An Ex-Expat’s blog

Later this evening, John Mohammad, the man sentenced to death for his part in the DC sniper serial murders will most likely no longer be alive. 

I've thought about it a bit; it must be strange, no macabre I guess, to wake this morning to know this will be the last time to greet a new morning. It almost begs the point, 'Why bother?'

But he's got it easy; the people whose deaths he is responsible for had no inkling when they woke on their fateful day that the hours they would remain alive on this earth were finite.  And like 9/11, its hard to explain, perhaps it is unexplainable for those who weren't there to appreciate the enormity of his crime. 

Until they were apprehended, he and his accomplice held the greater DC metro area in terror and in thrall in a way that touched all.  Personally a couple of things stand out for me as markers of that time.  One was a Saturday morning perhaps in the middle of the murder spree (I don't call it anything else; it is what it is), I was out on an errand and noticed just how light the traffic was.  People, out of terror just stayed home. Likewise at a gas station very near home, after one shooting farther south at a gas station, the owner of this station put up a tarp the shield customers.  This is a photo of that gas station.

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And then there was the day we were out on the road and on the radio there was a report of a shooting farther south and further to the report (erroneous) of a white van.  Shortly afterwards  we saw a white van pulled over, its driver with hands on head, scared, bewildered, the mob of police officers surrounding him and his vehicle -deadly serious.

And the of the victims, two stand out.  One a man whose wife was killed in a nearby Home Depot, right before his eyes, and a young boy, who nearly died had it not been for he was with an aunt, a trained ER nurse and got him the immediate medical attention which saved his live.

So am I lusting for blood?  Depends on your point of view.  I don't see myself as such.  His crimes are what they are, cold and calculated.  He made his choices and the consequences are what he will face tonight.

Spotted 2 steaks yesterday, marked down nearly half price which seemed odd as the cuts seemed still fairly fresh.  But what the hell, son has a damned decent report card (one B and the rest A's) and thought he deserved a nice reward.  BTW, after all these years of hectoring him, there was almost nothing in the way of any 'attaboy' comment from his mother, but that's not the main point here.

So I started to grille one of the cuts for his dinner. Its a huge piece as you can see below; enough at least for 2 if not 3 people's portions in Japan I think.  Told him to season it up to his liking and then I'd get cooking.  He wanted to put a couple of slices of bacon over, around -whatever the steak.  Said 'no' to that-that's just overkill, or excess for the sake of excess. Can't imagine how it'd improve the steak either.

Was also in for a surprise later has he pretty much finished off the entire thing.  

My son, the carnivore

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Is advice given to me by a parent, a person with who I've worked with closely over the years at large international automobile manufacturer #1, who has also gone before me so to speak in raising children.

 His point is that between the ages of 13 to say 22, parents are in the eyes of their children,  hopelessly stupid, so his advice has been don't add to one's frustration by offering advice based on your accumulated wisdom.

 Case in point,  son is now working, sporadically, but at least working on, his college applications. One for a big school in Columbus, Ohio, and another for another school in Ohio, but not a large one.  The first thing I tried to tell him was not to start in pen on the original copy he has as slip ups and 'wait a minute, maybe I ought to say...' happen. But noooooooo.  So now one is marked up and spotted with correction fluid.  Lucky for him, fresh applications can be readily downloaded on-line now.

 He's also got a cousin, now a grad student at the big school in Columbus,  who's been through the process and an excellent source of help.  Have told son to keep in touch with this cousin of his, particular for pointers-suggestions for the 'Why I want to..' essay son must write.  Again,   he's not doing that partly as he somehow sees getting outside assistance as cheating.    Have told him there is no way he can do this alone and that there is a big difference in getting ideas and suggestions and having someone write this essay for you.

 Last are priorities.  He's got some hard deadlines looming.  First getting the applications finished by Thanksgiving and then preparing himself for retaking the SAT and going over the ACT, which he has never taken. So what are his priorities?  Well there 's on Craigslist,  a new paintball gun offered for sale, locally too, that he must have.  My response if he's got time to think about that, he's also got time to deal with the things he must deal with within the next month, and that I do not want the hear anymore about the paintball gun.

Can't wait to see what he's like post 22 years of age.

Can't resist poking fun at an ex-competitor!

(From The Onion)

Between 2 loads of washing and scrubbing up after the dog threw up not once, but twice on the carpet (thanks a lot!) I reworked that pesky resume and have it away for a look by another set of eyes.  Nth time the charm?   At least today feels a bit productive

The attached photo is for to show what you as an owner get into when the pet you have is a Golden Retriever.

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If you've read Atlas Shrugged, you'll understand

Went to the school I graduated from for a job fair and alumni services.  Was worthwhile in that there was some good advice given about bettering my résumé. And the best news was there were no overlooked blatant error(s); like not putting the 'l' in 'Public' for exmaple, which would have automaticaly sunk the resume.  So now for the whatever time it is, I am now reworking the resume.

After the job fair was done, I started to roam the campus, the first time I have done so for at least 25 years and in doing so realized just how far my college has drifted into La La Land.

First was a questionnaire which started out with:

It read:

Sex,

                Male

                Female

                Transgender

                Other

Likewise the main library. The collections I viewed in the social sciences section showed me the sheer insularity, how cocooned certain departments seem to be. There were for example 2 lines of book shelves devoted entirely to the Vietnam conflict and the books were not new ones. Also saw that 2 of the professors I had in the department of my major, and this was over 20 years ago, are still frickin there! Sceech, they must be tenured onto the afterlife! 

(Postscript:  Looked up one of the professors, now dept chair and see there's also site that rates college instructors.  Saw most of his ratings were less than gushing/glowing. Why am I not surprised?)

On the lighter side, on the main floor of the library there were banks of computers for research, but saw many, many of the students with their Facebook pages up. Perhaps son is not that abnormal after all then. ;-).  But looking at these kids was a shock in that I thought "Christ, was I really like that too?!"  I probably was (shudder).

Son following his father's steps there is moot as this college does not offer anything close to engineering. Even so, I think I'd think twice before approving of that choice of college.

This time to a big, nationally-known university in Ohio. The campus is indeed big, but not as overwhelming as we were led to believe.  Difference of course as night and high noon as far as what is offered to students and comparative facilities, i.e., all classes in the engineering department were housed in one building in the smaller school we visited and at the other bigger school, each branch of the engineering school has its own building.  The bigger school of course has more 'Toys' too.  My impression is this university and perhaps other big universities see themselves losing students to smaller school as they are seen as too big & impersonal.  Much talk about programs to help the individual students all 46,000 of them.

Am put off by the school's 'honor' program/track for incoming kids with high SAT/ACT scores.  That strikes me as patently unfair.  The playing field should be level at college with it being up to each student to demonstrate how brightly they shine.

The school also has a Japanese  program, which son could get a minor in in his sleep if he applied himself and the school is hooked up with some good universities in Japan.

We even managed to meet son's cousin, a grad student there which was amazing given the student body size.  What's son is thinking?  He may apply, but he's got to get his SAT's up, take the ACT which means boning up.  Get his essays in order...and he doesn't seem to get the message.  Do I see a train wreck  coming?

And we were around for my aunt's 89th birthday.  She still refuses to wear her hearing aid so..... While we were eating, a woman came up to her and with a smile said my aunt may not remember her but she  delivered her children (ironic, a trained cardiologist spending the bulk of her practice delivering babies). My aunt said, Oh, yes she remembered.  Aunt also mentioned a program at this school for 1st generation students which has greatly reduced tuition.  Son could be thought of as that, he wasn't born here  and immigrated here....

And today, as if my right leg muscles haven't been punished enough for the past 3 days, I drive up to my college for a job fair.

First, any guesses as to what this is, or rather, was?

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It a pastry/bread rolling pin, purchased by wife in Japan and its not cheap. Think it was something like 10,000 yen or so.

WTF happened?  Well someone, not I, when loading the dishwasher, put this on the bottom rack (I always have put this on the top rack) and when I went to wash the dishes that day, my guess is the water jets may have pushed this off the rack and on to the heating/drying element, which is ok, until the dry cycle comes on.

Why didn't I notice it?  It was buried under some bowls and had it fallen down as the tray was pushed forward and the loading door closed, I would have noticed as it would have caught somewhere.  I realized something was up as the dish washer was in the drying cycle and smelt something odd coming from somewhere, go to the dishwasher to find smoke mingled with steam coming out in abundance.

What does this say? That someone, not me again, is very, very careless and as this is not the first time, doesn't seem to get the point.  As to the dishwasher,  I had to gently scrape the carbonized plastic off the dryer element and then run the wash again as the smell had got stuck on all  plates, bowls glasses mugs and eating utensils that were in there.

Son comes down this morning, grumpy- so what's new?, I ask myself, but bother to ask what its all about.  No response (why am I not surprised?) the first time I asked, but then on the second try, he opened up.

He likes watching South Park and the episode last night was what he was unhappy about.  I haven't seen it yet, but according to son, it was a badly stereotyped piece about Japanese dressed in kimonos merrrily spearing whales and dolphins and then launching a Kamikaze attack on some Greenpeace boats.

Now son says he gets the point about dolphins and the whales, and I do too, but he felt personally offended by all of this, which left me surprised.  Why?  Because up until that moment, he has never really actively acknowledged the whole of who he is.

He does eat Japanese food (especially fond of から揚げ) studies Japanese, but does not show any other outward interest (at least that I could see) in the other side of his makeup.

His mother has clampoered for him to go back for a few weeks since we have miles pilied up, but he resists that too.  I do not support this either, but for different reasons.  son needs a longer period of time to 'plug in'  and rather than a couple of weeks, he should see about one-year study abroad programs offered by a university.