New Lobster Eating Record

I have the high-class problem of eating all I want so I don't lose weight. Going on the 7-day inter island cruise and ordering double entrees at dinner helped. The California Bistro is my favorite seafood buffet, and I set a new record of 16 lobster halves at our 44th wedding anniversary celebration last Friday. Check out my video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiPD_6XAdws&feature=email

Iolani Bulletin

Mo has decided to retire from being the Class of '61 writer for the Iolani Bulletin.  If any classmate wants to take over the job, contact him.  Until someone else takes over, this blog will be the only source of news for the class.  Please email iolani61@gmail.com with news and we will post it.  We also have number of classmates on Facebook, I'm considering starting a group for the class so members can contribute news which will only be viewed by group members.  Also non-Facebook users can view the class page.

Mumper here!

It's been such a long time since I've contributed anything and as a result, I couldn't remember my password especially after that incident where I ended up in England stuck in a hotel as a result of being mugged and unable to subsequently pay my hotel bills.

What happened! Somebody was phishing and I bit. I got an email from "Yahoo" saying that they were reviewing all email accounts and that if I didn't want my account to be cancelled, I should respond within two weeks. I responded. They asked for my password number and I figured that they being Yahoo must know it already so I provided it to them again. Surprise!!!....within an hour I was getting calls from the East Coast telling me that my email had been compromised.

So.....new account, new password and I forgot the old one.

Marvelous visit with Arthur Akina. So good to see him after 49 years. A definitely marvelous job by Mike Chun posting the photos and videos and keeping this blog going! A spectacular job of organizing this fine event by Morris Lai and Dick Tsuda , two of our take charge classmates.

So far, a busy summer. As I watched all the history channel shows on the American Revolution during the 4th of July weekend telling of all the sacrifice and difficulty that our country went through trying to win the war.....as I recall 1/3 were loyalists, 1/3 didn't want to get involved leaving a minority that pushed this war to a successful ending with all the trials of maintaining an Army and winning, all the trouble with the Articles of Confederation and writing a new constitution and all the problems with getting the states on board with the new national government....sometimes, I wonder, wouldn't it have been easier just to have paid the freaking tax on the tea?

Just joking!!! But just a glancing thought! But with all the problems that our country went through, maybe we shouldn't expect so much so soon in Iraq and Afghaganistan. We had a hundred years of turmoil from the our founding to the end of the civil war just to get our "stuff" together.

Regarding the World Cup, I believe that the USA did a good job. We made it out of the first round. What more can be expected in a country where our best athletes go into baseball, football and basketball? To the best of my knowledge, the annual pay of one basketball player would be more than enough to cover the entire annual budget of one soccer team.

So, Coach Bob Bradley, I hope you come back! You did good!

Incidently, my experience with AYSO soccer for 12 years indicates that we may have a long way to improve in player development. There was always a big emphasis on winning at the lowest levels and sometimes, the only way to win was to yell at the kids to "kick the ball out of the middle" so the other team didn't score on you, to "kick it down the field" and to "kick it out of bounds" to keep the ball from being taken away from you. As a result, kids were not encouraged to practice their skills under game conditions for fear of making mistakes and passing was taught at too young an age before individual skills were even learned.

From what I've read, kids from other countries learn many of their individual skills playing unorganized "street soccer" and they master their individual skills of dribbling and controlling the ball before they get into organized play and before they are even taught passing and tactics. My recommendation is that parents and coaches be banned from youth soccer so that kids can just play, develop their skills and not worry about being afraid to make mistakes for fear of being yelled at by coaches and parents.

Of course, I haven't coached in about 8 years. Things must be changing but you can watch soccer at the highest levels and note the sophisticated skill levels of the non-American players with exceptions of course especially around their own goal.

On another note, we've attended a number of funerals in the last couple of years for fellow classmates. I think that a memorial ceremony at Iolani's St. Albans Chapel is really cool with a reception being provided in the student cafeteria (does this building have a name?) by the food caterers under contract at Iolani. I've often wondered who one would call to make it easier for your family when it's time to transition over to the other side. It would be cool if Iolani had a plan for their alumni. I would be interested....just in case anybody from Iolani is reading this.

Meanwhile....keep up the good work if you haven't made the list yet....keep moving to keep the numbers (cholesterol, weight, blood sugar and blood pressure) down....and stay married....it's better for your life span in the long run from what I've read.

Arthur Akina

Thanks to Mo, some of us had dinner with Arthur Akina when he was in town from Las Vegas.  He brought us up to date on what he has been doing these past 49 years.  I took video of  what he said and posted it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzE9iDbfpV4

Mo gave a Hawaiian chant to start the program, then each of us went around the table and brought Arthur up to date as to what we were doing.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jg9p4YNjbc  As it turns out, some of us didn't know what everyone else has been doing.

Unfortunately, being an amateur, I didn't bring a spare memory stick and ran out of memory.  So I didn't get all of Campbell, or any of Norman Tyau, Jim Miyashiro and Tommy Wong (fka Chun).  I also placed the camera too low on the table and missed mine completely.  If you want to see the others click:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7TMLCrp-jc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMQIjbd0ZeM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fESJxX5S7os

I had to break the videos up into four because the limit on YouTube is 10 minutes.

I don't recall what they said exactly, but Campbell is still working for a telephone company, Norman spends most of his time in Thailand hunting and shopping, Jim is totally retired as a VA pharmasist now spending time watching his grand kids and Tommy is semi-retired, working parttime in a doctor's office (his brother's) and for a non-profit.  After 25 years with the U.S. Department of Justice, I retired from the U.S. Attorney's Office in 2004.

There are also pictures which Tsuda and I shot.  You can see them by clicking on the slide show on the right column.

Danceitis

Linda and I have just been addicted to the craze which has attracted so many of our classmates who hang out at the Palladium -- ballroom dancing. At Mike Chun's suggestion, we attended a five-day DanceVision ballroom dancing "boot camp" in Las Vegas. Imagine "learning" 18 new dances in ten 50 minute classes each day with a 10 minute break between lessons. Definitely a mental and physical challenge. We wanted to get our money's worth, so we attended every session. Now the challenge is to follow up with the DVD's we purchased so we can actually dance. The instructors were top-notch and we highly recommend this program. We may go back next year.

We'll definitely go the the Palladium whenever we visit Honolulu. We'll be in town from July 20 - August 5, taking my mother on an inter-island cruise during the last week of July.

50th Reunion Dates

Firm reunion-year dates:

Friday, June 3, 2011. Buffet dinner and program (details to be sent out by Dexter in July).

Saturday, June 4, 2011 at 5 p.m. Graduation followed by a reception at the Headmaster's home (reception for all faculty and staff as well as the Class of '61).

Monday, June 6, 2011. Luncheon for our class at the headmaster's.

Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011. Dinner/reception for all classes whose year of graduation ends in 1 or 6.

Saturday, Aug. 6, 2011. Touch of Iolani (gourmet eating and drinking) at the school.

Dates still tentative: Cruise, May or during the summer.

Silverado, CA, October or November.

Donation goal: $61,000 with 50% participation (class of '60 donated $77,000). Can make pledges covering up to 3 years.

Annual giving donations for the fiscal years ending June 30, 2010 and June 30, 2011 will count toward our total. As of 6/10/10 about $6,000 was the total class donation for FY09/10 (ends in less than 3 weeks) with 30 classmates donating. Russ Saito and Kenneth Lee are chairing the fundraising committee.

mo

2010 Graduation Prep

From: Tom Campbell

All: Please see Mike Moses's and Kirk Uejio's notes below. I'll call Jim Miyashiro to pass this on. The seven of us who participated were noticed and our help appreciated! My personal thanks to each of you. Just after Jim and Miles left, I was in a discussion with Cheryl Wong, of 2011 Ohana fame, about what we have been doing since kindergarten (until I hit a 7-8-9th grade impasse! Xin loi!) with our counterparts....she took us over to meet some of our young friends who were still working: we all were introduced and had a chance to chit-chat a little. I later got a chance to get introduced to several parents who were still there working...good comments. All in all, the morning served its purpose: we got to do something with the 2011 students, which we can build on for next year, and we were seen by parents and students as being involved rather than just being some 2011 graduation-day hangers on! We can talk more about next year on Thursday, 10 June.

Again, thanks and aloha! Tom


From: Kirk Uejio
To: Mike Moses

Hey there Mikey! Do you think you could please forward my thanks to your '61 crew that came to help with graduation decorations? That was REALLY cool that they wanted to come and help. I was very impressed. The whole morning went very smoothly and we even finished earlier than in years past. It was probably all because of those wonderful '61ers! Thanks again for working with them, Mike, and for your support of this. It was really cool that they wanted to work side be side with parents, students, and staff members...awesome ONE TEAM kind of stuff!

Thanks again and Go Raiders!


From: Mike Moses
To: CAMPBELL, THOMAS (ATTCORP)

Subject: Class of 1961 Help

Hi Tom,

Thanks for organizing the crew from ’61 for the graduation decorating. Please see below for a note of thanks from Kirk Uejio!

If you can please pass along the school’s thanks to those who came to help, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks, as always for your time and support!