Category Archives: News & Reviews

November 1, 2013 · 4:59 pm

Real and Imagined Halloween

Walking through Willow Glen yesterday, I enjoyed seeing real and imagined Halloween in close proximity. The yard in front of a house carefully draped with plastic cobwebs featured a real spiderweb as wide as my outstretched arms, with a huge spider in the center – much creepier-looking than the fake one tied to the gutter. The inflated hellcat menacing the sidewalk was not so interesting as the green-eyed pet hanging out with a jack-o-lantern on the front step.

TechWomen, Mozilla, Halloween

Imen Rahal, my TechWomen 2013 mentee from Algeria, gave her final presentation at Mozilla yesterday. Of course, yesterday was also the very-American celebration of Halloween, so the conference room was decorated with bats, ghouls, and the remains of a lively lunchtime costume party. Hear the recording of Imen’s talk on Air Mozilla (thanks to Larissa Shapiro, Imen’s other mentor – and her host at Mozilla). Next week, the TechWomen travel to Washington D.C.

Larissa reported that the costume contest at Mozilla came down to two teams, one dressed as the Star Trek bridge crew, and the other as the Avengers. The Avengers won – see below for a picture of the ladies dressed as Thor and Iron Man.

1 Comment

Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Algeria, Mentoring, Middle East, technical women, TechWomen

October 31, 2013 · 1:01 pm

TechWomen’s Last Week in Silicon Valley

This is the last week for the 78 TechWomen mentees visiting the Silicon Valley from Africa and the Middle East. Next week, they move to Washington DC for meetings with the US State Department, the TechWomen program sponsors. Some of us 106 mentors will be going with them! Last weekend, Larissa, Imen, and I and our families rode the annual Ghost Train at the Roaring Camp Railroads in Felton, CA. We also joined the TechWomen farewell potluck picnic at Huddart Park in Woodside. Imen joined our Shakespeare Reading Group, celebrating Halloween by reading Macbeth.

Today, Imen is giving her final technical presentation at Mozilla, the company which has generously hosted her this month. After our trip to the capitol, we will be sad to see Imen return home to Algeria.

1 Comment

Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Algeria, Geeks, John, Mentoring, Middle East, Paul, Shakespeare, Silicon Valley, technical women, TechWomen

October 24, 2013 · 1:45 pm

Jazz and Sales: TechWomen Cultural Exploration

In my role as a 2013 TechWomen cultural mentor, this month Imen and I have gone to places and events of my choosing, but also of hers. Two of the events that Imen picked were a Women in Technology International (WITI) sales workshop last week, and a San Jose Jazz music evening featuring Moy Eng and the Steve Nakano Quartet – at the San Jose Fairmont Hotel. Very different but interesting!

The WITI “Five Factors of Sales Success!” content by Judy Frank was a surprise to Imen. The focus was on “Operating Principles – the 5 Cs”: Communication, Collaboration, Commitment, Competence, and Creativity. I think Imen was expecting less about personality styles and more on how to “Ask for the Sale”. Last night’s jazz event was elegantly presented and fun. Imen says she learned to enjoy jazz at home in Algeria.

TechWomen at Twitter

Twitter generously hosted a TechWomen community event last night at their San Francisco headquarters. Hundreds of mentees, mentors, and guests enjoyed food and speakers, plus lively networking and discussion. Imen, Larissa and I kept losing each other in the crowd! We enjoyed sending tweets from Twitter HQ. Twitter even provided a little wooden birdhouse that took silly photos then posted the images in tweets.

1 Comment

Filed under Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Algeria, Geeks, Mentoring, San Francisco, technical women, TechWomen

October 21, 2013 · 1:25 pm

WP668 Caboose Clinic – Questions?

I am signed up to give a “Caboose Clinic” to the Coast Division of the National Model Railroad Association on 8 December 2013 in San Leandro, California. More event details are on the Pacific Coast Region Master Calendar. Check out the website of WP668, our San Jose backyard caboose for more about our family project.

Last Friday, I joined my husband John Plocher’s model train lunch group to interview the target market for my clinic. Here are the questions the train lunch guys want answered:

How did you find WP668?
How did you install WP668 in your Willow Glen backyard?
How much did the caboose project cost?
In restoring WP668, what did you discover that was unexpected or odd?
How did you match the paint color? What went into the original paint? How did you get the original paint off?

They also asked me to show many many pictures and to include the following:

Tell the story of getting the city permit submitted and approved.
Talk about restoration materials – how you got wood to fit the 1916 old-growth fir tongue-and-groove original boards.

Please add more to this list of questions and topics – and come to the event if you are available.

Honoring My Parents with Sacred Threads

Two of the twelve newly-embroidered chairs dedicated at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (Saratoga, California) today were donated by my husband and me in honor of my parents: Wade and Eleanor Dickinson. The replacement chair seats were created as part of the Sacred Threads project. The new chair seat designs are inspired by the 1957-era stained glass church windows by Mark Adams. I think my mother was pleased to sit in a chair with her name on it!