Voice of the DBA

Tag: life

  • Culture Differences: US v UK

    This is a bit of an off topic post from the technical stuff, but there’s a bit of a tie-in, so stick with me.

    I had to get a tire fixed this morning. I actually owned a replacement tire, so I just needed someone to mount it on the existing wheel (the existing tire needed to come off). I stopped by Discount Tire this morning in Parker, and I had a quick conversation with the salesman, Brian. He arranged for the service, even gave me a discount, and told me it would take about an hour.

    At this point I knew I needed to do some work, and at 9am, I wanted some coffee. I mentioned this to Brian, who said, “It’s a long walk to get coffee.”

    He noted that Starbucks was quite a distance for a walk. Certainly it was a hot day, approaching 85F as I exited the shop with my laptop, but a long walk?

    My friends and colleagues in the UK would laugh at this. I had to go down a busy road, and it was warm, but 0.6mi is “long”? I think not. Certainly no navigational issues following the blue dotted path.

    2015-07-27 12_53_47-Starbucks, South Parker Road, Parker, CO to Discount Tire Store - Parker, CO - G

    This struck me as strange as I walked along the road. Certainly I think lots of people in the US might see this as a long walk. They would perhaps ask the shop for a ride, or they’d stay in the store and skip coffee. I suspect that lots of people think any distance outside of the parking lot of an establishment might be seen as “long”.

    Far too many of us in the US as lazy in this manner, not willing to move dozens, much less hundreds, of yards. I’ve seen people wait minutes for a close parking spot to a store, when there were plenty of parking spots seconds away.

    I thought about this as I walked, and as I walked back. The thought bothered me a bit as I tried to answer some emails and check on SQLServerCentral. Why do we struggle with simple movement in the US? Are so many of us really wedded to cars that much? A summer morning is hot, but it’s a few minutes in the sun.

    I was curious how far I traveled in terms of steps, so I checked my Fitbit before leaving Starbucks. It was around 3,100 steps for the day. I checked when I got in my car, and I was at 4,500 steps. That’s about 1,400 steps for a cup of coffee. Each way, of course, but just a mile.

    When I think about how little we need to walk, it’s amazing. My job is worse than many in some ways. My meetings are at my desk. My commute is a few dozen steps. Getting lunch in the kitchen is maybe 50 steps. If I don’t make a concerted effort to move, I can easily spend a day at work and get to 6:00pm having traveled less than 2,000 steps.

    That’s sedentary.

    I do make an effort to exercise and move. Certainly I could do better with my diet, but I am at least attempting to move. That goal was one thing that kept me going on my running streak. I often felt refreshed and no matter how much time I’d spent in front of a computer, I at least ran a mile.

    We can all make an effort to move a bit more, especially those of us that spend lots of time in front of a computer. Taking breaks, walking up and down stairs, parking far away, scheduling walking meetings at times, or just making sure we spend some time before/after work moving.

    Many of you will have long lives, regardless of how you treat your body. Your career might not be affected at all by poor physical health. However the quality of your life is lower, in my opinion, if you aren’t taking care of yourself a bit.

    In the past we often had daily exercise as we lived. We walked around, we had to work to grow our food, or transport it, or just to find social company. Today we can avoid much of that, but I’m not sure we should.

    Find some exercise in the margins, find a sport you enjoy, or just take some long walks to contemplate life and enjoy your own, or a friend’s, company.

  • The Importance of Our Work

    My wife has often uttered a particular saying during stressful times in her career. She spent 20 years working in computer telephony and speech, often in sales, and would remind her colleagues that they “weren’t saving babies” as they worked with customers.

    It was a reminder that most of our work isn’t, ultimately, that critical to the world. It matters for our businesses to success, for our careers to move forward, but most of the time we should keep some perspective on the value of the time we spend at work versus the rest of our lives.

    I ran across that saying recently in a post from Scott Hanselman, and like him, I’ll apologize if your work is actually affecting life. If so, I agree with Mr. Hanselman, make sure you have unit tests. Lots of them.

    However for most of us, we’re trying to improve commerce in some way. A few of us work for non-profits or the government and hopefully are trying to make the workings of that organization more efficient.  Some of us might be building systems using open data to improve society in some way. No matter what you do, remember that there is some life outside of technology.

    Remember to spend time with your family, with friends, even taking care of yourself. Not only is it healthy to get away from work, it can help refresh you and give you a new perspective on the work you do. Work is important, but keep your efforts in perspective.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

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  • RIP, Mr. Nimoy

    I’ve got a lot of memories of Mr. Spock. Played by Leonard Nimoy in the iconic Star Trek series. I grew up watching him, and enjoying his character. While I liked Scotty, I think Spock might have been my favorite of the main characters.

    nimoy_old

    He died today at 83, which I should have expected at some point, but after seeing him in the latest Star Trek movies, I thought he might live for quite some time. It’s a huge reminder of my own mortality as I see more and more people I’ve known, or enjoyed, for most of my life.

    A sad day indeed, but I’ll have many, many fond memories of Mr. Nimoy in the years to come.

    leonard_nimoy_young

  • Lemonade and Life

    I’ve got a torn ACL. I found out yesterday at a visit with a surgeon that gave me the results of his exam and an MRI I had last week.

    Don’t feel too bad for me. I’ve had this for (I’m guessing) eleven years. In that time I’ve

    • run every day for over 4 years,
    • studied karate for 5 years and earned a black belt
    • snowboarded over 150 days
    • played 6 seasons of baseball at all positions outside of pitcher/catcher
    • played volleyball
    • practiced yoga and Pilates
    • picked up and carried my kids plenty of times
    • played weekly volleyball for over a year.

    I’ve done plenty more and felt fairly normal. The knee has been slightly unstable at times, but I’ve just limited, not eliminated, activity.

    I need to get this fixed. It’s becoming a problem, and it aches fairly constantly. It also limits my ability to engage in some activities that I think are important for my long term health. Not having an ACL also potentially means that I am hastening future issues as I age. It’s a fairly routine and simple surgery, and I should be walking on my own inside a week. The downside is that I can’t fly for 4 weeks afterwards because of potential blood clot issues.

    This means I need a 4 week hole in my schedule, which can be hard to find. I may cancel or miss some events, and I’ll apologize in advance now. I’ll give as much notice as possible, but something will have to give, and it will likely be in the Apr/May/June time frame.

    Let’s be clear. I’m not complaining here. My life is amazing and I couldn’t ask for things to be going better. This is, at worst, a minor hassle in my life. Surgery is dangerous, and there could be complications, and I’ll lose a few weeks of activity, but that’s a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things. I’ll get this fixed and move on.

    Life does throw issues at you. Many of you have had much worse situations than this minor injury. I’ve had worse things for sure, and I try to remember that the trials and troubles I face are a part of life. I can let them get me down, and sometimes they do, but I can also look past them and remember all the good in life I’ve had, and look forward to the good things I’ll find later.