Hey, welcome back to the vlog. Today is day, what, 11? Yes, I've already posted my day 10, so that is up, but it's super late in the day already. It's like 4.30, yeah. So this morning I filled all my open orders that came in over the weekend, got those all filled. I actually already took them over to the post office and I felt like, I was like, gosh, I was leaving the post office. I'm like, I feel like I'm supposed to do something. Grocery shopping. Anyway, I didn't really think about it too much. I don't really have a big grocery list or anything right now because I'm leaving for two weeks next week. So I just need a couple of things to tide me over and supplement what I already have. So I think I'm gonna go grocery shopping right now. So yeah, but it's really gloomy outside. It's raining like crazy. Raining out, can't really see very well, but it's raining out. So I think I might go there right now and try to get that figured out, so yeah.  I already have my light box set up. I am ready to go. I've got all my packets of washi. It's like packets of washi to get in my inventory system and that's what I'm gonna do for the evening. So it's gonna be a pretty boring vlog, you guys. I'm sorry, but maybe there'll be something interesting that will like happen, you know, you never know. You never know, something interesting happens today. So yeah, but I'm just kinda getting rid of some things and just like throwing trash out. Oh, let me turn your around. I gotta show you something. So I did get a coffee break planner order today.  I'll have their links down below. I also have a 20% off coupon code that never expires. It's down below as well.  Cute, right?   And I've got this little like fair deco sheet. And then I've got three of these little, I don't know, just kinda flag sheets. And then this was a little freebie that came with my order. I thought that was really cute. So that was nice. So I'm gonna put those away. Actually, maybe I'm not gonna put them away because I do need to put some stuff in my planner and also figure out some things in my planner too. So yeah, there's a Doyle dog over here. What's up, doodle? What are you doing, bud? What are you doing? You're looking so cute, buddy, you're looking so cute. I'm gonna go grocery shopping now and I'll see you in a minute and Doyle, I'll see you in a few more minutes. Well, hey friends, it is 9.30 at night and I just got done with one category of listings. That's it, that's all I got, I don't know. I just did all my floral, so let me see how many I did today, so far at least. So I did 13 new listings in the floral category. I'll link my shop below. Today's just gonna be like a chatty vlog because I'm not really showing you anything that exciting. I use my little light box right there and then after this, I'm gonna do some more listings but I have kinda just been like snacking on things. Sorry while I like do computer-y things. I've just been snacking on things because honestly, I'm just kinda trying to get rid of stuff before I go on my vacay. So yeah, I just, is that right? Yeah, okay, cool. Sorry, I'm just like trying to organize stuff on my desktop here. But yeah, so just trying to eat up some things so I was just kinda snacking on some stuff about like three o'clock and I haven't been hungry since until about 30 minutes ago. And I'm like, I'm getting really hungry. I'm like, oh wait, it's like almost nine o'clock, so. Now it's 9.35 and it's time to eat a little bit of something. I think I'm just gonna make some popcorn because that sounds kinda good. Doyle always likes popcorn. I'll make some popcorn and I'll show you guys what Doyle does while I make popcorn because I don't really do the microwave popcorn. I do it like in an air popper. But I'm happy with the progress so far. Like once I get rolling on doing listings, it's like not as bad as I think it is, so yeah. But they're just so time consuming. That's the issue. They're just very time consuming, very, very tedious. Yeah, I've said it before, but listings are my like least favorite thing. Oh goodness gracious, what do you do?  Oh, I was gonna say in this vlog too. I know my yesterday's vlog was like kinda long. I think it was like 15 minutes maybe. And at the very end I asked you guys if you had any questions. I'm gonna be doing a Q and A with my mom sometime this week, I don't know when. But if you have any questions for my mom, put them down below. Nothing's off limits. We're gonna get to as many questions as we can, but put them down in the comments. I did post on Instagram and Facebook a while back, but those are probably lost in the shuffle at this point because I post quite a bit. So yeah, but if you have any questions, put them down below. And yeah, I think we're gonna sit down sometime this week. I just don't know what day or whatever. But I'm hoping to get that video up before we leave for our trip. That's the master plan. Look at this master plan. Hi buddy. What are you doing?  Do you want some popcorn? Yeah. Doyle loves popcorn so much. My fun. Tiny little man.  He's Doyle. Okay, so now the popcorn is made. It's extra delicious. And I always have to grab a couple of kernels because I have to pay the Doyle tax. Because there's a dog right there now. He wants popcorns. Boom. There you go bud. That's all I got for ya. I know. That's it. The popcorn tax. Yeah. I don't have any more for you buddy. So that's what he does when I make popcorn. He just sits there and he waits, and he waits, and he waits. And that's kind of what happens here. But anyway, I'm gonna eat my popcorn now and I'll check in with you guys actually in a little bit because I'm still gonna be up. So there's no reason to really close out the vlog at this point. But I'm gonna like chill with my popcorn and then I'm gonna get back to work because yeah, gotta do those listings. I'll see you in a little bit. Alright y'all, I'm gonna go to bed. It's a little bit before midnight and this is actually like early for me but I don't wanna get started on a whole nother thing. So yeah, I did four more. I only did four, but that's okay. I got all of my quotes done and those are all up and listed in the shop now. So those are good to go. Oh, I should show you guys this. I got from Aaron Condren a separate order from what I filmed the other day anyway. Cause I'm a dummy and I should have just ordered it all at the same time. I didn't think about it. But anyways, I am gonna bring my planner on my cruise and I'll be showing it in the vlogs but I won't actually be uploading the vlogs like normal cause I'm gonna show you how I plan when I'm on vacation. But I got this and it says Alaskan Cruise June 2018. So I'm really excited to have a custom cover for my cruise and yeah, why not, right? I'm not like big into changing up my covers a lot. I do have covers, but I've had the same cover on my planner since the beginning of the year and it is in middle of June. So I just need to switch out my covers once in a while but I will put this on probably tomorrow. So have it ready to go for the cruise and I know a lot of people don't bring their planner on vacation, I usually don't. But since this is kind of like more of a memory keeping thing for me, I want to track what we're doing and activities and things like that.  So anyway, I've got more listings to do tomorrow but the dog is still right here. Hi, Doober. What's up, Doodle? Yeah, oh gosh, your neck is so warm. It's like good nap, good nap for the baby dog.  Right, Doyle? Then go upstairs and go to bed. Oh, your whole life is a nap, buddy. Doesn't he look funny with like his ears down? Looks like a totally different dog. But then it's like, whoa, whoa. This silly boy. But yeah, it's like seriously today's vlog is like really boring and I'm sorry. It's just like, it's like Emily's just talking to the camera today. Sorry about that. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little bit more interesting for you, but maybe not. I don't know, I'm gonna be just working on things and doing some like packing prep this week and stuff too.  I've got some things going on on Friday so it'll take you long on my adventures. But yeah, beyond that, I really don't have much like going on this week that I know of. I mean, things can always change, you know. I think I'm gonna go for now. Thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today. Again, if you've got questions for the favorite mama, put them down below and we'll get to filming that at some point this week, maybe this weekend too. I'm not sure, maybe this weekend. And yeah, that's gonna be it. I hope you guys are having a wonderful day and I will see y'all in the next video. Bye guys. Doyle, say goodbye to your friends. Oh, okay. Silent scream. See you later guys, bye. Well folks, it's time to kick it off school. So you can feel cool. Give it to me baby.


Well, a $16 stock is going to go to 24 the same day. It just doesn't make sense. So this is kind of what I mean by you have to tear down your expectations for 2021 and start using your experience. Welcome to Access a Trader, the number one community for those who are committed to taking control of their trading in order to achieve success, profitability, and longevity. Thank you for joining us. Here's Dan Shapiro to help you find your edge, master your process, and own your future. Hey, guys. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to another edition of the AccessaTrader.com. Weekend update show. Hope everybody is doing great. First and foremost, again, belated Merry Christmas to all you guys. Happy Hanukkah to all you guys. And for all you guys who are just watching this broadcast, I want to wish everybody a brand new happy new year. We are literally about a week away for 2020 being put to bed. If you guys notice, for the last three days or so, I've taken the weekend, well, I've taken the nightly video off. It's just been very repetitive what the market's been doing for the last week or so.  So I took three, four days just to kind of relax at nighttime. And again, it's just pretty much the same thing. If you think about what the market's been doing, you can literally apply the nightly video to the previous day. Again, technology for the most part has been kind of doing nothing. The Amazon's the world, and I want to kind of touch on them in a second. The SPAC names have been going absolutely nuts. The EV names, it's been basically the same thing. So I figured myself, well, I'll only take the week off. It's the same market every single day. Beta's not doing anything, EV's going nuts, SPAC is going nuts. It's the same thing, so just basically take tonight's video and put it into tomorrow. And that's exactly what I expect to see probably towards the end of the week. I think more important why I kind of wanted to do this weekend update show, I'm starting to see, well, I've been seeing it for a while, but I'm starting to see a lot of newer traders. When I say new traders, somebody's been trading for less than three years, they're really pretty much a new trader. You really haven't seen anything that is going to stick into your mental database to kind of make you more woke, I guess, for your future. And I kind of want to record this video pretty quickly just to share my thoughts. 20 years ago was the greatest stock market ever. It was known as the dot-com craze. And although the dot-com craze only lasted for about 15 to 18 months, you can make a very strong argument. Back then, we were all very, very young. I was in my mid-20s, and we thought this was never going to end, never. This was the greatest thing ever. I can't believe everybody's not trading stocks for a living. And again, if you're watching this broadcast, nobody knew what we were doing. None of us did. We were products of the internet craze. We got very, very lucky because all we were doing is basically taking the highest, biggest movers, percentage movers of the day, and just taking all of them overnight. Literally, if a stock was up 70%, we would take it overnight. The next day, it would gap up about 25%. So none of us knew what we were doing. And unfortunately, we believed we did. We believed we were smart. We believed this was the easiest thing going. And unfortunately, what happened between 2001 to 2003 were a couple of things, the dot-com bubble burst. 9-11 came and went. And for the next two years, again, if you've been watching this broadcast for the first time, I didn't make a single penny from 2001 to 2003. I got my career back going on the road close to, like kind of mid-2003, started 2004. So I really had my first inclination of what the hell the market was all about five years after I started trading. And again, I'm blessed right now to say this is my 21st year. But the moral of the story is, I never thought we were ever gonna see a market that even came close to the dot-com days, because again, the internet was fresh. The internet was new. It was just generational. And fast forward 20 years later, and we had the second storm of the internet. And it took me a while to really come about and really say, you know what? This is as close as possible. This is the closest possible. And unfortunately, if you're a new trader and you started in the last two years, this is something that mirrors exactly what my friends and I thought was never going to end 20 years ago. And unfortunately it ended, and it ended very, very rapidly. And if you fast forward to what happened in 2020, considering the global pandemic and so many people losing their livelihoods and their homes, have a really, really tough financial and mental time in 2020, the stock market did completely the opposite of what reality should have been. And I think a lot of people really equate what happened in the stock market as a normalcy. And it's like going to a casino for the first few times and you hit the slot machine and you hit for $150,000. And you think right now you're a professional gambler. And the reality is you are a professional gambler. That's what a casino is. And unfortunately, because this market is incredibly dot com-esque, I think a lot of people are really believing or at least trying to convince themselves that they know what they're doing. They're smarter than the quote, unquote, the house and this will last forever. And unfortunately, it's not the fact, it won't. And this is just kind of the reality. My mentor, and I was very, very fortunate again to be in the right place at the right time in Carl and Equities in 1999. I met this gentleman named Myer Hoffman, which if you watch this video, I've quoted him so many, many times. He was such a big influence in just the psychology part of trading, not really the technical part. He was a little bit different of a trader than I am. But he was one of the greatest traders ever.  And I know a lot of you guys have seen that, but there's a really important part of that video which kind of complements to what I'm talking about now. And he said in the video, because the market was so aggressive, and I'm sure Kyler will put a link to that interview. It's only 20 minutes. It's me, Myer, and Peter from the Luchi Group that did the interview. But it's so important to what Myer said regarding the dot com days. And he basically said, because the market was so incredibly strong, you didn't need to know what you were doing, okay? And I'm just kind of paraphrasing, but the market made you right. You didn't need to be in the perfect price. You didn't need to have a very specific skill set to what the market was doing. The market made you right. Even if you were wrong at your entry, the market was so strong that eventually, in the next couple of days or so, you were gonna be made whole. And we've seen that over and over again in the dot com era. And we saw that so many times throughout 2021. Now again, excuse me, it's 2020. Now, if you think about the names that were going up during the dot com era, it was the invention, the first phase of the internet. This is what we basically take for granted every single day, right?  This is something that most people didn't know what was going on. And all those companies, eventually, majority of those companies, they went away. And this was the Wild West. This was the gold rush of something that we know now as something that we take for granted every single day. If you look at 2020 and the companies that are making a lot of noise, you can make a very big case that the EV game is very, very new, the infancy stages, right? You have your Teslas of the world. You have your Nios of the world, the Porsche, right? The Porsche, I think it's called the Taken, the gorgeous car, absolutely gorgeous car. And everybody, pretty much every automaker is getting into the EV space. But again, at the end of the day, it's just something that we are taking and running with it, just like we did with the internet craze. And unfortunately, when the bubble burst, all those people that went into the casino that hit the slot machine for $150,000, they thought there were professional gamblers, eventually gave it all back and became statistics. And I've always maintained the idea that time is the best teacher. And unfortunately, a lot of you guys are sitting there very, very comfortable thinking this is gonna last forever and it's not. And just listen to what I'm about to tell you, okay? It's very, very important. You don't need to relive for 2021, 2022, 2023, what a lot of us, me and my buddies and a lot of you guys who did start trading during the dot-com era, you don't need to go through what we went through. We know everybody knows. Any professional trader that's been doing this for at least 15 to 20 years, at least, knows what's about to happen. Again, we don't know when, but we know. Maybe it lasts for another six months. Maybe it lasts for another six days. Maybe it lasts till Monday and that'll be the top of the market. We don't know, but we know it's gonna come to an end. We just know it. And the moral of the story is you don't need to give everything back. You don't need to be put on tilt. You don't need to become a statistic because you didn't see it coming. There's people out there that have gone through it, okay? Had major mental scars for years after the dot-com bouleverse to kind of show you what's about to happen if you're not very, very careful. And if you've been writing these SPAC names, and again, if you asked anybody six months ago, okay, a Shell company was literally a drug dealer's dream, right? It was a Shell company. It was money laundering, right? Now they're like the hottest thing ever. You create a SPAC name, they merge with somebody else, they get approval and the stock explodes 10-fold. Again, that's going to end. Everything ends, okay? Cycles end, bull markets end, bear markets end. So again, if you are new to this business, okay, and you're watching this broadcast for a very, very long time and you've made a couple of bucks and you're very happy and you've had some areas in your life for the better, now is your time to start thinking defensive, okay? Maybe I shouldn't chase that stock that went from $6 to 27, three days, right? Maybe I shouldn't.  Maybe if these things do start coming in, you know, what the last thing I want to do is give back what I worked so hard for.  We envy you because now you have so much information that's at your disposal that you don't need to give it back, okay? You don't. And if you have right now 10, 12, 15 positions on, which is great and you've been riding the wave, you might want to start consider, you know, playing a little bit defense. Maybe start playing more defensive aggressiveness than more offense. You know, again, the stock market is still ridiculously hot right now. But again, if you speak to anybody, okay, that's been doing this for at least nearly two decades, we all know how it's gonna end. So just take into consideration, okay?  Listen, I'm the first one to admit it.  All my friends already went through it. Anybody that's been doing this for a very, very long time, we already know what's about to happen next.  Okay, we're not giving it back. Even if you are a day early, a week early, a month early, okay, it's the money's already in your bank account. You don't have to think about the worst case scenario because you've been preparing for Doomsday for a very, very long time. And even if the market continues to be very, very aggressive, okay, nobody's telling you to start shorting the market. Nobody's telling you don't buy stocks. We're just telling you what's gonna eventually happen. And the idea of completely go aggressive, as they say, balls to the wall with no fears of no ramifications, that's being incredibly disrespectful to the journey you already started. And my approach going into 2021, again, obviously I do believe there's a lot of value left. Obviously I do believe the stock market can continue to be very, very aggressive, but I'm always keeping that one eye open for that magical rug pull. And again, that magical rug pull doesn't happen in one day. We've seen over and over again how the market comes in two, three days, holds the rising support and goes right back. We're not talking about that. We're just conscious of technical analysis of stock levels finally being broken. If it's Monday, if it's six months from now, whatever that day is. Again, nobody's calling for Armageddon on Monday. Nobody's calling for the stock market to implode.  Any levels of technical breach below the rising 20-day support, below the rising 50-day support is going to start an avalanche. And again, you might not see it coming because again, SPACs are going crazy and this one's going crazy, but there's a lot of evidence that already has started coming into fruition the last month or so that you could start seeing that the market is not as great as you think. Now again, if you go look at the indexes for the last week, you're not going to get any clues. The Dow, the S&P, and the Nasdaq, we're all pretty much flat, okay? And again, you could turn around and say, well, it's Christmas week, a lot of people are often absolutely, again, it's that theory if there's not going to be any materialistic changes in the market when there's nobody around, especially for Christmas. And this week is going to be dead as well. You'll see there's going to be a lot of people just close their books, just done for the year and they're going to start picking up where they came from the first week of January. So I don't think the market is going to give us any materialistic clues this week, but again, if you are a believer in history, in time being the greatest asset you could have, not only as a trader, but a parent, a husband, a friend, everything, okay? Time is always the best teacher. Then you have to really start thinking of the future, okay? And again, when you do your self-assessment come December 31st, so towards the end of the year, whenever you close up your books, you have to ask yourself an honest question. Was I a byproduct of arguably one A or one, right? The greatest stock market of all time, or did I finally kind of get my moment of clarity? Was there something that I did different in 2020 that I didn't do in 2019 that is going to prepare me for 2021? Again, that's a question that every single trader should be asking you, like, where's my faults? Where can I improve? Where is the area that I can get better? Am I putting in enough time? Am I putting in enough time that is productive what I'm looking to do? Is the market cohesive to what my experience level is, my income level, my account size, my paying times? All these self-assessment questions, you have to really take into account when you go into 2021.  Okay, trust me, that's a gambler's mentality. That's the Hail Mary on the first play of the game that's hoping and praying the market continues. So your goal when you're doing your self-assessment is really play devil's advocate and try to figure out where you can get better for 2021. So you don't become a statistic in 2021 that you don't have to go through what me and my friends and so many countless other traders who unfortunately found success so early during the dot-com era and then gave it all back and then went two years without making any money. So this is your kind of time towards the end of the year. Reflect, be very proud of yourself, okay? That you've made it another year. That's a very, very important point. Be very proud of yourself because confidence is all we have as professional traders.   So don't think for a second and don't let anybody tell you for a second that you are not a professional trader. Your money is just as green as everybody else's. But again, this is a very, very important time in your life to kind of take a step back, reevaluate what you did right, especially what you did wrong in 2020 and make sure that you are around for 2022 because again, gamblers make money. You could come into a casino, you can hit the slots, you can go on the big run on the cards, but there is a reason why the house always wins. You just keep that in mind. And this is kind of where, this is where I was just kind of thinking out loud. I did my prep work for Monday and there's a lot of names that I like. You can turn around and these stocks like INSG had a really big run consolidated for a couple of days. Looks like it's about to take out the area. Tesla looks really, really good as well, right? And they did the whole inclusion in the S&P, had that crazy move, they pinned that, excuse me, they pinned that 695 close, they painted it and now it's trying to go back to 52. So the obvious names are there, right? You could find a million SPACs and all this different stuff. But I start looking at the names that our market leaders have been traditional market leaders and names that just haven't been doing anything for a very long time. And if you look at a stock like Amazon, and again, I have a theory, okay? My theory is 2021, I believe that there is a very high probability that money flow will start going into a name like an Amazon, okay? A name like a Facebook, a name like in the video, right? The problem is, you know, and again, there's a lot of them like that. The problem is these stocks haven't done anything for the last, you know, two months, okay? Every single time you think these stocks are gonna explode and finally join the 2020 party, they disappoint. And I have a theory that any hedge fund, any index fund, whatever the case may be, they've been raising money throughout the year whether they do their quarterly raises or the semi-annual raises, or even a yearly raise that they're getting fresh money, they have to put their money into something, right? No accredited fund manager, no person's been spending a long time is gonna turn around and say, you know what, let me buy some SPACs for 2021. It just doesn't make sense. Again, if you believe in the EV revolution and you believe in the neos of the world, you know, maybe you have a leg to stand. Not all these other companies, I really don't know too much about. But the moral of the story is, I think a lot of these managers who've raised money into the fourth quarter of 2020, they have to put their money into somewhere and there's no better place to put it into an Amazon's of the world or Nvidia's of the world or Facebook's of the world, because number one, they're great growth stories, right? They've been phenomenal companies, they're speculation darlings, they're hedge fund darlings, everybody loves these stocks. So if I'm a betting man, and I'm not, but if I'm a betting man, you start seeing money flow, especially in the early part of the year, into these big heavyweights, okay? Now here's the question, what if I'm wrong, right? What if I'm wrong? And the money flow doesn't go into these companies and these companies are not reflecting the value anymore for 2021. And what if these companies don't need to rally, right? We think they're gonna rally, they're positioned to rally just because they haven't done anything in such a long time, especially, you know, especially a name like Amazon has really done nothing, okay? For the last, and you can make an argument, it really hasn't done nothing from September, okay? You know, you're talking about a long, long time. Yeah, of course I had a couple of days that I made its move and it came right back down. So ideally, we're thinking, you know, I'm right, I'm guessing I'm right, that's kind of where I'm leaning towards the start of the year. But again, you have to start looking at technical analysis. Now what happens if this area here breaches, right? Then we go down to the bottom channel. What happens in the video, right? I've been watching, if you've been watching this video now for, you know, for a month, you kind of know, I've been waiting on the video. Why doesn't the video have to go higher, right? It's been rejected off this top of the channel for a long time, right? Starting to test this bottom channel. You know, why does Facebook have to go higher, right? I mean, look at the bottom channel here. If this thing starts breaching the bottom channel, it can go lower. Zoom that we had a pivot on Friday off that 278 level closed at a very, very important area. Now what happens? You know, why does Zoom have to continue for 2021? So you're seeing a lot of charts like this this is where you really have to start using your brain. Again, I've always maintained this stance. You don't need to be the smartest trader in the world. You just can't be the dumbest. And at this juncture of my career, I'm always thinking of the worst case scenario. I'm always thinking to myself logically, well, if the stock hasn't gone up, well, maybe it goes down, right? And again, it maybe is just a thought, okay? Until it actually happens, this is just a thought. This is just something that you are possibly preparing for because again, it's logic. Whatever it doesn't go up, must go down. Whatever it doesn't go up, must go down. So it's very, very important to kind of going into the new year of eyes wide open acknowledging, okay? Acknowledging that maybe we weren't that smart in 2020, right? Maybe it wasn't our skill set that got us from point A to point B. Again, we should feel very proud of ourselves and you should really continue to celebrate your growth. But again, I think 2021 needs to be approached with a lot of cautious, okay? From a thinking person's point of view, okay? You can't just throw caution to the wind and expect results from 2020. Again, I had a trade on, it was at Wednesday, Thursday, the stock EOSC, one of these crazy stocks, right? And again, it's a name I wouldn't usually be trading. And I bought it at 16 and change and I sold it at 18 and change and then I watched it go to $23. Now, this is not normal, right? This is not normal and you can't possibly turn around and say, well, a $16 stock isn't gonna go to 24 the same day, it just doesn't make sense. So this is kind of what I mean by, you have to tear down your expectations for 2021 and start using your head, start using, some of the people's experiences prior to you and what they've went through so you don't have to go through. And I think if you really do a breakdown, if you just take a couple of hours and look at your sheets and if you've been keeping a journal and some people do, some people don't and kind of really just self-examine, just kind of break down your 2020, you're obviously going to see a lot of things that you're proud of and you should be, okay? But you're also going to see a lot of flaws that weren't so obvious because again, the market made you right, okay? And that's very, very important. So for all you guys who are trading for this week, again, don't expect a lot, okay? I still think we'll have some speculation names continuing the EV names of the world, the SPAC names of the world, but don't try to recreate the wheel the last week of the month. Majority people will not be trading. At least the majority of people that are pushing big money. You saw that with the option flow, especially in the last three, four days of last week. So stay very, very calm, trade for cash flow, but more important guys, start thinking of your future. Start thinking more from the development stages and just take into account what did happen in 2020, your place in it, how you've progressed, but more important start its time to kind of re-evaluate where the areas that you need help with, okay? And try to fix those before the new year starts. Guys, I wanna wish everybody a very blessed and healthy and happy new year. For all you guys who are trading this week, you're degenerates, but I'll be there as well.  Recharge the batteries and cheers to 2021. Have a great week everybody and God bless you all.


What's up everybody, once again it's Brand Man Shawn and this video is brought to you by brandmannetwork.com because I signed myself. Now we got to talk about why are people sleeping on Lil Boy Cantu. Now if you don't know who Lil Boy Cantu is, let me give you a little bit of background. He's a Florida rapper, he's Mexican and proud. He has the flag all over his Instagram but bigger than that he started YouTube page two years ago 2017. So that's not even that long in terms of music and really being out there but on his YouTube page he does a combination of blogs, covers and a lot of music as well. He has about two or three projects there and he also works with a producer by the name of DJ Flip. Now DJ Flip has worked with artists like Blue Face, Shoreline Mafia, Smoke Perm, Boosie and most notably Trippie Red. And why Trippie Red in this particular case because all those people have names but that's one of the reasons where if you look at Lil Boy Cantu's development you can see so much reflection of Trippie Red. And when I say that it's not like just my opinion I'll play a couple of snippets. You can see on these same videos you see a lot of people compare him to Trippie Red. Of course some people say it's like a diet Trippie Red or it's not quality, it's a copycat. That's cool but that's a part of the development of Lil Boy Cantu. It's there, you can't really ignore it because Trippie Red has such a strong, clear voice. He was the first one to hit the scene with that voice. And at the end of the day when so many artists begin they do have similarities to other artists that have been out there because they're finding their voice and that's an interesting part to see when it comes to Lil Boy Cantu because it's out there, it's documented and it's actually pretty cool to see because now you start to see there's this point where he has his own potential and potentially finding his own voice. That's where it gets really interesting because if you look at songs like Fireflies or No Good there's this breakaway from this artist that sounds kind of like Trippie Red to this artist that's actually finding their own voice in this void that actually happens to be in a marketplace and what I mean by that particularly is if you look at artists like Trippie Red because it's not just Trippie, so many people have brought rock into hip hop right and so many people have tried to say you know I'm not a rapper, you know I'm just an artist and I'm a rocker, I'm a rock star and all that stuff but if you look at so many of these artists when we think about him and even X a little bit and so many of these other artists in this space their music was still very much driven by the bass very much driven by hip hop musicality even trap in some ways when you look at the core production style but when we look at songs like Fireflies and No Good for Lil Boy Cantu which is actually different than the rest of his music which is similar to the music I just described is driven more by actual rock aesthetic right or a little bit of pop aesthetic and that forces you to do something different vocally as well so the big opportunity is as opposed to being hip hop bringing a lot of rock in that feels a little bit more like rock that brings a little hip hop in like the Blink 182's Good Charlotte you know the Anthem Yellow Card Ocean Avenue his voice sounds a lot more like that versus once again just a Trippie Red inspired type thing with Trippie has actually definitely taken a lot of inspiration from those spaces right in rock but it sounds different and it sounds like Lil Boy Cantu has his own voice on those particular songs and this is important for any artist when you're developing because you want to listen you want to get some things from other artists who are out there but once you start to find your own voice that's when it becomes really dope so check out those two songs and to me I think there's a huge opportunity to have an artist take that position first and become the guy who really has this much hip hop inspiration but is coming from a rock perspective that feels like that because of course there's already artists out there but if you look at Lil Boy Cantu his aesthetic the way he dresses and the energy he brings it's a little bit more of an immersion or potential for an immersion than there has been before and that brings me though to why people are sleeping on Lil Boy Cantu honestly there's not enough music out yet that reflects that new voice so much of it is the old stuff or so similar to that place that's already been saturated with all the soundcloud rappers and artists that I've mentioned that it's hard to really stand out and people aren't necessarily checking for more of that but then when you have those standout songs like Fireflies and No Good and potentially getting deeper into that direction then if he continues to do more of that I believe he has an opportunity to really carve out something unique especially with his aesthetic his look his feel from a record label standpoint they'll see just the way he looks all that stuff fits perfectly in certain marketplace potential because you haven't seen much of that even his cover of Mississippi Queen actually shows a little bit of that potential to play with now of course a lot of people are gonna hear an artist like this and they're probably say you know I don't like that voice they're not used to that particular voice or that vibe but there'll be a whole marketplace that opens up for an artist like Lil Boy Cantu but he has to have more music in that particular direction because otherwise people will stay sleeping on them that's just my opinion of course the bigger thing on top of that is always gonna be the team that he has in place DJ Flip seems to be integral to his team whatever else he has around them in their building as he finishes up this development stage which is always kind of happening but he's as he continues to find his own voice whatever that looks like and whoever else decides to help will have a big impact on that because that's just the way it goes when your artist that's this early in the game and as always this video is brought to you at brainmannetwork.com because I saw myself if you liked this video go ahead and like but if you like it might as well share and if you're not subscribed you know what to do hit that subscribe


Organizing an event means communicating with a ton of people. In this video, we follow Ross, who brings an event to life using Next Cloud Talk for his conversations. Ross prepares a Q&A session for this afternoon through Next Cloud Talk. The preparations include quick check-ins with cross-functional teams across the organization. He remembers to share the cover image for the presentation so it can be used by all teams and he adds a caption reminding his colleagues about the event. Ross also writes a few reminders to himself on the note to self chat as he addresses the different concerns from different teams. To brief the keynote speakers, Ross has created a separate chat room. There, he'll have a call with each of the speakers to go over the logistics and subjects. One of the keynote speakers is traveling, so Ross dials them in using the new telephone dial-out feature in Next Cloud. With this feature, Ross can just enter the phone number and the speaker gets a call they can just pick up. Now the virtual event itself is getting near. Let's see how Ross sets up the talk room for this. He makes the room visible for others in the company, then turns on the requirement for recording consent. Privacy matters and people should have a choice. Message expiration is not needed for this event, but it makes sense to set up a lobby until, say, an hour before the event. This means conversations only start shortly before things kick off. He also limits permissions. Participants can always be given the ability to share audio and video by the moderator. But by default, it's better turned off to avoid distractions. Last, he turns on the call summary bot. It's nice to get an overview of the event at the end. Let's see how this works out for the visitors. First, they are asked to enter their name and then wait in the lobby. Once the event kicks off and they prepare to join the call, they are asked for recording consent. They can keep their camera and microphone off, of course, if they're not happy being recorded. A few people have already joined in and the engagement is already going through the roof. Some attendees are conversing through video while others are writing their thoughts on the chat section, when suddenly animated cheer emojis erupt as Ross welcomes everyone to the Q&A session. The meeting is in full swing now and Ross shares his screen for everyone to see. He's shown on the bottom right as his enthusiasm shines alongside his presentation. Of course, you can just focus on the screen share or see other speakers in the call. The Q&A was a success. Plan your next adventure. Seamlessly collaborate with others remotely and finish your tasks easier and faster with NextCloud Hub. Visit NextCloud.com today and see how much more we can do for you.


What's up everybody? JC of a jazby's case breaks dot com twenty twenty penny dollars football five box break round team number four just sold out And we're giving away a donors box if it sold out tonight, which it did guys. So good luck First we'll do the break 32 spots all teams in we'll randomize the customer names and teams do five boxes out of the first case And at the end of the break we'll randomize only the customer names here put them in a little dice roller and number one gets a free box and So there's 18 boxes in a full master case We're doing five box break so we can do break four five and six from this case and the remaining three boxes Will be shipped out to the customers that win a box So the remaining boxes left over the three boxes will get shipped out to one customer each So there you go guys So here's a dice roll. Let's roll it and we got ourselves a one and a six for one and a five for six times one two three four five and six James done a mic six times one two three four five six Packers down to the 49ers So six six James of the Packers victory of the Rands fung with the Seahawks just one of the Chargers James of the Bucks Ron You have the Titans Mike with the Dolphins Sam with the Ravens ties with the Patriots Morris with the Redskins as well as the Steelers and Lions ties with the Texans of ours with the Calvars Mike with the Broncos of ours with the Chiefs Sam with my Eagles Harold with the Jets Eric with the Saints Rick Thomas the Falcons Justin with the Vikings of ours with the Colts Karen with the Giants Oh ours with the Jaguars Jackson with the Cardinals Ron with the Bears and Mars with the Bengals with with the Bills Eric Velez with the Browns Steven with the Panthers Rick Thomas with the Raiders and Mike with the 49ers So let me know if anybody wants to trade Tray window is open Christopher gets three spots in the flawless collegiate random hit filler So we need to see you guys Falls collegiate filler now down to 28 left again that we're giving away seven two hundred dollar spots guys Seven and you're guaranteed a hit All right, another proposal pages for Seahawks. Let me know Panthers for trade if not, I'm closing in the next minute guys. Actually in the meantime, let me turn on the camera and open up this case Have a case All right, you have some offers for the Cowboys if you want to just either deny or accept any one of them And then we'll close the guys Just so we can move on Hey guys, I think I'm gonna close it. There's a lot of trade offers, but no one's either responding or they're getting denied So going once going twice Close sorry guys Probably the most trade activity a trade activity. I've seen in a while though I remember so the three remaining boxes from the case we could do three breaks We'll be given away for a box giveaway I Go so let's pretend that these are numbered one two three four five six All the down here seven eight nine ten eleven twelve all the down to eighteen and we'll generate five numbers five numbers first one is five one two three four five This one that's a box we're gonna use thirteen six thirteen Twelve yeah, Brad. I think I have that on the schedule here already That'll be coming up after this man. Here's a schedule for you guys What was that again, sorry Ten right I got that oh Where's no worse? There's a link for all of you guys as well, and then I really picked one two three four box to do one more Ten oh we just picked that seven six All right, cool. We got our five boxes guys and the remaining breaks. We'll just grab round the boxes There's a box. There's a box She said All right guys. Good luck first one Emanuel Sanders Keecham Vaughan canvas little Brady dominators To a talk of the law Whoo? That's what I wanted to see Justin Justin G is getting a Justin Herbert. How about that Justin a Justin mojo?  There is no No scheduled breaks once it is sold out and filled up it breaks So you kind of just have to stalk our website if you see it's at zero We always tell customers to burk mark a bookmark of this Google doc that we have It's updated daily and like I said once something sells out it'll be posted on there with a time frame If there is multiple breaks that are sold out at one at one time You kind of just have to stalk the website man So we try to fill up as many breaks as possible daily So every day we come into saying all right, let's try to fill up everything on the website And it could fill up in an hour. It could fill up in five minutes It could take a day to take multiple days just depends on if it's a hot product or Or a product that's gonna take a little longer than usual. No problem, man So what I have there that's all I have at this Donner's break and then a Chronicles fat pack That helps unlock the mixer And then after that I have like four orders to go through so we'll see what people got next Yeah, I hope that ultimate sells out too. We're gonna need a little bit of help guys, but I think we're doing pretty great Already done like 18 or 17 more than halfway there Remember all teams have multiple shields now, of course some shows may have been pulled already but We're some nice hits for a lot of teams and my kings are in there guys a lot of Gretzky for $60 chasing the Wayne Gretzky Not a bad deal Kings also have like four rookies in there in their checklist Plus I believe some maybe Dowdy John than quick Hopi There's some really good teams to remain the last time I checked Value for the price and there's some inexpensive teams a hey Low risk for a $20 team, but hey they have autographs. They have shields a $20 investment can turn into a really nice one CD lamp to 100 Tom Brady elite series It's a very nice one Redemption Little Dak Dak to 25 die cut on Brady Miko Harmon to $299 Bozo Quintez Polkman one Miller To a talk below a canvas All right, let's see what the redemption is guys. Good luck Great iron Kings autographs card number 12 Christian McCaffrey. Wow Christian McCaffrey.  I Think it was For what for what sport Aaron? I mean, I'm gonna collect Justin Herbert. I'm just only gonna collect Collegiate stuff and then for Kings If Gabriel Velardi is a rookie this year finally, I'll collect him a little bit But Justin Herbert will be the one I'll collect probably some nice mild sanders and McNabb for mosaic Definitely want to get a Genesis and he wouldn't a little so Some second-year mouth sanders and mosaic the Herbert for sure Gotta make a deal for that Rolls-Bull patch to a Antonio Gibson to $299 Kenan Allen to $50 another relic for the charges Lamar Jackson 1925 Doa All right last box guys. I know Eric. I haven't seen any autos yet, right? Just burl canvases. I know in yesterday's break the first case of last case Break number one. We did I Had a burl hollow, which I'm sure sells pretty well, but no autos. Yeah At least this one we got a big rookie out of we got a little Justin Herbert. All right last box guys For that Joey beating rookie grid irons the under swift makers John Randall grid iron Kings autographed to 25 Minnesota Vikings also going to Justin what a break for you Justin cam acres 13 out of 50 hitman canvas you torque rose Montos Barkley Minka Fitzpatrick to 299 Devon on see on see Herbert Tyler to 100 And there you go That was the break guys do a little hit recap. I'll give away the box as well So here's all the number of cards Big rookies of course as well. All right, we got Minka Fitzpatrick relic Kenan Allen relic Miko Harmon relic AJ Brown German James triple relic or triple three-color relic and then John Randall to 25 We got Antonio Gibson at 299 Denzel Mims at 299 a Christian McCaffrey Redemption Dove and Cook downtown and a Justin Herbert ready Rader rookie canvas 49 So there you go guys the next five boxes are in the store now Let's give away a box here number if you bought a spot in the break automatically entered a winter free box Let's click the dice roller It's a three and a six for nine times Cuz we're number one gets it one two three four five six seven eight Sam B at the top after nine times Congratulations, just got a free box man again the next ones in the store Jatsby's case breaks calm


In the name of God, the most beneficent, the most merciful, and I'd like to open with a greeting of universal peace for all of you. We say in Arabic, As-salamu alaykum, and that just is translated as peace be upon you. I wanted to really acknowledge Marcia and the team at Interfaith Interconnect for hosting these beautiful programs that I've been honored to be a part of for several years now. So when the invitation came, of course, I accepted it. So thank you so much for having me here. I do have a presentation, and I'm going to try to get through the slides as quickly as possible. So let me go ahead and screen share. So this question, which Marcia mentioned, the topic of today, was really interesting to me. How does your religion adapt itself to reflect changing times? And I was curious, and maybe I can discover that after I speak in terms of how this question came about. And the questioner who posed this, I'm interested to know maybe where this was, you know, was this a result of just seeing a lot of the changes that are happening in society rapidly, especially to faith communities? Or was it just a question of curiosities? I was just really curious to know that. But it got me to thinking about, first and foremost, I think in order to understand Islam's position on this concept of changing or reforming or renewing faith, it's really important to understand how Islam defines itself or is defined by, of course, an our understanding by God.  Or in Arabic, we call this word Dean. It's not just a religion, which is, you know, of course, a faith belief system, but it can also be, you know, just simply someone's understanding. But this Islam, according to our understanding, is much more than that. It actually affects every aspect of one's life. And in the Quran, we have a verse here from chapter five, verse three, where God actually tells us that he has completed your, I have completed your religion for you, perfected my blessings upon you, and I'm pleased with Islam as your religion. So we understand this to mean that Islam is timeless, that as a religion, it's perfect. And it doesn't need to necessarily change itself or adapt itself. But in terms of new emerging issues or things that arise as we evolve and as our societies grow into different directions, there is of course room for that. So I thought maybe first we could lay the foundation of what this system looks like. I'm sure many of you know the term Sharia, which in Arabic really just means a path that leads to water, water being a life source. And so the Sharia, which is Islamic law, encompasses five objectives. And so everything that Muslims do or don't do is actually understood to have the objective of preserving one or all five of these specific objectives. So first and foremost, the preservation of our faith. So everything, all of the rules that we have as Muslims are to preserve one's faith, preserve life, preserve one's intellect or mental well-being, preserve lineage and family, and then preserve wealth and property. So if you look at the entire body of Islamic law, you'll find that everything can be rooted back to one or five, one or all five of these, what we call maqasid or objectives. So that's the first thing I just wanted to explain to again lay a foundation of understanding what this complete system looks like. Next we have something that's very important in Islam, which comes to us from many of the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, who warned about innovation or introducing new things. And if you think logically, if something is perfect, then it would not need to be added to, right? Because it's complete. So this concept of innovation or bidah is specifically about introducing new concepts to the Sharia or the understanding of what the principles of the faith are, what the creed of the believer of the Muslim is. So in that respect, to add things just because there are things that are emerging that are not rooted in the faith or can't be explained through existing principles and rulings within the faith would be considered an innovation. And so there's a clear prohibition of this, of introducing new things. So we have these two specific quotes from the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, who said whoever introduces into this affair of ours, Islam, that which is not from it, and that's really a very important concept, which we'll get into, then it is rejected. And then beware of newly introduced matters for every newly introduced matter is an innovation. And every innovation is in this guidance. So the understanding here is that adding new things that are not within or rooted or sourced from within the faith itself would be actually changing, distorting the faith and therefore lead to misguidance. And then we have this verse from the Quran, chapter four verse 59, which says, if you disagree about anything, then refer it back to Allah the Messenger, which tells us those are our two primary sources. So in Islam, the scripture, the Quran and then the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, are considered the two primary sources for to derive legal rulings. And there are others as well, which we'll get to. But this is what how the Muslims should should arrive at legal rulings when new new ideas or new issues come up. It should be immediately sourced from the scriptures first, then the other which we'll get to. So now in terms of new emerging ideas, certainly within Islam, throughout history, obviously not everything that human beings experience has been consistent. There have been many new things that have emerged because our lifestyles have changed. And so with all of the nuance that comes from societal changes and other systems that are new, then yes, Islam seeks to address certain concepts. For example, financial transactions, as many may know, within the Islamic body of literature with regards to financial transactions, we have an entire, we have much to say about about how human beings should financially maintain their wealth and be responsible with their wealth. But obviously financial systems have changed. We now live in a completely different era of capitalism and banking and interest and many, many different systems of commerce that were not always in place. So with things like that, then the scholars have to have a means with which to address certain new ideas, new opportunities and still root those ideas within the faith tradition. So that process is referred to as HD hat, which is in English, you would call it interpretive autonomy. And then here are the three parts of that, what that looks like. It's an exercise and it's something that is the domain of people who are qualified to do this. So the scholars or the ones who are well read in the scripture in the Hadith in the traditions of the classical scholars who've really shaped Islamic law and jurisprudence, the scholars of modern times would be the ones who would have this responsibility of interpreting these new ideas. So as new concepts emerge in society, then we would defer to the experts of Islamic law and who had a qualifications to be able to derive rulings so that the regular lay Muslim would be able to still fulfill their religious obligations without abandoning principles or as we mentioned introducing new ideas which would jeopardize their faith. And so the sources that these scholars would use would be in order to make these legal judgments are the Quran first and foremost, the prophetic tradition, the Ijma or consensus of the great scholars of Islam. So in normative Sunni Islam, we have four schools of jurisprudence, which are founded by four independent scholars. Many of them were actually students of each other and they looking at examining the evidence that was before them in the scriptures and from the previous scholars whose works that they studied, they derived their own opinions on certain matters. And so a person in modern times would have to look through all of these sources and then use their own reasoning, which is an Arabic aqan, to derive a legal ruling for contemporary times. But it would be the responsibility of the scholars to do this. So the average Muslim would not make these independent rulings just to accommodate certain things that they may want in a contemporary sense. They would actually have to defer to the scholar to be able to look for those rulings. So that process is called Ijtihad. And then this concept of reform or adaptation of religion is sometimes is understood, I think, again, depending on who you asked as introducing new things or taking away certain ideas. And when we think of reforming something, that's kind of how we understand it. But we do have a concept that's different, but it does, I think, explain the acceptable way of addressing new emerging things, which is called tajdid. So this would be renewal. And this is how Muslims believe that we can adapt to things, which is really bringing people back to the source of their faith to revive Islam, not to change it or to adapt it, but rather to teach it. Because when we see, for example, many of the problems in the Muslim world, a lot of the social or political or economic problems, that Muslims who know their faith would not, we would not think that those things are arising because people are, because Islam is somehow static and hasn't come up with the times in order to accommodate all these changes, but rather that people have abandoned faith principles. And therefore, the certain problems have risen because they aren't actually implementing their faith. So tajdid is the idea that we need to actually revive the faith and bring these concepts back to life because people have parted from them. So again, whether it's political or economic systems or social systems, if they're not in line with the faith, then the belief is that there will be problems that emerge. So reform, again, according to Islam would be considered or is the idea that Islam is somehow it's not relevant to the time that it's in. Therefore, aspects of it need to be changed in order to accommodate those new emerging ideas, which normative Islam would reject that idea. Because again, as was mentioned at the beginning, Islam is considered a perfect complete system. And so there is no need to reform the faith itself. However, we can certainly come to legal rulings that may have that they're there that are unprecedented by the process, which was explained going through the scriptures, making sure that there is a real effort. And that word HD had, which I mentioned before, it comes from the root word of jahad, which is to struggle to to to really exert one's effort. So the much the head or the scholar who is supposed to derive those rulings, he or she is supposed to really look at the the sources with great detail and really try to comb through the body of literature and works and everything that has been preserved in order to derive rulings. And at the end of the day, they are allowed, you know, because they have that position, even if they make a mistake, it's not considered against the scholar, if you know, they aired in their ruling because they were sincere in their efforts. So it's a very lofty position to have the the noble position of HD had. And that's why it's not for everyone. But again, just to kind of bring it full circle, the concept of reform is is not something that Muslims believe Islam is in need of, as it is considered a perfect system. But certainly, when things problems arise in societies or in communities, then we would look to the process of Tajid, which is to just renew or, excuse me, revive, revive the faith and renew people's understanding of it, not necessarily renew or reform the faith itself. So I hope that was clear. And I think that's yeah, that's the final slide. So I can stop here. And if there are any questions, I'm happy to to take those questions. Thank you. Thank you. That's all right. So if you have any questions, I think, did I see Ruth, did you have a question? Okay. So Ruth, you're going to need to unmute yourself, please. Okay, I was interested in your item of lineage. And I was curious about how you interpret that. Thank you. No, that's a wonderful question. So lineage in terms of preservation of the family, the family bonds are very important in Islam. And the Muslim, we have, you know, a list of, for example, you know, sins that that are considered enormities. And among the enormities that God would be displeased with is cutting off ties, for example, of one's family, severing ties, is considered an enormity. So really to try to preserve family systems between parents and children, we have the concept of filial piety, which the child is, you know, is considered responsible to take care of their parents. There's a verse on the Quran that Quran that describes that, you know, just as the parents took care of you when you were an infant and not able to you were dependent, it is your turn as they age to take care of them. So within that, you know, that point of preservation of family, all of that is encompassed, right the way, you know, and obviously the preservation of, you know, marriage between a man and a woman, this is definitely central to Islam, preserving families and making sure that children, children's rights are met and parents rights are met and then extended family members also have rights. So there's there's a lot of different things that would fall under that as well. Thank you. You're welcome. Great. Alan, have to unmute yourself, Alan, and mute yourself. Thank you for that. That was very interesting. I'm wondering how often are these changes made and how are they recorded? Is there a like an ongoing recording of changes that occur to Islam? If you say you start with a perfect religion, then how do you record and document those changes that occur during times? Sure. And how do you reconcile the at one time societies norms kind of change from, you know, what it was earlier? Sure, that's an excellent question. Thank you so much. So part of the traditional way that Islam has been preserved for so many centuries is what we have, we have a concept called the Isnad tradition, which is that a person who endeavors to become a scholar or fall, you know, becomes a student of knowledge and then joins the path of scholarship would actually be would have to receive licenses from previously trained and also recognized scholars so that they become part of this chain of transmission that goes all the way back to Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, because we believe that the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, similar to how Jesus had disciples, he had companions. And then his companions were responsible after he moved on and transitioned and passed away to spread Islam to the generation that they lived among and then their, you know, generations after them continued that, that tradition of teaching and preserving the faith tradition. So all the way up until today, we have many of our scholars who are recognized as being again part of this chain within the system and they have licenses similar to what you would call, you know, in the academic world, diplomas of, you know, completion of certain areas of study. And once they receive, once they are accepted as being of that level to be able to do each he had, which is to be able to come up with these rulings, then certainly those would be recorded and preserved because these scholars, they are known and they usually typically have their own, you know, they preserve their own teachings and rulings within, you know, by way of documentation, by way of, you know, writing books, but certainly the scholars within our tradition that are recognized are known globally because and now even more so because we are so interconnected. In previous times, maybe people would actually travel far and wide and so they would know who, who, you know, they're like credentials wise, they would know, you know, who's who they're studying with or who they studied with. Those would all be very transparent. It's all very known because in order to even get into certain systems or study with certain scholars, you would have to come with some sort of reference or credential. So it's a very preserved system. But yes, these things are documented and they are known in the scholarly class. And they're collected like a book form or now perhaps electronic form. Yes. There are they available to one to understand and read and interpret? Yes, absolutely. So depending on regionally where you are, you might have scholars that are localized, but those things you could certainly acquire from, you know, from different scholars locally, but then in terms of globally recognized scholars, yes, their teachings are also preserved and documented. And again, because of the modern era with technology, we can absolutely source them. But typically scholars preserve their teachings in books and literature and make those available. Okay, thank you. You're very welcome. Thank you for the question. Okay, let's go to Paul. Paul, please unmute. Okay. My question is more rather than about the system, it's about the individual. Maybe it's not necessarily appropriate, but in Christianity, we have a soul. Is there a soul and does a person following the Quran and following the teachings is one of the goals to have this soul achieve certain attainments or go to heaven or paradise, what you guys talk about. But so could you describe your version of the soul and Islam? Absolutely. It's we absolutely have a concept of the soul. And we believe that it is the goal, it should be the goal of every Muslim to work on purification of the soul. So we have an entire science in Islam called Tasquiat and Nefs, which is literally called the purification of the soul. And this is where an individual would really examine their spiritual diseases. We all have spiritual diseases from, you know, being from envy, for example, or quick being quick to anger from being miserly. There's certain there's about 27 or so diseases of the heart that have been identified by our great scholars of the past. And so our tradition aims to teach all Muslims that they should be actively every single day working on really becoming the best versions of themselves. So, you know, character development characters are very important part of our faith. The Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him actually had a quote that where he says I was sent to teach the perfection of faith, excuse me, the perfection of character. So, you know, the virtuous, you know, qualities are certainly important for Muslims to acquire patience, steadfastness, courage, justice, all of the four cardinal virtues that we find in Christianity are very shared in Islam as well. And so this would be an active practice that every Muslim should have, but certainly absolutely those who are in the scholarly position. And so that's why there's so much emphasis, for example, on self mastery. And what does self mastery look like? Well, you know, we, as you may know, Ramadan is coming around the corner. And so Ramadan is part of, you know, mastering the lower self, you know, those base desires that can overwhelm the person, lust, food, all of these things that we should be able to manage, which can certainly derail or obstruct our spiritual endeavors is something that fasting, which is something that is not obviously inherent to just Islam, many of the previous traditions and other faiths have also a practice of fasting. So fasting is one way we do that. We're just watching ourselves, you know, not using, for example, Tao language. We believe that every part of the body was created for the worship of God, and we will be held accountable if we use the blessings that God gave us in the wrong way, in sinful ways. So we lower our gaze when we, you know, see things that are inappropriate, we're supposed to redirect our gaze listening to things that are inappropriate. We don't take in certain, we don't consume certain foods or drink because we believe that they have a negative and harmful effect on the body. So that's to protect the body. So there's many things that we do as a regular practice in order to purify and preserve the soul, because at the end of the day, that is the point of salvation, whether or not your soul was purified through practice and worship. So yes, we absolutely have a very shared idea with the Christian, and I believe even the Jewish faith around the soul. Thank you. Just one more follow-up to that, you know. Okay, and then we need to go on to our next speaker. Okay, just one second then. Maybe it's a yes or I'm sure it'll be a yes answer, at least I'm sure. I'm pretty certain. The responsibility for the development of one soul, when you're young, it maybe isn't your necessary, your responsibility, but when you're very young, you have your family, and you have a madrasa or a school. So where do you place the importance of those, they equally as important as each other, the madrasa and the family and raising a child to have a good soul? It's an excellent question. And it's on the responsibility of raising the child up until the age of discernment, squarely falls on the family. So the mother and father, that is a trust to have children to be blessed with children is considered a trust from God. And so it is their responsibility to make sure that they are raising the child with the proper understanding of faith and exposing them to teachers. So if they send them to madrasa or not, but that responsibility would be on them up until discernment, which is at the age of puberty. So in our faith, in the Muslim faith, we believe that children up until the age of puberty are able to, at that point, they're able to decide and know, you know, God and right from wrong. And interestingly enough, I remember reading a research a while ago, that most of the religious conversions that happen to people usually happen around 1213, right at the onset of puberty. So there is something to be said about that age of awakening out of childhood, suddenly into the reality of the world that a child is in that causes them to have these existential questions and seek understanding. So at that point, then they are responsible for themselves. And the parents are certainly there to guide and continue to help them to navigate, but they are considered accountable at that point. Thank you very much. Thank you. Let's everyone please give Hossai a round of applause. Thank you. Thank you so much. And now, welcome Pastor Steve Wild from Presbyterian Church, Livermore. Pastor Steve. Well, thank you. It is an honor to follow Hossai and to just be able to learn and appreciate so much the thoughtfulness with which you put into that presentation. I probably will be embarrassed with how much more thorough and thoughtful yours is than my remarks, but it really is a blessing to be able to speak on the same Zoom call. And in so many ways, I think it's a great combination, Marcia, you and others have provided such great leadership to Interfaith Interconnect for so long. And this will be a great similarity, but also it's one of the beauties of this group, I think are the conversations where we can see distinctions amongst different faith traditions and really value and honor those distinctions and some similarities. And so happy to talk a bit about that. But Marcia, for you and for Alan, I really do appreciate and I love that Ruth is on here. And I actually love that Jim Hodges, I can't see your video running, but I love the hiking in the mountains picture just because our church, First Presbyterian Church here in Livermore just has such an appreciation for this discussion and for the ways in which people want to respect and honor one another. And so I just feel very humbled and very blessed to just have my own comments and thoughts on this. It is a contrast, I think, in one sense, because, Josiah, as you talk about sort of the foundational principle of a perfected religion, we're part of the Protestant faith where in many respects, we emerged out of this theological conviction of reform and reformation. And so I'll just say a little bit, I probably will be much more interested into the interaction and the conversation questions that you all might have, but the Presbyterian Church, of which we are a part, does emerge from Protestantism and I don't need to bore everybody with sort of European history in the 16th century, but just that idea that Martin Luther initiated of a hope that the Catholic Church would reform, would change some of its practices and the ways in which they believed that it had strayed from not just a faithfulness to what Scripture said and who God was, but also then a disconnect from the culture and from the world that was inhibiting the gospel being able to be shared, to be able to be understood, but also to be able to be embraced. So in so many ways, our theological foundation is kind of rooted in that reformed and always reforming, being open to the ongoing transformation and the renewing of God's spirit at work in and amongst God's people. And maybe, Josiah, there might be some similarities in that we may say what we've done in our reforming is discovering what's always been true about God. And so maybe that's where there's a place of commonality, is that maybe we would articulate a perfection of God and that religion is fundamentally imperfect because it is human being's best attempt to articulate and formally assemble in a way that is able to understand the perfect God. And so reformed and always reforming though, an ongoing openness to change and transformation really is at the heart of who we are as a denomination, at the heart of who we are as a church. We really believe that the spirit is still at work and that part of what the spirit does in the midst of community is it highlights, again, what's always been true about God. And at times what that means is that we take new approaches. We come to different understandings. We come to perhaps a corrected theological conviction and some of the easier ones to highlight would be historically maybe having a more traditional view of leadership in the church as it relates to the role of women and the LGBTQIA plus community. And then over the last several decades, sort of collectively believing that God's spirit actually was working and correcting our application of what is true about who God is. And so we really, we open ourselves to that. And a part of how we do that is sort of embracing the priesthood of all believers, right? The idea that I'm a pastor and I've been to more school than I ever thought I would go to. But I don't have any unique access to God that you all don't. And therefore, I'm just humbled to be a part of these conversations because whether it's a Presbyterian perspective or a Protestant perspective or an Episcopalian or a Muslim or a Jewish or a skeptic or a scientific, I mean, we just really in humility, want to be open to how that spirit of God speaks truth into our lives and into our church. And so that might be a little bit of a foundational introduction to how we approach this idea of adapting to changes in our world is we try to take a posture of humility that then collectively discerns what is true. Which is to say, sort of organizationally, from a polity structurally and theologically, we believe that the truth of God is understood within the context of community. So that I have a voice within that community, but that voice is always held within the larger communal context of how we collectively believe God is at work. And so that process of reform is one that not one person dictates, but that we collectively discover. That creates beautiful opportunities and wonderful challenges as we try to then share life together, realizing that faithful people oftentimes have different perspectives and different experiences and come to different conclusions. And so we really then theologically see that adaptation and change is held within the context of covenant, that sort of sacred commitment that we make with and for one another, that's rooted in our being loved by God and our commitment to God that then calls us to maintain relationship with one another. I mean, it doesn't always end up that way. And we've had churches that have left our denomination and obviously Presbyterianism is different than Methodist, which is different. So there's obviously different flavors of that. But at our best, we want to maintain that covenant relationship rooted in our commitment to God, but also then calling us to stay connected to one another. And so then I think what that means programmatically or pragmatically might be the distinction between technical and adaptive challenges and technical and adaptive change. And without going too deep into the weeds, technical challenges are more challenges that we have the skill set, the knowledge, the experience, the tools and the resources to address a particular challenge. And that might be the brakes of your car go out. It seems like it's a technical problem. Your brakes are out. We have a technical solution. You take it to a mechanic who has new brake pads and has the tools needed to replace those brakes. And so a technical problem is addressed with a technical solution. We in the church recognize though that oftentimes the church is faced with adaptive problems. And adaptive problems are problems for which we don't have the skill set or the experience or the knowledge or perhaps even the imagination or resources to address those challenges. And so a new imagination needs to be formed to address adaptive challenges. An adaptive challenge maybe you have a 16 year old driver in your family who's learning how to drive doesn't quite know how to do that. And as a result is grinding on the brakes the entire time and wears them out disproportionately fast. You can continue to take that car and those brakes to a mechanic and they'll replace the brakes, but you're applying a technical solution to an adaptive problem. And so we in the church are trying to depend upon God's Holy Spirit that works in our midst to have the wisdom to discern where there are technical challenges and where there are adaptive challenges. And again in humility how do we then surrender to God's Spirit at work among us to discover an adaptive way of thinking and being God's people. And in those adaptive moments oftentimes change is what's realized. And again within our context not to speak negatively upon any other tradition in our context that's led to decisions like women being able to be pastors and to hold formal roles of leadership. And it's led to other theological convictions that aren't as traditional. And so that's where we try to find that balance between how we formally as a religion organize ourselves in a way that helps us develop a faith that is able to embody the sort of perfection of God. Again I think I think recognizing that that perfection is not present in the the religious structures that human beings create. And since most people look like they're wonderfully tired and maybe even ready for a nap. I mean I think I'll pause and just sort of if that makes sense or questions or comments that people want to have to sort of interact with anything I'm saying. Jim are you raising your hand? No Carlton are you raising your hand? Yes okay please unmute. There we go can you hear me? Yes. Okay thank you. And Steve I know that must have been referring to me I'm sorry I had my head in my hands but I was not falling asleep. I was trying to concentrate and to process what you were saying. And I came in a little bit late so apologies to everyone if my question has been already addressed. It seems to me that there while there is certainly variation amongst the different religions in terms of how and to what extent they change to address cultural issues. But it also seems true that they all seem to be bound or bounds not the right word. They all seem to have a core limitation that prevents them from adapting when those adaptations run contrary to their beliefs of their denomination. Is that a fair statement so far Steve am I okay with that? Yeah I think that would be a I mean I probably would say not of a denomination. I think you're saying you're articulating well the human condition. Well and I guess my question then is does religion in all its forms really serve humanity well then? If there is this core of not being able to change in certain areas and they're going to differ of course by group shouldn't wouldn't we be better off if we could adopt our finding system that would allow more flexibility of change if we can simply demonstrate that that change is beneficial to humanity in general and not have to worry about whether it runs a foul of doctrinal statements found in the various religions? That's a provocative question Carlton I appreciate it. I think that I probably would suggest that you know the I probably don't subscribe to the premise and by that I don't mean to be disrespectful. I just mean that I think that there are plenty of expressions of religion that are quite adaptive. I believe the the person who spoke last month from the Unitarian Universalist Church would would would articulate a structure within the Unitarian Universalism that that is much more adaptive than certain religious structure. So I don't disagree that there aren't examples of religious institutions that are adverse to change but quite frankly I don't I don't think that's any different than up at the lab in some of the science there are those within the scientific community that that are more rigid in their scientific approach and there are some in the scientific community that are much more progressive and open in their approach to science and their pursuit of the mysteries of the universe and we have a Bible study on Tuesday mornings where many of those different approaches interact with one another and it's delightful. So I just think that that I really agree with the premise that that human beings I don't think it's unique to religion I think we see this in governments. Government can be profoundly helpful and necessary in advancing the causes of humanity and justice and equality and government can be profoundly cumbersome in responding to the needs of humanity and equality and justice and and so in some ways of course we need we need humanity to be more to be more willing to be open to what we might say is capital true and I would just agree with you that religion oftentimes sadly is not that institution. I'm a part of a traditional Protestant mainline denominational church. Our reputation is not one of great agility and embracing change. That doesn't mean that that we aren't trying and seeking to be open to that. So I guess what I would say is I would say amen. I pray for her people to be more receptive to what is truly in humility beneficial and I think that that's probably where I would start is that whether it's government or science or religion or or education humility seems to me to be the primary ingredient to people being able to really look beyond themselves and not be so bound to their own ego and idea of how things need to be. Humility sort of opens us to a different possibility and that's where whatever that practice is I think would benefit from that and I don't know if that that might just be a long rambling response to a really provocative question that you're asking but I appreciate your interest even yeah I it is it's a question that you know could easily you know side rail the great thing we got going here I don't want to do that but I but I just want to I did want to just at least ask it once and just see what the response was yeah who else has a question see a hand I I'll go ahead and ask a question if that's all right then um Steve you mentioned about how some um like a group within the Presbyterian church various times is broken away it sounds like a maybe formed another denomination um I was just curious I might not quite have this right but it seems like there's a Presbyterian church USA and a Presbyterian church in America is that right yeah I think there's actually so Presbyterian is a word that doesn't have any denominational uniqueness it's actually a way of governing so there's actually I think 14 different Presbyterian denominations um which which has been humorous because many of our people will go to a church that has the word Presbyterian on it but find out that it's very different than our church with respect to how it views leadership or other other things so yeah we are a part of the Presbyterian church USA um there's the Presbyterian church of America there's the Orthodox Presbyterian church there's Cumberland Presbyterian church there's the evangelical covenant order there's the covenant Presbyterian church there's a number of denominations that have the word Presbyterian in it Presbyterian is a word that denotes a proportional representation right it's a Presbyter is one who individually is called to leadership to act and speak on behalf of a larger group of people the easiest thing for me to say is our government was formed by people that were fleeing religious persecution many of whom came from a Protestant upbringing the church of Scotland where proportional representation Presbyterianism was a part of how they organized and governed their church and that same principle is it's similar it's not the same but it's very similar to what we see in our in our form of government where individuals are elected to go and speak on behalf of groups of people within our church we have elders that aren't supposed to make decisions based on what they want but they're supposed to be reflective of of a larger group of people within the church and then churches are a part of Presbyteries and we collectively have conversations and then Presbyteries are a part of our national denomination and so our national denomination makes decisions that then impact local churches that's that connectional system that we strive to be a part of and so change so and again adaptation goes through that process that's that communal part of the process that I could stand up in our pulpit this Sunday and say whatever I wanted and how the church needs to change within our structure our session which is our our board either would or wouldn't agree with that and if I say something that we need to do that's not in alignment with what our Presbyterian with what our denomination says there's this larger connectional system that we're that we're in covenant relationship with that we we choose to align ourselves with and you can imagine again there's regional differences in California than in Jackson Mississippi and yet Presbyterian churches in Livermore and Jackson Mississippi choose to abide by the same understandings of who God is and how God's at work hey thank you that was very interesting and it looks like we would have time for one more question if anyone else would like to ask Pastor Steve a question yes anyone I think I just had a it's going to be interesting because there's going to be looks like there's much more sort of ethical questions coming up as science develops right and then we can continue to probably impact our genetics and have medical changes etc it's interesting to me to see how different religions address this particular topic and all these other different ones and how within religions also it seems like there's multiplicity of opinions right right yeah and I don't know if that it's a great statement I don't know if that's a question that well I know I think I'm just observing and I'm just trying to get your take on how is it to resolve it within your well I think that's the tension and again within our tradition it's the tension that we choose to live within right we we sort of you know I'm speaking a lot about the way in which the spirit speaks in community and so there's a communal aspect to what we think and what we conclude about any number of things you know Christian ethics or medical ethics there's that communal aspect but but but sort of beneath it all is this acknowledgement that God alone is the Lord of the conscience and and that while I may or may not Alan's a part of our church so I've known Alan for 14 years and know him well so I say this to a friend I may or may not agree with Alan on everything that's not really the point God alone is the one who will will judge me will judge Alan will judge all of us and and in humility my role is not to judge you on behalf of God it's to it's to in it's in humility to be open to what God's desire is as I understand it for me in my life and the decisions that we make and so it's always that tension of individuals that may have experiences or perspectives that aren't always shared that choose to be a part of a community where it's not just about their individual preferences and perspectives and and again that's why I think and I think Carlton may have jumped off which dog gone and I hear I'm trying to bring him back into the conversation but it's part of the challenge of religion is that we've too often times siloed ourselves into a like-mindedness that that isn't about inviting perspectives outside of our own preferences or biases or whatever that is and so we create these sort of echo chambers that then make these universal declarations about medical ethics or euthanasia or any number of things and they're well intended and oftentimes they're faithfully well intended so I don't mean to demonize that at all I don't judge that as though it's a bad thing I think it's people that are seeking to be loyal and adhere to what they believe to be true we just believe that that truth is best understood within a diversity of thought and opinion that's found in community and is reflected in the diversity that you just look on this screen that you see a diversity of thought a diversity of life experience a diversity of age a diversity of ethnicity I mean all of that diversity we see as a valuable thing that creates tension right and for us that's that's wonderfully modeled in the Trinity and for us that's wonderfully reflected in that first group of disciples that they themselves were oftentimes not in agreement and yet we're a covenant community thank you I think the one the most important statement you made was about humility and I know in our tradition the Muslim tradition even scholars end their particular edicts with and Allah knows best yes thank you thank you for this hosting this program and thank you for allowing me to attend well that's a great thank you for sharing with me how wise people in your tradition and I should end most sermons with and God knows best thank you so much thank you for coming today maybe we'll see you again um let us all give pastor steve a round of applause yes okay thank you so much we did wonderfully with our time it's 559 and I think we had a chance for speakers to give excellent presentations and for people to ask questions and have their questions answered so that worked out very well


Washington celebrated singer Dionne Warwick, comedian Billy Crystal, singer-songwriter Barry Gibb, rapper and actress Queen Latifa, and opera star Renee Fleming on December 3 at the Kennedy Center Honors, the top U.S. Honor for Achievements in the Arts, President Joe Biden celebrated the work of the five performers during a reception at the White House before attending the televised show. The show kicked off with a tribute to Warwick, 82, a pop music star, since the 1960s who has sold more than. 100 million records and is known for hits such as I'll Never Love This Way Again. Crystal, 75, known for roles in films such as When Harry Met Sally, was faded by actors slash director Rob Reiner and actor Robert De Niro. You're only 75. That means you're just about six years away from being the perfect age to be elected president, De Niro quipped. Biden, 81, is running for re-election. The crowd roared. Queen Latifa, 53, a musician and actress known for films including Chicago and Bringing Down the House, was lauded by Kerry Washington and rapper and singer Missy Elliott. Champion, mentor and mother. Thank you. She's surrounded by these towering set pieces, a full orchestra, elaborate costumes and wigs, a huge chorus, sometimes even large animals lumbering around. And Rene just cuts through all that pomp and size and gives us a real breathing human being. Deeper part of himself in sharing it with the world. He effortlessly blends harmony and heart, melancholy and melody, all while creating some of the catchiest, most popular and universally beloved music ever. And he's been doing it since he was nine years old.