A Day at She's Geeky Un-Conference

I just got back from a day at the She's Geeky Un-Conference.  A really good, if exhausting, day!

More geeky women in one place than I've *ever* seen!  One friend asked if I was gonna be "the grand poo bah." No freakin' way I was close to being the alpha geek in this crowd.  I was probably at the median or below.  I mean, we're talking Major League Geeks!  And proud of it!

The thing was called an "un-conference" because it didn't have paid presenters, it didn't have a preconceived session plan, and the sessions were not just talking heads -- they were very discussive and participational, and the formation of sessions was rather organic. If you came prepared to talk about something, you could. If someone else came prepared to talk about the same or *nearly* the same thing, the two would get together and figure out whether to collapse it into one session or whether it really was two different sessions.  And you got to pick your venue of the various break-out areas/rooms.

AND each session had its own note-taker who was supposed to get their notes typed-up and e-mailed back in to the crew by tonight so they can create a Proceedings-like substance to distribute within the next few days.  (Hey! I remember a time when the Proceedings of a conference were not scheduled to be delivered for 18 months!)

On top of that, my friend Krista was there. We got to spend time bonding before the sessions, between sessions, during lunch, and after the sessions. We elected to attend different sessions. And she gave one, too.

I sat in on a session ostensibly about using social media to promote social change and social justice. Lots of different discussions about the uses and abuses of social media. A WAY different focus than those I've been being presented with of late.  Issues of privacy and identity also came up.  Very interesting. 

I was in a session on WordPress.  Now I'm gonna hafta learn PHP cuz most of the features in WordPress are customizable  and are done mostly in PHP.

I also sat in on a session on Agile project management in its various forms and learned of another new source control system: GIT.

Oh! and the food was SO not conference food.  They had a Barista to fix me Lattes in the morning to go with the bagels, fresh fruit, yogurt, juices, bottled water, and may other healthy breakfast noshes. There were noshes out all day (to go with the happy beverages from the Barista) like granola bars, trail mix, M&Ms, Kisses, fresh fruit, quick breads, and more. And the buffet lunch included 3 kinds of salad, watermelon, two kinds of grilled sausages, grilled chicken, "western" beans, grilled bread, and some vegetarian things on another table.  All of it was quite tasty!

Oh, one of the bonuses of the Un-conference format: it only runs around $100 a day even if you register at the very last minute.  And they offered "scholarships" for students and the unemployed. Cool!

It's Doggie Day!

The Chinese are supposed to being extra nice to to doggies today because it is the second day of the Chinese New Year.  To quote from Wikipedia:

"They are extra kind to dogs and feed them well as it is believed that the second day is the birthday of all dogs."

Happy [Chinese] New Year!

OK. The wild and wacky winter weather of the west is confusing the plants.  The daffodils in the front yard are coming up and setting buds. WTFO?  We had quite the blustery January weekend, what with the bouts of rain and gusts of wind.

This weekend I made sure to get the house vacuumed so I wouldn't have to "sweep away the chi and good luck" the first thing in the Chinese New Year. Today I have the front and back doors open (dang! but it's chilly!) to let in the chi and good luck.  Happily, I live in the Silicon Valley where it's over 50 outside and not below freezing!  (Sorry, Laura!)  I've got the thermostat turned way down and I'm bundled up, but I think I'll soon declare it to be ENOUGH!

Late yesterday afternoon, my brother called to give me the Year of the Ox feng shui updates for people born in the Year of the Horse (that's me).  Something brass or bronze that has tarnished so it's no longer "yellow" needs to go at the center of the north side of my house and at the center of the west side of my house.  Well, my tarnished brass doorknob is on the west side and I moved my poor, un-polished-in-far-too-long bronze dragon sculpture to the curio shelf in the middle of the north side.  Now I need to track down something blue that I can put in one of the bathroom windows (east side) for the year.  Shouldn't be too hard.

All of these changes/additions are for abundant health.

Apparently, I need to add a fruiting plant to my o! so dark front hall to ensure prosperity for the year.  Guess I'm screwed on the prosperity front. But then, so is much of the rest of the world.

Happy New Year!

Sunny, if cool, morning hike

I got together with a friend this morning for a walk-and-talk bird hike -- she with her binoculars, me with my camera. We met at the Kite Flying Area parking lot at Shoreline Park, then hiked toward Stevens Creek, turned toward the bay, then up the trail along the bay, across to the trail along the perimeter road, and back to the Kite lot.

I was sad and surprised to note that the body of water on which I was expecting lots of waterfowl was nearly dry!  There were still some ducks -- mostly Green-Winged Teal, American Wigeons, Gadwalls, and a couple of Mallards -- but not the collection I've come to expect there. (You can just make out the edge of the green speculum on the wing of this male teal.)

The duck population on the bay was also rather low, but the Ruddy Ducks were well-represented.  Sadly, the duck hunters were also well-represented, given the number of shotgun blasts we heard.

I was surprised and well-pleased to see a Says Phoebe.  I think I've ever seen one but once, a-way back when I was relatively new to the birding thing in the mid-90s.  I wouldn't have known what it was then and I wasn't sure what I was looking at back then.  In the meantime, I've seen SO many Black Phoebes that I just automatically recognize the Phoebe silhouette.  I have seen drawings of the Says, so I know what the coloring is supposed to look like, too.  So, I stopped and took a bunch of pictures.

I was also surprised and delighted to see a herd (OK, 4-6) of Western Bluebirds in a tree by the road! The various species of bluebird have been disappearing from North America due to loss of habitat. But there are a number of organizations that are trying to bring the species back by creating Bluebird Trails across America.  They do this by setting up bluebird houses alone corridors of habitable environments so the birds can have a place to nest and raise their young.  And it seems to be working!

I was also surprised to see a single, juvenile Snow Goose grazing with all the Canada Geese in the Kite Flying Area at the end of our walk.

We had lots of good chatting and bird-viewing!

Now Printing...

Well, being who I am, I have not yet RTFM. However, being who I am, I figured out the problem: HP's Installer and the Setup Assistant don't work over the network, only when directly connected to the printer in question.

What kind of sense does this make?  All the underlying software recognizes the fact that the printer is available -- the software "sees" it, sends a query and gets a reply -- but the installer refuses to interact with it unless the printer is directly connected to the computer via USB.

BUT! Once all the computers have been appropriately configured with the printer directly connected, you can then plug in the printer to the AirPort Extreme base station and (after RE-configuring as a Bonjour instead of USB connection) print just fine.

Oh, and the copier now works, too.

It's Always Something

Today's topic is the continuing saga of computer upgrades as mentioned in a previous post. 

You'll recall that I scrounged up a slightly-aging USB printer that had been languishing at Mom's house. Well, it worked with all the computers in the house that are on OS X except that the black ink cartridge needed to be replaced.  It wasn't empty, but it wouldn't print. So, I bought a cost-saving package of both black and tri-color cartridges figuring that the color cartridge would need replacing at some point, especially if I took to printing color photos again.

All was good.  For a time.

One day I sent a multi-page job to the printer.  When I went back to the office to pick up the printout, there was a bunch of black confetti all over the top page. Most of it shook off to the carpet.  On closer examination, the confetti was little rectangular bits of a rubber-like substance.  I opened the printer cover and took a look around to see what was up.

Well, the belt that moves the print heads back and forth is made of a sort of corrugated rubber attached to stringy fibers.  The rubber was detaching from the fibers!  So, I alerted the former owner that the printer was not going to be long for this world -- maybe a week or two.  I alerted my brother (his girlfriend works for HP and can get employee prices on refurbs) to be on the lookout for a possible deal.

Within two days (less than another half-dozen pages), the belt failed completely, so I had to make an emergency run to Mom's with my laptop to print to her all-in-one on my way to a meeting.  *sigh*

Her hubby mentioned that he'd seen a printer on sale at Costco, so Mom and I dashed over that evening.  It wasn't just a printer. It was an all-in-one... for $70!  Wow!  So we got it.

And I set it up. It printed its scanner alignment page, it scanned the alignment page, but it won't copy and it won't print.  I should have been alerted to the idea that there might be a problem when the software installer was fubar.

So, now I'll be reading the fine manual to try to figure out what the problems is.

It's always something.

Wacky, Wild Winter Weather in the West

Oooh! An opportunity for alliteration!

It was just over a week ago that the overnight low was in the mid-twenties and the days were only getting into the low fifties.  Last night's overnight low was only about 60 and it got into the mid-seventies today. 

OK, so it's record-breaking warm. But still!  So, I took the afternoon off and spent it pulling weeds in my California Native Garden.  Lots more to pull, but I got the worst of them.  When I finish the rest, I can sow the CA Native wildflower seeds I bought in the fall.

In the meanwhile, it's SO warm out that the remaining wisteria seed pods are exploding like gun shots out back. Every so often, a fired seed hits the window and makes me jump.  One evening late last summer, my brother was visiting. A seed pod fired its load and one hit the window.  My brother started to dive for the floor, but suddenly looked at me -- lounging back on the sofa -- with great confusion. Then the realization dawned: It was the wisteria shooting at him.  "That was the plant, wasn't it."

"Yep."

A Visit to the Tide Pools

Mom and I set out this beautiful, warm afternoon to go to the Monarch Grove and the tide pools at Natural Bridges State Beach.  It was 68F at the beach.  In mid-January!

Well, it was so dang warm that the butterflies in the Monarch grove were all out shopping for groceries!  When the temperature is below 55F, they hang in great clusters on the eucalyptus trees.  Today, you could see a fair number of them, but they were all flitting about quite wildly.  It was very cool, but not particularly photographic not impressive.

So, off to find the tide pools.  Well, it turns out that this would have involved great amounts of hiking -- back to the cliffs, down the cliffs, across the wide sandy beach, across a table land that's actually a mussel bed, then finally to the tide pools.  Well, Mom was a bit huffy and puffy after hiking up from the Monarch Grove, so we got in the car and headed up the coast in search of other tide pooling venues.

Pigeon Point Lighthouse Looks to the Sea

We got to the Pigeon Point Light and turned in and hiked around to get a look.  This probably would have been a decent place to try searching for tidal creatures, but the steps down were steep and Mom was kind of sketchy about wanting to hike down.  So, we headed back down the coast a bit to a place where the hike to the sea was not as far down.

Mom Looks to the Sea for the Big Wave

The tide pooling part was not as full of cool creatures as I would have hoped, but it was still nice being out in the sun and fresh air with my camera. And I'm not a teenager anymore, so trying to navigate across slick and wobbly uneven landscape was challenging on my back.  I took my own advice and just waded into the water (to a little above knee-height at times) to the less-slick, more-stable surfaces.  After all, that's why I brought a change of clothes!

Starfish Among the Rocks, Algae, Sponges, Corrals, Sea Grass, ...

So, I got a few photos and a lot of bonding time with Mom.  (She's such a good sport!) And I came away with a plan to map out all the lowest-lows in my calendar for the rest of the year AND to do more research into where the better tide pooling venues will be for next fall and winter.

Making Plans

It's been a while since I've had to do much in the way of calculating the differences in tide height and the time the tide turns, but I just finished checking the tables online.

I apparently skipped a groove and misremembered the predicted tide height.  It's only -1.7, but that's still pretty-dang'd good.  The good news is that the tide will be turning right around 4 PM, so it should still be fairly light out as the sun isn't due to set till after 5.  Woohoo!

Yeah, that's another challenge with tide pooling: The sun is often not yet up or already down when the "good" tide is available.  For example, there's a -1.6 on Sunday, but the lowest-low is almost right at sunset.

The Things You Find When Tide Pooling

Tactically, the best way to do the tide pooling thing is to get there a couple (or more) hours *before* the tide is due to turn.  You follow the tide out and look at all the critters as more and more of them become exposed by the retreating water. While the tide is going out, the waves tend to be less rambunctious, too.

A number of years ago I decided to take a stab at tide pooling in the summer. Well, the lowest-low tides in the summer happen at sunrise. But wait! Didn't I just say "get there a couple of hours *before* the tide is due to turn"? Yep.

So, I made a plan to drive to Pacific Grove the afternoon before and get a room. That way I could get to sleep a little early so I could get up at O-dark-thirty and drive to the area where I planned to do my tide pooling, Point Piños. In the morning, I bundled up in a multitude of layers, grabbed my ruck sack with field guides and lenses and such, and headed out in the fog. (We are talking about the California coast in summer, after all!)

It was still pretty seriously dark out when I got there.  The east horizon was just thinking about lightening up.  But I had my flashlight, so I started carefully picking my way out to the point. On the way out, after I crossed an initial area of rocks, I came to a sand-filled area before the next region of rocks. And, as I stepped into the sandy zone, I thought I heard a noise. I stopped and listened. Nothing. So I started moving again. And I heard a noise again.  I pulled my hood back and lifted my cap from my ears and listened. Still nothing. Leaving my ears uncovered, I moved forward again and, again, heard the noise.  I turned the flashlight on and scanned the area where I heard the noise.  Nothing. So, I started gently creeping forward, flashlight on, but held against me so it was dark.  I walked gently and silently, listening for any noise above the lapping waves. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

I reached the next region of rocks still not knowing whether I was hallucinating from sleep deprivation or what.  I followed the rocks out to the edge of the water and got there about the time it was getting plenty light so I didn't need the flashlight to see the more obvious critters or my field guide. I continued following the tide out -- in the fog, so it never got much lighter -- and got to see many things including several species of corraline algae, starfish, sculpins, mollusks, and on and on.

Suddenly there was the sound of a crashing wave.  I checked my watch and, sure enough, the tide had just turned.  It was time to head on in.  Not a great tide pooling adventure, but a good one. 

I headed back up the rocky outcrop and down toward the sandy area.  And I hear that noise again!  Again I uncovered my ears to listen as I stood still and looked around.  It was much lighter now, but the fog made the light flat, so I was mostly just seeing textures of beige, brown, and gray.  But then I heard some surf fishermen on the other side of some bordering rocks... and *that* noise again! And this time there was some movement! 

I started creeping in the direction of the noise and the movement and there he was! A harbor seal!  Coolness!!!  Now, I knew these guys had sharp teeth and jaws of steel (like biting through mussel shell sharp and strong), so I made sure that I kept a *big* rock between him and me. But he wasn't moving other than to occasionally lift his head, look around, and put it back down. When I got up to the rock and peered over it at him, I saw blood on his pelt.  I figured that he was injured and that's why he was just laying there.

So, I hauled my butt back to my car and back to the motel to see about calling authorities about him.  Well, I finally found an agency who would send someone out in about an hour.  I grabbed my camera (cheep-tastic, 35mm film point-n-shoot) and headed back to wait with the seal.

He still wasn't moving much. I started talking to him and moved up to within a couple of feet of him and sat on a rock talking to him for 45 minutes... and taking his picture. A lot.  Every so often, the fishermen would shout out and the seal would lift his head then put it back down.

After about 45 minutes, I saw a woman looking like a ranger wandering over the rocks and looking around like she was looking for something.  I called out to her.  She called my name back to me like a question.  I said, yes, and indicated that the guy was over here.  She came walking over while talking to me.  When she got within 5 feet of us, the seal jumped to his flippers, shlumped up over the ridge of rocks, and slid back into the ocean.

Huh. So, I guess he wasn't injured.  But why was he just hangin' out with me and shlumped off in a huff when someone else approached?

The woman suggested that he was probably -- at least in part -- hand-raised by someone who had my general shape and voice.  He didn't feel threatened or even particularly disturbed by my presence, so he just kept restin'.

So, while not technically a tide pool find, it was still the capper for my tide pooling trip!

Dutiful Moms and Tide Pooling

As I mentioned in my last post, I studied oceanography in high school and took class field trips to the tide pools. But we also had homework and projects, so I needed to go to the tide pools NOT as part of a class field trip. Also in my last post, I mentioned that tide pooling alone could be dangerous. When I invited Mom to come along on my trip for my class project, she declined initially. But when I gave her a graphic description of her teenage daughter washing out to sea as human hamburger and she -- grudgingly! -- acquiesced.

So, the day came that we were going to go see a -1.0 tide at Pigeon Point (best we could do in late January) and she took a few hours off work that afternoon. I could tell that she was a little bent out of shape that I had dragged her off to do this thing, but just a little.

When we got there, she was going to spread a blanket on the beach, out of the wind, and watch. But I wanted to share some of the totally cool stuff that I'd seen on prior trips, so I dragged her along to show her a few things just below the lower-high tide line (an area that is virtually guaranteed to get wet at least once a day). 

She was, at first, mildly amused at the fire-boat squirting of the sea anemones when poked with a finger.  Then I went on to show her more and more things and she got more and more involved.  I spotted a Cryptochiton stelleri (OK, I explained that its common names were "Hidden Chiton" and "Gumboot Chiton"). I went through the whole sea-geek explanation of its anatomy and everything. She liked it. 

She got into heading farther and farther out to look at the critters, but she never really got into the wading in the low spots (for safety reasons, really!).  So, she kept an eye out for rogue waves and the tide when it turned while I collected the seaweed specimens I needed for my project. When we headed for home, she was still a little jazzed, definitely no longer bent out of shape.

So, weeks go by.  One day Mom says, "Do you need to take another trip to the tide pools? There's a minus tide coming up next week."

How's *that* for making a convert?  :-)

And, remember that "Gumboot Chiton?" Well, years later, when she was living outside of Boston, I visited and we went to the New England Aquarium.  We were peering into the "Pacific Coast Tide Pool" aquarium and I excitedly said, "Ooh! Look! Cryptochiton stelleri! And it's not on the display!!!"  She spotted it almost instantly and got all excited, too. That's when the docent who was standing by the display turned to look into the display wanting to know what we were talking about.  So, we pointed it out, went through the whole explanation.

She asked, "Are you marine biologists?" We replied, "No, we're from California." 

Of course, my friend Subrata would say, "No, but she plays one on TV." :-)

Tide Pool Memories

I was born in Arizona a long, long time ago, but before I reached an age to start school we moved to Silicon Valley. That move put the family about an hour's drive from the beach.  We didn't go often, but we did go.  But we didn't go "tide pooling."

Tide pools are the small pockets of sea water that are left behind amongst the rocks when the tide goes out.  These pools are chock-full of sea creatures, most notably starfish, sea urchins, sea anemones, barnacles, periwinkles, and mussels, but there are plenty of others.  But, you may have noticed the word "rocks." This is not what most people think of when they say, "Let's go to the beach today!"

When I was in high school I took a course in Oceanography.  One of the activities in this course was the occasional trip to the tide pools along the Santa Cruz coast.  Wow! It was simply amazing!

The thing is that tide pooling has a big danger potential. If you are focused on some creature down near the waterline, you are unlikely to notice that rogue wave coming in to thrash you onto the rocks, turn you into hamburger, and wash you out to sea. So, tide pooling in a group (or at least as a pair) is highly recommended. At least one set of eyes can be keeping an eye on the ocean at all times and the tide poolers can take turns looking at the neat stuff.

So, in high school, the whole class (only about a dozen students) would carpool over the hill to the selected site and spend an afternoon and early evening identifying all the creatures they could find. At the end, we'd all change into dry clothes (*real* tide pooling involves getting wet), have a hot beverage from the thermos, and head back over the hill.  It was *lots* of fun and very team-building.

But here's the thing about tide pooling: if you don't have a really low low tide, there's not nearly so much to see.  So, you check the tide tables and hope to find low tides that start with "-". But there aren't that many "-" tides over the year.  And, tho the lowest-low tides at the Golden Gate are -2.0, we don't get one every year.  For example, we don't have one coming up this year.  We do, however, have three -1.9' tides coming up this year, so I'll be very happy with those.

But here's the thing about the really low low (and really high high) tides: they happen around the Summer and Winter Solstices. The coincide with the full or new moons.  And they happen at sunrise or sunset.

So what, you say. Well, here's what.  That means you get to go down to the seashore in the dead of winter, in the late afternoon, to wade in the freezing water while the sun is sinking into the west.  OR you get to get up LONG before the sun in summer so you can drive to the coast and hope to be able to see anything in the foggy, early morning twilight as you follow the tide out.  About the time the sun comes up and the fog starts to thin, the tide turns and starts crashing in at you, so you pretty much have to give up at that point.

Oddly, I can't seem to convince friends and family to join me in these activities in either season. *sigh*  So, yes, I still occasionally take my life in my hands and go out tide pooling in both summer and winter. 

I'll post again later in the week about a couple of specific trips, one in spring (not a great low tide, but a good trip) and one in summer (really good low tide and another great story, to boot!).

Morning Hike at Shoreline Park

Since this morning was supposed to be clear, I decided last night that I should get up bright and early and go for a hike with my camera.  Well, maybe not bright, but early. 

I got to the park before the sun was up. I was not terribly surprised to see people arriving to go hiking, jogging, bike riding, and all those healthy, early-morning activities.  I was somewhat surprised to see a guy in his car, parked to face the coming sunrise, reading the morning paper.

I had thought to park at the kite lot, but changed my mind at the last minute and parked by the windsurf beach.  From there I hiked to the creek, then followed it out to the bay (well, technically, the former evaporation ponds, but who's counting?).

Then I hiked back up toward Palo Alto Baylands (see earlier posts) taking a few photos along the way. A goodly percentage of the ducks floating out there in the early morning glow were Wigeons.  The males' voice is a whistle, not a quack, and they were all whisper-whistling to each other as I hiked and took their pictures.

I came across all sorts of birds -- hummingbirds, sparrows, crows, and all those ducks -- but was pleased to find a pair of Red-Tailed Hawks hanging out in the tops of the pines in the area.

It's times like these that get me getting up before the sun to run off with my camera!