Thursday July 03, 2008
Katy Dickinson
- All
- Caboose Project and Other Trains
- Church
- Home & Family
- Hopper - Anita Borg Institute
- Mentoring & Other Business
- News & Reviews
Thursday July 03, 2008
Die Zauberflote in Washington DC
Last Friday, John and Paul and I flew to Washington D.C. to hear Jessica sing as one of the three genii (or three boys) in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflote), at Saltnote Stageworks.
For a variety of complex reasons, the music festival was held in Indian Head, Maryland, which is an hour by car from Washington D.C. The town has many derelict buildings and almost no place to eat, so we ended up driving to Waldorf for dinner, 8 miles away. Jessica's hotel was in La Plata, another 8 mile drive from the stage (she mostly had to beg rides from other cast members). Each of the three nights we went, the performance moved at the last minute (or mid-show) from the outdoor stage to a small community center because of poor weather. I am sure the whole thing could have been made less convenient for the audience but I am not sure how... however, some of the music was very good, the shows were fun, we enjoyed ourselves, and Jessi learned a great deal.
Here are two reviews of the overly-ambitious and remote festival:
- Let the playtime begin: 17 nights of Stageworks Friday, June 13, 2008, By DICKSON MERCER, SoMdNews.Com - Southern Maryland Newspapers Online
- Fledgling Stageworks Festival Full of Ambition But Not Yet Ready to Soar By Anne Midgette, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, June 20, 2008
Driving to and from the stage and dinner and Jessica's hotel and our hotel took up much of our vacation time. On the road to Waldorf, we saw a sign that seemed to sum up the entire area. On an undeveloped old farm is a new advertisement for Greensward Technology Campus Sales & Leasing. So far as we could tell, the entire campus consisted of this sign:
Jessica was in five festival shows, including a role in Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica) by Giacomo Puccini. She was also in the chorus for Carmina Burana, Porgy & Bess (Concert Version), Mozart/Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, plus playing a Genii in The Magic Flute. Jessica was lucky in her hotel roommate assignment of Donna Gallagher (who sang The Queen of the Night wonderfully and was a generous coach). My favorite prop was the rhinestone-studded cell phone which stood in for Papageno's glockenspiel or magic bells. See Jessi's FeelingElephants’s Weblog for more.
One unexpected treat was a family of of ospreys (large fish eagles) which had a nest on top of a light pole in the festival parking lot. They made loud osprey comments in the background when Papageno (the hunter / birdman) came onstage with his rifle. Music festival photos follow...
Festival Sign
|
Festival Sign
|
Festival Program
|
Conductor's Music
|
Osprey Audience
|
Before the Show
|
Three Geniis Before Show
|
Jessica in Dragon Head
|
Three Geniis
|
Three Geniis and Papageno
|
Three Geniis and Papageno
|
Three Geniis and Papageno
|
Donna Gallagher and Jessica
|
Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher
Posted at 05:08PM Jul 03, 2008 by katysblog in News & Reviews | Comments[0]
Obsessed Towhee
We have an obsessed California Towhee attacking our car mirrors. A Towhee is a middle sized brown sparrow. For months, we have found our car side mirrors all dirty and bird poop down the door under each mirror. Our neighbor Jamie Lynch has the same problem. He said he saw a Towhee attacking its image in his mirrors and spoke sternly to it. Today, I am working from home and finally caught the crazy little culprit on film:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson
Posted at 12:59PM Jul 03, 2008 by katysblog in News & Reviews | Comments[0]
Tuesday July 01, 2008
Character Mailboxes
During our recent trip to Loon Lake, Wisconsin, I collected photos of a local expression of individuality: character mailboxes. Some of these are store-bought but many are individual creations. All reflect the local passions: football, fishing, farming...
Green Bay Packers
|
Fish
|
Tractor
|
John Deere Tractor
|
Sitting Guy
|
Loon
|
Red Barn
|
Air Mail (on tall pole)
|
Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson
Posted at 11:18PM Jul 01, 2008 by katysblog in Home & Family | Comments[0]
Loon Lake Wildflowers
We vacationed at Loon Lake, Wisconsin, last week, as I just wrote. One of my favorite activities there is taking photos of the local flowers. Unfortunately, I don't know most of their names but here is what they look like. As you will see, I am particularly fond of water lilies...
Nightshade
|
Hare Bells
|
(yellow blooms 1)
|
(yellow blooms 2)
|
(yellow and red blooms)
|
(white blooms 1)
|
Wild Pink Rose
|
Columbine
|
Daisy 1
|
(pink blooms)
|
(white bells 1)
|
(white blooms 2)
|
Solomon's Seal
|
Yellow Waterlily
|
White Waterlily
|
Yellow and White Waterlilies
|
Yellow Waterlily
|
Yellow Waterlily
|
(white bells 2)
|
Daisy 2
|
(white blooms 3)
|
Lupines
|
Field of Lupines
|
(orange blooms)
|
Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson
Posted at 10:36PM Jul 01, 2008 by katysblog in Home & Family | Comments[0]
Tubing with Loons
We flew home yesterday from a ten day vacation in Loon Lake, Wisconsin and Washington D.C. John's family has a 75-year-old lakeside cottage with more boats than bedrooms where 17 of us gathered. There would have been a count of 18 but Jessica was singing in a music festival, which is why we traveled to Washington. We started our trip on 20 June by flying from San Francisco to Cleveland, Ohio, to Green Bay, Wisconsin (SFO-CLE-GRB). I love airport art, such as the delightful huge "paper" airplanes hanging over a CLE walkway or my favorite SFO sculpture, Deborah Butterfield's "Pohina" (cast bronze horse seemingly made from driftwood).
At Loon Lake, we went tubing (riding floats behind a speedboat), fishing, canoeing, paddle boating, and just riding around the lake in the pontoon boat to see the loons and ospreys which nest on half drowned and buggy Osprey Island. We even took the pontoon boat to dinner at Sigrid's restaurant at the other end of the lake. We also spent a day riding the rapids in inner tubes on the Red River.
This was a big year for wildlife at Loon Lake, including a big snapping turtle, a surprising and large toothy gar (caught in the speed boat's propeller), deer, herons, cranes, golden eagles, five loons and five nests of ospreys, plus crawdads, a toad and a leopard frog, dragonflies and way too many bugs of all sizes. My mother-in-law Naomi Plocher has been coming to Loon Lake all of her life. She told us that when she was very young, there were loons but they went away for over sixty years and did not start coming back until about four years ago. We did not see any baby loons this year but the five adults danced in a circle at dusk and then cried hauntingly all night. We have only ever seen one bear at Loon Lake - the young adult black bear of two years ago - but the other wildlife seems to be increasing in number and variety.
On Friday, John and Paul and I flew to Washington D.C. (GRB-CLE-DCA) to hear Jessica sing as one of the three genii (or three boys) in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflote), at Saltnote Stageworks. Yesterday, we flew home (DCA-MSP-SFO). Photos follow...
CLE airplanes
|
Deborah Butterfield's "Pohina" at SFO
|
Deborah Butterfield's "Pohina"
|
Paul fishing
|
Caught a Small Sunfish
|
Grandpa Dave and Marty Fishing
|
Tubing with a loon
|
Paul tubing
|
Paul - no hands!
|
Four loons at dusk
|
Solo loon
|
Osprey in nest
|
Osprey Island sign
|
On Osprey Island
|
On Osprey Island
|
Black dragonfly
|
Green and black dragonfly
|
Green dragonfly
|
Marty and the Gar
|
Snapping turtle
|
Red River Crawdad
|
Sunset
|
Sunset
|
Loon Lake Cottage
|
Loon Lake Cottage
|
Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher
Posted at 04:22PM Jul 01, 2008 by katysblog in Home & Family | Comments[0]
Thursday June 19, 2008
86 SEED Participants Selected
Late yesterday, I announced the selection of the 86 participants in the Sun Engineering Enrichment and Development (SEED) mentoring program for the 2008-2009 terms. The worldwide Sun-Engineering-wide selection took months of work in preparation by the SEED program staff and our partners in Sun Human Resources, plus the essential contributions of the applicants, their managers, and the recommenders.
We very much appreciate the time and trouble that everyone put into developing their SEED materials. Whether or not the applicant got into SEED this time, I know it takes a great deal of work to apply and the work is much appreciated! Thanks also to the SEED Selection Committees for their time in reviewing and picking the new participants!
Participants in the SEED program for the two terms which start in September 2008 were chosen based on professional performance and manager's recommendation, with consideration given to the other factors included in their applications. We picked two distinct groups yesterday:
- 23 September 2008-September 2009 Recent Hires (12 month term)
- 63 September 2008-March 2009 Established Staff (6 months)
The next steps for new participants is to create their 15-name Mentor Wish Lists and their personalized SEED web pages (for potential mentor review). Here are some general metrics on the new SEEDs:
Location of Participants
1 Australia, 1%
1 Canada, 1%
3 China, 3%
7 Czech Republic, 8%
1 Finland, 1%
1 France, 1%
2 Germany, 2%
5 India, 6%
2 Ireland, 2%
1 Israel, 1%
4 Italy, 5%
2 Japan, 2%
1 New Zealand, 1%
1 Russia, 1%
3 Spain, 3%
1 Sweden, 1%
2 Switzerland, 2%
4 UK, 5%
42 USA, 49%
7 Central USA, 8%
7 Eastern USA, 8%
28 Western USA, 33%
Division of Participants
4 CTO/Sun Labs, 5%
1 Marketing, 1%
10 Microelectronics, 12%
20 Sales & Services, 23%
34 Software Group, 40%
5 Storage Group, 6%
4 Systems Group, 5%
5 Worldwide Operations, 5%
Tanya Jankot and I have been answering happy emails ("I'm so happy to be a SEED participant. Thanks for your kind advice and great help!"), frustrated emails ("Need answers please!"), and requests for more information ("How come xxxxx didn't make it into the SEED program? Can you give me a call?"), or all three ("I am ecstatic that two of my direct reports, xxxxx (new hire) and xxxxx (established staff), made it through. However, I'm very disappointed that xxxxx, a star performer in my group, did not make it. I would definitely like to talk to you to understand the rationale for his not making it so that we can keep that in mind for future applications.") from applicants, managers, and recommenders. Lots and lots of emails...
More information on the SEED worldwide Engineering mentoring program is available at http://research.sun.com/SEED/
Posted at 01:37PM Jun 19, 2008 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business |
Wednesday June 18, 2008
Sun's Technology Advisory Board (TAB)
I usually write about my work here at Sun for the SEED worldwide Engineering mentoring program. Another of my programs is Sun's Technology Advisory Board or TAB, which I manage for Greg Papadopoulos (Sun's Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Development).
What does TAB Do?
Since 2005, TAB has met several times a year to discuss key technical topics and trends, partnering to shape Sun's technological vision for future development and product plans. The role of a TAB member is to support Sun's CTO organization in making recommendations to the CTO and Chief Executive Officer, as well as to the Chairman of the Board and Sun's Board of Directors. Here they are at yesterday's meeting:
TAB in June 2008
L to R Standing: Greg Papadopoulos, Steve Ward
L to R Seated: Ivan Sutherland, Danny Hillis, Dave Patterson, Mike Splain
Who are They?
Image Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson
Posted at 10:01AM Jun 18, 2008 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business |
Monday June 16, 2008
High School IEP - Individualized Education Program
We held my son Paul's IEP today and I thought it might help other parents going through this annual special education ritual to read about it. Paul just finished his Sophomore (grade 10) year in High School here in the San Francisco Bay Area. An IEP or Individualized Education Program is a meeting and set of documents describing the interventions or accomodations which will support the unique educational needs of a particular disabled child. The IEP is essentially the record of what has happened during the prior year and what the school, teachers, parents, and child agree will help that child learn best within the school. (There are much more precise and complex ways to define an IEP, of course.) IEPs can be used in public or private schools. Paul attends public school.
Paul has had an IEP since about 2nd grade. When he was younger, the IEP focussed more on understanding and evaluating his disabilities and what services might help him. Now that Paul is almost 16, the IEP is more focussed on the resources and program needed to support Paul's more-or-less understood educational, social, and cognitive challenges.
Once, when Paul was worried that his IEP accomodations were not fair and that taking advantage of them was like cheating, one of the school administrators explained to him that he had to work so much harder and longer hours than most students because of his disabilities, the accomodations were to level the playing field so that he could compete in the mainstream school. This made good sense to Paul.
This morning, after weeks of preliminary discussions, nine of us met for the IEP. As he has matured, Paul himself has been increasingly consulted during his IEPs and he spoke at length several times during this meeting. We all left an hour and a half later with a twenty-ish page stack of papers but a short list of accomodations and course work for Paul's 2008-2009 (Junior) year in High School. Here is what we signed off on:
- Accomodations:
- Uses own laptop computer at school
- Access to school computer, printer access (while working at school)
- Extra time on exams and assignments, when pre-arranged with teacher
- Alternative setting for test taking, as needed (allowed same access to test instructions and question answering as other students taking that test)
- Possible that test can be read aloud if needed
- Classroom aide in English and History, transitional aide support in Geometry
- Homework log prepared by classroom aide
- Classroom Aide's Duties:
- Note taking assistance
- Collect papers distributed in class
- Facilitate turning in assignments
- Social diffusion (modeling)
- Completion of homework log
- Tentative 2008-2009 Course Work:
- Geometry
- Ceramics
- English
- U.S. History
- Physical Education
- Study Skills (2 periods)
This year (2007-2008), Paul took one more solid subject (Biology) along with Math, Art, English, History, and P.E. but he had only one Study Skills period. We all decided that since Paul recently passed his High School exit exam and has almost completed his required courses for graduation, the stress of a 4th solid wasn't worth it. We will find out in August which teachers are assigned to these classes and how Paul's schedule works out in detail.
Posted at 10:59PM Jun 16, 2008 by katysblog in News & Reviews |
Sunday June 15, 2008
Opera Girl
My 19-year-old daughter Jessica is in Washington D.C. (Indian Head, Maryland anyway) preparing to sing in her first professional opera on Tuesday night, as part of the Saltnote Stageworks festival this month. I think the first of the five shows in which she appears is Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica) by Giacomo Puccini. The roles keep shifting around but as of today Jessica is scheduled to play a combined role of The Mistress of Novices and the Abess in Suor Angelica. She is also in the chorus for Carmina Burana, Porgy & Bess (Concert Version), Mozart/Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, and she plays a Genii in Mozart's The Magic Flute. I am happy that Jessica is keeping up her blog so I know what is happening. It is very interesting reading about her working to develop her music and roles. Some of the video clips are amazing.
When Jessica called tonight, she sounded excited but very tired. We will talk more tomorrow night. Jessica talked about how hot is was and how big the bugs are. As she says, when rehearsing in an outdoor theater at night, the stage lights attract big bugs, and who is on the stage? The chorus! She liked bugs until they started flying into her face while she was singing Carmina Burana and could not get away.
We will be in Washington D.C. to hear Jessica sing later this month.
Posted at 10:06PM Jun 15, 2008 by katysblog in Home & Family |
MAGIC in Newsweek
On 21 May, I wrote about the new MAGIC girls' mentoring program working with The Girls' Middle School (GMS) in Mountain View, CA. Last week, I was pleased and surprised to find MAGIC mentioned in the June 16, 2008 issue of Newsweek in an article called "Revenge of the Nerdette". I knew about the article in advance because my daughter Jessica was interviewed for it (alas, she did not get mentioned). In fact, I wrote a blog entry on 10 April called "How to Talk with the Press" because Jessica called me for advice on that subject. (Jessica called from from Carnegie Mellon and left me a voice mail message, something like: "Mom, Mom Newsweek wants to interview me, what do I do?".)
"Revenge of the Nerdette" By Jessica Bennett and Jennie Yabroff is interesting and worth reading. MAGIC got mentioned in the last paragraph:
-
Outreach programs such as TechBridge, an after-school workshop for middle- and high-school girls, and MAGIC (More Active Girls In Computing), a national mentoring program for aspiring computer scientists, are among the dozens of programs aimed at getting girls to think about futures in science and technology. The Nerd Girls also conduct weekly outreach: "We try to give them real examples of what engineers do," says Panetta. "You love watching special effects in 'Harry Potter'? That's an engineer. You like the iPhone? An engineer made that. Cheerleading? Dancing? How about sports engineering?" Because you know, girls: the geeks really are inheriting the earth.
We on the MAGIC core team are still forming the program. It is gratifying if strange to get such high visibility press so early. Not that I am complaining!
Posted at 09:39PM Jun 15, 2008 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business |
Friday June 13, 2008
Palo Alto High School
My son just finished his Sophomore year final exams at Palo Alto High School or "Paly". This was a tough year for Paul academically and we are all glad he is done and has the summer to recover. Paul has done homework and studied 4 to 6 hours a day after school (more on weekends) since September. He is one tired boy.
Paly is a large school (over 1,600 students) originally built in 1898. Here are some of the pictures I have taken there this year:
Paly Front Door
|
Main hallway
|
Oak outside window
|
Stained glass
|
100 Years of Graduates
|
Paly Alley Sign
|
Columned walkway
|
Reluctant Photo Subject (Paul)
|
Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson
Posted at 06:19PM Jun 13, 2008 by katysblog in News & Reviews |
SEED 2008-2009 mentoring terms status
Since the 9 June deadline, Tanya Jankot and I have worked with Sun's Human Resources records to review the 169 SEED applications which were submitted on time. 121 of the 169 were complete and verified by HR. Yesterday, I passed the 27 eligible Recent Hire (RH) applications to the 2008-2009 executive Selection Committee for review. The Recent Hire and Established Staff selections will be made and announced on 18 June.
There is a wide seniority range among the RH applicants: from Sun Grade 5 (Member of the Technical Staff 2) through Grade 13 (Director). This term, SEED has modified is scope and welcomed acquired staff as RH candidates within 9 months of their acquisition date.
The job of the RH Selection Committee is to sort the applications assigned to each of them into L-Low, M-Medium, or H-High buckets. Giving someone a H-High rating means that in the Selection Committee member's opinion, that person has a good potential over time to rise to the top of Sun Engineering's individual contributor or management ranks.
Why not accept them all? Because we have unfortunately found in prior terms that just meeting the basic SEED criteria does not mean an applicant can be expected to rise to the top of Sun Engineering's individual contributor or management ranks. If I am going to ask senior or executive Sun staff to accept a SEED mentee and spend a year coaching them, the mentee should be a rising star with potential for notable success in Sun Engineering.
Each SEED application is read independently by at least two Selection Committee members. Each member ends up reading about the same number of applications. The discussions are often around differences of interpretation (usually for an Applicant rated High by one and Low by another) and around how many Medium/Mediums to include to achieve an appropriate level of diversity among the Participants. Diversity is considered in terms of demographics, geographic work location, and professional area within Engineering (software, microelectronics, labs, storage, etc.). So long as they have one or more Medium/Medium (or higher) ranked Applicants, every Sun division gets at least one Applicant accepted.
After the selections are announced on 18 June, I will not tell RH applicants what rating they got (H, M, or L). However, I will tell their managers their staff member's rating if the manager calls to talk about it. I will not tell anyone who on the Selection Committee gave which rating. Some terms, 30 or more managers call to get specific information on the case of their staff members. I will not refer any managers to the Selection Committee.
More information on the SEED worldwide Engineering mentoring program is available at http://research.sun.com/SEED/
Posted at 05:45PM Jun 13, 2008 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business |
Thursday June 12, 2008
Working from caboose
Lately, with local gas prices being more than $4.50/gallon, I have been working from home several days a week rather than spending $20/day on gas. Or rather, I have been working from caboose. There are still many small projects to complete but after two years WP668, our backyard caboose, is now fully functional!
When I work from WP668, I have my 12-year-old cockatiel, Princess Birdie, for company at my desk. Here are some current caboose photos, by day and by night:
WP668 by day
|
Bay window desk
|
Princess Birdie
|
WP668 by night
|
WP668 by night
|
Fake rock night light
|
Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher
Posted at 01:59AM Jun 12, 2008 by katysblog in Caboose Project and Other Trains |
Wednesday June 11, 2008
Fainting Couch
When I was very little, my mother bought a fainting couch. This is a 19th century backless couch with one raised end, suitable for a woman in full Victorian skirts to rest on when she felt faint (probably because she was wearing a corset). Sigmund Freud used something like a fainting couch for his patients. My mother initially used it in her living room but it eventually moved into her art studio as a model's stand. Last weekend, she gave it to me (and thus begins yet another project in my life).
The fainting couch is solidly built but shows its age. It needs repair and a new covering. It is Egyptian Eastlake in style, probably walnut over 125 years old. So far, we have taken it to the antique furniture workshop (for a preliminary review) and then to an upholsterer (to have the current covering removed before more work starts). By the end of the summer at the soonest, the fainting couch will be ready to move into our backyard caboose.
Look at the photos below to see why this couch is worth the trouble - note the greek key, papyrus flowers, and toes with claws carved and stamped into its legs and feet. This is an interesting and useful piece of furniture!
Studio couch (under a red sheet)
|
Couch carving
|
Couch carving
|
View from the foot
|
Side view
|
Into the workshop
|
Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson
Posted at 04:00PM Jun 11, 2008 by katysblog in News & Reviews |
Tuesday June 10, 2008
Cleaning up and Checking SEED Mentoring Applications
SEED's 2008-2009 Engineering mentoring program application web pages are now disabled. Today, Tanya and I reviewed and cleaned things up before passing a summary to Human Resources for information verification. HR will check dates of hire, titles, annual performance ratings, etc. I also declined many email requests from applicants and managers wanting to submit just one more document after the deadline. Cleaning up the application records takes time and can be complex: sometimes valid documents are misfiled (for example, by managers or executives who mis-type the identification number of the applicant they want to recommend), and sometimes parts of the forms (often the job title) are left blank, so we have to look up the information.
SEED received 169 applications by yesterday's deadline, of which 127 were known to be complete this morning. 4 more were completed today as a result of our cleanup. (I expect to see more completions as we continue to sort out document confusions.) This morning's preliminary total includes:
- Recent Hires: 45 applications, 29 complete
- Established Staff: 124 applications, 98 complete
Applicants were based in Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, P.R. China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and the USA. SEED's selection committees meet on 18 June and announcements will be made immediately after.
More information on the SEED worldwide Engineering mentoring program is available at http://research.sun.com/SEED/
Posted at 10:29PM Jun 10, 2008 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business |
Subscribe!