Month: June 2009

Apartment Hunt

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Ashlinn and I are looking for a new apartment. Nothing big, hopefully 8′ x 12′. We’ve got a budget of around $36 million a month. We’re looking to stay put for a while, so a 150 year sentence… I mean lease would be nice. I would really like to feel like I made off with a good deal.

In other news, what’s up with all the celebrities dying off? Farrah Fawcett, MJ and now Billy Mays? That guy partied harder than Spuds MacKenzie and the McGuire Twins combined! Who’s next on the “I Almost Forgot You Were Alive Until I Found Out You Were Dead” list? The guy that played Little Pete? LL Cool J? The Smoke Monster (seriously, where the fuck have you been?) When will the dying end God?!?!?!?!?!?!

Also Critical Information

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Hello, I just wanted to let y’all know that you can also access this blog from adambelanger.com and you can also be notified via Twitter whenever I update. A huge amount of my traffic comes through Facebook, so I figured another outlet wasn’t a bad idea.
By the way, check out this frozen treat I made:

Sorry ’bout That

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Sorry I haven’t posted for a while, I’ve been a little busy playing with my new Xbox 360 and fighting with homeless guys. That’s right! I bought an Xbox. It was a birthday present for myself. Thanks to all who wished me a happy birthday, that was real cool of you!
As for the homeless guy, I was skating at the Ballard Bowl and got tangled up in this crazy fight between 2 homeless guys and a homeless woman. Needless to say, I was fighting on the side of justice and in defense of the woman, and the only injury that seemed to result was one of the guys pissing his pants and probably a horse throat due to yelling. After that I lost to a guy in a game of S-K-A-T-E. All in a day’s work I guess.

P.S. Mom, I promise I’ll never intentionally get into a fight with homeless people again.

3 Sci-Fi Films You May Have Missed

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Moon – This one may not have made it to your area yet, it’s still making the festival rounds. I saw it a few weeks ago at SIFF and I was quite impressed by both the strong story and the use of miniatures over CG. It relates heavily to the space madness seen in Solaris and 2001, but I felt like it took it in a more satisfying direction. Sam Rockwell plays “quiet/confused” better than most, especially while watching himself jump rope in the next room over. Trailer – IMDb

Sunshine – It’s not surprising that Danny Boyle is finally blowing people’s minds. This film should have had a much larger reaction, in my opinion. Dying sun, a bomb the size of Manhattan, martyrdom, gold suits and the worst sunburn you could imagine. I really hope Boyle returns to casting Cillian Murphy in the future. Trailer – IMDb

The Mist – Based on a Stephen King novella about monsters rolling into town in a cloud of mist. Takes place in Maine, ’nuff said. Trailer – IMDb

Bonus: Primer – Very very very cool. Interesting method of storytelling from a director (and producer, writer, main actor and editor) who isn’t afraid to leave you with a few questions as the credits roll. Trailer – IMDb

2 Things!

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The following 2 things could make a pretty big change in your daily life. I hope you take them into consideration.

1. Mint.com presents 3 Principles of Personal Finance – This is going to seem tedious, obvious and far too basic, but sometimes reading it is the first step to actually following through with it. It’s a good read, in relatively plain English.
2. 1 Horsepower Drifting in Romania – Courtesy of Bagwell.

Best Idea of the Week?

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Hey, I was just thinking. What if instead of landing on a crazy island full of mysteries, Oceanic 815 landing on a crazy PLANET full of mysteries? That’s right, LOST in outer space, on a planet that the surrounding planets can’t find, except for one asshole with a space freighter and his daughter. I know exactly what it would be called too. Space Lost! Perhaps it would look something like this:

You may be thinking to yourself or aloud to friends around you “Adam, you just did some shitty computer painting over a Lost screen capture.” Shitty you say? Perhaps you missed the painstaking details of the American flags on the space suit sleeves or the crashed rocket in the background or how Jack now fittingly has a ray gun instead of a rifle.
Maybe you should open your eyes before you think to yourself or aloud to friends.

New Lamp

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Hey film friends? Are you familiar with the grip/gaffer’s putty knife? It’s just like a regular putty knife, only it’s got a 5/8″ baby pin on the end of the handle, like this. Wedge that in a door frame or under a counter top and you can plop a lil’ light down.
While moving into the new apartment, I knew I would need a little reading light, so I took a cue from work and made this guy:

Nice flexible neck for positioning.

Ashlinn can read too!

I got the light from work for free. It used to look kind of like this until I cut it down a bit. The putty knife was found at an estate sale. 50ยข well spent.

Ballard Bike Race!

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On Sunday a bike race was held just a few blocks from my apartment. It’s called Second Ascent Twilight Criterium, and is obviously put on my Second Ascent, a local climbing and cycling store specializing in used equipment.





As you can see, the road surface is either brick or less than pristine asphalt. The divot in the last picture blew at least one racer’s tire. He managed to stay upright though, which is more than I can say for the guy in orange ( I think it was him.) He fell hard on that corner, slammed into the hay bails lining the curb. Then another racer came around the corner and (I think) ran over either his stomach or ribs. It happened pretty fast, but he seemed OK.
Higher quality pictures can be seen here, but they’re not mine!

LOST Stuff

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I’ve been using Google SketchUp a lot recently and decided to build some LOST stuff with it. My first project was the radio tower and the small building next to it from the season 3 finale. You can download it here.

I also made the Pearl station, which was first visited by Paulo, and later by Locke, Eko, Sayid, Desmond and Nikki. It can be downloaded here.

To view either of these models, you’ll need the most recent version of Google SketchUp.