Extrusion

Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile. A material is pushed or drawn through a die of the desired cross-section. The two main advantages of this process over other manufacturing processes are its ability to create very complex cross-sections, and to work materials that are brittle, because the material only encounters compressive and shear stresses. It also forms finished parts with an excellent surface finish.

So that's how you make people! And here's me thinking it was all biological.

I have been extruded. In fact I am the product of self-extrusion. Die-cast. The die is cast.

Cider Insider Inside

Here is a taste of roughly hewn cider. This Is the mash. After chopping up about 6 kilos of apples you get about 1 bottle of cider which takes about 1 month to make. Alternatively you could go down to the local supermarket and get some strongbow.

Christmas Tree with Little Boy

The tree, as is blindingly obvious, is up. Vertical is a good position for a tree. Come to think of it, it's not such a bad position for a person either.

Today is the 25th of December. I had a quiet night in with the dogs yesterday after going to the school's Mass at 8 o'clock. The weather is wild and tempestuous with shades of foreboding in the firmament. The rain has decided to do the vertical thing too. It looks like a curtain of chain-mail.

Just a Week Ago. The sky from the Bedroom Window

There is a lot of white noise in my head. I think there is a lot of white noise in most people's heads. This is not problematical unless you have problems filtering the interference and getting to the useful information and feelings. Our burgeoning longevity leaves us too much time to dwell on the past and imagine the future. We should be moulding the present. With less emphasis on the mould.

Amazing Concentration

Following Norman Tebbit's advice. Pedal power. On yer bike son!!!! Having finished my breakfast (a large, strong coffee, fresh fruit juice and cake) I intend to brave the elements and go jogging for 20 minutes. I should also do a bit of translation work and clean the house. The excitement is almost unbearable.

The Art of Sleep, Part 8

The Art of Sleep, Part 9

Something by Umberto Boccioni the Italian Futurist Leader; can't remember the title and can't be bothered to look

Same artist but this one has an unforgettable title; Unique Forms of Continuity in Space

Unique form of Genetic Continuity Spaced

Today's poem:

Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lacked anything.

"A guest," I answered, "worthy to be here":
Love said, "You shall be he."
"I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on thee."
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
"Who made the eyes but I?"

"Truth, Lord; but I have marred them; let my shame
Go where it doth deserve."
"And know you not," says Love, "who bore the blame?'
"My dear, then I will serve."
"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."
So I did sit and eat.

Chemistry

Anyone who claims to know anything has already won my contempt. But, contempt from one so contemptible would be praise indeed. Let us rejoice in our ignorance.



Important to Ensure You are Looking in the Right Direction

 

 

But of course there is always a problem. The problem resides in knowing which direction you are facing. If you're already face-up and you start looking skywards you will only find your shoes or a big pile of mud.

Windows

Apparently windows are the souls of the eyes. Keep your windows open and eat soul food.

I digress.

Which way am I facing? It would be nice to say face-down in the mud. But that's not how I feel. I am pretty lucky. I feel young and vital, I have a beautiful son, a nice house, an excellent job and a comforting sense of the magical nature of the sublimely ridiculous. That's useful given the objective circumstances.

A Lot of Flames

 

Lots of fire without smoke. "I am the self-consumer of my woes". I shan't get too melodramatic. Loreto was at the school this morning where there was the party for the school's patron saint. There were scandalous persecutions and scenes of emotional detritus and rancorous implosion.



Incredible Loveliness rising above the Tide of Human Folly

No further comment needed one feels.

More Loveliness. Life, of course, is a Plate of Spaghetti.

The metaphor is a good one because all of those strands of spaghetti don't go anywhere. It's like life. Make sure you skewer the meatballs.

You Have Permission for Landing

There is a beautiful gap between the ground and those blue wellies. The gap between God's finger and the Adam on the roof of the Cisteen chapel. All of the energy is there.

Food Glorious Food. Eating Tripe.
(I only have to listen to it)

The date for the hearing for provisional measures i.e. the provisional custody of Jacob is on the 28th of January. Until then, Heaven knows, anything goes.

How Slippy is the slide?

All speculation would be superfluous. It's a slippery slope toward folly.

See the Saw?

School remains a refuge in which all is under control, although the situation with Jacob's mother is putting the two headmistresses under stresses. Tricky for a Catholic school. However child welfare is the call-sign and hopefully Jacob's best interests will be paramount. The only person who fails to keep to this norm is his mother.

Happy

Jacob seems to be happy, relatively well-adjusted and unaffected. It is true however, that he is very loathe to be left in the school and perhaps has a fear of being abandoned.

In keeping with the Rigours of a Serious "Position"

Not taking one's self too seriously is important. Pomposity is both extremely unattractive and corrosive.

An Empty Porch

A Hungry Vampire

One of the 15 Witches gathered for a Meeting of the Somewhat Un-evil Cambre Covern

Today's Poem:

When getting my nose in a book
Cured most things short of school,
It was worth ruining my eyes
To know I could still keep cool,
And deal out the old right hook
To dirty dogs twice my size.

Later, with inch-thick specs,
Evil was just my lark:
Me and my cloak and fangs
Had ripping times in the dark.
The women I clubbed with sex!
I broke them up like meringues.

Don't read much now: the dude
Who lets the girl down before
The hero arrives, the chap
Who's yellow and keeps the store
Seem far too familiar. Get stewed:
Books are a load of crap.

oxymoron

Oxymoron:

 An oxymoron (plural oxymora or oxymorons) (from Greek ὀξύμωρον, "sharp dull") is a figure of speech that juxtaposes apparently contradictory elements, it is not however a contradiction in terms. Oxymora appear in a variety of contexts, including inadvertent errors such as ground pilot and literary oxymorons crafted to reveal a paradox.




Kung Fu Class Last Week

It`s an oxymoron. Kung fu means both, "an unfinished project" and "well done" which is a contradiction in terms for Western culture. It's philosophically quite juicy though. The temerity to imagine that something is completed is dangerous because everything is always in a state of flux. It´s an integral component of the machinery of the universe. Well done!, because your moving with the underlying current that flows through the arteries of the ether.

I digress.



Everything is binary. Male-female, sky-earth, giving-receiving, aggressive-passive. Or may be not. But the human brain is not too good at relativizing accurately. So it will have to do.

Look for the interesting juxtapositions. The unlikely collocations. This is the advice I give to myself. And, brush your teeth three times a day. Before they fall out. Again.

Team Work In the Environs of My Newly Fenestrated House

Life is clearly made of these. Paradoxes and contradictions. An ecstasy of terror (Charles Dickens), random precision (Pink Floyd-Wish you were here). My whole existence is one; an explosion of hampered repose. Essentially this is good. I am still alive and sensitive to anything that might curdle the blood.





Torture, the Lunacy of Totalitarianism and commitment

 

According to Nabokov, Everything One Needs to Know about Humankind is in this Book

Books. They always affect what's happening in my life in subtle and subterranean ways. They undermine what I think and make coherent but bizarre connections.

I finished departure and arrival, a sharp, intelligent story about a man who escapes from eastern Europe after his country was invaded by the Germans in the second world war. He stows away on a ship, jumps overboard and swims the short distance to Portugal,  a neutral country.
There, he has a nervous breakdown,  principally because he had been tortured by his own collaborationist government and saw  one of the concentration camps first hand. After recovering he makes the decision to join the allies and is parachuted back into his own country as part of the resistance movement.

The Karamazov Brothers is Dostoevsky's masterpiece. I have only just started and it's enormous. So far, unlike crime and punishment, it's insightful and has a thousand layers of brilliance. And when I've finished I will be able to use it as a door-stop.

The Art of Sleep (Part 7). Two sentences of the Karamazov Brothers has the Desired Effect

I  am on tenterhooks at the moment. why? Because I'm waiting to find out whether or not there will be more work from the school. This will be of the utmost importance if I am to survive.
Looks doubtful.  I have just spoken to the director of studies and he was pretty negative. Still, I should know for sure in a week. Tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What is more, I have received the legal demands from Loreto's lawyer which would allow me to see Jacob only 6 days a month and mean that I would have to pay 600 euros a month.

There was a good piece of news though; the court where the hearing is to be held is officiated by a fairly liberal judge who is generally sympathetic to the needs of the father. So I have been told.



Whosedatden?

The car has just broken down. Oh joy!

I am a fire fighter. I can't  get anything done since I'm always trying to resolve crises. Perhaps the answer is beer. The crises don't get any better but you no longer care.

The Boy who Ate Twice his Own Weight at One Sitting

Like a Miner/Minor Clementine

Nice Views from the House



School from the Café

Light in the Kitchen



Today's poem:

My dearest dust, could not thy hasty day
Afford thy drowsy patience leave to stay
One hour longer: so that we might either
Sit up, or gone to bed together?
But since thy finished labour hath possessed
Thy weary limbs with early rest,
Enjoy it sweetly; and thy widow bride
Shall soon repose her by thy slumbering side;
Whose business, now, is only to prepare
My nightly dress, and call to prayer:
Mine eyes wax heavy and the day grows old,
The dew falls thick, my blood grows cold.
Draw, draw the closed curtains: and make room:
My dear, my dearest dust; I come, I come.

A Stitch In Time

Saves nine.

But, of course, you need a needle and thread and you may feel a real prick. I haven't got time for a stitch in time. I have holy socks. Amen. Threadbare jeans and jumpers and I've lost the thread. I might need to speak to Ariadne.

 Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos of Crete. Minos had Daedalus build a Labyrinth, a house of winding passages, to house the bull-man, the Minotaur, the beast that his wife Pasiphae bore after having intercourse with a bull. (Minos had refused to sacrifice a bull to Poseidon, as the king promised, so the god took revenge by causing his wife to desire the bull--but that's another story.) Minos required tribute from Athens in the form of young men and women to be sacrificed to the Minotaur.

Theseus, an Athenian, volunteered to accompany one of these groups of victims to deliver his country from the tribute to Minos. Ariadne fell in love with Theseus and gave him a thread which he let unwind through the Labyrinth so that he was able to kill the Minotaur and find his way back out again.

I digress.

Asturias. Resting from Canoeing

Went to Asturias a couple of weeks ago. Asturias is in the North of Spain and is very green and beautiful. It's a kind of tradition  to go down the river any-old-how, stopping frequently to drink local cider.

Group of Very Nice Friends

We were only there for a couple of days. A four hour drive to get there which was quite a bind, but well worth it.

utopoia, distopia, miopia

Oh yea,

You're on the cusp of a very romantic arched stone bridge, leaning over the ancient stone balustrade. The river is flowing gently towards you and the weeds and reeds and ducks and England-in-the-imagination are flowing at an old man's pace. You bubble up a viscous globule of phlegm. And hawk. A beautiful parabola of spittle over the edge of an arc into an abyss.

And that's it. That's your life. A spit and a swoon and, good night banana.

WITCH BURNING

This is the party which I have pencilled into my tight agenda. A metaphorical carbonization of all past disasters and ill-luck. A pity I can´t burn any real people. You are invited even though you will not come.

Here is the link to my parachute jump, which is pretty terrifying. I can assure you that the human body can produce a lot of adrenaline before exploding.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pck5ucscdqj8lpd/howard.m2t


That over with. Death is a bit less scary. Come to think of it, what is really scary is life.

TENUOUS CONNECTIONS BETWEEN PICTURES AND TEXT HENCEFORTH

 Let´s get things straight. I have a lot of pictures but not much to say. There is a lot happening in my life, but I am becoming an inarticulate zombie, incapable of joining the dots. I can see the dots, but they are dots.
The above picture is a euphoric rose and a gorgeous dog. The rose cost 2 euros but the dog is priceless.

A RESEMBLANCE

Possibly. A straight "A" student as they say in America. I think that must come from his mum.

THE EDGE OF ADOLESCENCE

The trauma of all those hormones. I refer to myself of course. One comes to live with the biological factory of precipice and trepidation; and then you die.

SUN-HAT

TEAM-TIME

A smile provoked by daddy's cooking skills I fear.

SOME SUN; BEREFT OF VEGETATION NOW

BY FAR THE OLDEST/YOUNGEST

PARTY ON DOWN WITH GOD DAUGHTER INCLUDED

PRE-STORY DECOMPRESSION PRIOR TO NOT GOING TO SLEEP

TOWN HALL

LOCAL PARK

THE FUTURE IS HERE

I should stress that this is not the norm. We don't sit and play games like this. We play football and do a lot of jumping.

ALREADY EATING NICELY (MUCH TO MY CHAGRIN)

IN SCHOOL UNIFORM

LOOKS CHEAP FOR A SMALL EUROPEAN CHILD

CONCENTRATION

PART OF THE LOCAL CHURCH; WELCOME!!!

FIGHTING FIT

DON'T OVERDO IT!

MORE CHOCKY PLEASE

ANGLE GRINDER; MY SECOND FAVOURITE TOOL (NO PUN INTENDED)

SUPPLIED BY NEIGHBOURS

SUPPLIED BY SPERM AND TRADITIONAL REPRODUCTION

GRAEME AND GIRLFRIEND FATIMA (FATTY)

A TOMATO FROM THE PORCH

ENOUGH OF THE SAVOURIES; CHOCOLATE!!!

BACK TO WORK, IF THAT'S WHAT YOU CAN CALL IT

CHOCOLATE AND BANANA CAKE IN THE OVEN; DIDN'T LAST TOO LONG

VISITOR ENJOYING THE BENEFITS OF PSYCHOTROPIC PAINKILLERS

NEW WINDOW

SUNLIGHT MAKING THINGS LOOK NICE

 I have failed to say anything. Here is the state of play with respect to Jacob's custody.

 I am awaiting Loreto's demands via her lawyer within the next 7 days.

She will ask for a huge amount of money while allowing me to see Jacob half of the time; this will be deemed sole custody for the mother.  

My lawyer will reply, asking for joint custody and a more conservative payment.

The judge will decide depending on purely personal and socio-political criteria.


I have stopped picking up and dropping off Jacob from and to Loreto's house. It was stressful and traumatic for Jacob and a wonderful opportunity for his mother to be abusive, aggressive and generally unpleasant. The judge will decide something for better or worse. Amen.

I am still looking after Jacob half of the time which is perfect. He is happy, imaginative, strong, fun and fantastic.

Today's poem:

I. Peace

Now, God be thanked Who has watched us with His hour,

And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping,

With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power,

To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping,

Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary,

Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move,

And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary,

And all the little emptiness of love!

Oh! we, who have known shame, we have found release there,

Where there's no ill, no grief, but sleep has mending,

Naught broken save this body, lost but breath;

Nothing to shake the laughing heart's long peace there

But only agony, and that has ending;

And the worst friend and enemy is but Death.