Crashpad

Sometimes there’s no better way to spend a late night or a weekend morning than kicking back on the couch with your roommates and enjoying some awesome videogames.  We’ve narrowed down the list to 5 must-haves for every apartment:

1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl

We’re kicking off this list with Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a fighting game for up to four players that will have you and your friends dueling each other for supremacy for dozens, if not hundreds, of hours. The game features 35 unique characters, dozens of stages, hundreds of items to use in combat, a soundtrack that spans decades of classic gaming, and several different single and multiplayer game modes. The amount of unlockable content in this game is staggering, and whether you’re battling against the AI or your friends, it never gets old. Super Smash Bros. 

2. Mario Kart Wii

The original Mario Kart debuted in 1992 (how’s that for making us feel old), and over its 20-year lifespan, the game has only grown more fun and addicting. Even after you and your friends spend countless hours unlocking all the different characters, vehicles, tracks, and racing modes in single player, you’ll spend even more hours racing and battling each other across the game’s versus and battle modes. Mario Kart is one of those games that’s truly timeless, plus it makes a fantastic drinking game. 

3. Minecraft

Chances are you’ve heard of Minecraft at one point or another, but if you’ve never played it, you might not know what it’s about. Minecraft is special. It’s essentially a giant sandbox full of various animals, vegetables, and minerals that you and your friends can mold however you see fit. Go spelunking for diamonds in sprawling underground caverns full of skeletons and spiders. Build a castle and defend it from zombies using bows and arrows. Create entire villages, then populate them with you and your friends. Build roller coasters. Fill an entire cave full of dynamite and watch it blow. Craft massive works of art from bits of the terrain. In Minecraft, you can create just about anything if you have enough patience, and even though the game has no set “goal,” it’s extremely rewarding and fun to play with friends. 

4. Castle Crashers

Castle Crashers is a side-scrolling beat ‘em up for up to four players, and if you haven’t played it yet, then you’re missing out on one of the best downloadable titles to come along in the past few years. We recommend playing it with as many people as possible, as there’s really nothing like standing toe-to-toe with your roommates while you fend off hordes of barbarians, thieves, ninja, necromancers, and everything else the game throws at you. Plus, Castle Crashers has a great sense of humor, an awesome art style, and a metric ass-ton of downloadable content.

5. Catherine

Now here’s an interesting one. Catherine is a game that’s almost impossible to describe in a single paragraph. It’s a puzzle game about sliding different kinds of blocks to scale a tower as it collapses under your feet, but it’s also about relationship pitfalls such as cheating, drinking on weeknights, pregnancy scares, and getting chased by a giant baby with chainsaws for arms (we’re not joking). The multiplayer mode will have you and your roommates cackling as you sabotage each other on your way up the game’s various tower puzzles. 

If you missed out on all the Black Friday/Cyber Monday madness because you were too full of turkey and stuffing to care (seriously, who wants to roll out of bed at 5:00 a.m. on a Friday morning) then we’ve got you covered. Here are five websites where you can still grab some good deals while wearing pajamas and sipping coffee in your computer chair:

1. Amazon

Samsung Series 5 Silver 14-inch Laptop
$699, Amazon

Amazon’s “Cyber Monday Deals Week” is still underway, and they’re offering huge discounts throughout each day on everything from batteries to barbecue grills to scooters. The promotional week continues until December 1, so you still have a few more days to get some early Christmas shopping done.

2. Newegg

Acer G5 Black 21.5” 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor
$99.99, Newegg.com 

Newegg is one of our favorite websites for buying computer components, software, and gadgets. Right now, they’re currently running a “Stock Up for Winter” sale with tons of great deals on hard drives, processors, graphics cards, RAM, and other assorted parts. Newegg is also famous for their speedy shipping and excellent customer service.

All this computer lingo making your head spin? Newegg also offers deals on electronics, cameras, cell phones, toys, automotive stuff, and hordes of other things.

3. ThinkGeek

Retro Duo Portable NES/SNES Game System
$99.99, ThinkGeek.com 

ThinkGeek is a fun website that specializes in geeky t-shirts, toys, electronics, and office supplies, among other things. Right now, they’re offering a buy one, get one 50% off deal on t-shirts. And, they have a “Holiday Gift Center” that lets you shop by interest. Want your own replica Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device? What about a LEGO Darth Vader desk lamp? ThinkGeek has these things and so much more. What’s not to love?

(Noticing a nerd-tastic trend developing in all of our recommendations? Good. Let’s continue.)

4. Fangamer

Fuzzy Pixels
$20, Fangamer.net

We couldn’t resist adding Fangamer.net to this list. In addition to heaps of beautiful artwork (like the prints pictured above), Fangamer sells books, t-shirts, pins, stickers, figurines, music, and more that cater to the retro gamer in all of us. 

The folks at Fangamer are currently running a “Sleep-In Sale” which offers free shipping on all US orders, a free keychain for orders over $50, and a free $20 gift card for orders over $100.

A lot of the products listed at Fangamer are handmade and tend to sell out really quickly, so your best bet may be to preorder what you want so that it all ships as soon as it’s in stock. Trust us—it’s worth it.

5. Steam

Unreal Deal Pack
$13.59, Steam 

If you plan on buying any PC or Mac games anytime soon, then you can’t afford to miss out on Steam’s daily deals, weekly specials, and massive seasonal sales. Their Black Friday sale just concluded, but no worries—every gamer on Steam right now is eagerly awaiting the start of the annual holiday sale in just a couple of weeks.

Every year, Steam also offers a summer sale and a Halloween sale. During all of these sales, Steam offers discounts of up to 90% off on some games. For us gamers, it’s like a cheap all-you-can-eat buffet that’s loaded with food from the best chefs in the world. To top it all off, creating an account is free. We couldn’t possibly be endorsing this any harder.

Now that you know where to find all these awesome deals, hurry up and snag them before they expire or sell out.

What? Halloween’s over? We haven’t even taken our costumes off yet (so that’s what that smell is…).

Anyway, that means it’s almost time for the holidays, which means it’s time to eat until we can’t feel feelings anymore and then pass out on our couches in a tryptophan-induced stupor. We don’t know about you, but we don’t have the patience to bake a turkey for 10 hours. And we sure as hell don’t have the kitchen equipment or space to make anything much more complicated than Ramen or mac n’ cheese.

That’s ok, though—if, like us, the most complicated cooking you usually do amounts to throwing leftovers in the microwave, we’ve got you covered. Check out these easy recipes and tips for putting together an apartment holiday dinner to remember:

1. Skip the big birds and massive ham hocks.

When it comes to meat, bigger always equals longer cooking time, which also means it’s easier to screw up. We’re gunning for quick and easy here. If you’re buying turkey or ham at the store, go to where the ground beef and chicken is kept and grab two or three pounds of meat instead of a whole animal. Your gut and your wallet will thank you later. And please, for the love of god, don’t buy ham or turkey that comes in anything that requires a can opener to get to.

If you decide to go with turkey, here’s a recipe for you to try:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-herb-roasted-turkey/?scale=4&ismetric=0

If you’re going with ham, here’s a pretty good recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/apricot-brown-sugar-ham/detail.aspx?scale=4&ismetric=0

2. Load up on microwavable steamed veggies.

Thanks to science, it’s now super-easy to steam vegetables in your microwave in under 10 minutes, and it’s not too expensive, either. Hit your store’s freezer section and grab all the microwave-steamable corn, peas, broccoli, carrots, and green beans you can handle. Then, once your meat is almost done, just throw your veggies in the microwave. Couldn’t be easier. Be careful not to burn yourself opening the bags, though.

If you’re looking for something a bit more…sophisticated, give this asparagus recipe a try:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/roasted-asparagus-with-parmesan/detail.aspx.

3.  Try an unconventional potato or stuffing recipe.

There are a million different, amazing ways to prepare stuffing and potatoes—why stick to the same old formula every holiday season? We know, tradition, blah blah…but sometimes tradition’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

Try this recipe for sausage, apple, and cranberry stuffing:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/awesome-sausage-apple-and-cranberry-stuffing/?scale=4&ismetric=0 

And give this potato recipe a shot:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/onion-roasted-potatoes-2/detail.aspx?scale=4&ismetric=0 

4. Finish everything off with some blackberry cobbler.

Blackberry cobbler is the best dessert in the known universe. You’re just going to have to trust us on this one. Add vanilla ice cream to it to make it extra-decadent.

Easy blackberry cobbler recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/emilys-blackberry-cobbler/detail.aspx

After you eat all that, you can go hibernate for the rest of the winter. Now excuse us while we roll ourselves back to the kitchen and grab another bite of that cobbler…

It’s Election Day here in the U.S., which means that over 300 million people are currently counting down the hours until we know who our next leaders are going to be.

Did I say counting down the hours? More like sweating and trembling after downing our third cup of coffee this morning because we didn’t get enough sleep last night from stressing about the results. If we still don’t know who the president-elect is when today is over—a definite possibility considering how close the race is—we’re liable to have one giant, collective aneurysm.

Out of coffee. Be right back.

Ahem. Anyway, this is serious business, ladies and gents and everyone in-between. If you’re eligible to vote and you haven’t done so already, GO VOTE. Right now. We mean it.

Oh, and here’s a very handy website for finding out all the information you need to know to vote where you live: http://www.vote411.org/. Just plug in your address and it’ll tell you all you need to know.

Now go vote, or we’ll find you and give you a stern talking-to. And we can be very stern. You don’t want to find out how stern we can be.

Our thoughts go out to everyone impacted by Hurricane Sandy over the past several days. As the rebuilding process begins, know that you have the support of millions of people across the country and all over the world.

We’ve compiled a list of resources we hope will help those in need. We also encourage everyone to post offers and requests for temporary housing through our completely free web app (www.gocrashpad.com).

If you live near New York City and have lost your home because of Hurricane Sandy and don’t have a safe place to stay, here are some places you can go:

MANHATTAN
Mainchance
120 East 32nd Street in East Midtown
(212) 883-0680

Olivieri Center
257 West 30th Street near Penn Station
(212) 947-3211

Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
7 West 55th Street
(212) 247-0490

The Bowery Mission
227 Bowery Street
(212) 674-3456

BRONX
The Living Room
800 Barretto Street (at Lafayette Avenue)
(718) 508-3123

BROOKLYN
The Gathering Place
2402 Atlantic Avenue
(718) 287-2600

Chips
200 Fourth Avenue
(718) 237-2962

STATEN ISLAND
Project Hospitality
25 Central Avenue
(718) 720-0079

And, if you’d like to donate to hurricane relief organizations…

American Red Cross
www.redcross.org/charitable-donations
Text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief

Salvation Army
donate.salvationarmyusa.org/disaster
Text the word STORM to 80888 to donate $10

Habitat for Humanity
www.habitat.org

Humane Society of the United States
https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Donation2?df_id=11020&11020.donation=form1&s_src=webdn_sandy_ws102912

American Humane Association
http://www.americanhumane.org/about-us/donate/
Text the word HUMANE to 80888 to donate $10

If you choose to donate to a different organization than the ones listed above, please be wary of scammers (read: scumbags) who are trying to exploit the suffering of thousands of people just to make a buck.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the northeast need whatever help we can give them. Let’s do this.

No, that’s not three miniaturized businesspeople standing on a child’s activity mat. It’s three adults standing on an actual-size floor plan for one of New York City’s hip, new “micro apartments” that all the cool kids are moving into.

This LA Times article explains it in more detail. Basically, apartments in New York and Boston (with San Francisco most likely following suit) are shrinking in order to accommodate the millions of single tenants who find themselves unable to afford the cost of studio apartments that already aren’t much bigger than shoeboxes. Apparently while parking their yacht, some city planner must have heard a dockworker say “I live in a shoebox,” and then the planner thought “My god, this is the future of housing.”

Actually, this makes perfect sense if you think about it, and it’s probably a trend that will spread to other U.S. cities. It’s simply the housing market adjusting to current economic factors. Current prices for puny, human-sized apartments are higher than they’ve ever been, and may never go back down to pre-economic-clusterfuck levels. So, the only way for landlords to still get good returns on their investments is to make studio apartments even smaller while charging lower rent and renting more units.

We don’t think this is particularly good or bad—it’s just a sign of the times we’re living in, as the saying goes. And the tiny-housing phenomenon is old-hat in other parts of the world, like Japan, for example.

If you do decide to go for one of these up-and-coming micro mansions, you could do a hell of a lot worse than this chick, who has turned her 242-square-foot apartment into what she’s dubbed “Pee Wee’s Playhouse for Girls.”

Pee-wee indeed. If you say the secret word, do the figures on her shelves come alive and does the piano start talking? God, we hope so. That would be amazing. But also terrifying.

Sources:

http://bottomline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/11/14346823-nyc-micro-maximalist-turns-teeny-tiny-apartment-into-work-of-art?lite

http://elitedaily.com/elite/2012/nyc-introduce-300-square-foot-micro-apartments-larger-jail-cell/

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/18/nation/la-na-tiny-houses-20120913

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=KXcQMhC9IVU#t=41s

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/11/12/japan.ultra.tiny.home/index.html

All Crashpad users should once be able to upload pictures to their profiles. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience caused by the outage and any other AWS-related problems.

So, in case you’re not aware, this happened earlier today:

http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/22/aws-ec2-issues-in-north-virginia-affect-heroku-reddit-and-others-heroku-still-down/

Unfortunately, Crashpad hasn’t been exempt from the problems caused by AWS’s outage.

While you’re browsing Crashpad, parts of the site could behave strangely until AWS comes back online. So far, we’re aware that users can’t post any new photos to their profiles, but there could be other problems as well.

As soon as AWS comes back online and Crashpad is behaving normally again, we’ll let you know.

We’re really sorry for any inconvenience caused by all this.

If you live in the Bay Area (or, well, anywhere), you know today’s rent market positively sucks.

In order to figure out exactly just how hard it sucks, we decided to don our HAZMAT suits and wade face-first into the San Francisco Craigslist apartment/housing listings.

When we emerged gasping for air a few hours later, we confirmed that things are bad. Really bad.

Average Listings/Day for All Households Across All SF Neighborhoods

Average Rent Prices for All Households Across All SF Neighborhoods

These two graphs rather nicely illustrate the concept of supply and demand — since October 2010, average rent prices have risen from $2600 per month to almost $4000 per month, while the average number of listings per day have fallen from 2800 to somewhere around 2100.

Unfortunately for SF residents, this means that demand is currently beating us over the head with a folding chair while supply is holding us down on the mat in a figure-four, all while the referees are pointing out each other’s flaws and arguing about who should officiate the next bloodbath.

Yes, that was a very convoluted wrestling analogy to the upcoming Presidential election.

We narrowed down the results by grouping residences by neighborhood and number of rooms. The “Expensive” area includes data from the Nob Hill, SOMA, Castro, Marina, Financial District, North Beach, and Twin Peaks neighborhoods.

The “Cheap” area includes data from the Sunset, Richmond, Tenderloin, Mission, Pacific Heights, Ingleside, and Downtown neighborhoods.

The “Everywhere Else” area includes data from — you guessed it — all other areas within SF city limits.

These highly-scientific names indicate areas in which rent has been historically high, low, or somewhere in between, respectively — nothing more.

In this post, we’ll cover “Cheap” studio apartments.

Average Listings/Day for Studio Apartments Across “Cheap” SF Neighborhoods

Average Rent Prices for Studio Apartments Across “Cheap” SF Neighborhoods

Yowza. In the span of two years, the average number of listings per day has been cut in half, while average rent prices have nearly doubled.

Economics can be a complete bitch, especially to singles and families in lower income brackets who are the prime market for studio apartments in less-expensive parts of the city, and these graphs illustrate just how much that market is getting screwed right now.

Stay tuned for the rest of the statistics we compiled. Just don’t be surprised if they make you dry heave.

All data presented above was compiled from http://www.valgro.com/sfrent/index.cgi, a site that pulls rent and listing statistics directly from Craigslist.

This place looks like it was ripped straight out of the pages of a storybook. Just look at how picturesque the rooms and the foyer are:

There’s even a large backyard garden complete with grills and a sitting area.

In San Francisco, $930 per month usually gets you a sardine-can-sized apartment in the Tenderloin, not a beautiful Victorian flat with a garden, a full kitchen, and a front sitting room.

You’d be splitting the flat with five other people (including Marcus Lucero, the lister), all of whom have their own rooms. The flat also includes a washer/dryer and a dishwasher.

If you’re interested, head over to Marcus’s Crashpad profile and send him a message! And while you’re at it, you can ask him if the flat includes a doorway to Narnia, too.

So many great profiles to choose from this week! However, André’s profile stuck out from the crowd for one reason in particular.

Anyone who lists “trimming [their] beard into interesting shapes” as one of their personal interests has to be fun to hang out with.

More details about André: He’s a 23-year-old graphic design student at California College of the Arts who freelances in his spare time. Aside from his facial hair, he’s into music, cooking, design, being a nerd, and hiking.

He’s looking for a place in the Inner Richmond, Noe Valley, and North Beach/Telegraph Hill by September 1. Check out his profile and send him a message!

See that picture? That’s a dog in a pirate hat.

If that alone doesn’t make you want to move in with Stephen S., the above dog-in-pirate-hat’s owner, then we don’t know what else will. The two of them share a two-story, 2BR/2BA townhouse in South San Jose located close to Oakridge Mall, coffee shops, and all sorts of other cool things to do.

Check out how beautiful the interior of this townhouse is:

There’s even a fountain in the backyard, but it’s too awesome to be pictured. 

You can share this fantastic pad with a cool guy and his swashbuckling dog for just $700 a month, which is quite the steal, considering all you’ll get.

Why not swing by Stephen S.’s listing and send him a message?

Meet Mara, a 23-year-old SF native who works for the San Francisco Unified School District as a Pre-K Autism Specialist. She loves, skiing, baking, free festivals, good beer, and traveling the world.

This girl with a heart of gold seems like an awesome potential roommate. Why not swing by her profile and send her a message?

The Crashpad team is excited to announce our first major update!

Our software engineers have been working hard on the new, streamlined interface for the past several weeks, and they’ve done an incredible job. Creating and sharing a profile is now easier than ever, which means that finding the perfect roommate should be easier than ever (we hope!).

Check out our developers’ handiwork in the screenshots below, or, better yet, see it firsthand by logging into www.gocrashpad.com.

As always, if you have any feedback about the new layout, please let us know. Happy apartment hunting!

P.S. Special thanks to Erica for letting us use her profile for screenshots!

Can you believe these two are getting ready to move away from Maui? River and Jason are an architecture student and a writer (respectively), who are currently looking at places in Kentfield/Ross, Sausalito, and Mill Valley. Their budget ranges from $1200 to $1500 a month, and they would like to move on January 1, 2013.

These two are used to snorkeling with sea turtles, kayaking, and hiking, so you know they’ve got to have some interesting stories to share. You can’t get one without the other, though, so if you’re interested in sharing a place with this awesome, adventurous couple, send them a message!