Voice of the DBA

Tag: holiday

  • A Working Break on President’s Day

    Today is President’s Day in the US, and it’s a holiday for me. At least from Redgate. I’m actually working my other job, perhaps with some overtime.

    This is the end of a three-day weekend tournament up in Greeley, CO, where I’ve been coaching a 13-year old competitive volleyball team with my wife. We enjoy working with kids and we’ve been coaching in the spring for the last five years together. The RMR Showdown is a fun event, and it’s nice to get out of town. Hopefully we’ve had some success, but even if we haven’t been winning, it’s a good experience for the kids to grow, learn, and stress themselves across multiple days. Most of the time we do one-day local tournaments, so this is a chance for them to learn the eating well, hydrating, and sleeping are important.

    We’ve also had a pregnant coach in the 18s division, and it’s entirely possible she can’t coach this weekend. She was due around this time, so as I write this, my wife volunteered us to take over her team if she’s giving birth. That means we’ll be working a morning wave with our team, from around 7a-2p, and an afternoon wave from 3p-9p. There might be some long days for us, but they’ll be fun.

    Despite the work, it’s a recharging event for me in that I’m not doing anything with technology, and the time spent on this hobby is completely different than anything else in my life. It can be stressful during games, but it is very rewarding. I enjoy working with kids, and when it’s over, it’s over. The results of the competition are quickly forgotten, at least by me, but I see the lessons learned by players growing through the year.

    However, work starts again tonight. As soon as we’re done, I’m heading to the airport for the DevOps Airways tour. No, I’m not flying a plane, but I am getting in one for our first stop tomorrow in San Jose. There are quite a few more, and I hope to see some of you at one of our events.

    Steve Jones

  • Happy New Year 2024

    We start the New Year on vacation, at least, I hope most of you are relaxing today, spending time with family or friends, and getting a break before we go back to earning a living.

    If you didn’t read Friday’s editorial, you should, and spend part of today getting your 2024 plan together.

    For me, my 2024 plan is to work on growing more of my skills with my employer’s products. While I’ve been at Redgate for 16+ years, we’ve had a lot of rapid change in the last year with Flyway and TDM, and I need to make sure I can help customers with the best recommendations on how to implement the products. I still expect our Solutions Engineers to know the ins and outs of switches, options, and parameters better than I do. However, I need to ensure I’m not too far behind them and know all the capabilities as they’re added. And with weekly DevOps releases, they’re being added quickly.

    I also want to spend more time experimenting with and learning about AI. I don’t know I want to make that my career area, but I do think it’s a tool that will help me in my career, and so I’ll be spending my 10% time there.

    Lastly, the overall framework for my career in 2024 is balancing life with travel. 2023 was hard and I want to be sure I don’t overload myself.

    Happy New Year, and work on your 2024 plan.

  • Merry Christmas 2023

    I hope everyone is reading this on some day other than Christmas Day. Whether you celebrate this holiday or another one, this is usually a day off for most technical professionals. If you’re on call, or working, I hope it’s a very quiet, easy day (and you get some bonus for your time).

    As we close out the year, I have had a great year in many ways, and no-so-great in others. However, the challenges aren’t that bad and they help me think about how to shape my 2024. That’s something I think most people ought to do more of. Examine where you are, what your life is like, and then make plans to change and improve it.

    I’m relaxing today with family, enjoying a (hopefully) not too cold a day. I don’t mind cold, but we definitely have horse chores today so windy, sub 20F days are hard. Fingers crossed that’s not today in Colorado.

    Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all.

    Steve Jones

  • A Nice Holiday

    It’s President’s Day in the US today, which is a holiday for me. I don’t think of it as much of a celebration, but it is a day off.  So, I’m taking the day off and republishing some content.

    This is a US holiday, but it’s Louis Riel Day in Canada, and celebrated in quite a few other countries as well for different reasons. I hope quite a few of you get the day off and don’t read this until tomorrow, Feb 21.

    In any case, enjoy the time off when you get it. Easy to get caught up in work and overwork yourself. I am working today, but in coaching, not technology.