A Travel Milestone: Two Keystones

Posted on July 17, 2020 by way0utwest

I used to travel a lot. Last year I flew over 140,000 miles in the air, drive another 1000 or so on vacation, and visited numerous countries. It’s hectic and hard at times, but it is very enjoyable when my wife comes with me, which I plan on happening more and more.

Not this year, but while I only have one plane flight this year, I’ve still gotten out and about a bit. In fact, I hit a travel milestone for myself recently. I was in two cities named Keystone inside of a week.

Keystone, SD

I’ve never been to Keystone, SD, but I’ve been close before. This is on the East side of Mount Rushmore, where I’ve been many times. We found a new campground there this year and drove up to Keystone one night for dinner. It was a great week where I was unwired and recharged with family.

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This was my daily view, watching my wife and daughter ride their horses.

Keystone, CO

Less than a week after we came back, I drove up to Keystone, CO. My wife and I own a condo near the ski resort there, and I went up to work for a few days while there was construction at my house. My wife joined me and we had a couple nice days over the weekend relaxing.

This was my work environment.

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A Little Silly

It’s a silly milestone, but when you like to travel, and you get to do it, you look for little things. This was interesting for me, unplanned, but a funny coincidence. I hadn’t known there was another Keystone within driving distance until late May. I hadn’t planned on going to our condo until a couple weeks before when we scheduled the construction work.

It all worked out, and I was lucky to get two vacations in about two weeks in towns with the same name.

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Daily Coping 17 Jul 2020

Posted on July 17, 2020 by way0utwest

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 challenge negative thoughts, find an alternative interpretation.

Recently I had a bad day. I felt I didn’t do something well and spent a lot of time complaining to myself in my head, second guessing my actions, and feeling that I wasn’t really good at that task.

After a couple days of on and off negative thoughts, I finally started to snap out of it. I looked at things as learning opportunities. I need to grow and do better in the future. My past actions are sunk costs, they’re gone and can’t be changed. I can, however, look back and realize that I didn’t prepare well, hadn’t thought of a few things (which I have learned), and needed to make decisions quicker.

In other words, I wasn’t as adept as I’d have liked, even though mentally I thought I was ready. A good lesson and accepting this helped me to feel better.

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Daily Coping 16 Jul 2020

Posted on July 16, 2020 by way0utwest

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.

When things go wrong, be compassionate to yourself.

For the most part things have gone well for me that last few months. However, there have been a few bumps in the road, which are minor in the scheme of things, but they don’t always feel that way in the moment.

I was doing some furniture movement around the house recently and I hurt my back. It was slightly strained, and really needed a couple days of rest to heal. I hate laying in bed for too long, and I hate not getting things done.

This item actually came from my wife, who reminded me to relax and take care of myself, accepting limits for a couple days.

I did, and I feel better. It wasn’t easy, but I consumed some video, practiced some Duolingo on my phone, and read a lot. It was a good break, even if it was unwanted.

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Changing Computer Retail

Posted on July 15, 2020 by way0utwest

When I was a child, there were a number of small computer stores, including quite a few that were authorized retailers for Apple, selling Apple IIs, software, dot matrix printers, and the loud 3.5″ external disk drives. I’d go and window shop, dreaming of being able to afford one. I’d walk by Radio Shack, with their TRS-80s, considering a purchase there instead since my high school used those. Over time, my window shopping evolved to flipping through the massive Computer Shopper, trying to decide which mail order retailer I might trust.

Life has certainly changed, with online retailers dominating many computer hardware sales, though there are still some local stores in that we can visit. I’ve enjoyed wandering through Microcenter in Denver, and even taking my kids to Best Buy for their college machines. I’ve rarely visited an Apple store, though those seem to be quite popular with consumers. I have been to a Microsoft store, and saw recently that there will be fewer Microsoft stores in the future. I wonder if retail computer shopping is becoming a niche market.

There are lots of choices these days for purchasing new hardware. Many organizations have agreements with particular retailers and lots of data professionals never get much choice in what machine they might use at work. Some companies allow limited choice, some just assign a hand me down to new employees. Relatively few give an allowance, though I wish more did.

A computer is a tool that we use, but like any other tool, we all have preferences. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to choose most of my machines. I ask for advice, weigh different costs, options, lead time, and reviews. It’s not an efficient process, but it is a nice break from work for a few hours and usually I find myself content with the end choice. I know there are lots of form factors, choices, and even colors these days. If you have the chance to build your own machine, it’s a very satisfying experience, at least once in your life. Glenn Berry has good information on his site and advice on building machines.

The search for computing hardware can be fun, whether you want to build a machine or purchase something ready to go, it’s one task that I think most technical professionals enjoy.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.

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