KatysBlog

September 19, 2011 · 5:25 pm

Moon Cakes and Dragon Boats

I am often asked how working for a Chinese company is different. Telecom giant Huawei has its US headquarters here in Santa Clara, California, in the middle of the Silicon Valley. In the last 16 months, I have found much is the same as working for any technical company. Huawei’s cafeteria offers the same food categories as we had at Sun Microsystems: grill, Chinese, today’s special (usually Mexican), soup, salad, and sandwiches.

However, there are differences. Last week was the Mid-Autumn Festival – like Thanksgiving but with different traditions. We Americans grow up with turkey, corn, and pumpkin stories involving Pilgrims and Native Americans. I figured there was a history for Mid-Autumn Festival moon cakes too. So far, I have heard three different versions. My favorite is the ancient tale about the overthrow of Mongol rule helped by secret messages smuggled in moon cakes. There is also one about the round cake shape reflecting family togetherness, and a third story about shooting ten arrows at the sun.

I was recently invited to a party in a Huawei conference room – a special tasting of fancy frozen moon cakes, just arrived from Hong Kong. Later, everyone in the company was given their choice of up to three traditional baked moon cakes to eat or take home – take your pick free from open baskets in the cafeteria. Having been born and raised in San Francisco, I have always liked the red bean moon cakes but Date and Lotus Seed fillings are good too. Green Tea filling is my least favorite.

Last Saturday was the 16th annual San Francisco International Dragon Boat Festival. This was the first year that Huawei in Santa Clara entered a crew for the Treasure Island race. Huawei’s office in Texas also entered a crew into their local dragon boat race. I wrote earlier about Huawei’s passion for ping pong. So, some food, sports, and traditions are different but in many ways we are all geeks together.

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Filed under News & Reviews

Tagged as China, Geeks, Huawei, San Francisco, Sun Microsystems

September 11, 2011 · 6:50 pm

John in China

My husband John is on a month-long business trip to China for Huawei, visiting his staff in Xian and ShenZhen. We bought a Panasonic LX5 Lumix camera for his trip. We both like my Canon Powershot S95 but were looking for a camera that managed closeups and color better. It has been interesting seeing China through his lens, both the grand and the small. I look forward to his posting the latest pictures to our joint Flickr account.

When John and I traveled to Beijing and Xian together in 2005, we often ate dishes that we wanted to order again here at home in California. Since we do not speak Chinese, we could only describe the ingredients to a good cook and hope for the best. For this trip, John is taking pictures of his favorite dishes.

We talk by phone or Skype every day.

TechWomen Mentors’ Party

The TechWomen mentors from the Silicon Valley are keeping in good communication with their mentees in the Middle East and North Africa. We have seen about a dozen new projects, including non-profits and business start-ups, initiated so far by our 37 talented and energetic colleagues since they returned to MENA from working with us here in California. Many of the mentors continue to serve as individual and group advisors, despite being half a world away.

One of the last official phases of the 2011 U.S. State Department’s mentoring program will happen next month when a few of us go to visit the technical women in Morocco for a week. We had hoped to go to Lebanon as well but regrettably that trip had to be cancelled. Six of the mentees have recently won scholarships to return to the USA for a week to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, to be held 9-12 November 2011 in Portland, Oregon. We look forward to seeing them there!

Yesterday in the hot autumn afternoon, 17 of the technical and cultural mentors met at my house in Willow Glen (San Jose, CA) for a potluck dinner, to catch up and enjoy each others’ company. Mentors from Huawei, Intel, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Likelist, NetApp, Northgate Environmental Management, SF Public Press, and Symantec and other companies and organizations brought lovely dishes to share. My son Paul took a picture of us on the steps of my backyard caboose (WP668).

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Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, Hopper - Anita Borg Institute, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Huawei, Mentoring, Middle East, Paul, San Jose, technical women, TechWomen

August 31, 2011 · 10:43 am

Smart Car Repair and Service: Peninsula, South, East SF Bay

We found a reliable service and repair shop for Smart Cars! You may know that the Stevens Creek Smart Car Center (Santa Clara, CA) is closed. The next closest Smart Car dealership is in San Francisco and they will not provide service except Monday-Friday. Here is where I just got my one-year service. They are happy to take new Smart Car customers and they are open on Saturday:

Mercedes-Benz
Fletcher Jones Motorcars
5760 Cushing Parkway
Fremont, CA 94538-5127
David Burris, Service Advisor: 510-279-2437

I love my tiny car and am happy to find a someone who wants to help me keep it in good running order.

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Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as San Francisco

August 29, 2011 · 12:31 pm

Back Road Not Taken

My husband and I recently drove out of Camp Blue at the Lair of the Golden Bear near Pinecrest Lake to go down the mountain to the Twain Harte Market for supplies. We decided to take a back road returning to camp, instead the usual highway 108 through the Stanislaus National Forest. John and I ended up on a wild and scenic and delightful drive down “Lyons Lake Road” and a series of other more-or-less-maintained fire roads. We ended up backtracking 12 miles after the “road” abruptly headed into a steep uphill gully filled with big stones (we did not have four wheel drive or a winch on the front of our Mercedes SUV).

At one point, we were faced with the classic dilemma of poet Robert Frost:

The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost, 1920

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;	     

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,	      

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.	   

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

We saw some amazing pink-brown lava aggregate boulders in the alpine meadows the road wandered through at 5,000 feet above sea level:

Also many deer, rabbit, raccoon and other animal tracks in the dust of the road:

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Tagged as John, Lair of the Bear, University of California

August 26, 2011 · 5:20 pm

Making Pots at Camp

I have written about how proud I am of my son Paul’s pots. This is to show you two of mine:

Last week, we went for our annual stay at U.C. Berkeley’s Lair of the Golden Bear family camp. In addition to swimming, singing, and long walks, my family enjoys making ceramics together in the Camp Blue Art Grove. Jessica and Paul and I all made pots while Matt and John kept us company. Paul coached us on our technique using the potter’s wheel. Working with clay under the trees is lovely. We watched the squirrels steal paper towels from the trash to line their winter nests. Seeing a ground squirrel dashing off into the bushes with a wad of wet brown paper in its mouth is funny.

My brother Pete was in a tent nearby with his family. Jessica and Matt were awarded a Camp Blue loving cup (usually given for sports participation) to honor their being newlyweds at camp.

My Daughter is Married!

My daughter Jessica married her High School sweetheart Matthew yesterday at Mount Madonna Park near Gilroy. The bride was lovely, the groom was handsome, and the 125 gusts had a delightful time. Jessica wore my first wedding dress (ivory raw silk) with a river pearl necklace from her Grandmother and me. Matt wore a tuxedo with white vest and tie. The mothers read two poems:

I read “Wedding Poem for Schele and Phil” by Bill Holm
Matt’s Mom Karen read “A Marriage” by Michael Blumenthal

Before, during, and after the ceremony, there were hundreds of formal photos. Then, everyone ate food and cake and was happy and silly… The couple will live for their first year in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania while where Jessica will be a 5th Year Scholar at CMU. Jessica was graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with honors in Ethics, History & Public policy (that’s one major). She will finish her minor in Music and focus on her Arabic during the coming year. Matt just was graduated from William & Mary with honors in Computer Science and Public Policy.