Voice of the DBA

Category: Blog

  • Travel woes

    I am trying to get better at this travel thing, I really am.

    I should have known there would be a problem when I missed the turn of the George Bush expressway for DFW. I took the next exit and my phone was showing a short side street back to my route. When I stumbled on a gas station at the corner I thought things were looking up.

    On the first try I had the rental on the wrong side of the pumps so I moved it. Then I it out of my GMC Terrain, looking for a fuel release. None there so I walked around the car to the fuel door. I pushed and pulled but it didn’t open. OK, I didn’t see the release, so back around to find it.

    Can’t find it.

    I check both sides of the car, the trunk, even inside the back door on that side. Finally I Google the car and find it’s a press one side hard and release. I try that, feeling like an idiot, get it open and fuel. As I get back to my route there’s nothing by the DFW entrance, so again I think that I got lucky finding the gas station.

    Turn in the rental ad ride to the terminal. I’ve prepped well, no checked bags, everything ready to carry on, checked in the night before with my mobile boarding pass. Walk right to security, try to scan my pass

    Annoying beep

    Look at the phone and it’s trying to connect to TMobile on wifi. Turn that off, try to rescan, same result. Turn it a few times to be sure the bar code is right and same result. The security guy is nice but kicks me out of line.

    The kiosk tells me to find an agent, so I do. I give her my ID and flight and she goes, oh yeah, that’s a new flight starting today.

    From Love field.

    30-45 minutes away and I am at DFW. As Mentally curse the web programmers that gave me to selection to return from Love (DAL) after I has selected an inbound flight to DFW, I get the “I can put you on the 3:30pm to Denver and you can standby on the 11:30” speech. I can’t make love field with about 50 minutes until my flight leaves so I take it.

    At least there’s a Starbucks here and I can sit in the Samsung traveler lounge and plug in my computer and phone.


    Bad luck this week traveling after a 2 hour delay getting home from Orlando and now the wrong airport in Dallas.

    To top it off I got this when powering on the laptop


    I am glad that I am shutting down all travel until June after this.

    – Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

    Location:International Pkwy,Irving,United States

  • Building a Professional Development Plan

    Your personal business plan.

    If you are waiting on your boss to tell you what to learn or what to do, you are making a mistake, they arent going to do it.

    Would tou do an it project without writing anything down? Usually not, so why not do this for your care ultimately you need to take charge of your own career

    Tis is more than technology ( networking, project management, managing, accounting, etc)

    Has goals, milestones and tasks. Its written down. Loos at your total package.

    Consider yourself a product.

    Where you you want to be a year from now? Are you still excited about your career?

    Time
    0-20 hours just work
    21-50 slow growth, maintenance
    51-100 growth, one skill
    101-200 growth, multiple skills, change focus
    200+ hyper growth

    Money
    $250 basic
    $1000 growth
    $2500 leap frog
    $5000 everyone envies you

    Hard to write the check. Most people spend 0 if the employer doesn’t contribute

    Beak up the time. Easy to take one class for the year, but that is all the time and money. Thi about the divisions. Both time and money. You have resource constraints, but think about the way you do this and live with the constraints or renegotiate the resource with yourself/your family

    How do you learn best? Is it books, video, blog/article, seminars, hands on? Usually you will combine this together into some plan.

    Why write? One of the main reasons is that people think they don’t have time, they don’t know what to write about, worried about embarrassing themselves.

    If you write in a word document and saved it without showing anyone you are ahead of the game, you are helping yourself, teaching yourself, and building a better skill.

    Treat your manager like a client. Imagine that your job is a one year contract and you need to win the bid for the next year. You want to win the bid, so you want to edge out others. Can you get the business by staying where you are? That is the mindset to develop a plan.

    Change your mindset in building the plan. Consider yourself a business of one and approach your career with the attitude of taking control of your own career.

  • A 22 Hour Layover

    I joked about having a 22 hour layover in Denver yesterday and a few people were wondering what airline screwed me this time. That made me laugh, because they didn’t get the joke.

    I got home yesterday at 3:30pm from SQL Server Connections in Orlando. I’ve been there all week, and after some travel delays, I got back at in time to pick up my son at 3:45 from his school bus.

    Today at 1:15 or so I need to leave the house, heading back to the airport for my trip to Dallas and SQL Saturday #63 tonight. Essentially I got a 22 hour layover at home before my next trip.

    I hate that, and as much as I’m looking forward to seeing people in Dallas, the travel wears on me. Fortunately I’ll be shutting things down until June when I got to Pensacola and SQL Saturday #77. That won’t be a bad trip as my daughter will come and we’ll spend a few days at the beach and make it a nice Daddy/daughter vacation.

  • Hanging with an Inspiration

    A long, long time ago, in a state far away, I started writing about technology. At the time, in the late 90s, I was looking to share some of my knowledge, and hopefully advance my career along.

    It was intimidating to think that I could produce articles anywhere near the quality of the books I was reading to learn more about SQL, and I needed some advice. I looked at the covers of a few of the titles on my bookshelf, back when I used to collect physical books, and reached out to one of the very well known authors.

    I asked a few questions about being a writer, asked for tips, and asked about how feasible it was to make a living at writing. Needless to say I was surprised when the author of about 10 books at the time responded with some candid advice and information about the publishing side of technology. I got some advice, some realistic warnings about what to expect, and most importantly, some encouragement.

    The author was Mark Minasi, a fellow Virginia Beach resident. Well, fellow at the time. He’s still there, but I’ve moved to Denver

    Over the years I have seen Mark a couple of times at conferences and shaken his hand. Paul Randal is a mutual friend and has introduced us, though it’s always been a “nice to meet you, big fan” from me since one of us is usually walking away to some other commitment.

    However last night I had the chance to sit and talk with Mark over a few drinks. It was the first time I could properly thank him for his advice and encouragement over a decade ago. We shared a few drinks, some laughs, and I got to hang with someone I admired. I got a few complements back about what I had achieved and it was one of the highlights of my trip.