I have bad eye sight. I've mentioned this before, but I can only see out of my left eye--albeit with glasses or a contact lens. My right eye is legally blind. I have a scar on my cornea that prevents me from seeing anything with any clarity. If you taped wax paper on your glasses or sunglasses, you would see exactly as I do. And I mean exactly--since the scar is in the center of my cornea, my peripheral vision is alright, but I can't see straight ahead. Eyesight notwithstanding, this scar has another unfortunate affect. My left eye hurts when I'm outside. I'm not really sure why, and the opthamologists who I have asked never give me a specific answer, but I suspect that the light refracts abnormally through the scar and ends up striking the retina in an uneven distribution.

As a result, I always wear sunglasses outside during the day, even if its cloudy. And the lens has to be very dark. This often invites the jokes of students.

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The other day was Father's day, but I guess I have no standing as a father anymore. I occasionally e-mail my daughter in Japan, but she hasn't responded in over a year. I have't seen her since 1999--the last time I went to Japan--when she was 12 years old. Now she has graduated from a vocational school 専門学校, moved out of the house and is living in Tokyo with her friend, according to her mother. It would be nice to talk to her, but I get the sense that she doesn't want to talk to me, especially ever since I remarried. She may come around, but all I can do is wait and see.

I also have three stepsons, but they were over 18 by the time I married their mother, Musubichan. As you might imagine, they consider me their mother's husband but not their father who died in an accident when they were young. So the bottom line is that I am, for all intents and purposes, a non-dad. Kinda sad, when I think about it.

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I love tomatoes. So the current outbreak of salmonella is very disturbing. Then I heard what it was that spreads salmonella to the tomatoes: fecal matter. One possibility is that feces can be directly spread by animals when they step onto infected droppings, then tread through open fields. Indirectly, animal waste is used to create manure, and while most pathogens are killed through the composting process, some can survive and is subsequently spread when the infected manure is used to fertilize fields. Worse, some of the pathogens find their way to water sources--irrigation streams, ground water--and can infect the tomatoes that way. In other words, tomato lovers are screwed.

I swear, this is total bullshit--no pun intended

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I wrote the other day about how I love to watch political talk shows. One of my favorites was Meet the Press on NBC Sunday mornings. During the 80s, I usually surfed between the shows on the three national broadcast networks--Face the Nation, This Week, and Meet the Press--but after I cam back from Japan in 1996, I watched Meet the Press exclusively because of the moderator, Tim Russert.

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make your own logo

As many of you know, I am usually swamped with work--teaching, grading, advising. You probably also know that I am a J-drama addict. I am currently watching Zettai kareshi (Absolute boyfriend), Muri-na ren'ai (Impossible love), and Rookies (Rookies). There are a few others that the family wants to watch, so I get my hands on them so we can watch them but I don't really pay attention to them. One of them, Change, seems vaguely familiar--Kimura Takuya is the son of a Representative who dies and he suddenly finds himself thrust into a political campaign he didn't really want to engage. He narrowly wins because of his honesty and uplifting character. When he reaches the Diet, a scandal breaks out about the Prime Minister and he is forced to resign. The party reputation is tarnished and they need a fresh, clean face to represent them. Yes, the new kid, the young kid steps up to run for party leader, promising henka (change), a different path than the old politics.

Sound vaguely familiar?

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It's been truly crazy weather of late. Tornados in the flatlands of middle America. Snow in the Rockies. Floods in the upper Midwest. Yesterday I jogged in the stifling heat--over 95 degrees. It's been at least 10 degrees higher than the seasonal average since Friday. But at least the heat isn't destructive, and as a SoCal boy, the heat is something I can deal with. I have learned to deal with the humidity as well, thanks to living in Japan for a number of years.

So yesterday, as I jog through a local park near our home in northern Virginia, I passed a "public house" there. No, it's not a beer joint, but a county-owned facility that residents can rent for events such as weddings. It is also the local precinct polling location. And yesterday, Virginia held its primary for congressional seats.

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Holy moly! It's freakin' cookin' outside. It's 95 degrees, 45% humidity and feels like 102 according to weather.com. But I didn't need them to tell me. I feel like a roast cooking over a low heat. If it would only melt off the fat...

Still, I went running outside for an hour. Well, more like walking and jogging a bit. I didn't want to kill myself. As I walked through the park, I saw an acquaintance with her three year old daughter and we exchanged greetings. I reminded the little girl that she should make sure to drink lots of water because of the heat, and she proudly showed me her water bottle.

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It's been a long time since I've really written anything--mostly bitching about work. And when I have written anything, it's been pretty half-assed. For whatever reason, I just haven't been able to put my heart into it. Which would explain why I would easily get bored and stop writing.

Not that anything I write now will be whole-hearted, of course. A lot of it is just a process, getting into the habit of writing. But upon reflection, I think a lot of what I did a few years back, when I wrote a lot, was based on my dissatisfaction with my life and career. My status at work was very precarious, and I felt as though I had been disrespected in a very significant way, although most--students and colleagues--would not realize this as I am pretty good at masking my feelings. And writing on Xanga was an escape of sorts from self-doubt and self-pity. Someday I will write about it (in a protected post, of course).

So where were we...

I think I may have mentioned this briefly before, but since people ask me about it rather frequently, I figure I haven't really discussed it in detail. So without further ado:

Musubichan got her greencard!

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Oh boy, now I really did it.

I just figured out a way to make myself write more... I became a Lifetime Xanga member.

Gulp...

Messy as usual

I gotta stack of papers to grade: Midterms for Bungo (literary Japanese) from last week, and today's Lit class midterm. Well, it's the 12th week of the semester so its really a latter-term exam. I do this to bring relief to my students. They are usually drowning in study during the 7th through 10th week when every oher prof gives midterms. My students don't have to worry about me until now, when they have nothing else to do... well, relatively nothing else to do. It also allows me to test them on more stuff, exactly eleven weeks worth of stuff. I mean, what's an exam if its not comprehensive, right?

Anyway, back to grading for me. The lit exam was seven pages of multiple choice, true/false, fill-ins and matching. Piece of cake, if you ask me. There was also an essay component, but I give them the topic 24 hours in advance on-line, and they have to submit it typed and formatted. This allows me to grade the essay normally (read: strictly). But that's the nature of a take-home, even if its partial.

Okay, okay, I'm going. Back to work...