Voice of the DBA

Category: Blog

Daily Coping 10 June 2020

I’ve started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral 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.

Today’s tip is show your appreciation to those who are helping others.

There are many people helping others these days. Healthcare workers, activists, and plenty of “essential” workers that have been risking their own health for income, for employment, and to provide for others.

In my area, many of these people have to wear masks, by law (or decree), all day while working. I can see many of them sigh with relief when they can remove a mask.

Paul Randal and Tim Radney have been printing lots of masks. Both of them have been graciously donating these to people around the US, along with plenty of others in the SQL Community. Redgate donated some money for supplies, and I donated some as well when I asked them to send me masks.

I’ve been carrying these around in my car, bringing them into various businesses, groceries, gas stations, and more. I’m offering these to workers, including some nurses I know, to ease the pain of wearing masks all day long.

June 10, 2020
Creating a Repository from VSCode–#SQLNewBlogger

I’ve been working with a few different git clients, and trying to write some articles to help people get started. As I do this, I thought it was interesting that I could initialize a repository from within Visual Studio Code and decided to make a short post.

If I want to open a folder in VS Code, I can also create one from that dialog. Here I clicked the Open Folder item and then browsed to my git folder. I named this “GitTest”.

Once this is open, I see it in VS Code as the open folder.

Now I click the Source Control icon in the menu. Since the folder is open, and it’s not a repo, I see the “Initialize Repository” button in this blade. I’ll click that.

I checked from the command line, and saw this was a git repository. Now I’ll create a new file. I click the new file icon, give it a name, and enter some code.

Now when I go to the Source Control tab, I see the file as one that’s changed. I can now enter a commit message and commit it if I want.

If I go to git, sure enough, here’s my untracked file.

That’s it. I can now follow the normal commit process in VS Code for this repo.

SQLNewBlogger

Working with different IDEs and learning to be efficient is important. This is one of those places where I was able to easily learn a skill and spend 10 minutes writing about how it works.

Putting this down is a nice showcase of skill, and learning to work better. You could do this as well and help drive that someone might ask you in the interview.

June 10, 2020
Adding the Social Headline Topic

The world is changing, and the activism is infectious. I’ve tried to be fairly apolitical and unoffensive for most of my career. I definitely have not always succeeded, but in general rules, I’ve avoided most controversial topics, tried to avoid profanity, and been polite in disagreement.

I think those are good general rules, but I don’t think I can be silent about some of the difficult topics impacting the world today around #BlackLivesMatter, LGBTQ issues, treatment of women, and more. These are not political topics, in most cases, but just basic humanitarian issues.

I’ve added the tag, social, and will prefix posts with “Social:” as I discuss and debate these items in my mind.

If you are not interested, please ignore these posts.

If you wish to comment, I will respond to serious questions, but will ignore and disengage from trolling.

If you wish to make a joke or use irony, sarcasm, or any other technique, please refrain. I see enough of this on Twitter, and honestly, most of you suck at it. You’re not funny, and it comes off poorly. I try to be careful here myself, because I’m not funny either. I might be able to make a joke, but as a public speaker for over a decade, I know it’s a rare occurrence.

I am also looking to drop posts of this nature on Friday, trying to give them time to grow and mature in my mind.

June 9, 2020
Daily Coping 9 June 2020

I’ve started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral 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.

Today’s tip is to think of 3 things you’re grateful for and write them down.

This is similar to a previous tip, but this is a good exercise. As we often say in yoga, learn to practice gratitude.

Thing 1

I am grateful for my health. Despite a body that feels like it’s deteriorating as I get older, I am in good health. I rarely need to go to the doctor, and I haven’t caught COVID. I can still snowboard, and while it feels really slow, I can still pull on the rowing machine at a decent rate. At 50+, I made it through a 5k row at a 2:05 pace. In college, I was doing about 1:56. Not bad.

Thing 2

I am grateful for Simon Galbraith, CEO of Redgate. For giving me this amazing job, for leading Redgate during times of struggle and success, for the culture and respect which he has implemented in our organization. He leads, and does so in ways that make me think, inspire me, and challenge me.

I’ve said it many times, that the highest praise I have for him is that he has built the kind of company that I would want to build if I tried to start one.

Thing 3

I am grateful for the way my children drive the world forward. All different, all living life in different ways, with different thoughts and different actions. I am proud of them, and while I don’t always agree with their choices, I am grateful that they have chosen to be themselves, live their lives, and give me hope for the future of my community and this world.

June 9, 2020