Live from Vancouver, Canada, it's theCUBE. Covering OpenStack Summit North America 2018, brought to you by Red Hat, the OpenStack Foundation, and its ecosystem partners. The sun has come out, but we're still talking about a lot of the clouds here at the OpenStack Summit 2018 in Vancouver. I'm Stu Minimanu, my co-host, John Troyer. Happy to welcome to the program the 2018 Super User Award winner, George Mehais Gu, who's the senior cloud architect with the Ontario Institute for Cancer Researcher, OICR. First of all, congratulations. Thank you very much for coming in. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. So, cancer research obviously is one of those things we talk about is how can technology really help us at a global standpoint help people. So, tell us a little about the organization first before we get into the tech of it. So, YCR is the largest cancer research institution in Canada and is funded by government of Ontario. Located in Toronto, we support about 1700 researchers, trainees and clinicians, staff, and it's focused entirely on cancer research. It's located in a hub of cancer research in downtown Toronto with Princess Margaret Hospital, Sick It's Hospital Mount Sinan, very, very powerful research centers. And YCR basically interconnects all these research centers and tries to bring together into advanced cancer research in the province, in Canada and globally. That's fantastic, George. So, with that, to sketch out for us a little bit, your role, kind of the purview that you have and the scope of what you cover. So, I was hired four years ago by YCR to build and design a cloud environment based on a research grant that was awarded to a number of principal investigators in Canada to build this cloud computing infrastructure that can be used by cancer researchers to do large-scale analysis. What happens with cancer, because the variety of the mutations happening in cancer patients, researchers found that they cannot just analyze a few samples and draw a conclusion because the conclusion wouldn't be actually valid. So, they needed to do large-scale research. And ICGC, which is International Cancer Genome Consortium an organization that's made of 17 countries that are donating, collecting and analyzing data from cancer patients, okay? They decided to put together all this data and to align it uniformly using the same algorithm and then analyze it using the same workflows in order to actually draw a conclusion that's valid across multiple data sets. And for, they are focusing on the 50 most common types of cancers that affect most people in this world. And for each type of cancer, at least two countries provide and collect data.   Yeah, George, I mean, I'm a former academic and the more data you get, right, the more infrastructure you're going to have to have. I'm just reading off the little announcement, 2600 cores, 18 terabytes of RAM, 7.3 petabytes of storage, right? That's a lot of data and it's a lot of, accessed by a lot of different researchers. When you came in, was the decision to use OpenStack already made or did you make that decision and how was the cloud architected in that way? So, the decision was basically made to use OpenSource. We wanted basically to spend the money on capacity, on hardware, on research, not on licensing and support. A good use of everybody's tax dollars, yeah? Exactly, so you cannot do that, like if you have to spend money for paying licensing, then you probably have only half of the capacity that you could, so that means less large analysis and longer it takes and more costly. So, CEPH for storing the data sets and OpenStack for the infrastructure as a service, offering was no brainer. And my specialty was in OpenStack and CEPH, I started OpenStack seven years ago, so I was hired to design and build and I had the chance to actually do alignment and mutation calling for some of the data sets so I was able to monitor the kind of stress that this workflows put on the system, so when I designed it, I knew what is important and what to focus on. So, it's a cloud environment that's customized for cancer research. We have very good ratio of RAM per CPU. We have very large local disks for the VM, for the virtual machines to be able to download very large data sets. We build it so if one compute node fails, you only impact a few workflows running there. You don't impact single small points of failures and other tunings that we apply to the system too. George, can you walk us through a little bit of the stack? What do you use? Do you build your own OpenStack or do you get it from someone? Yeah, so basically we use a commodity hardware. We just hide density chassis currently from Supermicro. Ubuntu for the operating system, no licensing there, OpenStack from Debian packages. We focus more on stability, scalability, and internal support cost because it's just myself and I have a colleague, Jared Baker, who's a cloud engineer, and you have to support all this environment so he tried to focus on the features that are most useful to our users as well as less strength on our time and support resources. Yeah, that's, I mean, let's talk about the scalability, the team is you and a colleague, but mostly, right? And in the olden days, you would be taking care of maybe a handful of machines and maybe some disk arrays in the lab, but now you're basically servicing an entire infrastructure for all of Canada, right? At how many universities? Well, basically it's a global, so we have 40 research projects from four continents. So we have from Australia, from Israel, from China, from Europe, US, Canada. So approved cancer researchers that can access the data, open up an account with us, and they get the quota and they start their virtual machines, they download the data sets from the S3 API of CEPH, okay? To the VMs and they do analysis and we charge them for the time used and because we use everything as open source and no, we don't pay any licensing fees, we are able to, and we are not for profit, we charge them just the cost that it costs us to be able to replenish the hardware when it fails. Nice, nice. And these are actually very large machines, right? Because you have to have huge, thick data sets, you've got big data sets you have to compare all at once. Yeah, I mean, on average, BAM is called a file that has like the normal DNA of the patient and they need also the two more DNA, okay, from the biopsy, an average whole genome sequence is about 150 gigabytes. So they need at least 300 gigabytes and depending on the analysis, if they find the mutations, then the output is usually five, 10 gigabytes, so much smaller. For other workflows, you have to actually align the data, so you input 150 gigabytes and the output is 150 or a bit more with metadata, okay? So, nevertheless, you need a very large storage for the virtual machines and these are virtual machines that run very hard in terms of like, you cannot do a CPU oversubscription, you cannot do memory oversubscription. When you have a workflow that runs for four days, 100% CPU. So it's different than other web scale environments where you have web servers running at 10%, you can do 10 to one subscription and then you go much cheaper different solutions here. You have to only provide what you have physically, okay? And... That's great. Yeah, George, you said you participated in the OpenStack community for about seven years now. Yes. What kind of, do you actually contribute code? What pieces are you active in the community? Yeah, so I'm not a developer. My background is networking, system administration and security, but I was involved in OpenStack since the beginning before it was a foundation. I went to the first OpenStack public conference in Boston seven years ago, the International Hotel and over time, I was involved in discussions on the RSC channel, mailing lists support reporting bugs. Even recently, we had very interesting bugs that affected us where the cloud in it package that is supposed to resize the disk of the VM as it boots, it was not using more than two terabytes because it was a bug, okay? So we reported this and Scott Mosser, who's the maintainer of the CloudyOtils package, worked on the bug and two days later we had a fix and Canonical built the package. It's in the latest Cloudy Ubuntu image and Red Hat and everybody else is going to use the same version of the package. So somebody who now has larger than two terabyte VMs when they boot, they'll be able to resize and use the entire disk. And that's just an example of how with OpenStores you can achieve things that take much longer in a commercial distribution where even if you pay, doesn't necessarily mean that the response. Yeah, sure. Well, so George, any lessons learned you've been with us a long time, right? And you, like, Seth, one thing we noticed today in the keynote is actually a lot of the storage networking, virtual storage networking and compute wasn't really talked to, but those projects were maybe down focused a bit as they talked about all the connectivity to everything else. So I mean any lessons, so my point is the infrastructure is stable of OpenStack, but any lessons learned along the journey? I think the lessons are that you can definitely build very affordable and useful and scalable infrastructure, but you have to get your expectations right. We only use from the OpenStack the project that we consider are stable enough so we can support them confidently without spending. Like if a project is at 5% value to your offering, but it's 80% of your time debugging and trying to get into working. It doesn't have packages and missing documentation and so on. That's maybe not a good fit for your environment if you don't have the manpower to and if it's not absolutely needed. Another very important lesson is that you have to really stay up to date. Like go to the conferences, read emails on the mailing list, be active in the community. We host the OpenStack meetups in Toronto for the 2018. We present there, we talk to other members. In these seven years, I read thousands, tens of thousands of emails. So I learned from other users' experiences. I try to help where I can. You have to be involved with developers. I know the self-cored developers, Sage and other people. So you can do this just by staying on the side and looking, you have to be involved. And... Yeah, George, what are you looking for next from this community or you talked about the stability are there pieces that you're hoping reach that maturity threshold for yourselves or new functionalities that you're looking for down the road? I think for what we want to provide to our researchers because they don't run web-scale applications. So their needs are a little bit different. We want to add Magnum to our environment to allow them deploy Kubernetes cluster easily. We want to add Octavia to expose the services even though they don't run many web services but you have to find a way to expose them when they run them. Maybe a Trove, a little bit of a service. We'll see if we can deploy it safely and if it's stable enough. Anything that OpenStack comes up with, we basically look, is it useful? Is it stable? Can we do it? And we try it. So George, last thing, your group is the super user of the year. Can you just walk us through that journey? What led to the nomination? What does it mean to your team to win? I think we are a bit surprised because we are a very small team and our scale is not as high because T-Mobile or the other members but I think it shows that again, for a big company to be able to deploy OpenStack and scale and make it work, it's maybe not very surprising because yes, they have the resources, they have a lot of manpower and a lot of, but for a small institutional organization or a smaller company to be able to do it, without involving a vendor, without involving extra costs, I think that's the thing that was appreciated by the community and by the OpenStack Foundation and yeah, we are pretty excited to have won it. All right, George, let me give you the final word. As somebody that's been involved with the community for a while, what would you say to people if they're still maybe looking from the outside or played with it a little bit? What tips would you give them? I think that we are living proof that it can be done and if you wait until things are perfect, then there will never be, okay? Even Google has services in beta, Amazon has services in beta, you have to install OpenStack is much more performant and stable than when I started with OpenStack where there was just a few projects, but definitely they will get help from the community and the documentation is much better, just go and do it, you won't regret it. George, as we know, software will eventually work, hardware will eventually fail. So George Mihayescu, congratulations to OICR on the super user of the year award for John Troyer, I'm Stu Miniman. We're getting towards the end of day one of three days of wall-to-wall coverage here at OpenStack Summit 2018 in Vancouver. Thanks so much for watching theCUBE. Thank you.


Okay, I think we are live now, and it's a pleasure to be with you. I'm Medea Benjamin from Code Pink, and we are having a conversation with Simone Chun, who just returned from South Korea and is going to give us an update on the situation on the Peninsula and with U.S. relations. Good evening, Simone. Hey, how are you? Great. Good to be with you. Oh, nice to be back. So there's a lot to talk about, and perhaps we should start out with the coincidence that just before the North and South begin their third round of talks tomorrow, the U.S. via Nikki Haley at the UN called the meeting of the Security Council to talk about Russian violations and other violations of the sanctions on North Korea. So could you talk a little bit about the backdrop for the North-South meetings tomorrow? First, I want to say that, you know, this is an extraordinary, not extraordinary historic moment that you and I and also all of us who are following Korean peace process are witnessing. So two Koreas having the third inter-Korean summit this year. As President Moon Jae-in tweeted several hours ago, this is what he said. He said that, you know, this is truly a historic moment. Within just five months, we're having third summit and also if you look at the kind of preparations, excitement that Koreans have, which you don't really see in the U.S. media. And as you pointed out, I mean, what a coincidence and also very shame on, I would say, Nikki Haley, you know, on the day that the two Koreas having another major summit, they have to call the urgent UN Security Council meeting on the violation, alleged violation of a sanction by, in this case, they were pointing finger at Russia. So there's the point which sees that, again, there's such a huge gap between what Koreans see, right? Both Koreas see the peace process and the U.S. security elite and also U.S. mainstream media sees the peace process. So as you just pointed out, I just returned from my visit to Korea. And I mean, you will really have to see Koreans, again, this approval support for the inter-Korean process is very strong. And for this summit we are having this week, the Korean government came up with the new slogan that is peace, a new future. So they also have a new English website for this two, three-day summit. And they are having the delegation involved about 200 members. These are people coming from South Korea, too. From South Korea. So we have a 200-member delegation. Official delegations are 14, including President Moon and all his cabinet members, all major party leaders. President Moon included the leaders of the two labor confederation, right? And there's artists, there are writers, basically this is sort of reflect the consensus, right?  No, all three this summit, as you know, this year, the summit has been, we were in the Parmandum, right? And also the border. And so in a way, your question is good, because this will be the first time that the summit has been held actually in Pyongyang, North Korea. And the president is, they're taking, you know, they're going to Pyongyang by plane. And it's only one hour, you know, flight. And as I pointed out, and this is President Moon, it's trying to really show, include as a broad member of the population possible. And I will read some of the statement that made by people who are participating in the delegation. Moon Jung-in, the president's special advisor to President Moon, and he said, you know, he's very clear, he said, inter-Korean relationship cannot be a byproduct of a U.S. North Korean relationship. So what it means that whenever he argued that you whenever maybe there are some problem with the U.S. North Korean negotiations, the Professor Moon Jung-in argued that, you know, you South Korea should serve as sort of a negotiator. There's a mayor of Seoul, he says, I'm very happy to be able to accompany the historic inter-Korean summit, a former, the former unification minister, Jung Se-young, he says that the upcoming inter-Korean summit will be, in his view, be followed by ending the Korean war and a peaceful unified regime. So but at the same time, he also alerted that there's going to be massive, very strong opposition against this path.  So he was arguing that we should not, people should not be swayed by, you know, those opposition and also that opposition within South Korea or from the U.S. or what? I think he was referring to both, very right-wing still, you know, there's very serious established interest within South Korea, who has been basically sustained by divided Korea and also the opposition within and from the United States. Again, going back to this, this special, very exciting delegation, we have also included, this will be very interesting to our young activists. President Moon included two youth members. One is a junior high school female student. So she was chosen, yeah, she was, this girl was chosen because she wrote a personal letter to President Moon saying that how she was so moved by her grandfathers, right? Her grandfathers meeting his brother in North Korea during the last of a reunion. Oh, how sweet. Yeah. And then he looked at the grandfathers.  They, you know, and she said she wrote this personal letter to President Moon. And he says, you know, I really would like to devote, you know, contributed for the reunification and she wanted to be a pediatrician so that she can later to take care of kids in North Korea, who are right now suffering from. And also, there's another president also chose this 20-year-old female student from Sunmi Young Women's College. And she has been, you know, she has been volunteering to covering the last summit through her mobile phone, right? She became very popular and she said she was, she's a Chinese studies major. So she also would like to.  They're not, not be so interested in this reunification issue. But she, as a young generation, she would like to appeal to that. But anyway, to go back to the, to the story of today's historic moment and to Korea, as far as I can tell you, which again, I don't hear much about US media. We are so excited. We're so energized. We're so determined. And as you and I, you know, saw, you remember, Pistrate, right? That has left us a few months ago and still we feel that it is on track. So, so, but still, that's why, as I pointed out, as you pointed out in the very beginning, it is such disappointment that, you know, Nikki Haley come out of this sort of urgent meeting on the day that South Korea is celebrating and trying to get things moving. Well, it's also very confusing because Nikki Haley represents Donald Trump and Donald Trump wants the peace process to go forward. Exactly. How do you see the the nuances or even disagreements internally in the administration? What is going on that Nikki Haley would try to throw a monkey wrench in the process right before the two Koreas get together? You know, that is still, for me, it's hard to speculate. What is the internal dynamics? What they might justify saying they want, you know, we're playing, you know, good cup and bad cup, you know? Trump always says between Trump and Chairman Kim, they always sort of try to, you know, publicly these days, unlike last year, trying to praise each other, you know, they still have a good chemistry, etc.  So sanctions work, you know, we should have maximum pressure. Maybe they're that's what their justification. But to me, I find it a little bit interesting that they are really going after not so much North Korea. Have you seen that, right? They're going after China and Russia. Yeah. Yeah. So it seems to me that there are many, it's also it seems to be there sort of an ongoing, this sort of conflict problem with the, between Russia and China, Russian-United States relations and Russia-China, China-United States relations. And with even the China and US-China, this all to trade dispute. And some analysts are arguing that, you know, China is basically, China is, you know, using North Korea as a strike to kind of get some leverage in this US-China trade dispute. But that's a little bit going on tandem. But still, I think that it seems to me that to me, it's the fact that the United States is going after more Russian and China shows that a broadly sanctions, not really working, right, not effective.  He think it's ineffective. So we know that Russia does not really believe in, right, in the utility of a sanction. Although they can pass them at the security council, they didn't agree to them. Yeah. So their point that they still, I think is probably their point. I'm still is that still, although they're part of a member of a security council, still they think probably think they secure council more, you know, influenced by the United States. And well, yes. And they also probably say that since Donald Trump is on a track of diplomacy, why should there be these draconian sanctions that are hurting the ordinary North Korean people? And going back to the summit that's happening, starting starting tomorrow or in a few hours in Korea time, let's talk about some of the concrete things that are happening or that we might be able to see out of that summit. And isn't North Korea and South Korea, aren't they anxious for more trade relations, but isn't this hampered by the sanctions that don't allow such trade? Specifically, before I answered that, just that question, we should also point out two important thing. One, again, people can compare the current summit with the previous one, but it's a very difficult. Even the summit taking place today is very different from all the other sun because we are under the harshest, you know, economic sanctions, right? And secondly, it's very particular, but the importance of this third summit is that looks like there's a good chance, really, Chairman Kim and President Moon might discuss more in detail about denuclearization plan, denuclearization process. Now, I'm saying this because in the past, the position of South Korea has been that the denuclearization talk between is just between US and North Korea, right? And so we are going to only, you know, focus on inter-Korean relationship. So that has been the more sort of official position of South Korea. But reports that I'm reading is that this time President Moon looks like it's going to be really actually addressed that or more substantive discussion with the Chairman Kim about the nuclearization process. And that's because he wants to make sure that the US, North Korea talks keep going forward. Exactly. So she would like to stepping stone, right? So with this, so it's still, so we are really probably will see more concrete timetable from Chairman Kim. We may even be surprised, maybe by some more greater concessions or commitment from North Korea. And I also feel that, I mean, this is without giving any evidence or proof, we may already see there has been already agreement between two Koreas and also maybe has been already discussed by at least President Trump. So this is just my own guessing. So I think that I'm pretty positive about maybe 60, 70 percent. I think there will be some substantive result specifically about the nuclearization process. Yeah, go ahead. But this issue of denuclearization is not the number one issue for South Korea. And it's not for North. A peace treaty is more important for them. So where do we stand on that that chicken and egg thing of what comes first, the peace treaty or denuclearization? Has there been any movement on that? Yes. So as you recall, I said in the right now, if you look, if you ask me, what is the status of US-DPI North Korea negotiation? The answer is it has been solved. You recall the cancellation of Pompeii's visit to Pyongyang a few weeks ago, right? That was what I heard was specifically North Korea was demanding, you know, the first improving US-DPI relationship, specifically ending hostility. And to be more specifically, you know, the signing that the political declaration, right, to end the Korean War, which United States, from the United States, we all know a complete denuclearization first. And then, as we were, we'll lift economic sanctions. We will, you know, and then maybe eventually a peace treaty. So those are the two. And so and still, I think, if you look at it, though, about the signing, the political declaration and Korean War, there is a good chance, first of all, both Koreas agree and support that agree, the declaration. In fact, President Moon says that this is going to be the goal. Before the peace declaration. Yeah, he said before the end of 2018, he's going to sign it. Looks like the reports also just China also is supporting the ending Korean War declaration. And so if that is so, at this point, and then North Korea, the more very proactive commitment specifically timetable given timetable for denuclearization and also willing to provide the list of their nuclear programs, facilities and, as you know, that we got they going to there's a U.N. general meeting is taking will taking place soon. So at that point, you know, President Moon, I think there's already bilateral summit between President Moon and President Trump is already scheduled and President Moon. But is Chairman Kim Jong-un going to the U.N. meeting? That we that we're not sure. So I think this may be another sort of a surprise at the end of the summit. Maybe we'll hear that, you know, Chairman Kim may, you know, news about Chairman Kim's coming to attend the General Assembly, but which I'm not quite sure it's going to happen. But still, we will know more about it. But going back to your question about the, you know, anticipating the summit result at the bottom line is probably we will definitely hear more substantive discussion about the tenured polarization process. And has there been any new motions about well, only about more of the U.S. remains being sent back? Last I heard it was only 50. And what about the reunification? How many families and is that continuing? And things like the K-Song economic zone? Any any updates on those things? Those things, I think those, I think they're going to they definitely going to probably discuss more about that. And about the most important, the interesting about is the reopening of a K-Song industrial park. As you know, the Korea to Korea just opened the liaison office right in K-Song, which is also very exciting news. You know, this is the first time that South Korea has a permanent sort of liaison office in North Korea. And so you see the headlines that 24 hours, 365 days now to Korea is going to communicate before we just you can use the bullhorn or you communicate through North Korea shooting, you know, missiles or anyway. So this is very significant. And it was so exciting to there was, you know, you saw this, obviously, you know, all these people leaders from both Korea as they're attending. And I was reading the the the the statement from one of the National Assembly member from Korea. He said, my heart's beating with excitement. And this is the first time South Korea opened a permanent office on North Korea soil. And and and and also what another thing we should also point out is again, this is, you know, to Korea, you remember, they hold the military talks and really they have done a lot of, you know, agreed a lot of measures to ease the tension between and between two Koreas. And for instance, they if you look at the report to Korea, agree some military de-escalation measures, including a plan to demilitarize the joint security area and continuing joint recovery operation of a war debt in DMZ, where you and I have been. And also the about the U.S. remains which retrieve a repatriation of a U.S. Am I U.S. soldiers missing in action? They still I think they're on on a track. And but problem here is again, the sold U.S. North Korean relationship has sort of a, you know, has stopped some of these talks. Well, the talk in the U.S. side is that North Korea is violating the spirit because there's not an agreement really to violate by continuing with its nuclear activities and that it hasn't done anything to hand in even the basic information about its nuclear program and that the Trump administration has given in concessions and North Korea hasn't. As far as I know, the only concession the U.S. has given is to temporarily halt the military exercises that the U.S. does with South Korea. Is there something that I'm missing here? No, you're not missing. Actually, you know, the present moon he even pointed out in the meeting that he had with the elders of the visors. And actually, I even I kind of was a little surprised to to, you know, to read the present moon's dynamic. He said he said that North Korea has done, in his mind, at least four irreversible steps towards denuclearization. You know, demolishing the facility that used for all of their nuclear six nuclear tests, right? It's gone forever and also demolishing that building at the Soviet satellite launch station, right? Which basically means that North Korea is saying that we no longer can threaten the United States with our ICBM. So it's permanent irreversible measures, et cetera. And whereas, this is again, present moon, he says, United States is the only one that is suspending the war game, right? So so what he's again, he's so you are right. The United States has not really really has done only really one thing. And it seems to me, you know, it's like so Kim Jong-un, even President Chairman Kim also sort of expressed that this content, he thought that as far as he concerned, he has been really, you know, really he did the best to at least implement the respect of the Singapore summit. So when the present moon's special envoy to to North Korea a few two weeks ago, a parent from Chairman Kim said, you know, like, you know, how come the world is not so impressed by all of them? You know, things that I have done. And so I think that's from North Korea is a point of view. So I think a lot of I think perhaps some of us share his concern as well, including President Moon, so we share his reciprocity. And and for I think it's time, you know, we have the same for all this time. It's really time for the United States to give something to show commitment. You know, Singapore, as you recall, the Singapore summit agreement, right? The very first thing was what improved the U.S.-North Korean relationship. And the uniclosation was a third, not the first, right? So as far as the North Korea, that's what it is doing. Like the confidence building has all these matters. This suggestion from Chairman Kim that he meet with Trump again, has there been any movement on that? And do you think there will be a meeting before the November elections? I think there's a good chance that there will be another meeting. And then if that, I think this all again depends on, in my view, how well this this third into Korean summit goes. And progress on the denuclearization issue between the Koreas that might pave the way for another summit. Exactly. You see, that has been the pattern. Do you remember last time when the first thing up right before, right? The Singapore summit was sort of almost about to be canceled. You remember you and I were in Seoul, right? Oh, my God, it was like really, we were so disappointed that I really, at the time when I heard the news, when Trump was, you know, was threatening to cancel the summit, I was 99 percent. I was sure, oh, my God, this is gone. This is not going to act else. I feel devastated. And so at the time, you remember, while we were at, you know, we were protesting and apparently the second inter-Korean summit was halt. We didn't even know, right? And so I think what I'm trying to say is that still the pattern here, the very, very new pattern about the current peace process is that, again, South Korea is not in the back seat, right? South Korea, especially President Moon, has been really driving force of this current peace process. North Korea may not, you know, trust the United States. United States may not trust, what, North Korea, but both mine, I think they kind of trust President Moon. And President Moon has, you know, cultivated. I think he created, I think he created this credibility. So that's one country that has been very negative about this whole process has been Japan. And yet recently we heard that the Japanese President Abe was interested in meeting with the North Korean chairman. And what did you make of that? And do you think that might happen? Is that a good development? I hope so. I crossed my fingers. I pray. I think one thing, you know, Japan, as you know, Japan, South Korea has a very long relationship. Not all of them are very, you know, good one, happy one. And I think Abe's position is that, as he can see that, as we said, peace train is already leaving and also kind of, you know, Japan doesn't want to be left out, right? And I think that's that's my first intake. But on the other hand, we should really, really think about how Japan, the big picture, that is, Japan has been really under Abe's writing policy. He has really restoring this all the sort of militaristic, you know, sort of a policy, right? So I will be so much, you know, cautious about the sudden sort of gesture from Abe. And but still, it's a good thing that, you know, they should meet. So in the remaining minutes we have, perhaps you could give people ideas of what they could do, including connecting with women across the DMZ. And how can they learn more about that initiative? Yes, there is one. We, our South Korean civic organization delegation is coming to actually to attend UN general meeting, specifically to promote signing the Ending Korean World Declaration. So there's a petition going and I hope that I would happy to share the link with in the Facebook. I hope that people can sign on. Another thing is really, you know, I cannot emphasize strongly enough and we really counting on really ordinary American voice support and especially, you know, with elections coming, right? And I hope that this election, November election, I hope that people, you know, have more interest in the Korean peace process and this peace process was, you know, happening specifically because of Korea's a candlelight revolution that really changed, completely transformed the politics and ended the authoritarian regime.  And lastly, also, we really wanted to, you know, be really that even if you don't like President Trump, please, you know, we love peace, right?  And we need Koreans need, you know, all the support that we can. And this is very, very, I would say, in fact, the most important, I would say time period in the history of peace process in the Korean Peninsula. We need this literally between now and November. I think that we can make a huge difference. And if people want to learn more about women cross the DMZ, where do they go? Yeah, we will, I will link to the, I'll be happy to include the link to the women cross DMZ and also our other petition about the assigning the ending Korean War Declaration. And why don't I include that in the, I will, you know, put in the Facebook. Wonderful. And you can go to womencrossdmz.org. And Simone, thank you so much for giving us a wonderful update on the situation. People watching should look out what the results are of the North South Summit that will be going on for the next three days and will be very critical in terms of not only the relations of the North and South, but whether the peace process with the US will move forward. So thank you so much for the great update. And we look forward to future webinars with you. Thank you. Peace. Peace. Bye bye. Bye.


Hey, welcome back everybody. This is CoasterDaddy here, and today I want to talk about Cedar Point's annual Winter Chillout event that took place on February 23rd, 2019. Now, this is an exciting opportunity for many enthusiasts to get a really special sneak peek at what goes on behind the scenes at Cedar Point during the winter offseason. I have never attended one of these events myself, but I would like to go over some of the many exciting things we learned about from this year's Winter Chillout. I'm going to go from things I find least exciting all the way up to the most notable new things in my opinion, so let's get started. First up, we have two new restaurants coming to Cedar Point. Hugo's Italian Kitchen and Backbeat Queue. Hugo's Italian Kitchen is replacing the old Midway Market buffet right next to Raptor, and it's going to serve traditional Italian food such as handmade pastas, fresh pizzas baked in large open flame to brick ovens, chicken parmesan sandwiches, salads, meatball sandwiches, and fresh desserts. Next up, and this looks really cool actually, is Backbeat Queue which is going to be a new barbecue sit-down restaurant in place of Witch's Wheel. It's going to feature an outdoor dining area, and looking at pictures, this actually looks really nice in the park. It is going to be Motown and Rock and Roll inspired, and will feature live music. It's going to serve smoked brisket, rotisserie chicken, pork platters, and fresh perch, as well as southern sides like okra, cornbread muffins, and house-made mac and cheese. I'm looking forward to checking this out. This looks like a really cool place, and this is very much needed at Cedar Point I think. They need a nice sit-down restaurant in that area of the park. I also want to tag on to the restaurants. Cedar Point is introducing Frontier Festival this year, which is essentially a rebranded Bruin barbecue festival, and it is described as being an immersive Old West sunflower inspired street festival, and it's going to feature things like kid's crafts, games, live entertainment, and of course drinks and food. Next up, I'm going to talk about corkscrew. We already knew about this one really, but Cedar Point is repainting the trains on corkscrew. They're giving them a quote-unquote new retro paint job that's going to hearken back to the old days when corkscrew first opened. The restraints and the chassis are going to remain unchanged, so it's going to be the same ride experience, and though corkscrew is not a great ride, the paint job does look very nice, so credit where it's due. Next up, I'm going to talk about the new for 2019 attraction for Ben Frontier. We have received some new details about the experience, and before it was sort of chalked up as being like an escape room type of thing, and it's not going to be an escape room in the traditional sense, but we learned that this is actually not going to be an upcharge attraction, but it will be included with the mission. So with that, I'm actually looking really forward to checking this out this year. There is a post on the Cedar Point blog hinting at some of the elements of this new attraction, and they also posted a map, and they said they're going to reveal more as time goes on and more maps and stuff like that, but right now we have this one map, and it shows some really interesting things, like these bridges going over the water that have these circular flotation devices underneath, suggesting that these are going to be bridges that kind of like, you know, rock back and forth or move as you walk over them. There is some rock work with waterfalls featured in there, and it's been pointed out that this is likely actually going to be reused from that old shoot the rapids water ride that stood on the island from 2010 to 2013. So at least something good is coming from that ride, I guess. So apparently as well, according to the Sandusky Register, an article they did about Winter Chill Out, I will link that article in the description, they're apparently going to be unique menu items found on the island as well, which I find really interesting. So I'm actually quite looking forward to this experience. I think Cedar Point is making a good move, and they're going for more of that overall experience now, and I think this is a great step in that direction, you know, having something that features live theater elements and more interactive things looks very fun. Next up, I'm going to talk about Magnum. I find this one pretty interesting. They added some new padding to the lap bars on Magnum XL 200 because of all the complaints about discomfort on the ride. For what it's worth, I've always thought Magnum is a magnificent ride. It's one of my all time favorites. I will always love this ride. And I don't really find it that uncomfortable like a lot of people do, but the fact is a lot of people do find it very uncomfortable. And that can't be ignored. So Cedar Point added this padding. And to me, this is really interesting because it's like, first of all, looking at it, is this padding really going to help a lot with that discomfort? It looks really minimal to me. And I also must say it even looks sort of temporary. So is Cedar Point maybe looking in the next couple of years to sort of retrofit Magnum's trains with a better lap bar system or possibly even some new trains? What do you guys think about this looking at the pictures? I just find this really interesting because it just doesn't seem like it would help a whole lot, but I could be wrong. And I have to say, even though I love Magnum so much, I really do think those lap bars are pretty bad. Hopefully this will help with that. And maybe we'll even see some better lap bars or better trains in the future. Let me know what you guys think about this in the comments because I genuinely am really interested to hear what you guys have to say about this. I find it really interesting. Now the last thing that I want to talk about here, this is so exciting to me. This is definitely the best thing I think that came out of the winter chill out event. And I think a lot of you guys are going to be really excited about this too. Steel Vengeance. There is going to be a new system put in place on Steel Vengeance regarding the dreaded no phone and queue line policy. Pouches are going to be added to the cars to put loose articles into so you won't have to purchase lockers for small items like your cell phones, sunglasses, stuff like that. This is a really smart move on Cedar Point's part. And they realized that no phone policy wasn't sustainable. And I'm sure it was also difficult to really strictly enforce. So I'm looking forward to getting some awesome shots from the queue line this year of Steel Vengeance that I think this is really good news. It's a really good move on Cedar Point's part. And it will add to the overall satisfaction of the experience because this was a pretty big deal, you know, for coaster enthusiasts that wanted to go and ride Steel Vengeance you have to wait in two, three hour long lines and you weren't able to even get any pictures or anything like that. So this is a really good move and I'm really looking forward to seeing how this works out. I think this is going to be great. Also the handles sticking out from the lap bars have been removed. After adding them apparently Cedar Point realized guests would have a better experience without them because I guess hands were like banging and rubbing together on the ride. Nothing like banging and rubbing some hands together, some strangers, you know. Some sweaty hands. Anyway, those are just many of the big things I wanted to discuss that we now know about. Let me know in the comments if I missed anything important. There is a lot of info that was gained from this year's event and there's way too much to go into every single little thing that we found out. These are just some of the more notable and exciting things that we know about up to this point. So what are your thoughts on these developments? Are you guys excited for the new restaurants for Forbidden Frontier? What do you think about those restraints on Magnum? Seriously, let me know. What do you guys think about that? I also want to say real quick before I end this video, thank you guys so much for helping me reach 200 subscribers. I just reached 200 in the past few days and I'm so grateful. Thank you guys so much for sticking around up to this point. And if you're looking forward to more Theme Park and roller coaster content in the future, make sure you like, comment, subscribe, all that. This is CoasterDaddy. Thanks for watching. Bye.


Well hello there that was a little hard to get off my beautiful internet friends welcome back to my channel for years It has been four years since I started this channel and much more importantly since I lost my leg and I still haven't found it So four years ago I walked into a hospital up in Denver on two feet knowing that I would be leaving the hospital Without one of them. I knew that it was the last time I was gonna take steps as a two-legged I still remember walking into the waiting room. It felt so surreal I gave my mom and my then husband a hug. I called my dad He said I'll see you on the other side and then the good drugs hit and I went under four years later It has been quite a journey and every single year has felt so different I'm gonna put a link down below to some of the other previous anniversary videos Also noting that this video is about a week and a half late because I was in the middle of moving and couldn't Film it and actually release it on the anniversary date, but it's close enough. We're gonna count it But first before we dive into this you may have guessed what time it is sponsor time a big Thank you to today's sponsor bright sellers a company that I have actually wanted to work with for quite some time now So I love white wine. I'm still working on my red palette. We aren't there yet on special occasions or game nights with friends I love having you know a glass to sip on my total beginner when it comes to wine So going to the store I was basically just choosing, you know, it how pretty the wine label looks However, bright sellers actually matches you through their quiz with a variety of wines from small vineyards worldwide They are curated to what your taste preferences are and with hundreds of exclusive wine brands You'll be able to try some wines that you've never tasted anywhere else If you're anything like me someone who is not super wine educated each box comes with wine pairing suggestions and education cards I love knowing more about what is actually in each bottle such as the flavor notes So I can kind of learn a little bit more about it Also, if sustainability is something that you are striving for in your life Bright sellers offers a number of sustainable brands in their wine repertoire My personal favorite for my box is the hazel air first of all super pretty label Dear bright sellers you get to decide how often you want to receive one of your boxes from them As you guys know sponsors like bright sellers are what make this channel possible if you are interested at all I would highly recommend checking out their link in the description below and right now Bright sellers is actually offering a limited time offer of 50% off their first six bottle box Click that link in the description to find what wine is gonna best suit you So go ahead and click that link in the description and let's jump back into the video Now that we are four years into this I wanted to talk a little bit about what it's actually been like to live life as a below-the-knee amputee And then I'm actually gonna rewatch one of my old videos where I talked about the dreams I had like what I wanted to do when I got a prosthetic leg I have not watched this video in three years and I don't remember what I said I'm kind of curious what goals or dreams I have achieved and what might have shifted the first year was a lot of Agony and disappointment and pain because I had a fall the surgery didn't end up working out correctly And I had to wait to have my leg amputated a second time that August but ironically October 11th of 2019 One year after my first amputation I got my first prosthetic leg and I feel like that really started my journey of being able to walk again that first year There was so much adjustment to like how different everything felt how weird everything felt kind of a societal aspect of integrating And deciding as someone who looks different within that second year was so good because it was learning to walk It was learning to run it was learning to snowboard rock climbing doing all of these things that I'd been dying to do and then the pandemic hit So that complicated things a little bit 2020 to early 2021 was just kind of a blur a lot of staying at home and working and continuing to Kind of walk normally this past year I feel like has been marked with a lot of Frustration and feeling like taking steps back and disappointment because I've been experiencing a lot of nerve issues a lot more Pain I've still been able to do a good bit in the last year But I feel like 2021 to 2022 has been a good reminder that this is not a straight line living with this kind of a disability It's never done. You're always adjusting to something. You're getting adjustments made to your prosthetic leg Fana pain got a lot worse this year And I'm not sure if I've released this video or not, but I just moved for accessibility and to be able to use a wheelchair I got a wheelchair this year for my good friend onica Which has been an amazing device to be able to use but has also forced me to really come face to face with a lot of the internalized ableism that has been in me feelings of mobility devices like wheelchairs being bad or Feeling like I'm less or I shouldn't have to use one and processing through those emotions And I honestly think that has been one of the most beneficial things of this year. There's a lot of truck One moment. It's been the year of not Shattering boundaries and doing incredible new things but of recognizing the limitations that my body actually has and how to respect Those without judgment allowing myself the space to accommodate my body in a way that it requires Without feeling crappy about that or feeling, you know, judgment or resentment still absolutely work in progress But something that I'm really glad I finally had to face because it feels so much better Being able to use my chair and not feel icky about it But to actually be really grateful for it and be like, okay, cool This is another tool in my arsenal for days when my leg isn't good So I'm really glad to have the last four years under my belt But I feel like it's easy to get excited about doing new things when you have that opportunity But years into it when you're faced with the understanding that this is gonna be a lifelong journey that this is, you know An ever-changing process. I'm gonna get more and more comfortable with everything, but realistically I'll probably be looking at more surgeries Realistically my body over time. It's probably not gonna get better that part has been very Bitter to swallow. However, with that being said, I got back to jiu-jitsu this year I don't even know if anyone cares about jiu-jitsu on this channel Let me know down below if you do but dear sweet Jesus That has been the best thing that I have done for myself this year I have never felt more comfortable in my physical body in my entire life That's like including going through years of eating disorder recovery and all different kinds of surgeries and body stuff I have never felt better than being on the mat and learning how to use my lack of a leg as a tool to my advantage in a fight That is so cool. Yes, it's a disadvantage, but good God. It is an advantage too You can check out my video on jiu-jitsu up above if you're interested I want to talk about some of my goals and dreams for this coming year But first let's take a look at ones that I had before I was even walking I also find it so weird to look back at videos from years ago I just feel like a very different person But I'm really grateful to kind of have the history that this is So let's dive in. It's about two days until I have my second below-the-knee amputation Oh, I didn't realize I filmed this two days before so I was about to crush my way into the second leg chopping What about is a lot to deal with? I thought that we would take today's video to focus on the reason why I did this in the first place Honestly, I think this will be helpful for me and I thought it'd be fun to share this with you guys Because I talked about like the reason I had this amputation in the first place I mean I was tired of living in pain and I wanted to live a more active life because being active is a huge part of my identity And it still is I would say more than ever and I have been able to get so much more active since filming this Which is really cool. You did it Joe. I just want to like pat little Joe on the shoulder and be like it will be okay It's gonna be challenging, but it will be okay But there are so many things that I am ridiculously excited about There are so many things that I am like hardly even want to think about because they get me so excited Like the possibility of them happening is simultaneously the most exciting thing and the most heartbreaking thing because I can't do them just yet But it could be coming and it could be coming soon So these are the things that I am looking forward to these are the things that I will be taking you guys along with me to do And the reason why I started down this road in the first place as I head into my second amputation Knowing how rough it's gonna be just quick note when I watch back videos of myself I come across as so much more chipper and positive than I was actually feeling like this is an inauthentic But when I think back to like the emotions that I was having during that time I was really trying to be like I am committed to being hopeful and to looking at the things that I can do because right now Things are trash. It was awful having to go back in to have more of my leg cut off. I got really emotional about it I was like they're taking more of my body. Haven't I lost enough and ended up being totally fine And actually worked really well though with that being said these are the things big and small But I cannot wait to do and share with you guys when I get there Let's start with a simple one walk my dogs around the block on days of my I've done that so many times If I can find the video clip I'll pop it up on screen But taking my dogs for a walk is an amazing thing that I have been able to do for years now The walks are very short I take them up to the forest to go actually run and get energy out because they're big and they hurt my legs sometimes But I can do it now and that's amazing and that is one of the most exciting simple Ridiculously little things that I cannot wait to do just take my dogs for a walk in the morning Secondly a little bit of a bigger goal. I want to go for a jog with my dad I'm gonna get emotional with this one. So I grew up my dad and I would go jogging He's been a jogger his entire life and um, I could never run with him. Oh god Come on. I put on mascara and eyeliner. It's gonna bleed all over the place I had the opportunity to do this and it was actually filmed by runner's world I went for a jog with my dad is one of those moments that I was just oh On top of the world it felt incredible And I'm so glad to have that documented to have that for the rest of my life when we can both run It felt like the most normal thing in the world and also one of the most emotional experiences. It was incredible I got to do that. All right, so two goals down that I did building on that get a little bit bigger with the vision I want to run a 5k, but I think what I actually want to do is run a marathon No, we're not running a marathon. However, I did run a 5k. I love that I've gotten these checked off so far Um, so I ran a 5k around the same time that I jogged with my dad The runner's world did a video about it. I'll link that down below. Oh my god the feeling of crossing that finish line I literally just like was like, yeah, I crossed it. I was like, oh my god I did it and was just sobbing as the cameras are like zoomed into my face. Thanks guys It was truly one of the most amazing experiences of my life I remember turning the final corner of that race and seeing the finish line and being like, how did I do this?  I could prove myself wrong I don't think that one's in the cards for me at least right now I'd rather focus on, you know, other sports and take care of my leg a little bit better right now I live in colorado and if you don't know about colorado, we have a ton of 14ers Which are mountains that are over 14,000 feet They are intense to climb you can get to the top of I think all of them actually And I would love to hike a 14er. I did hike a 14er previous to losing my leg I wanted to do it because I could say I had done it 14ers are basically mountains over 14,000 feet In colorado.  It's a big achievement. It's hard. It's a hard hike And I did it once when my leg was trash I knew I was going to be an insane amount of pain, but I wanted to do it anyways and I did it But I wanted to revisit that uh as an amputee actually getting up the top of mountain I was going to train for that this year Um, but I decided against it because of the nerve issues that I was having And that's definitely something that I'd like to shoot for in the future I will do that one day. Haven't gotten there just yet swing dancing So if you watched one of my videos not long ago I used to go swing dancing every Sunday night in high school and I love it swing dancing I this is actually been on my list of uh things to look for classes for and places to go to in the area Because I love dancing every time I say that I want to add the caveat that I am not a naturally talented dancer I'm just not and I've accepted that fact for years But I love it and so this is something I'm actually actively pursuing right now I haven't done it yet, but I'm gonna and I think it's gonna be great I'm not sure how quickly I can move my feet and like some of the spins with the prosthetic But I'm gonna make it work zero skill.   I was her hero for the night So I'll take it do the incline again. So the incline is this ridiculously difficult Short hike in Colorado Springs. Yes. So the incline is an infamous hike in the Colorado Springs area You're basically going up the old railroad tracks that brought you to the top of pikes peak It's not to the top pikes peak. It is an insane amount of elevation in a very short period of time Very challenging hike. I did it a couple times before previous to limb loss And I do want to do that again The problem is the trail back down is very steep downhill and winding And right now that's going to set my leg off a whole lot So I'll hold off on that goal for now, but I will get back to that. That one is still on the list This doesn't require a working prosthetic leg, but just get back to jiu-jitsu. I would love to get back to jiu-jitsu I am back at jiu-jitsu and it is giving me so much joy in life and Giving away a secret here. I am actually training for competition. I think I'm going to do it I think I'm committed to it when I got back into jiu-jitsu I was like I'm just going to do this as a hobby just for fun. I don't need to compete.  I am a very competitive person with very select things the vast majority of games and activities I can lose all day. I'm happy. I'm fine when it comes to combat. I I like I like winning I like actually pushing really hard and so as soon as I actually got back into the gym I was like no, I think I actually want to compete main priority is not getting injured So I'm making sure I can do that safely and train well for it, but I think I'm going to do it I think I'm going to do with this coming here because jiu-jitsu was in my blood It is like a part of who I am and I miss it so much and soon I will return to the mat run with the bulls in Barcelona Or is it Madrid? I'm not sure. I actually don't want to do either one of those things, but it's okay Okay, good for a second. I thought one of my goals was actually to run with the bulls in Barcelona Is that even like good for the animals? I don't I don't know anything anything about that I'm glad this was a joke because if I actually aspired to this I would have been concerned for my previous self Go back to Ireland and walk around the streets of Dublin Okay, so I went on a trip to Ireland a few months before filming this video where I was on crutches and I walked the entire time And I'm still dying to go back there and actually explore the country on foot walking around new places Is my favorite thing to do of all of the things that is my favorite thing And one of my best best friends just moved to Ireland and so I'm planning on going and seeing her this year So I think this goal will be checked off the list very shortly Specifically like walk through the city just be a side note. My music was way too loud in these old videos I'm so sorry guys. I think I learned about audio balancing a little bit better Maybe so I have crossed off a significant portion of the goals on my when I can walk again as an amputee list And I'm actually really excited about that climbing the 14er and doing the incline definitely still on the list I'm gonna wait until my leg is feeling a lot more stable to be able to accomplish those But the uh jiu-jitsu competition thing that one that one is coming up soon And I'm anxious nervous excited about it So I would say that my goals moving forward for this year of my journey as an amputee are definitely get back to snowboarding Last year I was able to learn how to snowboard. It was incredible I had a lot of issues with my socket and trying to get things right And it's kind of this constant process of I gotta drive hours into the mountains to get there You've made some adjustments to your leg. Maybe they'll work that day. Maybe they won't So now that I kind of have a better idea of what works and what doesn't I'm gonna go back up starting in november and see how I feel Maybe join an adaptive team. Maybe maybe not depending on how my leg feels I don't know as much as I can compete in anything this year I'm here for it because whatever my body can enable me to do right now I want to do because I'm aware of the fact that this is not forever. I'll take care of it I'll take care of my leg and my body the best I can Um, but right now I am capable of doing some things and I want to capitalize on that I think my other goal for the year is to really really learn to respect the boundaries that I have in the moments when it matters most So here's the thing in daily life. I'm getting pretty good about being like nope. I can't do that right now I don't have the energy for it or I'm in too much pain. Nope. I need to use my wheelchair. Okay. That's not a bad thing I'm good with it. No judgment. Let's do it in moments when people are like, let's all go do a thing Or if I'm you know on the mats with someone and I know I should probably slow down or like not role is hard But they're pushing I throw logic and reason aside and I'm like, let's go Right, even though I know it's gonna hurt me those moments. I'm looking to eliminate or at least scale down quite a bit I've never been really big as a goal person and I feel like when I say that it sounds like I'm a lazy bum And I'm not I mean some days. Yes, but I feel like the older that I have gotten the more I have been interested in finding peace actual connection with people and that being pretty much it So I definitely have physical goals because they excite me and I love doing things but more than anything I want to take care of myself and the people around me and Find moments when I feel at peace because those are rare and build a life that I continue to want to be a part of That has nothing to do with being an amputee. It's just a person four years in. This is all of the things It is challenged me in ways. I didn't think were possible It has benefited me in ways that bring me so much joy It has been frustrating in some of these setbacks It has expanded who I am and the understanding and compassion for myself and other people that I have It has helped me overcome internalized feelings of ableism and given me a whole lot of cool opportunities So happy four years to me. It's so funny. It doesn't actually seem like that long of a time Four years is like a short amount of time in someone's life. I'm still new to this I'm still figuring it out and I'm excited to see what this next year brings a big Thank you to today's video sponsor check out their links down below to my beautiful patrons over on patreon Thank you for your continued support of this channel and most importantly to you watching this video right now Thank you for spending a few minutes out of your day here with me today Celebrating and listening to my stories of four years as an amputee You could be anywhere else in the world doing anything else and you chose to hang out with me for a few minutes And I really appreciate that. I love you guys. I'm thinking about you and I will see you in the next video Bye guys