My family has a history with breast cancer so while I do not say much about it, this is a subject near and dear to my heart. In my case, it was a male member of the family that was diagnosed a few years ago. He unfortunately found out about it too late and passed away within 6 months of the diagnosis. So men, though this is primarily discussed in association with women, you also need to take care.

Since the percentage of men getting breast cancer is so low and my grandmother had ovarian cancer as well (there is a link between the two), my mother was tested for the BRCA1 and 2 genes and thankfully was cleared. Admittedly this does not mean I can not get breast cancer, but does rule out the genetic factor – mostly. Because of my family history, I am still checked every 6 months and get an annual mammogram even though I am younger then is normally recommended (40).

Breast Cancer effects us all.

Some links:
American Cancer Society: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/home/index.asp
National Cancer Institute – Breast Cancer: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/breast
Relay for Life: http://www.relayforlife.org/relay/
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month: http://www.nbcam.org/
Susan G Komen Foundation: http://ww5.komen.org/
Save the ta-tas: http://www.savethetatas.com/index.php/mission/
Genetic testing for Breast and Ovarian Cancer risk: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/Genetic-Testing-for-Breast-and-Ovarian-Cancer-Risk

For 2009 I was supposed to try and meet a couple of personal and professional goals. Some of the goals I like to think I have met include:

1) relearning how to balance my work and family. When I started working at MySQL I felt so completely inadequate in my new role that I completely submersed myself in it to try and get myself to someplace that while not comfortable, at least didn’t leave me feeling stupid all the time. I found that place after about a year, but by then I was so consumed with work that I had little time for anything else. 2009 was the year I wanted to take back my personal time.

Now that I have again found that balance, for 2010 I want to get back to my roots and turn my hand back to so PHP coding again. I am massively rusty, but I do miss it so it should be fun.

2) speaking at conferences. I am always telling people to submit talks to conferences but never seemed to have the time to do it myself. Yes I was being a hypocrite.

For 2009 I swore I would submit talks to any conferences I thought I might actually be able to get the time off of work to attend and as luck would have it – they liked me… They really liked me. Crazy people – must be stoned or something.

In 2009 I was accepted to speak at 5 conferences (6 if you include the Microsoft summit) and after being ill before the first one – had a fantastic time. I will definitely be continuing this for 2010.

I have been honored to already be accepted to speak at this years spring conferences – TekX and Confoo. Unfortunately though I have had to withdraw from the Confoo conference due to work requirements, but I will be attending TekX in May. And if I am brave enough, I am also going to try and submit to the MySQL User Conference.

3) install solar panels on the house to reduce our carbon footprint and our electricity bill. Took us a while but it is finally done. The solar panels are in and the solar water heater is working. We are currently waiting for the local electric company to come and install a 2 way metering system.

4) Help my daughter. While not on the original 2009 TODO list, it immediately went to the #1 slot when her father passed this fall. This will be an ongoing thing that may never have an end. But she is worth it.

5) hold semi-regular meetings for the PHPWomen board. Trying to coordinate 7+ people around the globe for meetings is a pain – but we managed to do it a number of times this year to discuss ideas, catch up on projects and touch base with everyone. Not bad.

Ok – time for the listing of things I did not do this year that I wanted to. This list could easily be couple of pages long but we will shoot for a condensed version.

1) get back into writing. I love to write and for some reason, just haven’t had cause to write in a while. Need to contact some people to see if they need any new articles… Wonder if E3 would let me do something for PHPArch maybe…
2) didn’t learn enough for work – still need to get more into performance tuning, benchmarking, cluster and server administration. Always so much to learn, and never enough time (remember trying to balance work/life).
3) PHPWomen – oh let me count the ways… I really wanted to have the paperwork filed for 501c3 this year, never quite made it. Wanted to also have a birthday party for PHPWomen during Zend Con but due to unforeseen circumstances that didn’t happen… also forgot to try and have a “Go Pink” drive for breast cancer.
4) help get the PHPCommunity organized with the provisional board. laying the foundation for hopefully better to come.

This listing can keep going on and on – but now seems like a good time to stop. Here is to hoping 2010 is a great year!

As far as I could tell there were about 5 geek girls there… not a particularly large group. Many of the attendees were interested in what we do and how we do it. Only 1 person asked if it was a place for single women to get together (there is always one in the group). After clearing things up a bit with them, they moved on.

All in all – not bad I guess.

The last couple of days I have had a few startling revelations on how much has changed. The big one the keyed me to it was watching the ##php channel on freenode and going to look up an answer from the manual to a question… Only to find the manual had been completely reorganized and I had no clue where to go to find what I was looking for. I asked a couple of friends when the manual changed – and they told me “a while ago”… clue X 4 moment!

Go to check out the PHPWomen site – and we are almost at 400 registered members, with lots of introductions in the forums… I normally would try to say hello to everyone that introduces themselves and feel bad for not doing it. To those I have missed – my apologies. Sheesh – I have not even looked over the articles for the contest till today.

Next – I *really* looked at the people who were chit chatting in #phpc on freenode… and there are way too many that I have no clue who they are! Me – the local busy body – the one who for the most part knew everyone in there (I know – sounds egotistical – but true). Outrageous!

Heck – I have not gone to the last couple of PHP User group meetings or met with any of my PHP friends just to hang out or read phpdeveloper.org in months! I am seriously slacking! Someone slap me please.

Anyway – for those that will be there, make sure to stop by our booth and pick yourself up a PHPWomen sticker (for your laptop, car, bag or anywhere else you can think of). Or if you just want to talk about what we are and what we are doing or the weather – that is great too. Come out and meet me!

As much as I love my work and the people… sometimes you have to step back and remember that life does go on – even when the computer is turned off. I mostly managed to do it.

Unfortunately my time to stop and relax is coming to an end soon. And I have to say I will miss it even as I revel in my ability to get back into to the game.

You can see a great picture of the gang here

Since then we have once more started to pick up. We currently have ~180 registered users on our forums (200 is coming quicker then I thought) and Kathy Reid recently made us a custom theme for the site (a forum skin is on its way to unify the site looks).

Regular users are visiting again and new coders are starting to find mentors quietly (I now have a little sis myself). I just recently added a thread to the Member’s Benefits section to help them find each other. Hopefully it helps in some small way to bring and keep women in the field.