Felly, mae'r next item of business today is a member's business debate on motion number 10936 in the name of Neil Findlay on RBS Takes Communities for Granted. Mr Findlay will be concluded without any questions being put and I would invite those members who wish to speak in the debate to please press the request to speak buttons now or as soon as possible. Mr Findlay, if you are ready, seven minutes please. Thanks very much, Presiding Officer. The Royal Bank of Scotland is a bank that we, the taxpayer, own and control with a 81 per cent stake, a bank that we had to bail out to the tune of an eye-watering £37 billion. A bank, of course, where Sir Fred, or I don't think he's Sir Fred anymore, but Fred Goodwin and his band of merry men, and it was largely men, almost brought a once great institution to its knees through reckless mismanagement. They were playing fast and loose with customers' money and taking that bank, a bank that previously had a global reputation taking it to the brink, a bank that caused panic amongst its loyal customers who feared their money would no longer be there, a bank that almost failed. I would have thought that, Presiding Officer, the senior management of that bank would now be doing all it could to win back the faith of its customers, all it could to apologise to the people who have loyally banked with it and all it could to show humility for what it did. But apparently not. This year we saw the true extent of RBS's closure programme. It was laid bare when it was revealed that it had earmarked 154 branches for closure this year, roughly a whole 5 per cent of its network. As of today, more than 100 local branches have already been closed. What we have seen not just in my area but across Scotland is branch after branch after branch being pulled. In April, 44 branches were earmarked for closure from Castle Town in the north near Thurso to Berwickshire in the south and branches in England and Wales too. Off the 44 branches, 14 branches were the last banking town leaving local people and local businesses with no banking facilities. This is significant because in 2010 RBS in their glossy customer charter gave a series of long-term commitments. Long-term commitment 9 pledged to stay open for business if we are the last bank in town. It proudly stated that we have identified over 100 last bank in town locations where we will continue to provide local banking facilities. On to boast, we have continued to provide banking facilities in 146 locations where we are the last bank in town. However, this year that commitment was ripped up and put into Fred's famous shredder. What a way to treat loyal customers, many of them and their families, customers for generation, businesses who have used RBS for decades. The last bank in town is not worth the paper it is written on and neither is their customer service charter. In West Lothian we see Fault House and Armadale branches closing. Fault House branch locked its doors for the final time on Tuesday. It is the last branch in town. The community of 5,000 people no longer has a bank. Armadale, a growing community of 10,000 people with 2,000 new houses being built, a school, a nursery, a new railway station, jobs and retail facilities now has no bank in town for people to use. Just over the border in North Lanarkshire, the village of Harthill no longer has a bank either. So much for their commitment, so much for that promise to keep the last bank in town open. Of course they say that it is okay, we will replace that provision, you can go online, you can use digital banking. For many people in these communities that is not an option and certainly for many older people that is not an option either. In some of the communities they say that it is okay, we will have a replacement service, there will be something else. Some there is a post office provision but for others it is twice a week, half hour mobile service. We have a better service than that from the local ice cream van. Over the summer, I along with my UK parliamentary colleagues Graham Morris and Michael Connerty met with senior officials of RBS. We put forward the social and economic case for keeping these branches open. We pointed out the needs of the community of business deeds but all that we got was an attempt to hide behind statistics of falling customer visits. They conceded that the fall in customer numbers at these branches that they were closing was below the average fall elsewhere and yet some of the other branches were being kept open. They would not tell us what their strategy was, what their plan was to roll out the closures but they said they would be continuing with it. Also when I asked had they consulted customers would they come to a public meeting and speak to people, speak to the community, their answer was no. Instead all they did was send a letter out advising customers the bank would be closing in a few months time. No talking to people, no addressing local concerns, just a dear customer letter saying that it would close. I am afraid that we are now in a situation with RBS where it is Long Nidry no more, Cumnock no more, Lockwinnock no more, Hart Hill no more, Armadale no more, Falthouse no more and many other communities up and down the country no more. That is not the way that large companies who have received eye-watering levels of public money should be treating the people whose taxis bailed them out. RBS appears to have failed a single lesson from the banking crisis. John Mason, to be followed by Hugh Henry's speeches of four minutes or thereby please. Thank you to Neil Findlay for bringing this debate. I do realise that his motion primarily focuses on West Lothian and North Lanarkshire, but he has mentioned a wider spread as well. It is a very similar scenario to the one that we had in Shettleston in June 2013 and before that it was bridged and also in my constituency in March 2013. We are now in the position where, in my constituency, which is, I suppose, the same size as other peoples as far as people are concerned, we only have one Royal Bank branch for the whole constituency. The Shettleston branch was relatively small but it was a very busy branch. I used it on several occasions myself and almost invariably had to stand in a queue before being served. RBS argued, as Mr Findlay mentioned, that more people are now banking online and fewer people are using the physical branches. I accept that that is a trend that is actually happening. However, most people still need an actual branch to go into from time to time. That is especially the case where folk are less comfortable using the internet, banking by phone and other methods. That in turn tends to be in the poorer areas. I have to say that I actually think that Neil Findlay's wording is somewhat generous to RBS when he says that he uses the phrase, apparent arbitrary nature of the closures. I do not actually think that they are arbitrary. I think that they are targeted to where the people have less money. It might be argued that RBS is a business and must follow the profit. However, I have a few problems with that. First of all, businesses are allowed to have a conscience. Corporate social responsibility is now seen as a very positive attribute for companies and it makes them more sustainable in the long term. Secondly, as again Mr Findlay has mentioned, Royal Bank is owned by the public and owes its very continued existence to the generosity of the public. Some of my poorer constituents, and I suspect that that is true for Mr Findlay's as well, have gone through considerably hard times in recent years because of the stupidity of decisions made by RBS and other banks. Thirdly, they have continued to pay excessively high salaries and bonuses, so they seem to be able to cut some costs and not cut others. Fourthly, again as the motion says, there has been no engagement or consultation with local communities and this was exactly our experience in Glasgow as well. The first public statement that we got was not that they were thinking about closing the branch but that they had already decided. They agreed to meet myself and other elected members not to discuss the options but only to explain what they were about to do. I have to say that I was so annoyed both by the decision itself and the way it was carried out that for once we set aside party differences in the east end of Glasgow and had a joint Labour and SNP campaign headed up by Sandy Hills Community Council. However, I am afraid that even then the bank did not listen. Speaking personally, I have fed up with some of the larger banks for a number of reasons and have switched my bank main account to one of the smaller banks, which should probably remain nameless but which has its only Glasgow branch in my constituency. I would urge other members to think about this too. I am not arguing today that RBS should not make itself profitable. A loss making bank is not much good to any of us but I am arguing that banks need to look at the bigger picture. They are to a large extent a public service, albeit generally privately owned. Serving the public must come into their thinking somewhere and that should surely mean a little more listening and a little more consideration for our poorer citizens and communities be they in West Lothian, Glasgow or wherever. Ross McEwen, the RBS chief executive, told us, We need to remember and then never forget that the customer is why we are in business. We will try to tell that to the customers in Laquinner in the east end of Glasgow and Armadale Fault House and all the other communities which are seeing the withdrawal of their last bank in town. Neil Findlay indicated that worthless pledge which RBS made. Where was that pledge when Ross McEwen was saying that we should never forget that the customer is why we are in business? Laquinner is a mixed community. People think that it is an affluent community and there are many people who live in Laquinner who are relatively affluent but it also has many people living there who are elderly and who are on lower incomes. They rely on access to a bank and figures have been quoted about reduced numbers of customers and I will come to that. We have been told that there are now alternatives in place that more people are using online banking except that in Laquinner there is very poor internet access so that cannot always be relied upon. We are also told that the post office can provide an alternative service except that the post office is now being relocated into a spars store and that the services that are on offer will be extremely limited. Then what about the access to the nearest alternative, either RBS or any other branch? The nearest settlement would be Johnston over seven miles away and Laquinner has an extremely poor bus service so for those without a car it is difficult to get to an alternative. For those without access to the internet it is difficult to access a service and even for those with access to the internet it is still difficult at times to access a service. I would suspect that many of our constituents across Scotland would probably accept that there has to be some cut back in service if everyone was in it equally together, if there was a real problem and everyone was sharing the pain and the grief. That is not the case because for the pennies that have been saved by the closures of their branches we are seeing at the same time that in the past four years RBS has paid out bonuses of £3.4 billion. A bank owned by us, the taxpayer, can afford to pay £3.4 billion in bonuses but not use some of that to keep branches open in communities like Laquinner. That same chief executive, Ross McEwen, is in line for a £1 million a year in share allowance that sidestep the EU bonus cap and effectively doubles his salary. He also received shares of almost £1.5 million as part of a £3 million signing on deal when he was first hired from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. We are not all in it together and therefore I do not think that it is right that my constituents or others should be asked to bear the burden so that a handful of people can continue to exploit the generosity of not just the customers but the generosity of the British taxpayer. So what we are seeing here, I think, is just cynicism and a continuation of the greed which brought the British banking system to its knees. We are not seeing a level playing field of people sharing out problems and sharing out responsibilities. They have not consulted as Neil Findlay has said. They have ignored their customers despite the promises and the commitments that Ross McEwen made. So what we are seeing here is a taxpayer's owned bank cynically treating its customers badly, carrying not one jot about the consequences. I would hope even at this later, our Presiding Officer, that RBS will think again. But if they choose not to do so, then the very least they can do to these communities is to look at what they are doing with the assets and see how some good can be put back in to those communities which they are damaging. Thank you. It's fair to say that any branch closure is a matter of regret, no matter where that is located in Scotland. There is an impact on customers, there is an impact on staff, and there is an impact in the community more widely. The smaller the community, the deeper that impact is likely to be. Any institution, whether it is a bank or any other organisation, has to think carefully about the consequences of any closure. If they decide to close an office, how can they ameliorate or reduce those consequences as much as possible? It should be an absolute last resort for a bank or other institution to close, particularly in a smaller community where indeed they may well be one of the last remaining institutions within that town or village. Some of the sentiment that has been expressed today, I can agree with, but other parts of it have been unfair towards a bank and other parts of it have also ignored the realities of what happens out there on the ground. John Mason, in his statement, said that he accepts that times are changing, technology is changing, but he wants branches to be kept open so that people have a place to go to. I wrote that down from time to time. It's not possible, I don't think, for institutions to keep every branch or office open so that people have a place to go to from time to time. While I don't want to see any closures in my own region or in any other region to be candid, we also have to listen to what is happening out there on the ground. There has been substantial change with how banks and indeed other businesses interact with their customers. I don't think that it's right to say that these organisations ignore their customers. They have to follow the trends of what their customers are doing. The statistics that I've been given, and they're from the bank, obviously I can't verify them myself. In one second, Mr Henry, I can't verify them myself, but if what the bank is saying is correct, they're saying that branch transactions since 2011 are down by 30 per cent and online transactions are up by 232 per cent. If those statistics are correct, then any business and institution surely has to then invest more of their resources into what the 232 per cent are doing and they're inevitably going to invest less in branches if the footfall is dramatically reduced. I said it, I'd give way to Mr Henry. Would Gavin Brown not agree that a very small part of those massive bonuses to which I referred would be enough to keep open the branches that are threatened with closure and would not be justified and would it not then enable to RBS keep their pledge to keep open the last branch in town? Presiding Officer, I haven't seen the inside of the bank's books. I don't know how much is saved from every individual closure. I don't know the internal workings of the bank. I suspect that Hugh Henry doesn't really do either, so I think that it's very difficult for an MSP to suggest that they know better than an organisation how to run that organisation. I think that I only have a minute left. If you want, it's up to you. As long as I'm given some additional time, I'd be happy to give way to Mr Finlay. Mr Brown was speaking about customers. This is a quote directly from the progress report on the customer charter. It said, Dear customer, last June we made a public commitment to becoming Britain's most helpful bank. As part of this, we launched a customer charter, a set of 14 promises based on what you, our customers, told us was important from that bank. To show we are taking this seriously, we promise to be transparent and share progress along the way. Here we are, our first official report. Then they go on to list all the successes in implementing the charter, big ticks against the last bank in town. What does Mr Brown say to that in relation to the way that they say they're listening to customers, then completely ignore everything that they've just said? Mr Brown, I do take extra time. Mr Finlay is perfectly entitled to express the view that they completely ignore customers, but I don't think that any organisation that wants to succeed can ignore customers. I don't accept that the bank entirely does ignore customers, and he's perfectly entitled to his view on that, but I just simply disagree with him on it. Let me, in my final minute, take issue with particularly the heading of the motion, where I think that Mr Finlay has just used a lazy soundbite to be candid, and I was aghast that John Mason described it as generous to say that RBS takes communities for granted. I don't think that's correct, certainly not from my own experience of speaking with the bank's employees and looking at the work that they do in communities. One of the largest employers in the country. On a personal level, seeing the work that they've done with the Princess Trust and with E-Spark, observing a money-sense tutorial going on in secondary schools where bank staff take time out to go and try to help pupils all across the country, the staff that make donations through their payroll and give up time to volunteer, and indeed the recent STV appeal. Anybody who had seen what was going on on the ground across Scotland, to say that they take communities for granted, I think would be unfair, and that's where I disagree with some parts of the motion. John Finland, after which will we have the closing speech from the minister? I speak in support of Neil Finlay's motion and having also tabled a motion regarding an RBS blank closure in my constituency. I will address the local circumstances but many of my concerns apply to the closures that we are seeing across Scotland. The Royal Bank of Scotland has earmarked over 5 per cent of its branch network, 154 branches for closure this year, while customers have been told that branches will close. There has been no formal announcement of the programme. Those closures include branches where the RBS is renegan on its promise to keep the last branch in town open. Will this be the last closure? Who knows? There has been no commitment made to the remaining 2,000 branches. With the recent announcement of a third success of quarter of profit, with a pre-tax profit of 4.2 billion forecasts for the year December 2014, understandably customers and staff are angered and incensed by closures and job losses against a backdrop of rising profits and share prices. The Royal Bank of Scotland is a 81 per cent public that owned and is not unreasonable to expect it to be controlled and operated in the public interest. But like others I am finding it extremely difficult to see how this is the case. When it is the public and the staff, not the other 19 per cent of investors who are disadvantaged by these closures. I know that the bank has a responsibility to be prudent with its finances after the Freddie Shed reign, but surely this needs to be tempered by corporate and social responsibility taken into account public and staff interests. The bottom line should not be solely about profit and share price and we would not expect that as ethical from any other company, much less should it be excusable when the company is public property having been rescued at public expense. I am sure that there are circumstances in which we will be prepared to wait a little longer to recover that public investment for the sake of other priorities such as financial inclusion. Now in my constituency the impending closure of the Clareland RBS branch means that constituents will have to travel further afield for banking provision and as alternatives in the area do not offer the same range of services closure will significantly add to costs and inconvenience to local people and businesses. I have been in touch with RBS and initially they gave a picture of a bank that had little custom. It then transpired that this was somewhat busier than was first painted. I have called for an extensive consultation and questioned the rationale and adequacy of the alternative facilities that will be available to the people of Clareland. RBS have now said that they will provide a once a week mobile banking service. That is a poor substitute and I believe that it also underlines the determination to press ahead with the closure. In these circumstances I have also sought to engage with them to look at what can be salvaged from the closure. I have asked about the bill being made available for community use perhaps hosting a credit union or another voluntary organisation. RBS have been willing to explore responsibility but insist that part of that discussion is to talk about their responsibility to the shareholders. The bank needs to understand and accept that the public are the majority shareholders and that they should get the priority and that, at the very least, the bank should help to rescue something for my constituents, constituents who, through their Government, rescued the Royal Bank. I thank Neil Findlay for raising the motion. It is an issue that we have debated on several occasions before. John Mason reminded us that he raised this matter with regard to the closure of branch in his constituency. He also alluded to the fact that he did so on a cross-party basis. I think that this debate this evening has seen across the benches of the parties that have been represented here in the debate making a number of very valid and salient points indeed. I think that I start off by confirming that the Scottish Government does share and understand the concerns that have been expressed today about branch closures in our local communities. That branches have and have always played a huge part in our communities throughout Scotland and we do rely on our banks to conduct our daily lives and our business and pay our bills. We are absolutely clear that customers must be at the heart of what banks do. The decision to close the branches will affect everybody in the local community as Mr Findlay outlined and as other members outlined in relation to closures in their areas. Mr Henry, Mr Pentland and Mr Mason gave specific examples and there are many others that I know exist because there are many closures of branches around the whole country. Of course, I want to say a bit about the staff. The staff employed at the branches are the branch of many people and certainly when I ran my business, the Victoria Road branch of Bank of Scotland were excellent. I can still remember Dorothy was one of the friendliest people that I ever encountered and cheered me up on many a day from the trevise of running a small business in Scotland. The staff have played an integral part and I want to pay tribute to them. I understand from the RBS that the redundancies resulting from this programme of closures have been on a voluntary basis and we recognise that. Obviously, the bigger picture is that the bank is one of the major businesses in Scotland employing 11,500 people, supporting 122,800 businesses with nearly 2 million personal customers. As a matter of balance, I think that it is reasonable to say that there are some positives that the bank contributes to, to the E-Spark programme for example, the micro finance fund, financial education in schools which they play a part, grants to charities, 47 charities and their staff donating nearly £1 million through payroll donations and raising a lot of money for the STV appeal which helped children. I think that we would all recognise that there are positive points but the focus of this debate is on branch closures and I wanted to make a few remarks on that particular topic. I think that if I can just make some progress because I'm just coming to really the meat of the topics but I thought it only fair to set the matter in context and I have done so. The decisions that have been taken, the RBS say, are not taken lightly or arbitrarily and where a decision is made to close a branch there is a three month period between announcing a closure and the closure itself. I was keen to understand whether this decision was of the nature of a consultation or engagement and my understanding that the decision is taken and the three month period is not really to decide whether or not that decision is overturned but rather to assist customers. I want to deal with the consequences of closure to allow an opportunity for customers of the bank to make other arrangements and to assist them there and then. I want in particular to state and I think that Mr Henry alluded to this, I think that it was Mr Henry in his speech about the period of consultation. I think that it's absolutely essential that every customer of the Royal Bank of Scotland and any other bank that indulges in it takes decisions to close branches and of course others do as well. The RBS are not alone. That is, as Mr Finlay rightly said, that the customers' interests must be placed at the heart of this and there is a time period that is required. I want to know from the Royal Bank of Scotland whether they are sure that all of their customers can make those arrangements within three months. I also would like to know and Mr Henry raised this as a suggestion and I'm going to pursue this with the Royal Bank as a result of his suggestion that in particular opportunities are given to explore the possibility of local credit unions being used as an alternative. I chair a credit union working group and I think that credit unions need more help from the British Bank Association and the Government in order to be able to continue to expand their operations throughout the country. We are doing so already. Not all do so but many are effectively operating as banks but they can't get access to a sort code so they can't offer proper banking facilities. That's a hidden and detailed point which I think is one that is important and is directly relevant to this debate because if the customers wish to make alternative arrangements then it should not just be with the Royal Bank but with others. I will most certainly pursue that with the Royal Bank. Most of the members recognise that action needs to be taken in order to deal with the financial damage that the banks sustained as a result of some monumental failures of decisions in relation to investments about which we all know and about which none of us can do anything whatsoever. They have to deal with the consequences with that and I think that all members have recognised that that does mean that difficult decisions have to be taken but I think that it is also correct to point out and Mr Finlay did say that of course it is the customers' interests that are paramount that increasingly customers are using other facilities, mobile apps. The Royal Bank have informed me that more than 2.1 million customers use the RBS mobile app per week with more than 50 per cent of customers actively using mobile phone and online banking but this is interesting that they expect that 4 million customers will be using that by the end of 2014. In other words this is a rapidly changing scenario. The uptake of online mobile facilities is massively increasing and at the same time the use of traditional bank branches is massively reducing. This is the reality and I think that most if not all members recognise that this means that as customer practice changes so inevitably difficult decisions will have to be made. With regard to the three particular branches I understand that the decline in transactions since 2011 have been 16, 22 and 25 per cent respectively at Armadale, Fault House and Hart Hill. One point was made that I'm going to pursue with the Royal Bank of Scotland. I think it was Mr Finlay that raised it suggesting that the percentage reduction in footfall was somewhat less than in other branches which hadn't suffered closure. I will specifically write to the Royal Bank after this debate to get an answer to Mr Finlay on that point. I think that points made by members in this chamber of that nature deserve to be answered by the Royal Bank. I'm not here as a critic or defender of the Royal Bank but I am here to answer questions and to ensure that this Parliament and elected representatives get responses. I'm happy to give way to Mr Pentland if I have him. Thank you minister. Would the minister agree with me and Mr Henry that if the asset is being considered for the community that he would insist the Royal Bank takes on board the public priority as opposed to that of the private priority? I am strongly of the view that the Royal Bank must consider the interests of its customers, the community and its staff in all of those matters. We take that very seriously. I think that the point is well made. I would also like to say and not shirk this point with regard to bankers' bonuses that I think in Scotland and the UK this is one of the topics which most irks the public. It's existed for several years now and I do not think the public feel there has been a satisfactory response. Quite what that response is of course is a legitimate matter of debate but my personal view is that as long as it remains apparently unresolved then the rehabilitation of the reputation of banks will be a difficult task. In conclusion, the Scottish Government engaged with the Royal Bank of Scotland. We have met Mr Swinney, the Deputy First Minister and other colleagues, obviously engaged in all sorts of matters with the Royal Bank. We have raised the issue of branch closures with them at these meetings over the piece. We welcome the alternative investment in mobile fan branches. We welcome some of the alternatives that the Royal Bank is coming up with. We welcome the increased use of post offices as an alternative location. We are pleased that the bank is engaging in consultation. I will raise points as I have undertaken to members following this debate on specific matters as to how those are raised. Presiding Officer, I am determined to continue to engage closely with all the main banks in Scotland as they seek to implement fundamental change to seek to restore customer trust and confidence. Many thanks. I now suspend this meeting of Parliament until 2.30.


This is Dennis McMahon and welcome to Positively Vermont and today our special guest is Elizabeth Ehlers, the director of Lake Champlain International, which is a very important and very fascinating project and operation that we're going to explore. And hopefully you will get a chance to participate in. Welcome, Liz. Thank you very much for having me. Now I want to start out with just telling us a little bit about yourself. So I was born and raised in Panama City, Florida. When I graduated from college in 2000.  And I never really left. That's great. And tell us a little bit about Lake Champlain International what is it and what it does and we'll go into some of the history but just give us an overview of the organization. Sure. So Lake Champlain International is a federally recognized 501 C3 nonprofit. And our, you know, our state admission is a swimmable fishable drinkable Lake Champlain. And can you tell us a little bit about the lake itself, you know, it's geography, it's scope, it's maybe a little bit of its history and importance to the region, and maybe even the continent. Sure. So Lake Champlain, you know, really is a huge asset to, you know, both New York and Vermont, as well as Canada is not only a source of drinking water for several communities. But it's also, you know, one of the most outstanding fisheries for sport fishing and provides an amazing source of recreation for all who enjoy it. And this actually Lake Champlain International started with a fishing there. What do you use. So in 1982. There was a bill Jacobus here was a South Burlington resident and avid fisherman partnered with the Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce and pitched the idea of organizing and hosting a fishing derby with the express goal of stimulating economic activity and tourism in the area. You know, there, their main focus was more on the cold water fishery Lake trout and Atlantic salmon. And since you know the derby has expanded over the years to now we include both warm water and cool water species. You know, there's 11 eligible species and all for our father's day derby. What is that abbreviation you just said categories for eligible. Oh, cold water and cool water. Yeah. Yeah, so it's, it's how we sort of subdivide the different species of fish and Lake Champlain. You have cold cool and warm. It's like run is it is it cold or is it warm or what is it. Well I don't I don't know how far we want to get into into the lake ecosystem. But you know it's it's an incredibly diverse habitat. You know you have areas in our base outer base. I mean it's just there there really is is something for whatever interest in anger might have. Right. Of course we have champ living there somewhere. Yeah there's there's that too. So one of the things you told me about before today was what the lake Champlain international does about education and advocacy. So tell us a little bit about what that aspect of the group is. Sure. So the organization has sort of evolved over the years. As I previously mentioned it really was, was founded with the goal of economic activity and tourism and while that still is a big part of our goal to this day. We also tried to expand and realize that, you know, as an organization. We have a duty, a mission to help protect and restore the lake as well. So we, you know we approach it and several ways. Education is is a big part going into classrooms, going to trade shows and connecting with with youth who may or may not have ever been exposed to fishing. You know it's, it's a big goal of ours, because the sporting community historically you know they're some of the most important and avid conservators of the natural resources that they enjoy. So when you sort of create a solid foundation of a sporting community, they really take it on as their own personal mission as well to protect that resource. We do a fishing pole loan program for folks who maybe have never fished maybe it's been years and they can come to us we'll we'll outfit them with with what they need to go give it a try. We do presentations to other organizations chambers of commerce civic groups, just to, you know, highlight the opportunities available on Lake Champlain, but also to, to keep a spotlight on on the issues that are facing like Champlain which, you know unfortunate. They're there quite a few. I was going to ask you about this blue program, what is that ELUE and all caps, what is that about. Yeah. So, that was the program was the brain child of James James colors and he saw a big opportunity for education and grassroots action on behalf of homeowners that you know you sort of have point sources of pollution like we all, you know, have seen the pictures of wastewater overflows and culverts you know jumping into Lake Champlain but we also have to remember. We have all of these non point sources these, you know, homes with like a fertilize excessive fertilizers being used or maybe it's just it's simple things where we can go to the property and do an evaluation and make suggestions of just easy things that any homeowner can do whether it be installing a rain barrel so that they can catch rainwater and use it for watering outside redirecting downspouts, you know that's a small thing that can make a big difference in the runoff from a property. Building rain gardens where you know you can sort of plant specific species of plants that can better trap that rainwater and utilize it versus having it runoff runoff of the you know your property and then through the streets where you know it enters our watershed. I understand people can get an evaluation for free from your group. But that is correct yet and we have that information up on our website if anyone is interested, and also believe it's Burlington and Williston currently are offering rebates you know in the neighborhood of a couple hundred dollars to help offset the cost for the homeowner of implementing some of the recommended changes. I'm putting this in the middle of November and some many of the events have already passed, but I understand you have a few events that you have annually such as a wild game dinner and fishing, fish cooking class and fish trips involving restaurant local legislators want to tell us about some of those. So our flagship event that sort of started it all is the Father's Day Derby and in 2021 we celebrated our 40th Father's Day Derby, and it's a three day event it runs Saturday through Monday covers, you know, all of Lake Champlain. We have 13 way stations on both the Vermont and New York sides of the lake and it's our main fundraiser for our organization. We draw about 5500 anglers at last count, you know they come from about 38 different states. And it just you know it's it really it's my favorite time of year, obviously it's a very busy time of year. But I just one of the best parts of my job is hearing the stories from the families who, you know, a father who started fishing it when he was just a kid and they you know it's a family tradition now and they have their own children that they're moving into the Father's Day Derby and you'll get three or four generations all fishing together and it's, you know, yes we do give out a significant amount of cash and prizes you know in the neighborhood of $150,000. And for the vast majority of our, of our participants that's, that's not really the motivation. The motivation is really the tradition and spending three days together, you know outfishing, if they catch a winter great if not, you know it's, it's still, it's still a win in their book. It's a little angler's Derby so that started as she's sort of a way to give the feeling of being involved in the Father's Day Derby for younger kids who maybe don't have an adult to take them out for the three days. But it's a free event and Cheryl Dunkling over at Ray Seafood. She's sort of taken it on as, as her pet project and she organizes it every year she makes sure that that every kid leaves with a free fishing pole, and it's just, you know, the last couple of Shaw Supermarkets has come on and they provide refreshments and it's just, it's a great little one day event, you know, there's certainly no monsters weighed in, or we're usually in the, in the hundreds of the pounds for the entries. It's just, it's a really special free event for the kids. Our bass open. So, you know, a lot of times when people think of competitive bass fishing, the focus tends to be more down south and a lot of people are surprised to realize that Lake Champlain is really a premier bass fishing destination. We offer an event with two, two person teams. It's a one day event, and it's, it's, it's great. Again, it just it really highlights the, the premier bass fishing that we have at our, at our resource. And the last one the Champlain Basin Derby, that really was created to offer year round fishing opportunities and to promote more like hard water fall and spring fishing because, you know, with the Father's Day Derby that obviously is, is in June, but we just want to make sure that people know that, you know, Lake Champlain is it's a year round destination. You know, I said Lake Champlain, but I'm going to clarify. So the Champlain Basin, it's open to any public and legal bodies of water in the Champlain Basin, which is, you know, a significant area. You know, we're able to pull in Lake George Lake Placid Lake bomb is in a lot of like the trout fishing streams for for those anglers that prefer that. There's a huge bit of territory there. Yes, yes it is. That's excellent. And one of the things that we like to ask about here on positively the month are some of the issues that you are concerned about, you know, with the, the legislature coming up and and various legislatures I suppose and and also elected officials who often watch what are some of the hot issues that's kind of funny with the lake but what are some of the hot issues that you're concerned about right now. Sure. Well, I think that we all unfortunately have seen over the past few years. The number of blue green algae blooms on Lake Champlain just seems to be getting worse more numerous each year they're starting earlier in the season they're lasting later into the fall. And it really poses a very serious health impact to those who come in contact with those blooms. You know, one of the things that that we've been working on, along with a PhD out of Dartmouth Hitchcock Elijah Stommel is creating an ALS registry Lou Gehrig's disease, because it's it's his. It's his theory that there is a connection between ALS and exposure to blue green algae so that that was a win this past year of the legislature agreeing to start that registry. So we hope that will really aid Dr. Stommel and his work and showing if there is a connection or not.  And there can be, you know, there can be sort of two different scenarios, you know, we have to acknowledge that our infrastructure it's aging it's failing it was never meant to handle what we're asking of it. And, you know, obviously like we hear it in the in the national news, quite a bit, but it's, it's a big issue in Vermont. You know, the original storm systems. It was designed in a way where both sewage and storm water are being moved through the same underground pipe system. And, you know, what you would want is to have those separated because when we get these heavy rainstorms. Sometimes they're getting overwhelmed. And, you know, sometimes the wastewater plan operators have to make the difficult difficult decision. You know, do they, you know, open the valve so to speak and allow that untreated water to go straight into Lake Champlain or sometimes it's tributaries. Like if they don't make that decision though we're going to have all of that waste backing up into into people's homes. So I understand the difficult position that they're being put in and having to, you know, sort of find a way to work with this this failing system the best way that they can. You know, and that and that really, like, just like on the federal level, it's, it's an issue of money. I mean, it's, it's a huge expense to be able to make those upgrades. And what about the heritage aspects of getting people interested in the maritime with the late Champlain heritage aspects. Yeah. So for us, that that a lot of that comes back to the father's day derby and our other events. You know, I, I understand. I understand, you know, some people are not big fans of competitive fishing and I am sensitive to the fact that during the three days of the father's day derby, you know, most access areas in the state are quite full. I don't know much for that. But, you know, being able to offer that that three days where, you know, it's just it's fun, it's, and making sure that that people, you know, can just come out, take time off work take, take the kids away from the screen time and just, you know, be out on the water together. And I think that when people get those positive associations and those and those fond memories that it's something that they want to keep passing on to future generations. Well, having piqued the interest of our viewers. This is a very important aspect of every positively Vermont show. That's how can people help. What do you need from the viewers from the general public from legislators. How can people help late international and your good work. Well, thank you. Thank you for that. I think sometimes people under underestimate the amount of power each individual voice has. And, and we've seen, you know, time and time again, where when people individuals voters time to to pick up the phone call their and write them an email like that really does make a difference and I think sometimes we we get that defeatist attitude that it feels like we're just screaming into the wind but I can tell you it, it can move thing then as quickly as we would like, but please do that. Also, go fishing. If you don't even if you don't want to go fishing by a fishing license because a big portion of fishing license sales go right back into fisheries restoration and the great work that the Fish and Wildlife Department does in their as a volunteer to help out at one of our events. You know, the Father's Day Derby it's it's a huge undertaking and it wouldn't be possible without the volunteers that help and you need and there's no, there's no requirement or experience or knowledge for fishing we have several different roles. We help out the event, and also donate. You know, where we happily accept donations through our website or by mail. And that just, it helps support our year round efforts to continue the work that we started. And a good summary of how people can get involved. And the events such as the fishing derby now being scheduled for 2022. Yeah, you know, they were coming into to really our busiest time of year, which sometimes surprises people but as soon as we close the books on on one year's events, you know, we immediately have to start planning for the for the next year. You know, securing sponsorships going to trade shows making sure that that people know about us know about the opportunities you know not just through through our events, but just what what we have available on Lake Champlain. All right. Well, this has been very interesting and I want to thank Liz Ehlers, Elizabeth Ehlers commonly known as Liz, the director of Lake Champlain International. And we're going to publish the website information and she's available to talk to you or your group or anyone else about this rather fascinating topic. If you want to look out the window and you're probably going to see Lake Champlain, perhaps or one of its many waterways in the in its basin so this is really applies to just about everybody in the state and the region. This has been very fascinating. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks Liz and we'll get back to you in a while for progress report as the year moves on. Thank you. Thank you Dennis. This has been Dennis McMahon for positively Vermont. My guest has been Elizabeth Ehlers, director of Lake Champlain International. Thank you for watching.


What is my personality? A plus, that's an A plus. Yeah, your personality is correct. Like, because your personality is correct. Well done, it's not defective, you can keep it. It doesn't need to go into the store for repair. Who are you and why? Yes, very well, thank you for asking. I am Monica and because I can be, somebody has to be, so it can only be me. That's a good answer. We're happy with that. Ah, one deep. What do you talk about? What is your plan for IO to... What sounds are you going to make on stage here? Mouth sounds. Mouth sounds? That's good, because I tried a different way. Did not go well. Not a popular session I've heard. I am making mouth sounds about the PWA starter kit. So my team has been building this awesome bunch of templates that you can use and you can pick them up and you can build a PWA. And we try to do most of the heavy lifting for you so that you don't have to. So this is a kind of similar tool to, like, a yeoman or, like, pre-axialized, that sort of similar sort of thing. That was possible already. So we looked at a whole bunch of CLIs and we saw what they were doing and we tried to... And your teams did the wrong. Well, a lot of them deal with starting up with a framework, whereas, like, starting up with a PWA is a little bit different, because what you're trying to do is make, like, a fairly framework-agnostic, sort of, like, work with everything of PWAs. So ours tries to use things off the shelf. So we have Redux for state management. We then, like, invent our own. We're using LitElement and LitHTML for, like, the rendering. It sounds like a framework. Yeah, a bit a little bit. It's, like, 2K. You find me a framework that's 2K. It's not a framework. So I've heard this Redux thing. Redux. Redux? Redux. Redux. I've heard that word a lot. Yeah. I still don't know what it is. I always say, like, it's, like, flux-Redux and react-Redux, like, but it's always in there, but I don't know what it is. It's a tiny state container. It's, like, a very glorified Q-value store. And it has a whole bunch of patterns. What you can do and can't do with your data. The whole point being, like, there's one source of truth. Only this store has access to your data. So that's the thing where you, like, connect your elements to it, and they get updates when something changes. Yeah. An element can, like, care about data getting updated or, like, wants to communicate the data needs to be updated, but can never, like, just poke at the data. Because that's gross. But that's what it was a React thing, right? Redux is a... No! Redux is a framework agnostic, view-independent. Shh. Think of it, James. Oh, you've practiced this. You've practiced this. I do. I have a slide. I have it in the palace of my mind. Oh, OK. So, yeah, so you can work with any framework as a data source? Yeah, which is why it's really popular, because you can just jam in and do anything.   I did. Like, that's the thing. What is... You haven't heard of it, Jay. God, it's already, like, two days old.  HTML templates in JavaScript, and it's super fast, because it's super optimal about how it re-renders them and stuff like that. And lit elements... It's like the little value bindings. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And lit-element does the same thing, where we took lit-html and took all of that rendering logic and put it in a custom element-based class. So, it has, you know, things that you're familiar with.  And other, like, tiny little helpers, like, life-cycle helpers that you might need in a custom element. What I know from problems, like, always, like, individual tiny little helpers, or whatever, use everything, buy everything all at once. It seems like something that you're too familiar with. And now we can, like, get rid of a lot of what, like, Polymer One used to have, because four browsers almost have custom elements. So, yeah, what is the status in terms of that? Because I just had to say, you know, my project, ServiceWorker, has just shipped in all browsers. So, where are we with your projects? I was at IE11 doing it. Oh, yeah, okay. IE11. IE11 doesn't have it. So, we have Chrome. We have Safari. Good. We have custom elements in Firefox behind a flag, and I've heard ChatterDom is very close. Oh. Okay. Rumors. And that is the end. Good one. I mean, and, like, probably Opera End. Oh, because, yeah. All the Chrome. Yeah, all the Chrome. Yeah. We do not have Edge. We have Interest from Edge, but not Implementation from Edge. What's the state of polyfills there? I mean, people wanted to use this stuff today. They exist. Good. That makes it for a long time. Right? Yeah, so polyfills have existed for a long time. We've been up, we've updated the polyfills to work with modules now that HTML imports are kind of on the dying end. So, we've switched to using modules for everything, and the polyfills also work with modules and don't try to import HTML imports and stuff like that. So, with the HTML imports, that would have your, like, your styles in there and then the definitions for your custom elements. Yeah. How does that look in a module world? So, in a module world, all of that looks together, but in a giant, you know, template JavaScript literal. Oh. This is what a template literal looks like. I mean, yeah, with little HTML, it makes sense because you already have your markup in an HTML template tag string literal. Yeah. Anyway, so it can just add some styles. Yeah. Yeah. Put the markup in there. So, we have the Shadydom to work with that so you can, like, you can have a module that exports a style known with all its goodness and, like, import it as a squiggle inside of your render function. I think that's actually proper keyword. It's a squiggle. What do you call the squiggles? Curly braces? Yeah, squiggles. Yeah, squiggles. Import it with a squiggle. I like that. That's, like, import it with a squiggle. That's your new tagline for Polymer. Thank you. Oh, yeah, that's good. So, like, I've been doing some work with web components recently, and my feeling is, like, the polyfill for, like, straight-up custom elements is super light and small and great and everything's happy. And my feeling is, like, with the Shadydom polyfills... Yeah, it turns out reinventing the DOM in JavaScript is kind of really hard. Who saw that coming? It's not an easy problem, yeah. It's not an easy problem. And the problem is, is not really the DOM, it's the CSS parser and telling... Telling CSS that it needs to update and run some styles when things update. So that's what makes it hard. So if you're using all of them together, it's very easy because you get a callback when all of them have rendered and then... But mostly you have to, like, take a template and be like, hey, Shady, DOM and CSS, here's the template, do your thing so that you can vibe it with magic so that it works later. If we're building stuff now, you know, with the hope of it sort of being there in the future where all browsers are sporting these web components things, should people be sort of avoiding Shadow DOM for now? No, I like it. We should go all in on Shadow DOM? Shadow DOM is very good if you need Shadow DOM. Shadow DOM gives you encapsulation.   I like it if, you know, Shadow DOM, it's there if you need it. That's a very wholesome tagline.  You don't want anybody like poke and prod and it'd be like, your shade of blue is slightly incorrect, I'll just add my 14th shade of blue to this application, right? You want Shadow DOM for that. But if you're building like the top view of an application, maybe you want something like a jQuery plug-in to work in there, maybe that's not gonna work with Shadow DOM, maybe that's a thing that you don't want encapsulation for. So they, I tried to build a web component of like doing syntax highlighting. Yeah. So just an element, put your code in, this syntax highlights it. And it felt like Shadow DOM was a good choice there because it's gonna hide all of those extra elements that I needed to do that syntax highlighting. Yeah. But I was worried about like, are the amount of like extra polyfilm gonna need to do that? Also, how do I get user styling in there if they wanted to change this?  Ready. I'm not, no, I'm not ready. Are you ready? Are you ready? Yeah, I'm ready. Okay. There's a new spec, I'm very excited about it. It's called part and theme and it basically works how? Part and theme. Part and theme. Okay. They come together as a couple. They come as cousins. As a couple? Oh gosh. No, this is sounding really bad already. So there are a couple, there are cousins. No. And this is something we all want? No. I think we shouldn't shame them.  No, so part is basically, when you're building a custom element, it lets you like specify little divs that you might or like little elements that a user might wanna style and you put a part on them and you give them a name. Say if you're an input element, you would call them a WebKit placeholder or WebKit spinner up and WebKit spinner down. Those are basically the parts that input exposes for styling. So then you could do this too as a custom element and you'd be like, these are the best that you can style and then you can like use them.  So the fun fact is that we invited you to the CSS working group because of these two new things. Yes. And then we didn't talk about them. Correct. But then I learned how layouting works, so it's fine. You're also a member of the emoji committee. And that's something where we actually know what's going on. Subcommittee, thank you. Emoji subcommittee. Sorry. Yeah. So how is there no shark emoji but there is a dinosaur emoji? Do you know how much people have whined for the dinosaur emoji? Do you know what you've asked for the dinosaur emoji? No, I don't. But it's not a real animal. I mean, it's a real one. It doesn't exist anymore while a shark. There's floppy disks and they don't exist anymore. That's art. Oh. Emoji get accepted based on how many people, it's not necessarily how many people request them, but how popular that concept is. OK. And if you search for dinosaur on Google, you will find a bunch of results because a lot of people talk about dinosaurs. And when you're trying to take somebody, you would like a representation of a dinosaur. I agree that shark should also be there. Maybe nobody proposed it. Is that what we're saying? Is that dinosaurs are more popular than sharks? I can get behind that statement. This feels a lot like Shark Week and I am uncomfortable with the statement. On behalf of all sharks out there, maybe nobody proposed a shark. We don't propose emoji. People propose emoji. We just review them. So can we get like an H2B2 or free emoji? What's the process? How do we start that? And what characters would you have to combine? So first, we need to get to Serma and Jake emoji. I'm with Zero with Joiner. Oh my God, you guys, there is this emoji. This emoji exists. It's like the two bunny boys. There were like the two bunny girls and now there's the two bunny boys. Oh, I thought for me it would have to be the boy emoji and then the white color and then the white color and then the white color and the white color again. And then it'd be like, that's Jake. Shockingly, your shade of white is not on the Fitzbastier scale quite yet. We need to invent a new color space, I think, for whatever's after HDR. The reflective color space. We've had to do all sorts of gymnastics with covers to stop me just kind of exploding the camera. Yeah, they paid no attention to Serma and I and they're like set up lighting for you for 45 minutes. Otherwise, he's just a reflector. I become lighter because the sun reflects off his face. Yeah, I burn some light bulbs in my kitchen if you want to just come hang out there. We're going to link to your talk in the show notes which you haven't given yet, but we're... It's going to be great. How will your audience have reacted by the point you've given your talk? It's going to be amazing. Best talk ever. No talking comes second to it.


Very bad. The question is if you have a massage and you get oil in your skin, everything you put in your skin goes into your bloodstream. And in the bloodstream it'll act like oil than fat, okay? That goes not just for massage, oil it goes for cosmetics, it goes for creams and ointments, it goes for seawater, it goes for fluoridated water, it's on the skin that goes into the bloodstream. And the regular rule, and this goes straight across the line, is very simple. If you wouldn't eat it, don't put it on your skin. That goes for cosmetics and under ambiodurants and goes for lipstick and everything else. Okay, yes.


Hey, everyone, welcome back to Nintendo Prime. It feels really good to be back in our studio, even though it was a hell of a vacation for those who don't know. I've been gone the entire last week on vacation. Me and my fiancee went on a four or five day cruise. It was it was really, really relaxed and really great. We did come home to our basement flooded, including our studio because our hot water heater burst. But, you know, life is what it is. As you can see, I'm alive and kicking and our house didn't burn down, even though it almost did. So we talked about that last night on a stream. Don't really feel like revisiting it. So let's revisit the actual news today. We have some updates on the Nintendo Direct stuff, right? We've been talking about a rumored, a reported, a leaked, whatever you want to call it, you know, back the truckloads of salt up and all that. Put your tinfoil caps on. Look, the bottom line is I have no idea if we're getting another Nintendo Direct this month, right? We have the Xenobit Chronicles 3 Direct last week. And typically when we get that sort of direct, we don't get anything else. But Nintendo has been doing directs in June, every single year besides 2020 when there was no E3. There also was no E3 this year. And here we are towards the end of June. And we still don't have a general Nintendo Direct. So there's been a lot of rumors around us, a lot of reports from different media outlets. Alana Pierce said the next direct would be on the 29th. Nate, the Haysman saying 28th, 29th, depends on your time zone. But we won't specify which direct it is, well, until yesterday. And then we have Video Game Chronicle, Tom Henderson saying, hey, there would be something that kind of backing off it. It's been a really weird, weird ride. However, here's what's not so weird about this ride. Well, how about the fact that we now possibly know what this direct is? And we know some possible games in this direct. Now, Nate, the hate mentioned the other day a few days ago, that there would be, well, Mario plus Rabbids Kingdom Metal News next week. OK, that would make sense to our Kingdom Metal Sparks of Hope. Mario plus Rabbids Sparks of Hope News next week. And that would make a lot of sense to actually appear in Nintendo Direct 2022 game.  Yeah, we need a date for that. But you mentioned it wasn't so sure about Bayonetta 3. Maybe Bayonetta 3 would be there. Maybe not, hasn't really heard anything. But it would make sense that Bayonetta 3 there. But what do you say today? And I have the treats littered up right in front of me here. Well, this yesterday, he said, to my understanding, it's a direct mini partner and its main focus will be third party that doesn't mean Nintendo will have no presence. They've had some presence in prior partners just in a limited capacity. And I obviously find that to be interesting comments because, you know, they really haven't had a presence in the partner ones. That's usually the big complaint is that Nintendo doesn't have a sort of presence. He does clarify later on the family board forums that what he means by presence is there could be like Nintendo published games that are made by third party companies. That would be Bayonetta 3, right? Like Bayonetta 3 is a game made by Platinum where the IP itself is owned by Sega, but Nintendo owns the publishing rights to Bayonetta 2 and Bayonetta 3. So that would be an example of a partner game. And I think that's the sort of games he's trying to set up our expectations for us. We might not hear about Nintendo first party. So don't know Breath of the Wild 2, Null Splatoon 3, stuff like that. But we could hear about new partner games coming from other companies. And this is where we get to a report that I popped up on Video Game Chronicle yesterday where they have a source on this that's from an interesting place. It's an actual journalist, but it's weird. So let's just read the exact quotes. So according to an experienced journalist named Nacho Requina and I'm probably butchering the name that our editor of a Spanish games magazine called Manuel told viewers during a Twitch stream on Friday that he even told to expect new announcements from major publishers. I quote, here's exact quotes as translated by Video Game Chronicles. If this translation is bad, I apologize. I don't speak the native tongue of Spanish. We should have a Nintendo Direct this coming Tuesday. Tuesday would be the 28th. Requina said during the live stream and this was translated by Video Game Chronicle. This will be mainly focused on third party games. That's what I've been told to expect. I've also been told that some persona game will be present. Remember we just had three, four and five announced for the Xbox. So, hey, are we gonna get three, four and five for Switch? Maybe. I've also been told there will be another game that's been available for some time on other platforms and it's been available for four years now. Some people are pointing to Red Dead Redemption 2, Video Game Chronicle does as well. Video Game Chronicle then goes on to basically assume that this is gonna be a Nintendo Direct mini partner showcase. Which, by the way, we got like three of those in 2020. People tend to not like them because they wanted first party stuff. Thing is we know some first party games coming. We know Breath of Wild 2's in early 2023. Pokemon does its own thing. So they're gonna, you know, we had a new trailer to be in this month for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. So I think it's gonna be a bit before we hear about that again. We obviously just had a Direct for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 that comes out next month. Live Alive would be a partner game that would probably show up in a Direct like this. Splatoon 3, you know, will probably once they get into August, we'll probably start hearing a lot of news about Splatoon 3. So Nintendo's got a pretty decent lineup the rest of this year as is. And if you could fill it in with partner games like Bayonetta 3, the Persona releases maybe, maybe apparently a port of a four-year-old game that's a really, really big game, that could really fit the bill as well. So you throw all that together and hey, it ends up being a pretty solid lineup the rest of the year. Obviously, multi-platform games, you know, Nintendo isn't really the system you buy if you care a ton about multi-platform games. It's a system you buy if you want indie games on the go which you can also get a Steam Deck for that. And you get it to enjoy Nintendo stuff. That's mainly the gist of it. There was an appeal for a little bit of third-party games on the go but technically that's better on Steam Deck even though Steam Deck's really hard to get. So Nintendo's appeal is really their own stuff and maybe some really cool indies like Fall Guys being free to play on Switch now. And I believe the servers for Fall Guys are working now. Quote me on that. Also, by the way, remember Mario Striker's Battle League? Well, I haven't dived into the club stuff yet but hey, our club was number one ranked in our division as of like yesterday.  So Nintendo's got games. We just had Fire Emblem Warriors, three-hove Strop. I currently am installing it. It's actually installing on my Switch right now. So we'll be checking that out eventually here as well and seeing if that holds up and if that's even better than the first Fire Emblem Warriors which the gameplay was fine in that game but the story really wasn't too great. This one being tied to three houses I think makes a difference. So look, what I'm basically trying to get at here is maybe this is just a temporary of expectations. No one is confirming 100% that it's going to be a direct mini partner besides Nate the Hater. And by the way, he doesn't know that they're calling it a direct mini partner just that it's to have that sort of expectation, right? Expect this direct to be focused on third party games including things that could be like Bayonetta 3, Sparks of Hope, which by the way, Nate the Hater won this and we're getting Sparks of Hope news next week. Like that's like, that's happening. So at least according to them, I obviously have no sources on any of this. I'm hyper reliant on these insiders and I do want to end this talk briefly. Briefly, by talking about covering rumors and covering inside information from supposed insiders, I understand that there are a group of you out there, I see you guys in the comments that really don't enjoy these kind of videos. And to that I understand covering rumors, talking about rumors, speculating, debating and having conversations about what may come, doesn't excite everyone. Like talking about this kind of stuff doesn't get everyone's brain churning in the way that it does for me. I really, really enjoy the conversation and the speculation and the reporting around all of this stuff. Even if it ends up not being true, which is unfortunate, say all the Switch Pro stuff last year, I still enjoyed the journey, the ride, the conversations, the debates, the deep dives and the different hardware possibilities last year. Like I enjoyed all of that, even if in the end we ended up not getting what we hoped. And I know because a lot of people feel burned by the Switch Pro stuff that suddenly, they're like, I'm just kind of tired of all this. It's weird because we have this same speculation, hype and rumors around the last Nintendo Direct that did happen back in February and people weren't really complaining then. We had a lot of this hype and speculation, by the way, around the Switch Lite and hey, that ended up being completely true. So it's interesting watching this ebb and flow of, I think so many people bought into Switch Pro last year that they feel so burned that they're tired of these speculative conversations around possible things happening from supposed insiders like Nate the hate who told us that Switch Pro was happening last year. So this is one of those things where I feel like people are just emotionally exhausted when it comes to this kind of stuff. Personally, I've been covering rumors guys for 20 plus years. This isn't new to me.  I'm cool with that. I don't even find it an insult like some of you guys do. I don't cover just rumors. I know this feels weird, back to back videos covering rumors. I have an upcoming video that's actually dealing with something else. I had four videos in this last week that dealt with completely different things that weren't based on rumors. They were conversation pieces we had and one legit news story and they're about a cancer patient. So I cover a wide variety of stuff. I just haven't been back to covering prime news where I'm slamming five, six stories into a video because I've been having prime gaming fest this month and then obviously I went into vacation. So putting those episodes together takes up a large chunk of time that I had to spend on other things at the channel or on my vacation. That all being said, what I can tell you right now is my next video isn't gonna be about this kind of thing. It's actually gonna be talking about something semi-related, although it's not just about rumors and that is clickbait. I wanna have an open conversation on clickbait. I've had a conversation on this before and I wanna do a further one, a specific YouTube channel that many people detest for it. Did a video on it and I've watched and I feel like I have something to add because obviously I'm accused of it all the time. I'm probably being accused of it on this very video. And I'll just talk about the ebb and flow of how all that works, all right? That's all. So I wanna thank you guys so much for tuning in. I hope you really enjoyed this video. Let me know your thoughts on what you expect to see in this showcase. If I get sparks of hope, I'm happy.  Nate, the hate says it's coming. I got no reason to doubt it. He's pretty firm on it and I haven't heard Emily Rogers, maybe the only insider I trust more, really refute that because Emily Rogers leaked the original Mario plus Rabbids Kingdom Battle and has backed up Nate saying that he's legit and real and has sources and is a good dude. And for my little interactions with Nate, I can confer he's a pretty good dude. So thank you guys so much for tuning in. I am Nathaniel Rufflejans from Nintendo Prime and I will catch you guys in that next video which I don't know, so I might be dropping later today.


I'm the green juice girl. I'm telling you this stuff will get you right Hey girl, what's popping welcome back to another video for today's video is gonna be me Showing y'all everything that I eat to the supplements that I take for Me getting ready for surgery and also a lot of people have a lot of questions on what I've been consuming and eating to you Know help my body recover for from you know I just want to show you everything that I do cuz y'all been asking so I'm like, okay. I got you y'all I'm always thinking about y'all so yeah, I never did one of these videos before so just bear with me. Okay, so If you're new here, hey girl, my name is Kyra and don't forget to like comment and subscribe Because we feeling it right in this video because I really just want I know it's quarantine right now Everybody is like, you know They just trying to manage their weight. Okay, and I'm trying to manage mine because you know, I'm about to you know Do my procedure just try to maintain a healthy lifestyle Even if we're in quarantine, you know, it's hard to maintain But still doable cuz summer bodies aren't over summer bodies aren't canceled baby. Okay, they're not so don't think that So yeah, hopefully this video will help you out motivate y'all to stay on y'all ish Okay, period take our supplements and all that eat right because girl It's gonna be so beneficial for your hair skin and nails. I swear to you Okay, just to you know consume the nutrients that you need for your body, you know, I'm saying I wouldn't steal y'all wrong Okay, so yeah, you know So anyway, let me just make my way to the kitchen and we'll start cuz we're gonna start with dinner. It's nighttime right now It looks like it's about time. It's stormy right now, but But yeah, it's about six o'clock.  I'm starving. Okay, you're So y'all like I just told y'all upstairs I am about to be making my dinner and my dinner to look on show and my dinner tonight is gonna be this freshly Meal, it's the sausage baked penne penne means noodles And I've been eating these for the last week now y'all these are the best meals They're filled with nutrients and their chef made and girl to top it off It only takes three minutes and I microwave three minutes. They're so good I'm telling you it's so easy and I don't like to cook and it saves me a lot of time So yeah, girl wave and thank you freshly for sponsoring this video And this is so convenient for me because as y'all may know I'm not leaving the house So it's so convenient for me to receive these meals right to my door It's gonna come right to your door girl and then also with freshly They are made for the refrigerator and I really don't like freezer stored food because you can have that you know That nasty freezer burn taste and these meals last up to a week So I'm about to make this right now So like I said, it only takes three minutes Help some hoes and this is how it looks Also on the website you can look at the meals. Obviously there's pictures alternative stuff for like Noodles they have like a cauliflower pasta, which I like personally I had that already And then also what I like about freshly is that it's not a lot of processed foods So it's more nutrients and you know it's chef made So that's what I really like about it and once you warm it up, it tastes fresh So you are gonna be able to get freshly as well All you need to do is click the link down below and you'll get $30 off for your first two weeks So which is $15 off for one week and then $15 off for another week totaling $30 off Only be spending $7.99 to $11.50 per week So that is a good deal baby and yeah, so you need to hop right on it. These bills are so good I'm telling you I'm telling you so like I said, I know a lot of us are all busy and stuff It's gonna be easy to have these meals. All you need to do use my link. They'll come right to your door Girl, it only takes three minutes. I'm telling you so easy to maintain a healthy lifestyle with the help of freshly I Can't wait. I'm so excited. I can't wait to eat. I can't wait to eat. I can't wait to eat It's done Y'all look at how good this pasta looks. Okay, and like I said, it only takes three minutes So yeah, so like I said, all you need to do is click the link down below So you can place your order and then you'll get what $15 off for one week and $15 off for another week Totaling $30 off for your order. So yeah girl go ahead and enjoy freshly and the meals are Bomb so you won't be steered wrong when you're choosing freshly because they have so many choices and Yes, so I'm full of nutrients to everything that you need So I am about to enjoy this and this is what I've been having for dinner for the last Week, so this is what I've been having for dinner for the last week now Like I said, I've been eating the noodles the cauliflower noodles so good If you like cauliflower like me, you'll like that meal So yeah, and they have a bunch of other stuff too. So Yeah, so I'm about to eat this and I will see y'all For lunchtime because like I said, we're gonna go in reverse We're gonna do dinner now then lunch and then breakfast. Oh, yeah, so I will see y'all So it's a lunch time right now cuz girl. I'd be in these We having to have a snack. Okay, period like there is no if answer, but I'd be hungry So I'm just gonna make a little salad and my favorite salad is the Greek salad. I love a Greek type of salad It's I love a Greek salad. I love the Greek salad at Panera bread is so good. You got to get it with extra olives girl Clamata, I love they're like purple and They're seedless, but girl to save some money and for me, you know Being able to I don't want to keep going to Panera bread every day because I can literally eat a Greek salad every day But I normally like to have these for like with my little lunches or stuff like that so I'm about to make them. So I'm gonna be using the spring mix salad mix from Whole Foods And I've been trying to recreate Stuff because I don't want to have to keep going out And you know, I just want to do my own stuff at home just a little bit of spring mix and then Greek salads just have a lot of flavor to them and I like a lot of flavor on my salad. So Yeah Kalamata good K-A-L-A-M-A-T-A You got to get these the seedless ones up because if you get the ones with seeds You can't really eat it So good. These my favorite all these y'all Mmm, I'm just gonna add those and then now I'm gonna put these These organic tomatoes. I'm gonna Cut them in half Y'all and I just been loving eating healthy because as you y'all know I had you know the stuff and It's really helped clear out that mucus in my throat if you have had it, you know Like there's mucus in your throat. So you really have to stick some veggies a lot of fruits Ginger all that because you can't really you got to stay away from stuff that's gonna cause mucus and girl I've been having coffee with draws like I haven't had coffee or nothing like that. So it's really been Messing me up, but it's okay because my body is now adjusting to you know healthier Foods so and then I'm just gonna add this better cheese from Whole Foods So good my god, this looks so good Girl I'm telling you I don't have Greek I don't have Greek dressing, but I like to use the out of garden light Italian is so good y'all This is so good. You can get it at Target. I haven't seen it anywhere else, but Target and I only do a light Drizzle because salad dressing y'all it can really get you look at how good this looks.  It's so easy That literally took me five minutes.  It's so good Mmm So good. Good morning y'all. So now we finna get into the breakfast. Excuse my eyes I think I had a allergic reaction last night But anyways, we're about to get into what I eat in the morning and the supplements that I take a cell Let me just sit y'all right here My eyes look crazy So I'm about to show y'all all the supplements that I made sorry excuse those But so I take the algeberry and then I take a multivitamin and then I take a probiotic and then I take a Seamoss pail the alkaline diet and then also the Soursop Pail so I will link all these down below and then also I drink vitamin C in the morning And this is all when I first wake up and then with these vitamins to you don't need to take them with food So you won't have to worry about being nauseous or anything like that. So yes, I'm about to take these And then also I'm going to take a ginger shot if you are not new here, you know, these are my favorite You can get these at Whole Foods. Um, this little wellness shot and then it's just a ginger shot Yeah So in this if you're not new here, this is my favorite water y'all my favorite But for the vitamin C to be mixed, I'm not gonna mix it in with this one. Just don't mix it in with the You know the little regular water. I need to know how my little juicy water on the side. So Yeah Y'all I swear I'm not the best pill taker.  I'm like, what's how? It's got take done taking those and like I said, I'll have them all In the description box below for y'all. I don't know why what happened to my eyes. So please excuse that I just don't Know I slept with some candles on next to my bed, but I don't think it was from that. So my eyes were crazy But okay, so now I'm about to make my green juice That I make in the morning So yeah, sometimes I'll alternate between tea and then like a green juice But today I'm gonna show y'all how I make my green juice for You know to put nutrients in your body and it's very important as of right now I have stuff everything going on just in general is overall health and plus. I'm still, you know, getting paired for my Procedure next month. So yeah, we're about to get into it So I'm about to show y'all everything that I put in the smoothie drink I guess you want to call it green drink. Well, these are all the greens. I'm gonna use which are Which is spinach cilantro Celery and then romaine lettuce and then I'm gonna throw in the apple and then some lemon and And then yeah, so this is what I like to drink mostly is greens But I add the fruit in there to like, you know Not make it taste like grass because I hate when you just don't taste like grass. It's just I just can't I just can't drink it But at the end of the day, I still need to get the greens that I need in my system So I had the little bit of fruit in there. So that's what I'm about to do and this is what I Used to make the juices the ninja. So I'm just gonna add the ingredients in here and then yeah So I'm about to drink this and you want to and the reason I do this early in the morning Is because you want to put fruits and veggies first in the morning Because it's better for your digestive system. That's why I do this first Before I eat any salad food so now I'm about to drink this and then I'm gonna wait 30 minutes and then I'm gonna make my Avocado toast because this does not fill me up This is just getting that what I need in my body in my system Before anything show. Yeah, I'm about to drink this and then girl we're gonna make avocado toast Like that's my fave if you're not new here if you are new here, you know Well, you should know the avocado toast is my ish Okay, so that's what we're about to get into so I'm about to enjoy this and hopefully if you guys Make this let me know how you like it. So Yeah, we're about to get into it So I'm also drink this and I'm gonna come back once we start making it. Oh my my eyes are kind of better now. I Think is that green juice that helped it? But anyway, so now it's time to get into avocado toast I'm excited. It's my favorite part. So obviously this is the last month of girl I've been throwing it down clearly. So I just use these Rudy's organic bakery English muffins I like it better on the English muffin now. I know I got that one bread from Whole Foods But you can get this from Whole Foods as well So yeah, and then I'm gonna be cooking or these are my favorite eggs These are from Whole Foods as well I'm gonna be making one fried egg And this is the seasoning that I like to use everything bagel I'm not gonna be wasting those times. It's gonna get right into it. Oh good. I'm low-key I'm probably gonna act on to make this for me like every day for breakfast for You know when I'm recovering cuz I'll just love This egg Y'all look how much of my Word news has gone away. I think it's just from the green juice girl.  I like to drink I've just been drinking a lot of juices y'all and that is from a Nutrition place out here where I live so yeah And then I like to just drink water throughout the day So yeah, so basically I'm just gonna end this video off And I hope you guys enjoyed this cuz I know y'all had a lot of questions on what supplements I'm taking what am I doing? She you know to get prepared And you know what nutrients I'm putting in my body because this all is beneficial for your overall health anyways for your skin hair Nails like even if you're not doing a procedure getting ready for you know BBL like me Um This is still good for your overall health. So I highly recommend it I know we have our days where we slack or whatever, but it's we're very very good I have like a little structure lifestyle diet Oh, yeah