Hello, everybody. Good morning, everybody. So we're ready to go. So thank you for coming this early. I hope everybody has their own coffees and ready to learn a little bit about the Battle of the Distros, which one is the better for my cloud. My name is Edgar Magana. I'm a principal engineer for Cisco. With me, my friend and ex-co-worker, Robert Starmer. Yes. So my name is Robert Starmer. I was also a principal engineer at Cisco. I am now a consultant for one cloud, working with Cisco fairly closely on a number of these sorts of engagements. So we just have 35 minutes, 40 minutes for this session. And I'm pretty sure there will be a lot of questions. I hope so. So Robert and myself will be available after the session outside. Feel free to, you know, if you don't catch us, we can talk later, or send emails, et cetera. So we're going to talk about the battle. You came here, and you see a lot of vendors. And the battle that I wish I could talk about it is this kind of battle, because this kind of things I really like it. Unfortunately, it's not these kind of battles. We're going to talk about OpenStack. We're going to talk about a few companies, vendors, that are just being created around this beautiful ecosystem. Thank you to the power of the cloud. Thank you to the power of OpenStack. So when we're talking about vendors, it's kind of like a very complicated topic. This is what I think it's very important for you to know who I am. So I'm part of the community since 2011, at the Santa Clara Summit. I'm a neutron core developer since 2012. I'm still like it, love it. I've been working with distribution science. They were great at it. Why? Because I always wanted to run things in the real world. DevStack is great, but I wanted something else. And Robert and myself, we started working on how we can actually automate what kind of orchestration tools we found to make it simple for us, our development, our testing, and for you, the users, to make it to production. So I do not represent any specific vendor or company. Hopefully, that's going to be a very, very subjective topic. And one of the good things my current employer, Cisco, doesn't offer any distributions. So if you ever heard about Cisco and Stackistar, it's not real at distributions. And we were going to talk about what is real at distribution. So my goal here is to help you to go to production, to help you to have the best choice for your vendor, or there are two other options. Do it by yourself or just give it a way to somebody else. So we have vendors for that as well. So my passion is very simple. It's been open-stack science for years. So with that, what are the goals of this session? Well, bummer, but I will not tell you which distribution product to use. I'm not going to do your homework. That's going to be yours. So to have a better idea of a few available open-stack distributions and products. So there is through you to understand the factors and be aware of, when selecting a specific vendor solution, what do you need to know? So I'm going to give you some weapons to use against all those sales guys that will be calling you because they scanned your batch already. They're going to be sending you emails and they're going to tell you our solution, our distribution, our product is the best way. So then you're going to start asking questions. And let's see what is their reaction, face to face.  So let's try to make it interactive. So I'm going to go as fast as possible without mumbling, hopefully. Just to have time for questions, right? So the very first thing is to understand what is really a distribution versus a product. What is the difference? And for that, I will ask my friend Robert to explain a little bit with that. Yeah, and so the reason that Edgar actually asked me to come up here is that about three years ago, when we first started looking at this space, we ran into the same problem I think all of you guys have, which is you found that there were great instructions for how to install the specific pieces of open-stack, do a lot of this stuff manually. There certainly was DevStack even at the time. And we were looking at how you took that simple set of tools and the basic configuration that you did manually and turned that into something that you could actually use and repeat, whether it was, in our case, a test sort of an environment or in the customers that we were working with in their environments and something that they actually wanted to turn into production. And we found that there were a lot of things that were being called distributions at the time even, mostly it was based on the operating system vendor's stacks, so their tool set to actually get an operating system installed and then taking that to actually get something like open-stack installed. Certainly there was Chef-based and then some initial puppet-based work that had gone into building the automation of the different individual pieces and those pieces became distributions. So Red Hat had some initial components along with the Fedora project. Certainly there was a lot of work that had come out of canonicals environment. These were the distribution class systems. So there was a way to get something up and running but there wasn't really much beyond the fact that the pieces existed. Kind of like if you deploy Apache with a Linux distribution, you get a web server but not a whole lot else. You still have to do the rest of the automation, the rest of the installation of the services. That's the distribution space. Then there were the vendors that were coming out at the time that said, look, we've actually got a product. We've got something that you can either pay us for support for or actually even buy and that's product from the all software perspective to even entirely bundled hardware systems. And looking at the two and looking at the difference between the two is I think one of the key things that Edgar and I kept running into. Well, which do we go? Do we actually get a product vendor in to actually start looking at how do we get support from them directly for our individual changes that we needed for the development that we were doing. So the work that Edgar was starting up on Neutron, for example, versus the sorts of things that we needed to help our internal customers that really wanted to sit on top of the cloud start using, right? So the product versus distribution was sort of a question of, do I need somebody to just come in here and help me do something and I don't really care about the internals or do I need enough flexibility from sort of a distribution and a distribution plus deployment automation tool set to actually potentially morph the back end a little bit and tweak the exact sorts of systems and components that I wanted to use. So that was I think something that was very important. And when you guys are looking at this, I think that's one of the key things that we wanted you to take away from this as well is that the product systems are great if you're just trying to get to production and have somebody there to effectively hold your hand through the process or even hold your hand into your production environment. Whereas the distribution side of things is definitely something that you can look at if you're really going to have to tweak some of the back ends. Maybe you're building your own product that fits into the OpenStack community or OpenStack ecosystem. So that's really I think the key that we wanted to get across, right? Thank you, perfect. So without, now we know that in the bottom line, the distribution will give you a lot of flexibility and the products will give you something that is finally done, that you switch it on, should be working with some kind of customization that is being created by someone else that is not you, that is not your IT. So we will investigate a little bit more about that. So let's go for the questions. What are the right questions to ask, right? So the very first one that you already asked and answered was I want to create a cloud management system which software should I use and you all say OpenStack, thank you. Can I get to listen? This is why you're here. If not, you are in the wrong conference. So right after that, you should start asking the following factors. The order, it could change. I like to start talking one of the most expensive ones which is actually the hardware and the implications with the operating system hypervisors that you will put together. So this is one of the first decisions to make. Then you need to talk about the reference architecture, right? Is this solution product gonna give me high availability? This is for production, right? You need to have it. What is the process to upgrade it as you can see the software is going too fast. So I will dip dive each one of them. So let's just start with the hardware. So when you go to most of the products, you need to start thinking about what are the hardware implications? One of the things that we have in mind as an OpenStack developers is we're creating some kind of software that it will not let you fall into a vendor locking. So this is very important that you will have the flexibility to choose the hardware that you wanna use. However, some of them did not. They are fully tested and certified for a specific hardware. That could be good for you because you don't want to run into hardware failures, on capability of drivers and things like that. So you think about it, you need to start asking those questions because this is very expensive and you want to have the flexibility to choose what you wanna use, right? Other thing that is very important is nested virtual decision. This got tied to the reference architecture. So by now I hope everybody has in their minds more or less how is the default proposed reference architecture from the OpenStack team. We normally have the concept of these controller, compute nodes, network nodes, et cetera, right? So there are certain components that they don't really need to run environmental. So think about it when you talk to one of these vendors, ask about these, try to see the reactions. Some of them they don't even know. So I just gonna let it there. I'm not gonna say specific which one of them, but you can ask me later after the room. Certifications is good, it's good to have. It doesn't guarantee that you will not run into failures. It's just attack, to be honest. It's just attack, put it for another vendor in a different vendors to create a partnership and to make business together. But doesn't mean that actually it's not gonna run into any failure. But it does mean that a set or certified test were running into that hardware. So think about it, which kind of test? Mostly 50% of them are tested by one of those specific vendors and the other test are actually the test that the OpenStack community created. So that is great. Robert, there's something that I'm missing. No, I think this one I think you've covered pretty well. Yeah, and this is very important guys. I mean, hardware and the parent system, why? Why the parent system? Because you may choose a Linux flavor, but the Linux flavor will have another complications. You have also ESXi, you have Hyper-B. So all those cost money and support and start making demands. So I want you to start thinking how much is gonna cost you to the data center because it's actually the homework that you will be doing. I'm pretty sure most of the people attending these is because they're having their demands to build these. They need to report back to somebody else what's going to be the process. I guess the one thing I would comment on that though is this connection between the hardware and the operating system and then the OpenStack middleware that sits on top is actually important, especially if you're looking at specifically the sort of a distribution class system. So something that might actually even be at the product level where you actually have a company that's going to support the entire deployment of the system on top of the hardware. It just being x86 hardware, it doesn't necessarily mean that the hardware vendor can support the platform or the product of OpenStack or version of OpenStack that acts more like a product that sits on top of it. So it is actually probably good to make sure that when you say, hey, I'm gonna take specific Linux distribution or basically a productized version of a Linux distribution with the OpenStack pieces on top and I want to run it on what looks like generic x86 hardware, make sure that there isn't an interaction on the storage driver front, on the network interface driver front. These are I think important questions to ask at the hardware level. So let's move on, let's go to the next one, reference architecture, high availability. You need to start asking what is the HE model? And the HE model is for many things, right? For the hardware itself, right? Your core switches should have some redundancy, your actually OpenStack components should have some redundancy. And unfortunately for you, us, developers, we have different silos for each one of these components, Nova Neutron Sider and the HE models are a little bit different between them. So be sure you actually have somebody behind you helping you to understand all these models or even better, try to understand all these models by yourself and trying to make the reference HE architecture very compatible with what you in your IT operations team are familiar with. It's very disruptive for a company to move into open source, that's a big change for some of you. Now if you are asking them to actually change the HE model it's gonna be even more disruptive and I'm pretty sure not, you're not gonna have very IT guys happy. So this is very important. Try to make all these HE components in a way that they have exactly the same model, a very similar model, even that is not 100% possible because it's going to be very easy to handle any troubleshooting.  The question that I would have for them is that model easy to troubleshoot, easy to debook. Think about it, when you have every single server in your distribution as a controller, the monologue that you may have, so just be aware of the implication of that HE model. The typical active active, with even three controllers, it's one of the most popular I will say and you can also try to ask the people who is already running in production, that is good enough. So my only comment on the high availability side of things is that it's probably interesting to look at high availability within a single region or a single system that gets deployed. So basically the physical hardware plus the control plan that sits on top of it. And we've done a lot of work together in the past looking at both active standby models. That was the first model. We actually helped also build out a version of an installation tool set for an active active active control plan environment. One of the interesting things I'm seeing more people look at as well is multi-region high availability. So if the applications that sit on top can actually deal with failure, if they're built sort of in a web scale model, then you can actually look at regional controllers. So you can actually get rid of the high availability component at the control level and assume that the application can actually deal with failure at the single system level. So it's another area to look at as you're deciding what the right process is and pathway is for your actual particular deployment. And remember, I mean, most of the distributions will let you design the HM model with your team versus the products that they will tell you this is the model and that's it. Because what? Because it's a product. So the next one is the code upgrades and scalability. I mean, this is critical. I mean, we have nine releases of OpenStack. We keep releasing a new version every six months. I'm so happy to have this model. So this is a very simple question. Will your solution be able to be upgraded to the next version of OpenStack every six months? Yes or no? What is gonna be the thing that is gonna take me to do that? My cloud is gonna be down or it's gonna be keep running 24 seven. So why is so important to keep upgrading your OpenStack distribution? Because I think about it. I mean, the amount of code, bug fixing and new features that is added every six months is huge. The community, you say it around, right? 4500 attendees to this summit. It's incredible. For the people who is gonna be hanging around on this floor, there will be a lot of the science sessions and you will see how many developers will be in for each one of these components. So don't lose that advantage. And try to go for that kind of solution that is up to date. I cannot imagine that you're thinking about deploying a cloud in the next three months with something grisly, older, even a banner. I would try to encourage you to go as moving forward as high as possible, which we even internally try to enhance the software to make it easy to upgrade. So if you get in the past, it's gonna be harder for you to move to the future. But if you're already in the present or even looking ahead, it's gonna be simpler. So I really encourage you to ask that question. So one of the experiments that I did was to surf in the distributions, products, websites, and very few of them tell you exactly which open stack distribution they are running, which release, sorry. And that's amazing. When I start digging a little bit more, there were so many rounds, rounds, rounds of the things that they didn't really clearly tell me what was the answer. So be very straightforward and ask how much it's gonna cost to do that upgrade. And the second part is the scalability. Do not get locked in one cluster cloud and that's it. Some of them they do it like that and they claim that in order to make a scalability, you can actually create a federate cloud and make some connection and some crazy stuff. Be sure that you have the ability to start adding computers, even controllers, et cetera that you think that you will scale up in the next 12 months or 16 months, et cetera. One other factor is zones. So probably you're familiar with this term in the computer area that you can create your own zones and you can actually scale up VMs on those zones. So be able to create multiple zones. This is a very good feature. I will encourage you to actually have a solution that will lead you to create them zones. So this you have another questions to us today, to the vendors. So again, I'd add another comment about this. When you think about upgrades, I think this actually maps pretty well also with the way you think about high availability. I've worked with a number of folks that have actually tried to upgrade systems that are single system environments. And while it's getting better and better, some of the NOVA comments about how the NOVA team is dealing with database upgrades and migrations and even interactions between the different components of the NOVA system, when you start thinking about managing those upgrades, if you can build a high availability system that actually is effectively two separate environments, unless again, a product company might have a better way of actually managing that because they've built some of their own effectively specialization on the back end to support those upgrades. If you actually think about your high availability environment as two separate systems and can build out two separate systems, you actually have a way to basically do sort of a flip-flop upgrade where you migrate all of your users to one system, upgrade the other, and then migrate back. It's just one model to think about when you're looking at how can you leverage, especially if you decide to go the distribution route where maybe you have a little bit more ownership of the system that you're deploying, how do you actually leverage these environments? So just get another thing to keep in the back of your mind. So the next one is one of my favorites because so many people did just forget about the licensing and the licensing is, it's a little bit complicated because you need to start asking, are you gonna be paying for server, per socket, per subscription base, and then you're gonna be paying for the hardware, you're gonna be paying for the distribution itself, for the support. What about the grades? Are you gonna be paying for the grades? They may ask you to pay for that. Why you have to pay for that with something that we are trying to make it as simple as possible. So do not fall into those traps. You actually should be having a solution that not gonna be adding pennies for every single thing that you wanna run. This is very important. Installation deployment, when you have a product, it should be very simple to start, it should be very straightforward. However, you need to be sure that it's not gonna be any added costs. With the distribution, you have more flexibility in that area, so you can manage more the costs. But one of the things that you can have a problem with the distribution is that you start pulling many things from different places. Maybe you're calling in more than two, three vendors and all of them, they wanna make money, right? So be sure that at the end of the day, what you're still doing all your math don't end up paying more. Some of the distributions claim to have a lot of compatibility with all the components through what they call the enterprise version, right? So just think about it, how much more it's gonna be for each one of these enterprise licenses, right? And if you are really looking into a distribution, in this case, try to explore the alternatives, try to explore the presence and sense of the flavors that will not cause you money, right? Try to ask this question, let's say for instance, to the real guys, to the suicide guys, what is really the difference between what is called RHOS versus the RDO? Right, that's a very important question, because you can just go leave with the RDO, maybe running in CentOS or something else, maybe you're good enough, but maybe you wanna have all the supports that RHEL is gonna guarantee you and you wanna go that. I'm not telling you which one to use, again, I'm telling you the factors that you need to ask in order to make a decision. Another very important thing, I mean, creating a cloud, a new cloud with OpenStack, it's a very amazing trip. Make sure you do it in phases, make sure you start with your POC, make sure you go to your prep productions racks, make sure that you have all these phases in place and make sure that it's not gonna cost you more money than what you were expected to have, right? So the idea is to go to production, you wanna test your product, so I just wanna have for free, or I just don't want to pay more that is gonna cost me at the end of the day, again, just ask for those kind of questions. If there is some extra components that you wanna add and it's flexible enough to add more components, what's gonna be the support model for those ones? And in a little bit, we're gonna be talking about those support models. Yeah, so the only other thing I would say in terms of considering cost models, it's not just the software that you have to consider. If you're looking at the cost of deploying a system, you can look at the hardware, hardware cost and licensing and support costs. You can look at the operating system, licensing and support costs. Again, if you're looking at the product model for open stack deployment, that may actually include all of that wrapped together, right? So it might actually include the physical hardware plant, the software that's being run there, the management software that they may add from a product perspective to make it easier to manage this. And I think one of the key things that's going to drive the decision making here is, are you looking to operate a cloud, are you looking to build and develop something within that cloud space? That's gonna be a large factor in driving what the right potential distribution or platform is to actually go forward with. And with that we move into the next one. I love this one, plugins and drivers, why? Because we create open stack such a way that is fully compatible with N number of vendors and your solution, your distribution, your product should be compatible with them as well. So the question that you should ask is, how flexible is the solution if I want to use a plugin X for Neutron and plugin Y for Nova? Or any kind of combination that you wanna use because it's the solution that you have in mind. Think about these, some of the solutions are not compatible or tested or even talking between different kind of vendors. For good or for bad, you need to be aware of those things and you need to be asking when is that going to be possible? Again, open stack is very flexible, right? Don't lose that flexibility. So let me select any storage backend system. Let me select my messenger system. Let me select the kind of database that they already have in IT operation. What if you have something that you're really running in your system as a vendor, but in your IT team are very familiar with something. Don't create a crazy environment just because the vendors are not letting you do it. So we're building something to be flexible. Don't lose that flexibility. And very important, I don't know.  So I changed my mind and I wanna change to the other messenger system. Is that possible? How much is gonna be? How much in time, processes, resources, et cetera. So think about it that. There are actually plenty of drivers plugins around there. I found Mirantos recently post a very nice resource tool to actually find out all of them. So you go to that link, salistic.com, drive log. You will see a very nice web page that you can actually select the specific OpenStack component. And all the plugins drivers available there. It's very cool and actually tells you the testing part and a bunch of information that you may not aware. So I encourage you to look at this website. Recently, today, actually two days ago, it was the build, the OpenStack marketplace. This is a great place to actually find also drivers, what is available there. One of the things that is very, very important, if you are going to use one of these plugins, because you wanna talk to that company, make sure that that code is upstream. Do not select, and as my advice, do not select a product which their specific driver plugin is not pushed upstream. It's very important because there is a process, there is co-quality, there are some testings that needs to be passed. And there is a reason why you have to ask that person why you're plugging, why you're driving, why you're pieces over that you're trying to put with OpenStack is not pushed upstream. Everything should be pushed upstream. You should ask for those kind of things. Somebody's not pushing upstream. You can actually go to the review.openstack.org and find out where are the comments of the developers and you will find out exactly the truth. So I encourage you to go there. So this is very critical because OpenStack is all about this. And if you don't have the full visibility, you may lose very cool features that you want to offer to your users to your IT operations guy. So another way to think about this as well is especially if you have a hardware platform that you have to use. So maybe you have a corporate set of requirements that's driving a specific set of tools. Obviously each of those individual vendors potentially on the storage array side of things, network services side of things, something along those lines are gonna have different sets of capabilities. It's probably important to consider what those capabilities are, what out of those platforms it is that you're looking to hopefully incorporate into the OpenStack environment and make sure that the vendor is willing to actually support the whole path of either getting, like Edgar was saying, getting the driver enabled for that particular set of features, pushing that code back upstream into the community so that everybody can benefit from the enablement of that capability, at least seeing how somebody else might actually implement the interaction. For example, on a storage path, how do you actually create a volume and delete a volume, right? A lot of that work has gone into the community and is leverageable by everybody. But we're also, it's also, I think, important to look at how it goes the other way, right? How can you actually make sure that the support exists for those low-level components that you actually either have to or might want to use in your environment? So let's go to the next one. Customer support and documentation. A very important question to ask. What is gonna be the customer support model? Is really the support 24, 7, 365? So you need to investigate about that. I already asked you to ask how much it's gonna cost to have these kind of investments. Because believe me, you will have issues. No matter what, you will have issues. It could be a simple configuration issue. It could be a bug that you actually found in your testing or ready to go to production. So be sure that the support that you have is not just a guide answering the phone call, say, yeah, somebody's gonna take a look at that. It has to be forwarder than that. And there should be some action and reaction plans.   If I get a problem Friday night, 6 p.m., 8 p.m., Saturday, 2 a.m. What's gonna be the reaction plan? Exactly what is the person who's gonna be in church who's gonna be pulling the locks? And now where the locks are gonna be located? You need to have the plan to say, okay, there was a failure. The failure is on the red flag, so the cloud is almost down. And a bunch of people is waking up and is trying to pull the locks from every, all different places. Is that the right plan? No, it's not. There should be a very smooth plan to collect the locks, to be in the same place, to not be interrupted with the operation of the cloud, and let the expert to analyze the problem. When you go to installation deployment, be sure that you can do it by yourself. Be sure that whether it is your decision, you have enough support and documentation to do it by yourself, to replicate whatever they are doing. For us, it's very simple. I mean, sometimes I just been deploying some of the dishes or whatever I can found. And after doing two, three times, it's just go natural. And then I skip certain steps, but that shouldn't be the case for you. You should be able to reproduce whatever any other person is putting in your hardware. It's very important to be aware of the code. This is what I actually put this graph here. This is just pulled from the statistics again. Because, again, I'm not in favor of any company, but what I'm in favor of is the people that actually is aware of the code. And in this website, you can actually see the contribution by companies and also by people and also by components. So you can actually, if you are very focused and you see that one specific component will give you some troubles, you may wanna go for one of those companies who has people contributing. It doesn't mean that you need to go to the one that is the top contributed. It just, you just wanna be sure that they know what they are doing, that they know the code, that they have some people aware of those changes. On the other hand, as the developers, we like to keep adding code and adding the features, so sometimes we change the tag here. So these graphs could change drastically with the time, so be sure that you know the people behind it, not just the names, not just the tag. About the documentation, I ran into some distributions and product where the documentation was minimal and some others were amazing. I really like reading the documentation from some of them. So I've encouraged you to don't ask for it, try to get it from the website, from whatever they told you to do it, take a look on that and see that is what you're looking for. Yeah, and again, I think from the concept of support, I think there's a question of, are you looking for distribution or platform that is something that you need to support directly? In which case, I think the case of documentation becomes even more important. How do I get the right documentation if I'm actually going to try to support and operate this environment, rather than just build something that we're going to go develop against? I think that's probably one of the key things to think about and especially when you're looking for potentially a partner, so either somebody who's gonna provide a platform or even a distribution partner, is their support operation going to help you operate that cloud for yourself, for your customers directly, right? This is straight to the next one. So we're five minutes away, so I wanna have time for at least one question. So time to deploy and testing, to be sure that you have all the testing tools, all the testing plans in place, ask for their testing plans, create your own testing plans, be sure how long it's gonna take you to deploy the cloud, what are gonna be the factors involving on these deployments? Mostly time constraints. Think about when you create this ecosystem in your cloud and you're pulling different vendors, the more vendors, the longer will take your deployment. Because you need to coordinate different teams from different geographical distributed areas and even with different backgrounds. So I'm not telling you don't do it, I'm just telling you just be aware of those kind of things. And we're almost done, this is the last one of the factors, but one of the things that I wanna say to all of you, may the open start be with you. If not, outsourcing will be with you. And what I wanna say with this is, if after all these, I scare you up, say no way, I'm not gonna invest in that cloud because there are so many things, that's a bad one. You may don't have the resources in terms of money or people to do it. So there are some other companies around in the marketplace that actually can do, can host everything for you. All powered by OpenStack, right? So that's another alternative. Take a look to that, investigate homework. And with that, so this is the website of the marketplace that it was just released two days ago. And with that, thank you. Remember OpenStack C-School, we're hiring people and open to questions, thank you. Hello, yeah. So I'm the OpenStack package maintainer in Debian. And I've take some notes on what you just said. And I have some, okay, I do not agree with all of what you said. Like, we're talking about free software here. And to me, one of the key important things that we have to keep in mind is how can I contribute? We have the culture in OpenStack that we all should upstream everything and that we should share our code, okay? I'm disappointed that the current state of things right now is that it doesn't also happen with distribution and packages. So I think that one of the key things that people should keep in mind is how can I contribute? Is it easy to contribute back to the distribution? And also another point is that currently we have distributions equal vendor equal support. And I think all the slides that you displayed here take that as a fact, okay? That the distribution that is going to provide me the OpenStack deployment system is also going to be the one that is going to provide me support. I like things to change and that things doesn't stay this way. So that I think that one of the key points when you select a distribution is that the person providing support for you is distribution agnostic. And then after you can select the distribution you want. So that the person that provide you support is not married with the distribution. So sorry to interrupt you. So the people behind telling me it's nice for you so we need to move to the next session. So it seems like more like a conversation to add straight questions. So I don't want to close it here. Let's talk outside. Let's take this. But I want to share you've talked to a lot. I think it's actually you've got really good points. And I think the key point you're trying to make is this is community-driven software. It's community-enabled software. While what we were trying to provide everybody with was a view of how you might leverage these tools going into a production environment always consider how you can contribute back, right? I think that was effectively your key point. This is something that only grows and only gets better if people don't just sort of hide it off in a silo in a corner somewhere and say, well, I'll get somebody to support it and I don't have to worry about it anymore, right? I think that's absolutely key. There are going to be people that do need exactly that kind of system. They're looking for a set of tools and they want to move from that set of tools to something next, right? So with that, thank you very much.


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We're down one half a percent in the 10 year, okay, in less than three weeks, which is pretty amazing. You get the 10 year up 27 ticks, 108.10, the 30 year up a full point plus four ticks at 113.21 and King dollar, King dollars coming down with conviction man, 1,099 ticks, 5,026, you got the Euro trading out here at 107, the yen is out here at a price point of 149, the British pounds at 123 to one US dollar. We get over and take a look at the S&P folks and bottom line is that between notes, bottoming, meaning higher reach topping and the dollar basically giving it up, you have big action here. This is a dynamic change man, we've been in a higher rate environment for almost one point about 18 months and that's over, bottom line, you get the spy at 540 and I believe we just got back inside, yeah we blew it away, now you're in the higher range period, yeah, for three days, three days you get inside the higher range. We go into the cues, we take a look at the cues, now the cues are always stronger, the cues never even broke, they're 200 day, so you're at 5368, the cues are on their way up to these highs up here, we're talking about 387, yeah, you'll get some back feeding here and the whole ball of wax but the bottom line is that this market's off to the races. And let me show you, let me show you this tenure man, when we start the program I'm going to show you the interest rate structure inside this tenure, so you can see this, you get wide price spread today, you get accelerated volume, you get 2.5 million contracts, bottom line you're broken the downtrend in a monster way too, not in a small way and we'll go back when the program starts, I'm going to get through this interest rate structure because right now this thing wants to go back to the July 14th level, stay right there folks, we'll come right back.


Ka-ching What's up money geeks mr. V here welcome to another video guys so into this video We are going to do a review of our traits are today. I'm just gonna take a look at it AMC was massive, which is Something that I expected or came through Toter over $1,300 today Yeah, definitely a good day the week has been really really kind to us Hopefully these are trained continuous and we continue to make some good profit So that's what I want us to cover into this video But before we get started guys for a new to the channel We took about how to earn money how to save money how to invest and build wealth So there's something that interests you go ahead and hit that subscribe button and a notification bell So you don't miss out on new content. So again, they're really green day for us. I mean We could have made a ton of money if we Did some things outside what we normally do, but I don't like Changing my strategy just because I think I can make some extra money. So I stick to my strategy I take the profit that I I have and I'm happy with it because the minute you start fumbling around with your strategy That is a recipe for disaster and I don't want that my strategy has been working and I didn't want to change that So that's why I just want to put that out there. So let's jump right into the Review here and take a look. So so we traded AMC Today, I didn't treat it pre-market. I wanted to but I just I was up late last night. So Missed my opportunity Close yesterday at 68 open and squeeze all the way to 70 almost 70 78 Before pulling back to 52 and then at open down to 41 if you can see if you can see right there down the way down to 41 and then Squeeze up again to 55 which you give me some profit there and then back down to 37 for a low So in these areas right here, I didn't do any trade I was just watching and and looking at it because I didn't know where the bottom was gonna be Cuz right here look at that squeeze for people that trade Below V-wap. This would have been a good trade, but I don't do that I trade momentum so I like trading in the upside and then from 37 look at again is squeeze all the way up to about 50 so that that would have been a good trait right there to if you if you trade below V-wap And again guys, I don't trade below V-wap. So I never took that trait. This is where things are to get interesting to me From here is squeeze and crosses V-wap and give me some confirmation So I was looking to get in the trade right here. I missed this opportunity So I kept thinking this is gonna bounce gonna pull back and here's why I thought there's gonna be a little pullback Right here where we had this massive squeeze look at stochastic crosses K-line crosses to the upside So that's where you get that squeeze. So look at the volume that came in massive volume Postures all the way up there. Then when you got to the tip right there 57 and some change Stochastic look at right here case curses to the downside. So I'm anticipating a pullback. So that's why I didn't take your trade I didn't want to jump in so I waited for that pullback And then look at right here We're starting to make that reverse to get back to the upside. It didn't really give me confirmation So we finally got in the trade somewhere around here this finer cross here That's where I got into the trade at about 53 54 If I if I remember very well, so Got in the trade and you squeeze all the way up to a high of 68 Which is excellent. So squeeze up to 65. I took some profit and then really No light in my position and then squeeze to a 67 I took some again out and then I just left just a little bit and then Said notice the side of the pullback. That's why at that point I sold everything because a lot of people is like, oh, why don't you just hold it kids? It's gonna it's gonna keep going up. I'm like, no, no, I'm a day trader This is not a string trade account. So when I swing trade I would do it in my string trade account where I could just buy it and let it ride But in this account, I'm day trading. So when I see profit There's no reason whatsoever for me to let that profit go There's always an opportunity in the market. So I was secure that profit And then look for another opportunity to get back in the trade To be if I want to make more money. So that's what I did and you can see here It hit the high of 68 80 And I kept thinking this thing was going to squeeze to 70 before pulling back It never did 68 was a kind of a really tough resistance to break So pullback and you can see here Pullback as to when I was recording this video is sitting at about 55 So it looks like it's probably gonna pull back again and go break v-wap So we would see if it does that and to anticipate that that support around Between 45 and 47 that would be another support And that could be a potential for for a swing trade at that particular point But again guys remember that these stocks are meme stocks So all it takes is for somebody to tweet something that can push this stock down So treat this with caution very very Tight stop loss if you're trading it Um, so that's it for this particular one again You look at the opportunity that was insane Uh, if you if you were trading and you got in here This wasn't a bad place to get in It's just that I turned around for a second and I didn't really catch this because if I had gotten in here Boy, let's look at the volume right here massive volume if I got in here I would have stayed in the trade to the top right here So if you got in here at about 40 about 50 now, they've been excellent, but I missed that so Um, again a lot of you've been asking about your entry and your exit point in the trade So again my entry point. I don't trade below v-waps always trade above v-waps So when it crosses v-wap, uh, my confirmation would be First one in canada to make a new high and then again, um, I'm using that in in collaboration with stochastic And rsi just see in the volume too just to see that My confirmation is for real before I can go in so look at massive volume comes And this is huge pump of volume comes in And then if you look at this your stochastic here case on the upside So there's an upward movement there. So you could have even gotten in here at about 40 Uh, let's say 50 and trade this all the way to 57 or 58. That is a spread of about eight Dollars that's good money. Um, if you did that trade and then get out So again get out here and then you can get back in here again and trade it all the way to 68 So again, there was tremendous amount of opportunity then the next time I traded I took a really quick trade on this one. Um, when he came out of the get GTT So this is it right here. So, um, right out of the gate, um, it didn't really show me any signs for me to trade the stock and then It squeezed up all the way here. I wasn't watching it. So, um, the next thing I know I I see it it shows up on my my scanner. It's like, well, what's going on here? So I just Turning The right here, this is where I got it. If you can see it still cast it again It's crossing to the upside k is crossing to the upside So this I got in here about four. I think it was like 4.1 That I got in and really all the way to buy 4.6 for a little profit there of about 37 38 dollars So that those are the two stocks and if you can see from there, it flushes down and never Really recovered. So we'll see. Hopefully, um, it makes a move after hours, but Um, I'm gonna wait and see that one. So those are the two stocks that really made my day today. Uh, and again guys, um If you are still practicing our advice that you use really smaller quantities buy one or two shares and just make sure that what you're seeing, um, your entry point of your reading is good and then take advantage of Or your stop loss slash take profit if you're learning that way it takes out all the emotions out of the trade So you can if it's if it starts to go south You can easily get out of the trade because a lot of you guys you get in the trade and then Um, it's especially these momentum stocks when it flushes You start crying in case you didn't have a stop boss there to get you out So always cut those losses as early as possible and then find another re entry point As opposed to sitting there and crossing your fingers hoping that it's going to work So that would be my advice to you. Uh, if you're just studying out. So that's it for this video guys again Uh, let me know what you guys think about this. Did you trade AMC? Did you make some money off of this trade? Um, it looks like the momentum is taking a continue So we're going to be back here tomorrow Um, just to see again what AMC has to offer to offer us So if you're new if you want to join us like we have a really good community out here on discord Um, it keeps growing every day. We're getting new members. So we post our watch list there So we had AMC um on that watch list and so we had um some other stocks that people are trading So we had game stuff on there too But we post that and then we have a you know a good community where we just chat and talk about what's going on And I usually post alerts and you know, just give people some stocks I'm watching or stuff that there are stocks that are hitting my gap scanner I usually just put those on there Um, and have people you know get the opportunity to trade so uh, put the link in the description below If you're new to the channel, we talk about how to earn money how to save money how to invest and build wealth If that's something that interests you go ahead and hit that subscribe button and the notification bell So you don't miss out on new content Also, if you are looking to get started with investing guys, webo has their promotion where if you sign up and deposit Uh 100 dollars you get some free stocks links in the description below and as always guys Do your due diligence.


Welcome to Healthy Cooking 101 with the Sisters. My name is Nicole. My name is Sharon. And here we make healthy, simple, and yummy treats for everyone in the family. But before we get right into it, Sharon, please, can you pray for us before we begin? Yes. Let's pray. Dear Jesus, we thank you so much for this day. Thank you for the gift of life. And even now, as we prepare this meal, I pray that you may be with us, and that you may nourish us in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Thank you for that. Today we will be making crepes.  Crepes are very thin pancakes. Not really pancakes, they're crepes, but they're thin. They're not the same as pancakes. Pancakes are fleshier, thicker, yes. And crepes, when you're making them, the butter is lighter in consistency than pancakes because we use more liquid compared to when we're making pancakes. So the ingredients we have for today, I have my Able helper here who will help me with them. We'll be putting all our ingredients in a blender. And to begin, we'll start with the wet ingredients. So that is, we have milk here. And also, Nico, why do we start with the wet instead of the dry? Tell me. Well, we start with the wet just so that the dry doesn't stick at the bottom of the blender. Yes. Because if you put in the flour first, it gets stuck and then it will become lumpy. It won't be as creamy and as flowy as it should be. Yes. Thank you. So we'll start with the wet. And this is one, two, and a third cup of milk. And we're using soy milk. And just a disclaimer, these are not the cups that we have lying around in the house. These are the standard size cups that you buy specifically for baking. So Sharon has poured in two and a third cups of soy milk. You can use any milk of your preference. Then next, we'll go to oil. We're using a third cup. And here we have sunflower oil. Just like I said, whatever oil you use at home and you're comfortable with using, use that. And after that, she'll put in vanilla. I have one teaspoon of vanilla essence. And then now we can move to the dry ingredients. And we'll start with the sugar. This is three tablespoons of sugar. And then after that, she'll add in the salt. This is one teaspoon of salt. And I know salt seems like an off ingredient when you're making something sweet, but salt is a balancer. In the Bible we are told we should be the salt of the earth. And that means that we bring flavor and make everything make sense. Salt does that even in meals. And I think God was wise, of course, in using that comparison. And our next ingredient is baking powder, which we have used three-quarter of a teaspoon. And as I said before, use the standard-sized measurements. So the teaspoon that is bought in the supermarket for baking, not the one you have in the house for stirring our tea. So the last ingredient is flour. And we'll put in two and, sorry, one and a half cups of flour. One and a half cups of flour.  If you have a spatula on hand, it would be easy to just keep scraping the sides just in case you see that it's starting to lump up. You can stop the blender, scrape the sides and then continue. So I will scrape the sides just a little bit, just for the flour that got stuck. Blend it again. I'll just let Sharon show you how it's a very light consistency. And this is not ideal for making it, the crepes will either stick or they won't turn properly. So to thicken the batter, we usually put it in the fridge to set for about 30 minutes, at least 30 minutes. And you can do it up to even two days. So you can make the batter ahead of time. And every time you need to make something for, make the crepes for breakfast, you just put it out of the fridge and you make them. So we had already put some in the fridge ahead of time. And that's what I have here. So I'll just add just a little drops of oil onto my pan, just to get it, I don't know, ready for the first pancake. If you remember well, one of our ingredients was oil. So you don't really need to use oil every single time you put your crepes. I'll just put for this first one and just spread it around. And hopefully it comes out well because you know sometimes the first thing of anything always, it's always outside, right?  I think even they have their own bloopers but we probably don't share them. Okay, so just put one scoop and spread it around, make it into a nice, thin layer. Because as I mentioned, crepes are usually very thin. And the way is you can know that it's ready is one, the top of the crepe is going to turn matte. It's not going to be glossy anymore, meaning it won't be wet. And two, you can also check by looking at the surface, some places will start to brown and that's when you know it's ready to flip. Sharon, as we wait for this to flip, where did you have your first crepe? Is this something you made or you ate it at a restaurant? I didn't think they could be homemade for some reason. I just thought they were only in restaurants because I'd probably eat them when I'd go to a hotel maybe because I used to see them being done in hotels for breakfast. But yeah, my first one at home, you introduced me to it. Okay, yeah. And see, sometimes some meals usually look so hard when you eat them outside, but they're very, very simple and easy to make at home. So I think our crepe is ready to be flipped. Oh, look at that nice golden brown color. So as Nicole said, you can use any flower of your choice. You can use spelt, you can use gluten free, you can use brown bread flour, you can use regular brown artichoke flour. But just note that if you use gluten free, you may need to do a little bit more flour. And also maybe add a bit more, maybe xanthan gum or just something that is a binder. To bind it, yes. Or a flux egg. Oh yes, flux egg or a chia egg. Okay, I think it's ready. Maybe one more minute. It doesn't take too long to get ready because they're quite thin, yes. You can actually also freeze them as well. Maybe do, for people who do weekly meal preps, you can freeze them and just keep taking them out for whenever you need to. One more time, put a nice big scoop in and swirl it around. I found this is the best method for me because I know some people have other methods of spreading the batter around. That is either swirling the pan physically or any other way. But I find this is the best for me because I have more control over how even the crepe is in thickness all over. I tried the one for swirling the pan around, but I found that the crepe doesn't come out as round as I would like it. The shape is also compromised. Yeah, the shape is a bit compromised. But if you're, how cool is shape, you can swirl the pan. Yes, definitely. You don't have to use a spoon like that. You can even use just a flat spoon, just something to help you spread it around. Yeah, that's definitely true. Just check on it.  So make sure you're getting the perfect color for these crepes because you know, if you have them too dark, someone is always going to think that they are burnt even if they aren't. So color, food is more than just what we put in our mouth. It's how it looks, how it smells. When all the senses are excited, you know that's a good meal. Also texture as well. Yeah. I think this one is ready to be flipped. As you can see, it's matte and I don't know if it's visible, but there is some kind of browning on this side that's indicating that it's ready to be flipped. Also as you keep preparing the crepes, I think the heat gets a bit more in time. Yes, yes. So you may need to reduce the heat as you keep going ahead. Yes, just regulate it as you see fit. You didn't tell me, where did you have your first crepe? Where did I have my first crepe? So by the time I realized that crepes were a thing, yes. That were not pancakes. Yes, I had already become vegan. So it was very hard for me to find a place to have them in Kenya that did not have, that fit my dietary needs, that was plant-based. So I looked for a recipe online and I challenged myself to make one and voila, that's how I managed to have my first crepe. I'll just do one more and then one for each of us and an extra to share, right? Yes. And I just like to point out, with our other butter you saw how light it was and you can see how it thickens in the fridge. It actually thickens and it's better to use. If you were to use that one, I think it would actually lack fire because it's actually really light. As you can see, now that my pan is hot, they are cooking at a faster rate. So I just reduce my heat just a little bit so that it doesn't get burnt. Remember we talked about having the color looking just right. And it's good to have a pan in your house, that one pan that you know distributes heat well because sometimes you can use one and then one side of the crepe is brown and the other side is still really, really light or white. But when you have it one even consistent color, just adds to the experience of having it. I'm just really waiting for it to be done so that I can taste it. There's some butter in it. So you can actually do a taste test. Maybe you might be making things that even we ourselves can't eat. So Sharon, please do me the honor. Also before you start to cook, I would really advise you to pray because all the things are man-made and they can just backfire on you and you may not have a good experience. So just commit it to God and I hope we're not sharing this one. No, no, no, it's all yours. I really feel like it's harding my mouth. It's really good. It's good, right? Yes. And that wraps up this session of cooking crepes. Thank you so much for joining us and God bless you. Bye bye.


Alright guys, look, I'm... I want to clarify before I show you something. It's Movenber, okay? It's for a good cause. I know it doesn't look great, but you're gonna have to cut me some slack. What's your good booktube? My name's Cameron, welcome back to another video. Today is a goddamn snack of a video, okay? That's snack with a double C, okay? Not with a CK. That's a snack.  It's another Wattpad's wildest. Every now and then I will bless you with a video where we explore some of Wattpad's finest literature. For example, in the last video we read a story about a bad boy erotic Jesus Christ. So that was a... That was a thing that happened. And if you aren't already following me on Wattpad, maybe you should be. That's Cam Wolfpad. Now, I was having a bit of trouble actually thinking of how we could top an erotic Jesus Christ fan fiction because that's a pretty high bar. I think you can agree. And I was staring at my Wattpad profile and I realized that there's something that's really missing there. Just something that every good Wattpad user should actually have. And I don't have a collection of my favorite fan art. Maybe, but that's not exactly what I'm talking about in this one. No, no, no, no. What we needed was some of my game changing, writing my guy. Written by Cam Wolfpad. Wolfpad.  I figured a different pen name was probably the way to go. So the decision was made. I would be writing my own Wattpad story for the next Wattpad's Wildest and go to that saying it was going to be a weird one. But I didn't just want to do it the old fashioned way. I decided I would need some help. Help from you guys. So I called in the cavalry and boy did you show. So what I did is I went on the community section of my YouTube channel. I'm pretty active there in terms of asking for input from you guys for videos. As far as booktube goes, this is a pretty interactive channel with the audience. Anyway, I asked for some help there and I asked via Twitter as well at Cam Wolfshot. And what I asked was for you to give me some buzzwords. Just a quick word or idea or theme, place, person, anything at all. Just something simple and to the point that I could include in the story or use as a plot device or a location or an idea for the story. Basically, this was going to be a story that we would all be writing together. What could possibly go wrong when you put together the collective creative minds of the audience of this channel for a Wattpad story? Anyway, do you want to know how many suggestions I got? Over 100 suggestions. So with that in mind, obviously I couldn't include all of them. That's just physically impossible. That's it. I just can't. But I want you to know I really did do my best. So I'm sorry if yours doesn't show up in the story. So anyway, I did it. I went through it mathematically, basically with my genius level intellect. And I picked out all of the best ones or not even just necessarily the best ones. Just the ones that would work together. You know, the ones that the ones I could mix together. And what I ended up with. Well, it's something. Anyway, that's how we got to where we are now. And yes, I'm going to read the story for you. Are you ready kids? Yeah. Are you sure? Yeah. Are you sure? Yes. Whiskey Frisky by Cam Wolfpad. Seth had seen all manner of odd and unusual people from behind the counter of Whiskey Frisky. They had a reputation of stocking the most bizarre products he could find from any sex store in California. And yet, despite being situated in the central hub of Hollywood Boulevard, business was always slow. On this particular day, Seth had found himself paused in time, a spoonful of his dangerously sugary cereal raised to his lips and dripping into his lap.   Every bead of sweat rolling into the rotund man's cavernous moist crease was another reason for Seth to not finish feeding himself the breakfast treat pressed to his lips. Gross, he groaned as his legs slid from the counter, jolting him back to reality. There was one other customer in the store, lingering by the corner and palming through the sleeves of roleplay costumes. She had picked one out and had it tucked under her arm. Judging by the splash of purple across the front, it was the Barney one. Yup, that's Barney, the dinosaur, right? There's something for everyone at Whiskey Frisky, or so they would have you believe. The tall woman was mouthing along to the old pop jam blasting from the speakers, Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance With Somebody, but kept throwing anxious glances up at Seth from over the shelves. Something any other store clerk may have found suspicious, but within these walls, shame or embarrassment were all too easy to spot. Just this one.  He slapped a pink box onto the counter and dropped a handful of sweat-claysed coins beside it, with a musical clatter of metal on wood. Would you like a bag? Seth said, hesitantly scooping the coins into his hand and dropping them into the register as if they were burning his palm. Nah, the man replied.  Have a nice day, Seth mumbled half-heartedly, watching his only two customers exit the store into the blinding light with what was probably a very beautiful Saturday evening. He had planned to spend the weekend knee-deep in saltwater and sand, scoping out LA's most physically gifted from behind the safety of a pair of reflective sunglasses. Instead, he was here, keeping Hollywood's not-so-gifted, stocked up on vibrators and flashlights. At the very least, he could treat himself to a smoke break. Yozel, Seth called. Nothing, not even a shuffle in response from the back room. The old man was probably asleep. He was damn near nocturnal, but then who wasn't in the city? Even from behind his shade, Seth felt his eyes flinch against the sunlight, blinding him for a solid minute as he fumbled to light his cigarette. The warmth was welcome at least, not that the inside of the store was anything less than a sweltering sweatbox in its own, one thing Seth had come to learn about Los Angeles is that nothing quite complements a wave of afternoon heat like the smell of ocean and cheap cuisine. He closed his eyes and gave an indulgent moan as the deliciously hot cigarette smoke sneaked through his throat and crept from his nostrils and white tendrils. Chorus lines of street performers and celebrity impersonators were dancing, marching and swaggering along the street, reaching for every passerby like a wave of flamboyantly dressed parasites. Five bucks for a photo champ if mom's feeling generous, said a surprisingly convincing Donald Trump. Oh look, that's working Mario's back too. Nice, happy Halloween, the young man muttered. Something else caught Seth's eye. Two men were marching purposefully towards the store from across the road, weaving between cars and ignoring the frustrated honks of the drivers.  They were dressed in dark jackets, a suspicious choice for the current climate and had their caps pulled low over their faces.  He rushed backwards into the store and ducked behind the counter, wrenching open a drawer. Sell you old prick, we have company! He yelled, still no reply. Within a heartbeat the men were inside and towering over the young man and his toppled box of cereal. We need to do it again, one of the men said in a husky mockney accent. Seth sighed and slammed the drawer shut. You sure about that, Jason? The men on the left looked around cautiously, checking for any other store browsers before, removing his cap to reveal his glistening bald skull. It had been more than a decade since Jason Statham had stepped into whiskey frisky, but here he was, drenched in nervous sweat. We are sure the second man removed his cap as well, revealing the handsome face of one Chris Pratt. Do you guys not remember how close you came the first time? You know it's twice as bad the second time, right? Seth seemed utterly unimpressed by his company. In fact, his cheeks were now flushed with annoyance. Please, I need this. Jason said, leaning forward and cupping his hands pleadingly. Seth sighed again. I don't get why, though. Especially you, Chris. You're doing great right now. Did you see the last Avengers movie, man? Chris replied. I barely had two lines. My manager thinks I may be on the way out. I don't know, guys, Seth said, shaking his head incredulously. The old man might not go for it. Did you bring payment, at least? As if the men had been waiting for those very words. Both Jason and Chris lifted and slammed a bulging black duffle onto the counter, knocking over a delicate stack of bubble bath ice cream butter. It's all there, Jason said in a hushed voice. All right, Seth said, giving one last warning sigh and getting to his feet. Head into the back. I'll lock up. Zell, get out here, man. We have business. Seth looked over his shoulder at the anxious celebrities and banged on the metal door another three times. All right, all ready. Roared a gruff voice. Within a breath, the door swung open with a metallic crunch, and a wiry gray-haired man limped into the dark room. His cane made wooden dumps on the stone and his right foot dragged behind it. Nothing about the old man looked broken, though. He was lofty and powerful, despite his slight frame. Just what is this fuckery, then? He growled. Seth shrugged nonchalantly and jerked a thumb at the men standing behind him. Jason steered them in crisp rat. They won a second go. Paid up front, too. The old man laughed in raspy coughs. You takin' the piss, lads. You know it's twice as bad the second go round. We're aware, Azazel. Jason replied family. He looked concerned, but like most of the characters in his films, he also seemed utterly confident. Chris, however, he looked increasingly unsure. Zell clicked his tongue and narrowed his eyes with bemusement. Well, okay, then. Let's get straight to business. Seth felt his stomach flutter with anticipation, and a smirk crept across both his and the old man's faces. This is going to be a good day.  You go through the window, simple. If you make it out again, you get a bit of… good luck. Azazel gave another sinister smile and waved his hand to the opening behind him. The men were all standing within the belly of an unnaturally dark room, in a half-circle around a blackened and burnt brick wall. In the center of the wall was a perfectly rectangular hole that led into a bottomless void of pitch black. It was not an absence of light. It was something that could only be an absence of existence. But either way, I lose some of your soul stage there. Seth added through a mouthful of cereal. Maybe I don't need this, Chris bled it out, palming the sweat from his eyes with a shaky hand. They do want me for another Jurassic movie. Hey, Jason Hissed. We said we would do this together. He grabbed Chris by the collar and bared his teeth. Okay, Chris blinked rapidly, looking from Jason's beaded glare to the void beyond. Zell tapped his cane with a sharp clack and bellowed. Come on now, we don't have all day. Jason took one last deep breath and stepped into the window. He was instantly swallowed by the black. Chris stepped up to the hole and threw one last imploring glance to Seth, who simply winked back. I'm rooting for you, pal. I love the Guardians movies. With one last breathless whisper, the two men were gone, and the sex store clerks were left in silence. What do you think? Seth said, dropping his bowl onto the floor. I think I'd rather get a tattoo of Bob Ross in the nude than see what those fellas are doing right now. Azazel replied, leaning forward on his cane. Not often you get people game to go back in though. Well, not since Hillary's email's debacle anyway. Zell laughed again, sounding much like Stones in a cement mixer. Well, there is... him. Seth replied with a shrug. The old man knew who his companion was referring to, the one man who had so far gone through the void, no less than four times. Suddenly there was a guttural and supernatural groan, and a figure soaked in blood was spat from the window. Seth squinted and leaned forward with an excited gasp. Who is it? The men on the ground spat a mouthful of blood onto the stone beneath him and rolled onto his back.  Very well done.  Seth clapped enthusiastically and gave the old man a smug look. Called it, no Jason Statham I see. Zell said, regarding the blood now creeping the meter's feet. Chris opened his eyes. The whites had drastic contrast against the dark crimson coating him. Gone, he rasped. Seth noticed Chris had grown a beard in his absence. Not unusual for the void, but all the more impressive. Chris raised a quivering hand toward the old man, the rest of his body seemingly paralyzed. Help, he wheezed. We're demons, lad, not nurses.  With that, Zell limped back into his room and kicked the heavy iron door shut behind him. Congratulations, Chris. At least now I know the next guardian's film will be a banger. Seth stepped over the panting blood-soaked man and wandered casually back into the store with his hands in his pockets. He had been chuckling to himself when something stopped him dead in his tracks. What do you think? There is one more paragraph to that story, but if you want to read that, you're gonna have to go check it out on Wokpad. I'll leave a link in the description below.  But then again, does anyone remember when I wrote and published a book within one day and that book happened to be a self-published Pizarro erotica about a bachelor show where some of the contestants were Bigfoot, a raptor, and a normal woman? Maybe I should leave a card for that video. Because if you liked this one, I feel like you'll definitely, you'll like that one. Anyway, that was this episode of Wokpad's Wildest. I hope you liked it. Make sure you subscribe to the channel so that you can be involved when I do stuff like this in the future. I promise I can write normal stuff too, guys, I promise. Shit. As always, thanks for watching, guys. Catch ya.


And welcome to Talk of the Town, looking a little bit different than Talk of the Town usually does because everything is these days. Anyway, a familiar face is joining us today for a regular legislative update, which we are conducting remotely, of course, as everything is these days. But anyway, welcome to Cindy Friedman, our state senator, and one of my favorite people to talk to and check in with regularly throughout the year. So Cindy, thanks for joining us. Jane, how are you? I am doing okay. Probably very similar to you and to the rest of our audience kind of squirreled away here in my own home office, as I'm sure you are, and getting business done as best we can. So let's get right to that. Actually, I and others are curious just about how are our legislators conducting business these days in the coronavirus and social isolation environment? So tell us a little bit. How are you getting things done? A lot of conference calls and a lot of Zoom. I think one of the silver linings of this is that we have amazing technology. And in fact, I probably spend more time in meetings now than I did before the coronavirus because we're all in one place, we're all at home, we're easy to get to, we don't have to worry about, well, I can't come out here because I have a meeting over here and so I don't have the time, everything's just bam, bam, bam. Everybody's right there. So lots of conference calls, lots of Zoom and lots getting done, I have to say. Yeah, I can appreciate the fact that to the extent that what you're doing needs conferring and needs you basically just to be in consultation and deliberation and processing with others, that as you say, this is a bit of a silver lining because I have certainly found, as everybody else has, people are on the other end when you call in general because it's not hard to track you guys down. What is missing though? What do you find that you're just not being able to get done because of the current constraints? Well, anything outside of an issue addressing this virus is something that we're not getting done. I mean, it is this work to address this pandemic every minute of the day and there's really not bandwidth right now for anything else. Yeah, I was wondering also whether there might just be not having access to, I don't know, objects or sites or things like that. How big a problem that might be for you. Anyway, it just sounds like your lives are being dominated as are all of ours by the virus. So let's talk about legislation that is either already been passed in process or that we can expect related to the virus. So I can ask you about specific areas or just kind of invite you to share with us in your own order of priority some of the things that are being tackled. Okay, so I think the first thing that I would say or the first context I would put things in is we are looking at anything, any legislation, any activity by the Senate that requires immediate attention. That is something that is facing the Commonwealth at this moment and that we need to respond to. So that's fallen recently into a few areas. One of them is healthcare and we did the scope of practice bill. We also did a telehealth bill. We did a prior off bill and then the governor. Let me just jump in and say scope of practice, that's not self-evident to me. So what do you mean? What we've done is we have legislation to ensure that everybody in the medical profession is working to the top of their license. So I'll give you an example. A nurse practitioner by license can do treatment. They can do diagnostics. They can prescribe. They can admit people to a hospital. But our licensing, our rules say they have to do that with the supervision of a doctor. So they have to be under the supervision. So that means that every nurse practitioner needs to be working for a doctor or under the supervision of a doctor. We really need nurse practitioners. We need them out in the field and we need them to do the work that is going to keep people healthy, not only the COVID-19 positive people but people who need care. So their ability to be able to prescribe is really important because then we don't need the doctor can be working or looking at something much more detailed or needing more experience. And so what we've done in our bill and then the governor adopted and did it through executive order was say, okay, all nurse practitioners can work to the top of their license. So now they can prescribe. Now you can see a nurse practitioner and if you have a strep throat, she can say, okay, I'm going to give you some antibiotics and then she can do the scribing and you can go and get the antibiotics. And she doesn't need a doctor to be supervising that. And so that's really covered in nurse practitioners, advanced psychiatric nurse workers and the other one is just went out of my head. Oh, a CNA certified nurse anesthetist. Okay, excuse me, I'm going to close the door. Sure. Okay, so that's a scope of practice, okay? Yes, and I know you had mentioned a number of other things as well and happy to get you to elaborate on those. But I did want to say that that's a great illustration what you just told us, great illustration of a couple of things, it seems to me. One is, you know, what it is that we need our legislators to be doing in terms of addressing this phenomenon, you know, we need as a society, obviously, to give the maximum flexibility to our medical establishment as they can have at this time. That's in everybody's interest. So the fact that you in the state house, you're the ones who can, again, as you say, affirm or legitimize this broadest possible use of people's skills, that makes a lot of sense. And then the second thing that it reminds me of is the fact that, of course, we are all consumed all day every day with news about the virus, et cetera, and consciousness in our own lives about it. But we need to remember that doctors and nurses and nurse practitioners, et cetera, are all taking care of a lot of different maladies, all the same ones that they always have. And I think that, again, it's a great illustration and reminder that part of what you're doing is just enabling those in the medical establishment to do the work that they generally do and still need to be doing even in the face of this. Right. So that's just an example on the health care side. Then another piece that we've been looking at and actually did a bill was a municipal bill around elections and pushing out some of the elections allowing for more mail-in ballots. That was something that was passed and signed by the governor. So there's the whole kind of municipal piece and the pieces of how we keep local governments moving. We have another bill that is being worked on by the Senate and the House to expand that around things like remote meetings, notaries. All of these things that you just don't even think of because they're part of your daily life. And now, all of a sudden, how do you have a selectman's meeting when you can't come into a building and you need to follow the open meeting laws? Exactly, yeah. And obviously, everybody listening in here is going to know that this directly pertains to Arlington, both in terms of the election and needing to have some more flexibility around when to reschedule our local election. Yeah, and then we've got select board meetings and other meetings going on. Where are you meeting? We have, you know, we are required by law to have a balanced budget in by July, you know, but done for the fiscal year. Well, how do you do that when you can't meet? How do you do that when, you know, when all of these offices are closed and people can't do their work? We have to allow for life to go on. So those are those are that that's that area. And that's the Senate and the House have been working on together. The safety net issues, OK, around unemployment, insurance and homeless and homelessness and shelters and the whole financial piece of keeping our health care system up and running during this time. So those are the areas that we are focused on in the Senate and anything we can do in as quickly a manner as we can do it. That's what we're focused on. And I know that there's a great connection between the Senate president and the administration. So sometimes we do this work and it feels like we say, this is what we're doing. And then the governor goes, OK, we'll do it in executive order, which, you know, for a minute is frustrating. And beyond that, it's like, great, it's getting done. It's. Right. Obviously, the most important thing is that the stuff get done, however, however it happens. Yeah, I mean, a couple of other areas that that we want to make sure that we touch on is I know that there has been some legislation recently around kind of landlords and tenants as well, who are obviously, especially in a stay at home environment. Obviously, there are going to be issues arising there. Right. So the how the Senate is, I think either we've released it today or tomorrow, we're going to bring it up on Monday is a housing bill. So the first part of the housing bill, my understanding is, is that it will put a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures. And it will have some other pieces in it about Airbnb rentals and hospital and hotels and creating spaces for health care workers to be able to, you know, rent a place by the hospital or or make it easy, but otherwise closing those some of those down so that we don't have people coming into the state and increasing our chances of infection. So that's happening. I know in the Senate is supposed to or we will be bringing that up on Monday. And then and then so that will be the first. I mean, the other piece to know is that that will be the first iteration. And then after we do that, there'll be a next iteration and a next iteration, right? So we're doing immediate chunks and and the the pieces at the top of the priority list. And then we're going right back and going down the list. So I know there's a lot of people that want to prohibit foreclosures completely, for instance, or prohibitive evictions. Well, that's a little more complicated to do than put a moratorium on them. Moratorium on them. So instead of saying, well, we're going to have to work everything out before we do something, let's do the let's do the quick things first. And then we'll keep working on the more complex issues. That's what we've been doing in the Senate. That's a it's a great point. And I'm just curious, has that been at all a hard sell with any of your colleagues? Do you have anybody who's resisting because they want to get more done on the initial stages? Or do you does everybody recognize that you need to do this in an over a number of steps and stages? Hard for some people. I mean, some people see this as an opportunity and, you know, maybe rightly so, doing things that we should be doing. We should do anyway, right? And so, yeah, there's a pushback. I mean, the advocates are pushing for as much as they can get, which advocates do and should do. That's their job. And it doesn't sit well with everybody. But in the Senate, but but it is there's a pretty general agreement that we're going to keep moving. And I don't think anybody is to the point where they're going to try and stop something from happening because it doesn't have enough in it. I think they're going to keep pushing and that's their job is, you know, keep pushing, keep get I do it. I try and get everything I can get into something. And then at some point I say, OK, that's it. I get it. Do this. I'll come back and bother you about the next thing. Right. And as you say, that is the job. So doing it right requires that. Yeah. So I wanted to just ask you, obviously, everybody is very aware of this unimaginably large two trillion dollar spending package that the, you know, that the federal legislature has passed. And it's been signed by by the president. Obviously, some of that money is going to be coming to Massachusetts. How how does that kind of thing happen? How how much are you going to be involved in the in the state Senate with rapidly figuring out how to take X chunk of money and apply it to Y area in a way that's effective. Is that going to be taking up expected to take up a lot of your time and energy in the next little while? Greater minds are thinking about this than I. OK, we'll start with that. I think it really depends on from my understanding is it depends on what the what the chunk of money is for. So unemployment insurance, lots of that is federal. So it's just going to it's part of the federal unemployment insurance piece. Now, the state has pieces of unemployment that they do, but a whole bunch of that is federal. OK, now you apply through the state and that's an issue. But in terms of the health care space, some of that is going to go directly to let's say there's money. There's a billion dollars. I think that's going to come directly to hospitals. And I know the first round of that 25 billion is going to be sent to hospitals directly based on their number of beds that they have and whether they're in a hot spot. OK, so I'm I'm sorry, the hundred billion dollars of that is for is for hospitals, if I didn't say that right. And I think that's going to be done by a formula. Now, there is more money coming to hospitals for safety net hospitals or disproportionate share hospitals, just disproportionate shares for hospitals who have more Medicaid and Medicare than commercial. That's we're all kind of trying to figure out, OK, how is that money? How is that money to be allocated and how do we want that money to be allocated? Can we can we influence the feds in how that money comes? So those are two examples of money that we're going to be seeing and some in some ways we know that how it's going to be proportioned and in some ways we don't know yet. So things are up in the air. But you can be you can rest assured that the state is looking very, very carefully at that because they want to make sure that they get all the money they can that they that comes to Massachusetts. Right, of course. And I appreciate your being able to answer that question to any degree because, of course, there's so much uncertainty about, you know, exactly when things arrive and how how it is that that's going to be processed. I think those of us out here just kind of we hear that such a package gets passed. And then we just assume that, oh, we're well, we're awaiting our checks in the mail, but also, you know, that it's just going there's going to be some kind of smooth flow of that into the needed areas. But no, that's that's a lot of the sausage making that you guys do, right? Yeah, it's one thing that out. Yeah, it's one thing to say, let's do it. And then the second piece is OK, how? And so I think the house kind of still up in the air. But some of it and I think some of it will work smoothly and some of it will be. There'll be have to be a lot of wrangling or changing systems. I mean, just some of the things that we're allowing today, for instance, the federal government is now allowed or has made people with 1099s are self-employed, you know, sort of focusing on the gig economy to be eligible for unemployment. Well, that's great, except none of our unemployment systems when you go on them are able to deal with that. That's never been an option. So those systems have to be changed, nothing running. So I could go on to the unemployment system and file and they would be accepted. Right? It's like all these minute details.  The system asks you for what doctor is supervising you. Well, there's no doctor supervising you anymore. That system has to be fixed. So the level of detail that is, you know, that has to be addressed once these decisions are made. Or they're they're pretty they're pretty big. You know, you had mentioned earlier that you're concerned and legislation is being developed to address the needs of social safety net type populations. And we talked a little bit about the homeless, about folks applying for unemployment, etc. I'm wondering about undocumented people and families. Is there anything that is specifically trying to address the kinds of things that might be of particular pertinence to people in that situation? I know there are people working on this. I know this is a big issue. It's not only an issue because it's. Kind of morally, it's not only a moral issue like do you take care of people when they're in need, regardless of where they're from. But it's also a public safety issue and we need to know who's out there and we need to know if somebody's ill and we need to take care of them because it's all part of keeping us all safe. I'm so I know this is an issue that's being worked on. I am not personally involved in it. But I know I was on a conference call the other day where the working group, the Senate working group, that is working on the safety net issues brought this up and they were working on some potential solutions. Okay. How about allocating any extra money from the state for mental health assistance? Because obviously we're all, I think, aware both on a very personal level. And as we think about it, that the solution, you know, as we've many have noted, the solution or a solution or a way, a path towards the solution to this involves this deliberate isolating of ourselves from each other and that we know that that can't be good for us as a species and as a society in general, even though we need to do it right now. So clearly that means that there are all kinds of, again, mental health ramifications for this. Is there, obviously there's an awareness of that. Is there, are you aware of specific legislation or general programs that are intended to address that? In the very, very short term telehealth and the expansion of telehealth and the requirement that it be covered, telehealth be covered in the same way as an in-person visit has, I think, done a lot to relieve some of the issues around access to mental health. So the fact that I can now talk to you as my provider by either video or phone has helped that somewhat so people can continue to have their care on that level. That's a big deal. It's certainly just the first step. And I think we are having, I think there's some real concerns. When somebody comes into an emergency room and they have a serious mental illness and they may be positive, a COVID-19 positive, it takes a different protocol to deal with that than if you're just somebody coming in and you don't have a serious mental illness. And I think this is something that hospitals are grappling with right now and that we're trying to ensure that there is the right care and the right follow-up that can be provided for people who are in that level of need. And I don't, I'm sure it's not where it needs to be. And it's something that we are concerned about, really concerned about. In the long-term, we're gonna have a lot to deal with because people just talk about PTSD alone from this kind of event. And it's serious, it's really serious. And so I don't, but I don't think we've really started to look at that yet. We know it's out there, but we haven't really, I can't tell you that we've done a good deep dive and have a great plan. Well, you know, one of the things in this area, one of the things that some folks have mentioned to me is because it seems like a somewhat simple thing to address is the number of visits that you can have with a mental health provider, a mental health care provider or some other, you know, whether it's therapy or something else, whether that number is just can be raised from what insurance companies usually allow or, you know, and whether legislation would be the way to do that. Yeah, I mean, that could very well, I know that very recently, there has been a number of settlements with the attorney general and the health plans around their usage of prior authorization and limits to mental health care. And I know there were a number of fairly big fines and especially around inadequate provider networks, limits on office visits. And so some of that's been relaxed and there's much more focus on ensuring that there's parity between mental health and med surge health. And we also passed what I think is a great mental health parity bill in the Senate recently. And I would hope that that's something the house would take up with seriousness. So some of that needs to be addressed because it's, you know, needs to be addressed at the state level because it's illegal, right? And then we need to look at where are those limits in terms of, you know, preventing people from getting access. But I think it's a combination of enforcing the parity rules we have and then seeing what legislation might be needed to make sure that we're making that access available as it needs to be. A lot of it is around, you know. Sorry, go ahead. A lot of it is around rates and increasing the rates for that providers get paid for mental health care. I have to say this conversation is a, you know, it's perfectly representative of most of the conversations you and I have in our lives at this point. And that is we can't get away from the virus. Let me, let me, let me at least invite you to tell us about the kinds of things that were going on for you a month, two months, three months ago. And that, you know, you haven't had a chance to share with us up till now. If you can even remember back then. I can't remember. A lot of stuff were going on in the communities. You know, I was, you know, this is the season of wonderful events and, you know, graduations and getting ready for the summer. There were spring, you know, there was a great event in Bellrica for the council on aging. There has been enough, you know, those kinds of things where people are, you know, doing wonderful fundraising and gardens, community gardens are opening up. And, you know, so I had a great calendar full of events of town meetings, another big one that we were getting ready for at the community level. And that's all just disappeared. Right. And then in my particular area, we've had a lot of healthcare lined up. We had scope of practice preventing, you know, telehealth was one out of network billing. We have a bill to stop surprise billing where you don't know a person is in your network and then you get to bill. In fact, I think we're going to try and push that in the next couple of weeks because that's going to become an issue. So we were working on that and pay parity between the academic hospitals and the community hospitals. These were the things that we were working on and the, I know the big transportation bill was going to come out of the Senate. Not sure where that is. The budget. Yeah, so I mean, really all of the normal business of the Senate has been kind of put on hold. What are the ramifications of that, do you think? We'll let you know. I guess we'll all find out, right? Because every single day is another step into further uncharted territory for all of us. Obviously, I did want to ask, and I know our time is short, I just wanted to ask one more quick, specific question and then we'll wrap up. And that is one, and this is in part because I have... Sorry. Sorry, that's fine. Partly because I know so many people who are caring for their parents right now, as well as children, et cetera. And in many people as well, who can't access folks in senior homes in other kinds of facilities, even in hospice, it is much more difficult to visit people who are sick and dying. Is it even possible, and if so, is there any move towards creating more access in this way, Zoom, FaceTime, et cetera, for people to be able to access, again, those who they can no longer visit in person? I don't know the answer to that. I really don't. I mean, it's a really good question. And I know some people are, some facilities are working hard on creating that space, but I don't really know whether there's an overall plan or for how that's being addressed in any large-scale way. It's a big problem, it's a real issue. Yeah, clearly so. And for me to throw the laundry list of, hey, how about this and how about that at you is not exactly fair, but it happens, I apologize for that. So last thing, just wrapping up, obviously we know what you're doing on our behalf, or we have a better idea of that right now and want to express our appreciation for it and the fact that you guys are finding a way to do what you need to do even in this environment. What about your message, either as our state senator or as Cindy? What's your message out to the community of Arlington and beyond right now? What would you like to, I don't know, see from others or at least express? I think what I want to convey is how incredibly grateful I am to everyone in my communities who are taking this so seriously, doing the things that they're being asked of doing, doing the things they're being asked to do to the amazing, incredible amount of kindness and thoughtfulness that I see going across all my communities to help people and to keep that sense of community alive. I think it's so important and get through this and we will get through it, follow the requests that we're making to stay apart, to self-distance and people are doing it and they're taking it really seriously and that is wonderful. And I just, one people know that this is, we're gonna be in this for a while. There's no, we don't see any short path out to try and keep the faith and to stay patient, find ways to find joy in your life and if you really are in need to reach out and to reach out to your community, I know every one of my communities has a website and they have lots of information on it, they have lots of contact information and if you need anything from us that you let me know, our office number is<PHONE_NUMBER> and you can go to our website as well. So I just wanna thank everybody and tell everyone to keep the faith. Great and I know that you've got a number of other resources available through your website, et cetera, whether it's CDC guidelines, WHO, et cetera. So we do wanna encourage people, we'll be making those available on screen or otherwise for people to be able to access. So those are wonderful words for the community and right back at you Cindy with those and best of luck in continuing to do the hard and very, very important work you're doing right now. And we look forward to talking to you again soon either in this format if necessary or back to what we're more familiar, comfortable and enjoying most of the time being in person with you. So thanks for joining us, appreciate it very much. And everybody have a wonderful rest of the day. Okay, thanks very much for everybody out there. This is James Mulan, this is Talk of the Town. We've been talking to our state senator, Cindy Friedman. Thanks for joining us and we'll see you later.