Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Daily Coping 4 Nov 2022

    Today’s coping tip is to plan a fun or exciting activity to look forward to.

    I almost shouldn’t do this much, since I’ve had a great year with plenty of vacation. My wife is joining me in Seattle, and we enjoy the city, so I’m planning a dinner at the Purple Cafe. We’ve been there before, and we enjoyed their location in Chicago last year.

    It will be a fun dinner.

    I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQL Server Central newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.

  • The PASS Summit 2022 DevOps Devour Hour from Redgate

    At the Data Community Summit this year, Redgate is hosting a couple of lunchtime sessions, the Summit 2022 DevOps Devour Hour. A creative name, for sure.

    These are Thursday and Friday, over lunch. You can register, eat with us, and learn about a few products. I’ll do an intro each day and then engineers will help you work with our tools in a VM environment. Bring a laptop and we’ll get you connected.

    You can see more at this page, but register and come if you want to learn about Redgate tools on either (or both) days.

    The sessions are:

    Session 1: Thursday, Nov 17 – 12:30 to 2:15 PM

    • Topics – SQL Prompt, Flyway Enterprise, and SQL Monitor

    Session 2: Friday, Nov 18 – 12:30 to 2:15 PM

    • Topics – SQL Data Catalog and SQL Provision

  • Daily Coping 3 Nov 2022

    Today’s coping tip is to ask yourself, will this matter a year from now?

    It’s easy to get caught up in short term things. I’m behind on a few projects and maintenance items. I’ll get to them, but really, these are short term issues. They don’t matter a year from now.

    They will if I delay a year, but that’s not the case. This is a few days or couple weeks. Relax, be kind to myself, and slowly knock things out.

    I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQL Server Central newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.

  • Create a Community Event at the Summit

    There are a few community events at the Summit this year, but fewer than in the past. I know we’re all rebooting our conference experiences, and that can make motivation difficult.

    However, many of you go there to see friends, make new friends, and have fun. Lots of you have interests. I’d love to see a few of you put together something simple for a group. It is fairly easy to set up an Eventbrite event for free and use tickets to just limit the registration. If you want to have fun with 5, 10, or 20 people, think about organizing a small event.

    A few thoughts:

    A Photowalk

    This has been a traditional event, so maybe a photographer could to pick a time during the week to spend an hour walking around and taking pictures. Set up an event and get a few people to join you, get creative, and maybe inspire you with new ways to look at the city.

    Game Night

    I wrote about this last week.

    Prayer / Faith times

    I’m fairly secular, but I know there have traditionally been prayer breakfasts or afternoon meetings. If you want to worship with others, set something you. You don’t have to pay, heck, you could even just commandeer a few tables in the convention center during meals. Or have everyone cover their own costs.

    Veterans

    Another group that often enjoys comradery. Pick a time to meet, and invite others. You could even invite people to meet in the lobby and then break into groups to go get a meal.

    Runs

    There have been various SQL Runs over the years. Hopefully someone sets up one or two during the week of the Summit. I don’t run anymore, but I might join a group of walkers. Hey, anyone want to set up a #sqlwalk?

    Anything Else

    Whatever your interests are, there are likely others who share the interest and might not want to go to a party or have other plans. Consider inviting a small group of strangers to join you at something. Gameworks, shopping, hitting a museum, going to explore the Fish Market. There are a lot of things in Seattle, and I bet there are a few people that would like to join you in an activity.