Voice of the DBA

Tag: life

  • Daily Coping 14 Dec 2022

    Today’s coping tip is to offer to help someone who is facing difficulties now.

    I’ve been very lucky in life. I find that success often has me associating with people who also have lots of success. Not always, but often.

    Recently I had someone reach out to me, asking if I remembered another person from the past. I did and found out this person was getting laid off and was looking for a job. I told my friend to have them reach out to me, with permission to pass along my contact stuff.

    I then offered to do some introductions with others, and see if there were potential opportunities. I sent a few messages, and I’m hoping one of them works out.

    I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQL Server Central 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.

  • Daily Coping 13 Dec 2022

    Today’s coping tip is to contact someone you can’t be with to see how they are.

    Maybe the one thing the pandemic did for me is make me think about other people more. More people and more often.

    I’ve been randomly contacting people for a few years. Often people I’d expect to see at some point during the year, but knowing I wouldn’t. It’s been good to chat and share a few messages.

    A couple weeks ago I found some old pictures from the past of various people. I sent them over in a message to say hi, remember a time we were together and check in on how they were doing. It was a fun few minutes out of my day.

    I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQL Server Central 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.

  • Daily Coping 12 Dec 2022

    Today’s coping tip is to look at life through someone else’s eyes and see their perspective.

    I have my own views, beliefs, and thoughts about the world. However, I often do try and empathize and view things from others’ perspectives. I think that has been one of my strengths over the years, in that I don’t just consider my view.

    As an example, since it’s on my mind. While working with a customer recently, we were discussing the way in which they use our Flyway Desktop product. For them, then use nomenclature and a workflow that isn’t always what our developers think about. They also have a chaotic environment where work isn’t always completed in order. Or there are emergencies that need to be addressed.

    I’ve been in those situations, so I stop and imagine past situations, pressures from management, and more. I’ve used that view when I go back to our product developers and discuss the ways in which we want to ensure flexibility for our customers, and allow them to deal with complex situations.

    I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQL Server Central 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.

  • What Do I Do to Relax?

    I’ve republished an editorial today from another author, called What do you do to relax after work?

    I’m thinking about that a few weeks ahead, because I needed to schedule things. I’m on vacation now, hopefully enjoying Lisbon, Portugal with my wife. However, I thought this was a great question, so I decided to write something.

    First, I’m not great at relaxing. I enjoy things, but I like to keep busy. Outside of work, I try to do some traveling with my wife when we can arrange things. Before the pandemic, we wanted to visit a new country together each year. We did that for a few years, before getting stuck at home. This year we visited Germany, Italy, and now Portugal together. We’d each been to the former two separately, but not together. This trip is new for both of us.

    I coach volleyball with my wife as well. Really a second job, and a busy one for about half the year, but it’s a lot of fun for me and I do find it relaxing once in awhile, but I’m a type-A, charged person, so being busy and working on the problem of managing a team is fun.

    I go to the gym a lot, I’m often fixing things around the ranch, and I practice guitar. Those can be relaxing, but not always.

    Maybe the most relaxing thing is to read. I usually get close to 100 books a year, often sneaking in a few minutes here and there are I go through life and I have downtime. With the Kindle app, I always have books with me and I enjoy escaping life with a great book.