My first job straight out of university was remote. “Great!” I thought, “I’ll have the flexibility to work whenever and wherever I want, and I won’t have to deal with people.”
Bzzzt! My first years working remotely did not go down well. I ended up feeling so isolated, that I sacrificed all of the potential benefits of remote work and left for a 9–5 office job. It stayed this way for five and a half years.
Remote working is not easy. There are some serious pitfalls, and the biggest of these is poor communication and collaboration. That is, ‘dealing with…
Last week I attended my fourth PHPUK conference. A two-day event with 3 tracks and over 30 speakers, it’s the UK’s premier PHP event.
The Speakers
PHPUK yet again offered a great range of talks on a variety of topics from an increasingly diverse selection of speakers; old and new faces, local and international visitors of all genders, from PHP and non-PHP backgrounds, speaking on a variety of both social and technical subjects.
The Sponsors
There were some interesting sponsors at PHPUK 2017; including JetBrains, Inviqa, SamKnows, and Contentful. …
Note: this post was originally written in 2012. However, I am reposting it as a record of my adventures in Japan.
Fuelled by an unrelenting thirst for adventure, we planned to spend a night at a Japanese temple.
This kind of lodging, or shukubo, used to be more common when religious pilgrims travelled by foot, visiting as many temples as they could. These temples serve simple vegetarian dishes in accordance with Buddhist principles of non-violence — Shojin Ryouri. There are also morning prayers.
There are three sacred mountains — known as Dewa Sanzan — in Yamagata prefecture. Haguro-san, Gas-san, and…
Note: this post was originally written in 2012. However, I am reposting it as a record of my adventures in Japan.
We bold adventurers travelled to Yamadera in Yamagata prefecture. Here is where we start to get off the beaten track and into ‘real Japan’.
Yamadera means literally ‘mountain temple’, and you can see why. This temple precariously looms over the edge of a cliff.
We were met on our trail not only by a copious amount of Buddhist symbolism, but also cats. Oh, I love you, Japanese cats. …
I had an experience today. It has raised some interesting discussion amongst my peers, so I feel it would be worthwhile sharing in the wider community.
I was attending a conference — Laracon EU if we’re going to be specific — which is, like most tech events, still male dominated. Not for a lack of trying, though! Laracon EU has an extensive code of conduct and a diverse set of speakers. I was comfortable buying a ticket.
Today, however, I found trouble in an unlikely place — the unisex bathroom.
