KatysBlog

August 3, 2016 · 3:13 pm

TechWomen Mail

The TechWomen mentoring program participants often travel among our 21 countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. On our journeys, mentors and mentees often bring each other things, calling such deliveries “TechWomen Mail”. Sometimes the generous TechWomen carry local treats (like cookies or honey), or souvenirs from their country (like pen holders or coffee mugs). Earlier this year, a traveling mentor bought a rug in the souq only to find it too big for her luggage. In the next few months, I am sure that rug will arrive in the Silicon Valley with a visiting TechWoman.

Since I would be seeing the Cameroon “Angels Tech of Africa” Technovation team in San Francisco, Janet Fofang (TechWomen 2013 Fellow) asked me to send her some electronics to use when teaching her Tassah Academy or WeTech girls in Yaounde, Cameroon. My husband, John Plocher, put together a box of interesting electronic boards and chips for exploration. Dorothée Danedjo Fouba (TechWomen 2014 Fellow) kindly agreed to carry the box to Janet. I left the box loosely packed and openable so that Dorothée and customs inspectors could see what it contained – I am sure it looked odd on airport scanners.

This week, Janet wrote me that the box had arrived safely. (Thanks to Dorothée!) Janet and John are now in email discussions about what was in the box, and about software and hardware open source projects he has published on our family website, spcoast.com. We may have more TechWomen Mail headed to Cameroon soon!

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Filed under Hopper - Anita Borg Institute, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Africa, Cameroon, Central Asia, Egypt, Lebanon, Mentoring, Middle East, technical women, TechWomen

August 2, 2016 · 10:36 pm

Paul’s Tableware

My son Paul D. Goodman is very much enjoying being a Senior studying Studio Art at San Jose State University. This summer, Paul designed an independent study project to create three ceramic plate and bowl sets of tableware on the wheel. As of now, he is still working his way through throwing, trimming, glazing, and firing this huge collection. A week of work was lost when someone carelessly left the SJSU ceramics studio door open on a very hot day, causing all of the wet plates to dry very quickly and crack.

Paul is building up to selling his work on Etsy but needs enough stock to open his online shop. I just updated Paul’s portfolio on Paul’s Element, where you can see this and his other artwork.

Here are the photos I have so far of Paul’s tableware in progress:

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Tagged as Jessica, Paul, San Jose State University

August 1, 2016 · 6:40 pm

Lighting a Stained Glass Panel

Lighting a big stained glass panel is tricky. You want the light to be warm and even across the surface to show off the colors and and patterns. Museums like The Richard H. Driehaus Gallery of Stained Glass at Chicago’s Navy Pier feature custom light boxes to present their masterpieces. Those of us with stained glass built into our homes as windows need another solution that addresses inside/outside light and darkness. The glass should look good from both inside and out: a gift to the street.

Our architectural stained glass was created by Vince Taylor, starting in 2004 with a big panel in the dining room plus a smaller panel in our front door. In addition to being lovely, the panels provide privacy from the street and help reduce the heat and glare from direct sunlight on the hottest side of the house.

John tried lighting the big panel in a variety of unsatisfactory ways until he settled on LED strips around the edge. These work the best of the options we have tried – providing a warm and inexpensive light source – but the strips become brittle in sunlight in about five years. Today, John replaced the set.

This is Vince Taylor checking up on the big panel in 2012:

New LED strips going in:

5 year old LED strips in the trash:

Added 2 August 2016: night picture from the street:

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Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as House Work, John

August 1, 2016 · 3:45 pm

How to Display Stones in Earthquake Country

Displaying stones can be a challenge, especially in California where we regularly have earthquakes. If you are lucky, a decorative stone will come with a suitable base. Or, if the stone is small, a store-bought plastic stand may work. However, for large, heavy stones custom design and fabrication are needed for the best presentation. If you are handy like my husband John, you can make stands and pedestals yourself.

Here is what we are avoiding. This is a large cloisonné metalwork vase John and I bought in China which was flattened in an earthquake when it fell to the floor:

Example 1: Small Fool’s Gold Sphere

Basic hoop: My son Paul gave me this pretty iron pyrite (fool’s gold) sphere along with a clear plastic hoop for a stand. The hoop keeps the sphere from rolling but it is only held in place by gravity. In an earthquake, this heavy sphere will probably smash something.

Example 2: Ruby Crystals on Quartz

Simple pedestal: John brought this rock to Paul as a present from China some years ago. It is ruby crystals on quartz, on a custom pedestal. The quartz has been carved away from the crystals to show them off. You can see in the photo below that the pedestal it came with has a trough or fitted hole carved into it the exact size and shape of the stone.

Example 3: Zimbabwe Shona Sculpture

Large fitted pedestal: I carried home this Shona sculpture of carved serpentine for John when I was in Zimbabwe with the 2016 TechWomen Delegation. I asked the sculptor, Martin Chirenda, to sign it before before wrapping. The sculpture weighs over sixty pounds and is top-heavy. We were concerned that it would break or hurt someone falling over in an earthquake. John made a low oak pedestal by carving a trough and then filling it with epoxy to fit the stone exactly. The stone is fixed to the dried epoxy with a thin pour of Karo (corn sugar syrup). Using Karo is a museum display trick that does not damage the art but keeps it firmly attached to its base.

Martin Chirenda 2015 Shona Sculpture Zimbabwe Harare, 26 Feb 2016

Example 4: Sea Lily Fossil from Morocco

Mounted on a Plaque: We bought this ancient double Sea Lily or Crinoid fossil at Consolidated Rock & Mineral in Vacaville for our anniversary. It was found in Morocco originally. The stone is heavy but the fossil itself is fragile. We wanted to display it so that it could be admired but not broken. John just finished making this wood plaque with hooks. The plaque is mounted to the wall with a French cleat. These are the best flowers John has ever bought me!

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Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as China, House Work, John, Morocco, Paul, TechWomen, Zimbabwe

July 22, 2016 · 4:25 pm

Caboose and Cactus Arroyo

My office replaced a swimming pool. WP668 is the 100-year-old railroad caboose in San Jose, California (“the Capital of the Silicon Valley“) where I work for Mentoring Standard. Above is WP668 in our backyard now, and below is what the same space looked like in the year 2000. The swimming pool was removed ten years ago – see more photos on the WP668 webpage.

I designed the landscape setting for WP668 based on large rocks and cactuses, including a Y-shaped arroyo (or dry creek) that is small enough to be called an arroyito. Like the bones of California, our arroyito is largely made up of granite, basalt, limestone, and quartz, with jasper, serpentine, sandstone, conglomerates, and other stones for variety. We bought two large boulders from South Bay Materials but the other rocks were adopted as individuals. Every time we go on vacation or a road trip, we come home with new garden rocks, so the arroyito becomes more solid and complex year-by-year. My family complains when they have to ride home from a trip with their feet on top of the latest stones headed for the arroyito but they still help me stuff rocks into the car.

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Filed under Home & Family, Mentoring Standard

Tagged as garden, House Work, Jessica, San Jose, Silicon Valley, Willow Glen

July 21, 2016 · 5:28 pm

Standing Up in Court

For the first time, today I was a witness in a criminal justice hearing. As I wrote on 11 April 2016, I have been teaching in jail every week as part of Education for Ministry (EfM), an extension program of the University of the South – School of Theology, for which I am an Accredited Mentor and the El Camino Real Diocesan Coordinator.

One of the Elmwood Jail student-mentees in my EfM seminar had a Romero hearing today and I was in court as a character witness. “The People of the State of California v. Superior Court (Romero), 13 CAL. 4TH 497, 917 P.2D 628 (Cal. 1996), was a landmark case in the state of California that gave California Superior Court judges the ability to dismiss a criminal defendant’s ‘strike prior’ pursuant to the California Three-strikes law, thereby avoiding a 25-to-life minimum sentence” (quote from Wikipedia). In today’s Romero hearing, the Defendant (my student-mentee) had the opportunity to reduce his sentence from an indeterminate number of years (that is, being sentenced to triple digit years without parole) to a sentence that may be completed during his lifetime. I was the only witness present in court today but others had written letters to the judge asking for mercy in his case. The hearing was brief but thorough. The judge listened to me and the lawyers for the Defendant and Plaintiff (“the people”), then reviewed submitted documents. What seemed to make a positive difference in this case was that the Defendant:

Has shown remorse and accepted responsibility for his actions
Has demonstrated a sustained change in his behavior, character, and prospects for the future
Did not use physical violence
Is middle aged already

I was glad that the judge ruled in favor of the Defendant today and gave him a sentence of 30 years without parole. My student-mentee will be an old man when he gets out of prison but with luck and good behavior, he will get out someday. This was the result he had hoped for.

When I serve each year as a Mentor in the TechWomen program of the US State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, my Mentees may go on to start businesses, accelerate their professional careers, attend graduate school, and change the world for the better. When I am a Mentor each year for the EfM class hosted by Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church, my student-mentees after four years of study graduate with more awareness of their personal ministry and with a solid education in the Bible, church history, theology, and ethics.

I am learning that as a Mentor for an EfM seminar in a county jail, my student-mentees gain the same education and potential for awareness of their personal ministry but have smaller potential to change the world for the better. Even after they leave jail or prison, their socioeconomic status is so low that their prospects are modest as members of the community. I am learning to celebrate the wins we can get, among them: passing the high school equivalency exam, reconciling with family, being accepted into a good reentry program, and getting a positive Romero judgement as we did today.

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Filed under Church, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews, Politics

Tagged as Education for Ministry, Episcopal church, Jail, Mentoring, San Jose, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, teaching, TechWomen

July 21, 2016 · 3:43 pm

Technovation World Pitch Summit 2016

Last week, I enjoyed attending the Technovation World Pitch Summit 2016 hosted by the University of San Francisco. Technovation was the single most popular formal mentoring program mentioned by the Mentoring Standard Certified Mentors (see the “First Mentors – What We Learned” report), so I have heard about its excellence from many sources. Technovation was founded in 2009 to offer girls the opportunity to learn how to start a company and become high-tech entrepreneurs. It is now a global competition reaching thousands of girls. This year’s winners were:

First Place, High School: Team A, “OOL” from Mexico
First Place, Middle School: California Coders, “Loc8Don8” from the United States

The pitch videos from all of the finalists are well worth watching. In addition to the awards given to the girls’ teams, TechWomen‘s own Dr. Amel Gouila (Bioinformatician at the Institut Pasteur de Tunis) from Tunisia was honored as The Technovation Regional Ambassador of the year. In advance of the awards, there were inspiring speeches by: