It’s the last Friday of 2012. If you’re reading this, then I assume the world hasn’t ended and you are planning on starting the next year next week. This is the time of year where we often look forward and make resolutions with the best of intentions. Most people don’t keep many of their resolutions, though I’m not sure if this is because they aim too high or too far from their current path.
As this year ends, I’d like to ask you to think smaller, and think about your career. For the last poll of 2012, I wanted to ask this:
What’s your goal in 2013?
For your goal, I’d like you to think about one thing that you’d like to improve in your skill set in 2013. Is there one area of improvement that you’d like to tackle across 2013? I’m sure there is. SQL Server is a huge platform, and we all have holes in our knowledge.
With that in mind, I’d like you to think about something you wish you could do. Perhaps you want to understand how a tally table works, or you’d like to be able to get the versions for all your instances using PowerShell. Maybe you want to tackle something like The OLAP Sprint and improve your BI skills.
Choose one area, and then make a goal. Give yourself a concrete project to tackle. The project shouldn’t be large, and it shouldn’t take the entire year to complete. Drop a note in the discussion and then set an appointment for yourself that repeats every week, every two weeks, or every month and work on the project. Next year I’ll ask you if you actually accomplished your goal.
Steve Jones
The Voice of the DBA Podcasts
We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.
Last Friday I went for a quick run before we packed up and headed to Steamboat Springs for a week’s vacation skiing with the family. Saturday I snowboarded, came back to the condo, found no treadmill, slippery, icy conditions on the roads, and just stopped running.
No fanfare, no complaints, not even a note to my wife that night. I just stopped running, cooked dinner and went on with life.
Some of you have followed me on my journey to run every day for a year. That journey ended last Friday, after 1564 consecutive days of running at least a mile every day. I’ve collected a little data along the my journey. This streak, a little over four years of my life, has encompassed:
used 2 iPod Nanos (1 died), an iPhone 3, 3GS, and 4 across 4 years.
a low outside temp of 8F
a high outside temp of 110F
an early run of 4:15am at a hotel near Heathrow before a flight
a late run of 11:40pm at night, after a long day
There have been some fun memories like Day 1000, which was celebrated late because of bad data. There were two great #sqlrun’s in Seattle with large groups at the PASS Summit. I have had great runs before SQL Saturdays and SQL Connections, along with other events.
My middle son has the most runs with me, probably 40-50, but the person with the second most runs, and some of very enjoyable ones, is a member of the #SQLFamily, Allen White. Allen and I ran in Cleveland, Las Vegas, Chicago, Seattle, and Liverpool, UK. I always enjoy seeing him, and look forward to more runs in the future, and perhaps even a marathon some day.
I’ll still be running, but mixing in other exercise more often. Throughout this streak I’ve played baseball, snowboarded, practiced karate, and played volleyball, but I’ve limited some other exercise I’d like to try more.
I believe that taking care of your health is an important part of life, and exercise is one way I do that. I’d encourage all of you to find some way to ensure you are using your body, and not just your mind as you move through your career.
I’m on holiday, but I have a set of predictions for 2013 coming on Jan 1. This is a little notice in hopes that a few of you might join in to the meme and make a few predictions for 2013.
Database related, technology related, car related, write a few things down that you think might come true in 2013 and post a link back here or drop it in the discussion for my SQLServerCentral editorial on Jan 1.
This editorial was originally published on Mar 10, 2008. It is being re-run as Steve is on holiday.
If you work in an operational area, especially if you’re a DBA, you typically have a fairly tedious routine. You definitely have work, but it’s often the same types of things over and over. You are checking logs, ensuring backups work, testing restores, tuning servers, and more.
Now this type of work can be fairly boring and many people don’t really like it. They don’t handle the operational routine that well over time. Most often I’ve found that database people would rather be on the development side, solving problems, working on new things, and exercising their brains a little more.
However I really like the operational area and I’ve been much better at it in my career than the development area. I like the routine, much like the daily routines that I have around the ranch when my wife is out of town (check out the podcast for a look at some of what I do). I have to feed horses, muck out stalls, clean up the barn a little and more.
When I was a production DBA, I had to handle daily things on a regular basis, and it becomes somewhat tedious. However it’s not always boring, just like it’s not boring around the ranch.
Last year we had a horse get kicked and hurt by another horse. I wasn’t really sure what to do other than call the vet, which is something my wife has decided I’m qualified to do. When he came over, he wasn’t sure what was wrong, but he had an idea and the first stage was to lock up the horse, give him a few days to rest and re-evaluate. However along with that rest (and feeding/cleaning/etc. in the stall), I had to give the horse aspirin.
Now it’s actually less fun than it sounds. Just like you probably wouldn’t want to eat (as in chew) any aspirin from the bottle, horses don’t like the pasty stuff we give them. So you have to force it.
And it’s not like forcing your dog to take a pill. I have a 130lb dog and I don’t think twice about forcing her to take medicine, but the thought of forcing a 1200 lb animal is something else. Especially when they’re taller than you!
The vet laughed at me a little (and my wife a lot over the phone), but shower me how to bridle the horse, hold it’s mouth and then stick in the tube and squirt some aspirin in the horse’ mouth. Not much fun the first time, but it got easier.
Managing a crisis and learning new skills is definitely part of the DBA routine. If you can remember the first time you’ve had a production database fail and you had to restore it, you know what I mean. Hopefully not a daily part, but it can, should, and likely will, happen to you.
A daily routine however easy, does require a balance. You have to remember that there is life outside of work and that you have to get away and recharge. You have to break things up and remember what else you like in your life besides your career. You also sometimes have to let some tasks go for awhile to get that break.
Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned in a couple decades of working, it’s that the work never ends.
Steve Jones
The Voice of the DBA Podcasts
The podcast feeds are now available at sqlservercentral.podshow.com to get better bandwidth and maybe a little more exposure :). Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted, and you can get feeds from there.
Today’s podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.
I really appreciate and value feedback on the podcasts. Let us know what you like, don’t like, or even send in ideas for the show. If you’d like to comment, post something here. The boss will be sure to read it.
Voice of the DBA 