me high last too. And my guest is Elizabeth Rikisak. She's the author of A Beat Plus Life. Elizabeth, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for having me. You're excited. I am very excited as well because I found out about your book from one of my fellow book club members at Coloal Banker Island Properties, my office in Kapalua. And she handed me your book. She hasn't read it yet either. I go home, I start reading it, and then I cannot put it down.  All the messes, all the successes. And it made me wonder why did you write this book? What was your goal? Did you just want to tell the truth? Did you want to help people learn from your experiences? What was your goal? My goal is to reach other women. When I say other women, I'm thinking women over 50, mainly because by 50 you've had some journey behind you. For whatever reason, the universe of God gave me a journey that was pretty challenging. And I wanted to share it as honestly as I could with other women to give them hope and inspiration to not give up no matter what happens. Keep going. But you know, I'm not 50 yet. I learned a lot from your book and I do have to say that, you know, it's good for somebody younger to read it as well because it brings up so many issues from your life that we learn from as well. That's right. You know what? You're right. You're right. So that you don't make the mistakes, perhaps, that I did. The marriage mistakes, the career mistakes, whatever they are, whatever was thrown at you, it helps to hear it from someone who's been through it, who might be a little wiser to lead you.  Well, I'll tell you what, a lot of women, especially me, chose partners for the wrong reasons. And lots of times we ignore those red flags. They're right there. They're right there and we ignore them. So I know I married out of fear. Fear is the worst reason to be married or insecurity. And also I married out of because I was lonely, loneliness. Women have been told that they need a man to be fulfilled. And that's not always true. That was true. Unless you find that perfect partner, which is hard to find, it's okay to be alone. It's okay to do this journey alone. And I wanted to give the strength to other women knowing what I've been through, divorce, abandonment, sickness, accidents, raising children alone. Right. Speaking of children. So, you know, while this book is, has very good advice for women trying to find a partner, I think it also has some very interesting stories about motherhood. And you talk about your relationship with your mother.  And that part of the story becomes very complicated. And you're keeping it very, very honest. My mother was a beautiful soul, however, she was very emotionally. And so I, the roles were reversed, and that I helped my mom a lot. She died very young. So I promised myself when I became a mother, I would raise my daughter strong and independent, all the things that I was not raised. I was raised to please and care. And I did. I raised a very strong woman. Then I adopted a child. And if you read the book, you will be astonished how that all came to be. I lived in the deep South.  There are so many facets to my story. I broke less barriers, racial barriers, societal barriers, political barriers, and religious barriers living in the South. And I tried to touch on all of those in the book. It didn't go, if you've watched the movie Blind Side, you'll think, ah, this is Blind Side. Pretty blonde woman, adoptive black boy, great football player, blah, blah, blah. Well, guess what? It was like Blind Side, but with it, not a good ending. Yeah. And I don't know how much of that you want to reveal to our viewers, but I do want to say the story gets very complicated. And there are some very difficult moments there for you as a parent and an adoptive mother. Yes. Very complicated. And I'm astonishing. The things that not to give the book away, but this adopted child was very needy and wonderful at first. And then as he became very successful in high school as a football player, it all went astray. And he ended up breaking the law and going to prison. This affected my other relationship, I thought. When I just thought in my little naive mind that when God drops something in your lap, in your path, you should just don't ignore it. Don't ignore it. Obviously, I meant I was meant to help this little boy. But not only that, I thought it would be such a great lesson to teach my other two children that when somebody needs help, you help them. Unfortunately, it didn't all work out that way. I think there was a lot of resentment. And when he broke the law, it was a huge scandal because, of course, I was teacher of the year, which makes it all the worse. And my two children were very, very, my two biological children were very, very embarrassed by it. And you can imagine their life throughout the school. So why do I bring this up? Because it was about as bad as it can be in many areas. And I kept trying. I never compromised anything for these children. They were everything to me. And I must say that they all turned out very well. They're all in the late 30s, highly successful at the professions they chose them to do. So focus and have fun. It was hard. Do you think that all your children read the book? Do you think that all your family read the book? Have they told you or wrote you or have anything about it? Because again, you're very honest, not only in relating the fact, but also your feelings about all these people in your life. Purposely, I purposely, well, first of all, there are no names in the book. So I tried, I didn't even tell them like this about the book that was published. And then I told them that I wrote something that I felt very strongly about to help other women. I tried to make them understand that nobody will know who they are. We have different names, last names. They live far away, not to worry. Well, my two biological children did read the book. And I have to tell you they weren't happy. I believe I cannot speak for them. However, I do believe that they felt that I exposed their life, their early life without permission. I believe that maybe I hit some deep core emotions that they had repressed for many, many years and all of a sudden it's all come back. It's all come out. And so they weren't happy with the book. They weren't happy. I was hoping that they would proud of me as their mom to be published and making a decision to write a book to help others. The greater good, the greater good. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. I'm hoping with time, maturity, they'll understand why I did what I did by writing this strictly a ministry. What about your brother? So, yes. So he's banned. In the book, he is not shed in a totally positive light. I have one brother that has passed. This particular brother that is alive is older. And we have never been close. I brought them into the book just to show my childhood and the struggles I had as a young woman in a family that I certainly didn't feel like I belonged to. So he and I have never been close. And I worried about when the book came out, which came out October 31st. On Christmas Day, I called him to wish him a very merry Christmas. I hadn't talked to him at all. He was very pleasant. He told me all about his hunting expeditions at his travels. He never mentioned the book. So I am under the impression that he doesn't even know it exists. And if he did, I don't think he at all interested. He's never been a great fan of mine. But we're on terms that we can talk. Not only my brother. There are people in the book that I portrayed and they know who they are when they read the book. And I tried to be very gentle. Again, I didn't write anything that I wasn't trying to make a strong point about two other women. I've carried so many people along the six decades because I felt, and I think a lot of women, the more people I have in my life, the more secure I am. I kept these friendships going, whether they moved my life or whether they cared about me, I kept it going. And my book gave me a way to personally purge, if you will, some of those relationships that I needed to let go and let go and love, which I should have done a long time ago because things have been hurtful, but I've forgiven and forgiven and forgiven. So the book helped me send some people off in love that no longer needed to be in my life, nor did I need to be in their life. So was writing this book therapeutic for you? It was very healing. It's healing, but I'm also, I love to write and for whatever reason, the university gave me this journey and I thought, you know what, let me see if I can make a story out of this to help someone. I mean, who am I? I'm not famous. No one knows me. But I think most women are like me and they can relate to a lot of the things I went through. We're not famous, we're not rich, but we have lived a journey. We all live a journey along and I just felt like I had so much to offer from my experience. Yes, it helped me. It was easy for me to write. It just flowed, which made me almost feel like the universe really was behind me. It really flowed. The reader, I felt that. I felt, you know, as I said, I couldn't put it down because it was, you know, the events and the feelings described in the book and it was easy to relate on some levels and particularly this honesty and describing your successes, but also your mistakes. You are a very accomplished teacher. You've had several words and you're a respected teacher, so I count that as a success. I think that you're also under your successes. I think motherhood is a success. You overcome many, many issues more than most mothers have to deal with in their life. I like how every chapter is a note at the end, a note to self. It's witty and sometimes it's sarcastic, but it goes to the point. I don't think I've seen that before. You know what, that came to me because as a teacher I have been reading many, many classics with kids and basically I'd say at the end of each chapter, why did the author write that chapter? What were we supposed to take away in one sentence? And so I really looked at my chapters and I thought, why did I write that? What was I trying to get across? I thought, ah, note to self. What did I learn? Maybe that's somewhat else. I tried to be funny, sometimes very serious and sometimes very sad. You know, the chapter when I lost my mom was really a tough one. As hard as she was, losing your mom is huge, especially the way it happened. The adoption process that whole time was painfully difficult. So I, at the end of each chapter, I would say, okay, what did I learn from this? What's somebody supposed to take away from this experience? So I had fun with that. It was fun. I even... And as a teacher then, is the title related to your habits of creating papers? Yes, that's why I picked B-plus. Let me tell you what. I love a B-plus. A B-plus, you know what that means to me? It means a kid that is trying so hard. Perhaps they're not gifted, but they're trying really hard to do the best they can. And that's as close as they can get. But in the meantime, since they aren't gifted and things aren't given straight to them easily, they work harder. They develop personality. They develop charm. They develop different skills because they know to be successful. They have to work that much harder. Whereas an A-plus child, or an A-plus, as I describe it in my book, an A-plus woman, they don't have to work as hard. People fall over for them. Things are easy for them. So I think if I was a businesswoman and I opened a business, I would only hire B-plus workers because I know what a B-plus means. It's a hard-working person trying to be an A. That's very, very interesting. You know, I have a teenager and she is A-plus student. And I agree with you that the kids that are A and A-plus, they have A and A-plus grades, you know, obviously they're academically inclined and it's easy for them. And thank you for correcting my perception that, well, a B-plus is somebody that doesn't have it quite, you know, it's actually somebody that's probably had more challenges and tried really hard. Exactly. They have to try twice as hard. So a B-plus might be as close as they can get to an A, but boy, they worked hard to get there. I mean, I love, the last part of my career I taught gifted and talented children, they had to be state tested, 96% and above on state standards. Brilliant. They didn't have to work that hard for anything. They really did. And A was nothing to them. It's those children that say, oh, I need to make this happen. And they try and they try, then they get there involved in many things. And then they have to bring out their personality and their charm. I've been mentioned that about my brother, my younger brother, and we were in Catholic school as kids. The nuns were so hard on him. He finally got us thrown out of Catholic school. And it turns out later, far later, I get a master's in reading and education and realize how deeply dyslexic my poor brother was. He wasn't bad. He couldn't read. He was dyslexic. What did he develop? An incredible personality. The guy was, when he died, he was one of the wealthiest successful men I eat because of his personality and perseverance that made up for other things. So I have very strong feelings about meeting a kid where they are and taking them further. And speaking about making things happen, one of the reasons I was so drawn to reading your book is because you now live in West Maui, actually just a few miles from our office. Yes. I wanted to know our neighbor. Thank you. So how did Maui call you? Exactly. What is your mission here now? My husband and I met in South Carolina in late 50s. I was in my late 50s. He was in his early 60s. And so we had quite a bit of a life before we met. So when we met, we retired also and 35 years of teaching. Retired. He retired from chemistry. But he's always been a surfer. And he was sitting there one evening and he said, gosh, when I was 17, I just wanted to give it all up and go to Maui. And surf would be a surf bum. But instead, he went to college, got a chemistry degree, had a family, raised a family, you know, the whole nine yards. So here we are sitting there and I said, well, it's not too late. Let's go. And believe it or not, we moved 4,800 miles away from everyone we knew and everything we knew to this tiny little island because of his love for surfing and my love for flowers and warm breezes, this place is incredibly special, not just its beauty. The spiritual aspect of this island feeling gives me shivers. The Aloha spirit. People are accepting. They don't judge you. It can be who you want to be. And we have chosen to have this quiet life here. We surf. I look at flowers. We have met a cadre of beautiful people. And it's just the most peaceful existence we've ever had. Maui is so special. I know you know that you're here too. It's so special. And I've never, I've never been happier in my life, nor has Ken. In fact, his joke always is, honey, I'm not leaving the island unless I'm in a box. I can understand that. And I know that besides, you know, enjoying Maui, you're also quite a community member.  And I'd love to hear more about that. Thank you. I work at the hospital. We have one hospital here. And I thought I need to get involved in that hospital. So I'm one of the people that runs the gift shop. Good job. And I sell my books in the gift shop by the time and the money goes to the hospital, give it to the hospital. I have such joy that I can help that hospital because it's the only one we have. And eventually, all of us are going to cross through the door one of these days for whatever reason. So let's make it the best it can be. And it's been a wonderful experience. The other thing I do is I work in a bookstore, Prince of the Library bookstore. Again, my book is in there. Are you working in the Kihei one or? Yes, I was doing the line of one.  So we start at one in Kihei. And it's great. And my book is in there and the money goes to the bookstore if they sell the book. Ken and I also have done much to help the homeless here, especially since the fire, we were able to collect $14,000 from friends back home when the fire happened. And they wanted to help, but they didn't know where to send money. So they sent it to us. And we put it in the hands of people that we know here, locals that we know, and paddles on the longboards, the big canoes, and the behind the club and the behind the club members, most of them lost everything. We were able to put money in all of their hands. Thank you for, thank you for doing this. I know there's a lot of help still needed. And it's both financial and emotional support that's still needed. Exactly. I'm probably one of the nicest things I was able to do lately is the little school up in Kapa Lua, right? By your shop, it's the Sacred Heart School. They've been intense. The classrooms are intense. These children, and they asked me to, they needed someone for a week. So I volunteered and taught second grade for the week. It was probably one of the most spiritual moments of my journey here. There was children, 85 children in that little school lost everything. Yet I've never met such joyous, gracious children from all over the world. Tongans, the Moans, they're all Hawaiian, but they're all different races and they are just so beautiful. And I was able to give my time and my talent freely to help the school. That was really a nice experience. Nothing like teaching an attempt with a booster at the door. Right. Oh my gosh. The winds blowing through the tent. It was really an experience. It was nice. Well, thank you for doing that. I know how hard it is. And I know it's very appreciated. And I just have one last question for you. What is next for this book? I would love to put this in Oprah's hands. And I say that teasingly. But what I'm saying is I would love a successful, empathetic woman that has connections to read it so that she can give it to every woman that could use a little help on their personal journey. Um, I don't know how to do that personally, but I would love if someone had the means or the fame or whatever it would take. And she likes Maui. She loves Maui. So I just joke about that, but I would love every woman to have a copy of this so that when they're feeling down, they can laugh, cry, and say, oh my God, you're talking about me. How many women I've heard from daily? Thank you. I don't know them. They messaged me, and they said, thank you. I cried when I read your book. Thank you for understanding. It's really, it's really good. I would love to get it out there is what I would like. Well, I don't know if Oprah is going to watch this talk show, but I've never dreamt this high for this talk show, but who knows? Maybe she will. Maybe she lives in Maui sometimes, but anyway, it doesn't have to be Oprah. I'm just teasing, but just somebody to get it out there in the hands of women that could use it right now. I think the story will carry on, and people will want to know more and read the book and probably reach out to you. You're so, that's the other part I like is that was easy to find you, and you were so gracious to join me on the show. Thank you. I wanted to say one little thing. The cover of the book. I met a young man on this island. He's somewhere in his 30 on the beach, and he is on the spectrum, and a lovely young man rides his bike to the grocery store, whatever he does. He turns out that I was watching him draw on the beach. He's a gifted artist, gifted, self-taught. So I actually went to him. His name is Tim McHugh, and I said, Tim, listen, I'm writing this book. It's a shot in the dark, and I told him what I had in mind to put on the cover. I told him in language. That young man drew that cover with just a little bit of instruction that I gave. I am so proud to promote the community that are on the spectrum, the autistic children. They're so talented, and it was my one more way of giving a plug to a student, and I've even put in the front on the dedication page I did write where you can get in touch with Tim. He's gifted, and I was just glad to be able to help by putting this cover on my book. Yes, it's a beautiful cover.  I'm watching him surf. If you'll notice on the cover, I've got rose-colored glasses on, and the last note to self in the book is refuse to remove your rose-colored glasses. In other words, never give up. Keep positive, keep that glass half full, not half empty, and just keep going girls. And that was, if you'll notice, I have rose-colored glasses on. And that's one of the best advice is keep your rose-colored glasses. Keep on those rose-colored glasses.  Well, thank you for this wonderful interview, and again, for being so honest in writing this book and sharing your experiences with us. I hope that many, many women and men in all ages will read it, including Oprah. Thank you. Thank you very much, Beth. And so our viewers, please read the book and we'll see you next time.


Hello guys, I just got done watching Cocaine Bear and I am super pumped to freakin' talk about this movie with you guys! I thought the only reasonable way to talk about Cocaine Bear was to do some cocaine myself and then I would be perfectly amped up in sight to talk to you about the film!  You know it! I know it's Charlie's Angels! Not the one from 2000, not the sequel Full Throttle, this was a newer movie and everybody hate it! So she said I have to go back to the drawing board, I'm gonna come up with something that's gonna blow everyone's mind to smithereens! I'm talking about a bear who's high on cocaine! How's the movie though you might be asking? Is this a movie that I'm gonna enjoy? Well it depends! Do you like seeing an animal absolutely abysserate people, ripping off limbs, mainly feet? Do you like people dangling from trees by their innards? Do you like watching young 11 year old kids trying to flee for their lives while a crazed bear, a beast, hunts them down? Looking for that sweet, sweet honey but instead of Winnie the Pooh's barrel of fun, it's looking for a package that it can take all the way inside of its belly. And then take you inside of its belly. This movie was awesome! And it's awesome because it's rated R and it's unapologetic, it's a horror gore fest with a lot of comedy. Yeah, it's sloppy as all hell, I wouldn't even say it's a great movie, but it's a fun movie, it's an experience that you'll remember, yeah there are pacing issues. This is an hour and a half movie that feels like it's two hours and twenty minutes long, it overstays, it's welcome somehow, yet it's welcomed at its length! I love a short film, short and sweet for that release makes this boy complete. But this film keeps going a little bit too long, especially in that final leg, but the final leg, that's fun, I need more cocaine!  For the most part the comedy is on point, there are fun characters coming and going, the kid actors were actually all pleasantly fun, this movie believe it or snot is based on a true story, not the bear part, but the fact that all this cocaine was dropped in the middle of the woods and they don't know what happened to it.    Well there you have it. My super awesome review for cocaine bear. I'd see it if you don't mind gore, if you don't mind swearing, if you don't mind violence and some comedy mixed together with bad effects. It's a great time. Go see it at the theaters and if you don't, a sound, how's that sound? Seriously, how's that sound? I can't hear myself. I think I've gone deaf. What's the deal with DVDs? Why do people have them anymore? You can find the shows on streaming services until they change where it's at every freaking week. You're on Netflix right now, Seinfeld. I don't know where you're going to be in a month. Make sure if you're not subscribed to this channel, you hit that subscribe button right away.  Hit that subscribe button now! Do it! Just do it! Make your dreams come true! Remember that? Shia. Pour one out for Shia. He's still alive. Thank you voice in my head. He's still alive. Like the video if you had some fun. Comment below if you saw cocaine bear and what you thought about it. And I'll hopefully see you next time. Jeremy Johnson! Jeremy Johnson! Jeremy Johnson!


YouTube has a new custom channel link for your channel that you can get by waiting 30 days or gaining 500 subscribers or get it just in a few days by linking your website. That's how we did it and I'll show you exactly what we did to get youtube.com slash c slash mg and wow. This was a new channel but it can work for an existing channel as well.  So in our case we wanted to get mg and wow. So I bought www.mgandwow.com and I linked that to our google plus page that is associated with our new channel and in a few days we got the little tick on google plus saying that our website was linked and as soon as that happened google plus let us pick a custom url which was mg and wow and then we got it. Now you can access our channel at www.youtube.com slash c slash mgandwow. This is the new way to create custom links for channels. It is now impossible to get vanity urls that begin like youtube.com slash your name. Can't be done anymore. The only way to get a custom url now is to use the slash c format by linking your website or following these rules. You can also wait 30 days or and 500 subscribers and the other requirements on the page behind me. You can also find that page down there in the description below and I hope this helps you understand exactly what you need to do to claim your custom link for your channel. Note everyone needs to do this because at some point in the future all the previous channel links may stop working. So get your slash c and make sure that you will have a healthy link advertise that link as your main channel because that will not go away. This is freedom and who am I I am George founder of freedom and mgn our multi gaming network and mgn is for me because I'm a gamer are you a gamer and is mgn for you find out at youtube.com slash mgn and did you know we have heartbeat dating for youtubers that now lets you customize all the links at the top of youtube so you can get one click access to your video manager to your comments to your analytics and there's also a dark mode that lets you turn off the lights on youtube so you can see it without the white for easier night time viewing get heartbeat by clicking right here that will take you to the google chrome web store where you can get heartbeat for free for your chrome browser I am George and you've been watching let's discover freedom click the first video to learn what is freedom and how it helps you grow click the second video to learn about sponsorships for all freedom partners even if you have just 10 subscribers and click the other videos like how do I leave freedom to learn more click get more views to learn how to build your audience faster on youtube click get more cpm to learn how to make more money from your channel and click get more music to learn where to get more music to spice up your videos click the first playlist to watch the george show on freedom that's my show or watch the anthony show or the alex show also on freedom and we will grow together as a family because this is the freedom family you are part of it we are all part of it and we're all growing together so grow with us and partner with freedom that play now button right there on the video bar is all you need to click to get started your secrets if you really look at yourself you will be speechless what happened to being doctors and teachers what happened to being your brothers keep


Have you ever heard of pictures worth a thousand words? This project puts that to the test by asking OpenAI what the Memento camera board sees. The Memento is running circuit Python code that connects to Wi-Fi, takes a photo, sends that photo to OpenAI, and then saves the response as a text file. You can also view the response after it is fetched on the Memento display. You can scroll through the photos you've taken to resend to OpenAI for multiple prompt responses. Six prompts are included to get you started, ranging from generic alt text to describing the image from the perspective of a friendly alien visitor from outer space. The inspiration for this project came from the descriptive camera project by Matt Richardson. Daying back to 2012, it used a Beaglebone and the Mechanical Turk API. Just over 10 years later, and this process can be automated and run with help and need for a Linux OS. See how you can use this project yourself by checking out the Learn Guide at learn.adafruit.com


My name is Stefan Kampelmann. I'm an economist by training and I work at the Faculty of Architecture Lacombre Orta at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. No idea. I have to probably more or less around the same time that I got involved in circular economy. I don't think I could say which of these two concepts was the first. I think it was more or less the same time that I heard about urban metabolism and the circular economy. I think both of these terms were quite intuitive from the beginning. These things kind of you don't need a huge explanation of what is behind them because themselves, concepts are quite intuitive and accessible and I think that's also why I was I think really starting to use them by myself to illustrate certain things that before maybe didn't really have a name or like a catch-all thing that you could say okay you know this whole discussion about sustainability of cities or a new way of doing the economy. Well you have circular economy and urban metabolism and then I started to talk about circular metabolism so that's kind of a good way to have a shortcut to a whole bunch of different concepts and thinking in just this one term. As a way of explaining to people what I'm doing. What field are you working? I'm an economist that then moved into the exploration of environmental issues or environmental problems especially urban areas but that's a long line. So just to say like I'm working on how to turn the metabolism of cities more circular it's just a very straightforward thing to do. So it's more about like the tagline that was conveniently capturing the field that I'm working and not like one aspect of the field. It's the field that I'm working on circular economy and urban metabolism. I think it's mainly still I mean it's very different for circular economy and urban metabolism. Circular economy has made inroads in loads of discussions and policymaking consultants have been actually the first to pick it up and you know like putting it into their way of you know framing necessary transitions or new strategies of doing business and etc. So circular economy is everywhere or at least it's becoming like a mainstream thing whereas urban metabolism has stayed more like a more scientific term or more like a concept more than a policy also because it's more descriptive in its scope. It's like circular economy is already like we want to render the economy more circular.  Urban metabolism is just like any city be circular or linear has a metabolism you know so it's just a descriptive rather than descriptive and analytical but less normative you know so it's more like a tool that you can use you know in academic discussions or in studies on how cities work and so it has been more limited to people who are studying and discussing cities in academic context or other I mean other people that in institutions have been trying to you know condense huge amounts of information and data on on cities into one you know one one approach but other than that I think many policymakers or I mean the general public would still find the term a bit exotic and and really just discovering the metaphor you know okay like his body has a metabolism and the city is also metabolism and okay you can talk about urban metabolism but but you know that's that's still you know that's still not into mainstream discussions it's hard to say because I'm obviously very biased in the kind of you know encounters and discussions that I that I have due to the fact that I'm you know I'm very interested in it and I meet people that are also interested in it so you might get the impression that that more and more people talk about it because you know that you meet all doing that this being said I think there's kind of a tendency and I mean in the large cities but also also maybe in smaller cities to try to find ways to to deal differently with you know big amounts of data that they have or gaining a more holistic understanding of what's going on in the city development and and this is kind of triggering maybe like a more interest also to to explore urban metabolism as a as a tool and as a like as a way to deal with that amount of information and and I think this is this increasing it's it's probably more has been picked up more on the on the other on the northern side of the the borders I think the Dutch policy makers or public administrations and you know consulting landscape has been a kind of more enthusiastic in embracing the term to to talk about complexities with loads of flows but also in Belgium it's you know it's it's maybe there's a tendency of saying okay you know this is maybe what we need to to understand the complexity of you know this this this this living thing of a city with loads of things moving all around and and different database that cover different things lots of lots of parameters that we want to understand it's too complex to do it right now but maybe this is something that we can use as a kind of yeah so as a framework or as a bunch of tools that we can they can deploy to me one of the the the challenges that I find very interesting and and to which like on which we I think should spend more energy on is to to find the representations of of this thing of metabolism I mean the metaphor is fine enough but but afterwards you end up with I mean these huge data sets and and and like a very well things that are hard to communicate in the end and they're difficult to use by non experts and the the risk is to to oversimplify things and have like very simple representations of the other metabolism so so I think if we had better tools to to to visualize and represent without oversimplifying the complexity of of metabolic flows I think that would really make a difference in terms of you know showing a minister in charge of I don't know like the development programs well you know this is what's going on this is how it could look like you know you know just to just to condense information in a more reasonable way and I don't think we have seen like the the perfect tool for that yet I mean there's there's people working on that that you know they create a very impressive graphics and then the you know flow diagram set up more sophisticated etc but but sometimes still ends up in spaghetti soup and then you don't really understand more you just see okay it's complex but you don't you know and you can't work with that to to formulate policy for example but this you know we need these kind of if you want policymakers to engage with it and use that in their decision-making it's it can't own not only it should not only represent complexity but also you know ways to deal with it lines of force opportunities etc so yeah like a better representations better way of condensing information without over simplifying or reducing to too much the the amount of information that is conveyed maybe to illustrate that this kind of kind of work with something that I'm working on right now so we we work on the different flows of organic matter here in Brussels and you could say okay there's this there's 400,000 tons of organic matter in terms of food imported into the city and out of that 200,000 tons end up in the incinerator and you discuss the the the overall metabolism in terms of you know these big flows and afterwards you can you can you can distinguish different types of organic flows if you know kitchen waste greenways in within greenways you can you know split it up into different fractions etc you can distinguish within different types of producers of organic waste you can look at different treatment options that you have for dealing with your organic waste you can look at different collection mechanisms so you can open the box of what is really going on in the city or how it could be improved and you end up with a with a with a matrix of a super complicated system okay with loads of them so I try to make a like a visualization of this based on like a you know big database of flows that we you know put together with with with the colleagues here at the the faculty and you end up in like a very sophisticated tool in which you see it all but in an incomprehensible way for anybody who's not you know used to looking at a big flow diagram so I did this with a like with a with a software for you know mapping material flow material flows so I was very happy with it so I say okay finally I see it all and I'm sure I don't forget anything and I like I follow the nuances and I make all the distinctions and everything and I showed it to the to the to the guy I'm working with at the regional environmental administration working on organic waste who is an expert on the topic and he told me like you know that's not useful that like I don't see anything nobody like I don't understand it nobody will understand it this is way too complicated the minister will throw it out like this is this is not helpful you know so and then he showed me a diagram that we produce like a synthesis diagram that we produce another study that that like an architect in the colleague of mine produced very nice very simple diagram nice colors like it kind of more appealing way and this you know that could be like it try to do something more like this you know and yeah and that like you know that proved to me like okay you know this simple diagram for me had a lot of lacuna because it missed certain things that we actually wanted to push you know so you know some of the things that we wanted to that the for example policymakers to to understand weren't really on that simplified diagram so I needed my complicated diagram and now I can you know I'm trying to explore something maybe in between or like maybe something that renders certain aspects of a more complicated diagram more appealing or more visual like you know adding I don't know you have in the flow diagram you have a picture of the the factory or the like a picture of like a treatment process or something to you know to create points of attention that this is the important stuff and all the other things maybe less important but if you want to look at them you can go into them so so and there's no like now there's no off-the-shelf tool that you can say okay you know this this is the exactly the right tool because I think in each case I mean the tension span is maybe different the knowledge of the people that are using the tools is different so you can expect maybe more from from a technical policy officer then from from somebody in a cabinet who has you know two minutes to discuss one thing before jumping into the next topic you know so so this is like a like an example of yeah like a like a like a concrete way that we you know try to invent new representations of urban metabolism that you know become used outside of academia maybe it's the tools you know so if you had the you know tools that everybody needs like all these different maybe there's a certain like there's different types of actors that that could use the same tool for their job like the academic can use it to deal with you know data complexity the policymaker can use it to show that their their policy you know reaches certain objectives you know the the the policy officer can use it to to monitor you know daily daily stuff so if you had the like tools that are used by different actors maybe that's that's a way to say okay we're always coming back to the same thing so that's why we like when tools evolve you need to you know talk to each other and and and collaborate so maybe it's maybe it's sharing similar tools which implies that you know certain things that are used in the academic world need to be maybe a bit less sophisticated a bit more more accessible or there's like different layers of things like you know that they can be a sophisticated version or complicated like in the spaghetti diagram that I just mentioned like you know I can have this at the back end but then the same thing feeds into maybe an interface that is much more accessible and much more yeah kind of condensing things and yeah so so so tools maybe but but I think like another avenue of further collaboration on urban metabolism I mean it's also I mean it would be nice to see worlds in which the policymakers see this really as a thing that they that they that they that they you know put a high up on the agenda and say like you know it's an actual thing that we try to improve like the urban metabolism of a city like I don't know Paris or London or Brussels it is something that we consider as a as a like as an object that we want to work with which they don't so far because so far like until now you have a guy that's in charge of energy if a guy in charge of water there's a guy in charge of whatever concrete or like a building building the building sector like urbanism and and nobody's in charge of the urban metabolism because it's the whole thing together you know so you know in order to you know to different people to work together like at some point you know it should be said that like you know like with climate change to say this whole abstract thing becomes a thing that we the climate change becomes something that we that we want to address and that we that we want to work on urban metabolism could be another like could transversal systemic thing that we say okay we we attach certain objectives to this to this way of seeing the world like let's say if there's a way to say the urban metabolism is so much linear so much circular it would be nice to to to then based on that measurement say okay our objective is to become so much more percent circular by by that by bite in ten years or something you know then everybody could work with it then policymakers could relate to it then researchers could say okay you want to reach their objective here's a couple of things that you that you might consider or we did some scenarios or tested things final things I think there's a risk in urban metabolism of being kind of non realistic it's a discussion I mean cities are gaining I mean cities have so much attraction to them I mean that they're gaining traction as we speak by the day big cities grow grow bigger and urban metabolism is I mean for me also include that is an attractive field because it feeds on that dynamism and and the attractiveness of cities it has the risk of of like of forgetting everything there is outside of cities you know so it's it's like urban urbanites that are interested in the environment look at what's going on in this parameter where it's maybe more important or is as important to look at things that bigger scales and look more as like at the scale of the territory on which the city depends and urban metabolism sometimes has the I mean has the risk of like you know just staying within these city boundaries and like okay let's improve the city etc like the way that the city works and and forgetting the relationship between the cities and and and the territories on which they depend and so so so like you know I this this notion of territorial metabolism or territorial ecology kind of circumvents that or like it overcomes a bit this this being confined to to the urban metabolism to the urban part of the urban metabolism because any urban metabolism is always a metabolism that that is an interaction between the the urban core and the peripheral territories or other cities with which they they they engage so I mean let's let's let's use urban metabolism but let's not forget that this there's a that the the the urban moment to it is only a part of the of the flows


Welcome! Thank you for choosing Immaculati University as the place to pursue your degree. My name is Dr. Angela T. Kelly, Dean of the College of Lifelong Learning, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to the College of Lifelong Learning. Immaculati University has been serving adult learners for over 40 years. We understand the challenges you face as an adult learner. Balancing school, your career, and your family. We understand that you have many obstacles that may have prevented you to getting to this point in the future. We are here to let you know that our team of professional advisors will help you overcome every hurdle in your way. Your success is our success. We have programs here to help you succeed. We have a Credit for Prior Learning program that is renowned across the region. You are able to take your life experiences and your prior learning and turn those into college credit. We have support services here to help you along the way, including a phenomenal Writing Center, as well as a great Math Center to help you as you pursue those courses. We are here to help you every step along the way. We look forward to seeing you at graduation. If you need anything along your journey, please do not hesitate to contact me directly or any member of my staff. Thank you again for choosing Immaculati University. I wish you all the best as you pursue all of your professional and personal endeavors.


Do you often wish you were born to wealthy parents? Do you often wish your parents had everything and so if they did, you would find it easy to live your best life? Do you occasionally find yourself connecting your life's failure to your parents' impoverishment? Let me guess, you probably didn't grow up in a wealthy home. Your parents were perhaps unable to get you the good things of life as a child. They love you, yes, but they just couldn't meet all your needs. Back in high school, you watched your friends get dropped off in school by their rich parents in their expensive cars. These friends came to school constantly to yab you about the expensive picnics and holidays their rich parents take them out on. You know this kind of life belongs to you but your parents just do not have it. So, you often wish you were born to rich parents. If you are truthful to yourself, you occasionally feel this way. If you were not born to parents who were rich, I, for one, can admit this to myself because I have been there. No way, I was not born with a silver spoon but I wish I had. Really, you have to admit it, every young person wishes to be born with a silver spoon. Thankfully, I wished I was born with one. I wished my parents had everything but we didn't. And that was that. A little bit about me. I am the second child in a family of five. My dad was an itinerant worker for the most part of my childhood days. I saw him often. But we weren't close. If you're from this part of the world, Africa, you're familiar with the example of the father who doesn't show affection. That was my dad. If he liked us or not, we didn't know. He was strict. He came in one way, we ran the other way. We hear his car honk down the street and we're off into the house like a rabbit. The attention my dad didn't give us, we got in our mom. We didn't own all the expensive things either. We had a few things to help us get by. But I wanted more and knew I deserved more. I desired too many things in life but we had few things. This affected me for a long time. I blamed my parents for our lack. They did all they could to provide for us but I wanted more. I saw my background was an excuse for not trying, for not putting in my best in everything. All those are childish thoughts now. I lied to a friend. Did you ever play the game where you told your friends your dad had an airplane under your bed? I told my friends that often. Once in high school, I posted so much to my friends that we had a color TV we never did. But I said we did. I promoted this lie so much a friend told me he was coming to visit me. I thought he was joking but he did follow me home one day after school. Well, you guessed what I did. I told him the truth before I was found out. Too many times, friends would invite me to a party. I would refuse to go because I felt I wasn't rich enough to be in their midst. Once I prayed so much to God to give me just one pair of jeans trousers because I didn't have any. I promised him I would never ask for more. God did give me one pair of jeans but I have asked for more and more and more and have continued to still ask for more. I did all this because I was ashamed of my background and for a very long time, I used my background as an excuse for not making the most of my life. Your background isn't an excuse for failure. Oprah Winfrey told the story of her childhood. Her mother was a maid as was her grandmother and great-grandmother. One day, her grandmother told her she would become a maid as well. Still as she was, young Oprah Winfrey told herself she would never become a maid. She had spent so much time in Sunday school and church services and she had often heard the pastor say that she was a child of God. Oprah Winfrey believed these very strongly. Everywhere she went, she told herself she was a child of God and would never end up like her poor ancestors. She would become successful and she would be on TV. She achieved this dream. Oprah Winfrey could have listened to her background. She could have argued that her parents' background was responsible for her failure as many young people do but she didn't. Instead of complaining, she made the most of her situation to become a great woman. Listen to this. Tons of people today use their background as an excuse for doing drugs and misbehaving But your parents' failure or success does not define your life. Your life is a gift given to you by God with the conditions that you alone will be responsible for it. So, yes, it can be tough not to be born to rich parents.  But you should stay laid back and do nothing since your options are limited compared to friends whose parents are rich, right? That's not true. Make the most of your background. Are you familiar with these statements? If only I was born to a rich parent, well, we all wish the same. But you see, you alone can decide what you become. You can't shy away from it anymore. Like it or not, though, God gave you the best parents and relatives you could ever have. He gave you the best condition and environment you can ever live in. Now, it's your job to choose to make the most of what you have. Choose to be different even if your environment does not permit it. The reason is simple. Your life is in your hands and the great news is, God's got your back. Anthony Robbins never hoped his poor parents would overcome their poverty but he never used their green poverty as an excuse either. Early as a child, he made up his mind he would become rich and would help a lot of poor people because he himself had experienced extreme poverty. He worked hard in college, reading over 700 books and came out to become successful. Such Christmas, he gives food to the poor. He could have used his parents' poverty as an excuse to never rise but he didn't. I watched a movie recently. One of the characters said, It seems bad now but days like today keeps a man riled up for a long time if he responds right. It means things may seem rough now but you need to know you're a diamond in the rough. It has given you the best parents you can ever have, accept who you are and grow by it. Looking back now, I love my parents for their sacrifices, love and everything they did. My dad did love me and he showed it in ways I didn't quite understand at the time but I understand now. We don't choose who our parents will be. We don't choose our background. We only choose who we become. After the story of the 10 spies in the Bible, 8 spies doomed their own destiny but Caleb and Joshua chose a different destiny because they had faith and they succeeded. It's not what's behind you that matters, it's what you do with what's before you that counts. If this video inspired you, like the video and subscribe to our channel. We love you.


We're going to do the abusive partner prank call.  I'll go check. Go on open a map wide.   Ralph, I'm sorry, mate. Um, how I'm wondering if I could place an order for a pickup. Just from, yeah.  I'm sorry, I'm sorry about him. He's, uh, yeah, we're just wanting to pick up. Um, we just wanted two pizzas and a pizza for our kids. Do you guys do kids pizzas or is it just? Ralph, Ralph, stop, please. Do you guys do kids pizzas or is it just like adult ones? Just a normal size.  You don't know where I am.   OK, well, we'll just go with maybe, yeah, two kids pizzas. They like ham and cheese. Can we just get the ham and cheese, please? Can we just get the ham and cheese? Yeah, on the building. Ralph, stop, please, stop. I'm building a fort next door. Um, we'll just go with, yeah, just it. We'll get two ham and cheese kids pizzas, please.  Yeah, just two ham and cheese pizzas, please, for the kids, kids sizes.   I'm putting it in the box. Also, just one round. What pizza do you want? Please calm down. Ralph, what what pizzas are you wanting? Give me a rum and come pizza. Right, I'll just go with a vegetarian for me. Could I get the spicy veg, please? And could I get that on puff crust? Yeah, I'll just go with a yeah, on the puff crust. And we'll just get him and me, others, I think, and just go with thin and crispy for him, I think. Denny L.  If you don't look at me right now. OK, so. And what about drinks? What do you want to drink, Ralph?  So, yeah, we'll just go with some Coke, if that's all right. Coke or cola. And just, yeah, just a Coke. And I think you've got like the new desserts.  I don't care. The lava wrap. Yeah, yeah, they seem good. Are they big? Because like, yeah, just would one be OK for two kids? Or should I get two?  We'll get one of those and we'll go with the churros, if that's OK, that is the desserts you have.  Don't you think of my... Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.  Oh, sorry, he doesn't. I can't, yeah. I'm deaf, I'm deaf, look at me, I'm... He doesn't want his number given. He's just, he's real whack with that sort of stuff. I'm deaf, look at me, everyone. OK, I've got to grab a number for that one, if that's all right. OK, we'll just go with 0401. I'm deaf, write it down and send it over next door, because I'm not dealing with it. 621.  You have to give the number around.  Yeah, um...  Or you'll come to see it through my skin. Do you understand me? I'm so sorry, I couldn't... Wrap my testicles around your pinky finger. And... OK, thank you.    Oh, they're going to make that food, I never... Can you cancel? You have to call them and give them. Always cancel. They couldn't do it. Dude, they're going to make the food. Mate, we're pranksters, we're not the devil. They're going to see these podcasts.  They would have heard all of that. Oh, man, that was hard work.  I had to tune out so hard and so much of it. You played real victim, man. I thought you were just going to ignore it, but you kept playing victim. It's coming down. Did you give them a number? Yeah, hi, this is Joey, how may I help you? Yeah, we're just going to cancel that order for Danielle. We just got a sprocket leak in the car socket, so we can't drive down. Yeah. Sorry about that. Sorry about... The cars, it's all rusted on the side. It's like a big chip out of the front left tire there. Oh, my God. Yeah, I know. I haven't seen it like this. I haven't seen it like that yet. Anyway, we'll put the grease on the back spoiler and we'll see if we can get it gone, but it's not looking good till probably next Tuesday. But anyway... That's bad, man. Push the sprocket fence to the cylinders and there's nothing there. There's just nothing in there. So... Yeah, thanks, mate. Appreciate it. The oil. See you, dude. That's even better than the phrase 4!


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The most important piece of advice my father ever gave me was to follow my dreams, work hard, and to remember to always smile. The best piece of advice I'd ever got from my dad was to be my true self and not hide who I was. Yeah, my dad taught me to respect and value everyone despite their position or place in life. He said that I could pick any path that I wanted to pick in life and that's something that I've passed on to my boys.


The Department of the Navy is a war-fighting machine, Navy and Marine Corps, and the threat is worldwide, it's growing, it's getting more complex, technology is changing, it's getting into the hands of more people, and we only have so much money to spend in the budget, and so we have to be very innovative in how we meet that threat and how we use that resource so we're supporting our sailors and marines to the maximum extent possible when they're out doing protecting the country.