I studied radio and television broadcasting at SFSU. My interests were more focused on motion picture sound. Recently, I've been enjoying the music from my youth and have been publishing a playlist on BLIP.fm.
BLIP is like Twitter, but with music that's loaded on a database. If it's in the database, you can program it into your own "station" (webpage).
Scroll all the way to the bottom of this blog and you'll find that I have two BLIP stations. One for 80's music and the other is for 90's and up. Occasionally, I'll throw in songs from different eras, either as requests or homages to other blipsters.
Here's a place where all YouTubers named "Ernie" can meet each other. The channel will act as a central repository for links to our work, and a hub where the YouTube community can easily find people named Ernie, both men and women.
A fellow YouTuber sent me a link to the video below. I watched her video several times so that I could rephrase her questions in my mind. The second video below were my responses.
I became aware of Asians and White people co-mingling in the early 1970's. This was a time when Vietnamese refugees were arriving in the United States by the thousands. For years, Servicemen were bringing home Asian brides from Korea, the Philippines, and Japan. Predominantly, couples were made up of White men and Asian women. The reverse, Asian men and White women, was an extreme rarity.
Only in the last ten years or so, have Asian American men been able to rise in status in the USA. This has been accomplished partly due to rising prominence in business, sports, entertainment, and intellectual opportunities. Some may also note that perhaps it is just "our time" to enjoy the chance of becoming a popular option for not just White women, but for all kinds of women.
The old stereotype of Asian men being geeky, nerdy, and low on self-esteem is out the window. These stereotypes were actually prejudicial interpretations of Asian character. What was most offensive was the perception of "low self-esteem." In Asian culture, "humility" and the ability to humble one's self is seen as a virtuous trait in a person.
In the USA, according to the current socio-economic norms, if I want to succeed in the dating scene (to attract Asian women AND other ethnicities), I need to be boisterous, self-centered, and treat women like objects. If this is true, I'd rather go on living lonely and alone. That's not who I am. I'm a warrior and gentleman which means I approach everyone with a measured cup of respect.
One last note: Even tough guys need to be rescued. Please ladies, sweep me off my feet!
Here I am messing around with my new webcam. It's a Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000. After working out all the bugs and figuring out how it works, I think it's a pretty decent piece of tech; not as smooth as an Apple set up...perhaps I'll upgrade to that in a couple of years.
I figured since I spent hard earned money on Adobe Photoshop, I ought to figure out how to use it. Here's a logo I'll use to intro my video posts on YouTube.
You're looking at the utaguchi or the mouthpiece end of a shakuhachi flute. My YouTube posts will have a few notes played underneath.
I’m supporting the Writers Guild of America strike because the creative process needs protection from start to finish. During the late 1980’s and the early 1990’s, I was forced to give up pursuing a career in audio engineering and film making because all the time I invested in non-union productions amounted to nothing. All the promised screen credits and future distribution profits went nowhere. Recently, I've taken steps to re-enter the entertainment industry and writing is part of it. So, obviously the WGA has my support.
The samurai revered the artists and farmers of feudal Japan. Why? They fed their warrior minds an imaginative place to escape and kept their stomachs full, respectively. Even though the samurai were the bosses, they conceded that the poor and humble artists and farmers were high class people.
What writers do for our society is that they provide us with relevant commentary. They report. They satirize. They compose. They suggest. And, they offer doorways for us to explore. But most importantly, they keep us entertained. Writers are the lifeblood of the film and TV entertainment industry. Without them, producers, directors, studio crews, marketing firms, movie theatres, and TV stations have nothing new to work with.
A script isn’t a commissioned painting that’s sold, re-sold, and auctioned repeatedly after the painter’s death for millions more than its original worth and then displayed at a gallery to be seen for the price of admission. Scripts that a writer has sold and is produced will continue to earn money and value while the writer is still alive. That writer is entitled to earn residuals, a percentage of future profits. With the emergence of new technologies and broadcast methods, WGA members are due their fair share of developing revenues.
All across the USA, various organized unions have won over managements time and time again. So, Hollywood and New York big-wigs need to figure out real quick that their bread and butter are made by artists and farmers called “writers.” Give them the respect they deserve and pay them what they’re worth. Realize that most writers go unemployed for long periods of time (in between) scripts, and rely on residuals while they create new ideas and spend as much as three to five years writing and re-writing stories until they’re ready to be pitched.
Well folks, I'm slowly building more skill and confidence in posting these entries. Recently, I've added a clock that displays Okinawa time and two other RSS feeds: Top right block is the Okinawa weather report by The Weather Channel; Bottom bar is rotating headline news from around the world from various agencies. Just for a little flair, I added kan'ji (Japanese characters) to the header. Syllabically, it reads: eh ru nii no bu do ken kyuu sho. エルニーの武道研究所. Obviously, it means "Ernie's Budo Lab-oratory. Currently, I'm only able to use a basic unicode font. It's nothing special. I'd love to be able to type kan'ji with a more artful font. But, this works for me now. It's slow as molasses grabbing these ideographs off of html charts with copy/paste functions, as I don't have a kan'ji wordpro converter...yet.
Coming up..."Tools of the Trade" All the tools, jigs, rigs, and plans for making (octagonal) hakakukei nunchaku.
Stay glued to the flat tube! Ernie - Chief Lab Rat
If you were a fan of the Cosgrove Hall production Danger Mouse, you might want to take a look at The Carrotty Kid. He's a crime fighting carrot who is mentored by a cherry called Che-ri. And they both worked to defend their town, Legume City (a play on Bean Town, perhaps) from the evil Count Cornelius Cobb...a cob of corn.
Here's the pilot of the "home grown hero" and "vigilante vegetable":
Thanks for dropping by and checking out my blog. The point of this exercise is to not waste all the modern technology I've acquired in the last couple of years. Perhaps some explanation of the name of my blog is due.
The Budo Lab's mission is to analyze basic martial art techniques and de-mystify the power and effectiveness of punches, strikes, kicks, and blocks using the human body and ancient weapons. Whenever possible, scientific measurements using chronometers and force gauges will be used. For purposes of fair reporting, this blog will remain ryu (style) and sensei (teacher) neutral.
Interspersed here and there, WE will have some fun and laughs along the way with news, factoids, rumors, cultural essays, and whatever comes OUR way.
I'll be spending the rest of 2007 honing and testing my HTML skills, setting up and rigging experiments, and researching Japanese/Okinawan languages and cultures. Everyone can expect the official launch of "The Lab" in early 2008. Until then, enjoy the postings I've already blogged.
