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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All along Highway 1 are these little towns near us. It's a little weird to say 'Highway 1' after having grown up ten minutes from I-95 and Delaware Route 1. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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We live in the midst of some gorgeous landscape up here in the foothills. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Classic North California weather, the fog rolling in over the hills from the coast. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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This is what lives in the back of Mallory's car. For a bunch of relaxed Buddhist-y types, we all have interesting taste in books and movies. It is a little weird to go back to civilization after being up in the hills for a month, though, but I definitely needed the trip to Target (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Tomfoolery at the commons: we had a little get-together and people started making art! (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Good morning! This happy guy says that to us every day when we walk in the door to work at the bindery. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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On the Ratna Ling site, we have insects, spiders, scorpions (didn't I show you <A href='http://shuttercal.com/calendar/andytuba/2009/8/25/'>show you guys one</a>?), mice, raccoons, deer, wild boar, aaaaaand ... wild turkeys! Sometimes you see them crossing the road, but these guys were hanging out over by the conference center building. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Over across the valley is our sister site out here in the woods, <A href='http://www.odiyan.org/'>Odiyan</a>. It's a much more closed community than Ratna Ling, with people staying anywhere between 6 months and the better part of their life. The goal of this place is to build lots of Tibetan Buddhist temples, to bring Tibetan Buddhism to the west. You can check it out on <a href='http://maps.google.com/maps?sll=38.623945,-123.319173&sspn=0.006756,0.014248&ie=UTF8&ll=38.623878,-123.319838&spn=0.003378,0.007124&t=h&z=17'>GoogleMaps</a>, too. P.S. The golden temple is over 100 feet tall! (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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I just noticed today that <a href='/calendar/DefaultArtist'>DefaultArtist</a> and <a href='/calendar/Amperes'>amperes</a> got a <A href='http://shuttercal.com/blog/96/'>P.O. box</a> down the coast from me, so I sent them some goodies from work. If anyone else wants slightly damaged Tibetan Buddhist art pieces (mostly posters and art cards) or bookmarks, drop me a line with your address and I can find something for you too! We have some gorgeous prints (check them out at <a href='http://store.dharmapublishing.com/'>our online store</a>) but they're definitely in a very traditional religious style. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Whatever events may pass amongst humans, the earth keeps turning and the trees keep growing. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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One of these days, I'll do a proper Day In the Life over the course of a week, but here's a little sampling: lunch time! Brendan and Mallory were having a very intense staring contest, but I don't recall who won.. I think Brendan kept it up. Erica's in the green -- she's the organizational queen and is headed down to Stanford for a master's in education with the hopes of becoming a dean of students. 'way in the back are Roger and Isabel, who are super-cool and like watching lots of anime and playing video games. Also, they'll be here through wintertime with me into the next year, so that may be all we do come rainy, clammy January when all the rest of the volunteers have left for sunnier skies. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Today was a dreary, drizzly day, so I headed down to the commons around quarter to 10a during a dry patch and stayed there most of the day, allowing for fetching lunch and dinner at the main lodge. It was a fairly quiet day; nobody really came out except for the people driving the golf carts around -- the ones with canvas sides, not the open ones. So, I got the chance to work all day on my pet project, Comicmarks, an online bookmarking system for comics.
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P.S. Ignore the date on my computer, I'm catching up on photos a week late. However, yay Snow Leopard - I can finally see the day & date next to the clock! (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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I can't believe I haven't shown you guys my shipping room yet! I transferred from the <a href='http://www.yeshede.org/'>Yeshe De</a> book project, working out in the bindery, into <a href='http://www.dharmapublishing.com/'>Dharma Publishing</a> in the shipping department. Gwen, who'd been here for six months, was on her way out and looking for a replacement, so I spent two weeks getting trained by her and hanging out. She left two weeks ago, so now it's been just me trying to get things organized and get a feel for the room and the job. I think that after two weeks on my own, I'm getting a handle on things, though I still ask a lot of questions on how to bill things, where to find stuff, etc. <br><br>
This is how the room looks when you first walk in from the bindery. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Here's where I sit most of the day, if I'm not up packing shipments, in a meeting or doing a project upstairs, or off on break. Yes, it's horrible having these white shades right behind my computer screen, but I haven't gotten around to putting black shades up to alleviate the glare. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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I try to give an offering at the altar every day, if not several times a day, if not from any particular religious devotion, then at least because I really like burning the incense and the bindery is one of the only places we we're allowed to during the dry season. That shell I'm using for an incense burner belonged to Gwen, my predecessor in the shipping room; she must have found it down at the beach and brought it back to her yome, but then she left it in the Commie Closet when she left two weeks ago. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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So, my main job in the shipping room is to ship merchandise; that is to say, Dharma Publishing books, children's books, books on CD, yoga DVDs, other companies' books we re-sell, art (posters, prints on canvas, art cards, bookmarks, door hangers, etc), notebooks, jewelry, yoga mats and cushions, prayer flags, incense ... um ... I think that's about it. The boxes I pack go a variety of places: individual buyers who send in orders via our online store, Amazon, or re-sellers who list our products; phone-in orders; bookstores; and other Nyingma bookstores. P.S. I ship stuff world-wide! Today, I sent a huge package to a bookstore in the UK and tomorrow, I hope to send a couple of boxes to an Australian bookstore. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Here's the other half of my office, the warehouse. Well, it's half the warehouse. The rest belongs to the Yeshe De Text Preservation Project. There's probably upwards of a million inventory items in here plus supplies for shipping and producing more. Also, there's a super-sweet staircase on wheels! P.S. The blue blob behind the stairs is a ginormous packing peanut dispenser. SO MUCH FUN. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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So, if you want a real idea of what my work space looks like, look no further. Every time a shipment comes in -- that is to say, two or three times a day -- or I uncrate a box of books from the warehouse, I typically just chuck the box over near the box recycling area. That space gets cleaned up about twice a week or whenever I need to use the machines over there, whichever happens first. What happened this week? We got an order for 300 books and 100 giclees, so I have a huge pile of boxes in the corner. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Since so many new volunteers have arrived recently, Jessie (from New Zealand) hosted a tea and crumpets party at the tower house. (I still don't know why it's called the tower house and I've been here for over a month.) The crumpets were yummy and the company was grand! I believe we were talking about TV shows from our childhood at this point, like the Care Bears. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Out behind the tower house is not just a great view of the Chintimani Temple at Odiyan but a fabulous scope of the sunset every day! The colors are fantastic and I can never quite capture them on my camera. One of these days, I'll get the white balance and exposure settings right.. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Sorry for this horribly underexposed photo, but this is actually about how bright out it is at night. The moon's reasonably bright right now; at least, it's bright enough to see this teacup that somebody must have left sitting out here on the fence during Saturday's work period! (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Today, I shipped over $5,000 worth of merchandise -- and that's after the discount. A group back East is holding a big event, so they needed a shit-ton of books and giclees. Everybody pitched in to produce the giclees, which are kinda labor-intensive since we have to print, cut, mount on foamboard, add a frame, add a hanging hook, and bag them by hand (except for the printing bit). That was 18 boxes. Shown here is Meggie, my supervisor and the Kum Nye instructor at Ratna Ling, holding up all the UPS shipping labels for those boxes. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Hey guys, this is Mike Murphy. He does a lot of maintenance work here and he's really cool. Also he'll do just about anything you ask or suggest. And he came to tea and crumpets on Saturday last, which is where I got this crappy photo of him. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Before morning work shift, the bindery manager, Annette, likes to fill her incense burner with sweet-smelling smoke and take it around the bindery. When she's done her morning peregrination, she leaves the burner on her work table down by the stairs. Thanks to some windows in the bindery, voila: volumetric lighting effects! (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Near the volunteer cabins stands a tree circle with a nice area for meditating, some prayer flags, and a little Buddha bust. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Yes, we live in the woods. Yes, we have our own propane tanks and backup generators all over. And yes, I thought this was an anti-aircraft gun the first time I saw it, from behind. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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We have tamed the woods to our own means, with trails and lights. It's still pretty, though. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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Why I love having a corporate credit card: buying $110 worth of bubble wrap to complement the $30 left over. I don't think I need to order bubble wrap for a while. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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I was lax on keeping my box inventory up, so I had to order a bunch of new boxes on Monday in order to ship a bunch of orders. Now I'm eagerly waiting for the delivery service to bring up my boxes and they're two days late. When I say I have over $1,000 worth of merchandise on my craft table, I'm serious: some of this stuff costs $50 a pop and when you order 12 each of a $8 notebook and 15 of a $20 book, the dollar bills stack up real quick. (Lumix DMC-FZ28)

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