On Thursday morning I worked out the chords for the third and fourth verses and the second chorus of “Le régiment des mal aimés” (The Regiment of Broken Hearts) by Boris Vian. There are just two verses and one chorus left.
I memorized the first two verses of “Epsilon” by Serge Gainsbourg and adjusted my translation. There are only two verses left to learn.
I weighed 85.2 kilos before breakfast.
In the late morning I worked on cleaning my wire dish rack. I finished the largest section and tomorrow I’ll work on the other two smaller parts that hinge on the main one.
I copied the rest of my photos from the old computer and moved them to the new one. There might not be much left on the old PC that I need to move over.
I weighed 85.1 kilos before lunch.
In the afternoon I continued my search for an armless office chair. I went to the Salvation Army Thrift Store but there were no office chairs. I rode up to Value Village but their chairs were mostly dining room chairs and nothing on wheels. I went east to the other Sally Ann store on Bloor but there was very little furniture there at all. The Furniture Emporium also was void of office chairs.
Finally I decided I’d done enough searching and headed for Walmart to buy their armless office chair. When I was there last week I thought they had two kinds: a mesh backed chair and one with a smaller, non-mesh back. I wanted the small one but all they had left was one mesh backed chair, so I took it. I had to pay through the automatic teller if I wanted to use the mall exit. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. After tax it was $73.42.
I carried the box through the mall to the back entrance where my bike was locked. There was no way I could ride home with the packed box, so I took my jackknife out of my backpack and opened the box. All of the chair parts fit into my PC reusable shopping bag. But the box wouldn’t fit and so I cut the bottom open and folded it as best as I could. I hung the bag of chair parts on my right handlebar, and carried the folded box under my left arm. Once I figured out the balance my body needed to maintain to keep from falling down it wasn’t that hard to ride the short distance down Brock to Queen and then one block to home. I locked my bike outside my building and carried the chair parts upstairs to my place.
I went back downstairs and rode my bike to Freshco. I had my locking cable hanging on my right handlebar and so I couldn’t work the right brakes and had to stop with my feet to avoid rolling through the lights into Dufferin traffic.
At the supermarket I bought five bags of grapes, a half-pint of blueberries, a pack of hot Italian sausages, a pack of ground chicken, a pack of five-year-old cheddar, a can of peaches, a jug each of orange juice and raspberry lemonade, a bag of kettle chips, a jar of hot salsa, a six-pack of Irish Spring soap, and some petroleum jelly.
I weighed 85.2 kilos at 18:30.
I got caught up on my journal just before 20:00.
It only took me half an hour to put together my new chair. It’s fairly comfortable and now I’m mobile while sitting again.
I’ll have to take a picture of my Frankenstein chair before I take it apart and throw the base away.
My next project is to look for a new monitor for my new computer.
I had a potato with gravy and two small honey garlic pork chops while watching two episodes of Astro Boy.
In the first story Astro Boy is on an expedition with some botanists on a tropical island when he finds a very rare sample of the Galaxia, the largest flower on Earth. It is taken to a new conservatory for plants that is directed by Dr. Eubank. Eubank’s chief assistant is Nathaniel Pollen who is experimenting with the effects of radiation on plants. But so far Pollen’s experiments have not been fully productive. The isotopes make the plants grow very large but most of them do not produce fruit, and the banana and coconut trees grow fruit with nothing inside.
Then the Galaxia begins to move and it travels towards the isotopes, consuming the radiation, which causes it not only to grow but also to talk. It escapes from the conservatory and heads north. Eubank calls Astro Boy because the flower is now radioactive and a danger to everyone. It’s headed for the atomic energy plant. It climbs onto the reactor and Astro Boy tries to pull it off. In the struggle the control device of the reactor is broken.
Astro Boy uses his own control device to replace it but that means that he will explode. He flies the Galaxia to dump it in the ocean and then he flies up to the stratosphere so that when he explodes no one will be harmed. He calls Dr. Elefun to say goodbye but Elefun orders another control device and risks his life to fly up in a rocket and deliver the new device to Astro Boy.
Later Galaxia emerges from the bottom of the ocean. It boards an atomic powered cruise ship and drains all its energy, then it heads for a uranium processing plant. Astro Boy confronts the plant. It says it doesn’t know where it comes from but all it is doing is following instinct to survive. Dr. Elefun has observed that it seems afraid of fire and so Astro Boy drops a firebomb and destroys it.
The second story is unique because it is partially in colour, with mostly red added past the halfway point along with the usual greyscale to create an ominous atmosphere. There is also an interesting incident of cross-dressing.
In the story a spaceship from the Planet Norico lands on Earth. A white-haired boy the same size as Astro Boy emerges.
The child is carrying what looks like a full-sized refrigerator. The boy’s name is Beamo and he goes to get a job at a bakery, showing the owner that he has extraordinary cake baking skills. Beamo is hired and happy in his job but three white haired men from his planet try to capture him. It turns out that Beamo is a robot. He tries to escape. The combed-back hair on his head expands into wings but the men that pursue him have the same ability.
They use an electromagnet to draw Beamo towards them but suddenly Astro Boy arrives and smashes the machine. He lets Beamo come and stay with him and Beamo reveals that the white box he carries is a super powerful bomb, capable of destroying a star. He removed it from Norico because the people that created it plan to use it as a weapon. Beamo has Astro Boy promise to not tell anyone but then Astro Boy decides to tell Dr. Elefun because he can be trusted and can also help.
But after Elefun learns about the bomb the three Noricans come and tell him that they are the ones who created Beamo. That means they own him and so Elefun concludes he must go back. Beamo feels betrayed by Astro Boy and no longer trusts him. The Noricans are able to take the bomb from Beamo but then they tell Elefun they are going to experiment with it by using it to explode Earth’s sun. Astro Boy rescues Beamo and the bomb.
The Noricans send an asteroid to destroy Earth. As it approaches the only thing that can stop it is Beamo’s bomb but he refuses to help. Astro Boy tries to take the bomb from him but Beamo uses electromagnetic powers to put Astro Boy in a vortex and he falls unconscious to the Earth. Beamo carries Astro Boy and leaves him on the steps of the Institute to be rescued.
Meanwhile the asteroid can be seen as a red sphere getting larger as it approaches Earth.
This is the beginning of colour in the story at about 18:25 minutes into the half-hour video. But everything else is still in greyscale except the asteroid and the red hue that reflects off other things on Earth.
Astro Boy continues to look for Beamo. Many people have run away and tried to escape, leaving their faithful dogs behind. Astro Boy meets an elderly woman who says she and her daughter stayed behind to take care of the doggies. She invites him in for tea and he is shocked to find that her daughter is Beamo the little boy robot cross dressing as a little girl.
When he calls her “Beamo” she just says, “Who’s Beamo?” and Astro Boy leaves. But then the old lady and daughter are attacked by giant ants that serve the Noricans. They take the bomb, which is now disguised as a refrigerator, away. Astro Boy stops the ants and the Noricans on their ship. Then Beamo apologizes to Astro Boy and says he will use the bomb to save Earth after all. But afterward he will have to return to Norico.
After the asteroid is destroyed the sky is blue again.
Apparently in the original Manga comic, Beamo or Bem is naked and has no secondary sex characteristics, so in that case it’s not a case of cross dressing since there is no gender to cross from. But Beamo wears what are traditionally boy’s clothes throughout most of the story and changes them often and so when Beamo wears a dress it is certainly a cross from the usual attire.
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