Shuttercal - andytuba's Calendar

...so many 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

Sun
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Sat

DCI Eastern Classic in Allentown. Yay! (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

1

It's been a while since I've featured myself. Yesterday, driving to the DCI show in Allentown, I handed my camera to the girls in the backseat, Cara and Amy from colorguard, because they were being goofy. Amy's a little rambunctious when she's bored, so she was taking emo kid shots with everybody on my camera. (When I posted them to Facebook, she promptly stole them for her own album, that little punk-ass.) So yah, here I am, babe -- signed, sealed, delivered, I'm photo'd. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

2

I, ah, didn't really do anything interesting today but program at home, go in to work for a little bit, clean my room, and pack. So, since I neglected to get a photo of my suitcase, have some more drum corps photos.<br><br>Incidentally, this dancer from colorguard stole the show from her drum major, but he's coming back to reclaim his podium. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

3

Today's the day to leave Delaware ... at 7 in the morning, ugh. Time for a long day, starting at BWI, with stops in Kansas City, Phoenix, Orange County, and finally my destination, Oakland. I'm glad to say I made it in one piece, didn't bother to make any friends on the plane. Now I see why my sister liked Oakland, and my friend Claire whom I'm staying with tonight! (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

4

Welcome to Ratna Ling! It was an adventure in public transportation to get here, but I made it: <ol><li>BART bus from Claire's to El Cerrito BART Station</li><li>BART train to Coliseum/Oakland Airport stop</li><li>AirBART bus to Oakland airport</li><li>Airport Express bus to San Rafael</li><li>Transfer to another Airport Express bus to Sonoma County Airport</li><li>Sit on my butt for two hours</li><li>MTA4 bus to Ft. Ross store</li><li>Catch a ride from Tara, the volunteer coordinator for Ratna Ling, to the site in the company pickup.</li></ol> Quite a ride. Left at quarter to 10a, got in at 6:30pm. It's good to be, er, home. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

5

It's my first day to Ratna Ling, but I'm gonna take you guys on a gradual introduction to the place. This here is the commons lodge, basically a lounge for everyone living in the yomes. We have a kitchenette (well-stocked) and a laundry room (only one washer and dryer), a TV with a DVD player, a computer, and a multitude of books. People tend to congregate in there for breakfast and reading and sometimes after hours for hanging out. You can't see any of this, of course, because the only thing visible against the gorgeous full moon is a Tibetan prayer flag mounted on top of the lodge. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

6

Yome sweet yome? This here's my yome, a cross between a yurt and a dome. It's pretty massive, like 20 feet across, built on 1-foot stilts, wood flooring, electricity, overhead lights, lamps, and pretty well-furnished: two beds, two desks, two end tables, two dresses, one armoire, one trash bin, and more drawers than I know what to do with. Nice place, I dig it. Oh, and we never lock the doors around here. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

7

Although a lot of the volunteer housing is in yomes (see yesterday), some people live in cabins. Additionally, we have a little meditation cabin with a library next to the commons lounge. It's a nice place inside: incense, sacred images, lots of Buddhist texts, etc. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

8

Rachel asked if anyone wanted to come down to the river. Sure, why not? Sunday's a nice day off and it was a lovely day for a hike. So, we went! (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Down by the river from Sunday. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Down by the river from Sunday. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Back at Ratna Ling, the reservoir looked pretty nice at the end of the day under the setting sun. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

12

In between the commons lodge and the bindery is a path we take going to work from breakfast. Coming back after work, there's a rather nice view of the prayer flags by the bindery over the pond. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

13

Working at the dye station at the book bindery, there are certain ... hazardous conditions: food dye all over your hands and clothes, papercuts, and splinters. See: owy ouch. Fortunately, we have a good supply of band-aids on-site. Also, it's still a lot of fun and for a good cause. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

14

Kathy's going back to school in Maine on Wednesday, so she declared Saturday night a little going-away party -- specifically, a Pantsless Party. Shorts, skirts, boxers, whatever, but no pants. Brendan had on pants, but Kathy gave him an out, if he would wear some stuff we found in the giveaway bin and dress up as a gay pirate: Girl Pirate shirt and a blue bandana/head-scarf. Sexxxxy. Also, we sat around and watched Star Wars on VHS. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)<br><br>ETA: Brendan saw me editing the thumbnail for this and asked, 'Oh, crap, is that me?' When I replied in the affirmative, he had to take a little walk and make some tea.

15

Curtis's mom is in town, so Mo and Curtis took her down to the beach today; Erica, who's one of the new girls, and I came along. We all went down in Caelyn's truck (instead of hiking, since Mo had hurt her toe) and stopped off on the site of CA Route 1 to sit on the beach for a few hours, chatting, enjoying the mist, beach, water, rocks, and eventually the sun. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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This week will feature a photoshoot in the bindery. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)<br><br>You can read about the <a href='http://andydoesrl.livejournal.com/5688.html'>book-making process on my blog</a>.

17

Warehousing: stretch-wrapping pallets and skids full of paper (be it blank, printed, folded, or completed and dyed books), then loading them up with forklifts onto the trucks to take to storage across the road, to Odiyan across the valley for more work, or down to the storehouse in Santa Rosa. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Printing, the first step in the process of creating a book. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Tailing off, the other end of the line from printing. We take printed and trimmed books off the end of the conveyer belt and stack 'em up on a pallet to take to the edge-dying station. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

20

At the edge-dying table, we're always busy loading trays full of books or covers, dying the edges with sponges steeped in food coloring (red + egg shade), or unloading books to stack up on a pallet. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

21

On parallel step in the process is preparing the book covers: cutting and stamping them. The cutter is over to the right, but this here's the stamper, which puts a nice pretty face to our books. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

22

Dharma Publishing puts out a line of Buddhist children's stories called the Jataka Tales, which are pretty standard moral stories. One of these follows how the king of birds, the mallard duck, grants his daughter one wish—to choose her husband— and, while she initially chooses the peacock, she is put off by his pride and rejects him for an honest, modest young duck. Gwen and Greg conceived of a retelling of <u>The Proud Peacock</u> in video form, directed by Zach (recent RISD grad), starring volunteers from Ratna Ling. Heather and I took production / PR photos the whole time. They spent a few weeks (including several long nights) making costumes and today was the culmination of everyone's hard work! (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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This morning at breakfast in the commons, all'a'sudden Mike M (our maintenance guy and a pretty cool frood to boot) pops one of the recliners up on two legs to reveal a little 2'-long scorpion! Poor thing must've been scared to death of us; after we picked it up and put it on the table, it scurried over to hide under the fruit bowl. After playing with it a few minutes, we let it go play out in the great wide wild world. Maybe we should've named it... (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

25

Outside of the bindery, we have the majority of our religious structures at the Ratna Ling site: a set of prayer flags on poles, stuppa, oven for offerings, and the outdoor lecture / prayer area.<br><br>The stuppa went up pretty recently and, in fact, they didn't even finish the gold-leafing on the base until a few weeks ago. Under the copper roof is a prayer bell cast in Germany at the same foundry as the ginormous one they keep over at Odiyan. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

26

Tibetan prayer flags are meant to interact with their environment: the prayer is printed on the flag and, when the wind touches it, it picks up the prayer and carries it into the surrounding area; same goes for any particles of the flag that disintegrate and float off into the countryside. So, they just leave the flags up till they're totally gone, to ensure maximum coverage. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

27

Heather actually grabbed this shot today; we're looking for PR photos to put on our website. (Canon Rebel D20)<br><br>P.S. If anyone's interested in coming up here to volunteer for a month or two, you guys are more than welcome! Check out our <a href='http://www.nyingma.org/TibetanBooks2009.html'>'please apply' webpage</a>.

28

Meggie came into my shipping room today and said 'hey soooo you've got some photography experience ... and we need to take some photos for the Kum Nye (Yoga) DVD we're working on right now ... so what are you doing this afternoon?' Here's my afternoon! (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

29

Mallory wanted to go see Inglourious Basterds today, so she drove, my roommate Gerardo played co-pilot, and I played paparazzi in the back. The movie was pretty cool, and it wasn't actually that weird to go back to civilization. Mostly it was weird to see a Quiznos and a Target again after nearly a month up in the hills. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Mallory has the sweetest collection of stuff hanging from her rear-view mirror, all from different spots around the West Coast. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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