Katy Dickinson

Fainting Couch Finished

I have written from time to time about a family project to restore the antique fainting couch that my Mother gave me. My last update was on September 21, 2008. This late 19th century backless couch was in our family cabin at Elkmont, in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, probably starting around 1912. We have seen a similar item called a "Turkish Couch" in a furniture catalog dated 1875-1905. The original couch was stuffed with horsehair and upholstered in leather. My Mother had it re-upholstered in black Naugahyde (artificial leather) over foam about 20 years ago.

Today's news is that the fainting couch restoration is almost complete and the couch itself is now in WP668, the 1916 backyard caboose where I have my home office. We bought two whole cow hides to cover it. There is one just button that needs fixing before the couch is done. Other than the window seat that my husband John is building now, the fainting couch is the last major piece of furniture to go into WP668.

Who did the work?
John Gibbs of The Workshop (500 E Mcglincy Lane, #G, Campbell, CA 95008-4919, Phone: 408-371-7166) and Tom Malloy Upholstered Furnishings worked together to restore the fainting couch.

Fainting couch restoration pictures

June 2008 View from the foot

June 2008 Head carving

June 2008 Foot carving

June 2008 View from head

July 2008 Upholstery removed

September 2008 Wood repaired, refinished, braced

February 2009 Foam with tufting diagrammed

February 2009 John and the hide

February 2009 Upholstery partly done

February 2009 Upholstery almost done

February 2009 Head carving

February 2009 Foot carving

February 2009 Fainting Couch foot view

February 2009 Into the truck

March 2009 In WP668 Caboose

Images Copyright 2008-2009 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

Posted at 09:52PM Mar 04, 2009 by katysblog in News & Reviews  | 

Another Headache Update

We have been doing the rounds of doctors (neurosurgeon, neurologist, pediatrician) recently to see what may help my 16-year-old son Paul's headaches and dizziness. The neurosurgeon seems clear that the mass in Paul's brain is not causing the problem. He has given us several official names for that kind of mass. The summary is that it is an area of differently configured cells which are not cancerous or infected. That is, the headaches are not caused by cancer, infection, or an autoimmune process (thank God!).

We have tried many different medications - some by prescription and some over the counter. Some drugs worked better than others but none got rid of the problem. Our next step is to try biofeedback and related techniques to see how much of the problem is stress-based. We have an appointment next month with the Pain Management Clinic at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. We are also working with Paul's school to see how Paul can continue his Junior year in High School despite falling down regularly and having bad headaches.

Posted at 12:58PM Mar 04, 2009 by katysblog in Home & Family  | 

10 Year Adventure with ISPs

Our home in Willow Glen (San Jose), California, may be in the Silicon Valley but it is at the same time in a technological wilderness ("way out in the tulies" as we say here). We have the misfortune to be 18,000 feet from the closest central phone office. DSL service only works effectively within 15,000 feet of a central phone office. That extra 3,000 feet means that we have often had terrible Internet access, alternating with acceptable service or no service at all. During the last ten years, we have paid the following Internet Service Providers (ISPs):

• Sprint (broadband antenna) this service is no longer available
• Covad (DSL)
• AT&T (DSL)
• Etheric - Home-based Business Plan (point to point wireless)
• Comcast - Business Class (cable broadband, cable modem)

The five ISPs have linked our house to the Internet through different technical means. This week, we switched to Comcast and so far the service and performance have been excellent. We have had two different ISP antennas strapped to our chimney; we now have a new Comcast cable box in our basement.

Working from home requires 3 major technical elements to function and interact well:

1. Infrastructure at work: servers, routers, virtual private network (VPN), emergency power system, etc.
2. ISP - Internet Service Provider (delivers customer access to the Internet)
3. Home equipment: VPN router, firewall, printer, monitor, keyboard, Sun Ray on my desk, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) under the desk, etc.

When my husband (John Plocher) was laid off from Sun several months ago, I joined one of Sun's work from home programs for support on the days when I am not in my Menlo Park office. We have all of the new equipment in place at home and working well but regularly unusable for one reason or another. We could not tell where the problems came from each time but suspected it was mostly our ISP.

I have been an enthusiastic Sun Ray user for over ten years - since the product was in its final testing before being transferred out of Sun Labs. I love being able to pop my card out at work then back in at home (or in Prague for that matter) using the same session. I hope that switching to yet another new provider will improve our home access to the point where it just works and we don't ever have to think about it again.

Posted at 12:44PM Mar 04, 2009 by katysblog in News & Reviews  | 

47 New SEED Mentoring Participants

On 26 February, the SEED Selection Committee selected the 47 new mentoring participants in the worldwide Sun Engineering Enrichment and Development (SEED) program for the 2009 Established Staff term. This term will run from April-October 2009. On behalf of CTO Greg Papadopoulos, warm congratulations to the new participants and thanks to the managers who supported their applications! Thanks also to the SEED team who supported the selection process: Tanya Jankot, Matt Artz, Sy Dimitroff, and Helen Gracon.

New SEED program participants have been sent more information about next steps (Mentor Wish Lists, SEED Web Pages, how to find out about and join program activities). All Mentor Wish Lists are due 10 March 2009.

We very much appreciate the time and trouble that all 95 applicants, their managers, and the recommenders put into their SEED materials. It takes a great deal of work to apply and we thank you. We received more applications than the program can accommodate. We picked 49% of the applicants, for a total of 47 new participants. This is a very accomplished group: 22 of the applicants had either two or three Superior annual performance ratings in the last three years. The selection process was very difficult. Participants were chosen based on professional performance and manager's recommendation, with consideration given to the other factors included in their applications, how well they fit in with SEED's Preferred Accomplishment Areas, and the geographic, demographic, and professional breadth of the term members.

SEED Preferred Accomplishment Areas
Program applicants are expected to excel in many but not all of these 11 areas:

Metrics

About the 47 New SEED Participants:

• Location of Participants
• 4 China, 9%
• 4 Czech Republic, 9%
• 1 France, 2%
• 1 Germany, 2%
• 2 India, 4%
• 1 Ireland, 2%
• 1 Israel, 2%
• 1 Italy, 2%
• 1 Norway, 2%
• 2 Russia, 4%
• 1 Singapore, 24%
• 28 USA, 60% (5 Eastern USA, 23 Western USA)
• Division of Participants
• 1 CTO / Sun Labs, 2%
• 10 Global Sales and Service (GSS), 21%
• 8 Microelectronics, 17%
• 18 Software (all groups), 38%
• 1 Storage Group, 2%
• 9 Systems, 19%
• Gender of Participants
• 9 Female, 19%
• 38 Male, 81%
• 27 Principal-level (very senior) job grades or above, 57%
• 5 People/Program Managers, 11%
• 12 Previously Applied to SEED, 26%
• 3 on SEED's Potential Mentor List

Next Terms

SEED runs seven terms a year. After this Established Staff, the next terms will be for PreSEED and GSS SEED. Applications for PreSEED and GSS SEED will be accepted starting in early April; the PreSEED and GSS SEED terms will run June-December 2009.

Posted at 09:54AM Mar 04, 2009 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  |