Thank you very much for this warm introduction, ladies and gentlemen. It's a special honor and a great pleasure for me to have the opportunity today to speak to such a distinguished audience. The triangle of jurisdiction between Karlsruhe Luxemburg and Strasburg has been labeled Bermuda Triangle by some commentators has almost become a household term. In the following, I would like to focus on one side of this triangle. And give you, at least, a rough outline of how the Bundesverfassungsgericht, our Federal Constitutional Court, and the Court of Justice of the European Union, or the European Court of Justice, interact, an interaction whose highly topicality showed, again, only two weeks ago when the European Court of Justice conducted a hearing about the questions concerning the European Central Bank's OMT decision, questions which had been referred to it for a preliminary ruling. Before I set out the guidelines on European integration and the case law of the Federal Constitutional Court for you, I would first like to describe the Court's main jurisdiction. I shall try to be brief so that we will have enough time for discussion afterwards. The experience of dealing with a largely ineffective constitution and a self-destructive democracy during the Weimar Republic led the mothers and fathers of the Grundgesetz, our basic law, our written constitution since 1949, to set up the Federal Constitutional Court. The Court acts as an empire watching over the observance of the basic law, which is directly binding upon the state legislative, executive, and judicial authorities. I do not need to explain to you the idea of a constitutional court with the power to reject laws as the Irish constitution explicitly provides for judicial review of legislation. Unlike the Supreme Court of Ireland, so the Federal Constitutional Court is not a court of final appeal, but only deals with constitutional matters. The differences between the standards of education of the European Court of Justice and the Federal Constitutional Court are the reason why the Federal Constitutional Court has so far only once referred legal questions for a preliminary ruling. Of course, stock-taking cannot stop at the differences between the two constitutional spheres because they are interlinked in different ways and mutually influence each other. In the following, I shall try to explain to you the role of the Federal Constitutional Court in the process of European integration. Ladies and gentlemen, European integration is a constant source of both, unity and conflict. The Constitutional Court has been committed to this process for many years. The coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009 and the various measures undertaken to combat the European sovereign debt crisis have been the main factors leading a number of new landmark decisions. What has been the dominant threat through these decisions? What limits does the basic law set on integration? Does EU law always have primacy over national law? Who has the last word in relations between the Federal Constitutional Court and the European Court of Justice? In the following, I want to explore these questions with the help of some propositions which also demonstrate the fundamental threats of the Federal Constitutional Court's case law. Good news to start with, and also my first proposition, the basic law is open or, as we say, friendly to European law. We call this the Europarechtsfreundlichkeit. The constitutional task of making a united Europe a reality is expressed in the preamble of the basic law and in Article 23, Section 1, in the so-called Europe article. The preamble states expressly that the German people have adopted this basic law inspired by the determination to promote world peace as an equal partner in a united Europe. The Federal Constitutional Court developed from these two provisions, which are quite similar to certain provisions of Article 29 of the Constitution of Ireland, its principle of openness to European law, as stated in its judgment on the Lisbon Treaty in 2009. According to this principle, the basic law calls for participation in the process of European integration and in an international peaceful order. But please, do not think that this principle is simply opium, being handed out to European lawyers by the Federal Constitutional Court, as I will show the principle of openness of European law also involves duties. Ladies and gentlemen, while the Federal Constitutional Court and the basic law do not put up flat barriers to stop the tide of European integration, so the famous English judge, Lord Denning, might have welcomed them, the basic law does put limits on integration to preserve the identity of our Constitution. This is my second proposition. In its Lisbon decision, the Federal Constitutional Court established that the basic law does not permit accession to a European federal state. Such an accession would mean relinquishing the state sovereignty of the federal republic of Germany. To do this would mean, in Germany, rewriting of the Constitution, a matter which is subject to the will of the German people. As long as the German Constitution remains unchanged in this regard, the Lisbon Treaty entails the idea of the European Union as a supranational organization, which is to be permanently upheld by the member states as masters of the treaties. The citizens of the member states give the exercise of public authority at European level legitimation through elections and referenda. In Article 23, Section 1, Sentence 3, the basic law expressly establishes a second limit to the transfer of sovereign powers to the European Union. This provisions dates that the fundamental structural principles of our states, such as the democratic, social, federal, and republican principles, and the rule of law may not relinquish. They are the core content of the basic laws constitutional identity. The same is true of the guarantee of human dignity and those fundamental rights, which in short are part and parcel of human dignity. These minimum standards must also be adhered to by the German legislator in adopting amendments to the basic law. This is why we call the relevant provision in Article 79, Section 3 of the basic law the eternity clause. Ladies and gentlemen, we now come to my third proposition, which is the relationship between the federal constitutional court and the European Court of Justice is not one of supremacy and subordination. Instead, it should be seen as a sharing of responsibility within a complex, multilevel cooperation of courts. We call this kind of cooperation the Gerichtsebund. In another speech, I find the picture of a mobile inspired by Kolder and his mobiles. It's not a pyramid. It's something else, and it's a very complex thing. So I think mobile is a good picture for this. The federal constitutional court supports the process of European integration within the material scope of the basic law while the European Court of Justice operates purely according to the yardstick of EU law. This does not rule out of conflicts, but overall we have managed very well so far. Let me outline a few strategies that the federal constitutional court and the European Court of Justice used to work together in this Gerichtsebund in the spirit of a division of labor. In the past decades, different techniques, some of them innovative, have been developed for shaping this cooperation. In the following, I shall try to explain two of these tools. An essential instrument in this process of cooperation and collaboration is the preliminary ruling procedure under Article 267 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union. This procedure permits the European Court of Justice to preserve the uniform interpretation and application of EU law. National courts of last instance are generally obliged to refer unresolved matters of EU law that are relevant for their decision to the European Court of Justice for the preliminary ruling. The interpretation and application of national law and the final ruling on the case are again a matter for the relevant national court. The federal constitutional court does not stand aloof from this fruitful dialogue between the European Court of Justice and the national courts. It ensures that compliance with the duty of the referral is subject to constitutional review. If a German court arbitrarily violates its obligation under EU law to refer a matter for preliminary ruling, it also violates German constitutional law. Person to the right to a lawful judge under Article 101, Section 1, Sentence 2 of the Basic Law, the parties have the right to have the issue of European law clarified by the European Court of Justice. A violation of this fundamental right can be the subject of a constitutional complaint to the federal constitutional court. Of course, ladies and gentlemen, also the federal constitutional court is subject to the duty of referral. But so far, it has only once referred legal questions to the European Court of Justice for preliminary ruling. This is the OMT case. What is the reason that the federal constitutional court is not willing to give a lot of legal questions to the ECJ? It's easy to answer this question. We have a lot of federal courts that have the cases with all the material to give it to the ECJ. And of course, it's better they give it to the ECJ as we give to the ECJ a special constitutional case. I think it's a good mixture we have established. And we can share responsibilities now between three levels. So our normal courts, the normal national courts, the constitutional courts, and the ECJ. And I think this is very practical. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, ladies and gentlemen, was a jurist and also otherwise a man of moderate intellect. To him is attributed the quote, trust is good, but control is better. President Ronald Reagan, an American, put it more peacefully, trust but verify. Neither does the federal constitutional court just establish in its case law substantive requirements of European integration and trust that they will be complied with. It is indeed prepared to exercise powers of review, although it should be noted only in exceptional cases. We have just seen this in an area of protection of fundamental rights. Moreover, the federal constitutional court reviews whether the inviolable core content of the constitutional identity is respected when sovereign powers are being transferred. You will recall that I just mentioned that fundamental principles in the organization of the states, such as democracy and rule of law and elementary fundamental rights, may not fall victim to the process of integration. The term used in this connection is identity review. We need to distinguish this identity review from ultra virus review. Ultra virus review means that the federal constitutional court reserves the right to subject legal acts by European institutions and bodies to review to see whether they remain within the limits of the sovereign powers granted to them or whether they go beyond these limits. This ultra virus review also has to take account of the principle of basic laws openness to European law, to which I will come back later. Specifically, this means that before assuming an act to be ultra virus, the federal constitutional court is obliged to give the European court of justice the opportunity to interpret the treaty and rule in a preliminary ruling on the validity and interpretation of the act in question. Furthermore, ultra virus review only comes into play if there is an obvious overstepping of competences by European institutions or bodies which results in a structurally significant shift of competences to the detriming of the member states. Once again, we can see that the federal constitutional court does not pursue a cause of confrontation with the European court of justice, but rather one of cooperation. As President Scouris has emphasized repeatedly, the instruments for ultra virus review and identity review developed by many national constitutional courts over the years. I think half of the constitutional courts of the European member states have developed such instruments. I regard it by the European court of justice as something of an imposition. We may even have a certain understanding for this point of view, but there are three things we should not forget. Firstly, no big disagreements have as yet occurred between the European court of justice and the national constitutional courts. The fear that the uniformity of European law would be put at risk by the powers of review exercised by the national constitutional courts have proved to be unfounded. So far, only the Czech constitutional court has handed out a judgment in which it holds that a certain interpretation and application of an EU regulation is a preliminary ruling by the European court of justice was the erroneous and an ultra virus act. The European legal community can and, ladies and gentlemen, must be able to weather such decisions. Secondly, knowing that they themselves are subject to a certain degree of oversight has a beneficial effect on the decision making of judges. I can say this from my own experience as a justice of the federal constitutional court with regard to the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice. The multi-level cooperation of courts, the Gerichtsverbund, encourages humility and restrained injustices. And certainly, and finally, these powers of review at the national level create trust with the citizens of the member states. They do not have to see themselves as subjects to the whims of some distant European court, but can take solace and the knowledge that when push comes to shove, the national constitutional identity will be preserved. This, in turn, strengthens their preparedness for integration. Ladies and gentlemen, so much for passers. What is my conclusion? I hope I have been able to demonstrate to you that there is one fundamental idea at the heart of the German constitutional arrangements. For the protection of our citizens within the European multi-level system, the development of political power still needs to be tied to fundamental rules in the form of a national constitution. We believe that's the best way to guarantee adherence to these rules is with the watchful oversight of an independent court. Only on secure constitutional foundations that promote European integration strengthen the idea of Gerichtsverbund and make it possible to preserve national identity can deeper integration be possible. Nobody knows exactly how the process of integration will go in the next few years. But, ladies and gentlemen, one thing is certain. It is only as a legal community with democratic legitimation that Europe has a future. Thank you very much for your attention.


Hey there friends, how's it going? My name is Kevin and today we're playing some Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on the PS1. And look at it, it's a magical time of year. Oh wait, that's not snow. That's just Ron's dandruff. Second hell, no spell could ever solve it, I'm afraid. Head and shoulder oh so. Never worked. Poor Ron. I give him such a hard time.  I've got some presents. What did you expect? Turnips! I know he's getting cheeky. It's weird, because in the movie they were trying to figure out all this stuff. Like I'm going to the restricted section now to get a book and find out who Nicholas Vermell is. But there's no real reason for them in the game. They haven't built it. They're just too curious for their own good. That's about it. Come on Harry. Thanks very much for getting the magical theory book Harry. Have a wizard card. However, there are books that are restricted. What's going on? There's like three people talking at the same time. All right, okay, are we done? Was this guy staying up all night just to catch me there? All right, the next thing that they've lost is a guide to transfiguration. Fell out of an owl package, so could be anywhere. Well, that's great. Great clue. Oh, but I get an extra bear of health for doing that? That is actually not bad. Now I have two scars.  That just comes at my forehead and starts etching in another scar. I know this is where you get your powers Harry. I can't even remember where we're going. Where are we going? Follow Ron to the second floor. Okay, she's no wonder he's so tired all the time. He's fecking fast. Or maybe Harry's just slow. It takes him like a solid minute to open one door. What? What is wrong with this game today? It's so fucked. Maybe you should try out the cloak. You'll be able to go in the restricted section without being seen. I'll meet you in the common room later. Okay, Ron is ditching me as usual. I kind of covered all of them, even though the invisibility cloak is like this big. Where am I going? I'm lost. Can I just... Hey, you! Spells do not affect me. I'm Harry Potter. He's still trying to get me? Oh, this game is fantastic today. There's someone around here. Who's there? I think I'm supposed to be stealthing, but I don't affect... I think you should be in the Gryffindor coming from the water. How do they even know it's me? What's going on here? How many prefects do they have here? I still stand by the fact they should have one prefect on every entrance to each floor and then they'd be fine. Instead, they load like six of them into this one room. All right, run. Run. Go, go, go, go, go. Okay, I'm out of there. Look at that. His glasses are not moving. Everything else was waving. He just clearly sees glasses. Maybe that's how they knew it was me. Someone explained to me how this library is practical at all. I've climbed over all these ledges doing deptifying leaps. The books are attacking me. As if learning wasn't hard enough. What?  Second floor, reading room, past the library and into the annex through portrait. Got it. Wait, no, I don't. Hold on. Slow down. What was he saying? I have no fecking clue what he just said. Okay, this door is fecking painted on. I can't get through here. Can you give me those directions again, please? Oh, great. Now there's fecking ghosts. Fantastic. Wait, what? Oh, okay. All right, that makes sense. So the ghosts had to appear and then I had to kill them to progress, but the ghosts just didn't appear for like a solid three minutes. So I'm not even exaggerating. I was just running around the room like there must be something here, but no, the game's just fecked today. And it's always a little fecked, but it's extra fecked today. What? What was that noise? Who was that? Oh, thank God I did something. Jesus Christ, this room is difficult. Honestly, like what if someone just wants to read a book? You have to go through all this? Okay, great. Now I've opened the other side.  No one uses libraries as it is. If you have to go through all this, no one would ever step foot in it. What? I'm sure I heard someone sneaking around here. Jesus Christ. Like this prefect was just fecking trapped behind here. I freed him. There better not be anybody in there. Yeah, better not be. Just pumped into him. Get to your common room immediately. Like I literally freed you. You're probably a first year too. You've just been stuck here for years. Hey, you. Oh God, he's following me now. I have you. No, you fecking don't. I'm running away. I fecking hate this room. I don't know what to do. I'm so confused. And then I'm getting hurt and the library's shushing me. I'm just lucky that guy etched another health bar into me because I should be dead. What? Is this the book I needed? Seriously, the only book in this entire library that's up on top of these bookcases. That's the one I needed. A pumpkin pasty. The way I picked that up and it gave me a bit of health and swapped out the health bears, I thought it just depleted my health. I thought someone poisoned it or something. I think they'd get away with that murder, to be honest, because who goes around just eating things they find in chests, especially in a school like this? Keep going. Go on. Don't be shy. Oh my God. I just crawled out right next to him. Oh, his cat is here now too. I'm just going to feck and leg it. There's someone round here. What? What is going on? Okay. He immediately gave up on finding me. Hey, you! No, no, no, no, no. Ah, ah, get out of the way. I think you should be in the Gryffindor common room potter. Yeah, I should be. Could you send me back, please? I'm just trying to get back home. He's not bothered at all by the fact the door is just opening next to him. Oh, and Harry has realized he's out of danger, even though I'm still not back. See, this is why you should have kept the feck and cloak on, Harry. Now you're getting mugged. Give it here. It doesn't belong to you. Stop getting so emotional, Harry. You're out of control. What is this? What is happening? I don't understand where this is going. This is just awkward. What? What? I followed you all this way just for that?  What? Wait, hold up.  They are not his parents. They are Walmart bargain bin knockoffs. You, like hundreds before you, have discovered the delights of the mirror of Erised.  Just following the ghost like that so awkwardly and then he just drops in. He's like, I didn't want it anyway and then leaves the room and forget to live. Where did he go? Okay, he crouched down. I thought he was just going out of the frame and he was gone from the scene. Dumbledore, I think the mirror is trying to tell me that I want to die. I don't see myself anymore. Dumbledore, Dumbledore. Relieves you guidance right about now. All right, thanks anyway. What about my book? Where's my book? After all that. I'm turning in, Harry. There's nothing more to do. Yeah, and you didn't do anything either. End the knife. I checked that copy of a study of recent- What the hell is wrong with Hermione's face? Oh my God, what happened to you over Christmas? I have some bacon or something. Why aren't you eating anything? It's Charles class next. Okay, you didn't really answer his question. He just changed the subject. Oh, what could it be? I bet it's a book. Maybe a CD? It's a broomstick. What a surprise. I want just a broomstick, Harry. But who? That is such a cliche. Just like as if he'd know to look right at her. You would never expect her to be the one that got it. Harry, Charles class is on the second floor. I'll meet you there. Or we could walk together. I'm going to check another book later. Notable magical names of our time. Might have some mention of Flamel. It's so annoying you have to keep searching for this. Like, did they not have a sort of wizard Google? They could call it Woogle. Oh my God, she ran past me. She really didn't want to sit with me, did she? In here, Harry. What? You don't get to tell me what to do. That's the teacher's job. All right. Well, I'm just a mindless drone, apparently. And I go, oh my God, this does not sound good. I can hear things flying around. I'm just picturing like swinging hammers or something.  What is this?   I have no interest. Okay. He didn't even attempt to grab that. What the? What was that?  Where did that come from? Okay. What did that accomplish? I don't... Just don't get these challenges sometimes.  Grab onto it. Hedwig. Nope. Hedwig just went through it there. He went through the fire. I can go for some fried owl. I think I'm stuck down here for the rest of my life anyway. What do I do? He doesn't do anything for me. Honestly, bribe him and I don't have anything to...  Okay, that actually did almost kill myself. And it's really killed the camera. For fuck's sake. Like, it made me come all the way down just to do this. There's nothing more fun than repeating a really annoying task again. It just gives you a sense of pride and accomplishment.  Now I can just jump in that. And I don't have a choice in that, actually. Okay, well, I'm out of there. But like, what did that accomplish? What's about my owl? What was that whole thing about? Magical.  Come on, Harry, that'll do. We don't need to get the last one. You could slip through those bears so easily. Even Hagrid could get through there. Look at it.  They keep luring me into thinking I'm gonna get something special and I never do. I'm still so confused what that owl was for. I can't stop thinking about it. I'm just like, I just left him there and I got nothing with it. All right, finally.  I don't even know what it is anymore. I can't remember. And the other games have made more sense. You learn the spell at the start and then during the challenge you use it so you can get used to it and whatnot. This just makes no sense. Got it. The Incendia spellbook.  That's all I need to know. Skip, skip, skip.  I thought we were done with this. Oh, he's shocked.  How is this relevant to the class? I like how it took him that long to notice it as well. He was right in front of him when he came in. Okay, I finally figured out how to fight this thing.  Like I assumed he'd have to use the new spell so I was just spamming away at it and dying. Okay, I'm dead. It doesn't matter anyway. I have like no health. How am I supposed to do this? Oh, for fuck's sake, it's spawn killing me now.    Honestly, I should just brought some roundup.  Hey, everyone. I know you didn't expect to see me again, but I'm back. Well done. That effort deserves an A. Oh my God, he's actually pleased to see me for a change. And I got an A. It's the first time I've been scraping by so far. All right, that is a high note to go out on. I got an A for the first time in my life. I guess we will leave it there. What a magical day at Hogwarts. Extra fecky today. But I do hope you've been enjoying this little series on Harry Potter. I know it's definitely not the most popular series on my channel. I don't think anyone like hates it, but it just doesn't bring in like the most views. But I really enjoy doing them. And there are a lot of people that like seeing it. So it's a fun one. It's a fun one to do. But I hope you're one of the people that enjoy it. I will thank you for watching. I appreciate it as always, folks. And I do hope to see you next time. Bye for now.


Speaker would be Lance Boser. Lance also gave a talk at the colloquium. So thanks again, Lance. When are you ready? Okay. I'm doing this at Rob Bell's house because there was a massive internet failure at my house about an hour and a half ago. Naturally, the atmosphere knows what I was up to or not up to is the same to be. All right. So I'm going to talk about it's not getting full screen Lance, sorry. I always forget to do that. I always forget something. It's the one next to this sliding climate. Hold it there. There we go. Okay. First of all, I want to thank you and Judith for putting on this remarkable colloquium. Having done this, I know just how much work it is, especially behind the scenes to make it work. I also want to acknowledge my co-authors, two of them are students in the colloquium, Tyler Light and Alex Mitchell, and other Albany graduate student, Minghao Chao. All right. So I want to talk about the contributions of Recurving East Pack and West Pack Cropical Cyclones to an extreme weather event over the Western Conus in September 2020. And the event in question is it had a lot of California wildfires, the antecedent conditions and widespread drought. So this is becoming a regular occurrence on the West Coast, but this was quite the event last year. And if we look at, say, the water, some of the patterns that led up to this was the trough off the shore that allowed moisture from mid-levels to reach the West Coast and steep lapse rates that favored dry thunderstorms with lots of lightning. So in California, it was the 30th dry of August in 126 years in through here. And you look at the Western Conus vapor pressure deficit is near the 100th percentile pretty much everywhere. The monsoon season this year are sure different than last summer. So what do Recurving and Transitioning Western Pacific Tropical Cyclones have to do with everything in through here? Well, they lead to downstream barriclic development and, in this case, deep dateline trough formation, upper-level ridging in Eastern Alaska and Western Canada, surface anti-cyclogenesis over Southwest Canada that drove the easterly flow to the coast and called strong sea-level pressure rises across the Great Basin and the in the strong West Coast easterly flow. And there was eventually a big cold outbreak that followed the heat wave. So everything was happening all at once. All right, there were three West-packed TCs in particular, Bavi, Mesaik and Haishen in there. And they all were moving mostly northward. And these are the kinds of TCs that you have to pay attention to because as they move northward, they can perturb the North Pacific jet stream. And that can lead to downstream barriclinic development. So we're going to show you some overview maps first. We're going to look at it from a dynamic tropopause perspective on the two potential vorticity unit surface. And we'll look at PV and the 300 to 200 hectopascal irrotational wind and 250 millibar winds. Take away from these maps is going to be that West-packed TCs perturb the downstream flow. And the maps I'm going to show you are courtesy of Heather Archambault. So here's the first one, a 12C in the August 26th of August 2012. This dynamic, we're going to see these dynamic tropopause maps. The colors, the warm colors, the higher potential temperature. So here's the TC right in here. Here's a trough to the West. And then you see this big anisoclinic mushroom type cloud. This is the impact of anisoclinic wave breaking when a TC interacts with the mid-latitude barriclinic trough. That was Bavi. Here's May 2nd, 0C the 3rd, September. You again see the trough to the West. The TC isn't here. And here's Haishen coming in, coming in to join the party. Negatively tilted trough to the West. These are the winds on the dynamic tropopause. And again, a big anisoclinically curved outflow and with a further downstream trough. So if we go now to TC Haishen, on the 7th of September at 0C, this is getting look old. Another trough to the West of the TC as the TC interacts with the trough. Big anisoclinically curved outflow, wave break, anisoclinic wave breaking and a downstream trough. So instead, if we look at, go back and look at now the PV, the 250 millibar winds and the 300 to 200 millibar hectopascal, irrotational wind vectors. So the solid contours are PV and the wind vectors are the irrotational winds and the 300 to 200 millibar layer. The red area is the asset, the 6 to 400 millibar layer. So this is the weakest storm. This is Bavi in through here. But notice the PV max is up here. Bavi is in here. Note that there's negative PV infection by the irrotational wind, which is helping to build the ridge. Now we look at Masek. Again, it's a stronger TC. You can see the upstream trough here. Here's Masek right here. The upstream trough, it's interacting the trough, but note the strong negative PV infection by the irrotational wind, which is contributing to the ridge building. Now in a rerun, here's Haishen four days later. These are identical. This is just the western one. The left one is in the western Pacific and this is the north Pacific. So you can see the downstream impacts. Again, strong negative divergent outflow from the irrotational wind and that is being driven by latent heat release. So that's the connection between between the the perturbation to the PV waveguide and the deep tropical moisture associated with the tropical storm. And here's the same thing down here, but further east and you can see the effect of the downstream bear clinic development. You have this big deep trough building the ridge on the off along the west coast and again with negative PV infection by the irrotational wind and strong divergent outflow. So the takeaway from that part, recurring West Pact TC is perturbed to Westerlies and induced downstream bear clinic development. Negative PV infection by the irrotational wind further resists downstream bear clinic development and ridge building. And if you don't get the moisture distribution right and you don't have the vertical distribution of diabetic heating properly done, your forecast is going to contain a lot of errors. Okay, but wait, there's more. East Pact TC's joined the party. So we had Polward moving and weakening East Pact TC's Elida, Fosto and Genevieve in August 2020. There are the tracks in through here, but the East Pact TC's are different. They're typically weakening TC's. They're not like the category three and category four ones in the Western Pacific. And so the tendency is to dismiss them because they weaken the colder sea surface temperatures. And as they get away from the warmer sea surface temperatures, they tend to weaken, but they have other impacts in terms of moisture. So what I call trough off the coast pattern between the eighth and 21st of August 2020. So let's look at some mean 500 millibar height for this period on the top, anomaly on the bottom, on the right hand column is precipitation water anomaly on the bottom. So you see there's a big ridge over the western part of the United States in the core of the anomalies over Nevada, Northern California and Southern Oregon in here, a trough offshore. So there's anomalous southeastally flow. That will help facilitate moisture polward moisture infection from those recovering Eastern Pacific tropical cyclones. In the terms of precipitation water anomalies, positive anomalies almost everywhere along the California coast and offshore. Big negative anomalies you might imagine with the wave in the ridge and the very dry air inland. So here's the effect of the offshore anomalous trough in there and the track of the anomalous of the tropical cyclones up the coast. Now, what does that do indirectly? It's not like a category one TC, but watch what happens. And this is the case of the first one fasto in here. So you can see the moisture if we play this late again, notes how the moisture is streaming forward into California, mid-level moisture in Northern and Central California. And what is that going to do? It's going to support some elevated convection. So if we look at the North Pacific flow evolution subsequent to the recurrence of those three Eastern Pacific TC's. And we have it in a loop in through here in the Pacific. And now you can see the effect of the TC's. You can see how the jet amplifies in the downstream trough and ridge builds on the left-hand side. The thickness is there, 250 millibar winds. On the right hand side is the 500 millibar flow. And you can see towards the end, the big ridge of the TC's as the whole pattern flow pattern amplifies. Now, if you're here and lead to this big ridge on the west coast, and then a trough drops down to the east, that was the subsequent cold wave during that period. So here's an intermediate synopsis about the TC's. The recurring west-pack TC's induce downstream flow amplification, mid-Pacific trough and an Alaska Northwest Canada ridge. Decaying poleward moving east-pack TC's enable mid-level tropical moisture to reach Northern or California and Oregon. The tropical mid-level moisture fuels the outbreaks of dry lightning storms that sparks an outbreak of wildfires. So let's look briefly at some impacts in here. There's this spectacular image of lightning over the Bay Bridge, San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge. This is a very unusual site for mid-August. Here's a radar lightning loop in California showing all the lightning and the convective cells. You would think it would be a lot of rain reaching the surface, but it wasn't in there. And here's like lightning complexes on the air, the lightning and the storm fire complexes on the left and on the right. They have the tracks of the lightning cloud to grow out lightning during this period. So over very dry soil, that's that mid-level moisture, which is supporting that. And these are what was going on. Wildfire spread by flying embers. And I love this image because this is taken by the Reno National Weather Service Doppler radar. Here's the California Nevada border here. So you're looking west. Here you have an anisoclinic tornado. Flow away from the radar, towards the radar, in through here. Likely fire tornado, according to, noted by the radar operator in there. And there's a ground truth verification of the anisoclinic tornado at the same time. That is just a spectacular image. So now let's look at the during the ridge building on the western conus ridge building in through here. This is 12Z in August. You're going to see some maps that look like this. Sea level pressure is in solid. 1,005 thickness decometers in red and blue. And then principle water is the grayscale shady. So back on the 12th of August in through here, you can see some of the moisture sort of sneaking up. Here's the first of the TC's in there. And that's Alita. Then the remnant moisture in through here. This will be Fausto coming in trough off the west coast. Here comes the next one in there. So that's remnant of Genevieve. Again, with the weak trough off the west coast, the moisture sneaks up along the coast at mid levels, but it's not enough to produce. And this is all remnant from the tropical cyclones, but it just goes into the ridge building with the trough offshore in through here, 28th of August in there. And then you can see what we described earlier as the big ridge builds in through here. At this time, ridging in substance, that's a result of the recovering western Pacific tropical cyclones. And as that ridge, whoops, and as that ridge builds, you can see the ridge poking its way into the Pacific Northwest, and you get the easterly flow gradient to the south. And that's driving the wildfires towards the towards the coast. Now then there was a cold surge that followed. And so we look at some standardized anomaly maps for this period. On the left is the 500 millibar height, height and standardized anomalies. On the right are the 850 millibar heights and black contours. And the temperatures are dash red contours. And that standardized height, standardized 850 millibar temperatures on the right, standardized 500 millibar temperature on the left. You can see you're looking at three and four sigma ridge here on the 6th of September. All across the west of the United States, it's very anonymously warm between two and three sigma standardized anomalies. So as we go through, one day later, I'll go back, watch how the ridge builds in this final act from the last of the western Pacific typhoons, tracking it, pushing it up, folds over, trough treatments on the east as the ridge folds over, and it's the chronic way breaking tries to get going. The trough drops down the eastern side, and then it comes down across the Great Basin, bringing significant cold spell to that area. And then we can look at it here in loop mode. On the left, sea level pressure, 1,005 thicknesses of 250 millibar winds. And on the right, 700 millibar heights, precipitation water is shaded and what temperatures are in dash red contour. But you can see in the 700 millibar circulation, and when it reloops and through here, northerly flow circulation comes down in there. The moisture is directed to the east of the continental divide. All right. This is remarkable. This is the 24 hour forecast temperature change, verifying 21Z on the 8th of September by the European center model. There's a 59, a couple of 59 degree Fahrenheit temperature drops in a 24 hour change. That's how impressive that cold air surge was that followed that followed that. And I love this image. These are taking one day apart. This is the sky on fire literally the day before. And then there's snow on the ground is 101 and four columns. And the next day, there's snow on the ground. Talk about changeable weather in there. All right. So say something about the conus extreme weather events and the wildfire impacts as we get towards the end here. Really hot in California. Look at these temperatures on the coast and the areas above 100, 110. And through here, 106, 102, 109, 117 in there. Very, very hot. Heat and fire where the active wildfires. And you can see pretty much all throughout the northern and central parts of the state and the hills. And this is a remarkable pyrocumulus in there. Mono lake is in the foreground in there. And you can see the outflow of smoke, hay, edge, edge in through here. Pyrocumulonimbus with anvil. Remarkable picture. Another view of it. And you would think of looking down a massive thunderstorms going on, but you can see there's very little shear because the anvil is spreading out in both directions in there in the, in the ridge. So what were some of the impacts in the poor air quality in here? Here's a remarkable image. While the flow was off shore, you can see the fires burning in Oregon. The flow was off shore. And then it would come in, come inland when it reloops in through here. Really, really thick smoke. So there's poor out air quality up and down the west coast, a day without sun, the golden gate bridge in the red orange looking like the end of the world. I mean, look at that image of San Francisco.  And the poor air quality three days later, off the charts, poor air quality pretty much everywhere up and down the west coast and parts of inland areas of Washington and Oregon. Acreage bird. Okay, I'm almost done. Acreage bird record in 2020. And an operational model forecast issue here, erroneous progressive flow. So I want to compare the GS 15, which was then operational, which was the GFS v 16, which was coming into play. So here's the 156 hour forecast. And here's verification, the lower right corner, the new GFS current operational there. The model of 156 hours could not get the trough to cut back into the mountains. And that's the difference field of the lower left, because it couldn't get the ridging right on the western coast. At 168 hours, you can see the the newer model was even worse than the operational model in having a two progressive a trough compared to reality. 180 hour forecast was even worse. So it's the systematic bias of being too progressive in the in the in the in the forecast. And that had a huge impact on what happened in the in the west. So the conclusions would be that the east pack top of the TC moisture field thunderstorms that initiated west coast wildfires, it missed a heat wave. West pack ET events resulted in a Western North America Ridge and multiple western conas extreme weather events. Troughs cresting the ridge facilitated a cold surge that ended a record breaking heat wave over the Great Basin and Rockies, which produced record breaking low temperatures. A couple days later, anacyclogenesis behind the cold surge drove hot dry gusty down slope winds that further fueled the West Coast wildfires and widespread wildfires resulted in masses spoke plumes that spread across much the conas and the North Atlantic. And the NCEP models, a GF model, GFS model struggled to predict the large scale flow that drove multiple Western conas extreme weather events. I'm done. Thank you, Lance. It's really interesting. Any questions for Lance? So I had one, Lance, in terms of tropical variability and Eric had mentioned this in terms of like the MJOs, teleconnection into the East Pacific and modulating the TC activity there during this event. Was there a connection to the tropical waves? That I don't know the answer to that question yet. Okay. What I do know is what I showed you. Yeah. But that obviously is the next step. Right. Great. Yeah, I don't see other questions, Lance, on the chat or the raised hand. If there are other questions, they can be posted on Slack and then we can mention it to you for a response. Sure. I think everyone's tired and not a lot of people like to look at weather maps these days. Oh, no, it's great to bring in the, oh, Jan has a question. Go ahead, Jan. Yeah, thanks for, can you hear me? Yes. Yeah, thanks for this very interesting talk. I learned a lot. You showed the prediction at the end, I think five or six days ahead of the cold air coming down from the north. So you said the ridge wasn't predicted. Well, do you have an idea what, where the errors are and is it because it relates to the TC. It all originates back to the TC's in the western Pacific and the negative PV advection by the irrotational wind due to a strong diabetic heating in ridge building and downstream barric link development. Okay. Thanks. We follow up to that, Lance, in terms of uncertainty in prediction of the TC's, was there a large uncertainty in terms of like the cone of the ensemble spread for the individual TC's? Yeah. That's a good question, Anish. I don't know the answer to that question but the errors are growing rapidly downstream and they're related to the release of latent heat which is manifest by the strength of the irrotational wind and the associated negative PV advection by the irrotational wind. Okay. Great. Yeah. Thanks, Yan, for the question again and thank you again, Lance, for the interesting talk. With that, we'll end today's session for the workshop. Thanks again to all the speakers, both Modming and the second session.


hey guys welcome to my channel please put a like and subscribe if you are new also go over to my other channel moon pie tarot where you can get daily collective readings my readings always start on the 30 minute mark you can come in earlier if you want to wait chat with everyone but they always start the 30 minute mark so just pop in at the 30 minute mark reading will begin all right let's get into your reading hi Virgo happy Halloween I hope you had a fantastic weekend all right Virgo so we're gonna get into your week ahead going into November 2023 we're gonna see what the messages are for you going into this week oh okay so you're starting off with the seven of wands so it looks like you're gonna have to defend yourself from something this week something's coming up for sure where it looks like you're gonna have to stand your ground defend yourself fight back on a position that you your beliefs or stand up for yourself what it is that you want what you believe not cave not let anybody bullying you into doing anything or saying anything or believing in anything stand up for your convictions this week okay let's see what's going on here what is this about what is this about for Virgo for this week hmm looks like it has something to do with love for sure hmm looks like someone's trying to come in and make some kind of a love offer but you're being it looks like you're being forced to choose or make a decision about love you might be undecided you might be it looks like maybe being forced it's like you're being pushed not so much forced by maybe being pushed and I don't know you're pushing back on it it looks like you're standing your ground when it comes to this comes to love it's almost like you don't want you don't want it it's like you just don't want the offer hmm that's kind of it's interesting I wonder what's going on with that you do have the devil here so maybe a toxic kind of energy that's showing up this week some someone maybe love bombing or Capricorn energy that the devil it just kind of feels like it's unhealthy like something or some type of energy or someone very possessive like a possessive energy someone who's addicted or it just keeps coming in and like maybe you're setting boundaries you know and it just feels like you have to stand up for yourself in regards to this energy this week like someone's pushing or the energy is pushing against you or pushing on you it for some of you it may not be a person I mean like it it's it's an end the devil can represent an addiction the addiction pushing on you tempting you you're having to fight back against this this week it's heavy feels like it's a very heavy energy for you this week it could be food it could be alcohol it could be a purse in place or a thing you know here have some here come in I want you know you know trying to kind of entrap you yeah tough so I feel like for that energy this week be aware that it's trying to creep up on you like hold fast hold steady stand your ground get your boundaries in place just say no Virgo just say no I learned it by watching you I learned it by watching you do you remember that commercial oh my gosh yeah so just say no Virgo to whatever it is that has that devil toxic energy okay let's see what else is coming up for you this week Virgo okay well that looks good so you've got the Ten of Pentacles so long-term security financial abundance let's see what else oh oh wow okay you've got the two of cups wow and the four of wands fantastic so could be connecting with someone this week a friendship or a romantic relationship excuse me a relationship that goes long term a reunion with someone some family members some friends there's a secure job some of you returning to an old job or your job wants you back contracts being signed re-employment I'm hearing re-employment with a former company but as far as love goes let's so let's look at love at first I want to say that you could be meeting someone and this is gonna be your long-term partner for sure it could be Leo could be a Pisces could be a water sign some of you are reuniting having a reunion with someone reconnecting with an old flame some of you could be meeting at a work party especially around the holidays as well coming going forward could be at like a birthday party or a holiday party in November for sure but something could be coming up this week yeah and I definitely feel like as far as work goes there is a connection at work for sure but there's long-term security so this if you have a job I feel like for work it feels mostly like you're going to be some of you are going to be reconnecting or going back to your old work whether it's the actual employment place it used to work at or just back to that industry back into that line of work okay let's see what else you have coming up this week I believe it's only been six minutes I feel like we're talking for like 20 what's going on does anybody feel like time it's just going very quickly lately okay let's see all right so you've got temperance and you have the page of pentacles and you've got the page of cups wow there's definitely communication going back and forth between you and another person as well there's an apology happening there's also some communication about some new ideas and plans there's Sagittarius energy here did you hear my grandson he just goes uh-oh so for some of you that might be an uh-oh not a sag oh perfect timing I don't know if you heard it you might have to go back and listen even he knows what's up something like no not the Sagittarius okay for some of you I know it's fine so yeah there's kind of like a blending energy happening here with us possibly with the Sagittarius for some but I see two people coming together to have some conversation this week there's gonna be some text messages or phone calls I don't feel like there's a meet-up I do feel like there's like conversation through texts or phone calls and there's some spiritual talk definitely just gonna be talking about the angels talking some spiritual conversation yeah yeah for sure so and then this could be with a friend this could be you know it's just another human being just another conversation some apologies some plans talking about some ideas some mild flirting so for some it could be a little bit of affection involved I'm with the apologies about so there might have been something going on between you and another person before where some conversation comes up and a little bit of apologies start happening or something gets thrown in there but I kind of get a sense like with temperance even when I look here I feel like see how those two cups are there this kind of gives me this impression that you and this person are kind of meant to engage with one another like you mix up really well you know what I mean like you vibe really well your energies with those two cups the water flows the conversation flows real nicely between the two of you now maybe it has in the past but I don't know you two kind of like you have some some stuff in common the conversation just seems to like you get each other this could be something new though I will point that out this could be something new you could be like having some conversation with another person this week to two people have a new conversation so if we take out the apology this could be like a little bit of talking and you guys are kind of like Jelen you know you're Jelen yeah yeah little flirtation little talking about money talking about all kinds of stuff a little start of something new for some of you or restart okay could turn romantic could turn romantic see what else is going on here for you see what else is going on here for Virgo oh okay you have the six of wands wow you have the sun wow double success oh okay so this is pretty obvious like I feel like Virgo um you have success like all around you and this week it's really important for you to get out of negative thinking so maybe this is advice I'm not sure but if you could stop and smell the roses make gratitude list and kind of just like step out of just kind of like taking a objective view of where you are and find the silver lining in your life start counting your egg counting is it counting your chickens counting your chickens count your eggs oh my god what's happening to me count your chickens everybody just start counting your chickens and be grateful for your chickens okay count your eggs just whatever just start counting your blessings okay how about that just count your right if you want to count your chickens count your chickens I don't give a fuck just count just count the things that are that are you have that are great, the wonderful positive blessings in your life, right? And you will see that you are surrounded with success, that you have all of the blessings. I feel like that's the message, because sometimes we're too focused on the things that we want and we desire than being grateful for what we have, right? And that's such a human thing, because humans always want more and when we're always in a place of desire we are never satisfied. Rather than just being content with what we have, sure it's okay, we want to, oh sure, like you know, we want to upgrade, we want to upgrade.  I mean those little things, but like just be careful, you have to put a cap on your desires, I think. Don't you think? Like if we're always waiting for five o'clock, five o'clock never comes, you know what I mean? It does, but then it turns, it's five o'clock again later, like it never stays, it's always five o'clock twice every day, so it's like it just never stays at five, you're never satisfied. So I feel like try to find a way to be content with what you have, like seriously, just be like, you know, this is good, this is really good, I'm happy with my chickens, I love my chickens, I don't need any more, I'm very happy with my chickens, yes, I'm keeping my chickens, that's it, I don't need any more, yep, just gonna love them to death, just love my chickens, and that's it, and this here will just go away, this feeling victimized, feeling imprisoned, I have a big strong message this week about being happy, joyous, free, feeling like we have all the accolades and the awards and the satisfied customers, feeling happy with ourselves, feeling like we are worthy and we are blessed, because we really are, it's all in our attitude really, it's just how we see ourselves, it's all about the positive thinking, like these are so contrasting here, like you just can't be, these two things at the same time, be completely joyous, you know, I mean you can have this, but you got to turn this around, or you could be this and some days be that, but you can't be these simultaneously, because then you're a psychopath, seriously, like when you get down, then you just kind of like turn up around upside down, girl, so you know, I feel like that's a message, that's a message for this week, just try to find, it's all about kind of just make it a gratitude list, you know, seriously, it's all about like waking up and making a gratitude list for the week, and then just do it once, and then read it for the rest of the week to remind yourself, you know, alright let's do a couple more, see what else comes up for the week ahead, okay, three cups, oh, okay, so I see like a little bit of time being spent with someone this week that does come to an end, someone has to go home, could be you or another person, has to go home, so if you've had visitors, if you've had company or if you've been visiting or spending time with someone, there's definitely a departure and a little bit of sadness, because someone, because there's a departure, okay, looks like it's kind of a cut short kind of thing, yeah, so that might be coming up this week, a little bit of sadness, I mean, I know it's not long-term grief or anything, you know, after the five of cups comes the six of cups, so there will be a little bit of communication back and forth afterwards, but I feel like there's this I'm gonna miss you kind of energy, you know, after having some time together, or you might be getting together with someone this week, spending some time together, after a period of not seeing each other, getting together because of missing each other, you know, I mean, but it's it's like temporary, you know, coming together and then parting, you know, so there's like this was a parting period and then coming together and then parting again, two people really missing each other a lot, maybe there's distance, there's travel, maybe there's distance between the two of you, it's a little tough because they feel like this distance between two people makes it really hard, because these two people really enjoy each other and want to spend more time together, but you know, there will be more time being spent together, for sure, there will be more travel, days to come, just gonna take a little while, let's see what your overall message, like till you guys get to that place, let's see what your overall message, I feel like whoever, if somebody is leaving, like if when you guys part, the other person misses you terribly as well, it's not just, you know, you, definitely the other person, oh, okay, your overall message is the six of cups here, so this isn't, I was gonna say, it's not an energy of being like stuck in the past, but it is an energy of keeping memories, fond memories close to your heart, thinking positively about the past memories, right, this week, not dwelling on the negative, being stuck and dwelling too hard and too long on the past, I feel like when we dwell too much on the past, we tend to like depression sets in, I feel like if there's gonna be any thinking or not dwelling, don't dwell on the past, dwelling is not healthy, I think if you allow past memories to come up, let them be positive, think about them, reflect and then let them be, but don't dwell, because dwelling can cause depression, yes, because then the missing and the remorse and tends to set in, like it's just not healthy, we were not meant to live in the past, that's why our memories aren't always at the forefront of our brains, so this, you know, in the in the reverse, this would be dwelling and that would not be good, so it's in the upright, so this is a call for you to focus on not dwelling, but to think about your childhood, to think about when childhood memories come up, when memories of good times have come up, to recall and let them come and reflect on them as positive times, if they were positive, don't dwell on the negative, but if they were positive, to think about those times and then let them go, try to have fond memories or try to only think of the fond memories and also if there's children around this week, you might even be seeing a lot of children on Monday, if there's trick or treating, enjoy the time with the children, yeah, this week as well, this was such a sweet message for the week, nothing major, nothing, except for that double energy that you're gonna have to like push back on at the beginning of the week or at least the beginning of the reading, nothing major, let's just get a charm, I just want to throw a charm your way and see what comes up, oh, okay, right, so you have, at first I thought, at first when I pulled the charm out, I pulled it out upside down, I thought it was a pot, I thought it was a pot leaf, I don't know if you can see it, but it's not, it's a palm tree, so however you want to look at it, can you see it, okay, so it's a palm tree, so that might be significant for you, palm tree, maybe you live in an area where there's palm trees or you know someone who does or yeah, palm tree is significant for someone this week or in the sense that it means something for you, which means that this reading would be significant for you for some reason, something in it would be very significant for you, I don't know, there's a lot of coconuts on this palm tree, so maybe like coconuts, maybe you'll see a kid trick-or-treating or at a costume parade, Halloween parade just as a palm tree, I don't know why but that would be cute, if you do, oh my gosh, yeah, this is specifically for you, all right, very cute reading, happy Halloween you guys, I will see you all back here tomorrow, have a wonderful, wonderful week and yeah, take care, love you, bye!


It's more like good middle of the night. It is currently 5.50. I've been up for an hour now. It's literally the middle of the night. Like I don't feel normal. Like I feel foreign right now and that's fine because what am I gonna do about it? I'm leaving for set now. I don't think I've ever picked up the camera when I'm like literally leaving for set this early because I just, I don't know. I just am never in it to win it. Like I'm always just out of it. But anyways, I just thought I would vlog morning for you guys. Don't ask me why. I thought it would be a good idea because I don't know. I've just never, I don't think I've ever done this before because I'm usually way too tired. But you know what? I'm actually not feeling like the most horrible I've ever felt waking up this early. At first it was very brutal but then like now I'm kind of more awake. I am gonna have a coffee like once I get there. It's nice because when you go this early you always get breakfast and coffee and all that. So it's like not bad at all. We have a 25 minute drive ahead of us which is not bad at all. Like this is like I'm very thankful that it's not far away whatsoever. It should be there at 6.15, the GPS is telling me. And I have to be there by 6.30. So we're early.   I'm just scared about like what if I don't find the address and blah, blah, blah. Okay, anyways. Yeah, I'm gonna drive now but maybe I'll see you guys sometime. I don't know. We'll see. Hey guys, so I look crazy right now. I literally have never worn red lipstick. I don't think ever on my own in my life but they made me wear red lipstick today. Yeah, so I just got home from set. It's seven. I mean, it's eight o'clock right now. Literally just hit eight. And yeah, it was a fun day. Went by really fast but it was a long day. 6.30 a.m. to eight o'clock. Very long day. But tomorrow we're not in until 10 o'clock which is nice. Fortunately it's Monday and I was supposed to post my video today but I didn't get to posting it because I didn't even know what was gonna be working today like they let me know last minute. So I didn't, like I thought I had time to edit it today but unfortunately I didn't. But it's okay. We're gonna post it Friday. Honestly, I'm just like chill. Like whatever it's meant to be is meant to be. And I'm not gonna stress myself out about it because I've got a lot of things going right now and you know what? We're just going with the flow. Yeah, I'm gonna go inside now and wash this makeup off because I've been wearing makeup now for too many hours. It's just been too long. So this has to come off my face. Like I was looking at my face halfway throughout the day and I'm like, why am I so oily? And then I'm like, wait, because I've literally been wearing this makeup for like 12 hours straight. So let's go inside. Hey guys, I literally look like a potato right now but it is Thursday. And I've been working on set Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and else Thursday. It's, I had a later call time today though. It's 4.30, but last night I finished at like 3 a.m. So I was literally sleeping the whole day because I was so tired. So now we're back. Today's my last day for the week. So tomorrow I don't like, I'm not working on set. I brought my laptop so I can like edit and stuff today while I'm here just because I have like editing to do. I wanna post my video tomorrow and I haven't even started editing except I've just been like very busy. It's literally raining so hard. In like weird enough, I literally had a dream last night about vlogging. Like it was so weird. Like I thought that I vlogged but then it was just a dream. Yeah, it's literally down pouring. I had like a rainfall warning. So it's not good. It's really not good. So gloomy outside today. Like it wasn't bright today. Like it was just dark and gloomy and like it was never turned bright today. I'm just so procrastinating right now because I just wanna stay in my car when I'm dry. See you later. Hey guys. So I just, we just got back from downtown because I had a meeting with my agency. So we just stopped at the mall because Joel bought himself his own Christmas present. He literally like wanted to buy it for himself and he's literally making like a donation box for whoever wants to chip in for their Christmas present. I mean, if nobody chips in, I was gonna buy it anyways. Should I tell him what it is or are we saving that for a surprise? Kinda nobody knows what it is except me. So it's like, since I can't be surprised I want everybody else. Yeah, exactly. He's trying to do a reverse Christmas where he wants to surprise everybody else what his gift is. And everybody keeps asking like, what's your gift? I'm like, I can't say. And like, they're like getting really excited about it. It's really taking me some pride off. So like somebody has to be excited about it. So yeah, because he knew exactly what he wanted. It was a very pricey, should not like extremely pricey but it was pretty pricey to the point where like, it's a good Christmas gift. So he's gonna, you know what? I should wrap it for you. Why don't I wrap it for you? Yeah, this is probably one of the best Christmas gifts I've ever got. But like, how are you gonna be sad that you're not gonna be able to open it? Yeah, because I'm actually gonna be, the thing is that this gift replaces something that I already have that's literally painful to use. Anyway, so I just ordered Starbucks because it is three, it is, no. Yeah, 3.30 and I haven't eaten a single thing today. I haven't even drank a cup of water today. Like, I, yeah. So I just ordered a coffee and I ordered a wrap because the drive home is like 20 to 30 minutes right now. And I'm like, I don't think I can last that long. I'm like, I'm so grumpy right now because I really want food. Like I need something in my stomach because this morning I woke up really late and then I just have to leave right away because I went to bed really late yesterday editing a video. So yeah, anyways, we're here. We're on our way home now but I just ordered the Starbucks on my phone. So I'm just gonna go in literally right now to pick it up.  I'm wearing my new Ritya Super Puff and I love it so much. Like I've been wearing it every day since I got it. So they're literally the best thing ever. So I got a brown, um, sugar, oh, chicken espresso. I haven't got this in a long time. So I decided like, you know, why not? Usually it has three espresso shots in it but I change it to two because three is a little much for me. So that's what I got and I just got a spinach and feta wrap. Yeah. I find jogging at the supermarket or jogging with a puppy jacket. Who looks like you feel so restrained. Hey guys, so it's literally pouring rain and we were just saying how like the rain makes everything more difficult because like, everything gets wet, you know what I mean? Like I had to hide my camera and everything. Anyways, I just have like, I just realized that like, I have been getting Starbucks way too often. You can't tell by my vlogs how many times I've been going but it's because like I've been, I think it's just this week because I've been like, I was going out a lot this week. So I was like, eh, I'll put a coffee on the way. And I also just got the Starbucks app. So now I'm collecting points to get rewards. So it's like enticing me even more, which is not good. Anyway, so I got the grande, chestnut, praline latte with oat milk. I think this is the first time that I've tried it iced because I think every single other time I got it was hot. Yeah, it's really good. I was feeling like the cold drink today though. But today, we are just going around. We just going to do some errands. Madison wants to get a Christmas tree for her room. Maybe a full-sized one for her room. Full-sized meaning like, like a five-five maybe? Like, like a tall one, but not like an actual like $500 Christmas tree. I wouldn't say spend more than over $100 for your Christmas tree in your room. If they have the one that I have, would you get it? Yeah. Last year I got so lucky though, because the one that I got, it was like the last one left, but we'll see what we can find for her. So we're going to go through. So we're going to go to Winners because Madison needs to get some gifts from her friends. And we were going to go to the mall, but then we decided like, that's just too far. So we're just going to go more local.  I haven't started any Christmas shopping yet. Like I've tried to start it, but then I was unsuccessful. So we'll see. Yeah. You guys, we are in Winners and they literally have a pet toy. That's avocado toast. Like I'm seriously dead right now. That is, this is like the best and the funniest thing I've ever seen. They also have like an egg. Like this is actually so funny. We're at Walmart to find Madison's Christmas tree. So let's see if we're successful. 39. Oh my gosh, I'm getting this. Wait, what about the white? I like that one, the snow. Oh my God, it has lights in it too. It's probably a hundred bucks. This one's really nice. This is so perfect. The winner of Winners is $200. So we are like, no, thank you. But if that one is actually like $40 or even just under a hundred is going to feel like for a full size Christmas tree. Madison got her Christmas tree. So we're going to unbox it quickly for you guys and show you what it looks like. Cause we have no idea what it looks like because it wasn't like on display in the store. And it was literally like one of the only Christmas tree types left. This is a lot of rock. I hope it doesn't look bad. I don't think it will. It has built-in lights apparently. So hopefully it lifts up to the standards of the photo on the box. It actually looks really nice on the box. I literally hate colored lights on a tree. So that's what it looks like on the box. It actually looks really nice on the box. So hopefully it looks like that in person because you couldn't even see it. Let me know if you guys are like a colorful light Christmas tree person or just like plain white lights or yellow lights. It's like plain cause we prefer just like plain and then adding the color with the decorations. I feel like this is going to be very sparse. Well, I guess we'll see. We can almost return it to it, but it's really bad. So we just finished setting it up.  That was it. That's my mistake tree. Yeah, that's not going to be here anymore. Okay, we're about to light it up to see it. It actually looks a lot better than we thought.  Just plug it in and it'll turn off. Oh, it's nice. I don't like the colors, but let's see. It's actually nice. I love it, aw. Now let's put the white garland. I think the white garland's going to look bad. So we're going to bring it back out this way. She bought white garlands like for the decorations cause we couldn't find any ornaments. Taxi turned out so good. Like I didn't expect it to turn out this good. I love how there's just like that little, it's like it's little baby on there. I'm sure it's in the bag, but you can put it in it. So it's literally 1 a.m. right now and we just watched the Grinch. The cartoon Grinch is literally my favorite, like one of my favorite Christmas movies. I think it's literally the cutest thing ever. Like the little baby Grinch is so cute. Like I can't get over the movie. Like I'm literally going to watch it like at least like five more times before Christmas. Cause I love it so much. Anyways, so I didn't even show you guys, I don't know why I'm doing this at 1 a.m. but I just wanted to show you guys what I'm doing. So we went to Windows like I said and I didn't show you guys what I bought.  I don't know if it's big enough yet. Like I don't know if I'm gonna keep it. I just kind of bought it to see if it works with my thing. So this is what it looks like right now. It's kind of a mess in here honestly. Like I don't know, I have like my brush and hair products back there in the bin. But then here I feel like I just have like two clear bins but it's not really a good waste of, not really good use of the space because I feel like there's so much like, it's like go so much higher that it's like I can store more. So putting this in there is gonna like add some height. So at least it's like making more of the space now. So we'll see how this looks. All right, so this is like a shelf looks. I don't know. I didn't even realize it's kind of crooked. Like do you see how it like slopes down here? I don't know if that's just me right now. Like I looks a little crooked. I don't know. It's cute though, but okay. So I just filled it with some of my skincare products. I actually think it's really cute. I just got to take off the tag. But the only thing I'm worried about is like the wood getting stained from the products if like there's spillage or whatever cause it's not like sort of leave just like wood. So it's the only thing that I'd be worried about but other than that it looks so cute. I don't know. I'm probably gonna like keep one of the bins like this. Maybe just like in front like this for extra storage but not sure yet. Maybe I'll put it even kind. But anyway, so yeah, I'm just gonna leave it for now but let me know if you guys like it down below. Tell me your thoughts cause I'm gonna keep the tag on it and see if I like it. And if not, then I'll return it. But yeah, looks cute so far. Okay, so I'm currently filming on my G7X because for some reason this camera has such good low light I feel like. It's really 1 a.m. and like I'm barely tired because I've been just like having to stay on set so like this week that my body's been like adjusted to like staying up. So yeah, I have to wake up early tomorrow. So I need to try my best to get tired and go to sleep but it's literally pouring rain and it's been raining all day. There's like a rainfall warning again. I just hope that there's not like any more flooding that goes on because that was crazy dangerous and just crazy and sad. So if you guys live in BC right now, praying for you because the rain is literally crazy. Anyway, so this is really random but it just like came to my mind to do now so I want to do before I forget. So the book by Colleen Hoover that's called It Ends With Us. I finished it like a while ago and I didn't give you guys like a final review on it. Like I don't even have words to describe it. If you guys want to get into reading or you need to get book to read or whatever, get it. Like it's literally $11 on Amazon. Like it's so cheap. I'll have a link down below. The best book literally ever. Like it's so good. It's a fiction book but it's inspired by a true story, I'm pretty sure. She's such a good author and it's just I couldn't stop reading the book. Like I just couldn't put it down. It was amazing. I'm gonna get more books by her. I just have to pick up reading again because I haven't read for a long time. But yeah, if you guys are looking for a book to read 1,000 out of 10% suggest this one. I'll have a link down below. It was so good. Make me cheer up. It just like rips your heart into a million different places. And you're like, I was thinking about doing vlogmas for a quick second but then I'm like, you know what?  Like that is a lot of work and I just can't commit to that but I'm gonna try and post as much as possible for vlogmas. Anyways, good night guys.