Katy Dickinson

Guadalupe River Cleanup

The back property line behind our house runs down the middle of the Guadalupe River here in San Jose, California. We noticed over the weekend that the homeless had started to build another camp on the river (in the same place that they burned down some trees and bushes last year). The new camp is upriver and on the other bank from our house, in the area managed by the water district. We talked with the San Jose Police Metro Unit today and they said they would look into it.

Our riverbank is very steep. It is mostly built up with chunks of concrete overgrown with blackberry vines, ivy, cottonwood trees, dracenas, and some prickly pear cactus. There are also two large oaks, a big pepper tree and several smaller peppers. Flood control downstream seems to be helping but the river has risen almost to the top of the banks each winter.

John and I climbed down the bank to check things out. Upstream at the waterline, we came upon this large pool of floating trash caught against some submerged logs. It was mostly made up of bottles, bags, pillows, and toys but there was also shredded styrofoam, building materials, and even syringes and pens. All artifacts from the houses, bridges, and roads upstream.

After the rain last week, the river is at least three feet deep at that spot. That is, too deep for safe wading in murky water full of sharp things. So, John got some trash bags and a cultivator hoe and we hooked out three trash cans full from the bank. The pillows, stuffed animals, and shoes were the hardest to get out. A family of mallard ducks came to visit while we were there.

There was still lots of floating trash when we quit for the day. I hope to have time to get more out during this week's holiday break.

Images by Katy Dickinson (Copyright 2006)

Posted at 10:59PM Nov 20, 2006 by katysblog in Home & Family  |  Comments[1]

Family Photos

Recently, my husband John pointed out that we have not had a family photo since we got married. We have lots of pictures of the kids and me but not of all four of us, since John is the family photographer. We also needed some "glamor shots" of our daughter to submit with her vocal conservatory college applications. So, I called our wedding photogragher Ben Janken. Here is a photo Ben took of us in 2000:

Ben drove down from Oakland and took our family pictures last Saturday in a local park. Jessica's formal head shot photos needed to be in black and white against against a plain background so we took those in our living room. It will be fun to see our family through another lens when the review prints come.

Image by Ben Janken. Copyright by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher (Copyright 2000)

Posted at 02:07PM Nov 20, 2006 by katysblog in Home & Family  | 

40 SEED Applications, 12 Complete

We have received 40 applications so far to Sun's worldwide Engineering mentoring program, SEED. The SEED Established Staff term will run 15 January-16 June 2007. All application materials are due this Friday, 24 November 2006.

12 of the 40 applications have been completed but 4 others have already been disqualified. All four were disqualified for being too junior for an Established Staff term, which requires among other criteria that participants be at Principal level (Sun U.S. grade 9 equivalent) or above.

I am holding two more phone-in presentation-and-question sessions this week: tomorrow at 5 p.m. and Wednesday at 8 a.m., Pacific time. Usually, the majority of applications come in during the last three days. We are getting more applications from outside of the western USA:

• Central USA: 7 [ 18% ]
• China: 2 [ 5% ]
• Czech Republic: 1 [ 2% ]
• EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa): 1 [ 2% ]
• Eastern USA: 3 [ 8% ]
• India: 2 [ 5% ]
• Russia: 1 [ 2% ]
• United Kingdom: 3 [ 8% ]
• Western USA: 19 [ 48% ]
• no response: 1 [ 2% ]

About a third of the applicants have applied to a prior SEED term as well. Tanya Jankot is on vacation this week but we set everything up so that I can manage by myself.

Posted at 11:36AM Nov 20, 2006 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  | 

Mentors can help women shatter glass ceiling

An article was just published called "Mentors can help women shatter glass ceiling" By Eve Tahmincioglu, MSNBC.com contributor (Nov 19, 2006). The article is interesting (and I am quoted in it about Sun's mentoring program!).

Posted at 11:26AM Nov 20, 2006 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  |