robataka sent you a video: "tokyo bicycle parking tower"

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robataka has shared a video with you on YouTube: This technology was just hitting Tokyo when we left Japan. When I was in Tokyo, bicycles were always a problem around the train stations. This technology solves that problem in spectacular fashion at least behind the scenes tokyo bicycle parking tower 東京都江戸川区葛西駅前にできた自転車地下駐輪場です。収容台数は9,400台、総工費は70億円です。 It can accommodate 9400 bicycles here.
© 2009 YouTube, LLC 901 Cherry Ave, San Bruno, CA 94066

Japanese American Fair

This last Saturday, Arisa and I headed out to St. Ignaitus High School to attend the JACL's 40th Japanese American Holiday Fair. I had a errand to run at Micro Center and so we were running a little bit late. We got there probably about 2PM.

By the time we got there, it was packed. I'd say close to a hundred folks or so were there. The Mame Taiko Drummers were already in action. At the entrance to what I assume is the cafeteria, there were booths with a silent auction, origami, and other things like soap sales.

It was our first "Japanese-American" event, as opposed to JANO, but I'm glad we went.

Ubuntu Upgrade

Yesterday and today, I 've spent a lot of time installing Ubuntu 9.10.

First off, my son George's PC died. Well, I probably could have struggled to fix it, replacing the hard drive but that would have been a lot of effort. So we headed over to Micro Center and got a refurbished PC for $250. This refurbished PC is now the most powerful one in the house; 320G hdd, 3Gb RAM, dual core amd64, Nvidia, blah, blah, blah. No other PC in the house comes close to it.

It came with windows on it but uninstalled, or not set up. So powering it on and getting windows set up took about an hour I would guess. Maybe a litt le less. Of course, the Neohawk household doesn't use windows, so I downloaded Ubuntu. Not Kubuntu this time. Popped in the cd and installed Ubuntu. All I can say is wow. It was dead easy and took an hour, but like windows probably less. In both cases, I wasn't really paying attention to how long it took and was pleasantly surprised how quick it was.

I had only two real issues. The first issue was I wanted to place the /home directory on a separate partition, and also wanted to resize the windows partition. With the GUI I couldn't tell how to do that and didn't want to screw anything up so I just installed it. The second issue was getting the wireless configuration to work. This probably had less to do with Ubuntu itself than the fact that I was using Ubuntu's wireless interface for the first time and the fact that the wireless signal is weak in my son's room.

Other than that though, the Ubuntu install was flawless and easy.

Interestingly enough, my son took a look at it and said, "Where's KDE?" . So I did a "sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop". Now this took quite a while. Mosty because of the weak wireless signal it took forever to download the necessary files. Once that was done, though, it went off with out a hitch. My son is ecstatic now that he can get back to creating his game maps.

Laptop Leap

So based on that really pleasant experience, I decided to take the plunge with my laptop. I have yet successfully "upgrade" with Kubuntu, but thought I'd give it a chance. #FAIL. Yet again, the upgrade did not work. Then again I did not try very hard either. Once I hit problems, I just decided to do a clean install. Luckily for me, my laptop already has the windows partition size the way I want it, and my /home directory is on a separate partition. So all I had to do was install Ubuntu 9.10 to the right partition and away we went. I got up late this morning, about 7:45. It's only 9:30 and I've been done with the upgrade for about an hour.

Similar to my son, I'm a KDE person, so I ran 'apt-get install kubuntu-desktop' as well in that time frame. It is also how I know that it was the wireless connection in my son's room that was slow. My laptop is hardwired and the download of Kubuntu files was relatively fast.

I read somewhere that somebody recommended to the Ubuntu/Kubuntu folks to make the /home directory a separate partition the default setting. +1. I wholeheartedly concur with this. My experience is that the upgrades never go well, and that a clean install is always smooth. (note, that's my experience). The only painful part if the /home directory is not separate is backing it up, moving it somewhere, and returning it when the install is done.

Other than that though, I was really impressed with the ease of the install. Particularly on my son's pc which went really fast. Nice hardware helps I guess. ;-)

40th Annual Japanese American Holiday Fair

40^th Annual Japanese American HOLIDAY FAIR

Saturday, November 7, 2009 at St. Ignatius High School from 1pm to 5pm

FOOD, ARTS AND CRAFTS BOOTHS AND ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAM

1:30-2:10 2:15-2:45

JACL Sho Jo Ji Billy "The Kid"

Japanese Dancers Matsumoto Juggler

3:00-3:45 4:00-4:30

JACL Mame Daiko Mentor Karate

Taiko Drumming Institute Martial Arts

Also see the Japanese Holiday Fair 2009 PDF

Cleveland Browns - Not Much More to Say

I was going to write a long post about the Browns and the fact that Randy Lerner actually watched a game and was disgusted as the rest of us have been for the 7 weeks prior to that. I had some sage advice for him. I'm glad I waited because I ran across a blog post, Coming Out Of The Closet by Gary Benz, that expressed the same idea but much more articulately. It's a must read.

His basic point and my unwritten one is the same - the only way for the Browns organization to turn itself around is for Mr. Lerner to take ownership of it. I don't mean property law ownership, but deep down emotional, spirtual, intellectual ownership of the team and the organization. I don't know where I read it but it was basically that what he thought he was doing with Manigini was cleaning out the organization and hoping to bring in a new philosophy.

update family budget spreadsheet

catching up on my "starred items" in google reader. "starred" = read later. For some of these it's definitely later

okay, ping.fm posts to my blog, but do I want it to?

so will ping.fm updates link to my blogger blog http://ping.fm/2aFOj ?

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everybody.

I was looking at my google analytics and thought this piece of data was appropriate for Halloween.

Creepy, huh?

What Mayfield Hts City Council Race

Okay, so the other day I did a review of the Mayfield Heights Mayoral Candidates, based solely off their websites. A comment by Jill Miller Zimon that as far as she knew she was the only council candidate in Pepper Pike that had a web presence, I decided to see what was the case for Mayfield Heights.

After a fairly strenuous search, the only candidate with a web site I could find was David Sasak. Well that's not actually true, as Donna Finney has a page on Howard Sonenstein's site.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that one of the other candidates has a site since I received some campaign pamphlet that had the site listed on it. Unfortunately, the pamphlet went where the rest of the junk mail goes. I'm now wishing that I had noted down the url before tossing it. But that's the extent of the attention it got, and it got more than the others only because it actually had a url on it. If it hadn't it would have been gone in 1 second rather than 3 seconds. Which brings me to another point.

Folks, if you want me to vote for you, you have to get in front of me. Junk mail is not getting in front of me since it almost hits the wastebasket the millisecond I touch it. In order to get in my face you have to get on something that comes across my pc screen. I don't get newspaper, haven't for years and years. You need to have a website, an rss feed, a facebook fan page or account, a twitter account. Something. Any one of those will do. Otherwise, you don't get my vote.

(If anybody is aware of a site for one of the other candidates, please let me know.)

And riding someone else's site doesn't cut it either. Reality is that while I could complain that Mr. Sasak's site is pretty weak, it exists. And my bet is he hasn't spend more than $4.99 per month on the hosting fees (GoDaddy) and not much on the actual design either (not a criticism!). If you can't afford that to get your message out, you can't get my vote.

So, be default, Mr. Sasak gets my vote. And for what it is worth, here, cut and pasted from his site, is what he's committed to;

I am committed to:
• Further improving our Senior services and activities
• Continuing improvement of our Parks and Recreation programs
• Maintaining a balanced budget, with No New Taxes
• Striving to continue fiscal responsibility in our City government
• Continuing to protect the integrity of our Zoning and Planning processes (and NO retail in Cedar/Lander areas)
• Work toward re-establishing local control over urban gas well drilling (and NO gas wells in our City Parks)

Not sure why retail is a problem in the Cedar/Lander area. Nor does the "no new taxes" mantra strike a chord without context. I don't want to pay higher taxes more than anyone else, but the amount taxed is less important than for what those tax revenues are used. However, maintaining a balanced budget is also a good thing, so a +1 for that bullet point.

Mr Sasek suggests that he's not a politician and that he doesn't lie. Well, of course you are a politician. You're running for City Council to represent us. By definition that makes you a politician. And what is so bad about being a politician? Politicians are by definition necessary to make this great republic of ours work. And you are participating, so don't duck it. And don't cast aspersions on every other individual representing us whether its local, state, or national. I'm not naive enough to believe that by definition politicians lie, cheat and steal to make their lives comfy. Or their friends. Though it certainly does happen, as we are witnessing at the Cuyahoga County level.

You paint yourself with same broad brush, Mr. Sasek.

Donna Finney's has two reasons we're supposed to vote for her. The first being:

Finney has served on the Building Committee for four years and was Chairman of the Legislative Committee and is currently Chairman of the Safety and Transportation Committee on Mayfield Heights City Council.

So far so good. The only other thing is that she voted against a pay raise for the Mayor. Is she going to make a motion to retract that pay raise if her sponsor Howard Sonenstein is elected? Other than the economy, are there no other reasons for voting against the pay raise? What were the arguments for the pay raise with which you disagree?

For what it is worth, the News-Herald has a comments from each candidate in an article. The Sun Messenger had an article back in August.

One Down, One To Go

So I've been thinking about what to do with this site. Simply put, I'm thinking of moving it to google in some form or fashion. The main motivation is money. I don't get enough access to warrant paying any money for "hosting". I currently pay a small fee to GrokThis, VPS Village actually, for a xen virtual host. But anything at this point is too much.

I have had a test blog up on Blogger for quite a while now. It's been mostly for testing things like email posting, blog editors, gadgets, etc. So last night I finally broke down and tried to see if I could get blogger to look something like this site. While not exact, I'm close enough. Check it out.

Actually it was fairly easy to modify to make it look like this site. It's not done, nor perfect but was close enough for me to figure out what else was necessary. It also helped me figure out what I did and did not like about blogger. At least partially anyway.

What's to Like

Okay, so here's an incomplete list of what's to like:

1. It's free
2. It's linked to my google account
3. You can easily add gadgets
4. It's fairly easy to customize design
5. You can email posts to the blog
6. You can use blog editors, like ecto, scribefire, or google's Sidewiki
7. I can use my neohawk.org domain if I wish
8. Blogger itself generates traffic to my site
9. I can create a multi-author blog (me and arisa, if arisa ever posts
10. Posting in Japanese is no problem
11. Can use feedburner
12. Easy to implement Google Analytics

So that's a fairly good list of things it does for you. Here's the list of things I don't like about it

What's Not to Like

1. Miserable on html validation: the template I used had 636 errors on it. That's not even close.
2. I can not use my google apps account to use it
3. To really customize it, you have to be very careful with the built in widgets and code built in or I'll probably break the site
4. No concept of "static" pages, so it is only a blog
5. Fairly convoluted process to add Disqus which I like as a commenting system
6. CSS and some javascript is in the template -> I'd prefer them separate
7. Does not provide a way to show posts for a given author(that I can find

Based on that, you would think it's a no brainer to move to blogger. Actually thought, I'm not feeling the love for blogger. The fact that I cannot use my google apps domain (neohawk.org) to login to the site is huge, as is the effort to customize it to the point where the html, etc., is valid - and I'm still not sure I could get there because of code that Blogger needs.

In general, I'm quite annoyed with the shortcomings of google apps and it's integration with other google products and services. Picasa, blogger, google reader, openid provider, friend connect, google analytics, etc., require use of a google account. I don't want to use a google account, I want to use my google apps domain.

Granted, I can not complain too much since it is all for free. No, that's not right. I can complain because it's not "free". I'm providing information to Google as their stated goal is to index everything, I'm making it easy for them. So I may not be paying money, but I'm paying.

One of these days I'll do a serious post about Google's ineffectiveness. But for now, I've checked out using blogger. I now need to check out Nick's posts on creating a blog with google app engine.

One down, one to go.

Too Bad I Can't Afford Verizon

I saw this post : "Verizon Droid: First Impressions | Technologizer".http://technologizer.com/2009/10/29/verizon-droid-first-impressions/

I so want a 'droid., but I can't afford to re-subscribe to Verizon. I'll probably go with the same provider that my kids have

in reference to: Verizon Droid: First Impressions | Technologizer (view on Google Sidewiki)

Started Editing Template

As you can tell (if you are reading the blog and not the RSS feed) as I mentioned in this post, I have updated the theme to this blog.  I am working to see how close I can get it to imitate my blog at Neohawk.Org
So far, I've gotten it pretty close.  I know there are somethings still left to fix, but I got pretty far this evening.  

One thing I *really* don't like about blogger, or at least the template I'm using to recreate the look and feel is that it's invalid.  Makes me weally upset.  Particularly since I always complain when other sites to use w3c validator approved code.  I'll get there partially, but some of it seems to be completely out of my control as its the blogger system.

Elly and Ken Achieve Honors

Both Elly and Ken were recognized for achieving Honors at Mayfield High School.. Below is a cell pic of Elly's certificate.

Note that Elly has six straight semesters of achieving better than a 3.5 GPA. She's only been there for six semesters. Alot better than their Daddy could ever do!

Going to Start Testing Templage

I am looking at moving my whole domain to Google.  I already have google apps for mail, shared family documents, calendars, etc.

I'd prefer to set up a blog on google app engine and am following this series on creating a blog on gae.   But I'm also going to see if I can tweak the blogger template to match my Neohawk.Org design.  Neohawk is currently using byteflow which I really like, but one thing I like about blogger is the ability to email in posts.  I have yet to find a django-based blog that pretty much works out of the box and has that and xlmrpc.  Blogger has both.

On the other hand, what I don't like about Google products in general is that they are never finished.  And what I mean by that is not the ever present "beta" on their products/services, but rather the functionality.  One example would be shared contacts in a google apps domain.  The only contacts that are shared are other domain users.  I *already* know my domain users as one's my wife and the other three are my kids.  What I wanted was to share address books between domain users so that if my wife adds somebody to her contacts, that person also shows up in mine.  

Another example is the inability to use picasa, google reader and other google products and services using my google apps domain.  Probably the most annoying of all.  Wouldn't it be brillant if Google would set up your google app domain as an openid provider like they do with your google account.

But I can't complain about the cost, and it's fun to try the various things they got so I keep beating my head against the wall hoping the eventually get this stuff right.  

Maybe google wave will fix it....

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!

Progressive Nonsense

Got love American companies lack of ethics. We are a Progressive customer. Imagine our surprise when our monthly rate goes up to $455 a month out of the blue. Purely unethical behavior on Progressive's part.

When we noticed the mistake because all of a sudden there was a much larger charge pulled out of our account than previously, we called. Not surprisingly. Should have noticed prior to them pulling it out, but live and learn, my bad.

So I call, and what do they tell me? They automatically added my son Ken to the policy as a driver. They said they automatically added him because he turned 16 or got his license. Unfortunately for them, he turned sixteen 8 months ago and currently does not have a license. There is a reason I hadn't added him to the policy as a driver you twits.

Yes, I should have noticed it before they pulled it from the account. And yes I should have called to have them fix it. Like I said, my bad. But that's where the scam comes in. They automatically changed my policy without my approval and billed for it. Which means I have to take the time to call and have it fixed. I assume their hope is that I don't call and get it fixed, and they walk off with free money.

At a minimum, they made me take time for something they did without my permission. Next time, I will send them a bill, at my hourly rate for any part thereof. In other words, if it's a 5 minute call, I'll bill them for an hour.

I will say, the lady on the phone was great. She fixed it, and then found us some additional discounts. Which I really appreciated, but the fact that I had to call for their unethical behavior doesn't change. I will also say that we've had no problems with Progressive other than this. Compared to our experiences at Hillcrest, a Cleveland Clinic Hospital, Progressive has been great.

But here's the thing, I think Hillcrest/Cleveland Clinic is just plain incompetent. They can't help it. This issue with Progressive was not incompetence. They can't add him as a driver since he doesn't have a valid License number which is a required field in the data. They just did it.

If your curious, Hillcrest has been sending us a bill for $54 which was rejected by Medical Mutual of Ohio. I figured it was a processing issue so I sat on it until I recently got the last and final warning bill from Hillcrest (actually billing is out of Akron). So I called Medical Mutual and asked why this was rejected, and they said they never received the diagnosis/doctor's report on the charge. In other words, Hillcrest didn't do their job to get paid. This bill is just one example, and I won't go in to the fact that they gave my daughter the wrong vaccination and tried to charge us $200. Pure and simple incompetence.

And yes I know I'm over reacting to the Progressive nonsense, but it annoyed the hell out me. And I wanted to rant.

Twitterfeed adds Facebook

Received an email update from twitterfeed today, apparently announcing that it now will also update facebook. However, I already have an application that already sends my twitter updates to facebook, and I have twitterfeed posting my blog feed to twitter. So the question is what does this late entry from tweeterfeed do for me?

Tracking of course:

What's more, you'll see statistics for each post showing you just how many people clicked on posts from Facebook vs those from Twitter. You'll be able to better understand just where your social media strategy is working.

In that same mail, they also announce support for Pubsubhubbub (demo video) and Google analytics. Pretty cool.

So now I need to re-configure my echo chamber.

Cleveland.Com's New Commenting Policy

Improvements are coming to Cleveland.com. (HT to Jill Miller Zimon); cleveland.com's attempts to bring civility online seem to be working - Ted Diadiun. Also see:

Plain Dealer wants comments -- without the side order of bile

cleveland.com, the heart and voice of Northeast Ohio

Can't log in to post a comment? Fixes on the way

Cleveland Browns Are Making Some Progress

Okay, I've been pretty much hammering the Browns this season. However, today against the Steelers while they are still bad, I have to admit I like the fact that they are trying different things. From running a lot of wildcat formations, etc. The play calling is still pretty miserable, and the catching is horrid, as are many of DA's throws. But they are trying different things, anything to make themselves competitive.

Not having a quality receiver and Quarterback hurts. We also need to see more of Harrison and Jamal Tip-Toe-Thru-The-Tulips (T⁵) Lewis just doesn't bring enough. He seems slow and doesn't have the power I thought he had. Harrison has speed, but probably not enough size/power.

We'll still lose this game, but I will say the team is making progress.

Ryukyu Festival

あ、行きたい！

Hat tip to Okinawa-Information.com. In Japanese - http://www.ryusai.jp/

Browns Win in worst game I have ever seen

Okay, that was absolutely the worst football game I have ever seen. The Browns were terrible, with the exception of our punt team. DA stunk(23 yards passing, worst in Browns history), but so did his receivers (7 drops, obviously in honor of BE). In particular, Robert Royal is just bad. When is Mangini going to bench the guy? Jamal did get over 100 yard rushing, but that's against a team using their 4th string middle linebacker. Tiptoe through the tulips Lewis drives me nuts, but not sure we have anyone else.

Superb play by the punting team, and an absolute refusal to play disciplined footbal by the Bills lead the the Browns victory. Take away Bills penalties and the Browns would have been thrashed. Take away the one fumble at the end of the game and we'd be headed to overtime. Mangini and staff are really luck that really poor play calling at the end of the half didn't come back to bite them.

I have to say though, I feel really bad for the Bills fans. They actually lost to the Browns. Probably the worst team I have ever seen(granted I haven't watched Oakland, Tampa Bay, or St. Louis this year). And they largely lost due to the Bills own mistakes, not anything the Browns did.

I'd like to say the Defense played well, but it's just too hard to say that with all the penalties on the Bills OL. I mean how many times were they called for illegal motion?

I will say that the Browns had very few penalties, including one roughing the passer call that was a really lame call. So that is definitely an improvement.

Mayfield Hts Mayoral Race

You can tell it's election season. The yard signs are everywhere. As you drive up Lander Road from Ridgebury towards Mayfleld Rd, it seems like more houses have the yard signs than not. In particular, the one's I notice are signs for the two Mayoral candidates; current Mayor Gregory S. Costabile and challenger Howard Sonenstein. Both of their signs had urls on 'em so I went and check them out.

Me being me, first thing I did is to check their sites with the wc3 validator. Color me impressed. The Mayor's site had only 5 errors, and the challengers only 3 errors. The Mayor's site looks like a simple mistake, while the Challengers is due to a piece of javascript. Pretty much as good as you could ask for...except fully valid of course.

Both sites also pass Section 508 validation tests, and both fail Web Accessibility. Both of these validation tests are to check:

"compliance with U.S. federal standards for accessible Web content, outlined in the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998, Section 508, Subpart B, §1194.22. Additionally, this guide can assist you in ensuring that your Web-based documents comply with World Wide Web, or W3C® WCAG 1.0 , accessibility guidelines."

Taking a look at the source, I was surprised to find that neither had google analytics code embedded to track access to the site. Perhaps someone is using a server based log analyzer. I would certainly hope so anyway because otherwise they have no idea who is accessing their sites nor from where.

Neither site, though, provided RSS feeds. So clearly the sites are static and largely will not change. Which of course without RSS feeds no one is going to know it changed anyway. Clearly it seems to me that they have web sites because they are expected to have websites, but that their web presence is not really part of the campaign strategy.

I cannot understand why sites like these don't have RSS. It just makes no sense to me. Even if the candidate doesn't understand it you would hope that the creators of the site do. I would have to say that this reflects more poorly on the Mr. Costabile than Mr. Sonenstein, as the Mayor has in his bio that the web site was "improved". Not nearly enough in my opinion. He does suggest that more changes are on the way so we'll see.

Okay, so that's where I always start. With the web site, how it's constructed and whether its really a part of their campaign. Clearly, it's window dressing to say that have one.

As a relatively new resident to Mayfield Heights, I have no idea who either these gentlemen are. So I read through the mass quantity of information available on their sites, all two or three pages (that sound you hear is me pulling my tongue out of my cheek). What I found interesting is that for many of the "achievements" of Mayfield Heights government, both take credit. And probably validly so, since one was the Mayor and the other on City Council. One would assume they would have to work together to get things done.

Gregory S. Costabile	Howard Sonenstein
Accomplishments	Accomplishments
Purchase of Oakville Park	Purchase of Oakville Park
Improved Cable TV	Improved Cable TV
Settled Costco	Settled Costco
Senior Transportation	Senior Transportation

Okay, so until that point it really doesn't matter to me which to vote for, since clearly they have both done good things. I think Mr. Costabile wins in that as he is the incumbent - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. There has to be something to differentiate the candidates, and of course there is.

Mr. Costabile goes on to list other accomplishments such as obtaining grants, managing the ODOT project so it was ended early and under budget amongst other things. On the other hand, Mr. Sonenstein lists the committees he was on and clearly had to work with the Mayor on some of those issues/accomplishments.

What is clearly different though is Mr. Sonenstein's claim to have fought the Mayor and the City Council President over a gas well in the Mayfield City Park. While I'm sure that the revenue from the well would help the city financially, from an eye-sore perspective in one of the really nice places in the City, I'd have to side with Mr. Sonenstein on this one.

On the other hand, Mr. Costabile points to increased environmental awareness and activities. He lays claims to planting trees and conducting energy audits of City Buildings. No where on Mr. Sonenstein's site is there mention of what I consider a critical issue. So I have to side with Mr. Constabile on this one as at least it's on his radar. I'd like to see both candidates, but at a minimum, Mr. Costabile since it is on his platform, to show up at my brother George's talk at the Townhall Series on October 26th. They'd learn quite a bit from someone who is playing a large environmental role in a major city(Washington D.C.)

So they both are still about even, with the incumbent being a tad bit ahead in my opinion so far. That brings me to their "platforms". I really like the fact that both candidates have clearly labeled "platforms" of what they plan to bring to the Office. Again, being a web guy, Mr. Sonenstein gets kudos for having the easier to read. 　His platform is numbered for easy reading, while Mr. Costabiles is more like a document, a bunch of paragraphs. Not that there is anything wrong with that per se, but it's just a little harder to read. Personally, I like the way Jill Miller Zimon has her campaign page where her issues are clearly labeled and you can pick the one you are interested on and it opens up to show just that piece. (To be fair, Jill's top page is filled with over 300 html validation errors, so both Mayfield gentlemen win in that regard. Note, I'm a big fan of Jill's regardless of whether I agree with everything or nothing she says. She's smart, dedicated, thorough, eloquent and worth listening to for what she has to say.)

Unfortunately, Mr Sonenstein completely loses me with his final item. It's in all caps. Why is he shouting at me? I don't even know the guy. Okay, I get that he's trying to emphasize it, but in the internet world ALL CAPS means one of two things; your all caps key is stuck or your shouting.

To add to that impression, in this section he insuates some serious claims. While he doesn't state it out right, he suggests that Mr. Costabile, the current mayor, uses the office for personal gain, plays favorites based on political favors, and does not commit to the job full time. That's some serious claims particularly when you are shouting them.

To be blunt, based on the contents and the style in which it's rendered, I find it unprofessional and childish. And that's where Mr. Sonenstein loses me. In addition, the platform of Mr. Costabile is much more thorough, covering a wide range of very specific topics. Mr Sonenstein's does as well, just not as thorough.

However, let's take a look at them specifically.

Gregory S. Costabile	Howard Sonenstein
Platform	Platform
Continued development of Economic plan - business park	Job Fair
Work with planners to support strong retail district	Cut Taxes based on reduced property value
Establish committee to develop action plan for Oakville Park	Health Care - leverage Hillcrest to provide immunizations, flu shots for residents, and clinics for those with no insurance, and creation(?) of other clinics
Expand Unity Day committee to include more residents	Create Dog Park
Expand Senior Programs	Sidewalk and Apron Replacement
Create new programs for teeanagers - volunteer opportunities and social events	Offer "out of hours" building inspections
Strengthen regional ties, improve state and federal relationships	More programs for children including sprinkler park
Expand building department services	shouting...sorry, that' should be: dedicate full time to office, treat residents equally, open and honest communication
Provide Fire and Police with state of art equipment and training
More recreational activities
Equip Services department to provide chipper services, leaf pickup, sidewalk repair etc.
Develop community groups
Find new and improved ways to be environmentally consicous
Implement grant to improve Ross Center

What seems to be clear to me is that Mr. Sonenstein wants to cut property taxes, create a job fair where residents have priority, and improved health care. Mr. Costabile at a minimum is keeping taxes the same, that lengthy list would hint as possible tax increase. But perhaps not. At a minimum, Mr. Costabile has a more thorough platform. Unclear to me is how he plans to pay for all of these items.

In the end though, I'd have to say I lean fairly heavily at this point to Mr. Costabile. Remember, I don't know either of these gentlemen and wouldn't know them if they passed me on the street. I am simply going by their websites.

I'd also like to point out to Mr. Sonenstein that if you click on the "Photos" link from the platform page, you are linked to a "template" that suggests the page was created in Scotland. I found the following pages on your site:

• index-1.html
• index-2.html
• index-3.html
• index-4.html

You might want to fix those or at least get a refund from whoever created this site. That's really unprofessional.

So, who is your choice and why?

子供が大きくなると

今日はなんと、朝から夕方までありさと僕、二人きりになりました。　来年の八月に結婚２０周年になり、結婚してから１年目エリーが生まれ、あれ以来だら二人きりになったことは殆どありません。　必ず、誰かいる状態が１９年ぐらい続いているのです。　でも、最近は子供が大きくなっていて、　出かけたりするようになっています。　今日はケンが友達と朝早くシーだーポイントに行きました。　エリーとジョージは10時ごろにキークラブの活動でどこかの子供祭りにボランティアしに行きました。

なんと、家が静かです。 僕はパソコンを向いていて、ありさが何かやっている。これもいいですね。　そして、二人が車のヘッドライトのランプや銀行、グロサリーに一緒に行って帰ってきまして、子供がまだ帰って来ていなく静かです。　

そして、これから二人がカリブー（コーヒーショップ）にいって、デート。　いい土曜日ですな。

Bye Bye Braylon

So y new favorite NFL coach traded away Braylon Edwards. Of course, this news has been taken up nationally and locally. I am hoping that Braylon does well with the Jets because according to what I read, we get better draft picks next year the better he does.

What I don't know is whether is was worth it for this year to get rid of Braylon. In our last game, we established Massaquoi (sp?) as a threat when teams double cover Braylon. That's what seemed to keep us in the game against Cinci. Now that they traded him away what's that do for our wide receiver threat? Robiskie? The guy Eric Mangini stretch to just let him dress for the Cincy game.

Okay, so we're getting Chansi Stuckey in return, So far this season he's had 11 receptions for 120 yards and 1 td versus Braylon's 10 receptions for 139 yards and zero TDs. I have a feeling that Chansi's not going to cut it. We'll see, but I have my doubts that we'll have effective enough wr threats to let our offense grow.

Update So I was talking with Ken about the Braylon thing and the fact that Sportstalkcle hinted a rumour that the Browns were actively shopping Brady Quinn around . So Ken asks me, and I respond with :

ME: yes, but the real question is....

KEN rudely interrupting: do the cavs win a championship this year

Ain't that the truth.

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.

Mangini Does a Flip-Flop

Today, Eric Mangini announced that Derek Anderson would be the starting quarterback this Sunday against the Bengals. While it'll make the game more interesting, I don't think the results will change, nor does it provide us with a view as to how good or bad Brady Quinn is. He really hasn't had a chance and while he has looked miserable, it seems to me it's a combination of him being afraid of making mistakes and just horrendous play calling. I'm also not sure what he's afraid of...making a mistake?

We know DA will do one of two things: 1) stink up the place, and 2) make throws that make you go "Wow". And he'll probably do both during the game. That's DA. It does make it exciting because you never know what you're going to get.

I don't particularly like this move by Mangini because it looks like he's trying to get a win, a TD, whatever to save his job. It's not about making the best future football team, it's about now, this week. But reality is we'll still be really, really bad. I'd rather see him focusing on improving the team, and I'm not sure that DA is the right choice for that. But I've been wrong before...

I don't like is that Eric flip-flopped on himself saying he'd stay with the quarterback he chose for the whole season. It just makes me question anything he says. At the same time, I do like the difference from Romeo who would stick with his favorites way too long even though they were stinking up the place. And Brady was stinking up the place, I'm just not sure whether it's Brady's fault.

Go Browns!

Cleveland Browns Are Bad

I was not going to post anything negative about the Browns this season, since I knew that it was going to be a bad team. In fact, I anticipated we'd be lucky to match last year's record. But I expected progress and improvement from a terrible Crennel era.

No such luck.

If anything they are a worse team under Eric Mangini. The team has not improved week to week, losing in increasingly embarrassing fashion. Half way through today's game I couldn't help but think how hard it is for these guys to play with the intensity they need to be competitive. I'm actually okay with the Defense, as bad as it got beat up by the Ravens, but special teams is pretty weak and the offense non-existent.

Once again, our Quarterbacks look worse than they probably are since we have no offensive line. (Well it is offensive, but you know what I mean.) I was not surprised by anything Derek Anderson did today as that's Derek Anderson. I knew that he'd make it more interesting, but in the end would throw picks that would kill any drive. Nor would he get us into the end zone. Brady Quinn, on the other hand, looks bad. He looks like he's afraid to throw longer than 5 yards. I cannot understand why when Brady is the QB the receivers run 2-3 yards short of the 1st down marker.

Whose fault is that? Is that the Offensive Coordinator or Brady? Or both? I noticed that when Derek was in most of the receivers were passed the first down marker on their routes. So is the coaching staff holding Brady in check? Is there something we don't know? I can't tell, but it looks like the offense isn't designed to go deep when BQ plays. But there are also glimpses of Brady just not wanting to throw it deep.

Anyway you look at it, neither is currently working out.

And the problems come down to the current management. Poor draft choices, poor trades, and implementing overbearing discipline. When you have five players filing complaints, there has to be a problem. When you have "fights" breaking out in the locker room there has to be a problem. When two players the Browns passed up on in the draft are starting and looking like pro-bowl material, and our picks are playing there as to be a problem.

With the management and coaching staff.

So against all common sense and probably all rational thought, my gut reaction is to fire Eric Mangini today. I would normally agree that you give a new coach some time to start building. However, Mangini has made so many missteps already that I don't think anything of value is achievable. Cut and run now.

Can you imagine, two Erics fired in one year in Cleveland. Music to my ears.

Of course, we all know what the real problem is. Randy Lerner, the owner. Until ownership is changed, a chance at a competitive football team is a pipe dream. I understand that he is probably making money on the enterprise. Unfortunately, it also appears that he has no pride either. I imagine that most folks who run money-making enterprises actually take pride in the quality of the products and services they provide. Randy apparently has zero pride, putting up with garbage year in and year out.

I was hoping to start a movement to have the residents of Northeast Ohio to purchase the team from Sir Lerner. Unfortunately, a short stop at wikipedia cured me of that particular nonsense...Green Bay was "grandfathered" to allow more than 32 owners of a particular team. Even so, it may be interesting to look into it some more since simply asking Sir Lerner to sell is not the answer since there is no guarantee that he'll sell it to anyone who is 1) going to keep the team in Cleveland, 2) be any good for the team.

Lacking that, though, they need to fire Eric Mangini. I know, it's probably not smart but nothing else the Browns organization has done in the last 10 years is either. So why stop now. Just fire the twit.

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.

悩むな

前から知っていたんですけど、ミクシィはオープンID（OpenID)を対応しているというか、OpenIDのプロバイダーです。　何かというと、たとえばミクシィのログイン名を使ってこのサイトにログインすることが可能です。　実はヤフーも同様な機能を提供しているんです。　

僕なんかはいくつかのサイトに登録して、そのサイトにIDとパスワードを覚える必要がります。　これはなんかなんか面倒くさいし、場合によって忘れやすいわけです。　ということでこのOpenIDの仕組みを利用してひとつのIDで複数のサイトにログインすることが出来るようになります。凄く便利ですね。 たとえば、このサイトにログインしてブログを追加するためにミクシィIDを利用すればよいんです。　このサイトのIDをわざわざ覚える必要がありません。

またサンディエゴ

このあいだ、Diego出張について投稿しましたが、またまた今はサンディエゴに来ています。　普段は殆ど毎晩出張している方々と一緒に夕ご飯を食べに行きますけど、今回は今夜だけ一緒に出かけたんです。　本当は日本風焼肉屋さんに行こうと思ったのですが、見つからなかったんです。ということで違う和食レストランに行ってきました。

一応、居酒屋という看板と寿司屋でもあるような看板があったし、ウエブサイトのドメイン名が寿司を重視しています。　www.ichirossushi.com. ま、和食レストランでした。寿司以外も普通のメニューでした。僕が頼んだのはカツどんでした。　居酒屋的なものといえば、牛たたきです。日本にいるごろ、居酒屋に行ったら必ず牛たたきを頼みました。　今夜はスペシャルで牛たたきがありましたので注文しました。

焼き鳥もありましたけど、写真を撮る前に食べきったんです。餃子もあって食べきる前に写真を撮るのを思い出して。。。

本音といえば、妻のカツどんと餃子の方が美味しいと思います。別にこのレストランのカツどんと餃子は美味しくないわけではなく、単なる妻が作ったの方が美味しいと思います。　

写真良くないけど、やはり赤提灯っていいよね

True Dat:Rants from the Dawg Pound:Browns-Vikings Edition | Browns Rant

This post over at brownsrant was purdy darn close to my take on the game

Rants from the Dawg Pound:Browns-Vikings Edition | Browns Rant

Browns Lose to Vikings

The Cleveland Browns lost to the Vikings today which is by no means a surprise. What I was pleased about was that with the exception of the third quarter, the Browns were actually competitive. That's the only criteria I have for this season is that they don't embarrass themselves, but are actually competitive. I don't expect alot of wins.

Importantly, the touchdown drought ended, granted it was in "garbage time", but a td is a td. We couldn't have gotten that last year. I think Brady Quinn did okay. Not sure what happened on the interception he had, but clearly it was a miscommunication/misread by either Brady or Braylon Edwards. The fumble was a boneheaded move as it would have been an awkward, weak throw even if he could have maintained his grip on the ball. Even subtracting those plays though, I was not overwhelmed by Brady's play. It'll be interesting to see how he progresses now that he's the QB.

Jamal doesn't have any speed anymore, but he is a punishing running back. It's clear he likes to hit. James Davis seemed to be a tad bit overwhelmed and was generally ineffective before getting hurt.

I thought the defense, particularly in the first half, did well. The worry I had was could they maintain it for the whole 60 minutes, and clearly they couldn't. Adrian Peterson had 155 yards in the second half alone. In general though the Browns D actually tackled for the most part. The lack of tackling last year drove me nuts. Poor tackling wasn't completely eliminated, but it was a big improvement.

Prior to the game, I was hoping that Vikes would only win by a score of 27-10. It ended up 34-20, which was more competitive than I thought it would be. And that's what I like to see.

Disappointed with Google Sites

I'm disappointed with Google Sites.   A recent post on Google's blog proudly trumpets the addition of Hebrew and other left to right language support in Google sites.
I'd really prefer them to to get some basics right first.  Like actually providing RSS feeds.  I've found a couple of "workarounds" but none of them work particularly well, and I wasn't really willing to work that hard to get an RSS feed. 

Diamond Jamboree

今は出張でカリフォーニアにいますが、初日にカリフォーニアピザキッチェンに行きましたが、パスタやピザのレストランですけど、ウエイトレスが凄く良かったです。　 サービスも良かったけど、近くにある美味しいレストランを教えてくれました。　１０店ほど教えてくれたんですが、その中でキューバ、ハワイ、アジアのレストランが含まれました。

教えてくれた中で２店がホテルのすぐ近くでした。一昨日、そこに行ってみたのですが、なんと Diamond　Jamboreeというレストラン街でした。雰囲気的にレガシーやクロッカーパークと似ているけど、買い物する店が少なく殆どレストラン。一昨日はクリスティちゃんが教えた店に行こうかなと思ったのですが、Ajisenラーメン屋があって結局そこで食べました。とんかつラーメン（豚骨）、餃子を頼んで、結構惜しかったです。麺はちょっと固かった気がしますけど、美味しかったんです。 クリーブランドにラーメン屋がないから比較的に高く評価しているかもしれないけどね。

  

Switched to Disqus

I am trying out Disqus for comments on the blog.

Disqus Comments is a comment system and moderation tool for your site. This service lets you add next-gen community management and social web integrations to any site on any platform. Hundreds of thousands of sites, from small blogs to large publications, rely on Disqus Comments for their discussion communities.

Perhaps this is easier than the built in one. We'll see...or maybe not since nobody comments on my blog anyway...

If I decide I like it, I'll clean up the template to remove the default comment stuff.

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！

San Diego出張

このあいだ、San Diegoに出張して来ました。　仕事だったので、観光とかは出来なかったけど、たまたま顧客のオフィスが和食レストランや食材店が多い地域にありました。　道に歩くだけで日本語が聞こえるほど日本人がいましたし、グロサリストアの前に日本語新聞、JTBのチラシとかあって、日本のニュースや地元の日本関連情報が豊富でした。　なんか、こんなところに住んだらいいなと思いました。

初日は会議をしながらランチをとったので、外にでなくてどの地域かは分からないままでホテルに戻ったのですが、2日目で自由にランチを取るということで隣のショップ街に言ったら半分以上日本人が運営されるショップでした。　会社の同僚と一緒だったのでなんとSubwayで食べたのですが、その夜は一人でカレー屋さんに食べにいきました。なんと、ハウス食品を運営する店でした。
店の外に日本と同様にどのようなメニューがプラスティックで出来てるサンプルが展示されているのです。

上記の写真にあるカツカレーを注文して、サラダも頼みました。　なんと、アメリカサイズのサラダではなく、日本レストランに出る小さなサラダでした。　日本に住んだとき、何年間このような小さなサラダでムッとしていて、アメリカサイズが欲しかったけれど、　やはり慣れてこの間このようなサラダがあってうれしかった。やはり人間が変わるもんです。

食べ終わったら、その近くにうろうろしていて、他の和食レストランがあったし、日本風のコーヒーショップもあってその中に日本風のケーキもありました。　コーヒーショップに入ってみたのですが、ケーキが殆ど売りきりで何も買わず、写真も取りませんでした。
でも、ありさがつれていったら、喜ぶだろうなと思っていて見ていました。

その後、二つの日本食材店に入ってみました。　CAMはいいけど、日本以外のものもあり日本の食材がこれらの店より少ない。なんと言われても、店に入ったら沖縄の音楽が流れていて、一つの店に沖縄行きの宣伝広告もありあました。(写真） 日本人意外の方１ー２人ぐらいであとは全部日本人でした。　奥様たちもいて、サラリーマン、学生などいまして、日本語がばりばり聞こえる。それと、商品揃いもいいです。　野菜、魚、肉（しゃぶしゃぶやすき焼きようの薄切り牛肉、などがあり、缶コーヒーなどの日本の飲み物などがありました。本当に日本にあるスーパーと変わらないほどでした。麦茶をかっただけでホテルに帰りましたが、ありさに電話して買い物リストを頼みました。クリーブランドに戻る前に買いました。

来週はロスなのでリトル東京に行って見ます。

Anyone Know what this is?

I have no idea what this is, but it's in my garden.

Anyone know what it is?

I Miss Okinawa Clouds

One of the things I miss about Okinawa are the clouds. There were just some spectacular views of clouds. So when I saw something close on Sunday I grabbed two pics.

  

Perhaps on our college tour trip next week we'll get to see some more.

This Week's Garden Pics

This weeks garden pics. The fifth and sixth pictures in the slideshow below should be our Bak Choi and Mizuna(perilla) harvest. We have a ton of mizuna.

The corn continues to do fairly well, as does the jalepeno and other peppers. The sun flowers are doing really well if you ask me.

I cleared out most of the mizuna and bak choi and will be planting soy beans, peas, some more lettuce including romaine, iceburg, cabbage, and endive. Adding some more herbs, dill and rosemary in particular. It'll be interesting to see if I can get the rosemary going since I read somewhere that it's hard to grow from seed.

The tomatoes continue to impress.....lots of tomato sauce meals coming up here soon. Yum.

Side Trip for Ice Cream

After visiting Lake Erie, Arisa and I took a side trip on the way home to get some Ice Cream. We stopped by Foster's Homemade Ice Cream on Chardon Road in Willoughby, Ohio.

We got one cone each of butter pecan and maple nut. Really, really good ice cream. Foster's has parking right in front and some picnic tables of which we took fool advantage. We were there right when it was a bright and sunny day.

If you're interested in trying this place out, which I highly recommend, check out the map below

View Foster's Homemade Ice Cream in a larger map

I must say it was a nice time just the two of us.

Visit to Lake Erie

Today, Arisa and I headed out on some errands, one of which was to head over to Rick Case Hyundai to ask a few questions and get another key for the car. So we took a little side trip to see Lake Erie. Other than seeing it from around the Great Lakes Science Center, or driving along the Shoreway, Arisa has never been to Lake Erie. And it's been many, many years for me.

I must say, it's a damn large puddle. Of course, we lived a 5-10 minute walk from the beach in Okinawa (East China Sea), it's been a while since we got this close to a large body of water. I miss the sound of waves.

7/19 This weeks garden pics

Okay, here's the weekly pics of the garden. Focus on the sunflowers, pumpkin and jalapeño.

The pumpkin has been flowering non-stop. We may get a pumpkin or two out of it. Looking forward to trying the jalapeño.

I think last week's title was mistaken. Ah well, not worth changing at this point.

July 12 Garden Pics

I took some pics of the garden today. It's coming along very nicely. I noticed today that of the six garlic cloves I planted, the 6th and final one is actually coming it. 100% success rate on the garlic.

After I took the pictures I went out and harvested some beans, lettuce, mizuna, and bak choi. Quite a bit of it in fact:

I also grabbed some of the seed pods for the Mizuna. Going to see if we can get some seeds for next year(not that I really need them as we still have a lot left over), as well as mixing it with regular mustard seeds to make mustard.

I wonder what's for lunch...ramen with bak choi!? Sounds good to me!

IE7 and Google Spreadsheet Form

Ah, so I was planning on posting a form related to JANO, and happened to be using my laptop from work(kids are using mine right now). The JANO board meetings are open to any member of JANO, but we do need to get some kind of head count since we hold the board meetings at Shuhei in Beachwood.

By happenstance, I am using google docs spreadsheet to create the rsvp form. In IE7. I make the changes and go to take a look at the form and all there is are question marks where text should be. I whip open the same url in Firefox and it renders perfectly. No wonder we've had no rsvps before; they can't read the damn form (the majority of access is via IE). I only have two thoughts:

1. Come on people, use Firefox
2. Why does Microsoft have such a hard problem making a good browser

Unfortunately this time around it's not the browser I don't think. At a minimum, Safari on Windows has the exact same issue as IE7. FWIW, on Linux using FF, Chrome, Konqi, Opera, and Flock all work perfectly. Could it be something about the windows platform? Just maybe?

Nah, couldn't be.

Anyhoo, Google really needs to make these forms html valid. While I will give them it's awful close, there are errors. And they provide you with no way to "tweak" the form, i.e, specify the character set or language. And the place < br> everywhere, particularly places that per the spec are not allowed to be. Granted the idea is that you can easily create a form on the web where the responses are automatically saved in a spreadsheet. If the form become unreadable though, regardless of how easy it is to create it's useless. And all I would need would be able to pick a character set or language for the form and the browsers would render it perfectly, regardless of the operating system and/or browser.

Additionally, it would be really nice if you could create links in the text. I can imagine that may be a security thing though.

So this time around I can only blame another google beta quality service. Not that I'm really complaining since it's all free anyway.

ミントティーとモジータ

昨年、家の前に花の庭にはミントだらけでしたが、今年はありさが凄く頑張って綺麗な花が沢山咲いています。　前にも写真をアップしています。今朝、 Pigs Fly!で「ミントの活用法(募集) 」という投稿を読みました。活用方法を募集していますので、わが家で何を使っているかを簡単に説明します。

A Teenager's Favorite Weekend Activity

Ah, to return to the days of being a teenager....

Yes, sleeping late on the weekends. That was always nice. The funny part about this though was that it was in the middle of the afternoon. So after getting up at 10 or 11, who has the gall to fall asleep on the couch?

Yup, Elly. Great role model she turned out to be for Ken and George....sigh

Easy Ramen Lunch

We had a really simple lunch today, instant Ramen really. We did add something to make it something a little more than a lunch of MSG. And since I didn't actually take pictures of last weeks final product, which I'll post about here in a bit, I have decided to use this for this week's GYO post.

We've been growing Bak Choi and it's been doing really well. In fact, I probably planted a little too much of it. But that means we've been eating a lot of it too which isn't a bad thing. Last week we had this version:

 

Today, we grabbed some Bak Choi from the garden:

 

If you notice some holes in the Bak Choi, that would because we are not using any pesticide nor fertilizer on the garden. I may use them next year, but I wanted to see how we did this year. Clearly we need to thoroughly rinse the the Bak Choi prior to using for anything that goes in my mouth. Then you chop them all up:

 

Actually, prior to chopping them up, we throw some eggs into boiling water to get the soft boiled eggs going. We also follow the instructions for the Maruzen Ramen, which basically consists of boiling the noodles for several minutes, adding the soup mix to the noodles. For five people, we actually use only 4 packets of ramen.

Add a teaspoon of vegetable oil in a wok and stir fry the pak choy until it's soft. Pour the ramen into a soup bowl. We actually have "ramen bowls" which we use, but any soup bowl should do. Add the soft boiled egg and the ｂak choi, and VOILA:

 

Probably the hardest part about the above is getting the soft boiled egg just right. Everything else is dead simple. And makes it a completely different dish from plain old instant ramen. And it takes just a few minutes to make.

Update: corrected Pak Choi to Bak Choi

今日の花写真

今日の花写真集。　

I Lied, Dell Didn't Flip Flop

They didn't flip flop, they just hid it. This page doesn't indicate anything about Ubuntu when you click on of the systems except for the $349 one. Hence, if you click on the Mini 10v on that page, you do not have the option to swap out windows for Ubuntu. Hence I thought that is was no longer an option.

My daughter, concerned that she wasn't going to get her favored Ubuntu netbook did some more digging. And sure enough, it's not that they don't sell it, they just hide it. Well, I guess hiding it isn't even right. It all depends on how you navigate the site. If you go to their laptops page and only select minibooks in the left hand navigation box, you get this page which does show the ubuntu version.

Clearly this is a marketing thing. They don't want to sell ubuntu (or Microsoft doesn't want them to) is one way of looking at it. Based on my experience with Dell I tend to take that view. It's always hard to find linux boxen even though they are there. But more likely, really, is that most consumers would be confused since they don't know what Ubuntu even is.

But here's the thing - the Mini 10v is a Mini 10V and you can customize it to your delight. With the exception of the operating system depending on which one you find first. Wouldn't it just make sense to make the operating system customizable? Or at least a link to the other system? For what it's worth, you can't select windows if you happen to start with the Ubuntu system.

I now remember why this will be this family's first dell ever. It's just too hard to by a non-windows system even though they offer it.

Suffice it to say though, my daughter is relieved that they do sell the Mini 10v with Ubuntu and is excited to get hers.

Dell Does A Flip Flop - Windows Cheaper than Ubuntu Netbook

I'm amazed. A few weeks ago I was looking at getting a netbook from Dell, largely because we get an employee discount. Not much of a discount, but a discount. So I login again today since my daughter wants to buy one. One with Ubuntu on it, not Windows. Her choice, not mine - though if you know me, you'd know Ubuntu would be my choice as well.

When I originally saved my cart (cool little feature there on Dell's site), I had selected a Mini 10v, which came with Ubuntu. And it cost $299. The Windows netbooks were like $50 more. So imagine my suprise when I go back today and the Mini 10v is only available with Windows on it, and the Ubuntu version now costs what the Windows version did previously, $349.

No explanation, no nothing. You just can't order the Mini 10v with Ubuntu on it anymore. You only have the option of Windows XP SP3. Which is surprising to me since we all know that Microsoft has been waffling back and forth as to when XP is going to hit the junk heap.

I would be absolutely fascinated with Dell's explanation of this flip flop. The only change in the configuration is the OS. What made Ubuntu, a free and free of charge OS all of a sudden $50 more expensive than an operating system that costs money?

Maybe I need to go back and consider Asus again. But that will be for my next one. We did order the Mini 10v that was saved in my cart. We'll see what actually shows up.

More Flower Pics

More pics from our garden and yard. Arisa's on a roll here...

うさぎ、＊＊やろう

うさぎ、馬鹿やろう！　といって仕方がないじゃないんですか。　分かっているけど、やっぱ頭が来ますわ。

いや、実は前から小さなうさぎちゃんが何回もバークヤードに発見しています。　しかも、殆ど人間に怖がらないやつなですよ。　子供のうさぎだから可愛いし、ガーデンではなくクローバ(Clover)とか食べていたのであんまり気にしていないのです。でも、こんなにやられると、あいつがピーターラビットと同じ経験させようかなと思っています。　でも、昨夜隣に住んでいる方と話しをしたら、やっぱうさぎではんくグラウンドホグが犯人だと思います。

僕も前に見たことがあって、デカーーーーイやつんですわ。　多分２ー３フィートぐらいの大きさです。　隣の方が一昨日に我が庭にいることを見たそうです。　こういつをどう追い出すかが今の課題です。　もちろん、フェンスを買った方が良いでしょうけど、まず他の手段を使う予定です。　非常にシャイだそうで、風鈴を出しました。これからグラウンドホグが嫌いな石けんとかアモニアとかを使って見ます。

結局、フェンスしかないと気がするけれど、フェンスだって登ることが出来るし、下に掘ることも出来るなので困りますわ。　

Quick Garden Pics

Just a quick update on our backyard garden, which is mostly vegetables.

Grow Your Own

p>今年は、レモンタイムを植えました。　成長ぶりとかはまったく分からないですけど、小さな花が咲き始めているから一応生きているんだな。　今年はハーブが結構植えましたが、他のハーブはどのように使うのかは分かっていますけど、レモンタイムが分からないので、
レシピーをグーグルしました。そうすると、美味しいそうなレモンソベットのレシピーを見つかりました(英語）。　これをやってみようと思っておりますけど、アイスクリーム機会がないので諦めるかもしれません。

そのページを読んだらこのGrow Your Ownというブログイベントを見つかりました。　なんか、このアイディアが非常に面白いなと思って参加しようと思っています。

参加ルールは非常に簡単です。 第一条件として、自分のガーデンの野菜などを使ったレシピーを自分のブログに投稿します。　ようは自分が育ったものをなんらかの形でレシピーで使うことです。 例えば、今月の初め頃に「Garden Report」という記事を書いたのですが、その中でうちのガーデンから収得したレタスとChives(ニイラ？）を使った「生春巻き」を作ったという内容でした。　一応、そのぐらいにレシピーを加えれば、GYOの条件を満たすわけです。 ブログにアップしたら、300x300以内の写真と簡単なブログ紹介をホストにメールします。　ホストは持ち回りに8月中旬まで決まっていて、リストアップされています。　（ホストは自分のブログに全員のブログ内容をまとめて紹介する役割です。　毎回、担当変わるのでそんなに重くならないような仕組みになっています。

JANOでもこのような形式でなんかやっていいかなと思いますね。 　

僕はこのGYOに参加しますけど、　どのレシピーでやるかはありさと相談しないと。。。。

Not Just Vegetables

Okay, just so you don't get the wrong impression. We here at neohawk.org don't do just vegetables. In fact, vegetables are generally my reposonsiblity. Arisa, on the other hand does the flowers. So here are some quick pics:

Update: I finally got some good pics on the one rose flower that's blooming. Bunch more coming in. I added them to the pics below.

The flowers are mostly in the front of the house, while the last three pictures in the above slide show are the side of our driveway in front of the garage. We have a bunch of sunflowers there, some shiso, and other mixed flowers. This side area is actually kind of a collaborative effort. When some of the flowers that I planted in the backyard bloom, I'll grab some picks.

Garden Report

Okay, so the garden is coming along okay. Today, we picked our first radish, grabbed three more strawberries, and picked one head of lettuce. The lettuce is a tad bit early I think, but we wanted to taste it, and I wanted to thin the row out a little bit. Check out the pics below:

 

The last picture in the slide show is a picture of a "Raw Spring Roll". It's made with lettuce, chives, harusame(green been noodle?), pork, shrimp, and egg. You dip it in a korean miso based sauce, i.e., spicy. Of course, the lettuce and chives were from our yard.

m, m, good

Google Connect for Comments

For the time being, nevermind. It didn't work like I thought it would.

I am trying something new on this blog. I am giving Google Connect a go for commenting. I have also added a "social bar" on the right side of the blog, but that was really part of my testing to make sure that Google Connect was working.

This site is powered mostly by Byteflow with some minor code added by me (news and links), and a couple other pieces of Django code/modules. But I wanted to give Google connect a try. With Byteflow, in order to comment you need to register with this site either with an OpenID account or a email address and password. I'm pleased with the OpenID support, but not many people actually know what it is. They do know their google, aim, or yahoo accounts and can use those to register and then comment.

Of course, there actually needs to be somebody reading this blog before any comments are going to happen. But I know I'm talking to myself here in the ether. But I think this may be easier in the long run.

I'll need to tidy up my templates since there is still some stuff left over from the byteflow templates. I'll need to nix those when I get around to it.

Page Speed

Check this out, Google's version of Yahoo's YSlow.



http://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/index.html

Memorial Day Weekend

A tad bit belated, but we had a very nice Memorial Day. For lunch, we had our first attempt at bbq'd ribs and I must say it was quite successful. After that we headed to the Blossom Time Festival in Chagrin Falls, and listened to Alex Bevan. On the way home, we had dinner at Four Guys Burgers and Fries to see what all the fuss was about. Pretty darn good burgers..