We're back. We're live. Who are we? Who am I? Who's with me? This is Marco Mangostorf, Energy 808, The Cutting Edge, and I'm back with PUC Commissioner Jennifer Potter. It's just Jenny and I doing solo today. Jay had something that, doing the show today. Jay had something that he needed to attend to, so I am just so pleased to have Jennifer back with us. She's been a frequent contributor to Think Tech Hawaii, and thank you so much for joining us and Think Tech on this noon day, Monday, October 4th. Thanks so much, Jenny.  Thank you. So let's, no shortage of juicy stuff, of course, to dive into the Hawaii energy world. How about we start something topical? There has been some news last week at the Hawaii State Senate. Senator Glenn McKay and others were talking to, I think it was your former boss at some point, Rick Rochello at HNA, good Rick. Yeah, you know, a guy I've known on and off for many years myself as well. And he was briefing McKay and a number of other senators, I believe, on kind of what's going on with AES in terms of life after AES or transmogrification of AES. And McKay noted explicitly his concern about once AES stops burning coal, which they are absolutely definitively going to do from what I understand no later than September of next year. And McKay is voicing his concern about a so-called tight reserve margin, which as I understand it means that you always want to have supply of utility generation here and demand here and never the other way around, right? That's right. And the utility always needs to have a certain percentage of here versus here. And that as you lose generation, obviously that gap shrinks. So how concerned are you and the commission in general about this tight reserve margin impacting Hawaiian electric operations in generation with, you know, they never want to get and we never want to see the O word as an P O word, power outages. So how concerned are you about this? So thank you. Thanks for the question, Marco. You're right. This is really timely. It's hot off the press kind of that we've been working with here. Actually, we opened a docket back and so we opened a docket that was intending to explore the interconnection challenges that, you know, utility-scaled projects might face in doing a business with the utility. And so we wanted to explore what those challenges were and how we could find solutions to that. In the process of that, almost at the same time, we started looking at the whole landscape of how are we going to get to 2045 with renewable energy and maintain and start to retire these fossil units and take them offline and yet maintain power and power quality to the customers in Hawaii. And this is not exclusive to Oahu. But what we found is there was a pretty significant gap in the energy reserve margin and demand or I'm sorry, not a gap. There was a there was actually a very tight reserve margin between the in 2022 in the Oahu service territory and that of demand. And that would begin in 2022 after the retirement of the AES coal plant. And so we started asking some questions about how quickly we could bring some of these projects online and could we accelerate the GCOD, the guaranteed commercial operation date, if we could accelerate those up so that we could start making sure that we still had adequate adequacy of supply. And that energy reserve margin for the for all of the islands except for Malachi and Lanai is 30%. So we need to have 30% more of generated capacity than we do of demand, which is on the customer side. So in looking at that sort of landscape of what was available to come online, we said, you know, we probably need to start looking at some additional contingency plans. So the commission is very concerned. And so what we did is we created some projects that are more focused on how we can get energy from customers and the customer side and so the distribution system and feed that back to serve load throughout the distribution system. So in we created, we encouraged the utility to create a program called the scheduled dispatch program. And with input from the solar parties and other entities, we created some parameters around that. So, you know, there's a there's a upfront incentive, but customers need to agree to provide power for the next two years at between the peak hours of six and eight PM. And that is an active recruitment right now. But we're that still doesn't necessarily guarantee that we filled the the gap, if you will, which is kind of the opposite of a gap, right, that we've increased the reserve margin, because we don't know how the turnout is going to be from customers that are deciding to make investments that would help us kind of keep the keep the lights on. And so we really are calling this a keep the lights on program. And so without a lot of additional, you know, accelerated schedules for the utility scale programs, we're not quite clear on how how that energy reserve margin is going to pan out at the end of next year. And we are very concerned about it, but we are taking action where we can. Let's let's kind of play a worst case scenario because I mean the utility has to engage in such scenarios because they would be unwise not to. Let's say the utility scale plus storage plants that people were hoping would go online by September, October of next year, they do not go online. Let's assume that this figure 50 megawatts of behind the meter storage, which has been going live. Let's say little to know of that 50 megawatts goes online either. So that in Q4 of next year, there's little to nothing in terms of actual behind the meter storage available. There is little to nothing as far as utility scale solar and storage available. How I guess a leading question how concerned if you were living on a Wahoo and hooked up to Hawaiian Electric, which 400,000 or so repairs are if I'm not mistaken, how concerned would you be about how to get. Yeah, this is a real concern. I mean, one thing to recognize is the probability of there being an event, a power outage, right, an event that occurs on the island, it would most likely be less than an hour in duration. But there there is a potential and a possibility that it could be island wide. So the likelihood of that occurring is obviously much higher without these resources online. And so, but it's not as though it's a one in 10 chance or even a one in 20 chance. It's something more like a one in 100 type chance that there's going to be a power outage. But this is assuming that all of the fossil fuel units that are online, that we're deferring maintenance on those as well. So there's some there's some moving parts and pieces here of how likely the situation could come to pass. But I would be very concerned. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I don't want to neither of us want to be much of a Cassandra or any penny the sky is falling, right.    So let's let's get in our canoe and paddle over wiki wiki over to the big island for my next topic.  And could you procedurally give us kind of give us a quick update in terms of there's going to be an evidentiary hearing which is called for by Hawaii Supreme Court ruling number months ago. And when is that going to be and I know you folks at the commission, you know, never want to get too crystal ballish in terms of a D&O is going to come at such and such a date. But when if I could get you to kind of opine as far as when a D&O decision in order on who who may come out in terms of a time range timeframe after the evidentiary hearing. I can definitely give you a shot that letting with the caveat that you mentioned is may happen. So so right now we have a lot of activity with the pre hearing briefs that have been filed most recently. And they are available, you know, to the public at under 20. It's 2017 dash one to zero one to two. So zero one to two. And so people can can log on to there and see what those pre hearing briefs state. There's going to be a lot of dialogue happening back and forth between the parties through information request and some supplemental information request. And then finally we're going to get to the point of the pre hearing statements of position, which will happen in December and December 9 of 2021. And then we start really gearing up for that evidentiary hearing. The plan is to hold it on July or I'm sorry in the week of January 10th ish. So we're hoping and aiming for that. Usually we do pretty good and hitting those goals. And then after that, there'll be post hearing briefs that are filed. And those are those need to be filed three weeks after the completion of the of the evidentiary hearing. So then subsequent to that would be the decision in order. And so that would probably put us in a timeframe around June ish. And that's that's my my best guess. And hopefully we can beat that timeline. But, you know, I think reasonably for the work that's going, you know, that our team and our staff are going to have to go through to really dig through a record that's very, very thick and dense. It's going to take some time for us to come up with a ruling that's that's fair, just and reasonable and in the public interest. So so evidentiary hearings in January, three weeks post Texas in the February, the post evidentiary hearing kind of the the the summation to the jury, so to speak, right, the jury being you, Jay and Leo and the staff there, you get that by sometime, I don't know, February ish and several months of deliberations internally, write a dno of some kind. So sometime May, June, the dno sounds sounds like I was looking at my Marco crystal ball, probably, I think you got it. Yep. Yep. So yeah, this is a lengthy process. It really is sometimes I get surprised that, you know, I've learned so much of this job in terms of, and when we do have these evidentiary hearings, how much preparation is required. And you know, and I told my colleague and friend, Jay, a chair Griffin, I said, this is an evidentiary hearing that we have to prepare for starting now, you know, even though it's occurring in January, because it really just takes all hands, you know, and these important and critical proceedings to be prepared. So yeah. You know, this is a question I was thinking of asking you at the get go and I'm glad I thought of it because it's such a juicy question I love to ask it to you, is you've been a PUC commissioner for three plus years, if I still have my mask goes down, right, July 1, 2018, right, so three plus years, you're a little more than halfway through a six year term, your first six year term, right.  Well, what's it been like for you to to be in this, I can come up with lots of C words here, cauldron, crucible, kettle, although kettle starts with a K, but what's it been like, you know, what have you learned, what surprised you? Marco, you know, I was thinking about this interview this morning, and I was thinking there is the further along I get in this job, the more work there is to do. And I don't know if it's like at the beginning, I just didn't know what was happening. And so I was kind of willy nilly. But now it's, you know, there's there's no way to catch up. There's just such a tremendous amount of work. And every time you're like, Oh, I'm going to focus on this and check this box off. There's another crisis that comes up. And if it's it's something like, you know, the retirement of the AES coal plant, and how do we respond to that? And we need to do this quickly. And quick is a very strange word in the regulatory realm, you know, quick is nice. And I mean, that quick is like four months, right? So so we'll work diligently on something, check that box off. And then the next thing comes up. And so the fact that I'm consistently overwhelmed, I think is something that I've learned. And I think of my colleague, Chair Griffin, and imagine, you know, he's been with the Commission for 10 years. So I can only imagine how much he feels that, you know, that this is this is just a really busy job that you're really occupied. The other thing I would say is that, you know, not being an attorney, as a commissioner has been an incredible challenge. There's, you know, I've had to lean on the legal staff, just to ask really basic questions that are, you know, very basic for them. But I don't know, you know, how to proceed. But we are a quasi judicial branch. And so that responsibility as a commissioner, I need need to have those those laws intact and down. And so there's a lot of preparation. And like I mentioned, for an evidentiary hearing to understand the laws and the regulations and, you know, whether it's the constitution, state constitution, or if it's even just federal law, it's mind blowing. You know, the imagery that comes up to anyone, you say that is an inbox, which is up to here. Okay. And then the outbox is here. And you're never able to really shrink the gap to get equilibrium, right? Because the stuff from the inbox just keeps on piling, piling, and you're just working as fast as you can to get stuff, you know, outbox, outbox, get it off the plate, checkmark. And then if you look over your shoulder, more stuff has come in. Exactly. Yeah. Absolutely. So the Jenny Potter of October 2021 could give just several points of really juicy, incisive advice to the Jenny Potter coming into the job on July 1st. What would the Jenny now tell the Jenny then? Read the administrative rules for PUC and then also read the statute for the PUC. And reread it and reread it to ensure that you know where to look when these issues come up and then what our legal strategies can be in dealing with some very difficult negotiations, if you will, or decisions so that I would certainly start there. And that's something I didn't do, not when I first started. Nobody told me to, so to figure that out the hard way. That kind of brings to mind, you know, Christians will typically, they fall back on the Bible, the Word of God, as they understand it, Muslims fall back on the Koran. Buddhists fall back on the teachings of the Buddha. So in this case, it's fall back on administrative regs and rules of the PUC as your kind of nighttime bedstand reading, oh, it's two o'clock in the morning, I can't sleep. I would go to chapter three verse two and bone up. That's right. That's right. Yes.  Do you happen to remember her name? Mary Bell Baxter. You got, thank you. She apparently is retiring and, you know, the PUC, and Gavin Newsom, of course, as governor Newsom survived the recall last month by a whomping margin two to one. People did not want him to leave. I'm very relieved by that, by the way. And now, you know, who's going to replace the chair of the California PUC? And of course, one of the big dynamics in the state, not only now, but over the years, decades has been how the PUC handles specific gas and electric, which is one of the most powerful, largest service territories in all of all America, you know, electric utilities. And, you know, there's kind of the populist sentiment, which is nobody can rain P, PG&E in, you know, they've, they've admitted responsibility for a big gas explosion in San Bruno years ago. They've admitted responsibility for the Paradise Fire, which killed dozens of people. They're spending billions for, for abatement in terms of, you know, threats to their lines, transmission lines, distribution lines. And it just, you know, reminded me of just how, how big the stakes are, not of course here in California, just in California, but also in Hawaii, not only in energy, of course, but transportation, communication, water. And I mean, energy gets a lot of, a lot of play, a lot of media play, but it's, you know, that's just the part of your, your portfolio. What would, what would you estimate if you, if you could look at the, look at the big pie, the PUC pie, and you were to distribute it on the slices of the pie corresponding to the size of the portfolio from let's say, energy related, communications, transportation and water. I think I've covered all four of them, when I'm missing something in terms of what you guys regularly. Telecom. Yeah, com. Yeah. So you got, you got energy, telecom slash communications, transportation and water. How would you divvy up that pie? I would, I would definitely state that, that energy takes up probably 60% of the resources. So we spend a great deal. We have one attorney that's, that's almost, she's so well-versed and telecom and handles all of those that come through. But I would say that's probably 5% of our time because your HT of white telecom, it became partially unregulated in the last legislative session. So, but there's still, we, they still do need to file with us and, you know, and basically work with us for compliance and ensure that we're delivering service to areas that aren't, don't necessarily have service right now. So provider of last resort. Water also, we also have a, an auditor that's specifically engaged with most of our water activity, which is wastewater and water itself. That has, that is going, if you ask me, it's probably about five to 10% at this point, but it is not, but it will increase because we have water shortages and we're going to continue to see that because of climate change. And so it's going to be, start taking up a bigger piece of the pie as we work through some of the water issues on all of the islands.  But as far as motor carriers, we have an entire division that deals with compliance and authorizing different types of tours and, and basically any type of ground transportation, excluding taxis and lifts and lift drivers and uvers. So they, they handle a huge part of our business. And then with young brothers, last year they took up about 40% of the time. And this year, I think they're, they're, they're probably down to about 5%. So we're not, we're, we're, we have just released a management audit on the young brothers. That was part of the agreement and, and their rate increase, their emergency rate increase that we authorized in 2020. A management audit was conducted and completed. And there were recommendations within that. And we're asking for party comments at this time to reflect upon that before we decide what to do in terms of a rate case or how, you know, different other filings that, that we, we would need to review it and post the emergency rate increase. So, so that, that is, you know, young brothers kind of hits the table hard when they do come in and then takes up some bandwidth for sure. Thank you. Thank you. That's very useful. I don't think I got to 100.  You know, near and dear to my heart is community based renewable energy, aka CBRE that Senator Mike Gavard pushed back in 2015, six plus years ago. We're going to have Mike on the show sometime in the not too distant future. I want to get his take on things. So it's been kind of slow on the CBRE docket 2015, 0389 of memory serves correctly. Could you bring us up to speed on where things are in terms of another go round, round two for proposed projects on Hawaii, Hawaiian Electric Service Territories? Sure. Absolutely. I, you know, you didn't bring up phase one, which is, which we've struggled with. I mean, bringing projects online has been an absolute challenge. And, and so we're working through some of the kinks of that. And hopefully we'll have those, a lot of those issues that we're running into in terms of like inter, inter interconnection requirement studies that we're addressing those within the RFP so that people can sort of think about how they're going to maneuver around that and what the, you know, and, and manage that with the companies. So what's happened as we've asked for several rounds of comments and feedbacks on the phase two RFPs for all of the islands, the Molokai RFP and the Manai RFP have not been suspended. They are moving forward. They have not been issued yet, but they are forthcoming in, in, in short time, you know, in short commission time. And then for the other islands, what ended up happening, which is really unique and sort of following suit from Molokai was we had a group from West Oahu reach out to the commission and ask to be for their voice to be heard.  But, but we want to have a voice at the table, we want to be able to contribute and talk, talk about, you know, why it is that we're being burdened often with a lot of these energy projects or, you know, waste to fuel projects. And, and, and really it's, it's time for us to have a seat at the table. And we thought, yeah, the other islands should have that opportunity as well. So we suspended the CBR for just, we didn't really suspend it, but we were holding it for 45 days for comments from community stakeholders on the RFP to, to basically either request meeting with the, with the companies and talk about negotiating the terms or any of the RFP that, that may affect their community in a way that it may be a burst so that they're addressing those up front. And then we've, and then we've, we've also invited them to just make public comments about the, the CBR RFPs. So it's, it's about bringing people to the table right now. And that's really the idea of, of, before we move forward with this and end up in a situation where we're, we have a community that's unhappy with these types of energy projects that are being deployed. We really, and we want to ensure that we, that we give people a chance to speak their, their truth, if you will, at the table and help make modifications if necessary, if prudent to the RFP itself. And when you say West Oahu, are you talking why and I? Yes. Yeah. So I thought. Yeah. Good. So thank you for that. So last point of the day, or last topic. You know, equity, social equity, eco equity, social values, low, middle income folks who are not as affluent by definition, right? As others. Once you, if you could kind of talk a little bit about what kind of value, how does that, why is that something that you were interested in as your interposition as PC commissioner? Really, if we can begin by piggybacking on the conversation that we were just talking about with the CBRE RFP and why and I, and those communities on Malachi, you know, when we think about where we just decide to site a project, there can be environmental inequity, where people are, you know, they're, they're actually subjected to, you know, in many parts of the country to coal ash. And that's, you know, they have coal ash ponds in North Carolina and these belching, you know, facilities and low to moderate income customers are residents are living next to those facilities. And so part of the idea of its equity at the level of financial equity and its social equity and then also environmental equity. So that we're thinking about how we deliver energy in a way that has, is really thinking about all three of those components. And I think the one that I would like to see us execute and potentially introduce legislation this year, hopefully someone will think about that is, you know, several states already have like Colorado, California, Oregon, even Massachusetts have started have introduced legislation and passed legislation that looks at reducing the energy burden on customers. Because what we found is, you know, through COVID, in particular, is that people really struggled to pay their bills.  But some of in some of the even that being generous, if you know, to some degree, not disconnecting customers, there's still an energy burden when someone has to pay a past due amount plus a present amount, and that that can eat up 25% to 30% of their income. And that is really not acceptable.  And then people are spending, you know, making decisions about whether to buy medicine, whether to buy milk, and or pay their electric bill. And so how can we introduce programs with the utilities that will help address some of that inequity. And that could be things, you know, as simple as a discounted rate for customers that qualify for LIHEAP or SNAP programs so that those are federal programs that identify customers that are low to mother income. So those are some reasons for this being so critical right now is that I think over the next couple of years, we're going to see some real volatility and the cost of energy. And so how can we help mitigate that getting in front of that, so that we're helping serve, you know, Hawaiian residents to to to a degree that they deserve without having to, you know, a Molokai there was an article in Civil Beat just recently that some customers don't even have electricity. They're not even customers. And the inequity across all of the islands is just it's appalling.  There's people that just do not have the energy burden is so great that it's very challenging for them to pay all of their bills and keep keep the lights on. Well, it's a very necessary, timely, critically important thing that you're doing that we all must be aware of. I mean, especially during this ongoing time, substantial economic dislocation, economic distortion because of COVID because the the engine of the state's economy is still over the years over the decades, so much tourist related in terms of revenue flow that it's still there's a lot of turbulence. So I'm very I'm I'm relieved that you and Jay and Leo and the staff there see this is the important critical issue and priority that it needs to be so I very much appreciate that. And with that, my friend Jennifer and Potter. Thank you so much. We need to wrap it up. Thank you so much for joining me and and Jay and spirit Jay Fidel. And we'll have you back on again soon. I'll reach out to Leo as well haven't seen him in a while nor nor my friend, Dr. Jay Griffin. So it's always such a great pleasure and thank you so very much at a grand time. But then again, I always do when you and I talk. So Mahalo Nui for your presence and for your great work. And we will pick up again sometime before too long. Thank you. Thank you so much, Marco. It was a pleasure to be here. Thank you everyone.


e pictures it's really just stuff that derrick hill liked the house would lead you to believe that the gardens are quite old but they're not they're sort of mid 20th century gardens from the 1950s wouldn't be a particularly fashionable period of garden design and that's kind of cool that's down the garden path a new series wednesday nights on highland radio after the news at 8 p.m. okay it's all very exciting here at highland radio the draw drum or trombola i think they call it is being loaded up any of you watching on social media will be able to see it there it's been packed with all of you who entered the competition for our holiday giveaway one of you is going to be winning a trip to turkey why would you go to turkey today when or tomorrow when you could go to bonkran i mean what does turkey have on st patrick's day cancel in the cross and the bonkran it doesn't have i can't think of one single thing i i just have a note today struggling i can't see anything else we have got the sunshade we've got the beautiful scenery we've got a big parade coming up i can't think of anything else and sure this i'm sure one of the pubs could rustle you up a sangria if you wanted one of them as well no doubt cocktail cocktails galore for the people that like that or the traditional things it doesn't really matter from that from that cocktail we can deliver all in bonkran tomorrow okay so at relatively short notice because we know planning for these things is a year long event at relatively short notice we've been pulling together parades and fondays and all that type of stuff so we're going to start in bonkrana today what what can people look forward to tomorrow uh nicholas when do things kick off when does the parade start what's happening the parade starts three o'clock sharp and as i said there's only two things that start in bonkrana bang on type is the st patrick's day parade and the switch and on the christmas lights and the switch and on the christmas night i've been interviewing you too long you know me too well but it does start to three o'clock sharp and it does uh we have organized uh i think it's four marts and bands has promised to come down brilliant lovely music after the parade uh we have a viewing stand we have we committee ourselves have put in place what we can we have stewards in place we've got the emergency services we've organized a few floats not like that but we're asked to know the community and businesses and and sports groups scouts and schools to take part uh in our national day and come out and then join and then it's going to be special and nicholas tomorrow you know you talked about the live bands just to see live bands going down the street again and they're fantastic but we've we've missed it and it's going to be a wonderful day we've got the weather sorted and uh everyone who gets to bonkrana is going to have a lovely time thanks nicholas okay thanks good man take care of yourself we're heading now to uh the uh fin valley area ball of a face from all of to be more specific nula diva uh is it different or die for nula sorry it's different isn't it sorry it's actually deen glasby here and the manager in the base here oh right okay sorry uh what's your name again sorry deen glas deen good to have you deen of course nice to see you again right deen um the ball of a face uh strunaller chamber uh are involved in the organization of an event tomorrow not going with the parade but still a fun day for people to get involved in tell us all what's happening yes well we have uh we have a parade of sorts and it's a scaled down parade we have a tractor run for children you know we're going to start in the car park at the nav net car park and they're going to go out and we're going to go up and down the main street and back up onto that and back into uh the car park again which is a big it's a big thing for the children because the road's going to be kind of the traffic will be stopped and there's all the guards there and things and it's going to be all the wee tractors and they're all signed up you know so there's a big there's a big interest in that and we have a news one's coming we have uh public cars and car sales and things like that oh wow fun fair i cannot yes and we have a magician on the magician on stage as well for the younger people and we have like a we have like a treasure hunt around the town where the children have to go over and find stickers and the wonders of all the different businesses and take them back in the car and there's prizes for that if that magician can make a few uh a few bags of coal up here he'll he'll go down a storm well we're going to have uh we're going to have uh fancy dresses as well so the best the best dress in public or Patricia Patricia we're going to call her yet and uh it's good for people uh dressing up for that you know and then we're going to have for the stage up on the car park as well so we're going to have live acts we have uh a lot of different live acts on the stage and you can children and children dancing things like that and then we have uh we have stalls in the middle of the car park we have a lot of different crafts coming with um some very good craft fairs coming there's uh there's color there from later i'm coming with uh stuff actually he makes from from wood from his back garden wow you really pulled something really pulled it all together in in the relatively short notice didn't you well given the way things were we didn't want to go with the fall period and you know it's a good thing for the children i think the tractor runs can be a very big draw but the children that is remember that for years and years and years you know so and i i listened i watched a few uh uh tractor runs the last while there's some beautiful machinery and and the guys know how to go to town with it too right so what time does the tractor run start up these are all high tackers pedal tackers just for our children you know i've seen them too this is brilliant right so we're gonna have we're gonna have children on pedal tractors heading up the main street and turn back and up to the car but it'll be good for them remember for years to come as well you know yeah and you know what the image the pictures are gonna be amazing we look forward to seeing them in the papers uh it's gonna be fun look brilliant and the live music uh on stage what time's that starting that dean about no you start one o'clock i'll go from one to five o'clock well done okay we've got the weather uh all things uh prediction predicting the weather's gonna be good fantastic stuff well done dean take care thanks very much for coming on uh let's go to uh carer god uh the mevis st patricks day parade at one p.m and null mcbride uh joins us now high enough is it one at 130 well uh normally it's one o'clock greg but as opposed we have a bit of an unfortunate situation that uh shan mcgee a local man j a motor club former dunny gall county council employee passed away oh sad and uh his funeral's tomorrow at 11 30 in the chapel and carer yard and we the parade will be slightly delayed possibly 115 130 as opposed we we were going to cancel the parade because of the death and the megee family uh did not want to cancel they wanted the parade to go and in a way in a way it might be a nice way to mark the fantastic contribution of that man in a way you know uh the community being together and enjoying themselves i'm too that's what he probably would have wanted himself i shan made a huge contribution to the community during the years and uh you know he's uh he'd be sadly must he sadly must indeed may you rest in peace now thoughts with his family so it's a small town big parade hopefully go nice and slow big parade yet we are a small town as opposed number of years ago we were featured on rte and that's the way we were described uh we have a very interesting and joyful parade uh every year apart from the last couple of years there so what can people look forward to so the people can look forward to this of course from about 12 1245 dj john bosco on stage uh we will have um as well as our local definitely a school band uh we have various schools sporting organizations etc uh with floats uh vintage cars and tractors uh we have um many different attractions taking place in the in the village for the for the hour and a half or so and what are you going to you're going to dress up as st patrick or anything exciting no well no i don't really get the chance like i'll be as supposed to be a few of us would you stop giving me politicians answer to me asking you are you going to dress up as st patrick no you'll be busy doing you'll be busy doing other things i i thought it was away from all of that i don't know look we have we normally have a very very fun very happy day yes of course in the village and we have many many attractions and well a few local lads there that come up with some very different ideas for floats and that and they can be they can really cause a big attraction with floats coming from from fannet and from grandford and from our own parish and did this is vintage cars coming from various places you know excellent okay we have a good all day i suppose just to mention as well our our parade will start roughly approximately uh one fifteen to one thirty uh there's a parade and downings as well and that parade takes place at five p.m tomorrow tomorrow evening so it's all good same idea same idea you know a bit of fun a bit of crack for for all the visitors and the locals all right i suspect i'll be at both um as i don't get to make these decisions but i'm i'm delighted i'll uh so the what about parking what about parking to and access just just is there any sort of uh work needs to be on that regard well the well the parking restrictions are in the village and we'll have traffic diversions in place from about uh well the first movement 12 1245 okay just we try and keep the traffic flowing as best we can but once the once the parade starts and it starts over at the chapel of car park and carry yard once the parade starts we stop the traffic for it's only once a year there's only once in there's alternative routes okay so uh it's like one services as well like we're very lucky in that area we have a local voluntary fire service yes we have the monowai coast guard there as well you know and it's very very all very good modern equipment right now good stuff like to say it so and as well if i could just mention please quickly on this occasion the the coast guard have um what they call the rocket cart it's the old cart with ropes and equipment that the coast guard in years gone by used for various uh say life saving exercise and that that will be on show so the characters been all refurbished by leave a man's yet yes and it'll be put in put in display tomorrow right okay so um the the traffic diversion start at 12 15 the parade will start say say one for one 15 something along those lines all right and then you mentioned the Dannings uh parades around five in the evening there okay good stuff all right thanks very much indeed uh Noel McBride there just to let you know that Kerry Keele community group have organized a st patrick's day parade again this year which will be on at 3 p.m on thursday all floats welcome free of charge and they're hoping for a fun family day that comes in from Deirdre Crossen from the Kerry Keele community group uh if you've other stuff going on let us know we'll try and announce it for you uh the chair of the mill i'll pick you up on the chair of the Moville parade is Ayman McLaughlin he joins us now it's a big it's a big year for the Moville parade um Ayman that's indeed Greg good morning to you and all the listeners yeah this is our 30th anniversary uh we were founded in 1990 but uh we've had three plates cancelled two with COVID and one with foot and mouth which i think was back in 2001 or 2002 but uh so this is a 30th actual parade that we're going to be running all right it all starts off at 230 tell us what people can look forward to Ayman start at 230 on the dot on the dot and uh we have lots of floats going to be along there uh and we have various marching bands we also have a band playing live in the square as well from two o'clock and uh we have a bouncy castle in the Moville square as well which always is a great feature because it's in Patrick's day is a day for everyone and we want to make sure it's all the young children have a special day as well in the bouncy castle so um we're actually kicking off our celebrations tonight with a traditional night of music in the trawler man bar and uh all musicians and dancers more than welcome there that's going to be fun that'll be fun is right yeah and then on the day itself uh that more itself have passed through the parade starts and uh a special thing that we're doing this year to mark the 30th anniversary all organizations that and community groups etc that participate will receive a special piece of crystal oh wow on our presentation night which will be in the corner bar at nine o'clock on Friday the 18th we also have prizes for the best floats and uh we have an overall cup there for the winner and we also have a competition for the best window displays are you expecting a big entry a man all things considered you know short enough notice and what have you we definitely are expecting a big entry we had reservations earlier on in the year we weren't too sure if we're to go ahead with a prayer or not and we kind of felt maybe we shouldn't and then with all the restrictions and then with the announcement from tisha michael martin kind of lifting many of the restrictions we have to we have to get on with it at some point don't blame and it's a wee bit like that so we decided like we're really the architects of the parade the committee the people that participate are the builders so we decided well we'll do your part and uh get everything set up but organized and hopefully people participate and we've received lots of messages goodwill messages from people many people go along to say that that they're going to participate good stuff so when does the bouncy castle become operational in the band start again sorry oh the the bouncy castle will be operational from but half past one and the band in the square will be playing from two o'clock to five lovely and then the parade itself is half past two but we want to emphasize you know this is a family day out it's it's a day to acknowledge who we are and we're we're also making a sort of a i suppose it's more than a token gesture but we want to acknowledge the situation in Ukraine at the minute as well and so we will be flying the Ukrainian flag off our main stage as well and i just think this is going to be one of the first opportunities for us as a community grannies and granddads aunts and uncles moms and dads the young ones the teens to just all be in the same space as each other i just have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a particularly special day right across the region well done amen you're the man with the stop watch now you said 230 sharp i don't want any complaints i don't want to complain some monday now say it started at 233 as well don't start at 233 sharp and i i'm actually doing this in public so i'd be leaving it off okay whether the behind you're not you're going to leave off in 233 you know this as you say that Greg many years ago when we started this parade we weren't too sure what way it would work out but we said it would be punctual should only be myself and a dog but thankfully there was more than myself and a dog and there has been ever since but now we will be sharp on time are you looking forward to them i can sense that you can you're looking forward to it you're definitely i'm looking for it i tell you i'm looking for in a personal business but because of all the expressions of goodwill we've had about it and you'd be down the street and you meet people and they said to you all we're looking forward to St Patrick's day and there's a real buzzing excitement that's almost like the buzzing excitement you get around christmas eve you know that's fitting Greg and i think the fact that we there's there's a chance of the odd light shower but by the time you're getting ready to get going and everything we're looking at a day might need to put a coat on because it might be a bit breezy but it's going to be a lovely day amen well done yes that will not happen that will not happen in meville i can assure you i have a lady in the town here yes and every year she puts out the child of preg and it works out for a year walks every year never mind met air or anything like that there they've absolutely nothing to do with the weather or change the preg and my friend ann holmes will guarantee there will be sunshine in meville bring mitch cream well do you want to mitch cream okay tell ann to put that statue in a safe because there's going to be parade organizers all around the county looking for it right bring the mitch cream sunscreen tomorrow evening a wide brimmed hat um you know strings with corks on whatever is required for a beautiful hot day in my village costa delmaville take care right amen good man take care of yourself a man mcgloughlin there chairman of the mill mvill parade aka saint patrick the nine till noon show with letter kenny credit union now offering mortgages with life cover provided at no additional cost letter kenny credit union 9102127 farmers you're built different one step after the other you don't see the rewards from months or years that's life on the farm or you could say that's life in rehab when you're learning to walk after a machinery injury one step after the other you don't see the rewards for months or years just because you've the strength to see you through rehab it doesn't mean you should have to farmers always take care around machinery from the 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paint offering all up-to-date colors for all vehicles and sellimix commercial the perfect paint for diggers plant and machinery buy it today at central auto parts port linked business park letter kenny find us on facebook or call us on 07491 27491. we're wondering what's the best thing about st patrick's day getting together with friends going to a parade or is it the chance to win one of 25 250 euro m and s gift cards just shop with sparks in store online between march 9th and 20th and you'll be entered into the draw think about all that m and s food you could buy sparks get the app get the good stuff times and conditions apply c marks and spencer dot i for details okay we are joined in studio now by shawn quinn because it is time almost to give away a holiday for two to turkey what do you think about that it's uh it's like turkey outside this morning greg is unshining phones have been hopping this morning uh last minute dot com which is great but it's great price and it's part of the the draw before the big draw so uh some lucky winner is going to be um winning a holiday for two people to turkey yeah okay uh tell us about the holiday what do we know about this turkey holiday it's an october isn't it's an october and it's in kusa dasi which is the main uh it's the main tourist area the hotel is the four four star golden days wings it's lovely i've seen pictures of it it's about a one mile or one and a half kilometers outside kusa dasi town uh you'll be on a one week and it's bed and breakfast excellent and uh it's thanks uh in association with our friends at sunway holidays sunway holidays and and also our partners of the of the draw atlantic travel as well so thanks to them it's great to have it right okay this is not actually the culmination because this is all part of this is like an early bird special uh so to speak a draw before the big draw uh because the lines are still open for the mega holiday draw it's a 15 000 euro package effectively it's a 10 000 euro uh holiday voucher which can be used in one go if you want the absolute holiday of a lifetime which you would get for that or you might want more uh than the one holiday and you can spread it out and 5000 euro cash we've called it spending money but it's effectively it's cash you're not giving people tokens are you well we might be at the airport to make sure they take it with them have you got your cash with you uh not at all so it's exactly so it still runs on but the lines of course now in terms of the turkey draw uh are closed but go on now book your ticket highlandradio.com if you want to be within a chance to uh in with a chance to win uh that holiday potential of a lifetime it's going to be it's amazing because you you know the world literally the world's your oyster it's a turn of phrase but we have the 10 grand voucher you can do whatever you like uh and it could be a family holiday lap land you know all the stuff that you want to do uh you know uh disney world whatever it might be stuff that's beyond most of our reach uh yeah there probably is nowhere you couldn't go with 10 000 you it's you every base should be covered you know it's it's uh or you can do loads of uh city hops for weekends since you know with whatever you want to do right we have the draw drum there trombola i think you posh people call it um and in tumbola uh yeah trombola so we're going to give it a few rotations i think and uh well it's going to be every time we do this i'm waiting for it to come off i'm nervous doing this okay me too right okay so you look at me john and get your hand in there give it a good wiggle around all right and just pick the one and the number is 1147 1147 is right all right 1147 now that's uh do you want to chop that back in now we will in a second okay we will in a second we'll just verify it okay uh so we are now reaching out to the name that's associated with the lucky number 1147 and someone now is going to be winning a one-week holiday for two people to turkey in october so you can take your partner your friend whatever and you'll stay uh for in a lovely hotel as shawn's been outlining there in the main resort of kusadassi uh when a lot of people talking about going to turkey that's the word i hear an awful lot i've said that's the one place i actually do know uh i've never been to kusadassi i've never been to turkey of course is there no well there is i'm do you know what funny enough i'm kind of thinking about it this year um and around about october time as well if there are any plans to do any redesigning um you want to get you out there early oh well i yeah i need to be out for about three months i would say when the when it's very nice weather you're guaranteed scooch around the week there sure yeah right okay so remind us then about the the the the big draw it uh you know how long people have uh when that competition ends and all that type of stuff yeah so the lines are back open again and uh you know if you haven't bought a ticket or you want to buy another ticket uh the draw will go right over into the 14th of april so we'll draw it um they would set the draw takes place in the 14th and we probably will run the lines till about 10 o'clock that morning um and your chance obviously is 10 000 euros and 5000 spend on money so like where would you go greg if you'd won 10 000 where would you go well i asked caroline the same question and she said westport and i says listen westport's lovely but we're gonna you don't have to be a little bit more ambitious there i don't know i i've always fancied sort of the you know a trip to new york or something or las vegas you know you know those sights and scenes that you see in the tv you know see what it's like in the flesh something like that maybe i might do that and then something that's completely culturally different i think i'd like to go you know i don't know where i haven't really thought about it because i can't buy one of these tickets no you're not allowed i'm relying on the lotto uh but somewhere that's really culturally different yeah if you know what i mean i think it would be nice to sort of broaden my horizons in that regard but i think definitely maybe the west or east coast of america or maybe you know um i like boxing you know so maybe there's a big box so much new york or las vegas wherever it might be you could use it towards that flights presumably yep yep so what's that caroline all right uh okay right so let's go to line one here and we're joined on the program by dorine mcfadden hi dorine hello how are you getting on did you enter the highland radio holiday draw draw before draw draw i sure did excellent well i'm delighted tell you that you and your friend or your better half or whomever is in your life are going to turkey for a week in a beautiful hotel flights and everything paid for in october two years for a week how does that feel you've won a pre-draw oh fantastic delayed isn't that nice oh what a wonderful prize yeah and it's yours so in october that's what you're going to be doing sunning yourself whining and dining beautiful hotel cocktail in your hand or a mocktail beside the pool on the beach sun beating down on you treated like a queen doesn't get much better than that does it and how many sorry sure one second and what and yeah well she's still in the draw for the big draw so you can still technically win our ten thousand euro holiday prize as well yeah okay well we're actually gonna put your ticket back in in a second dorine are you lucky normally do you do you win much because you just bought the one ticket too which is extra extra lucky i think no i would be excellent and of course we've not been able to go anywhere for a while i won't keep you dorian do you know at this point i'm not going to put you on the spot you don't have to mention her name do you know at this point who you might take oh my better half okay right there goes another opportunity for me to get to turkey down the train all right i thought we could have done that so i broadcast or i don't know what it would have been can we will be in touch with you congratulations and thanks for being a good sport and coming on the radio with us as well funny enough i'm about to say to you goodbye to you at eleven forty seven and the winning ticket was one one four seven isn't that strange well don't take care of yourself dorine thank you thank you okay congratulations dorine mcfadden so literally and shawne is telling the truth here one one four seven in his hand is going back in the trombola away okay shawne stick it in there good man there she goes all right and who's to say dorin could win again but there's uh lots of you entering um and uh it's brilliant and it's lovely shawne isn't it uh she she can't wait to get on holidays five and love's going on holidays and doesn't win much and you could make an argument for anyone winning but that's brilliant i'm delighted for her so am i and and and i can't wait till the 14th that we're doing it again because it's an amazing have you any surprises or just i'm not going to tell you anything but stay tuned stay tuned then maybe we'll see what happens is that a yes or no i'm not telling you but you say you're not going to tell me and then you'll be saying oh greg will you mention this so where's my exclusive actually i won't let's keep it exclusive let's keep it thanks very much grace and thank you very much indeed uh now it's beautiful to bring a bit of joy into someone's life as we have just done with dorin mcfadden congratulations to your dorin um and you're going to turkey for two weeks or sorry for two of yous for a week in october if you want to be in with a chance to win the big one and any other little surprises that may come along who's to say uh you can go on our website now right now highlandradio.com and if anything else is added to the prize pool you will you won't miss out by entering now if that makes sense i just don't want you to feel like you could miss out all right kirin old donnell has very patiently been waiting he's going to be joining us with business matters and business use after these the night all new show is brought to you by letter kenny credit union offering low-rate car loans with fast approval apply online at letterkennycu.ie or in office today hi dad just popping on to say hi love how did you manage to video call i'm a bit of a computer whiz these days i can see that and it's not just video calls with high digital free online course paddy also learned to do the grocery shopping and you can too so how are you dad hang on i've a very funny gift to send you or is it jiff learn essential online skills today at high digital dot i brought to you by vodafone ireland foundation active retirement ireland and alone vodafone together we can long com has an exclusive beauty gift waiting just for you at magies chemist simply purchase two long com products one to be skincare and receive your free six-piece gift containing a full-size to make comfort toner a choice of either hydrazine or absolute day and night travel size creams plus more of your favorite iconic long com products available until sunday the 27th of march or while stocks last teas and seas apply at magies chemist main street letterkenny on the night of april 3rd we'll all come together to fill out our census forms and the information you provide will help show where essential services are needed in every part of the country so on sunday april 3rd be a part of ireland's future be counted visit census.ie to find out more make the most of your bank holiday weekend with inflation busting offers at lidl there's tatos 16 packs for only 399 coca-cola range 10 and 12 can packs just 699 each and a 700 mil bottle of baileys was 20 euro now an unbelievable 10 euro inflation busting offers at lidl more for you enjoy alcohol responsibly land prices up 33 in two years this week's irish farmers journal is in shops today one day early is paul mooney don't miss our county by county guide to agricultural land prices across ireland with land prices at their highest level since the kelting tiger era we reveal how much land is worth in your county and how cash rich investors are buying land to rewild and offset carbon don't miss your 72 page land price report inside this week's irish farmers journal in shops today highland ready or weather updates with ireland west airport discover amber this summer with reiner's three times weekly service stunning architecture endless winding streets and an awe-inspiring castle ireland west airport you're flying and i'll be in arlington association with the letter kenny it faculty of business looking for a career in financial services consider the level nine ma governance compliance and data protection take the next step in your career and contact the exec ed coordinator nine one eight six two zero six three mil exec ed at liit.ie today i'm all excited kieran bumping in on the jingle there because i heard the mere mention of arland west airport where i'll be tomorrow i'm so excited all friday and also just talking about the joy st patrick's day tomorrow kieran you couldn't help and of course having dorine winning her holiday being so happy about it and the sun sharing as well and the sun is shining okay come here um let's start off with a bit of news we'll see how we get on because we've a lot to jam in and i appreciate kieran you giving up a bit of the time here no problem right a driver's survey has been published yeah a nationwide survey of car owners has revealed that just one in ten drivers is likely to give up their car in the next five years the research commissioned by both the european mobility super app which questioned 509 drivers showed over one-third of the drivers 38 percent are aiming to reduce the number of car trips they take per week the survey also found that 26 percent are inclined to give up private or care ownership for environmental reasons i'd love to see an urban rural breakdown on that because you know a lot of our drive drives aren't discretionary uh they're essential very much all right um the cope in burton port of the cell or cope in burton port yeah the former cope supermarket in burton port will go under the hammer via the iam sold online auction platform according to the cell and agents camber's auctioneers the property occupies a prominent commercial location along the main thoroughfare through the village and presents significant redevelopment redevelopment potential a starting price of 88 and a half thousand has been placed on the boat yeah i think it'll be snapped up right the donnago local enterprise office of a seminar upcoming yeah it will be on the introduction to the supports and service at its office and on the x explanation of the grant aid process and criteria along with that that's between 10 a.m and 12 noon on friday next march the 25th and the seminar is free and is delivered via zoom all right the international fund for arland made its announcements of its latest round of funding and some local uh some local services to benefit it seems yeah two donnago projects um 231 thousand and 83 thousand watered two donnago youth services and mulford and district resource center so good news for both those all right okay let's get on to the podcast itself and if we've got time for a bit more news we'll come back to it what can people look forward to to our business matters podcast which is available for listeners right now on this week's uh business matters podcast Greg i will be talking to Pamela Kearney and Nula McCool about a new business program being delivered at garam school koo aloo and balanamore and they'll also be reflecting on the quite remarkable life and times of the creasley born pioneering computer programmer kabic multi wow very interesting so buses in the community's sear and tail that translates into world of work program is being delivered to second-year students at garam school koo aloo and balanamore and partnership with aptum through the medium of irish Pamela Kearney is one of the business in the community's 18 coordinators who help set up and run the programs in conjunction with schools and businesses she says sear and tail program will provide students at the donnago etb secondary school with a wonderful opportunity to see what goes on behind the scenes at aptum and the programs are in donnago there are 13 here in donnago and we have large corporates in donnago working with schools those businesses are marx and spencer's k and sear say optum galkers bakehouse we've got phillips medecines and many more so that's a wide range pamela of businesses it is and it's a wonderful opportunity for students to see behind the scenes students learn about careers and jobs that they haven't thought about before or that they were simply unaware of and with changes in working environment they get an insight into increasing advances in technology they also find out what jobs are like nuru be cool is a business studies teacher at garam school koo aloo and she explained what the students will be doing over the next six weeks i suppose they're going to be working on a lot of stuff to do with optum they're going to be learning all about optum they're going to be meeting up with staff members some of which are our past pupils and they're going to be able to interview them and they're going to do like a speed dating as such where they're going to go around tables and they're going to get to ask them all the questions about how they developed from being a secondary school student like them to go down to college possibly and then how did they end up getting a job in optum and what it is they do and they're also going to be doing soft skill program with them where they're going to be learning such things as communication skills how to do a presentation how to present themselves for interview how to communicate with people and that will be very useful for them when they go on to do their mrb which is their classroom based assessment and second and third year and third year they do an actual presentation where they actually have to speak to the whole class present an enterprise or an idea or whatever to their students in their class and they're going to have to do that for three minutes as part of their classroom based assessment so they're going to get the skills now developed during this program which is going to be really of use to them when they move on into third year okay now next guest on the show this week kieran yeah in the second part of this week's buzzes barris greg i chip to emma mcfadden from glass mountain digital media about the extraordinary career of creaselborn penuring computer programmer k mcnulty i asked the local follow maker what struck her most about the woman whose work literally helped change the world i suppose it in some ways um it was her humility you know she i think you have to understand too that it was a very you know for her back during the war years it would have been highly unusual for a woman to be leading maybe in technology a very male dominated world but k kind of kept very grounded on all this clearly she had a phenomenal aptitude for it um and i think that's that's a big part of it too that uh you know she just went on to you know develop it and and in her later years went on to champion woman in technology in a big way as well her and the other the other co-founders again there's a lot of nice footage of all these different talks that they would give and things like that so you know she was she pioneered much more than the early days you know she stayed true to kind of championing woman and uh stem subjects you know all all of her life um and that was you know so that was probably the humility of what they achieved i think um they certainly didn't seem to be looking for the kudos of it at the time okay and that is a very interesting story looking forward to the interviews with pamela uh nula and amen all available now on our website highlandradio.com and on Spotify and iTunes and the show's broadcast on there as well of course uh gearon yeah on sunday evening Greg after the six o'clock news and anyone looking to get in touch with the show how do they get in touch with you yeah just drop me an email please businessmatters at highlandradio.com all right that's available right now let me just see if we got uh time for no we've we've mentioned everything all right right before we go yeah go ahead i was contacted by ollie harvey uh readily described as the youngest president of energy a club in the country uh he's president of synduance if it's just about tomorrow and i know we're talking about st patrick's day about the float they're meeting at towbins at two thirty they're having a children's disco at the clubhouse from five to seven and the bar is open upstairs and i'll be it'll be easier to meet ollie after i've got that plug in for him you should not be on your phone at work thank you enjoy st patrick's day tomorrow uh re join us at 12 o'clock on saturday broadcasting live from ishington can't wait for that and also we'll be back with you here all being well monday morning at nine o'clock stay tuned john bresland's around the northwest after the news at 12 the newspapers are clear to see


So, the best thing about STARS is that it starts from like the very base level. Like, even if you have no experience with a much-going computer engineering, like you start at the very bottom, like from Kierchoff's Laws, and there's no other university that's putting in this much funding or this much effort into semiconductor research. Like I've received so many emails about all the different funding that we've received and all the different research going on about semiconductors. I think for anyone that's trying to get into semiconductors, Purdue is like the top choice. And I like electrical and computer engineering. I like designing chips, and I know that it will eventually impact the world in a positive way because chips are used in like everything. Obviously, semiconductor engineering isn't easy. There's a lot that goes into it, but at the end of the day, it's going to be worth it. And if you are really passionate about semiconductors, then you'll have a great time, no doubt.


The people at Banggood were kind enough to supply us this BlitzWolf BWKB1 mini wireless RGB keyboard with mechanical blue switches. Phew, that was a mouthful. For someone who always used wireless keyboards growing up until the RGB craze happened, I was very excited to try out something which reminded me of the familiar and the new at the same time. While this may have been provided by Banggood, our loyalty is first and foremost to you guys. And so this is an honest review from a keyboard enthusiast. I'm Rafale from Hardware Sugar and I'm going to nerd out on the product so you won't have to when deciding on what to get your loved ones and friends this Christmas. The first thing you notice out of the box is that this small keyboard feels substantial for its size. It is heavier than it looks and clocks in at 20 ounces. But I consider this a plus because the weight is there to remind you that it has presence even before you begin using it. The design of the keyboard is made up of two parts, a premium plastic black finish and a metal plate where the keys rest. In the industry of keyboards nowadays, people associate plastic finishes as being cheap. Thus, all flagship cell phones at present have shifted towards metal builds. This, however, isn't the case if the item is constructed correctly. I mentioned this in my other video that my Razer Black Widow Chroma keyboard was made of similar black plastic to that of the BWKB1 and I think if plastic is engineered in this manner, it really does create a premium experience. The metal plate is not something you can really see or touch because the keys cover most of it. Thus, what you will be really be touching for the most part is the matte plastic finish. The keyboard comes in black or white options, but because I have a dog, I always choose black peripherals because a white finish doesn't work well in my room because of all the dog fur, which eventually get inside my keyboards. However, I mentioned this because I bet the white finish will be just as premium looking based on my experience with this black one. The small form factor makes it a very small footprint wherever I am using it and as some may already notice from our other videos, regarding my work table and my choice in gear, I really do prefer a more minimalist look to my work areas and the Blitzwolf does not disappoint. The bottom part of the keyboard is equipped with rubber pads underneath its belly, which prevents it from scratching the table when you are moving it around from place to place. The height adjustment legs are also rubberized. The keyboard does not come with wrist support, which may appear as a downer, but to be honest, this is still a good move by Blitzwolf because a lot of people like to customize their wrist support, especially when it comes to the miniature keyboard breed. Also, our wrist support will detract from the goal of the keyboard, which is to promote mobility. It is IPX4 water resistant, which means it can handle splashes of water, but no submersion or sustained water hits. In short, you'll have no problem if you spill your coffee or water just as long as you don't swim with it or leave it under the rain. And who does that anyway? Connecting it to a laptop, mini-PC or a full-fledged desktop is easy and it works on both Apple and Microsoft devices. It is as simple as flicking a switch underneath and pressing function and either Q, W, E, R or T. Each letter corresponds with a specific device that you previously paired it with, so that syncing is automatic the second time around, and you don't need to go through the process of manually encoding it each time. One very important downside of the wireless keyboard is that it syncs via Bluetooth. Thus, the response time is slower than, for instance, my Corsair Wireless Ironclaw, which has an option for Bluetooth or 2.4 GHz. It is thus not meant to be a keyboard for a pro gamer. There are, however, benefits to this, which include a longer battery life and no need to worry about losing an external sensor. The heart of the keyboard is that it's portable in nature. We are all grounded until COVID-19 is gone, but that doesn't mean you don't want a change of scenery for your workspace. Whether you have a balcony or a pool at your apartment, or whether you need to keep an eye on dinner as it cooks but can't leave your workstation, the option to quite literally pick up your workstation along with your keyboard is a lot of fun. It is true that if you own a laptop, then it already has a keyboard. We are, however, living in the renaissance of customizable keyboard switches. My Surface Pro 4's keyboard, while handy for being magnetized at a laptop, has keys which aren't clicky and not nearly as satisfying as the Blitz Wolf. If I am going to be working on a project on my computer for a long period of time, I want to be able to have some fun while working like this. The keyboard comes in blue, red, and brown switches. I opted for blue switches because I get high hearing that clickity clang. As far as the satisfaction for the blue switches go, I really dig them. I have used the blue switches with the Corsair K70, ASUS TUF K3, and the green switches with the Razer Black Widow Chroma, and I can say with extreme definitiveness that if you like any of those keys, then you're in for a fun time with these. Blitz Wolf markets the battery life to be 10 days with RGB OFF and 18-20 hours with RGB ON. To be honest, I don't work longer than 6 hours a day, and so far the keyboard has yet to die on me. I charged the keyboard after I finished working for the day, and so haven't gotten around to emptying the battery in full. You can charge the keyboard via USB-C by using a charger, or just simply plug it into a PC. Plugging it in will allow you to use the keyboard while it charges up. So if you tend to use this for a laptop, just as long as you bring the cable, then you don't need to worry about it being out of use. The keyboard has an automated battery-saving function which turns off the RGB if it is idle for 30 seconds and suspends the Bluetooth if it has been idle for 30 minutes. So you don't need to worry about wasting energy or forgetting to turn it off. The RGB lighting are what you would expect from a premium keyboard. The lights are colorful, diverse, and reactive. As I said in my ASUS K3 review, I am not one to spend too much time on customizing my lighting and I usually just stick with one or three favorites. The rainbow profile or the randomly-scattered colors profile add just enough character for me to be completely satisfied with regards to lighting. The BWKB1 retails for around $2,355 on Banggood. We will leave a link and a coupon code in the description below if our review has sparked your interest. The closest comparison I can think of is the Corsair K63 wireless mechanical keyboard but that retails for close to double the price. That, however, has a 2.4GHz function meant more for programmers. However, for us normal people who just want to have fun and type, I think the BWKB1 is actually priced cheaper than what you get. I wouldn't have been surprised if I was told that this keyboard costs $3,500. It feels and reacts that well and it more than earns its price tag. Affordable mechanical wireless RGB keyboards are rare. We haven't seen more options from companies like Corsair and Razer because it is difficult to deliver RGB lighting which doesn't drain a keyboard too quickly and razor fast speed response time.  To be honest, I'm stubborn when it comes to trying different brands because I don't like being let down. So, thank you to Banggood for providing us a review unit and for introducing us to the BlitzWolf brand. Check out the coupon code down below and save an additional 200 or so on the BWKB1. Personally, I know a lot of people in the writing industry who don't hardcore game and would be ecstatic to work with this keyboard. As I said earlier, it's the little things that are available nowadays. If you liked this video, please consider liking and subscribing to our channel where we review computer hardware and give you instructions on how best to use it.


I saw a shuttle launch when I was in elementary school, and I thought I really want to fly that. And that's where it began. He is a Navy commander, a naval aviator, and a test pilot. He was selected as an astronaut in 2013. This is his first space flight introducing NASA astronaut Victor Glover. First and foremost, I'm just grateful to God and to my family. To work and live in space is just a humbling and amazing blessing in and of itself. This is a test pilot's dream. Flying has been such an important part of my professional life, and I love to do it. 64,000 feet, that's the highest up I've ever been above the ground. And so to get to a point beyond that, that'll be a little special moment. A rookie astronaut, I'm the pilot, and I'm going to be learning the ropes from a very experienced crew. Trying to balance that, enjoying and living in the moment, but also managing the responsibilities to make sure that we get to space safely. I'm looking forward to that juxtaposition of emotion, I think. Tell me about how you ended up here. I think for every astronaut, that's kind of a different story. Wow, that goes way back. So high school, athlete, love being a part of a small, high-performing team, wrestling and football. I was fortunate to wrestle in college while pursuing my engineering education. I actually originally wanted to be a Navy SEAL. That's what started my journey in the Navy, and I wound up deciding to go into aviation and learn to fly. The love of flying and being a part of a small, very specialized, high-performing team that gets to do things in really interesting and challenging environments. The astronaut corps is the epitome of that. This is truly an exciting time for a human spaceflight, our 9Nation, and believe me, it's only going to get better as we charge off into the future. We've been working with our partner SpaceX for years. It's just been amazing to learn about the vehicle and to just spend time getting to know their flight control team and their trainers. It's creating sort of a new culture that is some kind of a balance between the two. The fact that it takes thousands of people all over the world to get us ready. It's humbling and overwhelming, and I want to do my best because I represent them. So thank you for your support and for your love, and know that you're flying with us on Crew 1.


what's going on guys welcome back to another video today's video is gonna be very yummy I don't know about that cuz we shine the healthiest fast food items actually you're right healthy is not good but not always the best tasting foods yeah I mean but it's fast food restaurants so I feel like it's still gonna be good we'll see about that so we're going to a couple places we're gonna starbies Popeyes BK McDonald's Wendy's we try them all today yeah it's gonna be good our first stop is gonna be Starbucks and then we'll see what goes down the road after that we got a bunch of fast food places yeah you ready I'm ready so let's go ahead and get this started I'm hungry I can I have a reduced-fat turkey bacon and egg white sandwich all right let me get a tall iced jade citrus mint tea sure do you want any no thank you okay that'll be all right 796 we'll see you at the window thank you sweeteners no we're being healthy well actually we should ask for some some stevia at the window no we shouldn't why not are you trying to find a loophole in this be healthy Janice it is healthy stevia's healthy be healthier one day you're gonna end up like me please you barely got nothing I'm the one who got a little good but yeah so I just looked up the healthiest items and those were the ones that had the tea has zero calories and then that one I think only had like 200 calories apparently so we're gonna see mm-hmm it's not bad it's not bad at all so I don't know maybe we'll have a new breakfast item if we're on the go I don't know about that sometimes reduced fat means nasty I don't know we'll see we're gonna park and then try it apparently this isn't a normal drink to get they were like really ice because they gave us a hot one first they're like really iced you want ice I was like yeah I'm not gonna like smells really good smell it smell cool that does smoker I like mint so maybe it's good without the sweetener because I don't want to burn you so yeah you go ahead and pour that wish me luck good luck babe oh my god that was so good oh that's perfect oh beautiful not a drop I mean like I cannot drink nothing hot especially Janice you pulled it up and out my fault yeah you're right all over the M3 what a horror over the M3 you got in my cracks and crevices all right that's all my cracks and crevices let's shake it up I mean wait should we try the sandwich before let this marinate let this get a little yeah let it get cold because that was pretty hot yeah it was uh what the fat turkey bacon and egg sandwich yeah it feels nice and warm that's what it looks like show them the other side show them the melted side you can't even see alright so like microwave biscuit I was gonna say should we break it in half or something I'll take a bite from one side you can take a bite right here let's do it together let's be roman oh that's so ready yeah one two three now this is bussing that is not bacon that is ham this is bacon I know that's not bacon is it supposed to be bacon yeah bacon turkey bacon that is Canadian bacon no bro that's ham bro that's they were capping that is him that is not bacon show them show them the inside that is ham that is ham no babe that's turkey bacon I think that's valid it's what that was really good actually finish it I don't want it sorry I mean I would eat it I would eat that every day I guess I mean for 200 calories though this whole sandwich that's not bad it's not bad at all and it's like really warm and filling it is it's alright so I feel like yeah I would definitely order that this was a whole cup of ice yeah no one is gone where's the ice alright you want to take the first ever yeah I'll take the first step I'm gonna take out so let's see let me see that it tastes like water to me that just tastes like water with like a little bit of it yeah it's like what it's a very very light flavor light flavor of mint and that's it it literally tastes like it's not bad though like I'm why they were really really really cold it'd be really refreshing yeah but it literally just water it has a flavor to it definitely has a flavor barely not too heavy though yeah I would drink that like I would just drink that like nothing it's refreshing it's it's good it's definitely good so McDonald's McDonald's oh I'm more excited I love me to McDonald's hi can I have a McChicken and a four-piece nugget all right and for those nuggets what kind of sauce no sauce okay and can I get a small diet coke okay that'll be off all right thank you I'm excited to eat this McChicken I nuggets I know but we can't sauce unless you want to get the healthiest sauce the healthiest sauce no no we got to keep it clean exactly clean exactly say miss you later I'm sorry what is that period where's that from what that song that you was just seeing Susie oh period but first of all Isaiah got a little diet coke so hey would they do that they feel it so high that like a goal is on the top it just tastes like sweet carbonated water I never had diet coke before like isn't that crazy like I don't know it's still busy but it tastes flat just because it's diet I didn't want to drink it it's good it's good like I can definitely substitute a regular coke for a diet coke that's disgusting that means soap soap is crazy that is disgusting soap is crazy pull off the food brother soap is crazy all right I'm a chicken thank you that's why give me that I'll take it so fun fact right you want to tell them about what I used to do in Jersey all right well let's share the share we'll break the make sure now she wants to share now she wants to share cuz she saw the nuggets in the nuggies and now obviously want to share wait yeah so what's crazy that so the healthiest was I think a cheeseburger but we're giving hints but we're getting cheeseburgers and other places that's the healthiest spot so this was like the second line was a big chicken I can't believe nuggets are healthy oh look at all that mayo oh come on on I forgot it had mayo wait you can even see it it's just a crispy chicken that's hella male oh my mouth is watering I'm going in sorry that's disgusting that's disgusting I love it for male you're eating whipped eggs I don't care here I left you two nuggets half and half I'm gonna take a bite I'm gonna take a bite out of this side this side dry okay so it's disgusting cheers oh that was hitting today extra don't be disrespectful guys he hate I hate mayonnaise oh my god like you're like afraid of mayo I think well I am I don't like mayonnaise that's like I feel like I'm eating expired eggs that doesn't make any sense mayonnaise is nasty you eat mayonnaise you're nasty I don't care no no mayonnaise is not nasty it's delicious I mean I have another no I'm hooked that's just so foul that was good will you call yourself a condiment like oh yeah he is so extra like that's disgusting mayonnaise is valid he's just doing too much that's just nasty I mean McDonald's in general is not healthy but I think that the McChicken was like 300 calories or so what about the nuggets the nuggets I haven't looked up but I think it's around the same like 200 calories 200 calories for like four nuggets I think so a hundred and ninety three put in a ten piece a ten piece ten pieces 480 oh my god I know where I'm coming for lunch now oh my god yo that's a steal let's see how many are in a McChicken 400 that's unhealthy see and then the mayonnaise on top of that you're gonna have a heart attack here I'm telling you oh shut up you shouldn't be doing that's your body that's just foul I literally have one bite relax 400 calories 350 calories is just the mayonnaise all right so now we're moving on to what Wendy's now we're gonna yes go to Wendy's okay yes Wendy's okay we'll see you there oh man he's got disgusting well maybe you'll get something better Wendy's have some class hi can I have one junior cheeseburger that'll be all actually do you guys have a unsweet tea can you guys make it unsweetened can you guys make it unsweetened okay let me get unsweetened a small thank you had a gay unsweet tea for you know Janice over here she's a little parched yeah cuz like you know I'm not you know coke I don't like anything bubbly all right y'all so we only got one thing I want these junior cheeseburger but you also got an unsweet tea I did I did because I'm parched what is that it's a junior cheeseburger that mean junior like baby cheeseburger that is a bite-sized snack what I'm gonna do with that oh oh that look messy it got onions onions cheese ketchup and then a pat I'm good off that a little messy though not the most appealing burger looks like the ugly patty from Sponge but I mean would you like to do the honest person I'll do it okay they got pickles pickles oh never mind maybe I'll like it oh wait oh I'm gonna get a big bite of that pickle pause why do they insist on messing up the sandwiches no take that it's good I'm biting around the pickle pause what down the other side take it out damn you get it that's it that's it one pickle for you quiet about you only need one pickle in your life anyway that's right damn right you like that oh yeah I like that it was a pickle that tainted it I don't know it's good but like I'm not like a burger person I have to be craving a burger to eat that man what's the calories on I'm looking at it right now so it says 310 calories not bad I don't know about that shout out to Wendy's for not using mayonnaise oh my god you're really like eating the whole thing it's good yeah no it's a regular cheeseburger I don't know I like I don't know I just don't mess with cheeseburgers like that I feel like Wendy's has the best burgers as far as like freshness I disagree oh freshness I don't care about that that's burger taste wise you're wild actually I never had a burger I had never had a burger from Burger King burger from Burger King is actually grilled it tastes like it's like made on like a backyard barbecue really yes it has like a smoky flavor to us that's wild yeah nah I never had like burgers from like fast food spots only McDonald's cuz that max off we're going to next I think next day's first Burger King and then Popeyes to finish it off oh Popeyes just be having a week and he sang a lot I cook McDonald's they would you want to have like Popeyes and McDonald's like at our wedding like catered yes I need 500 nuggets stat 500 ain't gonna be enough that's crazy talking crazy once again all right guys so we'll see you when we get to the BK are you full yet no me I'm hungry I guess so nervous like pulling up hi can I have an order of chicken fries no thank you okay and can I have one hamburger okay that'll be all name we order Isaiah Isaiah thank you she said name I should have been like goats oh go ahead go ahead go ahead don't worry girl your nuggets ain't going nowhere for real she was like she's feeding she hung green it's alright girl go in front of us it's alright we not in the rush to go nowhere fight you for them nuggets though I mean we eat in both what you mean I don't like burgers you got it you I just told you about the burgers from Burger King how they taste like they're from a backyard barbecue girl like this is no but you're lying I feel how I don't know I don't mess with burgers like that if I eat it if I eat it I don't want the bread you know why I like burger yeah they have sesame balls no they got pickles alright fine pickles are a deal breaker for me here take a bite and then take the pickles out a lot of pickles and pass me y'all look at how many bring that so I don't mess with you two pickles but they're big pickles you used to big pickle am I though that's what we're gonna do that's what we're gonna do that's what we're doing now listen alright my mouth watering I saw the pickle come out I don't like it all right so take the pickles and give it to me cuz you don't know what you don't know you don't have you don't have good taste take the pickles up there you disrespect Burger King's burger oh no that is salty that is not salty it tastes like smoke like smoked oh now these pickles are salty too hold on guys at one point in your life there's a point like you gotta mature so mister I eat chicken fingers and fries at every restaurant like let's not start I moved on and started ordering steak hi oh yeah steak only fancy restaurants that everywhere else how I'll take the chicken I don't cover me don't cover me you're my biggest don't cover me whatever take a bite slap every time let me see I haven't had these in years I know how many calories are we talking about the stats let me see the stats let's see hold on damn that's not bad it is 430 calories for a nine-piece that's a lot not a lot do you think for some little rinky-dink chicken fries why they got to be rinky dink there's a skimpy look they mad small like skinny all right so what did you get a hamburger right of the hamburger hamburger 258 calories look how much that's a crazy difference yeah chicken fries versus a whole burger you know why half the calories chicken fries is like literally fried chicken into little strips like that's all damn you didn't want it okay here eat the chicken fries them like a vacuum to you yeah I'm like trying to lose weight here I don't like food going to waste eat it I know you still hungry so let's not even front but I'm saving room for for what's coming next because that's the only thing I'm gonna finish guys I've been going on runs like almost every day I'm gonna have to go on like a five mile run just to like burn all this off now yeah that's why I'm not eating nothing I'm just taking a little bite I guess I'll dog these and Popeyes is literally like right there might as well say we're in their parking lot but I'm gonna dog these real quick because we don't want to go to waste and that won't hit a Popeyes I'm starting to get full yeah don't do that hi can I have a three-piece black in tenders yeah the blackened ones no what would you say is the healthiest thing on your menu like in sandwich alright let me get one of those yeah that's it thank you all right so we had a little bit of difficulty with this one all right so I did see that the least calorie thing that they had on the menu were sides which was like the mac and cheese and a thing of biscuit however we're trying to get some like entrees in here yeah so we went with the blackened sandwich as you saw I'm just upset because like I've always wanted to try the blackened tenders and I heard that that has so much protein I'm sure it's the same is just a different like you got a tender versus a sandwich yeah I just don't know how like that like they just run out of everything I guess but I saw that the blackened sandwich so on you on the menu I said like 500 calories or something like that it's in the fives I know that is not healthy we'll see you though we'll see how's it look oh you're gonna hate this oh my god there's freakin man is on it yeah oh my god are you serious I that's a lot take the first bite man babe this is messy I can take the first hour how am I gonna even take this out alright I'll take the first bite I don't know how to feel now Loki this is bussing that's definitely I think that's definitely male huh you have to try it just give me one bite avoid just avoid avoid that side that's the side or flip it around because the other side didn't have mail like it tastes like sour like you know what I like biting into a cardboard yeah like the chicken is hard like when you overcook chicken right I was trying to like focus more on the flavor but that chicken is dry baby I'm disappointed in Popeyes that's like a terrible way to like end this honestly I'm gonna chose right taste them ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch you gonna have to drink some unsweetened tea baby tastes like tap water bro it tastes like dirty where's this from this was from one one day god no I've tried better on sweet tea though like some people have better on sweet tea I think we should have gotten the unsweetened tea from here actually because Popeyes has a best team I'm done I'm done with the video mm-hmm a horrible way to add that was disappointing is how guys that is it for today's video that is a horrible don't don't don't go to Popeyes don't don't go to Popeyes and get that sandwich that was no saying everything about my everything else on Popeyes be slapping that sandwich is like cardboard what I like being said I hope you guys enjoyed today's video I know I somewhat did and didn't I just wish I had more enjoyable meals you know stuff I actually like you got mayonnaise all over your mouth period I'm saving it for later all right guys again I hope you guys enjoyed today's video leave a like down below comment down below what you guys want to see us do next and we'll get to it what all that being said we'll see you guys in the next video


Portland, Oregon, I visited there a number of times. And Portland, Oregon has to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world, certainly in the United States. It's gorgeous there. It's unbelievably green. There are trees everywhere. It is rolling hills. Rolling hills, there's a big river that flows, you know, flows through Chown or at the edge of town. There are lots of green spaces, a lot of parks, lots of hiking. You know, if you drive up from Portland, Oregon along the Columbia River, lots of beautiful waterfalls. I mean, it's just the gorgeous part of the world. It's beautiful. It rains a lot. That's the one downside. But it is a truly beautiful place. And Portland, Oregon, the downtown Portland, Oregon used to be a just, again, a friendly, nice place to hang out with. It was, Portland always was a very foodie, orient place, a really good restaurants. Just a great city to live in. But that has all changed. Certainly since 2019, that has changed dramatically. Indeed, last week, the New York Times did have four separate stories and opinion pieces about Portland, Oregon, describing the homelessness, the fentanyl, the drug use, the open drug use, the violence, the public safety concerns, the harassment, the empty office buildings, the storefronts that have never opened. And this is 2023. We also, if you remember back to 2020, Portland was the epicenter of the BLM riots. When the protests turned into riots, Portland embraced that, or the radicals, the crazies in Portland embraced that. And they continued for months after there were no longer protests of riots anywhere else. They continued to break windows, destroy downtown, try to set fire to a federal building. It was clearly the epicenter. Portland has become a, really over the last 10 years, kind of a poster child for progressives, crazy left, mayors, and city councils, and what they can, quote, accomplish. This is a poster child for what happens when you hand over total administration of a city to the worst elements in the Democratic Party and on the left.  It's as bad, if not worse, as downtown San Francisco.  You'd think a city like Portland could have recovered. Now, and let's remember, this is not a poor city. This is not a city with huge levels of poverty. This is not a city that has flourished and prospered in the past. This is a city of upper middle class, wealthy people. This is filled with upper middle class, wealthy people. Again, a beautiful city, a city that a lot of people want to live in, would like to live in if it changed, a city where a lot of people have made a lot of money over the years, a city of a highly educated population, but a city that cannot escape the consequences of its own leftist policies, a city that doesn't build housing, so generates homelessness, a city that tolerates all manner of behavior in public spaces, a city that does not emphasize a police and public safety, a city that just has ignored the needs and demands of its business community. Anyway, because of all this attention, Portland has suddenly got last week from the New York Times, ooh, people in Oregon suddenly realize, whoa, there must be an emergency. By the way, just to give you one more statistic, downtown foot traffic from March to May this year is just 37%, not down 30%, 37% of what it was in 2019. So more than more, significantly more than half the people who used to go to downtown or walk around don't go there anymore. Again, a city that used to have this really friendly hometown, downtown kind of atmosphere, nobody goes there anymore, 37%. Part of that is nobody goes to work there, nobody goes there. They don't want to go to restaurants, they don't want to hang out there. Anyway, because of all this attention, the governor of Oregon suddenly realizes a crisis, and the governor of Oregon suddenly step forward, and they're going to find a way to deal with this. And the way to do that is, of course, the setting up a committee. So it was big news today that we now have a task force, a task force to bolster, right, to bolster the downtown Portland. So they're going to have a committee. They're going to meet. They're going to get input from the public. They're going to confer the mayor of Portland and city council members have been invited to participate. It's going to be run by a business person, and this is all by the instigation of the governor. You can tell when somebody is taking an issue really, really, really seriously, and they really, really, really want to make changes, then you know they're serious about it when they form a task force. That is, all right, go Oregon, go Portland.  It's sad. Again, I've always enjoyed going to Portland, a beautiful city, not looking forward to going there again.