Happy Easter

Dear KosNet Friends

Kos's tree last year

Kos's tree March 2013

OK, I am determined to update BLOG before April starts!! On March 2nd, I played golf at Stanford, and I got Birdie on 8th hall!! Thank you Kos for wonderful present. For the rest of the game, I will be silent.  On March 3rd, I went to see ballett with my girlfriend. Well, for this, I don't know if Kos enjoyed or not. Then after that, I was down with cold for almost a week, which is unusual. Well, maybe I needed a rest. So, today, I would like to share the picture of Kos's tree, white birch. It did grow from last year. Don't look at the lawn, please. I have to say Kos was better at taking care of the yard than me.... So today is Easter and I had good gathering at Kurt's place. Easter lunch and egg hunting!! So, I am now ready to welcome April.  Hope you all had wonderful Easter.  

Naomi

ME317 goes on.

Dear KosNet Friends

Wow, it is already February 24th!!  I have been extremely busy until February 15th working on tax return project for my corporate client. Thanks to Kurt, Edith, Mark and many other ex-students of Kos, ME317 is going on smoothly this year. Cisco and Medtronics came back as project sponsors. This year, to our surprise, a young Japanese entrepreneur showed up in the first class and he decided to be a sponsor and a student of ME317. Nishio is a food trading company which sells various tofu and other food products. The project is to design the strategy to promote Oden using Yatai, including design of Yatai. So, those who are not familier with Oden, it is a Japanese soul food and very delicious. It is an exciting project!! We also have about 40 GM students and 4 Toyota students through SCPD. Both GM and Toyota projects are through ex-student of Kos. So, I am VERY grateful to KOSNET!!

I expect this week and next week to be a tough time. Even though four years has passed, it is still hard to recall these two weeks. My body automatically gets stiff. I am making a progress each year, though.  This year, using ME317 design methods, I am carefully making a plan. Updating the Blog will be one of them. Playing golf in Kos's memory will be another plan. I will go to see ballett, with my friend, too. Well, regarding with ballet, I don't know if Kos would approve. He always said "I don't wanna see guys in tights":))

So life goes on and we'll try to make it to be a good one.

Naomi      

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to KosNet Friends

A bit delayed greeting to KosNet Friends. I hope all of you had good holidays. I had quiet, peaceful and fun holidays with my friends in California.

So believe or not, ME317 goes on again in 2013!! This year, more than 20 students signed up and about 6 companies are interested in sponsoring ME317. Two of them are BIG US companies. Yesterday, we had project offering meeting and it was a great one with many enthusiastic students. Yes, our regular Pizza party. One difference is that we no longer have MML space so we did in the classroom. Nonetheless, it was a very successful event. Actually, this classroom was where MML conference room used to be. So, I am sure Kos was watching us with big smile. Well, students are still shopping (since this is the first week of the quarter), so we do not know the final count, but as soon as I find out, I will let you know!! Of course, many students from GM will participate through SCPD. I am grateful that there are many students and many companies who are interested in ME317 design methods. It's true. All of them are universal tools that can be applied to any projects, including designing life. I am using these tools everyday to add value to my life.  I am looking forward to another chance to share my experience in using ME317 methods.

Naomi

Happy Holidays

Dear KosNet Friends

It is hard to believe it is already December. 2012 has been a good year for me in many ways. I would like to inform you good news. Kos Ishii Graduate Fellowship Fund at Stanford is now supporting two students in ME department in this year. I received lovely letters from two recipients. That was a great gift to me!! 

So, at the end of the year, I would like to share my goal statement with you. Using ME 317 Design Tools, following is my goal statement.

TO Design the Best and the Happiest Life System that brings mental, physical, and financial happiness to me

BY living each moment to the fullest, being open in choosing the most value added action

USING ME317 design methods with “Receiving Theory” as an operating system

WHILE also exploring other methods

AS MEASURED BY the quality of my situational emotional state of being and the length of it

TO exceed beyond my own expectation

“Receiving Theory” is my best friend Dr. Jeannie Kahwajy’s theory. I hope I will have another chance to share her theory with you, but if I do not have such a chance, following is her web site and you can google her to see many presentations she made.  And indeed, this year has been “beyond my own expectation”. Have a wonderful holiday season!! Thank you for your friendship.

Naomi

http://www.effectiveinteractions.com/

Visit to Japan

Dear KosNet Friends

I spent October in Japan. It started with very hot days and ended with beautiful fall days. I had great time meeting many friends and family members. This time I traveled to Kyushu to visit Kos's friend and my cousin, then visited Hiroshima for the first time. I have to confess that I never fully realized the magnitude of atomic bomb until I visited peace memorial museum. My head may have collected a lot of knowledge about atomic bomb but my heart has not really understood. I have to say that I am still digesting what I saw and learned. I also visited Osaka and went to Expo park. Let me share the picture of Taiyo-no To I took in Japan. I also enjoyed attending MML VIA Alumni luncheon. It was really heart warming to know that Kos's spirit is still alive in many people.

Summer went by quickly

Hi KosNet Friend

Again, sorry for the long silence. It was not that I have not done anything, but rather I did so much and too busy to organize myself to update Blog.

From mid June, I spent one month in Sydney Australia, visiting John's family. John is Kos's best friend from high school. We went to his wedding and John and Robyn came to our wedding. They have four wonderful boys and I had no problem finding my date for jogging, hiking, shopping and various other activities. John's hobby is Kayaking, and I fell in love with it!! Kayaking is a wonderful sport to enjoy beautiful nature. Only thing is that it was winter in Australia, so it was COLD!! I visited many memorable places; Kos's school, Kos's house where he grew up and various other places we went together in 2006.... I have to admit that it was not easy. Tears came out without reason. At the same time, I am grateful that Kos left me so many great memories and great friends. Let me share with you couple pictures from Australia.

Then after I came back, I had another MML student wedding. It was wonderful to catch up with other MMLers. Summer was busy with parties, visitors, golf etc. Most memorable visitor was my best friend Akko from Sophia and her daughter. We felt like we were still teens, but the reality is that we met each other at her daughter's age!! So, I had wonderful summer.

Now, I am spending October in Japan. I will share with you about this trip in couple weeks!!

Naomi

It's almost August!!

Hi KosNet Friends

Before I noticed, it is almost August!! Wow, more than two months have passed since I reported winning the golf tournament. Well, I am playing a lot of golf in summer, but my score is not really good these days. I guess I got one chance and I took it.

The biggest news is that I gave a talk in ME317B class on June 4th. The title of my talk was "How to build the best and the happiest life system using ME317 design tools". Bold title, right? I wanted to share with students how I am using design tools Kos taught to maximize the value of my life. Yes, I use goal statement, customer value chain analysis (CVCA), structure tree, function tree, priority matrix, voice of customers (VOC) and other tools every day to choose the most value added action to enhance the value of my life. After all, who is the customer of my life? Me, right? So, I need to use design tools to listen to the voice of me, in other words, what my heart really wants.  I also thank to my friend Jeannie for her "receiving theory", which I use as my operating system. I made power point slides for the first time in my life by myself!! I am most grateful that students liked my talk. Yes, I now firmly believe that design tools exist not only to make good products, but also to make good life. I enjoyed the final presentation by students on June 6th and dinner afterwards!!  Now the quarter is over, I am trying to catch up with many administrative things we have been ignoring. One of the projects is to digitize Kos's library, and I am working on that!!  Well, I also had good trip to visit my friends.

So, I was not in cave and did a lot in past two months, and I am grateful for that.

Naomi