How many legs does an APT need? Sounds like the start of a joke, but it's not. It's a very serious question and one that I never considered before becoming an APT myself. Let's find out and dive in. Hello there, my beautiful, lovely, talented, and delightful internet friends. Welcome back to my channel. Thank you so much for joining me today on Footless Joe. I am Joe. I am missing a human foot, a meat foot, and I wanted to talk a little bit today about why I have three different feet for one missing body part. I didn't spend a whole lot of time contemplating how many legs an APT might need before I became one myself. And as I've gone through this process, I've realized that the number is definitely more than one. You definitely need more than one prosthetic leg if you want to participate in the kinds of activities that an able-bodied person might be able to participate in. So let's talk about how many legs an APT really needs and how they can actually get those, because it's a little bit more difficult than you might think. But first, let me introduce you to our sponsor. A huge thank you today to DuVol. This is their Radiance Spin Care System. It's something I've talked about before. I did a sponsorship with them a few months ago, and legitimately I have used this just about every single day since then. If you don't have a spin brush for your facial skincare and even for your whole body skincare, it's something that I would highly recommend checking out. I keep in the shower and I use it to cleanse my face. There's no way with just using my fingers that I could ever get my skin nearly as clean as this gets it. I have noticed that the acne that I have when I get, you know, zits every now and again, it happens. It has decreased significantly since I started using this. In the Radiance System, there are actually a variety of brushes from body care to a pumice stone to exfoliation and more. And while we're talking about facial skincare, a lot of people have asked me what I do for my makeup routine. I'm not convinced that it's that fascinating of a video, so I probably won't ever make a full video about it. But in case you were ever wondering, what I use for foundation is their Precision Blending Sponge. I've used makeup sponges for all of my makeup needs, at least foundation and concealer for a couple years now. And the coverage that it gives my skin, being able to like evenly blend things out is absolutely fantastic. If you've never used a sponge and you are someone who uses makeup, I would highly recommend you checking out this Precision, I'm struggling with that word, Precision Blending Sponge. Use Code Footless Show for 70% off the Radiance Spin Care System, which I think is a pretty fantastic deal. Thank you again so much to DeVole for sponsoring this video. And now let's learn a little bit about how many legs amputees really need. I don't know, is it one, is it 45? We're gonna find out. When I was a newborn amputee, and by that I mean a 27 year old woman who had just become an amputee. At my first prosthetics appointment, my prosthetist at the time asked me, do you wanna be able to wear high heels or do you wanna be able to go hiking? Now there were a few things that were interesting to me about that question being the starting question. First of all, the idea that I needed to decide then, or in the very near future, if I wanted to be able to wear a type of shoe that's very common for women to wear that I would like to wear, or if I wanna be able to do something that's very common for people to be able to do and participate in that. I had one of two options, right? And I probably could have spent some time thinking about that, but for me I was like, well I really wanna be able to wear high heel shoes because I never have been able to because my ankle was so messed up before it was cut off. But the big reason why I had this done was so I could get active again, so I could do things that I love, so I could take my dogs for a walk, so I could go hiking. And so I was like, let's go with the hiking option and that is how I ended up with this. This is the Osser Proflex XC torsion. It's got this little torsion ball here which actually comes in very handy for hiking. That puppy actually does something. It actually does allow for a little bit more movement which is fantastic. My foot has a hole. Oh my gosh. Do you see that? It has a hole in it. I legitimately did not see, and it's got a crack in the bottom.  Side note, these foot shells, like the thing that kinda looks like a human foot but also not really, these are the only things that insurance does not cover. Which is why my foot has had dog chew marks, dog teeth marks in it for about a year now.  This is a part, like any part of a prosthetic leg, but I don't understand why insurance doesn't cover them. What you may not think by looking at this though, at first glance, is that it does not adjust heel heights at all. It is flat on the ground. Now there is a little bit of fiddling around I can do with the screws in here to kind of point it forward a little bit more if I had boots that had like a little bit of a heel. But even then, that's pretty uncomfortable. Something else that was interesting and kind of built into this question was the realization which I learned going through this process is that insurance companies, generally speaking, only pay for one prosthetic every three years. So you gotta pick one and you better pick the right one because you are gonna be stuck with it for three years. For this one right here, I am almost at two years which makes me very excited because then I only have one year left to go into like and pick a new one and add to my wardrobe of feet. Wardrobe of feet is probably not a sentence you thought you'd wake up this morning hearing but there you go, you're welcome. So I chose the more activity, the hiking option and understood that unless I had many thousands of dollars on hand or unless someone gifted it to me, something like that, I wouldn't be wearing high heels for the next three years. So if I can hike but not wear high heel shoes with this, what else can I do or not do? Well, can I think is probably the wrong word. What is wise or what is really, what you're really able to do in different legs does have limitations. Like for instance, I could in theory run on this but I can't actually run because it's not built for that kind of movement. It's a different kind of movement that your body goes through running versus walking. I have tried to like jog just to see what it would feel like and well it does not feel great because there is not the spring that this carbon fiber awesome running blade has in it. When this finally has a sock attached to it which will hopefully be happening in a week or two it will be built specifically for running and it won't be super comfortable to for instance, walk in.  The reason for that is because when you're running it's gonna compress this and your hips are gonna be even which is what you want for running. That is not comfortable for standing or regular walking. These are built for very different purposes. So what about this guy? What's this guy over here? Well this is my biking foot. Why would I need a biking foot? Excellent question. This is actually one that I wasn't aware of probably till I was given an indoor bike and I started trying to bike. The socket for these two is very different and if you're unfamiliar the socket is this part. The part that is actually gonna go around my residual limb as you can tell this is kind of falling apart but it still works great. That's all that matters. My walking leg would not allow for the range of motion to be able to bend my leg far enough to complete a pedal stroke and so my fantastic prosthetist took one of my old sockets cut it down in the back which wouldn't work for walking because it doesn't provide the proper support for me to be able to walk well, walk with good alignment, walk with good support, walk in a straight line and he cut it down enough in the back that it would allow my knee to bend that far. But the problem then is that I had two sockets but only one foot and so every morning if I wanted to get on the bike I would go through a process of like unscrewing all these screws getting the alignment right switching over to the other socket getting the alignment right, biking, unscrewing everything, transferring it back over hoping that I got the alignment right for that day and that's something that's totally doable. A lot of people do that and I was grateful like have a second socket that I could do that with but my prosthetics office and my prosthetist in particular Zach was incredibly kind and gave me one of their old feet that was a similar size to my foot. The foot that is in here is actually about a size and a half larger than my actual foot size but it worked out perfectly because I put the bike shoe on there and then we're good to go. So with these three I'll be able to walk, hike, bike and run which is absolutely amazing and fantastic and a dream come true. But what about swimming? None of these are built for swimming or good for swimming. A lot of people ask me about swimming actually I have gone swimming once in San Putation. It was in a saltwater pool and in saltwater you float a little bit easier so I kind of wanted to see what swimming would be like and it went perfectly fine. I was on a swim team when I was a kid so I'm pretty good at swimming and just kicking with my little nubbin it felt really weird but it was doable. However, if you're going snorkeling or scoop diving or something like that you might want to attach a fin to your leg and there are a variety of ways that you can do that. I'll pop some of them up on screen. People use all different kinds of options but none of those are covered by insurance so either you're working with a program, you're paying out of pocket to get it or you're adapting and I think that's one of the pillars of being an APT is that your life is all about adaptation and this was nothing new to me because having a really messed up ankle for years of my life I was very familiar with like going to an exercise class and going to do something be it MMA or an exercise class or CrossFit or whatever and just letting the instructor know, hey, my ankle's messed up I'm gonna have to adjust some things just so you know that's what I'm doing. And I would have that conversation wherever I went to try to do something new and you get really good at it. You get good at adapting to different situations and realizing your own limitations. And I think that there are two things I really want to say when it comes to how many legs does an amputee need? To be able to walk, you need one that fits you well and isn't too painful, isn't too uncomfortable and you can walk, you know, in a straight line with. But for a lot of us, and this is not everybody, I'm just speaking for myself and other people that I know just walking is not enough is being able to walk a gift. Oh my God, yes, it is absolutely incredible. And I am forever grateful that I'm able to do that. But if that's all I could do then I would have to say no to my friends who asked me to go hiking. I live in Colorado, it's like what people do. I wouldn't be able to hop on a bicycle or walk on rocky terrain or go at a pace above a slow walk. I wouldn't be able to snowboard or ski or get in the water and really get going. There are so many different activities that I'd be restricted from, which is a bummer, right? I feel like there's this delicate balance of being really grateful for what you have but also being like, I want to be able to do the other things too. Like for instance, let's go back to skiing and snowboarding. I live in Colorado as previously mentioned meaning that the majority of the activities that people do here are go into the mountains and hike or go into the mountains and ski and snowboard. And I have never gone skiing or snowboarding except for this one time when I was eight and my parents took me to Anaconda, Montana and we went skiing, which was awesome but I was more excited about the fact that we got to see sled dogs. That is not important for you to know for this video but now you know, sled dogs are fantastic and got eight-year-old Joe very excited. But I've never been able to go skiing or snowboarding. That's something I'd really like to try but to do that in a way that supports my body well I would need a snowboarding leg. For instance, my friend Anika has a snowboarding leg and I'm pretty sure she said it cost something like 30 grand. Not that she had to pay personally but the actual device itself is that. Does that mean I can never go skiing or snowboarding? No, I can probably make one of these work and have a great time but I'm not gonna be able to do it at like an optimal level. At a level that's really made for my body it would be adjusting and adapting to it unless I had 30 grand to shell out. The reality for many amputees is that they have one or two legs and they pick the activities that they can do with those. I think it's really unfortunate that prosthetics are so expensive that they're so out of reach for most people. Like there's no way that I could ever buy this. This was given to me by a good friend. There's no way that I ever could have gotten this unless I saved up for quite a while unless for the kindness of other people and there are grant programs out there that hook people up and hook amputee athletes up with the gear as in the legs that they need but it's a struggle and you really have to like think ahead and make decisions about what kind of life you want and what restrictions you want on your life when you're getting that one leg that you can have for those three years. I'm just gonna throw in my two cents here and say that I really do think it is unfortunate that insurance companies only cover one type of device every three years because if someone wants to be more active, if someone wants to do more things it's in the interest of their health, physical and mental I would argue to be able to do those things and not covering additional legs, additional feet to allow them to do those things. I think it's really unfortunate. I think saying that like you have one leg be happy with it for three years at least you're able to do something. Like yes, there was a lot of gratitude in that but also I don't know I just think it's unfortunate that insurance companies have decided that amputees really only need to be able to walk and that's it. I really think there should be coverage and options for people who want to do more things and want to be more active. I think it would be in insurance companies interest to be honest with you. I know that this is like this is a United States of America kind of issue because other countries are not like this but we currently are. So how many feet does an amputee need? Oh, I think the answer at the end of the day is you figure it out when you become an amputee. You kind of play it by ear and figure out what you want to do and what your lifestyle is like, what you're wanting to do and achieve and you plan accordingly. And sometimes that means waiting long periods of time to be able to do those things. I am so thankful for these three legs that allow me to do three things that I really love. I realize how lucky I am to have these and I'm really grateful for it. And I'm also hopeful to be able to do more in the near future. I want to be able to wear high heels in a pre dress. I want to be able to go skiing or snowboarding. I want to be able to go swimming and actually kick with both legs and have it be effective. Cause kicking with this I feel like is more just like for the show of it, right? It's like what my body's just used to. I don't think it's really doing that much. I feel like this really doesn't help propel me through the water. I think at the end of the day to answer the title of this video, you know how many, how many legs does an amputee really need? Need is a funny word here, right? Like, as I said, to be able to walk, you really only need one. But for those who want to do more, you are going to need additional pieces of equipment to be able to do that in a way that doesn't hurt your body. If I ever won the lottery, if I ever got just super rich out of nowhere I would definitely buy a leg that would allow me to wear heels. This is my sign for wearing heels apparently. I wanted to be able to ski and snowboard a swimming leg. Maybe a gymnastics leg. Am I a gymnast? No. Would I like to be? Yes. Do I realize that I'm probably tooled for that for sure? But why not give it a shot? Maybe an ice skating leg? We're getting wild and crazy now here kids. But for now I'm incredibly grateful and happy with the three that I have while I do dream of more in the future. Thank you again so much to our sponsor Duvo for sponsoring this video. Check out their links down below for this and also for that facial spun which I literally use every day and really, really like. To my patrons over on Patreon, thank you so much for supporting me financially being a part of this community and being a part of this channel. I truly appreciate you enable me to do this and I am forever grateful for that. If you don't know what Patreon is it is a place where you can financially support creators that you care about or want to support and in return you get a little bit of a community and you get some cool perks like behind the scenes pets videos. And to you watching this video, thank you so much for spending a few minutes out of your day here with me today. You could be anywhere in the world.  I love you guys, I'm thinking about you and I'll see you in the next video. Bye guys. I'm very bummed that my toe has a hole in it. I can see like the carbon fiber through it. What a bummer. I guess this is kind of my own fault because I was told not to walk without wearing socks or shoes and I've done a lot of barefoot walking because I like barefoot walking, all right? But I guess I must now pay the consequences. Have her from the sky.


Zim Rwanda $800 million energy deal on course. Energy is the driving force behind the economies of all industrialized, emerging and poor countries in the 21st century. These energies could include electrical, renewable, fossil fuel, and a variety of others. However, electrical energy is the most well-known and frequently used type of energy. Every country is making effort to not rely on any other country for its energy supplies. Because of this, many countries either build new energy infrastructure or upgrade old infrastructure, or they enter into energy partnerships with other countries. The rural electrification initiatives were developed by Zimbabwe and Rwanda to help with energy supply and to better the lives of their population. In regard to the rural electrification program, Zimbabwe and Rwanda have made tremendous advancements. The rural electrification program in Zimbabwe and Rwanda has advanced significantly, and the project's $800 million US dollar implementation plans are practically finished. Stay with Africa Reloaded to learn more about this initiative and other African ventures. As always, a like on this video would be much appreciated. Also remember to subscribe as you are watching. In order to better the lives of those who live in the country, President Mangag was stated last year that Rwanda had committed to assist Zimbabwe in funding the rural electrification program. This is a significant step toward establishing an upper-middle income country by 2030 and is also consistent with the government's mission of leaving no one and no place behind. According to ZESA Holdings Executive Chairman Dr. Sidney Gada, the multi-million dollar initiative consists of nine separate projects, ranging from customer services to generation, transmission and distribution. Dr. Gada declared that the program is well on course. ZESA has never undertaken a project of this scope before. We are aiming to have completed the procedures for carrying out this enormous undertaking by the end of this month. According to researchers, the $800 million US dollar program will assist Zimbabwe reduce its energy access gap because the bulk of its population lives in rural areas without electricity and some are located distant from the grid network. According to Mr. Inak Ruzer, a lecturer of development studies at a nearby private university, energy access is a precondition for whatever development you think of and lighting up rural areas will definitely speed development and economic activities in such places. Additionally, this intervention will put Zimbabwe on track to meet sustainable development goals SDG No. 7. By 2030, all classes of residents should have access to reasonably priced, dependable, sustainable and contemporary energy, according to Sustainable Development Goal No. 7. For many of the sustainable development goals to be achieved, from poverty reduction through improvements in health, education, water supply and industrialization to mitigating climate change, access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy is essential. According to the United Nations Energy Progress Report 2022, Africa is now the continent with the lowest power coverage with close to 600 million people still living without access. By 2030, Sub-Saharan Africa will require annual investments of at least 31 billion US dollars to electrify everyone. Carlos Tadia, a Herrera-based expert, predicted that the rural electrification scheme will lead to a more inclusive economy in which residents of rural areas would take part. The electrification of those locations can help address the abundance of untapped economic potential, according to Mr. Tadia, who stated in an interview, to relieve pressure on the already stressed national grid, the nation has already begun investing in off-grid electricity generating. Due to the enormous demand, which is primarily the result of rising urbanization and increased activity in industries like mining, more people would have access to electricity thanks to off-grid solutions. Up to this point, 430 solar mini-grid systems have been constructed at remote rural schools and clinics around the nation. 10,009 rural institutions have been powered nationwide using grid and solar technology. To speed up the electrification and off-grid solutions for rural populations, the Rural Electrification Fund will channel $183 billion this year, plus an additional $1 billion from the FISCUS. As a catalyst for achieving Vision 2030, this initiative will also support Education 5.0 in rural schools by giving recipients chances to innovate and industrialize. This energy deal between these two nations will greatly increase the supply of electricity, improve the economy, improve standard of living for not only Zimbabwe, but also for Rwanda. By the way, tell us in the comment section about the supply of electricity in your country. Also remember to like, share, and subscribe to Africa Reloaded. Remember to turn on the notification icon to get notified of newly released videos.


You think that your income is always proportionate to the level of energy and work? You think just waking up at 6 in the morning tomorrow and saying you're going to put in 14 hours a day? You're going to make more money? Well, you might make a little more money.  So one thing Gary Halbert says, one day, one hour walking on the beach with a great idea coming into your brain can make you more money than a lifetime of hard work.


Hello everybody, welcome to Finding Your Future. I'm your host Parker Wagner and today I have my very first cast, Dr. Duane Priester. He's been an educator for 24 years and he is a professor for North Arizona College. And 24 years is a long time, it's almost twice as long as I've been alive. So thank you for being on the show. My pleasure. Thanks. I have a series of questions that I want to ask you because I'm very curious. So I'm just going to hop right into it.  The level of responsibility changes dramatically and I think the thing that I sometimes describe is, I miss being a teacher because I'm another level removed from the students and I'm always reminded of why I got into this business is because I enjoy being around students. So so much of my job now is really focused on dealing with adults and its outwardly facing. That's good, so do you think like dealing with kids is what impacted you to become a principal? Oh sure, you know when I, in the classroom, I really enjoyed that one on one interaction. The feedback that I got from students, the opportunity to watch them learn and grow and, but sometimes what happens is you'll get a principal who'll come into your room and say, hey I think you'd be a good principal and that was the beginning of my journey. That's nice. So how did you get the job at Mid-Pacific Middle School Principal? How did that come along? I was working at Hawaii Preparatory Academy on Hawaii Island and a friend of mine mentioned that there was an opening here on Oahu at this particular school and I knew a lot about Mid-Pacific. I knew a lot about the changes that were happening here. The fact that the head of school at the time was very aggressive and he was very forward facing and it's a school that I wanted to be a part of.  That's a good story. So do you like your job and what about it do you like about it? What do you like about it? I love it. I love it. I just enjoy getting out of bed every morning knowing that I get a chance to come and work with students. I get a chance to work with incredible teachers and administrators. People who are very forward facing, they think much like me in that they are very focused on the future and how we can provide the best for our students. So the response to your question is what is the thing that really drives me or what makes it so interesting and it's the students and the people that I get to work around. That's great.  I think the challenges for me is I serve a population of students who they're much younger than I am and they're getting younger every year as I get older. So there's a challenge in keeping pace and making sure that what I'm doing is really matching what they need for the future and really making sure that we are adequately addressing the needs of students like yourself. That's the big challenge that I deal with is really just making sure that I'm on pace.  That's a tough question. Wow. I threw a basketball. You know it's the biggest challenge that I've had or the thing that I've faced is you get to a point in your career that you recognize that you will make mistakes. As educators we always want to get it right and as a principal the expectations to get it right increase dramatically and coming to the realization that there are times when I don't always get it right, there are times when I have to take a step back and say I didn't get it right this time and ask myself the question what will I do differently next time and be willing to put myself out there and be vulnerable. That's kind of the same way for like us students because there will be challenges and we need to overcome them. Right, right, right. That's pretty neat. It's okay and that I say this to the teachers all the time as well as the students it's okay to make mistakes as a matter of fact sometimes mistakes are a good thing because we learn and we grow as a result of those mistakes. That's great. So how has technology innovative at MAPAC been going like how has it been? Are you like for it or opposed it? Very much so. Very much so. So a lot of what we've done especially over the course of the past 15 years is really try to make sure that what we are doing in terms of technology is really it's going to serve our students and serve our students well. We're very much focused on making sure that we have a very solid academic program as a matter of fact the academics really underpin the technology but the thing that we want to make sure as we progress as a society and we know that society is changing dramatically all the time we want to make sure that the changes that we're making are at the right pace and not just pacing along but really thinking forward and for us that technology represents the future of our students. We know that our students are wired in all the time so how do we make the most of that how do we teach our students to be responsible users to know how to access that technology but access it in ways that they really are effective users and their responsible users also. If you've seen on Saturday I've recorded something here about like technology at Mipat and I'm all for it like I feel that students can use it to like access emails and like do their homework and stuff and I feel it's a great way not only to like the school but it can help save paper and I thought it was pretty cool. How did you guys like make the deal with Apple? It's you know I'll give you the reader's digest version of that story. We went to a one-to-one iPad one-to-one device and we chose the iPad several years ago but prior to making that decision we spent a lot of time probably five years before just discussing what we thought would be the best platform for our students. We knew that we were moving moving to an increasingly increasingly mobile world and the decision to go laptops excuse me go iPads as opposed to laptops we felt at the time and it was the right feeling to have but we felt that that mobile device something that was fluid something that our students can take almost anywhere and it was accessible it's something that they can put in their hands we felt that that would be the best use for them. The other thing and you mentioned this earlier the use of paper we also knew that we were moving towards more towards a paperless society and we wanted to be responsible users as I mentioned earlier so we chose the iPad just because we knew that that was a piece of technology that was it was early it was introduced early but we knew that it was in the early stages of development. Well thanks for touching on that I was very curious about that so where do you see it going for the future like what do you want my pack to look like 10 to 15 years from now? I it's it's hard to say what it will look like what I want it to look like is an institution that's always responsive to the needs of our students it's very easy for educators to become comfortable with where they are at the present time it's also easy for us to look back on our experiences as as young educators and and our experiences as students and say this is what our students need to have in order to be successful but I think as an institution we need to continue to be nimble we need to continue to as as Wayne Gretzky says we need to anticipate where the puck is going so we can actually get there when we need to be there. Do you think you drew inspiration from your principal like how did being a principal come along as far as being like also an educator like how what like inspired you to do that? My high school principal was actually a colorful character and and I don't say that in a bad way he was very much in touch with his students he whatever he had a chance he was in the classrooms and he was on the athletic fields and he took the opportunity to get to know who we were and reflecting back on my high school experience I I said if I was ever a principal that's the kind of guy that I want it to be and I always wanted to have a good relationship with students oftentimes principals have that reputation for people being the big scary guy who kind of stays in their office all the time and only deals with discipline I wanted an opposite experience I wanted to be in the middle of students and as much as possible having an opportunity to work side my students ask them what they're thinking what they need and then be responsive to those needs. I think you did like a great job because I don't feel here going into your office I mean only when like I do something but alright so like what did you do as a kid like what kind of as far as academic were you more like an academic person or a sports person or what were you or did you join like clubs. I had a really interesting high school experience I like to say I got along with most groups of group of students in high school I was a football player and a wrestler and but in addition to that I was an avid reader I've always been a huge comic books fan but then there's another side of me too because I grew up along the coast so I was a skateboarder and a surfer as well going through high school so I had all of those experiences and it was a very rich experience so those I think having relationships with different groups of friends I could I could have great conversations with those students who are very academic those students who are very athletic and those students who were sometimes where I come from they were called the beach bums so I could I could vacillate in and out of those groups. That's very good to have like a lot of friends because that way you can like get more knowledge from them and that's what I've learned because I've started myself with a lot of different friends yes and they would they all have unique like lifestyles so I'm gonna touch on another question how did how did the Northern Arizona University job come along like how did that come along because you know that's a long way to get to a wife from there yeah we were we lived in Arizona for seven years seven years yes seven years we live there and I started as a teacher then became an assistant principal and a principal and the school district that I was working in one of my colleagues taught afternoon classes for Arizona University and at the time I was entering a doctoral program and he suggested he said hey you should pick up a class here or there so I started teaching one class for Northern Arizona University as an adjunct professor and then it picked up into two classes in the three classes so I worked for them for a number of years so that's how that came about and it was an opportunity I felt that it was an opportunity for me to not only touch my students but also get a chance to impact those teachers who were going into or the potential teachers as they were going into the business of educators I wanted them to have a real world look into what schools were actually like as opposed to just at university perspective well thanks for telling me more about that um we have a break coming up so I'll see you guys after this break right you can be the greatest you can be the best you can be the king conveying now your chest you can be the world you can be the war you could talk to God don't banging on his door you can throw your hands up you can be the show so I'm gonna throw a question at you that I actually want to know um so I'm interested in video production and I said that on another live show we did at think tech so what is what does the future hold for like some person like me who loves video stuff so we have very deep roots in video at mid pacific um as you know mr. takuta who is the middle school video teacher he's now that we call it now digital media he's he's been a long time um he's worked at a number of stations here in Hawaii he's been teaching video for a number of years and interestingly enough we've taken in we've taken an interesting turn in video at mid pacific um on the one hand it looks like we pulled back but um on the other we're now actually going much deeper video has evolved and one of the things we wanted to do was to make sure that our video program is keeping pace with what's happening at the industry level so when you look at video at mid pacific now as opposed to five six years ago we're now starting to get into the digital digital side of video we're starting to bring in different elements like um like 3d technologies and and how that will interface with video so as our students are actually transitioning out of middle school into high school you'll go much deeper into video and as you go into high school into the university or high school into work they'll you'll you'll actually have a much broader rich experience in video so you'll be that much more prepared and you'll actually and there's a certain level of thinking that comes with that as well and we want to make sure that as we prepare our students that they they have a breadth and a depth of knowledge in that area so since i have you here on the spot let me ask you in middle school experience were you more of a good student or were you more of a rebel yeah thanks for putting me on the spot um you know to be honest with you and i think this is why i one of the reasons that i enjoy being a principal so much um as as my as my wife says i was a little bit rascally i was klohe in in high school not in a bad way but i i enjoyed i enjoyed my surroundings and i liked having fun sometimes i had too much fun so um because i because of that experience and because i was on both ends um i now have a better um understanding of how to work with my students and and and i understand that at this particular age students like to push the boundaries a little bit but that's just it's it's part of being a student so i have a lot of patience for that and and sometimes i actually smile and chuckle because i remember my days in high school okay so um what did what did you like doing in middle school and high school did you play sports or where did you go to school so um yes i played i played sports and you know it's interesting that you ask that question because i think about um as i oftentimes reflect back on my high school experience i was a i was an avid football player and i really wanted to play college ball um i'm a little too short for what i wanted to do but i was always very aggressive and because i injured myself in high school or i was injured in high school um wrestling was my fallback so i ended up wrestling in college but i knew that there was not a professional career in wrestling so as i moved out of high school into the university um i really started to focus more on my academics because i knew that there had to be life beyond sports so in your opinion what makes the mid-pack special what puts it like per se put a hole what makes it like out there again um you know the thing that you know the thing that i'll talk about mid-pacific um the thing that really makes us unique we are we are a school that we really do focus on the needs of our students we really do focus on being one community as a school the elementary middle and high school teachers work together the middle elementary and high school principals work together and we routinely have conversations about the needs of our students and in those conversations we're not afraid to change we're not afraid to evolve we're not so fixed in our positions that we don't recognize that next year may need to look different than it did this year and i used the word earlier and i think the word one of the words that best describes us is that as a school we're nimble we are willing to make the adjustments when necessary but we don't make those adjustments for adjustment's sake we make those adjustments because it's in the best interest of our students and when we look at their needs we don't put our needs above the needs of our students and i think that makes us unique we really are this special community and it's and i and i oftentimes have said it's the uniqueness of our school is baked in our dna it's who we are we've always done things that's different than other schools and we're not afraid to continue in that direction and we're not afraid to say that so onto the next question i had um what motivates you to keep coming back to the school every day and like what motivates you to wake up every morning i am i am charged by all of the possibilities and the opportunities the last two weeks the three principals and i we've been we've been talking about what we're going to do for the coming year we talk about how we are going to move together as one unit as opposed to our individual schools working in silos we have we regularly have discussions with our head of school um dr turnbull who's also a visionary and and other senior administrators we have we're always thinking about what's next and how we can best serve our students how we can provide a professional learning environment for them but ultimately the thing that drives me is all of those decisions that we're making we make it with our students in mind that's the key and we listen to we we make an effort to listen to what our students are asking us so this is um this is kind of like a funny one because i hope i hope you could recommend me a little bit so for me and my generation do you have any recommendations i would say you know um and i want you to hear this in the spirit that i'm saying it i for your generation i would say don't be afraid to fail don't be afraid to be a risk taker and what i say the when i say fail that means don't feel like you have to operate in your comfort zone there are going to be things that are going to motivate you things that you're deeply passionate about and i would say pursue those passions with all of the spirit that you have and understand that you may try five things four may not go well but that's okay it's okay to push yourself forward i would say um embrace as many different peoples as you can ask lots of questions don't be afraid to build relationships with people who think differently than you do who do things that are different than you because that and that will enrich your life experience that will open a number of pathways for you so um so i know i'm going to chase your subject again a little bit um has the past couple years been difficult on the teachers and um and is it like also difficult to accept the new technology in their classrooms anytime you're over 35 something new is challenging okay um so the short answer to your question is yes it's been challenging for the teachers it's been challenging for us as administrators and i think the reason that it's challenging um we are as educators we are serving a population of students who are digital natives in that you grew up in this world of technology we are immigrants we we were not born into this so trying to understand it trying to make sense of it trying to make sure that we're doing the best for you is it's a challenge for us um for years and i used to describe my cell phones this way when i when i got a phone my son would program it for me but now i learned that i have to learn to do that for myself and i have to i have to go after the technology and and i've said this to my faculty on a number of occasions and because i it's something that i live by i said you have to be comfortable with not being comfortable because it forces us to always change evolve and grow well just so you i mean are you you're working around this technology what about you are you comfortable with it um yeah i'm i'm pretty comfortable like it's it's a hobby of mine and i just loved it and i keep on using it and it kind of became a hobby that i'll do like every day and it was fun and that's why i'm pretty comfortable with it so when you're at mid-pacific do you think that the teachers have served you well do you think that we are really providing you with the technology oh yeah it's great so um moving on to um your family do you do your kids um consider you strict yes they um i have two sons and um i would say they did and um because i grew up with a very i grew up with a mother who really she kept close reins on us she raised four children and um she wanted to make sure that we were always behaving and that we would be responsible grew up to be responsible citizens that's what she always told us she she did not want to hear that we were in trouble and um so she kept pretty tight reins on us and for my sons i wanted them to grow up and be responsible citizens as well so i really kept tight reins on them but i i also gave them a little more freedom than my mother gave us but um i managed from a distance so yes and i i now have grandchildren and my wife and i as much as we want to make sure that we tell our son how to raise his children we have to back away but he's starting to do some of the things that we're doing as well right so i have one final question to ask you and then but we can just wrap this up so okay what what does a future hold for you well um i you know i i feel like i have a lot of good years ahead of me um i hope you think so too as a student um i have a lot of good years ahead of me and i i'm i'm deeply passionate about what i do um i i had this conversation with my wife earlier um as a matter of fact this weekend and and both her both her and i are passionate about our work and um i love serving the students that i serve um the teachers that i work with they give me energy i enjoy being around them they challenge me they force me to grow and to think um i'm in i'm in no hurry to grow up so i want to be in this business around kids as long as i can well thanks for um being on the first episode of our future and i look forward to doing another one with you soon my pleasure i look forward to it thank you all right thank you


Hello, everyone. Welcome to theCUBE's special presentation of International Women's Day. I'm John Furrier, host of theCUBE. This is a global special open program we're doing every year. We're going to continue at every quarter and do more and more content, getting the voices out there and celebrating the diversity. And I'm excited to have an amazing guest here, Ludavia Drain, who's the head of global inclusion, diversity and equity at AWS. Ludavia, we tried to get you in on AWS re-invent and you were super busy, so much going on. The industry has seen the light, they're seeing everything going on and the numbers are up, but still not there. And getting better, this is your passion, our passion, a shared passion. Tell us about your situation, your career, how you got into it. What's your story? Yeah, well, John, first of all, thank you so much for having me. I'm glad that we finally got this opportunity to speak. How did I get into this work? Wow, you know, I'm doing the work that I'd love to do, number one. It's always been my passion to be a voice for the voiceless, to create a seat at the table for folks that may not be welcome to certain tables. And so it's been something that's been kind of the theme of my entire professional career. I started off as a lawyer, went to Capitol Hill, was able to do some work with members of Congress, both women members of Congress, but also minority members of Congress in the US Congress. And then that just morphed into what I think has become a career for me in inclusion, diversity, and equity. I decided to join Amazon because I could tell that it's a company that was ready to take it to the next level in this space. And sure enough, that's been my experience here. So now I'm in it. I'm in it with two feet, doing great work. And yeah, yeah, it's almost a full circle moment for me. It's really an interesting background. You have a background in public policy. You mentioned Capitol Hill, that's awesome. DC kind of moves slow, but it's a complicated machinery there. Obviously, as you know, navigating that. Amazon grew significantly. We've been at every reinvent with theCUBE since 2013, like just one year. I watched Amazon grow and they've become very fast and also complicated, like, I won't say like Capitol Hill, because that's very slow. But Amazon's complicated. AWS is in the realm of powering a generation of public policy. We had the Jedi contract, controversy, all kinds of new emerging challenges. This pivot to tech was great timing, because one, Amazon needed it because they were growing so fast in a male dominated world, but also their business is having real impact on the public. That's right, that's right. And when you say the public, I'll just call it out. I think that there's a full spectrum of diversity and we work backwards from our customers and our customers are diverse. And so I really do believe, I agree that I came to the right place at the right time. And yeah, we move fast. And we're also moving fast in this space of making sure that both internally and externally, we're doing the things that we need to do in order to reach a diverse population. You know, I've noticed how Amazon's changed from the culture, male dominated culture, let's face it, it was. And now I've seen over the past five years, specifically go back fives kind of in my mental model, just the growth of female leaders, it's been impressive. And that was some controversy. They were criticized publicly for this. And we said a few things as well in those like on 2014. How is Amazon ensuring and continuing to get the female employees field represented and empowered? What's going on there? What programs do you have? Because it's not just doing it, it's continuing it, right? And it's cause there is a lot more to do. I mean, the products are digital now for everybody. It's not just one population. Everyone uses digital products. What is Amazon doing now to keep it going? Well, I'll tell you, John, it's important for me to note that while we've made great progress, there's still more that can be done. I am very happy to be able to report that we have big women leaders. We have leaders running huge part of our business, which includes storage, customer experience, industries and business development. And yes, we have all types of programs. And I should say that when I instead of calling it programs, I'm going to call it strategic initiatives, right? We are very thoughtful about how we engage our women and not only how we hire, attract women, but how we retain our women. We do that through engagement. Groups like our affinity group. So women at Amazon is an affinity group, women in finance, women in engineering. Just recently, I helped our black employee network women's group launch Ben women. And so you have these communities of women who come together, support and mentor one another. We have what we call Amazon circles. And so these are safe spaces where women can come together and can have conversations where we're able to connect mentors and sponsors. And we're seeing that it's making all the difference in the world for our women. And we see that through what we call connections. We have an inclusion sentiment tracker. So we're able to ask questions every single day and we get a response from our employees.  How are they feeling included at work? Are they feeling as though they can be who they are authentically at Amazon? And so again, there's more work that needs to be done. But I will say that as I look at the data, as I'm talking to engaging women, I really do believe that we're on the right path. Well, David, talk about the urgent needs of the women that you're hearing from the circles. That's a great program, the affinity circles. The groups are great. Now you have the groups. What are you hearing? What are the needs of the women? So, John, I'll just go a little bit into what's becoming a conversation around equity. So initially, I think we talked a lot about equality. We wanted everyone to have fair access to the same things. But now women are looking for equity. We're talking about not just leveling the playing field, which is equality, but don't give me the same as you give everyone else. Instead, recognize that I may have different circumstances. I may have different needs. And give me what I need, right? Give me what I need, not just the same as everyone else. And so I love seeing women evolve in this way and being very specific about what they need more than, or what's different than what a man may have in the same situation, because their circumstances are not always the same, and we should treat them as such. Yeah, I think that's a great equity point. I interviewed a woman here, ex-Amazonian. She's now a GSI, Global System Integrator. She's a single mom.  And it wasn't the, how do you balance life? It was her reality. And what happened was she had more empathy with the team because of the new work environment. So I think this is an important point to call out that equity, because that really makes things smoother in terms of the interactions, not the assumptions. You have to be, you know, always the same as a man. So how does that go? What's the current, how would you characterize the progress in that area right now? I believe that employers are just getting better at this. It's just like you said, with the hybrid being the norm now, you have an employer who is looking at people differently based on what they need. And it's not a problem. It's not an issue that a single mother says, well, I need to be able to leave by five p.m. I think that employers now and Amazon is right there along with other employers are starting just to evolve that muscle of meeting the needs and not people don't have to feel different. You don't have to feel as though there's some kind of special circumstance for me. Instead, it's something that we as employers we're asking for. And we wanna meet those needs that are different in some situations. I know you guys do a lot of support outside of AWS. And I had a story I recorded for the program as woman. She talked about how she was a nerd from day one. She's a tomboy, they called her a tomboy, but she always loved robotics and she ended up getting dual engineering degrees. And she talked about how she didn't run away and she was many ways, many signals to her not to go. And she powered through at that time and during that her generation, that was a tough and she was successful. How are you guys taking the education to STEM, to women at young ages? Because we don't wanna turn people away from tech if they have the natural affinity towards it. And not everyone's gonna be as, you know, strong if you will. She was a bulldog, she was great. She's just like, I'm going for it. I love it so much. But not everyone's like that. So this is an educational thing. How do you expose technology, STEM for instance, and making it more accessible, no stigma, all that stuff. I mean, I think we've gone a long way, but still. What I love about women is we don't just focus on ourselves. We do a very good job of thinking about the generation that's coming after us. And so I think you will see that very clearly with our women Amazonians. I'll talk about three different examples of ways that Amazonian women in particular and there are men that are helping out, but I'll talk about the women in particular that are leading in this area. On my team, in the inclusion diversity and equity team, we have a program that we run in Ghana where we meet basic STEM needs for a after-school program. So we've taken this small program and we've turned their summer camp into this immersion where girls and boys, we do focus on the girls can come and be completely immersed in STEM. And when we provide the technology that they need so that they'll be able to have access to this whole new world of STEM. Another program, which is run out of our AWS in communities team called AWS Girls Tech Day all across the world where we have data centers. We're running these Girls Tech Day where they're basically designed to educate, empower, and inspire girls to pursue a career in tech. Really, really exciting. I was at the Girls Tech Day here recently in Columbus, Ohio, and I got to tell you it was the highlight of my year. And then I'll talk a little bit about one more. It's called AWS Get IT and it's been around for a while. So this is a program again, it's a global program. It's actually across 13 countries and it allows girls to explore cloud technology in particular and to use it to solve real world problems. So we have, those are just three examples. There are many more.  We, in inclusion, diversity, and equity, we fund programs so that women can do this work, this STEM work in their own local communities. But those are just three examples of some of the things that our Amazonians are doing to bring girls along, to make sure that the next generation is set up and that the next generation knows that STEM is accessible for girls. I'm a huge believer. I think that's amazing. That's a great inspiration. We need more of that. It's awesome. I mean, why wouldn't we spread it around? I want to get to the equity piece. That's the theme for this year's IWD. But before that, getting to that segment, I want to ask you about your title and the choice of words and in the sequence, okay? Global, inclusion, diversity, equity, not diversity only. Inclusion is first. We've had this debate on theCUBE many years now, a few years back, it started with inclusion is before diversity. No, diversity before inclusion, equity. And so there's always been a debate around the choice of words and their order. What's your opinion? What's your reaction to that? Is it by design and does inclusion come before diversity or am I just reading it to it? Inclusion doesn't necessarily come before diversity. It doesn't necessarily come before equity. Equity isn't last, but we do lead with inclusion in AWS. And that is very important to us, right? And thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk a little bit about it. We lead with inclusion because we want to make sure that every single one of our builders know that they have a place in this work. And so it's important that we don't only focus on hiring, right? Diversity, even though there are many, many different levels and spectrums to diversity. Inclusion, if you start there, I believe that it's what it takes to make sure that you have a workplace where everyone knows you're included here, you belong here, we want you to stay here. And so it helps as we go after diversity and we want all types of people to be a part of our workforce, but we want you to stay. And inclusion is the thing. It's the thing that I believe, make sure that people stay because they feel included. So we lead with inclusion, doesn't mean that we put diversity or equity, second or third, but we are proud to lead with inclusion. Great description, that was fabulous. Totally agree, double click, thumbs up. Now let's get into the theme, embracing equity, because this is a term, it's been quotes. What does that mean to you? You mentioned it earlier, I love it. What does embrace equity mean? Yeah, you know, I do believe that when people think about equity, especially non-women think about equity, it's kind of scary. Am I gonna give away what I have right now to make space for someone else? But that's not what equity means. And so I think that it's first important that we just educate ourselves about what equity really is. It doesn't mean that someone's gonna take your spot, right? It doesn't mean that the pie, let's use that analogy, get smaller. The pie gets bigger, right? And everyone is able to have their piece of the pie. And so I do believe that, I love that IWD International Women's Day is leading with embracing equity because we're going to the heart of the matter when we go to equity. We're going to the place where most people feel most challenged in challenging people to think about equity and what it means and how they can contribute to equity and thus embrace equity. Yeah, I love it. And the advice that you have for tech professionals out there on this, how do you advise other groups? Cause you guys do a lot of great work. Other organizations are catching up. What would be your advice to folks who are working on this equity challenge to reach gender equity and other equitable strategic initiatives? Everyone's working on this. Sustainability and equity are two big projects we're seeing in every single company right now. I will say that I believe that AWS has proven that equity and going after equity does work, embracing equity does work. One example I would point to is our AWS Impact Accelerator Program. I mean, we provide $30 million for early stage startups led by women, black founders, Latino founders, LGBTQ plus founders to help them scale their business. That's equity. That's giving them what they need. Is they need access to capital. And so what I'd say to companies who are looking at going into the space of equity and I would say, embrace it. Embrace it. Look at examples of what companies like AWS is doing around it and embrace it because I do believe that the tech industry will be better when we're comfortable with embracing equity and creating strategic initiatives so that we could expand equity and make it something that's just normal. It's the normal course of business. It's what we do. It's what we expect of ourselves and our employees. But Dave, you're amazing. Thank you for spending the time. My final couple of questions really more around you. Capitol Hill, DC, Amazon, global head of inclusion, diversity and equity. As you look at making change, being a change agent, being a leader is really kind of similar, right? You got DC, it's hard to make change here, but if you do it, it works, right? If you don't, you're on the side road, side of the road. So as you're in your job now, what are you most excited about? What's on your agenda? What's your focus? Yeah, so I'm most excited about the potential of what we can get done, not just for builders that are currently in our seats, but for builders in the future. I tend to focus on that little girl. I don't know her. I don't know where she lives.  And for there to be no question that she has access to AWS, that she can be an employee at AWS. And so that's where I tend to center. I center on the future. I try to build now for what's to come to make sure that this place is accessible for that little girl. You know, I've always been saying for a long time, the software is eating the world. Now you got digital transformation, business transformation. And that's not a mail-only or certain category. It's everybody. And so software that's being built and the systems that are being built have to have first principles. Andy Jassy is very strong on this. He's been publicly saying when trying to get pinned down about certain books in the bookstore that might offend another group. And he's like, look, we have first principles. First principles is a big part of leading. What's your reaction to that? How would you talk to another professional and say, hey, you know this, how do I make the right call? Am I doing the wrong thing here? I might say the wrong thing here. And is it first principles based? What's the guardrails? How do you keep that in check? How would you advise someone as they go forward and lean in to drive some of the change that we're talking about today? Yeah, I think as leaders, we have to trust ourselves. And Andy actually is a great example. When I came in as head of ID&E for AWS, he was our CEO here at AWS. And I saw how he authentically spoke from his heart about these issues. And it just aligned with who he is personally, his own personal principles. And I do believe that leaders should be free to do just that, not to be scripted, but to lead with their principles. And so I think Andy's actually a great example. I believe that I am the professional in this space at this company that I am today because of the example that Andy said. You guys do a great job. What's next for you? World tour, are you traveling around? What's on your plate these days? Share a little bit about what you're currently working on. Yeah, so in Amazon, we're always diving deep. We're always diving deep. We're looking for root calls, working very hard to look around corners and try to build now for what's to come in the future. And so I'll continue to do that. Of course, we're always planning and working towards reinvent. So hopefully, John, I'll see you at reinvent this December, but we have some great things happening throughout the year. And we'll continue to, I think it's really important, as opposed to looking to do new things, to just continue to flex the same muscles and to show that we can be very, very focused and intentional about doing the same things over and over each year to just become better and better at this work in this space and to show our employees that we're committed for the long haul. So of course, there'll be new things on the horizon, but what I can say, especially to Amazonians, and we're gonna continue to stay focused and continue to get at this issue and doing this issue of inclusion, diversity, and equity and continue to do the things that work and make sure that our culture evolves at the same time. Well, David, thank you so much. I'll give you the final word. Just share some of the big projects you guys are working on so people can know about them, that your strategic initiatives, take a minute to plug some of the major projects and things that are going on that people either know about or should know about or need to know about. Take a minute to share some of the big things you guys got going on or most of the things. So one big thing that I would like to focus on, focus my time on is what we call our Innovation Fund. This is actually how we scale our work and we meet the community's needs by providing micro grants to our employees. So our employees can go out into the world and sponsor all types of different activities, create activities in their local communities or throughout the regions. And so that's probably one thing, one thing that I would like to focus on just because number one is our employees is how we scale this work and is how we meet our community's needs in a very global way. And so thank you, John, for the opportunity to talk a bit about what we're up to here at Amazon Web Services. But it's just important to me that I end with our employees because for me, that's what's most important and they're doing some awesome work through our Innovation Fund. Inclusion makes the workplace great. Empowerment with that kind of program is amazing. But David, Drain, thank you so much. Head of Global Inclusion and Diversity and Equity at AWS. This is International Women's Day. I'm John Furrier with theCUBE. Thanks for watching and stay with us for more great interviews and people and what they're working on. Thanks for watching.


May was a busy month for me. I would say the first three weeks of May it was really slow with makeup launches so I didn't try a ton of new products. So I found myself really just using what I had a lot this month. And also with the heat, I was into very much more natural makeup. I know it doesn't look like it, but if I'm like running out on the weekends and stuff, I know I'm gonna be sweaty. I have been throwing on that much makeup. And I will talk about that as we get into it, but all of my favorite products for May. It was interesting this month. I feel like the first three weeks of May not too much launch. So I found myself in a repetitive stage of makeup, just testing all of this stuff and really getting a good feel for the stuff that I was testing. And then the last month of May, oh my gosh, so much launch. There's probably gonna be products in next month's favorites that launch this month. But I'm making sure, of course, all of the products that I'm sharing with you have just stood out and have been amazing and working well. Let's get into it. We're gonna start off with our base products. They actually, interesting enough, don't have any true like base products, no primers, foundations. There's a couple of things that I think will be in next month's favorites that I'm actually wearing in my face. You wanna check the description box? But I'm still in the testing phases. They haven't 100% stood out. So the first thing that I have is actually a face powder. This is the Jacqueline Cosmetics and Robin Collaboration. It's called the Powder Move Loose Setting Powder. So this launched the previous month, but I've just been using it so much and I really feel like it is a powder that has stood out to me. When this first launched, Jacqueline said that she thinks this powder should go viral. It's that good and I have to say, it's a pretty amazing powder. I did use it today to set my under eyes just for the demo, but I actually don't really recommend setting your under eyes with this because it has a very, very subtle glow to it that I find not to be the most flattering on the under eyes. But other than that, it is beautiful all over the skin. I feel like it has smoothing properties to it that makes the skin look smooth, but there is a subtle glow to it that doesn't emphasize the texture and it just makes the skin look really beautiful and healthy. And every time I use this powder, I really have been enjoying how my complexion has looked. As long as I stay away from the under eyes with this, I love kind of packing it into the center of my face. Despite it having a glow, it does not look unflattering on pores or anything or texture. And since this was in collaboration with her mother, who has more mature skin, I can definitely see that inspiration and who this was made for. And I really believe that this is a beautiful powder for mature skin as well. If I was still actively doing bridal clients, I would put a powder like this in my kit because I think it has enough to it to really set and smooth the face, but there's just something about it that I think mature skin would really love. So I've been enjoying this. I think it is a stunning, stunning powder that launched that she did with her mom and it was pretty good. And this powder definitely stood out to me. Like 90% of this video is cheek products because there were so many amazing cheek products that came out. So this is one of the newest products that I've tried, but I already know it's gonna be a favorite, so I'm just gonna throw it in this month. This is the Charlotte Tilbury Beautiful Skin Sun Kissed Glow Bronzers. It's Charlotte's new cream bronzer and I already love it. So I picked up two shades, fair and medium. I think I prefer medium on my light medium skin tone. I do have a little bit more of a tan as well than I normally do, so I would say that also contributes to me liking the medium. It gives more of a warmth to my face, but I also think fair works really well on my skin tone as well. It's a little bit more cool. I would go for fair on a more natural makeup day and then on a day where I either want to look more bronzy or I'm wearing more of a full glam, I will go more for the medium, but both look really beautiful. It has a kind of moosey texture to it, which I find works really great with the oils and the sweat for the summer. In May, it's gotten significantly hotter than it was when I first moved down here to Florida in the late February and I've already told you guys, like I'm a sweaty person and I'm even more sweaty now than I ever was because since I live in a city, I live in a more walkable area, like it gets really, really hot and humid in Maryland, okay? But in Maryland, I lived in more of a suburban area, so if I wanted to go somewhere, I'd get in the car. I'd step outside, then I'd get in the car with AC, then I'd step outside again to go inside to where I needed to be, so I really wasn't out in the sun sweating, so now that I live in a city and I'm walking a lot to get to where I need to be, I am so sweaty. I've never been so sweaty in my life. And I find that this really holds up well with my sweat. I mentioned in my review of this because it has more of that moussey texture as opposed to a really creamy emollient feel to it. It's going to last better for those of you with oily skin. If you're sweating more, if you live in a hot climate, I think that this has had pretty good staying power. You know, it doesn't stop me from sweating, but I find that when I dab with my napkin, this doesn't go everywhere, it doesn't run everywhere, I don't get sweat streaked. So I've really, really been enjoying this. I love the consistency of it. Normally I'm super into those really emollient cream bronzers. Like Rare Beauty has one of the most emollient formulas ever, but in terms of if I know I'm going outside and I'm wearing a full glam and I want my bronzer to stay or not even necessarily stay, I understand that sweats a lot to work with, but just to not look bad. As I sweat, I've been enjoying this. It really is the bee's knees of a cream bronzer. Okay, the next product is also a new product. I've been testing this a lot. The Makeup by Mario Soft Sculpt Transforming Skin Enhancers. People got really upset with me because I used this in the powder version of it all over my face. I was just testing it guys, oh my goodness. I found the way that I like to use these and obviously I'm liking it because I'm putting it in my favorites video. So I have two shades, light and light medium. I prefer light medium. If you're around my skin tone, definitely pick up light medium, but I'm still enjoying the light since I have it. So how I've been liking to use this, like I said, it's been really hot out. Or at least it's felt like it's been hotter out because I spend so much time outside when I leave the house. I haven't been necessarily as motivated to pack on a bunch of makeup if I know I'm gonna be sweating. So I actually really love this for no makeup makeup, which is a look that I've really been enjoying.  And I'm pretty much good to go with my complexion, a little bit of powder and blush for that no makeup makeup look. This is perfect. It doesn't even out the skin, but because of that soft, bronze, warmth look that it gives, it does kind of like, evens out my freckles a little bit, I guess. So it doesn't give coverage, but because of the color, it kind of makes it all come together. I had a comment on my original review of this. If you have melasma, this is probably a good product for you. It gives such a pretty subtle glow. And so what's different about this, the normal cream bronzers, is that the finish of it and the pigment of it is really, really soft. So you can literally use this on bare skin and it won't look weird.  It would look a little bit much. Whereas with this, because of the subtle, soft glow that it gives and how sheer it is, it looks very natural without any other makeup. I could even get away with not applying concealer if I just use light. It will blend in seamlessly with the skin while still giving that warmth to the outskirts of the face. So I see what Mario was doing with these. This really is so, so, so good. It's a great product. I haven't actually tried it yet on like a full coverage foundation. And that was something I set out to do. But that's because I've just been loving it on bare skin. So for no makeup makeup, I've been loving this. Now there is a powder version to it as well. I'm not putting it in this month's favor. I'm still playing with it. I just haven't fallen in love with the powder as much as I've fallen in love with the balms. More bronzers. Yeah, I have four bronzers in this video. I'm just so excited that ColourPop launched their matte bronzers. I've been waiting for them to expand their bronzer line, AKA they didn't have any. They've come out with bronzers in limited edition collections, but never one permanent to their line. And I'm assuming this is permanent based on the packaging. There are two bronzers. They're kind of hard to open, so most common. But you know, you don't pay too much for them. I got asked what my favorite shades were. There's a couple that I like. Summer Land's Beach is awesome. And then Silverstrand Beach, I've been enjoying for a lot of warmth, depending on what the look that I'm going for is. But these are an affordable bronzer and they really are so beautiful. I love the way they blend on the skin. Are these the best bronzers that I've ever tried? No, but they're from ColourPop. I think they're such a great price. They have a pretty nice shade range. It might be a little confusing at first. The undertones, some run very warm, some run pink, but once you get the right shade, I just think it is a good find from ColourPop. It completes their collection. So it's something that I've been excited about because I've been wanting a new ColourPop bronzer and I feel like they did a very great job with their formula given the price. Okay, this is the last powder bronzer, but I have to mention the new Sigma matte bronzers. I love a good matte powder bronzer. So again, there's usually a couple of different shades of bronzers that I like, depending on the look that I'm going for. Light is quite light on me, but it's really great for a more natural or makeup makeup look. And then also medium is for a little bit of intensity. So why I like these so much is I feel like they are so smoothing to the skin. Just the finish that they give on the skin really just evens everything out, softens the look of the face, breezes over texture. It really is special because of how smooth it makes the skin look. That's what I don't get from a lot of bronzers and I find it's quite easy to blend. The one thing I will say about these is I do think they are a bit overpriced. I definitely do not recommend buying these at full price, but Sigma has a bunch of sales and when their next one comes, I will let you know because the bronzers and the blushes highlights that they launched are all beautiful. I just think they're a bit pricey for an individual shade, but if you can get them on a discount, they're all beautiful. I've just been reaching for the bronzers a lot. I've also been reaching for the blushes, but they weren't quite enough to make it to the favorites, but they were good too. Moving on to blush, I have two different formulas. So I'm right to the game on this, but a few weeks ago, Bare Minerals sent me their bronzers, which are a mixture of bronzers and blushes. Oh my gosh, these are so good. And I think of Bare Minerals formulas. I just didn't think they would come out with this. So I have two shades. I have Kiss of Pink, which is the one that I've been using a lot. And then I also have Kiss of Copper, which I have on the outer parts of my cheek. This gives a little bit more warmth, and then I have Kiss of Pink kind of more on the apples and on the center of my nose. What's special about these is I love their glow. I think it is such a pretty glow, but they still contain a lot of pigment. Almost too much. You know, I have to use a light hand, but they blend like butter over the skin. They're super easy to work out, and I think the finish is gorgeous. Now I know these claim it's like a bronzer and a blush mix. And while I do agree, because of the tone you don't need to apply bronzer, that would only be for like a no makeup makeup look. What I've been doing is the makeup by Mario Baum on the outer parts of my face, a little bit of concealer, whatever it may be, touch of powder. And then I will use these bronzers on the cheek, and I'm good to go. That looks like that great no makeup makeup look, but if I'm doing full beat, I still need a bronzer with these. So these do not replace bronzer.  However, the formula is just so stunningly beautiful. I mean, these have been popular for a while, but yeah, I tried them this month, and I love them. They're a beautiful formula. Next up, from Odin's Eye, they had just a phenomenal collection launched this month, the Solmene II collection, and I loved the blushes that they launched. A lot of them ran very warm, which I don't typically reach for warm blushes that often, but there's this shade that is so beautiful. So first of all, just admire this packaging. I mean, I don't know how Odin's Eye does it. They do such a great job, and they keep, I think the price is pretty reasonable. So the shade that I've been loving is the one pinky blush in this collection. There also is a shimmery pinky blush, but this is a matte blush. This is Sunset Clouds. It is so pretty for any kind of pinky look, or when you want your cheek to pop. It's beautiful. I love the matte formulation. They are very pigmented though, so you definitely need to use a light hand. I played with a few other colors since first trying this collection, and a multitude of times I might've applied too much. Went in with a little bit too much of a heavy hand, but the finish on the cheeks are really beautiful. I think their matte formulation is a bit blurring as well, so I've been enjoying all of the blushes in the collection period, but that's my favorite, and Odin's Eye just killed it. Okay, and then lips. I will do eyeshadow palettes at the end, but lips, color pop, along with the bronzers, they also launched some new shades of the so glassy lip gloss. It's kind of a new formulation. They have like a shimmery glittery formulation that was here prior, but this is the first kind of flat shades, and I love this entire collection. I'm sharing with you my two favorites in today's video, but the whole collection is beautiful. It's six shades of a nude gloss for everybody, so right now I'm wearing the shade La Joya. Ho-ya. Ho-ya. Yeah. I said La Jolla in the last video because they didn't even click to me, like California, Spanish pronunciation anyways. La Joya, and then Newport is also nice. It's a little deeper, so these are not a sticky formulation. They don't have a lot of pigment. They're sheer, but they're not sheer enough to where all of them look the same, but they just blend in so beautifully with whatever lip liner that you might be using. Since I'm such a big fan of a lip liner, like a nude lip liner, and a lip gloss over top, these have been perfect because they're not too pigmented, so you can see the lip liner underneath, but they still kind of even everything out, and I just think the colors overall are gorgeous. There's a nude shade for everybody. These two have been my favorite. Today I used a makeup by Mario. It's like a rosy-toned lip liner, but I still wanted some gloss and to milk it down a little bit, so this shade has just been perfect, and you still keep the integrity of that lip liner underneath, so love that. Okay, and then eyeshadow palettes. This is gonna finish up makeup. If you don't know, I do do like a eyeshadow palette rankings every month for all of the eyeshadow palettes, so you will see these, but it might change. I was looking at my palettes. I'm not sure, but as of now, these are the palettes that stood out to me. Let's start off with the ones that I've been wearing. You guys know what a big, busy art fan, so they came out with four kind of macaroon-inspired eyeshadow quads, and I liked most of them, but these two, I just love so much. So I actually combined both of these to create my look today. So we have Lavande here first, which is a purple palette. This is such an easy to use palette for beginners. The purple mattes in here don't have the highest level of pigmentation, but they're very easy to use, very easy to blend out, so I started off with the lightest shade all over my crease. It doesn't give too much color, but it gives a really great transition for whatever look that you're doing. Then I went in just a little darker, kind of focused this more so, a little bit lower in the outer corner, and then I blended it in, and that was really easy to use. This one takes a little bit of building up, but still very easy to use, not powdery. And then I used the darkest shade in the outer corner, blended that out. Again, not the most pigmented purple, but also very, very easy to use. Then on my eyelids, I popped into Pistach, which I think this one is my favorite, okay? I think the greens here are just so beautiful, and the shimmers are everything. So I started off with the lighter shimmer in this palette on the inner half of my eyelid, kind of did a soft-cut crease-style look, and then I finished off with this green right here in the middle of the eye. I made sure I blended the green and the purple together, so I went in with more of the dark purple in the lavender palette. I think this is beautiful. These are super, duper easy palettes to use. I definitely recommend these if you're trying to get into Vizier, but don't want to break the bank, and you like these color stories, really, really great. I've been enjoying those, and I am a little biased. I love Vizier. I love what they create, so I've been extra excited and have been gravitating more towards these because I love Vizier, but they're beautiful, beautiful palettes. And then finally, the last makeup item I have in today's video. I could not not mention the Odin's Eye Salmon 2 palette. This is just the most gorgeous, gorgeous purple blue and orange palette. The quality of this palette is really spectacular. There is not a single dud in this. Odin's Eye just keeps getting progressively better and better with whatever collection they launch from the packaging to the quality. I think Odin's Eye is that perfect medium of value. Like you get such amazing quality while still keeping it at a somewhat affordable price point and their color stories are always out of this world. Everything about the experience, I cannot say enough good things about the brand and the Salmon 2 palette just kicked butt. Love the looks that I've been creating with this super high quality. Okay, now in terms of bags, I have two bags I wanna share with you that I have been loving. So the first one is just a $20 bag from Amazon. I got this a couple months ago and I have been using it nonstop. I will link it down below. It's like a fanny pack. So how I've been wearing this is across my body. I'll show you. Just like this, I'm a really petite person. So it takes up a lot of my body. But this is just my kind of like grocery store errands, hot girl walk kind of situation. It's cheap, you know, it's not the highest quality but it gets things done. I've been really into this style bag.  There's a couple of different compartments and a zipper in front. And it's just been really great. I am looking into maybe getting a different color in the Lululemon one, which is twice the price. I was originally looking at a Lululemon bag but since I wasn't sure if I would wear the style of bag I got something cheaper from Amazon and I love it. So I think eventually maybe not now I want to get a Lululemon one that is not black since I have this and I love it. And I recommend it just grab and go. Now in terms of cute bags what I've been loving is my Kate Spade smile bag. I just think it is the cutest bag the shape is super versatile. It's a very trendy shape as well. I got it on clearance. I believe it still is on clearance on the Kate Spade website. It is from their retail site, but I love this blue. They also have a pink which is gorgeous. And this has gone with a lot more than I thought it would. I wasn't sure how often I'd end up using it but we have this metal strap which honestly is kind of heavy. I don't know if I love it, I like the look of it but it is a little heavy but I've still been wearing it regardless and then I actually wear it a lot in Crossbody which I didn't think I would do and I think the metal looks so cute. But anyways, this has been a really nice Crossbody bag that I have just been throwing on. I ended up using it all of last week and surprisingly I don't know how it worked out but it did go with all of my outfits. I like that you can take the Crossbody strap off and just wear it under the shoulder. I've been loving the shoulder aspect of it as well. So this is really cute. I'm gonna link it down below because it is just as functional as it is cute. And that is all I have for this month's favorites. Thank you guys so much for sitting down and letting me talk about my favorite new products that I tried this month. I hope you guys enjoyed it and thank you so much for liking this video and being subscribed to my channel. I love everything that I talked about down below and yeah, I will talk to you guys in the next one. Bye guys, have a good one.