Noodles in Cleveland

Last night we went to Noodlecat on Euclid Avenue near East 4th Street - it's about half a block towards Public Square from the East 4th and Euclid Corner. This is how Noodlecat's twitter account describes itself:

"Noodlecat is Chef Jonathon Sawyer's Japanese and American mashup ramenhouse in the CLE."

Google TV

As I ramp up towards Christmas and getting a large screen HDTV my real question is what exactly does   provide me with that is of any use at all?  Well this post answers part of that question. Via  I can access movies, music, and TV.  That is really handy.

Kinda.  Clearly it is nice since I'm a 'droid user on my cell phone, a Chrome user on my Windows/Linux laptop, the integration with my Google Apps ( and  to start) and  is a benefit.  Similar UIs to my phone and PC is also a benefit.  It's Google so that's cool too, right?

Home Projects

Our Home is Our Castle

As I am sure is true for every home owner there is always something to fix, tweak, improve on a house when you are a homeowner.  I'm not including those immediate or emergency things that happen.  Just the things that need improvement.  For example, when we were purchasing the house we had someone inspect the house (@Ron_Gerome)  as is typical.  He found that while we had a whole new breaker box which was clean, well done, at grounded, our other items (water heater, furnace, gas) were not grounded.  Not anything ground breaking but not something that you want to let go forever, particularly since it's "not up to code".  So we have begun the process of getting estimates for these items plus those items that we have noticed we want or have "broken" in the meantime.  For example, Arisa and George did something so now the kitchen sink faucet drips non-stop.  It'll probably be a 10 minute job for a plumber.  So we'll get the estimate for:

1. Electrical (done today)
2. Plumbing
3. Furnace and AC Check
4. Masonry (tuckpoint work)
5. Chimney Sweep (probably not this year)
6. Minimal Roofing Repair (not this year)

Walk to Remember at the Cleveland Zoo

Several weeks back, Arisa and I joined Team Hyland to participate in the "Walk To Remember", a fundraiser walk for the Hospice of the Western Reserve. The great thing about the walk was that it was through the Cleveland Zoo which I haven't been to since I got there on a yellow bus. You can check out some of the pics from the event at hospicewr.org : http://goo.gl/hQkCL. My pics are below:




If you need to know, here is the map to the Cleveland Zoo:


View Cleveland Zoo in a larger map

I think I'd do it again next year since it's for a good cause.

Council Rejects Lease Settlement - No Gas Wells in the Park

As I posted here and here, Highland Heights City Council has been deliberating an resolution that would allow Mayor Coleman to sign a lease with Bass Energy to place two gas wells on property within the Community Park as part of a lawsuit settlement. This last Tuesday while I was in Chicago on business City Council voted on the resolution.

Cherry Blossoms in Full Bloom

The cherry trees donated by the Japanese Association of Northeast Ohio (JANO) are in full bloom. This year is the 100th Anniversary of the gift of cherry trees to the United States from Japan for the mall in Washington D.C. This year the blooming is early. I tweeted last night that I wished one of the news organizations would broadcast something. Little did I know when I made that tweet that Newsnet5 already had!

Yesterday about 15 of us had an impromptu "hanami" which was a lot of fun. Check out the pictures below.

If you have a chance, you'll want to stop by today since I think the inbound rain and storms will knock all the blossoms off the trees.

Highland Heights Gas Well Update

Once again, the Highland Heights City Council will be voting on the gas wells in the community park resolution.  I will be out of town on that day.

Hello,

Tuesday night Council President Cathy Murphy confirmed that the drilling resolution (6-2012) would appear on the agenda for the upcoming March 27th council meeting and that it would be voted on that night.

Like the meeting on the 13th, there will be an opportunity for public speaking that night.

March 27th is now or never time, as far as keeping gas wells out of the park.

 

We urge you to come and witness the vote on March 27th.

Bring your children, your significant others, your family, your friends, your neighbors, and anyone else you can think of.
Also, please pass this email along to everyone you know.

Let's keep the momentum going.

These are our representatives, Let's demand to be heard!

 

When:  March 27th

Where: Highland Height City Hall, Council Chamber

Time: 8 pm. Come early to get a good seat.

 

We hope to see you there.

Love Our Green Space (LOGS)
P.S. If you want to keep on top of what's going on in the city, be sure to check out: http://highlandheightsohiohappenings.blogspot.com/

 

 

Highland Heights Gas Well Info - Important Meeting

I received this in an email from a concerned citizen.  It's really surprising to me that they would want to start fracking in our community park.  I get the idea that it's generate money, but at what cost?  

映画情報：ノルウエイの森

明日の夜(3月9日）、Cleveland Institute of Artのシネマテックで放映されます。

ノルウェイの森
２０１０年

監督：　トラン・アン・ユン
原作：　村上春樹
音楽：　ジョニー・グリーンウッド
脚本：　トラン・アン・ユン

1987年に刊行されベストセラーとなった村上春樹の代表作「ノルウェイの森」を、『青いパパイヤの香り』『夏至』などのトラン・アン・ユン監督が映画化。亡くなった親友の恋人との関係を通し、主人公の青年の愛と性、生と死を叙情的につづる。主人公には松山ケンイチ、大切な人の死をきっかけに主人公と心を通わせていく女子大生に菊地凛子がふんし、複雑な人間性を繊細に演じる。トラン・アン・ユン監督のみずみずしい世界観と、深遠な村上春樹ワールドの融合に期待。

出演：　松山ケンイチ　菊地凛子　水原希子　高良健吾　霧島れいか　初音映莉子　柄本時生

Yoga with Katy Hawkins

Cousin Katy is a bundle of energy and intelligence. Check out the video.



As weird as it may sound I love the timber and tone of Katy's voice.

Elly's Performance at AU

So last November, Arisa and I went to see Elly perform in AU in Motion (facebook). Well, last night I saw the video of it on youtube. Take a peek.

Global Cleveland

2月7日にGlobal Clevelandという非営利団体がウエルカム・センターを開店しました。このセンターは正式にGlobal Welcome Hubと名前ですが、クリーブランドに引っ越したい方に手伝うことでクリーブランド及び北東オハイオ州（ノースイストオハイオ）の経済発展を貢献するとしています。このウエルカムセンターが誘致しえたい人材に３つのカテゴリーに分類しています。

1. 外国から移民者
2. uターンの方
3. 大学卒業したばっかりの若者

リッチモンドハイツのフィットワークス

この間、本年度のチャレーンジについて投稿しましたけれど、それが昨年禁煙して体重が15キロぐらい増え、その結果がヤバい数値になり特にBMI及びBodyfat%の数値がきっと正式に肥満のレーンジに入ったということで減量することに挑戦するといった内容でした。たまたま会社が福利厚生の中でジムの年会費を$３００まで負担してくれるということで自家近くにあるジムに入会しました。それが「Fitworks」というチェインです。ウエブサイトによりますと、14ヶ所にジムがあり、５つがクリーブランド市周辺で6つがシンシナチ市周辺にあります。僕が通っているのはリッチモンドハイツの店です。

This Year's Challenge

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

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

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.

Happy New Year! 明けましておめでとうございます

Happy New Year! 明けましておめでとうございます