Sickle cell disease is a blood genetic disorder, usually inherited from parents and it occurs when there is a mutation on the chromosome 11 of the hemoglobin gene. The hemoglobin gene is the gene found in red blood cells. Now when this mutation happens in an individual, it is called a sickle cell treat, but then the sickle cell disease happens when you have it from both the mother and the father coming together in one child and that now causes the sickle cell disease, which you call the HBSS. So for many others it could be AAAS, that's where you hear that, but when it comes together it becomes the HBSS. Diagnosis of the sickle cell disease happens after the first year of life, usually because the maternal hemoglobin of blood cells could still be present in that child. So genotype is done classically to do a genotype test after the first year of life in any child. Is it possible to do a diagnosis even in utero? Yes, it is possible with advancing technology. It's also possible to do it very early in life, but more often within our regular findings, within this part of the world, it's usually after the first year of life. Sometimes parents may not even be aware, especially in older years where people were not aware of the genotypes, they're usually not aware until the first symptoms occur and after these symptoms and going to the hospital, there are diagnoses of sickle cells made. But in recent times people can pick it faster than it has always been. There is what we call the sickle cell crisis. It is a mixture of several clinical disorders that a child or an adolescent, as the case may be, presents with. And you either wait for these clinical symptoms or you're diagnosed by physical looks. So oftentimes you notice that that child is weak, that child looks slightly sickly. There's usually frontal boscin on the head, usually elongated fingers, that's talking about the physique of that child, the elongation of bones, and these are physical features you'll find. But then in terms of symptoms, you are looking at one of the symptoms such as the vasoclusive crisis, which is the commonest symptom. Sickle cell disease patients or sickle cell patients apparently appear with that more often than not. That's what drags them to the hospital. It comes with pain at the joint areas. These joints, such as the knee joint, the ankle joint, the shoulder, the elbow, very excruciating pain. Usually when you ask them in a scale of 0 to 10, they'll tell you it's 9 or 9.5 as the case may be. And so this is as a result of poor blood flow in those areas. So there is a high level of lactic acid accumulated within this joint and causing crystal salt accumulation, and so there's pain. The remedy for that usually is a lot of hydration. Now other symptoms could be abdominal pain. They're usually prone to Salmonellosis, which is what we call typhoid fever. They are also very prone to enlarged spleen. So you talk about spleen sequestration, which is enlargement of the spleen, because the spleen serves as a storehouse or a dumping site. So it traps all the bad red cells and so squeezes the whole blood into it. And so the patients become, that list becomes very tender and painful. One other thing you will notice amongst them is they're usually very pale. They look very pale. So sometimes you could say, are you sick? You know? You could also notice that they have a tinge of jaundice in their eyes. So they're usually ecteric, and reasons because there's a lot of breakdown of the red blood cell leading to hyperbillirubin accumulation in the body. First risk associated with the sickle cell disease is death.  I've seen a sickle cell patient that was recurrently using tramadol injections on himself because not just because of the pain relief, but the feelings he gets. And so he got used to it and kept stabbing himself so death can be one of them. And this death could also be due to drug overdose or even organ failure. Because of the poor blood flow circulation to several of these organs, there could be failure in these organs. And then you can have, even wound, they could have injuries, severe chronic injuries. Like I said, the one that was stabbing himself on his tie, he came down with the chronic sore on the tie, very large, and he had to be admitted for several of the treatments. They could even come down with things like, even sores around the joints, they could come down with arthritis. So at that level, they are not able to walk properly, they become very slender, the joints become swollen and not able to bear their weight. Sometimes it becomes even very difficult to give birth normally. So vaginal births can be an issue with sickle cell crisis patients or sickle cell patients. Many other cases, they are usually always sick, re-incorrectly sick. So there's always a case of repeated hospital admissions and of course, easily infected. All right, stress, ranging from emotional stress to mental stress to physical stress. All forms of stress has to be reduced. A regular hospital visit for check-ups, so usually I tell some of them to come in, get to know their stable states, blood levels, PCV and all of that so that you can tell once there's a change in any of these things. Because of our traditional origin and culture, many will believe that sickle cell disease is a curse on people or on a certain environment or certain tribes, it's peculiar to tribes. No, it's not. It is the same in Africa, it's the same around the Caucasian environment. So it's just simply the inheritance of this mutated gene from the mother and the father. In the days of ignorance, it was improved and it was increased. All right, now that light is gradually coming, the numbers are declining. So education and information has played a vital role in the spread or in the hazard that sickle cell disease pose. Many other people think that in sickle cell disease, they don't outgrow a certain level. Okay, they don't grow up to 22 years of age and if they do, they can grow forever. Well, that's also not true. It could happen at 40 years, it could happen at 70 years of age. The point is they are not able to withstand the pressure that every regular individual can. So Nigerians generally don't know, they treat some of them as either outcast or treat them in a different way. But I'm starting to let you know that sickle cell disease in Nigeria is very real and has taken a greater part of the population, close to 20% of our general population. That makes up to 4 to 10 million Nigerians walking around with sickle cell disease. First, within our community, within our environment, what we know about is management of sickle cell disease. It's only advanced technology that they're beginning to try out treatment, which is the final level, is the bone marrow transplant. But aside that, you have management and the management ranges from regular hydration. So when this sickle cell patient keeps getting... So most times you see them with bottles of water, so regular hydration and then, of course, some blood boosters. But they have to be careful because, originally or ordinarily, they have iron overdose or overload already because there's excessive breakdown of red cells releasing iron into the blood. So you do not take iron-containing blood boosters. And then, of course, a good diet would help. So generally, these are management, of course, a regular visit. I recommend that a monthly visit to the hospital will not be bad. For all this work, just check, just see how you're doing, all right? And then, of course, a proper rest. These things will help maintain the lifespan of these sickle cell patients. And lastly, take in every form of crisis as an emergency. Sometimes they could get so used to it that, well, we know that's what's going to happen. And you probably don't know that this one is just about to take his or her life. You never can tell when the bottle will switch. So it's important that every crisis is taken as an emergency.


This is paid a right now You're listening to Barbell Logic brought to you by Barbell Logic Online Coaching where each week we take a systematic walk through strength training and the refining power of voluntary hardship Welcome to the Barbell Logic podcast. I'm Nikki Sims. I'm joined here with Andrew Jackson. Hello Matt Reynolds is not with us. So It's gonna be quiet. I might actually just have some silence It's a skill. It's a skill. His ability to talk endlessly is impressive. You should start a podcast. So Andrew and I were chatting again about training as we do and we came to talking about how or what we do to enjoy training when we're not motivated. Right, which is timely because I think both of us are in a phase of training where it's pretty anti-climactic. A little bit. Yeah, like what does that mean for you? I think it might mean different things for both of us, but what is that? Sure. Yeah, I mean for different reasons I think we're we might be feeling that but you know for me it usually means I'm alone in my garage listening to Radiohead and trying to convince myself that squatting sounds like a good idea now, but I mean that's actually true a hundred percent but the reason that I'm in that mode right now is I just finished up a three-month training block which was the tail end of really a six-month phase of programming where everything was going up while my body weight was going down and so everything sort of like peaked about a week week or two ago so now I'm kind of on the other side of that which I have found throughout my lifting career or just training career in general that you or that I notice after I peak whether it's for a competition or a training cycle there's this phase for the next you know anywhere from three to six weeks or maybe even longer sometimes where I It's it. I just don't have the same excitement kind of engine, you know built in because yeah, there's a yeah, there's a crash It's like you know the night after a big party or something or you know that you've got several weeks of Going into the gym maybe attempting a PR whether it's a rep PR or a One RM or three RM whatever which has this sort of like you know, yeah, you had Emotions fueling that yeah, exactly different emotions that don't feel it. They actually just kind of steal from it Right. Yeah, and and things that were easy for the last, you know, however long are now hard Yeah, like wait that you've hit for like triples and stuff you do for a single and you're like well, I'm gonna die now Right So that's kind of where I'm at I'm like right on the other end of that or right at the beginning of that lull and that dip New plateau. Why are you what are you feeling right now? For me? I've had this hip injury thing and on injury maybe just an overuse situation that We really try to play around with with variations and frequency and loading and honestly the only thing that makes it feel Butters not squatting So I haven't been squatting which I'm actually kind of okay with I don't really love it but like it it has created a little bit of a void in my training where you know, there's just a big lift that there isn't a big lift that day and You know, it's kind of just like you have like a little bit of an existential crisis of like well, what am I doing those for? And Then I actually just made the decision a couple days ago, but I hadn't really been training for a meet Like there's nothing really on the agenda, but since things are opening back up.  Yeah, totally. So how far out is that meat now? Right now it's on the schedule for August 1st so a good amount of time to kind of switch gears mentally and Get back into the the desire to do really heavy things like right now. It's just been kind of like light and fun Well, I've had to make it fun because Things are different. That's I guess what we're gonna talk about today Oh I'm just curious on that note alone. Did you sit? Did you notice an immediate change? Just putting something on the calendar. Did that like well? Yeah, like on Wednesday I hadn't fully decided if I wanted to do it or not and then it was like on Wednesday night, I was like, yeah, I'm gonna do it and I haven't trained against them So I'm gonna train today right after we record this and I think it'll give me a little different kind of fire Yeah, yeah, I mean I think that would be one of the first things that I would list as a positive impact on training motivation is some sort of thing in the future that you're aiming at whether it's a programming block or a competition in particular helps. Yeah I've also found that that helps mitigate the crash a little bit if You are doing a competition and you have the next one already planned out. Oh, that's a good idea Yeah, what I because what I've noticed a lot of times is I come off the platform and there's things that I wish I could have done different or better and so having that with a future state to aim at helps me kind of think about the Lowell as my opportunity to kind of plan and formulate all the regrets that you have Yeah, well, I mean it I think it's I think what it's really effectively doing is like channeling the regrets into action That's my theory. That's good like that. That seems like a good life lesson for us all So there's something kind of interesting here There's like the phases of not enjoying or being motivated about training and then there's just like You're in a great training block, but you just go into the gym one day and you're just like man I don't right. I don't like any of this like no. Thanks. So it's like we have long-term phases And then we just have short kind of phases. That's interesting, right? Yeah, and I think that In general, I've definitely shifted away. I think we talked a little bit about this on the last podcast we did that I Used to earlier in my training career Try to fire myself up going into training like motivation to train going into the session was a big Part of your pretty high training. Yeah, what was it? Yeah, and I think curiosity. What was what did that entail? it started first thing in the morning on Training day I would start to visualize What it was that I was gonna do that day? and I remember even like on LP it would be like over the weekend I'd be thinking about That five pounds that I was gonna add on Monday, and I'd be like constantly checking in with how my body feels like Do I think it's am I gonna be ready? Like how many how many deer diary entries would you make that day? Mental deer diary would be like I mean my brain gets into some pretty intense cycles Some people can relate to that. I think we can definitely relate to that So I mean I'd be spinning on that almost, you know kind of in the back of my mind all weekend and You know like waking up each morning wondering like okay, how much did I recover? Do I need to eat more? Wow? Yeah So yeah, it was pretty intense, but then the day of it'd be a lot of visualization throughout the day and Then that would sometimes cause like a physiological response of getting anxiety or adrenaline throughout the day but then the actual like physical preparation was usually Coffee on the drive like I'd either get it on the drive-in or like I'd park Away from the gym and walk to the gym and drink a coffee the drive-in There was a specific series of songs that I would listen to wow. This is some serious strategy Yeah, it was pretty well mapped out like I had this I had a Spotify playlist. It was called Jim and And it was you know the same like five songs I definitely don't have one of those Yeah And then like you know going into it. I'd had a pretty you know Repeted like a my warm-up routine was kind of the same. I tried to do every time and Really, it's been a long time set in the stage. Yeah, which ultimately Started to backfire because there would be these you you amp yourself up so much like that So many times and it works for a while, but it's not sustainable Yeah, you can't oh you can't make that amount of emotional deposit like every time you train Right, it's too much. Yeah, I think it's a good skill to have and to be able to go there But if you're training over a long period of time, it's You can't rely on it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it also just left me, you know completely wiped out afterwards You know, so it's just hard to integrate that into the day. Mm-hmm. You can't talk to your family Like you have to go update it on Instagram and then There's nothing left after that. You just have to eat and go to bed Right, right But what one of the things that I think has helped is To have it be a little bit more first-grounded in and this is something I got I picked up from Atomic habits that book by James Clear When you're wanting to make when you want to ingrain something as a habit You know, it starts with an identity and then building a process around that identity And so the big shift there was and I mean I mostly had that already thinking of myself as a lifter but but what really helped I think standardized things or stabilized things was Focusing more on the process of training rather than the outcome of whatever weight it was that I was going to lift And the process of training can be really just simplified into going to the gym Doing an empty bar set, right? Sometimes it can be that diluted Right for sure. Yeah, I mean definitely showing up and that was something that I Found to be really useful when I was dealing with an injury. I had Really bad knee tendonitis for like five years. Oh man to the point where like walking up and downstairs was Like getting stabbed in the knee And so there were some days where I would have no idea how bad the pain was going to be So I couldn't hype myself up at all. I couldn't count on any amount of weight being on the bar and To your point like just showing up touching the bar became the process and Seeing what variant I could do could I pull from a block? You know what version of a squat could I do could I do any squat, you know, just trying to find Something that I could do on that day and do it the best I could became the process, right? And so it's hard to when you have to do stuff like that. It's rare that it's gonna always feel rewarding Right, so when you have to spend 45 minutes trying to just find what variation you can do. It's just like cool I've just spent 45 minutes and now I know that I can do a six inch high pin squat Yeah, it's not rewarding, but you still get to shift your mindset to well, I got to squat Right. So what else what would you do like during the rest of your training session to still make it feel like meaningful? Well, I actually picked up that that's I think a useful idea from you I think you phrased it as like To add something that's immediately rewarding. Yeah, give it give do something that gives you instant gratification Instant gratification. That's the word I was looking for. Yeah. Yeah, like on days worse It's like well, I didn't squat and maybe my deadlifts kind of hurts like you know what I'm gonna finish the workout with some like high rep rows and I'm gonna do some Like triceps pull downs and just like stuff that makes my arms feel pumped Right, like I got this right now I know the rest of stuff is kind of like a long-term deposit, but this is what I want This is paid a right now, right? Yeah, I mean we tend to sort of talk about the difference We don't sort of we talk about the difference between training and exercise and exercise tends to be for that immediate gratification Yeah, we you know definitely want training to be the core of our Process, but when you are in love when you're in one of these little periods or something's not or the body's not feeling good Yeah, getting a little pump and channeling the inner Swartz and agar Is I think very helpful to get a little bit of endorphin Going and and just something. Yeah, something right then and you know, maybe I find during those times I like hate all of my lifting music like all of my 300 long gym playlists just like this is no, thank you. No, thank you for any of this Sometimes I'll just listen to stuff I've never I never listened to or like just pop around until I'm just like oh finally this makes me feel not dead inside Do you have any good examples of like what goes on the non-standard playlist Well, just like yesterday so earlier this week, I think it was earlier this week when my clients have worked with for a long time He's really awesome.  I'm gonna listen to tool So I was like my whole training session, which is not something I usually listen to but I think I tried like Global funk the global funk playlist on Spotify is really fun. I Tried that too, but I like had some emotions. So I like I think that's why I connected the tool Interesting. Yeah tools usually on my normal playing list I think mine is like techno music like I would never normally just put in like dance techno, but a lot of times I'll notice like if I'm just wanting to Add energy like a positive kind of upbeat energy. I'll put in these like dance songs and yeah So it seems like a good thing to do is just like try something a little bit different Like you have to just like explore different ways to make you feel like oh, I'm having fun right now Or oh, I'm feeling some sort of emotion that I want to feel while I'm here in the gym Yeah, so what I find interesting is that idea. I think you brought it up just from your own experience But it was also in that atomic habits book He talks about bringing Reward into the present like what you're talking about there like bundling something that feels good with something that you need to do and also bringing like a The opposite of a reward like a cost into the present as well So for example like having a training partner that you commit to Showing up or doing a workout with like if you bail on the workout Now you're kind of a jerk So like yeah, do you really want to be the training partner that bails?  So I just never do that Yeah, that accountability is That's yeah, that's right. Mm-hmm. That's a big one is having a well And I think you know to maybe spend a minute on the value of having a coach. Yeah seems like we talk about logic we certainly believe in that and I think the combination of having accountability and also somebody who's been through that those lulls and can kind of help you see through to the other side or you know Or remind you that you've been through those lulls because like yeah, we've been lifting for like ten years now like I Haven't had amazing lifting for ten years Like right there's been a lot of these peaks and valleys. So it's just like I remember I remember now like it's gonna be fine You're okay. It's gonna be fine How many of your sessions would you say are Punching the clock just sort of like you showing up and you're you're kind of looking for ways to motivate yourself Lots of them just so many of them.  Oh, man. I don't know Like I don't have no idea. Do you have like a percentage? No, I would say most are in the category of Punching the clock, but it's still the thing that feels good in the day like that Kind of helps ground my day. I look forward to doing it. I may not have a ton of excitement But it's a good thing in the day. I would say that's probably Somewhere around 60 70% I don't know. I'm guessing like two-thirds and then the half of that last third is probably the Really not fun days the radio had days the radio And then the the last you know, this the smaller half there was also the just like awesome Blow the doors out have a really good time Dance party days And I and I think that number seems to be shrinking as I have trained longer Not to be well, so actually this interesting topic about it though like When I first started training those those blowout days were what kind of kept me coming back, right? You get to see your numbers go up every single time right you get in the The thing that we created the process for was the instant gratification at the beginning, right? And that is the hook. Yeah, it was one of the things I think psychologically that makes that first three to six months so addictive is you see the bar you see the weight going up you see the changes in your body you see You know your skill improving Every session and then you can usually stretch that out to every week. Yeah, so you still kind of get that hit At least once a week like all right. I can look forward to Friday, you know and then maybe it's once a month and Then at some point you start expanding your PR Grid yeah, right you're like truce day PRs PRs at Fraction of a body weight yeah So like you start playing kind of mental games like that and then what I found more recently is that The training is less about that reward like those are nice but I try to bring my attention more to the process of getting better if that makes sense and less about Like the weight on the bar going up totally you can be kind of present to the process Instead of like to attach to the outcome. Yeah, always like I've got that meat coming up like Everything this every single rep that I do in this training session is gonna decide whether or not my meat is successful Like yeah, that is exhausting and that's gonna make your emotional response to your to your meat more volatile so even when you are training for something I think you do still have to like give yourself a little bit of a break or something I Think that works for me when I'm like training far away from a meat I'm curious how you balance that like is there a balance in your mind between that kind of Embracing the process letting go of the outcome Versus you need to perform on it on meat day like you have certain numbers that you want to hit on a specific day Mm-hmm Do you is do you have any way of balancing that or is it still about the process? It's still largely about the process, but I think I think I just try and make reps even more and more perfect and I almost will imagine The weight that I want to pull I'm gonna be pulling that like every time I train, you know So when I go in and deadlift 330 for reps or whatever I'm gonna be like I start imagining 440 So I start to associate in that way the work that I'm doing now with the with how I want to perform Not in the sense of like if you miss you're a failure if you if you screw this up You're gonna have a bad me, but it's just like trying to make it like more specific to what I'm gonna be doing Yeah, like preparing myself to feel how I want to feel for meat day Right. Yeah. Yeah, that totally makes sense that One of the most transformative Experiences for me from a training perspective was after I did my first competition it was weightlifting competition and having that experience of only three attempts for each lift and kind of that the difference that meant the difference mentally in being on the platform The pressure of needing to hit the rep or you or you potentially bomb out Versus training where you can take as many shots as you want and Then carrying that back to training. I think it's kind of similar to what you're talking about like I remember After I did that competition then I started to think about all of my heavy attempts as being What being being like trying to recreate that feeling of being on the platform or like having it be as important in terms of like miss versus make Kind of visualizing that sense of pressure instead of it just being like I'll just take a shot at this all tries Whatever. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You have to add that in. Yeah. Yeah It made training more meaningful even if the weight wasn't a PR attempt Mm-hmm Because I knew that and I guess this kind of connects back to that mastery and focusing on the process aspect of thing that I knew That I needed to make Even the unexciting or the not exciting attempts as Important as the big exciting ones. Okay, that's cool. So much training the brain Man something interesting. I just thought of I've noticed Like if I have a bad batch of training And if I'm also like going through periods where I'm trying to make like a body composition change Which I don't do like really significant changes, but it's like or if I'm not trying to make a change And I have somehow gotten a little fluffier It's like if I'm fluffier than I want to be and if my training is going badly That really sucks. Yeah, and so something that I've noticed is like I like to have a a lot of a lot more control over like My eating and my recovery and how I feel I look or how I just feel in my body So that when I do go through these little slumps, it's not like everything is a total disaster Okay, interesting. So focusing maybe on the things that you can Control more. Yeah, and like like how you eat and the the body that lifting gives you like I think that brings us all like a lot of joy if you do it, right? You know, if you have some control over it But I know and I've worked with lots of clients who are just like They're trying to gain weight and then they and then like maybe they get hurt So let's like cool cool. Now I've added all this weight and then I can't do my lifting It's like that's kind of depressing because you have that body outside of the gym too And you're just like crap. I wanted this body so that I could lift and now I can't lift Yeah, definitely lived that one early on put Basically 80 pounds on At my heaviest almost 85 pounds actually And that's right when I was also going through the the knee stuff And so here I was like looking you said going down the stairs hurt, huh? Oh, yeah All 200 and what pound I got up to 285 pounds. Wow And you're what now? 240 and super jacked.  No, I needed I enjoyed going through that phase as well. Yeah, it's good to do it. Yeah I hear what you're saying Uh, one of the things that came up for me when I was thinking about that was What, you know, how do you deal with When that, you know, there's like an external outside the gym stress or You know, like people a lot of times will all see clients Work blows up or yeah, the last this year happens And training gets pretty low on the list of priorities, you know, what Do you have any strategies or ways of keeping training in the in the I like Refused to let training drop in priorities. Yeah, I'm like stubborn about it. And maybe this is like Hell, maybe it's a personality flaw. Like maybe I could have a much better life if I like But like yeah, I went through like some breakups and some moves and I like I really just decided that like training is going to be mine. Like No one is going to mess with that like I'm I'm like really protective of it So it's like I'm not going to let some dude mess with my training that I hate when I let that happen I'm not going to let some Other person mess with my training. Like that's not okay Like that is going to be mine because if I let someone else influence my training, I just get really pissed So I just kind of make that decision of like, you know what you're not going to ruin my day in the gym Like this is my time right and During that time if there are like fluctuations in performance Do you do you just like Let go of that and it goes back to hey, I showed up. I started warming up and we'll just I'll take it how it comes. Yeah, you kind of just have to be like, yeah, I had Yes, I'm not going to let them steal my training, but I'm also going to be like, yeah, there's some emotional weight on the bar There's emotional weight on the bar today Maybe not sleeping so well like Things are still tough Squat was 225 plus emo 60 so really that was a 285 Yeah, the 285 squat and then I did all my deadlifts to Bon Iver and that's okay. It was still mine But like I just don't want I don't want it to be totally taken off the agenda for me So that's how you manage it. What about for a client? Like what what do you do when a client starts talking about or like their compliance starts dipping Man, it's tough. I try and find The one I try and find the things that they like doing in the gym and I try and yeah Hear for the things that they don't like doing the gym Like if I had someone to unbox watch or something be like, how do you really feel about those box squats? Should we not do that for a little while or like are you just should we just take the rdl The arty's rdls out for a minute like how about that?  Like there has to be Someone it's helpful when someone else cares about your training Like we know we have to be personally responsible for it, but it is really nice when someone else cares how you're doing with your training For sure when you can't seem to care about it because it's it's nice to have that kind of relationship Yeah, I'm very similar, you know personally for my training I The big thing for me is that I don't make it a choice I hear a lot of people Talk about how there's that moment on their way home from work or you know There's some Thing in their day where there's a fork on the road where they are either going to train or they're not And they really struggle with yeah, you know if I just Go home and have a beer if I get home and have a beer I'm just it's just not going to happen and for me I'm more kind of like I think what you've described and again, maybe that's a personality flaw, but Because I will I have sacrificed a lot of things By making that not a choice Yeah, but I felt I feel like that's been Valuable for training in the long run. Um, like I just do not relate to that Decision mindset of it being like, oh, am I going to train today or not? It's just it's like it's on the calendar Like taking a shower or eating breakfast like it's not like it's so funny I was talking to my sister about this just earlier today about like Wanting to go exercise and it's just like I was giving her this advice And then I was like, maybe I should use that advice for things that I hate doing like And like just the other things that I'm horrible at doing regularly Yeah, I certainly I'm not going to pretend like it is a Like a better than anybody else kind of a thing because yes, that comes at the price of many other things Deprioritized for my clients. I'm also the same that I'll start with like Eliminate the thing that is causing resistance or minimize the resistance. So Maybe they've hit a stretch where you know grinding on Heavy fives is just not feeling good. So let's try triples or doubles or Maybe back down a little bit because I would rather them train than not. Yeah, for sure always Or maybe instead of three lifts a day. We need to go to two Or I found one client worked way better on one lift a day So, you know playing with the program structure so that it fits like if you can keep a client coming back With just one lift a day. I feel like whenever I do that the client's just like, yeah, this isn't worth it anymore Well, so for me, it's the it's usually the Home gym is huge obviously because it's You you don't have the logistics of getting to and from the gym I don't think that works for somebody who's Who's gonna drive 30 minutes on each side. Yeah, that doesn't work. But if you got a home gym And especially if you're able well, especially right now people are a lot of people are working from home So they're able to like I had one client Post a video last week. He still had his head set on like Like he was in the middle of a conference call Stopped didn't change, you know, hashtag team jeans Hashtag team microphone microphone. I don't know headset team headset And busted out his One lift back at it So I don't know we went in and and his compliance goes up like before that he was on a three Three-day split and his compliance was struggling.  Yeah, which I think we we also do when we're having those tough times ourself is just like What's making me really hate this training session? What's making me really hate this training block? What's making me maybe not hate it, but it's just like, you know You where you've searched for motivation before you're not finding So find the thing that's like the one little thing that might be holding you back from that So that you can you may not be motivated, but you can still enjoy your time Right and maybe that is just like the last time in the gym You know, I'll go to I'll enjoy this time if I only have to be in there for bench press like, okay Right and and I think you had talked about having the relationship with your client that where you can like have that conversation is really important um because sometimes it's I mean, you never know what it is like Maybe they hate the box box squats or like I had one one client who he kept skipping his deadlifts And we I finally called him out on like what is going on? He's like, well my daughter train snaps Oh my goodness at the same time that I was doing deadlifts and So, I don't know.  Well, we can let's do Floating deadlifts and now all of a sudden he's doing polls again You know, you never know it could be something really simple that you just find a little alternative And I I've also noticed this with clients more over time that you know, some Will defer to what is written in the program As if it's handed down on the stone tablets, you know, like this is Don't go here, Andrew Well, I'm not saying just like make up your own thing but like Establish the relationship with your coach that you can you know, bring stuff up that and at least give You know, create the space for a conversation No, I I totally I would rather some client. I would rather a client just be like Hey, I don't like these. What what can we do? Like what are what I hate this about it? Please help like that would be much better than just not or have the conversation versus versus just leaving Like I've had some people that just assumed that well, this is all that I'm ever going to do right But there's a lot of options out there. I just we need to know It's not working. Yeah And then you know, this is one of the things with med programming that I find to be important is that you know as long as The weight is going up on the on you know week over week and the bar speed Looks okay I'm going to keep going as long as that copy and paste vibe. It's just like Okay, here it is again But if it's working It's working. It's working. It's great. Yeah, but behind the scenes the lifters like You know, and I've been there right like oh my god. We're just going to keep doing it And it keeps happening, but Anyways point being there like having the conversation If it's driving you crazy, yeah Better better than just disappearing. Yes. No ghosting Okay, so one thing you can do is Within the training session pick something that gives you instant gratification Something that gives you like a pump or something that You know carries over well to a lift that you really enjoy doing Something that's really easy to set up like if it takes forever to set up in your gym You're probably not going to want to do that That's like set a timer You know I am going to be in the gym for one hour and I will get as much done as I possibly can I like that one. Yeah stuff like that. Um, what's what's the other stuff that we talked about? Uh, we also talked about bringing the focus to the process You know focus on Making the movement More perfect or yeah improved letting go of the outcome You know letting go of what the weight is today or maybe tomorrow and And focus on the process to include You know, like you said making the process as small of a step as possible Get into the process about showing up Warming up and then go from there do it in your jeans. Whatever Right Or George the pod or with your headset on Yeah, those are the big ones Have a coach. Yeah can help you Hold yourself accountable Help you through those times Set targets and goals out in the future. That was another good one Have a meet in mind that you can help bring To your mental game in the present.  Yes Spice up your playlist With either tool or techno Or whatever's not on your current playlist. Yeah, just something Not radiohead or bond either Those are kind of nice to listen to when you're putting weights away though Yes, or sometimes if you just want to be emo for a day, that's okay Sometimes you cry and squat at the same time That has actually happened Tearduct incontinence All right. Well, thank you for listening to barbell logic and who knows you might hear from us again Sayonara


bark beetles and fungi form mutually beneficial relationships known as ectosymbiotic associations. These associations vary widely in terms of the level of dependency, the mode of transmission, and the environmental factors involved. They also differ in terms of the number of partners involved, with some being composed of multiple partners. Evolutionary processes, including phylogeny, abiotic environment, and interactions within the biotic community have played a role in shaping these associations. This article was offered by Diana L. Six.


Hey everybody, it's Brian and welcome to the 108th cute tutorial with C++ and GUI programming. If my voice starts cracking, I have to apologize, everybody here is coming down with colds and I really feel like I'm coming down with one too. Be sure to visit my website, www.voidrealms.com, and hold on my cat, this cat I swear every video, every video cat, go do something else, www.voidrealms.com, you can get tutorials. All that I do, I try to put the video plus the source code out here. Now I did have it on a host that crashed, so if by chance you're following along and you come across one of these tutorials where, well, the source code just isn't out there, do me a favor, zip it up and email it to me and I'll review it, and if it's legit I'll throw it out on my website for everybody else to download too. Most of them do have the source though, but there are a couple where the files are just gone and I haven't had a chance to go back through and look, but you can sort, search, filter, whatever you want to do. By the way, this website's written in Yee, a new tutorial that we've started doing with the Yee framework, you see we've got video one out there. Also got some programs I've written, some source code that's out there, free of charge of course, for example, a full FTP server I wrote in C++ with Qt, it's got some bugs in it, I haven't had a chance to iron it out, some projects I'm working on, if you're so inclined you can donate but please don't feel obligated, the site's 100% run by your donations. And how to contact me, easiest way is by email, I get a massive amount of email, I've had to turn my spam filter on, so if I don't get back to you either or it got gobbled up by the spam filter or you're just, I haven't gotten to you yet, I'm sorry. Alright so, I thought we had talked about this at one point but I guess we didn't. Marcus wrote in and said, Brian, I need a better way to work with the command line. I know these tutorials are about Qt and GUI, etc., etc., but command line, help me out. So we're going to talk about the Qtxtream and we're going to make a pretty beefy little command line, basically we're going to take command line and throw it on steroids here, so let me get rid of my cat here, come on kitty, go away, I love you if you go. Maybe it's just because I had Arby's a few minutes ago, but alright so we're going to actually create a new project and we're going to create a console application. Now why have we been focusing on console apps? Console, geez, console apps, been focusing on them because well it's a lot easier than mucking around with the GUI. We are going to get back into GUI programming, don't worry about that, I'm just letting you know that hey, you know, sometimes you gotta stick with the basics here. So this is a basic command line application. When we run this, not a whole lot happens. On some operating systems you can see yourself type on others you can't. We want something that works consistently across all operating systems and I know some of you out there are like, well you can just do the, you know, using, hope if I could spell it using, namespace, wow I really cannot spell the day, that's embarrassing, STD and then do your standard C and C out. You can do that but it's not very object oriented and it can be kind of cumbersome to work with especially when you get into larger projects. So we're going to add new, gonna choose class and we're just gonna call this command line and I swear I did something very similar to this, maybe I didn't but we're gonna inherit Q object and then we're gonna finish and get our header here. Now we're gonna include a few things so let's include Q thread. I do know that I wrote this a while back and I wrote it because, well the command line was really just making me mad, it just, it wasn't consistent, it wasn't working great on all operating systems and let's see here we're gonna include Q text stream. Like I said, I have to apologize if I'm clearing my throat or anything like that. It's just like the creeping plague has invaded this house and everybody's getting sick. So hopefully I got, hopefully I'll last through this video. Come on kitty here, you're really being a drag today. This cat's 20 years old so she's getting kind of clingy and I think it's, I think that time's approaching if you know what I mean, which I'll be very sad. I love this cat. Alright so we're gonna make our signal on read line and then we're gonna make a few slots here and we're gonna say void read STDN so we're gonna read the standard input and then we're gonna void handle the standard input Q string line, oops and let's make the private section Q thread M thread. So we're gonna make this multi-threaded and you'll see why in a little bit. So just a review, we've got our Q object we're inheriting, we've got our Q thread, our trusty Q debug, Q text stream and then we have a signal of on read line and two slots. Read STDN and handle STDN and of course we're making a thread. So we're gonna jump into the actual implementation right after we do this. Told you I was getting a little loopy, so it's cold meds. Alright so now we've got our beautiful code file here that we can start fleshing out. First thing we're gonna do is we're gonna say this move to thread and we're gonna give it a reference to M thread. So what are we doing and why are we doing this? Well we're taking this object as current class and we're going to move it to a thread. The cute documented correct way of handling threads is you'll create a thread, create an object and then move that object to the thread and then you will start the thread. So this class will be instantly multi-threaded. This class will run inside of its own independent thread. That can be very handy for when you get into looping situations and we'll talk about that here in just a second. First thing we need to do is connect our signals and slots. So we're gonna take our thread, we're gonna take the signal of, you guessed it, started. So when this thread starts we're gonna say this slot and we're going to read the standard input. So as soon as this thread starts, this guy right here, we're gonna read the standard input down here. So we're gonna start just, you know, this loop of reading the standard input. Then we're gonna say connect and we're gonna say this. Come on kitty, seriously. This signal, this cat loves me to death. I think Arby's is the only thing keeping it alive and we're gonna say slot and of course you guessed it, handle standard input. So what we're doing here is we're creating the object or I should say once the object's created we're moving it to a thread, connecting our signals and slots and we're starting that thread. This is where we're gonna actually read the input from the standard input. Boy that was a mouthful. Q-text stream. Anybody out there watch Breaking Bad? It's a TV show in America. Oh my gosh, I just watched the finale for it. I'm a little behind the times and I'm just blown away. That show is just awesome. Now we're gonna read the standard in. STDN is a variable in Qt which refers to the standard input. So what we're doing is we're making a Q-text stream and we're creating it with a reference to I should say a copy of the standard input variable. And then we're going to just make a Q string called line and we're gonna say you guessed it, stream read line. And then we're gonna emit our signal on read line with the line variable. And then we're going to just loop back into our software. So what this little function here is doing is it's saying, all right, as soon as this function starts, which is when the thread starts, we're going to create a stream with the standard input. We're gonna read line and then once we have a line of text, we're gonna admit our signal, I'm sorry, emit our signal. And then we're just gonna loop back into ourselves. So this is just a loop over and over and over and over and over. You could easily do this within a do loop, but I like doing this. It just seems a little cleaner to me. Sometimes I've had issues with programs where I do things like this in a do loop where they'll actually just lock up and I cannot for life me figure out what's going on. So to me, this just seems like a little bit easier that I can add more functionality, but you could definitely do a do loop. I know I'm gonna get some hate mail saying, why didn't you do that in the do loop? It's the correct way of doing it. So that's why. Now we're gonna do our handle. Now remember, we've subscribed to this. Our handle input is waiting for the on read lied signal. So as soon as this is admitted, it's going to go into here. So we're gonna just say, Q to bug. I accidentally hit caps lock Q to bug and we're just gonna say the line. I'm getting all sorts of interruptions. My phone's going. Some of my friends want me to jump into World of Warcraft and start playing with them. So we're just gonna echo this back out here. Now go back into our main. We're gonna say include command line. And we're just gonna say command line CLI. So what we've done here is we've created an instance of this. As soon as the program starts up, it's gonna take itself and move it to a thread, connect signal slots, start the thread. And it's gonna sit here and loop reading the line. This is why you do it on a thread. This guy right here, read line. This is another loop. Inside of this little function, read line, it's just looping and it's waiting and it's reading that standard input. Think of it as like a little gear turning.  So if you don't do this whole thing in a thread, your program's gonna get to this and stop until somebody hits the enter button. So if you're processing a file or reading sockets or doing something else, it won't work. Your program's gonna just stop. So you take this whole class and move it to its own thread as soon as it starts. That way your other classes can do whatever they want. We have our signals so that we can have other classes that we create, subscribe to it. And we're just using this handle standard and just to verify that our signal slot architecture here is working. It'll run just fine without that handle standard in. So if we'll just say test, it'll echo it back, test. So how would you actually write to the standard output? Let's see here. Let's say void write std out. Let's call this queue string line. So now we're gonna write to the standard output. Well, you know me. I'm a copy and paste junkie. So we're just gonna do this. We're gonna change it from standard in to standard out. And then we can just treat it like C out. So to test this, we'll just say, okay, you entered line. And we can get rid of queue debug. Some of you have been wondering why I use queue debug. Well, queue debug's very helpful when you're debugging your application. You see down here debug.  And you can actually set, I believe you can set different levels of queue debug messages that go out, something we might talk about in future tutorials here. So there's your write standard output, which you could, because we made this a slot, you can call this from other classes too. Save all. And if everything goes good, it doesn't explode. And we'll say, this is a test. You entered, this is a test. So just to recap for this tutorial, excuse me, my throat's really dry. We've handled standard in, standard out, how to read and write without using the C in, C out that you see in a million books, you know, the typical hello world application. We're moving it to a thread so that we're not stuck waiting for a line input like most applications are. This will because we haven't really made any pointers. We don't have to really worry about memory management. It's nice and neat. And it's all using the cute architecture. Any questions, comments, concerns? All right, I wish you were here to ask them. Anyways, this is Brian. That's all for this tutorial. My throat's getting really dry, so I'm going to go take some cough medicine and I hope to see and hear from you soon.


It's the fan-dual kick of Destiny 2, live in Las Vegas. Can't Bronc redeem himself? The kick is up! No, it's no good! He misses! But if you pick miss, this is your moment. The game is your all, Bronc.


What a Sunday. Incredible comebacks here and there all over the league. Two games, a double header left to go tonight. Carmen Battali joining us to break it down. We will have Darius Butler to do the same. Omar Kelly, some excellent reporters stopping by to give us the goods. People were in the different stadiums across the league and with the teams in the locker room. And we will have James Jones in a bit, but let's start with us. Credit to Green Bay. Green Bay loves to do my life mantra, undersell and over deliver. I just want to kick things off today by saying I vow here and now to never again discuss the Packers after week one. Good or bad, there is no point. And if I forget, some will remind me next year when it's all, whoa is me and the Titanic violins after four quarters of Green Bay action. I am not buying it. They looked great. Last night was all about balance. So much running, James Jones might not like that as he joins us in a bit. The defense played really well too. And that matters. It cannot be just Rogers. It cannot be just the run game. I mean, they're going to have to stop Jimmy Garoppolo. Now that he's back and they probably have some bout with each other in the playoffs. This team needs to feel confident in the Rashawn Garries and the Preston Smiths to step up and make plays and deny plays from happening. I'm from Chicago. So I don't, do I have to say something great about the Bears? Listen, the run game got a bit feisty there for a bit. They do have fight. They are also, I believe currently lobbying outside of the NFL League office on Park Avenue in New York to do it now for some goal line technology. But that's neither here nor there. They're focused on the future. Sunday, all about comebacks. Cardinals over the Raiders. I will be talking to Kyler Murray later today, by the way. So stay tuned this week for that. Byron Murphy, Simmons, the big plays there. The Falcons nearly came back against the Rams. The Jets with Flacco came back with the win over the Browns. They love to see it. I have to give love to the comeback Finns though because 21 point deficit in the fourth quarter Miami. We see you. We love you. You were the toast of the town down big to the Ravens. They made a couple of huge defensive stops and the offense came on fire. The takeaway to me is simple. Tua is legit. Mike McDaniel is legit.  His offense is creative. He's playing a Tua's strengths, which are of course accuracy and anticipation, the RPOs, constant motion keeping the defenders on their heels and opening up windows that he can thread. The way they utilize the speed and McDaniel's prepressors, which are now appointment viewing in the NFL. I liked hearing this yesterday. This is rare. After the first game, I just wanted to see the guy enjoy playing football and understand that, yes, you want to make the perfect read and the perfect throw every time. But who cares if you just get better at one thing, a game, you're going to be pretty good at the end of the season. So let's just press forward. McDaniel cares. He understands Tua. That's obvious. And enjoying it and winning and McDaniel's creativity leads to confidence. And players buying into confidence leads to magic. Look at this from Daniel Oyafusi. I hope I'm getting that name right. Miami Dolphins beat writer for the Herald. Before Jalen Waddle's game-winning touchdown catch, Tua Tunkwello had told the huddle it's either us or them. I felt that. It got me going, said Waddle. Watch out for this team. They were my number nine bold prediction for the season that they're going to shut everybody up and prove everyone wrong. Of course, a huge, huge game against the Bills. Short week for the Bills on week three, so that's huge. And we will have Darius Butler, our Dolphins enthusiast, coming up with more of that in a bit.  We got to get to this early in yesterday's Niners game. Listen, this was his third career start. Absolutely brutal. Broke his ankle, done for the season. Jimmy Garoppolo comes in and he was solid. He had one passing touchdown to Dwellee. He had a rushing touchdown, good passer rating, 27-7, went over Seattle, and he had this big smile. And who should be smiling the Niners brass? Because they look like geniuses. Simple takeaway, but it matters. Everyone seemed to think it was a foregone conclusion that he would and should be traded. They got so much grief for bringing Jimmy Garoppolo back into the building, so much venom, but they reworked his deal to keep him around and it might have saved their season.  It might have saved their season. By the way, Fire Kyle was trending with many a disgruntled fan and bitter pundit in the Bay Area criticizing Shanann for endangering Trey Lance.  Harbaugh didn't get blamed for Lamar getting hurt, did he? Siriani wouldn't get blamed if Hertz got injured. McDermott won't get blamed if Josh Allen goes down. Collins were set in the fourth quarter last night that maybe Eberflue should get fields running a bit when they got effective in the run game against Green Bay. Why do we need someone to blame? I really think about that. As you're celebrating your wins for your team, you're trying to rebuild to figure things out. Shanahan utilized his quarterback skill set in a way that any good offensive minded coach would to say otherwise is honestly a bit laughable. Fire Kyle, you cannot like him. You might not like him in a press conference. And I know it's frustrating when players get hurt. It is an unfortunate reality of the game. It doesn't mean it's somebody's fault. All right, there's my soapbox for today.


Good morning everyone and welcome to another episode of the non-profit show. I hope you have been with us because we have just, we're just finishing up a full week with your part-time controller. A lot of times you'll hear us refer to it as YPTC and they have been joining us for non-profit Power Week. It has been riveting each and every day. We've had a different person on to dig deep into an accounting issue which might sound like a snoozer but it's been fabulous and we have learned so much and it's really been high energy so I hope you've been able to join us. Today on the hot seat for Friday Ask and Answer one of our favorites, Ellie Hume, New Bride and CPA. Welcome Julia. I appreciate love being here. Well we are excited to have you with us again. We've got a lot of great questions and we are so honored that these questions get asked and answered every Friday due to the amazing support of Blumerang, American Nonprofit Academy, your part-time controller, Bee Generous, Fundraising Academy at National University, Staffing Boutique, non-profit thought leader and the non-profit nerd. If you have missed any of these episodes they are on our archive and I just can't stress enough how amazing this week has been. Check us out on Roku, YouTube which is amazing in itself, Amazon Fire TV and Vimeo. You can also download any of this content on our new podcast the non-profit show so queue us up wherever you like to consume your podcasts. Okay Olivia from Little Rock, Arkansas writes in you ready sister? I'm ready let's roll. Okay it might be time for our small and growing non-profit to contract with a virtual accounting firm. Can you give us some guidelines on what costs to expect? So I'm not going to put specific dollars on it but I will describe a couple of different pricing models that we are familiar with in the non-profit or virtual accounting space. Okay so there are some organizations who create a fixed fee service model. Okay. Okay and they say I'm gonna give you the XYZ services for this amount of money every month period. Okay and then there's a firm like your part-time controller and we work on an hourly basis. Okay. Okay and we customize our services so that we are giving our clients what they need and what they want and you pay for the actual time that's spent doing that work. There's pluses and minuses to both. Sure. Okay on the fixed fee side what we see is often you're very limited in scope to the services that get provided. So you might have to pick from a menu of things that you think you might need and you don't really know and then it might not be as flexible when your needs change. Okay. Or there could be hidden fees in the contract that says if we do something outside of this very limited list then you incur these extra fees or that it becomes a very challenging conversation when the organization isn't responding and there can be some issues with trying to figure out what is the right fixed fee for this particular organization and that's one of the reasons why your part-time controller from the get-go went with an hourly service fee and we think that is the most fair way to serve our clients so that they pay for exactly what they received and it allows us to be flexible in the scope of services. There's a couple things that I would warn about when you're working with organizations that first of all fees are going to vary by where you're located and where the firm that is supporting you is located. Yeah. There are a lot of virtual accounting firms that offshore some of the back end support you don't have a personal relationship with those people. You're not really even sure who's working on your account but they charge you a much lower fee for someone who might be working in India versus someone who might be working in the US. Right. There also might be obviously a different cost for working in New York versus working in Arkansas where Olivia is located. Okay. So you have to be mindful that there is going to be a cost difference based on where you're located. And if you are going to go with a firm that does fixed fee services, please, please, please make sure you're very clear on what the expectation is of what they will do for that fee and what they won't do for that fee. And I'd also recommend understanding whether you're going to get a dedicated team or person to help you or if it's just whoever is available and it's a revolving door and you don't get a relationship. You don't get consistency in the person who knows what's going on in the business. So there's a lot to really consider. And so it's hard to give you cost guidelines if I don't know fully what your organization needs. But these are the two basic service types that are out there in the virtual accounting space. So nonprofits are always so caught up on, they're managing their costs, their expectations and all of that. How if you're going to go on the hourly rate, and I've got to believe this would really be a question that goes across a lot of different professions like legal and everything. How do you organize an annual budget to understand where this is going to be? Or do you see that most of your clients are pretty close to that same hour measurement every month? I mean, or are there big swings or how do you mitigate that change? The way that we deal with the situation is when we start working with an organization, we try to learn about them in the sales conversations enough to be able to take what they need, what are their pain points and how can we fix them? And because of all the experience that we have over the last 30 years, trying to help nonprofits and are able to fix them, we can estimate how much time that we think like that initial cleanup fixing will be. And then based on the size, based on what they need on an ongoing basis, we can estimate what an ongoing relationship will look like. And we always are a little bit flexible in our estimates to include seasonality within our organizations, right? There are going to be periods of time during the course of the year that activity is up and then activity is low. Then you have budget season, then you have audit season. So we put all of that into our proposal. Again, it's an estimate, but it does allow our clients to fully understand the budget. And then going forward, we're part of the finance team. So we know what the budget for finance is going to look like going forward. And we can help make sure that that's adjusted for Okay, good point. That was a good answer. I kind of hadn't worked my wheels through to that point. But yeah, duh, you would kind of know and would be able to guide on that. Okay, but I, you know, I appreciate organizations who want a fixed fee, but accounting is, in my opinion, not always a fixed fee service. And there, there are a lot of virtual accounting firms out there. And what I've seen is you pick from a menu, you check the box, I'm going to want this. But do you even know what you need and want? No, accounting professionals know what you need and want. So it's a give and take. We have to have these conversations. We have to help under them understand not only the basics of what accounting takes and how much time it takes, but also what they're going to get for their money. Well, and I got to say, Ellie, when I first met Eric Frank, the, the gentleman that started YPTC years ago, I mean, like five or six years ago, maybe even more, you know, the conversation that we had about nonprofit accounting was so different.  This, this, this process, accounting hasn't changed. And we're still, you know, it does change in terms of regulation and government oversight, all that. But the reality is, it's really this structure of working digitally. So it's, it's a fascinating conversation to even have, I think, and to be looking at it. So well, and I'll kind of pull a little bit from what Dan was talking about yesterday with the technology. And what you just said, technology has changed the way we're able to work. And it's changed the way, in some cases, how efficient we can be with the work, right? So that's where like fixed fee sometimes isn't the right solution because or it could be the right solution. How efficient are they? What systems do they have in place to make it make it flow? And we're, we look to help our clients make their processes efficient as possible, because we want them to spend as much of their resources on the programmatic activities, and not on accounting services. So I think that's also part of a relationship you, you have with a with a virtual accounting service is understanding, what is the thought process in helping you be the best organization that you possibly can be, and use your resources appropriately to work as efficiently with the accounting services, so that you're not wasting those dollars. But actually, you know, understanding that the accounting services are super important, and you do need to invest in them at the same time. It's true. It's something, especially as we grow in the nonprofit sector. Man, it's a big issue, and it's a heavy lift for a lot of people. Okay, let's go to the next question.  Name with help from Lincoln, Nebraska. If we have a virtual bookkeeper working with us, do we still need to have a different CPA firm? It seems that the bookkeeping service we use won't give us CPA information or advice. Candidly, I get frustrated by this. Okay, what say you? I say a lot about this. There's so many angles I can go in on this particular question. But first of all, let's link it back to the question we just talked about. If it's a virtual bookkeeping service, is it a limited scope in what they will do and what they won't do? If you're getting a fixed fee, maybe they don't have the flexibility. And also, I'm not a big fan of the word bookkeeper. Oh, okay. And here's in this sense of especially when you're comparing it to someone who's maybe a CFO, controller, or even a CPA. Okay, bookkeeping is the basic data entry steps for the most part of accounting. It is not the full fledged scope of services that accounting is. Okay, so if you're contracting with virtual bookkeeping services, you cannot assume that they're going to be able to answer higher level questions like a CPA controller or CFO would be able to. Okay, Yeah, I see what you're saying. And you know, when I read this question, I don't think I had moved it through. Yeah, I think coming from the other piece here is, you know, I'm not there might not be a little more clarity here that we need from our name withheld in Lincoln, Nebraska. But a CPA firm is different than a virtual accounting firm or an outsourced accounting firm in the sense that CPA firms typically provide attestation services.  Okay, because that CPA firm who's doing the external accounting needs to be independent of the people who are doing the internal accounting. Okay, yeah. Okay, yeah, it's all making sense. Okay, now have another big point to make. Not all bookkeepers or accountants that are helping nonprofits are actually skilled in the rules of nonprofit accounting. Okay, that gives me right. Yeah. Okay. And when you're looking for someone that does have accounting skills, and I'm going to bring this up later on when we talk about the volunteer question that you asked me. They need proper skills in nonprofit accounting. And you as an organization cannot wait until the end of the year to have your CPA firm make all the adjustments to get you right for your audit. And it's management's responsibility to know the accounting rules and to implement the proper accounting rules for their organization. Now many organizations do ask their CPA firms for advice on those things. But it is not the CPA firm, the CPA firm's responsibility to inform their clients when things change. It's kind of like one of those things they do as a favor, it is not they're they're not required to teach their clients how to implement accounting guidance that's appropriate for their organization. Wow. Well, it's I can see the frustration because you're trying to navigate the nonprofit sector, which on a good day is challenging at best. And then you're trying to figure out who to get the best advice from. Given what you said in the very beginning, we need to start off with the premise that nonprofit accounting is different. It is different. Absolutely. You know, yeah, it's really it's a fascinating thing. Well, I like what you've kind of shared with us because it gives us a little bit more insight on what to maybe expect or the questions to ask. And so and I had never really thought about the bookkeeping aspect in relationship to the internal versus external. Right. I appreciate that. Well, name withheld. I hope that that gives you some a path to look at this because you need to have the best people on your team, whether they're sitting in that cubicle or they're sitting in Des Moines. I mean, it's you need to have the best thing, right? Let's go on to Noah coming to us from Portland, Oregon. Noah writes in, we need to find a new CPA for our nonprofit. Should we only contract with a, oh, this is interesting, a nonprofit specialist or will a regularly licensed CPA work? In our community, there don't seem to be a lot of nonprofit specialized accounting firms. What am I missing? That's a that's a great question. This is an excellent question. And I think it absolutely ties back to everything we've already talked about. Yes, you want to find a CPA that understands nonprofit accounting. And I'm going to give you an analogy to think about CPAs are a lot like doctors, right? We all kind of start with the basic level of education. And then we start to specialize in different areas. Okay. Okay. So you wouldn't necessarily go to the same doctor to get a physical as you would to get brain surgery. I hope not. Yeah. So you're not going to go to the same CPA to get personal tax advice versus nonprofit accounting tax advice. Okay. Or audit support. So you absolutely want to connect with CPAs that are very familiar and stay up to date with all the nonprofit accounting rules. And that is even more important when the nonprofit has government funding. Not all not all CPAs that work with nonprofits understand the rules of government fight funding. So you really need to do your homework and make sure that the firm or CPA that you're going to work with has experience and has professional development continuously learning about the things that are relevant to their client base. Yeah. I love that comment too that you just said continuing education professional development training so that they're up on the latest things because it does seem like there are always changes and nuances that are coming down the path that are pretty substantial. Absolutely. And I can tell you we have a lot of clients who they find a CPA who's willing to do their audit. They just hit the threshold.  But they also aren't familiar with the rules that apply. And so they cannot and you're often challenged with financial staff like we just talked about who might be basic bookkeepers that don't have that higher level knowledge about nonprofit accounting. So in essence it's the blind leading the blind into a financial statement that the public is going to see because they are responsible to the public and it is not meeting the standards of audit reports that nonprofits require. And it's extremely important that they have that knowledge for sure. Awesome. Well that again I hope that helps because that's the way you phrase that and the way you kind of help us understand what to be looking for. Noah I hope this gives you some idea. I would think. I want to add one more for Noah here because he's asking also here that there doesn't seem to be a lot of nonprofits specialized accounting firms in his area. And so in the world of virtual accounting these days there are so so many options and there are a lot of CPA firms who have branched out across the country to do external accounting the way that we've branched out across the country to do the internal accounting. And if you can locate you know look for the nonprofit specialist then find out if they serve you in the state that you're in. Okay. Don't just look if they're in your area find the specialist then see if they can help you in your area. Brilliant brilliant advice and I gotta believe that as we we start talking you know we're navigating towards this digital landscape of service. So yeah I think that's brilliant. Well Noah I think you've gotten some great advice and and the best part it was free. Okay Shonda from Des Moines Iowa writes in does it ever make sense to have a volunteer bookkeeper helping us? We have a retired bookkeeper who is offered but with all the security and fraud issues we're thinking that maybe this is not a good idea. We appreciate your opinion. That's nice Shonda thank you. Let's hope we give you a good opinion. I well I'm gonna give you an honest opinion. Okay. You can decide whether it's good or bad. Okay let's hear it now I'm like what is she gonna say? Okay it depends on the volunteer. Okay if you are asking a volunteer to do something and they have the actual skill set to do the job then hooray for you. You got a volunteer to do that job okay. But a lot of people honestly who volunteer for nonprofits they want to help they want to really support the organization and sometimes you think in your head like any volunteer will do. Everybody can learn how to use QuickBooks.  They are not the same thing okay. So the other piece of it is if you are if you do have access to a volunteer who has the right skill set and you've actually vetted the skill set just as if you were hiring that person you also want to do background checks. Okay okay good good good. Anytime you have someone involved in the financial management of the organization for security purposes you know to as an internal control it's great to make sure that you do background and credit checks. Okay and okay even if they're a volunteer. Yeah. Actually just treat them as if you were going to hire them and pay them. Yeah. What steps would you have taken if they were going to be your bookkeeper controller accountant CFO whatever you want name you want to give them if they are touching your finances you need to know that they're a trustworthy person. Check references call their past jobs treat it just as if you were hiring them and then the other step is making sure that the organization as a whole has proper internal controls on financial information and Jen talked a lot about that on Tuesday with the fraud issues and things like that it all comes down to internal controls do not give any one person the keys to the kingdom to do anything and everything with the finances it's we know that small nonprofits are running on a shoestring they're just you know everybody stretched they're all doing too many things but you got to have more than one person involved in the finances and you know just to keep a basic bare minimum level of internal controls. Yeah because you know I think of that you know the sense that oh we're saving money but ultimately you're creating more opportunity for problems and at the end of the day when you're turning over your materials to that independent you know CPA or accounting firm if they find a bunch of errors it's going to end up costing you more money so it's probably better to invest up front on some of these control things let alone the issue of fraud right I mean that that in itself was like a whole nother layer yeah just the actual performance of turning over and you used I love you know clean books yeah something that you know a CPA can look at and actually navigate and do the right thing. Yeah I was literally I was just at an event meeting some nonprofits and a lady comes up to me and she says I'm a retired special ed teacher and I'm the treasurer of my nonprofit I absolutely know nothing about how to use quick books and can you teach me and I said I had to you know I was as kind and I had a great conversation with her but in the back of my head I'm going how did this organization decide that a person that has absolutely zero accounting skills whatsoever volunteering to support the organization should be the treasurer and have all the only access to their accounting records that's that's what I see happening in this question here from Shonda is it's great if you can get a volunteer I'm not saying it's not we nonprofits do not operate without volunteers but if they don't have the skills it's okay to say you know what you're not the right person and you know the other things that we've talked about today there's a lot of special things going on in the way that nonprofits have to account for things and they might have been a bookkeeper in the past and they can do the basics but they still need to learn the nonprofit stuff so what kind of support is that organization going to give them to learn these other pieces that they might not be bringing to the table yeah wow well you know I love that you the way you and you answered this question with a lot of grace and and empathy but at the at the end of the day it just might seem like a fool's there and to to be placing all this trust but a lot of stress a lot of stress on the shoulders of that volunteer as well and absolutely you gotta be thinking about that as well well wow ellie hume cpa mba a new york director of your part-time controller i always love it when you're on your fun you you give us great things to think about and you demystify a lot of things but i think you also at the same time amplify the seriousness of this and how we really need to be you know that poor treasurer it makes me think did she get up to go to the restroom and they voted her in and back and you know i know it's like it's really and it's it's a big issue and it's something we need to be spending more time on um so thank you for being with us at the end of non-profit power week it's really been a lot of fun it's always fun to be with you julia i'm sorry we missed jared today but um i'm glad that we can answer these questions and i welcome any opportunity to get to talk to you again in the future well great you know you you uh you're just a treasurer and and everybody from yptc has been great you know before we hang up for the day or for the weekend you should say we want to make sure that we thank all of our sponsors i mean these folks have been with us from day in and day out and they've really been on this journey especially this week non-profit power week with your pride time controller who is our one of our our founding sponsors so we want to make sure that we give them a special shout out along with american non-profit academy blue meringue fundraising academy at national university be generous staffing boutique non-profit thought leader and the non-profit nerd these folks are with us on this journey ellie we are coming up on our 650th episode which is a mindblower i'm so proud of you well thanks it's it's like a crazy thing but if you've missed any of this uh of any of this week it's really been quite informative and riveting so go back onto our archives and find out what our friends at your part-time controller have had to say about a myriad of topics that at the end of the day are foundational to the strong operation of any non-profit no matter the size um ellie i hope you have a great weekend thank you you too julia thank you so much as we end this episode we want to remind ourselves our friends at yptc our viewers and our listeners to stay well so you can do well


So I've finished installing my local which is going to be my server and I've also installed visual studio code. I've customized it to look like this because it's easier on my eyes and if you want to see the different extensions and themes that I've used to make it look like this there's a video in the description or one that has popped up on your screen right now in the top right corner and you can visit that to see how to make your editor look like this and have a different number of extensions like I do have here so let's go back we're going to create a new site which I am going to call domains I'll click continue or you can actually choose that once after creating this you will see that it's going to be called domain.local in my browser I'll click continue and here you can customize what version of PHP you want to use I'm going to go with 8.0 you can use any of these servers it doesn't really matter and then for my database I'll choose 8.0 which is the latest and I'm doing this to try to make sure that my code is more updated and it will work with different servers so I'll click continue and then I'll say this is going to be called domains as a login name I'll just add a default password and I'll say let's add the site and now my site is actually ready for use so I'm going to turn on this one click admin to allow me to always login without having to add my username and password all the time and this is going to be on my local site so I can actually either open the site by clicking that and this is already ready for use or I can actually go and login into the WP admin and you're going to see that I'm already logged in I don't need to add the password or username and this is ready for me so I don't have to fidget with brand things to just set up WordPress for use so this is how we set up for development or how I ideally set up for WordPress development and then I can go check the plugins we have nothing installed in here and we're going to start creating our own plugin what I'll do is open up my editor open up my server I'm going to click to go to site folder and what I'll do is just drag and drop these domains in here because it's my domain folder I'll go inside up and you're going to see all the files that are related to WordPress now inside the WP content is where we have our plugins folder and inside our themes that's where we have the different themes now people ask me the code that you've created can I run it outside of a plugin yes you can do that you can actually use your themes functions.php for example my current active theme is the 2023 theme so I can actually go in here and create a functions.php file and this is a place I can run all my php code but the problem is that I might want to change a theme and when I do that I lose functionality of the code that is inside here so in preference I always check out and say is this code that I'm going to write is it going to make my site just look better then that goes into the theme but if it is something that's going to create a new functionality altogether I would rather create a plugin for it it doesn't matter whether you have a thousand plugins on your site your site will run well the problem is if your plugins are poorly written then those can slow down your site but the other advantage that you do have is that if you write a plugin you can be able to just click it to deactivate it or activate it and then you will have the functionality so since we are going to create a domain search I'm going to create a new plugin called domain-searcher and inside here I'm going to create a new file called domain-searcher.php and this is going to be the file that we are going to use to create our plugin now if I go back to plugins here and reload you're going to see that there is nothing showing that we have a new plugin but WordPress requires us to just write this PHP line and then we are going to have comments in here different comments that will actually highlight that this is a plugin for example we can have plugin name and we're going to call this domain-searcher I just need to spell this right I'll save this when I go back to my code and reload you're going to see that now we have this thing called domain-searcher in here and we can actually activate it and when we activate it nothing is going to happen really because we've not written any particular code for it but we are able to have this plugin in here so I'm going to go back in here and I'm going to use a small snippet in my editor which gives me all the different options that are available for me to write the comments with the different names so we say the plugin name will be domain-searcher and then we're going to give it a plugin URI I'm going to just say this is going to be working on my blog and you can change this to any domain that you want and then in here I'm going to say this is take a press this plugin enables the search renewal and registration of UG domains so once I do that I'm going to save this come back here let's reload you'll see that we have our description here we have our version number and you'll see this version is right here and of course we add the license I would rather choose to have it as GPL because everything that is in WordPress automatically adopts the GPL license so I'll keep that in there and what I'm going to do here is say this is going to be domain-searcher and I'm just going to prefix this with my name so that we don't have any clashes let's say in the future with someone writing a plugin that is similar and we're having issues writing this so I'm going to prefix it with take a press and that will be my text domain and we are ready to actually move ahead and start writing our plugin now the first thing that I'm going to do or the final thing that I'll do in this particular video is I'm going to add a line of code that allows me to keep my plugins secure from people whom I try to access this particular file on the server without permissions I'm going to use a PHP function which is called defined and this is going to check if this particular constant abs path which is in WordPress it's going to check is abs path defined and if it is true then it will continue but if it is not true then I'm going to tell it please die add the message and say unauthorized access and I'll put an up post to fee and just save that so with this I've added a little bit of security to my plugin so as I close off this particular segment of the video I just want to let you know in advance that the code we are going to be writing is going to be in functional programming whereby we're just using functions and calling them all over the place but we can eventually move this into what we call object-oriented programming whereby we classify different functions and say these should exist in a class and then we can call them and enjoy the different benefits that come with object-oriented programming don't worry about those two things because they sound like they are mammoths of concepts but we're going to break them down and then with your practice you'll actually find them easier and you will add them inside your own code now we shall also look at things like coding standards and using the WordPress recommended coding standards and you're going to see that I don't write my functions in here and live without the space I actually go ahead and add space in here and for me it's easier on my eye because that's the way I've always written my code but it's just a preference some people don't like to have those spaces so they will overwrite the coding standards but those are some of the things that allow you to share code with other people and though easily contribute and engage with your code because it's easier to look at and easier to read so otherwise enjoy whatever you're coding


So rapid has been the advance of 20th century science in the diagnosis and cure of disease that one pictures men of medicine as seizing avidly on any discovery which contributes even slightly to their understanding the human body. And in general, such a picture is accurate. But what shall be said of Dr. Kilner's remarkable experiment? An experiment which might have revolutionized the whole field of medicine had not doctors and laboratory experts chosen to ignore it. The record of Dr. W. J. Kilner's astonishing discovery may be found in a book entitled The Human Atmosphere. There he recounts how on a summer's day 12 years before he happened by the mayor's chance to stumble on a strange and inexplicable fact. He and his assistant were working on a routine experiment in the laboratory of St. Thomas Hospital in London. All right, Alex, I'm ready for the viewing screen now.   Hold the screen up, Alex. Let's see if it's dying. Wait a moment. What in the devil's name is that? What? Behind the screen. It's my aunt. But what's around your aunt? Around it. Why, nothing? Nothing you can see, perhaps. Alex, I want you to disrobe. I want to see your whole body behind that screen. The laboratory assistant, completely baffled by Dr. Kilner's sudden intense excitement, removed his clothes and stepped behind the viewing screen. A sort of an aura, all different colors extending beyond the surface of your skin. The human body, at least your body, throws off a strange kind of substance. In the first feverish flush of discovery, Dr. Kilner had no doubt that he had correctly interpreted the amazing thing he'd seen. But an hour later, he began to wonder. And so he summoned one of his patients from a ward in the hospital and asked him to stand behind the screen. I'm not crazy, am I, Alex? You see it too, don't you? Sort of a, will sort of an atmosphere all around his body. Exactly. The human atmosphere. But why is it so different up there around his chest? They're radiations. They're a different color and a different texture altogether. By God, so they are. I'm sure they weren't like that when you... Good Lord. This man's a tubercular and the aura's modified only in the region around his lungs. That screen's given us a new way to diagnose disease. Word of the doctor's discovery spread rapidly through the hospital. The human atmosphere. You saw the radiation? How do I know? They aren't the properties of the screen itself. Alex, you ready with the other patient? Yes, doctor. Well then, help him to sit up behind the screen. The radiations were just an optical illusion. If they were created by the screen itself, they'd always be present. Wouldn't they, doctor? Well then, take a look at the man who's there now. Do you see any aura? No, I don't. How do you explain that, Kilmer? It's simple enough. You see, the body Alex is holding up in that chair happens to be a corpse. Dr. Kilmer made hundreds of difficult and invariably accurate diagnoses with the aid of his viewing screens. And yet, the record of Dr. Kilmer's work lies ignored, forgotten by contemporary science. This fact, like the fact of the remarkable experiment itself, can only be regarded as incredible but true.