TETRIS: The Movie

Some friends and I enter a monthly contest called Trailer Wars here in Bellingham. Each group has to create an original movie trailer based on the criteria that the winning group from the time before gets to select. This time, the theme was "Adaptation" so we made a movie about one of the best celebrated games of all time, Tetris. Unfortunately, we didn't win (it's voted on by the crowd) but we're still way stoked on what we have created and hope it gets some attention online. Check it out!

TETRIS: The Movie (trailer)

Road Trip From Hell

You may recall a post I made a while back with a trailer for a fake movie, The Legend of Zelda: The Missing Link (I highly recommend clicking that link (PUN!) if you haven't seen it yet).

That trailer was made for a monthly competition here in Bellingham called Trailer Wars. It's basically a group of friends who make movie trailers and have a screening every 6 weeks. After all the trailers are played, everyone in the room votes on their favorite. The winner gets to choose the genre and rules for the next competition. The Zelda movie was made for a "children's fantasy" film. Devon, who directed it, won the month before so he was ineligible. The group that did win that month chose a Road Trip movie that must include the following:

- A vomit scene
- A dead historical figure
- The song "Don't You Forget About Me" from the Breakfast Club (this rule was later removed to prevent YouTube from taking the videos down - we managed to get a version of the song in anyway)

So after Chris and I helped out with Devon and Joe's Zelda trailer, we decided to enter with our own trailer this time. We asked Lauren and Chris's fiance Jen to help out with a trailer we hoped would stand out from the rest (we assumed everyone was making comedies). And without further ado, here is what we produced:



We didn't win the competition, but still had a great time. Everyone was very friendly and inviting, we got to see some cool trailers, and I think it made us even more excited for next month. Speaking of which, next month's genre is "The Unnecessary Sequel!" That's it - no other rules other than it now must be under 3 minutes. Let's hope we can come up with something good!

A Team Tetris Retrospective

First off, let me apologize for my severe slacking on the blog as of late... I don't have any excuses besides the fact that the laziness of summer has infected Bellingham and I've been a victim. Also, my car is sounding funny, I just had my wisdom teeth yanked, and I've been busy with a few video projects, as well as what you are seeing below.


Click the image above to be taken to a Flickr album of all the photos from this year. All photos by Lauren Miller.

Team Tetris debuted in 2004 in the Sedro-Woolley Loggerodeo Parade and we've been there ever since. Our main goal was to make the parade a more fun event for kids, and bring some familiar faces from the video game realm to Sedro-Woolley (something I would have loved when I was little). Plus, it's always fun for the participants as well. Somehow, we managed to wrangle up more people this year than I've ever dreamt possible, which was awesome!!! My niece Isabella even participated and had a great time :)

Here are some more shots from the event this year (click any image to be taken to Lauren's photo album):








And here's one of my niece Isabella, playing the part of Baby Peach! She did an awesome job and according to my sister Amy, she is already talking about next year!



Here are a couple group shots or video from the years past:

From 2008:


From 2007:



From 2006:





From 2005:


To become a fan of Team Tetris on Facebook and find out how YOU can get involved, click HERE!

The Legend of Zelda: The Missing Link Trailer

Trailer Wars is a competition of local creative types who get together once a month and show off a trailer they created (for a movie that doesn't exist). Each month, there are certain rules set up, such as the genre and specific requirements (must have a vomit scene, must have puppets, etc.) set by the previous month's winner. I was excited to be asked to help out for this one; check it out!

My Golden Birthday

Just wanted to check-in and let the blogosphere know that I am not dead. In fact, I am pretty stoked on life at the moment! My boyfriend has been in town from Birmingham, AL, for the last week or so, meaning that blogging has been close to the last thing on my mind.

Also, I just had my golden birthday yesterday, so I have officially entered my mid-to-late 20s! We celebrated by driving to Seattle last night to meet up with some friends, get some food and beer, and see Helms Alee perform. They were incredible as always and this time they played 4 or so new songs, some still instrumental. It was rad. Oddly enough, the show wasn't advertised much and the room was pretty empty when they played. Way more people showed up to see them the last two times I've seen them in Bellingham (see evidence here and here - can you spot me in both images?)

This performance is from almost two years ago in Wenatchee, WA:

Tiptoeing through the Tulips

I made my first trip to the Skagit Valley tulip fields last night. Ever year, thousands of tourists from all over the world visit Skagit Valley for the Tulip Festival. I've lived in Skagit and Whatcom counties most of my life and never bothered to make the trip. I was in the area with my sister, niece and nephew, so we decided to get off I-5 and take a look around. The best part of the visiting the tulips is the photos. Unfortunately I only had my Sidekick with me, but my sister Angela took some better shots with her digital SLR.

Bend, Oregon

A few weekends ago, some friends and I embarked on our yearly trip down to Bend, OR, for lots of beer, food and friends. Oh yeah, and some nature, too. Here are some shots I took from our trip, in photo and caption format.


Finally got to eat the Rainbow Cake! Molly made the cake (which had an awesome frothy beer mug made of frosting on top) for Nate's birthday that we celebrated while on the trip. She didn't follow the recipe from that site for the cake - she made her own white cake instead. The one in the recipe sounds nasty.




The main purpose of our trip was to tour several local breweries. We hit up the Deschutes Brewery, the Bend Brewing Company and the Full Sail Brewery. It was especially cool for Nate and Molly since they've recently started brewing their own stuff.


The punishment for passing out early is being serenaded by the loudest, most drunken rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner that the group can muster. Obviously, I fell asleep way early.



On our last full day, Chris and I decided to meet his cousin and drive to Mt. Bachelor to go tubing! Unfortunately I couldn't get a picture, but basically you take a special "tube lift" up the hill and there are 6 or so tracks that run side by side down part of the mountain. At first I thought it looked lame, but you really get a lot of speed! My face was the only thing exposed, causing ice to build up in my beard. That was weird, but I am glad I had that layer of protection.

It was probably my favorite trip down there, out of the past three years. I hope next year can top it!

NYC Update

New York has been fantastic so far!



First off; if our experience in the city so far is what it would be like to be here permanently, I could easily live in New York City.

I love being in Manhattan and looking down the road and seeing endless skyscrapers. Something about that is so exciting to me. I love the subway and how easy it is to get around. I am going to be sad to have to go home and drive again. Cars are for chumps, seriously.

We've hit up three museums so far (and will be seeing at least two more in the next 3 days) - The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), PS1 Contemporary Art Center and the Gugenheim. All three were pretty different with MoMA being my favorite so far. Unfortunately we didn't get to see all of it since we slept in, but I really liked the variety of the collections and size of the museum. I really look forward to The Met and the Museum of Natural History. I can only look at so many solid black canvases before going crazy.

The food has been pretty damn good, too. The best by far has been Soy and Sake, a vegan restaurant. The service toward the end of the meal was lacking, but the food was incredible and we loved the atmosphere of the place. The buffalo wings, Philadelphia rolls, eel, and coconut chicken - all delicious and meat-free. Man, I wish we had stuff like this at home. We also hit up Vegetarian's Paradise 2 and a few other random spots we happened to find (pizza, thai, etc). I expected to spend a lot more than I do at home for a meal, and that really hasn't been the case. I splurged at Soy and Sake and spent around $25, but other than that it's been very reasonable.

We've also hit a bunch of record stores (I spent $80 at Generation Records), saw Anamanaguchi at the Union Hall in Brooklyn and checked out the very crowded Barcade (p.s. Ground Kontrol is way better) and looked around Video Games New York.



I'll probably be posting more if I get a moment, but now it's off to bed. My feet need rest!!

Also, our host Traci wasn't kidding when she said that the cats might open the freezer when hungry! We just heard crashing and found the freezer open and wine bottles (thankfully in tact) on the floor. These cats are awesome, but crazy!

Tofurkey, Sunsets, Beer and a Xmas Tree

What could they have in common? They are all things I've photographed over the last 3 days.

The Images:
a)


b)


c)


d)


The Descriptions:
a) A Tofurkey Vegetarian Feast we had tonight. It came with a Tofurky loaf, gravy, apple and cranberry potato dumplings, and a wish bone. Molly also fixed up some salad, goat cheese and bread, along with the potatoes and green beans you see surrounding the loaf. The food was actually quite delicious. Who needs meat anymore?

b) A pretty sunset from today around 4:30. It's so awesome having a 180 degree view out the windows at work. The clear skies have been producing some cold nights and even colder mornings.

c) Brewer's Night at the Green Frog Acoustic Tavern. Sierra Nevada was there this week and I won some pint glasses. And our friend "Chubby Mac" was there yet again.

d) The fake tree at my work near my cube. I put it together and decorated it pretty much all by myself. I am glad I got to decorate at least one tree this holiday season.

Dear Blog

Sorry I've been ignoring you over the last week. I've been busy with my boyfriend who was visiting over the week of Thanksgiving. We did a lot of fun stuff together that prevented me from sitting on the computer:

- Went to my sister's for Thanksgiving dinner and hung out with the family
- Trent and I cooked my very first casserole for Thanksgiving. It had yams, butternut squash, plantains, nutmeg and cinnamon, topped with gouda and sharp cheddar. It was really tasty!
- Visited Mt. Baker and played in the snow
- Went record shopping
- Visited the Department of Safety and Mt. Eerie in Anacortes
- Played Rock Band 2
- Drank a lot of wonderful teas (vanilla rooibos and almond green being my favorites)
- Saw some friend's bands play (Connecticut Four and Brownes Condition)
- Watched Zach and Miri Make a Porno (second time for me)
- Went to the Whatcom Museum of History and Art only to find they were switching exhibits.
- Went to the Lummi Island ferry dock only to find an enormous line that would have taken ages.
- Ate out waaaay too much. Here are some of the places off of the top of my head: The Bagelry, Mallard's, Dos Padres, Fiamma Pizza, Casa Que Pasa, The Temple Bar, On Rice, The Little Cheerful, Rocket Donuts, Great Harvest Bread, Fairhaven Pizza and Pepper Sisters. Phew! I guess bears love to eat.
- Found a hungry cat that belonged to a neighbor. He wouldn't leave after we fed him cheese. I'll finish this post with a photo of Trent and the little bugger. The cat even had the balls to wander into my apartment.


Don't worry my faithful blog-followers, I'll be back to regular posting soon!

Role Models

Friday night was spent in Seattle with great friends, fantastic beer and a hilarious movie, to celebrate Eric's 25th year of birth. We started with dinner and drinks at the Hale's Ales Brewery & Pub. The beer was great (Mongoose IPA, mmmm), the portabella mushroom burger decent. Next we saw "Role Models" starring Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott, directed by David Wain (of Wet Hot American Summer and Stella fame). The movie started slow and wasn't all that funny, but it really picked up, especially when it started to focus so much on LARPing (Live Action Role-Playing). David Wain's directing is always a hit (WHAS) or miss (The Ten) for me, and this one falls more toward the hit side. Definitely check it out.


Eric, Julie and Lauren outside of the Metro Theatre on Capitol Hill.

Election Night

We really did it. America has elected Barack Obama to be it's 44th President. I couldn't have been more happy about that. For the first time in my adult life on November 4, 2008, I truly felt proud to be an American.

I spent the evening with the Whatcom Democrats at the Lakeway Inn. Food was provided and the night was hosted by Congressman Rick Larsen. It was really awesome to be around a whole bunch of passionate people from the community who supported Obama. Folks were cheering, crying, calling loved ones, hugging each other... Because not only did Obama win the election, but he won by a landslide like I was hoping for. He took over what were past red states across the country, and is sparking a new political landscape.

Lakeway Inn:




We headed downtown after getting some food at Boomer's to find another large gathering at the corner of Railroad and Holly. I honked the horn, parked and joined the celebration. We chanted, danced, cheered and had a good time. Eventually the group started heading up Holly, completely blocking traffic. We turned onto Samish and heading back down Chestnut, gathering once more at the corner of Chestnut and Railroad. Here is an awesome video from the march, a few more photos I took, followed by a few from Lauren. It was a total blast and a night I'll never forget.