The final item of business is members' business debate on motion 13742 in the name of Donald Cameron on celebrating 10 years of BBC Alipa. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put and I would ask those members who wish to speak in the debate to press the request to speak buttons. Some members have indicated that they will make their contribution in Gaelic and interpretation facilities are available. Any member can listen by inserting their headphones into the socket on the right-hand side towards the front of the console. Any member unable to hear the interpretation should press the audio button on the console and select channel 1 English. I call on Donald Cameron to open the debate for around seven minutes please. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'd like to begin by thanking M.G. Alipa, and in particular its chief executive Donald Campbell, who encouraged me to celebrate this fantastic achievement in Parliament. I should also say that this debate is being streamed online by BBC Alipa. It is particularly special that we should be celebrating today because it is 10 years to the very day that BBC Alipa was formed to the channel and it was launched with a live cailie from Sormorostig on Sky and a drama about Elvis. Looking round the chamber and looking at all the musical and dramatic talents, I wonder if we could match that tonight. A lot of work went in at that point to achieve the goal of a publicly funded Gaelic broadcaster and an immense amount of work has gone on since then to take BBC Alipa from strength to strength. Not being fluent in Gaelic, I won't inflict what little I have on the chamber, but I'm sure others will not be so hesitant and I look forward to hearing everyone's contributions. In BBC Alipa, we have a broadcaster that has commissioned or created some £160 million of Gaelic television content and accounts for around half of independently produced hours for audiences in Scotland. Not only that, but one of its parents' companies, M.G. Alipa, which I mentioned, is responsible for 114 jobs in the Highlands and Islands, providing vital skilled employment in places such as the Western Isles, Sky, Inverness and further afield. In addition to that, there are multi-year contracts with eight independent production companies in a variety of genres, including the hugely successful Bannon, which is produced by young films on Sky. It is a remarkable achievement, considering all of that has been done with a modest annual budget in comparison to what other Celtic networks around the UK receive. They have done a lot with a little, and I will briefly return to the question of funding later. Kate Forbes agrees with me that, although debates in English BBC have raged for years on a Scottish 6, for example, the Gaelic 8, which is news on BBC Alipa, has been reporting regional, national and international news from the very heart of Gildum for years to an incredibly high standard with a fraction of the budget. Donald Cameron agrees with me that, having appeared on anlard only on Monday night, it is a fantastic programme. I would say that the outputs of BBC Alipa throughout, especially its news output, is tremendous. By coincidence, I was lucky enough to spend Monday afternoon visiting the offices of BBC Alipa in Stornoway, and I spoke to a number of staff members. They said several things that struck me, and I would like to share with the chamber. The first thing that was obvious was that so many staff had been involved from the very start and were still there. There appears to be incredible loyalty to the channel from its employees, which in my view is undoubtedly a good sign. Secondly, the fact that BBC Alipa is not just one single homogenous organisation but is in fact a patchwork collection of producers, editors, presenters, some of whom act as independent freelancers. Thirdly, the channel has been able to bring forward important local issues to the fore that simply do not receive enough national coverage. For example, we watched the production of a programme about the geese crisis that affected crofters on the yewists. It is clear that, while Gaelic is a central part of what BBC Alipa does, it is not just the language that it promotes but a wider community and culture. It has obvious connections with the Gaelic-speaking world in the Highlands and Islands, but it is known to reach many more people beyond the Gaeltoch. Indeed, there are many who watch BBC Alipa who have no connection to Gaelic whatsoever. Let me give some examples. I have non-Gaelic-speaking friends who have said to me that the only way they can watch their local Shinty team is on BBC Alipa. We know that, for instance, Scotland qualified for the Women's World Cup next year. BBC Alipa announced on that very day a three-year deal as the home of Scottish women's football. All that is the member of the Scottish Conservative media team, not known for his love of Gaelic, has to be said, admitting to me that the only way he was able to watch his underperforming football team was on BBC Alipa. Due to the channel's excellent coverage of the very lowest reaches of the SPFL. That was David Stewart, and we'll now go to Donald Cameron. I think that I'll leave that hanging. According to BBC Alipa, 10 per cent of the viewers over the age of 16 in Scotland watch the channel each week, meaning that many who do not speak Gaelic are accessing its content. Whether that be its coverage of sport that I've mentioned or viewers watching with subtitles or simply checking out the original content, it is ultimately adored to Gaelic for a wider audience. The recent agreement, which has secured the rights to broadcast content from CBBC and CBBs, further enhances the channel's offering to younger audiences. While there are a lot of good things to shout about, it goes without saying that there are also challenges to overcome. There is wide acceptance that the number of people watching linear TV generally is declining, particularly among younger viewers, who more often than not use social media or catch-up services to view content. We all know about competition that comes from major platforms such as Netflix or Amazon Prime, and there is the ability for people to use social media platforms and make greater use of popular websites and apps such as YouTube or Instagram, etc. All of that presents obstacles to all linear TV, but it is especially a challenge for a channel such as BBC Alipa. The other significant challenge that I must return to is funding, because when I spoke to the staff in Stornway on Monday, they told me that when new funding for content becomes available, hundreds of ideas are put forward, many of which are very good, but often only a small handful can be realised. At present, the BBC provides the channel with funding. It provides additional net programme funding of £1.2 million per year, which replaces funding that the channel had received from MG Alipa. That is freed MG Alipa to make extra investment in other independent parts of the channel. There is an overall BBC contribution of £10.7 million, but compared with the £74.5 million that the BBC affords to the Welsh language broadcaster S4C, or the £37.5 million that the Irish Government provides its language broadcaster, there is a stark contrast. I would say that, while the BBC contributes a significant amount, it is important to acknowledge that support—that support—in my view, it could do more to invest in and support BBC Alipa. I will conclude on this note, Presiding Officer. Despite the fact that it is a 21st century creation, working at the cutting edge of digital media, using the latest technology, etc., it is also worth thinking about BBC Alipa more historically and how it fits squarely into a much more ancient Gaelic tradition. In many ways, the channel is the modern equivalent of the Seneca, the storyteller of old, who would entertain with history, song and verse, and would touch both the local and the wider world, shifting between fact and fiction, drama and real life. Just as now, BBC Alipa passes on the stories, the legends, the songs, the customs, rooted in the people and on the land in which they live and work, and those people, the listeners and viewers of BBC Alipa, drive much of the content rather than it being opposed from above. It is a service for the whole of Scotland and a standard barrier for a language and a culture that means so much to so many here, but also across the world, so to BBC Alipa can I finish by saying, tarpillet. We now move to the open debates and speeches of four minutes, please. Ruth Maguire to be followed by Edward Mountain. Mwlhaig ia ddolch am yr unrhyw sy'n yn jasbyd siw ystafell ychydig ychyg. Yr urus y BBC, sy'n dleisynus BBC Alipa, meisgwch ychyg gyffrogrwm yn, y tyfyn, y torstysiach, negyn, negyn television ac y sy'n teitio. Bechawr yn channel y ffri ychyg, luch lawrst, ac ysluwch gionsu chi'n y gaelig, ac ysduwn i y gwythig y ffii yr son gaelig gionsu chyg. Bechawr yn channel cwchoch y ffinesgahan ac ysnyhech, gachwltur, ffein aniau, ac ysdolwch ysnygallig. Fy hoch chi'ch BBC Alipa y crylig, er yn neu gyflagiwg, gyntwltyn, ddafili ac ysloch, hann channel yr ffasgwm mor gws na amysyn sy'n ycholynig. Yn gyw, hae tyfyn, siach, yw'r un gyfrogrwm yn gach law, ac yshan twy o fasgwm i'ch ychyd, lle ryg si'n ffath yn ysarchon i'ch gaelig. Mae rei sy'n flir, bimor yn gwneud gwyngau'n gaelig ychyd gwynghwylwch progrwm yn lehi'ch yn y neill yn lachol, yn strei yorpe, drama ac ysgwrm yn cwlf o'r ffig yn tŵl. Ac ysgwydgyrfa, hae ysgwrs erfyn y ffarsgwtrym o'ch gyntgen channel. Mae'r niach lentyn, balkosia m'i hun, ffam i'r le toli tŵl, na byhre, sy'n fies siocl einti'n gwyngbibisi alwybyn yn y dach chi, ers ond balkosia yn y bann alwybynach, a torst arst ychyg mor, gael imeg yn ysgwrs o'n yn alwybyn. Hae yna yw'r un gog gaelig y ffrin sy'n farlym yn ycheg yn niach ar y gwasanaeth ychydig yn ysgwrs a'r gwbl, ac yn y bwrn ychygio fel ffarnol yn niach, mae'n cwyrnu gyda Gaelig. Cysylltiol yn y mae ffiachyn, feca nabriyn, sy'n gysbyt yw chi. Mae'r cwytrim ei gweithio ei gweithi'r dynu, mae'n teithwn, ac mae'n cael ei gwylliant yn ddarparu gyda'i gweithio'r bros ownsodd gyda chymysgol, ac mae'n diwylliant yn y gweithio'r dynu, ac mae'n gweithio'r dynu'n gyngorom I can only apologise that my intervention is in English because of the... I'm going to take an intervention in English in Gaelic, but I won't let it go. I do want to pick up on a very important point, and that's people's perception of the language and perhaps the politics of recent as muddied those waters. What does the member think could be done to further improve the take-up of the language amongst young people and adults, as well, outside of its traditionally spoken areas, including the central book? Apologies, Ms McWire. I didn't hear that. Ruth McWire, if you can answer in Gaelic... Probably be helpful if I answered him in English. I think there's lots that everyone can do. I think there's clear cross-party support for Gaelic. It's not owned by one political party or one bit of Scotland. We need to take that out of it. We need to take the opportunity to speak a little bit whenever we can, even if we're nervous about that. In Jamie Greene's region in the west of Scotland, there's a mountain of Gaelic activity going on. You'll see through the North Ayrshire Council website, there's singing classes, there's adult speaking classes, there are conversational groups in Gaelic. I would say, get involved and lead by example. OK. Mae'r cwtrymwch gyfel y hwladuniau a chael gan canyn, ac mae'r gwanchwlt o'r acen y fydd Gaelic, neu'r hwladuniau y torr sleih o'r yna chael cwrwmwch nôr reisintu. Mae'r chael nwr yn gwneud y fydd balaf. Felly, mae'n myl yn eich ychwr e'r hwladuniau eich BBC Alibw, y Rheins 3, ac mae'n fies 3 haast, gwasanael gaelic ac mae'n canyn hein yn y arstrych. Smyha'r cwetha'r ers dyswn yn adeilig blynyn. Colle Edward Mountain, byfodol byr Alasdair Allan. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I'd firstly like to thank my colleague Donald Cameron for bringing forward this motion, celebrating the 10th anniversary of BBC Alba. Presiding Officer, if my school teachers were here today, they wouldn't be able to stop laughing at my attempts to stall the value of languages in our society. Especially as my school reports repeatedly stated that I should concentrate on English rather than trying to master other languages that would clearly be beyond me. Looking back, I'd probably admit that I could single-handedly massacre the French language at school. When I served in the Army, I'd made a pretty good job of massacring Swahili and making it unintelligible, which is quite an achievement of sorts, giving that Swahili, whilst it has verbs, has no tenses. So if I happen to make a mispreanciation today, I don't mind taking an intervention in whatever language, as long as somebody can explain to me what it is that I'm supposed to be answering. I would love to take interventions from those members of this chamber who are far more eloquent in speaking Gallic than I am. As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of BBC Alba, it's worth noting that 50 per cent of Gallic speakers live in the Highlands, and BBC Alba forms a big part of their daily lives. I am proud of the enduring contribution that my party has made to the language by introducing Gallic Television Fund nearly in 1990 and the Broadcasting Act in 1996, which further improved the funding of Gallic Television. Those two acts laid the groundwork for BBC Alba, which was launched in 2008. This channel has the viewship in excess of 60,000 speakers of the language, a testament to me to the wide appeal of the language and programming and the growing interest in the culture. Gallic production forms a sizable part of Scotland's growing TV and film industry, which, as we know, generated nearly £100 million in the past year. Production companies like the Stornoway-based MAC TV are important local employers, and that highlights how important BBC Alba is to the island's economy as a whole. BBC Alba's sports courage has come under criticism from some who want to see the channel focus more on arts and culture, but I don't see why audiences shouldn't get live sports in their own language. Football, shinty and rugby draw in new audiences to the television programmes on BBC Alba and therefore should be a gateway for the language. Let's not forget that BBC Alba exists to support the learning of Gallic and alongside Gallic education in our primary and secondary schools and acts as an engine for the growth of the language. Presiding Officer, BBC Alba is a big success story for Gallic language, and I'm delighted to mark the channel's 10th anniversary today. Today's debate is also a reminder of the importance of the Scottish Government's target made 10 years ago to ensure that by the 2021 census the proportion of Gallic speakers is back up to the 2001 levels at the very least, and I would support them in that. BBC Alba will be central, I believe, in achieving that target, and I urge the Scottish Government to continue to support the channel and for people across Scotland to do the same. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Alasdair Allan, followed by Rhoda Grant. O fe gyddi allu, tain fawr gwy maes yd Camryn, os rhan o'r gysbyd y sios jei ychwanegwch, y gysgwyr y mae'r sechydig yn y ffarn am eich jei blion y BBC Alba chawr ychwanegwch. Ac coi'n i ac ymwyd y gosgyl BBC Alba, mae'n mysiau i'r ceili, ac rwy'n i'n mysiau yn program mwy elfys cwyddiog. Maen nhw'n allu'n haf BBC Alba i'r ffaith, ac i'n ddalsiach i'r ymwyth ychwanegwch, nid oedd y hollechau i'r fríf i'w marys eisiau ymddir, ac mae'r hollechau, mae'n hefyd i'r Camryn, ac rwy'n i'n i-player hwchwytrwmwch. Rwy'n i'n i'n ogych chi'n ffaith swydd gynns, i'w sgir節目aru i Wagers скорееll i'n iŷakin ac Febauai Alba i'r g소 gains. Aion sydd wedi cael rhywun ni oaddin fe Yn chant a uwch hyn yn ddim yn charwell iechyd. Rwy'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i'n i',n i'n i'n i'n i'n icepti. Rwy'n i'n i'n i'n i'n aniadd i'n equipment, Mae'r erbyn yn ei ddweud cyngor a'r ar Scotland, mae'r prif wrthwynt yn ei ddweud, ac yn ei ddweud, os yn ei ddweud, nid yn ei fachafol yn tuadogol. Mae'r prif wrthwynt yn ei ddweud yn ei ddweud yn ei ddweud, ac mae'n f alguna llych nhw'n ei ddweud ar ynni gstäffibl yn sicr. Rwy'n siarad o'r prif gofio'n oes o'r prif mae'r prif yn iawn i fynd yn ôl yn ei ddweud. Mae'r bwymo'r economig o'ch eifibisi alwapau. Rydw i chi ddod i eid aprydiad oherwydd yna elwyngu, ma'r haf tachart lleiwch ymrisch. Mae'n hollu i'n gweithio i bwysig y bwysig y ddylch i'r ffordd i gael i gael i gael. Rwy'n cael ei wneud i chi'n gweithio i'r ddigon yn ymwneud o bwysig. Mae'n rwy'n arwt am y mysni'ch yn bwysig, mae'n i'n i ffordd i'r ddechrau'r ddylch i'r ddylch i'r ddylch i'r ddylch i'r ddylch, Diem yn i ar agatha'r gyrraed beth sydd yw'r dŵw y tãy yn ymellafol, neu o'u gwneud yn ardoli arlineg. Maen nhw'n rначfyn nhw'n rwynt yn ei cychyddo'r ysgol, gwneud hynny o'r arloryd ychydig. Maen nhw'n rwynt gyntaf i'r cychwyneth ymellafol i wath o gweld ffarchul yn cael ei wneud yn hwrs ac mae hynny'n gallu'n ei holl gŸ. Cwylch television part 4 yn y cryonwg negalig. Mae'n ddoch chi sy'n eich gyfel television part 10000 o gychannan. Gydwch mae'n rhaid cwlyn sy'n y wehe, ac mae'n gydwch sy'n nolwg. Mae'n gydwch yn ei gaelig o'n gydwch sy'n y fwy y brian mien y gaelig. Mae'n bbc allwp o'r tych sy'n sy'n. A gyflwmpu gwneud bod y cydwch yn dgylcheddon i gaelig os y llech gynghwilig. Mae'n ddiflwch gyda'n gwybod maen nhw i ddweud ребhe fan hynny. Mae'n ddyn nhw i ddweud, ac mae'n ddweud hefyd yn gweithio'n cydwch yn dweud diwethaf.被chachai erbyn i teimlo am y cydwch yn ei dweud. Maen nhw eich trofa o'r teimlo yn y cydwch. Mae'n ddydd i ddud i mi yn y cydwch. Mae unrhyw A11 a F1 o Skills? Mae unrhyw A11 a F1 o 5 yn mynd i siw unrhyw A11, ac mae unrhyw ofain yn'r likwyr am lawer o F1 o F1. Mae unrhyw A11 o ffasyliau yng nghymru o'r mhawr, yn gweithio ddim yn ôl i ddim yn i ddim yn gweithio ffasyliau ffasyliau yn gwybod. Cw diw Missouri, y mae hwlla Adonis Ecoleaidd yn dinc僷n, ac rhaid dda'n eich ddech wallet yn contribution to education in Australia. I'm very pleased that Donald Cameron brought forward this debate. It gives me great pleasure to wish BBC Alibah happy birthday. It feels like BBC Alibah has been around forever, but 10 years is a relatively short space of time to make the impact that it has. It's been at the forefront of promoting the Gallic language. Their carrying of sports, not just shinty, but football, as we've heard, rugby too, has promoted a much wider audience than the one that may have originally been set up to serve, but that encourages others to listen to our language and indeed gain an interest in it. It could be argued that the coverage of shinty has promoted that game and led to more young people becoming interested in playing. The more people who watch BBC Alibah, the more that will be interested in learning our language and keeping it alive. They have a broad range of programmes for young viewers, of Patrick Post, among others, working in tandem with Gallic media and education to help young people to learn. Their news and current affairs programmes, as we've heard, are excellent. Europe was historically recognised for its journalistic content even before BBC Alibah started broadcasting. For learners like me, speaking our language, never goes out of date and, sadly, Rhoda MacDonald doesn't seem to have aged at all, albeit that her hairstyle has changed a number of times over the series. The channel not only serves our Gallic speakers, but it helps learners and promotes interest in Gallic. Someone whose first language was Gallic and has now returned as a learner, BBC Alibah, offers me an extra connection to the language, a way of keeping my practice between classes through a wide range of programmes. It enables learners young and old to have Gallic embedded in more aspects of their life rather than confined to the classroom. I've often heard people say that it's when Gallic becomes the language of the playground rather than the classroom, we know that we're keeping it alive. While keeping Gallic alive has to be the main name, there are other unforeseen benefits to the channel. It has created jobs in the media, not just for Gallic-speaking presenters, but for every skill required, sound film and production skills. It means that young people from the Gale jug now have a range of careers to choose from and the ability to stay at home to pursue them. One of the big problems in my region is depopulation and that happens for economic reasons. People leave because there are few jobs and even fewer careers. BBC Alibah provides young people with a career to pursue that keeps them in our community and gives them choices. Our language is also important to keep our history and culture alive. The history and culture of the Highlands and Islands communities is handed down through poetry, song and storytelling. If we lose the language, we lose that aspect of our heritage. BBC Alibah promotes traditional arts as well as contemporary arts. What is sad is that Gallic was much more widely spoken in the past across much of Scotland and in parts indeed of Northern England. It has been lost from those areas and with it has been lost their culture and their heritage. BBC Alibah's programming is of a really high standard and actually holds its own against English-speaking channels. It provides excellent value for money. With more investment, it could do so much more. I urge the BBC to look at a balance in funding to make sure that BBC Alibah gets a fair share of the cake. As Donald Cameron said in his opening speech, when money is available, the bids to produce new and innovative programming much exceed what is available cash-wise to pay for that. We need to urge the BBC to do that. Last new year, my husband had the flu, so it was a home alone on front of the TV, taking in the new year on my own. I tried a number of channels before settling down to a wonderful concert on BBC Alibah, very much like a traditional KLE rather than the forced kitsch you sometimes find on other channels. While recognising its worth, we also need to make sure that we support it. Duncan Ferguson wrote recently that BBC Alibah had done more to promote and protect Gaelic than the Gaelic Language Act, and he might be right. However, having a Gaelic Language Act might help us to protect and promote BBC Alibah, because if we take it for granted, we do so at our peril. Therefore, I am delighted to support this motion and, indeed, hope that I will be wishing BBC Alibah many happy returns for many years to come. Angus MacDonald, to be followed by John Finnie. First, I thank Donald Cameron for bringing this motion forward for debate today. I was pleased to sign it to help ensure that there was cross-party support to allow this debate to take place in the chamber. I think that the more Gaelic-related debates that we have in Scotland's Parliament, the better. I am glad to say that I was at the official launch reception of BBC Alibah here in Edinburgh 10 years ago, which was attended by the great and the good of the Gaelic world, the great and the good of the BBC and others. However, it was a double celebration for me because, in my role as the convener of the Organising Committee of the Royal National Mod, which was being held in Falkirk that year, it meant that the Falkirk Mod was the first one to enjoy wall-to-wall coverage of the competitions and concerts through BBC Alibah. As well as the excellent coverage of the mods over the past decade, it is clear that MG Alibah through its partnership with the BBC is an incredibly important piece in our diverse cultural jigsaw. Tasked with ensuring Gaelic is accessible in our day-to-day lives through creative content, factual documentaries and drama series through broadcasting and online platforms, BBC Alibah is vital to the promotion, preservation and normalisation of the culture that is the Gaelic language, lifestyle and all that comes with it. It gives me great pleasure to be able to celebrate the 10th anniversary of BBC Alibah here this evening. First launched 10 years ago tonight at 9pm with Oran Alibah, a special version of the song Alibah, we have all watched the channel grow, expand and diversify, changing with the times and making use of emerging platforms for content to be shared far and wide. 10 years ago at the channel launch, MG Alibah's commissioning strategy consisted of long-term volume deal commissions that bring the channel low-cost, high-volume original outage and allows the independent sector to enjoy the security of guaranteed funding over a number of years, thus allowing for investment and long-term planning, gaining favourable deals with its own suppliers and providing employee security, and also seasonal commissioning rounds bringing higher production value bespoke programming to the channel of which they had three tendering rounds annually at the launch of the channel. Ten years on, MG Alibah still have the volume deals providing 89 per cent of the channel's original funded outage for 75 per cent of the programme budget. Sadly, MG Alibah cannot now accommodate three commissioning rounds per annum due to financial constraints. They currently have two seasonal commissioning rounds at a lower level of funding individually than the original three, and, worryingly, those two rounds are in jeopardy due to the lack of assurance they have regarding their annual core funding each year. Those commissioning rounds are heavily dependent on the £1 million pressure funding that was received over the past three years, a sum that, again worryingly, is not guaranteed and thus causes uncertainty and insecurity in the independent sector and with the supply of programming. As a result, we see a channel that has a 74 per cent repeat level being in danger of losing not only its core audience, but the wider Scottish audience without a supply of high-quality originations. Another issue of concern, Presiding Officer, is the plan to launch a new Scottish channel. Clearly, we all welcome a new Scottish channel, but the head of BBC Scotland intimated that this would bring a benefit of up to 100 hours of new programming to BBC Alibah as a direct result of the new channel. I am not sure how far down that road BBC Scotland is in that respect, but there is one thing that is sure. We need to safeguard BBC Alibah's current appreciation and consumption across the Scottish-wide audience and ensure that the two channels work in partnership with each other and not in competition. I genuinely hope that the arrival of the new channel is not to the detriment of BBC Alibah and I hope that we can get an assurance in that regard from the BBC. Time, as always, prevents Amy from raising other salient points, but suffice to say that let's celebrate all the BBC Alibah and BBC Alibah that have done for Gaelic and Sport in Scotland over the past 10 years, and let's all ensure that we protect it over the next 10 years and beyond. The last of the open debate contributions is from John Finnie. I'm sorry, it's my usual opening. I only have a little Gaelic, so I'm going to have to speak in English. The first thing that I have to do is congratulate my colleague Donald Cameron. Donald talked about BBC Alibah going from strength to strength, and I think that that's very evident from the contributions that we've heard. I think that it's got a very tangible evidence of that with a new TV gallery in Burness. Again, Donald Cameron talked about An La, and the fact that that entire production can take place from there is a sign of the progress that's been made. Of course, news is very important. I also welcome the weekend bulletins on Radio Nang Gael, and, as others have, I very much welcome the new jobs, particularly the new journalism jobs in Burness, the six jobs. However, as has been said, BBC Alibah operates throughout the Gaelic Act and its jobs and its spread, I think, are welcome. It's always been very outward looking, as I hope that the Highlands has always seen to be. There's many things to be positive about the revamp of the children's output, particularly the utilisation of the CBBCs and CBBs' brands, which, again, is about the normalising the use of the language in connection with everything that goes on. Job creation, of course, as others are alluded to, is not just about the creative jobs. There are very positive contributions from the technicians and other supports, and that's all part of the wider progress that's been made and the role that BBC Alibah has played in moving things forward. As the motion also talks about joint working, I think that that's very important, with all its finite resources. Collaboration is very important. I want to perhaps, and others have touched on this and I don't wish to appear to be negative, but I think that it's important to talk about the BBC charter review and the significant support that was indicated in that during the public consultation for Gaelic. The proposter of the motion talked about the modest budget. Others would describe it as an inequitable outcome to that charter review. S4C are guaranteed 74.5 million per annum until 2022, so I'd like to quote from an email that I got from a constituent this afternoon that said, and I quote here, expecting BBC Alibah to survive nevermind thrive on something like 8.2 million brackets from the BBC, while it has become clear that the new BBC Scotland is to have four times that budget to broadcast for fewer hours has highlighted the further inequity of the situation. There's a call that this constituent puts in. I'm sure I'm not the only recipient of that email in it. It's a call to supporters of BBC Alibah and that's to renew the call for a minimum of 10 hours new programming per week calling the BBC and politicians to commit to that and the resources that are required to BBC Alibah to fulfil its role of offering a diverse range of high-quality programmes in Gaelic. On a positive note, people have talked about the dynamic nature of the media industry and people have talked about not making exclusively culture. Who knows? Yrpas is often cited as an excellent example of very strong investigative journalism and not just within Scotland but the broad outlook that it takes. Culture, of course, might be in years to come that people will view DIY ladoni as being a pivotal and for those of you who don't do DIY, like me, it's entertaining nonetheless to watch it and I commend it to you. I also commend, of course, the sports coverage. I think it's very important that we don't politicise the language. Language is a very powerful role to play and we know that with our sisters and brothers in Wales, Catalonia and indeed the Basque country. There's mention made in the motion about the Celtic language and the recent partnership agreement. I think that that could contribute to positive progress and respect, for instance, for the Irish language in the north of Ireland. There's many positive things to say. I'm sure that the next decade will be the same. More than time. I now call in Ben Macpherson to respond to the debate for around seven minutes. Thank you all for what I think has been an excellent debate and to Donald Cameron for bringing forward today's motion. It is a pleasure to have the opportunity this evening to express the Scottish Government's gratitude to all involved in BBC Alaba on its 10th birthday. First of all, I thank BBC Alaba producers, presenters and commissioners and, of course, the BBC and the Gaelic Media Mg Alaba, who, between them, run the channel and for the creative work that they have produced over the past decade that has made the channel such a resounding success, as others have emphasised. Labry, sonoghut, happy birthday. BBC Alaba has been consistently inventive and continues to be so, with its exciting autumn schedule and new developments in comedy and international productions. The Scottish Government is a strong supporter of Scotland's indigenous languages. We recognise their cultural, economic and social value and want the relevant bodies to work together as closely as possible to support and promote their use. Though there is still work to do to reverse the decline in the overall numbers of Gaelic speakers, it is encouraging that the rate of decline nationally seems to be slowing down. I think of this in terms of a point that was raised earlier about growth in urban areas. I think of Ternobarca, the primary school in my constituency, whose role and numbers are growing from strength to strength. The Gaelic education strategy of this Government in helping to promote uptake at school age. The growth and the slowing down of decline suggest that our targeted investment as a Government is paying off and that the strategy of introducing children to the language as early as possible to make it an integral part of their life, their schooling and the way they communicate is working. BBC Alaba is an important part of that process in children's programming, in its digital content and in providing a common frame of reference for the Gaelic community in its widest sense. In 10 short years, BBC Alaba has become an accepted part of the Scottish broadcasting landscape and a celebrated part, with strong audience approval ratings and audience reach of over 10 per cent nationally and over 65 per cent among users of Gaelic. That is, as others have said, good for the economy as well, because commissioning programmes in 2016 to 2017 from 20 different production companies illustrates that. It is especially important in economically fragile areas. Indeed, of the 280 full-time equivalent jobs that MG Alaba has been estimated to have generated across Scotland in 2016-17, more than 100 of those were in island communities. The channel has also demonstrated that its innovative partnership model with MG Alaba and the BBC can work successfully. In that, I believe that the channel is showing the way to other broadcasters who are now realising the mutual benefit of partnership models. As our new dedicated screen agency, Screen Scotland, gets up and running, one of its priorities is to promote a more co-ordinated approach to resources and more co-operation between broadcasters in the interests of audiences. The Scottish Government will continue to support the channel, although broadcasting is reserved, and we will continue to support it so that the channel is able to meet the challenges of competition and funding in the years ahead. Because competition will be stronger than ever. All broadcasters face a challenge from new media giants such as Netflix, as the BBC director-general Lord Hall reminded us earlier this week saying that British TV, including the BBC, needs a more level playing field to be able to compete against global broadcasters. Closer to home, as others have mentioned, there is a newly invigorated STV and, from next February, a new BBC Scotland channel. We will urge the BBC to stand by the promise held out in its proposal for the new channel to co-commission 100 hours of programming with BBC Alaba. As others have mentioned, funding is another key issue. We, in the Scottish Government, remain committed to funding MG Alaba, with £12.8 million from the devolved settlement, and with £8 million from the BBC and a further £1.2 million announced earlier this year, replacing the £1 million that was withdrawn by the UK Government, MG Alaba funding now totals approximately £22 million. We, as the Scottish Government, were delighted to announce in February a £500,000 grant to develop the studio facilities at Seaforth Road in Stornoway to improve facilities for programme making and offer training opportunities for young people interested in the media. Public funding of the Welsh channel S4C is approximately £120 million, which, following a recent UK Government review of S4C, is expected to almost all come through the licence fee settlement. The role of the BBC is therefore critical. We have argued that the disparity in funding between Welsh and Gaelic TV is disproportionate, and we urge the UK Government and the BBC to take action to ensure that Gaelic TV audiences get a fair deal. Gaelic is one of the UK's not just Scotland's indigenous languages, and as such it is reasonable to expect support from the UK Government. We believe that there is scope for the BBC to spend more on Gaelic on grounds of equity, even allowing for its recent enhanced commitments. The BBC still spends considerably less here than it raises through the licence fee. We urge all to get involved—the UK Government, the BBC and the Communications Regulator, OFCOM—to work together to ensure that BBC Alaba gets a fair share of the licence fee. We are also asking BBC Alaba to be regulated through a service licence of its own, as we have argued that the BBC in Scotland generally should, so that the specific needs of audiences and the sector here can be identified and considered. The needs and circumstances of audiences in the various UK nations differ, and their circumstances should be addressed individually. Overall, we will continue to do what we can to stimulate the TV sector in Scotland, and argue for a fairer deal from the UK. We are grateful to MG Alaba and the BBC for the unique and highly valuable contribution that is made through BBC Alaba to the Scottish media and Gaelic and Scottish culture. We will continue to support it in years to come and look forward to continuing to work with those partners to make the next 10 years as successful as the last, so that in 10 years' time we can have another debate like we have this evening with even more strength to BBC Alaba. That concludes the debate, and this meeting is closed.


So today we're going to be making some of my favorite sounds on the Perform VE. We're going to be doing interesting weird ambient sounds and this is something I think the VE excels at and I think that this is because of how the sample button works and how it will flatten your pitch and time stretch the sample so that when you play things across the keyboard they all kind of sound at the same time they have the same envelope. So let's start by getting a sample and I'm going to do a really gross terrible sounding sample so I apologize in advance but then you'll see how cool it sounds once we add effects and start playing it back. So it's gonna be super pitchy and gross, you're been warned. Just like listen to that back one time because that's so bad. That sounds terrible but when I play it back because of how the VE affects the sample just automatically without me doing anything it actually sounds pretty okay. Like it's not as bad as it was when I inputted it. It's definitely not as good as it can get though. Now since we're doing ambient sounds I think the trick here is just to add a lot of reverb and delay as is my trick normally with any sound. So we're just gonna add a ton of the hall reverb and we're gonna add a smidge of some pretty short delay. That sounds pretty cool already. This is a usable sound. I could make a cool song with this. I think we can make it better. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna add some of the variable gender mapping using the morph parameter and what this does is as you move across the keyboard your gender parameter changes. So you can hear the gender shifts as I move across the keyboard which makes it way more interesting and dynamic as I kind of play that ambience. I'm gonna add a little bit more reverb because there's not enough. So that's actually a really nice sound in my opinion. If you just play one note of that and let it ring it's actually kind of beautiful. Not to toot my own horn or anything but I like this sound a lot. Now it's really interesting about this sound is how the variation in the sample that I recorded is creating movement in the sound and that's something that's really hard to do with another synth. If you're using just a regular subtractive analog synth there's something you need a bunch of LFOs and envelope generators maybe a sequencer to try to recreate that type of movement. But using the Perform VE it's super easy because you just input your voice which is like the easiest thing to manipulate because you've been doing it since you were a child and you can make that movement instantly. So let's just do a different sample with the same effects and hear how it sounds. I love doing a little pop and adding some delay. So what's fun about this is it's just so inspiring. You can mess with different samples you can get creative do what fits your song also sampling words or phrases and using those for ambiences can sound really cool as well. So I'm just going to say the word Helicon and let's hear how that sounds. Helicon it's tough for me to admit but on that sound maybe there was too much reverb so if we dial that back a bit and this can really easily stray into the kind of the modern pop vocoder stuff and we'll do a different video that shows how to do that. But for now I think I've shown what I wanted to show which is that the VE is really good at very quickly creating interesting super unique ambient sounds and there's just nothing else out there on the market that can do the sounds that perform VE can especially not anything that is this portable, this affordable or this easy to use. It's so flexible because what you're inputting is your voice so you can really do anything with it. Your options are limitless. You can get creative and that is what I love about the perform VE. Stay tuned for next time where we talk about more sounds that you can make with this.


Abstract YRL of 5 is one of the most popular object detection algorithms, which can be divided into multiple series depending on the control of network depth and width. The paper proposes a lightweight aerial image object detection algorithm, LAI YRL of 5s, based on improvements to the original YRL of 5 algorithm, including replacing the minimum detection head with the maximum detection head and introducing a new feature fusion method, deep feature map cross-path fusion network, DFMC-PFM. Additionally, a new module based on VOVnet is designed to enhance the feature extraction capabilities of the backbone network. Finally, the paper utilizes the idea of ShuffleNet V2 to make the network lighter while maintaining its accuracy. On the Vistrone 2019 dataset, the detection accuracy of LAI YRL of 5s is 8.3% higher than that of the original algorithm. This article was offered by Lixia Deng, Linyun Bai, Hongchuan Li, and others. We are article.tv, links in the description below.


Live from San Francisco, it's theCUBE, covering DevNet Create 2017, brought to you by Cisco. Hey, welcome back, everyone, live here in San Francisco for SiliconANGLES theCUBE's exclusive two days of coverage for Cisco's inaugural event, DevNet Create, building on their three-year-old successful DevNet program, which is Cisco Core Developer Program, now foraying out into the world of cloud-native, developers, open source, great move for Cisco, our next guest is with Sam Ali Ahmad, lead solutions architect with Splunk. Good to see you. Good to see you too, John. You're Peter Burris, of course, my co-host. So Splunk being here is an important thing because you guys have been riding the wave for cloud. Certainly your relationship with Amazon Web Services is well known, very successful. Splunk as a company went public, well known. You guys really, really hit a niche around big data in how cloud has helped you guys accelerate your business. So you've been transformed, but continuing to grow. So you're riding that wave, but now Cisco's on the wave. Cisco has been involved in the wave, but from a relationship to them, oh yeah, we're the networking guys, we're going to come in and help Docker with this, we're going to come in and help Splunk with this. So they've been kind of a helper, not the main player. This is a new way to get back in and be really enabled for the cloud world. What's your reaction to this move by Cisco? I mean, we have a great partnership with Cisco for many years, and I think Splunk plays a good, as you said, we're a good player there. We integrate well, I mean, all the initiative Cisco's involved with, we have integrations with Cisco on many levels, different technology. And also Splunk, the uniqueness of Splunk is that you need to bring, you need visibility to everything. And Splunk is that platform where you have access to all that data throughout all, it's called a machine data. So you have access to all that data, not only application data, not only network data. You need to look at everything these days, especially when there's attacks. We heard them recently, of course, everybody heard about the wanna cry. And to detect the attack, you need to look at everything because you can someone bring in a laptop behind the firewall even, and they can be infected already. And then if you don't have access to see what they're doing, not just from a network perspective, like what apps in the cloud they're accessing, what other files on the locally. So because you have access to all that data in Splunk, you should be able to get better visibility. And you guys have a unique position in the sense that you're close, again, to the machine logs and data. We had Amanda on from Cisco, who was in her tribe as a developer. She's not necessarily a network engineer, but she's brought on that mojo in from the developer community. When she was first day in the job, they were doing some Python, some REST API stuff, basic one-on-one stuff. But she didn't want to do an app that was showing, hey, how many Twitter files do I have? She had to go in and look at the devices. So now the opportunity with IoT is that to Cisco to make exposed the network for programmability and extend it. How are they going to do that? I mean, you're closest to those guys in your relationship, but that's what everyone wants. They want the infrastructure to go, that's DevOps. Right, yeah, they want the edge to come to them. They want data to be more accessible to all the users. And then, so Cisco is on that path, definitely on that path to get more infrastructure visibility in the data center and networks. So they're definitely on that path of doing that, so. What, well, let me build on this. So if we think about the various components associated with some of the things that Splunk does, a leader in the application of machine and AI and big data related technologies to solving business problems. The algorithms for doing this have been around for a long time. The hard work couldn't do it, so you had to write really tight software to do it and you were one of the first companies out there to really do that. And then it was, we'll point all that at sources of data that you can apply these technologies to create better business value. And there were two places where people did it. Web logs for marketing, online marketing, and IT. Since IT technology throws off an enormous amount of data. So as I think about it, the relationship with Cisco is especially interesting because Cisco is going to be one of those companies that encourages people to create new sources of data. And a lot of it, IoT and other places, and bring it back to companies and technologies that have a proven track record for generating value out of that data. So talk a bit about how Splunk intends to, going back to what John said, riding that wave. The algorithms are here, the hardware can do it. Now we got to get access to more of the data. And here comes Cisco being really serious about moving a lot of data around it. What do you think? I mean, we like when people bring in a lot of data into Splunk. We also have been focusing a lot on the personas on the, we call the Sherlock, the data Sherlock, right? So that unique personas where they need to look at how do I make sense of my data? Not only just about bringing data, but how do I make sense of that data? What are the solutions? What are the use cases I need to have better impact on the business? So we actually helping solve real kind of business use cases. This morning Yelp had a webinar about how they use Splunk driving all the web infrastructure for Yelp, the Yelp backend for all the, all their- This is still in the IT? Yeah. This is not Yelp's marketing group. This is still in the IT. But they are correlating that with other business use cases. So where do you see some of these use cases popping up? Now that Pisco is helping to create those new sources and get people to, you know, culturing people to the idea that these are sources of value, business value. Where do you see some of the new use cases? There's a lot of use cases now coming up around business analytics, around IoT as you just mentioned, and an added element of machine learning across different data sources. So if I want to look at not just performance of one service, let's say my elevator, I want to see how that's going to affect other areas of my business, too. So you're able to see not only the power of correlating that data, but also be able to apply machine learning on that data. So there's a lot of use cases around business analytics.  So you need always to chase that and you need to look at all the data, the behaviors in that data to get better predictability, to get better prevention detection. So Splunk is emerging as a great software company for a lot of IT pros, but that still is more in the opposite. How is this conference and the likelihood of the notion that developers are increasingly going to be part of that use case, utilizing data and data related services to better understand operations, but find new ways of creating value out of the capabilities provided by that. What's the developer angle here for Splunk? A great question. We actually are focusing a lot on developer, developer tools, you know, so now Splunk being a platform, I always say Splunk is a full feature platform for machine data and big data. So it's open in the sense that you can developers will develop their own content on Splunk. They can extend what we have. So an example of that is the RISA project called Mexico Contaro. So that's a project full that's looking at internet usage and coverage in Mexico, in Mexico City and across all the cities. And this was using Splunk to end Milwaukee APIs and bringing all that data together and network data to try to give exposure to the kind of like government analytics. And that's a neat case because not necessarily only IT, but also helping, you know, all the goods out there, you know. So Cisco, Milwaukee and other sources plus Splunk to be able to get deep visibility into a number of ways that, you know, a very complex system like Mexico City, which is how the complex as you get actually operates. Yes, that's one, yeah. Talk about the Splunk direction now because everyone's been questioning about the public offering. You guys know putting numbers out there, active communities, not that you guys aren't being transparent, but you got to go to the next level of growth. And obviously Cisco's coming into the cloud native world. We see the cloud native compute foundation really with great support at Linux Foundation. New open source stuff's going on all the time. How is Splunk looking at the future right now? What's next? And obviously security, we heard that at .conf last year, but you guys have really a good position with the data. You have good account names and you've got great blue chip customers. What's next? What product solution look like for you guys? What's the new architecture? What's the new plan? I think more listening, you know, looking at all the scale and cloud and listen to the customers, making the data onboarding easier, making it more scalable, covering more use cases that we're talking about. You know, innovate in a lot of areas around machine learning, all that to cover more than use cases. So we're definitely heading moving forward to go the next step beyond. So let's take another example. So DevOps, right? Everyone loves the DevOps. It's not like, you can't buy DevOps, you just got to do it, right? So that's pretty clear. You can't just write an agile manifesto and say we're DevOps. You got to have a vision. Maybe you write a manifesto just to get the people motivated, but put the right people in place, let the things organically develop. So the question is, what is an ideal architecture and what is the best practice from your standpoint where you've seen examples of people who have transformed this DevOps world where they really got the ball rolling, got some change happening and then scaled it. And you gives a kind of a pattern that you've seen customers. I have not seen a lot of that, but definitely there's transformation happening. It's not easy to move into that DevOps switch. You cannot do it overnight. So you need as much as possible tools that would actually give you exposure. How am I doing, right? Am I pushing my code as speed as expected to be? Do I have bugs addressed early on? So that kind of exposure, you need a system that would give you, that basically do analyze on that data too. And then with Splunk, we have a story on DevOps. DevOps and application exposure monitoring. And what you need to think about Splunk is that you don't only look at what's inside the application, which was, you know, AMPs they do application management. We actually look at everything. So we look outside the black box, not only inside the app, we look at outside too. So we're going to give you exposure of your whole DevOps process, from the beginning and the whole condition integration. So I see Splunk helping organizations moving into that kind of new process. There's an interesting relationship between tools and process or tools and skills. So John, you'll probably laugh at this. Many years ago, I found myself sitting in the room with the CEO of a very, very large pharmaceutical, Nina, a group of other consultants. And he said, the discussion was, are we going to buy SAP or not? And he, after two hours of people arguing about it, he finally said, screw it, we're doing it. I'm sick and tired of these process arguments. We're just going to do what SAP says in the process. There's a relationship between the practices suggested by Splunk and the types of things that a business actually does in a DevOps sense. What is this? How is Splunk changing the notion of DevOps and how is now as Splunk extends itself, how is DevOps and new practice, new ways of thinking, altering the way that Splunk delivers capability?  And then we actually been looking at addressing use cases around DevOps from a persona aspect, right? Like, as a DevOps engineer, I won't be able to address these kind of issues. And we listen to that and we try to address those, not only just by a tool, but also by looking at best practices around that. And sometimes we manifest those through apps. So Splunk can actually, you can publish an app as a developer. If you're not happy as a customer, you can modify, take one of our existing free apps and then modify them to your own process. So we're not kind of specific rigid to a certain way. And I know DevOps and Azure Award is not even like religion, you're not supposed to follow, you're supposed to be flexible in certain areas and even implementing DevOps comes in an agile way too. But it's still pedagogical. And John, respect there's your manifesto for DevOps, right? Is your choice of tools and how they come together and the degree to which they're integrated kind of a priority. Well, you got eight minutes until you have to go up on stage and do your talk here. We're live in San Francisco. What are you going to be speaking about when you hit the stage in eight minutes? You have seven minutes to explain. I love it a pitch. So I'll be focusing a lot on the integrations that we have very Cisco products. So we have, with Splunk, you're able to bring in a lot of the API, data through API integrations. So I'm going to show how easy that process is to bring that data if you have an API like Meraki or ACI or ICE. And also I'll be focusing more on how the data you can do it from the cloud, easy. Without having an agent involved, without having any software that you need to install to collect that data. And we'll be talking more about the Mexico-Connectado case and then do some fun live demos also. Cisco's got good APIs. People might not know that, but they are API'd up pretty well on the equipment and their gear and the platform. Just commentary on that, your reaction to share for people who are not familiar with Cisco in terms of their enablement of getting data out. They have, Cisco has a lot of good APIs capabilities around sharing that data. The openness of it has been great and made it easy for us, even for our customers to bring that data, the API, that data into Splunk. So it's a matter of a few minutes right now to point to that API and bring that data into Splunk. And yeah, that's what's going on. I'm Ali Ahmad, going on stage in seven minutes. You got it all done. Congratulations. Thanks for coming on theCUBE.  Cisco's DevNet Create. Thanks for coming on theCUBE. More live coverage here in San Francisco. This is theCUBE. I'm John Furrier with my co-host, Peter Burr. Stay with us as we get down to wrapping up day two. Stay with us for more coverage after this short break. Hi, I'm April Mitchell and I'm the Senior Director of Strategy and Planning.


A lot of you have asked me how I juggle the major stones in my life, the big ones being going to medical school and running this company. Well in this video I want to break down my global, my big goal-sending system that encompasses not only like my purpose, my vision, the things that excite me, but how I break down this massive concept or like 10-year vision into the daily rituals I do on a daily basis. Hey guys, I'm Alex Hein, author of the book Master of the Day. Now look, I've actually included a downloadable PDF of my yearly vision goal-sending document. I've included it right down there below. You can go click the link in the description, download that guide, you'll also be brought to my little kind of personal development and weight loss crash course emails. So check that out in the description before we go on and you can fill that in basically as we go through this. Now look to me, the way that I think about setting goals is that you have what you're working on, why you're doing it and the daily process you use to actually get there, right? So if you're a sailor and you're in this massive ship, you need to know one, where you're going to go. Two, you need to have the resources like the ship, the process to actually do it. And then three, you need to figure out, okay, what are we really doing? So let's walk through exactly my own set of goals and how I structure and break down all of these things for the big life vision to what do I do today? So step one is to have what Andrew Carnegie called a definite major purpose. I believe that for most people, the reason why they don't achieve anything is because they don't know what they want. They don't set a goal and then they can think, what do I have to do today to get to that goal? So personally, when I work through this exercise, you know, this is one of those core philosophies in the book, Think and Grow Rich. Now I know many of you are going to say, I don't know what I want. So just bear with me for the time being. If you know even a little bit of what you want, it could be to help your parents, to graduate school, to just get a good job, anything, just pick one thing for the time being. I wrote down that I want to become one of the greatest doctors in the history of not only the medical field, but specifically Chinese medicine, the Chinese medical approach to medicine, because it's what helped me when modern medicine did not. And around that one thing, I want to build a team of five to ten people who build my online brand, my products, etc., while I'm also writing books, teaching, coaching, speaking, and hosting these retreats. So part of me is the thing I want to be the best at and I want to learn more than anyone else in history is Chinese medicine. Again, that helped me more than anything else, any other doctor I'd seen.  So now that by itself is every day I wake up, I can now think about what I'm trying to build instead of waking up on a Saturday morning being like, okay, go on YouTube. Now the second thing is to reverse engineer the really big levers. Now what I like to think about this is that every skill or any profession or any goal you want to reach is usually comprised of several smaller skill sets. So let me give you an example. The focus in question I want you to think of is what are the five or fewer things I need to really get good at skill wise. So for example, in medicine, the skills I need to be amazing at are diagnosis and diagnosis is different in different medical specialties and then treatment. Treatment could be internal medicine treatments, physical medicine treatments. So for me, diagnosis. Second thing is studying herbal formulas, since that's what fixed my digestive stuff. And the third thing is studying patient cases every day to help train my diagnostic process better.  If you want to be a pro writer, these are the skills you need to focus on. You need to focus on writing, learning the craft of writing, you need to learn about marketing and building a platform to sell your books, and you need to learn about book launches. At this stage, you've broken down the big vision, some of the things you want to do. And then these are a couple of the core skill sets I need to have at a higher level to get to that level in my life, whether or not you want to be the best in the world. Now the third step is you come up with what daily habits can help you build those skills to help you reach that vision. So let's jump through this now and I'll give you plenty of examples. So for me, in my own desire to become one of the greats of history, like Nikola Tesla, like Einstein, like Da Vinci, I know that to be great at medicine, I need to focus on those skills I talked about. So what that looks like day to day is, for example, every day I could study three patient cases before I read about the intervention. So then in my head, I'm going to try to accurately pick the proper treatment approach. If I got it wrong, then I sit there and I study it. What was it about my thinking that was improper and did not allow me to come to the proper diagnosis? From there, it's each patient I see, go home, study them for 10 to 15 minutes the whole case and assess whether or not the intervention I provided, whether it was acupuncture and herbal formula or referral, did it heal and fix the problem? If not, I need to reflect on that whole breakdown from my diagnosis to my treatment. Where did I go wrong? And then reflect and then test the next time I see the patient. If you're a writer, your daily habits could be as simple as writing 1000 words a day, shipping, creating one book every two years, one creative work that you must execute on, shipping multiple smaller works, or studying the great writers of history by spending 30 minutes a day to understand their writing style. If you're a YouTuber, you know what your day to day habits are produce at least two videos per week. And then you could spend 30 minutes reflecting on how you can improve your scripting, your delivery, your video presence and your video skills. And you're an athlete, your day to day rituals look like training four to five days a week in terms of workouts, drilling, for example, if you're a tennis player, your overhand 30 minutes a day, drilling your serve three by 30 minutes a week. So we've broken down the desire to reach this goal, this big vision by breaking it down into the skills that are required and then the daily habits that will help you build those core skills. So I hope that helps you guys. That is a little bit of a long exercise there. But I think it's really going to help you understand how you break down a bigger kind of nebulous amorphous vision into something practical and tangible. Now, don't forget I did include my one page yearly envisioning worksheet to goal setting worksheet. I've included it there in the description. Just click that first link there in the box. It's going to bring you to download that. You'll also get my beginner weight loss and personal development challenge. Also get the first chapter in my book for free when you sign up for the email list there. So make sure you go check those out in the description and otherwise you can check out my last two videos right here, right here, and I will see you soon.


Welcome to Monet Cafe. I'm artist Susan Jenkins and in this pastel painting tutorial, I will guide you through concept sketch and lead you through creating some lovely yellow flowers blowing in the wind. You're going to learn lots of techniques and also this is very basic and on very affordable supplies. So get ready for some painting fun and here we go. First, would you mind liking this video? I think you really will like it. Subscribe to this channel and hit that bell icon to be notified of future videos. Also, if you've been enjoying the hundreds of videos I have for free here on Monet Cafe, would you consider becoming a patron of mine? It supports this channel and you get extra content and extra goodies. Now let's dive right into these materials used and the links to these products will also be in the video description. For the sketch, I used the Paul Rubens sketchbook. This company has been great in sending me supplies to review their products and I loved their sketchbook. So I like to do sketches before painting for multiple reasons and it's also great because you can keep your sketches in this beautiful sketchbook that has a ring binding system. I love this system because you can lay the notebook flat and it's a great way to store your sketches that you can use for future paintings. I often like to sketch in charcoal and I really recommend these Derwent charcoal pencils.  Now this is my favorite pencil sharpener thanks to Enrico, one of my patrons on my Patreon page. He recommended this pencil sharpener and I've absolutely loved it. Also I highly recommend buying the blades as well. A sharp blade is a key to getting sharp pencils. I use kneaded erasers just for corrections and all of these things are very affordable fortunately. The surface I'll be using is made by Canson. It's called Métonce and it's an unsanded pastel paper. If you know much about pastel painting, many artists love the sanded papers but they are very expensive. This Canson pad of earth tones colors is quite affordable. If you've used Canson before, you may be familiar that each side has a different texture. I'm using the backside. You couldn't see me flip it over but the backside is a little bit more smooth. The front side has kind of a honeycomb pattern. The pastels I'll be using, you can see in the sets to my left, are two sets of pastels both made by Paul Rubens. There's a 36 set which has some beautiful vibrant colors. These pastels are surprisingly high quality for their price. Look at that, $39.99 on Amazon currently. That's as of the making of this video. The colors in this set are vibrant. They even have some darks. They have a little guide for pastel painting techniques and also very nice packaging. I also will be using a few of the Paul Rubens 40 set. These colors are a little bit more earthy. Also has some nice darks. I find the two sets work very well together. From my observation, they don't have any duplicates in them. The reference image I'm using, look at these lovely flowers blowing in the wind. They're not quite sunflowers. Are they like a little daisy? This beautiful reference image is from unsplash.com. I will have the link in the description of this video. By the way, if you're a patron of mine, you will have access to my collections that I have gone in and made albums in unsplash.com. That way, you don't have to hunt for a photo that has a good composition. You can use some of mine that I've pre-chosen. But that image is from unsplash.com. I will have the link in the description of this video. You saw me grab a matte, like you would matte a painting. On the inside of this matte was 5x7. Conveniently on the outside of the matte is 8x10. So you get two sizes for one matte. And I like to just kind of mark off a little area to sketch. Definitely speeding the sketch up here. This isn't a sketching video. But the point is I like to do a preliminary sketch. It works out a lot of composition issues. I can correct things. I can really feel the inspiration. And the inspiration for this painting was just these flowers blowing in the wind. Like they're reaching to something unseen and hopeful and joyful. So once I have my sketch done, it's really nice when you have them in the sketchbooks.  And then my sketch is protected and I can use the sketch for future paintings. So now I'm feeling inspired and I'm ready to paint. By the way, I apologize for my voice. I've had the flu and I did have fortunately a lot of footage I knew I could upload. And even though I'm still feeling about 50%, it's not that strenuous to do a voiceover for this video. Now I'm using just a pastel pencil. You could use a charcoal pencil, anything to just block in the shapes for this painting. But first, I want to do the same thing I did with the sketch. I'm going to take the same mat I used before. Remember, it's 5 by 7 on the inside and it's 8 by 10 on the outside. Sometimes the inner dimensions might be a little smaller or a little different sometimes than an exact 5 by 7. But it's good enough for these purposes. And I like to work in standard sizes because you can or your clients can easily find frames to fit these paintings. So I'm going to talk a little bit. I'm keeping this real time. I'm going to speed up some sections later. But I'm going to talk about creating flowers. Now I have a video that I highly recommend. I'll put it in the description of this video and I'll try to put it as a clickable video at the end of this particular video. On painting flowers easily, breaking it down so they're not so scary. You know, often we feel like we have to paint every petal and get it all just botanically correct. And you really just want to capture the essence of the flower. And there are some simple little tricks that can help you with getting the general shape of most flowers. And now I will speed this part up a bit so as not to bore you to death. But basically you can tell that I am paying attention to where some of the flower heads are. I'm actually focusing the first circle that you saw me draw was the outer perimeter of the flower. You're drawing an ellipse and ellipse is basically a circle that you see at different angles. So you want to kind of make the shape as to how the flower is turning or laying. Sometimes they're facing down. They might be turned away a little bit. And some of these were reaching a little bit more upward. And then later I'm going back in you can see an adding the centers. And that's one of the things I discuss in that video is really taking away the complication of going in there and focusing on petals to begin with. Get these outer shapes in and maybe mark where the centers are. Sometimes the centers aren't in the center. They're in a totally different place. A lot of these you could kind of see the center. But as I develop the petals out from here, it'll kind of change the dynamic of they all look kind of centered right now. But you'll see how they all are kind of turned a bit. And now I'm going to start adding the pastel. This is back to real time. Once again, this is an unsanded surface. When I very first started trying soft pastels, I tried an unsanded surface because that's really what you find.  Or I think Strathmore has a pad of unsanded paper that they have pastel paper written on the front. Well, I had no idea that there was even a thing as a sanded pastel surface. And as a beginner artist, I got quite frustrated with papers like this because I didn't know enough about pastels. And I didn't know enough about techniques of how to use pastels on these types of papers. So I had epic fail. Epic failure, I should say. And it was because I didn't know what I was doing. Also, I had very poor quality soft pastels. The pastels I got when I first started was a set from a hobby store. Nothing against hobby stores, but they often don't have quality soft pastels. I say almost never have quality soft pastels. And so I was working blindly, I guess, with poor products. And so what happened was I noticed my work was not looking like some of the other work that I was hunting and trying to find online. And when I would find some pieces that were soft pastel paintings, I was like, why can I get these results like other artists? But firstly, I think it was because of my poor quality pastels. And secondly, because I didn't know how to use unsanded papers. I didn't know a lot about the layering aspect of pastels, which isn't all that different from a lot of other mediums. Acrylic and oil, used layering. And to a degree in watercolors, well. So I had a lot to learn. So that's often what I love to do in my videos now is to encourage beginner artists and to give you a bit of a guide, a plan and instruction on how to get started so that you won't go through the same challenges that I went through. So one great thing about these Paul Ruben's pastels is they are quality and they are affordable. That was part of my problem too as a beginner artist. But still now I have to, you know, I share videos often where I show all of my pastels and everything. And because it's a teaching opportunity for me, I'm not bragging or showing off. But a lot of them I have gotten because of the Monet Cafe channel. I do talk to companies and sometimes they approach me about, hey, would you want to try our set out? So that's been a blessing of having this channel over the years and getting the ability to be able to get some supplies. I've always dreamed of. So back to my point though, I couldn't afford them when I first got started. So that's one thing that's really great about these sets that I've found with Paul Ruben's. They are coming out with a 72 set as well. They're going to send me the set and I'll be reviewing that. So this is a great thing for beginner artists is to be able to afford this habit or hobby or passion. And that's one way to do it. Also, as I stated, the cants and me taunts is so much less expensive than some of the sanded surfaces. So let me talk a little bit more about what I'm doing. You've seen me. This is all real time. You've seen me blocking in just some of the values and colors that are in the painting. Now, I would not have done this when I first got started. I would have gone in and tried to start painting these flowers. That would have been totally first. And I probably would have focused on one flower way too long. And what happens when you overwork things on an unsanded surface, they're going to get very flat in color. When you overlayer and just keep working and working and working, you basically crush the little particles in the soft pastels that have their vibrancy. They're like little crystals in a way, the elements that make up the colors. And the colors become broken and flat, but also become muddied when you start layering too many colors on top of each other. Now you do have a lot more wiggle room when you're working on a sanded surface because it does allow for more layering. But if you try this, well, let's say if you just took a piece of copy paper and you started laying pastels down on it. Very quickly, the pastels are just going to start falling off and you can't put one color on top of another. So you get a little bit more layering, of course, with this type of surface than you do with copy paper. But you have to be a little bit more strategic with your plan. Now, as you can see, I went in with this color here. It's kind of a, I don't know, like a reddish muted reddish pinkish color. And why would I be using this color? The flowers are yellow, right? What on earth would you be using this color for? Well, I've learned to look at elements and see that almost everything has a little bit of a darker value. In little crevices and places and a different color often as well. And so what we do is we get that base down first of a darker value and a color that may be a little deeper or richer than the color that you see in the petals. And then I can start layering on top of it and I generally or typically go darker to lighter. You see now what I have now here is this beautiful orangey color that I'm laying on top of the pretty reddish cool red that I put down. Now you can see how I am using this orange to kind of shape these petals. I'm not drawing petals. I'm laying the pastel on its side. And I've noticed a lot of the petals or the lot of the flowers are turned more to the right. And so I'm not seeing as many petals radiating out to the left. They're more like reaching out towards the viewer. So they're going to look short or almost just like a line on the side of that flower. And so we're really kind of capturing that feeling of the three dimensional aspect of the flower by the mark making that we're doing. And it'll start to take shape more as you see me work. But do you see how these colors are starting to already look fun and impressionistic? And my style, if you're brand new to this channel, is more impressionistic and free. And hence the name Monet Cafe. I love the style of Monet and many other impressionistic artists. And so I like to think of art as being our interpretation of nature and not necessarily a recreation or a photocopy of what we could actually do with a photograph. So I love to be able to have the freedom as an artist to be able to interpret the landscape and the things that I'm creating. Now, because I do sound so nasally and stuffy, and it is a little difficult to talk, I'm going to speed this up so that it's still very easy to follow, but you'll be able to watch it develop and pause it if you want to do a paint along with this. And I would like you though to keep an eye out for a few things as I paint. I want you to notice that I continue to work the whole. I'm not going to get too fastidious or laborious on one particular flower. Also too, I want you to notice how the layering process is gradual, still kind of going darker values, richer colors to my brighter, lighter values. You won't see me add the lightest yellows until close to the very end when I put that final icing on the cake for some of these petals. Also notice that the painting for quite a while looks rather chunky. And I always say paintings go through an adolescent stage. I heard that from another artist. I thought that's so perfect.  And that's often a stage our paintings go through. But just like with teenagers, it's a stage that's very needed to transition from the beginning stages to the final. And also notice that this painting, I would say it's almost more of a study. It's going to stay almost an unfinished look to it at the end. The attempt is not to cover up every single bit of the surface and also not to overblend things. So here I am finally putting down one of the yellows that's a little bit brighter. Again, I'm just using these two Paul Rubin sets. So it makes it very doable for the beginner artist. And I don't have to do every pedal. I'm just getting the essence of the pedals and paying attention to their direction. And if they're coming towards me, they're just going to be little dashes or marks. You kind of see just the edge of some pedals rather than the extension of them. All right, I'm going to add the music. I hope you learn something and enjoy this. I really do love it when you give me your feedback.  So I appreciate that. That's how I've learned everything for my teaching techniques on Monet Café. It's because of you. You let me know early on. Don't play music through the whole video while you're talking. You know, tips like that. So I really appreciate your help with that. All right, guys, enjoy the creation of this painting. I hope you follow along and I hope you share in our various sharing platforms. You can find all that at the end of this video or in the description of this video. Don't go anywhere. I'll be back at the end. I was really loving the loose feel of these flowers and didn't want to overwork them one bit. Notice that I had already put down a little bit of a blue at some of the tops of those flower centers. And now I'm putting in a pop of red. The Paul Rubin set, the 40 set has this gorgeous red. Both sets have some nice reds in it. But I lay these reds kind of at the bait between the center of the flower and where the petals reach out just a few areas to lead the viewer's eye up and enhance it to where it comes in at the lower left and pulls the viewer up and out of the painting. This one was lots of fun. This one already did sell in my Etsy shop actually. And thank you to the purchaser. So I hope you enjoyed that. Please share if you recreate from my tutorials. Leave me feedback on this video here on the comment section. I'd love to hear what you have to say and find me in all of those places. Thanks for tolerating my nasally voice and as always, God bless and happy painting.