me talking out loud

Yep - I have finally ready for my trip to the MySQL User Conference in Santa Clara. MySQL and Oreilly have been incredibly generous in providing us the opportunity to attend their conference, giving us an exhibition booth and a free pass to all the sessions. With out them - we couldn’t have gone.

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!

Well #phpc on freenode is at it again. This time we have cooked up a scheme to have a road trip to this springs |tek. Davey Shafik and I live pretty close together (he in the Tampa, FL area and I in the Jacksonville, FL area). So being the cheap people we are (conferences get VERY expensive very fast) agreed to carpool it to Chicago so we can both get there for the plane fair of one (it is about a 19 hour drive).

Somehow the conference comes up on the #phpc channel - who is going, who is thinking of going and who is speaking at the conference. We comment that we are car pooling it up - and poof! We have more people wanting to get in on it. At it’s height we had potentially 8 people going with us - though most ended up backing out. As it stands now, we are down to 4 (Davey, Ben Ramsey, Elizabeth Naramore and I) last I heard. It is pretty cool since we will picking up fresh meat drivers people as we go north so no one person will have to do all the driving.

I figure by the end of the road trip up and back… we will have become closer friends then we are now or will be ready to kill each other. Not quite sure which is more likely One thing is definite - we will have gotten to know each other well and isn’t that the goal of the community.

Well we made the flight and the drives (though I was hallucinating by the end of the first day - was kinda fun), picked up the dogs and dropped them off at my dad’s and finally made it to Georgia. All is going well except we have no home - but that will take time to find and organize. Luckily we have a room at the TVQ (Temporary Visitors Quarters) on the Kings Bay base - and I have to say - it isn’t to shabby for $30/night.

Today was a busy day. We hit up the Housing office (only got lost twice trying to find it) to see if they have any referrals for the area we want to live in (they don’t). So we took a drive to the area to just look around the area and maybe for a realtor. Liked the area (on a clear drive it is only 20 minutes away from the base) and found a real estate company that seems nice. Got a number of potential places to cruise through the neighborhoods to see if we like them. Talked to the bank about getting a mortgage and need to call a number to get a pre-qualifying value so we have a better idea of how much we can spend. Took a base tour to see some of the base’s services (gas is 2.96 on base) only to find they aren’t many and they are much smaller then we are used to but that is OK since we will primarily getting stuff out in town.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving so everything will be closed. Sounds like a wonderful time to just sit back and relax for the day. Friday is soon enough to run around some more.

Well we have finished moving out of the house and are now in the hotel - 2 days and a wake up left until we go. Only one problem - the hotels internet in the rooms is out… and with the dogs in the room - I can’t sit around the lobby all day (the lobby internet doesn’t allow irc either) … *sigh*. So I will primarily be offline for a while, least until the get the room internet back up (heavan only knows how long that will be) or we get to the states - whichever happens first.

Yep - in less then one week we will be back in the states. So many things to still get done before the end of the week but everything seems to be organized and scheduled…

1) house - final pack out (Tuesday), final cleaning (in progress), yard cleaned (due by Monday) and final mowing, carpets cleaned (todo this weekend);
2) appliances - picked up on Tuesday;
3) bags packed - mostly - due by Tuesday;
4) dogs - tickets (done), crates (done), flight itinerary (done)… need to contact continental cargo for info on how to turn them in at 4AM, heath certificates (Vet Tuesday 10:20), need to drop that off at Dept of Agriculture for Guam vet to sign - pick up in 24 hours;
5) hotel reservations (accepts dogs) for the few days between when we move out and fly out - done;
6) hotel reservations for when we get there - done - need to reconfirm;
7) car - rented and can be dropped off at the airport when we fly out;
8) family notified - some - need to complete this weekend;
9) landlord final walk through inspection - Sunday;
10) sell the last car - dependent on husband;
11) Our tickets - bought and paid for - have passports available - fly out Sat the 17th at 07:30

Hope that is everything… If not - I am so screwed.

As much as I loved going to Zend Con - I now have to shoot someone from it. Why you ask - simple. They gave me bronchitis (irrelevant that my immune system was depressed from the jet lag ). As many friends know I have been battling a cold since I got back from Zend Con. Last night (Friday evening) along with my now standard hacking cough and runny nose I gained a few other symptoms - an earache, sore throat, and an on again, off again fever. Husband made me go to the Emergency Room since my doctor’s office was closed only to get the diagnosis - bronchitis (same as his). Oh joy.

So now I am drugged to the gills on antibiotics, cough suppressants and decongestants… I hate taking drugs but hopefully I will sometimes soon be able to sleep the whole night through without waking up every couple hours to hack up a lung. I don’t believe I am going to say this but… please drugs - hurry up and work!

Can you actually beleive they gave me a trading card this year at zend con?! crazy people. Looks nothing like I do now - back when I was young and cute - but hey a girl can remember. Anyway - here it is:

In the tradition of zero based indexes I am calling the tutorial day - Day 0. So my day started out pretty well with an awesome Belgian waffle for breakfast. Went to John Coggleshall’s tutorial “PHP Security Crash Course” and while not everything was new (thank goodness) I did learn a few things - Ex: like some of the databases allow multiple queries to be run with one query statement (Note mysqli). All in all, very informative though I have to admit that 6 hours of lecture (even with lunch in the middle of it and finally finding Curt in the sea of people) was harder then I remember it being from school. Will be sure to go back over the slides and notes I made later.

After that came the ZCE and speakers party at 6. I have to admit - I haven’t had that much fun in a long bit. Basically hung out with the #phpc crowd and all the new people I managed to meet. Played pool with Sara Golemon and managed to win a couple of games (she should be talking about that on her blog later - so I will stop there). My only question on that is - why was I always the one who had to ask people to move to make a shot?!

Anyway after that came lots of drinks (mostly non-alcoholic for me though I did have one daiquiri), some outstanding discussions, and lots of laughter and fun. All in all - a great Day 0.

I have to admit - I am not one of the great PHP coders. Just a normal Joe (or in my case Jane) here. But I wanted to look back on the year to see what I have learned and done as well as how much the year has changed me.

Well I started 2006 with an earthquake on the January 4th. Talk about shaking up the new year. The only really interesting thing I posted about was a simple question - Who owns your code? Well and a plug for the #phpc channel on freenode.

February had me reading “Objects, Patterns and Practice” (which I still haven’t finished), learning about the phpDoc plugin for Vim (I love that thing), changing hosting services (had to do some modifications on the site to get it working on the new one), and having to cancel my trip to the Philippines to see my dad while he is out here.

March had the first release of the Zend Framework - which I promptly played with for a while but didn’t come back to until the end of the year, and my taking and passing the MySQL4 Core Certification test.

April saw my good friend Davey start of the PHP thinktank channel on freenode (yep - another channel I normally am on), the start of the call for the Google Summer of Code, and my Dad flying out from the Philippines to visit me.

May was quiet since my dad was visiting. I was writing a few basic phpt tests for the QA team at the time and made a couple of notes to myself.

June saw me upgrade the blog and bring it to it’s current implementation, my daughter come out from California and get diving certified, me becoming a codewalkers admin, an apress technical editor, and get Part I of my MySQL Stored Procedures article accepted for phparchitect’s A/R/T.

July was when I almost killed myself out of good old fashioned stupidity. That was fun and I still have the scars. Anyway - it was also the month when we took our Australia trip which was fabulous. Have the pictures to prove it.

August had Part II of the MySQL Stored Procedures article go up on A/R/T, my posting of 25 ways to help PHP and the guys on Pro::PHP podcasting mentioning me because of it, the first glimmers of the PHPCommunity site being moved to ning (which it later did do), my daughter flying back to the US to live with her biological father, and my being hired for a new job.

September saw me start my current job, remember Sept 1t1h and cry again, and do a blog post on MySQL user defined functions. So it was a pretty quiet month.

October had me turn a year older, make the call for PHP women to stand up and be counted (which in turn lead to the start of the PHPWomen.org site). I also managed to take and pass the PHP4 Zend certification test.

November saw the beginning of the holiday craziness, my mother-in-law coming out for a visit, and my husband reenlisting for the last time (he will be retiring from the military after this). Basically anything PHP related was put on a back burner.

And finally, December had the book I was tech editing being published, my being asked to help write a book with a friend, and though I haven’t posted on it a return for me to working with the Zend Framework.

All in all it has been an incredible year for me with so many opportunities and lots fun along the way. So what are my goals for this next year?

1. finish the book I am helping write and see it published
2. get PHP5 ZCE
3. get MySQL5 developer certified
4. learn Javascript and DOM
5. either go back to the little bit of C# I know and become more comfortable in it - or try a new lang. Not sure which
6. Attend a PHP conference

Cross your fingers so hopefully I get to do them all next year.

Finally got all the photos from the Cairne, Australia trip up. We have pictures covering the City, the Great Barrier Reef as well as the Rainforest outside the city. Take a look at them and let us know what you think.

From the 20th to the 25th we were in Cairns, Australia. For those that don’t know, Jason won us the foundation of this trip in a raffle. The original trip he won was for 3 days, including round trip airfare for 2 people as well as a hotel room. We added 2 days, 1 round trip ticket, upgraded the hotel room to a one bedroom apartment, and included a 2 tank dive trip and a 4X4 eco trip through the rain forest for all for and additional ~$2000USD. How is that for a deal!

We got there late on the 20th with me forgetting to bring my sneakers (no one was really surprised by that for some reason ).. so we just went to sleep. On the 21st we went sightseeing of the tourist area eating our way up and down the streets (excellant backeries and pastry shops along the way). Unfortunately the weather wasn’t the best - rainy and kinda cool but since we were just shopping it was no big deal. We then walked to a large shopping mall on the edge of the tourist section where Jason and I both bought some new sneakers as well as a few other things. Basically we shopped until we dropped.

On the 22nd we dove the great barrier reef. Again the weather wasn’t the best - but it was warmer and drier then the day before. We rode the boat (there were ~15 people on the boat) for about 2 hours to get to Hastings Reef. I had problems sinking - probably because of the wetsuit’s extra bouyency (we normally dive in just our swim suits and a rash guard shirt). I added 6 more pounds and still had to swim down and control my breathing to stay down. We unfortunately didn’t stay down as long as we would have liked… I was sucking air hard and my tank seemed to be a short fill - Kayla did way better then me. After that the boat took us to our second dive site (Turtle haven) . There we had lunch and our second dive. I forgot to grab another weight so I again had to swim down and control my breathing but I did much better with my air consumption - so we stayed down quite a bit longer then the last one. We have plenty of pictures from the dives and I will be posting them later. Anyway - after the dive we rode the boat back in to Cairns, ate dinner and passed out. It was a good day.

On the 23rd we originally were scheduled to go on the 4X4 Eco tour of the rain forest. Unfortunately the tour guide became sick and rescheduled the trip for the 24th. So since we found ourselves with a free day we explored some more of the area. It was cool since we managed to find a number of smaller shopping areas tucked away that we missed the first time as well as a farmer’s market that was really cool to walk through. Jason found a wonderful bakery in it. Wondering and exploring took up the morning and early afternoon and we all managed to find souveniors for ourselves. The later afternoon was spent in the hotel swimming pool and taking a nap. Nice and relaxing.

The 24th we spent the whole day on the 4X4 tour of the rain forest. We went up and down and all around in the rain forest. Our tour included driving on restricted access roads that the tour company is the only one to have access to. It was really cool seeing the white cockatoos in the wild, climbing around a creek worrying about leaches, seeing how big the termite mounds really are, checking out animal tracks on the road and trails, and seeing the shear cliffs and overlooks on the side of the road. Kayla saw a kangaroo but was so overwhelmed by it - it took her a while to articulate it… and by then it was gone for the rest of us. Again we have lots of pictures that will be posted later - though our battery started yelling at us 3/4 of the way through and ran out before we made it all the way back. Got back to the hotel room ~6PM. Which was nice since our flight was scheduled to leave at ten after midnight. So we had time for dinner and organization of our stuff.

We go back to Guam at ~5AM on the 25th, went out to grab some breakfast since we were starving, and then back home. And just to make sure we never forget our trip - we came home to find that someone had stolen the tailgate from Jason’s Jeep while we were gone. So we spent our first hours home making a police report for it.

All I can say is that it was well worth it. The whole trip was incredable and allowed us to take off a couple of items in our “life’s TODO list”.

Yes - you heard it correctly. We have bought our Australia tickets and will be flying out at the end of July. We have also started organizing our tours for while we are there. We started the ball rolling for the dive trip and are considering signing up for a ECO jungle 4X4 tour. A lot depends upon how expensive things get.

So - are you jealous yet?

Well with the current political unrest in the Philippines I won’t be going to the Philippines with my dad. He will still be going for about 6 weeks - but then he looks and speaks as a native would (He should since that is where he grew up) … I on the other hand take more after my American mom in looks and never learned to speak tagalog - so I would stick out like a sore thumb. Basically being a target…

*sigh* - I was looking forward to the trip. Been about 13 years since I last went to the Philippines. Maybe another time - but somehow I doubt it.

First off I just want to say thank you to Lisa and Lee (our tour guide and driver). Our trip wouldn’t of been half as informative, fun, and noteworthy if not for you. Thank you for showing us your incredable home.

Now for anyone who cares to know about our trip I will give you a full recap.

Sept 19th -
Caught the 6AM flight out of Guam to the Kansai International Airport - in Osaka, Japan (That is the new airport that is being built on a man made island in the south of Japan. The terminal is a sculpture all by intself.) From there we flew on to Beijing. It should be noted that for some reason there were problems with my ticket… Nothing major - just enough for my husband to threaten to leave me behind while he went on the trip. He even promised to take lots of pictures for me - .

We arrived in Beijing ~ 2pm did the whole customs, immigration thing and then luckily found Lisa, our tour guide, right away. She speaks excellent English - which is more then I can say about myself. Lee - our driver - unfortunately did not speak English, but she definately knew how to drive in the craziness of Beijing traffic. Anyway - off we went to lunch (which had a small show going on at the time), to fuel up and recharge.

From there we went to the Temple of Heaven. The main building was under renovation so we didn’t get to see it - but the gardens more then made up for it. They were spectacular. As was the rest of the complex. After that we took a rickshaw ride of the small, twisting roads behind the Forbidden City. Back there a “normal” road was 6 feet wide. It is slowly turning from a poor man neighborhood - into a rich mans… It should also be noted that this area is adjacent to one of the big bar areas.

By now we are starting to crash hard (exhaustion) - so we went to dinner and then on to our hotel for the night.

Sept 20th -
This was a free day for us. We spent the morning visiting the National Museum for the People. It was pretty cool but I guess I was expecting more. China has the terra cotta worriors, the history of the emporers and the beautiful artwork that went with it, many dinosaur fossil sites, ect and yet there were not exhibits for them. Many of the exhibits they did have did not allow pictures so we didn’t have as many as I would like. The rest of the day was spent shopping and eating in the back alleys off of Tian’anmen Square - haggling to our hearts content. Picked up a beautiful piece of art for my mother-in-law. She will love it.

Sept 21st -
Lisa came and picked us up at around 8:30. Off we go to explore Tian’anmen Square. Chairman Mao’s Memorial Hall had a line that had to of been at least a mile long… never seen such a long line before. Walked around and giggled at the large tour groups… then moved on to the Forbidden City.

I can’t begin to tell you how incredable the Forbidden City was. We were there easily 2 - 3 hours and I could have stayed there twice as long and not seen the same thing twice. Anyway - we went to lunch after that (that lunch sucked - but such is life).

After lunch we visited a pearl “factory” - where we were shown how the Chinese cultivate fresh water pearls (and of course offered the opportunity to buy some). After that we moved on to the Summer Palace. We entered on the far side of the lake and took a “dragon boat” ride across to see the building in all of its glory. We didn’t get to see much of the main building (just the exterior) but we did see the “Long Corridor” with its magnificent paintings and some of the outer buildings. All were very cool and very crowded. Hit up a silk factory after that and picked up an all silk bed set (the quilt is even stuffed with silk). Dinner (which was excellant) and back to the hotel afterwards.

Sept 22nd -
This was another free day for us and again we spent it shopping (With all the tours there is little time to go shopping except in the gift shops of the various attractions.) This time we went to Wangfujing Street (Walking Street) - one of the biggest shopping areas of Beijing. Unfortuantely it wasn’t really what we were looking for. It had all the high end stuff - Hermes, Rolex, things like that. We prefer the smaller shops.

Anyway - the clothes, silks, art, jade were all incredably cheap as compared to the states, but you have to know what you are looking for. There are more then a few fakes mixed in with the real deal.

Sept 23rd -
This was our busiest day. We started out with the Great Wall. It was fabulous… well except for the fact that it almost went completely vertical. Stair Stepper had nothing on this baby. And it wasn’t like all the steps were of uniform size either… nope - a step could be 4 inches or 1.5 feet high. I only went to the third watch tower… Jason went all the way up (he only turned around because the wall started going down and he didn’t want to climb back up later). Both of us had an incredable time there and now we can mark off visiting the Great Wall from our life’s TODO list.

After the Wall our legs were rubber. Luckily it was time for lunch. The food was pretty good and we got to check out the enamal ware factory that was next door… After that it was time to go to the Ming Tombs. Again - it was beautiful… and the few steps involved really burned in our legs . From there - on to the Jade factory. Here we were shown how to distinguish between the good stuff and the not so good stuff (did you know the good jade is hard enough to scratch glass?). We picked up something for Kayla there.

After that we were supposed to see a chinese acrobat show but the matinee viewing was cancelled for the evening show. So off we go to dinner (Peking Duck - Mmmm). Then back to see the evening show of the acrobats.

The show was very good (I have an AVI file someplace - have to find it and upload it). And I would recommend it to anyone going. By the time everything was done - it was ~20:30. Time to go back to the hotel and pack for our fly out tomorrow.

Sept 24th -
Eat breakfast - finish up any last minute packing and chill out… Lisa meets us at ~10AM to take us to the airport. They do things a little different there… immigration and customs goes first - before you even check into the flights. And you can only check into your flight during a designated time. Also the airlines are not grouped together (like a Continental counter). Instead you have to find the counter that will handle your flight (they airlines change out counters depending upon where the flight check-in will be which is in turn determined by when you are flying out). It was all a little odd - but you quickly figure things out. Once you are done checking in - it is just like any other airport in the world. It should be noted that we again had a few problems checking in (this time it was both of us though). Again we had to check in at Japan (where for a while they couldn’t find our reservations/tickets). Everything eventually was straightened out and we arrived home on Guam at ~1:50 AM. We arrived a little late since the plain had to be rerouted around a typhoon.

So there you have it - our entire trip in a nutshell. The hotel was nice but we had more then a few problems (like getting the computer in our room that was promised - took 3 days to get it. Never did get the extra pillows and towels, and the kitchenette was basically disconnected so the fridge and stove didn’t work). Minor stuff - but kinda irritating. If anyone would like to know our tourguide’s contact information I am more then happy to pass it on along with a very high recommendation.

Went to the the Great Wall at the Juyong Pass today. It was incredable! (Again I will be posting the pictures when we get back home.) I only walked to the third watch tower off of the main entry way. Doesn’t sound like much but it was about a 500 foot elevation and it was almost completely vertical. My husband decided to keep going and went to the 9th tower (about a 1500 foot elevation). All in all he went about 1.5 - 2 miles from the beginning. By the time we left we were both walking around on rubber legs.

I promise to tell you all about everything else we did while out here - but later - need to pack and get ready to fly out tomorrow. For now - later all.

Hey world! This is coming from Beijing, China. We are doing well and having a wonderful time. So far we have seen the Temple of Heaven, gone on a rickshaw ride through the small back streets behind the Forbidden City, walked through Forbidden City and marveled in awe at it, seen Tian’anmen Square with Chairman Mao’s Memorial Hall, the Parliment Building, and walked through the National Museum, been to a silk factory, and gone through a tea ceramony. We have gone shopping in the little back alleys and the major shopping center on Wangfujing Street. We have eaten some incredible (and not so incredable) food that has been familar (sweet and sour) and brand new (this incredable fish dish).

Through out it all our tour guide (Lisa) has been very informative, flexable with our idiosyncrecies, and cheerful to be around. Basically wonderful. We have tons of pictures but unfortuantely we will not be able to upload them until we get home. I promise not to dilly dally around when we get back.

Still to come… One of the highlights of the trip - The Great Wall of China. We will also be seeing the Ming tombs, a jade factory, and a Chinese acrobat troupe.

One thing I must admit to - this trip has been a lot less expensive then I thought it would be… everything here is easily affordable - from meals to clothes to silk, jade, pearls and other forms of jewelry and statuary.

Before you ask - yes our feet hurt. But it has been well worth it. We would do it all aver again - and I highly recommend it to everyone. See everyone when we get back home.

Went to Siapan again this past weekend. Actually remembered to bring the camera too. Can’t post pictures right now though - husband has it for when he goes to his next stop (Navy). When he gets back I’ll make sure to upload the pictures.

Anyway - we saw just about everything else on island that we missed last time. Saw the Lourdes Shrine, Forbidden Island, Ladder Beach, Obylan Beach, Capital Hill, Navy Road, went to the of Mount Tapotchau, and Kalabera Cave. Managed to see a bird that looks like a KingFisher like 6 times. (It was blue - not the red ones that are extinct on Guam). Again have pictures of it that I will post later.

This time we stayed in one of the hotels cottages. We had a 2 bedroom with a private pool - it was pretty cool. All in all we had a good time - though I think we did just about everything on island without getting wet. Next time I think will be devoted to the water. Want to go diving in a couple of places. Just have to talk my husband into it - sometimes he doesn’t like to go in the water.

Went to Siapan for work and discussed all the thins we needed to. Even came to a few final decisions - so it was a good trip. The guys (and gals) took me around the island and showed me some beautiful areas. I, of course, didn’t have a camera so there are no pictures. And next time I have to remember to bring my snorkel and fins - the reefs are supposed to be spectacular.

Hopefully next time we can sit down again and hammer out how we are all going to handle errors - right now it is a free for all. Oh and one of the Siapan programmers stepped up to the plate (MiGs) as the project lead so hopefully everything will work together now - yeah - right. Just those bumps in the road to worry about.

Well my sister is now offically married and a Registered Nurse (she still needs to take her certification though). Man was it a crazy couple of days there. I have a ton of pictures (some that are fine as is and some that need to be touched up) that I will be posting later.

Saw a couple of my cousins that I haven’t seen in 10 years. Man I missed them. We were pretty much raised as brothers and sisters so not seeing them was hard. Eddie and Paul are the eldest of the cousins and they made me laugh so hard my sides literally hurt. It was good being able to feel that close to them again. How do you tell someone that they are a part of you and that they always will be? Even/especially when you don’t see them often?

Anyway - we are now in Maine and freezing our butts off. I have started working on my project again and will talk about it later.

Well I’m going on vacation for just under a month starting tomorrow. Will be going to Florida and Maine in the US and visit my family and my spouse’s family. Don’t worry I’ll still be around because I still have to work on my IntSmarty project. I’ll also be posting pictures of the vacation later.