Dec 1 2013
Merry Christmas 2013
Craig "hachiroku" Mercer
About Craig "hachiroku" Mercer
Posts by Craig Mercer:
Oct 14 2013
VNCS Japanese Cultural Fair 2013
The Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society
proudly presents
The 14th Annual (2013) Japanese Cultural Fair
Saturday, October 26th
Esquimalt Recreation Centre
10:00AM TO 4:00PM
FREE ADMISSION
Family Friendly!
For more information please visit www.vncs.ca and www.facebook.com/vncs.ca.
Sep 25 2013
Scotch Fest 2013
Auk wee I, Once again tiss time
to rattle the claymores and fill the Quaich.
Then let the flowing Quaich go round
and boldly let the pibroch sound
Till every glen and rock resound.
All wee clansmen and women are welcome
To the Twelfth Annual Scotch fest 2013.
So bring your See ya Jimmy and get ready to crack your kranium.
7:00 PM AT 2985 Harriet Rd Nov 09th 2013 Hope to see you all then.
Cheers
For new people who will be coming
Please bring a bottle of
Single malt scotch to share.
If scotch is not your thing,
Well bring beer or wine and have a good time.
Mar 27 2013
Fred Mercer has finished well.
Frederick Joseph Mercer
March 12th, 1940 – March 24th, 2013
In loving memory of Frederick Joseph Mercer who, after a gallant battle with cancer, passed away with his loving family by his side.
Fred was born in the country of Newfoundland in the city of St. John’s. In 1957 at the age of 17, he joined the Canadian Armed Forces to serve his country. He then spent the next 21 years primarily with the 1st Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada, then the 3rd Battalion PPCLI. Most of his career was spent as a member of the band, touring the world and captivating audiences with their performances. As a ”Band Rat” one of the highlights was performing in the Edinburgh Military Tattoo of 1962. Ultimately, Fred achieved his career goal of becoming the Drum Major for the band. When he wasn’t performing he served in the Anti-Tank platoon. After his departure from the army he took a position with Loomis Armored Car, safely transporting all of your money in and around Victoria for 15 years. Upon his retirement, Fred took up golf. Not one to take things lightly he became very good and in short order, recorded the first ever hole in one at Cordova Bay “The Ridge” Golf Course on July 9th, 1999.
Although serving his country was very important to him, what Fred held dearest to his heart was his family. Together with his wife Janice, they devoted their lives to raising four very responsible and loving children. The family bond instilled in their kids will be his ultimate legacy never to be forgotten.
When Fred was first diagnosed with this disease he chose to fight it on his own terms, with dignity and honour. This courageous position allowed him and his family to live with this illness and support him every step of the way. Fred definitely set the bar very high on how to leave this world.
Predeceased by his sister Lorraine, Fred is survived by his wife Janice, children Kirk (Sherri), Craig (Kana), Tony (Nicole) and Janet; his grandchildren Karsen, Rielyn, Grace, Wyatt, Kaila and Jordan; siblings Rita (Robert), Paul (Jenny), Ken (Diane), Deb (Michael); cousin Jeanette and many nieces and nephews.
The family wishes to express their gratitude to the nursing staff and volunteers of the Palliative Care Unit (PCU) at Saanich Peninsula Hospital along with Dr’s Winsby, Kennedy, Jovic and Marsh. In lieu of flowers, please give generously to the Palliative Care Unit at http://sphf.ca/donate. Please specify ‘other’ and enter ‘Palliative Care Unit’.
A celebration of life will be held on Friday, April 5th, 2013 from 1:30 – 4:00 pm at the Royal Canadian Legion, Trafalgar/Pro Patricia, 411 Gorge Road, Victoria BC
Dec 12 2012
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Well another year is coming to an end. 2012 was all in all a pretty good year. Grace lost her first teeth, Wyatt used the toilet for the first time, Kana kicked up the home schooling a notch where there is a teacher assigned to help Kana with lesson planning and also provides report cards for Yuki. I turned 40 this year and I changed jobs at VIHA (I left the Project Delivery Office to become the project manager on the SharePoint Services project.
Other notable events this year include my Dad (Fred mercer) getting diagnosed with cancer which prompted a mini-Mercer reunion where my Uncle Ken (whom I had never met in person before), Uncle Paul & Auntie Jenny and Auntie Debbie (whom I last saw when Mt. St. Helens erupted) came out from all over the country for a visit. Also Gav & Rhonda Joth got married, Nick and Denise had baby number two, Jeremy and Aki has baby number two, James & Hiromi had baby number one and Kinya and Mel are expecting baby number one any day now.
We are very thankful for this year of 2012 and glad it didn’t turn out the way the Mayans figured it would. From our family to you and yours we wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
Love and Prayers,
Craig, Kana, Grace Yuki and Wyatt Haku Mercer
Nov 16 2012
Wyatt’s Plarail Party
We’ve been building our Plarail collection over the last year and we got a big shipment of track sent over for Wyatt’s birthday. Obviously Kana, Yuki and I had to do most of the building since Wyatt is still a little young for three dimensional modelling. I tried to so some different things with the video (e.g.: putting the camera down at track level instead of the usual overhead shots) so this is mostly experimental and will hopefully lead to ever better plarail tracks and videos. So without further ado I give you “Wyatt’s Plarail Party – 2012-JUN-16”.
For more information on Plarail visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plarail.
Nov 1 2012
Scotch Fest 2012
Auk wee I, Once again tiss time
to rattle the claymores and fill the Quaich.
Then let the flowing Quaich go round
and boldly let the pibroch sound
Till every glen and rock resound.
All wee clansmen and women are welcome
to the Eleventh Annual Scotch fest 2012.
So bring your See ya Jimmy and get ready to crack your kranium.
7:00 PM AT 2985 Harriet Rd Nov 24th 2012 Hope to see you all then.
Cheers
For new people who will be coming
Please bring a bottle of
Single malt scotch to share.
If scotch is not your thing,
Well bring beer or wine and have a good time.
Oct 27 2012
Welcome to the NEW and IMPROVED Mercers’ Website!
We’ve been unsure what to do with our site ever since we moved back from Japan in the spring of 2007 as the site was totally focused on our life in Japan. We’ve made some minor additions over the past five years but nothing substantial.
Over the past few weeks we decided it that this website is our family scrap book, a time line of important events and as much as Facebook contains a lot of our lives…it doesn’t allow us to present all of the content in the way we want to. So we are REBOOTING and RELAUNCHING our website in WordPress and will be adding content (e.g.: recipes, Kana’s thoughts on homeschooling, family events, Plarail trains etc) regularly. In fact we’ve been adding new content already!
Cheers,
Craig, Kana, Grace Yuki and Wyatt Haku Mercer
Oct 25 2012
A tribute to LANage (1998-2005)
After a long career I retired the LANage website (www.lanage.ca) in October 2012. The domain was up for renewal and I could not think of a compelling reason to keep it up on the internet. However, I figured I should at least keep some of the materials from LANage avaiable to the internet and here is where they are, a tribute to LANage.
Back in 2000, Travis “fustainlach” Simpson, Brian “Kanuck” Howlett and I were roommates and headed up a local area network (LAN) gaming group called LANage. We used to host lan gaming parties where up to 16 folks would come over to the house and we’d game for an entire weekend. The core folks were:
Rod “Ralph” Apeldoorn
JP “Jippers” Chow
Abe “Xenocide” Friesen
Yascha “Lies” Friesen
Brian “Kanuck” Howlett
Tim “arkamedes” Levson
Craig “hachiroku” Mercer
Chris “TobyCat” Mueller
Francis “deJap” Porco
Scott “Retroporn” Rumpel
Travis “fustainlach” Simpson
Jordan “JMan” Taekema
Steve “Castor” Taekema
Mike “Retardical_Sam” Ward
Jason “Messiah” Wei
LANage Game Server Setup Guides
- LANage_Battlefield_1942_Server_Setup_Guide.pdf
- LANage_Call_of_Duty_Server_Setup_Guide.pdf
- LANage_Medal_of_Honor_Allied_Assault_Server_Setup_Guide.pdf
- LANage_Quake_3_Server_Setup_Guide.pdf
LANage Battlefield 1942 Unleashed: Episodes 1 & 2
They were good times indeed and we forged friendships back then that survive to this day. At the height of our LANage days we took to making films of in-game footage. The first one was actually done up by Retardical_Sam (Mike Ward) which inspired yours truly to get into making films which of course has led me to make dozens of short films on everything from Danjiri Matsuri to Plarail. Thanks Mike!
LANage Battlefield 1942 Unleashed: Episode 2 “Jacked Up and Good to Go!”
LANage Battlefield 1942 Unleashed: Episode 1 “Jeep Jumping”
Photos from LANage’s goneby
Oct 23 2012
Craig’s Westcoast Chili
Craig’s recipe for Westcoast Chili
Serves 8 / Prep 30 minutes / Cooking 90 Minutes
Dry Ingredients:
.675kg [1.5 lbs] Ground Beef or Steak (cut into bite size chunks)
1 medium to large onion
3 cloves fresh garlic
1 420gm can of tomatoes (plumb)
1 420gm can of tomato sauce
2 420gm cans of red kidney beans
1 420gm can of pinto (chili) beans
1 420gm can of corn
1 230gm (8 oz) of water chestnuts (in Japan I substitute chopped renkon)
2 potatoes (sliced into bite size chunks)
2 to 3 carrots (sliced diagonally)
1 yellow pepper (sliced into bite size chunks)
1 orange pepper (sliced into bite size chunks)
1 red pepper (sliced into bite size chunks)
1 beef bouillon packet
½ tsp oregano
½ tsp rosemary rosemary
1 tbsp brown sugar
More
Oct 10 2012
VNCS Japanese Cultural Fair 2012
The Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society
proudly presents
The 13th Annual (2012) Japanese Cultural Fair
Saturday, October 20th
Esquimalt Recreation Centre
10:00AM TO 4:00PM
FREE ADMISSION
Family Friendly!
For more information please visit www.vncs.ca and www.facebook.com/vncs.ca.
Oct 6 2012
Thanksgiving 2012
This weekend I am thankful for many things.
I’m thankful for my wife Kana who is a constant support and the love of my life. I’m thankful for our kids Yuki and Haku who fill our lives with so much fun.
I’m thankful for my Dad (Fred) who is facing the most difficult challenge of his life (he is suffering from terminal cancer). I’m thankful for my second Mom (Janice) who is supporting my Dad every step of the way. There is a line in most wedding vows “in sickness and in health”…I am pretty sure Janice can write the chapter on “in sickness”. So proud of you both…there are no words.
More
Apr 22 2012
Book Launch: GATEWAY TO PROMISE: CANADA’S FIRST JAPANESE COMMUNITY
April 22, 2012. 70 years ago today the Japanese-Canadian population of Victoria was exiled from Victoria. None of them ever returned…
Today, Kana, the kids and I were at Victoria city hall for the book launch of “Gateway to Promise: Canada’s First Japanese Community”. Gateway to Promise written by Ann-Lee and Gordon Switzer chronicles the first Japanese community in Canada…right here in lil ole Victoria. It was fitting that the history of these wonderful pioneers was launched on such an auspicious day….keep up the good work Victoria!
The book is available through Ti-Jean Press at http://www.tijeanpress.ca.
Feb 7 2012
Metric FTW!
Canada is supposed to be metric but living next door to the biggest users of the imperial system makes it a little tough to be 100% metric. When we were living in Japan though it was a totally different story. I actually got to use metric all the time…even got to the point where I could estimate length in centimetres and metres. It just so much easier. Imperial seems easier when you are estimating in in feet or inches but as soon as you are estimating in percents of an inch it falls apart…3/8ths or 2/16ths anyone? Seriously…WTH?!?
Dec 28 2011
Plarail – S-12 Shinkansen Doctor Yellow – S-12 ドクターイエロー
Doctor Yellow. A fine addition to the Mercer family collection.
Name: Doctor Yellow
Takara Tomy Name: S-12 ドクターイエロー
Power Source: 1xC Alkaline Battery
Manufacturer Number: 4904810635390
Release Date: 2002-07-06
Features: detachable cars
Service Type: Highspeed Diagnostic
In real life…
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Yellow
Doctor Yellow is the nickname for the high-speed test trains that are used on the Japanese Shinkansen (“Bullet Train”) dedicated express passenger train routes. The trains have special equipment on board to monitor the condition of the track and overhead wire, including special instrumented bogies and observation blisters.
The ‘Doctor’ part of the name is obvious from their test and diagnostic function, and the ‘Yellow’ part comes from the bright yellow color they are all painted. Some have a blue waistline stripe, some a green one. The original color scheme of yellow with a blue stripe (applied to the Class 921 track-recording cars) was created by reversing the colors (blue with yellow stripe) used on 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) narrow-gauge track-recording cars.
In build and appearance, they are very similar to production, passenger carrying Shinkansen trains, and line inspection is carried out at full line speed (i.e. up to 270 km/h/168 mph on the Tōkaidō Shinkansen).
Dec 28 2011
Plarail – Nankai Rapi:t – S-35 南海ラピート
If you are looking for cool trains in Japan, look no further that the Nankai Rapi:t. I used to see it all the time when working at Aim English Studio (at the old Hamadera-koen location). Wyatt got the Plarail version for Christmas in 2013. The Plarail version lives up to its real life namesake in speed. It is one of the fastest if not the fastest in the Mercer family collection.
Name: Nankai Rapi:t – S-35 南海ラピート
Takara Tomy Name: S-35 南海ラピート
Power Source: 1xC Alkaline Battery
Manufacturer Number: 4904810677567
Release Date: 2003-10-05
Features: detachable cars
Service Type: Passenger
In real life…
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapi:t
Rapi:t (ラピート rapiito) is a rapid train service between Kansai International Airport and Namba Station in Osaka, Japan. It is operated by Nankai Electric Railway, and the train service uses on the Nankai Main Line and the Airport Line. The name comes from the German word meaning rapid, pronounced [ʁaˈpiːt].
The futuristic and retro-style six-car Rapi:t trainsets, officially designated as the Nankai 50000 series, were designed by architect Wakabayashi Hiroyuki and won the Blue Ribbon Prize in 1995, 1 year after entering service.
Dec 26 2011
Plarail – Midosuji Line
I used to ride Midosuji Line every morning to get to work (at Royal Kids) in Yotsubashi, Osaka. It’s awesome having a piece of our life in Japan in our toy collection.
Name: Midosuji Line
Takara Tomy Name: ライト付大阪市営地下鉄御堂筋線21系
Power Source: 1xC Alkaline Battery
Manufacturer Number: 4904810763987
Release Date: 2008-05-22
Features: detachable cars
Service Type: Passenger
In real life…
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid%C5%8Dsuji_Line
The Midōsuji Line (御堂筋線 Midōsuji-sen) is a rapid transit line in Osaka, Japan, operated by the Osaka Municipal Subway. Constructed under Midōsuji, a major north-south street, it is the oldest line in the Osaka subway system and the second oldest in Japan, following the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line. Its official name is Rapid Electric Tramway Line No. 1 (高速電気軌道第1号線), while the Osaka Municipal Transportation Bureau refers to it as Osaka City Rapid Railway Line No. 1 (大阪市高速鉄道第1号線), and in MLIT publications it is referred to as Line No. 1 (Midōsuji Line) (1号線（御堂筋線）). On line maps, stations on the Midōsuji Line are indicated with the letter M.
North of Nakatsu it runs above ground in the median of Shin-midōsuji, an elevated freeway.
The section between Senri-chūō and Esaka is owned and operated by Kita-Osaka Kyuko Railway (北大阪急行電鉄 Kita Osaka Dentetsu), but is seamless to the passengers except with respect to fare calculations.
Dec 26 2011
Plarail – Hankyu Railway 9000 Series
It’s cool being able to get Plarail trains of the trains we have ridden in real life in Osaka. We didn’t ride the Hankyu line that often but it is an awesome edition to our Plarail collection nonetheless.
Name: Hankyu Railway 9000 Series
Takara Tomy Name: S-39 阪急電鉄9000系
Power Source: 1xC Alkaline Battery
Manufacturer Number: 4904810741640
Release Date: 2005-5-24
Features: detachable cars
Service Type: Passenger
In real life…
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hankyu_Railway
Hankyu Railway (阪急電鉄 Hankyū Dentetsu) is a Japanese private railway that provides commuter and interurban service to the northern Kansai region and is one of major businesses operated by Hankyu Hanshin Holdings, Inc. The railway’s main terminal is at Umeda Station in Osaka. The signature color of Hankyu cars is maroon.
The Hankyu network serves 1,950,000 people every weekday and offers several types of express service with no extra charge.
Dec 25 2013
Shinkansen 700 Series Hikari Rail Star – S-05 ライト付700系新幹線 ひかりレールスター
We took the Hikari Rail Star to Fukuoka in 2006 to visit Yuki’s Great-Grandmother Tomoe-san. It’s nice to have another part of our history in our Plarail collection.
Name: Shinkansen 700 Series Hikari Rail Star
Takara Tomy Name: S-05 ライト付700系新幹線 ひかりレールスター
Power Source: 1xAA Alkaline Battery
Manufacturer Number: 4904810755784
Release Date: 2007-04-26
Features: Headlights, detachable cars
Service Type: Highspeed Passenger
In real life…
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikari_%28train%29
Hikari (which means Light) is the name of a high-speed train service running on the Tōkaidō and Sanyō Shinkansen “bullet train” lines in Japan. Slower than the Nozomi but faster than the Kodama, the Hikari is the fastest train service on the Tōkaidō and Sanyō Shinkansen that is covered in the Japan Rail Pass.
By Craig "hachiroku" Mercer • Plarail (プラレール) •