robataka's blog

This Year's Challenge

2012-01-29T11:53:00.001-05:00

As I mentioned in my New Year's post, last year I was able to successfully quit smoking. However, it did come at a price - I gained 30 pounds. Since coming back from Japan and prior to quitting smoking I had already put on 20-30 pounds. So that's about 60 pounds in 5 or 6 years. That's pretty bad.

Now, the reality of it is that the last 30 pounds is what really made it bad. That gain in weight was a direct result of quitting something that is even more dangerous and damaging to my health - smoking. Last year, I knew I was gaining weight and eating more "snacks". I made a conscious decision to not worry about it until this year, or rather after a full year of not smoking. I completed that full year so it is time for this year's challenge.

Sharing Links on Google is Hard

2012-01-28T18:15:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I was just generally playing around but most particularly because my wife is doing a lot of studying lately. In particular she is studying Hyland Software's modules and things since she now works there with me. But just as importantly, and due to company requirements she is studying ECM, or Enterprise Content Management.

So I was trying to figure out an easy way for us to collaborate on sharing information, notes, and links to various sites. Being a Google fanboy, at least outside of work, I tried a couple of different things. I tried to create a collection in Google docs but that only lets you create "office" like documents, not share links unless they are embedded in the document.

Then I remember Google bookmarks and went there. Then I realized that they had taken away lists, and therefore, the ability to share your bookmarks stored there with anybody else - which to be really blunt makes the whole thing completely and totally useless (particularly since Chrome has such a great bookmark feature that you can sync across machines for straight up non-shared bookmarks that you do not intend to "share")

Now I guess I could go out and create a google site for it which makes the most sense in many, many ways. My document collections could all be presented there, I'd have the ability for straight up content and I'd be able to create a links collection. Like http://www.neohawk.org/home/mylinks

But all of that seems like overkill in today's "social" world. It strikes me that there should be an easy way for me to have "pages", links, documents that are as easy to update and maintain as posting updates to my +Google+ stream. And to direct certain posts certain "circles", or limited group of people.

Or you would think that Google would have a way to share links. But it doesn't which is fairly mind-boggling. So much so that I think I'm missing something, but for the life of me I cannot figure out why it's so hard to share links a la Del.icio.us using Google.

Happy New Year from the Neohawk.org Family

2012-01-02T13:03:00.000-05:00

I tweeted and posted very short messages at midnight. However, those were scheduled as I really didn’t want to struggle to get them through to the network as the rest of the United States did as well. I wanted to take my time for a real New Year’s greeting.

Hopefully this post will fulfill that greeting.

--

2011 was a year of transition for the Neohawk.org family. Overall a good year but what’s a good year without some stress to make sure the gray hairs arrive. Here’s the rundown.

Elly finished her freshman year at American University on the Dean’s List and now an “Honor’s Student”. She spent the summer at home working at Target but took off for AU as soon as she could. And this time she pretty much took everything with her, sort of a message to us that she ain’t coming back to Cleveland “to visit”. It’s bittersweet. I cannot help but be proud and excited for her. At the same time it’s sad to think that it’s over already and that she’s her own person now and not my little Elly.

One of the best things for us her parents was the fact that Elly has had the chance to take up dancing again. She is taking a Ballet class as part of her schedule but she also participated in two other performances as well. Arisa and I went to see the AU in Motion (Facebook page) in November. The show overall was tremendous. Given there was wide array of dancers from good to bad, from classical ballet to hip hop and Bollywood. The dancers clearly had worked hard on everything and the show was fun. To be honest though Elly stood out. That’s largely because her piece is designed that way (she was the Sugar Plum Fairy) but also because she was the by far the best ballet dancer.
Read more »

Happy New Year! 明けましておめでとうございます

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year! 明けましておめでとうございます

Christmas 2011

2011-12-26T11:10:00.003-05:00

So like a lot of other people, we celebrated Christmas yesterday and are spending today recovering. It's a gorgeous day outside and I am inside writing this post.

Oh, no I'm not. See ya later.

So If

2011-12-13T20:49:00.000-05:00

I were to post to my blog would the world care? would google plus notice?

Pizza at Crostatas

2011-11-12T14:15:00.000-05:00

This last Thursday night Arisa and I, just the two of us, went out for dinner. This is not an occurrence that happens often. In fact, it's been pretty rare. Though I expect it will start happening a lot more than it has in the past since Elly and Ken are off at college and George isn't far behind.

In particular, on Thursday during the day at work Arisa had her OBP1 certification test at Hyland Software. Yes, Arisa and I now both work at Hyland. Anyway, Hyland has a fairly extensive training program for new employees with "certification" tests afterward. Needless to say all the training is in English as are the tests. So for Arisa it was a very long and mentally tiring day. George wanted to go see the Mayfield Varsity Soccer team play Shaker in the District Finals at Brush High School so we dropped him off and went to eat.

Official Google Reader Blog: Upcoming changes to Reader: a new look, new Google...

2011-10-24T10:05:00.000-04:00

Hattip to John Hardy for this Google+ post.

Official Google Reader Blog: Upcoming changes to Reader: a new look, new Google...: Posted by Alan Green, Software Engineer In the next week, we’ll be making some highly requested changes to Google Reader. First, we’re goi...

If you read through that article it seems like a pretty cool thing in that there will be tighter integration between Google Reader and Google+. I like that idea. However,
Google continues, unless there is something left out of the article that we don't know about, to ignore Google Apps. There "improvement" for Google Reader is nothing of the sort, at least for me since I use it with my Google Apps account.

Here is what they said:

Reader's social features will soon be available via Google+, so in a week's time we'll be retiring things like friending, following and shared link blogs inside of Reader.
We think the end result is better than what's available today, and you can sign up for Google+ ...

So what they are doing is taking away functionality from Reader. That functionality will be replaced with Google+. So far so good. Read that next line though which says "you can sign up for Google+".

Well, no I can't. I have a Google Apps account and Google Apps cannot sign up with Google+ or anything else that requires a Google profile.

Neohawk's New Homestead

2011-09-10T19:44:00.000-04:00

Most of you know that the Northeast Ohio Hawkins Family moved to a new house at the end of June. For the first time ever, Arisa and I have purchased a house!

Our new homestead is only 5 or 10 minutes away from our previous residence, so George will be attending the same school - Mayfield High School. We did move to a new city though and we are now in Highland Heights, but Mayfield City School District includes both Mayfields (Heights and Village), Gates Mills and Highland Heights. The house is about a 5-10 minute bike ride to and from the school.

The house is not that much bigger than the house we were in previously, but the layout is much, much better. The house overall is in much better shape and incredibly higher quality of any house we've lived in so far. We bought it with the idea that it'll be really for just Arisa and I as we'll be empty nesters soon. George has three more years of high school, but beginning this fall both Ken and Elly will spend most of their lives away from home. Elly, of course, is a sophomore at American University while Ken is a freshman at Villanova University.

While the house isn't that big we have close to one and a half acres (約6000平方メートル). Which for me means alot of gardening space. As you know, in our previous residence we did some gardening. Unfortunately, last year I was traveling too much to take much care of it and this year too much flooding to even start. And then when it dried up some we had already decided to move so I never did plant a garden this year regardless of this post that indicates otherwise.

This summer for me was mostly be about planning and preparing for next year. I will be planting at least two gardens and a third one eventually. For the most part, these will be vegetable gardens, though I may throw in some flowers for variety. In fact, we have a little "hill" that's up against the Euclid Creek where I am planting some native flowers such as the purple cone flower and some others. Hopefully, these flowers will fill up the area instead of the weeds that were there until Elly and I ripped them out. In addition to this area, I will be building a raised garden in front of our shed. The plan is for it to be fairly big but we are building it in halves. The first half I'll do this fall, the second half next fall. There is no reason to rush any of this since we'll be here for a while (knock on wood).

One of the big things we need to figure out is what trees to cut down and/or trim. There are three maples next to the house that need to go as they are pushing up against the foundations and will probably cause leaks. We also have two beautiful but massive oak trees in the yard. Both 50 - 70 years old. Unfortunately between the two of them they pretty much shade the whole yard making it very difficult to figure out where to put gardens. But it is more than that - we have probably 6 maples other than the first three I mentioned, 3 pines, another oak tree, an ash tree, a hickory tree and some spruce/evergreen trees and shrubs. Oh, and a dying cherry tree.

I intend to cut down some myself, others we are debating to keep them and, therefore, only trim them. Others we just aren't sure we want to pay to cut them down. So it's a problem we're trying to figure out. And in the meantime I am dreading the fall when all these trees shed their leaves.....

That's enough for now for this post as it has already taken me close to two months to write it. Time to get it out of the way and move on.

グーグルプラス（Google+)

2011-07-12T23:17:00.006-04:00

最近、グーグルはグーグルプラスというソーシャルネットワークをリリースしました。最初は登録を限定していて、いまでも制御しているみたいですが、基本的にグーグルアカウントを持っていて招待があれば入れます。

フェースブックとある程度似ているけど、違う面もあります。僕は結構気に入ったところが携帯電話で握った写真を自動的にG＋にアップロードします。アップロードされている写真が最初は自分しか見えない状態で、どなたに見せるかを決めるわけです。

共有、公開などが一般公開（どなたでも見える）から一人のみということができます。g＋ではサーカル（輪）を他のグーグルプラスのメンバーを入れて整理します。例えば、僕の場合は「Japan」、「仕事同僚」、「グーグル」、「友達」、「家族」などのサーカルをとおして整理しています。

自分としてはがっかりした点がneohawk.orgの独自ドメインでブログ、メールなど、オンラインアイデンテティ（？Identity)を作っています。Neohawk.org はグーグル・アップスを利用しています。残念ながら、グーグルアップスのアカウントでグーグルアップスに参加することができないんです。これがグーグルBuzzと同じ問題です。

結局はプロフィルが問題になっていて、どのようにグーグルアップにプロフィルを提供するかは解決できてないままです。 AppsをBuzzのユーザーに提供するぞといったのが一年前ぐらいですが、まだできていない。同様にグーグルプラスに提供するぞと約束しているのですけど、一切いつごろ提供するかを一言も言っていません。

残念です。

Really, AT&T?

2011-06-25T13:31:00.000-04:00

So as some of you may be aware, the Northeast Ohio Hawkins Family is changing residences once again. We had been renting a house for since 2008 or 2009 but that lease is up at the end of this month. Yes, in just a few days.

So I call up AT&T to have my Uverse service moved. We are shutting it off on the 29th and wanted service to start up as soon as possible. Unfortunately, "as soon as possible" meant July 11th for AT&T. Okay, so I can grasp they have full schedules of installing.

But what surprised me is this: 1) I need to return all of the equipment, 2) I will need to pay $36 activation fee for turning the service on on the 12th of July when the installer will bring new equipment.

Huh? I'm not cancelling service, I'm moving it. My equipment isn't broken why do I have to go to all the effort to take it to a UPS office? And pay $36 to activate the account? What!?

But most amazing of all is that they fully intend to charge me for the two weeks I will not have access to their service.

Really, AT&T? Really?

International Folk Festival - June 26

2011-06-23T12:03:00.003-04:00

Upcoming Events at Arts Collinwood - Waterloo Arts Fest

2011-06-23T11:59:00.002-04:00

Power Breakfast

2011-05-30T10:28:00.001-04:00

This is my favorite "power breakfast". The calories in this thing have to be huge. But it's not completely unhealthy either. In fact, take out the bacon (God No!) and the hash browns and it should be downright brilliantly healthy.

First off the omelette uses cholesterol free eggs subsititute. So while the calories may still be there no cholesterol from the eggs. I chopped and cooked up green onion, yellow onion, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, garlic clove, mushrooms and spinach. For the sauce on top, the same but cooked with one small tomato and other seasonings (basil, etc) Hell, even our egg-hater Ken likes this omelette.

The granola bar is a creation of Arisa's. It is really good actually and feels more like a candy bar. It contains over 15 different ingredients including oatmeal, peanuts, quinoa, almosts, and various dried fruit. It probably has too much sugar for it to actually be considered "healthy", but I'll tell you what it's really good. Arisa's work mates are asking for the recipe but she won't give it out - but that's more because I think she's still trying different balances of all the ingredients.

Last but not least is the smoothy. This smoothie is truly a power drink, exceedingly high in protein and vitamin C. I have been experimenting with various fruits and in various proportions. This particular drink includes 1 quarter lime, 1 half lemon, 1 apple, 1 bannana, 1 orange, 1 kiwi, 20 blueberries, 10 blackberries, 10 raspberries, 4 strawberries, 4 large spoonfuls of nonfat yogurt, one scoop whey protein, and 5 cubes of ice. One word for this conoction - DELICIOUS.

I've mentioned in other posts this year, I am not on a diet, nor am I truly trying to lose weight - though I should. My focus this year is to remain cigarette and smoke free. I am no 146 days without a cigarette - or in different terms I have not smoked 2929 cigarettes since January 4th.

On the other hand, I am putting on weight since I tend to eat food as a substitute. I've tried simply eating carrots, for example, but that's boring. So I end up cooking something as well. Since that's the way it's working out I've decided to try and make healthy items. Relatively healthy mind you.

Neohawk Cherry Tree in Full Blossom

2011-05-01T13:34:00.001-04:00

The other day I posted about the cherry trees donated by JANO to the Brookside Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks being in full blossom. Well, our own cherry tree is in full blossom as well.

Our tree actually produces cherries as you may remember from last year(see my posts here and here). If I recall directly, the number of cherries is directly related to the number of blossoms on the tree. If so, then we will have a bumper crop this year. Of course weather and birds will most likely reduce the actual number of cherries we get, but still I think it will be a lot.

Wheat Germ Meatballs and Pasta

2011-05-01T13:28:00.000-04:00

Last night's dinner. A meatball pasta dish. The meatballs had added nutrients because we used a wheat germ recipe that we found here (third one) on the internet - Thanks Shirley!

If you are curious, the drink is raspberry tea. I may have to sweeten that tea a little bit next time.

2011 Sakura Mankai

2011-04-27T07:55:00.000-04:00

Yesterday on the way home from work, I stopped by the Brookside Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks to check out the Cherry Trees that JANO has donated in full blossom.

Rain, rain go away

2011-04-26T13:34:00.004-04:00

The rain is getting to be too much. I can't prepare my garden

Tragic Disasters in Japan, the Japanese Response,And What Can Be Done to Help

2011-04-19T10:10:00.001-04:00

I just this over on JANO's blog but apparently the Kuninori Matsuda the Consulate General will be presenting remarks on the Tragic Disasters in Japan, the Japanese Response,And What Can Be Done to Help at the Law Offices of Margret Wong (MAP) on May 5th, 2011 from 5pm to 7pm.

Invite PDF: Tragic Disasters in Japan, the Japanese Response,And What Can Be Done to Help (PDF)

Running Late but It's seeding time

2011-04-09T21:20:00.000-04:00

Okay, I guess I'm technically supposed to start at the end of March. So I'm running a little late, but it's still early April and it's been a cold March. And a cold start to April too. Heck, just a few days ago it was still in the 20s and 30s.

Though I'm not sure if it's still on the blog since I transitioned to blogger, but last year I got an offer from Hometown Seeds to give there seeds a try. I am getting the seeds for free for writing about them on my blog. So yes, you may want to take what I write with a grain of salt because even if I intend to write objectively, chances are unbeknown to myself, I'll be cutting them a break. I just wanted to get that out there upfront.

JANO 2011 Sakura Picnic

2011-04-08T23:06:00.000-04:00

JANO's annual picnic will be held on Sunday June 16th at the Brookside Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks. Check out the flyer and set aside the date.

JANO 2011 Sakura Picnic(PDF opens in new window)

Looking forward to it this year and hoping the weather will hold.

JANO is having a really busy spring, particularly with volunteer activities related to raising money for the victims of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. We have already participated in some, will be participating in some more. In addition, a hundred or so of us are off to watch Ichiro on May 15th.

With all of that activity, we are hoping that the picnic will be a little special this year.

ずっとうそだったのか？

2011-04-08T19:30:00.000-04:00

知りませんでしが。

AHA - Japanese Food & Cultural Experience to Support Japan

2011-04-05T12:47:00.002-04:00

Japanese Food & Cultural Experience to Support Earthquake and Tsunami Victims event will be hosted on Tuesday, April 12th at the American Heart Association in Cleveland.

Japanese Food and Cultural Experience (PDF, opens in new window)

AHA Cleveland Metro Map

The events to raise money for Japan keep coming in which is absolutely great. I know JANO had collected quite a bit of money and I'm assuming that the Red Cross has done very well too.

If you have donate, please consider it!

Saks Fifth Event for Japan

2011-04-05T08:17:00.005-04:00

Another event to support the victims in Japan. Click on the image to enlarge it to see detailed information.

I have some more information coming, but also make sure to check out JANO's blog. In particular you'll want to see this category on the blog.

SCOOP: Coming Soon: The G-Slate with Google tablet

2011-04-04T21:06:00.002-04:00

Got this from T-Mobile today. They have my interest...

More info HERE