Santa Clara here I come

yep – going to be in Santa Clara next week for some company training. Excited about it since it will be covering areas I am not strong on. Only sucky part is shoving 7 days of training into 5 days.

One year at the Dolphin

[Warning: There is a *lot* of gushing in this post, so feel free to skip it]

Can you believe I have managed to survive my first year at MySQL… and I haven’t gone mad yet… well not much anyway The year has gone by so fast I didn’t realize my anniversary came and went until it was already past.

Anyway, just wanted to post that I still LOVE my job and the people I work with and for. I am constantly learning and questioning and they actually not only like that – they encourage it. Go figure. Admittedly I always feel like a dunce because of it, but I can force my ego to handle it.

This is by far the best job I have ever had. And I have been lucky enough to have some great jobs. Special thanks go out to my “Boss Men” for all they do. You are what keeps my job so awesome – no matter the changes – and I know it.

Ok – time to stop gushing and get myself back to work.

flight for tek09

Just wanted to get the word out that I have finally booked my flight for attending tek and will be arriving in Chicago early in the morning on the 18th and leaving in the evening on the 23rd.

If you are going to be there also and have time on your hands… maybe we can get together for a little bit of sight seeing in the city. I’m game for just about anything though museums, theatre and typical tourist stuff is what I enjoy. Gahh – why did it have to be a week that the cubs are away! I would have paid $100 for good seats to watch them play in Wrigley Field.

Anyway – drop me a line if you want to get together and do something.

Florida Linux Show (post-conf)

I had a good time at the conf and my talk seemed to go over pretty well. I somehow ended up in the largest session room (I admit to feeling a bit overwhelmed). Attendance seemed to be at a decent level, though I think I may have overwhelmed some of them a bit with the information. Had lots of questions at the end and I went slightly over time. I guess the ultimate indicator of how things went is that no one fell asleep during the talk.

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.

Florida Linux Show Monday

Just a quick reminder that I will be at the Florida Linux Show this Monday representing PHPWomen and giving a talk on MySQL performance tuning. My talk starts at 09:30 and afterwards I will be at either the PHPWomen’s booth or the Sun Microsystems booth or the Jax PHP User group booth. Feel free to grab me in the corridors or stop by the booth and say hi.

long time since I did a presentation

It has been a long time since I did a presentation to a group of people. Yesterday I finally got back in the saddle and gave one on memcached to my local PHP user/WEb group. I thought I did pretty good though I have to admit to being REALLY nervous (red face and sweating) but in a way that is half the fun. If I don’t push myself out of my comfort zone, I don’t grow as a person and a developer.

Anyway – the presentation seemed to go pretty well (no one ran out screaming or throwing rotten fruit and vegetables at me) and we had an interesting discussion afterwards. I will be posting my slides somewhere later for all to see and comment or laugh at later.

UPDATE: You can find the presentation here

Did you watch?

I did – I admit it. I watched the inauguration saw the goof and yes – was moved to tears at times. Yeah – I am a sap and that hopeful.

7 things

Yes – I am late again with this 7 things meme But since Matthew tagged me, here I go.

7 things you may or may not know about me:

1. I started working with PHP for my college senior project, where I did very little PHP coding (I was the DB person on the team). I was hired for my first job because I had “experience” with PHP – little that it was.
2. My husband and I got married on accident. Or at least that is the way we explain it. How else can you explain walking in to the courthouse JUST to ask questions, finding no one waiting in line at the major metropolitan courthouse and later walking out married
3. I am a first generation American. My father and later his family immigrated from the Philippines.
4. My name is pronounced Lee-guy-a. And before any Filipino’s ask me if I know what it means – “happiness” and/or “Joy”. The American equivalent is Martha or Phylis. You know – something your grandmother is called – not the newer generations.
5. My degree is in Computer Information Systems (more business oriented). I looked at the math requirements for CS and said “No Thank You!”.
6. I first joined #phpc soon after it was started and stayed in there even when most left and there were only 10 of us left. In there I found my teachers, mentors, friends, and my place in the PHP world. Without them – I could not be where I am now and I know it.
7. While I lived in Guam – For YEARS I was literally the only PHP coder on island.

So there are my 7 things. Now it is my turn to tag my friends.

• Graham Christensen – because he is way to hot (ok and smart)
• Raj Shekhar – for being a mentor and friend all this time
• Etienne Kneuss – just cause you are way to cool
• Eric Gach – Because he is the BigE
• Mike Lively – because I don’t see you often enough
• James McLean – cause you have to be nice to those that know the future
• Jon Bauer – for being holding my hand and teaching me so much (I still think of you as grout after all this time)

And here are the rules:

• Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post — some random, some weird.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

catching up from when I was down

as most have noticed I have had a bit of problems with my site so have not been able to write on it for a while. I am still working through everything but hopefully will get it all straightened out.

Anyway – since the last time I posted a lot has happened. In no particular order

• I wrote a post for the PHP Advent
• I have been accepted as a speaker at PHP Tek for 2 talks on MySQL
• I have been organizing some stuff for PHPWomen – but will talk about that one that site’s blog.
• I have been tagged by Matthew Weier O’Phinney for 7 things
• I survived 3 blizzards and single degree temperatures while visiting family over the holidays – Brrr… Though I had a great time.

And a bunch of other stuff that I am sure I forgot now.

chicken-tagged by Ivo

Yep – Ivo got me. And worst part is that I can NOT argue with his assessment of me and my personality. Busted! LOL

Funny part is that it was a friend of mine from work (non-PHP related) who told me about the blog post today since I was offline almost all day (in Las Vegas for work) so I couldn’t give a wise ar$e retort (hate not being able to do that – or at least missing the opportunity to do it)… And what is the first thing I do when I get back to my computer – look it up – and bust up laughing. Rock on Ivo!