Good morning, happy Monday, and welcome to a new weekly vlog. As you can tell, my voice is absolutely not here with us today and hasn't been for the past couple of days. I had a pretty bad cold, I'm just getting over it, and I've literally been just taking as many meds as I could. We started with a sore throat, then just like coughing, and then body aches, and it was just like not a fun time. Definitely wasn't COVID, but still, just not a great time. So, I'm still suffering from the voice, but I'm hoping it gets better today. But I literally had a coffee date scheduled for today, and I didn't want to reschedule because I'm definitely feeling a lot better. It's just like my voice is not there. But after the coffee date, I'm gonna do some minimal talking. In less than 10 days, we will be going to Italy, which is insane. Like it does not feel real at all, and I'm freaking out. Yesterday me and Ryan were just thinking about it, and we were like, wait, we're going to Italy, and we're not going to be able to just take a backpack because we're going for a wedding, and we're going to have to take nice wedding clothes, but then we're going to be there for two weeks. So, there's no way we're packing a small suitcase for two weeks in Italy. No way, especially for me. I'm not a minimal packer anyway, so I was not planning on doing that. But an important task for today is to just make sure that everything is ordered for what I need for Italy, because I think I tried to order some stuff yesterday, and it said it would ship or get delivered four days before we leave. And it's just getting a little too close, so I'm gonna give myself a deadline of today to get everything ordered. I'm meeting up with a new friend named Caitlin at Soho House. I personally don't have a membership to Soho House here in Austin, but every time anyone invites me, I always say yes because why not? It is stunning in there. So I'm gonna pack my bag, head to South Congress, and meet Caitlin. Today is laundry day, so that is why there's so much background noise. But I stopped by Goriana on the way home because I saw a really pretty ring on their website, and I was like, I want to check it out before I, like, purchase it online. And plus, I was littered on South Congress, and there's a Goriana store on South Congress, so I thought I would check it out in person. I ended up really liking it, so I got it in the store, and this is what it looks like. These little, um, what do you call them? Like crystals, pendants? I don't even know. They are actually topaz, so they're not actually real diamond, but they are stone stones. Yeah, that's what you call them. But I think it's so dainty and beautiful. I got a size eight. This ring is also Goriana. It's the Laney ring. I'm not sure what this is called, actually. You can probably see, you know, I don't even know what this one's called. But I thought it was the perfect addition. I literally always have Goriana jewelry on. All of my bracelets are Goriana, and most of the time, my necklaces and earrings are Goriana. Although these both are studs, this little cactus one, and then this little huggy. I think they're both studs, but other than that, Goriana, everything. I feel like I'm very brand loyal whenever I, like, find a good brand for, like, a specific item. I usually, like, stick to that brand, um, but right now I'm going to attempt to clean my filming room, which I swear I've been saying this for at least four weeks now that it was gonna be done at the end of the week, and it never got done.  It is my priority. We're gonna get it done. Let's get to work. Still in the process of cleaning my filming room, but I wanted to open the stand up because I got some organizers for the bathroom. I want to, like, really organize my skincare and everything. So I got, looks like I'm gonna have to set it up. So I got these acrylic display stands so that I can put my skincare on these and actually see them in my cabinet. So I'm really excited about these. I still have to, like, put these in them and actually, like, have them stand up, but I am so excited to get organizing because God knows that I need it in there. Really good right now, and I just noticed that I think you can, like, customize the shelves and how far up they are, but I don't know how to, like, take them off because I feel like this shelf is just a little too big for this, you know? I would like it to be a little further up so that there's, like, a little more room here, just, like, evenly divided because I've had to put the skincare on top just because I feel like I go for skincare more and then I put the hair care one all the way at the bottom. And then I have a lot of, like, nail supplies, which I feel like I can get rid of, some of them. And then, yeah, I don't know what to do right here because I feel like the nail stuff could go down there. So I still got some thinking to do about these two shelves, and then up there I have, like, my Dyson Aerope case that I literally never touch. I pulled some products for whenever I see my friends next, so I'm gonna have them, like, go through it and see what they want. And then the other stuff is just kind of, like, miscellaneous that I want to take into the other bathroom. Just, like, shower stuff and things that I actually want to use more often that I, like, kind of forgot about, but now that I'm seeing it, I'm like, wait, why have I not used this in so long? It's been over three hours and I'm not all the way finished yet just because I have some makeup bags that I need to go through. But other than that, everything's done on the shelves behind me, so let me give you guys a little tour.  So we have all of my favorite hair care and then I have this nail polish organizer back here, which is amazing. It's kind of like a suitcase briefcase kind of dealio and I have all my nail polish organized in there. The acrylic stand right here and this nail polish organizer is going to be linked on my Amazon storefront under Get Organized. Then coming up here, we have more nail polish and my press-ons and all of that kind of stuff. And then coming up here, we have my Dyson Airwrap in the back. I switched it and just brought it down over here and then I got this little organizer from TDMax a while ago. And then I'm not sure where this lipstick thing came from, but I had this.  Then we have some pore strips and some pimple patches. And then of course, I have my derma cleaning tool, which is also from Amazon. And then last but not least is the skincare shelf and I am obsessed with this. It looks seriously so aesthetically pleasing. I could literally stare at this for hours, let's just hope it stays like this because it is stunning. I just have that up there. I had those from my birthday party and I kind of just wanted to keep them in case we needed them for like any summer parties or anything like that. So this is an overview and yeah, just really hoping it stays like this. I just need to tell myself, put things back where you found them. It is Tuesday and today's been an admin day because I didn't have any shoots yesterday. So I really wanted to make sure I got every photo shoot edited from last week before I like start my shoots for this week. Although there has been, I think there's two girls that haven't really picked their edits. For me, I like to have my clients pick their edits. Like I give them the whole unedited gallery of course with my watermark on top of it. But I really like when they pick their own photos because I never know like, you know, maybe they don't like this side of their face or maybe they don't really like that pose that I thought they looked good in. You know, everyone has kind of their own insecurity. So that's kind of how I do it. But yeah, so I'm just waiting on them to send their edits and then I can like finish those off. It is 92 degrees outside and I am dreading going outside even walking Sophie this morning. I was like getting my sweaty upper lip. It is sweaty upper lip season because right when you walk outside, it just starts doing its thing, which is so annoying. But I have a package from Bandye. I thought it was lost and it kind of was at first, but my apartment complex found it. So thank God because I was really upset at first, but I wanted to open it up because I got some stuff from their family and friends sale. I want to say I was like just kind of 30% off or 20% off. I can't really remember, but I got two sets and then I can't remember. Well, so let's open it and see what it looks like in person. So these are the Luca high rise leggings in chocolate and this brand was the brand Le Or. I've never heard of them before, but their sets really intrigued me that it honestly looks very similar to Lou Lemon. Like on the back of the leggings that design right there and it feels very nice like super high quality for sure. And then I got a matching top. I really liked this top because it's more of a structured feel, almost like a corset. I don't even know like a bustier. I'm not really sure how to describe it, but I really liked the way it looks, but it's still like stretchy. You know, it doesn't feel super structured. And yeah, so I thought that was cute and then I saw the screen set and you guys already know I had to pick this one up. So this is from the same brand. So still that same kind of structured look and you can kind of see the back has this like mesh part on the bottom, which I don't know. I just feel like that's really unique and then these are the matching bottoms. So I just got some biker shorts and I'm kind of regretting getting the other ones in leggings because it's literally 92 degrees out and I need to not wear any clothes pretty much. Like I need to just literally go in a tank and shorts and call it a day. But look how freaking cute that is. That's going to look so good. And then I got a tank top like some basics. It's always good to have some basics. Let's see what the quality looks like. Okay. So this is from the brand Wesley. It's WSLE and it's just like a little white tank. It is kind of see-through. So I'm going to have to wear some sticky boobs with it or like a bra. Ew. I didn't get a boob lift for nothing. You know, I don't love wearing bras anymore, but I think that's going to be so cute. So I'm probably going to try on everything later on because it is currently 331. Grad shoe is at 450 and I should probably leave a little bit before that because today I'm shooting a cheerleader and I never shot a cheerleader at UT and we're going to be shooting on the field too. And I don't think anyone can just get on the field and like take pics. So this is going to be really, really cool. I'll try to like get some iPhone clips for you guys. But I really wish I had my voice back.   So I told the brand. I was like, hey, I need a couple more days to get my voice back. So I hope they like don't think of it as like just an excuse for me to like buy time. I literally cannot clear my throat to get it back, but I'm going to change because I'm literally in sweats and a sweatshirt. And if I go out in this, I will actually die. Ever since switching to my Stanley cup, I have not been able to take like water to my grad shoots because obviously the Stanley cups open on the top. So getting my hydro flask back out finally. And now I can actually be hydrated while I shoot especially today. It's 92 degrees, like I said, and probably higher now. And I'm like literally so scared. And then I also put on the unseen sunscreen from Super Goop. I'm just going to pack this in my camera bag because I know me. I'm going to like get to my grad shoots and be like, fuck, I forgot sunscreen. So putting that in my bag, got my water bottle need to bring chapstick and wallet and keys. And then I'm gonna head out. They could have been so much worse too. It's only 95 degrees and I feel like Austin gets so much hotter. It's only going to get hotter from now on. And I am, I don't even know if I'm halfway through grad season. I mean, I guess I am since I'm taking a trip in the middle. I don't have like as many slots as last year. But like, look how much I'm sweating. I just felt the first back drop sweat. Wait, what am I saying? Back sweat. Yeah, rolled down my back.  But also like, you know, like you just kind of like embrace it here in Austin. Especially that, you know, like I'm dressed like this, so it's fine. But oh God, I'm I don't know if I'm ready for this like literally in the summer. If you want me to be outside, I need to be like within 25 feet of a body of water. It can be the Ladybird Lake, a pool, a shower, literally anything. But I do not go outside until I'm forced to or it's like the morning or the evening because it's just so brutal. And I feel like I forget this every single summer and yeah, just not a great feeling. And I ran out of water. So you know how I was saying that I brought my hydro flask out of retirement? Maybe it's going back into retirement because I don't like the bigger ones because they never fit in my freaking car thing. Oh wait, actually I have a Yeti, but that doesn't have like a straw thing.  So freaking inconvenient. So maybe I'm going to buy a Yeti straw thing. Otherwise I'm going to have to carry around my Stanley cup because it's like so huge and I feel like I won't go through that. I literally ran out of water through my second shoe and I was dying. Also the allergies also made me even worse. Like now my voice is like even worse. I'm like, I'm just trying to get better. So I'm going to go home, take a nice cold shower, drink a gallon of ice cold water and chill and probably edit photos and just get my life together or not. Honestly, I feel like I was very productive today. So maybe I can grant myself some TikTok time after my shower. And I don't even like feel hungry. What is this? What is this? I don't even know. I don't really like, I just want water. That's all I want. Okay. I'm going to go home before I literally die of dehydration. Good morning. It is Wednesday and I just got done with a shoe. I literally like ended the last vlog clip at a shoe yesterday, but I went home and showered and I felt so much better and it was like the best hour of my life, you know, because once you feel like just sweaty and dirty, it's just like disgusting. Anyways, I am going to go meet a new friend for coffee and we're going to go to Lucky Lab, which is right around UT. I've actually had it on my bucket list for a really long time because they have like some really cool drinks and just I think like matcha. She said the try there was like really good. So I'm very excited to finally be trying it out. I saw the girl that I'm meeting today on TikTok and I realized she lives in Austin. So I reached out and we are hanging out today and I'm really excited to meet her in person. Her content is more like very aesthetic like mini vlogs, which I'm like literally obsessed with. But every time I try to do it, it just takes so long to like get ready. Like it's so much extra time on my routine of the day and I'm just like trying to get ready fast. So that's why I like never really do them on TikTok, but I love when I do them and I feel like they do really well usually.  Her name is Katarina and I will put her TikTok profile in the description. Well, stunned behind you. We're glowing. Okay. This is Katarina. Hi, I'm Katarina and we got some chai. And I got a little croissant and then she got a pop tart, which her pop tart looks so good. I got strawberry pop tart. They make it here. Oh my God. It looks amazing. I just drove over to Barton Creek Mall because I have to get something out Sephora for a brand deal. It's kind of weird though because like usually, you know, brands gift you the products that you're supposed to be talking about. And if they don't gift you it, they'll like reimburse you. I'm not talking directly like with the brand. It's kind of like through this third party app. So they're unsure if I'm going to need a reimbursement, which is kind of weird because I'm like, I mean, yeah, you're paying me, but I feel like you should definitely be reimbursing me for the product. So kind of weird, but I'm going to go in and get it. And then also just like take a look at some other stuff because the Sephora sale is going on. I'm really sad because I really wanted to post a whole video of my recommendations for the Sephora sale, but it's honestly so frustrating just like to talk with this voice. I mean, it doesn't really sound that bad. When I hear myself back, like if I'm talking about my stories, but it like is just so frustrating because it's like not all the way there yet. So I am not going to do that video. But there's so many other recommendation videos on my channel already, like I've been doing them since college, honestly. So you can literally just search like Sephora sale and then my name and my videos should pop up. I was just filming a sponsored Tiktok for this brand called Beauty Bio. And I've honestly not heard of them until they reached out. All of their products were so intriguing that I was like, I have to try them out. This is like a micro needling tool. What the heck? And you like roll it on your face. I think you have to like put something on it before you use that. But this is when I was really intrigued by even though that was pretty intriguing itself. Okay. This is like the glass and the gloss. This is an exfoliator and then this gloss part is the hydrating part. So this is what it looks like and it's like a jelly consistency almost, but it's more liquidy because it like will spill if I like tilt it over. But it is so cool and it feels so good on the skin. And I actually just saw it in Sephora when I was just there and I didn't even know that this brand was sold us for it. I thought it was a direct to consumer brand. So that's really cool. And obviously the Sephora sale is going on still. I think it ends next Monday. So once this blog is posted, you can still get like the sale and I just got 20% off. Shout out to my sister because I always use her account because she always has the 20% off. I used to buy everything at Sephora, but now I don't know. I just feel like I haven't been buying makeup a ton recently. So whenever I do buy pretty much everything at Sephora, it's always during the sale unless I'm having like a random urge to like wash makeup tutorials and buy like random things, then I'll just put it on my own account so I can like rack up the points and get my gift. So I did use her account for that, which was so clutch. But I'm going to make some lunch. I am probably going to just eat something frozen, honestly. I found this in the fridge. It's from HEB, some curry. Sounds pretty good to me. So I think that's what we're going to heat up. All right. Sephora haul. I got some sunscreen stuff. I'm telling Ryan he needs to start using sunscreen because he plays golf all day and I'm worried. I don't want you to be a wrinkly old grandpa at the age of 40, you know? Because I don't. Okay, but I'd got some mineral powder to put on after I do my makeup and then I also got refreshing mist to also put on after I do my makeup because I feel like the sunscreen like you just have to reapply throughout the day. I have the unseen sunscreen and the glow screen but I put that under my makeup. So then I got these eyeshadows. These are from Ilya and I couldn't choose which color. So I got Umber and Sheen and this is what they look like on my hand and it's going to look so pretty with like a blown out smoky brown look. And then last thing is I got this Giorgio Armani luminous silk foundation. I tried this in college and I actually really liked it. I was just like into trying out new foundations so I never repurchased it. I'm actually doing a brand deal with them so you'll see them on my stories, my Instagram stories. Yeah. And I got a color match at Sephora. I feel like I'm so bad at color matching myself so that's why I made sure to go in and like have some help because I feel like if I did it it would have been too dark or to just not my color. So I think I did get like a little bit of a darker shade. I just told her that I would, you know, get a little bit tanner throughout the summer so I didn't want too light of a color so I could actually use it during the summer. But that is all I got at 20% off all of it which was awesome but I also thought I was going to buy more. Like I just felt like there was going to be new products that I wanted to try and I just didn't really feel the need to buy anything so that's a good thing because also I just like decluttered my bathroom and I know in my heart I don't need anything else but I always like to play with new products so it's really hard walking into Sephora and, you know, walking out with not that much. Especially during the Sephora sale. Gonna go wet my beauty blender and film these Instagram stories. I feel like so productive today and it just makes me so happy. Later today I only have one grad session. Usually I have two back-to-back but one of the girls had to switch her date so I have an hour and a half shoe and I get to start a little bit later than usual so I have even more time to do things and it just makes me feel really good. Like at first I think two days ago I was feeling real stressed because I have like a lot of sponsorships this month which I'm so freaking grateful for but also I am going to Italy in literally like ten days so I don't even have like the whole month to film all this like I have like literally well hopefully like less than ten days because I want to tie up all the loose ends like a little before I go just so I'm not like stressed up until the day of but yeah I just want to like get everything done before that so I can just chill and pack and get ready for the trip I am just like so nervous I don't know why I just like don't feel like it's real that I'm going to Italy and it's gonna be me and Ryan's first international trip I don't know if I've already said that well actually we went to the Grand Caymans but that doesn't really count because it's like right here but I mean like going to Europe like all the way over there so it's gonna be really fun and I did check the weather and in Positano it's gonna be like 60 degrees which is still freaking cold and I've been buying clothes and all of them are like short sleeves like very summery springy so I'm just like great and I get cold really easily at least in Rome and Florence it shouldn't be that cold let's see okay in Rome right now it's 54 but when we get there it's gonna be like 73 just filmed the foundation stories but now I'm gonna do the full face and then finish it up but I want to try the Ilya eyeshadow on camera I just got done doing foundation concealer cream contour and then I'm gonna do some cream eyeshadow should probably get a mirror I think I should probably blend it out with my finger looks so pretty already definitely needs to be blended out though oh yeah it's so pretty it's like so subtle when you blend it out and I feel like it's gonna look so good with a brown smokey eye on top okay I feel like you can't really tell you see that? little shimmer here's the final makeup look and I'm honestly so happy that I got this freaking foundation because I forgot how good it is it literally is so good it's like very skin like it's medium coverage which I usually am more of a full coverage gal but it's buildable so I love it it looks really good okay now I I'm gonna take some time to just like clean up and get my shit together feel like I've been really productive but I also need a clean house to be more productive so I should probably also do my laundry because there's a pile waiting for me to attend to apparently it's really nice out so we're gonna go on a walk on south congress so this is the fit I just actually opened this jacket up I'm in love it's from Amazon and it like snatches me in I am obsessed it's like this heather grey look and then got my aloha just wearing that same set active set that I was wearing earlier this morning but gonna bring Sophie and we'll have a nice little walk before my grouchy I got done with my shoe came home and decided I wanted garrows because we were on south congress earlier and I just remembered how much I love their raspberry margarita so we're gonna go there and I also love their tacos good morning it is Thursday coming to you live from my car because I got to a shoot literally like 20 minutes early and I'm just like still kind of waking up from the morning even though I've been up for kind of a long time it's about to be 8 it's 7.53 and I think I woke up at like 6.50 or something but we're shooting at a new location today we're gonna go to mayfield park and I've never shot here before I think you would have a reservation but I'm not sure if she had to pay for it so I'm kind of curious because it looks like you can just like walk right in so I don't know maybe you just had to like notify them that you were taking photos but I am excited to like kind of shoot somewhere new because I've been shooting at UT every single day so you know it definitely gets monotonous but today is a very heavy shoot day I have this shoot ends at 9 then I have a maternity shoot at 3 and then a senior session at 5.30 so I have like a small window in between and well 9 to 3 doesn't sound that small but I feel like if you think about it I'll get home at like 9.30 I'll probably have to leave by 2.30 I have to eat lunch and breakfast in there somewhere and then I just am probably going to make today an admin day just because I feel like I have a lot of photos to edit and then also I still haven't really like finalized buying things for Italy just like outfits and stuff and I know that the shipping day is not going to be pretty because it's like I'm waiting too long you know it's literally like what day is it 7th and I leave on the 16th and obviously I'd like it by the 15th so I can pack it into my suitcase so I'm thinking about doing rent the runway because I think you can get 8 items at a time and then I can just like get really nice pieces or possibly buy from Revolve but like I've never really gotten much from there I think I've like purchased a couple times like my gold day shorts and stuff like that but like actual clothes and I literally was just talking to someone about their grad dresses and I was like oh like where is it from she said Revolve and she was just telling me that like a lot of the quality is just not what you'd expect for that high of a price and like what the hell like it's so expensive like how are you even like questioning the quality of the product so that was kind of interesting to me but yeah we're going to figure it out today and I need to like actually just buy stuff or we can probably go shopping this weekend but the masters are on this weekend I literally had to put it in my calendar like months ago because I can't remember what we did last year but I just remember Ryan being like the masters are on I can't do anything so this year I put it in my calendar so that I don't plan anything so this weekend is going to definitely be a chill one but I think it's going to be much needed especially before just like prepping for Italy and honestly just prepping the house I still need to film on an apartment tour so I'm definitely going to try to get that done this weekend. I haven't vlogged that much so you've literally just saw me making a smoothie but I'm going to make some coffee now because Ryan taught me how to use this espresso and yeah and we bought like the good creamers so I put a little thingy in there he says to use this one I don't know what that means but it's a starbucks one so we're going to use a little one and then press the green button make sure your cup's under we've definitely done that where the cup was and into that then it goes but I've just been filming some sponsored content I feel like especially this week I filmed so much sponsored content and I'm not even like filming like just regular content which is horrible because it's like all on tiktok and I can't have just sponsorships all up in each other you know what I mean so I need to like get some regular content going but I also need to film the video because that's like a really tight turn around and that's a sponsored video which is like crazy because I feel like I don't even get sponsored videos that much or like YouTube videos so I need to do that but I also am waiting on the things like they overnighted the pieces for me to use in the video so it should be coming by 7pm tonight but I have a shoe until like 730 and then I won't have like good life so I think I'm going to try to film like what I can right now that's why I'm trying to make coffee I felt myself getting a little sleepy so I was like we're gonna kill it and knock shit out today but we still have that laundry on our floor waiting for us to do I've not touched it I've not even like looked at it once we just like ignore it but that also needs to get done today um what else tonight I actually have a shoot at 3pm because I'm doing an eternity shoot and someone's home and then I'm gonna go do my grad shoots I think I only have one grad shoot but a longer one oh wait no I have a senior shoe a 2 hour one oh lordy today is gonna be a long day literally I was telling Ryan yesterday I felt like I lived 9 lives because I was up so early doing a grad shoot then I got coffee then I I don't even know what I was doing yesterday but basically I'm being productive this week which is great because I don't want next week to be super stressful especially like right before going to Italy like I want to focus on prepping packing and all that kind of stuff and not sponsored content so I'm trying to get it all done this week these are the two creamers that Ryan's put in my coffee before and I liked it so I just don't know how much though because like there's not that much like actual espresso in there so shoot also I don't think I told you guys this but I really want to try and get gel X for my trip because I've been doing press-ons and I love the press-ons and I think I said this but these are my favorite press-ons that I've done they're the all of in June ones and they look so amazing and honestly I think they even could look like gel X but I just don't want them to like come off during my trip and me being like really frustrated so I'm gonna go get gel X I think I'm gonna make an appointment at the domain somewhere called M Vince people have been recommending so I am excited to try it out I've never gotten like fake extra nail what is it called like acrylics or anything it's always been my real nail that I put gel dip on so it'll be interesting seeing how that is done because in the past I'm just like I'll never get like the fake nail added because it like ruins your nails but literally I'm here doing like anything I ever want to my nails and ruining them so I don't really care anymore I'm just gonna do it and see if I like it but I know it's gonna be expensive but I'm not really too mad about it because I want to I want to splurge on these nails since I'll have them in Italy and and I want them to look really good so okay Ryan how much of each one should I put in here oh shoot the salted one but I put the sweet cream in here straight in here yeah I forgot okay yeah I forgot so let's open this one up first because he says he puts this one in the what's it called foamer it's not called a foamer is it oh yeah milk frother okay so we have this one I'm pretty sure this is an espresso brand too okay gonna fill it up a little bit and then I need to put it back on there but you hold it down and it turns blue and that means it's gonna froth it to be like cold froth not warm froth there we go and then I'm gonna put just the sweet cream in here he said until it gets to the color like he said a little less I feel like this is good enough good on that one and then I'll wait till the film stops I was just telling Ryan that I feel like awkward sometimes because I'll like film like a brand sponsorship tiktok and then I feel like it's not good enough because it like didn't take too long to film or just like do I need more text over it and then I was also thinking like if you try too hard on tiktok like it's not gonna perform well so I just don't want it to look like I'm not doing like enough to the brand if that makes sense but also like I can't do too much because then it's just not gonna not gonna be good so it's just like a weird kind of like transition into like vertical video for sure so I think the froth is done the masters is on the whole weekend it looks like if it was up to me I would have it a little bit lighter but you know what I think there's enough sugar in here so I think we're fine actually I'm not gonna straw it I'll never mind just a little more I swear every time I order tri or mocha or anything I always have to ask for more simple syrup because I just need a little more sweet I might as well mix it up with this much better and that's a head out to my last two shoots of the day I have an hour between the shoots because I didn't know where the first house was gonna be but I ended up just being like 15 minutes south of me but then I have to go north I think for my last shoot so it kind of ended up working out and I'm just gonna take my laptop so I can start editing the video that I just filmed I am literally so proud of myself today and even yesterday like this whole week has been insanely more productive than any other week I've had in a very long time so I'm very happy with myself and I'm just like I said I just want everything to be done by this weekend at least or maybe like mid next week latest my shoot ended at 7 30 got home and I have been just uploading all the photos from yesterday and today and uploading them into my gallery dinner I made myself an egg sandwich I don't know why I was craving it today I didn't really eat that much which was weird because I didn't even like feel hungry I have a package to open with you guys bang cookies sent me some cookies and we're gonna do a taste test smile you just got cookies the guys bag of cookies oh wow you can freeze them up to 3 months and then you can like heat them up in the oven or the microwave sea salt chocolate chunk I feel like that might be my favorite triple chocolate macadamia white chocolate chunk s'mores cookie that looks very interesting we got an oatmeal raisin see I I hate on nuts but I don't hate on raisins because they're actually pretty good this is caramel sea salt wait what was that the one sea salt chocolate chunk or caramel oh this might be my favorite okay wait should we open both of them those now wait okay yeah there's no way like we'll eat all of these and I don't actually want to open all of them so we're just going to try the sea salt chocolate chunk you gave me a little corner can you get the middle I'm going to heat it up that long how long did you heat it up for 10 seconds they're better heated up you're really good you're really good so young I had to get milk I was like taste of one cookie I was like I need milk I need milk though it doesn't matter it does fun fact I tried eating Oreos with oat milk and you know I'm a big dunker I'm not eating the Oreo until the whole thing is mushy and the Oreos did not dissolve in my oat milk which was so weird and I was like why aren't they dissolving and I was like asking Ryan like are your Oreos dissolving because he has his own regular milk like regular regular what's it called 2% milk so I was like are yours dissolving and he was like yeah it's probably your oat milk I was like what the fuck I was so mad and like I don't know like I thought Oreos would just dissolve in water wait why was I just about to dunk this cookie in my milk yeah like like when an Oreo touches like liquid wouldn't it just like dissolve that's what I always thought dunk it in water no but I'm just saying like I thought it would just dissolve in any kind of liquid you know viscosity throughout no I know but anyways lactate milk is so good happy Friday I am literally starting the vlog off at like 7.53pm because I what the fuck did I even do today do you ever just have those days where you're like so busy that you're just like I couldn't tell you one thing I did but I will try to name some it might be a little noisy because we live like right on the street but in the morning I went to go shoot my blogger client her name is Shruti and she is having her third baby so we shot the gender reveal reel because she is really into reels right now like her reels do amazing for her so we shoot a lot of reels whenever we're together and then I came home and I had to finish up a sponsored video which I just posted today which honestly I've been wanting to do this video for so long and when the brand reached out to me I thought it would be a perfect video for it to like be organically talked about so I shared things that elevate my life and just have changed my life especially during post grad and I'm really proud of the video just because I feel like it's a good one so definitely go and watch it I'm not just saying that because it's sponsored but also you know whenever things are sponsored or even on my instagram feed and stories I always appreciate you guys just like liking or like clicking on the links it really does mean the world to me but yeah so I did that video today how to do a reel too that was like a really tight turnaround and that almost never happens and I was going to turn it down because honestly I just feel like I'm getting a little overwhelmed these days but I have worked with them before so I wanted to just kind of keep the partnership going and so yeah that happened today and then what else I took like a 20 minute nap before my grad shoot and I never shoot on Fridays really unless it's like a blog or shoot I usually just do those in the morning with a few of my clients but other than that I don't usually do grad shoots and I did one today because I had to reschedule her and that was on me so I was just like whatever I'm just going to shoot her on Friday and that's totally fine because I figured the masters is on today and Ryan would just be preoccupied with that but he's actually out playing golf right now I don't know when the masters ends every day so I just like blocked the whole weekend and made sure not to plan anything too crazy and also I feel like I just need to get the apartment all together it's like a mess right now because there's so many packages everywhere maybe we can unbox some Amazon packages together because I got some stuff for Italy and just our chip in general first we're going to start off with an Amazon package and I thought it was all Amazon packages but I realized it's not so it's even more exciting okay so I got some storage bags I can't remember who told me about this but basically they recommended me to just get oh my friend Jackie she told me to get these for like my winter coats so I could store them away and make so much more space apparently these are life changing I'm going to link these down below but yeah basically like it can look like that into that which is insane because my coats are like puffers they're huge so I wanted to get something that just makes spring cleaning a little bit easier and then oh there's a lot in here okay this is a fun one I got a mini straightener from my favorite straightening brand the straightener brand whatever hair tools brand it is called baby list and I feel like this is the best straightener that I've ever ever owned and it's like this is the size of my hand and this is how small the straightener is and it feels like nothing and I thought this would be perfect for travel because I never know which to pack like should I do the straightener or the curler or just one or just both so now that I have a little mini one I don't have to choose because I definitely like my hair curled but sometimes like my hair looks really good straight too so I want to have the option but I don't want to way my suitcase down with the straightener and plus like it doesn't really take that much to straighten my hair especially after I like I wash it and it's dry so next up I got some what are these called converters yeah for an outlet I got like a three pack of them I remember outlet thingies or converters being so expensive back in the day but now on Amazon I think I got that for maybe under like 30 for three which was really good and it also kind of sketches me out because I'm like okay what is that going to like blow out a fuse I think the last time I was in Italy what broke one of my hair tools but I can't remember which one I think I had to like no wait it was literally my straightener oh shoot oh shoot it was literally my straightener and I remember I had to like send it in to get it fixed because luckily it had like warranty on it and then I got these cool sunglasses I'm obsessed with Amazon sunglasses especially this brand I feel like you've probably heard of them or seen them on Amazon but they are so good even Ryan the other day was like wearing one of mine and he was like these are actually really good and I'm like Amazon and he's like a sunglass junkie like he actually gets like the UV protection and like all that kind of stuff but this is what these look like I think they're so cute and I want to bring like a couple to Italy just so I have like options to choose from guys I do not know how I'm going to pack lightly because I just don't see that happening so I'm really not sure although it's all going to go down we're going to hope for the best and then the next thing is an olive oil bottle I've actually been wanting to like style my kitchen for a really long time and the first piece that I got to do that was a while ago I got this off of Amazon actually it's kind of like this vintage cutting board and I've seen these like styled against the backsplash I kind of want to get another one I feel like it looks a little bit lonely on its own and people would like layer the vintage cutting boards on top of each other on the backsplash and it looks so good and it's kind of nice because I use it to like hide one of the outlets whenever I'm filming videos in the kitchen but I want to style my kitchen counter so I got this olive oil dispenser and I just thought it would be cuter and also easier to just like pour a little bit because my olive oil thing just dispenses so much at a time okay so that was Amazon let's move into pedal and pub so I'm actually really excited because they reached out and they said do you want to create some content for us and I think I talked about this in my last vlog but I've been doing a lot more of that where I don't even have to post anything but they pay me to take pictures or to do a TikTok for their channels so that's kind of cool so they sent over some clothes well I actually got to pick these because I'm going to be shooting some like high quality photos in them so see what they look like in person I also was just in my car listening to country music which I feel like I haven't really listened to that much here in Texas because there's not many good country stations compared to Georgia at least and it just made me want to take a freaking girls trip to Nashville like it gave me that vibe and I was like I literally need to be in Nashville like next week because it's so fun there at least the couple of times I've been there have just been so fun I think I've been three times now okay so this is one of the tops this is going to be a set actually both of them are set at first I was looking at it and I was like I have a high vibe because I'm not really a floral gal but like the orange would just like look so good on my skin so I wanted to try it out and kind of just see if I like it on this is going to be pretty I might bring this to Italy because I feel like that would look really pretty also in Rome and Florence it's going to be like warm or like good weather really nice weather like 70s I think and then in Positano it's going to be so cold and I'm cutting it and I'm just really sad about it because like I wanted to wear all these like really pretty like dainty floor not floral definitely not floral but like flowy that's what I meant flowy outfits and I just feel like I'm going to need to bring sweaters which also won't be a good thing when I'm trying to pack light because sweaters weigh a lot so that'll be fun but this is the next set so this is a skirt and I just really like the details I'm definitely going to have to steam it especially because I'm going to like you know give these photos to them and I'm not just like you know putting it on for a tiktok this is the matching top so it's kind of like a high neck top which I think is so gorgeous I actually made an order on free people which I feel like I don't really buy stuff from free people that often but I was like let's go out for Italy first we have this jumpsuit it's going to look so good oh my god there's a bow in the back I didn't even realize so it's kind of like the stone color and it is a jumpsuit so it has the pants which is going to be very perfect for the trip in general I can wear a sweater if I get cold and it has adjustable straps this is going to be so nice and the quality is so good too I'm so excited and then let's see I got a band tee which this was a pricey band tee so I'm hoping that this is the most comfortable freaking band tee ever oh wait it low key is wait that's nice what the hell this is really nice okay so this is what it says on it the beach boys don't ask me if I know their songs I mean I probably do but you know I couldn't name one I did buy two pairs of jeans and I think this is why I actually made the order in the first place because this is the only place that had these jeans in stock but these are the Rola's original high-rise straight jeans and they're just white jeans I was really looking for just like a raw hem at the bottom so I'm really excited to put these on I actually got two sizes in this because I didn't have time to like return them and then order another one so I got two sizes and then I'll just return the other pair last is another set I feel like everything is just gonna be a set that I wear in Italy but this is the front so it's just kind of like this really nice quality oh my god like I used to never spend this much on clothes like this was well I think the set was right under $100 these are the shorts but yeah I never used to spend this much on clothes but you know things get tempting when you have adult money it's a totally different world to be honest and it still kills me but then I also want higher quality pieces at the same time like you know one of these days I'm gonna have to start really investing in my clothes and I feel like the jumpsuit and even the set is very neutral so I can re-wear it and not like worry about repeating my outfits as much because you won't really be able to tell and that's kind of like why I try to stay away from too many prints too many florals even colors I feel like people will be able to tell that you have re-worn it which is not a big deal but especially if you are doing content creation it's so much easier just like mix and match if you just stick to like neutrals and kind of like basics like that


Okay, Katherine, so thank you for joining me for this interview. For people who don't know you, can you give us a short list of your academic career? Yeah, so I'm an anthropologist by profession and I've been working on learning in relation to culture and technology for the past 25 years. And I am based at Aarhus University, Department of Education, where I'm heading a research programme for future technologies, culture and learning. Can you tell us shortly what is the real project and what was your role in it? Yeah, first of all I was the idea generator and I was also the coordinator. I wanted to work on robotics from a more humanistic perspective, so to speak. Just to give you one example, we followed a healthcare robot. We followed several, but in one of the cases, they had made something for people who had had a stroke to train with a robot. That's very clever and very good, a very interesting technology. But they hadn't thought about how the individual user who has had a stroke and therefore is kind of lame, would be able to attach this robot to his or her body. I think it's really important that we as humanists and social scientists take it upon us to go in and take the lead in projects that are also developing technologies and affecting people's lives through AI systems, through robotics, through a lot of other technical devices. We could also take in now the social media, that is another area, because we have a lot to offer in terms of doing things better. In the global challenges presented in pillar two of the Horizon Europe, the EU commission is asking for projects to address what they call predefined and policy driven challenges. So how did you go about understanding and addressing these political elements in your project under the Horizon 2020? So the first thing was that we really wanted to do this kind of research, which means that we were looking for calls that would help us do that. We all know that it's really difficult for people in the humanities and social sciences to get funding for their many good ideas and projects. And so we have to be really, really alert in looking for opportunities that will help us make the research that we find is important and it's not easy. So the way we did it was simply reading over the calls that was addressing issues that tied up to something that had to do with technology. And of course we have to also be aware that when we do that we are so to speak on foreign ground because these calls are not made for us necessarily. So we have to really look at the calls and see is there a kind of little crack where we could try and move in with our new ideas that not even the people who created the calls had envisioned. So we have to move beyond in a way what they envisioned and at the same time really try to understand why they made the call they did. That's a very difficult task and balance, but as we have shown it can be done. So the important thing here is that I had decided beforehand I'm not interested in being what we call the token humanist or the token social sciences in these projects, in these technology development projects. Of course as humanist and social sciences we are sometimes invited in, but that would be to maybe look things over from an ethical perspective. And I wanted to be in the forefront with our approach. So the initiative was mine. But of course we needed people from the technical sciences with us there because they have the expertise in developing these technologies. So of course it was really important to have engineers with us who knew how to do robotic work and artificial intelligence. And we also wanted to have some ideas about the economic impact that we contributed in this project. So I went out to look for partners in engineering and economics to help us out with this approach. And that is also difficult because you can't just approach any engineer with these issues. You really have to have somebody who's sympathetic to the idea and can accept to be led by an anthropologist in such a project. That is not easy for all engineers because they are usually the ones leading the research. So you have to look for people who are willing and find it interesting to work from these perspectives. And what we clearly showed, we made a big publication together called Perspectives on Robots, is that you can actually work together across these lines. And it's not that it's either you are in the engineering way of thinking or in the social sciences humanistic way of thinking. You can learn from each other. That was the whole idea of the project. And we could also show that you can learn. First of all, as I said before, it's really, really hard in the humanistic and social sciences to get funding because we are many and we are very good. And the funding resources are meager. But also I think we have a kind of mission. We need to do this because we need to create a better society. Also in areas like climate change, for instance, we need to understand better the relation between technology and people. Technology in itself will not solve the problems we are facing for us. And for me personally, it's been fantastic to be the coordinator of these projects. It's a lot of hard work. There's a lot of issues to deal with as always in projects. But the thing is that we are actually able to make ground breaking research, basic research, even if it's applied calls. If we can think out of the box when we make our applications. And of course, on the other side, if the people who are evaluating us are willing to think with us. And that's luckily the case sometimes, not always. But in that respect, we are like any other applicants for research funding.


Before this video even starts, I want to say that it is a lot harder and it takes a lot longer to grow a non-niche channel But your happiness and what you want to make should not be the decision of what content you want to make You kind of just have to understand what you want out of this But these are my tips on how to get out there and how to have people become invested in you and want to watch you for you Hi guys, welcome back to my channel today's video I'm going to be teaching you how to grow a non-niche channel as you can see my channel is a mess as some people might put it I feel what I want and I've always stuck by that because I want to do what I want to do and I want people to subscribe for me So today I'm going to be sharing with you tips and tricks on how to get your channel out there And hopefully you'll take something away from this video This is also a super fun video because I'm doing a collab with Annie Dubay here on YouTube by now She probably has hit 50,000 subscribers. So I want to congratulate her. She has worked so hard and I guess without further ado I'm just going to let her tell you more about herself. Hey guys Annie here I am so excited to finally be doing this collab with Alex. We've been talking about this for so long I'm so glad we're finally doing it. If you guys are coming on to Alex's channel from my channel Then please be sure to subscribe to her channel. I love her and her personality so much I'm sure you guys will just as much and if you guys are one of Alex's subscribers I've never seen my face before then hi, my name is Annie over on my channel I talk all things YouTube growth tips tricks and strategies and for my part of our collab over on my channel I'm going to be giving you guys some tips tricks and methods on how you can basically stand out and get noticed more as a Smaller newer youtuber on the big platform a big world that is YouTube So I hope to see you guys over there and enjoy Alex's video So after you watch this video make sure to go check out her channel So the first tip I have for you is trending topics and timing you have to publish your video on a specific topic at a certain time And the algorithm will push out your video Annie talks about this a lot But it is so important and my first-hand account with this is my Micastoffin video It has over 1.6 million views. I swear I think is because of the timing I was uploading when a lot of people were uploading and also a lot of people were searching for it Another good trending topic that I didn't really follow or do anything with but a lot of people getting traction from the Letting Starbucks baristas pick my drink for a day That's a great example of timing and a trending topic.  No, you need it more enticing dark brown hair to bleach blonde hair Something like Drastic something that will make someone want to click on the video you need to give the person a reason to click on the video This goes for all youtubers across the platform You've got to have a passion for making videos You should have the mindset That people would want to watch any sort of video that you put out because of you Because you're the person that they're subscribing to whether I do a review whether I make an adoption video whether I make a Luxury unboxing I want you to want to watch me not just because of the purse Not just because of this that are the other thing I want to build that connection with you establish like a personal connection You have to have the mindset of wanting someone to want to watch you Because they like you go off of that if you're a non-miche channel You're going to take a long time to grow It is taking me a while to grow and that's totally fine But because I have passion and because I don't want to ever feel like oh, I don't want to make another adoption video Or oh, I don't want to make another fitness video. I never want to get to that point So I just want to put it out there It's gonna take you longer But if you have passion and you are persistent then it's going to come to you also with that passion You can see it and you can feel it through the camera So if I was only doing one sort of video and I wasn't liking it You would definitely see it through the lens It would definitely come across on camera that I did not like what I was doing. You've got to love what you do Okay, so I'm going to read this tip off of my phone because I feel like I wrote it out so well Your goal should be getting certain videos on the Google search page So you're gonna find a product that doesn't have a lot of reviews or information about it people in general Are curious so they will search something on the internet They'll search the name of it and your video will be number one or number two on the Google page Which is awesome people from an external source will find your channel And if they like your personality going back to your personality and you through the camera They will see that and they might like your personality and you will get subscribers So I have a few examples here of videos that I have ranked pretty high on Google search This isn't YouTube. This isn't your ranking on YouTube It could be a ranking on YouTube and I believe it has something to do with that But I'm strictly talking about when you Google something your video is number one or number two So you can Google any of these things and my video will pop up Which is pretty cool to say none nonetheless, but Some examples would be the health ish water bottle the next video was my highest performing video for a very long time I believe it has over 200,000 views and it was about biox4 biox4 is advertised here on YouTube A lot of the time during the new year and a lot of people are searching for it And my video is ranked number one which you know a funny thing is that video was a throwaway video Which I just posted because I had nothing else to post which I don't really recommend doing that But I did it and it's one of my highest performing videos So you just never know the next and final example I have is the clothing resistance bands I did not see any reviews on them and I wanted to try them out So I decided to buy the product try it out and do a review and I'm probably ranked I believe number two on the Google search how to get your video ranked on Google and YouTube is all Thanks to a really good tool that I personally use. I just use the free version but I've heard of the pro version is amazing I will have a link down below. I do have an affiliate link. So if you want to purchase for me, that's super awesome If not, that's fine. It is called TubeBuddy and Annie is a pro at TubeBuddy. She's worked with TubeBuddy She knows all the ins and outs. I'm no pro at it But it's definitely helped me with my channel and ranking But I highly recommend you check out TubeBuddy because I really believe in that product Just knowing how important it is to get your video ranked in search No matter if you're a niche channel or you're not a niche channel. It's very important moving on The next tip is get people invested in your life. Ask yourself Why should they care about you? Because you are not a niche channel. You're not teaching them one thing. You're not just showing them one thing You're not just talking about outfits and makeup. You know, why should they want to watch you get personal? You don't have to get too personal like I don't share everything The more personal you get and the more invested someone feels the more they will want to click Take Trisha Paytas for example I don't really watch her videos But she has a lot of people invested in her life and what she's doing and the reason why she makes videos on like Crying on her back and floor that someone broke up with her, you know, we can all relate to that and she's getting really personal So that is one way you can really grow as a non-niche person Get people involved in you in your life. The next tip I have for you. I like to call anchor videos So start a series on your channel a good series that I've started is my workout journey anchor videos are great So pick one day out of the week and just do a themed video So every Friday, I like to call it like my fitness Friday and I post an update and what I did that week fitness wise Like what exercises I did how bad did I eat like I ate a whole bag of trisket start a Series or videos to anchor people to want to come back. This isn't limiting your content It's just making a consistent theme throughout the week. The next tip I have for you is really dumb Some of you might be like Alex every youtuber says this Consistency consistency is really important. There's a lot of family channels out there that are boring Like I'm not gonna lie. All right, and some people think my videos are boring There's some videos of mine that I think is boring But because people can expect something on a certain day, they will watch which is insane But if you can daily vlog if you don't be a niche channel Then at least if you post every day people will start to notice that right and you'll become a part of their daily routine Once you're part of someone's daily routine people like routine So once they are like, oh, I know Alex's gonna post on Monday at 7 then they're gonna be like Oh, well, that's my routine every Monday night after my dinner. I'm gonna watch an Alex Jane video Get in people's routine post every other day post every day post three times a week Whatever it is get in their routine I'm just gonna speed through these three little mini tips that kind of go all together But number one comment on small youtubers channels when I was around 3000-2000 subscribers. I was always commenting. Don't say by the way, I'm a small youtuber sub for sub Don't do that. You might get your channel deleted, which we don't want just say something positive about the video Number two use metadata So I don't know the best way I can put this but when you're gonna export your video And it's like where do you want to export and then you have if there's a date? I'll take a screenshot and I'll put it there. I actually learned this tip from Annie So shout out to Annie for this, but you're gonna put like tags and related things into that little box That say tags before you even export the video so it's kind of like words and target words are already embedded in the video and Your computer already knows that so I don't know if that actually works But I've been doing it and I've had some success and number three giveaways when I was around 1000-2000-3000 I was trying to get to 5000 subscribers I would always do giveaways and giveaways can be super simple You could do a back-to-school giveaway. You could do an Amazon target gift card You could do any sort of giveaway But showing appreciation to your subscribers is amazing and they'll feel really appreciated So I do recommend doing giveaways. Just be careful. Make sure you're following YouTube's guidelines You cannot pay to enter a giveaway Entering a giveaway needs to be free. So I'm just gonna put that out there But giveaways helped me a lot the last and final tip that I have for you about growing a non-niche channel This is probably my most important tip that I can give you Thumbnails, thumbnails are important along with titles obviously, but I'm just gonna read this because again I'm a lot more organized when I just read something off of my phone because I have notes So my channel has many thumbnail styles as you guys can see again It's a mess. It's Alex if you want to create the content you want to make you got to make sure that the target audience of That niche will like or be drawn to the thumbnail Okay So going a little further into this a haul video would have a different thumbnail than a vlog and a tutorial Thumbnail would have a different thumbnail than a story time So you as a non-niche person needs to target target your video of that specific niche to that niche community So I hope you guys have found this video helpful at all if you have any other tips questions Leave them in the comments down below. Don't forget to check out Annie's video. I know you will like it She's probably a lot more organized than I am But it's these were my tips for growing a non-niche channel because I do whatever the heck I want on here And it has taken me a long time But I've never fallen out of love with doing this and I don't want you to ever feel like you only have to do one thing So anyway, give this video a thumbs up Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and I'll see you guys in my next video. Bye


Think tanks are information laundering ops for war profiteers The British billionaire owned newspaper the Telegraph has an appalling new article out which reads like a paid advertisement for a missile manufactured by Lockheed Martin The title even sounds like it was written by a marketing team a War-winning swarm missile will knock China out of Taiwan fast Subtitled rapid dragon is a military game-changer that provides the US Air Force with a crucial edge in the Pacific The article is written by a war propagandist named David Axe whose work I have written about before his covert Advertorial for Lockheed Martin's jassem missile revolves around the findings of a study by the military industrial complex funded think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies CISIS Which will be shocked and astonished and surprised and stunned to learn lists the Lockheed Martin Corporation as one of its top donors Needless to say David Axe makes no mention of this extreme conflict of interest anywhere in his exuberant prose Celebrating the wonders of this new piece of technology and what is falsely presented as an objective news article intended to educate and inform When analysts from the Center for Strategic and International Studies ran a series of war games Simulating a Chinese invasion of Taiwan last year. They learned something surprising he begins The games indicated that the US Air Force Fighting nearly alone after the destruction of much of the US Navy could almost single-handedly destroy the Chinese invasion force The key to this simulated aerial victory was a missile the Lockheed Martin made joint to surface strike missile or jassem Axe continues. It's a stealthy and highly accurate cruise missile that can range hundreds of miles from its launching warplane There are long-range versions of the jassem and a specialized Anti-ship version too and the US Air Force and its sister services are buying thousands of the missiles for billions of dollars Imagine hundreds or even thousands of stealthy cruise missiles speeding at wavetop height across the western Pacific and Zeroing in on Chinese ships ports and air bases all at the same time gushes Axe Adding it's not for no reason the CSIS think tank calls the missile decisive in its war games simulating a war over Taiwan Yes, David Axe, I think we can all agree It's not for no reason that the Lockheed Martin funded think tank has great things to say about a product That's making billions of dollars for Lockheed Martin That's some great journalism there bucko This weapon system that Axe has been charged with marketing allows for large numbers of cruise missiles to be loaded onto Pallets and deployed out of the backs of giant cargo planes and has been the subject of warnings from the bulletin of the atomic scientists Last month the bulletin's George M. Moore wrote the following quote The potential to develop rapid-dragon so it can deliver nuclear weapons does not seem to have received any attention The AGM-86 air-launched cruise missile is capable and currently deliverable by B-52s It appears that nothing would prevent the rapid-dragon deployment of the ALCM Turning any cargo aircraft capable of using rapid-dragon into a nuclear delivery aircraft The potential to use rapid-dragon for nuclear weapons delivery and eventually this will occur Will create new issues when serious nuclear weapons limitations resume Unlike some past arms control agreements that require elimination of launch vehicles There is no way to negotiate a limitation on cargo aircraft with rear ramps and quote So here's a billionaire owned news rag Marketing a Lockheed Martin product endorsed by a Lockheed Martin sponsored think tank and disguising it as journalism While also normalizing the idea of fighting and winning a war against the chinese military using technology that could lead to nuclear war Just another day in the world of empire propaganda A think tank is usually just an institution in which scholars are paid by the rich and powerful to think up reasons Why it would be good and smart to do something evil and stupid One of the most depraved things that happens in the world today is the way war profiteering corporations and plutocrats Are allowed to fund immensely influential warmongering think tanks Which then go on to influence the thinking of government policymakers in support of war and militarism Media outlets like the telegraph routinely cite these war profiteer funded think tanks as experts on foreign policy and international affairs Without ever disclosing this immense conflict of interest to their audiences A recent study by the Quincy Institute found that 85 percent of the think tanks cited in the mainstream press when reporting on the war in Ukraine were funded by war profiteers like Lockheed Martin Raytheon and Northrop Grumman This is journalistic malpractice It is never ever in accord with journalistic ethics to cite war profiteer funded think tanks on matters of war militarism or foreign relations But the western press do it constantly Without ever disclosing this immense conflict of interest to their audience because the western press are propaganda firms for the western empire Western reporters cite empire funded think tanks because they generally align with the empire-approved lines that a mass media Stenographer knows they can advance their career by pushing And they do it because it gives them an official looking expert source to cite While proclaiming more expensive war machinery needs to be sent to this or that part of the world or what have you But in reality, there's only one story to be found in such citations War industry supports more war This war industry supports more war headline is all stories like the above are really communicating Yet they dress it up as news reporting because propaganda only works if you don't know you're being propagandized All we ordinary members of the public can do is throw sand in the gears of this information laundering operation at every opportunity By highlighting again and again and again where people are being propagandized and how