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.

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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

Neohawk's New Homestead

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.

僕とケンも合格！

このあいだ、ジョージが日本語能力試験合格通知が届いたと投稿しました。そのときに僕とケンも試験を受けたにも関わらず、通知が届いていないことでちょっと気になっていたんです。　気にすることはなかったですね。　昨夜、仕事から帰ったら僕とケンの通知がとどいていたんです。

The Long, Slow, Quick Update

I started this post out as a quick update several weeks ago. I kept getting interrupted and it never made it out the door to be published out here on these internets. So I changed the title to The Long, Slow, Quick Update from simply Quick Update.

Tuesday, I officially enter my fifth>sixth seventh week of no smoking. 33 39 days ago I quit smoking and since then have not smoked 674 788 cigarettes. It's astounding to me to think of it in those types of numbers. It would have never crossed my mind. I have also saved $204 and 54 cents $239.66.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas all. I know that not everyone who reads this blog(all two of you) are actually Christians, however, take my Merry Christmas in the spirit it is given regardless of what you believe. As you will see on another post I am preparing I'm not particularly "christian" either. But I've always believed in Christmas as a celebration of family, love and giving. If you can't believe in that regardless of your actual religion, or even lack thereof, then we probably aren't friends. Merry Christmas anyway.

The following is this year's Christmas card that due to technical and time problems we didn't get out this year.

The following is the note that my wife added to the email we sent out in lieu of regular cards this year.

Happy Holidays!

To this email, I attached a picture of the Cleveland Hawkins Family. Included is a picture of Grandpa. We all miss him very much. Here are some quick facts from this past year.

Robert : Robert traveled a lot this year. He currently has 7 projects that he's working on for Hyland. He took Ken on a College tour during the summer and he is very happy that Ken's favorite was Wesleyan.

Arisa(me) : I started a part-time job this year to help support our family. I miss Elly, who is studying hard in American. With only boys(Robert is included) in the house, I constantly worry about the state of our house, and often tell them to clean their rooms because Santa is coming.

Elly : Elly is a Freshman at American University at D.C. She tells us that she enjoys her new freedoms, and life in general. Her major is "International Business". You cannot tell in the pictures, but Elly cut 12 inches off her hair for a new look.

Ken: Ken is a Senior at Mayfield High School. His soccer team made district champions for the 3rd year in a row, and now they have a spot in the school hall of fame. As with Mayfield tradition, Ken bleached then dyed his hair. Ken even cut his hair into a mo-hawk. The soccer shirt he is wearing in the picture is from Grandpa and Grandma Ishii(japan).

George: George joined the soccer team this year. He also got his temporary license, adding some new grey hairs to Rob's head. Although in the picture you cannot tell, He has grown, and is nearly as tall as Ken. The picture is of him tutoring a Japanese boy, which he does every week.

We all hope to see you soon.

The Cleveland Hawkins Family (Rob and Arisa)

As you can tell, Arisa's English isn't perfect. I still think you get a sense of what our year was like. The year started off on a grim note, with us taking a trip down to Charlottesville VA to say good by to my Dad on New Year's day. 10 days later he had passed on, and we made a trip out to Boston for his funeral. The funeral, while a sad event, obviously, was also a really fun time. It has been quite a while since the extended family had gotten together, or at least a long time since my family and I had a chance to participate.

Life goes on though, and Elly was accepted and matriculated to American University. With the exception of one "b", she got all A's and did well enough in Calculus that she didn't need to take the final exam! Ken was on a team representing the State of Ohio at the SkillsUSA contest in Kansas and came home with a gold medal. He played varsity soccer, is in all honors or AP classes at school with the exception of "Chefery", which is what I think they used to call home economics. Several years ago George was labelled "gifted" by the State of Ohio and while I'm still unclear as to what that means, he is also in all honors classes, and getting straight A's. What really surprised me was his joining the soccer team. I certainly didn't expect it. While still not the best player - he had never played before - you could see improvement in foot skills over the season and just as importantly an understanding of how the game is supposed to be played.

Arisa continues to be the rock of this household. This year she is transitioning from focusing on her online business to finding a job. She currently works at Target for a minimum wage job to help the family finances. This job is just a step for her. As she looks for a job one of the things that really hit home is that she needs to improve her English. So she has drastically reduced her efforts in her online business to focus on studying English. I could tell that she's improving, probably not where she needs to be yet, but improving. But more importantly she is really trying, and she will get there. I really appreciated her efforts last night at dinner where she was very talkative and it was clear she was trying to use her English.

The other thing we found was that companies don't really take her online business seriously. Regardless of the fact that the amount of work across the spectrum of the business, from market research to marketing communications, to sales, to customer support(to some of the pickiest customers in the world) and P/L tracking, she is not working for a "company" and therefore it is discounted. So the job at Target is part of the plan. It helps the family finances but gets her working for a "company". The other major part of the plan is already in the works as well. We have gotten her transcript from Japan and it "officially" evaluated to be the equivalent of a B.A. here in the U.S. The next step is for her to take the Social Worker licensing test for the State of Ohio.

While I continue to be a cog in the machine at Hyland, both Arisa and I are active with the Japanese Association of Northeast Ohio. I am, not surprisingly, involved with the web team which is probably the most active part of JANO other than our two main events, the Shinnenkai and the Sakura Picnic. We have three other volunteers that make up the web team and they are truly spectacular. One of their more important roles, other than posting to our website, is the "welcome" they give to Japanese nationals that are moving to the area. I am currently tracking an email thread from an individual who will be attending a graduate program beginning next year. Over the last 3 or 4 days, 20 or so emails have gone back and forth over such things as health insurance, places to live, what to bring from Japan, what not to bring from Japan, etc., etc.

For JANO, this support of Japanese coming to Northeast Ohio prior to arrival is a relatively new thing and it has been hugely successful in my mind. Almost every single person we've helped has turned around and become a JANO member. But more importantly, I think they are arriving with substantially increased ease-of-mind. For many of these individuals, moving to Northeast Ohio will be there first time outside of Japan - and moving to another country for anybody can be a worrisome thing just because of the unknowns of a new country and culture. I think it is telling that the vast majority of people these ladies have helped in 2010 became members of JANO.

Thank you ladies!

Obviously, there's a lot more that happened in 2010, but in the end I think it was a good year with the huge exception of losing my Dad. And most of all, looking back on it, I realize how lucky I am to be surrounded by some of the best people in the world - my kids and my wonderful wife. Merry Christmas guys, I love you!

ケンとジョージ、漢字検定9級合格

子供が凄いな。このまえ、ケンとジョージが漢字能力検定試験を受けましたが、立派に合格です。

もちろん、子供よりありさが凄いですね。毎年の夏に日本語を子供に教えています。前日、2時間もかけて教えているそうです。ほとんど、子供が文句を言わないし、真面目にやっているそうですけど、子供よりありさが教えるための準備などに努力してこの結果になったことですよね。いいママですね。

エリーは大学4年生が取る日本語授業を受けていて、結構いい成績が出来ていると思います。もちろん、エリーがケンとジョージより日本語利用時間がなかったのであんまり驚いていないんですが、大学で週に2ー3回授業があることでどのぐらい上達しているだろうかと気になっていて仕方がないんです。

2010年感謝祭 - Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

今年の感謝祭は自宅でした。母はボストンに行っていますので、5人家族だけでした。特にエリーがワシントンDCのアメリカン大学にいってから始めて帰って来ていますので5人だけで楽しく過ごせました。

Google Priority Inbox, Google Apps, and Random Thoughts

So I can't really talk about Buzz. But I can talk about other items of interest about Google products and services.

As most GMail users and Gapp (Google Apps) users are aware, Google recently deployed Priority Inbox. Nifty little filter and I like the idea that it gets smarter, much like the spam filters get smarter with more data. So I think its a great feature. Just a tad bit late.

Excell Tecc and Malley's Chocolate's Partnership

I got this from Ken today.


Hello,
Ken Hawkins is a member of Excel Tecc and their group is conducting a fundraising activity with Malley's Chocolates of Cleveland, Ohio.
A website has been setup specifically for the Excel Tecc fundraising campaign.
All purchases made on that site will be credited toward Ken Hawkins and will directly benefit Excel Tecc.
To connect to this site, please click on this link.

Thank you very much,
Excel Tecc

If you are interested in supporting Excell Tecc or just want some chocolate, give Malley's a try.  It's good stuff.

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Elly and Ken Inducted into National Honor Society

Today, Arisa, Grandma Barbara, and I attended the Mayfield High School's National Honor Society Induction Ceremony. Both Elly and Ken were inducted. The pictures aren't great, but here they are.

One of Ken's friends asked me how Ken got in. I answered truthfullly....we had to pay.

Ken Gets Stitches

A day or so ago, I tweeted a link to a WKYC video on Carey Spear, the MHS football kicker, and a captain of the Varsity Soccer team. A facebook buddy from childhood comment that he saw the video and saw that Carey also has a 4.5GPA. I responded that he's a nice kid, and his whole family is too.

So how does he thank me for this compliment?

He headbutts my son in the mouth, causing Ken to get two stitches. Okay, so it wasn't a headbutt. It wasn't even intentional. They just happened to collide and Carey's head hit Ken. Actually, it was pretty lucky that Carey didn't get a tooth stuck in his head.

But Ken did get two stitches. We spent two hours at Hillcrest to get the two. That's an efficiency of 1 sph(stitch per hour). Actually, we were pretty lucky as it we walked right in. When we left, however, there was a line of like 10 kids. Looks like they were mostly athletes - a couple of football players, a couple of soccer players. The rest were little kids who looked like they had the flu.

Just hoping I don't get the flu. If I do, it'll be ironic that I will have probably caught it at the hospital...

We had a physicians assistant look at Ken. Actually, she was a student to become a physician's assistant. She tried to stitch Ken up but failed twice. At that point she waved the white flag and asked the Doctor to stitch Ken up for her. Which she did quite nicely, too bad that by the time she started digging around Ken's mouth the anesthesia had worn off.

I was going to write a blistering post but this student looks at Arisa and I and asks "What language were you speaking?". I answer Japanese, and she looks at us and says "私の名前はメーガンです" (My name is Megan). Turns out that 5 years ago she spent a month in Oita Prefecture and picked it up while she was there.

So she spent a month in Japan five years ago and can remember several Japanese words and phrase. Color me impressed!!

So thanks Megan for trying to fix Ken up and good luck with your studies!

Mayfield JV Beats Lake Catholic 5-0

Yesterday, Mayfield's JV team beat Lake Catholic by a score of 5-0. Ken had an assist though it wasn't his best game. Overall, the JV team played better in the first half then the second half, but they were already up 3-0 at half time. The fifth goal came with about a minute left.

Ken's assist was a beautiful thing to behold. He chipped it over the heads of the defenders to Amare who one touched it with power into the back of the net. Ken now has 4 assists on the season.

Only watched the first half of the varsity game, but I though Lake Catholic played really well. At a minimum, I liked the *way* the played. Don't know the final score though.

Mayfield JV Beats Willoughby South 4-2

So the JV Wildcats came away from Willoughby South High School with a 4-2 win. It was not nearly as close as all that, should have been at least 5-0, and you will enjoy why the final score seems to indicate a more closely competitive game.

First things first, though. Mayfield JV did not play well. It was partially because the field conditions were terrible. Players were slipping and falling everywhere. I think we were on the Willoughby South's football field. I don't think they had a game there last night, but the middle of the field was really muddy.
So you see the kids trying to play their game, but they just couldn't get it going. And that was pretty much true the whole game. To be blunt, it was a snoozer. Jake had a couple of great moves leaving opposing players with their shorts around their ankles. Other than that though, it was just a blah game.

The real score should have 5-0 like I mentioned. The referees took one away. So Mayfield is up 2-0 at halftime, at the end of the break Mayfield waits for Willoughby South to take the field for about five minutes. So they start the second half, and Mayfield blows down the field and Jake puts in a pretty ball into the back of the net. Maybe 30 seconds have gone by until the goal. Willoughby players start yelling to the ref and their own coach. Their coach finally figures out what their saying and starts yelling at the ref that it wasn't a fair start because Willoughby had only 10 players on the field. So the ref says okay let's start again, taks the goal away and they let Willoughby kick off even though Mayfield is supposed to start. Wow, what a mess.

So now we're still 2-0. Okay, that's fine. We're better, not under and pressure from them but not particularly playing well either. We eventually score another two goals.

But as you know, the final score is 4-2. Well one of Willoughby South's players scored both of their goals. Apparently, the Willoughby South players told our guys that this kid was mentally handicapped or some such. Mayfield players being the kind gentlemen they are decide to let this kid score. Us parents sitting in the stands have no idea this is going on, so you can imagine our surprise when this kid goes through our whole defense which looks like it just stopped playing. (Hint, they really did just stop playing). We were thoroughly confused. And then it happens AGAIN. So at that point we don't know why they're letting this one opposing player score, but its really, really clear they are.

Of course, afterwards we find out the real deal. And I'm sure our kids were feeling proud of themselves for a truly kind hearted gesture. And you can imagine the beaming parents.

But that's not the end of the story.

Turns out that the opposing players were actually lying to our players. They were just making fun of this kid and it was apparent after the game that he takes alot of abuse from the other Willoughby South players. They were just ragging on him. Regardless, our guys were feeling pretty foolish for letting a player score on them whose only problem was that he's not a very good soccer player and is picked on by the rest of his teammates.

So much for kind hearted gestures. But it's the thought that counts and it was a classy thing to do. I just wished the played better.

I know believe that Mayfield JV is 7-3, with 4 more to go. I believe the Aurora game was cancelled and not postponed.

I refuse to talk about Mayfield Varsity's tie game with Willoughby South. Mother says if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all.

Mayfield JV Beats Brush 1-0

It rained the whole game and pretty hard for big portions of it. Regardless, the Mayfield JV soccer team played its best game of the season, handing Brush High SchoolJV Team a 1-0 loss.

サーカー始まり

２習慣前ほど、高校のサーカー季節が始まりました。　残念ながら、ケン君がバーシティに入れず、JVチームにプレーしています。　JVに入ったのは、ケンのスキルと関係なく、監督がいまいちからです。　ベスト選手を選ぶと言いながら、　試合の統計(ゴール、アシストなど）を記録しているあるお父さんの息子が１０年生でバーシティに入りました。この選手はJVに入ってもトップ３選手に入らないスキルです。　しかも、何名がJVとバーシティをプレーしているのですが、その中である１２年生がいるけど、この方のスキルがないほどと言えるのです。

こんなのベスト選手ですか？

とはいえ、その選手のプレーを見れば、この監督が好きな選手が分かります。　基本的にスキルなくてもアグレシッブにプレーする選手ばっかりです。相手をぶつ蹴ったりする選手が好きです。　残念ながら、ケン君がそのようなプレーしないわけで、監督に印象を残していないんです。　これは仕方がないと思いましたし、バーシティに入ったとしてもスターティングメンバーにならないと分かっています。　ケン君がミッドですが、メイフィルド高校でミッドをプレーするうまい選手が沢山います。　

でも、驚いたのはJVでも最初スターティングメンバーではなかったことです。　メイフィルド監督群がバカじゃないかと思いながら試合などを見ました。　でも、だんだんとケン君のプレータイムが増え、スターティングメンバーになり、右ミッドから中央ミッドに移動され、現在キー選手なのです。

それで、なんと今週バーシティと一緒に連取するように監督からの指示がありました。　バーシティ試合に参加するかどうかは分からないのですけど、バーシティ選手と練習するだけでもケン君にとっていいことです。　JVですでにゴール２、アシスト２で、監督がどのような選手が好きかを気がついたケン君が一所懸命アグレシッブなプレーをしています。　

ガンバレケン君！