Hi.  I’m Morgan Hua, the newly elected 2010-2011 NSC President.  I’ve been a member since 1989 and from 1998 I’ve served on the NSC board in various positions including 2001 President.  I’d like to thank Joel Hayashida for serving as President for the last two years.

Joel has made a number of changes and I plan on continuing his improvements.  Board meetings used to take five hours and I used to call them Bored Meetings.  Joel was able to cut down the board meetings to less than two hours.  This year, I’ve decided to eliminate the monthly board meetings and use electronic communication as a method for club business.  We have already passed the 2010-2011 budget, voted in Karen Soo as a Board Member, and approved Karen’s Oakland Pixar event.  (Actually, Karen Soo did get write-in votes, but the Board certified the election before she accepted the position, so the Board had to vote her in separately). Read the rest of this entry »

The Mtn. View and Palo Alto Buddhist Temples provide us use of their space for monthly board meetings and events so we still need a few more volunteers to help them with their Obon Festivals.  Please sign up so we can enjoy their future support of our activities.  Contact Joel Hayashida at for questions or to sign up.  It takes just a couple of hours and can be a lot of fun getting to know more of your fellow members.

Mtn. View Obon Festival  July 17, 18  We need help for the ever-popular beer booth on Saturday from 4-6 & 6-8PM & on Sunday from 12-2, 2-4 & 6-8PM.  (How can you pass this sweet job up?)

Palo Alto Obon Festival, Louis Rd. Palo Alto Obon July 31, Aug 1:  We still need help on Sat 4:15-7:30 and on Sun from 5:15-8:15PM for help with corn and ribs.

Our annual Chinese chicken salad sale at the Nikkei Matsuri Festival in San Jose was another great success.  We sold 989 bowls of salad and 198 bottles of water.  After all the bills were paid, the club netted $2336.  Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to Alice and all the election committee for twisting all those arms and convincing people that it really will be rewarding and fun to be on the board for next year. We look forward to another great NSC year with lots of well-run ski trips and other fun activities. See New List of New Officers. By the way, if you know about an interesting activity the club might enjoy and would like to introduce us to it, let Alice Horio know at . If you can’t organize the event yourself, Alice may find someone on the board to lead it. I actually led my first SF stairs hike for the club before I joined and this has turned into one of the most enjoyable periods of my life.

To date, only 4 people voiced interest in such an event, and while waiting for more, the available dates in June were all taken. I will continue to monitor the bayareacurling.com website for new dates and post them on our website. The latest times seem to be at Oakland Ice vs. Fremont.or San Jose Sharks Ice. Now that the Olympics are over, interest in this sport is dying down and there should be more available dates. Let me know at if interested. I believe we can run this event with a low number if we combine with another group.

Answers to last month’s puzzle: Remove FIVE LETTERS and what remains is a word you can find in any English dictionary. What’s the word? AFPIOVELLOEGTI(T)ERESS or APOLOGIES. My puzzle book left out a second “T” in the string (in parentheses)—Sorry.

For this month, remember those calendars with 2 cubes that are positioned adjacent each other so that the sides facing you show the day of the month: 1—31? Without looking at one, what are the digits on each of the 6 sides that are required to show 1 through 31?

Algophobia: Pain
alliumphobia: Garlic
allodoxaphobia: Opinions
amathophobia: Dust
amaxophobia:Riding in cars/vehicle
amychophobia: being scratched
anablephobia: looking up
anemophobia: air drafts or wind

As now we are in the middle of Spring 2010, we fondly recall the days of this just past winter season and the snow adventures the NSC had.  The 2010 ski season is behind us.  The Nikkei Matsuri is behind us.  And we all look forward to another beautiful Bay Area summer.

The 2010 Nikkei Matsuri that the NSC participated in this past April 24-25, was yet another rousing success as a fund raiser.  Thank you to the Nikkei Matsuri committee of Alice Horio, Hoyt Nelson, David Tom, and Hi Fujii.  These hard working board members really led the effort of this great activity.  Also, thank you to all of you members that helped out at the Saturday preparation at the Mountain View Buddhist Temple as well as the Sunday festival itself.

Allen Hu led a small band of NSC brothers and sisters on a Hike at Almaden Quicksilver Park on Sunday, April 11, 2010.  Thank you to Allen for leading the hike despite inclement weather conditions. Read the rest of this entry »

We sold 989 bowls of chicken salad and 198 bottles of water at the event for a net profit of $2336.  Thanks to all the volunteers, the Mtn. View Buddhist Church, Tanimura & Antle for the lettuce and green onions and the committee of David Tim, Hoyt Nelson and Hi Fujii led by Alice Horio.  A full report of financials will follow.