Wednesday, June 25, 2008 at 11:42AM 
It is always difficult to lose a friend, and unfortunately, on Sunday June 1st, my friend Jerry lost his battle with heart disease and passed away from congestive heart failure. He was only 47. I created a video as a tribute for Jerry, see it after the break.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 at 5:32PM 
This video grew from my desire to share some fo the 'odds and ends' video clips that I've collected over the years. However, as we got deeper into the project, a new focus emerged. It is true that the car is unique, but it is the owners and their friendships that make the S2000 so special.
Watch the video after the break: S2000.Life
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 at 1:02AM 
On August 28th Hawaii was treated to a full Lunar Eclipse. Our position would provide some of the longest periods of "totality" anywhere. At about 11:30 the Earth's shadow started crossing the face of the moon.
Eclipse Friday, May 25, 2007 at 4:50PM In this, the 4th video in the series, Jack and Chloe race to find Lost Boy's wherabouts. Their journey takes them to an abandoned office used by the terrorists and they get help from an unexpected source.
Thursday, February 15, 2007 at 4:57PM Thursday, February 15. 2007
Jack Is Back!
Jack is Back! With Chloe's help he's trying to get to the bottom of the terrorist plot to catnap his brother Lost Boy and save the world from the explosive devices.
Download the latest video here: Interrogation
In case you missed the previous episodes, you can download them here:
"24 Cats" The story begins.....Jack and Chloe race to disarm a bomb!
"Framed" Jack is seen breaking into a bank.....all is not as it seems
Production notes: This video was done pretty quickly. The concept developed over a few days, and we planned the shots the night before we filmed it. That afternoon, we shot Chloe's seenes, and after it got dark, we did Jack's. We jury rigged the shotgun mic and a single light above the 'interrogation' area. Ironically the hardest part was getting Jack to scratch the chairs. It is ironic because he seems to do this every night when we DON"T want him to, but he wouldn't do it "on cue" Actors!
Saturday, January 6, 2007 at 5:00PM Saturday, January 6. 2007
A Tale of Three Commercials
I've been fooling around with this for a while but I thought I'd put up what is done so far. There are three commercials combined in this clip: 1) 60 second national Acura "Dreamer" spot 2) 30 second local Acura spot 3) 30 second spot that's my take on the theme.
Download Here: Three Commercials
As you'll see, the national spot is one of the best I've seen for Acura since the infamous "Hot Wheels" Integra commercial from 1994. Our local commercial was filmed by director James Serreno. He combined elements from the national spot into his commercial along with some local talent. He used a digital SLR shooting about 5 frames/second
My take re-uses two clips from the local spot (the showroom scenes), a few from the national spot, plus a bunch of odds and ends that were sitting on my hard drive that I'd shot for my various video projects. I filmed only three new sequences and they are the two time lapse sequences at the beginning and the one at the end. The music on my clip is stock audio footage from the Acura media kit.
Why did I do this? Why not? It was a fun exercise and really interesting to see how hard it is to get a message across in only 30 seconds. Most of my footage is shot with my MiniDV camcorder. I used Vegas 6 to edit the clip and played with color saturation and contrast to give it a similar "over exposed" feel as the others.
Friday, November 17, 2006 at 5:00PM Friday, November 17. 2006
Framed
Our cat Jack decided he wanted to make a 'withdrawl' from our coin sorter. Why? I don't know. I caught it on tape, and then it spiraled out of control. The next thing you know, I have a script, Chloe (our other kitten) has a part, I need my wife to act, and I'm on camera for another fun video.
Download here: Framed
Thursday, June 22, 2006 at 5:00PM hursday, June 22. 2006
Cats are People Too
In April 2006 we lost Bart, our 15 year old Somali to cancer. This was pretty tough for both us and for me, it was the first time since I was about 10 years old that I didn't have a cat in the house. We decided that we would get two kittens this time around, and preferably from the same litter. I couldn't bear the thought that we'd have two bickering cats for 15 years! Naturally, things didn't turn out exactly as we planned. I've got a collection of 4 videos to share so please download them on the next page and enjoy! (remember to "right click" and "save as")
Download here: Bart's Video
We got Bartholomew Simpson from a local breeder in Kona. He was a pure Somali, which for those that don't know, are a long haired cousin of the Abyssinian. Abys (as they are called) were possibly one of the earliest domestic cat breeds. These are the cats you see in the Egyptian paintings and were so revered that many were mummified with their Pharoes! The video footage is from Bart's last 6 months or so.
Download here: Chloe's Video
We were searching for another Ruddy (Bart's color) Somali because we loved the breed but found that Bart's breeder was no longer breeding cats. We were looking for two kittens this time, hopefully, a pair from the same litter. We located the lone Somali breeder on Oahu, and on April 30th we came home with Chloe.
Now, Chloe is a dear kitten, but she's not Ruddy colored and she's not two cats! These were the things I was looking for! Chloe is a Red Somali and the one greeting you on the front page. The video shows her first month with us prior to Jacks arrival and as you can see, she's quite a handful!
Download here: Kitty Boxing
Hawaii is rabies free. This is important to know because if a kitten comes from the US mainland, he/she will have to be quarantined for so long that the new owner would miss out on much of the "kittenhood" More importantly, the kitten misses out on the bonding and handling that is so important in their development.
I started searching Australian catteries for Chloe's companion immediately because I didn't want her to be too established in our home and possibly not accept a newcomer. Since Australia is also rabies free, there is no quarantine and pets are released immediately upon arrival. We found Jack at Shilabo Somali Cattery in Victoria and he arrived on May 30th after a 20 hour trip.
In order to ease the transition for both kittens, we kept Jack in a separate room for a few days and let them smell eachother but not see or touch. After three days, we allowed them to interact, "Kitty Boxing" followed (each "round" is a day)!
Download here: "24" Cats Video
We're huge fans of "24" and the two of the main characters are the namesakes for our new kittens. If your cats are waking you up in the morning, this may be the reason! Don't get mad at them, remember, millions of lives are at stake!
Production notes:
I shot most of the video in one morning by myself. When Fran came home, we worked on a few more shots that needed two of us. The editing took most of the following day to get it just right although the titles went in at the last moment. I wouldn't mind cutting it tighter to keep it moving faster, but I wanted to make sure everyone had time to read the sub titles.
Sunday, March 5, 2006 at 4:41PM Sunday, March 5. 2006
When our leases came up on the 2000 and 2001 S2000s, we decided that we weren't tired of the cars yet and re-leased new ones for 2004 and 2005. Since these two are essentially the same car, I'll talk about them together.
In 2004 Honda gave the S2000 it's mid-cycle refresh. The changes included a larger 2.2 liter engine, larger wheels and tires, restyled, bumpers and headlights, and revised suspension settings.
The new, larger displacement 2.2-liter engine still makes 240 horsepower but now its at a lower 7800 rpm verses that older engines 8300 rpm. More importantly the available torque rises to 162 lb.-ft. of torque @ 6500 rpm, compared to 153 ft.-lbs. @ 7500 rpm. On the surface this may not sound like much, but there are also new gear ratios that make driving around town a more relaxed afair. On the down side, we give up the 'bragging rites' of having one of the few production engines that rev to 9000 rpm.
The changes to the suspension include firmer front spring rates, and softer rear springs. These changes help to make the rear of the car more stabile and were designed to combat the (false IMO) allegations taht the older cars had oversteer problems.
Personally i'm lukewarm to the styling changes to the front bumper, but there is a 5% reduction in co-efficent of drag (cd) with the new bumpers. I do like the new rear LED taillights and the new oval exhaust tips.
On the road, I find that I don't need to run the engine as hard to have the same amount of acceleration. There are new synchronisers in the transmission so the shifts I do make are smoother, and this is expecially noticable when the car is cold.
Honda did soften the shocks a bit and I noticed this right away. It is more compliant over large dips on the freeway, but I think the shorter sidewalls of the new Bridgestone RE-050s make up for most of this because the exhibit less sidewall flex.
Since we have no track here on Oahu, the prospect of a "less raucous, more civilized" S2000 does not diminish my enjoyment of the car. I did miss the 9000 rpm at first. Actually, for months when I got on the freeway, I would hit the rev limiter. Eventually I got the hang of "short shifting" Heh, only in an S2000 would you call shifting at a mere 8000 rpm "short shifting" Happy driving!
Sunday, May 15, 2005 at 5:34PM S2000 Summer Cruise
In May of 2005, a few of us got together for a little summer cruise. The video was something I pieced together in a day and a half of quick editing. Many have commented on the choice of music.... too bad. If you don't like it, go make your own video!
(Edit: The original version with the Go-Go's music was taken down from YouTube. You can view a new version with different music here)
