It’s no secret that I am a major germophobe. In fact, Mahealani has chided me more than once for excessive use of antibacterial products. I have since cut back on my addiction to hand sanitizer, but my hair still stands on end when I think about how many germs lurk in the gym. Simply pondering the sheer volume of people sweating all over the place makes me cringe. Bacteria, fungi, staph, viruses… Short of carrying a can of Lysol with me to every machine, I am still trying to figure out a way to keep as many gym germs off of me as possible.

I have a tendency to touch my face, especially when I’m sweating. As I work out, I must make a conscious effort NOT to touch my face, or rub my eyes or nose. I have started carrying two towels, one to wipe my face and the other to wipe down the handles on the machine before I touch it.

What do you do to keep the germs at bay? Or do normal people not worry about stuff like that?

“Living Pidgin” a play by Lee Tonouchi
Currently playing at Kumu Kahua Theatre
now through February 11, 2007

If you understood the paragraph above, you ought to check out Lee Tonouchi’s production entitled “Living Pidgin” which is currently being featured at the Kumu Kahua Theatre in downtown Honolulu. Hubby’s friend “Jerm” (as Shari calls him) is a cast member, so we went to see it this past weekend. Hearing pidgin English spoken, and even celebrated, really put me in touch with my roots. Like any pidgin or creole language, it started as a bridge to stand in the gap between cultures and languages. During the early plantation days, it became a common ground for immigrants of different ethnic origins to communicate. Pidgin English isn’t something that we should disdain, but it remains an integral part of our local culture. It’s something that I will always relate to and hold close to my heart.

With that said, go see the play. It features a very well-written script and a talented cast that will keep you in stitches all night. For a synopsis and cast photos, visit the Kumu Kahua Theatre website.

So, go check um, go check um, go.

Exercising isn’t high on my “favorite things to do” list, but a number of factors have prompted me to take this endeavor of health and fitness more seriously.

1. My Reproductive Endrocrinologist (i.e., infertility specialist) put me on birth control pills to regulate my hormones - or something - in preparation for in vitro fertilization (IVF). I’m afraid of gaining an inordinate amount of weight.

2. Last time I checked, my triglycerides were edging toward borderline and my “good cholesterol” was too low. One of the major factors to help improve this is regular cardio exercise.

3. High blood pressure and high cholesterol run in my family, on both sides, so I’m trying to stave off the inevitable for as long as possible.

4. If getting pregnant is in God’s plan for me, I want to be fit so that the delivery will hopefully be a little less painful.

My new Health and Fitness Blog will record the daily ups and downs that come with trying to stay with a regular exercise and healthy eating regimen. Don’t get me wrong, I fully intend to continue to enjoy dining out, but I want to be smarter about what I eat on a daily basis — not necessarily with weight loss at the top of the list, but with health as my primary goal.

I’m taking baby steps: moving away from eating fat-filled plate lunches Monday thru Friday and trying to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into my diet. Avoiding chocolate will be my greatest challenge and while I will not completely deprive myself of my favorite treat, I hope to reduce my intake.

So, if you’re interested in what I’m eating and how I’m doing with my exercise regimen, visit http://health.champuru.net and you can read about it in minutiae. Admittedly, it’s a little embarrassing to share how much I really eat, but I guess that’s part of it, right? Hey, everyone who knows me is well aware that I don’t have a dainty appetite.

I hope to update it daily, or as often as possible. Shari will also be participating and posting her progress to the site as well.

And, as an aside, we’re always looking for more members to contribute to the site to chronicle your own journey toward healthier living. Just drop me a note and I’ll set you up!

WordPress 2.1 is wonderful, especially when you apply a Theme that actually works.

Today, in a fit of frustration over my Blogroll suddenly disappearing from my page, I decided to give in and get a new, WP 2.1-compatible theme for champuru.net. And boy, am I glad I did.

I discovered fun, exciting features like Sidebar Widgets. Oh, the geeky glee!

I also jumped on the MyBlogLog bandwagon at the same time. Tweaking widgets and what-nots is how I spent part of my afternoon as I recovered from this nasty pill-induced fatigue I’ve been fighting recently. I don’t know if this tiredness is really caused by the pill, but I have to blame something, right?

It’s 10:00 and if I head to bed right now, I might be able to grab 8 hours of sleep before another Manic Monday begins.

Since Shari Twittered a request for a picture of my new haircut, I decided to take one using Photo Booth.

In December when I previously got my hair cut, I had gone with a bob, shorter in the back, angled toward the front. When it grew out, it started looking bell-shaped, which I did not appreciate, so I decided to go in the opposite direction: heavier on top, choppier on the bottom. I also opted to go with the long bangs, a look I haven’t done very much in the past. I actually wanted something that looked edgy and modern, but my stylist is pretty conservative so this is the end result. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. Being conservative tends to result in less potentially atrocious haircuts.

I love my stylist, but she tends to over-style my hair after cutting it. Today, with a handful of mousse, she used the flat iron and flipped the ends up. She also gave me quite a bit more height on the top and styled the bangs well away from my forehead. Needless to say, with my naked forehead and flippy hair, I looked like a throwback from the 50’s. In hindsight, I really should have taken a picture of it, but it was a little too scary, in my opinion. When I got home, I shampooed it (again), restyled it, and felt much happier.

So, this is the current champuru look. Like? I can’t decide.

Olelo Community Television
Mapunapuna, Hawaii

I spent the past few days here at the Olelo Television Studios sequestered in an Edit Bay, becoming intimately familiar with Final Cut Pro 5 and having the time of my life editing footage from last Friday’s formal military retirement ceremony that I shot.

This ambitious endeavor is considered my “first works” — which is basically my required project to be recognized as a “certified producer” by Olelo. Mind you, the minimum runtime for a first works is 3 minutes. I only exceeded that by 72 minutes. You know me, always extreme.

As a perfectionist, I am not completely pleased with the end result. My inexperience with the camera is obvious and picking up a defective tripod didn’t help matters either. One of the locks on the tripod was stripped, so the camera kept drifting to one side. I ended up holding the camera in place for the entire 90 minutes of shooting which did not make me a happy camper. I also learned (after the fact) that when you are doing a LOT of zooming, it’s better to use the zoom rocker instead of the zoom ring: it’s a smooth “zooooooooooom” versus “zooom… zoooom…. zoooom.” Ugh.

Oh, and not to mention, I ran out of tape. The ceremony was supposed to be well under 75 minutes, so I had 80 minutes of tape. I should know never to cut it so close — and always prepare for the worst-case scenario, which in this case was a ceremony that ended up running close to 90-minutes. I ended up trying to preserve tape near the end, so I missed some important footage. Luckily, the second cam captured enough of the action, but the audio, of course, was not up to par on those segments. Another life lesson.

Of course, it’s all a learning experience. It’s just too bad that this particular project is my first. This video will undoubtedly be a keepsake for the retiree and his family, I just wish I could have done a more professional-looking job. But heck, it’s free — and you get what you pay for.

Olelo TV Edit Bay
Equipped with Power Mac G5

With all that said, I was very happy with the editing since I managed to integrate some footage from a second Mini-DV camera that took reaction shots, different camera angles, and closeups that I wasn’t able to get. The audio also seemed pretty decent, too. Using an audio set up that was a little more complicated than I had intended certainly paid off in the end. (We used a mixer, a 100-ft. cable to the sound board, a second 100-ft. cable connected to a shotgun mic for the band, and the on-board mic on the camera.)

For better or for worse, I submitted my show for airing on Olelo. I’m not sure how many people will actually sit around to watch all 75-minutes of it, but maybe it’s better if they don’t anyway — for my sake.

FOOTNOTE: This experience has piqued my interest and creativity and makes me want to attempt to write/direct/shoot/edit my own special. On what? I don’t know. Maybe a feature on “Hawaii’s Bloggers”? Share your ideas! Want to be on TV? Drop me a line! Come on, indulge your inner idol!

One of the hazards of eating out.

This is typically not the kind of thing you want to see seasoning your macaroni salad. Unfortunately, I had already eaten most of my lunch by this time — although, thankfully, not much of the salad, since it was a tad too mayonnaisey for me.

The discovery of the loose appendage prompted me to wonder what happened to the rest of it and gave me a sick feeling, knowing that there was a good possibility that I had already ingested other roach bits. Blech.

On the bright side: All I need to do to motivate myself to prepare a home lunch is to view this picture at full resolution.