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This weekend one of my teammates threw a birthday party, as she had turned 25.  25!  I think I was done playing rugby at 25.  I was done my college playing years, had done the club rugby thing for a year or two, and then got married and began planning a family.  I returned to rugby again last spring, having had our three kids and now being well past 25.  I wonder whether these young ladies will continue on and through, or whether they’ll take a temporary or worse, more permanent break from the sport.  One woman I talked with on Saturday, just perhaps hitting 30, feels as if her body doesn’t recover quickly enough from the abuse our sport deals out, and so she’s considering stepping away.  I told her I had dreams of rugby fields at night, that that’s what drew me back in, abuse or no.  (To be fair, she had a pretty tough injury season this go-round.)

Our coach is 58 (?!), I think, and still plays occasionally.  I’m not yet 40, though approaching it quickly, wondering how long I can keep going, and hoping it’s a good long time.  I’m daydreaming of throwing a birthday party this year with my rugger team, just to show them a number higher than 25, still out on the field, still making the tackles, still taking the hits.  Age, so far, has been a matter of needing to counteract slowness to recover with more vigourous preparation beforehand.  I’ve gotten faster and stronger through many sessions at the gym.  I’ve gone to all the pre-season practices to get to rugby readiness.  In March we’ll begin our spring season, and the not-yet 40 year old will be on the field with teammates literally young enough to be my children.  (I did graduate from Glen Burnie, after all…  some folks get a good jumpstart there on child rearing..)  And I’ll be kicking some tail, and showing ’em it can still be done, well past 25, well past 30, and keeping on rucking!

 

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Submitted for OSCON 2013, in what’s now become an annual tradition.  I attended in 2010, submitted briefs in 2011 and 2012, and now submit again in 2013.  I have the topic to bring it home: two, actually, both related to government FOSS, with a third idea in mind related to some innovations in our new architecture.  I also have, of course, the strong interest to be a visible female presenter at a technology conference.  Today’s sermon topic at church had to do with living big dreams, specifically those that are bigger than your largest life-bound items, which are tied to purposes put in place for you before you were even born.  I keep returning to themes in my life of Christian business, Christian women leaders, female technology leadership…  these appear to me to be directly in line with listening to talents and interests given, and using them to help show paths to other women so that they too might make use of their talents.  I am convinced that one could update Proverbs 31 to show that same woman providing for her family through programming.  I say with quite a bit of tongue in cheek that her “lamp does not go out at night” could be because much programming is done in the late evening hours.

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Rather than resolutions, I’m going to try a Ben Franklin-esque approach, adding new habits over the year. He built himself a list of 13 virtues, and then a cycle in which he concentrated on one per week. He kept a log which then let him hold himself accountable: each day in which he didn’t accomplish his virtue habit, he put in an X mark.  The goal, of course, was to have a week clear of X’s.  On week 1, he worked on habit 1.  On week 2, he logged how he did on habit 1, but really focused on habit 2.  The idea was that by concentrating on a particular habit and logging previous, you’d do well at your focused habit, and at least better than you were doing previously on your previous habits.  Rinse and repeat 4 times (4*13=52) during the year, and you’re making some real progress..

Not being _quite_ so formal here, in terms of keeping a log, but definitely trying an additive approach for habits on for size.  Thinking here the advantage, as opposed to New Year’s resolutions, is you’re adding targets iteratively, rather than having a really large set that you’re bound to fall over on early on.  Previous attempts to set New Year’s resolutions end up with 10 out of 13 failing within the first two months or so.  This, instead, lets me succeed a bit at a time, and also then know I get three more cycles.

– Eating more healthfully: Vegetables, consumption of alcohol
– Spend time with God: Bible-reading, prayer, …
– Organization – day timer system,…
– Spend more time with family – consistent in/out time for work

You’ll see we’re in the first week of the new year: I “cheated” and started early on eating more fruits and vegetables – started the week before.  With the minor scariness of having an apparent allergic reaction to a vegetarian pizza, things have gone swimmingly.  I’m in week 2, working on reading the Bible each night.  Chronological Bible in hand, doing a bit each evening.  So far, success – this one has proved challenging for me before to sustain, though – previous attempts to read through the Bible in a year have take 2 1/2 years or more.  I’m also trying out a new organization system in my Day Timer – counting this as a week 3 thing, as I’m not yet sure what the mechanics for my system are…  Uh, not doing so well on getting out of work on time lately – let’s make that a habit to tackle in week 4 or so..  🙂

Advantage here: I haven’t yet determined all 13 habits.  Observations on the way the year’s going can influence what habits get added in later weeks.  Agile self-improvement.