Daily Coping 2 May 2022

Posted on May 2, 2022 by way0utwest

I 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. All my coping tips are under this tag.

Today’s tip is to take an extra break in your day and walk outside for 15 minutes.

It’s the weekend before May 2 and I’m coaching again all weekend. For the last few weekends I’ve done this, I usually find a way to work out on the first day (Friday), and then struggle Saturday and Sunday to find time. This time the schedule is slightly different, but since it’s also a smaller event, I can walk outside.

My plan is to take a break between matches, which we usually have, and get outside a bit for a short walk. Matches tend to be in the 40-60 minute range, so I think I can out outside for a few minutes.

In Vegas, it can take 10 minutes to get outside, so I didn’t really have a chance to go out during the day, but Reno is different.

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Come to VS Live Austin in June

Posted on May 2, 2022 by way0utwest

I’ll be at VS Live this June to speak on a couple of topics. I love that city and I’m excited to  get back to an in-person event. You can join me from June 13-17 at the Hyatt Regency Austin for an in-person, fun event that covers a variety of Microsoft developer and database technologies.

Register today with promo code: SPKAU15 and get US$400 off the 4 and 5 day conference admission packages.

I’ll be talking serverless and graph databases, but there’s plenty of other sessions going on as well. Learn about C# and web apps, Entity Framework, Docker, and plenty of DevOps talks.

VS Live is a smaller event, but packed with info, everyone is friendly and in the same hotel, and it’s a great chance to get excited about a variety of different technologies.

Register today and I’ll see you in June.

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Testing or Learning

Posted on May 2, 2022 by way0utwest

All of us get into challenging situations. This might be a coding problem that we struggle to solve. It might be an argument with a co-worker. It could be feedback from a customer on how we dealt with them or maybe just how our app works. Our responses to a challenge might determine how we view the situation, our future actions, or even just how we react to life in the next few hours.

When someone struggles or feels as though they have failed in a situation, they tend to react in one of two ways. They can view the experience as though it were a test and they didn’t pass. This is quite common among many people, who might become sad, angry, or defensive. They might defend their approach or look for an excuse. They might seek to put the whole situation behind them and move on. This is a common reaction and one I’ve had often.

Like many people, I want to do well, and when I don’t, it can feel as though I’ve failed or I am being attacked. Whether because of my words, actions, or code, I know I’ve often reacted in a way that I somewhat regret. I will try to solve the problem better, apologize, or find some way to rectify the situation, but it still feels like some sort of personal failure.

The other way to view the situation is a learning opportunity. Things didn’t go well, but how can I improve things in the future. How can I improve myself, or what can I learn? Maybe, more importantly, this reaction often has the person looking for a similar challenge and the chance to do better the next time.

How do you approach a challenge? Do you view most things as tests or learning opportunities? I tend to view many things as tests, but I am trying to change and learn how to view them as opportunities to learn. When I don’t or can’t solve a problem, I look to find out how I can improve my thinking and skills and at least solve that problem in the future.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

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Gathering Data Through Life

Posted on April 29, 2022 by way0utwest

Every once in a while, I find a list of places posted on the Internet with a “how many have you visited?” question attached. This might be US states, countries, cities, or even attractions. I love traveling with my wife and having new experiences, and as we’ve gotten older, we value the experiences more than any physical things. It’s something that I hope we’ve passed on to our children as well.

My wife and I have been very blessed and have been able to travel a bit in life, though not as much as we would have liked with three children and a ranch of horses. We made it a goal about 6 years ago to try and visit a new country every year and experience life in another culture. The pandemic limited our travel for a few years, but we are starting to make plans to travel a bit more and gather some data for our minds.

We don’t actually get data to store in a database, but rather experience life, see and hear things, taste new foods, and hear new languages. The database in our brain gets a few inserts, although I’m not sure of the long-term retention and accuracy of those memories. A few bits get stored in the form of pictures, and one of the reasons I do like social media is that I’ll get reminded of times gone past on a regular basis.

Today, I’m wondering what data you might wish to gather through experiences? Is there something you have on a bucket list that you are hoping to experience in the next few years? This could be a place or an event. Perhaps there’s a concert or an experience. Skiing somewhere? Completing a class? Eating at an amazing restaurant? If you’re looking for inspiration, Brent Ozar has a list in his Epic Life Quest.

I’ve included a list of places below from the list that inspired this piece, and I have a longer list of places on my blog, but let us know what dreams you have to experience something in life.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

How many of these cities have you visited? (18 for me)

  • New York
  • Toronto
  • Tokyo
  • Bangkok
  • Melbourne
  • Mumbai
  • Hong Kong
  • Beirut
  • Cairo
  • Moscow
  • London
  • Munich
  • Rome
  • Copenhagen
  • Berlin
  • Milan
  • Kiev
  • Los Angeles
  • Sao Paolo
  • Istanbul
  • Montreal
  • Beijing
  • Singapore
  • Abu Dhabi
  • Casablanca
  • Dublin
  • Prague
  • Barcelona
  • Amsterdam
  • Budapest
  • Athens
  • Manila
  • Las Vegas
  • Vancouver
  • Jakarta
  • Shanghai
  • Cape Town
  • Stockholm
  • Paris
  • Vienna
  • Glasgow
  • Osaka
  • Taipei
  • Miami
  • Santiago
  • Seoul
  • Dubai
  • Lagos
  • Warsaw
  • Lisbon
  • Auckland
  • Hanoi
  • Honolulu
  • Perth
  • New Delhi
  • Rio de Janeiro
  • Chicago
  • Zagreb
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