Voice of the DBA

Tag: fun

My 2024 in Data: Speaking
This is my last week of the year working (I guess I come back on the 30th for a minute), so I decided to do some analysis of my year. I like data and numbers, so I’m looking at a few aspects of life this year with data I’ve compiled from previous years.

Today I’m looking at my speaking efforts in 2024. Since I finished all my commitments in November, this is an easy post to write.

Speaking Stats

Here are the gross stats for public speaking, as free and paid events.
- Events: 37
- Talks: 68
- Virtual talks: 7
- free, community events (non UGs): 9
- user group talks: 3
- Redgate events: 20
This was also a year when I spoke at two events that repeated during the year. THAT! Conference was in Austin and Wisconsin Dells and I was honored to go to both. I was also at both of the Denver Dev Days (May and Oct).

Lots of these required some trips, but some were local or remote, so this didn’t feel like a big speaking year.

In terms of sessions, I delivered 19 different talks throughout the year, with a number of repeats. I like having 5-6 current talks that I can repeat at different events as this helps me practice them and deliver a smoother performance.

Most of my talks with smaller, < 100 audiences, but I did have a few keynotes this year with some audiences in couple of hundred attendees. Maybe my largest talk was to about 300 people + hundreds online at DevOps Days Minneapolis.

Many of these events were great, and I’m looking forward to more in 2025. A few that I’m hoping to get back to in 2025:
- VS Live (none in 2024 other than Live 360)
- THAT Conference
- DevOps Days (either Minn or elsewhere)
- SQL Sat Baton Rouge – one of my favorites and I hope to get back in 2025.
December 17, 2024
My 2024 in Data: Travels
This is my last week of the year working (I guess I come back on the 30th for a minute), so I decided to do some analysis of my year. I like data and numbers, so I’m looking at a few aspects of life this year with data I’ve compiled from previous years.

Today we look at travels, which is something I do a lot each year.

The Report

Let’s look at my Power BI Report. Quite the year, traveling to three countries and spending nights in 35 cities. My home city/country are included, so the next is other places. As you can see from the map, I was lucky to get to Australia, the UK, and Italy.

One of my favorite spots this year was Montepulciano, where my wife and I spent a relaxing day.

A few other numbers (ignoring home):
- US States visited: 15
- Nights in hotels: 119
- Nights in hotels not for work: 36
- Trips: 26
- Flights: 68
- Overnight train trips: 1
The non work hotels are likely a bit low as my wife was with me and we extended some work trips by a day and relaxed. Otherwise, I’d have likely tried to miss a few hotel nights and get home.

I have no idea how many miles I traveled, but it was a lot. I had some long trips this year as well, which were made easier (for most of them) with my wife coming along. Australia was 19 days and the UK/Italy/UK was 14 days.

I also had some crazy stretches, which were hard, but fun trips. The first was this turnaround:
- Sun – Wed – London, UK for an event
- Thur – Cambridge
- Fri – fly to Colorado
- Sat/Sun – Colorado, coaching
- Mon – fly to Sydney, AUS
My body was a bit messed up after that one. The next one was a easier.
- Fri – leave Melbourne to fly home
- Sat-Sun home
- Mon – fly to NY
Another almost crossing half the world trip. The last one was also a bit crazy.
- Wed – Fly to Dallas
- Thur – event + Fly back to Colorado
- Fri – Fly to Syr
- Sat – speak, fly to New Jersey, then London overnight
That last one was OK since I spent 5 days in Cambridge and then a week in Tuscany with my wife. Glad I went home for a night though.

All in all, this was one of my biggest and not biggest travel years. I had the same number of trips as last year, but they were more spread out. No trips in Dec, and some nice stretches at home throughout the year. Last year was more hectic with lots of small trips that kept me leaving home almost every week for a lot of the year.

I also didn’t see as many countries this year, and no new ones, but we had some memorable and amazing vacations, which made a better year.

I also crossed 1 million flight miles on United this year, which is a nice milestone for someone that travels a lot. My wife gets to share my status, which is nice as she often travels solo and meets me in places.

Looking forward to 2025, though I have no idea what to expect for travel.
December 16, 2024
Midsummer Fun

Yesterday was Independence Day in the US and a day off for me. Today, I’m back to work. Same for my rocket engineer son, one day off. My wife remembers a few of her companies giving a 4-day weekend when a holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, but that hasn’t been my experience and isn’t this week.

I know we’re barely into summer, which technically started Jun 21, but most of my life has measured summer between the end of one school year and the beginning of another. That’s usually late May (Memorial Day) to early September (Labor Day). I think that’s a very American thing, as I know lots of my friends in Europe are just starting their break between two grade years. For those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, I’m sure this time of year is even more different.

In any case, since it feels like midsummer to me, I wanted to take a break from technology and write about interesting fun things I’ve seen lately in the world of books and tv/movies. Even as I write that it seems strange since I think TV isn’t a concept for me anymore. I’ve gone completely to digital streaming, with episodic shows that aren’t ever broadcasted. They just drop, individually or as a whole season at once.

In any case, I’m starting with Presumed Innocent. I read this book a long time ago, probably in 1987 or 1988. I couldn’t remember the story, but a friend recommended the series on Apple+. The first episode started slow, and I wasn’t sure I’d watch more, but the end caught both my wife’s and my own eyes. We had to watch the second episode right away. It’s dropping episodes week by week, which feels very old-fashioned and unsatisfying.

I’ve also been working through Lost in Space on Netflix. I’ve watched the various versions of this since the old black-and-white TV version. I went through Season 1 of this a few years ago and really enjoyed it. I just realized there were more seasons and have been enjoying them. It’s a bit silly, far-fetched, and inconsistent in places, but still entertaining as a sci-fi view of colonists traveling through strange places in the galaxy.

My wife and I completed season 1 of Resident Alien on Netflix as well. The casting is great and it was very entertaining. A fun watch for us. I haven’t found a lot of funny series lately, and fall back on old episodes of Scrubs, Community (first 2 seasons), Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the US Office, and Mom. Even though I’ve seen most of these series, they’re still good for a laugh. Once in awhile I even see an episode I haven’t seen (or don’t remember). In any case, Resident Alien was good.

I like to read a lot. This summer, I’ve caught up on the latest in a few series I’ve enjoyed over the years. I’m working on Spinward Fringe 17, along with Observability Engineering. That latter isn’t entertainment, but it is interesting. I’ve also enjoyed these books lately: Toxic Prey, I Will Find You, Murder One, The Last Detective, and The Unincorporated Future. I’ve read a bunch more, but those were the highlights.

I haven’t see many movies this year, but I have watched a few documentaries. The Thriller 40th Anniversary, the We Are the World documentary, and the George Michael one were great. I did see One Love (on Bob Marley), but it wasn’t that good. The music and actor are good, but the story isn’t. If you want a fun, unusual watch, try the Donut King.

If you’ve got some fun escapes from work, either written or video, let me know. I enjoy watching a Slack channel at work that is dedicated to movies and tv, getting some recommendations there. I’m sure I’ll see something from one of you that’s worth checking out.

Steve Jones

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July 5, 2024
Another Fun Photoshoot
It’s been three weeks in a row I’ve been in the Austin airport. First was corporate annual kickoff, which was a lot of fun seeing and chatting with people that I don’t often get to spend time with. This week was THAT Conference in Round Rock. However, last week was the most interesting.

Our Database DevOps Rocks tour was very successful last year, and we decided to do another one in 2024. I went to Austin last year for a photoshoot with the van, and ended up with some fun pics. One of my favorites is here:

The 2024 Tour

Rather than a van, we wanted to go bigger this year. Someone proposed a plane at Summit, and I thought that was interesting. I wasn’t sure this would work, but it did. I flew to Austin last week with Grant for a quick shoot.

Someone is working on post production of pictures, and some video. We shot a lot of stuff for promo videos and commercials, so the final results will be different, but here are a few fun ones.

Grant and I sat in a couple old first-class Delta seats in the hanger.

We were given the jackets and sunglasses for props, which was fun. We took turns changing them. Here’s Grant modeling the jacket in front of the plane with our photographer giving him instructions.

I even got to walk on the runway, which was slightly unnerving. However, it was super foggy, so no planes were coming or going. Still, it was neat to stand out there. Something I haven’t done.

I’m looking forward to the final props, and also the tour. I’m only on part of it, but there a few places scheduled for me:
- San Jose
- Atlanta
- London
- Chicago
- Brisbane
- Sydney
- Melbourne
Maybe a few more, but we’ll see.
February 2, 2024