Jane Skinner, Controller:

How long have you been with TSI?

7 years

What did you do before you started working at TSI?

15 years as Controller for a manufacturing company

What do you do at TSI?

Financial management and department head

What do you like best about TSI?

Our product is easy to get excited about.  We have produced many interesting exhibits and there is a sense of pride sharing them with your family and friends.  I also enjoy the team atmosphere at TSI.  Everyone is cooperative and working toward the same goals.

What’s your favorite TSI project?

Gettysburg cyclorama

Why?

I visited this exhibit last fall and it is very cool.

What’s something your coworkers don’t know about you?

I grew up in a big family - I have 5 sisters and 2 brothers.

What’s the favorite part of you day?

Early morning - I like to think about my day and make plans for what I can accomplish.

Last Year my mother asked, “What do you want for Christmas?”  I answered “Why a cigar box and yardstick of course.”  Box and yardstick in tow, I searched for scrap wood, a slotted spoon, a fork, a skeleton key, some suspenders, a belt and whatever else I felt thought I could use. Within a few weeks, I had a good sounding acoustic three-string guitar and a whole new appreciation for common utensils. I then took on the challenge of amplifying the guitar since I play live music every weekend and I wanted this thing to be heard. I learned about alnico - a system of five magnets, thread size wire and the workings of magnetic pick-ups.  I cut a bobbin out of wood, put six to eight thousand wraps of wire by hand around it, soldered tone and volume knobs, plugged it in and let her rip.  I couldn’t believe all the great sound that came out of that little box. It was capable of producing sound that was sparkly clean all the way to the heaviest of distortion.

I’ve been playing the red one quite a bit and it almost never strays out of tune and it’s extremely durable. 

I plan to keep making a variety of these unique instruments to sell so that other people can have fun with them too.  Thanks for checking them out!

Tony T

Tony is our metal shop lead and has been with TSI for 10 years.  Check back soon for his bio in Meet the Staff Mondays.

…Plyboo!

Thanks to everyone who voted for a name for our kitten.

Plyboo

For those of you wondering where we came up with the name Plyboo, Plyboo is laminated bamboo plywood.  It is an eco-friendly product we use for some of our projects.

Unfortunately, the two year old cat we brought from the farm had to go back to the farm.  Steve, just couldn’t adapt to office life.

Now we have a kitten that needs a name. Please vote for your favorite by June 28th. We’ll announce her name on June 29th.

Thanks for participating!

Betty’s cousin, Joe, sent an email yesterday describing his girlfriend’s remarkable experience running in the The Bighorn Trail 100 Mile Run.  This is Wendy’s story:

Just thought I’d let everyone know that Wendy finished the 100-mile Bighorn Trail Run this weekend.  She finished in 33 hours and 53 minutes (7 minutes before the cutoff time!!).  The race started at 11:00 am on Friday and she finished at 8:53 pm on Saturday.  She placed 95 out of 157 starters - she was the last one to finish (62 people dropped out during the race).  It was truly amazing watching her come up with the determination and ability to finish on time.  After running for 92.5 miles she came through an aid station and they told her “there’s no way she can finish on time.”  This really hit hard.  Erika Holland (who ran with Wendy for the last 52 miles - no small feat in itself) ran up ahead of Wendy to the last check point and told them that Wendy was coming and to let her try to finish on time.  She came into the last check point 20 minutes late (7:50 pm) and feeling MUCH pain.  She only had 1 hour and 10 minutes to somehow complete the last 5.25 miles.  They let her continue, but told her she probably wouldn’t be able to finish before the cutoff time.  Erika Holland, refusing to let her quit and refusing to let her believe that she couldn’t do it, encouraged Wendy to push through it and finish on time.  Wendy somehow dug down deep, got in “the zone,” and just started running as fast as she could.  She ran the last 5.25 miles at a 12 minute per mile pace (5 mph).  Pretty amazing considering she just ran 95 miles continuously for the last 33 hours, she was out of energy, her I.T. band was shot, and her muscles were ready to quit.  It was like a scene out of a movie - seeing her run that fast and finish that strong when she had nothing left in the tank.  She finished with 7 minutes to spare and a huge smile on her face!

On top of this all - you need to see this course to realize how incredibly tough it is.  The starting elevation is 4200′ and the highest point is 9100′ with grueling steep climbs, muddy and rutted single tracks, long hard descents, and cold weather while running over-night.  Here’s a brief description of the run:

“The Bighorn Trail 100 Mile Run is an arduous trail run that will take place in the Little Bighorn - Tongue River areas of the Bighorn National Forest. Starting time for the event will be 11 AM, Friday June 18, 2010, with a 34 hour (average pace of 2.94 mph) time limit to finish the event. Runners must be prepared for potential extreme temperature variation and weather conditions during the event with possible temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the day in the canyons and being well below freezing at night in the mountains. The course is wild and scenic traversing territory inhabited by elk, deer, moose, bears, cougars, mountain lions, and rattlesnakes with the potential for wildlife encounters with runners. Crew access points on parts of the course are limited and the runner should be prepared to participate with a fanny pack and other necessary equipment to ensure their ability to safely traverse difficult remote mountainous trails in potentially unpredictable weather conditions. The course is an out-and-back consisting of 76 miles of single track trail, 16 miles of rugged double track jeep trail, and 8 miles of gravel road with approximately 17,500 feet of climb and 18,000 feet of descent.”

What Joe failed to mention in his story is that he also ran the last 25 miles with Wendy and he hadn’t done any training.  What an amazing accomplishment for both of them!

Have you ever refused to give up on something even though you were told it couldn’t be done?  What was the outcome?

Thanks to everyone who voted for the name of our new cat.  With 58.8% of the vote, Steve was the favorite.

Steve

Now for the unfortunate news we have to share with you - Steve has returned to life at the farm.  After several weeks of life in the office, he still hadn’t made friends with his litter box, so for the sake of Jess and Ryan’s sanity, Betty has taken him back home.  We hope to have another cat soon; next time we’ll adopt a kitten.

Thank you to everyone who helped narrow down the list of names for our new cat.  The top three choices have been selected, so take our survey to vote for your pick.  You have until June 4.  We’ll announce the new name the following week.

Meet our new cat, ______.

Why the blank space where his name should be?  It’s blank because he doensn’t have a name yet and we want your help!  Complete our first round survey and help us narrow down the choices or submit one of your own.  Once we have the list whittled down, we’ll have you vote again on the finalists.  You have until May 27 to cast your vote in the first round so hurry!

Thanks for your help!

It’s that time of year again.  We are busy getting ready for AAM’s MuseumExpo.  This year’s show is in Los Angeles May 24-26.  Four of us will be attending and we’re really looking forward to the trip.  To find out where we’ll be, read our tentative schedule.  We’d love to see you, so we hope you’ll stop by our booth (#1308).  If you’re in L.A., but not attending the show, let us know.  Meeting for lunch or dinner might be an option.  We hope to reconnect with old friends and meet many new ones.  See you in about a week!

Jack the cat has been with Taylor Studios from the beginning.  He reached a ripe-old feline age of 18 years before bidding us goodbye.  We fondly remember many years of memories with Jack – a crackly-meow that always seemed to resemble that of an old man; his true affection for a good scratch or pat on the rump; his vocal response to a human whistling; a warm and fuzzy desk accessory; a true hunter as a young man (and a quite proud one as he’d personally deliver each catch); and the occasional mimic of the words “I love you” preceding the times when he felt sick.  You brightened our days and kept us on our feet.  As you grew, so did we.  You were here since the beginning, and we won’t forget your four-legged presence.  Here’s to youth and to mice – wherever you are.  Thank you for all your dedicated years with us.