Hi everyone, Sean with jaspyscasebreaks.com here doing 2020-2021 upper deck a lure hockey, five box half case break pick your team or random team number six where every spot could do two random teams in the break. So 15 spots where we get two random teams in NHL with each spot there is one combo of the ducks and coyotes an all card ship. So this is my first look at a lure obviously we've done a couple of case breaks or a half case breaks of this so far but I'm excited to see it for myself. Here is our customer list from Steve Birch down to Jonathan and Aldi with last spot mojo and since every spot gets you two random teams we need to double up that list so there's Jonathan with last spot mojo once and twice back up to Steve at the first spot and here are the teams you can see the combo spot right on top the ducks and coyotes down to the jets dice roll to randomize both lists and pair them up one and a two three times good luck everybody in the final time there you go so from Brandon Mancia down to Mike Tower three times on the randomizer and three times on the teams it did Ryan it did yeah unfortunately it was weird a lures all chrome nice spoon I you know I like that so from the three times the randomizer from the blue jackets back up to the blues yeah it was funny the Liverpool honestly didn't even like nobody bought a spot in in Liverpool Ryan in the Liverpool random number block until after the the hockey completely sold out how do you pay filler uh William it's all on the website so Brandon Mancia blues Steve Birch Canadians Blackhawks Jonathan and Aldi Rangers Mike Tower capitals William Davis Knights Steve Birch lightning Bruins Jets conducts Sabers Robert Runkle Predator Steve Birch Avalanche Jonathan and Aldi stars Thomas Secafico Wings Steve Birch Oilers William Davis Flyers Jonathan and Aldi ducks coyotes combo Thomas Secafico Kings Steve Birch Panthers Devils Flames Senators Robert Runkle Leafs Jonathan Aldi Penguins Steve Birch Hurricanes Brandon Mancia Sharks Steve Birch Wild Islanders and Mike Tower with the blue jackets trade window is open Jonathan's asking if you if Steve Steve I don't think is here in the chat Jonathan but Steve if you happen to be listening Jonathan's asking if you are up to possibly trading the Blackhawks and remember guys Nick took five spots out so here while you guys are thinking about possible trades here are the five boxes this is the second half of a case that Jason already started I'll get started on ripping the packs at least let me turn on the nick cam so you guys can see all the boxes here eight packs eight cards all right there's seals on the side forget upper deck those stickers if there's no talks of trades I'm going to go ahead and print out the list okay so trade window going once trade window going twice trade window going three times trade window closed let's print it out rip we'll see how these packs open oh these are not bad I'm not sure I'll double check and see if we have any more I can post if we do I'll post it tonight it'd be the same setup 15 spots two teams each spot I like it already the colors remind me of OPG platinum and I love me some OPG platinum so what are you doing that's a very nice design on our gold vinyls one of ones bend it bend it if he wants you to and it's his card bend that shit is it for gun okay hdx I think yeah those same same guys they're good buddies with each other I'm pretty sure they've they've done with us on instagram before no his card he wants you to do it go for it they know what they're doing I've had people had to sign cards for them before yeah it does the same thing to the value of it so fifth and final box for you guys close like I said this is my first time seeing this so here's the final list for us there's there should be bags of them in the sleep bags thing you got Thomas Hurdle nice color not numbered but that's for the sharks and Brandon Mencia you got Connor Hellbook that one's a red rainbow also not numbered but that's for the Winnipeg Jets and Steve Birch Alex Belzebel rookie double rainbow it's literally called double rainbow for the Canadians Steve Birch it's kind of funny Martin Cout so that's called oh there was two back to back Martin Cout black rainbow for the Avalanche Steve Birch and Alexander Barkoff black rainbow for the Panthers Steve Birch Igor Korshkov red rainbow Maple Leaf Robert Runkle like those are kind of cool a little city sally Dylan Larkin for the Red Wings Thomas Secafico and Jacob Bronnath steel Capitals Mike Tower Jake Gunsell Red Rainbow for the Penguins Jonathan Arnaldi Austin Matthews for the Maple Leaf Robert Runkle and Gage Quinney rookie auto red rainbow for the Knights and William Davis Jason Robertson red rainbow entrance grand entrance for Dallas and Jonathan Arnaldi William what what break are you trying to pay for what break are you trying to get into i'm not sure it's soccer's already sold out William yeah so soccer's sold out so all the spots are sold that's probably why you can't you can't do that right LaFrenier for the Rangers Jonathan Arnaldi it well if you already put in your order William then it would have already gone through Kiefer Bellows that's for the Islanders and Steve Birch Matthew Kachuk for the Flames and Steve Birch and Travis Koneckney that is to 99 green corks for the Philly or sorry for the Flyers William Davis Jean-Gabriel Pagu for the Islanders Steve Birch and Patrick Kane a little orange slice for the rain sorry for the Black Hawks and Steve Birch oh William I'll check into it for you after this break then yeah if if you're trying to pay for it it's and it's not letting you this means that somebody else bought it and that's why it's not letting you like if you have them in your in your checkout but it's not letting you actually pay for it that's why Nikita Kutcher off for the lightning Steve Birch and Connor Hellbuck again for the Jets Steve Birch oh that's a relic there you go you got Lucas Carlson for the Black Hawks Steve Birch and economy David City Selly cool one for the Oilers there uh Steve Birch Nico Heesher for the Devils Steve Birch and that is a City Selly Travis Koneckney autograph for the Flyers non-numbered Philadelphia Flyers William Davis awesome looking card Shane Bowers for the Avalanche Steve Birch and Gabe Velardi for the Kings Thomas the Seca Fico here real quick Zach Paris Wilde Steve Birch and Lexus LaFernier again for the Rangers Jonathan Arnaldi Connor McDavid nice one again for the Oilers Steve Birch and Timothy Lilsgren for the Maple Leafs Robert Runkle Peyton Krebs Knights William Davis and Nick Suzuki for the Canadians Steve Birch Timothy Lilsgren again for the Maple Leafs Robert Runkle and Jason Robertson for the Stars Jonathan Arnaldi Alexander Barkoff Steele for the Panthers Steve Birch and Elias Pedersen for the Canucks and Steve Birch yeah this is nice looking stuff this is my first look at it Bowen Byram for the Avalanche Steve Birch and Shisterkin for the Rangers Jonathan Arnaldi and it's Ty DeLondria for the Dallas Stars Jonathan Arnaldi that's to $2.99 Very nice Victor Olson for the Sabres Steve Birch yeah and I get you Ryan yeah and Jason just told me that you love seeing that oh these are really nice looking cards I like the steel one yeah he said he's like there was really nice silvers that came out of that but like they were shorted on those did they have other cards in its place or did it just miss the card box for Nico Hersher Heesher Devil Steve Birch Tyler Sagan for the Stars Jonathan Arnaldi and Ty DeLondria again for the Stars Jonathan Arnaldi Jake Odinger for the Stars Jonathan Arnaldi and Yosef Wol for the Maple Leafs Robert Runkle what's their look for we have no regular top loaders there should be some back there you know where the like right outside where the sorting room is yeah oh yeah yeah no just not in there oh yeah I'll grab some Andres Fetchnikov Hurricane Steve Birch and Jonas Johansen six out of ten Buffalo Sabres Steve Birch very nice Peyton Krebs for the Knights William Davis and the Fernier Rangers Jonathan Arnaldi Artemy Panarin for the Rangers again Jonathan Arnaldi and Anthony Angelo rookie Otto non-numbered for the Penguins Jonathan Arnaldi this is the guy who passed away isn't it Matisse Kivlinix is that the dude that uh took the the mortar to the chest and saved uh what's his name pretty sure that's him Evan it's a great voice Thomas Harley again for the Stars Jonathan Arnaldi that is him right Ryan I'm almost positive that's him yeah somebody said who's the who's the new guy with the uh what did he say exactly with the game show announcer voice he said it's a great voice that's what I thought Ryan yeah so weird seeing his cards still I'm like oh we got one more box left one more Otto these out of 10s are super cool these die cuts the colors of like this is a great looking product I said this is my first look at it but yeah it's sad seeing his cards every time I'm like oh shit Matisse Kivlinix or Matisse Kivlinix in his collection oh yeah I understand that one Igor Shisterkin Rangers Jonathan Arnaldi Anze Copetar for the Kings Thomas Cecafico and Igor Zamula rookie to 99 for the Flyers William Davis Sebastian Ajo for the Hurricanes Steve Birch and Liam Fowdy for the blue jackets Mike Tower Michael Di Pietro for the Canucks Steve Birch and Bowen Byram rookie relic there for the Avalanche Steve Birch non-numbered Marcine Cout for the Avalanche Steve Birch Bowen Byram again Avalanche Steve Birch Jonathan Huberdue for the Panthers Steve Birch and our last auto is Andrei Vazlevski and it's an allure quartz die cut autograph there you go Tampa Bay Lightning non-numbered that is Steve Birch there you go you got Steve Victor Olison for the Bruins sorry for the Sabres Steve Birch and there you go so that is the five box half case break nice Otto to finish it off with Andrei Vazlevski overall this is my first look at this product and it looks incredible so uh yeah we are right so there you go guys that was 2020-2021 upper deck allure hockey five box half case break number six where every spot gets you two random teams I'll take a look and see if we have any more to post for you guys jaspyscasebreaks.com I'm Sean thanks for hanging out we'll see you next time


Everybody forced here up being two boxes of a 2023 Bowman Chrome University football hobby for Dustin C. Here we go, Dustin Let's do it Refractor of Jeremiah Hunter Yeah, so you're this should be around there Shane Marvin Harrison basal top load Ex-fractor Shaz Preston Ramblin Man of Estime McCarthy Dante Moore early risers Accord refractor Chris Hilton Jr. First Bowman a blue refractor to 199 Brandon Ennis First woman Brandon Ennis blue refractor Jackson dart 55 Orange shimmer first woman autograph Jalen the burger You get an orange auto 10 of 25 in the burger Looks in a burger. He did say I saw me a McDonald's A lot of networks. Yeah, honestly, yeah Refractor first woman LT. Overton heard that Hobbs Ex-fractor Jalen right push culvers is open green refractor to 99 is gonna be Nick singleton. That's a pretty nice one, too You should be drafted fairly highly At least for running back who gosh your Sanders early risers Let's go Rangers tomorrow a refractor Nick singleton. Let's go Philly's tomorrow, too That guy in the mound you got to get him up there, dude. He's nails He's not perfect, but he he will literally give you a good game every single time in the postseason Purple shimmer first woman Malik Benson Yeah, he will grind if it's like against him. He doesn't buckle Shoulder Sanders 1955 refractor first woman auto Donovan Edwards to 499 We're running back on it's pretty decent pretty decent. You know, you see a quarterback auto in the next box Big-time QB color, maybe purple first woman is cam camper at a 399 Drake may and old who Shawnee first refractor auto number to 499 Likely top top 10 pick their orange shimmer here first woman Elijah Badger at a 25 two boxes two oranges first refractor as Caleb Johnson Ex-fractor Donovan Smith will be called Thanksgiving.  It's intentionally dumb Ramblin man Nick singleton Got it got it got it got it got it base auto bonix. There we go. That's what the autos were looking for bonix Marvin Harrison Ramblin man a Travis Hunter base first bowman refractor Joe Milton first bowman Alton McCaskill Ex-fractor of Eli Holstein Dude, no way Shane. That's awesome Green shimmer first moment of Jace McClellan to 99 nice Jace You're probably a draft. He's a Bama running back. He's young probably get drafted. He's a senior. I don't know. I don't know Really rise there's club in it Which one do you hope it is Shane? Kraken sounds pretty cool Fractor Phil Maffa. What about the Yeti? Or you know what else mythical Shane not being on the trash list. Yeah, I've heard I've heard I've heard that legend before But that's a thing of a thing of legend Purple shimmer first woman Riley Leonard Jackson Arnold's Arnold last few packs refractor first woman CJ Donaldson, Jr. Another orange shimmer That's the third and second in two boxes here is Jaffari Harvey color match first bowman orange shimmer to 25 It's four of 25 and last pack Estime a 1955 Bowman Thanks for the order Dustin. We appreciate it man. We will get these out to you


As a kid, during high school, I learned QBASIC to do some programming. And the problem I always ran into was I was trying to do a radix sort, and I kept blowing the stack on the radix sort because QBASIC only had, like, ten. So it could only handle ten recursions at a time. It was so frustrating because I couldn't do anything. And my mentor said, well, give Lisp a try. So I did some searching and went out and found Scheme and got onto some chats and tried out some stuff. And before I knew it, I had a working radix sort that was beautiful and short and made sense and was clear and clean, and I was like, oh, yes, yes, please, more. And then, you know, I sort of went from there. And so I had a pretty early introduction to functional programming and saw its benefits or reaped its benefits pretty early on. Yeah. And what did you see those benefits as being? I think early on the biggest benefit was it gave me a way of engaging with the flow of the data through my program in a manner that was a lot simpler. So I didn't have to track a massive global state and the changing of the global state and the shifting of these variables through lots and lots of different control points. So I didn't have to feel like I was tracking state across multiple control paths, jumping around everywhere. I could see the flow of the data through the code a lot easier and I could track what was going to happen and how the data was going to change over time a lot more easily. And that made a big difference in my ability to structure the code.


Welcome to our continuing coverage of general election 2018 we're here at Channel 17 Town Meeting television with Don Turner and Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman and we will take your questions for the race for a Lieutenant Governor which is coming up on the 6th of November thank you both for joining us. Thank you very much. I failed to mention that you are a representative, right? Yes. Yes so you're both presently serving in the legislature and we're going to start with opening statements we have some questions that we've provided to the candidates but we also are very happy to take any questions that you have at 862-3966. Alright David Zuckerman please tell us why you're running and what qualifies you for the position of Lieutenant Governor. Well sure thank you. First it's been a pleasure and honor to serve for these past two years. I want to thank Vermonters for giving me that opportunity. I had served in the legislature for 14 years in the house and four years in the Senate including serving on the Natural Resources and Energy Committee, the Education Committee, the Ways and Means Committee and the Agriculture Committee at different times in those arenas. So I've worked in the legislature on a wide range of issues and really understand how the process works. As Lieutenant Governor I've had the honor and privilege to preside over the Senate and I've worked very hard to preside in that room much like local town meetings as the moderator making sure that the process does not get in the way of good policymaking. You have to make sure that the process flows, that everybody's heard, that the different ideas are presented fairly and it's been a real honor to do that. On top of that I've worked to be basically an ambassador around the state for the process of democracy reaching out to particularly young people but roadways as well because right now we're in a challenging time with respect to the sentiment people have with what's going on in Washington and to remind people how lucky we are in Vermont to really have folks who are good from different perspectives that are cordial and respectful as we have been in this campaign and I hope to get two more years to do it again. Thank you very much. Don Turner tell us why you're running. You have a minute and a half on what experience you bring to the position. So I'm Don Turner. I'm currently the town manager of the town of Milton but I'm a fourth generation Vermonter, a lifelong resident of Milton. I've been on the fire department for 36 years serving the last 14 years as fire chief but I also have served 13 years in the legislature and the last seven years I've been the House Republican leader or minority leader in the House. You know Vermont is a great place. We all choose to live here and I'm very grateful that I live here but I'll too often I hear and I've heard for the last three election cycles that it's too expensive to live in Vermont so even though it's a great state we've got to make it more affordable so I'm running to bring some balance and collaboration to Montpelier. I want to focus on what it costs to live here and I know that I can bring this to Montpelier with the experience that I have and that's why I'm seeking the position of lieutenant governor. Can I just ask you a question that's not on the list that comes to mind? Given that affordability is a concern do you support the a the governor's positions in this realm and the how he's worked with the legislature? Yeah I have supported the governor. I believe the governor took a firm stance when he was elected and he was he ran and was elected on it cost too much to live here. He refers to it as affordability. I fully support that and I've worked closely with him throughout the last two years to sustain budget vetoes to work with him on ways to make Vermont more affordable. So I do support the governor and I will work closely with the governor should I be elected to this position. David where do you fall on this question of affordability? What does that mean to you and is that a relevant issue in this case? Well it's an absolutely relevant issue and the reality is most people are struggling to pay their bills. There's different ways to look at that equation from the role of government. One is sort of sound by politics of no new taxes or has happened with the budget last year when all but 14 Republicans voted for the first time around. The governor vetoed the bill in order to put 30 or $50 for one time into people's pockets by reducing their property taxes. When I would argue ways and minimum wage which was another bill to governor vetoed and my opponent helped sustain that veto as well 50 cents an hour. 50 cents an hour would be a thousand dollars a year in the average Vermonters pocket. So if you work 40 hours a week I think you'd be far better off affordability wise with a thousand more dollars in your pocket if we had done that law than this one time 30 or 50 dollar property tax relief. So I think it's important when we hear these sound bites that feel good to really look at what they mean fundamentally. The vast majority of Vermonters support raising the minimum wage the vast majority of Vermonters support paid family leave. These are the family values issues that I think are relevant to that affordability discussion. You know and we and we do I do support raising the minimum wage and three years ago I did support that and everyone will get a 50 cent per hour raised this year if they are receiving minimum wage. So I believe that we should have a minimum wage and that every Vermonter that is making minimum wage will get a raise. I just want to make sure factually I think this year it just goes back to a cola which is not 50 cents. Well it has been 50 cents. It has been. And what we now have is a cola so that where you're struggling now is where you will continue to struggle going forward. Your cost of living will go up and your wages will go up at the same rate. The idea behind the minimum wage discussion was since working people have been falling farther and farther behind over the years many of us feel that we should give a little bit more than cola going forward. And I think that we should reduce the cost of living and the amount of money people are making will go further. If state government lives within its means then Vermonters will have more money in their pockets and they will feel the benefit of lower cost of living. So David are you bullish on the Vermon economy? What do you think about our economy and what do you think needs to be done to make a sustainable future for our children? Sure no doubt it's a real struggle out there for a lot of folks and I think one of the things that's important to talk about is context. Vermont's a rural state and rural counties in this country whether they're red or blue are struggling and we're right in that mix. We don't have the big city that many other rural states have to balance the economy the way that they do. Burlington and Chinden County are doing better but most of Vermont, southern Vermont, northeast kingdom are really struggling. I think where we have real opportunity and why I am bullish on our future is that we are in close proximity to incredible markets to our south. Southern New England, New York, New Jersey we could brand Vermont milk and get a better price for our product for our dairy farmers. We could expand broadband into rural areas and people could have good paying jobs working with clients down in the southern New England area where you can meet with them every few weeks for a couple days but live in Vermont, raise your children in a safe environment for some of the best rural schools in the country. We've historically heard a lot of beating up on our schools when in fact we have better rural schools than most anywhere else in the country and so I think if we sell what we have good schools, safe clean environment, safe environment for our families and the opportunity if we invest in broadband and in our rural agricultural economy we've got a very strong future ahead of us. Dawn what's your view on the economic prospects of Vermont and what do you what's your approach to sustainable future? So I agree I mean Vermont I think there's a bright future in Vermont but but if people keep believing because they can't afford to live here it makes it much more difficult and you know I believe that we need to expand the economic growth and David I think touched on it that you know Vermont is very different I mean there's 14 counties and there are very different what's good here in Burlington doesn't necessarily work in Chelsea or down in Dover or any other you know remote rural place so we've got a we've got to define our economy in a way that will work in different parts of the state so I don't think that we can just sit in Montpelier and say this is the way it's going to be for everybody because what's happening is is Chittenden County greater Burlington is driving there's a lot of growth here a lot of potential here but we have to focus on regular regulatory reform in a way that doesn't stifle growth in other parts of the state you know I believe Act 250 is a good law but we are stifling growth because people are using it to hijack the process you know that doesn't work we've got to create affordable housing all around the state not just in one part of the state you know and we also have to have health care competition we need affordable tuition both on higher education and we build people have to be able to afford childcare which is struggling people are struggling to pay their childcare so my approach is that one one bill doesn't work for the whole state so we've got to start looking at different parts of the state and look and regulate them in that manner can you give an example of when the Act 250 process was hijacked sure I can tell a good one that I'm sure many Vermonters are aware of it is the Walmart store in in St. Albans took 20 years and you know the process you know that they get to a certain point that it would be stalled because it'd be opponents and the whole reason it was being opposed was it was going to kill downtown St. Albans well today I was in St. Albans St. Albans is beautiful today because Walmart came and it allowed the economy in that area to grow it creates traffic for the downtown stores you we're seeing a prosperous St. Albans as a result of that project that development are there other reasons that St. Albans was prosperous well I would say there's a number of reasons there was a great effort at revitalizing the downtown with road and sidewalk work with investing in the community businesses that are in that main drag and frankly the proximity to Burlington if you look at other communities that have had similar scenarios to just simply a Walmart being the savior of the day that really hasn't occurred in some of the other communities around the state does Walmart help some people with low cost products no doubt but I don't think it's really fair to say that Walmart is somehow what revitalized Franklin County I would say a lot of investment center lay he deserves some credit for bringing a lot of border jobs up into that region of the state as well so I think it's like most things it's a combination of things it's not always sort of a simplistic answer that is that leads to these kinds of solutions or strong communities it's particularly the people of a community the small businesses of the community and the partnership between local and state government and businesses and nonprofits that really revitalize a community and and you need traffic if you don't have traffic you're not going to grow that small downtown businesses and I didn't intend or mean it to say that Walmart saved St. Albans I just think it's been prospering as a result part of that I will give you another example we have a industrial park in Milton we had a project developer come in wanted to build a truck sales facility he came in and went through the town process we're open for business we have the capacity in water sewer and all that had the land he's a he goes through the whole permitting process ready to get his permit the neighbor says I don't like your I don't like you next to my house appeals the permit takes him six more months we're at the end he finally had to buy the house because the only way he was going to get the landowner to stop appealing was to buy the house he ended up buying the house to get the project through which the town wanted it was in this it was in the regional plan it was it was a great project for our community and our tax base and yet here's an example where the pro active 50 process didn't work I mean it doesn't it wasn't intended for that in my opinion I want I just want to get back to this question about vital small centers population centers like the St. Albans I mean you've both traveled around this state and maybe Don you could say I mean if you don't have a Walmart in your town I understand your point about the traffic but what would you say to you know White River Junction which is starting revitalization or Springfield or these places you know what advice would you give them having been in Franklin County and seeing what happened in St. Albans you know it's a difficult question that you ask I don't have all the answers but I have been to some really neat places around Vermont this during this this campaign and Brattle Bros an example I think that that's really moving forward you know with the closing of Vermont Yankee you know a few years ago I remember the legislature was very dire what's gonna happen to that part of the state when Vermont Yankee closes and what's happened is there's been a team a partnership I think with lots of agencies lots of state agencies and sure senators have helped out but they're working on on ways to bring kids tying businesses to kids earlier in school they're using buildings that been abandoned for incubator space so I think there is hope around the state but we're gonna have to get creative and we're gonna have to use our tax dollars wisely invest in public partner public private partnerships that's what it's gonna take and you see that Wilmington I was there I never I don't think I've ever been to Wilmington before and that's a neat little downtown and it's just great to see those little downtown's but I don't think there's one answer for all I think what you got to do is look at him district by district by district and then have a plan that's a regulation that's adaptable to maybe Brattleboro versus White River Junction versus St. Albans or even the Northeast Kingdom when you're on the Connecticut River and you're competing with New Hampshire it's much more difficult than say St. Albans so I think we have to be very open to doing things differently in different parts of the state I agree the fair number of those points however as a state law you can't sort of cherry pick and have the law affect different people different parts of the state differently that's one of the both benefits and challenges of state laws I think where we can have some more different and targeted efforts is in our economic development resources and use those in those various ways and I think Don talked about the investment of the state and local community in Brattleboro and in other places so that's pretty important what I would say for a town that you mentioned for instance Springfield or White River Junction those are exactly the communities I was talking about earlier with respect to if you had really good broadband look what's happening at White River Junction with innovative creative ideas whether it's the Cartooning Institute there that's really brought some energy to that community broadband jobs if they're based in Springfield it you've been to Springfield beautiful old buildings from sort of the industrial age most of them are empty because they're brownfields we need to invest in doing the studies to find out what would it cost to retrofit those buildings because the owners don't you want to go near well first let's find out what the issues may be second if we have resources to help with those brownfield cleanups that would be an incredible place to live you could you know have stops shops on the first floor commercial centers or makerspace on the second floor and residences on the third or fourth floors you'd add affordable housing you'd rebuild a vibrant town and you'd be close to the interstates where again you could meet with those those clients and customers out of state into the south so I think there's a lot of opportunity the last thing I would say is our schools our rural schools are phenomenal relative to other schools around the country in rural areas and we need to make sure that they stay open that they thrive and I know there's a lot of challenges around Act 46 but a lot of the law was created to help save money on the overhead side so we can keep those schools open and I would add that what I think we really need to dig into is not just writing on a piece of paper a line of what taxes should be or what ratio should be because every unique town is different and that's up to the local school boards but look at what's driving the cost of education and that's social services and we do a lot of duplication of effort there between the agency of education and the agency of human services and I went to the governor and asked him about can we work together to save that money reduce duplication and create a better flow of service so that those kids and those families can do better can I just say what I mean I think David's point I was in Springfield last Wednesday and meeting with the economic development authority they love to do what David's saying unfortunately the people are leaving so to try to refurbish those old buildings is going to be challenging and a lot of Mar Brown fields so it's going to take some work between the state and the federal government but if we don't make it where people can afford to live here we're not going to have opportunities to do those types of projects that David referred to can you talk about education David I think laid out his view of Vermont's education you feel it's a good system and with so perhaps you could clarify your position on public education how do you think we're doing and what would you address the affordability of public education I do I think we have strong schools in Vermont I do my concern is though that the way we fund schools today it doesn't work for the students doesn't work for you the teachers and it's not working for the taxpayers you know we've we see students today the students are getting less and the taxpayers are paying more we can't continue to do that so we need to you know we did do a better job spending our education dollars starting with kids younger and going maybe into higher education we start doing that a little bit but we spend 1.7 billion dollars on essentially K through 12 we need to spread that out more that's my belief you mean up to college looking at how we spend we spend very little on our higher education institutions and students in Vermont compared to other states but my concern is is the outcomes that our students get are getting for those high cost per student dollars it doesn't equate and when we've got to do a better job like for example so so kids if you look at nationally if you look at Vermont's ranking on student outcomes yeah it's it's low to middle middle to low in the pack you mean like our math scores yeah scores across the education but but our cost per pupil is very high you know like number one or number two depending on which pole recent you know where you get the information so how do we do a better job doing that and keep our schools because we all know our schools are the heart and souls of our communities we know that and we don't want to see schools closing but we want to make sure students get good outcomes that's what I want to do I can I just ask you a question yeah why do you think a math score is a good outcome like do you think the outcomes we use for education should be examined well I think yes the answer is yes but I'm talking about the student all the the whole student experience and you know you know we can do test scores and all that and they don't look well but we've got in the state some schools that have five or six maybe eight kids you know that's that student is not getting the same experience that a student that may go to Browington or even Milton with the number of opportunities that are offered to those children those are the things that I'm talking about you know we need to find ways in our education system for efficiencies I think that we could keep more of these smaller schools open if we shared resources using technology have a teacher in one school but be teaching students all around maybe around the district those are things that I'm looking at and the other thing is is when students when we have a small district and they're losing kids we should have the agency of education going in and work with that school to determine how we're going to continue to move forward so the student has a great outcome experience and it's affordable we do a lot with technology and I think for specialized programming we should do that I don't think for the everyday classrooms we should move in that direction we've had a lot of discussions in the literature about school safety the number one proven scenario for making schools safer is having connections between teachers and students so they can really see face-to-face and watch as kids become more withdrawn or other issues that are happening in school so I don't want to over rely on technology to have the kids in the five room class five kid class not have a teacher in the room and have a screen talking to them it would be one of the things if I may to me those schools and I also have to point out some factual differences here from on is in the middle of the pack when you compare Vermont to other schools all across the country with those metrics and those scores whether people believe in them or not that's where we are but when you say we're not doing better for the money that's actually inaccurate because rural communities cost more to educate we don't have the urban area that other states have that average out their cost per pupil scenario so when you compare actually apples to apples we are getting more for our money than most of those other rural communities and we're having better outcomes so the idea of just simply saying I'm gonna find efficiency without being overly specific that means either cutting teachers which most schools and most parents and most people in the community have said don't do that they vote for their budgets we need to support the local communities who are voting for their schools voting for their community centers and keep those schools open knowing one thing I'd say is that we have some incredible independent schools and stuff around the state I think that we have to focus a lot on school choice and that should be part of the discussion as well as looking at how these independent schools are providing great experiences and outcomes for kids in Vermont thank you very much good evening you have a question for our candidates for lieutenant governor hi my name is John Cyple I have a question for both of them I'm wondering what you want to do about racism racism in Vermont like you have any plans great we have a question about dismantling institutional racism and how that could be done that I think might fit the question so why don't we start with that don okay so I think it's there's a lot of education that needs to happen around that I did support a bill that we passed this year on racism I also have been working in my local community Milton as I said I'm the town manager last year in Milton there was there's some real issues in the school school district so the school district worked together with the Milton inclusive diversity initiative a group local group and they are started offering a cold built a coalition which I as a town manager police chief librarian and rec director took part in because we know we need to educate this is not a school problem this is a community problem so I worked with that committee all last winter we brought in an educator to educate our staff and we will continue to do that on a regular basis going forward I am now meeting and we will continue meeting with the school the nonprofit and the town to go forward to start educating our community as a whole so I think education is the first step and there's gonna be a long process well a number of things as lieutenant governor we've already done a number of steps from our movie series showing movie 13th which talks a lot about the 13th amendment the constitution and how it moved slavery you know ended slavery but it also said you could basically have an indentured workforce in your prisons and what have we done with our military the prison industrial complex that we now have in this country and we have an overpopulated incarceration rate particularly a community of color in our state and also now exporting all the money to Mississippi which is wrong so we have issues of criminal injustice that need to be addressed we have as Don mentioned education is a huge piece but if you actually really look at it we need to survey our teachers and our administrators in our schools all across the state and work with them to improve the conditions in our schools because it really starts when we're young and we have a very high rate of detentions and suspensions disproportionate for the community of color so we have to look at why is that happening why do we already have these built-in biases whether it's in education whether it's in law enforcement and in each of ourselves as as white men we are privileged in our society that's the bottom line and not all the same but we have to be looking internally at what language we use and we have to model appropriately as well so it's everything from surveys and policies to individual actions that need to be addressed thank you so we're we have about six minutes left so I'm gonna let you both ask each other a question that you've just been dying to ask good go for it that you may or may not have had an opportunity to do it would be great to hear with questions that you have for each other actually a number of different instances and in your campaign you've made a point of talking about how the lieutenant governor has somehow been very partisan in the last couple years with really very little evidence to back that up the work I've done has been to really open the office and we've welcome a lot of people yet at the same time you've been the minority leader who turned votes away from supporting bills in a partisan manner to support the governor as opposed to the substance of the bills that people voted for unanimously for instance the budget with your question and speech sure so if you're gonna if you're gonna bring what you've been doing in this house into the lieutenant governor's office how are you proposing that's gonna be nonpartisan or less partisan when you've really shown tremendous partisanship that's a great question so I've my entire life built partnerships and focus on issues my thirty-plus years as a fire and rescue chief you're faced with all kinds of things the only way you do anything is to build partnerships I've in my time in the legislature in the last seven years as a leader have built relationships all through that body and I can continue to do that and I will focus on the issue and not not the party line I have not in my role as the House Republican leader uh... it was my job to bring the caucus together and to focus on issues that goals that they set and so on and I did that I think I uh... the team says that I've done okay and I worked hard on that but when you're in the position of uh... being presiding over the senate you focus on the issue build the team around that and then preside and go forward question for David David our Democratic state treasurer Beth Pierce has said that divesting the state pension from fossil fuels could be a disaster for Vermont the non-partisan economists that the legislative JFO said it could cost our pension fund one point eight billion in transaction costs plus another eight million annually if decreased performance do you support the fiscal year response to divest our state pension or do you stand with Democrat treasurer Beth Pierce and the non-partisan JFO in saying that divestment is too great a risk for our state employees and retirees well I greatly uh... support Beth Pierce by the way for reelection I think she's done a phenomenal job with our pensions across the board uh... I find it an interesting question when we had thirty million dollars to put into pensions uh... that again you you pushed against the budget on but I do support the discussion of divesting from fossil fuel companies uh... there have been actually many other studies that show uh... and many investment firms and companies who have shown much greater return having divested over those last ten years uh... more recently there may have been a shift in the last year or two because I had not heard that numbers that must be a more recent number uh... with our president who has fully uh... gone whole hog for fossil fuels and you've also received corporate contributions from fossil fuels so I can see why that all fits together for you but uh... we actually have to look at adjusting climate change we have to look at our individual actions our state policies how we can invest in our rural economy uh... and how our pensions could be invested and make more money as well as moving away from supporting the fossil fuel industry uh... so I do support that conversation so what's the best idea that you hadn't thought of that you heard on the campaign trail well I've heard from a number of people about affordable housing still being a great challenge uh... and obviously the legislature uh... don was a part of this uh... moved forward the the major housing bond issue uh... but I think there's still a tremendous shortcoming and shortfall in the resources to be put into affordable housing for homeowners so one piece is to I can't remember the name of it but basically to offer ten or even twenty thousand dollars to give folks a zero interest uh... loan that you pay back when you sell the house for perpetual affordability to help with the down payment to get people into homes I would also add to that uh... policies we have in place that actually implemented while I was in the legislature around uh... town centers and village centers and city centers that have reduced permitting for affordable housing and we could expand that uh... to really encourage growth in our town centers and more affordable housing thank you a minute and a half okay tell us your best idea uh... I'd be sure uh... it's it's in Brattleboro it's happening right now one of the things I've been talking about on the campaign is the lack of students uh... people going into the trades uh... for you know plumbing plumbers electricians and so on uh... it was very excited to hear in Brattleboro that uh... they have a program that's introducing kids uh... into the trades and in the benefits of taking up a trade uh... maybe besides going to college uh... and they're entered and they're uh... introducing them to employers at younger ages so six seventh and eighth grade versus waiting till they get into high school I think that's a great program I'm very excited about that and if I'm elected I will be trying to bring that all around the state well I want to thank you both so much for joining us um... obviously Vermont is a very intricate system and there are many ways that we can help improve the well-being of the people in the state and we have two gentlemen here who are intent on doing that Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman is running for re-election and Don Turner who is a representative for Milton, the Milton manager, ten manager uh... and also is seeking election in that seat and Murray Goyma who is a Liberty Union candidate who did not appear with us this evening uh... is also in the on the ballot you'll find them on the ballot so don't forget to vote on November six and stay tuned here to channel seventeen for continuing coverage of general election twenty eighteen


Hello everyone, my name is Zohar, I work at Red Hat and I want to share with you the story about how I broke our CLI, but more importantly I want to share what I learned from it. So I work in a team called OCM that stands for OpenShift Cluster Manager. It's a service and that service allows our customers to install OpenShift clusters on AWS or GCP. So apart from that service we also have a CLI too. CLI 2 called Rosa stands for Red Hat OpenShift on AWS and it applies for a subset of the features that are supported by our service which is very specific to AWS and users bringing their own cloud account. So our service maintains a cluster lifecycle. When a user requests to create a cluster, initially the cluster will go into waiting state where it waits for the user to complete some configurations. Once the configuration is ready and everything is set up, cluster goes to installing state and when the installation is finished the cluster is finally ready. Now I wanted to enhance the service and add another state which will perform some validations inside the user cloud account and prevent later installation failures. The problem is our CLI was counting on waiting state initial state. So I went home, tested everything on my service, had it reviewed, had it merged, everything was great. Next morning I found out CLI is broken. So I said okay I can fix the CLI. It was a small check, what's the initial state, remove that check, fix the CLI. But then I realized I have to create a new version and ship it to hundreds of customers. Now the problem is customers are not so happy to upgrade their CLI to and I definitely can't force them. So at the end of the day I had to compromise and I had to implement the validating state after the waiting state. This is not the optimal solution. This is not what I wanted to get but that's the compromise I had to make. Which led me to think about this talk. So how do you build a service-oriented CLI? First question we want to ask yourself is why do you even need a CLI? I mean you have a service and it's restful and you can do anything with your service. Why do you even need another CLI tool? So eventually it all comes down to user experience. And I'll give you examples. First thing we have a complex service. So our service allows users to configure cluster creation on Google Cloud using Red Hat Google account or the user Google account. AWS using Red Hat account or the user AWS account. So we had a growing share of users wanting to bring their own AWS account. So we decided that for this, for those users we want to simplify the problem. We don't want them to go ahead into our service and configure all the parameters. We just want to give them a simplified solution. Another example, whenever you go and want to use the service on every API call, you need to provide an authorization header with your token. You need to provide the full service URL where if you work on a CLI tool that sits on your machine, you can hold your credentials or refresh your token locally. And with one command, a login command that also supplies the URL, that's it, you're logged in. You don't need to deal with that anymore for the entire session. Okay, another thing, restful commands, that's nice. But human readable commands are much nicer. And you can use names instead of IDs and describe and edit instead of get and patch. What about the output?  Or you can get a nice YAML again in a human readable form. The input, you need to provide a JSON body or just give two nice parameters, two nice command line tool flags to your create command. Another great thing about CLI is interactive mode. Interactive modes allow you to validate users input on every flag they put in. You can have autocomplete. You can also provide a list for your users to choose from. So those are really great things that CLIs allow you. So where does it get complicated? Let's consider that we want to add a new functionality to our product. In our case, I'll take the functionality of as I shared with you before, users have to configure a few things in their cloud environment for us to continue with the installation. So we wanted to automate it for the users. So should we add it to the service or should we add it to the CLI? So it's very tempting to add this to the CLI because this is a very specific Rosa use case. So it doesn't, it's not interesting to other customers of the service. Another thing is that the CLI is a very small piece of code in comparison to the service. So it's much easier for a new developer to get in, put that small change inside the CLI. No need to get inside a lot of service logic. No need to worry about getting it merged with this big service. However, we have other clients for the service. So if we go ahead and implement that in the CLI, we also have to implement that in the UI or any other client that we have. Another thing you want to consider is the key difference between a service and a CLI tool. So while a service has continuous rollouts, it's continuously evolving. It's always there in your cloud. Whatever you want to change in it that doesn't change the API. Let it be a new small enhancement or a bug fix. You just roll out a new version. You can do it weekly, bi-weekly daily, and it's there for everyone to use. But a CLI tool, it's not in your environment. It sits in your clients environment, customers and every new functionality, every bug fix, that's a new version. And every new version could be a very long release cycle because it has to go through compliance and other internal company processes before you release it. Another thing is that customers are not so happy to upgrade their CLI or any software that they have because it also has a process within their company. And another thing to consider is that every version, you have to support it for a while and you might find yourself supporting multiple versions. So to sum this section up, you want to maintain a thin CLI. You want to ask yourself, could other clients benefit from the functionality I want to add? The answer is yes, you want to put it in the service. What if we need to enhance it? What if we find bugs in it and sum everything up? You want to keep minimal business logic inside your CLI. Okay, let's go back to the first example I shared with you about how I broke the CLI. And let's try and think how that could have been avoided. So first thing you want to ask yourself is like as a CLI developer, what can I rely on? What assumptions can I make about the service that I'm using? Because we have a contract, the service exposes a contract, that's the API. But there is so much more beyond the API, like other behaviors, like the initial state that we had. And if you think about it, you might stop yourself from making decisions that will limit your service from enhancement. Another thing you need to think about is your vision support policy. So you want to carefully define how often you release a new version. How many versions are you going to backward support, like define, I don't know, two minors, three minors, and have that policy known to your customers. And whenever a version is going to get out of support, you want to give your customers enough time to prepare for that. You want to notify them. Last, but not least, you want to have automated CLI tests. We had automated tests for our service, really with big coverage. We didn't have a lot for our CLI. If we would have tested our CLI most common use cases, we would have definitely caught that earlier. So that's, you want to put the CLI inside your CI process to sum everything up. You definitely want to write a CLI to improve your user experience, but you want to keep it thin and minimize the business logic inside it. Always, always keep in mind future service enhancements. When you go ahead and make assumptions about your service, define a version support policy and have automated tests for your CLI and have them running continuously. That's all I have. Any questions? Okay, great. Thank you.


What is up, you guys? I'll go back to another one. If you went into the channel, I'm Goldpony. I do new car shock SUV reviews on YouTube. And today we're in the brand new 2023 Subaru Outback, courtesy of Apple Subaru in York PA for more information on their inventory. Please feel free to check out the link in the description box below. And so we're in this one today because there are some minor tweaks, minor changes for 2023. So of course we're gonna be covering those in this video. And Subaru has been known for its incredible resale value as well. So if you ever wanted to trade this one in for a new Outback down the line, you're still gonna have this thing hold its value relatively well compared to the competition. So ultimately in this video, we will be testing out and going over everything about this one from acceleration to braking, steering field, ride quality, sound system, exhaust clip, all that fun stuff. So having said all of that, what do you guys say? Let's just go ahead and jump right into it. And as always, let's start with pricing. And so first let me start by saying there are so many trim levels for the new 2023 Outback. I'm simply just gonna list them on the screen, but essentially the base Outback is gonna start at $28,395. Top trim level is gonna top out at $42,295. And we do have the limited today. But as you can imagine with all of those trim levels, there are a couple of different engine configurations for the 23 Outback. First one being the engine configuration that we have today, a 2.5 liter four cylinder boxer engine, putting out 182 horsepower at 5,800 RPM, 176 pound feet of torque coming in at 4,400 RPM, power sent to all four wheels through Subaru's legendary symmetrical all wheel drive system, power is sent to the ground through a linear Tronic CVT, zero to 60 time for this one coming in at approximately 8.7 seconds with MPG numbers coming in at 26 in the city, 33 on the highway, taking regular unleaded fuel. But then there is that other engine configuration belonging to the XT trim levels. That one is powered by a 2.4 liter turbocharged four cylinder, 260 horsepower at 5,600 RPM, 277 pound feet of torque coming in at 2,000 RPM, power sent to all four wheels through a CVT, zero to 60 time, a substantial difference from the other engine configuration, this one coming in at 5.8 seconds with MPG numbers coming in at 23 in the city, 30 on the highway, taking regular unleaded fuel. And so before we do any kind of fun paddle shifter or acceleration test in the Outback, well to mention to you guys, there's no traditional drive modes, but there isn't X mode. And so essentially what that X mode does is it helps coordinate the engine transmission, the symmetrical all wheel drive system and the brakes to provide the best possible traction in off road conditions. So do want to mention that that's going to be adjusted by using the infotainment screen. All right. And so let's go ahead and start with doing a quick little paddle shifter test. I just want to see how quickly they are going to react for us here. So to put it in kind of that full manual shift mode, all you need to do is simply slide the shifter all the way to the back and to the left where it hits the M that is going to signify that you are in manual shift mode. So it's also going to tell you what simulated gear you were in up on the digital portion of the gauges as well. Got our paddle shifters here. So let's come up on the stop sign here and let's put this thing to the test and let's see how quickly these paddle shifters are going to react for us here. All right. Got us in first gear. Hey, it's not shifting. Well done. All right. So you can tell it's a CVT obviously and there was a little bit of a delay to the paddle shifters but it is to be expected. I still like though that the paddle shifters are on the outback because what you can use them for is to do a little bit of engine braking maybe when it's snowing out when you're going down a hill you can simply just downshift it's going to rev the RPMs up it's going to actually do that engine braking so you don't actually have to hit the brakes and you're less likely to actually slide off the road maybe when you're going down a hill. So for that reason, I like paddle shifters on vehicles but having said that they're not the quickest reacting things out there. But anyways, now let's go ahead and give back full control to the outback. I'm just going to slide the shifter back to the right and let's see how quickly we can get this thing here up to speed. All right in three, two, one, yeah. It's a CVT. All right, it's not the quickest thing in the world. I'm just going to be honest there. So it should be enough to merge you onto the highway. Shouldn't have any issues there and definitely something you can get used to I'm sure but it is not the quickest thing in the world and CVT, it is someone emotionless. It feels like a CVT. Sometimes CVTs simulate automatics quite well but not necessarily in the case of the outback but anyways to go along with that acceleration as always braking is equally important. And so as expected you will of course find four wheel ventilated disc brakes coming standard on the outback as far as that braking feel goes. It's actually really good. I love the braking feel on the outback. That felt good. So not any dead spots in the braking. It's not a soft braking feel either and traditionally Subaru does do a pretty good job at their brakes. I definitely don't mind the braking feel on the outback whatsoever. But so then touching on suspension and handling as expected for an off-road style vehicle like the outback you will find a four wheel independent raised suspension. And so then as far as ride quality goes it's actually been really good. I definitely liked the ride quality in the outback and it's nothing special. It's not like an air suspension or anything like that but it's not bad. So it's been absorbing PAs road imperfections perfectly fine. So for me personally I don't have any issues with that. As far as steering feel goes definitely weighted on the looser side of things but it's to be expected in the outback. It's not a sports car. So I don't have any issues there either. Wouldn't have minded a bit firmer of a steering feel but it's to be expected in the outback. As far as road noise goes there was a little bit of wind noise at higher speeds when I was going 55 miles per hour back there. I felt like it was coming on the passenger side but other than that road noise itself was perfectly kept at bay for the most part. Just a little bit of wind noise. So again, no issues there. Touching on visibility. I can see perfectly fine out the back. So 100% not going to have any issues with rear visibility. I like seeing that rear window waper back there too. So I don't know but definitely not going to have any issues with rear visibility back there either. But that pretty much rounds out the performance segment of this review you guys. Let's look ahead and take a look at the exterior of our brand new 2023 Subaru Outback. And so here she is you guys. The new 2023 Subaru Outback is always, let's go ahead and start with where this one is made. And so taking a look at the VIN, first character of the VIN is the number four. So that does indicate that the Outback is built here in the US, at least for US customers. As far as the exterior color on our particular Outback goes it is going to be finished in Autumn Green case you're curious of that name. But as always let's go ahead and start up front. There was a refreshed front fascia for 2023. So I wanted to start by mentioning that. As far as ground clearance numbers go that comes in at 8.7 inches in case you're curious which slightly more than the average I would say usually you're looking at around 8 inches or a little bit less than that. So I do like that. LED steering responsive headlights to the sides there. I love that. So essentially what that means is when you're going around the bend at night those headlights are going to swivel based on the direction of your steering angle better help illuminating what is around that bend. So you're less likely to hit a deer or a possum or whatever the case. So I do love that LED daytime running lights coming with them automatic feature as well to those headlights automatic high beams as well. So if you have your high beams on a night and it sends a vehicle coming in the opposite direction it's going to automatically dim them back to low beams. And when that vehicle is gone it's going to automatically bounce it then back up to high beams. So I love that. LED fog lights coming standard for all trim levels as well. And then down below you will find some silver accenting found on that front lip then. But then making our way to the side raised roof rails are going to come standard on all trim levels. Re-privacy glass coming standard as well. You got some chrome windows surrounds coming standard. I love the outback lettering spelled out on the side skirts. I think that's a very nice touch that Subaru did there. Black folding side mirrors for the base trim level. Crystal black silica finish with integrated turd signals essentially for all other trim levels but the touring because that touring trim level is going to give you a satin chrome finish then to the side mirrors. So then taking a look at the wheel configuration 17 by seven inch aluminum alloys coming with the base premium and wilderness trim levels and then 18 by seven inch aluminum alloys essentially coming with all of the other trim levels found on the outback. But then making our way to the back of this one rear spoiler with an integrated brake light coming standard just below that rear window wiper. You do have the C shaped LED tail lights which I love the design. Love the brightness back there. So big fan of that. Once again, you got some silver accenting found at the bottom portion of that rear bumper to kind of match in with the front. And just below it all I do believe you guys know what we have to do next as always here is that exhaust clip. It's open now since we are around to the back of the outback when it comes to opening that rear lift gate for the Onyx edition and up you're going to get a hands free power tailgate. So otherwise it's going to be a manual lift gate. So I did want to mention that cargo capacity once opened up comes in at 32.6 cubic feet. If that was not enough space, there was a 6040 split meaning the rear seats do fall down bumping that up to 75.6 cubic feet. That's actually quite impressive. And I liked the way the rear seats folded down because there's actually levers in the cargo area was super simple and then completely folded flat for me. So that was super easy to use. But didn't want to mention all trim levels but the base trim levels going to also get a cargo cover back there. You will also find grocery bag hooks, tie down anchors and if you were to lift up underneath of that cargo floor you are going to find some in floor storage then as well. But then making our way up to the rear legroom that comes in at 39.5 inches for reference I mean even six feet tall. This is how much space I have back there. Rear ventilation does come standard heated rear seats though coming on the limited trim level and up. So we have that today. Get to spoil the rear passengers a little bit.  And when I say that, I mean USB A and USB C so you're going to get one of each essentially. So then making our way then to the front seats manually adjustable cloth seating is going to come with the base trim level but if you go with the Onyx edition or wilderness you're going to get soft techs upholstery, limited trims are going to get leather seating and then touring trims are going to get a Napa leather seating.  And overall when it comes to seat comfort because the seats were power adjustable because they were finished in leather I certainly didn't have any issues with finding my perfect driving position in the outback but then take a look at the steering wheel it is tilt and telescoping it is leather wrapped for the premium trim level and up and it will be a heated steering wheel if you were to go with the touring trims the limited XT and that heated steering wheel is actually optional on the limited that we have today we do have that option. So that was definitely well appreciated but then make your way to the startup let me start by showing you guys the key here essentially all of your buttons are on one side you got lock unlock being the Subaru logo and ultimately it is all keyless entry with a push button start for the Onyx edition trim level and up so all I'm going to do here is simply put my front of the brake and press that engine start button and so once started up when it comes to the gauges tachometer is all the way to your left speedometer is on your right there is a digital screen front and center and of course you can control what is on there by using the steering wheel mounted controls but got your outside temperature how many miles you have left into your head empty chirp A chirp B pretty much everything you could possibly want on the digital portion of the gauges at least then make your way to overall interior quality a power moonroof is going to come on the touring trims the Onyx Addiction XT the limited XT and it's going to be optional on the limited yet again we got that option so big fan of that overhead sunglass holder does come standard dual zoom climate control for the premium trim level and up homily controls for the Onyx edition trim level and up we'll find a wireless phone charger up there as well there is an electromechanical parking brake just behind that just behind that you're going to have dual cup holders then within the center armrest decent amount of space and we'll actually find a 12 volt power outlet within that center armrest then as well but now let's go ahead and make our way to the infotainment screen because it is going to differ slightly dependent upon the trim level that you go with so for the base trim level you're going to get a seven inch dual touchscreen kind of style display but for the premium trim level and up you're going to find an 11.6 inch vertical color touchscreen display so that of course is what you guys are looking at right now Bluetooth and audio streaming does come standard but wireless Android Auto Apple CarPlay also coming standard with that screen I love that factory navigation system coming with the touring trims the Onyx edition XT limited XT and optional then on the limited could check out your climate control settings up there like I said previously can also adjust your X mode settings whether it be on or off really and of course as expected your radio information and so when it comes to the sound systems you're going to get four speakers with the base six speakers with the premium Onyx edition trims and wilderness and then for the limited and touring trims you're going to get a 12 speaker Harman Kardon sound system with 576 watts so having said that I do believe you guys know what we have to do next oh man it's been so long since I've listened to Skrillex that was friggin awesome alright so sound system ton of bass really good clarity honestly the bass really impressed me and Skrillex sounding really done good in the outback I'm just saying but anyways it's the last thing I'm going to mention to you guys on the infotainment screen is when you do put the outback in reverse you will find a rear view camera coming standard across the board but if you were to go with the touring trim level and up you're also going to get a front view monitor to add to that but that is always is going to lead us in his safety and so let me first start by saying IIHS top safety pick plus which is the very highest designation given by IHS that pretty much does it all right there front side side current airbags do come standard you got a driver's knee airbag up front as well in the back you're going to have latch aka lower anchors and tethers to children for the rear car seats rear child door locks, tire pressure monitoring system but also coming standard is the latest version of Subaru iSight so this is going to be updated for 2023 as well and that's going to give you adaptive cruise control with lane centering pre-collision braking lane departure and sway warning lane keep assist automatic emergency steering and then with the Onyx edition trim level and up you're going to get a blind spot monitoring system and then limited it up is going to give you reverse automatic braking as well so ultimately when it comes to my final thoughts here of the outback wonderful safety you certainly have a ton of peace of mind especially if you have kids in the car of the outback you also have peace of mind because you know you have the best all-wheel drive system in existence that is what Subaru is known for is their symmetrical all-wheel drive system originally developed for rally racing in the dirt and snow so this thing is definitely where it's at when it comes to all-wheel drive very nice interior quality at least in our limited trim level that we have with us here today as far as room for improvement goes the engine configuration that we have it is a very slow naturally aspirated four cylinder boxer engine zero to 16, 8.7 is definitely on the slower side of things so it's just something you would probably have to get used to there you do have somewhat boring gauges kind of a boring design if they switched up the design that would be fine or if they put a digital gauge cluster that seems to be the trend and what other manufacturers are doing right now that would be great as well and the other thing I would add to this is I feel like I always say this on a lot of brands but ambient LED lighting multicolor ambient LED lighting I think would look pretty darn good in this thing as well and so that is about it for this one you guys thank you so much for watching feel free to follow me on social media if you wanted to see what's coming next on the channel before we get to YouTube be sure to hit the subscribe with the bell notification button if you're into new car reviews that is what we do here on this channel after all do appreciate you guys watching more than you know I will see you guys all in the next video stay go


Aloha, this is Rob Hack with another edition of Exporting from Hawaii. I'm thrilled today to have with us in the studio here Aaron Lau from Simply Wood Studios and Lau Lau Woodworks. They make these fantastic pens that I have here in front of me and we'll be talking about the pens in a lot more detail. But first of all, welcome. Thank you for being here. Thanks for having me. And I'm excited to talk about your exporting activities. First, let's just talk about the history of you and Lau Lau Woodworks and Simply Wood Studios. So, how did you start woodworking in the first place? I was interested in woodworking when I was a kid. When my grandfather used to babysit me, he used to let me hammer nails and sand his little projects at home. I was always interested in working with wood and then when I was growing up and I was an intermediate in high school, I used to build skateboard rounds. I used to be a big skateboarder that used to love skateboarding. Great. And then how did you, at what point did you merge the woodworking with the pen making? That was a huge progression where I used to be a financial planner and I wanted to take up another hobby. So I bought all this woodworking equipment and I thought, oh, I want to make furniture. So I bought all this woodworking equipment, about $5,000 worth. And when I started making the furniture, I realized how expensive the wood is here and there's no way I could actually make some money doing this. So then I started making co-op boxes and I didn't like how exact everything had to be. And then I saw a two-page article on how to make a pen, though I just taught myself after that. Well, that's really interesting. When you say wood was expensive here, you mean importing wood from the mainland or wherever. Any kind of original co-op wood, local wood is still expensive. Even if we're bringing in a mahogany or pine, getting that wood is still expensive as well. So when did the pen making actually start? When did Lala Woodworks begin operation? So I first made my pen in, the first pen I made was 2002. And then I was just kind of doing it as a hobby. And then I started doing it as a business maybe about 2003, 2004 part time. I started doing some craft fairs here and there. Wow. And explain for our listeners, what is the difference between Lala Woodworks and Simply Wood Studios? So Lala Woodworks came about because that's just my production and wholesale. And then I really got interested in doing retail. So I created Simply Wood Studios as a retail company in 2008. So we have three retail stores in and around Waikiki. Where are they exactly? So our first store is on Kapuhulu. It's right across from Leonard's Bakery. I opened that store 11 years ago and then we have two other stores. One in the Royal Hawaiian Center by the Cheesecake Factory. And then another one in the Ilikai Hotel Lobby by Cinnamon's Restaurant. Which one do you consider the flagship store? Is there a main one that always has stock of product or they all do? Well Royal Hawaiian we have to be open 12 hours a day or seven days a week. But as far as stock, each store has a little bit of a difference in inventory. So at Kapuhulu where my workshop is, we have a lot of woodwork. And then in the Ilikai we have mostly art. So two dimensional art, prints and things like that. And then in our Royal Hawaiian store we have a good mix of both. But it's geared more towards carry takeaways for tourists. So it's not going to be larger items. But just to be clear, the wood that's there that isn't pens or the woodworking in the art, that's not your art. No. So we are actually, in Simply Wood Studios we only sell stuff like art and gifts made in Hawaii. Well that's great. Nothing's imported. So I have over 90 different artists in three stores. So that's great. What's the mix of those roughly 90 artists? What's the mix of Oahu based versus Neighbor Island based? Oh I don't know the mix. I mean I have a lot of Neighbor Island. I say most of the woodworkers are here locally because I don't have to ship the product from other islands here. But for the most part, I would say 50% of the artists are from Oahu. That's great. And most of the art is Hawaii themed art, I would assume? No, not necessarily. Okay. Not necessarily. There's artists that do more contemporary things. However, like for instance the woodwork itself, you can have a contemporary box or a contemporary bowl but it's made out of local wood. But a lot of the two-dimensional art, yes, those are Hawaii themed. So let's get back to the pens because I just love these pens. Roughly 17 years ago you made your first pen. Then approximately when did you have your first export? Probably about 2003-2004 I tried to export. I went on a trip to Japan and what I did was I just went door-to-door to stores to see if they would be willing to sell a koa wood pen. That was a big bust. But that's when I fell in love with Japan, that was my first trip to Japan. And then what happened was after doing the craffiers for quite a while and kind of getting a following, a lot of Japanese were going to those craffiers. And then they started picking me up in Japanese magazines and things like that. Bloggers and what have you? Well, they didn't have blogging back then, right? So it was purely published Japanese magazines. And then they started to pick us up and then I opened my first retail outlet which was a kiosk in Wardware House. It was right in the middle of the parking lot and I set up a lathe outside of the kiosk where I would actually make the pens there. And the Japanese would come there and more Japanese magazines picked me up. And that's when I started realizing the Japanese market was going to be a big market for me. They do love writing instruments. They do. There's no question about it. They do. Pens, pencils and fountain pens. I think a lot of people don't understand in the U.S. market that many of the pens that we buy at the store such as Pilot and Zebra and what have you all originated in Japan. Not all of them are. Not all of them are. Yeah. They're really fantastic. I think Japan quietly leads the pen market globally but people don't really realize that. And just as stationary in general. Japanese love stationary. That's really fantastic. Okay. We'll take a break right now and we'll be back in a minute and we'll continue with Aaron Lau talking about selling these fantastic pens in overseas markets. Hello, I'm Dave Stevens, host of the Cyber Underground. This is where we discuss everything that relates to computers that's just going to scare you out of your mind. So come join us every week here on thinktecawaii.com, 1 p.m. on Friday afternoons. And then you can go see all our episodes on YouTube. Just look up the Cyber Underground on YouTube. All our shows will show up and please follow us. We're always giving you current relevant information to protect you. Keep an eye safe. Aloha. Aloha. I'm Yukari Kunisue, the host of Konnichiwa Hawaii, Japanese talk show on thinktecawaii. Konnichiwa Hawaii is all Japanese broadcast show and is streamed live on thinktec at 2 p.m. every other Monday. Thank you so much for watching our show. We look forward to seeing you then. I'm Yukari Kunisue. Mahalo. Aloha. Rob Hack back on exporting from Hawaii today with Aaron Lau from Lala Woodworks and Simply Wood Studios. Before the break, we were talking about Japan specifically and the pens and the relatively cheaper pens that everybody buys, that everybody can get them at Sam's Club or Costco, at the ballpark, Fisher or what have you, those ballpoint pens and the gel inks and what have you. Those largely come from Japan and now you're exporting these premium pens back to Japan which I think is great. Yeah. Koa wood inlaid pens. So when did the Japanese market learn about koa? You know from what we saw when I first started making the pens, the Japanese didn't know much about koa wood. They thought it was pretty but they had no idea what was curly koa, what was a premium wood, what was nice koa. And then, I don't know the year but right around when Jake Shimabukuro became popular in Japan and the Japanese started to really like ukuleles and then they started to know or learn more about koa wood through knowing what ukuleles are made out of. And then they became more sophisticated in knowing what koa wood was nice. At first the Japanese were buying the cheapest koa you can find because the Japanese didn't like a lot of figure in the wood. They liked their wood looking clean. But now demand not only in Japan but worldwide, koa has become its own brand and it's become a huge export for Hawaii and now there's a huge difference in price point between curly koa and the cheaper koa because now everybody knows what's expensive and what's the good wood. So when you're selling in Japan now, I've seen you at trade shows and what have you. Are trade shows important for your business? Trade shows are very important for my business. It's way more efficient than trying to go door to door like it did in my first trip to Japan. And when you're selling at a trade show, are you generally after wholesale accounts or are you selling at individuals? So I'm at the trade show in Japan that I see you all the time. That's primarily a wholesale trade show. That's Tokyo International? Tokyo International. Are there others that you do? Not yet. I do do the Hong Q show which is actually the department store which is a direct to consumer store show. But it's extremely important and I've learned so much just from talking to other businesses that go up with me to the trade shows and talking to all the people coming from all around the country to that show. I've never learned a lot. And as you know, being based out here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and shipping product around the world is not cheap or easy. Do you have that problem with pens if somebody orders one pen from you? Shipping is cost prohibitive when it comes to just selling direct to a customer because you're looking at at least $25 shipping one pen to Japan or even to Canada and Australia which are another big export for me. But shipping in general out of the US is just expensive. When does it become more cost effective? What level of shipment is it? 20 pens or 100 pens or where does it become more reasonable? It's more reasonable when not necessarily a certain price point or a certain quantity but just to ship in general to one location with multiple pens at one time because shipping domestically in Japan is actually really cheap. Yeah, it is. And shipping domestically in Canada is very cheap. So do you generally sell or send from USPS flat rate box or are you using a shipping? USPS flat rate for me has been the most efficient and we can print out the label and the custom forms and then just ship that out straight to where the destination is going. You have Yamato and stuff like that for Japan but that's a little more time consuming for me. Right, the paperwork mostly. Paperwork mostly and stuff like that but the cost shipping with USPS is actually pretty good. A typical wholesale order from Japan would be how many pens roughly? The quantity I'd say maybe the dollar amount would be 800 to $1,200 worth of pens which would come out to maybe about 12 to 15 pens in general. That would ship in a medium flat rate to a large flat rate box. And do you feel like your customer base in Japan do you have a feeling are they Tokyo centric or are they all over Japan? Oh, I have customers all over Japan. Yeah, because we have three stores in Waikiki we're able to see where our pens sell or who our customer base is. That's the whole benefit of selling retail. Let's hone in on that for a second. Who are the customers then from Japan? Are they men or are they women or are they young or are they old? The great thing about my pens is there's no specific demographic as to who likes the pens. I can have a parent buy a pencil, a $145 pencil for their high school student son. I've had a lot of older people buy fountain pens or pencils. There's no real demographic as far as a specific demographic as far as who likes pens. Do you find that customers are buying these for themselves or are they buying them as gifts? Primarily? Can we zoom in on this a little bit? I love this. Primarily, the pens are bought by people that are buying for themselves because pens are very subjective. But I do get a lot of omiyage or gifts, especially for weddings and stuff like that, wedding gifts.  That makes perfect sense. That's great. Would you sell a kit like different sizes, for example? You had mentioned to me, which was a bit surprising to me, but it makes perfect sense that women tend to like the bigger pens because it easily fits their hand. The cultures are different. With Western cultures, Canadians and Australians and the mainland US, they like fatter pens. When it comes to Japan, they always gravitate towards the thinner pen, and I have to have them test out the fatter pen to show them which one is more comfortable. Because generally speaking, fatter pens are more comfortable to hold. When it comes to men and women, it doesn't matter on the size of the pen. It's really the color that's more gender specific. Really? So do women gravitate towards this? Yes, and Japanese like pastels. So pinks, turquoises, things like that, they love. Westerners, a different market. It's amazing how each culture is different. So when you're exporting, you want to retail as much as possible from your business to the consumer to see what you want to export to a particular country. So the wood is koa, and then what is the inlay? So this one right here, this is actually pink coral with resin. So it's reconstituted pink coral. This one here is reconstituted turquoise. These here are actually surfboard resin. That's a polyester resin that we use to glass surfboards with. Those are really, really cool. And then all of my pens are actually chemical and UV protected. So the koa wood will not fade or change color. So when a customer, particularly a Japanese customer sees that in the store, is there signage in Japanese that explains this as surfboard? I do have a lot of signage in Japanese, and I just got my friend Toby just translated for Korean. Oh, that's great. Because I'm getting a lot of Korean customers now. That's great. And you mentioned off camera that Koreans are just now learning about the quality of koa. Yeah, it's just amazing. So I've been selling a lot of pens now to Korean visitors. And I asked them, do you know what koa wood is? And now over the past, I'd say just this year or maybe since December, a lot of them are nodding and saying they know what koa wood is. And I don't know how that's happening. I would think that a Japanese tourist, or any tourist, but really from Japan because the Japanese market really loves surfing, that if they knew that that was reconstituted surfboard material that... Well, it's not actually reconstituted surfboard, but it's the same material. So I say surfboard or jushi, and they know. That's neat. That would close the deal right there no matter what the price was. Are there his and hers sets? Have you ever sold them? I do. I've made his and hers sets. I make pencil sets. I make letter opener sets. The Japanese love letter openers. So I do make letter opener sets. Now, how many different models of pens and pencils are you selling now? They primarily range anywhere from 78 different styles. Sometimes I'll do a limited run of 500 of one, a new particular style. And then I'll introduce another style. Are the limited runs more expensive? No. Here's a classic fountain pen design. And you said fountain pens are still very popular. They're actually more popular now than they were before because all the younger generation, particularly the Westerners, they are thinking that fountain pens are retro. That makes sense. So what's happening now, the pens are more popular than ever because now the younger generation are now getting back into journaling and they're now getting back into writing cards to each other. And everybody so used to having an iPad or a phone or a laptop. Now with a pen, they can show their own individuality or the uniqueness, particularly because Koa pens and my pens are all different. Oh, each one is very unique. I mean, it has its own signature built in. What can you tell us briefly about the different models? So this is one of my limited editions. This one's a little more expensive because the hardware and everything like that is actually very expensive to make. But this is a premium Koa where you have that three-dimensional look to the wood. These pens, this is a fountain and roller ball. These are actually stone. These are reconstituted stone. These are all ball points here. And all of my pens are standard refills. So you'll find the refill anywhere, Afghanistan, India, Hong Kong. I've sent my pens all over the world and nobody has come back to me saying they can't find a refill. What do you consider the flagship product right now? What are you selling the most of? Primarily ball points, but fountain pens have picked up dramatically. How about in Japan? Is that true also? In Japan, it's primarily the thinner ball points and pencils. And the pencils, are they available in different widths of the lead? I have two different widths of the lead, 0.07 and 0.05. Okay, great. Back to school time or for college, I could imagine these would be considered really good. Or graduation present? Graduation. So right now coming up from the middle of April through the middle of June or end of June is my second busiest time of the year. So in the US, we have Mother's Day and Father's Day. And in Japan we have Golden Week and then graduation. I'm glad to hear you're cognizant of the Japanese holidays because I think a lot of our companies here in Hawaii who are trying to export to Japan or other countries are not paying attention to the holiday schedule in those countries. It's really, like I said, it's really beneficial for me to have my three retail stores. Because we have the Japanese customers coming to me and I personally talk to them or my salespeople personally talk to these Japanese customers. That way I can go to my wholesale accounts in Japan or the stores that want to sell my pens and I say, hey look, the Japanese people love these pens in Hawaii and now it's beneficial for them to get it in Japan. So in the Japanese market there's no exclusive agent. Anybody can buy from you wholesale. I do have some agents like Inosaka and stuff like that. But that's primarily because the company does not have an English speaking person. And the street price in Japan, retail price. It's usually 20% more than what the retail price would be here in Hawaii. And is that largely based on shipping costs? Shipping costs and if there is any customs charges, yes. But primarily shipping costs. Have you run into any customs issues in the years you've been doing this in Japan? No, we actually just had one issue just come up recently with a large order. It was held up in customs. I don't know what the reason was, but it got released like a month and a half later. It took a while to get to them. And no explanation of what it was? No, because it was only Japanese so I couldn't really tell. I think it's because, well, this is processed wood, right? Meaning you've done work on it. It's not raw wood. I think if you were doing raw wood shipments to Japan. You can't ship that to Japan or you can't ship raw wood to Australia or Canada. And now you said you're selling more in Canada and Australia. Is that also fueled by Canadian and Australian tourists who come here first? Yes, yes. Primarily I always try and see what the retail market is looking like when they're coming here. And the great thing about Australians and Canadians is they love wood right off the bat. So that's their culture. It's the same thing with the US people in Hawaii and in general love wood. And that's why the wood pens are so popular. And since Koa is only found in Hawaii, it's a perfect keepsake for them to take back home. That's great. Do you find that most Australians, Canadians, or even American tourists, do they understand Koa? Do they know what Koa is? Yes, they do. Yeah, if they've been here once or twice, they'll know what Koa wood is. And it's kind of a double-edged sword where Koa has become its own brand. Where you can go to these hardware stores and you can get quote-unquote Koa flooring even though it's probably not Koa. Koa is only found in Hawaii. So all these companies are marketing their wood as Koa wood because a lot of people associate Koa with Hawaii and it's premier and it's expensive pricing. So we have to, as suppliers from Hawaii, we need to watch out for that company of Koa. One of our biggest problems right now in Hawaii as far as exporting wood is the local woodworkers can't get it now. Let me talk about this, but all the wood is just being cut and thrown into containers and not being milled in Hawaii and not being lumbered in Hawaii. And the problem with that is the Hawaii local woodworkers can't get the wood itself. It's being shipped to China, California, Japan for veneering and lumbering and we can't get it. All right, difficult problem. We'll work on that. That wraps up another episode of Exporting from Hawaii. I'd like to thank very much our guest today, Aaron Lau from Simply Wood Studios and Lau Lau Woodworks for bringing some of his fantastic pens that I highly recommend and explaining to us some of his exploits in exporting, particularly to Japan. So thank you very much for being here. And we'll see you again in two weeks from Exporting from Hawaii.