Welcome to the Kondo Insider on Think Tech Hawaii. I'm your host, attorney Nalan. Joining me today is our guest, Mr. Dale Tomei. He is the Hawaii Education Coordinator for the Hawaii Home Ownership Center. Dale graduated from University of Hawaii, majoring in Economics and has been working at Hawaii Home Ownership Center for 18 years. The Hawaii Home Ownership Center is a 503 nonprofit organization that provides homebuyer education and financial coaching, assisting prospective first-time homebuyers to prepare for home ownership. It is also a HUD-approved housing counseling organization. Thank you so much, Dale. Welcome to our show. Thanks, Nalan. Glad to be here. So, I mean, we do have, you know, as, you know, the title of our program, Kondo Insider, we do have, you know, usually Kondo Miniam would be a perfect starter home for any people who are considering about owning their first home and your center's audience or clients must also have quite a portion that are potential Kondo Miniam buyers. So, can you tell us more about your center, its background, mission, office location? Okay, so the Hawaii Home Ownership Center is a nonprofit organization and we provide homebuyer education and financial coaching. So we help families with their preparation towards becoming a homebuyer through money management, understanding credit, learning about mortgages, learning about real estate, the purchase contract, as well as the different types of insurances associated with the home purchase. And you're correct. I would say about 95% of our families, their first purchase will be a Kondo. And it's just because of the prices in Hawaii, everybody needs to start somewhere. And oftentimes it will be a Kondo, even though the dream house is a single family house, they will, you know, sustain home ownership. I think that's a really key in home ownership is being able to sustain home ownership. Because if you're thinking, you're gonna buy something and sell it next year at a profit, you need a crystal ball. I mean, really it's about buying something you can afford and sustaining it. And with our Hawaii market, we're fortunate that the trends had been over the past that eventually prices will start going up and appreciate. So they let the property help them to build that down payment on the upgrade in the future. But yes, definitely most of our families do purchase Kondos. The center is affiliated with NeighborWorks America, which is a national organization charted by Congress. And we're one of many organizations across the country that offers the NeighborWorks curriculum. It is a nine-hour course. It's not scheduled one day and you go nine hours. We break them up into modules. There's four sessions. Typically we do these classes over a month's period. So every month we're offering a new series of that nine-hour course. And the courses are, this is something that we learned from the pandemic was we had to start doing virtual meetings just like we were doing right now. And once we started doing that, the attendees actually prefer attending a webinar session because they can be across from a different island. They could be from the other side of the Oahu attending a course from their home or they could be sitting in their office before they make their commute to go home. So we offer these Zoom webinars covering the nine hours broken up into four sessions. Typically they're scheduled in the evenings, usually about six to eight, 15 in the evening and on four separate evenings. The Homebuyer Education course through again the NeighborWorks curriculum is again nine hours. And that certificate from a HUD approved counseling agency.  And that certificate is typically a requirement for most assistance programs. And I know for most first-time homebuyers even when I was a first-time homebuyer, I didn't know as a consumer, I didn't know that there were assistance programs that help whether it's down payment assistance, grants, first-time homebuyer programs, mortgage credit certificate programs or sometimes even lenders, specific lenders will offer incentives such as maybe waiving fees if you're a first-time homebuyer. Even on the escrow side, some companies will offer discounts because you are a first-time homebuyer. But as a consumer, my first purchase, I didn't know. It was so overwhelming to begin with, right? You're getting paperwork from the lender, the real estate agent, the escrow officer and you're trying to read everything but it's so overwhelming, especially for the first-time buyer that you read it and it really boils down to, you know what, just tell me where to sign.  I wish I went to the classes myself. I would have felt much more comfortable about what I was being asked to sign. I would ask better questions from my loan officer, my real estate agent. I would have felt much more in control of my first purchase. So the Hawaii Homeownership Center, again, we are a nonprofit organization that provides this education and counseling. And we've been around since 2003 but it's been quite a while. NeighborWorks America, though, has been around since 1978.  I don't know why it didn't take, you know, it wasn't here in Hawaii much sooner because I would have definitely took the classes and got then, again, more comfortable with what I was going through, especially that first-time. Does your center have the office on Oahu? What about Neighbor Island? Yes, so we do have an office on the big island, on the corner side, but most of our counseling, so you actually bring up a good question. So the reason why it's not just education because in our classes, the information provided is somewhat general, right? You might have 30 families attending. The information in itself is kind of general. Everybody's financial situation will be totally different from one another. And that's where that follow-up counseling, so you'd be working with a financial coach that will apply what we discussed in class, but it'll be specific to that family situation in private confidential meetings. And most of those actually occur in Zoom sessions. So on Oahu, which is our main branch, we're actually in the Hawaii USA Federal Credit Union on Aalash Street. We're actually, there's actually two buildings on the property. We're on the Malka side on the second floor in Suite 201. And on the big island, we do have an office, a small office that we share with Hawaii Community Credit Union. And we actually have a cubicle there and an counselor is there. But most of the counseling sessions actually do occur over Zoom. So how does one get the service from your center? What is the usual intake or how do they sign up for these education classes or sessions? Okay, great question. So I would recommend, so every month we do hold a introductory first time home buyer workshop. It's essentially, we're talking about the buying process. So it's a one hour free webinar. So again, you can attend from wherever you're logging in from and it's gonna be going over the buying process and how the education and financial coaching actually fits into that. That would give you a good overview about the Hawaii Home Ownership Center services and does it make sense for you to go through the program instead of just signing up for something? So that'll give you a good overview. And our next one is actually scheduled on August 24th. That's a Thursday. And it's six to 7 p.m. It's free. You can go to our website, which is www.hihomeownership.org or you can Google Hawaii Home Ownership Center. Go to our homepage, scroll down and it'll save free workshops. Click on that button, choose your date and you can attend. And then we'll also during that workshop talk about how you can actually become a member and register for the home buyer education classes. If you'd like to take a look at our upcoming class sessions we have the schedule listed there as well. So you could just go on the website, click on the upcoming home buyer education schedule. And that'll give you an idea of what times the classes are held, what times of the month it's held. And I think we might have actually recently updated it with the rest of the year schedule. And then we also offer every once in a while free workshops that we just open it up to not only our member families but to anyone that's interested. We have one scheduled for September 12th and that one's the assistance programs review. So what we do in that workshop, now that one's scheduled a little earlier from five to 6 p.m. on the 12th and again it's listed on the website. But that workshop, we review all of the assistance programs that are currently available for first time home buyers. So it'll give you a good idea as far as what programs are currently funded, how do they work, what are the income restriction levels. So it'll give you an idea of again what's available, how to apply for them, what's required. That sounds great because as we all know the market has been gently adjusting downward but then we do have this high interest rate when we try to get financing at this point that really limit people's buying power at this point. And if any help either on the interest rate side or on the down payment side would be super helpful for investors who want to buy their first home. Yes. What about like, I think you're on your website, the center listed that it is affiliated with HHOC mortgage, which is Hawaii's only nonprofit mortgage broker. Can you tell us a little bit more about HHOC mortgage and what kind of services does it offer? Okay, so under the home ownership centers umbrella, there's actually three nonprofits. The first one would be home bar education and financial coaching. That's where I come from. A second nonprofit under the home ownership center more umbrella is HHOC mortgage, which is again, like you mentioned, a nonprofit lender. They actually are a mortgage broker and they introduced two first time home buyer programs. One is a down payment assistance loan program. And that one, the income restriction level goes up to 120% of the area median income. Now some counties like Honolulu County has a down payment assistance loan program, but that one goes only up to 80% of the area median income. So if you're above 80%, you make too much money to qualify for that program. So HHOC mortgage came up with a gap loan program to try and help families that maybe make too much money to qualify for the city and county program, but they may also qualify for this under 120% of the area median income group. And basically they have requirements of 3% down payment from the borrower, where you can borrow 17 up to 22% of the purchase price in a second mortgage. The interest rate on that second mortgage will be lower than typical conventional mortgages. So the interest rate on that will either be equal to the qualifying first mortgage interest rate. So it is a second mortgage or 4.5%, whichever is less. So because interest rates are closer to 7% right now, your second mortgage will be 4.5%. And you can borrow up to 125,000. So that way you could possibly avoid mortgage insurance. And if you're buying a condo, potentially not only avoid mortgage insurance, but also avoid the low-level price adjustment to your interest rate. So typically if you don't have 25% down payment and you're purchasing a condo, there is an add-on to your interest rate of about three quarters of a percent. So being able to come in with 3% down payment of my own money, I can use the second mortgage to avoid mortgage insurance, as well as avoid that add-on to the interest rate. And they also have a closing cost assistance programs. Now that one has three levels of qualification. So there's 80% and below, above 80%, but below 100% of the remaining income. And the third tier is above 100, but less than 120% of the remaining income. The difference between the three is how much reserves you must show and then what the maximum loan amount will be. All three, so the maximum loan amount, if you're 80% and below is up to 15,000. That middle tier above 80, but less than 100, the maximum loan amount is 12,500. And then if you're above 100% of the remaining income, but below 120, the maximum loan amount is 10,000. And this is to help with closing costs. The terms on those loans, zero interest, 15-year amortization, payments deferred. So you can borrow, let's say you borrowed 15,000 to help with closing costs. It's zero interest and you don't make payments on it. If you sell the property before 15 years, that loan, the 15,000, is paid back from the proceeds of the sale. So let's say I buy now, I sell after 14 years, but in that 14-year period, my property has appreciated by 115,000. I sell at year 14 instead of getting a profit of 115,000, I get 100, because I have to pay that 15,000 back. So basically you borrow the money for free. Wow, that sounds very, very helpful. So, I'm sure our audience today, there will be many of them who would want to become a member with your center. So can you tell us if there's gonna be a membership fee? You just mentioned some really good services, including individual sessions tailored to your own financial situation. For those kind of sessions, is there like a service charge for members? Yes, there is a membership fee because we are a membership-driven organization. The membership fee is $60 and it's not per person, it's per home buying unit. So if you're single, it's $60. If you're a family of six, everyone falls under a $60 lifetime membership. Now, I should mention that currently, it's actually a good time to take the homebuyer education classes because currently there's some grants available to offset some of that cost. If you are on the walk-through and working with a Honolulu border realtors member as an agent, there is a $50 grant that you can apply to offset $50 of that $60 lifetime membership. So out of pocket, it's 10 bucks. If you are a HSTA member, Hawaii State Teachers Association member, there is a grant that will cover $30 of the lifetime membership. So $30 out of your pocket instead of $60. And if you're working, this is a new one. So if you're working with American Savings Bank and you basically are working with a loan officer from American Savings Bank, the program is called This Is Home. They will also subsidize your lifetime membership. So basically, they will cover your membership fee. And it's a lifetime membership. So once you are a member, it's a lifetime membership. So whether it's you're ready in six months or it takes 20 years for you to get yourself prepared to become a home ownership or into home ownership. It's a lifetime memory. In fact, we've had families that have been with us since 2004, they've gone on to purchase three times. And again, the first one was probably a condo. Then they moved up to the townhouse and then now they've purchased a single family house, but they've come back. Lifetime membership. So their most work was done with the first purchase. But they come back and talk to their counselor and say, okay, we're thinking about upgrading in a couple of years, anything that we can prepare ourselves for that upgrade purchase. I see. Well, what if someone has some credit issues? Let's say maybe like, you know, with the RIS payment plan or even with, you know, student loans that hasn't been paid off, those kind of issues. Does your center's financial coach will be able to help them? Like how they can plan in advance, you know, work towards the goal of home ownership? Sure, sure. So again, the reality of buying a house, especially in Hawaii, is we don't have to borrow money. So credit plays a critical role in being able to qualify for the mortgage. So not only is it important to manage our money properly if we wanna become potential home buyers in the future, but also staying on top of our credit. And that's why one of the classes that you'd be attending if you take the classes is two hours and 15 minutes only about credit. Now the counselors, again, will work with the family-specific and confidential meetings. So we don't want you to bring up personal information in our classes. Classes are general information. But working with the counselor, they'll help the counsel the individual families within whatever specific situation they're in. So even if it's, you know, I got some errors that are showing up on my credit report, I have this collection and I don't know who this collector is. I've never worked with, you know, the company, they're saying that I owe a collection too. Sometimes it's just errors. The counselor will also work with them to correct them, to write out, you know, those credit bureau letters so we can get them fixed. Cause we want all of that fixed before we apply for the mortgage. We don't wanna apply for the mortgage, get denied because there's something on the credit report and then start fixing it. Let's fix all of that before we apply. Yeah. And I see the center also offers focosure prevention and rental counseling services. Can you share further information about that program? Sure. So the Hawaii Homeownership Center as a Heart-Approved Counseling Agency, oftentimes we'll work with other organizations such as right now the Counsel for Native Hawaiian Advancement CNHA, they actually are working with funds that were awarded to the state from the US Treasury. And it's called the Homeowners Assistance Fund Program. Now those funds were specifically for families that are experiencing hardship due to COVID. So if you got impacted during COVID, especially during its peak where you might've been laid off or maybe multiple people were laid off or maybe you spent a period of time not going to work because you actually got COVID. As long as it's COVID related, I encourage you check out the CNHA's website. Again, Counsel for Native Hawaiian Advancement or you can Google Homeowners Assistance Fund, Hawaii or Hawaii Homeowners Assistance Fund. The state has it on their website where you can go directly to CNHA, apply for it. And if you get approved, there's funding that can bring you current on your mortgage up to 60,000. If you're behind on HOAs, that can be applied. If you are behind in your electrical, your utilities, it can be applied toward that or maybe a combination of all of those can be applied. So again, as long as you can get approval based on COVID and then, yeah, those funds up to 60,000 can help you bring current so that you can get back on your feet because COVID have affected everybody. And it wasn't because people were lazy, they didn't wanna work.  So there was a time where you weren't working and then your bills were piling up, you fell behind. It's tough. Most of the families that we were seeing that apply for them, they exhausted all of their savings. Some of them were dipping into their retirement. So yeah, so the Hawaii Homeownership Center actually has been contracted with CNHA. And part of receiving those funds if you get approval is a counseling session. So we help CNHA understand what are the circumstances that the family has gone through. What types of arrearages they accumulated that do actually fall under what can be funded through the program. And then we also provide resources moving forward because not only do we wanna become current on all of those issues that we might have fallen behind on, but it's about, okay, once it's current, how do we move forward, right? How do we manage our money so we can start rebuilding our reserves? Well, how can we maybe potentially cut some of our monthly expenses so that will help us to again, rebuild our lost reserves? I think for a lot of guests, first time home buyers, you will also, you have to get all these different professionals to help you. For example, insurance agent, realtors and loan officers when not. And then if I have no clue, I approach your center, would your center also be providing referral information on these kind of services? We can provide referrals. The only thing is, I mean, ultimately we want you to be able to shop. Yeah, so HUD really wants us, because if you just go to one company, how do you know that's the best deal you can get? The weather is mortgages, whether it's insurance, basically it's understanding what type of mortgages are available, what type of insurances are associated with a home purchase and why I would probably need one or not need one. And it's understanding those different types of policies, different types of insurances, different types of mortgages so that when I start talking to lenders, when I start talking to insurance providers, I can ask good questions. And then again, I can make a sound consumer decision because I kind of did my due diligence with the shopping part.  So what is, what would be the recommended timeline? If I'm thinking about, you know, buying my first home down the road, when should I initiate the contact with your center? Because it's a lifetime membership as soon as possible. I see. We've had people that they didn't realize they were close.  And by the way, rent in Hawaii isn't cheap either. You know, you get caught up in that cycle, right? Sign a year lease. And then before you know it, that term is ended.  And if you're paying $2,000 per month, that's 24 grand in a year. In four years, that's 96 grand. That could have possibly gone towards a mortgage or maybe toward a down payment. That's a good point. So what are the most frequent, I guess, issues the center's members need help on, you know, especially as with regard to condominium purchases? Condominium purchases, I think one thing that's come up is not only the price. I mean, that's always been a challenge in Hawaii, not just recently. It's always been challenging. The interest rates right now, not in the best favor for buyers, especially that first time, not compared, you know, after being spoiled for almost 10 years with really historic low interest rates. But again, it's just a matter of understanding, what can I do? What do I have control over? And really what we have control over is our own finances. Yeah, so it's about getting yourself mortgage ready because not only do the mortgage programs require you to qualify for them, but even the assistance programs. We talked about down payment assistance. Some of them have requirements for a minimum down payment from the borrower before you can even apply for it. It might be 3%, it might be 5%. They may have a minimum credit score requirement in order for you to apply for that assistance. And a lot of the new development as well when you see reserve units or affordable units for first time home buyers, they also require home buyer education. So again, if you're thinking about home ownership, you wouldn't have to wait and be ready to purchase. It's really what I'm saying. We're starting to have, you know, families that have purchased way back when the center first opened, they're sending their kids.   No. And sometimes you got to hear it from somebody else, right? Because we're all hearing it from mom and dad, and then we tend to, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and then goes in one ear, goes out the other. But sometimes when you hear it from somebody else, then the light bulb goes on. That's so true. Our time is up. Thank you so much for joining us Dale and providing all these useful information. And I highly recommend our audience to check out the website for Hawaii Home Ownership Center. Thank you again, Dale.


Happy holidays. Hey y'all, it is Christmas Eve. I'm in my she-room homegirl the one who Recommended that is good Maybe I'm watch cat on the hot tin roof. That's one of my favorite movies. Yeah, let me start looking at this I do want to watch something that's uplifting and just a good movie. I don't want to watch anything too dark or To you know what I mean? So it is Christmas Eve We have been up doing all types of stuff. The weather outside is horrible I fold back for anyone who's locally in it and in and a bag mood or lonely this weather She's gonna make it even worse. I mean it is raining. It's been raining since yesterday and it's dark and it's cold like I'm not going outside till Thursday. That's how horrible the weather is So anyway, I'm back in my room. I she-room JB and my husband are in the front. They are putting together his Lego kit Tomorrow I will probably put together one of his other toys We got a lot of hands-on toys because that's just a type of child that I have he likes to build up stuff and then destroy it Basically, that's that's how we work around here. So y'all. I hope you guys are I'm gonna be uploading this on Christmas So I hope you guys are having a great Christmas Let me talk about this petty stuff real quick and then we'll get into what I'm gonna be what I really want to Talk about we'll get we'll get into this book right here that I have and there's a little little bright on y'all So bear with me. So I did Watch half of the live with African hair god and his responding to send all Videos she did about two weeks ago Unsubscribe from her but my unsubscribing from her Sorry and just watching her interaction with her Subscribers, but I think that she can be very confusing the information that she puts on here And just for that reason online a lot of it could be conflicting, which is why I'm like girl You I like you as a person, but this is and I know some people are the opposite, you know I think she doesn't have And this is kind of what African hair god said in his first reaction video I believe I don't think she's intentionally doing this. She just doesn't know any better Which is why I you know I think it will be great as someone would have reached out to her on the side and say hey sis instead of a public Platform like YouTube but with that being said Let me start opening up some of my new stuff. I bought to y'all African hair I did do another reaction video to a video she posted two weeks ago in regards to What was it about? Flat ironing her hair silk pressing the hair. She was wearing hydrogen bonds now before that video I did catch her detangling It really was it was her daughter's hair and her statement that is not best to use water to detangle Use oil Once you add water it breaks up the bonds and When I was actually I think it was that video that maybe be like that made me was like Personally go in on my hair and use oil only not some people may be able to and again This is one of those situations to where you have to take what someone says with a grain of salt and then apply it to your Own regimen. Okay me personally. I just can't come off the door and just use oil After now I'm okay with dry detangling meaning starting off on dry hair But then Introducing moisture to my hair in the form of either water a leave-in spray A rinse-off conditioner something again I can't go in just with oil and that's it some people may be able to and I'm gonna say this too And you guys this is not for me from a perspective of this is not someone who is wishy-washy Who has one hand over here? Well, you know what because there are some youtubers who like who are like that I'm coming from a from a perspective of I have seen people who have left comments On send all channels specifically and they're like, hey, I've used your regimen and it works for me So kudos to them again. That's what I'm seeing you as a viewer. You have to take what someone says with a grain of salt and Apply it to your regimen accordingly and it's gone all going to depend on Your hair texture your porosity Your patience level girl, please hold one girl. So anyway, y'all he made another reaction video And this is not in regards to how she was detangling although I think he may have some when she was oil detangling because he was kind of speaking on it. It was more so a Video she did on breaking down, you know, all of the different hydrogen ones. First of all, I Have 30 credits in biology. So I think I can talk to this I Didn't watch all of her video I will say this but I did see the part to where she was drawing The hydrogen bonds and how it relates to your hair and I was like this That's not a proper way to draw The the chemical bond it is from what I remember and there were a couple of people who actually have a Working knowledge of chemistry organic chemistry There were a couple of people that had either wrote on his on his channel or or her or her channel Excuse me explaining that. Hey sis, you know, I have this background. I have additional questions because This doesn't look right and she was on defense mode And I was out wow But again by then I'd already Unsubscribe but this is the only thing I kind of don't like, you know Of course African hair god has every right to you know, respond to whoever but I just wish he would have Approached it more so from even though she probably would not have received it I honestly don't think she would have announced her defense are really gonna be up because I believe he even called I don't know who he called he called someone. I don't know who this person is and the girl was referring to her as a bitch Excuse my language, but that's what she called her and I'm like, I'm gonna see that's when it went, you know I mean, I'm like see Personally, I wouldn't allow that type of interaction on my channel because that's just too much negativity So again, I just wish that he would have approached it more so from an educational moment for her Whether or not she would receive it. It would be presented that way But at the end of the day, there are only a few people that I follow for science-based Hair information as it pertains to natural hair Green Beauty channel the green beauty channel. She lives out in Hawaii now. I'm jealous. She is literally one of the only few there's there's Yeah, she's not only few that's currently who's very active, but yeah So anyway on some better things. Yeah, I started this year Well years ago, I started with my goals and I am a vision board type of person now I personally Have gotten to the habit now to not share my vision board with everyone. I typically wait till Things are in motion. Hold on. Yeah, I thought I heard him. I typically wait till things are in motion and um You know what I mean? So I have another vision board that I've created for myself I created this weeks ago in addition to that I purchased from Ross. Don't sleep on Ross for planter stuff y'all. I purchased from Ross a calendar a notebook journal type Weekly monthly view calendar. However, I'm going to use this as my Bible journal And one of the ways I would like to use this is of course every morning when I have my my quiet time And I read a scripture or a verse or two. I'm going to be jotting down how I feel You know what verse stood out to me and etc. If I could do it every day awesome But I want to do the to do this at least three to five times a week another thing that I John it down. I saw a Post on Facebook a couple of weeks ago and someone had asked have you picked your word of the year?  I'm like the word a word Is this something that I'm supposed to do in order to get my tax refund? What do we? Yeah, no, I'm silly so Making any sense. I don't understand. So I Started seeing examples of people words that they were going to I guess focused on overall for the year for 2020 And so I thought about it while I was sitting in church. The word abundance came to me abundance I'm like, okay abundance. So I took upon myself to right now all the scriptures in the Bible that have the word abundance, but the thing you guys that can be complicated for Both non-believers and believers to be quite frank is that the Bible? Sometimes if you read one little verse, you won't get the entire because there may be something Four or five books down that relates to that burst you see when I mean you have to read things in context So not only did I look up abundance, but I'm also going to be looking up abundance I took it a step further and also looked up the definition for abundance And I think a lot of people automated automatically assume okay wealth and honestly, that's what a lot of prosperity preachers focus on But for me personally I'm talking about spiritual abundance. I'm referring to abundance and joy abundance in peace Those things can only come from the Holy Spirit. Okay. And but once you acquire those things Wealth health and all that will come into play. I want an abundance of knowledge, you know I mean so I looked up the definition of abundance But then I wanted to look up the history of the word where did it come from the root of the word? And it basically relates to water Overflow so again an overflow of joy and overflow flow of peace and overflow of health So that is going to be my word for 2020 folks. So anyway, y'all Oh Okay, Amazon are you coming over here next to me cuz this Amazon this Amazon Prime band has has driven by here a couple of times Anyway, so um, what we talking about? It's really pouring down now y'all I'm gonna start cooking again until y'all. Let me come on my mama child. Hold on get girl. You don't say my whole name Mama, you still selling cakes today. I Saw the pictures you posted your popcorn. Hold on. Let me look it up. You made some caramel corn or kettle corn Ginger That sounds good. Where did you get this Christmas tree thing from? I Cookin look at that to love she could not stop laughing She said baby, your mama gotta open. Yeah, this this kid popcorn looks good Okay That's a lot you did a lot there. Who wants some collard greens? I do mr. Courtney McCurry, Sam He sells heat is he is he growing them? I'll let you go. He had a whole sale I'll let you go mama. They call me Vib back home y'all um Vib Child country everybody got nicknames out in the country. Hell. I know some people so someone had what LT stands for So anyway y'all let me show you these key Okay, girl. Okay, so this is the washi tape I purchased and I just opened these up Can y'all see this you probably can't let me see if it's focusing on my face still there it go Isn't it's cute y'all and then this is some of these stickers that came with it. Isn't it's adorable? This is another this is some more stuff that about um when we're back to Michael's Oh, yeah, this weather is making my My allergies in flames. I may need to take some medicine here We're all sneezing and this is another one Look look at this I Love black and gold Lord yeah, I'm getting stuff.  I ain't gonna know this stuff today I'll probably do it later on this week. So alright y'all what time is it and trying I got a lot more to cook Why do I always do this myself? I love to cook, but I'm tired already cuz Somebody got up early again cuz he was so excited. He was excited about opening up his presents So I knew he was gonna get up early


Do not say five years plan say instead five year plan Do not say Seven years old boy. Say instead seven year old boy Do not say 20 cents stamp Say instead 20 cent stamp. Do not say $9 toy say instead $9 toy Do not say for bedrooms house say instead for bedroom house To learn more about this topic see video at link or Check out our websites for more free English learning resources eslgold.com and free English study


interest I remember It's Marlin Yes Marlin Marlin Let me start with you How did you guys come up together And the one limbo Does it mean anything? Is it an abbreviation? Or how is the creative aspect of it? Let me start by explaining first the name limbo limbo fest Limbo from the word limbo Just the normal limbo Like a state of uncertainty Actually at that time We were not even sure of the kind of genre that we were doing because we just did good music. So our manager came with that name because the kind of genre that we were doing was uncertain. Like you were not sure like which kind of genre we were doing. So like and the first, the first part, the limbo first, the first part, it's from the word festival. As we all know festivals are something that makes you happy. So actually let me go on the how we met part. Actually we are cousins but tumilelea kama ma bro. So like we were raised together at the same primary school, the same high school until now to kutubadu pamoja. So like you were born from the family born to art born. I like also him to share his story. How do you officially join him before we get to him? I think I should say it like it was from primary school. Yeah, we grew up from primary school. Then we went to school by there. It's like this guy is the Beyoncé of the group. The Beyoncé of the Chris Brown.  He's like the official spokesperson of limbo. Yeah actually we let tuli do like we can do something together. It's a very funny story because I do remember during that period I was the one who knew. Because I actually grew up knowing like I want to sing. You wanna do takwamsani? Yeah, you wanna do takwamsani. So I grew up knowing that I'm a takwatu artist. That time me, okay I wasn't that perfect. Kama saibile, naisu sema, I'm good at writing music but at least naisu wana jaribu. So did you like do church stuff at first? Nah, just nature. Niii mulu kwa wasewa. Mulu kwa already ma bad boys. My parents didn't have to go home but we were left alone. Ako kuna pressure, I was there like you guys. Since you guys nima boys, ebu mutuli eka nisani, iwa shape kwa. Infant kwanza? Our first song that we recorded was as we went to a little party at do. In geni studium toingoma. So na pata like, that time mil kwanza andika song like I could write a whole song. Adi ishe, na na na. But him, al kwa na voice, but al kwa na lyrics, na na. Also, yendu muimbi. Yendu al kwa na imba. Ya, ya piwa nga na imba. Of vocals. Like the Chris Brown Trey songs type, Pasha Raimond. Or Diamond type. Diamond type, Tile Brown type. Ya, like Diamond Trey songs Chris Brown. Kind of. Hey, you guys, do they stay? So like, actually I started coaching him on how to write good lyrics and everything. So like, tukafu kapa ali, tukansaku gropa moja. So, storya kendo ilikuwa fani. Actually, Ya, ya. But then haji onge ya. Butum fiki at onge. Okay, okay. Like yangu. Yangu ilikuwa fani ki dogo. Okay. The term tu ilikuwa tunastipa moja tukiawa dogo. Wundia ilikuwa mejijuwa ata ki om dogo. Like here niza, niza andika song. Niza imba. Koz miki tu ilikuwa na niyake. Ono na ata ki om toto. Uyu. Yo time ilikuwa niza imba. Butikwa undika ilikuwa shida ki dogo. Buti ilikuwa niza imba. Sasa mi na ilikuwa nga futbola. Sikuwa yo storya music, whatever. Nika zi yung ilikuwa nga bio. Hi jam. Sports. Jam. Ha. Ronad. Ronad. Ronad nga ilikuwa inspiration. Ya, sikuwa na jweyo saydi nikuwa. So, like kuuna. Kuna this day, ilikuwa ni me toka tu sport, kuchiza games na. Nika bakho, nika patoa mo nika song. Ilichiwa na piga tuwa pukuvaib. Pukuvaib. Then, I think this is the story. This is the story. This is the story, you know. Buti shabitu ni sayme. Okay. Malizy. She had a favela. Ha kufa la ya ni utu oto ya ni, unedewa. So temu li toka tu, kwa ni kutuna izoma feeling ni, ni kapatawa sewa na vibe. So sigi uzi li toka wapu, nika, nika tu ya ni mingandani na wapu. Na rap tu, sigi wadi li toka wapu, uno na nika, nika jifix tu evo. Naika stik, naika stik evo. Evo tu. So insyotu we una rap, kwa group. Nyu rap tu, I don't sing. Also he's the singer, also singer, rapper. Singer, singer, rapper, rapper. So when do three in one, I'm not two in one. That's two in one. But I prefer singing. You prefer singing more than rapping. And the rest they can compliment. Alright, talk about maybe your first track that's already out there.  Afrofusion. Afrofusion, a mix of African vibes. The likes of Kena Ruga and the rest. Alright, you can talk about your first track. First track. I don't know what to say. Actually, I took it to YouTube because... Why did you not make it? I don't know what to say. Actually, I took it to the Cabinet to what to expect. Because actually, I recorded a thousand books. Produced a thousand books. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say. In the studio, I don't know what quality is. I don't know what quality sounds are. Quality everything. I don't know what is 5k. So I don't know what to say. At that time, our first studio session, like I said earlier, it was only one hour as a ziweitu. So I don't know what to say. I was trying to say, okay, we will do it. Why don't you guys, when the studio is a product, we can come now. So like, if you want to do it, you can do it yourself. But at that time, kweitu na kwao iwi kwa kali. It wasn't bad. I'm seeing Sikuwanchi, I don't know what to say, but it's playing in the background. It has a really dope vibe. I see it has that modern, classy feel with these gorgeous models. Kwawewa na katiya wa kusha e kiasi. Ile bad boy meet bad girl, set up at a restaurant scene or something. Ebu talk about it and how it came to Fruzion. No, Skwachi. Skwachi is, there's no special story behind Skwachi, because actually, actually at that time, we were thinking of making an album or an EP extended play. So we had this idea, like we wanted a love song because actually, a slow love song, but not too slow. Because actually, we were thinking about our previous songs. I don't love songs, but like Zinagonga, I love songs. You wanna like a punch in it. A punch in it, yeah. So we wanted a slow love song. So to the ambient producer, why don't you make us a love song beat that will attach the soul. That will attach the soul. So he made the beat real quick and then by evening, he sent it to us. So we started vibing. Actually, we started vibing to the beat, like from the chorus. Actually see, who and the kandirikus kwa kwa chorus kwa. Omananza kwa chorus, kwa kwa kwa kwa pomoja. Metrip and the rest. Tuna kwa kwa kwa pomoja, kwa kwa agree. Okay. Kwa kwa kwa kwa meridhika na. Chandi kwa sasaka. Umeridhika na. Are you okay with it? Are you okay with it? Are you okay with it? Then after that, yeah, then after that, like, una tu kwa kwa kwa na disappear kwa kwa kwa. Umeridhika na kwa akwa, umeridhika na kwa angi na kwa rooftop. Like, kila mtuana taka yo sigles. Uyoko yo vibe sasaka. Uyoko vibe bakreatu vasi yaki. Oh, nice. And then later on, munaruditena pomoja. Yeah. Munarika nishana the music pieces. Yeah. All right. So, actually, this way, I think I like it. Nuna, I think you are like almost the ashiraymond again in the video. So who's the bad boy? Who's always among the b— to say mumanya like, ana patanga tension. Mi ingi kwa madem. Ni ni ni ni. Imaditi maisu ya uhoubhi, naunyaotu wan'yata na latiti uhoubhi. Apu. Apu. Apu nama. Kwa nausugdi Naomi. Piki hunitu mat tidy yuk hospital wa. Reaksiyo ja wei wa kusomunia. Kwenubu wan'yana wa kumabustia wa penda mga, uyu, kwenubu wan'yana wa kumaba, uyu, kwenubu wan'yana wa penda yun na. kuna wengi na kwa kwa kwa confused aiju wa hendaya side guy Ya, so like ita kwa kwa tuyubu So, but I guess maybe you could be the one getting a lot of traction since you're like the most outgoing in the group How is the most silent in the group? Most silent Nani do kwa kwa most silent, is it? Okay, aneza say maivi, ono na paivi akunam tum silent In terms of personality Like me, I could be talkative on TV but in pransun atrasi bongi Apunam na I will have to materialize I love materialize Ya, I thought you are prettier Kwa lam tu personality ya kia panku wangi Kwa lam tu wangi ana Kwa lam tu wangi ana Nice, interesting The other track apart from sekuwachi, which one else? Rotate That one was for all the baby mamas out there Anyone of you who has a baby mama? No, not yet Not anticipating Because actually we thought it was nice to write to all baby mamas out there because at least it's nice to appreciate them for the work they are doing Like raising kids They are old So we thought that we should maybe appreciate them with that song, Rotate Baby Mama actually and then we have Katerina Is it the same to like Bruce Melodies? Nah Ile na johalifanya tiktok Ile na to Katerina Ile na kai na ile na Ile na karejilotu ya So what is the story? Katerina na imitu dedicated Ya, na dam Ebu muonga kusuidamba Inikam na mju Ani ootatatatat Uro na Katerina Ile tumiajina Katerina Uro na katerina Uro na katerina Uro na katerina Uro na katerina So Katerina is like a symbol and I represent all women type I don't know to specify to Libya Katerina Osum na muambianini wiyu Katerina kwa yawimbo Te gana ati changanya tu Oh my goodness Na chatu ito ani ya na kuinyuaga Then we have the other track, No Stress Like that one, the story behind it tulkotunataka song enye Like someone has a vibe na yaw kuna kumeku you forget about your stress the struggles you're having and then you just feel free na jachiliya tu jachiliya tu jibande Ya, nila sunya jachiliya kamaata kama news Ocha waswasi I think it's from Otile Brown or something Ina, maki go step Right Vike to the beat no less Sick your drink no stress I wanna make you have some fun No stress Fast talk Nila kamaata kamaata kamaata Ina, maki go step Right Vike to the beat no less Sick your drink no stress I wanna make you have some fun No stress Pigashere Pigashere Pigashere Pigashere Pigashere Pigashere Nila kamaata kamaata Let's go party Party after party They are over You said they are 6 Big deal Also has a video Featuring Vivian Kenya I love Vivian So, your song We are big deal We are limbo festival You know my boys We say we are Vivian We are big deal So, we took to church It was just a nice studio vibe We came here and then collab We came through It's your 4 The other one as well Is it Misha? Actually Moja is on YouTube It's a live view But it's called all streaming platform Because it's 45 days It's 45 days Alright Reading from your videos I think the quality is really fantastic Who is your music producer, video director And the rest that you guys work with Because you guys have really some good flicks Thanks Actually, we've worked with Different producers Different directors But the one that we like working with Is producer Barakiz On the audio part On the video side Because we feel like he's the one Who understands us When it comes to videos And everything performing And everything like He understands us Alright In terms of shows How do you guys get to perform But do you guys play instruments as well? Konamanya na play?  Concerts Which one was the latest one that you guys performed? Performed This year we haven't had A big performance yet But there's this one that we're going to perform in Busia Actually it's an event But we're still in talks With the management Events manager So like The reason I think that we've performed Is like a birthday party Ya, then kwa kwangazea tu kuna pia Ukitaka anything Kwa Birthday, Harusi Baby showers Congratulations Vasily Enda tu kwa google yandika Pusakule tia limbo face Onezha choose anything unataka Whatever amount you kutua po It's crazy because we're already out of time But just in case Ponson wants to book you for events Is there like an email And also for Ponson wants to watch some of your videos When it's a patoapi You can say it even with the number as well Where do I start? Number, where people can find your videos One number Actually One number may be your manager Kama neza pia Management things Management things 07 111 976 95 That's for our manager Let me repeat 07 111 976 95 Then you can DM us At LimboFest LimboFest Tiktok pia Email pia onezha to email at LimboFestMusicatGmail.com Social media Twitter pia LimboFest Facebook LimboFest Who's the easiest guy to work with We want to know Who's the slowest and who's the fastest?  Misrama YouTube channel at Limbo Lembo first. pajamas Limbo first. please go check out. We are out. Thank you so much for watching at Waitufa 4 Channel. Mine is Bryan Sakwanoa & on that hashtag Thursday Vibes. Have a fantastic Thursday. We'll see you next week. Akreti.


So there was this article in Bloomberg magazine and on the news website it talked about this 37 year old man Chinese man in the countryside who had this headache and he went to a rural country doctor who injected him with Chinese herbs like an injection style which they do in China and over the next few hours other villagers saw this man trying to prop himself up and hold himself up and Then within a few hours he was dead now Whenever you hear one of these articles about something regarding alternative medicine It can really make you worry and wonder if these things are safe None the least being Chinese herbs because you've probably heard of the worst aspects of it from some slam piece About using rhino horn or using tiger penises, but in this video I want to share some very very important information About the danger and the safety of Chinese herbs as well as comparing them to conventional care It's Dr. Alex Hein author of the health book master the day So I've included a free download below this video now That free download is going to be on this case study of a man named Lee Ching Yun who had these five daily rituals He did every day that were said to have given him a very very unusually long life I think they're great pieces of advice So I've included it the first link below in this download for you So the million dollar question is of course Do Chinese herbs have side effects now? I did a little Google search to see what people are actually looking up and to see what people are wondering about When it comes to these herbs so bear with me for a sec can Chinese herbs be harmful the answer is yes Can Chinese herbs cause diarrhea the answer is yes. Can Chinese herbs cause liver damage? Yes Can Chinese herbs help you get pregnant? Yes. Can Chinese herbs make you sick? Yes, can Chinese herbs cause dizziness or stomach pain the answer to all of these things is yes So Chinese herbs do have side effects as does every other medical intervention that has the potential to work So the following question is are Chinese herbs actually safe? I mean if they have these side effects that I just listed are they safe I think a very very important discussion to be had here Is that any medical intervention that has the possibility to help has the possibility to cause harm and that the strength of the intervention is Correlated with the strength of the potential side effect So a great example of this in conventional care is chemotherapy Which has the potential to make your cancer go away But has some of the most damaging side effects you can find anywhere in conventional medicine Short of and including death. I mean I see a lot of cancer patients I also worked on an oncology shift in Providence Hospital in Portland, Oregon And one of the most consistent things I saw was long lasting Permanent lifelong damage to basically every organ in the body as a result of chemotherapy or radiation Now that is just because it is corresponding to the strength of the intervention It's a very very toxic intervention that can help and can cause harm And the crazy thing is that Chinese herbs are literally no different Chinese herbs have been used for millennia documented for three for 5,000 years to even treat acute and serious illnesses like tuberculosis or pneumonia or cardiac conditions and so the fact that they have strong enough biochemistry that they can Successfully treat some of these conditions means Given wrongly or given to a patient that doesn't need them they can do really serious damage now There's something that's very important We also need to discuss everything in medical care is about risk and reward ratio This may cause damage, but is the good that it can help the patient with does that outweigh the potential harm? This is a fundamental question in any kind of form of medicine all throughout the world So there was a really really interesting paper that came out from Johns Hopkins from one specific physician and it talked about in 2016 it said that Antrogenic deaths so deaths related to health care medications or medical errors We're now the third leading cause of death right behind the top two killers, which are cardiovascular disease and cancers so now medical error or problems or complications like cashing an infection in the hospital now we're the third leading cause of death and I think in the paper They quoted about a quarter million deaths a year, which is quite scary So when it comes to evaluating the risk and reward, you know in a paper or a shock piece News article that comes out every now and then about the risks of Chinese herbs and most of the side effects are fairly minor That is fairly inconsequential Regarding, you know, if you compare it to this big news article from Bloomberg from Johns Hopkins about Iotrogenic deaths now of course Physicians and surgeons they're treating often way more serious life-threatening conditions So of course there's gonna be a higher rate of death versus an acupuncturist treating someone for back pain Of course But I do think it's important to know that these Iotrogenic deaths which include the adverse effects of prescription drugs the overuse of drugs leading to potentially antibiotic resistance or Drug interactions as well as just straight-up medical errors faulty procedures faulty equipment faulty methods faulty info or in general Negligence or other hospital-based infections. So all of these fall into that category of Iotrogenic But yes Chinese herbs and any other medical intervention that can possibly help you has real side effects But that obviously shouldn't be something that scares you. That's the point of the training That's why I did a four year doctoral level training I did an additional three or four years with people who specialize in Chinese formulas alone and they themselves have studied with generations of doctors Including have gone through the research to understand what works. What doesn't what can be harmful and really what you have to watch out for So that should be an essential part of your questions if you are seeing a practitioner I hope that helps. I think it's a very important thing because you can easily become us first them You know, I hate conventional care or alternative medicine is a bunch of crap Well, they both have strengths They both have weaknesses and they both have problems to be honest That I think is a very important discussion that we needed to have now again I've included this free PDF below this video leaching Yun's five daily rituals They can help you add years to your life with Chinese medicine So check it out down there below and then before you go check out these two related videos right over


This got this Chinese guy told us that when KFC in the first like decade that KFC was in a China You could take a girl on a date there Everybody thank you so much for clicking on that video, but before we show you the rest of it I got to tell you about this customized skincare system Curology that I've been using for the past few weeks It's helped control my acne if you have watched any of our videos You can tell that I don't have the best skin. I wasn't born with the perfect skin genetics I'm prone to acne scarring And that's why it's actually really important that you find the right skin care products for your skin because everybody's skin is Different because everybody is different so you go on the website You can fill out a questionnaire that's gonna ask you about how oily your skin is how many pimples Do you have and basically after you answer those questions?  This is Megan Long. She's a PA here. I have a try to know in try to know Tret treat to knowing You get your cleanser You get your super bottle what you put on and then you put on the moisturizer to top it off And just like I said the things that are considered the best are not always the best for you because you need things personalized If you're interested at all in curology click on the link down below That is a unique link if you click on it You can actually get an entire month free and all you have to do is pay for shipping and handling That's only about four ninety five. So really four ninety five There's like a cup of coffee like that's not leaving lunch in most cities It's a really small price to pay for a personalized formula that can transform your skin. All right, everybody Thank you so much for watching that and enjoy the rest of this video. Peace What's going on everybody? Welcome to another international episode of fun gross food today We are in Beijing China with our Beijing friend D's out But you're not from Beijing you grew up in the States, but you're from China now. You're back in China Yep, basically if you guys don't know KFC is the number one fast-food chain in all of China I don't know if you guys know this so there's a thing that happened in the last couple years that McDonald's in China was losing so much market share to KFC that All the McDonald's in China actually not owned by McDonald's USA They have to like back out of the country. So it's actually all McDonald's are owned by a Chinese company called Golden Arch Oh, that's why I don't call it my down low anymore and they call it Jinggung Man Jinggung. Yeah They lost the battle of the KFC I heard that KFC was the first one to enter the China market 30 years ago And I got to say I'm not surprised that KFC is number one in China because I know when our grandparents David Mama Yeah, yeah used to visit America They used to always go to KFC and it's funny because we didn't even eat at KFC That's crazy. I heard it was a it was a prestige brand at one point Like yeah, I mean it's considered like one of the first Western chains to come into China No, it's a very class of mine. I heard they made his eyes a little bit smaller to look more Asian. Is that true? You read that I read it But it's it's like people kind of have drawn that conclusion because he looks a little different than in the states Are you ready? We're gonna order everything off the menu at good Okay, we are KFC in China aka gun der ji aka kaifeng time. Let's go. Okay. Okay. I feel like We pretty much ordered everything here on menu at least one of everything. Yeah, we've ordered all the unique things First off should we go over these drinks peach oolong? Very Chinese a hot thorn tea juice and a grapefruit iced coffee My ways coffee is really interesting. It's like a It's like a nice coffee sweetened by like a grapefruit sweetener I actually thought that the addition of fruit and the coffee makes a lot of sense It kind of gives it that burst of citrusness. Yeah, I can't say that it works with grapefruit in my opinion I like some of the other Mixtures at startups. Well, David, maybe your taste buds just aren't that Chinese KFC grilled chicken thigh It almost tastes big though. You know, it's in here. It's really Chinese flavors. There's like some I think it's five spice I'm taste like what mom and dad used to make chicken drumsticks. All right guys. I got to try the Stulture No, I'm right. It's actually really good. Yeah, okay. It's a sweet. It's a sweet sweet I give it a four out of five man I think that was a strong one to start off with I'm gonna roll with the with the four out of five I'm gonna give the chicken Four out of five. We'll give the rice like a two out of five really it's a little soggy. I like the sauce though Pepper chicken brisks. I don't eat KFC a lot in China, but this is what I eat Well, let me try this sauce real quick Do you think the sweet and sour sauce in the Chinese KFC is more authentic? This is a sweet and sour, but Sour in the vinegar. Oh, sweet vinegar sauce. Oh, wow. I'm definitely trying that one next New Orleans baked wing Let's see if it captures the Flavor of null I actually really don't like this flavor. I know what you mean I don't really like there's no flavor of this. It tastes artificial. Honestly, you know why people I think people like it no shade It tastes like it came from the convenience store. It's kind of like soft like the convenience store one I'm not gonna lie. I think New Orleans as a city would I would be happy would be offended about this Yeah, I'm just gonna tuck this chicken wing in a unknown corner of the table Let's check out the mashed potatoes real quick This is hey, and it's a no different with no matter what country you in. Ah, do you think the gravy is different? Essentially, no, but a little bit a little bit more water a little bit more peppery, but essentially, you know Original what do you think is the is it the original recipe? I feel like I'm back at home country buffet, man It's very I think that's the original rush. What do you think it is? Why do you think they would decide to keep this one unchanged? I think it really is a testament to the genius behind the original recipe Like how good the original recipe. Yeah, you can't go wrong. I mean like it's beloved by everybody tomato chicken egg panini at KFC China guys Whoa, I put a finger on it. I can't quite like let me let me help you. Yeah, not that good Not bad. It's a little bland. No, no, it's not bad. It's not bad. It's just I don't know It's not doing much you guys. I'm looking at a beef burger right here. That looks I'm not gonna lie Just weird Piece of bacon the bacon in China always looks different. It looks closer. It's like a Canadian. Yeah, European bacon, right? Tastes like school much so overall review. Just would you get it again? I wouldn't but if you made me eat it And that was the only thing around I ain't gonna be mad. So you just said if you were starving Guys I have dude, I swear I have three different sauces in this because I have a white sauce Which is like a gravy you gotta try something out. Come on. I have I have the And then I have a barbecue sauce How's that blend? It's interesting. I like it. It's got a lot of stuff going on in there. You got a lot of flavors I'll tell you this the chicken was slightly different But not that different the burgers are Significantly different peaking dog chicken tender. I think immediately when you Google KFC China I think this is the first thing that pops up and obviously to Americans. They're like what they got peaking duck wraps at KFC China It's actually it's pretty delicious for my remember because then It's the Tianbian general that really makes now Tianbian Zhang you're talking about it says it's a sweet sauce Sweet beans, but it almost tastes like hoisin. It's very different than voicing actually boys in is kind of savory And this is just actually closer. Yes a sweet sauce in Beijing. They love sweet food Yeah, is this close enough to it to maintain the culture? I think it's great at Avenue of its own Yeah, right you gotta eat this for this. I don't think you're craving peaking duck. I Don't think people come to get this You know what I would compare this to is you know how a lot of people have kind of recreated bun knees with the Julian carrots and the daikons and you kind of have those elements in there and then you can kind of stick whatever new Fusion meat or like combination you want in there where you're taking like maybe 60% of the ingredients and the whole concept of it But you're just replacing the meat the pancake But you have cucumbers which gives you that nice crunch you have the Tianbian Zhang which is the sweet sauce and it does kind of taste like it we are down to our last two Dishes at KFC obviously we asked the side that we're gonna get to you know what significant Daniel about these two dishes Basically McDonald's has Exactly and nobody knows who's came out first McDonald's has an exact copy of this McDonald's has an exact copy of this Let's see How this matches up New Orleans style chicken sandwich Do you have a thoughts on this debate because they do have a similar sandwich at a similar price point? I've always thought this is a KFC so Have you had the McDonald's one the McDonald's one is delicious. They don't have only had the McChickens not their spicy chicken filet This sandwich at McDonald's is the best sandwich on that entire menu by far. That was pretty good, but my verdict is Not better than McDonald's that is more like an actual Piece of chicken off of a chicken. They just got shoved between two pieces of bread the McDonald's chicken is much more of a patty This was like really weird to eat like the piece is like thick in some places It's more natural. It did feel more natural Are you reminded of that your wings wing that you just had like there's plastic the problem is that has this like savory flavor But you can't identify what it is and that's why you associated with something I associate with chemical. Yeah, something bad Well, you know what I actually have the New Orleans one from McDonald's. I like it either Yeah, you know what they're both same in the way that I probably won't like so as you guys know Can you you can get corn at the KFC in America, right? I think one in the case in the sides is you get a cup of corn You don't get a corn on the cock.  Do you think it's buttered up? Do you think it's flavored? No, actually, that's the that's just what's different about They actually just like the corn here like right juicy Hmm a little bit soft not considering it came out of the bag. I can't lie. That was much better No shade to the ones of convenience. I will say that that corn was a great palate cleanser. Yeah guys desserts I think for me, I select red bean pie as my choice of weapon. Wow It's really sweet. I did not expect it to be that beanie. I gotta give a 4.5 out of 5 here I have a egg tart. I would say this resembles more of the Portuguese style egg I heard KFC in China is actually famous for the egg tart. Oh Look at that crunch. The crunch is pretty good This dot-tot is fire. This is really good like though the crust is flaky But it turns chewy and it's sweet and eggy. Would you say it's restaurant level? Like some level. I would say it's better than a lot of dim sum spots. I give that a 5 out of 5 Let's take a look at this waffle It's actually pretty good imitation of a deleted waffle the waffle I'm not too much into the waffle because to be honest is there was no syrup. There was no whipped cream. Aren't you guys? final thoughts on China's Favorite fast food chain. Yeah, I mean I think KFC China is interesting because they actually like there's a huge effort to try to Make very gourmet items Accessible on a fast food level I like the peaking duck. Well, not just peaking duck, but like an egg tart Right, which is normally dim sum or a nice bakery. Well, I mean look at this box. I mean, it's clearly very shiny Look, right? Yeah, unlimited. There's what is that even supposed to mean? It's black. It's gold. It seems to Want to brand itself as a as a luxury fast food item almost when it comes to Western food items in China There's no limit to how luxurious they can push it whereas in America. There's some sense of like a man We're just blue-collar people some of the tastes are more built into identity Whereas here upward mobility is the identity. There is no Identified as a meat and taters type of person. I feel like people are like I can move up Let's do it. You know what I think captures the spirit of KFC here is the out and cover for the single Bad and bougie. This is really Hot girls sitting at this like high-end restaurant With like silverware China is just eating a cup of like top ramen I feel like that album cover really captures the spirit of the KFC in China It's fine. They tried to make something super Sort of fast foodie into like something like a little jury as I also I do think that to be honest There is a factor of this being a foreign food at the end of the day This is foreign food and will forever be foreign food in China Which? Kind of gives it more leeway to just do whatever it wants. Maybe I think it's also related to a Chinese market behavior There is a desire to want to spend money on items that represent What was your favorite item? I would say my favorite item was the Peking duck wrap, but I actually sleeper pick Chicken thigh over rice. Yeah, that chicken thigh was pretty Surprise surprise I'll start with my sleeper pick was the don top Delicious for actual food. It was it was actually the the Peking duck twister. I thought and it had a great Contrasting elements to it.  I think the peppercorn chicken fillet. Wow Low-key. Yeah, that's almost like the most Chinese-tasty thing. Yeah, purely Because they distilled the flavor out of the Sichuan like what's that called them? This younger generation of Chinese kids in China are gonna have Not the same options but in the big city and if they you know have a little bit of money They're gonna have a lot of the same options as the West and so I think it's gonna go in a cycle I think like in America how there's a huge fast food boom in the 90s And then it kind of turned more into the health wave organic things like fast casual That's kind of where it's headed and then with the health craze There's this whole like howlin rays spicy chicken sandwich wave, but but it's like boutique fast It's more in moderation like it's fried chicken still poppin But it's just a moderation so it's funny to see fried chicken be so hipster in America now But then fried chicken is still just like a staple of fast food and of everybody's life here And I think it's gonna go in a cycle I think you could you can kind of sense the health wave in China too in the big cities Yo guys, thank you so much for watching that video. Make sure you subscribe turn on your notifications leave a comment down below and Leave a comment about which other fast food chains around Asia you guys want us to check out I know KFC's and McDonald's are all different in every country So you let us know which one's your favorite to everybody Thank you for watching that video and until next time we are in Beijing. We out. Peace


Live from Las Vegas, extracting the signal from the noise, it's the Cube! Covering IBM Insight 2015, brought to you by IBM. Now your host, Dave Vellante and Paul Gillan. Welcome back to IBM Insight everybody, this is the Cube. The Cube goes out to the events, we extract the signal from the noise. Check out ibmgo.com for the full digital experience of IBM Insight. David Kenny is here, he's the chairman and CEO of the weather company. A lot of talk, David, about your company at this event. Welcome to the Cube, thanks for coming on. Glad to be with you, thanks for having me. So it's really interesting to note the IBM partnerships. We go to a lot of these events and a lot of times you say, hey we're going to make SAP run faster, we're going to make Oracle more reliable, whatever it is. The weather company, you see Twitter, you see Box, really interesting partnership. So congratulations on this transformation. How did that all come about with IBM? Well I think IBM saw us at a number of shared clients. We've done a lot of work on our weather forecast in the last few years to make it mobile centric. So if you start with weather on a mobile device, which is how most people use it today, you have to have every location on earth, so it's about two billion named locations, and you have to be live. We have to update our model every 15 minutes. Historically models were updated four times a day, and they did about two million locations. So it was about an 11-fold increase in volume. And we solved that as a technology problem, we solved it as a platform. IBM were interested in how we did that, so we've licensed our platform to them, which they use with other data sources, and they've helped us take these great weather forecasts into insurance, energy, retail, all the places they're serving where weather makes a difference. So you talked about this in your keynote, and you said you generate essentially 40 terabytes a day of data every day. Well that's how much we consume. We need to read that much to feed our algorithms to predict. So those are data sources that you're ingesting and blending. Exactly. And then you set it off camera, whether it's just one big algorithm. Well it is. Ultimately it's physics, right? So we map the whole earth, and you have to map it exactly at the same time, and then you predict where it's going to be in 15 minutes and 15 days in three months. And so you need those models to work. So when you talk about Internet of Things, I mean you guys are way out front in processing real-time data. Most businesses just getting started with this. What are some of the complexities they should think about when they get into large amounts of sensor data? Well I think the sensor data, it comes from different sources, so there's no standard to it. We get barometric pressure from 40 million smartphones. We get data from 140,000 personal weather stations that people put in the yards.  We get data from the wings of airplanes. We get data from satellites. So it all comes in a different form. I think you've got to find an efficient way to bring it in, and then you've got to have a talk to each other. So that's a lot of what our algorithms do. Part of what we're excited about with Watson is then being able to actually read that in a cognitive way to be able to connect things that are very unstructured to be even more useful to people. Is there an example of that? What kind of connections are you discovering? So one example is what we do for airline pilots. So we've always been able to do the weather. They need to know the weather to fly. But some big issues for airlines which were related is which route to take, which runways are going to be open or closed at the time they land, and what's going on with turbulence. So we took all three of those and said, how can our weather data improve those decisions? And in fact, because we predict the weather, we predict the closure of runways before they're actually announced. So that's allowed them to be ahead of it. That's also allowed them to consume less fuel. On turbulence, we've been able to measure the wave oscillation in the middle of the atmosphere by how much the tablets are moving because they're reading the weather on a tablet. That in turn allows us to build a turbulence model for all the other planes. Kind of like the Waze model for traffic, but for airline pilots. So how is your business evolving then? You're seeing IBM talking about all the different ways the weather can be applied to different businesses, insurance and logistics. How are you evolving your business to identify these new areas where you can find new customers? So fundamentally, I think what we've shifted is from focusing on weather data to focusing on weather decisions. So whether it be the hundreds of millions of people who use this every day as individuals, or whether it be the individuals in businesses, we're trying to help people make the right decisions. Some people it's about sports, some people it's about their life outdoors, some people it's about travel, insurance adjusters, it's about what happened in that place airline pilots have covered. So our business has really become a decision business more than a data business. So talk about your story, how sort of the weather company has evolved. You've got private equity, you've got some relationships with, I think, NBC. How did you get here?  So they largely hired me to do the job and leave me alone. I would say, you know, when I came, it was a cable channel that had built a digital property. Coming from Akamai, it was clear I was going to take a different view, which is fundamentally how do we disrupt weather before it gets überized. And my view was it's going to change completely when your primary way of consuming it is in a mobile device that enables individuals and businesses to make better decisions. So we rebuilt our entire infrastructure to be able to do this on mobile. In order to do that, we had to move the whole thing to the cloud. We had to close a dozen data centers. We had to build a different kind of platform. A lot more Internet of Things data. Our forecast is far more precise because it's for each individual location, not counties. And it's real time. And that's really changed the way people use it. And you've overseen that transformation. Yeah, we largely did that since I got here four years ago. And how do you make money? So we make money in a number of ways. First, we have subscription businesses. So most of our B2B businesses pay a subscription. Airlines per tail, insurance as a percentage claim. So how they're using it. And then on the consumer side, some subscribe to specialty forecasts. And the rest of it's an ad model. Similar to data-driven advertising like Google. It's not display advertising. It really isn't. It's really about giving people ads in the right context. So your model is dependent upon your weather forecast, your algorithms being very good. And also your distribution model. Maybe talk about that a little bit. So what makes your algorithm so good? What's the DNA of the company? Well, I think the reason the algorithms are the best in the field, and they really are, there's independent people who measure that, is that they're very precise. That we rebuild all the algorithms for every lat-long combination down to four decimal points on Earth. Because to make a decision like the Red Cross talked about yesterday, where to send resources or to tell a plane where to avoid turbulence, you've got to be really precise about that location. And so that was a fundamental change. And there's just so many new things we can do with that. Now that precision only mattered when your forecast was on a mobile device so that it's exactly where the decision maker is as well. So that's where we are. Listen, we continue to get better at it, mostly by getting more data. And that's where the Internet of Things has been so important, and where this partnership started. I think most people are fascinated by weather and how you predict the weather. What are some of the toughest prediction problems that you still wrestle with? So I think that the challenge with the observations is the middle of the atmosphere. We know the outside of the atmosphere is about 100 kilometers thick. We know the outside pretty well from satellite data, and everybody has had governments run those. We've got lots of observations on the ground. Smartphones, weather stations, windshield wiper data, radar. The middle's hard. We do a lot with airplanes. But for example, tornadoes and lightning happen between the clouds first and then come down. So how do we better understand what's happening in the middle of the atmosphere? And we're continuing to find new ways to do that. Part of what I want to challenge Watson on is to do ways to read visual data, to read photos of the sky, to read videos, so that we can find different ways to understand what's in the middle. That's the difference between today, which is a very precise forecast and a perfect forecast, is understanding the physics in the middle. So is that the human today, the human factor actually closes that gap, that sort of tribal knowledge that either a pilot has or some other... Well, we read the data from planes. No, I think it's just a gap in the map. So we just have to interpolate what's happening based on what we know around it versus knowing precise. And that's partially why it's not 100% accurate. So there's no perfect way to know this yet. But it's a problem to be solved. Describe in your view the advancements in weather predictions over the last 10 years have been pretty... They're awesome. So the five-day forecast today is as accurate as the one-day forecast a couple of decades ago. So we continue to make progress on that. I would say our added contribution is to be really precise about the location because accuracy has been historically measured by county or state. It's pretty broad areas. And I think that's less relevant. That's not useful enough for a decision as being really precise. You mentioned the uberization of your market earlier. It was a really interesting comment. You see the potential for disruption to happen at the local level. Could your business be disrupted by micro-forecasters who are working just within a specific city or even neighborhood? No, I don't think so. Because the atmosphere is above the earth. It doesn't know geography. So the weather over Las Vegas today was probably the weather over Los Angeles yesterday. Hawaii a few days ago, it started in China. So understanding the patterns of the atmosphere is what's important. So you actually do have to map the whole earth to be accurate. You're not going to crowdsource the weather is what you're saying. Well, we do crowdsource contributions. You do crowdsource it. We do with personal weather stations, with phones. We absolutely crowdsource observations. Or yes, okay. I don't know. I mean, I think that there are some humans who can give us added knowledge to fit the model. But I don't think there's anyone who could just focus on an individual location and do anything as close to what we do with a global model. So you are the uber of weather essentially. But if we didn't do it, somebody else would have. That was the question. There are big companies that have done a lot in mobile and data. And my belief was we needed to run faster than them because they would get to it just as they've come to maps, right? So they changed the map world and made it right for a mobile device. And my view was the next project is to map the atmosphere. We have to do that before one of these big players who have done mobile maps comes to it. What is the culture of science in your industry? I'm curious because, I mean, AccuWeather is a competitor, right? On some level. I mean, they don't do anything as precise as we do or the B2B part. They have a consumer forecast for sure. Right. I think in the community security area, there's lots of competitors but they all sort of collaborate at some level. Is that the dynamic in your industry as well? Well, I think what we've done at the weather company is changed the definition of the industry. So historically, there's been a weather enterprise, a weather community with a bunch of small companies who were involved with weather and were closely with NOAA and its counterparts around the world. I think the challenge with that is it was just the atmospheric science and it wasn't advancing the algorithm. So part of what I've been focused on for four years is we've got to bring in the IBMs. We've got to bring in the big cloud platforms. We've got to bring in folks who understand data. We're not going to make further advances just in atmospheric science. We actually need the intersection of atmospheric science, computer science and analytics. And that's why this partnership was important to me because it totally changed the game of what we are. It is the overization of weather, which is to bring a whole new set of skills into a historic business. What kind of weight does historical data have in forecasting the weather? Is it a little bit important, hugely important? Can you describe that? Historical data is important for macro-translight climate change and sort of our climatic conditions changing. It's only semi-useful. Weather never repeats itself. I can't have an algorithm that says there's a 10-year cycle and this will happen again. I can't tell you this El Nino this year is anything like the others. So it's somewhat helpful to improve the algorithms but what really matters is the data right now. And that's the other reason I think updating our model every 15 minutes, 96 times a day, has been key to improving the precision. When you work with Watson, have you seen any immediate results to your business in working with Watson? And if not, what are the one- or two-year forecasts, if you will, for what you expect Watson to do for you? Well, the multiple of us. In the forecast itself, because our forecast is through my algorithms, we still have something we call human over the loop. So sometimes the computer will generate a numeric forecast which will say heavy rain with high wind. What it should say is category 5 hurricane. And so we have to overrule that or blizzards sometimes take different directions. So we have humans change the language to make sure it's understood. I think what Watson can help us understand is how will people understand that so that even that human interaction can begin to be automated. Because I can't employ enough meteorologists to put an override on every forecast. So I think this is going to change it. I also think different people interpret forecasts differently.  I think us being more clear, what are people hearing? Are different people hearing different things? How do we communicate it so people actually take the right action? We'll save lives and property. And I'm excited to solve that problem. So really it comes down to a human dimension. It comes down to language, to translating all these algorithms into something that's meaningful to the audience you're trying to reach. That is the reason people still watch The Weatherman on TV and why we have a lot of text around our forecast. Not everybody is skilled at reading the data. And there's a lot of data in the weather. It's not just precipitation and temperature. So are helping people understand that adding a human voice is key. Part of what I think Watson does well is to humanize numerical prediction. You said that you develop your own platform for gathering all of the sensor data and for ingesting it and interpreting it. Presumably you did that before all of these open source big data platforms came about. You had to invent that? We work with Spark and we work with Hadoop and we work with Cassandra. So we absolutely stay current and use new platforms. It's great when something like IBM gets behind them because they can scale. And we think in a very open source way. So we continue to use new technologies as it's developed. You mentioned that's part of the reason why people still watch The Weatherman and The Weatherperson on TV. It used to be the case I want to watch Channel 5 because that weather person has a better forecast. Eventually you're saying they're all operating now in the same weather company data, right? For the most television stations in the United States and about half around the world use our data. They license our data in our graphics to tell the story. I was going to ask you about the non-U.S. component of your business and how prominent you are there and what the competitive landscape looks like overseas. So on their consumer side, after iOS 8 we're preloaded on every iOS device as a widget which connects to our app. So obviously iPhones are everywhere. In Google we're the default. So if you search for anything weather related you'll get a one box with a 5-day forecast from weather.com and a link to our app or our mobile website if you don't have the app. So our usage is pretty global. Our monetization tends to be a little more domestic and we're going to work on that. And there are other apps that are competitive to the iOS app but you've powered those as well? Absolutely. We've long believed in being open ourselves so our API is used by about 40,000 other publishers some of which are for consumers and some of which are for businesses. So where do you want to take the company? IPO in your future? Are you happy being privately held? I've run public companies. I've run private companies. The capital structure needs to match the strategy of the company. And maybe it should be combined with somebody. So we're going to look at all those options over time. The real focus has been making sure that we save lives and property, give people a perfect view of what's going to happen to them next. And then the rest will take care of itself. It always does. David Kennedy, thanks very much for coming on theCUBE. Really great story and appreciate your time. Delighted to be with you. Thank you. You're welcome. Alright, keep right there everybody. We'll be back with our next guest right after this is theCUBE. We're live from IBM Insight 2015. Right back.


Actor George Clooney, Kerry Washington and Don Cheadle are joining forces with others in Los Angeles education officials to open a school to train teenagers in skills like cinematography, lightning, visual effects and other Hollywood jobs. The school, due to launch in 2022, is aimed at diversifying the entertainment industry by providing a path to a well-paid jobs that have a few formal entry ways. And I quote, our aim is to better reflect the diversity of our country. This is Clooney's statement on Monday. It means creating high school programs that teach young people about cameras and editing and visual effects, sounds and all the other career opportunities that the industry has to offer. The Roybal School of Film and Television production will be housed within the Edwards-Arbor Learning Center in the city's predominantly Latino lit-sticks district. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.