Good evening. Good evening. We thank God for this day. And we're going to do a few songs. Before we do that, we're going to have ourselves for a word of prayer. We request the people in the congregation to kindly rise up so that we may pray together. Let us pray. Dear Jesus, we thank you for the gift of life, for the gift of this day. We thank you very much, Lord. As we start our session today, Father, we ask that you maybe go ahead of us, Lord. We ask for forgiveness of our sins, Father. Here we've wronged the ascertaining forgivers, Lord. And the word that we learned today, Father, we pray that it will be that that glorifies your name and somebody, Samia, will get closer to you because of what will be taught today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So we thank God for allowing us to have this week, this family life week. We're going to do a few songs. Our first song today comes from S.D.A. Himnal, song number 656. Oh, perfect love. Let's all join in the singing. See? Oh. In the sense of the living God. Okay, let's pray. Our Lord and our Father, who art in heaven. Once again it has placed you that we gather here in the Holy Sanctuary to listen to your instructions. Your children have also logged in virtually, heavenly Father. In five flan corners of the world. Just to appreciate you as the Lord of our lives, our creator, our sustainer, and our redeemer.  And today we have a rich menu for us so that we can be able to enrich our families. We pray that you'll be able to send us a double portion of the spirit to minister to each and every one of us, heavenly Father. And we pray more so also for the speaker that you've prepared for today that you'll be using mightily today than ever before. May all be done decently and orderly to your own and to your glory because we pray in Jesus' name. So once again those who have come physically into the house of the Lord, the Holy Sanctuary, we welcome you in a special way and we continue to encourage you to continue coming and to invite friends and colleagues because there's much in store for you. We also want to invite those who have logged in virtually that you continue because this is one program that you want, you don't want to miss because it affects everybody in the family because the family unit is the smallest unit of the church because once the family is not well then the church will not be well. And so at this particular point I want to introduce those who are serving the Coristas, Carolina Simba and Betris Okongo. And we also have the sign language. I can't see anybody on the piano. Sister Lynette will be giving us a scripture reading and the speaker that the Lord has prepared for this week is Pastor Samson. And so I see him becoming, each one of us whisper a prayer for him so that the Lord can be able to use him mightily. Now we'll have an opening song, SDA Himnal 655. And we request you to be upstanding. Let's all join in the singing. Now there are some sisters who are physically here and those who are watching us virtually. It is another moment we are turning to the word of God and before I read the word of God, may we actually bow for a word of prayer. Almighty Jehovah, we lift your name at this hour. Thank you so much for this opportunity that you have given us to come into your house and be a booking of kings to feed from that which you have prepared for the children. We are opening the word further and we call upon the spirit to open our understanding and further to soften our heart that these words will fall and these words further will make us do us of the words. Bless it because I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Saviour. Amen. So I'm going to read from Proverbs 17-22. Proverbs 17-22. So I'm going to use King James version so you can follow in your various translations. Proverbs 17-22 says, Amiri heart doeth good like a medicine but a broken spirit drieth the bone. Repeat again, Amiri heart doeth good like a medicine but a broken spirit drieth the bones. May the Lord bless that reading. Good evening girls children. We want to thank again our Lord for giving us the privilege to be here. We welcome our physical audience here. We also welcome our virtual audience and we want to encourage our virtual audience as many as are able to join us physically as we continue to serve what God has for us. It's important of course as we are able let's also come physically so that some of the exercises that we are doing here we could feel the atmosphere of everyone of us who is present participating. We began on Saturday and then in the morning of that day we looked at Christian marriages and families challenges and opportunities. Of course we know that the whole focus of this week of prayer is on Christian marriage and then of course on Christian family. So we set the stage on the first day in the morning looking at Christian marriages and families and then seeing the contemporary challenges that today plague not just families or marriages that are outside there those who also belong to the house of God and in the evening we looked at five signs of marriage fatigue looking at the background that we use that the four seasons of marriage and we did say that it's not necessarily something that we can give a timeline that between ages one to five in marriage this experience we call it could be winter could be summer could be fall or it could be spring these seasons can come anytime multiple times even in marriages and then on Sunday we looked at the nine blocks for building a healthy marriage yesterday we considered the effects of anger of course on mental health and definitely also on families today we are looking at natural emotional well-being in the family which is more or less like a bridge between our first three presentations and then our presentations tomorrow Thursday, Friday of course Sabbath is going to be a celebration tomorrow we will be looking at parenting today issues and challenges it may not be a very long one then of course on Thursday we will be looking at the tripod of Christian parenting and on Friday we will do some reflections on some Bible passages contending for your children using three very key examples to be able to reflect on this contending for your children and like I mentioned the last day on the morning which is coming Saturday will be more or less a kind of celebration and of course thanking God for placing us in families and trusting him for his leadership in our lives this week when we began on Saturday we did mention that is a global family week of prayer global family week of prayer and of course we have modified it a little bit on the context by calling it family wholeness as we have it on here family wholeness but today what we are going to be discussing the presentation we are going to look at today is one of the presentations specifically prepared for this week and as you can see here it is being prepared by the couple who is in charge of family ministries for the general conference on the Adventist Willie Oliver and then Eliane Oliver but I have significantly modified success of it to give it some flesh and make it a little more practical and relevant to our context so it is important for me to bring out that now the seminar today explores family environment that is why I began by giving the long introduction of Saturday, Sunday and yesterday and then looking at this one as a bridge so we are no longer just looking at the parents but want to see the entire family before we move again tomorrow looking at the issue of parenting so we will be looking at family environment interaction and how it can impact an individual social, mental, emotional and spiritual well being across life span for that reason in the course of representation just like we did yesterday we will pause for about 10 minutes or there about for some personal reflection based on what we are going to project on the screen and it is important to do this so that we can see how this influences see how this influences of course as I grow up I can't stop talking about my family like of course second generation 720s my father being a pioneer adventist and also a lay preacher in the context where we grew up from but I'm also very familiar with the family setting as somebody who grew up in the village and not also that somebody who left home early with one of my older siblings which is African culture the older siblings I'm the last of 8 and the second the third or the second can take you out if you're married early and that can leave certain impressions in your life you see can cause some depend on the environment and the circumstances which you find yourself and I did find myself in some of those you can leave some very deep very deep emotions in mind that sometimes can be body positive positive and sometimes quite negative and if kia is not taking this can influence and I know some who actually suffer or perhaps are struggling with this you see as parents we want to see our children grow up holistically and I think that sometimes when we grow up and we become very aware there are some childhood experiences which we had which we don't want our children to have some childhood experiences that we had maybe negative that we don't want our children to have so it is a desire of every parent that children grow up physically mentally, intellectually, spiritually and socially and normally in our 720s philosophy of education we normally quote we normally quote no just go back to that slide we normally quote luke 252 I say luke 252 and Jesus grew in what wisdom which is mentally, in stature which is what physically then in favor with God which is what spiritually and then with man socially actually in wisdom would be both mentally and intellectually we normally quote this in our advent philosophy of education that Christ had a holistic growth I think it is somewhere that the bible also uses this kind of description that somewhere grew up also in favor holistic growth is always applied to Christ and I think it is a desire of every parent that we have this kind our children have this kind of experience especially also when we see the background in which we are coming from so we desire children to be fulfilling, to be purposeful to contribute to the home church and society and then of course also family becomes a primary center of nature primary center of nature and like I did mention earlier which I want to repeat here the choice nature of course family of it we are not all the same the temperaments are not all the same and that is simply because of what the gene does on us we take here but as children grew however we know that the environment is also very important and the first environment is the home so the choice nature temperament aptitudes the skill or nurturing becomes very important becomes very very very important and that is why we have a lot of bible passages 4 of them are given here those are very familiar they are very familiar 4 of them are 22 verse 6 talks about training of a child training of a child some versions today say educate because looking at the holistic then efficient 6 verse 4 talks about fathers do not provoke again family environment as a family environment we are also familiar with Romans 6 7 we have parents we are encouraged to teach diligently their children to teach their children when they sit when they stand when they walk and when they lie again family environment and another example is 2 Timothy 3 verse 15 and another example is 2 Timothy 3 verse 15 I think that should be 2 Timothy 3 5 2 Timothy 3 5 let me confirm that not 3 15 that should be 2 Timothy 3 5 we are Paul commanded Timothy 2 Timothy 3 verse 5 I think actually is actually think that is wrong when we can correct it here 2 Timothy 1 verse 5 2 Timothy 1 verse 5 so let me correct that one that is 2 Timothy 1 5 not 3 15 1 verse 5 there is a a misplacement of the fingers there now 2 Timothy 3 verse 5 is again said I remember the sincere faith we have and that is for this reason I mind that the gift you had and then that is the way I had in mind but if we also look at but where I have a mind is that one from a child you have no the sacred writings and it talks about the parents the role of the parents in bringing out and of course if we now look at 3 15 3 15 which is the second one so we want to put the two initially what I had in mind is the first one but then 3 15 you can also look at 3 15 which goes for the first the quotation on the screen but for your personal maybe reading we can also look at 2 Timothy 1 verse 5 because this also talks about the family environment because when you read 1 verse 5 Paul mentions the grandparents laws and then the mother Eunice see again family environment so that what he now fends in 2 Timothy 3 15 is actually talking about the product of the home so we have some of these quotations to portray this as well in the book child guidance page 297 page 297 how to make this statement for parents and teachers to do this work they more themselves understand the way the child should go again talking about the family environment this embraces more than merely having the knowledge of books it takes in everything that is good virtuous righteous and holy it comprehends the practice of temperance godliness brotherly kindness and love to God and to one another in order to attain this object the physical mental moral and religious education again the holistic understanding becomes very very very very important very very important in discussing this especially the family environment remember when I began I did mention that yes I left home quite early I think at the age of 5 I left home I began living with my second elder sister before of course I came back maybe home around age 12 13 or there about but I still remember some very childhood experiences you see one of such is because we are living in the northern part of the country I am from southern part southern Nigeria but we are living in northern part because we were married to a military man and then water was very scarce we have to sink well and when we are some of us are very familiar we have to throw the bucket into the well and then pull the water out and sometimes during dry season the water level is what so deep and I could remember that this particular well because if you throw in the bucket because the water level is very low the mud can mix with and you don't have a clean water so you can just walk on the steps very close and then you scoop the water fill the bucket and you come out and I remember one of these days early in the morning when I finished that I was coming up I think we are about 12 I missed my step and fell and I still have the scar here I also the other day I think we are sharing with some from friends outside here I can also remember vividly we are talking about the adverse child experiences I can remember also vividly my immediate sister playing with her in the joy of siblings playing I ran, she ran after me pushed me and then my family here was severely fractured that it took time and those are very traumatic experiences some may come in different ways some may come in different ways now experiences and research shows that every child in the first 18 years of life could have some of these experiences it could be an abuse it could be a neglect it could be severe household dysfunction and if we can go to the next screen we see some examples some other people here even though it's a bit far from you but when you have the slide you can look at it very well under abuse and neglect at home it is said that in some homes between ages 3 and 8 a child may have suffered sexual abuse in some homes or verbal abuse I see or verbal abuse which of course will be the way our parents spoke to us or physical abuse I grew up with parents especially my mother who was a disciplinarian who believed that a child can hear she believes so much in what the Bible says spare the road and you do what and spoil the child and many parents believe that but sometimes some parents leave children with lifetime injury and very difficult experience so this also can happen then we talk about living in care or being homeless maybe this for some of us here may not be affected then the other side of it we talk about domestic violence at home some homes children grow up really really seeing parents really fighting really really fighting I was embarrassed once with my wife who visited the couple and the next thing we had was noise from the upstairs and the next thing was really really fight and children are there at home this affects then of course maybe incarceration maybe that may not be about alcohol abuse drug abuse it could be mental illness or even parental separation it could even be death of one of the parents one of the parents now some of us here possibly that is what I say now and various studies before I go various studies worldwide review at least one third of children at least one adverse childhood experience before age 18 and approximately 14% experience two or more adverse childhood experience as for adverse childhood experience so I just want you to relate because the point here is that to some extent if not well managed a child, a parents adverse childhood experience can influence his marriage can also influence even his family environment how he relates with children the adverse childhood experience can influence his marriage can also influence even how he relates with the children so we just want to spend some time like we did yesterday just to reflect on your own we are not going to groups just look at it here unlike yesterday I'm not going to ask questions to see who suffered what or who experienced what but let's just look have a mental picture can we go to the next slide okay just look at it here now so maybe you can relate you may able to relate is it maybe that of parents physical abuse parental divorce family violence neglect at home witnessing violent acts maybe outside the home possibly in the neighborhood or family member attempting or committing suicide maybe substance abuse mental health problems or having a household member who is in jail or prison of course war or political conflict becoming a refugee the last one the we know Nigerian civil war 1960 to 1970 I think I was just about 3 or 4 that also is something I have not forgotten when my parents had to leave because you know the war was against southern Nigeria west and south trying to conquer the Nigeria which we call the Biafra I still remember that but about 4 or 5 of the child experience my leg accident and that war these are the 2 child experience that have ceased I have forgotten many things but these 2 I say these 2 these 2 have these 2 and of course for this time we are half a year on now that then maybe then surveillance was limited maybe soldiers fought as closer range but if it were not where you can use surveillance to see people how could we run but I know of children who went through this so the issue is that depending on how parents grew up on how parents grew up and how they might be impacted in one way or the other by some of this adverse childhood experience it is possible if not properly managed then the adult in adult life that can influence a person's marriage how he behaves that can also influence even how he release with his family members highly with family members so we could just look at this again and see we can relate with that so it is essential to understand and address these factors just like yesterday when we were talking about the issue of anger and we said that sometimes the immediate cause of anger may not be yuri cause of anger that could be something deeper that could be something deeper in the same way also a family environment either by the father or the mother what controls the family or informs the family environment may be a very distant experience very distant experience of childhood very distant experience of childhood and so the idea here is that to be able to create or nurture an environment a well-being it is also possible to do some introspection actually it is important to do some introspection and see how we may be able to detach ourselves from maybe a negative experience denying it sometimes may result into something else but at admittance and then the ability to walk through it can go through it so it is essential to understand and address these factors that put individuals at risk and be committed to protecting them from this so parents therefore can do their part by creating a safe and stable environment but we said to be able to do that as a parent sometimes it is necessary to do a kind of introspection especially on this adverse childhood experiences and see whether any of them is not influencing the adult life again cutting from Adventist home page 16 paragraph 1 here Eli, why he says to a large extent parents create the atmosphere of the home cycle and when there is a disagreement between father and mother the children partake of the same spirit take your home atmosphere fragrance with tender thoughtfulness if you have become and strange have failed to be Bible Christians be converted for the character you bear in provisional time will be the character you will have at the time of Christ, at the coming of Christ if you would be a saint in heaven you must first be a saint here on earth the trace of character you cherish in life will not be changed by death or by resurrection and she makes a very profound statement here you will come out from the grave with the same disposition you manifest in your home and society if there is no transformation of course Christian experience second Corinthians 517 which I have referred I think it do also I believe strongly in that if any man being Christ what a new creation a new creation it is possible for transformation to take place to take place so while of course this advanced child experiences may be very traumatic and painful but as Christians we can walk through them we can walk through them to see how we can minimize the negative impact of such on the family and even on ourselves of course even on a family and that is what she is saying here and so another thing also here is going to the issue of advanced ACs let me just use ACs that also can influence parenting style that can also influence parenting style and I'm sure we are very familiar with these four types of parenting style which we don't need to overflog authoritarian permissive, neglectful or authoritative authoritative sometimes the home we come from can also influence except again there is a change of world view that is change of world view a replacement of the world view a Christian world view then that also could be possible so if we again look at possibly we could place ourselves maybe in one of this maybe looking back at our homes I say we could place ourselves in our homes we could place ourselves in one or two in one of this in one of this but research parenting research parenting has identified two factors associated with the dynamics of the parent child relationship we are talking about the family environment family environment as I try to raise for children I think I was saying we don't actually say we have finished raising children maybe they are settled but raising children at least one is 24 24, 25 sometime this year 22 and we see the developmental stage and then of course third one 18 we sometimes ask ourselves whether we are controlling so much or we are supporting so much and sometimes also you realize that both parents don't have the same the same style we see both parents don't have the same style like I come from a family where my father believes much more in talking to you he believes more in talking to you reasoning with you so that you can understand but like I said my mum was more or less the action person who believes very much in spare the road and wards and support the child maybe my wife also tends towards my mum maybe something like that because I see that maybe it's like my wife tends also towards my mum we are you see you have to cause we are they feel affirmed but at the same time they know they are responsible they are also responsible and that is the balance and so children are more likely to become responsible and emotionally healthy adults when parents have a healthy balance of warmth and boundaries and like I said I come from a home where I saw the balance in the father and mother and I think somehow also I see also the balance in the home but it's very important there's also a greater likelihood that they will accept parental values develop morally according to age and become socially responsible and I think when we stay develop morally according to age is very important of course family environment because developmental psychology helps us to understand although sometimes we want our children to perform at an age bigger older than they are we want them to exhibit setting characteristics older than their age of course there are some children who are gifted who can actually be 13 but they behave like 17 some may be 8 they behave like I think that even in my own family too the family with the 4 children the maturity level for each of them is not exactly the same but what we are saying here is that when there is that support and control it is possible for children to grow up accept parental values develop morally according to age and become socially responsible and caring adults and we come again to another text from a quotation from a white adventist page 15 paragraphs 3 and 4 home should be made all that the world implies it should be a little heaven upon earth a place where the affections are cultivated instead of being studiously repressed our happiness depends upon the cultivation of love sympathy and true courtesy to one another the sweetest type of heaven is a home where the spirit of the Lord resides if the will of God is fulfilled the husband and wife will respect each other and cultivate love and confidence so creating a heavenly atmosphere and the five of them five traits have been identified five tribes have been identified in this presentation here healthy families create an atmosphere where angels want to dwell on our first day here at the Sabbath we talked about some of the characteristics that God desires that they be evident in families because these are the characteristics that He used in defining His relationship with us love compassion discipline faithfulness loyalty we cannot talk about trust, perseverance protection and provision these are not just automatic they need to be walked upon love, compassion discipline, faithfulness loyalty trust, perseverance protection someone has said family is where we love where we share where we play where we laugh where we fight at least but not with a hand glow because some tension can also exist but where we live so one of the the ways of nurturing emotional webbing in family is to create a very positive atmosphere where angels want to dwell and we will say again here that the characteristics will be love compassion discipline, faithfulness loyalty, trust perseverance, protection protection and provision of course in the context of support and control they have that balance that we have talked about here in that context the balance of love and also and also control and also control the second trade is Heady families practice effective communication of course experts in communication can positively talk about this but we will just address it briefly Marital communication is an interaction between spouses involving action of information creating meaning and influence each other positively or negatively I believe that one key text that can help us is Colossians 4.6 We have policies let your speech always be with grace season result that you may know how you ought to answer each one So heady communication at home is very important now and this could be verbal and non-verbal communication experts tell us that body language actually takes a larger percentage of communication how I say it you see how I say it 55% then the tone of voice is 38% and then words how many percent just about 7% I say the tone of voice the tone of voice and then of body language and sometimes also at home of course we know how we can use we can use this now some strategies to improve family communication one of them availability availability I told you the story yesterday or two days ago about my daughter who said listening to me with words with your eyes not just words not just your ears be available be available so create time cherish time in every family but be schedule hot and talk about things also create time to talk about things talk about things when a child begins to say I want to tell you something daddy or the husband says or one mother says so and I say wait until I have time and it takes one week, takes two weeks it is likely that the person want another year elsewhere so availability is very very important is very very important available to each other and to one another as the case may be then clarity clarity we say exactly I think that was in that was maybe sometime in October also because my second daughter was doing so much job and I had told her this so much job we are doing part of the money is going to your face just to discipline her so that she will let it in and by the time I ask her later she made some good money working for three months in her school in the US she told me as I said no you go and write down for me this money you made give me what you have spent on each before you say we now have this amount and my wife said you are not always clear on what you say you should have told her from the very beginning and I told her I said no you didn't tell her exactly that this is what you want and I think she repeated that to me two or three times when you say something you always like to moot and you think that people have understood you why not say it very clearly you see so that people understand this is what you mean exactly I said but I told her no no no I was there when you were talking to her on phone you didn't say it clearly possibly I didn't say it clearly the way she would understand it but we resolved that because I had to say ok you go back like my daughter give me a term as for me this is how much you made tell me how much you made and tell me how you spent it and then the balance was ok you put it in your tuition account we will still support you but at least so clarity is very important it could be in many other areas in other areas then being a good listener is also very important for at the risk of overstating we want to listen both with our ears and words and our eyes being a good listener big listener and then also being empathetic being empathetic identify with family members feelings letting them know you understand their situation understand their situation of course like my first daughter I told you the experience of her war I'm sure that is also going to be for her even though she was more than 18 and AC carrying her bag everything she had abandoning them running for her dear life from Ukraine when the war began and of course she has been with us now be able to finish few months before the war began but sometimes you could see that she is not herself because everything she had she abandoned her and you need to realize you may be talking she may be looking at you but you need to let her know that she is your dear so that empathy is very important that empathy is very important and we try to take her along as much as possible while we engage her and then within that very soon she will get all her documents in place and then she can move to her next stage of life so empathy is very important identify with family members feelings and letting them know you understand we may not feel exactly the kind of pain that they feel but if they are aware that we are not just say it is your own problem that we are with them that can also enhance the communication in the home that the third thing is healthy families have family bonding time and then family bonding refers to being intentional to connect with family members for the purpose of improving family relationships it is like in our African context here that sometimes is not very much cherished you see is not very much cherished and that is why we talked about when we should be friends at home not just friends outside so bonding is very important bonding is very important we will talk about the literature bonding can improve communication I say it can improve communication if there is that assurance of safety from children they can tell you they can tell you you see they can tell you my little girl one day she came to me and said when I have bad dream when I wake up what do I do I say when I have bad dream when I have bad dream hardware always reacts and I told her and that was when she told me that she had a bad dream when I have bad dream I react and many other times too she has sought to explain something very deep so it can improve communication it can minimize and resolve conflicts it can improve self esteem because people know that they are valued you see they are valued it can also foster mutual respect it could also protect family members from external negative pressure why this because if the home is not safe if home is not safe I will speak about this again on Friday when we are going to do reflection on contending for your children if the home is not safe children will go out and think that if if the environment becomes hostile for children they should be able to find safety at home so it can also protect family members not just children family members from external negative pressure now possible bonding activities we are drawing clarity to an end we can do affirmation of memorable events unique to the family what are some memorable events unique to the family family milestones and engaging activities that involve the entire family you see what are memorable events unique to the family so we could possibly want to lease them we do that in my family and we always find occasion to talk about it from time to time also the family milestones some major events some major issues that took place some major issues that took place then of course some occasions this bonding it is not necessarily the length of time of a whole day but the quality press attention and emphasis so this can improve bonding then volunteering together too volunteering together can also help like in the church here like in Aloka church my wife and I belong to the community service group so we can volunteer together when we volunteer families can volunteer together and go and do something and do something before we came here 9.5 years ago every year the church I pastored in the Babcock University since a big university we normally take one community project to visit children's home visit maybe the modelers or visit I forgot the name now maybe Dr. Mutai will help us those who are terminally ill I think they say home we call them also I'm trying to but I think they escaped me now and sometimes we take the two families especially the older two so they can appreciate even life and see how things look like and of course church volunteering outreach so a family can volunteer together can volunteer together of course for for all that children now even my first child what are family when they live home it's about lunch of course it's not possible for everybody to eat together at the same time but I think it's important also for once in a while for the family to have meal together I think that is very important so our time is going fast very fast then family outing I say again that for us here maybe some people is not very important but I think we practice this a lot in my home family outing I see from time to time family outing together and somebody has said traveling in the company of those we love is home in motion I say it gives an opportunity for the family also to bond together to bond together and then spending time together doing some family chores of course I know many families do this okay let's hear the families play and laugh together our Bible text which were our dear sister ready for us say a cheerful heart is good mercy from the good news Bible say look how hard the good news Bible posits say being cheerful keeps you healthy it is slow death to be gloomy all the time that is how the good news posits say being cheerful keeps you healthy it is slow death to be gloomy all the time to be gloomy all the time humor is important at home a family can be serious but it is also very important a family to laugh so we can create an atmosphere of joy and delight in the home delight in the home and this can strengthen family relationships too family relationship and then also for some natural bonds and crazier memories so humor is important at home a family can be serious but it is also very important so humor is important at home very important at home then it has also been identified that humor promotes affection and fosters closeness by enabling the members of the household to enjoy on another's company it encourages honesty and transparency it creates freedom and easy tension and opens up a channel which even healing can take place so how do we cultivate humor getting to the last one now where we can resolve to laugh when even we don't feel like laughing especially for men we feel always very serious we can know for the humor around us identify what makes your spouse or children laugh of course we do all those things and many families do it and sometimes too in a non-derigatory way we can make light of even some members of the home which we do sometimes just make light and people laugh not necessarily that we are pulling them down they are pulling them down the final possible trait for natural emotional well-being in the family is how the families worship God together which is a family order this cannot be overemphasized for a whole 10 days as a church in January we spent a whole 10 days talking about the importance of prayer and of course not just a corporate prayer in the church but family prayer it's very very important God gives the mandate and responsibility of providing spiritual guidance to family members directly to parents especially in the context of our discussion Christian parents but we know today there are many things that affect family worship but family worship helps in discipling younger family members I say have been discipling younger family members on Saturday one of the opportunities we spoke about that's available for the Christian home is intergenerational faith transfer and also talk about family as a fortress as a Christian families can fulfill can provide this opportunity when family worship is taking very very seriously it also helps family unity family unity and also can contribute to the strength of the church stronger church community because when by the grace of God we are able to raise children who are disciples then there is also the likelihood that they contribute to what they contribute to the church and the church community is strengthening basic principles are being participatory being participatory it does not matter how young a child is everybody participates making it possible especially for young families who are still raising children it's very important for this to be emphasized participatory not just only one person at the same time now like when my son left my son left home and then my daughter left and then of course my second daughter left before my fourth daughter there to still see that we connect apart from the one that we had home we have formed the tradition and I keep telling them a time comes when we can no longer do that but for now every Sunday at 8pm it does not matter where a tank to zoom we bring the family together and so wherever anybody is he knows that 8pm we are there at time zone we bring family together for one hour and in doing so we rotate it so that even those who are fast feel that they belong to the family of course for those of us who are around we practice that daily but we can also need to adapt family worship according to age according to age because what may be possible and relevant for a child of 5 cannot be relevant for a child of 25 so that adaptation is also very important and then of course time for worship family dynamics also differ family dynamics differ some we say we pray at 4am some at 5am family dynamics differ but I think that what is important is consistency consistency a family can decide this is how we do our family worship it cannot be prescriptive mode of saying family worship must go the same way so that is also very important that is also very important family worship is the time the family should be together and get together and spend time worship God and just be family then it can also be forstand by cultivating and nurturing personal spiritual commitment in family members in family members so that they know that they are also accountable they have a personal accountability I say personal accountability personally I believe that as time goes on we have the collective worship but it is also very important to emphasize personal accountability because a time comes when we cannot dream can never always be gathered but if they have been raised to know that they have a personal spiritual accountability I say they can charge family worship and that can also enable them as they grow and then cultivate a gratitude culture in families that is also that is also very important so as we conclude this evening this has been a little longer than the previous evenings some families encounter more stress than others but everyone experiences the ups and flow of a life where deaths divorces step family blending economy crisis pandemics or other life occurrences when the emotional well being of the family members is nurtured including parents and children the family becomes more resilient and the individual members also become more resilient resilience acknowledges the retrials but believes emotional well being is possible despite the challenges so what we have done so far is to see how we can be continue and for some of us still determined to be able to bring that family emotional well being to homes that is not just something of a particular age is something that can influence everyone because ultimately our desire is that we have a healthy home a healthy family as we prepare for eternity before we take our song I believe for lack of time I won't speak much on that again probably tomorrow things through us may not be very long but just to say that the family ministry council will share a worksheet which we have developed and we are encouraging families we keep emphasizing that every day remaining part of the program when encouraging families they are just three activities there they are three activities when encouraging families to attempt to do some of the activities attempt to do some of the activities and I believe that when we attempt to do some of them definitely it will cause some positive changes positive changes so that will be circulated on the virus platform but again I want to encourage you just attempt, I will speak on that again tomorrow just to practice some of those activities I believe strongly it will make some positive positive changes even in the context of what we have discussed this evening the issue of family well-being so we invite our choristers to lead us in the song as we prepare to pray in him will be SDHM 0301 nira still nira let's all rise and sing together nira still as we pray for the prayer requests that we have before us mighty lord in heaven come to thank you because you are a mighty god you have been a blessing to us throughout our lives it is because of your power and your love for your children that we are drawn much much nira to you Lord may you love us with an everlasting love your children we come before you with our praises our joys our burdens before you that is why your children have decided lord this week of family life that lord we may come to you that you may hear us we ask you that lord you know every point that your children have written how we plead with you that lord may you shine your countenance on us that we may see the bright beams from your throne and we will find blessings lord it is in the families that Saturn has brought a lot of tears to us because he knows that when we are happy in our families lord we will serve you he knows that when we are having peace with our partners we will serve you when we find a lot of joy with our children we will serve you this is why Saturn is detaring this from us may you father open to us the blessings of heaven and we will find peaceful families you will restrain us from sins that destroy our families other relationships that destroy our families you will destroy them our children that are going astray lord you will bring them back to the fold sicknesses that destroy families lord you will prevent these ones lord we pray that may you bring blessings to us your children let praises be to thee any other need that we have lord and we bring before you in these baskets that your servants are holding lord may your angels write them and as you say nothing escapes our lips without you noticing nothing that is for our good you can prevent from us may you provide for us lord provide for your children continue to bless us this week as we continue with our prayers and as you bless our speaker in Jesus name we pray amen let's be seated what do we say to our pastor what do we say again we want to thank God so much for these wonderful messages which we are continuing to receive I am sure especially from tomorrow I would be very happy to see younger people I am not saying the older ones should not be here I am saying only that this really this issue of children and especially when you are in Nairobi I think these are the type of talks you cannot miss I know some of us are saying I will go and watch in YouTube I will go and put it on YouTube but I know how busy people are in Nairobi they say that they don't manage to do it I think what I want to encourage each and every person is to come and listen to these programs life is the only way you will enjoy so I am requesting us let us pass the message so that tomorrow we can see many many of us coming to attend you already had very interesting discussion from our pastor I think during our time I was just trying to think very hard whether I created laughter and humor in my house I think I may have missed that opportunity I don't know but I think what I am saying is there are good things that you can get from this talk and I think there is no doubt as pastor said it creates, it brings it brings togetherness so my request is let us listen, let us come and let us come be blessed here so thank you pastor we will continue to pray for you and I want everybody to continue praying for pastor so that these messages may touch somebody out there as you heard tomorrow the subject will be parenting today's use and challenges I am sure if they are young and medium sized parents we are keen to listen because really this is a time when it is very difficult and very challenging to bring up children otherwise I want to thank all of you who have come today we appreciate you for creating time we thank you so much I also want to thank our pastors let me ask our pastors to wave to us in fact today we are blessed all our pastors are here pastor yes, can we wave back thank you so much pastors sometimes you get busy but we appreciate when the flock see the pastors they feel more obliged to be here so thank you so much for coming and thank you again all of you who came physically and those who are watching us virtually we thank you for creating time please pass the message to our friends otherwise I want us to stand as we say the grace so that we can all go home may we all say the grace may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forever more amen God bless you and see you tomorrow


This paper examined the relationship between precipitation and temperature data from six different locations in Dabragia, Romania. It found that one of the six sets of data showed a monotonically increasing trend, while the other five did not. Additionally, it discovered that there was a weak correlation between the two sets of data with the exception of one set which had a clear upward trend. This article was authored by Alina Barbulescu and Florin Postalash.


I already think of myself as an open scholar and then social media is a way to communicate that. Well, scholarly practice is a word that's usually tied to research and publication. So that doesn't have to be all that it is though. You can also do scholarly practice in more informal ways. So you can do it through blogs, you can do it through social media posts, you can do it through conversations that you have on social media. In Arts One students have their own blogs. It's a year-long course so they use the blog for the whole year and they are meant to be having discussions, reflections on the books that we're reading on the blogs. All of the classes in this team talk course, their blogs get syndicated into a big site for all of Arts One. So that that way the students are able to not only read each other's blogs from within their small class but also the blogs of students within the rest of the Arts One course. Students will learn a lot not just from what they hear from other people but from what they tell to other people. One of the things I love about blog posts is that it's this medium that depending on how you assign it can open students up to this sort of feeling comfortable about really saying what they think about a particular text where it feels almost more intimate and I find that they get such interesting ideas that way that they might not otherwise get if they were forcing it into an essay format. Recognition of how people might approach the same thing differently I think is a crucial life skill just thinking about how not being in your bubble and believing that because it seems this way to you that that just is how it is right. I think that's a really eye-opening and important thing to do an important lesson to learn. So when we do get negative comments on our YouTube videos for this class that I teach I do try to act as an educator. It can be an opportunity for acting as an educator in a wider sphere than just your class. A lot of what students and the rest of us are doing online and social media is interacting with people we don't know. How do we figure out the the best ways to have those respectful conversations and learn from each other without turning each other off is very hard to do sometimes in the digital medium and I think you know we can we can start practicing those things. What I am most interested in and what I see in other people as well is student participation in open education. So students actually not just professors creating educational resources that they may share but also student work becoming something that is is adding as David Wiley puts it adding value to the world. There's so much work out there that can be used and reused. How do you find out about it? Social media is is critical in open education it is it is one of the many ways that we communicate and it's one of the ways we communicate across many boundaries certainly not all because you have to be on the internet and you have to be on social media but it's wider than you might otherwise get.


Putin threatened Boris Johnson with missile strike. Boris Johnson has said Vladimir Putin threatened him with a missile strike in an extraordinary phone call in the run-up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The then Prime Minister said Putin told him it would only take a minute. Johnson said the comment was made after he warned the war would be an utter catastrophe during a very long call in February 2022. Details of the exchange are revealed in a BBC documentary examining Putin's interactions with world leaders. Johnson said he threatened me and at one point he said Boris I don't want to hurt you but with a missile it would only take a minute or something like that. Jolly. But I think from the very relaxed tone that he was taking the sort of air of detachment that he seemed to have, he was just playing along with my attempts to get him to negotiate. President Putin had been very familiar during the most extraordinary call. Johnson said it is impossible to know if Putin's threat was genuine. However, given previous Russian attacks on the UK, most recently in Salisbury in 2018, any threat from the Russian leader, however lightly delivered, is probably one Johnson would have no choice but to take seriously. Johnson says he offered to help move Zelensky to safety. He doesn't take me up on the offer. He heroically stayed where he was. He stressed.


Have we ever talked about receptors before? Yes, it's because they're that important. And here's the deal. If a cell does not have a cellular receptor, then it's not going to be able to pick up the information. Period. Done. If you're lacking the receptor, you can't read the message. The message is going to bounce right off of you. For example, if I have a green chemical message, a hormone that came in and is going to function on this cell, and I have a receptor that I tried to make it look like, this receptor is going to fit this chemical message, then the receptor can bind, we can get the message. If I have another chemical message that comes along that looks like this, and I agree that this chemical message might come in, it certainly isn't going to bind to this receptor. They don't have the same shape. It might bind if there was a receptor that looked like this. That would total, like, then we've got the message. But if that receptor is missing, then this little chemical message is not going to be read. Like, who cares if you send out that message? I'm not going to listen to you. Act of binding, a chemical message binding with a receptor can do all sorts of things. It can stimulate something called a second message cascade, and there's a reason that I draw the second messenger cascade like this. A second messenger cascade is this cascade of chemical reactions, and there are things like this chemical, the binding of the receptor with the initiating signal will cause this molecule to turn into, okay, I can't help it, this molecule, and cause that molecule to turn into this molecule, and then that molecule is going to turn into this molecule, and then that one's going to turn into this molecule, and that's going to end up with this molecule, which actually is the, that's what you needed in the first place, and this one is going to go do something. Here's what's true in Wendy Land. We could memorize every single one of those. We could totally, and sometimes I get kind of fired up, and I'm like, oh, don't you want to know? Like, what is this molecule right here, and how did it turn into this one right here, and what else got outed to turn it into this one? But most of the time, I'm just going to say a molecule binds with the receptor, stimulates a second message cascade, and this is the result. We will end up with maybe an enzyme that will go do something. That receptor allows the action to take place. This process is called signal transduction, and all that is, is, it's communication. It's cellular communication. It's taking this signal and transducing it to get something done. Oh my gosh, it's almost like there's a pathway inside the cell.  There's not really an integrator in this little scenario, but here is an efferent effector that can make something happen. Do you see, like, it's a really important process to understand how actions happen. How does your cell, how to do that? Well, this is an example of a possible mechanism for making it happen. This is fantastic. Signaling molecules combine to receptors and cause channels to open. It causes channels to close, which then can send an electrical message somewhere. It's actually really, really fantastic. So you can imagine that we can fine-tune our ability to communicate with each other by, what? By, by being really thoughtful about what's going on with the receptors. So now we're going to look at specific things that can do with receptors to allow us to receive certain kinds of information. It's almost like, you know, if I'm sitting in my office and I want to be able to see, so I'm looking out my window and I want to know if somebody's coming around, but I don't want to be able to hear all that. So I put in earplugs. I've said you can't communicate with me by sound. So whatever's going on out there, I'm not going to listen. So I'm going to lack a receptor for a certain kind of signal. But I do want to know if you're standing out there like waving at me. And so I'm going to keep a different kind of receptor available on the cell. And every cell is going to come up with its own, like depending on what its needs are, it's going to come up with its own strategy for how to use receptors. Holy cow, you ready for this? Okay, so let's look at how we can use receptors to receive information that we need.


CHAPTER IX. A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM. When Sir Edward retired to his room that night, he paced up and down for some time in front of the picture that his little niece had given him. His brow was knitted, and he was thinking deeply. "'I am longing to have peace,' he muttered. "'Why cannot I make up my mind to seek it?' "'I will arise. Ah, easy to say. It's a hard and bitter thing for a backslider to retrace his steps, how the child steps me sometimes, and how little she knows my past.' He stopped and gazed at the picture. And the Lord himself used this as an illustration. I could not want anything stronger. A deep-drawn sigh followed, then a heartfelt cry rose to heaven. "'May God have mercy on me, and bring me back, for I can't bring myself.' The next morning Sir Edward had an interview with his keeper, who brought his son up with him, and as the tall, broad-shouldered young fellow stood before the squire and in earnest, humble tones, asked if he could be given a chance of redeeming his character by being employed on the estate. Sir Edward's severity relaxed, and after a long conversation with him he promised he would give him a trial. He smiled grimly to himself as father and son left him with warm expressions of gratitude. So that is the child's hero, one whose example I might well follow. He has had the courage at least to take the step from which I am still shrinking. Why should I fear that my welcome home would be less full of love and forgiveness than his? It was Christmas Eve, a wild and stormy day. The wind raged ceaselessly round the old house, howling down the chimneys and beating the branches of the trees outside against the window-panes. Millie had been very busy for some hours helping Ford to decorate the hall and rooms with Holly and Evergreen, though Ford would every now and then pause in his work, saying, There, Miss Millie, I am sure we are overdoing it. If the house was full of company now I would take a pride in it, but I don't believe the master will notice whether it's done or not. It seems to me as he is getting more and more shut up into his self lately, Christmas is a dull time with us. All was finished at last, and Millie went up to the nursery and stood at the window, her bright brown eyes eagerly scanning and taking note of every object out of doors. It's a perfect hurricane, said Nurse presently, as she sat with her work in a comfortable chair by the fire. If we fill it inland like this, what must it be at sea? I should like to be on the sea, said Millie. I love the winds, but I think it is getting a little bit too rough this afternoon. I'm rather afraid it will hurt the little trees. Ford said if I went down I should be blown away. Do you think, Nurse, if the wind was very, very strong it would ever be able to blow me up to heaven? I am afraid not, said Nurse Gravely, and I don't think we could spare you, my dear. You would not like to leave this world yet a while. Sometimes I think I should, and sometimes I think I shouldn't. I think I should like to be blown up to spend a day there, and then come back again. Oh, Nurse, Goliath is screaming and cracking so. I wish the wind would knock him over. He is a horrid old tree. I always think he is making faces at me when I run past him. Wouldn't it be nice to see him blown down? You mustn't wish that, said Nurse, getting up from her chair and moving towards the door. It's a dangerous thing for an old tree to be blown down. Now I am going downstairs for a short time, so be a good child, and don't get into mischief while I am away. Millie remained at the window for some minutes after Nurse's departure. Then her quick eyes noticed a poor, wretched little kitten, mewing pitifully as she vainly tried to shelter herself from the violent blast around by crouching close to a tree. In an instant, without thought of consequences, the child darted to the nursery door and down the broad oak staircase. For a pussy, I will run and fetch her in. I expect she has run away from the kitchen. Sir Edward was writing at his study-table, when an unusually violent gust of wind caused him to raise his eyes and glance out of the window. There to his amazement he saw under the old oak tree on the lawn his little niece, her golden brown curls flying as she battled the elements and struggled vainly to stoop and take the kitten in her arms. He started up from his seat, but as he did so, a blast that shook the house swept by.  My God, save her! was an agonized cry as he saw at the same moment the little figure stagger and fall. Then forgetting his weakness and lack of physical strength he dashed out of the house and in another instant was standing over her. His first feeling was one of intense thankfulness to find that the branch in falling could have only slightly grazed her as she was lying on the ground untouched by it. But as he raised the motionless figure and noted a red mark on her forehead which was swelling rapidly his heart sank within him. It did not take him long to carry her into the house, and he was met at the door by nurse who wisely wasted no time in useless lamentation, but set to work at once to restore animation to her little charge. Her efforts were successful. Millie was only slightly stunned, but it had been a miraculous escape, and had the blow been an inch near her temple it might have been fatal. As it was the child was more frightened than hurt, and when a little time after her uncle took her in his arms with unwanted tenderness she clung to him and burst into passionate sobs. Take care of me, uncle, that nasty old goliath he tried to kill me he did. I saw him coming on the top of me. God only just saved me in time, didn't he? When the bruise had been bathed and dressed by nurse, Sir Edward still kept her on his knee, and after nurse had left the room and the child rested her little head on his shoulder in a very subdued frame of mind. He did what he had never done yet.  She raised her large dark eyes to his.  Yes you would. I should have liked that. I suppose he doesn't want me yet, or he would have sent for me. When she came down to her uncle that evening she raised a very sad little face to his from the opposite side of the table. Uncle Edward, have you heard who goliath really did kill? Do you mean the tree that came on you? No one else was hurt, I hope, and Sir Edward's tone was a little anxious.  It was the poor little kitten, uncle, that I ran out to fetch. The brown eyes were swimming with tears, and Millie could not understand the smile that came to Sir Edward's lips. Only a kitten. Well, it was sad, I daresay, but there are plenty of kittens about the place. But, uncle, I've been thinking so much about this one. Ford says she had run away from the stable. I expect she was going to be a prodigal kitten, perhaps, and now she'll never run away any more. It's so sad about her. And I think why it is sad is because nobody cares, not even nurse. She said she would rather it had been the kitten than me.   I think it was Goliath. I just looked out of my window on the stairs before I came down. The wind has stopped now, and the trees seem to be crying and sobbing together. I'm sure they were sorry for the kitty. I think they were tired out themselves, too. They have been so knocked about today.  We will not talk about her any more, said Sir Edward cheerfully. Have you seen Tom Maxwell lately? Millie's little tongue was only too ready to talk of him. He helped nurse in me to get some holly in the wood yesterday. I have nice talks with him often. He says he is very happy, and this will be the best Christmas he has spent in his life. Uncle, I want to ask you something. I've been thinking of it a great deal today, only since I was knocked down this afternoon I've had such a pain in my head I left off thinking. But I've just remembered it now. You see, it is really Jesus Christ's birthday to-morrow, and I was thinking I've been getting presents for everyone in the house but him. Nurse has been helping me with some of them. I've made nurse a kettle-holder, and cook a needle-book, and I've bought a pin-knife for Ford, and a thimble for Sarah, and some handkerchiefs for Maxwell and Mrs. Maxwell, and some woolen gloves for Tommy, and I've nothing known nothing for him if I only knew something he would like. She paused, and a soft wistfulness came into her eyes. I was thinking, she went on, that perhaps I could put my present for him outside the nursery window on the ledge, and then when we are all in bed and it is very quiet I expect he might send an angel down to bring it up to him. I think he might do that, because he knows how much I want to give him something, but then I don't know what to give him. Could you tell me, Uncle? I think, said Sir Edward gravely, the only way you can give him a Christmas present is to give something to the poor. He would rather have that. I will give you this to put in the plate to-morrow in charge. And Sir Edward put his hand in his pocket, and rolled a sovereign across the table to his little niece. But Milly was not satisfied. This is your present, she said doubtfully. What will you give him this Christmas besides? Is money the only thing you can give him, Uncle? Sir Edward pushed back his chair and rose from the table. His feelings were almost getting beyond his control. With the one subject that was now always foremost in his thoughts, the child's question rang again in his ears. Is money the only thing you can give him, Uncle? And like a flash of light came a reply. No, I can give myself back to him, my soul and body that have now been so long in the keeping of his enemy. After a few minutes' silence he said in a strangely quiet voice, Come, little one, it is bedtime. Say good night and run up to nurse.  Would you mind very much giving me another? Sir Edward looked down at the sweet little face, raised so coaxingly to his, and then took her up in his arms.  When you say your prayers, ask that one of God's prodigal sons may be brought back this Christmas time. It is one who wants to return. Will you pray for him? Yes, Uncle? replied the child softly. And will you tell me his name? No, I cannot do that. Something in his face made his little niece refrain from asking further questions. She left him a moment later, and Sir Edward went to the smoking-room and seated himself in a chair by the fire. The chimes of the village church were ringing out merrily, and presently outside in the avenue a little company of carol singers were singing the sweet old Christmas truths that none can hear untouched. It to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. A sense of the love of God seemed to surround his soul, and this first came into his mind as he mused. I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Could he not trace in the events of the last few months the hand of a loving father gently calling his wanderer home, stricken down himself, placed on a sick bed for reflection, brought to the edge of the valley of the shadow of death, and then tenderly restored to life and health? The gentle voice and life of a little child pleading with him day by day, and that life having so lately been miraculously preserved from a great danger.  Sir Edward by the help and power of the Divine Spirit was able to look up and say from the depths of his heart, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy son. They were sitting in the study the next afternoon, the child upon his knee, when Sir Edward said suddenly, Do you know that I have received a letter today about you? Who from? asked Millie with interest. From my sister, your aunt in Australia.  She says a friend of hers will take charge of you and take you to her next month. I must talk to a nurse about it. The little hands clutched hold of his coat sleeves tightly, but not a word did Millie say. Sir Edward noted a slight quivering of the lips and a piteous gleam in the soft brown eyes. He waited in silence for a moment, then said cheerfully, Won't you be glad to have a lot of boys and girls to play with instead of staying here with a lonely old man? Still the child could say nothing, but suddenly down went the curly head upon his arm, and the tears came thick and fast. Sir Edward raised the little face to his. We must not have tears on Christmas Day, he said. What is the matter? Don't you want to go? I suppose I must, sobbed Millie. Fort told Nurse the day I came that you hated children. I've always been thinking of it, but you have been so kind to me that I thought perhaps he had made a little mistake. Miss Kent didn't want me, and now you don't want me, and perhaps my aunt won't want me when I get there. I wish God wanted me, but I'm afraid he doesn't. Nurse says she thinks he wants me to work for him when I grow up. I think—I think I'm rather like the little kitten yesterday, that nobody was sorry for when she died. You said there were plenty more kittens, didn't you? I don't think there are plenty of small milliscents in this world, and Sir Edward's voice was husky. Now listen, little woman, I have been thinking over the matter, and have decided this afternoon to keep you with me. I find I do want you after all, and cannot afford to lose you. Supposing we dry these tears, and talk about something else. And as the little arms were thrown round his neck, and a face full of smiles and tears like an April's shower was lifted to his, the confirmed old bachelor took to his heart the little maiden whose very existence had so annoyed and distressed him only a few months before. Uncle Edward, she said, a little time after. Do you know if that prodigal son you told me about last night has come back to God? Sir Edward was silent for a moment, then very gravely and solemnly, he said. I think he has, little one. It has been a very happy Christmas day to him. And you must pray now that he may not be ashamed to own his Lord, who has so mercifully brought him back through the instrumentality of one of his lambs. End of Chapter 9 of Probable Sons by Amy LaFarver


Hey everybody welcome to the Linuxcast for October 11th 2020 Now the last few episodes I've been here just all by myself It's been very lonely, but I have a co-host his name is Martin. Hi, Martin. How are you doing? Hi, Matt. Well, well doing good as well as could be a month much into these days There we go. All right, so this is our first show together. We're uh, we've talked for about an hour on Skype last Sunday We're so probably what you'll notice is will it'll take a little while for us to Get our groove on and become aware of each other's sense of humor because I have a terrible sense of humor I'm probably will make fun of you know weird things at some certain times and I also swear And we're at Martin's request. We're gonna try not to swear. So if you hear me swear I'll I'll finally get to learn how to do that fancy beeping things. They do on the radio. It'll be fun if you want to get in contact with us you can do so contact info is Linux at the Linux cast on Twitter. You can follow me. I'm at MTWB on Twitter Martin is Martin twit to you to you. You need a better handle my friend Years ago and I put His Twitter handle will be in the show notes. It'll be easier just to click on it It's Martin twit the number to you on Twitter. You can also email us at the Linux cast at gmail.com Which I do check once a year And you can also like us on Facebook at facebook.com slash the Linux cast or subscribe on YouTube and all of our Podcasts feeds and stuff at the Linux cast.org you can probably find the link for the YouTube channel also in the show notes And the Eagles lost Well, that's just it pack it in folks my football team lost blows. All right, so Last time I was here all by myself. I said we're gonna talk about in video We push that back a week and this time we're just gonna let Martin introduce himself just a little bit So Martin, why don't you tell us about yourself? How would it why do you use Linux? What Linux do you use and so on? Have a ramble Yeah, well try and keep keep it short Right, so I mean I started my journey with home computers back in the mid-80s I was using a Vic-20 Then on to a Commodore 64 and then progressed on to the Atari ST and then down the console route with a mega drive and SNES or SNES PS1 and so forward. I took computer studies back in 1993 I Haven't never actually used a real PC unfortunately This was back in the days obviously of using the dots prompt No fancy spreadsheets. It was lotus one two three Word perfect, and I was programming using the Pascal programming language even Ever since my computer studies. I've always owned a PC. I've just loved the tinkering about and there various Formations and bits and pieces you can get running on PCs With my Linux journey, I mean I tried it back in probably about 2010. I Didn't get on with it whether it was because it was a low-spec system I think generally it was just what I was not used to It seemed very sluggish I mean I've tried it every so often But it was a gaming and the familiarity which kept me toyed into the Microsoft Windows ecosystem I'll skip forward a few years back to March of this year I decided to upgrade my PC as I was working from home as a lot of us are and still are I'll replace a motherboard memory graphics card and it was quite amazing actually booted straight into Windows Unfortunately bottom right hand of the screen. I had the dreaded Windows not genuine I did a bit of Google food and found out that Microsoft created a special number from my mother board CPU on hard drive and The the toys into a specific key and my login to Windows I Just wasn't too happy at that and obviously I tried to get rid of it and this and that and I mean to be fair It was only a five pound key off eBay So I looked into more to try and get rid of it I've eventually got rid of it and then just found out the amount of telemetry they send off to Microsoft And the constant software updates that often lead to a crash or or even worse data loss So I thought right. Let's give Linux ago So what's a few YouTube videos? And decided upon trying MX Linux and my 2010 Samsung laptop Was quite surprised how easy the install was and literally bought my laptop back from the grave. It is Struggled recently under Windows And I was just amazed at the amount of choice that Linux gave me whether it was conky plank All the all the different system information I could get up on the screen without eating away at more resources The varied different desktops that you can get lost in And the plus was my steam library slightly increased from the previous times of Tried Linux in the past I've not gotten rid of Linux yet for my my main rig Still have to use Windows name and again for the other system Program that is not available yet on Linux and so just dual boot it Currently I'm on Linux Mint with a KDE plasma which I'm trying out which are quite like And nor is resource hungry as I did think and that's about it up until this point Very good. Um, I used to like KDE too, and then I discovered Windows managers and I've never looked back I think that's a rabbit hole long of my well-delving to I Have KDE on this on this machine here in the other day. I went into it for some reason I don't remember what I was doing. Oh, I messed up my i3 config and couldn't get it i3 to To load and when I finally got back into i3 k when was running in the background taking up like 60% of my memory Which is really weird. So anyways first personal like Linux experiences site. So Welcome Martin to the Linux cast Excellent great to be we're gonna have a lot of fun. I think over the yeah over time So instead of a main topic so the way we're we've decided to Rejigger the way We structure the the podcast now that there's two people here instead of just me rambling on into the ether We're gonna have a couple links for news and then we'll do one main big topic like I had been doing but you know with two people Today what we're gonna do instead of the news We're just going to talk about the favorite Linux apps that we use and I figure Martin that we'll just go through and you do one I'll do one you know until we get you know until we get to a certain amount of time And then we'll just wrap it up. So why don't you do give your first top Linux app? Yeah, well coming from Windows and I was constantly the running system of optimization or C cleaner And obviously you don't have to run as many on Linux But a nice little system cleaner optimized. I did come across was a one called stacer We'll drop the link in the show notes so you can find it from your software repository, but it tidy things up there's no danger of Bricking your system or anything like that, but it really is a good one and just Feel quite comfortable with it. Obviously, there's there's better ones as bleach bits There's a couple of others But I think bleach bit if you knew and you take the wrong thing you could well be in a bit of danger So I would recommend stacer. It's just a couple of clicks cleans your system. Hmm sounds cool I Don't clean my system often enough It's probably something I should do. I probably have all these orphaned packages just sitting around Oh Yeah, so my first one is a new one that I just actually did a video on for the YouTube channel. It's called Zim or ZimWiki It's a it's a VimWiki alternative, but it's a big a GUI based notes base Nate notes taking app That you can use mark mark down and allows you to create links and child links and all sorts of things It's just a really great note taking it now It doesn't offer syncing services across devices or anything So it's just basically for your computer, but I really like it It's also helped me with like outlining like, you know, I'm a fan fiction writer So I write fan fiction and original fiction stuff that so it's helping with doing outlines and stuff like that's really cool Also free and open source so Cool, I didn't have a mess about with a Kodi MD. Is that something similar? Is that like a markdown just a mark? Yeah, not down. Yeah. Yeah, that's this in Zim has markdown in it, but it's more used to create like your own personal wiki Basically, it allows you to go through and like Each page links to each other kind of like on Wikipedia or whatever, but it's for your own personal notes and allows you to organize Into different categories and tags and stuff like that. So it's a full-blown thing that just uses markdown Not cool. Can you tie that to your Android or whatever device of choice yet or no, I don't have an ant nothing mobile They there was talk in 2017 about them being able to About them doing an Android app, but it never got off the ground But it just saves everything in a .txt file So there's no reason why you couldn't save that in a drop box or something and have like a yeah You know a text editor on your your phone Just do it and if that text editor happened to support markdown It would all come through formatted just like it doesn't Zim anyways, so Yeah, I haven't tried that but I'm assuming that it would work that way because they're just that there's no special formatting Extension or anything. It's just .txt files. It's not like in Vim wiki I don't know if you use them wiki Vim wiki has no it saves all those in a .wiki file So it have you'd have a harder time taking that and putting it somewhere else Then you would just the text files of Zim. That's why I kind of like Zim All right, your next up Oh next up Well, I've been getting actually into web apps Which is available for Linux Mint on a beta People coming from Peppermint OS would have known it as the OS app and this lets users turn their favorite websites Into standalone Applications in a containerized browser, which is ideal for banking To be fair just I've got my banking. I've got my login for work on there I've got YouTube on there. So it just opens up without all your various tracking. So it's just a standalone Basically a container package with a no tracking involved and I'm getting quite Interested in that just locking down this the security a bit Saved tracking me all the way through various web sites if I'm looking for bits and pieces But that's my second app definitely Yeah, that sounds that sounds interesting I don't I don't know if there's any web apps that I would use for that though because I try to stay away from web apps There used to be my you know There used to be this one called like Frank or something that Allowed you to Integrate all of the messaging web apps like a Facebook Messenger and things like that Maybe I could use that for quick. Thanks. I remember but that one other one was alright So my next app is I3 which is a window manager It's what I use instead of like a plasma or whatever regular desktop environment. I Have a message around with other window managers, but I just always keep coming back to I3 I think it's because you don't have to learn any Like programming language in order to do it like so I was using Qtile for a while and that you have to use Python you know in order to do the config file and like I don't know any Python at all And while it's nice to learn it's just kind of a pain in the butt if you you hey look I didn't swear. Good job, man You know, it's just it's just a pain you go in there you forget a comma and you're like, oh man Like in all of a sudden your thing won't load so I3 is not like that it also has like a If you make an error it still loads for the most part except for that one time where it didn't load Anyways, that's just it's the thing that I When my first start out with Linux and Windows and everything I use my mouse for everything Like just like everybody does and now that I've switched to window managers. Everything is just keyboard driven I mean, it's just so much easier hardly ever use my mouse So that's the reason why I like I3 Submit of doubled with the open box Yeah, it's a floating tile tile floating window manager, which I haven't tried all that much but from the the Unix porn Subreddit, there's a lot that you can do with it. It looks fun Yeah, yeah, I mean to definitely Drain your system if you're using a pre-2010 laptop Definitely, especially if you get the right distro working on it at the end of the day Personally, I'll just use Linux to log on to server at work and YouTube and all the various there's nothing Particularly demanding that I do use a system for and mindy tinkling about Yes, basically what I do is most most of my work is done in Like Libre office is where I spend most of my time I'm writer. So that's what I do Yeah, that's That's my main thing about Linux. I like using my Microsoft proprietary software like Spreadsheets Yeah Yeah, I mean I can log on to the web apps and things like that, but I'm used to Excel But it's no big if I need to log I can log into the web page from here It just opens up just as good. So and and I don't think Microsoft's gonna give that up. They might give us a Microsoft Edge Not that I don't think a lot of people's Too bothered about that But that's another topic. I'm guessing. Yeah, right. So you're next step Another app Bear with me. Let me just have a look through what I've recently um Could I cheat and say audacity? I don't have an eyelash I said the one I've Used today really just before the show just run for a couple of bits and pieces I've heard a lot of it from the podcasting world a lot of people. Is it available on Windows also? Yeah, it's on Windows and Mac. Yep. Yeah, I hear a lot of good things for it So Decided to run that But yeah, it seems nice and clean. It's not a busy system User-friendly, so I'll have to cheat and use that if I can Yeah, all that I use audacity all the time. It's it's fantastic. Um, the it there the Primary the user interface kind of looks like it's from the Windows 98 era, but if you can theme it it looks good So my next one is another keyboard driven one is called Rofi. It's basically a launcher It's alternative to D menu, which is what most window tiling tiling window managers use But I like it because there's I mean there's so many different ways you can use it So I got to set up so I can hit control or Super C and that brings up a Whole bunch of everything that I've copied and pasted a whole history of copying paste stuff the clipboard. Yeah I could do Windows B and it brings up all the emojis on my system I can hit one and then it goes to the clipboard and I can use it So that's really cool So you don't have to go through and search like if you're on Facebook Facebook has a whole bunch of these emojis And they're a little thing, but you can't search them You know, I'm 35 years old and I still use emojis that judge me if you will But that's basically basically Rofi and you can just use it to launch apps and stuff And it's just a keyboard driven way of launching apps. No, there's other versions of this cut. There's one called So like Mac Mac has Alfred, but Windows has Linux has Albert. So That's a more GUI century version because this is just like brings up a little terminal launcher So that's my next step. I really like it You got another one for us Martin. Oh, yeah, I think a staple for anyone should be redshift which Changes the your monitor toning depending on the time of day, so it'll obviously reduce I think it is it the blue No, it'll drop your temperatures in your monitor because In a couple of times I've been on Until we small hours and it just fries your eyes But redshifts are a really good thing and obviously If you're dimming out the blue light, it does help you to go to sleep And obviously, you're not you're not getting the flickering that sometimes you have from the refresh rate of the monitors But yeah, definitely redshift should be a Installed on anyone set up. Yeah, I think that's one of those things were um That's something that I should be using but I don't use I'm young. I'm invincible. I don't have to do these things Maya who needs You got two eyes. You don't I mean you have one to lose All right, um So you told you bad sense of humor. So you're just gonna have to deal with it So my next one is uh nc spot. It's a terminal based spotify client So when I switched to window manager window managers, I basically tried to Make it so that everything is as minimal as possible. So I don't have a ton of overhead And the spotify client itself for linux is an electron app and electron apps take a ton of system resources. So nc spot just basically you Install it you sign in with your spotify account and everything's keyboard driven and it just works and it's Hardly any overhead at all. I mean it doesn't take up hardly any system resources and it There's just something there's just something about using a Application in a terminal makes you feel like you're a nerd and I like to feel like a nerd So um, that's the reason why I use nc spot, which is uh, probably not a good reason, but it's it's good There's certain I mean it doesn't have all the functionality that the spotify client has but I mean you can still manage your Playlists and search for artists and stuff. The only thing I wish it had was uh the ability to start like a radio station based on an artist or a song or something which you can't do from the terminal, which is disappointing So your next one martin um, I'll go for steam on linux mainly because I do like the odd game um It's just not well. It's exactly the same as on windows. Obviously with slightly less games I mean I did go down the rabbit hole of Lutris and wine but sometimes you could You could just end up scratching your head and then I mean you're looking up and you'll find out exactly what you've Done, but it's a lot of hard work. I just rather write. It's in my steam library. Just download it play it native um, obviously I've gone to Use proton and things like that, but yeah, I'll go for steam It's a good choice. I don't play as many games as I want to play Um, but I will say this you're so right about wine in Lutris I I've been using linux for three years and I've never not once been successful in getting a game to play through wine I don't know whether or not it's because it's so hard if I'm just a moron It's either one as possible, but I just cannot like I really I desperately want to be able to play hearthstone on linux because that's through like hearthstone is the only reason Why I have windows on a partition Uh, but I can't get battle net to install on linux They just can't do it and there's no good tutorial out there like saying hey, you know You have to have these dependencies and these fonts installed. There's there's nothing like that out there I'm not sure why you think that I mean, I've seen people on youtube have battle net installed and play over watching stuff, but there's I don't know Uh and rant anyways, so my next one my next one is the only piece of proprietary software that I actually Uh use on a daily basis. I have Skype installed reasons Skype right now But I don't use that very often But my one that I use every day is to do is it's a my to-do list manager I keep my daily things that I have to do, you know in it and it sinks across my phones and There's just no good Open source way to do this. Um, there's a a to-do list client called planner. That's for elementary os It works pretty much only well in elementary os from my experience It doesn't work well on a window manager, which is just disappointing But even then it still uses the proprietary back end of to-do list Um And I like being able to sync the tasks across phones and you can do that with g-tasks And or g-tasks client, but there's no good ones. They're all Meh, you know I don't know just there's not good as It's weird to say your biggest is if you had to list your biggest disappoint with with linux Mine would be the lack of a good open source to-do client and you'd think I mean every Computer science student their very first app that they code is a to-do client I mean you'd think that there'd be at least one good open source one, but there's just not That's that's my That's another rant for today. Um, so you got another another app for us martin Yeah, I'll go for a Terminal app called well, I'll butcher this now Ya Quakey Y-A-K-U-A-K-E Um It's just a nice little terminal app f4 and it drops down. I mean, I know you can use the terminal shortcuts But I find myself opening terminal shutting it down, right? Oh Open it up blank new terminal. You're quicky. You're quakey f4 Popping your commands paste it in um It's it's quite customizable as well when you lose focus. You can roll back up Um roll back over drops back down or press f4 carry off where you're left off Um, I think it really is a a good little terminal emulator I've used it before that it'll I think it has a nice feature where you can like start Say you start an update for a boon to or whatever And then it can just go like run in the background Just leave it running. Yeah Yeah, that that's really nice because otherwise, I mean for everything else you have to leave the Terminal open on a screen has taken up real estate. That's you know, that's cool. Yeah There's a couple other ones that are kind of like that too. I've tried Anyways, my next one is um so in my quest of To try to find everything open source for my Daily needs. Uh, I switched from last pass to bit warden. I discovered bit warden from through an ad on the dln And uh, it's awesome. I mean, it's just fantastic. It's open source. It's every feature you want is free. They have a paid version I'm not even sure what you get with the paid version, but I just throw up some money every month because it's awesome. I mean it's just Uh, it's basically like, I don't know if you've used one password or last pass It's basically that but just open source and it's well designed. It has you know, android app iOS app Uh to keep your passwords in and I mean, I think everyone should use a password manager So it's just this is the one that I've chosen and it's open source. I was using uh end pass for a while And that's not open source, but it worked fairly well But bit warden is just Yeah, it's it's better in every way So that's my Go ahead. Cool. Cool. Um, yeah, I've had the guys at dln With it because I'm on the last pass guy still Um, but I've been thinking about giving a bit warden a try um Because there is a lot of features and I think of Doing this off my head. Have you got something like a gig of your notes and stuff like that you can Save on the system and things like that Um as well, I think you can have it closed down. So it's just on your system or in the cloud um, but I think it's about 10 books for a year, which I'm pretty sure of which which is nothing just especially we the security And they offer bounties to try and crack it. So I don't see last pass doing that. I just hear that last pass has never been um broken into but When I log into last pass, it isn't one of the best.  So maybe that's one to have a look to and Obviously if it works on android as well, um, yeah, it does That'd be spot on Yeah, it's it's very nice on android. Um, I'm not sure if it has a limit of Password track. I'm not sure if it has that same volume. It seems that I mean that seems like I mean That seems standard, right? It seems like something you'd have to do like hey, you've tried 10 times.  I mean who cares about twitter, right? That has a timeout pastor, but a password manager doesn't that's not very odd. All right.  Uh, we got time for one more app. So why don't you if you have another one to share with us Right, I'll go for I'll I'll go for p-cloud Excuse me Um I just bring it up Yes, a p-cloud. I just want to check how much you get on a basic, um The system's sorry.  You share it with somebody you get extra gigabytes and Be called screen Yeah, I use p-cloud a lot. Um, obviously distro hopping. So I just log into that. Um Pull down some of my favorite terminal commands to install software or whatnot, but p-cloud is quite nice I mean, I was going to go for next cloud as well, which I've gone on to um But I I'll keep p-cloud as like my My my extra backup. So I've got next cloud and I've got p-cloud but I'm Quite like next cloud as well, especially I think I've got five gigs free And it's just like I'm guessing that the one, um Me to bring all my files across and go for the one terabyte or 10 terabyte But five gigs enough just for um My desktop saves and various things like that obviously it handles my email, but yeah, I'll go for a split between p-cloud and Next cloud for that for the apps just for file synchronization, especially if you're distro hopping Let's face it. We're only keeping a couple of files on your system at any one time. That's of any use It's uh, just in case you format the wrong drive, which occasionally happens Yeah, dd is not necessarily the easiest thing to work use No So I've looked into after we talked last week. I talked I looked into a little bit of doing Next cloud and I found a service provider. I think I'm going to use that I don't know how to pronounce their name it starts with an O But you get a hundred gigabytes and it's like 25 bucks a year like that's That's That's that's really good, but I'm quite happy with the five gig. But yeah, that's good. I mean the thing is you The prices are coming down all the time um But yeah, that's a really good deal. So I mean you can quite easily transfer all your files across there, but Like this thing I'd rather have it shared out with between a couple because you don't know in some of these guys They're just going to go belly up or you're just going to lose your date. So it's always best having two cloud services um your pictures stored on cd rom uh, or mail off You're at your us beta A family member just make sure you've got it in three different places, especially for like family photos and things like that Hey, I got yeah, I got mine several different places too. Um, yeah All right, so I think we'll go ahead and and wrap up there We got about a half an hour of a of a good podcast coming up next week. We're going to talk about Uh, Nvidia and arm. We're going to talk about our opinions on that. We'll also have a couple news links of uh that suit our fancy. Um, and uh I just guess I'll go ahead and go and if you want to get in contact with us we uh All of the conflict tech information is at the beginning. Nobody listens to the all the way to the end anyways um I mean, I say that but then there's like that, you know, like seven people who actually do It's actually 70 of people actually make it all the way to the end. So you brave brave souls making it all the way to the end of this nonsense I mean our heart really goes and We're so grateful to those who listen all the way to the end.  All right. Anyway, uh, we will be back next week Not bad for a first episode on martin Excellent. Great talk to you much for the pleasure


Pope Francis on June 7 greeted faithful and members of the Spanish Civil Guard at the end of his weekly audience before being transferred to the hospital, where he will have an operation on his abdomen in the afternoon. The Pope will be operated at Rome's Chamele Hospital, the Vatican said in a statement, adding that the 86-year-old Pontiff was expected to spend several days in hospital. The surgery is the latest in a series of health concerns for the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics who has been Pope for the past 10 years. He arrived at Rome's largest hospital, a short drive from the Vatican at about 11.30 local time.


Another state ranked showdown involving these hockey programs, Grand Rapids Greenway Girls visiting Proctor Hermantown. GRG strikes first as Claire Vechich. Fires quick and scores a mint 30 into the game. About seven and a half minutes later, Makayla Finney is on the breakaway. She fakes out the goalie to tie the game. Finney had two goals on the night, as Proctor Hermantown wins it 4-2.