Gia Sandhu

            On Wednesday morning I finished memorizing “Juif et Dieu” (Jews and God) by Serge Gainsbourg. I searched for the chords but no one had posted them and so I worked the first few out for the introduction. 

            I video-recorded most of my song practice and audio-recorded all of it with Audacity. At first, I couldn’t get the interface or Audacity to work. It seems the interface needs to be plugged in first, then the mic, and then Audacity has to be started. But it seemed I’d done that in the first place. Anyway, after a few tries, I got it going. I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it eventually. 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I scrubbed a section of the kitchen floor running parallel to the depression in front of the counter. In another couple of sessions, I should have the floor cleaned up until the fridge, and then I’ll have to deal with the very black area in front of and under the eastern radiator. 

            While I was working there was a loud knock on the door and it was the landlord telling me that pest control would be coming to my place on the 16th in the afternoon and on the 30th in the morning. It didn’t occur to me until later that the 16th is tomorrow. That means no floor cleaning on Thursday. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before lunch. I had five-year-old cheddar on a slice of spelt bread with a glass of pomegranate lemonade. I’d never had pomegranate lemonade but it tastes exactly as I imagined it would. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. It was a hazy day and a lot hotter outside than inside. 

            I weighed 84.3 kilos at 17:00. 

            I got caught up on my journal at 18:00. 

            In my Movie Maker project for making a video of my song “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy” I cut some off the end of the clip of the brain being sliced and trimmed some of the concert footage so that after the line, “Let’s fry some frontal lobes”, the studio audio and the concert footage are synchronized when I sing, “with shock therapy.” Next, I need to insert something to match the line, “Add some gelled electrodes to the recipe.” I think for that I will use the footage I already have from the 1940s video that shows the electrodes being dipped in saline solution. I’m slowly making progress and might have the video done or almost done by the end of the summer. 

            I worked on my poem “The Odour” and this is what I have so far: 

The ancient Greeks

said bedbugs reek 

of coriander 

Some say rotten stumps 

rust heavy blood 

old sweaty locker 

overdone almonds 

sub-cushion crayons 

wet hobo shoes 

mold inside the walls 

Grammy’s mothballs 

mint that has the blues 

Mattress pee spots 

raspberry rot 

with tones of marzipan 

But for me the bugs 

waft the pungent musk 

of rancid chicken fat 

            I worked a bit on the partial colourization of my photo “Anti Gravity’s Rainbow.” 

            I made pizza on a roti with four-cheese tomato sauce, a cut-up beef burger, and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching the fifth episode of Star Trek Strange New Worlds. 

            This story was a striking contrast to the intense cat and mouse game with the predator race known as the Gorn in the previous episode, but it was even more entertaining. 

            The Enterprise has docked onto a space station and some of the crew are able to take shore leave for relaxation. Spock’s fiancé T’Pring has come to visit but before she arrives Spock has a dream in which he is marrying her but suddenly she sees that his ears are human. She says that he will have to undergo ritual combat in order to win her. His challenger is his own Vulcan half. He wakes up just before losing the battle. 

            Spock is called to help Pike in negotiations with the R’Ongovians, who control a crucial sector of space between the Klingons and the Romulans. Starfleet is trying to get the R’Ongovians to join the Federation. At first, they refuse to talk with the admiral and insist on a meeting with Pike. The negotiations go overtime and so Spock’s scheduled reunion with T’Pring is delayed. T’Pring says that Spock’s failure to keep their date is not what a Vulcan would do. Spock proposes a soul-sharing ritual and T’Pring accepts, but it goes wrong and they switch bodies. 

            Spock is called for another negotiation with the R’Ongovians and so Spock and T’Pring confess to Pike that they are in each other's bodies. But since the R’Ongovians have asked specifically for Spock, T’Pring will have to go in his body. Meanwhile, T’Pring has the job of negotiating the surrender of a Vulcan fugitive from logic and so Spock must go in her body. The Vulcan fugitive is obnoxious and insulting and Spock in T’Pring’s body punches him and knocks him out. 

            The R’Ongovians finally demand one final meeting and ask Pike for a reason why they should join the Federation. Pike tells them they shouldn’t and cites several disadvantages as well as some rewards. Essentially he behaves obnoxiously like a R’Ongovian. He has gambled that what they wanted all along was for the Federation to understand their perspective and he was right. They agree to join the Federation. Nurse Chapel and Dr. Mbenga help Spock and T’Pring switch back. 

            Another storyline that ran throughout this episode began with Number One and Singh learning that their collective nickname among those under their command is “Where fun goes to die.” They catch two lower deck crewmembers trying to take an unauthorized space walk and interrogate them, playing good-cop-bad-cop. They learn that the two are playing a game called Enterprise Bingo in which ten rule-breaking tasks must be performed. Number One and Singh decide to prove that they are fun by completing the game. One task is to use the transporter to change the flavour of the gum you are chewing; another is a quick-draw contest with phasers on stun in which Number One gets hit in the shoulder; in the final task, they walk outside the Enterprise surrounded by a forcefield to find the oldest piece of the Enterprise and sign their names on it. 

            T’Pring is played by Canadian actor Gia Sandhu, who graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada. She later studied at the Canadian Film Centre and graduated from its Actors’ Conservatory. She’s had supporting roles in several films and TV series since her graduation. 

            I didn’t find any bedbugs before bed.