In one my rare weekends at home, I found myself on a pottery course (this is the sort of thing that happens when you're a "yes" person).
Goodbye 2013, you were good to me…
Well, if I thought 2012 was the fastest disappearing year on record, that record was smashed into the ground by 2013. What a year! And because I didn't manage to write this on time to publish elsewhere, I can do a more personal reflection of the year here on my very own blog.
Apparently, reading over last year's article, I had goals for 2013:
Upcoming Events (and Trisha Freaks Out A Bit)
My next few talks are where I finally start speaking about MongoDB. After 4 months working for 10gen, I still feel completely under-qualified to speak with any authority on the subject. It's very different joining a company with an established and growing product, to joining a very young company and being in on the development since practically day one. But I've been working on designing the Brand New Java Driver, so that's what I'm going to talk about.
Continue reading "Upcoming Events (and Trisha Freaks Out A Bit)"
Brain Overload!
Apologies for the interruption to your service
Update on events
Just a quick note to say I was interviewed for another podcast (Update 2020: apparently no longer available), again to talk about all-female events. It's only a short one and there's probably not much in there that I haven't said before, either on here or in person.
From the 21st May, I'm at GOTO, both Copenhagen and Amsterdam. I'll be talking about code & the Disruptor, thank goodness, and will be trying not to rant about the subject of women in technology. If you see me there, come and say hello!
On Friday 25th May, after all the GOTO craziness, I'm going to repeat the Disruptor presentation in Rotterdam at 010DEV, an event rather fantastically called "The Disruptor and the Perfect Programmer", which someone on Twitter correct noted sounds like a fairy tale.
After all that, I'm hopefully going to take June off to play Diablo 3 and Prototype 2, and read the next Game of Thrones book. All these joys I have been denying myself to make sure I get everything sorted in time for next week.
What I Did On My Holidays
And now, a post for my long-neglected, less technical readers.
I took a week off in July to try and avoid that Oh My God I Missed Summer Again feeling. Granted, it's easy to get that in the UK even if you're not stuck in an office the entire time.
Really this is just an excuse to post some photos on the blog.
In answer to one of the search terms which led to my blog…
..."what do female programmers look like":
Well, sometimes...
If there are any girl programmers out there who are interested in being part of a montage showing who we are, I'd be dead (see what I did there...?) interested in putting us all on one page. And not just because I'm narcissistic. Although that helps.
Cyclist tribes
Living and working in central London, you quickly learn that the fastest way around town is to cycle.
My extensive research into this activity has shown there are a number of different cycling tribes. Of course, I have split them into the two groups that are most appropriate to me: 1) slower than me and 2) faster than me. You can probably tell what sort of a cyclist I am by my attitude to the two groups.
Amazing!
Today, I found my own blog useful. I was configuring Spring validation on my new project, and had to remind myself how to do it. We configured validation on the new project in less than an hour, which beats the two days it took me to work out how to do it the first time.
And I impressed one of my new work collegues. Apparently I am now the Spring Guru. Oooops.