Katy Dickinson

Strange Statues, Good Food

Last Saturday, we ate dinner with friends at Caffe Riace Italian Restaurant in Palo Alto, CA. Just as the last time we went, the food was very good, the service was terrible, but the decorations are almost worth the high prices. The restaurant tables are outside in a combination plaza and park with some very large, very odd heroic art. The longer and closer you look, the stranger these statues are.

Washing Machine Venus

1st Greek Hero

2nd Greek Hero

Venus again

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 10:42PM May 19, 2008 by katysblog in News & Reviews  | 

36 PreSEED Mentor Matches Confirmed

We are in the mentor matching cycle for the 52 PreSEED participants. I sent out the first mentor request emails on 5 May; I have 36 match confirmations so far this morning (69% done in the first 2 weeks). This matching cycle is a little slower than usual because of JavaOne happening during the first week. Not only were people too busy to reply, some of them also had travel days when they were out of touch. Normally, I would expect the term to be about 75% to 80% matched by now.

All of the unmatched participants are being considered by potential mentors and I plan to finish all of the matches within the next month.

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

Posted at 10:25PM May 19, 2008 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  | 

Opera at SMUM

My daughter Jessica loves to sing opera. Last week, she went with John, Paul, and me to volunteer at SMUM (Santa Maria Urban Ministry, San Jose, CA) for Studio 17, the after school homework and computer lab. As usual, we worked with the kids on homework for the first hour. During the second hour, some kids wanted to use the computers but Jessica attracted quite an audience when she started singing opera in the kitchen. The 2nd through 6th grade girls at first were dubious, standing with crossed arms, but soon started requesting more songs. Wearing her Carnegie Mellon shirt, Jessica started with Spanish songs but they wanted to hear Russian and German too. Finally, they asked for rap. Jessica did not know rap, so she sang English folk songs and opera instead. They loved it. Here is some of what Jessica sang:

• "Canción de la gitana habilidosa" - J. Castel (1761-1781) Spanish
• "Gretchen am Spinnrade" - F. Schubert (1797-1828) German
• "Lyubasha's Aria" from The Tsar's Bride - N. Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) Russian
• "Barbry Allen" traditional folk song English
• “When I am Laid in Earth” - Henry Purcell (1659-1695) from “Dido and Aeneas” English

Homework time

Homework time

Computer time

Jessica singing opera

Jessica singing opera

Jessica singing opera

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 10:02PM May 19, 2008 by katysblog in News & Reviews  | 

Born in a Conference Room

A few weeks ago, I was in a meeting in the Cliff House Conference Room of the Sun Labs building in Menlo Park, CA. Some minutes into the meeting, I noticed a red power cord hanging in a corner. As the discussion continued, I idly saw that there was something large and brown on the cord, about seven feet off the floor. I stared at it and as I was saying "What's that?", a large and lovely brown and black and white butterfly opened its wings. It had just emerged from its chrysalis, which was attached to the red cord. Apparently, when it was a caterpillar, it had come into the building, crept into the conference room, and decided that the plastic power cord was its perfect spot.

The meeting was very quiet and slightly shocked as we watched the unexpected and beautiful new creature gently flapping its wings for the first time. The butterfly then took off and flew into the overhead light fixture. It did not come out again but since the butterfly was not in the lamp later (I climbed up on the table to look), I hope that it found its way outside. The dry chrysalis is still in the conference room...

Image Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 09:20PM May 19, 2008 by katysblog in News & Reviews  |