Frank Cady

            On Saturday morning I posted "The Silk and the Velvet", my translation of "De velours et de soie" by Boris Vian on my Boris Vian Facebook page. Tomorrow I'll start learning his song "Dernière valse" (Final Waltz), which is a song about suicide. 

            I blog published "That's Love's Consolation", which is my translation of "Amour Consolation" by Serge Gainsbourg. I tried to find the lyrics or even a video for his song "Papa milles putes" but all I got is a children's song called "Papa milles-pattes" (Daddy Millipede) by another songwriter. As far as I can tell "Papa milles-putes" (Daddy Millipimp) is a parody of the children's song that he maybe wrote to sing on a TV show. I listened once to his song "Adieu Bijou" and tomorrow I'll start memorizing it.

            Switching the leather strap from the Washburn to my new Martin helped me play more comfortably during song practice. But I think the problem is that I can't get used to playing with the strap attached to the button at the base of the neck. I'm going to ignore the button and try tying the strap at the top of the neck like I did with the Washburn. I think that will be more comfortable for my back because with the strap at the base the weight of the neck drops the guitar to the left and throws me off. I want to be able to take my hands off the guitar and have it stay in one place. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I went down to No Frills where I bought five bags of grapes, a pack of blueberries, a pack of strawberries, a pack of three chicken legs, a pack of Irish Spring soap, Basilica sauce, salsa, a large container of skyr, and a bag of kettle chips. 

            When I got home I switched my guitar strap from the button at the bottom of the neck to the top of the neck. That's a lot more comfortable and now I can let go of the guitar without the neck tilting down. Hopefully the leather string won't break. To prevent that from happening it might be better to use the shoelace that's right now tied to the Washburn. 

            I installed the guitar hanger that I bought from the 12th Fret. I only needed the drywall anchor for the bottom screw. I mounted it about 2.25 meters up the north wall of my bedroom between the old exit door and the big storage shelf. I hung the Washburn from it and I'll keep the Martin in the stand on the floor below it for easier access. 

            When I was standing on the chair to screw in the hanger I looked down at the top of the old exit door and found a dead bedbug. I assume it had been dead for a few months. 

            I've been listening to Funkadelic and they have a great version of "Sunshine of Your Love". 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos before lunch. I had saltines and seven-year-old cheddar with a glass of limeade. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride but it was raining a bit so I didn't go all the way downtown. I just went to Bloor and Dovercourt. I was a little damp when I got home. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos at 17:45. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 17:47. 

            I re-reviewed my recordings of "Kenya" on June 11, June 13, June 18, and June 20 of 2022. June 11 is the best so far because it has very little traffic noise compared to the others. I compared my recordings of "La bas c'est natural" on June 19 and June 25. June 25 has more noise and so it's out of the competition. I have two more of both these versions to re-review before I decide which ones to upload to YouTube. 

            I downloaded the scene from the 1978 version of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers in which Donald Sutherland is approached by Veronica Cartwright and we see for sure that Donald has been replaced by an alien as he begins to point at her and scream. I tried to convert the MP4 file into AVI in Total Video Converter but for some unknown reason it didn't work this time. I tried every possible format but TVC kept shutting down. Finally I just uploaded the file to Cloud Convert and it converted it in a matter of seconds. I imported the AVI file into Movie Maker and made it into a movie in its format, then I imported that movie to my Movie Maker project of creating a video for my song "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy". I loaded it at the end of the timeline and edited out all the parts that show Veronica's horrified reaction because I just want the finger pointing to correspond with my line, "it helps us to remember it's the patient's fault in shock therapy". I'll insert the clip into the main video probably tomorrow. 

            I emptied my negative scanner of the photos of my daughter in the water at the beach after uploading them to my computer. I scanned the rest of the negs from that set, which were shots of the streetcar at the Neville Park loop across the street from where I used to live in the early 1990s. The next set of negatives I scanned are from the mid 1980s of my ex-girlfriend Whitefeather with her two sons. Then I started a black and white set from 1987 that has shots of me with my ex-girlfriend Brenda. 

            I made pizza on naan with Basilica sauce, hot Hungarian sausage, and seven-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 7, episodes 6 and 7 of The Beverly Hillbillies.

            In the first story the Clampetts return to Beverly Hills from England. Granny finds a telegram from Cousin Pearl telling her about Betty Jo Bradley having a baby in Hooterville. Granny thinks it's a medical emergency, especially when she hears that the baby is in the hospital, not realizing she was born there. This seems to be a crossover with the show Petticoat Junction. Nobody knows who Betty Jo Bradley is but Granny knows from the telegram that she's Kate Bradley's daughter, who she doesn't know either. Kate Bradley is played by Bea Benaderet and so is Cousin Pearl but we don't see either character in this episode. Kate Bradley runs the Shady Rest Hotel in Petticoat Junction but there is no phone there and so Granny has to call Sam Drucker's store in Hooterville where Uncle Jo Carson is playing checkers. Uncle Jo thinks Granny is a practical joker since he doesn't know anybody in Beverly Hills. When she asks for directions to Hooterville he tells her to drive through the Grand Canyon. Granny is so busy trying to figure out how to get to Hooterville that she isn't cooking and so Jethro is starving. Elly May is boiling pebbles to get the tar off so her birds can eat them for roughage. But Jethro thinks they're grits and gravy and eats them, getting an upset stomach. Jed asks Jane to come and cook while Granny is away and she comes over to get oriented before Granny leaves, but she throws out her back while reaching for a high shelf. Jed holds on to her for support and then Granny walks in, thinking that Jed and Jane have started up a romance. Granny tells Mr. Drysdale and now he thinks he has to be extra nice to Jane if she's going to have control of Jed's $80 million. She showers her with gifts and gives her a raise until he finds out the truth, then he takes it all away and fires her as usual. 

            In the second story Granny has been in Hooterville for a while, and this is continued from the Petticoat Junction episode "Granny the Baby Expert". Betty Jo and Steve's puppy has gotten into the baby bassinet and is drinking from the baby bottle. When Granny sees it she thinks it's Betty Jo and Steve's baby. She tries to cure it and the next time she looks she sees a baby, so she thinks she's a miracle worker. Then when she sees Steve with the dog she thinks it's changed back and so she tries to cure it again and later sees the baby. Then she gets an urgent message from Jethro that they are starving and so Granny takes a railroad handcar, a horse, a motorcycle, and a crop dusting plane and then parachutes to the Clampett mansion in Beverly Hills. 

            I had always thought that Hooterville was somewhere near where the Clampetts originally lived in Tennessee. The zip code mentioned puts it in Kentucky but it has also been said that it's outside of Chicago. It was apparently based on Eldon, Missouri. Nobody there has a southern US accent. It's more generically midwestern US. 

            Meanwhile Jane has arranged for the Clampetts to hire a cook. A beautiful Italian woman comes to stay and cooks the best food they've ever eaten. Jethro thinks the red gravy, or marinera is called marijuana sauce. Maria the cook was played by Maria Mirka, who was born in London, U.K. Not much is known about her. She also appeared on It Takes a Thief and The Governor and J.J. 

            Sam Drucker was played by Frank Cady, who played the character on Green Acres and Petticoat Junction. He graduated from Stanford University with a BA in speech and drama. He apprenticed in the Westminster Theatre in London and appeared in four plays on the London stage. His first television appearance was on the BBC. He was married for 68 years to singer and actor Shirley Jones of The Music Man and The Partridge Family until she died. He met her while he was a teaching assistant of drama at Stanford. His first film was an uncredited appearance in He Walked By Night. He was half the couple sleeping on the fire escape in Hitchcock's Rear Window. He also played Doc Williams on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.

April 30, 1993: It was very nice to sit on a bench in the sun in my undershirt watching beautiful women go by

Thirty years ago today 

            On Friday I got up at 5:00 when the rain woke me. I remembered to take out the garbage and then I went back to bed until 10:14. I pretty well got ready to go to work and then I had a coffee. I took twenty-four more empties to the Beer Store on my way to work. I posed from 12:00 to 15:00 and then headed up to Queen and Church to meet Nancy and my daughter at the scheduled time of 15:15. It was that time when I wrote this as I sat on a bench in the sun in just my undershirt, facing the street corner and watching the beautiful women go by. It was very nice. But Nancy didn't show up. I called her mother and she told me that she left home a long time ago. I said I'd check back at 16:15 and if she still wasn't there I'd go home. I went to the Ontario College of Art and then decided to walk up to the Board of Education to see if they had a cheque waiting for me. I got back to Queen and Church at 17:00. I was about to call Apolonia again when Nancy finally arrived, asking, "Where were you? You said 16:15!" 

            At around 18:30 while I was waiting for Nancy in front of the Eaton Centre my daughter fell asleep in my arms. I carried her home and she slept until midnight when I tried to feed her in her sleep and it woke her up. I let her stay up until I went to bed at 1:00 on Saturday and then I turned out all the lights. She cried for a few seconds and finally went to sleep with me.

Ilona Rodgers

            On Friday morning I blog published "De velours et de soie" (The Silk and the Velvet) by Boris Vian on Christian's Translations. I still have to post it on my Boris Vian Facebook page. 

            I ran through playing and singing "Amour Consolation" by Serge Gainsbourg in French and English and then uploaded it to Christian's Translations to prepare it for blog publication. 

            I had my first song practice with my new Martin guitar. It'll take me a while to automatically know exactly where to place my bar chords on this guitar but when I do have them in the right place it feels easier and it sounds like I'm playing and singing better. The only problem is the strap I'm using is too slippery and I feel I have to subtly shift my body in ways that I don't have to with the Washburn just to hold the guitar from tilting too much up or down while I'm playing. On the Washburn I have a wide leather strap with a leather shoulder pad to help hold it in place. I can't use that specific one on the Martin because it's held on with a shoelace. I need to get a new strap like that one somewhere. They didn't have that kind at The 12th Fret. 

            I weighed 84.4 kilos before breakfast. 

            In the late morning I tried as best as I could to clean the dust off my Kramer electric guitar. I packed it in a gig bag and at about 12:15 I rode up the street to L'il Demon Guitars. John saw right away what the main problem is. The Floyd Rose locking system on the bridge has tilted up when it should be level with the guitar. He says several factors can cause that, such as changing all the strings at once, using too heavy a gauge of strings, or mixing gauges. Maybe not playing it for a long time also caused it, combined with the dryness in my place. He says he can fix it up for about $200 with maybe a few extras like repairing some of the frets. He said that the Kramer is a great guitar and I'll be happy with it once he's done. He said it'll be ready in about a week. 

            He showed me his Kramer. I guess my Kramer is one of the last ones from when the original Kramer company went out of business in 1991. They were bought by Gibson and are being made by their Epiphone division. But what they make are classic models imitating the old Kramers. 

            I weighed 84.8 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride even though it was raining because I wanted to try to get a decent guitar strap at Long and McQuade. The straps upstairs in the acoustic section were too short for what I want. I went downstairs and tried on a couple of leather straps for electric guitars. They were long enough but still slippery. 

            I went home and took the leather strap off my Washburn. It's too short by itself but I connected it to the bottom button. I found a piece of a broken belt and attached it to the neck button. Then I found a leather string that was part of a little carrying bag I never used and tore that off. I tied the string between the belt hole and the neck end of the old leather strap. I adjusted the length a bit and although it's not pretty I have a guitar strap that doesn't slide as much because it has a wide leather shoulder pad that fits onto the strap. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos at 17:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:15. 

            I reviewed the rest of the videos of me playing "La bas c'est natural" and "Kenya" from July 7 to July 15 of 2022. All of them had too much traffic noise. I'll go back and listen to the ones that I noted as being not so noisy. If they are I'll go into Movie Maker and listen to the two or three sessions that I synchronized and see what happens if I turn down the camera volume and increase the microphone. If all fails I'll consider this session of this song a write-off and try to get it on the next session, maybe in a month or so. 

            I looked for video to correspond with the line, "It helps us to remember it's the patient's fault" from my song "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy". The only thing I can find is the clip of Donald Sutherland pointing in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Maybe I'll use that and switch it to grey scale. 

            I had a potato with gravy and two chicken drumsticks while watching season 7, episodes 4 and 5 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            In the first story Granny has become Colonel Dumbarton's physician and she's treating him for alcoholism with liberal doses of moonshine. 

            Jethro is watching Dumbarton Castle through a telescope and he says he's in love with the beautiful girl who is visiting. That's Dumbarton's niece Sandra MacGregor. He tells Jed and Granny to look but by the time they look Sandra is gone and what they think they see is a big ugly woman in a skirt. It's really Sandra's brother Emwyn wearing a kilt. They think there is something wrong with Jethro. Jethro meets Sandra in the forest and she thinks he's joking when he asks her to marry him and so she jokingly says she will. Granny doesn't want Jethro to marry the big woman until Dumbarton tells her the wedding is off. Now she insists there be a wedding. Meanwhile Emwyn has gotten into his uncle's moonshine and Jed and Granny see him staggering around looking for Elly while playing his bagpipes. Granny thinks he's carrying a bag of whisky and that he's sucking on it through four straws and whining. Jane explains that it's a boy and that he's wearing a kilt. Finally they meet Sandra. She lies that she couldn't marry Jethro because she's a commoner and if the queen found out he would be beheaded. Jed says that calls for a celebration, and in the next scene everyone is wearing kilts and dancing while Dumbarton plays "Turkey in the Straw " on the bagpipes. Although it's considered to be a North American folk song, the tune might be derived from an old English, Scottish, or Irish melody anyway. 

            In the second story Drysdale wants the Clampetts to go back to Los Angeles and so when he hears that Clampett Castle is haunted by the ghost of Clementine Clampett he decides to use that to deceive Granny and play on her superstitions so she will want to go home. She is scared but Jethro says he'll get rid of the ghost with a seance. Drysdale bugs the room where the seance is held and pretends to be a ghost as he speaks through the microphone. Then he puts on a sheet to scare Granny but she shoots him in the ass with a shotgun. They all finally leave and on the plane Jed thinks he's seen a ghost when a woman in a white bourka gets on the plane. 

            Sandra MacGregor was played by Ilona Rodgers, who trained on the stage. Her breakthrough role was in the 1964 season of Doctor Who, in the story known as The Sensorites. In the 1970s she co-starred in the New Zealand soap opera Close to Home. In the 1980s she played Margaret Dunn on the Australian series Son's and Daughters. Her best known role was on the New Zealand series Gloss.

            

April 29, 1993: I went to a bar that was supposed to have the poetry readings but found out it wasn't an open stage

Thirty years ago today

            On Thursday I was going through all my Omni Magazines as part of the strange new spring cleaning spree that killed all my other magazines. I took some of my empties to the Beer Store for pocket change and then went for a coffee and worked on astrological moon position comparisons. I called Mike Copping at work but he didn't come to the phone. I phoned Nancy and she said to meet her at 15:15 on Friday. After work I went to that bar that was supposed to have the poetry readings but I found out that it wasn't an open stage. I took the College car to Main and Gerrard and walked home from there. I made spaghetti and coffee. I spent most of the night correcting a mistake I'd previously made on the moon positions for the days when I wrote to Whitefeather when she was in prison.

Rosalind Knight

            On Thursday morning I finished working out the chords for "Amour Consolation" by Serge Gainsbourg. Tomorrow I'll run through it in French and English and then upload it to Christian's Translations. 

            I weighed 85 kilos before breakfast. 

            At around 11:15 I left to ride out to The 12th Fret at Danforth and Woodbine. I stopped just before Logan to pee at The Second Cup. At The 12th Fret the Martin Road Series 10D was still there. While I was looking at it one of the staff members asked if I minded that he take my gig bag to the front of the store. I guess they don't want people to put guitars in gig bags and run with them. I asked to try out the pickup and it took him a while to find an acoustic guitar amp. I didn't know that there were amps specifically for acoustics. He said that I could use an electric guitar amp with it but it would sound shitty. When I looked this up later online I typed my Roland Jazz Chorus amp and found that commenters agreed that it's one of the best electric guitar amps to use with an acoustic guitar. 

            I played it for a while. It's weird because every guitar is different and I sometimes can't immediately find where to play chords that I'm used to playing every day on the Washburn. I decided to buy the guitar. If I'd known that it comes with a solid Martin gig bag I would have left mine at home and saved myself the extra thing to carry. I had to take almost everything out of the main part of my backpack and put it into the side of the Martin case, then fold up the gig bag and stuff it into my backpack. I just managed to get it closed. My gig bag with a guitar inside fits easily over my backpack but the Martin bag straps don't loosen as much. I also bought a wall hook for the guitar. I should buy some more because I need to organize all the guitars I have if I'm going to keep them. The sales guy was surprised that Steve's is charging $1200 for the same guitar. My bill came to $1038 and my bank wouldn't let me pay more than $1000 so I had to pay the rest in cash. It's very annoying and so I'm going to contact my bank to see if I can get that changed. I should be free to spend my own money. 

            It was an uncomfortable ride home because the left strap on the Martin gig bag was cutting off the circulation on my shoulder. I had planned on stopping at the supermarket on the way home but my backpack was full so I had to go home first and unload everything, then I rode back down to Freshco. I bought five bags of grapes, two packs of blueberries, some bananas, a pack of five year old cheddar, and a box of spoon size shredded wheat. 

            I weighed 84.2 kilos at 15:00. 

            I took a siesta and must have been tired from my long bike ride because I slept half an hour longer than usual. 

            I weighed 84.6 kilos at 17:15. 

            I got caught up on my journal just before dinner. I had a potato with gravy and two chicken drumsticks while watching season 7, episodes 2 and 3 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            In the first episode of this season the Clampetts concluded that the queen of England is broke. They got that impression when they heard that the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary ships had been sold. They thought it meant the queen had to sell off her navy to make ends meet. A con artist had convinced Jed that he could sell him Canada on behalf of the queen and so Jed bought the deed and now plans on giving it back to the queen. They've already shipped the old truck to England so they can drive to Buckingham Palace when they get there. 

            In the second episode Jethro smuggles Elly's pet buzzard Daisy onto the plane. It gets loose in the washroom and attacks Mr. Drysdale. It gets confiscated at customs and the Clampetts head for their castle. Granny and Jethro are all fired up about resuming the War of the Roses. At the beginning of season 6 Jethro was riding around the neighbourhood in a suit of armour looking for dragons. He rode through the rose garden of their next castle neighbour Colonel Dumbarton, who sicked his dogs on him. So now Jethro thinks he's fighting the War of the Roses. When the Clampetts get to the castle, it is near sunset when Colonel Dumbarton always fires the sunset cannon. Granny thinks he's fired the first shot and they prepare for war. 

            The file I downloaded of season 7, episode 3 is corrupted so I had to watch the episode on YouTube. Jethro rigs up a catapult to the back of their old truck and drives over to Dumbarton Castle. He catapults himself over the wall in his armour and lands near Colonel Dumbarton, who challenges him to a joust. Dumbarton is a bit of a drunk and though his daughter Vanessa tries to hide his brandy but he always carries some around. The joust is arranged, Jethro and Dumbarton charge one another and when they collide they knock each other out. But since Jethro struggles to his feet first, the Clampetts win the War of the Roses. 

            Jethro thinks the queen of England is Queen Elizabeth I and has convinced the rest of the family that is the case. To appease the Clampetts, Drysdale forces his secretary Jane Hathaway to dress up as Queen Elizabeth I and to go to Clampett Castle to receive the deed to Canada from Jed. She also officially tells Granny that the Clampetts won the War of the Roses and then she knights Jethro. 

            Vanessa was played by Rosalind Knight, who in her late teens began studying at the Old Vic, followed by an apprenticeship in repertory theatre. Her first film appearance was in Richard III. She played supporting roles in several British comedy films and TV series. She co-starred in Carry On Teacher. 

            Before bed I dug the other sea sponge that I've been keeping in the bottom kitchen drawer. I perforated a baggy with several small holes, soaked the sponge and made a humidifier for my new guitar, which I placed in its mouth.

April 28, 1993: I was going to cash in my empty beer bottles but I found a $10 cheque in the mail

Thirty years ago today

            On Wednesday I finally finished reading all of the funnies from my piled up old newspapers. I separated all of the Life sections into a big stack and started going through those. I figured they would go fairly quickly. I was going to take my bottles to the Beer Store on my way to work, but when I looked in the mail I found a cheque from Bell for $10. So I put the bottles back and went to the bank to cash the cheque. Then I went to Jarvis and had a coffee. I went through almost all of my letters to Whitefeather from when she was in prison back in the 1980s. I guessed that next I would do the letters I sent to Denise Cohen when she was working as an au pair in England. I called Nancy and she wanted me to come up to Scarborough at 9:00 on Thursday to pick up my daughter but I said I wouldn't. I wanted her to meet me someplace closer but she wasn't sure if she would.

Walter Koenig

            On Wednesday morning I uploaded "De velours et de soie" (The Silk and the Velvet) by Boris Vian to Christian's Translations and began editing to prepare it for publication on the blog. 

            I finished memorizing "Amour Consolation" by Serge Gainsbourg and searched for the chords. No one has posted them and so I worked out the intro and the first couple of lines. 

            I weighed 85 kilos before breakfast. 

            In the late morning I took an early bike ride and I took my guitar gig bag along with me because on the way home I was hoping to buy the Martin Road Series guitar they were selling at Steve's Music. When I got there I first tried out the pick-up on the guitar. It's weird because the volume and tone controls are wheels inside the hole. There's also a tuner inside. There was a different guy behind the guitar desk than the one who'd told me they could do a price match if it's the same guitar. I showed him the email I got from the 12th Fret confirming that the Martin Road Series 10D for $899 was brand new. He said it's probably not the same guitar because theirs in a 10DE. I can't find any reference to a Road Series 10D anywhere online and all that comes up is the 10DE so I assume that's what the guy at the 12th Fret meant. He argued that it probably doesn't have electronics but I assured him it does. He brought in the big weightlifter who runs the guitar department and he said he didn't think they could match that price. He went to check with management and I waited a long time. He came back and told me that even if it's the exact same guitar they couldn't match it because the 12th Fret must have bought it before covid when the prices were lower. What's the point of claiming to price match if you won't price match when the price is too low? I've never had Freshco refuse to match a competitor's price on the same product no matter how low it is. This experience has soured me on Steve's Music. It looks like I'll have to ride out to The 12th Fret tomorrow since there's a much stronger chance of rain on Friday. 

            I weighed 84.5 kilos at 14:00. 

            I took a late siesta at around 14:30. 

            I weighed 84.6 kilos at 16:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 17:30. 

            I reviewed my recordings of "Kenya" and "La bas c'est natural" from June 26 to July 6. For "Kenya" July 2 was one of the best and the traffic was audible but not obnoxious. For "La bas c'est natural" June 29, July 1 and July 3 were of the better ones. There was a little bit of traffic noise but not as much. On July 3 a truck went by just after the last chord. Maybe it can be removed. All the other sessions had too much traffic noise. 

            In the Movie Maker project for creating a video of my song "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy" I inserted some clips of a grand mal seizure and of a hand turning a dial on a shock machine to correspond with the line, "if you're looking for a grand mal seizure just raise the voltage some". After that Brian Haddon sings "shock therapy" again and I added another clip of him doing so from our concert at The 360 Club, this time with the effect of panning him from upper left to upper right. After that there is the line, "Two-hundred and fifty volts at point one seconds could deliver some jolt" and it seems like it might be fine to just return to the dial of the machine, followed by more of the seizure. But the line ends with, "so it helps us to remember it's the patient's fault" and I think I need something else to correspond with that. 

            I scanned several negatives, none of which were damaged this time. I finished the black and white set from Amsterdam and then scanned some colour negatives of Nancy while she was pregnant with my daughter and another set of my daughter on the beach and playing in the waves. 

            I made pizza on naan with Basilica sauce, hot Hungarian salami, and seven-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching the series finale of Star Trek Picard. 

            The assimilated fleet is about to break through Earth's defences. The Enterprise is entering the Sol system. There is a message from President Anton Chekhov of the United Federation of Planets. He urges all ships to stay away from Earth to avoid assimilation or destruction. He says there is always hope but for now save yourselves. Enterprise long range sensors are detecting a Borg vessel at Jupiter and so they head there. 

            On the Titan, Seven and Raffi have gathered the few members of the crew who are over twenty five and therefore not assimilated. They fight their way to the bridge. The assimilated bridge crew escapes to transporter room one but Seven has locked them there. One of Seven's new bridge crew protests that he's only a cook but since he has piloting experience Seven says he can do it. Seven and Raffi work out that the fleet formation programming uses line of sight and so they can keep the ship out of Borg control with their Klingon cloaking device. But they will have to make themselves visible whenever they need to fire weapons. They manage to take out several ships but the fleet uses predictive algorithms to locate them. 

            The Enterprise reaches Jupiter orbit and faces the Borg Cube. Deanna says she senses Jack there but he is totally consumed. There's a beacon on the Cube sending the controlling signals to the assimilated fleet. They have to destroy it. Picard is going and Riker and Worf volunteer to accompany him. They beam onto the Cube and find that the former Borg population is dead and consists of skeletons. Picard goes to find Jack while Riker and Worf look for the beacon. Picard finds Jack fully connected to the Cube. He tries to speak with him and hears the Borg Queen laughing. She now looks withered and ancient. Some of the drones wake up and engages Rike and Worf in combat. Worf is wounded. The Cube also fires on the Enterprise. Worf has been fighting with his sword but now that they are cornered he shows Riker there is a phaser in the hilt. Riker uses it and takes out the drones. He wonders why Worf didn't use it in the first place. Worf answers, "Swords are fun". The Enterprise locates the beacon but it is at the centre of the Cube. It's impossible to get to but suddenly Data takes manual control of the ship. He says his gut tells him he can do it and asks everyone to trust him. He flies the Enterprise into the Cube. he reaches the beacon but sees that destroying it would destroy the Cube and everyone on it. They decide it must be done and fire. 

            Picard begins trying to disconnect Jack. Then he takes one of the assimilation nodes and jams it into his own neck so he can connect directly with Jack. Picard explains to Jack that he felt the same way about Starfleet that Jack feels about the Borg but he realizes his connection with Jack is so much deeper. Picard says if Jack won't leave he'll stay with him and they embrace. Jack disconnects himself from the collective and unhooks Picard as well. The Enterprise flies over them while still inside the Cube and beams them up along with Riker and Worf. The Cube is destroyed. The assimilated federation drones attacking Earth and the Titan return to normal. 

           Tuvok makes Seven a captain. 

            A year later Jack has been fast tracked through the Academy and he is about to serve on his first starship. It's the new Enterprise, actually the Titan renamed, with Seven as captain, Raffi as First Officer and Sidney LaForge as pilot. 

            Worf hugs Raffi even though he hates hugging. 

            The old Enterprise crew is drinking in ten forward and then start playing poker. In the end, Jack is visited in his quarters by Q, who is supposed to be dead. Q says that's linear thinking. He says Picard's trial is over but Jack's has just begun. 

            The voice of Anton Chekhov was done by Walter Koenig who played Anton's father Pavel Chekhov on the original Star Trek series. He has a degree in Psychology. His first acting job was as an uncredited sentry on the TV series Combat. Four years later he was cast in Star Trek. He got the job within hours of his audition because he looked so much like Davy Jones of The Monkees. He's appeared in the first seven Star Trek films and on several video games and animated series. He played the scoundrel Bester on Babylon 5. He starred in the movies Moontrap, and Drawing Down the Moon. His autobiography is called Warped Factors: A Neurotic's Guide to the Universe. He has written plays, film scripts, and TV scripts for shows like The Incredible Hulk.

April 27, 1993: The payphone at the school stole two quarters from me so I asked to use the phone at the office

Thirty years ago today

            On Tuesday I tried to call Nancy from the payphone at Central Technical School but it stole two quarters from me and so I asked to use the phone at the office. She couldn't decide if she wanted me to take my daughter that day. I called Diana Dufretes and she wanted to go see Dracula but I told her I couldn't afford it. She said she'd pay and I said I'd get back to her as I wanted to see about getting some money from Mike Copping because of the sports lottery. I called Mike at work at John Vince Foods but he told me he had to take his dad to the hospital. I called Diana back to tell her I'd accept her offer but she said she felt too sick to go. Around 22:00 there was a knock on my door and it was Tom Smarda. It was an interesting coincidence since I had gone to see him on Sunday and found him not at home. He stayed until midnight.

Alice Krige

            On Tuesday morning I finished revising my translation of "De velours et de soie" (The Silk and the Velvet) by Boris Vian. I ran through it in English, and tomorrow I'll upload it to Christian's Translations. 

            I memorized the sixth and seventh verses of "Amour Consolation" by Serge Gainsbourg and made some changes to my translation. I should have the whole song nailed down tomorrow. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before breakfast. 

            In the late morning I rode up to Junction Guitars on Dundas West just east of Keele. I had to pee before going into the store and so I used the washroom at the Bull. Junction seems to be a Gretsch dealer. None of the guitars had the sound or look I was looking for. I tried a guitar and it seemed extremely out of tune until I realized it was a left handed guitar. I chatted with the owner and told him I knew a guy in Montreal who was left handed but could play a right handed guitar without shifting the strings. He said when people are beginning they can figure out how to do things in new ways. I gave the example of Adrian Belew and he remembered that story of how Belew didn't know when he learned to play that special effects were done with electronic equipment and figured out how to do the effects with just the guitar. Then we talked about King Crimson and I said I met Robert Fripp and had pizza and beer with him. He said Robert Fripp and Peter Gabriel are the two people he'd be most nervous to meet. I also told him that Iggy Pop crawled on my lap at a concert in 1974. 

            I went to Freshco just north of Dundas West Station where I used the washroom and bought a jug of limeade. I rode to The Mother of All Guitar Shops at Roncesvalles and Howard Park. The name is kind of a joke considering how tiny the shop is and how limited the selection is. There was nothing for me there and so that was my seventh place and I've decided that I'll buy the Martin Road Series. Tomorrow I'll go to Steve's with a gig bag. I'll check out how the pickup works and if everything is fine I'll see if they let me do a price match with The Twelfth Fret and sell it to me for $899 instead of $1199. If not then I'll ride out to Danforth and Woodbine and buy it at The Twelfth Fret. 

            I weighed 84.5 kilos before lunch. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos at 16:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 17:00. 

            I reviewed the videos from June 17 to June 25 of me singing "La bas c'est natural" and "Kenya". I guess because this is a quieter song the traffic noise is more noticeable. It's possible that only the camera mic picked up the traffic noise or if my microphone recorded it I could maybe edit it out in Audacity. June 19 and 25 were the two best French ones and the traffic was quieter. June 24 was the best in English but it was noisy outside. 

            I looked for videos of grand mal seizures in old movies but couldn't find anything that fits. I think I'll just use the seizure footage that I already have. There's some that hasn't been inserted into the video I'm making for my song "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy". 

            I cleaned some black and white negatives but only a few needed cleaning. I scanned a lot of negs and made two uploads when the scanner was full. Some of the negatives are damaged and a lot of those still make some interesting abstract shapes. Among the not damaged ones there were many street shots, some shots of my late friend Mike Copping's children, Rachel and Noah. One set of negatives that I didn't finish scanning before dinner contain shots of my friend Kees in Amsterdam. 

            I grilled some chicken drumsticks in the oven and had two with a potato and gravy while watching season 3, episode 9 of Star Trek Picard. 

            In Jack's mind Deanna is accompanying him to the red door in his visions. She opens it for him but what she sees terrifies her and she leaves Jack to tell Picard and Beverly. What she saw was a Borg Cube. When Picard was assimilated by the Borg it was not only technology that was part of the Collective. They also altered his DNA, which he passed on to Jack. His ability to take over and control other people's bodies turns out to be an evolved form of Borg consciousness. Picard goes to Jack to tell him that he will need to be moved to a Vulcan facility that treats former Borg and helps them disconnect. Jack considers that to be a lobotomy and refuses. He strikes out on his own in a shuttle and follows the coordinates the voice in his head gives him. He goes to the Borg ship, meets the Queen, resists assimilation but finally surrenders. 

            Back on the Titan Picard and his friends discuss the situation. The Changelings and the Borg have been working together all along. Today is Federation Frontier Day marking the 250th anniversary of Starfleet. All of Starfleet's ships are gathered in the Sol System in Earth orbit. The Titan heads there to warn Starfleet of the threat. Data discovers that Picard's DNA has become part of the common code of the Federation's transporter system. The fleet has been undergoing assimilation this entire time. But they can only assimilate people under the age of twenty-five, which is when the frontal cortex stops development. The Borg suddenly send a signal and everyone under twenty-five is assimilated, including Geordie's daughters. The younger crewmembers begin to attack the older. Their only chance is to reach a maintenance shuttle. Captain Smith holds off the Borg drones while the others go to a shuttle. He is mortally wounded and transfers command of the Titan to Seven, finally calling her "Seven of Nine" instead of "Hansen". Seven and Raffi stay behind while the shuttle takes the rest to the Fleet Museum where Geordie reveals a project he's been working on for years. He has restored their old ship, the Enterprise D. They all take their old positions on the bridge and head back for Earth. Their advantage is that the Enterprise is old technology that has not been assimilated whereas the new ships are built to coordinate with the fleet. 

            The voice of the Borg Queen is spoken by Alice Krige, who grew up in South Africa where there was no television until a year after she left to pursue an acting career in London. Her first professional acting role was a small part in the BBC's "Play for a Day". Her first feature film was Chariots of Fire. She co-starred in Ghost Story, King David, Barfly, Haunted Summer, Spies Inc, See You In the Morning, and the TV series Wallenberg: the Lost Hero. She first played the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact.

April 26, 1993: I had just enough to buy ground beef and English muffins

Thirty years ago today

            On Monday I got up at 11:15, had three tangerines and a coffee and looked over some astrological patterns. Then I went to the bank and got out $7. I wrote this on the streetcar approaching Broadview on my way to work at George Brown College. Carole Christmas was also posing there. I worked from 15:00 to 18:00. I had just enough money to buy some ground beef and English muffins but not enough to buy cream for my coffee. I tried to reach Diana Dufretes but someone said she wasn't home. I cleaned up and got my place almost back to normal after four days with my daughter.

Jonathan Frakes

            On Monday morning I memorized the fifth verse of "Amour Consolation" by Serge Gainsbourg and made some more changes to my translation. 

            I weighed 85.9 kilos before breakfast, which is the most I've weighed in the morning in a week.

            Since the guitar shops I wanted to visit today are closed, I decided to do some cleaning. I finished washing the inside of the bathroom door frame and the wall to the left of it as far as I could reach. There was no time to drag the stepladder down from the third floor landing. I also washed the wall above the bathroom sink and removed the mirror to wash behind it. The screw that was sticking out from the wall to hold the mirror in place popped off and I couldn't find it. I had to figure out some other attachment. I found a thin bolt that fit one of those drywall anchor brackets. I secured it inside the hole with the threads sticking out, slipped the hook of the mirror over it and then screwed another drywall anchor on the outside to hold it in place. Then I cleaned the mirror. 

            I weighed 85.5 kilos before lunch and that's the most I've weighed at that time in a week. 

            Just before 16:00 I headed out for my bike ride but it immediately started to rain so I came home. Fifteen minutes later it stopped raining and so I rode downtown and back. At Bloor and Dufferin I was waiting for the light and there was a woman walking west with a big, awkward looking Doberman. He was walking with his legs far apart and hesitating while sniffing the ground. His caregiver noticed me looking and explained that he wanted to go to the park. It looks like that's where she took him because she changed direction and took him south. 

            When I got home I went to pee and didn't have to go that badly but as soon as I unzipped I felt myself starting to urinate. I stopped myself and got properly ready to release myself but it took me by surprise. I didn't pee very much in my clothes and my underwear didn't feel wet but it was a strange occurrence. I think sometimes my mind signals that it's time to let go before I'm ready. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos at 17:30. So in terms of the three times I weigh myself every day, today is a carbon copy of last Monday. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:15. I reviewed the videos from June 8 to June 16 of me playing "La bas c'est natural" by Serge Gainsbourg and my translation, "Kenya". There was generally a lot of traffic noise. In the best of the French ones the spit-screen was sometimes over my mouth. The two best versions of "Kenya" were on June 11 and 13. 

            I started searching for video that might fit with the line, "if you're looking for a grand mal seizure just raise the voltage some". I narrowed it down to "grand mal seizure raise the voltage vintage" because older video footage of anything tends to fit better with the darker tone of my concert video of the song "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy". Modern footage tends to be slick, bright, and a little too colourful. I found a documentary called "Torture or Therapy, the Truth About Electroshock". In terms of imagery it doesn't have a lot that I can use but I watched most of it anyway because I found it interesting. 

            I had a potato with gravy and my last three pork ribs while watching season 3, episode 8 of Star Trek Picard. 

            Vadic has taken control of the Titan's bridge and is terrorizing the crew of the lower decks by shutting off the lights, communications, and blocking any means of escape so her Changelings can get to them. Picard, Beverly, Jack, and Sidney are somewhere else, while Geordie and Alandra are with a shut off Data I assume in engineering. Jack sends his consciousness out to take over one of the lower decks officers so he can see through his eyes what's going on. He returns to his own body when a Changeling kills the crewmember. Vadic sends a ship-wide demand for Jack to come to the bridge. She gives him ten minutes before she starts killing one member of the bridge crew every ten minutes. Jack takes over one of the bridge crew and tries to use him to override the systems with Picard's codes, but Vadic catches him and knows it's Jack inside. Jack returns to his own body. Vadic executes one lieutenant after teasing three others with her weapon. 

            Meanwhile nearby on the Shrike, Riker and Deanna are in their cell when a torturer comes for Deanna. But he is killed by Worf. They find Picard's original body. They head for the shuttle and escape. 

            Picard, Beverly, Jack, and Sidney go to Geordie and say they want him to turn Data on and get him to retake the ship. Inside of Data's positronic body, he and Lore are partitioned off but the partition needs to be lowered to give Data a chance to take control. The partition is lowered. Data is holding cherished objects that are memories of his friends. Lore takes away his Sherlock Holmes pipe and with each thing he takes away a little more of Data disappears and Lore becomes stronger. But Data starts giving Lore his mementos. Lore has none of his own but takes them as trophies. He gives him his poker deck and his cat Spot then Data disappears entirely. But then Lore begins disappearing and Data reappears. He tells Lore that in taking the things that are him, he has become him. Data hugs Lore and Lore dissolves. 

            Jack arrives on the bridge. He's holding what might be a bomb. He says he will destroy himself if she doesn't let the bridge crew go. She has them locked in another room but Seven forces her way back onto the bridge. Vadic knows Jack hears voices and sees a red door in visions. She offers to help put the pieces together. 

            Data wakes up and takes over the systems, allowing Riker, Worf, Deanna, and Raffi to dock and start fighting the Changelings. Jack pushes the button on the device he's holding and stands next to Seven. It's not a bomb but a forcefield bubble. The evacuation hatch is opened and Vadic is sucked into space where she freezes, hits the outside of the ship and shatters like glass. The bridge crew return and Seven has the Titan fire on and destroy the Shrike. Picard, Riker, Deanna, Beverly, Geordie, Worf, and Data sit around a table together like old times. Worf gets sentimental and says, "I have slaughtered many enemies over the years and considered sending their heads to all of you. But I was advised that was passive aggressive." Deanna says there is a darkness not in Jack but through and around him. She says it's time she met him. Deanna meets Jack and senses the red door. She tells him it's time he go through it and she accompanies him as he touches the knob. 

            Will Riker is played by Jonathan Frakes, who started playing trombone in Grade 4. In high school he was in a band. He got the acting bug while working as a theatre usher. He moved to New York and got small roles on Broadway. He got work for Marvel comics dressing up as Captain America for promotional events. He played Tom Carrol in the soap opera The Doctors. He moved to LA and started appearing on TV series. He played Marcus Marshal on the soap opera Bare Essence. He was cast in Star Trek personally by Gene Roddenberry in 1987 with no knowledge of Star Trek. As the series progressed he began directing as well and continued directing for Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek Voyager. He directed the movies Clockstoppers, First Contact and Insurrection. He is the only Star Trek regular to have appeared in all five of modern series from the Star Trek franchise. He starred in the series Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction.

April 25, 1993: My daughter was trying to hit kids in the ball pond so I pulled her out crying

Thirty years ago today

            On Sunday I stayed up until after 5:00 and my daughter woke up at 5:00. I made her a bottle and put her back to sleep. I went to bed shortly after that when I'd finished cleaning a bit. We got up at 10:00. After breakfast she went through three cloth diapers and two sets of pants, but I found one more diaper and got her ready so we could go out and call Nancy. We got to Bamburgh Plaza at 14:00 and played at McDonald's. She was trying to hit people in the ball pond and so I pulled her out crying. Nancy showed up after 15:00. We went to Miracle Mart and hung out before I said goodbye. I called Diana Dufretes but just got her machine.

LeVar Burton

            On Sunday morning I finished working out the chords for "De velours et de soie" (The Silk and the Velvet) by Boris Vian. I ran through it in French. Tomorrow I'll start adjusting my translation as I sing and play it in English. 

            I memorized the chorus of "Amour Consolation" by Serge Gainsbourg and made some changes to my translation. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos before breakfast. 

            I had planned on going to two guitar shops west of me today, but found out that both Mother of All Guitar Shops and Junction Guitars are closed on Sundays and Mondays. The other guitar store on my list is Paul's Boutique in Kensington Market. I was thinking that it might be crowded on a Sunday and formed a plan to go there Monday and then the two west end shops on Tuesday. But I checked the weather and there is a better chance of rain on Monday so I decided to go to Paul's after all. I rode first to Yonge and Bloor and then went south. I stopped at the McDonald's just north of College to pee and then I went west on College to Spadina. I went south to Nassau and then west into Kensington Market. The market was very crowded and it took fifteen minutes to find a free bike post. Paul's is a lot smaller than I expected. There was only one dark wood Yamaha that I found attractive. I borrowed a pic k and took it into a soundproof room. So far in my experience Yamaha guitars are too bright sounding for my taste. There are just two guitar places to check out before I make a decision but so far the Martin Road Series is still on top. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos before lunch at 13:30. I had saltines with seven-year-old cheddar and a glass of limeade mixed with some orange juice. 

            I weighed 84.5 kilos at 16:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 16:41. 

            In Movie Maker I finished synchronizing the video and the audio of my June 18, 2022 song practice. I isolated "Joanna Dancing Lightly", my translation of "Joanna" by Serge Gainsbourg and made a movie which I uploaded to YouTube. 

            I'll still have to do another recording of that song because I've changed the lyrics since last summer. Next I'll look for a good video from last year of me playing and singing "La bas c'est natural" by Gainsbourg, and "Kenya" my translation. 

            In the Movie Maker project for making a video of my song "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy" I inserted the clips I'd edited out of the ice floe scene in the silent film Way Down East so that the scenes of Lillian Gish unconscious on the ice floe as it floats down the river toward the waterfall would correspond with my line, "If unconsciousness follows the charge a delayed attack will come." Immediately after that is a part where Brian Haddon sings "Shock therapy". I inserted one of the two clips I have of him doing that and altered it with the effect of panning from upper left to lower right. Next I need some video to fit with my line, "But if you're looking for a grand mal seizure just raise the voltage some". I'll start searching tomorrow. 

            I cleaned some more damaged black and white negatives and scanned them. A lot of them are damaged but present interesting abstract images. Some of the semi damaged and undamaged ones are nude shots of my gorgeous ex-girlfriend Brenda. Others are undamaged street shots. I uploaded over a hundred scanned images to my computer files. 

            I made pizza on naan with Basilica sauce, my last three strips of thick bacon, and seven-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 3, episode 7 of Star Trek Picard. 

            This story doesn't really have Riker, Deanna, Worf, or Raffi because Worf and Raffi are off searching for Riker, and Deanna has been captured to make Riker talk. 

            Seven is communicating with her old friend Tuvok and tests him with mutual memories to see if he's a Changeling. At first he passes but then she catches him in a lie and asks what he's done with the real Tuvok. He says, "When we are done with him and all of you death will be a relief". They shut off the communication before the Changelings can trace them. Picard realizes there is no one at Starfleet they can contact and they are on their own. 

            Beverly speculates that they stole Picard's human body and are trying to catch Jack so as to use the two DNA sequences to recreate a perfect copy of Jean Luc Picard. They try to get more information from Data but Data and his evil brother Lore have both been placed inside of the same positronic body and are competing for control. Right now Lore surfaces more than Data. Data says that there is an anomalous form inside of Picard's original body and the diagnosis of the condition that killed him may be wrong. 

            Jack has been spending time with Sidney and he's starting to read her mind. 

            Picard decides to set a trap for Vadic. Vadic in her ship the Shrike finds the Titan disabled in space next to a Klingon Bird of Prey. Both ships are dead in space and it looks like there's been a battle. Vadic takes a shuttle to the Titan with a boarding party. Vadic meets Jack and tells him she wants to take him to a better place. Jack runs and joins with Sidney. They lead Vladic's Changelings on a chase and trap them in force fields. Jack and Sidney are surrounded by the outside of the force fields and Geordie's plan was to beam them out but the transport has been overridden. Lore has taken control of the ship. Beverly and Picard confront Vadic and ask her what she wants with Jack. Vadic says he was never really for them. Vadic tells her origin story. Her ability to maintain solid form and to mimic internal organs is the result of torturous experiments by Starfleet when she was imprisoned at Daystrom Station. The purpose was to turn her and her kind into weapons and spies. Vadic killed the scientist who was experimenting on her and took her form. Picard and Beverly decide to kill Vadic and let the shield down but she escapes. The two big Changelings are also free and fight Jack and Sidney. Jack kills one and then links with Sidney's mind to control her and give her his fighting skills. They beat the two Changelings. Meanwhile Geordie is trying to reach past Lore to communicate with Data and finally Data returns to the surface. Vadic and her Changelings reach the bridge and take control of the Titan. Seven is disarmed and Smith is severely wounded. Not on the bridge are Picard, Beverly, Jack, and Sidney. Also elsewhere are Data, Geordie, and Alandra. Vadic calls out to Jack that it is time for him to learn who he really is. 

            Geordie LaForge is played by LeVar Burton, who was born in Germany. At 13 he started studying for the Catholic priesthood. His first film appearance was in Almos' A Man. While attending university he won the part of Kunta Kinte on the hit series Roots, for which he was nominated for an Emmy. He was the host of the PBS series The Reading Rainbow for 23 years. As host and producer of the series he's won 12 Daytime Emmys and one Peabody Award. He has directed over twenty-four Star Trek episodes, which is more than any other actor in the franchise. The first film he directed was Blizzard.

April 24, 1993: My daughter got into the tub to pee

Thirty years ago today

            On Saturday morning I was very depressed. Nancy was supposed to meet me at Eaton Centre at 11:30. I waited half an hour, went to get a coffee, and when I came back her father was there with my daughter. We played around there for a while and then caught the streetcar. She fell asleep on the way to my place. She woke up in a great mood at 16:00, so I decided to keep her overnight. Instead of going out we played with tools, painted and then played in the bath. She deliberately got into the bath to pee. We watched "Katts and Dog" and she pointed at the dog every time it was on screen. She went to sleep at 23:00 and I called Nancy to tell her she'd be staying overnight.

Michael Dorn

            On Saturday morning I memorized the fourth verse of "Amour Consolation" by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I weighed 84.4 kilos before breakfast. 

            In the late morning I went to Vina Pharmacy to get some 99% alcohol for cleaning negatives. I also bought a bag of cotton balls. The counter person asked if I was over sixty-five so I could get the seniors discount. It was nice that she wasn't sure. 

            I went to No Frills where I bought five bags of grapes, a large pack of blackberries, a bag of naan, a pack of lean ground beef, some two in one shampoo-conditioner, a jug of orange juice, a container of skyr, Folger's coffee, Earl Grey tea, and a bag of kettle chips. I noticed while buying my items that they've taken down the plexiglass barriers between the cashiers and the customers. Some places like Freshco plan on keeping them up from now on. I said it's better for me because I can read the prices on the screen better without the plastic in the way, but I was curious how she felt about it. She said she didn't like it but it was okay. 

            I was going to go directly to L'il Demon Guitars after shopping but I had to pee so I went home first. At 1612 Queen West there is a black barbershop. There is an old painted sign saying "L'il Demon" on the wall next to the door leading upstairs. As I was looking, a woman in the shop gestured upwards with her thumb to me and I nodded, thinking she meant that L'il Demon was upstairs. But when I went to buzz the upstairs door one of the hairdressers came out and told me it's at the back. I thought he meant I had to go around to the alley but he told me to come in through the barbershop to the back where L'il Demon has two rooms. There wasn't much in the way of acoustic guitars. I tried one of those bulge-top guitars with the squiggly side holes but found it a little twangy. I like an earthy sound in a guitar. 

            I talked with the owner and he said he doesn't have a directly on the street shop because when he did he used to get drunks coming in to play guitars they couldn't afford. He says that's why The Twelfth Fret buzzes people in now and why Steve's has their guitar room at the end of a maze at the back. I told him about the Martin I'd found for $900 but he advised me to buy a second hand Martin. He said if I could find a new one for $1000 it would have been made in Mexico. It seems racist to assume a Mexican guitar isn't as good as a US guitar. I think all of the Martin Road Series guitars used to be made in the States but that doesn't mean they were made any better then. I guess he means that the higher end Martins are built in Pennsylvania and that I could get a higher end model second hand. He really doesn't like Steve's Music and advised me not to do business with them. He says they don't have a good return policy. I have three more stores to check out before I make a decision. So far it's still the Martin Road Series that's on top. 

            I weighed 84.6 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with seven-year-old cheddar and a glass of limeade. 

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

            I weighed 84.3 kilos at 17:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:50. 

            In Movie Maker I mostly synchronized the audio and video of my June 18, 2022 song practice. There's a bit of an echo where I left off and I'll decide tomorrow if I want to keep it. 

            Also in Movie Maker I cut the clips I've edited out of the Lillian Gish silent film "Way Down East" down from thirty seconds to ten. I'll start inserting some of those clips into the main video tomorrow to see what fits. 

            I made pizza on naan with Basilica sauce, bacon, and seven-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 3, episode 6 of Star Trek Picard. 

            The Titan has escaped the Intrepid, which is controlled by Changelings. That and other Starfleet ships are in pursuit. 

            Beverly reveals to Picard that their son Jack has inherited the disease that killed Picard before his consciousness was placed inside of a positronic body. 

            Worf and Raffi are beamed onto the Titan. Worf tells them the information they need is at Daystrom Station which is guarded by a thinking and learning AI system. Worf and Raffi have acquired a key that can temporarily disable the system. 

            There is awkwardness between Seven and Raffi who became lovers at the end of the last season and were already broken up at the beginning of this one. Worf says Klingon breakups rarely end without bloodshed. 

            Riker, Worf and Raffi are the team going in to Daystrom Station. They beam down and almost immediately Starfleet vessels arrive to confront the Titan. Picard takes the Titan away but promises to be back. As they try to access the mainframe at Daystrom Riker recognizes notes being played. They are confronted by Professor Moriarty who Riker and Data encountered in a Holodeck program decades ago. Moriarty fires on them with real bullets. Riker recognizes this Moriarty is not self aware. The music keeps playing but incompletely. Suddenly Riker realizes what it is and whistles, "Pop Goes the Weasel". Moriarty disappears and the door opens. Inside the door they find the suspended body of an aged version of Data. Raffi activates a hologram of Data's creator Alton Sung who explains that he put all of Data's, Lore's, and Lol's memories into one positronic body, similar to the kind of body that Picard now has, which can age and die. Data contains all the information they need about what super weapon has been stolen from the facility. 

             The Titan arrives at Ethan Prime, which is the location of the Starfleet Museum, presided over by Geordie LaForge. Geordie beams aboard with his older daughter Alandra who became an engineer like her father. There is tension between him and his younger daughter Sidney who became a pilot and now flies the Titan. Geordie says he can't both help Picard and protect his daughters. Sidney confronts her father and calls him a coward. Jack talks Sidney and Alandra into helping him steal cloaking technology from a Klingon Bird of Prey in the museum and installing it into the Titan, so they can return to Daystrom undetected. But it's not working. Geordie arrives to help and fix it. The Titan arrives over Daystrom and is ready to beam them up with Data, but security attacks and Riker chooses to hold them off. But he is captured and only Worf, Data, and Raffi make it back to the Titan. Geordie reboots Data and he recognizes Geordie and Picard but is confused. Picard asks him what was taken from Daystrom. Data keeps repeating "Jean Luc Picard". They think he's malfunctioning but he projects a hologram showing the human body from which Picard's consciousness was transferred to his current positronic body. The super weapon that was stolen is Picard's body. 

            At Daystrom, Riker is being tortured. His torturer kills the other two guards and transforms into Vadic. She says she knows torturing him won't work and then she reveals she has his wife Deanna Troi. The question on my mind though is whether it's really Deanna. 

            Worf is played by Michael Dorn, who appeared as the character in four movies and 272 television episodes. He has made more episode appearances than any other Star Trek actor. After college he played in several California rock bands. His first film role was as the bodyguard of Apollo Creed in Rocky. His first television role was as Jedediah Turner on CHiPS. He was cast in Star Trek the Next Generation in 1987. In 1991 he played an ancestor of Worf in Star Trek: the Undiscovered Country. He also played Worf for six years on Deep Space Nine. He played Dr. Carver Burke on Castle. He's a licensed pilot with his own antique jet. He considers Worf to be Hamlet. He's a big fan of South Park. 

            I've made it to the fifty-night mark without finding bedbugs. That breaks the record that was set from June to July of 2021. I am now cautiously declaring the infestation over and will stop doing my tedious fifteen minute searches every night before bed.