April 22, 1992: Diane Pugen told me my collage looked good

Thirty years ago today

            On Wednesday morning I brought my collages “Venus Eclipsed by Saturn” and “Venus Aligns with Mars” with me to work at Central Tech because I wanted to make copies at Kinkos afterward. Since it was a warmish day Cheryl asked me to pose for her class on a bench in the schoolyard. But during the last half hour it chilled down and so we finished the session inside. I took my collages to Kinkos but there was a half-hour wait and so I went to Toby’s. When I came back, I ran into Diane Pugen. She looked great. She told me that my collages looked good, but I didn’t know if she was just being polite. I tried to pick up my film from last year, but they couldn’t find it. I dropped off two more rolls. After I got home, I pinned the collages on my wall and I was on time to watch Star Trek. I couldn’t talk to my daughter that night because Nancy didn’t get home until she was already asleep.

Virtual Reality

            On Wednesday morning I finished working out the chords for “Digital Delay” by Serge Gainsbourg. I ran through the song in French and English and then uploaded it to Christian’s Translations. I can’t work on editing it for publication on the blog tomorrow because I’ll be working on my essay, but I should have it done on Friday. 

            I did a shortened song practice by just singing and playing one verse and one chorus for most of the songs. At around 7:45 I started getting my place ready for pest control. Last night before bed I found one seemingly healthy bedbug in a crack in the plaster on the old exit door and another sick or dead one further down. This morning I ran the lint roller over my futon and picked up a small one that wasn’t moving. 

            I swept the floors which didn’t have as much loose dirt as two weeks ago. But when I mopped the floors with some Murphy’s oil soap the water in the bucket turned the colour of stone. 

            I weighed 86.5 kilos before breakfast. 

            I had the place ready by 10:00 but Steve from Orkin hadn’t shown up yet. He was supposed to be here between 9:00 and 12:00 and usually seems to save this place for last. It’s probably nothing personal. He probably starts in one part of town and ends up here. 

            At noon Steve still hadn’t shown up so I decided to call Orkin. It’s a good thing I did. I learned that Steve was not the technician scheduled for today but since only Steve seems to have a key to our building, the other tech Ramone wouldn’t be able to get in. I learned from the receptionist that he’d called the 905 number to get access but that’s the landlord’s number and he’s in India right now. She got my number and said she would call Ramone. About half an hour later I got a call from Ramone and he was downstairs. 

            I’d thought that the technician was going to spray the spores again but Ramone told me that for the follow up they use the regular poison. He said that the spores will start to take effect soon and when I asked if infected bedbugs might also travel to other apartments like Caesar’s place upstairs to infect his bedbugs, he confirmed that they would. That’s good news. 

            I was supposed to leave for four hours and so I went and put my washing in at the laundromat. Then I came back here and ate three oranges in the hall. I went back to the laundromat and put my stuff in the dryer. I went home and opened all the windows and had lunch. I had a toasted five-year-old cheddar and tomato sandwich with a glass of lemonade. The toxicity in the air didn’t seem all that bad while eating in the living room with the windows open. But I didn’t hang around past lunch and headed back to the laundromat. After bringing my clothing and bedding home I headed out for an early bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. 

            I took a late siesta at 17:22 and got up at 18:58. 

            I weighed 85.5 kilos at 19:00. 

            I got caught up on my journal at 20:00 and started making dinner. I fried three strips of bacon, and an egg and had it with toast and a beer while watching an episode of Astro Boy. 

            This story begins with a historic event, the first 3-D television broadcast. But something goes wrong during the transmission and a huge fog creature emerges that is somewhat humanoid in shape but gigantic and with rabbit ears. Astro Boy tries to fight it but he goes right through. 

            Later a man named Dr. Snorkel pays the gangster Wily an enormous sum of money to destroy the 3-D transmitter. Wily’s men destroy the machine but then Wily demands to know why Snorkel wanted it annihilated. Snorkel refuses to tell but Wily has Snorkel tied up and one of his men tickles him until he talks. 

            Snorkel used to have a boy scientist named Rocka as his assistant, but when Rocka developed a way to teleport objects and living things by way of radio waves, Snorkel became jealous. While Rocka was teleporting a fish, a rabbit, a large robot, and himself, Snorkel destroyed the receiving machine, thus trapping Rocka, the fish, the rabbit, and the robot in radio wave limbo. 

           The new 3-D transmitter has a similar technology but it is not powerful enough to bring Rocka back to his original form. Then Wily has his men steal the 3-D television transmitter, but Astro Boy follows them. Wily uses the machine to call forth the fog form of Rocka. He promises him that someday he will bring him back to human form but first he must do whatever he asks. 

           His first task is to destroy Snorkel. Astro Boy arrives in time to save Snorkel but the fog is hard to fight. Astro Boy goes right through it but the fog is able to solidly grab hold of Astro Boy. Astro Boy temporarily disrupts the fog with blasts from his rocket boots and then escapes with Snorkel. 

           Astro Boy goes to Rocka’s lab to try to find the blueprint for his teleportation device but Wily’s men are already there and have found the plans. They attack Astro Boy with flamethrowers but it does him no harm and he mops up the mobsters. 

           Over the next few days, the fog shows up invisibly at several sporting events and alters the course of the competitions. Wily has been using Rocka to help him become a billionaire as he always wins the bets that he makes. 

           When Wily learns that Astro Boy defeated his gang he hires Shark, the best robot smasher in the universe. Shark attacks Astro Boy with his special electronic whip and his skill and the weapon are too much. But just as Shark is about to finish Astro Boy off, Mr. Pompus intervenes. He disarms Shark and then slaps him around until he surrenders. 

           Astro Boy learns the location of Wily’s hideout from Shark and goes there. Wily orders Rocka the fog to attack Astro Boy and so Astro Boy destroys the 3-D TV transmitter. But Wily reveals that he has used Rocka’s blueprints to rebuild his teleportation device. He plans to use it to conjure Rocka the fog anytime he wants him. 

           But when he switches it on Rocka appears in his human form. He punishes Wily and his men by teleporting them from one dangerous situation to another. First, they appear in Africa surrounded by a warrior tribe; then they materialized in a can-can show; then a bullfight where they are chased by the bull; then they are transported to Venice where they are drowning in a canal; they are on top of the sphinx; then on some vigorous horses on a merry go round, and then finally back in Rocka’s lab. Wily says he’s learned his lesson; Rocka forgives Snorkel and they become partners again.

           3-D TV was first demonstrated in 1928 and the first 3-D TV was produced in 1935. But 3-D televisions did not become widely sold until 2010. For a while they were popular and then production ended in 2016. Advances continue in virtual reality and it has increased in popularity during the pandemic.

April 21, 1992: I spent so much time chasing my daughter as she crawled up and down the aisle that I missed The Addams Family

Thirty years ago today

            I got up around 8:30 on Tuesday. I called the phone company and saved my phone line with a promise to pay $60 today and $20 a week until the bill was caught up. Nancy wanted me to come up to her place as soon as I could because she wanted to take our daughter to some kids’ event and then go to a movie. After making an appointment with a lawyer about my eviction dispute and making the phone payment at the bank, I headed up to northeast Scarborough. I got to Nancy’s place at around 13:00 and I was just about to take my daughter out while Nancy got ready when the baby fell asleep, so I went home. When I got there my Sheridan College cheque for about $500 and my income tax return for $900 and something were there. That night I gave Nancy $100. We went to see The Addams Family, but I was so busy chasing my daughter as she crawled up and down the aisle that I didn’t see much of the movie.

Super Horse

            On Tuesday morning I started working out the chords for “Le régiment des mal aimés” (The Regiment of Broken Hearts” by Boris Vian. So far they pretty much fit with the chords I found online. 

            I worked out the chords for most of “Digital delay” by Serge Gainsbourg and should have it done tomorrow. 

            The panhandler who begs from the cars turning from Dunn onto Queen or the ones east or westbound when they stop at the light is a very hard worker. He never asks for anything from pedestrians and he has to use pantomime to ask the drivers for money because their windows are usually rolled up. He puts his hands together in the prayer position and then rubs his tummy in a counter clockwise circular motion and mimes his left-hand holding food while the other hand puts the imaginary food into his mouth. It’s not a job that most people could handle.

            I weighed 86.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            I worked on my essay for about an hour. It’s starting to worry me since I have to change my whole approach with the deadline being Thursday at midnight and I won’t have a lot of time to work on it Wednesday. 

            I took a siesta from 11:30 to 13:00. 

            I weighed 86.7 kilos before lunch. I had salsa with yogourt and kettle chips.

            I took an early bike ride at 14:30. It was raining a bit but the drops were tiny. I passed a puddle on the Bloor bike lane and it was riddled with falling raindrops yet I could barely feel any on my face. I rode to Yonge and Bloor and went south on Yonge. I had to pee but bypassed the McDonald’s just south of Wellesley and went to the one just north of College. It’s strange that there are two McDonald’s so close together. There’s also a striking contrast between the two restaurants. The southern one has a very well maintained, clean washroom, with soap, and toilet paper. Also it’s not locked like the other. 

            I weighed 86.5 kilos at 16:00. 

            I worked on my essay for an hour and laid down for another siesta at 17:30. I think I slept a bit in the first fifteen minutes but woke up at about 17:45 and got up at 18:00. 

            I returned to my essay. I worked for an hour and a half and then felt sleepy again. I had to start making dinner in fifteen minutes so I thought I would lie down for that long. I slept for twenty-one minutes but that wasn’t too late. 

            I made gravy from yesterday’s chicken drippings and boiled a potato while steaming a couple of scallions. I heated a chicken leg. While dinner was cooking I worked a bit on my essay. I ate while watching an episode of Astro Boy. 

            The story begins with Dr. Elefun walking along the waterfront when he is knocked into the water by a passing horse. When Elefun pulls himself out of the water he sees some gangsters questioning a little boy about a horse. When the thugs try to beat the boy up Elefun runs to stop them but when he gets there he sees that the boy has beaten the gangsters. The boy, Yatata turns out to be the son of an old friend of Elefun who left Earth years ago for the Planet Popilloli where he became a woodsman. But his father was killed in a logging accident and Yatata came to Earth to study. However Yatata’s horse friend Davalon followed him. 

            Davalon is very smart, he can talk, he can fly, and in addition to the usual four legs that a horse has he also has two human-like arms and hands. The pesky reporter Snoopy Scoop has heard about the horse and tries to investigate but Astro Boy sends him away. He asks the gangster Ugapug to get Astro Boy out of the way but he’ll only do it for money. Then Trickem the circus owner says he’ll pay to get the horse for his show. So first Ugapug captures Yatata and then uses him to lure Davalon and traps him. Astro Boy comes to the rescue. Then Yatata and Davalon decide to go back to Popilloli, but Ugapug sends a fleet of spaceships to get his revenge. Astro Boy has to save the horses on Popilloli but afterwards they decide that now that humans know where they are they will not be safe on Popilloli so the population rockets away to another world that Earth has yet to discover. Yatata returns to Earth with Astro Boy.

April 20, 1992: The baby seemed amused to wake up and see me on my bed beside her

Thirty years ago today

            On Monday I got up around 8:30 and called Nancy to tell her I was on my way up to take my daughter. I took her on the swing and then on both slides in the playground and she loved them. I bought breakfast at McDonald’s, and we shared my hash brown. We went to the supermarket and then at my place she explored for an hour before falling asleep at 13:00. I assessed my two latest Tomb of Dracula comics and then joined the baby in bed. She seemed amused when she woke up and saw me there beside her. While she explored, I gradually got her dressed again and ready to go back to her mother’s place. But before we left, I had to clean up all the baby food that Nancy had made, which had spilled in my bag. We left at around 17:30 and I got back home in time for the last few minutes of Star Trek.

Friendly Aliens

            On Monday morning while tuning my guitar the G string broke while I was tuning the B. It was definitely due to be changed months ago. This morning I didn’t have time to put a new one on right away because I just wanted to work out the first few chords for my song “Our Less Than Solid Dude of Solitude.” So I pulled out the Rocker electric to quickly tune it and use it without amplification. But when I put the clip-on tuner at the end of the neck the clamp broke. Fortunately, I have another clip-on tuner that I haven’t used in over a year but the battery still had some juice and I was able to tune the Rocker. I had to tear off the duct tape that I’d put along the edge of the neck to protect my fingers from its sharp fret ends and it made my hands sticky. I had to listen hard without amplification but I was able to work out a few chords. 

            Next I put the chords in place that I’d found yesterday for “Le régiment des mal aimés” (The Regiment of Broken Hearts” by Boris Vian, but didn’t have time to try them out. 

            I found a few G strings in my drawer and picked the oldest one, but it was still a good one. The guitar sounded a lot better because the G had been twangy for a while. Because of the loss of time I did a shortened song practice, by just singing one verse and one chorus for most of the songs. By the end I was on schedule. 

            I started and finished memorizing “Digital delay” by Serge Gainsbourg. There are only eight lines besides the refrain that repeats “Digital delay.” I did a quick search for the chords but so far couldn’t find any. I’ll look again tomorrow but I probably won’t find any. The album “Souviens-toi de m'oublier” (Remember to Forget Me) that Gainsbourg wrote for Catherine Deneuve was a commercial failure. The lyrics are good of course and Deneuve has a sexy talky-singing voice but the music doesn’t particularly grab the attention. 

            I weighed 86.6 kilos before breakfast. 

            I had an appointment for 14:00 with my Global Modernisms instructor and so I decided to take an early siesta. I went to bed at 11:15 and got up at around 12:20. Before leaving I double checked where the Robarts Café is and got confused because there seems to be a Robarts Library Café at 130 St George but there is also a Robarts Cafeteria in the Robarts building. 

            I took the Bloor bike lane and went south on St George to Robarts. Inside I had to show security that I’d done my self covid check on my phone and I also had to scan my student card. I asked about the café and was told it’s on the second floor. But all that was there was the food court. I asked somebody in an office and he said the food court is the café. I had envisioned an actual relaxing café and not a smelly food court. I walked around the eating area but there wasn’t a single wall outlet for my laptop. Outside the food court was a more open area where people could still eat. There I found a wall outlet and set up my laptop. Just after 14:00, I decided to walk around to make myself visible for Apala and I saw her right away. 

            I told her that my essay had a lot of moving parts and I was in the process of getting them to work as part of one smooth-running machine. She said that’s the way essays work. I showed her my essay and she read a few paragraphs. I had hoped she would say that I was on the right track and have a few small suggestions. She saw a lot of ideas but she said I have to get onto one single track of an argument that draws its evidence from my close reading of the novel. Then I can bring in secondary texts as proof of my argument. I think I can see what she means. I have some evidence from close reading and a lot of evidence from outside sources. She had an appointment for 14:30 and was impatient to get away. 

            I rode home. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos before lunch. I had the rest of my chili with kettle chips and a glass of soymilk.

            I took another siesta at 16:15 and got up at around 17:30. It was snowing heavily in big flakes that were melting as they hit the street. 

            I weighed 86.6 kilos at 17:40. 

            I cut up a whole chicken and marinated the parts with the rest of the chipotle taco sauce, salsa, Piri Piri sauce, and honey that I’d mixed a couple of days before. I added olive oil, salt and cayenne and roasted it in the oven. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:30. 

            I worked for about an hour on my essay and started moving everything that I can prove with the text of the novel into the foreground. The idea of Bakha being a child has lots of evidence. I only have three days until the deadline. 

            I had a chicken leg with a potato and margarine while watching an episode of Astro Boy. 

            This story wasn’t very complicated. A meteor hurtling towards Earth turns out to be a space ship. The strange-looking people inside are very friendly. They are from the Planet Jip-Jip and have come to collect unusual animals for their zoo. They will trade precious jewels and rare space metals in exchange. 

            As a gift, they also give the Earthlings a talking baby dinosaur named Tiny which is already bigger than the largest creatures on Earth. A circus owner named Trickem wants to get the dinosaur for himself but he is told he can’t have it. When the Jip-Jip cook is out shopping for tons of vegetables Trickem offers him a pig in exchange for any large creature he can display in his show. The cook thinks the pig is the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen and gives Trickem one of the giant ten-ton crabs that they eat on the ship. 

            The crab eats one whale a day, is bulletproof and its claws can snap a rocket ship in two. Trickem has the crab chained but when he unchains one claw so it can demonstrate cutting a tank in two it uses that claw to snap the other chains and escapes. The army’s weapons are ineffectual against it. Astro Boy fights it and with great difficulty manages to tear off one of its claws. It escapes in the ocean. 

            Meanwhile Tiny proves to be a great addition to the zoo and everyone loves it. But the problem is that it needs to constantly eat and when it is an adult will consume all the food in the world. Tiny and Astro Boy have become very good friends and they go into the ocean together to look for the crab. The crab has been attacking and destroying boats. They follow it to Hawaii where Astro Boy and Tiny fight it. Finally it falls into a volcano and dies. 

            Then the Jip-Jips return to ask for medicine to treat the cold they caught from the pig that Trickem gave to the cook. Dr. Elefun gives them cold medicine and the Jip-Jips take Tiny home where there is more to eat.

April 19, 1992: I sold $850 worth of flowers, but the driver counted differently and so we argued

Thirty years ago today

            On Easter Sunday my fast was finally over but I had to almost force myself to buy a coffee that morning before going to the flower place. We didn’t go out until after 9:00. This time I ended up at Bathurst and Steeles but a guy from another flower company had taken the spot that I was supposed to have. My driver wanted me to set up right beside him, but I thought that would be rude, so I moved all my buckets across the street. We had old bunches of roses for $5 a dozen, and I had a sign that said so. So, I walked around all day with the sign while holding out two bundles each time to the traffic on whichever of the two streets had the green light. It seemed to work, and I sold $850 worth of flowers. But at the end of the day the driver counted $888 and so we argued.