Lapis Lazuli

            On Sunday morning I posted my translation of “Mes idées sales” (My Dirty Thoughts) by Serge Gainsbourg. I memorized the first verse of his song “L'avant-guerre, c'est maintenant” (The Pre-War is Happening). 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before breakfast. I worked on my essay for almost two hours. I read most of the essay on the use of stereotypes in Uncle Tom’s Cabin and did some more research on the history of the colour blue. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before lunch. I had cilantro guacamole with plantain chips and a glass of orange juice. 

            I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor in the afternoon and again I didn’t have to pee downtown.

            I weighed 85.1 kilos at 17:30. 

            I got caught up on my journal at 18:15. 

            I worked for more than an hour doing research into the colour blue for my essay: Blue … is the last to be added in the sequence of the acquisition of the first six basic color terms in any contemporary natural language (Corcoran). Colour terminology must be related to expression rather than perception ‒ yet the expression itself enhanced the capacity for perception (Warburton). 

            I found a bedbug crawling on my desk. They certainly seem to be more active since pest control sprayed that spoor stuff. 

            I heated the rest of the Bok choy, mushrooms, and lima beans with ginger that I’d made yesterday. I ate while watching an episode of Astro Boy. 

            This story begins with Mr. Pompus enjoying a relaxing walk in the forest when he comes across a crew tearing up the woods to build a housing development. On his way home he keeps encountering children asking him for directions to a specific address. He gets curious and decides to go to the address himself. In a run-down old, abandoned house he encounters several children who all received notes telling them to come to that place. He finds that what the children all have in common is that they have influential parents. In the hand of the skeleton of a human arm he finds a note that reads, “Here lies Professor Greenthumb.” 

            Pompus goes to Dr. Elefun who says that he and Greenthumb were old friends. He was one of the most famous biologists in the universe and he was an expert on animals. Pompus goes back to the house where he encounters Greenthumb’s cat Mimi who can talk and warns Pompus that if the crew doesn’t stop destroying the forest the animals will take the law into their own hands. 

            Pompus goes to see Mr. Debonaire, the head of the housing development company. Debonaire says that Greenthumb had convinced him in the past that it was wrong to cut down the forest and he tried to stop it but he couldn’t. 

            Later as Astro Boy’s friend Dimmy is walking he is surrounded by a vicious pack of wild dogs. As they rush in to attack him Astro Boy saves him just in time and fights off the dogs. Then a man in a cat mask approaches and warns them to stay out of the forest. Astro Boy follows the man and he seems to disappear until Astro Boy finds a secret trap door that leads below the forest. Underground they find a planted forest beneath the forest and thousands of every kind of animal. The cat man arrives and says he is taking them prisoner but Astro Boy flies with Dimmy straight up to the next level where the cat man pulls a gun on them. Astro Boy blasts him with his rocket boots and knocks his mask off, revealing that he is Professor Greenthumb. 

            Elefun goes to see Greenthumb who gives him 24 hours to stop the forest destruction or everyone will be punished. After a day all of the animals from the zoo escape, all of the trained animals and pets begin to revolt and the wild animals invade the city. Astro Boy’s super-hearing picks up a radio signal and he follows it to where Greenthumb is using a hypnotic transmitter to control the animals. Greenthumb is holding some children captive and threatens to kill them with a super bomb because of their parents’ actions. But Astro Boy sends an electrical charge that knocks Greenthumb out. 

            Later Elefun comes to see Greenthumb in the hospital and announces that the forest has been saved forever. Interesting how morality works in Astro Boy stories. Greenthumb tried to commit mass murder of children but in the end, he is forgiven and gets what he wanted.