Katy Dickinson

Caboose Steps Being Built

From my home office, I can hear the carpenter in our backyard building the new wooden steps for WP668, our caboose. The framework will be of pressure-treated wood with stair treads of a wood and plastic composite lumber product (Trex). We like Trex because it lasts and does not make splinters or get hot in summer. The metal handrail will not be done today but the woodwork should get finished. Our carpenter said it is fun to work with a structure that can easily be moved a few feet to accommodate construction or design.

The welder brought his young son along on Monday to help work on our cool project. The carpenter's father showed up today for the same reason.

Posted at 12:31PM Nov 14, 2007 by katysblog in Caboose Project and Other Trains  | 

Juggling Jury Duty and SEED

I am on jury duty this week (that is, actually a member of a jury, for the first time). It is fascinating but I cannot talk about it until his honor the Judge gives his OK. I am home on a break between sessions right now. I was able to join the first half of yesterday morning's SEED applicant and manager call in meeting before jury session started. However, I missed this morning's all-SEED monthly phone-in meeting. Michelle Dennedy Sun's Chief Privacy Officer was SEED's guest speaker. I am looking forward to listening to the recording once is it available.

I just checked the SEED Established Staff application stats. All materials are due this Friday, 16 November. Here is where we are so far:

• Applicants: 60
• Completed Applications: 20
• By Org:
  • GSS: Systems Practice: 1 [ 2% ]
  • Microelectronics: 4 [ 7% ]
  • Sales (GSS): 11 [ 18% ]
  • Services (GSS): 10 [ 17% ]
  • Software Group: 25 [ 42% ]
  • Storage Group: 4 [ 7% ]
  • Systems Group: 4 [ 7% ]
  • Worldwide Operations: 1 [ 2% ]
• By Work Location:
  • APAC (Asia Pacific): 1 [ 2% ]
  • Central USA: 6 [ 10% ]
  • China: 10 [ 17% ]
  • Czech Republic: 3 [ 5% ]
  • EMEA (Europe Middle East Africa): 3 [ 5% ]
  • Eastern USA: 5 [ 8% ]
  • France: 3 [ 5% ]
  • India: 5 [ 8% ]
  • Ireland: 1 [ 2% ]
  • Russia: 1 [ 2% ]
  • Western USA: 22 [ 37% ]

I am reading the applications during breaks and after jury sessions end. Tanya Jankot is handling most of the email and phone calls from applicants and managers with questions. More information on the SEED Engineering mentoring program is available at http://research.sun.com/SEED/

Posted at 11:51AM Nov 14, 2007 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  |