Ernie's First Video Post

I was rifling through my video archives to find something to use as a test file for my YouTube account.

Here's something from the 2006 San Francisco Cherry Blossom Festival. I'm disappointed that the sound is out of synch. It seems they prefer .mpeg files, whereas my video was encoded using .avi. Well, I guess that just means I have more software to install.



This just goes to show, I can't get Okinawa and food off my mind. Sorry...

Stepping Stones

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

Why Japanese Baseball is More Entertaining

Lucky Catch!


Unlucky Uno Masaru's Blunders Chronicled Forever


Hoshino Aki strikes out a player who can't keep his eyes on the ball!

Here in the USA, we have the 7th Inning Stretch. In Japan...

You can have canned Yankee Stadium beer from this guy, or fresh keg beer from this gal at the Tokyo Dome.

This little dude blowing his horn to a really hip groove.

Japan doesn't have Gatorade. But they do have Tough Man Energy Drink! (Image from allthingsdigital.ca)

LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out

(Def Jam/Colombia Records - 1990)

I'm not a huge fan of rap/hip-hop music, but this one gets my toes tapping.

Have I Been Saved or Not?

All my life, I've hated carry things in my front and hip pockets. It was always uncomfortable, sweaty, and bulky. For awhile I wore BDU (military) pants and carried stuff in the cargo pouches near the knees. Then I bought my first fanny pack back in 1985. It was hand made by a San Francisco artisan who normally made shoes and boots. It was the best fanny pack I ever owned. It lasted 18 years until the leather finally thinned out and a huge hole ripped through. I haven't been able to find an off the shelf fanny pack that lasted me more than a year. My lifestyle tends to treat them roughly, and I haven't been able to find any made from tough goat leather. The cheap sheepskin models at the malls are all crap!



Here I am siteseeing in Okinawa. I'm wearing an off-duty/plain clothes police model fanny pack that's designed to holster a pistol in the rear compartment. (The pack has a quick release that literally dumps the gun into your hand when opened. I used this section to carry Yen and my passport.) It's made of heavy ballistic nylon and has so far proved to be very tough. I'll be using this one for a long time.

Just surfing around, I came across the "Hip Holster." I thought mega-cool. Totally Han Solo. I gotta have one! Do they make left-handed and/or double-sided models?


[images from Urban Tool North America]

Then, it occurred to me, fanny packs went out of American fashion in the mid-1990's. If I got one of these, would my geek-factor shoot through the roof? Truthfully, I don't care. Walking around Kokusai-dori, in downtown Naha, Okinawa, I found dozens of shops selling hundreds of styles of fanny packs. And they weren't just for tourists. It seemed like every other person in town were wearing them. (I don't feel so lonely anymore.) These days we carry so much gear (wallet, cell phone, iPod, check book, sunglasses, keys, rescue breathing kit - yeah, I have First Aid/AED certification) that we need something more than our pockets and something less than a back pack/shoulder bag.

I'm always on the look out for a good fanny pack because I know I go through most like Swiss cheese. Pity I haven't been able to track down that guy in SF who made my first one. That really gets my goat!

Today's Musings

Caltrans Flagmen Beware...

Your job may be made "safer." All we need now are animated supervisor and consultant signs.


Husband and Wife Teams...

It's tough enough finding your soulmate these days. How about working with your mate full time? Looks like these people have found that elusive balance.
















The Ortiz Pottery Team






















The Johnson's - Music & Ministry Team

Husband & Wife Construction Team/Kaseyama Catalog Vol. 18

OMG! Bi-Lingual Bandits!

Minna-san, onegai shimasu!. Ki-o-tsuke. Kono wa bideo mitte kudasai. Ato de taka waraeba ii'n desu yo.


It's an English language education program from Japan. The scenario...so so. The acting, again, so so. The "aerobic" repetition instructors??? Moshiwage arimasen.

I'm hoping that the travel advice given to Japanese tourists in Western countries these days includes "don't wander by yourself" and "be prepared to fight off weirdos, perverts, and serial killers."

Talkin' 'bout my Generation

In 1965, the English rock band The Who released the single "My Generation." Ever since then, the song has been used on TV and in films to reinforce the rebellious nature of teenagers and the neverending divide between youths and adults. For many, the music and films we are exposed to as teenagers have an affect on our outlook as adults as much as the influence of our teachers, mentors, and clergy. This song is an eternal anthem which will stand forever to watch over this chasm. The "Baby Boomers" may claim this as "their" song, but it's crossed multi-generations.

For me, I fall into Generation X (people born between 1960 to 1980). My generation was initially described as: apathetic, cynical, disaffected, streetwise loners and slackers [Wikipedia], but was later revised during the height of the dotcom era as tech savy geniuses that created many of the giant internet corporations that exist today.

I got into television studio production and theatrical sound in high school. Needless to say, I had a lot of exposure to several TV/film styles and genres. As a live sound board operator, I endured very good music and extremely bad music. As any teen will seek out a "life defining" piece of work (book, music, film), I found my solice from teen-angst by watching over and over again the film Over the Edge. I think the idea of the central character, Carl, struggling to make the choice between be a "bad boy" versus be a "good boy" was something I needed to decide, too.

Theatrical Trailer/Warner Brothers


Over the Edge was first released in 1979 and since then has become a cult classic. The film never enjoyed mass distribution to chain movie theaters and in some cases was pulled in certain cities due to community concerns. Eventually, HBO picked up the film two years later and gave the public a chance to see it on cable. The film was based on a newspaper article titled "Mouse Packs: Kids on a Crime Spree" by Charles Haas which appeared in the San Francisco Examiner. The article focused on the problem of vandalism in the planned community of Foster City, California which initially didn't provide outlets (places of recreation and entertainment) for youths in their masterplan. Teens in the area fell in to drug and alcohol abuse. The rising vandalism was the tipping point that stirred the community into action. Perhaps in response to the original incident and current societal issues, the local school district has conducted workshops to help students focus on being good citizens. Kudos to Foster City and the SMFC School District!

Emergency PTA Meeting Scene/Warner Brothers


The actual school where the "PTA meeting scene" in the film took place is Nathanial Bowditch Middle School. I doubt, however, what actually happened was to the degree depicted in the film. I was a little disappointed when I drove by this school and found that it wasn't as large or as modern looking as the school used in the film. But, it didn't look that much different than any other middle school in the SF Bay Area.

Aerial view of Foster City, California/Public Domain Image
Bowditch Middle School is located roughly at 12 o'clock along the shore.

Over the Edge was released on DVD recently to the delight of many fans of the film. My VHS copy off of HBO from 1982 died about five years ago from multiple playbacks. I don't watch the film as much as I used to, but I still bring it out every now and then (maybe 3-5 times a year). By watching the film over and over again, I believe I was able to "unload" my own teenage angst, instead of lashing out in violent and unproductive ways because I saw the negative results that could happen. These days, I like watching it for the nostalgia. The film now serves as an anchor point to my youth; an intregal part of my personal history and also when I seriously started practicing karate.

Over the Edge fan sites:

Claude Zachary
Jimmy's Over the Edge Site

These clips are the source of the anti-vandalism film shown to the students.

The Problem of Vandalism - Destruction: Fun or Dumb?
part 1 part 2

Raise Your Flag!...Higher!...Higher!

Here's something for all you Björk fans:



Human Behavior
Big Time Sensuality
Hyper Ballad w/Reactable
Army of Me
It's Oh So Quiet SUPER TERRIFIC!

Basho - Haiku Poet

Natsu-gusa ya
Tsuwamono domo ga
Yume no ato

Summer grasses
remains of stalwart warriors
imperial dreams afterwards

Matsuo Munefusa (his real name) lived between 1644-1694. Rejecting his noble samurai background, he spent part of his life wandering and studying Zen. During his latter years, he settled in Edo (present day Tokyo) where he composed his major body of work. He took on students after developing a reputation as an excellent poet, thus he was able to make enough money to support himself.

Munefusa would often retire to a simple hut woven out of banana leaves to work on his poetry. In Japanese, this style of hut was called a basho which was how he chose his pen name. Due to his many years of living in poverty and being alone for very long periods of time, his style of haiku is considered to be the most elegant in their simplicity and deep contemplation. He had the uncanny ability to capture poignant moments in nature and humble life in words.

Kono aki wa
Nan de toshiyoru
Kumo ni tori

This autumn
Why am I aging so
A bird flies towards the clouds

The basic formula for a haiku poem is: Three lines. Line #1 = 5 syllables. Line #2 = 7 syllables. Line #3 = 5 syllables. Usually, the first line mentions the season of the year, but can be at the end too. Obviously, the English translation/interpretations offered here don't follow this rule since the English equivalent to many Japanese words will differ in syllabic inventory.