The Good Old Days...

The Secret of Levitating Small Objects

2007-03-28T19:47:00.000-07:00

Like most kids my age, back when I was 11 years old in Cebu City, I was very interested in magic tricks. Not watching tricks...but performing them, to astound friends and strangers alike.

Back then, if you knew how to do a trick, that few others knew, you were a "cool" kid.

I knew a few magic tricks myself, such as:

1) The old extending thumb trick

2) Magic writing...the name "Meb" written on a small piece of paper would mysteriously transform to "Mel" after letting the paper fall to the ground.

3) Pulling a coin out of your teeth

4) Ash writing - Write a question on a piece of paper, burn it, rub ashes on your arm, and an mysterious answer appears out of the ether...written in ashes.

5) Passing a string through your neck trick

6) Mysterious bouncing toothpick trick - hold one toothpick across the other and the one on top starts bouncing all by itself.

So I knew a lot of tricks. Unfortunately, all the tricks I knew, were also known by several other kids in my neighborhood. Not COOL. No one wants to watch a trick they've seen several times before. I needed a new trick. Something no one else knew. I felt that must invent a new trick. Its the only way to be unique.

Then it hit me. Levitation. YES!

What could be cooler than levitating stuff? NOTHING!

It was time for some research. Unfortunately, there was no internet back then. So this was going to be tedious manual labor. I went to the school library and checked out a bunch of magic-related books.

There was some stuff about levitation there alright, but none I could use. They all required equipment I did not have or cannot get. Also some just described mysterious levitation by Indians without explanation. How can I use that?!

It was back to racking my good old brain. Now, mind you my brain was no academic marvel. I got OK grades in school (the equivalent of B's and C's in the US). But when it came to crazy schemes and streetsmarts...well thats what my brain was good at.

I thought about how to do a levitation trick all night. Strings was the most obvious way, but since I will be doing this trick up close to other kids and not on a far away stage, everyone will see the string. There had to be another way!

So I slept on this. When I woke up in the morning, an idea had formed. My subconcious must have been working overtime at night.

I tried out my idea...it worked! I immediately ran outside the house to call some of my friends. I asked about 3 people to come to my house and watch me do the trick.

I needed something to levitate. So I unplugged my ATARI game console. I sat on a chair and placed the Atari console on my lap. I placed my hands over the console and pretended to summon unseen powers. A few seconds later...the Atari console visibly rose about 2 inches from my lap.

My friends were astounded. Yeah, 2 inches of levitation may not seem like much...but watching it live and up close...it looks pretty cool. After a few more seconds, that console dropped back down.

One friend was skeptical. He said..."You must be moving one of your legs!"

I told him "No! You can even put your hands on my knees and hold them down to make sure they don't move!"

So he did. And I pretended to summon unseen powers once more. The Atari console rose once more. My friend did not feel my legs move at all. He was wide-eyed. He tried to look under the Atari console, but the moment he tried that, the console fell back down to my lap. But he was still astounded enough. They all asked me how the heck I did it.

I just said "It's a secret!"

Soon they would tell other kids and ask them to come to my house and watch the trick. Or ask me to go to their house and show them the trick there.

So for the next 2 days I entertained other kids from near and far with my levitation trick. I levitated books. I levitated toys. I levitated phonograph records.

But alas, much like the Roman Empire, nothing lasts forever. Not even a secret magic trick.

A few days later I was performing the trick again for a friend of a friend. He asked me to levitate a book. So I did.

As the book rose 2 inches from my lap, he asked how did I do that. I kept saying its a secret.

But he was really curious. And with lightning speed that I could not stop...his arm reached out...and grabbed the book.

And he saw. The secret of levitation has been exposed. He laughed out loud when he figured out how I did it. He told the others. They all laughed out loud too. Both at me and at themselves for not figuring this simple trick out sooner.

So what did he see?

...he saw a bulge in my shorts. :)

So how did I do it?

You should have figured it out by now. :)

As an ancient Greek Philosopher once said "Give me a lever long enough, a fulcrum, and I can lift the Earth."

I merely followed that philosopher's advice. But on far smaller objects than the Earth, and by using a "built-in" natural lever.

Still didn't get it?

It's very simple. All males have an extra "muscle"..."down there". And it is strong enough to lift such things as Atari Consoles and books...well, if it is standing at attention, that is. :)

And that my friends, is the secret to levitating small objects.

Home-Made Ninja Stars (Starblades) Part II

2007-03-26T18:25:00.000-07:00

With new Ninja Star design ideas racing in my head, I rushed to the "bodega" where we stored all kinds of tools and old junk. I needed a piece of flat metal. Thin enough to cut with the sheet-metal cutter. Nothing. Damn!

Then I remembered the under-construction house across the street. I rushed outside-- sheet-metal cutter still in hand--and lucky for me the carpenters were on break. I snuck into the still uncompleted house. I found some small pieces of flat "galvanized iron" (a common sheet-metal roofing material in Cebu), I err...borrowed...a bunch of those and rushed back to my house and went into my room.

Using a pencil and ruler, I carefully drew my desired Ninja Star shape into the sheet metal. It was an 8-pointed star. Then carefully, I cut the shape out. It took almost an hour of careful work. But the result was a sight to behold. I held up my fantastic and lethal creation.

I rushed outside immediately. I tested my new Ninja Star on all kinds of things. First target...the kitchen door again. I threw it hard. WHOOSSHHH! THUD!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah! Fantastic. It cut into the door deep. I needed more targets...so I went outside.

I tried it on a banana tree. THUMP!!!!!!! It buried itself almost halfway into the soft flesh of the tree. Next target...papaya tree...THUCK!!!!!!!!! It buried itself about an inch into the tree. Hahahahaha! This is the best toy ever!!!!!!!!!!

Pretty soon other kids were watching me play with my new toy. They asked me where I got it, or who made it for me. I proudly declared that I made it myself!!! They were in awe! Everyone wanted to give it a try. So I let some of the kids try, specially those who were my friends. They all loved it and wanted to make their own. Some kids went back to their house to get their own metal cutters, and search for their own raw materials. Since I had spare raw materials, I invited my friends to my house. We also had 2 sheet-metal cutters, so all the better.

Within 1 hour, the garage of my house had been converted into a Ninja Star factory. There were about 10 - 12 kids now designing Ninja stars, cutting them out, sharpening them. I made another Ninja star for myself. A 12-pointed star this time. I figured the more points it had, the more likely it will embed itself on its target.

Everyone had a different design. Some had simple 4 or 3 point stars. Others had numerous teeth around the edge. It was fantastic.

After finishing making these lethal toys, we decided to do some target practice. So we went outside and set up some targets: blocks of wood, old action figures, a piece plywood with concentric circles drawn, etc.

We took turns throwing our Ninja Stars at the targets. But to our dismay, we found they were not that accurate. Yeah, its easy hitting a door, or a tree. But trying to hit a small block of wood from some distance away was hard. Worse...the Ninja Star's trajectory tended to curve or the wind would blow it off.

This problem needed to be solved!

We discussed this problem. Several theories were raised and discarded. But there were 2 main points: 1) real Ninja stars (or at least those in movies) were made of heavier metal and 2) they all had holes in the the center.

Well...using heavier, thicker metal was out of the question...we don't have raw materials for that...and even if we did, how the heck are we gonna cut it?!!

So we tried drilling and punching a hole in the centers of our Ninja Stars.

That did it!!!!!!!!!

With a hole in the center, the our lethal Ninja Stars found their targets more often! And it was less likely to be blown by the wind...the wind can pass through the hole.

And soon the whole neighborhood got into the new craze. In the next few weeks, almost every kid (well, almost every MALE kid) would have his own Ninja Star. "Targeting ranges" were set up here and there. Little kids were honing their Ninja Star throwing skills. I myself had become good enough to hit small targets from 25-30 meters away. Fortunately with all these Ninja Stars flying around...nobody got hurt. And so it went on. I looked with great pride at the new craze I had started. It lasted for about a couple of months, until we grew bored of the Ninja Stars, and found some other new things to do. But I was proud of what I had done. I, a mere 11 year old, had made his own Ninja Star, and started a craze the whole neighborhood would follow. That, was so so so so so cool!!!!!!!!!!!

Home-Made Ninja Stars (Starblades)

2007-03-22T18:15:00.000-07:00

Remember when you were a kid, and when you watched those Kung-Fu and Karate movies? Remember after the movie when you would try to imitate the super-cool Kung-Fu moves? Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Monkey style, Eagle style, Tiger style...hiyahhh!!!!! And Dragon Style! Yeah...wasn't that cool ha?

All these Kung-Fu and Karate movies were cool, but sometime in the mid-80's a new kind of martial arts movie style became popular. The Ninjas had invaded our Betamaxes*! Ninjas...highly trained masked assassins, armed to the teeth with all sorts of fantastic weaponry! The ninja films quickly became popular around my neighborhood. Everyone was renting those ninja tapes, or inviting friends to watch ninja films in their houses. My favorite ninja weapon was the Ninja Star--or Starblade as it is known in the Cebu. So elegant, so simple, yet so lethal.

I was about 11 or 12 years old back then. I dreamed of having my own Ninja Stars! Yeah...some of you may think thats insane. What would a kid do with lethal Ninja Stars, huh? Well lots of stuff. Throw it at the door. Throw it at the Papaya tree. Throw it at the Banana tree. Throw it at the neighbor's dog...err...ok...I didn't actually do that one. Basically, I wanted to pretend to be a Ninja and throw it at imaginary opponents...which could be represented by...a wooden door (yeah, easy target...haha). I eventually saw REAL Ninja Stars FOR SALE at Robinson's (a local mall), in the 3rd Floor. REAL NINJA STARS FOR SALE! How cool! But...unfortunately the price was out of reach for a kid. 200 - 500 pesos...per piece!!! Crap!!!!!! Back in the 80's that was a load of money (well even today its a lot of money for ONE Ninja Star!) So buying them was out of the question. As weeks passed by, I slowly forgot about my dream of having Ninja Stars.

Then, a few weeks later ...a certain kind of home-made toy became "uso" (in-fashion) in our neighborhood. I forgot its exact name. But I'll describe it and I made a simple drawing of it in Photoshop below. It consists of a flattened bottle-cap ("tansan" in the Visayan language), which had two small holes punched near the center. A loop of string was passed through these holes.

To use this toy, you held the opposite ends of the loop of string with your thumbs. You would then cause the string to twist on itself by moving your hands in a circular motion. This makes the bottle cap travel in repeated small circles. The drawing above is not in a correct scale...the string should be much longer. Anyway, after the string has twisted on itself a bunch of times...the fun begins. You pull at the ends of the loop of string with your thumbs. Back and forth. The flattened bottle cap spins super fast. It's now a mini-gyroscope...with a cutting edge.
You then look for another kid who also has this kind of toy. You would then face each other and try to cut the other kid's string with your spinning bottle cap. First string to be cut loses. Yeah the bottle cap could fly off and hit you in the face...but fortunately that didn't happen...much. Anyway, after winning, then losing a few of these matches...I decided to improvise.

Using a sheet-metal cutter I found in our "bodega" (a storage area), I cut small teeth at the edge of my flattened bottle cap, hoping this would improve my chances during competition.

I was eager to try out my new improved toy. So I found some kids to challenge. Unfortunately...it didn't work out as I envisioned. Sometimes the teeth did their job and cut up the opponent's string. Sometimes it just got stuck round the opponent's string. Too bad. I needed to rethink my invention. So back to the "bodega" it was.

I decided to make a bigger spinning blade. A flattened bottle cap was too small. So I went to the kitchen and found the discarded top of a can of pork and beans. I flattened that top as much as I could with a hammer. Then I cut big-arse teeth around the edge, poked 2 holes near the center, and put a loop of string through it. I now had a giant, sharp-toothed spinning machine. I went out again looking for new kids to challenge. But, no one would take my challenge. "You are cheating!" they said. "It's too big!" or "It's dangerous! it might hit my eye!"

How unfortunate...a brand new invention and no one wanted to play with me. So I used my spinning machine on poor defenseless leaves and plants. Many innocent leaves were laid to waste. Then a few hours later...I finally get a challenger.

We face each other...readied our spinners. And the fight was on! He showed no fear at my giant, sharp-toothed spinning machine. I thought I was gonna win hands down. And then one of my spinner's teeth got caught in his string. Both strings spun around each other in one big mess. We had to cut our strings to free the spinners. My new invention has failed again. I was ready to give up.

On my way back home...I held my now useless sharp-toothed spinner in my hands, not knowing what to do next. As I entered the gate of my house, I said something equivalent to "screw it!" and threw my spinner away. Thud! It hit the door. It didn't fall! It was stuck AT THE DOOR! Then it hit me...all this time I had a bonafide, genuine, lethal Ninja Star in my hands and I didn't even know it!!!!!!!!!!!!! Awesomeness!!!!!!!!!

I immediately went to the door. The spinner...err...now the Ninja Star...had embedded itself by half an inch into the wooden door to our house's kitchen. My smile must have reached my ears. There was no need to buy super- expensive Ninja stars at the store when YOU CAN MAKE THEM YOURSELF!!!!!!!! I ran to the bodega to make more, and improve on the design. My almost-forgotten dream had come true. I was now the proud owner of a genuine, bonafide, lethal Ninja Star!

...to be continued.

* For those who are reading this from US or Canada...Betamax was the standard video player in the Philippines during the 80's. VHS came later.

Welcome

2007-03-22T18:04:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog! I am a webmaster in my early 30's. I grew up in Cebu City, Philippines, until I was 15 years old. After that, my family moved abroad. I have moved several times since.

Life is good now. But looking backwards in time. . .I can't help but enjoy the memories of growing up in Cebu. Those were some wild times. You really, really got to enjoy being a kid. Ain't nothing else like that.

I remember that if your parents won't buy you the toy you want to play with, YOU BUILD YOUR OWN FREAKIN TOYS! Sometimes they suck...sometimes they rock. Such as the time I discovered an easy way to make real Ninja Stars (or "Starblades" as we called them in Cebu). But that is for another blog post. And the time I figured out how to make my itty bitty "Secret Gun," a popular toy air gun, more "lethal" by adding long pins to the rubber pellets...boy, did that get me in trouble. And the time we found a real, bonafide, geniune World War II era Japanese hide-out cave in the mountains....that was the coolest! But again...that's for another blog post. So, please visit my blog often. It's gonna be one wild ride back in time.