I live in a j's podcast for your monday most wonderful show is keeping up with the jones
Mr. Lounge Lizard.
Why am I a lounge lizard?
Because you're laying back in your chair.
Well, I've got the luxury of lying back.
Why not take it?
That's right.
As Confucius once said, why stand when you can sit and why sit when you can lie.
Is that true?
Well, it's a true premise.
I don't Confucius said that on that topic.
follow up from last week when i talked about my break dancing name yes being
vault here yes several people when he's a french philosopher not a marker
yes which i'm aware of but as a nine ten year old i wasn't familiar with
french philosophy but i was familiar with the big
sharpie esque brand called the vault here which i did a google search for
and good lord am i still talking about this you bet
okay
welcome to keeping up with jones's welcome
I must say hi to Lindsay from Texas.
Who's Lindsay from Texas?
I was sitting at the factory.
We were having a meeting.
I think we were waiting on some people come.
You went to get some coffee and last week and Lindsay came up and said, hi,
I just want to say it.
I listened to your podcast and I thought that was very sweet.
So I thought I want to say hi back to her.
I also ran into a gentleman in the factory who said hello, but I don't think he
gave me his name.
I think he just had hi and then he walked away.
So high, random gentleman from the factory.
Did he mention listening to the vodcast?
He did.
Oh, I see.
Yeah.
I was wondering where that story had similar ideas.

Yeah.
And then we put out on the internet and our, our server says many of you listened, but we don't know many of you.
I mean, we know many of you anyway.
In fact, most of our conversations with our friends go something like, "Oh yeah, this happened."
They're like, "Yeah, we know we already listened to your podcast."
-We probably have to ban our friends from listening and then we can have normal relationships.
-Right. Do you know I was happy about this week?
-What were you happy about this week?
-I was happy because Comcast came and finally gave us decent internet.
-Yes.
-The story is the house that we moved to is only served by Comcast. You can't get internet
from anybody else. So that made it simple. I was sad to say goodbye to AT&T or last acts because
we had gigapower which is fiber optic to the house, side of the house and then a thousand
megawits a second down and up which was awesome. It was no, it happened.
 How good he was I about that.
You were on a giddiness scale of one to 10, probably 48. Yeah. And so moving here, Comcast
are the only people who provide, right? Now, lots of people have bad things to say about
Comcast, but I literally have never had a bad experience with them. People have always dealt
with have always been very nice. And this instance was no different. They've just started rolling
out again, a thousand megabits a second. And the tech guy who came out, this was his second
ever install of that particular one he'd done plenty other. So he let me tag along and he let
me ask all these questions and explained everything he was doing. And so now we have really fast
internet and I'm very happy.
And you just like to be cutting edge, probably made you happy that you were the second install
ever for calm cast in all honesty.
I didn't realize calm cast was just rolling out.
There's only two markets have rolled out Austin and Nashville.
And I didn't realize it was like a week or two old.
I thought they'd been doing it.
So I had it.
I doubt there's too many people are going to be interested by saying next,
but I got new wireless routers.
Wow.
Okay.
I know.
If you're interested, reach out to me on Twitter.
I'll tell you all about them.

I don't know.
I don't even care.
It's meant to.
Yeah.
Tell me about the highlight of your week.
The highlight of my week.
Well, well, I have a sad thing.
How can that be a highlight?
How can that be an answer?
It's not a highlight.
It's a sad light.
My coffee machine is not working.
And what did you do to it?
I did not do anything.
I returned from being away on a weekend thing and it is not working.
And I tried to do all kinds of different things like run vinegar through it and such.
Well, did you try to scaling it?
Yes. With vinegar or the approved solution?
I don't have the approved solution, but it's not a descaling thing.
It's not showing the descaling sign. It's showing the wrench.
Yeah. Well, I'll hit it with a wrench and see what happens.
No, it doesn't. That's what you're supposed to do.
Okay. Yeah.
Why don't you become a proper coffee person and do pour-overs?
Apparently it only takes 42 minutes to make a cup of coffee.
I know, right.
And some wings do.
You measure in this.
I don't have that kind of time in the morning.
Can you imagine kids just leave me alone?
I need 20 minutes to make my cup of coffee.
Yes, not going to happen.
I had a dental appointment this week.
You did tell us about that.
So I'm currently getting all my amalgam fillings removed out of my teeth
because as my dentist said, he said, sort of, they've been in there for quite a
long time and with no disrespect to the land of your father's, it's not known for
his great dental work.
So that means I have to sit in a dentist chair for several hours as they drill
out the amalgam fillings, clean it all out, patch up any decay that might be hidden
by those 30-year-old fillings. And then they make a temporary, it's not really crown,
I think they call it a partial crown, an onlay. And then that takes a good couple hours,
then I go away and about two weeks later I come back and they replace the onlay with an
official one. But anyway, I have a wife. Yes, you do. But anyway, I have a mouthful of white,
rather than a mouthful of amalgam. Oh, you will have. Yeah. So I roll up on Friday,
ready for my appointment. I'm not nervous.  So I think I'm going to be late by a couple of minutes. So I call Kelsey
at the dentist. They call see him at town. I'm on my way. The rain is terrible. I should be a couple
minutes late and she says for what and I said for my appointment.
So just hold on so she I can hear typing.
She's like, well, the good news is that you're really early and I said, for what?
She said your appointment that's in a month's time.
So I showed up a month early for my appointment.
So you didn't actually even make it there?
No, I just said, OK, turn around and I've you.
I've picked up something from Craigslist.
Let's talk about the craigslist list, King.
Oh, I love that title.
Yes, I'm like a pirate finding treasure.
You are.
Yeah, you are.
You, you're finding some pretty, some pretty fantastic things.
Well, I'm not really doing much.
I have this really fancy app that allows you to put in search queries and it'll notify you by email anytime anything posts of vague interest, the keyword you put in.
Oh, so it just I was wondering how you were managing to find these things.
Yeah, it's great.
So the great thing about living in Franklin is we earn the downstream from some very wealthy suburbs.
So people throw out, or not throw out, but sell at a ridiculous price point, stuff that costs way,
way, way, way more. So if you just pay close attention, you can pick up some great deals,
which is what I did instead of going to the dentist.
Yep.
Anything else happened this week?
Well, I mean, every week is a good week.
It seems like it seems like we say the same thing every week.
We met with amazing people, which we did.
Yep.
And we're gearing up for school.
We're doing some training with our small group leaders
and just getting ready.
So that's pretty exciting.
And you spoke at legacy tonight.
What did you speak on?
I spoke on feelings, nothing more than feelings.
Don't sing.
Feeling.
OK, you're so predictable.
Nothing, boy.
Lyle and Allison Phillips, our friends,
run a church called Legacy Nashville.
And they have just finished a series on relationships.
I was the last person now.
And I talked about feelings as being something that can help
or hinder your relationships.
- That's great.
- Well, I hope it was.
They're quite funny because I don't know that audience
and I'm sure many of them don't know me.
I was trying to work out whether I was making a good
impression or bad impression.
(both laughing)
And you weren't there to help me.
- No, they didn't egg you or anything.
- Nope, no, my targe runs flash.
Well, so you must have been okay.
So our main topic is actually the power of words.
- Ooh.
- Ooh.
And, you know, Jeff has been doing a series
on the power of words and he has been absolutely killing it.
- He really has.
- Yeah.
And drawing out stuff that I haven't ever thought of before,
you know, on that topic.
So you and I have probably heard a lot of sermons
the power of words from a negative standpoint, like what negative words do.
And that's true.
Sure, sure. But he is almost entirely focusing on positive words and basically
declarations and the promises of God and knowing what's coming out of your face and that kind of
stuff. And so it's been super, super good and very tweet-worthy.
I mean, we just you're getting tweet after tweet after tweet.
I've listed a bunch of the tweets that I wrote down this week and last as a kind of a memory reminder.
That's how it take notes pretty much now is I just tweet stuff out and I thought we could talk about the tweets or if you can think of any others.
Your memory is probably going to be better than mine.
Well, I love this first one that you wrote down words are heavens instruments for creativity.
That was basically him talking about Genesis 1 with our world being created by God speaking
it into existence.
And Jeff was talking about the premise that we create the world we live in by the words
that we're saying.
Yeah, which is totally true.
Right.
He was also talking about how worlds and stars and everything are still being created.
God is still speaking and things are being created, which was pretty cool.
I was thinking I had a dream.
I forget when I had a dream.
number of years ago and in the dream, the Holy Spirit said to me, "Your present circumstances
reveal your prior thinking."
Right.
And that whole thing that we've been pondering a lot about, that you're living right now
in your expectation of yesterday.
And if your expectation was there, you've probably spoken according to your expectation.
So Jeff is just challenging us.
Why don't you think bigger and speak towards your future as described in Scripture?
Yeah.
It's just so profound.
Yeah, it's a really, really unlikely that you would be thinking something and it
doesn't make its way out of your face.
Right.
Cause Jesus said out the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.
Right.
So it's a good indicator to understand your level of expectation of faith by having
people tell you what they hear you say.
You know, we have a friend called Will and Will lived in England.
that she's moved back to England.
And so when Will was moving out to Nashville,
Will Kim did our school last year,
I was helping him with his visa stuff,
just talking through the visa process.
And I was talking about some of the pitfalls to think of
and what struck me by Will and his positivity was
never once did he side with a negative outcome.
He always sided with a positive outcome
and it just struck me and I just thought
that is incredible.
And it struck me because
I think I've been trained to think about negative options
and how we'd be prepared for them.
- Right, and that seems like wisdom, isn't it?
- But Will's point was, we don't know,
for example, I was saying,
"Hey, your entry to the United States is largely dependent
"on the agent that you get when you get to customs
"and border patrol."
- Right.
- And so, and he's like, "Oh, well, that's great.
"I'm gonna get an amazing agent."
And I was thinking, you don't know
you're gonna get an amazing agent,
but he could equally retort.
Well, you don't know I'm not right.
And it never entered his head that you'd have any difficulties.
And guess what?
He never had any difficulties.
So just it was so refreshing.
We've got a bunch of friends like that.
And I'm trying to be like that who just have this positive expectation.
And they're surrounded by that in their words.
And I love it.
We've been watching MJ just loves finding name.
Well, he must watch it two or three times a day.
Yeah.
And of course, of course, Dory is relentlessly optimistic.
Yes.
and there's a brilliant bit when they're all caught in the whale, and the whale swallows them.
And he's like, "The water's going down, look, it's half empty." She's like, "Oh, funny, it looked
half full." And there's just this back and forth of his negative view and her positive view.
And as Gary says, "War is a great misuse of imagination." I just think about how much effort
we sincerely plan negative thinking, and it seems folly to think positively. But why not flip it?
Right. Running worst case scenario all the time in the back of your head and then planning
for worst case scenario and then not being surprised that we get worst case scenario.
Well, of course you do.
Jeff said this. He said, "Our lives are molded by the messages we allow ourselves to hear."
Talking about our upbringing and not talking about today. What you choose to hear about yourself
That's so important.
Yeah.
And he did spend some time as well reiterating from some teaching that he did a couple of
months ago about the difference between hearing and listening.
Right.
Be careful how you hear.
Yeah.
Be careful how you hear.
I loved when he said today, he said, "Don't believe in the power of the enemy more than
the promises of the Lord."
Boom.
And then he turned it around and he said, "Ask yourself, you know, the next time you're
Am I believing in the power of the enemy more than in the promises of the Lord?"
And I thought, "Oh, I was really struck by that.
Like, "Oh, I hope I'm not, but I feel like a challenge to chat with God about that."
Well, he was talking all about in numbers the 12 spies that go out and look at the promised land.
Yeah.
And they come back and they, you know, the story, they all bring a bad report and the two of them don't.
And his point was what destinies do we talk God out of because of our unbelief and negative reports?
And when Graham Cook was here, he said, God meets us with who we are, we meet him with who we're not.
And this whole premise that our biggest challenge in life is actually believing God.
And then living according to what he's already said.
I'm so determined to do that.
I think that's what I've loved about Listen to Jeff last couple of weeks.
filled with applicable optimism. Yeah, for sure. Like when he's speaking, you can tangibly sense
change coming. Yeah. Oh, and the atmosphere feels like excited about the future, which is lovely.
How about this line that he said, the words that we speak are connected to the mindset we have.
We talked about that a little bit earlier, but that's even more interesting when it comes to
Proverbs 18 verse 21 death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruits.

Right.
We're just like, you know what?
Life is difficult.
Life is hard.

And I think it's hard.
I think that cycle is difficult really because to a person who their expectation is aligned.
with negative things happening. And maybe some of that is because of past experience
and they're continuing to experience it because they're continuing to claim it and make that
their world. It's hard to convince that person, "Hey, actually, your words are what's perpetuating
this." You may not have had your first negative experience as a result of your words, but
as you keep aligning your expectation with negativity and you keep aligning your words
with that, you're actually creating a negative environment where all you can possibly receive
back is negative.
Just terrifying.
Yeah.
So it's like you need a total reboot, you know, of how you're thinking and what's going
on in your heart and whatever and being able to trust God for good things.
Well, here's something interesting about what you just said, because what you just
said is the bulk of our teaching thus far.
Right.
stop saying negative things. But Jeff quotes Steve Backlund from, I mean,
Bethel in Reading, California, he said, eliminating wrong words does not create life.
Life is released by words that are in agreement with God. And Jeff went on to say,
it's not enough to not be negative. Right. But you can't just sit there like,
I'm just not going to say anything then. Well, but that's, I think that's been the sum total of our
efforts is I'm not going to be negative. But Jeff is like, actually, you have to go one step further,
have to be positive. Our thoughts, our words and our lives must output positivity. It's
so life giving. Yeah, it's really cool. I just think, gosh, what
different is that going to make for our kids? For everybody that you come around, if we could say
positive things, I think it just creates a much better environment for everything.
I was thinking about when Patricia King was here a number of years ago. We haven't
I haven't talked about this on the podcast, I don't think.
I talked about it last time I spoke at Grace Center
and I felt super self-conscious.
So if I can be super self-conscious in front of those guys,
I can be super self-conscious here.
But when Patricia was here last at Grace Center,
she gave Grace Center a word
and I actually tracked down the word on YouTube.
It's not the time she was at Grace Center speaking it.
It was some other time on her video channel,
she was giving it's the same word that I'll put a link
in the show notes.
But she gave us four prophetic words
for the season we were in
And they were so life-giving.
They're taken from four different verses.
I'll let you listen to the word if you want.
But basically, she gave us these four prophetic words,
me and you took them home.
We wrote them down, we wrote them on our mirror,
we wrote them on our phones, we wrote them everywhere.
And we just started declaring them.
- Yeah.
- These were the four words,
and they give us so much hope and optimism.
Number one, you can smile at your future.
I love that.
So we've just started saying, I can smile at my future.
I'm smiling at my future.
Whenever we're faced with negative things.
- Yeah, or uncertain things.
- We would just say it and I'll smell it in my future.
- Yeah.
- And then the second one was,
you're facing seven years of great abundance.
But I mean, try and tell me that's not more,
what's more optimistic than that?
Well, maybe eight years or nine years is more optimistic.
But what if there's no end date on that?
- Right.
- What if every year is the start of seven years
of great abundance?
- What if it's dog years?
- Oh, I like where you're at.
- Does that work or does that go backwards?
- Does that mean we have to get a puppy?
No.
Okay.
I will greatly bless your seed and you will reap a hundred fold in one year.
Yeah.
So we wrote out all these words and that's from Proverbs 31, 25, Genesis 41, 29, Genesis
22, 17 and Genesis 26 verses 12 and 13.
So we wrote those out and it wasn't enough to not be negative about those words.
 Oh, it's not enough to just be neutral about it. You actually have
to be positive about it. Right. And so we found ourselves challenging one another to stop our
negativity, but not just that, but move to the opposite spirit. So that whole thing about,
I will greatly bless your seed. That word is useless if you don't give the Lord seed to bless.
Right. Right. True. Yes.
So we decided, well, actually, if that word is true and we believe it's to be true,
out of our lack, we decided to sow seed. Do you remember that?
Yeah, I do remember.
Do you want to tell that story?
Well, I think around the time that Patricia was there, I can't remember what it is for,
but for some reason, we were expecting a check for $2,000.
Right.

Um, but after we heard Patricia's prophetic word, um, we just thought okay, well
let's let's sew, you know, so we sewed a thousand dollars of it right and we got that number because
Well, we got that number because it just popped in our head and we were like, holy moly, that's half of that.
And that huge.
Yeah, I was like, I'm prepared to give 10%, which is $200, which feels big.
Now we're giving away $1,000.
But I thought, actually, it wasn't so much of a fight because I was so filled with optimism about this.
Right.
I was like, you know what?
What's the worst that can happen?
We don't deserve this $2,000 that's coming anyway.
It's coming as a gift.
So let's give some of it away.
Yeah. So we decided to give away a thousand dollars and please, please, for the love of all
it's holy. The reason I feel self-conscious talking about this is, A, nobody talks about money,
B, the point of this story isn't that we gave away a thousand dollars.
And it's not a method. No. But that, well, it's kind of a method, though.
It is a bit of a method. We're teaching a method. We're talking about, actually,
you have to be positive, you have to speak positive.
But it's not about the amount of money, it's about obedience.
Correct. Yeah.
So we gave that away, that felt great. Tell you what didn't feel great is when unexpected bills showed up that we could have done with a thousand dollars.
But then we had an opportunity to not be negative and just say, I can smile at my future.
Yep.
And actually practice like these baby steps of no, I'm going to be positive. I'm going to be positive.
Yeah.
Do you know what was funny?
Well, it was funny.
Well, was at the end of the year we hadn't reaped a hundred fold.
No, we hadn't.
And so we're like, oh, the guest Patricia King is a false prophet.
We didn't say that.
No, of course we didn't.
But what I'm saying is you have an opportunity when it doesn't look like things are passing out your way to jump to negativity, to jump to blame, to jump to criticism, to fill in what we don't understand with what we think we understand.
Right.
It's so dangerous to do that.
Yes.
All right.
Let me clarify.
Patricia King is not a false prophet.
She's an amazing prophet and she's a dear friend of ours.
And as somebody we greatly respect, I was being very flippant and I hope that is cleared that part up.
But what we did do at the end of the year was go okay we didn't reap a hundred fold in a year,
but Lord we're choosing to believe that we can smell our future and here's the thing.
Goddess so I mean God's already.
Is ludicrous to say God you owe me anything when he's given us Jesus Christ of course so that that's not even a debate I just try to never ever say Lord you owe me because that's that's pitiful and that's going to be embarrassing on the day of judgment when I'm welcome to paradise.
Right.
Right.
So that's not even up for, it's just like, you know what, God?
I'll let you figure that stuff out.
So then fast forward two years, three years.
It's been two.
Two years.
We move into this house and we just love this house when we think it's amazing.
And somebody, we're telling stories to somebody about how we're moving house and it dawns
on me.
So with regards to our old house, we bought our house and three years later we sold it
And guess what the equity was that we had in the house by the time we moved out?
Ooh, ooh, ask me, ask me.
Canadian in the corner.
Oh, 100,000 dollars.
And so we, I mean, we weren't thinking of selling the house.
We weren't thinking of moving house.
There was no real reason to do that.
And the last time I checked all the houses in the neighborhood that were
competing with ours hadn't sold ours was the only one that sold sold in a day.
Yeah.
And I just think, Lord, you're amazing.
There's no reason our house should have gone up a hundred
grand in value.
No, but there really isn't.
No, that's just astonishing.
And I look back on that and just say, Lord, I think that's
directly attributed not only to giving a thousand dollars and
getting a hundred thousand in return.
You literally reaping a hundred fold.
Right.
But also our declarations are speaking out with those things.
Now, I have to say that the old Alan has having some struggles even telling that story and even
saying that because it sounds... Oh, baby, you're not old. You're just, you know, you're young and
vigorous. I'm just going with positive. Oh, yes. That's right. We're speaking positively.
But... Previous Alan. I think the previous Alan didn't have a grid for this.
I think in a previous season of my life, I would have struggled with these concepts because
This is how life should work.
Right.
Whereas this sounds too fanciful to be true.
Right.
And I think I would probably say, well, you know, I've given in the past and that never happened.
So that's ridiculous.
But I think I would challenge myself by saying, yeah, but when you gave in the past, did you give out of duty or did you give out of expectation?
Right.
Did you partner with faith or did you partner with this is what I have to do?
I mean, I totally hear what you're saying and I'm not trying to throw wrench in it or anything like that.
But I also think even when I was giving out of duty, I saw God's faithfulness because you're giving out of obedience, even if it's, you know, even if I didn't necessarily have a level of faith associated with giving.
Right.
But I would say the more that I got good at giving the more faith that I had,
that I was entering into something that was of the kingdom that I didn't fully
understand.
Well, we just have some friends and I assume this is okay to share because
they shared it publicly at Grace Center.
But we have some friends who just have this amazing testimony of
they just bought a house.
They were in a two bedroom condo with five people.
And they were just asking God for a new house.
It sounded like like five adults.
Well, no, it was two adults and two adults in their three sons and their three sons.
That's still a lot.
Yeah.
Got it.
But the point was they were saying we wanted a new house, but never believed we could.
Yeah, because let's be practical.
I mean, they just sided with logic and that's be practical.
And yet what they realized coming out of their faces wasn't practicality, but it was
negativity.
Right.
And so God bless them. I love these guys are so they're so diligent.
They just were going to do a belief audit and realize we're believing a bunch of nonsense.
And so just ask the Lord for some new beliefs.
And he gave them the beliefs before they ever got the provision.
That's an important part.
They felt like they should believe God for a house without any of the provision for the house.
And as they moved towards getting a house, the Lord provided the provisions.
And my favorite part of this is they husband and wife were having a conversation saying,
"We feel challenged to give more than our 10% tithe.
Let's tithe 12%.
And on the day that they decided we're going to tithe 12% and the day that they sent in
their paycheck for 12%, they got three checks in the mail.
They weren't expecting two to come quickly, but all two came plus a bonus one and the
the bonus one was bigger than it was the biggest check of the lot.
Wow.
And so I just loved being a bystander watching their process of them declaring and then the
fruit following.
Yeah.
I think we want the fruit before we'll follow.
Yeah, I would say that's true.
For sure.
Well, can I finish with the last part that just blew my mind that Jeff was speaking about?
Because here's the thing.
the Jeff said we've heard before, but I had never heard it with his twist. So he was talking about
the verses in James about the power of the tongue, you know how the tongue is really small but super
powerful. Yeah.  But then it goes on to about how a forest fire started
by like just a tiny spark. And so I'd always lumped all three examples into the negative power of the
the tongue. But his point was the first two is a horse and a large ship. And his point
was both are directed or steered by something small. And in this case, the allegory is to
the tongue. And Jeff's mic drop moment was the course of your life is determined by the
words that you speak. Now it sounds too new agey, but it's straight out of the Bible.
I don't think it sounds new agey. Oh, come on. Maybe it's just my brethren roots springing
I mean, but it sounds like oh so what you're saying is you just speak positively and positive things will happen
Yes, well the word of faith people they've been believing that for years, right?
Well, and that's the thing I think everybody is so uncomfortable about anything getting close to the thing that we're raised in to believe was bad
Right for me like my struggle moving into anything
I couldn't get near any of the truth of the charismatic movement because I was warned about the excesses of the charismatic movement
Yeah, I gotcha.
Same with healing.

So you're resisting getting to the fruit because of the folly or the excesses of these movements.
So I think it was amazing.
I just thought, Lord, the course of my life is determined by the words I speak about my
life.
I is smart, I is kind, I is wonderful.
I've good looking.
I have the body of a Greek God.
Yeah.
Anyway, here listeners, what are you, what is the quality of the words that you speak
about your own life?
That's your challenge.
What is the quality of your words regarding your future or your expectations?
It's a good challenge.
Thanks.
I'm the challenge master.
Yeah.
All right.
Can you read out the listeners question?
And I'll answer it.
All right.
We have a listeners question from Paige.
Hit me with it.
In one of your episodes, Alan spoke about this app that asks you questions and essentially
talks you off of a ledge or helps you figure out how to get out of your funk.
What was it?
Oh, I probably don't have to say question mark.
Please and thank you because I feel like I could use the app frequently this summer while
living with my parents.
Dear Patience, sorry.
I'm glad you asked Paige because I actually in my sermon tonight when I was at Legacy
Nashville I talked about this app.
So the app is called Mood Notes.
You can get it on the app store.
It's a couple of bucks I think, but it's so worth it.
Basically what happens is you open up the app and it asks you, "How are you?"

No matter where you put it, it then says,
"Hey, what just happened
"that could be contributing to your mood?"
And just asking you to stop and reflect
on why you're feeling, how you're feeling is so insightful.

And I need lots of sleep in the morning,
which is why I don't get out of bed when I'm asked.
(laughing)
- Oh, real life lessons.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- And then ask you to pick some feelings
and it gives you a list of positive and negative feelings
and it's really funny, it's like a feeling chart.
You just go down and go, am I feeling anxious?
Am I feeling hopeful?
Am I feeling, and you just grade yourself on how you're feeling.
If you have some negative feelings,
it then says, hey, here are some common traps
regarding your thinking.
These are some of the things that people fall into
when they have a negative trigger.
And you read through them and you think,
Does that apply to me and you check them off?

And I find it amazing for deescalating any negative feelings.
So it's called Mood Notes.
I'll put a link in the show notes.
It's a great app.
I highly recommend it.
- Perfect.
Well, just to wrap up for today,
we have our Heaven declares conference coming up
in October on the 27th to the 29th.
And we have Andy Squires will be leading worship and Lafe
Hetland and Jamie Galloway are speaking.
So we're super stoked about that.
- That's gonna be an amazing conference.
- Oh, it's gonna be so good.
I can't wait.
- Those guys are powerhouses.
- They are, and they're fun.
So I think it'll be great.
If you want the show notes for this week,
go ahead and head on over to alan and AJ.com/116.
I can't believe we've done 116 of these.
- It's amazing.
- It's shocking.
Yep. And if you want to ask us any questions, you can go ahead and shoot us your question
at<EMAIL_ADDRESS>and we will answer it on the air if we can.
Thanks again for tuning in. We so appreciate it. We pray that you have an incredible week
filled with rich revelations about how awesome your world is.
Yeah, amen.


Chapter 4 Empirical risk minimization
4.1 Excess risk and overfitting error
Let \(g:\mathcal{X}\mapsto\{0,1\}\) be a classifier. Given data \(D_n=((X_1,y_1),...,(X_n,y_n))\) we can estimate \(R(g)=P(g(X)\ne y)\) by the empirical mean \(R_n(g)= \frac{1}{n} \sum_{i=1}^{n} \mathbb{1}_{g(X_i)\ne y_i}\). Then by Hoeffding’s Inequality we have
\[ \begin{aligned} && P(\left|R_n(g)-R(g)\right|\ge \varepsilon)&\le 2e^{-2n\varepsilon^2} \\ \end{aligned} \]
and equivalently with probability \(\ge 1-\delta\):
\[ \begin{aligned} && \left|R_n(g)-R(g)\right|&\le \sqrt{ \frac{\log( \frac{2}{\delta})}{2n}} \\ \end{aligned} \]
Suppose now that we have a set \(N\) classifiers \(\mathcal{C}=\{g^{(1)},...,g^{(n)}\}\). Now let \(g_n\) denote the data-based classifier that minimizes the empirical risk \(R_n(g^{(j)})\) among our \(N\) classifiers. For its risk \(R(g_n)=P(g_n(X)\ne y|D_n)\) we can establish two quantities of interest:
We can further establish two basic inequalities. The first one is trivial:
\[ \begin{equation} \begin{aligned} && R(g_n)-R_n(g_n)&\le \max_{j=1,...,N} \left| R(g^{(j)})-R_n(g^{(j)}) \right| && \text{(overfitting)} \\ \end{aligned} \tag{4.1} \end{equation} \]
To derive the second one, note that we can rewrite the term in ?? as
\[ \begin{aligned} && R(g_n)-\min_{j=1,..,N}R(g^{(j)})&=R(g_n)-R_n(g_n)+R_n(g_n)-\min_{j=1,..,N}R(g^{(j)}) \\ \end{aligned} \] where \(R(g_n)-R_n(g_n)\) just correspond to the overfitting error again. For the second term denote \(\bar{g}=\arg\min_{j}R(g^{(j)})\) and note that
\[ \begin{aligned} && R_n(g_n)-\min_{j=1,..,N}R(g^{(j)})&\le R_n(\bar{g})-\min_{j=1,..,N}R(g^{(j)}) \\ \end{aligned} \]
since by definition \(g_n\) minimizes the empirical risk and hence \(R_n(g_n)\le R_n(\bar{g})\). Once again we can trivially establish that
\[ \begin{aligned} && R_n(\bar{g})-\min_{j=1,..,N}R(g^{(j)})&\le \max_{j=1,...,N} \left| R(g^{(j)})-R_n(g^{(j)})\right|\\ \end{aligned} \]
which is the just the bound for the overfitting error already established in (4.1). Hence, we take everything together to arrive at the second basic inequality:
\[ \begin{equation} \begin{aligned} && R(g_n)-\min_{j=1,..,N}R(g^{(j)})&\le 2\max_{j=1,...,N} \left| R(g^{(j)})-R_n(g^{(j)})\right| && \text{(excess risk)} \\ \end{aligned} \tag{4.2} \end{equation} \]
So both the excess risk and the overfitting error may be bounded in term of:
\[ \begin{aligned} && \max_{j=1,...,N} \left| R(g^{(j)})-R_n(g^{(j)})\right| \\ \end{aligned} \]
Now let us actually derive a bound. We have
\[ \begin{equation} \begin{aligned} && P\left(\max_{j=1,...,N} \left| R(g^{(j)})-R_n(g^{(j)})\right|\ge\varepsilon\right)&=P\left(\bigcup_{j=1,...,N} \left\{ \left| R(g^{(j)})-R_n(g^{(j)})\right|\ge\varepsilon\right\}\right) \\ && &\le \sum_{j=1}^{N}P\left(\left| R(g^{(j)})-R_n(g^{(j)})\right|\ge\varepsilon\right) \\ && &\le 2Ne^{-2n\varepsilon^2} \\ \end{aligned} \tag{4.3} \end{equation} \]
where the first inequality follows from the union bound and the second one from Hoeffding’s Inequality. Equivalently, we finally have that with probability \(\ge 1-\delta\)
\[ \begin{aligned} && \max_{j=1,...,N} \left| R(g^{(j)})-R_n(g^{(j)})\right|&\le \sqrt{ \frac{\log ( \frac{2N}{\delta})}{2n}} \\ \end{aligned} \] and hence the following bound:
\[ \begin{equation} \begin{aligned} && R(g_n)-R_n(g_n)&\le\sqrt{ \frac{\log ( \frac{2N}{\delta})}{2n}} && \text{(overfitting)} \\ \end{aligned} \tag{4.4} \end{equation} \]
\[ \begin{equation} \begin{aligned} && R(g_n)-\min_{j=1,..,N}R(g^{(j)})&\le 2\sqrt{ \frac{\log ( \frac{2N}{\delta})}{2n}} && \text{(excess risk)} \\ \end{aligned} \tag{4.5} \end{equation} \]
4.1.1 Data splitting
Let \(\mathcal{C}=\{g_1^{(1)},...,g_n^{(N)}\}\) be a set of data-dependent classifiers depending on \(D_n\) and suppose that an independent data set is available for testing \(D'_m=((X'_1,y'_1),...,(X'_m,y'_m))\). Then we may estimate the true risk \(R(g_n^{(j)})=P(g_n^{(j)}(X)\ne y|D_n)\) by the empirical risk (test error):
\[ \begin{equation} \begin{aligned} && R'_m(g_n^{(j)})&= \frac{1}{m} \sum_{i=1}^{m} \mathbb{1}_{g_n^{(j)}(X'_i)\ne y'_i}\\ \end{aligned} \tag{4.6} \end{equation} \]
Then using the results from above, where have for the empirical risk minimizer \(g_{n,m}=\arg\min_{j=1,...,N}R'_m(g_n^{(j)})\) that with probability \(1-\delta\):
\[ \begin{aligned} && R(g_{n,m})-R'_m(g_{n,m})&=\sqrt{ \frac{\log ( \frac{2N}{\delta})}{2m}} && \text{(overfitting)} \\ \end{aligned} \]
\[ \begin{aligned} && R(g_{n,m})-\min_{j=1,..,N}R(g_n^{(j)})&\le 2\sqrt{ \frac{\log ( \frac{2N}{\delta})}{2m}} && \text{(excess risk)} \\ \end{aligned} \]
4.1.2 Leave-one-out cross-validation
Instead of data-splitting (once) we can use leave-one-out cross-validation to get an estimate of the true risk of our data-based classifier. As before we have \(D_n=((X_1,y_1),...,(X_n,y_n))\). Now let \(D_{n,i}=((X_1,y_1),...,(X_{i-1},y_{i-1}),(X_{i+1},y_{i+1}),...,(X_n,y_n))\) denote the subsample that contains all observations except \(i\). Then we can define:
\[ \begin{aligned} && R_n^{(D)}(g_n)&= \frac{1}{n} \sum_{i=1}^{n} \mathbb{1}_{g_{n-1}(X_i,D_{n,i})\ne y_i} \\ \end{aligned} \]
Now since \(g_{n-1}\) does not depend on \((X_i,y_i)\) we have that:
\[ \begin{aligned} && \mathbb{E} \left[ R_n^{(D)}(g_n) \right]&= \mathbb{E} \left[ R(g_{n-1}) \right]\\ \end{aligned} \]
But since \(\mathbb{E} \left[ R(g_{n-1}) \right]\ne\mathbb{E} \left[ R(g_{n}) \right]\) we introduce a small amount of bias. In general it is not easy to establish bounds for the leave-one-out estimator, but empirically it performs well.
4.1.3 Realizable case
Let \(\mathcal{C}=\{g^{(1)},...,g^{(N)}\}\) be non-data-dependent classifiers depending on \(D_n\). Now assume one of the candidate classifier has zero risk, that is \(\min_jR(g^{(j)})=0\). We refer to this as the realizable case. Note that this implies that \(\min_jR_n(g^{(j)})=0\) and also that both the excess risk and overfitting error are equal to the true risk, \(R(g_n)\). Hence, we would like to bound this quantity.
\[ \begin{aligned} && P(R(g_n) \ge \varepsilon)&\le P \left( \exists j\in 1,...,N: R(g^{(j)})\ge \varepsilon; R_n(g^{(j)})=0 \right)\\ && &\le N P \left(R(g)\ge \varepsilon \ \& \ R_n(g)=0 \right) \\ && &\le N(1-\varepsilon)^N \le N e^{-n\varepsilon} \\ \end{aligned} \]
where the second inequality follows from the union bound.
4.2 Rademacher averages
In many interesting cases the class of classifiers \(\mathcal{C}\) that we wish to consider contains infinitely many classifiers. A common example is the class of deep neural networks, that can be arbitrarily deep and wide. To control overfitting in such cases we try to bound:
\[ \begin{aligned} && \max_{g\in\mathcal{C}}\left|R(g)-R_n(g)\right| \\ \end{aligned} \]
At this point we shall simplify notation a little bit. As before, let \(X_1,...,X_n\) be iid \(\in \mathcal{X}\). For a set \(A\subset\mathcal{X}\) we denote
\[ \begin{aligned} && P(A)&=P(X\in A) && \text{(true probability)}\\ && P_n(A)&= \frac{1}{n} \sum_{i=1}^{n} \mathbb{1}_{X_i\in A} && \text{(empirical frequency)}\\ \end{aligned} \] where \(X\in A\) in the context of empirical risk minimization corresponds to the classifier committing error. Now let \(\mathcal{A}\) be a class of subsets of \(\mathcal{X}\). Our aim here is to understand
\[ \begin{equation} \begin{aligned} && \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} |P_n(A)-P(A)| \\ \end{aligned} \tag{4.7} \end{equation} \]
which looks similar to the expression for overfitting defined earlier ??.
4.2.1 Finite class of classifiers
Suppose first that \(\mathcal{A}\) is a finite class. Then in order to bound (4.7) we can proceed in the same way as we did before for the overfitting error and excess risk (Equation (4.3)), where we used Hoeffding’s Inequality and the union bound. Here we have that with probability \(\ge 1-\delta\):
\[ \begin{aligned} && \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} |P_n(A)-P(A)|&\le \sqrt{ \frac{\log ( \frac{2N}{\delta})}{2n}} \\ \end{aligned} \]
This bound applies for given \(A\). Now let us go a step further and bound the expected value of (4.7). To do so we use a little trick where we first take the exponential, in particular
\[ \begin{aligned} && \exp\left\{\lambda \mathbb{E} \left[ \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} (P_n(A)-P(A)) \right]\right\}&\le \mathbb{E} \left[ \exp \left\{ \lambda\max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} (P_n(A)-P(A)) \right\} \right] &&, & \lambda>0\\ && &=\mathbb{E} \left[ \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} \left( \exp \left\{ \lambda (P_n(A)-P(A)) \right\}\right) \right] \\ && &\le \mathbb{E} \left[ \sum_{A\in\mathcal{A}}\exp \left\{ \lambda (P_n(A)-P(A)) \right\}\right]\\ && &= \sum_{A\in\mathcal{A}}\mathbb{E} \left[ \exp \left\{ \lambda (P_n(A)-P(A)) \right\}\right] \\ \end{aligned} \]
where the the first step is by Jensen’s Inequality, the second step holds since \(e^{\lambda x}\) is strictly increasing, the inequality in the third step is trivial and the final step is by linearity of expectations. Now note that \(\mathbb{E} \left[ \exp \left\{ \lambda (P_n(A)-P(A)) \right\}\right]\) is just the moment generating function of the binomial distribution. As we saw in Chapter 2.4.2, we can use Hoeffding’s Lemma to bound that quantity, in particular:
\[ \begin{aligned} && \exp\left\{\lambda \mathbb{E} \left[ \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} (P_n(A)-P(A)) \right]\right\}&\le \sum_{A\in\mathcal{A}}\mathbb{E} \left[ \exp \left\{ \lambda (P_n(A)-P(A)) \right\}\right]\\ && &\le \sum_{A\in\mathcal{A}} e^{ \frac{\lambda^2}{8n}}=Ne^{ \frac{\lambda^2}{8n}} \\ \end{aligned} \]
Finally, taking logarithms and dividing by \(\lambda\), we get:
\[ \begin{aligned} && \mathbb{E} \left[ \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} (P_n(A)-P(A)) \right]&\le \frac{\log N}{\lambda}+ \frac{\lambda}{8n} \\ \end{aligned} \] Taking the first-order condition with respect to \(\lambda\) we get \(\lambda^*=\sqrt{8n\log N}\) and hence we can finally establish:
\[ \begin{equation} \begin{aligned} && \mathbb{E} \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} |P_n(A)-P(A)| &\le 2 \sqrt{ \frac{\log N}{2n}}=\sqrt{ \frac{2\log N}{n}} \\ \end{aligned} \tag{4.8} \end{equation} \]
Remark: It can be further be shown that with probability \(\ge1-\delta\)
\[ \begin{equation} \begin{aligned} && \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} |P_n(A)-P(A)|-\mathbb{E} \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} |P_n(A)-P(A)|&\le \sqrt{ \frac{\log( \frac{4}{\delta})}{2n}} \\ \end{aligned} \tag{4.9} \end{equation} \]
4.2.2 Infinitely many classifiers
As pointed out above, there are many interesting case in which the class \(\mathcal{A}\) counts infinitely many classifiers. To establish a bound for such cases, we will use two symmetrization tricks: the first one involves the introduction of a ‘ghost’ sample; the second one involves so called Rademacher random variables.
Starting with the former, let \(X'_1,...,X'_n\) be our ‘ghost’ sample of iid data following the same distribution as \(X\). Let \(P_n'(A)\) be the empirical frequency of \(X'\in A\) and let \(\mathbb{E}'\) denote the expectation with respect to \(X'\): in this context we mean \(\mathbb{E}'\left[\cdot\right]= \mathbb{E} \left[ \cdot|X \right]\). Then note that
\[ \begin{aligned} && \mathbb{E}'P'_n(A)&= \mathbb{E} \left[ P'_n(A)|X \right]= \mathbb{E} \left[P'_n(X)\right]=P(A)\\ \end{aligned} \] since by definition of our ‘ghost’ sample \(X'\) follows the same distribution as \(X\). Similarly, we have
\[ \begin{aligned} && \mathbb{E}'P_n(A)&= \mathbb{E} \left[ P_n(A)|X \right]=P_n(A)\\ \end{aligned} \] since \(P_n\) is a data-dependent frequency fully determined by \(X\). Once again we care about the expected maximum difference between the empirical frequency and true probability that \(X\in A\) across all sets \(A\in\mathcal{A}\), namely \(\mathbb{E}\max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} (P_n(A)-P(A))\). We can use our ghost sample for the first symmetrization trick:
\[ \begin{aligned} && \mathbb{E} \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} |P_n(A)-P(A)|&= \mathbb{E} \left[ \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} \mathbb{E}'(P_n(A)-P'_n(A)) \right]\\ \end{aligned} \]
Since the maximum is a convex function we can use Jensen’s Inequality to proceed
\[ \begin{aligned} && \mathbb{E} \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} (P_n(A)-P(A))&= \mathbb{E} \left[ \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} \mathbb{E}'(P_n(A)-P'_n(A)) \right]\\ && &\le \mathbb{E} \mathbb{E}' \left[ \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} (P_n(A)-P'_n(A)) \right] \\ && &= \mathbb{E} \mathbb{E} \left[ \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} (P_n(A)-P'_n(A))|X \right] \\ && &= \mathbb{E} \left[ \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} (P_n(A)-P'_n(A))\right] \\ && &= \mathbb{E} \left[ \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^{n}( \mathbb{1}_{X_i\in A}-\mathbb{1}_{X_i'\in A})\right] \end{aligned} \]
Now we have already managed to bound our quantity of interest purely in terms of empirical frequencies over finite sample (or expectations thereof). Next we will make use of our second symmetrization trick, which involves the introduction of iid Rademacher random variables \(\sigma_i\in\{-1,1\}\) for \(i=1,...,n\).
Now the trick is to realize that since \(X_i,X'_i\) come from the same distribution they are exchangeable and the following equality holds:
\[ \begin{aligned} && \mathbb{E} \left[ \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^{n}( \mathbb{1}_{X_i\in A}-\mathbb{1}_{X_i'\in A})\right]&=\mathbb{E} \left[ \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^{n}\sigma_i( \mathbb{1}_{X_i\in A}-\mathbb{1}_{X_i'\in A})\right] \\ \end{aligned} \]
Then we have
\[ \begin{aligned} && \mathbb{E} \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} (P_n(A)-P(A))&\le\mathbb{E} \left[ \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^{n}\sigma_i( \mathbb{1}_{X_i\in A}-\mathbb{1}_{X_i'\in A})\right] \\ && &=\mathbb{E} \left[ \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} \left( \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^{n}\sigma_i \mathbb{1}_{X_i\in A}-\frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^{n}\sigma_i\mathbb{1}_{X_i'\in A}) \right)\right] \\ && &\le 2 \mathbb{E} \left[ \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} \left( \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^{n}\sigma_i \mathbb{1}_{X_i\in A} \right)\right] \\ \end{aligned} \]
where the last step follows from Jensen’s Inequality. So what we end up with it that the quantity of interest can be bounded by twice the expected value of the maximum of a Rademacher average. But looking more closely at that expected, we note that it essentially boils down to the maximum covariance between noise (\(\sigma_i\)) and an random indicator variable. This expected value can therefore be expected to be quite small and hence we have a tight bound in expectation. Now let
\[ \begin{equation} \begin{aligned} && \mathcal{R}_n(\mathcal{A})&=\mathbb{E}_{\sigma} \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} \left| \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^{n}\sigma_i \mathbb{1}_{X_i\in A} \right| \\ \end{aligned} \tag{4.10} \end{equation} \]
denote the conditional Rademacher average where \(\mathbb{E}_{\sigma}\left[\cdot\right]= \mathbb{E} \left[ \cdot|X \right]\). The we can restate further:
\[ \begin{equation} \begin{aligned} &&\mathbb{E} \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} |P_n(A)-P(A)|&\le 2 \mathbb{E} \mathcal{R}_n(\mathcal{A}) \end{aligned} \tag{4.11} \end{equation} \]
It can further be shown that \(\mathcal{R}_n(\mathcal{A})\) is concentrated around its expected value in the sense that with probability \(\ge1-\delta\):
\[ \begin{aligned} && |\mathcal{R}_n(\mathcal{A})- \mathbb{E}\mathcal{R}_n(\mathcal{A})|&\le \sqrt{ \frac{2 \log ( \frac{2}{\delta})}{n}} \\ \end{aligned} \]
We showed earlier (Equation (4.9)) that we have have with probability \(\ge1- \frac{\delta}{2}\):
\[ \begin{aligned} && \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} |P_n(A)-P(A)|&\le\mathbb{E} \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} |P_n(A)-P(A)| + \sqrt{ \frac{\log( \frac{4}{\delta})}{2n}} \\ && &\le 2 \mathbb{E} \mathcal{R}_n(\mathcal{A}) + \sqrt{ \frac{\log( \frac{4}{\delta})}{2n}} \\ \end{aligned} \]
Combining this with (4.11) we finally derive the following theorem:
What is remarkable about ?? is the fact that it establishes a purely empirical bound for a distribution free quantity that depends on a possibly infinite class.
4.3 Towards VC theory
In general the Rademacher average in (4.10) is the expectation of the maximum over finitely many averages of bounded independent variables. Relating this back to the original setup, this finite number of averages is nothing else but the finite number of sets in which our (fixed) points \(X\) can be separated such that \(X\in A\). So now the whole problem of understanding the deviations of empirical from true probabilities becomes a combinatorial question: in particular, how many subsets of \(\mathcal{X}\) of class \(\mathcal{A}\) are there that can be intersected with sets \(\{X_1,...,X_n\}\)?
The key observation with respect to the Rademacher Average (4.10), is that \(\max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} \left| \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^{n}\sigma_i \mathbb{1}_{X_i\in A} \right|\) is a maximum of at most \(S(X_1^n,\mathcal{A})\) random variables, all of which are averages of zero-mean independent random variables taking values in \([-1,1]\). In other words, the Rademacher Average can be shattered at most \(S(X_1^n,\mathcal{A})\) times.
By Hoeffding and the union bound we can show that:
\[ \begin{aligned} && \mathcal{R}_n(\mathcal{A})&=\mathbb{E}_{\sigma} \max_{A\in\mathcal{A}} \left| \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^{n}\sigma_i \mathbb{1}_{X_i\in A} \right| \le \sqrt{ \frac{2 \log S(X_1^n,\mathcal{A})}{n} } \\ \end{aligned} \]
So as long as the shatter coefficient \(S(X_1^n,\mathcal{A})\) is small (in particular smaller than exponential), then \(\mathcal{R}_n\) will be small. Note that \(S(X_1^n,\mathcal{A})\) still depends on the data \(X_1^n\). Let us define \(S_{\mathcal{A}}(n)=\max_{X_1,...,X_n}S(X_1^n,\mathcal{A})\), that is the worst case in terms of number of intersections. Then we can always define the slightly wider bound
\[ \begin{aligned} && \mathcal{R}_n(\mathcal{A})&\le \sqrt{ \frac{2 \log S_{\mathcal{A}}(n)}{n} } \\ \end{aligned} \]
Then we can establish the following theorem:
Let \(\mathcal{X}\in \mathbb{R}\) and let \(\mathcal{A}=\{[a,b]:a<b\}\), so \(\mathcal{A}\) is just the set of intervals. The the shatter coefficient is simply \(S_{\mathcal{A}}(n)=\binom{n+1}{2}= \frac{n(n+1)}{2}\le(n+1)^2\). In this case, by the VC Theorem we have
\[ \begin{aligned} && \mathbb{E}\max_{a,b\in \mathbb{R} \\ a<b} \left| P_n([a,b])-P([a,b]) \right|&\le2 \sqrt{ \frac{2 \log (n+1)^2}{n} } \\ && &\le4 \sqrt{ \frac{\log (n+1)}{n} } \\ \\ \end{aligned} \]
Relating all of this back to empirical risk minimization in the context of classification, we simply have that \(\mathcal{C}\) is the family of classifiers. Then,
\[ \begin{aligned} && \mathbb{E} \max_{g\in\mathcal{C}} |R_n(g)-R(g)|&\le 2 \sqrt{ \frac{2 \log S_{\mathcal{C}}(n)}{n} } \\ \end{aligned} \]


J1939 Diagnostics provides the ability to request and read diagnostic messages (DM) 1 and 2 from any device on the J1939 network. These messages are used to read the active and previously active diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs) respectively. This section also provides the ability to send DM 3 and 11. These messages are used to to clear previously active and active DTCs respectively.
This channel sets which J1939 device to address when sending a diagnostic message. The value -1 is used to address all devices on the J1939 bus.
This channel sets which diagnostic message to send. Accepted values are as follows:
0 - Idle
1 - Get all J1939 Device Addresses
2 - Verify DTC
3 - Clear DTCs
4 - Clear Diagnostic Command Status
5 - Clear Diagnostic Error Code
Commands are latched and executed on value change. Once the execution of a command has started, Diagnostic Command Status will be set to 0 (false) until the execution is finished, at which point it will be set to 1 (true). Note: You must executed the Get all J1939 Device Addresses command before executing the Verify DTC or Clear DTCs commands.
This channel indicates the status of the diagnostic command engine. When the channel is 0 (false), the engine is active. When the channel is 1 (true), the command engine has finished executing the latest command. This channel can then be polled after setting the Diagnostic Command to ensure the returned data is valid. The Clear Diagnostic Command Status command sets this channel to 0.
This channel shows the error status from the diagnostic command engine. The Clear Diagnostic Error Code command sets this channel to 0.


Principles
Accessible and resilient. Favours web standards over frameworks. IndieWeb–friendly. Lean and fast. JavaScript as an enhancement rather than prerequisite. Focused on user experience. Handles modern UI challenges.
Techniques
Packed full of best practices and developer insights for accessibility, layout, performance, and cross-browser compatibility. Sofrito stands on the shoulders of giants. Includes modern layouts via CSS Grid and Flexbox. Lots of typographic detail for a great reading experience.
Patterns
Every developer needs reliable, go-to components. Sofrito is brimming with framework-free solutions to common front-end challenges such as SVG icons, responsive images, fixed footers, mobile navigation, accessible forms, modals, tabs, animated messaging and more.


The Versatile Corn
Ingredients
6 ears corn on the cob, blanched1 cup mayonnaise
.25 cup store bought mint chutney
2 tsp. chili powder
2 limes, zested and juiced
2 tsp. kosher salt
2 cups Parmesan cheese, grated fine
12 8-inch bamboo skewers, soaked in water for 30 minutes
Preparation Method
In a mixing bowl, combine the mayonnaise, mint chutney chili powder,, lime zest, lime juice and salt. Cut the corn in half so you have 12 pieces, insert skewers into the ends of the corn being careful not to push the skewers through the other end. Place corn on the grill to warm and slightly roasted, 2 to 5 minutes. Once warm, brush the grilled corn with the chutney mixture and then roll in Parmesan cheese.


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THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND and the developers are of no responsibility in any case. Logos are copyright to their respective owners


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See also the index of all tips.
A common task for CSS is to center text or images. In fact, there are three kinds of centering:
In recent implementations of CSS you can also use features from level 3, which allows centering absolutely positioned elements:
The most common and (therefore) easiest type of centering is that of lines of text in a paragraph or in a heading. CSS has the property 'text-align' for that:
P { text-align: center } H2 { text-align: center }
renders each line in a P or in a H2 centered between its margins, like this:
The lines in this paragraph are all centered between the paragraph's margins, thanks to the value 'center' of the CSS property 'text-align'.
Sometimes it is not the text that needs to be centered, but the block as a whole. Or, phrased differently: we want the left and right margin to be equal. The way to do that is to set the margins to 'auto'. This is normally used with a block of fixed width, because if the block itself is flexible, it will simply take up all the available width. Here is an example:
P.blocktext { margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 8em } ...
This rather...
This rather narrow block of text is centered. Note that the lines inside the block are not centered (they are left-aligned), unlike in the earlier example.
This is also the way to center an image: make it into block of its own and apply the margin properties to it. For example:
IMG.displayed { display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto } ...
The following image is centered:
CSS level 2 doesn't have a property for centering things vertically. There will probably be one in CSS level 3 (see below). But even in CSS2 you can center blocks vertically, by combining a few properties. The trick is to specify that the outer block is to be formatted as a table cell, because the contents of a table cell can be centered vertically.
The example below centers a paragraph inside a block that has a certain given height. A separate example shows a paragraph that is centered vertically in the browser window, because it is inside a block that is absolutely positioned and as tall as the window.
DIV.container { min-height: 10em; display: table-cell; vertical-align: middle } ...

This small paragraph...

This small paragraph is vertically centered.
CSS level 3 offers other possibilities. At this time (2014), a good way to center blocks vertically without using absolute positioning (which may cause overlapping text) is still under discussion. But if you know that overlapping text will not be a problem in your document, you can use the 'transform' property to center an absolutely positioned element. For example:
This paragraph is vertically centered.
For a document that looks like this:

This paragraph…

the style sheet looks like this:
div.container3 { height: 10em; position: relative } /* 1 */ div.container3 p { margin: 0; position: absolute; /* 2 */ top: 50%; /* 3 */ transform: translate(0, -50%) } /* 4 */
The essential rules are:
Recently (since about 2015), another technique has also become available in several CSS implementations. It is based on the new 'flex' keyword for the 'display' property. This keyword is meant for use in graphical user interfaces (GUIs), but nothing stops you from using it in a document, if the document happens to have the right structure.
This paragraph is vertically centered.
the style sheet looks like this:
div.container5 { height: 10em; display: flex; align-items: center } div.container5 p { margin: 0 }
We can extend both methods to center horizontally and vertically at the same time.
A side-effect of making the paragraph absolutely positioned is that it is then only as wide as it needs to be (unless we give it an explicit width, of course). In the example below, that's precisely what we want: We center a paragraph with just one word (“Centered!”), so the width of the paragraph should be exactly the width of that word.
Centered!
The yellow background is there to show that the paragraph is indeed only as wide as its contents. We assume the same mark-up as before:

Centered!

The style sheet is similar to the previous example with respect to the vertical centering. But we now move the element halfway across the container as well, with 'left: 50%', and at the same time move it leftwards by half its own width in the 'translate' transformation:
div.container4 { height: 10em; position: relative } div.container4 p { margin: 0; background: yellow; position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 50%; margin-right: -50%; transform: translate(-50%, -50%) }
The next example below explains why the 'margin-right: -50%' is needed.
When the CSS formatter supports 'flex', it's even easier:
Centered!
with this style sheet:
div.container6 { height: 10em; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center } div.container6 p { margin: 0 }
i.e., the only addition is the 'justify-content: center'. Just like 'align-items' determines the vertical alignment of the container's contents, 'justify-content' determines the horizontal alignment. (It's actually a bit more complex, as their names suggest, but in a simple case that's how it works.) A side-effect of 'flex' is that the child element, the P in this case, is automatically made as small as possible.
The default container for absolutely positioned elements is the viewport. (In case of a browser, that means the browser window). So centering an element in the viewport is very simple. Here is a complete example. (This example uses HTML5 syntax.)

Nicely centered

This text block is vertically centered.
Horizontally, too, if the window is wide enough.

You can see the result in a separate document.
The 'margin-right: -50%' is needed to compensate the 'left: 50%'. The 'left' rule reduces the available width for the element by 50%. The renderer will thus try to make lines that are no longer than half the width of the container. By saying that the right margin of the element is further to the right by that same amount, the maximum line length is again the same as the container's width.
Try resizing the window: You'll see that each sentence is on one line when the window is wide enough. Only when the window is too narrow for the whole sentence will the sentence be broken over several lines. When you remove the 'margin-right: -50%' and resize the window again, you'll see that the sentences will be broken already when the window is still twice as wide as the text lines.
(Using 'translate' for centering in the viewport was first proposed by “Charlie” in an answer on Stack Overflow.)
Created 5 May 2001;
Last updated Wed 26 Sep 2018 04:41:20 AM UTC


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00001 /* 00002 * Copyright 2010 Andrea Mazzoleni. All rights reserved. 00003 * 00004 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 00005 * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 00006 * are met: 00007 * 00008 * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 00009 * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 00010 * 00011 * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 00012 * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 00013 * documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 00014 * 00015 * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY ANDREA MAZZOLENI AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' 00016 * AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 00017 * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 00018 * ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL ANDREA MAZZOLENI OR CONTRIBUTORS BE 00019 * LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR 00020 * CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF 00021 * SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS 00022 * INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN 00023 * CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) 00024 * ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE 00025 * POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. 00026 */ 00027 00691 #ifdef __cplusplus 00692 extern "C" { 00693 #endif 00694 00695 #include "tommytypes.h" 00696 #include "tommyhash.h" 00697 #include "tommyalloc.h" 00698 #include "tommyarray.h" 00699 #include "tommylist.h" 00700 #include "tommytrie.h" 00701 #include "tommytrieinp.h" 00702 #include "tommyhashtbl.h" 00703 #include "tommyhashdyn.h" 00704 #include "tommyhashlin.h" 00705 00706 #ifdef __cplusplus 00707 } 00708 #endif 00709


Select X Axis
Optimized Score
PE
Dividend Yield
Price To Book
Profit Margin
Interest/Provisions
Select Y Axis
PE
Dividend Yield
Price To Book
Profit Margin
Interest/Provisions


| Prev | Next | extend |
| Matlab or Octave |
x( i, n + 1) = y
|
| C++ |
x.resize( m, n + 1)
|
x( i, n) = y
|
m \times n
matrix,
i is an index between one and m,
and y is a scalar,
the Matlab or Octave syntax
x(
i,
n + 1) =
y
extends x to an
m \times (n+1)
matrix
and sets the element with index
(i, n+1)
to have value y.
function [ok] = extend_ok()
ok = true;
m = 2;
n = 3;
for i = 1 : m
for j = 1 : n
x(i, j) = i + j;
end
end
% -----------------------
for i = 1 : m
x(i, n + 1) = i + (n + 1);
end
% -----------------------
[m, n] = size(x);
ok = ok & (m == 2);
ok = ok & (n == 4);
for i = 1 : m
for j = 1 : n
ok = ok & (x(i, j) == i + j);
end
end
return
m \times n
ublas matrix<double>
,
i is a size_t
index between zero and
m - 1
,
and y has type double
,
the C++ syntax
x.resize(
m,
n + 1)
x(
i,
n) =
y
extends the matrix x to have size
m \times (n + 1)
and sets the element with index
(i, n)
to have value y.
# include <mat2cpp.hpp>
bool extend_ok(void)
{ using namespace mat2cpp;
bool ok = true;
size_t i, j, m(2), n(3);
matrix<double> x(m, n);
for(i = 0; i < m; i++)
{ for(j = 0; j < n; j++)
x(i, j) = double(i+j);
}
// -------------------------------
x.resize(m, n + 1);
for(i = 0; i < m; i++)
x(i, n) = double(i + n);
// -------------------------------
ok &= (x.size1() == m);
ok &= (x.size2() == n + 1);
for(i = 0; i < m; i++)
{ for(j = 0; j < n; j++)
ok &= (x(i, j) == double(i+j));
}
return ok;
}


{{form.income_for_month==null?'0.00':form.income_for_month}}
{{form.income_for_day==null?'0.00':form.income_for_day}}


Compensation and Benefits
Enrolling in Medical and Retirement Benefits
About Your Benefits
Compensation
Using Your Benefits
- Adding family members to insurance
- Adopting a child
- Applying for disability
- Being laid off
- Changing jobs within UC
- Changing your address
- Establishing a domestic partnership
- Getting married
- Leaving UC employment
- Preparing for retirement
- Removing family members from insurance
- Taking a leave of absence
- Taking a sabbatical


Problem 1. English digit
Write a function that returns the last digit of given integer as an English word.
Please enter an integer:
(Result...)
Write a function that returns the last digit of given integer as an English word.
(Result...)
Write a function that reverses the digits of given decimal number.
(Result...)
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{% extends "layout.html" %} {% set ptitle = "Enter taxpayer's details" %} {% block page_title %} {{ ptitle }} - Tax Tribunals Prototype {% endblock %} {% block body_end %} {{ super() }} {% endblock %} {% block content %} {% include "includes/phase_banner_beta.html" %} Back Step 7 of 16 Enter your details Enter details of the company Enter details of the organisation Enter taxpayer's details First name First name Last name Last name Company name Company name Organisation name Organisation name Address Address Postcode Postcode Contact name Contact name Email address (optional) Email address (optional) Phone number (optional) Contact phone number (optional) Company registration number (optional) Save and come back later {% endblock %}
Back Step 7 of 16
Save and come back later


Island and AJ's podcast for your Monday.
Most wonderful show is keeping up with the Joneses.
Mrs. Jones.
Mr. Jones.
Oh, it's so good to see you in a podcasting studio.
It's been a while.
Yeah.
Welcome to episode 287 of Keeping It With The Joneses.
We normally start with a weekly update.
AJ, what's the problem with doing a weekly update
on this episode?
Well, I think the main problem is that it's probably
been about four months since we've recorded a podcast.
So a weekly update might not give all the information
that is wanted or required.
- The other thing is, let's face facts.
I'm not sure everybody wants a weekly update
or a four monthly update.
I think everyone wants to talk about another update,
which we'll get to in a second.
We are creatures who have it.
- Yes.
- And having a weekly update for something
like 280 odd episodes, it would feel,
I would feel remiss if I didn't do it.
If you don't wanna hear our update,
use a little chapter marker to skip to this.
- Okay.
- Yeah, I was gonna say, hey, you never know.
People might wanna know like what we did on sabbatical,
that sort of thing, so.
- So let's make this not a weekly update,
but a sabbatical update.
- Okay, sabbatical update.
- Quick reminder, we went on sabbatical end of June.
- Yes. - Yes.
- Literally four months of bad.
- Yep.
- Give us an update.

- Well, my hope for sabbatical was that we were gonna be
able to do an RV trip. That didn't happen. I still hope at some point we will do an RV trip.
But as we were considering all the different options with the kids, while they had said they
were excited about the RV trip, when it came down to it with presenting a number of different
options, they resoundingly wanted to go back to Disney or just Disney kids.
Well, we sat down with them and said, look, we could go to Toronto, we could go to New York City,
We can get cabin in the woods, which looking back, that part of us.
They were never going to go for it.
Yeah, but we're going to get a lake house.
Yeah.
We could go RVing, which I hope they didn't pick because I didn't think we could afford to go RVing.
Now having gone to Disney, I realize it's just as much money.
I do think I tried to mention that, but we can move on.
You lost your voice.
I don't remember much of what you said in those days.
Fair enough.
I was surprised that they wanted to go to Disney because we'd been there literally a year before.
Yes.
And we did try telling that like yes, hey, and still they loved it.
That's what they wanted.
Yeah, we're not going to rehash our vacation to Disney.
Yeah, because the truth is we did that on episode 248 up at Lincoln the show.
Not much has changed.
Well, there's a couple extra rides.
Yeah, tell us about the extra rides.
Well, uh, ratatouille, which is.
Read me for a tattooie adventure.
Yeah.
Oh, I'm so sorry.
Yep.
And Epcot quite good.
All kind of new technology.
Lots of screens that kind of stuff, but just so good.
And the guardians of the galaxy ride.
What is it called? The, the
it's called guardians of the galaxy cosmic rewind.
Yes. Now I loved it.
You did not.
I don't do well with, I do well with going up and down and even upside down.
I don't do well with spinning round and round like the teacups.
And that is a free flowing roller coaster,
meaning it does go up and down, but the seat that you're in also swivels,
360 degrees. It does. So sometimes you're going backwards,
sometimes forwards, often from side to side, and it's changing back.
But we think we worked out why I didn't do well on it.
Because I am tougher and less of a big chicken.
No, I think because as they go along, they give you vantage points for your
eyes to focus on and track. Like screens to watch part of the story.
But it was so overstimulating for me.
I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be looking at any point.
Yeah.
I just looked ahead and I think that just made me really.
You were just looking at the tracks.
I was pretty green when I got off it, but you and the kids loved it.
Yeah, I did it twice.
Yeah.
Yep.
Also, and I've got right next to that is the space 2020 restaurant, which is
quite fun.
A total ripoff.
It's a total ripoff.
A total ripoff.
But it's a great idea.
It is a great idea and very fun.
But only if you ignore how much it costs for a family five.
Yeah.
Like the food was good.
It still was not worth how expensive it was.
No, but your own vacation, if it's an experience,
it was a chance to die in space.
Yes.
There was lots of fun Easter eggs.
There was something new about this trip to Disney
that wasn't there last year.
What?
I can't even think what you're talking about.
I got COVID.
Oh, yeah.
Having managed to escape COVID for two years.
I got it at Disney World.
Yeah.
Got COVID.
And I was, I got a single moment for three days at Disney.
Yeah.
Did you do three days?
No, we took one day in the middle off and moved that day's passes to our final
day that we were supposed to be resting before we drove so that we would
hopefully get one extra day with you at the park.
And thankfully it rained all day that day.
So that worked out great.
Yeah.
We were just home and the thing with the version I got of COVID was the first
three days I had COVID, I didn't know I had COVID.
Like the first day I was like, I feel tired.
And it's like, am I tired because I've just spent all day
in the car and we're up early and we're packing.
And you know, and then the second day I felt hot,
but I'm in Florida and I've just walked around three parks
on that one day.
So do I feel hot and tired again, because I'm sick?
- Yeah.
- I took a test and there you go, I was positive.
So we quickly rearranged and quarantined.

- Six. - I tested negative on day six,
I think, a quarantine for five days, day six,
I was negative, so we all went back.
- And we got three more days to Disney as a family.
- Yeah, but COVID at the happiest place on Earth.
- Yeah, sadness.
- So yeah, that was our sabbatical.
Good time with our kids. - Yep.
- We did take our kids through the entirety
of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- Did we actually finish it?
- Well, we didn't do any of the TV shows,
but we did all the movies.
- Yes.
- And there were some versions of movies,
I had to download and edit quite considerably.
- He like ripped them to the computer
and then had to rip out everything that was like
bad, demonic witchcraft.
And then we had a much shorter version of some films.
- Just a talk to you strange movies.
- Well there.
- And even then having edited those,
I was like, yeah, that could have done with a second edit.
But our kids are up to date on the Marvel Cinematic Universe
just in time for Black Panther, what kind of forever.
- The funniest part of those edited videos
was when you would pause it and go, "Okay, so right now there would have been like a really
bad scene where basically the only thing you need to know is this person's bad." And then there
would have been this other scene where all you have to know is this person died. Okay, and now we
pick up with the movie again. Anyway, it was very funny. But I know, and you know, and we all know
that you didn't tune in to hear us talk about old news. You want to hear about new news? Well,
Well, they might have.
They might not know about new news.
They might have just tuned in to hear.
- I've had a couple of full paths
where I've assumed that people have known our new news,
but they haven't.
- Yes.
- And the way of communicating it,
you know, wasn't very gentle for their heart.
- Right, because you think they know.
So everybody might not know.
- Tell everybody what you know.
- Our new news is that we no longer work for Gray Center,
which is both very sad and exciting.
Strangely exciting. Yeah. Imagine you no longer work at the place that you love. Isn't that exciting?
Wasn't the first thought that popped into my head? Yeah, but it is true. It's very sad because
we, you know, love Grace Nair. We love the staff. We love the congregation. We loved what we did.
We loved pouring into that group of people for nearly 14 years. Yeah. But it's also very
exciting because we find ourselves presented with an opportunity that I'm not sure lots of people
will get at the stage of the life, which is to not know what you're doing.
The other side of that coin, quick, quick, quick, is to know
new adventure as a plan.
And there is a, you know, endless possibilities of what we might do, right?
None of which we currently know.
Well, yes, precisely.
Is excitement the right word?
Oh, it is like I do feel excited.
- I do too.
It's strange as a very high shaper
and this having not been our plan to feel that way,
but I do.
I'm excited.
I'm like, Lord, I know we're gonna get to do something awesome
with you.
I just don't know what it is.
- Right.
- Yeah.
- I think when you have an event like this,
it's inherently disruptive.
- Sure.
- Especially when you think about for our family,
which has been very hard for our kids,
is both mom and dad worked at the same place.
- Yes.
of the same place that we all worship as a family, which is also the same place that
is the source of most of our relationships with friends. Almost all of our friendships,
yep. And so to feel that upheaval and that disruption, you know, that has taken a toll.
And probably as you're listening to this, and I don't want to shame you. But possibly
the reason you're listening to this is you might be thinking, well, what happened? And
who said, "What?"
And what about this?
And I heard that.
And our simple response to all of that is to say,
sincerely and quite honestly,
there are no bad guys in this scenario, Taw.
- Yeah, and we have tremendous love and appreciation
for Gray Center and for the staff, Jeff and Becky.
And yeah, so there isn't hard feelings or--
- Or an axe to grind or a story to sell
or anything like that.
Yeah, we're in this fortunate position
where we have actually left with wonderful relationships
and a deep appreciation for what we,
when I don't mean me and you,
I mean, we as a staff accomplished in the last 10 or so years
and just taking those memories with us,
but also carrying those relationships
into the future with us as two is something wonderful.
'Cause you hear about people perhaps going through things
like we've gone through and it being messy,
it being ugly, there being bitterness on all sides.
And we actually feel very, very content,
knowing that God absolutely has good things ahead
for Grace Center, has good things for Alan A.J.
that there is blessing on both sides.
And I'm sitting with the curiosity,
the wonder, the joy, the possibilities
of what God might have been up to.
- Yes.
And I think as I sort of think about things,
if for myself, I so loved being at Grace Center.
And I know we both did, love being at Grace Center,
that I wonder, just in the back of my head,
like if the Lord had said,
hey, I have this other thing,
how willing my heart would have been to hear that,
just because I was Grace Center for Life.
- Yeah.
- And so I think part of my excitement is like,
okay God, like here we are in this whole new world
where we really don't know what's next.
I don't know if I would have been willing
to consider being in this position.
- Yep.
but we are here and God's huge and so I'm fine.
Do you know what I mean?
- Yeah.
- So. - I do not even,
as much as it pains me, I have to be honest and go,
what might you be able to say now
that I wouldn't have been able to hear earlier?
- Yeah, because I'd be going,
well, don't wanna hear it
because I want to stay at Grace's address.
- Oh, absolutely.
- Yeah.
- I fully agree with you on that.
So we find ourselves in this weird tension
where on the one hand,
we are sitting with lots of sadness and loss.
- Tremendous sadness.
- But intention with that,
tremendous optimism and excitement.
- Yes.
- And really the last couple of months
I've been living within that tension.
- Yes.
And some days I'm more sad and other days I'm more optimistic.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- I think that's healthy.
- Yeah.
- But I tell you what, that's new.
Me holding those things in tension is new
because I don't know why I know this is not true
and I know this sounds ridiculous,
but I've often thought that you can only hold one thing
at a time.
- Yes. - And I've learned that.
That is not true. - Nope.
Here we are, just living in tension.
- So all that to say, now what, AJ?
- Well, the truth is, (laughs)
we don't know, but Gray Center again is a very generous church.
We don't have to make a decision right away
about what that looks like.
And so we have, we've determined to take a couple months
just to rest and hear the Lord and then we'll see.
We just don't know.
- Yeah, the truth is we don't know.
And it is curious to be in the situation.
Our median age is about 50.
It's 49.5, I did the math earlier.
- You did do.
- But what I mean is not a lot of people get to enter
this season of life with a fresh page waiting to be written.
- Yes, true.
- True, like I didn't think we'd ever have to consider this.
- No.
- Like you said, I thought it was gonna be great
serving for life.
- Yes.
- So now there's this gift about like, okay God,
what are you up, because nothing takes the Lord
by surprise.
What are you up to now?
What are you up to now?
Yeah.
So if you have answers on a postcard, send me to us.
That would be...
We'd love to hear it.
We are.
We are currently praying and fasting and resting.
Yes.
And just inviting the Lord to say what He would like to say.
Yes.
I thought it would be fun.
I don't know if this is going to be fun.
I thought it would be interesting to answer the most frequently asked questions we've
received in the news since it's been released that we no longer on staff at Grey Centre.
Okay. I have a list for you. Okay. Okay. You ready? Yeah. The number one question on everyone's
lips is why don't you guys work at Grayson anymore? Take it away, AJ.
Well, I think that's probably best answered by actually watching Jeff explain it to the
congregation. I will put a link in our show notes to Jeff announcing Artaparture where he frames
why we are leaving Greyser and you can watch that.
But essentially, what we know is that God's really good at positioning people where they
need to be.
And so we're just trusting that he's...
But that's what's happening.
That's what's happening.
All right, question number two is, are you guys moving?
We really hope we're not moving.
We really, really hope we're not moving.
However, we didn't see any of this coming.
We don't know what the Lord has for us.
And so as we're seeking God and we're trying to be open.
- The way I like to say is we love living in Franklin, Tennessee.
- We do.
- And we don't wanna move.
- We do not wanna move.
The only place we wanna be more than Franklin, Tennessee
is at the center of God's will.
- Yeah.
- So if a geographical shift is needed
to stay in the center of God's will,
then obviously we'd do that.
- But our preference would be to stay here.
- Yeah.
- We've got chewy's, we've got Mexican.
- Oh my gosh.
- We've got time, we've got wherever we are.
Also, great schools for our kids
and established family norms.
- And we love our house.
- Yeah, we know all that.
- But yeah, where we live is less important than--
- Being in the center of God's story.
- Being in the center of God's story.
Another common question we get asked,
which I actually really love this.
Lots of people have asked this question.
I think it's very sweet for them to inquire about,
how are your kids?
- They are much like us, you know,
living in the tension, I think.
I'm kind of hesitant to answer on their behalf.
They have their good days and their bad days.
It's been difficult.
- I agree, yeah.
I don't want to speak for my kids.
I also want to protect the privacy,
but I think you're right in general terms.
- And we're trying to do our best to make it as easy
as we can for them, make sure that they can talk
about how they're feeling.
And I am so thankful, Alan Jones,
that you did all this feelings work years ago
and then introduced me to it,
introduced our family to it,
because I honestly think we're being able to process
what for the kids is very, very traumatic
and it's been difficult for us as well
in a much healthier way because we're comfortable
feeling our emotions and able to talk about that
without it feeling like, okay, enough emotion.
- Yeah, or like that you have to hide that part
of yourself or you're gonna get into trouble for it.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I think I was surprised
at what was most precious to the kids.
Yeah.
And again, I think credit where credit is due,
our kids loved Grace Center.
Yes.
But it really do love the people,
but love the building as well.
That's what surprised me.
Their emotional connection to the space was beautiful.
Yeah.
I thought it would be about like,
oh, we're not gonna see our friends anymore.
And I kind of felt a bit of shame when I realized,
oh my gosh, I had a tribute such,
not that that's shallow,
but I thought that would be some total.
But some of the values that were important to our kids,
I just think reflects the beauty of the place
that is Gray Center.
And again, reflects the hearts of the brilliant people
that we have leading Gray Center.
I did last Sunday was the first time
that we as a family went to a different church
since we've been here.
One of the fun things, sidebar,
one of the fun things when we were on sabbatical
is that you and I, we left the kids going to Gray Center.
Thank you to everybody who made that happen for us.
- Who helped to make that happen, yeah.
- Thank you.
But we would go to different churches.
- Yeah.
- In just get a sense of what the body of Christ is like
in Franklin, Tennessee.
And it was beautiful.
It was beautiful as me, both as a pastor
and as a leader, but also as a person,
a member of the larger body of Christ
to go to different churches
and see beautiful reflections of the body of Christ
represented all over our city.
- Yeah.
I mean, I think we've been to seven or eight different
churches now and so many amazing bodies, like so many different churches that are doing amazing
things. And I was super encouraged. I was like, wow, there's so many great churches here.
But last week, we started that journey with our kids. So again, I don't want to keep over
using the word excitement, but there was certainly curiosity, maybe touched excitement. For us as
a family last week, going to a new church as a family and saying, like, you know, what did you
What was your experience?
- Sure.
- What was good?
- Curiosity's probably a better word.
- Yeah.
- To sum it up.
- So, yes, our kids are feeling their feelings.
- They're feeling their feelings,
but they're gonna be okay.
- Okay, another question.
- Yes.
- Let's do with us more to do with Grace Aaron,
kind of the stuff that, you know,
what's happening to S.O.S.L.?
School of Supernatural Life.
- S.O.S.L. closed this summer,
so it does not exist anymore, so nothing.
(laughs)
Nothing is happening to it.
(both laugh)
Yeah, episode of sale, as a thing has lived its season.
- Yes. - I'll put Link in the show once again
to Jeff telling the congregation about that.
- Yep. - So you can hear his words
around Esso sale and the values
that are around the school and what's happening.
- Yes. - Oh, this is a big one.
- Yeah. - And I understand this.
We haven't talked about this for a long time,
but what's happening adoption-wise?
- Well. - Wait, I'll answer that.
A whole lot of nothing, a little bit of something
and a whole lot of nothing.
We have been able to put in our family
for one or two situations.

- So it's just been real slow.
And all the social workers that we have talked to
and people at the different adoption agencies
have all said, and maybe that's because of COVID,
whatever, but it just slowed down everything
really slowed to a halt in terms of just available
situations to adopt.
And then if you add to it, we're not the normal family
that people are looking for.
A lot of moms, birth moms are looking for,
there's no other children in the home already,
or younger parents.
- Let me explain how it works.
So we work with about five or six different adoption agencies.
- Yes.

But basically a birth mom comes in and says,
I'm looking for adoptive parents.
- Yes.
So they have their internal process.
They either pick us to say, hey, would you like to be involved?
Or they let us know the situation and we pray.
But either way, a situation is presented.
And not a lot of those situations have been presented
over the last year.
- Well, no, not a lot.
And then that mom also can, in the very beginning,
have some preferences.
- Have some preferences.
- So. - Which rules us out for a love.
- We get ruled out of most of them.
- Yes. - Yes.
- We don't want a religious family.
I'm so sorry.
- We're like, we can't do that.
- We only want kids in the family who are also adopted.
- Yes, or no other children. - Or no kids.
- Or no more than two children.
- So there's lots of things where we can't apply for.
- Or there must be a dog in the house.
Yes, that was one too.
So there's--
- So we thought about getting a dog.
- We thought about getting a dog.
- And then we thought there's so much change in our life
right now that we wanted.
- We did not.
- But then the ones that we have been eligible to apply for,
there haven't been an awful lot of those,
but when we have applied for them, we didn't get picked.
- Well, and usually those situations are those moms,
and I can't imagine how difficult it is.
are being presented with 15 families to choose from.
So yeah, we have not been picked.
- We have not been picked.
But one of the things that was probably our first concern
on hearing that we were in the long
we were working at a Grace Center is how does that affect
our adoption status?
- Yes.
- But we spoke to our social worker
and formed of what happened in more cases.
And they've reviewed our file and they're like,
it's not a threat or a challenge.
- Yeah, you're still eligible.
We've just updated our home study for another year.
- Just renewed all our paperwork and our fingerprints.
- Yeah, and so-- - Why do we renew our fingerprints,
given our fingerprints don't change?
- For the same as they were, I know.
- But that's a redo background checks,
but we're still in the running--
- Yes, so pray for us, we're hopeful,
and right now we're at home, so it's great timing.
- One of my favorite questions?
- Yes. - This is the last question.
- Oh, okay. - It goes along lines of,
I heard this crazy rumor that,
blan, blan, blan, blan, blan, blan, blan.
- Oh, I've heard many of crazy rumors that I'm like,
what now? (laughs)
- And the answer to all of them is none of them are true.
- Yeah, yeah.
Don't believe the crazy rumors.
Don't believe the crazy rumors.
That's my favorite thing.
Again, this is a reflection of the quality
of the people in our community.
Is it rather than propagating those crazy rumors,
we just get phone calls or text messages or emails going,
"Hey, I heard X, Y, and Z."
But yes, from some people certainly, yes.
They're coming straight to us and we're like,
"No, that is not true."
But it's creative thinking on the parts of some people.
Well, yes, but that's the thing.
I think it's human nature to write a story.
- Oh my gosh.
- And we don't even realize most of the time
that we're doing it.
We're assuming a whole bunch of things
to connect three dots.
And then that story grows.
- Makes a sense.
We need story to feel safe.
And a made up story is better than mystery often.
- Sure.
- Well, I mean, I know I do that about,
if we get in a fight.
- Yeah, about everything.
- It's easier for me to think I know about your motives.
So I can justify my behavior.
- I know.
- We know.
(laughing)
But is human nature.
- No, it's incredibly like the crazy stories
you've heard are not true.
- Yes, I think one of the things in this season
that's been really amazing is the amount of different people
that have told us, hey, we've been praying for you guys.
And a lot of them probably not even knowing really
what's going on.
And so we actually really wanna thank you
for praying for us and for covering us
because we have felt that.
We have felt so covered.
in again a very difficult transition.
We have felt God's peace and his comfort and supported.
So thank you for praying.
It's meant the world to us.
- Yeah, people from all seasons of our life,
like historical seasons of our life,
are emailing, reaching out, like,
"Hey, don't know what's going on."
- Sending us dreams, all kinds of stuff.
- Oh, we feel really cradled by the love of God.
So thank you for all of that.
- Thank you.
- All right.
episode, a little bit of a short episode than normal.
We did want to get something out, probably more that we're going to unpack about.
Well, as we know more, we currently don't know more, but yeah, we'll unpack as we
know what we're doing.
We absolutely will.
But want to leave you with three requests, three things.
Number one is we, Adrian and I were thinking about this earlier, like we're fast
approaching 300 episodes.
Yes.
We've covered a lot of material, but if there's stuff that you would love us to do
podcast on about, yeah, talk about.
episodes about. Yeah. Reach out to us. Go to alanag.com/ask, for example, or you can email us. Hello at
alanag.com. With your ideas. Social media. Yeah. No. What would be helpful in the season of your
life so that we can serve you well with podcast topics are going to help bring transformation.
That's number one. Yes. Number two, copies of Finding Father of the Books that AJ wrote were
out of stock pretty much all summer because we were on sabbatical and we didn't want to order
anymore. We didn't want to ship anymore. We were trying to like legit rest. We hit the
off button. We did. But they're back in stock and they make wonderful Christmas gifts. So
order them now. And then lastly, number three, a huge thank you to the members of our podcast
that make the show possible. If you would like to become a member, I don't think it's
a better time to become a member than right now.  Seriously, if you become a member of the show, you get discounts on
in all our books and courses,
just like Finding Father we just talked about.
You get prior to Q&A,
you get video versions of this podcast.
And a big thank you to our members
because we just upgraded our studio.
Hopefully we sound a little bit better.
Hopefully we look glorious.
- We've got all kinds of cameras in here.
I don't know where to look.
- It is, it probably doesn't look any different
to our members, like from this side of the camera,
it probably looks very similar.
- But it's different.
- But it's a lot different.
- Yeah.
- And the goal is to make it easier
do sees episodes faster. Yeah. Yeah. And if you remember, you can see that every
time Alan has lunch, he deposits some of it on the front of the shirt.
Mexican food. So also should come. Did you eat Mexican food today?
Yeah, I had about hot tacos. So tacos is Mexican. Therefore, I'm fine.
What did I spell? I don't know. It looks white. Yeah, it's it's all I
had a creme sauce. Anyway, but come remember, see the food stains on my shirt, go to<EMAIL_ADDRESS>and we look forward to being with you next week.
Goodbye.
Bye.
Episodes not over yet. This is post-production, Alan. I have just finished editing the episode
that you've just watched or listened to and realized, A.G. and I probably spoke a bit too
quickly. So we've just finished saying, "Hey, we'll see you again next week." And at the
The time of recording, that was incredibly honest.
We were like, "Ah, we love this.
Can't wait to get back in the swing of podcasting again."
But then I started editing and I said to AJ,
"Hey, you know, if our plan is to be off
for the remainder of this year,
podcasting each week will necessitate that we're not off."
And she was like, "Yeah."
So after a little bit of thought,
we've decided that we're not gonna be podcasting again
until the new year.
So we did wanna get this episode out
with everything that's happened.
One of the pieces of feedback that we got from people
is, hey, your voice is missed in this.
We would love to hear where you're at.
So we wanted to get this episode out
just to let everybody know where we're at,
what we're doing, what we're up to,
so that you could see our faces, hear our voice,
let you know how we're doing and what's going on.
But we are not quite ready to jump back
in the saddle for podcasting.
So that's gonna be a 2023 thing.
We do wanna be people over word
and we realize we said, hey, we'll see you next week.
and you won't.
So feel free to reach out to us again.
Still send us your feedback on what you'd like us
to talk about because we are excited about podcasting.
We do wanna help you.
So if you've got thoughts, questions, topics, queries
that you would love us to investigate in 2023,
go ahead, send them in.
<EMAIL_ADDRESS>or reach out to us on social media
@allonaj and we look forward to being back with you
in the new year.
âTMª Faith, life, communication âTMª
âTMª Tacos and video games âTMª
âTMª Paleotronuts and the kindness of God âTMª
âTMª The things we deal with every day âTMª
âTMª From Franklin, Tennessee âTMª
âTMª They are just like you and me âTMª
âTMª Alan, yeah âTMª
âTMª And AJ âTMª
âTMª Oh yeah âTMª
âTMª Keeping up with the Joneses âTMª
Keeping up with the Joneses, sharing their life, experience it
Keeping up with the Joneses, keeping up with the Joneses
They talk about faith in God, and everything under the sun
If you are a human being, there's something here for everyone
(bell chimes)
(buzzing)
[ ]


Im going to try to make this as short and concise as possible. But it is going to be hard.
On NYE my friend OD’ed on a drug cocktail that included 2-CT7, but did not die. He was totally fine (but high) until he decided to snort the CT7. Over the previous four days, he had partied pretty hard, doing both rolls and coke. He got little sleep, and little food.
On NYE he did a small amount of coke (guessing about a quarter of an 8 ball) and 5 quality rolls before 1 AM (MDXX - EZ Tested) He had the 2-CT7 in a bullet/bumper that he filled once with CT7 and emptied onto a mg scale. Every dose was 4-6mg when he did this to make sure that a bump was reasonable.  It was just after 1AM.  I offered him a xanax to try and bring him down a bit.  Around 2 O’clock I was able to talk the manager of the club into letting me back in if I could take him outside. Little did I know I wouldn’t have to worry about it.
After carrying him down the stairs because he couldn’t see the floor I got him to the street and was able to get another (thankfully large) friend to help. We spent the next hour and a half watching him get worse and worse. At no time was he violent, but didn’t know he was outside and was unable to walk. He then became totally delusional, and we had to restrain him to protect him and others due to his thrashing. I took his pulse and it was about 165, very high, but not dangerous or unreasonable due to all the thrashing.
I am a strong 210lbs, and know how to immobilize someone, and it took everything I had to hold him down even with friends help. Eventually his eyes started rolling to the back of his head and I knew it was 911 time, but a bystander beat us to it and at almost the same time I made the decision, the paramedics showed up. Restraints came out and off to the ER we went.
I rode in the ambulance and told them the drugs I thought he took. I told them he took XTC, Coke, Alcohol, 2mg xanax and a phenethylamine. Of course they said, “What?” do you mean GHB? “no” PCP? “no, its like LSD.” (yeah I know LSD isn’t a phen but I was trying to make them understand why he was so delusional) On the way there, they nar-canned him with obviously no results. He also had a small seizure on the ride there.
At the hospital I went through the same routine of telling them what drugs he took after about 20 minutes of them treating them. I was told he had extremely low blood sugar and very high BP.  After around 6AM I left to take my wife home. Right around then he had several more seizures and they decided to induce him into a coma.
I returned at 2PM (six hours later) for the ICU visiting hours and he had stabilized. His heart rate, BP and other vitals were close to normal but they still had him sedated and on the ventilator. Today when I returned for the 10 AM visiting hours and he was coherent but tired had the ventilator, IV and stomach tube removed and was 1000% better. They were very concerned about his heart, lungs and brain but so far all tests look good. He is supposed to be moved into a regular room sometime today. They expect him to recover fully but said he may have to stay for up to a week while they monitor his heart and the drugs leave his system (both the drugs they gave them and he gave himself)
I’m not going to preach, if you cant figure out what everyone did wrong here, the Darwin principle may take care of you, like it almost did my friend.
Experience Reports are the writings and opinions of the individual authors who submit them.
Some of the activities described are dangerous and/or illegal and none are recommended by Erowid.