Tig Notaro

            On Monday morning I worked out the chords for the intro and the first two verses of “Overseas Telegram” by Serge Gainsbourg. All the verses will have the same chords and so if the instrumentals are the same as the intro, I may be done tomorrow. 

            I weighed 85.4 kilos before breakfast. 

             Around midday, I finished taking everything out of my third kitchen drawer, then I washed the space where it rolls, and put only the nails, nuts, screws, washers, bolts, and brackets back in. Then I pulled out the big bottom drawer and started sorting its contents. Some of the stuff can go in the tool drawer and I don’t think that I’ll keep most of the bike parts. I might have that finished on Tuesday. Next, I’ll give the outside of the doors and drawers below the counter a wash, and then I can return to cleaning the kitchen floor. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 84.4 kilos at 17:00. If the scale is accurate it must be the heat that knocked a kilo off since the morning. 

            I finished updating my journal at 18:00. 

            I opened my Movie Maker project to do some editing but the playback was freezing again because of incompatibility between the main video and the one of the magic show levitation that I’d inserted yesterday. I had no choice but to publish the movie and then import it back into the project. I deleted the version on the timeline and replaced it with the published movie. Everything was fine after that. I still had time to shave a little more off the magic show clip, but I need to lose about five more seconds. I should have that done tomorrow. 

            I worked on the poem “Monsters in the Dark” from my series My Blood in a Bug. 

            I worked a bit on adding colour to my photo “Anti-Gravity’s Rainbow.” 

            I made gravy from the roast beef drippings that I’d saved. I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast beef while watching the penultimate episode of the most recent season of Star Trek Discovery.

            Tarka has taken Jett Reno prisoner on Book’s ship, which is cloaked and hidden on Discovery’s hull. But so far no one on Discovery knows that she is missing. She tries to convince Book that Tarka is a psycho. 

            Discovery is 200 kilometers from Species 10-C’s barrier. Michael initiates communication with 10-C by sending several drones to spray the barrier with some of the 0-C’s hydrocarbons that represent peaceful emotions. In response, a luminous wormlike finger of liquid light emerges from the barrier and pulls Discovery inside. Discovery’s next move is to offer a gift and since the only thing they know the 10-C want is boronite, they beam some outside the ship. This works and 10-C begins projecting holograms of molecules. The Discovery delegates learn to read them as simple equations and Zora sends them back. Then 10-C sends the same back to them. It seems 10-C is waiting for Discovery to do something more than mimic. Discovery sends a more complicated equation and in response, the 10-C sends a pod for them to enter. Inside they find a replica of Discovery’s bridge. The 10-C sends a disarmed replica of the isolytic weapon that Tarka used to destroy their dark matter mining mechanism, along with a symbol for the mechanism and the symbol for curiosity. Discovery sends the same symbol for the DMA and the symbol for terror. The 10-C sends back the symbol of sadness. 

            Meanwhile Zora communicates to Dr. Culber that something is wrong with her that she can’t figure out. She says it began when Reno used the replicator. Culber tries to contact Reno and Zora says she is in engineering but the staff in engineering say she is not there. Reno’s com badge is found but it has been rigged to give off her bio signs as if she is wearing it. 

            On Book’s ship, Reno tells Book that she has seen that Tarka’s calculations for destroying the DMA could destroy Discovery and Earth. Book confronts Tarka and suddenly the defenses Tarka has designed kick in. Tarka immobilizes Book and imprisons him with Reno. Tarka is able to send a burst that penetrates the 10-C barrier and he flies the ship in. This act of aggression causes the 10-C to break off communication with Discovery. Reno is able to send a message warning Discovery that they need to destroy Book’s ship to stop Tarka. 

            Jett Reno is an interesting character because she’s a genius who is blunt and funny and doesn’t engage in as much touchy-feely language as the rest of the Discovery crew. She is played by superstar deadpan comedian Tig Notaro, who has been nominated for a Grammy for her comedy album and two Emmy Awards for her specials. She started out managing rock bands and when one of those gigs took her to Los Angeles she tried stand-up for the first time. 

            For the fourth night in a row, I didn’t find any bedbugs before bed.