Budo Rant #3 - Give Credit & Improve on the Previous

I was compelled to defend my honor as the first person to ever post a tutorial video on the internet on the subject of Triple String Nunchaku. My original video has been viewed more than 30,000 times and has found permanent places on several search engines and martial arts forums world wide.

It's my firm belief, as martial artists, that when we borrow ideas or base our work on the accomplishments of others before us, we must give credit where credit is due. I've done so in the past, and I will always cite the research and findings of others whenever I produce training and educational material to be posted on the internet.

rctrue, never contacted me to inform me he was going to reproduce my tutorial virtually shot for shot and step for step.

Mcjoebuilder, on the otherhand, used my tutorial as a basis but went about his tutorial the way he saw fit. And as an added bonus, he makes his own nunchaku. Kudos Joe! [prior to posting this entry, Mcjoebuilder emailed me and informed me he was linking my tutorial to his. I did the same likewise.]


This is a comment placed by a DTG spy who was "expelled" by Greg Park so that he could freely roam YouTube and try to gain the confidence of the unsuspecting. I didn't buy his story for a minute. SACREDFIREDOJOSHOW is still an active member of Nintaijutsu.


In this screenshot, we can see the date of publication as well as number of views as of today. Notice, how many more views my video has over rctrue's. This number can only be achieved over a long period of time. Thus, my tutorial came first.


In this next image, MOUNTAINOUS gives praise...only because he is another member of Nintaijutsu - Choson Ninja, under Greg Park. The following two individuals are more critical. cava002 directly asks rctrue if he knows who I am. No response. The third person had an even more practical comment. Look back at my tutorial. I specifically chose to use my white oak nunchaku with green parachute cord because of the contrast in color! Easier for viewers to see what's happening.

Lastly, here's the champion of the day: Mcjoebuilder and his excellent interpretation of my original lesson.



Always remember this courtesy: Give credit where credit is due and improve on the previous.

Thanks goes to YouTubers: HouzanSuzuki, scottbaioisdead, zeong77, and Mcjoebuilder

Budo Rant #2

I don't get pissed off easily. I give most people a lot of wiggle room and forgiveness before I cast them off.

One problem with open forums on the internet is the vulnerablity to hate speech or unjustified negative comments. I've created a new rule for my YouTube account. I will delete negative comments made by people posting from "fake" channels. Fake channels on YouTube are created by people to be used to shield their identities from the public. These people are often referred to as "haters." I'm perfectly willing to accept negative/constructive criticism on my YouTube channel so long as I can respond back in the public forum to "real" accounts. I define a real account on YouTube as a channel that depicts the true identity of the member with a facial record, their real first name (at least), and original video content.

Here's an incident I recorded that I hope I'll never have to repeat:

Hakkakukei Nunchaku Episode 6 - Bonus

Here's the bonus footage promised:

Hakkakukei Nunchaku Episode 5

This episode brings my first "How to Make Nunchaku" series to a close. But, it's not completely over. I've promised my YouTube viewers a demonstration of nunchaku techniques using the nunchaku I built from scratch.

Hakkakukei Nunchaku Episode 4

Here's the fourth installment of my "How to Make Nunchaku" series. [Almost done!]

Hakkakukei Nunchaku Episode 3

Here's the third installment of my "How to Make Nunchaku" series.

Chill Pills or Sloppy Joes?

Christine's original video here

Hakkakukei Nunchaku - Episode 2

Here's the second part in my how-to make nunchaku series on YouTube:

Hakkakukei Nunchaku Episode 1

This is the first installment of what will be a multi-part DIY kobudo series.

Samurai Sword Mekugi Repair

YouTuber karlos91 from Mexico asked how to fix his loose handling daito:

Saving Childhood Photos

I thought I had lost this photo, but I recently unearthed it among some other precious and not so precious treasures.

This is my second grade class photo. In an earlier post, I expressed my infatuation with Mrs. Gagnet. (She's gorgeous!) I'm the only Filipino in the class, so I shouldn't be hard to find.

[Original]


[HP Auto Color Corrected]


I'm so glad I found this picture before the color deteriorated too far. I'm going to archive this in gray scale as well.

Odd, I can still remember a few of my classmates names. Eric is to Mrs. Gagnet's left. Wade is top left. The guy in the white shirt (center) is Skip. I think the girl up front, left is Julie. And the half-pint behind Skip is Scooter...maybe?

In other classrooms, the coat room was accessible from both sides of the room. Kids often used the passageways as places to run laps and play tag before and after class. Mrs. Gagnet was smart enough to close off one side with a fish net to control traffic and tame us wild children.

Sai Sword Wrapping Tutorial

Sorry for the jittery video. I had to compress it to meet YouTube's size limit.

Boys and Their Toys

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.

New Logo Design

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.

How to Triple String Your Nunchaku

Wow! Making this video was truly an exercise in patience, endurance, and humility ALL wrapped up in one project. I trashed my original footage and shot/edited what you see below. I'm learning "the ropes" as I go with all this non-linear video, various compression algorithms, and bit rates. Life was much easier during the analog years.

Anyway, I 86'ed the idea of narrating over this tutorial. Speaking was what slowed down the original project in the first place. Just follow along with each of the steps, pause and rewind where you need more detail. (Ocassionally, the two rods are tied together, near the wide ends. This was done for ease of videography. It's actually easier to leave the rods loose.)



Tools & Supplies: 4 piece probe set (from hardware store); parachute cord (#650); rope cutter (or scissor); mini torch (avoid short matches, melted nylon drips); sand paper (to knock down splinters/raised grain); flashlight (when peering down bores); tape measure (to check for equal endplay).

Heavy Metal "Nunchaku"

Yup...the band's name is Nunchaku. From what little I can understand underneath all the power chords and screaming, I'm gonna slap an "MA" (Mature Audience) rating on the lyrics.



I'm using this song to help motivate me to finish editing my first tutorial video which should be done tomorrow. Faster, faster!

Disaster!

Sorry folks...I shot one hour's worth of video and then paired it down to ten minutes as YouTube requires. But, my file size was still way too big (2.1 Gigs).

I cut the video into two halves (planning to post them as "part 1" and "part 2" and then my 'puter started screaming for more disk space. I inadvertantly lost some scene information in the second half as I was transferring the project to my external drive. For some reason, I couldn't recover the data from Premiere's autosave file.

Luckily, I exported the entire file in .avi format before the disaster struck. So, I can use that video to guide my "new and improved" version.

Looking back now, even though I spent the whole weekend working on this, I'm seeing this as a blessing in disguise: This project's pace was way too slow. This video shouldn't be any longer than five minutes. What was I thinking?

A few things I know I need to do: Get a proper lighting kit and a higher resolution camera. And, I need some kind of workshop to do these "how to" demos.

It's almost 3:00 AM and that's the reason why I shelving this failed project. But don't worry. As promised, I will post video on how to re-string nunchaku using the "triple string" method.

At least I got to teach a student this morning (uh no, that was yesterday morning).

I need sleep,
Ernie - Chief Lab Rat

"Triple String" Nunchaku

Please, please, please...for safety sake: Triple string your nunchaku. Actually, there is only ONE LONG CORD on this nunchaku. It passes through each bore three times. There are no knots tied, but rather, the ends of the cord are braided along the sides and rely on centrifugal force and friction to keep the cord tight. The standard single pass and double pass methods of tying nunchaku allow knots to slip and if a worn cord fails both will allow the swinging end to fly free, leaving you with half a nunchaku in your hand while friends and family go diving for cover. A tournament judge would definitely be annoyed. If one center strand fails on a triple stringed nunchaku, the other two WILL NOT slip...everyone's happy.



Here, the cord can be seen braided in between the side bores. It appears the same way on the other sides.

This is the top view of the nunchaku where three strands clearly can be seen passing through the top bores.