Shuttercal - andytuba's Calendar

Lots of pictures of cats

andytuba

<em>andytuba - A wandering Delawarean</em><p style='clear: right'>Having finished a Project 365, I'm shooting for even more fun and the occasional theme week when things are less fun. Also, I swear that this year I'll program some functional apps to use with ShutterCal!</p><p>Find me on Twitter at <a href='http://twitter.com/andytuba'>@andytuba</a></p>

Name:

Andy Tuba

Location:

Madison, WI, US

Gear:

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28
Moto Droid Cameraphone

Started On:

1/1/09 (Day 617)

About Me:

andytuba - A wandering Delawarean

Having finished a Project 365, I'm shooting for even more fun and the occasional theme week when things are less fun. Also, I swear that this year I'll program some functional apps to use with ShutterCal!

Find me on Twitter at @andytuba

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Sat

After the graduation ceremonies on Saturday, my family headed over to a graduation 'shindig' (we were eschewing the word 'party') at my mom's best friend's place. We started in the kitchen with food and socializing -- we being her immediate and extended family, my parents, and me -- and, after food, eventually all migrated outside to sing. Joyce, my mom's friend, comes from a very folksy family in North Carolina, and I'm talking about the music. Her big brother, Wayne, has been in a band for an awful long while and he knows plenty of songs on guitar. All the sibs together make a roarin' good time. Here we see Joyce's husband, Don, who's a good guy but doesn't sing, talking to Jill and Wayne, Joyce's siblings; lurking next to Don is Joyce's daughter, Danielle, who's a pretty cool cat. I have a collection of about 40 portraits from this party, which may or may not go online or into my portfolio. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

1

This time of year is always fun -- graduations, summertime, and my birthday too! I didn't do too much for my birthday, but I did sleep over at my friend Rachael's place in the morning. We stayed up all night and watched the Game Show Network till 3am: '70s Family Feud re-runs for the win! She graduated too, along with two of her roommates, one of which played in marching band with us. It's a Newark tradition to write a cute message on a bedsheet to thank your parents and hang it out your window or on your porch. I hope everyone knows the lyrics on this bedsheet; everyone in the UD Marching Band does because we sing it at the end of every post-game show. Rachael (who's going to NYU in the fall) and I hope we can make it back for Homecoming so that I can sing it again, from the stands, even though it makes me cry every time. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

2

Settling back into work, as I did yesterday, is comforting -- especially to my bank account! My office is pretty boring; in fact, it's a practice room in the performing arts building that we dumped all of our equipment into because the music building is under construction. (This is my audio engineering / post-production job with the music department, incidentally.) So, if I can get a good angle, I might show you my 'office.' What's more interesting, though, is walking over to Happy Garden, the Chinese take-out place that we love because it's cheap and it's five minutes walk away. In between is Daffy Deli, a Greek take-out place, and an apartment on top. It looks like the current residents graduated and are moving out, because they filled this dumpster full of junk! Pretty cool junk, though, wouldn't you say? (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

3

My house can look pretty, I swear! This is the addition we put on back when I was, oh, seven? It's our sunroom and has lots of big windows and two sunroofs. It's raining today (and has been, and while be, ugh), so I'm showing you a photo from a few days ago when the sun was shining in. See the little stuffed animals hanging in a string in the corner? That's a gift I brought back to my mom after I went to China last August; it's all the Chinese zodiac animals. (I'm a Tiger, by the way.) The little zen fountain is a gift we received years and years ago which has lived in various apartments and houses and has made its way back home to our sunroom. Oh, and the big white flower is an orchid that dad got for mom, because she loves going to see the orchid display in Longwood Gardens. So, yeah, that's my house! (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

4

Out front of the house, mom has been doing a lot of landscaping since all her children left the nest. Ten or fifteen years ago, the only things adorning the front lawn were a big oak tree, a dogwood, and some flowers and shrubs next to the house. Now the oak tree has a little mulch fortress surrounding it with a stone moat flowing around, separating it from some flower beds. Hey, still looks like home. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

5

Today and tomorrow I'll be working a dance show for a dance company in town, so I won't have much chance to take photos. Here's another shot from the graduation party last Saturday, though. Wayne is a great guy and he says he used to do this all the time with his band, but it gave him such a headache that he had to lay off it. He did it for his niece, though, because she gets a giggle. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

6

One of the constants of Newark is construction: they're always tearing down some building and building another one, especially land bought by the University. The buildings are getting taller, though; a lot of three-story buildings are showing up around town. Behind these trees is the site of the old Pizza Hut, which was run by a bunch of Phi Mu Alpha brothers but shut down last year. Now it's being made into an apartment complex, I think, though they might throw a convenience store or something on the bottom floor. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

7

Biking home from work today -- since I got my bike back from the shop -- but the lock is still jammed and stuck on the frame D: -- I stopped short when I saw this on the sidewalk outside my old house. At first I thought it was a toy that somebody had tossed out there while moving out, then I saw the circle of life in action on it (to put it delicately). Note the careful composition of the photo, with the garbage can in the background. I could be an art major, man. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

8

Although I've been taking a lot of portaits of people sitting around, I'd like to start taking self-portaits -- but unconventional ones, using windows and mirrors and puddles of water. Here's a start to it. Oh, and remember how I told you my office was boring? Yeah, here's my office, with some work on-screen; if you zoom in enough, you can probably see whose recital was on today's plate. <br><br>ETA 06/10: I came in to work today wearing my ShutterCal shirt and restaged the photo to include it! (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

9

In between home and work is the one big railroad track in town. Trains run down it a couple times a day, which annoy (1) the students who live in the dorms next to it, (2) the professors who have classes next to it, and (3) everyone drinking in the Deer Park, the tavern with the cool gazebo pictured here. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

10

My friend Perin, who's still taking classes and living in town, called me up and told me our friend Ali was visiting. She's out at grad school in Wisconsin with her boyfriend Billy, who's still holding down a web tech position around here, so they visit every so often. I hoofed it over to Perin's place to meet up with them and also met Perin's new housemates, Serina and Shayla. Serina's the new president of the juggling club at school (since the old president, my friend Anthony who I met in China, just graduated with me), so she was out in the yard practicing while we hung out. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

11

There's been some crazy storms coming through town this past week -- you might know if you live in the Mid-Atlantic region. I come in to work in the morning and it's looking fine; I go out in the hall to order lunch and the world looks like this. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

12

Saturday night last week was Newark Nite, one of the big town festivals. They shut down Main St. and businesses set up tables and tents and whatnot, you can get food on the street, typical little street fair. All the high schoolers and townies come out to wander around. I was on my way down to meet up with my mom (so we could go watch Star Trek down at the 3-screen movie theatre -- dad was out of town and she was bored) and I found a birthday party on Skid Row, some low-rent college apartments full of really cool people.

13

More bad self-portraits. This is the front door of the Amy E. DuPont Music Building, where I usually work for the music department; since they're tearing up the downstairs of the building, we moved our office across the lawn to the CFA. Inside here is usually the student lounge, but since it's summer and there's no floor, so, um, nobody's there but my reflection. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

14

Last night, I went over to my dear friend Nicki's place last night to hang out and watch a movie with a bunch of people. To illustrate how well-connected our friendship circles can get: between the nine people in the house, there was a max of three degrees of sexual separation (or had an dear friend in the middle). (e.g. I dated Nicki, she dated D----, Doug dated C----, so C--- and I had three degrees.) After watching Dark City (a great noir/scifi flick), we ended up in Nicki's room in a big cuddle pile. See here Claire, who's awesome, fun, and cuddly. Also, she stole my watch. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

15

My big sister, Rachel, and her baby (18 months) daughter, Kate, came into town for two weeks. You know what that means, guys: baby portraits! This morning before I went in to work, Rachel found Kate awake, so she brought her out. Since Rachel lives out in California near her husband's family, Kate usually gets to see her other extended family more, so this is the first time I've seen her walking around and talking (except for the copious videos Rachel puts up on Facebook). Kinda cute, y'know? This is Rachel teaching Kate the word 'skylight,' since we have a room specifically built for lots of windows including two skylights. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

16

Not even five minutes after leaving work today, I found a firefly flitting about between my building, Mitchell Hall, and next door, Gore Hall. I let it land on my hand and took it for a walk as I headed home. It stayed me a good half-mile's walk! Just after this precious moment, my wee friend went off to join his hundred mates flashing in the evening dusk. (Sorry about the focusfail, but I was shooting left-handed!) (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

17

Kate was pointing at the TV saying 'hello little girl! hello little girl!' I was bemused, since I could see that the TV was off, until I walked around and realized that big black TV in a sunshiny room means very reflective surface. Interesting notes in infant development! (Lumix DMC-FZ28) <br><br> In unrelated life news, I officially got the work-study position with the Ratna Ling printing press in California today!

18

Every summer, the City of Wilmington (DE) puts on the <a href='http://www.cliffordbrownjazzfest.com/'>Clifford Brown Jazz Festival</a>, an open air, mostly-free music festival held in Rodney Square, the central park of the city. Every night has a 6:30 and an 8:00pm act, totally free, of a variety of acts; and back in some theatres around town, other shows for a low ticket price. I actually went Tuesday night with some friends to see Dumpstaphunk, a funk/jazz fusion group from New Orleans. Lotta fun, but we were too busy enjoying the music to take too many photos. On stage was a huge projection screen with a video feed from cameras on-stage or in the audience with some fun video overlays. We spent our time deciding whether the video overlays were more acid, 'shroom, or dex. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

19

Although I'm technically living at home, I spend an awful lot of time out of the house at work or hanging out with people. I also sleep downtown a lot at my friends' places: around 2 or 3am, it's just easier to crash on the couch. So, my morning refuge en route to work has been the Newark Deli & Bagel, which has served up many a morning-after hangover. A lot of the morning patrons spent their evening before under that red awning across the street, at Grotto's Pizza, a popular Delaware pizza joint and bar. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

20

Work this week has been five- to ten-hour days for the Premier Dance Company, which runs a studio in Pike Creek and one in Landenburg that they're closing this year in order to focus on Pike Creek. They run the typical variety of classes: ballet, modern, hip-hop, ages 4 to 18. The tiny tiny girls are precious: these ones looked like little ducklings! The older girls put on a good show, too, with some rocking hip-hop routines and fancy modern dances! We spent all of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in the theatre hopped up on the big Box o' Joe from Dunkin Donuts. Good times, man! (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

21

Remember <a href='http://shuttercal.com/calendar/andytuba/2009/6/15/'>Claire from last week</a>? She's moving out to CA for the rest of the summer, so she's spending this week visiting everybody on the East Coast before peacing out. I picked her up from the train station, but we had an hour to kill before dinner with Nicki and Doug, so we went to the park and played on the swings for a while. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

22

We went to dinner last night at Iron Hill Brewery last night, which is a local restaurant chain. There's another in Delaware and some up in PA, like in Kennett Square. Their big claims to fame are their pizza and their microbrews, which they make on-site. We tried the sampler, which is $1/4 oz for 8 beers, their 5 regular brews and 3 seasonals. Additionally, they have a specific font designed for the name. We were trying to figure out the typeface they used for the rest of the menu, though, since it was a little squished. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

23

BABY BABY BABY BABY. Breakfast at home. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

24

This is so much awesomer than my last <a href='http://shuttercal.com/calendar/andytuba/2009/6/9/'>one at work</a> [link]. I look like a Klayman. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

25

One of my birthday presents came a few weeks late: today I dropped by Cameras, Etc. -- our friendly neighborhood camera shop on Main St. -- and picked up a $60 Promaster tripod, more than sufficient for my needs. It's got ye regular old extendy legs and a top piece with pan, tilt, and horizontal/vertical flip controls. So what wild adventures can I take it on? Just out front of the house to see how it helps out with night shots ... of my minivan. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

26

The Shrub celebrated a graduation today! That's what a bunch of my friends call Newark, donno why. Anyway, Emily, who's one of those friends, had her graduation party at her family's place up Limestone Road today. There was much hilarity and gaming: Slip'n'Slide, beer pong, water gun fights, and playing on the trampoline! (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

27

Today was my friend Nadia's birthday - this is a weekend full of cake! I've known Nadia since she was a freshman in HS, through when she pseudo-dated one of my foreign exchange students, through her coming to UD, etc., etc., and now she's 21. I helped her mom mix a pitcher of Bahama Mamas for everyone later, which we drank out of Swiss wine bowl. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

28

At the party on Saturday, I saw some old friends and some new. These are older friends, Carolyn and Jan. They're pretty cool cats, very chill, enjoy having a good time. Man, this is starting to sound like a personal ad for swingers, which they're not; just some old-school hippies. I ♥ 'em. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

29

I also met some new friends at the party on Saturday. This one's been around the Shrub off and on for a while now, as she's been Nur's best friend as long as I can remember and I met Nur my freshman year of college. Anyway, this is Tarsila, and she's a very cool cat who's going to school in Vancouver. We were playing with the super high-speed burst mode on my camera, so she went skipping along. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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