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.