Katy Dickinson

WP668 Caboose in the news

We just received the current issue of The Western Pacific Headlight (Issue 35, Spring 2008). This is the official publication of the Feather River Rail Society (FRRS) and the Western Pacific Railroad Historical Society (WPRRHS), based in Portola, California. The back pages 22-23 of this issue show six black and white photos of "WP Wooden Caboose Photos" taken in 1973-1975 by Peter Arnold. Our own WP668 is one of them. This is the same WP668 14 September 1974 photo also published on p. 122: Western Pacific Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment by Jim Eager, 2001 (Publisher: Morning Sun Books; ISBN-10: 158248063X, ISBN-13: 978-1582480633)

Here it is in color (published with permission of Morning Sun Books):

All six photos in the current Western Pacific Headlight issue are of steel strapped wooden bay window WP cabooses. This group was originally built as boxcars around 1916 and converted to caboose service around 1943 (for World War II). They are numbers 643, 645, 668, 679, 680, and 683. Looking at the Central California Rails Caboose Index W, at least three cabooses pictured (645, 668, and 679) still exist. WP645 and WP679 are in Portola and, of course, WP668 is in our San Jose backyard.

Posted at 08:38PM Apr 21, 2008 by katysblog in Caboose Project and Other Trains  | 

Creating a Cactus Garden, Part 3 (interviewing rocks)

I have been interviewing rocks. That is to say, I have hundreds of garden rocks of sizes from the diameter of my fist to twice the size of my head, plus many smaller and a few boulders even larger. Most of these are in use but all are being considered for relocation to my new cactus garden. The size, color, and texture patterns of each rock determine whether it gets relocated. Also, if it is still needed where I had it originally. For example, the rosemary border between the house and driveway has overgrown its rock edging so all of those are being wiggled out and moved either to the cactus garden or to replace rocks now in the cactus garden. My son Paul helped me move 40 rocks on Saturday. He said he would rather lift weights.

Some of the rocks came with our Willow Glen house and I moved others from our old house. Still more were collected in our driving trips around California and Nevada each summer. The yellow quartz stone below came from Jake's Creek behind my Great-Grandparents' Elkmont cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. Below are photos of some of my favorite rocks, plus work-in-progress images of the cactus garden.

My neighbor came by to see what was happening. She said that the caboose in the cactus garden looked like Disneyland. I hadn't been thinking of Disneyland as a source of garden design inspiration but I include two photos from Splash Mountain's small cactus garden below for comparison. As you can read in my blog, my daughter Jessica and visited Disney World - Magic Kingdom after participating in the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in October 2007.

Buying more gravel

Dark gravel in arroyito

Starting to place stones

Moving stones

Silver Torch blooms

Trichocereus Carmarguensis Crest

Cactus without nametag

Last barrel cactus

Top gravel placed

Making progress...

Splash Mountain garden 1

Splash Mountain garden 2

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 03:49PM Apr 21, 2008 by katysblog in Caboose Project and Other Trains  | 

65 PreSEED-2 Mentoring Applications

The PreSEED-2 application web pages were open between 14 April and noon today. We received 65 submissions by today's deadline, 57 of which are complete.

Once the application period was closed, the program staff started evaluating which applications are complete and meet the selection criteria: these are the eligible applications. Part of this evaluation is verification by Sun Human Resources (HR) of each applicant's recent performance ratings, hire date, etc. Applications which are substantially incomplete or are found to contain deliberate misrepresentations are eliminated from consideration. Another part of this evaluation is whether the applicant's manager strongly supports the application. Verification takes time and can't start until after the deadline. In a regular SEED term, 15% to 20% of applicants are disqualified for one reason or another.

The PreSEED-2 pilot mentoring term for Sun Software Members of the Technical Staff will accept up to 50 participants; it will run from June-December 2008. We will not know until after the verification review which submissions will be accepted. I will announce the participants accepted into PreSEED-2 on or before 25 April.

On 3 April, we announced PreSEED-2, the second pilot mentoring term aimed at helping Sun Engineering staff who have been getting almost all "Sun Standard" (2 or Standard-level) performance ratings onto a path which may lead them to higher engagement. The first PreSEED pilot term is currently under way, running from March-September 2008. The PreSEED-1 metrics and feedback so far are good and the same or better than metrics of a regular SEED worldwide mentoring term. We are now collecting the first formal feedback from PreSEED-1 mentees, managers, and mentors.

Software Chief Technologists Bob Brewin (Distinguished Engineer and Vice President) and Tim Marsland (Fellow and Vice President) are PreSEED's pilot term Champions. Greg Papadopoulos (Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Development) is the SEED program executive sponsor.

PreSEED is a pilot of the SEED worldwide Engineering mentoring program. More information on SEED is available at http://research.sun.com/SEED/

Posted at 02:37PM Apr 21, 2008 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  |