EDITORIAL: The method to attend DJ Alex Reyes' events? Undercover or Not?

For me, attending events often make me wanting to engage a lot more. The list has been too much for me to put in this editorial blog, but some of my notable ones include the San Francisco Cherry Blossom Festival, the Lunar New Year Festivities within Santa Clara County, and the Gilroy Garlic Festival.

But for DJ Alex Reyes, well, let's just say that it depends on his social media invites or via a text message to me. He hosts a lot of events each year and holds a business license from the city of Fremont. I've been to the East Bay too many times that most recently included a suggestion from radio personality named Alex Harmon. Yes, his first name is really Alex (who is from Hayward), not the Alex Reyes from Fremont. And for me, it's unrelated to my co-worker named Alex Ng.

For social media, though, it is very hard for me to decide whether to attend DJ Alex Reyes' events throughout the Bay Area. When I can't see Alex Reyes on social media (like being blocked, for example), I only attend the event and hide as much as possible while taking pictures undercover and posting it on social media with a specific hashtag (#djalexreyes to be exact). That is already the case in at least 2 of the events (one in San Francisco and the other in Mountain View). At least one of those times, I even posted the videos of the highlights of DJ Alex Reyes on my YouTube profile. The problem is that he only sees my latest videos many months later and he began to wonder why he never knew I attended his events.

So far, I have never been invited by Alex Reyes himself to attend one of his events whether on social media or via a text message, which by the way is my only way that I can actually see him in person doing the performance. When he actually does invite me to many of his events, I won't be undercover, but instead be visible so that he can see me in the crowd. In that way, I also won't be afraid that he won't actually give me a bad nightmare whenever I go to see him in person.

Alex Reyes and I both have disabilities, but with major differences. Alex Reyes has cerebral palsy, but I was revealed to have a type of neurological disorder during my first Clipper card application at 18 years old (the card was back then called "Translink"). I am noticing that the unknown type of neurological disorder that I have in my diagnosis does affect me in several ways, like saying too many words repeatedly, getting overexcited too often, and forgetting things. Cerebral palsy and neurological disorder are two separate type of disabilities that are not related to each other, but have different side effects long term. Further, unlike Alex Reyes, I also have made occasional announcements on any of my social media pages about my condition, such as the brief, but major headache on the last day of January in 2020.

Another problem that may prevent me from attending DJ Alex Reyes' events is the timing. This is often my trickiest part whether I will make it. I usually get off work around 12:30PM and usually start driving at 12:45PM, but the location of where Alex Reyes is performing depends on the distance from where I work. Gilroy is a longer distance from where I work, but close to where I live (in San Martin). In contrast, both San Francisco and Mountain View are a fair distance away on highway 101, the same highway that I usually take to my workplace, but must get off San Bruno Ave.

I have often feared that Alex Reyes might not let me have a chance to post my highlights with him on social media shortly after seeing him. After both Alex Reyes and I see each other in person, I usually don't have a chance to tag him on social media. That is usually because I can't see him on social media. This to me usually means that I must return to going undercover again the next time DJ Alex Reyes has any events around the Bay Area - that is, unless he convinces me. Each time that I'm undercover, I often wonder about several things, including what happens when Alex Reyes sees me while I'm undercover. Therefore, the status of whether for me to go undercover for Alex Reyes' events depends on the events via social media and if I'm invited to his events. 

I would be surprised in the future if he has any plans to own a vehicle like the one in this post so he can take it anywhere he wishes. (Ahhh... The classic 350 engine...)

Shall anyone should chat with me about this, feel free to contact me.

Email: chak595301@gmail.com
Twitter/Instagram: @KyleSChak
Facebook profile available as well.

Chak's Take on "Move," Chai Mishra's Kickstarter Project - Why Back This Project?

You may have heard about the common high-end supermarkets from Whole Foods to Wegmans, Trader Joe's to Aldi, and much more.

But I also heard of many more stores out there with more organic products. One of them being Sprouts Farmers Market, which heavy emphasis on fruits and vegetables. For me, the most common supermarkets around Silicon Valley besides Sprouts are Walmart, Safeway, Nob Hill Foods (Raley's if in Sacramento), Grocery Outlet, Smart & Final, and Trader Joes. Costco or Sams Club are not included in this one, as the two usually offer items in much larger sizes than standard grocery stores.

The primary focus of this blog is on a supermarket named "Move," a future digital supermarket created by Chaitanya (Chai) Mishra, as well as my comparisons into pricing between Move and Whole Food's main rival. He highlighted in his Kickstarter project as to why he wants to revolutionize the way we all shop for goods.

Let's briefly talk about Chai's focus for foods: He wants to have more of the more common products that commonly sells a lot than those who sell for nothing. He's talking about up to 500 goods, in fact. That's a lot smaller than what a typical supermarket's number of items available in store, but it's for quality control. His problem focuses on how the quality of the foods tasted from online shopping - which by the way tends to be worse. He is right, thus the reason why I have never used online shopping for fresh foods (especially fruits and vegetables) at many e-commerce websites like Walmart or Amazon.

Pre-made meals is also a problem not only on Chai's end, but particularly on my end as well. I often find many of the cooked foods very bland in taste by the time it is served at the time of day that I choose, which in my case is breakfast. Many people often have their on-the-go foods at lunch or dinner. I just hope that Move can make and revolutionize meals from certified five-star, celebrity, or Michelin-rated chefs or restaurants that can be $10 or less - one of which I can remember hearing about a Singaporean dish for a soy sauce chicken and rice that is the world's cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant!

If I have one thing that I am most looking forward to in terms of Move, that would be some exclusive items that I might not be able to find in a grocery or speciality store, like taleggio cheese or New Zealand's famous Mānuka honey. While celebrity chef Chris Cosentino mentioned taleggio cheese and duck eggs in his recipe for his version of the grilled cheese sandwich, I have personally found that specific cheese anywhere in Santa Clara County, but duck eggs are available.

Chai Mishra does compare his prices with Whole Foods, but not Whole Foods main competitor named Sprouts. When I went into a Sprouts store in the Evergreen District of San Jose, this is what I may have found (prices in USD)...

Horseradish:
5oz: 2.49
8oz: 3.49

Organic Blue Agave*...
23.5oz: 8.49
44oz: 12.99

Organic Matcha Green Tea: 14.99
Organic Butternut Squash: 4.99
Wild Sockeye Salmon: 11.99/LB
Organic Coffee, Whole Beans (ALL TYPES): 10.99/LB
California Olive Oil, 16.9oz (Single Source): 15.99
Organic Mustard, 12oz (ALL TYPES): 2.79
Organic Spanish Olive Oil, 25.4oz: 9.99
Organic Portabella Mushrooms: 4.99

Organic Honey...
12oz: 4.49 to 5.99
24oz: 7.99 to 9.99

Organic White Mushrooms...
Whole: 2.99
Sliced: 3.49

Organic Baby Bella Mushrooms...
Whole: 3.49
Sliced: 3.69

Manuka Honey...
Bio Active UMF 20+: 23.99
Bio Active UMF 24+: 26.99
Raw Monoflorial, 8.8oz: 27.99
Raw Monoflorial, 17.6oz: 47.99

Note that for Manuka Honey, that can also be found at Trader Joe's, but at a lower Bio Active UMF 10+, valued at 13.99.

* indicated that organic agave was found at Grocery Outlet, which was 4.99 for a 23.5oz container.

To me, it's really hard to judge who has the better end after a 2018 Business Insider article findings between Whole Foods and Sprouts. Chai Mishra may or may not have read between the 2 rival stores despite that Whole Foods is owned by online retail giant Amazon.

But readers that I found on the Kickstarter project had one common question in mind: What makes Move different? And why did I back this project? The simple answer: No middlemen. But the more detailed answer: I'll let Chai explain that. While Move does try not to talk about any supermarket competitors, here's the response I saw in the comments and in the description, according to Chai Mishra:

"I’d like to go into what we think is missing in the market and, as a result, what we’re building:

1. A Full Digital Supermarket - there is yet to be a full digital supermarket that sells all of your grocery staples together. Most notably, no one currently sells perishables online (meats, dairy, produce, meals etc.) There have been a lot of “partial” supermarkets that sell pantry items but none that you can actually live off of. We think building a full supermarket online is an incredibly difficult but worthwhile endeavor. I think the only way we can unlock the full potential of direct to consumer commerce is if companies start to deliver an outsized value to their users. That’s what we’re trying to do for our members.

2. Better quality products - there is no online store that has actually made a dent in the quality of everyday products. Online supermarkets tend to sell worse versions of what offline, traditional supermarkets offer. We think the online model can be incredible force for quality. Just think about it - we can find the greatest olive oil in the World and make it accessible to everyone. That’s an entire paradigm shift from how offline supermarkets operate.

3. An Ethical and Transparent Supply Chain - the traditional supply chain for products tends to be inefficient, exploitative and opaque. Unfortunately, digital retailers have done nothing about the ethics of the supply chain- but they have made it a lot less transparent. Somehow, when buying food online, we know even less about those products than we do offline. Again, I think the online model can be a singular force for good here. Being online allows us to tell our members so much more about the products- who made them, how much money the producer made etc. We utilize that right fully, sharing every bit of information that we can about the products we ship.

4. An obsession with the customer experience - I’ll use this as an umbrella point for a lot of things (since I know how long I’m going here). Most e-commerce companies have somewhat blindly copied the digital experience of Amazon. But that doesn’t actually make sense since people shop for staples in a very different way from how they shop for specialty products like sweaters. We’ve spent a lot of time building a new model for e-commerce. That includes everything from a bold, new online interface to a personal shopper and free 2-day delivery. We’re obsessed with the design of the customers experience on a site and we’ve spent a lot of time perfecting it on our site.

5. Vision - this is obviously subjective. I’m sure others would argue that they have vision as well. When I talk about vision, I’m talking about a conception of what commerce should look like decades from now and building for that. The market seems to be focused on slapping their label on anything they can and marking it up as much as they can. We take a long view on this and invest in technology and practices that we think matter. For example, we’ve spent hundreds of hours helping our producers scale up or exploring how to employ block chain to create more transparency or developing fairer practices at our own distribution centers.

We believe deeply in a model of commerce that’s more efficient and ethical. And we’re going to continue spending our time and efforts building it!"

I think that if all of the five areas that Chai mentioned are to be achieved well, then I believe that all supermarkets in a local area, including those that are discounted, will need to be looked at and studied soon. Whether a local farmers market is competitive or not is up to Chai and his staff to decide as well.

If Chai Mishra wants to respond to what my findings are, he may want to compare those prices at Sprouts with Whole Foods and Move before he does respond... or see me in person. 

Chai Mishra can seek me on social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram 

CHAK'S EDITORIAL - #ONLYONKYLE: Roberta Gonzales to leave KPIX, start own production company; Chak's Critique of Rich Lieberman of 415 Media

A LONGTIME PERSONALITY LEAVING THE STATION

This blogger is the first person to report the news. I have learned about Roberta Gonzales's departure from KPIX as soon as I discovered the post. Roberta Gonzales is leaving KPIX channel 5 and will no longer be with the station after September 29, according to her Facebook announcement.

She has announced that she will be starting her own production company independent from any TV station. Here is her announcement I embedded to show my readers what it is.



It was a privilege for me to listen her to weather reports over on KCBS Radio every morning for the past several years, even as a blogger. Roberta always tried to make weather reports in less than 2 minutes even after KCBS traffic reports from a personality named Kim Wonderley. It is very sad for me to hear hear departure from the station, but I hope to see her someday and thank her for the weather reports over the years.

CRITIQUE AND INVESTIGATION OF RICH LIEBERMAN OF 415 MEDIA

Note below is not the full critique. This is only a brief one; the full version will be in an upcoming edition of my blog. Unlike Lieberman, I do not solicit donations from anyone and have no plans to do so - literally. 

Meanwhile, as I am sad to hear Roberta leave KPIX, for at least a couple of years, I was investigating Rich Lieberman's actual critique of others and truthfulness of Lieberman's blogs critiquing news anchors and reporters. Personally for me, there are some blogs that I found that could be infringing copyrights, particularly on portraits of news anchors from various TV stations. In a future blog, I investigate Lieberman's solicit of donations from readers while at the same time questioning about his use of someone else's photos without citation. Further, some of his comments made in his blog are also considered. I am opting not to show any of the content except for quote citation and sourced material.

But before Lieberman can respond back here with his comments, he will have to take a close look at letters he received in his comment box from CBS Corporation in some of his blogs and from what KGO said about him, as I have read the station's critique of Lieberman.

While some of Lieberman's blogs are truthful, others are more opinionated and/or offensive to me, which I'll explain in an future edition of my blog.

Fresco News Exclusive: Late Fire in South San Jose on Colleen Drive

SAN JOSE - As I was the only Fresco News user on the alert for any activities in Silicon Valley during the late Saturday hours, San Jose Fire Department and media outlets were paying attention to the fire along Silver Creek Valley Road near Piercy Road in San Jose, not far from highway 101. The problem was that media outlets were focusing solely on the fire on Silver Creek Valley Road.

And apparently, no media outlet mentioned about the fire that burned behind the residences on Colleen Drive. I was the only Fresco user about to return to my San Martin residence when radio calls were activated for the fire in South San Jose - I got to the scene within ten minutes. Here's what happened as far as the fire on Colleen Drive...


San Jose firefighters were called to reports of a small, but fast-moving grass fire behind the residences along Colleen Drive near Brenda Lee Drive, between Brenda Lee and Snell Avenue just after 9:30pm Saturday night. Fresco News was the only news crew on site of the fire and caught the blaze on video within 20 minutes of the fire. About 100 residents started smelling smoke in the area as the first calls came in around 9:30pm. All residents close to the fire line were evacuated as a precaution, though winds were blowing from the west.

The fire was dangerously close to nearby power lines, and as a result, assistance from Santa Clara County Fire's Cupertino unit and CAL FIRE were called to the scene minutes later. Two battalions fire vehicles were set up on Colleen Drive and Mary Evelyn Drive. CAL FIRE and Santa Clara County Fire were stationed along Colleen Drive near Blossom Avenue as scores of San Jose fire trucks were lining up along much of Colleen Drive. An off-duty Santa Clara County fire battalion chief from the Cupertino unit exclusively told Fresco News that he was home near the area at the time the fire started.

Firefighters were able to access the area off of the south end of Snell Avenue near Rocking Horse Court, not far from Colleen Drive. In spite of the blaze, the fire was completely put out by 11pm and residences were allowed to return in cheers. However, the cause of the fire remains under investigation, and it is not known whether the fire was deliberately set.

Original Work: Kyle Chak
E-mail: chak595301@gmail.com
Twitter: @KyleSChak
REMARKS: The following still images are exclusive to this blog. For video images of the fire on Colleen Drive in San Jose, please open the Fresco News app.

CHAK'S EDITORIAL: Revisiting the KSBW 2009 Editorial and Near-Mishap

It was late-January and early-February 2009 - KSBW, a primary NBC affiliate owned by Hearst Television, broadcasted an editorial that angered some top officials from the Salinas police department. Has anyone recalled this news report from 2009?





If you recalled the investigation by the Salinas police department, recalled that during the time, interim police chief Daniel Ortega held nothing back in accusing KSBW anchor Dan Green and KSBW's management, particularly the president and general manager Joseph W. Heston and news director Lawton Dodd.

What KSBW's management was unaware was that the bias is to a much less extent a version of a bias of media in Hong Kong involving the former Asia Television for false reporting, such as for the death of a Chinese leader. KSBW has no false reporting as of so far, including those of former Salinas councilman Jose Castaneda, but KSBW's parent company Hearst Television (the TV arm of Hearst) has a reputation of not buying any FOX-affiliated stations upon my review of the television portfolio. Hearst has yet to give any reason as to why they were unwilling to buy any FOX stations. In addition, it is unknown what KSBW's or Hearst's position on freelancing apps that allow users to upload organic content to an app, of which a television station receives. Fresco is one, but Stringr is another, as I handle content for both for separate stories exclusive to apps.

And is Hearst is against any freelancing news app? Upon my review of Hearst's style, I see fewer cameramen on average by media market, which puts me into question about how many cameramen should be in a particular media market. There may be some mishaps such as the encountering of a freelancing news app user and an actual reporter like those at KSBW. Like KSBW said about the mishaps in their report by president and general manager Joseph W. Heston, I do apologize for any of those mishaps.

Even so, I do promise to develop any rules regarding encountering non-Fresco or non-Stringr partner stations, particularly regarding duplicate content. If you have any questions or comments, please inform me below.

Original Work: Kyle Chak
E-mail: chak595301@gmail.com
Twitter: @KyleSChak