Ariendor.net The Endless Road

As some may know, I'm currently visiting friends in Seattle for the greater part of a week. In the hopes of capturing and documenting the sheer awesomeness of the time I'm (already) having, I'll attempt to blog about what goes on each day.

As a side note, this trip also relates heavily to work on a certain awesome Sci-Fi indie film.

Friday, November 7th
The morning began bright and early at 5am, at which time I woke up, packed a few things, then headed out around 6am with my mother to LAX. I arrived right before 7am and easily caught the 8:30 flight to Seattle.

We took off from LAX over a beautiful Pacific Ocean with a blue sky and not a cloud in sight. Progressing northward, the landscape changed to a more sparse and forested appearance as we passed over Oregon. By the time we reached Washington, all terrain became swallowed up in an endless blanket of cloud. Seattle itself, true to its reputation, remained very wet.

My friend Paul, who is staying in Seattle area for 6 weeks and who also has a hand in the film, picked me up from the airport around noon, and we headed toward Bothell to the home of the infamous film guru Ian Hubert. Just a note: Seattle has the coolest freeways and freeway interchanges I have ever seen, bar none.

We arrived at Ian's rain-washed house and knocked on the door; alas, no one was home. Thankfully, Paul had keys so we entered and took a look around. The whole house bears the distinct mark of its inhabitants, from Ian's father's recording studio and music room upstairs, to the basement with Ian's room and the tons of film art and posters lining the walls. There's an axe on the wall of one of the halls with a sign "Use in case of Zombie Outbreak" as well as a blue plastic back-scratching tool in the bathroom with a sign "Use in case of Giant Spider".

Paul set up his computer in the usual spot in Ian's room, and I found a place for my laptop and set it up. We began to work on our respective parts of the movie, Paul on some epic CG in Blender, and myself on a slew of sound and dialog editing.

Within an hour, Ian showed up. I have to say, the man is one of the most amiable and cool guys, and it truly was great to finally meet him in person. Ian fired up one of his computers and we continued working on movie things, talking, and listening to the Beatles for an hour or so more.

After a while, we decided we all wanted lunch, so we made french toast and tomato soup. During that time, Ian's family returned home and I got to meet his sister, mother, and father. After lunch, we returned to Ian's room. Ian's girlfriend Tasha showed up, and he departed to help her run an errand. During his absence, two other visitors showed up in his room: Nathan Vegdahl (of Big Buck Bunny, the Blender-made movie, fame) and his friend Aaron. We had a great time talking about graphics, 3D, Ian's exploits, and life in general. (I can now also say that I have been hugged by Nathan Vegdahl.)

Once Ian returned, Nathan, Aaron, Paul and I headed to the store to pick up things for dinner. Upon returning to the house, we had an amazing barbecue and enjoyed playing music (including some Cowboy Bebop and Warcraft songs, as well as some personal compositions from Nathan and Paul) in the music room.

After dinner, nearly everyone gathered in the TV room for a Friday night movie session with the movie Battle Royale, and I took a nap in Ian's room. When I woke up around 1:30am, the guests had departed and Ian and Paul had both returned to the room to continue working. Paul and I said our goodbyes shortly after and left for Paul's place.

All in all, I had a truly epic day! One that, itself, made the trip worth it. More to come soon!