Katy Dickinson

EDD - Faceless Bureaucracy

My husband John was laid off two months ago and is now an "unclaimed treasure" (that is, he is on a job hunt). To help pay the bills between jobs, John signed up for the first time for Unemployment Insurance with the California Employment Development Department (EDD).

What is Unemployment Insurance in California?

Unemployment Insurance (UI) is a nationwide program created to provide partial wage replacement to unemployed workers while they conduct an active search for new work. Unemployment Insurance (UI) is a federal-state program, based on federal law, but executed through state law. Employers finance the UI program by tax contributions. In California, the EDD administers the UI program according to guidelines established by the UI Code and the California Code of Regulations, Title 22.
http://www.edd.ca.gov/Unemployment/

EDD appears to be a completely faceless bureaucracy. That is, there is no person to call, no place to go to resolve problems. There is only a phone number. John had a problem with his EDD paperwork (he received two contradictory UI mailings on the same day and made the wrong choice) and needed to talk with someone. It took three days of fifty to 100 calls per day to 800-300-5616 to get someone from EDD on the phone. He called before 8 am and heard the "We are not here outside of the following hours" message roll immediately over to the “We are currently receiving more calls than our system can handle. Please try again later” message. He redialed all day and heard the "Please try again later" message roll over to the "We are not here" message promptly at 5 pm daily.

Only an EDD person on the phone can help with a UI problem. There are EDD offices. EDD office staff only provide career and workforce services but cannot resolve UI problems - they offer you a phone to call 800-300-5616. Letters from the EDD feature a post office box address, no fax, no local number, no names, only 800-300-5616 with alternate numbers for Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Vietnamese.

Late yesterday afternoon, when John finally spoke with an EDD 800-300-5616 representative, the problem was sorted out promptly. The EDD woman scolded John for his mistake but said since it was his first infraction, they would probably let it go and not deny benefits. She went on to complain that there were so many callers with all the people being unemployed that EDD was working nights, weekends, and holidays. John gently pointed out that at least she had a job.

Posted at 01:50PM Jan 29, 2009 by katysblog in News & Reviews  |  Comments[3]

Marriage Encounter and Mark Twain

Last Spring, my husband John and I participated in a weekend event called Episcopal Marriage Encounter. Since then, we have joined a Spirals monthly dinner and discussion group which has strengthened our Marriage Encounter experience.

What is Marriage Encounter?

"Marriage Encounter began in Spain in the 1960's as a program to enable couples with basically good marriages to enrich the quality of their lives together. ... The success of Marriage Encounter led to the formation of the Episcopal expression in 1971 and since then EME and other faith expressions have expanded worldwide. Since its inception, over 3 million couples in 45 countries have attended a Marriage Encounter Weekend. ... The purpose of the Weekend is for a husband and wife to develop a better knowledge, understanding and acceptance of each other through the use of a communication technique which is taught on the Weekend."
From http://www.episcopalme.com/NEWeme_about.html

At most Spirals evenings, there is a dinner, group sharing and discussion, plus time for each of the six or more couples to use ME's communication technique to share their thoughts more privately. This month, our Spirals group did something different. Vance and Cynthia brought a small book containing a short story written just after the turn of the last century called The Diaries of Adam & Eve, Translated by Mark Twain. Vance and Cynthia had thought to read just a part but we started passing the book around the group to read it aloud. We found it so funny and endearing that we ended up reading the whole story instead of following the planned program.

Here is a little bit from early in Adam's diary:

"MONDAY.--The new creature says its name is Eve. That is all right, I have no objections. Says it is to call it by, when I want it to come. I said it was superfluous, then. The word evidently raised me in its respect; and indeed it is a large, good word and will bear repetition. It says it is not an It, it is a She. This is probably doubtful; yet it is all one to me; what she is were nothing to me if she would but go by herself and not talk."

And from Eve's:

"MONDAY.--This morning I told him my name, hoping it would interest him. But he did not care for it. It is strange. If he should tell me his name, I would care. I think it would be pleasanter in my ears than any other sound.
He talks very little. Perhaps it is because he is not bright, and is sensitive about it and wishes to conceal it. It is such a pity that he should feel so, for brightness is nothing; it is in the heart that the values lie. I wish I could make him understand that a loving good heart is riches, and riches enough, and that without it intellect is poverty.
Although he talks so little, he has quite a considerable vocabulary. This morning he used a surprisingly good word. He evidently recognized, himself, that it was a good one, for he worked in in twice afterward, casually. It was good casual art, still it showed that he possesses a certain quality of perception. Without a doubt that seed can be made to grow, if cultivated."

Photos Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 09:45PM Jan 27, 2009 by katysblog in Church  | 

Obama and Shakespeare

Listening to and later reading President Obama's inaugural speech (20 January 2009), one phrase struck me as familiar:

"We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished."

I eventually remembered the words in Kate's speech at the end of Shakespeare's
The Taming of the Shrew (Act 5, Scene 2, written around 1590):

"Come, come, you froward and unable worms!
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great, my reason haply more,
To bandy word for word and frown for frown..."

I don't think Obama was scolding the way Kate is in her speech but there is the same circumstance of reestablishing a basis for comparison after much change. Obama has earned his reputation as a great speaker and I look forward to hearing his addresses for many years to come.

Posted at 01:21PM Jan 23, 2009 by katysblog in News & Reviews  | 

Remote Inauguration

We were very excited that Jessica, my 20-year-old daughter, attended this week's Presidential inauguration in Washington, DC. You can see her blog entries and photos at http://feelingelephants.wordpress.com/. Ours is a politically passionate family. One of my earliest memories was glee that my candidate (John F. Kennedy) won the presidential election over my older brother's candidate (Barry Goldwater), in 1964.

Our family has always been split between liberal and conservative. The divergence of our current family politics is best shown in two objects: a framed picture of the late President Ronald Reagan that my father put up in the front hall of their San Francisco house (intended to be seen by everyone who came over for parties to phone Obama voters, hosted by my mother), and the shoe with BUSH --> in gold paint on the toe that someone gave my father for Christmas:

I was at work at Sun during Tuesday's inaugural morning so I went over to the Menlo Park campus Crossroads conference room to watch history unfolding live by CNN TV broadcast on the big screen. Because I usually get my news from National Public Radio (NPR), it was particularly interesting to see how the great and powerful look and interact:

• Why did Jimmy and Roselyn Carter greet George and Barbara Bush with a kiss for Barbara but then walk by Bill and Hilary Clinton, who were right next to the Bushes, without a word?
• The senior President Bush does not seem to be aging well. He sat next to Hilary Clinton and behind the new First Lady Michelle Obama, so there were many pictures of him with his mouth open looking confused.
• Hilary Clinton, on the other hand, looked radiant two days before her confirmation as our new Secretary of State.
• It was fascinating to watch outgoing President George W. Bush during his last minutes in office. I saw Bush pat the leg of one of the tall Marines in full dress uniform as he walked past - like you would pat a friendly dog.

It was certainly a great day for San Francisco, with soon-to-be President Barack Obama walking into the ceremony right behind Senator Dianne Feinstein and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. This is a welcome change from President G.W. Bush pretending that California did not exist. Having Dianne Feinstein serve as Chair of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies meant that we got to see a great deal of her between speakers and events. We are so proud of her!

Except when greeting people, President Obama seemed grim during much of the event. The only time I caught a big smile was when he messed up his inaugural oath (he had to take it again later). The biggest smile of the day, however, was that of cellist Yo-Yo Ma who appeared delighted to be performing with violinist Itzhak Perlman. There was much wondering how the instruments and musicians could play “Air and Simple Gifts" so well on that cold day. This was cleared up when it was announced today that those on the inaugural stage heard the musicians live but a prior recording was broadcast for everyone else. However real the broadcast, Ma's smile and the superb music were a genuine delight.

CNN in Sun's conference room

Feinstein, Obama, Pelosi on CNN

Obama taking the oath, CNN

Clintons, Obama, G.H.W. Bush, CNN

Hilary Clinton, CNN

Perlman, Montero, Ma, McGill, CNN

Photos Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 10:17AM Jan 23, 2009 by katysblog in News & Reviews  |  Comments[1]

Distributing Family Stuff

Great Grandma's Piano Bench

Great Grandma's Table and Tea Set

Great Grandpa's mirrors

My brothers and I are working out an equitable and peaceable way to distribute family stuff. Unfortunately, we are the descendants of many generations of craftworkers, artists, and collectors, so there are a great many things to be considered: furniture carved by our Mother's Grandmother, mirrors and stained glass created by our Mother's Grandfather, our Father's Grandfather's iron train set, our Father's Mother's painted set of cider mugs with matching pitcher, paintings and drawings by our Mother, etc.

Having seen several excellent examples of nasty, greedy, and predatory behavior during estate distributions, we are seeking a better way to bestow heirlooms fairly. Our motivation comes from growing up during a family fight over an estate that started in 1990 and lasted for more than ten years; the quarrel about which descendant got what eventually outlasted the lifetime of the original executor. We have an Aunt no one speaks to as a result of all this. We hope to avoid that experience in our generation. As our Father says: "I would rather burn it than fight about it."

I am writing this out because when I searched the web for a good example, a property distribution process to model ours on, everything I found seemed to be associated with contentious divorces. I did not find any models in which the parties were assumed to be on speaking terms. My brothers and I each want some family stuff but we also want to preserve our good relationship more than we want any particular thing. I hope that the system we have developed over the last six years will be of use to other families who share our values.

Our parents are both living and have very generously and foresightedly agreed to distribute a selection of their family possessions in advance of their passing (which we hope will be many years in the future). My brothers and I have been in this distribution process for the last six years and have already sorted out who gets which of the larger pieces of furniture. In addition to getting a family chore done, we are learning more about each other and getting closer through these discussions. In this context "distribute" means transferring ownership but not necessarily the objects themselves. For example, my parents dining room table was given to me several years ago in one of our distributions; however, my parents will continue to use the table for their lifetimes.

At first, the distribution lists were annual and small, with just three or four heirlooms going to each of us. The distribution we are discussing now is our most ambitious, with fifty four heirlooms to be sorted into three groups of eighteen. Here is an overview of the process we originally used:

1. Our parents make a list of heirlooms for us to consider and distribute. Usually, this means my having several discussions with our Mother since I live closest. One of my brothers lives at the other end of California and the other lives across the country, in Massachusetts.
2. My brothers and I ask questions - how big is it? what condition is it in? where did it come from - is there any special meaning to it? Sometimes pictures are distributed.
3. My brothers and I check with our spouses to collect their opinions.
4. My brothers and I have a three-way phone call during which we decide who gets what. The call is only between the three of us, no spouses or parents.
5. I tell our Mother what we decided in our call.
6. Our Mother writes each of us a letter giving us the items.

With so many more items to distribute this time, it has been harder to come to a decision. Our Mother sent us a list in August we are still discussing. We had not seen many of the items, so the whole family took a house tour when my brothers visited during Christmas. We walked around the house we grew up in and asked our Mother to point to each item on her list. Last Saturday, my brothers and I had a preliminary phone call.

We discussed what "family furniture" meant to us. If our Mother bought it, does that still count as "family"? When our Great Grandparents' early Victorian house on Circle Park in Knoxville, Tennesee, was torn down in 1964, our Grandmother removed the front doors. Eventually our Mother had the doors installed on her house in San Francisco. Are those antique doors "family furniture"?

My brothers asked me to sort the fifty four items into three groups prior to our next call. I decided to ignore the potential market value of the items and focus on three important categories: size, history, and who actually wants the thing. I created three groups of 18 items with roughly the same number of things in each of these categories in each group:

1. Size: Small (antique toys, table clocks, the Cherokee hunting bow, the cider set), Medium (side tables, small chairs, stained glass panels and mirrors, our Great Grandfather's glass case of stuffed birds), and Large (the front doors, our Father's white leather arm chair, an 8' tall hall mirror in a gold plaster frame, a huge wooden ice box, a set of balloon back chairs with seat cushions embroidered by our Great Grandmother).
2. Special Family Origin: anything made by a family member, the bannister from the Circle Park house, our Great Grandmother's wicker rocking chair, etc.
3. Desireability: Anything that more than one of us expressed interest in during the preliminary phone call.

I sent the sorted groups to my brothers with the following proposed process:

1. Step 1 - Before the Meeting - Review the groups, ask questions, talk with spouses, say if there are one or two “heart's desire” items
2. Step 2 - During the Meeting – Each of us picks a group (1, 2 or 3)
3. Step 3 - Accept / acknowledge conditions to replace installed items (such as the front doors)
4. Step 4 - Discuss trades. Other than trades, the group is distributed intact, where and as is.

I am curious to see how well this sorting worked and whether the distribution discussion goes better as a result.

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 05:48PM Jan 22, 2009 by katysblog in News & Reviews  | 

My Daughter is Going to the Inauguration!

My daughter Jessica is participating in the University Presidential Inaugural Conference (UPIC) in Washington, D.C. this week, so she will see President Obama's inauguration in person! Jessica was invited (along with thousands of other kids) because she is an alumna of a Congressional Youth Leadership Council (CYLC) program she attended in High School. She signed up for this conference almost a year ago, long before we knew whose inauguration it would be. You can see Jessica's pictures and updates on her blog: http://feelingelephants.wordpress.com/.

Jessica took the bus to Washington DC yesterday bringing the camera she borrowed from the CMU student newspaper, the Tartan. So far, she has heard a talk by General Colin Powell. Tomorrow, they hear from former Vice President Al Gore. Tuesday night after the inauguration, she will attend an inaugural ball. The picture above is of Jessica showing us her new ball gown (with the shawl I brought her from Bangalore) before I packed it. It is so exciting to have a member of our family attend this historical event!

Image Copyright 2009 by John Plocher

Posted at 11:38PM Jan 18, 2009 by katysblog in News & Reviews  |  Comments[1]

CAHSI and Diamond Age

This morning I had the honor of addressing the 2009 Annual Meeting of CAHSI - the Computing Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institutions. CAHSI is a "consortium of universities that are committed to increasing the number of Hispanics who earn baccalaureate and advanced degrees in computing". I was part of a panel called "Mentoring Lessons Shared" which also featured speakers from IBM, Google, and MentorNet.

I arrived in time to hear the last part of a very interesting keynote address by Dr. Dan Atkins, Kellog Professor, Community Information, University of Michigan (and past Director of the Office of Cyberinfrastructure, National Science Foundation). Dan ended his talk with a Grand Challenge to the audience to help find a way to college educate the extraordinary number of qualified students worldwide for whom there are not enough university programs. He gave the number 100 million qualified students and said that it would take creating a major university (U.C. Berkeley, Stanford...) every 15 minutes to meet their need under the current educational structure.

Over lunch with Dan and other speakers, I recommended Neal Stephenson's superb 1995 book Diamond Age or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. This book addresses a piece of the problem Dan challenged CAHSI to solve: it tells the story of what happens when an elite educational tool is hijacked for a vastly broader audience of little girls.

In 2007, during her senior year in High School, my daughter Jessica experienced firsthand the unmanageable glut of excellent university applicants. She is very happy at the school she accepted: Carnegie Mellon University (in Pittsburgh, PA). However, at the time, it was very stressful. Princeton's 2007 rejection letter to Jessica said they had 18,900 applications for an entering undergraduate class of 1,245 students. Looking at the current Princeton Admissions Statistics, the situation has become even worse:

Total Applicants: 21,370
Total Admits: 2,122
Total Enrolled: 1,243
Admit Rate: 9.9%

I still like the suggestion made by Barry Schwartz of Swarthmore in the article "Why the best schools can’t pick the best kids – and vice versa" (Los Angeles Times, Opinion, 18 March 2007):

"The tragedy of all this selectivity and competition is that it is almost completely pointless. Students trying to get into the best college, and colleges trying to admit the best students, are both on a fool’s errand. They are assuming a level of precision of assessment that is unattainable. ... There is a simple way to dramatically reduce the pressure and competition that our most talented students now experience. When selective institutions get the students’ applications, the schools can scrutinize them using the same high standards they currently use and decide which of the applicants is good enough to be admitted. Then the names of all the “good enough” students could be placed in a metaphorical hat, with the “winners” drawn at random for admission."

Posted at 03:30PM Jan 16, 2009 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  | 

After the RIF notice, before you leave

In the two months since John Plocher, my husband, was laid off from Sun, our family has made many changes. Only one of us is commuting to work, so our 16-year-old son Paul and I spend more time together during the drive between home and his High School, on the way to my Sun office. Between job hunting activities, John has more time to cook, so we eat out less. (John is an excellent cook so this is good!). The pets are happier because John is home to give them more attention. Unless I have a meeting, I work from home in the afternoons while Paul is doing homework. I have less free time...

We have also found a good many things we wished we had thought to do before John was laid off. Some of these were contained in a very helpful unsigned email forwarded to John by someone who left Sun last year, called: "Things I Wish I'd Known The Day I Was RIFd". (RIF stands for "Reduction in Force", also known as a lay off or restructuring.) However, we have also found some of the information in that email is out of date.

I am writing this to share the benefit of our family's recent experience with Sun staff who may be caught up in the company restructuring announced on 14 November 2008. Here are my opinions of some good actions to consider after the termination notice but before you leave Sun and lose your SunWeb access (and some actions to consider after). Some of these actions may only be appropriate for Sun staff in California since circumstances will differ from state-to-state, and country-to-country. Some actions - like joining LinkedIn - are good ideas whether you are staying or leaving. Your mileage may vary. May contain nuts.

1. Before your SunWeb access shuts down, print out copies of key records:
   - Current and last year paycheck history
   - Company training history
   - Stock option history and status
   - Health benefit elections
   - Vacation balance
   - Past annual performance review documents
2. If you have not already done so, use your Employee Giving matching grant for the current year.
3. If you have a blogs.sun.com account, post a brief and professional going away message including at least your LinkedIn reference. Your blogs.sun.com postings stay available after you are gone.
4. Change your Sun voice mail outgoing message with a new professionally phrased reference to your home phone or other non-Sun phone number.

Resources which may help and actions to consider later:

1. Sun provides some very good benefits to RIFed staff. Use any coaching services offered as part of your package (such as the excellent Right Management service). Let the service review your resume before you send it out. Join their networking groups.
2. Think through your health, dental, vision, and life insurance choices and application timelines. Read your RIF package carefully. If the staff member who is laid off is the spouse of a continuing Sun staff member, talk with Human Resources (SunDial) soon about when and how you can initiate a "Qualifying Life Event Change" to provide insurance coverage to the RIFed spouse. We had to submit a "Life Insurance Evidence of Insurability (EOI) Form" which is still going through formal review by the insurance provider. It may take weeks before our coverage is reestablished. However, John's other insurance benefits (health, dental, vision, etc.) were reestablished right after his employee coverage lapsed.
3. Immediately locate all personal accounts, groups, billing, etc. that you have linked to your @sun.com email address, and change them to your personal email address.
4. In California, you can apply for Unemployment Insurance from the day of your notification (while you may still have months yet to receive Sun paychecks). If you are asked by the California Employment Development Department, do not call money Sun provides you after the notification period "severance". It is accurate to call it "payment to forestall legal action".
   Here is Sun's address and phone number which you will need for the EDD paperwork - from Sun's 2008 Annual Report:
   Sun Microsystems, Inc.
   4150 Network Circle
   Santa Clara, CA 95054
   (650) 960-1300
5. In the San Francisco Bay Area, there is a networking and lunch group called CSix where job hunters share ideas and leads. Similar formal or informal groups probably exist elsewhere.
6. Buy a current-year copy of the book What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles. This book is available in many languages (French, Korean, Russian, Turkish...). Also check out the resources on Dick Bolles' web site: JobHuntersBible.Com
7. Join LinkedIn - a social networking web site for professionals who want to extend their contacts. Be diligent in linking to your former Sun coworkers so that you don't lose each other once you are no longer @sun.com. Use LinkedIn to recommend people you think highly of and ask them to recommend you. There are several LinkedIn Sun Alumni groups, including SUNAlumni. Sun Engineering SEED mentoring program alumni can join the SEED LinkedIn group.
8. Join the Sun Microsystems Alumni Association "The network is the people"
9. Consider other social networking sites such as Facebook which has several Sun Alumni groups, including: The Sun Microsystems Alumni Group, Sun Alumni on fb, (& several others). Plaxo is another good networking, address book site.
10. Participate in Sun Alumni Blogs
11. Make your own business cards so that you can easily tell contacts your new email and phone.
12. Make doctor, dentist, and other health care appointments soon, so you are seen while you are still insured. Renew prescriptions that are close to refills. COBRA continuation insurance coverage isn't always the same as the coverage you had before.
13. Get a special job seeking email address at yahoo.com or gmail.com. Make it professional, not cute.
14. A job searching and recruitment web site: http://www.dice.com/ - "career website for technology and engineering professionals"
15. A job searching web site: http://www.indeed.com/ "to search job sites, newspapers, associations and company career pages"

Don't lose touch with Sun people you care about. As John says, there are only really 100 people in the Silicon Valley, everyone else is just there to create traffic jams.

Posted at 12:23AM Jan 15, 2009 by katysblog in News & Reviews  |  Comments[10]

Joe Kowalski Memorial

Like many who worked with Joe Kowalski during his 19 years as a Sun Engineer, I was shocked and saddened to hear of his death on Christmas Eve 2008. Joe joined Sun in 1989, nine years after his graduation from the University of California at San Diego in Computer Science. Before Sun, Joe worked at Spectragraphics and Cydrome. He worked for Cassatt after leaving Sun. I knew Joe as one of the stalwarts of Sun's Architecture Review Committees (ARCs), a process I helped to design and manage long ago. Joe also made major contributions to Sun's OS kernel and to Java software. Joe was funny and friendly and passionate about getting things right.

The service in celebration of Joe's life was held last Saturday at St. Clare's Episcopal Church in Pleasanton. One or more top-flight Silicon Valley startups could have been formed from among the memorial attendees, including: Steve Bourne, Bill Coleman, Rob Gingell, Eli Lamb, Tim Marsland, and Bill Shannon.

Those who spoke during the service remembered Joe for his height (6'6", two meters), jokes, basketball playing, love of wine, scuba diving, technical passion, the spontaneous combustion of his gazebo, and Joe's devotion to his teenage daughter, Alexandra. Her own poised and funny remembrance was the greatest tribute any father could want.

Joe (also known as jek3@sun.com) was just 52 when he died but he did much with his life that many only talk about. He went on that trip to Africa with his wife. Joe moved to Hawaii and worked remotely for three years.

If you want to make a contribution in Joe's memory, his wife Lori has asked that donations go to Alexandra's education fund (contact me for information), or to the stroke center that took care of Joe:

Washington Hospital Healthcare Foundation
2000 Mowry Ave.
Fremont, CA 94538-1716
Tel: (510) 791-3428
Fax: (510) 745-6427

Donations should be designated for the memory of Joseph E. Kowalski and also earmarked for the stroke center.

"Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant, Joe. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen"
Commendation from Joe's memorial service

Posted at 03:11PM Jan 13, 2009 by katysblog in News & Reviews  |  Comments[1]

SEED Matching Update

So far, we have 49 PreSEED mentor-mentee pairs (out of 54 available) and 48 SEED mentor-mentee pairs (out of 54 available). The two worldwide Engineering mentoring terms are 90% matched in the first five weeks (the cycle began on 3 December). If the Mentor and Mentee are matched after the actual start of the term, the mentoring partnership still lasts for six months from the match date, regardless of when the term formally ends.

On 15 December, I started an experiment which I hope will improve SEED communications. I set up a group for SEED Engineering Mentoring mentees, mentors, and managers on LinkedIn. Since then, I have approved adding 345 current and alumni SEED managers, mentors, and mentees to the new group.

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

Posted at 02:22PM Jan 09, 2009 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  | 

Silicon Valley Christmas

We had a pleasant Christmas at home with family this year. My parents adopted two young Siamese cats. My daughter Jessica came home from Carnegie Mellon University for three weeks. My two brothers and their families visited for almost a week. We drove north to San Francisco several times: to sing Christmas carols on the cable car and see the city lights, go to the Great Dickens Christmas Fair, gather for a family dinner at the Beach Chalet, and just visit. We hosted three parties (Christmas, Jessica's 20th birthday, and New Year's). Unfortunately, our family photo server got sick and eventually died, so I am just now able to post this blog entry...

John and Jessica and I went to San Francisco Federal District Court on 19 December 2008 to hear attorney Victoria Hall present to Judge Jeffrey S. White on behalf of Dr. Bob Jacobsen the latest on JMRI and the KAM Open Source dispute.

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church had a children's Christmas pagent, and the craft fundraiser for SAMA (St. Andrew's Medical Assistance). Sun Labs held its Holiday Cookie Exchange (to which John Plocher sent his famous peanut butter K Bars).

On our evening walks around our Willow Glen neighborhood, John and I admired the Christmas lights. One neighbor programmed a wonderful yard display that lit up different parts of their house as well as trees, bushes, and figures (candy canes, a seal, snowman, bear, and igloo) exactly timed to the movements of Christmas tunes. My favorite music was the Vince Guaraldi theme from "A Charlie Brown Christmas". John and I stood in the rain the hear it twice.

We finally finished glazing and firing all of the ceramics we brought home from camp in August, including three tea cups by Jessica. My best Christmas present was one of a set of three beautiful and well crafted ceramic cups my son Paul made at school: one each for John, Jessica, and me.

Borte and Khan

Laura and Borte

19 Dec JMRI Hearing, Federal Court

Sun Labs Cookie Exchange

sheep practice

angel practice

St. Andrew's cross

St. Andrew's pagent

St. Andrew's children's pagent

SAMA craft sale

SAMA craft sale

Cuthbert's Tea Shoppe Dickens Fair

Pirates of Penzance Dickens Fair

Ladies' Oratorical & Recreational Society at Mad Sal's, Dickens Fair

SF Cable Car Carols

Seeing the SF Hyatt's decorations

Jessica and Paul

Hyatt lights, elevators

decorating our tree

giving tree advice

Jessica, Paul, tree

Willow Glen lights

Paul's mugs

Jessica's mugs

Jessica's 20th

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

Posted at 01:50PM Jan 09, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  | 

SEED and matching update and LinkedIn

So far, we have 47 PreSEED mentor-mentee pairs (out of 54 available) and 39 SEED mentor-mentee pairs (out of 54 available). The two worldwide Engineering mentoring terms are 80% matched in the first month (the cycle began on 3 December). Mentors are from Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Israel, Netherlands, UK, and the USA (California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Texas, and Virginia). My December 2008 email file for SEED has 1,580 emails in it. One mentor and one mentee have left Sun since matching started. There have only been four matches since 22 December but the pace will pick up as people get back to work from winter break. I plan to match the remaining mentees with mentors of their choice in the next few weeks.

On 15 December, I started an experiment which I hope will improve SEED communications. I set up a group for SEED Engineering Mentoring mentees, mentors, and managers on LinkedIn. In the first two weeks, 262 current and alumni SEED managers, mentors, and mentees have been added to the new group. I have only had to decline a dozen or so requests from non-SEED group wannabes. Some of those LinkedIn requestors are from Sun, some from outside. I have directed the Sun requestors to the SunWeb pages for current SEED application information.

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

Posted at 12:39PM Jan 02, 2009 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  |