BEHOLD!

Jasmin picked the room colour, it’s “Melon” by Behr. Even though I know Behr makes really good paint it took four coats to even out the colour. I can still see areas where there is colour variation but I’m trying not to get all OCD about it.

Here is another shot of the main wall. I’m not in love with the bedspread, but it’s good enough for now. I picked up the lamp at Value Village for $12 and sprayed it white.

Here are some of the things you can see around the bed area. First is one of three Zelda posters:

The posters were free from “Club Nintendo”. If you register your games and things with Nintendo you earn points and can redeem them for things like posters and toys. The poster over the bed is also Nintendo-related, but this time it’s Pokemon:

Right now instead of a bedside table there is a small rolling cart. Here’s a decorative cushion Jas got for her birthday:

Above the dresser is another Zelda poster. This one was an odd size and didn’t fit a standard frame:

Swinging to the right you can see the door to the closet. The closet is actually NOT done right now so you can’t see inside. When I do finish it you’ll be amazed though.

The white dresser with the mirror was a freebie from a previous roommate. Until last week it was blue and brown. I really like it in stark white. The mirror is pretty beat up but will have to do.

Tucked away in another corner we have two bookshelves. Everything in the room is mostly empty right now because I’m going to let Jasmin put her things where she wants them. Hanging in front of the bookshelves is a hammock chair. Jasmin has been pleading for one of these for a while, so I expect she’s going to flip out when she sees this.

And finally the last of the Zelda posters. This one is to the left of the bookshelves.

I’m really happy with how everything turned out. It really came together just like I pictured. Here are some of the items in the room and how much they cost. Almost everything was bought on sale. It wasn’t all bought at once. We started out with the bed, two dressers, and one bookshelf. Some of the purchases were:

Paint (melon), 4gal @ $45 each, Home Depot
Paint (white), 1pint @ $20, Hope Depot
Curtain panels, 2 white @ $15 each, Wicker Emporium
Curtain panels, 2 white @ $20 each, Wicker Emporium
White bookshelf, $80, Zellers
Frame for Pokemon poster, $18, Liquidation World
3 other poster frames, $80, Michaels’
Lamp, $12, Value Village
Spray paint for lamp, $8, Home Depot
Hanging chair (and hardware), $30, Canadian Tire
Overhead fan/lights (not pictured), $50, Canadian Tire
Comforter, $16, Value Village
Lime Green Throw, $10, Liquidation World
Black area rug, $35, Liquidation World

So overall it was about a $600 project. Not too shabby in my opinion. Now if only she can keep this room clean…

Having now established my fanaticism I will go on to actually talk about the movie. Overall it was good. It wasn’t great, it wasn’t spectacular. There were lots of little disappointments, but there were some things I was really pleased with.

I thought the CG was amazing, but it was done by Industrial Light and Magic so I guess that should be a given. The animation of the bending was spectacular, absolutely everything I could have imagined possible. Perhaps if I had just put in some earplugs and watched the movie in silence it would have been a better experience. The creatures truly came alive in this film as well. Jasmin didn’t like their interpretation of Appa the air bison but I thought he was perfect. That pretty much wraps up everything that was great about this film.

Now I know a fanatic tends to be a bit more picky about film adaptions than the average movie-goer, but I don’t think the flaws in this movie are just things the fans are going to notice. The first and biggest downfall was the lack of character development. The TV series is almost a perfect balance of character, story, and action. The Airbender movie puts magic into the action sequences but forcefully shoves the story line into you with a pointy stick and has locked character development up in a closet somewhere. Aang should be a youthful and exuberant kid, but they’ve turned him into a quiet and sullen little emo boy. Saka and Katara should exude compassion and morality from their pores but instead you kind of wonder why they are even following the emo boy around. I want to tell you everything that is wrong with uncle Iro but it’s too painful. Let’s just say that my favorite character no longer exists – he is dead to me.

The story is driven so forcefully fast I’m sure that anyone not familiar with the series would leave the movie theater still wondering what bending actually is. Update: Uh, yeah, I guess I’m right about that. I get it, there was a lot to explain and a lot of story to move through, but there were also twenty minute chunks of movie that could easily have been left on the cutting room floor to make way for more character development. There were lines in this movie that sounded like a ten year old wrote them. To make things worse, the lines were delivered with the kind of emotion reserved for phone-book recitals or “grocery on line one, grocery on line one” calls from the checkout. It was truly cringe-inducing.

The 3D fad does nothing to make this movie better, but that can be said for just about any movie these days. I will be so glad when this trend dies.

Lastly I will mention what will surely be the most annoying feature of this film for fellow fans: pronunciation. For whatever reason (probably clinical dementia) the filmmakers decided to change the pronunciation of many of the lead character’s names:

• Iro: pronounced “eye-roh” in the series is now “ee-roh”.
• Sokka: pronounced “sa-ka” in the series is now “soak-ah”
• Aang: in the series the name rhymes with “twang”, in the movie it’s more like “ankh” without the “k”.

I’ll tell you what; if you want to make a movie based on a (popular)TV series, how about you DON’T MESS WITH THE MAIN CHARACTER?!!!!??

So yeah, I was kinda let down by this movie. Maybe the saddest thing was that I didn’t get my hopes up in the first place, knowing what movies are like these days. Always the optimist I am still going to look forward to the next movie. I mean, they can’t possibly screw Toph up that badly, can they?

As I was leaving Oromocto on Friday I noticed two ladies at one corner of a busy turning circle holding signs. I had just enough time to catch the print on one. It read “5 men, 1 woman, 0 charges”. My curiosity was piqued so I pulled into the nearby parking lot and had a chat with the ladies.

The lady pictured above is Jenn. Jenn lives in New Maryland and is a mother and a cub scout volunteer. Jenn was assaulted by three Oromocto RCMP officers and two hospital security staff while at the Oromocto hospital. Within the space of a minute she was thrown to the ground and had all of her clothes stripped off. Since then she’s been trying to have the incident investigated, all to no avail. She says she’s never even been asked to give a formal statement about the issue.

Her friend carries a sign covered in pamplets about coping with abuse and sexual assault. “These are useless for her” she says “until someone finally does an investigation. They just want to pretend nothing happened.”

I know there are two sides to every story and I’ve only heard one, but unless she had a bomb strapped to her chest I cannot think of any legitamate reason why five men would have to strip a woman. She’s not asking for charges or penalties for those who are involved, just an investigation. As I was leaving a car honked and a young man leaned out an open window and yelled “woohoo” at the ladies with his fist pumping the air.

I thought about being in a situation like that. Being in a situation of abuse brought on my an authority like the RCMP, and how hopeless it must feel to want some recognition that it even happened. I thought about how much strength it must have taken for Jenn to be there that day. I told Jenn I would post this on my blog and twitter even though my readership is small at least a few local people follow it. You can help Jenn too, by retweeting this or sharing the link. Maybe if it gets enough attention something can be done.

I’ve been down King Street at least four times since I heard about the opening but couldn’t for the life of me find the place. Turns out I was walking right past it while looking on the wrong side of the street. It’s two doors up from good old Victory Meat Market, for those that read this and wish to go seeking the Relish Me experience. It’s an experience I highly recommend.

One thing that was mentioned before I went that I will mention here is that this isn’t a “sit down” place where you are served your food. You line up and order diner-style. There are a few tables and single seats but all were full (at 5:30 on a Wednesday), so you might want to plan this as a “to go” meal.

The menu was presented in “steps” that are painted on a half-wall near the counter. First pick a patty, then a combination of toppings, then a side and a drink. I took Jasmin and they took the order in her name. She made an adjustment to the toppings on her burger and they were happy to accommodate. After a short wait, they announced our order by singing out “We relish Jaaaasssmiiiin”. It was a really fun touch. The entire prep and cook staff worked just on the other side of the order counter, so you can watch them make your order. They all seemed happy to be there and they worked smoothly as a team, good thing because the place was busy!

Ok, now I get to share pictures! The takeout bags are totally awesome, durable paper bags with comfortable handles, and flat bottoms so nothing got tossed around on the walk home.

Jasmin ordered a chicken “Cabo Diablo”, minus the hot sauce. Here’s the cute scribble they did on the box.

Jasmin says the meal “wasn’t just monotone and overly salty like at McDonald’s”. She let me have one of her fries and we both agree they were really great. I ordered “Le Nordique” with a beef patty:

The burger was great, flavorful, colorful, fresh. I never would have thought to put brie and back bacon on a burger but it was fantastic! The sweet potato fries were okay, but they weren’t meant to be the center of attention anyway. I agree with Jasmin that it seemed like there was less salt in the food than typical fast food burgers. I have to say, it’s now an hour later and I don’t have the groggy and bloated “food hangover” I usually get from fast food either.

Both of our burgers had this bright fushia stuff in them. Do you suppose this is the “relish” of “Relish Me“?

So from two totally unprofessional restaurateurs with unrefined palates – we give the place all thumbs up!

I need more health and fitness books like I need another pet (NOTE: I DO NOT NEED ANY MORE CRITTERS IN MY HOME). I wish I WISH that the paleo books or “Lights Out” was in the list, but alas they are not. I still managed to find ten books on the list that I will order, here are a few:

5 Square Low Carb Cookbook
Following the motto “eat more, eat clean”, this cookbook is from a culinary whiz who runs a low-carb meal delivery company in New York. It looks like this particular cookbook also leaves out dairy, so it sounds like there might be a lot of paleo-compatible recipes in here.

Complete Guide to Sport Injuries
Though I’ve learned a lot about injuries and treatment from the hunky Kelly Starrett at the CrossFit Journal, I’m sure I could also make use of a good reference book.

Fitness for Travelers: The Ultimate Workout Guide for the Road
I travel a few times a year, and my gym is a 20-minute drive away. I hope this book will give me a few new ideas for getting my on when I can’t get to equipment.

A Woman’s Book of Strength
From the description of this book I can’t really tell what to expect from it. Is this about being muscle-strength strong or iron-will strong? Is it both? I like the title and the cover though!

Sleep Away the Pounds
If I can’t have the “Lights Out” book, then I guess I’ll see what this has to say. Though I probably won’t follow the 21-day plan, I’m interested in picking up a few good sleep hygeine tips from this book.

The Politics of Stupid
For 99 cents I will see if the contents of this book are as interesting as the author or the title.

Just so y’all know: if you click on any of the links in this mighty fine post and buy a book from the site, they toss a few shiny gold coins my way so I can…buy more books.

Just before Christmas I received notice that $25 had been repaid from my previous loans, enough to join in a loan to a new entrepreneur. On top of that, I was gifted a $25 loan certificate for Christmas from my cousin and his new fiancee!

Here are my new loan-ees:

Doris Yolanda Blanco Huallpa makes and sells handicrafts in Peru, and wanted a loan to buy raw materials. The picture of a smiling Doris in the process of knitting (or crocheting?) something in a mellow yellow colour was all the prompting I needed to add to her loan.

Mrs. Ros Som already works as a weaver, but wants to diversify by purchasing some farmland and growing crops. Since I have my own farmland dreams for the future I am totally on board with this lady.

I made my first loans around Christmas of 2008, when I started with $100 (enough for four loan amounts). With the addition of these two new loans I’ve made a total of ten loans. I haven’t had any loan-ees default on a repayment. It’s really great to see just how far one loan can go in this innovative microfinance system!

Also, I make a wild guess at what my gift could be.

I got matched up to a lucky redditor who I’ll probably talk about in a later video, and some mysterious redditor got my name and mailing address. Last Friday a message from a user called “yourredditsanta” told me that my gift was in the mail, coming from upstate New York.

So far this whole thing has been a blast and I’m mega-excited about my gift, so I’m going to document the whole ordeal on video and share the fun!