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Necromancer

A bit about me

I was recently just 2 months old – on the 19th of March. My personal stats are weight: 6Kg, height: 58.5cm and head: 39.5. Dad said it would have been better if it were 36-28-36, but I am not sure what he meant; I suppose he was trying to be funny. Mummy gave him one of those looks.

So two months, such a long time. So far I do a lot of eating, you wouldn’t believe how much I love milk, it’s the best thing in the world to eat/drink, I just can’t get enough of it. I am so lucky Mummy almost has an endless supply.

What else? Ah well I am starting to find my own fingers, sometimes I put them in my mouth, apparently this will be a start of a fingers in mouth fixation I will have for quite a while. Perhaps. My fingers are still a little small I can almost fit my fist into my mouth.

I am also increasing my vocabulary. I now do a nice little “ahhh” and sometime after a burp more often or not I do an “abooo”. They sound sort of like the sound Mum and Dad make to me sometimes.

With mummy in the morning we do exercises, I especially like the role over it’s such fun. My head, which is so big compared to the rest of me, takes some muscle to control it. I am starting to deal with it all right, but still sometimes I loose control and head butt either mum and dad in the chest, daddy hurts more because his chest is not like mums.

Bath times are now cool. At first I thought I was going to drown and I would get all scared, and dad would get the temperature to low, how he managed that with a thermometer I don’t know, but now I know Mum and Dad will look after me in the water, and apart from the cleaning I can have a little fun kicking my legs and trying to swim. Being in the water reminds me of something, but I cannot remember for the life of me. Maybe I came from the sea, which is outside our windows.

Oh and I love looking at the ceilings.

Hyperion, Dan Simmons

This book (ISBN: 0-553-28368-5) was a right diamond. I enjoyed it from the get go all the way to the finish, and it’s not even close to being finished, I have I think two more books in the series - just looking at the authors website, it would seem there are more. Cool.

Simmons takes us on quite a tall tale with this book. Our main characters are traveling on dangerous pilgrimage, whilst a galactic war is imminent around them. The bulk of the book tells us why our major characters where chosen for this pilgrimage, why they should be on Hyperion.

It’s been a while since I’ve found a new series as books that I could compare to Asimov’s Foundation or Clarke’s Odyssey series. Although it’s only early days with just one book under my belt I await with glee to pick up the next book.

One aspect of the book a quite like is the mixing of sci fi ideas in this book that are really not the crux of story, they just add to it. For example, they have two forms of space travel; the first that seems to be like faxing, like Star Trek transporter technology but between Solar systems, certain worlds are in the web; the second traveling at close to light speeds. One is instantaneous, it glues the web together, the other incurs as Einstein’s physics dictates a time debt. The technology is not important in the book, but the effects are felt.

I am giving this book,
4.5/5

The big five Oh days

Today was my fiftieth day of life, the big five oh, not sure what it means of course, I still haven’t got the hang of numbers yet, never mind words.

Today was better than yesterday, nobody held me down and cut the thing below my tongue, although I do feel better with my tongue being free, I can cry louder and do new sounds with it. If you come around I can show it off to you with a thing that almost resembles a smile, so say my parents anyway – they just don’t know its gas.

My Granny came around today, or Abuela I should say, being a multilingual multicultural baby. Here she is in a picture with me. Don’t I look nice!

Today I have found it a little difficult to sleep, but finally I got there after some fits and starts, oh and some leche, sorry milk, from my mommy. Here I am with dad, just chillin. I think he was a little tired; it took a while for me to get him to sleep.

Here is mummy, she is the real star of the show, doing all those things for me without any thanks from me yet, maybe later when I am bigger and understand how much work I was I will thank her, right now though I will just take her milk.

Lingual frenotomy: In cold blood

I could leave the room; let the Doctor and Andrea get on with it. Will I actually keel over and feint? These were the thoughts going through my head as the Doctor prepared her office to carry out a lingual frenotomy on Indiana. Luckily he was asleep, not to perturbed by being in the Doctors office

Indiana we have noticed with the weeks passing by is a little tongue-tied, something called ankyloglossia to Doctors. The Doctor decided to do it now, and get it over with. As long as he does not heal back to his original state he should not need surgery, which would mean a general anaesthetic, something Indiana does not need at his age. Andrea and I have thought privately ourselves that this may happen today at the Doctors, none of us broaching the subject till this morning when I asked her if she had been nervous about today, we both admitted yes.

I have found out that I can feel empathy; of course I can put myself in another’s situation. No. This was different I felt Indiana’s pain, what was probably at first just plain annoyance at being held still by his Mother and Father and then the cold probing instruments of the Doctor opening up his mouth, and then pain as a part of his body, his lingual frenulum was cut. Along with Indy I cried, to see my son like that. I felt all of it being transferred into me. I don’t think I screamed like him, I bloody well hope not, that would be even more embarrassing. It started at his high level jet engine scream mixed with a car without an exhaust – un-baffled scream, but then it went up to a level that just sounded like desperation, which I had not heard before. Being held down, and then a part of your body cut would do that to you. I still feel a little mixed up now, some hours later.

As I said I felt empathy with Indiana, like I have never felt before, almost a physical connection. I could have left the room and let them get on with it. Perhaps other men would have, being squeamish is a great excuse. But at the end of the day Indiana needed his father to hold his legs still so he would not harm himself, this was more important. We came home, changed his nappy, Andrea fed him and now he sleeps. Parenthood is such a roller coaster ride. I just love him.

England does not beat Ireland

It would appear England this year in the six nations is not going to win the Grand Slam, the Triple Crown nor another lineout if today was anything to go by. Perhaps I posted too soon.

Thomas Pickthall: Photographic Exhibition

The above picture depicts my mother with Auntie Flo (left), sister of Thomas Pickthall whom posthumously has an exhibition of his Photos taken between 1930 and 1950; the exhibition is shared with a contemporary professional photographer David Heke. Quoting from the web page,

Cloud of Sparrows, Takashi Matsuoka

Cloud of Sparrows (ISBN: 0385338503) was a delight to read and leaves me waiting agonizingly for a second one from this debut author that shall arrive soon (Autumn Leaves, ISBN: 0385336411). The book set in the period in Japan when other nations where knocking at their door (in my ignorance I do not know the name of this period), this book takes us on an adventure with the Okamichi clan, headed by Lord Genji. Main characters include a beautiful American woman, detested by the Japanese for her distinctly un-Japanese shape – ugly is something she likes being. A gun slinging, but not converted to religion, fast draw cowboy bent on revenge, and a reformed gun-toting murderer come Buddhist monk. A Geisha ninja spy. A Samurai, who is plagued by visions of the future, but is a martial artist comparable to Miyamoto Musashi.

The Okamichi clan is plagued by visions; these play a large role in the book. The author seamlessly allows characters from this old world Japan to see the future, a future where no one carries the two swords of samurais. This being a bitter pill to swallow for two of the major samurais. The vision for the samurais were of today (I presumed) and was a nightmare for them, I wonder what the world was like for them?

I am giving this book a
4.5/5

On Her Britannic Majesty’s Service

It’s not often you get post with this written on the envelope, come to think of it it ain’t often I get post at all except for utility bills. It’s not a letter from the Queen I’m afraid, it’s actually from the British Embassy here in Chile. We are starting the process off of making Indiana a right proper Englishman, he needs his own birth certificate and passport. Still, how cool are those words, shame I can’t put in the words Secret – even cooler.