost these and they're just gone somewhere. And in order to try and prevent any sort of war or civil strife from breaking out, Gorm and his party are sent to go find these statues. And they're called the Elven Marbles, by the way. And it's a point of contention as to whether they belong to the elves or the orcs. But if there's any Greeks in the audience, I'm sure you have very strong opinions on who they belong to all of a sudden. This feels like the setup to a D&D campaign. And I think that's deliberate. And to go along with that, pretty much every character feels like an archetype at first. You know, you have the weapons master who never talks and is just super stoic all the time, but he's actually really tortured inside. You have the dark and brooding evil wizard. You have the horny bard.  But not only are these characters all likable, you know, they all have some funny lines to them, even the ones that seem more serious or the ones that don't talk have funny moments to them. They all have surprising depth too, especially in the second book. Like, in the first one, none of them really get their arcs explored that much other than Gorm and the goblin Glebeck. But in the second book, they do all get their own storylines. Like, I think that's one of the few problems with this series so far is that the middle section of the second book, the story really stops and it just switches over to going over all the party members' individual stories and like going into their past and their tortured histories and why they are the way they are and blah blah blah. And none of this is bad, but it does go on longer than it needs to. But what I mean by they all have surprising depth and they all do break out of their archetypes is that, for example, Harald in the horny bard, you know, he is horny, he has sex with everything that moves, but it's made clear after a while that, like, okay, he does that because he doesn't really have friends or family outside of this party and now that he's adventuring with these guys and getting connected to them, he finally has that and the life he leads where he's just wandering by himself and having sex with strangers all the time that is empty after a while. You know, that's the only one I'm going to go into now. And I mean, like I said, they're all likable, especially Glebeck the Goblin, who I just love, isn't it? His name isn't actually Glebeck, but that's what he's called for most of the books. So that's what I'm referring to him as here. My only real complaint about the characters is that the villains are kind of weak. You know, none of them stand out as particularly interesting in terms of motivation or personality. Most of them don't even seem that threatening. Like the only one that seems like a genuine threat to the heroes is Ditar, who is the Lich mentioned in the second book because the second book is called Son of a Lich. You know, not really a spoiler to say there's one there. But yeah, he actually does feel powerful and feel like a threat to the heroes, but it never feels overwhelming. You know, we're never really wondering how are they going to beat him. And in terms of like his personality and everything, he's pretty bland compared to all these other characters.    They don't have interesting motivations. Their personalities aren't that great. They're just, they're fine, I guess, you know. And the one defense I can offer of some of these is that maybe they're meant more to represent the system. You know, like they individually aren't evil. They're just a focal point for the way everyone lives, like this business system and this economic system and the way the government works and all that. Like maybe that's how it's supposed to be. But whatever the case is, they're just, they're not that interesting. Now, the story here is just great. Like it just is. It's basically a series of misadventures to characters trying to reach a goal. And that's both books. Like in both books from pretty early on, the characters have a clear goal they're working towards, and everything else is just a series of stuff trying to get to there. Like they get into fights with bandits and lizard men and stuff like that, but they also go on heists where they try to break into vaults and banks and stuff and steal things. They have long periods of travel. They have conversations where they just try to convince bad guys to help them out or to give them something. But no matter what, shenanigans will always ensue. And it's always really fun and the characters have to not only fight their way out but think their way out. They almost never go through things just using brute force. It's like a really good D&D campaign, like I said. And it does get dark later, I'll say that. Like near the end of the first book, it gets surprisingly dark. Not because it gets really graphic out of nowhere, like in terms of violence or just throwing in a bunch of sexual assaults or anything like that. It just, it's so unfair what happens and it makes you feel a crushing despair of this world and what it's like to live there for at least for some people, some of the time. And I don't know how to describe it without going into a lot of detail, but it is just an awful thing when it happens. And normally I don't like it when books get really dark out of nowhere, but in this case, it's not out of nowhere. It is hinted at and built up towards pretty much from the beginning. And so once it gets really dark, it actually makes perfect sense why it would turn out that way.  The humor here is also great, which is kind of important when we're talking about series where humor is this important to it. But I mean, in all sorts of different ways, like the absurdities of the world it takes place in are mentioned, characters have like banter going back and forth. There's a couple of side characters who have like weird gimmicks to them, but they're never overused. So it's still really funny. And there's, I don't know, there's stuff that you just wouldn't expect that makes sense and does work and move the story forward and all that. But it's just really funny to hear about it in a fantasy world. Like, for example, in the second book, a major plot point is that there's a liquidity crisis and a bunch of banks go out of business. Like, that that is an actual thing that happens. There's an economic crisis, which is caused in part by all of the shenanigans of the villains and everything. And like, again, it works really well as something to happen in the story and it does move things forward.   But it is still unique, partially because of like the way it all comes together and the way that all these different cultures and races and everything interact off of one another. Like, for example, there's a bunch of different types of gnomes, including wood gnomes and some of them like really hate each other, just as an example. But on top of that, there's like this huge focus on economics and finance and business, like I said. And for the most part, it is explained in such a way where even if you aren't super knowledgeable about this sort of thing, you should probably be able to understand it. But and it doesn't go into like extreme, extreme detail, trust me, don't worry about that. But by just having this focus on a part of the world, which is usually neglected in world building, especially fantasy world building, it makes it feel really unique and really different and lived in, even though I've seen pretty much all of these tropes before. It's like, I don't know, it's weird. I of course cannot forget about the prose here. Like the way that these books are written is just, it's just phenomenal. You know, like it has the perfect blend of narration and dialogue, which I think I said earlier. All the characters just from the way they speak, you can usually tell who it is. They're just, there's so much great stuff there.  And I love it. And one thing I do have to mention, which I think is great is the transitions between different scenes. Like they always, even though it goes from like characters who are hundreds of miles apart and doing totally different things or talking about totally different things, it manages to keep the same theme going from place to place. Like, for example, there's one scene where our character is talking to the king and he thinks he's gone insane. And there's a line that says something like, the only reason the king could be planning to do the thing was very simple. And it was hiding behind his eyes as he looked into them. And then it cuts to the next scene where a character just goes, this is madness. What are you talking about blah, blah, blah. And so you realize, okay, it's the same thing, even though they're totally separate scenes. It's like, and that's done a lot of times throughout these books, I don't know how long it would take the author to write that and come up with it and be able to arrange all the scenes in such a way. But he did a great job of it. What else is there to say? I freaking love these books. I'm eagerly awaiting the finale. Like, it's been over four years now. So hopefully, the last book will come out sometime soon. It's supposed to be called Dragon Fired, which I don't know that that that excites me, you know, I'm eagerly awaiting the finale. And I really have nothing else to complain about. So yeah, if you like fantasy of any sort, I would check out Orcanomics and Son of a Lich. Like, even if you only like Grimdark, there's some stuff here that might appeal to you. I don't know. But yeah, that's about all for the review. I freaking love these books. You should check them out, especially if you're any sort of fantasy fan. We're gonna go into the room tour real quick. If you don't want to watch that, then just be sure to rate the video, comment and subscribe, and say goodbye to this lovely background and these walls around me because we're, you're not gonna be seeing them anymore. All right, so the tour. It's not going to be as impressive as maybe you hoped because a lot of my stuff is already packed up and it's, you know, gonna be on its way out in a couple of days. But I may as well go over some of it. So you can see wall behind me, like I had these dampeners, like I'm sitting on my bed right now. And over there we got the YouTube plaque over here. We have my Berserk poster with guts and griffith crossing swords. I bought that at an anime convention a few years ago. Like I think 2019 is when I bought it. I don't remember. And then this Japan samurai banner that was a gift from my brother back when he was stationed in Japan. And if you're wondering about the walls, like I did mention on stream a little while ago that the walls were painted by the people who lived here before I did and I've just never bothered getting rid of it. But I mean, I don't particularly care about it, which is why I feel fine covering it up with posters and stuff. But yeah, the wall behind me, I don't think you can really see it with everything covering up, covering it up. But like it's actually Pac-Man. And then over on this side is the Red Ghost, which I don't even think you can see on camera right now because it's just so covered up. But you might be able to see a little bit of him here.  And then over here, we just have my headboard on top of my bed. There's not much here to talk about, like lamp. I do have this little statue, which was a gift from my friend when he visited Peru, like it's kind of cool because it has a knife inside.  And then I just got some stuff that I should probably get framed, but I just never have. I have like a little small ornament katana, some signed posters from like cons and stuff over the years, like you can see the stack of them here. Man, I just, I have a bad habit of like collecting stuff that's meant to be displayed and then not displaying it properly. Now if you've been watching my channel for more than a couple of years, you remember that before I started just sitting on my bed all the time because I was doing really long videos where I didn't want to stand.  But yeah, just my dresser with all my books and everything.  I do have Terraforming Mars, the board game, which is a very fun game, you should check that out. And then over here, we have my smaller bookshelf, which you can kind of see at the corner of it at least in some of my videos where I'm sitting on my bed. But again, those are all packed up here. I have a folded flag and some stuff from my dad's time in the Air Force. That's, he didn't have an estate when he died. So that's like pretty much everything he had to his name was sitting right here on top of this dresser. And then I think, and then some of you might be wondering what this is. It's not a guitar case. It's a sword actually. Ta-da! Look at that. They are trying to get it all in camera at the same time. Can't really do it. But you see, it's a long sword. And I got it from Purple Heart Armory. If you're curious, like it's, it's blunted. It's not going to cut you or anything. You can even see the tip is rounded there. So it's not going to stab anything. But I could have gotten the leather grip, but those wear out pretty quick. So I just figured they'd get the corded one. And I figured get it green because like, why not? Stands out a bit more, you know? And nothing that's special about it. It is still in pretty good condition because I haven't gotten to use it in practice as much as I wish. Like, you know, I banged it against other ones. But over time, you get like a lot of nicks and stuff in there. And you got to sharpen them out. So the blade just doesn't look as shiny and nice. But it still looks really shiny and nice right now. All right. I gotta be really careful maneuvering because there's like a stack of boxes here. It's like just off camera, but it's like up to my waist. Just boxes blocking the door. So these are some more of my posters. Lights kind of reflecting off of Zuko here. I don't even know what's showing up. But there, how about that? There you go. You can see it now. It's honor. Those other two down there are actually maps. And those are, those were kind of a pain to put.  But they're maps which I bought, I think, from lordofmaps.com. But basically, this one's Colorado and this one's the United States of America. But they're done in the style of Ward of the Rings maps. So they look like fantasy maps. They're really cool. These are belts from when I did Taekwondo, but that was a long time ago. So I don't really do it anymore. This scarf, I don't even know where it came from, but I have it. And then it's like just out of frame. But up here that's just a pencil drawing one of my friends made of Borderlands years and years ago. And actually, yeah, I've had that for a long time now that I'm thinking about it. So this is the view directly across from my bed. Like this is basically what I'm looking at when I film all my videos. Like here, like this is just my TV. There's the thing that's sitting on top of what shelf, whatever it's called. And then I got like my PS5 and games and stuff. But like I said, a lot of them are all packed up by now. You can see it actually says loading on the wall behind me. Again, I didn't paint it. People who lived here before I did painted it.  And let's just scooch over a little. You can see like again, there's a weapons rack with like staff and a screamer stick and stuff. And then another blanket there to dampen sound. I couldn't think of the word dampen for a second. All right. And this should be the last part of the tour. This is my desk.  And I really just have a laptop. I don't have like an actual rig setup, which is if you're wondering why I don't scream very often. That's the main reason why. I have a little cardboard cut out of Danny DeVito here, just chilling. And again, like normally this is much messier, but I just have so much stuff already packed up and good to go that it's, you know, I look like less of a, like I live in less of a pigsty than I really do. And then, yes, there is a painting here. It's like a cityscape. And there's a couple of dudes standing in the middle and they're surrounded by what's supposed to be zombie hordes. And there's a message on top. I don't even think it's, yeah, you can't see it on camera, but it says, if you are reading this, you are being lazy. Go outside and do something. Signed counter strike puppy dog. All right. That's cool. And actually I should mention that over on the other wall over there behind the rack where I put my belts, there's a bunch of hand prints, presumably from the people that painted this. So yeah, that was about it. People have just been asking for that for a while. I've just never felt the need to do it. But this room is really as much of a part of the channel as I am now that I'm thinking about it, you know, because I've been on YouTube almost six years now, or rather I've been here regularly almost six years now, because I did have a couple of videos from before I started as a booktuber, but those are like 2014, 2015 maybe. And they're deleted. They're gone forever. I don't have them anymore. Nothing that special really was just me talking about manga a little bit. But yeah, like this pretty much the whole channel has been just in this small little space. And other than a couple of shots I was able to get in other rooms or where I went outside or something. But I don't do that very often. So pretty much everything here has been in this very, very small room. I find myself getting weirdly nostalgic and kind of weirdly attached to this area all of a sudden. But I mean, at the same time I'm going to have more space soon. And if there's anything I know about people on the internet, they love change. And no one will ever throw a fit about me having a wall background that's a different color or something. But you know, whatever the case is, I don't think I'd be able to afford this if it weren't for the support of all you guys. So thank you really from the bottom of my heart. And just say a quick goodbye to my room. Goodbye. Bye. I mean, yeah, I don't really have a strong thing to close on here. Just thanks again. Rate the video, comment, subscribe, all that stuff. And I'll see you later. Goodbye. Oh my goodness, people are still watching this. I'm not sure why I thought most people clicked away before the credits started. But yeah, these are all my Patreon people. And my $10 up patrons are Appo Savilane and Olivia Rayan, Brother Santotis, Buffy Valentine, Carolina Clay, Dan Anceliovich, Dark King, Don, Dio, Echo, Flax, Carcat Kitsune, Lexi DeLorm, Liza Rudikova, Lord Tiebreaker, Microphone, Mistboy, Peep the Toad, Robi Reviews, Ruby Ishmael, Sad Martigan, Celia the Vixen, Stone Stairs, Tesla Shark, Vaivictus and Wesley. All of you are great. And if you want your name on here, then consider becoming a patron. You get early access to my videos as well. It's a great deal, I promise. And if you don't want to do that, you know, you can always subscribe to the channel, like this video, comment on it so it goes around. Or, you know, becoming a YouTube channel member. That's cool too. Follow all my socials and stuff, which are linked below. I'll see you. Goodbye.


If you watch Common Ground online, consider becoming a member or making a donation at lptv.org. Lakeland PBS presents Common Ground, brought to you by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota. Production funding of Common Ground is made possible in part by First National Bank Bemidji, continuing their second century of service to the community, a partnership for generations. Member, FDIC. Welcome to Common Ground. I'm your host, Scott Knudsen. In this episode, join Aaron Spangler in two inlets as he creates a work for the sculpture garden at the Walker Art Center. May of 2016, internationally exhibited artist Aaron Spangler invited me to his two-inlet studio to film him sculpt a piece for the Walker Art Center's sculpture garden in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I drove past beautiful Itasca State Park to Aaron's studio on the headwaters. His abstract carved form had taken shape, and Aaron was adding detail to the surface. Victoria Sung of the Walker Art Center was there to talk with Aaron about the creation of his art. So what does it feel like walking around in here? It's great.  Everything's just very evocative. All of your senses are engaged. You know, I started using these patterns where I trace off of tools or bodies. So I'm using that technique that I had with the woodblock prints on the sculpture. Got it. So, like, for instance, this is my deer rifle. Yeah. So these are objects from your everyday life? Yeah. So most of the stuff is from here, you know, from stuff I had. And then once I ran out of things to trace, or there's, like, only, like, a few things I can think of and I can't think of more things, then my assistant would go and find more stuff. And once we exhausted that, her parents have a... or grandparents are kind of junk collectors. So she went there and totally, you know, traced all that stuff. So a lot of this is a mix of all that. It doesn't really matter what they are. It just shapes.  This is something that's a crossing from my son's toys. This is what I call, like, a gun face, which is a pistol. Oh, yeah. It becomes, like, an animal face. Right. And you trace them from the actual objects themselves? Usually sometimes, and sometimes photos. The photos I've taken and then you can cut that out. What do you think? I think I know what this is. This is a sprinkler. Oh. Right? I think, yeah. I see it, yeah. This is off of an old two-man saw of my great-grandpas. That's kind of a cool thing. What's this? It's like a lamp or... Yeah, it could be. Oh, yeah, it could be a lamp. I never thought about that. Either way, yeah. This is a mystery to me. This looks like some kind of gear with cams or I don't know what this is. Anyway, so all this stuff, it doesn't really matter what it is. And so you're interested in these more for their kind of abstracted properties as opposed to the actual object they represent? As a whole, all these tools together express something. But it's not a specific thing. Right.  And then those create other things and create images that can become figures, I would say. Right. So, let's see. I'm going to try something up here. This is my Marlin rifle that my uncle bought for me for deer hunting. 30-30, lever action. So nothing too crazy. Let me know if I can hand you anything. And a lot of this stuff has been, as you can see, has really worn, has been used over and over and kind of laid out in different ways. It's just, I like, part of why I like carving is it's a limitation working reductively. It limits the choices. And part of just using these things over and over and part of it's probably lazy, part of it's, you know, then I get inspired or just run out of objects to trace. And then part of it just doesn't really matter what it is. It's just a way to get outside of my head and generate imagery and lines that wouldn't otherwise happen if I'm just staring at the wall. So after I trace these on, I'll erase parts of it that's not all going to get carved exactly like it is. But it's a place to begin. It's a place to start. It's a place to have something to say, to react to. You know, so if I start with somewhat arbitrary lines then as things get narrowed down I'm forced into decisions. Sometimes forced into places that I'm unhappy with which then makes me upset and struggle and hate what I'm doing and then forces me to make better decisions or loud enough or better but decisions that I can live with. Sometimes those aren't better decisions. Do you erase and start again or do you add on other imagery that will... I find when there's things that I don't like I have to let them sit for a while because often those things that make me uncomfortable for some reason have value and that's how I learn from it. If it's all stuff that's going the way it should it's usually not... I don't grow. Just like sometimes when you meet people people that you initially are kind of not drawn to become your best friends. So it's a little bit of that. Well these are kind of interesting because I feel like you're amassing this stockpile of imagery that recurs here and there throughout your artwork and so you have your own history of images or archetypes that you draw upon but then too that you're adding again more and more. I think it's also it's like what more can I do with these? Same with the chisels. Basic chisels you have gouges and they come in all kinds of different sizes back bent gouges which are really more for how you're getting into spaces. V-gouges and then these kind of spoon fishtail gouges if you rock them you can create different lines but there's only so many things you can do with them so it's like how do you keep making new marks with them? So that's something that I've brought to the sculptures which is basically using that surface technique of making a wood cut over a form. So the stencils are just another tool for you? Yeah it's just like these it's another thing and it just forces me to hopefully try to keep doing new things with it. I'm definitely more of a more is more onslaught full on dense speed metal. So when I first started carving all I had was flat chisels like let's see now I can barely find a flat chisel but just like these somehow I did all my carving with these and I had a friend of mine Paloma Vargasweiss who also works with wood and she's in Dusseldorf and she came to my studio when I was in New York and she couldn't believe it she was like this is ridiculous This is what you work with? Yeah and part of the reason was that I didn't want the look of the technique from gouges because it looked like wood carving to me like these narrative reliefs they're all done with flat chisels When I graduated to gouges everything got a lot faster and I realized what a fool I'd been And so the different effect you were saying between Well in the end the gouges really just help you clear wood Yeah So then as I had the gouges I started looking at more wood carving and seeing how so far back everybody's using this language and you can see it in African sculptures Indonesian You don't see it so much like in old European wood carving because they weren't letting the tools be seen but I could see it in African mask making I was working at the Museum for African Art as an art installer and registrar and so I got to handle a lot of the stuff and at the time I didn't really think about like I'm a wood carver I just thought of them as something different until one day I just dawned on me that I can see how they're making this stuff and using that language so I think it freed me up to think about using the chisels as the content and for mark making and being ok with that Can you talk a little bit about how you got into wood carving I know you don't have like a formal training I was making sculptures in college out of found objects and the content was pretty similar there's a lot of war stuff and guns and things like that but I was making sculptures out of found objects, a lot of found wood and there was at one point where I had this structure that I wanted to carve murals in in fact, it's out here kind of rotten, did you want to go see it? Yeah, definitely outside so this structure was up on a platform that was a railroad platform, I had built these railroad tracks out of old sheet metal and stuff and so inside here you can still see some of the remnants of the so there was like these carved murals and then you'd look down in there and that was a hole and there was like a carving of like hell with these mountains with upside down crosses and tar on them and this was like a little someone could sit in there, not actually yeah so that was those were the first these were your first wood carvings the way I was carving was so flat and it was just a way to bring out, like to put a background in there and just it's what I had, I had a bucket of tar and I had one chisel and so I started carving with that so when were these from? I graduated in 93 so it would have been 92, 93 it's from MCAD? and then shortly after that and then it was right after that that I started carving nose and I got something about working with illusion and ball relief, you know, that's kind of tension between illusion and real sculptural space which is like well I can kind of do it all in this I worked in just ball relief for a long time until then I just started to get more sculptural and then translate sort of a ball relief onto a sculpture in the round and then that evolved into this more pattern surface like with the woodcuts and that's something I learned from doing the woodcuts so when I did the woodcuts with Highpoint I was well even before that because I was making the woodcuts to make these rubbings and I discovered something there that I could apply to the sculptures so now it's kind of becoming a mixture of both of those things going in and out of the woodcut relief and bringing some objects out but not in this sculpture it's all going to be surface it's an interesting merging because generally you think about ball relief it's on a flat surface you're bringing out the three dimensionality on that flat surface but then you're applying it to the sculpture in the round as well and this merging of the two is very interesting I don't see frequently I can think of have you seen Chris Burton's Medusa I don't know if I've seen that specific one it's like it's just a crazy thing I would say it's a ball relief it's all additive and so you carve out of basswood so these are glued up glued up block that was I think it was about 33 inches by 35 inches something like that so all this has been carved away so this surface technique came from these panels that I was carving to make these rubbings so I would take this is another way like these panels I use over and over and over and they're just collaged I move the piece around and rub certain parts I don't rub the whole thing part of when I was making the panels they were very free because I wasn't concerned about them being a total image I knew that all I was going to do was rub parts of them so I didn't really care how it turned out as long as I could use parts of it then they turned out interesting so that I could use those initially that's how it was so you can see these multiple parts over and over through here from many many other panels and these are just done with a hard wax crayon and sometimes I've melted the crayon and smeared it but mostly it's just that and it just holds to it and so I put that over the panel I rub that with the crayon and then I use a random orbital sander to kind of mix the colors and to also to fade the colors got it so you use, so for pigments you've used wax crayons the work I think in the walkers collection that's the same technique but we also have a sculptural work I think it's I have my soul to the company store is it charcoal or graphite so that is a black gesso with graphite with graphite on top of it what other pigments do you tend to use? well I've done some light paint stains on wood but mostly it's just that it's like straight out of the box and the paint I use is just cheap paint I get at the Ben Franklin at the hobby store so the panels though that you do carve and then you create these rubbings from are those also considered works of yours in their own right afterwards well the panels they could be but I would never want to get rid of them as far as you know and tell them like ready to kick off because I keep using them like for instance making these drawings for this I'm just to get texture I'm just putting these on the panels and I'm just rubbing and it's just really quick this isn't all like drawn out so I get a shape and then I can use that and it's a way to create how something like that could feel so like pretty much all of this is all done from that panel right from that one panel but just using parts of it and you know there's endless ways to piece it together well normally I don't make drawings before I make a sculpture I knew that how I was going to approach this project was to carve the form first generally I'll be doing it all at one time but that can be inefficient it can be fruitful but it can be really inefficient because I'm constantly like what am I doing today every day I'm starting over so in this case I start out with some ideas about just how a shape could be and because I knew I was going to have this block I knew how big of a block can I glue up generally the proportions and the size how I wanted it to be towards me like how I am going to feel towards you know this thing so I did these around and then later I came back and drew from the piece that I ended up carving which obviously isn't like any of these you know the pieces that I started out with and it just is a way to kind of as you walk around the piece the form really changes and is very different so when I was getting the form down you know a couple of things that were necessary for me I did want this sense of as you go around it it feels like a different you know object if you're taking photos you might not know it's the same thing right and also I wanted it to be somewhat of a figure but nothing that would be a clear reference right so whether it's male female I mean it could be like a giant morel mushroom now that I look at you know it's um whether it's human or you know natural right or chimera I just wanted it to be open but also trigger some references which I think you can't help but to do so you know once I felt like I had that then I started working the surface you know so you've already got these kind of lines before it's carved and then the surface is going to like kind of fly over that it's going to add more kind of buzz to that surface and activate it and then as I carve you know if I want to soften I can go in with the sander and soften some of the lines you know so that like for instance over here when these were carved like I'll show you so so I take this little gouge let's see why should I do this so when you cut in you get a pretty hard edge there right so part of what I'm thinking about with the casting it's going to be a little different than with the wood where when I'm using when it's with the wood I do want these edges to catch the graphite when I'm using that and if there's a lot of rounded edges but with the bronze and being a patina it's going to be different and so I can soften those like I did here with the sander because what I'm thinking when it's going to be a metal it's going to be a different thing and it could be a little intense if it was all these real hard edges so I'm trying to make it work with with that material in mind or at least predict that so and then when I'm outlining I'm using like one of these so let's let me get this this piece that I just did and usually while I'm doing this I have the news on or music it's just more of like I think about it like if there's layers of of oppositional forces in my work it's like flipping between one version of the truth and another version of the truth and just letting that be all in one thing so I know we talked about the stencils that you use kind of for their more abstract properties once you eventually fold them onto your sculptural surface but in speaking about the news that kind of infiltrates your space as you're working do you think there is some kind of cultural or you know political viewpoint that comes out in your work? Yeah I think so I don't think it's um I try not to have it a lot of times I'll start with something maybe I'm angry about or something that I'm interested in and usually it evolves into a more complicated perspective as I'm making work and if it doesn't I feel like it's just too simple you know it's just why does it need to be a piece of artwork it could just be a poster although I have my opinions about who's right and wrong as a citizen as a citizen I do I caucus I'm involved I go to vote and an artist um has to go into a different place for me than just why I'm at in my political beliefs you know and what I'm willing to fight for but it's in there and I hope it's all that stuff mixed up and kind of clashing with each other and eating each other Common Ground you have an idea for Common Ground in North Central Minnesota email us at legacy at lptv.org or call<PHONE_NUMBER> to watch Common Ground online visit lptv.org and click local shows for episodes or segments of Common Ground call<PHONE_NUMBER> Production funding of Common Ground was made possible by First National Bank Bemidji continuing their second century of service to the community a partnership for generations member FDIC Common Ground is brought to you by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money by the vote of the people November 4th, 2008 if you watch Common Ground online consider becoming a member or making a donation at lptv.org


to my channel today's video is gonna be a car tour showing my favorite features of the car I've had the car now for a full week so I've kind of been figuring out my favorite features because this car comes with a lot like when I say a lot a lot honey so I'm probably go to the gym right now as you can see that's why I'm dressed like this I am wearing my OYS sports they sent me over five different pieces when I get back to the house I'm going to show y'all them and try them on and everything I'm super cute I've been trying to go to the gym now like not every day but at least like three to five times a week I've been trying to do that a lot more because my body obviously I can see a change when I go to the gym prints onto me real of him so yeah this is one of the outfits they sent me super cute it has padding in the bra but I kept on my actual bra just for more support because yeah I need it so I'm about to go to the gym and then once I leave the gym I may or may not pick up a smoothie from Tropical Smoothie here lately they haven't been good I don't know if I'm just getting get too much and they just not make it like I'm just tired of it but the past few times I went it's been kind of watery like at the location that I go to but they just built a new one so I'm gonna try that I want to see if it's any different so yeah but so I run my mouth takes about 20 minutes to get to the gym it's 306 I feel good a good workout in and then I'm gonna like I said stop get my smoothie and then I'm gonna do the car tool for you guys I'm gonna do the car to before I get back to the house yeah I'm gonna do the car to forget okay so I'm at this little park that's kind of close to my house I just left the gym and everything I have to go back home and get my camera but I bagged in this is my view it's like a lake and a park and really really cute anyway it's hopefully my camera doesn't like get too heated but before I do the car tour I'm about to eat I just got chick-fil-a let's see if I can set y'all up I stopped getting I stopped getting the I tried to do like good lighting I may have to move this lighting is not giving what it's supposed to give this is like this is the lighting that I need right here this is what I needed to give like I said I just got back from the gym that's one though I stopped getting Sprite from mech I mean chick-fil-a because it just it just don't be giving what it's supposed to give anymore like it does not taste good so I told myself I'm gonna eat in my car I mean at this point can so I'm about to take the leg out of a count meal and then I'm gonna get back to y'all after I'm done eating so for good lighting I'm leaning over into the passenger side but I'm about to start the car tour because I know a lot of people are wanting to see and I'm super super excited so I'm gonna start with the tour outside of the car like the features and stuff outside and then just show you guys outside so my car can literally get as cold as possible while I'm outside I'm gonna crank it all the way up because obviously I got to keep it down low so you guys can hear me so yeah starting off obviously by the time obviously by the title you see that I have a 2022 Kia K5 it is the GT line with the red seats and I also have the premium package the premium package is like the upgraded version of just the regular GT line I put in a picture or something right here that like the form that was on the car to let you guys know what is included in the premium package so with just their standard GT like without the premium package I think this is different because my screen is so much bigger than the actual regular GT line and I think the outside is white if I'm not mistaken I don't know but you can check into that if you want to so yeah we're gonna get right into the outside of the car and then I'll show you guys the inside there's like another person sitting outside their car okay so this is my key five I think I already showed that before it has one two three four five buttons obviously I just locked it that's how the lights look and to push the start you hold this down for three seconds and then she starts I did give her a name her name is diamond so the LED lights on the car stays on once it is started and I figured out how to pump my pumping it so you just put the key file by the trunk and then it automatically comes up this is what's in my trunk some junk this is my gym stuff and I got to return both though also haven't found any place well I couldn't have a final one put that on for me this is something I gotta return and like this is my gym stuff and this is like emergency stuff that I'm just keeping a basket but it is pretty spacious it also has a tire up under this port right here so it has a tire and jack and whatever crap in there that you need and then right here this is how you pull for if you need your seats to go back you just pulled that on either side it's on both of them and this is the back of the car this is the new K5 logo right here as you can see so this right here is the camera obviously and then this right here is how you can also pop the trunk if you wanted to so I push that the trunk pops coming around these are how the tires look I'm not a car guru type person I'm also gonna get my windows tinted whenever I want to do it and then this light also comes on my sensors for the cars if they're like in my blind spots are right here and then here's another look at the front and then to open the car I can do this hold that down or you can really just unlock it so once I get in my name is right here I made it say my name it has the degrees it says that my phone is connected now right when I get in here shows the time and then you can customize your back screen if you want sorry it's showing me in the back so right here obviously you got the wheel the new K5 logo over here I haven't cleaned under this off yet they literally gave me the car with this crap on here so I gotta figure out a way to get that off but um yeah this is your unlock lock so I'm gonna lock me in right here this is left and right so you can control your mirrors mine are good so I don't need to mess with that and then I got automatic roll down for the window this is how you block them and as you can see it's not like a lock right here so since that light is on it's how you know that it's locked right here this is how you pop the truck down there is the hood this is for me to stay in lanes what is it called lane assist so if I push this down right now you see that it'll pop up right there on the dash it's right there so then if my if I'm swerving the car literally pulls me back into the lane really crazy this lighting I guess is for I never used it so I guess it's for up in here yeah so oh this may be for my LED lights honestly I really don't know what this is for but it's adjusting some type of light and then that is for like so you don't slide off the road I have this from far below and then moving up here on the dash this is how I control all my lights it was very confusing at first because I've never had this many lights like it'd be four different icons popped up there so over here this car does have Bluetooth carplay every single thing you can think of so this I can talk obviously the carplay answer the phone hang it up this is how I turn up the volume on my music this is how I switch them switch the song mode I don't think I can use them okay mode is some stuff I don't know that selected media can be assist okay yeah I guess I can customize crap that I want on here that I use the most don't got time for it so what this right here is controls up here come on hello focus there we go so that controls up here you can have it on that you can have it on this you can have it on this while you're driving or you can have it on this and I like to keep it on my mouse per hour I got this car at zero miles well obviously they have to drive it like to get gas so I think it was like two or three miles on it but I got this car right off the truck brand spanking new so I already put six hundred and seven seventy miles on it and then I have a three hundred and thirty one miles to go and yeah all that crap up there and then over here get to the fun side got the radio don't listen to no radio let's turn that down so this is how it looks I didn't even know it looks like this because I never turned on radio but let's just go home so this is the home screen that pops up it has everything you can think of so this is the slide and then you got that one so you can go like that it doesn't matter I always just go to media and yeah so some of my favorite features that I found on here was if I if my airbags blow out it automatically calls the police so I really like that I don't know how to find it anymore but sounds of nature is also on here which is like really different so as you can hear it's playing like crickets and stuff in the forest this is calm sea waves so yeah a lot of a lot of a lot of different different stuff going on here you got your map navigation menu and it was something on here that I wanted to show you I don't know but let me see so I just clicked a setup once you click set up you can do your user you can do your user profile you can do the display the sound you can do your screen layout so go to the vehicle this car has so many different sensors so this kind of just gives you a little bit of insight on what's on here so it gives me a warning if I get too close to somebody I think I have a picture but right here if there's a car in front of me like let's say at the drive-thru or anywhere it'll say leading vehicle is like leaving or whatever so proceed so it has that if I get too close to somebody on the lane obviously my sensors will pop up and start beeping off it's just it's just a very very safety safety car that I really really love so any future you can think of I got it it's on here if you want to see what it looks like in reverse this is what I see backing up it's pretty big and then if I wanted to I can change the view to see how close I am to this trash can right here so as you can see I can go back a little bit more but I like to keep it obviously on this one and then it always have the map and stuff over there also so yeah I can literally control the door the lights the climbing all that jazz you can look into that if you really want to know down here is my climate control obviously dual climate control down here I have what I call like a cigarette lighter down there and then this is a USB port and then this is just a charging port so this one if someone wanted to get in here and not connect to my like car play or whatever they could literally put a charger in here the charger connects you to the Bluetooth and car play by that way this one is just a charging port so as you see it's just a little battery you literally just charge your phone right here so that's why I keep it on this one because obviously I'm already connected to the car play right here is the parental inside joke I also have these you probably always saw these in my other video me putting that in right here is auto hold this is my parking brake and this is my drive mode and this I forgot what this is I don't even think you can push it okay so auto hold let's say you are in drive-thru drive-thru take it forever you don't want to shut your car up so I'm gonna screw it up and I'm gonna put my car in drive so I'm in drive I'm gonna push this auto hold and as you see auto hold comes up right there in green in the bottom right hand corner and you see in the top left hand corner it says D so I am in drive so my foot is on the breakdown here I'm gonna remove my foot off the brake and it's holding me in place is what it's doing so as you see auto hold is on I am in drive I'm in drive and my feet are not on the freaking thingy so to take that off I believe you just push auto hold again or you literally just drive forward so I'm gonna push my brake and do auto hold yeah so then it takes it off or you can really just push your gas and go and then the parking brake you literally just pull it up it's just a little button and a drive mode I'm gonna show you that if you just turn it like a little knob it's gonna show smart mode normal sport and custom so I stay in normal smart mode kind of just learns how you drive and then it kind of just like I want to say drive for you but it doesn't like drive for you it just it just it just it just remembers how you drive I honestly don't know how to explain it but yeah keep mine in normal and that's that right here it's actually another place that you can charge your phone it actually you can slide your phone down in there mine doesn't work because I have a pop socket on it but you would literally just slide your phone down in there and I have a big case on so your slides your phone and your phone will start charging so keep in mind I have one two three charging ports already the armrest I just have a random crap in there and then coming on this side this is like the stuff that came with the car my title and all kind of stuff like it comes with a lot and then this is a look at the driver's side I mean the passenger side I got them so dark okay so I'm trying to figure out this camera but this is a little bit brighter than what it was so I've already showed all of this stuff down there but yeah this right here is my lights is literally not a button you just kind of tap over it or hover over it and then it literally turns on and off so hover over it and then hover back over it and it turns it off this right here is for my lights to come on when my door open or just to keep the lights on right here is information this is the UVO thingy that's associated with my car and then this is like roadside assistance and stuff that I can call right here is for the sunroof that I already have back I do have a panoramic sunroof that goes from the front all the way to the back okay I already got that part open so then to open the rest of it just push it and then it'll completely open up and then it also has this little like mesh thingy right here to protect or till the wind and stuff won't really come in I don't know how he expanded but yeah so this is the front seat I also have a trash can right here and then my purse is right there hooked on and then let's go to the back seat and then this is my gas pump the car has to be started and then it pops open like that this is the back seat this is my hospital bag that I take always to work and then I have a clip on this side and a clip on that side for the front and like I said I got this car brand new so it still kind of has some of the plastic on there so take that off this is also back here feel like that's a very convenient this car has one two three four five six seven eight cup holders and remember I told y'all to remember about the charging ports there's two more charging ports back here so that's one two three four five ways you can charge your phone or anyone can charge their phone in this car and then this is back here I literally only have like a little cleaning supply thing this is for my window shield and this is what you see when you're looking in the back up to the front and it's like really really bright outside and I did some type of exposure something I don't know how to start it off and this is Prince new car seat everything I got will be linked down in my Amazon store okay so switching back to this lighting so you can actually see the front this is what you see so the panoramic sunroof going away from the back of the front this is the bug in here back seat and then that's what Prince be chilling it so my favorite features of the car I haven't already said I don't know is obviously the lane assist it taking me back and forth like putting me into the lane my cruise control also makes my car drive by itself like I have cruise control and then it's this other button on the steering well I don't know if I showed you guys enough but obviously this is my cruise control so when I push that this automatically pops on so this is I guess like I'll call it will assist I don't know I tried to record a video but you can't really tell I was on the phone and I was on Snapchat so it's kind of muted but once this is on the wheel like I was driving on the freeway in the freaking wheel started turning itself so that's definitely one of my favorite features alongside of like I've never had a car do like the sensor stuff I came from a 2014 Hyundai ascent it was literally I had Bluetooth and that's really the only thing that I had so having these sensors in here is really nice my car is going to turn off in 25 minutes you can set it for an hour or 30 minutes so obviously minus it for 30 minutes so right now it's going to turn off in 25 minutes I love the push to start I've never had that before I never had a car that trunk I just love everything about the car but definitely my favorite feature was the car driving by itself and what else it was something else that I like I like that I can just walk up to the trunk and it pops and really everything is my favorite but that's definitely top tier and I like that it'll call 911 if my airbags ever deployed or come out whatever you call it so yeah I'm about to go home I'm about to take a shower actually I'm gonna take prints out then I'm gonna take a shower and then I'm gonna try on the rest of my gym outfits from OYS I'm very very excited to see how they look and which one I'm be wearing tomorrow so yeah girl let me turn this lane assist off because sometimes a line assist begin on my nerves so yeah let's drive it on back home so hey y'all today is a new day today is actually Wednesday and I'm going to the gym again obviously so I have on another one of the OYS sports bow right there outfits so this is one this is one of many of my short sets I only got one pants set and all the rest of them are shorts so this is how this one looks these are the shorts high waisted at the OYS sports right there I love this detailing on the side and these are a bit shorter than what I'm normally used to like some of my other ones are about right here in length but I mean these are fine really like these super cute super sporty okay and then obviously you guys see the top it's the same it has that detailing right there and then the back I don't know if this one says OYS okay yeah so this one doesn't have it on the back but the other ones do have it on the back so when I'm back from the gym showering everything I'm gonna come and show the rest of the fits they'll be on the couch well I'm gonna come try them out for you guys but like this one's super cute super excited for that one so yeah let's get to the gym okay so this is the other set that I got just has a YS sports on the top cute cute sports bra very stretchy the padding is also able to come in and out and the back is super cute and then these shorts are just basically your plain seamless shorts has the OYS right here super cute this is the next set I am in love with this blue color basically the same as the gray one but this one is literally like a full shirt I am not wearing a bra with this one which never happens but this literally hold the girls up perfectly for reference I am a 32 triple so yeah but these are super cute literally the same exact shorts but just in blue and then the top also super super cute this one hands down is my favorite get into it OYS sports right there this cute design and then this is super cute it's actually like real hoes in here so yeah these are definitely my favorite cuz all the way around and the shirt is also like that this one I'm also not wearing a bra hold the girls up perfectly super super super cute set and the rips goes throughout the back of this shirt also and it's also in the front so 10 out of 10 for this set definitely


CHAPTER I Once upon a time on a beautiful island that stood in the center of a great big lake there lived in the heart of a kindly old oak tree, a dear little squirrel family. There were three in all, father, mother, and fluffy tale, and they were just the happiest family one could imagine. Father Squirrel worked hard all day long, gathering nuts to store away so that they would all have enough food in the larder for winter, and when Mother Squirrel was not too busy doing her housework she too helped to gather nuts, which she would tuck away in all sorts of places so that no lazy squirrels could find them.  Not that she would not help anyone in need, for she was a good kind mother, but she knew from experience that those little squirrels who would not work and gather nuts when they were plentiful would help themselves to other folks supply if they had a chance to do so. One day while Mrs. Squirrel was ironing some pretty petties for Fluffy Tale, she heard a knock at the door. It was a messenger from Mrs. Squire Squirrel inviting Fluffy Tale to a surprise party, to be given to her little daughter, Furry Kins. When Fluffy Tale came bouncing in to dinner that day, and saw something pink peeping out from under her plate, you can just imagine how delighted she was when she pulled it out and found it was an invitation to a party, for parties were few and far between on the island. They had to be just after the summer visitors left the place, as it would not be very safe while they were there. With summer visitors there was sure to be a boy with a gun who was always just so hungry for Squirrel Pot Pie. In the winter it was too cold, and in the spring there was seldom enough food left for regular meals, much less a party. So now the time was just right, and Fluffy Tale thought she was never so happy in all her life. CHAPTER II After lunch on the day of the party Mrs. Squirrel washed, brushed and combed Fluffy Tale, until it hurt, so she thought she would have to squeal once or twice, then dressed her in one of the prettiest little party dresses one ever saw. Fluffy Tale even had new slippers with fluffy pink bows. You must live up to your name, my dear, her mother said, as she tied her pretty pink bonnet strings, and too, my dear, as she kissed her for at least the twentieth time. Be very careful of your manners. Don't lose your present. The cutest lace-trimmed hanky with bluebirds in the corners.  You know old Tabby Cat just loves little squirrels for dinner, and she wouldn't care, even if you did have on your party dress. Cats are such prowling creatures sometimes, she added. CHAPTER III Mrs. Squirrel followed Fluffy a little way down the path, and at the corner Fluffy turned, waved good-bye with her little fan, and then was gone out of sight. Mrs. Squirrel sighed as she went back into the house, hoping all would be happy for her darling that day. Fluffy herself was surely happy, and after waving good-bye to her mother, her thoughts were filled with the good time and the good things she knew she would get to eat at the party.  Whenever she would think of the pleasures in store for her. She had not gone very far along the road when she heard a wee voice crying, oh, please help me, it hurts so. And looking around she saw a poor little mouse whose tail was caught between two stones. Just a minute, said Fluffy, and after carefully putting down her hanky and fan she tried to move the stones between which little Timmy Mouse's tail was caught. At first she thought she would not be able to do so, but at last she got a good-sized stick and raised the stone just enough for poor little Tim to get loose. He was so glad to be free, he said, not only because the stone hurt him dreadfully, but because he feared that old Mrs. Tabby Cat was liable to be along any minute. I can't tell you how much I thank you, he said, but maybe someday I can do something for you. That's all right, said Fluffy, gathering up her things.  And she was gone out of sight. I must hurry a little more, she thought, as I would hate dreadfully to be late for the party. CHAPTER IV. OF THE ADVENTURES OF SQUIRREL FLUFFY TALE by Dolores Makenna. This is a LibriVox recording, or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, recording by Adrian Stevens. The Adventures of Squirrel Fluffy Tale by Dolores Makenna. CHAPTER IV. Oh, dear me!  Your mother must be very careless to let you fall. No, said the little chap. Mother has gone for food for us, and I played too near the edge of the stump and fell off. Just then the woodpecker's mother returned. And being alarmed that something was happening to her babies came flying towards Fluffy, screaming, What are you doing here? I'm not harming your children, said Fluffy.  He had fallen to the ground and could not get up himself. It was lucky for him that I saw him when I did, for I almost stepped on him. By this time Mrs. Woodpecker was over her alarm, and was very sorry she had spoken so crossly. Please forgive me, she said. I was so terribly frightened. I hardly knew what I was saying. I thank you a thousand times. Should you ever need a friend, let me know, and I will do all I can to help you. Fluffy did not wait to talk longer. She knew it was getting near a party time every minute, so she hurried on. End of Chapter 4 Chapter 5 of The Adventures of Squirrel Fluffy-Tale by Dolores McKenna. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, ought to volunteer. Please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Adrian Stevens. The Adventures of Squirrel Fluffy-Tale by Dolores McKenna. Chapter 5 Now, thought Fluffy-Tale, I shall not stop again, no matter what happens. I'll just hustle along, and not stop till I reach Squirrel's house. Why, it must be time for the party now, she thought, as she looked at her tiny little wrist watch. While looking at her watch she heard a fluttering and rustling in the leaves along the roadside. I'll not stop, she thought. I'll just pretend I don't hear anything. She had only gone a few steps, though, when she had to turn back to see what was wrong. She was such a tender-hearted little creature, she could not go to a place where she knew she was to have a good time, and feel that she might by any chance have passed by some suffering little person. What is it, she asked rather impatiently, as she glanced to where the noise seemed to come from.  Won't you please pick me up and hang me on that old tree? I guess I must have fallen asleep, and loosed my hold on the bark. No, no, not that way, he said, as Fluffy was trying to place him on the branch. Hang me upside down, that's the way I sleep. Very well, said Fluffy. There you are, upside down. Now I hope everything is all right. Yes, thank you, said Mr. Bat. I can go to sleep again now, and I'll try to be more careful.  I wish you would give me your name and address. I'll put it in my vest pocket, and maybe someday I'll be able to be of some use to you for your kindness in helping me out today. Fluffy told him, in as few words as possible her name, where she lived, and where she was going, then bidding him goodbye, she picked up her packages, and hurried along, faster than ever. End of Chapter 5 Chapter 6 of The Adventures of Squirrel Fluffy-Tale by Dolores McKenna This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Adrienne Stevens. The Adventures of Squirrel Fluffy-Tale by Dolores McKenna Chapter 6 Oh dear, she sighed. I might almost as well go home now. It's so late. I'm sure the ice cream and cake and all the goodies will be eaten before I get there. I do wish people would not be so careless and make so much work for other people to do. I'm all tired out now, and I do hope that I've had my last delay. With this thought, she hurried along just as fast as her little feet would go. So excited was poor Fluffy now that she made a turn to the left instead of to the right. And she had gone quite a distance before she discovered that there was something wrong. She did not know just what to do, and became so dreadfully frightened that she sat down and cried as though her little heart would break. How long she had been sitting there, she could not tell.  I wondered if she would be able to find her way back home without being caught by that awful old tabby cat. If I ever get out of this trouble, thought she, I'll never again stop any place to help anybody. If I had only gone straight to the party and let other folks take care of themselves, I would be safe now. With the thought that she was now the most unhappy creature in the world, she burst into tears again. Won't you please give me those tears? Fluffy heard a tiny voice ask.  Looking down Fluffy saw a tiny little bluebell, all wilted and looking so sad. The trees are so thick here, it said.  By this time Fluffy's tears were all dried up. Seeing someone in distress made her forget her own troubles. I can't give you my tears, she said, for they have all dried now, but I can get you some water from the brook. So again, putting down her dear little fan and hanky, she skipped off to the brook to get the water. She had nothing in which to carry it, so she made a cup of her tiny hands, and was stepping from one stone to another when her little foot slipped and splash into the water it went. Oh, my dear little shoe! wailed Fluffy as she looked down and saw the pretty bow all wet and muddy. I can never go to the party now! She tried her best to wipe off the mud and fluff up the bow, and then got more water which she took back to the little bluebell, who was eagerly waiting for her to return.  If you want more, I shall get it for you, then I must try to find my way home, as I have lost my way to Ferrikin's party. By this time little bluebell was refreshed after its hearty drink, and told Fluffy the way to reach Ferrikin's home. Thanking the little flower, she again started out, and was just making the last turn when who should she see in her path but old tabby cat. Fluffy looked but for an instant, she knew she must move quickly to escape, so she turned about, yelled for help as loudly as she could, and ran just as fast as her little legs would carry her. She was tired already after her long walk, and could not make very good time. Old tabby was gaining on her rapidly, when Mrs Woodpecker, who had heard Fluffy's first cry for help, flew at once to the rescue. She jumped on Mrs Tabby's head, and began pecking for all she was worth. This was such a surprise to Old Tabby, that she fell head over heels into a hole by the roadside, and it was quite a few minutes before she recovered herself enough to peep out, to try to discover just what had attacked her.  It was some time before little Timmy Mouse, for it was he who had rolled the stone on Old Tabby's tail, dared to look over the edge of the pit, to see how well his plans worked. So, it was near, said Tabby, glaring at Timmy. One look was enough for little Timmy, and he scurried off home as fast as he could go. End of Chapter 7. By this time, it was quite late, and poor little Fluffy was still running, thankful to have escaped Old Tabby, but fearful of some new danger at every step. Suddenly, a voice beside her said, Don't be frightened, follow close to me, for I can see quite well in the dark. You did me a good turn once in the daylight, and now I can help you in the dark. With these words, Mr. Bat, for it was the same one she had helped that afternoon when he had fallen from the tree, took hold of her hand and led her to Flurrykin's home, where they were all waiting to greet her. After Miss Woodpecker had jumped on Miss Tabby, she flew on to tell the little folks at the party all about poor Fluffy-Tales experience, and to ask them to keep the party waiting just a little longer. End of Chapter 8. Chapter 9 of The Adventures of Squary Fluffy-Tale by Dolores McKenna. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Adventures of Squary Fluffy-Tale by Dolores McKenna. Chapter 9. It was surely a grand party. They had it on their beautiful lawn, and the moon had come out so brightly that the little folks played all their games they had arranged for the daytime. There were nuts, apples, candies, and all sorts of goodies to eat, nice games to play, and they danced around in the moonlight till the whipped poor will called, which was the curfew for all. As it was so late when Fluffy arrived at the party, Ms. Flurry-Ken sent a message to her mother telling her that she would keep her all night and send her home early in the morning. So after the party was over, and all the little folk had gone to their homes in the woods, Ms. Squary Squirrel tucked Fluffy and Fluffy-Kens in her daughter's little bed, kissed them all good night, heard them say their prayers, and went quietly to her own room on the opposite side of the big oak tree. End of Chapter 9. Chapter 10 of The Adventures of Squary Fluffy-Tale by Dolores McKenna. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Adventures of Squary Fluffy-Tale by Dolores McKenna, Chapter 10. Fluffy was too tired to dream of the many experiences she had had that day and went to sleep quickly. Early next morning, as promised, Ms. Flurry-Kens saw to it that Fluffy was taken safely home. Her mother was anxiously waiting for her at the door, and each was happy to feel the other's arms around her. Mother Squirrel kissed her daughter after each adventure was told to her, and wiping the tears from her eyes when Fluffy had finished, she said, After all, Fluffy-Dear, you see that one can never lose anything by being kind to others.  End of Chapter 10. End of The Adventures of Squary Fluffy-Tale by Dolores McKenna.


Okay, again, this I think is a problem that you could potentially do fairly quickly, okay? So this is just M1, V1, M2, V2, okay? So it says, you start with 6 molar nitric acid, 20 mils of it. What is the concentration, the final concentration if you dilute it to 0.400 liters, okay? So what you want to remember is M1, V1 equals M2, V2. So we're looking for M2. So M2 equals M1, V1 over V2, okay? So we've got to convert these to the same units, okay? So you could convert it to liters or milliliters. So this one to liters or this one to milliliters, whichever one you want. I'll just convert to mills. So again, pretty straightforward if you recall the M1, V1, M2. Do you think the hard problems that you're going to encounter well are here? Are there any questions on this one?  Okay.