Thursday, 8 August 2019

Knife Point of Order, Mister Speaker


            On Wednesday morning I worked out a couple more chords for the chorus of “J’suis snob” by Boris Vian.
            I ran through my translation of “Puisque je te le dis” (Just Because I Tell You) by Serge Gainsbourg and posted the lyrics and chords on the Christian's Translations blog.
Speaking of Gainsbourg, it’s now been two months since Facebook unpublished my Serge Gainsbourg fan page, with still no word on my appeal. Someone in a forum of people that have been unpublished by Facebook said that the best way to get republished is to delete the most recent two years of your page. Fuck them!
            While doing the dishes I was washing the knife I use the most and therefore sharpen the most and carelessly sliced into the third finger of my right hand. I must have washed that knife 500 times and that’s the first time that’s happened. All I had for Band-Aids were little leftover Monsters Inc. bandages from when my daughter was a kid. I put one on but I had to keep washing things and so it came off after about ten minutes. By that time the bleeding had stopped.
            I cleaned everything but the middle shelf of my tall set of shelves but reopened my finger wound when I rubbed against something rough. I wrapped a sheet of paper towel around it and taped it with Scotch tape. I took my stereo amp off the middle shelf and cleaned there. I pulled the set of shelves away from the wall and began to unscrew the bolts that held in the middle shelf. I'd expected them to just be pegs but they were long bolts fitted to barrel nuts. I wanted to elevate the middle shelf so I could fit my left speaker underneath. While there were pegs and holes further up there was no place to reuse the bolts and barrel nuts and so the set of shelves was going to be a lot less secure. To make it as secure as possible I went behind and put fresh nails into the back of the set of shelves. I was able to put my left speaker on the shelf and the stereo on the new position of the middle shelf but now the wires were below the shelf and didn’t look very good. I couldn’t do anything about that this time because I'd already spent about two hours. My next project will be to pull out the set of shelves again and to rethread the wires so they’re out of sight. Then I’ll wash the floor under the set of shelves, put it back against the wall, put the shelves back on and then put everything back on the shelves.
            For lunch I had the curried mutton and rice that David had given me last week.
            I was getting ready to do some exercises in the afternoon when I opened up my finger wound again. I had to exercise with paper towel wrapped around my finger again.
            I took a bike ride to College and Ossington, south to Queen and then home.
            I was about to start making dinner when I remembered it was Wednesday and so I could have a beer. While getting ready to go to the liquor store I was putting my money in my pocket when I rubbed my finger wound against the cloth and re-opened it. I watched it to see how long it would take to just stop bleeding and it was about two minutes. I bought a six-pack of Creemore.
            I had a fried egg with a toasted cheese bagel for dinner and a beer while watching parts 12 and 13 of Victory at Sea. Part 12 was about how the Allies liberated Micronesia and Part 13 was about how they conquered Melanesia. There was nothing about how they saved Amnesia. People always forget about that.
            Between 1942 and 1944 while Japan built six new aircraft carriers, the US built seventeen. After capturing Midway the Allies continue north, capturing island after island and built airfields on each one. The formation is the aircraft carriers are in the middle, surrounded by battleships. Around the battleships are the cruisers; around the cruisers are the destroyers. The home base for the Pacific operation is Pearl Harbour, which eighteen months after the Japanese attack is now the most fortified base in the Pacific. The footage shows the sailors on leave going to get their picture taken with his arms around a hula girl.
            Just before a major battle that will take the lives of many men special meals are cooked with lots of prime meat. First the islands are bombed and then the amphibious troops come ashore. There are 100 planes on every carrier. The Japanese send planes to fight back. The ships shoot down the planes while the troops fight on the islands. The Japanese on each island are defeated. US planes return damaged to the carriers. There is footage of funerals at sea.
            Part 13 was about Japan’s attempt in April of 1942 to take control of New Guinea, thereby cutting New Zealand and Australia off from the Allies. New Guinea is the second largest island in the world. Japan had already captured some of the island but they wanted Port Moresby as a base from which to attack Australia. Japanese soldiers began the rough journey of marching over the mountains to get there. The Allied soldiers take to the jungle to meet them. The US uses a new type of landing ship they’ve developed called an LST (Landing Ship Tanks) but also called by the men (Large Slow Targets). It can carry twenty-one tons of materiel (supplies, equipment and weapons). 1700 paratroopers drop from 300 plans inland to attack the Japanese. The native New Guineans help as guides, bring up mail and supplies and help maintain isolated outposts deep in the jungle. In Japan reports tell of nothing but Japanese triumph even while the Japanese corpses pile up in New Guinea. Special white boxes carrying the ashes of each dead soldier are brought back to Japan and ceremonially given to their loved ones.

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